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Showing posts from January, 2012

Importance of smiling

Ron Gutman in a beautiful talk at TED a conference highlights the importance of smiling citing research. In a few bullet points he studies the importance of smiling and it's impact on our well being It has been shown that those who smile more live longer Smiling induces hormones in the brain that reduces the amount of stress enhancing hormones Smile + Frown = Smile. If you are smiling, it is difficult for people to frown at you. Smiling is actually contagious Smile makes you look more competent in the eyes of people Smile induces activity in your body that correlates with healthier amount of blood pressure.  I'd recommend you to watch this 7 minute talk on YouTube.

SOPA, PIPA and impact on Emerging countries

The debate about SOPA & PIPA has oscillated between a pro-piracy/anti-piracy debate and a pro-censorship/anti-censorship debate, with the media companies choosing the former battle ground and the tech companies opting for the latter. Although it is not merely a propaganda war there is much at stake including the impact of emerging online activism in countries where internet is beginning to spread. The present Indian government has been in the habit of censoring public voice especially since the voice of public did not go down too well with it's governance mechanisms that included high a degree of corruption. These are a few thoughts I had about SOPA & PIPA with respect to emerging economies. 1. Correlation with Speech Censorship tools SOPA,PIPA use the same tools for censorship used by countries like China, known for violating human rights to suppress speech 2. Impact on Internet Transparency in Emerging Economies India, which seems to be a successful democracy rank...

Ethics: A trivial concept or the hidden dragon?

The issue of ethics never came to mind before I heard a batch-mate of my management class opine about the new course on ethics floated in our B-school. The incident happened over a cup of tea near the tea-stall, an uncontested hangout place in our campus. His opinion belittled the course, terming it trivial and unnecessary although useful in easily fulfillment of credit requirements for the MBA. This opinion was shared by others who had enrolled for the course. I really don’t know whether this sentiment was shared by most MBA grads or was it an isolated case. The quality of faculty taking the course is unquestionably brilliant. This opinion may be due to two following disjoint reasons. 1. Either the moral values imparted by the family system was so great that ethical issues were ingrained into the DNA 2. Or, Unethical behavior was acceptable, an undeniable aspect of doing business. I may not be able to understand both but recent events such as the case of Rajat Gupta, A Harvard A...