Suresh_D

Proud to be an Indian

2011-10-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

The Indian government has finally managed to bring out the much hyped $35 tablet. The tablet which was named Sakshat, has been renamed to Aakash (which means sky in Hindi). The government has managed to keep up its promise of pricing the tablet as less as possible.
For over an year, the $35 tablet has seen a lot of flip-flops in terms of its manufacturing cost, manufacturer and the design. Many Tech bloggers around the world had even questioned the authenticity of this tablet, questioning the logic of pricing a tablet with a camera, USB ports etc for less than $50.

Aakash Tablet – Specifications

But now, the $35 tablet is a reality. It runs on Android 2.2 Froyo and comes with a 7 inch resistive touch screen with 256MB RAM, 2GB memory card and two USB ports.

7″ resistive touch screen (at 800×480 pixel resolution)
366 Mhz Connexant processor
256MB RAM
2GB internal Flash memory
2 USB Ports
Weighs 350gm
2100mAH battery
WiFi
3.5mm audio jack

The software of Aakash tablet is powered by Android 2.2 and it will come with some pre-loaded apps like Office Suite, media player, Nimbuzz etc. However, Aakash will not have access to the Android Marketplace which is quite a letdown for many. The tablet will come with Ubisoft browser which is supposed to accelerate the web pages considerably.
Below is a cheat-sheet circulated by the manufacturer comparing various tablets available in India (via @rajatagr)

Aakash tablet – Price & Availability

Aakash has been manufactured by UK based company, DataWind in collaboration with IIT Rajasthan. The tablet has been manufactured completely in India (no Chinese relations). The Indian government is buying 100,000 tablets from DataWind for Rs 2,250 (approx $45) per unit and will make it available to post-secondary students across India. The Government considers this to be a field-trial and hopes to deliver 10 million tablets at a target price of Rs 1,750 ($35) per unit, which has also been agreed upon by the manufacturer.

UbiSlate – Commercial version of Aakash

DataWind has also announced the commercial version of Aakash tablet to be sold in India soon which would have no duty waivers or subsidy as in Government’s version and will come with added features like an in-built cellular modem and SIM to access internet.
DataWind Ubislate will be available from November for Rs 2999 (approx $60). Interested users will be able to buy Ubsilate online or in retail stores then. DataWind hopes to improve the tablet and says that the next version of UbiSlate will have a 600Mhz dual-core processor.

Things to Do Before Buying an HDTV

2011-10-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

So, you're thinking about jumping into the vivid world of high definition, huh? Well, get ready for visual bliss. The difference between high definition and standard definition is night and day. Not since Peter Goldmark introduced color television in 1946 has there been such a significant shift in technology. Sure, remote controls, big screen TVs and satellite broadcasting have hit the scene, but the quality of the picture has remained fairly constant.
When HDTVs first hit the market, they were limited to actually receiving an HD signal. That took a bit longer to arrive and the result was a soft HDTV market for the first few years. In fact, most early owners didn't really reap the benefits of high definition. Around 2004, when Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing (DLP) made its debut, HDTVs became much more affordable. With more HDTVs in consumers' homes, programmers caught on and offered more programming. Since then, HDTVs have become the standard.
Now it's your turn. If you're reading this, chances are you're doing your research. That's the best approach. You shouldn't have to spend more money than you absolutely need to. This article aims to provide you with the tools for making the best decisions before shelling out your hard-earned cash for your HDTV. Dropping $1,000 or more on a television is probably out of many people's comfort zones. The following five tips should give you a pretty good idea of what to look for and what you need to do before you purchase and bring your HDTV home.

5 NASA Inventions You Won't Believe

2011-10-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

The exploration of space is no easy task due to the sheer vastness of it. In this collection, you can see images of mankind's attempts to explore the final frontier.

Modern space exploration started with the launching of the Sputnik satellite in October of 1957. The Space Age had begun. Check out an image of the first American astronauts on the next page.

Buzz Aldrin poses for a picture next to the American flag on the surface of the moon. The Americans achieved their monumental goal on July 20, 1969. Next, you can see images of man's lasting impression on the moon.

Since its beginnings in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has had to invent everything it needed to make space missions possible, from protective suits for astronauts to the mirrors and software used on the Hubble telescope. But NASA was smart enough to know it couldn't do everything alone -- these are, after all, rocket scientists. It has partnered with businesses and scientists around the country to create some of the most amazing inventions the planet has ever seen, and not just Tang, the powdered orange drink famously used by astronauts on Gemini missions in the 1960s.
Take a look at these five amazing inventions, which were all developed by NASA for use in space but have found some amazing Earth-bound applications.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which extends from the equator to the southern polar latitudes, as seen by the space probe Voyager 2 in 1979. Check out an image of one of Jupiter's moons on the next page.

Steve Jobs Has Died

2011-10-06T01:28:00.001-07:00

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Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman of the board, former CEO of Apple and industry icon for decades, has died.

Apple released this statement:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.
Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

The front page of Apple.com displayed a picture of the late Steve Jobs, and the second page contained atribute to the industry leader:

Steve Jobs
1955-2011
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please emailrememberingsteve@apple.com.

In August, when Steve Jobs stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple, he wrote the following in hisresignation letter:

“I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
“I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook released the following statement:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply emailrememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time.”

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, was quoted by The New York Times as saying that he was “truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’s death.” He added: “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Steven P. Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene, their three children, and one child from a previous relationship.

Steve Jobs demos Apple Macintosh, 1984

Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh to the world. Computing would never be the same.

Steve Jobs Iconic Moments

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What happens in Heaven?

2011-10-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

One of the nicest e-mails I received, I thought let me share it with you.

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received"

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section", my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed."How is it that there is no work going on here? " I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed, "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments"

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked?
"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

And if you are reading this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation , you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare

If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair.

Source: Forward Mail
Images: Radiosai.org

Now its your choice to Count your Blessings, know you are blessed and keep the Acknowledgement Section busy or idle.

Peace :)

Arranged Marriage v/s Love Marriage

2011-10-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

Love Marriage v/s Arranged Marriage

Love Marriage	Arranged Marriage
Resembles Procedural Programing language. We have some set of functions like flirting, going for movies together, making long conversations on phone and then try to fit all functions to the candidate we like.	Similar to Object Oriented Programming approach. We first fix the candidate and then try to implement the functions on her. The functions are added to supplement the main program. The functions can be added or deleted.
Family system hangs because hardware called 'Parents' is not responding	Compatible with hardware 'Parents'
You are the project leader, so you are responsible for implementation and execution of project "Married Life"	You are a team member under project leader 'Parents' so they are responsible for succesful execution of project "Married Life"
Client expectations include exciting feature as spouse cooking food, washing clothes etc.	All these features are covered in the SRS (System Requirement Specification) as required features
Marriage is like "Windows", beautiful and seductive, yet no one ever knows when it will crash & if crashes thats the end	Marriage is like "UNIX", boring and colorless, but extremely reliable and robust, may crash but easier to recover

Now the choice is yours, whats it going to be?

Edit your videos with YouTube

2011-10-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Until now, when you uploaded to YouTube, your video was hosted and shared, but couldn’t really be changed. If you wanted to trim off the end, swap out the soundtrack, or add an effect, you had to edit your video using a separate program and upload again.

Starting today, you can edit your uploaded videos right on YouTube and maintain the same video IDs. This means you keep your view count and comments, and all existing links to your video will continue to work. No re-uploading necessary!

Here’s how it works: just click Edit video on the video’s page or on your My Videos page:You can stabilize your hand-held footage, rotate a video, and boost the contrast and colors. Try “I’m Feeling Lucky” for 1-click color correction:

Or if you’re looking for a more dramatic change, try one of our effects (developed in collaboration with our friends atPicnik):Click Save to begin processing the edits to your video. And if you don’t like the new version, fear not: you can revert to the original and save again. You can also save your edits into a new video and try out multiple versions. Note that popular videos with over 1,000 views and videos with third-party content can only be saved as new videos once edited (learn more).

Here’s a quick video showing what you can do:

We’ll be rolling this out to all users globally over the course of the day. We know you want your videos to look their best, and we’re excited to see what you come up with using YouTube video editing!

Founder & CEO

2011-10-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

I had many of the times when I had to think twice or Google again just to find out who the founder of thattechnology, firm or site was. Who is the current CEO would be the next question knocking on my head. So I thought come on let me take some time to find the founder's and CEO of the companies which I know and have been familiar too, and same time why not share it with you guys.

Let's begin then

Founder

CEO

Mark Zuckerberg

Eduardo Saverin

Dustin Moskovitz

Chris Hughes

Mark Zuckerberg

Google

Larry Page

Sergey Brin

Larry Page

Microsoft

Bill Gates

Paul Allen

Steve Ballmer

Skype

Niklas Zennström

Janus Friis

Tony Bates

Amazon

Jeff Bezos

Yahoo

Jerry Yang

David Filo

Timothy R. Morse

HSBC

Thomas Sutherland

Stephen Green

Royal Dutch Shell

Jean Baptiste August Kessler
Henri Deterding

Peter Voser

Twitter

Jack Dorsey

Noah Glass

Evan Williams

Biz Stone

Dick Costolo

Walmart

Sam Walton

Mike Duke

Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales

Larry Sanger

Jimmy Wales

Oracle

Larry Ellison

Bob Miner

Ed Oates

Larry Ellison

Apple

Steve Jobs

Steve Wozniak
Ronald Wayne

Tim Cook

The Post will keep updating on regular basis with new companies! For now this much for a start :)
If you have any suggestion that you feel should have been on the list do mention in the comment. Thank you :)

யார் நீ..??

2011-10-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

பால் போல் உட்கவர் ,

நீர் போல் நிறம் மாறு,

காற்று போல் உலவு,

சூரியன் போல் சுட்டெறி,

நிலவு போல் குளுமையாய் இறு,

ஒளியை விட வேகமாக யோசி,

நேற்றைய பொழுதை மற,

நாளைய கனவை நினை,

இன்றைய வாழ்கையை வாழ்,

மனித வாழ்கையின் ஆரம்பம் வாழ்வது,

இன்றே ஆரம்பம்,

எல்லை கிடையாது,

அனுபவித்து வாழ்.

நான் மனிதன், நீங்கள்...??

Neutrinos- Faster than Light...??

2011-10-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Neutrinos—ghostly subatomic particles—may have been observed traveling faster than the speed of light, scientists announced this week.

If confirmed, the astonishing claim would upend a cardinal rule of physics established by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago.

Workers help build the neutrino-beam facility used at CERN to shoot particles to Italy in a 2005 picture.

"Most theorists believe that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. So if this is true, it would rock the foundations of physics," said Stephen Parke, head of the theoretical physics department at the U.S. government-run Fermilab near Chicago, Illinois.

The existence of faster-than-light particles would also wreak havoc on scientific theories of cause and effect.

"If things travel faster than the speed of light, A can cause B, [but] B can also cause A," Parke said.

"If that happens, the concept of causality becomes ambiguous, and that would cause a great deal of trouble."

Don't Bet on Breaking Light Speed

Members of the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus, or OPERA, at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) described the unusual neutrino detection in a paper published this week on the research website arXiv.org.

The team shot neutrinos out of a particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland, and measured how long it took the particles to travel to a neutrino detector in Gran Sasso, Italy, 450 miles (724 kilometers) away.

(See pictures of a neutrino detector 1.5 miles [2.4 kilometers] under Antarctic ice.)

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have almost no mass and can zip through entire planets as if they are not there.

Being nearly massless, neutrinos should travel at nearly the speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles (299,338 kilometers) a second.

To the astonishment of the OPERA team, the particles appear to have reached their destination about 60 nanoseconds faster than expected.

A nanosecond may not sound like much, but "the effect is quite large," said Fermilab's Parke, who was not part of the CERN team.

The extra speed would mean that, over a distance of 621 miles (1,000 kilometers), neutrinos travel about 66 feet (20 meters) farther than light travels in the same amount of time.

The results would be "revolutionary" if true, Parke said, but he added that he highly doubts the findings will hold up under closer scrutiny.

"If I was a betting man, I would bet against it," he said. "Your first response is it can't possibly be true, that they must have made a mistake."

Neutrino Speed an Instrument Error?

Parke is not alone in his skepticism. Many physicists have speculated that the OPERA results are due to a measurement or instrument error.

It would not be the first time such an error occurred, said Louis Strigari, an astrophysicist at Stanford University also not on the CERN team.

"There have been several instances where, through no fault of the experimenters, the equipment was not understood as well as it needed to be," Strigari said.

"It just so happens that you learn more as you get more data and you understand the machinery a little better."

Even the OPERA team is cautious about its results and is welcoming other researchers to repeat the neutrino experiment.

"We want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result—because it is crazy," Antonio Ereditato, coordinator of the OPERA collaboration, told the BBC.

Supernova Neutrinos Not So Speedy

Dave Goldberg, an astrophysicist at Philadelphia's Drexel University, said that if faster-than-light neutrinos did exist, they would likely have been observed in nature before now.

For example, in 1987 detectors on Earth identified neutrinos and photons—light particles—from an exploding star. Both types of particles reached our planet at almost exactly the same instance.

According to Goldberg's calculations, if neutrinos travel faster than light by the amount the OPERA team claims, then neutrinos from that supernova should have been detected in 1984—three years before the photons.

"It's possible, but unlikely," Goldberg said, that detectors active on Earth at the time would have missed such an obvious spike in cosmic neutrinos.

Goldberg concedes that supernova neutrinos are less energetic—and would thus be traveling slower—than the neutrinos from CERN's particle accelerator.

However, "assuming Einstein was correct, both types [of neutrinos] would be moving at something like 99.999999999 percent the speed of light," Goldberg said in an email.

"In other words, from a measurement point of view, they'd be going at essentially identical speeds."

(Also see "Einstein Theories Confirmed by NASA Gravity Probe.")

Relativity Still Very Close to Right

Even if the OPERA results are confirmed by other scientists, they wouldn't totally invalidate Einstein's theories of general and special relativity, Stanford University's Strigari stressed. Those theories still explain a remarkable range of observed phenomena in the universe.

"I think it's long been understood that the theories we have today aren't the full answers," Strigari said.

"If this observation holds up, then it's probably a good piece of evidence that the theories we currently have need to be reworked."

Drexel University's Goldberg agreed that physicists won't be discarding Einstein's theories anytime soon.

"Even if relativity turned out to be wrong," he said, "it's clearly very, very close to being right."

Inside The Fed’s $100 Billion Printer Error

2010-12-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

Whoops! The new bills’ high-tech anti-counterfeiting features were too much for government printers. Now about a billion bills are in quarantine, and many will need to be burned.

Printer errors–we’ve all been the victims at one point or another. But what if a printer error set you back $100 billion?

That’s the situation the Federal Reserve is in, reports CNBC. It printed 1.1 billion redesigned $100 bills, with new high-tech anti-counterfeiting bells and whistles, only to find that printers had botched the job on an unspecified number of them, leaving part of the face unprinted.

$110 billion dollars represents over a tenth of worldwide U.S. currency. The cash is being quarantined, where it will remain until the government finds a mechanized way to sort the defective bills from the properly printed ones. To sift through that quantity of banknotes by hand would take between 20 to 30 years; a machine could handle it in about a year.
The bills cost twice as much as normal bills to produce–12 cents apiece–which means it spent about $120 million on unusable bills. Ouch!

Editor’s Note: Perhaps the government should auction off the rights to burn the $120 million unusable bills. Surely there is a super rich South American or Pacific Rim billionaire who would love the notoriety of setting fire to $120 million in US currency and then televise it on a Sunday night with huge prices for TV commercials. They might get at least half back. Just a thought.

Forbes India: Why CEOs want Govt jobs

2010-12-17T21:22:00.001-08:00

ARUN MAIRA

The Mission: Member, Planning Commission. To help the government evolve better policies on urbanisation and industrialisation.

The Difference He Makes: As a consultant, he can locate systemic problems and provide solutions. He is already helping the Planning Commission overcome its inward-looking mindset and open up to feedback from the outer world.

Key Insight “The biggest thing that hits you here is the scale. Anything that you do affects millions of people.”

THE INVITATION

Arun Maira was on a holiday with his wife. He was on a train in Prague when his phone began to buzz. In normal course, he would have been hard-pressed to recognize the caller’s soft, gentle voice amid the rattle and roll of the express train. It was the Indian Prime Minister on the line. Maira had been alerted about it just 15 minutes earlier. In fact, his idyllic vacation had suddenly turned topsy-turvy that morning with an urgent mail and a call from his college batch-mate and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia had come to the point straightaway. “The PM would like you to join the Planning Commission. You have rich experience in industry.” Both surprised and taken aback, Maira enquired politely, “It is an honour. Tell me who thought of me.”

“The PM asked for you himself,” Ahluwalia said. “He would personally like to invite you. I am sorry to bother you on your vacation. But are you okay to take a call from him?”

Maira was glad to agree but since he was out sight-seeing, he asked for enough time to rush back to the hotel. But not even 15 minutes had passed when the PM’s call came through. “Arunji, would you accept the invitation to the Planning Commission?” Dr. Manmohan Singh asked. “We need growth which is much more inclusive.” The PM also told Maira he would have a minister’s rank as a planning commission member.

Shailesh Gandhi got his wake-up call some five years ago. Till then, he was running a successful packaging firm with more than 500 employees and a clientele that included many blue-chips. Then one day, an alumni meet changed everything for him. One of his professors chided him: “You used to be so critical about the society. What now? Things have only gotten worse. What have you done?” It tugged at his conscience. By 2003, he had sold off his business and become a Right-to-Information (RTI) activist. He reckoned he could shine the spotlight on governments and force them to be more transparent and improve their performance.

In August 2008, Gandhi heard from his activist friend Arvind Kejriwal. The Manmohan Singh government was appointing four information commissioners. “Why don’t we nominate four, five names from civil society?” Kejriwal asked. Gandhi’s name was one of them. One day, he got a call from Prithviraj Chauhan, minister of state in the PM’s office, inviting him to come on board. He agreed. “Why not be an insider and make a bigger difference rather than just criticising from the outside?” he asks.

In June last year, military veteran Raghu Raman felt he had finally got the break he had always aspired for. He became the CEO of Mahindra Defence Land Systems, a Mahindra-British Aerospace joint venture, a position he had coveted for long. Raman joined M&M in the 1990s and seeded its security business in 2000. Instinct told him it was the right place and the right time to be in, given the growing security awareness around the country. “Everything felt just perfect,” he said.

The moment didn’t last long. In the wake of the 26/11 terror attacks, the government decided to set up a national grid that would link up all the intelligence agencies in the country, under the leadership of Home Minister P Chidambaram. Raman was one of the candidates being vetted by the government to head the NatGrid.

For a while he could not make up his mind. Of course, there was no comparison between the government job and the M&M assignment in terms of money and perks. Besides, taking a plunge would mean giving up the thrill of leading a growing company. Speaking to friends didn’t help. “Some said I am mad to even consider a government offer,” he recalls. Others thought it was a great opportunity. For a while he was torn. But his employers were supportive: “Where is the doubt? You have been called for national service. It’s an honour,” a proud Keshub Mahindra, the chairman, told him.

The government took its time to vet the candidates and complete its due diligence for the critical position. It also gave Raman time to make up his mind. “Once I gave my commitment, the clarity emerged. The amount of difference a civil servant can make [to the country] is of a different caliber altogether.”

NANDAN NILEKANI

The Mission: To launch the world’s most ambitious national identity project.

The Difference He Makes: Renowned networking specialist. Understands building consensus is the first step to bringing big change.

Key Insight: “It is just that the processes here have more cholesterol in them than we are used to. I am not unduly worried about it. That’s a legitimate part of democratic process.”

Nandan Nilekani got his call from the PM towards the end of May 2009. Singh first offered him a Planning Commission job, but Nilekani said he was interested in a more independent role where he could make a larger impact. Leaving Infosys would be a big decision and he could do that only for a challenging assignment. The PM asked him to meet him in Delhi two weeks later.

When told about this, the co-founders of Infosys agreed that this was a significant opportunity for Nilekani and gave their assent without any hesitation.

On June 15, he met the PM privately at his 7, Race Course Road. The meeting lasted half an hour. Singh offered him the role of Chairman, Unique Identity Authority of India, with a cabinet minister’s rank. He would report to the PM and have the freedom to bring the best minds from outside for the project.

Within 10 days, Singh cleared the papers and informed the Cabinet. Within a month, Nilekani was on board.

THE BEGINNING

Maira’s first day at work turned out to be a huge culture shock. He has been given a modest but spacious office at the commission’s headquarters, Yojana Bhawan, replete with a big dining table and the familiar red-green lights outside his room.

The first time that he stepped out with a spiral note pad, the peon outside stood in front of him with folded hands. Maira was befuddled. What for? Sahebs aren’t supposed to carry any file. So he reluctantly handed over the spiral note pad to the peon.

That same day, Maira had to step out for lunch. He had earlier entered the heavily secured building from the back door with his boss for the swearing in ceremony, but now he was going out alone through the front door. No one recognised him. His secretary had said that the driver was waiting downstairs. But he couldn’t find the car or the driver. He wanted to go back to his room but the security would not let him in. Since it was lunch time nobody was there at the reception to help.

Conscious not to throw his weight around, he was wondering what to do next when the administrative head spotted him and promptly jumped to his rescue. “I am looking for my driver,” Maira said. Drivers had a separate waiting room next door, he was told. Quite naturally, Maira decided to peep in to look for his driver. But that led to a huge flutter in the driver’s room, as if the sky had fallen. It was a monumental breach of protocol.

At Boston Consulting Group, Maira had shared the executive assistant with another colleague. Today, he has seven personal staff--three secretaries, three peons (one for home) and a driver. “Sometimes I struggle with what to do with so many of them.” The man who made his own tea and hopped across to chat with his junior colleagues is learning his lessons in protocol and delegation. At age 66, it isn’t an easy transition to make.

Nandan Nilekani is candid about his big shift. “I was very comfortable in my world. I was doing well and could have stayed on at Infosys till the age of 60. It’s a big risk. I didn’t have to do this… It’s like doing a start-up all over again in a very different world. My prior success in no way guarantees my assured success in this world. If I don’t deliver, then the consequences could be large,” the chairman of the unique identity project says.

Nilekani figured a way to deal with the risks. He spent the first few weeks organising the office and equipment, getting the budget signed and finding the people. He made two quick calls: he chose to retain his informal work style. And he preferred to go out and meet people. “I found that all over the world, if you make an effort and go out to meet people, they welcome it. From our own accord, my team and I have gone and met ministers and secretaries.

The fact that we have done this outreach program has helped dissolve anxieties.”

His brief put him under no compulsion to visit the individual states, but Nilekani did so anyway. The PM had always underscored the importance of taking states along in transformational projects. Most important touch-points for the public distribution system or rural job guarantee scheme are managed by the states. So instead of meeting them in Delhi or sending them a letter, Nilekani chose to meet them in their state to win their support for the project. It worked. His travels took him on a veritable Bharat darshan--including Jaipur, Bhopal, Patna, Dehradun and Shimla--places that he had never been to before. “I have seen more of America than India before this job.” In Bihar, he spent an evening with the secretaries. He then met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for lunch for over an hour and a half, discussing the details of the project and what it meant for the people of Bihar. “It was a part of creating the momentum for our project,” says Nilekani.

SHAILESH GANDHI

The Mission: Central information commissioner.

The Difference He Makes: As a Right-to-Information advocate, he has been able to make his team work 10 times as fast as any other across the country.

Key Insight: “The frustration is that it’s the small things--not the big ones--that are holding up the government.”

Life as an information commissioner is far from easy. It was a newly created post. The government has given Gandhi a team of eight. But only one is full-time permanent staff and the rest are on contract on a meagre salary of Rs. 7,500 per month. “When you pay such pittance what do you get? Corruption is an obvious side-effect,” he says.

Gandhi realised he was understaffed and that would hobble his progress. That is when he took the decision unheard of in any career setting. He decided to use his salary to hire four interns and top up the salary of the contract staff with some incentives. He figured he had the financial cushion through his personal savings to take the shock. He also got his new staff computers on his own.

It has been a difficult 17-month journey for Gandhi. “Even the basic things are not there,” he says sitting in a cramped, dingy office with stacks of files all around him. Files still need to be approved on paper. Human resource processes are just so archaic and frustrating. Take for instance the way files are stored. With no cabinets, files are stacked on top of each other. Finding a file isn’t easy.

Gandhi didn’t like the two flaps and the strings used to fasten the files. He asked for removing them. “There was resistance which I could not understand,” he says. He found it difficult, cumbersome and a complete waste of time to tie and untie strings. “I stuck and dispensed with it,” he said. Ideally he would have liked a much neater arrangement with filing cabinets but procurement declined to entertain the request.

His trip to attend a Right-to-Information conference in Bangladesh was a touch-and-go affair. His travel file had to be cleared, physically. His joint secretary spent three days chasing the file which went all the way up to the prime minister’s office for clearance. The approval came at the last moment.

Raman has clearly had an easier time settling in. His office at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi’s premier conference and office complex, is up and running. He has had the freedom to put together his team with guidance from his colleagues. Since the time he took charge in December, there’s been a spate of applications on his table. People from both within and outside the government want to work for him. Home Minister P Chidambaram, known for his reputation for clinical efficiency, is supportive and intervenes to untangle any crossed wires. With such a conducive atmosphere, it hardly matters that Raman’s official car is an old Ambassador that former President Shankar Dayal Sharma once rode.

THE NURTURING

Maira has arrived at an interesting time. The Planning Commission is at the cusp of change. For years, it functioned as a budgeting organisation, detailing where and how much the government spent money. Today, as the private sector grows in size, its role is changing to that of a facilitator, to build a healthy ecosystem, nourish the industry and assess the nation’s future needs. The focus has to now shift to shaping strategies and philosophies, rather than directing budgets. The commission needs new capabilities, but it has to do with the same infrastructure and the same set of people. “It is like re-designing an aircraft while flying,” says Maira.

As a heavyweight consultant, Maira has a recipe to deal with the inward-looking culture. As a starting point, he’s relying on better feedback from outside. “The quality of people that the commission needs to work with has to be different and deeper,” he says. He is beefing up the quality and the level of engagement—by reaching out to all stakeholders, industry, ministries and people. Maira’s big areas of focus: urbanisation and industrialisation.

CAPT. RAGHU RAMAN

The Mission: Head, National Intelligence Grid. To help evolve an efficient system for the flow of information among official agencies.

The Difference He Makes: Has experience both in government and industry. Can make the two work together, using informal link-ups.

Key Insight: “This will not be easy. But life isn’t about seeking easy jobs.”

Last year when he took charge, he had an interesting one-day offsite with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He listened to what the industry needs and what would they require from the government, while at the same time, outlining the government’s desire for inclusive growth. This was done ahead of the mid-term appraisal so that the feedback could be factored in.

For example, the issues of land reforms came up. There was a time when the government acquired land for public works. While people were compensated in some ways, the land went back to the people in the form of a public infrastructure. Today when the government acquires land for the private sector, it is almost like “public good for private gain.” Something clearly isn’t acceptable. Therefore it is important for private enterprises to take people into confidence and give them a fair deal. States like West Bengal stand as a glaring example of what has gone wrong and what has gone right. Some like JSW got it right by tuning into the locals, making them a stakeholder. “The only way to do this in a democracy is to build relationship with people and work with them. The message is coming out loud and clear that the industry has to be more effective in reaching out to people,” he says.

Several weeks ago, the prime minister invited all the members of the Planning Commission. He gave each of them 10 minutes to talk about one or two areas in which they would want the PM’s support. Maira picked urbanisation and climate change. He said while the focus on rural growth, agriculture is important, urbanisation is something of immense importance. “Soon India will have half its population living in cities. We need to much more actively guide the urbanisation policy,” he told the PM. Each locality needs to take charge. “You can’t design detail top down,” he says. Skills at the local level need to be built. “People get elected (to local bodies) but they don’t [know] how to manage, conduct meetings effectively. Since we don’t know how to manage effectively we expect some higher authority to take charge.” The government now plans to achieve this by having a national programme for training local representatives and leaders.

Given the sensitivities of his assignment, Raman is hesitant to discuss specifics. But he shares a flavour of his early days. Shortly after he took over, he sent out 40-50 emails to people he knew in the private sector whom he thought could help in different ways in his assignment. People from some of the best organisations have responded wanting to help and work, many of them pro bono. They will work on short stints at different points of time. “This ability to draw upon private sector in a slightly informal manner is what I bring,” he says.

The databases that will feed into the NatGrid includes telephone records, banking transactions, travel, lodging and all forms of communications. This will require liaising deeply with a diverse set of companies and also helping deal with their concerns and needs. “I now understand the government needs. I also understand how a corporation functions. It is my ability to fuse the two together that helps,” he says.

Nilekani’s mantra is consensus building. “The big difference in private and public is that in private sector, your consensus building is within the frame of your own company – your management team and the board. Here it cuts across a whole different set of stakeholders who have different points of view, which involves more work. It’s a much more amorphous world than I am used to,” says he.

Nilekani has met regulators like RBI, 20 state governments, microfinance institutions, telecom operators etc. to build consensus and get them engaged. That includes a workshop at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, for a bunch of voluntary groups and sociologists and another at the National Law School, Bangalore, for legal professionals. “At the end of the day, our biggest guarantee of success is if people want the ID,” he says. His challenge is to make people feel that their lives will be made better and more convenient by getting the number. So, he is talking to a diverse set of potential users like farmers, urban poor and beneficiaries of the rural job guarantee scheme. “It’s just that the processes here have more cholesterol in them than we are used to. I am not unduly worried about it. That’s a legitimate part of democratic process,” he says.

He spends a lot of time evangelising the concept. He envisages a massive team of volunteers who would work with him on the project. His brand and status help open doors but it cuts the other way as well. “Some people might feel that I am from the private sector--and [wonder] will I understand the public space or problems of the poor or know how to navigate.” All told, he reports a positive response from his interactions.

Gandhi’s team is on a roll. It has cleared 5,800 cases in 2009 as against the national average of 600. But 17 months after taking up the assignment, he understands the institutional challenges better. “If you had spoken to me a year back, the only thing I would have talked about is RTI. Today, I think administrative reforms are far more compelling to make anything happen in the government,” he says.

Commissioners don’t have enough staff. “Why appoint them if you cannot equip them,” he says. But change is on the anvil. Papers have begun to be scanned. Files are being digitized. Soon, information commissioners will deal with only electronic files. “The frustration is that it’s the small things–-not the big ones—that are holding up the government,” he says. By the time his term ends in 2012, Gandhi will hopefully witness the change that brought him into the government.

LITTLE BOY WITHOUT ARMS & WITH ATTITUDE

2010-11-26T02:37:00.001-08:00

This is Master. Ali Srour from Jordan a boy who was born without arms. But he is not at all distressing about his inability. The smart boy with his confidence & high level attitudes doing all his day today activities.
He himself trained his feet as to do some daily activities. He learned how to eat and to play computer games etc etc with his feet!!
Doctors didn’t find any cause for his deformity but said that it was most likely due to hereditary or genetic factors.
We can wish him a good long life with full of happiness.

TOP TEN RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD- 2010

2010-11-26T02:36:00.000-08:00

According to Forbes, the richest person in the world is now Mr.Carlo Slim Helu, a Mexican in 2010. There’s always an enthrallment with the richest people in the world. According to IMF statistics his wealth of $53.5 billion is roughly equal to the GDP of both Sudan $57 billion and Slovenia $ billion!!! (Ranked 69th in list of GDP by country 2008)It has been a good year for billionaires as stock markets have generally risen from the slumps of 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis.

Top Ten Richest People in the World- 2010

1. Carlo Slim Helu – Mexico $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil (OIL, MEXICO) Telecom tycoon who pounced on privatization of Mexico’s national telephone company in the 1990s becomes world’s richest person for first time. Last year he was got the third place. Net worth up $18.5 billion in a year. Recently received regulatory approval to merge his fixed-line assets into American Movil, the biggest mobile phone company at Latin America.

2. Bill Gates, US $53 billion who had held the title of world’s richest 14 of the past 15 years. (MICROSOFT, US) Software visionary is now the world’s second-richest man. Net worth still up $13 billion in a year as Microsoft shares rose 50% in 12 months, value of investment vehicle Cascade swelled. More than 60% of the fortune held outside Microsoft; investments include Four Seasons hotels, Televisa, Auto Nation. Stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft in 2008 to focus on philanthropy.

3. Warren Buffett – US – $47 billion- (Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffet) Warren Buffet invested wisely in Goldman Sachs during the worst parts of 2008. (INVESTMENTS, US) America’s favorite investor up $10 billion in past 12 months on surging Berkshire Hathaway shares; says U.S. has survived economic "Pearl Harbor," but warns recovery will be slow. Shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric amid 2008 market collapse and recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $26 billion.

4. Mukesh Ambani India $29.0 (PETROCHEMICALS, OIL & GAS, INDIA). Global ambitions: His Reliance Industries, already India’s most valuable company, recently bid $2 billion for 65% stake in troubled Canadian oil sands outfit Value Creations. Firm’s $14.5 billion offer to buy bankrupt petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell was rejected. Since September Company has sold Treasury shares worth $2 billion to be used for acquisitions. Late father, Dhirubhai, founded Reliance and built it into a massive conglomerate.

5. Lakshmi Mittal India 59 $28.7 (STEEL, INDIA) London’s richest resident oversees ArcelorMittal, world’s largest steel maker. Net profits fell 75% in 2009. Mittal took 12% pay cut but improved outlook pushed stock up one-third in past year. Looking to expand in India; wants to build steel mills in Jharkhad and Orissa but has not received government approval. Earned $1.1 billion for selling his interest in a Kazakh refinery in the month of December-2009.

6. Lawrence Ellison United States $28.0 (ORACLE, US) Oracle founder’s fortune continues to rise; shares up 70% in the past one year. Database giant has bought 57 companies in the past five years!! Completed $7.4 billion buyout of Sun Microsystems in the month of January and acquired BEA Systems for $8.5 billion in 2008. Studied physics at University of Chicago; didn’t graduate. Started Oracle 1977; took public a day before Microsoft in 1986.

7. Bernard Arnault - $27.5 (LUXURY GOODS, FRANCE) Bling is back, helping fashion icon clutch title of richest European as shares of his luxury goods outfit LVMH–maker of Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon–surge 57%. LVMH is developing upscale Shanghai commercial property, L’Avenue Shanghai, with Macau billionaire Stanley Ho.

8. Eike Batista Brazil $27.0 (MINING & OIL, BRAZIL) It is vowing to become world’s richest man–and he may be on his way to conquer. This year’s biggest gainer added $19.5 billion to his personal balance sheet!! S/o. Brazil’s revered former mining minister who presided over mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce got his start in mining and gold trading.

9. Amancio Ortega Spain $74 (FASHION RETAIL, SPAIN) Style maven lords over Inditex; fashion firm, which operates under several brand names including like Massimo Dutti, Zara and Stradivarius, has 4,500 stores in 73 countries including new spots in Mexico and Syria!! Set up joint venture with Tata Group subsidiary to enter India in 2010. Betting on Florida real estate: bought Coral Gables office tower that is currently home to Bacardi USA.

10. Karl Albrecht Germany $23.5 (SUPERMARKETS, GERMANY) Owns discount supermarkets giant Aldi Sud, one of Germany’s and Europe’s dominant grocers. Have 1,000 stores in U.S. across 29 states!! Their estimated sales: $37 billion. Plans to open New York City store this year with younger brother, Theo, transformed mother’s corner grocery store into Aldi after World War II. Brothers split ownership in 1961; Karl took the stores in southern Germany, plus the rights to the brand in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. Theo got northern Germany and the rest of Europe.