Google Art Project : Is this a precursor to armchair travelogues ?

If you have not already looked at this site, I suggest you do. Except, you'll need to access this from a non-iPAD interface (Adobe Flash). It is brilliant in the manner that google earth / google maps structuring has been incorporated into the museum walk-through.

I still need to see if I can make this work with the Wii interface so that there is better immersion experience - that would be just AWESOME !


Longer term, I think this is a precursor to the way tourism is going to develop. It is so much easier to do a preview in this fashion even if you are going to want to see the spot physically ?

I now need to figure out a way to apply this to an online version of a science exhibition !

Maybe, I'll put out a request for some college interns to help me in this process ?
So much to do !!

1.21 Billion and counting : Need a detailed analysis of the Census data

Am trying to get my hands onto the new census data. While I've read the headline stuff that appears in the newspapers, I think it is good for people (who're interested / who've the inclination) to review the data and try to come up with their own conclusions.

Just as any statistics that is an aggregation, am convinced that the headlines do not do justice to the real trends / swings that tend to be regional and time specific.

For example, let us consider the sex-ratio. While the overall trend looks promising, we need to consider this w.r.t the fact that from a timing perspective. The "sex determination" tests came into popularity / notoriety only in the latter half of the nineties. The period from 1994-2003 when the Supreme court finally imposed the ban was more or less a free-for-all @ the smaller clinics.

We should read this in the context that the 0-6 year old growth trend has shown a negative rate of -3.8% for females. That falls into the prime "ban" implementation period between 2003-2004 through till 2010 !

I wonder what other nasty (or otherwise) surprises are in store ?

Indian Media : Television abdicating it's responsibility ?

Given the fact that I've been in the grip of a viral fever, the last few days have been spent @ home with only some novels and the TV to keep company. This background is to simply establish that some of us do not watch the "general news" on TV during the day as we'd expect most of the country to do ?

I've been shocked at the level of reporting. All of news seems to be a public "washing" of just a few / very meager facts with LOADS of "spin".

A typical section on the Aarushi case, as an example, will have atleast 4 people (all with hidden agendas IMHO) sitting on a panel with the presumption that their viewpoint needs to be heard. Not once, but, repeated a few hundred times over the next few hours. Maybe this is how we make opinions ?

There is absolutely NO CHANNEL that seems to be asking basic / structural questions related to solving the problem instead of sensationalizing them
For example,
   a. Obviously, the collection of evidence left much to be asked for. However, nobody, is asking the real question as to why - as a nation with such a large IPS training infrastructure, we cannot seem to address this structurally. Is there a long term lesson that will be established ? Do we think CBI is that 'only' agency ?
 
   b. I'm sure much will be made of the number of switches in the investigation team - UP police, CBI team 1, CBI team 2 etc. Is this going to continue in the future ?. I'm sure my detractors will cite the infamous friction between teams as in FBI / State police as examples of this, but, atleast these team changes do not happen AN YEAR or so later when all the evidence is suspect ? What are we trying to achieve.

   c. There will also be debate on arrival of new witnesses at a late stage. Isn't witness presentation a long term problem that has been glaringly inoperative ? The Jessica Lall murder case is a prime example. As a nation we desperately need a witness protection program and NOBODY in the media seems to raise this ?

I, for one, feel that the Media has the responsibility - nay DUTY to look at issues and bring about public opinion to bear about structural changes. It has NO business sitting in a jury seat influencing public opinions (esp those sub-judice) just to get TRPs. Have we forgotten that a media trail is no different than the witch hunts of the yore ?

Ages ago, when asked to comment upon my opinion as to why the average Joe in the US thought of his county / state and at max Washington as his world compared to the typical John in the UK. I had surmised that the TV news was the reason. No local US channel does a fraction of the job that a BBC does locally. Although, I'm sure commercially, they have a larger following.

Is India headed the same way ?

Are we going to be a nation who fed on "Instant News - 2 minute noodle style". Get the snippet and transmit the hell out of it. Who cares about analysis / intelligence or just plain due diligence of responsible reporting ?

Bureaucrats & Politicians : The bane of India - who is more to blame ?

I've been watching the news related to all the scams very avidly. It is interesting to note that for the first time (2G scam), there seems to be a clear acknowledgment publicly to the bureaucrat / politician and business (money) nexus.

While, I agree that the focus on Mr. Raja and his political party is newsworthy, I'm surprised that there has been very little noise on the culpability of the 'executive' arm of the government ie. the Bureaucrats. 

I've long held the opinion that these non-elected (or rather selected !) elite of the country have done more harm that the politicians in propagating the servitude and feudal / colonial heritage. They clearly see themselves as "ruler" class and the citizen of the country (esp. the poor villager / aam aadmi) as the "ruled".

It pains me to see these individual farmers / villagers queue up to a local government office and stand with their hands folded in submission asking for information related to some file. Only to be told in most cases to come the next day as the individual officer does not have the time ?

Last week, I was surprised to listen to a retired bureaucrat flay his elk in public. His statement that these individuals seemed to have struggled only once in their lives ie when they took the appropriate examination - IAS, IPS etc and post the passing of the examination, most never seemed to have the need to apply their brains / intellect again. Implying that "servitude" to senior officers would be enough for growth !

Another observation was that the politicians have to be more responsive to common problems and issues and are generally so as compared to the executive. Infact, in most villages today, the politician's value is all the more where he/she moves the executive to RESPOND. Atleast, the politicians' agenda in keeping this role very clear. What about the unknown / hidden agenda of the bureaucrat ?

How do we make our bureaucracy more responsive / how do we reform them ?

2010 - An year of change and that is not just for me :-)

I was recently sent a note off my LinkedIn account. They are tracking the number of people who've changed their jobs in last year. I was more than "surprised" to look at this number for my contacts list !
More than 111 PEOPLE (out of my current network of 530 odd people) seem to have changed their Jobs in their profile. This is not just a designation / responsibility change, but, a change at their work.


Mmmmm.... Is this an indication of some sorts for the industry as a whole ?
Or, is it just coincidence that people I know have come around to that time of their career that they seem to have looked out for change ? Makes me wonder ....

What is clear is that there is an underlying change in the market sentimentality that seems to be driving movement. I hope this is for the better ?

11000 H1 Visas still available @ YE 2010 : Or, the economics of labour migration

I'm sure this fact is going to be bandied about in the days to come. There are 11000 H1B's left at the end of 2010 as per USCIS stats ? Does it mean the rush for H1's is over ? Is this the end of an epoch ?

I think there is some real economic lessons to be learnt here. While the economic downturn has been the stated reason, I'm sure part (or rather a MAJOR part) is owed to the fact that there has been a new $2000 increase in the fee for filing H1s.

While $2000 may not sound big in the scale of things, I think this was sufficient discouragement (or should I say disinvestment) to prevent organizations from filing blanket H1s and then putting people on hold until the project came through ?

It'll be interesting to study this in greater detail from a cause-effect process if not in the coming years, atleast over a window of 7 years ?
Also interesting would be to look at the reverse impact on the Indian IT front ?

Given the tightening of process @ both US and UK entries, I'm sure that there is going to be some much needed hiring "flex" available over the next few years esp. in the 5-9 year experience bracket.

A much needed "flex" if you ask my opinion !

Airport freeze : Where is the preparedness ?

Was talking to some people who've traveled by air (both domestic and international) over the last few weeks and all of them have the same complaint : where is airport preparedness ?

Reminds me of the few (rare) occasions when Atlanta used to have a small (couple of inches worth) of snowfall. The city would grind to halt as it was totally ill-prepared for this.

Would that excuse hold for the large transit airports like London, Paris and Frankfurt ?
Why are they in such shambles the moment snowfall gets to be more than "usual" ?
Are they not watching the global trend of heavier snowfall / rainfall and cycles that seem swing to the extremes ?

IMHO : they seem to have an Ostrich mode to the problem ie. stick your head in sand (or snow) and it'll blow over ?. There also seems to be no "consequence" to this lack of preparedness that needs to be addressed.

Last I heard was that the governments were going to think of legislative mechanisms to pull up the autonomous airport authorities like BAA. Is regulatory the best way to address this or should commercial models push them ?

I'd opt for the commercial model anytime ?