India 2009: A Retrospective

Here is my retrospective of the major news that took place during the year 2009. Please read the list and leave your comments in the “Comments” section.

January 2009

• ·         US President Barack Obama took office, in the wake of the greatest economic crisis since World War II
• ·         Google Chrome browser released in Beta
• ·         India – Pakistan exchange list of nuclear installations
• ·         Satyam scandal rocks Indian Outsourcing industry
• ·         US backs India on 26/11 terror attack probe
• ·         Pakistan denies proofs sent by India on Terror attacks
• ·         50,000 officers of oil PSUs go on indefinite strike

February 2009

• ·         Hijack scare at Delhi airport
• ·         Chairman of ISRO, G Madhavan Nair, felicitated with “Indian of the Year” award
• ·         American woman alleges molestation at Iskcon temple
• ·         Despite economic slowdown, J-K witnesses cellphone boom
• ·         Al-Qaeda video warns India of more attacks
• ·         Family of a poverty-ridden man beheaded in Bihar for marrying a rich girl
• ·         Biggest Air-show in India takes place at Bangalore

March 2009

• ·         Indian Auto industry defies global slowdown, registers highest total sales
• ·         UK unemployment figure grows beyond 2 million
• ·         Japan posts a record current account deficit of 172.8 billion yen
• ·         Class XII topper Akhilesh Narayan reports: "I slept before my maths exams, scored 99%"
• ·         India successfully tests Interceptor missile
• ·         Error in CBSE maths paper reported
• ·         US clears decks for biggest defence deal with India

April 2009

• ·         Tata Nano hits showrooms
• ·         IPL 2 starts in South Africa
• ·         Management student Akhil Dev ragged, beaten and blinded at PSG College, Coimbatore
• ·         US radio host Rush Limbaugh calls Indian workers, slumdogs
• ·         Kolkata prisoners go on hunger strike to watch IPL
• ·         Swine Flu spreads in US, India on high alert
• ·         IAF Sukhoi fighter jet Su-30MKI crashes, navigator killed

May 2009

• ·         IPL 2 ends in Pretoria, South Africa with Deccan Chargers as champions
• ·         IIT student arrested for Credit Card fraud at Ahmedabad, India
• ·         MIG 27 crashes in Jodhpur, 5 injured
• ·         Air France apologises to Indian passengers for “ill-treatment”
• ·         Girls outshine boys In ICSE, ISC and CBSE board exams
• ·         19-year old woman Krushnaa, youngest woman to scale Mt Everest
• ·         Cyclone hits West Bengal

June 2009

• ·         Indian bureaucracy worst in Asia, says survey
• ·         Swine Flu drug Tamiflu banned
• ·         India seeks 25-member UN Security Council
• ·         Two Indian sailors freed from Koran prison
• ·         Air India employees warn of strike, if salaries delayed
• ·         Indian students attacked in Australia
• ·         MIG 21 crashes in Assam, no casualties

July 2009

• ·         N. Korea warns of “Unimaginably Deadly Blows” to US
• ·         UPA proposes 100-day ‘unrealistic’ plans to put India on fast track
• ·         Izzat Train scheme released: Travel 100 kms for Rs 25
• ·         Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja agrees of having sex with maid servant
• ·         Heavy rains flood Mumbai
• ·         BSF finds Pak rocket debris in a Punjab village
• ·         Hillary Clinton visits India

August 2009

• ·         West Bengal govt cracks down on polluting vehicles
• ·         India – China begin 14^th round of border talks
• ·         Call centre employee sedated and raped by colleague in Delhi
• ·         Mumbai terrorists came from Pakistan, claims FBI
• ·         Delhi will be slum-free in 4 years, promises CM Sheila Dikshit
• ·         BSNL staff go on strike, demand wage hike
• ·         Swiss banks refuse details to India on Black Money trail

September 2009

• ·         Jet Airways cancels more than half of its flights, as over a hundred staff stay on leave
• ·         Class X board exams declared “optional” in CBSE
• ·         Tata Indicom launches new plan: Unlimited calls for Re 1
• ·         Infosys to produce unique IDs for Delhiites by 2012
• ·         Theft reported at Rashtrapati Bhavan in India
• ·         Lockheed begins F-16 trials to replace MIG-21 fleet
• ·         CBI forms new team to probe Aarushi Murder case

October 2009

• ·         Heavy rains lash South India
• ·         Infant Mortality Rate highest in India, says United Nations Human Development report
• ·         India test fires N-capable Prithvi-II missile in Orissa
• ·         Half of India’s children malnourished, says ActionAid NGO report
• ·         US ship Alang poses toxic threat to India
• ·         India’s Swine Flu toll reaches 415
• ·         Hyderabad throws open India’s longest flyover

November 2009

• ·         Sachin Tendulkar reaches 17,000 ODI runs
• ·         Online CAT exam fails due to server crash
• ·         Teller’s machine in use to detect fake currency notes, reports CNN
• ·         Bangladesh launches major crackdown on ULFA
• ·         Dutch national held in Child Pornography in Chennai
• ·         India revises air quality norms after 15 years
• ·         DRDO admits N-capable Agni-II failed night testing

December 2009

• ·         India regains top spot in Cricket Test Rankings
• ·         Indian Railways unveil new method to curb accidents due to fog
• ·         Third ceasefire violation reported in a week on Indo-Pak border near LoC

Top 7 Cheapest cars of the world

7. Fiat Palio $9,242

Born in Brazil and built in other Latin American countries, as well as Poland, Morocco, Turkey, India, South Africa China and Russia (the sedan version), the Fiat Palio is truly a “world car.” This car is one of the first models designed with emerging technologies in mind.

6. Hyundai i10 $9,096

Hyundai recently changed the names of its cars from actual words to numbers after the letter i. Because of this, the Atos, the smallest member of the Hyundai lineup, became the i10. It makes #8 on the list.

5. Tata Indica $8,500

The Indica has always been the ugly duckling in the European market, where it survives because there’s nothing cheaper available (well, the latest Fiat 600 can sometimes be found for under 6,000 EUR). The car is also sold in South Africa, where it’s a huge success.

4. Geely HQ SRC $5,780

The Geely HQ SRC is based on the mid-’80s Daihatsu Charade. If you don’t remember that particular vehicle, rest assured it was a quite competent subcompact at the time.

3. Suzuki Maruti 800 $4,994

Until the Tata Nano arrives, the Suzuki Maruti 800 — the “smallest car in production” — will be the cheapest car you can buy in India and in other nearby countries (and even South America). Some versions of the Maruti have even arrived in Europe.

2. Chery QQ $4,781

It’s almost twice as expensive as the cheapest car on the this list, but that doesn’t stop the Cherry QQ from coming in at #2. This car sparked some trademark issues because of similarities to the Daewoo/Chevrolet Matiz.

1. Tata Nano $2,497

This car is well thought out, and lots of patents have resulted from the creation process — from the Nano’s powertrain to the assembly process itself. Will this car ruin the world? Some voices say that more cars on the roads imply more pollution, which is hard to argue against.

For pictures of these cars and the original post, please visit: The Ultimate Renaissance.

Please post your comments below.

Black Rhino: Endangered or Extinct?

An endangered species is a population of an organism (usually a taxonomic species), which because it is either few in number or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters, leaving it at risk of becoming extinct. Many countries have laws offering special protection to these species or their habitats: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves.

Only a few of the many endangered species actually make it to the official lists and obtain legal protection.

Many more species become extinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice. The greatest factor of concern is the rate at which species are becoming extinct within the last 150 years.

While species have evolved and become extinct on a regular basis for the last several hundred million years, the number of species becoming extinct since the Industrial Revolution has no precedent in biological history. If this rate of extinction continues, or accelerates as now seems to be the case, the number of species becoming extinct in the next decade could number in the millions.

While most people readily relate to endangerment of large mammals or birdlife, some of the greatest ecological issues are the threats to stability of whole ecosystems if key species vanish at any level of the food chain. One such endangered animal is the Black Rhinoceros.

The Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis also colloquially Black Rhino is a mammal in the order Perissodactyla, native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Although the Rhino is referred to as a “Black” creature, it is actually more of a grey-white color in appearance. For most of the 20th century the continental black rhino was the most numerous of all rhino species. Around 1900 there were probably several hundred thousand living in Africa. During the later half of the 20th century their number severely reduced from an estimated 70,000 in the late 1960s to only 10,000 to 15,000 in 1981.

In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2500, and in 1995 it was reported that only 2,410 black rhinos remained.

According to the International Rhino Foundation, the total African population has since then slightly recovered to 3,610 by 2003. According to a July 2006 report by the World Conservation Union, a recent survey of the West African Black Rhino, which once ranged across the savannahs of western Africa but had dropped to just 10, concluded the subspecies to be extinct.

Nokia 5220 XpressMusic : An antique review

This is my latest cell phone Nokia 5220 XpressMusic. Apparently, Nokia 5220 xPressMusic is all about music like 5310, but it certainly has some other aspects to talk about that makes it much more desirable by people in general. It is a stylish phone with a sleek design and an amazing look that catches attention at once. Basic thing about the design of this phone is that it is asymmetrical. User interface is quite easy to use as well and like other music edition phones in Nokia, it also comes with dedicated music keys which make it much easier to start and stop your music files.

It has 2-inches of display that makes it really nice to watch some movies and videos on this mobile. For this purpose, it contains an MPEG4 player that can play some really nice quality videos for you as the screen comes with 240 x 320 pixels.

Also, it has TFT, 256K color that provides you the best picture quality. To capture your favorite moments, it comes with a 2-megapixel camera with 1600×1200 pixels.

However, this phone lacks a flash light that is really nice to have these days when the competition of buying a complete mobile phone is on a real high. To provide you the enough storage options fro your music files it can be used with 2GB micro SD card.

Although, it comes with built-in hands free but it also has 3.5 mm audio output jack that provides you the opportunity to use your favorite headphone to enjoy the beautiful and spice sound quality in isolation. FM stereo radio with RDS is the added benefit that one can have with this mobile. FM radios are really gaining hype these days, so, this mobile is doing its job in the best way by providing you the stereo FM radio. To enhance your listening experience, it also is designed to be compatible with Nokia Music Store where more than 2 million tracks can be found.

It comes with GPRS and EDGE technology, but, it lacks 3G like other xPressMusic editions. However, it still is good enough to explore internet with ease.

It also provides a link to YouTube service and Opera mini browser can be used to surf internet. It also provides you with an option of push email which is quite attractive for business people and people in general. Also, the internet quality and speed is good enough to provide speedy music downloads. It does come with a Bluetooth but doesn’t have infrared. It also has some of the basic applications that make it really nice to have. Contacts, world clock, Calendar, notes with 2000 phone book entries make it wonderful piece of device.

Battery stand is good enough, in fact, music playing time is as much as 24 hours for this phone.

Although, this mobile set comes with an amazing style, but, there are a lot of people who have not really liked the design and style of this phone. But there is exception as well because a good number of people are in favor of this beautifully designed phone.

Unfortunately, it has been taken off the market now due to it's weird shape and being disliked by the mass :(

Indian Men's Biggest Fears...

What is an Indian guy’s biggest fear? I have found this after a thorough research on myself and also a few other guys I’ve met. Let’s take a countdown to all these one by one:

10. Getting caught while drinking / smoking

To many men (non-IT), drinking still remains a taboo. And now, after a ban being imposed on liquor in India, I guess this will be eased out a bit. Many times, men fear getting caught by girlfriend / parents, while drinking / smoking. When I used to smoke and drink, I myself was many times caught by this fear. It’s really a pain.

9. Free falling

This generally happens to acrophobic people: those who are afraid of height. Some people also avoid taking the elevators, just because of the fear that the wire might trip.

8. Small children and babies

I am pretty good with young kids, but I found many people so much afraid of their own li’l ones. This is weird, but true. Most of the guys simply avoid getting married just due to this untold reality. They say, “I love everything about marriage, excepting the ‘kid’ factor.” I feel this is not that a dreadful fear, but should be avoided.

7. Large insects

Yes, I used to have this fear when I was a kid. Large insects in the most weirdest of nightmares.

6. Meeting girlfriend’s parents

What can I say about this? This is indeed one of the greatest fears for all of us. The fear that one wrong answer, and everything will be finished. In the process, we also start predicting what will be the next question, and frame answers for that; but when the next question happens to be something else, we get tensed even more.

5. Being rejected when asking a girl on a date

More than a fear, I feel, this is an insult. An insult to one’s emotions, skills and judgment.

4. Losing job

Joblessness is one of the biggest fears for any Indian. This has propped up very recently, following the Global Economic Meltdown. That’s why, most of us, no matter how worse their present job is, are thriving in the present situations in their workplaces.

3. Hair Loss / Ageing

Again, most think that men don’t care about their looks and appearance. But, frankly, that’s not right. Although, we are surely not that self conscious about our looks n all, but we do fear losing our hair and looks, post a particular threshold, and become restless.

2. Proposing to girlfriend

This happens to be the most dreaded fear among most of us, and may very well qualify to be the No.1 in the most dreadful men’s fears. Most people end up in a break-up just because they were unsure of the right time, and were afraid of losing their girlfriend.

1. Relegation of the Indian Cricket Team / player(s)

This is the most common fear of most of Indian guys. If I take a poll, this might just lose out to the point no.2, but believe me, there are so many emotions surrounding the Indian cricket team and its players. May it be the national team or our domestic teams; we are just too much reluctant to let it go to hell. Some cricket frenzies even dream of cricket every night! Weird! Most facts happen to be weird!

Customer Care Blues...

Customer Support guys are known to be a boon to today’s world. But, there are instances when we feel, we would have been better off without them. Here are a few such instances:

 

Instance 1

I had trouble downloading an operating system upgrade for a PDA, so I called tech support.

• Me: “I can’t seem to get this download to complete. What might be causing it?”
• Tech Support: “What operating system are you running?”
• Me: “Windows NT.”
• Tech Support: “Well, you have to be running Windows 98 or better in order to download it.”
• Me: “Ummm, I am. I’m running Windows NT4, SP5.”
• Tech Support: “Are you on a PC or a MAC?”

Instance 2

My school required me to do some of our reports on laptops and print from a single printer. After a few months the laptop they provided me ceased to work with the printer. I spoke with the IT Manager.

• IT Manager: “I don’t know if the problem is a hardware problem or a software problem.”
• Me: “Ok.”
• IT Manager: “So I can’t solve the problem now.”
• Me: “When can you solve it?”
• IT Manager: “I told you: I don’t know if it is a hardware problem or a software problem. I can’t fix it until I know.”
• Me: “Ok. I need to print my reports. When will I be able to?”
• IT Manager: (angrily) “Look, if it’s a hardware problem I can’t fix it! I don’t know if it is a hardware or a software problem.”

I made several more attempts to communicate with the IT manager about this problem over the next few weeks, only to find myself in the same conversation. Finally, I sent a memo to my boss, explaining that I was having difficulty getting tech support and could not print out my reports. My boss wrote back:

• Boss: “Please do not harass the IT Manager anymore. He has already explained to you that he doesn’t know whether it is a software problem or a hardware problem.”

Instance 3

There’s this quite major company called Hewlett Packard over here in India. I bought a system from them, and then five months later I hear a “Pfoo!” noise, and my display went all fuzzy and strange.

Here’s the conversation I had with tech support about it, with a lot cut out:

• Tech Suppport: “What seems to be the problem, sir?”
• Me: “Well, my screens all fuzzy, and my video card seems to have exploded.”
• Tech Support: “Well, right click on the desktop.”
• Me: “Before you say anything, I’ve tried the monitor on another computer, and on this computer on Windows 98, 2000, Linux, and BeOS, and it’s definitely something wrong with the video card, because the monitor worked on the other computers, and it didn’t work in any of the operating systems in this one, and when I tried another video card, it worked.”
• Tech Support: “Right click on the desktop.”
• Me: “…”
• Tech Support: “Right click on the desktop.”
• Me: “Well, I’m in Linux right now.”
• Tech Support: “Right click on the desktop.”
• Me: “I’m not in Windows.”
• Tech Support: “Right click on the desktop.”
• Me: “Do you know what an operating system is?”
• Tech Support: “Yes, sir.”
• Me: “Ok then, because, I’m not in Windows. I’m in Linux, which is another operating system. Right clicking on the desktop won’t do anything you think it will, I promise. Do you want me to reboot into Windows?”
• Tech Support: “Right click on the desktop please, sir.”

I sighed, gave up, rebooted into Windows, and right clicked on the desktop.

• Me: “Do you want me to click on ‘Properties’?”
• Tech Support: “No sir, please click on ‘Properties’.”
• Me: “…”

After a while, “we” determined that, no, it isn’t my resolution, and installing new drivers won’t help. After a very long discussion, I learned that to replace my video card, they would “have to” (or so policy dictates) take the entire computer away (monitor and all) for 5-7 business days to replace the faulty video card. I protested this, because the computer was being used in a business. They told me there was “nothing they could do.” This seemed bad enough, but then:

• Tech Support: “Have you backed up recently?”
• Me: “No, why?”
• Tech Support: “You should…”
• Me: “Sure, ok, I’ll remember.”
• Tech Support: “…because as part of our policy, when servicing a computer, we delete everything on the hard disk.”
• Me: “What the $%* *%(@ $%? WHY???”
• Tech Support: “Company policy.”
• Me: “But it’s a broken video card! Even you admit that!!! It has nothing to do with the hard drive!”
• Tech Support: “That’s company policy, sir.”

After about an hour of arguing, we didn’t get anywhere. I am living with the video card up to this day, months later, and was not refunded in anyway.

Turns out to be rather more tragic than funny, actually.