The 3G GSM & CDMA in India

Reliance Indiamobile has heated the 'VAS on mobile' market with its Rconnect services which provides 144kbps Internet Access on its CDMA Mobiles. The Indian telecom operators are testing similar services and finding out the best suitable options through EDGE (GSM) or EV DO (CDMA)
Business Line India Reports :

CELLULAR subscribers can now get Live TV, watch videos and experience high speed Internet surfing on their mobile handsets with Idea Cellular and Hutch, on Wednesday, announcing the launch of EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) services. The service which has been launched for the first time in the country is capable of data downloads with speeds of 160 kilo bits per second compared to existing speeds of 40 kbps. Airtel is also planning a pan India roll-out by December.

While subscribers of Idea Cellular can avail the service for a flat fee of Rs 500 per month, Hutch users can avail the service for a monthly fee of Rs 100 plus additional charges for downloads. For example, every game downloaded would cost Rs 50 and a ringtone download Rs 10. Idea Cellular subscribers also have the option of paying 5 paise per kilobyte. Subscribers will need EDGE-enabled handsets also to avail the service.

What is EDGE ? (GSMWorld.com)

Further enhancements in data capability over the core GSM network will be provided with the introduction of Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution - known as EDGE*. This will achieve the delivery of advanced mobile services such as the downloading of video and music clips, full multimedia messaging, high-speed colour Internet access and e-mail on the move.

EDGE (or Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) is a 3G technology that delivers broadband-like data speeds to mobile devices. It allows consumers to connect to the Internet and send and receive data, including digital images, web pages and photographs, three times faster than possible with an ordinary GSM/GPRS network. EDGE enables GSM operators to offer higher-speed mobile-data access, serve more mobile-data customers, and free up GSM network capacity to accommodate additional voice traffic.

What is EV-DO ?(Motorola)

1xEV-DO provides a true broadband service over mobile. With Peak Data Rate of 2.4 Mbps and Average Data Rate similar to wire-line broadband technologies, 1XEV-DO not only brings a superior end-user experience in wireless access to the Internet, but also enables a series of new applications and services

Axesstel to provide solutions to tata indicom

BusinessWires PR : Axesstel, Inc. (AMEX:AFT), a leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing high-quality, CDMA-based fixed wireless voice and data solutions, hybrid terminals and engineering services to operators worldwide, today announced that it began shipments in June to Tata Teleservices Limited ("Tata Teleservices"), India's leading private telecom service provider. Operating with the brand name Tata Indicom, Tata Teleservices is one of the largest fixed wireless service providers in the world and has over 1 million 3G1X fixed wireless service customers in India. It is anticipated that up to $45 million in revenue may be recorded by Axesstel related to these shipments during the third and fourth quarters of the current fiscal year.

The one-person global company - Business World India

Mahesh Murthy gives us the example of one man global company.

LAST week I spent some time with a gent who runs a company in Mumbai that sells software to customers around the world. I had invested in them years ago, and for one reason or another we couldn't catch up much in the middle, except to share notes on email.

Things were going well. He was not huge by global standards - about $250,000 in revenues, slated to double this year. Customers in more than 30 countries. Over 500,000 people around the world who'd tried his product. Over 5,000 of them who had paid for it and who use it. A well-known brand in its field.

The business was profitable. He reckons he is world No.3 in his niche. His product was acclaimed worldwide, reviewed by PC Magazine and such. All in all, it was a pretty good record - having survived through the worst downturns in the market, and still making it. And we were talking of how he'd done it.

It wasn't that he was a coding or technical genius. The gent is actually a biology grad, and to my knowledge, can't write code. But he's always known what he wanted - and has figured out some inventive ways to get things done.

Current Headlines on MSN Newsbot

Found something interesting on Slashdot posted by Gad Zuki

Anti-Trust Legislation: Evil or just Wrong?

Macs turn people gay.

Office XP: Best Software Ever!

Internet Explorer Holes Largley Fiction

Bill Gates Lands on Moon

Dennis Miller Funniest Man Ever

An Editorial by Clippy©

Better Computing Through Crashes

Spyware Ain't So Bad

Your Computer is Old, Buy a New One with XP Now

How I Caught a Cold from Viral Open Source

Windows Saved my Life!

Jesus Uses XP

MS Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Service Pack Two Will Cure Impotence

Child Killed by Linux Installer

A cell or A Wireless LAN gear ?

A forbes.com report spotted on Slashdot.

Avaya, Motorola and Proxim this week are expected to announce a co-developed handset and enterprise network gear that let mobile phone users roam between cellular networks and wireless LANs.

The combination holds the promise of cutting phone costs for business customers and making mobile workers more productive. It is based on a new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based Wi-Fi/cellular handset from Avaya and Motorola, IP-based or IP-enabled PBXs from Avaya, plus new WLAN switch and thin access points developed by Avaya and Proxim.

MSN NEWS BOT & GOOGLE NEWS Comparison

People are getting more voracious for news these days. To satisfy the online news appetitie there are several sites scuh as Google News, Yahoo News, Newstrove, Moreover News Services , Topix.net and now MSN with their News Bot. Microsoft has just launched the beta test of Newsbot, a customized search-driven news . MSN News Bot offers personalization by searching on topics, and the service suggests stories based on what visitors have previously read.

But I find Google News more usefriendly and systematic, why doesn't Microsoft employ some good usability expert who can enlighten them on inetrface designing.

I compared MSN and Google News by searching for India on both MSN Newsbot & Google News and found that on Newsbot results obtained were containing mostly yesterdays Criket Match headlines, whereas the google had identified them to be same and related, And arranged the other related news links below the the first result itself instead of showing different criket headlines.

Right now I cannot see the advantage of a search history on MSN but I do see the advantage of finding the related stories covered by different news sources. Is history really so useful ? , 'cos mostly people will be using one or two words to make the searches and not some complex string and may be they would be using the same search words daily. But on the other side the collections of history links would be a sure advantage for some people who might be drilling for something more specfic or 'hard to find info / not so populated topic' and trying different combinations.

The the advantage of MSN Newsbot over Google News is that Newsbot has more sections and topics in the navigation and makes use of Java Scripts so that you can navigate the respective sections > subsections > and related headlines just over the roll of your mouse.

One thing leaves me confusing , what does Microsoft wants to become, it is confused about its own identity or doing some sourch searching.
- Is there a need for Microsoft to become the next google ?
- Is Microsoft really seeing a great opportunity in News and Search Engines market ?
- Or simply it doesn't have anything else to do ?

Microsoft has started a online mag slate and is now thinking of wiping it off. Why it doesn't concentrate on Browser Wars and try to give some peace to the exisitng users of Internet Explorer who are under constant threat. Microsoft seems to be concentrating on Mass or larger share of consumer market, even its patents are also very pathetic. With the kind of cash it has, it should now support real technological inventions or innovations.



And last but not the least I hate both of them for not providing the syndication feature through RSS.

India : Telecom & Broadband Growth

India has become the unique example of telecom success in both GSM and CDMA. Indian operators have changed the equations of the telecom market. Earlier vendors used to always have the upper hand now they understand that they have to provide customized contracts and service and act as partners, cos India is a serious market and the opportunities are available starting from scratch - i.e at the level of Implementation phase. Thats why, you not only see implementations but India also becoming the test-bed or early implementator of some great telecom and broadband technologies. Every operator and vendor is now eyeing these 'Value Addition' technology and market and we will witness lots of new jargons in coming times like Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, EDGE, EV-DO, etc, etc.

The Indian telecom sector grew to 79.4 million customers at the end of May'04 - a 39 percent annual growth that came mainly by the doubling mobile users. A recent paper by Telecom.paper.nl estimates (paid subscription) that there are 0.4 internet, 0.2 broadband connections per 100 people in India.

The broadband sector is still at a very confusing stage since there is not a single technology which has stabilized, every vendor and every operator is singing a different tune. Even the discussion on connection to customer (medium) is divided into Wirelss / Copper / Fibre and Ethernet. The Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) has formed the India Broadband Forum primarily to provide technical, strategic, and marketing support to its member organizations venturing in the development of broadband products and services.

The next phase will the coming of foreign Telecom / Networking / Broadband services for the need of outsourcing i.e Remote Management and Monitoring and other services. For example a recent announcement from COLT telecom to move jobs from Germany and UK to India. India is not only providing the manpower in the services market but there are many companies like Notel, Lucent, Cisco, Qualcomm, Juniper, etc for which India has become the R&D base also, for both the software and hardware.

Mehmood : 1932 - 2004

Veteran Bollywood comedian, Mehmood, has died in the United States at the age of 72

I am a great fan of Mr. Mehmood, he was the true and may be the first "King Of Comedy" in the hindi film industry. I still remember a very simple but hillarious scene of "Pyar Kiye Jaa" in which he narrates a horror story to Omprakash , he was awarded Film Fare Award for that. Most of the comedians in India just use one method and repeat themselves in all their movies. But Mehmood was the first person who used make-up, accent, props and variety in his comedy. He was also ahead of time making movies such as Kuwara Baap, Padosan, Bombay to Goa, Jinny and Johny , etc. Padosan is still a terrific movie to watch , everytime you see it you experience the same madness. There is no other example of a true "comedy" in the Indian Masala movie industry. There is also a legend about him that once upon a time he became so popular among the audiences that Heroes (a typical lead character in every indian film) used to fear his presence in the movie and started boycotting him. One can simply put faith in this since he was the only comedian those days who gott to sing and dance with her very own female-sidekick (Helen, Durga Khote, Aruna Irani) in all him movies.

Filmography of Mehmood as: Actor, Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer on IMDB.com

World Largest IT Employer is Indian Silicon Valley - Bangalore

A Keralanext.com report :

At present, Bangalore has 1,60,000 professionals working in the technology sector and the number is the largest in one place on the planet.

While about 1,00,000 professionals work in IT companies, the remaining 60,000 are working in the ITES-BPO sector. The number of working professionals is expected to cross 2,00,000 during the year 2004-05 with many IT and ITES-BPO companies rapidly expanding their manpower.

The Fouding Father of Unix

Found via Slashdot a nice article (Unix's founding fathers) on Economist.com about Dennis Ritchie who invented C and was one of the key members of the team behind Unix.

It is that interplay between the technical and the social that gives both C and Unix their legendary status. Programmers love them because they are powerful, and they are powerful because programmers love them. David Gelernter, a computer scientist at Yale, perhaps put it best when he said, “Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.” Dr Ritchie's creations are indeed beautiful examples of that most modern of art forms.

Michael Carr on Future Of Software Industry

Nicholas G. Carr - author of "Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage" in his editorial on New York Times writes about the future of the software industry. He is reacting on the Microsoft's decision to return $32 billion to its shareholders , according to to him it may be a wise business move, but it is also an admission of defeat.

With its announcement this week that it will pay a special one-time dividend of $3 a share, the company is confessing that despite years of trying, it has not found an attractive way to invest its cash reserves. After decades of spectacular growth, the world's most famous software company seems resigned to a more sedate middle age.

Microsoft may be the biggest name in software, but its problem is not unique. In recent weeks, many of the largest suppliers of business software, like Computer Associates, Seibel Systems and Veritas, have announced that their growth will fall short of investors' expectations.

The software industry's sluggishness is not just a reflection of the vagaries of the economic cycle. It is a manifestation of a fundamental, if often overlooked, characteristic of the industry's product: software never decays. Machinery breaks down, parts wear out, supplies get depleted. But software code remains unchanged by time or use. In stark contrast to other industrial products, software has no natural repurchase cycle.

Blinkx & LookOut: A Alternate Way for Web Search

Blinkx has launched its desktop search application to add more buzz in the increasingly competitive Web search market. Blinkx installs its own search client and mini toolbars within Windows applications, distills large amounts of text-from Word documents, Web pages or e-mails-into concepts in order to retrieve search results.

blinkx automatically links information from files on your hard disk, and can suggest content from news sites, the internet, video and blogs. It is not designed to replace current search engines like Google or Yahoo, but is a completely new way to use information on the internet. - About Blinkx

On the other hand, Microsoft has acquired a two-man startup Lookout Software, that specializes in desktop search from within Outlook.

Built on top of a powerful search engine, Lookout is the only personal search engine that can search all of your email from directly within Outlook - in seconds...

You can use Lookout to search your:

- Email messages
- Contacts, calendar, notes, tasks, etc.
- Data from exchange, POP, IMAP, PST files, Public Folders
- Files on your computer or other computers
- ... Very soul (okay, not true)

Reverse Migration of Indians

Newyork Times has a article on the reverse migration of Indians from US and other Countrie back to India due to a potentially vast & booming Indian economy.

Google gets personal

apcmag informs about the new 'personalization' feature of Google. :

Personalised search services collect information about the subjects which interest you, so a search engine knows in advance that you are interested in computers and not fruit. Google’s version of personalisation does just this. After completing a profile, searches made at http://labs.google.com/personalized produce not just the usual list of results but also a “personalisation slider” to apply your profile to search results.

Set the slider to maximum and all results are subjected to an analysis based on your profile. Select minimum and the results revert to Google’s standard service. Set the slider to somewhere between these two extremes and it will adjust the balance to reflect the placement.

The flipside for Google is that your profile also has the potential to allow it to charge more for advertising. At present, the profile is stored on users’ hard drives as a cookie and advertisers’ greedy mitts are kept away from its potential for targeted advertising.

Media Expo 2004

The India's No.1 Exhibition on the Advertising Industry : The MediaExpo 2004 will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 6th to 8th August. It would be also the venue for 'Media Advertising Awards 2004' The highlights are : -

Seminars & Conferences :: On various advertising related segments addressed by eminent speakers
• Awards nite :: Media Advertising Awards to honour the creative talent of the industry.
• Photographers' Gallery :: Showcase of works of various photographers.
• Showcase Gallery :: A display of new & innovative products from the gifts & promotion segment.
• Theme Pavilions
• Laser Show
• Fashion Show

Telecomm India 2004

Telecomm India 2004, The Telecommunication and Information Technology Trade Show & Seminar will be held at Mumbai (India) 25 - 28 October 2004 at Bandra-Kurla MMRDA Complex, Mumbai (Bombay) between Monday - Thursday ; 10:00AM-6.30PM . The event is support by Government of India Ministries of :- Ministry of Information & Broadcasting & Ministry of Communications & IT. The Exhibitors profile can be located here and the Conference details can ber located here

Survey Predicts Rise in IT Outsourcing

CFO.com reports (Big Rise in IT Outsourcing, Says Survey) about the recent survey conducted by Patni Computer Systems Ltd which says that nearly three-quarters of companies expect to increase their outsourcing budget by at least 20 percent over the next year and a half.

Fully 41 percent of respondents said they expected a 20 percent to 35 percent increase in their outsourcing budget during the next 18 months, 18 percent expected an increase of between 30 percent and 50 percent, and 13 percent expected an increase of 50 percent or more. Just 8 percent said that they expected no increase.

More than half — 54 percent — said that public perception has had no impact on their decisions to outsource. In fact, 30 percent said the only impact was on their ability to speak publicly about their initiatives. While 16 percent did concede that the debate over outsourcing made them reconsider their strategy, no respondents said that it forced them to postpone outsourcing altogether.

As for workforce-related risks: 43 percent of respondents cited lost knowledge, 38 percent singled out mismatched roles and competencies, and just 8 percent cited worker backlash.

Can Open Source become truly Open Source ?

Tom Walker dissects the GNU General Public License (GPL), on Newsforge. According to him the GPL has come to resemble digital rights management (DRM) and not the " free-as-in-freedom " motto ; every user should be able to obtain the source code for the software they use.

According to him :

- The GPL has unintentional harmful effects
- The GPL doesn't do what it was designed to do
- You can't stop undesired usage, so leave it open

he concludes with the SQLite license :

SQLite Copyright

The original author of SQLite has dedicated the code to the public domain. Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute the original SQLite code, either in source code form or as a compiled binary, for any purpose, commerical or non-commerical, and by any means.

Contributed Code
In order to keep SQLite complete free and unencumbered by copyright, other contributors to the SQLite code base are asked to likewise dedicate their contributions to the public domain. If you want to send a patch or enhancement for possible inclusion in the SQLite source tree, please accompany the patch with the following statement:

The author or authors of this code dedicate any and all copyright interest in this code to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights this code under copyright law.
Regrettably, as of 2003 October 20, we will no longer be able to accept patches or changes to SQLite that are not accompanied by a statement such as the above. In addition, if you make changes or enhancements as an employee, then a simple statement such as the above is insufficient. You must also send by surface mail a copyright release signed by a company officer. A signed original of the copyright release should be mailed to:

Hwaci
6200 Maple Cove Lane
Charlotte, NC 28269
USA

Creating STIM and PIN-News

Rajesh Jain writes about localization and simplification of the Internet Content so that it becomes more relevant and intelligent - the creation of an SME Trade Information Marketplace (STIM) and PIN-News.

In India, e-business has lagged primarily because of the lack of an Internet infrastructure in the country. There are signs that this is going to change in the near-term as cheaper computers combined with affordable always-on broadband connections will bring more consumers and businesses online. India’s current base of 17 million users is expected to grow rapidly and touch 60-100 million in the next 3 years. Add to this the rapidly growing mobile users (already at 35 million) and India could be set for a boom in e-commerce in the coming years. A harbinger of this was the recent entry of eBay into India via the acquisition of Baazee.com for $50 million. Given this context, there are two platforms which can help dramatically accelerate e-business in India: the creation of an SME Trade Information Marketplace (STIM) and PIN-News.

STIM is about helping small- and medium-sized enterprises build and maintain an online presence, and connect with each other. By using two-way publish-subscribe technologies (wikis, weblogs, RSS aggregators), it will become much easier for SMEs to get out of the marketing trap that they find themselves in and grow their business. Each business needs to have an online presence comprising of four components: an “About Us” page in the form of a wiki which can be easily edited, a “What’s New” page which has the new developments at the company both on the buy and sell side, a meta information page which gives contact and industry information and can be used by search engines to filter results, and a set of subscriptions based on keywords or topics which deliver the relevant updates from other SMEs, thus helping connect one business to other based on interest.

PIN-News is about building a bottom-up community information system. It is built around PIN codes. Neighbourhood events can be posted on to specific pages, organised in a weblog-format. By using standardized forms to do the post, it is possible to capture the information in XML format and use a matching engine to send out alerts to people. For example, if I am interested in book exhibitions or special offers, I can set up an alert on a few PIN codes around my home and workplace. When the book shops in the area do their updates (as part of STIM), I can be immediately alerted. PIN-News thus fills the gap in communicating dynamic information to people who are most likely to benefit from it.

Taken together, STIM and PIN-News can help make the Internet a utility in the lives of Indians and give the ones who do not have access a reason to get connected. It leverages the fact that much of our lives is spent in neighbourhoods and yet we know so little about it because our current media cannot get narrow enough to cost-effectively reach us. This is where the Internet and electronic “information marketplaces” can make a difference.

Business World presents story of jalpaiguri

Do you now that our government runs a program called Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (S G R Y) ? No. No problems you can atleast know now how it is screwed.

Businessworld reports about the The black hole of Jalpaiguri: (the last page of the article)

Miles away from Gudhiyarkuthi, in Delhi's Krishi Bhavan, the building housing the main office of the ministry of rural development, officials struggle with the fact that in 2003-04, Rs 264 crore was not used by the states to which the money was allocated by the Centre. "The problem is that, at the end of the year, when states don't use the funds they are allotted, this surplus money is allocated to other states. The problem is that the decision to allot the surpluses to another state is an essentially political one," says an officer. States like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are allotted the surpluses that other states will not spend.

Adds the officer: "Why should the surpluses be distributed to others? Not being able to use the funds reflects a failure of the bureaucracy in a state and in the districts. It's not that there is no poverty in those states." The officer points out that states like Punjab and Haryana are also allotted a large volume of foodgrains under the scheme. "This is absurd. Why do these states need the foodgrains when even the poor in these states buy directly from the market?"

The other problem is with the assets themselves that are created. Around 15 per cent of the funds are supposed to be for maintenance of the assets created in earlier years. "Unfortunately, we've found that not much of the money is used for maintenance," says the officer.

Ironically, even despite these problems, many believe that the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojna is more successful than most other government schemes (See 'How The SGRY Works').

Will Manmohan Singh's proposals to transfer funds directly from the centre to the panchayats work? For all its faults, even in West Bengal where panchayati raj institutions are supposed to function more efficiently than in other states, village panchayats are the best institutions to judge how government money could be used in those areas. But they need to be made to work better. And one of the most important ways to do that is to put information in the hands of people like Kharen Roy.

Till that happens, Singh could spend all the money he wants - but the poor might still vote him out of power five years from now.

Time to change the internet browser ?

The problems with the Microsoft's broswer software Internet Explorer are increasing day by day. Every day your hear about some new warning , patch, exploits and so on. It can be said that Microsoft produces more patches than the application software. (And they say that Open source in insecure). The reason behind the problem getting so critical is that more than 95% internet population uses MS IE and that's the most wonderful opportunity and heaven for hackers, virus & worm developers developers, and all those who need an opportunity to screw. Just imagine find one bug / loop hole and the entire world is yours.

A wired article (Cool Ways to Give IE the Boot ) looks at the different alternatives available in the internet browser market - Mozilla FireFox , irider , Deepnet Explorer , Opera & Safari (mac).

Recently I have myself been a target of lots of Spyware, browser hijackers and trojans which are mainly due to IE's vulnerabilites. These are very annoying they are not only irrtating and frustrating but you also spend lots of time and efforts to eradicate them. Just imagine if a single person wastes 1-2 hours of internet time on some pain in the ass, how many would be wasting their time and energies all over the world ?.

Its time to change your browser honey .

Wipro Anounces India's First RFID enabled Store

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), announced the launch of its RFID enabled concept store at its Electronic City campus. The concept store demonstrates how item level RFID tagging enables automatic check-out, intelligent shrinkage avoidance, smart stock maintenance, and tracing and tracking of apparel by the store manager. The concept store showcases RFID technology being used across different business processes in a retail store and has been launched to help customers understand the working of RFID in a real world environment. The concept store is part of the RFID center of excellence at Wipro Technologies.

The RFID Journal reports the future plan of WIPRO for RFID :

Recently, Wipro developed software that will schedule the correct number of cashiers to meet demand at the Metro Group's RFID-enabled Extra Future Store, in Rheinberg, Germany. Once the software is deployed, which is set to be happen within the next few months, customers can opt to have the bar code on their loyalty card scanned as they enter the store. The software will use those customers' shopping history to calculate when they are likely to reach the checkout register. The software will then assign staff to work the sales terminals so there will always be enough cashiers to meet customer demand, while freeing up staff to do other work when they are not required to process sales transactions.

Wipro maintains that its RFID software and services can be customized from applications that Wipro has already developed. "Products are 70 to 80 percent ready and then customized for individual customer requirements," says Bhanu Murthy, vice president, retail vertical at Wipro Technology, in Bangalore, India.

As an aid to its potential RFID customers, Wipro says it has developed its RFID return-on-investment (ROI) engine-a software program that can calculate the potential costs and returns for companies planning to deploy RFID. "This give a more accurate picture of potential cost than anything so far," says Murthy.

What is RFID ?

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using devices called RFID tags. An RFID tag is a small object, such as an adhesive sticker, that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. RFID tags contain antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver. More on Wikipedia

A Richer Future For India - McKinsey Study

Diana Farrell , the director of the McKinsey Global Institute, and Scratch Zainulbhai , director in theMcKinsey's Mumbai office write a report on " A richer future for India "

The wealth generated by India's fast-growing information technology and business-process-outsourcing industries shows that the country has started living up to its economic potential. Unfortunately, they produce just 3 percent of GDP and employ less than one-half of 1 percent of the nonfarm labor force. By contrast, most sectors of India's economy remain shielded from global competition by high tariffs and restrictions on foreign direct investment and are thus woefully uncompetitive. Although some might argue that removing these barriers would threaten social objectives such as the protection of jobs and incomes, a robust economy would be more likely to realize them.

The take-away
If India is to replicate the success of its IT and outsourcing industries elsewhere in its economy, its leaders must lower barriers to trade and encourage foreign investment in other sectors. .....More (Preminum Content : Requires registration - Free)

The Outsourcing Roundup : Backlash & Knowledge

NYT reports the fading outsourcing backlash in US :

As Indian outsourcing companies grew fearful that negative publicity would harm business, Nasscom tried to protect themselves by campaigning for outsourcing with lawmakers, government officials and industry lobbies in the United States and Europe.

But in the last two months, analysts say the backlash issue seems to be fading in importance to the American public and to United States businesses.

"No longer are customers prefacing outsourcing questions with what they should do to deflect the backlash issue," said Partha Iyengar, research director for Gartner in Mumbai. Gartner nonetheless still recommends that its United States clients continue with employee-impact assessments and community audits before embarking on outsourcing.

Some experts said they expected the concerns to be replaced by more pressing matters, like the shortage of skilled labor.

"Most companies are expanding so rapidly," Mr. Mehta of Nasscom said, "that we fear the new threat for outsourcing is not the backlash but the imbalance in supply of skilled professionals."

The hostility against outsourcing may have inadvertently helped the industry, some experts suggested.

"The backlash proved a gold mine of free publicity for Indian outsourcing companies," Mr. Iyengar of Gartner said. "For many U.S. companies, the backlash made offshoring a compelling proposition."

Even smaller outsourcing companies, like iGate Global Solutions, based in Bangalore, reached some deals after the controversy. The company, with $125 million in annual revenues and 4,000 employees, has customers like General Electric, GreenPoint Financial and Kraft Foods.

"The backlash issue made outsourcing so mainstream that even my barber was speaking knowledgeably about outsourcing," said iGate's chief executive, Phaneesh Murthy, who is based in Fremont, Calif.

In political circuits too the voices we hear now are somewhat different as kerry accepting the outsourcing

"We recognise that outsourcing is a reality, but at the same time, we want to develop our jobs and industries more at home here too. But Senator Kerry is an internationalist and I think India should welcome him as an American President,” Richardson told reporters when asked about his party’s strident posture against outsourcing.

Even then people are not short of Myths and still more knowledge is required on this subject . Far from damaging the economy of the United States, offshoring should enable its companies to direct resources to next-generation technologies and ideas -- if public policy doesn't get in the way. - A report on CFO.com

India Infotech Cheer

Business Standard reports cheer in the indian infotech market :

Infosys Technologies' first quarter results for 2004-05 have comfortably beaten the street, both on revenues and earnings. Far more significant, though, is the upward revision in its guidance for this fiscal.

According to the company's revised estimates, income growth for the full year is expected to be around 40 per cent, while earnings per share are expected to grow at 34 per cent. That's a healthy rate of growth.

Given the fact that the Infosys management has traditionally been very conservative about guidance, the markets will undoubtedly re-rate the company, especially as it trades at a forward price-earnings ratio of well below its annual earnings growth rate.

But Infosys' revised guidance also sends another strong signal to the market - a pointer whose implications go far beyond the effect on a particular stock.

Taken together with MphasiS BFL recent results and its management's upbeat assessment of prospects, the signal going out loud and clear is that the outlook for Indian software services has changed significantly for the better.

Related Links :

Tata Consultancy tops list of IT software exporters

India's technology hub sees growth in investment in first quarter

Britishcouncil's 0110 Digital Film Festival

Presented by the British Council, the 0110 Digital Film Festival aims to provide a platform for filmmakers and artists who want to experiment with alternative forms of filmmaking. The festival has a competition section for which entries are invited. The deadline for submissions is July 23, 2004. There is no entry fee. For further details and to download the application form, click here[PDF].

Pluck : Add Some Spice to IE

Pluck enhances Internet Explorer to:
- Deliver stories from all your favorite sites
- Organize your Favorites so you can access them from any computer
- Share Web pages and folders with colleagues and friends
- Search Google, eBay & Amazon in a single window
- Create custom eBay feeds with Auction Scout (NEW!)
And it’s free.

Have You Been to BuddyZone

Buddy Zone is a fun, virtual meeting place for networking and bonding. Make new friends and get to know your old ones better.

Joining Buddy Zone

It's as easy at 1 2 3

1. All you need is MSN Messenger to get started. If you don't have MSN Messenger, download it today.

2. Enter Buddy Zone via MSN Messenger by completing an easy, one time registration process.

3. On submitting the registration form, you will receive an e-mail from the administrator. Simply, confirm your registration via e-mail.

MyAdda.com : India's very own Social Networking Site

Myadda.com a social networking site is launched by Anand Giri (29) a Industrialist from Bangalore. He becomes your first friend on Myadda as soon as you register. The registration is very simple and fast, hardly takes 2 minutes. The profile contains a special section as Schools & Companies which may be useful to find you old school day crush. And if you pathetic ones didn't have any crush and desperately looking for one, then you can also date or show your interest in gettint married. The site is not very populated hence you have to be very patient.

When you login you have to choose login as Social or business I have to find the idea behind it when I have the time. I didn't like the idea behind having case sensitive usernames, it may be irritating to many people and they will find themselves clicking on "forgot password?" the very next time they are back on the site. There are somethings which you may want to have or there are something which may not be working, but it is mentioned by Myadda that they are currently in beta stage, these things may happen and they are open for feedbacks.

Overall Myadda is indeed a very good tool and may satisfy the appetite of Indian netwokers with improvements as it crosses it's beta stage. All the best guys!!!

What can myadda do for you ?
* Build Business Contacts
* Meet New Friends
* Reunion with Old Classmates
* Create the fun of Addas
* Find Soul Mates
* Enrich your Lifestyle
* Have Unlimited Fun

Google Groups Reloaded

Slashdot discussion on the new improved Google Groups (beta), before it's too late create your own group.

"Google has apparently launched a new version of their Google Groups, currently in beta. It looks a lot like Gmail. One can attach a star to message threads. One can even create new groups, although they aren't actual Usenet groups."

Study of the Indian B2B publishing market

A study by Business Strategies Group (BSG) Ltd., ranks CyberMedia's Living Digital and PC Quest as the top two IT publications in terms of circulatio. This is the first ever study of the Indian B2B publishing market and covers revenue through advertisement, circulation and reach of the magazines, events organized and the future of the medium. The highlights mentioned on CIOL's site are listed below:

* The market for B2B events is currently worth around $75 million in organizers' revenues

* On-line revenues from Internet-based promotional and marketing activities could double in 2004 to reach $22 million. However, given the rapidly increasing Internet usage within business, it is likely to grow fast.

* Despite changes in government policy on foreign investment in mid-2002 were, regulatory barriers to involvement in the market by foreign companies remain substantial.

  - Australian financial services group acquired 19 percent stake in Hindustan Times

  - Financial Times picked up 13.5 percent stake in Business Standard

  - Dow Jones announced an agreement with Bennett Coleman & Co, publishers of Times of India and The Economic Times, to establish a joint venture to publish an Indian edition of the Wall Street journal.

Banking for Rural India

Rajesh Jain Quotes WSJ :

Engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology here [in Chennai] smile as they watch a magic brown box grumble, groan and then spit out 12 dirty 10-rupee notes, each valued at about 18 European cents.

They have built India's first rural automated teller machine to serve remote areas of the subcontinent. It can process the worn notes in small denominations that are the main currency in Indian villages, and at $800, or about €650, the machine costs less than one-twentieth the price of a regular ATM.

India's Icici Bank Ltd., with the help of the institute in Chennai -- formerly Madras -- and others, has developed the village ATM from inexpensive homemade parts and programming. Despite its low price tag, the machine is built to survive extreme weather and power outages. It can tell when two ragged notes get stuck together and can scan fingerprints to identify rural savers who are illiterate or are reluctant to use a personal-identification number. The ATM will be tested at an Icici branch in Chennai this month. If it works, the rugged ATM eventually could be used at hundreds of Internet kiosks in remote areas of India.

The project is more than an altruistic attempt to improve the lives of rural Indians. It is the latest example of how India's nimble private-sector banks try to use local high-tech skills to squeeze profits out of small savers.

Indian companies such as HDFC Bank Ltd. and Icici didn't exist until deregulation opened the market to private banks in the 1990s. Now, they boast millions of customers and are among the most-profitable and fastest-growing companies in India. HDFC and Icici both have seen their profits grow by more than 30% annually during the past five years.

The trick, they say, is technology. In a country where most potential savers make less than $100 a month, the banks have mastered ways of attracting small customers, even when they hold accounts with a minimum balance of $100. Setting up a national network of full-fledged branches was too expensive, so the banks expanded using ATMs, phone banking and the Internet to reach new customers inexpensively.

"The challenge is that the transaction sizes are very small by international standards," says Neeraj Swaroop, country head of retail banking at HDFC in Bombay. "We were able to do it in an economically viable manner by investing in the right kind of technology."

Thanks to affordable technologies, the most advanced banks in India say more than 70% of transactions are done outside branches. "They are aggressively targeting the customer like never before," says Gurunath Mudlapur, head of research at Khandwala Securities in Bombay. "They are using a lot of innovation for the Indian context."

Women lead rural India's internet rush

A BBC Report : The internet is beginning to have a revolutionary effect on the 700 million people who live in villages in India - and the charge is being led by women.

India's Digital Village Via Slashdot

Slashdot has this discussion [ India's Digital Village] about project Bhoomi covered comprehensively in Business Week by Manjeet Kripalani. Kripalani also writes about how the digitial evolution is bringing information explosion by bringing the equality in information access. Though majority of the people do not have understanding about these digital things, they have the power and ability to access the information through easily-operable devices like Kiosks. Outsiders may not understand the difference, but in India access to information is very big thing due to red-tapism and corruption. Now one doesn't have to slip in green fuel (bribe) inside the kiosks to get any information.

sirdude writes "Business Week has a pretty comprehensive story on the impact of projects such as Bhoomi, which are slowly but surely bridging the digital divide in rural India. With entrepreneurial initiatives such as e-choupal, Simputer, and a multitude of other privately-funded projects also beginning to take root, the rural Indian (who comprises about 70% of India's population), is slowly inching his way into the information age. The rest of the third world is watching & waiting, and taking detailed notes :)" And the parts about computerized land records may remind anyone who's read it of Hernando De Soto's The Mystery of Capital.

Project Bhoomi

Under this prestigious Bhoomi E-Governance project of the Government all 20 million land records of 6.7 million land owners in 176 taluks of Karnataka have been computerised. This system works with the software called "BHOOMI" designed fully in-house by National Informatics Center, Bangalore. While the project is largely funded by Government of India; some critical components of this project are funded by State Government.

10 most wanted patents

Electronic Frontier Foundation has a Patent Busting Project's which lists ten most-wanted patents—the ones that pose the biggest threat to the public domain.What makes these patents among the worst of the bunch? Try the fact that their owners are threatening and filing suits against small businesses, individuals and nonprofits, not to mention the threats to free expression and innovation that each of them pose.

Find more about the Patent Busting Project & How big is this patenting problem ?

Every year numerous illegitimate patent applications make their way through the United States patent examination process without adequate review. The problem is particularly acute in the software and Internet fields where the history of prior inventions (often called “prior art”) is widely distributed and poorly documented. As a result, we have seen patents asserted on such simple technologies as:



One-click online shopping (U.S. Patent No. 5,960,411.)

Online shopping carts (U.S. Patent No. 5,715,314.)

The hyperlink (U.S. Patent No. 4,873,662.)

Video streaming (U.S. Patent No. 5,132,992.)

Internationalizing domain names (U.S. Patent No. 6,182,148.)

Pop-up windows (U.S. Patent No. 6,389,458.)

Targeted banner ads (U.S. Patent No. 6,026,368.)

Paying with a credit card online (U.S. Patent No. 6,289,319.)

Framed browsing; (U.S. Patent Nos. 5,933,841 & 6,442,574.) and

Affiliate linking (U.S. Patent No. 6,029,141.)

Ittium : Licensing Intellectual Property

Till now we have seen services company and product companies. All the major IT giants in India like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Satyam .... are dominantly Services Company. There are very few handful of product companies in India due to lack of maturity in country, policies, market , finanance, talent, attitude and lots of other business environment factors. Some companies like Ittium Systems has taken a middle path called 'IP Licensing' for example they do not code on project basis for some other product company, instead they provide their code on "Royaly Basis". This has enabled them to have decent revenues and profits. The reason for others not following this model is (a) one cannot expect to generate revenue in 100s millions, since this working models has a specfic need and application (2) The IP licensing based companies has to continuously search for new contracts and projects since the tenure of a license is very short 3-5 years max as it appplies to a product in which the technology is used and the product life cycle is very short these days. Read the fully story in Business World
Links :

* Intellectual Property Rights in India Embassy of India

* IP Firms : India

Twistlines : Twisted Headlines from India

A little twist in the headlines. Not so fresh. Some comments may be black.



* Vishwakarma is responsible for train accidents : Laloo Yadav (Kamdev is responsible for my 9 childrens)

* Vajpayee has a new hobby of cracking jokes : Old Wine, Old Bottle & New Knee Cap

* Delhi : The rape capital of India (Q : Rape as in Women & Rapist or Rape as in Country and Politicians ?)

* 'Bruised' Pak blasts US for terror checks (When india can show mercy for rapists, why can't Americal show mercy for terrorists?)

NGCI-EDB DOCUMENTARY FUND 2004 (Call for Entries)

National Geographic Channel (Asia) is looking for one-hour one-off documentaries but will also consider short series of up to 3 episodes. The details are available on NGCAsia.com

India Inc. not so net savvy

Geeta Nair writes in her article on Express computer , that India Inc. is a poor Internet User. Most of the people have not realized the potential of the net besides having a brochure-converted-in-to-website and Emails. There is lot to be done in the space of Knowledge Management and providing information and service to the customer through web and other internet channels. Most of the times one cannot even find the contact addresses of the company's branches and profile of people managing the company. There is a lot of value-addtion to be added just by tweaking the web site and providing that "extra information" which everybody is looking for. Most of the times I find web sites as the worst examples of Usability, a compulsory intro flash animation, a nifty abous us page, services which will mimic the Wipro's & infosys's of the worlds and contact page form without any contact (email / tel no.) listed , as if they run some secrete operations

Most Indian companies seem to be content using the Internet solely for sending e-mail rather than utilising it as a value-added tool for business. They appear to be unwilling to use the Internet for information dissemination as well as a medium to do business. “The domestic industry by and large has been somewhat myopic and even ignorant about the benefits and the need to incorporate the Internet as part of its marketing and business strategy. The fundamental power of the Internet as a low-cost and highly effective tool for disseminating information is being undervalued,” states a study conducted by ValueNotes Database.



ValueNotes is a leading provider of business intelligence and research, and is one of the largest aggregators of information on Indian business and finance. It conducted the survey following global reports that pointed out the poor leveraging of the Internet by Indian companies. It covered a cross-section of 50 big and small companies.

Indian President Advises Open Source Approach | Via Slashdot

A Slashdot Story :
geo_2677 writes "The Indian President Dr. A Kalam has advised defense scientists to go for open-source software for software security, rather than be stuck with insecure proprietary software. Being a scientist himself, he surely knows what's good for his country." Speaking at the Indian Navy's Weapons and Electronic System Engineering Establishment, Kalam argued: "Open source codes can easily introduce the users to build security algorithms in the system without the dependence of proprietary platforms", though continues: "We should take maximum care to ensure that our solution is unique to protect our own defence security solutions implemented on open platforms." We previously reported on Richard Stallman's meeting with Dr. Kalam earlier this year.

Where is Sanchar Kranti : Avinash Murkute

Avinash Murkute , a Nagpur (India) based freelance columnist writes about Bribe Dependant Phones & Bribe Sanchar Nigam Limited's dadagiri and monopoly.

Where is Sanchar Kranti: Revolution (Kranti) is always universal. If things happening at New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkatta, Mumbai should be termed as revolution then there is serious flaw in the way of thinking. It is sure cheating with the rural India. If we are talking about GDP and neglecting rural then we are committing crimes. It dials digital divide. Rural – Urban differentiation is like putting the clock back. Governmental schemes are implemented on paper only. Take example of Internet Dhabas.



In Internet Dhaba beneficiary was allotted waiting free, deposit free, rent free, Internet access free telephone connection. Such Dhabas (Kiosks) were supposed to be set at every Taluka level. The Principal General Managers who played God by taking credit of implementing this scheme was in facto demon. They allotted such phones on bribes. So in the age of Internet Nirvana rural India is Internet free and eventually virus free also. It is good to have virus in computer system than to have virus in minds like BSNL infected with bribe virus.



This challenging, feeble, depraved rural India needs Telecom God. They wish to throw up an inferior service provider like BSNL. A true Indian will always disdain “Hindustan-ke-Gaddar” in BSNL. Rural even doesn’t wish to worship false telecom god and false telecom ministers. They need a deluxe telecom god who can provide them bribe free basic telephony at par with rest of the world and punish bribe licensee. It’s so simple GDP is inversely proportional to bribe? Sure we are talking about GDP only and illegal telephone(s) are still working, smiling at TRAI.

Link :

* Googling for Avinash Murkute

Lawsuit against Google / Stealing code for Orkut

Affinity Engines a small social-networking software company has filed suit against Google claiming that engineer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company -- which he co-founded -- with him when he joined Google and started a new version of Social Networkig site Orkut

What's Happening with Jassi?

Dear friends, comrades and countrymen



Oye! Wats happeennning with the media yaaaaar….



The biggest hype on television this year was sony tv’s “Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi”. I thought finally a light hearted serial with no-saas bahu bahu stuff. But never imagined JJKN to be a “over stuffed parantha”



Is Jassi a Jassi or Jassi a Wizard of Oz or Agony Aunty to Armaan , Raaj, Surajmukhi, bebe, Maa, Nandu, Gulmohar team and all those who could not be accommodated or stuffed in the list.



Jassi Ke Baap ko Gussa Kyu Ata Hai? Aur Jassi ki Ma ka chehra hai ya koi screen saver, kambakhat change hi nahi hota.



Is Armaan really a chairman of Gulmohar, the fashion house or Gulmohar , the dhaba.?



In which institute did Armaan do his management from? All the students must get their money back, with no questions asked. IIM people please see, that’s why BJP was after you.



Raaj putter, you are not working in poultry farm, beta for god sakes do some work also, otherwise you would be selling Red Oxide Sariya all your life.



Arundhati which Consulting organizations you are from?. Even income tax department or the bitchiest wife in any serial talk like that?



Nandu , agreed… people with brains don’t have four legs. But if finance guys are like you then I would pray that Mr. Chidambaram doesn’t prepare budget in the under the influence and possession of some sadak-chap “Pari”.



And last but not the least…. Oye Chashmebaddur Mallika –E- Tarannum. Oye tune Khane me kya khati hai, tere mood ke 24x7 saade barah kyu naje rahte hai. Don’t you have your motions properly and regularly? Advice (Free) : Have some kayam churan every day, it will elevate your mood.



Who are this characters from X files, Purab, Arundhati , Surajmukhi . Inka Tatparya kya Hai? What is the reference to context. On which planet they live now ? or decide to retire?



The Moral of the story :


- Have characters not caricatures.


- Some idiot has invented a word called “LOGIC” , use it


- Why don’t we outsource all our serials. Just Dub the foreign serials so that we can have some life.





Santy’s Recommendations :


Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Mind of a married man. I can manage only this , sometimes

The WMD incubators : Bush Jr. copies Bush Sr.

Just accidentally came through this story about the last gulf war. The entire WMD shit is mere inheritence of Bush from his father.

In October, 1990, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, identified only as Nayirah, appeared in Washington before the House of Representatives' Human Rights Caucus. She testified that Iraqi soldiers who had invaded Kuwait on August 2nd tore hundreds of babies from hospital incubators and killed them.



Television flashed her testimony around the world. It electrified opposition to Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, who was now portrayed by U.S. president George Bush not only as "the Butcher of Baghdad" but -- so much for old friends -- "a tyrant worse than Hitler."



Bush quoted Nayirah at every opportunity. Six times in one month he referred to "312 premature babies at Kuwait City's maternity hospital who died after Iraqi soldiers stole their incubators and left the infants on the floor,"(1) and of "babies pulled from incubators and scattered like firewood across the floor." Bush used Nayirah's testimony to lambaste Senate Democrats still supporting "only" sanctions against Iraq -- the blockade of trade which alone would cause hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to die of hunger and disease -- but who waffled on endorsing the policy Bush wanted to implement: outright bombardment. Republicans and pro-war Democrats used Nayirah's tale to hammer their fellow politicians into line behind Bush's war in the Persian Gulf.(2)...........


Read more on Counterpunch.org

Links :

* Bush's Iraq Lies

* RW ONLINE:"Wagging the Dog":US/Kuwait Incubator Scam

* In war, some facts less factual

* UnitedStatesGovernment.net - How Bush Sr. Sold The Bombing Of Iraq

* When contemplating war, beware of babies in incubators | csmonitor ...

Microsoft Goes Cheap to woo Asia

Microsoft is proposing to expand an offer to supply Asian countries with a simpler, cheaper version of its Windows operating system in an apparent effort to curb software piracy and dent the appeal of the open-source Linux system in the region. Or could this be proactive measure by Microsoft to avoid the "perfect storm", as pointed out by Franklin Fisher. He had also testified during Microsoft-US Justice Department anti-trust trial in 1999, that customers believed there were no serious commercial contenders to the Windows operating system at that time. The story is very different now with Sun, IBMand Oracle going guns with Open Source. Besides competition MS faces challenges from the very large asian developer community who are also supported by their goverment, organizations and intellectuals.

The 50 coolest web sites

Times releases the Top 50 Coolest Web Sites
My favorites :

- News.google.com

- Friendster.com