i love u harsh

:*

Chess

History:-

As they say, the rumour is true. Chess was born in India , during the Gupta empire in 6th Century A.D. Later it went to Persia, Western Europe, West Asia and North African Countries.

Chess - Chariot, Horses, Elephant, Soldiers + king and Queen.

In modern day terms,

Chariot = Bishop (B), Horses=Knights (N), Elephant=Rook (R), Soldiers =Pawns (P).

14th century A.D saw the birth of modern chess. Power of Queen and bishop were increased."en passant" and "Castling - older form" were introduced. later modern form of castling was introduced. Greco was one of first modern chess player/ author, who analysed and published a book in chess. The book went down for 100+editions. He explored king pawn openings thoroughly.

Note: Chess is the only sport for which most number of books are written.

The most played, interesting and fancy looking line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 was introduced by him aka "guacco piano". Then on due course of time the game saw several legends exploring the opening moves/maneuvers. The birth of modern opening systems happened. In the mean time, modern castling rules were introduced.

London Chess tourney 1851 - First famous Chess tourney to happen, won by adolf anderson. His one of the game is the "immortal game". Coz it paved a chess revolution. Watch it.

Paul Morphy was a US player and extremely talented. He beat every single guy in chess arena. at one point every one feared playing against him. Stauntaoun refused to play against him. he then offered a pawn/a move odd to the opponent and there there was no takers. Hence he retired abruptly. Truly,his game were "magical" , as magical as messi's dribble, and Federer's back hand.

1886 saw the first official chess champ - William steineitz. Though he lost his crown to Lasker in 1894, he gave the introduction to "exploiting the weakness concept" and "Not to create weakness concept". Emanuel Lasker dominated the game for 27 years, longest for any world champ. Then Alekhine became the new champ. Alongside, birth of FIDE happened in 1924 in Paris. Women Chess saw new heights.

Alekhine was defeated by Max Euwe and then the converse happened . alekhine died as a world Champion, the Only person to die as a champ. Then came the Russian dominance. Mikhail Botvinik, Vassily Symislov, Mikail Tal, Borris Spassky. Everyone is a legend and played fine games. Then came a hero from US, who mastered all the Russians single handedly, Robert James Fisher. ( May be a product of cold war  )

Fisher is one of the greatest chess players till now. Introduced Chess 960. The number 960 has a meaning that will be covered in upcoming posts. Fisher refused to comply with FIDE rules and Then Karpov got Title from Fischer by default, Kasparov arrived, The computer chess born, Kramink got the better of Kasparov. Then Anand brought the chess back to India from Russia.

Note: The world Championship should not be confused with world cup. Chess has both. Peter Svidler of Russia is the current world cup winner and Anand is the champ.

Chess is the national game of Russia and has every rights to become national game of our nation.

- International Chess authority is FIDE.

- William Strenitz (US)was the First World Champ and Emanuel Lasker(Germany) was the longest running World champ.

- Current world chess champion is Anand and women's chess champion is Anna Ushenina (Ukraine). Current Rapid chess champion is Sergey Karjakin(Russia), and Blitz chess champion is Magnus Carlsen(Norway). Current women's rapid chess champion is Antoneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), and women's blits champion is Valentina gunina (Russia) .

- Russia has the largest number of GMs, IMs viz. Ukraine is second in the list.

- Computers or engines are unbeatable when they play against humans. rating of strongest computer depends on processor and thinking time etc.

eg. Houdini, Hiarcs, Rybka etc. ( All are owned by Chessbase. The largest chess corporate)

- Chess has various formats. Classical, Rapid, blitz, Blindfolded, Simultaneous exhibitions aka simuls, problem solving and many more.

- Highest rated chess player ever is Magnus Carlsen of Norway ,rated at 2872!. Highest rated female chess player ever is Judit Polgar(Hungary) rated at 2735. ( Unless specified the rating denotes classical time control rating). Highest rated chess engine ever is Houdini 3. 3351.

- Anyone can get a International chess rating regardless of age and qualifications .

Alan Alda (actor) 1400 rating

Humphrey Bogart 1900 rating

Nicholas Cage (actor) 1500 rating

Fidel Castro (dictator) 1900 rating

Charlie Chaplin (actor) 1400 rating

Ray Charles (musician) 1600 rating

Che Guevara (revolutionary) 1950 rating

Ted Danson (actor) 1400 rating

Peter Falk (actor) 1400 rating

Al Jolson (musician) 1600 rating

Henry Kissinger (politician) 1400 rating

Vladimir Lenin (Russian dictator) 1900 rating

David Letterman (talk show) 1100 rating

Jerry Matthers (the Beaver) 1400 rating

George Pataki (NY Governor) 1100 rating

Arnold Schwarzenenegger 1500 rating

Jimmy Stewart (actor) 1300 rating

John Wayne (actor) 1200 rating

- Arch rivals of the past:-

Adolf andersan (Germany)- Paul Morphy(US)

Steinitz(US) - lasker(Germany)

Alexander Alekhine (Russia) -Max Euwe. (Dutch)

Fischer (US) Vs Mikhail Tal and compatriot Russians.( USSR)

Kasparov (USSR)Vs Karpov (USSR)

Nigel Short (England) Vs Judit Polgar(Hungary)

Karpov (USSR) Vs Korchnoi(USSR)

- Arch rivals of the present:-

Kramnik (Russia) vs Topalov (Bulgaria)

Anand (India) vs Aronian (Armenia)

Magnus carlsen(Norway) vs Hikaru Nakamura.(US)

Hikaru Nakamura (US) vs Gata kamsky(US)

Hou Yifan (china) vs Koneru Humpy (India) and many more.

- Veterans of the game.

- Borris Spassky. Former world champ. USSR

- Viktor Korchnoi. Paralyzed at home. . USSR. A world championship contender.

- Yuri Averbakh of USSR. Nicely poised to write couple of books. (91).

- Best trainer in the world- Mark Dvoretsky of USSR., A great author too.

- Famous Chess tourneys.

World championship

World cup

Chess olympiad

London chess classics

Tal memorial (Russia)

Wijk aan zee aka Tata steel chess tour. (Netherlands)

Gibraltar chess festival.(UK)

Linares (discontinued)

Biel Chess festival

Kings tourney.

Candidates tours. and many more.

Most important things one should know about chess: Part -II (An Indian Scenario)

Authority : AICF

- India saw a rise in chess after the efforts of Manuel aaron, India's first international master IM (1961). It took 17 years for India to produce second IM, V.Ravi.

- India's first Grand Master is Vishy Anand. 1988, ( Finished final norm in sivakasi GM open after narrowly missing out in the final round of Manila Chess olympiad 1987).

Note:

First player to secure a GM norm is Praveen Thipsay. GM norm should not be confused with GM title. One should secure three norms to become a GM . He is also the oldest GM in our country.

- India owns 29 GMs, 76 IMs and 219 titled chess players* .

( For understanding GM> IM>FM> CM where FM stands for Fide master and CM stands for Candidates Master.**)

- Top 10 players *

1              Anand, Viswanathan 2780

2              Harikrishna, P. 2705

3              Sasikiran, Krishnan 2677

4              Negi, Parimarjan 2638

5              Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 2626

6              Gupta, Abhijeet 2612

7              Koneru, Humpy 2597

8              Sandipan, Chanda 2590

9              Panchanathan, Magesh Chandran 2579

10           Lalith, Babu M.R. 2559

- Top 10 Women players *

1              Koneru, Humpy 2597

2              Harika, Dronavalli 2514

3              Tania, Sachdev 2397

4              Gomes, Mary Ann 2394

5              Karavade, Eesha 2391

6              Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman 2365

7              Mohota, Nisha 2327

8              Padmini, Rout 2307

9              Soumya, Swaminathan 2291

10           Meenakshi Subbaraman 2249

- India has seen three players crossing the 2700 rating mark, Anand, Sasikiran, Pentala Harikrishna.

- Anand is currently 6th in rating list and Humpy is third in Women's rating list.*

- TamilNadu has maximium number of GMs and IMs.(13) &(22) *

- Manuel Aaron has won maximum number of national championships. and youngest player to win national championship is G.Aakash from chennai (2012).

- India's youngest GM n IM is Parimarajan Negi from Delhi.

- Surya shekar Ganguly is the only player beat Kramnik after Anand, in classical time control.

- Abhijeet Gupta (Rajastan) and Tania Sachdev (Delhi)won Silver and Bronze medals respectively in 2012 chess olympiad at Turkey.

- While India finished 35th in open category , it finished 4th in Women's category in 2012 olympiad.

Famous Chess meets in India:-

-Air Authority of chess championship is the strongest chess tournament in terms of average rating of the players. Orissa GM open, Chennai GM open, Kolkata GM open, Delhi parsvnath GM open are other regular tourneys. Apart from these, India regularly hosts commonwealth chess championship.

Titles:-

- Vishy Anand is the current World Champion and Koneru Humpy is the Women's world champioship contender 2013. Various titles are being held by the juniors as well. While Harika Dronavalli reached Semi finals of World women chess championship.

Notable Chess magazines from India: Chessmate by Manuel Aoron, AICF chronicle.

I think i have included as many details i can. If I have missed anything I will be updating the post. With that I would like to conclude the post.

#4 Time controls / formats :-

Various Time controls:

Classical Time Control

There is a single time control for all major FIDE events: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

(E.g.)

Chess Olympiads

World Team Championships

Continental Team Championships

World Cup

WCC etc.

Rapid :

15 to 60 minutes per player, sometimes with a small time increment per move (e.g. 10 seconds)

(E.g) Amber classics , Aeroflat open, Rapid chess championships etc

Blitz: 15 minutes or less per side. Usually sudden death (no increment), but may also be played with a small increment. More recently due to the influx of digital clocks, 3 minutes with a 2-second add is also preferred.

(e.g.): Tal memorial Blitz, Blitz chess championship, Aeroflat qualifiers, World ming games etc.

Bullet: 1 to 3 minutes per side. The time control for this setting is 2 minutes with a 1-second add or 1 minute with a 2-second add. The term "Lightning" can also be applied to this variant.

Lightning is a term used for either Blitz or Bullet chess, and is a general term for extremely fast chess. It can also refer to games with a fixed time (e.g. ten seconds) for each move. This also can be used for 1-minute games.

(E.g) Tie breaks

Armageddon: A game guaranteed to produce a result, because Black has draw odds (that is, for Black, a draw is equal to a victory). To compensate, White has more time on the clock. Common times are 6 minutes for White and 5 for Black, or 5 minutes for White and 4 for Black. This can also be played with a small increment. This is also known as "time odds" and it is used in various tie breaks for quick tournaments.

(e.g.) Tie-breaks

Other modes of play:-

Blindfold chess:-

Blindfold chessis a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces or touch them. One should maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation./ computer.

Today there are Blindfold Chess Tournaments held throughout the year, with the highest profile event being the Melody Amber Tournament, held in Monte Carlo. Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Alexei Shirov and Alexander Morozevich have proven themselves to be particularly strong at blindfold chess, being alternating winners of the Amber Tournaments between 1996 and 2006.

Kriegspiel :-

Here, each player can see their own pieces, but not those of their opponent. For this reason, it is necessary to have a third person (or computer) act as a referee, with full information about the progress of the game. When it is a player's turn he will attempt a move, which the referee will declare to be 'legal' or 'illegal'. If the move is illegal, the player tries again; if it is legal, that move stands.

Correspondence chess/ Postal chess:-

Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include homing pigeon. It is in contrast to over-the-board (OTB) chess, where the players sit at a chessboard at the same time (or perhaps play at the same time remotely). Correspondence chess tournaments are usually played under the auspices of an official regulatory body, most importantly International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF), which is affiliated with FIDE.

Some Quotes Unquoted by players about faster modes of chess:-

- "Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapidplay in favour of serious chess." – Vladimir Kramnik

- "Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess." – Anatoly Karpov

- "Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929." – Mikhail Botvinnik

- "He who analyses blitz is stupid." – Rashid Nezhmetdinov

- "Blitz chess kills your ideas." – Bobby Fischer[21]

- "To be honest, I consider [bullet chess] a bit moronic, and therefore I never play it." – Vladimir Kramnik

- "Blitz – it's just a pleasure." – Vladimir Kramnik

The Goal - Theory of Constraints

A great way of improving overall productivity is to identify and eliminate "bottlenecks," or things that are holding you back.

So how do you identify these bottlenecks?

One approach is to use the Theory of Constraints (TOC). This helps you identify the most important bottleneck in your processes and systems, so that you can deal with it and improve performance.

You've likely heard the adage, "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link," and this is what the Theory of Constraints reflects. It was created by Dr. Eli Goldratt and was published in his 1984 book "The Goal."

According to Goldratt, organizational performance is dictated by constraints. These are where bottlenecks occur that prevent an organization from maximizing its performance and reaching its goals. Constraints can involve people, supplies, information, equipment, or even policies, and they can be internal or external to an organization.

The theory says that every system, no matter how well it performs, has at least one constraint that limits its performance – this is the system's "weakest link." The theory also says that a system can have only one constraint at a time, and that other areas of weakness are "non-constraints" until they become the weakest link.

You use the theory by identifying your constraint and changing the way that you work so that you can overcome it.

The theory was originally used successfully in manufacturing, but you can use it in a variety of situations. It's most useful with important or frequently-used processes within your organization.

Goldratt originally identified a five-step process for applying the theory, as follows:

1. Identify the constraint.
2. Exploit the constraint.
3. Subordinate everything else to the constraint.
4. Elevate the constraint.
5. Go back to step 1.

JLT

Local Optima <> Global Optima
Elephant head + camel body + Cheetah legs <> best designed animal

Streisand Effect

Government has no business in business - Adam Smith

FERA - Foreign Exchange Regulation Act
FEMA - Foreign Exchange Management Act

MRTP -  Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices

LPG - Liberalization Privatization Globalization
LPQ - Licenses Permissions Quotas

Bull whip effect

Budget Expectations - Swaminathan S A Aiyar

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/swaminathan/s/a/aiyar/Our-tax-system-should-go-the-ASEAN-way/articleshow/18653766.cms

To meet a budget crunch, taxes on income, capital gains and dividends have gone up in the US, and may rise further. This has fed speculation that the Indian budget will follow suit. There is also speculation that Chidambaram will introduce an inheritance tax, as in the US.

Some Indian analysts think that soaking the rich will win votes in an election year, though there's no evidence for this. Other analysts say a high tax on the super-rich will largely be evaded through trusts and other legal forms of tax avoidance, and will not fetch much revenue. The biggest tax evaders are small businessmen earning Rs 5-20 lakh per year, so the focus should be on brining them into the tax net. A hefty tax on high incomes, it is argued, may disturb investors whom the government is trying to enthuse.

This debate misses a key question: what is our longterm tax vision? Should our tax rates be aligned with those in ASEAN countries, or the US? I say we must go the ASEAN way. That means gradually cutting our taxes rates to ASEAN's lower levels, not raising them (save maybe temporarily).

Budget problems in the US are totally different from those in India. The US has been badly hit by demographic change. Earlier, its baby-boom generation contributed more in taxes than it took out. But now the boomers are retiring, and will take out much more (through Medicare as well as Social Security) than the next generation will put in. Both George W Bush and Obama have greatly increased health entitlements . So, total US spending on three items — Social Security , Medicare and Medicaid (for the poor) — is projected to skyrocket from around 8 per cent of GDP today to 18 per cent by 2025. This is the crisis Obama has to tackle.

India, however, has excellent demographic prospects. The proportion of Indians in the working age group 15-60 will rise by up to 300 million over the next two decades. This means buoyant tax receipts. If economic reforms ensure that their productivity keeps rising, fast growth will add to the revenue boom. That's exactly what happened in ASEAN's boom years: a rising workforce and fast growth helped raise both living and social standards. This was growth with social justice. India should follow the same path.

Recall Chidambaram's vision in his so-called dream budget of 1997. He said India should aim over time to align its tax rates with those in ASEAN countries. These were fellow-developing countries that had achieved miracle growth of 7 per cent for decades, and hence clearly had tax systems worth replicating. They were also competitors of India in export markets, so in a globalising world India needed to ensure its tax regime was competitive with ASEAN's .

Singapore, the biggest ASEAN success, has a top income tax rate of 20 per cent (including dividends) and corporate tax rate of 17 per cent. It has no tax on wealth, inheritance or capital gains. In most other ASEAN countries there is no tax on wealth or inheritance. Both the peak income tax rate and corporate tax rate are around 25 per cent or less. Tax rates on capital gains vary from zero to 25 per cent.

The contrast with the US could not be greater. ASEAN countries aim to get tax revenue out of rapid GDP growth and improving demographics (more people in the workforce). They do not face the US problem of a doubling of welfare outgo on account of worsening demographics and slow growth. This is why ASEAN countries have a much friendlier tax regime, one that attracts people and capital, and thus ensures growth with social justice.

RBI Norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unveiled norms for the entry of a third set of private banks into the Rs.73 trillion banking sector, three years after the government first announced the plan and nine years after it issued the last round of licences.

• The minimum capital required by applicants for licences is Rs.500 crore, and foreign shareholding in the new banks will be capped at 49% for the first five years.
• RBI has removed a ban on brokerages and realtors from applying for a banking licence
• Promoter groups should have a past record of sound credentials and integrity, should be financially sound, and have a successful track record of running their business for at least 10 years
• They need to list their shares on stock exchanges within three years of starting operations.
• The holding company should own a minimum 40% of the equity capital in the bank, which has to be reduced to 15% in 12 years.

The list includes L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, India Infoline Ltd, Religare Enterprises Ltd, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, LIC Housing Finance Ltd, Shriram Transport Finance Co. Ltd, Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, Janalakshmi Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, Tata Capital Ltd, Muthoot Finance Ltd, IDFC Ltd, Reliance Capital Ltd, India Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd, Bajaj Finserv Ltd, SKS Microfinance Ltd and Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd

Past experience

Following the nationalization of 14 large banks in 1969 and another six in 1980, RBI has so far given licences to just 12 banks in two phases, including the conversion of a cooperative bank into a commercial bank in the first.

In the first round, RBI issued licences to 10 private sector banks in 1993-94, shortly after the nation embraced economic liberalization under the P.V. Narasimha Rao government.

These were Global Trust Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, Bank of Punjab,IndusInd Bank Ltd, Centurion Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, Times Bank and Development Credit Bank Ltd.

In 2003-04, RBI issued licences to two more banks—Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and Yes Bank Ltd..

IiAS against TVS Sudarshan Venu's inclusion on board

Venu has only a year's experience, having joined the firm in December 2011. He is the son of Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of TVS Motor, and is already a director of the holding company, Sundaram Clayton

The company has approached shareholders with a special resolution as the Companies Act, 1956, requires it to be passed if the board member is below 25 years.

IiAS cited instances of other scions such as Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto who was co-opted on the board only after being groomed for over a decade, in various junior positions in the Pune-based two-wheeler company. In the case of Rishad Premji, 35 years, IiAS said he is yet to join the Wiproboard and is currently serving as the chief strategy officer of Wipro's IT business, this despite Azim Premji, Rishad's father owning close to 78% stake in the company.

FDI Aviation

Air Aisa - Tata will break the 'cosy cartel' and offer cheaper fares. True low-cost carriers stimulate the market and expand the consumer base. For the first time in the country, year-on-year total passengers flown have shrunk. It is unimaginable in an exploding economy like India. IndiGo Airlines, a well-run airline, grew by cannibalising passengers from other airlines, especially Kingfisher, Air India and even Jet, but not by creating a new market

Jet Airways's Naresh Goyal himself doled out some statistics last year. The domestic airfare for a journey of more than 2,000 km is 87 per cent higher in China, 119 per cent more in the US, 162 per cent higher in Canada and 182 per cent more expensive in Australia. 

Retail FDI

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/guest-writer/time-to-accelerate-proactive-measures-in-retail-sector/articleshow/18620087.cms

Inappropriate solutions, formats that are too easily "copy-pasted" from other markets and an impatience to see returns lead many of them to struggle. (One can't help thinking back to the start of the East India Co in India and our rulers at that time who may have felt that allowing it to come in was a good idea — that it would help commerce, the economy and themselves. As they say, "beware of what you wish for, you might just get it!")

Well the first question to ask is, "What is good for us?" I would venture to say that a retail sector that is contributing to our national happiness is one that (a) provides good access, choice and service to its customers, (b) is efficient and promotes efficiency in the supply chain, (c) supports employment, (d) builds our national capability and, therefore, (e) is dynamic and sustainable. Opening up the sector to FDI promotes the first and second objectives, and that's why it was important to do it.

This writer has argued earlier that there is a strong case for setting up a national cooperative of small retailers and kiranas, much like the National Dairy Cooperative that was set up by the legendary Dr Verghese Kurien. There is potentially a workable business model here. With some support from the government, such a cooperative enterprise can profitably ensure that small retailers enjoy the benefits of big, modern retailers like consolidated buying power, supply chain efficiency, access to better technology, processes and systems and training.

Rama Bijapurkar - Next generation of kiranawalas do not want to continue their family business. Phases - xerox, std booths etc have come and gone

Retail is science & art. We know the art, now time to learn the science

Kaushik Basu - Game theory approach to corruption

Game theory is a study of strategic decision making. More formally, it is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers"

Kaushik Basu has joined this debate in an academic and provocative paper titled "Why for a class of bribes, the Act of Giving a bribe should be treated as legal." This short paper argues that for a category of bribes called "harassment bribes" the bribe giver should have full immunity from any punitive action by the state. Using a game theory model, it is suggested that such reform will deliberately misalign the incentives of the bribe giver and the bribe taker, leading to the increased detection of bribery. It concludes that the increased detection of bribery will mould the behaviour of the bribe taker to desist from taking bribes, and the overall decline of this form of corruption.

for such crimes, we must not treat the ordinary citizen, who is the victim of this practice, on par with the official who takes the bribe, as our current law does. In particular, we should not punish the bribe giver but should instead make the penalty stiffer for the bribe taker and also require him to return the bribe. My belief is that if we make this kind of an amendment to India’s Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, there will be a sharp decrease in bribery. This is because it will now be in the interest of the bribe giver to get the official who took the bribe caught. Knowing this, there will be much greater reluctance on the part of officials to take bribes.

Soon after the British in India declared sati a crime, they went on to declare witnessing sati also a crime. Is there any surprise that the courts seldom found any witnesses for sati?

India Unbound

Understanding reforms

In other countries, the entrepreneur’s battle is with competitors. In India, the main enemy is the government bureaucracy. Indira Gandhi’s government became even more rigid, introduced more controls, and became bureaucratic and authoritarian. It nationalized banks, discouraged foreign investment, and placed more hurdles before domestic enterprise. In the past ten years, the government has been trying to undo the mistakes of the past.

Das argues that in any society, the top 15 percent of the people will do well and look after themselves. The bottom 15 percent will fail and will need to be looked after by the state. The focus of the reforms must be the 70 percent in between, the vast majority of the people, who in successful economies form the middle class.

Britain gave India the English language. However, Britain also divided India into two nations-the 10 percent elite who learned English and shut out the 90 percent who did not.

Gandhi distrusted technology but not businessmen. Nehru distrusted businessmen but not technology. Instead of sorting out the contradictions, India mixed the two up and created holy cows. Small companies are better
than big ones (Gandhi); public enterprises are better than private ones (Nehru); local companies are better than foreign ones (both). They so mesmerized us that their ideas remained live and kicking even after they passed away.

Capital Punishment

Afzal Guru sentenced to death in 2006, but 7 years to hang him. Double sentence for him. Solution Amendment to the resolution that after mercy petition for death sentence, the court must decide on mercy within a time span of 6 months - or execute the judgement.Currently, no time limit for the President to take a decision.

In a record of sorts, two convicts have been executed in less than 3 months. Pranab Mukherjee's quick rejection of the mercy petitions of Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor among the perpetrators of 26/11, and Mohammad Afzal Guru, the main accused in the case of attack on Parliament in 2001, has helped the Congress-led UPA government neutralise its critics who say this is an administration that is soft on terror.

Pratibha Patil, commuted as many as 35 death sentences to life imprisonment before she demitted office — and was seen as opposing the death penalty in principle.

Why Rajiv Gandhi's killers shown mercy inspite of being foreigners like Kasab (From Sri Lanka) for Kashmiri Afzal Guru ? If we say Kashmir is a part of India then why not treated as Indian

India’s Speech Impediments

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/indias-limited-freedom-of-speech.html?_r=1&

INDIA is in the throes of what Salman Rushdie rightly calls a “cultural emergency.” This year, the world’s largest democracy ranked a miserable 140th out of 179 countries in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index — falling nine places from last year. Today, Afghanistan and Qatar have a freer press than India.

• In November, police in Mumbai arrested a 21-year-old woman for complaining on Facebook about the shutdown of the city after the death of the nativist politician Bal K. Thackeray
• Government demanding that companies like Google and Facebook prescreen content and remove items that might be deemed “disparaging” or “inflammatory,”
• On a panel titled “Republic of Ideas,” the sociologist Ashis Nandy, perhaps the country’s most prominent public intellectual, offered a nuanced argument about the prevalence of corruption among the lower castes.
• On a panel titled “Republic of Ideas,” the sociologist Ashis Nandy, perhaps the country’s most prominent public intellectual, offered a nuanced argument about the prevalence of corruption among the lower castes.Vishwaroopam

Twitter wont bring the change

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/all-atwitter/1054233/0

Rage is good when it gets you to go out and deal with what you have a problem with.Somewhere our collective rage is going out of control. In the guise of rage and outrage — Twitter's favourite currency — we are in danger of becoming a nation of lynch mobs. We are on the lookout for a soft target and once we spot it, we take out all our pent up rage on him/her. This is what I feel has happened with the recent case of Punjabi bhangra rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh

We are getting caught up in a kind of elitism — intellectual, moral and even at the level of individual conscience — where some people, mostly on Twitter, deem themselves intellectually or morally superior to decide what is good or bad for a majority of us.

And let's not fool ourselves — Twitter won't bring the change.

Modi vs Rahul

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/371509/the-last-word-rahul-vs-modi-who-is-a-better-leader.html

Nielsen mood of the nation poll strongly in favour of modi

Modi
Modi is exactly similar to Rajiv Gandhi.
Both accused of genocide, but both visionary.

BRTS public transport system developed by Modi’s govt at Ahmadabad without any support from India Govt.about agricultural growth of about 10% in Gujrat while national average is less than 2.5%
Pros - No major corruption taint
Cons - dictatorial style, not functioned outside guj, 2002 riots, NDA allies might not like working with modi

Vibrant Gujarat
The wooing and the flirting is high profile, but walks to the altar are largely missing.About half a per cent of the MoUs signed in 2011 are even being implemented. The conversion figure for 2009 is about 3.2 per cent according to the data of the CMIE paper. While Gujarat may be pushing projects faster than some laggard states, but it is not racing ahead at the speed it claims. 

There are many states that have recorded a higher economic growth rate than Gujarat. Between 2006-7 and 2010-11, Gujarat had a growth of 9.3 per cent. Good rate but still ranked sixth. Even humble Orissa was at 9.4 per cent. Bihar topped with 10.9 per cent while Chhattisgarh (10 per cent), Haryana (9.7 per cent)  and Maharashtra (9.6 per cent) followed.

Gujarat Riots - Narendra modi
1984 Sikh Riots
What a brilliant article on Modi - http://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/emperor-uncrowned

Rahul

Dynasty is the biggest curse in indias politics.. rahul no experience, its taken he s prime minterial candidate;
Rahul interested in land reforms, turnaround in UP after 2009 elections  ; reluctant leader, no orator, spoke only twice in parliment in 8 years so views arent known

Indian economy - GDP 5%

During the first half of the year, the economy grew by 5.4 per cent, which implies that growth during the second half will be below 5 per cent.

 There is a faint hope that future revisions in the statistics will show the economy in better light. The 5 per cent growth rate is based on economic activities during the first eight months when they were at a low ebb. According to this view, the environment has improved considerably from November and the next round of data revisions, covering the whole year, will see a mark up in the growth rates over what has now been arrived at through extrapolation. Another optimistic view is that the economy has “bottomed out” and from here a recovery is imminent. Is the glass half full or half empty? Have we really hit rock bottom or is there scope for the growth rate to fall further? One awaits the forthcoming Economic Survey and the budget for a clearer, official view of the economy.


change happens only in crisis  - 1991 bop crisis
Solutions - 1) clearances posco 2) govt needs fresh blood more Nilekanis, Pitrodas

SLS - How music videos are triggering a literacy boom

http://theopinionmag.com/the-chitrahaar-chamatkaar/

You don’t always need fancy technology to make a difference

Same Language Subtitling – or ‘SLS’ – is simply the idea of subtitling audio-visual content in the ‘same’ language as the audio. What you hear is what you read.

The idea of SLS builds on some key observations:

• Indians have a lifelong passion for Bollywood film songs
• Bollywood produces a 1000 films, and therefore, 5000 film songs a year in a variety of languages
• 740 million people already watch television where Bollywood content dominates. 

SLS was first implemented on Gujarat state TV in 1999. That successful pilot led to another ongoing pilot on a nationally telecast Hindi film song programme, from 2002 to the present.

Call it karaoke on Bollywood for mass reading

internet

India no longer land of snake charmers, instead it is of mouse charmers - Modi at SRCC 6 clicks of separation

Consumption / Income quote

Consumption is like maternity, which is certain; income is like paternity - which is inferential. Rama Bijapurkar