Loud Thinking

Archive for 2013

A real statesman like statement by the Indian National Security Advisor

Not talking to Pakistan hasn’t changed behaviour of our enemies: Menon

By Web DeskPublished: October 16, 2013

As talks between Pakistan and India remain suspended, Indian National Security Adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon critiqued his country’s policy of not talking to its Western neighbour, saying it has not changed the attitude of India’s enemies, Times of India reported on Wednesday.
“Our Pakistan policy still faces the dilemmas that Patel’s generation faced: of how to prevent the enemies of India from having their way. Patel’s answer was clear, as you saw from his Amritsar speech: fight your enemies at a time and place of your choosing but do not make innocents, the people, (or refugees in that specific case), victims of your policy.”
Menon’s statement, referring to Sardar Vallabhai Patel, was in response to Indian External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid’s comments over the weekend. Khurshid had said that there was no dialogue with Pakistan at the moment.
Menon further criticised some former diplomats who had urged prime minister Manmohan Singh not to meet with Nawaz Sharif in New York.
“When 40 self-styled experts and some political groups say do not talk to Pakistan until ideal conditions exist and all terrorism stops it betrays a lack of self-confidence. That is precisely what the terrorists and their sponsors in the Pakistani establishment want, for us not to talk to those in Pakistan who might differ from them.”
India’s NSA added that using the avenue of talks to punish Pakistan, has not yielded the desired results.
“Not talking does not change the behaviour of our enemies. In fact it hands them a success that only encourages them. At the very least talking to the saner elements in Pakistan could encourage them to stand for the right policies and could create confusion among our enemies,” he added.
Talking about Patel, Menon said Indians should build their internal strength to be able to deal with the world more ably.
“That was his [Sardar Vallabhai Patel] core message, which it was from strength that one had to negotiate, not just talk, about the issues. But at the same time, as his own example shows, he did not wait for ideal situations and conditions in order to engage.”

An Excerpt from Own Your Dreams by John C. Maxwell

If you are unsure of what your dream might be—either because you are afraid to dream or because you somehow lost your dream along the way—then start preparing yourself to receive your dream by doing five things to put yourself in the best possible position to receive a dream.

Once you do these five things, focus on discovering your dream. As you do, keep this in mind: ‘A dream is what you desire if anything and everything is possible.’

1. Mental Preparation: Read and study in areas of your greatest interest.
2. Experiential Preparation: Engage in activities in areas related to your interests.
3. Visual Preparation: Put up pictures of people and things that inspire you.
4. Hero Preparation: Read about and try to meet people you admire and who inspire you.
5. Physical preparation: Get your body in optimal shape to pursue your dream.

Don’t Put Off Tough Decisions

When it comes to organizational change, making big decisions is cognitively and emotionally taxing. But when team leaders fail to decide which old directions need to be sacrificed in service of the new direction, the tradeoff doesn’t magically disappear – it simply slides down the ladder. Trickle-down tradeoffs create two major problems for change efforts:
Team misalignment: When a team leader avoids the discomfort of deciding priorities, each team member has to decide what her priorities are – and it’s highly unlikely that everyone will independently arrive at the same conclusions.
Poor judgment: Making tradeoffs depletes our overall mental capacity. When your team has to spend a long morning making the tradeoffs that leaders haven’t, it easily leads to long afternoons of making poor choices for their customers, their workloads, and their budgets.

Adapted by HBR from “To Move Ahead You Have to Know What to Leave Behind,” by Nick Tasler.

Now the 1st cricket Test match between Pakistan and South Africa, currently being played at Dubai, is just an affair of 6 balls.

Al-Hamd-o-Lill-Allah, at the end of the 3rd days play of the 1st Test match, between Pakistan (6th ranked) and the world number one ranked team South Africa, Pakistani team has a vice like grip over the match.

There are bright chances that the match may end in Pakistan’s favour, even on the 4th day Tomorrow.

“Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another check-out line.”

— Ann Landers

Opportunity is a chance to do something for someone.

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”

Lao Tzu (600-531);
philosopher

A Bonanza News for the NAB in Pakistan…!

Switzerland to automatically share tax information with India, others

A TOI news.

GENEVA/NEW DELHI: In a major boost for India and other countries seeking details on suspected black money stashed in Swiss banks, Switzerland on Tuesday agreed to automatic exchange of information and mutual administrative assistance in tax matters with overseas authorities.

The development, which virtually pulls down the famed secrecy wall surrounding Swiss banks, would lead to Switzerland providing all forms of mutual assistance – exchange on request, spontaneous information sharing, tax examinations abroad, and assistance in tax collection.

Switzerland has been facing intense global pressure to cooperate with overseas authorities to share information about accounts in its Swiss banks, which have long been known to be misused by entities from across the world, including from India, for evading taxes in their local jurisdictions.

Buckling under the international pressure, Switzerland signed OECD’s Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

The convention, which has now been signed by 58 countries, including India, provides for sharing of information and mutual cooperation among all its signatories.

Paris-based OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), is an international policy-advisory body that has formulates global tax standards to fight tax evasion and concealment of illicit funds.

According to latest official figures released by Swiss National Bank, total funds held by Indians in Swiss banks fell to a record low level of about Rs 9,000 crore (1.42 billion Swiss francs) at the end of 2012, from about Rs 14,000 crore (2.18 billion Swiss francs) a year ago.

The overall funds held in Swiss banks by entities from across the world also fell from USD 1.65 trillion to $1.5 trillion during 2012.

Announcing Switzerland’s signature to its multilateral convention, OECD said it provides the option to undertake automatic exchange while requiring an agreement between the parties interested in this form of assistance.

“With the support of the G20, automatic exchange is becoming the new international standard, and Switzerland adheres to an instrument that will allow it, in due time, to join the jurisdictions that will decide to exchange financial information automatically,” it added.

The signing comes after the Swiss Federal Council, the highest policy making authority of the country, approved this Convention on October 9, 2013.

OECD secretary general Angel Gurria said Switzerland’s adherence to the Convention will help the country resolve the issues identified in its Peer Review by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information.

The review that found deficiencies in Switzerland’s mechanism to deal with global requests for tax information.

Switzerland’s ambassador to the OECD Stefan Fluckiger said: “Switzerland has been committed to complying with international standards in tax matters since March 2009.”

“The signing of the Convention confirms Switzerland’s commitment to the global fight against tax fraud and tax evasion with a view to safeguarding the integrity and reputation of the country’s financial centre,” he said.

The signatories to the convention also include Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, UK and the US.

The jurisdictions covered by the convention through territorial extension include Sint Marteen, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos.

The sharp decline in Indian money in Swiss banks during 2012 followed a significant increase in the previous year, when such funds had risen for the first time in five years.

In a White Paper on black money tabled in the Parliament last year, the government said that total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indians have been coming down since 2006 and fell by more than Rs 14,000 crore during 2006-2010 period.

Consider Past Business Cases Before Preparing Your Own

To get buy-in from stakeholders on your business case, you need to tell a compelling story in a way they’ll understand. To create a winning presentation, find out what past presenters have done. This will give you ideas and a sense of what stakeholders may expect. Reach out to co-workers who have recently developed business cases and ask to see their documents. Get at least three or four cases that were approved so you can identify similarities. Did your colleagues use PowerPoint or Word? How did they describe the business need? What kind of data did they include? Get your hands on a few rejected cases, if you can, to see what their project leads did differently. Did they fail to address risk? Were their documents too long, or not substantial enough? You’ll learn a lot about what not to do.

Adapted by HBR from the HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case eBook + Tools.