Congrats to Indian scientists!
My colleague says all this is in pursuit of Helium!
In the cycle gap I would like our government and the powers that be to focus on fundamental issues like RTE bill, poverty, malnutrition, farmer’s crises, Kashmir headache etc. Indian Govt. is not just for the vocal upper middle classes who read Economic times.
Looks like there are conflicting theories to all pressing issues including commodity futures trading and price rises, also called ‘Yooga vanigam’ in tamil.
There are some politicians and intellectuals in Tamil Nadu who attribute commodity futures trading as the leading cause of price rises and inflationary conditions. Maruthuvar Ayya, and the left are examples of the anti-futures trading camp, which makes me get closer to the opposite camp quite naturally.
But they simply say that as a statement, as if like the causal relation has been as proven as ‘The sun rises in the east’. There is one columnist in Kumudham Reporter called Solai (or Cholai) who claims that had rice had not been banned from commodities futures trading, the price of rice per kg. would’ve reached Rs. 100. I am not sure where and how he comes to this conclusion. He does not explain that, maybe we should believe him just like the way we believe Kalaam on N-deal? On the other hand, articles like these give a different view. Yaarai namburadhu?
If commodities futures trading had led to price rises, how come there were no price rises in all the countries where it had been in vogue all along? When did commodities futures trading come into effect in other countries? Is the correlation valid only for India?
I am not very clear on this issue, but from what I read, I am more inclined to the view taken by the Sen committee and in opposition to the view expressed by the maruthuvar ayya camp and the Solai camp whose ideas are decidedly governed by Leftist ideologies. Any pointers welcome.
I have been wanting to write this for sometime. Let me make this clear. I am no US lover when it comes to their foreign policies.
But there is something called durable competitive advantage. Warren Buffet is always fond of talking about them.
I guess some entities - be it countries or companies have that. US is one of them. The way to play with those entities is to partner with them but be clear on our priorities. I don’t think its a zero sum game. There is lot of brouhaha going on about this being a stake sale to the US. Our PM is for once right in drawing clear parallels to the economic liberalization reforms and and how that got dubbed as a stake sale too.
What exactly is the issue? The main selling point of those who oppose this deal is the reputation of US. I agree that is a concern.
On the other hand, there is nothing concrete to suggest we are compromising on our national interest. Are we signing NPT? No.
Do we have exit route? Yes.
Assuming this deal is not perfect, do we have any alternate plans to meet our energy requirements? Nothing concrete so far.
I did read about thorium resources in india but not sure how that can be capitalized. How better is that route than the US deal? One blogger says we have 80% of the world’s thorium reserves, another web site says we have 30%. Again no clear answers.
I do not think the US can treat India the way it has treated other countries simply because India is too huge a market for US corporates.
There is always an element of risk and uncertainty in any kind of decision making, let alone the one which has a nation’s progress at stake. What I look for in these situations is the long term perspective.
Given all this, I think the risk taken by our PM seems to be a calculated risk. If nothing else, this would be seen as a risk which had a positive approach rather than fear and suspicion as propounded by the left.
Forget everything, our PM should be appreciated for just taking the time to think about our energy requirements in the future.
That in itself is a kind of achievement among Indian politicians.
Bottomline: Notwithstanding my allergy to US foreign policy, I would support the N-deal.
PS: Had this in my draft for far too long 
PK:
If I still happen to see products endorsed by cricketers who win something a little more important than Velachery tennis ball cricket matches, i will boycott those products.
Is it not kinda weird if I tell you that the name on your PAN card need not be the name as per the Income tax department’s database? Nevertheless it is a fact.
I decided to file my IT returns online this time. When I mean online, it is not as easy as booking a railway ticket. The whole process can be divided into six steps.
Step 1:
The first step is to get yourself registered with the Income-tax efiling website
The fields are : PAN number, DOB, First Name, Middle Name and Surname. The department properly butchered my name. At last I did some trial and error and managed to register in the site. There is a hack to confirm your PAN, and figure out how the department likes your name.
Step 2:
Keep a copy of your Form-16 handy. The next step is to download an excel sheet based on your income. It was ITR-2 for me. If you are filing based on your salary alone and Form-16 and not claiming any deduction on home loans, then a much simpler ITR-1 would suffice.
Filling in ITR-2 was bizzare to say the least. You do not have a clue as to which field is editable and which is not. And our IT department have been very liberal in sprinkling references to Schedules, IT Act section numbers etc. I had to take some help from my colleague Santhosh, a few calls to bangalore to my CA friend to sort out a few doubts. I thought things are simpler with ITR-1. In the end it was a great relief to fill in all the details.
Step 3:
Create an XML by clicking a ‘Create XML’ button in the excel sheet.
Step 4:
The XML had to be uploaded into the IT efiling website.
Step 5:
The site then converts the file into a PDF which we can download and print it out.
Step 6:
The printed out PDF has to be signed and taken to the nearest IT office within the next 15 days for an acknowledgement. I am assuming one does not have digital signature
My adventure was just half the fun. I volunteered to register for my friend with his PAN card. The Tax department database has conveniently left out the guy’s middle name
I tried ‘maane’ first, then ‘thaene’ first, then ‘maane thaene’ followed by ‘thaene maane’ etc etc. All the lessons learnt on permutations and combinations came in very handy. After an hour of hard work and with the help of the hack above, I managed to register for the guy.
The user experience of the whole process notwithstanding, I think doing this online filing still saves lot of time.
The departments can enlist the voluntary services of usability guys to make the whole process less intimidating.
PS:
I know the whole post is a bit too late as the deadline for filing IT returns ends on 31st July. But I still think it will be useful for lot of guys who search helplessly for information regarding e-filing of IT returns in the coming years.
Now Ahmedabad!! 
I returned to my seat at 3.20 PM. Saw rediff.com. Immediately called by friends over in Bengaluru. The phone lines were jammed, part of the tradition. Had tea. Attended a meet. Called again at 4.30 PM. Relieved that my friends were safe.
Went back to work.
It was good to know only gelatine was used as against the industry standard RDX.
It was almost a relief that there was only one casualty.
I only hope some minister does not give statements like, ‘When compared to terror attack in other states, we are happy to say this was very mild’
This has become almost like an annual affair, only the venue gets shifted randomly among the major metros.
I think we can formally publish a process document for terror attacks. Who should say what can be picked from a template - handiwork of terrorists, city on full alert, request to maintain calm and peace, a media report about how our people showed resilience by having masala dosa tomorrow.
I feel like impotent
I wanted to respond to Karthik’s comment. But I realized that I had pretty strong opinions about the police force in general and wanted to record that as well. This is a blend of my own observations, my experiences being at the receiving end with the police, versions from friends of friends who are in the police department, and readings in the main stream media. Yes, the police story is a story of bad guys in the eyes of the public, but there is lot of apathy and tragedy underneath the obvious.
While I am a vociferous critic of the functioning of the police - be it traffic as well as law and order, I am almost certain that had I joined the police force, I would have been as corrupt a police officer as there are any now. I don’t remember when was the last time the police department got a salary hike. They cannot complain, they cannot protest, and they cannot go on strike. Politicians treat them like shit, the media sees them as jokers, and the public despise them.
I think it would be good starting point to compare the salary a cop draws in US, relative to other professions to what a cop earns as a salary in India. In India, its almost like their ‘mamool’ is factored into their official CTG (Cost to government). Not just the police of course, this holds good for any general state government employee too. But the kind of torture a police man goes through is unbelievable. He is paid a pittance for enduring all the suffering. Which means the society (includes me) expects him to beg, borrow or take bribe to make ends meet. With little legitimate money but with lot of clout, what will one do? Exchange clout for money. Thats precisely what’s happening.
A traffic police constable who stands in searing heat from morning till evening would probably make less than a post man. Check out this article.
What years of state neglect had done to their morale is that now a decent number of them have turned themselves into entrepreneurs out of corrupt money. I personally know one police constable who owns a water tanker lorry. I know because our flat association gets water from him. His monthly salary would be like six thousand rupees IMO. I am guessing that but if a DGP would make around 70K per month, how much a constable would make? Can he run a family, much less a water tanker lorry with six thousand rupees in chennai city?
It’s one thing to read this as condoning whatever they do. On the other hand, I think it would be wrong to just condemn what they do and preach about virtues like honesty, integrity and so on without addressing the underlying issues.
If I had any power, probably I would enhance their pay checks substantially, study how the police function in other countries, revisit the fundamental philosophy of the way a police department should operate in the post-independent India, look for ways and means to infuse professionalism and THEN expect better performance from them. I say about post-independent India, because I feel the Indian bureaucracy in general still suffer from British Raj hangover, in the way they treat their political masters.
I have been taken to police station for wrongs I did not do, and from which I escaped because of my network. I have given ‘mamool’ for the traffic offences I did and did not commit. I loathe them. But to paraphrase a dialogue in Hey Ram, ‘Oru police a ninnu partha dhaan avanga nyayam puriyum’.
Till the state home minister, who is also usually the state chief minister does something fundamental to change the police DNA, its better not to get caught by a police man. Or, have a hundred rupee note handy. If you are a non-tamil, better have a 500 rupee note in hand.
100 Hyundai Accents are good but not sufficient to fundamentally change the police DNA. Without the needed change in the DNA, Hyundai Accents have replaced Willeys jeeps and Ambassadors in dropping school children.
As an after thought, If you know about any good police man, please write, talk about him. Do some word of mouth publicity. That’s the least we can do. It’s not easy to be good and honest in such an environment.
Check out this story in Outlook
The photograph was the only good thing about the story. I am sure some would shrug it off as that ‘Northie’ thing. ‘Chennai is conservative’ goes the popular refrain. Wrong! People in other parts of the country do whatever they want. People in chennai call themselves conservatives and still do whatever they want, under cover. That’s the difference. I know a lot of folks who drink. Some are women.
I am neither a conservative nor a hypocrite. One reason I can never ever agree is the theory that career minded women drink to ‘relax’ themselves. Huh!
I am concerned about my female friends who drink, especially after reading the doctors’ views in the article.
Paarthu kudinga thaai kulame!
Ellam nera kodumai!!
PS: Be smart enough to use the services of bugmenot, or honest enough to register yourself to read this stuff
Hail Tata for
bringing a car within the reach of the common man. For once, we might have a car which we can buy with our savings. For thinking about kuppans, subbans in tier3, tier4 cities who would want to go around in cars once in their lifetime.
showing India has designers who can think about the Indian junta.
thinking about women who want to commute safely in Indian roads with less fear of harassment and their safety.
Curse Tata, if
all this Rs. 1,00,000 hype leads to poor quality in build when it’s actually built.
it costs more to maintain this than purchasing a new one which would lead to even more junk.
it leads to more traffic snarls in a country where building a better public transport is more important than building a Rs. 1,00,000 car.
I wish
Nano comes with a mobile urinal. I know I am asking too much, but even a low cost but effective one would do a world of good to elderly and diabetic patients caught in a traffic jam.
India will be, if not already, the diabetic capital of India in the days to come.