Hung Parliament and a crippled Nation in the coming Lok Sabha Polls

Last updated on: March 21, 2009 at 10:40 pm By Desh Kapoor

I see a conflicting election result.. Neither Congress nor BJP will get a complete majority.. and I see a re-election happening soon after as the coming in coalition will not survive. This is how we predicted the coming Lok Sabha Elections in our 2009 Annual predictions on Drishtikone. With Naveen Patnaik breaking off from BJP in Orissa, Trinamool breaking off with Congress and now RJD's rift with Congress; that prediction - without the use of any astrology, but rather simple common sense and basic analytical reading of the waves in politics; I may stress here - may well come out to be PRECISE! Congress and Laloo's RJD have broken up. At least as far as the Lok Sabha Polls are concerned. Although Laloo seems to have kept the avenue open for the alliance going forward. Read more

Sarfaroshi ki Tammana from Gulal

Last updated on: March 21, 2009 at 6:43 pm By Desh Kapoor

Just listened to this rendering of a variation of Sarfaroshi ki Tammana originally written by Ram Prasad Bismil during the freedom struggle. RP Bismil was a colleague of Bhagat Singh. It is probably one of the most recognized poems from that time. Ironically, this poet - who wrote this modern day variation, juxtaposes Bismil with Gandhi and his practice of making cotton and Khadi. Nice one anyways. Read more

Virginity rates by Course major

Last updated on: March 21, 2009 at 6:15 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is a rather interesting chart of how the students in the different departments fare in terms of virginity rates in Wellesley College. It is regarded as arguably the best women's college in the US. It also has a very diverse student population frm 66 countries and probably all 50 states. 0% of students with 'studio arts' major are virgins Virginity rates for Spanish major (43%) is much lower than virginity rates for English and French majors (50%) Nerds from Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics lose their virginity the least. Interestingly, the geeks in perhaps the toughest of them all "Computer Science" have an unusually high promiscuity! Do you agree with this picture? Read more

The Irony of Varun Gandhi

Last updated on: March 20, 2009 at 5:28 am By Desh Kapoor

Varun Gandhi is in the dock. He has been saying things on his campaign that would send shivers in any one's spine. We have had enough of hate filled massacres, let's not create another round of it. We need to get out of all this. A lot people have misgivings against others, and that's ok. But the right way is to do better than that incite the crowd to kill. People should be inspired to become better human beings. And strangely his anger was not just against the Muslims, but also Sikhs! In fact a 70 year old Sikh veteran of BJP was asked to leave one of the meets that Varun Gandhi addressed.[1] It must be really tough for this young man of 29, to carry a name that symbolizes power but with no rewards. All the rewards have gone to the heirs of the most unlikely son - Rajiv Gandhi! While heirs of Sanjay, who was called the heir apparent of Indira Gandhi, are languishing as rank "outsiders". Read more

Is Baar Nahin (Prasoon Joshi) by Desh

Last updated on: March 18, 2009 at 11:36 pm By Desh Kapoor

I found this poem by the famous Hindi Movies' lyricist Prasoon Joshi at Ritu Chandra's blog. I really liked it. It is written in the context of the Mumbai Attacks, I understand, and it also reflects my precise sentiments. This is EXACTLY how I felt during and after the Mumbai Attacks. Please take a listen. Listen to my other Audios and Audios of my own Writings Read more

"Nano" of the Artificial Hearts may come from Kolkatta after all

Last updated on: March 18, 2009 at 11:02 pm By Desh Kapoor

IIT Kharagpur has created in artificial heart surgery something akin to a $100 laptop or a Nano! The organization has devised an artificial heart that could cost around Rs 1 lakh (<$2000 at today's exchange rate). The current alternative costs Rs 30 lakhs (~$58000). Total Artificial Heart (TAH) has been created by the team of scientists at IIT-Kharagpur's school of medical science and technology. It has been tested on smaller animals and is being tested on goats before it can be used for humans. The human trials could start in a few months at Medical College and Hospital (MCH), Kolkata - once Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gives the go-ahead. Read more

Re-designed User Profiles on Drishtikone

Last updated on: March 18, 2009 at 7:27 am By Desh Kapoor

I have been eyeing a good way to show the User profiles better on Drishtikone. And finally I got the answer in Advanced Profile Kit module of Drupal. It is not easy to install and I have tried it before but it did not work. Now, it seems that the documentation is more uptodate and better written. The key to its installing were the rather excellent instructions on Drupal given by Michelle - the creator of the module. Of course, it will take me time to get my stuff to a point where she is but I have made a start. Over time I will take it there. The Panels module - that is installed as part of this process has some really incredible options.. which I intend to use (including drag and drop functionality). Read more

Congress Betrayal: How Nehru and Krishna Menon conspired against India in run upto the 1961 Indo-China War

Last updated on: March 17, 2009 at 12:42 pm By Desh Kapoor

VK Krishna Menon was one person who, while remaining under the wings of Nehru, could be considered as the person who probably defined the "Leftist" leanings of our polity and betrayed India's cause with his links to Soviets and the Chinese. Many prominent high level Ministers and leaders distrusted him at that time. In fact, Sardar Patel (who wanted him out of favor, but could not due to his proximity to Nehru) had appointed a spy on Menon in the UK office, Sudhir Ghosh, PRO at India House. Menon obviously was smart enough to get Ghosh out of UK soon.[2] During his UK days, Krishna Menon was involved in the "Jeep Scandal", which was the first attempt by an Indian politician (then a bureaucrat) to weaken the Indian Defense Forces for personal gain (and probably for that of his own Espionage masters - Communist, in this case). Jeep Scandal: VK Krishna Menon was the High Commissioner to UK, when the deal with a UK company was done to buy the Jeeps for the Indian Army. They were rejected by the Indian Army as they were sub standard. But they had to be used as they had been paid for. Due to the political and media pressure he resigned but was hired as the Union Defense Minister by Nehru. As soon as he became the Defense Minister, the case against the company which was the front, was dropped by the Government.[1] Read more

Slumdog and Indian businesses

Last updated on: March 16, 2009 at 7:22 am By Desh Kapoor

Was reading this very interesting Report from First Global on India's economic crisis. The author, Le Grand Fromage, talks about how once a rags-to-riches occurs, the person who makes that journey cannot adjust back to the "rags" situation - something that happened to the young Azhar (young Jamaal in "Slumdog Millionaire") - who is from a slum but got all the attention from the Oscars and went all the way to LA for Oscars and came back to his slum dwelling and couldn't sleep because of mosquitoes! Well, I have attached the report - which is a good read overall. But this is one bit of information that really shocked me (have put the most important part in bold). “Exposure to real estate alone was 175% of Net Worth for ICICI Bank, 180% for Axis Bank and 88% for HDFC Bank…and this was after the serial fund-raisings by all of them..…plus there was significant exposure to other cyclicals like steel, textiles, et al. Unsecured loans were (and probably still are) are between 112-165% of tangible networth. Total Sensitive Sector exposure + Unsecured lending, of these banks is: 305% of Tangible Net Worth for ICICI Bank; Axis Bank has the same ratio at 316% of Tangible Net Worth; and HDFC Bank, 292% of Tangible Net Worth. Sensitive Sectors are Real Estate and related sectors + Capital Markets”. Read more

Hillary's Asia Visit and the lessons for India

Last updated on: March 16, 2009 at 6:08 am By Desh Kapoor

HIllary Clinton's visit somehow has gone un-noticed in the large Desi press, which is surprising. For, this visit revealed more than all the eloquence of Obama did. It fundamentally underscores that the geo-political and economic considerations of post-Bush era may be pushing the Indo-US relationship on the back-burner. The countries visited were Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and China. All important countries (Indonesia for the Islamic relationship), but India was missing. And many commentators are pointing that out. Begging in China? But it is not where she went that is of importance. But what she said. In China, you could see her almost servile statement bordering on begging the Chinese to keep the US treasuries in hand and not to "rock the boat". This came at a time when the US Dollar is rising.. and is considered a "safe haven". At least for now. If I were an investor, and listened to Hillary, I would start shorting the US Dollar. Because you don't go to an investor to make a case for a "blue chip". You make a case for a thing that is not really strong fundamentally. This is one aspect. But it also speaks volumes of where that relationship between US and China may go towards. The "India as a China counterweight" policy is probably safely out of the window in the Obama echelons by now. Read more