Monthly archives: June 2008

Indian toilet cleaners sashay down the ramp – I think Sulabh guys surely deserve to walk on the ramps, as they have made streets in India more walkable.

Women toilet cleaners from Rajasthan walk down the ramp along with Indian models at a fashion show held in New Delhi on June 23. The show was organised by Sulabh International and the United Nations as part of a series of events marking the UN ‘Year of Sanitation’.

Indian toilet cleaners sashay down the ramp

Town in India Rocks (No Use to Wonder Why, Babe)

NYTimes report on how Shillong celebrates Bob Dylan’s birthday every year.

Every May 24 for the last 35 years Mr. Majaw, 61, and one of India’s original rock ’n’ roll bards, has held a homespun celebration of Mr. Dylan’s birth. This year’s version was held in All Saints Hall, next to the church of the same name. Mr. Majaw pranced around the auditorium singing, “Everybody must get stoned.” Two schoolgirls, who described their repertory as mostly Mariah Carey, sang “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” in two-part harmony, having learned it two days before. A poet, Sonny Khyriem, stood up and read a paean: “The voice bathed with protests/Mingled with human rights/Becomes an inspiration/To the toiling millions.”

List of Celebrity Blogs In India

Do you know of any celebrity bloggers in India. Celebrity as in – any famous Indian personality in Sports, Business, Fashion, Entertainment, Politics and so on. If you know, post it here

Nokia on a buying spree

Though I haven’t used a Nokia phone till now, but still a great fan of it’s phone. (That doesn’t mean I don’t love my Sony W810 and HTC Touch).

In India Nokia is really doing some cool things to stay on top – it’s going musical with Sony BMG, launching Rabbi’s Album and remixing A.R with an Ada.

Now, Ashish on Pluggd.in informs about Nokia upping it’s share in Symbian and acquiring Plazes. It’s means a great mix of Mobile Operating System and an Online Social App with can really integrate well with the device.

A Look Inside Wikipedia’s Infrastructure

50,000 http requests per second

80,000 SQL queries per second

7 million registered users

18 million page objects in the English version

250 million page links

220 million revisions

1.5 terabytes of compressed data

This article tells you how do they manage such a feat and that too through being a non-profit operating through just 300 servers from just one location.

India upbeat: Consumer index second highest in the world despite inflation

Indians have not yet hit the panic button, while consumers from America and New Zealand are wary of spending
Also read the special report in Indian Inflation

SMS service to alert motorists on traffic jams – India

This is really brilliant, if you are stuck in traffic or taking up a particular road you can SMS and get the latest updates for Jammed roads. If I would run this service this would be my message "You don’t have any other choice sucker, and we just ate your 5 Rs for the special SMS"

Patents : India Vs. China, Local vs. MNCs – and spineless Indian IT Companies 

Indian companies are not IT companies they are IT Services companies to be precise. We don’t develop products, we develop products for others. We are still struggling with broadband, PC penetration and the major market is still outside the India. On top of that we are pirates country. It’s currently wise for India companies to build scale and work for others instead of trying to develop products on their own. Why ? because their clients are paying them to do so.

In India the biggest problem is to start a business, gather finance and convince people to pay for the software (or anything). Patents is not just an indicator of IP but also how businesses are being treated in those countries.

Should India switch to presidential system? : A very relevant message board topic on MSN India:

Yes, Why we should have a presidential system in India

• Elections in India are pretty expensive and people make use of money and muscle both to win the elections.
• No one can change the coalition game now, no party has the clear cut majority and hence such elections don’t make any sense any more.
• India is getting highly divided based on caste, parties, languages. And we need one person, one identity and one leader who can tie us all together and to think beyond regional politics.

Yeah, But why we can’t have the presidential system in India

• Many politicians who have crossed the retiring age or rather have reached their death beds are still waiting for this title. They would never give chance to young blood. A president who is also an ICU candidate is definitely not an ideal leader.
• India is actually United States Of India with dozens of states, languages, regional issues and their individual parties and politicians exploiting the miseries. I am not sure if any party would be able to pose their presidential candidates without any internal Mahabharat.

Rajiv cites Zenith Optimedia report predicting growth in online expenditure across various countries and India seems to rank 6th with estimates around 3,000 million dollars by 2010.