Monthly archives: June 2004

Found on Nilesh’s Blog

G-Mailto: Sets Gmail as your default mail program in Windows. So when you click on a mailto:// url, your favourite web browser will open up a page with Gmail’s Compose window. Pretty nifty.

GTray: Windows system tray notifier for new Gmail mail.

GmailCompose: A Mozilla Firefox extension to open the Gmail compose window with the click of a button.

Gmail Loader: Import your existing mail into Gmail!

Other supporting apps to help move to Gmail.

Links :

* POP Goes the Gmail Retrieve Gmail using POP in Outlook Express

Where there is will, theirs a way. Yesterday via CNBC came through this interesting story about Hiware Bazaar, a small village in Maharashtra which is like a Oasis in Dought Ridden Maharashtra. The Sarpanch and the Panchayat have a ambitious plan for 2005 that , nobody in the village should be below the poverty line and without a piece of land. They also ensure that villagers have access to loans and ensure that loan is used effeciently for the right purpose. Hiware bazaar has some wonderful water reservation plans like banning of certain crops, banning on digging borewells and the beauty is that villagers and farmers do understand this restrictions and now also witness & party to the benefits. By this example we can say that “the probelm is not that people don’t have the solutions, the problem is that people don’t get the problems right ?.” Once you get the problem right you have easy solutions and big results.

The achievements of Hiware Bazaar and others are highlighted in the Planning Commission of India report : WATER The Water Women: A Case Study of Tank Restoration. [ The report is in PDF : To download , Right click the link and choose "Save Target As".]

Adarsh Gaon

In 1993, three years after a serious village led community development process was underway, Hiware Bazaar was recognized by the Government of Maharashtra as an ‘Adarsh Gaon’ (ideal village). Under a government program that sought to identify the most promising locations of village development in each district, the Hiware Bazaar story was highlighted to the government machinery and to the people at large. In many ways this was because it quickly learnt from the experiences of village development from itsmore famous neighbor of the last decade, Ralegao Siddhi.. By adopting the four tenets of Anna Hazare’s work, Charabandhi (ban on grazing), Nashabandhi (ban on alcohol) Nassbandhi (family planning) and Katbandhi (ban on deforestation), it appealed to planners and politicians alike.

The results of this recognition, besides having monetary benefits for various developments were enormous. Access to government and bureaucratic machinery was greatly increased as a consequence of this. As a result, villageleaders now report few difficulties while trying to access the bureaucratic structure of the government. Most officials were extremely cooperative and eager to enhance the successes of their efforts.

Over the years, therefore, the village of Hiware Bazaar has reportedly used the infrastructure and benefit of many government and quasi government agencies for village development works. These are:

1. Yashwant Krishi Panlot Sanstha- NGO headed by the sarpanch, (recipient of Adarsh Gav Yojna) funded nalla bunding, aforestations, storage bandharas, and boulder/ earthen structures

2. Forest Department- Van-tale, aforestation

3. Agriculture department- Bunding

4. Minor Irrigation dept- Percolation tanks

5. Rural Sanitation programme- Construction of toilets

6. ?- Subsidies for Biogas, solar energy

7. MH Govt.– watershed training institute

8. ICAR and Mahatma Phule Agricultural University- increasing dry crop yields under Jawahar research scheme

Related Links :

* Going green at the grassroots – and blossoming

A PIB Report :

India has called for the need to optimise the use of telecom infrastructure for intra-regional communication with a view to bring down the costs of telecom services. This was stated by the Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology Shri Dayanidhi Maran, while addressing the 2nd SAARC Communication Ministers Conference at Islamabad, Pakistan today. Shri Maran said that “Using each others infrastructure for intra-regional communication can prove to be economically advantageous, but with the added benefit of the resources circulating within the region, besides lower tariffs to the consumer”. For more effective regional co-operation , Sh Maran stated that it would also be necessary to digitalise inter-country links within the region in a time bound manner. “On our part, we have digitalised all our telephone exchanges” he added.

Related Links :

* Two more NIXI nodes to come up

Mahesh Murthy gives some pointers on When is the right time to start your own business? . In the given extract he talks about “Education” .

Education seems to make no difference whatsoever to your likelihood of success as an entrepreneur. As an employee maybe, but not as a business owner. (A personal observation: I never bothered getting a degree, and I don’t think it’s hurt me very much so far.)

The bigger point, though, is what will make the business you intend to start successful. Again, I really believe the key to succeeding is to understand the market you will be operating in. See what the buyers need and what current sellers offer – and figure out if there’s a gap where you can offer something better, and in a way that others can’t match soon enough.

This is what it takes. To do this requires no particular education – and no set years of experience. If there are so many successful Internet entrepreneurs around the world barely out of their teens, it’s because they had the relevant experience of being online early in life – and they figured out the problems and a solution for their markets better than anybody else twice their age. They may be young – but they had the relevant experience.

That’s why you rarely see teenaged chemical industry successes, or 20-year-old biotech billionaires. You need the ‘right’ experience and insights from it – not just years of work at some unconnected place.

That hopefully answers the other question many of you put to me – “Mahesh, I’m joining a bank and want to work for a few years, and then start an organic vegetable operation”. Sorry, bossman, no can do. That is not relevant to your intended line of business. You’re better off going to the mandi now.

Related Links :

* Forbes Magazine’s List of the World’s Richest People

* Noted Individuals – High School and Elementary School Dropouts

* ELLISON TO GRADS: DIPLOMAS ARE FOR LOSERS / Oracle CEO Urges Students to Drop out, Start up (Satire)

* Famous Entrepreneurs

Harvey Cohen, president of Strategy Analytics believes that Technology is the biggest threat to jobs.Technology that adds intelligence to computers poses a far more serious threat to jobs than low-wage countries. According to him, “The thing about technology is that it has a tendency to creep up on you”.

Computers also handle many customer-service tasks today, such as directing callers to service reps or scanning customers’ email and giving back automated responses. As computer intelligence improves, technology will handle more tasks and replace more people.

And the technology will get better. For example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm for the US military, is leading a project to develop a vehicle that can navigate a desert for at least 15 kilometres without a driver. Prototypes have gone as far as 11km, successfully moving around cactuses, boulders and other obstacles.

“I view this in the same way as the first flight of the Wright brothers,” Cohen said.

Such advancements eventually find their way into businesses, which means someday fewer jobs driving forklifts and delivery trucks.

“The level of embedded intelligence in our electronic products and services is at a real turning point where we see this accelerating,” Cohen said.

Ouch ! Save sperm throw your mobile :

Mirror UK : MERELY carrying a mobile phone can cut a man’s sperm count by nearly 30 per cent, new research suggests.Scientists claim radiation from a switched-on phone, even if not in use, slashes the number of sperm per millilitre by almost 24 million.

Indians have won two of the four Ashden Awards 2004, considered as Green Oscars, and a cash of 30,000 pounds each for their inspirational and innovative renewable energy projects.

* Goverdhan Rathore, founder of the Prakratik Society in Ranthambhore in Rajasthan, bagged the Climate Care Award and the cash prize for providing villages around the Ranthambhore Tiger reserve with a cleaner, greener alternative to firewood for cooking, in the form of bio-gas.

* Hemant Lamba and his team at the international township of Auroville in Pondicherry succeeded in delivering affordable and reliable renewable energy products and services (in the form of solar panels) in 12 states, benefiting 80,000 people.

* Binu Parthan of IT Power received a runners-up prize of 7,500 pounds for designing a pioneering smoke-free, fuel-efficient stove that cuts the wood requirement by 70 percent.

Background on Ashden Awards:

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy were created in 2001 by the Ashden Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. For the first two years, the awards were presented in association with the Whitley Awards for Conservation. The success of the renewable energy awards encouraged the Ashden Trust to set up an independent scheme and to increase the number of awards, thanks to contributions from four other Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.

Due to their success, the awards have expanded in number and geographical coverage. This is the second year to include projects in the UK, recognising that industrialised countries need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy 2003 are presented in association with Green Futures, the UK’s leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures, and its parent organisation, Forum for the Future. Forum for the Future was founded in 1996 by three of the UK’s leading advocates of sustainable development – Jonathon Porritt, Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins. The charity aims to accelerate the building of a sustainable way of life, taking a positive, solutions-oriented approach.

* Ashden Awards International Finalists 2004

* Picture Gallery of Finalist

Cisco Systems, Inc the worlds largest network equipment manufacturer will buy the intellectual property i.e a majority of the engineering team and select assets from Procket Network for $89 million. Prokect was co-founded in March 1999 by Sharad Mehrotra, William Lynch and Tony Li, Procket markets concurrent services routers and has expertise in silicon and software development. Mehrotra, the chairman emeritus of Procket, is no longer active with the company. Procket’s has a technology similar to Cisco’s new high-end router, which was unveiled in May and took four years and $500 million to develop. It is intended for large telecommunications carriers.
Links:

* Cisco Systems to Purchase Intellectual Property, Engineering Teams and Select Assets from Procket Networks [ Cisco News Release ]

Follow this post on Slasdot regarding the debute of Indianized version of Spiderman in India:

Lord Omlette writes “I’m really surprised no one else has mentioned this, but Spider-Man is getting redone in India! As an Indian-American, I’m quite excited. (Let’s get it out of the way: even our comic book heroes are being outsourced, wtf!) The manga version of Star Wars was pretty good, but off the top of my head I can’t think of any other comic books that were redone for a completely different culture. Anyone?”

Links:

* Spiderman Goes Desi [TOI]

In the light of latest Bazee.com ( Avnish Bajaj and Suvir Sujan), takeover bid from Ebay.com , Economic Times Reports:

Build a world-class organisation, turn it around into a profitable venture and then sell it off for a bounty’– this seems to be the mantra for becoming a millionaire these days as more and more CEOs are selling-off their startups and joining the ‘crorepati-club’ . Some of the daring CEOs which materialised the BOT ( Build Operate Transfer ) philosophy to sell of their ventures are:

* Sanjeev Agarwal – Daksh E-Services now owned by IBM

* Raman Roy – Spectramind now owned Wipro Spectramind

* Anant Koppar – Kshema Technologies now owned by Mphasis BFL

* Puneet Dalmia and Alok Mittal – Jobsahead.com
now owned by Monster

* Sabeer Bhatia – Hotmail.com
now owned by Microsoft