That’s what seems to be at the top of the mind of the major strategists at both these technology behemoths.
Whats Google doing to get into Microsofts Domain:
Lets quickly get into the meat of this story, that late on Tuesday evening Google announces through its blog post that they would be developing a new Chrome Based Operating system that is lightweight , linux based and freely available on the web so that the open source developers could develop customize applications for it like for any other linux based operating systems. Whats more this would be available for free in the second half of next year. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” the blog post said. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds.” Now if you see the point about getting into the web quickly you ll know what Google has in mind. This is where they want to challenge Microsoft in what has been their forte. Microsoft has already made announcements of launching its latest operating system Windows 7 a successor to the not so successful predecessor the Windows Vista OS, on the 22 nd of Octobet,2009 and is all set to unveil the 2010 Windows Office version on July 13,2009 that would be available next year. Over the last few decades Microsoft has been extremely successful in the OS Business by having 95 percent of world PC’s using the Windows OS and the Microsoft Office Suite that comprises of excel, power-point and word. This was offered as software that is deployed on every PC. However Google launched its edition of Google Apps and is promoting it effectively where applications like Google Spreadsheets hosted in their own data centres through which multiple users could make changes at once. It has floated ideas of creating such applications which would be competitors of Microsofts excel, powerpoint & word and would be offered over the web which in other words could be an example of “Software As a service”. Google primarily makes its revenues through web based advertising and it made sense for them to offer such services over the web so as to use its online advertising very effectively. More that you and me use the web for all our work, more money will Google make through various ways.For example While using Gmail if you have an email from your friend about best places to visit in Paris on the right hand side of your inbox you ll have advertisements about cheap flights and hotels in Paris. To be honest I get scared about gmail as Google reads each and every email of mine and then posts advertising related to the topic of the email. Microsoft for its own benefits has realized the power of the web . Microsoft in November began offering Exchange and SharePoint as a Web service for a monthly fee. For customers tired of maintaining these unwieldy programs on their own servers, the change is welcome: They usually end up paying less to subscribe to the software than they spent buying the program and paying for the staff and hardware to run it. Microsoft may also be toying with the idea of offering its Office Suite and its applications over the web partly if not completely. Infact Microsoft will offer a free version of Office with limited functionality to customers who don't want to pay up for the whole shebang. Among other things, the free version, which will be supported in part by online advertising, will let users access any Word or Excel document remotely, via cell phone or a Web site. The latest move by Google to create an Operating system that boots up at the click of the button and allows users to access web based applications like Facebook and browse the web through the Chrome Browser is aimed at getting more and more users online thus generating more revenues through online advertising. This could provide a welcome change where an old PC takes about10-12 minutes to boot up and all applications being launched one by one. Another major driver behind this move has been the proliferation of netbooks. Rather than buying bulky desktop computers, consumers have been turning recently toward small, low-cost laptops known as netbooks, which serve as little more than gateways to the Web. Google says its operating system will be initially aimed at netbooks, which are generally not powerful enough to handle the latest version of Windows. But Microsoft has been quick to react by launching Windows 7 which is also scalable for Netbooks and lower end laptops. How successful will Google be in proliferating its Chrome OS versus the world renowned and almost generic for an OS Windows would be for time to tell. Firstly, Google has little background in marketing and customer support, factors that could prove critical to the success of a new operating system. Microsoft foots the marketing bill for Windows, running multimillion-dollar campaigns across many forms of media with most new releases. Its recent "Laptop Hunter" TV ads are part of a $300 million campaign launched last year. By contrast, Google's promotions for new products typically take the form of a single blog post. Microsoft's biggest advantages may come in the area of distribution. While Google has no real experience, sales staff, or distributor network to reach out to millions of would-be customers, Microsoft has 3,500 sales reps. More important, about 650,000 companies around the world make some or all of their living reselling Windows and Windows-based applications.
What Microsoft is doing to get into Googles Domain:
In early 2007 Microsoft tried to acquire Yahoo by offering almost $ 50 billion ,but this were rubbished as rumours. Eight months later Microsoft has made an official proposal to acquire Yahoo in a deal worth $44.6 billion in cash and stock, at a price of $31 per share, which represents a 62 percent premium for shareholders. The only rationale behind this move and still continues on the back of the mind of microsofts top officials has been the Search Engine Market share. Here you have a solid case where Microsoft has been trying catch up with the near 70 percent search engine share of Google by acquiring Yahoo thus resulting in a combined market share of close to 27 percent. Over the past few years the dominance of Google in the search engine share space and diversification into other web based applications such as Gmail, Google apps has hit Microsofts by reducing the share of its msn portal and also the once pioneering Hotmail email service. Apart from catching up with Google, Microsoft saw great potential in Online advertising revenues. In announcing its buyout offer, Microsoft spent a lot of time talking about the potential growth of the online advertising market, and at the company's annual investor meeting in July, CEO Ballmer also hammered home the online ad opportunity. With a cloud over the acquisition of Yahoo Microsoft decided to launch Bing a new search engine based on Intelligent Decision Making. Bing, launched on June 3 but available to some users a few days earlier, took 8.23 per cent of US Web searches in June, up from 7.81 per cent for Microsoft search just prior to its rollout and 7.21 per cent in April, said Internet data firm StatCounter. Google lost share slightly, dipping to 78.48 per cent from 78.72 per cent before Bing. Yahoo Inc, the perennial No 2 in the market, rose to 11.04 per cent from 10.99 per cent. Bing's share peaked in the first week of June at 9.21 per cent, falling away in the middle two weeks before coming back at 8.45 per cent in the last week of June. The results may give heart to Microsoft, which is investing heavily in its loss-making online services business and is refusing to cede the market to Google. Two Bing features jump out right away: the search history listing and the related searches suggestion in the left column. Search history would certainly come in handy when you're trying term after term and don't want to repeat yourself, and the related searches are indeed helpful when it comes to narrowing your search down from broad to specific terms. That is in line with the "intelligent search/decision engine" angle Another aspect where Bing has proved beneficial is offering important tweets from Twitter the popular micro-blogging site through its search system.Google has been rumored to be casting an eye toward creating a tool for searching social networking sites, like Twitter. But today, Bing came out and did it. When someone does a search on Bing for Al Gore in association with Twitter, for instance, the user should see Gore's latest tweets come up among the search results.If online chatter succeeds, Bing won't be alone for long in offering this Twitter-search feature. A possible Google microblogging search service that would focus on finding Twitter posts has been the subject of online chatter in recent weeks.
My Conclusion:
Well that’s all I have to say about Microsoft getting into Googles domain with Bing and about Google trying to get one up on Microsoft with Chrome OS. At the end of the day if you ask me I see both making truckloads of money for themselves as both the OS market and search engine market will only grow with computer literacy growing across the world whatever be their market share. The fact is they both are technology behemoths well established into what they have doing and if anything would be generating higher revenues and having more diversified product lines.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Hope-the elixir of life
For what were life without a dash of hope, For being born mortal is the hope of life that has come true..
For what were hope if it were to always come true,For hope was not hope if I knew how it feels to loose someone dear,
But hope that it was that made me strong, that held my breath by my heart,For I knew of no strength, knew of no wish that was surreal, that could change For what was to come, Had been decided by all fate, etched by the eons of destiny
For what what harm grief could ever do, as it was this hope that gave me strength, That I felt your pain, more than it ever hurt you..for it was this hope that always wished Good for you. As a new day dawns, its breathes elixir into my hope for my life, For it gets stronger than the will of death, for death will but stop, but it is this hope that only grow by the strength of this very hope.
For hope were the hero of sacrifice that stood bleeding atop its victory gate, For there were a dozen soldiers who hath hoped to cherish that moment….now lying dead ,It was that hope of those dozen soldiers that resonated in the victorious spirit,that hath made it happen.
So look at yourself,know what you want and hope for that,Your path shall taketh you where you hath to,But the hope in your spirit shall liberate you from all your desires , And it will be this hope that shall breathe love into your pain, Happiness into your sorrow, Strength into your weakness, Good into your bad, Your life into your destiny.
For what were hope if it were to always come true,For hope was not hope if I knew how it feels to loose someone dear,
But hope that it was that made me strong, that held my breath by my heart,For I knew of no strength, knew of no wish that was surreal, that could change For what was to come, Had been decided by all fate, etched by the eons of destiny
For what what harm grief could ever do, as it was this hope that gave me strength, That I felt your pain, more than it ever hurt you..for it was this hope that always wished Good for you. As a new day dawns, its breathes elixir into my hope for my life, For it gets stronger than the will of death, for death will but stop, but it is this hope that only grow by the strength of this very hope.
For hope were the hero of sacrifice that stood bleeding atop its victory gate, For there were a dozen soldiers who hath hoped to cherish that moment….now lying dead ,It was that hope of those dozen soldiers that resonated in the victorious spirit,that hath made it happen.
So look at yourself,know what you want and hope for that,Your path shall taketh you where you hath to,But the hope in your spirit shall liberate you from all your desires , And it will be this hope that shall breathe love into your pain, Happiness into your sorrow, Strength into your weakness, Good into your bad, Your life into your destiny.
Friday, June 5, 2009
As I ponder today on World Environment Day,June 5,2009
Today morning as I woke up and looked out of the window I saw a stream of smoke being puffed out of an industrial Chimney.I shut the room air conditioner and then I went to my refrigerator to drink some cold water.And then I realized its World Environment Day, June 5 ,2009.All of a sudden I felt guilty and I began pondering about the smoke from those chimneys,the CFC's from the refrigerator and the air conditioner.
There may not be a chimney outside your home,you may not be guilty either but I am sure in one way or the other you would be contributing to the green house gases being emitted from various appliances in your home, the fuel guzzling cars you drive, the computer desktops and lights which you keep on while going out for lunch at your office.All this is leading to grave climatic changes.
About 3,00,000 people more than the death toll for an Indian Ocean Tsunami die annually due to climate change as per a news artcile by Economic Times.
But as of today we have had the hottest years of all time in the past 13 years in 2007.Snow is melting ever so quickly and water levels in our oceans and seas rising by 1 inch every year, articulately showcased by Al Gores Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Governments across the world are taking the onus on themselves to make strategic changes and action plans.
Today on the account of World Environment Day ,the re-elected Indian Government in India has just announced the implementation of National Action Plan on Climate Change.
These comprises a 8 prong climate mission change:
1.Enhancing contributions of solar energy in the total energy mix.
2.Introducing Energy steps
3.Promoting Sustainable Habitats like the Sunderbans and mangroves.
4.Saving Himalayan Glaciers.
5.Water Resource Management.6.protecting mountain eco-systems.
7.Improving eco-system services.
8.Making agriculture more resilient and adaptible to climate change.
I don't know 10 years or 15 years down the line how quantifiable these efforts would be.But like always I am pointing fingers at the government and not looking at my own efforts.What if you me and the government all did their bit in a small way.I am sure these small efforts would con-join togethr one day and would result in that big change that the world deserves ,our planet deserves,you and me and our generations to come deserve.
Why think now.
There are power cuts in most Indian cities including the capital Delhi barring a few places in Mumbai.Lets not get to the thousands of small villages and lights for whom the day is not 24 hours but still about 14 hours.
Our fresh water reserves are being constantly depleted.The Oil war is going to be the next big thing and the only thing in the coming decades.On the upside the investments in energy business are increasing many fold.The Toyata Prius and Honda Insight the latest breed of Hybrid cars are the best selling cars in China since the last two months.
No wonder under the codename of Project I BMW is getting into electric cars.
On the Upside
More and more companies are tieing up with global initiatives like www.google.org so as to install smart grids and have these smart meters installed within their company premises.Reliance (ADAG) was one of the few Indian cos to so.These smart meters will relay all the electricity related information over the internet,by sms and provide information about energy consumption and faulty appliances.I suppose this will be one huge development in the next few decades.
Despite the recession, companies are still setting aside a large chunk of their IT spending for green technology projects, as per a new study Two out of three of the companies surveyed by Deloitte—large enterprises with revenues of $500m plus—said they have at least five per cent of their IT budget earmarked for green IT projects.I strongly believe part of it is a marketing gimmick , and part of it green IT,the main reason being recession as these would reduce operating cost and improve their net margins.
There may not be a chimney outside your home,you may not be guilty either but I am sure in one way or the other you would be contributing to the green house gases being emitted from various appliances in your home, the fuel guzzling cars you drive, the computer desktops and lights which you keep on while going out for lunch at your office.All this is leading to grave climatic changes.
About 3,00,000 people more than the death toll for an Indian Ocean Tsunami die annually due to climate change as per a news artcile by Economic Times.
But as of today we have had the hottest years of all time in the past 13 years in 2007.Snow is melting ever so quickly and water levels in our oceans and seas rising by 1 inch every year, articulately showcased by Al Gores Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.
Governments across the world are taking the onus on themselves to make strategic changes and action plans.
Today on the account of World Environment Day ,the re-elected Indian Government in India has just announced the implementation of National Action Plan on Climate Change.
These comprises a 8 prong climate mission change:
1.Enhancing contributions of solar energy in the total energy mix.
2.Introducing Energy steps
3.Promoting Sustainable Habitats like the Sunderbans and mangroves.
4.Saving Himalayan Glaciers.
5.Water Resource Management.6.protecting mountain eco-systems.
7.Improving eco-system services.
8.Making agriculture more resilient and adaptible to climate change.
I don't know 10 years or 15 years down the line how quantifiable these efforts would be.But like always I am pointing fingers at the government and not looking at my own efforts.What if you me and the government all did their bit in a small way.I am sure these small efforts would con-join togethr one day and would result in that big change that the world deserves ,our planet deserves,you and me and our generations to come deserve.
Why think now.
There are power cuts in most Indian cities including the capital Delhi barring a few places in Mumbai.Lets not get to the thousands of small villages and lights for whom the day is not 24 hours but still about 14 hours.
Our fresh water reserves are being constantly depleted.The Oil war is going to be the next big thing and the only thing in the coming decades.On the upside the investments in energy business are increasing many fold.The Toyata Prius and Honda Insight the latest breed of Hybrid cars are the best selling cars in China since the last two months.
No wonder under the codename of Project I BMW is getting into electric cars.
On the Upside
More and more companies are tieing up with global initiatives like www.google.org so as to install smart grids and have these smart meters installed within their company premises.Reliance (ADAG) was one of the few Indian cos to so.These smart meters will relay all the electricity related information over the internet,by sms and provide information about energy consumption and faulty appliances.I suppose this will be one huge development in the next few decades.
Despite the recession, companies are still setting aside a large chunk of their IT spending for green technology projects, as per a new study Two out of three of the companies surveyed by Deloitte—large enterprises with revenues of $500m plus—said they have at least five per cent of their IT budget earmarked for green IT projects.I strongly believe part of it is a marketing gimmick , and part of it green IT,the main reason being recession as these would reduce operating cost and improve their net margins.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Search for Bing on www.google.com and Google on www.bing.com to a new world of the Search Engine Wars
Search for Microsofts Bing on Google and what you get are a lot of publicists/analysts talking about how the Bing is going to revolutionalize the search engine.These results are based on most popular searches on Googles PageRank algorithm which has a spider sprawling up various webpages and ranking them as per the number of unique and repetitive hits. But search for Google.com on Bing from June 3,2009 on www.bing.com Microsofts newest Decision based search engine,one of its strategies to dethrottle google.com from the numero uno search engine market where it has a cannibilazing 60-70 percent share in North America alone followed by Yahoo's 20 percent.
The top results from a Bing search for the words "flights from Seattle to San Francisco" would include a link that shows a low roundtrip fare of $117. The search page would offer an icon predicting, based on historical trends, what will happen to ticket prices over the next seven days.Bing would initially focus on four key areas: "making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business". Bings core focus would be on showing results that would help you to make decisions better and unlike on www.google.com would not require you to twist and tweak your mind to write the correct questions and then search for the correct answer by the results displayed as most popular on the google.com.
Where as Bing would pre-empt your questions and may actually try to judge what you actually need from a particular query and would display lowest airfares when you search Mumbai to Delhi by flight and also the cheapest rates for the coming week and the historical trends of the past,comparisons across results thus enabling users to take wise decisions.
Seems yet another interesting attempt by Microsoft to compete closely with Google after its continual efforts to acquire/merge with yahoo so as to gain market share.But the point to note for me is that 1 Billion users across the web,for more people than not www.google.com is their homepage and is also the household name for anyone who wants to find anything and anywhere online.
But its the utility and effectiveness of the service that google offers which if replicated could create another Google.It would not take another 2 decades with growing net literacy but would be a challenging one for microsoft.I wonder if it would have been wise to call bing www.wise.com and apart from that also use decision based as well as a popular search based engine to give users an absolute mix of the two search engine to gain ultimate supremacy.Are you reading this Mr Bill Gates.
The top results from a Bing search for the words "flights from Seattle to San Francisco" would include a link that shows a low roundtrip fare of $117. The search page would offer an icon predicting, based on historical trends, what will happen to ticket prices over the next seven days.Bing would initially focus on four key areas: "making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business". Bings core focus would be on showing results that would help you to make decisions better and unlike on www.google.com would not require you to twist and tweak your mind to write the correct questions and then search for the correct answer by the results displayed as most popular on the google.com.
Where as Bing would pre-empt your questions and may actually try to judge what you actually need from a particular query and would display lowest airfares when you search Mumbai to Delhi by flight and also the cheapest rates for the coming week and the historical trends of the past,comparisons across results thus enabling users to take wise decisions.
Seems yet another interesting attempt by Microsoft to compete closely with Google after its continual efforts to acquire/merge with yahoo so as to gain market share.But the point to note for me is that 1 Billion users across the web,for more people than not www.google.com is their homepage and is also the household name for anyone who wants to find anything and anywhere online.
But its the utility and effectiveness of the service that google offers which if replicated could create another Google.It would not take another 2 decades with growing net literacy but would be a challenging one for microsoft.I wonder if it would have been wise to call bing www.wise.com and apart from that also use decision based as well as a popular search based engine to give users an absolute mix of the two search engine to gain ultimate supremacy.Are you reading this Mr Bill Gates.
Friday, May 1, 2009
SMS your Vote or Cast it Online: If you can Dial a Pizza or have McDelivery why not Vote Online
What if the 30 th of April,2009 was not a holiday and yet a polling day where by you could still go to your office or work at home yet SMS or cast a vote online in a bracket of 11 am to 12 am.
If you are a true blue Mumbaikar (I am not referring to Mumbai Indians) you will always know where the traffic is heading,the city roads should be packed and hustling with bustling cars,the yellow and black taxis,the ever so easily maneuverable little chicken auto rickshaws.
But come 30 th April 2009,the date for the going out there and casting your vote,there was a lack of buzz around the city.With so many stars/politicos urging the maximum city to go out there and cast a vote,yet it seemed many a family headed to Lonavla, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar to beat the heat and celebrate an extended vacation starting April 30,the voting day,May 1 Maharashtra day and the World Labour day which fell on Thursday and Friday and thus summing it up with a beautiful long weekend on Saturday and Sunday.End result Mumbai gets a polling percentage between 45 to 46 percent lowest in the last 4 general elections.
Well you may have issues like Booth Capturing,Rigging and thus you have to ensure every person goes to the polling booth and then finding his name on the registration list shows his identity proof and then casts his vote.If you look at the polling percentage across sectors and socio-economic classes the number of educated and higher middle class has always been low across the country.
With free food,pick up and drop during days of campaigning and also Rs 100 per day paid per person as the amount given to have a nice time with the rally ,most political parties bestow such lavish amenities for the lower rung of our population who fall easy prey to such allurements.
Now maybe many educated individuals are not motivated enough to go out there and vote because they don’t understand the adage that a single drop of water adds up to fill a lake.But then just by making it a public holiday and urging people to vote is not enough. There has to be more ease and convenience which has to be created for a person to vote.
Lets face it in a new World where networking and social interaction Is through Facebook ,Orkut and Myspace,where discussions and chats are online,where Mr Advani can urge the young Indians to cast their votes online,why not urge the entire population to elect their leaders online.
In this age of Dial a Pizza,Mc Delivery,Customer Care and Call Centres that serve credit card statements for Americans and the Europeans,we have the technology prowess to set up an online ballot system.If any one in the world the Indian IT Industry is adept and proficient at developing an online polling system atleast for Urban India.
Well rigging,impersonification and security concerns would crop up in your mind,but then by paying 100 Rs the politicos are rigging it anyways. Why not have a dual voting system.Why not have some electoral representatives going from home to home in a particular day in a particular time asking the members of the family to go online to www.indianelections2009.org ,showing passport/ration card/PAN card to those member and them overseeing the vote.
I had political parties coming up to my house to urge everyone to vote ,so why not have the members of election commission coming over to your house so that you can vote online.If you don’t like the idea of someone coming over to your home,let the voting lines be open online on a particular site and every person can go online and casts a vote by registering his unique id/pan card or his passport number.We can have digital signatures.My cynics of this(which will be more than my supporters) I am targeting say around only 30 percent of the entire Indian Population but this is the educated,urbane,literate class that refrains from polling year on year.
I am sure the VDelivery aka McDelivery will increase the Polling percentage from 45 to atleast 55,which would be a considerable increase.Many Non Resident Indians or Indians who are out of the country or state can also cast their vote electronically from wherever they are.
I know many of my friends who are in the USA backing political parties in India and who are even more interested in Indian Politics more than me for several reasons,patriotism and H1-B may be the highest on their priority list.Why not give them a chance to cast their all important vote too.
India apart from being the worlds largest democracy is also the worlds fastest growing Telecom market with close to 10-11 million subscribers being added every month.We have crossed around 420 million by April 2009 and teledensity touching 37 percent.Airtel is the 8 th Biggest Telecom operator in the world and is all set to touch 100 million subscribers in the second week of May 2009.This teledensity would be close to 70 percent by 2013 by rough estimates.Imagine the penetration.
Why not give these 37 percent of the Indian population a chance to send free SMS which is preceded by a unique passport or Pan Number as an alternative to casting a vote online or going to the polling booth.If all the telcos,Airtel,Vodafone can bear a social cost of a free SMS to a central government registry that collects these votes why not consider this.You could have the voting system asking you to identify yourself by answering some confidential questions.
My ideas may be too optimistic ,they may also be far fetched, the issue of voter independence, of voter secularism, of voter solidarity may be affected, but if convenience and the urge to vote due to lack of interest or confidence is a hindrance in any which way atleast the system in place will get you some 20 percent extra votes.
I am sure you will have the Indian youth between the age group of 18-30 taking hugely to voting by Mobile and the Internet and you may well see 30 th April not being declared a holiday at all.People would rather go to their work and vote there itself.I would see Mumbai registering atleast 66.66 percent of votes whereby atleast 2/3 of your city is electing a Party that needs to get a 2/3 majority to form a government.
If you are a true blue Mumbaikar (I am not referring to Mumbai Indians) you will always know where the traffic is heading,the city roads should be packed and hustling with bustling cars,the yellow and black taxis,the ever so easily maneuverable little chicken auto rickshaws.
But come 30 th April 2009,the date for the going out there and casting your vote,there was a lack of buzz around the city.With so many stars/politicos urging the maximum city to go out there and cast a vote,yet it seemed many a family headed to Lonavla, Matheran, Mahabaleshwar to beat the heat and celebrate an extended vacation starting April 30,the voting day,May 1 Maharashtra day and the World Labour day which fell on Thursday and Friday and thus summing it up with a beautiful long weekend on Saturday and Sunday.End result Mumbai gets a polling percentage between 45 to 46 percent lowest in the last 4 general elections.
Well you may have issues like Booth Capturing,Rigging and thus you have to ensure every person goes to the polling booth and then finding his name on the registration list shows his identity proof and then casts his vote.If you look at the polling percentage across sectors and socio-economic classes the number of educated and higher middle class has always been low across the country.
With free food,pick up and drop during days of campaigning and also Rs 100 per day paid per person as the amount given to have a nice time with the rally ,most political parties bestow such lavish amenities for the lower rung of our population who fall easy prey to such allurements.
Now maybe many educated individuals are not motivated enough to go out there and vote because they don’t understand the adage that a single drop of water adds up to fill a lake.But then just by making it a public holiday and urging people to vote is not enough. There has to be more ease and convenience which has to be created for a person to vote.
Lets face it in a new World where networking and social interaction Is through Facebook ,Orkut and Myspace,where discussions and chats are online,where Mr Advani can urge the young Indians to cast their votes online,why not urge the entire population to elect their leaders online.
In this age of Dial a Pizza,Mc Delivery,Customer Care and Call Centres that serve credit card statements for Americans and the Europeans,we have the technology prowess to set up an online ballot system.If any one in the world the Indian IT Industry is adept and proficient at developing an online polling system atleast for Urban India.
Well rigging,impersonification and security concerns would crop up in your mind,but then by paying 100 Rs the politicos are rigging it anyways. Why not have a dual voting system.Why not have some electoral representatives going from home to home in a particular day in a particular time asking the members of the family to go online to www.indianelections2009.org ,showing passport/ration card/PAN card to those member and them overseeing the vote.
I had political parties coming up to my house to urge everyone to vote ,so why not have the members of election commission coming over to your house so that you can vote online.If you don’t like the idea of someone coming over to your home,let the voting lines be open online on a particular site and every person can go online and casts a vote by registering his unique id/pan card or his passport number.We can have digital signatures.My cynics of this(which will be more than my supporters) I am targeting say around only 30 percent of the entire Indian Population but this is the educated,urbane,literate class that refrains from polling year on year.
I am sure the VDelivery aka McDelivery will increase the Polling percentage from 45 to atleast 55,which would be a considerable increase.Many Non Resident Indians or Indians who are out of the country or state can also cast their vote electronically from wherever they are.
I know many of my friends who are in the USA backing political parties in India and who are even more interested in Indian Politics more than me for several reasons,patriotism and H1-B may be the highest on their priority list.Why not give them a chance to cast their all important vote too.
India apart from being the worlds largest democracy is also the worlds fastest growing Telecom market with close to 10-11 million subscribers being added every month.We have crossed around 420 million by April 2009 and teledensity touching 37 percent.Airtel is the 8 th Biggest Telecom operator in the world and is all set to touch 100 million subscribers in the second week of May 2009.This teledensity would be close to 70 percent by 2013 by rough estimates.Imagine the penetration.
Why not give these 37 percent of the Indian population a chance to send free SMS which is preceded by a unique passport or Pan Number as an alternative to casting a vote online or going to the polling booth.If all the telcos,Airtel,Vodafone can bear a social cost of a free SMS to a central government registry that collects these votes why not consider this.You could have the voting system asking you to identify yourself by answering some confidential questions.
My ideas may be too optimistic ,they may also be far fetched, the issue of voter independence, of voter secularism, of voter solidarity may be affected, but if convenience and the urge to vote due to lack of interest or confidence is a hindrance in any which way atleast the system in place will get you some 20 percent extra votes.
I am sure you will have the Indian youth between the age group of 18-30 taking hugely to voting by Mobile and the Internet and you may well see 30 th April not being declared a holiday at all.People would rather go to their work and vote there itself.I would see Mumbai registering atleast 66.66 percent of votes whereby atleast 2/3 of your city is electing a Party that needs to get a 2/3 majority to form a government.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Innovative Smart Water Grid and water harvesting systems needed for Mumbai
Mumbai receives its annual drinking supply of water from its lakes Vihar,Vaitarna and Tansa lakes which are replenished with water between June and September by the annual monsoon rains which could measure upto 2,200 millimetres (86.6 in)Various densely populated parts receive water supply by pumping from these lakes. However many are located at the very end of the pipeline and get inadequate water.
With ever increasing population I foresee the water supply to be insufficient in the coming years.With erratic rainfall measuring upto 37.7 inches in one day on 26 July 2005 to late monsoons lasting upto October due to the effects of global warming I propose an innovative Water Regulator and Harvesting Design which has to make use of the abundant monsoon rain.
The basic idea would be to collect the rain water falling on roof tops and the sides of building. A portion of this can be saved in innovative Tanks for immediate consumption. If rain water is not collected, almost 60-80% runs off through storm drains and sewage and the remaining would evaporate.
The amount of average water a household consumes can be regulated by a SMART WATER GRID Designed to measure and regulate the amount of water entering every household. Every household would be connected to an intranet –internet system. If the water supply would exceed the household average notifications via sms, emails and control beeps, users would be asked to regulate their water supply. This together with a rain water harvesting system should be a backup for shortfall of any rain.
My idea would be deepen the tank by double its capacity. Get the regular flow of water from the city and then harvest the rain-water during the monsoons as a backup for the summer months when there is acute water shortage also as an investment for the future.
So my basic Innovative Rainwater Prototype/Pilot Design would be as follows:
1. There have to be drain pipes bringing the water from the roof of either wings of the building and letting it run off. Then close these pipes at the ground level and connected them to a huge catchment/collection point. 2. From this huge catchment/ common collection point, install a 6-8" dia pipe underground to the large water tank. 3. Deepen the tank and increase its capacity by double,the rain water harvested would replenish the ground water and the well which is deep dug in a suitable area by the water-table mark. 4.Have a state of the art purifying system/filter installed that would remove the impurities from the collected rainwater and make it available for daily consumption.
Innovation here is of the design concept and the benefit it would provide to all residents. Plus the conduits and cables would be made of cost effective polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or galvanized iron (GI).
The Smart Water Grid would regulate water supply, constantly show status on the Internet and also measure Impurities/Irregularities if any in the water supply.Such a network could regulate the entire city water supply.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
World Earth Day 22 nd April,Places to see before they die
“Places to see before they die” –World Earth Day 22,nd April 2009.
Today when I look at my mother earth I wonder how she would look a hundred years from now. The worlds biggest selling TV show may be “Hundred Places to see before they die” and the bestselling book may read “a thousand things to do before the fuel runs out”
I wonder if we would have the “The World Coastal City Day” a tribute to the remaining coastal cities and towns. I wonder if our grandchildren would be taking iconic trips to the “Last remaining Ice-capped Mountains of the world and maybe the Mt Everest in the Himalayas is pitted versus Pastoruri in the Andes for snow capped supremacy for who will have an ounce of ice more”.
For adventure seekers and mountaineers, the record set by Sir Edmund Hillary to conquer Mt Everest will be a first of its kind and insurmountable as it would not be anywhere close to 8848 metres as it stands today as the highest mountain on Earth, even if they developed far more superior ice-scaling equipment or feet as nimble as the Yeti.
For deep sea diving in the Great Barrier Reef may be a historic archived video from National Geographic Channel or the Discovery Channel. Entrepreneurs world over would be cueing up to create Coral Reefed theme parks with 101 extinct yet exciting Species of Coral Reef. Disney theme rides would take you through “Aqua” their artificial creations of the various corals in a form of a joyride.
I wonder if our grand children would visit Ice-Museums with the skeletons of great Polar Bears and replicas of the emperor Penguins. I wonder if the Igloo’s would be re-created world over and awarded the best Hotels in the world as rated by Conde Nast magazine.
I may be over be over board and exaggerating. But as of what I see today we experienced 11 hottest years of all time in the past 13 years in 2007.Snow is melting ever so quickly and water levels in our oceans and seas rising by 1 inch every year, articulately showcased by Al Gores Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. More and more species are being moved to the extinct category from vulnerable. So much so that the Tuna Sashimi or the famous Japanese delicacy Sushi would be eaten last in 2012 if there is no stoppage of their fishing in the Mediterranean where this fish heads for spawning. Every year we have to deal with newer hurricanes like Katrina be it the United States.
Well when I look at my mother earth ,I can see her staring back at me shedding tears in the form of rising water levels. I have nowhere to hide, nowhere to go for it is she who gives me this shelter to live, the places to travel to and I wonder what have I ever done for her. So I have made a resolution to start with myself.
Today the 22nd of April on occasion of the “World Earth Day”We may want the world leaders to curb greenhouse gas emission of Carbon dioxide but I rather say we need much more action than just them to vouch for our future. Our future is in our hands, so switch off your car while stuck in traffic Jams. Use the new CFL light saving bulbs at home,say no to plastic bags,do not litter on the road ,use car-pooling to travel to work.9 out of 10 people in America use cars to travel to work.
This sense of environment responsibility has to be inculcated as a way of life in schools,colleges and institutes. More and more corporations world- wide have to implement the environmental ethos in their vission,mission statements and corporate culture.
Maybe then my dream may just not about come true a hundred years from now.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Ever thought a futuristic rescue boat would be a GIANT Sea Spider !!!!!
Don't be surprise if you are enjoying a beautiful sunset and soft music by the beach and yikes a GIANT SEA SPIDER Sprawls out of the sea to haunt you. I would have been but for yesterday while watching Discovery channels Next World a futuristic show on Discovery Channel that airs prime time, Thursday 9 pm IST, I almost realized my worst fear .What I saw was a 100 Feet long and 50 feet wide replica of a giant sea-spider named after the greek God Proteus.The Proteus is no luxury craft. Its crew cabin is suspended like a gondola from its four-legged superstructure. Its called the WAV Spider ,a Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel that is the latest in Navigation. Dont be afraid if you see this giant spider sprawling the oceans in a bid to save any sea struck vessel and has extensive uses right from military to biological research and ocean exploration.The spindly catamaran can travel 5,000 miles (8,000 km) - farther than across the Atlantic - on one 2,000-gallon (9,000 l) load of diesel fuel. The obnoxious feature straight out of any Monster vs Alien , Predator movie does have pleasure-boat potential. It can be fitted with different types of detachable cabins that can accommodate anything from a honeymooning couple to 12 passengers.So imagine honeymooning in a spider shaped boat that is out there to rescue any distressed sea vehicle and swiveling with dolphins and their rhythms. Crazy isn’t it but that’s the future to come of the Next World.
If that is not enough ,let me ask you what is the first thing that comes to mind when you see a batch of beautiful dolphins swiveling, curling and diving a top each other in the vast wide oceans of the world. I often wonder, if I could swim with a batch of them, be a part of their school, if only my body could gyrate to their beats and resonate in a rhythm that would resound heavenly bliss. A new sci-fi ,doboat or a dolphin shaped boat was being aired for all and sundry. Its exactly in the shape of a dolphin with a central cockpit like enclosure that seats only one person. Now its just not a simple dolphin like looking boat.You can actually dive like a dolphin, you can swivel in mid-air , you could actually dive as a part of them.Experimental research regarding the same is on.(Will upload the video)
Monday, April 13, 2009
The importance of a concerted effot by world leaders for corporate governance
The Satyam Scandal brought to light in January 09 by the disclosure of its Chairman Ramalinga Raju that he and his brothers had been cooking the books and siphoning off money from thousand of fake Satyam Salary accounts shook the Indian Corporates with fraud amounting to the tunes of 7000 crores of Indian Rupees.Mr Ramalinga Raju said in a letter of resignation that he had been overstating profits for the past several years, the amount of debt owed to the company and understating its liabilities.Satyam -- the name means "truth" in Sanskrit -- was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and has had high-profile independent directors, including a Harvard Business School professor and Mr Rao the dean of one of Indias leading B Schools ISB.
Satyam was India's fourth largest IT company and one of the flag bearers of India's IT story which accounted for more than 60 percent of the Services contribution to India's GDP by means of software exports.It had taken almost two decades for companies like Infosys and Wipro both led by erstwhile leaders like Narayan Murthy and Aziz Premji who led by example and pioneered their companies as one of the most ethical in the world.This scandal started numerous comparisons to the accounting scandal at Enron a few years ago.It was a major blip on the face of the Indian IT Story that had created employement for thousands of software professionals over the last decade and putting India on the global roadmap.
It was the least unexpected from Satyam and Mr Ramalinga Raju something that is showed by the fact that Satyam had won the Golden Peacock award for corporate Governance in December 08 and Mr Raju was a former president of NASSCOM which showcases India's IT Industry to the world.The financial manipulation has been going for seven long years but neither the so-called “independent directors” nor the professional auditors discovered it. The independent directors were acknowledged management experts the likes of the father of the Pentium chip, Vinod Dham, and Krishna Palepu of Harvard Business School. They collected huge fees without discharging their duty to safeguard the investors’ interest because they were puppets in the hands of the promoter, Raju. As the accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, did in the Enron case, Pricewaterhouse Cooper Capital, the celebrated audit firm, did in the Satyam case, both failing to uncover the fraud.Ironically, the World Council for Corporate Governance ranked Satyam as among the best-run companies in the world.
The primary reason why Mr Ramalinga Raju did so was to take protect Stakeholders equity and making sure its profits were in lieu with those of its competitors.But the questions that come to mind is that the only purpose of a company.With close to 45,000 employees and their families dependent on Satyam and being a important stakeholder of the Indian IT Industry with several Global clients like Sony,General Electric,Caterpillar,Nissan Motor it has created a huge dent.Satyam had various tie-ups with universities across India for harnessing talent.What good are the youth to make of such scandals.
What is disturbing is that for over seven years Mr Raju was supported by politicians in power in the Andhra Pradesh Government—former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and later his successor Y.R.S. Reddy. Mr Raju was the face of Andhra Pradesh while meeting President Bill Clinton for investment in AP.His association with the top leaders meant that Raju got huge chunks of prime land at throw-away prices for technology park and other purposes and many other facilities which enabled Satyam to expand and grow rapidly. Banks and financial institutions allowed Raju to open thousands of accounts without questioning. They provided statements about the company’s finance as Raju requested.
Since September 2008 there has been a collapse of one major financial institution after another like the Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Stanley Morgan Investment and Washington Mutual Bank. These are not stray events. There is a clear link between the policy of neo-liberalism(which means that best government is the best which governs the least), unbridled capitalism and financial scandals. However if you see the Indian Banking system which is so regulated and orthodox has done much better than its global compatriots with SBI now having more market capital than CitiBank worldwide.
Climate change, its impact and eco-conservation is an underlying impact that is going to be of paramount importance in the next decade.More and more strong action by all the world leaders who work with one another is required.Triple bottom line (societal,environmental and business profit )should also be inculcated in the ethos of corporate governance.
All this calls for a concerted effort from all the stakeholders of the world which explains why corporate governance is important in India and across the world
Satyam was India's fourth largest IT company and one of the flag bearers of India's IT story which accounted for more than 60 percent of the Services contribution to India's GDP by means of software exports.It had taken almost two decades for companies like Infosys and Wipro both led by erstwhile leaders like Narayan Murthy and Aziz Premji who led by example and pioneered their companies as one of the most ethical in the world.This scandal started numerous comparisons to the accounting scandal at Enron a few years ago.It was a major blip on the face of the Indian IT Story that had created employement for thousands of software professionals over the last decade and putting India on the global roadmap.
It was the least unexpected from Satyam and Mr Ramalinga Raju something that is showed by the fact that Satyam had won the Golden Peacock award for corporate Governance in December 08 and Mr Raju was a former president of NASSCOM which showcases India's IT Industry to the world.The financial manipulation has been going for seven long years but neither the so-called “independent directors” nor the professional auditors discovered it. The independent directors were acknowledged management experts the likes of the father of the Pentium chip, Vinod Dham, and Krishna Palepu of Harvard Business School. They collected huge fees without discharging their duty to safeguard the investors’ interest because they were puppets in the hands of the promoter, Raju. As the accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, did in the Enron case, Pricewaterhouse Cooper Capital, the celebrated audit firm, did in the Satyam case, both failing to uncover the fraud.Ironically, the World Council for Corporate Governance ranked Satyam as among the best-run companies in the world.
The primary reason why Mr Ramalinga Raju did so was to take protect Stakeholders equity and making sure its profits were in lieu with those of its competitors.But the questions that come to mind is that the only purpose of a company.With close to 45,000 employees and their families dependent on Satyam and being a important stakeholder of the Indian IT Industry with several Global clients like Sony,General Electric,Caterpillar,Nissan Motor it has created a huge dent.Satyam had various tie-ups with universities across India for harnessing talent.What good are the youth to make of such scandals.
What is disturbing is that for over seven years Mr Raju was supported by politicians in power in the Andhra Pradesh Government—former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and later his successor Y.R.S. Reddy. Mr Raju was the face of Andhra Pradesh while meeting President Bill Clinton for investment in AP.His association with the top leaders meant that Raju got huge chunks of prime land at throw-away prices for technology park and other purposes and many other facilities which enabled Satyam to expand and grow rapidly. Banks and financial institutions allowed Raju to open thousands of accounts without questioning. They provided statements about the company’s finance as Raju requested.
Since September 2008 there has been a collapse of one major financial institution after another like the Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Stanley Morgan Investment and Washington Mutual Bank. These are not stray events. There is a clear link between the policy of neo-liberalism(which means that best government is the best which governs the least), unbridled capitalism and financial scandals. However if you see the Indian Banking system which is so regulated and orthodox has done much better than its global compatriots with SBI now having more market capital than CitiBank worldwide.
Climate change, its impact and eco-conservation is an underlying impact that is going to be of paramount importance in the next decade.More and more strong action by all the world leaders who work with one another is required.Triple bottom line (societal,environmental and business profit )should also be inculcated in the ethos of corporate governance.
All this calls for a concerted effort from all the stakeholders of the world which explains why corporate governance is important in India and across the world
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Move over Soccer,F-1and Rugby.Its IPL & T20- A new lease of life for cricket that shall monetize the game unimaginably.
As I am big fan of Geofrey Boycot’s mum ,when the T20 world cup was played in 2007,being the orthodox and an ardent textbook cricket fan who sweared by test-cricket, I really thought what good to make of a 20 over a side match that din’t exploit the true potential of every player in the team.
Yes it was exciting,exhilarating ,nerve-crunching but was it going to be restricted to a game of luck and chances.
To put it simply I had my reservations. But after the first season of IPL and all the euphoria preceding IPL2 ,I must say I feel if anything T20 & IPL are actually the best testimonials to the game of cricket there has ever been right across the world. Over the years cricket had been type-casted as a sub-continental phenomenon and almost dying in the WestIndies which was once upon a time the breeding ground for the worlds best fast bowlers.
But over the last year the excitement generated by IPL & T20 is catching up all across the world and has rubbed some of its magic onto one-day and test cricket.
2 Feet long queues about 2 hours before a match in South Africa against the Aussies for a T20 Match was something I could imagine only happening in India.South Africa if anything seems to be in the midst of a cricketing revolution. Packed to capacity,the fun and games,the crazy fan day at all their venues and the number of south African flags on ground in one-dayers,test matches and of-course T20’s has been a common sight over the last year. No doubt their team has been successful in beating the Aussies which is no easy task, in remarkable fashion while touring them.
The cricket fever generated by T20 has simply breathed a new lease of life into the cricketing fraternity. No wonder Brian Charles Lara says "Cricket was a dying sport and I believe that Twenty20 is going to be beneficial for many reasons,
While every youngster in India who aspires to be Sachin Tendulkar or Kapil Dev,its also about fate and destiny.If they could not reach the heights their icons have scaled T20 has opened new avenues to a lot of cricketers.More and more youngsters world over would be looking at professional T20 in the future as it would also be a glamorous and a well paying job ,something that would put them on par with the footballers and F1 drivers.
Or the careers of Sanjay Bangar, Aakash Chopra would have been bitten into dust (as they failed to make it consistently in the Indian colours) had not IPL come along.What it also has done is getting more and more youngsters into the game.For now you would have a young English boy,a new Zealander aspiring to be Kevin Peterson and Freddie Flintoff for 1.44 Million dollars in a season.
Women spectators have been a remarkable feature of T20.The excitement, the adrenaline and the euphoria seems to have them enthralled.
Talking about why only 8 teams world over could play this game over the last decades with all the nuances of swing bowling, seaming wickets and nitty-gritty’s of being of top quality, we now have a format that is adaptable right across the world. If T20 is promoted across the world the learning curve for adopting to this game would be smaller and more and more teams could develop great teams. We could have USA V China is a T20 Final one day which seems much more feasible due to the marketing prowess and excitement of T20.The same game which is criticized for its non textbook style would actually get the world investing in cricket and who knows we may have more than just 8 good test teams. The Chinese are good learners and the Japanese may instill Just In Time techniques.
The amount of money IPL2 is going to generate via television ads,franchise sponsorship would be hysterical considering the world being in a deep recession.It may also be the feel good factor for the IPL Indian fan at the end of the day if the sensex or the NSE tanked in the day.
Having a run-time of close to 4 hours which is full of so much excitement and drama ,its actually similar to a soccer match which is close to 2 hours which works very well for the average spectator to finish his work and come spend a delightful evening with his family friends at the venue. Well the organizers would be laughing all the way to the banks but who can blame them.Its a platform where entertainment is delivered Live and candid ,a kind of a reality TV that has no script where the control could switch by every ball and by every over.
New stars of this era who specialize in T20 would be born and they would be rich and famous too .I can imagine no cricketing legend the likes of Gary Sobers,Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman partying away colouring the world with their larger than large personas (following across the world) like the Beckhams,Hakkinens,Hamiltons and the Ronaldos.But from now on there shall be clubs and there shall be transfers ,we shall have more and more cricketers as the richest sportsmen in the world and they shall be traded from one club to another for a million dollars.
With the stock markets crashing,unlike speculation ,here where performance is equity we have the likes of J P Duminy and Mustafe Murtaza getting close to 600 million dollars and more PE players pumping money into the game of cricket.
Finally soothsayers may question the basics of cricket and the quality deteriorating but then I rather see that co-existing as could be seen by the two-test series in Australia and South Africa where I feel the T20 euphoria and good cricket is getting more spectators involved with the game of cricket. And as long as that is the case I am happy and I must say the queues for a game of cricket world over will be over 20 feet to get into the stadium 2 hours before the start of a match.Move over Soccer,Football and Rugby.Its T20 Time.
Yes it was exciting,exhilarating ,nerve-crunching but was it going to be restricted to a game of luck and chances.To put it simply I had my reservations. But after the first season of IPL and all the euphoria preceding IPL2 ,I must say I feel if anything T20 & IPL are actually the best testimonials to the game of cricket there has ever been right across the world. Over the years cricket had been type-casted as a sub-continental phenomenon and almost dying in the WestIndies which was once upon a time the breeding ground for the worlds best fast bowlers.
But over the last year the excitement generated by IPL & T20 is catching up all across the world and has rubbed some of its magic onto one-day and test cricket.
2 Feet long queues about 2 hours before a match in South Africa against the Aussies for a T20 Match was something I could imagine only happening in India.South Africa if anything seems to be in the midst of a cricketing revolution. Packed to capacity,the fun and games,the crazy fan day at all their venues and the number of south African flags on ground in one-dayers,test matches and of-course T20’s has been a common sight over the last year. No doubt their team has been successful in beating the Aussies which is no easy task, in remarkable fashion while touring them.
The cricket fever generated by T20 has simply breathed a new lease of life into the cricketing fraternity. No wonder Brian Charles Lara says "Cricket was a dying sport and I believe that Twenty20 is going to be beneficial for many reasons,
While every youngster in India who aspires to be Sachin Tendulkar or Kapil Dev,its also about fate and destiny.If they could not reach the heights their icons have scaled T20 has opened new avenues to a lot of cricketers.More and more youngsters world over would be looking at professional T20 in the future as it would also be a glamorous and a well paying job ,something that would put them on par with the footballers and F1 drivers.
Or the careers of Sanjay Bangar, Aakash Chopra would have been bitten into dust (as they failed to make it consistently in the Indian colours) had not IPL come along.What it also has done is getting more and more youngsters into the game.For now you would have a young English boy,a new Zealander aspiring to be Kevin Peterson and Freddie Flintoff for 1.44 Million dollars in a season.
Women spectators have been a remarkable feature of T20.The excitement, the adrenaline and the euphoria seems to have them enthralled.
Talking about why only 8 teams world over could play this game over the last decades with all the nuances of swing bowling, seaming wickets and nitty-gritty’s of being of top quality, we now have a format that is adaptable right across the world. If T20 is promoted across the world the learning curve for adopting to this game would be smaller and more and more teams could develop great teams. We could have USA V China is a T20 Final one day which seems much more feasible due to the marketing prowess and excitement of T20.The same game which is criticized for its non textbook style would actually get the world investing in cricket and who knows we may have more than just 8 good test teams. The Chinese are good learners and the Japanese may instill Just In Time techniques.
The amount of money IPL2 is going to generate via television ads,franchise sponsorship would be hysterical considering the world being in a deep recession.It may also be the feel good factor for the IPL Indian fan at the end of the day if the sensex or the NSE tanked in the day.
Having a run-time of close to 4 hours which is full of so much excitement and drama ,its actually similar to a soccer match which is close to 2 hours which works very well for the average spectator to finish his work and come spend a delightful evening with his family friends at the venue. Well the organizers would be laughing all the way to the banks but who can blame them.Its a platform where entertainment is delivered Live and candid ,a kind of a reality TV that has no script where the control could switch by every ball and by every over.
New stars of this era who specialize in T20 would be born and they would be rich and famous too .I can imagine no cricketing legend the likes of Gary Sobers,Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman partying away colouring the world with their larger than large personas (following across the world) like the Beckhams,Hakkinens,Hamiltons and the Ronaldos.But from now on there shall be clubs and there shall be transfers ,we shall have more and more cricketers as the richest sportsmen in the world and they shall be traded from one club to another for a million dollars.
With the stock markets crashing,unlike speculation ,here where performance is equity we have the likes of J P Duminy and Mustafe Murtaza getting close to 600 million dollars and more PE players pumping money into the game of cricket.
Finally soothsayers may question the basics of cricket and the quality deteriorating but then I rather see that co-existing as could be seen by the two-test series in Australia and South Africa where I feel the T20 euphoria and good cricket is getting more spectators involved with the game of cricket. And as long as that is the case I am happy and I must say the queues for a game of cricket world over will be over 20 feet to get into the stadium 2 hours before the start of a match.Move over Soccer,Football and Rugby.Its T20 Time.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Energy Efficient Smart Grids : Huge Business Opportunities for the next decade
In these tough times of economic recession, more and more companies and individuals are looking at ways to reduce operating margins and household expenses. Global warming has been slowly but surely taken its toll on our valuable resources world over.The global economic crisis however has managed to cast a shadow over global warming and going green as the most important event of discussion so much so that the main agenda at this year’s G20 meet at London most top officials were discussing how to rescue financial institutions world over.
In the mean while some top internet entrepreneurs are planning to create Business solutions that would give opportunities to a new breed of companies keeping climate change and energy saving in the backdrop.Amsterdam has been touted as the world’s first eco-city/smart city with MNC’s like IBM, Philips and Cisco look to implement a pilot program in 500 households that is designed to save energy costs and reduce the electricity bills.Banks like ING and Rabobank are providing financial assistance to 728 households for energy efficient lamps and ultra-efficient roof insulation. The projects, all getting under way over the next few months, represent Amsterdam's initial steps toward making its infrastructure more eco-friendly. The move comes as governments worldwide set aside billions of dollars to create so-called "smart cities," or towns that mix renewable projects, next-generation energy efficiency, and government support to cut overall carbon dioxide footprints.Smart Grid technology as it is known is set to pioneer the next couple of decades. Many companies are trying out various experiments by which all your household devices would be connected to a single grid that can communicate over the internet to a central server that uses Business Intelligence and may design energy solutions that could lead to tremendous cost savings.Incase your household device is consuming more energy such a grid could send you an sms,an email or even beep to indicate those levels.New age energy companies are now going to sell you new appliances that are hybrids/solar convertibles and even use Artificial intelligence to switch off lights automatically when not in use.Simple facts as keeping your air-conditioner at a temperature higher by 1 degree could result in energy savings of 5-15 percent of your monthly electricity bill could be relayed from time to time as on www.google.org.The Google power meter is one such smart grid that allows users to voluntary to connect their household appliances and be monitored for energy efficiency. These advanced power meters are supposed to be deployed in 40 million households all across the USA also as a part of the funding to be given by the President Obama government. Most devices as of today do not communicate the information to the end user.These grids could lay the stepping stone for companies and individual households in going green and at the same time create business opportunities for a breed of new age manufacturers that concentrate on designing energy efficient products.http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2009/gb20090313_662708_page_2.htm
www.google.org
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Theres no Beginning and theres no end
Here I am and this is me... Theres no place else ,where I could go.. I get up every morning and theres a lot to work about.. As I prepareth for thy exam I wonder is there an end.. Or was there even a beginning....
For when I was 4,there was a morning too,and then there was I, The books were not this big, for they were young and hath color even, There was then too a lot to work about For it was a test about the english alphabet, where A was not for any Applied economics...it was only about A for an apple... B was no business environment..it was simply B for a ball..
That was the time, I strutted onto my house door with a bottle around my neck.. For till date i strut along,though the bottle has been replaced by my tie.. My shorts have grown into trousers..My wrinkles have turned just about young... Tom and jerry are playing hide and seek in todays economic times In the form of president bush and lehman brothers...
As i entered my lift, my tiny hands just about reached the ground floor, Today though,going to the 9 floor aint tough,,but then all i need are the tiny hands, For nothings changed, I still got to go down, I remember then when i jumped onto my conductors lap, With my shirt half tucked in,its different now with full buttonned sleeves, I reached school much to the delight of my many friends and freundins, For all were just about singing humpty dumpty had a great fall, Right above from the "Wall" street above where our very own sensex tanked today by a few hundred points...
With a happy grin as I took to my class..my teacher gave me the question paper..and there it was about an E for eye.. But today its just not about the e that meets more than just an eye..For B is for Bond..and yeaa then also you could not copy... Hungry ,bored and irritated that I was I still took my colored pencils..And phew that small test was from 10 to 10:15..Its no different today from 3 to 6...
But as i pen it down I wonder what shall be of this test in the future.. As I shall jump into my car and reach my office..with my coat neatly pressed, There shall be a file and a time to submit the quarterly report.. For I shall not be alone with my colleagues all submitting their reports.. For I wonder shall there be an end to this...
Then One fine day its the time to get up again... I shall be at the door againWith a bottle around my neck and yes I am going back to school, For I wonder then,that I shall have my beautiful daughter in my hand... her pony nicely tucked by..Shall take her to the school..and in the car as she recites her A for an apple... I reallly wonder was that an end or just about the same beginning.. which shall continue for years and years to come... So here I am ,and this me For theres no place else where I could go. For as they say theres no beginning so there is no end...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Of shoes,of disgruntled journalists and Politicos:Shoe thrown by a reporter at P Chidambaram
Amidst a press conference conveyed by our Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to address the media in retrospection of the Assam Bomb blasts and the measures taken by the Government In lieu of them we now have a reality TV Sitcom that is flashing 24 * 7 and the result purpose of the perpetrator served to an extent.
For when the P Chidambaram was asked about the 1984 sikhs riots accused Jagdish Tytler being acquitted by the CBI,the home minister answered with great composure and said that this was not the forum to be discussing that issue..he requested him to take the question at a correct forum.
And phew the next moment the Journalist Jarnail Singh hailed a white basketball shoe right across P Chidambaram who looked rather amused.For everyones liking he kept a really calm and maintained a dignified composure that seems rather uncharacteristic of the tamasha seeking Indian Politician.
Mr Chidambaram had the composure of continuing with the press conference and even requested the security forces to take his case lightly and do not be too harsh on him.
However as hungry for tamasha our media is they had their food for fodder and the replay of shoe throwing experiment is being replayed just about on every news channel and its also the biggest breaking news of the day.
I wonder why that even if the Union Minister Is ready to continue his conference why did the media disrupt the conference and actually give way to the journalists motive which was to seek everyones attention to a controversial topic which the government was shielding their way.To be honest he has more than just managed it.
Imagine this scenario I am an Assamese reporter who hail from Assam where there was a blast yesterday and just because someone disrupted a conference where the security of Assam was being taken into account and strict questions answered, I get disgruntled and at the very next conference throw a shoe for not answering me properly…..alas we need to grow up.
Then apart news channels are comparing the footage to the shoe throwing incident at President Bush in Iraq,the angles,the reactions,the titbits,the hailing of the hero as by the Sikhs here and the arabs in Iraq who gifted him a Mercedez car.
For when the P Chidambaram was asked about the 1984 sikhs riots accused Jagdish Tytler being acquitted by the CBI,the home minister answered with great composure and said that this was not the forum to be discussing that issue..he requested him to take the question at a correct forum.
And phew the next moment the Journalist Jarnail Singh hailed a white basketball shoe right across P Chidambaram who looked rather amused.For everyones liking he kept a really calm and maintained a dignified composure that seems rather uncharacteristic of the tamasha seeking Indian Politician.
Mr Chidambaram had the composure of continuing with the press conference and even requested the security forces to take his case lightly and do not be too harsh on him.
However as hungry for tamasha our media is they had their food for fodder and the replay of shoe throwing experiment is being replayed just about on every news channel and its also the biggest breaking news of the day.
I wonder why that even if the Union Minister Is ready to continue his conference why did the media disrupt the conference and actually give way to the journalists motive which was to seek everyones attention to a controversial topic which the government was shielding their way.To be honest he has more than just managed it.
Imagine this scenario I am an Assamese reporter who hail from Assam where there was a blast yesterday and just because someone disrupted a conference where the security of Assam was being taken into account and strict questions answered, I get disgruntled and at the very next conference throw a shoe for not answering me properly…..alas we need to grow up.
Then apart news channels are comparing the footage to the shoe throwing incident at President Bush in Iraq,the angles,the reactions,the titbits,the hailing of the hero as by the Sikhs here and the arabs in Iraq who gifted him a Mercedez car.
Its for us to wait and watch what happens to Jarnail singh in this case in point.May be not a mercedez but a Bollywood producer may just sign him up for a scene in a movie showing throwing shoes at a politico just about to maintain some reality.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Mera Dhobhi aur uska Nano – Welcome to the era of “Roti,Kapda,Makan,telephone aur mera Nano”
When I come home from my college in the evening I see a huge pile of clothes ironed and stacked in a cloth bag waiting to be delivered ,stacked a top my dhobhis (laundary man’s) bi-cycle. I am sure within a years time there shall be swashbuckling Tata- Nano that replaces the bi-cycle standing outside my gate with these clothes on top.
With some amazing financing schemes available with almost all public/private banks(your banks got to have bad marketing and really dumb to miss trying up for loans for the nano,a case for you to not choose a bank) and close to 30,000 outlets ,with a basic booking deposit down-payment of just Rs 2999(60 dollars) very much affordable by my Dhobi (The Laundry man who takes clothes from my house irons and gets them back the next day)
With some amazing financing schemes available with almost all public/private banks(your banks got to have bad marketing and really dumb to miss trying up for loans for the nano,a case for you to not choose a bank) and close to 30,000 outlets ,with a basic booking deposit down-payment of just Rs 2999(60 dollars) very much affordable by my Dhobi (The Laundry man who takes clothes from my house irons and gets them back the next day)
By rough estimates my Dhobhi earns about(500 dollars) Rs 25,000 a month and with a down-payment of just (60 dollars) Rs 3000 and with a loan of even Rs 70,000(1400 dollars) considering he has saved up 30,000(600 dollars) unto now, he shall be the proud owner of a New Tata nano. Say he takes Rs 70,000 for 2 years ,he just has to pay Rs 2800 per month or 56 dollars a month.Cheap by all standards even in times of recession.
No wonder then maybe the Milkman’s next and for that matter he could end up delivering /serving more houses compared to travelling on bi-cycle and engage himself him in other jobs rest of the time. Talking about operating efficiency and utilization of manpower the Nano shall revolutionalize the world.
Come April 9,2009, ,many a Management case studies right from Marketing to Supply chain would be published and studied over the next decade about how the idea of a 1 lakh car/2000 dollar- worlds cheapest peoples car was envisaged by Ratan Tata and how Tata Motors in sync with all the stakeholders like the auto-part suppliers are just about to realize this huge success story.
The Tata Motors, at one end was reeling in lieu of the financial crisis and the severe debts incurred for the 2.3 billion acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover over the past few months ,has all of sudden made a comeback on the bourses with the announcement of launch of Nano. The booking amounts will ease their liquidity woes giving Tata Motors $1 billion for at least 3 months and at least $200 million against the delivery of the first 100,000 units -- which could take more than a year.
The cost of 1 Tata Nano = the cost of 3 Apple iPhones in india (700 dollars each).
Now with every uberclass teenager in the suburbs and the town of Mumbai getting pocket money of average 200 Rs(4 dollars) a day ,being able to save up to 25(2500 Rs) dollars a month can afford to buy a smart phone with say 400 dollars being payed as half installment by their parents in a years time (Most Indian teenagers still stay with parents and they account for their expenses partly if not fully).I am sure this trend will catch up with the nano.
With the telecom boom, India is the fastest growing telecom market with 375 millions user by February 2009.This boom spurred by low call rentals and low cost of the mobile phone(Nokia 1100 costs about Rs 4000/80 dollars upto the higher end iPhone 700 dollars) I am sure you can add the word Nano to the famous lingo which shall now read Roti,Kapda,Makan,telephone aur mera Nano.
Considering the fact that a round trip to Matunga 36 kms from my home in Lokhandwala in the Tata Indica costs about 3.0 litres of diesel that is Rs 100( 33 Rs per litre) ,an average of 12 -15 km per litre and a cost of Rs 2.7 per km. The same for a petrol Indica would have been 3 litres *45 Rs per litre of petrol=Rs 135 Rs for 100 km almost Rs 3.8 /km.
The Nano is set to give an average of Rs 22 per km that is a round trip cost of about Rs 75.(that too that the nano is a petrol car) Rs 2.2 Km a saving of close to Rs 1.8 Rs per km
Now thats what I call the power of being Nano.But are we ready to take so many small cars in a country that is reeling under the bouts of Population explosion and most congested cities of the world.
No wonder then maybe the Milkman’s next and for that matter he could end up delivering /serving more houses compared to travelling on bi-cycle and engage himself him in other jobs rest of the time. Talking about operating efficiency and utilization of manpower the Nano shall revolutionalize the world.
Come April 9,2009, ,many a Management case studies right from Marketing to Supply chain would be published and studied over the next decade about how the idea of a 1 lakh car/2000 dollar- worlds cheapest peoples car was envisaged by Ratan Tata and how Tata Motors in sync with all the stakeholders like the auto-part suppliers are just about to realize this huge success story.
The Tata Motors, at one end was reeling in lieu of the financial crisis and the severe debts incurred for the 2.3 billion acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover over the past few months ,has all of sudden made a comeback on the bourses with the announcement of launch of Nano. The booking amounts will ease their liquidity woes giving Tata Motors $1 billion for at least 3 months and at least $200 million against the delivery of the first 100,000 units -- which could take more than a year.
The cost of 1 Tata Nano = the cost of 3 Apple iPhones in india (700 dollars each).
Now with every uberclass teenager in the suburbs and the town of Mumbai getting pocket money of average 200 Rs(4 dollars) a day ,being able to save up to 25(2500 Rs) dollars a month can afford to buy a smart phone with say 400 dollars being payed as half installment by their parents in a years time (Most Indian teenagers still stay with parents and they account for their expenses partly if not fully).I am sure this trend will catch up with the nano.
With the telecom boom, India is the fastest growing telecom market with 375 millions user by February 2009.This boom spurred by low call rentals and low cost of the mobile phone(Nokia 1100 costs about Rs 4000/80 dollars upto the higher end iPhone 700 dollars) I am sure you can add the word Nano to the famous lingo which shall now read Roti,Kapda,Makan,telephone aur mera Nano.
Considering the fact that a round trip to Matunga 36 kms from my home in Lokhandwala in the Tata Indica costs about 3.0 litres of diesel that is Rs 100( 33 Rs per litre) ,an average of 12 -15 km per litre and a cost of Rs 2.7 per km. The same for a petrol Indica would have been 3 litres *45 Rs per litre of petrol=Rs 135 Rs for 100 km almost Rs 3.8 /km.
The Nano is set to give an average of Rs 22 per km that is a round trip cost of about Rs 75.(that too that the nano is a petrol car) Rs 2.2 Km a saving of close to Rs 1.8 Rs per km
Now thats what I call the power of being Nano.But are we ready to take so many small cars in a country that is reeling under the bouts of Population explosion and most congested cities of the world.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Are we waiting for the Ice-bergs and Oceans to submit a restructuring plan with an aid of 1 Trillion $ required..
For when was the last time that we had a summit for an international cause that there was no dispute, was there no protest ,there was someone who was not happy and above all ubiquitous unanimity.2 nd April 2009 marked the G2O Summit of a group of 20 leaders from all across the world in Londons eastside dockyard.
The end result a 1.1 Trillion $ infused into the IMF’s chest to support International Trade Finance and as per the IMF Chief Dominique Kahn’s estimates its enough for the world and is on par with exactly what the world needs.
The immediate optimism reflected upon all the world bourses with the footsie up 4.28 percent with sidekicks felt even in India with the sensex shoring up. There was an unanimous decision to lay sanctions to be imposed on any non –cooperative jurisdictions worldwide.With a cash infused IMF and easier norms for countries to avail the cash it seems the script for this summit was written before. Yes I am talking about the recession that has grappled the world and every government infusing money to protect their financial systems.The actions were the same,methods different. I am proud for once of all the world leaders reached a consensus quickly.
But I wonder hence that do we need such a recession for world leaders to act conscientiously and act responsibly for other issues of global importance like Climate change,poverty & social ills.Such a concerted effort with an unanimous decision by all world leaders would be more than welcome.For when when would the world realize its just not about being together for one cause but for each cause.The USA refusing to ratify to the kyoto protocol and refusing to curb its carbon emissions.
I wonder arent we in a ECO-recession already. Temperatures across the world being ever so erratic.Its just simply too hot in mumbai already and April has just woken up.
The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020.Or are we waiting for Mumbai or Venice to drown with rising water levels,is that what they think would be september 15 ,2008 when the Lehman Brothers collapsed.Are we waiting still to let the biggies like GM,Chrysler keep producing those fuel guzzling mammoths and keep funding them without asking them to rejig their offerings.Are they waiting for the ozone to run thin and ask the ozone layer to submit a restructuring plan with billions of dollars in aid.I am afraid my friends, theres money,there can be more money and money can be infused,assets depreciated but not life,life cannot be devalued nor depreciated for its not made by humans.So I urge the entire G20 to have a summit for the environment a fight against Global warming and to reach such a consensus.For once we have the sole benefit of recession a ubiquitous unanimity across the G20 Leaders in London
Sixth Sense is just not Gods Gift but a new Technology that could change the world...
Imagine that you just scanned your flight ticket to confirm details and your sixth sense told you that the flight is delayed by a couple of hours....well we now have a technology that basically does tell you that your flight is actually delayed...when you simply glance at your ticket...What happens here is that the Technology simply captures the image of your ticket and after feeding it into the database looks up upon the flight details and relays the information by projecting that back onto your ticket which says delayed by 2 hours....Can you believe what we are getting into ?Now this is the power of technology,imagine that you are shopping for healthy nutrient diet as per your doctors recommendations, which is pre-programmed into your computer memory and you are inside a shopping mall.Simply look at the various products or the barcode.Sixth sense(Through a camera on your body) shall capture the digital images of the product and give you a signal ,something of a green light ,projected back onto the product,to buy the recommended one as per your diet requirements and a red light for the ones not recommended.Next time at a social gathering you forget the name of your boss's best friend.Your sixth sense would simply capture his image and project his name as if by Gods Wish your sixth sense just told you who he is and also where you met him last and a list of emails you shared with him or even better ,when did you say hi to him last on Facebook.But this scares me to no end,thinking about how feeble human memory may become and how dependent may we be on this one artificial sense..by which would work every function of our life.
Watch the video below and actually see how it works.(Thanks to chirag who passed this link to me)http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html
The Commercialism of Facebook (A day in the life of a FaceZonkie)
The Changing Face of Facebook:
The next time You take “Who are you from inside quiz “ on Facebook ,don’t be surprised ,that apart from being charming you shall get a whole lot of emails, phonecalls from advertisers given the fact that you like certain things and hate others. Call it the commercialism of Facebook or a necessity of todays times. Any information online is vulnerable at least that’s what I take away from my Ebiz-MBA. Read ON to know the true facts.Pun Intended
Facebooks gonna have its own Bill of Rights & Responsibilities soon, I don’t see any other democracy in the world ever getting such a privilege so soon. Too bad terrorist’s can’t threaten this International Facebook League (IFL),which my friends is going to rake in the moolah like never before.With the face of facebook changing faster than the makeover of the girl next-door I bet you and me are but going to be left gasping at each others faces. But lets try to fathom the beauty within the beast.
The Day in the Life of a Facebookie or a FaceZonkie (whichever name you like):By combining the facebook addressbook with your phone book Facebooks actually managing to get more and more users accessing it through the mobile phone.There are about 155 million registered users and about 5.3 million who access it through iPhone’s and the Blackberries(smartphones I mean).Beware next time when your friend recommends a favorite restaurant ,I am sure the face of the advertiser within will keep a book on this, and next time you are in Colaba or in Canberra,don’t be surprised to see your car take a turn to the tunes of your Google Maps thats synchronized to your car’s GPS and even more that you are just about driven there .
Enter the Legacy of Italy or Little China, your test score in the quiz last night “Whats your favourite Food "may just about get you some extra brownie points and a custom made menu with what you have always loved. Don’t be surprised that I din’t tell you that the Souvenir cup with the complimentary Jack and Jill’s ice-cream is actually the exact replica of the Bear Cup you received from your boyfriend on Facebook last night.(Did I tell you Jack and Jill was displaying its ads on the right side of your page all the while you both were getting intimate online)
Out at the movies don’t feel privileged that the face beyond the ticket-book asks for your email id which is a unique Facebook log-in Id. Chee move over Social-Security Nos,PAN Cards and unique birthmarks, the world will be identified using your Facebook login Id.By the time you reach your seats ,there would be a massive underplay of bits and bytes in a database,call it information mining which would sample the tastes of all the viewers in the theatre and thus based on the 60 percent common likes of you all ,who all played the game on facebook last night for “I am going to buy the next TxxG HuxxR” will actually watch the next commercial of “TxxG HuxxR”.
In Film marketing may add a new dimension. For you never know the Daniel Craig’s watch may just about be changed to “TxxG HuXXR” in India,”OmxxGa” in India for the same movieFathom this while watching Wimbledon on the Internet the big “ RoxxLexx” may be displayed as “TxxG HuxxR”…on your computer ,ohhh and You know why you love it so much and why its simply your favourite brand.
Don’t worry on your sisters Birthday,when you were wondering what to gift your sweet sister you may get a call from the “Barbie” store considering that your sister is a big fan of the new Barbie doll in town and she played the quiz “How well I know my new Barbie”,and ofcourse practice listening to the “I am the Barbie girl in the Barbie world” while you are placing the order and your call’s on hold.Whats more in my Marketing Branding class when we sit to make the next branding strategy for the new Porsche and want to brand it, the results of the I know the car logo quiz can be used for judging the recall of certain brands and their logos,for whilst I got 83 percent right the world got 75 percent and Porsche was’nt one of them.Din’t I tell you ,this is going to be your life/my life ,we the facezonkies (I like this better).So the next time you take a quiz,or poke a friend,or like a comment,remember the FaceBook SantaClaus is listening and someone may just get a gift on Christmas.But will all this I still love Facebook and so will you.
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