Budget, the day after!

Malist need take up arms. The govt. still discriminates againts the Male species. We still have to pay more taxes, despite the fact that some B Schools closing the placements with women MBA's getting more average than the Male. Um um ahmm.

IT honchoes are crying that Previously handed benefits are being taken back.
Good that the farm sector got due concern..

The reduction on customs duty have been very well taken. The inflation have been a boon in disguise.

Oh! You can now consume more oil and get fatter..

And I am all for a good education, but that Cess, Will it fund the Education outlay, or is it going to Fund Scheduled Tribes and Castes going to IITs and IIMs??

FDI in Insurance to rise, Left to Protest !

Finance minister P Chidambaram indicated on Thursday that the government would introduce a legislation in the Budget session of Parliament to hike FDI cap in insurance sector to 49% from the existing 26%, triggering fears of a fresh policy feud with the Left.

Reacting to the suggestion, Left vowed to kill the latest attempt to relax the ceiling percentage — seen as a big put-off for international majors in the sector. It is likely to put up a stiff resistance with CPM's Prakash Karat insisting that communists had not diluted opposition to such proposals. [source]

The mistake that the Finance Minister is doing, despite knowing the fact that India needs 100% FDI in Insurance, is by indicating that the FDI cap will be increased to 49% and not 100%.
He knew the left would protest, but it would have been much easier to convince the left to accept say 74%, if they were protesting against 100%. Now, if our Finance Minister does yield to the left, there won't be much room.. Ah! the art of negotiation.. He should shop from Karol Bagh more often.

I have always maintained that the FDI cap on Insurance should be raised to 100%, the sooner the better. We already have a strong regulatory body. And there are BIG Insurance companies already knocking at our doors. Also, LIC is already BIG enough that it shouldn't be scared of competition. With the kind of brand recognition, penetration and trust that LIC commands in India, it shouldn't really be a big deal. LIC needs no protection from the government, and already with sovereign guarantee, which is far more protection than any Public Company would ever need.

Opening the FDI in the insurance sector would be good for the consumers, in a lot of way.
Not opening wouldn't benefit anyone other than the employees of LIC, for whom it was expected that the LEFT would protest.

Why India Needs an Increase in the FDI on Insurance?

By only Increasing the FDI in Insurance, we could even wait out a little longer on the FDI caps in other sectors. The CEO of a Private Insurer once told, that increasing the FDI in Insurance would take care of the year's FDI target of the country in one go.
But that is not the reason why I say that increasing the FDI in insurance only would affect a lot of other Industries in a positive way, and that we could even do without the FDI in many other sectors for sometime, Real estate for one.

FDI in insurance would increase the penetration of Insurance in India, where the penetration of Insurance is abysmally low with insurance premium at about 3% of GDP against about 8% global average. This would be through better marketing effort by MNCs, better product innovation , consumer education and so on.

How would it affect the economy?
India is hungry for Long term capital needs to fund the building of infrastructures, which is the need of the hour.

Infrastructure, or the lack of it has been the brake, which have hindered the leap of the Indian Economy. Despite shortcomings, Indian Economy has come a long way, but every industry leader would crib at the infrastructure bottlenecks that they have face everyday in their effort for growth.

Unlike new and progressive government policies that the left would jump into protest at every opportunity, investment in infrastructure is something the government won't face any protests. It would employ millions directly, and more millions indirectly. The only bottleneck being long term funds, infrastructures being very Huge and very long term investments. Even Public-Private partnerships wouldn't be sufficient, and how much can the world bank lend, without strings?


The answer lies in raising long term capital from the masses, and come to think of it, Insurance is about the only avenue where people put in money for as long as 3o years even more. An Increase in FDI in Insurance would indirectly be a boon for the Indian economy, the investments not withstanding, but by making more people invest in long term funds to fuel the growth of the Indian Economy.

With, good infrastructures, industry leaders would agree that they can gallop!!!

Chinese Destroys Satellite with Missile, US worried!

China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.[source]

US is very worried because
"If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide security issues"

eh?

But the US has the capability to shoot down satellites for decades now. Now that USSR is gone, they want to be undisputed King of the Space. How about India? Software to Spaces huh!

MyBlogLog Bought by Yahoo!

MyBlogLog now joins the Yahoo developers network.
Techcrunch Reports that MyBlogLog the Link tracking software turned amazing widget that provides a faceroll as well as integrate your comments with the faceroll to give a face to commenters, has been bought by yahoo for a consideration in the neighbourhood of 10-12 millions.

JEREMY welcomes the MyBloglog team.

Toshiba Portable USB External HDD

I so very want one of this.. I recently bought a seagate laptop hard-drive, fixed up inside a casing, and looks quite like this toshiba, from nehru Place. The assembled drive costs me something like 4000 INR, about 100 dollars, for 80 GB. It also has USB and powers up with the Laptop... Only the USB port was loose despite having changed the casing again, so that I need to keep it on a flat place and not move while I use the same.

This Toshiba external HDD reportedly comes for about 140 Dollars for a 100 GB drive. I'd say it is a good bargain, and toshiba is always good.


I use a Toshiba Portege R150 and I love it, despite the speed, when running heavy applications. I have added an extra 512 MB of ram which I am thinking of upgrading to an extra 1 gig.
[Via]

Performancing Blogging Plugin Rebranded as Scribefire

The Performancing Blogging Plugin which was not part of the acquisition of performancing by Payperpost, has been rebranded as Scribefire.. The site will be launched shortly [Breaks Techcrunch]

Technorati tag:: Performancing : Scribefire

Yahoo News Message Boards Closed!

The Yahoo News Message Boards - a forum to discuss the articles on Yahoo News - have been closed today, seemingly due to trolls and other vocal users ruining the experience for everyone else. reports mashable!

[Troll image Courtesy: santharia ]

Saddam Dead. Has Been Executed

Saddam Hussein has been Executed, hanged.

Saddam Hussein has been hanged, state-run television reported Saturday.Saddam's lawyers had asked a U.S. judge to stop his execution. He was sentenced to die in November for the murders of nearly 150 people in Dujail after towns people attacked his motorcade in 1982.Saddam met with his two brothers Thursday and reportedly handed over his will. Iraq's prime minister wouldn't allow a delay in his execution. [source: here]

Technorati tag:: Saddam : Iraq

US Death in Iraq crossed 9/11 Count

It all started with with 9/11, to save more lives, but The US Military Death toll in iraq has exceeded the 9/11 count[more].

New IIT to open in Andhra Pradesh!

Rediff Reports that the government has OKayed the opening of a new IIT in Andhra Pradesh in Medak district.
Medak District was once represented by former prime minister Indira Gandhi in the Lok Sabha.

The union human resource development ministry has sanctioned an Indian Institute of Technology to Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Making a statement in the State Legislative Assembly, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy said, "I am happy to inform this House that I have just received a communication from Arjun Singh, Union HRD Minister, informing that one IIT is sanctioned to AP in response to our sustained request for locating an IIT in our state. This acceptance to locate one IIT in AP is a part of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan agenda to start three (new) IITs in the country."

The union HRD ministry has requested the state government to identify and allot 500 to 600 acres of land free of cost, having physical and social infrastructure, which includes road, rail and air connectivity.

"Therefore, my government has decided to locate the IIT in Medak district, which was once represented by former prime minister Indira Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, as it will satisfy the requirements laid down by the HRD Minister," he pointed out. [source]

Manu Sharma may Escape Death Penalty

.....because his was not a ‘premeditated’ crime, but one committed in a fit of anger after he was denied whisky.
Heard of killing in fitful revenge after getting raped, or seeing ones loved one raped or Killed. But "Fit of anger after being denied Whisky" and so angry and He kills someone????

Google and NASA to work together

NASA and Google have signed an agreement to "work together on a variety of challenging technical problems ranging from large-scale data management and massively distributed computing, to human-computer interfaces".

NASA will provide Google with interesting data, like statistical data on atmosphere, that will be available in Google Earth. Other plans include: "real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle. This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars."

[source]

Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav and Tony Gill Convicted

Its been raining justice of late... Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav and Tony Gill have been Convicted in the Jessica Lal Murder case .



From DNA :

"We have no hesitation in holding Sidharth Vashisht alias Manu Sharma guilty of the offence of murder," a two-judge bench said.

A Division Bench of Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin convicted the son of former Haryana minister Venod Sharma, under Sections 302 (culpable homicide amounting to murder) and Section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

The sentence is likely to be announced on Wednesday.

The court also convicted Vikas Yadav, son of former Rajya Sabha member DP Yadav, and 'Tony' Gill of the charges against them under Section 201.

The judgement was on an appeal by the Delhi Police, which challenged the acquittal of Manu, Yadav, Gill, former cricketer Yuvraj Singh and six others by a sessions court.

Late but came it did!! Justice, I mean.

After Bengaluru- Jabalipuram, Bhojpal and Indur!

After Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru, the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation has passed a resolution to rename the city to Jabalipuram.

The BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh government is also mulling renaming Bhopal to Bhojpal and Indore to Indur.

Reads a newsclip in our bulletin board. I guess the news in the Time of India..

Public Dieting, Blogs and Japanese Ministers

In a drastic step againts ummm... obesity? Two Japanese Ministers are going on a Public Diet and their progress will be minitored on a blog.

Vice-ministers Noritoshi Ishida and Keizo Takemi have pledged to shed at least 5kg (11lb) each.
They will chart their progress in a blog on the ministry website over the next six months.
The site will include information on how much exercise the men take each day and what they drink.
"I can't run or hide any longer, once the blog starts," Mr Takemi said.
The vice-minister, who is 166cm (5ft 5in) tall and weighs 84kg, said he had to lead from the front.
"Considering my position as a vice-minister of health, I felt I had to do something about it," Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun quoted him as saying.
Mr Ishida says he will walk for 10 minutes every day and stop using elevators.[more]

Should we suggest the same to our Aviation ministry? It would be such fun! Only Desi Voyeurs will have a heyday!

Who Bought the Blog Herald?

Just ten months after The Blog Herald was acquired by Blog Media Inc from Duncan Riley, It is being resold to an undisclosed Buyer.


Blog Media will focus on its core competency of blog consulting! Goes on to prove that consultants don;t make the best businessmen :)

India No 1 Exporter of Bribes, Beats China

India is the world’s top bribe payer, screams the headline today on the TOI.
I would just say Indians are.
Not to worry, perhaps bribery is the way to go.
Of the much talked about BRIC nations, 3 of the 4 nations held the top positions. Brazil is way below at the 8th position, tsk tsk.

Now everybody worth his salt have written or talked about that the BRIC nations are poised to become the world’s biggest nations by 2050, and if the list is any Indication, then India sure is becoming the most powerful nation amongst the 4. Simple logic, All 4 nations that are on the path to economic growth are willing to bribe their way to growth, and India tops the list. :)

Sarcasm apart, it is such a sad affair that India businessmen are exporting bribes along with the merchandise. Transparency International, the NGO which is publishing the Bribe payers index shows that Indian Exporters are willing to pay bribes even outside India to get the deal. We are out to spoil the world eh.

What was that joke?
Was it Japan who asked to lend Bihar for a year to change it to a place like Japan, and Laloo retorted that he can turn Japan to Bihar in a shorter time?

Bribing maybe bad, but perhaps it makes good business sense in certain businesses, commodities business and commodities exports for example. Whereas in businesses such as IT which require more intellectual capital than real capital, bribery doesn’t make much business sense.

We have seen two great companies in India. One is rumored to have bribed its way to the present billions, and the other was built without any such. The said second company, lets call it Wipro, had two divisions, still has. One is into IT, and the other into Commodities and such like. The IT arm today is a Billion dollar business and though the business may not be as big as the other company that was rumored to bribed its way to its billions, but then the owner is worth much more billions than the brothers, oops owners of the other company. Perhaps, not paying bribes pays off much better ;)
Oh, so the said division of this anti-bribe company that deals in commodities is not doing too well. So like I said, some businesses call for a certain amount of bribery, which is sad. But then, who are to blame. We can’t all be Azim Premji. We only aspire to be him, and revere him. But there are more people who want to be a Dhirubhai Ambani than Azim Premji. Sad Affair!!

[image courtesy: pestaola ]

Metro Sexual Men are Early Adopters!

.....of not just cosmetics!

"Come here baby!"
"Don't you shave everyday, I love your stubble!"

I have always wondered aloud, what the hell is a Metro sexual Man? And why would men suddenly start doing all those things that a Metro sexual man is suppose to do? Do they go for Pedicure? Perhaps a mud pack, or was it face pack?

Now I know! These so called metro sexual men are what we call "The early adopters"
in marketing parlance. What is it that they have adopted early? Not the mud pack!

Well, they have been early adopters of a Mindset, if the mindset be sold as a product. A mindset that Women now looks at a Men much as a Men does a women, for ages. "As a hunk, as a beautiful thing, something good to hook the elbow into." With women becoming increasingly independent and most of them doing very well financially, not having to look at a Man anymore for his BMW or the diamond ring, have now started to look at men for his looks, so says a report. Was in one of the Time of India supplement today.

And with more women in Marketing today, I am not surprised that the Mindset is being marketed successfully.
Who was the person behind that Shah Rukh Khan's Lux Commercial?


Feminists will be smiling, the hardliners will be screaming that they have always looked at Men like that. People at the Menarebetterthanwomen will be screaming bloody murder..

But the cosmetic marketers and the beauty parlor chains will have gained a new target market, and not a niche in that. Who doesn't want to look good anyway?

I am OK with men looking good (Shit! the competition has just increased) as long as Women don't start to look like cigar chewing cowboys. I hate stained tooth. Oh I wasn't referring to the metro cowboys..of the brokeback mountains and suchlike :)

PVR to start no-frills Multiplexes

Ajay Bijli who gave Indians the first taste of Multiplexes with his PVR chains, and set off a mini-multiplex boom is set to set-off another boom. Another first to his name, NO-Frills Multiplexes.

PVR cinemas will start a no-frills chain in small cities, starting from Latur and Aurangabad, names PVR talkies. He will do away Cushy seats, Plasma display, Neon-lighting, and central air-conditioning. Oh, they won't be selling 50 bucks pop corns either...

All the best, Ajay!!!

Napster Considering a Sale!

Heard around the corner that Napster Inc. is considering selling the company or other possible ventures with a possible alliance with outsiders.[source].