The Budget uses Business Intelligence

Jaswant Singh’s Budget (technically a Vote on Account) presented on Febuary 4,
2004 has been analyzed by so many. The Ruling Coalition and the people in
general have welcomed it; as expected the Opposition is digging holes.

What is interesting is the fact that BJP as a party is increasingly
becoming “data driven”.

The Elections to the four Northern States, where BJP won in a majority of the
States, it used accurate analysis of every constituency – caste, group, sex,
age, profession and fine-tuned a poll strategy that addressed the individual
needs. The Party is doing the same thing in the Budget Preparation – have some
goodies for the poor and the rich; agriculturists, industrialists and the
service class; Government employees; the exporters and the domestic
manufacturers; rail, road, air and the shipping industry etc., After all
this is the core of Business Intelligence!

They might not have used a Data Mining software package, but they use of
intuitive data mining.

Once they are back to power (if at all they win) they will have enough money &
time to buy scores of packages. If they lose, they might use some more
analysis to find out the cause and work towards a winning strategy next time.
Either way IT is winning!

Columbia University honors Indian Professor – When will India learn to

Columbia University established a Chair in honor of Professor Jagdish
Bhagwati, the renowned Economist. Professor Arvind Panagariya has taken over
as the first Chair Professor. It does India proud. Understandably the
Economist-turned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had helped years back in fund
raising for establishing this Chair, along with many friends from India & USA.

Many believe that Professor Jagdish Bhagwati is a Nobel Laureate material and
it is only a question of time before he gets the Nobel Prize. Would it not be
nice if such notable Indians are recognized first in their home country? We
confer Padma Awards on many after they are recognized by other countries.
There are many other notable Indians like Professor CK Prahalad, Raj Reddy and
Jagdish Seth who have won many laurels outside, but their motherland should
wake up much before others rush to confer many an Award.