Peak Day Blues

If your first impression about Goa is about sandy beaches, feny and loads of tourists roaming around, think again!! According to this report in Times UK, Goa is fast becoming the number 1 state in India in terms of Internet Connectivity and Broadband. If you thought Kerala Government's IT initiative of e-governing itself is the big bright idea, Goan government has already achieved it. "It all seems a little fantastic in a country where nearly half the 1.1 billion population does not even have an electric light in the home. Goa, though, is probably the only place in India where this futuristic scenario stands a chance of becoming reality. It is the smallest state, so is relatively easy to manage, as well as being the richest per capita – Goans earn about three times as much as the average Indian. It is already well developed in terms of infrastructure because of the tourism industry, which accounts for half of the state’s GDP. The roads are good, everyone has electricity and n

Kalapatti and Saravanampatti, two villages about 15 km from Coimbatore, have become favourite spots for private IT special economic zone developers. Till the late eighties, these villages were best known for agriculture. Today, however, agriculture has failed. And these two partly industrialiased locations are better known as the twin IT villages of the textile city. Land prices have zoomed. Today, an acre costs anywhere between Rs 1.25 crore to 1.5 crore, according to data available with the Builders Association of India (BAI). Two years back, the going rate was Rs 50,000-75,000 per acre. Commercial IT seems to be the only driving force on the commercial front. With at least two major companies -- Bannari Technopark and KG Information Systems (KGISL) acquiring land for their IT projects recently, the land in these two villages has suddenly turned into a gold mine for farmers, who never had it so good. Some of the corporates located in Saravanampatti are KGISL, Bosch, Perot, SPi, Cogn

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, 'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.' The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.' They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large

Be Right Back... Peaking...

By: Gautam For all the monkeying around by some of the Indian cricketers in a bid to get under the skin of the Australians, they only have a 2-4 series loss to write home about. At the end of the day, runs, wickets, and catches are what really matter rather than what you say on the field and off it. Reality has hit Team India a bit, if not real hard. They would have realized that the 50-over game is a totally different ball game, especially against the World Champions, after being crowned 20/20 World Champions. It is understandable that some of the youngsters wanted to carry the 20/20 momentum and spirit against the Aussies, but throwing caution to the wind in such an unruly fashion badly misfired. It is unfortunate that none of the seniors including Sourav Ganguly who tickled Steve Waugh in 2001 as captain, could bring about controlled aggression amongst the youngsters. Bad mouthing the Australians was not a good idea after all. It only fired them up. With a series Down Under not far

Bourne Ultimatum is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to The Bourne Supremacy. First published in 1990, it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself. Now, in an avatar of a hit movie franchise, Jason Bourne's Ultimatum is successfully running in theaters all over the world now... Our in-house movie reviewer, Mr. Gautam, reviews Bourne Ultimatum over here in my Movie Review Blog , Life is Reel

My bro-in-law who is in Sharjah fwded me these "amazing" pics of a Bugatti Veyron which is worth 5 billion pounds!! It is owned by Sheik Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of UAE. And it's probably the most expensive car with the most expensive number plate in the UAE!!! A few stats: V16 engine 1000bhp 9 radiators… Top speed 405km/hr Cross posted in Car India blog

I had a really bad dream today...! Yep, i dreamt of a 747 crashing near my house while I was videographing it LIVE... I then become famous with all major news channels interviewing me, repeatedly playing my video... the video becomes a major hit in YouTube with millions of viewers... And then, suddenly the police arrest me saying that I was a terrorist and I was behind the crash... Am then seeing a lock-up room where the police beat me right and left... They beat me up like they do in movies, tying me up on top of a table and beating me up using their lathis... suddenly Mansoor Ali Khan in police attire comes and pushes me out of the table... Thug! I fell on the floor from my bed and woke up! :-(

Google announced today the launch of Google SMS ™ for mobile users in India. With Google SMS mobile messaging service, users can get business listings, movie showtimes and more simply by sending a text message to the shortcode 54664 [5GOOG] from their mobile phones. This service is currently available on the Airtel, Aircel, BPL, BSNL and Reliance networks, and has relevant local data for mobile users in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Carriers' premium text messaging rates apply. More!

Reliance Retail has clinched an exclusive marketing and distribution deal with the $19.3-billion iconic maker of iPods and Mac computers, Apple, for standalone iStores. This is Reliance Retail’s first exclusive alliance with an international brand. The partnership was sealed on Monday. The first store, to be called iStore by Reliance Digital, will come up by October-end in Bangalore. This is the first time Apple is tying up with a big corporate house for distribution anywhere in the world. The iStores would be standalone stores selling Apple products ranging from Macintosh computers to iPods and later, once it’s launched in India, the latest cult offering from Apple, the iPhone. More

Do you feel that the appreciating rupee is an issue that needs to be addressed? Our strength in services export is derived from business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology. Between the two, IT companies have a larger margin than BPO. I would imagine that IT companies on an average have a 20-25% margin while a BPO company would have a 10% margin. At the same time, wages are increasing and rents are going up, which have already brought down margins of BPO companies. The BPO model has to be sustained and it is very necessary that we grow this industry because we have large manpower. We have 60% of our youth below 30 and thousands of youth are coming into the job market. I don’t think we can employ them all in the manufacturing sector. Today, a graduate is getting three job offers as soon as he is out of college. Earlier, a graduate would have to hunt for jobs or become a taxi driver. Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC in Economic Times !

Pics taken when I recently visited Alapuzha, better known for its backwaters!

By: K. Gautam The unabashed one-upmanship by the TN government declaring a bandh (declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) and its brazen support by the CPI-M have left the common man of the state inconvenienced. But who cares? On one hand, the TN government wants to score a political point over the Sethu Project citing the people’s welfare. On the other hand, the BJP and the AIADMK (they had filed the petition in the SC) want to garner as many brownies as they possibly can out of this issue. Added to that is the open endorsement of the bandh by the UPA, who doesn’t seem to have a choice but to support the DMK, which is a key ally. Where is the Governor? Amidst all this, there is no word from the Governor of Tamil Nadu on the issue. I am beginning to wonder whether Tamil Nadu has a Governor. If I have not erred, Surjit Singh Barnala is the Governor of Tamil Nadu, who assumed office in 2004. Mr. Barnala is a former Chief Minister of Punjab, and had served as TN Governor from 1990

According to a study by services globalisation & investment advisory firm Tholons and media group Global Services, Chennai tops in their latest ranking of top 50 promising outsourcing cities around the globe. Apart from Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata are rated among the top five emerging destinations. Coimbatore also finds a mention at 21. The study ranked Chennai as the top most emerging hub for outsourcing globally, with established expertise in application development and maintenance, finance and accounting, product development, engineering services and testing. The Tamil Nadu government was IT-friendly, and an upcoming Mahindra World City, slated to be the world’s largest IT Park, in Chennai was favourable to its outsourcing climate.

By: K. Gautam Rain saved India from what looked like a scratchy run chase. India had gotten into a tangle by requiring too much to chase under the lights. Cricket is a funny game, but Michael Clarke who scored a brilliant 130 (132 balls, 10X4, 3X6) probably batted India out of the match. India couldn’t stamp its authority after Australia was reeling at 18 for 2 in the 5th and 90 for 4 in the 17th. The decisive moment in the match was Michael Clarke taking on Ramesh Powar, after the bowler bowled a brilliant first over, beating the batsmen in flight. Unlike the English and the South Africans, whose timidity against a quality spinner might have handed India the game in a platter, Clarke was dauntless. He used his feet brilliantly hitting Powar for two sixes, leaving the bowler unsettled. Early Wickets Yuvraj made a good start to the series taking an airborne catch diving to his right, to dismiss Adam Gilchrist. Sreesanth despite his initial waywardness got one to cut in to dismiss Brad H