Feb

28

Caregivers to the universe

February 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s union budget saw a few changes to the allocation of financial resources for the health crises in India.


The tricky part with healthcare resource allocation is the unexpected and aggressive nature of the enemies of health. Polio which is making a comeback (scary, scary), HIV/AIDS (India now has probably more cases than Africa), lifestyle diseases (thanks to the rapidly changing lifestyles) - the list doesn’t just stop there.

There is, however, one novel and creative way for India to tap into the much needed financial resources for healthcare. True, India’s healthcare system is burdened with some urgent issues. But India has the world’s largest resource and reserve of able and competent healthcare practitioners scattered throughout India and outside. A well-designed and well executed plan for medical tourism can consistently pour in tremendous amounts of extra cash into the Indian healthcare system:-

  1. a few world class centers for specialised disease treatments or surgical procedures,
  2. a much needed hospice care system (India has a large base of domestic help available that can serve as a para-clinical support system),
  3. generic drug factories that can cut down the treatment costs

The IT boom that has been Indian economy’s engine is not going to last forever. In fact, it is not going to last longer than a few more years. India needs a healthcare business strategy that goes way beyond a loose and weakly reactive domestic health policy. We need a self-powered and a self-sustainable healthcare engine that can make us the caregiver haven for the rest of the globe.

Feb

28

A thought for your penny!

February 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

The crash of the chinese financial markets yesterday ended up with a domino effect causing a precipitous drop in the New York market as well. 24 hours later, the chinese market bounced back, but investors all over the world awaken today to a new reality of the globalisation. Financial centers all over the world are not islands any more, and any cause for panic in Shanghai or in Tokyo or in London can drench the New York investor in sweat even before the planet has had the necessary time to rotate around itself and the sun. To be inside the domino board, or to be a domino oneself, is very very a scary thought for anyone who is in the market for money. For anyone who’s in there for excitement, spookier moments are sure to lurking nearby.

While we are on the subject, the capacity of Indian markets to cause such ripple effects around the globe is as yet untested. India’s new financial status injects a unique vulnerability in the global market that has so far gone unnoticed. If the New York investor can go so postal, the global markets haven’t yet seen how the mob psychology works on the streets of Mumbai! Just a thought for your penny!

Feb

28

Ebay sightings

February 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

This beautiful statue of Ganesha taking a stroll is for sale on ebay here.



Abraham Licoln 100th death anniversary stamp issued by India - for sale on ebay here.



India vs Pakistan World cup tickets - for sale on ebay here.



Feb

28

Lax habits and coarse manners

February 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Jade Goody, UK’s TV reality show contestant (Big Brother) is visiting India. Goody, who faced accusations of racism and bullying and ill-treating her fellow contestant (the eventual winner of the show - Shilpa Shetty), is on a mission to redeem her good name by visiting India’s slum children and by donating to Indian charities.

Goody’s antics on the UK reality show created a firestorm in India and temporarily re-ignited the issue of racism. For past few hundred years, India and Britain have shared a strange and unique history where the relations between the two countries have come a full circle, and then again doing a few 180s.

In 1859, Sir John William Kaye wrote a historical narrative of Christianity in India. At the end of his almost 500-page book, this is what he concluded:

“..at the commencement of their career in India, the English in India were licentious and irreligious; and that the un-christian lives of those early settlers wrought mightily to the prejudice of Christianity, by blackening its face in the eyes of the natives of the country. But the lax habits and coarse manners of those exiles were importations from the mother country…”

Almost one hundred and fifty years later, Jade Goody’s behavior on the Big Brother show, demonstrated that the basic perceptions amongst the people of the two countries have really not changed that much. Thankfully, her proactive and positive PR campaign in India will generally be received with India’s hallmark grace and class! At this very minute, the poorest of poor Indians are probably showing the multimillionairess, that grace and human dignity have nothing to do with color, race and nationality. Nothing at all.

Feb

27

You can rest in peace, Ramanujan

February 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Srinivasa Ramanujan, India’s famous mathematical genius of the last century, recorded his mathematical inventions in loose leaf notebooks, 4 of which have been found so far. The last one that contained Ramanujan’s thoughts during the last days of his life, was found in 1976, but had some beginning pages missing. Those missing pages harbored a mathematical mystery that has baffled the mathematicians for last 30 years. Unitl now that is.

…Mathematicians have finally laid to rest the legendary mystery surrounding an elusive group of numerical expressions known as the “mock theta functions.”

Number theorists have struggled to understand the functions ever since the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan first alluded to them in a letter written on his deathbed, in 1920…..

…..What made mock theta functions all the more inscrutable was the fact that the first few pages of Ramanujan’s letter were lost. Those pages may have contained more clues, but in their absence, the letter merely presented 17 examples of the functions. What’s missing is any definition of what the functions are, any hints on how to derive them, and any indication of why they are even important. All those secrets died with Ramanujan just two months after he wrote the letter, when he succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of 32.

“Imagine stringing together a thousand random words and then saying you’ve come up with the most beautiful poetry,” says Ono. “That’s essentially what Ramanujan did to us….”

Feb

27

Jay Jawaan Jay Nissan

February 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Japanese automaker Nissan is partnering with the French Renault and Indian auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra to build almost a billion dollar assembly plant in India. Once it is open in 2009, the plant will produce about 400,000 vehicles a year.

Nissan is only the latest newcomer amongst several international auto giants jumping on the bandwagon of the exploding Indian consumer market. In another 3 years, the number of cars on Indian roads is expected to double. That number would quadruple by 2015. Analyst reports suggest that the number of cars in India would overtake that in the USA by 2050!

With world’s largest population (most probably), and world’s largest automobile fleet, life in 2050 would probably be a litle too fast and furious. Hopefully, the global supply of oil won’t dry up by then. Otherwise, India will be left with the world’s largest chunk of metal scrap garbage!

Feb

26

A fistful of rupees

February 26, 2007 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Watching the likes of Clint Eastwood at the Oscars last night, one cannot help pondering about the careers of India’s megastars like big B. Starting his career on television in the mid-1950s, Eastwood has parlayed his immense fame into directorial venture, producing/directing some of the best movies of the last few decades. Eastwood skyrocketed to superstardom with Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western - Fistful of Dollars (1964). Thirty years later, he produced and directed a dark western Unforgiven. 10 years after that (2004) he produced/directed another award winning film (Million Dollar Baby). This year, he is coming back as Dirty Harry, the famous San Francisco detective. For last 50 years, Eastwood seems to be growing and maturing as an actor, director while influencing the world cinema in a very unique way.

Amitabh Bachchan started his amazing career in Bollywood around 1970, wowing audiences with his calm demeanor in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films. His superstardom came with the angry action hero image of Namak Haram, Zanjeer and Deewar. Sholay - a bollywood copy of the spaghetti westerns crystallised Mr Bachchan’s place in India’s cinematic history. But unlike Clint Eastwood, Amitabh Bachchan’s career seems to have taken a different turn. Whether it is because of his own choosing or because of the different working style of Bollywood, India’s megastar has never been perceived as pushing the artistic envelope of Indian cinema or using his clout to give a new direction to Bollywood.

These days, big B is seen in commercial advertisements on TV, hosting TV shows, singing playback songs, etc. It is Indian cinema’s greatest misfortune and a sad reflection on the sensibilities of Indian moviegoers that one of our truly great artistic geniuses has for some reason had to choose this route - The route of a fistful of rupees over one that would’ve built a unique and an exemplary cinematic legacy for the Indian and world cinema.

Feb

25

Nominations for funniest foreign film category

February 25, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

If only Oscars had a funny films category! India would probably not only win all the nominations, India will RULE that category! Here are my nominations for the funniest foreign film. For an out-of-this world experience, you can try playing multiple movies at once.

Feb

24

Watershed at Oscars for India?

February 24, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Tomorrow night, the royalty of Hollywood will gather to honor the best performances of 2006. For the 4th time in last fifty years, an Indian film is competing for the ‘best foreign film’ entry. Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’ had almost drowned in controversy, but now sees a reversal of fortune with a possible shot at the gloden statue.

Prior to Water, only three Bollywood films - Mother India(1957), Salaam Bombay (1988), and Lagaan (2001) had made it to the Oscar nominations. India definitely has the bragging rights as the place that makes more movies than any other country on the planet. But a look at the Oscar nominations shows that India ranks very low in the list of award winners. France(34), Italy(27), Spain(19), Germany(15) and Sweden(14) top with maximum nominations. Italy(10) and France(9) won the maximum number of times.

The last of Deepa Mehta’s trilogy of films (Fire, Earth & Water) , Water explores the plight of widows in the early 20th century-India. The film has won critical acclain and earned rave reviews, but will face very strong competition from the Mexican and German entries this year.

Is it a coincidence that all the Indian entries that have reached the nomination stage have portrayed plights of Indians at one time or another. It was the plight of farmers in Mother India and Lagaan, Salaam Bombay explored the plight of Bombay’s street children and now it is the plight of the widows.

Then here are a few ideas for new storylines of potential nominess from India-

Whether Water ends India’s Oscar drought or not, there should be no dearth of plights where we live. Here we come, Oscars!

Feb

23

Will the Walmart model work in India?

February 23, 2007 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

Walmart’s vice chairman Michael Duke recently spent some time in India exploring the Walmart-Bharti venture. With all the buzz about India’s trillion dollar emerging market potential, it is no wonder that Walmart would sooner or later enter the land of the exotic. It already has a presence in China, and in several other countries outside of the United States. So it will be a fair statement to make that Walmart executives have a more than vast experience of the issues with localising the Walmart brand globally.

Will the Walmart model work in India? Truth is it may or may not. Nobody can tell. With most other countries, one could. With India, one can’t. Walmart’s success is based as much on technological and logistical brillance as on luring consumers with super low pricing.

In the United States, Walmart has several thousand trucks traversing the highways 24/7, steamrolling the supply chain magic. It has consumers who are willing to drive several miles to reach the nearest Walmart in order to save a few bucks. It has an iron grip on the consumers in the lower or middle income brackets.

In India, Walmart’s trucking magic will not work. India’s highways won’t allow that. The price-conscious Indian consumer will probably not be willing to make 20-30 mile trips to the local walmarts like their counterparts in the states. And most importantly, millions and millions of small business owners will make a last-ditch effort to not allow Walmart put them out of business.

What will happen is anyone’s guess. If Walmart succeeds, it will surely revolutionise the retail logistics in the subcontinent. It won’t be long before every item in every Indian store will have RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags telling the Walmart computer almost the blood pressure and pulse rates of consumers buying items at the Walmart stores. Reciprocally, India might revolutionaise the Walmart stores all over the planet as well - with Tabasco hot sauce shelves replaced with Priya pickles and ‘Friends’ and ‘Housewives’ DVDs replaced with Indian TV soaps and Bollywood dance parties!

Feb

22

Pushing the envelope, one melody at a time

February 22, 2007 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

A lot of Indian Americans have been watching Fox’s American Idol show this year for a special reason. Two Indian teenagers, a brother & sister pair made it to Hollywood, and the 17-yr old brother - Sanjaya Malakar made it to the final 24. Tall and lanky, Sanjaya’s smile and hair could easily pass him off as a Zakir Hussain look-alike. On February 20th, Sanjaya gave yet another good performance singing Stevie Wonder’s Knocks Me Off My Feet. But making it to the last 12 will be a tough act. There is fierce competition to Sanjaya and other boys from a very talented group of girls who showcased their exceptional singling talents in last night’s program.

Sanjaya will be lucky to make to the final 12, considering that he didn’t get rave reviews from the judges, and it probably wasn’t his best performance at the idols this year. But Sanjaya need not worry. He is smart, charming, talented, comes from a musical family (his father is a classically trained indian musician), and will have lots and lots of opportunities ahead.

Norah Jones, (Ravi Shankar’s daughter) another young Indian American singer with a father classically trained in music has already made it big. Sanjaya and his sister Shyamali may not be far behind. With one Indian American walking in space above, and another one charming the musical universe, Indian Americans are slowly pushing the envelope, even if it’s just a little bit at a time.

Feb

22

Only in India

February 22, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

If you haven’t watched it yet, you don’t want to miss this very very funny clip ‘Welcome to India’ (based on ‘welcome to atlanta by Ludacris) by - yes, Ludakrishna!


Here are the lyrics and the MP3 version.

Up for some more laughs? This time it’s a parody of Michael Jackson’s thriller - India style!

If you’re a Simpsons fan, then you’ll enjoy this one too:

Singhsons, not Simpsons

Feb

21

Give Sanjay Dutt a break!

February 21, 2007 posted by indiatime | 6 Comments

Sanjay Dutt, Bollywood’s hit hero, has spent most of his time last year commuting to and from the courts in Mumbai. More than 13 years ago, Mumbai police found two guns or rifles in his house, and Mr Dutt couldn’t produce any legal permit to keep them. He was arrested and put in jail for a while. Now 13 years later, it is judgement time for him, but the case has stretched and dragged for far too long. Thirteen years ago, Sanjay Dutt had a few successful films to his credit, but within the last several years, his hard work and perseverance paid off making him Bollywood’s famous ‘Munnabhai’ - a likeable gangster character that has now made him a household name.

Salman Khan, another one of Bollywood heartthrobs has been at the center of a lot of controversies including alleged reckless driving leading to vehicular homicide, endangerment of protected animals, and a few more.

Any conventional justice meted out to such famous personalities can do little to address the underlying problems or issues. If the justice is too lenient, they would probably end up paying some fines amounting to something that they can make in a few hours. If the justice is too tough, we have these exceptionally talented individuals rotting in jails which would rather be hosting criminal mafiosos, and real life gangsters.

The best solution would be to have these individuals pay up a substantial punitive damage to the victims wherever that is relevant, and then to involve them in community service to educate the masses that adore them. Sanjay Dutt’s or Salman’s time is better served on the silver screen where they can influence the lives of crores of youngsters in a positive and uplifting way. Sanjay Dutt has already demonstrated such influence through the Munnabhai series of films.

Feb

20

The (fake) Gods of Cricket

February 20, 2007 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Prime Minister  Manmohan Singh put a spotlight on a much neglected issue in India yesterday - sports! At the opening of the 33rd National games, Mr Singh challenged business sponsors to show some respect to the rest of the sports in the country.  He asked the coaches and authorities to focus on regaining India’s lost stature in events like Hockey and Tennis. (The chairman of the Indian Olympic Association later commented that India still needed foreign coaches and better accomodations for sports personalities.)

Cricket remains the only sports that gets attention, money, fame, adulation and worship in India. India’s national circket team also gets foreign coaches (the current coach is a former Australian superstar cricketer), foreign physiotherapists - (funny thing considering the large number of Indian physiotherapists immigrating to the US - probably because they can’t find jobs with their local cricket teams!) etc. etc. In spite of millions dollar payouts to the individual sports heroes, India still hasn’t managed to make it to the top of the cricketing world. The local heroes (often nicknamed lion of this state, tiger of that state, jaguar of some region and cougar of some other region) often perform poorly in international games and seldom justify their reputations. They might show some spark if and only if their place on the team is threatened due to non-performance.

One sporadic performance here and there once again earns these cricketing heroes a few more years of deityhood, the godly pedestal afforded to everyone in cricketing world, bollywood or politics. For hundreds of thousands of other sportsmen and sportswomen in India, life is very very hard. They have to find their own financial sponsorships, coaching, everything. And they only have a few years to do this as long as their physical skills are at a peak. For last hundred years,  while the cricketing gods of India hogged all the limelight and money and media time, countless other sports talents in India were forgotten, neglected, and left to live and die in dire poverty.

India has one of the most pathetic records of any nation in the olympic history. Not because we don’t have good sports talent. Not because we don’t have foreign coaches. Let us first throw out the ministers of sports in each and every state out for non-performance. Or better yet, have them run a 100 meters dash under one minute (how much more lenient can one get?). If they survive, then we send them home. 

One of the worst aspects on Indianism is the pathologically severest forms of adulation accorded to personalities perceived as heroes in India. Someone is the God on the on-side, someone on the off-side of the cricket ground. God of this, god of that, doesn’t India have too many of them already?

Feb

19

Peace Train Shattered

February 19, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Panipat is a cursed land. My high school history teacher used to say that the land of Haryana was fertile because it had absorbed a lot more blood than rainwater. Thousands of years ago, Panipat was the scene of India’s mother of all wars - the great war of Mahabharata. In the second millenium, it was the scene of the three of the bloodiest battles ever faught in India - battles that rewrote India’s history. In 1526, 1556, and 1761, Panipat witnessed Indians fighting the invading armies from the northwest. The defeat of the Maratha army in the last battle of 1761 paved way for the downfall of the Maratha empire, setting the stage for a 150-year British rule.

Early this morning, bombs exploded in 2 cars of the Samjhauta Express (The biweekly Peace Train that travels between India and Pakistan) near Panipat, killng at least 70 people and injuring dozens more. Indian authorities investigating the incidence have so far found signs of explosives, gasoline, pipe bombs. The dream of the Peace Train - the train travesing the great barriers of race and religion - looks more like a pipe dream this morning.

keep looking »

Search

 


Translations




Most visited

Hollywood’s first Indian star
Meeting Raj Kapoor at the barbershop
Madhubala on a postal stamp
Why I’m happier than Mukesh Ambani
An inconvenient truth about India’s intellectual property
UFOs may be ‘idlis’ but time travels only in ‘medu-wadas’
Dr Singh is no Dr King
Lesser Known Indians
The Most ‘Nobel’ Teacher of Them All
The third Indian revered in China
A little Poland in India
The vanishing of Indian languages
The looting of Chandigarh’s treasures
Bharat, Pakistan and Hindustan, Indiana
Welcome to India, Steve!
Top 5 explanations for the president’s gesture
An IIT on every street, an IIM on every block
Pakistan, Jinnah, Wadias and the American anthem
An IAS officer’s nightmare of lustful, lascivious stares comes true