Moving

Evilian is moving.

Random Thoughts

Sitting at the Domestic Airport in Delhi, I wasn't too bothered by the shabbiness and the sense of disorder - its going to get better soon. I wonder if GMR would be upto the task of fixing the place, after all its one thing to make a virgin project a success (Delhi Metro e.g.) and quite another to turn around a running establishment. Its not just about technology but the challenge is to change mindsets and provide the right incentive systems. The international terminal did have some visible signs of a change for the better. Hopefully it works better to.

Going by the number of old women on wheelchairs at the airport, you'd think that there was some sort of epidemic. The facts are rather more interesting. A lot of these ladies as perfectly capable of walking on their own feet and yet they aren't capable of finding there way around an airport without help! It is a peculiarly Indian phenomenon, a social mindset that leaves them economically and emotionally dependent. I hope my generation will see the end of it.

Barista vs Cafe Coffee Day

What does the story tell you - The pioneer has been stagnant for a while, selling out to Lavazza (another also ran?), while the lowly upstart is conquering new territories? That sophistication, real or projected, does not sell in India or that India prefers value to luxury or maybe Barista just had the wrong strategy for the main clientele of a cafe in India - the college goers. Whatever it may be, it is no job to see a personal favourite hangout not doing too well.

India Trip

Just came back from a trip to India. The news emanating from India recently hasn't been that good. Even the idea of India being the new land of opportunities doesn't seem as great on the ground as it appears to an expat. Opportunities are there but the low hanging fruits have mostly been picked. What we really need now is another round of regulatory reforms - labour, oil and fertiliser subsidies. There are other issues as well - the ever present chaos, the oppressive politics (nuclear deal, weak PM, resevations, politicking over education), economic woes (inflation, infrastructure problems). The problems are not insurmountable but fixing them would need stronger political will than what was required for the first few rounds of reforms. Its going to be a hard journey to the top.

Twitter Revisited

Tweeting while at the airport makes me rethink if twitter is not a
great idea. For a hardened road warrior twitter via text messaging is
probably the cheapest and easiest way to stay connected. No need to
bother finding Internet cafe or a wifi zone. However, does the fact
that I can blog via email on my phone in the same setting kill the idea?

Off..

to India for a week and a half. If you are in or around Chandigarh give me a shout. Haven't been to India for a year now. Life out here seems to staid and steady, somehow I feel things are much more exciting out there. Will soon find out!

Global?

Shopping at Zara. Noticed the stuff comes from at least 8 different countries - India, China, Spain, Potugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Madagascar, Morocco. Impressive or am I behind the times?

Orkut Applications

As if Facebook wasn't silly enough, Orkut has also added applications too. Not that apps in itself is a bad thing, but the intrusive way in which they appear is annoying to say the least. I don't mind if someone wants to have a "super-wall" instead of the wall, if they want to play a Bollywood quiz or even if you they are playing the matchmaker by hooking up their friends - spare me the details please. Orkut used to a neat and clean interface with occasional bugs and annoyances. It has now jumped on the bandwagon with an annoying banner "New! Add applications and customize your profile with music, games, and more!" Tch, Tch! All I need is a simple interface, that lets me keep track of my contacts and friends, send them messages and check the occasional photo, that's about it. Please stop cluttering the page!

Do You Twitter?

If you like to experiment with technology - I suppose you do. Otherwise, very likely not.

I have been on twitter for nearly a month now. For communication, email / text / orkut scraps have been far more effective for me. It may just be because hardly anyone in my network uses twitter. It is too constrained a space as a means of expression too. Any which way you see it, I think there are other platforms that serve the same needs in a much better way. For expression on the move or from a computer, there are blogs. For communication, there are social networking sites. If you really want to tell everyone what you are doing right now - how about just changing your IM status message.

We ARE paid too much

Mervyn King recently made a suggestion that the compensation systems at investment banks are distorted. I couldn't but agree with him, and its not just the socialist bit in me. This is particularly true for traders, who are incentivised to "make money" and they are paid accordingly. The money that they make is rarely real cash, more often it is mark to market (MTM) profits - as the credit writedowns prove, the MTM profits accumulated over years can be wiped off in a matter of weeks. The need to make money drives them to take greater and more complex risks are markets for "vanilla" products get commoditised. That is just the shareholders (and I don't have much sympathy for shareholders who expect to control a firm based merely on the share of capital invested in the firm - in my opinion a very unfair way to divide voting rights). Given the central roles that the banks play in the modern economy, it gets even more dangerous - the traders are paid obscene amount for activities which, at best, are of a questionable economic value to the economy and put the stability of the system at risk. 

And the people who do add some tangible value - factory workers, scientists, engineers, service sector workers et al end up with the short end of the stick as firms merge and downsize on the shoddy advice of the very same investment banks. Irony?