India: A Space Odessey?

Today, ISRO launched 10 satellites simultaneously into space successfully. Apparently, its a world record of some kind – since Russia had previously launched a maximum number of 8. ( In all fairness, no word on the total payload).

That being said, I think its a huge accomplishment for the Indian Space Research Institute to have delivered 10 total satellites in space simultaneously in what has been called a textbook launch.

So what does this mean for Indian Space. Apart from the fact that it will probably increase government funding for the moon launch – dubbed Project Chandrayan – it will probably mean more foreign business for launching weather and other such satellites.

Does that mean that India will become the next outsourcing vendor for satellite space launches? My take is that the scenario is absolutely possible – and indeed very likely. Given the economies of scale associated with multiple satellite launches, it doesn’t seem a far-fetched scenario where-in launches of weather and other strategically non-critical satellites are outsourced to ISRO and other such agencies.

Given that this has happened at a time of a fundamental transformation of world communications, there is a natural synergy that private communication and GPS companies would use a low cost launch vendor for their satellite launches.

ISRO the next Infosys anyone?

Apple thoughts…

Why are Apple products so fundamentally and qualitatively different – indeed superior – to their competing products? From the Macbook to the Macbook Pro. From Leopard to iPhone. Why are they so superior? Or come across as so?

Thought has been bugging me – ever since I got the HTC Mogul – which has tons of functionality – but somehow never comes together in a user friendly way. From the time I started using the Mac OS and Vista. Everything that the Mac OS can do – Vista can as well. Everything, or almost everything the iPhone can do – the HTC Mogul can.

But when it comes down to the user functionality of everything the computers, operating systems and the phones can accomplish – the Apple functionality is so much ahead than anything that the competition has to offer.

And one has to wonder, how across these divergent set of devices and software, Apple – a relatively small company – when compared to the competition – invariably does it so well.

I don’t have the answers. But I would like to understand. Especially as I type this on my Apple Macbook.

Close product development cycle? Obsessive big boss? Attention to detail? Just good lineage?

Needs thought. Stay tuned.

Bollywood’s golden year

I do not claim to be a movie buff or very knowledgeable on Hindi movies. But it seems to me that last year was such a good year for hindi movies in so many ways. In terms of the quality of movies released – Chak De, Tare Zameen Par, Hum Tum and so many others – Solid Movies. Solid Production. Top notch music.

On the offbeat track – watched a movie called Parzania – and that set me thinking.

Seems to me that Hindi movies have finally come of age. Bollywood doesn’t seem to obsess about international awards anymore. Seems much more confident in the genre that is uniquely Bollywood – drama, emotions, song, dance.

And while I firmly believe that a number of individual performances in Hindi movies would more than merit an Oscar – it seems that the Hindi Film Industry has grown beyond these ambitions.

Hindi movies arguably has a bigger market than Hollywood already – in terms of sheer numbers. But challenges exist – the Hindi Film Industry’s total revenues are still a small fraction of that of Hollywood. While production qualities have dramatically improved, in terms of production budgets, the budgets of even the most expensive Bollywood movies are still a fraction of a top Hollywood blockbuster. There are questionable financial channels of production – still financed, to a large part, by underworld and hawala channels -though that seems to be changing with professional production companies setting up operations.

Dont claim to be an expert on the Indian Film Industry – but its amazing to watch the metamorphosis – its almost like the industry is reflecting the change of the Indian nation. Much more confident in its skin.

Bombay’s Cheerleaders!

Maharashtra has banned cheerleaders in IPL matches to be held in Mumbai because they are “vulgar” and “obscene”.

I think we should stop outsourcing of cheerleading to Australian women and exclusively have our own do it. I am against shipping jobs overseas. But wait, in this case, we shipped the job holders on shore!

In that case, we should stop issuing work permit to foreigners who take Indian jobs! And erode our cultural values to boot.

You have to love Bombay’s politicians. As a Delhi-ite, I rub my hands in glee. And cheer the protectors of Indian values!

PS: While at this banning spree, I say we ban Rakhi Sawant as well.

Finally..

After 10 months of suffering through bad coverage, unacceptable voice and data quality, I gave up on ATT and moved back to Sprint on my corporate plan.

For proponents of GSM, its great to have it outside North America – but here CDMA coverage is so much better. From a standpoint of capacity management, data coverage, network reliability and everything else one looks for as an end subscriber.

I will miss my Treo 750. But I have the HTC Mogul now. While not in the same league as the Treo, it does have tons of extra features which I shall probably never use.

And EVDO Rev A is so much better than the GPRS/HSDPA implementations that ATT has in the United States.

Finally back to talking and using the phone wherever I want to.

Tibet and China – An Indian Point of View.

Have not written here for a long time. Partly, again, it has been an issue of time but more importantly, its been the lack of involvement in anything happening around the world. Not emotionally. But from a standpoint of following issues to opine intelligently.

A lot has happened in the world. Tibet comes to mind. The disruption of the Olympic flame in London, Paris, San Fransisco and New Delhi. An uprising that soon turned violent. And then predictably, a brutal repression of the Chinese state.

The repercussions were widely felt. From both sides, on all forums. Even on Facebook now – where the ethnically Chinese have banded together to form groups like One China.

I cannot but help having mixed feeling. Ultimately, every nation state defends territorial integrity with all its might – as it should – unless we don’t want to have concepts of nation states anymore. Which both from a macro-economic and social standpoint wouldn’t make much sense. However, what makes it complicated is how much right does a nation have to repress its people to protect “nationhood”.

I come from India – and we have our share of discontent within our boundaries – and not without reason. Institutional neglect, exploitation and corruption kicked it off; local political ambitions and the benevolence of our neighbours kept it going. However, even in a democracy like India – there have been many instances of ham-fisted response by the state that has even further alienated the fringe in our society. Was protecting our territorial integrity justified? Absolutely. Did it justify the steps the government took. Absolutely not.

So I understand the Chinese outrage. What I don’t have an appreciation for- is when the very overseas Chinese who wont go back home because of the lack of political and other freedoms are the first to band with the government when that same freedom is denied to a people who are fundamentally peaceful and ethnically very diverse from the Han Chinese.

In India for e.g. – by and large – there is a consensus within the think tank that Kashmir and the Northeast – where our major insurgent problems currently exist – have not a little to do with Indian government policies. And by and large, Indians are open to ensuring that these wrongs are righted – in an Indian democratic framework.

In China however, there seems to be a mass acceptance to the official version that the Dalai Lama is a devil who is responsible for all the unrest – a virtual ignorance of the fact that the demographics and economics of Tibet has radically changed by a huge influx of Han Chinese – and that is primarily the cause of discontent.

Moot point is, can any large and diverse nation – be that India or China sustainably survive without any regard to the aspirations of the populace – my gut says no. I wish hosting the Olympics made any nation great. Or producing all of Walmart’s huge product portfolio. Ultimately, citizens have to feel vested in the nation for a nation to be great. And China, in the long term, doesn’t seem to be seeing that point.

My two cents in the matter.