Shamil's blog

Corruption

2014-03-08T19:19:00.000+05:30

A topic that echoes similarity across the world and brings anger to everyone who is affected by it. Prevalent in India in many forms especially among the political class and the government officials who take it for granted that it is their birth right to take bribe to do their duties. With the rise of the media as a powerful force in the Indian society and a somewhat aggressive and neutral Supreme court slamming corruption at every possible juncture corruption is an important agenda in the upcoming national elections in 2014.

If anyone is constructing a house or renovating something or just adding just a new room on the roof we have to pay off a certain amount to the councilor in that area. Councilor is one who is supposed to solve problems in an area like no roads, water supply etc. instead these are the ones who will be creating the problems for people. This is how it works this councilor has a guy who will be roaming about the streets in a bicycle or who wheeler sniffing for any sign of construction. If he finds something he goes to the house and demands a certain amount from the people who are constructing the house. If they dont pay up he tells that the councilor wants to see them personally. This guy who is supposed to be people's problem solver then comes up with faults which does not exist and says that he will solve the problems if they pay a certain amount to him. They will be circling around until their ambitions is achieved. An ordinary man who may be already stretched to do that construction in form of a loan or debt will have to see off these #~^*^# to avoid any problems or delays in the construction. I always wonder if democracy is for an ordinary man or for these kind of lunatics who have the power.

More worst instances can be seen in government hospitals. If a patient needs to be moved from one ward to another you need to pay the attender who is moving the patient around needs to be payed. If you need good healthcare provided there you need to know doctors or certain people otherwise you will be lost in the crowd waiting for the treatment. Of course not all of them are bad but unfortunately most of them are. A foreman working in the telephone department needs to fix faulty lines thats his job. But what he does is fixes the lines and asks for 100 bucks for fixing it. 100 bucks for doing his duty for which he is in the department. If you make any complaints it will always land in deaf ears thats how the system has been designed to protect the corrupt. These are just few instances which infuriates an ordinary man and as I said earlier it is engraved in the minds of these people that bribery is an essential part of their lives which is their birth right.

The upcoming elections hopefully will bring some change in the center to get rid of the corrupt and scam ridden government who have been in power for far too many years to understand the sufferings and grievances of the ordinary people. The poverty line description of 32 rupees i.e., who earns 32 rupees is above the poverty line was a serious joke on the Indian people. These politicians and economists should be given the same amount and asked to survive a day with it. Hope for a better governance in the country without the corrupt and the communal powers shaking down the pillars of our democracy.

Please share your own experiences in the comments!

5 amazing TED Talks

2014-02-15T15:24:00.001+05:30

TED stands for Technology Education Design. Recently I started watching videos of these TED talks it was inspirational and informative. There are 1000s of videos in youtube and also the website TED.com. These videos are speeches made by people who are experts in their field of study from a professor of MIT to a college graduate. I would like to share 5 of the TED talks which I liked so far along with their links in youtube

1. The first link is a speech by Daphne Koller who shares her experiences of online education and the organization coursera.org where free higher education is given. You heard it right it is absolutely free and just a mail id is enough to register for any of these courses. In her speech Daphne Koller describes how hundreds of thousands of students are able to realize their dreams of getting a masters degree with a computer and internet. A remarkable endeavour indeed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FvJ6jMGHU

2. The second link is an interesting one about Frank Warren who has a strange hobby of collecting people's secrets through post cards. In this speech he shares some of the secrets he has collected over the years. Some are funny while some are touching an interesting speech nevertheless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0H1zU2ytxA

3. Can money buy happiness thats the topic Michael Norton explores in this link. He shares the knowledge of the experiments he conducted with people where some people are given money to spend on themselves and some on others. Giving always brings happiness thats the message he conveys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsihkFWDt3Y

4. In life perspective is everything. In a given situation how we see things can make us happy or sad. Rory Sutherland gives some amazing examples on the psychological aspects of things great speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iueVZJVEmEs

5. Saved the best for the last. A remarkable story of how simple things can be used to make lives of the digitally underserved much better. Two remarkable gadgets "A lunchbox" and a "medi-meter" was created out of simple stuff which can educate people and save people's lives. Hats off to Vinay Venkatraman the person behind this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaFvAAGVad

Hopefully will come back with few more remarkable videos from TED talks until then take care!!

Mangalyaan

2013-11-10T19:13:00.001+05:30

No ideas for a new blog. Created this essay for my niece just thought of posting it to boast about ISRO!!! I am going to write on one of the biggest achievement of the Indian Space Research Organization recently the launch of Mars Orbiter Mission also known as Mangalyaan.

ISRO
ISRO stands for Indian Space Research Organisation which is the primary space agency of the Indian government. ISRO is amongst the six largest government space agencies in the world, along with USA's NASA, Russia's RKA, Europe's ESA, China's CNSA and Japan's JAXA. Its primary objective is to advance space technology and use its applications for national benefit. Established in 1969 and headquartered in Bengaluru, ISRO is under the administrative control of the Department of Space, Government of India.
ISRO has achieved numerous milestones since its establishment. India's first satellite, Aryabhata, was built by ISRO and launched by the Soviet Union in 1975. Rohini, the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLV-3, was launched in 1980. ISRO subsequently developed two other rockets: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for putting satellites into polar orbits and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for placing satellites into geostationary orbits. These rockets have launched numerous communications satellites and earth observation satellite.

What is Mangalyaan?

Mangalyaan is a satellite launched with the intention to orbit one of the most curious planets of our solar system the Mars. The curiosity surrounding Mars is the possible existence of liquid water and Methane a potential indication of life on the planet at some point in the distant past. The satellite will map the planet’s surface and test for methane. After the successful launch of our lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 (mission to Moon) in 2008 Mangalyaan was approved on 3 August 2012. The total project cost for Mangalyaan is estimated at approximately 450 crore rupees. It is the cheapest inter-planetary mission when compared to any other missions designed by any other space agency like NASA, ESA etc. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was successfully launched into Earth’s orbit on 5 November 2013 at the First Launch Pad at Sriharikota near Chennai, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 at 2:38 PM.

Reaching Mars
The Mars Orbiter will have to travel a distance of 780 million kilometers (484 million miles) to reach Mars. In order for the Mangalyaan to reach this amount of distance it will rotate around earth to gain velocity in several phases and at the final phase on December 1 it will free itself from earth’s gravity and reach the interplanetary space between Earth and Mars (Imagine a sling thrower, he swings and swings the sling until the stone has enough velocity to reach the distance. That’s exactly how the Mangalyaan will reach Mars). Mangalyaan is expected to reach the Mars orbit by 24 September 2014 travelling the 484 million miles during its orbit in time.

Objectives:
The Mars Orbiter Mission is to showcase India's rocket launch systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities. Specifically, the primary objective is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, comprising the following major tasks: • Design and realisation of a Mars orbiter • Deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management. • Incorporate self-developed features to handle contingency situations. The secondary objective is to explore Mars' surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using indigenous scientific instruments. Already ISRO is carrying satellites of several countries with its satellite launch vehicles of PSLV and GSLV rocket series. This will help India establish itself as one of the leading countries in the space programs.

7 years!!!!

2013-10-02T13:19:00.001+05:30

Today I complete 7 years of my work life. It looks like a long time. But when I look back it feels just like yesterday when I was searching for a job everywhere on the streets of Chennai. Looking for walkins, going to the browsing center searching for jobs online, looking for referrals etc etc.

It was June 2005 when I completed my Engineering degree. I was so hopeful and excited for a starting a career in a software company which was the dream job of anyone at that time. I had done well in a couple of on-campus interviews but unfortunately didnt go through in the final rounds. So with high hopes and sky high confidence I started my job search. The first walkin attended was that of Verizon which took place in Meenakshi college in Kodambakkam. There are moments in life where you get hit by life's reality. I came to terms with the reality of job search and how hard it will be on that day

The sheer number of people who had come in for that walkin made my head spin faster than the earth. The crowd was massive and we managed to write the test at last in the evening after waiting for more than 6 hours from the morning. No prizes for guessing what happened in that test. I didnt clear!!! Since this was the first walkin and test thought I would do better in the next walkin. Walkin after walkin the same story repeated with some tests cleared failing in interviews and so on. This went on for a while.

That some time had become more than a year. My parents were getting worried that I will not make the cut. The worst part of it is that people who came to my house used to give me advice which wasn't worth a dime. The bright side of it I developed a lot of patience.

Rakesh was one of my friends who was with me doing the job search. He got a job in Ascendas IT tech park. He informed me there was a walkin going on for a company called Visual Graphics. Finally my job search came to end after 15 months. I joined there on October 3, 2006 the same day where one of my other friend Pradeep joined another company ending his job search.

Here I am after 7 years looking back at the path I came. Sometimes the path travelled is more interesting than the destination!!!!

Oslo office first day

2013-09-14T21:01:00.003+05:30

Day 2 I was looking forward to a completely new experience working out of a Mckinsey office. I woke up and was not sure which dress I should be wearing on the first day. Finally I was ready when Donna came down to my floor. We started walking towards the office and it was cold. But the sun was out that was a relief. Donna was talking about the sea view when we reached the office and we went near the ferries for a moment and came back realising that it was almost time to the office. We entered the office and I was still not sure what to expect. We went up to the office and were waiting when Camilla came up with a smile to Donna. We introduced ourselves and there my journey began.

We went to the pantry and there was some bread and other stuff. I had some bread and something else the name of which i dont remember. There were some more introductions in the pantry and it was nice. I went up to the floor where I was to work. Met Ida the other VA who was here and a few other people who were there on that floor. I didnt have a system then as Donna had the system occupied and I was supposed to use her system. So I went down and Camilla arranged me a laptop temporarily. I went upstairs with my laptop and got myself seated next to Merete. She introduced herself to me and she asked about where i was from and the Indian food which made me feel comfortable there. I started to work on my laptop and not sure where to start from and which request to work on as the job flow was a bit less on that day. Camilla came in and told that there was a job something related to consensor slides. I didnt have the slightest of idea what that was. She asked Donna and me whether any of can handle it. I told i can give it a try. She installed the software on Donna's system but was not able to install it on my system.

So we went down and I seated myself next to Camilla where the software was installed. I started testing the software with the few instructions Camilla had given. She helped me out with the working of the software and how exactly the software worked. It was nice and a new learning experience. Then we went to lunch and there was all sorts of sea foods there on the menu. I took a few on my plate and one of them happened to be pork which i quickly gave to Donna. She took it from my plate and at the end she too threw it away. On the lunch table we sat next to a few people. It was a custom there that you should always sit next to where there were people and not to go and sit alone.

We sat there and was a CSS who came and sat next to us and he was sharing his experience with us. His name was Knut who had just completed a project the day before and was a bit relaxed on that day looking forward to his next project day. He was curious as to how VGI works and I was explaining to him as to how it was working and how people were people there were rostered across different shifts. It was nice to have a chat like that with one of the CSS whom you were working for.

After my lunch I continued working on the software Turning point 2008 which was a bit obnoxious as the font sizes were jumping all over the place every time we were running the software. After I was working on it for some time the CSS who sent the request came next to me saw the slide layout and suggested a few modifications as to how exactly the layout should be. I was carrying out the changes. Then a person came to Camilla about some IT related stuff and I introduced myself to him. His name was Frode and he was an AP there. He was so happy about VGI and the work we do it was nice to hear that face to face from "the person" as I had been knowing this via email or sametime over all these years in VGI. After that I continued my work and it was about nearly 4.30 I finished my work. Me and Camilla ran some tests as to whether it was working fine and it was running ok except for a few slides where there was still jump in font sizes. I fixed it and camilla told that if there were any more changes we can fix it in the morning the day after. The day after was a big day as there was a meeting at the Grand hotel announcing the promotions

So that was my first request in Oslo office a tricky but challenging one nothing like I have done before. Then I went upstairs to check whether Ida needed any help with the binding request she was doing. Donna was already helping her and by the time I reached the printing place Donna was doing her last piece of binding work. So it was all over for that day as far as the requests were concerned. After the office it was supposed to be a farewell party for Donna at a hotel. I quickly went to my room and changed to some casual wear as I was in formals for the first day. Camilla was waiting downstairs in the bicycle and we went to a bike stand nearby and rented a bicycle. Off we went in the bicycle to the hotel where the party was.

We reached there and Anne was there already with Donna, Ida, Merete and 2 other people I had not seen at the office. They introduced themselves to me. One was Aasie and the other was Frode. Assie was at the Mckinsey office and Frode was at the Mckinsey office for 11 years before he resigned this February as he wanted to do something more challenging. Nice to see someone wanting to go out of their comfort zone and try something different. Then it was all about fun. It was some nice chat and lots of fun with people sharing all their thoughts. Anne she made a nice farewell speech to Donna.

We ordered something (I was not sure what I ordered as Anne ordered all the stuff for me). Tone joined us late. The soup came and the main course. But the chat was going on non-stop. It was nice and humorous sometimes I cant understand as it was in Norwegian. But it was fun all the way. Everyone was singing a song in the middle and it was like an antakshari or something where one set was singing one bit of song and the other set was singing the other and vice versa

As time went by we went downstairs for the dessert. It was cool but I was not sure about the name. Then I was talking to Frode about his experience in Mckinsey and why he left and all the stuff he was doing right now. It was nice. Then people started leaving one by one as it was getting late. But it was still bright outside at 9.30 pm. Me and Ida had a nice chat about her travel to India and her studies. Then Donna joined in as Annne and Frode went outside for a few moments. It was a chat about the jobs as it was an all VA team. Ida was telling about her studies and exams.

It was finally about 10.30 I guess when we finally left the place. We started paying the bills individually and I was not sure whether my credit card will work here or not. Fortunately it was working and I managed to pay the bill. Then we left the place and me and Frode and took a bike as Anne and Donna were walking. It was a fun ride and Anne was making fun of a guy who was in the balcony of a building (it would have been impossible in India). When we reached near our apartment Anne took a taxi to her place and Frode came with us to show the way back. He left giving farewell to Donna. I put the bike in the stand and walked towards the apartment with Donna.

We managed to find the apartment and reached the place around 11.00 pm.

It was a busy day all day and it was a great first day at the new office!!

2013-09-08T18:31:00.000+05:30

My first day in Oslo

Woww what an experience. I was a bit nervous as it was my first trip abroad and my first experience in flight. First when i entered the airport I was informed that the flight was delayed. I thought what a great start!!!! After I checked in and finished my security check I realised that I had not taken any cash in Indian rupees and all I had was the dollars given to me as allowance. I had to spend like 2 hours there and luckily there wasnt much I needed then. Around 1.15 there was a call to board the flight. When I was waiting to enter the flight I watched the Jet airways flight that was the first time I was watching a flight so close wow what a view

On board the experience was nice a monitor to watch your favorite movies. The pilot's name was Ian Grant and the calmness and confidence in his voice gave me the confidence (I was so terrified after boarding it). The journey began with a window seat I had booked using the online check in (unfortuntely it was near to a wing :((). But the view below after takeoff was amazing with the night view of chennai with all the lights lit giving a fantastic view of chennai. I was tensed for a while and after that got used to the constant humming of the A330 engine. I took a nap after having a veg wrap offered by the air hostess. Woke up to have a breakfast and it was a terrible combination of idly which was strange looking to say the least and some vermicelli. The fruit salad was the only bright light in the breakfast and I asked for tea which came out as a black tea and was a terrible choice.

We landed at the Brussels international airport. My first step outside India and boy it was great. It was a high tech city. The security check was robust and meticulous. After the security check i was heading towards my terminal for the Scandinavian airlines flight headed towards Oslo. I walked and walked and finally reached the terminal where I was to board the flight. The airport was mostly empty as it was a weekday I guess. But the display of some of the latest cars by some of the world's leading auto makers made feel that I was in a auto show or someting. BMW 555d, Audi A1, Toyoto Xaris (not sure about the name) and mercedes were all displayed. I was missing my camera which was in the main baggage.

I was waiting there for boarding the flight which was like a 2 hour wait. I roamed around the airport and was looking around all the flights and I was overwheled and was just wondering whether I was dreaming or something. It was around 10.30 when I boarded the flight and the flight was scheduled to leave at 11.05. I was just reading a magazine in the airline stating that the Scandinavian airlines was the third most punctual airline in the world. And on dot 11.05 the flight departed for Oslo. This was also a window seat and with only me in that row with 3 seats. It was a fantastic view of the city of Brussels from the aircraft. Flying above the clouds and to view the landscape below was a fantastic experience and all my inhibitions about flight experience was completely changed. It was a great experience and I couldnt stop admiring it. The flight attendants on board the airline were just fantastic. A guy and a lady, the guy had a great attitude and approach and the lady was having a great smile. The journey was short (~2 hours) and I landed in Gordeman airport which was situated outside Oslo. I had to catch a train to the National Theatret station.

At the airport I waited to collect my luggage. I collected my baggage and needed to call Donna to inform that I was there. I tried calling from a payphone and it was of no use and the 50cent Euro I had used was wasted. I aked a guy there whether he knew to use it and he also did not know how to use it. Then I asked a lady at an information counter how to use the payphone and she offered me to use the phone to her desk. I informed Donna that i will be there in 20 mins. I went to get a ticket and the counter there did not accept dollars. So changed the 100 dollar bill I had at the foreign exchange there and got 530 Kroner (30 kroner was commission out of 560). I got the ticket and headed towards the station to catch the local train. The train was scheduled to arrive at 2.08 and no prize for guessing it came at 2.08 on dot.

I had my baggage covered with a plastic sheet at the chennai airport, I guess everyone was having a strange look at my baggage. I got into the train and was heading to National theatret. I had no idea where it was and I spoke to a guy next to me and he told with a smile where was the station located. I reached the station and called Donna and managed to find her after some calls from a payphone. We walked towards the apartment and all the vehicles including buses stopped to give way for people to cross the roads I guess this will never happen in chennai. We reached the apartment, placed my baggage and headed towards a restaurant to have our lunch. We managed to find a restaurant and ordered something which costed 12o kroner. After lunch I headed back towards my apartment around 4 pm and had a nap. When I woke up it was still bright I thought I would have slept for an hour or so. When I looked at the watch it was 9 Pm and it was like evening here. I started preparing my dinner myself for the first time and here I am typing my experience after my dinner (rice with some pickle and pudina mix).

I still cant believe I am in a different country and typing my experience about it. But here I am doing it. The sun has set here and I am looking forward to work from McKinsey office tomorrow morning. Looking forward to a nice experience working there

Life

2008-08-02T22:19:00.000+05:30

What is life all about. Its a question everyone knows the answer and yet most people don't want to believe they know the answer. An interesting quote that comes to my mind about life "Life is what happens to you when you want to do something". Sorry if I didn't put in the phrase correctly it sounded something like that and it is true. In this fast-paced life we don't have time to sit and enjoy our lunch or dinner with family and friends. We always have to play catch up game with time

For people who have the time don't value it and simply while it away on things which really aren't that important (most famous being watching TV). An interesting thing about time is most people over estimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade. If you plan towards something and keep to it say for a decade then you are bound to reach a level well beyond those who just want to spend the day as it comes

One important ingredient for success according to me is a pot of glue. Puzzled? You just apply that pot of glue to your seat and stick to the task unless it is finished. Sounds simple isn't it. But it is really tough have my word for it.

I just thought about writing something philosophical about life and actually finished writing about time and hard work. I guess if these two things are well valued then life can be a pleasant thing after all. At the end of the day we have to be happy to make life look good. Keep smiling and working hard

What if Israel attacks Iran?

2008-06-07T18:05:00.000+05:30

Recently Israel's transportation minister was quoted as saying "Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable. If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective"

Is the threat from Israel realistic or just another political statement by an Israeli politician to ward off the crisis faced by the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at home. It can be considered real given the fact that in 1981 Israeli warplanes destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

Ok then what are the reactors that are in contention for attack by Israel. The fact is that Israel has its eyes on certain key facilities that it deems are important for producing nuclear weapons. The first site is Bushehr located on the Persian Gulf southwest of Isfahan.

This site is not on the top list of Israel's hitlist as this site is intended to be for peaceful purposes (for producing nuclear power of around 1,000 MW). Russia has signed an agreement that the spent fuel will be returned to Russia and not diverted to any other places where it can be used for producing plutonium (used for making weapons)

The second and the most contentious site is Natanz which is complete and Iran is already in the process of enriching Uranium. It is partly being built underground making Iran's intentions a little suspicious in the international arena

What are the possibilities and factors that will determine whether Israel attacks Iran
The biggest hurdle for Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities are that the fighter jets which are going to attack the facilities definitely will need a refuelling as the nuclear facilities are very far away from Israel and they also far apart from each other.

Unlike in 1981 where the site of the nuclear reactor was nearer to Israel and the fighter jets returned safely after attacking the site. Moreover all these installations have been protected by advanced air defense systems from Russia and many are underground installations which makes the mission even more difficult to carry out

What will be Iran's response
Unlike in 1981 where Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear facilities without losing anything, Iran is a completely different situation. They have their own missile program and have a missile that can reach up to London. They can hit Israel with ease and also attack other U.S. bases in the Gulf region.

Moreover Iran has the political leverage to destabilise Iraq using its Shia majority and turn them against the U.S. They can use Hezbollah as a significant weapon next door to Israel on the northern Israeli border

Israel has developed its Arrow ant-ballistic missile program which it claims can neutralise the missile attacks from Iran but the arrow missile system is yet to be tested on the battleground. And everyone knows how miserably the Patriot missile batteries failed during both the gulf war and the war between Israel and Hezbollah

Given these scenarios and the legality of attacks given that Iran's nuclear ambitions are yet to be proven, Israel and U.S. will be diplomatically isolated if they preemptively attack Iran

Cool and Latest Mobile Models

2008-05-19T23:52:00.000+05:30

Its been a long time since I wrote a blog thanks to my system that did not boot up for the past 2 weeks, At last I managed to put the bits and pieces of my system together and writing this blog. So what is this blog about? It is about some of the cool mobiles (and concepts) I happened to see. Of course you can see their reviews in some of the gadget sites but I wanted to present my perspective. So without any further fuss I start with the article

Morph
The first gadget is called Morph from Nokia which is still in its initial stage of research and development. It uses nanotechnology to build a device which will change its usage depending on the needs from a cell phone to a camera to a mp3 player and many more functions

Some of the key features are

The device can change its form depending on physical conditions

Nanotechnology will enable Self cleaning and self-repairing

As its batteries are in nanoscale (10 to the power -9) it will absorb solar energy and does not require physical charging

Cool stuff ah!!. This is the technology that Nokia is betting on in the next 5 years

You can watch a video on the various forms and shapes that the Morph can take in the following link in Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdF1JZkm2nQ

Samsung Serenata

Boy what a look it has. A mobile need not be just a mobile it can be beautiful (better than Miss Universe) and this is just the mobile that can make you fall in love.
The Serenata is a touch form music player and a slider phone with a jog-dial input. As all beautiful women come with a cost this mobile is also very costly. Th cost is a whopping Rs. 84,000

Tag Heuer Meridiist

A brand that we all know and admire is Tag Heuer and this brand of mobile surely comes with a class. The features Sapphire crystal main screen Monochrome OLED (Organic LED which is the recent advancement in screens)
The expected cost is an amazing Rs.2,33,000. It really can be a potential Vertu killer

LG Black Label

The name is not official yet but by the looks it will certainly emulate the success of LG Shine. It has cutting edge technology with carbon-fibre and tempered glass body
Expected price Rs.25,000. LG bring it soon to India, I would love to put my hands around it

Top 10 advertisers and advertising agencies

2008-05-05T04:10:00.000+05:30

Here is the list of top advertisers in the world

Procter & Gamble Co.
AT&T
General Motors Corp.
Time Warner
Verizon Communications
Ford Motor Co.
GlaxoSmithKline
Walt Disney Co.
Johnson & Johnson
Unilever

These are the Top 10 advertisers in the world spending close to 40 billion dollars on their advertising campaign to promote their products. There are also other big corporations that are not far behind in the spending campaign. Companies like Toyota, Sony, Daimler Chrysler etc. Well these are the Top 10 advertisers, what about the Top 10 agencies who prepare ads for these large corporates

Ameredia
Arnold Worldwide
BBDO
Doyle Dane Bernbach
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
N.W. Ayer & Son
Ogilvy & Mather
Saatchi and Saatchi
Partnership Advertising
Wieden+Kennedy

The above companies deal in providing advertising facilities to their clients. There are different types of advertising services given by the companies. This list is of 10 reputed advertising companies in the world

The man behind Ripley's Believe it or Not!

2008-05-05T03:57:00.000+05:30

I believe everyone has watched Ripley's Believe it or Not! (in AXN) show atleast once. The show in which bizarre things happen which we never imagined or believed existed like some of the images here

This blog is about the man behind all that. Yes the man who started it all. Guess what his name is, it is Robert Ripley. Robert Ripley lived in the first half of the 20th century in which he was immensely popular and his whole life was a Believe it or not! type for people of that period. He was born in 1890 in Santa Rosa, California. His original name was LeRoy Ripley.

“Roy” was an avid artist and a great athlete at a very young age. He pitched semi-pro baseball at age 13 and also illustrated the posters advertising the games.
At age 14, he sold his first cartoon to LIFE Magazine for eight dollars.

By age 15, Ripley was working at the San Francisco Bulletin and soon moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In 1913, he moved to New York and, as ‘Robert’, rather than ‘Leroy’, he began working at the New York Globe sketching sports cartoons. After having done this for several years, Ripley came upon a slow sports day and decided to draw up nine unusual sports event in small sketches. The cartoon was originally titled, “Champs and Chumps”, but after much deliberation, the title was changed to Believe It or Not!. The rest is history!

His cartoon became famous and he travelled all over the world looking for unbelievable stories. He had a special liking for China and the far eastern countries. Ripley was an extremely shy character and always used to wear flamboyant color combinations.

Even Ripley's death was like a believe it or not story. At 58, Ripley died while taping the 13th episode of his television series, an episode that dealt with death and death related rituals. He died while taping the show and was pronounced dead of a heart attack

Ripley’s legacy and what he brought to the world is alive in all of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums and his traditions continue with the Believe It or Not! cartoon series. Today the daily cartoon is seen in nearly 200 newspapers worldwide, in 42 countries, and 17 languages. The majority of the exhibits in all of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums are based on the collections of oddities obtained by Ripley throughout his world travels. Every year millions of people visit the Ripley’s museums to take part in the adventure, one in which they experience first-hand the incredible world of Robert Ripley!

The official website is www.ripleys.com

You can visit this site to have a look at some of the bizarre happenings around the world

Free Web hosting

2008-05-01T20:16:00.000+05:30

Free is a word that is used in many websites recently. If you want to host a website and you want free web space for that there are plenty of sites available for that. The free web hosting concept is for those who have are just starting their site and want to try things out before starting their own full fledged site

One such site I came across is 987mb.com. The offer they provide is absolutely unbelievable. They provide 40 GB of free space, 600 GB bandwidth and free PHP and MySQL. It really is a great offer for starters in the net. The only catch in providing all this free stuff is that there will be one 468x60 banner in the footer(bottom of page) of your site. So if you want to start your new site and you dont want to spend any money this is a really useful site. The link is

http://www.987mb.com

If you dont want any forced ads on your site you can try these following links
http://www.my5gb.com
This site offers 5 GB free space with no forced ads and you can also place your own ads

http://www.gigacities.net
No forced ads. 20 GB of free space

http://www.rack111.com
No forced ads. 25 GB of free space

All the links related to free web hosting can be found in the following link
http://www.free-webhosts.com/search-webhosts.php?ORDER=16

The only catch with the free hosting sites are that as the number of users increase they start charging you for the services they offer or if they decide to shut down their servers the site you created will no longer be operational

All the best for your new site with a free host!!!

Webmaster submission

2008-05-01T18:49:00.000+05:30

I thought there was only one Webmaster that belongs to Google and that it was very important to get your page indexed by Google (it is very important indeed). There are also other webmasters out there that are equally important (more or less). One of them is the MSN webmaster which is quite good.
It may not be that good as the Google version but still it provides a lot of information about the links pointing to your site and other links that are pointing from your site. The link is

www.webmaster.live.com

There is also a webmaster option available in Yahoo. But the features in this site are too poor to be used for any useful purposes (it really sucks)

www.siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

And last but not the least the Big Daddy of them all the Google Webmaster. It allows you to see how many URLs have you submitted and how many of them have indexed and if there are any errors on your page etc. It really is a good site for you if you are the Webmaster. The link is

www.google.com/webmasters

Submit to these sites and get your page indexed if you want to increase your page rank. Alexa ranking is yet another indicator of how popular your site is. The link for submitting your site is

http://www.alexa.com/site/help/webmasters

World's Most Wanted Men

2008-04-28T20:03:00.000+05:30

Forbes recently announced the list of most wanted persons on this planet. Here is a list of those with pictures and the reason for them being searched

Name: Osama Bin Laden (Number 1)
Wanted reason: Associated with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He has claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. It killed more than 2,000 people.
Reward bounty: $25 million
Hideout: Believed to be hiding in the tribal villages of Pakistan

Name: Joaquin Guzman (Number 2)
Wanted reason: Joaquin is a powerful drug dealer involved in importing cocaine from Colombia and smuggling it into the U.S. through tunnels. He has reigned as the drug lord killing thousands of people for power over the corridors that are used to transport drugs to the U.S.
Reward bounty: $5 million
Hideout: Mexico
Interesting fact: He escaped from a high security prison by bribing a prison guard and escaped through a laundry truck

Name: Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (Number 3)
Wanted reason: Alimzhan has been involved in illegal activities such as drug supply, illegal arms sales and human trafficking. He is also suspected of having involvement in fixing sports events and beauty pageants
Reward bounty: $5 million
Hideout: Possibly in Russia

Name: Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (Number 4)
Wanted reason: Dawood Ibrahim is believed to be the mastermind behind the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts that killed hundreds and injured many more. He is suspected to have links with the ISI (Pakistan's secret intelligence service) and heads an underworld regime that reigns over Mumbai
Reward bounty: Estimated to be $5 million (The Indian government will be happy to give much more than that given his track record)
Hideout: Pakistan
Interesting fact: He is believed to have carried out plastic surgery to his face to alter his appearance (The Interpol and all other intelligence services have not seen him for almost a decade now. That will take a hell lot of searching to search this man)

Name: Matteo Messina Denaro (Number 5)
Wanted reason: Leader of a notorious mafia gang in Italy, is known for his lavish lifestyle including driving porsches and fancying Rolex watches. He played an important part in a campaign involving a series of bomb attacks to stop the government crack down on the mafia gang
Reward bounty: $5 million
Hideout: Italy (Sicily)

Name: Felicien Kabuga (Number 6)
Wanted reason: Kabuga has been accused of harboring the Hutu militias by providing weapons and logistics to them. The Hutu militias were responsible for genocide of some 800,000 Rwandan men and women in 1994 belonging to the Tutsi community. One of the most horrendous war crime against humanity in the recent history.
Reward bounty: $5 million

Name: Pedro Antonio Marin (Number 7)
Wanted reason: Marin is one of the leaders of the separatist rebel movement in Colombia called FARC who has now involved himself in the drug dealings and kidnappings. Almost half of the world's cocaine comes from Colombia and the FARC controls most of them
Reward bounty: $5 million
Hideout: Colombia

Name: Omid Tahvili (Number 8)
Wanted reason: Tahvilli known as Nino has been convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and awaits sentence for that. The American government wants him for a scam he was involved in that stole more than $3 million from elderly American victims. Tahvilli is an international operator and is searched all over the world.
Reward bounty: $5 million
Hideout: Possibly Canada
Interesting fact: Escape from a high security prison by promising a prison official a sum of $50,000

Name: Joseph Kony (Number 9)
Wanted reason: The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been fighting for a dictatorial regime in Uganda. Kony has been accused of carrying out a capmpaign of murder, rape, mutilation, and sexual slavery. He has directed the abduction of 60,000 of which 30,000 were children. The abducted children are forced to fight for LRA. He has been indicted on 33 charges which includes crimes against humanity
Reward bounty: $1.7 million
Hideout: Jungle areas on the border of Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo

Name: James "Whitey" Bulger (Number 10)
Wanted reason: Involved in illicit drug trading and extortion rackets in South Boston. Smart guy who has a wealth in the range of $50-70 million, James uses the contacts and wealth he acquired to evade the law enforcement agencies for well over a decade. Using his political connections he has escaped from attempts to bring him to justice
Reward bounty: $1 million
Hideout: Possibly Sicily in Italy

Useful sites for bloggers

2008-04-19T19:57:00.000+05:30

Some of the problems facing a blogger are 1. How to make a blog look attractive 2. What are the ways and means to increase revenues from the blog site. I encountered the same problem. I came across a few interesting sites that offered useful resources to bloggers

The first problem which is appearance of the blog can be sorted by using many well designed templates available over the net. But the trouble with this is that some templates available for free downloads may not be coded correctly so that it cannot be used as a template. One site where the template is in a ready to use format is blogcrowds.com. The link for this site where templates can be found for blogger is

http://www.blogcrowds.com/resources/blogger_template.php

Coming to the second problem which is monetizing your blog, many resources are available for this purpose. An interesting site that gives a detailed list of all the sites that you can use to get money out of your blog is

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-that-pays-you-to-blog
This site gives you a list 0f 26 sites where you have avenues for making money

One really interesting site that has all the sites listed in one page as thumbnails for RSS and feed directory submission, different blog hosts, templates for blogs and resources for blogs is blogicas.com

http://www.blogicas.com
This site is really amazing and has all the useful resources for your blog

If you want to register your blog to individual sites here is a really useful link where you can submit your site or blogs

http://www.blog-connection.com/submit-blogs.htm

If you want to submit your blog to multiple social networking sites the following link is very useful
http://www.onlywire.com

I hope that this blog and the sites was useful for your blog in some ways. Keep blogging!!!

Book that changed my life

2008-04-13T19:42:00.000+05:30

I would like to share my experience about one of the best books I ever read in my life. It changed my outlook on life. It was really at a crucial juncture in my life when I read this book. I was jobless for almost a year and half and I was still thinking about getting a job in a software company (which was everyone's dream at that time and even now!!). That was when I read this book and it changed my perception about life. I got out of the myth of the software dream and got into the first job of my life

The book's name is "The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho. A fantastic book by one of the best authors on self improvement. It really is a life changing book. The story is about a shepherd and his dream. The story begins when the shepherd boy had a dream of finding a large treasure. The rest of the story is all about his chase after the dream. He does everything he can to get to that place where the treasure is. Sometimes he has to do things beyond his capabilities to reach that place. The climax of the book is when and where the boy reaches his dream and finds his treasure

I was able to relate myself with the story and off I went in search of my dream (certainly not a software job). I am still in search and I believe I will achieve it one day

This book is certainly for those people who have a very bleak perspective on their life and who want a source of inspiration. This book changed my life. I definitely believe it will change yours too. Happy reading

You can download the ebook from the folllowing link
http://www.esnips.com/doc/a0e0a234-72e1-4702-b584-f1060525d671/Paulo-Coelho---The-Alchemist

More blogs and articles can be found in the following links
http://srshamil.blogspot.com

Inflation – Reasons and Measures(??)

2008-04-06T06:26:00.000+05:30

Today, the inflation is up almost at 7% despite several measures by the government to curb this inflationary pressure. What are the reasons for such nflation to rise to its highest level in the past 3 years?

Two main reasons can be attributed to this rise in inflation. One is the rise in prices of commodities like fuel (oil price is hovering around the 100 dollar mark in international markets), metals and edible oils. The second reason is the slow down in the economy maily in industrial and infrastructure sectors. Te former reason is at the top of the agenda for PM Manmohan Singh, FM Chidambaram and RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy

So what measures cam be taken so that the inflation is brought down to the acceptable level. Acceptable level in the sense that the "Aam Aadmi" referred to by the government who is bearing the brunt of these rising prices

First of all the rise in commodity prices is not led by demand. They are influenced by the pricing in the international markets. For example, rise in metal prices can be attributed to the fact that China is consuming a huge amount of the steel produced to fuel its growth in infrastructure. These prices will come down only when the threat of a global economic slow down becomes real and the demand for these products comes down

So what can the government and the RBI can do to curb this inflation. RBI can raise the interest rates and it is pretty sure that it will raise the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for the banks to suck in the excess liquidity in the system. But there is a problem if the RBI raises its interest rates. The US and EU lowered their interest rates bt January end. So the higher rate will encourage foreign investors to invest in India due to the interest rate gap. This will strenghthen the rupee against the US dollar. This will severely impact the exporters who already were severely hit last year's rupee appreciation of 12%

So in an election year the government is caught up between concentrating on economic growth and curbing inflationary pressures. One measure the government is already undertaking is to cut excise duties on commodities like edible oils, oil seeds etc.

Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that some good things come out of this crisis like an economic reform. I wish the finance minister all the best as he is now sitting on a throne (finance ministry) with a crown full of thorns (inflation and economic slow down)

A complete review can be found in the following link
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-31587820080125

More blogs can be found in the following links
http://srshamil.blogspot.com

Operation Cold Start - India's Strategy for War

2008-04-06T06:10:00.000+05:30

The recent war exercises carried out by the Indian army was called Brazen Chariots. The major fire power of the armed forces was in diplay for everyone to see including the delegates from over 59 countries, ofcourse excluding Pakistan

This strategy was in a bid to increase India's readiness to go to war (in case there is one) as soon as the orders were isued from the government. This was a lesson learnt from the experiences of the attack on Parliament in December 2001. When the government issued orders to the army it took them 3 weeks to get ready for war. Enough time for the US to put pressure on the Indian government to avert a war and for Pakistan to threaten using the nuclear war possibility

Operation Cold Start was designed to get the forces ready within 72 hours of the order issued to go to war. It is a daunting task given the lack of military hardware for the Indian army. Lets discuss that part later. The main aspect of this operation is to attack the key facilities of the enemy and then holding fort using the forces that arrive later. Earlier it was holding the fort along the battle lines until the attack forces came by. This change in tactics will save a lot of time for the army to get ready

Here is a comparison between the old and the new strategies

Old: Mobilise the whole army and then attack the enemy
New: Hit, mobilise, hit harder. All the key enemy installations will be attacked first

Old: 3 weeks to prepare for the war
New: Operations will start within 24 hours

Old: Pivot corps (troops holding fort) get into position until the attacking troops arrive
New: Pivot corps themselves carry out the offensive without waiting for the attack corps

Old: Sequential attack of enemy territory (time consuming)
New: Simultaneous attack of all enemy targets – Shock and awe

One main aspect of the operation that Indian army is missing the lack of military hardware. The army needs atleast a 100 helicopters to airlift the troops to the battle fiel. It is a great start for a strategy as India is one of the largest consumer of military hardware in the world it will eventually get all the military hardware it needs in due course. But the presence of such a doctrine will itself deter countries like Pakistan in carrying out operations which could provoke a war.

In a nuclearised subcontinent the whole prospect of war seems to be a grave danger for the whole world. So lets hope these measures by the Indian army will only help maintain peace and stability in the region

A complete review can be seen in the below link
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/land-forces/4342-india-s-new-cold-start-war-doctrine-strategically-reviewed.html

More blogs can be found in the below links
http://www.srshamil.blogspot.com

Manjakattu nagar – Most memorable experience of my life

2008-04-03T21:22:00.000+05:30

I would like to share one incident which happened during my college days. I wont say it was sad,terrible or funny experience now. Just read through the blog to find it out. You will be wondering why I named it Manjakattu nagar because this incident took place in Manjakattu nagar which is on the outskirts of Madhavaram (Chennai) I studied in St. Peter's Engineerin college. One of the good (worst) practice was to have unit tests on every Saturday. We always used to study on Friday evenings and most of the time got away with pass or a reasonably good marks; there was also a practice of stealing the test note we write the test in, write down the answers and then place them back safely without the lecturers knowing (He he he).

Let me come back to the main story. The incident took place on one such Saturday. We wrote ourtest and were returning home from college when one of my friend Suresh (he is a great builder up of stories) invited us (all the guys from Perambur area) to a treat. He told that one of his friends had started a fast food shop and he wanted it to be publicised. So he invited the 6 of us to the treat. We all said that we will come in the evening to the fast food centre. We started our journey back in the train and reached our home.

In the evening Vasanth, Pakka (sorry original name is Pradeep), Suresh and Ashwin came to my home. We all headed towards a house of another friend of mine Rakesh whose house was nearer to the area where the fast food was located. (when SUresh was in my house he kept talking over the phone and repeatedly asked whether everything was ready or not). When we reached Rakesh's house he was not there but luckily we met him on the way towards the fast food. We all headed towards the fast food centre with one of Rakesh's friend also joining him.

So altogether 7 people were there. When we reached the halfway mark Suresh said that we will wait for sometime as things were not yet ready. So we waited for around 20-30 minutes. Then Suresh got a call and he said that everything was ready and we can start. So we started down the road and reached a point where there was a narrow stretch of road.

The road was very narrow and was covered on both sides by trees. It was night falling in the month of December. It was pitch dark and only the headlights of our bikes provided the lights and there was no sight of any human being. It was like going through a jungle for an adventure like in the Evil Dead movie

We were travelling in our bikes when suddenly Suresh's bike stopped. He said that his bike was not starting. We all stopped our bikes and went to look at what exactly was happening. It was pitch dark as all the headlights of the bikes were off. Suddenly two white figures appeared from a bush nearby and was slowly heading towards us. Vasanth saw that and said it was a cow

All of a sudden those creatures started screaming and came right towards us. We were all terrified as those creatures started throwing firesticks at us. They started to chase us. I will explain what happened to all 7 of us individually

Rajkumar (Rakesh's friend) – He was chased all over the place by those white creatures. He ran and ran and fell into a bush nearby (poor fellow his only fault was coming with us)

Suresh – He was jumping and running everywhere shouting "Pey pey".

Vasanth and Rakesh – By the time this was happening Vasanth took Pakka's TVS 50 while Rakesh took his bike and were standing at a safe distance from us

Myself and Ashwin – We didnt know what to do, so we stood our ground and watched as things around us were getting crazy

Pakka also was chased and he reached his TVS 50, got back in the back seat of the TVS 50 which Vasanth was driving. Mysealf and Ashwin were the last to leave with our bike. We thought we had escaped when the white creature suddenly gave a big slap on my back (Oops what a shot it was)

After all this the drama didnt stopped. We moved from the place and when we were riding on our bikes Pakka's TVS 50 got stuck in the mud and Pakka who was sitting at the back got down and started running towards Suresh's bike and got into it. It was a hilarious situation for us as Pakka was a body builder and he was stronger than all of us (atleast physically)

Then we all headed to Rajkumar's home where we discussed what had happened. Suresh was giving a lot of build up (as usual). But he was getting too interested in making us believe that it was a ghost and Rakesh who was also from the same area supported him saying that there were incidents like these happening over there. I was saying to everyone that there was no such thing like a ghost and it must have been something (or someone) else. Some of them got back the confidence and we all went home.

After an hour after I had reached my home, Vijay (one of my friends in the same area and who absconded from the treat) and Suresh came to my home. Vijay said that he heard that we were beaten by ghosts. I just told him I didnt believe it. He started laughing and took me outside my home where Ramkumar (one of the kedi number ones in my class) and Kannan (also one of my classmates and a nice friend) were standing there. Ram told that it was not ghosts, it was actually them who were there in the white dress.

He described the whole story. He told that they were wearing a veshti and were throwing computer sambraani (sorry dono the English word for it!) which appeared like flames to us. He also that there were 3 creatures Ram, Kannan and Vijay in white dress but unfortunately Vijay's veshti got stuck in his legs and he fell down there itself. So he couldnt come as a third creature. He asked me maintain the ghost story in the college and we reached an agreement.

I was laughing the whole night and it certainly was one of the most memorable experiences of mylife. The next week in colleg was full of ghost stories. Great time we had. Hope you enjoyed reading it too. Post your comments regarding my hilarious incident.

Cool Corner Peeling Ads

2008-04-03T18:16:00.000+05:30

I have started blogging for just over a month now. I wanted to display ads on my blog which does not occupy too much space, because most of the blogs I visited had ads ocupying too much space. I was on the lookout for a much better solution

Then one day when I was surfing the net to submit my blog I found a site which had a
diiferent type of ad altogether. It didnt occupy any space and it was sitting right on the right top corner of the page

It was one of the cool things that I saw over the net. If you are interested in getting such an ad for your blog the site name is Adbrite and you can vist the site by clicking here It just places a nice ad and if any of your site visitors makes a click you will get paid. You can get your amount paid though Paypal or through a cheque. If you want to create an account in Paypal click here

You can also have a free advertising for your own website or blog by using the peeling ad in the following site Peel Away Ads

You can also try a few of the below links
www.peelawayads.com
www.freePeelAds.com
www.peelsawayad.com

If you want a review of the peelaway ads you can visit the below site
www.netdigitalreviews.com

Hope this blog was useful for those who wanted to ad revenue and increase their site's appeal to the visitors. Happy surfing!!!!!

My blogs on news can be visited by clicking the link below
http://shamiltheblogger.blogspot.com
http://srshamil.blogspot.com

Tibet – More questions than answers

2008-03-27T11:29:00.000+05:30

The recent developments in Tibet has been a cause for concern both in India and around the world.The Western countries are also looking at the option of using the Olympics as a weapon to makeChina involve in a political dialogue with the Dalai Lama. So what really is the problem between Dalai Lama and the Communist Chinese regime.

There have been talks between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities for well over a decade.The contentious issues between the two have been the demands made by the Tibetan governement living in exile in India

The first demand is that Tibet be granted greater autonomy with the idea of "One country two systems" which the Chinese government has rejected categorically. According to China it is astatus uniquely provided for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. It grant that same status to Tibet

The second and the most pressing demand is the idea of "Greater Tibet". This involves carving outcertain regions of China which ethnically is dominated by Tibetans. It is a demand that any country will reject and China did the same. So is there any middle path that is acceptable for both the sides. At present the certain answer is no. With the violent protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan ethnic regions China is in no mood to talk with the Dalai Lama.

The whole world is watching the situation with their fingers crossed hoping for an amicable solution between the two

123 Agreement - Necessary?

2008-03-25T07:16:00.000+05:30

I would like to share my views about the 123 agreement that the Indian Government is so keen on signing before the Bush regime changes in December. First of all nuclear energy is not that cheap as it is being hyped about. The cost involving research, operation cycle and the nuclear waste disposal makes it much more costlier than the conventional coal-powered reactors in our country.

The nuclear reactors are offering the electricity at 270 paise per kWh whereas Reliance is currently offering it at 230 paise per kWh. Also the costly nuclear reactors which are to be bought from the US and other NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) a cartel lead by US has to use the fuel supplied by these countries, which makes the Thorium abundantly available in our country useless.

Moreover the time to construct these nuclear reactors is of great contention as the US has not constructed a single nuclear reactor for its domestic market since the 1970s and the Russians who are building the Koodankulam nuclear reactors are already behind the schedule by 2 years. The Russians are building a older version of their nuclear reactor in India whereas their somestic markey has moved to a newer version

And also the fact that the Indian government is saying that the nuclear agreement can be signed by only the Bush government is also not true. On the contrary, it has to be agreed by both the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate.

Considering so many hurdles to the agreement is it really necessary to sign on the agreement. Instead of buying those costly nuclear reactors with no real timeframe for it to get delivered, the government can spend that money on technology that can use Thorium as the fuel. Its time to think out of the box for the Indian government and concentrate on the development of technology

Private Equity Demystified

2008-03-23T19:41:00.000+05:30

What exactly is private equity and why there is so much buzz around it. Private equity emerged in the 1980s with the KKR group. These PE firms provided cash for companies to go private. Going private helped the companies to run it the way they wanted. The PE firms were run run by investment bankers who brought considerable expertise to these companies.

There is also another concept called Ventue Capital (VC). Here smaller companies which are cash trapped and are too small to list in the exchanges are helped by VC firms by taking a stake in the comapny and help them towards a growth path. Thus providing them both with the cash and the technical expertise

In India private equity is relatively young. It started with the IT boom towards the end of 90s. In recent years a number of these companies have come up due to stock market boom and the growing Indian consumer market. Global firms such as Blackstone and the Carlyle Group have a presence in India and are scaling up their operations.

Indian players like ICICI Venture are also growing rapidly in this market space. The next big question is how do these firms make money?

Essentially, PE funds raise money from high net worth individuals and financial institutions, for a period of 7-10 years and then invest in opportunities as and when they arise. The firms valuate companies and take a stake depending on how much is the company actually worth, how the company will grow etc.

Post stake taking, day-to-day monitoring and growth plans are monitored by the fund, with a senior director taking a seat on the company's board. Since the target is also to exit the investment in a few years and return money to investors, the deal team also constantly monitor the capital markets for suitable times to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO) or find a strategic investor to sell to

Trillion dollar war

2008-03-23T15:34:00.000+05:30

It has been 5 years since the invasion of Iraq. Has anything been at all achieved over these 5 years. Its a trillion dollar question. Why? Beause it is estimated that the cost of the war (both direct and indirect) so far has been around 3 trillion dollars. And also there is the human losses which amounts to thousands of Iraqi civilians killed, millions displaced due to ethnic tensions and American soldiers killed during their patrols.

The main reason for this war according to the US president was that Saddam Hussein was possessing weapons of mass destruction and that there was link between him and terrorists. All that was proven wrong and it was actually after the invasion that Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists.

Had this war been not fought the money ould have been used for useful purposes in the US and for providing aid to other poor countries in tha African continent.

The burning issue of climate change could have been better tackled using this money by allocating funds to make greener technlogy.

But President Bush does not want to look at it this way. His only aim was to invade Iraq and defeat Saddam Hussein no matter how much the cost of the war. His economy is now running on a huge budget deficit. His legacy would be passing on the ruins of Iraq war and giving the nation a huge budget deficit

India Inc's Growing Influence

2008-03-23T14:55:00.000+05:30

Reliance Power's Black Magic

We are witnessing a tremendous influence of India Inc worldwide. Few of them are Tata's acquisition of Corus Steel and Jaguar, Suzlon Energy acquiring Hansen Group and Dr. Reddy's Labs' acquisition of Betapharm to name a few of the big acquisitions.

To add to this growing list Reliance Power (the flagsip of ADAG) has a deal worth 1,000 crores with one of the coal mines in Indonesia. The coal mine is estimated to have a reserve of 2 billion tonnes. Whereas, the largest reserve of coal mines in India which is Gevera in Chattisgarh has a resrve of about 1.2 billion tonnes.

Reliance Power's Krishnapuram power project will be fed by the fuel form this acquisition. The fuel from this project will also be used for other power projects in the country.
Given the amount of money spent in acquisitions and the returns earned from them,
one thing is sure "India Inc is growing and growing fast"