Debugging India

Scenes from India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Great pictures of diverse India from Boston Globe's Big Picture

Includes pictures of vast Monsoon flooding, conflicts in still-disputed Kashmir, and religious clashes between Hindus and Christians - and celebrations conducted by Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and more

Scenes from India

Nuclear power in India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:37:00 +0000

A lot of details about Nuclear power in India and recent developments with USA. Via World Nuclear Association

India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power program and expects to have 20,000 MWe nuclear capacity on line by 2020. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050.
Because India is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, due to its weapons program, it has been for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which has hampered its development of civil nuclear energy.
Due to these trade bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium.

5 Reasons India's Largest Bank is Thriving

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:29:00 +0000

Today ICICI Bank boasts $19 billion in market cap and its assets are worth above $100 billion.

Internal innovation networking is as critical as external partnering
Pick promising ideas based on their business impact, not technical feasibility
Speed innovation projects' time-to-value, rather than obsessing with costs
Train your staff to think and act in terms of $$$$ -- not 0 and 1
Want to build an R&D function? Forget about it!

via SepiaMutiny and Navi Radjou

why this financial alchemy?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Excellent videos via BigPicture by Professor Stiglitz

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/professor-stigl.html

Tryst with destiny

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:40:00 +0000

61 years! 61 years ago, India won independence on August 15th, 1947. Towards the midnight of August 14th, 1947 Nehru made his "Tryst with Destiny" speech.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed! We rejoice in that freedom,

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

Did we bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India?

No. No one, including the government and citizens, cares about common man. Agriculture is dying and so are farmers. The government is killing farmers to grab their land and build SEZs.

Did we fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease? Big NO!

Did we build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation?
prosperous - a little; democratic - technically, yes; progressive - what is that?

Did we create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman?
In our dreams, may be.

Did we encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action?
100%, yeah!

Yes, we have made a lot of progress: economy is opened up, middle class is raising. India Inc has made a lot of millionaires and billionaires. But, what about the tasks we set ourselves on August 15th, 1947? We have failed, miserably.

some poet wrote (in Tamil)

"Iravil vaanginom Innum vidiya villai"

meaning

"we got (independence) at night; we haven't seen the sunrise yet"

Amit Varma sums up all my feelings.

The British empire was naturally the focus of that struggle, and when we were rid of them in 1947, the relief must have been enormous. The tragedy is that for most Indians, political independence was freedom enough.

As a nation, we stopped caring for freedom once we gained independence.

The oppressive empire from a continent away was gradually replaced by an oppressive, omnipresent state, and we did not protest. The lack of economic freedom kept India poor for decades, and we did not protest. Personal freedoms were routinely denied to us, and we did not protest. In parts of our country people are treated worse than the British treated us, and we do not protest.

We let our guard down 61 years ago. Perhaps it’s time to fight back?

Bush chuutiya Hai

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:32:00 +0000

GW Bush:

there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.

How about the facts for food price increase? From SAJAForum;

Falling USD rates reduces profit margins for India's or Global food exporters (many of whom are US companies)
Prosperity of others is good only because they can afford American goods
Food distribution pattern is changing and US is on the other side of the equation which it subjected others to because of strong USD

All Indian consulates outsource operation to US Firm

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:45:00 +0000

The government of India had decided to outsource visa services because of the sheer volume of applications received in the consulates. "Travisa Outsourcing was given just 38 days to develop a new and entirely outsourced visa application process throughout the United States, and in doing so we created new technology that is revolutionising the visa application process," Jan Dvorak, CEO of Travisa Outsourcing told India Abroad.

Source
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/apr/11bpo.htm

Currently, Travisa Outsourcing is the only US firm that handles visa outsourcing for an entire country. India is now one of only two countries that issues same day visas; China is the other, Dvorak said. Travisa has taken care to ensure that most staffers speak at least one Indian language.

It is interesting to see how factors like consumer satisfaction, economy, globalization play out. Globalization is definitely a two way street.

The Best gift from USA to India - Cheerleading

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:21:00 +0000

God Bless America!

The dream of millions of cricket fans in India has come true.

The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders, deemed the 'First Ladies of Football,' will be traveling to India on April 10th to create the first ever cheerleading squad in that country for cricket's Royal Challengers Bangalore, part of the new Indian Premier League (IPL), in their inaugural game on April 18th.

Source

NyTimes - India's game, US Spice

When I saw cheerleaders for the first time, the first thing on my mind was "This is great. Now, why can't we do this in cricket?". Thank you, Redskins! You will be etched in Indian history forever.

Indian cricket was inspired by the draft format of athletes in US. They call it "auctioning". Very original! I guess one of the IPL guys saw all the cute babes shaking their thing and immediately realized its potential.

If they can get some famous actresses to do this, I'm sure the tickets would sell twice as much.
I'm visualizing Bipasha Basu - now that is worth paying twice the money! ;)

Now, IPL will decide how much cleavage should be shown, how short the skirts or sarees should be, etc. Of course, the conservative groups will do everything possible to get some PR with this juicy opportunity - stage protests, burn effigies. They will cry that women are insulted while secretly admiring when they shake. Ahh..let the drama begin. I'm waiting, India is waiting.

Online Indian Men 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:17:00 +0000

This post by KrishAshok is hilarious on so many levels.

Startup Sundaramoorthy and Venture Venkatakrishnan meet up at Barista, Besant Nagar over some coffee. Actually make that Latte with carcinogenic artifical sweeteners. And they discuss some very disturbing Internet stats. The Indian Blogosphere is also overwhelmingly dominated by women. A look at any comment thread in the Indian Web will convince you of that.

Alarmed by statistics like 60% of Facebook and 55% of MySpace users being women, they wonder how they can reinvent / invest in Web 2.0 for Indian men. They break down the usage pattern of Indian men online.

After looking at stats, they decide to launch these Web 2.0 companies:

Pigg.mc

An exclusively male social platform where men can share, discuss and vote up ideas on how to restore male hegemony on the Indian blogosphere.

Mattr - beta

Flickr for Indian Men - I used to be a Flickr user, but now there are too many women there. They and their enhanced visual sensitivities, passing judgement on my weak reds, insubstantial beiges, poor shadows and anaemic contrast. Bah. I have always wanted an all-male Photosharing app where real men can post photos without all this critical commentary from women, where we can also privately share images of item girls we secretly love.

JolluTube

An exclusive social video site dedicated to videos/songs we cannot watch with the family.

FeetBurner

A social platform, where rural machismo is on central display. I’m talking Kaavadi, extreme piercing, Jalli kattu and of course, walking on coals.

Source

Online Indian Men 2.0

Great post Krish...as always!

Sadly, there is a lot of reality in KrishAshok's post. A very important lesson for Web 2.0 aspirants in India is:

The Web 2.0 in India is way different than the Web 2.0 community elsewhere
Indian users just want to hang out; they are not interested to express themselves or create content

There is not even a single online forum or digg-like blog. I think some Indian company even tried and failed. Even if it was successful, I highly doubt there will be any useful information sharing. If you look at the Rediff forum discussions, you will never go back to that site. I'm also positive that most guys stalk gals on Orkut and leave "can I be your friend?" messages.

Writes one frustrated blogger about the Orkut testimonials

She is a good girl. Absolutely fantastic. If you haven't met her you don't know what you are missing" insists one testimonial writer on a orkut profile. As a reader - I am not sure how to react to these testimonials. They make me feel like a customer. I like what I am seeing.

But what confuses me more is that these Shailaja's of the world have allowed these testimonials to do a fantastic marketing pitch for her but she wont let boys have 'fraanship' with her. In the 'about me' column she writes 'please dont request friendship from me if you dont know me' (this is really really common in most girl's profiles).

And the boys in orkut. Boys in general. I mean God had a wicked sense of humor when he created such a sex starved species such as the male homosapien. I guess most men in orkut are walking hard-on's. Most men enter orkut , browsing through profiles, internet, skype directory thinking " i need to get laid. will she work".

Plugdd.in writes on why Indians flock to social networks and do nothing

The 53% who want to make friends are obviously part of the desperate-for-dating gang members, but the rest of the stat is important for one reason:

To understand What is it that Indians do not use a social network for?
The answer, as I understand is “Hanging out”..

Unlike the US kids who spend a good amount of time on myspace hanging around and “expressing themselves”, Indians aren’t the usual hangout (or ‘cool’?) kind, and instead use socionet for a defined purpose.

Now, this obviously goes against several socionet startups’ mantra (who want Indians to express themselves by uploading cool pics/videos and more..) and a clear reason why few of them have folded (like jhoom.in) and others are almost on the verge of dying.

I don't want to imply that building an online community is impossible. I don't see enough websites that facilitate fun and content generating ideas. Almost all of them seem to be ripping off crappy MySpace. I haven't seen a original, content generating site...yet.

That's the state of India Web 2.0. If anyone is dreaming to build an online community, build content, get a lot of traffic, monetize it and be a successful company, it's really hard. Good Luck with that.

The Best Music Video Game - ever!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:26:00 +0000

Sitar Hero

For the musically illiterate, Sitar is a guitar-like (?!) Indian musical instrument. By looking at the sheer abundance of Sitar Hero parodies and wannabes in the "internets", I'm sure this will be a hit. I'm not just sure; I'm HIV positive.

Youtube Parody video by nerds - check

"Make your enemies eat Saag paneer" :D

80's Style Nintendo Flashback video - check

Let's rock out some sample tunes in Sitar Hero

Guns and Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine remix

Green Day Remix

Approved by Appu - check

Can someone design this game for me, please? Hello, Activision! May be I can outsource it :) and get some endorsement+ celeb juice from Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar. May be I can make a Collision Course CD with Anoushka, Jay Z and Linkin Park. wow! That will be awesome.

Animation Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:40:00 +0000

The Indian animation industry is moving away from being just a back office for Hollywood studios and other international production houses. It is now creating original content for the local market.

With the success of animated movies like Hanuman and Bal Ganesha, production houses and studios are realizing the potential of the domestic market. Apart from animated movies, animation series on television with original content have also been garnering huge TRP ratings such as J Bole To Jadu on Nickelodeon, MAD on Pogo among others.

Adventures of Hanuman (narration by the deep voice guy, heh!)

Bal Ganesha - the cute little elephant god

Bala Pandavas - epic Indian story of Mahabharata

Over the next four years the growth in domestic demand for TV/Broadcast animated content is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.5 per cent. It is forecast the domestic market will be worth Rs 150 crores ($1.5 billion) in 2008 and will touch Rs 300 crores ($3 billion) by 2010.

Animation studios:

Green Gold

Graphiti

Crest Animation

Ojas tech

There is so much content that can be produced for children and adults. I watched the drama version of Mahabharata for almost 8 years and still don't remember everything. It is exciting to see a lot of original content from in-house studios.

Source:

AgencyFAQ

Number portability atlast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:51:00 +0000

I'm sure people are tired of changing mobile numbers everytime they change service providers and get calls from unknown contacts.

A lot of people have been crying foul about the delay in TRAI’s recommendation. Reliance has been waiting to get a GSM license, and it was alleged, primarily by the GSM operators, that the number portability was being worked upon, primarily to help Reliance. Once the scheme is in place, it was alleged, Reliance can offer lucrative schemes to allure customers from the Reliance CDMA service to its new, GSM service.

Source:

WATBlog

Norwest Venture Partners Plans To Launch $1 Billion Fund

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Norwest has just opened its second India office by roping in former Motorola veep Mohan Kumar as India-based executive director to be based out of Bangalore. It had recently brought in Niren Shah as the country head for India which also marked Norwest setting up its Indian office in Mumbai.
Pramod Haque told the media in Bangalore that the focus would increasingly be on harnessing and leveraging the reservoir of product and process innovation — much of it internet driven — that is available in India.
The venture fund has direct investments in tech driven India-based entities such as Sulekha.com, Yatra, Persistent Systems and Adventity.

Source:
Norwest Venture Partners Plans To Launch $1 Billion Fund

Having trouble intrepreting Financial videos?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:04:00 +0000

If you have trouble what those guys from Wall Street are talking about, this video will give a good chuckle.

Source:
Bigpicture

Videocon is trying to buy Motorola mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:21:00 +0000

Namaste, Moto! Indian TV Guy Wants Your Handset Business - GigaOM

Happy Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I love this site: Savage Chickens: Drink Beer Cartoon

Saving Indian Techies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I got this email from my friend which is lately making rounds in IT-enabled inboxes (is that a word?). I think it paints a fair picture of "the situation on the ground". I'm talking about what is going on in that Indian IT guy's/gal's mind when they are not working. Let's walk-through.

Link

"Real Estate price hike is known open robbery from IT guys by brokers / whoever it is and it's not only Flats / Real Estate, IT guys undergo open robbery from all rich shop owners / a person who wanted to become rich as fast as possible...

The salary whatever we get, it's our hard-earned money, most of the times sitting in the night, away from family functions, friends, etc...but all our money or most of the money are going to someone who just takes advantage of our stressful life (both mentally and physically) and our new western life style. "

Very true. There is no doubt that selfish non-IT individuals systematically swindle money from the highly paid IT workers. There is no ground for any increase in expenses and over-charges. The mail points to some instances where there is a price increase for no apparent reason.

"Chicken Biriyani (3 weeks back) - Rs. 65
Today (same Chicken Biriyani) - Rs. 78

Pop Corn (Sathyam Complex) (month and half back) - Rs. 20
Today (almost the same quantity) - Rs. 30

Corn in Garuda Mall (month back) - Rs 20 Small, Rs 30 Medium and Rs 40 High
Now, "real" small has become Rs 35 now and Rs 45 for high...

The moment you say that you are from Software company, the price automatically increases..."

Real Estate

The real estate market is filled with greedy people. With almost no government regulated prices, the sellers and builders quote any price they wish. If a house is quoted at $60,000 and some retard starts a rumor - "there is a new software park coming up next week" - the quote changes to $100,000 immediately. No questions asked.

Almost all the techies get housing loans of $30,000 to $100,000 at alarming rate of 10% or more for 20+ years. By any stretch, $30,000 is a LOT of money if the salary is earned in Indian Rupees. Even with significant increase in salaries, after paying off the mortgage, monthly expenses, groceries, etc, etc they will end up with nothing or fall short. This is of course assuming both the husband and wife work. If the wife is a home-maker, sorry.

I have no idea who sets the real estate prices. Is there any regulatory body? It's just people making up their own estimates. Where is the f*ing government?

Now, what about the average, below average and poor population which is the majority?

That is the most disturbing impact. Families with average and below-average salaries are caught in this spike. Top earning techies are struggling to cope up with increased day-to-day spending. I can't imagine what the average income families are going through.

TCS opens Ohio centre - Call it reverse outsourcing or nearsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:08:00 +0000

Via DNA - Money - TCS opens Ohio centre, eyes local talent - Daily News & Analysis

Points to note:

1. The new facility will employ only a handful of Indian “process people”. It will mostly rely on local talent.

2. TCS chief S Ramadorai told DNA Money: “There is a limit to how much we can make do with H-1 B visa workers. This facility will ramp up to 1,000 professionals. There will be a good mix of freshmen and we will do a lot of lateral hires for our global consulting business.”

3. TCS is reportedly in talks with Boeing and Lockheed Martin for defence and aerospace contracts held by those companies. This work can only be done in the US by American citizens or green card holders.

Indian Mobile Carriers Add 8.4M Subs in a month

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:53:00 +0000

Unstrung - Handhelds - Indian Mobile Carriers Add 8.4M Subs - Wireless News Analysis

Total of 246 million subscribers. That is just 23% of the population. 500 million by 2009?

via GigaOm

Inspite of eye-popping growth (217 million subscribers by Oct 2007), barely 23% of the population owns a phone. So, there is a vast amount of potential there. In 2007, mobile Value Added Services (VAS) generated $926 Million, which is still barely 7% of the total telecom revenues for Indian operators.

via Startupnewz

He never grew up; but he never stopped growing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:56:00 +0000

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died earlier this week, at the age of 91.

Arthur C Clarke The man who showed the world how powerful science fiction is. One small example: In 1945, at the tender age of 28, Clarke sketched out the idea of orbital communication satellites. He "extrapolated" the future for us.

My fascination for science, fiction and reading started with one of his books - 2001: A Space Odyssey. He will be missed.

Wired's Jeff Greenwald remembers one of his best friends. Check other posts at the end of the article.

No products for you India...not yet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Here is an interesting take on why India doesn't have many good product companies.

You [IT Service companies] have changed our image from being a land of snake charmers to the land of software programmers. But my thanks stops right there. You are also the culprit of taking away complete attention from other important industry. You rob us of passion of the young minds to make them Xerox machines. Your growth is welcome, but its avarice and appetite is overwhelming. We are not able to proceed to the next step. Our fear is we will get stuck right here

Word! But we only have ourselves to blame :(

Does the situation change with all the VC money pouring in? $1 billion invested in VC money in 2007 alone

NO. The reality is totally different.

From the comment section, I found these statements :

1] In India most of the Graduates are self-contended with any type of Job, they compare with their neighbors & start fantasizing to become like them. Example: If A & B are Friends, If A got the Job in Infosys [pakka service], B starts fantasizing about A & B feels himself inferior and degrades himself. In this scenario B never thinks of starting a company.

2] In India, parents never encourage us to start a company because they want us to marry a good family girl as soon as we get the Job.

3] In India, most people rhapsodize other’s success but never get self motivated enough to start his/her own concern.

4] There is a lack of awareness about entrepreneurs in India. Only those who have entrepreneurship in their blood begin to search for information due to his Interest in Entrepreneurship.

5] There is tremendous lack of awareness about new technology in India. Very few in India know about Ajax, Web 2.0 & the upcoming Adobe’s Apollo project [ which i am much interested in].

6] People are very very reluctant to learn new things.

7] Most of the graduates don’t know HOW important product companies are and why.

8] There is trend in India which is inherited like this: Senior to his Junior [who wants to start his own company] “First get experience for about 4 to 5 years and when u become PM you can get your own Clients [again Service company mentality] and start developing your own company”. After 4 to 5 years he is almost 30; Parents start urging him to marry. Once married he never again thinks about starting a company.

9] The person who wants to become an entrepreneur will fail to become one after getting a job in a good company because of the hefty salary.

10] It is hard to find similar mindset [Entrepreneur & Techie] in India. When they think starting about product company they begin to compare with GYM and the rest, forgetting they too were startups once.

I think I'll have to agree with those statements.

There is hope. Few percentage of youngsters are trying to make a difference. My favorite is DhanaX. It is a startup by ex-employees of Oracle and GE, in the Micro-finance area. A startup to make a difference and makes a lot of business sense in an economy like India.

Informationweek covers DhanaX

I am neither a bear nor a bull, I am an agnostic opportunist

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:10:00 +0000

That quote, by the way, is by Jim Cramer (MadMoney)

Market keeps falling, the economy is at snail pace, barely moving at 0.8% in 2008 and by 1.4% in 2009 (hopefully). People using weird words like "stagflation"

A cartoon is a great way to understand what the **** is going in sub prime crime.
It all started like this: (Click to launch the side show)

via Big Picture

The fools, errr...everyone, is paying the price now. Bear Stearns goes down. Read the link to relate the cartoon to reality.

Everyday, the fools at the White House, reassure us that everything is OK. But whatever they do, is proving the Feds are trying desperately to delay the inevitable - RECESSION.

Again, to get the big picture about recession, mhh....go to Big Picture

While almost everyone seems to know what to do, except Bernanke. He is credited as the "Destroyer of US Dollar" and/or many US homes and lives. He even testified before Congress that the sub prime damage won't spill. No wonder, he works for Bush.

Marc Faber says, if he was Bernanke's professor, he would have failed Bernanke, forced Bernanke NEVER to get a job at any job, let alone the Fed reserve Bank. He also says "Bernanke is fit to work with Government of Mugabe" Oouch!!!

See the video

Late look at Budget India 2008-2009

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:03:00 +0000

Given the least amount of details I know about India Budget 08-09, I'll just let you read some "expert" posts

http://www.ibnlive.com/budget08/

India Budget - 2008
Wharton Analysis

IMF video
The whole speech

Where your tax dollars go?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:59:00 +0000

http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm

Politics and Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Do politicians have any dignity and self-respect? at all?

oh..some fine pictures too...

Via IndiaUncut