Saturday

Old wine,new bottle!

Yet another traffic fines-related scandal in Italy. This time the lights were rigged to change faster from amber to red, forcing more motorists to jump red lights.

Friday

Bored with your child watching the same DVD everyday?

Don't worry about it. According to research, it may actually be helping him/her to exercise their mind. Read here for more.

Thursday

गांधीगिरी/Gandhigiri

To figure out just how much the world misses a leader of Mahatma Gandhi's stature, click here. The Internet has almost every written, spoken and filmed resource about a freedom fighter, philosopher, author, guide and mentor, 61 years after his death today. Sarojini Naidu once endearingly called Gandhi as Mickey Mouse because of his big ears, He would have been much amused to find that almost everything he did or said is only a mouse click away!

Bailing out the rich

A public service TV ad for the World Food Program by actor Sean Penn puts bail-outs in perspective. But before watching the video read about what is happening with millions of dollars that the US government doled out to save the banking system.


Wednesday

The other side of progress

India and especially Hyderabad is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical hubs in the world. Major generic manufacturers have set up units and products are sold worldwide. However, effluent disposal by these factories has become a serious ecological concern. This report highlights the presence of as many as 21 chemically active ingredients in waters near Patancheru, near Hyderabad. It is a serious issue on two counts - pollution and the risk of drug resistant micro-organisms developing and spreading to other areas.

A must read for frequent flyers

A complaint letter to Sir Richard Branson, chief of Virgin Airlines, with a full description of the airline food and entertainment quality. Enjoy!

Tuesday

More about India's lobbying- bravo!

Foreign Policy magazine describes the intense lobbying by diplomats and others to keep India out of Holbrooke's portfolio. Job well done! The idea that the situation in Kashmir could be compared to that in Afghanistan is absurd enough to be laughable. More so, after the 60%+ turnout in last month's Assembly elections in J & K.

Monday

मिले सुर मेरा तुम्हारा!

On the occasion of Republic Day, a celebration of our diversity and a reminder of what we are!

Saturday

Why lobbying is good!

From the International Herald Tribune on 22 January:
'Richard Holbrooke, a former United Nations ambassador, was chosen Thursday for the post of special envoy to Pakistan and India.'
What Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State, actually said:
'I have the great personal pleasure of introducing the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Holbrooke will coordinate across the entire government an effort to achieve United States' strategic goals in the region.'

Friday

When regulation is good

Arvind Panagariya at Columbia University analyzes how foresight and strict Reserve Bank of India regulations have helped domestic financial markets to stave off serious trouble.

'(RBI governor) Reddy is reported to have held the view that if bankers were given the opportunity to sin, they would. As a result, whereas banks and financial institutions around the world were massively lured into investing in assets and derivatives backed by U.S. subprime mortgages, banks and financial institutions in India were largely kept out of them. Under the watchful eye of Reddy, only $1 billion out of India's total banking assets of more than $500 billion slipped into toxic assets or related investments. When the crisis came and financial institutions around the world found themselves writing off almost $1 trillion in assets from their books, Indian banks had at most a few hiccups.'

Read the full article here.

Thursday

Book your holiday to Venice, online

The city of Venice is will soon open an online booking service that will give tourists advance booking discounts for their holidays. From February 1, 2009 visitors will be able to book tickets at the prime attractions - the Correr Museum and the Ducal Palace- as well as city-edge parking space and bus and vaporetto rides.Using color codes for days (red-crowded, blue-medium and green-empty), visitors will be able to book convenient days and pay reduced prices. For instance,on green days, a typical three-day package for two people will cost 209.30 euros online compared to 247 if paid after arrival - a saving of 31.70 euros. Bookmark this link, http://www.veniceconnected.com/, next month.

Wednesday

Cars and more cars!

This slide show from the Guardian newspaper gives a picture of where the car industry all over the world is stuck today - in dockyards, warehouses and storage lots. Outputs, sometimes, do not translate into outcomes.

Tuesday

Creating history and facing up to a challenge


This cartoon from the ©Boston Globe says it all.

Fashion wars

Two famous names in haute couture drew daggers at the Milan fashion week. The deterrent nature of the new quilted trousers, on which the dispute centered, probably prevented any further escalation of hostilities!

Monday

Clear Cut Chronicle

Deccan Chronicle, arguably India's most juicy mainstream newspaper, has re-organized its website. To assist the reader, it has divided its news into two sections - Good and Bad.
Take your pick. Happy Reading!

Friday

Traffic intersection 1

Rome is full of delightfully crazy traffic junctions. Here is the one right in the heart of thehistoric centre, Piazza Venezia. Enjoy watching but drive carefully when you are there!

The gladiators are coming back!

Rome's director of archaeology is planning to stage gladiator battles in the Colosseum in full fighting regalia. No ugly finishes, of course, more a taste of genuine combat.

Thursday

Journeys of the Spirit Festival

The city of Rome is making an effort to re-establish its spiritual leadership of all religions. A 4 day festival called the 'Journeys of the Spirit' begins today. For more event information, go to this site.

Wednesday

विलंब/In ritardo/delay

3 Indian airports - New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru - and one Italian airport -Bergamo - are among the top 5 most-delayed airports. If other airports think they are in the comfort zone, think again - swanky, glitzy and hyper disciplined Beijing is in 6th place. Tourist hotspots Rome, Athens, Paris, Venice and London complete the roll of honour. More detail here.

Tuesday

Accomodation in Rome

There have been a lot queries of late on finding suitable apartments and houses for short and long term stays. A new list of links has been added to facilitate new arrivals in Rome.

Monday

Is Google warming the globe?

A physicist at Harvard has calculated how much carbon monoxide each Google search emits. Considering the number of searches carried out each day, the Internet must be really smoky! Oops! Even this blog is on a Google associated site.

Saturday

Blow by blow account

The story behind the Mumbai 26/11 pieced from the Indian government's dossier by Outlook. Also a white paper on fighting the war on terrorism by India Today. The bottomline - beef up India's defence and intelligence, no point waiting for other countries to act in a positive way.
The New York Times analyzes in detail on what could be a huge challenge for President-elect Obama.

Thursday

Feel free to make copies

Apple has announced that that it will remove restrictions on copying songs bought from its popular iTunes Store. Record companies will now be able to to set a range of prices instead of the standard 99c. Apart from allowing music lovers to share and exchange songs, it enables iPod geeks to focus on more pressing matters instead of finding convoluted ways and means to copy songs.

Wednesday

Satyam - the oxymoron!

Satyam means truth in many Indian languages. Ironically, the IT company of the same name has chosen to interpret it in the reverse sense. Ergo! a princely sum of Rs.5000 crores is declared non-existent. Read more here. Bigger than the financial damage, is the loss of face for India-based service companies.

Do you Tweet?

Blogs were the quickest way of expressing viewpoints in 2008, but this year the speed communication award is likely to go to Twitter. It is fast, accessible by mobile phone and messages are limited to 140 characters just like SMSes. Check out these Tweets about cricket and politics, for instance. Blogs, in turn, are rapidly evolving to become detailed and analytical webzines. A year is a long time on the Internet.