Indian money in Swiss banks

Left parties had raised the issue before anyone else
but no one lent them an ear. But when L.K. Advani
speaks, the world listens, at least the Congress party
did. And P. Chidambaram is out there with a promise
for swift action. It pays to be a popular party,
as the left parties might have found out with this
episode. This incident also establishes L.K. Advani's
credentials as a man who can raise reasonable issues,
though many leaders in his own party must be wiring
their money out of Switzerland after Chidambaram's
assurance :-)

PS: Advani quoted Wikipedia in his statement. Either Indian
politics has come of age in becoming tech savvy or there were
no reliable sources for Advani's claims.

New initiative by Govt. Of India

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://www.pgportal.gov.in

The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like
1) Railways
2) Posts
3) Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) & Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)
4) Urban Development(Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Land & Development Office (L&DO), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), etc)
5) Petroleum & Natural Gas
6) Civil Aviation(Air India, Airports Authority of India, etc)
7) Shipping, Road Transport & Highways
8) Tourism
9) Public Sector Banks
Allahabad BankAndhra BankBank of BarodaBank of IndiaBank of MaharashtraCanara BankCentral Bank of IndiaCorporation BankDena BankIndian BankIndian Overseas BankIndustrial Development Bank of India LtdNational Bank for Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentOriental Bank of CommercePunjab & Sind BankPunjab National BankSmall Industries Development Bank of IndiaState Bank of Bikaner & JaipurState Bank of HyderabadState Bank of IndiaState Bank of IndoreState Bank of MysoreState Bank of PatialaState Bank of TravancoreSyndicate BankUCO BankUnion Bank of IndiaUnited Bank of IndiaVijaya Bank
10) Public Sector Insurance Companies
GIC of IndiaLife Insurance Corporation of IndiaNational Insurance Company Ltd.The New India Assurance Company Ltd..The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.United India Insurance Company Ltd.
11) National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance
12) Employees' Provident Fund Organization
13) Regional Passport Authorities
Regional Passport Office, AhemadabadRegional Passport Office, AmritsarRegional Passport Office, BangaloreRegional Passport Office, BareillyRegional Passport Office, BhopalRegional Passport Office, BhubaneswarRegional Passport Office, ChandigarhRegional Passport Office, ChennaiRegional Passport Office, CochinRegional Passport Office, CoimbatoreRegional Passport Office, DehradunRegional Passport Office, DelhiRegional Passport Office, GhaziabadRegional Passport Office, GoaRegional Passport Office, GuwahatiRegional Passport Office, HyderabadRegional Passport Office, JaipurRegional Passport Office, JalandharRegional Passport Office, JammuRegional Passport Office, KolkataRegional Passport Office, KozhikodeRegional Passport Office, LucknowRegional Passport Office, MaduraiRegional Passport Office, MalappuramRegional Passport Office, MumbaiRegional Passport Office, NagpurRegional Passport Office, PatnaRegional Passport Office, PuneRegional Passport Office,
RaipurRegional Passport Office, RanchiRegional Passport Office, ShimlaRegional Passport Office, SrinagarRegional Passport Office, SuratRegional Passport Office, ThaneRegional Passport Office, TrichyRegional Passport Office, TrivandrumRegional Passport Office, Visakhapatnam
14) Central Government Health Scheme
15) Central Board of Secondary Education
16) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
17) National Institute of Open Schooling
18) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
19) Central Universities
20) ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI Corporationunder Ministry of Labour
Many of us say that these things don't work in India .
Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and tell others who don't know about this facility.

Funny : How was Pranab Mukherjee inducted into cabinet for the first time

"His initial inclusion was an accident, having gone to witness
the swearing in of ministers at Rashtrapathi Bhavan, when
the number to be sworn in was found inauspicious, the
spectator Pranab was added on to make it auspicious."

Source

The Black Trillion

I never knew about this report until I read it
today here.

According to a Swiss Banking Association report of 2006-07 India leads the
top five countries in deposits — the others are Russia, the UK, Ukraine and China.
Here are the top 5 countries in terms of foreign deposits in Swiss banks :

India : $1.45 Trillion
Russia : $470 Billion
UK : $390 Billion
Ukraine : $100 Billion
China : $96 Billion

For those of us who are unaware, Swiss banks provide a real easy way
to park one's money. They don't ask any questions. They don't hand
out your information to anyone, that is actually anyone.

So it has long been suspected that almost all the black money
amassed by Indian Politicians and Businessmen goes to these
banks.

And the issue was raised in parliament by Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPM).
Honestly, no other party could have raised this issue.
One may hate the Communist parties for so many things, but
there are times I truly feel thankful that they are doing a good job.
A much better job indeed.

O. Saya Lyrics

Source 
O...Saya

They can't touch me
We break off
Run so fast they can't even touch me
Been that gypsy
Touch me I'll show you tricks with my zig-zag quickly
Pick up that pack on my journey
Dogs run, they start to follow me
Have my luck, some days they suck
When you live for the buck
We get for the family

One day I wanna be a star
So I get to hang in a bar
I'll go to Vegas with the playas
Just to forget my scars

ek do teen chaar paanch chheh saat aaTH nau das gyaarah baarah terah (1-13 in Hindi)

Sweat shops have made me shifty
Like a ninja with speed I'm nifty
I hope I live 'til I'm fifty
See my city go from gritty to pretty

IIT Kanpur : Satellite and Suicides

I don't know what to make of these two news stories,
both of them less than 1 week old, related to IIT Kanpur.
While the satellite development is a very welcome news,
it seems only a blip on the radar. Suicide stories
from IIT Kanpur have been far more numerous in past
4 years. According to the following link, there have
been 7 suicides in that duration plus many attempts.

Satellite
Suicide Attempt

In my opinion, if and when, IIT-Kanpur decides
to launch its satellite, it should be dedicated to
those students, whose life it could not protect.
To the students, who were made to believe that
ruthless pursuit of academic excellence was the
only thing that mattered.
To the students, who have ruined and who are
ruining their lives believing in the same theory.

Oscars

What is that one thing common in most of the Oscar nominated movies?
They are slow, well, mostly. In that way, they are a good imitation of life.
Isn't life mostly slow? Like a Test cricket match. Nothing much happens.
It takes a movie like The Dark Knight to strike that right balance between
push button entertainment and meaningfulness. And though, these
Oscar nominated movies come across as boring when you watch them,
they seem to have a lasting impression on memory as compared to the
pop corn flicks. May be due to their slowness or may be due to
the quality of their content.

Blogosphere votes for BJP

Seems like it's a new season. Recently bloggers had supported
Obama quite openly. Now it's the turn of BJP. Offstumped,
Atanu Day and Abhinav Khandelwal have openly supported
BJP. I guess it's only going to catch on from here. So, it seems
quite natural that the "tech" junta is going to vote for BJP
out and out. Only problem might be most of this "tech" junta
and the significant others in their lives might be living at a place,
where their voter id card won't help them in casting a vote.
Also a big chunk of them may not even have a voter id !
Since you have to be physically present when the videography
for the voter id takes place.
So, good luck and let's hope their vote is where their heart is
and their feet are at the same place on the polling date to which
their voter id belongs. Amen !

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Its length could have been curtailed by at least
45 minutes which would make it almost 1 hr 45 mins.
Anyway, mostly boring, this movie is. Still I would
recommend a watch, just to figure out, how to get
a child down from a high rise building, who wishes
he could fly.
Chalo then, bye.

Happy go lucky

This is a movie nominated for this year's oscars, for best original screenplay.
God knows, what's so great about it? It has been good to me, as it has induced
hypersomnia in my hitherto insomniac body. So good night everyone and see ya.

Note: Anyway, the way the driving instructor of Poppy has been portrayed,
is very real. I have encountered two instructors. Both of them were a pain
in the a*se.

some trivia from the filmdom

Shekhar kapoor seems to be a _lazy_ director.
He has directed till now, like, 7 movies??
source.
what made me think that he had directed more, anyway?
I don't know, but it always seemed that he must
be doing something.

--------------------
Godfather might have moved out of IMDB top
100 but one of its most famous fans Ramgopal Verma's
Ram gopal verma ki Aag has ensured Bollywood
and India a place in IMDB Botton 100. What
is surprising that more than a thousand voters
have actually taken the effort to vote it down.
Seems that Karan Johar camp has got a lot of
time these days :-). So here goes for Ramu,
"Love him or hate him you just can't ignore him"
-------------
Sridevi has acted in more than 250 films!! From
1971 to 1991, she acted in almost 240 films,
that is like more than 10 movies per year !! for 20
years straight.
----------------
In contrast Madhuri has less than 70 movies to
her credit, though her career started a good 14 years
after Sridevi. She has around 10 award wins as
compared to Sri's 2.
--------------------------------

MIT moving away from large lecture halls

A really cool discussion going out there on Slashdot.
Check it out.

Some of the comments :

1. Not surprisingly, some of the TAs were far better educators than the professors they worked for.

2. Social Co-existance? Why in God's name would you need to learn that at college? Those are life skills, and can be learned in *drumroll* life. Sure, college is a great place to do that, but I would not say the social attributes gained in college translate 100% to working life, more like 50% or less. There is a lot of stuff kids do in college that would get you fired in a heartbeat at a real honest to goodness job.

3. Yes and no. If you're looking for a lot of individual time and supervision, no, a big school is not the place to go.

But if you're looking for great resources and opportunities, then a big school is far superiour. I jumped into a graduate research lab my junior year for credit, experience, and references that were a huge benefit to me, and that sort of opportunity was impossible for me at the smaller school where I'd spent my first two years.

4. Where will students go to take their afternoon naps now?

Jodhpur embroiled in a water crisis.

Article reproduced without permission from here

India's Sun City of Jodphur faces floodwater destruction

David Byers, Delhi

It is known as India’s Sun City for its brilliant year-long weather conditions - and its palaces, forts and temples leave British tourists stunned every year.

Yet scientists warn that Jodhpur, the walled city in Rajasthan, is on the verge of being destroyed by a tide of floodwater.

In a development which might be viewed as surprising in a city surrounded by desert, leaks at the bottom of reservoirs adjoining the city have caused water to seep underground - creating an escalating crisis.

As surplus water has gradually risen under the city and leaked into people’s basements, residents have been pumping water and many have been forced to evacuate their homes. Pumps to drain out the waters have now been installed in almost all the city’s homes and commercial centres.

scientists are warning that government inaction has turned what was once a nuisance into a full blown crisis. In the past few months – as the waters have gone up to just one metre beneath ground level in some areas – the city’s High Court and main market have been evacuated after their basements were flooded.

Structural experts have warned that the foundations of several buildings are being slowly weakened by the waters, and if Jodhpur, which is in an earthquake zone, suffers even a small tremor, it could be destroyed completely by a tide of floodwater.

“A tremor of limited intensity could destroy the very existence of the city,” RP Mathur, zonal director of the Central Ground Water Board, told India’s Mail Today newspaper.

A study by the area’s Regional Remote Sensing Centre appealed to the government to speed up its work in finding a solution to the crisis. “Water is flooding the basement in the busy market area, damaging buildings and forcing businessmen to abandon the premises at the basement and keep pumping water out of the buildings,” it said.

The government says that it is examining how to deal with the problem, but has given no timeframe for solving it.

State scientists say it has been caused by leaks in the bottom of the Kaylana-Takht Sagar reservoirs, where a far larger quantity of reserves has been stored since the Rajiv Gandhi Link Canal was diverted to the desert city in 1997 to solve a water shortage.

Ministers say they have referred the matter to India’s National Institute of Hydrology in order to urgently find a way to solve the problem.

Hiranandani

I find it amazing that almost every Hindi movie I watch has
at least one scene shot in Hiranandani locality, which neighbours
IIT Bombay located in Powai,Mumbai. Even Slumdog Millionaire
has scenes there. Seems like filmdom is hell bent on making sure
that IITians from IIT-B should always be kept in a state of nostalgia.

Slumdog Millionaire

Film's music is by A.R. Rahman except for Paper Planes which is by M.I.A. ,
an artist about whom I hadn't heard till today. She is of Sri Lankan Tamil
descent, and has had a life which could inspire another hollywood movie.

Music is superb to say the least, and you could visit wikipedia or run
some google searches to know more about it or to download it :-)

But this post is about the movie, which I just finished watching.
I confess, it's the best since I saw The Dark Knight on 18th July, 2008.
After listening to its music, it was impossible not to watch the movie
which possessed it. If there are movies worthy of repeat viewings,
it's one of them. Dev Patel fits like a glove in the role of Jamal Malik
and it's hard to tell other than his name that he is not a Muslim slum
dweller. Sanchita Choudhary looks beautiful in her Cameo as Jamal's
mother.

Irfan Khan's role in A mighty heart seems to have
fetched him this one as the police inspector too. Good
going Irfan, hollywood is ours now.

Mahesh Manjerakar as a ganster and Saurabh shukla
as a constable do well, as they have done it many other
times.

Child artists are the life of the movie for a big part,
I guess almost half. And, they justify the faith Danny
Boyle put in them.

In the end, Bravo Danny Boyle and Bravo Vikram
Swarup for writing the novel on which the film is based.

Slumdog Millionaire Lyrics

are available here.
Music is real cool too.

Isohunt in Copyfight

The popular torrent site Isohunt is engaged in legal battles
for obvious reasons. It is based in Canada, a country with
supposedly lax copyright laws. But the mounting pressure
from U.S. lobbies seems to have taken its toll.

Here is a defense of the stand Isohunt has taken, that
sharing movies online is morally/ethically correct.

It is hard, to read all these arguments in favor
of sharing movies online, and not remember Ayn
Rand's views on capitalism. But then it's hard to counter,
when you hear this(from the same source) :

I've said a number of times that I'm not against copyright, but copyright does need significant reform in the internet age. If all this rampant copying on BitTorrent and the internet has not made a dent in Hollywood's record earnings, why can't we all just get along without rabid lawsuits? Why can't they see that sharing and remixing is a human urge for culture, and when we share and remixes art, it's not a liability but an endorsement for the artist or author or producer?

??

IIT Kanpur student commits suicide

Source

Who was where : On the New year's eve

Who was where, between 11:00pm to 12:00PM on
31-12-2008.
1. Rajiv Garg on the roads of Delhi
2. Sulabh Khare in his home in Noida
3. Siddharth Sharma in IIT Bombay(received a call from Narang Uncle)
4. Anant Jain in Guwahati(obtained an All India License for Driving Heavy Vehicles)
5. Virender Kashyap in Shimla
6. Sandip More in Pune(has launched rightprocedure.com)

BTW, for all ya developers out there,
stackoverflow is a good site.

Fake paper accepted at IEEE

I couldn't lay my hands on the complete text
but here is an excerpt :

We proved in this paper that the acclaimed real-time algorithm for the evaluation of the Internet by Williams and Kobayashi [5] is Turing complete, and Toe is no exception to that rule. We constructed a game-theoretic tool for synthesizing Scheme (Toe), which we used to verify that the location-identity split and superblocks can synchronize to achieve this ambition [20].

And, here is the summary:
Recent advances in cooperative technology and classical communication are based entirely on the assumption that the Internet and active networks are not in conflict with object-oriented languages. In fact, few information theorists would disagree with the visualization of DHTs that made refining and possibly simulating 8 bitarchitectures a reality, which embodies the compelling principles of electrical engineering. In this work we better understand how digital-to-analog converters can be applied to the development of e-commerce.
Read more here.