Thought Garage

The Rediff Interview with Michael Porter, head, Strategy Insititute, Harvard with title 'India still has a long way to go' by Manjari Raman posted on December 29, 2004 at http://us.rediff.com/money/2004/dec/29inter.htm More than one way he says, that Indians are good, but India as a business environment is not (yet). "Indians come to the US and they thrive! They build great companies, they're global. Isn't that a wonderful metaphor for what we are talking about?" "Although the Indian business environment is improving in multiple respects, it has some fundamental weaknesses. Number one, the capital markets remain relatively weak and undeveloped. Number two, the physical infrastructure is abysmally ranked." "Indian firms face a really compelling logistical disadvantage over companies in China in terms of getting goods and services to market. But the most pernicious problems in India--which are still not being confronted head-on - are the pervasive...

This article highlights some of the Indian Born product ventures, that received global acclaim. It is still a long way to go, but this proves the path taken is in the right direction. "Tejas Networks and Ittiam Systems joined the global technology products big league by finding takers for their offerings. Subex Systems moved alongside the Indian product lone ranger i-flex in the financial space to leveraging its global acquisitions and arrive in the mature markets." Article posted at http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?hpFlag=Y&chklogin=N&autono=176879&leftnm=lmnu9&leftindx=9&lselect=0

Posting at http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/national/stories/114687.html IT's still happening in Andhra Hyderabad, December 30, 2004 Brand Hyderabad finally arrived in style on the IT map of the country in 2004. Three big ticket happenings towards the end of the year confirmed the credentials that the city had slowly been building up as a preferred destination for IT investments, software and hardware, in the country.

Not long ago, some businessman compared IITs with the MIT and went on to say IITs are better than all the BEST in US combined. Sounds foolish. But most of the Media made it sink in the thoughts of many Indians as truth. Some reality check, see if they can find where are IITs in the Academic Rankings of World Universities 2004 ? Possible they can also give an equally proud explanation. Not a single Indian university ranks among the top 100 institutions in the world, according to a recent compilation for the year 2004 by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Institute of Higher Education http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/2004Main.htm Country wide rankings at http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/Statistics.htm In the top 100 Asian universities however, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT Kharagpur, and University of Calcutta made it to the list.

C/C++ Articles & References that I have recently visited: The C++ Source http://www.artima.com/cppsource/index.jsp Boost Libraries http://www.boost.org/ ACE (Adaptive Communication Environment) http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html Guru Of The Week http://www.gotw.ca/ Inform IT http://www.informit.com/articles/index.asp?st=41346 C/C++ User Journal http://www.cuj.com/ Cetus Links http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_c_plus_plus.html Design Patterns - Tutorials http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/tutorials-patterns.html Bjarne Stroustrup Home Page http://www.research.att.com/~bs/homepage.html http://www.partow.net/programming/index.html

Inclusion Model : Complete source code for Template functions will be available in the header files. This is because, the template functions are compiled at the user end for a type specified by the user. This need source code for the template function, hence all the template functions are always included in the header file itself. This is the only portable way available. Most STL libraries are available in header files. Alternately, the functions will be defined in a source file and the source file will be included in the headerfile ( achieves partial seperation of interface from implementation), but still the code in these source file will be compiled only at the user end. Major problem, not for all, is that source is exposed. Export Model or Seperation Model: To avoid this problem of templates having to be present in the headerfiles, the C++ standard introduced a template compilation model with a keyword "export". But looks like, this has not been successfully implemented ...

Vivek Paul, vice chairman and president of IT major Wipro Technologies, has been profiled by Time magazine and CNN in their global list of influential business leaders for 2004. The two media giants featured Paul, in the list of "Global Business Influentials" for 2004. The list is in honour of a new breed of leaders who have redefined the way business is done, with innovative management strategies, a commitment to transparency, accountability and even helping change society along the way. Posting at http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=26275

Virtela, founded by Vab Goel(Chairman & CEO), has been named a finalist in the "Best New Service, Private Company" category of Light Reading's (http://www.lightreading.com) inaugural Leading Lights telecommunications industry awards program. The Leading Lights recognize top public and private companies and their executives for their outstanding achievements in the telecommunications industry. Nearly 300 companies submitted entries for the Leading Lights awards, with finalists determined by the editors and analysts of Light Reading. The final winners of the Leading Lights awards will be announced on December 15, 2004 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, following Light Reading's Telecom Investment Conference. News posted at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041210/laf010_1.html http://www.virtela.net

Promod Haque won the top spot of the Forbes Midas List 2004, surpassing 2003 No.1 Vinod Khosla. Vinod Khosla is at No.2 of the Top Ten. http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/26/midasland04.html

"Airtel will premier Arindam Chaudhary's film Rok Sako To Rok Lo on its multi-access entertainment portal Airtel Live on December 9 at 1500 hrs in 10 circles covering Delhi, Chandigarh, Pune, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Mumbai." "Premiering a full length movie on mobile represents Airtel's latest initiative to usher in a new era of technological innovation to redefine the mobile experience of all our customers, Airtel Mobile Services Director-Mobility and Group Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Atul Bindal said in a statement here. " News Posted at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/businessline/blnus/15061707.htm

TCS has won a outsourcing project from Ferrari to design its flag ship F1 racing engine. Another feather in the Cap for Indian techies in proving their intensive expertise in technology, along with extensive domain skill sets. "Cutting-edge solutions delivered with speed and precision and the constant search for excellence and innovation have led to a deal between the makers of the world's fastest and most famous red car and Asia's largest software company." - http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041206/lam052_1.html News postings at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4071131.stm http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/dec/06tcs.htm http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041206/ap/d86q3r4g2.html

Three Indian firms won the prestigeous Deming Application Prize for year 2004. Indo Gulf Fertilisers Limited (Aditya Birla Group), Lucas-TVS Limited (TVS group) and SRF Limited, Industrial Synthetics Business won this years The Deming Application Prize, awarded by Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. http://www.juse.or.jp/e/deming/prizelist2004.html

Vijaya K. Sundaram of Cairn Energy India Pvt Ltd designated as one of the "International InfoStars" by Dialog. As part of its worldwide Quantum2 training and career development services for information professionals, Dialog each year recognises a select group of individuals from around the world as International InfoStars. (Separate awards are given to North American InfoStars.) The awards are given to people whose creativity and innovation are inspirational to others in the information field. News item posted at http://www.pressi.com/int/release/93236.html

Infosys Technologies (Nasdaq:INFY) has won the prestigious Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award, for the year 2004. Infosys won the award for the second time in a row, and remains the only Indian company to have ever been named a Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise. The MAKE programme is administered by Teleos, an independent Knowledge Management Research Company. A panel of Global Fortune 500 senior executives and internationally recognized knowledge management experts chose the 2004 Global MAKE Winners. The panel rated organizations against a framework of eight key knowledge performance dimensions, which are the visible drivers of competitive advantage. The winners of the 7th annual Global MAKE study, conducted by Teleos in association with The KNOW Network, are (in alphabetical order): Accenture, Amazon.com, BP, Buckman Laboratories, Dell Computer, Ernst & Young, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Infosys Technologies, Intel, McKinsey & Company, M...

When ring tones were initially conceived almost every big telecom provider said NO, and when they were introduced in Japan and Korea, they became a super hit and every vendor followed the suit to catchup. And ring tones became killer app for 2003 in revenue(value added services). Now Korea introduced ring-back tones and it became hit in korea and every body is trying to follow the suit hoping it will become killer app for 2005. Verizon & T-Mobile are introducing in US. Don't know if it is already introduced in India. For a sample Implementation n/w diagram, look in this file. www.nmscommunications.com/file/WebinarOct04SS7.Pdf Some news & analysis regarding at forbes http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/feeds/ap/2004/11/29/ap1679732.html

Indians won two Bronze and two finalist nominations at 2004 Young Guns International Advertising Awards. http://www.ygaward.com/ Awards List In the 'maverick media' category, Ambience Publicis has bagged a bronze for its work on Snehi, a Delhi-based organisation that works for the rights of abused children. In the 'Outdoors: community service and charity' category RMG David's Nests won a bronze for an innovative hoarding done for WWF-India. Ambience Publicis has also bagged two finalist nominations for its work on Western Union Money Transfer in the print single and print campaign categories. http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/stories/2004/11/30/10367.html

India's Neeraj Bhasin and Rupalli Mehraa won the first and second prize respectively in the 2004 Commonwealth Vision Awards, awarded in a ceremony held on friday 26th Nov,2004 at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London. http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/29awards.htm

Bangalore based Ittiam Systems emerges as the world's most preferred supplier of DSP based intellectual property in world-wide DSP Professionals Survey for 2004 conducted by Forward Concepts. http://www.ittiam.com/pages/news/pres-rel-20041124.htm Its an amazing feat for Ittiam made it to the top in just 4 years after its inception. Ittiam was founded in 2001 in Bangalore, India.

This is a nice tool, a stand alone editor to edit/post without ever explicitly logging in to the blog web site. This is a test blog using this tool. Nice and easy now to post a blog. Updating a blog is also very simple and quick. http://www.wblogger.com

The ninth edition of the study entitled "2004 VII Hundred" conducted jointly by the New York weekly News India-Times and Ventures International Inc says, top 100 companies owned or run by Indian Americans, generated $2.3 billion in revenues during 2003 and provided jobs to 18,491 workers. Productivity is at $124,000 per employee. Details of Top 5 http://sify.com/news_info/news/nri/fullstory.php?id=13350582 Only 21 listings were from the software sector, followed by 19 for professional services and 17 for manufacturing. The eligibility criteria for participating in the study: 1. privately held 2. controlled by (CEO,President) must be Asian Indian origin 3. Minimum sales of $1 million Ninety-two firms had made it to the 2003 list, as per the 8th edition of the survey, collectively generating $2.2 billion in revenues, providing jobs to 18,337 employees. Productivity is at $120,000 per employee. Comparing 8th and 9th editions, the difference is only $0.1 billion in revenue. ...

Six "Made In India" Innovative Software companies have been shortlisted by NASSCOM for 2004 "IT Innovation in India". These companies will present their road maps in the next NASSCOM meet in Mumbai in feb, 2005. These six made in to the finals, from a spirited 96 counterparts. Beehive Solutions Ltd, Compulink Systems Ltd, Liqwid Krysal India Pvt Ltd, PACE Soft Silicon, Srishti Software Pvt Ltd and very well known among certification aspirants Whizlabs Software Pvt Ltd NASSCOM aspires to showcase the expertize and help them to become world leaders in the area of specialization. http://www.nasscom.org/innovation/

This show CBS's '60 Minutes' was broadcasted a long time back, but I came to read this comment recently, and I was shocked to see the emotional interpretation media and Indians who believed it to be true. "Well, my son, he probably wanted to do computer science at IIT. To do that, you have to be in the top 200 and he couldn't do that, so he went to Cornell instead....I do know cases where students who couldn't get into computer science at IIT, they have gotten scholarships at MIT, at Princeton, at Caltech." -N R Narayanamurthy Founder, Infosys in an interview to CBS's '60 Minutes' on India's IIT Jan 17, 2003. This may be true, that his son and many other Indians could not get in to IITs but got in to American universities and even got scholarships there. Considering the population of India and the intake of IITs, there will always be such a fierce competition. There is a large queue for Maruthi cars in India, but you get a Mercedes Benz alm...

Instead of living in Utopia, this foundation does what needs to be done at grass root levels, promotes innovation at every facet of life and finds value for it. The NIF was set up by the Government of India four years ago to help these unsung heroes find a platform to showcase their knowledge. Supported by the Honey Bee Networks, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Shristi and various local NGOs, the foundation helps Indian innovation by identifying, documenting and protecting the intellectual property rights of the grass root level innovations. The NIF has selected 13,000 grassroots innovations based on traditional knowledge for commercialization. http://www.nifindia.org/ http://www.nifindia.org/presentation/index.htm Also Organizes various events like the Annual Business Competition "Disha" - http://disha.scai.org.in/ with support from IIMA to promote the cause.

Three Indians won Oracle Editor's choice Awards 2004. Rajesh Kumar - Early Adopter of the Year 2004, Oracle Grid Control Jyotika Patel - Portal Developer of the Year 2004 Venkat Tipparam - Java Developer of the Year 2004 Published in Oracle Magazine Nov/Dec 2004 http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/04-nov/o64awards.html

The 2004 Global Indus Technovators Awards have been announced. http://technovators.mit.edu/winner04.php The Global Indus Technovator Awards have been instituted to recognize and felicitate 20 distinguished innovators of Indus origin working at the cutting-edge of technology that may be harnessed for far-reaching applications. http://technovators.mit.edu/index.php

9 Indians achieved their spots in this year's list of "100 Top Innovators" (under the age of 35) chosen by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Technology Review" magazine. The magazine is accessible only on subscription. Read info at various news web sites. Complete indians list is available at the first link: http://news.indiainfo.com/2004/11/08/0811nri.html http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-916533,curpg-1.cms

India remains top, for the third year with an increase of 7% in student enrollment in US universities, while overall enrollment dips by 2.4%, as reported in Open Doors 2004, the annual report published by the Institute of International Education(IIE). Posted in a Press release at http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=50137

Two of the best brands of India, Airtel and Reliance place India on top at the World Communication Awards 2004 by winning 2 of 12 honours. Airtel was voted as the Best Brand and Mukhesh Ambani of Reliance was voted as the Most Influential Person in Communications. The awards were declared on 11th October,2004 in London. http://wca.totaltele.com/index.stm See all the nominees for "The most influential person in Communications"(the list includes CEOs of all top telecoms, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates), to get a feel of who Mukhesh Ambani has won against, and how much it mean to India to win such an honour. http://wca.totaltele.com/poll/poll.aspx Reliance Infocomm http://www.relianceinfo.com/Infocomm/index.html Airtel http://www.airtelworld.com/

"Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India embarrassed to recognise our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?” “There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.” “In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?” - Excerpts from a speech by DR. A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM, President of India I remember this email that was flying around for a long time with title, “A must read for Indians”, with excerpts from a speech made by president Abdul kalam. People read it, praised it, forwarded to all on their buddy lists. After a while, it is forgotten like any other forwarded article. I wish, at least some people would start looking at India little differently and start doing some thing different which might change this shameful image. Honestly speaking this is true f...

There is a large number of resources both online and offline available for SCJP exam preparation. Not all of them are effective, particularly if you have limited time to spare, like me. The following are the short-listed resources I have used to pass the SCJP exam(31st october,2004). I got 56 answers right out of 61 questions and scored 91% . It took 3 weeks for me to learn the fundamentals of Java language and specifically prepare for the exam. If you have limited time, the following list of resources, which I consider very effective, may help you too. Books “HeadFirst Java” by Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra - If you are new to Java, this is the best book, as it explains the concepts in a very humorously engaging way. And this book has a variety of presentation techniques to illustrate and emphasize the concepts. “Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide” by Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra - This book covers every thing required for the exam in the same style as in â...

On googling, I found some very informative links on what makes a Software architect. Some are very abstract, but can easily relate to realistic functions. Typical activities/scope of the role of architect from HP's website. http://www.architecture.external.hp.com/Overview/arch_who_architect.htm Architect Pages from IBM library http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/1854.html Duties of Software Architect from SEI http://www.sei.cmu.edu/ata/arch_duties.html Becoming an Architect article at Artima. http://www.artima.com/intv/architect.html World Wide Institute of Software Architects http://www.wwisa.org Architect role page from wwisa http://www.wwisa.org/wwisamain/role.htm The role of Architect - article www.bredemeyer.com/pdf_files/ArchitectRole.PDF