Loud Thinking

Motivate Team Members with Individual Recognition

In team settings, recognizing individual contributions can be challenging. But because recognition is a powerful motivator, you need to find ways to give it. Start by getting to know each team member personally: ask about backgrounds, life outside of work, and career aspirations. Because helping people grow is a form of recognition, assign challenging tasks, and act as a coach. Try sending written acknowledgment, like a thank-you email with senior management copied. In team discussions, recognize behaviors that people should continue. Hold sessions focused on positive feedback and have everyone share what they appreciate about each team member, whether specific contributions or general strengths. Finally, share credit publicly. Have team members participate in presentations to clients or senior management.

Adapted by HBR from the HBR Guide to Leading Teams by Mary Shapiro.

Just for the publicity sake Nandipur Power Plant was forced to produce electricity at Rs.42/Unit for 5 days..!

Nandipur plant was operational only for five days

By Khaleeq Kiani
Published about 4 hours ago

NTDC officials said the decision to bring the plant online was made by the government.— File photo

ISLAMABAD: The much-hyped Nandipur Power Plant–inaugurated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on May 31 this year– generated electricity at the record cost of Rs42 per unit and was shut down after only five days of operation.

This was revealed by representatives of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) at a public hearing conducted by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra). The hearing approved an eight paisa per unit reduction in average tariff for Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) distribution companies for a month.

Opposition to move court on Nandipur project ‘corruption’

The hearing, presided over by Vice Chairman Nepra Habibullah Khilji, was also informed that the Nandipur Power Project had not yet officially or legally achieved its commercial operation date (COD). The first units of the plants to come online was run on diesel fuel for five days after its inauguration, but closed down for being too expensive. In these five days, the plant produced electricity at an average cost of Rs42 per unit.

NTDC officials said the decision to bring the plant online was made by the government: NTDC and Pepco had neither requested the operations, nor did they approve the pre-mature generation.

This is symptomatic of many of the energy projects the current government has commissioned recently: they jump the gun and rush into ribbon-cutting ceremonies of development and energy projects for publicity, instead of ensuring that the technical criteria and legal requirements have been fulfilled, a Nepra official told Dawn.

The inauguration of the Guddu Thermal Power Station and Uch-II; the ground breaking of a 1320MW coal-fired plant at Port Qasim by a consortium of Qatari and Chinese companies, put together by former Ehtesab Bureau chief Saifur Rehman are other examples, he said.

Prime Minister Sharif inaugurated the first 95MW plant of the controversial Nandipur Power Project on May 31. The project had been stalled under the PPP government amid allegations of graft, declared an “unforgivable sin” by the prime minister as the plant and related machinery remained stranded at the Karachi port for more than five years.

The project cost more than doubled to Rs57 billion (instead of Rs23 billion) and the nation suffered a loss of Rs165 billion, according to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who spearheaded the project’s revival.

The project will be able to generate 425MW on furnace oil, which can be upgraded to 525MW if natural gas is used as fuel.

However, the plant will take another five months or so to achieve commercial operation status.

Tariff reduction

Meanwhile, Nepra approved an eight paisa per unit decrease in the fuel-based power tariff for all consumers of ex-Wapda companies, except lifeline consumers who use less than 50 units per month.

The reduction, granted at the request of the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on behalf of all distribution companies, was made on account of automatic monthly fuel adjustment for actual consumption in June 2014. The reduced rates would be charged to consumers during upcoming billing month.

It was reported that Nepra had set a reference fuel cost of Rs7.51 for the month of June, but the actual fuel cost came to Rs7.44, hence requiring a reduction of 8 paisas per unit.

The Nepra also sought a report on claims made by various government functionaries about increase in the electricity generation when the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) reported a 13 per cent increase.

Member Nepra Haroonur Rashid wondered why loadshedding had increased despite an increase in power generation.

Responding to a question, he conceded that Nepra had not been able to extend any reasonable relief, but said the people should appreciate that it had not “over-burdened consumers”.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014

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For the first time Israel is having the taste of its own medicine..!

Hamas tactics exact high toll in Israeli ground thrust

By Reuters

Updated about 5 hours ago

A Palestinian youth bearing the banner in support of Hamas attends a pro-Hamas demonstration in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. -AFP Photo

GAZA: Using tunnels, mines, booby traps and snipers, Hamas fighters have inflicted record casualties on Israeli troops waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, applying years of training in urban warfare with a new tactical acumen and suicidal resolve.

The Israelis say weapons and know-how supplied by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah make Hamas a more formidable foe.

Four days after Israel launched a withering ground assault on the Palestinian militants in their stronghold of Shejaia following intensive air strikes, the army still does not have complete control of the area.

Smoke from shelled homes and the buzz of Israeli drones clog the sky above the wrecked district on Gaza’s eastern border.

The thud of a buried explosive aimed at a troop carrier is met with an hour-long rain of Israeli artillery fire that shakes the width of the coastal strip, sending the deafening sound bouncing off buildings as far as the shore.

Exploiting a vast network of secret tunnels to snipe at enemy troops and blast their vehicles even inside Israel, Hamas has killed 32 Israeli soldiers, almost three times as many as in the last major ground clashes in a 2008-9 conflict.

“The al-Qassam brigades continue to give repeated surprises, and every day the holy warriors arise from where the (Israeli) occupation could not foresee,” the group said last week.

“They fight… face to face with the enemy in retaliation for the blood of the martyrs that the occupier spills daily.” The action has lived up to the fierce rhetoric.

Hamas has far outstripped fellow militants in Islamic Jihad and other groups in sending drones, scuba commandos and tunnel raiders to take the fight into Israel.

In one such infiltration, Hamas fighters emerged wearing full Israeli uniform, but were let down by one key detail – they were carrying Kalashnikov rifles, not standard issue M16s or Tavor assault rifles.

In the most deadly incident for Israel yet, on the first day of its incursion to begin destroying the tunnels on Sunday, Hamas says its fighters watched as an enemy armoured personnel carrier lurched into a web of booby traps they had laid.

“Our holy warriors detonated the minefield with such force that (the carrier) was destroyed. They advanced on it, opened its doors and finished off all left inside,” the group said.

Israel offered a different account, saying the vehicle was part of a convoy and was hit my multiple anti-tank missiles.

Israel said six soldiers were killed, while another thought to have been in the vehicle is missing, believed dead. Hamas said it captured him but has not released his picture.

The Israeli military acknowledges Hamas’ increased skill.

“They have undergone extensive training, they are well supplied, well motivated and disciplined. We have met a more formidable enemy on the battlefield,” said Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner.

Israel says it has so far killed more than 200 Palestinian fighters.

“We are not surprised about it because we knew that they were preparing for this battle. They didn’t just invest in the tunnels for the last two or three years,” he added.

“Underground Gaza”
Speaking off the record, another army official said: “They have thrown everything at us. Missiles, ambushes, even (bomb-laden) donkeys and dogs. It’s proving a real challenge … We have to break their motivation, show them it is not worth it.

“We hope that if we break Shejaia, then that will show them our determination. That is a real command centre for them… What is remarkable is that in the past eight years they have basically built an underground Gaza. It’s astonishing,” he said.

Confined in the crowded sandy coast enclave of 1.8 million, where poverty and unemployment hover around 40 per cent, weary Gazans say they hope the battle will break the blockade that Israel and Egypt impose on them. They have very little to lose.

Hamas leaders hope to achieve that goal through the prowess of their men at the front, trained to inflict casualties and grab soldiers to gain political leverage.

Morale was high and Hamas fighters were preparing for a fight during a visit by Reuters in April to a training camp of its military wing on a vast sandy expanse in northern Gaza.

Kitted up in full Israeli battle gear, young cadets sat in classrooms taking notes on lessons in combat tactics.

They showed off manoeuvres where they simulated raining down mortars on mock-up tanks, on which two groups of fighters then pounced from nearby tunnels, with one combatant hoisting over his shoulder a limp volunteer posing as an Israeli soldier.

Not a huge loss
In addition to increasing the range and payload of more than 1,000 mostly homemade rockets it has hurled at Israel in two weeks, Hamas has stepped up its weapons procurement.

“Hamas leaders have tried to say through their statements that everything Israel’s been hit with so far was completely and purely Gaza-made. (But) Hamas did not deny benefiting from foreign imports,” said Gaza analyst Adnan Abu Amer.

The Islamist movement is unlikely to be deterred by the losses its has suffered at the hands of a stronger enemy.

“There are conflicting reports about Hamas’s losses in terms of fighters. Since Israel has claimed Hamas’s armed wing numbers 20,000 men, the martyrdom of 60 or 70 can not be described as a huge loss,” Abu Amer said.

Videos distributed by al-Qassam’s media arm appear to show the strength of the group’s arsenal.

“The demonstrated use of anti-tank guided missiles against small IDF units on foot, rather than against armoured vehicles, shows a clear intent to simply inflict casualties and a recognition of the (Israeli army’s) superior armour defence,” said Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Center in Doha told Reuters.

A senior Israeli intelligence official briefing foreign reporters on Wednesday said “radical axis” countries – Iran, Syria or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon – had provided Hamas with a new generation of ground weapons.

He cited the Russian-made cornet and the shoulder-fired RPG-29 which is “more of a rocket than a missile. You can use it in an urban area when you have to fight against very close forces. This is something you don’t make by yourself.”

Ceasefire?
In 22-days of fighting during a 2008-9 conflict, Hamas and other militant groups largely melted away, allowing Israeli tanks to approach the outskirts of Gaza City.

The militants killed just six soldiers then, and two more in an eight-day round of battle in 2012, which did not escalate into an Israeli ground incursion.

Israel’s Lerner cited outside aid for their new strength.

“(They were trained) by Iran. Mostly Iran. It is the school of Iran. It is the thought process of Iran. It is Iran with Hezbollah. It is the same type of tactics that we have seen.”

Israel’s loss of 12 soldiers on Sunday was the largest single-day toll since its forces pushed into South Lebanon in an attempt to dislodge Hezbollah militants there in 2006.

The Israeli intelligence officer said Syria, Iran and Hezbollah could have taught Hamas new tactics over the Internet.

Nobody from the Israeli side expected an easy push into Gaza, Israeli military affairs analyst Ehud Yaari told Reuters, but its stated aim of destroying the tunnels remains difficult.

“It’s very painful, but I don’t think anybody assumed that it could be a ‘no casualties’ operation … It seems they’ve been able to systematically uncover more and more tunnels, with the caveat that I’m not sure the Israelis are prepared to sustain the damage to uncover many more,” he said.

Subterranean warfare may be Hamas’s most potent innovation. After spending years and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars on building the network, Hamas may be keen to preserve some of its tunnels by stopping the fighting soon.

“They’re popping up more and more from underground to try and hit something in hopes that a ceasefire will be established as soon as possible,” Yaari said.

Abu Amer, the Gaza analyst, believes both sides are smarting and the military gains may encourage Hamas toward a ceasefire.

“Hamas realises that the time factor is painful for both sides. Hamas has made achievements and my guess that neither Hamas nor Israel are willing today to prolong the confrontation,” he said.

ARY News reports that a PIA 777 Boeing will travel EMPTY, from Karachi – Jaddah on 29th July, to bring the PM and his 35 members entourage to Lahore, after they have performed Umra (at personal expense), for which the nation must appreciate and thank the PM, for saving national wealth on his personal religious sojourn.

“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.”

—B.K.S. Iyengar (born 1918);
Founder Of Iyengar Yoga

Reclaim Your Time with a Time-Box System

Time boxing is a planning tool that’s a cross between a calendar and a to-do list. It lets you divide your schedule into increments (half-hour or hour-long chunks) that you can slot tasks into and monitor. To set it up:
Review your week. Take one day to plan for the week ahead. Inventory your deadlines, commitments, meetings, and so on.
Prioritize what’s on the list. Put deadline-sensitive tasks first, goal-oriented tasks second, and then schedule these around any recurring obligations.
Estimate time for tasks. Err on the side of caution when calculating how long each will take.
Enter series of time boxes into your calendar. Designate a task for each time slot (“8 AM to 9 AM: Return phone calls and emails”), and keep a log of how long it actually took you. Later, review whether you allocated enough time by seeing what you were and weren’t able to finish.

Adapted by HBR from Managing Time (20-Minute Manager).

An article of the century..!

A part-time leader.

By Zahid Hussain

Published about 5 hours ago

The writer is an author and journalist.

“The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.”

— André Maurois

UNFORTUNATELY, our third-time prime minister does not fit this criterion. While our troops are engaged in the most critical battle against militants and hundreds and thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in North Waziristan and are facing severe hardship, our leader is off to Saudi Arabia for his annual spiritual retreat for 10 days.

There cannot be any objection to his religious zeal. But as a leader he is also expected to focus on the job for which he has been elected. It is certainly no ordinary situation for a country in the midst of a conflict and looming humanitarian crisis.

Being away from the country for so long at this critical time and on a private trip illustrates how low governance is on his priority list. Should our leader not be dealing with the vital issues of national security at home rather than seeking his own salvation?

In any other country, a leader would have preferred to stay with one’s own people in times of tribulation. But this is not the case with Nawaz Sharif who is best described as a part-time leader with minimal interest in running the affairs of the state. Not surprisingly, the approval rating for his party has plummeted in a short period.

As a leader, the absent Nawaz Sharif is expected to focus on the job for which he was elected.
Surely, it is hard for any incumbent to maintain the same level of popular appeal that brings one to power. Yet the plunge in Nawaz Sharif’s approval ratings within the first year of his third term in office is astonishing even by Pakistani standards, if opinion polls are to be trusted.

Trailing far behind the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the party has now fallen behind even the PPP in public approval ratings. According to the latest Herald/SDPI opinion poll, only 17pc of respondents said they would vote for the PML-N if elections were held today compared to 33pc for the PTI and 19pc for the PPP which was routed in the last election.

Such a low popular standing does not come as a surprise given Sharif’s dismal performance and style of governance. His is more of a family limited company than a functional institutional democracy. All power is concentrated in the hands of a few members of the family. And now the ‘gifted’ daughter is being groomed as heir apparent. There is no party organisation and all decisions are made by Sharif alone. The exclusion of others has created serious misgivings among senior party members.

For once, Asif Ali Zardari was right when he said the people had voted for Sharif to be prime minister, not a monarch. And that monarchy is run from Lahore where Sharif mostly stays when not out of the country. The rest of the country does not seem to exist for him.

A frequently asked question is how different is the current Sharif government from the prime minister’s previous ones. The answer is simple: it is far worse. Sharif is more indecisive and as one political leader said “he has no fire in the belly”.

Yet there is no deficit of hubris of power. The Model Town carnage and police brutality is the hallmark of Sharif’s rule. The panicky reaction of the administration on the arrival of Tahirul Qadri is a manifestation of the increasing political alienation of the Sharif administration.

It has been a disappointing first year in power. There have been fewer examples of such a lacklustre leadership devoid of any foresight. His disdain for parliament is demonstrated by his rare appearances in the house in the past 14 months. Not surprisingly, parliament has been reduced to a dormant forum with little debate on substantive policy issues.

Sharif returned to power with a promise to take Pakistan to the path of economic revival and improved governance. But his vision of progress has been limited to metro buses and motorways. Certainly, his government has achieved short-term economic stability, but in the absence of fundamental structural reforms the long-term scenario does not look so encouraging.

The health of the economy is interpreted through the narrow prism of foreign exchange reserves and appreciation in the value of the rupee. It is scandalous the way the finance ministry apparently manipulated the economic growth rate to portray a positive picture of the economy. The distortion was exposed when the real figure was provided to the IMF.

A major reason for the erosion in the approval rating of the PML-N is the utter failure of the government to deal with the power crisis. There has not been any respite from load-shedding despite the government’s claim of substantial increase in power generation. The unresolved problem of circular debt is said to be the major reason for the widening shortfall in power supply. The government has done little to improve the working of the distribution companies or to collect outstanding bills.

After much dithering, Sharif has finally given the go-ahead for the military operation in North Waziristan. But he is still not willing to take complete ownership of the critical campaign. Even the responsibility for displaced persons has been handed over to the military. What is most alarming is the government’s decision to call in the army to guard important public installations in major cities. There is also a plan to give wider power to the armed forces under Section 245 of the Constitution. It is tantamount to a complete abdication of the civilian government’s responsibility.

Getting the army involved in maintaining law and order in the cities can mean a gradual military take­over. It is almost a repeat of 1998 when the Sharif government used the troops for everything starting with electricity meter readings. It is apparent that no lessons have been learnt from the past. A part-time leadership cannot deal with the grave situation confronted by the country.

The writer is an author and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

Twitter: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2014

India is NOT a secular but a HINDU state.

Pakistan and all OIC members must take up at all world forums to declare Shiv Sena as a terrorist organisation and impose a world wide ban on this organisation.

New Delhi: Shiv Sena MPs ‘force’ Muslim worker to break fast

Last Updated On 23 July,2014 About 12 minutes ago

The members of the parliament who allegedly misused their power belonged to Shiv Sena.

NEW DELHI (Web Desk) – At least eleven members of Indian parliament have allegedly forced a Muslim worker to break his Ramazan fast in New Delhi, India.

According to Indian media reports, the members of the parliament (MPs), belonging to Shiv Sena, forced the Muslim catering supervisor to eat chapatti when they weren’t served their desired food at Maharastra Sadan in New Delhi.

The Express said a letter sent to Maharashtra chief secretary J Saharia has named the 11 Shiv Sena MPs as Sanjay Raut (Rajya Sabha), Anandrao Adsul (Amravati), Rajan Vichare (Thane), Arvind Sawant (Mumbai-South), Hemant Godse (Nashik), Krupal Tumane (Ramtek), Ravindra Gaikwad (Osmanabad), Vinayak Raut (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (Shirur), Rahul Shewale (Mumbai-South Central) and Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan), the Hindustan Times reported.

The Indian Railways subsidiary (IRCTC) that was catering for the Sadan suspended all operations in protest while formally complaint the Maharashtra resident commissioner about the incident in an email.

The IRCTC stated that the MPs, belonging to Shiv Sena misbehaved with the Muslim staffer and forced him to break his fast by putting chapatti in his mouth. The incident happened at the public dining while the MPs knew he was a Muslim.

“The specific incident happened with the Resident Manager/IRCTC, Sh. Arshad who was forced to consume full chapati whilst he was having fast on the eve of Ramzan. The concerned has been deeply pained and hurt on this account as religious sentiments are attached,” the manager wrote.

Arshad too has complained to the resident commissioner.

“All the guests along with media reporters and staffs of Maharashtra Sadan got into kitchen where I was getting the orders prepared. They caught me and put the chapati into my mouth. I was wearing a formal uniform set as prescribed by IRCTC and everybody in the panel also knew my name as ‘Arshad’ as I was wearing the name tag. Even then they inserted chapati in my mouth which caused my fast to break on the eve of Ramzan. I was hurt with the thing they have done as religious sentiments are concerned,” the Express quoted from his letter.

Strong reaction was seen on social media platforms following the incident.

Renowned journalist Raza Rumi termed the incident as ‘Pathetic, Condemnable’.

Another person tweeted, “Shiv Sena is nothing but an embarrassment”.

‘Monarchy’ to be replaced with democracy: Imran

By Bureau Report
Updated about 4 hours ago

PTI chief Imran Khan. — File Photo

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has claimed that his party is ready to do away with ‘monarchy’ and establish ‘genuine democracy’ in the country.

“There is total monarchy in the country in the garb of democracy. We are coming out on Aug 14 with full force to send ‘Badshahat’ packing and replace it with true democracy,” he said.

Imran Khan’s agitation

Speaking at a ceremony here on Tuesday to launch the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s initiative to give a subsidy of Rs600 each per month to a poor family on wheat flour and ghee, Mr Khan said the programme would cost Rs7 billion in one year and benefit more than 350,000 families.

He said politics should revolve around the people’s welfare and reiterated his claim that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be purged of corruption and people would get rid of politicians and officials who did not serve them.

The PTI chief said he would present proofs of rigging in last year’s elections before one million participants of his party’s long march on the Independence Day.

“Nobody can stop me from disclosing the names of the characters who stole the people’s mandate,” Imran declared.

He said his party’s workers were looking forward to the march which, he vowed, would rid the nation of people who were in the habit of ruling the country by rigging elections.

Mr Khan dispelled a perception that the march was aimed at harming democracy. The PTI had accepted the elections, but not the rigging, he said.

“We are establishing true democracy. All rallies held by the PTI have been peaceful,” he said.

He praised Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and his team for launching welfare schemes and asked the provincial government to take up issues with the centre within the ambit of the Constitution.

“I want the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to take a stand on the province’s claim of royalty on electricity, end to loadshedding and other problems faced by people.”

He said Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif had spent Rs100 billion of taxpayers’ money on their propaganda through media.

The PTI was gathering information about corruption in the Nandipur power project and Metro Bus, he added.

Imran Khan condemned Israel’s atrocities against innocent Palestinians in Gaza and wondered how the Jewish state was allowed to transgress and violate basic human rights enshrined in the UN charter.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said the measures his government had taken were in line with party’s pledges to people.

He said the government did not tolerate corruption and it was evident that it took action against corrupt officials.

Later, speaking at an Iftar dinner held to raise funds for the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital set up in Hayatabad, Imran Khan said that the facility was ready to serve people.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd , 2014

No Pakistani media has the guts to report this news..!

Gaza rocket lands near Israel’s main airport, US airlines cancel flights

Times of India reports..!

AP | Jul 22, 2014, 10.39 PM IST

Link:- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Gaza-rocket-lands-near-Israels-main-airport-US-airlines-cancel-flights/articleshow/38879473.cms