Paresh Nanda

Born into a poor Dalit household, Kalpana Saroj was the eldest daughter of a Maharashtra Police constable in Akola. She lived in a small chawl for Dalits, the lowest Hindu caste that is considered to be untouchable, with her parents and 5 siblings in Akola. Under family pressure, her father was forced to marry off Kalpana at the age of 12 to a man who was 10 years older than her. Kalpana Saroj’s husband took her to Mumbai where they lived in a slum with his family. As the youngest in the household and an outsider, she was forced to work at home. Her husband’s family would physically and mentally abuse her at every opportunity. Six months after her marriage, Kalpana Saroj’s father visited Mumbai and was shocked to find his daughter emaciated and living in a slum. Against his family’s wishes, Kalpana’s father took her back to their home in Akola. Being a Dalit and married girl who had left her husband’s home,Kalpana faced social ostracism every day. She had to even give up goi...

“The real position will come to light when we have the assessment done by a third party” – this is a very common comment made during the evaluation of the performance of the on-going projects or their outcome. Such an intervention of the performance profile of the people and projects starts right from the school level. When the learner comes with a statement “I know this”, the teacher asserts “Well, you may or may not know this. How do I know that you know this?” and he or she plays the role of a second party., to cause an intervention through a structured model of assessment, she believes is right to assess the learner.  And then the Boards of Education walk in to assess whether the learner has learnt and whether the teacher has done the job properly to ensure the learning of the first party with much broader objectives, which lie out of focus of the ambit of learning of the first party. If one critically examines, the assessment of the second and third parties are o...

Whether you’re interested in digital advertising or not, chances are you’ve heard about the recent Google // YouTube boycott. A great article by Lara O'Reilly at Business Insider deeply explores the recent fiasco, which all stems from an investigation that found ads appearing alongside extremist content on YouTube. The result? More than 250 brands have banded together and pulled their ad spend from the digital giant. Oh, and did I mention that stock prices have plummeted? Thanks for the image, Google! How TF Did This Happen? When you break it down, it’s pretty simple. Digital advertising purchases are based off of audiences, so instead of buying a singular piece of inventory, advertisers programmatically purchase large amounts of inventory across a variety of websites. But, this results in essentially blanketing ads across the web, with very little control on SPECIFIC placement. And when you pair that with what Google's European boss Matt Brittin explained to...

Spring is here! It's my favorite time of the year! The snow is clearing, it's warming up, it's sunny a little later, and most important for me, baseball season is coming! It's also the time that lots of people focus on cleaning out the house or garage, getting rid of clutter and making your home more beautiful. Why not use this excuse to do a little "Career Spring Cleaning" as well? We all could stand to declutter our careers, focus better, and improve ourselves, right? We all could give things up in order to get what we want, right? With that in mind, I turned to 11 friends from the YEC, an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. I asked them: What's the most important thing you've given up in order to advance your career? This is what they shared:  1. Extra Projects  I've had many projects running at times, but had to kill some of them in order to focus on greater, more l...

As an active angel investor, I attend a lot of startup pitching events . These are organized by angel networks; incubators; and accelerators, and they allow a bunch of founders to present to a group of investors , so that they can convince them to give them money. These events are useful, for both funders and founders. They allow investors to look the founder in the eye, so we can ask him questions and see how well he answers them. Since this is done on a many-to- many basis, it's quite cost-effective and efficient because investors get to evaluate lots of founders at one time. These events allow investors to learn from each other as well. Thus, one investor may have a lot of domain expertise , and he may ask lots of probing , thoughtful intelligent questions which you may not have thought of. Also, if a charismatic lead investor decides to fund the company, a lot of the other investors will follow his lead as well. It's very useful for founders as well. They get to p...

If you’re not a numbers person, finance is daunting. But having a grasp of terms like EBITDA and net present value are important no matter where you sit on the org chart. How can you boost your financial acumen? How do you decide which concepts are most important to understand to your work and your understanding of the business? And who’s in the best position to offer advice? What the Experts Say Even if you don’t need to know a lot about finance to do your day-to-day job, the more conversant you are on the subject, the better off you’ll be, according to Richard Ruback, a professor at Harvard Business School and the coauthor of the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. “If you can speak the language of money, you will be more successful,” he says. After all, if you’re trying to sell a product or strategy, you need to be able to demonstrate that it is both practical and high margin. “The decision-makers will want to see a simple model that shows revenue, costs, overhead, and cas...

In a world of tight deadlines, it’s no wonder that some of your stress might seep out and affect your colleagues. But — because they’re under pressures of their own — you risk perpetuating a vicious circle, where you mirror and magnify each other’s frenzy. You can’t control their behavior, but you can take charge of your own. There are obvious ways to tamp down the stress you inflict on others, such as refraining from yelling or making sarcastic comments. But those are only the most visible ways one risks alienating one’s coworkers; to truly stop the office pathology, you have to look deeper. Here are three subtle but powerful strategies to ratchet down the pressure and ensure you’re not subjecting your colleagues to undue stress and frustration. First, stop being vague . If someone doesn’t know the full context of a situation, vague messages — which might be quite harmless — are often read like a Rorschach test, with fears and interpretations piled on. If you send a late-nig...

“ Body, feeling, mind – all have to be transcended. One has to become just alert – alert of all that happens within and without. The only key for the fourth way is to be mindful, to be aware, to witness, to see into things – and not to get identified……” “ There are four ways to reach God. One is: to make an effort through the body to reach; that’s what hatha yogis have been doing. It is not a true way. Something can be achieved through it – because finally the body also belongs to God – but it is not your totality. Gurdjieff has called this’the way of the fakir’. You can see many fakirs in India. You may be impressed by their attainments; they attain to certain powers. For example, you can come across a fakir who has been standing continuously, for ten, twenty years. He has never allowed his body to rest – to sit down or to sleep. He has been standing. Even if he has to sleep, he sleeps standing. Now his body has become almost rigid, paralysed. Now it cannot move; the flexibi...

A jobless man applied for the position of 'office boy' at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him, then gave him a test: clean the floor. The man passed the test with flying colors. "You are hired," HR manager informed the applicant, "give me your e-mail address, and I'll send you the application for employment, as well as the date you should report for work. The man replied " I don't have a computer, or an email!" "I'm sorry," said the HR manager. "If you don't have an email, that means you do not exist. And we cannot hire persons who do not exist." The man was very disappointed. He didn't know what to do. He only had $10 with him. Once that is spent, he won't have any money to buy any food. He went to the supermarket and bought a crate of tomatoes with his $10. He went from door to door and sold the tomatoes in less than two hours. He doubled his money. He repeated the...

CRITICISM - the word in itself is enough to give chills to the spine of an employee. Criticism is the necessary evil, which we all have to face. Even the smartest of brains have had their fair share of criticism in life. But they all managed to conquer it and win over their critics in flying colors. ‘Want to get rid of all the project management troubles? Switch to ProofHub.’ That’s the whole point - winning over the criticism. But what’s the secret? How to silence your critics? In this post I am going to talk about some tried and tested tips to deal with criticism at work, or any other facet of life. Let us have a look at those points - Rephrase, repeat What’s your first response when someone disapproves your idea? If it is counter-arguing, then you are making the same mistake that almost every person makes. And you need to stop doing it. If someone disagrees with your idea, think of it as an opportunity to elaborate it in a better manner. Rephrasing what you...

A lot of people believe that the future of real estate marketing is quite critical for real estate agents and there is no two ways about it. The fast evolution of the Internet has made it possible for the homeowners to sell their property themselves. There are even tutorials and even third party websites (eg. 99 acres, magic bricks, Housing etc.) available that can help you sell your home for maximum profits and even a layman can read and follow the same. At the same time, most real estate agents are outdated, utilizing old promotional methods. In order to survive in the future, evolution is key for the real estate agent or a Developer for that matter. Today, consumers are savvy because of Internet evolution. With fierce competition in the marketplace, potential home buyers are armed with all the data they could possibly need, forcing real estate agents to compete and set themselves apart more fortuitously than before. Selling or renting your home on through Internet. Tod...