Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Thanda is not always 'Thanda'..


The above photo is the latest controversial hoarding put up by India’s one of the best digital photographer Sharad. This has been put up in Cathedral Road, right at the heart of the Chennai business hub to advertise his services. This had rubbed the Coca Cola India’s officials on the bitter side.

In reaction, Coke has filed a defamation suit against him and asked for a ruling to remove the hoarding immediately. Sharad has not scumbed to pressure and is filing a counter for the same. What is interesting is that Sharad is a very prominent photographer in the Advertising field and he has done quite a number of shoots for Coca-Cola India too.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 8:05 AM | Permalink | 2 comments
Volkswagen a prelude..
After penning my previous blog on the Volkswagen scam in India, it interested me on the company’s roots. It sure is quite interesting too. The origins of the company date back to 1930s Nazi Germany. It was a pet project of Hitler and part of his economic reforms he brough about in post World war I hit Germany (I may be blogging on this very soon..). He wanted a car that every German could afford. He backed up his plans by means of a savings scheme, which around 336,000 people eventually paid into. What is great about this scheme was that Volkswagen honoured its savings agreements after World War II even after the massive collapse of the Nazi government which introduced the savings scheme.

Volkswagen literally translates as "people's car" in English.

After the Second World War in 1945, the British Army took control of the Volkswagen factory and restarted production. In 1948, the British Government handed the company back over to the German state.

For the records, Volkswagen is currently the third largest car-manufacturer in the world.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 8:02 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Taking Volkswagen for a ride …
Many amongst us would have heard or experience the ride in Volkswagen, but a delhi based firm has taken the german auto giant Volkswagen and the YSR Reddy government in Andhra for a ride. The firm Vashishta Wahan Private Limited with its registered office in Community Centre market in south Delhi’s East of Kailash neighbourhood has claimed to be the Indian representative of the German Auto Giant. Volkswagen has been long speculating on setting up its manufacturing in India and is in the process of zeroing on the location.

The Andhra Congress government pumped in close to 2 million Euros (about Rs 11 crore) in equity into Vashishta Wahan to apparently help set up a Volkswagen manufacturing unit in Vizag. But Volkswagen AG says the deal is a fraud and that it has nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan which passed itself off as its Indian arm. Helmuth Schuster, who was the chief negotiator from Volkswagen with the AP government, has been sacked.
In early January, the state government received a letter from Schuster. The letter, neatly typed on Volkswagen letterhead, confirmed that the company was going ahead with the project. For a joint venture with the government, Schuster sought transfer of 2 million Euros to Vashishta Wahan, a company affiliate. It was later found out that Schuster has been bribed.
The interesting fact to be noted is that Vashishta Wahan’s initials are VW, the same as that of the global car giant….

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 7:50 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, July 11, 2005
Technology to the rescue…
Speak of technology and Indians know how to plug them into their customs and rituals. Gujarat has been heavily flood struck thanks to the continuous torrential rains. But this did not hamper the spirits of a couple in Gujarat. They went ahead and exchanged wedding vows by cellular phone. The bridegroom residing in Gujarat who was to reach the bride’s house in Mumbai quite could not make it to the marriage ceremony…

Witnesses on both sides kept their phones on speaker mode to ensure all relatives heard the bride and groom's assent in the 30-minute ceremony.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 9:57 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, July 08, 2005
Jammed Call centres
The effect of the yesterday’s attack on London has a global effect. Call centres of the London’s National Rail were choked with the flooding number of calls from travellers stranded in London about the trains services. The outsourced call centre operation for the Rail Company is handled by Intelenet Global services with a work force of 5000 people.

To handle the load, staffs are working overtime and without any break…

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 2:24 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
BPO Fading??
As I was passing through my neighbourhood I chanced to see a large hoarding put up by Natwest Bank. It reads as below:

“Real people on the phone, in the UK, 24/7. Call us old fashioned”

Natwest bank is one of UK’s leading bank. It is very clear what the point they are driving hard.
For the records, Natwest was one of the banks supposed to be affected by the recent BPO scandal in india. Click here for the details.

When the nation is getting set for the next wave of new jobs, these kinda scandals should not be permitted to put the brakes on our speed of progress…

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 1:14 PM | Permalink | 1 comments
Thursday, July 07, 2005
London Under Attack
Got up a bit late today and as I was preparing to start to office, I receive a call from my friend informing about the series of blasts that has rocked the world. Was indeed shocking news. It was too bad that such a thing happens just the day after the whole city of rejoice for having won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Then started the series of calls and SMS. For most part of the day the mobile networks were also affected from time to time. Anyway I had a long chat with people back home…

The whole of central London was cut off from the rest of the city. Saw the live coverage of the news thanks to the BBC and CNN’s web sites. Passing of every hour brings in fresh news. The BBC site I guess was pouring with hits and hence was a bit slower. Hence I switched after many desperate attempts trying to access the streaming video content to CNN. Thankfully I was not showing any signs of slowness.

Though the figures are skeptical, what is certain is the damage has been quite hard. The rescue staffs have done an excellent job.

We just have to wait and see how quick the City of London bounces back from this….

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 6:30 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Rebranding Baazee
Find below a classic example of how re-branding can be done incrementally. When eBay entered the Indian market with acquisition of Baazee, It quickly recognized that the Indian market knows Baazee more than eBay. So instead of taking the rapid re-branding route, it took the route of incremental branding.

See below how the logos of Baazee underwent a recycling…

Till the year 2003 it was



2004:



Now:

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 1:15 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, July 01, 2005
Points based migration soon in U.K
The U.K government has announced their plan to shift to points based migration program. This is aimed at reducing the complexities of the current migration systems.

A significant change would be that all the different work permits and entry schemes will be replaced by a single points-based system. The more skills you have, the more points you will gain, increasing your likelihood of entry to the UK.

There will be four "tiers" within the point’s scheme within which people applying to work in the UK would be categorized.

Tier One: Highly skilled

People coming under this tier would be able to enter the U.K without any job offer to seek work or to set up business. This group would include doctors, engineers, IT specialists and top-flight graduates in key sectors, such as business and finance. Workers in this category will have the most flexibility in the UK and greatest opportunities to settle for good.

Tier two: Skilled

This covers people with qualifications or important work-related experience in a huge range of sectors from health service workers to white collar jobs and the trades.People in this category will be given points on their talents and will be allowed into the UK if they have a job offer in a "shortage area".

Tier three: Low skilled

This tier would allow temporary migration to jobs in hospitality, food processing and agriculture from all over the world. The employer will also have some responsibility for ensuring someone remains within the terms of their visa.

Tier four: Specialists and students

This tier covers those where there is "no significant issue of competition" but an economic benefit resulting from someone's presence. This includes students paying for tuition in the UK, foreign government representatives etc.

This again will ensure only skilled workers who support themselves financially can apply to stay permanently after five years - up from four years - and they must prove their ability to use English fluently.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 10:47 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
World’s First Nuclear Fission Reactor - ITER
The world’s first experimental Nuclear fission reactor is to be set up in Cadarache, France. The project is code name ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). For those who are not technically inclined, Fusion works on the principle that energy can be released by forcing together atomic nuclei rather than by splitting them, as in the case of the fission reactions that drive existing nuclear power stations. This when compared to using of fossil fuels is very advantageous as fusion reactions produce no carbon dioxide. Hence it results in decreasing the possibility of green house effect and global warming. This will be an environmental safe option.
The other major advantage of using the fission process in lieu of the Nuclear fusion process as used in the current nuclear reactors is that in comparison, the radio active wastes produced by the fission process are relatively safe to handle in a modest timescale (50-100 years). In comparison, the wastes produced as a direct result of splitting atoms in fission reactions live much longer (many thousands of years).
It has been calculated that after 100 years of operation, ITER will be left with about 6,000 tonnes of radio active wastes. It is said that when packaged, this would be equivalent to a cube with about 10m edges.
If this does interests you, please visit here for more details on the project.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 9:53 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wah Taj...
This news struck me when I was doing the usual drowsy news reading the other day. A person named Yaqub Habeebuddin Tucy (Prince Yaqub Habeebuddin Tucy is what he calls himself) from Hyderabad claimed to the Archelogical Survey of India that he is the great great grandson of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and hence is the legal custodian for the Taj.

To establish his claim, Tucy has attached a detailed account of the Mughal family tree from the time of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor who was dethroned by the British in the 19th century.According to that account, Bahadur Zhah Zafar had 49 children from different wives. Except three, all others died. One of these, Mirza Quaish, shifted to Aurangabad. His only son Mirza Abdullah settled down in Hyderabad where he had a son Mirza Gafar and two daughters, Husna Jahan and Laila Ummani. Tucy is the son of Laila Ummani's second son Yaqub Arifuddin Tucy, and thereby the great-great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

This reminds me of a scene I saw in a recent hindi movie (Bunty aur Bubbly) where the couple hatch up a trick to sell the Taj Mahal to an undoubting foreigner.

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posted by Santosh Subramanian at 5:13 PM | Permalink | 0 comments