The recently held World Twenty 20 Cricket championship has finally produced a form of cricket that is intense, glamorous and doesn't consume an entire day. India winning this championship is another bonus! One hopes that the newly launched Indian Cricket League will further contribute to this trend by discovering more talent and launching even more spectacular shows. Corruption within the BCCI and all the money makers there will also hopefully reduce with the increased competition.
Cricket is generally considered a non athletic game, with most people on the field stationery at any given time, much unlike soccer. The duration also drags on for an entire day and the drag on productivity of the country is sizeable. With Twenty20 the game can go on and so can one's business for the day!
Sep 25, 2007
Sep 23, 2007
Microsoft's 'Imagine Cup'
Microsoft organises an annual event, The Imagine Cup that aims to bring together the best of technology innovation amongst students onto a global forum. This year's theme was 'Imagine a world where technology enables better education for all' and the nine categories ranged from software design to embedded development, algorithm, web development, photography and short film. For Microsoft the benefits are huge - locate some of the brightest global talent many of whom may go onto join them, and also leverage their innovations into its products.
I had an opportunity to get a peek into this thanks to my cousin Chintalapati Arun Sharma whose Team Acumen was one of the contestants. It was heartening to see Arun and his team first qualify among 100,000 participants and then make it to the finals (only 8 teams in his category did so). It was very impressive to see this bright young man slog hard and put in several night outs on the project. On the final day of the project report submission, he was zipping around the city coordinating things, even though there was a major bomb blast just the previous day.
Their project titled TWIST (The Way I See Things) created a device that can help the visually challenged perceive images through touch. From the device's memory any requested image is translated to a set of 36x36 pixels which are then projected onto a tactile pad. This pad consists of pins which vary their height to create the perception of depth making it a Braille like language for pictures. The Hyderabadis happily travelled to Seoul all paid for by Microsoft of course! The kind of exposure they got was tremendous interacting with teams from across the world. I was reminded of my own horizon-broadening experiences (though much smaller in scale) when I first visited New Delhi for the KV National Games as a Class IX student, and later for my first interview for an IIM. For the generation of youth today, the opportunities to network and play on a global canvas are much more than ever before.
Eventually the six winning teams came from Thailand, Korea and Jamaica in software design and Brazil, Romania and China in embedded development. India could have perhaps done more considering that these winners were also not from Western nations.
Check out The Week's coverage of the event here and the Imagine Cup website.
I had an opportunity to get a peek into this thanks to my cousin Chintalapati Arun Sharma whose Team Acumen was one of the contestants. It was heartening to see Arun and his team first qualify among 100,000 participants and then make it to the finals (only 8 teams in his category did so). It was very impressive to see this bright young man slog hard and put in several night outs on the project. On the final day of the project report submission, he was zipping around the city coordinating things, even though there was a major bomb blast just the previous day.
Their project titled TWIST (The Way I See Things) created a device that can help the visually challenged perceive images through touch. From the device's memory any requested image is translated to a set of 36x36 pixels which are then projected onto a tactile pad. This pad consists of pins which vary their height to create the perception of depth making it a Braille like language for pictures. The Hyderabadis happily travelled to Seoul all paid for by Microsoft of course! The kind of exposure they got was tremendous interacting with teams from across the world. I was reminded of my own horizon-broadening experiences (though much smaller in scale) when I first visited New Delhi for the KV National Games as a Class IX student, and later for my first interview for an IIM. For the generation of youth today, the opportunities to network and play on a global canvas are much more than ever before.
Eventually the six winning teams came from Thailand, Korea and Jamaica in software design and Brazil, Romania and China in embedded development. India could have perhaps done more considering that these winners were also not from Western nations.
Check out The Week's coverage of the event here and the Imagine Cup website.
Sep 22, 2007
Flyovers wreaking more havoc
Last month I had posted about the long pending flyovers in Hyderabad. Unfortunately tragedy struck earlier this month and a portion of the one of the flyovers under construction at the busy Punjagutta junction crashed after heavy rains. Two persons perished in the incident which was caused by nothing but the gross negligence by the authorities.
Even now several days after the tragedy there are no findings on the root cause not any action taken on guilty personnel. The same dirty politics that dogs the construction is holding back any remedial action.
Even now several days after the tragedy there are no findings on the root cause not any action taken on guilty personnel. The same dirty politics that dogs the construction is holding back any remedial action.
Main Aaraha Hoon India!
Hero Honda is running a new TV ad on its fairly established bike model the CD 100. It starts with a young man pondering about what is there in America that is not present in India. This guy seems to have a job offer from one Mr. Richards as a building architect. He rides his bike with these thoughts, and then turns it around deciding that his designs will help him build a new India! Main Aaraha Hoon India (I am coming India!).
This is perhaps one of its first kind of ads that explicitly encourages Indian youth to leverage their talent and skills for India. Ads usually mirror what the public feels is cool or is the 'in thing'. And it sure feels good to see an ad like this run over and over again on the telly set.
This is perhaps one of its first kind of ads that explicitly encourages Indian youth to leverage their talent and skills for India. Ads usually mirror what the public feels is cool or is the 'in thing'. And it sure feels good to see an ad like this run over and over again on the telly set.
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