Thought Beans Blog

The R & D scenario in India is at a very low compared to the other developing nations. The committe constituted by the Govt to look into the R & D work in India says only India shares only 3% of global R & D. I beleive it is somewhere around 1%. For India to become a superpower they must acheive self relaince in R & D. For evrything we are dependent on foreign R & D right now. How many Indian products make it into global arena everyyear? The R & D spend in India should be increased. We cant even compare IIT, IIM with the MIT, harvard, stanford & other schools. How many innovative inventions have the IIT & IIM done? It is only the media hype about IIT & IIM’s. Even today India is dependent on foreign country like Russia for defence technology. The govt should give large thrust to R & D. The focus should be to improve education in INdia. Innovators in rural places should be supported financially. All the centers of research should fund thmeselves by product innovation & royalty.Such measures will make India rich in R & D.

China’s booming economy & how it has transferred the lives of chinese has become one of the case study in the economics. Though both India & China opened up about in the same period, china has leapfrogged in to the future with futuristic city like Shangai. Our leaders must be ashamed of saying Mumbai should be like shangai. If they had the will, they should have transformed Mumbai into Futurastic City 2.0. rather than referring to Shangai. Look at how long it is taking just to modernize twi airports in India. Thogh China’s economy is not balanced, it has created ripples in the Economic arena. It is the manufacturing shop floor for the world. It has already been speculated that China’s automobile sector will overtake the US in a few years & its economy will surpas US by 2050. How can they acheive such a progress in such a short time. Such a progress should be replicated in all the countries. Only then globalization will have a true meaning.

The new UN secretary general will be on a hot seat this year. With Iran, North Korea flexing their muscles in the nuclear arena, it remains to be seen how Sec. general will tackle the issuses. Wil he oppose any new sanctions on NK & Iran? With US backing him for the post, we will have to wait & see will he be a puppet like his predesccor? There are critical issuses around the globe. UN has been slow to respond to such issuses in recent days. They also didnt intervene in the execution of Saddam. This is one of the gruesome events to have taken place in recent days. UN should become more pro active. They should aim at establishing peace in the regions. Sec generals these days are more of a puppet than real Sec. Generals. Lets hope for betetr days in the future.

The Web 2.0 companiies are on a decline after a sucessful 2005 & early 2006. It has been reported that many companies are laying off & also revenue is down at most companies. Will this signal another round of dot com bust? Time only can answer for that. Too much of hype has been built into Web 2.0 Companies. Will they survive the this round of bust. Companies like you youtube, myspace seem to have survived the bust. They might one day become the present yahoo, google & other web 1.0 companies. Lets hope that coming days are good for web 2.0 companies.

Countries like Bolivia, Venezuvela & Iran are joining hands in what is billed as the new wave of Anti - Americanism. Iranian head was in latin america recently & joined hands with Chevaz & others in condemning the spreading of American hegemony. Though it is true that America is the big brother of the world & shows off superiority, America is needs for the world economy. Most of the inventions, technology is coming from America. Funds needed for development comes from the US. The economic growth depends on the growth of US. Latin American countries & others like Iran, North korea are against US. But at the same time they should look at What happened to Iraq & its leaders. So a proper mutual understanding among the nations will prevent future wars.

Web 2.0 helps people to share information & collaborate online.Latest trends in internet like podcasting, textcasting, video blogging, skypecasting, photo blogging & what not are creating a new form revolution. I love web 2.0 more than web 1.0. Social networking sites help in bridging the world better. Web 2.0 is a sort of companion to lonely people. They can have wide network of friends, share their videos, upload whatever the contents they want, etc. This web 2.0 is changing the world faster than what the web did when it started. Blogosphere is agog with all sorts of issues. Now we longer need to rely on “breaking news” to get the latest news. RSS & XML help in bringing the news faster than “breaking news”. Skypecasting, podcasting, textcasting have resulted in an entire new way of communication.Internet TV, Viral videos have opened a new mode of audio & video communication. I was very thrilled to see funny videos, crazy accidents & what not on viral videos. These videos were not available anywhere earlier. Web 2.0 has made a big progress in USA. Many people haven’t heard of Web 2.0 in the developing countries. Web 2.0 is basically built around communities.Whatever new concepts available on the net is becoming a part of Web 2.0.Ajax, RSS, API’s are some of the technologies used in WEb 2.0. Web 2.0 is not without criticisms. Many lawmakers are planning to bring social networking sites within the legal limits. There are many instances in which personal information from the social networking sites have been used to harm the community user.Web 2.0 will take some more years before web 1.0 is completely out of the picture.Web 2.0 is playing a vital role in enlighting the knowledge of the people around the globe.

The 2006 football World Cup is coming to an end in a few days. This worldcup has given us some great results, upcoming players & what not.Some of the matches are memorable. Notable among them are Italy vs Australia match. I am sure Australia would have won the match, if there were no penalty.(Sure it was a bad luck for them). Even the England team didnot play well in this world cup. They won the first match against paraguay because of a self goal. This helped them to get 3 points.Among the major exits from from the first round are Korea, USA & the Check Republic. Even the Ukrain match in the 2nd round was very good. They played superbly. Among the african nations Ghana, Coasta Rica played well. This enlightens the world about the up & coming african football playing nation. Many people around the world had no idea Ghana would reach 2nd round in the world cup. Even the favourites Brazil didnot play well in the opening few matches. Ronaldo made a big comeback in the 2nd round. He became the highest goal scorer in the world cup surpassing muller. This should come as a big surprise to critics of Ronaldo for his overweight.The quarter finals is going to be a very interesting one. Notable among them are Germany vs Argentina & France vs Brazil. Whoever wins, this world cup is certainly very memorable. The next world cup will be in south africa. By then most the current players would have taken retirement from football. Many will be dreaming to play in the next world cup. Who will will this years golden boot? Will have to wait some more days to get answer to that question. I think the organizers should be praised for good arrangements. This is the sports which is viewed by everyone in the nook & corner of the world. We have six european countries & two South American countries in the quarter finals. The wait will be over in a few days………..!

I love the Malnad region (hassan, shimoga, c’maglur, etc) of karnataka very much. Every semester during my engineering days & MBA, my friends & I would go to Sringeri, Horanadu & other places. Of all the places in Malnad, I like Sringeri & Horanudu very much. Godess Sharada Temple is in Sringeri.Godess Sharada is the one who gives knowledge. Godess Annapurneshwari temple is in Horanadu. Godess Annapurneshwari is the one who gives food. The two towns are very small. Not big population. I like sitting by the river. I would sit for hours by the river enjoying the nature. In Horanadu, it is pin drop silence. Such a quite place. During rainy season it is even more beautiful. The whole place is covered in mist till 10? o clock. The food offered in temples is so tasty, that we can never get anything like that. Normally we would spend 2 to 3 days. Besides, the local people, their language, the coffee estates, the aroma of coffee & other species, the never ending rain, mist, the leeches & what not would make a great trip. This place is even ideal for trekking. Once we had gone for trekking from Sringeri to Horanadu. After trekking whole day, we had hardly covered 5 KM. While the actual distance is more than 50 KM by road. We got bitten by the Leach on the way. On the way, we lost the direction & found ourselves in a very difficult situation. A villager helped us to find the way.These 2 places give a sort of solace. In these places, one can find real enlightnment

As per Maslows’ hirarchy law, self actualization is the final step in mans’ needs. As if support to the law, we have seen many Industry titans getting into the Charity business. The Latest to join this list is Warren Buffet, the famed investor.He will be donating close to $40 billion to the Bill & Melinda gates foundation.He will become one of the biggest philanthropists in the history. Most of this he earned through his company Berkshire Hathway. With number of billionaires increasing in the US because of globalization, the Charity management has become a big business. Of course, the charities must be commanded for their excellent work in donating money for big causes like to AIDS, to fight Cancer, refugee problem, etc. One of the biggest charity work in the modern history started with the John.D. Rockefeller of standard oil fame.The Salaries of CEO’s of top US charity organizations are very high ranging to lakhs of dollars.These leaders’ salary equals saley offered for CEO’s of smaller to medium organizations. However to manage such huge charities they need efficient people & would naturally cost much. But understanding the motivation for charity work is bit difficult. After all, CEO’s are very good at making money, taking stock options & what not. Nobody would have expected Buffet would donate his billions of dollars to Charity. It has become a big news across the world. I guess, even in giving away money like this to charity, they must have a hidden agenda. Nobody would have remembered Rockefeller today because of Standard oil. Today most people would associate him with Rockefeller foundation than standard oil. It is because of the charity work he is remembered today. May be the Bill & Melinda gates (& now Warren Buffet ofcouse) foundation sponsored AIDS research work might succed in finding a cure for AIDS. May be one day, the future generation might remember Bill Gates, Buffet for charity work than their professioonal work

This football worldcup has proved to be an eyeopener for Indian sports.Countries like Toga, Trinidad & Tobago, with population of a few lakhs have advanced into world cup finals. This world cup football has enlightned many an Indians as to where we stand in sports compared to other countries. The GDP growth rate of these countries, technological development, human resources & what not is way beyond when compared with India. Inspite of good resources, high GDP growth, etc India still couldnot make into world cup finals. India stand at 117th position in world football rankings. Inspite of a country with a billion plus population what is the reason for India not gaining an entry into world cup?. Most of the major sports like tennis, swimming, football, cycling, athletics, etc in the world has more than 30 to 40 countries playing in it. Only Cricket is played by 10 to 12 countries. Out of it, hardly 6 to 7 countries are in the high rankings. Remaining 5 to 6 countries are still in the infant stage. Is this the reason why Cricket is the only sports in which indians excel playing against 5 to 6 good teams? Even playing against 5 to 6 teams they are tigers at home & outside India their performance is not consistent. While they fail to make a mark in other sports where one can find atleast some 20 good teams competeing. Some of the reasons like politics, reservation, no future for sportssters, less fund for training, red tapism, can be cited for the poor performance by Indians in sports. Many excellent sportsters of yesteryears are in a very bad condition today. Also we should stop giving too much media attention to sportsters once they acheive something. Sania Mirza is the classic example of this. After the adworld embraced her, she has hardly won any tournaments.(Forget about the grandslams!) Only a concerned effort by the government, sports organizations, NGO’s & citizens would bring improvement in Indian sports.