The Xtra Pagal Blog - Madness Re-defined!

New Home

2007-05-20T16:40:00.001+05:30

I've moved to a new address, check out my new Blog!

What's the deal with Indian IT?

2007-02-24T23:33:00.000+05:30

What's the deal with Indian IT? Why do I see so many frustrated souls around me every day? This problem of frustration among IT professionals is a universal problem, the Indian IT companies have become "coding factories" and their business model is based on nothing but wage arbitrage. Global majors such as the IBMs and the Accentures of the world have also adopted this model to nullify this low-cost advantage of the Indian vendors.

One of the major factors contributing to the frustration is poor resource management in these coding factories - they follow the Binary principle, either you will be overloaded with work or get no work at all. People who work too much work feel that they are not getting any time for personal life (and not getting paid enough) whereas the other bunch of people get frustrated because they are not adding any value to their CVs. Also, unfair HR practices such as higher salary for same work to people with similar profiles and mindless transfer of employees don't make things any better. As if that was not enough, these factories have started cost cutting initiatives where they cut costs where it hurts the employees the most (e.g Transportation) and at the same time continue to waste money in useless marketing propaganda.

If things don't improve, we might see the emergence of Employee Unions in the Industry soon and if that happens, the Indian IT Industry will never be the same again!

Let's wait and watch...

Cheers!

The Great Indian Torture Challenge

2006-08-15T12:00:00.000+05:30

In the past few days, I have been deeply disappointed by the quality of Entertainment on Indian television. I had blacklisted most channels (Kyunki... watching Star Plus was a nightmare, Zee TV always had one programme or the other with a bunch of crappy singers and Sony...well, the less said, the better). Watching too much CNBC freaked me out and I decided to take a break from the Stock Market. So, the only option I had was to watch some cartoons or the desi News channels. In absence of any genuine news stories, the news channels decided to go into "Reality TV" mode by showing the "Save Prince" drama. It was amazing to see breaking news such as "Prince ne biscuit khaaya!!" continuously for 50 hours.

I stopped watching TV after that, and shifted to movies....and based on the past experience, what better than a "critically acclaimed" Karan Johar movie. Frankly, I have loved all his previous movies (at least the first half of his movies where there is a lot of laughter and fun). Sadly, KANK didn't have that one-half that I was hoping for..it was like watching the second of of K3G twice....the movie was toooooo long. I decided to close my eyes in the second half and whenever I opened my eyes, I saw one actor or the other shedding tears full of glycerine. Although the cinematography, music, direction and acting are all fine, the basic thing lacking in the movie is the story itself. Moral of the story: Kabhi KANK Naa Dekhna

Now, I have decided to take a break from Bollywood movies as well and am happily spending time playing the wonderful FIFA 2005 game on my laptop.

Cheers!!

I'm Back

2006-07-01T11:35:00.000+05:30

Close to a month has passed since I made a post on this blog, earlier I had so much time to spare but didn't have anything to write about and now I have so much to share but not much time to post. My first company (those who know me know the company's name) subjected the campus joinees to a 10 day residential training which covered things from work culture, corporate heirarchy, the history, mission vission to the extensive use of technology and focus on quality (almost every speaker had a slide on Quality and CMM level 5). Now that the training is over, actual work begins...system configuration - P4 3 GHz, 1 GB RAM, TFT Monitor and the best thing - download speed 1MBPS! It's a pity that photography is not allowed inside the office premises, would have loved to share the pics from that amazing office.

Hopefully, this 5-days-a-week culture will be strictly followed and I'll get back to regular posting from now on :)

Cheers!

Why Reservation is illogical and unscientific

2006-06-04T23:29:00.000+05:30

The following is a hard hitting article written by Dr. R.S.K Sinha - one of the best known physicians in the country today. The article illustrates why Reservation is illogical and unscientific. Published with special permission from Dr. Sinha.

Read on...

___________________________________________________________________

Place fifty pieces (50%) of tasty musk-melons with fifty pieces (50%) of large, red pulpy water-melons in a sack. These melons will be transformed into the large and delicious water-melons after some time since both belong to same melon species. It only needs recitation of mantras like "equal opportunity" by any political priest of country. Isn’t it simple? Ask any present day vote seeker, they can do it overnight!

Similarly, since all human beings belong to a common species, leaders suggest to pack them together in IITs, IIMs, Medical Institutions and recite the "mantra" of equality to produce the worthiest of professionals in India. The common man in India has been tricked like it for several decades by country's leaders and law-makers. We can not accept such ridiculous tricks anymore for uplifting the plight of SC, ST and now the OBCs. There is no instant formula for doing so. Reservation is no answer to the problem.

Patho-physiology of Intelligence
The Malady Human intelligence is multifactorial in development. It is a product of one's genetic configuration and the hard work performed. The hypothesis does not require much explanation. We know that every sibling or child of intelligent people may not be equally intelligent in spite of their absolutely common environment. Similarly an individual can be extremely intelligent in spite of adverse environment.

The Evidence
Many researchers working on intelligence use a psychometric definition for intelligence, termed "general mental ability" or the "g factor". This concept originated from the work of Sir Francis Galton and Charles Spearman(1) of the London School of psychology. Today many psychometricians worldwide accept the theory of general mental ability. According to this theory, on average, those who do well on one mental test also are likely to do well on other mental tests.

Arthur Jensen points to the statistical and biological realities of the g factor. The correlation of g with the overall size of brain, its glucose metabolic rate during problem solving, the complexity and speed of brain waves, as well as estimates of heritability point towards genetic influence(2).

The g factor has a normal distribution in the general population, suggesting g is probably a product of several genes that interact with the environment. Moreover, although g correlates with the parental value, it has a tendency to be closer to the population mean, suggesting a regression to the mean. These observations suggest that some genetic variants that influence g will vary between populations rather than within populations.

Graphics: Jen

Studies show a moderate increase in g over time in developed countries, correlating with improvements in nutrition, health and education. Environmental conditions such as socio-economic status have been shown to play a significant role in intelligence. A study by Wahlsten(3) showed that children transferred from a home with low socio-economic status to a home with high socio-economic status improved their test scores. It has been reported that heritability for intelligence increases during development, resulting in heritability as high as 80% in adulthood while there is also some evidence that heritability might be lower in adulthood than in childhood(4).

No place for caste and creed
In simple terms, genetic composition is a conglomerate of various genomes with which an individual is born. On the other hand, capability to perform hard work is dependent on good health and better socio-economic environment. Good health is in turn dependent on good nutrition, hygienic surroundings and prevention from various communicable and non-communicable diseases. Wealth obviously is required to gather resources to access the wisdom. Genomic configuration, hard work, good health and money are, therefore, the only factors which influence intelligence of any individual. Reassigning caste, religion or reservations etc. thus have no role in the development of intelligence of a person or society.

Remedy
Except the genetic structure every other factor is modifiable. Even genomic build-up of a person can be modified over the generations. A social revolution in form of promoting inter-cast marriages and preventing consanguineous relations can help in genomic restructuring of the society. The technology of fetal DNA manipulation will be a reality some day.

Governments have failed to focus on the health needs of the underprivileged society as indicated by miserable health budget allocations year after year. Even simple measures like universal iodinization of salt to prevent Iodine Deficiency Diseases (IDD) - a measure cause of deteriorating IQ; have faced tough resistance from politicians’.

No long term action plan is in sight as regards financial support to these underprivileged. Ad-hoc sanctions of miserable unemployment allowances to these youths is a typical political and vote bank gimmick. Individual leaders concerned with nation building and upliftment of the downtrodden can correct it easily. They need to simply invest their huge personal assets, mostly black accumulated through their 'public service', for generating exclusive employment for the OBCs and SC / ST. It is a common knowledge that the cumulative assets of all the sitting and ex - ministers, parliamentarians, and legislators can alone fund several annual budgets of the country.

Reservation is illogical and unscientific
It's a pity that even after over half a century, no leader in independent India has a vision in this direction. So far, their vision had been tubular in improving their own lot. There is absolutely no logic or scientific basis for reservation in education and employment as a measure to alleviate the pathetic conditions of underprivileged.

Politicians and national leaders, especially the octogerians having a very limited productive life span should now at least have a logical approach to the problem. Reservation on one hand will only destroy the natural adaptive biological process of acquiring intelligence amongst underprivileged and on the other hand will create a class of 'unemployed intelligent youth (UIY)'.

Obviously, the middle class intelligentsia having limited resources will be the most effected group by the reservation in professional institutions. Suddenly the constitution is being re-written to withdraw the right of these meritorious students to higher education for which specified number of general seats had been created in the higher educational institutions of the country.

The future of the nation and its security will be under bigger threat by the most disgruntled UIY. The octogerian leaders should realize that they may be harming the nation with their attempt to achieve an extremely short lasting self-ambition like becoming the next PM. However, they will be a looser with the sufferings of their own progeny if they live long enough to witness. Create a caste-less society and creep the crop of intelligent Indians. The only other manner in which this goal can be achieved is by extending economic support to the underprivileged without tagging them as "quota fellow" which isolates them everywhere.

Melon story
The same sack is over stuffed with all kinds of melons on suggestion of some politicians. At destination it contained well preserved but fewer robust water-melons with completely decayed musk-melons. Such a loss was definitely avoidable if they were packed separately with proper planning and transported to the consumer market in their best form and quality.

Dr. R. S. K. Sinha New Delhi

Acknowledgment:
The article is based on the topic "The Genetic Basis of Intelligence" by Mr. Farnoos Tayyari and graphics by Mr. Jen (Source:bioteach.ubc.ca)

References:

Miele F. What is intelligence? In: intelligence, race, and genetics. Oxford, UK. Westview Press, 2002.
Spearman C. (1904). General intelligence objectively determined and measured. American Journal of psychology. 15, 201-292
Plomin R and Spinath FM. (2004). Intelligence: genetics, genes, and genomics. Journal of personality and social psychology. 86(1), 112-129.
McGue M, Bouchard TJ, Jr., Iacono WG, & Lykken DT. Behavioral genetics of cognitive ability: A life-span perspective. In R. Plomin & G. E. McClearn (Eds.), Nature, nurture, and psychology (pp. 59-76). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1993.
Finkel D, Pedersen NL, McGue M, & McClearn GE. (1995). Heritability of cognitive abilities in adult twins: Comparison of Minnesota and Swedish data. Behavior Genetics. 25, 321-431.
http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/MolecularBiology/Intelligence/index.html

(c) Copyright Dr. R. S. K Sinha. All rights reserved.
___________________________________________________________________

Go Pagal

2006-06-03T11:49:00.000+05:30

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Tag
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Lalu's Computer

2006-05-31T22:11:00.000+05:30

I have not posted anything for a while now, don't feel like writing anything these days. Got this by email, couldn't resist posting it :)

LOL, the third user must be the Admin :D

The name for Lalu's "My Computer" couldn't have been better

*Still rolling on the floor laughing*

Cheers!

Monkeys, FIIs and Indian Stock Markets

2006-05-24T21:59:00.000+05:30

Got a story by email today, reminds me of the Indian stock markets. Read it and see if u agree with me:

A man appeared who announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs. 10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys went out in the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish and villagers started to stop their effort he announced that now he would buy at 20 rupees.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to 25 and the supply of monkeys became so that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy on behalf of the man. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at 35 and when the man comes back you can sell it to him for 50."

The villagers queued up with all their saving to buy the monkeys.

The assistant and his boss never came back, they smartly booked profits and ran away.

The man in the story reminds me of the FIIs and the villagers are like the retail investors.

Long live the Indian Stock Markets.

Cheers!

Microsoft initiates Anti-Piracy Campaign

2006-05-20T15:32:00.000+05:30

My friend Pappu Yadav (name changed) was a worried man today, his newly acquired desktop computer had started displaying strange pop-up messages telling him that his copy of Windows is not genuine. At first he suspected it to be a nasty spyware infection but on discussing this problem with some of his contacts (me included), he came to know that the pop-ups were genuine and were part of Microsoft's Anti-Piracy Campaign.

As a part of the campaign, users who are detected running pirated software receive constant alerts on their monitor screens telling them that they are using pirated software, and that they should click on a link which will take them to a website for further instructions. A similar message pops up at random times from the system tray section of the Windows taskbar.

If one chooses to ignore the messages, Windows plants a permanent banner at the bottom of the screen that reads, "You might be the victim of software piracy. The copy of Windows installed on this computer is not considered to be genuine by Microsoft." When people get frustrated and click on the link mentioned in the pop-up, they are taken to a Website where Microsoft gives them gyaan on the benefits of using genuine Windows, and tells them how to purchase a genuine copy of the software.

While some people have ignored the warning messages completely, broadband users (and others with static IP addresses) like my friend are taking it very seriously because they know that the next step in this campaign could well be tracing the physical location of computers running pirated software (by having tie ups with Broadband providers and government) and litigation. Ultimately my friend had two options - stop using the Internet or buy a genuine copy of Windows, he obviously opted for the latter. One down, many more to go.

Way to go, MyCrowSoft :D

P.S: I use a genuine copy of Windows XP Home ;)

Remember this?

2006-05-19T14:56:00.000+05:30

Remember this video from the good old DD days? I bet you do :)

"Sooraj Ek, Chanda Ek"
.
.
"Ek chidiya, Ek ek karke Anek chidiyan"
.
.

In case you still don't remember it, watch it here

The video conveys the message of Unity in Diversity wonderfully, can someone get Mr. Arjun Singh to watch this? Wake up, Mr. Singh. Stop dividing the country!

Let there be peace.

Cheers!

Sneak Peek: Windows Media Player 11

2006-05-18T16:51:00.000+05:30

Just downloaded the all new Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 and here's a sneak peek into what it looks like.

First impression: The Interface is definitely cooler and visually appealing (Vista Effect!), files are better organised as a result of which the searching is much faster. I personally loved the black interface and the fresh new visualisations. All said and done, it's just another media player and if you are an ordinary computer user, the only compelling reason to download the 22MB s/w is the Interface.

Go ahead and download it today (But please don't ask me to give you the download link :P)

Cheers!

The war for news?

2006-05-17T16:30:00.000+05:30

The War for News is one Blog Kkekta Kapur can't afford to ignore. If these guys compile their work, it can easily become a top selling book or even a spicy reality tv programme. Nobody knows the true identity of people behind the blog, but the three "characters" (known by the names of Artemis Zoop, the Watchful Acolyte & the All Seeing Spy) certainly have all the insider stories from three popular Indian News Channels - NDTV, CNN-IBN and the ever struggling "Times Now".

The blog has continued to irritate the top bosses at the respective news channels, so much so that CNN IBN and Times Now had banned access to this blog some time back in their offices. The notorious trio somehow manage to get access to all the Internal emails, inside stories, internal politics etc. and publish the contents on the blog for the general public to see (and enjoy). One wouldn't be surprised if there are "Most Wanted" posters containing the name of these bloggers are pasted all over the offices of these news channels. Interestingly, the bloggers never support any particular channel and are mostly neutral in their opinions, which makes it even more difficult to ascertain their true identities.

It would be interesting to see how long can these chaps continue to publish the inside storieswithout getting caught. I just hope that they never get caught but if Rajdeep Sardesai has his way, he will definitely catch them red handed ..Whatever it takes ;)

It's not about Reservations...

2006-05-14T15:10:00.000+05:30

Just came across this brilliant post on August Fury written by Mr. Yogesh Parmar. This post must be read by all, if possible, please post it on your blogs and email it to your friends. All the students of the country must support this Anti-Reservation movement now. Spread the word.

(Image courtesy ibnlive.com)

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It is not about Reservations
By: Yogesh Parmar

Make no mistake about it. Its been executed with such finesse,it can put the state controlled pogrom in gujarat to shame-wonder if there is some training ground where they learn these skills.But then,one gets better, with practice. And its not just wine that gets better with age. To call this vote bank politics would be being courteous. To call this an exercise in futility would be well, churlish. To call this a master stroke,err, nothing would be further away from the truth. Truth is, this is a failure of imagination. Yeah, its a dismal failure of the senses because we take pride in having the largest written constitution on the face of this earth. It is a farce because we say that it took us many long years to sow the seeds of liberalization since we are a calibrate democracy, a vibrant democracy at that.It is a sham because we say that free speech and expression is the cornerstone of our egalitarian society. Yea,Like hell it is.

Let me then, enlighten you, Honorable Minsiter of HRD, Shri Arjun singh,that dissent is what distinguishes communist china from democratic India. A Hitler from a Nehru. A rigid fascist from a liberalist. A despot from a meritocrat. Hell, when George Bush-,the redoubtable foot in the mouth exponent- visited Great Britain, and tens of thousands of angry protestors assembled in front of the Buckingham Palace,to protest his presence in their country, all he could say was that he loves going to a country where there is freedom of speech; dissent. Affirmative action, dear sir, can be imported later. Learn the rulings of democracy first. Take away dissent, and we are as good as dead.

And I am not yet drawing myself into the debate of whether the government should or should not uphold the bill seeking the 49.5 reservation. For its not about the reservation at all. Reservations, beloved sir, are a manifestation of a form of anachronism, which was shameful even in a society which prevailed in your prime. And the anguish,the despair,the despondency, and the desolation are a function of this utterly shocking and reprehensible proposal . That fifty eight years into the life of a nation, we still haven’t imbibed the first imperative of democracy. I can almost hear the founding fathers quiver in their graveyards.

I was thrilled, delighted even that interns and medical students my age stood up for what they thought was right. For no cost is too high to stand up for what one thinks is right. Kids my age who have little to do with this imbroglio, many of them ,who will either join elite hospitals or head abroad, kids who have nothing to gain and everything to lose, risk their careers, their lives. For the uninitiated, a doctor cannot apply for a visa or practice, if she has a police statement against her.

They voted with their feet and you lathi charged them. They protest in a silent , non violent manner, and you hit them with 3rd gear water cannons? They stood up for equality and you tear gassed them? Its quite some time since holi and quite some time left for diwali, but never mind. In more ways than one, you have invoked our collective consciousness. We knew our generation was up for it. You helped us prove it. And lest, you misunderstand us, this is no flash in the pan. When you flushed them out, they formed a huddle. When you canonized them, they held on to each other for their lives. When you detained them,they didn't even so much as to raise a whimper. When their futures were being decided they couldn’t think of influential names to bail them out. And sir, perhaps, what was the last nail in the coffin, was when you arrested 6 of them, an overwhelming 400 of them quoted mass arrest.

And perhaps, we don't have much to lose. Let me correct myself then. How many of you in the government would want your grand children to be delivered by mediocre doctors? How many of you would want to come under the knives of surgeons who got through on reservation grounds. Terra Firma. How many of you would want your intestines and kidneys removed by well, at best, ordinary doctors?

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. And if history repeats itself and yet what happens catches us off guard, how incapable are we of learning from our mistakes. Our best doctors- Naresh Trehan, Pratap Reddy- and the like are all great men not because they hail from a Tulu or an Iyer background, but inspite of it.

Even as I type this, a rather buoyant news reporter claims probe has been ordered and I quote NDTV here. “The Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra has ordered a probe after police use batons to disperse anti-reservation activists.”

A probe? Prime time televison disemminates live pictures of students being attacked, battered and bruised. And you order for a probe? You don't trust your eyes! Ahh…fitting, aint it?. Or else I would have been forced to believe that human beings can commit such heinous crimes. Yet again, this is not an effort to stem the rot. This is a charade. A farce. A bloody travesty.

And sir, if you still can't hear us, let me assure you that the screech is going to get shriller. Today we ve got to the streets; Tomorrow we are going to be in the south and the north blocks. Thanks to people like you, we have arisen from what is seemingly a long , long siesta. It's thanks to you that we are potentially at the cusp of what is seemingly an awakening of a generation. Indeed, it’s thanks to you that has made us realize our strength of character.

This sums up the mood really- ( quoted by a friend who was a part of the protests)
"chadha do gaddi....kya farak padta hai....seat to le hi lee hai....ab jaan bhi le lo.

Now you know why Rang de Basanti was as big a phenomenon as it turned out to be. You don’t play with our self respect Mr.Singh. I understand you successfully implemented a 49.5% reservation in Madhya Pradesh a couple of decades back. Lightning strikes just once. And yeah, what goes around comes around. Except that, its your turn to be hit by the collective thunder.

In conclusion, all I d say is, even after having said what I have, I d still want to you to have a peaceful twilight of your life. So kindly keep off from the morning walks. Like I said, Rang de Basanti is cult. And to us, defence minister ho, ya human resource, kuch farak nahi padhta.

Reserved About Reservations?: An Insider's Perspective.

2006-05-10T22:38:00.000+05:30

The great Indian Reservation debate continues, meanwhile student protests are gaining in momentum across the country. Here's a guest post by Mr. Johan Jose, giving you an insider's perspective on the debate.

Read on.

___________________________________________________
Reserved About Reservations?: An Insider's Perspective.
By Johan Jose
Published: May 10, 2006

Ipshita Parida is an intern at the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) and associated hospitals in Delhi. In her four and a half undergraduate years she has held office as an elected representative of the college students union, has been involved with a lot of high profile agitations in the capital and is currently the intern representative at LHMC. She is here speaking on behalf of Youth for Equality, a movement that commenced in New Delhi against the proposed extended reservations. She is also a friend of the interviewer.

Could you introduce yourself to the people who will be reading this interview?
Sure. My name is Ipshita Parida and I'm an intern at Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi.

I believe you associate yourself with something called Youth for Equality?
I associate myself with a number of other protesting medical students who have cumulatively come up with a forum called the Youth For Equality (YFE).

What exactly is Youth for Equality about?
I am taking the liberty to presume that most of you are aware about the current stand on reservations and the proposed bill in the Parliament by the Human Resources Development Minister Mr Arjun Singh, which increases the total number of reservations including those for OBCs and other reserved categories in educational institutes to 49.5 pc.

I think we have a fair idea.. go on.
Youth for Equality is a forum created by representatives and students from the 5 medical colleges in the capital and a host of other colleges splattered all over the country, who believe that such a bill is discriminatory, regressive, cripples merit and is completely opposed to the principles of equality and democracy.

Who is heading YFE?
No one heads YFE because it's not a body, it's a forum, and more like a banner that covers all voices of dissent.

So when was YFE born and how did it evolve to become what it has?
YFE started post the announcement in the papers about the now famous or infamous bill. It started small with some founder members that made their cause known through posts on our notice boards. It really did start small, just a small voice by some passionate people who had the courage to fight for what is right but then gradually it gained momentum and strength.

What were the first signs of action on your part?
We observed a black badge day on the 17th of April in colleges and hospitals and had a couple of meets before the episode on the 26th of April, which made the news. About 300 students had decided to protest peacefully in front of the HRD Minister's residence, however what actually transpired was essentially baffling given this is 21st century India.

Why, what happened?
It soon turned into a shocking lapse in the democratic face of this country that totes free speech and liberal thought. We were lathi charged, tear-gassed, mobbed and barricaded. They even soaked us to the skin with water cannons. Talk about washing down the issue!

Where was the Minister while this crackdown was taking ...
The rest of the interview can be found here

At what price will RPL list?

2006-05-10T20:39:00.000+05:30

The much hyped RPL share will list tommorow and the million dollar question that remains to be answered is - at what price will it finally settle down? The IPO got a resounding thumbs up from the investors as it received bids worth Rs 137,000 crore, an oversubscription of over 50 times. The company had offered to sell 45 crore shares but ended up receiving applications for over 2226 crore shares!! The issue was made to part finance the Rs 27,000 crore (Rs 270 billion) export-oriented refinery being set up in a special economic zone, at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

The Economic Times reported today that "the total investor wealth from both Mukesh and Anil Ambani groups has nearly doubled since January 18 this year, when the erstwhile RIL began trading on a split basis following the implementation of the scheme of arrangement reached between the two brothers". This wealth creation will go one step further with RPL as RIL has 75% ownership of RPL and with each single rupee increase in the price of RPL, RIL is set to gain 337.5 crore (atleast on paper)! It would be interesting to see how Reliance manipulates the price of RPL, the general public and QIBs hold a small share in the company and Mr. Ambani can definitely take advantage of this. I'm not trying to suspect his intentions, but any businessman in his place would do the same.

Analysts expect the share to list at close to 100 but if one goes by the recent IPO trends and given the strength of Reliance Industries, 150 rupee mark cannot be ruled out. At what price will RPL list (and stablize)? Only time will tell.......stay tuned!

Time for Revamp?

2006-05-05T23:17:00.000+05:30

It's been around 20 days since I made this blog public and I have decided that the Blog needs a new colour scheme and background images etc. I am bored with the current scheme and my friends have also suggested a change in the current colour scheme to make the posts more readable. I shall try to come up with a New, Improved version of this template soon...till then I have done some make shift arrangements. Kindly bear with me as this blog goes through a temporary phase of transition.

Cheers!

Edit: Removed all the background images, the glare is gone now. I think I'll stick to this version for some time :) What do you think? Do post your feedback.

-Anurag

Three years of Bull Run

2006-05-05T15:58:00.000+05:30

One can see the celebration of three years of bull run on CNBC TV18 all day long these days. The BSE sensex has continued to rise at a scorching pace, the growth rate has been faster than most of its foreign counterparts. While I have been following the markets since I was a school kid, my interest in the stock market grew when I started reading Economic Times daily. At that time, virtually every IT stock was sky rocketing. Some clever companies got themselves renamed and got the word "Software" to pose as IT companies even if none of their employees hadn't even seen a computer. What a time it was! Fast forward to the year 2006 and I am begining to get the feeling of Deja Vu - the only difference this time is that the game is not limited to the IT sector, new sectors like Capital Goods, Sugar and Real Estate have supplanted IT. While I'm by no means an expert in this field, I have been watching the stock markets very closely for some time now. It was amazing to see every stock with sugar attached to its name soaring to new heights, all the capital goods companies trading on unrealistic valuations.

As if that was not enough to amaze me, certain stocks like Bata and Ceat have started soaring now because of re-valuation of their assets (read real estate). The boom in the real estate sector has been primarily due to FDI. In yet another reform move to deepen the economic liberalization process, India had threw open the country's property and housing sector doors to foreign investors by allowing them to establish wholly-owned subsidiaries to construct housing projects without having to seek government approvals. Post that, the growth rate of infrastructure stocks has been exponential. Take a look at the yearly price chart of Ansal to get a better idea of what I am talking about:

Now, DLF (another big company) is coming out with its IPO and that too is expected to move in a similar fashion. Smaller companies like DS Kulkarni too are also taking advantage of this mad rush and have come out with their IPOs, while there is no doubt that their IPOs will be fully subscribed, valuations seem a bit unrealistic to me. But then, at this stage, if my friendly neighbourhood Tikkiwaala comes out with an IPO, even that will get oversubscribed ;) Small investors like you and me would be better off investing in Mutual funds as their fund managers are much more knowledgeable and have much more experience.

Even as I type this post, I can see CNBC TV18 speculating that the government would allow 49% FDI in retail soon (Multi-Brand, /Multi-Product now). Looks like it's Pantaloon's turn to soar now.

Happy Investing!

Search Engine Wars

2006-05-02T11:38:00.000+05:30

I was amazed to read a news item titled "New Microsoft browser raises Google's hackles" today. Google is crying foul because MSN Search is the default search engine in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, I had noticed this thing long time back when I downloaded the beta version of IE7. Google has tried to counter this by modifying the appearance of the Google Search homepage when when opened in IE7, the page looks like this:

(Look carefully at the top right corner, you will notice something extra)

Google may be crying foul now but it has enjoyed this position in other browsers like Firefox without users noticing it (have you ever noticed that MSN search is not even available in Firefox?) but the only difference is that the other search engines are "also available" for the users (if they manage to discover them) Microsoft should do the same thing, it should hide all the search engines (including Google and Yahoo) under the MSN Search Box just like Firefox and 90% of the users won't even discover their presence in IE7. I am not trying to take sides here but if the Google Gang wants to play fair, it must treat the others fairly too.

But then, everything is fair in love and Search engine wars....long live the M$ vs Google battle.

Cheers!

Create your webpage with Google Pages

2006-05-01T12:31:00.000+05:30

Are you one of those who want to have their personal page on the Internet but have not been able to do so because you don't know HTML. Google has come up with a solution for such people, the product is called Google Pages. Google pages lets you build your webpage using a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) interface within seconds (okay, make that minutes :p)

Another good thing about Google Pages is that you don't need to signup anywhere else for hosting the page, the page gets hosted at http://"your google username".googlepages.com (eg. my page is hosted at http://anuragxp.googlepages.com)

What are you waiting for, go ahead and make your personal page :)

Cheers!

P.S: Google didn't pay me for this :p

The Xtra Pagal Blog in Top 100 Now :D

2006-04-30T22:21:00.000+05:30

Wow, I can't believe this! I just casually added this blog to the Indian Bloggers directory last week and I was really shocked to see it on the 89th place in the category of Personal blogs from India today.

Do check it out by clicking here

Don't forget to rate the blog honestly :)

I am really grateful to all those who visited my blog and helped it get into that list :D Keep checking back :)

Make way for IPTV

2006-04-29T14:28:00.000+05:30

Way back in October 2003, Microsoft Corp. and Reliance Infocomm Ltd. announced that the two companies would work together to jointly create, test and deliver next-generation Internet Protocol (IP)-based television services using an IPTV solution being developed by Microsoft TV. After the announcement, the project has been kept a closely guarded secret but I expect Reliance to start offering its IPTV service in select cities by the end of this year. Reliance Infocomm already boasts of 60,000 route kilometres of pan-India fibre optic backbone which is more than capable of providing IPTV to a huge chunk of the population.

IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television and it uses a single line to deliver programming to the television. The same line will triple up as a telephone connection, an Internet Connection and a cable connection. Just like cable or DTH (Direct to Home), IPTV uses a set-top box that allows customers to cruise hundreds of TV channels and order movies and other shows anytime through video-on-demand. People who are interested in knowing more about what IPTV has to offer can have a look at the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition page.

If Reliance can price it right, IPTV is going to solve a lot of problems - Firstly, it will reduce the multiplicities of connections (and even devices) at home - we will just need to pay one company instead of three or even four separate entities. Next, we won't need to bunk school/college/office/family functions to catch our favourite programme, it will be available on demand which means I can watch it when I have time to spare. I read somewhere that Reliance has already bought out most of the old Hindi movie libraries, which means one can watch any movie of any genre/time period at any time by just paying a small amount.

More importantly, if Reliance can extend the technique of "Digital Distribution of movies to Cinema halls" to homes, it can seriously dent the Pirates. Imagine having access to the DVD quality print of the latest movie releases at home, at the same time when it gets released in theatres. You pay per view of the movie, much like the CD/DVD rentals and the charges get added to your monthly IPTV bill. Simultaneous movie release on IPTV and theatres that can get a bit controversial, but if the Industry has to survive piracy it must look at additional sources of revenue like this. This is something I firmly believe in, if Mr. Anil Ambani or any senior Reliance official is reading this, please give it a thought as it has the potential to revolutionize the Indian entertainment Industry.

Eagerly awaiting the launch of IPTV in India :-)

Signs that you are an MBA

2006-04-24T23:51:00.000+05:30

10 Signs that you are an MBA - thesis work by Anurag Saxena :D

You give lessons in Customer Relationship Management to the shopkeepers, explain them the concept of the Lifetime value of a customer while bargaining.
You point out the inefficiencies in the Supply Chain of your local dhaaba waala.
You think of applying Business Process Re-Engineering to day to day activities.
You think of Process Improvements and automation while standing in the queues of Government offices.
You use a lot of jargon and fancy terminologies in your oral and written communication.
Microsoft Excel is the most commonly used software for you.
You try to predict the share prices by making use of Business Forecasting techniques.
You get a new Broadband connection at home by explaining the ROI and expected payback period to your family.
You compare promotional schemes by drawing line diagrams.
In the free time, you start blogging and write stuff that no one except you understands :p

If this matches your behaviour, both of us need to find a good doctor :)

Happy Birthday Sachin

2006-04-24T14:03:00.000+05:30

Dear S10,

Wishing you a happy birthday :D You are the only sportsperson whose B'day I remember, wishing you a wonderful year ahead...May you win the World Cup for us this year :) I don't care what your critics have to say, I will continue to have your poster in my room and you will continue to by my all-time favourite batsman.

Cheers!

Image courtesy: http://www.ibnlive.com/

500!

2006-04-23T10:26:00.000+05:30

Wow! 500 page views within a week of public launch, not bad :D Thanks for the overwhelming response to this useless blog, hopefully I'll learn how to write meaningful stuff soon, keep visiting till then :)

Life is all about celebrating small things.

Cheers!

PG Tees and E-Commerce in India

2006-04-21T13:37:00.000+05:30

I happen to be a Certified Pagal on Pagalguy.com - India's largest MBA Forum with close to sixty thousand registered members. Pagalguy.com came out with it's T-Shirts recently, members could buy the PG Tees by making online payment (people who lived close enough to the PG HQ could get their tees in person). The Tees were a huge hit and close to a hundred vanished within hours. This idea of this post is not to celebrate the success of PG tees; it is to highlight the growing popularity of E-Commerce in India.

After the bubble burst in the early 2000s, many analysts had written off the fancy term called "E-Commerce" but now things are changing and E-Commerce is gaining in popularity. It will gain momentum as connectivity improves and the credit card culture spreads. On both counts, we seem to have reached the take-off stage. More and more Indians are finding online shopping a great convenience. They are buying airline and railway tickets, books, home appliances, electronic gadgets, movie tickets and more stuff by logging on to a Web site, than driving up to a store.

Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with transacting online, mainly due to better (perceived) security features being used by the Banks. I purchased my PG Tees through ICICI Bank online money transfer and I was satisfied by the authentication checks being employed by the Bank. Despite all this, one of the biggest roadblocks for portals trying to grow B2C e-commerce in India is still the payment system. Lot of people I know would like to buy things online but they are still scared of using their credit cards, the best option for such users is COD (Cash on Delivery), but it has a lot of problems. Very few courier companies in the country are willing to provide COD (those who do it charge a hefty premium). COD takes the cost of delivery up by 10-15% but, more importantly, it takes an average of three months for the cash to get back. That is why portals like Pagalguy.com encourage payment methods like credit cards and online banking.

The future of e-commerce in India will depend on how successful we are in upgrading infrastructure and connectivity - both of which seem to be improving very fast thanks to cheaper computers and introduction of Broadband in most cities. Also important will be the presence of a legal framework for resolving disputes (The IT Act 2000 needs to be revised). The credit card companies should do their bit by encouraging people to use their cards online - they must prove that their security is unbreakable by throwing open challenges to the hacker community. They can also look at the option of insurance against credit card information thefts like some of their western counterparts.

Hopefully E-Commerce will really take-off now.

Pay Packet after MBA

2006-04-20T12:58:00.000+05:30

Another GOMBA (Grossly Overpaid MBA)

Hail the Class of 2006!

Nokia N92: TV on the Go

2006-04-19T13:10:00.000+05:30

Nokia N90 was my dream phone till I saw the N92. Simply put, It Rawks! The N92 is a TV Phone (height of convergence!) with a mind blowing resolution and the output looks really great on its 2.8 inch display. It can open both ways - In Portrait mode and in landscape mode, has a 2 Megapixel camera (some would say it's not a big deal, Samsung D600 and even one of the LG handsets priced at around 17K in India can boast of that currently). It has Wifi connectivity, Bluetooth, Infra red and most of the features of an advanced PDA. The TV transmission is based on DVB-H which is a digital standard for receiving TV signals from terrestrial transmitters aimed specifically at mobile devices. It offers a watch time of up to four hours and has the ability to record live TV and do an on-demand 30-second replay. It also an XpressMusic device, harbouring a music player with support for MP3, WMA and AAC formats as well as a memory card slot allowing for up to 2 GB cards. Also on the slate is dual stereo speakers and the ability to connect a stereo headset, as well as an integrated stereo FM radio!!

The Nokia N92 is slated for commercial availability in the EMEA region in mid-2006 in countries where DVB-H transmissions are available. The estimated retail price will be in the 600 Euro range (Not less than 35K in India, IF and when it gets launched). People in India will have to wait a little longer, but the device is definitely worth a wait. BTW the device looks a bit bulky, but with features like those who's complaining :)

The Great Indian IT Industry

2006-04-18T14:20:00.000+05:30

It's results time once again, IT majors like Infosys and TCS have announced their annual results and the numbers are impressive, as always. These large Indian IT companies have been growing consistently at over 30% an year which is much faster than the growth rate of their American counterparts. While some may argue that the American companies like IBM have much bigger base, they are already feeling the heat. The US Big Six of outsourcing - Accenture, ACS, CSC, EDS, HP and IBM-have never been under as much pressure as they're today, buffeted by high costs and an Indian global delivery model that's matured over the years. According to 2006 research by TPI, the world's largest sourcing advisory firm, close to $100 billion (Rs 4,50,000 crore) worth of big-ticket outsourcing contracts will come up for renewal in the next two years and it looks increasingly likely that the US Big Six will not retain all of these contracts in full. Indian champs like Infosys, HCL, Satyam, Wipro and TCS are likely to take away a major pound of the flesh.

All said and done, the kind of work "most" Indian IT companies are doing is "Clerical" at best and they are far away from doing high-end "R&D" work. Most Indian "Software Engineers" today are just copy-pasting code borrowed from Google and creating customised applications for client needs. This leads to a lot of frustration for the "Engineers" and that's why we find most of the IT guys leaving their jobs for MBA within two-three years of joining. How many Indian IT companies can boast of having a state of the art software product that can be purchased off-the-shelf? What percentage of these multi-million profits are being used for R&D purposes? All these outsourcing contracts may seem very lucrative currently but for how long can these Indian IT companies continue to compete on price alone? China may not be perceived as a threat in the IT Industry, but it can surely give Indian IT companies a run for their money in the time to come (atleast on the price front). It's time our companies started to set aside some share of their revenues for R&D purposes, if the Indian IT champs want to be of the size of Microsoft, they cannot afford to remain pure Project-based companies. We must start looking at developing new products - ERP Software, Document Management Software, Word and Image Processing software, Software that addresses the untapped market (the Blue Ocean Strategy).

Hopefully, the guys at the top are smarter than we think and they are already working on these lines.

P.S: No offence meant to anyone. Standard Disclaimers apply ;)

5..4..3..2..1........Go Live!

2006-04-15T12:24:00.000+05:30

"In the begining there was nothing and God said 'Let there be light', and there was still nothing but everybody could see it."

-- Dave Thomas.

My friends have been bugging me for a long time to start blogging, I used to think it's a waste of time (and I still think the same :p). It's vacation time which gives me a lot of time to spare and Blogging seems to be the best way to kill time. Registered a blog, now the next challenge was to select a template for the blog, which was not easy for me. I browsed through all the templates available on blogger, searched for some free ones on Google but didn't like any. So, I decided to work on my own personalised template. Hundreds of versions later, I have finally decided to stick to this version and I hope I won't need to change it for some time :)

Technically, this is not my first attempt at blogging. I had started The Unofficial Blog of IMI Students last year, but it was more of a community blog and not a personal blog. On this blog, I will post my thoughts on things I like the most - ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment) and some random topics. Some really Insane posts coming your way on this blog...stay tuned!

Go Live!

-AnuragXP

Coming Soon....

2006-04-07T23:54:00.000+05:30

World's Insanest Blog..............Coming Soon......