Friday, September 6, 2013

clippings-for-you: Global survey paints dismal picture of corruption ...

clippings-for-you: Global survey paints dismal picture of corruption ...: Global survey paints dismal picture of corruption in India ...

Global survey paints dismal picture of corruption in India

Data from the latest Transparency International report throws up few surprises as far as India is concerned.

or run by the government.)

And not surprisingly, the majority in India did not think the government was effectively fighting corruption - 26 per cent felt it was least effective and 42 per cent ineffective. The percentage of those who 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that ordinary people could make a difference in the fight against corruption was 55.

The survey covered 1,14,000 people in 107 countries. Globally, 27 per cent of respondents reported having paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions during the last 12 months.

The report has come out with these recommendations to globally combat corruption: make integrity and trust the founding principles of public institutions and services; bring back the rule of law; hold the corrupt to account; clean-up democratic processes and give people the tools and protection to fight against corruption.

T. RAMACHANDRAN Appeared in “The Hindu”

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

clippings-for-you: "LEAN IN" BY SHERYL SANDBERG

clippings-for-you: "LEAN IN" BY SHERYL SANDBERG: AN EXCELLENT BOOK BY SHERYL SANDBERG ... COO .. OF FACEBOOK.. A REVIEW A MUST READ BY BOTH WOMEN AND MEN Women, Work, a...

"LEAN IN" BY SHERYL SANDBERG

AN EXCELLENT BOOK BY SHERYL SANDBERG ...

COO .. OF FACEBOOK..

A REVIEW

A MUST READ BY BOTH WOMEN AND MEN

Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

By Sheryl Sandberg

It’s a lesson that comes through loud and clear in Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” Her point, in a nutshell, is that notwithstanding the many gender biases that still operate all over the workplace, excuses and justifications won’t get women anywhere. Instead, believe in yourself, give it your all, “lean in” and “don’t leave before you leave” — which is to say, don’t doubt your ability to combine work and family and thus edge yourself out of plum assignments before you even have a baby. Leaning in can promote a virtuous circle: you assume you can juggle work and family, you step forward, you succeed professionally, and then you’re in a better position to ask for what you need and to make changes that could benefit others.

No one who reads this book will ever doubt that Sandberg herself has the will to lead, not to mention the requisite commitment, intelligence and ferocious work ethic. Sandberg has been the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008. At 43, she has already had a storied career: research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank; management consultant at McKinsey; chief of staff to Summers at the Treasury Department; and six and a half years at Google, where she rose to the post of vice president of global online sales and operations. She has also made it to the top of the notoriously male-dominated world of Silicon Valley, where the paucity of women among the ranks of computer scientists and engineers is still all too visible.

Sandberg is not just tough, however. She also comes across as compassionate, funny, honest and likable. Indeed, although she refers early on in the book to a study showing that for men success and likability are positively correlated, whereas for women they are inversely correlated, she manages to beat that bum rap. (Who can forget when Barack Obama, in one of his few slips on the 2008 campaign trail, said patronizingly to his chief rival: “You’re likable enough, Hillary”?) Sandberg’s advice to young women to be more ambitious, which can sound like a finger-wagging admonishment when taken out of context, is framed here in more encouraging terms — “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” — addressing the self-doubt that still holds many women back.

Most important, Sandberg is willing to draw the curtain aside on her own insecurities. She describes the many times in her career when she was deeply unsure of herself, and the uncertainty that has never entirely gone away:

“I still face situations that I fear are beyond my capabilities. I still have days when I feel like a fraud. And I still sometimes find myself spoken over and discounted while men sitting next to me are not. But now I know how to take a deep breath and keep my hand up. I have learned to sit at the table.”

Sandberg quotes other powerful women sharing their own insecurities, including a wonderful anecdote from Virginia Rometty, the first female chief executive officer of I.B.M. As Sandberg tells the story, Rometty was offered a “big job” early in her career, but she worried she might not have the proper experience. So she told the recruiter she would have to think it over. When she discussed the offer with her husband, he pointed out, “Do you think a man would ever have answered that question that way?” It all comes down to confidence, Sandberg suggests, and it is easier to be confident if you realize that your role models have plenty of doubts of their own.

Sandberg’s career as a feminist champion began with her 2010 TED talk, in which she first laid out her lean-in message. She followed up with a commencement address to the Barnard class of 2011. Both went viral. “Lean In” builds on the themes of these earlier talks, bolstered by extensive references to scholarly works and popular literature. She advises women to “make your partner a real partner,” recalling how she and her husband set patterns early on in their relationship that made them genuine equals when it came to child care. Her phrase “It’s a jungle gym, not a ladder” describes the many different paths careers can take, sideways and even downward on their way up. She also shares Eric Schmidt’s advice to her when she was considering a job offer at Google, which was a less attractive option than others she had at the time: “Only one criterion mattered when picking a job — fast growth.” Sandberg connects this to the value of personal growth, even when, or especially when, you are afraid.

“Lean In” is full of many such gems, slogans that ambitious women would do well to pin up on their wall. Figure out what you want to do before you meet with the people who can hire you. Ask yourself constantly: “How can I do better? What am I doing that I don’t know? What am I not doing that I don’t see?” “Done is better than perfect.” And many readers will enjoy the glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous that Sandberg affords. Head lice are an all-too-frequent and upsetting part of parenting, but when Sandberg discovered her two children had them, they were all flying to a business conference on the corporate jet of John Donahoe, the C.E.O. of eBay.

Inevitable questions of privilege aside, many parents will think, as I did, that this is a young woman’s book. Indeed, I nodded in recognition at so much of what Sandberg recounts, page after page, remembering my own early professional experiences and looking back to the days when my children were 5 and 3 (the age when they complain that they don’t see enough of you, rather than wanting you to get out of their face). This is also the book of someone who has never met a challenge she couldn’t surmount by working harder and believing in herself. But for the 229 missing female Fortune 500 leaders, as well as the hundreds of thousands of women who should be occupying lower-level leadership positions but aren’t, the problem is not leaning back but encountering a tipping point, a situation in which what was once a manageable and enjoyable work-family balance can no longer be sustained — regardless of ambition, confidence or even an equal partner. Sandberg is right to say that it is easier to handle work-family conflicts from as high a position on the career ladder as possible, but if in fact it’s the tipping points that tip women out of the work force, or at least prevent them from rising, then no amount of psychological coaching will make a difference.

That is the real debate here, and it’s an important one. Sandberg puts her finger on it when she writes: “For decades, we have focused on giving women the choice to work inside or outside the home. . . . But we have to ask ourselves if we have become so focused on supporting personal choices that we’re failing to encourage women to aspire to leadership.” This view accords with some of the findings of the Princeton Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership, which concluded in a March 2011 report that young women at Princeton often did not put themselves forward for leadership positions and were sometimes actively discouraged by others when they did. The Princeton committee also found that “the start counts,” meaning that the first few weeks on campus are crucial for women: an early willingness to step forward as a leader will lay the groundwork for future opportunities.

Still, after the start comes a very long road, with lots of bumps and what the law professor Joan Williams calls “the maternal wall” smack in the middle of it. Sandberg’s approach, as important as it is, is at best half a loaf. Moreover, given her positions first at Google and now at Facebook, it is hard not to notice that her narrative is what corporate America wants to hear. For both the women who have made it and the men who work with them, it is cheaper and more comfortable to believe that what they need to do is simply urge younger women to be more like them, to think differently and negotiate more effectively, rather than make major changes in the way their companies work. Young women might be much more willing to lean in if they saw better models and possibilities of fitting work and life together: ways of slowing down for a while but still staying on a long-term promotion track; of getting work done on their own time rather than according to a fixed schedule; of being affirmed daily in their roles both as parents and as professionals.

Some workplaces are beginning to make these changes. The Boston Consulting Group, for instance, has discovered the value of predictable time off every week, which leads team members to work much more collaboratively in ways that support one another’s needs. As documented in “Sleeping With Your Smartphone,” by the Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow, this approach has required a deep cultural change for consultants used to a 24/7 environment, as well as a commitment from management. But the business benefits have proved their financial and psychological worth. Other examples include the adoption of a Results Only Work Environment, which grants employees complete flexibility as to when, where and how they work, as long as they get their work done.

So is the dearth of women in top jobs due to a lack of ambition or a lack of support? Both, as Sandberg herself grants, proposing that women should “wage battles on both fronts.” Yet she chooses to concentrate only on the “internal obstacles,” the ways in which women hold themselves back. This is unfortunate. As a feminist and a corporate leader, Sandberg seems ideally placed to ask the question that all too often gets lost amid the welter of talk about what women should do, what they should want and how they should behave. When it comes to ensuring that caregivers still have paths to the corner office, how can business lean in?

This review was written by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton, was the director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011.

Friday, August 30, 2013

clippings-for-you: SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!...

clippings-for-you: SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!...: SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!! NEXT DESTINATION .. MARS ---------------------------------------------...

SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!!

SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!!

NEXT DESTINATION .. MARS

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As the deadline for registration nears, over 8,000 Indians have so far signed up for the one-way trip to Mars and settle down on the red planet, as 'Mars One' project is planning to establish a colony there in the next 10 years.

'Mars One', a not-for-profit foundation intends to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 and is registering those interested to make it up there. India stands fourth among other countries of the world with 8,107 applicants, as on August 27.

The top 10 countries to enrol are the USA (37,852), China (13,124), Brazil (8,686), India (8,107), Russia (7,138), Britain (6,999), Mexico (6,771), Canada (6,593), Spain (3,621) and Philippines (3,516) as on August 22, Aashima Dogra of 'Mars One' said.

With August 31 this year being the last date for registering, 'Mars One' has already received interest from more than 1,65,000 people hoping to be the first humans on Mars.

"The Mars One Application Program is turning out to be the most desired job vacancy in the world. People from over 140 countries are looking towards the final frontier and envisioning their life on another planet," she said.

Mars One believes that human settlement on the red planet was possible with existing technologies and it plans to integrate components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide.

"The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars," she said. DC

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life on Earth was kick-started thanks to a key mineral deposited by a meteorite from Mars, according to a novel theory aired on Thursday.

The vital ingredient was an oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, which helped prevent carbon molecules — the building blocks of life — from degrading into a tar-like goo. The idea comes from Steven Benner, a professor at the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida, who was to present it at an international conference of geochemists in Florence, Italy.

“It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidised that it is able to influence how early life formed,” Benner said in a press release.

“This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did.” In this violent epoch of the Solar System, the infant Earth was pounded by comets and asteroids.

Mars, too, would have come under bombardment, and the impacts would have caused Martian rubble to bounce into space, where they would have lingered until eventually being captured by Earth’s gravity.

“The evidence is building that we are actually all Martians, that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock. It’s lucky we ended up here as Earth is life sustaining” said Benner. .. DC

Thursday, August 29, 2013

clippings-for-you: Mr. RATAN TATA on leadership in INDIA

clippings-for-you: Mr. RATAN TATA on leadership in INDIA: Mr. RATAN TATA on leadership in INDIA Where have the leaders GONE .. Delhi: Former chairman of Tata Group Ratan Tat...

Mr. RATAN TATA on leadership in INDIA

Mr. RATAN TATA on leadership in INDIA

Where have the leaders GONE ..

Delhi: Former chairman of Tata Group Ratan Tata on Tuesday said that the leadership deficit in India is aggravating our economic crisis. Tata broke his silence in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN on the leadership deficit and economic crisis in the country.

Ratan Tata said that the country needed leaders who lead from the front and the Prime Minister's team and the political class needed to pull in one direction, and not pursue individual agendas above national interests.

"There are leaders whom I've respected all through my life for their public life. But something has happened that has diffused this leadership. We don't have leadership that we have been talking about, that is leading from the front," Tata said.

Meanwhile, he said that his respect for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to be very high.

"My aspirations what he is able to do is very high. Perhaps the team is not leading in one direction, it was pulling in different direction. States are pulling in one direction, allies are pulling in different direction and many heads of the portfolios in the government are pulling in different directions," he said.

"We are not consolidating ourselves in the government. We are not any longer looking ourselves as one India. In a way we are Punjabis, Bengalis, Tamils first and Indians second. It's not the way we should be looking at our country," he added.

He said that the vested interests in the governments's policy have either delayed or manipulated that policy often in private sector.

"So for one reason or the other the government has swayed with those forces. If the policies implemented as those are written, would be good for the country, he told to CNN-IBN.

Meanwhile, he said that Manmohan Singh has held country's esteem high but at recent times we have lost that esteem. "We have lost the confidence of the world. We have been slow to recognize that in the government," he added.

However, Ratan Tata praised Narendra Modi's leadership in Gujarat but refrained from commenting on his bigger role in the national politics.

"I think in Gujarat he has proven his leadership and he has moved Gujarat into a position of prominence. I'm not in a position to gaze what he would do in a country," he said. CNN-IBN

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Clippings-for-you

This is an inspiring story of an ambitious African boy who make a TED presentation.. which is a very prestigious thing .Watch this On TED .Watch any number of TED presentations and it can give you a lot of ideas to make powerful presentations

This will be the effect of an excellent presentation..the audience will be thrilled .You like it .. please read ahead to do it .. you ca do it...

How to Give a Killer Presentation

by Chris Anderson

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away.

From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

The story was inspiring and worthy of the broader audience that our TED conference could offer, but on the surface, Richard seemed an unlikely candidate to give a TED Talk. He was painfully shy. His English was halting. When he tried to describe his invention, the sentences tumbled out incoherently. And frankly, it was hard to imagine a preteenager standing on a stage in front of 1,400 people accustomed to hearing from polished speakers such as Bill Gates, Sir Ken Robinson, and Jill Bolte Taylor.

But Richard’s story was so compelling that we invited him to speak. In the months before the 2013 conference, we worked with him to frame his story—to find the right place to begin, and to develop a succinct and logical arc of events. On the back of his invention Richard had won a scholarship to one of Kenya’s best schools, and there he had the chance to practice the talk several times in front of a live audience.

It was critical that he build his confidence to the point where his personality could shine through. When he finally gave his talk at TED, in Long Beach, you could tell he was nervous, but that only made him more engaging—people were hanging on his every word. The confidence was there, and every time Richard smiled, the audience melted. When he finished, the response was instantaneous: a sustained standing ovation.

Since the first TED conference, 30 years ago, speakers have run the gamut from political figures, musicians, and TV personalities who are completely at ease before a crowd to lesser-known academics, scientists, and writers—some of whom feel deeply uncomfortable giving presentations.

Over the years, we’ve sought to develop a process for helping inexperienced presenters to frame, practice, and deliver talks that people enjoy watching. It typically begins six to nine months before the event, and involves cycles of devising (and revising) a script, repeated rehearsals, and plenty of fine-tuning. We’re continually tweaking our approach—because the art of public speaking is evolving in real time—but judging by public response, our basic regimen works well: Since we began putting TED Talks online, in 2006, they’ve been viewed more than one billion times.

On the basis of this experience, I’m convinced that giving a good talk is highly coachable. In a matter of hours, a speaker’s content and delivery can be transformed from muddled to mesmerizing. And while my team’s experience has focused on TED’s 18-minutes-or-shorter format, the lessons we’ve learned are surely useful to other presenters—whether it’s a CEO doing an IPO road show, a brand manager unveiling a new product, or a start-up pitching to VCs.

Frame Your Story

There’s no way you can give a good talk unless you have something worth talking about. Conceptualizing and framing what you want to say is the most vital part of preparation.

We all know that humans are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward.

If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject—and how much they care about it. If you assume they have more knowledge or interest than they do, or if you start using jargon or get too technical, you’ll lose them. The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too.

If you make a bad presentation ....you will see your audience like this .. you don't like it ..
so watch.. practice and deliver with confidence

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

APOLOGY

The Most Effective Ways to Make It Right When You Screw Up

by Heidi Grant Halvorso

After promising your boss you would complete an important assignment on time, you realize you're behind and it's going to be late. You unintentionally leave a colleague out of the loop on a joint project, causing him or her to feel frustrated and a bit betrayed. On the subway, you aren't paying attention and accidentally spill hot coffee all over a stranger's expensive suit. It's time for a mea culpa.

Apologies are tricky. Done right, they can resolve conflict, repair hurt feelings, foster forgiveness, and improve relationships. An apology can even keep you out of the courtroom. Despite the fact that lawyers often caution their clients to avoid apologies, fearing that they are tantamount to an admission of guilt, studies show that when potential plaintiffs receive an apology, they are more likely to settle out of court for less money.

However, as anyone can tell you, most apologies don't go so well. Ask John Galliano, for instance. Or John Edwards, or Todd Aiken, or Kanye West. (I could go on and on.) An apology is no guarantee that you'll find yourself out of hot water.

This is usually either because the person or persons from whom you are seeking forgiveness really aren't interested in forgiving, or because the transgression itself is deemed unforgivable. But more often than not, your apology falls flat because you're apologizing the wrong way.

In a nutshell, the problem is that most people tend to make their apologies about themselves—about their intentions, thoughts, and feelings.

"I didn't mean to..."

"I was trying to..."

"I didn't realize..."

"I had a good reason..."

When you screw up, the victim of your screw up does not want to hear about you. Therefore, stop talking about you and put the focus of your apology where it belongs: on him or her. Specifically, concentrate on how the victim has been affected by your mistake, on how the person is feeling, and on what he or she needs from you in order to move forward.

Thanks to recent research on effective apologies, you can fine-tune your approach even further according to your relationship with the recipient of the apology:

You Are A Stranger or Mere Acquaintance

The guy in the coffee-stained suit wants an offer of compensation. Offers of compensation are attempts to restore balance through some redeeming action. Sometimes the compensation is tangible, like paying to repair or replace your neighbor's fence when you inadvertently back your car into it, or running out to get your girlfriend a new phone when you accidentally drop hers into the toilet (which happened to me, by the way. Not cool.) Offers of compensation can also be more emotional or socially-supportive. (as in,"I'm sorry I acted like a jerk, and I'll make it up to you by being extra thoughtful from now on.")

You Are My Partner, Colleague, or Friend

The colleague you accidentally left out of the loop doesn't want compensation. When you have a relationship with the injured party, you will instead need to take his or her perspective and express empathy. Expressions of empathy involve recognizing and expressing concern over the suffering you caused. (e.g., "I'm so sorry that I didn't appreciate all of your effort. You must have felt awful, and that's the last thing I want.") Through expressions of empathy, the victim feels understood and valued as a partner in the relationship, and trust is restored.

You Let Our Team Down

In the modern workplace, we often operate as teams. So when you fail to meet an important deadline, chances are it's not just your boss that's affected—it's your whole team, and possibly your whole organization. In team settings, people don't want compensation or empathy—they want an acknowledgement of violated rules and norms. Basically, you need to admit that you broke the code of behavior of your social group, your organization, or your society. (e.g., "I have a responsibility to my team/organization/family/community and I should have known better. I didn't just let myself down, I let others who count on me down.")

When you think about it, it's surprising that we're often so bad at apologizing. After all, we are frequently on the receiving end of apologies ourselves—so we should know what works and what doesn't. In reality, we often forget what it's like to be on the other side—whether we're trying to apologize, impress, persuade, help, or motivate.

So when crafting your apology, remember to ask yourself the following: Who am I talking to, and what is he or she looking for in my apology? The guy on the subway still dripping from your morning joe doesn't want to hear that you "feel his pain"—but when you forget your wife's birthday, she most definitely would like you to feel hers.

"It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize."

--Walt Whitman

*Institutions/sectors*	*Percentage of people who think* *they are beset by corruption*
Political Parties	86
Police	75
Parliament/legislature	65
Public officials/civil servants	65
Education system	61
Medical and health	56
Business/private sector	50
Judiciary	45
Religious Bodies	44
Media	41
NGOs	30
Military	20

*Public service*	*Percentage of those* *who had paid a bribe*
Police	62
Registry and permit services	61
Land services	58
Utilities	48
Education	48
Tax revenue and/or Customs	41
Judiciary	36
Medical and health	34