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...