India will shine, if we did something about it

How you can steal ideas and call them yours - sort of....

2006-11-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

[Click on the title for link to original article]

Thanks to my friend Kaushikh for sending me the article that has spurred this rant into the ether in the form of a blog...

I am not against business. I am not against people "adapting" ideas and earning truck loads of money. I, and many people like me, however have a problem when you copy an idea and call it yours, well not directly but in so many words. And, neither is it entrepreneurial nor a "start up".

Please do go on gloating about what you want to do, but don't tell us how to do business. However unsuccessful or poor we may be, we would like to be unlike you.

Mind you, I am not saying we should not learn from other people's clever business. But we should always give credit where it is due, not just try to direct it to ourselves.

Conducting business ethically is a must, it is hard - not impossible!

Why is this in my blogs on India? Well, the guy who says "seventymm" is his idea is an Indian, and so am I. I think if even a small percentage of 1 billion people learn a lesson well, it would mean a lot..

Pulp Fiction: Indian husbands for Russian Women...

2006-10-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

[Click on the title for the link to the original article]

Here is something you didn't know!!! Russian women prefer Indians, or more exactly one woman thinks so.

This may be moot, but who do Indian women prefer?

Having associated with Indian mens of multiple marital status-es and fertility, I can assert that most of them would prefer - well, just about anyone!

Do you want me to expand on this disparity? Not unless you have something really against the Indian male.

Well, I thought I would do my bit of social service for the Indian male, pointing him towards Russia in case the girl next door just continues to ignore him.....

Good Luck Indian Male. May the 1 billion become 2 through your efforts....

How will India shine? The status of Orphaned HIV patients

2006-10-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

This is not new. It took them about 60 years to pass laws, that will probably remain effectively only on paper- banning child labor.

There is another breed of children in India that suffers silently. This is the breed of children who are HIV positive. These children are the worst - having themselves not been responsible for their disease in any manner whatsoever.

Why then do they have to pay the heaviest prices which even India's worst criminals don't pay?

This is not new - like I said in the beginning. Earlier, a couple of years ago, I presume, HIV positive children were expelled from schools based on the protests of "educated" parents.

Now the question is not "How do we educate these idiots?"

It is more of, "How do we protect the children after they have been, for the lack of better words, 'discovered and condemned'?"

I would like to know more about the legal challenges. I have written to the organization of people surviving with HIV in India.

Let us see what happens...

Shortage of workers in India?

2006-10-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

If you are the underdog in Indian HR, maybe you have something to celebrate. However, if you are at the top, you have a lot to worry about.

There is a projected shortage of about 500,000 workers in the near future, whereas salary increases and other employee retention efforts are costing companies not only in functionality and competition, but also in operational margin.

Does it mean India is in danger of losing its edge? Not necessarily. A projected demand on workers usually means that the tide is turning your side. However, if this is not properly handled, then the country might endanger its stronghold on the outsourced business.

Well what about those of us who think that all this is anyway a sign of a badly shaped bubble? Well, I am one of them, and I still do think it is a bubble. Except maybe its growing big slowly...well who knows. Maybe time will prove us wrong!

BJP: Misplaced, Misdirected Strategy

2006-10-08T03:54:00.000-07:00

[Click on blog title for original article; if article is missing, find full transcript below the blog]

Okay, lets recap. There was once a time when L.K. Advani was called the "Tiger" and so on. Eventually he turned out to be worse than a lazy housecat - in terms of strategy.

He was unable to do anything really good with the nuclear blasts and the aftermath (the only good thing being Abdul Kalam, which of course is commendable). We were not effective in using Kargil to our advantage (a good opportunity to have brought Pakistan to its "friggin" knees). We were unable to make Madeline Albright apologize more effectively about her misrepresentations on Kashmir (do Indians remember this anymore) nor where we able to put the Clinton administration in place for their policies on Pakistan (which has mushroomed into very bad pro - Pakistan policies by the Bush Administration, which is a joke because now Pakistan effectively sponsors terrorism in India AND Afghanistan)..

But we digress.

So you want to take out camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh? How? Like the Israelis did in an exemplary manner that has resulted in permanent conflict?

Like the Israelis have now won themselves enemies in ALL their neighboring nations?

Of all the ill conceived plans of self - defense, Israel's plan is the worst. The recent "war" in Lebanon proved that. While killing civilians and taking out infrastructure may go well with Israelis seeking revenge, it has not done them one bit of good in terms of long range strategy.

Whatever Hezbolla has suffered because of the recent comedy of errors by Israel, Israel comes off feeling the worst. Now they have lost the control they had in Lebanon. They cannot fire into Lebanon at will. Well they can, but wait for the first peacekeeping personnel from some Western country to die (or worse still China) from this "friendly" fire and see this escalate in the UN.

Do we need this trash in India? No. If at all we have an effective plan, it has to make sure it is well co - ordinated, and a one step action eliminating ALL terrorist camps.

Do we have the capability to do this? Only the Indian army knows. So lets not delve into it.

How do we take the "international community into cognizance"? We cannot. No one will agree to such a move.

So what do we do? We build intelligence, weapons and wait for Pakistan to make the next mistake (Kargil). And then, we do the damage. Its a pure war tactic.

Do we sit and watch till then?

No, we expose Pakistan. Provide REAL proof. We guard our borders. We capture terrorists. We keep them in prisons and learn from them. We wage an economic war over Pakistan (quite easy considering how much that country spends ((whatever the US gives it)) on terrorism).

But, lets please not start randomly bombing "neighbors". Imagine what will happen if one other "neighbor" of ours decides that we have terrorism camps.

I don't know about you, but I am glad this guy Rajnath is NOT in power.

--------------------------------------
Israel ‘lauds’ Rajnath idea to quell terror 10/8/2006 1:49:11 AM
- By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Oct. 7: Israel has "appreciated" Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Rajnath Singh’s idea to let India take a proactive role in dismantling terror camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh after taking the international community into confidence, the party said on Saturday.

Mr Singh, who met Israeli ambassador David Danieli at the party office here, credited Israel with showing respect to the sentiments of the international community by "not targeting areas beyond Hezbollah influence and subsequently withdrawing troops" in the Lebanon conflict.

The BJP chief also described the Israeli action on the Hezbollah as a move aimed at "self-defence", a party release said.

"He (Mr Singh) had also suggested in the past that it was necessary for India to have a proactive role in dismantling the terrorist camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but only after taking the international community into confidence."

"The Israeli ambassador said his government appreciated the ideas of the BJP president," it added. Mr Danieli’s meeting with Mr Singh came ahead of the expected visit of the Israeli Prime Minister in December.

The ambassador used the occasion to explain to the BJP president the position Israel had taken in its conflict with the Hezbollah, the party said. "He (Mr Danieli) said it was the right of Israel to protect itself against any possible terrorist activity, but their government maintained a high level of restraint while targeting Hezbollah hideouts in Lebanon," the BJP statement said.

Mr Singh said that Israel was having some advance technologies in the field of agriculture development which could be useful for states like Rajasthan and Gujarat as they suffered from water scarcity.

Also, Mr Singh separately met Pakistan’s National Assembly member Gyanchand Singh and North-West Frontier Province provincial Assembly member Gursharan Lal. Both Pakistani leaders discussed with Mr Singh "the prevailing political situation" in their country and exchanged views for better cooperation on political and parliamentary level in the future, the BJP release said.

What does India lead the world in? And how bad is it?

2006-10-05T00:21:00.000-07:00

Why are we leading the world in some of the worst things?

Why are businesses in India unable to stand by any level of dignity, ethics or decorum?

Well how bad is this. Very!

Businesses reflect a collective thought. So if you are part of an organization that is greasing government officials or any responsible people, then it reflects on you as well.

Just like companies expect you to embrace their goals, vision and ambition, they also should expect you to embrace their corrupt attitude.

Now, the interesting aspect is, an employee of a corrupt organization would not have any desire to be loyal to the organization itself.

"If my boss cheats, why cannot I cheat."

An important aspect ignored by these businesses. I think acts of personal responsibility are important.

The two key proponents for change have to be:

1. Leaders of major organizations.
2. All employees of small businesses.

Just like we have "Green" or "Eco" businesses, we need "Clean" businesses. I am interested, are you?

Kerela's Healthcare state..what does it reflect?

2006-10-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

One has to ask oneself.

We live in a country where we told the world we could deal with our own tsunami problems.

Then, how is it that Kerala needs the help of WHO?

One has to really ask such questions. Given Kerala's communism based political atmosphere work and progress are often very much disconnected from reality. This is the most probable natural explanation for the lack of progress in the state.

Blog 2: The follow up

2006-10-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

So, this is the blog you will read first or in the order it shows up if there are follow up blogs...but you know how to get to "Blog 1". :p

Okay here is the deal. This is just downright irritating. It is long, and I will try to keep it interesting, but "interesting" is not how I felt.

I admit, traveling back to India after 5 years is no joke, and you need to adjust to many quirks. But not at the price of INR 7,500. That translates to about USD 150 - 180 a month.

Let us call the organization, "The Company" for ease of use.

So, I set up a service to buy a mobile device and subscribe for a monthly fee of unlimited "Platinum" internet service with this company.

I was told "You will get a bill at the end of the month, it is enough if you pay then."

I offered to pay then and there but the offer was declined.

And then a strange thing happened around the middle of last month! I got some strange SMS.

Here is the actual text:

"Dear xxx Customer please pay Rs. 2462.25 to continue enjoying ISD services. We value your association with us. Thank you."

Note:

1. The grammar is incorrect. There was no comma after the Customer.

2. There is no associated deadline with the payment request.

3. The you is not capitalized in Thank You.

Leave alone the fact that I did not know I had ISD services on the phone.

Now, I made a mental note to check up on some later date. Then, I got another message:

"Dear xxx Customer please pay Rs. 3649.25 to continue enjoying Outgoing services. We value your association with us. Thank you."

-- Note the absence of a deadline and the funny art of capitalizing random words in the middle of a sentence.

---
Then came the hilarious part where next day, I received this, "Outgoing calls de-activated."

Well you know, the damned thing stopped working.

---
Let me explain in a separate post what happened at "Customer Service"

Blog 1 on Customer Service in India (Explanation to Follow)

2006-10-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is the transcript of a complaint I sent to a "large" wireless service provider. Lets just say that the guy who runs this company and I share the fate of bearing the same alma mater.

----

Complaint About Miserable Customer Service

I registered for your mobile internet access for my laptop on August 29th. Though the initial set up was good, here is a list of things that happened that were just miserable:

1. You have a 3 SMS message system which is downright out of sync with any logic. This system automatically cancelled my connection on a random SUNDAY afternoon asking me to pay a particular amount. That is the cynosure of bad customer service. How does a customer pay on a Sunday?

2. You have a random system of assigning a credit line of Rs. 2000 which doesnt amount to a full 50 dollars or so, to anyone. How does that work?

3. I did not receive a copy of my bill for the month through September 29 at all, and I have already received one of your SMS messages.

Is there anyone aware of the words "Customer" and "Service" that works in your organization.

Of course I do not expect to hear sane replies or apologies from you, but do not assume this is the last you will hear from me about your abysmal levels of customer service.

Srihari

India's economic competence: Ranked 42

2006-09-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Linux in India, an enforced revolution without direction?

2006-09-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

Linux is spreading in India!! Oh my God! Big deal...

It is being enforced in India is more like it. So how different is it from Microsoft.

The joke is, it has started spreading in the State of Kerala, a state famous for embracing backward thoughts without thinking even once about it...

In principle, anything free will spread fast, even if it is junk.

While we can worry about unstable, unsupported programs a little later....what about the principle of the thing?

How does one revile corporate interests that monopolise an industry? By coercing educational institutions?

And as it is, the true power of Linux is not revealed to the students. No one is being really shown wnat the powers of Open Source truly are.

What is the use of such misdirected revolution? Other than to IBM, Red Hat and people generally frustrated with Microsoft for no better reason?

Girl Child Abortions..justice served at last?

2006-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Why are doctors, who are supposed literate, cogitant (not in dictionary.com, but in generic use - applied here to mean cogitative), and as a result, educated, disrespecting a law that clearly disapproves of abortion of the girl child - all for a good cause. In fact, the law disapproves of revelation of the child's sex, in a hope to prevent any influences.

I am happy, that atleast after 12 years, justice has been served. I would paste a copy of this article on every OBGYN's office, to remind them of the fallacy they are wilfully committing if they help eliminate life, just because it was not a preferred sex.

Yes, we do understand, the girl child is seen as a burden, and until we fix that, we do not have a solution, but we will strive to take care of that part, if the doctors, take care of this for us. Taking care of us, is after all, a profession they have committed to, under a noble oath.

Asia as the bed for new clinical trials -- whither accountability?

2006-03-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

[Cross posted from my medical devices and biotechnology blog]

[Click on title for link to original article]

So, now Asia is trying to take over expensive clinical trials. But these clinical trials are usually expensive for a reason. The trials have to be well planned out, the IRBs have to be written out properly, and there are a host of other procedures that ensure one thing does not happen - fraud.

What could fraud in a clinical trial lead to? Death, of innocent humans for one. Fabrication of results for another. And then, there are a hundred other things that can happen.

Do we assume that just because the FDA exists, or because the companies will be outside the purview of the FDA, fraud does not happen?

We do not say that, but assume that a country decides to subsidize for the sake of clinical trials. How wary of lawsuits and complaints of unfair play is this country going to be?

These are yet unanswered questions, that need to be carefully examined. One would rather wait and see stringent laws and norms in place, before gladly accepting that the companies would self - regulate themselves.

I would rather wait till India has good laws, before it jumps onto this bandwagon. Especially since it was discovered that certain Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals which were being exported to the US had heavy metals in them, I have been wary of the status of the law surrounding drugs in India. One needs to watch out for these.

Another unanswered question - how many of these clinical trial results obtained in Asia will be accepted by the FDA or the European/Japanese regulatory agencies?

Health Reform policies at last

2006-03-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

I don't think the institutional models of either the IITs or the IIMs are an inspiration, or a success. But there is some reform, and let's hope we get something, if not nothing, out of this new burden of expenditure..

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/eafc9fa0-be51-11da-b10f-0000779e2340.html

State of the Indian Press -- a friend laments

2006-03-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

[Republished with permission from Karthick Jayaraman]

Sir,

"The Hindu" is known for its unbiased reporting of significant news items amidst Indians world over. Of late, your madurai column contains many news items about Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU). Most of these stories are very insignificant and do not need mention at all.

For instance two stories were blown out of proportion.

1) Job Fair.
55 student out of the 2000 students, who attended the job fair, got selected for a call centre company.

This result is very insignificant compared to the results that Thiagarajar Engineering College and other engineering colleges in madurai have had every year. By highlighting this insignificant statistic, you are sending a wrong message about the employability of students in this area.

2) The vice-chancellor performing archana in the name of the university. This is a very personal story that has no rational value. I am researching in one the leading universities in the USA. If there has been any news story about a us university in a leading daily, such as hindu, it was always about the results of some ground breaking research done.

The highlighting of these insignificant stories is testimony for the bias the "The Hindu" has for the university administration. A reputed national daily such as "The Hindu" cannot stoop this low. Please rectify.

Karthick

Academic Integrity in India

2006-03-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here is something a friend posted. This is quite disturbing, in that, the hype surrounding the IITs just comes crashing once you look at such isolated incidents. India should stop dropping its eggs into a single basket. I hope we can look beyond the IITs which have done nothing to the repair of the fractured state of research and development in India, that would be called commendable...
*****************************************************************
Hello folks,

I came across a disturbing event concerning academic integrity a few
weeks back, and thought you guys should know.

I read a paper titled "Eliminating Steganography in Internet Traffic with
Active Wardens" a few months back. And, a few weeks back I found a
similar work published in IIT Kanpur's Hacker's workshop 2004 -
IITHACK2004. The paper was titled, "Eliminating covert channels in
TCP/IP using active wardens". When I started reading the paper, beyond
a point the paper sounded very similar. Then I realised, except the
title that was deftly changed, the contents of the paper were
plagiarized from the paper I mentioned before. And, the paper has been
accepted, and published in the conference.

I wrote to the original author of the paper. And, we also communicated
the issue to the conference committee. And, the paper was removed from
the conference proceedings. The disturbing things in the whole
incident are:

1) The co-authors are also PhD's, and i presume they are professors.
They either didnt read the papers / consiously allowed their students
to copy.

2) The conference committee was not competant enough to know the
published works in the area, and allowed a plagiarized work to be
published. The committee members are professors in IIT, and I wonder
how they could have done this.

I only wish that this was an isolated incident.

--
Warm regards
Karthick Jayaraman

Now what do you think about Call Center Work Culture in India?

2005-10-31T11:28:00.000-08:00

The part about a few stuck up companies pulling back contracts, doesn't bother me, but this, definitely does!!!

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/10/30/1130607153209.html#

Does Madras need low quality moral police?

2005-10-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

http://sify.com/imagegallery/gallery/index.php?hcategory=13733685&hgallery=13955818&sort_idx=

India's shameless press!

2005-10-04T02:12:00.000-07:00

So, when are we going to change? What gave Dinamalar the right to intrude into people's lives like this? Will we see a day in our lives, when people from Dinamalar will spend time in prison for what they do/did?

As it is, the Indian Press is subliminally low in quality, and very vocal in demonstrating hatred towards any mild form of criticism. Was it Dinamalar being cheap, trying to sell a few extra copies, or was it "freedom of press"?

Freedom of Press is a useless self - licensing jargon that the press in India has created, fostered and obtained Supreme Court blessings for (Oh! the court might jail me to apologize, the next time I land in India -> shiver! shiver!).

It is ridiculous to see press coverage being so poor in every possible form. If you opened up a news website, you would be taken to either smashits.com or a promise of a low interest loan, or a combinational barrage of pop - ups, pop - downs and pop - befores and afters. Don't even get me started on syntax and grammar. (Before you jump the gun, this is my blog, and I don't get paid for propriety - atlest here!)

Since the internet happened, the Indian press has put up its downward spiral for the whole world to see. Its not just that, its also a barefaced demonstration, that the Indian public can influence or change them in no way - after all, they can't change the politicians, why bother with the press?

Enraged, as ever,

Srihari

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

2005-10-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

It has been several scores of years since the man most influential in India's current existance was assassinated. Where is India today? Nowadays, due to no fault of his, Gandhi's birthday or Jayanthi is becoming an increasingly painful affair to deal with.

Why is that so?

Well, for one, it makes you stop and reflect about what is happening in India. What is happening to India? What am I as a person contributing to the progress of India? What can I do, about everything that seems to have gone wrong? Should I just remain optimistic about the few rays of hope?

Now, when you dig deep and ask these questions, there is that feeling of pain. However, Gandhi was a man of optimism. He always said, "Be the change you want to see in this world". So maybe, amidst all the reflection and the welling thoughts, you and I, as citizens, could promise to be more truthful, more patriotic, to embrace the righteous path for India, and one day hope that when October 2nd swings by, we see more hope and happiness, than despair on our country's state.

It is also important to acknowledge all the good that has happened, and all the good that has been done in India, isn't it? If we never acknowledge the positive, who will remain motivated to keep doing whatever they are doing to carry on the progressive work?

More thoughts, and again, more thoughts, however, I am confident, one day, if not idealistically, atleast realistically we can establish a Gandhian society of self sustenance and uprightness.

Jai Hind!

Compare Baseball to Cricket

2005-09-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

No, not the actual game. That is upto you. I would like to show you what the US Congress is doing to mismanagement of baseball. The underlying reasons to do so are the same - they fear that baseball players, serving as role models for young kids are serving as bad examples!

What example do you think Ganguly set for India? Or that matter, the BCCI? The indecisiveness is rudely shocking. It is also, almost resounding proof that a "miracle" is needed to induce professionalism into Indian sports.

Read this article:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/la-sp-steroids29sep29,0,5598497.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenews

So what if the government has to interfere? The BCCI is doing a bad job as it is. And being a free society doesn't mean, people get the right to act like asses.

It also goes to show that using bad quality retired players in an organization that is supposed to alter the way the game is played in our country is not working.

India jumps up on the global competitive index!

2005-09-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Growth+Competitiveness+Index+rankings+2005+and+2004+comparisons

Does this mean we are feeding our hungry? Probably not. But a jump from 55 to 50 in a marginally trustable statistic should mean something, doesn it?

Srihari

Arun Bhatia, India's Role Model?

2005-09-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

Beauracrat (okay, I don't think I spelled that right, are you going to red - tape me for it?) turned politician? Is that even possible? Is this guy real, you ask? Let's find out!!!

Srihari

http://www.arunbhatiaelect.org/

India a force to reckon, so much so that its a part of the balancing dance?

2005-09-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

Read these:

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Okay, enough with the links! I am NOT a fan of the Indian Express - new, old or bottled otherwise. What attracted me was a front page news.google link to these articles that make me think, maybe we are getting there. We are huge enough to have the power to influence the international community.

No I am not writing one of those sobby rantings on how we have progressed. I am by far the worst critic that the political/diplomatic/journalistic populace of India could have. However, I see an increasing opportunity to take our problems of energy, hunger, poverty, IT, industry and what have you, and convert it into strengths. We could use our position in the wrold as a tool to forge ahead, break traditional barriers and create those checks and balances that we have in an extremely unipolar world.

I do agree, we need to do the balancing, bow to pressure and then vehemently deny it, but I am wondering if we could have juiced a little more from Britain, France and the US, before agreeing to sign off on a document that could give us a little bit of a bad time with the not - at - all ratiional Iranian presidency.

That's what India needs to shine! Guys who milk anyone who steps at our door dry before giving in. I have a feeling we should have put forth something more than a caution that we are signing with a protest. Tangilbles. Tangibles. Tangibles. We need lots of tangibles!