@rgumental @dvisor

So, it has been about 5 months since we left Dubai & moved back to India (Trivandrum )  after more than 6 years abroad . It was a decision that we took after much deliberations to leave a place that has been quite good on a personal front and move back here. And just thought of sharing a few perspectives that I feel could come handy for NRI's planning to come back *  There is never a "perfect time" for you to come back. When you look at your bank balance you may feel , well can I stay for couple more years. But the more you stay abroad, your kids will find it more difficult to come back * Things won't be smooth.. You will be exposed to troubles that you are not familiar with. Internet would break, unruly traffic, low quality goods - you'll experience all that..And you'll realise that there are alternatives to all those.. You can easily take up backup internet connections, you find out times / roads where traffic is smooth, you learn about brands you ...

There is this interesting case thats going on in US now. It started as US Govt vs Apple . It is now more and more looking like Apple vs Amazon . The key underlying point highlighted by US govt is that Apple forced a change in pricing policy of ebooks which resulted in an increase of prices across the industry. Circa 2009 December , Amazon ruled the roost in ebook industry with a market share of about 90% - monopolistic by any standards. They had a peculiar pricing policy at that time. Regardless of the book, you would end up paying $9.99 as the price. From Amazon's perspective, it was a clear ploy to capture the market. Obviously, publishers did not like a distributor setting the pricing policy. In other words, it was an unstable monopoly. And such markets are ripe for disruptive innovations. Enter Steve Jobs with iPad , the wonderful product that has kept me hooked on ever after that. One of the lesser noticed things that Apple did at that time was to enter into a different ...

Seventy Eight years ago, two nations (lets say A & B) were distressed with inflation , corruption & unemployment. A person in country A ( a hero, already by then by his clean background ), blessed with extra-ordinary oratory & crowd pulling skills  , proposed an 'Enabling Act' .  It was supposed to be the 'Law to remedy the distress of people', which gave him sweeping powers..  He didn't have the necessary majority to pass the bill in parliament. By a carefully crafted campaign of mass public hysteria, he appeared to have the backing of masses,especially middle class . Parliament was burned on one day. Shortly after that, the Enabling Act came into place. The immediate economic impact was enormous. The corruption level was minimized, economy was galvanized, the nation dramatically pulled itself out of the great depression .. and much more...Masses hailed him as the hero who replaced a non-functioning system (Parliament) and brought efficiency in all sp...

One of the most mis-informed notions about democracy is the term 'participatory' . Much of the literature that you would see on politics / democratic society uses this term to say that citizens / electorate should have a say in every decision that Government takes. And, to this basis, many Governments / media / someone else often calls for referendums to decide on a crucial decision. The Lokpal referendums happening in India is a classic example..The main problem with this referendum process is that often, the electorate is mis-informed / does not think about the real implications while exercising their votes. For eg:, If you do a referendum in India on whether income tax should be abolished or not, you are quite likely to get a 95% + vote on the affirmative side.. Similarly, if someone floats a referendum on whether India should attack Pakistan, the answer is likely to be on the affirmative side more often... But the point is that, such decisions have quite a lot of other i...

Whisky & Buttermilk are individually great.. But most sane people won't make a cocktail mixing two.. And you won't drink buttermilk by pouring it in a whisky glass...  And I think this Google plus is like a platform where they have attempted to bring two different social needs together. Fundamentally, facebook is about connecting to people whom you know.. Engaging in conversations where you expect people whom you know to reply..  On the other hand, twitter is aspirational to the core. You tend to follow celebrities, politicians, sports-persons etc..  What google plus has attempted to do is to bring these two fundamentally different social needs together... In a way, your public circle in google plus is equivalent to your twitter network.. And the other circles that you make are more or less your facebook networks. The tweets that you make are likely to be much different in nature from your facebook status message updates.. And vice versa as well..  ...

Dear Nokia Share Holders, Over the last few days, you would have read & re-read the so-called open-letters ( letter 1 , letter 2 , & the revolting letter -3 ) many times.. If you were an institutional investor, you would have made handsome profits by shorting your dear 'NOK' if you knew what was coming. If you were a retail long term investor you would have been puzzled with the enduring hold/sell question seeing the wild market fluctuations that were coming minutes after each of those letters. One cannot collectively put blame on all share-holders for the mis-management happening. If your holding is/was small, you would have had absolutely no chance in influencing the decision to pick someone   - who has literally no big background in smart phone business - into the most important position in your dear 'NOK' . However, I cannot selectively address the audience. Hence I've to hold you responsible. What your CEO has done is to make your dear 'NO...

I read an amusing argument in a World Cup news section of some paper - "Since 1962, European teams & Latin American teams have won the world cup alternately. Going by that logic, it'll be Brazil or Argentina this time" .. About 2 - 3 years, I might have been swayed by these kind of arguments, however, after reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness , I tend to be amused by these kind of predictions..    There are different kind of predictions. One type of predictors just give out their bets / premonitions..Second one, you just do a set of data analysis, find some pattern and make your bet based on that..If you win, you tend to develop a self-belief in your logic, which might not have any rational basis.. You never tend to realize that you have made a correct bet just out of randomness, rather than any strength in the underlying logic.. A lot of stock market bets are again like that..You tend to observe a set of past events , make some generalizations ...

     When someone makes a very flashy statement , it quickly catches the imagination of the public..News sites repeat it again and again because of its sensationalist value..If you read in general about the global financial industry, this statement wouldn't have missed you last week -  " When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else's house and then committing  arson ".. A very catchy statement made as an accusation against Goldman Sachs recently..However if you dig a bit deep into this extremely interesting case, you would find that this statement is metaphorically wrong to be used in this context. At the heart of this entire quagmire is this structured financial product called 'Synthetic CDO's' .It actually seems to be like a gambling instrument.Player A thinks that a particular market ( in this case the housing mortgage market ) will tank. He thinks that he can profit out of...

After losing hope of myself simplifying their job, my parents have taken up charge & put me into the 'market' ...Or in other words, I've debuted on Bharat Matrimony :) ... Purpose of the post is not to discuss about the happenings over there... it is to discuss the economics principles behind this.. (Anyone who is not interested in Economics, please feel free to skip the content below) In term-4, we studied one of the best courses that I've come across at IIMK - Complementary Products & Competitive Advantage.. In that, there is this concept of 2-sided platforms..Intuitively it is very simple -- 2 sided platforms brings together 2 distinct sets of customers together.. Credit card companies bring together merchants & consumers... Iphone App Store brings together the App developers & phone owners together...etc.. In most of the cases, the platform tend to benefit from one set of customers..Like, Credit card companies tend to benefit mainly from merchan...

    About an year back, I blogged about Google Phone .. Quite a few developments have happened in this area after that..And a few days before, Google came up with its first Android based phone  , manufactured by HTC..        Quite a few of the applications in this G-phone or G1 happens to be similar to what I thought about last year.. quoting Larry Magid's article, " there is already an application called iSkoop that lets you make free or inexpensive international and domestic calls using Skype".. -- This is a key point to Google's overall strategy..10  years later ( or maybe even before that ),  G-phone will be a device just to connect to internet..No SIM card as such..U'll talk to people using G-talk ..Just take the g-talk in your phone, tap the person's user ID, and make a call.. No complicated maths like STD/ISD rates or anything like that..Infact, the much hyped about number portability will come into existance this way..i.e, as long as u have ur gmail ID...

Caution :- Heavy technology – business related article.. Quite long too.. People who are not interested, please skip .. This is an article which can bring brickbats or bouquets to me some time later :) Over the last few months, blogosphere has been abuzz with news about a mobile phone that Google is about to launch. The frenzy over this so called G-phone has reached such proportions that people have started coming out with imaginary designs of the G-phone.. Being someone who is extremely interested in this search – revenue related Google business or rather g-business, I’ve too joined the group by launching a g-phone blog and hoping to rake in some ad-revenues :) .. However, this post is not just about speculation ..This post is about some facts of the search industry and why does it make sense for Google to get into mobile phone related business . The Search – Revenue Entangle Some people laugh at Google’s pay-per-click policy. And most of us can count usin...

Some people just refuse to change Link1 :- 5 HIV+ students shown door from a school . When will people change ? I feel very bad reading this report.. The stigma associated with HIV casting its shadow upon kids less than 11 years old.. And that too the ostracization coming from educated people from a state supposed to be among the most literate ones in India... Link 2:- Guruvayoor Purification You can play the devotional songs of Yesudas in a temple.. but you cannot allow him inside the temple.. If a child's grand-mother happens to be a Christian, the temple should be purified after the Child's entry to the temple...These are some of the 'rules' @ Guruvayoor. Disgusting to hear such news really.. Though I'm no communist in a classical sense, I'm a great admirer of A.K Gopalan and K . Kelappan for their struggle to throw open the temple gates to people...

I just wanted to wait till something like this came up to blog on this issue.. The story goes like this.. Shilpa goes to London to participate in Reality TV's show - The Big Brother -- which is known to make fun of its participants by all kinds of means ...There have been racist,sexual, feminist and all other kinds of allegations to this show over the past few years.. Mainly C-grade celebrities take part in this show for the prize money and publicity... Lot of celebrities have walked off the show vowing never to take part in that again... Under such circumstances, and when being offered a princely sum of 350000 pounds just for participation, our bollywood star should have understood that what was in store for her was not a cat-walk session.. And, to know about the credentials of participants in the show, do a google image search for "Jade Goody" , the main 'accused' in this so-called controversy.. and see what comes up in the first three pages.. ...

Back to my favorite blogging topic -- Politics -- A sequence of events highlighted in media Date : Nov:29 : Baba Ambedkar's statue vandalised in Kanpur. Media reports indicate that it was beheaded. Immediate protests in UP, but police able to control the situation.. The detailed reports of the incident splurged across the nation by media. Date : Nov:30 : Angry protests rock Maharashtra. Stone pelting and rioting across the Marathwada region. Four dead, more than 60 injured as per the official estimates. Date : Nov:30 : Four coaches of Deccan queen torched by protesters. The burning coaches fuel disgust among the general public. Dates : Dec 1,2 : Blame game. .The uppermiddle class points the finger at police, Police blame the media, some people blame Dalits for getting into this hysteria ( if u can call that ), some blame politicians..This goes on. -- These are the main events that everyone came across..However, there is a backdrop to this. which was not highlighted very much...

Hmmm...finally the s*#king politicians are bringing up this stupid thing in Parliament even without the rider of Creamy Layer which will enable the wards of all politicians to get the benefits..This was not unexpected though...No party has the credibility or courage to put atleast the funda of creamy layer into this OBC reservation. I wonder what happened to the case that was filed in Supreme court challenging this legislation...To tell how sinister and undeserving this is, I can quote some incidents that I've come across.. Scene 1: NITC counselling Yr - 2000 Kerala is a state which has implemented OBC reservation. But,as it is, the benefits are always cornered by the affluent in the society. Being the premier college, the seats in our college used to fill up after the IITs.Fortunately or unfortunately I managed to hang on to the last csc seat in open category .On that day, I witnessed people coming in ultra-luxury cars and claiming seats under OBC quota showing inco...

Usually when I start writing an article,I usually think a bit about the issue, base my stand and then argue about the points..But then, I really couldn't arrive at a conclusion over this issue even after a considerable amount of thought.. Ok, lets get into the matter..A group of women lawyers have filed a PIL (public interest litigation ) against Sabarimala's ban on women . The women are taking on the Travancore Devaswom Board that has held that women between the age of 10 and 50 years are impure and hence cannot enter the temple .. Quoting Prerna Kumari , one of the advocates who gave the PIL -- "It's unfair that in this age women should be treated with such discrimination." A little bit background about the case A proper pilgrimage to Sabarimala means, 41 days of "Brahmacharya" , which means total abstinence from all kinds of pleasures. In its strictest sense, the men who are on the "Vratha" should lead a life of ...

Most articles that I've come across over this issue of Reservations trace their origin to Dr.B.R Ambedkar and the framing of our constitution. However, in reality the concept of reservation in India was introduced by the Victorian British Government.Let us look into the reasons why it was introduced, what are the results, how it is abused, and what will be the future.. The Past - A caste ridden India Discrimination In India based on birth existed from pre-historic times. Being born in a Sudra section would automatically mean that the individual is denied of further avenues of education regardless of his merit.In 1850's based on a study by a British administrator - Monstuart Elphinstone ,various presidencies (Bombay,Madras etc ) decided to open the English education sector to people of deprived classes. Needless to say, the upper class people resisted this move. The very thought of education and jobs to people whom they have ruled ...

Over the past one month, state elections were happening in Kerala,TN,West Bengal..And the results came yesterday. As expected, Left won in Bengal and Kerala..Tamil Nadu went to DMK. Lets go through what factors were at stake and what influenced the electorate in each of those states Buddha Smiles In Bengal Taking this caption from one of the news paper reports that I read today..In the absence of a credible opposition, the victory of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was never in doubt..But the brutal majority of 230+ in a house of 294 is simply awesome..Whatever be the usual allegations of rigging,Bangladeshi voters etc, people in Communist heartland has given a strong thumbs up to the rule of Buddhadeb.. Touted as the modern Deng XiaoPend of India, the reformist agenda enacted by Buddhadeb against the backdrop of old patriarchs of communism has really gone well with the middleclass of Bengal..Backed up by a team of dedicated ministers and an acqueiscent Politburo, he's leading Bengal ...

True to the spirit of being world's largest democracy, you can find political parties of all sorts of names and fashions.... Whenever a split comes in a political party, ppl tend to form new parties taking bits and peices from the list of words which goes like this -- 'Nationalistic, Democratic,Rashtriya, Congress,Samaj, Dal,socialist....It goes on' .You can find parties which do sense or have no knowledge about their names.... The party formed on the ideals of erstwhile Ram Manohar Lohya, perhaps the greatest socialist India has produced indulging in caste based politics..The parties bearing a religion's name and even restricting the primary membership of that party to one particular religion claiming to be a secular party, people who were brought to the forefront by the great JayaPrakash Narayanan organising perhaps the second biggest corruption scandal in India ( The first place goes to Abdul Karim Telgi ,undoubtedly ), the so called NCP allyin...