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...