Peak Day Blues

LK Advani and his BJP are all over the Internet, painting the cyber world with their ads... Now, one was wondering where Indian National Congress was! Last time I checked their site , 'it was very slow to respond, had not been updated for ages and there was no star blogger! But hold on, all that's going to change with a new updated site . INC has also started an aggressive campaign on the net to get some techie voters! But the million dollar question still remains... is Rahul Gandhi going to start a blog? Read my previous post on Techie Politicians here

Check out this Brilliant ad below, conceived and created by JWT for The Times Of India group titled "A Day in The Life of Chennai". Based on last year's superhit song Naaka Mukka, it captures the intrinsic duality of Chennai. Incidentially, this ad won several awards for JWT and its executioners

Times of India lists out the names of four powerful women in Tamil Nadu politics who are the king makers behind the scene and seldom make it to the public eye. According to TOI, the four women are: Rajathi Amma -- wife of Karunanidhi Premalatha -- wife of Vijayakanth Sowmya Anbumani -- wife of Anbumani Ramadoss Sasikala Natarajan -- best buddy of Jayalalithaa The story written by jaya menon details their power plays; an interesting story for those interested in TN politics. Read more here

Baroness Susan Greenfield, an eminent neurologist was recently quoted at a Summit where she described how the Internet is changing the way we think (especially kids). Her observations looks straight out of a science fiction novel/movie where the evil Internet is changing the human mind, but I guess we should take her study with a pinch of salt rather than claiming Internet is doomed for mankind. More here Describing the online world, Greenfield added: "You are living in a child-like world of actions and sensations that do not mean anything other than what you see is what you get. "Screen thinking is strongly sensational, short in span, has no conceptual framework, no metaphors and favors process over concept." Greenfield said that relationships forged in the "computer world", through social networks and multiplayer environments such as Second Life, are "intruding on the full spectrum of human relationships".

PC World's John Ribeiro reports about a Bangalore based BPO which hires only physically handicapped people for its operations. Vindhya E-Infomedia set up by Ashok Giri and his wife Pavithra with an investment of Rs.6 million is focused primarily on the low-end of the BPO food chain, consisting mainly of data-entry work. Read the full article here Giri recognizes that his business model will not make him a lot of money unless he increases volumes, adds new kinds of outsourced business processes and hires more people. He plans to add more facilities and aims to have 5,000 staff by 2015. There is greater interest from customers, both in India and abroad, he said. Getting more staff is not likely to be a problem as the company expands, as by Giri's estimate there are at least 1.9 million disabled people in Karnataka state who are qualified to be hired. Bangalore is the capital city of Karnataka.

I got this as an e-mail forward and am not sure about its authenticity; but nonetheless a brilliant way of putting things across or as the old saying getting others to put their feet in the mouth! Speech of DG Kashmir at UN An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile... A representative from India began: 'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about a rishi named Kashyapa of Kashmir (Kashyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma), after whom Kashmir is named. When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath.' He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.' The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren't there at that time.' The

Clicked this at the portico of my office very early in the morning few days ago!! SPi was moving out their old systems.

Had gone to Chennai Silks in X-cut Road recently and found this new hydraulic two-tier parking system in their basement garage. Initially when the security folks told me to park my car under it, I was a little hesitant! God foresaken, what if it collapsed? My car will be crushed underneath!* Still I was adventurous and decided to park it anyways. *PS: The thought that I can claim full insurance if indeed my car got crushed, thereby making it possible to buy a new one helped me park it faster :-)

Most of you who read blogs and newspapers online will now be familar with a smiling Advani asking you to read his blog and proclaiming himself to be India's new Obama -"Advani for PM" google ads are everywhere! And yeah, the ads have started to become annoying too... At first I was amazed that an 81-year-old man is ready to connect with the young & restless, and I saw myself going through his blog every now and then. I also was quite impressed with their IT Vision document , detailing their plans for an IT Bharat! In fact, an ex-IIM guy is managing the whole online campaign - Prodyut Bora! Looks like MSM (mainstream media) has picked on this new trend, and Reuters has come up with an article detailing the wired-politicians who are trying to catch the net savvy juntas votes in the upcoming elections! Both Congress and the BJP's prime ministerial candidates are elderly, but that has not stopped the parties from reaching out to the youth, using text messages, campai

S Sujatha of Economic Times has written an exhaustive article about Coimbatore's current real-estate market, and its future prospectus. Through her article, she's debating that with the onset of IT companies setting up shop in two SEZs coming up, real estate sector in Coimbatore is going to hold off in these recession hit months. Excerpts: The Manchester of South India, Coimbatore, is still brimming with a lot of positive energy as far as the real estate scenario is concerned. The city, with a population of 1.8 million people, has a few pan-India players in the real estate market but the 35-40 odd local developers are confident of staying in business despite the economic slowdown. Though many are in the wait-and-watch mode, buyers are looking at this growing city as the place for long-term investment, especially on the residential front. Industry experts say majority of the buyers are from nearby cities like Chennai and Bangalore and non-resident Coimbatoreans and NRIs, who wan

Perot Systems Corporation, a US-based $2.8 billion information technology company, is setting up a new campus in Coimbatore. The company would invest $7-8 million (Rs 35-40 crore) in the first phase. The 1,500-seat facility, coming up on 7.3 acres at Saravanampatti, is expected to commence operations in March 2010, said Vardhman Jain, managing director (insurance and BPO), Perot Systems. It has earmarked a total investment of $50 - $60 million for the facility. With a seating capacity of at least 10,000, it would touch an area of one million sq ft in the third phase, Mr Jain said. The company at present employs around 500 people in Coimbatore.

Economic Times reports: The much awaited IT park - Tidel park at Coimbatore is expected to start functioning from January 2010. After a three year wait, work is in full swing for building the park inside the IT & ITES special economic zone (SEZ) at Vilankurichi, behind Coimbatore Medical College. Promoted by the State-owned Elcot, the project is expected to be ready for occupation by companies by September 2009. With a built-up area of 1.7 million sq ft, the Tidel Park is expected to provide employment to 12,000 IT & ITES professionals. Conceived in August 2006, foundation stone for the Park was laid in February 2007, but the evacuation work began only in November 2007 and the civil works contract was awarded only in September 2008. "The delay was mainly due to complying with various government stipulations and also since a contractor had backed out due to price escalation. A second global tender was floated and Mumbai based B E Billimoria & Co are the civil contractor