Vikram Dhunta

Three years ago call centres were very much at the heart of things. Now real decisions are being taken in Bangalore and higher-value-added work is being done here.

From the Economist's Upbeat in Udaipur.

Labels: india, news

Posted by Vikram at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

From The Big Idea on CNBC: Metronaps is a firm that manufactures Pods for people to sit in, listen to music and sleep. The Pod is shaped like well, a pea with an airplane like seat and headphones. At $14 for a 20 min nap, it encourages corporates to allow employees to take a short mid-day siesta that bolsters productivity - that's their USP and it's backed by academic studies. They sell the Pod to companies, as well as have a pod cafe in NYC where people can come in and nap. The company was co-founded by an Indian Arshad Chowdhury and Christopher Lindholst.

I'd agree that a short fulfilling nap would be great to get energized and work the rest of the afternoon. There are of course, a lot of roadblocks to being able to sell the idea - incl. (from the show) companies (e.g. law firms) being apprehensive about letting their clients know about it - $60 an hour, incl. napping for 20 mins? Can they find managers that will pay enough attention to the academic support for naps, to actually take up the idea with their finance and HR? How do employees schedule their naps with limited machines? Wouldn't a policy of 'each employee is entitled to a 20 min nap at their desk' be (nearly) equally effective?

I don't see too many companies buying these (for one - it costs $12,000 apiece). I think after a period of time, they will simply move from selling to having more podcafes themselves near corporate hubs and leasing out Pods to companies for a rental fee (incl. maintenance, upgrades, music choices etc).

Personally, though, I've never felt comfortable sleeping in an airplane seat, no matter how horizontal it can get- have you?

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Manu Sharma Convicted?

...if the ruling has come after so long with such hopeless disappointments as Munshi, sting operations with witnesses claiming to having been bribed by the defense, the father enjoying his public post for long since the incident, a famous (and respected) lawyer defending the guilty vociferously, or worst of all, the victim's family dying without justice one by one... one wonders whether this really *is* a landmark case, or a singularity marked only by extraordinary public and media pressure? Does it really indicate a change in the way the judiciary operates? Is it really true, going forward, that ordinary people can hope for quicker justice irrespective of how many limestone factories the defendent's father owns?

Looking at the bright side, NDTV and Tehelka did a great job, while the victim's sister, Sabrina courageously led the crusade through to its end.

Labels: india, news

Posted by Vikram at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

An Indian sprinter has failed a gender test, after winning the silver at the recent Asian games.

Labels: india, news

Posted by Vikram at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

The Baker report is to be released Wednesday, but in the meanwhile, War strategists on news channels are talking about one route out of the mess being 'dividing Iraq up according to its majorities', i.e., a Kurd state in the north, Shia in the south and Sunni in the west.

Doing so may reduce civil strife, but lead to heightened tension with neighbouring states that view the concentrated Shia area as dangerous.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Of all the people that are die-hard Seinfeld fans, I'd bet a 100 bucks that at least 70% of them would name Kramer as their favourite character. Until last week, that is.

Kramer, or Michael Richards, was caught on tape while lashing out at some hecklers during his standup routine at a comedy show for Laugh Factory. He repeatedly called his hecklers the N word and also referred to the lynchings in a very derogatory manner. The networks immediately took him on and there was outrage and calls on every channel. If something could make it worse, the words seemed to come from his heart - anger and rage that was bottled up for a long time and just spilled forth in uncontrollable diatribe - making everyone realize that there's still a lot of racist attitude out there that haven't been totally resolved.

He has since apologised. A lot of people think this may be it for him. At least Mel Gibson wasn't caught on tape and was inebriated.

In any case, quite unfortunately, the next time I watch a Seinfeld rerun, I'm going to be thinking about this when Kramer stumbles in through that front door.


Strangely, there's some defense of Richards.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

An ad jingle for a Mitsubishi dealer might be up for some opposition since it has a 'jihad' theme to it - it proclaims 'jihad on the us car market' with the works - burqas, swords and the pope. I'd have thought they'd have a little more of Osama or maybe an automobile industry statue being pulled down Saddam style. The ad may never be heard since it's not been released anywhere yet.

The council does intend to contact the dealer for a bit of 'cultural or sensitivity awareness training'.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

At Clinton's Global Initiative, Richard Branson pledged $3 billions for tackling world energy problems and global warming. Now, before you lose your hats, that's not cash or even straight out liquid assets.

Branson's pledged profits from his transportation businesses for the next ten years towards researching new and cleaner fuels including an airline fuel. That puts Branson in a win-win situation - he's winning a lot of free publicity for the Branson/Virgin brand and being praised for his contribution to society in a genius_of_a_businessman fashion, while re-allocating his assets - reinvesting profits into a source of energy that will prove a boon to Virgin's airline/transport business. Who knows - If they do discover new cleaner sources of energy, they may file a patent and earn royalties for the next century!

Here's a collection of blogs about it.

Clinton's initiative has earned pledges to the tune of $7.3 bn at last count.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

In my three weeks here in the US, I've seen three references to India in the news media:
1) about a man who can swallow upto 12 swords at a time
2) about a weird dance that a tribe does during this time of the year up north
3) about India and Pakistan agreeing to continue peace talks post the Mumbai blasts.

No Manmohan, no Sonia, no Delhi, no Malegaon, no Software, no IT, no Bangalore or Hyderabad or Silicon Valley or anything.

If there ever was any illusion of India being on the radar of the US media for any reason whatsoever, it's been shattered. I don't intend to sound like I'm hurt that the 'American's' pay no attention to India. It's just that the amount and nature of coverage that India gets in the media here, certainly won't help the regular American citizen upgrade his image of India from 'a nation of snake-charmers' to 'the backoffice of the world' or 'the IT powerhouse of Asia' or any such thing.

Maybe that's all a good sign though - not being in the news since every news item these days has to do with terrorists/the UN convention or kidnapped babies more or less.

Labels: india, news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Or so says Bush, after about 43,000 Iraqis have died in Iraq since the war began, and about 220 bodies have been found in various parts of Baghdad over the last few weeks, each showing signs of torture and mutilation. Not to mention that the Al Qaeda is gaining a strong foothold in the country now.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said last year and kept up his rhetoric that he'd like Israel to be wiped off the map. Iran has also missed the UN's deadline to halt its uranium enrichment programme.

Yesterday, he said that Iran doesn't need a bomb and that its nuclear programme is peaceful. He even says Iran respects the 'American people'. Naturally, the media here can't seem to make up their mind about this rebel president and his intentions. However, he's made it to Time's cover.

Neither can they pronounce his name right, with every commentator pronouncing it as 'Akhmad Makhmoudinejad'. I knew the American's could never spell Gandhi right since they consider (wrongly) the 'h' to be silent (Ghandi/Gandhi...), but how do you insert a 'k' where it doesn't belong?!

Anyway, Colbert has this NYC itinerary to recommend for the Iranian president.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

After Chavez called Bush, the 'Devil' yesterday leaving a trail of sulphur behind him, he followed it up with 'sick man' and 'ex-alcoholic' today. This has actually got democrats standing up for Bush. But Chavez is attracting the media right now, even calling one female news reporter pretty. Of course, the Iranian president is another media favourite right now.

And the US is paying for all this, btw, since these guys are on US soil. On a different note though - Chavez's name calling has only led to a lot of media frenzy, which is the usual since it makes for great headlines, but not for any protests by the general public. What would've been the effect if the Bangladesh PM had name-called Manmohan Singh at a SAARC conference in New Delhi?

After Armitage told Musharraf at a meeting some time back that (to the effect) 'Pakistan should be prepared to be bombed back to the stone age if they don't cooperate with the US against the terrorists', Musharraf felt it was a 'rude remark'. This, according to Musharraf himself, at the UN convention currently on at NYC. He adds that he decided to act 'responsibly' in his response. Armitage denies saying this of course. Bush did say last night in an interview to CNN that he would 'absolutely' take 'immediate action' if Bin Laden was found in Pakistan.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

CNN is airing this story about a new computer game called 'Quest for Bush' that lets you assassinate Bush. The game play and screens are direct inspirations from Doom or Wolfenstein 3D - of course, the walls have posters of Bush and other leaders of both sides including a snap of what I thought looked like Iran's Ayatollah shaking hands with another leader.

Apparently, the game has been produced by the "Global Islamic Media Front", a terrorist mouthpiece. So there are some jihadis (or willing coders) out there that can make 3D games in system level languages. Given the skill level required for this, how far can they be from having a super team of hackers that are constantly trying to break into the top security networks?

Maybe we can count on the lack of wifi hotspots in Bora Bora to slow down their progress though.

~

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

Apparently Pope Benedict XVI, while taking part in an academic discussion, narrated a historical passage that was construed by Muslims (in general) as a direct challenge to the basis of their religion. The passage was from a Byzantine text that said something to the effect, '.. the prophet only ruled by sword.. and had no new ideas to give..'.

While news commentators insist that the narration was simply part of a larger academic discussion, Muslims around the world are enraged by the statements and have held demonstrations, including in Lucknow India.

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites  

There's an E.Coli outbreak in the US - about a dozen states affected (incl. 1 death) by the consumption of food containing E.Coli bacteria. The FDA has warned people against eating bagged Spinach, especially from a company called Natural Selection Foods. However, this is just a 'traceback' inference - based on asking all affected individuals what they've consumed recently, and then narrowing down to spinach.


~

Labels: news, usa

Posted by Vikram at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments
  Digg it   Del.icio.us!   Furl it   Add to favourites