Harish Palaniappan's

You would have heard about the recent restrictions that US government is putting on outsourcing services and export trade for other countries.. majorly affecting Indian and Chinese interests in the US market.

I subscribe to a newsletter from a non-government, non-profit 'National US INDIA chamber of commerce', which reports 'clear-and-accounted' lobbying of some Indian companies in the US for easing US stand on its restrictions..

India Inc paying millions on lobbying in U.S.

Wednesday,6th May 2009

Washington: Indian companies, including top corporate entity RIL and industry body Nasscom, are paying thousands of dollars on lobbying with lawmakers and government departments in the U.S. on issues ranging from immigrant visas to bilateral trade and individual business ventures.

Four Indian entities - Reliance Industries, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid Chemicals - have together paid close to $2,75,000 (about Rs 1.4 crore) towards lobbying their causes during the first three months of 2009, says the disclosure reports filed by lobbyists firms with the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Out of this, RIL has paid $1,90,000 to BGR Holding, a high-profile lobbyist group that has many Fortune 500 firms and foreign governments as its clients, for providing 'strategic counsel on issues related to trade.'

Incidentally, the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives are currently considering new legislations to penalize companies that supply petroleum products to Iran, which includes RIL. The penalty could include a ban from doing business in the U.S. Besides, Nasscom has paid $70,000 to the same lobbyist, BGR, in the first quarter of 2009 for lobbying on international technology and immigration issues.

Indian software industry has reacted sharply to the recent moves by the U.S. administration to put curbs on H1-B visas, a skilled foreign worker visa that have largely been given to Indian IT professionals in the past.

While the payment made by Sun Pharma in Q1 2009 is below $5,000, Orchid Chemicals has paid $10,000 for lobbying on issues related to the U.S. drug regulator FDA's policies. Sun Pharma's lobbying issues have been related to the citizens' petitions and FDA reforms. While there are no past disclosures about RIL's lobbying attempts, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid have been quite active on this front in the past.

Purnima Voria, Founder/CEO
National US India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC)

My take:

US 's recent restrictions on trade is more so like war-time Restrictions / Sanctions which could have very serious reverberating summary effect on the industries.. especially in India, because India's software industry and general economy itself is very much dependent on business with the US.

While US is doing this as a economy-saving measure for themselves, they are actually making it worser for them without realizing it, because these restrictions would mean many US industries or products built there will be more costly than in recent past, though there will be advantage that unemployment problems in US will get a breathing, and also US people will grow more mature to have competitive salaries in their jobs and more drive to make cheaper products or services.. rather than thinking cheaper always means outsourcing or allowing the markets to import.

An important thing of Note about US: I don't know How and Why the US legalises things like Lobbying the senate and lawmakers, spending billions for election campaign taking money through donor companies/industries itself, and all..

If bribing a senator to help work on a law is accounted as legal as 'Lobbying' or such people as 'Lobbyists', accounting those costs, then it is like just running a Casino.. not a government I think.

Also, if companies/industries can donate huge sums legally (after paying taxes) to the republicans or democrats, and if the parties can spend any amount for election campaigns, then I think they are just making all their hard earned money flow into forming a government which will then run the casino.. and all politicians and lobbyists make lot of money, and people make "nothing".. all this legal.

It is typically a routing that politicians in america have created over the years to bring all the money to their coppers.

There are presidential campaign reported expenditure websites and accounted statements online, which have something like 20-60 billion US$ being spent by the ruling party's next presidential campaign. That is a horrifying canal route bleeding every American's pocket to make that sum. The capitalist organizations bleed the people by over-pricing their products, then donate it to presidential campaign funds. .. This happens in every country.. but then, it will only be a few hundred millions.. not any close to the figures that americans pay to their president and his people.

First Americans have to correct all this, rather than stupidly thinking that buying services from India / China is costing them their economy. Buying from these countries could only make their economy stronger because of cheaper costs.. Is it real that they don't understand that ?, and they still believe all their president's and governments words about where all the money has gone ?..

Posted by Harish at 8:32 AM | Permalink

I can't believe I missed the news on this.. Tata Nano the people's car.. had a people's car type launch, mostly because everybody of Auto industry turned out to be critics of the dream of Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata has done a show to launch the car, on 10th of this month in Delhi.. Some videos of this are posted on youtube.com here

p.s. You may not be able to view the video already from youtube because either youtube.com has deleted it, for copyright reasons or for avoiding too many hits. I was able to view two parts of the video, but the 3rd returned a 'sorry' message from youtube

More than the car, I was worried about the inspiring, but aeging Ratan Tata.. he definitely seemed unhealthy and I-may-fall-anytime kind of postures during the entire show at the launch. Bless him well.. and here are some pics.

Though probably this will be my first auto-review post.. I am so encouraged to type my opinion of Nano if you care, I guess Nano will have a slow start.. and might take an year or two to have expected kind of boom in numbers in sales.. because of the friction every innovative product has in india (remember indians are a demanding audience).. How big a success and revolution Maruthi 800 created when it was launched and for so many years later that.. is something we all know... so we can expect a repeat of that kind of history very very much with nano.

The car, to be honest, to keep away my or even your critical / sceptic thoughts about it.. in comparison to cars and their costs like a Maruthi or Hyundai or Ford ones... nano looks good, affordable, as safe and economic as a Maruthi or Hyundai or Ford is. Not bad or sceptic at all like we careful, demanding indians critic about.

Another thing I observed on the launch function was, almost all employees of Ratan Tata seem to share a fright to get near him or be near him, probably not fear but having worked for him, they know the bigness of him and respect him so. Anyways, nice to see a dream indian project completed, that too when the whole world challenged that it is not possible.. I remember how somebody said from some country they are going to make a $100 laptop, and never were able to keep the promise.

I am going to remember the last photo above.. Tata with the Nano like a pet by his side.. look at the size of them.. cute little creature it is.

Posted by Harish at 8:48 PM | Permalink

News: Delhi airport has been authorized to pick money from travellers when they arrive at the airport. 1000+ Rupees ($20+) from international travellers, and 200+ ($4+) from domestic travellers.. for the sake of developing the delhi airport.

How many times have you cribbed losing money or shouting back at politicians and local organizations demanding you money to organize a local political meeting or fund their campaign, or develop a building or infrastructure like a temple in your locality... "for your growth why should I lose my hard earned money" you would say when they throw a cheeky smile and say "madam, we are doing this to help you, society and well-being of everyone.. we promise".

And you thought that is something illegal they are doing and you sometimes have to do with it because they are powerful people.

Now its all legal with the recent news item.

As a traveller you hardly spend time at an airport, and it is only the airplane that transports you more than the airport's involvement in your transport, but still delhi airport will charge you for developing their services, not for using their service, but because you landed at the airport.

They are charging passengers rather than doing this to the airliners.. because airliners in India are already poor and begging on the next street corner it seems..

End of day, every corportation wants to exist well right from citibank, to delhi airports, and politicians will exist and help the corporations exist, but people have to pay for existing.. though the former's source of income is purely the latter.

This horrible trend, if it catches up, which I guess it definitely will, is going to make you not just pay tax, but toll charges on the road, airport usage charges at the airport, part entry fee at the government maintained parks, and much more.. you earn your money, and pay tax.. and politicians and government officials, get the tax, their salaries, the scam loots, various bribe/extortion money, etc.,

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News two says: Finance ministry of Indian government has decided to let loose funds from FDI as local funds with a new scheme..

And all business newspapers are hailing the idea as a good one.. which is to be announced in the forthcoming budget session.

Capitalism is required but only as long as we can control the gates from being wide open.. but this move suggests they are removing the entire compound wall and trying to put a one-time entry fee at the gate alone.

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For example, until now, walmart USA can start operations in the name of walmart India with 51% of administration held with the Indian management, the remaining 49% administration (or the actual ruling administration) from the USA. ... and all funds they invest in india are considered foreign-investment and have limitations on how it can be used or what ROI they can take back...

But if the news becomes real, it suggests walmart can invest in a 100% indian managed company called talmart India. and invest huge sums of money, and actually do whatever an indian company can do, though they are actually foreign investments which should have limitations. This is because their FDI on talmart will be considered local investment since they have already existed and invested like an FDI on walmart India.

Because there won't be limitations, they can challenge all of indian market, like reliance fresh challenged all hawker based grocery in india.. and finally at the end keep or take all their earnings from india back to their country without any issues.

Practically speaking it is correct that they are investing and they are taking back their profits.. out of their hard work.. but ethically speaking we are allowing a larger economy to suck blood from a 48+ times weaker economy assuming they will push more and more money to make india larger.

Taking competition head on from foreigners and still surviving is fine.. US does, UK does, but we have a huge band of poor, dying, or weaker sections in soceity than what the west has.. and rather than helping these bands from thinning.. even after so much light as from somebody calling an indian community "slumdogs", the ministry of finance goes bang-bang with capitalism to impress americans to work more with indians..and share each other's markets..

Who does it help?
The rich obviously.. so the rich get richer. When the west allows indians more space in their market for goods and services, it is the rich set of indians who do exports that get benefitted.

The poor get more poorer.. because when the west comes into india and takes away a share of our market for goods and services, growing companies or small industries lose work on competition.. and more companies means more employment for the partly or fully educated poor which will tempt them and keep them out of agriculture and other important industries that the un-educated poor survive on.

The basic truth behind businesses coming to India, is:
1. Survival of the fittest.. more money, bigger economy, they will survive, even if we indians compete with all our money with them..
2. Foreigners would invest in India.. not to serve indian economy, but only to make themselves more richer, or to shift their recession here.

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Long live the Indian polity and the finance ministry's executies with all how-to-suck-people's-money ideas.. they sure should get ready retirement pensions and jobs from corporates for helping them loot the people who serve as their vehicle to office.

If the finance ministry gets time, they should sit and think what reforms they are doing as equal to what they are doing for corporates, or FDI, and tally the numbers to understand that they are doing negligible to raise India's poor.

It is simple math.. and here's a crude sample of the numbers.

End of day, waive a 6000 cr farm loan, 2000 cr NREGA and show that on Television as achievements to raise the poor.. but are we forgetting the fact that 6000 cr farm loan waiver was debt not new fund injection for poor..and that in no way will raise the bar, but only encourage them buy more loans.
And the 2000 cr NREGA project is used by people who are unemployed only because of all the other anti-poor / capitalist reforms.

So, you make the fire and then after sometime send the fire service to douse it, doesn't mean you are serving the people.

And finally, the reform worth given to corporates would be nothing less than 200,000 cr in any financial year.. which overcasts a huge shadow over the 6k+2k above making it entirely negligible.

Posted by Harish at 3:53 PM | Permalink

All of India seems to have gone dry this summer.. temperatures in central and south India are soaring into the 40's of the Celsius scale. Ice is melting heavily making thicker rivers in upper northern parts of India.

And the satellite images show almost no clouds.. "We are Running Dry"... make your prayers.

Picture src: Insat image
(This picture source updates regularly, and is listed permanently at the bottom of homepage on this blog www.harishpl.info)

Posted by Harish at 12:01 AM | Permalink

India's inflation is increasing. To stop it or bring it down, the finance ministry and government of India is taking some what they themselves call "intelligent counter measures".

What they are doing is decreasing import duties, or making nil import duties so imports cost less, and banning or reducing some exports so more of goods are left within the country for indians to use.

While this might sound good measures for those who think "increase supply to meet demand and prices will reduce", it beats the idea that india has to be more richer to be self-sustaining and to absorb the costs of inflation and a growing economy... .because when you stop exports, you stop fund flow into india from other countries through trade.. and when you encourage imports, you increase the fund flow OUT of india to other countries in trade.

So, the government is technically just stopping India's growth or controlling the growth thinking that is what will bring down inflation.

There are a million ways to handle inflation financially, and I am surprised the "intelligence" of the ministers in the government can think of only two, one as discussed above, and two: to go beg all companies and industries to reduce their profit margins and bring down inflation.. which is actually the government's job and not the industry's or the company's.

This simply shows how much control the government has on the market and the economy of the country, that they have to beg the industry's or just stop the country's growth.. It is like either this extreme low level decisions, or that extreme high-level decisions to stop growth which is only done in case of emergencies.

By far it simply looks like we got a huge bunch lazy cats who don't want to spend time finding ways to solve problems, which is what governing is all about.

Next time, you pray to god, pray that god give some "intelligence" to all those ministers in the government to think more than talking more.. and do more than reacting to media more..

And Hence, in India, all big companies like Tata, Airtel, etc., and big industries like cement, banking, etc., are allowed to cost their products any high, looting money from people, and finally government will take a measure where all these companies push the money to people outside the country by importing lots and lots of goods. Your money and my money doesn't get rotated in trade within India, but as soon as we know, it gets out of the country.

What is happening is so gruesome a murder to the economy of the country, that this is all going to blow up big issues for the future, or, as usually it happens, the issues get pushed under the carpet and huge huge amounts of farmer loans are erased from the books further, as if India earns all the money in that sector.. agriculture.

Posted by Harish at 11:38 AM | Permalink

Pakistan went to polls this week after many years of confused, undemocratic rule by President Musharraf.

For me, the results sound like the pakistanis have voted the most safe government... if it will be formed that is.. with two rival parties joining hands against all odds for democracy's sake. One party that of Mr.Nawaz sharif, and the other of late Benazir Bhutto's, now headed by her husband Asif Zardari.

Pakistanis have indeed decided things this time. Whoever assasinated Benazir Bhutto would now realize their plan to achieve instability in pakistan "back-fired" as was expected.

Photo source: 'The Hindu' newspaper in india.. shown here only for a representation.

News source: Opposition parties sweep polls in Pakistan

Posted by Harish at 7:42 AM | Permalink

Watching English movies helps build our understanding capabilities of the English language. Speaking English and hearing others speak English helps build command over our English accent.

But then, can you improve your English with help from the web??

A nice effort from BBC.CO.UK on their website has a page where people can try to learn English accent and words or meaning everyday along with hearing the news for the day.

This small thing done everyday, could easily help improve people's command over understanding or speaking the English language.

Click below link to see a new item with links to learn English. The speakers read the news a little slower than it is read on BBC television.. and there's a separate section on pronouncing words where they pronounce every word slowly first and then to speed as in the news.

China snow - from learning English news item

The Learning English site on BBC.CO.UK

kudos, to BBC webmasters for the idea.

Posted by Harish at 11:46 PM | Permalink

The government of UttarPradesh has floated tenders for international competitive bidding... for building an 8-lane road connecting the East-West of the state. The projects worth as per the tender is a whopping 25,000 and odd crores of Indian rupees.. or 6.7bn US$.

No, No, this is not for all road projects in the entire country.. but just approximately 950 kilometer stretch of road with 8-lanes. If you calculate 950x8 and put that in the denominator of 25000 crores...you get a budget of 328 crore rupees per km of one lane road.. i.e., 8.4 million US$ per km of 1-lane road...probably the costliest road project in the whole world.. I believe the road is going to be on the ground. Anyways, so, this is indeed a big BIG loot.

And even after all that money, all Indians know how much of all these government projects get completed.. and how well.. or actually whether they will really have 8-lanes when completed after 10-15 years. How can some 25,000 crore of money go un-laundered .. that too given that it is in India.. that too uttar pradesh.. and finally with Ms.Mayawati, the current uttar pradesh chief minister being the beneficiary. She must really have big plans.

News link: Contract for Indian highway goes to bid

The news is on the radar of almost all foreign business news websites.. everybody is into India to loot your money, and to take it back with them out of India itself, god save all our money :o).

Posted by Harish at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Popularly called the super jumbo.. it is tall as a 7-storey building.. holding three floors/3 classes of spacious passenger seating... and much much more things that aviation juggernauts everywhere have-been and still are drooling over... including vijay mallaya's kingfisher airlines and air india which have ordered a few of this multi-billion dollay plane for india.

The first commercial flight of the super jumbo, operated by singapore airlines, happened thursday(news link).. from Toulouse, Australia -> Changi, Singapore. And you know what, the seats were sold on ebay months before.. I heard the highest amount was a few hundred thousand dollars for two seats on the plane.. because people felt it is part of history to fly in the worlds biggest plane first.

I have been following the stories on this plane, ever since 3 years i think. There was politics from boeing the rival, to internal politics in France, to do all sorts of things to stop it or delay it, right from acquiring most core employees of the project, to stopping access to some core components or testing facilities.. .and what not. Airbus stuck through everything, even at the cost of losing money.. they lose money if they delay delivery of the aircraft to a customer, the contracts are like that since its such a high-value product and a customer would have huge plans based on his delivery date.

My follow-on links:
What happened to the Super Jumbo?
Airbus A380 - The Super Jumbo

If you are excited to know the details of this huge boy(with photos) - here you go:
How A380 works?
A380 seating arrangement - How spacious

Kudos to Airbus... for thinking big.. so BIG.
And the picture above.. courtesy airbus website.. (click image to see bigger size) Isn't he cute ? :o)

Posted by Harish at 5:26 PM | Permalink

This below scene will disappear in a couple of weeks. For the 2,400 year old 'Acropolis' is being moved downhill into a modern day museum called the Acropolis museum... along with more stones.

Yea, once inside the museum it will all look like odd stones.. the real beauty is to see them in their natural environment where they were sculpted and erected years ago.

VOA news : Greece Begins Transfer of Ancient Acropolis Sculptures

Looks like modern day Greece is not at all interested in being called ethnic, or traditional.. Probably the feeling to move towards modernity only got more stronger after the Greece olympics at Athens few years back.

Rumour is that,
They are purposefully triggering fires in Greece forests to deforest them for making way for development .. and they put some skape goat culprits to take the blame for triggering the forest fires and put them a couple of months in jail.

Do people in Greece understand the level of ethnicity attached to their land, or the traditional value that has been deep-rooted there by people like the Spartans.

We will miss ancient day Greece if everything is going to be made modern. It will only add to the pressure on modernizing places at the cost of destroying the place's identity.

Now, moving Acropolis is only becoming another milestone in moving Greece out of its ethnic background.

Links: History notes on Acropolis - wikipedia

Posted by Harish at 2:29 PM | Permalink

Bold Move: CPI eats what it cooked.

The congress party which rules india now, made a bold move in deciding to go on with the much debated 1-2-3 nuke deal with the US, even if it is going against their biggest coalition partner the Communist party of India.

The members of Communist party of india cooked too much politics so far, with their acts and talk against the 1-2-3 nuke deal which, almost all industrialists, and nuclear energy analysts in the country favor as the best offer that India could have.

Right from threatening that they will pull down the government by withdrawing their support to the government, to saying that the honeymoon with the congress party was over, to saying that India's sovereignty is at risk, and all that .. the CPI has had undiplomatic, sceptic views of the deal, of the congress party, and of the country itself, without ever, even once clearly stating which part of the deal they are not ok with, and what they would like to be corrected. All they said .. "stop going ahead with operating the deal for 6 months.. then we will tell you what to do"... as if they dictate the terms in this country.

Though late, the congress party has made a bold move now to stop CPI from trying to run this country and dictating terms to the congress party. Of course, it runs the risk of pushing the country into another election, but I think that is better than doing everything coalition parties say knowing it is stupid. This definitely should push lessons into another coalition partner other than the CPI, that's the DMK, a party from south india which also occasionally thinks it can get away with doing any kind of politics because they have considerable numbers to hold or pull the government at the center.

Recent remarks by sonia gandhi .. "those who are against the nuke deal are people against the development of this country... are enemies of this country".. is further a flat smack on the CPI's face.

The members of CPI, obviously, have now ducked their heads.

The CPI can now eat their own political cooking, and taste all the embarrasement.

Their options: If they pull down the government, they can expect to lose badly in the election that comes afterwards..
or,
They can stick to the government by actually supporting the nuke deal, and try to pull out some kind of intelligent diplomatic statement to avoid embarrassment any further. ..actually I am eager to see what intelligent diplomacy they are able to pull off given such a scenario.. great it will be for learning of such an interesting diplomatic english sentence.. let's see.

update: 15 oct 07
Looks like indian politicians like no strings left when it comes to being corrupt, anti-national, and money-or-power friendly. What I misunderstood as a bold attempt by congress party(the drama troupe) and its heroine sonia gandhi.. came out all upside down, showing that they are politicians for the welfare of their self rather than the people. News is that all alliance partners have successfully convinced congress party and its president that the nuke deal can go but not the government.

Openly nude stupidity... will people learn intentions of these politicians atleast now:
Open enough, chiefs of the alliance parties like DMK, CPI, CPI(M) are openly telling media that they want to keep power and keep the government to its entire term, rather than do some reform like nuke deal and get into a fight of losing power.

The chiefs openly say that, in one of their meetings, where sonia gandhi and manmohan singh(the educated-but-still-dumb prime minister of india) were convinced, they asked 'Why do you want to break your government on a stupid nuclear deal with america. we remaining in power is important than getting energy reforms for the country at the current moment". This can't get any more stupid, and I am 101% sure 80% of indians don't understand all this and will only reelect such stupid people to power.

BJP forces Karantaka into elections:

Looks like this is the government pulling season in India.

While India itself is showing chances of a mid-term central government election, the government in the state of karnataka has been pulled down already, and the state seems to be heading for assembly elections.

Chances are that India and karnataka(and rumours are that even gujarat govt might fall) are heading to start the year 2008 afresh with elections.

Have you heard this anywhere else.. the idea of two political parties forming an alliance to rule on a condition that they take turns.. meaning first half you rule, second half-term I rule. ya, like some doubles carom board game.

Successfully tested first in Jammu & Kashmir by the congress and PDP of kashmir, the BJP and JD(s) wanted to be the next advanced state in india by testing it here. Unfortunately, JS(s) seemed to have had other ideas even from then, that they now refused to transfer power to the BJP after their half-term is now complete. They reasons they started with was.. "1. We haven't been able to do much for the state within our period..(bravo) and, 2. BJP is not a secular party..so handing over power to them will risk the lives of the -people- of karnataka"... suddenly they have tried to do something for people. good.

Here, the interesting part is...the state Congress party is also getting involved. How?
Rumours are that the JD(s) is now trying to work up a deal with the congress party of the state for making the numbers..to remain in power for the next half term. Should this get anymore clearer now to people that JD(s) would do anything for power? even be it swapping friends with enemies.. i mean swapping opposition party to an alliance party.
It would be interesting if it happens that congress decides to help JD(s) remain in power.. because that would put old friends(BJP) in the opposition... and new friends(Congress) in the ruling seats... he he.

now.. anything can happen in Indian politics when you go for a cup of coffee..

yea.. a different way of understanding the Cafe coffee day tag line "anything can happen over a cup of coffee".

Keep watching.

Posted by Harish at 11:00 PM | Permalink

It was my first candle light thing.. and it was lovely.. with not one love, but many lovely people. not just a few, but more than a hundred candles.. not in a hotel, but in besant nagar beach, chennai.

It was a candle light vigil organized by 'Youth for social change' and 'Association for India's development', two NGO's, along with a bunch of lovely supporters and friends.

The event was organized today, the 138th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

The day was aptly utilized to express support for, and to highlight the high suicide deaths among Indian farmers in the current decade.

It also tried to make people aware of, and think about state of farmers in places like vidharbha, Maharashtra.

I relate it to a romantic candle light dinner.. because, the love and genuine affection these people showed in organizing the event and running the show was infectious, and I carried back home a little more love for this country and the people.

There was another group of people participating.. who had come from kancheepuram. These people mostly women and one small boy, sung street songs 'gaana' style with lyrics highlighting problems farmers faced.

Though some of the lines of the 'gaana' songs sung, or the comments people voiced, took a rough anti-capitalistic approach at times, it was a message of awareness well delivered at the end of the day.

Interesting things were:
They read out 138 names of farmers who committed suicide in the vidharbha region .. more had died, but they read out 138 because it was the 138th birth anniversary of Gandhi on this day the 2nd october.

And as they read out each name, somebody took a candle and put it in a curve which later became a nice circle of candles. .with all of us sitting around it observing 10 minutes of silence.

There was considerable media coverage for the initial stages of the event.. from some local newspapers and TV channels.. including some coverage from NDTV. Probably, this should be on TV tomorrow.

They had planned out well. I later understood from a member(Rohit shetty) of the group which planned the event, that they planned the event in a short time, which is one big reason i think it was infectiously successful. It seems they finalized plans only over the night of 1st October finishing off at 2am in the wee hours on 2nd October.
Also, I and many others felt and could see that people were just getting to taking some part of the work of organizing the event and doing it with real-time planning rather than planning for days of months, or planning press briefings well in advance. The guys who spoke to the press both in English or Tamil spoke their mind and were instantaneous rather than having that air of addressing the press and being on television or newspapers.

They used simple banners on charts with messages written down by hand.. both in English and the local language Tamil. They had a big cloth banner painted with the message and stuck on bamboo sticks.
Why all this banner thing was interesting for me? you might ask.. simply because they seem to have given more importance to the message rather than the banners.

I am not a great fan of the Gandhian way of handling problems.. but I do believe that the Gandhian way is always better than doing the thing that I do often.."Nothing / Nothing but talking".

So, it was a great candle light dinner.. minus the dinner.. plus a cause for expressing solidarity to farmers committing suicide in our own small way.

"I love Indian people.. and their attitude".

I think before today, given my critique-attitude towards problems I see everyday in India, I have never even thought about saying something like that...

All this drives me further more, to learn about and do some social work or show more social responsibility towards issues in my city / state / country.

.. And this event was organized worldwide by aidindia.org, other than Chennai.. also in Pune, Mumbai, Bhopal.. and close to 200 cities in the US they say.

If you want to: You can sign the online petition they are planning to submit to the Prime Minister of India highlighting this issue, and asking for action.

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/varun21482/FightForTheFarmer

Posted by Harish at 11:17 PM | Permalink

Parcel delivery from space, experiment attempted:

Imagine you are kid in a high-rise residential apartment, say on the 13th floor.. and you wanted to deliver a box parcel to your friend in the 4th floor. As a kid you would probably tie the box to a long rope and slowly drop it near the 4th floor where your friend picks it up.. (and ofcourse you make sure you get back the rope)

This same thing was tried recently by a russian space mission where they wanted to test a parcel delivery from a spacecraft 500km away from earth.. What was planned is like this: They had a spherical capsule for the parcel.. tied to a tether (fiber rope) which they planned to drop towards earth.. since at space the parcel is assumed zero weight the rope only had to be a holder rather than a carrier for the weight. .. once within a space where there's considerable gravitational pull from the earth, they wanted to release the rope from the spacecraft, so that the capsule entered earth by the gravitational pull and once inside earth's atmosphere it would parachute to ground or water.

Some 500 students all over the world were preparing the experiment which went on board a russian unmanned space vehicle. The vehicle which itself was an experiment.. being an unmanned vehicle, was carrying a few other experiments like this parcel thing.

Since the spacecraft was 500km away, the rope had to be atleast some percentage of that to stretch the parcel towards earth's gravity.. so the rope was 30km long (probably wound into a coil placed inside the spacecraft).

Also, once the rope is uncoiled to its full length stretching the parcel down, there was a plan to swing the vehicle in such a way that while releasing the rope the parcel at the end of it, due to the swing, would have some momentum to move faster towards the earth(otherwise it had the risk of losing track to any other planet's gravitational pull).

Unfortunately.. while performing this test, the rope probably failed unwinding or uncoiling after about 8.2 kms of unwinding... probably got stuck.. they had to cut down the rope without having 30km of it deployed and so the experiment was a failure.

But the attempt was interesting to learn about. This test was to find out whether this could be a low cost method of transfering heavy cargo or equipment back to earth from future space missions, rather than spending all that fuel and cost to have a space vehicle like 'space shuttle' carry cargo back to earth.

I was amazed at the idea.. Imagine, a whopping 30km long rope hanging from a space vehicle trying to release a parcel back to earth.

Other things I was amazed about:
> That the rope or tether used was half-a-millimeter thick.. just (.5mm).. obviously, otherwise how would have they got 30km of it coiled in a vehicle.
> They made the rope with a material called Dyneema which they say is the world's most strongest fibre.. also used by kite surfers.

What I probably wondered or didn't like was:
> Why did they require more than 500 students to design or plan this.. 500 is a very large number. I doubt whether all 500 students participated actively in the project, or whether they all just subscribed to it like subscribing to some yahoo group.
> Also, it would have taken a hell a lot of time with so much people, to agree upon all the design components for this experiment.

Links:
PDF document on the experiment

Analysts have been even thinking of tethered satellite stuff.. satellites connected to another by tether.. read about this here.

----------
NASA's two kids in mars have a happy life:

It has been three years and NASA's mars rover machines, the SPIRIT and the OPPORTUNITY are still listening to commands from earth and are actively researching the martian soil further, sending photographs,etc.,

The machines originally designed only with a plan to make sure they sustain atleast 90 days on Mars, now living up to 3 years, and recently surviving a 6-week long huge dust storm without being disconnected from communications with earth, is all great news for the team behind it.

It seems the controllers on earth stations for the two machines, did a great job during the dust storm, in ensuring that whatever possible was switched off on the machines(except communications with earth of course) to make them use less power because during the dust storm the machines don't receive enough sunlight to generate electricity through their solar panels.

Last month, NASA has sent another machine to mars.. the PHOENIX.. (launched August 2007 from earth), and the travel would take so long that PHOENIX would reach mars only in May 2008.

Imagine! if mars had water and they decided to send a few people up there.. it would be a 9 month travel.. in all the darkness of space, with all unfriendly things around.. and further, in zero gravity.

he he.. I have a list of friends who I want to nominate for such a travel.. :o)

Links:
Mars exploration details

Image sources:
NASA.gov, esa.int, spacetoday.org

Posted by Harish at 3:22 PM | Permalink

An European court has ruled against Microsoft Corporation, for unhealthy competition, and fined them Euro 497 million.. it is 497 millions.. my god. If Europe wants money, they can ask, not pull a company by its tail like this, just because courts are in control by politics.

I also have my things against Microsoft..and their competition tactics.. but this is too much. You know what the fine was for... For packaging windows media player along with their Windows operating systems.. it seems because of this, people are demotivated to not buy any other media players made by European companies (stupid companies who can't make one better than microsoft probably), and Europe can't help them any other way but this.

Once a friend of mine, equated this to selling cars without seats and with seats and accessories. Will you file a case immediately on the car company saying they are crushing seat manufacturing companies because they are packaging seats with the car.

I don't know.. but please don't try buying Microsoft software in Europe.. The villians, they first got IE out of the package, now windows media player.. and what not.. if you buy Windows XP from Europe I think all it will say is windows booted...nothing else might be there.

Yes, Microsoft has sometimes tried to take upperhand of pushing their technology variations away from what standards organizations standardize, calling it new features, or either they stop supporting some technology (like IE still throws an error when java on the webpage tries to close the window when you have logged out of java-enabled websites).

But, it is simply their operating system, their package, their product, they are packaging their products free of cost with it... so that customers as soon as they install the system, can listen to music, browse websites and all that.

You can give a ruling recommending them to allow stuff to be uninstallable.. for example in first versions of windows XP that was shipped, msn messenger cannot be uninstalled, it was installed without asking users whether they require that.. they later released a service pack which made msn uninstallable or installable on user's selections.

Fining 497 million Euros is like taking advantage and having a cunning delight in pulling Microsoft by their shoes and celebrating with the money they pay up.

-----------

While that news got my head popping for the harrasement Europe is showing towards Microsoft for wrong reasons, this other news got me wondering why Indian government agencies are all-out for wooing foreign indians leaving the people in india go unnoticed.

Sardar Patel award to be conferred on Sunita Williams

Sunita William no doubt has achieved a great milestone in her career.. but saying hey she is indian, i am proud..i am proud.. is like india begging for attention from around the world. The indian government bureaucrats are behaving very immatured in the way they ask for attention from the world.

First they organized pujas in temples and lined up school children on streets calling it a prayer for sunita's safe return, as if she and her crew were suffering and dying. Attention, attention .. they got even on BBC.. i was ashamed to see indian school children made to pessimistically pray for a proper landing of space shuttle to grab attention of world media for india.

All this looks like indians are vulnerable and pessimistic to the extreme extent. I don't buy the stuff that all those children really knew who sunita williams was and why they were asked to stand in lines and pray. It is bull shit methods of advertizing.

Now, sunita is visiting her place in gujarat.. probably she visited here before her being popular also. but now we want to cover the episode, give her a red carpet welcome. ok.. at least all that is fine, she deserves to be welcomed.. but giving her sardar patel award all of a sudden, is definitely an attention grabbing act. If they had genuine reasons, atleast they would have given the award quietly rather than promoting it on the press much before.

To Indian bureaucrats in the government:
Grow up guys.. there are much more sunitas and kalpanas in the country who you dont even care about, and we the people have to make a film like 'Chak de' to grab "your" attention to get you sponsor them playing for "your" country.
A little fund and a little optimistic talk on indian talent by you guys can do much better attention grabbing than running behind every foreign indian celebrity, right from Mittal, to sunita.

Posted by Harish at 6:54 PM | Permalink

Super Jumbo is Airbus's 600 and odd seater aircraft..the A380.

It is the world's largest, so large that its wings had to be very huge. And Wings were so huge that they had to be inclined up at an angle to be away from the ground.. and also have landing gears in the wings to take on the weight during landing and take-off.

It was unveiled in a celebrated, popular, test flight way back in 2005.. Since then, there had been many many purchase orders for the multi-billion dollar aircraft (one even from Kingfisher Airlines in India for delivery in 2010).

Singapore airlines was the first to order, and Emirates Airlines placed the largest order. The first plane was expected to be delivered to Singapore Airlines in 2006, but technical difficulties and delays forced the Airbus directors atleast a couple of time to discuss and announce delays in delivery timelines.. off by atleast one year every time.

The delays have been majorly due to employee attrition, staff strikes, parts or technology inaccessibilities etc., which are all popularly attributed to have been triggered by competitor Boeing to ground the A380 project seeing risks in trade. and also ofcourse..due to politics within the airline industry.

Good news is:
Whatever happened so far.. it looks like the Super Jumbo will fly commercially before this year end. Singapore Airlines expects to operationalize the A380 from this October.

While the airports used by Singapore Airlines had already made broader runways, bigger turnaround space, and broader parking bays all setup back in 2005-2006,...
very recently, Airbus did a tour to Singapore and trained ground staff in the airports, to handle the super jumbo.

The super jumbo concept has from 2005 caught up with movies too.. popularly with the movie 'Flight Plan' whose story completely happens inside a 600 seater, 3 floor aircraft.

Also, India's most popular Software company Infosys has been a technology partner for the A380 project at Airbus, delivering key software and technology components that were involved in the aircraft's design and development.

Links:
1. You can catch up with my earlier post back in 2005 on A380 with photos.
2. A380 official site
3. Infosys's 2005 press release on its participation in the project
4. Infosys's case-study paper on the project

Posted by Harish at 11:42 PM | Permalink

If you are also one of those who hate the idea of the chicken business because they put the birds in very small, packed cages.

And the chickens almost live their entire adult life without movement, without seeing any green, without anything to do except mentally get stressed up being in the cage and actively using only their neck to ponder around and make that noise all the time.

Their only purpose, lay eggs during adulthood, and once their adult time is over, they are sold off as live stock for the butcher processing finally ending up at dinner tables. Is this any life? Horrible but has to be it... nothing anybody can do. Both eggs and chicken are way way ahead of the no-return mark in peoples diet charts. Yes, I have eaten chicken and eggs, but doesn't mean I approve of such treatment.

Anyways, the good part is ..

Trade in the west have started a brand 'Cage-Free Eggs' which is very successful though not anywhere close to replacing normal eggs.

What are cage-free eggs: Eggs hatched by chickens in poultry farms which dont put them in cages.. but put them on the floor permanently, like it is usually until adulthood even in normal poultry farms.

The brand has made sense with people, and caught up support from organizations like People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.

New york times has the story here

And for the question that I used to have having very often during my childhood, "Do chickens just lay eggs on their own, or do they need a rooster?" I found this at: Dreamcrossed Twilight

Yes and no. Being that chickens are not asexual critters, they do need the rooster's assistance in the area of reproduction. But here's the deal. Chickens lay two different kinds of eggs: fertilized and unfertilized. The average chicken lays one egg every 25 hours. If there is rooster sperm inside her, it will fertilize the egg. If fertilized eggs are cared for, they will hatch into baby chicks. If the rooster hasn't been around for a while, then the eggs will remain unfertilzed. These are what we buy at the grocery store. (Actually, one site said, "Many [italics mine] of the eggs we purchase from the local supermarket are unfertilised eggs." I found this a tad disturbing.)

Posted by Harish at 2:17 AM | Permalink

Look at China. No wonder they call it the dragon.

Chinese have been making every possible reform, and changing their country every day since they got the nod to host 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The international Olympics association chairman himself said in an interview after reviewing preparations in china, that he has never come across such large scale, long-term preparation for any event before, and that he is sure china is going to give the world the best Olympics so far.

Beijing has about 3 million cars or more (WOW so much infrastructure to support), and has identified that cars are the major reason for the Beijing's bad air.. due to pollution it is always fogged. This has always created a serious doubt whether the Olympics in Beijing will be anything at all under such climate.

This week, China has pulled down more than 4 million cars in and around Beijing, approx. 1 million cars each day for 4 days, for experimenting pollution improvements.. obviously against people convenience.

How did they do that.. ordered on first day that no even number plated car with numbers between a range shall not be seen on the road on first day, if seen the owner will be fined for not obeying orders... similarly more cars were to be off the next days.

The four day test is over, and this is what Xinhua news agency reports:

Beijing's overall air quality improved during the four-day test period ahead of next August's Olympic Games in which more than a million cars each day were barred from the roads, according to the Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center.

The test resulted in the removal of five million cars from roads in downtown Beijing and the air quality was classified as "fairly good" for the duration of the four days.

Chinese government seems to have got the people their side in this, and the attitude is that they do anything to make Olympics a very successful event for china, because such a global event, and global attention was long long craved for... which they obviously understand would be the best opportunity ever to market themselves as a great country to do business with.

I remember reading news a few months back that a lot of people are taking english classes in china to cope up with international business expectations, and even courses to improve their communication levels with businesses in the west. One of the reports had a photograph of what seemed like at least 3000 people in one of such big open air course sessions.

I wouldn't be surprised if Chinese go ahead and announce the entire period of Olympics a holiday in Beijing and may be even surrounding areas, ban 90% of cars and encourage Chinese people to walk in Beijing during Olympics to keep all pollution minimum.

If you wouldn't think they would do that... they are at it already.. news is that around 50,000 bicycles are going to be made available for rent in Beijing during Olympics.

My most favorite part of Beijing's preparation for Olympics is the bird's nest. Dubbed the bird's nest stadium, below pictures show the design of Beijing's National stadium specifically prepared for hosting the 2008 Olympics.

By the way, when is the Olympics in 2008: August 8 – 24
Yes, same time next year we will be busy not talking but seeing Beijing's biggest marketing jig along with by all probablity I think the best Olympics ever.

Posted by Harish at 3:39 AM | Permalink

Velacheri, Luz, and Mandaveli are areas of the chennai city, India.. most happening and economically active areas. People from these areas woke up on the 61st independence day morning on the 15th of August 2007 (yesterday) and aghast.. where have all of it gone.. oh how will i have my jolly, bumpy ride through these roads anymore.. who the heck did all this... all such kind of expressions and questions... but no answers...

Reason for the shock: All potholes in the roads in these areas were missing.. and nobody knows how.
"it was there last night .. i even saw it at 11pm", says a petrol bunk incharge referring to the pothole in the road in front of the bunk, which has been there for many days until this morning that it disappeared.

While people in those areas of the city are investigating, somebody said, "Wait.. they left a clue"..there was some tricky clue the hackers left behind.. something is written with chalk next to every pothole.. (see photo)

While the investigations are on for the hackers, I will stop showcasing my story writing skills here and let you know what this post is about.

Pothole fixing drive:
It seems like a few thoughtful and energitic guys planned their celebrations for the independence day by fixing potholes on the roads in Velacheri, Luz, and Mandaveli areas on the night of 14th August...after prime hours (rather than doing it the government way in prime time, when the traffic is heavy, so many people know that the government is doing a lot of work)

The good guys even got access to tar, cement and the raw for filling the potholes professionally (rather than just dumping some irregular stone blocks in and leaving it to the vehicels that drive over to set the pothole...like how the government does it most.. most often).

All volunteers were asked to bring their IDs, to help them identify themselves if some cop or somebody finds it disturbing to see so many young men and women on the road late night who would say they are fixing potholes if asked...imagine.. i would ask even letters signed by their parents if i was a cop...(he he)

They met at velachery bus stop at the strike of 9pm, shaked hands, introduced themselves had their ice-breaking on the road (not in some 5 star hotel with all the glittering lights, good food, and jazz... they had the sounds of horns by vehicles though)

By 11pm, when the traffic had subseded, they were on their heels filling potholes that were registered on their website(yes they have one for that.. after the drive they even stroke off completed potholes on the list to update the website). Around 4 or 5am in the morning of the independence day, they were are all stretching and waving everyone a happy independence day after a hard workout and fixing around 60+ potholes.

Read about the pothole fixing drive, first blogged here.

The makeshift website for this drive is here.. you can register as a volunteer (if you are in chennai), or register potholes that you found today on some road (in chennai) on your way to work.

And thanks to jayan's blog.. i read it first there.

Posted by Harish at 1:21 PM | Permalink

Its been 60 years since british ran away, covering up whatever they spoiled, taking off everything that they could handle within their luggage space, on their way out of India. It was past midnight at the end of the day on 14th August 1947, the expatriates a.k.a the british officially declared indians independent in their own country. Since it was after midnight, indian independence is marked on 15th of August though much of work happened on the 14th... and the sun dawned on that day the 15th, on an independent nation.

So, much happened on the 14th,
> Partition on Pakistan from India, its official handover to the muslim community and hence pakistan's independence, muslims migrating in large numbers into the new country pakistan, which was until that morning a territory of india, much of it making for a bigger Punjab province.

> While the preparations and discussions/documentation were under way, for winding up the british occupation and aggreement of independence to india, the seeds of hatred between hindus and muslims, the spark of the division of a pakistan nation from an indian nation were all happening leaving around confusion within the minds of the people of both the new nations. It delayed, delayed until midnight on the 14th, for the british to settle down and officially complete the process of agreeing to india's demand of independence.

It was not a time were we had so many new channels or television or even any proper or known recording of that event or whatever struggle lead to that midnight. So much of it is lost in memory of the adults of those days who are now old or mostly dead, that indians today really have to make an effort to understand what independence meant... and how much struggle was foregone in the run-up to independence.

Today, we have TV channels promoting the independence day as a big bang government holiday for watching programmes on TV, or shoppers extending summer offers asking people to go shop-lifting on this day, and enjoy every minute of this holiday caused by the indendence struggle.

Getting independence after midnight, as far as I have heard/read, indians or even the people there through the official sign-off, didn't celebrate like having a late-night party, no fire crackers, no week-long celebrations, because people were aware of the huge task ahead after independence.. and so people must have just laughed, shouted jai-hind and sang jan-gana-mana all night, and hugged each other exchanging happiness and tears to be living to see the fruits of all their struggle.

How brave should have been people of india after the 15th of August 1947, to be ready(if there was time),

To take care at one-nights turn to take on all their country's needs themselves through the new indian government which was not yet there,
> through indian law which was not constituted then(constitution of india was created and the indian republic happened 3 years later on jan 26th 1950 only),
> through the minds of people who suddenly didn't have jobs because the british were a major employer,
> and not to forget schools, colleges and many many institutions including the railways had to be funded, managed and governed by the new government (until then the british were funding them, managing them, and governed them through taxes they collected, through trade they forced on indians costing everything at a higher price.. imagine selling clothes and stuff manufactured in better developed and invention-filled countries like britain being sold for a profit in a non-independent 99% poor country like india).

So much pressure that Sir Pandit Nehru accepted to handle in being india's first prime minister, at such a time the post would have hardly been anything close to having the richness of being any privileged position.

Today, in 1947, the 14th of August was a hectic and confusing day for the mostly illiterate indians, and probably most of them at least down south in south india probably knew that they had independence only weeks later than 15th August.

The fact that india got its independence slightly past midnight, is often critiqued as the reason why india still remained a developing nation past 30 or 50 years of independence. Now, on the eve of 60th independence in india, we can be more proud today because we have seen india transform really well economically (thanks to software industry for triggering it and maintaining it), that in the past decade a lot has changed in india, not just with bridges, buildings, or government policies alone, but importantly in the attitude of the people in the country.

May the Force be with us. Happy independence day.

Below is a video interview of the Mahatma, that got me humbled at the way a barrister who could have given up to the colorful riches he could have made by practising law in england,... but just came back to fight for his nation and underwent a struggle which has made him more skin-and-bone, more feeble.

It was nice for me to opportunistically stumble on this video right today.

Its the first time I see the real gandhi speak.. thanks to fox news of those days for this interview and savouring it.. and importantly thanks to whoever posted it on youtube.com

See more such interesting videos listed at:
http://aidindia.org/main/content/view/467/182/

If you are humbled too, and wish to, may be you can donate a buck or two at the below websites which are not-for-profit organizations that are helping the india's poor, and in general helping india itself be and grow more stronger.
http://www.aidindia.org
http://www.cry.org

Thanks for your time on this post. May the force be with you.

Regards,
Harish.

Posted by Harish at 3:28 PM | Permalink

If you earn in India through salary, or your business or services in india, which are taxable, you can pay taxes, file income tax returns, everything online through below links.

Prerequisites are:
1. You should have a PAN number. or you can e-apply for one through http://incometaxindia.gov.in

2. You should have a digital signature to submit all filled up forms(if any) online. you can obtain a digital signature through www.tcs-ca.tcs.co.in You can use the digital signature for all egovernance initiatives like registering a company, also use it on any website that accepts digital signatures today or in the future.. so your investment in acquiring a digital signature is valuable for long term.

Income tax returns e-filing: http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal
Pay taxes online: https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/etax

For more information on taxes and tax return filing: http://incometaxindia.gov.in

For queries on filing taxes or income returns, or PAN, TAN applications etc.,
you can contact a toll free number advertized on http://incometaxindia.gov.in.

And oh.. did I forget to mention.. all / most services are free, it costs zero bucks to file your returns, except a few like PAN applications are costed but low cost (below 250 rupees).. And you only spend for paying taxes, and acquiring a secure digital signature.

And if you are not the computer friendly, or an accounts friendly person, you can ask for a 'Tax Return Processor' an agent authorized by the government to drop-in at your office/home and help you with filing returns for free or for a fixed maximum cost of 250 rupees only. These TRP agents are paid some commissions on the taxes you pay, so only a few of their services cost within 250.. and the rest is free.

Posted by Harish at 3:21 PM | Permalink

Reports say that "A seven year old student abused sexually in kendriya vidyalaya, Ashok Nagar, Chennai" .. Read it here

Students between the 6th and 10th grade made to strip for collecting commercial data of sex organs.. Reat it here

Sexual harrasement incident in a chennai school.. Read it here ... This and the first link look related.. but i couldn't confirm, because everyone who reports or talks about this is not ready to avoid covering up the school's stupid acts.

It sends me shivers of shock and horror everytime I read something like this about child sexual abuse in schools.. If it had happened in some village school or some low-quality or some low class school then at least we could come to terms saying that the teachers or staff in such schools are of that quality.. but these things all reported above have happened in the best rated, supposedly top quality schools, very much placed in good central areas of the cities in india.

I remember that my friends who were always abroad in the west after their initial travel through their software employers, reportedly returned to india when their kids grow up... because the culture or education in schools in the west are not interesting for them. Now, I wonder where they should go, because our indian city schools are no better.

Amidst all this, the stupid, sensitivity triggered media in india, is already bullying on starting sex education in schools at the primary school level itself.. what the heck, next they will all bully that we should have school proms for teens, and then they will say "now that every child knows about sex, we should be liberal"

whatever heck, it looks like the urban society is bent upopn doing everything possible to make children sex literate (with experience even), but they dont seem to talk so much about improving education as it should be.

Wrap on your seat belts young children, your adolescent elders in india are taking you down the drain !!!

Posted by Harish at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Actor sanjay dutt was given 6-yrs imprisonment yesterday by a TADA court in India.. for acquiring some weapons illegally during the 1993 riots.

Read the full story here: Sanjay Dutt sentenced to 6 years in jail

Though it definitely seems like the actor has turned a noble man today, and understands his mistakes of the past and accepts them as mistakes that are legally punishable by law, and though the judge and dutt have had a few minutes of informal talk in the court during the judgement,

...finally, it is on a strong and brave note that the actor is punished.. that justice prevails.. whoever and whatever you are.

..because, otherwise it could stand a hole in the law/the judgement itself, and might be referrenced innumerable times in future cases quoting this judgement to consider a reprive, hadn't the judge awarded punishment to the actor.

I was moved by the part in the news story (link above), where the judge tries to make some really humane attempts in asking the actor to be brave.. further goes on to make a small joke and discuss his films to help him not breakdown.

I don't know, whether all judges make informal chats like this to really innocent people on the witness box, or try to help them reveal stuff in the light of the law, or talk to the lawyers or prosecutors like collegues rather than as judge on their case.

To me, this was one of the few times I have read details in a newspaper about the lighter side of a court proceeding. In recent years, especially supreme court rulings, elaborated in the newspaper reveals a kind of attitude change in the country, I so tend to believe.

I do not know whether this is attitude change in the way cases are handled, or in the way people are looking at law and the judicial system itself (which has definitely raised people trust levels on the system), or in the way the media has started reporting news in stating it as a script of a novel rather than just bluntly say 'Sanjay dutt awarded 6 years for such and such a thing' and move on to the next news.

Whatever it was, I am growing slowly very possessive and observant of my country India... and happy to be living in a phase where the country is transforming into a developed nation, that too at a maturity level where I am able to understand the changes happening in the country.

And justice prevails. We will wait for Munnabhai to return in 2013, or may be even earlier if he gets a bail or a shorter term based on his nobleness and character in jail.

If you saw Lage raho MunnaBhai, this below cartoon in 'The Hindu' will cheer you up.

News source, pictures, and cartoon source: From my daily newspaper, which I am slowly becoming addicted to, The Hindu.

Posted by Harish at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Though a part of me, a big part, is cunningly happy that justice is being delivered to all those 100's of mumbaikars who were killed in blasts in 1993... my other part gets over me when I see the number increase from 3 initially to 10 today..

So far 10 people have been given the death sentence in the case. Killing 10 or more people is massacre even if it is by law... shouldn't we be instead putting our resources to just kill that fellow called D or Dawood ibrahim who masterminded the blasts.

Well, hearing all this news about the death sentence for his suparis / employees of 1993, D should be saying, "I myself wanted to get rid of old people.. and find new energitic youth to do the business of killing"

I somehow until now strongly believe that people who have no consideration for other people's lives, and can kill anybody for the sake of money or fame or religion, should just be hanged or removed from the face of the earth.

You can call me ridiculous, and so inconsiderate of the value of human life itself..
But I am thinking scientifically.. on Darwin's theory of survival.. "Survival of the fittest". If you don't fight terror, you might end up being a casualty of it.

You might ask.. why not think the gandhian way?
Gandhian values can fight only diplomacy and can be used only against people/issues that obey law.

Though I believe killing 10 people doesn't stop blasts like mumbai from happening again, I feel its the safest way to continue living.. at least until you have highly secured separate islands of prisons to detain such killers to a term of sentence without death. And with a country like India where the number of poor people are high, we should invest in developing resources for trade and for uplifting the poor, rather than investing in secure island prisons.

Posted by Harish at 2:09 AM | Permalink

Gvernment schools in Tamilnadu, India, which educate children for very low, subsidized costs, are slowly but definitely moving towards giving computer education,which has been long lacking with such schools.

The good news is : Recently another such school, in Medavakkam has opened its doors to computer education. Thanks to (No, not the government..) but the UK based organization that set-up the whole thing.

Read this article in the Hindu.

The sad news is : Look at the number of children per computer, in the above news link.
It only proves that computer education is still a long way, for the not-so-rich students. Will be complex to train any student into a potential programmer from such an environment.

The Irony:
The Medavakkam schools computers were donated by an UK-based organization...not Indian software biggies.

Medavakkam is not too very far from the buzzing software outgrowths in the chennai city. While the geeks get busy with their work everyday in their software parks, the rise of Chennai as any software hub hasn't propogated to the surroundings.. same with bangalore and all those halli's (villages) around bangalore.

India.. is known for its dilemmas and two-faces.. one face showing incredible growth and demand for indian graduates, another face showing millions deprived of even high-school education.... one face showing rise in software graduates, another showing millions deprived of even getting to see a computer until they reach college (if they reach college).

Brings up many tough questions :
Are Indians so closed and careless of their surroundings? Shouldn't Indians have taken efforts to propogate the impact of software growth into their schools atleast in so many years now?

Would it be any cost at all for some of this big MNC companies to provide a couple atleast their old used computers to the schools rather than dumping them to the second sales market for a stupidly low price?

What happened to the 'Communications minister Dayanidhi Maran and HCL' combine's 10,000 buck computers.. Where are they? Why aren't they in schools?

Some big software companies like Infosys, Wipro have regular interactions with colleges such as IIT, BIT, NEC etc, and even get to train there, and have industry-customized courses targeted to make graduates for the industry. Are they only seeing only the big colleges and the rich colleges as potential sources? What has the industry even attempted to do for schools?

Are Indian software biggies, and their employees SELFISH to this extent? Do Indian corporates need the cue all the time from foreigners to be inspired to do something for their country?

Every Indian software biggie has a Foundation or something to do work that helps the society... but are they doing it and thinking about it as seriously as they think about making money? Are these Foundations putting the money in the proper places?

Are Indians waiting for politicians to become computer literate and understand the importance of computers and then do something? what another 50 years for quality computer education in schools closer to or even within these buzzing sofware populated cities?

Where are we heading? What are we doing? Why is India having two faces in each and everything..

Posted by Harish at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Dr. Kalaignar Karunanidhi, is considered the most experienced politician in indian political circles.. and is known best as a shrewd politician and a great writer and poet in the language Tamil.

Firstly, lets not misunderstand things here.. He is prefixed Dr. because some nice professional university conferred on him the decree of the Doctor. He is often (or always) referred to as 'kalaignar', meaning 'artist' or sometimes 'expert', in tamil, though he is not the greatest of all tamil poets or writers known or existing. But atleast the media sweetly (or out of force and fear) calls him Dr. Kalaignar M. karunanidhi.

karunanidhi founded the 'Dravida munnetra kalagam' or DMK, a regional party in Tamilnadu India, and has also been the leader of this party since a long time. Though there are debates as to whether he was the real founder or leader of the party, or did he hijack resources and everything for the party from the late Mr.M.G.Ramachandran's party, Whatever be it, we now have DMK as the leading political party in Tamilnadu, having karunanidhi as its leader, karunanidhi's sons realtives and loyalists as its senior executives, and also this party has governed the state Tamilnadu 5 times (though not in succession ever), with karunanidhi as the Chief Minister.

While this post or any part of me, has no interest in discussing anything about the DMK, let alone their victories in elections, or comparisons with other equally nice politicians or parties, or discuss anything about their government of the state... I would just rephrase or just mention what many tamilians almost have come to consider as general knowledge about DMK, karunanidhi or, related people or factions.

We will start with .. a report from one DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption) enquiry which boldly went on to state that DMK practices a "scientific way of corruption"...which I believe is very much true because you could see all reforms and decisions of the party indirectly link up to some source of revenue by means of sale of something that the party or party members trade.

It works like this.

How to scam Scientifically (add 'in 21 days' if you like it that way):
1. You make a decision to build 4 bridges for helping transportation infrastructure in the city.
2. You help your relatives, family and loyalists setup raw material dealerships for all raw materials that are required.
3. Such dealerships purchase lower grade of material than that gets invoiced. and suggest your contractors to buy and use these materials and allow the invoicing and payment process to be smooth so that no politics need be made during the construction of the bridge.
4. In exchange the contractors and engineers get the DMK's trust and friendship, and very importantly more projects even if they bid at chiefly high costs than competitors.

At the end of the day,
1. What people get is a not-bad quality infrastructure but paying through taxes atleast 20 to 30 times the actual commercial cost.
2. Contract organizations get more projects. DMK gets credits for making available the better infrastructure.
3. DMK senior executives and most party men are left wealthier due to sale of materials at very high costs. That is apart from the percentage customary loot political parties make for awarding projects to a friendly contractor.

Its always made me wonder, about the irony in India, that while people always seem to know the color* of most politicians in the country, but very often, who they finally vote for during elections doesn't seem to reflect this understanding or knowledge.

[ * color, here means the inner mind of a person while he/she manages to present himself/herself to people who can't read their minds ]

Now to finish this post possibly attempting to cut a long story short, to save ourselves time in reading other important things than reading about indian politics, I will tell you a story.

The story so far:

DMK karunanidhi's relatives, the Marans, are popular for thier television business, and their once held ministerial positions in the central government of India.

Murasoli maran, a relative of karunanidhi, also a loyalist and party member of the DMK, rose up to the level of being communications and industries minister of India.. after many other positions and ministries he helped or he managed. During his tenure, he educated his two sons Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi well enough that they currently (or atleast until recently) were important advisors or sympathisers for the party directly or indirectly.

The maran sons raised the SUN TV network, and bought a few print media companies to double their medium and reach .. all built from scratch, with love, care, good management, and also with help directly or indirectly from the ministry of communications which was managed by their father.

The marans and their media companies, openly and directly supported the DMK's political interests, by publishing and broadcasting, news and content that was biased to the DMK. Especially the news that their media carried, were woven with close communication and advice from the DMK functionaries or other DMK sympathizers like them, or sometimes guided by the leader karunanidhi himself behaving like an Editor of their News content.

After a point in time, even till today, there's never a day or a news bulletin on their TV channel or magazines or newspapers, that forgets/sidelines some news or the other about karunanidhi, or if nothing is there, they carry karunanidhi's thoughts for the day.

Meanwhile, SUN TV network became an empire, with atleast one channel in every south Indian states regional language, conquering south India, truly of its hard work and good management, and not to forget the little help from ministry on acquiring licenses to broadcast quickly.

The SUN network empire became one of the media moghuls in the world, rated next only to the STAR TV network when it came to coverage, and rated No.1 in India, and Asia as a whole.

To be honest, except for their news which is biased, and programmes or interviews that are biased with political interests, especially during elections in the state of Tamilnadu, all their other programmes are of considerable quality and are marketed and promoted, the best.

Their newspapers, magazines, are royally second rated and biased, and if they are selling its only because they get zero-cost Advertizing times on the Television empire SUN TV.

Thier Opponents end up criticizing their growth and programmes totally to the DMK's influence and politics, but, the political interest and help could not have got them their coverage and revenues unless they had 90% support from their programmes and importantly the makers and staff of these programmes in their offices.

Few years back, Murasoli Maran, father of the Marans died due to ill health, and the family made the best use of their media to mourn his death for atleast as long as they mourned in their houses.

After the death of Murasoli Maran, the ministry for information became vacant, and a subsequent election to form the central government saw Mr.Karunanidhi's thrust, political influence, and power play getting the ministry's control to a fresh new politician Dayanidhi Maran, the younger son of Murasoli Maran.

While many things happened in the media industry of India apart from the marans, whether they helped it happen or not, the most important thing that happened was 'Sting operations'.

Every other TV News channel caught up on politicians accepting bribes, through hidden cameras. Sometimes rich people bribing police officers and getting away with crimes and murders they commit..were also exposed or promoted heavily, so much so that the judicial activism in India today was also an outcome of these bold efforts by Television channels.

Collectively people in India seem to have grown a long-time-disabled hormone or gene that protests corruption at any level in the country, rather than tolerating it and continuing to grow the practise of bribing government officials. It was not long ago, that some indians considered working in the government a quick-and-easy model for earning lot of money and influence considering the amount of bribes every other senior officer in the government gets paid... be it in the police departments, or military and defence, or in government offices or directly as a politician in the government.

Probably tempted by this, SUN TV and its media magazines and newspapers also started to carry reports of small sting operations and news, to boost their viewership or readership.

As SUN TV didn't find much guts to do sting operations on politicians even the opposition politicians for they were afraid how it was going to be taken by their relatives at the DMK, they did sensitizing news articles on hotels and pubs that had late night adult parties, or the likes. And very often they created havoc in the opposition's camp by producing news against the opposition with artificially created evidence supported by people who they paid for acting and saying things that they asked for, on camera.

It is during one of these days that they hired AC Neilsen to do a survey with people for understanding who will be the successor to the DMK's leadership, which is currently held by karunanidhi who is old enough for things... this was apart from many other sensitive surveys that were conducted, to publish results in a tamil daily Dinakaran which was run by the marans.

The survey of successorship, gave obvious results, no matter whether it was a real survey or just an act with using the name of AC Nielsen, it declared karunanidhi's son M.K.Stalin as the probable, against another son M.K.Azhagiri.

This, for obvious reasons triggered a protest from the losing son of karunanidhi M.K.Azhagiri's camp, which ended up when the Dinakaran Madurai office went in flames killing 3 staff members.

So gruesome this was, that neither the marans nor the DMK expected it to end up killing 3 innocents which could easily make them all accountable with evidence now. The marans immediately announced 15 Lakhs to each grieving family of the dead (or murdered). And, the DMK leader karunanidhi was forced to move the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), though he would not want it to since it could directly allow the CBI question his sons and his extended family.

Now, to keep up with their committments to their employees, the marans supported protests by their company staff against the killing, and all members of the media from other newspapers, channels etc., participated in the protests.

This greusome killing of 3, what karunanidhi prefers to call an accident, created the bisection, between the marans and the DMK leader's immediate family that was long awaited by people in tamilnadu and the staff of the maran companies.

And everyday its bringing up the colors of karunanidhi and his crude mind and shrewd politics, which is gradually but willing making the gap bigger between the once brotherhood relationship with the marans.

The Colors of karunanidhi:

> karunanidhi hosts a party, the very next day of the "accident", celebrating his 50 years in business (or in politics), as member of assembly, which was attended by all "distinguished" politicians, including, Prime minister Mr. ManMohan singh, ruling congress party national president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Lalu prasad yadav, and other like politicians and guests.

> karunanidhi condemning protests by the media in relation to the so-called accident, especially protests by marans and their company staff.

> karunanidhi says the case is handed over to the CBI, so nobody should protest against anybody. Wait for action to be taken.

> karunanidhi conveys his interest indirectly to political circles and the central government, in removing dayanidhi maran from his ministerial berth, ahead of a DMK party general meeting. Dayanidhi maran resigns his ministerial position in the central government, noting he doesn't want to stay a minute if his leader karunidhi has other plans.

> karunanidhi suggest and finally gets another of his 13 ministers in the central government Raja, the additional responsibility of being the Information and broadcasting minister.

> karunanidhi appoints a party member as a new minister in the central government without any responsibilities, to replace the ministerial berth vacated by Dayanidhi Maran, so that no other party at the national level tries to occupy the vacated slot, and to keep the number of central ministers under him at 13.

> karunanidhi says 'they' (he means DMK party workers and other family members) are going to start a new TV channel. (This can be very easily understood as to support DMKs future interests considering karunanidhi wants to move away from SUN TV marans and cant expect much out of them or their TV channels anymore, for promoting DMK)

May I take your consent to wish, on behalf of us, All the very best to Mr.Karunanidhi and his "nuclear" family with the new channel and the future of DMK.

--------
Honest Disclaimer:
The article has not got into the physciartic explanations or inferences of Mr.karunanithi's mind, because as an author I don't have the experience or legitimacy to discuss those aspects directly.

The article expects the reader to feel the different thoughts running in Mr.Karunanithi's mind during the above mentioned phases of his political life, and understand the colors of the politician, whom all politicians in India consider the most experienced politician of the country.

The above article is constructed based on facts that are publicized or exposed or broadcasted in newspapers, television, and other media, over the years of DMK's existence.

If all the media and television and journalists, were all writing false news or information, based on their own perspective of things, over many years till now, then the above article is just a piece of junk and kindly feel free to ignore it or not believe it, consider that I apologize my best, to you already, for writing false information on my blog, and lets live and let "others" with many colors also live even if it will need lot of tolerance.

I do not have interest in proving or producing any evidence whatsoever, to any level on the above content.

Thank you for using your esteemed judgement in valuing/trusting the contents and facts in the above article.

Posted by Harish at 5:54 PM | Permalink

Indian currency is currently undergoing heavy re-valuation against the global benchmark US dollar.

Indian rupee is going on a forward looking correction.. It is rising. good for india..but will keep business especially software pricing for multinationals panicky.

Considering what Euro conversions did for many countries in Europe, I am excited at every Rupee the dollar falls cheaper.

Track currency rates here

The Story so far:
Software outsourcing has done a lot for India.. which many other industries in the past tried very hard to do for India, but with smaller effects.

Who markets India
The first strong attempt(in my opinion), and also the long standing attempt in raising indian values in not just economy but also in life, come from unfortunately, you never guessed this... Bollywood.

People could sell hindi movies abroad even before days of sholay... they say one film 'Mother India' which was (if i am right) a movie from pre-independence era, has been the closest to getting an oscar until Lagaan was nominated.
Imagine, Bollywood could sell movies, even before software was just startup in india, and even before ISRO became known for its commercial satellite capabilities.

Many articles in magazines in the west have pleased Indians by saying India changed Software. This is in reference to lowering software costs globally.

But this has also costed a burden to Indian Software, that almost 70% or more software companies in India always try to feast on the lower costs and only keep quality as second priority.

Whenever currency revaluation happens, software companies in India panick. And we know this when our relatives ask us the stupid question "Will software be there for another 5 years?"

As obvious, the most interested people in Indian currency's value work for the central regulatory bank in India 'Reserve bank of India' RBI. And everytime the money seems to grow faster, the RBI attempts to downplay the effect by increasing local lending rates across the nation, and by subsidising foreign exchange rates in a manner, that I don't seem to understand, but that which gets the Indian Rupee valued a little lower than it is actually worth. The American government too, they say, tries to limit the Rupee's rise because American businesses have big interests in Indian Software and services industry.

People prominently watching the software outsourcing radar know that most Indian companies indeed heavily rely on the cost of the US dollar for being competitive in the market. This always had to go, to allow more crediblity to real players in the industry... and as they keep telling.. to Create a level playing field for "all" Software Businesses (I believe "all" here means, companies that care about quality, and those that care about cheap costs for customer).

Finally, the narrow line of quality software in india is broadening, because of currency revaluation.

How currency re-evaluates - In my observation :

1. Businesses that transact using the currency grow, on their interests and efforts to grow. Indian Software giant Infosys is popularly credited for starting the growth drive in the software industry for India.

2. The services of these businesses get valued higher due to better demand.

3. This boosts/motivates "like" Businesses, and the general trust and credibility on the industry or industries grow.

4. The boost triggers a chain reaction in all Businesses getting valued higher for thier services. The general worth of the services or the Products increase.

5. Higher demand, and higher valuation of Businesses somewhere underground has many links to the value of the stocks on the market, to cost of living, to inflation, to asset values, to costs of everything in the adjacent markets, and finally everything links to the value of the Currency the Businesses transact on.

6. As the above point, has too many parameters some known, some unknown, some controllable, some uncontrollable, no regulatory bank or government would be able to stop the revaluation and only allowing it would be the best option, though they have to definitely monitor the impact and minimize it by forcing regular valuation corrections to help the people who use the currency.

Posted by Harish at 8:34 AM | Permalink

Windows Vista.. the new operating system from Microsoft after more than an year of delay in its launch.. has many advantages.. and few disadvantages..

Is that so ?... ask yourself again after reading the article in below link.

Everyone who reviews Windows Vista only talks about new graphics screens, some new features of previewing contents of windows folders without opening them, and all that..

Vista seems to have, rather "luxurious" features, than having any advantages with the core of the operating system, its speed..over anything else.

So the advantages already seem meagre from people who have taken the pain to buy vista and try it... and these reviews I am talking about are from Microsoft's own Most Valued Professionals. So, imagine what could you find out in using Vista.

I think Microsoft is playing the George Bush for software.. through its selfish industry benefitting, customer ignoring, digital rights management software.

Read more details of what's wrong with Vista here.
What's wrong with Microsoft Windows Vista

Read about DRM and the problems in one of my earlier posts here.
Software Patents, Digital Rights Management, One-CPU licenses...truck load of Digital nonsense?

Posted by Harish at 12:44 PM | Permalink

Yes, that news is making the rounds.. and Yes, everyone is talking about security flaws, malware, spyware, that could launch missiles, ICBMs, steal highly strategic information, take over submarine command centres remotely.. and all those movie stuff that we always know.

But I wonder UK's RN or Royal Navy is not worried but really very eager to move their old age monitors and systems to secure windows 2000 based systems... of course OFF the internet.

The below link discusses all this and much more.
Especially a good read for science fiction enthusiasts, after the first couple of paragraphs. Ever wondered about use of software and operating systems in warships? then this is a good read.

Link: Windows for warships...[src: theregister.co.uk]

Posted by Harish at 11:04 PM | Permalink

Imagine.. !

But that might well to be true, at least in corporate terms. As far as my memory can reach I can't remember any major dispute between Yahoo and Google.. if there were, they were petty disputes, or things that they sorted out quickly before media noticed. Be it good that we have forgotten their bitter fight last year, over who indexes the most of the web's content.

I remember seeing quite few instances where Yahoo had credited Google as one of the biggest things that happened in a year 2004/5 in yahoo's 'year that was' diary published at the end of year (something like this but for a previous year, i have that link also somewhere in this blog, if you bothered you could do a search and probably land up).

Last week I spotted this Yahoo Ad on Google mail (notice the 'Ask Yahoo!' thing in the below image, its an Ad link).. This must be again one of the instances where they have their friendly exchanges.

And if you didn't know, of the many things, Google was once sued by Yahoo on Google Adsense.. because Yahoo had the patent for Adsense kind of Ad delivery technology through its sister concern 'Overture'. The case was settled out-of-court quite amicably like a friendly dispute.. and till this day Google Adsense pays royalty or license charges to Yahoo for using their patented technology.

Posted by Harish at 10:35 AM | Permalink

1. Firstly its good for saddam to die rather than live inside 4 walls controlled mostly by forces called coalition forces beauracratically justfied and controlled by the American government(dont just blame Bush.. its a team).
..and I think that's enough good reason.

2. Good to Iraqi's to have saddam gone now, so that Iraqi's can move forward rather than having all the world's media embarrasingly talking only about culprits and terrorists in Iraq, as if no good ma/woman seems to be living there.

3. Good for Iraq's quality of life, trade, and more. I hope..

Because all these days any Iraqi atleast through the media's eyes either was a person who will die or kill...but not like anybody likes to live and thinks about living.

Saddam's hanging will hopefully starve the world media for news other than saddam now, and finally Iraqi people, their way of living, their hopes, their difficulties will get some air time.

Which could allow the world look at Iraqi's with less fear and probably help trade and related economical growth and movements.

If you are a multinational real estate agent/developer, small machine tool manufacturing unit, very long term investor, then you could consider planning something in Iraq... atleast for future. There should be soon available large amount of good, cheap labour, enormous land and human resources.

4. Good to counter growing threats in Iraq
Every Iraqi knows what saddam did, imagine even out of all the hiding saddam did, if so much evidenc/argument of crime was produced against saddam..!
Every Iraqi knows what is to happen of his life if he tries to live same.

So the hanging should have given an idea of obvious consequence to people who take to terrorism, and also to people who try live indoors or underground without protesting such terror originating from their country.

End Notes:
Ever since Saddam's Death penalty was announced, we have seen, heard and read so many many people starting to worry,
1. that Iraq is going to blast if saddam is hanged,
2. indirectly suggesting that All Iraqis are going to take to terrorism or some kind of stuff to screw up any democracy process,
3. and so on.

This was all dissappointing to see, because the world (or atleast world media) was seemingly condemning Iraq and not just saddam with all that opinions like a live grenade starts ticking in Iraq after saddam.

In my opinion.. the biggest battle and loss of life in Iraq is,
Is already over,
much before,
in the name of war on terror,
by the coalition forces.

What's now happening is aftermath.

And as you would expect, after all this screw=up in Iraq (thanks to UN as an organization to beauracratically allow all this),
when Iraq grows out of this period, develops, Americans will claim every credit for the development transformation to make us all ignore their screw-up transformation.

As for the question whether Bush should be hanged?

Keeping him will actually avoid more terror attacks, because he is already at the forefront of a government that has been doing what the terrorists want to do to america, spoil america's branding as seen by the world, and its economy.

And let's keep remembering that President Bush is not to blame for everything, he is only heading a team which does it all, if he didn't do it, ..definitely the team America's government would have found someone to do it.

Understanding that there's now no use of arguing whether American government or British government or UN for that matter did it right, the analysis which is not going to help anybody other than for an history record, we should be thinking in terms of seeing Iraq walk out of this and live better... we can do that atleast, if not contribute somehow to that revival.

Don't hail saddam... hail IRAQ

that's what all this is happened for: to get the real identity of IRAQ and IRAQI people and their capacity to live in such a way that they have the confidence to show-off their lives like we all show-off, like i show-off writing this blog. Show off Iraqis...we are waiting for your turn.

Posted by Harish at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

INSAT, an indian weather satellite's pic shows clouds looming large in circles over low pressure regions in south india. more towards tamilnadu, pondicherry and kerala.

While its raining non-stop in chennai, the local MET department, Chennai, only announces [to the press] that there will be severe rains one more day.
The satellite pictures probably show more, and the MET dept is playing safe so that if rains stop suddenly they won't be criticized for bad forecast. They are well known for bad forecasts in previous years.

Good thing is atleast the MET puts a 'HEAVY RAINFALL WARNING' on their daily forecast website.
If its a warning, why not boldly give the warning with confidence to the press, so that people can plan in advance, schools & offices can declare holidays, etc.,

The very idea of having the MET to do early reporting and warning takes a beating with such unconfident announcements they make to secure their government jobs or avoid reputation through criticism.

Related links:
INSAT satellite pictures
All weather links
INSAT link for satellite image shown above.

Posted by Harish at 3:28 PM | Permalink

NASA is still unable to fix shuttle foam cracks? or, I wonder whether the American policing and politics is at loggerheads to make big time money out of the sad issue... or, may be NASA is starting to feel the hierarchy problems of big enterprises (Big enterprise problems: When a company has grown bigger, it finally makes granularly small problems look the biggest and the biggest problems dissappear into Annual reports).

History:
The Space Shuttle blasted into pieces years back. Reason: Due to the increase in temperature inside the shuttle's fuel enclosure, which was ultimately caused by fly-aways of cracked foam insulation covering the fuel enclosure.

The US government, in an attempt to allay all fears of next space shuttle launch, said its investing 2 billion dollars into research and repairs for, this, one, foam problem.

.. of all the huge and complex parts in the shuttle, the foam finally became the costliest, work of all..even more important than the launch vehicle itself.

In India, our indian space research organization would launch 4 satellites within the cost of 2 billion US $. I wonder, what on earth US agencies and NASA did with 2 billion dollars for just foam repairs.. And if you are still wondering, the cost as of today for the foam research, testing and repairs has crossed 3.3 billion US $ and 3 yrs .. much more than planned...
finally, the problem is not fixed yet..

As you read the news today, one day before independence day in America, you will feel so dissappointed about how NASA, and the US government has swallowed greater than 3 billion $ of American tax money with the simplest excuse of FOAM repairs.

About FOAM experiments of NASA:

FOAM is characteristic of sponge.. and is artificial. Made with various materials, there are all types of FOAM. What NASA has done so far with the billions of dollars is lots of paper work and testing.. much more than the the actual final repairs. And still it has not pulled it off, because it looks like they spent all the money wasting time on understanding everything about foam, its properties, its reactions and stability with environmental changes, etc., but not about how it is used with shuttle and how to correct that.

On NASA site or elsewhere you would read that foam bullets or foam pellets are made and fired at a fan blade or other targets and the effect on the target's surface, is studied for varied speed of firing, distance of firing etc.,

Also, you will read that NASA use the practise of pouring foam on to space shuttle's surface like a thick liquid and it later converts into foam which should not be cracked or disconnected anywhere. If you made foam pieces and stuck them, they would obviously split under conditions. So, NASA does the pouring technique since the time shuttle was made.. so this technique hasn't kept the problem away..

Scientists would say .. though poured, air bubbles could create vacant portions of foam inside the foam making for cracks.. so the pouring technique was experimented, tested, researched,.... and all that .. again with huge cost effects.

Finally it comes down to the fact that the foam has cracks.. STILL.. and NASA blames everything on this crack.

Conclusion:

We have pretty simple household techniques to protect foam from tearing off surfaces, and an advanced version of one of these techniques should have solved the problem within the cost of peanuts. If this could cost Americans greater than 3 billion dollars, we can look forward to american budgets like, 'Inner wear malfunction prevention research and solutions - for pop stars' - costing 6.5 billions, 'American president's stain proof coat research - to protect from embarrasing enquiries' - costing 4.3 billions, etc.,

On this eve of American independence, Lets all hope NASA's space shuttle project comes back on track after all the political hogging that's on it now.

Posted by Harish at 12:37 AM | Permalink

Eucador for the first time scored 2 goals in FIFA and stunned Poland and the hopes of polish fans. Poland which won the world cup in 1974, has a big history of international games dating back to years. Poland still lost to the considerably new team of Eucador which proved to be every bit better than the poland side, be it defence or mid-fielders or forwards.

Poland 0 - 2 Eucador

Finally, you could see a big crowd in white and red keeping mum as they watched eucador score their second at the 80th minute.

And about poland.. I am new with poland players.. what seemed interesting was, we had a lot of '...ski' names like borowski in the players.. which I thought was only common with japanese names... and poland was also donning a white and red uniform for players which again looked japanese. For instance somebody could think it was japan playing against eucador if they weren't aware.

Posted by Harish at 9:26 AM | Permalink

Fifa begins with 90 mins and 6 goals of precision..

It was a great game between Germany and Costa Rica... which germany won 4-2 amidst good contest by CostaRica. By skills, player levels, and history Costa Rica may not be considered any threat to Germany... but they do threaten to use all open opportunities best and they did that today. 'Wanchop Again' said the commentator when CostaRica's wanchop artistictally crafted the ball to score is consecutive second.. (He did try many an attempt for a hatrick but a lone hero he was for sure because many of his teammates were all the time busy with defence and stayed back in their half of the ground.

If you saw the replays of all the goals today, you would want to play four of the six again and again..
1. Germany's Lahm plays a direct kick way out from the penalty area, and the ball drifts and swirls to the topright corner of the goal as if it was an preprogrammed to hit the corner folding of the goal post and head inside, and that was Germany's and the match's, and this world cup's first goal.

2. Wanchop is an artist with the ball.. After receiving a pass from teammates amidst the complex web of german defence, wanchop carries the ball like he is practising football and loves the ball so much and calculates so much that he doesnt energetically kick the ball to the goal even if the area seems clear... He manipulates time and his defence and artistically pushes the ball the direction, the height, the way it needs to get into the goal.. right at the last fraction of the second when the ball otherwise would have moved out of his quarters.

3. After two other goals by klose for Germany, through great headers, making it 3-1, Costa Rica badly wanted goals.. and there's one when Wanchop is there.
Wanchop again gets the ball after their teammates succesfully struggle and push it to him.. wanchop wastes time as usual just pushing the ball more closer to an area, as if he already knew the future positions of the ball and the defenders.. again wastes time not kicking it even though a german defender is already flying with all legs towards the ball to knock wanchops chances.. wanchop makes your fingers nervous pressing on your chair watching TV waiting to see wanchop just kick the ball with all the world's force.. And the artist with exclusive care and love for the ball does his 45th international goal in only 70 matches. ... and all costa rica fans and of course your fingers feel relieved of the pressure and smile at wanchops precision.

4. Another long shot from outside the penalty area with no tactics but just another direct pass, Frings of germany takes his time running straight and fast towards costa rica's goal while the pass comes exactly perpendicular to his run... reaches him just as he crosses the half-line of the field and runs forward like a steam engine headed to slam all costa rican defenders into their own goal post... .. Frings does a good shot with good power, and at that exact spot on the ball with that exact position of his German Reebok shoe, which carries the ball swirling and arcing slowly away from the very good costarican goal keeper's faar extended left hand...again a goal close to the unreachable top corner of the goal post and there it is.. the fourth goal that gives all Germans the clear signal that Germany has already won this game with 15 odd mins to spare...and as the scoreboard trickles... Germany 4 - Costa Rica 2.

And if your internet savvy, and especially google search savvy,... you have more for this football season. Search for 'fifa' on google and you come with this page.. google seems to have worked great on the result.. What else would one expect searching on the internet, you have the results of the current or last game until the last minute, the schedule of the next game ..that too in your timezone, and the 'as always' good google results.

"Enjoy FIFA" .. And, hope you saw the new logo of google to mark FIFA 06.

Posted by Harish at 12:34 AM | Permalink

President Abdul kalam returned the bill that was hurriedly prepared in the past few weeks, and passed on the floor of the house recently.. to protect more than 40 Members of parliament that the the ruling coalition government depends upon for staying in government. The new bill passed tries to amend laws to block 'office of profit' disqualifiction of members if they are directly holding positions in companies or organizations other than being the members of the parliament.

The drama troupe called 'congress party' which is the major party in the ruling coalition government has a lot of members who hold positions outside the parliament....what nuts! what can they do inside there...it should be boring.

After the president slapped disqualification notice on a member for holding an office of profit, the issue became bigger with the chief of the congress party Sonia gandhi being pulled into the arena for her office of profit, being Chairperson, National Advisory Council...other than Member, Parliament.

Politicians raised issues that the constitution is not clear about what is an 'office of profit'... and so the law needs to be amended...That was the gimmick to make possibility of amending the bill. During this time, senior drama artiste of the congress party sonia gandhi resigned all her posts including her member of parliament post saying she is "sacrificing" because the issue pained her. And no wonder she stood and won a relection from the same constituency 'Rae Bareli', which went into re-election only because she being its elected member, resigned.

From now on the artiste is to be addressed with a 'ji' in respect of the sacrifice.

Sonia gandhi ji is a sacrificer though... she would not bother whether her resignation, in a stupid attempt would bring in additional costs to conduct relections, spending peoples tax money for proving her single-mindedness. Its not her money, so it doesn't matter.

The president returning the bill, was a little good sign that someone cares whether the bill is legally correct... but still by law the president can only reject the bill once, and now that the parliament has decided to send it back to the president on its second round trip, without making any changes for the questions raised, .. the president has no option but only to accept the bill.

Thanks to all stupidity and the laws of stupidity being amended again and again... india will remain a stupid country. If there's a grave hole in the constitution whereby some people who killed a person jessica lal could not be arrested, the parliament wont bother to ammend it this faster or move and close the bill all this aggressive.. they will do it only if it disturbs their money making business of running a government.

And hurray, big applause for another excellent show-off by the drama troupe, and outstanding performance by chief artiste Sonia Gandhi. Mission impossible 3 can wait for release until our own nail-biting dramas still play center stage.

Posted by Harish at 8:09 AM | Permalink

Are you following the Arcelor steel hostile bid by Mittal Steel and recent drama by the board of both the companies confusing investors to the maximum.

Game history:
Arcelor Steel and Mittal steel which are considered first two of world's very large steel companies, are in a tussle. In a hostile attempt Mittal steel(world's largest) has been trying to acquire Arcelor steel(world's second largest and major competitor to Mittal), to become the monopolistic large steel company in the world.

Arcelor being a large company itself, obviously not willing to be acquired that too by chief competitor Mittal, called for various methods to counteract the hostile attempt of acquisition by Mittal.

(For newbies to public share based company manipulations: If a major part of shares of a company is acquired by a person or another company, the other company is said to be acquired since the buyer being the major stock holder gets the largest voice in the company's business and operations. So, someone needn't actually request a company to accept acquisition.. its often forced acquisition like this with almost all big companies, Database Software giant Oracle acquiring CRM & Management software giant peoplesoft (which was leader in the domain) to give a big entry for Oracle in the sector, is another forced acquisition example which happened last year)

Arcelor in this situation had sought even legal sanctions from its country's government to block the acquisition attempt by Mittal, and a lot of activity has been happening since then. On the Mittal side, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal considered one of the most wealthiest in Britain is doing everything legally and informally possible to make the acquisition flow through, since it will allow Mittal to dominate the market and today steel is hot cake next only to Oil.

Lately...
Lately there was a protest by Arcelor employees against the acquisition which failed to gain momentum but made Mittal increase the bid amount by almost 30% of an earlier bid.. Lastly Mittal's asking was "25. point nuts billion Euros". Arcelor ignored this offer too and was busy working ways to stop Mittal.

Counteraction later, led to Mittal going to the stock market and announcing an open offer to buy all Arcelor stocks traded, for a premium, if investors wanted to sell it to Mittal. The offer is currently open.

Arcelor's turn again.. and ball is being given another shot.. Arcelor yesterday announced a tie-up with a russian steel maker 'Severstal', and the chairman of Severstal Alexei Mordashov will sell his majority stake in the company.. which will make Arcelor the major stake holder of the Russian firm, and in return Mordashov will get 32% of the merged Arcelor-Severstal steel Co. ..which takes Mardashov directly to the big board of Arcelor.

This new tie-up will need Arcelor's public stake holders approval, as like any company level decision.. and the approval will be sought by June 28th.

There are two things now.. If Arcelors investors approve of the tieup the new company cannot be acquired by Mittal probably because it will be bigger and have more share holders to woe. But if before july Mittal makes more than or close to 50% of shares of Arcelor in its open offer making Mittal major stake holder of Arcelor, then Mittal will obviously cancel the tieup with the russian giant and remain the major share holder.

So, the ball is now rolling.. July will decide where Arcelor settles.

There are many reasons why Arcelor would not like to be acquired by Mittal.
* Arcelor is already a giant in steel, and is a core competitor to Mittal, just that it has less money than Mittal shouldn't become its weakness and give into Mittal's bid. It affects mindset of Arcelor employees and directors who are currently working with "their" company Arcelor. (If Mittal takes over, it could be more Mittal's company)

* Mittal groups corporate governance, they say has more of his family, bringing more family interests, and that, Arcelor says, is not convincing that Mittal will be able to carry the new merged business better than what Arcelor is now.

* Mittal is an indian settled in Britain.. and this may disturb or atleast raise some eyebrows if he becomes more heavier in an industry dominated by Europeans since industrial revolution.

Small investor interests anybody ?
This is like the arranged marriage system in India.. where parents arrange for two people to get married based on everything else except the bride and the groom who stand strangers till almost 2-3 months after marriage.

What I mean is... Whatever said, Investors are plain simply considered traders on the stock market by all public companies and not actually people who the company. There are rules that things need be transparent with the investors, much more stricter rules like the recent SOX compliance, but its still left to the board of the companies to decide what information goes out..

The interests of the carefully appointed board of the company are the core of the business, and share holders are only for annual body meetings and approval votes. Even if the general public share holders vote against a company decision, its highly probably and most often still approved since the major stake holders who are on the board, approve it. And what not, major stake holders are not people who buy here..there and gain a major share, they are always business contacts of the other major stake holders of the company.

The background processing
In my opinion, its hightly unlikely that Mittal wins... because there are always political interests in large companies and there will background dealing which will decide what happens. And for that, Mittal could already be working in the background to attract medium -majority stake holders to his offer.

Processing.. please wait.
Lets wait to see how this game turns...Mittal or Arcelor.

Related...
Arcelor Severstal deal - Hindu on net
buzzle.com The takeover bid story so far
European protectionism.. says Felix online

Posted by Harish at 10:42 AM | Permalink

While somebody found an artillery tip out of a potato, another person found a full live hand-grenade inside a potato. These were discovered by staff of McCains in their british factory which makes frozen french fries out of potatoes.

They move potatoes from their harvest areas to manufacturing plants where they are cleaned and processed. During the manual cleaning /checking processes they have occassionally spotted bombs, artilleries and some weapon pieces it seems. The potatoes are from the area which was once a World War II zone, and the potatoes seem to grow covering and containing the memorabilia interestingly.

The news items further says:

The Scarborough plant, located in northern England, was opened in 1969 and uses 1,400 tons of potatoes every week. Production is back to normal.

McCain’s Whittlesey plant near Peterborough in eastern England has also been evacuated several times this year after WWII ordnance was found in batches of potatoes.

“Occasionally during the use of imported potatoes from Belgium and northern France, ordnance debris from the First and Second World War is found,” McCain said in a statement.

If you are in britain, the next time you buy potatoes, or buy french fries from Mc.Cains make sure to check it with metal detectors before biting on the bomb. :o)

When i read it first, i remembered the names 'potato bomb', 'onion bomb', .. that we give to particular kind of fire crackers here in chennai. But none of these bombs here produce a potato mash, or onion pungent smell... which would probably be the case if the potato bombs in britain were blown up.

But anyways, it would have been interesting to see such a potato which grew up with a bomb. :o) Bold fellow.

Read the full news here...msnbc.com

Posted by Harish at 12:33 AM | Permalink

Read the news item here..

Posted by Harish at 1:14 AM | Permalink

I knew this only today...
that India is going to HOST the COMMON WEALTH GAMES 2010 [So much ill-informed I was, since the selection it seems was made in November 2003]

I know it was in talks.. but definitely didn't know that we are almost taking up the last 30 mins of the closing ceremony today of CWG 2006 presenting INDIA with all the colors and the fun..

We had the kind of fare in that 30 mins, with fantastic promotion ADs promoting Delhi & India for the 2010 games, and with some pinch of bollywood faces.

After the Fabulous games Australia has hosted till today, (they even put a globe upside down in the closing ceremony, symbolically saying that they see Australia as top-most continent in the world)

I can only ask: .. when is 2010 coming.

Twenty Ten as its now catching up, will also be the Twentieth common wealth games.

And.. Samaresh Jung of India, with 5 Gold, one Silver, and one Bronze medal, in shooting... was adjudged best athlete in CommonWealth 2006. But Samaresh seemingly excited over his performance had already left for Delhi before the award was conferred :o), it was handed over to someone else on behalf.

Links:
Melbourne2006.com.au

Posted by Harish at 11:12 PM | Permalink

Do you want to go to the ***76th International Motor Show Geneva***.. which ended just on 12th March 06,
You could... just click the image below.

And while you are seeing the show, why not also learn about the new technologies that cars are willing to bring in... in the short future. Something like,

"Lexus for example, has equipped one of its models with stereo cameras and radar to detect upcoming obstacles. It can also see what is creeping up on you from behind.

And if all the coddling means your attention wanders, there is a camera checking the driver's eyes are on the road.

In the event that there is an obstacle in front of the car and the driver is at the same time looking at the side of the road, the system will sound a warning to alert the driver."

... that reminds me of a system which I heard of long back on some TV, about a car that can detect whether the driver is sleepy and slow-down while alerting the driver.. It could do the detection based on a heart-beat rate and the eyes.

Read more of this report that BBC's ">Click" programme played live today.

Posted by Harish at 11:01 PM | Permalink

As part of Bush's visit to India, an Economic forum was held in Hyderabad in which many of India's notable CEO's met a CEO delegation who travelled to India with Bush. Also present was the indian Finance Minister.

The Finance minister P.chidambaram said, "India is biggest untapped market in the world. Hardly 10% of India's population is insured. There's a lot that foreign markets can reach. I invite foreign investment in the sector, and assure that the parliament can be convinced if any policy changes or amendments in laws are required"

This is a very ridiculous invitation.

Insurance is the most easiest way for a company to make money... you only need to sell it, money can be locked up until there is an insurance claim, and even accrued amounts in endowment plans need to be paid back only after many years. The money that goes into insurance is not recoverable as and when needed...people cannot close the account and rollback.. that's the whole idea.

Allowing international insurance companies to set-up wholly owned business here is Foreign Investment only for the first few years, after that its a lot of your money going out of the country as insurance premiums paid to foreign companies...that too for nothing, not even a cup of coffee, just nothing until they pay-back date comes or a claim occurs.

Already there are many insurance companies in India which enter the market in a partnership mode where they get to own upto 70% of the company with the indian partner... such companies are ING-Vysya (Vysya is indian), Tata-AIG (Tata is indian, AIG if foreign partner), Bajaj-Allianz .. etc.,

Also, to my knowledge, many of these companies showed respectable results in 2004 and 2005. Historically, the Indian government reserved the insurance sector for public goernment-owned companies for a very long time until only recent few years where these companies have been marketing hard. Now inviting foreign companies is good for may be the government but not for people who are already finding big confusing differences with policies of existing large number of players.

Only things possible with international competition in insurance sector, are probably,
> Could make insurance cost lesser (but international companies don't enter a market to cost cheaper for customers..so they won't go too cheap to trigger an big drop)
> Could bring many more kinds of insurance... and lot of things that indian companies don't do like insuring computers against viruses could become possible..

But, money paid to insurance companies is like 'lost money', which becomes 'lost-n-found' only when the insured dies... or, if it is some kind of endowment plan or pension plan, 'lost-n-found' on maturity which will be many years away for all plans. Its easy money into pockets of insurance companies which need to do only marketing much of the time.

Its more of 'Investment by India into foreign companies', than 'Foreign Investment into India'. Is Mr.Chidambaram crazy?

Posted by Harish at 11:43 PM | Permalink

India has probably moved into the Limelight of developing nations.. There are a lot of foreign governments interested in India today.

> French president visited recently and signed agreements on trade links and bilateral co-operation.
> US president is in the country for discussions on Nuclear proliferation, trade links and bilateral co-operation.
> Australian Prime Minister is coming on March 6th, for renewing and taking bilateral and trade links to a higher level.

Also,
The President of India and Prime Minister of India have been visiting countries more often these days,
> recently APJ Abdul kalam visited Phillipines, Singapore and Republic of Korea,
> while Manmohan Singh visited KaulaLumpur, Malaysia.

Trade links and co-operation between India and many other countries seem to become overwhelming.

Similarly Educational co-operation has also started gaining more importance, thanks to the President Abdul Kalam's efforts..he always talks on educational links.
> recently we heard of more exchange programmes like teacher exchange, student exchange numbers increasing.
> Singapore invited IIM to propose on setting up a institute there, for which IIM is trying to convince the governments stand of firstly developing education levels internally. Argument is, if singapore allows us establish there why not use it, take home some money for paying development costs here.

All this point to two things...
One obvious thing.. India is becoming hot, and value of Indian skills are gaining recognition, thanks to software market for proving us smart.

The other important reason... India's foreign policy change probably has did magic.

We internally argue in India about voting against Iran for IAEA, trying listening to the US on bringing changes in handling of our Nuclear facilities, and all that, but... change in stance is what has worked magic and got many countries interested in seeing India as partner in growth.

Probably, foreign minds had the following worries about India that,
We are a self-sustaining and hence may not be co-operative,
We build our own technology, be it satellites, or nuclear power, and probably we might not have enough mindset to work with others, and the likes.

Probably, our new foreign policies are working good to answer these worries and so the magic.

Related Websites:
Ministry of External Affairs, India
Embassy of India, Washington DC

Learnings:
> Probably when we over-used 'Made in India', or said 'Indigenously developed car in India or Wholly Indian Car', someone at a foreign office thought Indians are conservative, they don't like working with others on technology co-operation.

> Also, in recent times, we have stopped the fuss about being 'Swadeshi', using all Indian products.

> When we protest foreign products in the country calling it outright sale of India by politicians, and saying that its blocking growth of indian companies and all that, we are limiting India's capacity because of fears of competition.

> Allowing foreign products and investment in India, helps us understand how to get their class in our businesses and products, as we see them doing it in our country with our marketing and business problems.

> There are definitely times when you see a problem that all Indian companies had with a market, being solved by a foreign competitor, and all indian companies soon following the same solutions.

Posted by Harish at 6:57 PM | Permalink

Today, George. W.Bush, is visiting India.
There is news that there will be protests on his visit, and people are raising that question: Should Bush be welcomed to India or not?

I don't like that question on a person like the American president.

There was this article: Bush in India: Just Not Welcome -which was also republished yesterday in Indian newspapers.

Obivously I also don't like the way Mr.Bush worked America's way into Afganisthan, and then Iraq, in the name of wiping global terrorism. Its a fact that when you destroy a terrorist voilently, actually you are creating 4 new terrorists.
I don't approve of bush's or blair's decisions which has undoubtedly killed more innocents and only a small percentage of their actual targets. War doesn't differentiate targets from innocents for obvious reasons.

Yes, there could be some understanding of how terrible a feeling it would have been for Bush and others on September 12, 13, 14... and the NewYork after that.
We all in the Asia only know how it felt on September 11...that too as seen on TV.

Anyways, all that being there...
If he is coming to my country, I would look at him as a person who has
taken many more decisions than the decisions on Iraq and afganisthan.

You would only unwelcome a person if he is unruly, cruel, bad and makes decisions based on selfish intentions.

I would better find from people who know Mr.Bush better when it comes to deciding whether he is that bad, and his intentions are that cruel. And, who knows him better than the Americans.

The very fact that more than 50% of Americans voted him to power again after Afganisthan and Iraq, means to me that Mr.Bush is not a person like he is shown to be ...

Whether I dislike Bush or don't approve of the Americans electing him for a second term.. depends on the question... 'With what information would you dislike him... based on Critics and blogs?'
I also didn't find it interesting to see Hamas win palestine elections.. but doesn't mean People of palestine are wrong... they know better about Hamas.. and sure everybody has reasons for the decisions they make.

I welcome Bush on his India visit...

Does that mean.. I don't respect my own people in my country. .. and I look at Americans as better than Indians.
Why would I feel so.. I definitely respect the views of my country people to protest Bush's visit.

I see it like this..
Bush is welcome ..
he is visiting..
come on guys, why not?

At the same time, Indian people want to protest his visit highlighting the cost of bad decisions made on Iraq and Afganisthan.. Fine. I only believe the protests take the idea of highlighting Bush's bad decisions rather than just showing placards with 'Go away Bush' in it.

By the way, I just have a question I ask myself.. Why weren't there any visible protests in India when British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited few months back.. Do people really think Mr.Blair was not reponsible for innocent killings in Iraq and Afganisthan?

---------Update: After India, Bush visited pakistan..
One interesting blog entry on Bush's statement in Pakistan.

Posted by Harish at 12:17 AM | Permalink

In Bangalore, India, the software hub, the corporation body has started a contest.. 'Spot the Pothole' contest.

Fed up with complaints on potholes in the city, the corporation body made a contest idea and announced that anybody who sees a pothole in the city roads will win 100 rupees for each hole spotted.

The interesting fact is .. this amount will be given to every winner deducted from the pay of the engineer who contracted that stretch of road.

The scheme worked!!

The city's Corporation made note of all holes and filled them up making all key bangalore roads pothole free, .. in a crowded city where potholes in roads was like normal all these days.

But seems like no 100 Rupee winners. Because *Conditions apply... Conditions were, every pothole spotted should be 8inches by 8inches in diameter and have depth of 2 inches. Also, it should be on a road stretch announced part of the contest. :o) Whatever heck!

Posted by Harish at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Previous elections(2 yrs back) in the state of Tamilnadu in India to elect candidates for central government administrators raised a lot of representation from various bodies that unfair practices were followed.

This was to favor the state's ruling party's candidates in winning the elections. They lost though, winning a very few seats contested.

The unfair practices were mass removal of names of people in a particular pattern like people who were teachers, cristians,etc.,

The representations claimed that...this was done becos the ruling party during its rein had made decisions unfavorable to these people...so didn't want these people to vote trying to make the contest easier and chances brighter.

Based on these representations, election commission of india had been investigating, and deliberating on the charges made.... and came up with an interesting decision for the coming elections in the state which is to select a the next selected state government for Tamilnadu.

The decision is to transfer all government officials who are prone to favor any candidate or influencial politicians. As per this decision, election commission would solicit transfer of any official who has worked in the same place for more than 3 yrs, or is working from his native place where he has always lived. All officials who are linked to the elections, be it the Inspector general of police, or the Election observers, or whoever.

Hope this works. and the elections are fair.

Posted by Harish at 11:37 PM | Permalink

Turin winter olympic games named "Torino 2006".. are ON.. opening ceremony today 10 Feb 06.

The official website says,
"An outstanding show that will keep two billion spectators glued to the screen: on February 10, 2006 starting at 8 pm (Turin), the strong emotion of the Opening Ceremonies of the Torino 2006 XX Olympic Winter Games at the Stadio Olimpico."

http://www.torino2006.org/
Torino games photo gallery

The 16 day games will end with a closing ceremony on Feb 26th 2006 also at 8pm (Turin).

Fact about African participant:
You would ask what is an African doing in a winter olympics seeing Kenyan Philip Boit practicing.. Africa has no place in its geography for skiing.. so being the only sprotsman from the whole of Africa, his participation is on a high here.. and so are the expectations.
Returning home after winter olympics.. this guy is sure to be called the 'cool' sport in Africa.
Africa at winter olympics

Posted by Harish at 12:38 AM | Permalink

Come April 2006, and the "Company Affairs Ministry" in India will be launching a e-governance portal which is part of launches in one of the phases of a e-governance project going on for years.

The project was started years back (I don't really remember), but finally looks like the most important phase of the project is set to completion and they are launching it soon.

The union minister of company affairs though announced only one advantage of the new system, (there must definitely be many other obvious things coming into shape with the new system.. .. politicians here will take time to change).

"You can register your company online, pay the registration fee online, and that reduces the time of registration of a new indian company from the earlier 168 hours to 42 hrs".. they said something like this.

I really don't know what they meant by 168 and 42.. but definitely to register a new indian company (without bribing anybody), you will take months. Government offices in India work on only one logic bribe-oriented execution.. In my experience there has never ever been an occassion where I could get something done from a government office employee without bribing him/her, though what we ask them to do is their normal job for which they are employed. Even the fellow who distributes company registration forms in local centres, actually sells it for Rs.25/-... I later found out that the form was actually meant to be given FREE as per norms.

Considering such a tradition of Government offices, especially the 'bureaucracy' (gentle term often used in India in sense of 'delay due to lesser bribes'), its very nice to hear they still have this e-governance project (without dumping it after years realizing money out of it like the way all projects are generally handled by the government).

BottomLine: Hopefully, after April 2006, the system works and people have success registering their businesses easily.

Definitely there are lot of businesses in india which are not registered. And I feel the government woke up on this only because the new system would generate more leads to realize taxes from previously unregistered businesses... And not for any reason like helping dismantle bureaucracy.. not yet.. not yet. India will take another 30 years .. becos all those oldies who are holding the stick of bureaucracy have to die which should take 30 yrs for a 50 yr old government employee to leave (us) in 'peace'.

Posted by Harish at 1:57 PM | Permalink

Five Indian institute of technology graduates, take what could be considered the most unusual decision in India... they start a political party after graduation.

While their pals take up MNC jobs for handsome pay packages, these guys have called it off strongly against the usual odds of family and friends not supporting unusual decisions.

Name of the political outfit:
They call it 'paritrana' meaning "permanent removal of pain".

Read about them, the party, and the wereabouts of these bold decision makers, probably future shakers of Indian politics.
Economic Times news link

In my opinion:
Whether this could be called the start of an era in Indian politics or not, i dont know... but the stigma attached to the idea of students joining politics, is definitely going to go off if these 5 succeed in making their presence felt in Indian politics.

While indian politicians have always kept the stigma alive by calling politics a big circus...the deepest pit full of sewage and all that... kudos to Indian cinema which has for the past couple of years come up with movies all of which were focussed on the possiblity of students bringing change.

I am ashamed
I dont know about other indians, but the decision of these 5 students puts me to shame for all these days where I just see movies, walk-around road pits, drive-around unmindful traffic signal hoppers, ... etc.,

finally unmindful of the responsibilities I had towards the country to do something for it... or in taking the pain to shout at people who spit, who shit, who almost treat the roads of India like its a big black-tar-covered network of flat dustbins.

In 'star wars' terms: May the FORCE be with these 5 students., and may they have all the wisdom to handle politics and politicians, upholding it with good deeds.

Thanks to you guys.

Posted by Harish at 4:30 PM | Permalink

"One person dies of bird flu in china.." reported the presenter on BBC news.. We have heard about deaths due to bird flu in different parts of the world.. all reporting a few deaths now and then.

This virus is very confusing and peculiar.

Is it really attacking only particular people.. and killing a very few here and there in the world..

or,
is it like governments of countries suppress the number of deaths to avoid panic with tourists and local people.

Because, i have not heard about any virus that can affect only particular people. Viruses don't spread like that. they spread like slow fire. they make all their victims difficult.

Also, i have heard that atleast 90% of bird flu victims are from asia or a few european countries.. Is bird flu sensitive to climate or something because of which it is more threatening to asian and a few european countries, countries which are close to equator alone?

All these confusions, and i could derive the following quickly from the web recently.

1. Bird flu has for centuries been there affecting birds, and sometimes pigs and a few other animals. But in recent years the virus seems to have gained strength to jump from birds and infect humans, and particular strains of bird flu called 'Avian influenza' are the ones that infect humans.

These strains of the virus move from bird to human infecting them. Yes, as far as I could find out, bird flu can infect a person only from birds.. at this point of time atleast the virus is not capable of moving from human to human..

It definitely is a peculiar virus to study.. no wonder no effective medicine is yet identified to save humans.

2. But there isn't "just one" bird flu - there are many.

3. Even so, only the strain "H5N1 virus" or "Avian Flu" or "Avian influenza" is capable of infecting humans with potentially devastating consequences.

4. Since at this point of time it can move from only a bird to human.. not from human to human..and only particular strains are devastating on humans, the virus is killing less humans.

5. The only way known to control bird flu is... to kill affected or probably affected birds.. and this one concept kills millions of chicken every year.

6. The biggest threat is, if bird flu mixes with human flu or somehow gets capability to move from human-to-human... that day could trigger something very serious.

Related links:
Center for disease control and prevention
Whats bird flu
61 facts on bird-flu

Posted by Harish at 7:53 PM | Permalink

This was the last second of 2005.

Happy New year 2006.

Posted by Harish at 12:00 AM | Permalink

The tournament, held in Lucknow from November 17 to 27 2005, was organised by the Deaf Cricket International Federation (DCIF) in which teams from as many as nine countries participated.

Its little disappointing that we could only read about the controversy over a cricketer sourav ganguly, and about the politically popular Board of control for cricket in India(BCCI) elections in November 2005 in the media.. and not this Deaf Cricket world cup.

Media does only sellable news.. So it could also mean that we readers have become so urbanized that media thinks we wouldn't be bothered about a Deaf cricket world cup.

It beats... Its deaf people... those challenged ones who need some consideration and encouragement from us with their achievements. Did we ignore them?

Another dissappointing fact is, even the organisers DCIF haven't updated their website since the tournament started. It still has only the schedule, and no news about the teams, the cup, or neither the finals which India won.

Anyway, atleast the news got the attention recently by way of email forwards. I received an email fwd and checked up the web to read that news. I didn't find all those great NDTV, CNN IBN, or any nut reporting it... but only a few bloggers. and this web article.

Related links:
Raajeshwari sings 'Duniya' in sign language for Deaf Cricket World Cup in Lucknow
Deaf cricket Australia
Quietly play the new dons - Express India
Deaf Cricket World Cup resumed after decade

Posted by Harish at 9:37 AM | Permalink

First,
Outsourced software,
Then,
Backend technical support and customer support work,
Then,
Outsourced backend business processes,.. (slowly business itself)
Then,
Outsourced Health & Medicine jobs,..
...
...
So much so about outsourcing work to India and China... the Americans and a few other developed nations seem to have listed a lot of other "Activities" for outsourcing.

I call these "Activities" because from whatever I heard these things don't seem like stuff that has to be given to a different country to be done.

Slowly but steadily "Activities" are being outsourced to India and China. Wondering what these "Activities" are?

Lately I have heard about two items that are being outsourced.

"Teaching mathematics to children.. online"
There are a couple of indian service companies, which make a regular and growing income out of "Teaching mathematics online to foreign school kids(includes doing the child's homework at offshore sometimes)"... this was on an article in the daily 'The Hindu' (see links below).

Call India, if you need help with your lessons
Education process outsourcing: The next big business opening?

Game levels
News is that children in china are working 12 hr shifts to play outsourced game levels... (I also didn't get this proper at first.)
It seems like some kids in the developed nations are outsourcing the first few levels of their computer games to be completed by chinese kids for money, so that they don't have to do with those simple not-so-interesting levels in the game.. read more on link below.

Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese (click 'skip Ad' if one appears when link opens)
Daniel markharrison: Outsourcing Fun?

Is all this Bad?
Outsourcing is not bad.. but when people are outsourcing any stuff just because there are peope to do it cheap.. then it is Bad. Some thought should be applied as to where one should cut costs..

All the time, I wondered why are Americans so worried about software outsourcing taking off their life... because what is outsourced most of the time is a maintenance or support job... or plain simply nothing innovative in software is outsourced.

Now, learning about the "Activities" that are being outsourced... I am really worried for both sides.. for the Giver and the Taker of outsourced jobs.

The Taker,
> gets to lose a level of credibility by accepting such low-level jobs just because they are being outsourced and money honey is there.
> Shouldn't and cannot get into any impression that there can be a steady revenue from such outsourcing of "Activities".
(I am really worried about some Indian enterpreneurs so lethargically saying there are 20billion $ and 70 billion $ to make from this "industry" such as online Maths coaching.)

The Giver,
> gets to not only lose money (may be the Giver has enormous sources of funds), but gets to lose the goodness about life, in doing some day-to-day routines.
> have a feeling that outsourcing maximum possible will give time to do new innovation. They have to understand that you can't innovate all the time... Also, sometimes doing a repeated task, or maintaining old innovations itself will lead to another innovation.

Whatever! If India or China accepts such stupidly low-end outsourcing jobs just to make that extra money, I think we will end up losing a lot of time to become what 'Givers' are all along..... Developed nations.

And, if people in developed nations are outsourcing stuff like "teaching children" to any 'Takers'; these developed nations are not only outsourcing their activities but their daily life. It definitely has an effect on their economy.

I remember reading an article by some author a couple of years back, when outsourcing was highly debated. The author had told his american readers... "Imagine your daily food is made in China and packaged to you, Imagine your daily office work is being done by some chinese or indian for you and you pay him less than a quarter of your salary sitting at home brewing your coffee,... don't you think this way life will get to a monotonous stage, won't we become highly dependent on other nations for our food, clothes, work and everything.. from America's highly independent and powerful state against other countries today, won't these lesser developed countries start dictating how we live here.. .."

Back then, when I read the above stuff, I certainly thought this author was too fictional. But Now...:o)

Posted by Harish at 6:59 PM | Permalink

Can you wash clothes without Water?

One of those questions which we thought has obvious answers, turns out to become that we are wrong...and its possible to wash clothes without water.

This was seen at the Electrolux Design Lab 2005 Awards.

Electrolux today presented its third Design Lab Award to Airwash, a waterless washing unit. Students from leading schools of design in over 88 countries participated in the competition.

The winner, Airwash, is a waterless washing unit that utilizes negative ions, compressed air and deodorants to clean clothes. Its form is inspired by the waterfall, nature's negative ion generator. Airwash eliminates the need for detergent and water. By using atmospheric air and negative ions - a natural cleansing agent - it fights dirt and bacteria with nature's own weapon. It is designed to be placed anywhere in the home, not only in the laundry area. The simple user interface "floats" to wherever on the appliance the user wants.

The jury selected Airwash as the winner because of its intuitive, ecological and beautiful design. Airwash also does away with the expensive, time consuming task of going to the dry cleaner.

Students from over 88 countries participated including Australia, Colombia, Canada, India, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, the US and Portugal.

Second place in the competition went to "Flavor of Sunshine" from students at Zhejiang University, China. Third place went to "Happy Feet" from students at Korea University of Technology and Education in South Korea.

News Source: Electrolux design lab awards 2005 press release

Posted by Harish at 9:49 PM | Permalink

NEWS:

In Cricket, India wins the series against SriLanka 6-1, allowing sri lanka take over on only one match that too after a very close fight. Dhoni of indian cricket team adjudged man of series. ... blah .. blah..

While all Indians are wondering and making their own theories about what suddenly turns the indian cricket team so lucky at winning. Probably never before India won something like that 6 matches of 7.

Some say its Tendulkar's return after a long break.. some..that ganguly's and greg chappell show which finally dawned on cricket the idea to get serious.

But still people are not convinced..

Recently, Microsoft has a real good theory.. listening to it, you start saying "must be true" like that tata indicom Ad on TV.

Microsoft says: "Its the luck with the use of Windows Media Center PC"

"As many of you are aware the Windows Xp Media Center Edition based PC is being actively used by the Indian Cricket Team.

For Cricket team 'winning' has become a habit after using Media Center PC

The product has been used extensively by used Team Analyst and the Coach to help the players analyse their game both during the matches and at the Practice sessions.

Recently…..The Indian Cricket Team has been lapping on to the Mediacenter PC like never before

The product is being personally used by Greg Chappel- Coach; Sachin Tendulkar; Virender Sehwag and a few others. Portable Mediacenter is also been used by all the players

As a matter of fact the Mediacenter PC is very visible on all matches being telecast live"

This communication was spread within microsoft offices in india. A good friend of mine forwaded me the theory with a final note with three smileys.. which completed everything nicely...

GOOD IF WINNING BECOMES A HABIT FOR OUR CRICKET TEAM :o) :o) :o)

Posted by Harish at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Recent french riots have... in short... has short-circuited my idea of Europe. I always used to look at Europe as the only place where something called 'Peace' could be felt. And dreamed about the day i will get a chance to visit countries in Europe.

Image Copyrights: Jack Guez / AFP-Getty Images

Like everyone I also think about France, its paris, its Eiffel, whenever I think about Europe.

Whenever I discuss with friends/collegues about harmony, people, conflict resolution, war,... I take the example of europe which i consider the place where i have heard of no unresolved hard disputes, where we have not seen many wars happen.. atleast in these days.

It also happens that i worked for a belgian company which had an office here in chennai, india. Talking to a client and also sometimes my belgian boss, i had known that europe much of the time believes honestly in resolution to conflicts through talks. And that never would they consider Arms and Force as the first order to react on issues.

Recent news of continuing riots in France by protestors (said to comprise of mostly immigrants to france) has been bad news to me.

Its little like a bad omen sometimes... because i think... 'When I like something as good, bad things happen there'. Its something like kids blaming themselves for watching cricket when india loses..saying 'india would have not lost had I controlled my tempt to watch the match on TV'.

Seems like the 'Fighting' buck is now passed to France... having most other countries already covered.. I hope the 'fighting' buck stops at France.

...

Don't ask me..I am all afraid about Saudi Arabia now, because this is the second in my list of "more peaceful & beautiful countries of recent times". ...I am praying.. I am sure my bad omens wont be true any more.

Posted by Harish at 12:27 AM | Permalink

Dams and Reservoirs filled, parts of Tamilnadu and southern India are flooded.
Chennai expects Thunderstorms
Flood in TamilNadu - Army in stand-by to assist
Orissa on high alert of possible cyclone
All India: Weather report

Posted by Harish at 3:12 PM | Permalink

Yes, its raining non-stop for weeks in chennai, and many parts of India. But coming to chennai, which is one of those cities having a ground water depletion problem, rains mean solution to water problems to some extent at least temporarily.

Many indian cities and villages now largely practise the idea of rain water harvesting.. thereby recycling rain water otherwise wasted as stagnant water in buildings, back to the source well or the ground if no well is present.

But is this enough?
Definitely a no. Rain water harvesting has to be insisted into road-laying, rail tracks, airports, drainage/sewage flow mechanisms, etc., to make use of 90% of that rain water flowing outside the buildings on the roads, and the ground.

The rains currently in chennai have had all present storage dams and reservoirs full which will help supply needs for another 3 months, but after that nothing.

Do we need to store more beyond this?
A definite yes, water being the major resource needed in many activities and even for developing the infrastructure to store water.

But, the Good news is,
For now, chennai is better off on its water crisis.

Related links:
msn.co.in : India weather

Posted by Harish at 9:53 AM | Permalink

People living in Developing countries like India look towards America and the west for inspiration, for the work of people who make it a developed nation.

But recent exposures in the media of the insides of the American life in the aftermath of the hurricanes, suggest differently. Also, The way the media shows-some, hides-some, and diverts-some news, probably to avoid exposure of bad things that everyone thought only happened in under-developed countries, are exposing the stability of the American life.

What I am talking about here is, the following news items read since 9/11...

Item 1:

Wal-Mart store near downtown New Orleans on Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 suffered significant looting after Hurricane Katrina which will delay its reopening.

Item 2:

Two hurricanes have now hit Louisiana, wreaking terrible destruction. New Orleans continues to flood. Hundreds of thousands of people are scattered across the country, many in shelters. Given the scale of the calamity, surely it's time for Louisiana politicians to stop, assess the damage and work out the most rational way to help their state recover. Surely this is not the time for the government to write blank checks, for legislators to get greedy about unnecessary canals in their districts, or for federal agencies to launch projects that make future flooding more likely. Surely this is the time to spend money wisely. Right?

Wrong -- and if you thought otherwise, then you, like me, are still learning how deeply corrupt America's legislative branch has become.

Read more on this: Washington Post

Item 3:

American Red Cross gets signed agreements from Katrina victims who are given financial aid. As per the agreements the victims have to return every penny that is being given to them. Having disturbed heavily by the storms, katrina victims now also get into a debt unavoidably.

.. Meanwhile people wonder 'Where is all the money received as donations Going!'

.. Multi billion dollar greed by the Red Cross

Item 4:

A former Red Cross official who admitted embezzling thousands of dollars from the donations given for the victims of 911. Federal Prosecutors got convictions for four felonies. "While serving as executive director of the Western Upper Peninsula Chapter of the Red Cross in 2001- 02, She used Red Cross money for personal things and submitted false financial reports to national and regional offices. Some of the money she took was from the "liberty fund" set up for the terrorism victims"

[Note: Some of these newsitems are old and some are new.. they are shown above in newest first order]

Is America really what we think..??
Have you come across looting from shops by people during a calamity in your country??

You discuss!!

Below are some news links trying to slightly highlight the reality of corruption in America.. Notice that below links are not from BBC or CNN (I wonder why are big news agencies quiet on these things.)

Related News Links:
Salt lake tribune : After the hurricanes, the stench of government corruption lingers
The American Daily : Louisiana Corruption = Big Mess
Salon News: After the deluge, what next?
nashua telegraph: Corruption moving into hurricane zones
The Observer: Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600 -Just 600 Find out why

Posted by Harish at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo has posted an exciting page on Internet since 1995 to 2005.
http://birthday.yahoo.com/netrospective/

Internet lovers dont miss this.
They have put in a nice concept and made the whole stuff of events from 95 to 2005 in ONE single page.. Accidentally jumped on this page.. and learned a lot of things I didn't know happened on the internet.

Posted by Harish at 8:41 PM | Permalink

Weather has been challenging in America. Then Katrina... Now Rita. Its not uncommon about hurricanes in tropical regions of the world.. but these have been very strong and proved too much to handle in a short period.

May we hope americans face it strong and come out of this period, stronger.

Meanwhile, we should see the climatic conditions that has been deteriorating over the years, which has put pressure on many parts of the world in different ways, with katrina and rita for the americans.

In India here, we have had unusual rains earlier in mumbai, and now in Andra pradesh. The earlier rains in Mumbai, almost stopped life there. People are still evaluating cost of damages caused.

Hope all protocols like kyoto protocol, and other climate control protocols are actively considered and followed in the future, to control the changes we have caused to our atmosphere by polluting it.

All these things repeatedly remind me of all those movies I have seen, and books I have read about doomsday.. (may be i am over worried).

But, looking at things, I am really shocked. Its very true, that "When Nature questions the mistakes we do, nobody answers."

Posted by Harish at 4:03 PM | Permalink

Monday's newspaper in India says Prime minister has called on a meeting to discuss rising oil prices around the world.. and Indians can expect a price hike because of this on Tuesday.

Firstly, Great News! Bravo. No matter whether we catch up with the foreign economy or not, we have to definitely catch up with this the oil price hike.. So finally we got something we can say proudly, we are in pace with developments in the world.

Why does oil price get hiked?
Technically, Demand increases prices.

So, if some somebody is ready to buy oil in the market at a higher price why not sell it to him. And if anyone else wants oil obviously they have to pay what he pays or more than that.
So, when America had a hurricane and some of its oil refineries and oil production got damaged, American companies selling oil have increased demand, and by nature they have to pay more to buy more oil which otherwise is being bought by someone else at normal price.

But Politically, Favourable reasons for the oil Markets.. increases prices.

The oil stock dealers (especially in dominating countries) always wait for a reason to increase prices of oil stock. When they get one, they increase demand and prices, sell the oil stocks that they own for higher prices.

These dealers dont bother about overall consequences it has, against the short-term gain they make. They ofcourse make HUGE gains. OIL stock is the most hot stock.

Actually, this happens with any stock in the market, foreign currency demand increases the currency's value (also has a political reason), but with oil stock the effect reverberates and stock price increases multifold because more dealers start doing it in succession.

Solution: There should be very stricter and stringent norms in markets for trading on natural wealth related stocks. There should be a stringent measure that not all dealers get into the act and only the needy do it on a temporary huge increase in demand... and later settle up the prices back to normal once the demand drop to normal in the region.

What do you say? Add your comments through comment link

---Update 8 Sep 05
Hey, Heard this News? - Malaysia will not raise fuel prices again until the end of 2005.

Looks like Malaysian government is taking the hike in its cost subsidising fuel. Bold decision huh! Totally unpolitical and people friendly.

Malaysian government stands apart... while all governments decide to push the burden to consumer, and sell national fuel reserves at higher prices and cash-in on gains.

----Update Sep 9 2005
Global corporation OPEC used to monitor oil prices and try control it every time it rose, by increasing output to meet increased demands, from some gulf country.

I believe they are doing it still...but for some strange reason there seems to be a coordination of allowing the prices to rise for a few months to make money, and then bring it back to lower prices (which still will be higher than normal prices that existed).

Statement by OPEC Conference President on the recent
rising trend in oil prices

Posted by Harish at 4:18 PM | Permalink

Do you have a digital camera?

The BBC is conducting this photo competition through its website bbcnews.com as part of its News 'In Pictures' category.

Contest Website: Photographer of the year 2005

Below is the information on the contest:

DEADLINE: THEMES
CLOSED - My family & friends
CLOSED - Fashion
5 September - Power
19 September - Work
3 October - Environment
17 October - Spaces
1 November - Final vote

Why Digital camera?
Submissions must be in digital form, and sent as an email. Visit contest page for more.

By the way, Last year's winning entry:
WINNER: Veronica Carter

News source and image copyrights : news.bbc.co.uk

Posted by Harish at 1:23 PM | Permalink

Natural disasters disturb!

Recent news on hurricane katrina flooding and devastating good old cities in United States, is disturbing. And people are saying, its just started and that katrina is technically looking like it will ruin more.

Image in below link shows expected path of katrina, and that means more damages.
Tracking katrina

Donate through RedCross! http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

News links:
Hurricane Katrina aftermath: Hundreds feared dead along US Gulf Coast
'Our tsunami,' Mississippi hurricane survivors say
Katrina’s heavy hit being felt in South

New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Posted by Harish at 12:58 PM | Permalink

I was very happy to read this newsitem this morning.

The Hindu : College students to cross check electoral rolls on April 17

The idea was good. The city corporation is considering asking voluntary organizations and students (basically the new generation public) to verify the electoral rolls or list of voters in preparation for the forth-coming elections early next year.

This links youth atleast remotely to the election process itself rather than just being voters. This small step could in years become more involving where youth get their importance in the society and start feeling responsible of happenings.

May be not immediately but slowly if this idea is continued, over the years the youth could derive a fool-proof electoral system where only validly elected good politicians get to sit on the big chair.

Also I rejoiced more because, I didnt like the idea of the statement of election commissioner of india 2 weeks back, that online elections is to be explored, for enabling disabled voters and for increasing voter turn-out.

Grow-up, Online is good for chatting, browsing, may be promoting business, but, you should show your face if you are doing something serious, not stay anonymous and vote just after some verification.

Anyways, I hope the new idea of involving students in the process is implemented and not held back for any reason, and also that its continued for more elections to come.

Posted by Harish at 11:57 AM | Permalink