(Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash)
It is time to take weekly stock yet again of the remorseless and unrelenting passage of time. Seven days of professional rigours and personal revelries. Seven days of patience and frenzy. Here’s encapsulating the memories, music and musings from a week gone by!
Article/Longform Article/Blogpost of the Week:
“Breaking Down the Gap in DisCom Finances: Explaining the Causes of Missing Money” by Rajasekhar Devaguptapu & Dr. Rahul Tongia
In an impact paper for the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, authors Rajasekhar Devaguptapu & Dr. Rahul Tongia dissect in a comprehensive, cohesive and clinical fashion the primary reasons underlying the grievous state of DISCOMs in India. This paper makes for mandatory reading from the perspective of rustics, skeptics, policy mavens and commentators alike. Employing a long time series, the authors strive to analyse, evaluate and answer the following questions that are of seminal import:
1. What are the operational losses of DisComs and what are their causes?
2. How much of the gap between costs and revenues is apportionable to different stakeholders (DisCom, regulator, and state government) or not apportionable?
3. How do the operational (annual) losses link to the DisCom balance sheets?
4. What are the steps needed to fix the financial health of the DisComs, especially for a turnaround (on the basis of operational basis viability)?
The complete link to this fascinating paper is as set out hereinbelow:
Breaking Down the Gap in DisCom Finances: Explaining the Causes of Missing Money – CSEP
Song of the Week:
“Fight Song” by Rachel Platten
An extremely peppy, alluring and inspiring number, “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten makes the listener wonder why the singer is not a household name. The song was the title track in Rachel Platten’s debut EP. “Fight Song” was a motivational ‘riposte’ to the US music industry that had repeatedly rejected the singer for over ten years.
Quote of the Week
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” – Richard Feynman
Podcast/Talk of the Week:
“The Supreme Court Rules Against Affirmative Action” in The Journal
The Journal is a podcast hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson. The Journal is a co-production from Gimlet Media and The Wall Street Journal. In the episode captioned above, Douglas Belkin of the Wall Street Journal discusses the potential ramifications for both colleges and students alike as a fall out of the tumultuous decision of the United States Supreme Court making affirmative action unconstitutional in college admissions. Aiding and abetting Belkin in his endeavour is Lauren Weber, also of the Wall Street Journal.
Movie/Show/Series of the Week
Trishanku (Malayalam) on Netflix
This Anna Ben–Arjun Ashokan starrer is a comedy drama that has at its centre a couple all set to elope. The plans of Sethu (Arjun Ashokan) and Megha (Anna Ben) are sent into disarray when Sethu’s own sister elopes with her lover just when he himself is on his way to a rendezvous with Megha. How the duo come to grips with this conundrum and try wriggle themselves out of it forms the nub of the movie.
Book of the Week
Wonder Boy: TONY HSIEH, ZAPPOS and the MYTH of HAPPINESS in SILICON VALLEY – Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans
When he was all of 24, Tony Hsieh found himself a millionaire when his first venture, LinkExchange was snapped up by Microsoft for a mouthwatering $265 million. Almost exactly a decade later, the buccaneering and egregious entrepreneur – as though demonstrating that his original success was no flash in the pan – sold his second, and most iconic venture, the online shoe retailer Zappos, to Jezz Bezos and Amazon for an eye popping $1.2 billion. However there would be no third decadal milestone for Tony Hsieh, for at the age of 46, he was found dead under mysterious circumstances. This tortured and eccentric genius represented everything that made Silicon Valley tick, and, when not ticking, implode from within. Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans in their wistful, disturbing and dramatic book recount both the halcyon days and harrowing events experienced by one of the most influential and tragic minds of our time.
The complete review can be accessed at:
