Monday, August 13, 2007

Atlast a Test victory abroad !!!

Atlast a test victory abroad.....oh no....series victory.....that too in England....definitely one of the most cherishing moments for Indian cricket after their worldcup debacle in Carribean. Weather god released them from the jail in Lords but clearly outplayed the English team in all departments. There were many speculations about Dravid's decision of not enforcing the follow-on....but at the end of the day what it mattered is a series victory....The quote from Cricinfo was absolutely right..."After some years Dravid will not be remembered for his decision of not enforcing the follow-on but remembered with the likes of Ajith Wadekar and Kapil Dev who have snatched victories in English soil....2-0 or 1-0 series victory is purely academic". Kudos team India! Definitely moments to cherish on the eve of India's 60th year of Independence!

Sathish Kumar S

Sreeshanth....You are the man!!

Many Criketing pundits have been criticizing about the behaviour of Sreeshanth......Oh he shouldn't have done this....that....But in my opinion....I was very happy that he has world of guts to do that....Hats off to you Sreeshanth.....Nobody comments or talks when f**king aussies(Warne or McGrath) or Mr. Great Pietersen does some sledgging.....but poor Sreeshanth gets most of the blame when he shoulder barged with Vaughan and when he danced against Mr.Nel ....I am sure those comments are nt going to stop Sreeshanth....and why should he stop....I thoroughly enjoy Sree's retaliation to the Whites....Whether you take wickets or not, but always entertain us with your retaliation...Keep going Sree.....!

Cheers,
Sathish Kumar S

India's 60 th year of Independence

When I look at the calendar, it says 15th August 2007, oh 60 years of Independence….where are we standing in the global world….definitely far ahead where one could have imagined before twenty years….Thanks to IT revolution and globalization….Kudos to the space programme….Hats off to leaders like Kalam who instigated some fire in the bloods of youth…Well Well...India moving...marching foward ...Great...Amazing...Wonderful....Excellant!

Just one side of the coin…..on the other side….there are many things which I think have to be addressed…

  1. When are the caste system going to be abolished…..When will a situation arise when there is no column for caste when one fills form for Engineering Applications….When are the reservations going to end….?
  1. When country will be ruled by scholars, intellectuals, brainy guys…..cant we not survive with out the presence of karus, jayas, laloos and sonias…. When the shitty politics will change to ganges….?
  1. When are we going to stop fighting with our neighbour …stop spending huge Vitamin M for weapons and siachen glaciers…(Money spent for Siachen glacier in hour = Giving monthly salaries for 1000 teachers)
  1. When can one get a situation where he/she doesn’t have to pay extra Vitamin M for getting their driving license ;)
  1. When are the traditional horrible superstitious myths (dowry) going to stop ?
  1. When are the people going to stop dying because of hunger and starvation ?
  1. Last but not the least, When are we going to get a situation where one can choose his own girl to marry…heheheeeeeee ;)

In my opinion, long way to go…..I want to be realistic…..Unless the present social, societal and political system changes, one can not expect anything miracle. I experienced the pain of leaving the homesoil for the purpose of education, money and career, I hope my grand children will not face the same situation and they should be here just for vacation! Will it happen ? It all lies not in the hands of politicians but with one billion people!

Happy Independence Day!
Sathish Kumar S

Friday, August 10, 2007

Stronger Rupee = Stronger India


Recently I read an article about Indian Rupee getting stronger against US Dollar and how is it beneficial for us.....Amazing article.....thought of publishing it here.....Hats off to the author!! Here it goes.....

Let us answer this question first.

What type of economic strength is preferable to India?

A) A strong Indian economy, fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights, whole nights and what not… Only doing low profile jobs which foreign companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high end works and become even better. For instance in the IT field -providing BPO services, support and maintenance work for products…

OR

B) A strong Indian economy, fueled by its strong innovations and products, no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against the dollar… Where Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both inside and outside India. For instance in the IT field - developing operating systems, compilers, databases, etc. all coming out of India…

I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar… We have had our share because of this advantage in the past two decades…But at the same time, doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar…?

What a pity…!

Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming stronger against dollar…!
Reason, their profits will go down when the value of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account now means lesser rupee than earlier… ( If for instance, earlier they used to get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40…! )

But isn't this a
matter of celebration…?

Our rupee is gaining importance internationally and is becoming stronger again… How many of us know that in 1947 when India got independence, 1 Rupee was 1.2 U S dollars…?
These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical solutions.What have these companies done in the arena of core system products…? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database systems, development platforms etc coming out of India…? Why don't we develop tools like Photoshop or Flash? We have talent, but they all are working in American companies on these products…

Can not our Indian IT companies setup at least small teams to develop such products…?

Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too…! So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put in… As if India doesn’t have any other option other than cheap labour, workaholic labor…!!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers and burning their product DVDs? If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would Indian economy survive in a world where allcurrencies have equal value?

Survival of the fittest… Only greater innovation can help us in that case…

We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage…! Let the Chinese do it…
I hope that rupee becomes more and more stronger so that Indians are forced to use their brains and come up w ith innovative products and next-generation technologies, than to provide low end services… We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods, to buy our Boeing, to buy our own Mercedes…! And a stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips…! A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par with developed economies…!

We don’t have to spend crores of rupees then to buy a Boeing. W e don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for international air travels. A stronger rupee means greater international exposure…
There won’t be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a Mercedes…! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one goes to Ladakh or Nepal…! How do you think American citizens are able to tour all over the world…? Because, they earn more…? N O. But because, their currency is stronger…

And this is where a strong rupee will lead us to…!

Providing low end services is definitely not wrong… It gave us a very good start in the 90s…But that should definitely not be the bread and butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future… For the simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer… Other low cost destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world…

Let us move ahead… Become more innovative…

The journey has just started…

This is just the beginning of all the beginnings…

Sathish Kumar S

Friday, August 03, 2007

Frustration at its core.....

Past three months has been really tough for me to handle some disappointments....as a result frustration at its core...as the saying of Murphy's law goes...."Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time," or, "Anything that can go wrong, will," or even, "If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment").....this is very true...

1. I didnt get selected in the lottery for H1b US visa...damn...there wasnt any lottery in the previous years...just from this year the number of applications grew....

2. My thesis at Lufthansa Systems got cancelled because the supervisor changed to other department.....

3. The scholarship grant for my final year thesis got rejected...I was damn sure I will get it....well Murphy thought it other way...heheeeee

4. Now the present thesis at Fraunhofer Institute, Berlin....too early to say about it....but hoping it doesnt get included by Mr. Murphy....;)

5. A million dollar question of job search in Germany....:((

I am just fighting hard to pass this horrible time....I dont want anything.....just results for my simulations for my thesis and defending the thesis well......I hope and pray Mr. Murphy doesnt sit in front of the chair during my thesis defending....;)

Oh god please take me out of this horrible time!
Sathish Kumar S