Arsene Wenger - AW the great great coach of arsenal knows the following languages...speaks both French and German, very good English, some Spanish, a little Italian and, of course, Japanese.AW has had a small playing career with FC Strasburg in the french ligue1.
He has coached in Japan and france before accepting the job at arsenal. He is a living legend at arsenal. He will turn 60 next month.
Of course all arsenal supporters say and believe the phrase - 'in arsene we trust'.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
This is the state of our roads in Mumbai. We call this the biggest city in India and one of the biggest in the world. We want to replicate and convert it the same way Shanghai is today. For all this to happen the goverment needs to initiate actionable projects with definetive deadlines. What is the point in having a project innaugurated by a big personality or being named after some ex-prime minister if it is going to consistently encounter cost/project overruns and never reach/meet it's original/desired deadlines and completed much later than what it should have been? Mind you Mumbai is one of the rare cities in India where we do see infrastructure projects being completed and implemented but it is all reactive still. We need not talk of the other big cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore in paricular if this is the situation in Mumbai after a heavy downpour. Talking about our Hyderabad, it does not rain that heavy but even a small/sporadic rain causes massive blockages and inundations to homes. The city of hyderabad just begs for modern day drainage system. To get them you need not divert funds from rural places to the cities; it needs basic commensense and the will and desire to do something good.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
www.twitterjobsearch.com
Have you seen the latest job search engine from twitter..it is awesome . please do go through the following website - http://www.twitterjobsearch.com . it searches the latest jobs posted through twitter..Twitter jobsearch is simple but powerfull and global. I liked the way it looked (simplicity). It also has a feature called job maps where it shows from where all the latest job postings happened in the last 72 hours. truly awesome.
i liked it and to the readers of this posting; do comment your thoughts on this job search engine.
i liked it and to the readers of this posting; do comment your thoughts on this job search engine.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Mohanlal is to join territorial army.
It is such a pleasure that one of our acting legends Mohanlal (the malayalam movie superstar) is set to join the Territorial Army as a Lt. Colonel. He is to be officially inducted into the services by none other than our Army chief Major General Deepak Kapoor. It is a great moment and sense of pride for all malayalees world over and great initiative by lalletan (Mohanlal is fondly called as lalletan). It ia also a good coincidence that his latest movie Brhamaram,has provided him with a very different role which is quite a challenging one in his career.
Really Mr. Mohanlal you are truly an inspiration and an icon. Long live.
Really Mr. Mohanlal you are truly an inspiration and an icon. Long live.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The global Economic Recession from a common man’s view and its implications to India
i am in the midst of writing this article....
The global Economic Recession from a common man’s view
The world economy is showing some signs of growth but we need to wait to confirm if the worst is over.
India is in the midst of the global economic slowdown, unable to decide if it needs path breaking reform agenda to ensure it leapfrogs all others or be cautious and tread through this time period and be ready when the world is about to get back into the growth story that it had been in early 2008. For almost a year, people from different spheres of life were reluctant to accept that the world is in the grip of a real slowdown and the dreaded word recession was only taken out by the bold. But the entire world is in recession infact a real one for many decades – the first real one that I am going through.
According to some estimates around 75% of the economies are currently going through a recessionary phase or negative growth. Earlier warnings like the 2000 dot com bust or even the early 2003 economic crisis was not as synchronous as we had a situation where almost half of the world economy was showing signs of recovery. Hence it balanced out itself. But here a vast majority of the world is contracting and hence we do not see any major signs of growth. The world also is more and more like a level playing field and the boundaries are all peripheral and this has ensured the contraction to spread far and wide to all interrelated geographies unlike the earlier crisis when one region had a bad contraction but some other regions were not that deeply impacted.
Another genuine concern is over the ability of governments to raise the vast amounts of debt they need to pay for economic stimulus packages and bank bail-outs. Rough estimates suggest that globally around $ 3 trillion of debt is to be raised from government bonds. Although this does suggest that there is some bit of consumption growth but technically it is recession which is nothing but declining or negative private growth/ consumption being compensated by artificial government demand. The real fear is once the recessionary phase is over, for how long the tax payer’s will have to bear the additional pressure of paying off these government debt’s raised from the market. It is estimated that around $ 4 billion of toxic assets are to written off by the various financial institutions and governments by the time recession is declared officially over.
Number of hungry people in the world has touched 1 billion, a historic high due largely to the global economic crisis and high food prices. According to, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report, compared with last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry, meaning they receive fewer than 1800 calories per day. Almost all the worlds undernourished live in developing countries, where food prices have fallen more slowly than in the richer nations. This huge increase in the have-nots category has an indirect affect on global peace. All this despite strong 2009 cereal production but still the average prices at the end of last year were still 24% higher in real terms than in 2006.
Developing countries are expected to grow by only 1.2 per cent this year, after seeing a 8.1 per cent growth in 2007 and 5.9 per cent growth in 2008, according to a study titled 'Global Development Finance 2009: Charting a Global Recovery', by the World Bank. Asia and the Pacific, the world’s most populous region, have the largest number of hungry people at 642 million. Sub Saharan Africa with the highest hunger rate, with 265 million undernourished representing 32% of the regions population.
Some other key indicators to the gloomy economic scenario are - The global automobile industry sold 54 million vehicles last year in comparison to 68 million in 2007. According to Liases Foras, a real estate research firm, the developers' sales to inventory ratio in India has moved up to 1:9.5 (a unit of sales for every 9.5 units of inventory) from 1:2 in 2005.
Cause for Optimism
According to the latest estimates from studies, the German and the Japanese economy are showing signs of growing business positivism. The business in general in these two of the largest economies of the world is more confident of a demand pick up.
The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits is still rising but the number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid has fallen for the first time since January 2009.
The Indian economy is also not oblivious to the growth signs around the world, as the IIP has shown positive growth. The April- March 2009 figures for consumer durables categories have shown considerable growth. According to Org report, the high priced LCD TV segment has grown by 86%, followed by Plasma TV at 54%; flat TVs grew by 1%. Colour TVs account for over half the consumer durable market.
The Indian banking industry data also shows a general improvement in credit off take (lending). It is positive news that the demand for loans is improving especially from the fertilizer and infrastructure sectors.
Indian Infrastructure needs roughly $ 500 to 750 billion investments (depending on the general valuations of different institutions like planning commission estimates and other private institutions) and according to me the key to unlock our economic crisis. If the government has a single minded disciplined approach at solving our Infrastructure mess then it will definitely revive the economy and play a big part in ensuring the revival of the global economic crisis. We just need to have some ambitious targets like doubling our four lane highways to six lanes; a great dose of investment and private participation is high speed railway infrastructure, airport modernization (all the state capital’s airports need to be modernized), a separate express line railway infrastructure for carrying freight, linking and bypassing city roads with national highways, smart interlinking of state highways with national highways, a smarter policy in building ports (the existing method of having smaller ports may be every 30 or 50 kilometers is a very archaic thought process and according to a research study has lead to over 50 % of our beaches getting vanished as these small ports turns them into rocks), a major thrust on power with even greater emphasis of transmission and especially distribution – in power distribution, we need to get away with this rural and urban conflict and ensure the distribution benefits both, another concern is to make sufficient study before sanctioning a power/irrigation project and taking all the stakeholders views into consideration, a renewed thrust into renewable energy especially solar and wind power generation (I think we have a lot of untapped potential here).
Conclusion
When you look at the numbers it clearly is an improvement; let us say Work in Progress.
The global Economic Recession from a common man’s view
The world economy is showing some signs of growth but we need to wait to confirm if the worst is over.
India is in the midst of the global economic slowdown, unable to decide if it needs path breaking reform agenda to ensure it leapfrogs all others or be cautious and tread through this time period and be ready when the world is about to get back into the growth story that it had been in early 2008. For almost a year, people from different spheres of life were reluctant to accept that the world is in the grip of a real slowdown and the dreaded word recession was only taken out by the bold. But the entire world is in recession infact a real one for many decades – the first real one that I am going through.
According to some estimates around 75% of the economies are currently going through a recessionary phase or negative growth. Earlier warnings like the 2000 dot com bust or even the early 2003 economic crisis was not as synchronous as we had a situation where almost half of the world economy was showing signs of recovery. Hence it balanced out itself. But here a vast majority of the world is contracting and hence we do not see any major signs of growth. The world also is more and more like a level playing field and the boundaries are all peripheral and this has ensured the contraction to spread far and wide to all interrelated geographies unlike the earlier crisis when one region had a bad contraction but some other regions were not that deeply impacted.
Another genuine concern is over the ability of governments to raise the vast amounts of debt they need to pay for economic stimulus packages and bank bail-outs. Rough estimates suggest that globally around $ 3 trillion of debt is to be raised from government bonds. Although this does suggest that there is some bit of consumption growth but technically it is recession which is nothing but declining or negative private growth/ consumption being compensated by artificial government demand. The real fear is once the recessionary phase is over, for how long the tax payer’s will have to bear the additional pressure of paying off these government debt’s raised from the market. It is estimated that around $ 4 billion of toxic assets are to written off by the various financial institutions and governments by the time recession is declared officially over.
Number of hungry people in the world has touched 1 billion, a historic high due largely to the global economic crisis and high food prices. According to, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report, compared with last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry, meaning they receive fewer than 1800 calories per day. Almost all the worlds undernourished live in developing countries, where food prices have fallen more slowly than in the richer nations. This huge increase in the have-nots category has an indirect affect on global peace. All this despite strong 2009 cereal production but still the average prices at the end of last year were still 24% higher in real terms than in 2006.
Developing countries are expected to grow by only 1.2 per cent this year, after seeing a 8.1 per cent growth in 2007 and 5.9 per cent growth in 2008, according to a study titled 'Global Development Finance 2009: Charting a Global Recovery', by the World Bank. Asia and the Pacific, the world’s most populous region, have the largest number of hungry people at 642 million. Sub Saharan Africa with the highest hunger rate, with 265 million undernourished representing 32% of the regions population.
Some other key indicators to the gloomy economic scenario are - The global automobile industry sold 54 million vehicles last year in comparison to 68 million in 2007. According to Liases Foras, a real estate research firm, the developers' sales to inventory ratio in India has moved up to 1:9.5 (a unit of sales for every 9.5 units of inventory) from 1:2 in 2005.
Cause for Optimism
According to the latest estimates from studies, the German and the Japanese economy are showing signs of growing business positivism. The business in general in these two of the largest economies of the world is more confident of a demand pick up.
The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits is still rising but the number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid has fallen for the first time since January 2009.
The Indian economy is also not oblivious to the growth signs around the world, as the IIP has shown positive growth. The April- March 2009 figures for consumer durables categories have shown considerable growth. According to Org report, the high priced LCD TV segment has grown by 86%, followed by Plasma TV at 54%; flat TVs grew by 1%. Colour TVs account for over half the consumer durable market.
The Indian banking industry data also shows a general improvement in credit off take (lending). It is positive news that the demand for loans is improving especially from the fertilizer and infrastructure sectors.
Indian Infrastructure needs roughly $ 500 to 750 billion investments (depending on the general valuations of different institutions like planning commission estimates and other private institutions) and according to me the key to unlock our economic crisis. If the government has a single minded disciplined approach at solving our Infrastructure mess then it will definitely revive the economy and play a big part in ensuring the revival of the global economic crisis. We just need to have some ambitious targets like doubling our four lane highways to six lanes; a great dose of investment and private participation is high speed railway infrastructure, airport modernization (all the state capital’s airports need to be modernized), a separate express line railway infrastructure for carrying freight, linking and bypassing city roads with national highways, smart interlinking of state highways with national highways, a smarter policy in building ports (the existing method of having smaller ports may be every 30 or 50 kilometers is a very archaic thought process and according to a research study has lead to over 50 % of our beaches getting vanished as these small ports turns them into rocks), a major thrust on power with even greater emphasis of transmission and especially distribution – in power distribution, we need to get away with this rural and urban conflict and ensure the distribution benefits both, another concern is to make sufficient study before sanctioning a power/irrigation project and taking all the stakeholders views into consideration, a renewed thrust into renewable energy especially solar and wind power generation (I think we have a lot of untapped potential here).
Conclusion
When you look at the numbers it clearly is an improvement; let us say Work in Progress.
Immediate things the city of Hyderabad needs to address
I am still not finished with this list yet but it is evolving.
52 things to improve Hyderabad City and make it a great city…
1. Autos should have proper maintenance
2. Having an Auto hotline/customer care – available on call
3. Autos need to be regulated and obliged to travel anywhere within the city
4. Autos are the cities USP; should be utilized properly
5. Dedicated auto bays spread equally across the city.
6. Autos need to be equipped with GPS and the govt. is expected to maintain biometric records of each driver, including his accident records. A copy of this will be maintained with the transport department to ensure that ‘‘bad drivers’’ are blacklisted.
7. Waste management
8. People
9. Roads being cut and not mended
10. Unplanned road cutting
11. Lack of effective coordination among various govt. departments.
12. Pavements
13. APSRTC buses – proper connectivity should be ensured. For example – Bus stops should be made modern and provided with essential amenities. Bus stops should have information tickers in Hindi/Telugu/English showing the buses coming from and destination details for the next 30 minutes or so.
14. APSRTC bus drivers need to be educated more. They should not stop in the middle of the roads and cause disturbance to the traffic flow.
15. Buildings encroaching and not following rules
16. Ensuring that buildings have proper parking and if not, then not getting permission
17. Jaywalkers
18. Not using foot over bridges
19. People not following traffic rules/Jumping traffic signals
20. Spitting
21. Pissing at public places
22. Public Toilets
23. Public honking of vehicles
24. Banners
25. Writings on the walls
26. Cables – TV cables
27. Underground cabling or underground wiring
28. Keeping Hussain Sagar clean
29. Lakes (Hussainsagar and other lakes in Hyderabad) – Maintenance/upkeep
30. Parking at public places (roads/alleys/shops etc.)
31. Cameras at public places
32. Citizen solution system which is online and up to date
33. Children educated on the basic civic amenities and etiquettes.
34. Beggar rehabilitation schemes
35. Rain water harvesting
36. Educating people of saving electricity and preserving the natural resources
37. Mending of broken pipelines in public places especially
38. Garbage collection
39. Garbage dumped by citizens, marriage halls
40. Garbage utilization & management
41. The civic authorities should ensure that the garbage is properly disposed off like function/marriage halls need to have the responsibility to dump/park their garbage at a proper place and it should not be littered or dumped at the nearest open space.
42. Waste collection should also be allowed in the night to morning or after 10 am till 4 pm.
43. Water Tanker – They are a menace, no road safety, wastage of water
44. Water tanker should only be allowed after 9 or 10 pm till morning 7 am as they are a nuisance and need regulation.
45. Efficient alerts on road diversions for any general processions, VIP travel/security so that the common public is not troubled.
46. Malls/Building need adequate parking, fire systems, entry & exits and finally good security systems in place.
47. Alert mechanism in electronic signboards (It can be transportation or areas having lesser vehicle flow etc.)
48. Improper maintenance of parks/gardens and other public places of importance
49. The buses (APSRTC) need to fund by business with modern low-floor buses, some of them air-conditioned and all equipped with GPS and automated ticketing systems. The fleet will be steered by staff trained in to be courteous. APSRTC is also expected to maintain biometric records of each driver, including his accident records. A copy of this will be maintained with the transport department to ensure that ‘‘bad drivers’’ are blacklisted.
50. A proper police helpline should be available in the city for any emergencies. This helpline should have well defined SLA’s to react within the shortest possible interval and reach the disturbed area.
51. One unified helpline for all essential needs of the city is a good idea. Like City transportation (MMTS or city buses)/water/electricity/law and order (traffic/police etc)/building or construction related will be a good gesture.
52. Kiosks or Computerised Information centers helping commuters as to when the next bus in which direction is to come when.
52 things to improve Hyderabad City and make it a great city…
1. Autos should have proper maintenance
2. Having an Auto hotline/customer care – available on call
3. Autos need to be regulated and obliged to travel anywhere within the city
4. Autos are the cities USP; should be utilized properly
5. Dedicated auto bays spread equally across the city.
6. Autos need to be equipped with GPS and the govt. is expected to maintain biometric records of each driver, including his accident records. A copy of this will be maintained with the transport department to ensure that ‘‘bad drivers’’ are blacklisted.
7. Waste management
8. People
9. Roads being cut and not mended
10. Unplanned road cutting
11. Lack of effective coordination among various govt. departments.
12. Pavements
13. APSRTC buses – proper connectivity should be ensured. For example – Bus stops should be made modern and provided with essential amenities. Bus stops should have information tickers in Hindi/Telugu/English showing the buses coming from and destination details for the next 30 minutes or so.
14. APSRTC bus drivers need to be educated more. They should not stop in the middle of the roads and cause disturbance to the traffic flow.
15. Buildings encroaching and not following rules
16. Ensuring that buildings have proper parking and if not, then not getting permission
17. Jaywalkers
18. Not using foot over bridges
19. People not following traffic rules/Jumping traffic signals
20. Spitting
21. Pissing at public places
22. Public Toilets
23. Public honking of vehicles
24. Banners
25. Writings on the walls
26. Cables – TV cables
27. Underground cabling or underground wiring
28. Keeping Hussain Sagar clean
29. Lakes (Hussainsagar and other lakes in Hyderabad) – Maintenance/upkeep
30. Parking at public places (roads/alleys/shops etc.)
31. Cameras at public places
32. Citizen solution system which is online and up to date
33. Children educated on the basic civic amenities and etiquettes.
34. Beggar rehabilitation schemes
35. Rain water harvesting
36. Educating people of saving electricity and preserving the natural resources
37. Mending of broken pipelines in public places especially
38. Garbage collection
39. Garbage dumped by citizens, marriage halls
40. Garbage utilization & management
41. The civic authorities should ensure that the garbage is properly disposed off like function/marriage halls need to have the responsibility to dump/park their garbage at a proper place and it should not be littered or dumped at the nearest open space.
42. Waste collection should also be allowed in the night to morning or after 10 am till 4 pm.
43. Water Tanker – They are a menace, no road safety, wastage of water
44. Water tanker should only be allowed after 9 or 10 pm till morning 7 am as they are a nuisance and need regulation.
45. Efficient alerts on road diversions for any general processions, VIP travel/security so that the common public is not troubled.
46. Malls/Building need adequate parking, fire systems, entry & exits and finally good security systems in place.
47. Alert mechanism in electronic signboards (It can be transportation or areas having lesser vehicle flow etc.)
48. Improper maintenance of parks/gardens and other public places of importance
49. The buses (APSRTC) need to fund by business with modern low-floor buses, some of them air-conditioned and all equipped with GPS and automated ticketing systems. The fleet will be steered by staff trained in to be courteous. APSRTC is also expected to maintain biometric records of each driver, including his accident records. A copy of this will be maintained with the transport department to ensure that ‘‘bad drivers’’ are blacklisted.
50. A proper police helpline should be available in the city for any emergencies. This helpline should have well defined SLA’s to react within the shortest possible interval and reach the disturbed area.
51. One unified helpline for all essential needs of the city is a good idea. Like City transportation (MMTS or city buses)/water/electricity/law and order (traffic/police etc)/building or construction related will be a good gesture.
52. Kiosks or Computerised Information centers helping commuters as to when the next bus in which direction is to come when.
Friday, May 08, 2009
death of an arsenal fan
I am really sad to read the death of an arsenal fan post the champions league semi final.Football should be seen as a sport and not taken beyond a point. But it was truly disappointing semi final encounter for alla rsenal fans. Such a lot was expected and it was a complete non starter for the team. I am convinced the young gunners are distraught and heartbroken. I think we need some balance and convinced that we need a good balance between experience and youngsters. I hear that Xabi Alonso is available and would be desperate to make him an arsenal player. He will be the perfect foil for our midfield of fabregas, arshavin, rosicky. I also think we need one solid, experience, no nonsense defender....somebody like vidic and hangeland of fulham is a good choice.
i think one, two or three buys should be ok for the next season. we also need some trainign on how we go about mentally during the big games and be absolutley dead defensive (as tight as it can get) to defend any lead.....
hoping for a new season of titles.
eternal arsenal fan from india
i think one, two or three buys should be ok for the next season. we also need some trainign on how we go about mentally during the big games and be absolutley dead defensive (as tight as it can get) to defend any lead.....
hoping for a new season of titles.
eternal arsenal fan from india
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
my article in kenexa Evolve and Kenexa Connections
I got my article published in kenexa Evolve and Kenexa Connections. Had submitted the article some 8 months back. The article topic is - How networking helps in job hunting and the new trends in this. It really feels great as the Evovle magazine goes to some 1400 clients of ours globally and has 3 editions in US/UK and Canada. really thrilled.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
my visit to vizag and lessons for Hyderabad...
on 5th April, paid an official visit to Vizag (forsome office work).....i ike the city quite a bit...it is just that i cannot relocate myself their ..due to very personal reasons....
- Vizag has some semblance of planning....grossly lacking in Hyderabad
- they (vizag city administration - VUDA) have laboured quite a bit to beautify the city especially the beach road and ensure it gets some traction as far as being tourist destination.
- Many of the public lighting system does not have overhead cabling or wiring and it is underground...It does look neat. Hyderabad it ispathetic.
- The roads are well laid out and it is planned for future.
- The flats/houses are not made in a clumsy manner. It is well laid out; even flats. It looks good. Unfortunatley in big metros flats/houses are made in such a manner that looks very complex/disorganised.
- This gives a soothing experience to the eye. it is like easy going feeling. the body is relaxed.
These are some of my personal thoughts but also heard some flip side also to Vizag like the rentals have shot up (even during these times), the real estate costs have shot up, the cost living is also going northwards etc.
So judge yourselves; maybe a good place to be in once a while.
Indian elections - 15 times 28
This elections that we are going to have is very very unique...maybe our polity is becoming quite fragmented in the sense that we have more regional parties with far greater influence coming to the scene. Also their is no big emotive national issue touching one and all. That's why i say it is 15X28 as it is the 15th lok sabha with 28 different states electing for the national assembly. Quite surprisingly even terrorism, unemployment/recession impacts, power shortage, basic infrastructure are not national issues instead we have local issues be it the Jagdish Tytler case for Sikhs, tamil cause in Tamil Naidu, separate statehood in Andhra/Vidharbha or even anti incumbency at the local level. hence it is also the most difficult elections to predict the end score. No wonder Dr. prannoy Roy of NDTV is promising a Skoda Superb car as a prize for guessing the next PM.
But let us come to some hard facts as a result of this elections -
We are going to have even deeper fractured mandate putting the country to greater chaos and ensuring more number of fringe players thinking that they have greater role as national power brokers. Will this sugur good for our country especially in the backdrop of India being in the threshhold of development/growth and giving the world a direction?
These to me are some things expected from the new lok sabha and if we deliver then i am a lucky chap to go through this renaissance in our country.
jai hind
But let us come to some hard facts as a result of this elections -
We are going to have even deeper fractured mandate putting the country to greater chaos and ensuring more number of fringe players thinking that they have greater role as national power brokers. Will this sugur good for our country especially in the backdrop of India being in the threshhold of development/growth and giving the world a direction?
- We need some firm/punitive actions as far as national borders/integrity of our country is concerned considering the percieved threat of taliban from across the border (remember taliban is not a military regime to simple fight with instead it is a thought process and hence need far firmer handling no matter who).
- We need reforms and some proactive ones. Do we have the guts to do it.
- we need cleaning of the judicial system - meaning ensuring all cases are settled fast and have as minimal backlog.
- We need firmness and speed in our infrastructure build up...no matter how big our potential is if we do not spread world class infrastructure nothing much is going to change.
These to me are some things expected from the new lok sabha and if we deliver then i am a lucky chap to go through this renaissance in our country.
jai hind
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