Category: Uncategorized

Paper Published in FT50 Journal

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

Have managed to get published in one of the top journals in the management field — Journal of Business Ethics (list maintained by Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/3405a512-5cbb-11e1-8f1f-00144feabdc0).

Neither is business ethics my core focus, nor is development of pedagogical tools my expertise area. However, both the areas are closely intertwined with what a business management educator does. Hence, I am proud (and extremely proud) of the publication ” Integrated Live Case: A Contemporary approach of Business Ethics Pedagogy.”
Can be accessed online form the link here, or write to me to get a copy.
( https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3514-6?wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst )

What we do here is quite comprehensive and interesting! We survey business ethics pedagogy literature to identify what they have to say about teaching business ethics (408 papers reviewed). With this we develop a framework that we call the “ACD framework” (Approach, Content, and Delivery). This comprehensively identifies the different aspects of business ethics pedagogy, in the form of six binaries — two in each of the ACD elements — Approach (Theory or Realworld Connectedness), Content (Depth or Breadth), and Delivery (Traditional or Innovative). Moving further, we provide and propose a new business ethics pedagogy — Integrative Live Case(ILC) — as a generic way to address the different needs of the ethics pedagogy. To make our case stronger, we provide a instantiation of our proposal, providing a detailed template of how to use ILC to address the needs of a good business ethics pedagogy.

Writing this paper has been a great and highly fulfilling learning exercise in team working, idea generation, and academic writing. Our team (3 of us) may have easily spent more than 150 hours each on this project in team meetings, and a similar amount in individually doing our work. With the mission accomplished, the whole time spent in worthwhile both as a result, and also in what it has left behind with us. We can think a little more clearer, and also a write a little better, without a doubt.

I write this giving myself a pat on the back, and moving forward! Amen.

Fixing Indian PPPs: Limit on private sector opportunism

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

First it was the road to Gurgaon (NH-8) and now it is the road to Noida (DND Flyway)! The early PPP projects in the country seem to be falling apart like a pack of cards, but only after an ugly public spat. In both these projects, the public played a major role in demolishing them. In the NH-8 case, it was public outrage against the traffic jams at the toll booth on Delhi Gurgaon border that eventually compelled the government to force an out of court settlement among the stakeholders. In the case of the DND Flyway, the public directly took up toll collection issues with court, and won court room battles in both the High Court and the Supreme Court. The paradox lies in our attempts to raise the countries ranking on the index of doing business in India[1], while we work around contracts or set them aside through courts.

However, these two projects do not represent the transport PPP projects in the country. Both these projects had been conceived in the early stages of the countries PPP journey, they had experienced good demand, and have practically no monopoly rights. As early stage projects they had faulty conceptualization. In the case of NH-8 the fault lay in the assumption that we could operate an access controlled road within city limits, while in the case of DND Flyway it was the contractual promise for 20% return on project cost (and not on the equity invested). Since then transport planning and contractual clauses have evolved significantly, addressing these conceptual errors. NH-8 had faced good traffic demand from the first day due to the boom in Gurgaon, whereas DND was slow to pick-up but finally it did could attract good traffic. This is in sharp contrast to most other road projects in the country which suffer because of optimism bias in traffic estimates. Both roads have numerous alternatives such that monopoly returns are not possible, unlike most highways which are the only ones connecting two cities. In retrospect those fighting for removal of the toll plazas claim that these projects should have been done by the government itself in the first place, leaves one to wonder where would the Indian PPP journey stand today had this been the case! We need recognize that these projects helped us learn a lot, and learning happens at a cost!

Beyond the obvious contextual similarities, the projects are also similar in two additional assumptions regarding the role of the public and the private agencies in a PPP.  The first being an assumption about foresightedness of the government, and it quick decisions, none of which ever happens in real-life. Understandably, this also does not raise eyebrows, as it is expected that the government would falter on these aspects. However, our core argument here focuses on the other assumption — opportunistic behaviour by the private sector. Once again, this should not raise any eyebrows as private sector is expected to act in an opportunistic fashion. This is where our argument differs. PPPs are different! Different in regards to the public service that they involve and the public asset that they create. However, we are seldom able to fully comprehend what this entails.

PPPs are not operated in a free market. Here the risks and rewards do not solely lie with the private sector to enjoy and suffer! PPPs are about optimal risk sharing. Businesses do not take up all the risks, the evidence of which lies in the numerous appeals by the industry for loan refinances, bank guarantees, deferments of loans, single window clearances, allowances for non-performing assets, new PPP models and the like, all aimed at forcing the government to bail out bad business decisions. But, when it comes to rewards, the private sector closes its doors—this is my money and I am free to pocket it, and this is as per the contract.

This is what had happened in these two cases. The concessionaire capitalized all future toll revenues in the NH-8 project and picked up a loan of Rs 1600 cr, but made no sincere efforts to address the toll booth traffic jams or maintain the expressway. The same happened, when NTBCL (the concessionaire for DND Flyway) kept adding its 20% assured return to bargain for extended life for the project and giving veiled threat for staking its claim for the land that it had been promised as part of the contract, but not yet been handed over. In the case of NH-8, the industry further repeatedly warned the government not to attempt a project takeover, as it would disrupt the investment sentiment of the country. Every trick in the book was tried to ensure that every paisa that one is entitled to as per the contract, is pocketed!

As the conceptual motivation behind PPP projects lies in leveraging private sector efficiencies, hence wringing the inflows to extract the last drop should be acceptable. However, what remains unclear is the extent to which one can behave opportunistically, while working in a public service context! An example of a hospital project in UK comes to my mind i.e., Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital that opened as a PPP in 2001. Like NH-8 and DND Flyway projects, which were one of the first in the Indian transport sector, it was also one of the first sizeable PPP deals in the UK health sector. The government, which was very keen to attract the private sector for infrastructure investments, bent over backwards to get the private sector to commit in the project and gave it a very favourable deal. The concessionaire within two years of running the hospital got a cheaper mortgage and made a gain of  £116 million. The shareholders of the concessionaire were pressurized to contribute to the hospital out of this abnormal gain, but the only one to respond to this call was a maintenance and catering staff of the hospital who held a small number of shares in the concessionaire’s parent company. Finally, the concessionaire did handover £34 million to the hospital trust, though it was not required to make any such payments contractually. The concessionaires recognized the limit of opportunism that they could get away with!

PPPs are not Apple! When the project fails, private sector is not the only loser. The externalities associated with the project rope in the public and force it to bear a part of the loss directly or indirectly. So, when projects succeed, why is the public not pulled in to be a part of the gains.

While, the argument about private sector’s accountability and responsibility to the public in general may be convincing to some, other do not buy it! For them a contract is a contract. Why should the private sector pay, if it is not required to. However, firstly they fail to recognize that the public context has its nuances. It needs to be given its due for the unique contributions that it brings in. For those uninitiated, these lie in easy policy frameworks, interest free loans, investment tax holidays etc. initially or bail outs, waivers of loans, accountal of non-performing assets, debt refinancing etc., when disaster strikes! Secondly, business management repeatedly argues for stakeholder management and underscores the need for stakeholder involvement and satisfaction. Hence, even if one views the contract as being sacrosanct, and would only like to work within its framework, one cannot avoid stakeholder management, and specially while working with the public sector.

Hence, there is a limit to private sector opportunism when it takes up work in public sector. Specially, in the PPP context the risk allocations and attributions through expected to be optimal, they are unlikely to be so. Sharing risks, one may need to come to the aid of the other and accommodate one another. While contracts would remain sacrosanct and need to be rigidly adhered to, if one does not indulge in adequate stakeholder management (and here one does not refer to bribing) one should be prepared to be manhandled: set aside by the courts in public interest, or forced into out of court settlements.  This is also a warning sign for all those who bank on the helping hand of the government! The government hand of support comes with a lot of written and unwritten agendas, and one should be ready to service these agendas before one decides to take this helping hand!

[1] One of the doing business aspects is “Enforcing contracts”, where India ranks 178/190.

Fixing Indian PPPs: Questioning the proposed options!

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

Fixing Indian PPPs: Questioning the proposed options!

Yesterday, my brother shared an article with me wherein my favorite subject of PPPs (Public-private Partnerships in infrastructure) was addressed. [1] The article discussed ways to fix the flawed PPP model by converting them into FPTP (First Public, Then Private), as proposed by Mr. Subir Gokarn ( a front-runner for the post of RBI Governor). This catches my attention as this is not the first time that PPPs in India have been discussed with acronyms. The Economist in 2012 labelled Indian PPPs as RIPPP [3], Mr. Shailesh Pathak (with impressive governments and private sector credentials) has called them TTT (Taxpayer to Tycoon Transfer) [2] and Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, in his extreme wisdom has wondered during a press interaction, “What are these Ppeeeeees (pun intended)”!

The common thread running through these discourses is that something is fundamentally amiss with PPPs in India, and something need be done. Both, the FPTP concept and Mr. Shailesh Pathak’s recommendations argue that PPPs need be reconfigured, and broken up. The atypical Indian conditions require that the government build an infrastructure and then ask for a private partner to come in to operate it and service it through user service charges. It is argued that this would resolve many of the issues that Indian PPPs face. While, I share their concerns about Indian PPPs fully, I only agree partly with their proposed solution. That is, I also see problems of PPPs lying in bundling, and see a solution in unbundling PPPs. However, while my arguments are theoretically motivated, they specifically argue for unbundling of a different kind. I recently presented a paper on this at the World Conference on Transport Infrastructure and it would soon be published as part of their proceedings.[4] The sketch of my argument as given below, with my primary difference of opinion with the experts views highlighted.

Let me start from the beginning!

The theoretical drivers for PPP have been intensely debated in the literature. When one claims that PPPs are easy source of money for the government, the argument falls flat when one recognizes that the government has access to the cheapest debt credit. When one argues for private sector efficiencies, one soon realizes that these can be better purchased in arms-length contracts. The PPP rationale lying in practices driven rationale like possibility of off balance sheet financing by the government, or political inclinations to ribbon cutting, are short-lived in nature as audits and public soon see through them and they lose their sheen. What however stands ground is the inherent value creation driven by the innovations which happen when the construction and operational phases get combined together.

Coming from the management field, I argue that bundling increases complexity and one of the most recognized ways of negotiating complexity is by bringing about modularization, which involves unbundling. One can see evidence of this all around. Let it be products (computers, cars, space-crafts etc) or processes (programming languages like C, sophisticated process controls, etc). It appears that no matter how complex a thing, we can build it using independent and self-sufficient building blocks. It is all like LEGO! However, there is a difference…..

As our needs grow, things become more and more complex as we start bundling features together.  To address the complexity, we have to necessarily unbundle, however when one starts to unbundle one no longer unbundles along the same axis, or along the same lines along which bundling had been done. For an example, just look at the phone in your hand! Our phone is a bundle of voice recorder, watch, camera, phone, video recorder and blah blah blah. But when the ensuing complexity of the phone is unbundled by its designers, it is unbundled as hardware (with mic, camera lens, speaker, keyboard, screen etc), operating systems, and applications (our apps). The complexity of the phone is not unbundled by separating out the camera, video recorder, voice recorder, and the phone, and just putting them together in one place! And, as I see it the meteoric rise in the value of a mobile phone as come from this simultaneous bundling and unbundling, but along orthogonal axis.

Then why are our PPP experts recommending unbundling along the same axis along which value creation was initially argued for!

For me, PPPs are bundles of construction and operation phases, and it is this bundle which can potentially drive value creation. This bundle becomes complex due to the myriad of activities and people involved. It is required to be unbundled, but not into construction and operation phases. We have to search out alternate ways of unbundling PPPs, and along orthogonal axis. And, your suggestions of what these could be are as good as mine! These would be highly contextually driven, and one would be required to search out the best such axis in each case!

What happens if one follows the advice of our PPP experts and unbundles along construction and operational aspects? Some preliminary observations…. The first thing we would sacrifice would be value creation through innovation. While describing the atypical Indian system, one finds abundant evidence of non-professional government, lack of government’s technical competency, inflexibility in working, risk averse nature etc. (I would argue that these are not atypical of India but typical of the public systems world over). If this is the case, then putting the onus of designing detailed specifications for infrastructure which is to last for 25-50 years, and executing the work though the L-1 contracting within time and cost, does not seem to be a possible alternative within the government systems. Further, what would happen when we transfer a government asset to a private contractor for the operational stage? The same thing which happens in every college food mess through-out the country or even in government housekeeping contracts! The lowest bidding service contractor steps in, makes all possible shortcuts, hires underage boys, runs them 12 hour shifts, uses substandard material, and when you question him….he cites the abysmally low rate that he quoted as an excuse! Despite our best efforts, uncover the shades and you would find this rampant all around, and right under your nose.

Ironically, the PPP regime had aimed for growing contractors into concessionaires, but the proposed unbundling aims to reduce the erstwhile contractors into small time government general order suppliers! One just wonders — do we want to get into this situation!

Hence, fundamentally splitting or unbundling along the operations and construction interface is not a viable option, as it is a fundamental innovation driver for the PPP system. The same inefficiencies and immaturity which are today driving our unbundling arguments, would haunt us in the new public constructed and private run setup (FPTP). Splitting or unbundling is necessary, but only to address the increased complexity of the system and not address the deep-rooted ills of our system, which need to be addressed outside the PPP regime. There are no specific recommendations of how it is to be done, as this would depend upon the context one is working in.

REFERENCES:

  1. http://swarajyamag.com/economy/here-is-what-subir-gokarn-suggests-to-fix-the-flawed-ppp-model
  2. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ppps-are-good-in-theory-but-in-india-they-are-a-failure-in-practice-shailesh-pathak-ed-bhartiya-group/articleshow/47940584.cms
  3. http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21568397-indias-love-affair-public-private-partnerships-faces-stern-test-rippp
  4. Garg,S & Garg, S (July’ 2016) Rethinking Public-private Partnerships: An unbundling approach. Abstract selected for presentation at the 14th World Conference on Transport Research at Shanghai, China, 10-15th July’ 2016. (Will soon be available online)

 

NOTE: I have serious concerns with both the data and the views stated in Swarajyamag article, but I purposely decide not to direct this piece at these aberrations. For instance, it talks of 188, and 248 road projects. I have identified 660 PPP road projects in India, and I am studying them. It writes, “The FPTP model aims to achieve the objective of optimal allocation by allocating the risk to the participant who is well-equipped to deal with it in its normal course of business” — this is exactly the same aim and objective by which PPPs had come! So what is different. Mr Gokaran is stated to be talking of FPTP for a couple of years, which is 2 years. Mr. Shailesh Pathaks’s working paper is dated 2012, which is five years back!

 

Kanhaiya….

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

Mr Kanhiya has gripped the nations imagination and also mine. As the actions disturb one at an extremely deep level, it is necessary that one vomits out his emotions, lest it harm you from the inside… Hence this blog…….

I have two distinct takes on the events which have unfolded. My first take is based upon what I had learnt very recently, and which allows me to interpret the events from a new light. This is primarily a recognition that there exists a difference between the nation and the state. Most of do not understand the difference, and events like Kanhiya’s speech happen. The second take is however on plan and simple dishonesty and cheating. But, first lets us talk about the first.

Very recently I had got intrigued with some classical and basic questions. How is public sector management different from corporate management, what exactly is public? These questions have been motivated by my interest in PPPs, and the strive to find if they are different and how! I attempted to explore these questions while holding a Ph.D seminar for 3 students, and decided to hold the class in a discussion format and involve a Political Science professor and an Economcis professor. The Political science expert at our institute is a JNU graduate, and later a Ph.D. from China. Over numerous classes he sought to build a political context of the business and while one of his starting points was philosophy the other was the nation state  distinction. Nation are the geographic boundaries and what we refer to as the motherland. It is the state which is the government. Mr Kanhiya, after his jail term and his numerous court hearings, has finally come to understand this. This is surprising considering the fact that he is pursuing his Ph.D. for the last 7-8 years in the same field, and has been so busy wasting his time, that he he has failed to recognize this essential difference. He was trying to question the state (the government) , but unfortunately asked questions which were questioning the nation. And, one has witnessed the way in which he fell flat on his face…

However, there is much more to the nation, state and country differences and I urge one to google the same once for oneself and form our own impressions.

The second aspect is not that ambiguous and does not talk about what one may wish away by labeling them as linguistic aberrations. Tracking the news and the numerous views, many have attempted that by labeling the JNU idiots as innocent students. The second issue is deeper. Is there an extent to which one can fall in dishonesty and out and out cheating…. How long can and to what extent can one deceive oneself and the hands which feed you …. Taking a pessimistic view on the facts presented….

Let us take one side of the views, and see what they imply :

  • A meeting was not allowed by the administration, but anyway JNSU president decided to hold it …. he has decided that he will not follow any rules of the land. So why does he expect courts to listen to him or the police not to kill him violating human rights
  • 2 of the 7 movie clips have been tempered — so 5 of them are original….
  • Kanahiya did not shout anti-indian slogans —– but he heard them and did nothing….
  • He got external people into JNU campus, and saw people at his rally with mouth covered and fighting slogans…. and he did not feel any responsibility to do anything

Yes, Mr Kanhaiya expects to be treated fairly, given independence, freedom of speech, treated with honor, given a fair trial, and  blah blah blah ! …. But what about his responsibility — has he ever reported a crime on campus, did he call out to the extremists to stop shouting any national slogans,  report unnatural things to the police, side with the administration to help clean the campus….  Our concerns are much deeper….

There are a whole lot of people in this country, and with increasing numbers, who can behave any way they like, do what they like, enjoy all kinds of liberties, tread over my head, and do what they like …. walk all over people like me and then even stand up and say it is their right! Sorry, I am not ready to give you the right to do this…. You cannot keep walking all over me…..

Actually, it is all like the cleanliness campaign….  You dirty the world and ask me to clean it…. sorry I will not clean after you, you have to do it yourself…. Mr. Kanhiya please clean up yourself, earn a part of what you have, …. May be when you will fail to live up to those levels you will go Rohit’s way … when he realized that what the world has done for him was much bigger then what he could ever return, he took the inevitable path……. May be now it is your turn …. please prove yourself, yes we want you to prove that you are worth it with actions, and not just with words…. let us see you prove yourself…

BUT, BUT, BUT, you will not heed to this …. honesty is not your asset, ethics is not something  you pride yourself with, excellence is not something you aspire for,

As I read you, you are coward, who takes center stage as soon as no one is watching, steal when the lights are off, pee in your pants, will get into shaddy deals for the quick bucks,  only cry when someone is watching… and you are not the first,

The irony is Arvind Kejriwal made a success before you, and now you earned the lime light no part of which you deserve to stand under…

 

Tour of the olden times — Shaaranya Garg

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

Clap your hands, clap your hands

There will be a lot of rockstar bands

A rockstar called me on stage

And put me in a great big cage

 

I tried and tried but couldn’t get out

But then I thought of a different route

I cut the cage with a chainsaw

That was lying on the ground, near an apple that was raw

 

That’s how I went into the olden times

with bells and chimes

including Egyptian camels

and Indian mammals

 

Then I ran to the sea

Where I saw a big bumble bee

I made a boat

And put on my coat

I made an oar

And took them to the shore

 

Then I moved in the boat

And saw a big castle’s moat

Then I saw some soldiers

On great big boulders

I distracted them

With a gem

They came to me

And hit then with a cactus tree

 

That’s how I went into the olden times

with bells and chimes

including Egyptian camels

and Indian mammals

 

Then I went inside

Where it was very wide

Then I saw a knight

But it went out of sight

 

Then I saw Alexander the king

And lions that sing

Then I ran from a dinosaur

That gave out a great big roar!

That’s how I went into the olden times

with bells and chimes

including Egyptian camels

and Indian mammals

 

I went and met some cavemen

And SLEPT A SABER-TOOTH TIGER’S DEN

 

I ALSO MET THE PEOPLE OF ANCIENT GREECE

THAT WERE NOT LIVING in peace

All because of troy

The city that took away their joy

 

 

I also saw the World War 2

The place where many bombs blew

Suddenly, a voice said,

“Wake up you sleepy head.”

Then I woke up

Chickens were saying,

“Cluck, cluck, cluck!”

 

That’s how I went into the olden times

with bells and chimes

including Egyptian camels

and Indian mammals

Shaaranya’s works

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

March 6, 2016

Roaming On the Street

 

Once I was roaming on the street

Near the shops of eggs and meat

I was sitting on bus stop with cars and buses

Within the street dogs’ clutches

I was drinking coffee and eating food at cafés

In the bright and hot sun’s happy rays

Between the shops I saw a zoo

I went inside seeing lions, elephants and kangaroos

Shops everywhere attracted my attention

It felt like the shops had a magnetic radiation

I went and saw a patient in the hospital

It was very pathetical

A thief then snatched my money

But then police caught him in a jiffy

I then went into a circus

Where I saw a funny hippopotamus

Then I saw one of my friends at the barber

But then I got called by my father

He said, “It’s time to go home.

And take our trip to Italy whose capital is Rome!”

 

And they have succeeded!

~ Swapnil Garg ~ 3 Comments

I am getting troubled by this feeling again and again! This uncanny feeling emerges whenever I read the newspaper, see the television, see a movie, or get exposed to the outside world. We have all got distinctly and recognizably Islamised, whether you like it or not. They have succeeded!

You open the newspaper and browse through it! It is rare that you would find something about the Mahabaratha, Bhagvadhagita, Vedas, Ramayana, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib or any other religious book. But yes there would be innumerable references to Koran, either by the terrorists talking about Jehhad, a mullah talking about Madarsa education,  a debate upon what Koran says or does not say. Why! The Islam religion has occupied a prominent place in our daily discourse in one way or the other, and they have managed to influence our daily discourse by capturing us first thing in the morning.

Move to the television, during the day and situation is no different. The TV news is a reflection of the news paper.  The business news reflects the impact of the crude oil and the politics of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia! We are not only directly and indirectly discussing Islam through crude prices, but also discussing who is going on Haj, and what the Saudi Sheikhs are doing in the US!. While the Indian political scene had been dominated by minority appeasement (read it Muslim appeasement) all these years, the elections are dominated by muslim and anti-muslim sentiments (if one has ever seen one). You can hardly switch a TV channel without knowing what is happening in Kashmir, and that too with an Islamic overtone! Looking far west, 8 years back Obama managed to win elections and one of the undercurrents was his Muslim ancestry. On the other hand, Donald Trump is most discussed for his anti-Islam remarks.

Come the evening, and it is movie time!. After having been blasted all day about the ideological fight of the Muslims and their appeal and strive for a conservative society, the Indian entertainment scene provides a stark contrast. Talk  of any movie theme, and the last ten Bollywood hits, and try to identify one which did not have an Islamic focus. The internal conflict becomes worse as one realizes that the burqua and head scarf, that one saw all day in the news, is nowhere visible in the evening, through the first names and surnames are common, i.e., Mohammedes, Salims, Khans, Kaifs, Mumtaz, Begums, and so on. Alcohol, tobacco, money lending, rape, butchery, nothing is a taboo any longer for the same class in the evening. What has happened! .

In Hindi long back we used to say… pack gaye hain! Han ji… Hum bhi pack gaye is Islamic Atyachar se! They have succeeded and we have lost! In this a movie like Bahubali is a pleasant change, and  I am looking forward its second version. Atleast, good or bad, fate or luck, necessary or unnecessary, evil or docile, economic or political, or whatever one may say, Islam did not exists when the movie was set!

Next move in life — Coordinates set, and settled — Now to gallop on this one

~ Swapnil Garg ~ Leave a comment

I am returning back to this blog after a good six months. And I have reasons for the same. A career change, with place change, with an environment change, is tough and keeps one oh his toes! Yes I have been on my toes all this time, and now finally I am strating to settle down and so returning back to something that has to become a lot more important to me as I go along!

To unburden my mind.. What have I been upto in the last six months–

Took voluntary retirement from Indian Railways after working there for 23 years… Lots of closures of official / routine jobs!

  • Got relieved from IRIMEE, Jamalpur on 30th January’ 2015
  • Completed or tried to close the loose ends that I had opened up while at IRIMEE– a lot remained back as open
  • Got my pension strated from Indian Railways
  • Rolled in huge cash — retirement benefits– and looked at places to park it

Moved to a new job

  • Started teaching at IIM, Indore and have taken one full course so far.
  • Started back on my core research work — output not yet visible
  • Started writing cases — one done and anotehr five in pipeline
  • Renewed contacts which would help me out with my future research
  • Setup my new office — a lovely place.
  • Submitted one paper to a conference, and reviewed 6.

Moved to a new place

  • Moved to indore — family from Lucknow to Indore and myself from Jamalpur to Indore
  • Vacated a railway house — no small job, cleared all arrears
  • Setup a new house in Indore– purchased household items worth over Rs 2 lacs (3 ACs, A new couch, a new bed)
  • Settling in a newly constructed flat — no small job with the kinds of unpressional work that people around us do

Purchased a new vehicle

  • Yes I purchased a new vehicle – A Honda Mobilo
  • Proud of the purchase

NOW FIRMLY in the saddle– time to start galloping!