What We Must Know?

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly
resolved to constitute India into a 1[SOVEREIGN
SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and
to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual
and the 2[unity and integrity of the Nation];
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twentysixth
day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT,
ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS
CONSTITUTION.


1Subs. by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, s. 2, for “SOVEREIGN
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC” (w.e.f. 3-1-1977).
2Subs. by s. 2, ibid., for “unity of the Nation” (w.e.f. 3-1-1977).

Tryst with destiny

Tryst with Destiny was a speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India.

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labor and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.

The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!

We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavor? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

Investment Banking Simplified: Variants Synergized

Investment banking is about synergizing the variants. These variants are open to any industry whether it is manufacturing, hospitality, information technology. It is about capturing the dollars. It is adding one plus one and bringing in three. Investment banking about understands the past analyzing the present and taking decision for the future. The variants for IB can be divided based on-

1- Steady time (a world in which there is a lag between a customer’s need and a market solution)

2- Real time (a world in which the market creates solutions at the same time customers have a need)

3- Zero Time (a world in which the market creates solutions before the customers have expressed a need)

Investment banking is about company evaluation, company acquisition and company growth strategy. For it to happen we need to understand which direction the industry is moving. We are at present in a consolidation. Because of these market forces, industries across the board are having a lot of mergers and acquisitions. Inefficient companies are and will be taken over and efficient companies will become even bigger. At the same time, there might be some smaller companies which will be there serving their niche. They will certainly not have the revenues and the range of services as their larger brethren but they will continue to survive on the basis of their lean operations.

For an investment banking firm simplifying variants is of immense importance. This starts from understanding company’s performance, its hidden value, market share, competition, industry overview etc. Next step is the valuation of information and reaching an acquisition price and acquiring the company. From here it is a strategic decision making whether one wants to build on it or want to follow a strategy of divestiture. Build on strategy will be based on cost cutting, restructuring of management and operations, improving the human resource and other management gamut to bring in solid growth and desired result to the balance sheet. On the other hand strategy divestiture will include strategic sale of whole or part of the assets.

Investment banking brings about synergy, creates values and simplifies the mergers and acquisition and alliances (MA&A). It is a descending stream of pure activity, which brings in dynamic force to the business. It is about thinking differently, as Winston Churchill said that kites rise highest against the wind -- not with it.

What people reading around the world!

Let's go around the WORLD

The world has many countries, some big and some small, and I want to find the best books about each country. The book should help us learn something ABOUT that country and not just be one written by somebody who lives there. Let's "book around the world" and find at least one excellent book for each country in the world.

At Book around the States we have a long list of books about states of the union, but we don't need EVERY book about a country, just the best ones. What have you read? What did you enjoy reading? Let's name some possibilities.

North America
Central America
Caribbean
South America
Europe
Africa
Middle East
Central Asia
Asia
Southeast Asia
Australia
Oceania
Anarctica

These are some of the areas of the world, so let's set out to find some books about the countries on the world's continents.

An ingenious example of speech and politics

Recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: “Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named. When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, What a good opportunity to have a bath.

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.”.

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, “What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren’t there then.”.

The Indian representative smiled and said, “And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.”.