India BioTech Blast

Biotech Industry Set To Grow By 30% In 2003-04: Study:

"The BioSpectrum-ABLE study carries details of over 200 of the country’s most promising companies and lists India’s top 50 biotech companies turnover-wise. The 10 leading biotech companies in terms of turnover are Biocon India, Bangalore (Rs 255 crore), Panacea Biotec, Delhi (Rs 169.88 crore), Wipro HealthScience, Bangalore (Rs 98.55 crore), Wockhardt (Rs 74 crore), Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical(Rs 72.90 crore), Eli Lilly (Rs 71.31 crore), Nicholas Piramal (Rs 70.64 crore), Krebs Biochem (Rs 64.16 crore), Bharat Serums (Rs 58 crore) and Indian Immunologicals (Rs 55.31 crore). ".....

India : The most favored BPO nation

This is what cyber-coolies are creating for India, are you listening?....
India: Destination of choice for BPO - Sify.com: "The most popular destinations for the migration of business processing activities found were India (with 24 per cent executives voting in its favour), China (15 per cent), Mexico (13 per cent), Brazil (10 per cent) and Czech Republic (8 per cent). 'India is clearly the destination of choice for business processing services across all industries. There are tens of thousands of well-educated, English-speaking and highly motivated engineering, IT, and accounting professionals in India with the skills and capabilities auto manufacturers and suppliers need for offshore business processing,' Nagi Palle, co-author of the research and a principal at AT Kearney said. "

VSNL, the best ISP in ASIA

VSNL third best ISP in Asia: Survey - The Times of India:
UK-based network specialist NetConfigs Ltd has ranked Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) as the third best Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Asia and 29th in the world from among a total of 11,000 ISPs globally.

The Creative Sucessors of Indian Advertising

Gen Next of Indian advertising - The Times of India:
"the 10 people who will rule the creativity charts of Indian advertising after the troika hang up their magic wands."

* Anuja Chauhan Alva, vice president and senior creative director, JWT
* Mahesh V and Rajiv Rao, creative directors of Ogilvy & Mather
* Naren Multani, national creative director, films, McCann-Erickson
* Nishant Gangadharan, copy supervisor, Orchard Bangalore
* Nitesh Tiwari, creative director, Lowe
* Rahul Sengupta, group creative director, Lowe
* Ramanuj Shastry creative director at McCann-Erickson Mumbai.
* Senthil Kumar creative director of JWT
* Sharon Nayak, unit creative director of Lowe, Bangalore

To MBA or Not to

Perhaps the MBA is the most sought after degree in India today. But is it really worth the trouble? Comments Mahesh Murthy in his Business world column...|| Businessworld - To B-school or not to be||

Cyber coolies ?

In Sunday Times of India you will land up on a debate regarding call centers and cyber coolies, people who have lost their identity, working at odd timings for a firang company and living a shaky life. Some professor from Delhi University points all the black in such lifestyle and critisizes it heavily. What I can understand from all this is that....

(1) We would not care what opportunities we are providing.

(2) But if somebody starts earning from whatever he has from an opportunity offered from outside, he is called a 'slave' a 'cyber coolie'.

(3) Do we know that ? The entire IT revolution is result of the 'Brain Drain' & excellent performance of 'code coolism' during Y2K slavery period.

(4) Mind you nobody in this world cares about India as a nation (not even the indians who show that 'they care'), the entire progress and revolution is happening due to 'few indians' who give positive image of India to rest of the India and the world.

(5) You cannot just become IT super power without stepping on the first step, that you call 'coolism'. Once we become fully qualified coolies then only we can move up the value chain to become lords of the IT ring.

(6) Can you all critics shut your mouth and give some positivity and energy to the Indian youth. Even porn stars from foreign land provide more energy and motivation than Indian politicians, so called gurus, intellectuals and popular faces.

READ THIS....

Aren't Indians mostly involved in code writing and are often referred to as 'cyber-coolies'?

I object to the word cyber-coolie. While it may describe the job, the word coolie has a negative connotation. I want to remind you that for 50 years since the independence, our politicians, intellectuals and scientists did not get us the kind of "respect" in the world what these "cyber-coolies" have got us in a few years time. We need to acknowledge them and their work for making us feel proud to be an Indian.
Arjun Mehrotra chairman of Techspan in India Today

DO-NOT-CALL

Do not call is a mobile and telephone spam prevention list, if somebody call on the numbers in the list is penalized heavily.
Call centres forced to close : HindustanTimes.com: "US ‘DO-NOT-CALL’ lists—which include names of Americans who don’t want to receive telemarketing calls—have put many Indian call centres in a spot, forcing some to shut down."
However.....
Court Rules Against USA Do-Not-Call Registry | on NewsDay : : But Bob Corn-Revere, an attorney for the American Teleservices Association, a trade group, hailed the ruling as "a good start." Corn-Revere said that consumers already have the right to tell telemarketers not to call them, and that a federal database is unnecessary. "We don't object to people saying 'don't call me,'" Corn-Revere said. "We object to the big federal database."

India BPO reputation grows

Motown too bets big on Indian BPO - The Economic Times: "India’s BPO reputation is rubbing off on Motown as well. According to a study by consultancy firm AT Kearney, which sampled opinions from American auto executives, India emerged as the top outsourcing destination with 24% of the respondents giving it the thumbs up. "

Realty BPO hires

Realty BPO to hire 1,000 more by June 2004 - The Economic Times: "Global Realty Outsourcing, a BPO firm with two facilities in Chennai, plans to expand its operations in the country to 1,000 employees by June 2004. Its current workforce of around 350 people — over 50 per cent are CAs or MBAs — crunch numbers from Chennai to help GRO’s clients in the US make million-dollar investments in real estate."......

Growth in IT Hiring

Indian IT hiring gets a restart, breaks new grounds : HindustanTimes.com: "Number of professionals IT companies will hire in coming months
Wipro 9,000
Infosys 5,000
TCS 5,000
Oracle 3,000
Convergys 3,000
Cognizant 1,700
Satyam 1,000
Sutherland1,500"

India Inside

It's India inside, we have been leading the IT industry from quite some time now and proved our metal also. Now the need is to make India , the 'product' country to create brands like iflex, providing banking software. Even Wipro is trying hard to enter into the consulting space and many are following the same suit. With dedicated promotions and combined efforts of the industry, India will surely become a product supplier also. I hope we don't miss the hardware industry, we have some cool brains in that area also.

Nasscom to sell country with 'India Inside' campaign - The Economic Times: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), is stepping up its efforts to build the “India Inside” brand, projecting the sub-continent as a destination for software product development activity.".......

Sad Shourie

Mr. Shourie is may be the only person in politics whom you can listen and find intelligence in all his words. But the politics and even the court seems to be against him.

Economist.com | India's economy: "ARUN SHOURIE, India's minister for disinvestment (the preferred Indian euphemism for privatisation), did not conceal his frustration at a Supreme Court judgment on September 16th. Collared by the press on a visit to Berlin, he lamented that the ruling, which scuppers for the time being the privatisation of two state-owned oil companies, was “a major setback with huge consequences”.
The court ruled that the sales required explicit parliamentary approval, which the government cannot be certain of securing. These sales were the centrepiece of its privatisation plans for this year (as they were, in fact, last year), and the ruling will also affect some other asset sales. Worse, it helps foster the impression that the system has an institutional bias against economic reform. “This is the difference between India and China,” complained Mr Shourie. “In India everybody has a veto.”" .....

The rise of Call Centers

Although the happenings in the call centre arena are inspiring and towards our side and we are lreading the race, it should be realized that in future if we want to maintain such dominance we need to gear up for good infrastructure support, talent discovery and retaining the same and most importantly incentive to invest in India. English speaking talent can only take us here and that will not be a big advantage in future, all the state CMs are you listening?

India, Philippines, China to enjoy sharp rise in call centres
Manila: India, Philippines and China are expected to enjoy a sharp rise in the number of call centre stations next year, the head of a Sydney-based industry think-tank said.

Martin Conboy, Chief Officer of Callcentres.net said that this was the result of a survey of 824 organizations throughout the region representing call centres in India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand........

India : Knowledge Power

Again this is talking about private investment in knowledge sectore & technology. What incentive does government offer?. If red tape is cut and speed is introduced in our system we can have thousands of IITs and IIMs. The countries lead by research. CSIR has just realized the importance of patenting the technologies. Dr. Mashelkar may bring some energy in to that, best luck.

India to emerge as knowledge power: Dr Mashelkar
Nearly 80 per cent of India's spend on science and technology is still done by the government, with private industry participation at barely 20 per cent.

The Indian government spends 1.1 per cent of its gross domestic product on research and development in science and technology.

This figure has gone up compared to 1995-97 when the government's spend on R&D was just about 0.71 per cent. Most developed countries spend about 3 per cent of their GDP on R&D in science and technology.

Yet Dr R A Mashelkar, director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the largest chain of industrial research and development institutions in the world, with 38 laboratories and about 22,000 employees, believes that India is poised to become the largest 'knowledge producer' in the world........

Lloyd to move jobs to India

UK's Lloyds to move 1,500 jobs to India
Despite protests from a section of trade unions, more British financial services jobs are destined for India with Lloyds TSB announcing that 1,500 jobs will be created in Bangalore and Hyderabad by the end of next year

Extreme Stupidity

In India you can watch obscene politics, die due to negligence of a doctor or government official in train or a road, but you cannot discuss something which some smarty thinks is harmful to you. Does Indian CERT realize how important these groups are? it might be a question of life or death for somebody looking for medical information or a question of future for some aspiring student, but who cares?. Shut all the news channels and politically funded news papers because they throw more shit on us. Relax, this is democrazy.

CIOL : News : India bans Yahoo! Groups
Yahoo! Groups, a well-known discussion and community e-groups service, has been banned in India. Following a directive from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a Ministry of IT group formed under the IT Act to provide security advisory and guidelines, the Indian ISPs have blocked the URL of Yahoo! Groups www.groups.yahoo.com. This is said to be the first ban under the CERT-In law.....

Smart Analysis

Microsoft to offer "smart" analysis in India | CNET News.com
Microsoft has teamed with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and India's Tata Consultancy Services to offer "smart" data analysis to companies in India.

Call Centers: Outsourcing to India Saves Financial Services Companies $25 Million

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial service corporations that outsource 1,000 jobs overseas can expect upwards of $25 million in savings, according to business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information.

India, where the cost of labor is about an eighth of U.S. costs, has become a valuable solution to high turnover and workforce apathy in American call centers. When outsourcing overseas, many financial services companies consider India first. Primarily, Indian call center employees tend to be more enthusiastic and turnover averages only 5%.

"Managing Financial Services Call Centers," available at http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/FS80_Call_Centers/ contains more than 200 metrics and features practices from top financial services companies, such as Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, Citigroup, Capital One, Allstate, Wachovia and MetLife. The report highlights budget and staffing metrics, as
well as strategies and tactics to enhance overall call center efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.

"Customer service has improved drastically when call centers relocate toforeign countries," says Cutting Edge Information senior analyst Elio Evangelista. "India is an excellent place to outsource because they hold customer service jobs in high esteem and workers tend to care much more about their jobs."

For example, one financial services company relocated its call center operations overseas, allowing them to cut labor costs by 50%. The company also discovered that the foreign workforce was more skilled than local one had
been.

"Managing Financial Services Call Centers" showcases quantitative metrics and qualitative practices in the following areas:

* Call center agents' incentive and compensation packages
* Turnover, blocked calls, cost per rep and many other key performance
measurements
* Inbound and outbound call metrics for the financial services industry
* Up-selling and cross-selling strategies
* Offshore outsourcing
* Process efficiency and call center technology

To view the online summary of this 114-page report, visit
http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/FS80_Call_Centers/ .

India Outsourcing Watch

Brar Calls For Govt Support For Clinical Research Outsourcing | Fiancial Express
Ranbaxy Laboratories CEO DS Brar feels clinical research outsourcing to India will take off only when regulatory infrastructure and support systems are in place. He added that India occupies a small place in the world scheme of clinical investigation despite the fact that India has quality infrastructure, pool of talents and various ethnicity of diseases....

China, India remain threats to RP offshore outsourcing | inq7
A PHILIPPINE firm eyeing the offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) market admitted that India and China remain the biggest threats to its business.With China now playing catch-up with its aggressive campaign to teach their people the English language, local system integration firm DTSI is expecting the Chinese to speak English well in the next few years....

BPO Definitions

Business Process Outsourcing is defined as :

"Delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn, owns, administrates and manages the selected process(es) based on defined and measurable performance metrics."
- Gartner, BPO is Asia Pacific (PDF)

"Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the act of giving a third-party the responsibility of running what would otherwise be an internal system or service. For instance, an insurance company might outsource their claims processing program or a bank might outsource their loan processing system.

Typically, companies that are looking at business process outsourcing are hoping to achieve cost savings by handing the work to a third-party that can take advantage of economies of scale by doing the same work for many companies. Or perhaps the cost savings can be achieved because labor costs are lower due to different costs of living in different countries."
- Mariosalexandrou

"Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain their position in the marketplace. BPO is often divided into two categories: back office outsourcing which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and front office outsourcing which includes customer-related services such as marketing or tech support.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's own country is sometimes called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring country is sometimes called nearshore outsourcing, and BPO that is contracted with the company's own county is sometimes called onshore outsourcing."
- Search CIO @ techtarget

Visit on these above mentioned links to find more about BPO & Outsourcing....

Quote of the Day : TALENT

If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke. - Brendan Francis

The Definition of Outsourcing

Outsourcing has been defined as:
"A contractual relationship where an external organisation takes responsibility for performing all or part of an agency's Information Technology functions. This can involve a partial or complete transfer of staff and/or resources."
& also as
"An arrangement whereby a third party provider assumes responsibility for performing information systems functions at a pre-determined price and according to predetermined performance criteria."
- Australian Computer Society paper on outsourcing

"Work done for a company by people other than the company's full-time employees".
- InvestorWords

"Outsourcing is when a company purchases a product or process from an outside supplier rather than producing in house. This is different from subcontracting because the customer does not own the raw material or manufacturing process but buys the product based on the specifications offered by the supplier. The customer trains and develops the supplier to form a supply chain partnership."
- Outsource Solutions, LLC

"Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. In some cases, the entire information management of a company is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations. Outsourcing can range from the large contract in which a company like IBM manages IT services for a company like Xerox to the practice of hiring contractors and temporary office workers on an individual basis."
- SearchSAP @ SearchTechTarget.com

Two to Tango

Shahrukh Khan (SRK) and Sachin Tendulkar may team up again for yet another ad-campaign as they have done it previously for Pepsi.

SMS Advertising

I hope this saves us from mobile & sms spamming...
[ The booming mobile phone culture in India has prompted the advertising industry to target the consumers through the popular 'Short Message Service' (SMS).

Mumbai-based Indus Mobile Communications has launched 'www.smsjunction.com' to collect data of user groups of mobile phones.

''Knowing the potential of the SMS culture, we have over the last two years collected more than 30 lakh mobile phone numbers across the country with profile of the users,'' says Waseem Kazi, the Business Development Manager of the IndusMobile Communications...... ]
- Ad industry set to cash in on SMS boom | Sify

Gururaj on Indian BPO

New US Rules On BPO Are No Cause Of Worry: Deshpande | Finacial Express
The new US rules and guidelines on BPO cannot hamper Indian prospects as economics will ensure that the cheapest mode will survive and with India’s advances in the sector, there was always hope for the country, according to Gururaj Desh Deshpande of Sycamore Networks. Mr Deshpande, who along with a few entrepreneurs from the Silicon Valley are here in connection with the CEO summit as part of the ‘Amritavarsham 50’, told a group of mediapersons the quality of Indian technology had literally left the US ‘scared’. Some of the customer connectivity there was inferior to Indian technology, he added. ....

Accenture to double its manpower

Accenture to double headcount in India by November - The Economic Times
Global management consultancy firm, Accenture, intends to double the number of employees at its Indian business to more than 4,000 by November this year on hopes of a substantial growth in its businesses.

Transforming Mumbai

Rs 2,000 billion is what Mumbai needs to be a Shanghai | Indian Express
Bombay First & McKinsey have submitted a report to Maharashtra government to improve mumbai and roadmap to achieve these goals by 2013...

• Boost economic growth to 8-10 per cent instead of 2.4 presently. That should create half a million new jobs.
• Improve mass and private transport infrastructure through new rail lines, expressways and buses. Eventually, no more than 220 people in a rail coach, compared to the 570 today.
• Reduce the slum population by at least 20 per cent from 60 per cent presently by constructing one million homes.
• Other improvements: reduce air pollution, increase water supply, cut administrative expenses by half, and, the most important, cut red tape.

But I am very sceptical whether these plan or any other plan with similar intentions will ever start. The politics and red tape are the biggest hurdle in its path. The other hurdles are opprotunitic people, pro-poor activists & lazy attitude of all of us. We should realize that problem of our slum city is very serious and must be dealt urgently, otherwise we will have to actually rename mumbai (bombay) to "Slum City". Politcians would first like to see their name to be attached with the projects, so if congress does it, shiva sena will oppose it and vice-a-versa. The biggest looser in this game would be an avergae "mumbaikar", the middle-class person who is always screwed first. The prime and public land in the entire mumbai either belongs to rich or poor(slums) and despite paying tax regularly and living a very hard life the mumbaikar ultimately has '0' options available to him. From the start of the day till night an average mumbaikar is fighting, fighting and fighting. We need somebody like Tamil Nadu CM Chandra Babu Naidu to bring life in this city and to have some hope for the working class and stop giving free lunches to 'rich only' or to 'poor only'.

India BPO Watch

Domestic call center pegged @ Rs1,000 cr | CIOL
Apart from telecom and banking sector, the travel industry is emerging as the biggest contributor for the domestic call center industry.

Infy BPO subsidiary plans Czech unit | Times Of India
Progeon, Infosys' business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary, is planning to set up its first overseas centre in the Czech Republic in its journey to become a BPO company with a global footprint.

TeleTech to open second center in Mumbai | CIOL
A 50:50 JV between Bharti Teletech Ltd and TeleTech Holdings Inc.--has zeroed in on Mumbai as the location for its second center

India seen as third largest IT, BPO industry | Keralanext
India's IT and BPO sectors are predicted to become the world's third largest by 2008 despite growing resentment against outsourcing in America.

Infinite Eyeing Acquisitions In BPO | Financial Express
Bangalore-based Infinite Computer Solutions is scouting for acquisitions to enter into the business process outsourcing (BPO) business. The Rs 250 crore company is also looking for a mid-sized software services company operating in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.


Remote infrastructure services – the next big opportunity | Business Standard
The stage is set for India to cash in on outsourced remote infrastructure management services

Outsourcing Marketing Activities in India

Sumeet Chatterjee writes in Outsourcing of marketing activities to fuel BPO growth in India | Hindustan Times - More and more global companies are looking to outsourcing their sales and marketing activities to India, creating new opportunities for the country's money-spinning business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.

NeoIT grows by 194%

neoIT Ends FY2003 with 194% Revenue Growth and Marquee Clients
neoIT, the leading offshore advisory and management firm headed by CEO Atual Vashishtha, marks the end of FY2003 with the accomplishment of several major milestones and has issued an upbeat forecast for the remainder of the 2003 calendar year. The company is one of the few advisory firms to specialize exclusively in helping buyers of IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services manage the offshore outsourcing lifecycle.

India Outsourcing Updates

Boeing Outsources Development to India | Computer Business Review
Aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing Corp is planning to launch a captive outsourcing operation in India

Lawson Software announces layoffs; looks to move jobs to India | Minnesota Public Radio
Lawson Software, one of the biggest employers in downtown St. Paul, has laid off five percent of its workforce. Lawson says the layoffs are mostly the result of business reorganization, as the company shifts to focus on particular areas where software development is most in demand. But there may be layoffs in store. Lawson also says over the next two years it plans to join the growing number of software companies moving jobs to India.

Walt Disney seeks nod for setting up arm | AgencyFAQs!
WALT Disney Company has moved the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking permission to open a wholly-owned subsidiary in India to launch The Disney Channel (TDC) in India


We See India As A Hub For DuPont’s Global Sourcing | Fiancial Express
Pankaj H Shah, regional leader India and Pakistan and President DuPont, South Asia, has his hands full. With an overall responsibility for the company’s operations in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, he is travelling extensively to these countries giving specific attention to new and existing businesses.

U.S. jobs: Next stop, India? | MySanAntonio
When Paul Olivares took a job at USAA's information technology department 14 years ago, he thought he might stay with the company until retirement. Paul Olivares is considering switching professions to pursue his love of music after he had to leave his job in USAA's information technology department. The company has been giving more work to Indian contractors who will work for much less money.But his hope for that faded as the insurance giant began a series of layoffs in 2001 that slashed hundreds of jobs, then imported scores of foreign contractors to work in its information technology subsidiary, ITCO.

FACTS ABOUT INDIA

You may know some of the following facts. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero.'

The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.

Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.

According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

Chess was invented in India.

Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.

When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).

The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Recived via email, these facts are widely available on the net but to add my contribution I have remixed it with html links. If you know the original author and please provide the links where I have missed it or if you have some more links to share related to above facts. Thanks in Advance.

A. R. Rahman in China

The great indian music director A. R. Rahman is now providing music for a chinese movie Warriors Of Heaven And Earth, which is a period drama and expected to be an oscar entry from china. He Ping who had earlier directed Red Firecracker Green Firecracker and wrote the screenplay for Swordsman In Double Flag is the director of the movie.
A.R. Rahman's page on the official movie site.

A terrorist heart melts ?

"I was moved by the gesture shown by Indians towards Noor, who had come to Bangalore for a heart surgery," Mohammed Ashraf alias Mohammed Shakeel told Additional Sessions Judge S N Dhingra.
[ Source : India's love for Noor melts terrorist | Rediff ]

Can heart of a terrorist melt?. Do Terrorist have any heart ? Relax this is DemoCrazy

India: Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty

"A comprehensive reform program including reforms to reduce fiscal imbalances with positive impacts on employment and poverty reduction would allow India to achieve the growth of 8 percent per year by the end of the 10th Plan period," said Mark Baird, former vice president of the World Bank, when releasing a report entitled "India: Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty". [ Source : AsiaTimes ]
Also Read : :
India at the Crossroads: Sustaining Growth and Reducing Poverty : (Overview of the Book)
- BY Tim Callen, Patricia Reynolds, and Christopher Towe @ International Monetory Fund

India - Market on the move

"India is a market on the move - it is now the world's fifth largest economy, with a growing middle class of more than 300 million people and the Indian economy has been recording impressive annual growth of five to seven per cent since 1992-93,"
- New South Wales Minister for Small Business David Campbell
[ Source : PTINEWS ]

Dilbert on IIT

In a new series starting September 15, cartoonist Scott Adams’ cult strip DILBERT goes on to take a dig at IIT grads from India. In the first episode, Asok, the brilliant but naive Indian trainee, the cynical Wally and the ever-sceptical Alice are sitting in the boardroom with the pointy-haired Boss. Asok says that though he was the project manager, nobody replied to his e-mail.

However, he is proud of the fact that he is an IIT graduate and considers himself superior to his counterparts and thus had been able to finish the project himself. When Wally asks him, "Are you tired?", he replies: "I am trained to only sleep during National Holidays".......

[ Source : Financial Express]

Asok's Introduction on Dilbert.com
Asok, pronounced ah-shook, was introduced to satisfy the hordes of interns who wrote to request their own character. Asok is brilliant, but as an intern he is immensely naive about the cruelties and politics of the business world. His name is a common one in India (but usually spelled Ashok).

India IT & Business Updates

India in Top 10 FDI list | The Hindu
Although far behind China, India figures among the 10 most attractive destinations for foreign investment, according to a new survey.

Samsung India to up R&D investment, manpower | Business Standard
Samsung Electronics is planning to invest $5 million in its research and development facility in India, and more than double manpower to 300 by next year.

SMG to make India IT development base | SIFY
Australian mining software company Surpac Minex Group (SMG) today said it would make India their second base for software development after Australia.

DELL, Outsourcing, India, Poverty & Terrorism

Peter Sam writes in the Inquirer article - Dell outsources to India too... no kidding! He actually writes about his experience with Dell Support which came from India (on phone), in addition he is also appreciating Indian help. But suddenly you come across this statement....

While it would be nice to have a Canadian or Eva Glass (;-) at the other end, what I think everyone should understand is that where India is today, is where Japan was maybe 40 or 50 years ago. As the India progresses, wages will rise and poverty will be reduced. And poverty is what creates things like terrorism.

This is what the world knows about India.... Indian terrorism is an act of poverty(?). I am speechless.

Indian Cars Going Global

Backed by a high demand, made-in-India cars have started shrugging off the discount tag overseas. For example: MG Rover would market Tata Indica in the UK for 6,500-8,500 pounds (Rs 4.7-6.1 lakh) while the Hyundai Santro is being sold in Germany and Italy for 7,900 euro (Rs 4.3 lakh). And, this includes a nominal import duty of around 6 per cent in these countries....
More on Export growth mantra for cars made in India | Times of India

Project Management Links

Project Management links from my bookmark.....
Project management training, tools, techniques and textbooks
The PMFORUM - For Advancement Project Management Learning
ALLPM - The Project Managers HomePage The Project Managers HomePage
projectmanagement.com
Call Center, Bug Tracking and Project Management Tools for Linux
IT Project Management for Project Managers - gantthead
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
HBS Working Knowledge
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES
PM PUNE
S.P.Jain Institute Management and Research
Buyer Beware A Consumer's Guide to PM Certification
Google Directory - Computers Software Project Management Open Source
cHBs - Open and Free Project Management Tools

Personal Blogs or Portals

Arnold Kling | Corante.com
" My point is that I think that weblogs are headed down the same track. People who have longstanding weblogs who want to keep their following will find that they have to behave like portals. That is, they will have to become very rich in links, and reduce their self-expression (or express themselves by the way in which they select links).

If you want to express yourself heavily (as I do), and you want a large following, then I think you will have to progressively narrow your scope. People will come to you for your area of expertise, not for stuff that they can find just as easily elsewhere.
[ Learnt Via : Emergic.org - Blog As Portals? ]

Inspiring Images of India

Have you ever noticed that most of the inspiring images of India come from the VIDESHI (foreign) channels. What you can see on India channel is a mental rape of sense and sensibilities, sas-bahu, political pimps and farting intellectuals. Just few days back on some news channel I heard Laloo saying "this is good that Ganga Mayya has come to us", this was his comments on recent flood in Patna, Bihar. Naseeruddin Shah has once said in his television interview that " after 20 years if your child asks you to show how India was now, you won't have any single movie to show it to him because none of the movie depicts India". But fortunately channels like Discovery India and National Geographic show the real India, be it rural india or urban india, be it culture or science. Similarly the news of CNBC India is more inspiring that Aaj Tak which is more about, how politicians are ruining our country and how we are blindly enjoying it. Relax it's democrazy....

Something inspiring from NG India as reported on Agencyfaqs!....
National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) have announced a call for entries for its second year Documentary Production Fund.

NGCI-EDB fund was founded with an aim to create and promote the documentary filmmaking skill base in Asia. Taking the initiative forward, a new documentary fund is being launched this year and proposals are being invited from all over Asia including India. NGCI will commission 12 one-hour documentaries based on entries. The last date for submission of the proposal is October 3, 2003.

Choice or Confusion : To CAS or to DTH

We are already worried and confused over CAS, CAS is sure a good system, but Indian goverment is forcing the system where no system exists, without any roadmap, afterthought and why should indian consumer shell out some extra thousands for getting the same just on the name of choice. Is indian programming or indian television channels really offer me any choice?. Is it so important to decide on a system & streamlining of entertainment sector instead of focussing on infratructure, health, education and other most basic issues. The goverment which cannot handle contamination in drinking water, cannot handle the education system.. does it have any rights to implement CAS?. Aspiring students of medical in Mumbai are worrying over their future because of decision on medical college fees. They dont have choice of career, but have choice of CAS. Relax, its Democrazy. Too add to the blues now we can have DTH... so keep banging your head, what would you like to have CAS/DTH? ...
ZEE to Launch DTH | Business Line

Mobile Explosion in India

Hindustan Times Reports :
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Saturday said that mobile phone connections in India would take over wireline connections by the year 2005.
"Worldwide, this has already happened. I am certain that in India mobile connections will take over wireline connections by 2005," TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal said in New Delhi, addressing an 'open house' on spectrum management organised by FICCI and DoT.

Population Advantage ?

Can the enormous population of India be an advantage for us?. Atleast Mr. Sudhir Jalan says so, provided they are educated and trained, he also adds. But it wont be easy and it is almost impossible, because this is the land of Laloo and Mulayam where most of the Indian resides. The other states also don't give us a pretty picture with terrorism, naxalism, political feud, corruption, draughts, famine, floods and all other bad things. India will always remain the country of "Haves and Haves Not" on one side - you will have outsourcing, BPO, Bio Technology and all the lates buzz words, and on the other side, next to these tower or symbol of India's development, somebody will die out of hunger or malnutrition. Relax, it's Democrazy.

"In seven years India could be the fastest growing economy in the world just by leveraging its strength of the largest base of young people through education and training," said Sudhir Jalan, vice chairman, SICPA India Ltd and former president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). [ Source : NewsIndPress ]

India's environmental boss gets the boot in Taj Mahal mall scandal

A top Indian official in charge of ancient monuments was Friday booted out of office amid police suspicions that he fudged documents linked to a controversial plan to build a shopping mall near the Taj Mahal.
[ Source : Terra Daily ]

Made In India

Anil Ambani, Managing Director - Reliance Industries asks the young entrepreneurs of India to take inspiration from his late father Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani. His comments on the rising respectibility attached with the India...
"Made-in-India tag is now an increasingly respected brand, valued for quality, reliability and competitiveness."
[Source : Business Standard ]

Sutherland is hiring 1500 for BPO

The Sutherland Group, a leading customer management company in the business process outsourcing (BPO) space, is expanding its India operations by hiring over 1,500 employees to ramp up its Chennai operations. The recruitment will be completed in the next six months, a company statement said. [ Source : Financial Express ]

Cognizant's hiring spree in top gear in India

Continuing its recruitment spree, Cognizant Technology Solutions is now increasing its headcount at an aggressive rate of 100 per week. The company, at this speed, would end the year with a total of 8,500 to 9,000 people on its rolls. As of June ’03 quarter, Cognizant’s manpower strength was at 6,700. [ Source : Shout99.com ]

Paid Prescriptions

SHABNAM MINWALLA reports in Times of India...

How does a doctor decide which drugs to prescribe to his patients? If an ongoing study is any indication, the capsules and creams may be chosen less for their curative powers than their lucrative side-effects.
For, in the profit-oriented world of pharmaceuticals, doctors are routinely wooed with gifts ranging from mobile phones to sponsored weddings. These details emerged from a study on the ‘Promotional Practices of Pharmaceutical Firms in India’, conducted by the Forum for Medical Ethics in collaboration with the Drug Controller General of India and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

We are not shocked, are we ? It is wide open fact that even the small time doctors are wooed by pharmaceutical companies by gifts like pens, watches, diaries and other stuffs depending upon numbe of patients (customers). Another fact also known is that Doctors prescriber unnecessary tests to get the cuts from the labs. Moreover, the new hike in fees for medical colleges ensures that meritious medical aspirant is stopped and itches a smooth path for undeserving rich candidates who will join these medical markets. But for us CAS Conditional Access System for television is more important that CQHA Conditional Quality Healthcare Access. Relax, we are democrazy.

Infosys does it again

Infosys (INFY) has bagged a five-year $50 million contract from the Australian telecom and information systems giant Telstra for software development and maintenance. As per agreement, Telstra would pay Infosys 15 million Australian dollars ($10 million) every year to maintain its business systems. "It is an Australian dollar 75 million ($50 million) contract for five years," a Infosys spokesperson, said here on Tuesday. [ More on Times of India ]

India & Korea means business

Korean companies like LG & Samsung are seeing a great success in Indian Market and developing ambitious plans, latest....

South Korea's biggest firm Samsung Electronics is mulling setting up a Notebook PC manufacturing facility in India and plans to make further investment in expanding research and development (R&D) facility.....
[More on Hindu Business Line]

India's life-saving child singer

At least somebody is making us proud....

Pankaj Munjal 11-year-old girl from Madhya Pradesh, India who has become a singing sensation in India is using the money she makes from her performances to help children who are desperately ill....
[More on BBC]

Asha Bhosle @ 70

Yesterday Asha Bhosle celebrated her 70th birthday, I could not believe it. However, who doesn't know her by face would also not believe it. She is a great singer, young, alive and kicking. Most of the remix you find in Indian music circuit today are from the original OST from Late R.D. Burman (music) and Asha, they were also married to each other. Asha's voice even @ 70 carries lots of punch, her hit numbers would even defeat a number sung by some 16 year old, she has that much energy and spirit in her voice.

The Mass Amateurisation

(Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything...
Plasticbag.org is a blog by Tom Coates who works in the field of social software and personal publishing on the web.
His own introuction on PlasticBagorg...

Tom Coates is a web producer specialising in print-to-web transitions, social software and personal publishing on the web. He has worked with a number of prominent companies in the UK including Time Out, and developed innovative message-boards for the BBC and EMAP. He recently launched "Conversations" - a new form of geocoded message-board for the UK-based local information publisher UpMyStreet, where he works as Creative Producer. He maintains a popular weblog at plasticbag.org and experiments with online community design and new moderation techniques at barbelith.com/underground.

Tom writes ....
But maybe we did... There's not a lot of difference between weblogs and homepages in some respects. Both are spaces to put written content online, for one. But the fact that homepages had no sense of standard structure, required manual updating, were unbound from time and were resolutely non-discursive meant that they were static, lumpen. At their best they became monolithic tomes - bunkers for content, guides updated haphazardly that infinitesimally accrete "content". In terms of the distribution of the word, the homepage was like a "Time Out Guide to {your name here}". The simple addition of structure and mechanisms for ease of publishing have made the comparable form of expression on weblogs so fluid and quick that it borders on speech. In terms of self-representation, the homepage is like a statue carved out of marble labelled carefully at the bottom where the weblog is like an avatar in cyberspace that we wear like a skin. It moves with us - through it we articulate ourselves. The weblog is the homepage that we wear.

And this is the big leap forward - this is where the value of weblogs lies in the newly amateurised world. This flexibility of publishing creates a fluid and living form of self-representation, the 'homepage (as a place)' has become the 'weblog (as a person)' that can articulate a voice. And when there are a multiplicity of voices in space, then the possibility arises of conversations. And where there is conversation there is the sharing of information. And conversation about what? Well everything from music and movies and animation and medical information. Weblogs are becoming the bridge between the individual and the community in cyberspace - a place where one can self-publicise and self-describe but also learn, debate and engage in community. In other words, weblogs are not only a representative sample of mass amateurisation, they're becoming enmeshed in the very structures of information-retrival, community interaction and media distibution themselves. Weblogs are now facilitators of mass amateurisation. They're almost becoming one of its architectures...
[ Through : Emergic.org]

No Ghost, Just Low Frequencies

Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations | Reuters | Patricia Reaney If next time you are feeling a wierd sensation or shivers down your spine, don't think that your house is haunted, it must be very low frequency sounds.

British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills -- supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.

For a DIY at home just sit in front of a large woofer at your home and play some deep bass sounds, you will feel some sensation in your heart, just like when you are suddenly shocked by the noise of a falling object.

Musical Indian Advertising

Latest trend in the Indian broadcast advertising is creating short musical ads. There is no product blah blah, no seducing schemes, just soulful music and happy customers. The music is cool Indian soft music with feel in it. This type of advertising is very impressive in case of brands which are already known and have loyal customer. These ads essentially express the happiness the cutomers have while enjoying that brand. Most important it is definately lost better than having unwanted forced bimbos, biceps and fasle claims. Go & See...

Reliance Infocomm - Reliance India Mobile
Joys of Rim , Song : Chudiya Khan Khan Bajey....

Cadbury India
Song : Khush hoo mai Khamakhwah

India top BPO destination: Forbes

India remains the prime destination of outsourcing for American companies as the country turns out 75,000 English-speaking IT professionals every year and has a low wage structure, a study has said.
[Source : Times of India]

Wipro's Recruitment Drive

WIPRO will be going on a recruitment drive, having drawn up plans to recruit 6,000 software engineers and another 3,000 personnel for IT-enabled services such as BPO services and call centres, according to Mr Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro.

He was addressing a meeting organised by the FICCI's Western Region Council and McKinsey.
[Source : The Hindu Business Line]

President Kalam Speaks

"For India to get transformed into a developed nation by 2020, education is an important component. Our education policy should ensure that India is transformed into a developed nation," he said, giving away national awards to 282 teachers on the occasion of Teachers' Day.

"Your excellence should not stay with you. It should spread," he said, while giving away the awards consisting of a citation, a medal and Rs 25,000 in cash.
[Source : Rediff]

Explosive Growth in Indian GDP

Finance Minsiter Jaswant Singh says, "We need to be ready" while speaking to TOI. India's central bank projects a growth of 6.0 percent in Indian GDP while more optimistic Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) projects 6.8 % GDP growth in the current financial year.

India : Growing Cellular

India's cellular base touches 1.73 cr users - The Times of India Even with disputes in Telecom and competition from CDMA of TATA and Reliance India Mobile, the cellular base is increasing in India with players like Bharti Cellular leading the race.

GSM phone encryption "can be cracked"

GSM phone encryption "can be cracked"

The encryption system that protects the almost 900 million users of GSM cell phones from instant eavesdropping or fraud is no longer impregnable, cryptologists claim.

MUMBAI 25/8

Blasts: Accused blames Gujarat riots - Sify.com Can anybody have a valid reason to kill somebody? Atleast these bastards have. Terrorism in India is to kill to easy targets. Maximum victims of any terrorist acts are unarmed children and women. If I cannot kill you I will kill "anybody" whom I can kill, that's the simple rule. Our government and we have given the social acceptance to terrorism. The words like ISI, Jehad, Lashkar, etc.. are spoken as if they are from nursery rhymes. Whenever any incidents happen the government just waits .. who is coming up to take the responsibility and by default attach ISI with it. This is the fact, but it cannot be a full stop. There cannot be dialogue with any terrorist be it a individual, organization or country like Pakistan. Few politician marched with black bands on their mouth as a silent protest in mumbai, how could they? the city was ashamed seeing their shameless endeavours and mumbai itself was on protest although it didn't have any black bands. Mumbaikar / Indians themselves are not caring... as far as somebody from own family is not killed it's hardly a matter. When some one very own is killed then we will cry and howl and beat our chest ... we have to realize ... kashmir & mumbai are both in India and India is the target.. if any other indian is killed I can also be killed. But who cares - Vajpayee is busy slow motion speeches, Advani in ayodhya issue, Mayawati in Taj, Shinde in excuses, Balashaheb in finger pointing, Laloo in Gangajaal, .... Relax you are living in India.... Nobody care's ... Isn't it?... well...DO YOU ?

Enjoy 25/8, Mumbai: The Jihadi Iceberg India is proud to have 25/8 . It bigger than 9/11 numerically.

PLEASE FIGHT TERRORISM

Great Commedian Jerry Lewis

I am a great fan of Jerry Lewis, a great commedian full of wild energy and humanity. Lewis has been plagued in recent years by several ailments, including spinal meningitis, chronic back pain and diabetes & recently with Pulmonary fibrosis. But that doesn't stop him from his commitment towards community work.Lewis (77) remains committed to the MDA telethon, which last year set a record in pledges and donations of $58.3 million. The 38th annual (Aug. 31 2003) Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon received a record $60.5 million in nationwide pledges during its annual fund-raising drive for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Jerry Lewis is truly the kind of comedy.
Jerry Lewis - Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB)