Thought Garage

A researcher argues, Booming economy may change the dynamics of Caste and politics around Caste system. Most of us certainly hope so, but we do not believe that would happen.  Look at different organizations and clubs in US, established by Indians working in US. Most of these organizations are polarized and implicitly all members belong to a certain caste. Grouping under a caste, only promote, caste system.  These are all very well educated, in a much better financial conditions. But Caste is something they consider almost equal to Nationalism and next to being patriotic. And this is election season, you would see strategies, promises and every thing politicians do to win in the elections revolve around Castes. The debate over caste in the New India is more than academic. India’s leaders are under growing pressure to alleviate poverty and inequality. Now, all kinds of groups are clamoring for what Dalits have had for 50 years — quotas in university seats,...

Warangal police setup their own district level web site, WarangalPolice.org   to better reach out to people and provide statistics along with up-to-date information on various cases pending. Also attempting to use the website to promote safety and alert people about various scams. There is a public grievance form, where people can submit their grievances to seek help from Warangal police. The district police launched their own website warangalpolice.org extending their services and bringing more transparency in their operations. District Collector B. Janardhan launched the website at a function here on Saturday. Superintendent of Police V. C. Sajjanar said they launched the dedicated website to make use of the latest technology and bring in more efficiency. He hoped the new facility will help reduce the number of pending cases and infuse confidence about the police among the people. The portal would contain all the details about each case, its stage and time needed for...

The former TDP leader Devender Goud started his own political party and set a dead line for current Governments at both State and National level to make a resolution for Telangana. If they fail to make a resolution by Nov 1, Telangana will declare self-rule as Seperate state, Devender Goud threatened. The newly founded Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP) will unilaterally “declare statehood to Telangana” on November 1 when it proposes to implement self-rule in the region. The party will “change” the name of the State from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana on all the signboards. The number plates on all vehicles will also have the name of Telangana, the NTPP president T. Devender Goud told a public meeting to mark the launch of the party here on Wednesday. Mr. Goud asked the Government to adopt a resolution either in the Assembly or Parliament “creating separate Telangana” by November, the State Formation Day. Otherwise, the NTPP would mobil...

This is election year, and more promotions on the way to lure voters. We have seen huge traction in the last two weeks in awarding Reservations to Kapu community by all political parties. Here is another, to waive loans given to SC/STs in the last 30 years. The State government has decided to waive margin money loans sanctioned by Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes Finance Corporation over the last 30 years. It appears most of those loans did not reach expected beneficiaries at all. The decision threatened to expose irregularities in the sanctioning of loans and nexus between bankers and brokers in denying the benefits to SC families and in defeating the objectives of welfare schemes. The Scheduled Castes Corporation has sent letters to the ‘beneficiaries’ in Gudlur and Ulavapadu mandals that their margin money loans have been waived. The letters have caused more surprise than cheer among the addressees. They thronged the SC Corporation office here saying that ...

More often, they get away with huge bundles of money. Once in a while, they get caught. Here is a story of a Deputy Collector that directly engaged in extortion and corruption  and get caught by ACB(anti corruption bureau). Click on the image to see full image (via Andhra Jyothi News story)

Beware of new credit card offers by Sales agents. They could steal your current credit cards and apply for new credit cards on your name. They may also apply for loans on your name without your knowledge. Read the story for full details and follow the story, by clicking on the link at the bottom of the excerpts. The Task Force police apprehended a techie who used his skills to cheat many by withdrawing money from their credit cards through fraudulent means. By taking up freelance work from various registered direct sales agencies, who get credit card promotion works from various banks, Rajesh exploited loopholes in the system for wrongful gain. Rajesh then gave advertisements in newspapers and appointed four telecallers and an office boy. The telecallers used to target credit card holders . They called on the phone numbers in yellow pages and those found on a website, and enquired whether the creditcard holders needed credit cards of other banks. "Once a custom...

We recently came to know about these 'Aarogya Mela' ( health camps) that are being conducted at various places all over India.  These camps will greatly benefit poorer sections, who normally do not have access to health care (no doctors and no money)  and if they do, they resist contacting a doctor. These camps are conducted through out India and accountability has been assigned to the MP (Member of Parliament) to organize and engage local government facilities to follow up on initial counseling. For example, in Andhra Pradesh, those who are diagnosed through these camps, will be treated under ArogyaSri ( a state + private owned insurance scheme for poor). An excellent strategy and initiative.  If conducted extensively, it would greatly benefit the poorer sections of the society. The State and Central governments jointly conceived the parliamentary constituency-level health camps to provide proper healthcare to the poor along with food and shelter, he noted. Sp...

We recently wrote that 'more reservations' are on the way : Politics : More Reservations On The Way in Andhra Pradesh ...! and followed up in a couple of days with another announcement Politics : Kapu students to get Govt. Benefits on par with BCs . Well, it doesn't stop there.  Here is another, that offers 33% reservation in Assembly and Lok Sabha to BCs, that will soon officially include Kapu community. The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution unanimously requesting the Centre to amend the Constitution to provide 33.3 per cent reservation for the Backward Classes (BCs) in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 33 p.c. BCs quota sought in A.P. We don't understand. Reservations are brought in by B.R. Ambedkar to uplift and involve those who are socially out casted by so called forward caste groups. Why don't Political parties take an affirmative action instead? Now, by recommending 33% reservation for BCs, does ...

A political pressure group has been formed to influence Delhi and energize Small state movements, as they believe 'Small is better' for effective management and development. Representatives of the National Federation of Small States met here on Thursday and decided to form a coordination committee and create a “pressure group” in Delhi as part of their efforts to step up movements for new States. The decision was taken at a colloquium on separate Statehood movements in Telangana, Vidharbha, Haritha Pradesh, Purvanchal, Ladakh, Bodoland and Gorkhaland. The leaders also decided to set up an office of the Federation at New Delhi, T. Devender Goud, president of Nava Telangana Praja Party said. The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Effort to raise movements for formation of new States Key reason, we believe, there are so many movements for seperate states is NOT efficient and fair administration or development. There is a truth in efficiency being small, bu...

As per a Hindu news story, 'Praja Rajyam' as a party name has already been registered by a Cuddapah resident with Election commission and it has been approved. It will be interesting to see now how it works out. Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi's bid for Election Commission's nod for his newly-launched political outfit "Praja Rajyam" appears to have run into trouble as another man has already sought registration of his party of the same name. A resident of Cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh has already filed an application before the Election Commission seeking to register his party in the same name. EC sources said the Cuddapah resident has filed his application three or four months back and the EC has also processed his application. The Commission also sent a reply to him. The sources said the Commission was yet to examine the application of the megastar who moved the Commission on August 26 to register his new political outfit as Praja Rajya...

Another concept close to this discussion is 'Saving vs Investing'. Many prefer Saving whatever they earn, and only few think about 'growing'  whatever they have by investing. Nice read. When it comes to Politics, particularly in Elections season,  we often here brave and gigantic ambitions of every political party. This is a macro strategy of what we should do to become a better and more prosperous state. But when once the party comes into power, they soon realize achieving those dreams is a very tough task. Many a times, they have to start from scratch, built an eco system, create an establishment, policies, guidelines and advocate and teach so that beneficiaries will start using it. Another aspect of it is, it takes time to do all this and they may not even see any tangible political benefits in their own term. So, instead of pursuing those dreams, despite the hurdles, many tend to focus on Micro-efficiency, making an already working system, little better, for easy p...

Great news for AP Education scene; The city’s educational map, already dotted with prestigious institutions, will boast of yet another world-class institution, with the highly respected Birla Institute of Technological Sciences (BITS) starting its academic operations on Friday. The third campus of BITS in the country, located in Jawaharnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad, will open its academic gates to 530 students in 13 disciplines in both bachelor and post graduate courses with an orientation programme on Friday while the actual class work will begin from Saturday. The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : BITS Hyderabad starts academics from Friday

When it comes to Politics, particularly in Elections season,  we often here brave and gigantic ambitions of every political party. This is a macro strategy of what we should do to become a better and more prosperous state. But when once the party comes into power, they soon realize achieving those dreams is a very tough task. Many a times, they have to start from scratch, built an eco system, create an establishment, policies, guidelines and advocate and teach so that beneficiaries will start using it. Another aspect of it is, it takes time to do all this and they may not even see any tangible political benefits in their own term. So, instead of pursuing those dreams, despite the hurdles, many tend to focus on Micro-efficiency, making an already working system, little better, for easy political mileage. We are fortunate enough to have at least few leaders that could see beyond their own term and change the direction of the ship and take huge risks at a Macro level. For instance, ...

Though every key political party insisted that there will be no effect of Chiranjeevi's party on their future, they have been cautiously deferring any further comments. Not any more, after Chiranjeevi announced the Party. Congress party take Heads-on with Praja Rajyam Today almost 5 key Congress party leaders have criticized Praja Rajyam as a purpose less and meaningless party. Their biggest criticism is that 'the party has no purpose' yet. Chiranjeevi painstakingly read from a written script word by word, as if he had never seen that script earlier , key issues that are being faced by Andhra people, but did not say with clarity, how his party will approach or solve any of those issues.  If he had known all those issues of people right from early days in movie career, why he was 'reading' word by word, often missing the semantics, (and correcting himself), from a written script. Watch the Youtube movie on Core issues to see how Chiranjeevi struggled to read t...

Chiranjeevi addressed one of the largest political meetings we have ever seen recently, where he revealed the party name, flag and a remixed theme song along with key issues the party is planning to address. We were really thrilled to hear the name of the party. Praja Rajyam We have been guessing a name with similar theme. The name fits to the ambitions and promise of the party. Watch these videos on YouTube to get a glimpse of the first meet where Chiranjeevi announced the Party Name, Flag and core issues that he want to fight against. We will have detailed analysis later. The Name The Flag   The Promise   Theme Song   Core Issues Earlier in the meeting, he spoke about the humble beginnings of his own life, we are pretty sure, no body has ever heard in that perspective so far. There is a clean mix of political ambitions and attempt to tell a story. But overall, people may have a better idea about his beginnings now. More o...

Watch this TV screen of TV9 channel. Only about 25% of the screen is where the 'main content' is allowed to show up. The Rest is taken up by Advertisements, commentary and Headlines. Imagine, every block in the picture scrolls and moves. Will anybody really look at those ads?  How effective is this mashup? We believe, ZERO. Advertisements are the driving factor for almost all TV Channels. Their profits and survival depends on them. So you will always see programs that attract more people to the TV sets (mostly based on movies and soap shows) rather than quality programs that may enrich viewer's mind and probably help the society. We don't mean to say, stop ads. Even on our blog, we have Ads. But we use them so responsibly, they don't distract the main content. We don't use popup ads, flashing ads and we don't hide content in between ads. Most importantly, we don't use Ads every where on the page. We just have two 200x200 blocks on the top right...

More reservations?? Here is a list of confirmed commitments from various political parties: Congress awards 4% of Reservations (from the existing 27% OBCs quota) for Muslims in Educational Institutions, already approved by Supreme Court. Telugu Desam is thinking of awarding Reservations in Private sector for SCs. Kapu Community, almost a 30% contingent in the state has been fighting for Reservations too to be included in BC list. YSR has been publicly promising 'justice' will be done to them 'very soon'. If Chiranjeevi comes to power, all key objectives of  Kapunadu will be fulfilled (as per most Chiru proponents), that include Reservations to Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh. SwarnaAndhra Harivillu v0.1: Politics : More Reservations On The Way in Andhra Pradesh ...!

New Anlaysis at Rediff.com brings fresh and yet very clear light to the Andhra Politics and the inevitable Caste factor in Andhra Pradesh. Note by Prakriti Team: We do not agree with the analysis, even half of that analysis. The analysis is based on euphoric expectations of Chiranjeevi fans. But we want to bring to your attention how other people and media in large looks at the current political scene and estimate the political outcome. We don't deny the Caste factor in Andhra Politics. We in fact understand it much deeper than most popular media channels. Our analysis on how Caste influence the coming elections is expected to be published in the next two weeks. Share you thoughts and please keep connected. Chiranjeevi: The die is cast(e) in Andhra Pradesh The megastar from Andhra Pradesh has finally taken the plunge and announced his entry into the world of politics. ... The influential Kapu community in AP which Chiranjeevi belongs to is hopeful that their le...

We just mentioned few hours ago, that this is the Elections season and more reservations are on the way . Particularly interesting are the Reservations and benefits to Kapu community, as Chiranjeevi belongs to Kapu community, and many believe Chiranjeevi will provide those reservations to Kapu community if he comes to power. Eenadu.net headline news that we just spotted clarifies that it has been approved by CM, YSR to provide 'all benefits' on par with BC,SC and STs to Kapu community. Scholarships, Hostel and concessions in fees. The only one left out is reservations to admissions, which have been promised to be taken up after an in depth study. We suspect, all political parties 'may defer', reservations to Kapu community before the elections, as it would distance them from other BC communities. Since if provided, Kapu community has to share the already allotted BC quota, as it is not possible to extend beyond 50% legal limit of reservations. Muslims have alread...

Read this welcome news with a pinch of salt.  Taking a U-turn from its original industrial policy, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided not to acquire land for the purpose of facilitating private sector. "We have enough land and decided not to acquire any more land for the purpose of private sector," D Prasada Rao, state's revenue minister told the media. For the last four years, the State government had participated in acquiring land for the benefit of industry despite criticism from the Opposition parties. The decision was taken by Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy a couple of days back after interacting with various related departments and function heads. Rao said that the decision will hold all the industrial and infrastructure projects proposed in the future and those projects which were approved will continue as per sanctions. In effect, the decision will not hit already approved projects, he clarified. He further said that the coastal corri...

Top movie Rival stars, who in the first place, have fan base primarily out of caste associations, are aligning with their family lines (obviously) to win in the upcoming elections. We have a much deeper analysis and report coming later in the week. But here is a glimpse. Chiranjeevi's Family of Film Stars NTR's Current Family of Film Stars It will be interesting how Congress attempt to win this Movie stars' mass influence. 'Money' for a change has always worked for Congress, and in our opinion, Congress rely on money than anything else.

Election season is here. And more reservations on the way in Andhra Pradesh. Everything from Colleges to Private sectors. Politicians are not leaving anything away from Reservations, except their Political organizations. Here is a list of confirmed commitments from various political parties: Congress awards 4% of Reservations (from the existing 27% OBCs quota) for Muslims in Educational Institutions, already approved by Supreme Court. Telugu Desam is thinking of awarding Reservations in Private sector for SCs. Kapu Community, almost a 30% contingent in the state has been fighting for Reservations too to be included in BC list. YSR has been publicly promising 'justice' will be done to them 'very soon'. If Chiranjeevi comes to power, all key objectives of  Kapunadu will be fulfilled (as per most Chiru proponents), that include Reservations to Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh. The concept of reservations has been stretched too far already. Will there ...

The concept of Reservations is here to stay. While many fight to remove reservations fully, we continuously see increased quotas based on caste and  including more castes in to eligibility groups. Now, it goes beyond caste lines. Quota reserved will be based on your religious identify. Thats right.  4% of quota out of OBC's 27% quota will now be reserved to Muslims., citing their lack of social and educational backwardness. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the implementation of Andhra Pradesh government's controversial community-based quota for Muslims in educational institutions , in a development fraught with serious repercussions and the potential to be cited as precedent for extending the quota to new frontiers. The apex court had earlier refused to lift the stay ordered by the high court on the rollout of Muslim quota in admissions to engineering, medical, BDS and other professional colleges including polytechnic institutions, forbidding the Cong...

Satyam's RamaLinga Raju and AP Government has recently started a 500 Ambulance strong help line to expdite Emergency response. Ramalinga Raju's set up a foundation, the Emergency Management & Research Institute three years ago.  At the time, there was no 911 in India, and millions of people were dying each year who could have been saved with the proper intervention. EMRI launched trials on the outskirts of Hyderabad. .. When the government saw how effective the operations were, it decided to help fund them. Today the government pays about 95% of the operating costs for emergency response services that span the state, and Raju's foundation pays the rest. The system runs 500 ambulances and handles more than 300,000 police, fire, and emergency calls per day.  Source: From Indian IT Tycoon, Health Care for the Poor (Business Week ) As anybody can figure out, 500 vehicles is an excellent start, but could hardly reach any significant population. Hopefully, ...

NMII Consortium, ( Navabharat Ventures Limited , Maytas Infra Limited , Ital Thai Development Public Company Limited and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited ) will be building a 71km Metro rail in Hyderabad to boost its infrastructure and little bit help environment as well. The Andhra Pradesh government has formally issued the ‘letter of award’ in favour of Maytas Infra-led consortium for undertaking the development of Hyderabad Metro Rail Project on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis. The consortium, Navabharat Ventures Limited , Maytas Infra Limited , Ital Thai Development Public Company Limited and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (‘NMII Consortium’), will take up the metro project estimated to cost Rs 12,000 crore (approx US$ 3 billion) in Hyderabad. The project has three lines totaling 71km, which include Miyapur to LB Nagar - 30 Kms Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma -...

A reaction by a hard core Chiranjeevi fan from Kakinada in Email, to today's news on T-Party to Film industry by Chiranjeevi: "I love Chiru more than my brother and I offered prayers today that Chiru annaya would see how bad politicians are and fail in Politics to come back to very movies that made him our beloved Hero. People around him are hungry for power, money and fame, the very things that  Chiru annayya always hated so much. I don't want to loose a great Hero.  He resisted Politics for so long, and finally these guys got into his mind in the name of Public service. In an very emotional speech by Chiranjeevi during Vajrotsav Meeting of Films, he said, he would go to the place where he has come from (film industry to the humble beginning with half-filled stomachs) and make more meaningful movies to prove to a point that he deserve the 'Legendary' status (that he could not accept that day), he would stay in Movies and gain more appreciation from public. Wa...

While many Congress leaders earlier declared, there would be no effect of Chiranjeevi's party on Congress, the Chief Minister YSR takes it very seriously. YSR is reportedly conducting an internal survey afresh to identify 'Winning Horses' and removing those with improbable chances against fighting in the new political climate. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has dropped hints that some Ministers in the Cabinet as also many Congress legislators may not get party ticket in the next elections as their “prospects of winning are bleak.” Dr. Reddy told the Ministers at a Cabinet meeting on Saturday about the inevitability of change in guard in the constituencies where the Congress was likely to suffer reverses. “There are MLAs who cannot secure even a second place in their constituencies,” he reportedly said. The atmosphere was positive for the Congress in a majority of the constituencies and the Congress would “bet on the winnin...

Thank you Akriti team for the tip off. This is indeed a great and healthy news. Read on the excerpt of the story here and original article was provided at the bottom for more details and to follow the story. When many millions of citizens are classified as below poverty line (BPL), a government needs to think twice before launching a health insurance scheme that intends to be truly inclusive. Andhra Pradesh did, and came up with a unique model — the Rajiv Aarogyasri Community Health Insurance Scheme It’s a public-private partnership that ropes in a private insurer, public and private hospitals, and women’s self-help groups, along with the heavy involvement of the government to provide quality health care to the bulk of its population. Just 15 months after it was run as a pilot project in three districts, a colossal 65 million people are members of Aarogyasri, the largest cashless scheme of its kind. .. In this scheme, beneficiaries pay nothing. Sin...

Akriti team pointed to this news item on India Today, about an earth quake in various cities of Andhra Pradesh.  We learned that there was no earth quake and it was just a rumour. Rumours of an earthquake sparked off by messages and phone calls sent people scurrying out of their homes in various Andhra Pradesh districts early on Friday. Many residents of several areas in this state capital and areas like Medak, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad, Chitoor and Visakhapatnam woke up and ran out of their homes as word spread about an impending earthquake. They sat on the roads and in open grounds and returned home only after sunrise. Some people said that they received telephone calls and messages from their friends, warning about an earthquake in Gulbarga in Karnataka and several parts of Andhra Pradesh India Today Group Online Its bizarre to see how a rumor spread so fast and how everybody just believe in the rumor.  Samskriti team shouts from the other room, of course, w...

Finally Indian government has removed the restrictions on internet telephony and allows internet service providers to terminate calls to any phone (landline or Mobile). The telecom regulator has removed restrictions on net telephony which allows internet service providers (ISPs) to terminate voice calls from the net on the phone. Put simply it makes voice calls interoperable between mobile handset (VOIP- voice internet protocol– enabled) and a personal computer (PC). Consumers would be able to make calls from PCs to fixed line and mobile phones in India. They can also make a call to personal computers from their handsets. Till date, a call from a computer could legally be made only to another computer within the country, and not to a phone. However, one could make international calls to a phone from their computer. Source: Net Telephony Freed, Long Distance Rates To Go Down

Good to know, finally Indian government removed all the restrictions on Internet telephony. Really great news. Finally Indian government has removed the restrictions on internet telephony and allows internet service providers to terminate calls to any phone (landline or Mobile). The telecom regulator has removed restrictions on net telephony which allows internet service providers (ISPs) to terminate voice calls from the net on the phone. Put simply it makes voice calls interoperable between mobile handset (VOIP- voice internet protocol– enabled) and a personal computer (PC). Consumers would be able to make calls from PCs to fixed line and mobile phones in India. They can also make a call to personal computers from their handsets. Till date, a call from a computer could legally be made only to another computer within the country, and not to a phone. However, one could make international calls to a phone from their computer. Source: Net Telephony Freed, Long Distance Rates To Go D...

  Faster Web Pages Makes Users Happy Steve Souders, the creator of YSlow and the author of the book High Performance Web Sites, is one of the most respected experts on website performance in the world. We here at Pingdom are big fans of his work, and decided to probe his mind about the excellent YSlow Firefox add-on for evaluating website performance (which he created while working at Yahoo), his work at Google, and his thoughts around the ever-important issues of website performance and optimization. The need for speed: Making Basecamp faster Analysis: We relied heavily on New Relic’s outstanding RPM performance management suite to give us insight about the parts of Basecamp that were accessed the most as well as those that were most in need of improvement. Caching: We’ve begun using Memcached in a variety of spots. Caching can be tricky with dynamic apps like Basecamp since different people often see different things, but we’ve implemented it carefully where it could be use...

Read the interview with YSlow creator Steve Sounder on Web site performance. Everybody knows why Google search engine became so ubiquitous. The Google home page loads in a flash with minimalist interface and take you for a ride with most relevant results. Faster Web Pages Makes Users Happy Steve Souders, the creator of YSlow and the author of the book High Performance Web Sites, is one of the most respected experts on website performance in the world. We here at Pingdom are big fans of his work, and decided to probe his mind about the excellent YSlow Firefox add-on for evaluating website performance (which he created while working at Yahoo), his work at Google, and his thoughts around the ever-important issues of website performance and optimization.

With B.R. Ambedkar, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Phule as backdrop for the Party and by enrolling a fan of Chiranjeevi with disabilities as the first member of his party (yet to be announced), Chiranjeevi is starting his real life political career on the right foot. He is clearly sending the message that he care about poorer people and people with disabilities and emboldening the 'service to people' as motto of his party and his dream of coming in to power. Even if it is just a political game, as Jagriti team says it, we all believe that he is playing it right and solid so far. It's pretty clear that none of the other political parties can play this kind of drama and impact the emotional side of masses. So, we have to admit, when it comes to masses, he will obviously have a definitive edge. Few key SC/ST and BC leaders meeting in Vizag Prakriti team member from Vizag just tipped a word on a meeting by key SC/ST and OBC leaders in Visakhapatnam to discuss on th...

Financial education is the most important education each one of us so desperately need, but often ignored and definitely not taught any where in colleges. Many of us learn a few good habits and strategies from parents and friends, but exposure is pretty limited. There are so many Personal Finance portals out there on the Internet but none that caters to our conditions. Here is a good news. InvestmentYogi.com is a comprehensive personal portal founded by a bunch of NRIs that are returning to Hyderabad. It features Tax planning, online portpolio tracking, financial planning especially for NRIs and a ton of articles and resources. If you haven't noticed.. Its quite common to see names that end with 'Guru', but the team did give a thought to stay different with 'Yogi' at the end. Don't miss these great videos that teach a few basics of Personal finance on the site.

Infosys will invest a whopping 1250 crores to create its largest campus on a 447 site at Pocharam, Hyderabad. Thank you for the snip, Akriti team. Infosys Technologies plans to invest Rs 1,250 crore to create its single largest campus on a 447-acre campus at Pocharam near Hyderabad with a capacity to host 25,000 engineers. ... In Hyderabad, the company now employs over 11,000 people and the centre contributes about Rs 2,279 crore in exports. The Hindu Business Line : Infosys to set up its largest campus in Hyderabad

“A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all” - Anonymous. Few notable thoughts that are worth sharing and spreading. Forbes misses the point of the 4-day work week The point of the 4-day work week is about doing less work. It’s not about 4 10-hour days for the magical 40-hour work week. It’s about 4 normalish 8-hour days for the new and improved 32-hour work week. The numbers are just used to illustrate a point. Results, not hours, are what matter, but working longer hours doesn’t translate to better results. The law of diminishing returns kicks in quick when you’re overworked. NSF Tells The Story of The Birth of The Internet National Science Foundation has put together a really great web site that tells the story of the birth of the Internet, using videos, presentations and documents from its archives. The history is divided into decades, and there is a special section devoted to Mosaic devel...

Quite an interesting concept for a blog, to form teams with distinct characteristics to contribute on the blog.  I love those team names and their characteristics : Akriti, Prakriti, Jagriti and Samskriti. These days, every thing 2.0, but this blog and the web site uses version 0.1.  While, We appreciate and value Individuals and their aspirations, we strongly believe in Teams. So we have decided to operate and contribute to SwarnaAndhra v0.1 project as Teams. Each team is set with a distinct focus, responsibility and character just like an Individual. SwarnaAndhra Harivillu v0.1: Introducing SwarnaAndhra v0.1 Teams

Akriti team provided a snip of this blog where the author did a pretty good comparison of various relevant aspects between NTR and Chiranjeevi. This is particularly important as they both share so many similarities and so far it looked like Chiranjeevi is adeptly following the foot steps of NTR. You can read the blog post here: NTR vs Chiru « Whatslatest’s Weblog We actually planned a much deeper and detailed analysis of the birth of TDP and Chiranjeevi's party and release our predictions on how people of Andhra Pradesh would likely to respond. We will wait till Chiranjeevi's party and its manifesto or at least key guiding factors for the party are officially announced in the 26th meeting in Tirupathi to attempt any such comparisons. Let us know what you think?

Akriti team brought us the news that on 17th August 2008, Chiranjeevi announced that he is entering into Politics by starting his own Political party. Watch the announcement on YouTube video here. Prakriti, Jagriti and Samskriti teams had a long discussion about the announcement and we promised to bring to you our analysis of the event. You can read the first part, Prakriti team's analysis here . This is second part of the analysis on Motivation by Jagriti team. Why Politics? As Prakriti team pointed out, the announcement itself is not at all a surprise as many of us already know that Chiranjeevi will come into politics. Its a public secret. We have been waiting just for the announcement and future direction. It was a pretty wonderful first Speech for the new Politician turned hero. Coming from Acting background, it wouldn't surprise any of us about the way he dealt his first public appearance. His appeal to general public is quite sensible. Not many smart a...

Akriti team brought us the news that on 17th August 2008, Chiranjeevi announced that he is entering into Politics by starting his own Political party. Watch the announcement on YouTube video here. Prakriti, Jagriti and Samskriti teams had a long discussion about the announcement and we promised to bring to you our analysis of the event. This is first part of the analysis on Motivation. On Motivation Based fully on the announcement itself, Akriti team summarizes the key motivation for Chiranjeevi to enter into politics as follows: To serve people, particularly uplift the poorer sections Bring smart, capable and good people in to Politics Personal fulfillment and conviction that it would be a historical mistake not to come to politics Last but the most popular reason, People that love him wanted him to come to Politics and reminded him of his responsibility to people that made him what he is. Not for Power, Money or fame On Inspirational Events & Peo...

The long awaited announcement finally came from Chiranjeevi himself, from the newly constructed Party head quarters in Hyderabad on 17th August 2008. The conference began at 3.00PM and lasted for about an hour. Only media representatives have been invited to this 'all-standing' meeting, though the event live cast on all popular TV channels. Party Name will be announced in the first public gathering of the party in Temple town Tirupathi on 26th of August. Watch the announcement telecast itself on YouTube videos linked here. Prakriti, Jagriti and Samskriti teams had a long discussion about the announcement and please stay tuned for a summary of the discussion and analysis of the event. YouTube Video Part 1 Fast forward to 2:30 for the announcement. Question & Answers start in the 3rd part. YouTube Video Part 2 YouTube Video Part 3 YouTube Video Part 4 YouTube Video Part 5 YouTube Video Part 6

While, We appreciate and value Individuals and their aspirations, we strongly believe in Teams. So we have decided to operate and contribute to SwarnaAndhra v0.1 project as Teams. Each team is set with a distinct focus, responsibility and character just like an Individual. So, here they are. Let the teams introduce themselves. News, Events And The Story Hi I am Akriti . I talk so well that I can make you dream in full colors and lively action, no matter what. I am humble enough not to brag about myself, but many say I am a great narrator and orator. "maatlaadin maata maatlaadakundaanee maatlaadagala maatakaarulake maatalu nerpagala ..... " you know! And, at times, I tend to be little dramatic, but only to bring more energy and perspective to the discussion. If you revel in talking and explaining events as they unfold drop me a note. Nice talking to you. See you around. To Join Akriti team, Send an email to Akriti at SwarnaAndhra01 dot com. People, Perceptions and Em...

Welcome to SwarnaAndhra Harivillu v0.1 On Harivillu, our primary blog at SwarnaAndhra v0.1 we attempt to share, explore and reveal true colors of news and events that shape SwarnaAndhra. We are a bunch of youngsters that strongly believe in Swarna Andhra Pradesh. However, we feel we haven't started that journey yet. So we initiate SwarnaAndhra v0.1. Will explain more on the whole SwarnaAndhra v0.1 project in next few days. We don't mistake HiTEC Park or a number of IT companies or industries or growing number of engineering colleges as a true depiction of SwarnaAndhra. We think, that's just an Industrially developed Andhra, not really a Swarna Andhra that we have been dreaming of. In the coming days, we will share with you what constitutes SwarnaAndhra in our hearts. And also share with you our own action plan to realize true Swarna Andhra Pradesh. If you agree with us and want to join the journey, for now, please leave a comment on this post. We will setup a separate Tea...

To all Indians, Happy independence day. Whenever I think of independence day, I always wonder how and what freedom has changed for me and my country. There are atleast couple of times, I thought we would have been much better without it. I always list out things I like and I don't like to see how we are moving ahead in my place and my state Andhra. Few things on the better half: 1. Getting a higher and/or professional education is now much easier and quite affordable. 2. Telecommunications are available almost everywhere, thanks to bharti for breaking the barriers and making it affordable. 3. People are getting more and more entrepreneurial. Be it real estate or otherwise. 4. For almost everbody, hospitals are available, though good care is not yet affordable to most. 5. Good or bad, autos have become preferred and many places only transportation available. Now the most remote parts can be reached. On the other half: 1. Resurgence of political mafia and land grabbing with the suppo...

Almost after 20 years, India won its first Gold in Olympics. Last time a Gold medal was won in 1980 olympics. Watch the vide of the Final event and Award ceremony with the National Anthem of India .   Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the 10-meter air rifle on Monday, giving India its first medal of the Olympics. India wins 1st Olympic gold in 10m air rifle - CNN.com

Just watching the 2008 olympics opening ceremony , where athletes from all over the world are marching. On NBC they are showing country name, population and number of athletes, at the bottom of the screen. Let's see how india and china fare, against each other: China Population: 1.3B Athletes: 639 Medals won so far : 286 India Population: 1.1B Athletes: 56 Medals won so far : 17 There has been a huge discussion comparing india and china and how India will beat china. Sports is not every thing. But, Can India really beat china, ever? I love to see. But, as of now, that looks like the best fantasy ever. Via iPhone.

What a Wonderful video on China and Beijing Olympics , that gives a panoramic view of China and its rich culture. I love this video. :Beijing and beyond: A journey through China's many splendors. From the limestone towers of Guilin to the Shaolin monks of Dengfeng with pandas idling between, China awaits. URL: http://www.nbcolympics.com/destinationbeijing/index.html?assetid=69caa828-06d9-43d6-b9db-4e84731cf0c3   You need to install Microsoft Silverlight, a browser extension to view. Don't forget to view in Enhanced Player.

If China can not sustain the growth, that doesn't really mean India can beat China because India is the largest democracy in the world. The authoritarian regimes then and current China are significantly different. And dreaming that China will falter and make way for others to beat it, would be just a dream. Bad Press for China, is a reflection of the inability of the world failing to come to terms with China and accepting China for what it really is. There was lot of bad press about China recently in view of Olympics in Beijing. I believe because almost the entire world is so jealous of how China does things. Many western countries are too dependent on China that there is no point of return from China. So they are at least trying to bring different kind of pressure on China to get a leverage. Otherwise, why would the same Western world that pushed so many billions of dollars of investment to China for the last two decades, and made China what it is today, suddenly finds a new vo...

Texas evening skyline, picture taken from iphone while moving at about 50 mph speed. Not bad for a camera on mobile phone on move at 50mph.

Look so ridiculous!! You create a fake of someone's application. Eventually, you got  sued. What you do? Just change the name of the application and face of the application and re-launch it. Scrabuluos Relaunches As Wordscraper Kolkata-based brothers, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, have relaunched Scrabuluos under a new Facebook application name called Wordscraper. On Tuesday, Scrabuluos was pulled off from the US and Canadian Facebook pages due to the lawsuit filed by gaming company Hasbro, which owns the rights for the game. Wordscraper has 15,000 users. The Agarwalla brothers have changed the name, changed the look of the board (instead of squares there are circles) and have also added some new rules. You also have the option to customise the supplied Wordscraper board to make it identical to a Scrabble board. This way the brothers can avoid getting sued for copyright infringement and can also keep their fans happy. When the application was pulled off on Tuesday, the Agrawalla B...