Monday, August 27, 2012

Well, Manmohan Singh might

finally be caught in the UPA web; that is an irony!

The chronology of the allocation process tells its own story, and goes some way towards demolishing Manmohan Singh’s case that since his government was only abiding by the policy drawn up in 1993, the original sin lies elsewhere. Between 1993 and 2005, during which period, India was barely stirring itself out of the slow-growth orbit and demand for coal wasn’t as high (and China’s own demand for mineral resources from around the world had not yet become monstrous),  only 70 coal blocks were allocated. But between 2004 and 2009, with coal prices soaring  on increased demand, principally from within India and from China, the UPA 1 government went into overdrive, allocating 142 coal blocks.

More tellingly, a flurry of allocations was made around the time of the May 2009 elections. In more than a few cases, as has been established, they were not even companies that had a track record in the mining space. Clearly, the attempt was to corner the coal blocks before a transparent system of auctions was implemented, sit on the hoard that they had thus secured, and sell them at a later date when prices rose even higher. Mining the coal from the “wombs of Mother Earth” as P Chidambaram so colourfully put it, was farthest from their minds.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Ugra

Usually, I am not a huge fan of Ugra's writing. But this is once I totally agree with her

Sixteen years after all is an entire generation - in 16 years, toddlers turn into teenagers, teenagers into the thirty-somethings, yuppies into the weary middle-aged. Sixteen years can be life-changing. Like thatpartnership in Kolkata. They did it, remember? Turned 'bat the whole day' from idiom to reality.
It is why the first stirrings of India's 2012 10-Test home season will contain, before everything else, the hollowness of departure. Like the turning away from a farewell handshake, the shutting of a door, the quiet after a goodbye on the telephone.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Another part of

the great batting quartet retires. Well, now all we will have is Tendulkar.

Laxman was a great contributor to Indian cricket victories. He played THE Innings by an Indian batsman; I think it will take a lot to beat that innings. He played many great ones too in chasing totals which is something none of the Indian batsman have mastered, By retiring the way hed did he ha sent out a message to the selectors that they are not planning for the future. It is unfortunate that players have to retire to force the selectors to make changes. 

Anyway, for today it is goodbye to VVS Laxman, a soft spoken Hyderabadi who made batting look elegant and easy at the same time. Probably he is the last specialist test batsman from India. 

Friday, August 17, 2012

Now even the PM

is caught in the corruption scandals. Good for UPA! This ensures all their leaders are consistent. It does not matter that the aspect of their consistency is corruption!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Can't disagree

with Aakash Chopra on this one

India are about to begin a very long home season, and this selection could have been used to make a statement of intent. Unfortunately, the out-going selection committee didn't see it as an opportunity; maybe they looked at it as a liability.

Full piece here

Another decent piece on the topic by Manjrekar

 

 

 

Seriously?

The unprecedented ethnic violence in Assam and the subsequent riots in Mumbai have created a scare in the Bodos living in Hyderabad.

Over 1,000 persons hailing from the north-eastern state, mostly Bodo tribals and working as security guards here, have fled the city fearing attacks from a particular community. More are likely to leave in the next few days leaving the private security industry in the state perplexed.

I would like to call a spade a spade. if Bangladeshi Muslims attacked Bodos in AP why can't the new article mention that? why should they use the ridiculous veil of a particular community. This is just double standard reporting of news

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

India is not alone; quebec runs close

If you think politicians in India are the ones making bad calls well Quebec politicians are not far behind. 

Read the news here

SNC is a big company. They hire a CEO to run the company. PQ leader suggests that he should learn French. Yeah right. He will be so free running the company he will invest the next 4 years learning a language. What a waste of his time and resources. Cant the people here see how the PQ leaders are just pandering? Do the people of Quebec want a CEO who will make profits and improve jobs for Quebekers or a CEO who learns French and destroys the company. Because, no CEO has time to learn French and also work on his job. So until Quebekers realize how pandering to their linguistic needs is harming them and future geenrations Quebec will remain behind the rest of Canada.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Olympics

We ended up with 6 medals. Well the rewards at Olympics will be closely tied to the infrastructure provided for our athletes. I think 6 is fair for what facilities are provided to our athletes. But to take the sanctimonious tone as this guy takes is what is wrong with our system.

Nirmal Sekar makes some very valid points in his piece here

But the truth is, it is we who let them down. For, we don’t care about them for three years and eleven-and-a-half months. We don’t care about their impecunious circumstances, their heroic struggles, their fight against-the-odds and battles with cynical, self-serving sports administrators heading often corrupt sports bodies.

Instead, we spend sleepless nights over whether Chennai Super Kings would make it to the final of the IPL or whether a mediocre also-ran cricketer really did take recreational drugs at some rave party in Mumbai; or whether Yuvraj Singh is dating the latest Miss India or some other starlet whose only claim to fame is that she was seen with a cricketing superstar on a night out.

My dear readers, let us get real. We have failed the Koms and the Yogeshwars and the rest as much as we seem to believe that many Indian athletes have failed us. They don’t owe us as much as we owe them.

Can't argue with that!

 

Thursday, August 09, 2012

I am still young

Well I am over 30 now; an age I believed was old (naturally when i was under 30). 

Today something happenned that made me smile like a 20 year old. Probably what they say about age is true; you are as old as your heart.

A trip down memory lane.. 2004.. final year Btech

I chose to do my minor in Operations Research. Being from Civil that wa n't the smartest plan especially given that we do not do any probability class. So, it was no surprise that I sucked at the final year OR class which required a lot of probability. Not to mention the teacher was n't the greatest. There was only reason to go to class. There was a pretty lady (doing her graduate education at that time) who used to walk by in front of the door during the class. So, with a lot of effort (it was a lot of effort in 4th year) i used to go to class find a seat from where I can see her for the 15 seconds. 

Present time..

I attend a random family function. I see a lady on the stage who was quite pretty.. and then she seemed familiar. I was like I know her. I have seen her before. And it all came back to me. I wasn't sure though. It was too hard to believe. I mean such a small world was too unbelievable. So, I go up to her (it was hard!) and ask her did you study at IIT M by any chance. She replies in telugu. yes I did. I was stunned and then amazed at my own memory. It was fun to be the 21 year old kid who required so little to be happy. I would give anything to remain in the state of bliss I was in when I was in campus during my 4th year. Life only gets harder with every passing moment. But when such moments can be relived it feels a tad easier (even if for a short time).

Of course all it took was one email to bring me back very quickly; but i still had a happy 10 minutes that nobody can take away!

Only one man

can do this to me. I dont even know why i am surprised. It seemed all to easy; it sure was fickle. It was a heavy blow this time and for the first time I have decided to put an end to it. I do not care; I will figure out a way to live.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Isn't this true always

 

But people still sometimes ask me, why can’t they assimilate more? Dress like us. Talk like us. Perhaps, some seem to believe, that would prevent the sort of tragedy that happened in Wisconsin. I never have an easy answer. But I do know this: to wipe away what has come before, who we have been over the centuries, also means to forget who our own mothers and fathers were. It means that how they conducted their lives — the families they raised, the homes they built — didn’t matter. It denies us that basic human impulse, to remember their stories, the unique timbre of their voices. It would be as if they had never existed at all.

Full link here

 

Can anybody question this?

The Indian economic story is no longer just a tragedy. It is a farce and a tragedy.

See the full piece by nageswaran here on the grand schemes to be soon unleashed by this government.

Nice Video

Get ready to fork out

more tax. Now that all the necessary money for the Grand schemes of UPA have led o a fiscal deficit. They will follow the obvious alternative to reduce fiscal deficit. Reduce welfar spending. Really, fell for that. Common my friend think like a congressman. They will increase taxes. Yes, the pain of the fiscal deficit should be shared by everybody... except the poor... who will vote for Congress because they throw peanuts to the poor to ensure they are slavishly tied to the financial resources form the great old party. Of course all of this is accomplished while ensuring they remain poor.

The secular intellectuals will continue to support the Congress because they do not invoke communal riots. Forget Assam, the minorities are the ones attacking; so that does not count. Forget millions of indians (and subsequnet generations) losing opportunities to lead a reasonable life. A process more costlier than the mere value of "Secularism" as follwed in India. The parody continues. 

10 trillion

in wasted money. Is this enough or does the Congress led givernment have to spend some more for the people to realize what we have lost in the last 8 years.

Well, dont expect much.. 2014 will not change anything. Congress will continue to be in power and money will continue to be spent wasted ; remember Prince Rahul will take over!

Sunday, August 05, 2012

There must be an element of truth

in this.

I am sure, some of the stuff is an exaggeration; but the crux of the story remain true. So called seculars ensuring their vote bank shares by following a policy of "choose to ignore" if the issue benefits us.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

What can you say

when an exdirector of IIT provides this as a remedy for improving IITs


Going forward, the IITs should concentrate on PG education. The IITs produce only about 1% of India's undergraduate engineers, but contribute 90% of India's MTechs and 95% of the PhDs. Since privileged IIT BTechs do not prefer to pursue PG studies in the IITs, national interest demands that the IITs should consider making it mandatory for the entrants to commit to dual degrees when they take admission.
Full piece here

I am pleased this is an ex-director! Thank God for that!

Good to see

such innovative measures of truth in governance!

A commendable piece of journalism!

You can't put it better than

here by Nageswaran at TGS

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Life

Well, as I begin my journey into the 30s, I am not sure if I should be happy or feel scared about life. It is a weird age to be I guess. I have to be responsible and yet I feel I am young. Anyway, lets see how the life turns out from now on.

Another TRB season draws to a close. This one has been pretty stressful for me and more so for my wife. But it is done now; tomorrow I am heading home and looking forward to some good food and lots of sleep.

In the meantime, the crap that is the government in India continues as usual. I have no energy even to complain; so i will let it die.