Paisa Vasool? Maybe not...

Yesterday I saw an India Premier League T20 match for the first time (first time? I hear you exclaim... the reason why I did not watch any match earlier are too complicated to be dealt with on this post), and walked away un-impressed. The match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians (what kind of name is that??) did not hold out too much promise in any case. But my reasons for not liking it are different.

Most important, I was not rooting for any team. It made not the least difference to me if one side was winning or the other. I dare say it would have been exactly the same had the Delhi DareDevils been playing (again, a name I do not sympathise with!). This robbed the match of any kind of excitement.

Next, the players themselves seemed kind of ho-hum about the whole affair. Ricky Ponting is the last guy I would want to be against if his national team is on the backfoot. But in this match, he seemed quite casual. In fact, I probably should not name names, because even the Mumbai players seemed to lack any kind of bonding. It was just a game to everyone (probably as it should be!)

Third, I did not like the garish golden/ugly blue helmets and pads that the players had on. It looked like a blooming circus show

Fourth, the match itself was pretty one-sided. Right from the first over. So much so, that I gave up after the first six overs, and returned for a very brief interlude towards the middle of the 2nd innings

Maybe this is a litany of negatives without reason. But I certainly do not see what makes it so attractive for everyone else. Apparently the whole nation watches little else on TV. Not that I disapprove - if this is what they want, this is what they should get.

Theatre of the Absurd

I always suspected that we are moving inexorably towards a police state in India, given the bleeding hearts not only in Government, but alas, among general society, who think that laissez faire is a concept best left to academia. They have all the answers, and they know best what is good for you, me and everyone. They are the proponents of the communist state!

I suspected it, and now I have evidence. Sample this, sourced from today's Economic Times. It first made me slack jawed in disbelief, then exceedingly angry, and finally just numb and confused. Am I reading this right? Is there something that I am missing?

(italics are mine):
Ban on pvt school teachers on investing in stock market mooted
20 Apr, 2008, 1041 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: Teachers in Maharashtra's private schools may be banned from investing in stock market if a proposal by the Education Department is implemented. Reason? The Department considers such investments as gambling. A proposal mooted by the education department says that the teachers in private schools in the state could invest only in cooperative banks and credit societies.

The Government has come up with a 'code of conduct' for secondary school teachers, including those in private schools. The draft code of conduct has been circulated among the teachers' unions. The proposal also puts restrictions on investments and business by family members of the teachers. If any member has an insurance policy, or is involved in insurance business or any other business, it needs to be reported to the Deputy Director of education, according to the proposal.

It also stipulates that teacher should not marry a person whose ex-partner is alive and also bars teachers from entering into a marriage contract sans permission from school management. The proposal also adds that marriage to a foreigner should be reported to the management.

The proposal also puts restrictions on teachers' participation in social or political movement and asks them to convince family members to do so. They would also be required to inform the management if a family member wants to contest election.

Connaught Place in pictures

Photos from walk described in earlier post (move mouse over photo to see label):

A walk around CP

Being a bit free in office, I just took off for a bit and went down to CP in the middle of the day. The bright sunshine and the happy milling crowds sparked off the thought that I miss out on this cheerful daily spectacle everyday for no reason! There is something about the magic of human contact, even though you may not know even a single person among the thousands walking by, that beats sitting by yourself in an air conditioned office all day.

Another thought that struck me was that Connaught Place really is quite pretty. The quaint architecture, the wide grassy lawns, the massive wide roads are all quite alluring. If only the honking of cars reduces a bit (which it will - CP is going to be a no-traffic zone from 2010), it would become comparable to the best town centers in the world (Marienplatz in Munich comes to mind).

Yet another thought was - what the hell was I doing in my younger days, when I should have been roaming about this place, without a care, like all the pretty and happy young people here? Sigh! Lost opportunities! When I was closeted with my books (actually I never was! I think it was mainly the computer and the intranet which kept me occupied :-) during college days, I missed out on this hugely relaxing aspect of life. And though I probably am reasonably well off today because of my education, I kind of yearn for the lost, carefree days when I could have chilled out in CP doing nothing.

And the final thought I had was that commerce is booming! Foodstuff is getting sold (literally) like hot cakes :-). The branded stores may not be selling too much, but good old value priced stuff is flying off the shelves and into shopping bags. Roadside pirated booksellers are doing roaring trade. Plastic is getting flashed a-plenty. I am not worried about falling home prices or subprime credit issues half-a-globe away!

I am sure I would have got more insights after imbibing a chilled pint or two of beer. The temptation was almost too strong to resist. If only I had someone to share it with, I would definitely have taken the plunge :-)

Genuine confusion

Something puzzles me about the Dahllies (that is Delhi for those unfamiliar with Delhi's 'sophisticates' and their accent). And that is the following:

If Vasant Vihar is VV
If Defence Colony is DefCol
If Punjabi Bagh is PBags
If Kamala Nagar is KNags
If Greater Kailash is GK
Why is South Extension not SEx???

Identify the bigger bull!

The new new thing

What is it with the IIMs? I always suspected that they breed some kind of a herd mentality (actually I'm being very harsh here - all education in our country has the same outcome!), but what convinces me is this new rush to publish books with an 'IIM' tag.

It was started by 'Five Point Someone' which was the first in its niche. It was followed up by some juvenile effort called 'Anything for you, Ma'am' or some such about life in IIT. And I have been the victim of 2 recent publications - one which was truly despicable ('If God were a Banker' - which tries to peg its tag to IIM AND Citibank), and the other ('The Funda of Mix-ology' - What bartending teaches which IIM doesnt) which, while not the absolute dumps, is nothing to write home about either.

And more to come - I already see marketing efforts for more IIM books.

My point is not that all IIM books are trash - it is that if you need to leverage your IIM roots to sell your book, why dont you write something half-readable? In my opinion, you are diluting the brand, and giving up your chance to stand out from a cluttered marketplace (this sounds suspiciously like what some marketing guy would say, and I am certainly very poor in that discipline, if my grades are anything to go by!!)

I still look forward to the IIM book which is a) relevant b) readable and c) purposeful. Hell, I may just write one myself!!

Why would I want Feedjit?

As some of you may have noticed, I recently put a couple of embellishments on my blogpage. These include a survey app and a very simple scripting app that tells me who visited my page from where and left from where (branded by Feedjit).

The survey has been a spectacular flop, with 2 votes so far (I must shamefacedly confess that both were me, to see how the damn thing works!!). But maybe that was because the survey question was un-imaginative. The other application is what puzzles me, once I sit down to think of it. Why would I want to know who visits my blog page? These could be some reasons:

• I want to generate advertising revenues by showing off my multi-national readership (not the case, since this is a not-for-profit enterprise).
• I want to tailor content according to readership (I dont think I am that good or versatile yet!).
• I am curious (a bit, but not REALLY).
• I go on an ego trip by looking at how many countries I have readership in!!
  

Of all these, I think #4 wins hands down. However, this application is an inaccurate barometer for measuring countrywide readership and getting grandiose thoughts of being a widely loved and respected writer :-) This is because a lot of internet traffic is routed via firewalls / filters / gateways which reside in the US / Europe. For example, whenever I was logged into my corporate network at my last employers, I would always show up as a US origin IP address. So there is not much sanctity to what Feedjit shows me.

It does have its uses though (mostly for reason #3). For example, looking at what the damn thins says right now, I notice that the last person to visit is from 'Petaling Jaya, Wilayah Persekutuan'.

Clearly, I am much intrigued by who could be living in 'Petaling Jaya, Wilayah Persekutuan' which looks like it is in Malaysia. I try to rack my brains about classmates / colleagues / friends who could be in Malaysia right now. Cant think of anyone. I also notice that I myself show as having arrived from 'Bombay, Maharashtra', whereas I am indisputably in Delhi.

In conclusion, I find this application not of much use, and have decided to remove it from this page! I aslo want to ask other buddies who have this application - What is your reason for putting the thing on your page?

Whither Expert??

The bull market frenzy of the 6 months preceding mid-Jan of 2008 has given rise to a new species. In addition to the bulls and bears of the stock market, we had the curious spectacle of the emergence of the 'expert', popularised by the opium distributing CNBCs and NDTVs of this world. This 'expert' needed no skill, experience or achievement. All that was required was 1) an ability to follow the herd superlatively, like it had not been followed before and 2) massive doses of selective amnesia, to be able to forget what was said yesterday, and indeed contradict it with impunity.

Sample this - Mr A (who shall go un-named here) says on January 4 (nifty at ~6,100): the Nifty is poised to touch new highs. If it crosses 6300, the next target is 6700, to be reached within a couple of weeks. So far so good, the guy is entitled to his opinion. The self same Mr A says on Jan 23 (post nifty crash at ~5,000): the nifty is in a major downtrend. The next target for the nifty is 4000, which if violated, the index could go to 3,500. Duh! Dude, maybe you dont get it, but that is like forecasting yesterday today! Your opinion is not merely irrelevant, it is contradictory and self-defeating!!!

There are so many such examples that I could possibly not list out the entire bunch here. Having an honest opinion is fine - you could be wrong, but having an opinion that changes POST facto, based on the trend and what others are saying, is not only stupid, it is unethical. The reason such characters abound is driven by two factors - 1) the desire in our media to create 'celebrities' - we see it on the garish vernacular channels, where it is more in-your-face and 2) the lack of financial maturity in our markets. This is not surprising, given that most of us 'invest' based on tips from friends / colleagues or these 'experts'. Contrast this with developed markets, which, though driven by the same basic emotions of greed and fear, and much more evolved, measured and rational about the state of the economy.

I have hit upon a novel way to make money off these 'experts' advice - I promptly do the opposite of what they tout. Believe me, it works!! What a lot of retail investors dont get is that investing is a serious business, best handled by professionally qualified and experienced individuals. This is what enables the 'expert' to survive, and indeed thrive. I wish our market quickly learns this fact and stops the loss of its hard earned profits!! In the meantime, I look forward to profiting from their babbling prophecies.

Haikus

Consultitis had this nice post on haikus.

A good one repeated here:
Phantom ship moves through
waters hushed in mist. Foghorns
question the darkness.

Here are a couple of my own contributions!

soft clicks of a keyboard
and muted good mornings in cubicles.
sensuous aroma of coffee

bright sunshine and heat
sweat pouring off eyebrows. a quiet songbird chirps
in a silent moment

laid out on a hammock
swayed by the breeze, gazing gently at the sky
epiphany strikes

A (not-so) radical idea

The world is entering (in already in?) a phase of slowing economic growth, if not an outright recession. While classical economists will argue that this is part of normal business cycles, and that it is necessary to curtail excesses built in the boom years of asset price inflation, I think there is somethink different this time around (famous last words?? :-))

Usually, economic recessions are coupled with commodity price recessions. What is different in this recession is that commodities are still not easing at all. Oil climbs everyday to new highs. Metals, gold, foodgrains are still bullish. Part of the reason is the significant dollar weakness, but this alone does not explain the significant price inflation in commodities.

The reason is not too difficult to fathom. China, India and the developing world is using up more and more of basic materials, and this is causing their prices to rise. On top of that, the Indian government is trying to use fiscal measures to stimulate the economy (it desperately wants to keep inflation low in an election year, although by doing this it is curtailing growth in sectors that are really suffering - export dependent sectors for example, which will continue being hit as dollar flows seeking higher debt returns cause appreciation of the Rupee, or realty, or autos). But this post is not about the ills of the lame duck Indian government.

The problem with fiscal measures is that they benefit commodity producers more than they benefit the Indian economy. In an environment where oil and fertilizers are massively subsidized, fiscal measures cause more use of these commodities because of the unnatural price cap. This benefits OPEC - both for oil and fertilizers since natural gas is the biggest raw material in fertilizer production, not India.

How can this situation be balanced? And now we come to the (not so) radical idea - that oil prices in India should be de-regulated. Not only de-regulated, but the subsidy on diesel and keroscene at the cost of petrol should also go. Though this will cause some pain in terms of inflation, the long term benefits will be massive:

1. Prevention of leakages in fiscal stimuli to the economy
2. Less waste of taxpayers money, which could be used to fund massive infrastructure build
3. Environmental benefits, as the normal demand-supply economics curtail use of oil for transport, in polluting diesel generators, and in wastefully inefficient industries
4. Less congestion on roads, better use of public transport, and saved time from efficient travel
5. Less dependence on fertilizers and pesticides in farming produce (and therefore better long term health benefits, with lower wasteage in terms of health costs)

To me, it is unclear why the government does not see this long-term solution to a lot of our problems.

An epic love story

...no, i am not talking about Jodhaa-Akbar, but about the Hip Hopper. Warning: a bit suggestive!!

Babbar Sher (edited)

I always listen to FM radio when I'm driving. Babbar Sher is one program which makes me increase the volume. A sampling of the corny couplets on air:

Samundar ke kinare baithe hain
Kabhi to leher bhi aayegi
Taqdeer ab badle ya na badle
Par chappal to dhul jaayegi

Another one -

Suna hai ishq mein
logon ki neend ud jaati hai
Kaash koi humse bhi ishq kare
Aajkal kambakht neend badi aati hai

And another -

Darakht ke paimaane mein
Furqat se chilman-e-husn ka sharmaana
Iska matlab samajh aaye
To humein bhi samjhaana

Is it just me or is something wrong?

I ambled into a shoes store at the Vasant Lok shopping complex in Delhi today. The sign outside screamed - flat 40% off! and I thought this was as good a time as any to replace my trusty worn out Reeboks.

Inside I had a tough time, because:

• most of the shoes were large and clunky, boasting of various exotic things like air-max, dmx, shockx and allied technologies
• they were all quite ugly looking
• the prices were astounding! nothing less than 6 grand - after the 40% off, it came to around 4 grand
• there seemed to be very little variety, if at all
• the shoes said 'Made in Thailand' and I recall that in Bangkok, the same shoes were available for close to a thousand bucks not too long ago

I walked out thinking that this particular shop must be in a last ditch desperate attempt to make its monthly rental by fleecing clueless people like me. I then walked into another store - and then another - and another - and the same situation persisted!

Is it me, or has something changed in the last couple of years. Six k for a pair of ugly sport shoes??

PS - Discouraged and disheartened, I succumbed and bought a pair similar to my old pair. The financial damage has me reeling...

Peering into a crystal ball

Economic news everywhere is very grim. The headlines scream out about a recession in the US every day. The US fed keeps cutting interest rates like there is no tomorrow. Every week sees some new humongous write-offs by US and European financial institutions. Markets everywhere are in a tailspin. All in all, a portent of economic disaster waiting to happen.

I tried to step back and make sense of all of this. What does this mean? And how can one position oneself for this? First, some (foolhardy?) predictions:

• The Indian economy will continue to chug along at around 7% real growth. High interest rates will continue strangling retail credit growth and corporate investments, and GDP growth will moderate by a couple of percentage points. Real estate, autos will be damped. However, domestic sectors like consumer goods, telecoms, infrastructure sectors, financial services will continue to flourish.
• The rupee will continue to appreciate, driven by inflows of arbitrage seeking capital, keeping IT, textiles, auto component sectors under stress.
• The government will try fiscal stimulants for maintaining growth - effectively, tax cuts, increased infrastructure creation, populist sops. However, in an election year, there will be high sensitivity to inflation, so money supply will be curbed with continuing high interest rates. All of this will crowd out private investment.
• The US consumer-led slowdown will cool growth worldwide, and bring down prices of commodities like metals, oil, shipping etc. However, demand from India and China will keep oil from falling below $50-60 per barrel. This will lead to continued creation of petro-dollars, which will continue buying distressed assets in the US. Eventually there will be a backlash, and the petro-dollars will flow into markets such as India.
• After a while, investors will realize that India is a good place for generating returns, and this will cause a slight re-rating of the equity market. In other words, goodbye to 40%+ returns, and hello to more stable 15-20% type of returns for a year.

Of course, all of this may not come true. The US economy could probably be made to have a 'soft-landing' due to the Fed's rigorous rate cuts. However, this would create conditions for the next crisis 5 years down the line. There will be more empty talk of 'de-coupling' of India, but after a decade of 8% type GDP growth, this de-coupling will actually happen.

Our kids will probably see that happen. Till then we will periodically squeeze out the excesses in our asset prices in 5 year cycles (note that the last two depressions in India happened in 1996-97, and then 2001-02). So watch out for 2012-13!!

Rediscovery of an old favourite

My wife has recently re-discovered fascination for an old favourite of mine - Erle Stanley Gardner's wonder lawyer Perry Mason, and his sidekicks Della Street and Paul Drake. Her enthusiasm has rubbed off on me, and recently we bought a lot of these books and compete with each other to read them first.

I was always a big fan of Perry Mason, not only for the involved detective stories that come together beautifully in the end, but for the explosive courtroom scenes which usually see Mason steal a march over his detractors - most notably Hamilton Burger, the district attorney- through some spectacular legal manoeuveres.

Perry Mason is a detective in the Sherlock Holmes mould - always proactive, bustling about (if not in person then through the Drake Detective Agency), and not averse to bending the letter of the law, if only to uphold its spirit. He is extremely ethical, and tremendously far sighted. Almost in all cases, he finds himself battling not only on his clients' behalf, but also on his own, since his investigations lead him against the state police machinery.

The thing I like a lot about the Mason books is that you could have read them before, yet they manage to hold your interest on a re-read, probably because the cases are so involved that you would forget most of the nuances and the actual culprit in some time (it took me only 12 months). Additionally, the foreword for each book has the author stress on some new aspect of forensic science or legal developments which are baked into the story. However, the best part is that the books remain page-turners, easy to read and able to build interest right till the last page.

Here's wishing posterity to the legacy of Perry Mason!

South East Asia

I dont think a lot of (market interested) people would forget this week in a hurry!



But I found this graph uncannily similar to the coastline of South East Asia - from Gujarat in India all the way upto Vietnam and China!

2008

The reason I've been sloth in posting on this blog (no posts in December!!) has been that I've been on a long vacation, the highlight of which was terminal Blackjack addiction in Las Vegas, not only for me but also my otherwise wise wife! The paradox is that there are so many things to blog about, that I probably wont be able to write about even one of them.

But first here's wishing everyone a very belated and very happy new year!

On Jan 1 2007, I had made 3 resolutions, which were pretty fundamental. They involved desired changes in my weight, career, and marital status. By a huge coincidence and massive doses of luck, I was able to fulfil all of them (alas, a few only temporarily!!). This hugely encouraged me to make some resolutions for this year as well, and I have given this matter some desultory thought over the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I was unable to come up with very fundamental resolutions, which I could keep. So here are some relatively light ones, which I will document here, and judge my performance against at the end of 2008:

1. Limit alcohol intake to once a month (wine not included here since I usually dont swill wine uncontrollably)
2. Wake up early (i.e. early for me - 6:30 am) each day
3. Contribute significantly to charity at least twice in the year
4. Learn a new activity - either Karate or some form of dance
5. Push myself harder professionally

Would be good to hear about your resolutions as well!

Thunder pe Wonder

Q: If Agent Vinod, Gunmaster G-9 and Agent 116 (hint: these are NOT fictional characters!) came together to save the country from an attack by giant locusts, what would their war-cry be?

A: Thunder pe Wonder!!

Couldn't stop laughing once I read this article (thanks to Mint)

Excerpts here:

The first desi Bond was Jeetendra in Farz (1967). Gopal or Agent 116 of the Indian Secret Service was still quite a homeboy, with his remarkable exclamation, “Thunder pe wonder”, and his white trousers. He meets Sunita (Babita) in the course of investigating the death of another agent and finds that the trail leads to Sunita’s dad.

The next year, we had Sailesh Kumar, who played a spy in Goldeneyes Secret Agent O77 in 1968. If you do not remember who Sailesh Kumar was, don’t let it worry you. No one else does.

This was followed by Agent 999 Operation Jackpot in 1972. Perhaps these flopped badly for it took a while for Rajshri Productions to start Agent Vinod, played by Mahendra Sandhu, which they released in 1977. The story established a pattern that almost all the others were to follow. A scientist (Nasir Hussain) is kidnapped. The government sends in Agent Vinod, who is helped by the daughter of the scientist (Asha Sachdev).

The only James Bond knock-off to be a hit was Suraksha (1979), in which Mithun Chakraborty played Gopi alias Gunmaster G9, with M played by Iftikhar at his school-masterly best. Suraksha’s most memorable moment was a graveside sequence. One of the Indian intelligence agents, Jackson (Suresh Oberoi), has been killed by the nasties. When the Indian intelligence agencies dig him up, they find pieces of plastic in his grave. Some uncredited extra utters the immortal lines: “Sir, ispe to plastic surgery kiya gaya hai (sir, he has had plastic surgery).”

Director Ravikant Nagaich tried to recreate the glory of Suraksha with Wardat two years later, in which Gopi came back when the nation was under attack from large locusts—but it flopped. Trade pundits opined that this was because Indian audiences could not take the idea of Gunmaster G9 being unfaithful to Ranjeeta, the heroine of Suraksha, since Kaajal Kiron was now playing the daughter of the kidnapped scientist and the G9 girl. It might well have been that it was just a very bad film.

A better mousetrap

An article that I chanced upon today... amazing to learn of the varied ways in which people make a living in our country!!

Rat trap brings prosperity in rural India

Seema Hakhu Kachru in Houston PTI November 29, 2007 16:18 IST

Better rat trap seems to have improved the lives of many people in rural tribal area of India, as it has opened doors for more money, access to better health care and schools, and improved social status.

That is what a researcher from the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University found when she visited and wrote a case study on the Irula tribe of southeast India whose main source of income and food comes from catching rats in farmers' fields.

The case study -- Building a Better Rat Trap: Technological Innovation, Human Capital and the Irula ?iri Terjesen of TCU in Fort Worth, will appear in the next issue of the academic journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

"It's hard to believe there's a whole group of people that still catches rats for a living," says Terjesen, an authority on entrepreneurship, strategy, and international business. "Until I visited the project, I was skeptical such a dramatic change in people's lives could be achieved. The Irulas are a great example of how bringing technology to the rural poor can help them improve their lives one step at a time." Sethu Sethunarayanan, founder and director of the Center for the Development of Disadvantaged People, an organisation dedicated to aiding the Irulas, enlisted the help of a mechanical engineer to make a rat trap that is effective 95 per cent of the time compared to the old method which was successful only 40 per cent of the time.

The results: Irulas using the new traps have doubled or tripled their incomes, greater numbers of Irula children are going to school, and more Irulas are receiving health care. The tribe may also be enhancing its social status, as other Indian peoples see the success the Irulas are reaping from improved rat-catching technology.

The Irulas' main source of income and food lies in catching rats in farmers' fields, on which they have barely been able to survive. In fact, some Irulas have starved to death over the years. But now assistance in the form of a more efficient rat trap is helping some tribal members to help themselves. Traditionally, the Irulas catch rats by lighting a fire in a clay pot, then using their mouths to blow air through a small hole on the bottom to force the smoke into a rat burrow.
The Irulas then dig out the stunned rat, along with any grains the rat had accumulated. The rats and grains are primary food sources for the Irulas. Farmers, who can lose up to 25 per cent of a crop to rats, pay for every rat removed. However, the clay-pot method of catching rats is successful less than half of the time, and the average rat catcher makes the equivalent of $15 to $30 per month, below the USD 35 deemed necessary for basic needs. Rat catchers also suffer from health problems, such as burned lips and hands, and smoke inhalation resulting in respiratory and cardiac illness.

Upon seeing the hardships of the tribe, Sethu and the CDDP sought to develop a better rat trap. Sethu and a mechanical engineer designed a steel trap, with a wooden handle to prevent hand burns and a crank to eliminate smoke inhalation and lip burns. He then requested feedback from the Irulas, to make sure the design met their needs. Sethu and the CDDP then applied for and received a $98,500 grant from the World Bank to help the Irulas make the new rat traps. After identifying the neediest Irulas among 170 villages, the CDDP selected 1,500 participants to make, earn, or purchase the traps.

The CDDP set up a small factory in an Irula village and hired 50 young women to run it. Since men and boys were expected to catch rats, and married women were expected to take care of domestic duties, hiring unmarried women was the best way to avoid disrupting their culture. The factory operates without electricity, utilizing hand tools, and has produced some 2,000 traps so far.

The traps are sold to the Irulas for approximately $25 apiece.
"In the past, the Irulas were given things for free by higher-status social groups and non-governmental organisations. But they found many of these things were useless to them and developed the view that unless they work for what they receive, the item doesn't have value," says Terjesen.

With the new traps, the rat-catching success rate is 95 per cent, and the Irulas are proud of their first use of mechanised technology. Also, participating Irula families can afford to send their children to school, a promising development for a tribe that has 99 per cent illiteracy.
"Many Irula children now go to school instead of catching rats," Terjesen says. This is all just the beginning, however. Approximately 3 million Irulas live in India, and only a relative few have been helped so far. Sethu and the CDDP hope to expand the project, says Terjesen. "As India becomes more globalised, it's important that large portions of its population not be left behind," she says. "So many more people could eventually be freed from the cycle of poverty."