.
10 minutes back, came reports of a meltdown in a Japanese nuclear power plant. This will be the third, after the Chernobyl and the Three-Mile Island disaster.
Keeping fingers crossed that things don't go out of hand - earthquake, tsunami followed by ... nothing else serious, I hope.
.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
The Changing Political Theatre
.
What began as a self-immolation by an ordinary vegetable vendor over gross injustice has resulted in a significant change in the political landscape of Arab nations. Over 10 countries have been affected to varying degrees (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen have been directly affected; Israel, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon are indirectly affected by uncertainty because of the tectonic political shifts, mainly in Egypt). More countries have seen change in a brief span than the world has seen in the last half-century (the last major shifts happened when, following the end of WW2, India and several other countries "liberated" themselves from occupiers. Only, this time around, it is their own Governments that are being overthrown.
It is a measure of pride that all these countries have seen non-violent protests; in some, violence has resulted because of the violent response by incumbent Governments. Nice to see that the spirit of the Mahatma lives on in the world. Since non-violent protest is inherent to democracy, even if the governments that emerge are not classical democracies, one thing is sure - they will be closer in spirit to democracy than the predecessor Governments. The predominant drive is for openness and freedom of expression – which will itself ensure transition to democracy, though there may be local flavours.
Another fallout is that it will leave American foreign policy-makers non-plussed: how can they curry favour with newly minted democracies? What will they use as a fig-leaf for their hegemonic ambitions? George Bush wanted to export democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and attempted to rid the world of one despot and religious bigotry to do so. The first happened, the second may never.
Now, Obama cannot use that excuse, because the people themselves have ensured that democracy happens, in so many countries key to America's interests in Arabia.
The next big theatre is Bahrain – which is almost a part of Saudi Arabia (they are linked by a causeway). The US 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, and thus US and Iranian interests are opposite. Like Iraq under Saddam, Bahrain has a majority Shia population, ruled by Sunnis. Iran, which is Shia majority and Shia-governed, clearly has strong incentive to support overthrow of the Bahraini Government, while Sunni-governed Saudi Arabia has very strong incentive to support it. Hence, we can expect a jittery Saudi ruling elite to crack down heavily and early on any incipient Shia protests in their own country. If they fail, and the contagion of rebellion affects Saudi Arabia too, with Iran ever ready to pour oil on troubled waters, and with the US looking to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in particular, and the Arab peninsula in general, the scenario looks very, very uncertain.
We have seen how fast the contagion spread from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya. So Bahrain could be the starting point for a similar chain reaction East of the Suez. Thus, quite apart from Libya, the events in Bahrain promise to have strategic overtones that are far more ominous and high-stakes.
As an observer from far-away India, I have a mere academic interest, but I can say from this vantage point that the years 2008 to 2013 will be as world-changing as the years from 1945 to 1950. Democracy, political equations, and the balance of world economic power, will decisively shift. As far as I can see it, India will be a beneficiary because of relative political stability. If only we can cure ourselves of the corruption disease, we can race ahead in the global sweepstakes.
.
What began as a self-immolation by an ordinary vegetable vendor over gross injustice has resulted in a significant change in the political landscape of Arab nations. Over 10 countries have been affected to varying degrees (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen have been directly affected; Israel, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon are indirectly affected by uncertainty because of the tectonic political shifts, mainly in Egypt). More countries have seen change in a brief span than the world has seen in the last half-century (the last major shifts happened when, following the end of WW2, India and several other countries "liberated" themselves from occupiers. Only, this time around, it is their own Governments that are being overthrown.
It is a measure of pride that all these countries have seen non-violent protests; in some, violence has resulted because of the violent response by incumbent Governments. Nice to see that the spirit of the Mahatma lives on in the world. Since non-violent protest is inherent to democracy, even if the governments that emerge are not classical democracies, one thing is sure - they will be closer in spirit to democracy than the predecessor Governments. The predominant drive is for openness and freedom of expression – which will itself ensure transition to democracy, though there may be local flavours.
Another fallout is that it will leave American foreign policy-makers non-plussed: how can they curry favour with newly minted democracies? What will they use as a fig-leaf for their hegemonic ambitions? George Bush wanted to export democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and attempted to rid the world of one despot and religious bigotry to do so. The first happened, the second may never.
Now, Obama cannot use that excuse, because the people themselves have ensured that democracy happens, in so many countries key to America's interests in Arabia.
The next big theatre is Bahrain – which is almost a part of Saudi Arabia (they are linked by a causeway). The US 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, and thus US and Iranian interests are opposite. Like Iraq under Saddam, Bahrain has a majority Shia population, ruled by Sunnis. Iran, which is Shia majority and Shia-governed, clearly has strong incentive to support overthrow of the Bahraini Government, while Sunni-governed Saudi Arabia has very strong incentive to support it. Hence, we can expect a jittery Saudi ruling elite to crack down heavily and early on any incipient Shia protests in their own country. If they fail, and the contagion of rebellion affects Saudi Arabia too, with Iran ever ready to pour oil on troubled waters, and with the US looking to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in particular, and the Arab peninsula in general, the scenario looks very, very uncertain.
We have seen how fast the contagion spread from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya. So Bahrain could be the starting point for a similar chain reaction East of the Suez. Thus, quite apart from Libya, the events in Bahrain promise to have strategic overtones that are far more ominous and high-stakes.
As an observer from far-away India, I have a mere academic interest, but I can say from this vantage point that the years 2008 to 2013 will be as world-changing as the years from 1945 to 1950. Democracy, political equations, and the balance of world economic power, will decisively shift. As far as I can see it, India will be a beneficiary because of relative political stability. If only we can cure ourselves of the corruption disease, we can race ahead in the global sweepstakes.
.
A Fantastic Article on the Tata Group
.
Very readable, very authentic, and (for once) fairly uncritical article in The Economist.on the Tata Group.
.
Very readable, very authentic, and (for once) fairly uncritical article in The Economist.on the Tata Group.
.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Have you tried Splashtop OS?
.
If you are afraid of installing or migrating to Linux, for whatever reason, here's an option that will warm the cockles of your heart. Here's a flavour of Linux that is easy to use (the browser is the OS) and easy to install (you download an executable like any Windows application, and reboot after execution - that's all. And it is available for download (approx 317 MB) from today! It does not override Windows, it simply is available as a choice at boot-up time, in case you are in a hurry to do something online; to get back to Windows, simply re-boot and choose Windows on boot-up.
Splashtop OS is a Linux kernel based OS that uses the Chromuim OS developed by the Open Source community with support from Google, and is an instant-on OS. It boots in less than a third of the time it takes for Windows (any flavour) takes. On solid-state disks, it claims to start up in 5 seconds flat! So no more World-wide-wait for Windows users.
Do let me know how SplashTop is. I think it is great. I have just now installed and run it on my home machine, and my first action was to write this blog entry.
.
If you are afraid of installing or migrating to Linux, for whatever reason, here's an option that will warm the cockles of your heart. Here's a flavour of Linux that is easy to use (the browser is the OS) and easy to install (you download an executable like any Windows application, and reboot after execution - that's all. And it is available for download (approx 317 MB) from today! It does not override Windows, it simply is available as a choice at boot-up time, in case you are in a hurry to do something online; to get back to Windows, simply re-boot and choose Windows on boot-up.
Splashtop OS is a Linux kernel based OS that uses the Chromuim OS developed by the Open Source community with support from Google, and is an instant-on OS. It boots in less than a third of the time it takes for Windows (any flavour) takes. On solid-state disks, it claims to start up in 5 seconds flat! So no more World-wide-wait for Windows users.
Do let me know how SplashTop is. I think it is great. I have just now installed and run it on my home machine, and my first action was to write this blog entry.
.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Why People Marry and Get Divorced: Reason No.47
.
85% of Cubans own their homes. ... However, there is a catch: holding title to a property does not give you the right to sell it. The only legal way to move in Cuba is by swapping residences—a slow, bureaucratic and often corrupt process known as the permuta (“exchange”), which requires finding two roughly similar properties and getting state approval. To avoid this hassle, some Cubans prefer to marry the owner of a property, transfer the deed, and divorce.
From The Economist Print Issue.
.
85% of Cubans own their homes. ... However, there is a catch: holding title to a property does not give you the right to sell it. The only legal way to move in Cuba is by swapping residences—a slow, bureaucratic and often corrupt process known as the permuta (“exchange”), which requires finding two roughly similar properties and getting state approval. To avoid this hassle, some Cubans prefer to marry the owner of a property, transfer the deed, and divorce.
From The Economist Print Issue.
.
Bhimsen Joshi
.
...those who packed concert halls to listen to him sing, as Indians did for over six decades, rarely mentioned his technique. Instead, they would talk about how he had made them feel ....
For nobody could match the extraordinary ability of Bhimsen—always Bhimsen to his listeners—to capture the essential character of a raga, whether playful or grave, and send audiences out into the night humming, with the music under their skin, almost stunned with the force of something they could not quite comprehend. ....
This is what The Economist said of Bhimsen Joshi, in an unusually readable obituary.
.
...those who packed concert halls to listen to him sing, as Indians did for over six decades, rarely mentioned his technique. Instead, they would talk about how he had made them feel ....
For nobody could match the extraordinary ability of Bhimsen—always Bhimsen to his listeners—to capture the essential character of a raga, whether playful or grave, and send audiences out into the night humming, with the music under their skin, almost stunned with the force of something they could not quite comprehend. ....
This is what The Economist said of Bhimsen Joshi, in an unusually readable obituary.
.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Google Chrome is getting better!
.
Chrome now has Apps and Extensions. Hundreds of them are available in the Chrome Web Store, and many of them, are Free, at least for now. Each extension brings a new experience of browsing. I use Chrome on Ubuntu Linux, and slowly, these extensions are changing the way I am using browsers. And thus, the way I use computers. Some of these extensions:
Le Newz is a totally new way of keeping up with the news - the experience beats Google News hollow. Something equally interesting, that does something similar is NewsSquares. The latter led me to a story that I had never read anywhere else - on how the Mumbai terror attacks were planned and executed, with minute-to-minute direction from Pakistan.
GreTouch is a new way of improving one's vocabulary: It has a word visualizer -- you can browse a word at a time -- and it shows a picture that helps you visualize the meaning of the word. For example, the word, "abusive" shows a photograph of Harbhajan Singh and Symonds eyeball-to-eyeball. The word, "canter" shows a picture of a horse in mid-air while cantering. The word, "Hedgerow" actually shows a picture of one, which makes it so clear and understandable, and hence, easy to memorize.
Ge.TT is a file-sharing utility, without the need to upload! Regardless of size, you can share files on twitter, facebook or email. I cannot understand how it works, but it does work.
And many more - I am still exploring.
.
Chrome now has Apps and Extensions. Hundreds of them are available in the Chrome Web Store, and many of them, are Free, at least for now. Each extension brings a new experience of browsing. I use Chrome on Ubuntu Linux, and slowly, these extensions are changing the way I am using browsers. And thus, the way I use computers. Some of these extensions:
Le Newz is a totally new way of keeping up with the news - the experience beats Google News hollow. Something equally interesting, that does something similar is NewsSquares. The latter led me to a story that I had never read anywhere else - on how the Mumbai terror attacks were planned and executed, with minute-to-minute direction from Pakistan.
GreTouch is a new way of improving one's vocabulary: It has a word visualizer -- you can browse a word at a time -- and it shows a picture that helps you visualize the meaning of the word. For example, the word, "abusive" shows a photograph of Harbhajan Singh and Symonds eyeball-to-eyeball. The word, "canter" shows a picture of a horse in mid-air while cantering. The word, "Hedgerow" actually shows a picture of one, which makes it so clear and understandable, and hence, easy to memorize.
Ge.TT is a file-sharing utility, without the need to upload! Regardless of size, you can share files on twitter, facebook or email. I cannot understand how it works, but it does work.
And many more - I am still exploring.
.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Why Egypt's Army Wants Stability: A Unique Perspective
.
Did you know that Egypt's army run tourist resorts, manufactures pots and pans and household appliances?
Take a look at this: http://bit.ly/glq5iu
Did you know that Egypt's army run tourist resorts, manufactures pots and pans and household appliances?
Take a look at this: http://bit.ly/glq5iu
.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Whither "Canned Education"?
.
Recently, Agrawal Classes closed shop. Begun in the late 1950s, it spawned several "toppers" in the Science stream, and its students who got admitted into the IITs over the decades would be large enough in number to fill several batches. The owners' family was no longer interested in running these successful classes, and, instead of cashing out by selling the not-inconsiderable brand value of that trade mark, which needed to be defended quite often from sound-alike me-too's, they chose to close down quietly.
This made me ponder on the phenomenon of "classes" -- teaching shops that supplement the primary educational institutions, viz. schools and colleges and also help students prepare for hyper-competitive examinations like the IIT-JEE (which Jim Clark, co-founder of Netscape, called the most difficult examination in the world to pass) ; or examinations that are notoriously difficult to pass (like the CA Examination which has pass percentages in the low single-digits).
Rather than dwell on the question of whether they are a good thing or not, a point that can be argued ad nauseam, I thought of looking at the phenomenon and the number of business models it has spawned. I had first-hand experience of Agrawal Classes myself as a student of Mathematics, and I knew then as I do now that it was geared towards super-achievers. Ordinarily good students like me often fell at the first hurdle, and it was all we could do to even score 35% marks in their internal tests - when there were some students (destined to be toppers) who rarely dipped below the 90% mark. Only students who had scored above a particular percentage in the qualifying examination merited admission, even if one was willing to pay the stiff fees.
Over the years, coaching classes have flourished -- with many being obviously more successful than others. But like Agrawal Classes, they were largely brand extensions of a single "Sir". They have often been named accordingly. For example, one of the most successful of such classes, JK Shah Classes, run tightly by the eponymous "JK Sir", now runs out of 10 locations in 2 cities. Mr. J K Shah still engages classes, and he now has several other teachers who teach the mind-bogglingly large number of students in multiple batches, more than the total enrolments of any single commerce college in Mumbai, even though he uses a fraction of the space available to any large commerce college in Mumbai. Each of the teachers (many of them being CAs) works really hard. 10 hours a day stand-up teaching is not uncommon. Each earns as much in two or three days than what a salaried CA with equivalent years of experience earns in a whole month working with a large company as a Finance Manager. J K Shah has run his business for over a quarter century with a sharp, single-minded focus: catering to coaching needs of CA-hopefuls. While he gets several opportunities or proposals to diversify, or to expand, he has kept things firmly in control -- all classes are owned by him; he has eschewed franchising or expansion into other domains (like teaching science). He personally selects and recruits teachers for his classes, and has very low attrition. I had the good fortune of meeting him, and in a longish conversation I had with him and one of his proteges, I learnt or observed all what I have written above. Thus, this model is nothing but a scaled up (by a single order of magnitude) model of Agrawal Classes, in a particular domain. However, there is one difference: the energy level demanded of teachers in JK Shah Classes (they have to teach a single topic/ subject repeatedly at all 10 locations, which means significant commuting every day) is much higher than the average teacher in Agrawal Classes - some of whom had time and energy left for conducting their own private tuitions as well. If a teacher falls ill or is on leave, this always poses significant pressure on scheduling; because the others have to work harder and somehow fill the gap. The one thing common in JK Shah Classes and Agrawal Classes was their total commitment and absolute seriousness with which they viewed time schedules -- rarely are there time overruns because the syllabus is not covered. The one big difference is that Agrawal remained a class for toppers or topper-hopefuls; JK Shah Classes prides itself on teaching almost any eligible student it can manage within its classroom capacity. However, many classes offer significant discount for students scoring very high percentages, thus encouraging high-scoring students to join.
Of late, a newer model has emerged -- that of a model of growth in breadth of offering and also geographical coverage, often through partnering and franchising; sometimes through distance education, and sometimes through acquisition. Some, like Brilliant Tutorials, have pioneered a distance education model for competitive exams, in engineering, medicine, banking, management and the civil services. Contact programmes are held in 14 cities (according to its website) and Model Tests are conducted in 44 cities across India.
Educomp Solutions has pioneered use of high technology to achieve scale and reach (14,500 schools; benefitting 7.9 million students) for the K-12 (School+High School+Junior College) that were hitherto thought unthinkable. According to its website, teachers in some 4,500 schools now enhance their teaching by dipping into the large proprietary digital "instructor-led" content library built up by the company, using teaching aids like 3D animation, films, etc provided by Educomp through "SmartClasses" set up by them in different schools. Towards the end of a typical class, every teacher displays questions on a screen, and every child in class gets ready to answer the questions with their personal answering device. Students click the answers, and instantly, teachers can get a score sheet for every child in class. She ends the class going over the parts of the lesson that the scores show as not clearly understood by the class. The technology also involves interested parents more closely by making available to them information the school chooses to share with them digitally. Also, the system largely reduces the drudgery involved in manual paper corrections by teachers.
Mahesh Tutorials (a brand owned by MT Educare Ltd) is another such model. It is a coaching class in the Agrawal or JK Shah Classes mould, with a major difference: It is growing its depth and geographical reach far, far more that the earlier named and their ilk. It is growing not so much through technology (though it spends a lot of money and effort on developing tutorial content) but through partnering (and lately through franchising, but these are tiny steps). They basically "swallow" individual classes, and allow these teachers a great deal of freedom to run them under the name and style of Mahesh Tutorials, thus getting advantage of both, the brand name recognition and marketing clout of Mahesh Tutorials, but also the excellent back-end support facilities that are shared by all "MT" educational offerings, like tutorial content, classroom scheduling and management, student interaction management, etc.. Over the years, after beginning with coaching classes for Std IX and X only, now they have day-care for pre-schoolers, kindergarten, junior college classes for Science and Commerce, and CA (CPT, IPCC, Final) students. They have grown from a single location to over 180 locations, including Dubai and London. And they still boast of the regular crop of "rankers" in most of the courses they offer, belying fears that quality and results may suffer with horizontal and vertical growth.
Many feel that coaching classes themselves (Educomp is not strictly in this category) tended to make students dependent on "spoon-feeding" and that if they are not discriminating about the students they admit (like Agrawal Classes was), their results are bound to cluster near the average result for the examination as a whole. However, since so many students (an overwhelming 95% of CA IPCC and Final Students, for example) think that coaching classes is a good idea, maybe they need a second look. Especially because so many different business models all seem to be flourishing, the difference being scale and geographical reach. Indeed, some are simply cash-rich; some others are profitable but their expansion plans make them cash gobblers (like MT Educare which, while being profitable, is growing so rapidly that it has needed private equity infusion, and is likely to go public soon).
MT Educare hopes to cross the chasm between "coaching classes" and educational institutions by setting up a private University, like Sikkim-Manipal, Amity or Lovely. This is a "crossover" model - where one removes the distinction between coaching class and teaching institution.
Are there other variants/ business models in this space? Would like comments from persons in the know.
.
Recently, Agrawal Classes closed shop. Begun in the late 1950s, it spawned several "toppers" in the Science stream, and its students who got admitted into the IITs over the decades would be large enough in number to fill several batches. The owners' family was no longer interested in running these successful classes, and, instead of cashing out by selling the not-inconsiderable brand value of that trade mark, which needed to be defended quite often from sound-alike me-too's, they chose to close down quietly.
This made me ponder on the phenomenon of "classes" -- teaching shops that supplement the primary educational institutions, viz. schools and colleges and also help students prepare for hyper-competitive examinations like the IIT-JEE (which Jim Clark, co-founder of Netscape, called the most difficult examination in the world to pass) ; or examinations that are notoriously difficult to pass (like the CA Examination which has pass percentages in the low single-digits).
Rather than dwell on the question of whether they are a good thing or not, a point that can be argued ad nauseam, I thought of looking at the phenomenon and the number of business models it has spawned. I had first-hand experience of Agrawal Classes myself as a student of Mathematics, and I knew then as I do now that it was geared towards super-achievers. Ordinarily good students like me often fell at the first hurdle, and it was all we could do to even score 35% marks in their internal tests - when there were some students (destined to be toppers) who rarely dipped below the 90% mark. Only students who had scored above a particular percentage in the qualifying examination merited admission, even if one was willing to pay the stiff fees.
Over the years, coaching classes have flourished -- with many being obviously more successful than others. But like Agrawal Classes, they were largely brand extensions of a single "Sir". They have often been named accordingly. For example, one of the most successful of such classes, JK Shah Classes, run tightly by the eponymous "JK Sir", now runs out of 10 locations in 2 cities. Mr. J K Shah still engages classes, and he now has several other teachers who teach the mind-bogglingly large number of students in multiple batches, more than the total enrolments of any single commerce college in Mumbai, even though he uses a fraction of the space available to any large commerce college in Mumbai. Each of the teachers (many of them being CAs) works really hard. 10 hours a day stand-up teaching is not uncommon. Each earns as much in two or three days than what a salaried CA with equivalent years of experience earns in a whole month working with a large company as a Finance Manager. J K Shah has run his business for over a quarter century with a sharp, single-minded focus: catering to coaching needs of CA-hopefuls. While he gets several opportunities or proposals to diversify, or to expand, he has kept things firmly in control -- all classes are owned by him; he has eschewed franchising or expansion into other domains (like teaching science). He personally selects and recruits teachers for his classes, and has very low attrition. I had the good fortune of meeting him, and in a longish conversation I had with him and one of his proteges, I learnt or observed all what I have written above. Thus, this model is nothing but a scaled up (by a single order of magnitude) model of Agrawal Classes, in a particular domain. However, there is one difference: the energy level demanded of teachers in JK Shah Classes (they have to teach a single topic/ subject repeatedly at all 10 locations, which means significant commuting every day) is much higher than the average teacher in Agrawal Classes - some of whom had time and energy left for conducting their own private tuitions as well. If a teacher falls ill or is on leave, this always poses significant pressure on scheduling; because the others have to work harder and somehow fill the gap. The one thing common in JK Shah Classes and Agrawal Classes was their total commitment and absolute seriousness with which they viewed time schedules -- rarely are there time overruns because the syllabus is not covered. The one big difference is that Agrawal remained a class for toppers or topper-hopefuls; JK Shah Classes prides itself on teaching almost any eligible student it can manage within its classroom capacity. However, many classes offer significant discount for students scoring very high percentages, thus encouraging high-scoring students to join.
Of late, a newer model has emerged -- that of a model of growth in breadth of offering and also geographical coverage, often through partnering and franchising; sometimes through distance education, and sometimes through acquisition. Some, like Brilliant Tutorials, have pioneered a distance education model for competitive exams, in engineering, medicine, banking, management and the civil services. Contact programmes are held in 14 cities (according to its website) and Model Tests are conducted in 44 cities across India.
Educomp Solutions has pioneered use of high technology to achieve scale and reach (14,500 schools; benefitting 7.9 million students) for the K-12 (School+High School+Junior College) that were hitherto thought unthinkable. According to its website, teachers in some 4,500 schools now enhance their teaching by dipping into the large proprietary digital "instructor-led" content library built up by the company, using teaching aids like 3D animation, films, etc provided by Educomp through "SmartClasses" set up by them in different schools. Towards the end of a typical class, every teacher displays questions on a screen, and every child in class gets ready to answer the questions with their personal answering device. Students click the answers, and instantly, teachers can get a score sheet for every child in class. She ends the class going over the parts of the lesson that the scores show as not clearly understood by the class. The technology also involves interested parents more closely by making available to them information the school chooses to share with them digitally. Also, the system largely reduces the drudgery involved in manual paper corrections by teachers.
Mahesh Tutorials (a brand owned by MT Educare Ltd) is another such model. It is a coaching class in the Agrawal or JK Shah Classes mould, with a major difference: It is growing its depth and geographical reach far, far more that the earlier named and their ilk. It is growing not so much through technology (though it spends a lot of money and effort on developing tutorial content) but through partnering (and lately through franchising, but these are tiny steps). They basically "swallow" individual classes, and allow these teachers a great deal of freedom to run them under the name and style of Mahesh Tutorials, thus getting advantage of both, the brand name recognition and marketing clout of Mahesh Tutorials, but also the excellent back-end support facilities that are shared by all "MT" educational offerings, like tutorial content, classroom scheduling and management, student interaction management, etc.. Over the years, after beginning with coaching classes for Std IX and X only, now they have day-care for pre-schoolers, kindergarten, junior college classes for Science and Commerce, and CA (CPT, IPCC, Final) students. They have grown from a single location to over 180 locations, including Dubai and London. And they still boast of the regular crop of "rankers" in most of the courses they offer, belying fears that quality and results may suffer with horizontal and vertical growth.
Many feel that coaching classes themselves (Educomp is not strictly in this category) tended to make students dependent on "spoon-feeding" and that if they are not discriminating about the students they admit (like Agrawal Classes was), their results are bound to cluster near the average result for the examination as a whole. However, since so many students (an overwhelming 95% of CA IPCC and Final Students, for example) think that coaching classes is a good idea, maybe they need a second look. Especially because so many different business models all seem to be flourishing, the difference being scale and geographical reach. Indeed, some are simply cash-rich; some others are profitable but their expansion plans make them cash gobblers (like MT Educare which, while being profitable, is growing so rapidly that it has needed private equity infusion, and is likely to go public soon).
MT Educare hopes to cross the chasm between "coaching classes" and educational institutions by setting up a private University, like Sikkim-Manipal, Amity or Lovely. This is a "crossover" model - where one removes the distinction between coaching class and teaching institution.
Are there other variants/ business models in this space? Would like comments from persons in the know.
.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Product Development is fun!
.
My first attempt at product development resulted in a great software product (a copiously hyperlinked textual database of the tax laws) ahead of its time (before computers had CD-ROM Drives, and before people knew about the Internet (I had to explain what hypertext was!), but I failed miserably at marketing it. However, I had a clear idea of what the customers liked. And when I went out to sell, I sold successfully. But if I did that, continued product development suffered. I just could not manage both. Even now, I think managing both is very, very difficult. But what I learnt was that you need not be a big moneybag with thousands of employees to bring out a great product. That was between 1993 and 1995.
Later, my second product was not really MY product. I was on the board of a co-operative bank as non-executive, honorary Director and during the three years there, my single big contribution was to make them believe that they could develop their own software. A small team of two staff and one consultant driven by me alone from the Board, developed a branch-level banking software (everything on liabilities side, and quite a few aids on the asset side) that had built-in linkages for centralization of data. This got implemented in 6 branches on a shoe-string budget. Then I left the Bank's Board to go on to other things. Till this day, that Bank remains one of the few banks anywhere in India (or probably the world) to run on its own software. Today, with RBI approval, they are selling the software and their implementation services to other Banks and this has become a profit-centre. Now, of course, the IT Dept has become as big as a small software company. This is something I had envisaged when this product was originally developed. I suspect that my Board colleagues okayed the project because, with the minimal resources I demanded, it was worth allowing me to fail - less than the cost of software for one branch - they never expected me to succeed, and when I did, I learnt that success needs many fathers, else, the real father gets swept away in the first flush of success. (I know I am stretching the metaphor, but I think it conveys what I want to!) This was from 1995 to 1998.
Then, from 2000 to 2003, I joined a KPO (that acronym wasn't invented then) with responsibilities that covered the "D" in R&D. I developed processes that increased throughput, accuracy and allowed scaleability and replicability. I thoroughly enjoyed the daily technical challenges -- of designing services that allowed us to create more employment here in services acknowledged by our most demanding customers.
Now, I am back on my own, and am developing a few exciting products. This time, again, I am on a shoe-string budget, but I am harnessing the sheer enthusiasm of young people by taking up projects that allow them to learn and that they are passionate about. And creating wonderful products that those working on surprise themselves.
What I read a few days back inspires me to improve the aesthetics of these products. It also encourages me because Jobs too has discovered that great products can be made by young people passionate about what they do. While not everyone can be a Jobs, anyone can benefit from his "methodology" and crazy attention to detail.
Watch this space for knowing what these products are!
.
My first attempt at product development resulted in a great software product (a copiously hyperlinked textual database of the tax laws) ahead of its time (before computers had CD-ROM Drives, and before people knew about the Internet (I had to explain what hypertext was!), but I failed miserably at marketing it. However, I had a clear idea of what the customers liked. And when I went out to sell, I sold successfully. But if I did that, continued product development suffered. I just could not manage both. Even now, I think managing both is very, very difficult. But what I learnt was that you need not be a big moneybag with thousands of employees to bring out a great product. That was between 1993 and 1995.
Later, my second product was not really MY product. I was on the board of a co-operative bank as non-executive, honorary Director and during the three years there, my single big contribution was to make them believe that they could develop their own software. A small team of two staff and one consultant driven by me alone from the Board, developed a branch-level banking software (everything on liabilities side, and quite a few aids on the asset side) that had built-in linkages for centralization of data. This got implemented in 6 branches on a shoe-string budget. Then I left the Bank's Board to go on to other things. Till this day, that Bank remains one of the few banks anywhere in India (or probably the world) to run on its own software. Today, with RBI approval, they are selling the software and their implementation services to other Banks and this has become a profit-centre. Now, of course, the IT Dept has become as big as a small software company. This is something I had envisaged when this product was originally developed. I suspect that my Board colleagues okayed the project because, with the minimal resources I demanded, it was worth allowing me to fail - less than the cost of software for one branch - they never expected me to succeed, and when I did, I learnt that success needs many fathers, else, the real father gets swept away in the first flush of success. (I know I am stretching the metaphor, but I think it conveys what I want to!) This was from 1995 to 1998.
Then, from 2000 to 2003, I joined a KPO (that acronym wasn't invented then) with responsibilities that covered the "D" in R&D. I developed processes that increased throughput, accuracy and allowed scaleability and replicability. I thoroughly enjoyed the daily technical challenges -- of designing services that allowed us to create more employment here in services acknowledged by our most demanding customers.
Now, I am back on my own, and am developing a few exciting products. This time, again, I am on a shoe-string budget, but I am harnessing the sheer enthusiasm of young people by taking up projects that allow them to learn and that they are passionate about. And creating wonderful products that those working on surprise themselves.
I also benefit from knowing up close a friend in Chennai who is successfully running multiple businesses and yet loves bringing out new products, services and technologies all the time.
Watch this space for knowing what these products are!
.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
More about Linux
I now have all my office machines on Linux. The only concession is that on 2 machines, I have a Windows partition too. Just in case I need it. I now have the following delightful FREE packages installed on my personal Netbook:
- Squirrelmail - an email server with browser-based client interface for internal email across my virtual office. No more need to browse the folder on the network . Just attach and email anything to your colleague(s) (each colleague gets a user ID and one desktop also serves as the email server during the day.
- A package that allows me to edit the contents of the clipboard, and keep a history of clipboard entries (upto 100, configurable). I have not seen the edit clipboard feature in Windows -- need to think how to creatively use this unusual capability.
- A mass file renaming facility, again another shiny pebble on the beach. Unusual, attractive, but what use to put it to?
- An "Art Manager" that allows me the choice of nearly 350 themes, with multiple colour choices for each, besides font rendering choices, icon set choices and cursor set choices (the last two in the hundreds).
- A beautiful, transparent analog clock with a second-hand that can unobtrusively stay on top even in applications. Handy to keep time during Powerpoint presentations.
- A 3-D modelling and animation software called Blender (haven't used it, though).
- VLC Media Player that can play almost all formats, a Video Editor (Pitivi)
- A Desktop Video Recorder (I can videotape something that is running on my desktop).
- FreeMind, the mind-mapping software under Linux, is much more advanced than its Windows equivalent, I have found to my delight.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Have you experienced Linux for the desktop?
.
First about how delightful it looks and feels.
It has configurable, semi-transparent menus and panels. I can have four panels, on each border of the screen. I can configure them either as Auto-Hide or with Show/Hide Buttons. These leave only an unobtrusive patch or arrow sign which, if clicked, exposes the Panel when needed. Allows me to make best use of the 1024x600 resolution of a NetBook.
It offers multiple, exciting desktop themes, way ahead of Windows. When I drag a window, the entire window animates like I am pulling a piece of cloth or paper. More like Mac than Windows (I haven't used Mac very much but have seen that the UI is way ahead of Windows). Linux is probably somewhere in between, and catching up with Mac much faster than Windows is.
Then about how efficient it is.
I have installed Ubuntu on 4 machines - two Intel Atom-based desktop, one Intel-Atom-based netbook and one really old, Intel Celeron-based Toshiba Satellite laptop, which I had stopped using because it ran Win XP so slowly that to start up, log in and finally open a blank Excel 2003 file took not less than 20 minutes (and I am not exaggerating!).
On the first three, I installed Ubuntu, and on the last, I had a much lighter version of Linux called Fedora, because of the extremely slow chip in it.
On the Netbook, I already had Win XP Home Edition pre-loaded. The performance was acceptable, but barely so. I needed to regularly defrag and be careful not to have too many apps in the startup because degradation in performance would then become obvious. Now, on the same machine, everything moves like greased lightning under Linux. The Netbook could well be an i3 with a fancy graphics card, looking at the speed at which applications run on it.
OpenOffice Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation files open up (after the QuickStarter is loaded once) instantly. No WorldWideWait.
Not only that, I have choices: AbiWord as a Word Processor; GNumeric as a Spreadsheet, and choices of KDE, GNOME, XSCF or other desktops environments (ie, desktop along with theme choices are a product that one has a choice of).
Then, about the applications.
Ubuntu Software Centre has equivalents (equally sophisticated, and in some ways, better than popular Windows software). GIMP (Photoshop clone); Dia (Visio equivalent); Scribus (PageMaker equivalent); Planner and KPlato Project Management software (MS Project clones); and several PDF Creators and viewers (OpenOffice allows export to PDF format directly from within the software itself).
All of these are FREE, stable and completely compatible with the operating system. They are almost as feature-rich than their Windows counterparts, and in many ways, are more intuitive and easier to use.
I have choices of browsers, too. I have Firefox and Chrome installed currently, but have at least 6-7 others to choose from. Similarly, there are a host of applications for sound and video applications, including VLC media player.
There are applications that have no free/ shareware equivalent except from the Open Source community itself, like Mind-mapping software (4 choices: FreeMind, Labyrinth, Semantik and VYM), Stellarium and Celestia Planetarium simulations that can interface with a range of models of USB-compliant motorized telescopes and become a personal astronomy tutor at night-time, and molecular modellers (Avogadro).
Oh, I forgot. Two things:
Then about Compatibility with Windows
Excellent range of Export and Import filters and options in every software ensure compatibility with any Windows software. For example, OpenOffice documents can be saved as Office 2007 .docx formats, or Wind 95/XP .doc format. Any of these format files can also be perfectly converted and opened. Ditto for Excel and Calc, the OpenOffice Spreadsheet. Impress, the presentation software, is impressive, and has an impressive constantly expanding template gallery online to choose from and use free of cost. Open ClipArt installs a huge clip-art library onto your disk (nearly 200 MB download) which is completely integrated into OpenOffice. Bibliographic References can be tracked and maintained using JabRef, again free. These can insert bibliographic citations within the articles written in OpenOffice. Equivalent under MS Office is EndNote, an expensive, separately purchaseable plug-in.
OpenOffice now runs Word macros (ie, VBA) but a bit patchily. It supports macros in 4 programming languages (OpenOffice.org BASIC, Python, Beanshell and Javascript). It has a competent Record Macro feature that allows you to hit the ground running with macros.
My employees and my daughter have changed from reluctant converts to complete evangelists in barely 3-4 weeks. They are users and creators of OpenOffice.org BASIC macros as well.
Chat clients abound in the Open Source world. As also mail handlers like Evolution (Outlook clone) and Thunderbird (which has a Windows version as well, and can import from Outlook .pst files.
Linux machines are part of the same LAN as Windows machines in my office. Linux machines can browse Windows networks easily, but Windows machines cannot browse Linux machines. Transferring files over the LAN is done easily because I need only one way network browse capability.
Databases like Post-GRE SQL and several other open connectivity database applications allow me not to lose hair (I don't have much left to lose, so peace of mid is that much more valuable) over usability of data in existing databases.
WINE (a WINdows Emulator) is an extreme form of Windows compatibility. It allows me to run Windows-based software from within a Window running on the Linux OS . For example, I can click on Excel.exe and have Excel that is "installed" for use under Wine run. I can even open *.chm (Compiled HTML Help) and *.hlp (Win32 Help files) by simply right-clicking and selecting Open With|WINE Program Loader. This is still a Work-in-Progress, and not all software, and not all features of all software, are currently supported. But they are getting there. I am not yet Microsft-free, but, like the OpenSource movement, I am getting there. The effect is that I do not any longer have to worry too much about missing drivers or what to do with files and data created under Windows OS applications.
All HP Printers are supported by printer drivers. There is a Universal Printer Driver that works with almost all printers, but it may not be able to use some of the more model-specific features like Document Autofeeders, etc.. In case there is an issue with any printer, I can always create a PDF, transfer it to a Windows machine and print it onto any printer with a Windows driver installed.
The Open Source community has left hardly any reason now for Windows afficianodos to continue to justify their use of Windows on any ground other than inertia. All-in-all, the stage has been reached where one no longer needs to hesitate to shift to Linux. It is now time to ask why Microsoft does not support Linux. Indeed, in many ways, where they cannot beat them, they are joining the. Example: The xml-based file format, which OpenOffice had adopted probably 10 years back, and made its debut in Office 2007 for the first time, is an example.
Then about the economics and ease of installation.
After making the USB drive as the bootable drive and creating the partitions carefully, the OS and several bundled application software including OpenOffice loaded in 10 minutes flat. The Internet connection configured itself, as did all peripherals.
What can be cheaper than free? All I needed was assurance of technical support. I got that in the form of Nandan Bhat, who runs a consulting and training business for corporates on Linux. He is based in Thane, which is also my base of operations. I requested him to give me either a software support AMC or an incident-based chargeable support at a fixed charge per visit, beginning with installation and configuration. For large corporates, there are companies like RedHat who do the same.
While an Intel Atom-based desktop is available for Rs.15,000 or less, with an LCD flat screen minotor, Windows 7 Professional Edition costs nearly Rs.8,000. Add at least Rs.5,000 for MS Office and 3,000 for Adobe Acrobat, and the software cost rivals the hardware cost, if one chose Windows. Choosing Linux meant only one visit charge payable to Mr.Bhat for making 2 machines usable under Linux immediately. He finished installing Linux (including OpenOffice) on one machine before the hardware supplier had fixed the wires on the second machine, which astounded him. The hardware guy told me that Windows takes at least 45 minutes to load, and MS Office took extra time, after Windows installation was completed.
My pleasant experiences meant that I called Mr Bhat twice more, to convert two more machines to Linux. On these machines, Linux and Windows are both available under different partitions. But Windows feels like driving with the handbrake on, after having used Linux.
For those who are hesitant, I suggest: Add Linux on a partition on your home machine, experience it, and then decide.
First about how delightful it looks and feels.
It has configurable, semi-transparent menus and panels. I can have four panels, on each border of the screen. I can configure them either as Auto-Hide or with Show/Hide Buttons. These leave only an unobtrusive patch or arrow sign which, if clicked, exposes the Panel when needed. Allows me to make best use of the 1024x600 resolution of a NetBook.
It offers multiple, exciting desktop themes, way ahead of Windows. When I drag a window, the entire window animates like I am pulling a piece of cloth or paper. More like Mac than Windows (I haven't used Mac very much but have seen that the UI is way ahead of Windows). Linux is probably somewhere in between, and catching up with Mac much faster than Windows is.
Then about how efficient it is.
I have installed Ubuntu on 4 machines - two Intel Atom-based desktop, one Intel-Atom-based netbook and one really old, Intel Celeron-based Toshiba Satellite laptop, which I had stopped using because it ran Win XP so slowly that to start up, log in and finally open a blank Excel 2003 file took not less than 20 minutes (and I am not exaggerating!).
On the first three, I installed Ubuntu, and on the last, I had a much lighter version of Linux called Fedora, because of the extremely slow chip in it.
On the Netbook, I already had Win XP Home Edition pre-loaded. The performance was acceptable, but barely so. I needed to regularly defrag and be careful not to have too many apps in the startup because degradation in performance would then become obvious. Now, on the same machine, everything moves like greased lightning under Linux. The Netbook could well be an i3 with a fancy graphics card, looking at the speed at which applications run on it.
OpenOffice Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation files open up (after the QuickStarter is loaded once) instantly. No WorldWideWait.
Not only that, I have choices: AbiWord as a Word Processor; GNumeric as a Spreadsheet, and choices of KDE, GNOME, XSCF or other desktops environments (ie, desktop along with theme choices are a product that one has a choice of).
Then, about the applications.
Ubuntu Software Centre has equivalents (equally sophisticated, and in some ways, better than popular Windows software). GIMP (Photoshop clone); Dia (Visio equivalent); Scribus (PageMaker equivalent); Planner and KPlato Project Management software (MS Project clones); and several PDF Creators and viewers (OpenOffice allows export to PDF format directly from within the software itself).
All of these are FREE, stable and completely compatible with the operating system. They are almost as feature-rich than their Windows counterparts, and in many ways, are more intuitive and easier to use.
I have choices of browsers, too. I have Firefox and Chrome installed currently, but have at least 6-7 others to choose from. Similarly, there are a host of applications for sound and video applications, including VLC media player.
There are applications that have no free/ shareware equivalent except from the Open Source community itself, like Mind-mapping software (4 choices: FreeMind, Labyrinth, Semantik and VYM), Stellarium and Celestia Planetarium simulations that can interface with a range of models of USB-compliant motorized telescopes and become a personal astronomy tutor at night-time, and molecular modellers (Avogadro).
Oh, I forgot. Two things:
- All these softwares are available for single-click download from the Ubuntu Software Centre, that simply queues all applications that you want to download, and installs them using spare bandwidth. No fear of applications that interfere with one another.
- Under Linux, one does not need to bother about viruses or virus guard software, because of the way Linux is constructed. A file does not execute unless the user specifically allows it to run. If all software is downloaded from Ubuntu's servers, one does not need to bother about infection. One need not, for the same reason, worry about viruses on USB drives. They simply won't replicate because Linux presumes that all files are not executable unless instructed by the user to execute them. If you are affected by a virus on a Linux machine, you have only yourself to blame. And windows viruses do not run on Linux because they cannot reach the Linux kernel at all; and there is no "registry" where the virus can ensconce itself.
Then about Compatibility with Windows
Excellent range of Export and Import filters and options in every software ensure compatibility with any Windows software. For example, OpenOffice documents can be saved as Office 2007 .docx formats, or Wind 95/XP .doc format. Any of these format files can also be perfectly converted and opened. Ditto for Excel and Calc, the OpenOffice Spreadsheet. Impress, the presentation software, is impressive, and has an impressive constantly expanding template gallery online to choose from and use free of cost. Open ClipArt installs a huge clip-art library onto your disk (nearly 200 MB download) which is completely integrated into OpenOffice. Bibliographic References can be tracked and maintained using JabRef, again free. These can insert bibliographic citations within the articles written in OpenOffice. Equivalent under MS Office is EndNote, an expensive, separately purchaseable plug-in.
OpenOffice now runs Word macros (ie, VBA) but a bit patchily. It supports macros in 4 programming languages (OpenOffice.org BASIC, Python, Beanshell and Javascript). It has a competent Record Macro feature that allows you to hit the ground running with macros.
My employees and my daughter have changed from reluctant converts to complete evangelists in barely 3-4 weeks. They are users and creators of OpenOffice.org BASIC macros as well.
Chat clients abound in the Open Source world. As also mail handlers like Evolution (Outlook clone) and Thunderbird (which has a Windows version as well, and can import from Outlook .pst files.
Linux machines are part of the same LAN as Windows machines in my office. Linux machines can browse Windows networks easily, but Windows machines cannot browse Linux machines. Transferring files over the LAN is done easily because I need only one way network browse capability.
Databases like Post-GRE SQL and several other open connectivity database applications allow me not to lose hair (I don't have much left to lose, so peace of mid is that much more valuable) over usability of data in existing databases.
WINE (a WINdows Emulator) is an extreme form of Windows compatibility. It allows me to run Windows-based software from within a Window running on the Linux OS . For example, I can click on Excel.exe and have Excel that is "installed" for use under Wine run. I can even open *.chm (Compiled HTML Help) and *.hlp (Win32 Help files) by simply right-clicking and selecting Open With|WINE Program Loader. This is still a Work-in-Progress, and not all software, and not all features of all software, are currently supported. But they are getting there. I am not yet Microsft-free, but, like the OpenSource movement, I am getting there. The effect is that I do not any longer have to worry too much about missing drivers or what to do with files and data created under Windows OS applications.
All HP Printers are supported by printer drivers. There is a Universal Printer Driver that works with almost all printers, but it may not be able to use some of the more model-specific features like Document Autofeeders, etc.. In case there is an issue with any printer, I can always create a PDF, transfer it to a Windows machine and print it onto any printer with a Windows driver installed.
The Open Source community has left hardly any reason now for Windows afficianodos to continue to justify their use of Windows on any ground other than inertia. All-in-all, the stage has been reached where one no longer needs to hesitate to shift to Linux. It is now time to ask why Microsoft does not support Linux. Indeed, in many ways, where they cannot beat them, they are joining the. Example: The xml-based file format, which OpenOffice had adopted probably 10 years back, and made its debut in Office 2007 for the first time, is an example.
Then about the economics and ease of installation.
After making the USB drive as the bootable drive and creating the partitions carefully, the OS and several bundled application software including OpenOffice loaded in 10 minutes flat. The Internet connection configured itself, as did all peripherals.
What can be cheaper than free? All I needed was assurance of technical support. I got that in the form of Nandan Bhat, who runs a consulting and training business for corporates on Linux. He is based in Thane, which is also my base of operations. I requested him to give me either a software support AMC or an incident-based chargeable support at a fixed charge per visit, beginning with installation and configuration. For large corporates, there are companies like RedHat who do the same.
While an Intel Atom-based desktop is available for Rs.15,000 or less, with an LCD flat screen minotor, Windows 7 Professional Edition costs nearly Rs.8,000. Add at least Rs.5,000 for MS Office and 3,000 for Adobe Acrobat, and the software cost rivals the hardware cost, if one chose Windows. Choosing Linux meant only one visit charge payable to Mr.Bhat for making 2 machines usable under Linux immediately. He finished installing Linux (including OpenOffice) on one machine before the hardware supplier had fixed the wires on the second machine, which astounded him. The hardware guy told me that Windows takes at least 45 minutes to load, and MS Office took extra time, after Windows installation was completed.
My pleasant experiences meant that I called Mr Bhat twice more, to convert two more machines to Linux. On these machines, Linux and Windows are both available under different partitions. But Windows feels like driving with the handbrake on, after having used Linux.
For those who are hesitant, I suggest: Add Linux on a partition on your home machine, experience it, and then decide.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
IPR Survey
India has signed the Patent Co-operation Treaty, and its laws, after successive amendments, are TRIPS and WTO-compliant. However, Indian companies have yet to appreciate the threat this could pose. Over 80% of patent filings in India are still by foreign companies. The IPR Culture certainly needs a big boost in India both, in large and small companies and among leaders and managers of these organizations.
I am conducting what promises to be a seminal pan-Indian survey of IPR, funded by the Accounting Research Foundation set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The research project aims
- to investigate the processes and practices followed by consistently innovative companies worldwide to build their IPR asset portfolios,
- to observe and evaluate processes and practices followed by Indian companies in building awareness of IPR, and
- to identify key factors and processes and practices influencing the IPR culture and rate of creation of IPR assets.
Names and company affiliations will be kept confidential. Only aggregates and summaries will be made available publicly. Participants in this survey will be entitled to an executive summary of the findings.
You can enrich the understanding of Indian companies' IPR processes by participating in the survey. This should take about 25-35 minutes of your time. Please write to me at ipr4managers@gmail.com or on +91-9619451254 with your name, designation and company name. You can also link with me on LinkedIn.com.
Do participate in the survey and contribute towards creating a thriving culture of IPR in India.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Are Apologies Enough?
.
Here's a Simple Quiz: What do you see in common in all the following brief extracts from random news stories?
The US has apologized for what some of its scientists did between 1946 and 1948, which has now come out into the open. These scientists deliberately infected about 1,500 prisoners, soldiers and mentally ill asylum patients with syphilis and gonorrhea, in order to study whether penicillin can prevent infection from these scourges. At least one died; and the record is not clear on how many were cured. This unethical research was not publicly disclosed until October 1, 2010. The Surgeon General of the US at the time acknowledged, it could not have been done in the United States. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have telephoned and apologized to the Guatemalan President. The US Government has instituted a task force to investigate into the detailed facts. Apologies over and done with. Pesky problem out of the way.
The US Homeland Security has apologized for questioning Praful Patel, India's Civil Aviation Minister, in a case of what they called mistaken identity.
The US Department of State has apologized to Russia for effectively kidnapping a Russian pilot in Liberia, suspected of drug smuggling, and failing to inform Russia immediately.
The US State Department has apologized for comments made about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The US government apologized for displaying the Philippine flag upside down at an event in New York attended by US President Barack Obama.
The US apologizes for soldier using Koran in target practice.
The United States formally apologized to American Indian tribes Wednesday for “ill-conceived policies” and acts of violence committed against them.
The US apologized to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of its staunchest allies in Europe, for an "insulting'' biography that was handed out to White House reporters at the Group of Eight meetings in Japan.
The United States has issued a written apology to a jet-setting billionaire businessman with close ties to former President Bill Clinton whose name was added to the no-fly list in the wake of the attempted Christmas day bombing of an American passenger plane.
Nearly 60 years after the United States forced more than 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese descent to be deported to the United States and detained in camps during World War II, the federal government apologized yesterday for their "wrongful internment" and agreed to pay each former internee $5,000.
The Pakistani Defense Ministry said the United States has apologized to Pakistan over mistreatment of a military delegation.
You guessed it. The US is apologizing! But hey, there's a lot of apologizing still remaining to be done.
The US Government has yet to apologize for the Abu Ghraib excesses in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld "accepted full responsibility" but neither has he or the Government that he was part of, apologized for the shocking atrocities that has forever alienated every Arab from the US. President Bush once apologized for the "humiliation" some Iraqi prisoners suffered at the hands of U.S. troops but in the same sentence, he said that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is safe in his job. The US administration has consistently characterized the Abu Ghraib torture scandal as an isolated incident uncharacteristic of US actions in Iraq; this view is widely disputed, notably in Arab countries, but also by organizations such as the International Red Cross as "a pattern and a broad system". Not a dollar of compensation has been paid to anyone who suffered or died in the torture scandal.
The US continues to kill innocent civilians in drone attacks in Afghanistan/ Pakistan, but has yet to issue an apology or halt these drone attacks. Civilian death are mere "collateral damage" while attempting to eliminate "insurgents".
The US has brought Iraq to its knees. Iraq seems in hindsight to have been well-governed, albeit undemocratically, and are now running away leaving the country in an ungovernable mess, because, while they had a plan to win the war, naively enough, they had none to win the peace. And all this, with provocations that have been shown to be lies and fabrications.
Is apologizing enough? If so, then BP should be allowed to resume their business without further costs or damages for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as they have apologized, and even brought in a new CEO, that expresses their contrition.
.
Here's a Simple Quiz: What do you see in common in all the following brief extracts from random news stories?
The US has apologized for what some of its scientists did between 1946 and 1948, which has now come out into the open. These scientists deliberately infected about 1,500 prisoners, soldiers and mentally ill asylum patients with syphilis and gonorrhea, in order to study whether penicillin can prevent infection from these scourges. At least one died; and the record is not clear on how many were cured. This unethical research was not publicly disclosed until October 1, 2010. The Surgeon General of the US at the time acknowledged, it could not have been done in the United States. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have telephoned and apologized to the Guatemalan President. The US Government has instituted a task force to investigate into the detailed facts. Apologies over and done with. Pesky problem out of the way.
The US Homeland Security has apologized for questioning Praful Patel, India's Civil Aviation Minister, in a case of what they called mistaken identity.
The US Department of State has apologized to Russia for effectively kidnapping a Russian pilot in Liberia, suspected of drug smuggling, and failing to inform Russia immediately.
The US State Department has apologized for comments made about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The US government apologized for displaying the Philippine flag upside down at an event in New York attended by US President Barack Obama.
The US apologizes for soldier using Koran in target practice.
The United States formally apologized to American Indian tribes Wednesday for “ill-conceived policies” and acts of violence committed against them.
The US apologized to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of its staunchest allies in Europe, for an "insulting'' biography that was handed out to White House reporters at the Group of Eight meetings in Japan.
The United States has issued a written apology to a jet-setting billionaire businessman with close ties to former President Bill Clinton whose name was added to the no-fly list in the wake of the attempted Christmas day bombing of an American passenger plane.
Nearly 60 years after the United States forced more than 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese descent to be deported to the United States and detained in camps during World War II, the federal government apologized yesterday for their "wrongful internment" and agreed to pay each former internee $5,000.
The Pakistani Defense Ministry said the United States has apologized to Pakistan over mistreatment of a military delegation.
You guessed it. The US is apologizing! But hey, there's a lot of apologizing still remaining to be done.
The US Government has yet to apologize for the Abu Ghraib excesses in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld "accepted full responsibility" but neither has he or the Government that he was part of, apologized for the shocking atrocities that has forever alienated every Arab from the US. President Bush once apologized for the "humiliation" some Iraqi prisoners suffered at the hands of U.S. troops but in the same sentence, he said that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is safe in his job. The US administration has consistently characterized the Abu Ghraib torture scandal as an isolated incident uncharacteristic of US actions in Iraq; this view is widely disputed, notably in Arab countries, but also by organizations such as the International Red Cross as "a pattern and a broad system". Not a dollar of compensation has been paid to anyone who suffered or died in the torture scandal.
The US continues to kill innocent civilians in drone attacks in Afghanistan/ Pakistan, but has yet to issue an apology or halt these drone attacks. Civilian death are mere "collateral damage" while attempting to eliminate "insurgents".
The US has brought Iraq to its knees. Iraq seems in hindsight to have been well-governed, albeit undemocratically, and are now running away leaving the country in an ungovernable mess, because, while they had a plan to win the war, naively enough, they had none to win the peace. And all this, with provocations that have been shown to be lies and fabrications.
Is apologizing enough? If so, then BP should be allowed to resume their business without further costs or damages for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as they have apologized, and even brought in a new CEO, that expresses their contrition.
.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The New Delhi bacteria should have been named the USA bacteria!
.
We all think that the name has been "conferred" by an article co-authored by 30 researchers, of which 14 have distinctly Indian names, and 3 others could well be hailing from the Indian sub-continent. And what does this article say? (You may have to register (it is free) on Lancet's website to see the full text of this article).
"We identified 44 isolates with NDM-1 in Chennai, 26 in Haryana, 37 in the UK, and 73 in other sites in India and Pakistan."
" The CTX-M-15 extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) encoded by blaCTX-M-15 was first reported in India in the mid-1990s."
"Recent surveys have identified ESBLs in 70—90% of Enterobacteriaceae in India and; although these collections might be a biased sample, they do suggest a serious problem, making the widespread use of reserved antibiotics such as carbapenems necessary."
"We recently reported a new type of carbapenem resistance gene, designated blaNDM-1.22 A patient, repatriated to Sweden after admission to hospital in New Delhi, India,..."
"22 . Characterization of a new metallo-β-lactamase gene, blaNDM-1, and a novel erythromycin esterase gene carried on a unique genetic structure in Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 14 from India.Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2009; 53: 5046-5054"
"We sought molecular, biological, and epidemiological data on New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) positive Enterobacteriaceae in India and Pakistan and investigated importation of the resistance gene into the UK by patients returning from the Indian subcontinent."
"Isolates of bacteria were identified from Chennai and Haryana in India. UK isolates were identified from referrals to the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory by UK microbiology laboratories between 2003 and 2009. We also identified isolates from other sites around Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan."
"Isolates, NDM-1-positive bacteria from Mumbai (32 isolates), Varanasi (13), and Guwahati (three) in India, and 25 isolates from eight cities in Pakistan (Charsadda, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan, and Sheikhupura) were also analysed in exactly the same manner but in laboratories in India and Pakistan."
"In addition to the collections of isolates from Chennai and Haryana detailed above, we have confirmed by PCR alone the presence of genes encoding NDM-1 in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolated from Guwahati, Mumbai, Varanasi, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Port Blair, and Delhi in India, eight cities (Charsadda, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan, and Sheikhupura) in Pakistan, and Dhaka in Bangladesh"
NO MENTION OF NEW DELHI ANYWHERE!
An extract from the abstract of the cited article 22 states, "A Swedish patient of Indian origin traveled to New Delhi, India, and acquired a urinary tract infection caused by ... The third region consisted of a new MBL gene, designated bla(NDM-1), flanked on one side by K. pneumoniae DNA and a truncated IS26 element on its other side" This last sentence is the culprit for naming the bacterium after New Delhi.
The common co-authors of both articles are Timothy Walsh and Mark A Toleman, both from the Department of Infection, Immunity and Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
The damaging part of the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal article is reproduced below:
"Several of the UK source patients had undergone elective, including cosmetic, surgery while visiting India or Pakistan. India also provides cosmetic surgery for other Europeans and Americans, and blaNDM-1 will likely spread worldwide. It is disturbing, in context, to read calls in the popular press for UK patients to opt for corrective surgery in India with the aim of saving the NHS money. As our data show, such a proposal might ultimately cost the NHS substantially more than the short-term saving and we would strongly advise against such proposals. The potential for wider international spread of producers and for NDM-1-encoding plasmids to become endemic worldwide, are clear and frightening."
This is the last paragraph of the article, apparently written blithely and off-the-cuff, and has nothing whatsoever to commend it scientifically. They were obviously stung to the quick by this article that has been cited. Hence, this paragraph was obviously intended to defend the NHS. There is no data whatsoever to back up this contention -- that elective, including cosmetic surgery in India caused the UK infections studied. Consider that they haven't mentioned the following before they rattled off such a paragraph:
There is a Health Protection Report put out by the UK's Health Protection Agency which contains something that indicts other European countries as the source of the same health risks. Consider this extract from that Report:
"Laboratories should be especially alert to carbapenem-resistant isolates from patients with a history of hospitalization in countries where carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae are prevalent - particularly Greece, Turkey, Israel and the USA, as these have been a repeated source of introduction to the UK."
Why did the authors not cite this Report put out as long back as 30 January 2009? Instead, they chose to malign an article in the mainstream press dated 17 January, 2010, and conveniently ignored this much earlier important Health Protection Report of its own Health Protection Agency. Instead, they chose to echo the name given to the same bacterium by an article first published in September, 2009. The New Delhi bacterium has thus been unjustifiedly and inappropriately named. This bacterium got its name, however unjustifiedly, because of a Swedish tourist to India getting a urinary tract infection, and has nothing to do with elective surgery done in India.
Apparently the bacterium deserves the moniker, USAM-1 bacterium more than its current name. Surprisingly, the same HPA issued a more recent National Health Alert in which it refers to its earlier (30 Jan 2009) report and quotes it thus: "that many producer isolates were from patients previously hospitalised in Greece, Turkey and Israel." The mention of USA as a source of repeated introduction into the UK has been quietly edited out in the more recent National Health Alert. What's worse, queries of the public are directed to one Dr David M Livermore who is also a co-author of the article with the paragraph damaging to the medical tourism industry. Despite his otherwise sterling reputation, he is apparently compromised by severe conflicts of interest: He admittedly "has received conference support from numerous pharmaceutical companies, and also holds shares in AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Dechra, and GlaxoSmithKline, and, as Enduring Attorney, manages further holdings in GlaxoSmithKline and Eco Animal Health."
I have written to Dr Livermore asking, inter alia, how the reference to the USA as a source of repeated introduction of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae into the UK while drafting the National Resistance Alert 3 ADDENDUM. His immediate response has been unenlightening. I am hoping that he will respond more openly. .
We all think that the name has been "conferred" by an article co-authored by 30 researchers, of which 14 have distinctly Indian names, and 3 others could well be hailing from the Indian sub-continent. And what does this article say? (You may have to register (it is free) on Lancet's website to see the full text of this article).
"We identified 44 isolates with NDM-1 in Chennai, 26 in Haryana, 37 in the UK, and 73 in other sites in India and Pakistan."
" The CTX-M-15 extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) encoded by blaCTX-M-15 was first reported in India in the mid-1990s."
"Recent surveys have identified ESBLs in 70—90% of Enterobacteriaceae in India and; although these collections might be a biased sample, they do suggest a serious problem, making the widespread use of reserved antibiotics such as carbapenems necessary."
"We recently reported a new type of carbapenem resistance gene, designated blaNDM-1.22 A patient, repatriated to Sweden after admission to hospital in New Delhi, India,..."
"22 . Characterization of a new metallo-β-lactamase gene, blaNDM-1, and a novel erythromycin esterase gene carried on a unique genetic structure in Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type 14 from India.Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2009; 53: 5046-5054"
"We sought molecular, biological, and epidemiological data on New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) positive Enterobacteriaceae in India and Pakistan and investigated importation of the resistance gene into the UK by patients returning from the Indian subcontinent."
"Isolates of bacteria were identified from Chennai and Haryana in India. UK isolates were identified from referrals to the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory by UK microbiology laboratories between 2003 and 2009. We also identified isolates from other sites around Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan."
"Isolates, NDM-1-positive bacteria from Mumbai (32 isolates), Varanasi (13), and Guwahati (three) in India, and 25 isolates from eight cities in Pakistan (Charsadda, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan, and Sheikhupura) were also analysed in exactly the same manner but in laboratories in India and Pakistan."
"In addition to the collections of isolates from Chennai and Haryana detailed above, we have confirmed by PCR alone the presence of genes encoding NDM-1 in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae isolated from Guwahati, Mumbai, Varanasi, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Port Blair, and Delhi in India, eight cities (Charsadda, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rahim Yar Khan, and Sheikhupura) in Pakistan, and Dhaka in Bangladesh"
NO MENTION OF NEW DELHI ANYWHERE!
An extract from the abstract of the cited article 22 states, "A Swedish patient of Indian origin traveled to New Delhi, India, and acquired a urinary tract infection caused by ... The third region consisted of a new MBL gene, designated bla(NDM-1), flanked on one side by K. pneumoniae DNA and a truncated IS26 element on its other side" This last sentence is the culprit for naming the bacterium after New Delhi.
The common co-authors of both articles are Timothy Walsh and Mark A Toleman, both from the Department of Infection, Immunity and Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
The damaging part of the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal article is reproduced below:
"Several of the UK source patients had undergone elective, including cosmetic, surgery while visiting India or Pakistan. India also provides cosmetic surgery for other Europeans and Americans, and blaNDM-1 will likely spread worldwide. It is disturbing, in context, to read calls in the popular press for UK patients to opt for corrective surgery in India with the aim of saving the NHS money. As our data show, such a proposal might ultimately cost the NHS substantially more than the short-term saving and we would strongly advise against such proposals. The potential for wider international spread of producers and for NDM-1-encoding plasmids to become endemic worldwide, are clear and frightening."
This is the last paragraph of the article, apparently written blithely and off-the-cuff, and has nothing whatsoever to commend it scientifically. They were obviously stung to the quick by this article that has been cited. Hence, this paragraph was obviously intended to defend the NHS. There is no data whatsoever to back up this contention -- that elective, including cosmetic surgery in India caused the UK infections studied. Consider that they haven't mentioned the following before they rattled off such a paragraph:
- How many of the 37 UK patients underwent elective surgery in Indian hospitals?
- What is the proof that the surgery in those cases caused the infection?
- How did the other UK patients contract the infection? And the question that has the most devastating answer:
- How many countries' hospitals have exported similar bacterium to the UK?
There is a Health Protection Report put out by the UK's Health Protection Agency which contains something that indicts other European countries as the source of the same health risks. Consider this extract from that Report:
"Laboratories should be especially alert to carbapenem-resistant isolates from patients with a history of hospitalization in countries where carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae are prevalent - particularly Greece, Turkey, Israel and the USA, as these have been a repeated source of introduction to the UK."
Why did the authors not cite this Report put out as long back as 30 January 2009? Instead, they chose to malign an article in the mainstream press dated 17 January, 2010, and conveniently ignored this much earlier important Health Protection Report of its own Health Protection Agency. Instead, they chose to echo the name given to the same bacterium by an article first published in September, 2009. The New Delhi bacterium has thus been unjustifiedly and inappropriately named. This bacterium got its name, however unjustifiedly, because of a Swedish tourist to India getting a urinary tract infection, and has nothing to do with elective surgery done in India.
Apparently the bacterium deserves the moniker, USAM-1 bacterium more than its current name. Surprisingly, the same HPA issued a more recent National Health Alert in which it refers to its earlier (30 Jan 2009) report and quotes it thus: "that many producer isolates were from patients previously hospitalised in Greece, Turkey and Israel." The mention of USA as a source of repeated introduction into the UK has been quietly edited out in the more recent National Health Alert. What's worse, queries of the public are directed to one Dr David M Livermore who is also a co-author of the article with the paragraph damaging to the medical tourism industry. Despite his otherwise sterling reputation, he is apparently compromised by severe conflicts of interest: He admittedly "has received conference support from numerous pharmaceutical companies, and also holds shares in AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Dechra, and GlaxoSmithKline, and, as Enduring Attorney, manages further holdings in GlaxoSmithKline and Eco Animal Health."
I have written to Dr Livermore asking, inter alia, how the reference to the USA as a source of repeated introduction of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae into the UK while drafting the National Resistance Alert 3 ADDENDUM. His immediate response has been unenlightening. I am hoping that he will respond more openly. .
Friday, August 06, 2010
How Schools in Denver were cheated by Bankers
.
Here is another sordid story of bankers' greed -- where they sold sophisticated structured products to a School Board who lacked the expertise to assess the risks of such a product realistically -- while the bankers laughed all the way back to their offices!!
.
Here is another sordid story of bankers' greed -- where they sold sophisticated structured products to a School Board who lacked the expertise to assess the risks of such a product realistically -- while the bankers laughed all the way back to their offices!!
.
Another sordid tale of how greedy bankers shortchanged an unsophisticated body of funds meant for education. http://ping.fm/9Pe9g
Thursday, July 08, 2010
I love my India
.
There has recently been a furore about an article by Joel Stein in the once-venerated TIME magazine.
This is not the first time someone has denigrated India. Another instance is a blog entry authored by another American, Sean Paul Kelly. A fitting reply to such stupidity is this.
This is not the first time someone has denigrated India. Another instance is a blog entry authored by another American, Sean Paul Kelly. A fitting reply to such stupidity is this.
Besides, Joel Stein has actually denigrated himself more than he has denigrated Indians, which becomes clear if you read the article carefuly. Joel Stein should, but does not, understand that culture is never frozen in time; once the population composition changes for whatever reason, the square pegs need to adapt to their now round holes. Which the Indians have done, exceedingly well, by Stein's own admission. Darwin and Evolution is on their side! Others who cannot adapt, like Stein, get out of the place. And moan.
Stein, notice, says that the A&P I shoplifted from is now an Indian grocery. What credibility can one attribute to a self-accclaimed shoplifter with other shoplifters as friends? Further, he says during his time, when the Indians started arriving, they had slightly deteriorating, post–WW II housing and now they have many Indians, many of whom, fittingly for a town called Edison, are inventors and engineers and sometime after I left, the town became a maze of ... housing developments. That's a bad thing? Then what is good? Becoming rich and having mistresses who live like hookers of yore? Or being part of a gang or being a gay or a transvestite hooker? Choi the Mayor knew something about Stein -- which of these changes did he allege that Stein was a participant in and Stein went quiet on?
Alas, TIME is no longer the kind of magazine it was, it now caters to half-wit Americans whose span of attention is that of 3-year olds, and the only kind of writing they now disseminate is the kind that can penetrate the Americans' thick skulls within the nano-second attention span they have. Joel Stein knows his market, that is the only good thing one can say about him.
The fitting way to respond to dissemination of such stupidity is to disseminate writings such as this equally widely.
So here we are! Are we up to this task, of telling the world about the real India? Or about allowing such tripe and drivel go around the world?
Do tell your friends about this write-up using the Tell-a-friend widget below. Please also put in your comments by clicking on the comments link.
Rajesh Haldipur
Proud to be an Indian
.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
It's deja vu all over again!
.
We saw what Nick Leeson did to Barings Bank. We have also seen how a Japanese brokerage house was brought to its knees by a single trade where the quantities and rates were mixed, in Japanese yen!
We now have the strange, bizarre case of Steve Perkins of PVM Oil Futures who bought 7m barrels of crude past midnight from a laptop at his home while in a drunken stupor. He accounted for 69% of all oil futures trades between midnight and 4 am on June 30, during which time, the oil prices rose by $1.50 within a 30-minute time span!
As Yogi Berra said, it's deja vu all over again!
.
We saw what Nick Leeson did to Barings Bank. We have also seen how a Japanese brokerage house was brought to its knees by a single trade where the quantities and rates were mixed, in Japanese yen!
We now have the strange, bizarre case of Steve Perkins of PVM Oil Futures who bought 7m barrels of crude past midnight from a laptop at his home while in a drunken stupor. He accounted for 69% of all oil futures trades between midnight and 4 am on June 30, during which time, the oil prices rose by $1.50 within a 30-minute time span!
As Yogi Berra said, it's deja vu all over again!
.
Monday, June 14, 2010
US Consumer Debt : Income 50 cents, expenditure 65 cents
-
Since June 2008, the US household debt mountain has shown the seventh consecutive quarterly drop. This should be heartening. However it is not so for two reasons:
.
Since June 2008, the US household debt mountain has shown the seventh consecutive quarterly drop. This should be heartening. However it is not so for two reasons:
- The figure is down by a minuscule US$0.37 trillion, out of the US$ 13.9 trillion -- just 2.66% deleveraging in nearly two years. Not fast enough, when you consider that the bigger figure represents 131% of personal disposable incomes. Aamdani atthanni, kharcha 65 paise (Hindi proverb that translates into the second part of the headline of this blog entry) is the condition of the entire US population!
- Most of this reduction has been achieved by banks writing off mortgage and credit card defaults. If one adds back to the debt figure the amount of write-offs, the bad news is that US household debt has actually gone up slightly, by only US$ 186 Billion! No sign of de-leveraging. The spendthrift habits of two generations are obviously refusing to die away.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)