I was reading about the Filmfare awards 2007 and the splendid performance of Hrithik Roshan. In case you haven't seen it as yet, here it is.
Hrithik's performance reminded me of Abhishek's first performance which was really splendid. In case you havent seen that either, enjoy :-)
I don't know how to interpret these numbers, but every time someone starts talking about India's economic growth and its rapid development, my mind wanders on to these numbers.
Lets start with some solid demographic facts and numbers -
Population: 1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.)
Literacy : 59.5% (source)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate : 0.9% (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - People living with HIV/AIDS : 5.7 million (2005 est.) (source)
Rural electrification - Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Uttranchal, West Bengal etc are some of the states where significant number (more than 10%) of villages are yet to be electrified.
Some people read (something that media portrays) and start believing that small villages in India have Internet and have their own websites . The facts are very different. Villages don't even have proper drinking water, forget about electricity / computers / internet. Something similar posted on Gigaom. There are number of villages in India where problems range from no proper drinking water,no roads to no electricity and no health facilities.
Tribune had a excellent series of articles on India: The Tasks Ahead. The authors have very articulately written about the problems with India's governance model, how agriculture can start a new economic revolution, en powering women, judicial independence, fighting corruption, health of nation etc.
The point of bringing out these numbers is simply to highlight the fact that everything needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. We as Indians might have achieved phenomenal economic success and development rates, there are still many areas where we need to pull up our socks.
I wish everyone who saw this video took inspiration from it and did something right. I previously posted about how Indian's dont take pride in themselves. This has to change and it's high time it happened.
THe HINDI version.
The ENGLISH version.
I just noticed a pretty big business oppurtunity / problem with the banking services. I have a bank account with ABC. A few days back I opened a bank account with some other bank XYZ (hoping for better services). I initiated a bank to bank trasnfer from ABC to XYZ. I was informed that the transfer could take anything between 1-3 days. The money was deducted from my ABC account on the 2 day ie. today, but that money didnt show up in my account in XYZ. The transaction is still shown under "Pending" in XYZ. Technically the money has just vanished and I dont have it in any of my accounts.
I see this as a very big potential business oppurtunity. Either of the banks could have put my transaction on a hold for a day and since its still not the 3rd day, they can always safely say that in this case the transaction took 3 days. The key point to note is that one of the banks has my money but still hasnt upgraded my account status. If hundred's of such transactions were happening every day (which I am sure do happen), the bank stands to have a phenomenal amount of money at hand, on which they dont need to pay any interest but can play around with that money :-). You can potentially do day-trading and make huge profits.
The other point being that is so obvious - a problem for a normal consumer / customer. Why does a bank to bank transfer take 3 days in this so called Internet age? Well I know banking services in US are pathetic to say the least, but that does not mean that customers can be taken for a ride ! At times I cant believe that I am actually in US and the kind of services being offered are accepted by people. Seems to me as if I am living in 19th century. Some more minor samples of banking services that I have witnessed firsthand are -
I recently discovered Radio Teentaal, a web-radio dedicated to "100% Indian music". The cool thing is - it works perfectly in Linux :-)
Currently the radio is being streamed from Paris, certainly no surprise that it is being streamed from some western country, since such kind of bandwidth is still not really affordable/available in India. It was surprising that I could not find anything interesting / similar from UK, US, Canada or another English-speaking country with large NRI community.
Anyway, they play the latest popular Bollywood beats, no commercials, no interruptions, not even the self-advertisement jingles. Just pure music, at 128kBps stereo mp3. They also have a 64kBps version if you cant enjoy the high bandwidth.
By Sharad
Even though being an Indian one cannot stay away from cricket and being a cricket fan, of late I have tried to reason things rather than be blind about my passion. The past few years performance had only one sorry sight - Indian cricket team only going DOWN.
Of late, things have been changing and I feel for the first time, Indian CT might actually do something wonderful in the World Cup. What has changed ? Hmm first of all, the FEAR factor. For decades, it has been that case that if you perform well once (say hit a century), you can stay in the team for years without performing again. Now with so many players coming up, no one is sure about his seat. For opening slot, there is a fierce battle between Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gambhir, Ganguly and maybe even Sachin. In the bowling department, their is a similar battle between Zaheer, Agarkar, Pathan, Sreesanth, Kumble, Harbhajan. For the middle order we have Yuvraj, Kaif, Raina battling it out. Even the charismatic Dhoni is not safe with Karthik giving him a run for his money :-)
Secondly, the approach Chappel adopted by kicking Ganguly, Zaheer, Pathan and Sehwag might just work in India's favor. Now their careers depend on their strong comeback and Ganguly has just been doing that. I hope that same happens for Sehwag and Pathan. This will make them realize the fact that they are dispensable and just to reiterate the FEAR factor :-)
More importantly the Indian team is getting into the act now. In the recent West Indies one-dayers, they started taking singles, fielding well and started to play as a team again. How long this will last and will it be strong enough to see India through the World Cup is a question that only time can tell, but it sure has got my hopes high again :-)
Go India Go !
Author: Sharad
A question that amazes almost everyone who either aspires to join IIT or has some contacts there. A question that runs high in debates among students. A question that might never have a definite answer. A question that is perennially debatable.
Even though this topic might not be in the best interest of me, I would surely like to give a shot at this one and see how judgemental I can be.
A quick start - Top JEE ranker's joining IIT in 2006. Source PanIIT.
| IIT Bombay | 46 |
| IIT Delhi | 28 |
| IIT Guwahati | 0 |
| IIT Kanpur | 20 |
| IIT Kharagpur | 0 |
| IIT Madras | 6 |
| IIT Roorkee | 0 |
| Campus | Number of hits | Max. citations |
| Delhi | 23,420 | 343 |
| Bombay | 19,870 | 835 |
| Madras | 17,320 | 312 |
| Kanpur | 14,660 | 2227 |
| Kharagpur | 13,300 | 376 |
| Roorkee | 6023 | 59 |
| Guwahati | 1460 | 17 |
Someone just forwarded this to me. Interesting facts.
Indian Websites hacked-2006 and Resolution for 2007
Number of indian websites (including gov and non-gov) those came under attack by the hackers in '06 is around 4,000. And that definitely shows the holes in cyber security. For more detail see this: Infotech-Indiatimes.
According to some people, there are six key steps a users should follow to ensure computer and n/w security. People are taking it as Cyber Security new year Resolution-2007. Read about the six steps here - Vnunet
Submitted by - PS
Recently I was listening to a distinguished gentleman who spoke articulately about some problems with Indian culture and Indian mentality. In his own words
That is only one side of the coin. The vedas were written in India. We had the likes of Tulsidas, Kabir and their counterpart might be difficult to find in any culture. But that was hundreds of years back. What do we have today? What do we lack - guts, conviction, self belief, vision. You need to realize you are blessed. One must realize his potential and contribute in whatever way he can.
