It's Friday afternoon and we are all excited about an upcoming trip to Cape cod. The memorial day weekend is coming up and it’s the first long weekend after Xmas. So the spirits are high and the planning for the next 3 days is in full swing. The only thing left to do now is to switch off our laptops, go home and think about the next 3 days.
During the inception of this plan, couple of months back, I was expecting my ‘Pappe’ friend Jatinder Singh from Richmond, VA to visit me and Devaki. We had planned for the Cape cod visit together. I asked Vivek (one of my other friends) to join us and he agreed too. But, unfortunately, Jatinder called it off later as he was expecting someone to visit him in those days. But Vivek and I decided to continue with our plan. Later, Arun and his wife joined too. So its 3 couples now planning for the next 3 days.
Devaki triggered the planning and preparation for this trip on 18th May itself. She did some research and sent across a mail with some local attractions. No doubt the information was good and useful, but, procrastination is the name of the game and we were (Vivek, Arun and I) are such lazy bums, that none of us responded to her mail. Poor one. She gave it up and we didn’t get any further mails from her. Had we listened to her and started preparing then itself, we would be having all the information by now.(Girls are smart) But guys are guys and we delayed it. We started only today morning. It was fun anyways. We had multiple meeting; sometimes in my cubicle, in cafeteria, or in Vivek’s cubicle. The last one was in the café when we grouped together for the final time and decided to leave at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. Now, deciding on our departure time was fun. Vivek, a late riser usually, wanted to leave not before 7 am. Arun was adamant on leaving at 5 am. I was enjoying their debate.
So here’s the rough plan for the next 3 days:
1) Day 1 – Martha’s vineyard
2) Day 2 – Water sports, beaches.
3) Day 3 – Cycling, sight seeing.
Our travel route is not going to be what map quest gives us. But it is going to be via Middletown,CT a cute little place, where Vivek and I have lived for more than a year. So we go through Middletown take the Route 9 South and go towards the shore, hit 95 towards North and continue on it till we reach Provincetown. En route, we pass the towns of Groton, Mytic and also of source Rhode island areas.(Vivek and I used to drive on this route everyday for around 3 months. We used to car pool then.)
And yes how can I forget all the shopping that we have already done for this trip. We purchased a big ball from Walmart yesterday, which we will be playing on the beach. Also I purchased water googles and a new pair of shorts. Vivek has a Frisbee and some board games, which we will play in the nights in our rooms.
So that’s all for now, and I am about to switch off my laptop and transform in the weekend mood !!! I will be posting our snaps as soon as we return. Ciao !
Friday, May 25, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Outsourcing
On a lazy Sunday afternoon today, I was reading Business week and came across an article titled "Private Equity vs China".
Click on the link below to view the article
Private Equity vs China
It was of definite interest to a person like me. Recently, in the US presidential race, there has been a hue and cry over the H1B quota, allegedly misused by Indian software giants. In the last 5 years, Indian IT companies have grown tremendously when so many H1B visas have been issued. Its election time now and also a time to create some issues and debate about them in a run for presidential post. Its really surprising to see such a thing happening in the US politics too. Till now, I had only seen similar incidents taking place in India.
Now coming back to the article I was referring to in the beginning. This article talks about how US Private Equity investment firms, who have invested in paper manufacturing companies have filed a complaint against Chinese. And, recently US commerce secretary announced the anti subsidy law against such Chinese companies. (I will encourage you to click on the above link and get a better background.)
This article is a classic case of political influence of the US companies to the extent of modifying a trade regulation. A private group owner,who was also a treasurer secretary of the president, claimed that he did not represent the group when lobbying for the trade sanctions. This claim does not only seems to be untrue but also very ridiculous.
Why should the US companies or even people who represent the government worry and care about how Chinese govt encourages low interest loans and has debt forgiveness for Chinese companies. That is completely out of the control of American companies and should not be a matter of debate or concern for them.In fact, Chinese government may go to any extent to boost its country's exports. The claim of a lack of level playing field for American and Chinese companies seems to be meaningless since it is like comparing Apples and Oranges. Even without measures such as debt forgiveness and low interest loans, the US companies may not be able to match the Chinese companies in their profit margins.
The claim of US companies about rising unemployment and their presence in low income geographical areas has some substance (in the article). This is a bigger question which is not only particular to such paper manufacturers but also for all US companies hit by the outsourcing wave. Also this is a long standing question which the US govt needs to address. At one end, the govt wants to keep the costs of the consumer goods low to make them available at cheaper prices to all sections of the society. It also wants to boost the consumer retail market by doing that.And at the other end, it has bigger challenges like rising unemployment and protests by American companies, which it has to face. This trend might have started from the time the Japanese auto manufacturers entered the US markets in eighties. But it seems to have peaked now with Chinese companies showing their presence in almost all types of manufactured retail goods and Indian companies in the services sector. It seems to be a question of balance which the US govt may want to strike, but doesn't seem to have given much of a serious thought till now. Lets assume that the US govt stops outsourcing completely. In that case,wouldn't the American consumer complain about high prices for something which is locally manufactured. And with the ongoing offshoring wave rising high, what happens to the non graduated people of America who are losing their jobs steadily because such (sometimes non intellectual) jobs are getting offshored to India and China. How will the govt strike this balance ? Or maybe a more pertinent question is, will the govt want to strike it at all ?
Click on the link below to view the article
Private Equity vs China
It was of definite interest to a person like me. Recently, in the US presidential race, there has been a hue and cry over the H1B quota, allegedly misused by Indian software giants. In the last 5 years, Indian IT companies have grown tremendously when so many H1B visas have been issued. Its election time now and also a time to create some issues and debate about them in a run for presidential post. Its really surprising to see such a thing happening in the US politics too. Till now, I had only seen similar incidents taking place in India.
Now coming back to the article I was referring to in the beginning. This article talks about how US Private Equity investment firms, who have invested in paper manufacturing companies have filed a complaint against Chinese. And, recently US commerce secretary announced the anti subsidy law against such Chinese companies. (I will encourage you to click on the above link and get a better background.)
This article is a classic case of political influence of the US companies to the extent of modifying a trade regulation. A private group owner,who was also a treasurer secretary of the president, claimed that he did not represent the group when lobbying for the trade sanctions. This claim does not only seems to be untrue but also very ridiculous.
Why should the US companies or even people who represent the government worry and care about how Chinese govt encourages low interest loans and has debt forgiveness for Chinese companies. That is completely out of the control of American companies and should not be a matter of debate or concern for them.In fact, Chinese government may go to any extent to boost its country's exports. The claim of a lack of level playing field for American and Chinese companies seems to be meaningless since it is like comparing Apples and Oranges. Even without measures such as debt forgiveness and low interest loans, the US companies may not be able to match the Chinese companies in their profit margins.
The claim of US companies about rising unemployment and their presence in low income geographical areas has some substance (in the article). This is a bigger question which is not only particular to such paper manufacturers but also for all US companies hit by the outsourcing wave. Also this is a long standing question which the US govt needs to address. At one end, the govt wants to keep the costs of the consumer goods low to make them available at cheaper prices to all sections of the society. It also wants to boost the consumer retail market by doing that.And at the other end, it has bigger challenges like rising unemployment and protests by American companies, which it has to face. This trend might have started from the time the Japanese auto manufacturers entered the US markets in eighties. But it seems to have peaked now with Chinese companies showing their presence in almost all types of manufactured retail goods and Indian companies in the services sector. It seems to be a question of balance which the US govt may want to strike, but doesn't seem to have given much of a serious thought till now. Lets assume that the US govt stops outsourcing completely. In that case,wouldn't the American consumer complain about high prices for something which is locally manufactured. And with the ongoing offshoring wave rising high, what happens to the non graduated people of America who are losing their jobs steadily because such (sometimes non intellectual) jobs are getting offshored to India and China. How will the govt strike this balance ? Or maybe a more pertinent question is, will the govt want to strike it at all ?
Here I am ..back again
Its been so long since I have written on this space. The last time I had posted something was after Devaki and I returned from a memorable Shimla & Manali trip in Oct 2006. And that was my first post to this blog space. So its a different question altogether how long I have written in the past. Not so long really ! So anyways here I am back to writing on this space and putting in my thoughts.
So what has really happened which has prompted me to take such an unusual step i.e. writing to the blog ? Nothing really out of the world. Just that I made up my mind to improve my writing skills and give a direction to my thoughts by putting them on paper...oops I meant this blog.
So welcome back to myself in writing more, more and more and happy blogging ! ! Any of my readers comments will be highly appreciated. Be it good or bad, most welcome. These will be truly a source of inspiration to write more..and blog more...So please even if you have nothing to say, just say one word or two..Even few words like "I read your blog. And it was so hopeless. Will do." :-) Hope to see some of them.
So what has really happened which has prompted me to take such an unusual step i.e. writing to the blog ? Nothing really out of the world. Just that I made up my mind to improve my writing skills and give a direction to my thoughts by putting them on paper...oops I meant this blog.
So welcome back to myself in writing more, more and more and happy blogging ! ! Any of my readers comments will be highly appreciated. Be it good or bad, most welcome. These will be truly a source of inspiration to write more..and blog more...So please even if you have nothing to say, just say one word or two..Even few words like "I read your blog. And it was so hopeless. Will do." :-) Hope to see some of them.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)