Thought Garage

Changing makeup and costumes is an integral part of Movie actor's life that is hard to leave. Here are few pictures from PRP Praja Ankita Yatra showing Chiranjeevi in different costumes. Reliving the life of an Actor or truly trying to understand the issues by enacting common man's life in costumes? Hard to tell.

It is very surprising these days, why people are turning up so heavily to Political road shows, in most cases, irrespective of the political party. Thought, many people just want to come see their matinee idol's real face when they poured in to Chiranjeevi's meetings. But quite baffled to see similar (but not equal) response to every other political meeting. Political polarization? Want to just watch how it goes? or signs of political action? (Images from Eenadu.net )

Immediately following Barack Obama's historic win in the US, leader of Praja Rajyam party announced that he will do in Andhra Pradesh, India what Obama did in the USA and win in the elections. Now Chandra Babu Naidu, the chief of TDP Party, once hailed as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh across the world, goes one step ahead in his own style. He wanted to follow the grass roots movement that Obama managed to setup in the USA. Chandra Babu Naide started teaching the basics of Grassroots movement to TDP party men and energizing party youth to follow the steps. This is nothing new to people that know how Chandra Babu governed the state of Andhra Pradesh for about 9 years. He drew his inspiration from all over the world and initiated many programs that involve the very grass roots engagement. 'Prajala Vaddaku Palana', Janma Bhumi, Sramadanam are just a few to name. Eenadu, the news paper that provide unconditional (totally biased) support to TDP, even forged an image of Chandra ...

Politics often come in the way of Development. Some times, for no reason. In the name of stopping Political corruption, this time, major political parties are blocking a huge Infrastructure project that will eventually benefit Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Will it be a missed opportunity? Because, we are already running out of time in building our infrastructure. Coastal Corridor is a part of monumental infrastructure development project that will build or extend : 5 SEZs Ports Roads Airports and Rail If political parties are really interested in the welfare of people and are afraid of injustice done to those land/property owners, then they must fight to arrange for proper and fair displacement and fair market value for the property involved. Not block the project itself, that will alter the lives of the very people. The following snapshots taken from a presentation by AP PCPIR depict that this monumental project aiming to achieve. It doesn't look li...

Changing makeup and costumes is an integral part of Movie actor's life that is hard to leave. Here are few pictures from PRP Praja Ankita Yatra showing Chiranjeevi in different costumes. Reliving the life of an Actor or truly trying to understand the issues by enacting common man's life in costumes? Hard to tell.

Thanks to Movie stars entering into Politics, particularly Thanks to Chiranjeevi, we are witnessing a filmy variety of new and innovative ways in promoting a party. Here is a fresh new way to promote TDP , Telugu Desam Party to win in elections. (Image Linked from Eenadu.com )

"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.

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

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 ...

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

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...

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

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...

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.