Apple after Steve

The passing of Steve Jobs has probably been heavily talked about over the past few days. Along with that there have been some questions that have been raised about the current leadership at the company and the ability of the company to produce game changing devices going forward. People have called him a great visionary and one of biggest change agents in recent times. In all the noise, people seem to have lost sight of one point; apart from the Macintosh in 1984, Steve Jobs had not come up with any idea which was not already present in the market. Macintosh was a game changer. It was ahead of its times, it was not like anything that was there, it was new and unique. Microsoft copied it and made Millions... Sorry Billions. There were hoards of MP3 players in the market when the iPod came out. The only thing different about the iPod was the user interface, which was revolutionary and it was marketed like candy to a child. There were several touch phones in the market when the iPhone came out; multi-touch user interface was the big innovation, the product itself was not new or unheard of. Similarly, there were tablets in the market already when iPad came out. The only thing different about Apple was that they were able to provide a user interface that was much better and integrate the other facets of selling such as with book publishers and magazine publishers. The only great difference between all that the market had to offer and what Apple made available to its customers was the design of the product and the user interface that they created. Apart from this, their ability to sell, particularly Steve Jobs ability to make people drool over every Apple product was the main differentiator. On the design and user interface front, I am certain that Apple will be able to hold on to the processes that have already been put in place. There is not going to be a huge difference in the design philosophy that would creep in post Steve Jobs. And, by the looks of the iPhone 4S presentation, I feel the 'art of the drool' has been firmly imbibed in the entire top management of Apple and will get passed down hereon. I am sure Apple will pull through without Steve. The last time he did not know that he would be leaving, Apple was not prepared. It is not the same case this time around.

Democracy

Democracy is form of governance, by the people, of the people, for the people. How it normally works is that the people of each constituency of the democracy elect a leader to lead them and put forward their point of view. That leader then represents them in various forums such as the Parliament, where laws are made. The laws are debated by all of the representatives and based on a majority it gets passed.

Politicians and corrupt and therefore the entire system under them is corrupt, this needs to be stopped? How can this be achieved? There are two schools of thought to this:

Anna school of thought - Let us continue to elect crooks and criminals as ministers. Create a watchdog agency that will watch over these guys. The crooks would suddenly develop culture and refrain from bribery.

Was the CVC also not there for the same purpose? When the CVC could become corrupt, why not the Lokpal?

My guess. A watchdog agency with infinite powers is created. Then these guys will start bribing the watchdog agency and continue to do whatever they have been doing. Anna Hazare will be first Lokpal in India, he will also clean a few bucks after he assumes that position and stash it in Swiss Bank accounts.

The other school of thought - Disenfranchise the crooks and criminals. Take away their ability to stand in elections. Make education a pre-requisite to lead. Increase salaries in government to the level where talented individuals are attracted to work for the government. Cleansing shall be systemic.

This bill will not go through the parliament easily either considering its composition. But this is the right way to do things.

What Anna Hazare is doing is getting a bunch of boisterous clowns together and demanding that he be allowed to dictate the terms of laws that are to be formed?

I would like to understand who determines that Anna Hazare is the gold standard in law making?

A group of about 1000 people standing on a road or fasting unto death is blackmail? This is not the way to form the law. If Anna really cares, let him take his ideals and float a party, get elected and then bring about all of the changes that he wants to do.

What is currently being done is not in the least democratic. If at all it is the most undemocratic act in the history of this nation.

There is another way to solve this - Plebiscite. Conduct a country wide plebiscite on what the Lokpal bill must have and even the Parliament does not need to get involved (don't know if this is constitutional but it is very democratic).

If what Anna is doing is to be considered Gandhian and agreed upon, then, tomorrow if Dawood Ibrahim was to land up with about a 1000 people outside some park in Delhi protesting the ban on smuggling, the government should bend and fold.

It is a criminal violation of democracy.

Anna Hazare

Some 5 months back one obscure figure, who had apparently sworn to rid India of corruption shot to fame on national media. His apparent weapon an obscure bill called the Lokpal bill, which I am sure none of us has read, but believe will rid this country of corruption. The only problem being that the government does not quite seem to agree with him and he has made an ego issue out of it.

Before we delve any further, I would like for you to be able to ponder about a few questions:

Why doesn't Hazare protest against letting people with criminal records stand for election? That is a bad thing is it not?
Why does he not protest for those with a record of wrong-doing in politics to be barred from contesting elections? They should be shouldn't they?
When the IAS officers who work for the government, under the ministers, need to pass such grueling exams, why cant education be a pre-requisite for becoming a minister? Why does the blind get to lead a man with eyes in this country?
Why was he absolutely silent about the indiscretions of BS Yeddyurappa while being extremely vociferous about the Congress ministers?
How does the Lokpal really solve the issue? They can be hand and glove in corruption?

First things first; how do you know that giving someone the 'License to kill' ensures that it will mend the system? The only thing that will happen for certain is that this power drunk agency will misuse this power. This is precisely the reason why there is no Spiderman, Batman or Superman in the world. If they did get that kind of power, they would be putting it to much selfish use. Also, all power drunk agencies have a negative image, FBI, CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc.

To illustrate this point better, let me take the law on dowry. There was injustice, unfair practice, to eliminate it, this law was enacted. Today every husband in India has to wish and pray that the wife is not insane enough to go and file a dowry case. Irrespective of your background, caste, creed, history; you and your entire family can land up in jail if a woman decides to file even a baseless case. That is how beautiful the law is. It needs more thought for certain and in the current form it is absolutely one-sided, which has had negative consequences.

So coming back to the point, the government does not wish to create a one sided bill of this nature and Anna has a problem with it.

Now coming to the more important question. How does 'Mr. I am Gandhian' coming from an obscure village in I don't know where, suddenly get recognized and covered so heavily by media. Me sitting in a city like Bangalore with all the social network and internet and media at my disposal can't get more than a sympathetic nod if I were to take any issue up and make a hue and cry about it.

Obviously, somebody bought the media and bought the coverage OR Anna Hazare is the best PR Agent known to mankind and he should start a PR Agency and give every top PR firm a run for their money. Anna Hazare does not seem to have such a strong background in PR so it is safe to assume that there is money backing him.

Just to compare, Baba Ramdev, a TV celebrity having crores in the corpus (and Hundreds of Crores at that) and a huge fan following, due to his yoga; needed to travel all over the country to gather support. He had been travelling and meeting opinion leaders for about 4 months and then he had to buy media time with his massive financial resources. Then he had to go on an all out 360 degree marketing campaign before the fast. Despite all the money and arm-twisting, he got whacked by a cane out of the Ramleela Grounds and got sent back to where he belonged. This for a man who had Hundreds of Crores at his disposal.

So again, how much money and power is really backing Mr. Hazare?

Anna Hazare is not fighting for corruption, I am sure even he has not read the Lokpal Bill completely, only parts and excepts. He is doing this show for some political party that wishes to soil Congress's image (as if that needs so much work). I will give you 10 guesses to guess which political party.

This bill will never be passed. This noise will last till the next election. This entire campaign is a subterfuge.

The Myopic Indian Cricket Team

Harbhajan dropped from the Third Test. He has not been bowling to his potential and if you look at the graph, his wickets haul this year has been the lowest in his career.

Having said that, one might also consider that he is probably only player other than Raina, who has been chosen to play for the country right since the World Cup... What about all of the these clowns who took rest??

Dhoni has displayed the worst batting performance since the beginning of his career. Not only that he has been rather ordinary behind the stumps as well.

Zaheer, bowled 13 overs and injured again!! (We don't need porcelain dolls)

Nehra, yet to return, at least he was hurt playing for the country and making an extra-ordinary effort in the Semi-Finals.

Sehwag, yet to return, Abhi tak maa ka ashirvaad nahin mila.

Gambhir, what an elbow!!

Sachin, Aura!! Aura!! Can't say anything about his batting. Bullshit... He has been playing like a high school kid and a bad one at that.

Dhoni says too much cricket, while he should say, we shouldn't have been playing fucking IPL.

The Indian cricketers have a very myopic view on this. They get to cash in thanks to IPL but their careers will come to an end far sooner. The IPL, is a high pressure format with excessive amount of travel and a terrible shortage of rest. They need to play and then jump around with famous monkeys at night and then travel by morning. Not to mention sponsors obligations and ad shoots in the middle of this. The players cannot cope with that kind of a schedule

The team is burning itself out by choice. Somebody needs to put an end to it.

Hamilton: Collateral Damage

I found the article below in one of the Formula 1 News websites and decided that I had to write about this...


After Sunday’s race in Montreal, triple title winner Niki Lauda was particularly vocal of the Stevenage man, claiming that he was endangering the lives of himself and those around him on the race track.

“Lewis is a passionate racing driver and he has to go for things,” Team Principal Whitmarsh told the Press Association. “He's clearly had an unfortunate run, whether you look at it statistically or objectively. I suspect I'm not the most impartial; I want Lewis to attack and obviously I don't want him to have contact with cars.

“But at the same time, if he holds back for fear of having contact then he won't be the great racer he is and do the job he has to do. I'm sure he'll continue to be a very tough racer and have many successes ahead in his career.”


Somewhere, the fact that this is a sport where highly skilled drivers are driving machines at 200 to 300 Kms/Hr on road layouts where you and I would fear to do even 100 Kms/Hr is lost. Yes a sport requires you to compete, to get ahead, to forge your way, but not at the cost of endangering others.

Lewis Hamilton takes attacking the car in front quite literally. This is how 'Attack' is defined in the man's dictionary.

Attack: -verb- To unnecessarily drive into any vehicle in front of you. To put your car in strange positions on the track and expect the other cars to disappear or drive into the grass to let you through.

He just does not have the ability to understand what can be pulled off and what cannot be. Incidentally, if he tries these moves when a Williams or some other car from the mid-field is in front, they generally get intimidated and let him through and he comes off looking good. The same does not apply with a car which is a front-runner. Which is where he seems to run into trouble.

In Monaco, it was his desperation not to get lapped, which led him to cause the massive pile up, which brought out the Red Flag and ruined the last 10 laps. It was the desperation to in terms with the Red Bull that caused him to do a lot of stupid things in Canada, including running into his own team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton is a egoist and a senseless fool. It is a crime to let him continue to drive on the F1 track, akin to collusion for murder.

The Victim Scamsters

Reading the newspaper in the morning, I was rather surprised by the kind of portrayal of the 2G case that I had been witnessing. Kanimozhi, the person in question pulled of a 200 crore rupee bribe, not to mention the losses caused due to the fixing of licenses that Raja did.

Kanimozhi had tears in her eyes when she was arrested, why? When she was swindling the crores she had smiles did she not? She will be kept in single person prison cell. Considering the state of Indian prisons that is indeed a luxury, she should be happy.

The projection of these politicians by media is at best appalling and more so troubling since there always a nexus between the press and the politicians. How much of what is printed can really be believed?

Osama

Osama is dead apparently.

President Obama made the announcement in the death of the night and the Americans celebrated by the hoards.

The real question has to be; how many American lives were lost after 9/11 in order to achieve this? (In Iraq and Afghanistan)

Who benefited from the war in Iraq? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? What connection did it have to Osama? Which were the private American enterprises which benefited from the war in Iraq? Are they footing the bill for the war in Iraq?

Osama was sitting practically in plain sight outside Islamabad. Would Pakistan have not known about this? Had so many men to die for this, while America continues to pour Billions to save the Pakistani economy and in effect the Pakistani government? This despite the fact that the country was (is) in deep recession...

Although, more than Obama, it is Bush who needs to answer this question; is there any kind of accountability? For Pakistan? For Bush? For Obama? or For any future leader of any of the nations in the world?

It affects common people like you and me!

Sai Baba

I read today's newspaper and it said Sai Baba is critical and his liver has stopped responding. Along with that, the forces are being rushed to Puttaparathi, in order to control the rush of devotees in the event of his death.

Now, I know many will not like this; but what I can infer from this is that there are more people who wish to see the man dead than alive!

One Black Sheep

Over the course of the last few months I have been travelling like crazy. As a result, I have been staying at various hotels across South India. Last week during my travel, something rather unpleasant happened, which immediately sent me to the computer to type out some expletives about the hotel. It was then that I stopped to think...

Over the past 2 months, I would have stayed at 11 different hotels, all in the 3 to 5 star segments. At each of the properties that I visit, there is a certain baseline expectation that is already built up within my head (or a guests head). Incidentally, all of this travel was being undertaken in order to help setup a hotel business. This meant that there was a constant focus on details and weighing up of the expectations of a customer from a property or a brand.

Last week, during my stay at a top end hotel, I had reported a problematic gym equipment to the reception. One of the employees (I hope she was responsible for the gym) came to us during breakfast the next morning and; let us say, interrogated us about the problem and further told us that the problem was being faced only by us and that the equipment was not faulty; instead of just saying, "We will look into it".

Now, if the property is owned by this individual, I can understand this (they tend to take it personally); but coming from an employee of a hotel chain was another thing altogether.

Till that time, everybody in the hotel had been extremely co-operative, courteous, polite and kind to us. The property was not all that great but it was not all that bad either, it was passable.

No sooner had this incident happened, not only did we check out of the hotel and got ourselves into another one. I also used the free internet service the other hotel to log onto tripadvisor.com and post a scathing review of the hotel.

Now, as I think, in retrospective, it was probably a knee-jerk reaction and was not required. By the way, the hotel manager called up and apologised personally for what had happened, courtesy the feedback form.

It also makes me think anger such an active feeling, you want to do something about it immediately and happiness is such a lazy feeling, you just want to wallow in it. Probably why a bad word spreads faster than a good word.

It also makes me think; one bad experience is all you need to trash the entire system and write scathing commentaries about it.

One black sheep is all it takes to make a mess of it.

FIA and F1

In light of some of the more ridiculous non-sense up in the air in F1, I thought I will write this post.

I have been following the sport since 2000. Probably the first couple of seasons that I watched were the best ever that I have come across. After 2002 FIA went berserk with rule changes and I have seen no abatement since.

In 2000 Michael Schumacher won his third championship. Till then everything had been fine. When he managed to win two consecutive championships, voice began to grow that Formula 1 had become boring. This voice belonged only to a small number of correspondents who belonged to France and England. Then in 2002, FIA, the Paris based governing body began some radical changes to the rules, which began with the change of the qualifying format, they have just been changing things ever since.

I personally felt, F1 was fun. You should have asked the millions of Michael and Tifosi fans, if the sport had become boring? The answer would have been a unanimous 'NO'. The problem was that here was a German driver, in an Italian team whopping everybody else. The other teams (French and English mostly) were not getting it their way. Reminds you somewhat of the second world war, does it not? So FIA got into the act and ensured that there was no way for this domination to continue. They changed every rule in the book, over the next two years. The only thing that remained was that there were drivers, who drove cars around a circuit. They changed qualification format, engine specs, aerodymanics, the right for a team to act as a team, car configuration, the works. Everything was changed.

All of this culminated in Michael and Ferrari being dethroned. Though it was not the rule changes but the additional tyre company, Michelin, that had made it possible, FIA took all the credit for it.

All the FIA had done was to increase the cost of participation and made it increasingly difficult for the smaller teams to co-exist. In the midst of the recession in the last two years, this resulted in auto majors like Honda and Toyota bidding farewell to the sport. The commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone was not too pleased to see this happen.

So they went ahead and banned in-season testing. This meant more dependence on technology for car development. More hours on wind tunnel, more simulations, etc. Again, smaller teams were threatening to quit within a year. At this point, they introduced budget caps on how much a team could spend on its operations. All said and done, they have no right to control this aspect and again they are deceiving themselves into believing that they are in control, while that is not the case.

Then the issue of overtaking being non-existent came to light last year. Their solution for the same was to introduce a bunch of technologies, which is going to cost teams a lot more. Way to go about cutting cost. Now, they are proposing to make F1 a formula which will use 4 cylinder engines so that the costs are lowered. So much for being the pinnacle of motor-sport. There are private series run by Audi which use 8 cylinder engines, and this is the vision they have for the so called "Pinnacle of Motor-Sport".

FIA is a stupid organization, which has not the slightest hint about motor-sport. They have eroded the brand value of F1 and are going to very soon destroy the formula altogether with their pin-headed thinking. In order for F1 to survive, the first thing that needs to happen is that FIA should go. They should be given an unceremonious send off. But Bernie does not want this, since he believes that the FIA is the only thing between him and the teams taking over the commercial rights of the sport.

Bernie's greed disallows him to do the right thing for the sport. FIA's stupidity is running the sport into the ground. As far as I can see, the only team that depends heavily of F1 for marketing is Ferrari, since they do not go mass market. The culmination of this entire story is going to be the reduction of Formula 1 into a pony race and the complete erosion of its commercial value. Those companies that really care about making fast cars and racing will continue to do so without being involved in this nonsense, there are several examples such as Lamborghini, Bugatti, etc. The rest of them will continue to waste their money.

Hampi - A Crying Shame!

So, last week I had to go to Hampi for some work. I had heard a lot of blah blah on how good the place is and how it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and all that. Quite frankly, it was rather disappointing and I was very irked to see the state in which most of these monuments are in Hampi.

For starters, the monuments have settlements all around them. There are very few monuments that have been preserved the way they need to be and the only reason that one does not find settlements around such places is due to the problems of accessibility. The temple that forms the central part of the ruins, has been spared, but the rest that sprout out in the middle of bustling villages with 200 cows moving around on the approach road.

The place has lousy accessibility. The roads in the region are terrible and bridges that got broken a few years ago have not be constructed since. The road transport infrastructure is a crying shame. If a tourist does visit this place, he/she will not go back happy.

Let me digress slightly here. The area of Karnataka that we are talking is one which probably provides the most amount of revenue to the state coffers. The Bellary-Hospet belt has been indiscriminately exploited by miners (read certain ministers) for the purpose of their personal gains. The activity has been carried out so indiscriminately that every building in the city of Hospet has a tinge or red due to the dust that open cast mining causes. So, one of the most important economic center for the state has the lowest level of infrastructure development. The cities as well as the highways are in the most pathetic conditions. I am told that when Mr. Reddy is about to visit, a road is laid, two days prior to his visit and then, it gets washed away in the matter of days. It is just a stop gap arrangement.

The state of tourism development in the region is at best appalling. Just advertising the place through ad films across the world does not end the responsibilities of the government. It has to make sure that the tourists coming in have ample alternatives for commutation, for resting, for refreshments, etc. Unfortunately, this is lost on the chief minister, he is just too busy spending money printing his **** face on every bus in the state.

When you leave from the city of Hospet towards the Virupaksha Temple, the heart of the ruins, there comes a bridge that connects the ruins to the other side of the Tungabadra River to go to another significant town of Anegundi. The bridge that used to stand on the river broke a few years back. The government never bothered to re-build it. 

It is amazing to note such apathy towards a place that is being promoted world-over as a heritage destination.

As I have been travelling across the south, mostly the two state of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; there is a stark dichotomy that I have noticed. Both states have some of the most corrupt politicians who think the government to be their fiefdom. They have been eating the people's money shamelessly. Though, there is one major difference.

I read once, there are two types of dictators; one who realises that in order for him to continue to eat in the future, he must invest back into his country and make it possible for the people to be more productive and ensure that the income of the state can grow; a good example of this is the Middle East. The other kind indulges in continuous plunder, till such time that the resources of the nation are exhausted; this kind is only worried about making sure that he is fed and has no long term plan in mind; a good example of the same being a lot of states in Africa.

Well a very similar dichotomy exists between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The infrastructure and economic stimulus for doing business in Tamil Nadu is very high. They wish to make sure that there is enough economic development to ensure that the politicians can continue to eat public cash in the long run. By comparision, Karnataka is a case of plunder. There is no investment being made back into the state. The representatives of the government wish to just fill up their pockets in whatever little time that they have at the helm of affairs. The present government has created an atmosphere where corporates are already beginning to flee Bangalore and entrepreneurs are resisting setting up further businesses in the state. Given this I have just one question to ask

 

The Iron ore in Bellary will get exhausted, just as the gold in Kolar did. Then what?

HR in Hospitality: Painful state

Do you know the biggest problem that the Hospitality Industry faces as of date; Human Resources.

Well, I was aghast to find out that hotel operators are facing tremendous shortage of human resources (non-managerial) to run the operations at their hotels. In a country that has sky high unemployment, and hordes of people living below the poverty line, why might this be the case?

Indians do not like to work. We are probably the laziest people. 'The path of least resistance' applies to Indians more than any other. This is primarily the reason corruption is so prevalent in India. All you need to do in order to get a bribe is make things slightly harder for the opposite person.

Now, in order to work effectively within an organization, it is extremely important to be disciplined and to work hard. With the support staff that is recruited, most often the case is that they want life to be easy. When pressed to deliver, they normally disappear. They leave the job without even informing the employer. The reason that there is no incentive for the employees to stay employed is because of the number of freebies that the state gives away.

I am pretty sure, few would understand how freebies help. In order to secure votes during the poles, the politicians give away all sorts of things from clothes to TVs. Now the people are have-nots. They do not have the basics of life, they cant feed themselves regularly enough. To such people a TV is absolutely useless. They sell it and get a few thousands which is like suddenly awarding a Crore to you. They feel, there is no need to work and that the money generated will take care of them. They settle into a very easy life.

Money tends to eventually run out. At such time, they are in no position to work, because the government has taught them to be useless. They try to work, but resort to quitting eventually. The poverty in the country is not due to lack of jobs; it is artificially created by doing all of the above mentioned.

Empowering someone or eradication of poverty will not take place by distribution of wealth. The communist model has never worked. You must teach people to create wealth for themselves, that is the only way to eradicate poverty. There is no substitute to hard work and this is something that has to be made clear.

Till such time that political parties mend their ways, this issue will not find resolution. I pray for the hospitality companies till such time.

The much applauded bourgeoisie who divided India

This Republic Day gave me an opportunity to watch some excellent documentaries about the Independence struggle of India. I knew most of the things about how India achieved independence. Honestly, I feel Hitler contributed more to the Indian freedom struggle than any of the idiots whose portraits adorn the walls of government buildings.

The Indian Independence was not fought out, it was rather negotiated across a table in plush British buildings in the mid 1940's.

There were two key actors in the division of the nation, both bourgeois. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Jinnah. Both of them came from rich families, studied in the UK, had bourgeois habits and came to India at the most opportunistic moment with a hunger for power.

Mohammad Jinnah - Jinnah was only a second generation Muslim. His grandfather was a Rajput Hindu. His fore-fathers had been rich traders from Gujarat and he was another bourgeois who essentially pursued law because he saw a lot of money in it. This man became a part of the Indian National Congress, and did not wish for the British to leave, actually. The high nosed bourgeois thought that the British culture and educational system was needed for India.

He did not wish to join the Indian Muslim League initially since he considered it too muslim and did not suite his bourgeois style. Though later, he saw that he was not going to have any sway in terms of strength in the congress and decided to lead the Muslim League so that he would have an opportunity to wield some power. Further, when he saw that Nehru was going to have a greater sway, he started rooting for the need to protect the interests of minority muslims and started demanding for a separate state. He did not want sustenance, he cared less about the muslims still, all he wanted was the name tag of Prime Minister; no matter what the cost. The condition of Pakistan today and its long and brilliant political history is a testament to this fact.

Jawaharlal Nehru - His upbringing was steeped in great aristrocracy. Son of a rich Barrister, went off to London to study, he was a total wealthy elitist. Nehru's father was neck deep in politics and hence his induction into the same was no matter of great surprise. He was, what can only be called a complete British sycophant. He was another power hungry character, just like Jinnah, who had dreamt of getting himself to the Prime Minister's chair from the moment that the Independence of India became news. From the moment that Louis Mountbatten stepped on Indian soil and announced that he would be the last Viceroy of India, Nehru began his mission of shining Mountbatten's boots. I feel he worked more with Mountbatten than with the Congress during that period. When Jinnah announced the need for Pakistan, Nehru was equally certain that the need existed since the only other option was losing power or seat, as it is known now.

So essentially, for the need for a tag by the other two, this country was split up into three. As far as I can see, this has not helped the cause of anybody. Pakistan and India have been at war over Kashmir since 1948. Bangladesh is another kind of problem and China has been using Pakistan against India the whole time.

What a waste... All for the sake of power hunger.

Airtel 3G

The Airtel 3G plans that were released for Karnataka today seem to be meant for making people utilise the Mobile Number Portability. The plan, leaving aside a few packages which are themselves quite restrictive and with very low download limits (considering the speed on offer), is essentially at 30p/20Kb.

This translates to Rs. 1.5 for every 100Kb or in other words Rs. 15000 for each GB of download. I get unlimited download on the broadband from the same company for Rs. 2000 at a speed of about 2Mbps. Now, on the mobile they are promising 21 Mbps, we all know that nobody is ever going to get that kind of speed. The broadband gives me a best performance of about 300Kbps on a line which is supposed to be 2Mbps. By the same standards, though I am expecting more losses in speed on the mobile phone, one should get about 3Mbps speed at this above mentioned abominable rate.

For all the re-branding and new tunes. ads and everything, Airtel will not be able to acquire any clients at this kind of pricing. Unfortunately, the launch of Mobile Number Portability coincides with the 3G launch for Airtel, (probably they wanted it that way). This is only going to result in them loosing customers and not acquiring any.

The Government of India is a Sell Out

I always provide wrong information in almost all of the surveys and data collection forms that are presented in conferences and the likes. I do this primarily to avoid being spammed by various marketing agencies, whether on phone or email alike; since most of this data gets sold.

Every once in a while, there arises a situation when you cannot give fake information. These may include incorporation of a new company, giving a letter for a foreign national to make a business trip to India, etc. I am appalled to notice that the Government of India is selling information that would otherwise be deemed confidential.

Yesterday, my Private Limited got incorporated and within a few hours of that I got the following mail. Is the government just allowed to sell information in this manner to anyone?

Dear Sir,

Greeting from HDFC Bank !!!!


At the outset many congratulations for the incorporation of your new Company and we would like to welcome you to the world of HDFC Bank. HDFC Bank current account is designed to cater to your diverse & complex business needs. Now you can unlock the true value of banking with us, through a host of services and each one is a reflection of just how much we cherish your relationship with us.

I take this opportunity to give more details of the product and HDFC Bank.

Exclusive Benefit's for the HDFC Bank Account holders:-
• Payable- at par cheque book facility
• Free inter-city fund transfer across our network.
• Free online real- time Net Banking.
• Free collection of outstation cheque, payable on HDFC Bank locations.
• Huge savings on Bank charges.
• Cash pick-up at a nominal cost.
• 24 -hour phone banking access
• Business Debit Card
• Finer FX rates, Customized FX solutions & Telegraphic transfers
• CMS (Collections, Disbursements, At Par, Demand Drafts in large volumes)
• Free DD, Pay Oder.
• Free RTGS / NEFT
• Zero balance Salary Accounts with salary up load solutions.
• Payment gateway services.
• E-net Facility for TAX payment.
• Merchant Services (EDC Machine)
• Net banking – Manage your accounts from anywhere any time.
• Phone banking – Talk to a phone banking agent for all your queries.
• Mobile banking - Access, transact & inquire about your account
• InstaAlerts – Get account updates on mobile or e-mail.
• Term loans, OD, CC , Property mortgage

• Loan – Auto, home, Personal
• On-line tax payment.

In today's fast-paced world, your business regularly requires you to receive and send funds to various cities in the country. HDFC Bank Current Account gives you the power of inter-city banking with a single account and access to more than 819 cities and 1765+ branches.From special cheques that get treated at par with local ones in any city where we have a branch, faster collection of outstation cheques (payable at branch locations), free account to account funds transfer between HDFC Bank accounts to Free inter-city clearing, our priority services have become the benchmark for banking efficiency. Our country is going to become a great production and trading hub in the map of world, Bank shall definitely participate in the same , With the motto to provide fastest International banking services to our Importers, exporters and all other business houses.


Request you for an appointment to discuss about our Key account product for Newly Incorporated Companies. Please feel free to contact me or Mr. Nagaraj on +91 9164404753 for any further clarification.

Thanks and Regards.

Shabeer. P.

Manager
HDFC Bank Ltd.
Bangalore.
Mob: 9379185775.


HDFC Bank declared 'Best Private Bank in India' in the Euromoney Private Banking Survey 2010.
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Ok Ok. Private Limited companies are public entities and therefore, the information might have been available to the bank.

I had a similar instance last year when an associate from Europe had asked me to send a letter across to him, so that he could procure a business visa to come to India. The day that the letter was submitted to the Indian Embassy in Brussels, the same day I got a call from HSBC asking if I wanted a forex account. This is extremely confidential information is it not?

I feel the Indian Government is selling out every single piece of information that they get. Can this be allowed? Is there no way of addressing this?

Why Winter Froze Over? (2)

I just got some links from the net on the winters caused volcanoes. Just putting them up in addition to the post that I had written yesterday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/iceland-volcano-eruption-brings-tourists-colder-us-winter.php

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/stothers_02/

Why Winter Froze Over?

Usually, I do not write pieces such as this, but well...

The winter this year has been unusually cold and there has been mountains of snow piling up everywhere, one is tempted to ask the staunch proponent of global warming to do a naked dance in New York, just so that they realise that it ain't that warm at all.

Just before writing this post, I did a short search on what most 'Experts' have written about the same. I found a lot of wind speed, ocean currents, solar activity, arctic sea ice concentration,etc.

The actual reason for the cold winter is an unpronounceable volcano. Eyjafjallajökull!

In the earlier part of 2010, this volcano blew up in great fashion and hit air travel, to and from Europe for about a month. The eruption was a massive one, which sent tonnes of ash and gas into the stratosphere.

In the year 1991, Mount Pinatubo in Philippines had erupted much in a similar manner, which is the second largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

"The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tonnes (10 cubic kilometres) of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere – more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone depletion temporarily increased substantially"




This is a point that was also debated by Mr. Nathan Myhrvold, in the book Super Freakonomics. He describes the effects of the Pinatubo eruption and also proposes, inducing SO2 into the stratosphere as a possible solution to global warming in the future. Large volcanic eruptions are known to have the potential to bring down global temperatures. The effects of the same tend to last a few years. This is a proven fact.

Therefore, the next few, at least couple of winters, will remain rather cold before things normalise and the global warming groups can start creating a fracas again. Though, there is agreement in the scientific community that this might not be last that we have seen of the Icelandic volcanoes and Katla, the big brother of Eyjafjallajökull, and also the largest of the Icelandic volcanoes might be getting ready to blow up. In the past 1,000 years, all three known eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have triggered subsequent Katla eruptions.