Is it recession or correction ?

This is based on my experience and knowledge of the field of Information Technology and Outsourcing and so my comments are based around that set of companies.

The economic meltdown is here, the nightmare has just started, tons of companies are shutting down left right & center, thousands are being laid off and many many more expected. The year 2009 does not look good for anyone & "global recession" is the latest buzz word. All of us have to 'hunker' down and try to survive.

But let us take a re look at a couple of issues that are taking place and that are defining the term 'economic melt down'

- The Banks are not lending money, there is a cash crunch
This means that companies will have to use their own money to run their routine business and not use credit for that. Well isn't this way a business is supposed to be run ? You get loans & credit for upcoming projects, you don't usually use loans to run a supposedly sustainable business do you ? Is this recession or correction ?

- The Banks / Investors will be tight fisted and it will require proper project projections and serious due diligence for money to be invested.

Strange, so what was the criteria thus so far ?...wasn't proper project projections & serious due diligence basic criteria to get funding anyway ? Is this recession or correction ?

- Salary raise will probably be a mere 5-10% as compared to 30-40% in 2008 ?

7-10% is a well tried and tested norm for business for so many years. Everyone in the industry knew long ago that 30-40% increase yearly for salary for never be sustainable... so why the outcry now ?

- There will be continuous lay offs
It was common knowledge that most large IT companies in India are over staffed. They have so many workers on bench all the time and projects have been overestimated just so that more engineers could be billed for. The clients were paying so no one was asking. Now the clients are cutting project sizes to realistic levels and hence realistic levels of man - power. The rest will get laid off. Once why the noise ? It was all well known.. and it just catching up.

- Salaries will be restructured
Now I am surprised this is even being attributed to the recession. Anyone who has anything to do with the IT field knew the salaries were sky high and many a time just ridiculous. Even if a person did not have the experience, nor the skill and really did not deserve it , they still got mammoth salaries just to retain them... do you really think this would be sustainable over the long run ??. Salaries are going to come down to what they were supposed to be !

So would this be termed as recession or a correction. ?

I think we are just coming back to reality, we are being forced to accept one of the very basics of money... "Cut your coat according to your cloth ". Companies will now downsize to what they realistically are, their valuations will be more realistic, they wont have bloated reserves and yet use money from the bank, team sizes and project estimates will be what they are really supposed to be, salaries will be based on expertise and experience and finally we will back to "living, working & conducting business within our means."

So who is accountable ?

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Disclaimer: This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. We as parents and our teachers try thier best but we all know it happens !
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Today we hear so much "blah blah" about accountability and corporate governance in India. We hear so much about accountability or lack of it in our public services & utilities.

Oh how we love to talk about it so lets talk about 'accountability' and lets see how accountable we hold ourselves towards something that is closer to home..."our children"

When a child does well in school, all love to take responsibility and credit for it , the parents, the teachers ...... oh how proud we all are. (we should be !!)

Ok, now lets change the equation a little bit...'the child does not do well in school', ' the child is having trouble coping with school', ' the child is getting in trouble in school'................ what are the conventional reasons you will generally hear ?

If you ask the parents... it would possibly be
"Oh the teacher is horrible", "there is so much work to do", "they just keeping having tests", "they don't correct the work or bother to do anything for the child" & so on.

If you ask the teacher... it would possibly be
"the child is not up to the mark", "the parents don't bother & expect us to do everything". "there are so many children, I cant take care of everyone", "we don't control the syllabus and have to complete it in time", " how much more do you expect us to" & so on

I am not disputing the above reasons given my both us parents and the teachers, I am just stating them, I am no judge as to whether they are wrong or right.

So let me get this straight , if the child is facing trouble in school both the parents and teachers seem to have perfectly good reasons for it and they themselves never seem to be part of it in most cases........ so my question is who takes final responsibility for it, who takes final responsibility to set it right........the child ? Are we seriously expecting the child to set it right ? Is there no one else who should be held accountable ? (oops I used the word accountable ..!!)

Reasons, excuses, you can call it what you like, but the child is in trouble, you have brought up this child, you have educated this child, shouldn't we as parents & teachers hold oursleves accountable for that child ?

I was under the impression that when we decided to have a child , it was one of our obligations to be accountable for the child's well being in heart , mind and soul . !!

I was under the impression that when one chooses the vocation of a teacher, it is one's obligation to be accountable for the child's welfare in heart , mind and soul while in school !!

Parents & Teachers together are responsbile for the child. Accountability does not mean blaming someone else and then leaving it.....

We talk about accountability in governance of the country but are we holding ourselves accountable as parents and teachers ? Perhaps lets start from there first before pointing our fingers at others.

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Disclaimer: (Before I get into trouble). This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. But we all know it happens !
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