Nandan talks about ideas for India’s future at TED. He talks about the ideas which made India what it is today. He talks about the ideas which are in the phase of implementation, which are in discussion and at last for the future. He also give his points why the world should worry about India. If you have not read his book Imagining India, then this is mini version of his book.

A must watch. I have tried to embed the low resolution video here. Go to TED page if you want to see high resolution version or want to download.

At one point in his talk (as well as in his book), he pushes for industrialization and urbanization. I am not against it but I would have loved if he had talked about agriculture and technologies for better and natural food production, as an idea for future.

Disclosure: I work for Infosys and Nandan is Co-Chairman of Infosys.

Please do vote. I usually vote to a National Party* when I am voting for Lok Sabha. Regional parties and independents are usually spoilers or vote splitters. So think logically and vote.
* Only BJP and Congress are national parties according to me.

Update April/24: I voted but very disappointed.

Nano is the Netbook of Automobile world. Yes, its the EEEPC of car world.  Both of them have very similar characteristics.
1. They are affordable
EEEPC is affordable compared to other laptops available. Nano too is very very affordable. Asus with EEEPC created a new market, I guess the Nano will do the same.

2. Its small but usable
Both of them are not highly powered or very good looking, but both of them are functional. Both of them are small, easy to take around. Both of them are very usable in day today life. EEEPC saves lot of space when I am packing. Nano too doesn’t need much space to park
3. Its efficient
I don’t know much about the power usage of EEEPC. Nano is very efficient compared to any other petrol car in India.
4. Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play

More Geek Points
5. Its a back wheel drive FTW
6. Its DIY modelers dream car
7. Any other points to add??
I have an eeepc besides my Vaio. I use it on specific occasions like while traveling, attending conferences etc. I am just wondering how many will buy Nano as their second car. It might be a very good city car or you just want to try some DYI stuff.

BTW Nano bookings are open from today….

Engineering until IT came into India was completely *technical*. I have not seen any engineer of my fathers generation doing *only* managerial work. There used to be project managers then too, but they used be part time managers and full time technicians.

With IT boom in India, we got a new breed of managers. IT-Managers or so called PMs, SPMs etc. I am not going get into their job profile or their job description but all I want to say is they were different from previous managers we had seen in *technology* field.

In this setup, natural progression for every developer was to, turn into manager after x years. But there were anomalies in the system all the time. They were always confused..
Read the rest of this entry »

Its very surprising that I haven’t written much about politics in last five years. I am as much interested in politics and history as I am in technology. I have been thinking about this post on my political philosophy from long time. But was lazy enough not to write about it until today. The time could not be better than the announcement of 15th Lok Sabha Elections.
In most of the discussions with friends, I end up facing the question about my political philosophy. Which one do I believe in? Its a very difficult question to answer as I don’t believe in any one philosophy. I am not completely leftist or right. Neither I agree with authoritarian nor I am supporter of freedom with out responsibility. I am sure a believer secularism but keep myself away from intellectuals. So where do I stand? Read the rest of this entry »