Chennai - the new bangalore ?

No other city in India evokes such extreme responses among IT pros as chennai,it's petty much between two gangs ,you either love chennai or hate chennai,and the very small minority like me who are either neutral or resigned to the fact that they may have to settle down in chennai.

Either way chennai is here to stay on the Indian IT map.

Consider chennai's competition - bangalore, hyderbad,pune,mumbai and NCR ( delhi and gang) and of course the new kids on the block i.e bhubaneshwar,kolkotta,kochi.

Bangalore: in red
State govt in a deep slumber
Complete neglect of bangalore's already crumbling infrasturcture.
Rising real estate prices
Higher cost of living
Show me the airport ( internatianal airport is not ready till 2007 ,that too on a very optimistic note)


Delhi : surviving
Infrastructure (delhi metro is probably the only good thing to have happened )
Rising cost of living
Higher real estate prices

Still looking to become hub fo BPO operations ( too early though )

Hyderabad : change of priorities
Hyderabad did get a head start due to Naidu.
But now that Naidu is history ,priorities have changed.
New govt for obvious reasons is concerned more about rural development.
Hyderabad international airport should bring some good news ( due by 2007)
Some good projects in pipeline ( knowledge corridor , hardware park )
Biotech is booming ( biotech + pharma is the only sector where hyderabad is neck to neck with bangalore)
Very good image of 'safest city in India' and friendly people.
City needs to worry about rising pollution levels.
Needs a decent mass transit system.
Cheap real estate.

Microsoft ,Oracle @ Hitech City
Best city for BPO's ( Bank of america, GE,HSBC ,..)

Pune: Just popping out of shadow of big brother mumbai
Nice clean image
Decent infra
No big ticket IT investments off late
Rising cost of living
Talk of new airport

Excellent crowd :(

And finally chennai
Chennai:
First the good news,

International airport ( biggest advantange for chennai,IMHO)
Talent availability(companies say this,not that it matters,as indian IT pros are quite flexible and mobile)
Big IT investments : Major batallions of TCS,CTS,Wipro stationed in chennai
Existing local train system (hail the colonial masters !)
Availability of cheaper real estate (chennai is more like cluster of towns than one big city)
Very pro-active state govt.and some good central ministers ( esp dayanidhi maran)
Moving into hardware as well ( nokia ,already kicked off their india plans and Intel in chennai ?)
Hyundai,Ford ,TVS and with other auto components chennai is already a hub of auto components manufacture .
Infrastructure ( new airport plan, bunch of new flyovers coming up ,MRT system ,IT expressway,mahindra city ...)

Bad news
Water ,Water ,Water
Now, We all know the problem with chennai is water problem
Weather (now can we do anything about that !? )
Language problem


IMHO,it is vey important for Indian IT that there are alternatives to banglaore and death of bangalore (god forbid!) should not be the end of the road for Indian IT. May the best (indian) city win!

Why of course the people don't want war.

Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

--- Hermann Goering, NAZI Luftwaffe chief of staff, sentenced to death at Nuremburg war crimes trials, convicted of setting the Reichstag arson (committed suicide)

Pre-foundation Material

The pre-foundation material ,from college ,lands at home , exam within the first 3 days of reg.,says a note.

1.Financial Accounting - SP Jain's material
(ref "Accounting for Management" - Dearden and Bhattacharya)
2.Economics by Samuelson & Nordhaus
3.Statistical Mgmt. by Levin and Rubin


One of the fellow future batchmates says, "This a conspiracy to mess up my summer vacation".

But then , was it miller who said
"The biggest conspiracy has always been the fact that there is no conspiracy. Nobody's out to get you. Nobody gives a shit whether you live or die. There, you feel better now?"

360° yahoo invites

guess, the title says it all
let me know if you need any
leave your email id ( and maybe your blog link if you have one ! )
in the comments

i'll send the invite

Former Iraqi Information Minister

We were just discussing iraq,guess iraq related discussions will never die ,and then someone passed me these one liners from former iraqi information minister.Last heard rumour, fella is in India!

'We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked '

'Americans and Brits are Sick dogs '

'the insane little dwarf Bush '

'There are only two American tanks in the city. '

'We are winning! '

.

Lost in translation - (google fans just try this )

All google fans out there , just try this and see how google can mess up quite badly

Goto google's language tools

Translate the following lines from english to spanish

Sonia’s mom is nice and cool

Now, Translate it back to english

IBM set to chop 13,000 jobs worldwide

Is this a sign of things to come?

Is it just IBM as some analysts would like us to believe ?



If IBM catches cold ,is it pneumonia for rest of technology companies ?

Slowdown in Europe ?

Could this be good news for Indian IT companies ?

This is absolute scary stuff , because i just put in my papers in my present company , jobless for the next 2 years , and passing out with my MBA in 2k7.

Podcasting - Democratization of radio ?

...The last time i heard the word 'democratization',it was in some writeup on 'internet' on 'democratization of knowledge'. This time around it's the radio.I spent a good time over the weekend googling podcast ,searching dozens of pages and blogs for useful audio files to listen on my portable audio player.

..

Podcasting?...

Podcasting is a fantastic opportunity for amateurs and professionals alike to create audio shows for internet users to download to their pc's and upload to iPod or other digital audio players. Podcasting kicked off in 2004, and there are thousands of programs on varied topics from music to technolgoy.Obviously , thats a lot of audio files ,but there is very little indian content. Is it that Indians are not yet into podcasting ?

...

Commuting takes up lot of time in most indian cities and podcasting should work fine in indian cities.Considering the diverse cultures , languages and interests in India ,emerging technologies like podcasting and digital broadcasting pop up cheaper alternatives to the conventional broadcasting media like radio.

..

The questions remain:

• Will the govt. try to censor /restrict
• Decent internet connection speeds !
• Cheaper audio players
• Commercial radio , esp the new FM players have spent millions on license fees,
• Will podcasting eat into their market share ?