Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Issue : World's co-operation in conservation of Energy sources

“It is unrealistic to expect individual nations to make, independently, the sacrifices necessary to conserve energy.
International leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential if we expect to protect the world’s energy resources
for future generations.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons
and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
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World, today, is one global village. We, the people of this planet, are blessed with energy resouces that are essential for us and our future generation to survive. The topic itself talks about "World's resources" and not the individual nation's resources, thus, the issue demands for the world's cooperation. Hence, I agree and strongly support that International and worldwide cooperation are essential for protecting world's energy resources for future generation.

The chief reason for for my view is that if we are out of any resource today, the whole humanity would suffer. Petroleum, for instance, is used all over the world. Right from Japan in the east to west coast of US, one cannot imagine life without Petroleum. Industrial revolution all over the world has increased our dependency on petroleum and its derivatives. But, the actual point to be noted here is that petrol is not available all over equally. Gulf countries are considered to be the prime exporters of petoleum. So, if today we argue that each nation should, by itself, conserve its resources, there might be a chance that gulf countries stop these exports to conserve petoleum for its own future generation. The whole world would be under crises if such thing ever happens.

The second reason for my argument is that if all the nations, together, think of alternative sources of energy, and try to develop these sources, this idea of working together will impart an aggressiveness and hence healthy competition. Every nation will want to have market share and hence, we can have good quality and highly competitive products available at competitive prices for the customers. For example, the development of Hybrid cars in US has lead to easy availability at affordable prices in US.

However some people might argue that the individual nations can look into the local concerns of people and choose what to conserve and what not to in a better way than World working out alternatives as one. But, this might lead to international chaos some day. For example, if a country like Sri Lanka, which can make use of water, a renewable source of energy, for generation of electricity can cooperate with a another country which is land locked and might be dependent on non-renewable resource for generation of basic need.

Hence, I conclude that World cooperation is essential today for conserving the resources for better life tomorrow.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Issue: Censorship

“In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In
other countries, there is little or no censorship.”
In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs?
Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.
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Censorship is an issue, which is local to the country. It deals with people's perception of certain things. I strongly believe that censoring offensive languages and behaivior is important and should be done, but the extent to which it is done is really a question worth answering. Is the government a right representative of the society as a whole? Does giving vote to certain political party euivalent to giving right to such ruling bodies to decide what is good or bad for you? My opinion is that Censorship should be left on the individual, if he or she is grown-up or on the parents.

The chief reason for my view is that certain practice may be viewed as offensive to one set of people and absolutely fine to other set of people. So, if any local representative or government addresses such issue, this may be lead to differences within the society. The practice of purdah system, for instance, was clearly welcomed few years back but same act is now penalised. If a governemnt, which represents India as a whole, is headed by a person of different religion than that of people who practice purdah system, then this might give rise to riots.

The second reason for my view is Media and entertainment are reflection of the society. The television programs and news reflect the society's mindset. The scenerio is based on the maturity of the people around us and moreover, sometimes I ask myself "Is the society a reflection of violence shown in movies and news? or The movies and news channels are reflection of society." Today, the marriages of celebs, road accident of some person becomes a national news, but the actual news are never shown and we are made to run after the newpaper vendor to get the actualy news. Latest among these fads is "Sting operation". I ask the readers that aren't sting operations a violation of human right and should be censored. But yes, this might come under freedom of media from politics and thus government choses to air such stupid operations on prime time, no matter who is the viewer.

However, some people might argue that there is a need to draw a line. One can not just go and protect himself under constituutional right and until and unless Government takes a serious step, no one will understand its necessity. But, in my opinion, Governement is not the representative of our views. It is an individual who should choose between the good and bad. Hence, comes the need of fundamentals of childhood, the education and right oppurtunities. If these fundamentals are strong, there is absolutely no need for censorship.

So I conclude that Censorship is important, but Goverment should not decide on the content and the extend of doing it.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Issue : Ethics in Business

“The most effective business leaders are those who maintain the highest ethical standards.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons
and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

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In the world of high competition, what is at stake is company's reputation. The growth of the business, the quaterly revenue revenue has brought in the spirit of aggressiveness into the business world. I completely agree that the effectivity of the business deals, today, depends on the ethical standards of the business leaders, who represent the company, as the ethics brings in the invigorating whiff of freshness into the process.

If one obeserves the policies of big names like Wipro and Infosys, one point is clear that more than anything else what matters is your ethics. No matter how bad you are in your work, you can observe people at your workplace and improve. But, you can never biuld a strong personality with great ethical system. The learning begins right from the childhood and it is a continuous process.


The second reason for my view is that world now is more connected, and the media is very active. Your every move is being watched. What now counts is not only the face value but also the inner personality. To become a successful business leader, one struggles right from the college days till one reaches the level where you are the part of policy making team. After acheiving so much, if one is caught harassing the subordinate employee or breaching the security policy of the company, then one should not have done the hardwork at all. Thus, your personality and ethical value definetly reflects the policy of the company, and hence the growth.

While there are few, who feels that at the end of the day, what matters in this era of globalization is the growth of the company and whether one is able to bring in busniess, which depends on the face-to-face dealings between the business leaders. The make or the break of the deals depend on the way they market themselves. However, I beleive that what remains the backbone of the process is their ethics. I agree that business leaders can have best strategy, best technical background, but without ethics, the client won't even turn towards that company for the business and so the question of having best in you except the ethics won't let you survive.

To conclude, I agree that ethics is the most important quality that a business leader should have for the person to survive as a leader and for the company to survive in this competitive world.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Welcome

Hi Friends,
I am dedicating this blog for GMAT's AWA section. I decided to start a blog for two reasons, one that this might help me improve my typing speed. Though I am a software engineer by profession, the keyboard is my second pen for last 2 years, but still didnot want to take chance.
Second, because I want the readers to rate my AWA and give me valuable comment

For referring the strategies tested at GMAT for AWA, please visit my blog http://www.my-journey-to-mba.blogspot.com/
The blog mentioned above is where I update almost daily all the strategies and my day to day plan for GMAT. Right now it's a private blog just because it is not complete but as soon as I take my test, I will make it public.

I request you all to please help me improve my critical writting skills so that I can give my best in GMAT. Thank you.