What is the Future Strategy of Volkswagen Group in India?

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF COMPANY-

The Volkswagen Group is headquartered in Wolfsburg; Germany is one of the leading automobile manufacturers and the largest car manufacturer in Europe. Though the market conditions were difficult, the VW group delivered 10.741 million vehicles to its customers. Its global car market share is 12.1%.

Its sales revenue in 2017 is EUR 231 billion (2016 – EUR 217 billion) and its earnings after tax are EUR 11.6 billion (2016- EUR 5.4 billion).

VW Group has twelve brands from seven European Countries – Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, SKODA, Bentley, Lamborghini Porshe, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN. Each of these brands operates as an independent entity in the market. The range of vehicles is from motorcycle to small cars and luxury vehicles and in commercial sector vehicle it ranges from pick-ups, buses and heavy trucks.

It is also active in other fields of business like manufacturing of large-bore diesel engines for marine and stationary applications, turbochargers and machinery, special gear units, compressors and chemical reactors. It also offers various financial services like dealer and customer financing, leasing, banking and insurance activities, and fleet management.

VW group operates in 120 production plants in 20 countries in Europe and 11 countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. It produces 44170 vehicles and works in vehicle-related services or other fields of business every weekday and its employee strength is 642,000. It sells its vehicles in 153 countries.

INDIA :

Development of Middle Class –

We are already witnessing the swiftest expansion of the middle class in the world and almost 90% of the next billion will be in Asia – with India: 350 million. By 2022, India could overtake the USA and will become the second largest middle-class market in the world.

Development of Soft Power-

The soft power of any country is based on certain factors like culture, civilization, literature, philosophy, involvement in global institutions, diplomacy, political organization, and state capacity. These factors are difficult to measures with numbers but still, many studies have taken place in which the researchers have assigned various weights to these factors and hence arrived on a number and then arranging the countries in ranking order. Indian could not make it to the list of Soft Power 30-2018 and Emerging Market Soft Power Index - 2017 Index primarily because of under performance in Olympics and highly fractured linguistic makeup and high level of outbound migration. Though a country should not be judged only on these factors as in the real world, it's not only about the soft power alone but the combination of hard power and soft power. Hard Power includes military, economic, demographic and technological assets and India is no way behind any of those countries which were ranked in the above two mentioned reports that measure soft power. India has tremendous assets in the soft power area due to multi ethnic culture, peace generating civilization values (including religious and philosophical ideals), unique art forms and literature.

India’s traditional and modern art is widely accepted globally and Indian artists have started receiving more respect around the world. Indian cuisine has also made a global impact especially in the United Kingdom, where it is now the most preferred international food. In fact, vegetarian cuisine, initially very popular in India due to cultural factors is now widely popular globally as the world population has started shifting to the vegetarian cuisine to avoid diseases like cancer and heart disease. Similarly, the apparels and music industry is now widely popular all over the world, thanks to the technology which has connected the entire world.

India’s politics is world famous, in fact, the general elections were widely covered by international media and hence increasing the soft power. India is also famous for the four institutional structures: democracy, secularism, federalism and the nation’s three language formula. India’s actual diplomatic practices and policies carried out by the government representatives through their activism in global institutional forums and foreign capitals. The other dimension is public diplomacy, which relies on the distribution of information and cultural programs overseas aimed at improving a country’s image and prestige. The recent initiatives by present Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi has definitely helped India in increasing its soft power globally (Irrespective of not featuring in the rankings). Mr. Modi is invited by many countries for establishing global relations and India has developed very warm relations with the developed economy and also with Future superpowers like China. India has witnessed and is still witnessing a growth rate which is astonishing and these things will definitely help India in becoming one of the major Emerging Powers of the World.

Development of Country Risk –

India is considered as a Low to medium risk category country in the Country Risk by various rating agencies. Most of the emerging economies are considered as medium risk category but India has several factors in its favour like stable government and controlled inflation, the government has also deregulated crude prices and hence taken various steps that lead to free market and the government also took major initiatives for the upliftment of urban and rural poor by introducing various schemes ranging from Financial Inclusion to Toilet Construction and hence the country is witnessing an integral growth. Now, the world believes in the growth story of India and has widely acknowledged it.

The association of International Credit and Trade Finance Professionals via the Economist Intelligence Unit published the Country risk report of 2017.

The summary of the above report is as follows –

Country Rating – C, Score – 46

Sovereign Risk – BBB

Currency Risk – BBB

Banking Sector Risk – BB

Political Risk – BBB

Economic Structure Risk – BB

Country Risk – BB

India has improved from 2017 ranking of 63 to 58th in 2018 and is expected to improve in the upcoming years

2. The uncontrollable (external) environment of the company on that market 

The uncontrollable environment of the VW Group on the Indian Market (Automobile Industry) can be analyzed with the help of PESTLE analysis –

Period of Investigation – 2018-2019

Political – The government of India plays a very active role in enforcing a reduction in price so that the automobiles are easily affordable. Moreover, the Government has also introduced various loan schemes to purchase electric vehicles and also provides the subsidy to citizens. The automobile sector is a big source of revenue for the Government (both State and Central). The Government has opened the market for Automobiles in India by allowing 100% Foreign Direct Investment and hence, these factors are in favour of VW Group. The government has also helped these companies by providing the necessary land, labour, clearances at easy terms etc. and providing subsidies to encourage these companies to erect manufacturing plants.

Economical - The economic environment of India is supporting the Volkswagen group. As discussed earlier in the paper that in near future India will have the highest population in the middle-class income group and this group is the main consumer of the vehicles. Moreover, the numbers of Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies have also increased in India and that has helped the said middle class to raise vehicle loans at easy terms and conditions and hence, bringing the vehicle within their reach. The Banks also have more confidence in foreign players and they are able to provide the necessary funding to them to establish their manufacturing plant and hence helping companies to raise loans, debts at easy terms and conditions.

Social Factors – India has a great demographic advance as the median age of the population is low in comparison with other developed countries. Now, a vehicle is considered as a necessity, unlike olden days when it was a product for the upper-class population. The young Indian population is educated, earning well and they do not mind spending money to purchase assets like cars, house etc. It has helped India and all the automobile companies. India is the fifth largest motor vehicle production market. Young India is tech savvy and that has increased the number of social media influencers. Now, a car review is not limited to magazines or TV Shows, but popular YouTube channels are also drivers to create a positive environment and has increased awareness among customers, that has helped automobile companies to understand the needs of the customers.

Technological Factors - India has a strong network of science and technology institutions and trained manpower. It has the third largest scientific and technical manpower in the world with 162 universities awarding over 4,000 doctorates degrees and 35,000 postgraduate degrees annually. India’s gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) increased from Rs 65,961.33 crore (US$ 14.07 billion) in 2011-12 to Rs 104,864.03 crore (US$ 16.27 billion) in 2016-17. India’s medical technology (MedTech) sector is forecasted to reach US$ 9.6 billion in 2022 and US$ 7.8 billion in 2020 from US$ 5.7 billion in 2017.

India is among the top-ranking countries in the field of basic research. In 2017, patent applications by Indian start-ups increased 15 times to 909 from 61 in 2016. India was ranked 13 in 2017 by Nature Index, which publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs based on natural sciences in 2016. IBM’s India inventors contributed over 800 patents in the year 2017, making India the second highest contributor after the US region. In May 2018, CISR was awarded Clarivate Analytics India Innovation Award 2018 in the Government Research Organizations Category.

The engineering R&D and product development market in India is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 20.55 per cent to reach US$ 45 billion by 2020 from US$ 28 billion in FY18. India’s R&D investments are forecasted to increase to US$ 83.27 billion in 2018 from an estimated US$ 76.91 billion in 2017. India is the world’s third largest technology startup the hub with the incorporation of 1,000 new companies in 2017. The Government of India is extensively promoting research parks technology business incubators (TBIs) and (RPs) which would promote the innovative ideas till they become commercial ventures. In July 2018, Atal Innovation Mission along with MyGov launched “Innovate India Platform” with the aim of providing a common point for all the innovation happening across India. India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched space technology incubation center was launched in Tripura, Agartala. It is one of the six centers, planned to build national capacity in new locations, as of September 2018. In December 2018, the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) was launched to ensure effective use of CPS technologies and develop schemes for the benefit of the Indian economy. It has been provided with an outlay of Rs 3,660 crore (US$ 507.28 million) for the period of five years.

If India becomes the innovation centre of the world, the automobile company will set up Research & Development Department and Volkswagen has already invested INR 7900 Crores in Pune (Maharashtra), it will develop new products.

Legal Factors - 

The Government of India recently passed The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which has the following clauses for the automobile manufacturers –

1.     It will be mandatory to alter vehicles to make them suitable for specially-abled people.

2.     The government can recall the vehicles whose components or engine do not meet the required standards. Manufacturers can be fined up to Rs.500 Crore in case of substandard components or engine.

Volkswagen group should ensure that none of their vehicles violate the law of the land in India as at global level they have already suffered because of the compensation payout after emission scandal in 2015.

Environmental Factors – Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES) VI will be implemented from April 2020 and Volkswagen Group is a global leader has already initiated research and development towards the environment-friendly vehicles and the Indian population is switching towards the vehicles that are friendlier to the environment.

INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS OF THE COMPANY

The Volkswagen India group entered the Indian Market in 2001 with their brand Skoda Auto and its plant in Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and their marque brand Volkswagen started its operations in 2007 with a manufacturing plant in Pune (Maharashtra). Both entries were through Foreign Direct Investment by the respective companies which are part of the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen entered India very late and by that time, already Maruti Suzuki, Honda and Hyundai had set up their plants in India. Volkswagen though new to the India market had confidence in its existing capabilities and success in other countries worldwide.

The internationalization process of the company can be best explained with the Eclectic Paradigm (OLI Model) of Dunning –



1.     Ownership advantages (O)

2.     Location advantages (L)

3.     Internalization (I)



1.   Ownership Advantages –The firm contemplating foreign production will have ownership advantages unique to itself. These are ownership specific assets which give it advantages over other firms, home or abroad. They can be tangible, for example, new products, or intangible, know how. They can be capabilities and abilities to generate innovations, as well as the innovative products themselves. It includes property rights in patents, research capacity (including skilled staff), financial know-how, ability to realize the economy of scale, marketing and management skills. In India, the Volkswagen group took advantage of its strong research, design and know-how team. German companies are very specific about their quality and India is a technologically advanced country. Usually, the company that has ownership advantage could choose to sell them or sell the right to use them (License). But Volkswagen decided to add value to its own advantage by exploiting them itself and hence realizing the advantages of Internalization.



2.  Location Advantages – The Volkswagen group established two of its major plant in Pune and Aurangabad in Maharashtra primarily because the state of Maharashtra supported them and invited the company to come to their region and establish a manufacturing plant to boost the location economy. Pune plant is very near to the financial capital of India, Mumbai and maximum sales of VW are from Mumbai for not only VW marque but also all other cars like Audi of which some of the models are manufactured in India. Location advantage for Volkswagen includes resource endowments; the cost of labour, material and energy, the presence of support services and incentives by the local government. Indian plants also cater to the export of vehicles. As discussed earlier, that India has a demographic advantage in form of “Young India” and the population has disposable income and hence can afford cars. Moreover, India is one of the emerging superpowers of the world and the Volkswagen definitely realized that though they have entered the market little late they must enter the Indian market as it is still untapped and the potential for growth is phenomenal. Hence, Volkswagen did not enter India because of cheap labour etc. but they realized the strategic importance of being located in the nation early before it becomes a superpower and the cost of entering the market may become high and the competition may rise further. Hence, they decided to enter the Indian market.

3.  Internalization Advantages – The Volkswagen group always had a strong ownership advantage and hence it was easy for them to realize the advantages of internalization. It chose to own and control value-added activities rather than relying totally on the market. It realized that cost benefits will arise in their cross-border activities if they own or control them through organizational means, thus internalizing the activity and reducing transaction costs which would otherwise arise. Volkswagen feared that suppliers of products or services will not produce the right quality and the technology may get transferred to rivals or potential rivals, as it had happened with it earlier in Joint Venture Operations.

-

Responsive Grid from Prahlad and Doz

The Volkswagen follows a strategy which is a mix of global and local strategy, as India is high-cost pressure market and the pressure for local responsiveness is not very high and hence there is an overlap on the above graph. Though initially, Volkswagen was importing various engines from Germany and other plants worldwide as time passed by they continued investing in the manufacturing in both the car plants and hence tried to localize 90% of the parts of the cars so that the dependency on the imported spares is completely off.

Volkswagen is a global company and follows Geocentric Organization design (Attitude of Head Office)

·       It is an increasingly complex and interdependent

·       There is a collaborative approach between headquarters and subsidiaries and decisions are taken by the CEO of India.

·       It follows the standard that is universal and local.

·       International and local executives rewarded for reaching local and worldwide objectives.

·       Communication and information flow is both ways.

·       It is an international company with national interests.

·       Develop the best men everywhere in the world for key positions everywhere in the world. For example – CEO of VW Brazil is a South African National, CEO of VW China is a German National, CEO of VW USA is a German National, CEO of India is an Indian National (MD from Skoda India Auto).

What Is Future Strategy Of Volkswagen Group In India?

VW Group has been in India since 2001 through Skoda and since 2008 through Audi and VW marque but still, the market share of the company is less than 1%. For a country like India, it is a very small number. Though its entry was late in the market it has invested a lot in India and hence they are here for the long term. Their present aim to achieve a 5% market share by 2025.

India has become a very important market for many global companies and they are aware that it will soon become a superpower in 20 years and hence they want to be the part of this growth and benefit their company. Volkswagen faced many problems since the time they entered as it is a high-cost pressure market and Volkswagen does not compromise on the quality of the product just to cut costs. Their belief is that if the quality of the product is good, then it will automatically sell. But Indians are very price sensitive and their love for Maruti Suzuki (One of the oldest companies) does not seem to reduce. Maruti Suzuki has almost 50% market share in passenger cars and all other manufacturers fight for the remaining 50%, Hyundai, Tata, Mahindra, Honda take away the major chunk of 50% and hence it is always very difficult to increase market share in a swift manner.

Now, India is changing and the “Young” India believes in quality and safety as the awareness has increased and the people have realized that there is much more in car rather than the fuel economy. The middle class in India is going to be the highest in the world and the spending power will also be more than before and hence, with the development of infrastructure, the automobile demand will certainly increase as today it is still limited to the urban area. The potential in India is huge as there are a large number of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, in which if companies like Volkswagen open their showrooms and service centre, people will definitely buy these cars. Indians buy Maruti Suzuki, not for the quality but the availability of the vehicle and the service centre in their nearby locations.

As part of the strategy, Volkswagen Group has announced massive plans for the Indian market. They want Skoda to lead India 2.0 Project and have made MD of Skoda- Mr.Gurpratap Boparai as MD of Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd and have invested EUR 1 Billion in their Pune Plant for Research & Development.

Volkswagen + Skoda should use the India 2.0 Project to its advantage that design new models and try to achieve 5% market share by 2020. The group should also start manufacturing electric cars for Indian Markets as the sudden boom may come to post the ban of diesel cars by 2020.


References



·       AutoPanditz (2019, February 18). 2018 Passenger Car Market Growth Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.autopunditz.com/news/2018-passenger-car-market-growth-analysis/

·       Car and Bike (2018, July 3). India Plans: Volkswagen Group and Skoda- NDTV. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wg0r3x_6aA

·       Campbell P. (2016, September 29). Volkswagen unveils its first long-distance electric car. Financial Times.  Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/07ae79e6-8586-11e6-a29c-6e7d9515ad15

·       Chakravarty S. (2018, July 5). Why India’s middle class is central to its development narrative. Economic Times. Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/why-indias-middle-class-is-central-to-its-development-narrative/

·       Credendo (2018). India. Retrieved from https://www.credendo.com/country-risk/india#

·       Kotecha A (2018, November 30). Volkswagen aims 95% localization of VW, Skoda cars in India. Livemint. Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/Auto/jhqNt4VL5pxyBABcfz4cbL/Volkswagen-aims-95-localization-of-VW-Skoda-cars-in-India.html

·       IBEF (2018, December). Automobile Industry in India. Retrieved from https://www.ibef.org/industry/india-automobiles.aspx

·       IBEF (2019, January). Science & Technology Industry Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.ibef.org/industry/science-technology-presentation

·       ICTF. (2017, November). Country Risk Reports – ICTF Member Reference (Economist Intelligence Unit). Retrieved from https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ictfworld.org/resource/resmgr/Country_Risk_Reports/ICTF_EIU_Country_Risk_Report.pdf

·       Kharas H. (2017, February).The Unprecedented Expansion of the Global Middle Class An Update.

·       Paul T. (2014, May). Indian Soft Power in a Globalizing World. Retrieved from https://www.tvpaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Current-History-Paul.pdf

·       Shah R (2018, April 11). Top-10 carmakers in India and their market share: Maruti Suzuki owns half of the Indian market. Financial Express. Retrieved from https://www.financialexpress.com/auto/car-news/top-10-carmakers-in-india-and-their-market-share-maruti-suzuki-owns-half-of-the-indian-market/1129193/

·       Thakkar K (2018, June 22). Volkswagen Group’s India Project 2.0 approved, Skoda to take charge. Economic Times. Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/auto-news/volkswagen-groups-india-project-2-0-approved-skoda-to-take-charge/articleshow/64697124.cms?from=mdr

·       Trefis (2014, Sep 29). Can Volkswagen Succeed in India?. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/09/29/can-volkswagen-succeed-in-india/#74106b582661

·       World Economic Forum (2018) . The Global Competitiveness - 2018 Report. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitveness-report-2018         

·       Vennli (2015, September 30). Volkswagen’s Path To Recovery: Let The Customers’ Voice Lead The Way. Vennli.  Retrieved from http://vennli.com/blog/volkswagens-path-to-recovery-let-the-customers-voice-lead-the-way/

·       Volkswagen (2018). Facts and Figures- Volkswagen Group – January to December 2017. Retrieved from   https://www.volkswagenag.com/presence/investorrelation/publications/weitere-finanzberichte/2018/Leporello_JAHRESABSCHLUSS_17_WEB_englisch.pdf

·       Volkswagen (2018). The Volkswagen Pune Plant. Retrieved from https://www.volkswagen.co.in/en/about/volkswagen-india/chakan-plant.html

·       Volkswagen (2018). Indian Spirit Meets German Excellence. Retrieved from https://www.volkswagen.co.in/en/about/volkswagen-india/about.html

My Insights on Macroeconomics Course

The five things that I have learnt in the Macroeconomics Course that were useful and I will remember it for a long time are as follows –

1.     The Great Depression (1929 to 1939)

2.     The economy of the World During World Wars – 1, 2 & afterwards.

3.     Role of Oil, Money, Exchange Rates, Interest Rates, Banks, Roosevelt, Keynes, the USA in driving the economy

4.     Financial Disasters of the World including 2007-2008 Crisis

5.     Importance of Following News about World, Business, Economy.

 Since I have to choose one thing out of the five stated above, I would choose the Role of Oil, Money, Exchange Rates, Interest Rates, Banks, Roosevelt, Keynes, the USA in driving the economy. Though I have worked for a Commercial Bank for nine years in branch banking roles there was always a knowledge gap about how actually the Global Economy works. In Banks, we do understand certain terms like the recession, slowdown, GDP, share market but it was limited to Indian perspective and I could never think about it in the Global Perspective. Though India opened to Globalisation, Liberalisation and Privatisation in 1991, we really didn’t know much about the world perspective. I remember watching Television in September 2008, when they were discussing the failure of Lehman Brothers and how it would affect the world. Indian Banks were really strong in those days and the Indian government and Reserve Bank of India were boosting itself that we were isolated from the said event. The government also took a lot of credit when India had amazing growth rates hovering more than 9% from 2005 to 2008 though no one really explained to us that whether we were integrally growing or it just flowed along with the global market.

The last time I studied economics as the subject was way back in 2002 in Standard Xth, and the knowledge was very limited as we focused more on the microeconomics and macroeconomics was just a single chapter given at the end of a book. We never really were exposed to quality macroeconomics learning. Even I read several books about the subject but still wasn’t able to connect the dots to understand the macroeconomics and see it not as a subject but as a valuable addition to my learning that would help me in future in my finance career.

I always wondered that why in the morning on CNBC, they discuss how US markets closed and crude oil prices and the opening of Asian Share markets, now I can actually related to all these events and their importance to understanding the economy of a country or the world.  A good thing about the said course is when the birth of the Euro currency was discussed at length and the history behind it. When the Euro was introduced in 01.01.1999, I was only 11 years old and never understood why Europe wants a new currency or why the entire world cannot have a single currency. Moreover, we also learnt the importance of large money market and exchange rate markets (about which common public) don’t know much about , and always wonder that why Rupee is getting depreciated, GBP getting depreciated due to BREXIT, China keeping its Yuan under Control, some countries like Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia peg their Currency with US Dollar. Now, I know the reasons and economics behind these actions.

Since I used to work for a Commercial Bank, so many people expect us to know details about the economy and what are the factors that drive it. I remember one NRI Customer asked me these questions - “Whether Modi will again become PM?”, “What is your view on the dollar?”,”What is my view on the government schemes introduced in India, whether it would push the economy or not or its just for statistical purposes?”, “How’s inflation and unemployment rate?, “What is my view on Oil Prices?”. Now, I feel more confident in answering those questions as I can easily explain these things even to a common man in simple terms.

I would surely remember Roosevelt’s contributions to the progressive movement and the Keynesian economics and the role of Government in keeping the economy under control and provide a Push or apply brakes to the economy depending on the situation of the economy. Now, I would not be surprised by the terms, deficit budget by Government and lowering of interest rates by Reserve Bank as I would know that it is for the betterment (PUSH) of the economy. The analogy of Car with respect to pushing the economy and letting the car cool to apply halt to an overheated economy. It’s very easy to remember now.

I always wondered why the USA or its Presidents are given so much importance in each and everything, and even Indian Media gives them a lot of coverage. Now, I can relate to these incidents that why Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump were covered in detail and last several US elections were covered by Indian Media in length.

I am really overwhelmed by the content and experience of learning. It was a great value addition and really raised a lot of confidence and the said learning is more towards general knowledge that everyone should know, knowledge on macroeconomics will definitely help in future career irrespective of the industry that we choose to work in. In the business world, it is very important to have a view or perspective on the world economy as it helps to connect with people, initiate discussions with people. One can feel very close and aware with the world happenings if he can connect the dots and understand the major drivers of the economy. Macroeconomics should be taught at all levels as it really helps a person to transform and more knowledgeable.

Though little unconventional approach I believe this is how complex subjects like Macroeconomics should be simplified and taught. Great Learning can really happen without a book or a power point presentation as well!

Welcome Back!!

Its been more than two and half years that I have Blogged. Those days I was just passing my time while waiting for my dream company Cognizant. It was a great feeling when I received an e-mail from them and was asked to join the company in the last week of June. I was more happy about me joining the company with my two friends...Adi and Killer Saint...

Killer Saint knew from the beginning that he would live up to the expectations and will become an Indispensable resource for Cognizant. That did happen.....

And Adi was more excited than me as it was his Dream Company as well.

It was a wonderful experience at Cognizant for me as I met certain new people there who later on become my very good friends. My popularity in Orkut became a burden on me (as per my analysis) , although in reality nothing was like that... People knew me... they knew me... but they won't come to me or with me... they'll just watch...watch...and watch and that was not comfortable for me.

I gained good Inter Personal Skills in Cognizant via their special Sessions and learnt Duesche (I had to look for the spelling of that word in Google)...Never mind... I dont like committing spelling mistakes on my Blog.

Its too late... will sleep now...

Mom, I can Cook!!!!

Well waiting for your dream Company teaches you a lot of things, if Cognizant didn't delay our joining dates by an year, I would have never thought of cooking. We men generally do not enjoy cooking whenever there is a female around who can cook, this may sound like a stereotype, but this happens a lot in many homes, all over world. Men cook only if there's necessity, else we avoid it. Moreover, the best cooks throughout the world are men, who generally cook in Five star hotels, Exotic restaurants, or in a road-side dhabas, or in small outlets of food chain.

There's always a debate that which gender can cook better, Men v/s Women is considered as most favourite topic for time pass. But whether you ask a male or female, that whose cuisine do u like most? generally our answer is either mom or grand-mom, I mean a female in that answer, I have rarely seen a person saying that they like food cooked by their dad or grand-dad. But these are talks of old days. Today cooking is turning out as a necessity, people are learning it irrespective of their gender. We Men do enjoy cooking, but we are afraid of admitting it. Even my mom always tells me, "Never tell a girl that you can cook", but why is it so? Her reply is simple, " Do you want to spoil your Image? No Girl will like you that way". But I disagree completely, I have an opinion that, its not about the so called "Image", everyone must learn cooking, that's what they teach first thing in Military, If you can't cook,you can't survive in an operation. But, recently i read a Newspaper report in which few candidates who were aspiring to join Indian Army were rejected on the grounds that they can cook, and a Male who can cook generally do not have Officer qualities. Now, What the HELL is that, come on, don't these guys have a better explanation to reject that candidate, it was difficult for me to buy that crap. But as I mentioned it was a newspaper report in Hindustan Times, so I am not here to judge anything.

The first thing which I ever made on Gas Stove was Tea, long way back when i was in 6th Standard, since then I was able to make Tea,Coffee. Slowly I raised my standard and I attempted Kheer, Sewiyaan, mainly sweet dishes, and I must say that they were not bad at all, the right amount of sugar in right amount of milk, and the right amount of Taste. I am not praising myself, but I am writing all that on the kind of feedback which I got from my parents. Although, parent's reaction can be considered as Biased One, but they do criticise whenever it is required.

Wait for Cognizant was killing me, suddenly I asked one of my Orkut Friend, please tell me, how can I learn cooking, she said simple, open a website with loads of recipes and start attempting. But you guys must be wondering that why didn't I ask to my Mom? Actually, the truth is that I wanted to give her a surprise that I can cook, and a bit of hesitation didn't let me go to her for help, I feel more nervous if she's around and trying to guess the dish or to trying to tell me add this , add that, don't do like this, you will burn down the kitchen, get away from my kitchen, take care of your hands, don't cut like that, its a sharp knife, take care of your fingers, why are you following an Internet recipe? All these questions can fry your brain while you are trying to concentrate on cooking. But parents always care for us, and want us to stay safe, so they do it, its natural, we will understand all these things when we become a parent.

So slowly and slowly i started with basic vegetable curries and my first big attempt was Rajma for Diwali, and I must say it wasn't that bad, but my mom's Kadhi was so superb that everybody forgot about praising Rajma, even I got busy in praising Kadhi. After Rajma, I tried FISH, and I have made 4-5 varieties of fishes till now, they were all good as per feedback that I got. So, I think now can stay in any part of India without complaining about the food and enjoy a healthy home made food (I prefer less oil and fat).

In conclusion, I advise all the males and females who are reading it, please learn cooking, as it is a necessity these days, and keep the "male-ego" or "high-fi female attitude", out of the window while doing it.

CHEERS and Happy Cooking :)

The Politics of Uttar Pradesh

I remember Uttar Pradesh as a State which was considered as Power House for BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party), and they had strong hold in U.P. They won most number of seats in U.P. during 13th Lok Sabha Election, after that, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was chosen as Prime Minister of India and he ruled over a period of 5 years (1999-2004). Even Indian National Congress has a great history with U.P. From Govind Ballabh Pant to Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Congress Ruled in U.P. for more than three decades in Assembly Elections. Whether you call it a collapse or failure of National Parties in State which gave a room for the Regional Parties to come into the picture and participate in Assembly Elections.

Parties like Samajvadi Party (SP) led by Mulayam Singh or Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Kaashi Ram and Mayawati brought a sudden change in the political environment of the State. Since 1937 till now, President Rule has been imposed for Eight times in State. The Assembly Elections of 2007 witnessed BSP emerged as the single largest party and was able to form Government without any coalition.

Uttar Pradesh has a history of giving the most number of Prime Minister to this country. Well, Uttar Pradesh has seen so many phases of politics and it became dirty too. But all is fair is in Love and Politics.

Mayawati's success is no doubt well achieved, infact, a new term called as Social-Engineering was used by media to describe the way Mayawati achieved enormous success in Assembly Elections. That all happened in 2007, then how come she couldn't do very well in 15th Lok Sabha Elections, although her Party won 20 seats in U.P., but people were expecting more. Even the SP lost considerable amount of seats in these Elections, they managed 23, that was way less than what they achieved in Last General Elections. But the question is that who ate away their share of seats? Is it Congress, who won 21 this time?

I believe yes, it is the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka and Sonia Gandhi's wide Campaign that helped them win. You must be thinking, if its all about campaigning, then why SP didn't won, they had Sanjay Dutt with them, why Mayawati didn't manage more seats even she implemented National Security Act on Varun Gandhi for his objectionable speeches in Pilibhit. All's well that ends well, both Varun Gandhi and his mother Menaka Gandhi won their respective seats from Pilibhit and Amla (M.P.).

If it is not about hi-profile campaigning, then why did Congress win more seats in these General Elections in U.P.? The answer is right here, the kind of work which was done under Central Government Schemes like NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-2005 ), its aim was to provide minimal employment to people below poverty line.

NREGA was implemented in most backward areas of U.P. which become a Trump Card for Congress, although they didn't use it as a political issue and we never even heard about that in any political speeches. Public knew the kind of work done in U.P. and they voted accordingly. Now as Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that he will be working hard for U.P. so that they can have strong hold on this State at Assembly level too. So, are we witnessing a change again, can we see a national party like Congress winning in the next Assembly Elections in U.P ? They still have a lot of time to make their roots stronger and show their presence in State.

I don't care which Government comes into the Power, I just care that they should work hard to make my U.P. more better.

Stable States mean stable Country.....Cheers for India And U.P.

The Kala Bandar (Black Monkey)

If you are a resident of Delhi, then you must have heard of a strange creature called as "Monkey Man" during the year 2001, which attacked many people for nothing. One more strange thing called "Muh-nochwa", was active in Kanpur during the year 2002, even I would have never believed on these strange things unless my cousin became a victim. My cousin was attacked by so called "Muh-nochwa", which burnt his face, and when he tried to remove this creature from his face, he burnt his hands too. He described it as a thing which had Red Light blinking at the centre of that object, and it could fly too. All of sudden Kanpur's hotest news was Muh-Nochwa, and I started reading more and more attacks by him to those people who were either sleeping or standing on their roof of house. Well we can never know whether these things are real or not, but after I saw half-burnt face of my cousin, I had no reason not to believe him.

Now I will come to The Kala Bandar, its literal translation is The Black Monkey, as described in Delhi-6. When the movie started I was wondering what is this Kala Bandar non-sense that the Director is referring again and again. People were attacked by a strange creature called as Kala Bandar, which of course looked black in colour, hairy and some people also claimed it to have an Electric Motherboard, few thought that it could jump high. Slowly and slowly as the movie progressed we see more number of incidents in which people used Kala Bandar as an excuse to hide their own mistake. A wife cheating on her husband started shouting "Kala Bandar, Kala Bandar", when her husband came home early and she was making out with her boyfriend, which helped her boyfriend to escape via the window, and later the attempt to rape was filed by her husband, and the accused was none other than Kala Bandar, it sounds strange right?

But what actually is Kala Bandar, Is it the real monkey? or Is it just a figment of imagination? Is it the Monkey Man of Delhi? or Muh-Nochwa of Kanpur?

Well Kala Bandar is described in Delhi-6 as an evil. I mean to say, we always have a choice to make, either we can listen to our evil part or the angel part. Angel part is described as a God, as all religion say that God resides within an individual, and we should listen to him, but since this is Kalyug, where Man has become less-human, and is listening to his Devil part while taking decisions of his life. So that is the place where Kala Bandar is dominating our lives, he has become an excuse for us to hide our own wrong-doings. We all have Kala Bandar residing in with our God part, now, it is our decision to whom should we listen? Should we listen to Kala Bandar,which is making us more evil by hiding our mistakes or should we listen to our God part and accept the fact that God is One, and it resides within.

Well the choice is yours......

The Ekta's Magic

Ekta Kapoor is like God to me, I have always admired the way she brought a revolution in Television Industry. Yes, it is the same industry which was once considered as a Waste of Time and a Launching Pad for the struggling actors.

I have followed Ekta's serials since my childhood, I remember HUM PAANCH of Zee TV, my first ever comedy show which I liked a lot, and without any complaints. My mom is fan of Hindi cinema's jumping jack Jeetendra a.k.a. Ravi Kapoor. When the name of Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor used to come under the credits of Hum Paanch, I asked my mom that who are they, she replied tht its her favourite actor's wife and daughter respectively.

Since then I came to know that Balaji Telefilms is run by Jeetendra and his daughter Ekta.

Ekta Kapoor created serials like ITIHAAS, which used to run on DD-1 during 1:00 PM, I saw this show during my school summer vacation for some time or so, and I became fan of Smita Bansal (currently she plays Mother-in-Law of Anandi in Balika Vadhu). I don't really remember that when did this serial go off-air, because I was too busy in praising my HUM PAANCH,in which for the first time Vidya Balan was seen on-screen as Radhika. Later on, this serial was taken off-air because Shri Adhikari Brothers launched their own comedy channel called as SAB TV, which ate away its TRP (Television Rating Points).

Then, a revolution came in Television Industry by the launch of Kaun Banega Crorepati and STAR PLUS became the number one channel.

During the same time, Ekta Kapoor started two new shows as a part of her experimentation which later become household names, of course , you know the names, Kyonki...Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki. During those days Tulsi and Parvati became like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt of TV Industry. The thing that I like in Ekta's shows is the joint family system that she revived in Daily Soaps again. Infact she became the soap queen, her Shows were at top on charts and she earned huge amount of money.

Many Low Profile actors became huge names in few months.

I remember my favourite show Kasauti Zindagi Ki...., and I have always admired the character of Mr. BAJAJ, more than Prerna, I saw that show for Mr. Bajaj, which made Ronit Roy, Shahrukh Khan of TV Industry.

How can i not mention about Kutumb, a show on Sony which introduced the Best Jodi of TV, Hiten Tejwani and Gauri Pradhan, currently they are happily married couple and are a part of Balaji Telefilms.

I have always admired the positive things of her shows, I have seen Karan (Kyunki....) giving so much respect to Tulsi, that my mom always asks me to learn to respect your elders, and be a good boy like Karan, I always tell her, "Mom, its just a TV show", but somewhere deep in my heart I can't deny the fact that we should respect our elders, and they are showin it.

Ekta has seen many ups and downs in her career when her mega bugdet show MAHABHARATHA, didn't work out well, and the sudden termination of shows like Kyunki...and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ghar Ki after a long run for 8 years.But, Ekta is a women of strength, and she has always stressed on this fact via her shows that women are no longer weaker than men, and they can fight well and manage anything to save their family.

Currently, Ekta is back in action with her shows like Bandini, and Pavitra Rishta, which are non-K serials after a long time from her camp.

Ekta, I wish you all the best, please make more shows which will bring revolution in TV Industry again.

I am your Fan, and Thanks a lot for the awesome entertainment.