Post-Economic crisis more challenging

World is now at an undefinable stage of the economic crisis. The more we analyse the current economic crisis, the more frightening it becomes. World economies including United States, European nations and developing nations like Brazil,Russia,India and China (famously known as BRIC) have no clue when this economic crisis will end. The other day, G20 nations met and agreed for a stronger regulatory actions on so called "Bad debt or Badly behaving banks". They yelled out for financial reforms across the board and a lot more stimulus packages.
Personally, i dont think this in any way addresses the main aim of bailing out countries from the present financial crisis mainly because regulating banks and financial reforms are steps that should be taken by countries to prevent another such crisis from taking place. So its more of a prevention of the disease occuring again rather than a cure of the current disease. I would suggest to first cure the present crisis and then we can think about its reoccurance. Secondly, the stimulus packages that the countries have promised. With the present scenario, countries have very little or no liquidity(read as "money") left with them for yet another stimulus packages which is essentially giving money to people through banks as loans or by any other means and encouraging them to spend more money. The interest rates in US and many European nations have virtually come to zero and thus they have no more room for any kind of monetary policy.
This leaves the US with no other way than to just wait for the economic crisis to end by itself and then hope for some economic growth. Also, the growing unemployment rate(now at 8.5% in US) is a cause of big worry. Less jobs means less spending and that forces less industrial production and which in turn leads to more layoffs. Developing nations like China and India are better placed to face the crisis but with time running out, they will also be affected badly.
One of the reasons for this crisis not ending quickly is the relatively low consumer spending in US as many of them are saving for an uncertain future.In January, the savings rate climbed to 4.4%. In February, it dipped slightly to 4.2%. Both were well above the negative 1% rate for 2006 and the negative 0.5% rate for 2005.In a $14.2 trillion U.S. economy, a 5-percentage-point increase in the savings rate -- and therefore a 5-point decline in consumption -- amounts to $500 billion.So, one way for the crisis to end is by other developing nations like India compensate for this $500 billion gap in US spending. That is people in India,China need to spend more so that the whole world can get out of this mess, else everyone will suffer. But countries like India and China are traditionally inclined to saving more.
That is why, even if economic crisis ends this year, the Americans and Europeans will want to save more to prevent themselves from such a scenario again. This in turn would lead to low economic growth around the world. This may increase dramatically only when some other country takes over from US as the leading economy in the world. That is why, many say the future of the world depends on how well India and China grow. With their population, even if a small fraction(about 30% of total American population) leads life like a average American, the world will grow much faster than what it was did in the past 2 decaded prior to the economic crisis.
So, the post economic crisis seems very challenging and would slow going till hopefully China and India take over. Future of the world lies in the hands of the Indian and Chinese citizen!!!

TCS enters IPL; signs deal with Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals have tied-up with Tata Consultancy Services as their technology partners for a period of three years.This marks a historic moment for the IPL as it is the first time that an IPL team has inducted a Technology Partner into the organization to help the team stay on the championship track.

TCS's Global Marketing Head, Jayant Pendharkar, told a media conference today that Rajasthan Royals' champions status as well as the importance they give to technology were some of the reasons they were preferred from among the eight IPL teams in fray for season 2 of the IPL commencing on April 18.
"Over the years TCS have partnered sports events. We are connected with the Ferrari team, NBA and the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon," he said.

Shane Warne, Captain-Coach, Rajasthan Royals says, “Rajasthan Royals represents an ideal combination of skill and experience. It’s good to be associated with a winning and trustworthy brand like TCS as their contribution will be an added advantage.”
TCS works with other sports organizations like racing major Ferrari in formula one and Ducati, the leader in bike racing. In the past few years, TCS has also consulted with the Indian national cricket team on lateral thinking and communication strategies and with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on its organizational structure.

Journalist attacks Chidambaram with a shoe

A Sikh reporter threw a shoe at the Indian home minister during a news conference after he was angered over the minister's reply to a question. P Chidambaram ducked as the trainer flew past him, and smiled broadly as the man was escorted out of the event in New Delhi. The Sikh journalist appeared to have acted after the minister refused to answer a question he had raised at the press conference.

Jarnail Singh of a Hindi daily hurled a shoe at Chidambaram protesting against CBI's clean chit to senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. Soon afterwards, Mr Singh told TV news reporters that he regretted throwing the shoe but he felt that Mr Chidambaram was dodging the question.
"I just wanted to ask him how justice will be done, but he was not interested in answering the questions," he told . BJP on Tuesday condemned hurling of a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram."We condemn the incident," BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj said in Delhi.

The Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at Mr Bush won worldwide fame but was jailed for three years earlier this month.

Download a movie in an hour-Airtel launches 16 Mbps broadband

Bharti Airtel has announced 16 Mbps broadband – which the company claims to be the fastest wireline broadband on DSL in the country.Telecom consumers in India can experience broadband in the true sense, withconnections which offer speeds of 16 Mega Bits Per Second (Mbps) — that’s twice that of the current highest speeds available for the retail segment anywhere in the country.
With 16 Mbps speed, consumers can download a 4 GB high-definition movie within 30 minutes compared with more than 12 hours that a 256 Kbps connection takes.Powered by Airtel’s Carrier Ethernet Network the service will be available in Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with phased roll-out to additional cities of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata. Airtel delivers its broadband service to customers through a fibre backbone of Carrier Ethernet Network with last mile delivery on copper using ADSL2+ technology.

Customers can gain access to 16 Mbps broadband by choosing from 2 Tariff Plans – Speed Combo 2999 (20GB transfer limit) and Speed Combo 4999 (50GB transfer limit). The press release claimed Airtel offers its broadband services across 95 cities in the country with approximately 9.92 lakh broadband customers as on December 31, 2008.

Rahul Dravid breaks the world record for most catches

Rahul Dravid scaled another lofty peak in his illustrious career when he created the world record for the most number of Test catches by a fielder.When Dravid helped to dismiss the New Zealand batsman, Tim McIntosh, in Wellington, it was his 182nd catch in a Test career going back to 1996.

Rahul Dravid has always been regarded as one of the finest fielders, especially in the slip region in the cricketing world, for most of his 13 years as an international cricketer. Therefore, it is only fitting that the former Indian captain has taken over the mantle of the maximum Test catches from Australia's Mark Waugh.Having snared Nasser Hussain off Javagal Srinath to open his 'catch' account in his debut Test at Lord's, Dravid is now clearly ahead of Ricky Ponting (148 in 131 Tests), Jacques Kallis (147 in 131) and Mahela Jayawardene (142 in 102) among current players.

Dravid has taken 88 catches in 59 Tests played at home, while 94 of his catches, including the 182nd of his career, have been taken in 75 matches played on overseas grounds.He has also scored over 10,000 runs in both Test cricket and one-day internationals.

11 digit mobile numbers soon

If remembering 10-digit mobile phone numbers is hard task for you, soon you'll have an addition to the problem. The Department of Telecom, or DoT, is considering making mobile phone numbers to contain 11 digits.With phone operators expected to run out of 10-digit mobile numbers soon, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is now considering this proposal.

According to industry, given the current rate of growth of subscribers in the country, another 150-200 million can be added before the 10-digit quota is consumed.In India, the first numbering plan was announced in 1993 when mobile telephony had not yet begun.
In 2003, the DoT had come out with a 30-year numbering plan. However, the rapidly growing subscriber base has forced it to review the plan in six years.
The current growth rate in telecom is expected to continue as firms extend their reach to rural India and new technologies such as high-speed 3G enter the country.

So, get ready for your 11 digit mobile number....