Emergic: Rajesh Jain's Blog

Here is what I wrote on March 9, 2009 in a post entitled “Middle India needs to come Together”: Politicians and therefore the governments they form divide India into two distinct fragments. On one of them, governments and politicians lavish an amazing amount of attention, with the interest rising as the elections draw nearer. They [...]

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Here is what I wrote a year ago shortly after the results were announced: The bright side of it is that the country will have a stable Congress-led UPA government for the next five years. I just hope that there is a positive development and good governance agenda that is pursued quickly because there are [...]

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This week’s links:  The Enemy Within: from The Atlantic. “For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find Conficker’s creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting …” Fence is not the [...]

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The hard and soft foundations will not only eliminate poverty but actually propel India to become a truly important participant in the global scene. To bring that about, India needs foresighted, intelligent, and dedicated leaders. This kind political leadership exists in India. Such leaders are born once in a lifetime. India is fortunate to have [...]

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Let us first think about the change India needs. India needs political leadership of the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Lee Kuan Yew. From that leadership will flow policy changes that we need as a country. The hard and soft foundations of a nation has to be engineered. The soft foundation encompasses national interest, the [...]

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Middle class India can be safely assumed to not be agents of change. But as history has shown repeatedly, change usually comes from a few. In the words of Margaret Mead, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Middle class India has many more [...]

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In any country, the only segment of the population that can bring about radical change is the middle class. The people at the top of the heap are too invested in the status quo and too comfortable where they are to risk upsetting the great deal they have by trying to change things. They correctly [...]

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The final three books give us inputs on the “how” – how to make ideas sticky, how to bring about change, and how to leverage the power of social networks. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath: In the coming battle of ideas, how do we ensure [...]

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A note from nearly a decade ago on a software stack for SMEs: Whole Solution: What the SME needs is a whole solution. The SME software stack takes just that approach by offering a complete package of the applications needed, thus minimising the number of vendors that the SME needs to interact with. Smart Integration: [...]

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This week’s links: India’s 3G Auctions: from India Knowledge@Wharton. Has a few quotes from me. “The voice ARPU has an upper threshold, so if the operators have to generate higher revenues, it has to come from data and other value-added services.” Why Startups should train their people: by Ben Horowitz. “Ironically, the biggest inhibitor to [...]

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The next three books from the past give insights into grassroot organisation, and understanding how crowds and groups work. Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky: This book from the 1970s is a primer on how to organize at the grassroots level. Even though the book was written in the US, many of the ideas are [...]

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To change the course of India, we have to first inform and educate ourselves. I have put together a Reading List. These are books I came across in the past year, and they help in different ways – from learning an accurate – or at the least a less biased- history of India (the one [...]

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We in Middle India don’t care. As long as we get the money we need, we use that to create insulation around us from the perpetually planned poverty that lies around. All that ails the nation can be made to vanish in the cocoon we have created around ourselves. The feeling is, “We have an [...]

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Then came the Election results on May 16, 2009. I spent the day with a group from the Friends of BJP at my home. As the results were announced on TV, it became clear what had happened. The BJP had been beaten by a resurgent Congress. It was a harsh verdict for the BJP. The [...]

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I wrote these passages during the first half of 2009. They capture the essence of my thinking. You may not all agree with the choice of the party I decided to support, but what is inescapable is the need for each of us to get involved and take sides. Jan 29, 2009: I am one [...]

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Another post from the writings during last year’s election season: I really wish many more of us would take these kinds of opportunities — to bring about change, one needs to first understand how things function. Some commented on my post yesterday that I should be supporting a new political party. Consider the realities of [...]

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This weekend’s links: Five Must-Ask Interview Questions: from The Wall Street Journal. One of them: “What’s the toughest feedback you’ve ever received and how did you learn from it?” From Hopes and Dreams to The Real Thing: by Fred Wilson. “One of the most interesting things to watch and learn from, as an entrepreneur or [...]

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For the first fifteen years after my return from the US, I was busy in my companies. There were times when I considered what a person like me could do to make India great. Somewhere along the line, I started writing. But that was about it. India needed to be transformed and I thought that [...]

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In Jan 2009, as the economy slowed, my company was not doing that great. I had started the process of making some changes within the company, but they would take time to play out. I was not disheartened – the life of an entrepreneur is about long periods of struggles punctuated with some moments of [...]

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Till Jan 2009, I was only peripherally interested in politics, just like many other educated Indians. I was an entrepreneur first and a citizen of India later.  I would read newspapers, watch TV news once in a while, discuss politics and politicians in drawing room conversations, and move on with life. My view of Indian [...]

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