My thoughts ...

The Countries That Would Profit Most from a Cashless World - HBR

2016-06-01T14:08:00.000+05:30

Very interesting HBR Article - Must read !!

Cleanup photos on WhatsApp? - Dr Kleen will help ...

2016-06-01T14:03:00.001+05:30

This app is really cool. The team has developed it well, very user friendly and cleans a lot of space !!

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan blames high dosa prices on Tawa!

2016-06-01T13:55:00.000+05:30

Liked this article in The Hindu - How can one put down a complex topic in simple words :)

Composite Cement in India

2016-06-01T13:48:00.000+05:30

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had standards for either fly-ash (Portland Pozzolana Cement-PPC) or slag-based cement (Portland Slag
Cement, PSC). BIS has recently released the standards for composite cement, which is a blend of both fly-ash and slag with clinker permitting clinker substitution up to 65%. The Composite cement has considerably lower cost of production as well as lower CO intensity.

This study indicates that production of Composite Cement in a 1 MTPA cement plant, requires 57% less raw material, 52% less thermal energy and 34% less electrical energy in comparison to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) production. The CO2 emission intensity of Composite cement is 0.36 tCO 2/ton of cement which is 56% lower than OPC.

If you need a copy of the report, email me with your contact details and I would be happy to share ...

The best things in life

2010-05-04T17:26:00.001+05:30

The best things in life are the nearest:
Breath in your nostrils,
light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet,
duties at your hand,
the path of right just before you.

Then do not grasp at the stars,
but do life's plain, common work as it comes,
certain that daily duties and daily bread
are the sweetest things in life.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

Speed Vs Perfection - What's your take?

2009-12-30T05:33:00.002+05:30

I am sure these contrary choices baffles several business decisions across organizations world over. Needless to say, the best would be to have both.
French Philosopher & Writer, Voltaire once said "Perfection is attained by slow degrees; It requires the hand of time". I am left wondering, is there anything called Perfect in this increasingly dynamic world?

I'm sure many of us would have witnessed several occasions where organizations, in want of perfection, have missed out several opportunities that otherwise would have brought in significant changes in their existence. If tasks await to achieve perfection, completion (on time, in several occasions) takes a beating. It never arrives!

It was with such thoughts that I stumbled upon Sunil Bharti Mittal's (Airtel) talk on entrepreneurship at Knowledge@ Wharton lectures. He was emphatic in saying, whenever he had a choice of Speed Vs Perfection, he choose Speed. Perfection followed

I was hugely impressed by this thought. If organizations were always behind perfection for accomplishing a task, there would be nothing called Kaizen :) Organizations like Google, Virgin, Airtel stand testimony to the victory of speed against perfection.

As they say, a beautiful thing is never perfect.

Courage

2005-12-15T14:53:00.000+05:30

Tough life out here !!

2005-09-01T12:22:00.000+05:30

Hi !

My name is Raghav. I am new to this World, and to the World of blogs !

My parents Kiran & Preethe claim to be regular bloggers but now I find that they are no-where near regular !!

Well, about me, I am 20 day old fair, tall (relatively) and well-built guy ! I sleep for about 18-20 hours a day.

The rest of the time, I am surrounded with people making different faces and sounds. They think these amuse me !! Somebody please tell them, it does not !

And why do people see every action of mine so critically.

I don't leak for 10 hours, people get worried !
I cry for more thank 10 minutes and everything at my house stops !
I don't get sleep in the night and sleep the whole of next day !

I had so many visitors, I was thinking it would continue for ever !! Now, reality has stuck me. No visitors in the past 2 days ! Why ? Anyways, I now have time to enter the world of Bloggers !!

Its a tough life out here. I am trying to get used to it as soon as possible.

Write to you all soon about my other experiences.

In the meanwhile, why don't you people comment on how to tackle all the paranoid people at home !!

Regards

Raghav Kiran

VISA Balaji ...

2005-06-14T13:27:00.000+05:30

this morning, i visited Chilkur Balaji temple near hyderabad.

this god is said to be very powerful in helping people get VISAs, with specialization in US VISAs.

this temple is quite unique. the things that stuck me are - no donations, no separate queues (Rs. 10, Rs. 50, etc...) neither are there any 'hundis' for collection. this temple attracts large number of volunteers, who support the temple staff in various activities like serving prasad, regulating the queue, etc.

to make a wish, you make 11 'pradakshan' and once it is fulfilled, you make 108.

small temple with very little space and large number of devotees going round in circles.

i was sitting aside, watching the various people walking around the main temple. some observations

1. an interesting observation that stuck me was that more than 70% of the people making pradakshans were in the age group of 25 - 35. Why ??

2. people are in a mad rush to complete either 11 or 108 rounds. what is the hurry ? are they running a race ?

any views !!!