Carnage of the Indian Monsoons...

The Indian government was the first to defy the pessimistic overtures of the World Bank and several reputed international organizations when they said that we would grow at a modest pace of 5- 6 percent. No doubt, the country is making rapid progress across all sectors but the main ingredient of the Indian success story has been the phantom like nature of the Indian monsoons.

As usual the monsoons this season have been erratic in nature. The stock markets in fact seem to be more predictable in the past months than the amount of rain showers expected in the country. Nevertheless despite all the technological advancements the wholly agrarian Indian economy is still at the mercy of rains.

The showers this season have been painfully lacking fervour. The total cumulative rainfall till now has been 26% below the long-term average and according to the latest data from Indian Meteorological Department, only 13 out of 35 states and union territories have recorded either normal or excess rainfall till August. These statistics make it the most profound drought situation in the last three decades.

The world over scientists have formulated a variety of theories for the lack of characteristic rains this season. Some have even reached conclusions which state that the end of the traditional Indian rainy season might be near and it might be soon replaced by longer dry spells and shorter wet spells.

More than 60 % of the Indian population is still dependent on agriculture. And one drought cycle is enough to play havoc with the spending capacities of the people in the economy. To top it up about 60 percent of Indians agriculture land is dependent on rains. The lack of rains spells further bad news for the billion plus citizens of the nation already suffering from the catastrophic effects of the world wide recession.

The Government of Indian has to some extent been able to tide the ill effects of a poor monsoon by already providing a huge farm loan waiver couple of years back and riding the progress of the nation on the back of a jubilant services sector. It is also to be credited to scrap the decision to export 900,000 tonnes of wheat and withhold the same as national reserves in case of a major drought situation. It has also announced plans to increase power supply and subsidize diesel to farmers to help them overcome the effects. The low rainfall will impact the summer as well as winter crop for the year as cultivation of important crops like rice, wheat, sugarcane and soya have suffered immensely.

The impact of less rainfall will be felt immensely on the of the world’s second fastest growing economy. And it will be significant in terms of the timing when the entire world is now trying to recover from the catastrophic effects of the recession. The rains for sure are going to impact the rural spending which now forms the backbone of the nation and is the major contributor to the GDP limping back to a healthy and optimistic 9 percent.

The sectors that have been badly affected are such as banks, automobiles including tractors, fertilizers, pesticides and agro-inputs, FMCG, and cement.

The Information technology sector has however been the least affected due to the virtually zero dependency on monsoons. The trend to outsource has in fact been helping several nations including India to counter the effects of the impending drought.

After gaining for the past five months the Indian stock markets have finally started to realize that internal demand is the only saviour for the companies and the drought can play the spoiler for the fiscal earnings.

The situation has become so grim that even the RBI is not in a position to tighten the monetary policies and reduce the money supply in the system. The current drought provides less spending power to the citizens and thereby driving factory output down. This in turn means lesser profits for the manufacturing industry with problems of huge surplus inventories and a complete breakdown of the economic system.

At this point of time the government should prop up industrial activity to offset the weak monsoons and help its citizens. It should wait before hiking important monetary rates. It should provide subsidies for all possible goods.

Sincere efforts should be taken to contain inflation which is growing alarmingly to more than 10 percent over the past year. Price rises of important commodities would directly add to the problem of unemployment and poverty.
Now is the time to reduce interest rates by banks so that more people can take loans and revive the spending power of the masses. This can be done by pumping more money in microfinance based schemes and lending more to the poor. We certainly must realize that our greatest strength lies at the bottom at the pyramid and it alone has the capability to lift the nation back to the paths of glory...

Hydro crisis..

The rains seem to have finally caught up with in the city after being a recluse for about one month. And as usual my loyalty towards the met department once again took a beating for handing over counterfeit dates about the early onset of monsoons this year..
Blaming the rain gods and the met dept. just seem to be the tip of the iceberg as far as the hydro management crisis in my household or in fact the whole city of Mumbai is concerned.

Unlike countries like Great Britain where the weather seems to the most important topic of discussion over a pint of beer,leisure takes a sorrow turn when our very own lakes start running dry..This now may start seeming more like a environment conservation documentary but the dilemma each monsoon puts us all Indians is certainly way beyond that friendly chilled pint of beer..

The pump machinery in my house ceases to suck in enough water through the pipes anymore and the water crisis deepens not only in the household but also the neighbourhood. To counter this challenge I end up installing an even higher capacity motor pump. But to my sheer disbelief the results are absolutely dismal. All I get is a higher electricity bill with the same old trickling droplets of water in the source pipes..

Just a today ago the harsh truth dawned upon me that about 20 percent of the water is actually wasted by leakage.Now that's comes down to a huge number considering the enormous amounts of the precious liquid consumed by us on a daily basis.At least now I know where exactly the bulk of the supply is getting wasted on the way to my house. Things are not going to improve till the rains play hide and seek with the inhabitants of the nation.Lest the human evolution undergoes a drastic manipulation of genes and enables us to consume saline ocean water,days of a big catastrophe would not be far from now..

Wish the rain Gods spare me and country from a drought and help avert a calamity in the making..For all those around please save water..The end might be near...

Cricket cricket everywhere...

Phew...Just a few days back and I was super excited at the prospects of Team Hyderabad winning the second version of IPL.And in style they won. Not less than two weeks and the mania is back. The popularity of T20 seems to be going overboard with every month and everyone seems to be cashing in on it. But how much seems to be enough?

Thanks to the men of the earlier decades that we still have some other games like soccer and tennis in the offing which saves us from the over whelming dosage of cricket. Though I cant deny the fact the cricket is and will remain the most popular game in my country India, but the fact is do we need to buy each and everything offered in the name of cricket? After all I certainly can't deny the fact it is the only game to have brought pride to the nation time and again.

After all the hoopla, the World Cup T20 starts of today in England, another cricket crazy nation. Though it seems now-a-days that the game actually originated in the Indian sub-continent rather than in England. The inaugural ceremony though turned out to be the damp squid thanks to the heavens downpour. And by Gods Grace, thankfully, I won’t see Mandira Bedi with her most weird hairstyles and awful costumes.This time we have a newer face Shonali Nagrani for Company who adds the oomph factor to the game. Though she has been given the task to sit in the studio and ask some stupid questions and simultaneously doling out 10,000 Rs for a right answer, she does add to the glamour of the game.

And good news to all those people like me who even after browsing through the so called entertainment channels for hours cannot find anything worth viewing. At least I know what exactly I will go through when I sit back and watch a T20 match for the entire three hours.

Over to the game, it should be a smooth sailing for us since we play minnow teams Ireland and Bangladesh in the group matches. And to top it all one thing that's surely attractive is the T20 World Cup trophy which is much prettier as compared to the badly designed IPL trophy. On the flip side the cheerleaders are absolutely next to trash!! Can you in your wildest of dreams imagine a T20 match without the pretty cheerleaders dancing their way at each and every big move in the game? Over the 2 years, I have started associating T20 with cheerleaders and lo there are a few of them hopelessly shaking a leg or two as if they haven't been paid their dues.This would definitely take away the eye candy of many such ardent fans.

But we, particularly as Indians have reasons to keep our heads high. One, we are the defending champions and without doubt would want to retain the crown with us and two, I was delighted to see two of our very own brands Reliance Mobile and Hero Honda with their banners right in the center of the field. Now that's what I call an achievement as far as Corporate India is concerned which proves India as a nation surely has the capabilities to rescue the world out of this economic crisis.
Here's wishing the Indian Cricket Team to go for it once again and prove that they are and will be the King of T20...

A day lost....

Just another usual yesterday and things were moving at a smooth (read ridiculously slow) pace as usual. Morning passes by doing daily unimportant activities and follows the so very important homemade lunch which I feel still deprived off after surviving away from home for more than two years. The thought of having a sumptuous lunch makes me feel lethargic; forget about actually gulping down the plate full.

And no sooner than this, the indolent brains inside my head signalled the start of ultra sluggish behaviour and lead me into to the "Go to Bed" syndrome. Having taken a resolution to avoid moving into deep slumber after every meal, I decided to switch on the PC to help me survive the sleep onslaught. And then came a shocker, I was literally stunned when I saw the system flashing a limited connectivity in front of my eyes. That signalled the end of my laxity and coaxed my mind into contemplating the world of possibilities without my dear Internet connection.

Surely in this Internet age, life doesn’t get a better best friend than the small little two computers that sit on the right hand of our monitor screens. Getting connected suddenly seemed to be the most important mission of my life. After hurling several imaginary abuses at the MTNL guys for suddenly disconnecting my life (from the Internet), started the grand endeavour of resurrecting my Internet connection.

As expected, the so called help lines (call centres) lived up to their reputation of being of absolutely no help. On dialling the supposed magic digits, as usual I was greeted with the world famous "You are in Queue. Please dial after some time" recorded message. I think MTNL should take a cue from the private companies who at least take the pains to record such cliché messages in beautiful female voices. Nevertheless, after around five minutes of forced torture some lady finally took pity on me and took the call. And then within the next 15 seconds it was all over. Bang! She kept the receiver after handing me over the mandatory complaint number, even before I could ask her the countless questions that I had in my mind. And subsequently, I was pushed into the lifeless world of no connectivity with no orkut,no gtalk,no Internet banking, no moneycontrol.....Life seemed to be going nowhere and came to a complete standstill for the first time ever. I took solace in the sole source of entertainment called 'Television' which perhaps could console me just for half n hour (with the innumerable amount of junk available).

But that was not all. On making several futile attempts (which also included me bashing up the same lady on phone for her utter dismal behaviour at rescuing me out from the connectionless life) at resurrecting my Internet connection, the truth finally dawned upon me that there was a major server failure and the whole network was affected. After this, started the endless wait hoping that the MTNL guys do wake up from their slumber and get going at some CRM in order to retain grumpy customers like me. For the first time in life, I realised the horror all clients go through when he/she faces an issue and we as employees, sometimes though, get over with our tea/coffee breaks.

The no connectivity syndrome not only made me feel restless but also drained me of my emotional health.The only hope around was to expect a miracle and the servers would stand up right on their feet.After going through the entire ordeal for some 30 hours, life finally returned a whole circle and thankfully I was back on internet with my mind full of wierd thoughts about the day lost in my life...

What wrong have we done?

For ages, the Indian outlook of sending our kids to foreign destinations for higher studies has dominated our culture. Not long ago parents used to be overjoyed with pride and their eyes glimmering with the very thought that their kids were either studying or working in some foreign destination away from home and earning plenty of dollars. But not anymore!

The world over we Indians are known to be the most docile creatures God has ever created. We constitute a sect of people who just strive to earn a better living and making our lives comfortable. And subsequently arise the ambitions and aspirations to perform better. Right from the unassuming maid servant to the high flying corporate executive each one of us is actually trying to move up the social ladder. But where do these aspirations of the submissive Indian take us? Are we slowly and steadily getting habituated to getting dominated and harassed by the so called racially superior creatures that seem to have evolved from the same Ape species from where we have?

The horrifying tales of Indians getting racially and physically ill-treated in Australia is indeed appalling. Rewind a few months back and stories of Indian students getting brutally attacked and cold bloodedly murdered in broad daylight was quite a common phenomenon in the most talked about nation, the USA. The gruesome killings followed some protests and after some assurances from the governments the issue just went down the drains. Now the same fate seems to haunt our students in Australia. The question here is what wrong have we done?

Is the very decision to gain admission to a foreign University turning out to be the biggest blunder of our times? I believe the answer to this in the recent spate of events should be a firm Yes! The most obvious question that arises again is "Why are we Indians targeted then?" keeping in mind the biggest irony that Indians are the biggest contributors to the plethora of Universities in the US and specifically Australia, which thrive whole heartedly just on Indian or Asian students. Some universities are able to survive just on the tuition fees paid by the foreign students. The reason behind this is that the local students are either being too happy with their limited education levels or they are too ignorant to pursue with their higher education programs because the idea of higher education just doesn’t impress them.

To top it all the main reason why we Indians are targeted is sheer jealousy. The very fact that a foreign national (especially Indian) residing in their country(Australia) and earning more than them is turning out to be indigestible for them. According to these so called natives who have over the years turned out to be racist freaks, Indian migrants in their countries are just fit for the jobs of either cab drivers or call centres. After all the mudslinging racist remarks that we Indians are subjected to for years in countries like USA,UK and now Australia, this jealousy has now taken the form of dreadful acts of physical abuse.

What can we do next? Prevent our deserving students from studying in foreign Universities or give the offenders a piece of their own pie? Coming from the land of Mahatma Gandhi certainly makes us complacent and hitting the Australians at their own games is not a good idea. But then when the matter is of sole survival for our students we just can't keep quiet by being a mere spectator. It might not be long before the same calamity strikes one of our very own friends or colleagues.

As of now the safest option to me seems to be to discourage all students to study in these foreign universities till the time these racist freaks learn to civilise themselves and stop being overtly envious of our ambitions and achievements. And special thanks to Mr. Bachchan for frankly declining the Australian honour that was to be conferred upon him.

Bang on Target!!

Yesterday evening as I stepped outside my house for some household shopping (you tend to do such things when you are absolutely jobless or when you bored staying indoors within the confinement of the four walls(chaar dewarein), I was greeted with the surprise of a lifetime!

Early in the morning (I call 8.30 early), as I suffer from a compulsive disorder of browsing through the pages of our beloved national newspaper 'The Times of India’, the news of pre- monsoon showers on Wednesday by the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) greeted me. Like any other citizen of the city, sweltering under the torment of our very own nearest star this news certainly brought a smile on my face.

And guess what, by the evening (out on a household shopping spree), I actually felt the impossible event mentioned in the newspaper taking shape. It turned absolutely dark and in a few minutes I saw the first rain droplets of the season come trickling down from the heaven.

Call it an overtly accurate prediction by the IMD or just a fortunate co-incidence for the weather prediction guys; it is definitely a respite for me and my fellow citizens. On an overtly optimistic note I certainly wish the IMD keeps predicting as accurately as they have done yesterday. Armed with Super Computers and the Doppler radars, I hope this wish turns out to be true in the near future and saves us from the deluge of July 2005.

And the loot continues..

Living in the garden city for more than two years has definitely brought myriad experiences to my life.Some good, the rest range from bad to worst.After spending my childhood in a major metropolis like Mumbai the so called pub (or garden city) either way u prefer to call it, does throw up a lot of challenges specially to an ordinary bloke like me who was neither a localite(i mean a Bangalorite) nor a member of the ultra rich luxurious life-styled hip crowd who are used to shopping regularly in malls like 'The Forum' or 'Garuda Mall'.

At this point of song singing about our Bengaluru(as it is called now owing to name changing ceremony held by some of our very intellectual politicians) lets face some harsh ground realities.For an ordinary citizen, from another part of our vastly divided India staying here was not a cake walk.

Starting with the Hosur Road series of flyovers which seems to be under construction since ages(It was my hearts desire to see them completed and zoom to the Electronics City campus in a Company bus in less than 15 mins).However,this dream remained one as I returned to the place where I belong.

Coming back to the main point which really perturbed me was the errant behaviour of the auto-rickshaw drivers.For a harmless travel to say M.G. Road(which is one of the best hang out spots for both the rich and not so rich) from a place called B.T.M(more than 50 % of the IT populace resides in this area) the average fare would be around 55 Rs.However, there is hardly any day of the year when you can actually reach your destination at this fare.Mostly, the auto-rickshaw drivers will negotiate the fare way before you commence your journey on the pot holed streets of 'Namma Bengaluru'.This renders the so called meters absolutely ineffectual.And mind you they seem to be the most intelligent people on the earth.They can recognise that you are not a localite just by looking at your face at first glance.

As an icing on the cake,if it rains then God only save you from the wrath of the drivers.The moment it starts pouring, which is quite common in Bangalore even when its not our usual four month rainy season ,the rickshaw fare just doubles up.That means now a journey that I mentioned before would cost you a cool 100 Rs.Now that's what I call a pure act of day light "Looting". The same also applies when its night time when its actually "Party Time" for the drivers.Whether you belong to the filthy rich section of the society or some ordinary guy working in an ordinary IT Company in an even ordinary designation of Software Engineer,not a single soul is spared.

The main psychology that drives business in the garden city is that "If you cant pay me, someone else will" and definitely you don't deserve my services and better look out for something else that might suit your wallet.

Lest the rickshaw drivers come to know of Mr. Barack Obama's latest policies the ordinary (aam aadmi) as you call them continues to suffer and be at their mercy.
Tata Nano here I come.......

A bit too late..

Not less than 5 months back, I resigned from the second largest technology company in India.Little did I know that just few months down the line each employee would be worth a handsome jaw dropping 97 lacs.

The first and most obvious hyper reaction that characterizes my over indulgent brain was like "Hey, couldn't you tell that to me before"..My head started spinning like a ball just tossed out of Shane Warne's fingers.A feeling of extreme regret started engulfing me in its vicious grip. A few seconds later, as I regained full control of my senses, I realized that the eye popping figure of 97 lacs was just a hypothetical number that Infosys had arrived at considering the future earnings of the company.Never before in the two lively years that I spent in the company had i contemplated that one day I would be worth so much.Nevertheless, just thinking of the very fact makes my shoulders broaden with pride.

Cheers to the firm and the employees working in it still..And I seriously request the Human Resources department to release such tantalizing numbers very much in advance so that potential employees who are up to increasing the attrition rate do get second thoughts about concluding their association with the best in the business...

Super Saturday..

The election fever has gripped the nation and oh so deservingly..
As I finally got up this morning lazily creeping out of my bed at around 9 o clock,I realised it was indeed very late and so the first thing I did was to switch on the TV have a look at who had India voted for.The last thing I would have expected is a hung parliament after which our docile and complacent Her Highness the President of India would have to do her bit(would have been better for her since at least she would get some amount of political work in her tenure as President apart from giving away National honour awards to uninterested celebrities just for the sake of it).Though fate had some other plans in store for all of us.

And I was certainly pleasantly surprised.Yes indeed the Indian National Congress is poised for a win and our very own Mr.Qualified Manmohan Singh is readying for a record second term at the helm of Indian politics.

What India needs is a stable government and not a composition of coalition parties whose interests begin with getting a good ministry portfolio and ends with it.The very thought of we getting a stable government has lifted the spirits in quite a few quarters.

On Friday, the Indian Rupee gained gained against the dollar,the stock markets posted huge gains and surely even speculations outside the country predict a bright future for this sunny nation.
Now, all I can do is wait till our Electronic Voting Machines give out the final verdict and hand over the reins of the country to the most deserving party..

The least we can do...

Not less than two weeks back when Mumbai went to the polls, I decided that unlike last time I would go on to vote.
The polling booth was just a stones throw from my house.I got up early in the morning so that I could avoid standing in the long queues which is a phenomena that we Indians are pretty habituated with by now.It took me just 5 mins to reach the booth and a further 2 mins to register my vote and in the next 5 mins I was back enjoying breakfast at my home.
And I seemed to be delighted.Here I was so proud of my country which was holding the largest democratic elections in the entire world.The long indelible blue ink mark on my finger reinforced the patriotism in my heart as never before.And I thought such a great service I had done to the nation by exercising my franchisee.

Off to West Bengal,a small enclave called Tero Ghoria.For those who don't know what an enclave is,they are territories that are bound on all sides by a foreign country. There are at least 100 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and some 90-odd Bangladeshi enclaves in India, which came into being at the time of Partition.

A sixty year old lady along with 42 other people crossed 2 canals and 7 km on foot to reach the Indian mainland.No, not to earn a living but to vote.Yes, now this is what I call true patriotism.

Coming back to Mumbai,what could we do for the Country on the D-day.We could just like our bindaas attitude manage a meagre 54 % voter turnout.It's an utter disgrace for a society like ours especially for the people of Mumbai where we cant even do the least that we can for our country.The outrage,the rallies, the anger have all dwindled and we are back to what we do best.Move on!

The most common excuse given by us is "The candidates are not good enough".People tend to forget that we do not live in a perfect world and imperfections are bound to creep in to any system.Why shy away from our duties when it comes to exercising our votes and electing the most deserving candidates out of the least deserving ones.

On a personal front,I have decided be it the general elections or be it the local municipality elections I am not going to sit back at home and give out lame excuses like these.Its the least that I can do for the country and the society I stay in.

Please exit polls TV news channels!

The elections are on the verge of getting over and as the end date draws close the TV news channels are back to what they do best.Speculating.
This time however the government had banned exit polls.However since yesterday the ban has been lifted and the guess work is back.To top it all there seems to be a Rs 5000 crore betting market flourishing thanks to the exit polls data published by these very news channels.

I do not really understand the need of a exit poll at this juncture of the elections when we are just 2 days away from the results.As we know votes counting is to begin and this time with the use of Electronic Voting Machines(EVM) has been the process even faster and simpler.So the need to speculate about who the forms the government is absolutely fruitless.

The so called new channels just to get the business going indulge in this irrelevant game of prediction.The question here is who benefits from these exit polls!The voting phases are over and counting due it is just the news channels benefiting from it in terms of generating more TRP's and advertising revenues.

At this point,rather than who gets to lead the govt. the new channels should analyse the imminent problems India is facing today and come up with solutions.They should try to figure out which govt. would help India regain its lost glory after the recent terrorist attacks and which govt. would actually help in bringing the fiscal deficit down along with all round economic development of the poor.

My advise to people would be to wait till the D-day and see by urself who would lead India for the next 5 years and leave the election punters to carry on with their games!

Another victory for T20..

All you T20 fans still trying to figure out who the mystery blogger posing as a Kolkata Knight Riders player is,here's some more good news...The 16th Asian games to be held in 2010 in China touted as the Olympics equivalent for the Asian continent will now include the T20 event. Test playing nations like India,Pakistan,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have already qualified for the event.

In fact,the major reason why this was included in the games was the immense popularity that the T20 World Cup as well as the currently in its second spell IPL T20 series has garnered.With the inclusion at the Olympic level, we can surely be guaranteed of our T20 quota of entertainment in the years to come even if the IPL ceases to exist(which seems to be nearly impossible).

Also close on the announcement, excitement has once again started to build up as viewers would be able to get the dose of a India-Pakistan match which they have been deprived of owing to the recent attacks in Mumbai and the subsequent non-action on the part of our neighbour to nail the perpetrators.This would also give the Pakistani cricket team the much needed impetus since now no Cricket playing nation is willing to participate in matches held on its soil.

As far as China is concerned,its a very good opportunity for them to once again repeat the success of staging world class event after the splendid organization of the previous Olympics Games. Also being the host nation it qualifies automatically for the T20 matches.. They might be leading in terms of manufacturing and Olympic gold medals,but lets see how they match up to the magnitude of cricketing skills that India possesses.

Till then, we can hope to bring the Asian games Gold medal in the T20 event to where it belongs, India...

Fall of the notebook..

The growing rise of the Internet has definitely augmented the demand of notebooks the world over.An Intel Core 2 duo or Centrino mobile processor along with a minimum of 4 GB of RAM seems to be the buzzwords these days.And of course we have the ever expanding versions of Microsoft Windows software with which each release gets more and more memory and CPU intensive.

But lets see how much of the Core 2 Duo or Dual Core processor does the average PC user actually make use of.Studies indicate the more than 60 % of the users never actually use the full potential of a high end processor.The first question that pops up in mind is - Do I really need a high end machine for my daily needs.The answer is a firm NO.

The common user generally surfs the Internet,send emails and may be at the most listens to songs n the Internet.We certainly do not need a high end PC for less intensive activities like these.These findings culminated into the introduction of a new kid on the PC block known as 'Netbooks'.

A netbook is ideally a full-featured notebook with displays in the 7- to 10-inch range with all offering several USB ports, a web cam, LED back lit screens, integrated speakers, Wi-Fi and more.This seems to the perfect companion for the average user to fulfill his basic needs. And the best part of buying a netbook!It hardly costs any money as compared to a full blown high tech gadget.A typical netbook costs in the range of 20 - 25K which is one third of the cost of a high end machine. The best laptop makers in the world like HP,Acer,Asus have all lined up netbooks for the common man with a more than enticing price tag. In India where PC penetration is really low,netbooks certainly hold the key to the revival of sagging notebook sales as well as increasing PC penetration in the country.

Tata guns for the middle class again...

Closely on the heels of the launch of the Worlds cheapest car and getting a record 2 lac plus bookings for the 1 lac Nanos, Tata is back again.But this time its something more unique though once more they are after the middle class segment.Last week Tata has launched houses in the low cost segment in a township at Boisar which is 35 km from Nerul,a Mumbai suburb.

For decades the India middle class has been growing and defeating the upper class and the super rich at their own game.From advancing from a two wheeler to a four wheeler Nano now the Tata's have launched homes in the range of 3.9 to 7 lacs.Now that might sound really cheap considering the fact that these are full ownership homes to be bought that too at a place near the Mumbai suburbs.In a city where flats sell in the range of 30 lac plus range,this surely seems to be one more winner from the Tata stable.

According to initial estimates,Tatas expect to sell these houses in the next couple of years for which booking forms have already started selling.And as the sentiment of owning a house which is quite close to the heart of many Mumbaikars this offer is surely up for grabs!
This township from the Indian conglomerate comes at a time when the Global as well as Indian real estate market is going through its roughest patch in past several decades.And ,Tata is still reeling under the pressure of manufacturing Nano cars and delivering it to the customers along with the additional burden of ill timed last years acquisitions of steel maker Corus and luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover units.Recently,Ratan Tata has also admitted that the acquisitions were indeed made at a time when the global markets were at their peaks.After which due to the world wide recessions the same units are worth a lot less than last year.

Coming back to the low end housing scheme, I believe its not that rosy a picture as one would expect it to be.
Firstly,the place chosen is quite far from the mainland City.This would prove to be a bad idea for people who in this case would have to travel around 100 km daily to reach their offices.Second,the infrastructure that we all complain about in the city is even worse as there are not proper roads.Imagine buying a house and then struggling daily to reach there after a tiring day at work.Also Boisar being a manufacturing hub would mean more pollution as compared to some of the greener suburbs of Mumbai.

The fate of this new scheme is something that only time will tell.But as far as Tatas are concerned, till today they have already managed to sell around 3500 forms with each form costing Rs.200 plus a Rs.10,000 booking amount !!

The wait is over..Windows 7 to release by year end..

Finally, Microsoft has come up with a new OS i.e the Windows 7,the much awaited successor to the hugely publicised but badly made OS Windows Vista.Windows 7 not only promises to be better in terms of the looks and graphics but also helps users run applications and play devices which stopped running when users started upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista two years back.

Now this seems to be really good news considering the fact that there is still a big chunk of the Indian PC market running Windows XP on their systems. Also at the same time after shifting the focus from Windows XP to Win Vista in the last 2 years by stopping XP support and providing only With Vista technical support MS has to some extent garnered enough OS share.

The release of a new OS at this juncture could come as a dampener because Vista has just started gaining ground in countries like India.Nevertheless Microsoft need not worry.It has till now just released a version for user acceptance testing and I surely believe there will be some time before Windows 7 actually hits the Indian markets.
Along with good technical support and better device compatibility I hope Microsoft comes out with a winner with the much awaited Windows 7.

US banks Stress tests indeed stressful! A new bubble yet to burst?

First the good news..

The US government stress tests have probably proved the best way to judge the health status of the nations biggest 19 banks.The results though surprising indicate that around $75 billion needs to be added to the banks balance sheets.

This news at least for now seems to be a breather of fresh air since now we have a number with us with regards to the approximate capital needed for the banks to survive.This capital will not only be helpful for the banks to maintain their daily operations as well as to make profits in the forthcoming quarter.

Now comes the bad news..

The capital necessary to avoid the banks to collapse might just overshoot the $75 Billion mark.This news comes fresh with the results that indicate the banks liabilities as far as credit cards payments are concerned.The worst case scenario might push this number to more than $85 Billion.However even this seems to be the tip of the iceberg.

Traditionally, banks just show the credit card liabilities on the balance sheet.These liabilities just include the payments due from card customers to the bank.The stress tests do not take into account the loans taken against credit cards which are generally not included in the banks' balance sheets.This number again runs into billions of dollars.

As a bottom line, increasing unemployment and rising credit card defaults will add to the existing woes of the economy which is still reeling under the catastrophic effects of the housing and credit market bursts...