Thought Garage

Being a president is all about being an Effective Executive Leader, that understand the strengths and limitations of its own union and work towards the goals of the union effectively and successfully. Look at how Political campaigns have been run so far by each leader to get a glimpse of what kind of leader they could become, if they won. OBAMA, The Only Choice Looking at how the Presidential Campaigns have been run so far, Obama is the only candidate that demonstrated clear and inspiring leadership skills all the while. All other campaigns have failed to even manage their finances, directed the strategies as reactions and used fire fighting skills and 'do any thing to get those votes' kind of low strategies. The vision, planning, organization and execution of Obama's whole game plan was so disciplined and bound by the same principles as indicated on day 1. No other political campaign has really stuck to anything at all. He talked straight. He reminded individual respo...

"I owe my success to Andhra People and I am here to Serve them". That is what Chiranjeevi said as motivation behind entering into politics. While he hasn't spent any money at Grand level so far to serve People, he spent crores to arrange the movie style high octane Inaugural meeting at Tirupathi. Lakhs of movie star fans from all around the state attended the function. The 'Praja Ankita' yatra follows the stint with equal vigor and cost. PRP Already Began Couting Votes.. PRP and Chiranjeevi pretend for some time that the amount of people attending to the meetings as their support to his politically certain agenda and count them as real votes that could win him the election. Predictions of Godavari districts with 20,000 majority was plain stupid, but explain whats going on in PRP leaders' minds. Time to Show TDP's Stardom, Money and Muscle Now its the time for the other parties to show their so called political strength to the people of Andhra Prade...

Watch this internal meeting broadcast, reportedly recorded and leaked (believed to be quite deliberately) out to public, where Chiranjeevi explain the political strategy of Spying on other political leaders to win in the elections. So finally, this is what Praja Rajyam is all about? This is the inspiration Chiranjeevi got from Abdul Kalam, Gandhiji and Mother Theresa? How cheap politicians can go? leaving the ideology aside, to win in the elections? May be, we are too naive to expect anything different from politicians. We thought, Politics will change fro good with the introduction of Chiranjeevi, but Chiranjeevi is changing himself to fit into politics instead.

Actor turned Politician Chiranjeevi says he really doesn't know what people are hoping him to do in Politics (as per a news report on Times of India ) quoting a video. Really? But do you remember, Chiranjeevi saying the reason he was coming into politics was that 'People are calling' and he is replying to their call. So did he not understand why they are calling? or what they are calling for? I think neither, as Chiranjeevi did not discuss with PEOPLE before entering into politics. He is doing that exercise now, as part of ELECTION campaign. It was a real life drama, saying I am coming as a reply to people's call and never did have a clue about why and what they are calling for.  Is there a hidden meaning for all this? Better people ask the people who wrote his script. Because, that is what a movie actor is used to. recite and act, probably without even understanding anything about it. To  a certain extent, the opinion on this blog, Harivillu is correct. Chiranjeevi...

For all my life so far, I heard people move to Mumbai to live their dreams. And its quite intriguing to know that people are actually moving to Hyderabad , right from Maharastra itself, to live their dreams. In the last couple of years, a number of young professionals have crossed over to Andhra Pradesh from Maharashtra to pursue their dreams in one of the biggest IT hubs of the country, Hyderabad. In fact, some are even investing in real estate with long term plans of settling down in the city. Source: Hyderabad's cool quotient

Came across this wonderful and elegant image editor while browsing 37Signals blog, that runs right in the browser. The interface is so elegant and loads faster than my most desktop applications.   Source: PHOTO: introduction.jpg

These days, every thing is coming up with a touch screen, with all those zippy gestures. iPhone may have inspired a few, but these giant screens are demonstrating a different dimension. SNL use touch screen to explain some pretty complex .....!!! You better Watch it.

Electricity has become a major issue for almost all parts of the state, even after State Government buying Electricity from the grid spending crores of rupees every day. This is the month of October and still official power cuts run into 10-12 hours in certain districts. If you talk to people that are living particularly in rural and urban areas, these power cuts run so much higher, that they only talk about number hours they may see Electricity. Agriculture, the backbone of India , gets electricity for just around 4-7 hours a day. Can you really grow any crop with 4-5 hours a day? (Source : News Article at Eenadu.com )

CPI, CPI(M) and TRS came to an understanding today to fight together in the upcoming elections. (Picture: by Eenadu, http://eenadu.net/25pan6a.jpg ) TRS chief KCR confirmed the alliance after meeting with the CPI party secretary AB Bardhan in New Delhi. Who Joins This Alliance? TDP? or PRP? The big question on whether This alliance will work with TDP or PRP remains undecided. It appears that they want to wait for some more time to evaluate PRP influence in the coming elections before making a decision. TDP having declared its new stand to support 'seperate Telangana' leaving its traditional stand for Samaikhyandra (one Andhra Pradesh) opened its gates for alliance with TRS. However PRP hasn't declared a YES or NO yet. Going by the insider reports from PRP, PRP may declare a YES very soon and may join the alliance. If PRP joins this alliance, TDP will have to face elections on its own, ALONE. Same goes with PRP if TDP joins the alliance. PRP Leaders trying to ...

  To create awareness among the people on the rights of pedestrians, a city-based NGO ‘Right to Walk Foundation’ launched a ‘20k Signature Campaign’ on Friday. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to create a pedestrian-friendly city Source: Right to Walk Foundation launches signature campaign You can read more about the NGO and its activities at its website ,  and stay updated with its blog .

If you are following Hyderabad Metro Rail works, here is an update on the project: Six consortia were shortlisted for selection of independent engineer to oversee the Hyderabad Metro Rail works by the state government on Friday. The consortia are: AECOM (Hong Kong), Aarvee Associates (India) and Lahmayer International (Germany); DB International (Germany) and SMEC International (Australia); Louis Berger (USA) and RITES (India); Mott MacDonald (UK) and Tecnica (Italy); Net Engineering (Italy); and Scott Wilson Railways (UK) and EPC consultants (USA). Source: Six consortia to bid for overseeing metro rail

Hyderabad US Consulate opened today at Paigah Palace.  The beautiful and historic Paigah Palace, built in the 1880’s will be the temporary home of the new U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad.  US ambassador to India David C Mulford on Friday declared open the new consulate at Paigah Palace in the city by hoisting the Stars and Stripes in the presence of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and other officials. Addressing the gathering, Mulford said the new US consulate would begin issuing visas from mid-December. To being with, the consulate will issue about 100 visas a day which will be gradually increased to 300 by January next year. Source: US consulate opens in city

Its quite difficult to say who is real Palin, unless you watched real Palin more than one time.Isn't hurting GOP real bad?   Source: Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Governor Palin Cold Open

So, are we saying 'Capaitalism' as the world knows doesn't work for India?  What happens if the business loose its revenue. Will government pay the dues? With the sacking of nearly 1900 of its staff by Jet Airways turning into a political sensitive issue ahead of elections, a worried Congress today disapproved of the hire-and-fire policy and bluntly told the industry that "India is not America". "Hire and fire is not a proper labour policy... Hiring them recklessly and then firing them recklessly is not proper. We do not approve this," Congress media department chief M Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi Source: No hire and fire, India is not America: Congress Global Recession : Is It The Fall of Capitalism? When I was discussing this quote by senior Congress leader with a journalist from Hyderabad, he did resonate with the thought. He questioned, the US Government bailing out is not different than what we normally see in a Commun...

So, are we saying 'Capaitalism' as the world knows doesn't work for India?  What happens if the business loose its revenue. Will government pay the dues? With the sacking of nearly 1900 of its staff by Jet Airways turning into a political sensitive issue ahead of elections, a worried Congress today disapproved of the hire-and-fire policy and bluntly told the industry that "India is not America". "Hire and fire is not a proper labour policy... Hiring them recklessly and then firing them recklessly is not proper. We do not approve this," Congress media department chief M Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi Source: No hire and fire, India is not America: Congress

Energy is vital to Andhra Pradesh. Land has become much more important, thanks to Real estate bubble all over the state. Then its not surprising people of Andhra Pradesh are fighting against allocation of land to setting up Power plants. Costal Corridor has been a prime example. It will be interesting to see how people of Krishna district will react? Even as the allotment of land in the coastal corridor to three private companies for starting thermal power plants is mired in controversy, the state government has directed the Krishna district collector to study the feasibility of allotment of 1,800 acres of land at Kona village near Machilipatnam to a Chennai-based company for setting up a power plant. Chennai-based Falcon Projects Development wants to set up a power plant with a capacity of 1000 MW. The company wants 1,800 acres at Kona village, and the project will be completed by 2011-12. Source: Land Allotment For Power Plant Under Govt Consideration

We all have so heavily depend on Calculators and Computers to do all calculations, including the most simplest ones. Its quite tough to beat the habit of looking for a nearby computer or calculator on the cell phone and start waking up those gray cells. So, its worth noting that kids of this generation actually beat those calculators instead of relying on them. Kudos. The proficiency and speed for calculating faster than calculator has been achieved by 18 out of 8,000 kids from Andhra Pradesh enrolled for Abacus and Braindemy SDN BHD, Malaysia. Source: 18 Andhra kids beat calculator (Indian Express)

Its great to see funding for R&D flows in from Foreign Universities to our Universities. The amount of R&D spent in local markets is quite bleak, this is such a wonderful news for universities. Many universities in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh have become hubs for international collaboration in infrastructure development and research. The universities from abroad have invested in universities in the state to develop academic research. At universities including Osmania University, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University and some Central government institutes including National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, the investments are for development of fundamental and applied research. Source: AP, now, R&D hub for foreign varsities

Fantastic breakthrough. The abundant energy in the form of Gravity can be tapped for transportation? wow ! An Indian breakthrough will help road-rail travel ride on gravity power alone that can potentially save the world 70 percent of fossil fuels required for the purpose every year. Rajaram Bojji, a product of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, who holds 17 international patents and has helped script an engineering marvel like the Konkan Railway, has explored and developed the knowhow to tap gravity Source: Indian breakthrough taps gravity to help road rail travel

Isn't it the essence of whole outsourcing game, that work moves where it can be done at the cheapest place? English speaking work force and Knowledge workers are no longer confined to Indian borders. In fact, with huge local government sops, many world destinations may beat Indian centers. Its almost like India 10 years ago. Cebu City and Bacolod City (the Philippines), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Krakow (Poland), Tianjin (China), Amman (Jordan), Nizhniy Novgorod (Russia) and Cork (Republic of Ireland) are some of the fastest growing destinations for IT and ITeS outsourcing, according to a study by investment advisory firm Tholons. While, some of the high-end work continues to be doled out to time-tested destinations such as Bangalore, contracts for less complex services are increasingly going to companies operating out of newer locations. As the global slowdown has something to do with this, the cost advantages and sops offered by respective governments is an added attraction. ...

Quite a remarkable journey for a Cell, from a heavy brick luxury device to an integral part of our daily lives. Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the first commercial cellphone call in history. On October 13th 1983, Ameritech executive Bob Barnett called the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell using the now legendary and bricktastic Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. Here's Gizmodo modified cellphone timeline highlighting this historic event.  Source: 25 Anniversary of the First Commercial Cellphone Call Timeline

Its elections season and every day we hear tons of criticism from each Political party, how  'ruling' party is such a failure and how a common man's life is getting so difficult.  Then each political party will say, 'if the come to power', they will solve every problem of the common man. These days, if you ask Chiranjeevi or Chandra Babu Naidu about any problem of a common man, even before you finish your question they are ready with the answer. Everything will change once they come into power and those issues can only be solved if they come to power. Everybody Promise, But None of them offer a Plan. All Political party leaders are promising everything, but none of them are offering a solid plan on how they will solve an issue. And many a times, 'just the criticism alone' attract people attention and help them win in the elections. Not many really care how they can solve the issue. Leaders Can't Criticize If  They Don't Have A Plan If you go to ...

Every political party has been criticizing the ruling Congress party that the Government has failed to control Commodity prices and life of a common man  is becoming increasingly difficult. Chandra Babu Naidu, the chief of TDP even went on to say the Government doesn't know how to control and he would have put everything in control had been a Chief Minister. PRP plays the same tune that it could make life of common man much easier irrespective of mammoth inflation hike and price hike, but did not offer anything on how it does either. That brings to the key question, can really State Government control or at least influence the commodity price and inflation? Or its just an election gimmick every party that is not in power can play? Share your views on this critical question. We think, the answer is a YES to an extent. But it would be difficult to quantify the impact of  actions taken at a state level on commodity price and inflation that is calculated at National level. B...

India blasted into the international space race Wednesday with the successful launch of an ambitious two-year mission to study the moon's landscape. The spacecraft carrying India's first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, lifts off in Sriharikota on Wednesday.  ( India launches first moon mission - CNN.com ) In its fourteenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota this morning (October 22, 2008) , the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C11, successfully launched the 1380 kg Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft into a transfer orbit with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 255 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 22,860 km, inclined at an angle of 17.9 deg to the equator. You may watch video highlights of the preparation and Launch here . PSLV-C11 Successfully Launches Chandrayaan-1

Its elections season and every day we hear tons of criticism from each Political party, how  'ruling' party is such a failure and how a common man's life is getting so difficult.  Then each political party will say, 'if the come to power', they will solve every problem of the common man. These days, if you ask Chiranjeevi or Chandra Babu Naidu about any problem of a common man, even before you finish your question they are ready with the answer. Everything will change once they come into power and those issues can only be solved if they come to power. Everybody Promise, But None of them offer a Plan. All Political party leaders are promising everything, but none of them are offering a solid plan on how they will solve an issue. And many a times, 'just the criticism alone' attract people attention and help them win in the elections. Not many really care how they can solve the issue. Leaders Can't Criticize If  They Don't Have A Plan If you g...

Every political party has been criticizing the ruling Congress party that the Government has failed to control Commodity prices and life of a common man  is becoming increasingly difficult. Chandra Babu Naidu, the chief of TDP even went on to say the Government doesn't know how to control and he would have put everything in control had been a Chief Minister. PRP plays the same tune that it could make life of common man much easier irrespective of mammoth inflation hike and price hike, but did not offer anything on how it does either. That brings to the key question, can really State Government control or at least influence the commodity price and inflation? Or its just an election gimmick every party that is not in power can play? Share your views on this critical question. We think, the answer is a YES to an extent. But it would be difficult to quantify the impact of  actions taken at a state level on commodity price and inflation that is calculated at National leve...

I was looking at this week's Time Magazine that attempt to unravel a sense of mystery behind how an American voter decide to vote.  There is a story of how science of survival infuse 'racism', portraits of 4 different types of voters and included an in depth review  of recent polls along with historical perspectives. After reading all 4 featured sections, next thing I thought about it how much do we know about our own Andhra voters on how they vote and why they vote. The POLITICAL Perspective to be launched on 1st Nov While our new web portal, The POLITICAL Perspective (now in private beta, launching on 1st of November, marking the AP State Formation Day) is attempting to bring you up close with various statistics of previous elections, the amount of social and political research available is quite limited, that could explain how Andhra voters decide who to vote. So, I tried to become myself a social scientist, quickly framed a few questions and sent to all my fri...

I don't think anybody can answer that question, as a majority of Andhra voters vote based on impulses rather than a rational thinking and analysis. News papers have greatly influenced elections in Andhra Pradesh so far and I am sure this time it will be 'TV's fair share of credit as Film Star turned Chiranjeevi entered politics. Found this first of its kind Survey of a select few friends of the author on why they vote. Quite interesting and little disturbing too. Only 12% think Election manifesto is important and 92% says caste is an important factor. How Andhra Voters decide who to vote? What is ONE important thing you consider to decide who to vote? 69%  based on Chief Ministerial candidate 48% based on Party previous Performance 28% based on local MLA 12% based on Election Manifesto 92% said, 'caste' is an important deciding factor in every aspect of the decision at both local and state level. Source: How Andhra Voters decide who to vote?

Indian Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan singh today decided to block Exit Polls, until the final vote is casted. The bill will be introduced in the next Parliamentary session to make it a law. It is not clear, whether this restriction is applied only to Parliamentary elections or will apply to Assembly elections as well.

We are fast approaching our first deadline to unveil ' The Political Perspective ', the ultimate political portal covering 'what matters' in politics of Andhra Pradesh. We are pretty sure that many of you will love the application. It has been a quite journey working on this portal. We wanted to share few mistakes, or say things that worked for us and things that did not turn out good. Hope, they may help if you are currently developing a web application or planning on one.

Based on a discussion with a colleague yesterday, for many, the motivation behind building their first software app could be  the ease of developing one on a framework that is popular or interesting. It appears, for many, it is still develop something because the framework is popular and figure out later if we can make any business out of it. The discussion stems from the notion that developing applications for iPhone are quite expensive. The framework to build applications for iPhone need a Mac. So if you don't have one, that would be your first investment to buy one. And at the final stages of applications, you need an iPhone to test the application. So need to buy one of the most expensive mobile phones of today. The apparent conclusion was that since developing iPhone applications is expensive, many developers are focusing on cheaper alternatives like Android or others that are free. I am not sure how much is that true, but it could be for some. I would agree to an extent th...

NTR Family is getting ready to go behind Telugu Desam Party and bring a Win to Chandra Babu Naidu. The NTR Family of movie stars assembled with Fans associations to bring ACTION to the elections. Will the movie magic works? A resounding YES, looking at the crowds getting crazy at Chiranjeevi. But will the NTR Family fans accept Chandra Babu Naidu as the leader or force Bala Krishna to take an active role in Politics is still not unclear.  Many NTR fans believe, Chandra Babu Naidu back stabbed NTR and literally killed him. Will they forget what happened in Viceroy hotel and heed to NTR family to vote to TDP?

Akriti team strongly believes that a new election coalition will be formed with TRS, TDP and CPI(M) to defeat Congress and any effect of Movie star led Praja Rajyam in the coming elections. TDP is reportedly announce its position on Telangana very soon, that would in fact favor separate Telangana  to woo TRS and Telangana voters. It was already categorically indicated that CPI(M) would like to work with TRS in the upcoming elections, if TDP could join the alliance, the coalition would be strong enough to improve its chances in the upcoming elections. With strong caste based polarization happening in coastal andhra pradesh, all party lines are focussing on central and Telangana areas to put a brave face. Every party already acknowledged the importance of winning in these regions to fight Praja Rajyam.

Be it an Election frenzy or true intentions to uplift, the ruling Congress party has approved the first Nuclear Power plant for Andhra Pradesh. The Government has reportedly accepted the proposal by AP Gen Co. The site location most probably could be around Cuddapah, while Srikakulam is also under consideration. More good news .. Two more Ultra Thermal Power Station proposals by AP Gen Co have also been approved.  Combining this news with already under construction of  500MW extension to Vijayawada and another 4000MW coming off from the Reliance power plant at Krishnapatnam, the future looks much brighter for Andhra Pradesh in particular and whole country in general. Why Last Minute Approvals ... could well be Elections !! As readers of this blog note, all approvals for Power plants and land allocation for some, came within last 2 months. We suspect, looming elections could be a clear cut reason. Finalizing on proposals to go forward (at least looks like moving forward...