DK Kapila The Oracle

  GM Financial Frauds including calls to actually defraud. Requesting all concerned. 1. The telecom dept Cannot close your account 2. The electricity dept does not send a sms saying they are disconnecting your connection 3. ⁠if some caller says your son or daughter is in dire need of financial help have the presence of mind to disconnect. Tell your children to be always accessible on phones and have them compulsorily give you alternative numbers to be contacted in an emergency. Do not transfer money to unknown people. 4. ⁠No insurance company rings up to say take back your premium plus a hefty mark up. 5. ⁠Do not click on any link if they entice you that the Govt or someone is giving extra pension or money, nobody does this. Thy publish notices or send formal communications. Or check with fellow retiree’s. 6. ⁠No insurance product can assure fantastic returns. Period. 7. ⁠Nobody can guarantee returns from the stock market. Do not transfer money to any such person, even your relati...

  So many faces and modes Over a lifetime !! Of an individual !! One during success One during failure One during a crisis One at the Office One at Meetings One at Social Gatherings One with acquaintances One with friends One with family One with close family One with the self when happy One with the self when sad One with the self when angry Who is real ! What is real !! DKK A Thought The Book of Knowledge and the Book of Life. If you seek to work on social and economic aspects and projects, know the Book of Life. Meet people. Connect. The Book of Knowledge and the Book of Life are complementary. Do not deprive yourself of knowing life firsthand.

  What if a Start up fails and / or the start up founder loses financially This thought just came to mind after a recent online interaction with some founders and some thoughtful people. This point came up. Call it ambitious or over ambitious. Founders may tend to resist taking a call on a business idea and investment which may not be catching traction. In any case business ventures fail. But how do we revive a start up which has failed. With huge financial liabilities. And the second point. What if he had invested his personal wealth.  Where does he or she go now. A person, highly qualified, good background, earned wealth abroad. As did his wife. Herself high profile in education and wealth. The person in question returns to India, organises a team and organises a start up. Gets a band of good investors. They even build a vision of an IPO after five to seven years (don’t ask how so). He invests his own wealth too. The start up makes losses. They pivot, fire staff, invest more...

 Start ups should have A Legal Advisor from the Inception preferably. Dinesh K Kapila I was talking to my son, Prashant Kumar Kapila, a practising advocate. The young man has had an association with some start ups at varying stages. My association has been more of what is the sector all about but it has led to many founders reaching out to me for advise. On partnerships gone sour, key personnel quitting and setting up their own enterprises, being accused of fraud, tiffs with investors, missing out on key clauses in agreements etc. Patents and IPR too. Well we the father son duo one day discussed this and came to the conclusion each start up should preferably have a competent (not necessarily expensive) legal advisor or consultant who is in practice. Pay by the hour or case or a retainer is their decision. Even if an in house legal associate is there, a competent lawyer in practice can offer straight professional advise. As Prashant says, that is my value and similarly with other su...

  The Cultural Indoctrination Against Women and Girls -A few thoughts Dinesh K Kapila This issue is now again occupying our minds and thoughts, every now and then an unfortunate dastardly event triggers our thoughts and conscience and then we go back to the status quo. Perhaps not exactly status quo, the situation is much improved then it was just a few decades ago. Data is misleading as many a family chose in earlier times to cover up or brush an incident aside. And stating that as women have stepped out of the confines of their houses, such incidents can happen. This is totally illogical. But to go back to cultural issues, an acquaintance just shared that in HP, which we consider a socially progressive state, there are still cases where the son is admitted to a private school and the daughter to a government school. The cultural indoctrination I find is deep rooted and starts with the ladies themselves. Exceptions are there but repeatedly I find post marriage, for example, the mo...

Note - Let me say in the beginning, I only seek to state, stop building romantic hued dreams on Pakistan and Bangladesh. Accept them as they are and live with it, including their important stakeholders, specially the religious elite, harbouring deep rooted biases. I only wrote this off hand in response to some people I know espousing deeply philosophical and idealistic thoughts about Bangladesh and Pakistan, while we have just lost troops in JK. Simply live with what it is. These people were asking about the context.       Sir I will give you the context. My father Maj Gen Rajendra Nath, PVSM (Retd) commanded 62 Mountain Brigade in 1971 in the Bangladesh Theatre. His first draft of Military Leadership in India had this aspect in detail but the book was already too lengthy. I helped in editing it. 1971 War Refugees The first wave was primarily Hindus. From then East Pakistan. The instructions were from the Pakistani Army - one rifle, hundred rounds, chase out the men ...

  Chandigarh needs Dappar to evolve as Inland Container Depot with integrated Customs Clearance Facilities. It’s a loud thought but I just thought why not put into words. It’s just not Chandigarh but the area around Ambala, Baddi, Rajpura, Mohali etc. We have exporters of varying manufacturing goods, from the small scale to the medium scale industries. The nearest Container Depot with customs clearance is at Ludhiana, Dappar should be a good second site, even if a scale down from Ludhiana. It would be major boost to the industries in this belt. Chandigarh has now evolved. Its Chandigarh, Dera Bassi, Panchkula, Mohali etc. The absence of a single administrative node is now obviously impacting developmental initiatives required to further growth and commercial activities. The states of HP, Pb, Hy and UT Chd need to coordinate on this issue. This would provide the required impetus.   Secondly, the Airport is in dire need of cargo based flights, even if introduced on a pilo...

  The Essence Roads and Water in Farming - learning from a farmer At the Morni Hills, District Panchkula, at Dhanan Village we met Shri Hem Ram, a progressive farmer from village Chaplana. A rather steep and uncomfortable rough bumpy hewn road leads to his village. He owns five bighas of land down an incline which is relatively less steep. And cultivates tomatoes chiefly, as also ginger and coriander and turmeric. Till 2014 he and his brother could extract 180 crates of tomato - one crate contains 25 kgs. Then came a proper macadam road leading through the hills and the steep road connecting from it to his village was also carved out, the villagers also contributed for it. Then came assistance for the proper conveyance of water, I was in service then at Chandigarh though he does not know it. Dr SS Grewal, known watershed expert and Director SPACE had then proposed a small grant based project for simply repairing the traditional Kuhl (flow irrigation scheme) and protecting the sprin...

  The Taxi Drivers of GT Road Dinesh K Kapila The Grand Trunk Road (GT Road) is one of Asia's great historical roads and a major route connecting Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It is a 2,400 km (1,500 mi) stretch from Teknaf in southeast Bangladesh, across parts of India and Pakistan, to Kabul in Afghanistan. Though some say it ends at Peshawar. For me the GT Road is now from Amritsar to Kolkata. The GT Road that I am now talking about is the Road from Amritsar to Delhi, and Chandigarh connecting with the GT Road at Ambala, a forty five kilometres drive. You can travel by train, take a flight, or a bus, drive down or hire a taxi. I normally prefer a good comfortable taxi for a trip which involves returning the same day or night. Then the concern is about the driver nodding off or losing focus, then the only way out is to chat. Discuss anything but keep him awake. One gets to know so much about their lives and it’s a tough life. Very tough. Be it the taxi drivers who dro...

Organic and Only Organic Dinesh K Kapila I was at a grocery store when a smartly dressed, confident, rather pleasant looking young lady around forty years walked in and straight away went into action with the Manager. Do you keep organic stuff, I do not want any of the regular, unhealthy stuff you sell to people. I want good quality products, the poor guy simply said all our products are the best brands or our own tested and procured products. She waved one diamond wearing finger, dekhte hain (let me see). I want only organic. Give me jaggery (Shakar). Only organic. The Manager scooted off, brought a trolley, and plonked two packets of jaggery saying, purely organic Ma’m, then she said I want high quality premium Gur (solidified jaggery) but only organic, and the guy says Ma’m Gur is not organic, after a stern look, hey presto it was there !! Then she went on, organic wheat, organic rice, organic millets, organic sugar and organic besan (gram flour). So I tried asking the manager direc...