... As I type it.... - Current Affairs

Indian Hockey Team failed to Qualify for the Olympics

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:39:50 -0700

As I was reading the Newspaper this morning, one news that was hogging the limelight was our Hockey Team's exit from the Olympics Qualifier. I saw that the Coach Carvalho has submitted his resignation taking ownership for the exit, his 11 months term came to a premature end because of this failure. I also saw some ex-players asking KPS Gill, President, IHF to resign owning up responsibility for the same. Looking at this, thoughts just ran across my mind and I thought I can vent the same here.

As a Project Manager, I also manage teams and I have to fight against lot of odds and deliver projects, I am compelled to draw out a comparison between my team and a sports team. When a project comes to my organisation, it is assigned to a Project Manager and he then will have to understand the project and work with the concerned functional team to get the team he needs for the project and also the infrastructure that is needed to execute the same. Once this happens, its the PM's responsibility to get the project delivered successfully. This could mean that he has to understand the team dynamics, take care of their aspirations, take care of their inclusions, take care of the value they provide to the team, keep the customer informed, keep the management informed and asking for help, etc.

In this process, if the management fails to provide the necessary infrastructure, they are to be blamed for the project failure. Incase the PM feels that the team member is not good enough then it would be his responsibility to discipline, coach, mentor and get the team member contribute. Even after all this the team member fails, then he should not hesitate to show the doors for the team member. Incase he has done all these and still the team fails, the blame should be on the team or rather the facilitator of these team members.

If the PM gets the right infrastructure and the team and still is not able to motivate the team to give its best performance, then the PM should take the responsibility and should be axed.

Drawing parallel to Indian hockey, first and foremost I feel that it is too premature to ask for the head of the Coach, Captain, President etc. This has to be completely analysed and we have to diagnose what went wrong and where did it go wrong and fix the problem. Lets not jump to any conclusion, this is the same team which won the Asia Cup, just six months back and their performance was appreciated by everyone. Nothing has changed in the Six months time, same coach, captain, administrators etc. So lets be patient, its very easy to blame someone, we have to understand the issues and concerns that hampered a performing team. I am sure that no one wants to be a part of a losing team. That to when they are representing the nation, there would be lot of spirit.

Looking at it from a different angle, we are becoming too sentimental, this has become an issue just because we have always qualified for the Olympics since 1928. So leaving out the sentiments, we need to look at it progressively. We are an Eight Time Olympic champion team, what happened to the quality of our game. This could happen for two reasons, One, We are playing good hockey but our opponents are playing even better, Two, our quality has really gone bad. I strongly feel that the second one is not true.

Analysing the first point more, the eight gold medals that we have won have predominantly been on grass and tradiitionally this is the turf that we have been playing our hockey, where our artistic dribbling helps in winning matches. But when Hockey moved to Astro turf, it became more of a power and speed game, which we are not really good at. Does this mean that we are not good at adapting to changes ? I would not say so. This problem is something that you see in Cricket too, we have been traditionally depending on spin bowling and we never really used to have any pace bowlers, but with shorter versions of the game becoming largely popular, spin bowling lost its importance and it took sometime for our team to come to terms and now you see we are world beaters and we have genuine speedsters in the team.

But getting the same done in Hockey is not as easy as we did in Cricket. First and foremost the lack of sponsors, today parents encourage their children to play Cricket and Tennis, because of the money that is involved in the sport. So all the corporate houses should come forward to encourage the people who take up hockey, as it is our national game, there has to be lot more interest in that sport. Why is the money so important for hockey, because, traditionally we have been getting our hockey players from the regions of Chotta Nagpur, Interior Karnataka, North Eastern States, Punjab. I am not sure if these places do boast of an Astro turf ground. There players traditionally play on normal ground with bare foot, etc. and once they become national players will have to start playing in Astro Turf and it does take a while for them to get accustomed to that before which they are already written off. So we need to bring up some Astro Turf Stadiums and encourage people to play in these grounds, so that they can mould their game according to the International grounds right from the begining of their careers.

Sometimes it helps for us to think a little away from tradition, the ex players who are now being the coach have also been pracititioners of the traditional gameplay that we have been playing. May be it helps to hire a coach from Australia or Netherlands it helps. For some reason the IT jobs are being moved from US to India, the same way lets get the best person for the job.

You may think what have I got to do with it, you can do, you have a commitment to the National game, Watch Hockey when it is telecasted in Television, the more we see, the more we can help the game get sponsorship. Why do you think Cricket has so much, it is just because you and I follow the game.

Political Scenario in Tamil Nadu

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:27:01 -0700

Its been quite sometime since I wrote something about politics, now with Lok Sabha Elections being imminent, I thought I could share my thoughts. Very populistic Railway and Finance budgets this year, this probably would make Congress popular among people. With memories being very short, its a good ploy by the government to win some popular votes. Manmohan Singh's government need to be given credit too for their performance. With the communists feeling very uncomfortable with Nuke deal and also their politics is also losing ground as they have aligned with Congress and for years they have been thriving in politics only by playing it against Congress. BJP also is upbeat after its victory in Gujarat and also having put a positive step in all the states to sort out all the faction issues.

Coming to Tamil Nadu politics, UPA is a grand alliance and even though everyone has been through discomfort, for want of clinging to power, they have adjusted with each other uncomfortably. So in all likelihood there may be some realignment for this election. Based on the events happening I feel that Congress and PMK might be feeling betrayed by DMK for not having being given a place in the TamilNadu Ministry. PMK stayed back in the alliance for the simple reason that Dr. Anbumani's place in the Central Government will need to be given up. Congress was not able to show their displeasure as their Central Government would be under threat if they do so. On the other hand ADMK does not have much to lose as they dont have anyone apart from MDMK.

With Captain Vijaykanth's DMDK doing well in wooing the youngsters and the general voters towards them, in all likelihood I feel that there would be realignments in the State politics. In the interest of the Minority Government that is in place in Tamil Nadu, DMK would not want to lose any of its partners, but they also know that they would not have the same negotiating power, if they dont repeat the same performance as last time, which is winning all the forty seats, which I feel is very difficult. Many would be surprised about Sarath's party, though I feel that he would be happy to ensure that he gets the caste votes that he is trying to get, but looks like he is trying to get the youth on his side. These votes are the ones that is solidly behind Vijaykanth, and now DMK's youth conference, ADMK's youth pasarais are also the efforts to get the same votes. Some even feel that it is DMK's gameplan to make Sarathkumar an alternative to Vijaykanth. In this background Congress leader Arunkumar's meeting with Vijaykanth aboard a plane boars a lot of significance.

So, I strongly feel that Tamil Nadu would see a three way contest with DMK / DPI / Communist Parties forming one alliance and ADMK / PMK / and may be BJP forming the second alliance and third alliance would be formed with Vijaykanth / Congress / MDMK / Sarath and incase Marans' patch up work does not work, they may also align with this alliance. Vijaykanth and MDMK may come together because of a caste equation. Congress is suffocated with both the Dravidian parties as they have never been respected as a significant partner, thats the reason Congress wants to go to Vijaykanth to get some respect and probably a share in the government incase they win, but I feel that they would be disappointed as they may only end up being a secondary partner. Anyway it just turns out to be very interesting for someone who is following all these.

Last but not the least you can see PMK is trying to come out of the Caste politics and trying to get a larger vote base by being a very vocal supporter of Tamil Language usage, infact they have been doing a great job through their channel Makkal TV. Best wishes for them.

Before I close, just wanted to conclude with a news item I read this morning that Rahul Gandhi has hired ' Dale Carnegie Management Consultants to train the Congress youth members, looks like a step in the right direction.

India Wins Commonwealth Bank Series

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:50:22 -0700

Dismal performance, this is what I could say about how Australia played today in the Second final of the Commonwealth Bank series. It was a welcome change to see our opponents being in this kind of situation, as someone following cricket very closely, I remember only India being in the kind of situation Australia was in today. As I was down with fever I was at home, so I had the oppurtunity to watch the entire match, ever since the match fixing episode came up, somehow I have been losing interest in cricket, but today I forced myself to see this match and I was not disappointed.

Always used to some brilliant individual performances and failing to win matches, nowadays its welcome relief to find our team playing well as a team. Looking back at this series, I cannot think of one individual who can be given credit for this victory. Its really nice to see that the team is not dependent on any individual. In each and every match one player or the other has clicked. Its very nice to see experiements being done and working well. Piyush Chawla, who did not play any match, directly played in both the finals, may be it was a ploy to hide him from the Aussies, but it worked quite well. When Ishant was not well for the second finals, there was not single negative comment that he would be missed, imagine the days when Tendulkar or Dravid or Ganguly missed a match. Also we have to remember that Ishant has been the spearhead of the Indian bowling in the series in Australia. Fortunately we did not miss him, the other guys took up the responsibilities on their shoulders. Due credit has to be given to the Selectors, having selected this young team and also to Dhoni, for having backed up all these guys very well. Looks like Indian cricket is heading towards the right direction, with U-19 World cup also with us, looks like we now have a good bench strength, once boasted by the mighty Australians.

Does it prove that is good to have a bunch of average people, who would complement each other in the team and win as a team, rather than having a couple of Superstars???

Tuesdays Terror in the Business Capital - Mumbai

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 22:15:23 -0700

Sad that there was a serial blast in Mumbai and more than 150 people were killed in the same, the first question that strikes us is what these Terrorists gain by killing innocent people?

Let us understand what Terrorism means, according to James M. Poland, professor of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento, "Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience." According to me this is the most apt definition for that word.

Terrorists just want to create a fear in the minds of individuals so that they will abstain from using certain services, visiting few places, etc. by which they will slow down the growth by bringing the complete government machinery to a grinding halt.

Let us take the example of Suryanarayanan, the Indian Engineer killed in Afghanistan, why was he killed? Strategically it is important for Pakistan and India to have a good relationship with Afghanistan and India was doing very well in the rebuilding of Afghanistan after the removal of Taliban Government. India was becoming very popular with the current Afghan government and the people; this is certainly not good news for Pakistan. So they wanted a means to stop all the construction work that India was involved in and so they kidnapped the Engineer and killed him to create a fear among the Indians working in Afghanistan or planning to do so.

Our media also helped the cause by repeatedly showing that in their channels, profiling him, showing his crying wife, mother, children, again and again. There would be so many mothers and wives of people working in Afghanistan, who would have asked their relatives working there to quit and come back and many would have been stopped from going there. So, all the work thats happening there would come to a standstill and Indian companies may not get adequate people willing to travel to Afghanistan, so ultimately its a victory for terrorism and the big loser is India.

So, all the terror attacks will have an objective behind them, but the bottom line is to create scare in the mind of the commoner. Only way to overcome this is to feel sorry for the people who lost their lives, may be do whatever help we can do for them and ignore these attacks, and get going with our business without changing any of our plans because of these attacks.

If we do this for sometime, naturally terrorism will automatically stop, as they will see that there is no effect on the people. When I am writing this article Sensex is up by 80 points, I really do not know if it is just because of InfoSys results, but anyway even though its a little premature, hats off to Mumbai, for not getting affected and continuing with business. Lets support them so they can get back to normal life at the earliest, so the Terror does not last.

Is Indian IT getting too Expensive ?

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:38:23 -0700

The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com

Is Indian IT getting too expensive?
MINI JOSEPH TEJASWI, RAGHAVENDRA R AND SRIKALA BHASHYAM

Early this year, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann went on record stating India was getting expensive. He said, We have decided to hire only a certain number there (India) and then commence to look around for other locations. Last month, Apple shut down its newly commenced Bangalore operations without giving any reasons. But analysts believe the reasons had to do with costs. On Wednesday, Pervasive Software decided to call it quits, saying it is unable to cope with the increasing costs in a hot market like Bangalore .

Analysts told that since middle and senior management cadre accounts for 30% of an organisation, MNCs are increasingly finding India an expensive resource base. However, the story even two years ago was pretty different. Companies could hire a CEO for Rs 30-40 lakh while the same professional in the US carried a price tag of $200,000

Some may like to see these as stray cases. But when TOI decided to do a reality check on Indias low cost proposition, we found a large number of voices expressing anxieties about the direction that costs in IT were taking and the pace of its acceleration . And much of that cost worry came on account of the rapidly rising salary levels at the mid and senior levels.

The salary factor

While at the entry level, Indian engineers still provide significant cost savings, the mid and senior management professionals are proving to be very expensive for many. While in the US, a software professional in the mid managerial level (over 5 years experience ) costs around $70,000 (around Rs 31.50 lakh), in India , a managers pay packet at Rs 25 lakh is not much lower.

And this difference narrows further as the manager adds years to his career. According to StantonChase Internationals senior consultant , G C Jayaprakash, the professionals in the 10-15 years category are giving even bigger worries to hirers. While a techie with 10-15 years experience costs around $100,000-150 ,000 (around Rs 45-67 lakh) in the US, he/she is already in the Rs 1 crore bracket in India.

Analysts told that since middle and senior management cadre accounts for 30% of an organisation, MNCs are increasingly finding India an expensive resource base. However, the story even two years ago was pretty different. Companies could hire a CEO for Rs 30-40 lakh while the same professional in the US carried a price tag of $200,000.

While the salary levels in the US have moved up gradually, the bi-annual inc re m e n t s coupled with frequent jobhopping by senior management prof e s s i o n a l s have taken pay packets to dizzy heights in India . In fact, no techie with 10-15 years experience is seen to be willing to meet a prospective employer if the salary is not above Rs 1.5-2 crore.

While the cost of acquisition of talent has gone up both for Indian and MNC firms, the MNCs are at a further disadvantage because they hire more mid and senior management professionals. A project manager in an Indian company typically manages a team of up to 400-500 professionals, but in MNCs, he does not manage more than 100. As a result, the need for high cost managers is higher in an MNC firm.

Prices hit tech boom era levels

Frances Karamouzis, vice president (research), Gartner Inc, says salaries have been going up sharply since 2004. Indian professionals became costlier by 10-15 % in 2004 and that level of increase continued through the next calendar.

It is likely to go up in the coming years as well. Indias low cost advantage is slowly diminishing and the talent pool is depleting. Global buyers are questioning Indias original selling points. Under such a scenario, the country needs to change its existing positioning by playing the game of value addition, quality and delivery capabilities, she says.

According to Avinash Vashistha, chairman and CEO of Virginia-based globalisation services and financial and market advisory firm, Tholons Inc: Current price points are touching the all-time high levels of 2000. Its the pure economics of demand and supply. The demand is obviously higher than the existing supply capabilities , and that puts an inflationary pressure on pricing .

Emerging alternatives

These cost increases in India are compelling many to look at alternative locations like Eastern Europe, Russia, Vietnam and East Asia. Most of these countries have not seen the kind of salary increases India has. Cost of high-end services in India are of particular concern because they tend to increase faster because of the lower talent base.

Third party advantage

Some feel that third party operators may be at a slight advantage over captive business units, except perhaps for big cash-rich players like an IBM or Oracle. Third-party players are seen to do more with less. Because, by working for multiple clients, they get economies of scale. Companies operating in different centres within the country normally work on common pay scales. So, cost is not a differentiator . Those working with a captive model with less than 1,000 people cannot be viable , says Mohan Sekhar, chief delivery officer of igate global solutions.

Companies like Symphony have mastered the art of doing high-end engineering work for their worldwide clients in India. In 2000-2002 , 95% of all commercial software work in India were done by captives. We believe that within the next two years, this is going to be less than 50%. Much of the wage inflation in Bangalore is due to an increasing number of promotions that is presently happening in companies, says Gordon Brooks, CEO of Symphony Services.

These salary differences are much narrower at the mid and senior levels

Mid level software professional (over 5 years experience):

US: $70,000 (around Rs 31.50 lakh) India: $56,000 (around Rs 25 lakh) The latter gets more expensive as he adds years to his career.

Senior professionals (10-15 years experience):

US: $100,000-150 ,000 (around Rs 45-67 lakh) India: over $222,222 (Rs 1 crore)

Outsourcing contenders

There are 20 big, small and key outsourcing destinations India, The Philippines, Russia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Of these, the Philippines, Russia, Vietnam and some East European countries could give Indian players a good run for their money, say analysts.

Chikungaya - Viral Fever

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:00:04 -0700

Thirty two years after its last outbreak in India, Chikungunya is back. A relatively rare viral fever with dengue-like symptoms, outbreaks of chikungunya have been reported in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In the last three months, the official count of the affected has climbed to a staggering 1.5 lakh people and Health officials concede that figures on the ground may be higher. A mixed outbreak of chikungunya with dengue was reported from Andhra Pradesh between December 2005 and February 2006. The virus was isolated by Punes National Institute of Virology in March but the figures have been rising ever since.

Please read below the detailed health advisory and more importantly the "Precautions to be Taken":
An outbreak of chikungunya with interspersed cases of dengue fever has been reported in several Indian states. Affected areas include Andhra Pradesh. Aurangabad, Latur, Malegaon, Nashik, Pune and Akola districts in the central state of Maharashtra have reported cases of late. The districts of Anantapur, Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor, Nalgonda, Prakasam and Guntur have confirmed cases, as has Hyderabad City.

In all, over 31,000 cases have been reported from 209 villages since December 2005 but the latest figures show over 30,000 cases in Andhra (Tirupati is the worst hit); over 70,000 in Karnataka (17,000 cases in Gulbarga alone); and, now it has struck Maharashtra.

The symptoms of dengue and chikungunya can be similar, and both are spread by mosquitoes. The outbreak is attributed to increased mosquito breeding. Officials are investigating the extent of the problem and implementing measures to bring it under control.

A large chikungunya outbreak has been occurring in the Indian Ocean Islands of Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mayotte since January 2006.

Reunion's (Reunion is a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean) epidemic of chikungunya began last March, and the number of cases have been rising since mid-December 2005. WHO estimates that over 255,000 people may have become ill since then.

Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted via mosquito bites. It occurs more frequently during the rainy season when the density of mosquitoes is higher than usual. It cannot pass from person to person.

The incubation time is four to seven days, after which a patient develops a sudden fever that last from two to five days. In addition to fever, severe joint pain is one of the disease's main symptoms. In fact, the name chikungunya comes from the Swahili word meaning "that which contorts or bends up" - infected people often temporarily assume a stooped posture due to associated pain. Pain is especially common in the knees, ankles, small joints (especially in hands and feet) and any previously injured joint.

Other common symptoms are a rash, particularly on the limbs and torso, and headache. Patients may become nauseous, vomit, and show other general 'flu-like' symptoms. Less common symptoms can include redness in the eyes and unusual sensitivity to light (photophobia).

Chikungunya is not traditionally considered a fatal disease, though it can weaken the immune system of an infected person and thus allow the patient to become infected with other diseases more easily.

There is no specific cure for the disease. The treatment consists mainly of rest, and medicine or therapies that will reduce pain and discomfort. Recovery takes several weeks and is characterized by an intense tiredness and difficulty concentrating. The joint pains can last for several months.

As there is no vaccine and preventive medication, preventing mosquito bites is the only way to prevent Chikungunya.
Travelers to state of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra & Karnataka should follow all the relevant precautions but the precautions are not restricted to these specific states or travelling employees and visitors.

Prevent bites while outdoors:
Use insect repellent on exposed skin surfaces when outdoors, particularly during the day.
Stay in hotels, resorts that are well screened or air-conditioned and that take measures to reduce the mosquito population, where possible.

Wear light-colored clothing that covers most of the body (long sleeves and long pants), weather permitting.
Use an insect repellent containing DEET (DEET is the common name for N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide, which is the active ingredient in the most widely used insect repellents applied to the skin). Adults and children over two months old can safely use preparations containing up to 35% DEET. The higher the concentration, the longer it repels. Reapply after swimming or excessive sweating. Note that, although there are repellents available with more than 35% DEET, the duration of protection does not increase proportionately to the DEET concentration.

Approximate duration of action:
       10% DEET: 1-3 hrs
       23% DEET: 4-6hrs
       35% DEET: 6-8 hrs
       99% DEET: 10-12 Hrs
Note:
The duration of action of prolonged acting preparations such as "Ultrathon" and "Sawyer Controlled Release Deet" is not proportional to concentration of DEET.

It is possible to protect yourself from insects and the sun at the same time. Apply sunscreen first, and follow with insect repellent. Note that the combined use of repellent and sunblock appears to reduce the efficacy of the sunblock by up to 33%. Reapply sunblock more often and/or use a higher SPF when using in conjunction with insect repellent.

Soak or spray your clothes with the insecticide permethrin. (Do not apply permethrin directly to the skin.)
Reduce Aedes breeding sites by emptying standing water that may have collected in containers (e.g., uncovered barrels, flower vases, or cisterns) and either overturning the vessels or covering the opening.

If illness develops, stay under a mosquito net or indoors to limit mosquito bites and to avoid further spread of infection.

Prevent bites while you are indoors or asleep:
       Make sure that there is fly-wire (mosquito netting) on all of your windows.
       Use "knock-down" insect spray to kill mosquitoes in your room.
       Use mosquito coils or electric insecticide vaporizers if mosquitoes can get into your room.
       Note that air-conditioning also repels mosquitoes.
       Consider using a bed net soaked in or sprayed with permethrin / pyrethrin
Reduce mosquito breeding grounds
This advice is more relevant if you are living permanently in a particular area. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and travel less than 500 yards from their hatching site to feed.

       Drain stagnant water from pot plants, drains, old tins, old tires, etc.
       Have local authorities spray walls with residual insecticides.
       Encourage local authorities to use a "fog" to kill adult mosquitoes and employ a larvicide to eradicate mosquito larvae.

Rice @ Rs.2/kg, who will pay the rest ?

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 16 May 2006 02:29:01 -0700

Good to see Dr. M. Karunanidhi assuming becoming the Chief Minister for the fifth time and also Mr. Stalin becoming the Minister for Local Administration. As per their poll promise on the first day of office itself, reduced the price of rice to Rs.2/kg, to come in effect from 3 June 2006, which has no relevance apart from being the Birthday of our Chief Minister. Also another government order that was passed was to waive the loans of farmers in Co-operative Banks, again the people of Tamil Nadu were pleased that they kept up their promise on day one.

Reducing the price of rice to Rs.2/kg is going to cost the Government Rs.550 crores and loan waiver is going to cost another Rs.6668 Crores, so where would the money come from for all these, What schemes are there to bring revenue to the government and if the present government keeps up all its promises there will only be expenditures on freebies.

Eventually how will the Government get money, that will be from Taxes, we will get rice for Rs.2/kg but other items will become more dearer, for pleasing one section of population and to be in power, the entire Tamil Nadu population is going to suffer. We are now like the tortoise in a cooking vessel, these schemes are like initial lukewarm temperature, which we will enjoy, but as time goes on the temperature goes up we are going to perish. Our Finance Minister who said big NO to all the freebies being offered by various state governments, has supported this during his initial campaign, why this double standard.

Battle for the State - Tamil Nadu

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Fri, 12 May 2006 20:26:34 -0700

Now with the dust settling down on the State Elections and winners and losers having been identified, let us look into what happened and what would happen in the political scene.

ADMK lost this election, this is what we can rather than saying the DMK won the election, unless in the previous elections where the opposition would be generally wiped out, inspite of the 70% polling, the victory margins where very less in the most of the constituencies. So, this certainly is not a negative vote against the ADMK Government. So, I would say that this is a vote to end the Autocratic rule of the previous government does not really has any meaning at all.

Everyone claim that DMK Manifesto is the hero of the elections, but I would rather say that people did not really beleive the same and there was only a cautious approach to the manifesto and it was just beleived as a lottery, if we get fine, otherwise no big deal, so even if the promises are not kept, people would not bother.

Till the election campaign started, ADMK did have an edge on various counts like communal violence, removal of rowdy elements, free cycle scheme etc. There was a scare in the DMK camp, DMK who were averse to coalition politics, created an issue when Union Minister E.V.K.S. Elangovan talked about coalition politics. Then suddenly during seat sharing DMK was suddenly talking about coalition politics and infact very smartly took only 129 seats, in the kind of political scenario that was in the state, even the DMK would not have beleived that it can take individual majority. This was done to encourage the coalition party workers who now see that they can be a part of the government. Even Dr. Kalaignar mentioned this as Sacrifice of DMK, but I would rather say this is a masterstroke of a seasoned politician. So he got the poll alliance arithmetic to his advantage.

Then when DMK manifesto was released with all the freebies, there promises were not taken very seriously by the people till the day, Dr. J. Jayalalitha reacted to it by offering 10kg of free rice. Any leader should not and cannot react in any situation, I still dont understand why this basic characteristic of a leader was not followed by the leader of ADMK. Till that time the ADMK camp was only telling that whatever DMK promised is not givable, but from that day they started saying that it is possible by ADMK but not by DMK, this is where DMK started getting the edge.

Now, with freebies being offered by both sides, the people were looking at the credibility of keeping promises by both sides, thats where I would say that the star campaigner of this election our Finance Minister Mr.P. Chidambaram, turned the tides towards the DMK Alliance, he vouched on behalf of the DMK manifesto, which gave the people, centre's commitment for DMK's manifesto, as they thought he is the one who has to give the money for all the schemes. So probability of winning the lottery on the DMK side increased and tilted the scales slightly in favour of the DMK alliance.

ADMK alliance should have refrained from reacting to DMK's freebies and had it stuck to its own orinigal manifesto, it could have easily pooh poohed the same. Also, it could have easily campaigned against the Finance Minister also, as sometime back he had come very hardly on the state governments freebies in variosu states as affecting the country's economy, I still fail to understand what the ADMK campaign managers were doing?

Then, DMK's media power with Sun TV really being the window of the Tamil Nadu to the whole world added to ADMK's woes. Personally speaking, all other issues like Family politics, Stalin Succession, Dayanidhi's corruption, Amma's high handedness, Anti incumbency were certainly a non issue in this election.

But both DMK and ADMK has to watch out for another emerging star of this election Captain Vijaykanth, he certainly would be a power to reckon with in the future elections, his vote share of 8% is only behind that of ADMK and DMK, and he contesting is Vridachalam, eventhough looked like cinematic stunt, fought and won in the enemies territory itself all by himself. Hats off to the Captain, in all probability looks like a future CM of our state to me. Generally considered having a soft corner towards the Congress, there may be a sitution with Vijaykanth and Congress fighting the polls together with other small parties. Captain being a MLA now will be in political news and couple of socially aware movies may as well make the people feel like he might be their crusader from Darvidian politics.

Lastly, lets congratulate Dr. Kalaignar on becoming the CM for the fifth time, but will he be in office for five years, there could be a possibility that he might resign showing his age or health as reason after an year and give the mantle of ruling the state to a younger generation leader and give them four years time to prove and make that leader acceptable to the public and party.

Also, there can be a change in the political scenario when the next parliament election comes as ADMK also would be aware of the powerful alliance arithmetic, this may give some uneasiness to the state government also, lets wait and watch, there is going to be a lot of tamashas, with Congress calling the shots in State government and DMK calling the shots in the Central government.

Bird Flu ..... Should you be scared ?

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:50:02 -0700

If you all have been reading the papers for the past three
days, you must be aware of the Bird flu phenomemon. With so much
focus about bird flu in the news papers and on TV it is easy to get
confused. On one hand you hear of 40000 birds affected, On the other
hand there are people refusing to accept that the deaths are caused
by bird flu. How much of the information is actually true? what does
it mean to you as a consumer of egg and chicken? How scared should
you be?

As a responsible citizen, I feel compelled to respond. Most of
the facts that I will be quoting are taken from neutral sources.

A brief about the bird flu:

1) There are 15 types of bird, or avian, flu.
2) The most contagious strains, which are usually fatal in birds,
are H5 and H7.
3) The type currently causing concern is the strain H5N1, which can
pass on to Humans.
4) Migratory wildfowl, notably wild ducks, are natural carriers of
the viruses, but are unlikely to actually develop an infection.
5) The risk is that they pass it on to domestic birds, who are much
more susceptible to the virus.

(Source: www.bbc.co.uk)

Some relatively unknown facts about the disease:

1) In the past six to seven years since the disease has been
isolated, There is only one known case of human to human
transmission of this disease in the year 2002 (in Thailand). This
essentially means that the efficacy of transmission is extremely
low. So there is absolutely no reason to panic. (Source:November
2005 Issue of Readers digest "Avian Flu - How scared should you be?")

2) There is no known cases of disease being transmitted by
consumtion of poultry or poultry products.

According to BBC: (www.bbc.co.uk)

Q: Can I continue to eat chicken?
Yes. Experts say avian flu is not a food-borne virus, so eating
chicken is safe.

Why you need not be scared:

1) The poultry farming in States like Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra
pradesh and Karnataka has underwent a dramatic change over the past
two decades. From back yard farming poultry industry has changed
over to deep litter or cage system where the chickens are typically
maintained in enclosed premisis. This essentially means that there
is no possibility of contact with migratory birds.

2) Eggs and broilers are exported from Namakkal and Udumalpet to
middle east, african and european countries. They are even exported
to Japan where they have the most stringent screening process for
Avian flu and other diseases. These facts hold testimony to the high
quality and biosecurity levels the industry has achieved over the
years. (Source: The Hindu & Business line)

3) The Bird flu virus is extremely unstable and cannot survive in
temperatures above 45 degrees. So in Indian style of cooking
(Boiling or deep frying) these viruses have no chances of survival.
So is there reason to be scared? you decide.

TamilNadu - Asian Region of the Future

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 03:00:32 -0700

Its Time to celebrate.

Foreign Direct Investment magazine had chosen our TamilNadu as the Asian region of the future.

We need to feel very happy as TamilNadu was found to be better than New South Wales of Australia (in terms of business opportunities)

Hong Kong is the Asian city of Future and TamilNadu is the Region of the future.

Please find an excerpt from the article of FDI:

ASIAN REGION OF THE FUTURE:

Winner: Tamil Nadu, India

Competition was closer and the playing field more level in the regions section of FDis contest, with the Indian state of Tamil Nadu edging ahead of Australias New South Wales to claim the title Asian Region of the Future 2005/06. TamilNadu took first place in the all-important category of best FDI potential.

As investors such as Ford, Hyundai, Nokia and, most recently, BMW have discovered to their delight, TamilNadu has managed to avoid or mitigate problems that dog other locations in India, such as infrastructure and energy failings. Through pro-active and business friendly government policies, the state has harmonious industrial relations, a matured business culture and abundant skilled manpower.

Things should only get better: several new fly-over and by-passes are under construction that will ease traffic congestion in heaving Chennai, and an IT Expressway project will widen the main access road to that citys thriving software cluster. This hints at TamilNadus real secret weapon: Chennais IT corridor employs nearly 50,000 people, and this number is set to increase to as much as 90,000 when some of the major IT companies investing there get their operations up and running.

Please refer the link for the complete story,