KolkataMusing (KM) is read by a large section of Indian diaspora spread all over the world. Visitors feel KM offers information of value on many topics, and eagerly look forward to its posts.
It's now time to make KM more broadbased. As a part of that KM now accepts articles from guest writers.
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Please ensure the materials you send like article, photo, picture, video, etc. are only yours and not copied from any source. You as writer of an article own full responsibility for its correctness, and relevance.
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Please, please announce/share any such lifestyle/sport event with the readers of KolkataMusing. Bring delight to them.
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Full credit will be given to the submitter, including name, website, email (if preferred), phone number (if preferred, but we do not suggest). This will make any visitor to the site directly contact the writer without any intervention from KM.
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Please send your announcement to mahanagar.net[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject as 'Announcement for KM'.
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How about being a nerd to get noticed? You bet there are good enough reasons for that. What that presently means is that you video-blog or vlog whatever that comes to your mind. In the process if you look silly, so be it.
Making videos is not difficult these days. In fact the tutorial I’m going through of late teaches you to make a video on just about any topic you wish to impart your knowledge on.
But I believe in making something that has some use for my readers. I though agree that the ease of making videos is too tempting to even show what I’ve in my refrigerator. Will you like that? I doubt very much.
So as we bid adieu to a tumultuous year coming to an end soon, let me stick out my neck and make a pronouncement. It is this:
The age of video blogging is upon us. It’s perhaps no longer fashionable to just blog texts and static images. Which is another way of saying that unless you vlog, you risk becoming stale.
Take a peek at the video below. Do you see what the pretty girl tells you? No prize guessing the answer. But then, know what? This video has amassed lots of viewers before I decided to have it here.
Well, as I said, the age of video blogging is right here. As of now it matters less what you say. It’s more important that you say something. How about that in the new year!
Next month on a Sunday the residents’ association to which I belong is planning a picnic to a Baruipur baganbari (cottage with large garden). Not everyone is enthusiastic since many feel the road to the place is extremely bad. Someone did a recce early this month, and the opinion that emerged was not promising.
The Bypass is more or less okay till the Garia connector, but beyond that, especially after Kamalgaji, barring a few patches of relief it’s a world of craters – small, big, and every size in between.
For us the fun of having the picnic far outweighs the inconvenience for a single day, but for those who have to commute everyday it must be the sort of experience one supposedly faces in the hell.
This may be changing soon, for better. Come 2008, the city will witness the starting of 5 road projects to alleviate the sufferings of people as announced by the urban development minister. Of the 5, one is the extension of Bypass to Baruipur.
There are reasons why Baruipur must be connected with a wide thoroughfare. First, the town is to become the district HQ of 24 Parganas (South) that is now housed in the prime city locale of Alipur. Second, the Barasat-Raichak expressway to be built by the Salim Group is said to have been planned to pass via Baruipur.
And third, because of the above 2 the big-time realtors have already begun to bet big on Baruipur. This means there will likely be huge townships coming up here in the coming decade and beyond.
Okay, what else are there in the 5 projects? They are (in order of importance according to me):
Rebuilding of flyover near Baghajatin station (a vital EM Bypass link across rail track)
It will be yet another round of ‘suffer today, smile tomorrow’ for the city’s citizens. The irony so far is that there is never a tomorrow to smile. Will it change this time?
The Internet is global – this we all know. How global? Well, you can send emails, talk through it, and buy a product – all online and instantaneously from any corner of the globe. If there ever has been any liberty that allows you to ‘fly’ from one corner of the world to another sitting in your room, this is it.
Does that feel comforting? Not really, when you come to know that dangers lurk at every corner to trap you as you venture out.
We know of worms, viruses, spyware and all those that seek to invade our computers. But do we know there are flesh-n-blood fraudsters just waiting to prey on you and you’ll probably not have an inkling of that when it happens?
Welcome to the world of cybercrime. And where else will that thrive except in busy marketplaces like eBay?
Bulgarians specialize in intellectual property theft; Ukraine is a leader in online credit card crime; the Russians have a profitable niche in Internet dating fraud… But when it comes to online auctions, particularly for big-ticket items such as cars that can yield $5,000 a scam, Romanians own the game. Romanian police estimate that cyber-crime is now a multimillion-dollar national industry, as important to organized criminals here as drug smuggling or human trafficking.
It is scary, no doubt. But maybe the consolation is that the fraudsters are mostly after high-value items on eBay, not the usual less valued ones.
Do you feel some comfort? Perhaps. Because as the LA Times article points out, eBay takes such crimes seriously, so much so that it sends its experts all the way to Romania to bust such rackets.
However, despite the warmth of eBay action, one thing is for sure. The onus of caution remains unwaveringly on the buyers who put their money online to get something, whether at eBay or elsewhere.
Looking for decent profits for your money online? Try microfinance.
Before elaborating further let me take you to my post, Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank that dealt on how the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Prof Yunus and Grameen Bank for their path-breaking service to help the poor and needy of Bangladesh through micro-credit system.
Microfinance, as this article is going to dwell on, is modeled on the same system as Grameen Bank’s but with a big difference. The money is collected online and disbursed globally to the needy people of poor countries.
And in doing so, you, as an investor, stand to gain profit on your investment.
This October on 24th the online auction giant eBay launched MicroPlace, an online microlending website. This is said to be the first e-microlending initiative.
What MicroPlace does is collect your investment presumably through PayPal, another ebay owned company, and use the money to buy securities from security issuers.
The latter being responsible for managing your investment and earning you returns use the collective fund to support loans to lending organizations, who then use those funds to provide loans to borrowers. As loans are repaid, security issuers are able to provide you with a financial return.
MicroPlace was founded by Tracey Turner who later sold out to eBay in June last year. According to Tracey, who has worked extensively with her project in poor countries, the loan repayment rate among the really needy people is unbelievably high, often more than 98%. This has been found to be true by Prof Yunus as well in Bangladesh.
As if to prove the adage, Do what you preach, the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into microloans through their own foundation. They have also invested in Kiva, another online microlending website.
Kiva appears to differ from MicroPlace, for in this case you lend as little money as just $25 (as of now) for direct use by the borrower. The other difference is that you give money as an act of altruism, meaning you may not expect returns.
Coming to investing your money in MicroPlace that assures you a return, all you perhaps need is to open a PayPal account, park some fund there, and thereafter get going.
Meanwhile, here is a video of ex-US President Bill Clinton extolling the virtues of lending to Kiva.
First it was Peerless Hospital that came up at the southern extreme of the EM Bypass when there was no road bridge over the railway tracks near the Baghajatin station. Then came the Ruby Hospital at a more agreeable location, at the point where the Rashbehari connector meets the Bypass.
Few years down the line, the Rabindra Nath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences at Mukundapur, popularly known as the Devi Shetty Hospital, opened its gates.
As if the three hospitals in close proximity are not enough, there will be 7 more before this decade gets over. The biggest among all will be the 1000-bed Neotia Elbit Healthciti at Chakgaria close to where the Big Bazaar is on EM Bypass.
There are more. Across Rabindra Nath Tagore hospital on Mukundapur Road is fast coming up Sankara Netralaya’s 60-bed Kolkata hospital. And then there is PN Memorial’s 750-bed Neon Hospital, apart from those by the Armenian Church, the Wockhardt Group, and others (see list below; image courtesy).
There could be many reasons why so many hospitals are locating within a short stretch of just 2.5 km between Ruby Hospital and Garia connector. But what is good is that the health hub will ensure a steady need of a large number of health professionals and workers.
And yes the demand for decent housing at nearby places will remain strong to accommodate not only those who work at the hospitals, but also the floating population of relatives who accompany patients from faraway places for treatment there.
If that is true, it will not be long before some smart businessmen build service apartments in the adjoining areas to cater to the housing demand.
As they say, business pulls business. The saying is truer in cases like the health hub above, or giant factories like Tata Motors’ Singur plant.
Over the past couple of days the Santa must have ‘visited’ countless homes across the globe bringing in cheer and joy, and ‘giving’ away gifts to millions of kids. But perhaps there are some cases where the Santa may have actually ‘cleaned out’ instead of ‘gifting’ things as the video below illustrates.
Well, strange things do happen, won’t you say? There are after all so many strange objects around us thanks to e-volution that you possibly can’t blame the old man for failing to remain updated, ‘coming’ as he does only once a year.
Merry Christmas and season’s greetings to all the readers of Kolkata Musing. Enjoy the year-end revelry as long as it lasts.
Imagine an audio ad streaming from your computer speakers the moment you come upon a website unannounced and unknown to you. Will you be startled?
I was, when recently I chanced onto Net Audio Ads’ blog. Maybe it was because I had my head-phone plugged to my ears that almost made me jump on my chair as the ad floated in.
An audio ad? You read it right. It has a fancy name given to it – Pay Per Play, or PPP in short.
What happens is a code is embedded into the html of a page. When the page loads the audio ad plays out. For each such play the advertiser pays an asking rate, which is how it’s called a ‘pay-per-play ad’.
Presently Voice2Page offers this service. Similar to AdSense, a website owner can opt to broadcast audio ads by becoming a member of their distributor network.
But unlike AdSense where money comes in only when an ad is clicked, the audio ads will make you money each time your webpage is seen by a visitor. So, apparently this can be yet another source to earn money from your website traffic.
Or is it? I am a bit skeptical. I feel audio ads will fast become an unwelcome guest for visitors. Nobody likes a surprise, least of all a sudden audio burst.
But then who knows! In an era where millions of people are anyway plugged on to some audio source or other every waking hour, maybe the PPP model will work like magic.
If you’re a website owner straining at the leash to start making money immediately, consider visiting this page.
And by the way, if you wish to advertise your product in the US but you’re afraid you lack the style or accent of speaking there, you can hire a voiceover style from among 60 options available at V2P.
There are some things in life that never fail to amaze you. Man’s ability to scale the seemingly impossible certainly rank at the top. Performers like Bruce Lee of martial arts, Roger Federer of men’s tennis, or Kishore Kumar of film songs remain etched in memory for ever.
A near similar credit goes to the people’s representatives in Bengal for inflicting monumental damage to the public interests from time to time. There are too many to mention, but what may perhaps be termed as one of the most suicidal was the decision to discontinue English at the primary schools.
The legacy of acting against common good with no remorse whatsoever has been continuing unabated. This blog has pointed out many of them in the past.
In some cases there have been wasting of public money, but apparently nothing happens by way of remedies like punishing the guilty. No wonder we continue to see them occurring again and again.
A recent example is the concretization of tram tracks in the city. As it happens, most tram tracks have underground water lines and sewer pipes right beneath and there is just no way to reach them in emergency other than digging the 2-feet concrete surface. See the schematic demo below, courtesy Dec 19 TT.
Would it surprise you that all the while the concretization was on, the KMC departments that look after the water and sewer lines have not uttered a single word about the problem?
Can you blame the common man’s perception that all these are allowed to happen deliberately because they help people with vested interests to line their pockets..?
Let’s see what the mayor has to say in the TT report:
Forget about the blame game. The fact is that ultimately the citizen suffers if there is lack of coordination at the planning and implementation stages. The social cost is enormous.
Oh really? As for me, I don’t believe in his concern, for I think it is not genuine.
Let me admit. Before writing this post I didn’t know the term exists. Well, as of now, to my understanding, ‘aerotropolis’ still does not exist in the dictionary. But it does have a page to it in Wikipedia. Here is what I get to know from there:
An aerotropolis (pl. aerotropolises or aerotropoli) is a new type of urban form comprising aviation-intensive businesses and related enterprises extending up to 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) outward from major airports.
Ananda Bazaar Patrika in its Dec 20 edition has given a Bengali name to the term – bimannagari. The news was occasioned by the announcement of a proposed bimannagari at Durgapur.
The aerotropolis will come up on a land mass of 2300 acres. The cost: Rs.10,000 crore. A company by the name Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited has been floated, of which the partners are 3 private companies and the 2 government agencies, Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) and WBIDC.
If it shapes up, it’ll be the country’s first aerotropolis. What will be there?
An airport of course, but besides there will be, what else but, an IT park, an aircraft repairing facility, a flight training school, lots of leisure centers including a golf course (none so far outside Kolkata in the state), not to speak of malls, plazas, plexes and all the modern-day pleasures of city life.
The crux of the entire planning is none other than the land that has to be acquired. Money is waiting to pour in. In fact Bengal has crossed that threshold beyond which there is no dearth of money today at least in infrastructure projects.
Kolkata has long been the only worthwhile city in Bengal. Looks like that is going to change not long from now.
Among the 15 most notable aerotropolises, existing or under development, listed by Wikipedia, here are the pics of 2 recent ones in Asia [top: Beijing Capital International Airport; bottom: Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok].
Like a pair of spoilt kids they have almost pulled it off. I mean Wipro and Infosys. When every industry purchases land in Kolkata at market rates, the duo refuse flatly presumably on the ground that their appetite is considerably bigger than others, and so why ask the rate applicable for others!
The ‘point’ is taken by the government. Which is why some frantic searches later, it has come up with 330 acres of ‘unbroken greens’ – the term borrowed from Dec 18 ET on which this post is based – at Jagadishpur.
ET informs the piece of land is a flat open countryside, much the same as Konappana, Agrahara, and Doddathogur villages where Bangalore’s Electronic City stands.
There may perhaps be other similarities. For example the quantum of land each of the 2 behemoths is likely to occupy. Between them, the 2 are said to be looking for about 150 acres, Infosys about double that of Wipro.
If so, nearly half of the proposed electronics city at Jagadishpur will belong to just 2 companies. It’s interesting because going by the ET report, out of 330 acres, 160 will be the core IT zone while the remaining 170 acres will see an integrated IT township coming up like swanky malls, hotels, plexes and so on that will serve the needs of the techies working in the core zone.
Now if Infosys has 100 acres to itself, it is likely that it’ll build all the ‘support’ facilities within its campus so that they don’t in the normal circumstance need to hire the outside supports. The same perhaps goes for Wipro as well.
Does that mean that the so-called IT township will cater only to those IT companies that will be holed up in just 10 acres of land because that is what will be left after the 2 biggies have their share out of 160 acres earmarked for the purpose?
We’ll know that as the situation develops. Meanwhile, for those who may be thinking where Jagadishpur is, well, the soon-to-be coveted place is 18 km beyond Rajarhat, 12 km from the airport, and 20 km from the Saltlec electronics complex that has not an inch to spare.
Here now are images of 2 landmark buildings at Saltlec Sector V (top: Millennium Tower; bottom: Infinity Tower 2). They are big and they house many IT companies, but they by themselves are not as big as to qualify for the biggies.
Come Jan 10, the world will get to see Tata Motors’ ek-lakhi prototype at the Delhi Auto Expo. That the car will be a product from their Singur factory is a grand cause for celebration for all of us, the natives of Bengal. There are many reasons for that.
First off the list is the one that made the most sound and fury – the opposition protests. Despite that the factory is fast becoming a reality.
The second is that leaving Haldia Petro, Bengal hasn’t seen such a big investment ever. How much has the crisis-ridden Haldia Petro created wealth for the state is a matter of conjecture. But without doubt the Tata Motors plant will add a lot of zeal to the state’s effort to attract investment. It will also open up earning potential for thousands.
The third reason to rejoice is the fact that the car will be an engineering marvel. Dr Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, the former CSIR head and now Tata Motors’ director, was effusive when he said this at a function at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Kolkata a couple of days back:
It’s an eco-car with a 25 km-per-litre mileage on petrol, meets every international standard and specification, including Euro-4 norms. Acceleration wise, it’s the same as a Maruti 800.
According to Dr Mashelkar, the entire auto world is waiting to take a peek at the car, which many believe can bring in momentous changes in the auto industry both in India and elsewhere.
As the final countdown begins, the veil off the car is lifting ever so slowly, perhaps not to blind us by the sudden exposure of the dazzle beneath. Reminds me of Jagjit Singh’s immortal song: Sarakti jaye hai rukh se naqaab, ahista ahista…
And, my readers, who have come to this post attracted by its title… I’ll not disappoint you. Here is the video of the song sung by the ghazal maestro among Bollywood luminaries. Enjoy..
When Dr Saikat Gupta of Apollo Gleneagles diagnosed a close relative of mine with breast cancer in matter of minutes, there was a faint trace of satisfaction writ on her face.
It resulted from a strange realization that she was in safe pair of hands so far her treatment was concerned. This was more than 2 years back.
She not only had a successful operation and recovery, she also regained her confidence as if life is as it was before the surgery, which aptly reflects in her poise and determination.
If Dr Gupta has the magical touch of top-of-the-class surgery, Dr Arundhati Chakraborty of the same hospital is the person behind radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She too comes across as a person of great expertise, knowledge, and ability.
The thoughts came flooding as I glanced through today’s (Dec 19) TOI report that a 64-year old woman from UK has just recovered from the surgery of a cancerous tumor in her food-pipe.
The duo of Dr Gupta and Dr Chakraborty attended to the woman, and she is recovering well after undergoing 10-hour surgery on Nov 16.
What is remarkable is that the patient, Shobjan Bibi, a 2-decade resident in UK, was told by the doctors there that the tumor cannot be removed, virtually ruling out even a slim hope of survival.
Shobjan then came to Kolkata with her son Forid Miah for treatment. They are happy they came, and now that Shobjan is recovering well, they will soon fly back to their home in UK knowing that if the UK doctors fail, it doesn’t mean that the road has come to an end.
There are other places where hopes can and do prevail.
FoodTalk, the 30K sq ft food court in the South City Mall on Anwar Shah Road will be the largest in the city when it inaugurates in less than a week from today on Christmas.
But FoodTalk is not alone. South City Mall is slated to have quite a few firsts. For example, both the 83,000 sq ft Shoppers’ Stop and 72,000 sq ft Spencer’s hypermart will be the respective companies’ largest outlets in the country. Not far behind will be yet another largest, the 71,000 sq ft pantaloons.
Splurging on money will not be a problem at the giant mall complex, for the other hot destination will surely be the Fame’s 6-screen multiplex.
The total affair at the Anwar Shah Road destination defies imagination by Kolkata’s present standards. There will be mammoth footfalls, and equally massive vehicular traffic, resulting not only from the mall but from the residential complex as well.
Pity the road outside the complex will prove incapable to cater to the volume of traffic that will be generated. As usual the government hasn’t woken up to the likely grim reality waiting to unfold soon that has the ability to completely choke the crossing at the Jadavpur Police Station.
This will have cascading effect on either side of Gariahat Road (South) up to 8B bus-stand and the northern end of the Dhakuria bridge respectively. The people to suffer most will be the residents of the adjoining areas and those who dare pass through the place during office hours.
Even as all of these happen unhurriedly but surely, and the South City Mall, one of the city's 2007 promises, start delivering the full blast of its potential, I’m reasonably sure that the island shaped 3rd level FoodTalk will emerge as one of the hottest destinations in south Kolkata.
Kolkata seems to revel in the chaos on the roads, as if that represents a unique character of the city to feel proud of. It does reflect a uniqueness that is symptomatic of diseased minds. I doubt you’ll find perfectly intelligent, cultured decision makers indulging in mindless activities on the road anywhere else as you will in the city.
Let’s take some examples.
First on the list is the most privileged group of businessmen, the street hawkers. They occupy the pavement, spill on the road; they earn the ire of the people who face them on the road everyday, they earn the wrath of the court who directs the government to remove them. But alas, nothing happens.
Let me turn to another enfant terrible, the 3-wheeler autos. The only good thing about them is that they have become a necessity in many parts of the city. Everything else is bad about them, including the traffic chaos they create, the harmful fuel they burn, the uncouth behavior they exhibit, and so on.
The third on my list is the abysmally casual approach with which the traffic movement in the city or the lack of it is planned by powers-that-be. A few instances will tell you how.
Quite a few flyovers have come up in the city in recent years. They are built well but the ones on AJC Bose Road or at Park Street crossing do not have arms between 2 ends to disperse traffic more effectively.
Then there is the growing impasse at the EM Bypass. This new arterial that shows every sign of burgeoning traffic every passing day has 2 strange roadblocks in the form of traffic islands at Ruby and Science City.
It feels so strange that the intelligent planners they think they are failed to imagine only a few years back as to what may result if the traffic islands remain when the traffic increases. Lately though there are plans to make the Bypass drive-worthy.
If you survey the scenario impartially, you’ll be left shuddering to know that these same men are planning city’s future 25 years hence.
Kolkata presents a picture of anarchy, and it’s a shame on us that even though the city has many inner strengths, it is still looked at with derision and indifference by the visitors from outside.
Is it any wonder then that Germany’s Nobel-winning author, Günter Grass once famously said, "Why not a poem about a pile of shit that God dropped and named Calcutta.."
One has heard of live seafood joints in big cities around the world, at least in coastal cities if not in those far away from the seas. They in fact add a dimension that reflects the culinary style of a city and its love for exotic foods.
Kolkata has so far remained deprived of such a destination, but now that is going to change come Christmas. The new joint is called the Charcoal Grill located at Park Circus.
The restaurant will seat 300 presumably surrounding an aquarium that will house what else but lobsters, crabs and prawns. A customer will choose her piece, have it weighed, and then wait upon it patiently to be cooked and served in her chosen delicacy. The very thought makes me hungrier you see.
Well, the price is not cheap. Sanjay Madan, the proprietor, says he is clear his restaurant will only serve ‘big’ items. How big?
Madan explains, "We will not have lobsters that weigh below one kg. Similarly, we will not keep baby lobsters below 750 gm, crabs below 900 gm, jumbo prawns below 350 gm and tiger prawns below 250 gm."
Food for thought indeed because mind you a 2 kg rock lobster will set you back by Rs.2000, and a 800 gm baby lobster by Rs.800. So clearly, if you need exotic seafood, you need to prepare for a mid-sized hole in your pocket.
And why not? After all the real stuff are coming not only from the nearby coastal Bengal, but also from Chennai for the clams and the squids, and as far as South Africa for the oysters.
One thing is sure. If Charcoal Grill can set fire in the city’s culinary habits, more like it can be expected to open shops, which only augurs well for the city to spend some quality time in.
In July this year Sotheby’s in New York auctioned several Indian artworks among nearly 100 that were put up for sale. The purpose of the auction was noble. The proceeds were to attend the part expenditure of KMOMA, an upcoming art museum in the city.
Kolkata Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, or KMOMA, is slated to come up on a 10-acre plot in Rajarhat the total outlay for which is a princely Rs.500 crore.
If Sotheby’s has done its bit, why not Christie’s? And so for the first time in the city, Christie’s debuted last evening when about 26 works were put under the hammer at the spacious lawns of the Calcutta Club.
The TOI reports that the show was a sellout, garnering about Rs.92 lakhs. The Dunlop-cum-Jessop boss, Pawan Ruia, emerged the top bidder, shelling out Rs.20.5 lakh for two Paritosh Sen paintings and a Chattrapati Dutta work.
Yesterday’s earnings minus other expenses and Christie’s fees if any will go to KMOMA, the Kolkata International Foundation of Art, Literature & Culture and the Chief Minister’s Fund. Noble money, nobler cause, won’t you say!
[Picture above shows a Paritosh Sen self-portrait that was part of exhibition that took place in Singapore in July, 2006; image source; no relation intended with yesterday's Calcutta Club auction]
Who knew a day would come when an obscure half-word such as ‘knol’ would shot into prominence so fast that in just 2 days at least 182,000 web pages would be written about it.
Thanks to Google, this is what has happened. Ever since Udi Manber, the VP Engineering of Google, announced the launch of Google Knol giving an example of Rachel Manber’s (perhaps Udi’s wife) article on Insomnia, every blog worth its salt has rushed in to cover the topic.
In the melee though there’s one thing almost all seem to be standing by, which is that Knol is Google’s attempt to break into the space of which the sole occupant is the ubiquitous Wikipedia.
The content parts of the two look uncannily same. By that I mean the main purpose of both Knol and Wikipedia does match with each other. But there are differences too. Let’s see what differs in Knol.
For one thing, going by Rachel’s article page on insomnia, an author will not likely be an unseen and unknown entity. This is very important because readers will have the chance to know how qualified the author of an article is, and what authority he or she has to guide the course of that article. Now, isn’t there a ring of transparency?
Second, Knol’s pages appear more structured. What I mean is it may be relatively easy to navigate its pages compared to Wikipedia.
It’s not that Wikipedia is any worse, but the fact is many of its pages have such bulky paragraphs that it becomes quite difficult to locate ‘exact’ information, akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
For all you know, the bulkiness may however be beyond Google’s control as well, for as Udi tells us:
Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors.
The third point that comes to mind is that since anybody can contribute to Knol, it is a golden opportunity for talented writers and experts to come into focus that may open up great possibilities for them.
There is a small hitch however. Remember only a Google ‘account holder’ can write in Knol. A clever way to lure new users, won’t you say!
Coming to Wikipedia, I confess being an addict for even a tiny need. But unlike many others I do not rue Knol’s entry into Wikipedia’s turf for the simple reason that a bi-polar environment is always preferable than a uni-polar one.
Wikipedia does face serious and fancied contenders time to time to the crown it has monopolized. The recent example is Yahoo Answers, which many had opined will gradually eclipse Wikipedia’s prominence when it started.
In reality, the latter’s prominence only grew over time.
Will Knol be any different? This only time will tell. If it really clicks well, this may lead to another churning in the way content is made available free on the web.
For quite some time the 2 IT biggies from Bangalore, Wipro and Infosys, are scouting for land in the city, which they want at rates they think proper. The plans are big. While Wipro already has 18 acres of prime plot in Salt Lake Sector V, it wants another 40-50 acre plot for its second campus in Kolkata.
Not to be left behind, and rightly so, Infosys too wants to drop that elusive anchor in the city in exchange for 100 acres of land. The trouble is this may not happen, neither for Wipro nor for Infy. Why?
When Azim Premji set his feet in the city in 2004, he got the Sector V land cheap. Kolkata was then struggling to get noticed. And indeed Wipro’s arrival heralded a new chapter for the beleaguered state.
Soon, after much pursuing, Infosys decided it was time Kolkata too deserved a campus of its in the eastern region in addition to Bhubaneswar’s. While this was going on, unknown to both the IT companies, much water flowed down the Hooghly.
Savvy realtors from far and wide started lapping up lands at unheard of prices. Thus while LIC paid Rs.55.24 crore an acre for the plot opposite Science City, Emaar-MGF and DLF respectively paid Rs.34 crore and 27 crore per acre for plots off the EM Bypass.
And now, Dhoot Developers and South City Projects bagged plots at Salt Lake for an average of Rs.37.13 crore an acre.
Now, what is the price that Wipro and Infy are willing to pay? Forget a crore, the two are reportedly not willing to pay above Rs.60-65 lakhs an acre, that too for plots in or near the city. No wonder the IT twins are not getting their share.
There is another angle to their asking for sprawling campus that I probed in my post a year back, Land to whom.
Comparing to what Tata Motors can do in terms of long-term direct and indirect employment generation and revenue to the government from their 995-acre Singur factory, I feel it is deeply illogical to give away 100 acres of land on a platter to Infosys or 53 acres to Wipro.
The reason is simple. It is more than a mere possibility that the 2 IT companies can never match even a small fraction of what Tata Motors can do to Bengal’s industrial rejuvenation in times to come.
The government will do well not to gift precious lands to IT companies without extracting the just price.
Even otherwise, as the competition catches up and the cost escalates, the Indian IT sector is looking quite vulnerable, and so it doesn’t matter if one Wipro or Infy cannot make it to the state.
It is interesting watching Google perching atop the pole that keep increasing in height in tandem with the search giant’s performance every month.
The rest simply watches the spectacle from varying levels on the way down, transfixed, wide-eyed, open-mouthed. For those stranded at the base level Google appears as a faint outline, seen with palms cupped over the eyes.
The actual online search market share of Google was 65.1% in the month, up from 61.84% in the same month last year. October’s figure for Google was 64.9% (61% according to comScore).
It’s not for us, the faceless ordinary searchers spread over the globe, to know just how much Google dominates the search world except when the figures are made known. However, the other search majors, Yahoo, MSN and Ask surely know that, but perhaps there is no ace in their sleeves to stop the Google juggernaut.
As is our wont, we love to speculate when anything moves up or down, more so when it moves up. Why should Google’s ascent be any different?
According to Stephen Wellman in the Information Week, Google’s search business runs on 75% profit margin. Stephen has his arguments stacked up for what he says, and you can have a look at that.
When you do that you may be left wondering if adding Google to your portfolio should be a smart act, for Stephen feels GOOG may as well touch $2000 shortly.
Will that happen? Well, only time can tell. Meanwhile, here is what Google is priced at present.
I shifted on the bed and then woke up. It was wee hours in the morning. The mobile clock showed 3-41. I tried figuring if there was anything that stole my sleep. And then I got it.
An elongated streak of light fell on the bed that came from the room at the far end of the corridor. There seemed a faint sound of mumbling, wafting from the direction of the room.
I decided to explore.
It was my first night at sister’s place in the city after a long time. There was some urgent matter to be discussed with her that went on beyond the hours when she insisted that I stayed back for the night.
A couple of hours’ sleep was good enough for me as the first spell. But now the sleep was fast disappearing from my eyes. I was concerned.
Was there some emergency? Perhaps my sister didn’t want to call me. Balancing my direction in the semi-darkness I tiptoed ahead. A step or two, and I stopped in my track.
Could I hear soft giggles of my niece! I strained my ears and waited. The giggling sound came again, ever so muted.
A great relief. I felt assured there was no cause for alarm.
I turned back to return and then turned back again. I longed to find out what kept my teenager niece awake for so long, curiosity getting better of me.
I pushed the door and entered the room. There they were – my niece and nephew – glued to their computers, ears plugged with tiny things that brought songs from the dumb sets, so engrossed as though they were just some parts of the computers.
Fingers flying off on the keyboards, they did not so much as lift their heads to notice my entry. My niece was sitting nearer, and I stole a quick glance of her screen.
She was 'orkutting', a term I borrowed from the net long back at the populous height of Orkut Buyukkokten's social media wonder that he created in the off-hours while working for Google.
The funny thing is that in India even though the Internet penetration is still less than 4% of the population (US: 70% penetration), the country ranks third among Orkut-users. Read my story, India loves Orkut.
What this means is that India’s youngsters like my late-teen niece and early-20 nephew have taken to social media sites like fish in the water. In fact it is more or less the same in other countries as well.
No surprise then that social media sites are debuting on the net with great zeal each passing day. And why not? If a Facebook can command $240 million for just 1.6% stake – making it a $15 billion company – with no visible substance yet in the bottomline, there is no reason why others too can’t break in with blazing trails.
Facebook’s strength is its phenomenal user-base, which is likely to top 60 million by the year-end. It started in Harvard College, and later spread geographically all over the globe. The site is now cashing on the popularity through initiatives like Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Beacon, etc.
An almost similar social media site is CitiPals, which has recently launched its arm in Kolkata. Saikat Bose, one of the partners at CitiPals, says, “CitiPals.com is building a platform that processes and filters information specifically for you, to deliver recommendations that you can trust.”
According to Saikat, CitiPals is a cross among Facebook, Yelp, and Flixster. I checked Yelp, which is the place to speak aloud about 'what’s great – and not so great – in your area (in US)' and Flixster, that allows sharing movie ratings with friends.
Both Yelp and Flixster enjoy very good popularity, as evidenced primarily from the respective Alexa rankings and PageRank.
So if CitiPals can blend the essence of the 3 above social websites, the result can be exciting. As I can understand, the Indian market barring a few pockets is not yet ripe to handsomely reward social websites like CitiPals.
This means CitiPals needs to hang around with whatever wafer-thin revenues that come in, till the moment arrives to go for a kill. The reason is simple.
As Saikat says the potential is huge but still in the making. Given time, the monetization models being planned have 'money' written all over them.
To take a peek, they are JustDial for local calls (a la Skype maybe), lead generation for travel and shopping, online ticket booking for movies, and of course the all-weather worthies like ringtones, wallpapers, and more.
CitiPals promises to be 'the destination' in the not-so-distant future. While we await its transition from adolescence to adulthood, here is the CitiPals' slogan:
CitiPals connects you with your friends to help with everyday choices.
Well, a demurring one you’d say, but let that not befool you. I’m sure the surface hides a lot of glitter beneath, which only time will reveal.
On a recent trip to a prestigious city hospital to visit an acquaintance undergoing treatment, I came across 2 persons from Nigeria, looking around to exchange their dollars. Their relative was admitted for kidney ailment and would perhaps undergo surgery the next day.
The Nigerians were among a steady stream of visitors from abroad, who increasingly find Indian medical system among the best in the world yet vastly cheap compared to those in western countries and even in the Southeast Asia.
They are called medical tourists, and their numbers are multiplying rapidly. It’s not only India that is seeing the rush of medical tourism, but quite a few other countries as well.
A Forbes report lists at least 7 top hospitals as destinations for medical tourism, and among them the only Indian is the Escorts Heart Institute that reportedly charges at least 50% less than its counterparts in US and UK.
The others in Forbes list are Prince Court Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur, National Cancer Center in Singapore, Bay View Private Hospital in Mossel Bay (South Africa), Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, The Ivo Pitanguy Clinic in Rio de Janeiro, and American Hospital Dubai.
Notably, many of these hospitals are located in exquisite locales – for example the Bay View hospital. They are destinations for medical tourists for a long time, but they are not necessarily that cheap compared to the hospitals in India.
The other advantage of Indian hospitals is that the standard of treatment, especially complicated surgeries, is very high, and there are good number of doctors available too. There are estimates that the value of medical tourism to India can go as high as $2 billion a year by 2012 (Ref: Wikipedia).
In India, Chennai is considered the country’s Health Capital, garnering as much as 45% of health tourists from abroad and 30-40% of domestic health tourists.
In sharp contrast, Kolkata hospitals used to be the last preference till sometime back. The situation is now fast changing. This Business Line report (incidentally a Chennai publication) has found that Bengal is emerging as a major hub for medical tourism.
There is no doubt that the boom in medical tourism is the result of the Internet revolution where exchange of information has become a child’s play.
As Forbes say, "Web sites like MedRetreat.com facilitate medical tourism and allow potential patients to comb through vacation-like packages for procedures and destinations as if they were going on a honeymoon."
Since no analysis is complete without some hard figures, here are some from the Forbes report:
Last year, more than 500,000 U.S. citizens traveled abroad for health care. They went to Thailand to get heart bypass surgeries for $11,000 instead of the $130,000 it would cost in the US. Or they went to India for spinal fusion at $5,500 a pop, well below the $62,000 sticker price in the States.
Lastly – and this one is for punters – if the rush of foreigners seeking medical succor in India burgeons, which apparently it will, doesn’t it make sense to pick up related stocks such as Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, and suchlike? You bet.
I can easily bet you haven’t noticed something like this before. It is the trap of too many holidays. Caught off guard? Here is the story.
We all know when the December comes, the entire salaried class, especially those in the government and the public sector, awaits the coming year’s holiday list with bated breath.
This year their smile is wider than ever. Guess why.
In 2008 the Durga Puja starts on a Monday, October 6. Mahasaptami falls on that day, and the holiday starts, that continues up to Ekadashi, a Friday. After Saturday and Sunday, Monday is a working day, but Tuesday is Lakshmi Puja, again a holiday.
Before the puja begins, October 2 is a national holiday, and October 4, 5 are Saturday and Sunday. What does this mean?
This means if an employee takes 2 ‘strategic’ days off on October 3 and 13, he will enjoy an uninterrupted spell of 13 holidays. Even without taking leave the puja-week ensures a continuous stretch of 9 days as holidays.
If this promises a lip-smacking bonanza, the mood is set by the Hatibagan Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee as it has already invited 5 theme-makers to design next year’s puja-logo and flagged off their fund-raising campaign.
Who says the Durga Puja is only for the autumn? These days the puja is kicking off a year in advance. No dull time eh!
This is what the word means according to Wikipedia (see the pictures of Acropolis of Athens below):
Acropolis (Gr. acron, edge + polis, city) literally means the edge of a town or a high city. For purposes of defense, early settlers naturally chose elevated ground, frequently a hill with precipitous sides, and these early citadels became in many parts of the world the nuclei of large cities which grew up on the surrounding lower ground.
Now Kolkata is going to boast of its own Acropolis shortly. Here though it’s not the edge of the city or any high place. It’s to be located in a playground owned by the KMC at Rajdanga beside the Siemens’ facility on the RB Connector close to the Ruby Hospital.
Announced in Feb this year, what will Kolkata’s Acropolis be like? For one, there will be a 4000-seater sports stadium. For another, there will be a 17-storey business tower, a shopping mall with a 4-screen multiplex, and a 3-level parking bay for 750 cars.
Nearly all the commercial complexes that are now coming up in the city have the same format as Acropolis, so no surprise there.
What may be a ‘new’ is the stadium, but then remember the Rajdanga ground is a sprawling sporting arena that has so far been the only destination in the area to hold all types of games.
It is another matter that perhaps the would-be stadium will be out of bounds for local populace except for occasions like musical soirees or other star functions that are being increasingly held in the sports stadiums of the city.
Does teaching online make you richer beyond your dreams? The answer is both ‘No’ and ‘Yes’. I’ll take the ‘No’ first in Scenario 1, and then ‘Yes’ at Scenario 2. Do let me know your comments.
Scenario 1
Some 4 months back I wrote about TutorVista, the online tutoring site promoted by Krishnan Ganesh. Ganesh has been singularly entrepreneurial to have noticed the latent demand, and then moved on fast to capitalize on the first-mover advantage.
It is said TutorVista as of now employs about 600 teachers across 23 cities in India, which by itself is no mean feat. Quick to follow TutorVista’s footsteps are Mathguru, Extramarks, Learning Hour, and others.
When you visit the sites you’ll find each appeals to a certain tutoring segment. TutorVista though appears more like one that is slated to become a tutoring portal.
What about individual earnings of tutors? Some estimates say that it hovers between Rs.150 and Rs.250 for an hour’s labor, which is not bad (see HT story).
However, if as a tutor you’re teaching students from other countries like USA, you may have to remain awake in the nights to do your job.
There are chances that as time passes, there will be more and more websites on online tutoring, and more and more teachers enrolled in them to make some extra earnings.
How much will they earn? Not much as long as they hold on to the tutelage of some tutoring websites. They will increasingly compete among themselves, and when that happens the fees will also see a downtrend.
If that is true then how is it that this post is headlined as ‘Teach your way to fortune’.
Scenario 2
Welcome to online tutoring that has the promise of really working wonders for you. This is the model in which you teach independently, and not as a part of others’ network.
It’s not a new concept. At a time when the outsourcing portals like Elance and Guru came into being and grew bigger and bigger in size, there were and are independent professionals like graphic designers, content writers, programmers, and others who make fabulous earnings.
Similarly, if you start your own ‘teaching’ business, chance is you too will make good earnings in course of time.
I will ask you to read the excellent free ebook on ‘Teaching Sells’ (image on the left). It lucidly explains why teaching will turn out as one of the most lucrative money earners online. Read it and take the first step to make fortunes.
After days of suspense Taslima has at last agreed to delete the controversial paragraphs in her book, Dwikhandito, when the next edition of the book is published. By doing this, the author has scaled down her rights to express opinion while living in a country that is not her own.
Her decision comes close on the heels of not-so-discreet advice by the foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee when he spoke on the matter in the parliament.
Liberals will feel bad about Taslima agreeing to back off, but if you look at it objectively it is likely that you realize that this is the best to have happened.
I’m not discussing the literary merits of her novel because I’ve not read it. I’m also not saying whether what she said in her novel stands the scrutiny of righteousness.
Instead I will simply point out what Pranab Mukherjee said in her Lok Sabha speech. He opined Taslima is an asylum seeker, a guest in India. And so she needs to remember that she cannot do things that hurt the interests of her host.
There is perhaps no doubt that even the most liberal amongst us will not like a guest in his/her own house who creates troubling situations for him/her by his/her actions. If that is true, Taslima should be no different.
I suppose she earns good amount of money writing spark-igniting novels sitting in the relatively safe haven of Kolkata and enjoying the glare of publicity.
Taslima may call this as her struggle, but if this is a real struggle, I'm afraid it stands out in stark contrast with that of the 1991 Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
When Suu Kyi's husband died of cancer in 1999, she was offered by the country's ruler to attend the funeral provided she never returned to Myanmar. Suu Kyi rather chose not to leave her country, and so remains separated from her children who live in the UK.
The point is struggle has many faces. Comfort and the luxury of freedom of speech Taslima clearly enjoys are certainly not among them.
There is one more relatively less-noticed fact that came to the surface in the midst of this fracas. It’s the fine handling of the situation by Pranab Mukherjee.
It will not be an exaggeration to say that he is the backbone of the UPA government, and is playing the central role that normally the PM does. Look at the way he doggedly pursued the nuclear talks with the left.
In September when he was attending the UN General Assembly, and the protests by Buddhist monks were being brutally curbed in Yangon, Pranab Mukherjee stole the limelight when he persuaded the Myanmar foreign minister to release the monks and initiate dialog with Aung Suu Kyi.
This is precisely what has been happening in that country, albeit slowly, and there is hope that Aung Suu Kyi will agree to talk to the military junta.
Pranab Mukherjee walks tall in the UPA regime, and is presently the brightest of all the stars the Congress has in the government.
