હાલમાં જ એમડબ્લ્યુસી 2017 ટેક્નોલોજી ઇવેન્ટ દરમિયાન નોકિયા ઘ્વારા નોકિયા 3, નોકિયા 5, નોકિયા 6 અને લેટેસ્ટ નોકિયા 3310 ફોન વિશે જણાવવામાં આવ્યું. નોકિયા ઘ્વારા જણાવવામાં આવ્યું છે કે તેઓ ભારતીય માર્કેટ તરફ ખુબ જ વધુ ફોકસ કરી રહ્યા છે. નોકિયા
вторник, 28 февраля 2017 г.
જિયો ઘ્વારા સિસ્કો સાથે આઈપી નેટવર્ક ડીલ સાઈન કરવામાં આવી
હાલમાં તેમની મલ્ટી ટેરાબીટ કેપિસિટી વધારવા માટે રિલાયન્સ જિયો ઇન્ફોકોમ મોટું નેટવર્કિંગ એન્ટરપ્રાઇઝ સિસ્કો સાથે કોલોબ્રેશન કરી રહ્યું છે.સિસ્કો બધા આઇપી નેટવર્કની મદદથી, જિયો ડિજિટલ ભારતનો વિચાર પહોંચાડવા અને દેશમાં મનોરંજન, કૃષિ, શિક્ષણ અને હેલ્થકેર માટે પરિવહન, ઉપયોગિતા અને નાણાકીય સમાવેશમાંથી
આવનારો મોટો જી5 સ્માર્ટફોન, અત્યાર સુધીનો અમારો બેસ્ટ લૂક
મોટો જી5 અને મોટો જી5 પ્લસ બંને સ્માર્ટફોન એમડબ્લ્યુસી 2017 ઇવેન્ટ દરમિયાન લોન્ચ થવા જઈ રહ્યા છે અને અમારી પાસે અત્યારથી તેની તસ્વીર પણ આવી ચુકી છે.આ બંને સ્માર્ટફોનને લઈને પહેલા પણ ઘણી માહિતી આવી ચુકી છે. પરંતુ હાલમાં આવેલી લેટેસ્ટ
એમડબ્લ્યુસી 2017: સેમસંગ ગેલેક્ષી એસ7 એજ, બેસ્ટ સ્માર્ટફોન ટાઇટલ
એમડબ્લ્યુસી દુનિયાની સુધી મોટી ટેક્નોલોજી ઇવેન્ટ માનવામાં આવે છે. હાલમાં ચાલી રહેલી એમડબ્લ્યુસી 2017 ટેક્નોલોજી ઇવેન્ટ દરમિયાન સેમસંગ સ્માર્ટફોનને બેસ્ટ સ્માર્ટફોન ટાઇટલ આપવામાં આવ્યું છે.કંપની ઘ્વારા લોન્ચ કરવામાં આવેલો સેમસંગ ગેલેક્ષી એસ7 એજ સ્માર્ટફોનને બેસ્ટ સ્માર્ટફોન 2016 ટાઇટલ આપવામાં આવ્યું છે.
એપલે iફોન અને iપેડ માટે નવું ios 10.3 બેટા અપડેટ રિલીઝ કર્યું
એપલે થોડા સમય પહેલા જ એ વાત ને જાહેર કરી હતી કે, તે પોતાના ડેવલોપર્સ અને ટેસ્ટર માટે નવું ios 10.3 બેટા અપડેટ બહાર પાડવા ના છે. પરંતુ આ અપડેટ ને સામાન્ય લોકો સુધી પહોંચવા માં હજી ઘણો સમય લાગી જશે,
воскресенье, 26 февраля 2017 г.
Untitled - 26 Feb 2017
This week (and most the month) passed away in a blur. I was away (do see some of the pics I put up on Instagram) with super limited access to Internet. And unlike other times when I did not have Internet, I did not do any soul searching. I was merely living in the moment, seeping in the scenery and all that.
So the week after I came back from the travel, all of it was spent in recuperating from the laziness that had engulfed me over the previous three weeks. Its hard to get back to the groove but slowly, I am getting back. Thank God for that. There is so much to think about, capture, say, write. This is first in the edition.
So, a few lessons, observations and reflections from the trip are:
1. You are not irreplaceable. At work or at home. Or at friends. Or with anything else. Life goes on. The ego about you being the immortal and all that is so superficial that its not funny. Apart from work, all those pet projects that you want to nurture and grow, no one gives two hoots about them. You think you are adding value to people's lives and they must care? Nope! You are wrong. Nothing adds any value to anyone. And if it does, they dont care. Life is too busy and they'd rather do more things with their time than pause and reflect. Not everyone thinks about larger issues that surround them. May be everyone does. Well, am rambling.
2. Kids can be great! While I was in Mel, I met this Indian family and the young one, a 6-year old girl, was so innocent and so endearing that for those few days, I actually wanted a kid of my own.
P.S.: Now that I am back, I dont think I want a kid. I am happy with once-in-a-while meetups with Myra. And if I get more craving, there is N.
3. It sucks to be a dark-skinned man in a white-country. You may claim that beauty is deeper than skin and your mind is more beautiful than the body and all that. Bullshit. The fact of the matter is, the way you look makes a HUGE difference. You get judged moment you walk in. And why not? We are evolved animals and we have survived all this while by merely relying on the mental models we've created. If we know that we would be safe in the company of people that look like us, we go out and seek the company of similar people. And if you are brown, apart from the billion and half of us that predominantly live in the Indian subcontinent, you will be "them" for the rest of the 5 odd billion people. I dont know if we can fix this but there has to be a way for me to not get bogged down by things!
4. Poker is a tough game. Played at two casinos and both times I was card-dead. Well thats not an excuse. The likes of Negreanu are card-dead all the time and still do well. If they can, I ought to. But I dont. Thing is, I have been playing it pretty regularly (at a point I was playing it once a week, now I get to play once in three months) since 2012 and these three sessions at at the casinos has made me realise that I suck so bad at it. In all I've lost about 75K, not including travel, accommodation, hours and all that. I thought I was good but clearly I am not. I do think that I have what it takes to do well but I am not sure if I have the time to practise. The ones who do well, the ones I know who do well, they get in a lot of hours on the table. More on this some other day.
5. Loved the professionalism and the respect for time in people there. If someone told me that they would meet me at 2, they met me at 2. Irrespective if it was raining, middle of the day, bad weather, they had a bad day, it was their birthday or whatever. People respect time like nobodies business. Here in India, well. Time is like that thing that we want to be strict about but are not. I wish I could live in a society where time gets such precedence as it gets down under. Of course all things are not rosy there but then time has to be THE most important thing that we have and if we cant respect it, what else is there to life?
Apart from time, the other great thing was that people do it with all their heart. If they are working on something, they are in it. They are not slacking. They are not cutting corners. They are not sweeping under the rug. They are doing it as if its going to be the last thing they'd ever do. Something that we have to learn here in India.
So yeah, thats about it for the time being. Over the next few days I hope to write more. Even though there is travel planned but I am going to not let that affect how I live my life. I am pretty lucky that way.
Over n out.
So the week after I came back from the travel, all of it was spent in recuperating from the laziness that had engulfed me over the previous three weeks. Its hard to get back to the groove but slowly, I am getting back. Thank God for that. There is so much to think about, capture, say, write. This is first in the edition.
So, a few lessons, observations and reflections from the trip are:
1. You are not irreplaceable. At work or at home. Or at friends. Or with anything else. Life goes on. The ego about you being the immortal and all that is so superficial that its not funny. Apart from work, all those pet projects that you want to nurture and grow, no one gives two hoots about them. You think you are adding value to people's lives and they must care? Nope! You are wrong. Nothing adds any value to anyone. And if it does, they dont care. Life is too busy and they'd rather do more things with their time than pause and reflect. Not everyone thinks about larger issues that surround them. May be everyone does. Well, am rambling.
2. Kids can be great! While I was in Mel, I met this Indian family and the young one, a 6-year old girl, was so innocent and so endearing that for those few days, I actually wanted a kid of my own.
P.S.: Now that I am back, I dont think I want a kid. I am happy with once-in-a-while meetups with Myra. And if I get more craving, there is N.
3. It sucks to be a dark-skinned man in a white-country. You may claim that beauty is deeper than skin and your mind is more beautiful than the body and all that. Bullshit. The fact of the matter is, the way you look makes a HUGE difference. You get judged moment you walk in. And why not? We are evolved animals and we have survived all this while by merely relying on the mental models we've created. If we know that we would be safe in the company of people that look like us, we go out and seek the company of similar people. And if you are brown, apart from the billion and half of us that predominantly live in the Indian subcontinent, you will be "them" for the rest of the 5 odd billion people. I dont know if we can fix this but there has to be a way for me to not get bogged down by things!
4. Poker is a tough game. Played at two casinos and both times I was card-dead. Well thats not an excuse. The likes of Negreanu are card-dead all the time and still do well. If they can, I ought to. But I dont. Thing is, I have been playing it pretty regularly (at a point I was playing it once a week, now I get to play once in three months) since 2012 and these three sessions at at the casinos has made me realise that I suck so bad at it. In all I've lost about 75K, not including travel, accommodation, hours and all that. I thought I was good but clearly I am not. I do think that I have what it takes to do well but I am not sure if I have the time to practise. The ones who do well, the ones I know who do well, they get in a lot of hours on the table. More on this some other day.
5. Loved the professionalism and the respect for time in people there. If someone told me that they would meet me at 2, they met me at 2. Irrespective if it was raining, middle of the day, bad weather, they had a bad day, it was their birthday or whatever. People respect time like nobodies business. Here in India, well. Time is like that thing that we want to be strict about but are not. I wish I could live in a society where time gets such precedence as it gets down under. Of course all things are not rosy there but then time has to be THE most important thing that we have and if we cant respect it, what else is there to life?
Apart from time, the other great thing was that people do it with all their heart. If they are working on something, they are in it. They are not slacking. They are not cutting corners. They are not sweeping under the rug. They are doing it as if its going to be the last thing they'd ever do. Something that we have to learn here in India.
So yeah, thats about it for the time being. Over the next few days I hope to write more. Even though there is travel planned but I am going to not let that affect how I live my life. I am pretty lucky that way.
Over n out.
среда, 22 февраля 2017 г.
India's private universities fail to make a mark
Shiv Nadar, Aziz Premji, O P Jindal, Munjal, Bennett.... we have quite a few universities started by private industrialists. Yet, none has made a mark thus far as a quality institution, notes Anjuli Bhargava in BS.
That's true of professional colleges as well. There's no engineering institution that can match the IITs, hardly any that match the IIMs and the AIIMS or even other prominent government medical colleges.
Why so? One reason that Bhargava mentions is the lack of high quality admission standards. Indeed, many of these universities go all out to woo student candidates, something no self-respecting institution would do. Another is that they are far too focused on hardware and too little on software, namely, faculty and research. And a third is that promoters run them as they do their own businesses- by calling the shots and not giving enough leeway to professional educators.
I guess all of this is true. But another crucial factor is that most private universities have a profit motive in mind- they are looking for returns, preferably quick returns. Whereas the striking thing about private universities in the US and some other places is that these are non-profit in orientation and are sustained by large endowments.
No educational institution that aims to generate surpluses out of its operations- mostly running degree programmes and, in some cases, consultancy and executive training- can be expected to produce high quality in the long run. There's a view that, ever since the IIMs have been left to set their own fee, they too are focused on revenue generation. Their reputation was built in a period when they were sustained by government funding and did not have think about surpluses.
Worldwide, the combination of quality and access is possible only when there's a large element of subsidy built into higher education. In India, it's public universities that conform to this model. The worry about IIMs now must be whether they will end up in the same bracket as private universities.
That's true of professional colleges as well. There's no engineering institution that can match the IITs, hardly any that match the IIMs and the AIIMS or even other prominent government medical colleges.
Why so? One reason that Bhargava mentions is the lack of high quality admission standards. Indeed, many of these universities go all out to woo student candidates, something no self-respecting institution would do. Another is that they are far too focused on hardware and too little on software, namely, faculty and research. And a third is that promoters run them as they do their own businesses- by calling the shots and not giving enough leeway to professional educators.
I guess all of this is true. But another crucial factor is that most private universities have a profit motive in mind- they are looking for returns, preferably quick returns. Whereas the striking thing about private universities in the US and some other places is that these are non-profit in orientation and are sustained by large endowments.
No educational institution that aims to generate surpluses out of its operations- mostly running degree programmes and, in some cases, consultancy and executive training- can be expected to produce high quality in the long run. There's a view that, ever since the IIMs have been left to set their own fee, they too are focused on revenue generation. Their reputation was built in a period when they were sustained by government funding and did not have think about surpluses.
Worldwide, the combination of quality and access is possible only when there's a large element of subsidy built into higher education. In India, it's public universities that conform to this model. The worry about IIMs now must be whether they will end up in the same bracket as private universities.
понедельник, 20 февраля 2017 г.
Irdai to form actuary panels for life, general insurers
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has invited bids from actuaries and firms employing such analysts to form a 'Panel of Actuaries'.пятница, 17 февраля 2017 г.
Full start of India Reliance petchem plant will halt heavy naphtha exports: Sources
The main feedstock for paraxylene is heavy naphtha, a crude-based product which can also be converted into reformates, a blending component for high-octane gasoline.USFDA accepts Mylan's BLA for proposed biosimilar Pegfilgrastim
The proposed biosimilar Pegfilgrastim is one of the six biologic products co-developed by Mylan and Biocon for the global marketplace, the two companies said in a statement.четверг, 16 февраля 2017 г.
Budget for FY 2017-18
I was amongst those who produced instant wisdom on the budget this year- wrote up my piece by 5 pm after the budget speech was announced. Quite an experience because it was hard to access the details until about 2:30 pm at the finance ministry website, perhaps due to the heavy load on the server.
To do justice, you need to have the budget estimates for the previous year, revised estimates and budget estimates for the current year on a spreadsheet. This is next to impossible when you are writing to a tight deadline.However, one can get a sense of whether the budget got it right on the whole.
Here's my analysis in the Hindu, A budget few can quarrel over.
To do justice, you need to have the budget estimates for the previous year, revised estimates and budget estimates for the current year on a spreadsheet. This is next to impossible when you are writing to a tight deadline.However, one can get a sense of whether the budget got it right on the whole.
Here's my analysis in the Hindu, A budget few can quarrel over.
среда, 15 февраля 2017 г.
Can a public asset reconstruction company resolve India's bad debt?
I have a piece in Business Standard today.
Since the article is behind a pay wall, it's reproduced in full below:
The Economic Survey has proposed a Public Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) – a so-called “bad bank” – for tackling bad loans in the Indian banking system. We already have several Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs). So what’s new?
PARA will be much bigger in scale and will have substantial government equity. Besides, a big chunk of bad loans relates to valuable projects in infrastructure and related areas. Many of these projects need to be completed through further infusion of capital from promoters. Some of the debt has to be written off and some restructured in order to restore viability.
The existing ARCs are just not equipped for such a role, at least on the scale required. They are mainly in the business of effecting recoveries through liquidation of assets.
The Survey argues that leaving it to banks to resolve bad loans has not worked. At public sector banks (PSBs), management is unable to write off debt for fear of inviting investigation. In many bad loans, several banks, public and private, are involved. This gives rise to problems of coordination. Banks can’t agree on the write-off required in a given case.
Transferring some of the biggest bad loans to a well-capitalised PARA could help resolve the coordination problem. As the government stake in PARA will be 49 per cent, managers can resolve loans without fear of inviting scrutiny.
This sounds fine — until you get down to the details. One challenge is the prices at which bad loans will be sold to PARA. Determining the market prices for bad loans is not easy. Getting banks to agree on a sale price could pose its own problems of coordination.
If the sale of bad loans to PARA were perceived to be under-priced, PSB management would be exposed to the wrath of the CAG, CVC and CBI. If they were over-priced, private investors in the proposed PARA would begin to fret.
The challenge of writing off debt remains. Managers at PARA may be able to exercise their discretion a little more freely. But the government is ultimately accountable for decisions taken by an entity in which it is the dominant investor. Every resolution will be closely watched. Expect howls of “scam” to be raised given that high-profile corporates are involved.
The Survey estimates that of the top 100 stressed debtors, 10 would need debt reductions of 51-75 per cent and 57 would need reductions of 75 per cent or more! Over 40 per cent of the debt is owed by companies with an interest coverage ratio of less than one. As the top 50 companies in this category owe an average of ~20,000 crore, the write-offs required are of staggering proportions.
Unlike many of the shrill critics of the public sector, the Survey doesn’t see recapitalising PSBs as throwing good money after bad. Even more striking, the Chief Economic Advisor doesn’t believe that finding the necessary capital for PSBs is a big deal- he thinks it’s “the easiest part” of the loan resolution problem. (“Rehab for the balance sheet”, Indian Express
Since the article is behind a pay wall, it's reproduced in full below:
The Economic Survey has proposed a Public Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) – a so-called “bad bank” – for tackling bad loans in the Indian banking system. We already have several Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs). So what’s new?
PARA will be much bigger in scale and will have substantial government equity. Besides, a big chunk of bad loans relates to valuable projects in infrastructure and related areas. Many of these projects need to be completed through further infusion of capital from promoters. Some of the debt has to be written off and some restructured in order to restore viability.
The existing ARCs are just not equipped for such a role, at least on the scale required. They are mainly in the business of effecting recoveries through liquidation of assets.
The Survey argues that leaving it to banks to resolve bad loans has not worked. At public sector banks (PSBs), management is unable to write off debt for fear of inviting investigation. In many bad loans, several banks, public and private, are involved. This gives rise to problems of coordination. Banks can’t agree on the write-off required in a given case.
Transferring some of the biggest bad loans to a well-capitalised PARA could help resolve the coordination problem. As the government stake in PARA will be 49 per cent, managers can resolve loans without fear of inviting scrutiny.
This sounds fine — until you get down to the details. One challenge is the prices at which bad loans will be sold to PARA. Determining the market prices for bad loans is not easy. Getting banks to agree on a sale price could pose its own problems of coordination.
If the sale of bad loans to PARA were perceived to be under-priced, PSB management would be exposed to the wrath of the CAG, CVC and CBI. If they were over-priced, private investors in the proposed PARA would begin to fret.
The challenge of writing off debt remains. Managers at PARA may be able to exercise their discretion a little more freely. But the government is ultimately accountable for decisions taken by an entity in which it is the dominant investor. Every resolution will be closely watched. Expect howls of “scam” to be raised given that high-profile corporates are involved.
The Survey estimates that of the top 100 stressed debtors, 10 would need debt reductions of 51-75 per cent and 57 would need reductions of 75 per cent or more! Over 40 per cent of the debt is owed by companies with an interest coverage ratio of less than one. As the top 50 companies in this category owe an average of ~20,000 crore, the write-offs required are of staggering proportions.
Unlike many of the shrill critics of the public sector, the Survey doesn’t see recapitalising PSBs as throwing good money after bad. Even more striking, the Chief Economic Advisor doesn’t believe that finding the necessary capital for PSBs is a big deal- he thinks it’s “the easiest part” of the loan resolution problem. (“Rehab for the balance sheet”, Indian Express
, February 8). Only, the Survey doesn’t favour promising large infusion of capital to PSBs before
bad loans are resolved. This, it believes, would create incentives for unduly large write-offs.
So, none of the issues associated with bad loan resolution in the present scheme of things goes away with the creation of PARA: Coordination amongst banks; large write-offs and the potential for controversy; and the substantial capital that would have to be infused into PSBs.
If anything, we stand to lose two advantages we have with the present system. One, banks’ intimate knowledge of projects and hence the ability to arrive at the right resolution. Two, banks’ ability to use the leverage they have with large corporate groups to ensure that they restore viability to troubled projects within the groups.
If the primary motivations for PARA are to have the right incentives for write-offs and to get resolution going, there’s a simpler option: create an oversight mechanism for vetting bad loans. The Survey mentions that the Banks Board Bureau has created such a mechanism — we don’t know whether it’s operational. We need to merely strengthen the mechanism by getting one created through an Act of Parliament.
In sum, it’s not clear that setting up a new agency is a superior way to address the issues that bedevil bad loan resolution. Giving PSB management statutory backing to resolve bad loans and the capital infusion to cover write-offs could achieve superior outcomes.
Still, there’s merit in trying out competing models. Let’s walk on two legs: facilitate better resolution under the present system and set up PARA as well by transferring loans amounting to, say, ~1 lakh crore. Let’s see which model does better. There could be useful lessons to be learnt.
понедельник, 6 февраля 2017 г.
Indian billionaire Aloke Lohia senses US bonanza from Donald Trump’s tax agenda
The Bangkok-based maker of plastics used in items such as Coca-Cola Co. bottles generates about 40 percent of revenue from its North American factories.HPCL gets green nod for Rs 3,846-crore expansion project
With the proposed expansion, HPCL said the Mumbai refinery will be able to produce gasoline and diesel meeting Euro IV quality specifications, besides other petroleum products.четверг, 2 февраля 2017 г.
Reliance Jio, demonetisation led to revenue drop: Vodafone
Vodafone also confirmed merger talks with the Aditya Birla Group's Idea Cellular as part of its Q3 results for the period that ended on December 31, 2016.
