Youtube Blocked in Pakistan
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According to emerging reports, it seems Youtube has been banned in Pakistan. Variety of reasons are being offered as to the reasons of banning this popular videos website - starting from blasphemous material on line to showing material considered morally objectionable in an orthodox society like Pakistan’s.
Finding The Funny In Outsourcing - LA Times
LA Times has an interesting story on a newbie Indian cartoonist Sandeep Sood. He is the creator of Doubtsourcing, a comic strip trying to show the funny side of outsourcing. The fodder for the strip is the misunderstanding which usually takes place when the work is carried out thousands of miles away, culture clash etc. The strip itself is partially outsourced, Sandeep writes the dialogue and a friend in China does the illustration.
Dark Side Of Outsourcing
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — The job came with a good salary, and good perks. But, 26-year-old Vaibhav Vats will tell you, it was doing him no good. His weight had grown to 265 pounds and he was missing out on social life as he worked long overnight hours at a call center. Eventually, he quit.
“You are making nice money. But the tradeoff is also big,” said Vats, who spent nearly two years at IBM Corp.’s call center arm in India, answering customer calls from the United States.
Call centers and other outsourced businesses such as software writing, medical transcription and back-office work employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who make much more than their contemporaries in most other professions.
They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys.
The Most Favorite’d Blogs On The Web
(Pic: 3/5 of Boing Boing. Courtesy - Laughing Squid)
Blogs which created the biggest splash in the webdom. These are the rock and roll guys of the blog world.
Don’t like any of these blogs or if one you really like got left out, let us know in the comments section.
# 1. Boing Boing
Boing Boing is a weblog of cultural curiosities and interesting technologies. It’s the most popular blog in the world, as ranked by Technorati.com, and won the Lifetime Achievement and Best Group Blog awards at the 2006 Bloggies ceremony.
* By Mark Frauenfelder
* http://www.boingboing.net
* 3,165 members have made this a Favorite
Industry Leader See Rupee At 35 To A Dollar
The Indian industry should brace itself for a strong rupee, as the currency could strengthen by Re 1 to Rs 2 against the US dollar, and must diversify its revenue base, ICICI Bank [Get Quote] chief executive officer K V Kamath has said.
“The strengthening of the rupee is a long-run challenge. Rather than fight it, corporate India should prepare for the day,” Kamath, who was named the Forbes Asia Businessman of the Year, said on Wednesday.
The banker, who has been credited for ICICI’s growth, felt the industry should not wait for the government to step in.
“My message is: Prepare for a strong rupee, the industry has to help itself and cannot keep relying on others to help,” Kamath said.
Two Indian Doctoral Students Shot Dead on LSU Campus
(A TOI Report)
WASHINGTON: Two Indian Ph.D students were found shot dead in an apartment in Louisiana State University in what authorities said was a home break-in.
The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both doctoral students from Andhra Pradesh, were found inside Allam’s apartment in the university campus late Thursday night after authorities received a call seeking medical attention.
The 911 call was made by Allam’s pregnant wife, who returned home and found the men dead. Authorities said both men had been shot in the head once in what is described as an area with one of the highest crime rates in the city.
Komma, who was studying biochemistry, was found bound with a computer cable, while Allam, who was in the chemistry programme, was near the front door. Initial reports said nothing appears to have been stolen from the house.
The incident stunned the LSU campus, which had a large contingent of Indian students. Louisiana is the home state of Bobby Jindal, the recently elected Governor who is of Indian origin. LSU’s law school dean for many years was Bhisham Agnihotri, who was a special envoy for overseas Indians under the NDA government.
Business Leaders, India’s New Hot Export
– ELLEN SIMON
NEW YORK (AP) — The ascension of Indian-born leaders like Vikram Pandit, the new CEO of Citigroup Inc., tracks the economic rise of their home country, once seen by U.S. business as a large market and a source of low-cost technology workers, now viewed as a business power that rivals the U.S. in some industries.
The change is visible on the board of the U.S.-India Business Council, once comprised only of executives from U.S. companies doing business in India. Now, the board includes executives from global companies with business in India, Indian-Americans heading global businesses and Indian companies with interest in the U.S.
Board members include Arun Kumar, head partner at KPMG International, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo Inc. and Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions, an outsourcing company that bills itself as “the best of both worlds.”
ArcelorMittal has grown into the world’s largest steelmaker, offering $1.65 billion Friday for the remaining shares of Chinese steelmaker China Oriental Group Co. it doesn’t already own. While the company is based in the Netherlands, its Indian CEO and founder, Lakshmi Mittal, controls nearly half its shares.
Satyam Becomes FIFA Sponsor
LONDON: The recent announcement by Indian IT firm Satyam that it is to become the fourth global sponsor of the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups may have come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the company. But brand experts predict that its relative anonymity will be short-lived as a result of the deal.
“While Tier I companies, such as Coca-Cola, use sponsorship to reward their customers loyalty, sponsorship can also be an effective strategy for Tier II companies to raise awareness and advocacy levels at the start of the purchase funnel,” says Iain Ellwood, head of strategy at Interbrand.
He adds that partnering with high-profile events such as the Olympic Games, Formula One and the football World Cup can greatly improve a brand’s public profile, pointing to South Korean companies Hyundai and Samsung as having raised their status through effective sponsorship.
However, he also believes that while more Indian brands will begin to associate themselves with big events to raise awareness internationally, because its economy’s growth rate of 30% is based largely on sales to its home market, there will not be a stampede. “There is still huge potential in that domestic market, making the desire for international dominance less acute than it is in smaller countries such as South Korea,” he explains.
Web And Indian Elections
(Pic - Orkut Community ‘NAMO’)
Ahmedabad, Dec.10 (ANI): For the first time, the election campaign in Gujarat is witnessing the participation of over 100 IT professionals, most of whom have taken to the streets to support Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi, for those not in the know, is also making an impact on the web though social networking sites like Orkut, uploading Modi videos and forming online Modi fan clubs called NAMO that stands for Narendra Modi.
The NAMO society is making full use of the Internet to reach out to an increasing number of cyber-savvy voters, as over 6000 members have formed a formidable group to influence them.
This website provides a platform to all the fans of Narendra Modi staying anywhere in the word to share their common view said Maulik Patel, an IT professional.
Another IT professional, Harsh Patel, who is an ardent fan of Narendra Modi said Modi is a cult figure in Indian politics. His passion and commitment for the development of Gujarat are par comparison and make him synonymous with Gujarat. He has been relentlessly working for the better future of Gujarat.
A Rupee for Citigroup’s Thoughts
– Andrew Leonard
As the brand new CEO of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit is merely the most high-ranking of an impressive cohort of Indians manning the battle stations at one of the world’s largest financial institutions. According to India’s Economic Times, 13 Indians serve on the bank’s management committee. Among the other stars, Ajay Banga, chairman and CEO of Global Consumer Group International, Deepak Sharma, CEO, Citi Global Wealth Management International, Vikram A. Atal, Chairman & CEO, Citi Cards, Global Consumer Group and Suneel Bakskhi, head of Citi Markets and Banking.
And to think, scarcely a few decades ago, India was dismissed by the world’s gung ho capitalists as just another socialist backwater. But if the symbolism of the middle-class boy from Nagpur turned “self-effacing derivatives wizard” taking the throne of Citigroup isn’t enough there are also reports that the World Bank is considering, (or has already agreed to) make its first-ever rupee-denominated loan to the Indian state of Maharashtra (from whence, incidentally, Vikram Pandit hails.)
Traditionally, the $3.5 billion loan would have been made in dollars, but the Maharashtra state government is reportedly worried about the downward fluctuation of the greenback. The rupee, however, has been appreciating steadily, and India’s double-digit GDP growth suggests that there is more room to grow. (Thanks to The Indian Economy Blog for the link.)