India to help build 2nd Silicon Valley in US
This could very well turn out to be the making of a second Silicon Valley in the US. Over 40 IT software companies who have been jostling for space and market share in the Silicon Valley are now moving on to set up Silicon Valley-II at New Jersey and Chicago backed by the commerce ministry. The government and industry would set up incubation centres in New Jersey and Chicago for providing easy operational facilities to the start-ups. The incubation centres would be set up on 50:50 financial support.
“The commerce ministry has agreed to provide support for setting up the incubation centres. The industry and government would put equal money to start the centres from where any new company can start operating without actually putting up their independent facilities,”
Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) executive director DK Sareen said. “It is for the first time ever that the government is setting up an incubation centre outside the country,” he said. Apart from providing support for setting up the centres, the government would also bear the operational cost of the facilities for a period of three years, after which the scheme would be reviewed.
“Silicon Valley is saturated. New software companies were finding it difficult to get orders and so they were in search of newer markets. Places like New Jersey and Chicago provide them an alternative,” Sareen said. Plans for setting up the first such centre in New Jersey is in its final stage and the facility would be operational by January next year, he said. “We are looking at markets where we can sell our softwares. At Silicon Valley already big software producers are there, so who’ll buy our products? Cities like New Jersey provide new marketing opportunities,” Alliance Infotech vice-president Rajendra Kukreja said.
Over 37 companies from across the country, including Alliance Infotech, Intrust Global eServices, Super Infosoft and Nippon Data Systems, have expressed their desire to start business from these centres, out of which the government is in the process of finalising a list of 20 companies, as one incubation centre could not accommodate more number of companies.
TCS plans aggressive hiring in north India
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is planning an aggressive recruitment drive in Northern India and intends to take 3,000 at the trainee level, and offer 2,000 lateral entry by the end of the fiscal.
“The north is showing a huge manpower potential, and we plan to leverage it. The net additions for TCS this year would be 30,000-32,000 people. Of this 12,000-13,000 will be trainees, with north accounting for a healthy 25 percent ratio,” Thomas Simon, Vice-President, Human Resources, TCS said at a conference here. For the first quarter, the company’s offers in the region was pegged at 1,809, of which 70 percent came from Tier II and Tier III cities. TCS’ sourcing channels include laterals, direct trainees, campus (management graduates), science graduates, Academic Interface Programme (AIP) and campus recruitments (engineers).
Commenting on the campus talent acquisition plans for the Northern region, he said that TCS visited 41 campuses in the first quarter of the fiscal, accredited 80 institutes so far and plans to have 35 more accredited campuses by the end of FY08. Hiring would happen for positions based in the NCR region apart from Lucknow. While experienced professional hiring would be done for pre-mapped positions, the selected would be sent to Thiruvananthapuram for initial training
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
India OutSources to USA
The Indian Embassy in the US has contracted an American firm to outsource its visa collection and delivery processes at its five diplomatic missions from October 1.
Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen said the new system will offer "speedy and efficient" service against the backdrop of a growing number of Americans travelling to India.
Travisa Outsourcing Inc will handle the outsourcing service for the embassy in the capital and the Consuls General in Chicago, Houston, New York and San Fransisco.
Sen said the outsourcing was necessary due to rapid transformation of India-US relations in recent years which has "manifested in an unprecedented growth of business travellers, tourists and other US residents to India and the introduction of several non-stop and additional travel services between the two countries".
The burgeoning cooperation in the economic, commercial, technological, educational and cultural fields and the "increasing close bonds" of the Indian American community with their country of origin has led to increasing demands for visa and other consular services, Sen said in a statement, adding "severe constraints" posed by space and shortage of trained personnel had made it difficult to provide efficient service.
Travisa Outsourcing will charge a service fee of USD 13 per visa application and offer same day collection at its visa application centres and next day service for applications received by post. It will also have a 24/7 call centre manned by bilingual staff.
The Indian envoy also said the consular wings of the missions will continue to offer services after office hours or on holidays for emergency travel on extreme compassionate grounds 365 days a year.
Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen said the new system will offer "speedy and efficient" service against the backdrop of a growing number of Americans travelling to India.
Travisa Outsourcing Inc will handle the outsourcing service for the embassy in the capital and the Consuls General in Chicago, Houston, New York and San Fransisco.
Sen said the outsourcing was necessary due to rapid transformation of India-US relations in recent years which has "manifested in an unprecedented growth of business travellers, tourists and other US residents to India and the introduction of several non-stop and additional travel services between the two countries".
The burgeoning cooperation in the economic, commercial, technological, educational and cultural fields and the "increasing close bonds" of the Indian American community with their country of origin has led to increasing demands for visa and other consular services, Sen said in a statement, adding "severe constraints" posed by space and shortage of trained personnel had made it difficult to provide efficient service.
Travisa Outsourcing will charge a service fee of USD 13 per visa application and offer same day collection at its visa application centres and next day service for applications received by post. It will also have a 24/7 call centre manned by bilingual staff.
The Indian envoy also said the consular wings of the missions will continue to offer services after office hours or on holidays for emergency travel on extreme compassionate grounds 365 days a year.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Sivaji - Rocking
Having struck gold at the box office in India and abroad with Rajnikanth starrer Sivaji: The Boss, AVM Productions is trying to work out another foreign release in Malay and Chinese as dubbed versions.
But, playing it safe, S C Babu, CEO, AVM Productions insists that it is too early to make an announcement as the talks with foreign counterparts are still in early stages.
The movie is likely to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the first week of October and discussions are on to release the film in Japan with Japanese subtitles.
Rajnikanth has a strong fan base in Japan and the demand is backed by local fan following and not just Indians living in Japan.
According to Babu, the universal appeal of the music scored by A R Rahman along with the strong visual attraction (all those stunning sets created by Thota Tharani) are strong drivers for the demand for this movie in foreign countries.
The background score for the movie was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic, using local musicians by an American music conductor.
Sivaji has already been released in Malaysia in its original form (Tamil) and it has created history by beating the highest Malay grosser in the country.
Back home, the movie will complete its 100 days on September 23.
"The estimates of box office collections so far would be available only by the end of the month, " says Babu.
Rough estimates reported in the media so far range between Rs 200-450 crore, a number that the production house insists is inaccurate.
The dubbed Hindi version of the movie is also under production.
"Though there have been rumours about a Diwali release, we feel the festival would not be the right time for the release of the Hindi version. The reason being that the deadline is too short and also, we would look at a less competitive timing for the release. After all, the original Tamil version has already been released and tasted great success in the so-called northern markets," says Babu.
Sivaji has been a great success in markets like Julandhar, Lucknow and Jaipur apart from metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
For the Hindi dubbed version, certain parts of the movie will need to be reshot to make it relevant to the Hindi audience. Mumbai writer and lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who wrote the dialogues for movies like Eklavya and Chameli, is writing the Hindi version of Sivaji).
The television rights for the movie were recently bought by Kalaignar TV -- the yet to be launched DMK party backed TV Channel -- for an undisclosed price.
While Babu refused to discuss the subject, industry sources said that the TV rights have been sold for Rs 3-4 crore. Under the contract, the buyers reportedly cannot broadcast movie for three years.
Despite tight controls over the prints, Sivaji has already become a victim among movie pirates.
"As long as the film is in the analog version, there is very little we can do to control piracy. With 800 prints in circulation, curbing piracy is a logistic nightmare," says Babu
Thanks : Rediff
But, playing it safe, S C Babu, CEO, AVM Productions insists that it is too early to make an announcement as the talks with foreign counterparts are still in early stages.
The movie is likely to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the first week of October and discussions are on to release the film in Japan with Japanese subtitles.
Rajnikanth has a strong fan base in Japan and the demand is backed by local fan following and not just Indians living in Japan.
According to Babu, the universal appeal of the music scored by A R Rahman along with the strong visual attraction (all those stunning sets created by Thota Tharani) are strong drivers for the demand for this movie in foreign countries.
The background score for the movie was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic, using local musicians by an American music conductor.
Sivaji has already been released in Malaysia in its original form (Tamil) and it has created history by beating the highest Malay grosser in the country.
Back home, the movie will complete its 100 days on September 23.
"The estimates of box office collections so far would be available only by the end of the month, " says Babu.
Rough estimates reported in the media so far range between Rs 200-450 crore, a number that the production house insists is inaccurate.
The dubbed Hindi version of the movie is also under production.
"Though there have been rumours about a Diwali release, we feel the festival would not be the right time for the release of the Hindi version. The reason being that the deadline is too short and also, we would look at a less competitive timing for the release. After all, the original Tamil version has already been released and tasted great success in the so-called northern markets," says Babu.
Sivaji has been a great success in markets like Julandhar, Lucknow and Jaipur apart from metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
For the Hindi dubbed version, certain parts of the movie will need to be reshot to make it relevant to the Hindi audience. Mumbai writer and lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who wrote the dialogues for movies like Eklavya and Chameli, is writing the Hindi version of Sivaji).
The television rights for the movie were recently bought by Kalaignar TV -- the yet to be launched DMK party backed TV Channel -- for an undisclosed price.
While Babu refused to discuss the subject, industry sources said that the TV rights have been sold for Rs 3-4 crore. Under the contract, the buyers reportedly cannot broadcast movie for three years.
Despite tight controls over the prints, Sivaji has already become a victim among movie pirates.
"As long as the film is in the analog version, there is very little we can do to control piracy. With 800 prints in circulation, curbing piracy is a logistic nightmare," says Babu
Thanks : Rediff
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Weekly Note September 2 Week
L&T Infotech to open office in Dubai
L&T Infotech, a subsidiary of India's largest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro, is entering the GCC with a commercial office in Dubai.
"We have already applied for a licence to set up our regional base in Dubai and, if approved, we will set up the business in few months time," Vijay K Magapu, chief executive of L&T Infotech and member of the L&T board, said.
"The IT services businesses in the Gulf is about $600 million annually and we'd like to achieve a $100 million annual turnover in three years," he was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.
Boeing may pilot captive unit in India
The $65-billion aerospace and defence behemoth, Boeing, is evaluating a captive centre and defence sub-assembly line in India apart from capturing business across the aerospace spectrum, including manufacturing, engineering, BPO, KPO, maintenance and raw material sourcing. Boeing could take the JV route to set up its captive centre or could establish it independently.
If that happens, Boeing will join a host of multinationals, which entered India through partnerships before setting up their captive centres. Boeing has partnerships with several Indian technology majors such as Infosys, TCS, Infotech, HCL and research bodies like HAL and Indian Institute of Science in India. “Targeting over $50-60 billion opportunity in the long-term across the civil and defence aviation, and with availability of skilled talent pool, I don’t see any reason why we should not have our own Boeing facility in India,” Boeing India president Ian QR Thomas said. Ian declined to divulge further details about the nature of the captive centre.
While numbers on investments and scale of operations are still in the evaluation stage and depends to some extent on multi-role combat aircraft order apart from other defence orders, Boeing globally operates an technology integration and design captive centre in Moscow. The captive centre has 1,200 engineers engaged in mission-critical work. “Globally as far as captive centres are concerned, we go for tools, technology and talent. India has the potential to emerge as an aerospace constellation,” added Thomas.
Boeing has gained traction in both Indian commercial aviation and defence space with the US major running for $10-billion order for the purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft. Boeing has also submitted a proposal to develop and deliver eight long-range maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft to the Indian Navy. The Boeing P-8I Multi-mission maritime aircraft, a variant of the US Navy’s P-8A, is currently under consideration by the MOD for India’s maritime requirements.
Customer is today looking at an end solution
IBM employs more than 40,000 by far the highest among the global IT giants. Shanker Annaswamy, IBM India’s managing director talks on its India strategy.
The IBM chairman had announced $6 billion FDI last year. How is that going?
After the chairman’s (Sam Palmisano) announcement, we explained that the milestones are really about bringing investment into India both from global strategic point of view and also from domestic point of view. We talked about bringing in a very high-end system and technology lab, which will bring in tremendous capabilities of our mainframe and other servers and storages into the country. Customers can bring their technical team to network with ours. That has been completed. It is a high-technology high-investment lab.
We also talked about a research centre purely focusing on telecom. India gave us a great model through the Bharti relationship. That business model is again unique for doing telecom research. How do you do a call for two cents, or less than two cents, and yet make money was a big revelation. It is not just about pricing. It is also about how you bring an on-demand solution to this kind of a dynamic market.
Those are the stuff we are looking at. The next milestone was the high-performance-on-demand solutions lab (Hi-pods). This is the lab where really high-performance solutions are brought in and the customers can network through the lab with the entire technical team across the world. Then they can leverage that.
This lab is again in Bangalore. We have recently opened in Delhi another lab called the industry solutions lab. That is largely to address the domestic market. When we looked at the domestic market we felt we should go more and more towards a solutions approach. We are great in point products like servers and storage and stuff like that. But no longer is the customer buying a point product. He is looking at an end solution. So how do you, for example, demonstrate solutions in banking or future solutions in retail?
How do you assess the domestic demand for your services?
In the domestic market we are looking at telecom, banking, BPO, infrastructure solution, retail and government. We are building up solutions for the Delhi airport, which we won against tough competition. Real estate is another example in the infrastructure category. We are looking at retail where we have core competency. In banking, apart from core banking, we are looking at payment systems. We are also looking at branch productivity, Basel II. We announced a core banking deal with Canara Bank a few years ago. There is a huge opportunity in the government. We won the CBDT infrastructure deal, which is going well.
Very interesting things are happening in e-governance. More than 15 state governments are working on e-governance projects. The challenge is to expand them, make them scalable. If there is a treasury or land record work we have done, how can we replicate it? Then there is the SME segment. I think India’s big growth will come from the SMEs and unless we enable them we would be missing out on a big opportunity. That is why we recently launched with ICICI the SME tool kit. There is micro-financing. We are working with the Jan Lakhmi group. IBM can contribute in each of these to make a difference through the globally integrated enterprise framework.
IBM is the most visible MNC challenger to the famous Indian challenge pioneered by TCS, Infy and Wipro. Are you satisfied with the way things have gone?
From whatever we have publicly stated, we are extremely happy with India and its model. It is a key component of the globally integrated enterprise model. In the business model of IBM, emerging economies contribute to a sizeable portion of the growth. If the IBM corporation is looking at 6%-7% growth, they look at contribution from emerging markets as a certain portion, which would be high. What really impresses the corporation is the rate of growth. We declared recently that we grew in Q2 45%, which is faster than the market and therefore gaining share. And our strategic outsourcing we grew almost 150%. And, large and small put together, we announced eight deals in the first half of the year.
'We're confident Oracle will grow fast here'
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Oracle in terms of revenue, as well as being its largest research and development presence outside the US. Krishnan Dhawan, managing director, Oracle India spoke on the company’s plans.
Excerpts
India is the fourth largest market for Oracle in the Asia Pacific (APAC). What plans does the company have to make it one of the top three?
India and China continue to be the high growth markets for Oracle in the APAC region. Given the outlook for future economic growth and with continuing increase in IT adoption, we are confident that our business in India will grow fast. (According to market intelligence firm IDC, Oracle had 72 percent of the database market in India in 2006, a 79 percent year-on-year growth rate)
Though Oracle is the market leader in India in several segments, you have been losing ground in a few, especially in areas like ERP and SMB...
We have over 4,500 customers in the SMB space. Last year, we put in place a high growth city initiative, as part of which we established points of presence in the non-metro, high growth cities in India, taking our presence to over 20 cities. We managed to win over 300 new customers in the database and middleware space and empanel 70 new partners because of this.
We also launched the global Oracle Accelerate programme in India earlier this year to help take industry vertical-specific applications to our customers with the help of partners. Two of our certified partners, Zensar and EBZ Online, have launched special market initiatives to take ERP to small manufacturing companies and banks, respectively.
In addition, we are introducing new business models aimed specifically at the SMB market, such as CRM (customer relationship management) on demand and hosted ERP solutions. These will enable SMBs to benefit from the use of the technology without having to undertake large upfront investments.
What is the Emerald India initiative?
Emerald India is an initiative to identify key India-specific innovation and market opportunities and put in place strategies to meet those requirements. The launch of our e-governance centre, the launch of Think.com in Hindi, an SMB penetration focused programme, are all part of this initiative.
Any more acquisition plans in India?
We are not in a position to comment on our future plans.
In conversation with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO iGATE
When many sections of industry were facing a crisis due to the rupee appreciation, iGATE was ready to face the menacing wave. The company constantly reviewed its hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate. In an exclusive interview with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE this newspaper found out what makes this company stand high despite the crisis. Murthy, who took over as CEO of iGATE Global Solutions in August 2003 has pioneered the iTOPS (integrated technology and operations) model in iGATE. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Murthy was a member of the board, worldwide head of sales and marketing, and head of the communications and product solutions group at Infosys.
Excerpts from an interview with Murthy
Rupee appreciation is becoming a serious concern for all companies. How has iGATE tackled the issue? What are the measures you have put in place?
We have taken several measures to combat structural changes taking place in the rupee–dollar parity and its consequential impact on our business. For over a year we have been attempting to include exchange rate provisions in customer contracts that would make material changes in the exchange rates trigger a discussion to relook at the pricing and we have had fair degree of support from customers. We are tightly monitoring the benchmark — in the last quarter alone we could improve our utilisation by over 350 basis points. Our strategy is de-risking from currency concentration and in the last couple of years we have grown our Canadian operations in North America. Our focus is to expand euro revenues in the future.
Do you see a decrease in the operating profit margin due to the rupee appreciation? How has this affected iGATE?
In the last two quarters when the rupee appreciation was the steepest, our margins were better than expected. We could recoup much of the impact as a result of the mitigating measures we undertook to protect margins. As long as the appreciation is not steep we will not be too concerned, as I believe our margins will be protected.
Out of your total inflows, how much do you hedge? Has there been a change in the hedging strategy?
We have been more closely monitoring our hedging strategies from October 2005. Since then, we have always had almost all of our forward six months net inflow of dollars hedged. Recently, we have even covered a significant portion of longer-term inflows — 12 to 24 months. We have a system of evaluating our hedging actions against benchmarked positions. We constantly review hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate.
Coming to the subprime lending crisis, how has it affected you? Ten percent of your revenue came from mortgage space a couple of quarters ago, and is down to 7 percent in the recent quarter. What is your take on this?
iGATE’s revenues from mortgage services seem to be flattening at the current levels. However, these revenues continue to be at risk in view of the on-going subprime market turmoil. The subprime loan originations in the US have almost ceased and the demand for origination services have dried up. We do not expect this to change in the short term. We would keep focus on mortgage service offerings as our delivery platform and unique pricing model would provide us the means to seize the opportunity that may arise as a fall-out of this crisis
L&T Infotech, a subsidiary of India's largest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro, is entering the GCC with a commercial office in Dubai.
"We have already applied for a licence to set up our regional base in Dubai and, if approved, we will set up the business in few months time," Vijay K Magapu, chief executive of L&T Infotech and member of the L&T board, said.
"The IT services businesses in the Gulf is about $600 million annually and we'd like to achieve a $100 million annual turnover in three years," he was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.
Boeing may pilot captive unit in India
The $65-billion aerospace and defence behemoth, Boeing, is evaluating a captive centre and defence sub-assembly line in India apart from capturing business across the aerospace spectrum, including manufacturing, engineering, BPO, KPO, maintenance and raw material sourcing. Boeing could take the JV route to set up its captive centre or could establish it independently.
If that happens, Boeing will join a host of multinationals, which entered India through partnerships before setting up their captive centres. Boeing has partnerships with several Indian technology majors such as Infosys, TCS, Infotech, HCL and research bodies like HAL and Indian Institute of Science in India. “Targeting over $50-60 billion opportunity in the long-term across the civil and defence aviation, and with availability of skilled talent pool, I don’t see any reason why we should not have our own Boeing facility in India,” Boeing India president Ian QR Thomas said. Ian declined to divulge further details about the nature of the captive centre.
While numbers on investments and scale of operations are still in the evaluation stage and depends to some extent on multi-role combat aircraft order apart from other defence orders, Boeing globally operates an technology integration and design captive centre in Moscow. The captive centre has 1,200 engineers engaged in mission-critical work. “Globally as far as captive centres are concerned, we go for tools, technology and talent. India has the potential to emerge as an aerospace constellation,” added Thomas.
Boeing has gained traction in both Indian commercial aviation and defence space with the US major running for $10-billion order for the purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft. Boeing has also submitted a proposal to develop and deliver eight long-range maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft to the Indian Navy. The Boeing P-8I Multi-mission maritime aircraft, a variant of the US Navy’s P-8A, is currently under consideration by the MOD for India’s maritime requirements.
Customer is today looking at an end solution
IBM employs more than 40,000 by far the highest among the global IT giants. Shanker Annaswamy, IBM India’s managing director talks on its India strategy.
The IBM chairman had announced $6 billion FDI last year. How is that going?
After the chairman’s (Sam Palmisano) announcement, we explained that the milestones are really about bringing investment into India both from global strategic point of view and also from domestic point of view. We talked about bringing in a very high-end system and technology lab, which will bring in tremendous capabilities of our mainframe and other servers and storages into the country. Customers can bring their technical team to network with ours. That has been completed. It is a high-technology high-investment lab.
We also talked about a research centre purely focusing on telecom. India gave us a great model through the Bharti relationship. That business model is again unique for doing telecom research. How do you do a call for two cents, or less than two cents, and yet make money was a big revelation. It is not just about pricing. It is also about how you bring an on-demand solution to this kind of a dynamic market.
Those are the stuff we are looking at. The next milestone was the high-performance-on-demand solutions lab (Hi-pods). This is the lab where really high-performance solutions are brought in and the customers can network through the lab with the entire technical team across the world. Then they can leverage that.
This lab is again in Bangalore. We have recently opened in Delhi another lab called the industry solutions lab. That is largely to address the domestic market. When we looked at the domestic market we felt we should go more and more towards a solutions approach. We are great in point products like servers and storage and stuff like that. But no longer is the customer buying a point product. He is looking at an end solution. So how do you, for example, demonstrate solutions in banking or future solutions in retail?
How do you assess the domestic demand for your services?
In the domestic market we are looking at telecom, banking, BPO, infrastructure solution, retail and government. We are building up solutions for the Delhi airport, which we won against tough competition. Real estate is another example in the infrastructure category. We are looking at retail where we have core competency. In banking, apart from core banking, we are looking at payment systems. We are also looking at branch productivity, Basel II. We announced a core banking deal with Canara Bank a few years ago. There is a huge opportunity in the government. We won the CBDT infrastructure deal, which is going well.
Very interesting things are happening in e-governance. More than 15 state governments are working on e-governance projects. The challenge is to expand them, make them scalable. If there is a treasury or land record work we have done, how can we replicate it? Then there is the SME segment. I think India’s big growth will come from the SMEs and unless we enable them we would be missing out on a big opportunity. That is why we recently launched with ICICI the SME tool kit. There is micro-financing. We are working with the Jan Lakhmi group. IBM can contribute in each of these to make a difference through the globally integrated enterprise framework.
IBM is the most visible MNC challenger to the famous Indian challenge pioneered by TCS, Infy and Wipro. Are you satisfied with the way things have gone?
From whatever we have publicly stated, we are extremely happy with India and its model. It is a key component of the globally integrated enterprise model. In the business model of IBM, emerging economies contribute to a sizeable portion of the growth. If the IBM corporation is looking at 6%-7% growth, they look at contribution from emerging markets as a certain portion, which would be high. What really impresses the corporation is the rate of growth. We declared recently that we grew in Q2 45%, which is faster than the market and therefore gaining share. And our strategic outsourcing we grew almost 150%. And, large and small put together, we announced eight deals in the first half of the year.
'We're confident Oracle will grow fast here'
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Oracle in terms of revenue, as well as being its largest research and development presence outside the US. Krishnan Dhawan, managing director, Oracle India spoke on the company’s plans.
Excerpts
India is the fourth largest market for Oracle in the Asia Pacific (APAC). What plans does the company have to make it one of the top three?
India and China continue to be the high growth markets for Oracle in the APAC region. Given the outlook for future economic growth and with continuing increase in IT adoption, we are confident that our business in India will grow fast. (According to market intelligence firm IDC, Oracle had 72 percent of the database market in India in 2006, a 79 percent year-on-year growth rate)
Though Oracle is the market leader in India in several segments, you have been losing ground in a few, especially in areas like ERP and SMB...
We have over 4,500 customers in the SMB space. Last year, we put in place a high growth city initiative, as part of which we established points of presence in the non-metro, high growth cities in India, taking our presence to over 20 cities. We managed to win over 300 new customers in the database and middleware space and empanel 70 new partners because of this.
We also launched the global Oracle Accelerate programme in India earlier this year to help take industry vertical-specific applications to our customers with the help of partners. Two of our certified partners, Zensar and EBZ Online, have launched special market initiatives to take ERP to small manufacturing companies and banks, respectively.
In addition, we are introducing new business models aimed specifically at the SMB market, such as CRM (customer relationship management) on demand and hosted ERP solutions. These will enable SMBs to benefit from the use of the technology without having to undertake large upfront investments.
What is the Emerald India initiative?
Emerald India is an initiative to identify key India-specific innovation and market opportunities and put in place strategies to meet those requirements. The launch of our e-governance centre, the launch of Think.com in Hindi, an SMB penetration focused programme, are all part of this initiative.
Any more acquisition plans in India?
We are not in a position to comment on our future plans.
In conversation with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO iGATE
When many sections of industry were facing a crisis due to the rupee appreciation, iGATE was ready to face the menacing wave. The company constantly reviewed its hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate. In an exclusive interview with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE this newspaper found out what makes this company stand high despite the crisis. Murthy, who took over as CEO of iGATE Global Solutions in August 2003 has pioneered the iTOPS (integrated technology and operations) model in iGATE. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Murthy was a member of the board, worldwide head of sales and marketing, and head of the communications and product solutions group at Infosys.
Excerpts from an interview with Murthy
Rupee appreciation is becoming a serious concern for all companies. How has iGATE tackled the issue? What are the measures you have put in place?
We have taken several measures to combat structural changes taking place in the rupee–dollar parity and its consequential impact on our business. For over a year we have been attempting to include exchange rate provisions in customer contracts that would make material changes in the exchange rates trigger a discussion to relook at the pricing and we have had fair degree of support from customers. We are tightly monitoring the benchmark — in the last quarter alone we could improve our utilisation by over 350 basis points. Our strategy is de-risking from currency concentration and in the last couple of years we have grown our Canadian operations in North America. Our focus is to expand euro revenues in the future.
Do you see a decrease in the operating profit margin due to the rupee appreciation? How has this affected iGATE?
In the last two quarters when the rupee appreciation was the steepest, our margins were better than expected. We could recoup much of the impact as a result of the mitigating measures we undertook to protect margins. As long as the appreciation is not steep we will not be too concerned, as I believe our margins will be protected.
Out of your total inflows, how much do you hedge? Has there been a change in the hedging strategy?
We have been more closely monitoring our hedging strategies from October 2005. Since then, we have always had almost all of our forward six months net inflow of dollars hedged. Recently, we have even covered a significant portion of longer-term inflows — 12 to 24 months. We have a system of evaluating our hedging actions against benchmarked positions. We constantly review hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate.
Coming to the subprime lending crisis, how has it affected you? Ten percent of your revenue came from mortgage space a couple of quarters ago, and is down to 7 percent in the recent quarter. What is your take on this?
iGATE’s revenues from mortgage services seem to be flattening at the current levels. However, these revenues continue to be at risk in view of the on-going subprime market turmoil. The subprime loan originations in the US have almost ceased and the demand for origination services have dried up. We do not expect this to change in the short term. We would keep focus on mortgage service offerings as our delivery platform and unique pricing model would provide us the means to seize the opportunity that may arise as a fall-out of this crisis
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
My Fav Rapper-Blaaze
Blaaze (pronounced Blaa-zay) might not be a familiar name to many of us. But the rap song B to the A to the B to the A, BABA from the movie Baba is something that you would have definitely heard. The song, which was sung by rapper, Blaaze.
A regular rapper based in Mumbai, Blaaze was called by A R Rahman to sing for the
Tamil movie Boys. ''After working for the song in Boys, I was going to return to my room when Rahman stopped me on the way and asked if I could rap for Baba. I had not heard of Baba before and asked if it was for Sai Baba. He just looked and me and said 'Rajnikanth is Baba'. I was shocked,'' says Blaaze, who could not believe what he was offered. He then rushed back to the recording room and penned down the lyrics of the rap. Rahman gave it the green signal as soon as he heard it.
''I went back to Bombay and when I returned to Chennai a few days later Rahman told me that Rajnikanth had listened to the track and was very happy with the way it had turned out. I was kicked,'' says Blaaze.
Blaaze, a Chennaiite, left for Zambia in 1979 with his parents. He later went to the UK to do his O and A levels. His interest in rap began while in school. His big break came when he rapped a special song during the election of President Chiluba. ''While watching TV during the 1991 elections in Zambia, I was moved by what the Presidential candidate was saying about democracy and human rights. I immediately wrote down a song. My dad's friend saw it and took me to the TV station. They heard my song and I got my first video!,'' he says. After that he, along with his friends, started performing in South Africa. But still Blaaze's dream to see his song up on the charts did not materialise.
''I did not want to waste my time anymore, though rap was still my passion, and decided to pursue film-making. I left for Columbia University, where I did my honours in Cinema. I tried to get a job there but it did not materialise,'' says Blaaze.
He returned to India in 2000 and landed a job with MTV as Production Incharge. After two years, he quit to join Radio City. ''Everything went smoothly for two months as radio had become the big thing in Mumbai,'' he says. But overnight they decided to shift the broadcast language from English to Hindi, putting Blaaze in a fix. ''I couldn't host shows in Hindi and knew that I was going to lose my job. And that was the day I got a call my A R Rahman's office asking me to come down to record a song. I have always believed in destiny,'' he says.
We will get to hear Blaaze again when Boys releases. In the movie, Blaaze has sung a song with Vasundhara Das. Now, if you are wondering what his name means, here's what he has to say. ''My name is actually Rajesh Raman, but as a rapper I could not go around with that name. So I called myself Blaze. That's when my friend told me to add an accent on top of 'e', which he said would be more stylish!''
A regular rapper based in Mumbai, Blaaze was called by A R Rahman to sing for the
Tamil movie Boys. ''After working for the song in Boys, I was going to return to my room when Rahman stopped me on the way and asked if I could rap for Baba. I had not heard of Baba before and asked if it was for Sai Baba. He just looked and me and said 'Rajnikanth is Baba'. I was shocked,'' says Blaaze, who could not believe what he was offered. He then rushed back to the recording room and penned down the lyrics of the rap. Rahman gave it the green signal as soon as he heard it. ''I went back to Bombay and when I returned to Chennai a few days later Rahman told me that Rajnikanth had listened to the track and was very happy with the way it had turned out. I was kicked,'' says Blaaze.
Blaaze, a Chennaiite, left for Zambia in 1979 with his parents. He later went to the UK to do his O and A levels. His interest in rap began while in school. His big break came when he rapped a special song during the election of President Chiluba. ''While watching TV during the 1991 elections in Zambia, I was moved by what the Presidential candidate was saying about democracy and human rights. I immediately wrote down a song. My dad's friend saw it and took me to the TV station. They heard my song and I got my first video!,'' he says. After that he, along with his friends, started performing in South Africa. But still Blaaze's dream to see his song up on the charts did not materialise.
''I did not want to waste my time anymore, though rap was still my passion, and decided to pursue film-making. I left for Columbia University, where I did my honours in Cinema. I tried to get a job there but it did not materialise,'' says Blaaze.
He returned to India in 2000 and landed a job with MTV as Production Incharge. After two years, he quit to join Radio City. ''Everything went smoothly for two months as radio had become the big thing in Mumbai,'' he says. But overnight they decided to shift the broadcast language from English to Hindi, putting Blaaze in a fix. ''I couldn't host shows in Hindi and knew that I was going to lose my job. And that was the day I got a call my A R Rahman's office asking me to come down to record a song. I have always believed in destiny,'' he says.
We will get to hear Blaaze again when Boys releases. In the movie, Blaaze has sung a song with Vasundhara Das. Now, if you are wondering what his name means, here's what he has to say. ''My name is actually Rajesh Raman, but as a rapper I could not go around with that name. So I called myself Blaze. That's when my friend told me to add an accent on top of 'e', which he said would be more stylish!''
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
IT-Aug 2007
Fame drives web contribution: Mc Kinsey
The biggest motivation for Internet contributions is fame and not financial considerations, says a recent McKinsey study. It suggests that online companies would do well to nurture these contributors with money and other motivators. The study conducted by Jacques R. Bughin, a director of McKinsey in Brussels, combines the results of other McKinsey research activities to reach its conclusions. Bughin says that a small number of participants still contribute the bulk of popular items on contributory web portals.
Websites that thrive on video uploads and Wikipedia-type of contributory content need to hook the small percentage of contributors who bring in quality content. It does admit that while people come in driven by the urge to achieve fame or share something within their community financial considerations can lead them to contribute regularly Bughin says: "Visitors under 25 years of age made up the bulk of the video-viewing audience we measured, but members in the 25- to 44year-old age group contributed equally to postings -suggesting that working-age people would be open to participation in enterprise settings." He says the presence of tools like ones that show a most viewed list that make it easy for users to see what's popular or to send favourite videos to friends corresponded, by as much as 30 percent, with more downloads for popular videos.
The study found that in video sites, around three to six percent of the contributors accounted for 75 percent of the videos up- loaded and two percent of the contributors accounted for half of all the popular videos uploaded. Bughin suggests that in companies where there is an effort to build up internal content through contributions from employees, the manager must identify the employees with the best networking within the company He suggests that a track of the internal mails will help executives find out the best net-workers within the company "Companies should make sure that their employees can access collaborative tools with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle," he writes.
ITC e-Choupal to focus on product traceability
ITC Ltd through e-Choupals is working on traceability of farm produce aimed at providing buyers products of their choice.
Traceability is the ability to track the origin of a product and its attributes.
Speaking here at The Custommerce meet on Friday, Sivakumar said that ITC had planned to invest about Rs 5,000 crore in e-Choupals by 2012. From 6,450 kiosks in 38,000 villages touching about four million farmers, it is proposed to enhance this to about 20,000 kiosks, spread across 1,00,000 villages to serve around 10 million farmers by 2010.
Compuware ties up with HCL Tech
Compuware has announced a partnership agreement with HCL Technologies. The partnership would focus on India's fast growing IT governance opportunities, combining Compuware's IT portfolio Management, Application Development Management and IT service Management solutions capabilities with advisory and implementation services capabilities of HCL's IT Transformation practice, Bob Donald, V-P, Partner Business Development, has said. Compuware also announced the expansion of its management team in India with the appointment of Hariharan Ganesan as Managing Director for India and SAARC.
Wipro weighs funding options for buyouts
Wipro Technologies is on the prowl for more buyouts — especially in Germany and Canada — and is ready to look at acquisition modes other than all-cash deals.
“We generate over $100-million reserves every quarter and all-cash deals are not the only mode. Funding is not a problem. We can look at equity, joint ventures or any mode that suits us best,” Sudip Banerjee, president — enterprise solutions and chief strategist — Wipro Technologies, said.
Banerjee added that cash reserves till June 30, 2007, amounting to Rs 3,200 crore, would be used for the Infocrossing deal worth $600 million (Rs 2,460 crore). Over the years, Wipro has gradually increased the value of its acquisitions.
The company started with the $10-million computer-aided design company Quantech and went on to buy the $246-million FMCG company Unza.
Its latest acquisition is the $600-million Infocrossing. The Infocrossing deal will help Wipro expand its infrastructure management solutions business. The company plans to increase combined revenues to $1 billion from $0.5 billion in two to three years.
New centres
Wipro Technologies is also planning to set up centres at university towns in the West. The first such centre in the US will be in Georgia.
“This will give us access to a ready talent pool. Such towns surround a renowned university and therefore there will be students wanting to work in the vicinity,” Banerjee said.
The biggest motivation for Internet contributions is fame and not financial considerations, says a recent McKinsey study. It suggests that online companies would do well to nurture these contributors with money and other motivators. The study conducted by Jacques R. Bughin, a director of McKinsey in Brussels, combines the results of other McKinsey research activities to reach its conclusions. Bughin says that a small number of participants still contribute the bulk of popular items on contributory web portals.
Websites that thrive on video uploads and Wikipedia-type of contributory content need to hook the small percentage of contributors who bring in quality content. It does admit that while people come in driven by the urge to achieve fame or share something within their community financial considerations can lead them to contribute regularly Bughin says: "Visitors under 25 years of age made up the bulk of the video-viewing audience we measured, but members in the 25- to 44year-old age group contributed equally to postings -suggesting that working-age people would be open to participation in enterprise settings." He says the presence of tools like ones that show a most viewed list that make it easy for users to see what's popular or to send favourite videos to friends corresponded, by as much as 30 percent, with more downloads for popular videos.
The study found that in video sites, around three to six percent of the contributors accounted for 75 percent of the videos up- loaded and two percent of the contributors accounted for half of all the popular videos uploaded. Bughin suggests that in companies where there is an effort to build up internal content through contributions from employees, the manager must identify the employees with the best networking within the company He suggests that a track of the internal mails will help executives find out the best net-workers within the company "Companies should make sure that their employees can access collaborative tools with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle," he writes.
ITC e-Choupal to focus on product traceability
ITC Ltd through e-Choupals is working on traceability of farm produce aimed at providing buyers products of their choice.
Traceability is the ability to track the origin of a product and its attributes.
Speaking here at The Custommerce meet on Friday, Sivakumar said that ITC had planned to invest about Rs 5,000 crore in e-Choupals by 2012. From 6,450 kiosks in 38,000 villages touching about four million farmers, it is proposed to enhance this to about 20,000 kiosks, spread across 1,00,000 villages to serve around 10 million farmers by 2010.
Compuware ties up with HCL Tech
Compuware has announced a partnership agreement with HCL Technologies. The partnership would focus on India's fast growing IT governance opportunities, combining Compuware's IT portfolio Management, Application Development Management and IT service Management solutions capabilities with advisory and implementation services capabilities of HCL's IT Transformation practice, Bob Donald, V-P, Partner Business Development, has said. Compuware also announced the expansion of its management team in India with the appointment of Hariharan Ganesan as Managing Director for India and SAARC.
Wipro weighs funding options for buyouts
Wipro Technologies is on the prowl for more buyouts — especially in Germany and Canada — and is ready to look at acquisition modes other than all-cash deals.
“We generate over $100-million reserves every quarter and all-cash deals are not the only mode. Funding is not a problem. We can look at equity, joint ventures or any mode that suits us best,” Sudip Banerjee, president — enterprise solutions and chief strategist — Wipro Technologies, said.
Banerjee added that cash reserves till June 30, 2007, amounting to Rs 3,200 crore, would be used for the Infocrossing deal worth $600 million (Rs 2,460 crore). Over the years, Wipro has gradually increased the value of its acquisitions.
The company started with the $10-million computer-aided design company Quantech and went on to buy the $246-million FMCG company Unza.
Its latest acquisition is the $600-million Infocrossing. The Infocrossing deal will help Wipro expand its infrastructure management solutions business. The company plans to increase combined revenues to $1 billion from $0.5 billion in two to three years.
New centres
Wipro Technologies is also planning to set up centres at university towns in the West. The first such centre in the US will be in Georgia.
“This will give us access to a ready talent pool. Such towns surround a renowned university and therefore there will be students wanting to work in the vicinity,” Banerjee said.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
China: Bloggers Should Use Real Names
Blog service providers in China are "encouraged" to register users with their real names and contact information, according to a new government document that tones down an earlier proposal banning anonymous online blogging.
At least 10 major Chinese blog service providers have agreed to sign the "self-discipline pledge" issued by the Internet Society of China, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.
Online bulletin boards and blogs are the only forum for most Chinese to express opinions before a large audience in a society where all media are state-controlled.
China has the world's second-biggest population of Internet users after the United States, with 137 million people online. It also has 30 million registered bloggers, and more than 100 million Chinese Internet users visit blogs regularly, according to the ISC. The group is under the Ministry of Information Industry.
The guidelines, issued Tuesday and effective immediately, "encouraged" real-name registration of users, according to a copy posted on the Internet group's Web site.
The information -- to be filed with the companies, not posted online -- should include the user's name, address, contact numbers and e-mail address, it said.
Measures listed in the document were guidelines only and blog service providers were not required to comply, said an official at the Internet group, surnamed Zhu.
It was not clear whether the guideline calling for real-name registration covered bloggers only or whether it extended to people who post comments. Zhu refused to provide details.
The Chinese government had wanted to require real-name registration, but the proposal was met by "fierce opposition," Xinhua said.
"Conditions are not yet mature for implementing real-name registration as we lack reliable technology for privacy protection and identity verification," Huang Chengqing, secretary general of the ISC, was quoted as saying.
But he said service providers were still responsible for the content of the blogs. Chinese leaders often try to block online material deemed pornographic or a threat to communist rule.
"Blog service providers who allow the use of pseudonyms may be more attractive to bloggers, but they will be punished by the government if they fail to screen illegal information," Huang was quoted as saying.
The Xinhua report did not provide additional details of banned information, but other measures called for in the pledge include not spreading pornography and not speaking ill of other nationalities, races, religions and cultural customs. Bloggers also should not spread rumors or libelous information, it said.
"Blog providers should monitor and manage comments ... and delete illegal and bad information in a timely manner," the document said.
Blog service providers such as People's Daily online, Sohu.com, Sina.com.cn and cn.msn.com have said they would abide by the pledge, Xinhua reported
Thanks ENT News
At least 10 major Chinese blog service providers have agreed to sign the "self-discipline pledge" issued by the Internet Society of China, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.
Online bulletin boards and blogs are the only forum for most Chinese to express opinions before a large audience in a society where all media are state-controlled.
China has the world's second-biggest population of Internet users after the United States, with 137 million people online. It also has 30 million registered bloggers, and more than 100 million Chinese Internet users visit blogs regularly, according to the ISC. The group is under the Ministry of Information Industry.
The guidelines, issued Tuesday and effective immediately, "encouraged" real-name registration of users, according to a copy posted on the Internet group's Web site.
The information -- to be filed with the companies, not posted online -- should include the user's name, address, contact numbers and e-mail address, it said.
Measures listed in the document were guidelines only and blog service providers were not required to comply, said an official at the Internet group, surnamed Zhu.
It was not clear whether the guideline calling for real-name registration covered bloggers only or whether it extended to people who post comments. Zhu refused to provide details.
The Chinese government had wanted to require real-name registration, but the proposal was met by "fierce opposition," Xinhua said.
"Conditions are not yet mature for implementing real-name registration as we lack reliable technology for privacy protection and identity verification," Huang Chengqing, secretary general of the ISC, was quoted as saying.
But he said service providers were still responsible for the content of the blogs. Chinese leaders often try to block online material deemed pornographic or a threat to communist rule.
"Blog service providers who allow the use of pseudonyms may be more attractive to bloggers, but they will be punished by the government if they fail to screen illegal information," Huang was quoted as saying.
The Xinhua report did not provide additional details of banned information, but other measures called for in the pledge include not spreading pornography and not speaking ill of other nationalities, races, religions and cultural customs. Bloggers also should not spread rumors or libelous information, it said.
"Blog providers should monitor and manage comments ... and delete illegal and bad information in a timely manner," the document said.
Blog service providers such as People's Daily online, Sohu.com, Sina.com.cn and cn.msn.com have said they would abide by the pledge, Xinhua reported
Thanks ENT News
Thursday, August 23, 2007
ITC plans small hypermarkets in rural areas
ITC on Wednesday said it would set up new small format stores in rural areas on the lines of existing hypermarket chain - Choupal Sagar - by early next year, even as it plans to ramp up its retail operations.
The company was planning a large number of smaller Choupal Sagar stores, which would have a capacity to house 12,000-13,000 units at 40 locations out of 170 across the country, where ITC runs its big format stores.
"The idea is to penetrate the rural areas where the income levels are even lesser through smaller Choupal Sagar stores covering around one acre of area," ITC Limited chief executive officer (agri business) S Sivakumar told reporters on the sidelines of CII Marketing Summit in New Delhi.
These stores would cost Rs 2 crores (Rs 20 million) each and would be set up in small towns and rural areas of UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, he said without disclosing how many outlets the company planned to open.
ITC was also looking for a multi-fold increase in the number of e-Choupal - a platform where villagers can access Internet - in the next 5-6 years.
"We will increase the number of e-Choupals from current 6,400 in 130 districts of the country to 20,000 across 350 districts in the next 5-6 years," Sivakumar said.
He said the company would also open around 200 new Choupal Fresh outlets in major towns of the country, including the metros, to expand its presence in urban areas.
The urban retail chain focuses on stocking fresh horticulture produce like fruits and vegetables, for which ITC has set up cold chain.
"Currently, we have three Choupal Fresh stores in Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh and the number is likely to go up to 50 in these three cities by this fiscal. In the second phase, ITC would set up 140 new stores in other cities including Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai," he said.
The company was also focusing on strengthening health services in rural India.
Thanks to Rediff
The company was planning a large number of smaller Choupal Sagar stores, which would have a capacity to house 12,000-13,000 units at 40 locations out of 170 across the country, where ITC runs its big format stores.
"The idea is to penetrate the rural areas where the income levels are even lesser through smaller Choupal Sagar stores covering around one acre of area," ITC Limited chief executive officer (agri business) S Sivakumar told reporters on the sidelines of CII Marketing Summit in New Delhi.
These stores would cost Rs 2 crores (Rs 20 million) each and would be set up in small towns and rural areas of UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, he said without disclosing how many outlets the company planned to open.
ITC was also looking for a multi-fold increase in the number of e-Choupal - a platform where villagers can access Internet - in the next 5-6 years.
"We will increase the number of e-Choupals from current 6,400 in 130 districts of the country to 20,000 across 350 districts in the next 5-6 years," Sivakumar said.
He said the company would also open around 200 new Choupal Fresh outlets in major towns of the country, including the metros, to expand its presence in urban areas.
The urban retail chain focuses on stocking fresh horticulture produce like fruits and vegetables, for which ITC has set up cold chain.
"Currently, we have three Choupal Fresh stores in Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh and the number is likely to go up to 50 in these three cities by this fiscal. In the second phase, ITC would set up 140 new stores in other cities including Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai," he said.
The company was also focusing on strengthening health services in rural India.
Thanks to Rediff
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Really Non-Veg
Coming into the bar and ordering a double, the man leaned over and confided to the bartender, "I'm so pissed off !"
"Oh yeah? What happened?" asked the bartender politely.
"See, I met this beautiful woman who invited me back to her home. We stripped off our clothes and jumped into bed and we were just about to make love when her god damned husband came in the front door. So I had to jump out of the bedroom window andhang from the ledge by my fingernails!"
"Gee, that's tough!" commiserated the bartender.
"Right, but that's not what really got me aggravated," the customer went on.
"When her husband came into the room he said 'Hey great! You're naked already! Let me just take a leak.' And damned if the lazy son of a bitch didn't piss out the window right onto my head?"
"Yeech!" the bartender shook his head. "No wonder you're in a lousy mood."
"Yeah, but I haven't told you what really, really got to me.
Next, I had to listen to them grunting and groaning and when they finished, the husband tossed his condom out of the window. And where does it land? My damned forehead!"
"Damn, that really is a drag!" says the bartender.
"Oh, I'm not finished. See what really pissed me off was when the husband had to take a dump. It turns out that their toilet is broken, so he stuck his ass out of the window and let loose right on my head !"
The bartender paled. "That would sure mess up my day."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the fellow rattled on, "but do you know what REALLY, REALLY, REALLY pissed me off? When I looked down and saw that my feet were only SIX inches off the ground!!"
"Oh yeah? What happened?" asked the bartender politely.
"See, I met this beautiful woman who invited me back to her home. We stripped off our clothes and jumped into bed and we were just about to make love when her god damned husband came in the front door. So I had to jump out of the bedroom window andhang from the ledge by my fingernails!"
"Gee, that's tough!" commiserated the bartender.
"Right, but that's not what really got me aggravated," the customer went on.
"When her husband came into the room he said 'Hey great! You're naked already! Let me just take a leak.' And damned if the lazy son of a bitch didn't piss out the window right onto my head?"
"Yeech!" the bartender shook his head. "No wonder you're in a lousy mood."
"Yeah, but I haven't told you what really, really got to me.
Next, I had to listen to them grunting and groaning and when they finished, the husband tossed his condom out of the window. And where does it land? My damned forehead!"
"Damn, that really is a drag!" says the bartender.
"Oh, I'm not finished. See what really pissed me off was when the husband had to take a dump. It turns out that their toilet is broken, so he stuck his ass out of the window and let loose right on my head !"
The bartender paled. "That would sure mess up my day."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the fellow rattled on, "but do you know what REALLY, REALLY, REALLY pissed me off? When I looked down and saw that my feet were only SIX inches off the ground!!"
Thursday, August 16, 2007
2007 Notable Books for Children
These books were chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, and other professionals for the Association for Library Service to Children.
Younger Readers
Once upon a Banana, by Jennifer Armstrong; illustrated by David Small (Simon & Schuster and Paula Wiseman)
My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World, by Gilles Bachelet (Abrams)
Keeper of Soles, by Teresa Bateman; illustrated by Yayo (Holiday House)
Move Over, Rover!, by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by Jane Dyer (Harcourt)
Cork & Fuzz: Short and Tall, by Dori Chaconas; illustrated by Lisa McCue (Viking)
Best Best Friends, by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt)
Below, by Nina Crews (Holt)
I Lost My Tooth in Africa, by Penda Diakité; illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité (Scholastic)
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick)
Wolves, by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster)
The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, by Mini Grey (Knopf)
Lilly's Big Day, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
Duck & Goose, by Tad Hills (Random and Schwartz & Wade)
Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, by Deborah Hopkinson; illustrated by James E. Ransome (Random/Schwartz & Wade.)
Houndsley and Catina, by James Howe; illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Candlewick)
Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways, by Laura McGee Kvasnosky (Candlewick)
Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding, by Lenore Look; illustrated by Yumi Heo (Simon & Schuster and Anne Schwartz)
Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale, by Margaret Read MacDonald; illustrated by Alik Arzoumanian (Marshall Cavendish)
Once I Ate a Pie, by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest; illustrated by Katy Schneider (HarperCollins and Joanna Cotler)
Adèle & Simon, by Barbara McClintock (Farrar and Frances Foster)
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, by David McLimans (Walker)
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, by Marisa Montes; illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Holt)
Hippo! No, Rhino!, by Jeff Newman (Brown Little)
The Little Red Hen, by Jerry Pinkney (Dial)
Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis (HarperCollins)
Black? White! Day? Night! A Book of Opposites, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook and Neal Porter)
Good Boy, Fergus!, by David Shannon (Scholastic and Blue Sky)
Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie, by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Edward Koren (Knopf)
Scaredy Squirrel, by Mélanie Watt (Kids Can)
Mammoths on the Move, by Lisa Wheeler; illustrated by Kurt Cyrus (Harcourt)
Dizzy, by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Sean Qualls (Scholastic and Arthur A. Levine)
My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World, by Gilles Bachelet (Abrams)
Keeper of Soles, by Teresa Bateman; illustrated by Yayo (Holiday House)
Move Over, Rover!, by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by Jane Dyer (Harcourt)
Cork & Fuzz: Short and Tall, by Dori Chaconas; illustrated by Lisa McCue (Viking)
Best Best Friends, by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt)
Below, by Nina Crews (Holt)
I Lost My Tooth in Africa, by Penda Diakité; illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité (Scholastic)
Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick)
Wolves, by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster)
The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, by Mini Grey (Knopf)
Lilly's Big Day, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
Duck & Goose, by Tad Hills (Random and Schwartz & Wade)
Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, by Deborah Hopkinson; illustrated by James E. Ransome (Random/Schwartz & Wade.)
Houndsley and Catina, by James Howe; illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Candlewick)
Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways, by Laura McGee Kvasnosky (Candlewick)
Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding, by Lenore Look; illustrated by Yumi Heo (Simon & Schuster and Anne Schwartz)
Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale, by Margaret Read MacDonald; illustrated by Alik Arzoumanian (Marshall Cavendish)
Once I Ate a Pie, by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest; illustrated by Katy Schneider (HarperCollins and Joanna Cotler)
Adèle & Simon, by Barbara McClintock (Farrar and Frances Foster)
Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet, by David McLimans (Walker)
Los Gatos Black on Halloween, by Marisa Montes; illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Holt)
Hippo! No, Rhino!, by Jeff Newman (Brown Little)
The Little Red Hen, by Jerry Pinkney (Dial)
Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis (HarperCollins)
Black? White! Day? Night! A Book of Opposites, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook and Neal Porter)
Good Boy, Fergus!, by David Shannon (Scholastic and Blue Sky)
Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie, by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Edward Koren (Knopf)
Scaredy Squirrel, by Mélanie Watt (Kids Can)
Mammoths on the Move, by Lisa Wheeler; illustrated by Kurt Cyrus (Harcourt)
Dizzy, by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Sean Qualls (Scholastic and Arthur A. Levine)
Middle Readers
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, by Cheryl Bardoe; illustrated by Jos. A. Smith (Abrams)
Ivy and Bean, by Annie Barrows; illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Chronicle)
Hugging the Rock, by Susan Taylor Brown (Tricycle)
Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius, by Demi (Lee & Low)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick)
The Adventures of Polo, by Régis Faller (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)
All in Just One Cookie, by Susan E. Goodman; illustrated by Timothy Bush (Greenwillow)
Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, by Hatkoff, Isabella and others; illustrated by Peter Greste (Scholastic)
Lugalbanda: The Boy Who Got Caught Up in a War, by Kathy Henderson; illustrated by Jane Ray (Candlewick)
Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic, by Emily Jenkins; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (Random/Schwartz & Wade)
Families, by Susan Kuklin (Hyperion)
The Story of Salt, by Mark Kurlansky; illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Putnam)
The Year of the Dog, by Lin Grace (Brown Little)
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything, by Lenore Look; illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Rules, by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)
Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People, by Albert Marrin; illustrated by C.B. Mordan (Dutton)
Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast, by Meghan McCarthy (Knopf)
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, by Sy Montgomery; photos by Nic Bishop (Houghton)
Jazz, by Walter Dean Myers; illustrated by Christopher Myers (Holiday)
The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron; illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker; illustrated by Marla Frazee (Hyperion)
Here's Looking at Me: How Artists See Themselves, by Bob Raczka (Lerner/Millbrook)
The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin, by Susan Goldman Rubin and Ela Weissberger (Holiday)
She's All That! Poems about Girls, by Belinda Hollyer; illustrated by Susan Hellard (Kingfisher)
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Beth Krommes (Houghton)
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel, by Siena Cherson Siegel; illustrated by Mark Siegel (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
Younguncle Comes to Town, by Vandana Singh; illustrated by B.M. Kamath (Viking)
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon, by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton)
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom, by Tim Tingle; illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges (Cinco Puntos)
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)
Ivy and Bean, by Annie Barrows; illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Chronicle)
Hugging the Rock, by Susan Taylor Brown (Tricycle)
Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius, by Demi (Lee & Low)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick)
The Adventures of Polo, by Régis Faller (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)
All in Just One Cookie, by Susan E. Goodman; illustrated by Timothy Bush (Greenwillow)
Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, by Hatkoff, Isabella and others; illustrated by Peter Greste (Scholastic)
Lugalbanda: The Boy Who Got Caught Up in a War, by Kathy Henderson; illustrated by Jane Ray (Candlewick)
Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic, by Emily Jenkins; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (Random/Schwartz & Wade)
Families, by Susan Kuklin (Hyperion)
The Story of Salt, by Mark Kurlansky; illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Putnam)
The Year of the Dog, by Lin Grace (Brown Little)
Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything, by Lenore Look; illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Rules, by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)
Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People, by Albert Marrin; illustrated by C.B. Mordan (Dutton)
Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast, by Meghan McCarthy (Knopf)
Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea, by Sy Montgomery; photos by Nic Bishop (Houghton)
Jazz, by Walter Dean Myers; illustrated by Christopher Myers (Holiday)
The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron; illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker; illustrated by Marla Frazee (Hyperion)
Here's Looking at Me: How Artists See Themselves, by Bob Raczka (Lerner/Millbrook)
The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin, by Susan Goldman Rubin and Ela Weissberger (Holiday)
She's All That! Poems about Girls, by Belinda Hollyer; illustrated by Susan Hellard (Kingfisher)
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Beth Krommes (Houghton)
To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel, by Siena Cherson Siegel; illustrated by Mark Siegel (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
Younguncle Comes to Town, by Vandana Singh; illustrated by B.M. Kamath (Viking)
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon, by Catherine Thimmesh (Houghton)
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom, by Tim Tingle; illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges (Cinco Puntos)
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)
Older Readers
Crispin: At the Edge of the World, by Avi (Hyperion)
Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, by Ann Bausum (National Geographic)
The Killer’s Tears, by Anne-Laure Bondoux; translated by Y. Maudet (Delacorte)
Ask Me No Questions, by Marina Budhos (Simon & Schuster/Ginee Seo)
The Runaway Princess, by Kate Coombs (Farrar)
Framed, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (HarperCollins)
The Last Dragon, by Silvana DeMari; translated by Shaun Whiteside (Hyperion/Miramax)
Odd Man Out, by Sarah Ellis (Groundwood)
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini, by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy, by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion)
The Adventures of Marco Polo, by Russell Freedman; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, by Russell Freedman (Holiday)
Penny from Heaven, by Jennifer L. Holm (Random)
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America, by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic Nonfiction)
Isaac Newton, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking)
Sigmund Freud, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking)
Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson (Delacorte)
Gossamer, by Lois Lowry (Houghton/Walter Lorraine)
Heat, by Mike Lupica (Philomel)
The Pull of the Ocean, by Jean-Claude Mourlevat; translated by Y. Maudet (Delacorte)
The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Famous Marshal in the West, by Gary Paulsen (Random/Wendy Lamb)
All of the Above: A Novel by Shelly Pearsall; illustrated by Javaka Steptoe (Brown Little)
Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett (HarperTempest)
Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space, by Philip Reeve; illustrated by David Wyatt (Bloomsbury)
Yellow Star, by Jennifer Roy (Marshall Cavendish)
Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter, by Susan Goldman Rubin (Abrams)
House of the Red Fish, by Graham Salisbury (Random/Wendy Lamb)
Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics, by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson (Houghton/Graphia)
Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories, by Paul Robert Walker (National Geographic)
Counting on Grace, by Elizabeth Winthrop (Random/Wendy Lamb)
Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement, by Ann Bausum (National Geographic)
The Killer’s Tears, by Anne-Laure Bondoux; translated by Y. Maudet (Delacorte)
Ask Me No Questions, by Marina Budhos (Simon & Schuster/Ginee Seo)
The Runaway Princess, by Kate Coombs (Farrar)
Framed, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (HarperCollins)
The Last Dragon, by Silvana DeMari; translated by Shaun Whiteside (Hyperion/Miramax)
Odd Man Out, by Sarah Ellis (Groundwood)
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini, by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy, by Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (Clarion)
The Adventures of Marco Polo, by Russell Freedman; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, by Russell Freedman (Holiday)
Penny from Heaven, by Jennifer L. Holm (Random)
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America, by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic Nonfiction)
Isaac Newton, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking)
Sigmund Freud, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking)
Hattie Big Sky, by Kirby Larson (Delacorte)
Gossamer, by Lois Lowry (Houghton/Walter Lorraine)
Heat, by Mike Lupica (Philomel)
The Pull of the Ocean, by Jean-Claude Mourlevat; translated by Y. Maudet (Delacorte)
The Legend of Bass Reeves: Being the True and Fictional Account of the Most Famous Marshal in the West, by Gary Paulsen (Random/Wendy Lamb)
All of the Above: A Novel by Shelly Pearsall; illustrated by Javaka Steptoe (Brown Little)
Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett (HarperTempest)
Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space, by Philip Reeve; illustrated by David Wyatt (Bloomsbury)
Yellow Star, by Jennifer Roy (Marshall Cavendish)
Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter, by Susan Goldman Rubin (Abrams)
House of the Red Fish, by Graham Salisbury (Random/Wendy Lamb)
Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics, by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson (Houghton/Graphia)
Remember Little Bighorn: Indians, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories, by Paul Robert Walker (National Geographic)
Counting on Grace, by Elizabeth Winthrop (Random/Wendy Lamb)
All Ages
Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection, by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada; illustrated by Felipe Dávalos and others (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
It's Not the Stork!: A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends, by Robie H. Harris; illustrated by Michael Emberley (Candlewick)
Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters, by Patricia C. McKissack; illustrated by André Carrilho (Random/Schwartz & Wade)
Solomon and the Ant and Other Jewish Folktales, by Sheldon Oberman (Boyds Mills)
Flotsam, by David Wiesner (Clarion)
It's Not the Stork!: A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends, by Robie H. Harris; illustrated by Michael Emberley (Candlewick)
Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters, by Patricia C. McKissack; illustrated by André Carrilho (Random/Schwartz & Wade)
Solomon and the Ant and Other Jewish Folktales, by Sheldon Oberman (Boyds Mills)
Flotsam, by David Wiesner (Clarion)
Monday, August 13, 2007
Best Blogger So far
The Best Blogger so far and nominated for best cause and UK Award Goes to Baghdad Burning
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Tamilnadu and India
I studied Hindi in my earlier schoolings for 4 yrs, so I can read and write Hindi, however I can’t speak in Hindi at that time (2004). Though I worked in North India, I was unable to learn Hindi at that time, because of the Tamil guys who around me for all the 11 months. And I never bother to learn at that time, now also. All matter of communication made me to learn. Till the time I reach London, I never thought that Hindi will be casually spoken language among all Indians nevertheless of which state. Not only in UK, where ever in the world, the most common language among Indians is Hindi. I did realize when I start going abroad this same after travelling a lot.
Let describe about myself, tamilnadu and regarding Hindi. Tamil is the first language and English the second language in TNadu. Though capital of TN-Chennai, only a small portion of people learns Hindi in their schoolings, so they are safe when they move to other states or country. Being a remote village guy, I hear only there is a cricket match that too when the commentary is in Hindi.
I can’t only blame on Dravidian parties now for Anti-Hindi strikes during 1970's. The anti-Hindi parties, Dravidian political parties playing to the tunes in 60's. Now, not a single party wants to touch the subject. Was it a big hindrance to mainstream integration, yes of course? When talking about globalization, it is ashamed of not learning a national language. Still I can say, there is no need of Hindi in tamilnadu, until you stay. Else learn Hindi. Our states have been separated based on languages, I agree. Tamilnadu is literally separated by language. I indulge everybody to learn Hindi till the extent of communication. Bloody language is a just communication media, once you know the media is required, don’t hesitate to learn it. Local Business men stays in tamilnadu, however they need to talk to other language people once they come out of their state. I have seen lot many business people learned Hindi, so as the IT employees because of survival.
An interesting incident happened in Paris for me which really made ashamed that I don’t know Hindi, Punjabi either. Under the tower, people sell the toy towers, key chains and bla bla. I liked a Eiffel tower toy which is made up of Glass with sparkling lights, I started bargaining with an Afro guy for 12 Euros which Afro guy demanding to us to get it for 17 Euros. At the same time an India chap came with key chains and shown those chains, said something in Hindi, I got a word 5 (paanch), so I thought he is trying to sell those chains to me. I thought I am over smart and bargained with Indian guy to give 5 chains for 2 Euros. He said okay and I bought it still my wife is bargaining with Afro guy, that Indian moved for 2 steps and said with other guy that" samja nahi" yaar. I was confused what he is saying; how long a guy can act that he knows the language. Finally my wife bargained for 12 Euros and bought that tower statue, we were amazed that we got it for 12 Euros. Then that Indian guy came and said that statue is worth for 5 Euros that is what he was trying to convey to me in Hindi, by the time he acted to afro guy that he selling the chains to us.
Yeah, it is a simple loss of 7 Euros; however this incident impacted me a lot to take a ‘U’ turn to learn Hindi properly. Now I am able to read, write and talk Hindi fluently. This is my suggestion” learn Hindi, if you want to come out of the state for any reason”.
Let describe about myself, tamilnadu and regarding Hindi. Tamil is the first language and English the second language in TNadu. Though capital of TN-Chennai, only a small portion of people learns Hindi in their schoolings, so they are safe when they move to other states or country. Being a remote village guy, I hear only there is a cricket match that too when the commentary is in Hindi.
I can’t only blame on Dravidian parties now for Anti-Hindi strikes during 1970's. The anti-Hindi parties, Dravidian political parties playing to the tunes in 60's. Now, not a single party wants to touch the subject. Was it a big hindrance to mainstream integration, yes of course? When talking about globalization, it is ashamed of not learning a national language. Still I can say, there is no need of Hindi in tamilnadu, until you stay. Else learn Hindi. Our states have been separated based on languages, I agree. Tamilnadu is literally separated by language. I indulge everybody to learn Hindi till the extent of communication. Bloody language is a just communication media, once you know the media is required, don’t hesitate to learn it. Local Business men stays in tamilnadu, however they need to talk to other language people once they come out of their state. I have seen lot many business people learned Hindi, so as the IT employees because of survival.
An interesting incident happened in Paris for me which really made ashamed that I don’t know Hindi, Punjabi either. Under the tower, people sell the toy towers, key chains and bla bla. I liked a Eiffel tower toy which is made up of Glass with sparkling lights, I started bargaining with an Afro guy for 12 Euros which Afro guy demanding to us to get it for 17 Euros. At the same time an India chap came with key chains and shown those chains, said something in Hindi, I got a word 5 (paanch), so I thought he is trying to sell those chains to me. I thought I am over smart and bargained with Indian guy to give 5 chains for 2 Euros. He said okay and I bought it still my wife is bargaining with Afro guy, that Indian moved for 2 steps and said with other guy that" samja nahi" yaar. I was confused what he is saying; how long a guy can act that he knows the language. Finally my wife bargained for 12 Euros and bought that tower statue, we were amazed that we got it for 12 Euros. Then that Indian guy came and said that statue is worth for 5 Euros that is what he was trying to convey to me in Hindi, by the time he acted to afro guy that he selling the chains to us.
Yeah, it is a simple loss of 7 Euros; however this incident impacted me a lot to take a ‘U’ turn to learn Hindi properly. Now I am able to read, write and talk Hindi fluently. This is my suggestion” learn Hindi, if you want to come out of the state for any reason”.
Friday, August 03, 2007
UTI to AXIS
"Axis as a name is simple; it connotes solidity and stature, and conveys a sense of authority and credibility. Axis as a brand further has the ability to transcend geographical boundaries - this is relevant as the Bank has built an initial pan-Asian network with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai, and seeks to expand further its international presence.
Graphically, in the new logo, the first stroke depicts forward growth while the second stroke signifies a solid support system. The two thick strokes also connote solidity and security.
The rest of the Bank remains the same. The same people, same facilities and the same products and services would continue to be offered to you and you can also expect the same level of dedicated service and professional expertise, as always."
All the Best AXIS
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Indian men cannot be trusted in their sexual behaviour: Renuka Chowdhury
Indian men cannot be trusted in their sexual behaviour and are fuelling the country’s HIV epidemic, says Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury.
“You cannot trust men or your husbands, with apologies to the men present here,” she told a meeting of the National Women Forum of Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.
“If you believe that men will be careful, then you can forget about protecting yourself,” the minister said. “Men will not buy a condom when they come staggering home while drunk”, Chowdhury said, adding that women must not be embarrassed to ask for condoms.
“Women need to get condoms to protect themselves; let the men be suspicious,” she said.
India has 25 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS, the third highest number of people in any country after South Africa and Nigeria. Nearly 40 per cent of those infected are women.
Chowdhury said the opposition to sex education was morally hypocritical.
“We have a population of one billion and we don’t want to talk about sex,” she said.
“We have to be vocal on such issues. If we don’t, then it will effect the generations to come.”
// Kudos to Renuka Chowdhury for speaking the hard truth. We need more people like her in politics. I personally cant comment on this//
“You cannot trust men or your husbands, with apologies to the men present here,” she told a meeting of the National Women Forum of Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.
“If you believe that men will be careful, then you can forget about protecting yourself,” the minister said. “Men will not buy a condom when they come staggering home while drunk”, Chowdhury said, adding that women must not be embarrassed to ask for condoms.
“Women need to get condoms to protect themselves; let the men be suspicious,” she said.
India has 25 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS, the third highest number of people in any country after South Africa and Nigeria. Nearly 40 per cent of those infected are women.
Chowdhury said the opposition to sex education was morally hypocritical.
“We have a population of one billion and we don’t want to talk about sex,” she said.
“We have to be vocal on such issues. If we don’t, then it will effect the generations to come.”
// Kudos to Renuka Chowdhury for speaking the hard truth. We need more people like her in politics. I personally cant comment on this//
Friday, July 13, 2007
Worm in iPhone?
I never jumped on to the iPod bandwagon. Let me assure you, I was probably the only person in Montreal not bouncing along the streets plugged into an iPod, exchanging a knowing nod with fellow Macaholics as I crossed them on the street. But that didn’t make me miss out on the phenomenon that is the iPod — the product that is poised for an elevated place in the technology hall of fame (if there is such a place). It isn’t really surprising —Mac was always considered the cooler (richer) cousin of the PC, so any product Apple Inc. came up with just had to be slicker than the rest.
Apple managed to ride the cool wave for a long time. Very intelligent and perceptive marketing is the backbone to an already impressive product — ‘Think Different,’ Apple urged us and then told us how, with the ‘Switch’ campaign that followed. The computer offered software that allowed people like you and me to produce movies, music, websites, whose quality could rival big production houses. The iPod offered new ways of organising and transferring music— and everyone wondered how they ever did without it! But now we are faced with the iPhone. Can it bring about a similar (global) Mac attack? Let’s go step by step.
Why would you buy an iPhone? (As opposed to simply salivating at the thought of owning one.) It’s the first phone that does not extend its software to accommodate extra features (for example, a music player) but instead it essentially condenses an entire operating system into a phone — a mini Mac, if you will. Its real feature, then, lies in applications that have not been introduced as yet. This means that you can do virtually anything with it, with features far beyond what a Blackberry offers.
Apple managed to ride the cool wave for a long time. Very intelligent and perceptive marketing is the backbone to an already impressive product — ‘Think Different,’ Apple urged us and then told us how, with the ‘Switch’ campaign that followed. The computer offered software that allowed people like you and me to produce movies, music, websites, whose quality could rival big production houses. The iPod offered new ways of organising and transferring music— and everyone wondered how they ever did without it! But now we are faced with the iPhone. Can it bring about a similar (global) Mac attack? Let’s go step by step.
Why would you buy an iPhone? (As opposed to simply salivating at the thought of owning one.) It’s the first phone that does not extend its software to accommodate extra features (for example, a music player) but instead it essentially condenses an entire operating system into a phone — a mini Mac, if you will. Its real feature, then, lies in applications that have not been introduced as yet. This means that you can do virtually anything with it, with features far beyond what a Blackberry offers.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tag-for a Cause!
Chain Blogs for a cause!
Q: There are hazards of bloggers scribling everyday. Do we really read all those blogs?
Ans: NO.
Q: Why?
Ans: Because we are not aware who are all blogging?
Q: If we know who are posting, can we read those?
Ans: Yes, may be.
Q: But how do i know there is a new post available ?
Ans: that is the reason we are going to make a community for us. As a initial stage we need people for the forum. A forum cannot be successfull with out contributors. So, this chain blogs will intimate the people are in same wavelength and the forum will make aware those new post available. Sounds great, huh
Rules:
1. You have to invite 4 of your fav. bloggers
2. Give your tag post link as a comment in http://binarywaves.blogspot.com/2007/06/tag-for-cause.html
3. This rules must be copied in the botton of your post.
4. Intimate to your fav. bloggers by commenting on their blogs
The chain blog content:
1. What are all the four countries you have been since.
2. Name the 4 celeberities you like.
3. Name 4 singers you like.
4. Name 4 movies you like
Let me start with:
1. What are all the four countries you have been since.
UK, US, France & Scotland
2. Name the 4 celeberities you like.
As of today, Paris Hilton, Rajini, Mr. Tony Blair and Gandhi
3. Name 4 singers you like.
SPB, KJ Jesudas, HariHaran & Shreya Ghosal
4. Name 4 movies you like
Saving Private Ryan, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi(tamil), Cast away and Dil Chatha Hai
My 4 Fav bloggers:
1. Cogito
2. Chin
3. Vicky
4. India Un cut Amit Varma
Rules:
1. You have to invite 4 of your fav. bloggers
2. Give your tag post link as a comment in http://binarywaves.blogspot.com/2007/06/tag-for-cause.html
3. This rules must be copied in the botton of your post.4. Intimate to your fav. bloggers by commenting on their blogs
Q: There are hazards of bloggers scribling everyday. Do we really read all those blogs?
Ans: NO.
Q: Why?
Ans: Because we are not aware who are all blogging?
Q: If we know who are posting, can we read those?
Ans: Yes, may be.
Q: But how do i know there is a new post available ?
Ans: that is the reason we are going to make a community for us. As a initial stage we need people for the forum. A forum cannot be successfull with out contributors. So, this chain blogs will intimate the people are in same wavelength and the forum will make aware those new post available. Sounds great, huh
Rules:
1. You have to invite 4 of your fav. bloggers
2. Give your tag post link as a comment in http://binarywaves.blogspot.com/2007/06/tag-for-cause.html
3. This rules must be copied in the botton of your post.
4. Intimate to your fav. bloggers by commenting on their blogs
The chain blog content:
1. What are all the four countries you have been since.
2. Name the 4 celeberities you like.
3. Name 4 singers you like.
4. Name 4 movies you like
Let me start with:
1. What are all the four countries you have been since.
UK, US, France & Scotland
2. Name the 4 celeberities you like.
As of today, Paris Hilton, Rajini, Mr. Tony Blair and Gandhi
3. Name 4 singers you like.
SPB, KJ Jesudas, HariHaran & Shreya Ghosal
4. Name 4 movies you like
Saving Private Ryan, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi(tamil), Cast away and Dil Chatha Hai
My 4 Fav bloggers:
1. Cogito
2. Chin
3. Vicky
4. India Un cut Amit Varma
Rules:
1. You have to invite 4 of your fav. bloggers
2. Give your tag post link as a comment in http://binarywaves.blogspot.com/2007/06/tag-for-cause.html
3. This rules must be copied in the botton of your post.4. Intimate to your fav. bloggers by commenting on their blogs
iPhone-in India
Apple Inc will launch its latest offering, the iPhone in the here (US) tomorrow. Apart from functioning as a phone, the device can function as a media player and also as a wireless web surfing device.
Officially, it will not be available in India for at least another year.
But for those who really want it, the wait might be as short as a fortnight or, at the most, a month. This is not just because of efficiently smuggled shipments but a technical ‘feat’ as well.
In the US, Apple has tied up with AT&T in an exclusive contract. This means that the iPhone will only work on an AT&T SIM card for which buyers have to sign up for an $59 to $100 a month plan for a minimum two-year subscription.
But in India, grey market operators say they can “unlock” the phone for just Rs 1,000 or Rs 1,500 so that it can be used on any network in India. “Unlocking the iPhone isn’t tough,” said a dealer in central Delhi.
In the US, the phone is priced between $500 (Rs 22,000) for the 4 GB version and $600 (Rs 25,500) for the 8 GB model. There are further variations depending upon the memory. Out in the grey markets of Palika Bazar or Sarojini Nagar, an entry-level iPhone will be available for Rs 30,000. National Market Rs 32,000.
Unlocked Apple iPhone units are expected to be auctioned off at a premium, especially in Asian markets.
//As the world gets ready for this deadline to grab one of the most sought after handsets - the iPhone - two Indian companies are also getting ready to register gains from this revolutionary offering of Apple Inc., the makers of Macintosh computer (popularly called Mac) and the iPod.
Noida-based HCL Infosystems and Bangalore-based Wipro Technologies are close to becoming the exclusive Indian distributors of the iPhone. Analysts are expecting 1-3 million handsets to hit the shelves on Friday.
A luxury product costing $499 for 4 gigabytes memory and $599 for 8 gigabytes memory, iPhone will have a large touch screen minus the conventional keypad. It will also double up as an iPod, video player and will come equipped with a digital camera.//
Officially, it will not be available in India for at least another year.
But for those who really want it, the wait might be as short as a fortnight or, at the most, a month. This is not just because of efficiently smuggled shipments but a technical ‘feat’ as well.
In the US, Apple has tied up with AT&T in an exclusive contract. This means that the iPhone will only work on an AT&T SIM card for which buyers have to sign up for an $59 to $100 a month plan for a minimum two-year subscription.
But in India, grey market operators say they can “unlock” the phone for just Rs 1,000 or Rs 1,500 so that it can be used on any network in India. “Unlocking the iPhone isn’t tough,” said a dealer in central Delhi.
In the US, the phone is priced between $500 (Rs 22,000) for the 4 GB version and $600 (Rs 25,500) for the 8 GB model. There are further variations depending upon the memory. Out in the grey markets of Palika Bazar or Sarojini Nagar, an entry-level iPhone will be available for Rs 30,000. National Market Rs 32,000.
Unlocked Apple iPhone units are expected to be auctioned off at a premium, especially in Asian markets.
//As the world gets ready for this deadline to grab one of the most sought after handsets - the iPhone - two Indian companies are also getting ready to register gains from this revolutionary offering of Apple Inc., the makers of Macintosh computer (popularly called Mac) and the iPod.
Noida-based HCL Infosystems and Bangalore-based Wipro Technologies are close to becoming the exclusive Indian distributors of the iPhone. Analysts are expecting 1-3 million handsets to hit the shelves on Friday.
A luxury product costing $499 for 4 gigabytes memory and $599 for 8 gigabytes memory, iPhone will have a large touch screen minus the conventional keypad. It will also double up as an iPod, video player and will come equipped with a digital camera.//
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Sivaji-Making of Oru Koodai Sunlight
Shanker started his CG (Computer Graphics) adventure from his first film itself, the Cartoon type of Dance which suited to Prabhu Deva's choreography in the song Chikku bukku was a super dooper hit all over India. He continued with Prabhu for next film Kadhalan and brought the technology from the Hollywood film Invisible man to Mukkabla Song. He the person who pulled the DTS technology to his tamil film Indian, with the help of his Friend H Sridhar. Both running a successful sound recording theater called Panchathan. Skeleton dance from MJ in Jeans, used morphing technology from MJ again for Maaya Machindra Indian-Tamil(Hindustani in Hindi), technically headed by "Maayavi" Venki.
Before getting to Sivaji making, Lets start with company who done the miracle ever in the world. The company name is Indian Artists from Vadapalani.
Indian Artists was the first to start and use digital Ink and Painting for 2D Cel Animation in South India. They foray into filmdom with the film INDIAN (Tamil). Until date, worked on the following films – Sivaji (Tamil), Anniyan (Tamil), Krish (Hindi), Gajani (Tamil), Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi (Tamil), Veyil (Tamil), Sivakasi (Tamil), Dishyum (Tamil), Bangaram (Telugu), Gilli (Tamil), Boys (Tamil), Dhool (Tamil), Runway (Malayalam), Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (Tamil), Anji (Telugu), Magic Magic 3D, Mizhirendilum (Malayalam), Kunjikunnan (Malayalam), Ramana (Tamil), Run (Tamil), Kushi (Tamil), Kadalar Dinam (Tamil), Hindustan (Telugu), Yuvakudu (Telugu) and Palayathamman (Tamil) and list continues. They were awarded the National Award for Magic Magic 3D in 2003 produced by Navodaya Films.
About Sivaji: Director Shanker wanted to change Rajini's wheatish complexion to a white European complexion. It was Directors brilliance and peak of his imagination. Indian Artists took this as a challenging task, because nobody has executed this type of concept in the world. To begin with, Indian artists did an in-depth study of the European complexion. They found that white skin reflects more light and has less shadow when compared to dark skin and is translucent in some areas. Therefore a simple color correction of the hero's skin would not achieve the desired effect.
For the shoot a London based young white lady with a fresh complexion and flushed cheeks was chosen and with the help of Cinematographer Mr. K.V.Anand every single shot of the hero was repeated with her because lighting conditions change in every shot. After the final edit all the 630 hero shots and 630 girl shots were scanned in 4K resolution. Each of the 9000 scanned frames ware rotoscoped to separate the body parts (face, hands, legs etc.). The white lady's skin was mapped onto the Super Star's image using Eyeon “Digital Fusion” software. Thus the Super Star got his glowing white complexion. There were two difficult aspects in this project. One was matching the girl's action with the hero's action and the second was matching both of their body proportions during mapping.
Though it sounds simple, the work involved was laborious and painstaking. Great attention was paid to detail right from the shoot until the final print. It has taken 25 dedicated CG technicians almost a year to achieve this 6 ½ min. feat.
Thanks for Info and Movies Indian Artists.
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