ENagar

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

“What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered. He was devastated to
Discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.

“There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell you, this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is
Nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house like the sound of
a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.. he slaughtered the chicken to make soup.

But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

I was going through the list of universities that have contributed in the open courseware. Somehow I was not surprised that not even a single Indian university has made any contribution. After all One cannot expect the “Curse of Eklavya” (controlling the access to education) to be over so soon.

Satish raised a very valid point:

If government is as much committed to spreading education, as they claim, then why is it that they are never able to print adequate number of Primary School Text Books in time? Worse, Why do they need to copyright it and prevent others from even printing/Xeroxing the first few chapters? (as a stop gap arrangement, while the students are waiting for the official textbooks)

Anyways its been almost 4 years since I have last attended any classes. So I thought I would upgrade my knowledge in few of the areas of my interest:
Introduction to Anthropology
Principals of Macroeconomics
Econometrics
Medieval Economic History
The Ancient World: Rome
The Ancient World: Greece
Writing and Reading the Essay
Financial Management
Introduction to Marketing
Introduction to Operations Management

Some courses which I know i would be interested in, but maybe in future.
Photography and Truth
Introduction to Environmental History

Some courses which i badly need to revisit.
Introduction to Aerospace
Calculus

These days I was facing terrible trouble in getting a good newspaper.
I had started reading the newspaper ever since the First Gulf war. That time I used to read Times of India a habit which continued way till my college days.

Immediately after coming to Bangalore, I started subscribing to Hindu, but it turned out to be too dry and communist for my taste.
So inspired by the quality of editorials, I switched to New Indian express. But due to ultra low volumes, the distributor stopped distributing it to my household. I even called up the newspaper’s head office and they assured me that i will have newspaper at my doorsteps within 48 hours. But like all promises made by the politicians, the promise was hollow.

Forced, I switched back to Times to India. Although I liked the articles of Gurcharan Das and Swaminathan A Aiyar, it did not take me long to realize that my IQ has started dropping rapidly by skimming through the glossy pages filled with skimpy models and celebrity gossips.

So Finally I have decided to amend my ways and have switched back to LiveMint. It is very affordable, the quality of articles and editorials also seem to be good. Lets hope the alliance works out for me.

So what newspaper do you read, and what do you like the most about it.

Here is an extract of an interview with Amar Bhidé of Columbia Business School.

How do high-growth Indian firms compare to their counterparts in the United States?

I interviewed the few high-growth firms that I could find in Bangalore. These were high-growth firms by Indian standards, but not by U.S. standards. Interestingly, firms in both the United States and India start with roughly the same amount of capital: $10,000 in the United States and about $8,300 in India. So compared to local incomes, it seemed to take a lot more money to start a business in India than in the United States. Moreover, the U.S. firms grew in five or six years to revenues that were 378 times their initial capital, whereas the Indian firms grew to only about 20 times their initial capital.

And there are other noteworthy differences. In India, there’s virtually no ability to use external equity; there’s a much greater use of debt. In the United States, young firms try to have as few assets as they can and to subcontract as much as they can. In India, it’s the opposite: tiny firms integrate forwards and backwards as quickly as they can. Similarly, these firms are trying to become mini-conglomerates before they’ve reached any scale.

Indian entrepreneurs have much higher working capital requirements. A U.S. entrepreneur can at least hope to collect on receivables in about 30 days. In India, they extend receivables to 90 days or longer. In the United States, virtually every entrepreneur I studied used rented offices. In India, almost the first thing they do is to acquire the property they are housing their businesses in. Someone might have 80 percent of his capital tied up in real estate and only 20 percent in his business.

This combination of things provides a first-level explanation as to why there are so few firms that grow and why their growth rates are low. There seem to be several things in the environment that have caused this pattern. High on the list is the tax system. India relies much more heavily on indirect taxes than does the United States. These indirect taxes can add up to 32 percent to your cost of goods sold. But small businesses are exempt. So you’re better off running 10 businesses, each under $10 million, rather than having one big business. There’s a similar story with labor. Once you get above about 20 people, you can have non-wage costs that add up to 50 percent of a worker’s salary.

Another factor is the unreliability of supplies from both government suppliers and private suppliers. Because you can’t count on the electricity supply, you have to have your own generator. Naturally, this ties up capital. Similarly, if you tried to run a virtual business, there would be critical links in the chain that simply would not deliver. Why people invest in land instead of in their business is puzzling. Maybe it’s because the businesses themselves are not that profitable. The physical infrastructure is horrible. That means that instead of having one national market of a billion people, you have many little local markets because it’s so hard to move stuff from point A to point B. So all these things contribute to creating a disincentive to grow large.

The full detailed interview can be obtained at Columbia University website.

Top most Firing IT companies in India

1) IBM — Right now this is the most firing company for IT professionals. In the last 6 months, this company has fired nearly 20% of their employees because of BG check and performance issues. This is the most insecure company from an IT professional’s point of view. They don’t have any strategic plans at HR policies regarding employee security. No appraisals (maximum 10%).

2) Accenture — This is second top most firing company. The firing rate is around 5%. This depends upon outsourced projects; they have a unique system where Accenture development centers around the world bid for a project coming into the company. Currently Philippines centre is taking the cake and the Indian centers are in a firing mode.

3) WIPRO — Firing people with very frequent back ground checks and firing them with out even experience letters and relieving letters (will mention as terminated from services)but will promise the employees that they will retain them. After the project is over they will fire away. Will threaten of criminal cases against such employees if they oppose the move and has also filed against some.

4) Intel — Recently joined the league. Running in heavy losses, hence firing 3000 employees in the Banglore center in a phased out manner.

5) CTS — Has a steady firing policy (checking the Educational background and previous employment and also employee performance in work). In a Recent HCL walk-in, around 50% attendees were from this company. Sadly the I-pods have not helped them.

6) CSC — Excellent package but fires folks in Background check and those on bench regularly. Recently fired 400+ employees from its subsidiary Covansys.

7) Satyam — Currently stopped firing. The Attrition rate is very high. No firing from 2005 until now when 1000 employees were fired in Hyderabad.

8. Patni —- They fired so many employees that currently they are facing understaffing and deficiency with number of employees. Very high attrition rate.

9) Keane India —- This USA based company is always involved in firing employees. Although they proudly say that they dont have hire and fire policy. Recently they fired java and as400 professionals after which most of the employees have started to pack their bags. Employees change this company within 1 year.

So take care before accepting offers from these companies.

Secure IT companies in India

1) Microsoft — Has projects till 2050.

2) EDS — Most secure company in India. Not laid off any of its employees even during 2001. Has lots of projects in Defense and financial areas

3) HP — Dream Company. In-house and outsourced projects

4) TCS — A govt. Company.

5) AOL, Google and Yahoo - Best companies to work with, great job satisfaction as well as great salary and work environment. Rarely fires an employee. As they are internet based companies’ they offer lots of opportunities to grow.

6) HCL — A good company to be in. Called as a retirement company.

7) HSBC— This is the most secure company. It has never fired any employee, even when they know that the employee is showing fake experience.

8. Aricent— a communication based software company, has never fired any employee and gives great perks & incentives, lot of projects in kitty. Minimal level of attrition.

9) KPIT Cumminns Infosystems Limited —- This is the most secure company not known to many. It has presently acquired CG Smith, Bangalore and has lots of projects in pipe line. Acquisitions plans will continue.

Source - Savitha

Here is a link to an interesting video about what all a Blind boy can do.

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I found this article really interesting.

* The Australian aborigine language has over 30 words for “dust”
* Founded in 1928, Motorola was a pioneer in car radios. It’s name was originally a combination of motor (for motor car) and ola (implying sound)
* Te term bank teller originated during the 1929 stock market crash, when banks began hiring low-paid workers to tell throngs of frantic depositors that their money was gone
* Hilton was first international hotel chain. It opened the Caribe Hilton in San Huan. Peuto Rico in 1949.
* Nokia is named afetr a place in southern Finland. The company founded by Fredrik Idelstam in 1865 was established in Nokia as pulp mill for paper making.
* Sony’s first Trinitron color TV got an Emmy award, the first for a product in early 1970s
* The world’s three most powerful brand name are Google ($66 billion), GE ($62 billion) and Microsoft ($55 billion) according to Millward Brown, a market research firm
* The time spent deleting spam costs United States business about $21.6 billion annually
* The noun”sled” (sledge) originated from name of an 18th century mountaineer from Finland, Scheltz Linden frozen to death and whose body was used by his climbing partner to slide down a mountain during a winter Strom
* Small business make up over an half (52 %) of US gross domestic products
* With the increase in the sheer volume of internet traffic, the friction of electrons passing around the planet has increased the global temperature by 0.07 degree.

One of the paid sites wanted to do a credit card check. Since I was reluctant to share this info, i just came up with a number and typed it in. Incidentally, the system recognized that the number was fake even before i pressed the submit button.

Amazed, I checked out to find that the credit cards follow a Luhn Algorithm to preprocess the number before submitting it to the VISA/MaterCard/Amex.

When a girl is angry, don’t ask her whats wrong. Think of the answer yourself. A girl does not like to say the reason.

when you catch a girl glancing at you, she wants you to look back and smile

When a girl bumps into your arm while walking with you she wants you to hold her hand

When she wants a hug she will just stand there

When u break a girls heart she still feels it when you run into each other 3 years later

When a girl is quiet, millions of things are running through her mind

When a girl is not arguing, she is thinking deeply

When a girl looks at you with eyes full of questions, she is wondering how long you will be around

When a girl answers, “I’m fine,” after a few seconds, she is not at all fine

When a girl stares at you, she is wondering why you are playing games

When a girl lays her head on your chest, she is wishing for you to be hers forever

When a girl says she can’t live without you, she has made up her mind that you are her future

When a girl says, “I miss you,” no one in this world can miss you more than that

When a girl is mean to you after a break-up she wants you back, but shes scared she’ll get hurt and knows you’re gone forever
(more…)