Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Shottojeet Shongeet


"Ray's music is imaginative, not melodramatic, balanced, not exuberant, functional, not decorative. It is music that grows from the film itself",

- Utpalendu Chakraborty, The Music of Satyajit Ray



For someone who believed film music was largely extraneous, "an element that one should be able to do without", Ray's musical body of work would, rather should, inspire even veteran composers to collectively raise the bar rather than blow their own trumpets.

Check his background scores of Teen Kanya, Aranyer Din Ratri, Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya, or,

the Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen and Hirak Rajar Deshe numbers like ‘Dekho Re Nayan Mele,’ ‘Ek Je Chilo Raja’ and ‘Mora Dujanae Rajar Jamai.’ or,

kishore's immortal Rabindrasangeet renditions 'Ami Chini Go Chini' from Charulata and 'Bidhir badhon katbe tumi' from Ghare Bhaire, or,

astute innovations like playing Sibelius backwards in line with the filmic demand of Jalsaghar, or,

his command over different instruments including violin, cello, guitar, flute and even the timpani drum, or,

the highly engaging 'Bhalo bashar tumi ki jano' from Chiriakhana,

the music of each film grows from within, just as it should. Else, Ray was indeed capable of producing scores of musical classics, had he chosen to compose music for the sake of music....


Bollywood music director teams of all makes - solo, duo or trio - take your cue from Ray, and if you do, you might want to revisit many of your numbers that you and your listeners cherish as your life work! You never know, they might get a new lease of life.


Monday, January 08, 2018

Kailash Gandhi, Chairman, Western India Regional Council, Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI)


Courtesy: IIFL Wealth MarketXpress bulletin


“Landmark reforms are welcome, but they demand better public awareness to secure the decisive buy-in that paves the optimal path towards desired outcomes”




Known for his candid observations rooted in industry activism, Kailash Gandhi is a veteran of over two decades of global experience across domains and verticals. An ACCA from the United Kingdom and Cost Accountant from India with additional qualifications in Law and Management Consultancy, he commands invaluable insights into Business Development, Corporate Finance, Strategy, Banking, Fund Management, Investment Product Engineering, Auditing and broad-spectrum Business Consulting. After fruitful stints in key positions with leading organizations including GE Money and ITC, he incepted Knowledge Resource Group (KRG), a value-added business advisory firm providing Financial, Accounting, Costing, Business Processes Improvement, Investment Management & Consultancy services and solutions, focused on the MSME and SME sector. He touched upon on a host of macro and micro issues spanning economy, industry and markets in this Q & A with Sudhir Raikar...

What’s your view on the current state of the Indian stock market?
Clearly, the market is overvalued, and we can expect some correction and consolidation going forward. In the last three years, India has had a great run on the domestic front. Although corporate earnings were muted, market witnessed a strong rally due to high liquidity courtesy DIIs and FIIs. To add to overall comfort, commodity prices came tumbling down, inflation was under control, fiscal deficit was not a concern, oil prices were at their historical lows and government spend was reasonably high.
But looking ahead, oil prices are inching up, ditto for commodity prices. Rupee is depreciating, and fiscal deficit is posing a challenge. Yields are going up; business sentiment is yet reeling in the aftermath of demonetization and GST rollout. The NPA problem is a sticky one and there’s no silver bullet in sight given the weight of priority lending on PSB agendas on the one hand, and the lopsided expectation of achieving ‘private sector-like’ results on the other. This is a dichotomy that merits quality attention before we expect miraculous results on the NPA front.
Having said that, India retains its competitive edge among EMs, thanks to our relatively sturdy macros, stable government, and domestic solidity. The government has surely created an enabling environment for the industry. GST has opened a new era of purposeful taxation in the country by greatly simplifying the indirect tax structure. As for the direct tax revamp, given that a special committee is already on the job, our overall tax-to-GDP ratio is bound to improve going forward. India’s value prop looks robust enough to lock horns with emergent challenges. The recent rating upgrade by Moody’s is an international validation of this belief.

Where, do you feel, Nifty and Sensex are headed in 2018?
We are not too keen about Nifty or Sensex going up or down. We trust fundamentally sound businesses through a categorically stock specific approach, irrespective of market conditions. We feel novel themes and narratives in sectors like specialty chemicals, agri and consumer/consumption would do well while corporates needing heavy capex would find the going tough. To answer your question if I must, Nifty and Sensex are likely to scale new highs till the first quarter of 2018. Thereafter, we can expect discernible volatility. This is clearly a liquidity driven market. Lot of money is being pumped by retail investors in form of mutual funds and I think the inflow will continue, thanks to low FD rates and depressed real estate. Equity will invariably prove rewarding over the long term.

How would you rate other asset classes like Gold or Real estate vis-a-vis equities?
The adage OLD IS GOLD continues to be a compelling lure for most Indian households, especially for the female populace. The yellow metal’s ornamental value will never lose its shine but given its high price and allied safety concerns, physical gold is a less preferred asset class for investment. There’s the alternate option of sovereign gold bonds but the liquidity challenges can’t be overlooked. For businesses, gold is equivalent to cash but due to regulatory issues, it’s not that popular a hedge that is made out to be. Gold will always be part of one’s portfolio but not from the investment perspective, and long-term returns don’t look exceptionally promising despite the ‘safe haven’ value prop.

Talking of real estate, given that it’s a predominantly cash-driven business prone to murky deals, it was hit hard by the demonetization drive. The sector is now undergoing a phase of cleansing in the RERA era where we see transparency emerging on both demand and supply sides. It would take time to redefine itself as a thriving asset class although long term prospects appear bright. We also sense Indian consumers are now in favour of lighter asset models. Consequently, they are happy to stay in rented properties rather than bear the huge EMI burden that ownership invites. This trend shift would also have a bearing on sector prospects.

Opinion is largely divided on the pros and cons of the government's Demonetization drive. What’s your take?
There are three aspects we must talk about in this context: demonetisation of Rs. 1000 notes, remonetization of Rs. 500 notes and monetization of Rs. 2000 notes, all aimed at arresting the stock of black money and counterfeit currency. But what happened in consequence? 98.96% of the currency found its way back into the bank. The demonetization had no effect on the generation of black money through numerous channels, nor did it touch that part of the stock held in other asset forms like Benami properties in land and real estate, gold, foreign currency, offshore bank accounts and the like.

Worse, it upset the conducive environment that was painstakingly created for the landmark GST bill. Prior to November 8, 2016, our experience was that people were truly geared to embrace this milestone change on the tax front but post demonetization, their enthusiasm was overturned, especially in cash-driven segments which suffered a huge jolt. On the brighter side, demonetization helped promote and market electronic transactions which in the long run could help establish a culture of digital money.

But has not the government shown positive intent on the reforms front?
Undoubtedly yes. Various legislative changes made by this government like GST, RERA, Insolvency and bankruptcy code will have a positive long-term impact on the economy. But all depends on the quality of execution over time. Disruption from constant amendments to laws, inadequate knowledge of professionals, stubborn mindset of people who are invariably averse to change and lack of awareness particularly in remote and rural areas are factors that pose a huge challenge to any Pan India implementation. If metro professionals find it difficult to cope with transformation, what to talk of small town populace, where there’s a strong dearth of qualified professionals. Lack of technological know-how and its poor acceptance at the grassroots is another bottle-neck.

Landmark reforms are always welcome, but they demand better public awareness to secure the decisive buy-in that paves the optimal path towards desired outcomes. I feel the government must gainfully engage all three institutes – CA, CMA and CS – for feasibility studies, cost benefit analysis, BPR initiatives, and also for ensuring functional literacy of industry stakeholders and citizens. We possess authentic knowledge of parochial realities, not just professional expertise. Hence our recommendations would go a long way in ensuring the success of many a pioneering initiative. More importantly, it will eliminate the need for hindsight adjustments that the government is forced to make in the wake of growing industry protests and resentment following rushed implementation of any initiative rooted in disruption and calling for mass-scale upskilling of resources at short notice.

What role do you see CMAs playing in today’s business universe?
The CMA profession has evolved with time and now plays a pivotal role in helping businesses to move up the value chain. We live in an era of unprecedented disruption, one that is replete with emergent technologies and enormous data explosion. The financial transformation in this incredibly dynamic environment goes way beyond providing accounting solutions. Today, CMAs don’t merely provide cost management services, they act as the vehicles of inclusive growth for organizations across verticals. Given the multitude of multi-product manufacturing and distribution ventures, it has become even more crucial to gauge the exact cost of creating and distributing every product and service at different stages, to minimize expenditure and ensure optimum utilization of resources.

Today, various stakeholders including government, shareholders, investors, regulators, vendors and value chain partners constantly seek updated and analytical information to enhance their decision making and CMAs are ahead of the curve in providing all critical dashboards including KPIs and monetized metrics for use by diverse entities. I feel we CMAs have a lot to contribute in helping businesses to put technology in perspective, be it Big data analytics, Machine Learning or Block chain solutions. We can help organization plan their tech evolution by becoming their change agents, helping them drive revenues, control costs and mitigate risks through new-age tools like predictive analytics, forecasting and econometrics, mathematical simulation and text analytics.


What are the key priorities of your institute?
At ICAI, we are unflinchingly focused on expanding the purview and potency of all critical areas of our professional realm including Cost Records, Cost Audit and Strategic Cost Management Consultancy, Tax management, Banking and Financial service offerings including Valuation and Company law related services including Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code. We regularly conduct capacity building programs and seminars for members, and counselling and placement programs for students. We strive to raise the bar for strategy consulting and integrated reporting to help the government and industry reap rich rewards in the form of evidence-based decision making.




Sunday, January 07, 2018

Lights, Camera, Action






When I set about producing a web series on a theme that I had penned almost 10 years ago, I was highly skeptical about the prospects that seemed to tease us from the mists of the unknown. Devoid of adequate money, best of breed equipment, lavish sets and tailor-made locations, this project could only soar higher on the wings of unconditional support from selfless people. Miracle of miracles I got exactly that, and in very good measure.

Praveen Hegade, Sreechith Nair and Swaraj Lenka, my heartfelt gratitude to this terrific trio that has been with me through thick and thin and helped me overcome some near-fatal and downright tricky situations. Thanks to their steely resolve, I have been able to steer the project inch by inch towards fruition. They have given me the comfort to solely focus on the script development which needs to happen on the spur, in line with actor and location availability. If I had to operate the camera, I could never have helped each actor appreciate the need to probe deeper into their characters, to internalize them and to make them even more convincing through the well-timed punctuation of natural gestures, causal utterances and definitive pauses. It's still a long way to go but now we are enjoying the journey ahead of reaching the destination...



Swaraj, Sreechith and Praveen

The tall, lanky Praveen Hegade is an IT professional who somehow finds time to double up as my DoP and editor besides playing a key character in the web series and also contributing as my God sent casting director. For a hobbyist who looks at cinematography as a pure passion, he has truly done wonders, and his editing has been particularly noteworthy, in that it was the first time he attempted the intricate and largely thankless job. His single-minded devotion to both disciplines easily condones the mediocrity that often creeps into the final product; more so with respect to framing, perspective, depth of field, depth of focus, lighting, and seamless movements on screen. Such inconsistencies are part and parcel of a project of this nature, where things invariably happen in a jiffy and one doesn't have the luxury of fancy cameras, sturdy sound equipment, and decent locations. On top of it, actor availability is always a challenge.I know how Praveen toils day and night on plain vanilla, ill equipped locations with a single DSLR to tell the story I imagined a decade back. Praveen, I can't thank you enough in words.

The super flexible Sreechith Nair does another thankless job with a broad smile - he's the Human resource manager who bears the brunt of the whims and fancies of the group, in trying to organize shoot schedules, invariably at short notice and amid the pressures of his office work. Over and above, he directs in my absence, and does full justice to the scene authentication. Of the whole lot, he is very high on maturity and has powerful shock absorbers to sustain the harshest of criticism that often touches upon sensitive matters. But instead of sulking in solitude, he prefers to introspect with me, often at odd hours, on the areas where he must move up the value chain. Sreechith Anna, I am going to make a Mallu film with you very soon!

Now coming to one of the most interesting characters I met during the audition phase - Swaraj Lenka, the unassuming powerhouse of self-springing creativity. This man has no idea of the tremendous talent he possesses, that's perhaps also the reason why his temperament is also superlative. A budding poster artist with a phenomenal sense of design, he spearheads the art direction and costume departments with complete devotion. His staple facial expression of confusion is completely in contrast with the clarity of his conviction. Swaraj bhai, you have no idea how happy I am to have a friend like you. And I couldn't have asked for a better 'Ulta' - thanks for playing him in your inimitable style.

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Also, thanks to the perpetual dreamer Akksheye Sinngh Rajput, a proud alumnus of Anupam Kher's Actor Prepares (Sushant Singh Rajput beware), as also our film's principal protagonist, for being a bundle of joy and enthusiasm and a ever-ready Man Friday on the sets. His help in production design and scouting for locations is particularly priceless. Ganpat bhai, lage raho, apnaa time aayega!


Akksheye Sinngh Rajput

Finally, to those few who relish pointing out the flaws in the end-product, here's an appeal: Why not become our partners in progress and contribute to our crowdfunding pool, lend equipment, property, assets and space, or bless us with brand sponsorships.

Not possible? No issues,simply enjoy the film which tells an enduring tale of universal significance. Our content drives the show, the show doesn't drive the content.

Big Data, Bigger Names


Even as companies big and small are busy declaring their Big Data initiatives ahead of driving them, Sudhir Raikar pays tribute to a few nonconformist champions – some central, other tangential – who together lend meaning and substance to the over chewed buzzword, thanks to their intuition, insights and inquisitiveness.




- See more at: http://www.indiainfoline.com/article/editorial-perspectives-technology/big-data-bigger-names-116030800132_1.html#sthash.6KGIry2R.dpuf

In a world of unabashed corporate antagonism, replete with umpteen “founding” and first-mover claims to breakthrough ideas, concepts or methodologies, certain mavericks stand out for their quiet authority.

Like computer scientist John Mashey, founder of the ASSIST assembler language teaching software and author of PWB Unix shell, or "Mashey Shell". He’s arguably believed to be the father of the term Big Data, having christened it in 1994 in a remarkably matter of fact fashion while he was chief scientist with Silicon Graphics, then a hot and happening Valley player working on Hollywood special effects and spy surveillance systems and hence playing with a lot of data.

Devoid of any academic attribution save for numerous technical talks, thankfully available on websites devoted to technical research, Mashey has only his unflinching conviction to fall back on. He doesn’t need to simply because he’s not staking any claim. Instead, he selflessly right sizes the imagination of people keen to confer the founding title on him, humbly summarising the coinage as only an attempt to settle on an all-inclusive phrase to convey the explosive growth and advancement in computing. This hiking, biking, skiing enthusiast is too busy with his intellectual and creative pursuits to seek reverence for his prescience. This introduction slide from one of his technical presentations (http://www.slideshare.net/amhey/big-data-yesterday-today-and-tomorrow-by-john-mashey-techviser) is a good window into his talent and temperament.




Like Gartner data analyst Douglas Laney, who first recalled Mashey’s name - in the context of big data - through a media correspondence. Douglas is the author of the 2001 pioneering research note 3-D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity and Variety and among the earliest to discern that more than growing volumes, it was the data flow speeds, thanks to the collective handiwork of e-commerce and post-Y2k ERP application boom that posed a real challenge to data management teams worldwide. As expected, several vultures from the unabashedly ambitious market place claimed Laney’s research as their own, peddling muddled replications and variations of his 3-V (Volume, Velocity and Variety) framework. Laney’s retort befits his nonconformist nature. He’s posted the contents of his original paper (sadly no longer available in Gartner archives) “for anyone to reference and attribute”. Here it is: http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/deja-vvvue-others-claiming-gartners-volume-velocity-variety-construct-for-big-data/

Like etymologist, editor and Yale researcher Fred Shapiro who traces the origin, development and spread of words as a means to study intellectual evolution, not for academic posterity.

Like University of Pennsylvania economist Francis X. Diebold, who initially claimed to have coined the term in his paper “Big Data Dynamic Factor Models for Macroeconomic Measurement and Forecasting,” but later wrote another research paper to humbly reverse the claim, circuitously acknowledging Mashey’s contribution. To quote him, “The term “Big Data,” which spans computer science and statistics/econometrics, probably originated in lunch-table conversations at Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in the mid 1990s, in which John Mashey figured prominently.”

And last but not the least, like award-winning journalist Steve Lohr, author of the definitive software chronicle “Go To: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists and Iconoclasts — The Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution” and “Data-ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else.”

Mashey’s deep connect with Big data came to light through Lohr’s perceptive 2012 search for the term’s origins in loads and loads of digital archives. It was at Lohr’s behest that Shapiro dug out several digital references to trace the origin of Big Data. When he could not come up with anything conclusive, Lohr approached people with knowledge of the subject matter and Diebold and Laney were one of the many people to respond.

Unfazed by the inconclusive results of his hunt, Lohr kept it going, looking for the two words, not merely used as a pair, but used in a manner that would connote the essence as we know it today: massive volumes of structured and unstructured data that move too fast and call for new ways of management. Such usage, Lohr believed, could only be steered by someone with a computing context. Precisely why he zeroed in on Mashey, not on other intriguing but out-of-context references like these two lines from bestseller author Erik Larson’s Harper’s Magazine piece on mailbox junk spread by the direct-marketing industry: “The keepers of big data say they do it for the consumer’s benefit. But data have a way of being used for purposes other than originally intended.”

Hats off to Lohr for his inquisitive and informed search for the name of a phenomenon that’s a now a household name across spheres. Companies flaunting their smallest of Big Data initiatives would do well to learn from Mashey’s prolific nonchalance and Laney’s altruistic activism. Armed with the duo’s frame of mind, they would be in a better position to lock horns with the multihued Big Data challenges including curation, updation and integration. Read all about Lohr’s account in this dated but delightful piece: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/the-origins-of-big-data-an-etymological-detective-story/?_r=0 - See more at: http://www.indiainfoline.com/article/editorial-perspectives-technology/big-data-bigger-names-116030800132_1.html#sthash.6KGIry2R.dpuf