Environmentalists! Don't Oppose TATA Nano!

Ratan Tata and his team at TATA motors had made India proud with the "World's Cheapest Car" - a disruptive innovation that has the potential to change the face of Global automotive industry. But Indian environmentalists like Sunita Narain are calling the government to tax the car "like crazy" and make sure that the car becomes economically nonviable. [Read the news here]. My first reaction to these news snippets is to question the Indianess of these environmentalists. Can't they see that TATA motors is giving wings to dreams of hundreds of Indians who want to own a car in their lifetime?. Can't see that Cars symbolizes an additional form of mobility and freedom to a lot of Indians. Yeah! Environmentalists have a point in raising the issue of lack of proper mass transit system in most cities in India. But Can't they see that the various benefits of TATA Nano like placing TATA & India in the global automotive map, its export potential, etc. outweighs the costs?

In an rediff article, Mritiunjoy Mohanty, Assistant Professor of IIM Calcutta has come in support of TATA Motors and explains(correctly) why criticizing Rs. 1 lakh car is wrong?

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Disclaimer: I have never been a great supporter of Environmental concerns. Rather than supporting environmental issues blindly, I prefer a "Cost-Benefit Analysis" approach to issues raised by environmentalists.

Role of Caste in Indian Cricket

Ah! Finally an Australian reporter writes how caste could play in who represents India in cricket. On reading the news - 'A Class Act? Opinions Differ', I was shell-shocked. Who would have thought this situation exist in Indian Cricket Team, the one love of all Indians?

Only Fools believe that caste plays a role in the selection of Indian cricket team. But as the article points out that there is a huge number of people from a single caste(7 in the playing 11), disproportionate to their percentage of Indian population. It means something is wrong somewhere. May be there is a caste discrimination at the lower level... May be the elitist sports is played only by the elite caste of India. But whatever may be the reason, it has to be identified soon and corrected. Or else it could become a tailor made situation for politicians to exploit for their personal benefits. BCCI! Please Wake Up!

God Save Tirunelveli CSI Diocess

When a police Jeep is required for the peaceful conduct of a Church Service in Tirunelveli, you know that something is horribly wrong. It is not (the regular) RSS and Sangh Parivar, who are the culprits but the internal politics of Tirunelveli CSI Diocese. The intricacies of the politics witnessed during the recent elections showed the stuff that Tirunelveli CSI Diocese is really made up of. The recent elections got everything from double crossing, 'bunkee' jumping and even the occasional violence. (Surely would make a very good thriller movie). Read the story - 'Nellai Diocesan fight turns ugly'

But for someone who loves the church and diocese, it is the sign of a doom bell ringing aloud. A Case Study of what would happen when power is given to religious authorities. [CSI Tirunelveli Diocese controls around 360 institutions and has 85,000+ students under its various institutions]. Was really heart wrenching to see a diocese which has produced national christian leaders going downhill.

God Save Tirunelveli CSI Diocese.

Orkut Vs Facebook In India

Orkut with its simple design and non-American focus, is the leading Social networking site in India. But with the Facebook craze slowly starting in India, there are a whole bunch of people who have started jumping from Orkut to Facebook. Students, for whom orkutting and scrapping was the next most important thing to food & shelter, are not even logging onto orkut these days- thanks to their new found love - facebook. Everybody loves the cool look, applications, privacy in facebook while they hate the fact that anybody can see their scraps, profile,etc in orkut.

But Orkut is not lying down - waiting to be overtaken by facebook. It is correcting its weak points and simultaneously acquiring the strengths of its major competitor. Recently, orkut gave its users to make their contents - profile, scraps, feeds, videos, photos private. [News via Orkut Blog - Keep your contents private]. With this move, Orkut satisfies a whole group of people who were cribbing about privacy in orkut. Now we have to wait for OpenSocial applications so that Orkut could give that final blow to facebook in India.

Speedlinking - Rajinikanth's B'day & Modi

As December 12 passes by, another year is added to already old 'Superstar' of Tamilnadu - Rajinikanth. To commemorate the birthday Balaji is listing out his '10 favorite song sequences of Rajinikanth'. His Blog - http://bbthots.blogspot.com - is a Must Visit if you are a Rajini fan enthralled by the birthday of 'thalaivar'.

It is not only the Indian media that could not get enough of Narenda Modi, the incumbent Chief Minister of Gujarat[rightly called by 'someone'[:)]as a merchant of death]. Even US media could not stop reporting about him amidst the intense political campaign going for the election for Presidential nominations. Read the NewYork Times reporting that 'Bloodshed in '02 Shadows Indian Politician in Race that Tests Nationalist Party'.