Born in England, died in India.

They say that World Cup has started in India. I heard that people died of heart attack seeing the first three matches of the World Cup. I would advise ICC not to hold such nail-biters because people will eat others head off :D By the end of 40-odd days of this so-called World Cup, some thousand records will be created which will keep some idiots happy.

The best part of it was that I did not have to even watch one full over in any of the matches. Just a look at the score card shows how much I missed :D Some may be happy to see Sehwag has 'equalled' Kapil's record in World Cup for the highest score in the match against Bangladesh. I was curious/clueless about New Zealand's apparently 'wretched' form these dayss and wanted to catch some minutes in their match against Kenya but before I could get to catch it on TV, I saw that it was over :D I guess one of the goals of the minnows is to 'postpone' their obvious defeat. First thing that they seem to do is to give some batting practice to the 'bigger' team. So that the match will definitely go to say 60 overs! That seemed to be the achievement of at least Canada in their match against Sri Lanka.

So-called experts were pretty late in even thinking, forget doubting, if ODIs have a future.

I think the part of the problem with 50-over cricket is that it is becoming very formulaic, and I think the Powerplays are contributing to that. I think the batting side is saying that we are going to go like hell in the power-plays and in the overs in between we are going to try and pick five or six runs an over without taking much risk so that we have wickets in hand. And if you've got a game of cricket where the batting is playing without risk and the fielding captain is allowing them to do that, then you've got a boring game on hands.

I guess a boring World Cup is written all over.

Update: 30 Mar 2011, 15:14 hrs IST

People can call me a 'cynic' for suspecting that the World Cup is 'fixed' to ensure that Sachin, oops Chennai Super Kings, oops Dhoni lifts the World Cup at Eden Gardens at Kolkota, oops Wankhede at Mumbai. I still feel that the entire thing is being 'orchestrated' to ensure Sachin's 'list of credentials' has a World Cup. At least to 'suspects' like me ;), the cat was out of the bag during the semifinals wheen it was shown on TV - . Well the match between India and Pakistan has started I guess just a few minutes ago, but why bother playing when the result is known. To add some 'authenticity', the Pakistani Minister warns his players not to get involved in match fixing. Dont bother guys, fixing has been taken care of :D

In Parallel…

If I thought of Cook-Levin as ‘doable’, then the issue of programming for multi-cores is more ‘contemporary’ if not imminent. Dr Dobbs Journal recently brought out an article where it cautioned that the ‘free lunch is indeed over’. I am not surprised because my article in IEEE Potentials last year mentioned the very same thing. In fact I had ‘reference’d the article by Larus of Microsoft. To quote, my point was simply this

It needs little emphasis that in 1978, 29,000 transistors running at 5 MHZ in Intel 8086 shot up in 2006 to 291 million transistors running at 2.93 GHZ in Intel Core 2 Duo, but Moore's dividend can increase only when systems and software really exploit the same. More importantly, future systems and software must be designed with the topology and architecture of the hardware and how best to exploit it.

I had told at least my friends long back when this ‘Core Duo’ (Intel’s) came, it was simply a waste of time and effort because unless compilers are going to use, applications are NOT going to see any benefit. Of course as I mentioned in the article,

Operating systems in conjunction with the hardware can off-load many of the software tasks to the hardware.

This too may not be effective for individual programs which will continue with the same ‘runtime’. ‘Think parallel’ is a bit more complex and follows the ‘not-so-obvious’ paradigm. ‘Structured thinking’ and thereby ‘structured programming’ is strictly sequential. Though the head is still one can we use multiple hands? That is THE question.
One of the key components of many algorithms (sorting to name one) is the swap functionality. Ranging from primitive (additive functions) to the not-so-obvious XOR capability, swap is critical. In college days, I used to write the swap of two variables in C without using an ‘intermediary’ variable as below

a^=b;
b^=a;
a^=b;

Now this also involves execution of three instructions – if there is a ‘swap’ instruction, it may be just a macro for three similar instructions. So the run time is the run time of three instructions.
I think multiple cores can solve this problem easily and do the same in one cycle. To just take two cores, Core 1 reads ‘a’ at rising edge of clock and writes into ‘b’ at falling edge. Core 2 reads ‘b’ at rising edge of clock and writes into ‘a’ at falling edge of clock. We thus use two cores sharing the memory to do the swap in just one cycle. This is effective usage of multiple cores. There may be many other macros or assembly instructions which could be ‘reworked’ to effectively exploit the hardware and thus run faster.

I don’t think there is any catch and would suspect at least Intel to be already heads up on this.

Cocoons! Here we come!

I joined Texas Instruments, Bangalore (before it became Bengaluru) on 3 Jan 2000 as a project trainee. It was my first day and so may be thinking that I was still a college student just on a 'visit', the first day was ‘off’. I think the first person to whom I TALKED was the librarian since I was there till lunch. TI had a good library – obviously I am not going to look at technical books on the first day. The first article that I read was ‘How to be a Star Engineer?’ – an IEEE article. It resonated a lot within me because I too didn’t feel anything was ‘tough’. It was the trivial issue which often takes up more of our time. A simple fact that I don’t like my colleague could delay my tasks! The tasks per se are not as challenging as say a ‘hard Sudoku’! A company would not recruit me for doing something which with all their expertise and manpower couldn’t do for years!

The ‘mass’ vs ‘class’ jargon was/is often used in films (especially in Telugu) and to draw a parallel with something higher, ‘HOTS’ vs ‘MOTS’ is something I could immediately strike a chord with as I studied in CBSE. So even when we were in college, even in ‘software’, ‘application’ software was called ‘mass’ and ‘systems software’ was called ‘class’. ‘TCS’ or ‘Infosys’ or ‘Wipro’ was called ‘mass’ while ‘Oracle’ or ‘HP’ or ‘Cisco’ was called ‘class’ mainly because of the large numbers that former selected and the fewer the latter chose. I was never a gregarious person and so it is obvious that I would have preferred company with fewer colleagues over a ‘mass company’. I was probably the first ever MCA student to be recruited in Texas Instruments and the only other MCA student too joined our adjoining team (later the teams were merged). The initial months or years were more interesting because it is always nice to be raring to go to office to ‘prove something’. Especially as a non-engineer, I was keen to ‘prove something to somebody’ (to put in ‘Citizen Kane’ terms). Even before I officially became an employee, my paper was accepted in VDAT conference. I learnt about some ‘device drivers’ to equipments in the fab (mainly ATEs) faster than ‘expected’, at least according to some. From conference at ‘national’ level, the next move was obviously go to international conference level. Though I was one of the co-authors in a paper in 2002, the paper for which I was the ONLY author in 2004 gave me probably more satisfaction. After having filed an application at USPTO, I was DONE! To quote Ian Chappell on captaincy

And the thing about this job is that it can wear you down pretty quickly. I just wrote about this a few weeks ago where I mentioned that I lasted four years as Australia's captain and I was done by the end of it, probably a little before the four years.

Not surprisingly, I left Texas Instruments at the end of four years because I didn’t feel that there was anything ‘new’ to it and it had become sort of ‘formulaic’ and MOTS. Anything which involves an usage of ‘grey matter’ often interested me and this ‘assembly’ line work is of now use. In fact, when I was in TI they used to call ‘Physical Design’ as ‘layout factory’. My problem with factories was always that I was always never going to do well among cadets and one among many ‘workers’. Getting lost in the crowd was not my way of looking to the future. In my opinion, I was not restricted by my inability. I always felt that I could learn anything. If a person who has learnt NOTHING academically about electronics can file a patent from a semiconductor giant, that person should be given the benefit of doubt in any field. I was always cooking though I was not born with a silver spoon ;) I concur with Sanjiv Kapoor's interview recently -

Books for brides tend to spell out the simplest procedures. Does the “Wedding Collection” also start from scratch?

These are not recipes for people who don't even know how to switch on the gas. When people say ‘I can't even boil rice or make tea', they are not apologetic. They say it with some sense of pride, which is actually a shame.
This book is for this generation, for people who are interested in food and have some confidence in the kitchen. Yes, we do some handholding.

If at all there was any handholding for me, it was in the form of my grandmother giving instructions when I was 13 years old or so. I don’t remember my mother having any doubt over my cooking ability though I never really cooked when she was around.
Having moved to Chennai to work in a company at a lower pay with very few, if not none, knowledgeable guys around, if not for the financial factor (we need something to live after all!), there is nothing that mandates my persistent employment. I also see that with the current ‘depression’, companies wanted people to be like what Krugman had wanted Obama’s team to be.

One thing's for sure: The next administration's economic team had better be ready to hit the ground running, because from day one it will find itself dealing with the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.

I think that there is a serious leadership vacuum in every aspect of life. The more tragic part of it is that people don’t seem to know what leadership is, itself. MBAs are only going to aggravate the problem because I remember asking my ‘bil’ who apparently did his MBA from a premier college in US – what do MBAs bring to table? What can they do which others cant? He said ‘structured thinking’. I think that is precisely the problem. They can only deal with situations which they already know. It is like the MOTS problem. As long as you have seen the problem before, you can solve it. What if it is an altogether new problem? In my opinion, leadership is all about DECISION MAKING. Period. You do not need any degree or in fact any schooling to make a good decision. It is just putting yourself in the best possible position to face any situation.

The dependence on ‘classroom’/’textbook’ coaching is actually detrimental to not just students, but all humans. To quote Ian Chappell yet again -

ANDREW DENTON: Is it fair to say you basically lived and breathed cricket? That’s where your head was most of the time?

IAN CHAPPELL: I’d like to think that I was thinking about a few other things. But I didn’t realise, actually, until I’d been retired about 18 months, and I said to my wife, Barbara Ann, I didn’t realise how I was simmering just below boiling point the whole time.

ANDREW DENTON: About what?

IAN CHAPPELL: I think it’s part of being competitive. I mean, I wasn’t trying to do it or anything,

IAN CHAPPELL: I think, as a cricketer or as a sportsman probably, or a sportswoman, to be successful you do have to live in a bit of a cocoon. You do have to, sort of, be a bit in your own world.

Also, I guess the other advantage that we had over the current cricketers is the fact that we had to work, which might sound a bit strange saying it’s an advantage, but I think it was because it was good for your cricket because you’d go to work, having made a duck, and you’d walk in and one of the guys who’s working in sales with you would say, “Oh what a useless so and so you are. I see you got nought on Saturday,” you know?

ANDREW DENTON: Yes.

IAN CHAPPELL: And so you weren’t, sort of, quite living in that cocoon where you only heard from your team mates what you wanted to hear.

I think we cannot let the future generations to be in the rosy comfort zone where they hear what they wanted to hear and blame ‘others’ for everything that went wrong. Having said that, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. Companies nowadays want the students to hit the ground running. This means that the student in his/her college life will practically have no time to look at anything else. It is often said about an American engineer – they know in and out of what they work with and nothing out of what works outside. ‘How to be a Star Engineer?’ has to be rewritten because cocoons are the one likely to succeed in the future.

State of the Union!

I have considered myself to 'chance' upon some events for no reason; events which range from mind-blowing to shocking. Events which often reaffirm my notions which often border on my 'intuitive' perception or 'gut feel'. The point is often I dont know why I did what I did to be the witness. Some events were really exciting most often on sports. The ones on top of my mind is Lara's classic match-winning knock and Nathan Astle's almost sucker shocker punch! Watching live, rather breaking news of 9/11 was equally sensational but somehow US was always 'far away'.

Today morning I watched the State of the Union LIVE. It seemed to reaffirm my perception of US! BBC summed it very well - what was expected to be a Presidential address that will give direction to the country in the current crisis, a damp squib would be a gross understatement. It was a big yawn to put it mildly. The US Prez spoke what was 'expected', atleast from me!

We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed;

In America, innovation doesn't just change our lives. It is how we make our living.

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik

That's what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves.

Look to Iraq, where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high.

Of course, as we speak, al Qaeda and their affiliates continue to plan attacks against us.

We will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.

I will travel to Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador to forge new alliances across the Americas.

In south Sudan — with our assistance — the people were finally able to vote for independence after years of war.

The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.

Brandon started a company in Berlin, Pennsylvania, that specializes in a new kind of drilling technology. And one day last summer, he saw the news that halfway across the world, 33 men were trapped in a Chilean mine, and no one knew how to save them.

We do big things.

Anodynes are fine, but if I thought I didnt get anything out of the 'State of the Union' speech, so too felt Krugman.

Overall, however, I have no idea what the vision here was.

I always thought Americans think too much of themselves and even more comical is the world media going gaga over Obama's election! I felt that Europeans rubbed it further by giving Nobel Peace Prize to Obama because of his 'intent' :)) If at all, there was any respect/dignity left in Nobel Prize, this took it. I remember reading few pages of 'The audacity of hope' in a bookstore in Indianapolis and was impressed with how Obama wrote (I know it will be 'proofread' and 'word-smithed').

Having said that it was ridiculous to see the world 'expecting' or 'cheering' Obama. I mean, I dont care who is the chief minister of Jharkhand or Madhya Pradesh. Why should I care about President of USA? :o It was even funnier to see desis support a Democrat. Desis should support a Republican because only Republicans have relaxed immigration policies. No surprises, one of the first things that happened after Obama entered White House was restricitions on entry to US. I didnt think anybody or any party can change a country over night or in a single term (Well, I dont think Obama will be Prez in the next term!). There will be not be much of a difference between Congress and BJP in India or Republican or Democrat in US. Didnt Clinton send so many troops ('Wag The Dog' you see!)? For starters, Obama showed that he is a 'stuntman' by taking oath on some Lincoln Bible! Anyway to sum Obama's 'speech' up in 'latest Tamil jargon' - சூர மொக்கை :D

TN elections are coming soon and I cant imagine any Tamil political leader worth his/her salt talking anything beyond Tamil Nadu borders. It would be really comical if they talk like Obama about Sudan. Even talking about Sri Lanka has lost its apparent zing decades ago. For all that I remember Rajdeep Sardesai's column in Deccan Herald comparing 'sprightly' Obama and the American 'audacity' with the 'senile' and 'family biased' Karunanidhi. No wonder, all Hinglish channels have been talking for decades about Jayalalithaa being a 'Prime Minister' candidate. Karunanidhi has at least never lost an election. Jayalalithaa has lost even an Assembly seat contesting at the term at the end of her term as Chief Minister. Maybe these TV channels will cover and analyze 'foreign news' much better than local news :(

love பண்ணுங்க sir, life நல்லாயிருக்கும்!

ஒரு காலத்தில் நண்பர்கள் பரிந்துரை செய்யும் படங்களை நாம் பார்ப்போம். என்னைப் பொறுத்தவரை அது தான் சிறந்த முறை. அவர்கள் நம்மை அறிந்ததால் நாம் அவர்களை அறிந்ததால் (ஓரளவிற்காவது) பரிந்துரை செய்யப்படும் படத்தின் மீது 'சரியான எதிர்பார்ப்புடன்' தான் செல்வோம். அதனால் பெரிதும் சேதமோ/வியப்போ வரப்போவதில்லை. 'சித்திரம் பேசுதடி' என் நண்பனின் பரிந்துரையில் தான் பார்த்தேன். ரசித்தேன். அவர்களுக்கு திருமணம் ஆகும் முன் சரியாக இருக்கும். அவர்களுக்கு திருமணமாகி விட்டால் அவர்களுடைய பரிந்துரைகளை நம்பாமல் இருப்பது நலம் என்பது என் கருத்து. நான் எல்லா படங்களையும் பார்ப்பதில்லை, குறிப்பாக நான் செலவழித்து படம் பார்க்க வேண்டுமென்றால்.

எதைப் பார்ப்பது என்று நான் தேர்வு செய்யும் முறை விந்தையாகக் கூடத் தோன்றலாம். எங்கு பார்ப்பது என்பதும் ஓரளவிற்கு முக்கியம். நான் பெங்களூருவில் இருந்த போது முதல் நாள் முதல் காட்சி என்றால் பார்ப்பேன். ஏனென்றால் அங்கு படங்களை கத்தரிக்கும் ('super edit') கேவலமான பழக்கம் உண்டு, நான் பார்த்த திரையரங்குகளிலாவது :x 'சுப்பிரமணியபுரம்' நடிப்பவர்களின் தாடியைப் பார்த்து முடிவு செய்தேன். 'மதராசப்பட்டினம்' நான் பார்க்கவேண்டும் என்று நினைத்தது நான் பார்த்த காட்சிகளில் ஏமியும் சரி, கொச்சின் ஹநீபாவும் சரி நன்றாக நடித்தது போல் தோன்றியது. தமிழில் என்றுமே துணை நடிகர்கள் அற்புதமாக நடிப்பார்கள். பல நேரங்களில் அவர்களால் தான் பல படங்கள் சிறப்பாக இருக்கும். இயக்குனர்கள் பொறுத்தவரை முதல் படங்களைத் தவிர்ப்பேன், பல இயக்குனர்கள் ஒரு கதை/படம் இயககுனராகிவிடுகிறார்கள். நம்முடைய எதிர்பார்ப்பும் பொய்த்துவிடுகிறது. உ-ம் அஞ்சாதே. நான் பார்த்த முதல் பாலா இயக்கிய படம் 'பிதாமகன்'. எனவே இயக்குனர்கள் பேசுவதை வைத்துக் கொண்டு தான் தற்போது முடிவு செய்கிறேன்.

பிரபு சாலமன் பொறுத்தவரை 'கொக்கி' மற்றும் 'லீ' படங்களின் கதை பற்றி படித்த போதே மாற்று சிந்தனையாளரோ (different line of thought) என்று நினைத்தேன். குறிப்பாக அவர் கதைக்களங்கள் எளிமையாக இருந்தது. ஆனால் 'கிங்' அவருடைய படம் என்பதறிந்து கொஞ்சம் ஜகா வாங்கினேன். சமீபத்தில் பாலா அவரைப் புகழ்ந்து பேசிய போது முடிவெடுத்தேன் 'மைனா' பார்த்தே தீர வேண்டுமென்று.

பாலா மீது நான் வைத்த நம்பிக்கை வீண் போகவில்லை. மைனா அற்புதம். கலை வடிவிவங்கள் மனதிலிருந்து வரவேண்டும். அறிவிலிருந்து அல்ல. இளையராஜா அண்மையில் பேசும் போது 'இசை இதயத்திலிருந்து வரவேண்டும், மூளையிலிருந்து அல்ல' என்று சொன்னார். பாரதிராஜா ஒரு முறை பேசும் போது 'என் மனத்திரையிலிருக்கும் காட்சியை வெள்ளித்திரையில் கொண்டுவர முயற்சிக்கிறேன்' என்று சொன்னார். இப்படித்தான் இருக்க வேண்டும் என்பது என் கருத்தும். மைனா 'straight from the heart' என்று சில விமர்சனங்கள் பார்த்தேன். அதிலிருந்தே பிற படங்கள் 'from somewhere else (behind?)' என்று புரிகிறது. சில நாட்கள் முன் வெளிவந்த படத்த்திற்கு 'intelligent script writing' என்று விமர்சனம். என்னைப் பொறுத்தவரையில் அந்த படம் பக்கம் போகக்கூடாது என்று நான் முன்பே எடுத்த முடிவை பாராட்டிக்கொண்டேன் :D

மைனா வெறும் படம் தானே? அதுக் கூ......கூம் மேல சார்!

இந்த ஆண்டை 'மைனா' மூலம் தொடங்கியதில் உண்மையிலேயே மகிழ்ச்சி அடைகிறேன் :)

Changing the 'change'!

I am not sure if change is the only constant in the world, but in my house, ‘change’ is the only constant. I am referring to the ‘change’ as in currency of lower denominations, rather coins. Even before I returned to Chennai, I used to use my trips to Chennai for using the ‘change’ that my mother accumulates. I don’t think she is a numismatist but may be sense of sound of coins gives her security. As long as one is not penny wise and pound foolish, it is fine. Only ‘as long as’ :(

Bengaluru ‘demonetized’ the usage of 25 paise coins quite some years ago. None of the shop keepers or even bus conductors accept 25 paisa coins. I guess I would have been thrown out of the bus if I gave the ‘hard earned’ 5, 10 and 20 paisa coins that my mother accumulated with such panache :D Maybe Chennai always catches the bug the last and I saw on TV a couple of days ago that 25 paisa coins are going to be ‘declared invalid’ from June 2011! I don’t know whether I saw it coming long back that I started this changing the 'change' into notes/bus tickets long back. Bad news is that I am not still done :( Earlier I could relax if I missed an opportunity but now with this timeline in mind, I have to ensure that I wrap this job before say April 2011. For once, I think I will do it. Even before I saw the announcement on TV, I had used the coins to a great extent in the ever reliable (at least as far as change is concerned) Chennai buses. Maybe if I lived in South Chennai, I would not have been able to do that. Thankfully I am in ‘Central Chennai’ (at least according to me). So I can change the change ;)

Update: 20 Jan 2011, 10:30 hrs IST

Well, I underestimated my mother :( I was glad at accomplishing the task much earlier on 15 Jan 2011. I was exposed to some more 'treasure' today morning and have to see how soon I 'change' that. Heard of 'akshayapatra'? :( The treasure trove of 5,10 and 20 paise coins have to be dumped, so I thought. My mother says she collected those to put it in the collection boxes in temples! Nice place indeed. Worthless go to the worthless. Do you know what is 'divine intervention'? That means, God came down from heaven and took all those worthless coins. With due regards to Quentin Tarantino, Samuel Jackson, John Travolta and Pulp Fiction.

Update: 24 Jan 2011, 9:50 hrs IST

Well, I did it! Barring the 5,10,20 paise coins, I did the 'impossible', thanks to Chennai buses ;) 5,10,20 paise coins that I see as of now amount to Rs.5.40/- in total. My mother has already sounded the warning that there is more waiting to be uncovered :( Maybe that will be 'discovered' some other day while searching for something else. By then, usage of coins itself would have been deprecated! I found it strange that even the banks refused to take coins of lower denomination. If not banks, then who else? RBI? :( My father was saying that I should go to RBI, which I think is in Parrys or nearby. Going there to change this currency will be meaningless for even the bus fare will be more than that ;)

When the media delivers opinions, not news.

When MK mentioned that Raja was targeted because he was a Dalit, many found it a point to nitpick him for bringing in caste. For one it is comical to assume that caste does not play any part, in media of all places. I had already posted about the spectral comedy. It now looks like the media is insistent on running this comedy show. DMK is the basic target and its minister Raja being made the scapegoat. Now they have to keep targetting Raja and declare It’s official: Raja pressured judge and to quote

Chandramohan, appearing for a father-son duo, Dr Krishna Moorthi and S K Sridhar — who were facing CBI inquiry in an MBBS marksheet forgery scam — had met Regupathy at his chambers and handed over his mobile phone saying Raja was on the line and wanted to speak to him regarding the case.

I am reminded of the joke

If I say 'Chandrika Kumaratunga who studied in the same school as my mother, is on the line, talk to her on my mobile and Eelam will born the next moment', should people suspect my mother or Chandrika or the school where they studied? What sort of a comedy is this? Though the case is not related to spectrum, the ex-minister is and media cannot stop dancing midway. They have to continue that act.

I was relieved to see some good articles on spectrum in the media, at last. Express Computer was the first and to quote,

It's a case of better late than never. Half a decade after 3G made its mark in developed countries (a decade in some), India has finally decided to embrace this technology. Considering that the pay off in 3G's case can take anywhere from six to ten years, have Indian telcos bitten off more than they can chew?

A lot of the delay in 3G roll outs is attributed to the government shuffling its feet over granting 3G licenses. The auctions raked in spectrum worth Rs. 67,710 crore, a figure that was almost a hundred percent more than the government's expectations. Also, when licenses were given out, only three of the nine telecom operators (excluding the state-run BSNL and MTNL), namely Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti, won the Mumbai and Delhi circles, which are the most expensive. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Communications agreed to pay Rs. 3,317 crore ($737 million) and Rs. 3,247 crore ($722 million) each for the most sought after Delhi and Mumbai markets.

Amidst the euphoria, industry observers are worried about the 'curse' of successful bidders paying through their nose for the licenses in addition to capital and operational expenses, which could eat into the operators’ profit margins. This, in turn, could dampen future investments. As it is, intense price competition is steadily eating into mobile operators' earnings and ARPUs have dropped below Rs. 200 per month per customer.

The implementation of 3G services would require significant investments (firstly on spectrum), in establishing and then maintaining network infrastructure.

According to research firm ICRA, this is expected to lead to greater reliance on debt and pressure on return indicators in the short term. The numbers are staggering. Telcos paid $1.6 to 2.6 billion for their 3G licenses and, in each case, they will be looking at infrastructure costs of $500 to 700 million, according to analysts. “These are huge outlays; equivalent to 40% to 50% of a year’s revenues,” averred Windsor Holden, Principal Analyst, Juniper Research. It’s not dissimilar to the Western European experience where operators paid exorbitant sums for 3G licenses in 2000. “Those operators are still trying to recoup the costs of their investments, ten years on,” he added.

If that is about the basic aspects of 2G/3G, the editorial in Economic Times nailed it.

Let us look at a similar situation in Britain. When Britain allotted 2G licences, they went through a bureaucrat’s version of an auction — prequalifying bidders through criteria like knowing business plans, their capital base — that Prof Paul Klemperer of Oxford derisively calls ‘beauty contests’ . They could raise only 44,000 pound through this route. Subsequently, Klemperer conducted the 3G auctions, where he raised a whopping 2.2 billion pound for the government and the consequent near-bankruptcy for the bidding firms. But no one in UK used this benefit in hindsight and criticised the 2G auctions.

மீனுக்கும் ஜாமீனுக்கும் வித்தியாசமே தெரியாதது போல, 2Gக்கும் 3Gக்கும் வித்தியாசமே தெரியாத கககபோ !@#$% இந்தியாவிலும் தமிழகத்திலும் இருப்பது விந்தையல்ல :x

If Karunanidhi is 'criticized' by media for taking up the Dalit card, the behavior of the media does not seem to indicate otherwise. If the media can be that clueless, rather cast(e) to call Jayalalithaa as one of all the PMs in waiting where her occupation is given as 'Agriculturist', nothing more needs to be said. There is an orchestrated move in the media to help ADMK or prevent DMK 'somehow' in the elections due 2011. If DMK could lose in 2001 for no reason, it could repeat in 2011. I for one do not see why DMK should lose, rather more importantly why ADMK should win! None of the candidates that I voted till date has won and so I dont matter, rather, I cant help ;)