Indian General Election 2009 - My Predictions

The 15th general elections will be finally over tomorrow.
Elections, campaigning and most importantly fooling around with the voters will be over by 13th May. The parties will get into some serious business. Yeah real serious, horse trading.

Here go my predictions on what can happen on 16th May.
1> BJP will emerge as the single largest party. But they will not be able to or rather allowed to form the government. Because they are not secular.
2> The so called (Pseudo) secular forces will join hands.
3> This election will bring few surprises. One of them is Mr. Lalu's RJD will be almost wiped out. Lalu may lose his Chapra seat. So Lalu becomes almost invisible force and shouldn't be taken seriously.
4> Another surprise in waiting is Left will be routed from West Bengal. (Hope they don't resort to rigging at least this time). I feel LEFT parties are the most confused parties in India. They themselves do not know what they want, which direction they want to go. And what they really want in life. (Other than stopping BJP from coming to power).
5> Left will forget all ideologies. (Doubt if they have any). They will extend the Olive branch to Congress. Sweet excuse will be to keep the communal forces out of power.
6> Mayawati will garner somewhere around 30 seats. Yes, Elephant will grow bigger this time.
7> Samajwadi Party will get somewhere around 25 seats. Rampur will be lost to Congress for sure.
8> Jayalalitha is the dark horse in this election. Once the results are out Jaya will be the most sought after political leader. She will have around 30 seats with her.
9> Mr. Sharad Pawar who can utter few words such as 'Marathi Manoos', 'PM', 'Pantpradhan', 'Prime Minister' will have to continue daydreaming for a real long long time.
10>TDP will gain inroads to Andhra, but will fall short of stopping the congress from coming to Power in Andhra.
I feel UPA will garner all the required support, but it will have to give it’s claim on the PM Gaddi.
It sounds completely weird that SP and Maya will share the platform.
Left and TMC will be part of the same government,
Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi part of the same government,
Left supporting the same congress, whose support was withdrawn merely 6 months ago.

But appears like this is what is called politics. Yaha kuch bhi ho sakata hai.

The UPA numbers will somewhat look like the one given below.

Congress - 160
SP - 25
RJD - 5
DMK - 10
AIDMK - 30
BJD - 7
NCP - 11
TDP - 18
BSP - 30
Left - 30
TMC - 6
UPA - 332
NDA - 211

Other Interesting predictions

1> Manmohan will have to vacate the 7th Race course residence. I strongly feel Jayalalitha will become the PM.
2> Mr. Advani will have to retire from active politics as promised. Sorry, sir. PM chair was never meant for you.
3> Azam Khan will be expelled from SP.
4> Lalu prasad will be reduced to rabbles, back to his cow yard, so that he can spend more time with cows/buffalos.
5> and more importantly the government will not complete its full 5 year term. They somehow managed last time, but no one will have that much patience.

The Great Election Tamasha

It's election time. With 2 phases already down, almost 50% fates have already been sealed.
From the overall mood, doesn't look like any political party will have a clear majority this time as well. Obviously with 30+ regional/national parties, doesn't look like ever in future we will have a government formed by a single party. I guess those days are history.
In this election, I haven’t seen any single and concrete national issue. Barring few allegations here and there, there is no concrete issue on which the elections are being fought.

It's not that we do not have any issue. But I feel the problem is that we have plenty of them.
We have seen enough of terrorist attacks during last 4 years. We are going through severe recession. The economy is not doing great at all. Unemployment is rising. But we are still stuck with 1984 Sikh Riots, 2002 Gujarat riots. These issues are at centre stage. People are busy blaming each others for what happened in 1993 Babri Demolition. Parties are busy making statements against each other communities. And system is busy monitoring who has said what and then applying NSA for these statements. (ha ha ha - really funny to see Varun Gandi getting booked for hate speech, but Mr. Kasab is busy proving his age and may be innocence, NSA on Kasab???)

It's surprising to see that National security, internal security is not an issue a tall. No body talks about improving the overall standard of leavings. Development doesn't seem to be on anybody's agenda. People still take pride in distributing 2 kg rice and free television sets. And they are asking Votes for making a dalit’s beti as a prime minister of India, and the reason – to take UP and India to the global map.

Sri Lanka, a totally different country which is fighting with LTTE for well being of their own country and their own internal issues. But looks like we are concerned a. We seems to be worrying more about situation of their people than our own who are suffering right here in India. No one cares about the people who are suffering because of militancy.

Not even a single party has a concrete plan about economy revival (Just heard few hours about Dr. Manmohan Singh Talking about doing some magic in 100 days). No one talks about safeguarding our industries to overcome and pass through the worst economic crisis, employment creation, agricultural improvement etc. I didn't hear anyone talking about improving our education system and taking it to the next level. No vision of taking India from developing to Developed countries. May be I am expecting too much here. But Sixty years have already passed discussing the same issues. Will India ever improve? I really wonder, will we ever reach to that stage?

Now I really think. Whom shall I vote? And what shall I vote for?

Interesting Facts about Formula One Racing

1. F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!


2. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!


3. F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!


4. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...


5. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)


6. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.


7. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.


8. Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.


9. In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!


10. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.


11. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point.


12. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.


13. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.


14. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best 20grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

Note: Data compiled from available internet sources. Uploading the same to my blog for my reference. :-)

Wipro: Ex-World Bank CIO denies wrongdoing

Disclaimer - This article is not authored by me. It appeared in the 16th January edition of Rediff.

Wipro: Ex-World Bank official denies wrongdoing, Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC , January 16, 2009
It is bringing out certain facts about the way World Bank is going behind the debarring business. As far as Wipro was concenred, appears like it was a complete transparent deal and everything was being revealed. Even the WB CIO had declared the shares he purchased. He had paid out of his pocket. You read and decide.

Former World Bank Chief Information Officer Mohamed Vazir Muhsin, who is at the centre of the controversy that led to the Bank barring Indian IT majors Satyam [Get Quote] and Wipro [Get Quote] from bank contracts for eight and four years respectively, says he had no role in the awarding of multi-million dollar contracts to Satyam or the smaller contracts to Wipro.
The records, however, reveal that Mushin, 64, availed of these companies's shares at their Initial Public Offerings that led to the nearly seven-year investigation and conflict of interest charges.
Mushin's attorney Joshua Hochberg, in a statement provided to rediff India Abroad, said, 'At the time of his planned retirement in 2005, the World Bank began a review of Mr Mushsin concerning matters which are now more than eight years old.'
'Ultimately, no findings were made that Mr Muhsin interfered with Bank contracting. At all times, the Bank's comprehensive procurement policies and controls were followed. Mr Muhsin did not determine which companies were awarded contracts. Contracts were awarded through the independent central procurement department,' the statement said.
Hochberg also pointed out that, 'In addition, the Bank has stated that it "did not make any findings regarding abuse of position," and went on to state that 'Mr Muhsin made all financial disclosures required by him by the Bank which had a full opportunity to scrutinise his transactions.'
'He paid for all shares he purchased and reported them in line with the Bank disclosure policy,' Hochberg added in his statement.
The Bank, which barred Satyam in December, came out publicly on January 11, to state that it 'has decided to make public the names of all companies that have been debarred from receiving direct contracts from the Bank Group under its corporate procurement programme.'
It said 'the change was made in the interest of fairness and transparency,' and noted that 'this change aligns the disclosure practice for companies that provide goods and services directly to the Bank with the current policy governing procurement on Bank financed projects in developing countries.'
'In parallel with the Bank's disclosure of the names of companies and individuals debarred on Bank financed projects from now on, the Bank Group will publicly list the names of companies debarred from its corporate procurement,' the Bank said.
It said Satyam was barred for eight years from September 2008 for 'providing improper benefits to Bank staff and failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors.'
Wipro was barred for four years from June 2007 for 'providing improper benefits to Bank staff.'
A third Indian IT firm, Megasoft Consultants Ltd, was also barred for four years from December 2007, for 'participating in a joint venture with Bank staff while also conducting business with the Bank.'
Mushin, a Sri Lankan national, declined to be interviewed for this report, saying he was constrained because he is in litigation with the Bank and the basis of his challenge is that there have been leaks to the press by the Bank's investigation department in violation of Bank rules, and whatever he says publicly could prejudice his case.
Sources told rediff India Abroad that at the time the investigation was launched in 2005 against Mushin, during the tenure of then Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, the charge was about irregularities on procurement, and that Mushin in his capacity as CIO had issued sole source contracts to Satyam and as a result benefited from it as had other staff in his department.
Subsequently, allegations had also been leveled that he had bought Satyam and Wipro shares at the time they were seeking to do business with the Bank, and hence there was a conflict of interest. Aggravating this issue was apparently the belief that Mushin had not disclosed his stock holdings to the Bank.
Even though the Bank, which had held Mushin's retirement benefits and other reimbursements due to him in abeyance, returned all of this in 2007, it held that there was an appearance of conflict of interest because Mushin had bought shares from these companies. At this time, Mushin challenged the Bank's determination, saying that he had disclosed his shares.
Although the Bank first took the position that there had been no such disclosure, it later discovered that there indeed had been such a disclosure.
Sources close to Mushin have said he regrets the indiscretion of purchasing the shares that he did, and even though it was perfectly legal, it gave the perception of conflict of interest, that his buying them under the Friends and Family IPOs seemed as it was a quid pro quo by the two companies that had secured handsome Bank contracts.
The sources, however, asserted that Satyam's contracts worth nearly $100 million over a eight-year period with the Bank were publicly bid upon and that Satyam had come out tops among 13 participants.
Wipro's contracts were a fraction of Satyam's contracts -- about $900,000. Megasoft, which first conducted a study for the Bank worth $150,000, then had essentially done 'body shopping' for the Bank where it did staff augmentation for a total value of $14 million over a three-year period.
Wipro has said its representatives had offered the World Bank, through the Bank's CIO and staff, shares in Wipro's IPO in 2000, and that three World Bank staffers had purchased a total of 1,750 shares for about $72,000.
The company said the stock was part of what is called a directed share programme, which allowed Wipro employees and clients to purchase its American Depository Shares, which trade in the US stock exchange.
Wipro Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty was quoted as saying that 'if we knew (about the Bank's debarment policies) we wouldn't have done it.'
Company co-Chief Executive Officer Girish Paranjpe was quoted as saying that the alleged 'improper benefits' were not any form of illegal inducement and were in keeping with US law.
Satyam's and Wipro's ADRs were allocated by their US underwriters, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley respectively, under the Securities Exchange Commission's rules. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley allocated the shares to Mushin and other Bank staffers.

Satyam Fiasco - The Indian IT Tsunami.

I don’t need to drag here to set the context for my opening of the blog. We have the memories of the Tsunami still fresh in our minds, which swept us back in 2005 (If I am correct). Here I see around 50,000 + employees and thousands of Shareholders being swept away by the Raju’s Asatyam tide. I am discussing below what all should be done immediately on priority to project the thousands of Satyam employees whom I see as my colleagues next door.

Satyam was no fly by Night Company. It has a brand name and it took years for Raju to build the brand. Today Satyam is facing all sorts of irregularities and may be short of cash, but one of the biggest assets it has even today is the huge cost conscience customer base and highly talented employees. With my limited knowledge of Satyam business, I am aware of Satyam's low cost business model and the GE saga. Among the Indian IT providers, Satyam is one of the strongest SAP players in EAS (Enterprise Applications Solution) domain. Without basic level of quality it’s very difficult to retain the customers. I am convinced that all this can’t be a fraud. The laws will take it's own course of action against the management, but rehabilitation (yes rehabilitation) of the employees should be the top most priority for the government and other responsible corporate citizens. Raju had strong political connections. I am sure all must have reaped rich benefits from it as well. This is the opportunity to give it back to the society. Today everybody has some liabilities. Forget the long term liabilities; I am thinking if I don't get one month's salary what will happen. I just don’t want to think.

Today there is utter chaos not only among Satyam but overall IT industry. This should not have happened at worst time than this. For all of us the situation is not at all good as these are the times of worst ever slowdown. Customer has already tightened the noose. They are not investing in new initiatives, all existing investments are looked into and cuts are made wherever possible. We are literally struggling to hold on our existing projects and contracts.

I have heard about stories of customers just squeezing Satyam employees about everything. The employees are morally down and I don't think anybody will be in the best mood to search or get a job. May be 50% of the Junata may find another equal job or may even go with salary cuts. How about the rest? Even 15,000 – 20, 000 is a no small number. They have dependent families and have dreams over the shoulders. The layoffs and wind up is kind of new to India. We are not used to it like the America’s where companies get dwindled likes the Enron’s, Lehman’s etc. I guess they have well defined policies to handle and manage the unemployment. In India unemployment is still treated as matter of social shame.

This should not be treated as issue of only Satyam or it's employees. I may be overreacting, but is it not less than a national disaster?

Few things which come to my mind which are possible and should be tried.
1> All big corporate (Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, CTS) should immediately get into action and distribute and move the business units to their respective organizations. But everyone would like to have the bigger pie. They will treat this as a business opportunity. Not sure how much practical it is.
2> Stalwarts like Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani and others should take over Satyam. This will enhance the portfolio and give breadth to the business. The board of directors should be revamped. Ram Mynampati does not have big credentials today. He was the man behind World Bank disaster, all his investment strategies for Satyam failed. E should be kept away. New set of directors with totally fresh ideas need to be brought in. Rather than selling Satyam to foreign companies, it should remain with Indians.
3>If nothing works out, finally AP government or Central Government should just step in and take over Satyam immediately. Atleast they can do this to protect its citizens.
4>Nasscom should definitely step in and drive this.
Yes we should and they will get into the roots of this Satyam fiasco. It will take ages.

Spirit of Wipro Run - locationwise route maps

Wipro organizes Spirit of Wipro run every year across it's locations to rearticulate the Wipro values. It is open to all Wipro employees, it's partners, customers and families of the employees. Last year around 8500 participants particiated across various locations.

I have put together locationwise route maps, which may be useful.

Flash Slideshow

From leukemia to gold medal!!!

From leukemia to gold, Dutch swimmer wins 10-kilometer race

Courtesey - International Herald Tribune

Just came across an article from net. This is an absolute example of strong will power, and never give up attitude. The guy was diagnosed with one of the worst forms of cancer (Lukemia). But just with his sheer will power, he not only fought over the cancer , but won the gold medal at beijing. Read below.

Dutch swimmer Maarten van der Weijden skirted just inside the final red buoy to grab gold in the men's 10-kilometer open water race Thursday, completing a comeback after recovering from leukemia.
Van der Weijden won a three-way sprint in the inaugural event with a better-angled finish under a steady rain.
"I think the leukemia taught me to think step by step," Van der Weijden said. "When you're laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about next week or next month, you're only thinking about the next hour.
"You just be patient. You lay in your bed and just wait. It's almost the same strategy I've used here, to stay in the pack, to be patient, and stay easy just waiting for your chance."

"If there is anyone in the field that can beat me, that guy is an absolute legend," Davies said of van der Weijden. "He's a great guy. He's obviously been to the depths in his personal life and to come back is a great story. Lance Armstrong epic."

Van der Weijden was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001. He came back in 2003 and began swimming faster than before he had the disease. He now commits a large portion of his time to raising awareness for leukemia.
"Because of the treatment I got, the stem cell transplants, I had the luck to recover," Van der Weijden said. "The stem cell transplants are because of research worldwide for cancer. So everyone who donates money, donated money in the past, I'm grateful too or otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Mobile telephone numbering in India

Many times I recieve missed calls and really wonder atlist which region this call is from. Just out of curiosity searched the net and found out the following link on google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Cellphone_Numbering

This highlights all the prefixes used by Indian Cell phone providers in various regions.

Olympics and time to celebrate or introspect?

The world's greatest sports spectacle - the Summer Olympic Games 2008 will be over soon in Beijing on Friday. Indian officials are busy celebrating. The pressing question going around Delhi is whether they should really celebrate?
For one, a nation of a billion-plus people - the world's most populous democracy - has dispatched a small squad of 57 athletes (and 42 officials, in 2004 we had 227 officials with 75 athletes :-)) to the Games. In other words, with a total of 28 sports and 302 events to compete in, only a meager 57 Indians athletes were qualified and managed only 3 medals. Contrast this with the United States, which marched into Beijing with a powerhouse contingent of 596 athletes (106 medals). China had 639 (96 medals) and even tiny Estonia has 47 representatives (1 gold + 1silver). In terms of the total Olympic medal tallied, India ranks even behind Nigeria, a country whose economy is one-twentieth of its size.
Yet with 3 medals,the IOA is celebrating and busy taking the credit. Not that they should not be celebrating, but more than that, they should make a sincere attempt to sit down and introspect.

Why did we win only 3 medals? Why did we not win any team event? Forget winning we did not even quality for any of these event. Indian ruled hockey for decades and this year we couldn't even qualify for Olympics. Same is the story with other sports such as Soccer, basketball.

No one can take away the credit from Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh. They deserve what they have earned. It's only because of their hardwork and efforts, India could manage the individual medals. But one really wonders what IOA/Indian government contributed in their success.

Months before the Olympics, I read stories about the sub standard facilities provided for the Indian rowing team. The Badminton team didn't even have shuttles for practice sessions. (Abhinav Bindra had made his own investments in setting up the world class shooting range for practicing.) How can we expect them to compete against the world class athletes and then deliver?

Can we look at the below mentioned 5 Point formula to improve our state in Olympics?
1> Shift Focus -> We Indians need to take little focus away from Cricket and start focusing on other sports/games. Media should play a bigger role in this. Corporates to focus equally on all the sports. In fact Government should lay down policies for the cooperates so that they can spend equally on other sports as well.
2> Talent Hunt -> Organize leagues/championships on similar pattern as that of cricket leagues (Ranaji, IPL etc)
3> Corporate responsibilities -> Corporates to adopt one particular region and invest equally on all the sports in their respective regions. They should be given specifc targets in terms of Olympic medals. Based on the performance, SOPs/facilities to be extended to these Corporates.
4> Increased Sports Budget -> India's annual sports budget to be increased from a paltry $280 million (You know how much China's budget is $ 2 billion dollars). Also the budget should be properly utilized for getting best world class coaches, world class equipments etc.
5> Disciplined Sportsmen -> and equally important for the sportsmen to stay focused and not to get carried away by the little success and the endorsements.

If these initiatives are followed through there's no reason why a nation of billion-plus people cannot have more podium finishes at the Olympics.

But again we just talk, discuss and write about the situation. I am sure nothing will change in the coming years. Situation won't be much different for 2012 London Olympics thna today. Just praying if we can preserve the existing medals at least.

God please spare Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender at least from getting spoiled by the Reebok's, Pepsi's and the Adidas's.

I want to become Indian Member of Parliament(MP)

Till recently I used to feel very proud of my profession. I used to consider myself one among the lucky fews. But for past 1 week (since Prakash Karat withdrew the support), I have started feeling bit uneasy. Don't know but somehow I have started feeling that I chose the wrong profession. May be my dad, my relatives, cousins didn't guide me properly. During my childhood days, everybody just told me engineering, medicine, law were the best professions in the world. Pilot, IAS, IPS were professions for the super intelligent and super wealthy. I was told that irrespective of any field I choose, I had to study hard as none of the professions were so easy. Somehow myelf and my cousin decided to opt for engineering. We studied very hard, got the merti ranks and landed with the cream IT job. I was on top of the world with the thought of getting best salaries, foreign trips. Wow.

But damn, I am wrong. Till recently I didn't know that there was more lucrative profession (MP) which existed in India than my job. Why my parents didn't tell me about that???
I regret of not chosing the right , best profession. I am sad because I spent almost 15 precious years of my life studying very hard for the dream profession. But then I learnt that there was more lucrative, more powerful and on top of it more respected profession available right here in India. And the best part was the kind of hard work and effrorts I had put in were also not required. Isn't it fascinating??
Yes I have decided to change my profession. I have decided to become MP. Not just MP, Honorable Member of Parliament.

Today my job is not guaranteed. Whatever is my performance, if US economy doesn't do good, I am in trouble. After every appraisal cycle, I eagerly wait for the salary hikes. But once I become MP, my job will be assured for 5 big years. That's enough, isn't it? I will earn for my life if not for 7 lives.

My CTC will be something like this.
Monthly Salary: 12,000
Expense for Constitution per month: 10,000
Office expenditure per month: 14,000
Daily Bhatta during parliament meets : 500
Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train : Free(For any number of times - All over India)Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or PA)
Rent for MP hostel at Delhi: Free
Electricity costs at home: Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge: Free up to 1,70,000 calls.
TOTAL expense per year: 32,00,000
TOTAL expense for 5 years : 1,60,00,000
Even after I work for 40 years in my current job, I won't be able to earn the same. As MP that is just official white money. And what about .....

Again atleast once in 2-3 years there would have been some sort of unstability at the government. May be in the form of nuclear deal or some women's
reservation bill or some coalition partner just playing some fun (to pull down the government). Muah. wow. Each opportunity worth 25 crores.

Ha did I tell you one thing, I want to become an independent MP. No affiliation to any political party. I have realised that associating myself with my political party would just brong down my value. Else how can I earn 25 crores over night. How can I ask for coal ministry or how can I ask for naming some airport in my grand father's name.

As you all know , once I become minister, you can call me as scamsterfodder. Fodder scam, sugar scam, cement scam, bofors scam, shoe scam, saree scam, land scam. DI forget anything? I guess these are enough for 5 years.

Best part is, the profession is very much respected. I will be Honorable Minister of Parliament. All IAS, IPS officers at your service. Ambani's running behind you. what else one need?

My assignment in current profession is over and I am in free pool right now and available. If anyone of you have any vacancies anywhere as MP, just give me a call. I am ready. No location constraints as well. I am willing to take up any of the 543 constituencies. Please do it fast, before 22nd July. Else I may miss the bus and one big opportunity.

Jai Hind...