Hindi Diwas

Some days should not forgotten! And Today (Hindi Diwas Day) is one of them! The sad day when Indian parliament (the 'supposed' pinnacle of its democracy) decide to pick the language of the majority over others as the single official language of the nation. If you don't know me, my views are

1. We all have to recognize that India is actually a 'nation of nations' - which united for the first time on August 15, 1947. Thanks to its policy of princely states, even the British did not completely control the Indian sub-continent. 
2. Personally, my 'tamil' culture & my 'religion' are the two things that contribute to my identity. And culture is maintained and a lot of times synonymous to the language. So in my dictionary, enforcing the language of the majority is the same as enforcing the religion of the majority on me. Leninist China can do it with its mandarin but not a democratic India. (Even you think all people in China speak Mandarin, please google)
3. Not all the languages of India are mutually intelligble. 

15 years later, 70(official estimates)  - 500 (other estimates) tamils lost their lives to fight-off against this Hindi. You can read more about it @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_anti-Hindi_agitation_of_1965. Thanks to it, other languages can be used as the official language by other states. (Point to Note: Not even half the states have Hindi as their official language)

On a side-note, the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 was led by another 'Anna' who fought against the majority Congress in the state. And the new "Raja" belongs to Anna's DMK Party. To prevent more Rajas rising up, sadly another 'Anna' has to rise up.. :)

War on Mumbai - 2

Finally the 60 hour mayhem has come to an end. In this time of mourning for the lives that were lost in the last 3 days, we should also act to make sure that these barbaric incidents never happen. While the opposition party believes that draconic laws is the way to move forward, thankfully the ruling government disagree. But I believe that the first step is Acceptance

Acceptance that everything is not right inside this country... 

Acceptance that we are still going through the pains of integration... 

Acceptance that we are still 1000 countries living inside a single nation.. 

Acceptance that we are still divided by religion.. 

Acceptance that Muslims don't feel safe in this nation.. 

Acceptance that Christians don't feel safe in this nation.. 

Acceptance that Hindus don't feel safe in this nation.. 

Acceptance that Sikhs don't feel safe in this nation.. 

Acceptance that we committed attrocities during Partition, during Sikh riots, during the destruction of Babri Mosque, during the riots that followed, during Gujarat riots... 

Acceptance that we don't treat people of all the religions the same...

Acceptance that we showed our immaturity by electing Modi.. 

Acceptance that we mishandled the Kashmiri Problem.. 

Acceptance that first we have to understand our mistakes before we lay the blame on others... 

Acceptance that India is still going through the pains of a decision taken 60 years ago by British to bring together different kingdoms under a single nation.. 

Though I may preach the philosophy of acceptance, it doest not mean that we take a laid back approach when a foreign entity attacks us. If the Indian government is sure that the terrorists are from a foreign nation, we should never wait for a second to destroy the people who facilitated this draconic incident, no matter where they are. If it requires precise rockets to be sent inside Pakistani nation, let those rockets be sent.. If it requires Indian army to be sent inside Pakistan, let it be sent. If it requries a nuclear weapon to be used, let it be used.. 

Hope these kind of incidents never gets repeated inside the Indian soil.. (right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari)

War on Mumbai

There are days that define a nation. 9/11, Berlin Wall, etc.. Today is one of them. A Kashmiri-style Attack happening first time inside the real India.... 24-48 hour Terrorist siege - common to every Kashmiri - happening @ the financial capital of India.. 

Terrorism evolving into Urban War... A Sad Day... But also a day of opportunity to resolve this issue for once for all... Personally not knowing what to do, I look up to Government and God to save us from this New Age War. Though I know that the government is as as clueless as me - on how to react and handle this New Age War.

Indians in Time Top 100

Sonia Gandhi, Indra Nooyi and Ratan Tata find themselves in this year's 100 Most Influential people list prepared by Time. For knowing the complete list, do visit here.

YouTube Awards 2007

YouTube awards is said to be the new Emmy's and the next Oscars-cum-People's choice awards put together. Take a look at nominees in each category - http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07 and decide for yourself whether YouTube awards is worth those words. The nominees and winners of You Tube awards are so astonishing that you would not believe that they are user generated content, produced with no profit motive in mind.

Second Annual YouTube awards for the year 2007 was announced 2 days ago. The winning videos show how simple people could produce amazing videos with innovation and a little luck.

The awards were first organized in 2007 to "call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition". The 2007 awards comprised twelve categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Eyewitness, Inspirational, Instructional, Music, Politics, Series, Short Film and Sports

Notable Winners:

Best eyewitness video was the epic "Battle at Kruger," which has drawn more than 26 million views to its astonishing footage of a baby buffalo surviving an attack by lions — and 2 crocodiles! — in the African prairie. It was up against the news-making clip of a University of Florida student pleading "Don't tase me, bro!" as police removed him from a John Kerry forum.

A Kingston man’s mock-Harry Potter puppet show beat a mock-Paris Hilton music video and a power drink commercial spoof to win “Best Comedy Video”. “Laughing Baby” featuring 9-month-old Ethan won in the “Adorable” category. The video showed Ethan having fun by tearing paper. It reminded me everything good about my childhood.

Other winners include Nebraska high school senior Dan Brown, whose video "How to Solve a Rubik's Cube (Part One)" scored in the instructional category. Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” won in the “Music” category.

For viewing the nominee videos visit http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07 and for viewing the winners of YouTube Awards 2007 visit http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07winners.

5 reasons for Supporting Hillary Clinton

In India, you rarely vote for a person because you like him. Rather the vote is decided on the basis of whom you hate the most. So, Seeing the plethora of eligible and likable Presidential nominees that an American voter has, makes me jealous. This kicked off an keen interest in nomination elections especially in the close contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for Democratic Party Presidential Nomination.

Right from the early days of the nomination process, i developed a liking for Hillary Clinton and would have signed myself as a volunteer in her campaign if i was in US. Since i belong to 2 groups - Youth and Techie that forms a key supporter base of Obama, I thought i would reason out my logic for being different.

1. Obama Will win the Democratic Presidential nomination

For both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Becoming the U.S. President is not only a dream but an obsession. But with the relative young age of Obama(46 years), this obsession would not end even if he loses 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. But that is not the case with Hillary Clinton. If she loses this nomination, her dreams of becoming the US president would come crashing down.

When you have 2 eligible candidates, whom do you choose?

• Option of having only one of them as a Presidential nominee
• Option of having one now and another later

2. Known Devil is better than Unknown Angel

It is always better to choose a known person who delivers rather than an unknown person who promises the sky. With the relatively lesser time that Barack Obama has spent before the scrutiny of the public and media, I tend to favor Hillary Clinton. Yeah! Barack Obama inspires hope... But Does he really believe in the message? Or Is He using it only as a means to attract voters?

3. Economy

For rest of the world, key issue of the Presidential elections is economy and how the new President is going to ensure that the U.S. economy rebounds from the sub prime crisis and the upcoming recession. Obama if elected, could be expected to push for policies that are populist rather than those that would solve the problem. But from Clinton, you could expect Solutions and not populist measures.

4. Indian Connections:

My Indian Connections means that i prefer Clinton because

• Obama might send troops to Pakistan which would not only destabilize Pakistan but the entire South Asia
• Obama has already opposed outsourcing once and he could be expected to do the same once more if the situation warrants it. Read TOI's editorial on the issue.

5. Underdog

The world loves underdog victories in sports, movies and even in politics. And I am no exception. At present, Hillary Clinton is a underdog in Democratic Presidential nomination where her odds are stacked against her. And How lovely it would be to see her triumph!!!

Don't Complain about 'Commercialization' of Cricket

When the IPL auction took place, there were hundreds of blogs complaining about the commercialization of cricket, Amit Verma in his post in India Uncut gives a proper reply to these people who complained about Commercialization. He explains clearly why it is us who are responsible for the cricket being the only sports in India and why it is us who will be responsible for the death of Test match cricket when it happens.

Excerpts...

'Wherever there’s big money floating around, politicians emerge and start squealing. The recent auctions at the Indian Premier League have roused the ire of both the Left and the Right of Indian politics. On the right, the inimitable Balasaheb Thackeray has described the IPL auctions as the “gambling of industrialists”. On the Left, Gurudas Dasgupta is complaining that this will make “every youngster not a good sportsman but a man hungry for money.”'

The above passage is just the introduction from the column, for the rest visit 'There is nothing wrong in being commercial". A must read for any cricket enthusiast.

Kudos to Dominique Lapierre

Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Sri... Until now, my opinion was that these awards reveal the influence wielded by a celebrity in the government... Even the esteemed Bharat Rana was added to this list, when every Tom, Dick and Harry started suggesting their own 'corrupted' party leaders for Bharat Rana. [Read what happend when NDTV ran an opinion poll that included 'Picasso of India'] But all these perceptions changed when i found one of my favorite writers - Dominique Lapierre (a Non-Indian) on the Padma Bhushan awards' list. Read the news here.

A French author, who by his casual way of writing and his extensive research on the subject(historical events) captured my heart. A writer, who by his books, changed my outlook towards

• Last few days of India under British rule and Early days of Indian government(Freedom at Midnight)
• History of a nation created out of nowhere(O Jerusalem!)
• French Liberation and how a NAZI commander saved Paris for eternity(Is Paris Burning)
• Slums of Kolkata(The City of Joy)
• Incidents that resulted in Bhopal Gas Incident(It Was Five Past Midnight in Bhopal)

and much more...

His books, rather than being a collection of Newspaper headlines, bares all before the eyes of the readers. Sometimes, it jolts people on hearing the history that was never revealed to them in their text books. I can never forgot my own emotions when i read about the saddest days of Indian history(Partition) when fathers beheaded their own daughters and husbands beheaded their wives (to protect them from the torture that awaits them from the people of other religion)

Padma Bhushan gets a special new meaning (for me) because of being awarded to him.. :)

Interesting News - Speedlinking

A few news items that helped me to smile even amidst the gloominess caused by the stock market crash:

• With the stocks crashing all over the world, each person/organization had their own reaction... Our Finance Minister P Chidambaram tried to assure the market of the Indian growth story... US Fed cut its interest rate... Financial experts advised the investors not to panic... But the cops from Ahmedabad had the most interesting reaction... Their reaction to stock market crash: Secure Ahmedabad's largest lake... Wanted to know why, read 'Market Crash: Cops secure Ahmedabad's largest lake'
• Someone living in India is used to hear frequent press statements from opposition party leaders demanding the resignation of the ruling party on matters of little public interest. But this one is the icing on the cake. Jayalalitha seeks CM's resignation for death of cows
• While the Indian media trumpeted the 'Triumph of Justice' in Bilkis Banu's case, a relative of one of the accused comes with the perfect reason to prove that the case is fabricated: "No Hindu father and son will rape the same woman at the same time". Read the news here

P.S: Got to read these news items, thanks to India Uncut

NDTV Office Attacked in Gujarat

Ahmedabad Office of NDTV, India's largest private producer of news and current affairs, has been vandalized by a Hindu fundamentalist group. Not because the NDTV reported wrong about the group... Not Because they hurt the religious sentiments... Not even because NDTV sided with the minority groups... It was just because they included "Picasso of India" as one of the contestants in their opinion poll for Bharat Ratna, . Read the news here.

While some of the experts may use this incident to point an trend of increasing attacks of Hindu fundamentalist parties and their high intolerance, I am left numb with the question: How can a group get the courage to attack the regional office of India's largest television Production House? Is not the same courage that emboldened the Congress members to attack the Sikhs after the death of Indra Gandhi? Is it not the same courage that emboldened BJP & Shiv Sena to attack the Muslims during Gujarat & Mumbai Riots respectively? Is not the same courage that emboldens thousands of politicians to accept bribes? A Courage fueled by an immunity from punishment. A Courage that stems from the fact that the law would not be able to touch them. A Courage that symbolizes the complete breakdown of law and order in the state. A Courage that scares every person on the rough end(Media in this incident).

God Save Gujarat!

LTTE's increasing support in Tamilnadu

It has been sixteen long years since the youngest person to become the Prime Minister of India was assassinated by a foreign force. In a world that changes every second, that is surely a long time. I was only six during that unfortunate incident. And I don't remember any of the things that happened. What i remember? Regret and Sadness with which my father explained - how one of the most beloved organizations in Tamilnadu became a villain in a single day.

LTTE! You betrayed our trust then! And showed that terrorists can never be trusted! (A lesson Pakistan is learning now!)

Sixteen years is a long enough time to forget our love/lovers... How could anybody wrong a person who has forgotten the incident that happened on May 21, 1991 - a monumental historical tragedy which LTTE deeply regret. Most of us(Indian Tamils) have forgotten and some have forgiven. As seen from the increasing support that LTTE is receiving these days - "JNU Tamil Students term slain Tamil Tigers a martyr". Today LTTE is again becoming a 'Tamil' Movement. M Karunanidhi - the cunning politician is again ready to carry the flag of this great Tamil cause. :(

For those people who wanna support LTTE, please remember

• Once LTTE had the 'guts' to target a former Prime minister - a representative of our Indian nation, thereby targeting India itself. If it serves its cause, it will do it again, again and again.
  
• LTTE is a terrorist organization without any democracy in its ranks
  
• It is an organization that cleansed all the other brother organizations to create a monopoly for itself.(if you are fighting for a cause, you partner... you don't murder)
• An organization if had been given the chance to form its own nation would have started - A Greater Fight for a United Eelam with Tamilnadu(India)

P.S: I am not asking you to stop supporting Srilankan Tamils in their struggle but asking not to support a terrorist organization(LTTE). And I disagree with various activities of Srilankan government too - http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/01/stories/2007110156091500.htm

Related Post:

• LTTE's Air Strike
  

"Don't follow Us" - By An American to Indians

When the famous author of "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" - Thomas L. Friedman asks us(Indians) not to follow the Americans, my interest in his regular weekly column article on New York Times notched up one or two times higher. Read the full article at No, No, No, Don't follow Us. To my surprise, he was using the quote to look at the infrastructure problems that $2500 car by TATA Motors would bring to the limelight. He wants an India that makes itself the leader in both cheap cars and clean mass mobility resulting in an India that will be healthier and wealthier. The article echoes Ms. Sunita Narain who wants the Indian government to tax this cheap car heavily so that a better public transit system could be put in place(Taxing will remove the competitiveness of the whole project in one stroke!!!). He uses the example of Indian mobile industry that innovated to bring one of the world's cheapest telephone system of the world.

But I beg to differ because of the understanding of the mentality of the Indian political system which caters only to the most pressing problem in a efficient manner. Indian Politicians generally choose to innovate or change them self only when they have their backs to the wall [Yeah! Necessity is the mother of the invention] and culturally not known to have a future orientation regarding the present problems.

What I believe?
$2500 car rather than removing the need for a well maintained, efficient, cheap mass transit system would actually become the major turning point that would result in a better mass transit system suited for the Indian people(if the $2500 car became successful as predicted). The impact this car would be having in the rural and semi-urban cities of India like Tirunelveli, Indore, etc.. would be much greater than its impact on the metropolitan cities. And the majority of India lives on this rural and semi-urban cities. $2500 car would make the infrastrucutre shortage in India a comman man's problem from a industry's problem, thus making it a electoral issue, increasing the likelihood of an early solution.

Thomas L Friedman is talking from a narrow perspective of places he has visited like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, etc. . These cities already have a mass transit system in place(though not a efficient one). And his perspective does not include other places like Indore, Pune, etc.. where mass transit system even if present is negligible and no government can create one in its life time. Expected a better researched article from the author of such calibre. :(

Chennai - The Happening City of India

Only the people who live in Chennai understood the magnificence of the city... But others always complain about auto wallahs, heat, etc. For example even Sajeev keeps on complaining how sad the place is... [If you don't believe in my statement, visit the comments page of Sreeram's recent post 'Of Renaming Places'] While i generally ignore them since i understand the envy of others regarding Chennai. But here is a chance to throw mud at this erstwhile famous "Chennai-bashers" gang. After 3.11 PM of November 11th, you guys wont get the chance to throw foolish remarks like that.

What is happening on 3.11PM on 03/11/07?
A few people are trying to encourage the chennaists to capture that one moment on 3.11PM and upload them to a common pool to freeze the entire city into a frame, in the span of a second.

For more details visit ‘03:11 PM’.

Why 3:11 PM?
No great significance! Just another wonderful day in the life of chenna-ists...

Google OpenSocial [Out "fox"ing Competition]

As I wrote in my earlier post - "Google out'open'ing competition in social media" , Google is expected to come out tomorrow with its announcement on "Open Social". On reading the recent press release from Techcrunch - Open Social by Google, the first thing that strikes you is the simplicity of the idea. Realizing the huge advantages that Facebook has - because of being the first entrant and innovator of allowing third party developers to develop APIs in its social networking website, Google has taken the first step of transferring some power to these third party developers to gain their attention and loyalty. [Remember one of the reasons for the Windows' stronghold on OS market was because of the large number of third party developers who bonded them self with Windows] If Google has not taken this decision, most of the third party developers would have sided with Facebook by creating their application only on the Face book Mark Up language and thereby leaving zero probability for the success of orkut. [And who has the time to rewrite the code for another social networking site???].

[For a better image, click http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/OpenSocial_PressOnePager.pdf]

But now, Google through its framework is trying to avoid that situation by creating a industry standard for others to follow. It is trying to create an industry standard where third party developers use HTML and Javascript to write their social applications(so just one application for all the websites) rather than using a language specific to the website[e.g. Facebook Mark Up language - Facebook]. If a huge number of third party developers joined this framework, Facebook has no other option but joining the industry standard, thereby providing a level-playing field for Google. Also Google would be expecting its drive would garner enough attention for its social networking site - Orkut. Success or Failure of this drive by Google is going to decide the future of Face book.

Update: With Myspace & beebo(largest social networking website in U.K. and Ireland) joining OpenSocial, Facebook is the only one left out. They are having the meeting with Google engineers on friday to decide their stand. [And the only option for them is to join the standard] NY Times article titled - 'Google and Friends to Gang up on Facebook' does not seem too outlandish now...

P.S: After seeing this initiative by Google, it seems as though Microsoft paid too much of money for 1.6% ownership of Facebook.. :(

Related Posts:

• Microsoft Vs. Google
• Google - Aggressive on Indian Market

Blog Action Day - A review

David Vs. Goliath fight of environmentalists against big corporates and bigger Governments has always attracted support from various fronts. Blog Action Day - October 15th was the day for bloggers to show their support to the environmental issues. Me being a laggard in these kind of issues, I decided to wait and watch for the results. To my surprise more than 20,000 bloggers with a cumulative RSS subscrisbership of around 15 million wrote about "How to protect the environment better". Most of them are not writers and even of a lesser number are environmentalists. So there would have been thousands of perspectives and ideas flowing aound.. Hmm.. If you want to crunch more numbers, get all the required data from Blog Action Day - Statistics.

P.S: Came to know about Blog Action Day from Sreeram's Pre-Post on Blog Action Day. But he convenientely forgot to write about this issue on October 15. :D

PMK - Floating New Front for Next Assembly Polls - A Nice Joke

PMK(a regional - Northern Tamilnadu and a 100% casteist party), known for its specific skills to partner with the right party(or winning party) in each election has proudly proclaimed that it will float a new front for the next Assembly Polls. For a second, I believed this news on Hindu - 'PMK will float new front for next Assembly Polls, says Ramadoss' and started smiling that finally Ramadoss would come to know his true support base among the public.

But..

Why would somebody comment this early about the Assembly elections that is four years away?
If somebody is really intent on forming a third front, they would have started their work secretly rather on the public domain.

Then all the topics that i learnt in my negotiation class came to my mind. Ramadoss is just trying to increase his leverage in the future negotiations for the number of contesting seats in the next Assembly and national elections. He is trying to show off to the future partnering parties that his best alternative to a negotiatied agreement(i.e. forming a third front) is not that bad and his party has all the capabilities to do that.

Sorry Dr. Ramadoss! I don't think J Jayalalitha or M Karunanidhi (or Stalin) would fall for such a trick. They also knew that you can never dream of forming a third front since teaming up with Vijayakanath (the present so-called third front) is next to impossible for you. And you don't have the guts for the same.
Who would like to lose his son's cabinet berth for some pipe dream???

Google Out'foxing' Competition

In my earlier post in August 2007 - 'Orkut Celebrates India's Independence Day', I predicted that Orkut would be losing its leadership position in Indian social networking websites to Facebook in a few years. I was convinced of this by the increasing popularity of Facebook and of the fact that Google was not reacting enough to meet Facebook challenge. But Surprise! Google is not lying down.

In the last few months(after my post), we have seen the revamping of the orkut website and now Google is getting ready to outfox(or should it be out 'open'??) Facebook. Yeah! Google is opening initially orkut and iGoogle to third party developers to take on the Facebook challenge. And from there they will slowly expand to Gmail, Google Talk and other Google services. Now, we have to wait for November 5, from when on we will start getting all the gadgets and applications we would loved to have in our orkut page but Google did not have the resources to provide it to us.

Read more about how "Google is planning to out open Facebook on November 5" in Techcrunch.

Not only that, Google is getting ready to take on "Twitter" Challenge too. Twitter (micro blogging) brought both blogging and social networking together by asking people to update regularly - "What are you doing". Now, Google has bought a Twitter- clone Jaiku to enter this new area that is getting rapidly famous. Read more about it in Jaiku's Blog - We 're joining Google.

If you are asking why does Google buying Jaiku or out opening Facebook is a major issue when they have a great & an unbeatable search engine?

Just find out which Google service has the most page views per day?

Is it search? No.
Blogger? No.
Google Maps? No.
Picasa? No.

So, what is it?

Orkut.

It makes sense that Google is aggressively entering social media space.

60 Years of Indian Independence by a 20+ Young Indian

For a country which began its walk at midnight(thanks to its astrologers), India has done really well in all the fronts. Right from the day one, the country not only carried the hopes of all Indians(who are presently a billion strong) but also the hopes of thousand others who were still under the chains of bondage at that time. Now they look up to India for carrying the light of democracy among the liberated nations.

This 60th Independence day is very special since no wherever in the past days we were as optimistic as today about the future of India. Today, there were reports splashed all over the newspapers and talk shows in all the news channels about the sixty years of Independent India. 'The Hindu'(Paper of my choice) has brought a special supplement - 'Independent India at 60' with esteemed leaders of India, right from Dr. Manmohan Singh to Amartya Sen writing a column in it. Orkut for its part is conducting polls through its website. But these reports do not portray them from the eyes of a 20+ young Indian who has never seen the initial years . [Yeah! Found a niche for me to write]. So writing this post & list down the 3 most important events[3 so that i don't have to think hard :)] in these 60 years of independence for a 20+ young Indian.

• Economic liberalization - I have never waited for 3 months to get my phone. I have never waited to get my chance to buy a scooter, television, etc. Thanks to economic liberalization that started in 1990s... Today, I am looking at a future prosperous India. "Everything works out for the good" atleast worked out during the economic crisis of 1991.
  
• 1983 World Cup Victory - One that ultimately led to the domination of cricket over other sports - Even withstanding the onslaught of Patriotic sports heroes like Leander Paes, Leaders(No:1) like Viswanathan Anand, or even sportswoman with the 'babe' factor like Sania Mirza.
  
• Babri Masjid - A Shame for India and A event that shook India... threatening the basic fabric - peace of India. Starting point of further mishapss like Gujarat riots, Mumbai Blasts, etc..

Thanks to amazing constitution that our forefathers were able to come up with(though it was mostly a Ctrl C+Ctrl V Job), democracy has flourished in India threatened, not even once by military. Our forefathers laid the foundation of a nation in which even the poorest of the poor believe that they have a voice. And our job is to make sure they never lose it..

Hope at the end of 70th Independence day, we not only would be standing on the threshold of joining the elite club of developed nations but also as a model for other nations to follow.

Jai Hind!

Related Post : Orkut-India Celebrates India's Independence Day

Orkut Celebrates India's Independence Day

With most of the A-list Blogger doting on Facebook, i thought it would soon replace orkut as India's most famous social networking website. Orkut may last as India's #1 social networking webstie for a few years, thanks to the first mover advantage. But surely not more than that since Google is not paying the required attention to this product which is not a major revenue earner in USA. Remember we have all seen just a few updates in the orkut right from the time we joined it.

But it seems the things are changing a little bit now. 4 Posts in the last ten days in the orkut Blog after months of inactivity. And one of them talking about India's Independence Day. Was pleasantly surprised to see orkut running a few polls about India's past and future to coincide with the India's 60th year of independence. So they are finally realizing the future competition on their hands, trying now itself to establish the emotional bond with the Indian customers.


Listing down the questions, the Orkut- India has chosen to conduct its polls. Click on the questions if you like to vote

Your favorite "Global" Indian is....
Which is the most popular movie since independence?
What should be the most important focus area for India during the next 10 years?
Will India be a permanent member of the UN Security Council by 2010?
Who is your favorite Indian fictional character?
India is synonymous with...


Related Posts: 60 Years of Indian Independence by a 20+ Young Indian

Got to know this from Orkut Blog - 60 Years of Independence- Tell Us What You Think!

Update: Can check out the results from the Orkut Blog - And the Winners are... [No Surprises there in the results... Except for the very low turnout for the polls - only around 15,000 people]

CFA exams cancelled for Indian students!

You won't get to see this headline in any newspaper. But for more than 7000 Indian students who were slogging day and night for this particular exam on June 3rd, it was a huge shock & disappointment.

If you have never heard the word 'CFA', the following paragraph is for you :

CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. First awarded in 1963, the CFA charter is the designation of professional excellence within the global investment community. The CFA Program offers a truly global educational challenge where you'll build a fundamental knowledge of investment principles that is relevant in every market around the world. Employers and investors know the CFA charter is the definitive standard for measuring portfolio management and investment analysis competence and integrity.
[Copied from the CFA institute website]

It is a must-do, in the calendar of MBA students whose career interests lie in financial analysis, research, marketing, or investment banking. Most of the students take it, not willing to lose the competitive differentiator every other Finance Student in the college has.

Why the exams were cancelled?

You will understand it once u read through these events

• On 4th August 2006, the Delhi high court ordered Hyderabad-based Icfai University to stop using the Chartered Financial Analyst and CFA trademarks.
• On the petition of the Icfai through its university in Tripura, the Guwahati High Court directed AICTE to determine whether CFA Institute must seek approval for its CFA Program from the AICTE. [See the Icfai went to Guwahati knowing that the representatives from this Global institute would think twice before coming to such a far away location]
  
• AICTE, just 2 weeks before the June 3 exams[for which students were preparing for a year] has asked CFA institure to cease operations in India. Read the letter sent out by AICTE to CFA institute.

As usual, Neither the CFA global institute[which has more than a lakh students appearing for its exams every year] nor the AICTE were affected by this cancellation of this exam, but it was only the students who are taking the impact of this cancellation.. As my friend aptly put it - 'None of the Politician's children nor any VIP's children are going to take these exams, then who in this nation cares for it' - Incredible India!!!!

Update: Surprisingly, this news found itself in the front page of the Economic Times - "AICTE asks CFA to stop executing"

Another mention on CNN-IBN about this issue - "CFA course ban hits students hard"

Thank God! That atleast Indian media is not sleeping. :)