Alliance University in Bangalore .. "out of awe ..."

A recently new and beautiful campus exists in Bangalore, http://alliance.edu.in  

I got the opportunity to meet the Director of Alliance University, Mr. Sudhir Angur, B.Tech (IITB), PGDM ( IIMA) last week. This private University in Anekal on the Karnataka-TN border is set to go great heights and places in the next few years ..  see the video to catch a glimpse of the world class campus .. http://bus.alliance.edu.in/asp/wt.asp

The chancellor is Dr Madhukar Angur, NITK, IIMA and Ph.D. Uty of Texas (Austin). Dr. Angur was the David M. French Distinguished Professor in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan for many years ..   http://alliance.edu.in/html/profile-of-the-chancellor.html

Profile of their BSchool..   http://bus.alliance.edu.in/

An example of how reverse brain drain can benefit the country .. Really able, talented, highly qualified technocrat promoted Centre of Learning right here in the technology capital of the country, Bangalore.

This mail is just born out of the "awe" and dreams, human enterprise is capable of weaving !!

ge..

Is sansad mein kaun kaun hai ?

(Kejriwal is the person sleeping on the floor of a railway platform somewhere in North India in 2011..)

Is sansad mein hathyaare hein, is sansad mein luttere hein, is sansad mein balaathkaari hein .. Kya is sansad se humko lokpal bill mil sakthe hein ?

With Kejriwal levelling these allegations, Abbas Naqvi has accused him of disrespecting the Indian constitution. The joke of the year !!

With the lokpal team once again raising its tempo and resuming its act of political-class-bashing, with able and efficient support from the media, it is enjoyable to see the politicians running helter skelter for cover and low exposure !!

ge..

The contributions of Oceans to global economy ..

Truly, today's businesses neglect the contribution of oceans to the survival of humans on planet earth. They take Oceans to be a "given to humans" and tend to exploit it to the maximum without ever considering the value it creates to human life on planet earth.

As per 2010 figures to the global GDP of $ 60 trillion, the oceans have added a hidden and unnoticed $ 70 trillion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy,

Why oceans are key to the global economy (courtesy Reuters .. )

If Oceans were not there, world climate would have gone topsy turvy .. The contribution of ocean currents and the resultant trade winds to trade and world climate is beyond any comprehension. The Pacific Ocean (28% of earth surface, avg depth of 4km and max of 11 km)  by itself covering about 155m sq.km is the largest of all the five and is app equal in size to all landmass on earth and slightly less than all the other oceans put together (180m sq km) !!

It contains water equivalent to 155,000,000,000 sq.m x 4,000 m = 620,000,000,000,000 cu. m of H20, ie. app. 620 trillion cu.m of water !

http://geography.about.com/od/locateplacesworldwide/tp/fiveoceans.htm

Oceans help us in many ways,  besides giving oxygen, controlling global climate and rain ( that hidden source of water which nourishes the water bodies of the earth and its flora and fauna annually), it offers sea food, trade opportunities (80% trade volume and 40% trade value), tourism, livelihood to people, supporting other species (almost 50%), storing CO2 reserves and the like...

Let us appreciate nature around us and not belittle its contributions to making our human existence so pleasant ..!

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Innovations in Low cost healthcare - need of the times ..

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-30/news/30572877_1_speciality-clinics-glocal-healthcare-rajat-goel

Wharton India paper on Innovations in healthcare ..

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History of Kerala of 3000 years unfolds at Muziris - present day Kodungalloor ..

Indian History is replete with all great articles about the Mughals and Kings who invaded North India. Very less is written of south Indian history except the Cheras, Cholas etc .. I was really bored reading about them ..

Recent archaeological excavations at Kodungalloor reveal history of 3000 years, where old Roman earthenware 200 BC and Drachma coins of 100 AD were found in Muziris, the present day Kodungalloor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muziris   . The flooding of Muziris in 1341 AD led to the growing importance of places north like Calicut and South like Kochi, Alleppey etc.. Wonder why this grand history of Kerala lay hidden for so long when all evidence points to the rich and vibrant trade it enjoyed with Greek, Roman and Arab empires about 2000-3000 years back.

Feeling proud of my state that our forefathers were all so enterprising, industrious, active, rich and influential .. And feeling doubly good that I have not severed links with my homeland .....

Was reading some time back an article in Frontline magazine (feb 16, 2012) on Indian history ( http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2902/stories/20120210290208900.htm ) which said a very startling fact - India is a country of immigrants who came to this land for almost 10,000 years.
Quote : The original inhabitants of India, as it is believed now, were the pre-Dravidian tribal people such as the Bhils, the Santhals, the Gonds and the Todas. Called Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes, they form hardly 8 per cent of the population today. ; unquote.
In the whole history of India only at two points of time have natives left their homeland. The first was in 19 th century when poor Indian peasants were sent to Fiji, Mauritius and West Indies as plantation labourers and the second was the diaspora of highly qualified engineers and doctors migrating over the last 30-40 years to all parts of the world (because of limited opportunities back home). At no other point have native Indians,( the fair skinned Aryans and the dark skinned Dravidians who have come to this land over 10,000 years) ever left their homeland !! All through India has only attracted people from all over !!

i.e. even our forefathers in Kerala have migrated from other parts of the world, though as Dravidians we claim to be the real inhabitants of the land - a theory which is being disproved now.. Maybe our roots go back to Arabs / negroids from Africa and so on ..

Hope the history from Kodungalloor will open up new perspectives of how the peoples of the world traversed the oceans, traded and communicated with each other and civilizations evolved over the last 5000 years ...

Click here for the article in manorama ( in malayalam) to read in detail ..



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Impact of SC ruling cancelling 122 2G licences ..

The Feb 2 SC ruling cancelling 122 2G licences sanctioned since 2008 has ruffled lot of feathers within India as also Norway and Russia govts.

The attached graphic shows how this decision affects the present players in the market. The new players have stayed back in the 2G arena and have managed to get customers thru their lower cost 2G telephony, like for eg. Unitech and Telenor - Uninor, gave 2p/min for U2U ( same network calls, ie. Rs. 1.20 for an hour anywhere in the country).

How this affects India' s political recognition across the world and would attract foreign high tech investors to the country remains to be seen ..

ge..

My first book order at amazon india site www.junglee.com, 40% discount ..

I purchased the book, "Incredible banker" by Ravi Subramaniam from www.junglee.com who is the official channel of amazon in India. A trial purchase ..

Got 40% discount + free shipping while flipkart was offering only 30%. On the net it is easy and fast to switch loyalties ..

Junglee.com offers 1.2 crore items thru 500 product categories and 1200 retailers..

The e-commerce scene in India is hotting up .. the main battle is between flipkart.com, yebhi.com and junglee.com .. The present $ 5 b market is expected to be a $200b market by 2020.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/02/02/in-india-amazon-targets-flipkart-with-junglee-launch/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFV73dyGS6RQ8n88Gxxa9dZ1z6ig?docId=13230e77f05549708d20138c64fff238  (Associated Press..)

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Lake Vostok .. Virgin lake and a mystery land ..

Will this virgin lake buried under antartican ice for 20 million years change human perception of life on earth ? World is eagerly watching what unfolds in the bext few months ..

From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/06/lake-vostok-antarctica-russians-penetrated_n_1258440.html

First traces of human life appeared on planet earth around 2.5 million years back and the first migration of humans outside of Africa happened about  55,000 years back.

The virgin waters of Lake Vostok have not been touched for almost 20 million years !! To reach the lake Russians have been drilling for the past 20 years for a depth of 4 kms...

Terribly excited to find what the lake has in store to surprise people of the world with .. Unknown forms of life at temp of -100C.

The pollution from Kerosene (used as antifreeze) and freon (as cleaning agent) is a cause of concern for everyone..

http://rt.com/news/vostok-lake-drill-process-703/

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Aboard Vivek Express .. journey thru India ..

83 hours (4 days..), passing thru 615 stations with 55 halts, 4243 kms, 8 states  all for Rs. 673.00 for 2nd sleeper ( AC 3 tier Rs. 1900.00).

The weekly Vivek Express is the longest running train in India and offers the sixth longest ride in the world ..

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/02/riding-indias-railways&fsrc=sky|IPoltis

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XM-25 smart rifle .. aiming is a thing of the past ..

The rifle that fires programmable bullets that burst when it reaches the destination is changing the way conventional armies wish to tackle guerillas. The computer in the rifle programs the bullets which with the help of the onboard computer in each bullet, measures the rotations completed and bursts near the destination resulting in inflicting maximum damage. Developed by ATK of US and Heckler & Koch, Germany, it is changing the landscape of artillery fire for ever ..

http://www.economist.com/node/21542716

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdrWIq8WyQQ

Ducking for cover - one of the oldest ploys in combat- will no longer offer the sanctuary it has in centuries past ..

ge..

Induction cooking .. energy efficiency ..

Induction cooking (or magnetic induction cooking) was a totally new experience for me at home.

Due to the recent strike by the Gas cylinder transporters, the gas cylinder refill did not come to my home on time. I was forced to buy a new cooking contraption. Since I had got fed up of electric coil heaters which was a guzzler of electrical energy and bloated electricity bills at the end of the month, I was hesitant to buy the same.

Even though I had not tried  an induction heater till then, I thought of giving it a try ..

Bought a pigeon induction cooktop. We got a steel base cookware free with the stove. That helped us on the first day to do basic cooking with rice, pooris, cooking basic vegetables etc..,. We had to buy a tawa to be able to make chappathis and dosas. I found that any steel base vessel could do the cooking well.

The electro magnetic field produced in the coil inside the stove, induces an electric current in the steel vessel (in which we cook)  which causes the atoms in the steel vessel body to vibrate and heat up the vessel. ie. there is no other heating other than by atoms inside the vessel body. Therefore the heat lost to the surroundings is less. It is said that in terms of thermal efficiency, an induction cooktop has 90% efficiency, while an electric heater gives 55% efficiency and a gas cooking top has 50% efficiency.

Here are some links which gives some idea of this..

The other advantages are that the cleanup of the outside of the vessel is nil as there is no heating or deposition of soot or anything of that sort. Only the base of the vessel is heated, so even a very hot vessel can be removed with plain hands off the stove. A different cooking experience. The microwave oven has an efficient cooker at 64%. The induction cooker thus tops the available cooking media in efficiency and convenience.

http://www.hk-phy.org/energy/domestic/print/cook_phy_print_e.html

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/40784/induction-cooktop-comparison

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

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Can mathematical equations help model the markets ?

In 1973, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes published their groundbreaking paper the pricing of options and corporate liabilities. Not only did this specify the first successful options pricing formula, but it also described a general framework for pricing other derivative instruments. That paper launched the field of financial engineering. Black and Scholes had a very hard time getting that paper published. Eventually, it took the intersession of Eugene Fama and Merton Miller to get it accepted by the Journal of Political Economy.

In 1997, they got the Nobel Prize for their path breaking research connecting Mathematics to markets, in their quest to tame the risk and price the future..

The failure of world wide financial markets in 2008 is in part nothing but a failure of this much renowned and acclaimed application of Mathematics to the markets.. It just goes to prove beyond any doubt that quest to tame the risk and price the future is far from over ..

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Kodak is at death's door; Fujifilm, its old rival, is thriving. Why?

a very good case from Economist on how technology change has driven some companies to disappear and some others to come out stronger ..

http://www.economist.com/node/21542796

Quote :
Unlike people, companies can in theory live for ever. But most die young, because the corporate world, unlike society at large, is a fight to the death. Fujifilm has mastered new tactics and survived. Film went from 60% of its profits in 2000 to basically nothing, yet it found new sources of revenue. Kodak, along with many a great company before it, appears simply to have run its course. After 132 years it is poised, like an old photo, to fade away. : Unquote

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Why Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Verma never colonised Holland ?

While going thru the historical records relating to the priceless treasure found in the 5 open vaults of Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum (  and what possibly could be there in the not yet opened 6 th vault), it is claimed by historians that "most" of the treasure relates to the fines imposed by the Travancore Maharaja Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Verma ( 1729 - 1758 Common Era, CE) on the dutch forces after their pathetic defeat in the Colachel war in 1741.. Around 1750

http://george-easaw.blogspot.com/2011/07/maharaja-of-travancore-and-riches-of_07.html

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2211509.ece

From The Hindu newspaper, Quote :
Even Admiral Eustatius De Lennoy, who led the Dutch East India Company's forces which Anizhom Thirunal's  forces defeated in 1741 in the Colachel war, made donations to the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple. "That's why you have Dutch coins, Belgium cut-glasses and Portuguese coins in the vaults," said Mr. Ramamurthy. Admiral Eustatius De Lennoy ultimately became the Valiya Kappithan (commander-in-chief) of the Travancore forces of Anizhom Thirunal. - unquote

The Dutch came out to colonise other countries of the world three hundred years back basically due to two facts. Firstly the sense of adventure, sense of bravery and the willingness to take challenges even braving the treacherous sea with absolutely no navigational tools but for a magnet and sail is indeed to be applauded .. Second was their need to exploit and loot wealth and riches from other lands by force and deceit to make themselves rich and prosperous and be able to continue their reign over other lands perpetually.

Never would the Dutch have dreamt in their wildest dreams when they were ruling over the seas and in turn the world through their bravery and competing with the English and the Portuguese for absolute control of all seas and all land, that they would be handed over this humiliating defeat by the forces of Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Verma on August 10, 1741 at Colachel, 20 kms North-west of Kanya Kumari..  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolachal

The first time an Indian Kingdom humiliatingly defeated an invading European global power which had only brawn and no brain !!

Then why did not Anizham Tirunal go on to rule the seas and colonise and loot Netherlands then ?

The difference lies in the sense of civility, tolerance and accomodativeness of the rulers of Travancore, of the other peoples of the world, not to indulge in barbaric invasions of foreign lands and loot their wealth .. The difference lies in the fact that the rulers of Travancore inherited a culture and civilisation far more intellectually advanced and superior both in terms of content and time than what the Dutch could ever dream of, not just barbarism and bravery. Just down from trees a couple of millenia back, he never understood the concepts of fairness and civility and did not have it in his blood.

More facts of history will be available in the coming days when the wealth of the temple will be inventoried, photographed and set out for the world to study.

ge..

Great "global energy" reading resources ..

They say the world will never run out of energy in the near future.. Human ingenuity will always work to find newer and renewable sources of energy at affordable rates..

As an engineer or manager, efficient and affordable use of energy should be our lookout .. As Dr Gururaj Deshpande, chairman of www.a123systems.com and in whose name the Gururaj Deshpande Centre for Innovation at MIT is setup, says, energy and life sciences hold the key to global development in the next couple of centuries..

If you are interested in finding some great Global Energy reading resources from the World Energy Council, it is here ..

http://www.worldenergy.org/publications/

http://www.worldenergy.org/documents/wec_wei2011.pdf

Great reading .. !!

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Petrol mileage for Indica Xeta Petrol 2006 model ..

Recently I went with family to Kerala for a short function at Kollam. We took the Coimbatore Salem route while going and the Bhavani Mettur route while returning. We had some small trips to Fort Kochi too. Overall the distance was about 1491 kms and we consumed roughly 70 litres of petrol.

Even though my car , Indica Xeta Petrol 2006 model, is five years old now, with scarce, single owner (other than my driver) usage, I could clock 21.3 km/l of Petrol. Last time I tool the car on a long drive to Kerala, it clocked almost 21 kmpl. In city limits I get only 10-14 kmpl.

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