Homage to the Sun

A great story in India. When in Turkey I saw solar panel driven heating systems on top of every house. In India, where Sunshine is abundant, one does not see it very much. Hence the following story was very warming..

From The Hindu:

World’s largest solar steam system inaugurated in Shirdi

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah on Thursday inaugurated the world’s largest solar steam system, installed at Sri Sai Baba Sansthan, Shirdi. The system has been designed to cook food for the devotees.

The total cost of the project was estimated at Rs. 1.33 crore and a subsidy of Rs. 58.40 lakh was provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), according to an official release here.

The solar system enables the Sansthan to cook food for 20,000 people a day, resulting in a considerable annual saving of one lakh kg of LPG or nearly Rs.20 lakh.

The system, capable of generating about 3,500 kg of steam every day, was installed in a record 10 months. It has been designed in such a way that it can generate steam even in the absence of electricity to run the feed water pump for circulating water in the system.

To promote such systems in the country, the MNRE is promoting a scheme whereby it will bear up to 50 per cent of the cost in the case of non-profit bodies and up to 35 per cent in the case of profit-making bodies availing depreciation benefits.

Unemployed on Main Street is good news on Wall Street

The market indices were significantly higher today because investors were apparently cheering the fact that "The number of newly laid-off workers filing first-time claims for jobless benefits rose last week, the government said, though the increase was mostly due to seasonal distortions.The number of people remaining on the jobless benefit rolls, meanwhile, fell to 6.2 million from 6.25 million, the lowest level since mid-April.The Labor Department said that new claims for unemployment insurance increased by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000, above analysts’ estimates of 570,000.A department analyst said the increase comes after claims were artificially depressed earlier this month by the timing of temporary auto factory shutdowns, which happened earlier this year than in most years. Still, this week’s total is below the 617,000 initial claims reported in late June before the seasonal distortions began. It reflects a trend that economists say indicates a slowing pace of layoffs.The four-week average of claims, which smoothes out fluctuations, fell to 559,000, its lowest level since late January..."

The market rise is still baffling to serious thinkers, as there is no evidence of significant hiring in any of the high value industries, and even the restaurant industry is struggling. As to where people will find jobs does not seem to concern the market. What's more- at least some of the people who fell off the benefit rolls might have exhausted their benefits, rather than finding a job. Finance, again, wagging the tail...

An Education in the Business of Education

A friend of mine is currently leading a team on a massive IT project for a large IT consulting firm, and has been sharing her frustrations with me. Based on her descriptions, some of her team members have got degrees and diplomas but cannot think logically, and cannot write complete sentences. Most importantly, they do not know what questions to ask, and how to work together.
On the other hand, I gave an exam in class, and the students gave a good demonstration of the future workers. Many walked in late, some by more than twenty minutes. A large number of students tried to demonstrate collaboration through cheating, some blatantly. These students will graduate, and then end up on the project teams of competent people and ruin the latter's happiness. A lot of things have changed in India, but the widespread prevalence of basic lack of ethics has not.

A "Text"book Accident

Even though the link between drunken driving and probability of causing an accident has been well established, there is no dearth of these alcohol-related accidents. By the same token, it does not take a great scientific mind to realize that texting on a mobile device while driving is highly dangerous. However, money has to be spent to study this further to establish what simple observations can tell us. NYT reports, in an interesting piece titled "In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin" that "The first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research — and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions. The new study, which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which compiled the research and plans to release its findings on Tuesday, also measured the time drivers took their eyes from the road to send or receive texts. In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field..."

However, stupidity reigns supreme, as illustrated by the person quoted at the end of the above story. "...About half of drivers 16 to 24 said they had texted while driving, compared with 22 percent of drivers 35 to 44. “It’s convenient,” said Robert Smith, 22, a recent college graduate in Windham, Me. He says he regularly texts and drives even though he recognizes that it is a serious risk. He would rather text, he said, than take time on a phone call.“I put the phone on top of the steering wheel and text with both thumbs,” he said, adding that he often has exchanges of 10 messages or more. Sometimes, “I’ll look up and realize there’s a car sitting there and swerve around it.”Mr. Smith, who was not part of the AAA survey, said he was surprised by the findings in the new research about texting. “I’m pretty sure that someday it’s going to come back to bite me,” he said of his behavior."

Maker of Maker

From the NYT

July 29, 2009

I.B.M. to Acquire Software Maker for $1.2 Billion

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) — I.B.M. said Tuesday that it would acquire a maker of analytics software maker, SPSS, in an all-cash transaction of $50 a share for a deal valued at about $1.2 billion.

Nothing to Tweet Home About....

Ms. Rosenfeld has a really interesting take on the social networking stuff in her article,
Complaint Box | Tweet Nothings. Part of her article reads, "...Maybe the secret is that no one actually wants to see anybody anymore. It’s too much work. You have to dress nicely. And make actual conversation. And there’s a recession. It’s cheaper to stay home — and e-mail old friends about how “it’s been so long it’s criminal,” and “we really have to get together.” Except we never do anymore. Which is kind of sad when you start to think about it. It’s hard to pour your heart out in 150 characters. It’s hard to have a great time, too, when the most you can hope for from a friend is LOL (note to Mom: that’s e-mail shorthand for “laughing out loud”) vs., say, being bent double over your bar stools while comparing notes on a mutual ex..."

Stupid and Meek- Recipe for Exploitation

The stock market has rallied significantly in recent weeks, with the S&P 500 up 40% from its lows a few months ago. Clearly investors are piling on. However, there are plenty of reports documenting the grossly excessive executive rewards at all financial companies including the Sachs and the Citi- firms that have relied on taxpayer money to survive, and are now distributing the ill-gotten wealth to the select few at the top. A report in the NYT on Alliance documents the grossly unethical way the company awards compensation to its execs- using a "cash earnings" calculation that is fudged to get the highest amount of money possible for the executives. When asked about it, Robert Minicucci, chairman of Alliance’s compensation committee and a general partner with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a large private equity firm, apparently said that Alliance’s board is “very interested in pay-for-performance.”“How many companies do you know that have gone from $12 to $48 in the last six years?” Mr. Minicucci asked. “It is hard to say that shareholders are buffoons here and directors are asleep at the switch.” Alliance is one of the firms that was bailed out by the government's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.

Who pays for all these crooked schemes? Ultimately, cash is cash, and options are worthless unless exchanged for cash. Customers, including consumers, are paying fees, rates, and other charges that could be lower if this looting were stopped, while the true earnings for shareholders would remain the same or even go up. Taxpayers would be saved a lot of money because the institutions would be forced to put money back into the system, rather than trucking it to the executives' houses. However, the funny thing about the U.S. is that the majority of the public is ignorant, and chooses, willingly, to remain ignorant. No wonder, then, that the stock markets are zooming- the shareholders are counting on the ignorance, and the meekness of the public. When one in five adults has no health insurance, the real unemployment rate is more than 15%, and firms make massive payments to executives on the back of taxpayer bail-outs and there is no protest on the streets, it is perhaps fair to condemn the taxpayers. It is when the majority don't show up for work and instead clog the streets that education for the executives, ethics education, that is, will begin.

Drafting Behind versus Dragging Down the Leaders

Teaching is an interesting experience. It provides a close-up look at the future as it unfolds.

In any class of reasonable size at a decent but not top-tier institution, one finds that about 20% of the students are genuinely interested in learning and furthering themselves. However what the remaining 80% or so, the majority, do could well determine how the macro world picture changes. If most of the laggard majority draft behind the leaders and follow in their wake, progress can be faster and wider. However, it is also possible that the slacking majority hinder the progress and learning of the good ones- in which case progress can be brought to a screeching slowdown. As an observer it is fascinating to see both of these situations.

Is man a dog's best friend?

One striking aspect of a visit to the "developed" India is the sight of dogs as pets. Dogs have been in India for as long as anyone can remember. My maternal grandfather was very fond of dogs and he always had a posse following him. He always fed dogs from his dinner leaf. However, he never had any one dog as a "pet."

Nowadays it is a common sight to find ladies and men walking their dogs in the morning on the roads. That is the good news. Unfortunately these owners do not pick up after their dogs, which means that runners and walkers can easily step on dog poop with a probability approaching 1. While there are many things worse than stepping on dog waste, it is nevertheless aggravating, when the owner could have been a little diligent.

Changing the economics of search....

Twitter is the new Facebook or Google Search and every day there is a new article about how businesses are using it to promote their products and increase their revenues. Today's NYT adds to the list with another article on this topic. Titled "Mom-and-Pop Operators Turn to Social Media" this describes entrepreneurs and small business owners who are getting customers by tweeting about their products.

In the Twitter model, a Twitterer needs to have followers who are interested in reading the tweets. The marginal cost to post a Tweet is rather small, a few minutes of one's time. The question is - what does it cost a person to read all the tweets posted by X? What is the cost of damage to productivity if one is being buzzed by Tweets constantly? Since Tweets are visible only to followers, it misses all the other Twitterers who are not followers of a particular X.

Which leads to the basic question- is Twitter a low cost broadcast medium, with all the attendant limitations?

The Yoga of Slow Re-calibration

In this difficult economy, people are turning to interesting options, including work-study programs involving Yoga- the NYT has an interesting article, "Hard Times Are Jamming the Ashrams." Apparently "..The Himalayan Institute is one of many retreats where cash-strapped spiritual seekers can participate in work-study programs in which they pay typically $300 to $900 a month in exchange for a few hours a day of service, like washing dishes, cleaning rooms or weeding gardens. As the unemployment rate has risen and people have sought refuge from the harsh economy, these work-exchanges have become a hot commodity. The Himalayan Institute received twice as many applications for its summer work-study programs this year as last — its August session is full, with 22 people, compared with 11 last year — and so did two similar retreats, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Carmel Valley, Calif., and Satchidananda Ashram in Buckingham, Va. (which is better known as Yogaville). The people who run these programs say there seems to be a link between the troubled job market and the rising popularity of yoga retreats. Todd Wolfenberg, director of marketing at the Himalayan Institute, said he has seen an increase in applications from recent college graduates and people with professional careers. “I suspect that is due to the fact that they haven’t been able to find a job after college or are leaving a job,” he said. The center has traditionally attracted people whose lives permit extended time off, like writers and entrepreneurs. Yoga retreat programs can be as short as an overnight visit to Ananda Ashram in Monroe, N.Y., or can last for months or even years..."

As this writer has stated many times, wages have to come down significantly and people's expectations of lifestyles has to be recalibrated as well. While the Yoga story above provides one data point, another comes in the form of an announcement that "..The Boston Newspaper Guild overwhelmingly approved a new contract Monday night that gives the Globe's owner, The New York Times Co., $10 million in annual concessions, including a salary reduction of nearly 6 percent, unpaid furloughs, a pension freeze and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees for approximately 170 employees..."

Serengeti wildlife tells real stories, US government officials hide reality

A great story on Serengeti wildlife..Wildlife on Serengeti Migrate to Cleaner Water..
Part of the story reads "Each year a legion of nearly two million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles circulate through the park, settling in the verdant grasslands to give birth while the rivers flow and new wet season grasses grow in endless abundance. Then, as if spooked, the herds suddenly begin to trek north in late May or early June, leaving behind an apparent paradise. "When animals leave the south, there's still plenty of green forage," Ayron Strauch of Tufts University said. "And plenty of water." Strauch and Frances Chew, also of Tufts, now think they know what sparks the exodus: an invisible, rising tide of salts in the rivers from which the herds drink. Late in the wet season, the plains in the southern part of the park appear healthy and full of nutritious food, but the rain has already begun to slacken. When Strauch and Chew sampled water from the Mbalageti and Seronera rivers in the region, they found that concentrations of calcium, sodium and potassium salts soared to levels that could be dangerous to the animals' health."These nutrients are vital to life on the plains, to be sure," Strauch said. "But as base flow in the rivers decreases, concentrations of these nutrients skyrocket to hundreds of times what animals might encounter in the plants they eat." Strauch will present the research next month at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Studies of farm animals have shown that elevated salts in the water supply can cause cardiovascular disease and kidney failure in adults and cripple females' ability to lactate. New-born animals that drink tainted water can suffer from impaired bone and nerve development, and have trouble gaining weight. "Basically as soon as the water starts turning brackish, you start to see adverse effects," Strauch said. The same may hold true for Serengeti's wild herds. Strauch and Chew reason that the spike in salt content in the southern waters acts as a signal that its time to move north, before the harsh dry season sets in and food sources begin dwindling.However, John Fryxall of the University of Guelph in Canada said declining nutrients in grasses may drive migration, rather than water quality. "These animals need the green flush of nutrients in early growth-stage grasses," he said. Grasses growing late in the wet season are too long and full of woody material that animals can't digest..."

On the other hand, an equally engrossing report in the NYT titled "U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving." It states that "In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel. They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways. But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress. On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site. In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date. The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states. Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking. “We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety...."

Legally Unethical....

Teaching ethical values is so damned difficult...
Today's WSJ ran a very interesting analytical article titled "Pay of Top Earners Erodes Social Security" in which there are many disturbing points regarding executive pay. When the so-called "chiefs" take part in such gross excesses it is impossible to teach the young about social justice and ethics.

As the article states "The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world. Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data -- without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries. Highly paid employees received nearly $2.1 trillion of the $6.4 trillion in total U.S. pay in 2007, the latest figures available. The compensation numbers don't include incentive stock options, unexercised stock options, unvested restricted stock units and certain benefits.The pay of employees who receive more than the Social Security wage base -- now $106,800 -- increased by 78%, or nearly $1 trillion, over the past decade, exceeding the 61% increase for other workers, according to the analysis. In the five years ending in 2007, earnings for American workers rose 24%, half the 48% gain for the top-paid. The result: The top-paid represent 33% of the total, up from 28% in 2002.The growing portion of pay that exceeds the maximum amount subject to payroll taxes has contributed to the weakening of the Social Security trust fund.... Companies aggregate the salaries of all employees in their filings to the Internal Revenue Service and to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and disclose details only for top officers. But payroll taxes provide an indirect way to calculate amounts executives receive..The $2.1 trillion figure understates executive pay, however, because it includes just salary and vested deferred compensation, including bonuses. It doesn't include unvested employer contributions and unvested interest credited to deferred-pay accounts. Nor does it include unexercised stock options (options aren't subject to payroll tax until exercised), and unvested restricted stock (which isn't subject to payroll tax until vested; the subsequent appreciation is taxed as a capital gain). Also not included in the total compensation figures is executive pay never subject to payroll tax. This category includes incentive stock options (which are generally taxed as capital gains), "carried interest" income received by hedge-fund and private-equity fund partners (also taxed as capital gains), and compensation characterized as a benefit (benefits generally aren't subject to any taxes). Benefits, a category that includes employer-provided health care and contributions employers make to rank-and-file pension plans, totaled nearly $1 trillion in 2007; it isn't possible to tell what portion represents benefits for executives, such as life insurance. The ability to delay paying payroll taxes on compensation, something that generally is available only to highly paid employees, is in itself an economic benefit that ultimately boosts paychecks...Lifting the earnings ceiling could result in higher Social Security benefits payments to higher-income individuals, since benefits are based on a worker's highest 35 years of earnings. But the additional tax revenue would have decades to earn a return, thus offsetting the cost of the additional payments.Social Security Administration actuaries estimate removing the earnings ceiling could eliminate the trust fund's deficit altogether for the next 75 years, or nearly eliminate it if credit toward benefits was provided for the additional taxable earnings. Employers oppose changes that would increase their share of payroll tax. In addition, eliminating the ceiling would prevent employers from using a controversial but common technique, based on payroll taxes, to award additional benefits to executives who participate in rank-and-file pension and 401(k) plans. For example, health insurer Humana Inc. contributes 4% of pay to employees' retirement accounts on salary up to the taxable-earnings wage base -- and 8% above it. Thanks to the richer contribution, Humana Chief Executive Michael B. McCallister received a total contribution of $22,370 under the plan in 2008. (He also received $314,790 in company contributions to his supplemental executive retirement and savings plan.) Typically, employers can't discriminate in favor of high-paid employees who participate in taxpayer-subsidized retirement plans. But a "permitted disparity" exception enables them to provide additional benefits on the portion of pay that isn't subject to payroll taxes, ostensibly to replace the Social Security benefits executives won't receive on the portion of their pay that is exempt from payroll taxes..."

The "metric" tragedy

As the U.S. belatedly joins the rest of the leading countries in trying to do something about the global climate change, India and China are pushing back fiercely- sometimes without logic. According to a NYT article, "...In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton, India’s environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, said there was “no case” for the West to push India to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when it already had among the lowest levels of emissions on a per-capita basis. “If this pressure is not enough,” he said, “we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”..."

India may indeed have a lower per-capita level but India has nearly 1.2 Billion people- the per capital level is meaningless when the sheer size can contribute huge quantities of emissions. It is clear that in the interest of the world, countries should share technology and processes that save energy and generate new more carbon-efficient energy at cost or at subsidized rates, so that all countries can adopt these practices. But arguing that India can dump more pollutants reveals a very tragic and ignorant line of analysis.

Back at it again...

The finance companies are back to reporting big profits...The Sachs, BoAs, JPMC and others are making money the old fashioned way- taking from the government and squeezing the customer base. Many of these firms are reducing headcount in the U.S. We have to see how this model works out.

Eco-Mart?

Wal-Mart is pushing the "sustainable living" concept further- according to the NYT, "...As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores is on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts on its shelves. And it has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create an electronic indexing system to do that.

The idea is to create a universal rating system that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are over the course of their lives. Consider it the green equivalent to nutrition labels.

Rather than a retailer or a product supplier’s focusing on only a few sustainability goals — lower emissions or water conservation or waste reduction — the index would help them take a broader view of sustainability by scrutinizing and rating all sorts of environmental and social implications..."

Several questions arise, including the intent of Wal-Mart. Creating a single index for eco-friendliness involves collapsing many variables, and will be the subject of many arguments and papers. At any rate, the focus on sustainability is welcome.

Life Lessons...from a Cabbie

Cab drivers are a great source of stories. My cab driver today was of a philosophical bent, and talked about stress- stress in every man's life. More cell phones- more stress...

This cab driver also helped me cut out some stress- he offered me a nail cutter to cut my finger nails before I headed off to a meeting. India- a land of contrasts, and a land of interesting people.

Is Education the Next Bubble to Burst?

Today, a great friend and colleague of mine sent me an interesting article titled "Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?"

The authors point out the escalating costs of higher education, but don't get into the depth of the economics of the business.

Some points to consider:

1. Privatizing education and making it for profit - is a model that is designed to lower quality for mass affordability, just as in other areas. The U. of Phoenix model has been used by other schools- the writers do not talk about the quality of the education received.
2. Online courses - there are various versions of this model, but most involve postings on a web site. Some involve video presentations by professors. This mode might be appropriate for some areas, but not for others.
3. A suggestion that "University presidents' salaries include incentives to contain and reduce costs, to make "affordability" a goal..... state policy makers conduct cost-benefit studies to see what the universities that receive state support are actually accomplishing." The first statement assumes that without incentives the Presidents are not concerned about costs. This shows an ignorance of the business. Secondly, the cost benefit analysis sounds great in theory- the key issue is defining the "benefits."

Some of my thoughts follow...

The crux of the issue is that Americans, like most people, want College Education for their children that has

• High Quality - small class sizes, personal attention, comfortable hostels, lots of amenities, good professors
• Lots of extra and co-curricular activities- sports, field visits, etc.
• Free parking for their children, etc.

But then

• Most (perhaps more than 75%) Americans want to pay less taxes- even Obama has backed away from raising taxes on the wealthy, to a level that existed before GWB gave his handout to the wealthy.
• Probably less than 1% would even consider paying higher taxes
• Taxing the wealthy to support others is seen as socialist, even by the middle class (it is a bad word here..) This is the primary reason why the U.S. government runs massive deficits- tax revenue is a bad word in the American Lexicon.

For their part, schools have tried to help by a) relying more on endowment, b) have faculty do more research and get more grants that support more students. The interesting fact is that for many schools, net tuition revenues do not even cover standard operating expenses..we have a hard time convincing parents of that. Supporting athletic teams, providing all the amenities for students including high speed Internet, computers and so on all cost real money.

Gopal's Predictions:

1. Consolidation will happen in this sector, slowly. Currently there is a lot of duplication. Every school need not have a program in every area. Creating economies of scale is essential for effective and efficient operations. Perhaps students can go to one school to take economics courses and to another to take science courses. Not every school needs to have its own physics or chemistry labs.
2. Many extra-curricular activities will go away- not every school will have a football team and a football stadium.
3. Tuition will not come down much but faculty would be asked to shoulder much greater loads - the summer off for vacation will be off....

Full Disclosure- Necessary, but hardly sufficient...

An interesting article in the NYT ... When a Blogger Voices Approval, a Sponsor May Be Lurking...
"....Marketing companies are keen to get their products into the hands of so-called influencers who have loyal online followings because the opinions of such consumers help products stand out amid the clutter, particularly in social media.The proliferation of paid sponsorships online has not been without controversy...... Some in the online world deride the actions as kickbacks. Others also question the legitimacy of bloggers’ opinions, even when the commercial relationships are clearly outlined to readers...."

Twitter Twatter...Apparently Twitter is full of tweets about bargains...One can find everything great deals there because all companies are rushing to tweet...

C(abbies) to Y(unus) - Call for New Order...

Nobel Peace Prize winner and micro-finance innovator Muhammad Yunus said during a speech honoring former South African President Nelson Mandela that "This economic crisis suddenly awakens us to the fact that this system is not working. When the system is not working that is the best time to undo it and redo it in a new way...The financial crisis on top of the food crisis, the energy crisis, the environment crisis, the social crisis -- all these are combined. Isn't it time to wake up and redo things?"..He said social businesses -- like his bank and other companies he has created -- can be used to bring health care to the sick, safe drinking water to villages and nutrition to poor children.

Yesterday I took a cab from Gurgaon to visit friends in Delhi. The cabbie, a down-to-earth young man, was describing his life. A decade ago, he was making Rs 3000 a month and he could feed plenty of "dal roti chaval" for his family, could come home at 6 and spend time with his wife, and have the Sunday for relaxation. Now, he make three times the amount, works many nights and Sundays, and has a worse quality of life..He said he cannot get good grains and flour for reasonable prices, and while everyone in his family has mobiles, it has only added more pressure to work. A classic example of real inflation outpacing real wage growth...something the government always fudges when it releases inflation statistics. As one journalist pointed out, India has twenty plus dollar billionaires,...but the gaps between the wealthy, the middle and the lower segments is just exploding.. Social Value Billionaires, people with extraordinary hearts dedicated to social improvement are needed, far more than money billionaires..

Jammed

Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, etc.- are crammed with cars. People are increasingly able to afford cars, and are doing so. Buses and other public transportation are declining. The traffic jams are ridiculous, and people are wasting so much time. The pollution is also incredible. Why can't the people ask for better governance and investment in public transportation?

A Hard Life

In U.S. colleges women account for more than 60% of the undergraduate population, yet among faculty women are a minority. In our institution the business department has the highest enrollment of students, of which nearly two thirds are female. Yet, women comprise only 18% of the business faculty. These numbers are not dramatically different from those at other schools.

Interestingly the business school I am visiting in India has a predominantly female faculty and female administrators, even though women comprise less than 50% of the student population. The administrators are highly competent and hard working- many of them work more than twelve hours a day, six days a week (with the second Saturday off). A lesson, perhaps, for American educational institutions. Hire more women, give them freedom to work and create.

Google's business model

If one looks at the number of Google products that are used by the masses everyday without paying a cent or a paisa directly to Google, one has to respect the motto 'Don't be evil.' There is something to be said for a firm that invests a lot of money in products that it gives away. The real test will come when the ad-revenue growth slows down drastically or the revenue declines. Till then, kudos to this business model.

Printing Presses running full steam ahead

The Indian Finance Minister presented a budget based on the government borrowing 4.51 trillion rupees ($93 billion) and spending nearly $ 210 billion- i.e. the government is borrowing 44 cents (or paisa) for every dollar (rupee) it is spending. This is the more relevant statistic, rather than computing deficit as a of GDP. The GDP does not directly produce tax receipts, but the interest and principal on the borrowing side has to be repaid.

The serious side of the global downturn seems to be ignored by policy makers everywhere. High productivity rates and substitution of capital equipment or cheaper labor for expensive labor has dramatically widened the gap between the "investors" and the "workers." A significant compression of wages, and a lowering of expectations is yet to be realized.

"Friend"ly Facebook

Having been on Facebook for a while, I have observed that most of the stuff posted by people is rather trite, inane, or banal. However, Facebook, because of its size and ubiquity, is a great resource to track down long-lost friends. We just happened to get in touch with a friend we had lost touch with for over nine years. A rather excellent outcome- this is what Facebook should be charging people for- connecting to old friends.

Coffee Crime

Coffee, in addition to being a tasty drink, provides employment to a number of scientists. These folks have been trying to figure out if coffee is beneficial to humans. As expected, the results change by the day- science has barely scratched the surface of the human body-mind complex. What happens in mice may not be occur in humans. The latest report claims that 5 cups of coffee a day could reverse Alzheimers

An interesting day

A friend and I went to the India gate and paid respects to the fallen. We were also lucky enough to see a few marching bands perform, ahead of the Commonwealth games.

Had masala dosas in a restaurant called Naivedyam..which means offering to God.

The sheer number of cars and pollution in Delhi is quite toxic.

The Twitterers go...where angels fear to tread

One cannot read a paper or a magazine without coming across some piece on Twitter.

Today, NYT has two articles on this stuff...

Our Father, Lead Us to Tweet, and Forgive the Trespassers talks about the use of T in religion

What Did Shaq Just Tweet? A New Web Site Knows talks about a new site that aggregates the posts of athletes.

Funny growth

All newspapers and CNBC types are quoting "economists" who say that we end recession in the second half of the year and start growing again. Of course, they are talking about the GDP which is a meaningless number for growth. The real question is - when will the jobs, wages, work conditions recover? GDP can be fudged by goofy money tricks being conducted right now-- there is no formal definition of a recession anyway. If the demand does not grow, there is no growth.

A "Progress"ive spirit

Today, while leaving the office premises, I ran into a security guard. We started talking about the hot weather. A friendly older gentleman, he talked to me about his job, which requires him to be outside in the brutal heat all day, and going from place to place checking on the vehicles that are parked and assisting people. Working in hot weather and on his feet. He had passed his Intermediate (high school) but never went to College. Now he is spending a lot of his money to send his children to College so that they can have a better life. He felt a lot of regret that he could not study and do bigger things, but felt good that his children can contribute more to the country than him. A remarkable story of sacrifice, unnoticed by many, but also performed by many millions of parents around the world. The interesting aspect was his notion of contribution to the country.

The Skinny on the Not-So-Thinny

More evidence seems to come in indicating the problems associated with the "western diet" - as described by Michael Pollan. Today a report by Reuters says that"Obesity rates continued to climb in the past year with 23 U.S. states reporting adults in their states are fatter now than they were a year ago, two advocacy groups said on Wednesday.Two-thirds of American adults are either obese or overweight, and the groups warned that the U.S. obesity epidemic could derail efforts by lawmakers to reform the nation's health system."Our health care costs have grown along with our waist lines," said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's health, which released the report along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...."

Now the word epidemic is being used to describe the wide problem. Hopefully the younger generation learns its lesson fast.