Think and take ACTION

How long we should wait for red to turn into green, why are we not standing up all together to fight with this situation.

Topic : Transport
Subject: How can we improve this!!!
Tag Line:WE MUST FIGHT FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT. NEVER SHY AWAY FROM IT
Solution: Use bus as a solution to traffic

BMTC has just 5000 buses, and carries 37 lakh people every day.
Bangalore's 32 lakh cars and two-wheelers carry 32 lakh people.
By G V Dasarathi
14 Sep 2009,
(Read again !!!!)

During commute time in Bangalore when people are traveling to their offices, how many people do you see:
1. In a car?
2. On a motor bike?
3. In a bus?

Answer : 1 in a car, 1 on a bike, 75 in a bus.


Here’s a small transportation engineering exercise.
If you count the number of vehicles on the flyover in the picture below, you’ll find that they add up to 150. Assuming the people in these vehicles are all going to or from work, each of the vehicles is carrying 1 person.


That means there are 150 people between the two red lines.

Lets now divide these 150 vehicles into two groups of 75 vehicles each.


If each of these groups of people decide to travel by bus instead of in their cars and two-wheelers, this is what happens (remember, we already decided that the average bus carries 75 people during rush hour).


The congestion magically disappears !
This is no magic. It is proven every day on Bangalore's roads by BMTC.
BMTC has just 5000 buses, and carries 37 Lakh people every day.
Bangalore's 32 lakh cars and two-wheelers carry 32 lakh people.

This means that 0.15 per cent of the vehicle population is carrying 50 per cent of the human population.

To carry a person 1 km, a bus:
1. Uses 1/30th the space of a car, and 1/20th the space of a two-wheeler.
2. Emits 1/6th the pollution of a car, and 1/10th that of a two-wheeler
3. Uses 1/15th the quantity of fuel of a car, and 1/3rd that of a two-wheeler

With extensive use of buses this is what can be achieved in Bangalore:
1. Number of vehicles reduced to 1/10th
2. Air pollution 1/6th of what it is now.
3. Traffic density 1/10th of what it is now.
4. Commute time reduced by 1/2
5. Commuting cost reduced to 1/5th.
6. Accidents reduced dramatically.
7. The money that the government spends on road infrastructure will be available for improving water, power, education, medicare and housing.

We don't have to travel uncomfortably, 75 people in a bus. We can have multiple classes of buses, like BMTC already has.

So where is the problem ? Why can't we do this?

Let's hear it from someone who solved the problem in Bogotá, Colombia, which has the same population as Bangalore, in an area twice the size, and had a similar traffic problem.

When Enrique Peñalosa became mayor of Bogotá in 1998, he asked a question that is changing the way people all over the world think about cities: “In Bogotá, where 85 percent of the people do not use cars for their daily transport, is it fair that cars occupy most of the space on the streets?

The city built 70 miles of bicycle routes and closed several streets to cars and converting them into pedestrian malls. Car use was restricted during rush hour, each car banned from the downtown area two days a week, based on the license plate number. The results were dramatic: the average commute time dropped by 21 minutes, and pollution was reduced significantly.

The city had been debating a multi-billion dollar train subway system for decades, but Peñalosa decided to build a rapid transit bus system (BRT) that was far cheaper.

In the words of Peñalosa, who says he succeeded because he focused on improving the lot of people, not their cars. “All over the developing world, resources are used to help the affluent avoid traffic jams rather than mobilizing the entire population,”

People ask him why this is not done everywhere, if it is so simple and inexpensive. “I tell them the only issue is a political one. They don’t want to take space from cars and give it to buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians,”

After Peñalosa showed the way, scores of cities the world over have switched to bus systems.

Think and act wisely !!!

Mentors and Mentees

A teacher /or and a student / mentor begin their journey as strangers. But the lessons learnt out of this relationship go beyond just the level of the textbook or business manual, for both involved. After all, learning is a two way process. As we celebrate Teacher’s Day on September 5th, let’s meet a few India Inc, mentors / mentees as they share their learnings derived out of their experience of donning both hats at some point of time in their careers.

Mr.X’s favorite mentors were E A K Faizullabhoy and R K Krishnamurthi; they were his first employers as well. As a mentee, X learnt from that organizations and teams are built on faith and trust. A true balance of trust, human understanding and symbiotic working between different hierarchies in a team is the fundamental premise for successful teams. In one instance, where X had taken a decision to advise a client without their authorization, which turned out to, be a wrong one, they professionally handled the wrong advise, corrected the damage done and ensured that they trained X on similar factual situations. More importantly, they took time out to equip X for similar situations in the future, while discussing the reasons and facts which were wrongly applied by X. X always believed the greatest virtue of a mentor is not only to be superior in knowledge, but also display patience to enable learning and wisdom.

X is now presently mentoring one person in his organization with a view to create a successful career on one hand and to sow the seeds of mentoring on the other. The greatest of the challenges in mentoring is the resistance to change and willingness to unlearn certain preconceived positions of understanding and decision making. Also X is not sure how and when the mentor takes over from being a mere superior in terms of administrative hierarchy.

Now take the case of Y, his mentor was Naren M P executive director of Vaspar Concepts Pvt Ltd. Naren always kept saying that people feel like they have too much to do and not enough time and lack of time is blamed for everything from not getting enough exercise, unachieved goals, bad relationships and so on. Through him, Y learnt ways to compartmentalize time and work and even honed the art of multi tasking.

As a mentor, Y is mentoring three people. In the process of mentoring, Y developed an ability to absorb their experiences which they have acquired through their course of life. Y learnt that every person’s problem is a case study by itself, through them you can enrich your learning.

Now take the case of Z and his mentor was his boss, Kiran Bali. When Z was with GE during 2001-04 it was the time Z transformed his career from technology to leadership. Z’s mentor demonstrated good mentoring skills in shaping me up as a good leader and to see the clear difference in technical leadership. Mentor taught me ways to handle people, give feedback, maintain work life balance in a very demanding job that we are in. To narrate an incident, Z was aggressive by nature and demanded the deadlines from teammates when Z started his career as a project lead. One of the incidents triggered conflict between Z’s colleague and Z, and as Z was the lead, Z stressed the need and asked him to stretch instead of motivating him to do so. Z’s teammate completed the job on time as required but he escalated the issue to Z’s boss. That’s where he stepped in and helped Z learn ways to handle high pressure situations, while still respecting people.

Z is mentoring five people in his current job. Understanding their view is sometimes difficult for which Z needs to step into their shoes to understand the problem before guiding them to the right pointers. Also, mentors gain from a mentee’s experience. Hence, look out for opportunities for improvement on both sides, both mentee and mentor.

M’s best mentor has been his current boss SJ – COO. A few learning sessions M derived from her are: (1) once performance levels of people are established, don’t delay telling people where they stand. In case performance isn’t meeting expectations, they may need you to ensure they know that (2) establish a relationship with people beyond what they do at work and remember the small things about them and (3) the devil is in the detail.

At the moment, M directly would be mentoring four people. M thinks the strongest lesson he has learnt is that you have to let people go and make their own mistakes. Don’t give solutions as much as ask questions that help them to take the decision for themselves.

Extra education is always beneficial

Since management is an amorphous field where you can have an immediate impact on the operations of any business and all organizations use Management methodologies it can always stand you in good stead. Techniques that are focused on these courses are problem solving and maximizing knowledge pools. The importance of doing this from an institute shows up in the varied interactions that a correspondence course cannot provide. The latter typically has a much lower resume and market value.

Any kind of extra education is always beneficial and your future prospects also increase. I have done my Bachelor’s degree in advertising and my job profile is also marketing, so doing my MBA in marketing gives an extra edge to my career and helps me in my internal growth with salary hikes and good positions in the office. I think doing relevant courses in your own profession will be very useful. The MBA degree on my CV will give an extra edge over others. I am able to manage my job and course perfectly as my classes are on Saturday and Sunday.

The Executive MBA programs help because of the typical nature of the people doing it—all professional, who are from different streams, with the common objective of learning and sharing experience to the fullest. This creates an intensely challenging and informative learning environment. Usually, faculty of such programmes is drawn from senior management with thorough industry experience. These programmes have smaller and more personalized classes as it is considered a more interactive curriculum. An accelerated timetable does not mean that any facet of the programme will be glossed over – it is merely that as all are with work experience, it is that much simpler to get concepts across. There is a huge emphasis on case studies and overall learning.

This kind of skill enhancement program should be viewed as a long term investment which will pay rich dividends when the next opportunity presents itself. A very big difference is in the way immediate peers and seniors perceive any professional who is willing to forgo weekends or evenings and put in the kind of hard work that is a requirement of such programs. It will always be a tangible plus. Also in the matter of learning, it will open the trainee’s mind to concepts and strategies that will help in later life – both professional and personal! The cost of the programs varies but it cannot be quantified. Opportunities for professionals once they broaden the skills do definitely increase, especially for a world economy suffering from recession; an investment in further study will be an asset for the future.

1) Training in management equips a professional with overall skills that are evident to seniors.
2) Sharpening existing skills and introducing new concepts is what an executive MBA program will do for people in the field
3) Techniques that are focused on these courses are actual case studies and maximizing pools.

Weekends can be the most productive days of the week for executives who want to forge ahead in their careers with the help of Executive MBA programs.

Executive Masters progarmmes at ITM Executive Education Center

1) 16 month Executive Masters porgramme in Business Administration
2) 24 month Masters program in Business Administration (with specialization).

Part time MBA programs have been around for generations, and have proven very popular amongst working executives. Many management institutions in Mumbai offer part time programmes of Mumbai University. These programs are usually of three years’ duration, with a course schedule attending classes on weekend evenings after work hours.

Modern Life savers

It’s the dream of almost every parent to see their child as a doctor; and today, students can see why. As India’s population urges, there’s a huge leap in the number of people afflicted with chronic and acute diseases and / or in need of emergency care. Health issues that come with longer life spans also multiply. No wonder then that qualified health professionals are in great demand.

The recently formed Global Alliances for Chronic Diseases, in its inaugural summit in New Delhi, declared that heart diseases, chronic respiratory conditions, cancer, and diabetes are the four biggest killers leading to loss of life (388 million people) and loss of foregone national income (India, China and the UK are set to lose $ 558 billion and $ 33 billion respectively) all over the next ten years.

Heart of the matter:

Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery>>

Heart ailments claim the maximum number of lives in India and across the world. In fact, according to a report by an international group, by 2010, 60 per cent of heart diseases patients will be from India. It doesn’t end here. Studies have proved that a genetic mutation affecting four per cent of Indians and one per cent of people worldwide is responsible for the creation of a protein that almost certainly guarantees heart ailments. Add to that the growing number of young professionals who love fast food and have little time for physical activity and you’ll begin to see why health experts believe we’re sitting on a time bomb.

Cardiologists and cardiac surgeons work to prevent, diagnose and treat heart diseases. Cardiologists are physicians who use non-operative measures to treat diseases. Cardiology can be categorized into two broad subsets: Invasive cardiology. Non-invasive cardiology is suitable for those who prefer fixed working hours, because this field primarily deals with non-emergency, elective procedures like echo cardiograms, treadmill testing, 24 hour ambulatory hotter monitoring for blood pressure recording and EECP.

However, if you’re considering a career in invasive cardiology be prepared for extremely demanding work hours. Cardiologists work 12 to 14 hours per day, and it is not uncommon to have to attend to patient in the middle of the night. Cardiology comprises methods like angioplasty/angiography which imply minimally invasive vascular intervention. Other cardio specialties include electrophysiology (electrical properties of biological cells in the heart), pediatric cardiology and adult pediatric cardiology (adults who were treated for heart problems as children).

Not to be confused with cardiologists cardiac surgeons are trained in a surgical specialty and perform surgical procedures on the heart or its blood vessels in the case of heart transplants, or to treat congenital, valvular or ischemic heart diseases. The life of a cardiac surgeon is even more demanding than that of a cardiologists clocking between 16 to 18 hours. Unless an individual is completely committed, he shouldn’t get into cardiac surgery. It takes a minimum of eight to 10 years to become a surgeon. However, while the monetary gains may be better in other fields like ophthalmology and orthopaedics, this is one branch where satisfaction is immense. You are treating a dying patient, and five days later, he is leaving the hospital, on the road to recovery.

After completion of the 5.5 year MBBS (inclusive of one year compulsory internship) a student must decide whether to pursue an MD in Internal medicine (to pursue cardiology later) or MS in General Surgery (to pursue cardiac surgery later) Both these courses are of three years duration, and are followed by a DM in Cardiology or an MCh in cardiac Surgery, of three years respectively.