Musings, rants and rambling

Murthy runs a body shopping company: Chetan Bhagat - Hindustan Times

2011-10-05T12:20:00.001+05:30

Murthy runs a body shopping company: Chetan Bhagat - Hindustan Times

Fully concur with Chetan B's view. NRN has this larger than life image stuck in his mindset and think that he can say whatever he wants. Here is the man who killed the innovation in the Indian IT space,(and made code monkeys) speaks about the quality of the IIT students.

It will be good if he enjoys his retirement and keeps his mouth shut.

Chennai Corporation Elections - Mayor candidates

2011-09-29T10:44:00.001+05:30

As expected DMK has retained the present Mayor Subramaniam as its Chennai corporation candidate. Given the circumstances, though he is the best choice for DMK, he has to fight hard on several factors -

1.Being the sitting Mayor, he has to face the anti-establishement wave.
2.He is not charismatic enough to fight against the calibre of Saidai Duraiswamy of AIADMK. (Subramani is a councillor who got elected as a mayor and not a direct-elect-mayor)
3.Has to fight against the ruling party might - DMK has less MLA's in the city when compared with AIADMK.

Some of the advantages

1. With Congress,PMK,MDMK and DMDK also in the fray, the split of votes might favor DMK.
2. The disappointment of middle class electorate with the Govt with respect to the uniform education system.
3. Traditional DMK vote bank.

It will be a close race, DMK can win if they do grassroots level hard work, especially in the lost assembly constituencies. PMK's A.K.Moorthy, a former central minister is also a good candidate, who can get a good chunk of votes. Need to see whose votes he is going to split. But as on today AIADMK is ahead based on the ruling party might and the candidates image.

Tamilnadu Local body elections

2011-09-20T21:55:00.000+05:30

As usual AIADMK has announced its candidates early for the TN Local body elections and already has a headstart. Based on the reputation of the candidates atleast on three corpoarations AIADMK has already an advantage.

Chennai - Saidai Duraiswamy
Madurai - Rajan Chellapa
Coimbatore - Velusamy

I will boldly predict Madurai and Coimbatore will be won by AIADMK. In Chennai also AIADMK can win if the opposition (DMK) candidate is weak. The two candidates who can give fight to Saidai Duraiswamy is the present mayor M.Subramanim and former minister Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi. Any one with lesser stature means easy victory for AIADMK.

Some of the Municipality Chairman AIADMK candidates also looks strong. So even without the help of alliance partners we can see AIADMK romping home

But if DMK puts its house in order and if they are energized and motivated by either Kalaignar or Stalin, we can expect a good fight.(If kanimozhi is released sooner it will be a tonic for them). Otherwise it is going to be one-sided fight.

Writing in HubPages too

2011-09-18T10:49:00.007+05:30

Have started writing in Hubpages - a content article writing site. Check out at http://msivakumar.hubpages.com/.

Will continue writing here also. Meanhile you can check few articles which I have written in HubPages

Media Hounding

2011-07-27T10:25:00.005+05:30

Trial by Media has reached epic proportions in the A.Raja case or the 2G Scam. If you are very critical, you can even say that the media's reaction and comments has racial overtones. When the accused is defending and presenitng his side of case, the reporting by media has to be factual - the least expected of them. What is dismaying is that as if the media has already given judgement and executed Raja. Looks like anything that resurrects him or any new person brought into the trial again cannot be tolerated by media. Guess sooner or later something has to be happen (like News of the world episode) to reign in the new age media powerhouses.

Would like to appreciate our good old "The Hindu" who alone seems to know, how to actually "report" a news itesm as it happens. Would be better if all the new age Media channels will learn a thing or two from the legend.

Loss at Lords

2011-07-26T11:39:00.003+05:30

After all the hype and hoopla, it is bitter for the Indian Cricket fans to see the team losing at Lords. Though the result shows that India lost by a huge margin - India could have still managed a draw - its about another 25 odd overs and about one-and-a-half hours of play ... May be if Dravid was there for an hour or more, may be if Gambhir ...may be if Dhoni .......

But I guess the discerning critics saw the defeat coming ..Its all about attitude. We have to honestly admit that India never behaved how as a No 1 team should be. Leave the rankings. It is not aggressive and dominating enough to play as a team which believed themselves.

The disease started at the WI series few weeks back, where the team should have gone for the win on the final day. Lame excuses given by the coach and the captain. In the fourth day at Lords when Ishant was going great guns, he was not given the spell again lame excuse by the captain. With or without Sehwag, the target given by England is achievable by the modern day standards - at least it would have created doubts in the minds of England bowlers and they might be defensive - time and again it has been proved it is difficult to play out a draw - it is better to attack and then try to defend. I am sure, in a similar situation, Australian team under Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting would have played differently. Even Tendulkar went into a shell and could never recover ...

Dhoni's captaincy and communication is not inspiring ...Let us see in the coming weeks ...

TN Election Results

2011-05-15T15:28:00.016+05:30

The results are more or less in the expected lines save some surprises here and there with some close margins:

Unlucky Losers

Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi (DMK)

Saidai Duraiswamy (AIADMK)

Both of them deserved to be in the Assembly. Paruthi losing by 202 votes is especially heartbreaking.

Jinxed Loser

Raja Kannapan (AIADMK)

First with P.Chidambaram and now with Periya Karuppan. Both close calls and he has every reason to believe that he has won. But may be he is paying price for his past sins.

Ruing Losers

S.Muthusamy (DMK)

Sekar Babu (DMK)

Both switching sides to DMK from AIADMK only recently - will be ruing themselves what made them see the brighter in the other side. Surely both of them would have been the winning candidates if only they have stuck to their parnt party ....but ..if only they have known ......

Dismayed Losers

VCK Candidates

KMP (Kongu Munnetra Peravai) Candidates

Two caste based parties ideologically opposite to each other but on the same side drawing blank in the hustles. A lesson or two to be learnt especially for the KMP ...

"Fading Charm" Loser

S.Thirunavukkarasar

Used to win in his constituency in whatever situation - the Lion of Aranthangi -
is in the receiving end this time. Having spent time in almost all the major political parties in the state (except DMK) may be its time for him to surrender to JJ to resurrect his career.

Lucky Winners

SarathKumar

Thaniyarasu

Ernavoor Naryanan

All the above winning in the AIADMK's two leaves symbol with Sarath and EN defeating their more fancied rivals. And Thaniyarasu is likely to be a monster in the making. Let us wait and see.
Corporate Winner

Mafoi Pandiarajan

Having played the spoiler role in the defeat of Vaiko in the Loksabha polls, this time the suave corporate honcho ensured he was elected to the Assembly.

Raja Syndrome ??

2011-03-04T19:25:00.004+05:30

Rajarathnam
A.Raja
Rajat Gupta
Ramalinga Raju

.....is something in their names which makes them vulnerable to millions and billions ??

DMK's Achilles heel

2010-08-10T13:01:00.002+05:30

Wikipedia defines - An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall.

Even for a casual observer of TN politics it is easy to figure out what is wrong in the ruling DMK party. From almost an invincible position just a couple of months ago - with consecutive wins in by-elections, unbelievable money power, powerful media backing - suddenly DMK seems to vulnerable. The success of Jaya's massive meeting in Kovai may not be the only factor. The brazen and open domination of the octogenarian leaders immediate family is an ongoing joke in TN. Maran's, Alagiri's, Stalin's, Kanimozhi's .....and all and sundry of the DMK family member hog the limelight these days. All these are bound to have "some" impact in the silent public.

The business interests of the Karunanidhi's clan are awesome and unbelievable. It will be naive to believe that everything happened through clean hands. Some of the "activities" of the family are :

- SUN TV group including Dinakaran and Kumkumam - Maran Family
- Kalignar TV - Kalaignar Family
- Cloud Nine Movies - Azhagiri's son
- Red Giant Movies - Stalins son
- Sumangali Cable Vision - Maran Family
- Royal Cable Vision/Jak communications - Azhagiri Family
- Spice jet - Maran has around 40% stake

In addition to this assorted interests in furniture retail, two wheeler dealerships, real estate and et all.

The most unbelievable thing is - DMK - a cadre based party and a party with strong second-third rung leaders is at the mercy of one family. The only saving grace is - M.K.Stalin the once much maligned power centre in DMK now looks like an angel compared to the strong arm tactics of his brother Alagiri. All in spite of the party having powerful district secretaries who almost rule their district as a feudal kingdom.

If DMK has to lose the assembly elections 2011 they know who to blame.....

ICC - Howard -Malcom Speed

2010-07-02T00:09:00.003+05:30

This is one of the comments of Malcolm Speed (former ICC president) on the Howard's rejection saga :

"To conclude, let me make a prediction. The ICC head office moved from London to Dubai in 2005. Howard's rejection is a clear sign that the ICC will be based in Mumbai by 2012," he added.

;-) Waiting for that day ....

So what goes around, comes around ......amusing to note that as early (or long ?) as 1992 England and Australia had Veto powers in ICC !!!

And more about Howard :

http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/139495.html

SAP buying Sybase

2010-05-19T10:17:00.001+05:30

SAP buys Sybase – one of the remaining database vendors in the market. This will heat up the competition in the ERP market and will lead to more consolidation (read oligopoly) in the DB market. With most of the DB software are in the hands of the biggies (M$, IBM, Oracle and now SAP) small customers and ISV’s might find difficult to pay the increased costs.

All this augurs well for cloud vendors as increasingly cost conscious customers might switch to cloud. Also it helps to escape fromthe clutches of big vendors - already Oracle is designing strict license terms for ompatible hardware for its poducts.

Among the major ERP vendors SAP is the one which dont have its own DB. Always they had to depend on their rivals DB’s. Now this lacuane is filled. Ironically SAP does not support Sybase DB (yet). SAP sources mention it might take six months to one year to enable the same.

Looks like a good move for Sybase – once SAP is enabled in it DB all they can see is uptick only. This is the advantage of being a “product” company. Even after trailing the major DB vendors by a big margin and even in the recession they made a sales of about $ 800 M and was able to find a attractive buyer ..

Ranji and Duleep trophy finals

2010-02-06T23:32:00.004+05:30

Anybody following local Cricket would agree that this seasons (2009-10) mathces (atleast the finals) were competitive and a great advertisement for cricket. While in the Ranji finals, Mumbai won the match based on its sheer experience (we can equate Mumbai as Australia of Indian Cricket) - what they lack in talent, they make-up with ruthlessness and single mindendness to win. Nothing taking away from Mumbai, I felt its more of Karnataka losing rather than Mumbai winning. On another note I also felt that this years Tamilnadu's team should have been in the final. Except for that one match (QF gainst Delhi) they simply dominated all other matches they played and they should have been in the final. OK, maybe they would have encountered Mumbai in the semis but anyhow .......

Cricinfo's link in the Ranji Final - http://www.cricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague2009/content/story/444048.html

And todays Duleep trophy final, again is lost by South Zone rather than won by Wset Zone. Though Yusuf Pathan has to be credited for his incredible knock, the way South Zone fielded and threw away the match - could have been possible only on two reasons - either they never thought they could win or the match was fixed (and who fixes the local matches ??) ..The match will be remembered for Yousuf's herocis and also for DK's valiant effort in both the innings ....DK's story is reaching the tragic proportions - will he play for India or not (again..) ....or he will just fade away .....

Too cruel for the cricketers ...so near but so far ....

Cricinfo link on the Duleep trohy final -

http://www.cricinfo.com/duleeptrophy2009-10/content/story/447169.html

The top IT companies

2010-01-18T07:28:00.002+05:30

List of the top 12 IT companies which dominate the world in their respective segments :

(not in any particular order)

BCCI and its arbitrary ways

2009-12-12T14:12:00.003+05:30

The BCCI's arbitrary ways of functioning are well known and is well documented. But still few things are perplexing to say the least and there is no signs of acknowledging the mistakes, leave alone correct it.

To start with let us have a look at the local/state teams associations setup. The constituent members of the BCCI are as follows

Tamilnadu
Kerala
Karnataka
Hyderabad, Andhrapradesh
Mumbai, Maharashtra, Vidharbha
Gujarat, Baroda, Saurashtra
Punjab,
Haryana
Rajasthan
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir
Delhi
Uttarpradesh
Orissa,
Bihar
Jharkhand
Madhyapradesh
Assam
Tripura
Railways
Services

The disparity is obvious in the composition of teams of three states - Andhrapradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat - why more than one teams for the above three states only ? May be it is a colonial Hangover. States like Tamilnadu and Karnataka can easily have two teams in the national circuit - one team comprising of the Metro only and the other team comprising from the districts.

Karnataka state cricket associationhave done a good job of nurturing rural talent by having a KPL. Infact if each state has good league system with good interchange of one-day, T20, three day games it will go in a long way in spreading the benefits of the commercialisation of the cricket.

IPL should have started from bottoms-up and gone up - a.la. Americal Basketball/baseball league rather than the current top-heavy structure.

Cricket debuts

2009-11-28T12:47:00.003+05:30

For the cricket aficionado’s – the raw talent of Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath is a treat to watch ….pity that both ended in the losing side ….both are 19 year olds – Sure in the coming days we are going to hear about them more ….

While the Pak vs NZ is a great advertisement of cricket, it is sad to see WI capitulate to Australia within 3 days, inspite of Baraths heroics. Chanderpaul's failure in both the innings is the key moments but I guess Chris Gayles captaincy is uninspiring. May be his doubts on the future of test cricket makes him indifferent to Test cricket. As Ian chappell tells its time WI needs an inspirational captain and who else than the Darren Ganga to do the same ? This can make Chris Gayle focus more on his batting and on his day he may prove to be handful for the Aussie bowlers to handle.

Recommended weight

2009-11-25T11:03:00.002+05:30

The recommended weight based on the height of an individual is given in the following sheet:

On Tamilnadu, an info presentation

2009-11-11T15:44:00.003+05:30

A Zoho show presentation on some very basic facts about Tamilnadu. Will expand this later or add more presentations.

You can visit http://www.zoho.com to try out Zoho Show and other online tools of them.

Fake Office ?

2009-11-08T19:15:00.002+05:30

One of the Microsoft’s top executives recently mentioned that the competitors (Zoho, Google, Zimbra ......among others) online office application offerings as “fake office”.

The response from Zoho is below :

http://www.fakeoffice.org/

Creative, hilarious and head-on, makes you smile when an underdog fights a Gorilla ….

As one person by the name of M.K.Gandhi mentioned :

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you and then you win ......

New Wave of Tamil Films

2009-08-19T18:17:00.004+05:30

Among the new Tamil films released over the past year or so , the following were the good ones -

Subramaniapuram
Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu
Kunguma Poovum Konjum Puravum
Pasanga
Nadodiagl

offbeat themes, different subjects, decent picturization, bold attempts - which should be applauded and rewarded. Very correctly, the public and the critics are unanimous in applauding these films - though the commercial results were mixed, it is good to note the fresh wave of new directors and experimenting producers.

While the above movies are mostly with new faces or with small actors - the so called big budget films and the Stars failed miserably at the box-office - except for Suriya's Aiyan, none of the hyped up films stood up to their billing - this include Kuruvi, Villu, Sathyam, Thoranai, Vaaranam Aayiram .....et all ...

Oracle buys Sun

2009-07-31T14:23:00.002+05:30

Posted on April 21 elsewhere on the news on proposed Oracle's buyout of Sun.

The big news in the techcircle is the Oracles proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems. In all probability it will go through.

Its again the signs of consolidation in the big (bad ?!) world of hitech/computing. IBM was the original bidder and as they harangued over few pennies, the ever predatory Larry Ellison snatched the deal. In one sense its good for the market as it can (sun-oracle combination) check the behemoth that IBM is. On the other hand analysts and Industry watchers are worried about the fact that now Java is actually *owned* by Oracle ! And not to mention about the MySQL the open source database that many SMB’s, academics and ISP’s prefer over that of the *commercial* Oracle.

Its a direct conflict of Interest for Oracle. And one will not be surprised if MySQL was given a quite burial, but I hope it will not happen beacuse of the widespread community base of the MySQL users.

And the other issue is Oracle never had experience in HW and with many enterprises using Sun HW they will be watching with crossed fingers on how Oracle’s strategy on this.

Overall, a good buy for Oracle, good competition for IBM, good value for Oracles shareholders, good suitor for Sun …….but for the Industry whether it is good or bad, have to wait and watch ……

Sivakumar

Caste, Politics and Reservation - Part I

2009-03-25T15:43:00.002+05:30

Caste based politics is not new to TN, or for that fact for India. The more we say we are casteless, religion neutral secular country, the more we practice casteism. Even in this century, even in this IT age. The popular matrimony sites advertise - database of "x" no of castes, "y" no of communities .....and so on. And we are replete with all kinds of "sangams" (associations) who are supposed to take care of their respective castes and in few cases their respective political parties too.

The story of PMK in TN is too well known to be documented - PMK "graduated" to the most-sought-after political ally (usually for different parties in different elections) from its earlier roots of Vanniyar sangam. They are particularly strong in Northern and part of western districts of TN. Even after some of the most politically opportunistic alliance switching - its political base remained intact and whenever major political parties aligned with it, it got benefited.

Few other caste based parties also tried this route albeit with little success. Most of them remained as "letter pad" parties and used it so called power to bargain with political parties for one or two seats or for nothing (but settled for some cash.)

Most of us say we detest caste based politics, but we dont know from where these guys gain strength and confidence. It is particularly depressing to know that even well known Cinema starts (Karthik, Vivek and now Sarathkumar to name a few) tries to use (exploit) the youth of their caste to promote their benefits. (To be fair to him, Vivek is no longer in the forefront of his caste "sangam", Karthik has made a mockery of a Once-a-Nationalist-party into a caste based outfit and Sarathkumar in a none-too-subtle way is wooing his community people with his political outfit, ironically named with "equality")

Representatives of mainstream political parties also play their own caste games especially on micro level which largely gets unnoticed by the mainstream media or at best ignored.

The main demands of these caste based outfits is for more job opportunities and more educational opportunities (read exclusive reservation) for their community. With TN being one of the "advanced and mature" states in "social equality" (whatever it means) not much tinkering can be done in the existing reservation formula (though PMK was able to extract a significant % in the pretext of MBC). As a result most of the caste based political parties doesn't seem to do much actually to the upliftment or welfare of their community people. Instead it remains as a fringe political force and mostly militant in its way in dealing with the other communities, especially with the oppressed classes (in their region). This trend is particularly disturbing as this has caused the affected parties to join or form an outfit of their own (again with their own caste affiliations). The emergence of PB and VCK in the northern districts and PT in the southern districts is an indication for this (PB - Puthiya Bharatham, VCK - Viduthalai chirruthaigal, PT- Puthiya Tamizhagam ).

As though all this is not enough, TN is witnessing the next wave in the heady cocktail of caste and politics - the emergence of a political outfit for Kongu Vellalars, known as Gounders and the FEBAS, the Federation of Brahmin association of South India.

More on this on the next posting ...

Is English necessary for a nations development ?

2009-03-14T06:29:00.003+05:30

If I have to answer this in one word its a BIG NO. Since there are lot of ifs & buts and assumptions associated with it - will elaborate a little bit.

First, why NO ? To guage a nations development - language is not a metric or criteria - industrialization, education, standard of living are some of the metrics. With respect to this if you see the G-5, G-7, G-8 or G-20 group of countries - majority of the countries (in each group) are non-English countries. In fact English as a native language is only for a handful of countries - UK, USA, Australia, Canada, New zealand South Africa and few others.

Countries like Germany, Russia, Japan, China, France,Italy, India etc .. are all world's advanced economies and no way they can say the development (or the non-development) is because of English. For Engineering, the benchmark is Germany, for quality the bench mark is Japanese, for cost effective - China, Taiwan, worlds sweetest language - Italian, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Telugu, Tamil - opinions differ, but not English ....So English is not a differentiating factor. No doubt English is established itself as a language of business and to an extent language of technology. But it doesn't mean that English alone can bring prosperity or growth to a nation. It is a good second language. Thats it.

With respect to Indian situation vis-a-vis English - ONE BIG MYTH that is created and being circulated - English is the reason for our (recent) growth and success. Nothing can be far from truth. In fact this (misguided) over-dependence on English is actually holding us back on the development. People will argue that the IT, ITS, ITES ($) revenues are all because of English. My personal opinion on this is it is nothing but a glorified clerical service and bodyshopping. What we earn on this is peanuts when compared to what we could have. The problem is we dont have any IP/Patent/Invention. We dont invest/develop worldclass products. Germany built SAP. Japs created SONY. We dont have a world class BRAND (yet). To build that you dont need English. You need native intelligence. Which we have. But which is blurred because of dependence on English.

The limiting factor is - our higher education not being in ones mother tongue. Even - to understand the concepts - one has to be proficient in a foreign language (English) and then master the subject - this is pretty difficult for somebody who is switching to English Medium at the college level. The creative ability of one diminishes if he/she is forced to think in another language.

Also, on the English/British education system - its again a forced one on us (by British and Christian missionaries). My personal opinion on this is - it creates very good clerks and followers (and restricts creative thinking). It is to the credit of our native intelligence (common sense?) that we were able to overcome most of its limitations and be able to grow.

Before the English/British style education we had the Gurukul style of schooling. It will be another topic/debate on the merits and demerits of it. The one good thing I could think of the present (English/British) education system is it helped to eradicate few social barriers. But at what cost ? At the cost of our Mother Tongue(s).....which I feel is very costly .....

It is a pity that our medium of instruction has to be in English (a foreign language) instead of our Mother tongue. This in spite of being one of the advanced civilizations in the world - be it architectural wonders (Tanjore temples), engineering feats (Kallanai dam) or in medicine, literature etc. For almost two to three generations and more as a nation/state we have to endure this ignominy and the worst thing is we take pride in it. The slow death of our Mother tongues is an unpardonable sin we are doing to our forefathers, culture and civilization.

We are going to have one generation of people (are already we have ?) who is neither proficient in English (but they think they are good at it) nor good at their own mother tongue (for which they are proud of (!)) and have little or no knowledge of their nations main language.

Conflict of Interest and the right behaviour ...

2009-03-03T12:09:00.002+05:30

Almost an endangered species in the morality, even the most refined individuals at times find it difficult to behave correctly when any conflict of interest arises. Few examples (on how to handle it) which comes to my mind immediately are :

1. During our college days, EEE HOD is our controller of examinations (or equivalent to that). So happened his son (our immediate junior) is also the student of the college. I remember him not entering the examination hall whenever his son wrote the exams. May be he is legally bound - but morally that set an good example.

2. P.Chidamabaram, initially when offered the textiles industry ministry apparently declined because his friends and family had lots of interests in the textile business and he felt a conflict of interest may arise.

There are lots of unwritten rules on how the professionals should behave when it comes to handling the conflict of interest - especially the likes of lawyers, auditors, doctors etc. Above all, Media is supposed to behave without any conflict of interest - i.e without any affiliation to any political party, business, religion and more than that - reporting news as news and not "opinions".

Though there are slight deviations here and there, print media more or less behaved/behaving in a professional manner. Advent of electronic media and the profileration of news channels changed this - instead of news we started to hear Rajdeep Sardesai opinion's, Barkha Dutt's opinions. To be fair to them though they went overboard in the news reporting, never any ulterior motives were suspected or alluded (again there were some doubts in the behind-the-camera-scandal-exposures about the intention and the timings).

But it all pales into insignificance when compared to the behaviour of the major cable channels in Tamilnadu. Due to their political affinities, the default behaviour and the reporting of SUN and Jaya TV are only on the expected lines ...nothing extraordinary expected from them ...though in "ideal conditions" if they behaved differently (neutrally) from their political affiliations it would have been great. I guess nobody bothered and not even other media found it worth to "advise" them to toe the unofficial media dharma (of being neutral in reporting). And infact during election time they almost behaved as an official news channel of the respective political parties rather than a general media serving the public.

Not only in politics, even in film reviews and promotions, the political partiality was obvious. Thotti Jaya and Sachien - two reasonably decent movies was blacked out in SUN channels (because the producer Dhanu was from MDMK).

The arrival of Kalignar TV and the increasing interest of the heir apparents (Kalanidhi Maran/Dayanidhi Maran, Udhaiyanidhi Stalin, Dayanidhi Azhagiri all own film production or film distribution uints) of the TN's first political family in the film production and the film distribution business has further aggravated the situation and what we are witnessing is anarchy and sometimes bordering to comical too. Average movies like Kadhalil Vizhundehen, Dindugal Sarathy was promoted to dizzying heights in SUN channel. Varanam Ayuiram is ignored in SUN, while Padikadhavan is ignored in Kalignar. Both Kalignar and SUN ignored "Kadhalna Summa Illa" - a movie produced by Raj TV group (Infact, this movie a remake of the Telugu hit Gamyam is one of the better movies of the pongal release).

When the politics and cinema of a whole state is controlled (or likely to be controlled) by a Single Family ....hmmmm .....let us see what the future beholds for "Tamizhagam" ....

Top ten strength and weakness of India

2008-10-24T22:16:00.002+05:30

Top Ten Weakness of India now :

Religion based conflicts
Caste based conflicts
Language conundrums
Bureaucratic apathy
Public sector institutes inefficiency
Inefficient higher education
Pathetic primary/lower education
Lack of adequate health infrastructure
General infrastructure
Awareness (or lack of it)

Top Ten strengths of India :

People - strong willed
Vibrant private sector
Institutions - judiciary, press, banks ...
Technology adoption
Cultural superiority
Tolerance
Cricket
Respect and goodwill from other countries
Freedom
Legendary resilience

Minnows vs Giants

2008-08-25T19:16:00.002+05:30

Check this out . Some interesting numbers and can be a good e-mail forward ;-)

http://blogs.zoho.com/uncategorized/why-we-compete-with-google/

The above is a blog posting by Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho . Zoho is from AdventNet where yours truly worked. (And the current company is GoFrugaltech is also from the same stable ......)

Zoho folks code their stuff from Velachery ........So next time when you cross Velachery feel proud that few geeks are taking the giants head-on .........

Cricinfo - the No1 cricket website

2008-08-20T19:36:00.002+05:30

Contributed this to another blog on June 11, 2007:

Today's hot news - cricinfo.com being bought by ESPN. As you all know cricinfo is one of the premier cricketing sites - established very early - had its origins dating back to 1993 - and is very popular even today - its is the undisputed No 1. cricketing website today.

Am always a Great fan of Cricinfo. During the initial years of its usage was surprised to find out that an Indian is behind its operations. Yes, the bulk of the cricinfo can be credited to Badri Seshadri - an IIT ian of our age (passed out 1989 or 1990 I guess), Salem native - very passionate guy of cricket. He is the guy who is credited for the script which gives the ball-by-ball commentary. During the early days, the scores used to come from the ground to IRC chat and then to cricinfo website. Now I guess they use more direct way of feeding the data. Great coverage, excellent data, indepth news and comments - an avid cricket fan cannot ask more than this.

Initially Sify had a stake, then wisden was running it for four years and now ESPN. Guess cricnfo will get better and better. The only thing that saddens me is the non-association of Badri in all these evolution of cricinfo.

Smart and dumb politics ?

2008-08-19T16:05:00.004+05:30

Currently the smartest political personalities around :

Pervez Musharaf (for quitting the presidencey at correct time)
Vladimir Putin/Medvedev (for their quick and decisive action against Georgia)
Narendra Modi (keeping Gujarat quiet after the blasts and nabbing the mastermind behind the Ahmedabad bomb blasts)

And the Dumbest :

George Bush (as usual …..)
John McCain (for wrongly thinking that Georgia will help him and for lifting some of the wikipedia stuff for his political speeches)
L.K.Advani (for appreciating Narendra Modi for his role in nabbing the terrorist …..have a feeling that he will end up as the eternal prime-minister-in-waiting …

Bill Gates Retiring

2008-06-27T13:01:00.003+05:30

Microsoft chairman Bill gates is retiring today. It would be cliche to say that an era is coming to end. Microsoft and Bill Gates generates extreme reactions. One section revers him as almost equalling him to God and the other section crucifies him as an evil. While both are extremes, one has to just wonder how as a company Microsoft could survive let alone dominate for such a long time. Is it because of smart business acumen, visionary marketing might or just plain sheer luck ? No doubt they are the smartest business people but if at all they have to give credit for their success they must first give it to their competitors. It is the incompetency of the competitors that made Microsoft such a big giant.

See the facts - they didn't invent any (D)OS, GUI operating system was in vogue in Apple long back, spread sheet, word processor, browser ....all the applications are developed by somebody else first. In fact world had a better OS than Windows even 30 years back - bug free, virus free and even FREE of money. Smart marketing by M$ or bad marketing by others ? In fact at one point of time M$ even had the audacity to charge customers for seeing its ads (for its Widows 95 commercials !!). Apple and Sun always had much better and stable products ....

M$ had its share of friends too and what a friendship it is .......they worked for M$ without getting salary from M$ ...it is like all the salesmen of Intel, Dell, Compaq, HP etc.. etc.. worked for M$ but got salary from their respective companies. Growth of these companies fuelled MS's growth and along with, its office suite and allied applications.

Only the advent of Internet, Linux & open source initiatives and the Java phenomenon could stunt the growth of Microsoft. Otherwise it could have been a behemoth of unimaginable proportions ...

Like all fairy tales the story has to end some day ....difficult days ahead for Steve Ballmer and co .. Vista has flopped ...Yahoo deal failed ...(even if its through it would have been a hopeless deal as Google still dominates the online ad space almost monopolistically) ...Almost a no show in the PMP (IPOD) segment (its Zune pales in comparison with iphone/ipod's) .....Google, Apple, Amazon leads in the "cloud computing" - the new buzzword, more and more credible open-source initiatives - all these are adding pressure to M$. Apart from this it has to battle the rejuvenated Apple (wiser after the years) and the new kid Google - and not to forget the old rival - Sun. Or so we think ??

In the increasingly (digital) convergent and mobile world it is difficult to predict who is going to the prime mover - competition comes from many areas - Google, Apple, Nokia, Sony, Amazon, Sun ...all has potential to dethrone the reigning king. Personally I would rate the first two as the forerunners to the throne.

Sujatha - My All time favorite

2008-02-28T12:54:00.004+05:30

Sujatha, aka Rangarajan, one of the prolific and great writers of Tamil and my all time favorite passed away yesterday night. He was 72. A path breaker in all senses, he had a great influence in the Tamil literary (both modern and traditional) scene for over four decades. A Engineer by profession, he had the rare combination of being proficient in Tamil (literary, contemporary, modern) as well as in Technology. Widely read and knowledgeable, he presented all his knowledge in simple Tamil and inspired a whole generation.

He came as whiff of fresh air in the times when the Tamil writing was dominated by Social/family dramas or historical novels. His unique style of writing with the uncanny adoption and identification with the masses - their way of talking, behavior, mindset and the slang included in his writings made him immensely popular cutting across the segments.

His contribution to the popularization of technology is immense - starting with his Silicon Chip writing in Dinamani Kadhir and Yen, Yedharku, Eppadi in Junior vikatan - he seemed to have time for anything and everything. At one point of time his writing alone sold most of the Tamil weeklies and Journals - he was writing in Vikatan, Kumudham, Kungumam, Kalki and Dhinamani Kadhir almost simultaneously. Later he contributed as script/screenplay writer in several Tamil movies. His notable movies include Vikram, Thiruda Thiruda, Boys and Sivaji. Most of his early novels/stories are made as movies - notable include Priya, Gaytri, Karaiyellam Senbagapoo...

Versatile and gifted he will be mostly remembered for variety of novels, stories, essays he contributed. He introduced Haiku poetry to the Tamil audience. Brought up in Srirangam, Trichy and who spent most of the later part of life in Bangalore he described both the places vividly in his various writings. Among his popular novels are Pirivom Sandhipom (not related to the recent movie on the same name), Rathham ore niram, Kolaiyudhir Kaalam among others.

Last but not least, he immortalized the Ganesh-Vasanth - the imaginary advocate pair being the main characters in most of his detective, semi-detective stories. Ganesh being a level-headed, senior advocate with Vasanth being his flirtatious Junior advocate made a fascinating reading in most of the contemporary situations his novels dealt with.

In his later days he restricted his writing to essays such as Katradhum-Petradhum which again was a hit with audience. He was more into reading in his later days especially on the old rare Tamil writings as well as the latest developments on IT and computing. Not to forget the fact that in his younger days he was involved in the design of the Electronic Voting Machine used in the Indian Elections. Surely a man of versatility and knowledge.

A compulsive smoker (Wills Filter) and a two-time-Heart-attack survived person he was not afraid of death - he was neither philosophical about it - he lived the life to its full - enjoying himself and contributing to the society in terms of sharing his knowledge. May be he could have lived a decade or more for his numerous fans .....

One of his touching writings I remember is about the early (infant) death of his younger sister and a still-born daughter - he dedicated one of his writings to them - the only time he was sentimental in any of his writings. I can still recollect the exact words - மரித்த என் தங்கைக்கும் மலராது மறைந்த என் மகளுக்கும் இதை சமர்பிக்கிறேன் - May his soul rest in peace in joining them.

[ps - posted some of the contents from the above to the Wikipedia Sujatha page - very few people (in fact it is just two ;-) who have read (both) though that I copied the content from wikipedia, I have to convince them it is not so and its the other way around ..so in case you read wikipedia and also this and feel that some of the contents are same, dont think I plagiarised the content - the contents are same becuase the author is same]

Evolution of Cricket

2007-09-22T22:38:00.001+05:30

Fascinating and amusing to see the evolution of cricket. Used to be a leisurely six-day-game (!) once upon a time - remember, they used to have a rest day for the games in the sub-continent. Score of 200+ is a well played game. Advent of one-day games introduced some aggression. Yet, the old one-day games - some of them 60 overs a match (till 1983 world cup) looks like a mini-test matches when compared with the T20 games today !

Glut of one-day games, day-night matches, colored dresses - all well documented evolution of cricket did made the game interesting but still the old world charm for the test cricket has not ended. The plight of the players have to be sympathized as no other game needs this kind of adjustment for the games they play - test match, one-day, T20 ....not to talk about the different climate, pitch conditions.

Cricket will have its share of criticisms - but it will continue its evolution and keep enthralling us.

The hunter becomes hunted

2007-09-22T14:54:00.001+05:30

Six to seven months have been a long period ! The world has turned upside down for SUN TV or so I think ! Just recapping the major events happened in the intervening period :

Dinakaran carried a survey on after Kalignar who is the likely successor in the DMK. The survey results showed that majority (70%) in favour of Stalin, around 2% each for Kanimozhi and Azhagiri and 20% for others.
The 20% apparently disguised for Dhayanidhi maran
Azahgiri clan was not too happy with the results and ransacked the Madurai Dinakaran office killing around 3 people in theprocess.
Dayanidhi Maran removed from the Central Govt
Launch of Kalignar TV announced
Sharath, the earlier architect of SUN TV was roped in to architect/consult Kalaignar TV
SUN TV and its bouquet, who earlier refused to play ball with TATA SKY now announces that their channels are available with TATA SKY
Kalaignar TV launched
Several Marquee composers, technicians, shift loyalty to Kalignar TV
SUN Group announces its own DTH services
Cable operators protest - showdown with SCV and DTH service providers
Govt announces it can "operate" its own Cable network and DTH service ...

And so the saga continues ......

Amusing to say the least ....A fight between the family group results in a showdown like this !
Few things that begs answer - who owns Kalaignar TV ? Why does DMK party promotes it ? Wont there be any conflict of interest ?

When the Chennai streets are stinking with the Garbage, does the Govt needs this kind of indulgence in primarily what is a commercial activity ?

Back after a Gap

2007-08-23T17:13:00.000+05:30

Kind of in hibernation for some period. Work load, family load et all. Usual excuses. From June have been traveling widely - mainly in the west zone. Been to Mumbai thrice, Vadoadara and Pune - all work related. Not able to explore the full areas but started loving Mumbai and its hectic pace of life. Experienced the famed Mumbai rains, understood the complex train network that carries Mumbai, visited a Bandra bar with an old friend ........still a lot to explore in Mumbai.

Will write more about Mumbai, Pune and in General more frequently...of course if time and my two little daughters permits.

Infosys bashing - II

2007-03-09T16:30:00.000+05:30

More credible articles/blogs on the Infosys bashing and in general emphasizing on the importance of being a product driven economy:

http://windia.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-infosys-cant-be-product-making.html
http://windia.blogspot.com/2006/08/is-world-flat.html
http://www.webyantra.net/2006/08/28/infosys-takes-to-corporate-blogging%e2%80%a6trying-to-be-noticed-in-the-web20-world/
http://www.amitranjan.com/2005/07/15/infosys%e2%80%99s-global-dreams-%e2%80%93-diagnosing-its-achilles-heel/

Infosys bashing

2007-03-09T13:17:00.000+05:30

It is not easy being in the top. Everybody throws stones and mud at you .....its your choice to respond or to ignore ......Infosys bashing is becoming a favorite past time for many of us .....but the truth is most of them are valid ...if not all ....

No doubt Infosys is a great company, Narayanamoorthy is an icon and they may have generated a great amount of wealth but it is still a looooong way to be compared with a giant like IBM and other tech biggies. Simple reason - Infosys is not a company which generates "value" and spawns an "ecosystem". It is just a user of technology, provider of services in an efficient, professional, quality and cheaper way and makes an enormous amount of money (legally and ethically).

It is still in the tier-II of the software service providers and has a long way to go to be in the league of EDS, HP and IBM the top troika among the service providers. It comes nowhere near in the league of Microsoft, Oracle and SAP in terms of product innovation and global domination. Neither it is an innovator in the tecnology space like Google, Yahoo or Apple. Worse it cannot even come near to some middle level software product companies like BEA Weblogic, Symantec et all. And then there are a host of technology leaders like Intel, CISCO, Nortel. Where does Infosys stand among these. Are we just overhyping and overplaying a simple minor software service provider whose only advantage is dollar-rupee differential and does the job given to him in a perfect way - typical of an Indian clerk ? One point to be noted is - it is listed in NASDAQ as not as a software product/services company but as an "Technology Consulting company".

Where is the "value" ? Where is the "ecosystem" any major company provides. Both Infosys and our Software companies in general dosn't even provide one tenth of what the old economy companies provide in terms of eco-system. An industry like Automobile manufacturer spawns a network of auto component manufacturers, dealers, suppliers, infrastructure suppliers and the like - it generates a multitude of investment opportunities and wealth. Our $oftware companies are not able to sustain this kind of system - in fact it doesn not benefit any of the locals at all. Most of the Infosys type companies use Dell or IBM computers, CISCO switches et all, thus benefitting the global behemoths and not helping any of the Indian counterparts.

Is Infy aworld beater with its 69,000 employess ?- what is its employee-to-turnover ratio. How does it compare with Google, Microsoft and Apple or with IBM, CISCO and Oracle. Do they have an ecosystem that spans across the channels .....meaning any dealers or resellers selling Infosys products, any training institutes that teaches Infosys products, any desktops or servers that carry Infy's products ? Any free downloadable version of Infy's products ........... It is just a body shopping company that makes a ton of money by easy dollars .....but kills innovation among the India IT enginners.

Leaving aside all those - I doubt Infosys can survive this model for the next twenty or twenty five years - I doubt whether they will be able to celebrate their 50th anniversary - leave alone in the much same fanfare as they did their twenty-fifth anniversary.

Farmers and the Free Power

2007-02-26T23:02:00.000+05:30

The "free power scheme" is in vogue for longtime now in TamilNadu. In AP, it was brought back by YSR when he became the chief minister. In Punjab, Akali Dal promises free power back to farmers when it comes back to "power". In MP, restoration of free power scheme during the last Assembly Elections invoked the ire of High Court. PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh is always opposed to the free power. Why this scheme is such an explosive and politically sensitive issue?

In general, the tendency is to put the farmers in the poor light, because they are seeking something "free" and when it is withdrawn they are protesting against it. To be fair to the farmers, they are one of the simple, hardworking and honorable class of people you can find anywhere. And like any honorable people they do feel hurt if they are branded as someone who wants everything free.

Majority of the farmers depend either on the canal water (water from dams, tanks and rivers - called as command area) or the ground water (open wells, deep bore wells - called as dry land) for the irrigation. The general opinion was that the cost of cultivation of a dry land farmer was much higher than that of a command area farmer.

Thanks to the successive monsoon failures, the ground water table has gone down. As a result, farmers have to dig up to 1,000 ft (atleast in TN) to get water. In effect, most farmers will have pumpsets of five to ten horsepower. So the overall cost of the cultivation increases. In fact, even if there is a bumper crop for the farmer, especially the small and marginal ones will not benefit due to the fall in prices of his produce and also of the increased input costs.

While the canal water is subsidised by the Govt.(meaning there is a cost involved in the management and distribution of the canal water - which is not passed on to the farmers) the well water used for irrigation was not subsidised. So the argument is - power supply to agricultural pump sets should be free.

The strong feeling among the farmers community is to have the subsidy continued. The other points they put forward in favor of their opinion:

1. The power supply to the farmers is only free for the irrigation purposes and not for the household uses.
2. Power supply is used for ground water tapping and it has helped to cultivate waste lands and drought-hit areas to the benefit of the country.
3. If farmers do not get subsidy in any form, while their counterparts in foreign countries are getting it, how will they be able to compete?
4. The loss to SEB's (State Electricity Boards) is not due the free power scheme (as projected in certain circles) but mainly due to the transmission loss and power theft.
5. The non-farming electricity users (household, industries) continue to get all sorts of subsidies why should we alone have to bear the brunt.

I am not articulating the other side of the argument as it is well known ........(nothing should be free, atleast cost should be borne, .....et all)

My personal opinion and comments are:

1. India is a land of vast rural tract, in the ratio of 70 : 30 (Rural vs Urban) and the country's stake in agriculture is simply too large. It should not be at the mercy of whims and fancies of politicians.
2. Serious thoughts should be given on Rural Economics - the unbridled dog-eat-dog Market Economics is not going to help the farmers.
3. Even in advanced countries (US included) farmers are heavily subsidised and protected. So there is nothing wrong if we have to protect our farmers.
4. Instead of absolute free power - nominal charge for farmers can be brought in.
5. Income tax for rich farmers can be introduced. The income generated can be used to offset against the loss incurred in the free power. (Income tax for farmers is another explosive issue with its own problems ...)

Overall, we require a far more understanding and empathy to handle this issue instead of blind rhetorics.

The emerging Media Monopoly in South India

2007-02-26T22:26:00.000+05:30

Readers in today’s (Feb 26, 2007) The Hindu wouldn’t have missed a full page ad showing Dinakaran as the No.1 daily in the Tamil language, displacing the Dhina Thandhi - the venerable Tamil daily started by late C.P.Adithanar. Guess most of you are aware that Dinakaran is now owned by SUN TV group, the emerging Media Moghul of South India.

Just see the media interests of SUN group below:

Dinakaran – the No 1 Tamil daily (morning)
Tamizh Murasu – the No1 Tamil Daily (eveninger)
Kumkumam – one among the top three Tamil Weekly
Suryan FM and S FM – the FM stations operating from Chennai, Coimbatore , Thirunelveli in TN, Hyderabad and Vizag in AP, Bangalore and Jaipur.
SUN TV, K TV, Sun Music, Sun News – the bouquet of Tamil channels
Gemini TV, Gemini Music, Teja TV, Teja news – the bouquet of Telugu Channels
Udaya, Ushe, Hdaya News, Udaya vardhagulu – the bouquet of Kannada Channels
Surya and Kiran – the Malayalam channels
SCV – Sumangali Cable Vision – the cable network covering most of the places in TN
Several other small magazines like Mutharam, Vannathirai and few other smaller TV channels.

It is obvious that it has mind blogging err… boggling domination in the TV, Audio and the Print Media and not to mention its interest in the cable distribution as well.

And what are its future plans? Anybody’s guess…..to take this domination further … it has plans to take a Direct to Home license – both the players in the DTH segment now (Dish TV and TATA Sky) don’t carry SUN group bouquet of channels. And again the group is planning to take a majority of license in the community FM services and if it materializes it will enable its reach to almost every nook and corner.

The other related area in which right now it doesn’t have its presence is ISP or Internet distribution (any time SCV will be able to do a Hathway kind of job), Mobile Media and online Internet content. With its deep pockets, political connections and ruthless execution it is not impossible for them to get what they want in the near future if they decide to enter this segment also - Aircel, Chennai Online, Sulekha Classifieds could be their potential takeover targets.

The purpose of this posting is not debate the merits and demerits of the almost monopoly dominance the SUN TV group is getting into. It got into this situation by being the early entrant (guess from 1992 onwards), good vision, good business acumen and execution.

May be having your Grand Father as a CM and your (late) father and brother as union ministers would have helped here and there, but none can take the credit away from Mr.Kalanidhi Maran in building such a big empire.

But still there are a lot of questionable practices followed by them in this growth period. In a series of postings I will be highlighting them with my perspective.