A gag order is coming in within the IT industry in India at least.

A lot has been said about the Obama administrations ban on Deepwater drilling in Gulf of Mexico and the overturning of the ban.

I saw this quote on the facebook wall of my friend. Worth quoting here:

Some people living in small flats

Corporates in US are waking up to the Indian American population. The ads in US - mainstream media - say it all.

An interesting discussion started off on my school alumni group. While one guy felt that Westerners are more enterprising than Indians are.

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is a unique organization. Its roots are in the "Indus" region - or South Asia primarily.

Some of India’s billionaires made their fortunes from the mobile phone industry, these entrepreneurs took big risks and innovated the industry to suite the Indian consumer and needless to say, their b

India won the second test today by 10 wickets. Thus doing a clean sweep of the series.

Strange test match it has been until now with Bangladesh. With a team that can beat the best on any day, here is a team which won everything except the finals in the ODIs.

I still remember going to shopping for dresses for my sisters in Lucknow with my colleagues (Chikan Salwar-Kameez).

That's a fairly big SAP project out there to be won!  I wonder who will end up getting the development work for it.  Support/Backup support work may go to some Indian IT majors, but I guess

Indian companies have very little idea of how to use the web. Honestly. Most of the websites of the top papers and portals in India have been SO POOR!

McDonalds is trying big time to woo the Desi population in the US. How do I know? Well, a local desi event in Houston has just been sponsored by McDonalds. I thought maybe that was mistake of the advertising person, who didn't know what he/she was upto.

But as I opened my mail this afternoon, I was in for a surprise! Amidst the regular junk mail, I saw an India-ishtyle advertisement from McDonalds. See for yourself!

Now, the reason I say mistake is because in the desi community, many are vegetarians - admittedly, a lot of Hindus I have seen do eat beef if they are non-vegetarians.. so that's a legitimate population. On the Muslim side, most eat Halal meat and therefore, outside their home or trusted restaurant, they become vegetarians. Again, many Muslims don't care about that either. So, there is a market.. but is it that much? What do you think?

Ever wanted to know how the different companies were named? Here is an interesting primer.

Mercedes:
This was actually financier's daughter's name.

Adobe:
This came from the name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers:
It was the favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobbs.He was three months late for filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.

CISCO:
It is not an acronym as popularly believed. Its short for San Francisco.

Compaq:
This name was formed by using COMp, for computer and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

Corel:
The name was derived from the founder's name Dr. Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland Research Laboratory.

"God, if you can't do anything good for me... at least hit the rest of the world as well!" seems to be the prayer that Javed Miandad (director-general of the Pakistan Cricket Board and Father-in-law of Dawood Ibrahim's son - one of the most dreaded terrorist in the world) had, as he and governing council member Shakil Sheikh argued with ICC on the 2011 World Cup. According to their logic - if Pakistan is not safe, then India and Bangladesh weren't safe either.

Well, Miandad should know - after all the blueprints for most terrorist attacks in the sub continent must have been prepared under the able guidance of his son-in-law's family!

These guys didn't just stop at the 2011Cricket WC, but also went ahead and raised doubts on India's hosting of the Hockey WC and Commonwealth Games 2010 as well.

Given, how the mentality of the Miandad-esque Jehadi mindsets work in Pakistan, it is very reasonable to believe that very detailed plans must be being prepared as we speak to disrupt these three sporting events: Cricket World Cup, Hockey World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Did you know that when Shahid Afridi scored his first and the fastest century in One Day cricket in Nairobi against Sri Lanka (in 37 balls)... he used Sachin's bat? Yes, in an interview, he said that the bat was given to him by Waqar Younis to try out. Obviously it remains a prized possession of his.

Sachin has given the bat to Waqar to have a similar bat made from Sialkot. Am not sure whether Sachin ever got his Sialkot bat though... but his own bat did go around doing a lot of damage to the bowlers around the world, just as it would have done in his own hands.

Afridi had hit 11 sixes and six fours in that innings.

[Wish I didnt have to pick such a cliched and dramatic title.] Many people have had a huge sense of hope in Barack Obama and have been seeing him as an emancipator especially considering that he replaced such an incompetent predecessor in Bush jr.

I have come to the sad conclusion that the disappointment with Obama is going to be even greater than the disappointment with Bush was. I am convinced that by the end of 2009 the American people are going to ask for Obama's scalp. Let me explain.

India had yet another test cricket series win yesterday - this time against the Kiwis. If the Indra deva (or the rain god) was not so partial towards the Kiwis, then India would have scored yet another win in the series - probably one of the biggest win against any team in their history![1] According to the latest Rediff rankings [2], India is now No. 2 test team in the world. Although according to ICC rankings [3] India is #3 after Aussies and the South Africans.

But it all started for India in 1932, when India went to England to play their first series and match. They lost the first match but Mohd. Nisar and Jahangir Khan gave a good account of themselves as bowlers. Here is a video of that match:

A California Food Bank has a windfall. 2 tons of cereal - Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes cereal with gold medal winner Michael Phelps photo on the cover landed at the facility. They were suspicious at first, but in these tough times, it was a welcome donation for the hungry!

The gift just flew off the shelfs and some employees even kept it as soveniers. In fact the boxes are being auctioned on Ebay for a buy-it-now price of $19.99, while some are going for $34.99 in the bids right now.

Madoff is in jail today. He has put millions of dollars of many hard working people into oblivion.

I guess the expression "Laughing away to his bank" was actually made for Madoff... as he "Made off" with the hard earned money of his victims.

And what was his scheme? Well he would take money from wealthy people promising them 10-30% "safe" returns. And how was he investing that money? Well, he would take the money and deposit it into Chase bank account for the basic interest (3-4%??). When someone would ask for money, he would pay them... but would need more "investors" (or really victims) to keep the Ponzi scheme going!

Today he said that he knew he would end up in jail one day, but even though he was aware of the mess, he could not extricate himself out of this once he was in it.

What he used was an old marketing technique.. where he would only deal with people who were "in" a club. So, there was an air of exclusiveness. That made him believable and also someone special. He was smart in that he could pull it off for years - indeed decades!

• Nifty slips below 2600; BPCL, HUL, TCS down (ET)
• The Sensex opened 67 points lower at 8,259. The index is at almost the day's low, down 111 points at 8,215. Hindustan Unilever has plunged 3% to Rs 217. Jaiprakash Associates has shed 2.5% at Rs 68. Sterlite, Reliance and TCS have dropped over 2% each to Rs 244, Rs 1,145 and Rs 470, respectively. Wipro, ITC and Sun Pharma have shed 2% each at Rs 209, Rs 162 and Rs 1,002, respectively. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infrastructure and Infosys have slipped nearly 2% each to Rs 591, Rs 444 and Rs 1,198, respectively. Tata Power, Hindalco, ACC and Reliance Communications have declined around 1.5% each to Rs 629, Rs 39, Rs 524 and Rs 136, respectively.(BS)

It is one thing to be the flavor of the day and quite another to last a lifetime. Somehow there is an element of risk involved in living a lifetime and not just scrape through. These are those times. Many American and European companies are finalizing plans for offshoring their work. They are looking for the Indian compaines to come forward. But they are shocked! Why? Because the Indian IT companies do not seem interested! :)

"I had one client telling me 'I am at a point now where I need to get more offshore plans together, but why aren't the Indian companies coming and talking to me?'"

says Partha Iyengar, VP and Regional Research Director at Gartner India.

In the midst of all the economic crisis and downfall in the stock market and tremendous layoffs.. there is one stock that seems to be shining. And when you look at it.. you almost say "Duh"!

Well, the company is Netflix (NFLX). In februart it surpassed a major milestone - 10 million subscribers. It has added 600,000 since Jan 1 this year. The stock has gained > 25% YTD! Why is it suddenly growing so much?

Well, now for the low price that you got the DVDs from Netflix at home, you can also get to watch serials and movies on TV via the Netflix ready devices. And what are these Internet Ready Devices?

Gautam Khandelwal helps his clients and friends with advise on stock trading, mutual funds, and investment. With online stock trading becoming so popular in India, there has been a great proliferation of ordinary people investing everywhere. Which has meant big stock losses as well. Here is his advise at this juncture in the stock market. Please so share your thoughts.

Gold has finally started creeping up. My expectation is that with increasing uncertainties, gold should further go up and go up significantly. With trillions being pumped into the world, inflation should increase and gold and inflation are best friends. However, any fresh exposure into gold may not be advisable. Even if one wishes to take an exposure, take the SIP route. Further, it may make better sense to buying units of the DSP BlackRock Gold Fund (a fund that invests into equity shares of companies that mine gold) rather than buying paper / physical gold.

While government bonds have delivered stellar returns in the last few months, one should avoid this asset class as well, going forward. Increasing government expenditure should raise yields (interest rates). This will keep this asset class under check.

Auto Insurance could a big expense in these days when one is trying to reduce costs and save money. And guys, the cost of maintaining a car is not just from the gas but also the car insurance you pay.. even when you are NOT using it. So it does make sense to at least think about it and reduce the expense. I remember when I first talked to an insurance agent for quotes after coming from India. Within a day of shopping, my total expense had come down to half of the original quote in the morning.. for the same insurance coverage and same policy by the same company! Therefore, guys search around!

I will try and bring about some money making tips in this market for you all. Today lets review things on auto insurance.

I have found a few things help in reducing the cost of car insurance;

• Shop around for Better Rates. Rates can vary greatly from company to company, so be sure to look around to find the best deal. A local independent insurance agent can offer more choices and savings because he or she can review multiple options to find the right mix of companies, policies and rates for you. An agent can also give you insider loopholes or areas to cut cost. Ask them! For example, smaller cars with lower horsepower are less expensive to cover. Also, If you are not going to drive a car much, let the insurance agent know.

This is a very interesting study! The barely 10-year-old Google is the world's most powerful brand, followed by General Electric and Microsoft, according to a s urvey conducted by Millward Brown's BrandZ index (attached). The survey assigned values to various brands based on their financial strength and consumer sentiment. The survey is a bit dated.. but its message is very clear! Life changes. World changes and people find different things more attractive.



1. Google

I have often wondered who were the All time best Indian batsmen in test cricket. I formulated my own stat comprising Runs per innings and a combination of no. of 50s and 100s one scored with no. of Not outs per innings average added and the ducks deducted. After all it is not only important to score runs... but also have some consistency. Specially in test cricket. I used the later stat as a Reliability Factor (Composite Reliability Score). What came out was an interesting list of players. You may or may not agree with this list.. but I would like to get your thoughts on who you think should have or not made the list.

Cricket India got a makeover! New Jersies and a new style. I thought there wasn't a whole deal of change... and its not that much jazzier than the last one anyways.. what do you think?

India was 41 for 4, soon after he entered. Farokh Engineer, Eknath Solkar, Anshuman Gaekwad and MAK Pataudi had already gotten out. Now, it was largely left to this artist and Ashok Mankad to dig India out of the hole. Mankad was never the best player of pace and West Indies attack was in full fury despite a slower wicket at Chepauk on this January morning (11th) in 1975. The foursome attack led by Andy Roberts with Vanburn Holder, Bernard Julien, and Keith Boyce was strong.

At that time, Gundappa Vishwanath played an innings of 97, which is often regarded as one of the greatest ever played by an Indian (probably at the same level as VVS Laxman's 281 innings against Australia). Today that artist - GR Vishawanath - turns 60. An artist of a batsman who had built his wrists lifting buckets full of water was one of the finest that India has ever produced. He, along with Sunil Gavaskar, made a fearsome duo for any attack in the poetic, yet sure manner in which they would skin the attack.