Blog

Microsoft and Yahoo get hitched in the search space

2009-07-29T14:42:00.001-07:00

You'll have noticed that Microsoft is now going to be powering Yahoo's search. Well, it will be once the deal is done.To celebrate, the two companies set up a joint website to announce it. They have finally got it together on advertising and search engine operations, with a view to take on the might of Google. Under this deal Yahoo is supposedly managing the ads side of the business and Microsoft will provide the necessary search engine platform. Rumours are that the two will share the revenues.

Microsoft has been chasing Yahoo around the corporate bedroom for years, but each time a consummation looked nigh, Yahoo proclaimed itself too expensive or just not interested and the deal fell apart.

An 18-month odyssey.
It was a partnership that was a long time in the making. Microsoft's search market share has been slipping for more than two years, and the company has struggled to make its online advertising unit profitable. Meanwhile, Yahoo, once the search market leader, dropped to a distant second place behind leader Google by 2007.

The dealings between the two companies began Feb. 1, 2008, when Microsoft made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo. A week later, Yahoo rejected the bid, saying the offer "massively undervalues" the company.

In June of last year, Microsoft said it was no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo outright, but would like to enter a deal for Yahoo's search advertisement business.

Bartz and Ballmer said those preliminary discussions involved more cash up front for Yahoo but a less revenue sharing. Bartz said Yahoo insisted on a higher revenue number so it could invest in its long-term projects like its core online media businesses.

Though many analysts speculated that Microsoft's immediate success with its Bing search engine, unveiled last month, was the final nail in the coffin, Bartz said there was no one thing that pushed the deal through.

"It was the understanding and trust that we could have a partnership, and that takes time," said Bartz. "Finally the comfort level was there, and the proverbial snowball went down the hill. Once we reached a point in which it was clear that a deal was advantageous to both companies, we moved forward."

Ballmer said, for Microsoft, the deal wasn't better than the original revenue-sharing proposal, "just different."

Credit card - Boon or Bane?

2009-07-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Buying things using plastic has graduated from being a life style statement to one of becoming a necessity in recent years.

We even see auto drivers (at least now in TV ads only) advising us to use the plastic version of money and not hard cash and even refusing to go to the ATM machine.

Of course the ad was for debit cards not credit cards! But using cards in one form or the other has today become the norm not the exception.

Travel any express train and we can see the number of online tickets beating the old form of counter tickets by atleast 4 to 1. It would be dumb to say "Don't use credit/debit cards".

Cards are similar to the TVs, Mobile phones, computers and internet which are technological advances/tools that are now an integral part of our lives. But the issue is that these tools have taken over so fast that many of us have not had the time to think of the best ways to use these tools

The best way to use a credit card is to pay the full amount specified in the bill before the due date. That way we get close to one month's credit (sometimes more) from the card company.

There maybe of course some charges in certain places for the usage of the card. If there was any during the month, most of the time the credit advantage gets nullified (goes back to zero).

Beware of impulse purchases using the credit card, they can run up a bill that we may not be able to pay when the bill comes in. The credit card companies grow in double digits (and survive at bad times) because of such purchases.

So what do we do when the purchase is beyond the repayment capacity? We are presented with 2 options:

Pay the Minimum Balance
Convert the purchase into an EMI (Equated Monthly Installment)

Both these options are negative in the perspective of the purchaser. The better option is to pay as much as possible so as to close the purchase amount in a month or two (and not purchase anything in the meantime).

The table provided here illustrates the effect of paying only the minimum balance on the outstanding. See how long the term gets extended to and also the total amount (17,000) paid for a small principal (10,000).

The most important output from the table will be the effective interest rate. This is the interest rate charged on us when we pay off Rs.10,000/- over 34 months buy paying Rs.500/- monthly. The Effective interest rate in this case is 40.69% per annum. Is it worthy to pay such high effective interest rate to purchase anything? Think not.

This is another seemingly good idea. The plan is to convert the purchase say Rs 30,000/- into an "interest free" EMI. On the surface the deal sounds too good to be true, and we jump on it before the tele-caller (who usually offers the deal) thinks otherwise. The tele-caller goes on to say that there is only a one time service charge of some low percentage, the rest of the amount is totally free. Let us the calculation for one such offer:

Effective Interest Rate for 0% EMI Option with Credit Cards

Purchase: Rs 30,000

Term for repayment (in mths) 9 mths; 6 mths; 3 mths

EMI 3333.333; 5000; 10000

One Time Processing Charge 3370; 2400; 1200

Processing Charge % 11%; 8.0%; 4%

Effective Processing Charge Annualised % 14.98%; 16.00%; 16.00%

Thus we can see clearly that the Zero Percentage is not truly Zero, but a cool 15% to 16% more

This is article is not suggesting that the credit card companies are the big bad wolves out there to get you. Used well, the credit card can be a time saver (train tickets), face saver (just short of cash after a candle lit dinner with your girl friend) and a life saver (imagine carrying Rs 1L as cash at Timbaktu).

The way out of the darkness surrounding the usage of credit cards is through awareness and knowledge - Awareness of our buying / spending patterns and the knowledge about the various terms of use of the cards (time to dust up the pouch in which the card arrived or better ask the company for a new set up or if lucky your company may be among those who print the terms of use behind each bill).

Source: BankBazaar.com

Nandan, first day at office in new Role..

2009-07-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I have received this on my email,can't comment on authenticity of this. It may be a joke floating around on net. So just read and enjoy.

Continuing my tryst with capturing the life and times of Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament. The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let’s see what happened thereafter….

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.

Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits.. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it’s here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”.

Since there was no doubt about the “Fixational” capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project’s turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECT”S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.

I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!! The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days’ milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.

“You won’t believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!”

[Nandan shouldn't be astonished to know that till date all Hon'ble Members of our Parliament have been sitting on Bench. They are on project only when they have to "earn" something :) ]

Stumbleupon - I am stumbled!

2009-07-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles.

Web pages are presented when the user clicks the "Stumble!" button on the browser's toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user's ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate or choose not to rate any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles "channel-surfing" the Web. StumbleUpon also allows their users to indicate their interests from a list of nearly 500 topics to produce relevant content for the user.[3] There is also one-click blogging built in as well.
StumbleUpon is very easy to use. Since all you need to do is download the toolbar, install it, and pick your topics, you can be up and running in about two minutes. It's not as helpful if you are looking for something specific, but it is a lot of fun and a great time killer

Review - StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon really is very easy to use, and you don't have to do much more than install the toolbar and pick your interests to enjoy it. But you will get the most mileage by befriending users with similar interests and joining groups that correspond to those interests. This will help StumbleUpon do a better job at finding websites that interest you.

As with all social websites, user participation is key. You don't have to participate to enjoy the benefits of StumbleUpon, but they have made it easy to give a thumbs up to websites you like, and a thumbs down to sites you just don't think cut it.

A Few Kinks in the System

Stumble Upon can be a lot of fun, but it is not a great tool if you are looking for something specific. It's better used for discovering new websites you might not have otherwise found.

It's pretty easy to write a review if you are the one discovering the site. The toolbar will pop up a window for you to pick the website's topic and there is a space to write a quick review. But, if the site has already been discovered, you have to click the reviews button and then click the review this page button. It would be nice to have a button in the toolbar dedicated to adding your own review.

Modifying your interests could also be a little easier. You do this by clicking the tools button and choosing update topics, but it can be easy to confuse this with profile preferences.

Did the dream End and Nightmares have begun!

2009-07-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Thirty-five-year old Sampath Tilak Vegi first started working on the Lehman Brothers account a few years ago. At that time, he had no idea how closely his fortunes would get entwined with that of the now defunct investment bank. The tango started almost two years ago. Vegi was living the great Indian IT dream. He had 10 years’ experience. He was working for TCS, India’s largest IT services company in Bangalore, servicing a marquee customer. He had just received a 25% pay hike and was contemplating buying a house in his hometown, Visakhapatnam. Life was good.

A few continents away, the New York-headquartered Lehman Brothers had just posted record revenues and profits, and was handling assets of over $275 billion. At that time, Vegi was sitting on multiple job offers. One was from American outsourcing giant EDS and the other from Wipro, India’s second largest IT company. Both offered to pay him substantially more than what he was earning at TCS. But EDS was willing to pay a little more than Wipro.

Multiple job offers and generous pay hikes were nothing unusual in the IT industry. Talent was hard to come by. Companies had to pay plenty in cash, bonuses, perks and stock options to retain existing employees, and attract new hires by the thousands. New contracts from US clients were flowing in easily and IT companies had a simple formula for success: they could grow as much as they could hire. They often behaved like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They hired indiscriminately.

Vegi chose to accept Wipro’s offer ahead of EDS. “I thought my job would be more secure with an Indian company,” he recalls. Soon after, on September 14, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. In three months, the bank would be just a footnote in financial history. When Vegi heard the news, he was in Vizag for his housewarming ceremony. “Good I moved out of that account,” he thought. But he had no inkling of the catastrophe awaiting him the next day.

On September 15, Vegi was summoned to his supervisor’s cabin. He had been a part of Wipro’s ‘free pool’ (the bench, IT industry lingo for people without any work to do) for a few months. “The supervisor asked me to resign as there were no projects,” recalls Vegi. If Vegi were to be assigned a project during his notice period, the supervisor promised to reinstate him. The supervisor then pushed his laptop across the table and asked Vegi to type out his resignation letter. Flustered, Vegi asked for time.

He didn’t get any. Over the next three hours, Vegi says he was badgered with half a dozen calls from his supervisor. Pressured, he quit the same day. Vegi alleges that his efforts to find other projects within the company during his one-month notice period were spiked. Angry at the “betrayal”, he demanded to take back his resignation almost a month later. “I was told that I could not do that,” he recalls. He was given an extra month. Wipro, he alleges, kept up the pressure—resign or be terminated from service. Wipro, on its part, says there have been no layoffs due to business reasons. Says Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice-President-Human Resources, Wipro: “The involuntary exits have been based primarily on performance parameters.”

Vegi resigned for the second time in March 2009—this time for good. He had spent a depressing nine months on the bench in his year-and-a-half long stint at Wipro.

Two painful months have gone by since Vegi quit Wipro. He has given up all hope of finding another IT job. His family has moved back to Visakhapatnam and he plans to follow them as he can no longer pay the rent in Bangalore. Vegi is also in the final stages of selling his Visakhapatnam house for Rs 18 lakh as he can no longer pay an EMI. He had purchased it for 22 lakh.

Jobs On The Block

Vegi’s IT dream has turned into a nightmare. Across India, thousands of dreams of IT professionals lie shattered as companies are shedding employees to cope with the slowdown. Infosys Technologies, the flag-bearer of the Indian IT dream, said it will show “zero tolerance” to non-performers, and put 2,100 employees under the scanner. The new Mahindra management of the troubled Satyam Computer Services has announced that it has 10,000 unwanted employees. Precise numbers on the job losses in the IT sector are not available. But the figure could run into tens of thousands. Some experts say that 3.5-5% of the 2.2 million IT jobs have already been lost or are likely to be lost in the next few months. That puts the job loss number at 77,000-110,000.

This is not just an IT industry problem. This could potentially lead to a social crisis. The software industry employs more people than the Indian army, the third largest army globally. Over 80% are young (under-40), in the prime of their earning lives, and have families to support. Even though less than 5% of jobs are at risk now, a fear psychosis has gripped the entire community of IT professionals. Many have seen a colleague being fired. They are worrying that they could be next.

This fear has led to a freeze on spending. Pubs in Bangalore are empty; one is even offering “recession discounts”. Real estate prices, both housing and commercial, are sliding. The Promoters and Builders Association of Pune has launched a scheme where the developer will pay three EMIs in case a customer loses a job. Senior officials in a private sector bank confirm employees in the IT sector are in the negative list of borrowers. Many jobless are putting their cars and houses up for sale. Parents don’t want to marry their daughters to IT professionals.

More...

Buying a Home? agreement with builder , 5-point checklist!

2009-06-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

So you have identified the house that you want to buy, got the home loan approved and now are ready to own your house. Think its smooth sailing from here onwards? Think again.

Once you have completed these formalities, the next part is ensuring that the builder does not entangle you in any legal traps. There are some very important points to consider when you are about to enter into an agreement with the developer.

Let's take a look at 5 such points you need to remember and the measures you can take against them.

Point 1: Actual price of the house

The agreement you enter into with the builder details the various costs that you will need to bear for buying the house. This would include the cost for utilities like electricity and water, parking space, various taxes and in some cases even the registration charges.

However, the builder may then levy some extra charges for any of these.

Measures to take

Check the agreement very carefully for all the charges applicable.
If possible, get the agreement checked by a lawyer for any missing or hidden charges and get the anomalies (if any) rectified by the builder.
If the extra charges are for alterations made to the original plan, ask the builder for the sanction letter provided by government authorities for such alterations.

Point 2: Actual size of the house

The agreement would clearly mention the size of the house you are purchasing. However, there is a clause which states '. . . the plans, designs, and specifications are tentative and the developer reserves the right to make variations and modifications. . .'

Therefore, you may agree for a certain size, but the builder can give a different size.

Measures to take

Before freezing on your choice of a builder, do some research about the builder's past projects.
If possible, talk with other buyers who already have got possession about problems faced by them
Try and include a clause in the agreement stating the minimum and maximum size beyond which the builder cannot increase or decrease.

Point 3: Carpet area

The area of an apartment or building, not inclusive of the area of the walls is known as carpet area. This is the area in which literally a 'carpet' can be laid.

When the area of the walls including the balcony is calculated along with the carpet area, it is known as built-up area. The built-up area along with the area under common spaces like lobby, lifts, stairs, garden and swimming pool is called super built-up area.

The carpet area can be 15-30 per cent less than the super built-up area. However, you will not come to know the exact size until the flat'ss construction has been completed.

Measures to take

Purchase the property based on the carpet area of the flat.
Ensure that this area is mentioned in the agreement.
Try to get a clause included which will ensure that the contract can be terminated if the builder provides a house with the carpet area less than what is mentioned in the contract.

Point 4: Date of possession

The agreement normally mentions a tentative date of possession. However, there have been instances where builders have delayed possession by more than a year.

Measure to take

Check the progress of the construction personally.
If the progress is slow and would not meet the date of possession in a timely manner, build pressure on the builder.
Forming a society with other buyers sometimes helps a lot in getting things to speed up at the builders end.

Point 5: Completion certificate

On handing over the house to you, the builder needs to also give a Completion certificate. a completion certificate is issued by municipal authorities which establishes that the building complies with the approved plan.

You would need this certificate for registration of your house and other government formalities.

Measures to take

If the agreement does not mention the certificate, ensure that the agreement has a clause which states that the builder will provide the certificate while handling over the house to you.
If the builder delays a lot, forming a society with other buyers sometimes helps a lot.
Other than these five points there more points such as the quality of the construction, management of the society, et cetera.

For this you can try to add clauses to the agreement or form a society to get the builder to meet your demands. Since there is no industry regulator you can turn to for the redressal of issues, it is important that you are aware of what you want and what you are getting.

US,UK and Japan Debts 25 times that of India's ?

2009-06-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Developed countries US, UK and Japan slided deep into debts due to recession hovering on them more. Especially Japan's loan books have grown to two times of their GDP. Where as US and UK's debts have more or less equal to their GDP.

The total amount of debts of these 3 developed nations have reached to 17 trillion Dollars (8,16,00,000 Crores) . This is 25 times more than India's debts. When we compare on GDP basis India's debt amount is not to be worried much as their GDP grows is going strong where YOY basis it is growing in close to two digit figures.

However India's loan books are also growing this year as they have much growth plans. Now as it stands their loan is close to 35,00,0000 however this is only 80% of India's GDP. Japan's debts have reached to 5 trillion $s already and they are seeming to increase to 8 trillion $s in coming years. Even US's debt kitty is close to 11 trillion $s. Due to recession as economic biggies are getting tumbled, GDP: DEBT ratio is going to increase phenomenally. If we compare with these nations India looks like it's well poised to put check to the alarming increase in GDP: DEBT ration

In recent months as US of A has announced a lot of stimulus packages to bail out toxic loans of many financial institutions. Due to this it’s Debts that are 11.4 trillion $ have surpassed its GDP, which is only 11 trillion, $ (as per IMF). Also as per information with IMF, US debts are going to surpass their GDP and by 2014 its debts are surely going to surpass their Gross domestic produce.

Valuable tips for good Internet Content

2009-06-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

write valuable content that brings value to website visitors that initiates discussions, questions and comments. here are few tips:

Step 1: Short text is a myth

The received wisdom on web content is people don’t read on screens and long pages of text will disengage the reader. There are several reasons why this may not be so:

Most of the traffic to your site will come through search engines, not from your own links and text-related search results won’t show pages with no text.

It is true that people don’t read in the same way on the Internet, but it is false to say that they don’t read anything on screens.

Search engines are fond of text, and indexing is based on keywords, not images. If your text is too short and doesn’t contain vital keywords, it is bound to remain the Internet’s best kept secret.

A good story doesn’t depend on its length, but on the author’s ability to retain the attention of his readers.

Step 2: Spice up your text with images, not the other way round

People are mesmerised by pictures and web content is becoming more picture-lead, especially if the subject lends itself to illustration, such as paintings or luxury goods. Yet, there are a few problems associated with peppering your site with images:

You might see the pictures but search engines won’t. Google has an image option but images are indexed by the text that surrounds them.

Flash animations aren’t really a good idea because they are mostly irrelevant, unmaintainable and above all unseen by search engines. Lastly, visitors hate them, if I judge by all the comments I see in the surveys I carried out on the subject, unless they bring real interactivity.

Large pictures placed on a web page tend to kill the text around and below them.

Step 3: Hypertext, hypertext, hypertext

Sir Tim Berners Lee has to be remembered for is the invention of the http protocol — the device for linking web pages, without which the world wide web wouldn’t exist. Websites in which there are no links shouldn’t exist either.

Links can be used to make content richer for the visitor, without presenting them with reams of text on one page.

Links can lock the visitor into your site as they click through to more information.
Properly done, these links can take the visitor along a journey through your site that finishes on an order form or a request to be contacted as a sales lead.

internet gurus like Jakob Nielsen advise you can’t put too many hypertext links into a piece of content.

Step 4: Good content shows in the title

When writing content, product managers often keep their minds too heavily focused on their product names but they fail to ask themselves two important questions:

Is the product name generic enough so that potential customers will recognise it even if they don’t already know about it? Or do I need to include an explanation in the title that the uniniated can easily pick up on?

What is the problem that my product is trying to solve (Michael Bosworth would have used the term ‘painpoint’) which I could describe in the title to draw visitors into the site.

Step 5: Keywords mean a lot

Once a good title has been found, one can start working on the keywords that we would like to see indexed by Google. If those keywords are nowhere to be found in the page, then you stand absolutely no chance of being indexed properly there or other search engines.

Google publishes a keyword tracking tool that will help you design your content with the optimum likelihood of being picked up in search results

Step 6: Writing with a reader in mind

The content of your web pages must focus on your visitors. We can split them into three different categories, depending on their needs from your site:

You have a visitor who understands their problem and has identified a solution: detailed, straightforward product descriptions should be made available to address this requirement. Interactive applications can also be developed that clients’ choices clearer for them.

You have a visitor who knows they have a problem but isn’t aware that a solution exists, in which case his point of entry will be the focus on the problem via a search engine. He will browse the web in order to find relevant information and he will use keywords for this purpose,

You have a visitor who doesn’t even know that they have a problem, let alone that a solution exists and that you are selling it. Build your pages in order to demonstrate that the problem exists and you have a solution to solve it.

= via =

Annuities / Pension Plans in India

2009-06-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

A pension plan or an annuity is an investment that is made either in a single lump sum payment or through installments paid over a certain number of years, in return for a specific sum that is received every year, every half-year or every month, either for life or for a fixed number of years.

Annuities differ from all the other forms of life insurance in that an annuity does not provide any life insurance cover but, instead, offers a guaranteed income either for life or a certain period.

Typically annuities are bought to generate income during one's retired life, which is why they are also called pension plans. By buying an annuity or a pension plan the annuitant receives guaranteed income throughout his life. He also receives lump sum benefits for the annuitant's estate in addition to the payments during the annuitant's lifetime.

“Your friends will try to convince you that target-date retirement funds aren’t as high-returning and exciting as their fancy stocks (which they probably picked using a dartboard, three beers and a sponge cake). Ignore them. You’re focused on growth, not impressing your friends…”

Pension plans are perfect investment instrument for a person who after retiring from service has received a large sum as superannuation benefit. He can invest the proceeds in a pension plan as it is safest way of secured income for the rest of his life. One can pay for a pension plan either through an annuity or through installments that are annual in most cases.

Types of Annuities / Pension Plans

Life Annuity:
Guarantees you a specified amount of income for your life. After death, the amount invested is refunded to your nominee.

Guaranteed Period Annuity:
Provides specified income for your lifetime and guarantees that your nominee will receive payments for a certain minimum number of years, even if you should die earlier. In case you live longer than the specified minimum number of years, you are entitled to recieve annuity payments for your lifetime.

Annuity Certain:
Under this plan, the stipulated annuity is paid for a fixed number of years. The annuity payments stop at the end of that period, irrespective of how much longer you may live.

Deferred Annuities:
The premiums paid into such plans may be deducted from one’s taxable income at the time of payment. In addition, the interest earned on the annuities is not taxed immediately. But the proceeds of the annuity will be taxable when they are paid to you.

Skydrive - by Windows live

2009-06-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

With Microsoft's aggressive strategy to build out its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) capability to online storage -- even as physical, hardware-based storage remains ubiquitous and competitive -- businesses may find it tempting to allow employees and workgroups to jump into Skydrive for some limited purposes.
SkyDrive, the name Microsoft has given to its Office Live storage arm, is a free, Web-based service that is loosely integrated with some Office applications and, because of how it's organized, outflanks its biggest rival, Google, in online storage. Formally launched last month after a short beta run, the Test Center has taken a look at SkyDrive in the ever-expanding shadow of high-powered NAS, SAN and desktop storage solutions.

Microsoft bills SkyDrive this way: "Sharing with friends, co-workers, or family is easy when you all add and update files in a shared folder." Sharing personal, innocuous files with friends or family might make sense. But the potential of sharing files with co-workers leads to a number of questions.

The conclusion: Not only does the Test Center decline to recommend SkyDrive, it might actually be advisable for VARs to suggest their clients block network access to SkyDrive through content filters.

For now, think of SkyDrive as you would any mass-market, file-sharing service: something that is simply best left at home and kept out of the business.

Here is a breakdown:

Security: For companies with compliance concerns -- HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley or Payment Card Industry -- it's difficult to see how SkyDrive could create anything other than a headache. While SkyDrive is SSL- and password-protected (although it allows simultaneous sign-ons with the same ID across multiple systems), it lacks other control features that even a small business would seek to keep tabs on sensitive data. Microsoft needs to make a stronger security statement with online applications like SkyDrive (perhaps a free, ready and easy to use encryption function?) before even small businesses can think about warming up to it.

Capacity: At 5 GB of free storage, it's more than most USB thumb drives but much less than higher-capacity USB storage devices sold through the channel by companies like Seagate and Western Digital. And Western Digital's Passport drives, for example, are both mobile and offer encryption support. SkyDrive does have enough capacity to store big PowerPoint presentations or other multi-media files, though it's not really big enough to act as a personal file warehouse.

Collaboration: This is one of two areas where SkyDrive is impressive. The service allows creation of shared folders on the fly which could be a help in a dynamic, workgroup scenario. SkyDrive also allows creation of public folders, where content can be shared with everyone on the Internet; that allows for interesting potential in marketing or online publishing solutions.

Interoperability: This is another area where SkyDrive impresses. In the Test Center, a Word 2003 document uploaded to SkyDrive on a Windows Vista-based PC was easily shared, downloaded, and viewed in OpenOffice 2.3 Writer on a virtual PC running Ubuntu Linux. It's actually easier to share documents, cross-platform, via SkyDrive than it is via Word in Microsoft's heralded Office Live online service.

Management: There are no central management capabilities. On an individual basis, users can create folders for specific file types, make those folders private, shared with a limited group or made fully public.

Performance: Eh. During testing, an upload of a 1.25 GB movie file took more than a half hour with slightly more than 7 Mbps of bandwidth. (Actually, testing was halted at 30 minutes even before the file had successfully uploaded.) Transferring that same file from the PC's hard drive to a Western Digital Passport, USB-connected drive, with 160 GB of capacity, took one minute and 45 seconds. So even if a content-filter isn't deployed to halt the use of SkyDrive in an enterprise, Microsoft's own performance might have the same effect.

As a VAR, if you have a client that is going to readily opt for freebie, low-performance, low-security storage like SkyDrive, you probably don't have high hopes for that client. For now, though, keep this in mind as free, non-enterprise online storage proliferates and some begin to think it's a good idea: Is the marginal benefit to even a small business even worth the risk?

The Future of Social Media: Is a Tweet the New Size of a Thought?

2009-06-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you increasingly convinced that you're the last human alive who doesn't get the point of Twitter, I have comforting news: Nobody does. Not really. Sure, the twittering masses (17 million registered U.S. users, by latest count) have some idea what their habit is good for. For many, Twitter's steady stream of one-line updates — "microblogging," as the form is known — is a low-maintenance way to feel connected to family, friends, celebrities. For others, it's a marketing tool, a public diary, a communal news feed, or even, simply, a sort of brain game — a text-message Sudoku, where the daily challenge is to fit the maximum amount of cleverness into the minimal space of a 140-character limit. But knowing how people use Twitter isn't the same thing as knowing why they use it. And that turns out to be a puzzle even seasoned Twitter watchers have found difficult to crack.

The quandary is this: Most of the uses Twitter has been adapted to were already well-served by existing online tools — blogs, email, instant-messaging — and it's not entirely obvious how the subcompact message lengths and other constraints of microblogging represent an improvement. Identifying Twitter's comparative advantage, in other words — the compelling, real-world need that it alone among social media best fulfills — is hard. So hard that a recent blog post by legendary web-tech guru (and avid twitterer) Dave Winer all but conceded Twitter's core appeal might remain forever shrouded in the ineffable. "There's something there," wrote Winer. "The challenge is to figure out what it is."

Should that challenge ever be met, however, not everyone's convinced we'll find a lot of there there. "I think there's a question whether Twitter is going to be the thing everybody does, in the way that using IM or cell phones is," says Farhad Manjoo, technology columnist for Slate. Broadcasting one's personal status on a regular basis, after all, may not be for everyone. "It's a very alien concept," says Manjoo, and while he's not inclined to write Twitter off as a fad — the CB radio of the '00s — he's not entirely convinced that what remains of Twitter's popularity once the hype has settled will prove it something bigger than a niche pursuit.

But here's a concept: What if the reason no one's figured out why Twitter matters is that it's bigger, in fact, than anyone's imagining? Sure, it's easy to dismiss Twitter because of the content — the endless stream of latte orders, flight delays, mood swings. Who cares? But that would be a mistake. Early critics of the television also wrote it off as a time waster with few redeeming social or cultural values: the boob tube. But TV became a powerful change agent regardless of, or even in spite of, the programming. The medium was the message.

The same lesson applies to Twitter. The most important thing about it isn't the messages themselves — most of them are admittedly banal — but the form of the message: 140 characters or fewer.

If you want to understand how and why that matters, think about another textual medium — the book. For the last 2,000 years of Western culture, the book has been the ideal, default form of the written word — the organizing shape of thought, the fundamental unit of knowledge — and no one should expect the humble 140-character tweet to take its place. But the invention of the book was world-changing not because it made possible the kinds of extended thoughts that fit that shape — the sweeping, complex species of utterance we recognize as "book-length" in everything from Gone With the Wind to The Origin of Species — but because it gave them a radically expansive new form, allowing us to mass-distribute, study, catalogue, cross-reference, and otherwise get them out of our heads and into the world in powerful ways not previously imaginable.

And just so, too, by forcing users to commit their thinking to the bite-size form of the public tweet, Twitter may be giving a powerfully productive new life to a hitherto underexploited quantum of thought: The random, fleeting observation.

What new cultural forms and institutions may emerge from this development could be as hard to predict as all the consequences of the book have been. But for one of the more intriguing examples, consider the emerging Twitter practice NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen calls "mindcasting." It may begin as just a seed of an idea — a thought about the future of online media, say — tossed out into the germinating medium of the twitterverse, passed along from one Twitter feed to another, critiqued or praised, reshaped and edited, then handed back for fleshing out on a blog, first, and then, perhaps, in a book. It's not that tweet-size sparks of insight haven't always been part of the media ecosystem, in other words. It's just that Twitter now has given them a vastly more exciting social life.

And that may be all the point that Twitter needs.

== Via ==

Bingo....... Here comes BING

2009-06-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

At last, Bing has arrived. I do not know what MSFT was thinking when they came up with this name "bing" but according to someone in one of the social networking site , BING could be an acronym for "But It’s Not Google". I have tested a Beta release of Microsoft's new search/decision engine. In few words I can say fair amount of features increase compared to its earlier "live" search engine but still way far behind Google.Bing has a better and more meaningful “Related Search”. It uses technology from Powerset (a search technology company Microsoft acquired) to display refined versions of your query

To see how well it Performs, Here's a breakdown of its new features and how well they perform

1. Left Explorer pane
Bing's new lefthand navigation menu called the Explorer Pane. This extra column of content includes Quick links that break searches down into Web Groups relevant to your search.

For example, a search on "iPhone 3g" triggers the Explorer Pane to create Quick Tabs for unlocked, GPS, and Features all based on what your intent might be.

Under Quick Tabs in the Explorer Pane are additional subcategories such as 'Related Searches' and 'Search History'; the latter, as its name implies, shows you recent searches. Microsoft asserts that 50 percent of all searches are repeats, and that providing a session history therefore offers a shortcut to results of redundant searches.

My View: The Explorer Pane can be extremely useful, which may make the trade-off of cluttering up the search results page worthwhile.

2. I have 10 blue links
When we key in for any search in Google, It lists out first 10 results in the first page. Which is generally termed as ""ten blue links" approach to reporting search results . Now Bing also joined the band wagon and it also lists out 10 blue links.

Apart from that it also has its 'Quick Preview' feature which gives you a text-based synopsis of the pages displayed in your search results. I dragged mouse cursor over individual search results for "Ford" and up popped a box of data pulled from the site.Which will give the idea about to follow the result or not.

My View: I didn't like the Quick Preview feature because I found that it took too long for boxes to pop up with text.

Also Sometimes, a Hover box would appear without text. In many cases when text did appear, it didn't give a strong enough clue as to whether the site was worth visiting. Given its shortcomings, this Bing feature may be the first to be axed.

3. Video/Image Search
Video and Image search has got a lot of improved features. Especially It allows you to choose layout,Size and quality as shown in the image beside. I really loved this but the only thing I didn’t like is that it is showing the webpages and videos embedded in its own website hence restricting the traffic to the real website.

Mukesh Ambani -Unplugged

2009-05-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

Few likes of the chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries
Mukesh Ambani likes very basic food – dal chawal, roti, sabzi , etc. Will eat anywhere, roadside or fancy restaurant,as long as it’s tasty. He is a vegetarian. His favourite places are Mysore Café in Matunga. Part of their menu is also on his private planes. Loves paanki at Swati Snacks and will ask anyone heading there to parcel him some

- Loves chaat at Taj Colaba.

- When guests are home, he enquires what they want to eat and asks for it to be prepared. Will always serve a special dish with his own hands to his guests.

- Nita Ambani practises her classical dance everyday and Mukesh can’t resist watching her dance!

- Must have his father’s photo or the family photo with his parents and siblings in every room of the house.

- The richest Indian spends Sundays with his mother and children and catches up on movies. He loves Hindi movies and doesn’t miss a single one. Will also watch all the latest Hollywood releases. His friends swear by his verdict on a film (whether it’ll be a hit or flop), and they claim he is rarely off the mark.

- Has never celebrated a birthday except his 50th one at the Jamnagar plant with his employees. Yet, he spends three months planning wife Nita’s birthday bashes and presents! Believes that the best celebrations are with family.

- Never leaves home without praying.

- Colleagues claim they have never known him to shout or lose his temper.

- He is a very late riser... gets up at 10:30 in the morning!

- Loves eating roasted groundnuts.

- When on vacation with kids, makes sure it’s a twothree weeks’ long trip.

- Favorite heroes are SRK, Hrithik and Aamir Khan.

- The business honcho reaches office at noon and works till midnight.

- Makes it a point to shake hands with each of his sons’ friends whenever they come home.

- Loves to catch up. He can chat with people for an hour or more.

- Ambani senior is never seen wearing brown shoes.

- Mukesh’s best friends from the industry are Anand Mahindra, Adi Godrej and Anand Jain, who was his schoolmate.

- Follows the handshakehug- shrug approach when greeting someone – always shakes the hand, then wraps his arm around the person in a semi hug.

- Loves old Hindi songs, and spends Sundays listening to them.

- Nickname is Muku; sisters and brothers-inlaw call him Muks!

- Loves expensive British cars. Always owned executive cars – Mercedes, Bentley and Maybach.

- Ardent reader of management books. Will read them and implement the lessons learned in his business. And also gives lectures on it whenever required.

- Wears clothes similar to his dad; white shirt and dark-coloured trousers. Has no knowledge of brands. If asked, he shrugs, “I wear anything that fits me.” Buys Provogue shirts often, so the company makes shirts in his size in various colours. Will wear a tie, whether Satya Paul or Zodiac, if he likes the colour.

- Mukesh loves long walks. He often takes a colleague along and then begin the brainstorming sessions.

= via ==

Barcelona does it in Champions league foot ball final

2009-05-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

Barcelona lifted the trophy for the third time in their history and matched United's own treble in 1999 as Pep Guardiola's men added Europe's premier competition to domestic League and Cup success.

The Catalan club scored with their first real attack after United started in electric fashion.

Andres Iniesta got past Anderson too easily and found Eto'o who cut inside Nemanja Vidic and toe poked the ball under Edwin van der Sar from close range.

Until then it had been all United.

After just two minutes Cristiano Ronaldo's 30-yard effort bounced viciously in front of Victor Valdes who spilled the effort and it required a superb block by former United defender Gerard Pique to deny Park Ji-sung a tap-in.

The Portuguese then volleyed just wide from 16 yards before United fell behind with Serb Vidic, named Barclays player of the year earlier in the day, culpable with a lackluster challenge.

Ronaldo looked to get his side back on terms and his run through on goal was ended by a Pique block for which he received a yellow card.

But Barca then began to boss the game and Messi came to the fore with a scorching drive just missing the top corner, with Van der Sar beaten, before Xavi curled a free-kick just over the top.

It was the 11th effort on goal in a frenetic opening half-hour.

United had an escape on the brink of half-time when Van der Sar spilled a low cross from Messi but there was no-one at the near post to capitalise and Sir Alex Ferguson gambled at the interval by replacing the ineffective Anderson with Carlos Tevez.

But Barca relished the extra space in midfield and twice came close to extending their advantage within the space of four minutes.

Iniesta sent Thierry Henry away down the left, in a big hole vacated by John O'Shea, and he turned Rio Ferdinand inside out before seeing his shot saved by the legs of Van der Sar.

Then a surging run from man-of-the-match Iniesta was ended a yard outside the penalty area by Vidic and Xavi curled the resulting free-kick around the wall and against the post.

United did regroup however and Ronaldo swung in a cross from the right which Yaya Toure completely missed only for the ball to bounce off the hard pitch and over the head of the unmarked Park six yards out.

Park was then replaced by Dimitar Berbatov as Ferguson threw caution to the wind with a 4-2-4 formation only to concede a second.

Patrice Evra hooked his clearance aimlessly to Xavi who picked out an unmarked Messi and the little Argentine climbed high to guide the ball past Van der Sar and into the far corner for his first goal against an English club.

United should have pulled a goal back almost immediately as the ball fell to Ronaldo at the far post only for Valdes to smother his shot.

Paul Scholes replaced Giggs and he was booked along with Ronaldo as United chased the game with the Premier League champions almost conceding a third when Carles Puyol's thumping header was saved by Van der Sar before the advancing Dutchman saved a shot from the Barca captain after the best move of the match.

Berbatov headed over from close range late on but there was no way back for United who failed in their bid to become the first team since Milan in 1990 to retain the European crown.

Victory for Barca also ended United's record 25-match unbeaten run in the competition and inflicted a first defeat in a European final on the Old Trafford club.

Where the Rupee comes from and goes out

2009-05-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

The major part of the government's revenue comes from borrowings. Consequently, the biggest chunk of expenditure is on interest payments.

Out of every rupee that enters the government's coffers, 29 paise is from borrowings and other debt, with corporation tax contributing 22 paise and income tax another 12 paise.

Of the remaining, customs and excise duties account for 10 paise each, with another 10 paise coming from non-tax revenue. Service taxes amount to six paise, while non-debt capital receipts contribute one paise.

On the expenditure side, 20 paise of each rupee spent is on interest payments. Then another 18 paise is on central plan outlay.

The central government has to give states 15 paise for their share of taxes and duties. Other non-plan expenditure accounts for 14 paise.

Defence accounts for 13 paise, while subsidies on food, fertilisers and energy costs nine paise.

Expenditure on state and union territory plan and non-plan assistance are seven and four paise, respectively.

Dealing with Difficult Boss

2009-05-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Work sucks when you don’t know how to deal with a difficult boss. It’s often said, people don’t quit a job, they quit a boss. Here to help you recognise and deal with a difficult boss, are solutions to 7 different types of management style.

It takes two to tango…

Maybe you’re the boss, and have a difficult employee. Any chance they think you’re behaving badly? You might be as nice as cherry pie, but if you’ve been cast as the wicked witch, you’re going to clash and clash and clash some more until you get a little mutual understanding going on.

It is possible to be a great person and a bad boss. They key to a successful working relationship, is to separate the behaviour from the person. Is the bad behaviour temporary due to over-work or personal stress, or due to something as simple as lack of management skills. Being sensitive to the underlying reasons means your boss can save face and improve their behaviour appropriately.

Here are 7 of the usual bad management suspects…….

The Bland Boss

A bland boss is as much use as a chocolate fireguard! They usually avoid risk or conflict at all cost, are vague and flit between decisions.

First off, you need to notice which situations trigger their bland or weak behaviour. If they regularly avoid conflict, they may need to be liked by everyone, so take someone else into combat with you or maybe get their boss to assume a greater leadership role.

If they are vague and provide little direction, it may be they’re lacking management skills and don’t realise that’s their job. Often unskilled or inexperienced managers are uncomfortable telling someone what to do. Train your manager by being clear about the direction you need to do your job, making sure they commit it to writing, so you both know what’s agreed.

The Grunt

The grunt has no original thought, drive or ambition. In fact, two short planks of wood’d make a better boss.

You’ve got a fantastic idea, which you’ve researched and know will work, and take it to your grunt boss to agree how to implement it. Bad idea. At best they’ll tell you why it won’t work, at worst they’ll just not have the brain power to comprehend something new. The best way to manage a grunt is to let them stick to what they know, and wait patiently for the next round of down-sizing and wave them off the premises.

The Control-Freak

The controlling manager barely lets you cough in a meeting let alone say something original or creative. You’re being managed at such an itty bitty level of detail you feel like a single cell specimen under a microscope. Anything that doesn’t conform is changed or rejected. Eventually you suffer from learned helplessness, the inability to think or function for yourself.

What's driving this behaviour? Usually it’s anxiety about failing or making mistakes, and micro-managing tasks gives them a reassuring feeling that the correct steps are being taken. Provide that reassurance by detailing the steps you’ve taken, who’ve you’ve spoken to and how you’ve assessed and addressed any risks.

The Politician

The political manager is a self-interested self-promoter, and generates more spin than a flywheel. You can trust them about as far as you can throw them.

Politicians are often easy to upwardly manage. Get their support by emphasising how good they’ll look to their seniors, Avoid being a potential scapegoat, by getting public written support for anything risky or controversial. Politicians often play favourites, so enjoy it while it lasts, and don’t take it personally when you’re dropped.

The Absent Manager

When your main conversation with your boss is a hurried chat masquerading as an annual appraisal, you could say you’ve got an absent manager. No manager may be better than an absent manager.

The absent manager goes missing in action, traveling across the globe, or is just plain busy. The secret is getting on their radar by getting in their diary. Establish a routine for communication, and stick to it. Maximise face time, by preparing thoroughly beforehand. Think and talk in headlines, summing up what decisions they need to make, or direction they need to give and get out. It might take more effort on your part, but your manager will respect you for it.

The Whip-Cracker

The whip-cracker knows when you’re goofing off. The whip-cracker knows when you’re just thinking about goofing off. The whip-cracker doesn’t sleep, drink or pee. Or have a life.
And they don’t expect you to have a life either. Or be human.

It’s useful to take a long term view with a whip-cracker. Is there some major deadline looming that explains the behaviour? Or does lightening up scare them to death? Decide how many extra miles you are prepared to go, and how often, and live with it.

The Spiteful Manager

In its extreme mutation, the spiteful manager is a bully. The bully’s raison d’etre is to belittle people for pleasure. A bully is the nasty and ruthless wicked witch (or wizard!)

Have a look around – is your manager singling you out or are there other victims? If you’re the unlucky one, maybe your styles clash – you’re need for detailed direction is perceived as clingy neediness – so consider changing your approach. Or it may be that the manager just doesn’t get the subtleties of interpersonal communication and has a miniscule emotional IQ. Then at least you know it’s not personal!

Regardless of which type of management style your boss has, the best way to change their behaviour is to talk to them. Giving effective feedback at least makes them aware of their behaviour, its impact on you, and more importantly how you would prefer them to behave. With time and luck, the boss’s behaviour will improve, but if not, you’ve got two choices. Maybe everything else in your work and life is good enough for you to grin and bear it or do what many people do - quit your boss and move on.

By -Lyndsay Swinton

Tata Nano review

2009-04-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Overview
Finally the time has come - Tata Nano was launched on 23rd March in Mumbai with much fanfare. Over 100 media persons were present at the launch ceremony with over 1000 guests. The Tata Nano is a rear-engined, four-passenger city car aimed primarily at the Indian market. It was first presented at the 9th annual Auto Expo on 10 January 2008, at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The sales of the Nano will begin in July.

It has been priced with a starting rate of Rs.134000.00 for the Base model and Rs.160000.00 & Rs.185000.00 for the CX & LX model respectively. It is cheaper than the Maruti 800, its main competitor which is next cheapest Indian car priced at 1,84,600.00 Rupees. Nano is 8 percent smaller in exterior size and has 23 percent larger interior space in comparison to Maruti 800. It is available in 6 shades and the top model LX comes fully loaded with AC, front power windows, fog lights, central locking, tinted glass, body colored bumpers and digital tripmeter.

Booking Amount & Procedure

The Nano can be booked at more than 30,000 locations in 1,000 cities across India, including Tata-owned department and electronics stores, with booking forms costing 300 rupees each. It will be available at just Rs. 2,999 down payment. Owners will be randomly selected from bookings made between April 9 and 25, and their prices will be protected. Initially, just 1 lakh Nanos will be produced. Delivery of the first lot of Nanos will be possible from July first week onwards.

As per the reports, more than 51,000 application forms have been sold so far. Tata Motors has entered into agreements with 18 preferred banks/NBFCs for financing and with five partner insurance companies to offer comprehensive insurance, under the ‘Tata Motors Insurance’ banner. Customers willing to book the Nano can either pay the entire booking amount using their own funds or seek financing. Booking amount is:

For Nano Base - Rs. 95,000.00
For Nano CX - Rs. 1,20,000.00
For Nano LX - Rs. 1,40,000.00

Tata Motors has entered into agreements with National Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Royal Sundaram Alliance General Insurance, United India Insurance and HDFC Ergo General Insurance. The insurance premium would start at Rs 3,468 (ex New Delhi).

Applicants have an option of retaining their booking deposit if they do not get allotment in the first phase. Customers retaining their booking deposit will be eligible for interest on their deposit, effective from the date of announcement of allotment of the second phase, at 8.5% for a retention period of 1-2 years and 8.75% for a retention period of more than 2 years.

Within 60 days of the closure of bookings on April 25th , 2009, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 100,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerised random selection procedure. These 100,000 allotments will be price protected for the launch prices till delivery of the cars but the booking amounts will not bear any interest for the customers.

Design & Style

Nano has been designed with a family in mind, has a roomy passenger compartment with generous leg space and head room. It can comfortably seat four persons. Four doors with high seating position make ingress and egress easy. With a length of 3099mm, width of 1495mm, height of 1652mm and with adequate ground clearance, it can effortlessly manoeuvre on busy roads in cities as well as in rural areas.

It's mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the powertrain at the rear, enables it to uniquely combine both space and manoeuvrability, which sets a new benchmark among small cars. The main styling elements of Nano are centre crease on the bonnet, side scoops which not only looks sporty but also helps to keep the rear mounted engine cool.

Tata is also providing some add-ons like alloys, rear spoiler & sunroof to make Nano more stylish & attractive. From the rear it looks more or less like the Indica Vista with vertical tail lamps. The centrally placed exhaust pipe looks very cool.

First look at the Nano may not impress you in terms of dimensions but even though the car looks tiny and miniscule in images but it is only when you come up close to it that you can make out that its virtual length constitutes the very cabin space!

Interiors

Step inside and you will feel like you are entering a proper hatch. Nano has more space inside in comparison to the Maruti 800 and Alto. The top model LX comes with three spoke steering wheel while the base model & CX features rather simple two spoke one. There are many cost saving factors like the hazard warning light switch has been placed behind the steering wheel. The front power window switches have been placed on the centre console to save the wiring costs.

The dash of Nano has been designed in such a manner that they can easily produce left hand drive models as the instrument cluster is placed in centre of the dash and the design of dash is same on both sides. The legroom & headroom in Nano is more than sufficient. The rear passengers have plenty of legroom even if the driver & front passengers are six footers.

Engine, Ride & Handling

Nano has a rear mounted , all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 624 cc, multi point fuel injection petrol engine which develops maximum power of 34.5 Bhp at 5250 rpm with maxiumum torque of 48 Nm at 3000 rpm. This is the first time that a two-cylinder petrol engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft. The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system.

Due to rear mounted engine the luggage space has been pushed to the front. Making the engine closer to the fuel tank has another advantage of increased fuel efficiency. Rear mounted engine also help in reducing the power loss during transmission. Nano has front disk and rear drum brakes. The company claims mileage of 17 plus kmpl in city and 20 plus kmpl on highway.

Riding on small 12inch wheels and tubeless tyres, the Nano rides surprisingly well. Most bumps are rounded nicely, but as the speeds climb the ride can get a little firm. The steering has a little vagueness around the centre position, dial in more lock; it feels direct and provides good feedback as well. Grip levels are decent but are limited by the narrow tyres. Straightline stability is also good, you can cruise comfortably at 80-90kph.

Safety

By adhering to the fact that less weight requires less power, Nano is made of light weighing steel. This has made the Tatas come up with a cheap alternative with out compromising on safety and performance.

With an all sheet-metal body, it has a strong passenger compartment, with safety features such as crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body.

Tubeless tyres further enhance safety. It exceeds current regulatory requirements with a strong passenger compartment, crumple zones, intrusion resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorage.

Variants, Shades & Price
Nano is available in following 3 variants (Prices are Ex-Showroom Mumbai):

•Nano Base/Standard/Basic - 134000.00
•Nano CX - 160000.00
•Nano LX - 185000.00
The Base model of Tata Nano features:

•Seat Belts.
•High mounted Rear Stop lamp.
•Only Driver seat adjust-sliding and reclining.
•Fixed front passenger seat.
•Folding Rear Seats.
•2-Spoke Steering wheel.
•Grey bumpers and interiors.
•Driver side Outside rear view mirror.
In addition to above features the mid variant CX features:

•AC.
•Tinted glasses.
•Metallic paint.
In addition to above features the top variant LX features:

•Tripmeter.
•Front Power windows.
•Central Locking.
•Front and Rear fog lamps.
•3-Spoke Steering wheel.
•Moulded door trim with fabric inserts.
•Floor console with glass holder.
•Anti-Glare inside rear view mirror.
•Sunvisors on both sides.
Click here for comparison of Nano Basic with Nano CX & Nano LX

All the models come with 18 Months or 24,000 kms warranty - whichever is earlier.

Tata Nano is available in following colors:

Nano Base - Ivory White, Racing Red, Summer Blue.
Nano CX - Ivory White, Racing Red, Summer Blue, Champange Gold, Lunar Silver
Nano LX - Sunshine Yellow, Champange Gold, Lunar Silver

Be health concious

2009-04-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Health and Fitness has now become one of the major concerns. Given so many Flus in outrage It should be always ones priority to keep up with good health and energy

Earlier humans used to hunt for their living, due to which their body had to undergo a lot of physical exercise. This made life active and alert. Now, life has become more simple and easy. Everything we need is just a phone call or click away. This easy life has restricted humans to do that bit of physical exercise which is required to keep the body fit and healthy. We get instant, spicy and variety of food which lose their nutrition during the process.

How do we ensure that we have all that we need to have a healthy living? This is a big question among everyone. We need proper nutrition for a fit and healthy body. Good Health is all that one craves for. Becoming healthier and fitter though not very difficult needs dedicated efforts.

Nutrition and Health Diet

Your food shall be your medicine. Ayurveda has postulated the role of food and especially nutritive foods for maintaining health as well as cure of diseases. Nutrients are necessary for the proper functioning of mental, physical, metabolic, chemical and hormonal activities. The body is like a machine that will repair and rebuild itself provided proper nutrition is provided by way of food.

Sumptous nutrition is available in fruits and vegetables. Fruits have the capacity to give all that a body needs. How to consume? What to consume? To put it simple it is always good idea to rely on all seasonal fruits

Exercise and Fitness

Simple fitness exercises can help to have a fitter and healthy life. Stretching exercises can help in many ways in mainting a fitter body. Weight loss can be achieved by following simple effortless regular exercises. Medical breakthroughs can happen by regular meditation and exercising. Yoga and other workouts which can be performed easily are available in this website to keep you fit and healthy.

Health and Fitness can make all that difference in one's life. Healthy living is all that one needs and to achieve that we picked up the best of the articles from reliable sources and have presented here in an organized manner. You might not be able to spend your valuable time on complicated medications and diet controls, but. you can find articles to help you have a better living using simple and easy technics.

Ayurveda, a science in vogue practiced since centuries, uses a wide variety of plants, animal origin substances, mineral and metallic substances to rebalance the diseased condition in the sick. A few tips on simple treatment of life style diseases have been carefully picked for the visitors of this website. These tips can help reduce or control diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.

Few tips to eat well...

1. Base your meals on starchy foods
2. Eat lots of fruit and veg
3. Eat more fish
4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
5. Try to eat less salt - no more than 6g a day
6. Get active and try to be a healthy weight
7. Drink plenty of water
8. Don't skip breakfast

A silverline in the dark clouds ( ICICI Lombard's Secure Mind)

2009-04-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

review on ICICI Lombard's Secure Mind policy

still the signs of recession clouds over us, which is making many of the fortune 500s making to close down their shops, we never know the surity job. when we loose job all of a sudden if there is any policy which can act as cushion to it here comes ICICI lombard's Secure Mind policy.This is a Unemployment insurance

This is a policy for these uncertian days if any one unfortuantely looses a job. this has a facility where you can still pay EMI with the help of this policy

What is so special about it?

Secure mind policy has three sections in it. 'Critical illness', 'Personal accident','loss of job' Out of them let us look at important stuff which is a loss of job. This will be alloted to only job holders. If you loose job all of a sudden first three EMIs will be borne
by insurance company. Loan types may vary from Home loans, creadit cards,personal loans etc..what ever may be loan types, you need to specify where ur emi should go to at the time of taking loan. it's worth specifying where max part of EMI goes to.

The policy is primarily meant for covering critical illnesses such as cancer, end stage renal failure, multiple sclerosis, stroke, paralysis and so on. But a closer look at the brochure reveals that within these diseases too there are stringent guidelines. For instance, the company will settle a paralysis claim only if there is a "complete and permanent loss of function of two or more limbs".

Job loss is an additional feature loaded to this policy that covers three equated monthly instalments for any one loan. But it is not as simple as it sounds. Here too there are pre-conditions that need to be dealt with. The job loss has to occur due to retrenchment, layoffs or for health reasons. For instance, job loss arising due to a company closing a division due on account of poor financial health or an action of public authority leads to a firm's closure.

The policy covers persons between the age of 20 and 45 only. The premium and sum insured depends on number of parameters. These include the loan amount, loan duration, policy tenure and age of the insured. The premium increases with the increase in any of the parameter.

The sum insured is determined on the basis of the outstanding loan. Say, a 35-year old has an outstanding loan of Rs 30 lakh, the sum insured will be Rs 30 lakh. The premium for a 5-year policy will be Rs 68,500.

When we look at the premium it is dependent on loan term,age,loan amount,age etc..

When you will be benefited..

If any recession is caused or firm is closed down due to govt decisions then this policy will apply. if comapnay puts you out on the grounds of health reasons also you can make use of it.

when it's not...

if you leave your job on your own, or you are retired otherwise if you are taken out on performance grounds..when you wrk beyond company regulations and u are taken out..you will not receive any befits.

How you will be paid
There are two methods to receive benefits of this policy. You can opt for entire claim at a time or else you can choose for it to be paid monthly. To max they will pay only 3 months of EMI. to facilitate this you need to specify your loan number at hte time of inception of policy. If you join in job or you get new job or if policy close which ever is earlier. then policy will end. You can also specify the max loan you need in the section3 of the form.

How to claim?

After taking policy if you need to use it, then u need to inform 30 days before you need to update policy issuer .and you have to submit filled in claim form. you have to also specify why they have removed you from the job stating the reason and etc..insurance agency may challege you for more document proof

Not for these people

self help groups

contact employees and employees who are on probation

if you do not have job at the time of taking policy

if you are temporarily suspended

if you are working on probation

Here is what Sanjay daatta's of ICICI lombard says words..

Due to recent financial jerks,everyone is inclined towards this . during this toughes situation worth having a policy.As this policy is also covered with critical illness and personal accident

Fly Five Star - A review

2009-04-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

28 th of November 2008 - 7 pm - standing outside London Heathrow Terminal 4 - those bittering cold of british winters also made me to feel warm as I was excited to fly in Kingsisher as I was hearing so many good bashings about it.

I just walked in near Kingisher check in area and boom! 5 women walked dressed in Red, air hostess of king fisher but I can truely call them as flying models who has smiles really natural and crowd had their sights burning into them

Most of the friends who has flewn by king already erected a good reputation and really they are not wrong . There are no passengers on Kingfisher Airlines. I was treated as a guest, referred to as a guest - even the public announcements go: ’’ All Guests travelling to Bangalore, please proceed to Gate 24’’

In order of proceedings , here is my experience with KingFisher Airlines, their staff, the A320 and the air hostess err..err..Flying Models :):

check- in

Fast. Accurate. Warm. No hassles - they handled even the noisy customers with equal care and comfort. Most men would forget their fuss if they take a look at Flying Models would smile back at them anyways. Mallya’s done a good job with the recruitment . most of the ground staff are both classy and smart, can communicate well and can carry themselves very well

I asked for a window seat, and readily offered with smile from chek in staff as a bonus.

In Flight

Airborne pleasure, brilliant interiors, good temperature control, very spacious seating with good use of technology. The temperature was VERY nicely controlled before take-off - most flights miss out on that. They’ve got excellent IFE(in-flight entertainment), some rocking music from best of RJs. Cricket fanatics can logon to some recent gripping ODIs. you also have some south india music catered.

The food was tasty and apt - the welcome packs consisted of a useful pair of earphones, a half-decent pen and two microcakes of fresh peppermint.and a camera/passport holder

They do well to take and act upon customer feedback at the end of the flight, and that’s what I’d love to see in other flights - improved interaction with the passen... er ... guests.

The Flying Models

Visually pleasing to say the least, these girls are no doubt pretty and packaged well - they combine professionalism and service pretty well. But a lot of the image has to do with the media hype around them, and Mallya’s marketed them really well. I’ve heard he hand-picks most of these girls on board. It’s not just about looks - it’s the service that matters, and these girls did an excellent job.

At times I pity them - many of these good looking might be well qualified and talented enough to reap a better harvest in jobs better suited to them, but then again, there are the ambitious who love to live the high-life, literally - and here’s an excellent opportunity to mix work with pleasure and get the highest levels of satisfaction.

... and Mr. Mallya

What Kingfisher review is complete without mention of the man himself? The essence of Vijay Mallya’s brands is lustful appeal, he generously adds seductive content, if you may say, to the packages that spark his product to create hype, making them the ’’talk of the towns’’. Mallya’s worship of entertainment is high with fondness for lust, and this is clearly evident and has a lot of his success can be attributed to these bits and pieces of skin-show - the flying models, Yana Gupta and the Swimsuit calendar are testimony to that.

I’m not Mallya’s greatest fan, but using skin-show for marketing is a creative concept, and well marketed. Mallya’s done very well to throw this all up as hospitality rather than vulgarity, and he’s done well so far. There are many who would criticize the models’ outfits, or the hoardings, or even a sultry-faced Yana Gupta’s flight demonstration video.

the final call ...

... however, most would agree that brand KingFisher seduces the affluent into flying the good times pretty well. The cost is worth the comfortable flight with bump-free take offs and landings ... let’s not forget the fresh ambience, refreshing music, and almost nothing to add to travel-stress and jet-lag. Oh - and you’re treated equal - KingFisher class you see. No going green with envy at those Business Class passengers anymore!

If Kingfisher Airlines can keep up these good times, they can add another dimension to India’s domestic aviation industry. If you can shell down a couple of hundred bucks more, it’s a better choice than any carriers that fly from LONDON to India and especially if you are travelling to Bangalore. None of my flights were delayed, so no comment on the punctuality

Will market moves on

2009-04-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

The answer to the question--Will Indian markets get a premium valuation amidst the global market place?--would have been an unequivocal yes, till the beginning of January 2008. But now, there are doubts being cast over this. Markets have more than halved from their peaks and the price earnings multiple, which was touching 30 times trailing earnings, too has halved to 15 times for the Sensex (^BSESN : 11134.99 0) and 13 times for the entire market.

However, this is still at a 20% premium, higher than that of emerging market peers, and much above the 7% average recorded during the past 15 years. Questions now abound about the sustainability of this premium.

Doubts emanate from the growing fiscal deficit. "The fiscal deficit, if not contained, will increase interest rates and the cost of doing business and thereby the ability to serve this capital," says a fund manager with an overseas fund. And this will have a bearing on the premium that India earns. One of the reasons that Indian markets earn their premium standing is because the return on equity is way higher, at around 20% levels, as compared to 15% levels recorded by many of its emerging market peers, he adds.

With the cost of capital and availability of credit being an impediment at a time of a slowdown and immense political uncertainty, several experts reckon that the earnings scenario will remain depressed for several quarters and the premium rating will collapse for some time till things improve substantially. And then, there are corporate governance issues, as there have been glaring short falls in corporate governance standards in case of many Indian corporates.

The Satyam (SATYAM.BO : 47.25 0) issue highlighted this matter. In a report published earlier in 2008, CLSA Asia Pacific Markets had mentioned that Indian companies earned a premium against their Asian peers due to higher corporate governance standards.

However, Ridham Desai and Sheela Rathi of Morgan Stanley, in a report that dealt with this very matter, mention, "Our conclusion is that India could end up trading at a premium to emerging markets more often than not over the coming years."

Taking a rather macro view, Desai and Rathi reckon that India's burgeoning new workers would set the pace for growth and this is an overwhelming metric that will spur earnings and prosperity.

"India is likely to add around 10 million new workers to its workforce on an annual basis. As the workforce grows, so will the savings and hence the growth rate. This will be the key driver to profit growth," they add.

However, the issue of managing capital to fund this opportunity is an immediate and opposite force to the opportunity offered by the workforce growth. "The fact is that to employ the accretion to the work force, we estimate India would need to grow at 7% or more. This means that the country is underinvested and will guzzle capital in the coming years. As India will need to keep importing capital in the medium term (a savings deficiency is corollary of the high required growth rate), a current account deficit will remain (even as it turns into a surplus later this year purely for cyclical reasons). The implication is that India will depend on global capital market cycles unless it shifts funding sources to FDI," they add.

The essence therefore is the productive use of capital, both at the national and corporate level, and rewarding investors. Corporate governance issues too are related to this factor as poor governance leads to increased cost of capital, especially in tough times. The need to service it at competitive rates also creates tremendous pressure.

As the market infrastructure improves and a younger generation takes over the majority of the earnings share, equity investing would improve as the risk profile of new investors is certainly more risk taking, note experts. This would also propel the capital markets to be better intermediary for allocating financial resources and reduce the pressure on capital requirements, going ahead.

To conclude, Desai and Rathi say, "China's average P/E premium over emerging markets has been no different from India's over the past 15 years, even though its economic growth has been far superior. The lesson is that growth alone is not the panacea for a sustained premium multiple. A glance at the sectoral P/Es suggests that India's P/E premium to emerging markets will struggle to average higher than its current level of 20% over the long term. A more plausible long-term average could be in the teens, which would still be better than the 7% average of the past 15 years."

Onsite Insights

2009-04-16T00:44:00.000-07:00

Hi friends find some interesting insights of onsite

Onsite Opportunity -

This might sound like a thousand bells to the ears of many fellow IT Geeks. Onsite means working at the clients' base overseas. It has a certain degree of charm associated with it, which always allures our young technocrats into its realm. Nice chance, it is indeed, but techies should always make a well informed decision taking all the pros and cons into consideration. Any decision made professionally or otherwise has always some impact, which may or may not be foreseeable. Hence one should engage in an analytic and rational thinking before arriving at a conclusion and avoid making impulsive decisions. It is somewhat similar to the impact analysis one would do to assess the impact of a request of change in your software! Mind you your career is no less important than the software you support or develop, by any means.

It's all about money, honey...

One of the biggest arguments given in favor of Onsite opportunity is Money. People say you can save much more onsite than you can in an offshore assignment. This much more can not be some astronomical sum though it surely means more than offshore saving. But the priorities should be set right. What is it that makes you go for an onsite break? Is it money that you are chasing or is it happiness that you are after? Being rich and happy is not same thing as one of my friend from LogicaCMG puts it "Wealth is not necessary to make you happy but to recognize this fact you need to be wealthy". Very true, Bill Gates might be the richest man on this planet, but that doesn't qualify him to be the happiest as well. An artist, a Sweeper or for that matter you might be a happier person than him. Anyways these days every decent IT company in India pays handsomely to buy all the comforts money can buy for a man, even offshore.

Or is it a new found reputation?

Reputation is another aspect which makes Software professionals decide in favor of an onsite assignment. Certainly a couple of Visas stamped on your passport gives substance to your resume. Some even go to the lengths of believing that a visa stamp is a mark of credibility and intellect. Of course needless to say, a visa can guarantee the above only if a person is inherently credible and intelligent. Yes, the stamp would add a new dimension to your profile, for sure.

Period of Stay..

You should be very sure how long you want to stay abroad. What is your preference - short term or long term? In certain cases such offers come with a lock in period to stay onsite or sort of bond to stick to the company. Onsite projects aren't rosy always. You do get a lappy, a mobile phone and all sorts of conveniences but then you have to be on the go 24/7, if you are on on-call support. Your day, your night all belongs to the project you are working for.

A new culture..

Culture and social life of a country has great influence on its inhabitants which may be a barrier for settling in for people of a different country and culture. One of our project manager went to India after more than 5 years of stay in UK because he missed his people and culture. Moreover he didn't want his daughter to grow up and adapt to European culture, which sounded alien and weird to him. I've seen several instances where associates living abroad on a long term feel lonely and cut off from their world after few years of stay. The world where they were born and brought up, where they had their own people to share the joy and sorrow with is something one invariably wants to return to. I know of many instances where people are desperate to return home. In fact, it's a common feeling that Indians become more patriotic when they stay away from India!

Food..!

Food is a major disadvantage in a foreign land since you will seldom find common Indian food there and that which is available might not suit your taste buds. Of course cooking can be done once you get settled, but you need to be prepared to toss some junk food down your throat in the early days of your stay abroad. As a fall back plan, Priya pickles,Maggie and Haldirams often find more space in a techie's luggage than clothes!Travel excitement..Discovering new places and visiting countries that only were spotted in a Bollywood number previously, is also something that comes with an onsite trip. A very positive point in favor of the decision. As in our country we seldom go abroad for a vacation, onsite assignment can be a blessing in disguise to realize overseas dream.

Choice of cheese..

One aspect, often overlooked or not given due importance, is the nature and quality of work, which I believe should be emphasized more than any other criterion. Make sure you get the cheese you love and that it is not moving away with your location. The choice of cheese varies from person to person ranging from coding, analysis, onsite co-ordination, management or anything else. Secondly the technology that you would be working on should match your profile and should be something you see your future in. There are loads of examples of putting people of one technology in the other or the development guy into support or vice versa.Being an optimist is always good for development of inner self. If you see the brighter side of the picture always, even the darker side might turn into a brighter one, someday. So always look forward to a new opportunity but just try to see the things as they are as it can't be always the way you want them to be. Like every other thing, onsite opportunity has its pluses and minuses, so think well before you take your decision.

Definitave list of 99 things

2009-04-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hello there...

Here is the Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something

01) Grape Stomp

02) Charlie Bit Me

03) Chocolate Rain

04) Dancing Baby

05) Post Secret

06) Charlie The Unicorn

07) Mentos and Diet Coke

08) Numa Numa

09) Peanut Butter Jelly Time

10) George Lucas In Love

Until Recession recovers.....

2009-04-10T06:08:00.001-07:00

Did you buy a house on mortgage and unable to repay mortgage? What should you do now, will that dwelling should go to repossession or let us see if at all we have any alternatives.

Suppose if you are working in an MNC and as part of their restructuring or cost cutting if your job is at risk, which may hugely affect to fill in your EMI.

Also if you have booked a house with builder and construction is at risk due to tight lending rules and you may not be given possession of your dream house in said time, but you may need to pay EMI irrespective of financial health of the builder.

Did you buy a house on mortgage and unable to repay mortgage? What should you do now, will that dwelling should go to repossession or let us see if at all we have any alternatives.

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Suppose if you are working in an MNC and as part of their restructuring or cost cutting if your job is at risk, which may hugely affect to fill in your EMI.

Also if you have booked a house with builder and construction is at risk due to tight lending rules and you may not be given possession of your dream house in said time, but you may need to pay EMI irrespective of financial health of the builder.
quote>Did you buy a house on mortgage and unable to repay mortgage? What should you do now, will that dwelling should go to repossession or let us see if at all we have any alternatives.
Also if you have booked a house with builder and construction is at risk due to tight lending rules and you may not be given possession of your dream house in said time, but you may need to pay EMI irrespective of financial health of the builder.

to repay mortgage? What should you do now, will that dwelling should go to repossession or let us see if at all we have any alternatives.
Also if you have booked a house with builder and construction is at risk due to tight lending rules and you may not be given possession of your dream house

Most Debt Ridden states in India

2009-04-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few startling facts:

The Indian state that has the highest per capita income has the second-highest debt burden.
The state that has the highest percentage of population under the poverty line has the lowest debt burden.
The difference in the infant mortality rate between the two states that hug the bottom of the debt list is one life. These two states also see one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country.
Two of the states in this list are ruled by the CPI (M) and three each by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Top 13 Debit Ridden States -
Defenation of an Enterprise - The entire organization, including all of its subsidiaries. It implies a large corporation or government agency, but it may also refer to a company of any size with many systems and users to manage. It depends on context. A corner candy store is "someone's enterprise." The terms "enterprise," "company," "corporation" and "organization" are used synonymously.
Defenation of an Entrepreneur -
An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labour, and capital to create and market new goods or services. The term is a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. Jean-Baptiste Say, a french economist, believed to be coined the word Entrepreneur first in about at 1800. He said an entrepreneur is "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour". - Wikipedia.

Rank State Debt Per capita Income Population below poverty
1 Uttar Pradesh 131,32 161,358 13,262
1 Uttar Pradesh 131,32 161,358 13,262
1 Uttar Pradesh 131,32 161,358 13,262
1 Uttar Pradesh 131,32 161,358 13,262
1 Uttar Pradesh 131,32 161,358 13,262

Did you Know ..Statistics

2009-03-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

This is really a nice compostion about the technology and population statistics...Did technology has over taken us and every one is running after it...

Few stats' from the video

Top 10 demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004
one in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than 1 year
NTT japan has tested FOC that pushes 14 trillion bits per second in a single strand of cable

and many such statisics composed in this videio and with nice BGM..
so are we prepared to face them!

Vijay Mallya - Unplugged

2009-03-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

His first Ferrari was at four, and they are still coming, and every aircraft he buys circumambulates Tirupati first. Here are some lesser known Vijay Mallya
facts about liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

- His passion for cars started real early. The owner of the Formula 1 team ‘Force India,' got his first Ferrari at age 4 from his father. Of course, it was a child's version.

- Dhaneshwar Bahera, a household help has been with the Mallya family for forty years. He's served Mallya's father the late Vittal Mallya and now takes care of Mallya's kids too.

- For all the partying image, Mallya's a very religious man. He goes on the Sabarimala pilgrimage every year and on the last stretch walks barefoot like a normal, ordinary devotee.

- The King of Good Times makes sure that every aircraft he buys, first goes to Tirupati and circumambulates the shrine of Lord Venkateshwara before being pressed into service.

- Favourite haunt in India with close friends is Mandwa where he keeps his fabulous collection of cars. He had a famous re-union party for old friends and family there a few years ago.

- The Bangalore-boy was raised in Kolkota – went to Le Martinere – where he almost bagged the best student award, which eventually went to Rafiq Zakaria.

- Mallya loves jewellery. He sports a huge, diamond studded ‘VJM,' bracelet on his right hand, a huge diamond, ruby and emerald pendant of Lord Venkateshwara. On his ears are eye popping solitaires that belonged to his grand mother.

- His favourite aunt was the late Prema Mallya. She lived in a house in the Mallya compound off the posh Grant Road (now renamed the Vittal Mallya road after his late father).

- Loves the turf. His jockeys turn out in his colours of black and white. Owns a stud farm near Bangalore.

- Is a linguist. Speaks fluent Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Gujarati and of course English. He's also learnt French.

- Loves coastal food. Favourite being Mangalorean specialities like ‘Kane rava,' (Kane fish in rava batter), ‘Kori gasi,"( Chicken curry), appams and sannas.

- Some of his other favourite food includes MTR Masala Dosa and Crab in south Indian gassi from Trishna in Mumbai.

- His favourite sweet include mishti doi and chocolates

- His favourite wine is Ferrari Carano

- His favourite cigar is café crème blue

For any important event, personal or professional, he makes it a point to go by auspicious time.

- He loves listening to English retro music of the sixties and seventies...yes the songs he has grown up with.

- When he is in office, loves to go for light lunch - kebabs, kati rolls, veg sandwich etc.

- He loves his Bentley.

- He loves to wear designer clothes. His preferred names include Armani, Valentino, Manoviraj Khosla and Roberto Cavalli

- His favourite colour is red. Wherever he is, home, office, car...will see specs of red either in his apparel or in the ambience.

- He has never taken a day off. Whether at office or at party, he is forever working.

- He is very tech savvy, Blackberry is his constant companion.

- He is the king of good times. Whatever he buys - shirt, watch, car or a yatch, he invests lot of time, energy and enthusiasm in it. He has a deep knowledge of whatever he is buying.

- He is not particularly a brand conscious person. Whatever he likes, he buys it. It could be anything from flea market to fashion stores in Paris.

- He has a son named Sidhartha from his first wife Samira. He gifted Kingfisher on Sidhartha's eighteenth birthday in May 7, 2005. Mallya apparently has a great "relationship" with the London-based Samira.

- He has two daughters from second wife Rekha. Leana and Tanya are teenagers now. The daughters stay in San Francisco with their mother. The reclusive Rekha, who hails from Coorg, hates parties.

- Vijay Mallya makes it a point to celebrate every family members birthday by being personally present at wherever they might be located. When it comes to his own birthday, he gets the entire family beside him.

Is IE fading away

2009-02-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, IE 8 is slow, it turns out. In fact, slower than any other browser. It’s not a shock really, and now stories from leading PC journalists are reporting the same thing.

This CNET article apparently writes up testing they did among the top browsers: IE 8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. In most cases, they report that IE was dead last in speed and loading popular websites they tested. That’s not good, considering all the testing they did on it.

I should qualify all of this by saying: I use and love Firefox. It’s much faster, it conforms to most web standards right now, and its a lot better to actually use than IE.

The article is pretty clear and concise as far as the results go. Will Microsoft improve the speed with patches? Probably. But their time for dominating the browser landscape may be slowly fading away.

CNET has just published an article about one writer’s week with IE8 as his primary browser, and he descibes a slow, feature-incomplete week with frustrating roadblocks and a few good words about improving web standards and better overall support for RSS, along with the new security options.

He prefers Firefox, as I do, to be honest. Since I started using Firefox, i’ve barely touched IE. But what do you, our readers think? Anyone use and love IE? Feel free to comment.

Article for your perusal here.

SDM is a Rave

2009-01-14T02:19:00.000-08:00

Huh..what a movie..entire things..let it be strongly packaged content,emotions,nice vivid images of new and old India, Slumdog Millionire is a real Blast.

Other good thing is it entered into world of spotlight. music is a real fab. Kudos to rehman. Though Director boyle is an outsider, his work clearly shows that he is closely connected with the locations etc..

Satyam Fiasco

2009-01-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

It’s very sorry state of affairs what is happing at Satyam right now. Management went greedy towards other business and had less focus on main core(IT services) which earned bread and butter for them for being there.

Hope they can revive their entire client marquee and be on track soon. Let us all wish the new board for constructive decisions and make the company to stand with its head high.

All IT guys at Satyam worked hard as we do, but it is very unfortunate and we can make out what can be going through their minds. Cheer up guys. Tough times don't last tough guys will do. When i was going through some article on satyam fiasco came through this below wonderfully written comment under that article -

Hi, to all of you Satyamites, wishing you a good day.

I do not work at Satyam nor have relatives there etc (better I put a disclaimer out here first). I work in the IT industry and wish to share what's been going through my mind :

1. On hearing the news of the fraud committed by the chairman, my thoughts first went to all of you Satyamites, wherever you may be in the world. I have had the privilege to work with many of you as a consultant and customer and know from my experience, how professional, dedicated and committed you are with your work and your customer projects. So, there should not be any debate on it

2. Your first priority should be to get support and strength to face up to what can be a long a hard journey ahead. Your family, your colleauges at work, your customers - let them know you need them, not just in good times, but now, more than ever. The good ones will respond, and you can then focus on what you need to do to steer the ship

3. It is not just what NRN or Mr. Pai said, you will hear a lot of comments from people in the industry - some may have vested interests, some may just want to score points with investors saying they are different, some may show genuine interest in providing support - take them all in your stride. Every comment you react to, every comment you carry to home or to work with you, let it give you more determination- energy that you can better use to plan your way ahead.

4. It is difficult to say which is the right thing to do as an employee - 'Stay or Leave’. As you know, it depends on the individual. One thing, i humbly propose, treat your colleagues' decisions with respect. Whether they choose to stay and fight it out or choose to leave, respect their decision and focus just on what you need to do and follow your own destiny.

5. It is worth keeping in mind that, through these events and experiences, you will realise how interconnected we all are in this industry. Many of you would have joined from other companies, some of you may leave to join another company, but it is important to see us as one big community. If you are reading this and are an employee of Infy, Wipro etc, its no use saying 'there's a hole in the boat, but its not on my side of the boat'. Reach out with understanding or stay out of the way, without doing harm. That's the least we all can do. I wish you well; all of you at Satyam have lived a very powerful idea all these years and brought a company this far. You have been a worthy competitor in the global IT industry. The future is a pure white canvas and what you fill in it from here on is all up to you. Go for it! Have faith ! Have fun.

Random Ramblings - 2008

2009-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

So here's a list of few random thoughts that I feel I have attained this year!

1) Work is worship. very true.

2) You are what you eat. good food and exercise will keep you healthy and charged always

3) read..read..until u feel exhausted, allows you to gain your vocab and good habit too.

4) If you are having bad day at work, everything looks like evil to you. So problem is with in u :)

5) What others think of you is none of your business, damn care about it. please don't loose your sleep on what others are thinking about you.

6) 'DIGG' and 'D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S' have attained prime slot in my favourites list, they are so nice 'share content' sites, they are so delicious :)

So finally ending with nice quote for all the gyaan attained this year...

"Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations.We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.Its not so important what others are upto;compared to what you are doing.Focus on what you do, your work; Not on others."Happy New Year Guys!

Lessons from Lehman Brothers crisis

2008-11-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis। Spendingmoney that they didn't have and going beyond their means is one of themain reasons for their situation today। In fact that is the cause forthe current economic crisis in the US .

When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days.Then, 'karz' was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans.

Parents would not give their daughter's hand in marriage to a man withloans.But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan.The buzz word is EMI (equated monthly instalment) . Today, you canbuy everything on EMI - a house, a television, an I-Pod. In fact Iknow of someone who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, insteadof buying a cheaper car outright with cash. I mostly prefer to takepublic transport, but then am I an old man with old thoughts!

Anyway, coming back to what caused the crisis:

Imagine having Rs. 2-lakh in your bank account, no regular income, yetbuying a house worth Rs. 65-lakh, in the hope of selling it for ahigher price.Even if the price of the house fell by just 5 per cent(that is Rs. 3-lakh), you will go bankrupt!!!

This is what Lehman Brothers did- with around USD 20 billion they wentand bought assets worth over USD 600 billion. Isn't it suicidal andsimply foolish?

I am sure things would have been different, had I been the head ofLehman brothers. But who wants conservative man like me to heada complex financial institution. But there are a few lessons that wecan learn:

1. Live a balanced life and avoid overspending.

2. Don't buy things we don't need.

3. Don't be so specific to go for Branded goods.

4. Don't buy excess Food, Cloths, Cosmetics, Footwear, electronics andFashion accuracies just think before you buy (Tip: World still has alot of growth ahead and the future holds immense opportunities for us.Let us make the most of it and save and invest it wisely instead ofwasting our precious little on things we don't need).

5. Try to balance life with work; no one is happy in their profession.

6. Don't stress out your self, after work try to do some extraactivities like swimming, yoga, walking, running where you can divertyour mind from stress. A thumb rule: Health is more important than money.

7. Try to understand each other (wife and husband) in financialmatters and help each other (Tip: As soon as you get your monthlysalary, set aside a fixed amount, usually 35 per cent, for insurance,savings and investments and may spend the rest).

8. Not all loans are bad. Loans that are 'need-based' (home loans,education loans) can always find a place in your finances againstthose that are largely 'want-based' (credit cards, personal loans, carloans).

9. Borrow only if repayment is financially comfortable. A thumb rule:Keep EMIs within 35 to 45 per cent of your monthly income.In that respect, there is one American who I really respect- WARRENBUFFET. He has lived in the same ordinary house for over threedecades, drives his own medium sized car and leads an extremelyregular 'middle class' life. If that's all it takes for the richestperson on earth to be happy, why do all of us need to take extrastress just so that we can get things which aren't even essential?

Life is like a cardiogram; you live till it has ups & downs and diethe moment its steady॥ So welcome every ups & downs - live strong.

Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.

2008-11-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine,in some groups posted this interesting article written by an Indian Economist Dr.Jagdish Bhagwati.

I found it very amusing yet apt and releavant in many situations.

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing. Americans spend, save little. Also US imports is more than it exports. It has an annual trade deficit of over$400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.
But where from do Americans get money to spend?

They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over$50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over$160 billion in US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result : The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with India. India has invested inUS over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than$20 billion in India.

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The Result : The world is dependent on US consumption for itsgrowth. By its deepening culture of consumption, theUS has habituated the world to feed on US consumption.But as the US needs money to finance its consumption,the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like thehelpless shopkeeper financier. Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak.Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow.
To force the Japanese to spend,the Japanese government exerted it self, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain. Hence, what is the lesson?That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend,not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend.
Dr.Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist inthe US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics!

This will put India on a growth curve. "Saving is sin, and spending is virtue."

But before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend!!!
Written by Dr Jagdish Bhagwati an economist

Man Utd cliched the fianl to hold Champions league

2008-05-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

It was very scintillating match between Chelsea and Man Utd in the Champions league match tht happened in moscow, but finally manu are able to do it.

Extra-time drama
The Anfield noise factor had seemed to swing previous encounters with the Reds, and Chelsea were suffering again when Dirk Kuyt scored 43 minutes into the opening leg. John Arne Riise's own goal deep into added time turned the tie on its head, though, giving the Blues the advantage going into the return game. They looked set to drive it home as Drogba gave Chelsea a first-half lead only for Fernando Torres to take the tie into extra time. There, a penalty from Lampard – less than a week after the death of his mother – and a sixth goal of the campaign for Drogba put the home side in command and, although Ryan Babel made it 3-2 late on, Chelsea had done enough to reach their first UEFA Champions League showpiece. Lampard would rise to the occasion once again in Moscow, drawing Chelsea level shortly before half-time after Ronaldo had headed United in front. Both sides created chances in a thrilling contest played out in pouring rain, but there were no more goals until the dramatic shootout sealed United's third triumph.