Category: Information and Communications Technology

  • The Satyam Story

    The Satyam Story

    Well, if you are wondering that I have written this post quite late, then I would completely agree. I was so busy reading stories that I did not wish to write one. In this post, I am only writing what I feel ideally it should be.

    S A T Y A M
    M A Y T A S

    Read it from right or left, you would read Satyam and Maytas. That’s how inclined were the Raju family with the name Satyam. The land greedy Raju’s original face finally came out for every one to see. That, in itself was so surprising that the stock market went crashing day after day. The Satyam share plunged to an all time low of Rs. 11 before hovering around 30 today.

    I think this is more or less a breach of trust than acutal theft. Ramalinga Raju inflated accounts to get cheaper loans and put Satyam with a strong Balance Sheet to compete against the gaints of the IT. Satyam was included in the reference of BIG4 of the India’s IT industry space. Before the confession came in, the whole IT faternity was clear that no body can challenge the company’s place in the BIG4.

    Ask the same people today, and listen to their change in tone. Obviously natural, no one was aware of the storm that was to sweep the things at stake here. One of the most important thing to observe was the prompt reaction from the government which is really rare to happen.

    I assume, and purely in my mind only, was the government thinking of the 50k employees or something else in the whole Satyam fiasco. No offence please, but after all its human mind and it tend to think in all angles possible.

    Hope the country emerges sucessfull in clearing this mess out. Best of Luck!

  • Reliance GSM Launched

    Reliance GSM Launched

    With the launch of Reliance GSM services, it became India’s first telecom operator to offer both the services simultaneously.

    It is reported that this service is in great demand since it is offering up to INR 10/- talktime, for free.

    I witnessed a mad rush when I went to pay for my reliance bill in Reliance Web World. I failed to realise why the rush was for, till I asked the executive about it. Reliance is once again using the tactics used by it when they launched the mobile for just INR 501.

    Reliance’s offer is basically a strategy aimed at encouraging customers to get hooked on to its services as it did with the 501 Monsoon hungama. Since then, Bharati, Vodafone and Idea have reduced their Life Time prices. Through this way, it will be able to add up more customers to make up for a demand of additional spectrum.

    There was a phenomenal waiting list. The store I visited had already sold many cards, and has a waiting list well above 300. That figure in itself is astonishing.

    What we need to see is whether the network quality is as good as its competitors.  Idea has already burnt its fingers when you compare the Network quality in Mumbai as compared to Vodafone, the current leader in Mumbai.

    Vodafone is the best network in Mumbai. However, that is only because other networks are pathetic. It’s a wait and watch for me. I would certainly not move to Reliance just because it is offering INR 10 every day. The amount will only last one day. And the amount is not same in every circle. It’s INR 5 in Andhra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

    Reliance is only putting more efforts where it thinks it will face stiff competition. But I think it’s quite unfair. If they are launching a new service, the benefits should have been equal for all over India.

    It needs to be seen how Reliance fares. What ever the result it may be, it is certainly a winning situation for the customers. Already, India’s telephony market has the lowest fare in the world, and is set to be more affordable. Congrats all consumers!

    Read about the Reliance GSM network quality review

  • Nokia: Recylce your old handsets

    Nokia: Recylce your old handsets

    Nokia has launched an ambitious green drive to treat e-Waste in India.

    Nokia will “Take Back”, as it is named, old handsets and accessories regardless of brand. First of a kind in India for e-Waste social responsibility initiative, this is first step towards a greener world. Hoping to educate an average Indian about the importance of recycling of e-Waste. I would like to congratulate Nokia for their initiative. There are various world class multi national dealing in electronic products and no one has promoted their intention this way.

    For every product re-cycled through these “Recycle Bins” set up at Nokia Priority Dealers and Care outlets, Nokia will plant a tree. Those who are participating in this initiative will also receive a surprise gift.

    Points to be noted, Nokia India:

    1. Plants would be planted in India (I know its cheeky, but wanted to make a point).
    2. Allow, not all but through a lottery,  those who are re-cycling their eWaste to participate in the saple plantation drive to encourage more people.
    3. Have reputed NGO (s) participate / invited.
    4. Have a online pressence where people can track how many saplings have been planted, giving an option for those who could not take part in this initiative.

    It is cretainly exiting, and paves the way for others to follow. LG, Samsung, Sony, Videocon, Onida… guys, do this. It can get you some thing back.

  • gAlways idle – show idle status by default

    Google Talk does not provide a built-in functionality to allow you to control your idle status.

    There are probably times when you’d rather not let people know you are around. gAlwaysIdle allows you update your status to ‘always idle’ so you appear away even when you are typing e-mails and sending instant messages.

    Similar to ‘always idle’, it lets you update your status to ‘never idle’ when you are away from your computer.

    You can download the software from the following link.

    Download G Always Idle

    gAlways Idle website is down and it only shows the Apache web server homepage now. Its difficult to find that software on net too…