Friday, June 3, 2011

The Communist Baba

So Baba Ramdev wants to do amaran anshan or in English Fast Unto Death to end corruption in India. He wants to bring back all money stashed by Indians in swiss bank accounts and those with money in such banks should be hanged according to him.. Fuck man.. I though with the recent reverses in west bengal, we had seen the last of 'lal salaam' in India. Clearly, Communist funding in India has found a new outlet.. This man who has earned the following of mindless zombies impressed by his two bit breathing exercises is seeking to disrupt the normal functioning of democracy in India and essentially attempting to bring about a communist revolution..

Now I am the first one who is against corruption.. but his methods are nothing but disruptive. There are merits to his arguments, but you cant go about making laws which make those people vulnerable who have creative ways of making money through forex trading and overseas consultancy gigs. Such income can escape taxation in India legally. For example, If I sitting in New Delhi, consult on some foreign project anywhere in the world and am paid in Us dollars which I choose to keep in a foreign bank. This in principle is hard earned money which I choose to keep in a foreign bank to avoid paying taxes on it. This transaction is legal and no law in any country can make me pay taxes on it.

another example is fluctuations in prices of gold. I buy gold in Indian rupees, take it with me abroad and sell it in Us dollars and again keep the money in a swiss bank account. I cannot be compelled to pay taxes on the profit that i make on such a transaction unless of course I reside in china

the point here is that there is a fine line between bending the rules and illegal black money which for example comes from scams such as CWG scam, 2G scam and so forth. Yes there is a need for greater transparency and recovery of such funds. but that would come through generic evolution and on case by case basis. Not all Indians who have swiss bank accounts are traitors. I urge people who are into ramdev breathing and kundalini bullshit to use the things he preaches and think.. Does a rapidly growing economy with global business making multiple investments need political instability??

BTW babaji, where does all the chanda come from for your trust and all?? I hope you are paying some taxes on it..

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

the great indian trivalley debate

I wasnt supposed to blog for a while.. but a recent comment by my mom over her phone where she was like "beta USA is no longer good for Indian students" actually forced my hand.. that and an obnoxious experiment that I have to baby sit..

So trivalley university.. lets see, this problem of diploma mills is an age old american problem. The easiest and legal route to immigrate to US is through F1 visa. in terms of requirement, the only thing you need is an I20 and proof of funds for your education and presto chango your green card wet dreams are fulfilled.. It has become easier these days to secure proof of funds. I recently read somewhere that per capita income in India has risen to Rs 50k which is quite bit much.. The problem remains obtaining an I20. As with any capitalist economy, demand creates supply and preto chango we have educational consultants in India like Jambooree, some random guy in malviya nagar (in delhi) who gurantees you admits for Rs 1 lakh (his game is you apply to five schools and you get atleast two options´) and scores of shady shops on upper floors of nehru place.. these fraudsters are not regulated and neither are their practices put on paper.

I was nearly duped by jamboreee at new delhi. I could see what they were doing.. Inflated CV, over exaggerated personal statements.. they bascially lie on students behalf, not tellin them of the consequences that happen when you lie.. but this isnt the worse thing they do.. Some of them also exact a commission from multiple such diploma mills.. they tell students that if they apply to atleast 5 schools of their choice, their admission is 'guranteed'. Now if 21 + year olds think that they cannot be held accountable for such a transaction then they are sadly mistaken. Their defence that they were granted valid visas does not protect them from culpability from this fraud. There are 300+ universities offering higher education in US. if you choose a place just cause its in california or there are 1000 students there from your state, then you are inviting trouble from the outset. selecting a school ranked top 100 in US news ( ranking available freely online ) gurantees that you are going into a valid program. As far as these students possessing valid US visas goes, when you put a dense sludge on a fine sieve, some particulate is bound to get through. And then these students also misunderstand what a visa is. Strictly speaking, a F1 visa is a letter requesting entry to US soil. Entry is given provided they havent falsified any information and will uphold the law of the land. A sovereign nation has all rights to protect its boundries and punish those who break the law of the land. who will be to blame if some of these students cross mexican border from texas or california for example?? Arent foreign nationals engaged in drug trade prosecuted in India?? Thos who become victims of violent crimes every year do their governments interefere in the functioning of the law of land in India?? the answer is a big NO

If anything, I think the US government has treated these kids with dignity and respect.. putting them in a detention center with hardened criminals would have put them in the way of far more eggregious harm than minor discomfort of wearning an electronic tracking device. Its upto the Government of India and Indian media to stop being a cry baby and probe how did 1500 students from AP ended up in a single University.. who is the front of this racket here in India?? Its high time, we look at our own mess which gets dumped elsewhere

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Experienced Scientists for Sale in India Cost < $400 per month:

dear all

today we talk about shining India.. India, the land of burgeoning economy, the place where the dreams of the middle class man is quashed every day amongst the rising prices of onions and petrol and dropping prices of beer. Where not so long ago, an aloo parantha was sold for Rs 20 and is now sold for as high as Rs 200. Where a kid growing up really has two options; become a doctor or an IT engineer and help run this great sham of democracy.. (in reality it is a plutocracy but more on that later).. Every year some lame ass minister takes up podiums across IITs, TIFRs and IIScs of this great country and stresses the need of advancing science education in this country.. that we need more scientists and scientists should be encouraged.. today In this piece, I bring to light, the shoddy state of affairs of science education in India.. India whose talented scientists are winning Nobel Prizes, starting cutting edge start up companies and driving global economies, in that very great India, the superpower to recon with in 2020 has so many unemployed scientists that their skills are for sale for less than $400 a month.. thats right ladies and gentlemen, $400 a month.. for that much money you can hire a person with double masters in science and engineering or 5 published journal articles with more than 10 citations, a paltry sum, less than what is paid to entry level software programmers in india(>Rs 25000 per month), or jobless people in america (>$2000 per month) or lab interns at any shady university on this planet, our very own Delhi Technological University (DTU) announced hiring of exceptional talent for $400 per month on CONTRACTS for a year with no promise of continued employment and they have found talented scientists and engineers to fill these ridiculous job offers.. My feelings on this are ambivalent, whether to congratulate my alma mater or to cry on the state of affairs of science and education in my country

when this ad came out a few days ago

TIFAC- Centre of Relevance and Excellence ( CORE) invites applications purely on temporary positions for a year :-

1. Senior Technical Officer :
Age limit: Candidates should not be more than 40 years.
Qualification: Candidates should be B.E./ B.Tech in Electronics & Communication / Instrumentation with having 4 years of experience OR Candidates have M.E./ M.Tech Degree with 2 years of experience in Optical Fiber Communication OR Ph.D in Optical Fiber/ Microwave Communication.
Salary: Candidates will get consolidated salary of Rs.20000/- p.m.
2. Senior Scientific Officer
Age limit: Candidates should not be more than 40 years.
Qualification: Candidates should be M.Sc Physics/ Electronics with having 4 years of experience or Ph.D in relevant subject.
Salary: Candidates will get consolidated salary of Rs.20000/- p.m.
3. Senior Technical Assistant
Age limit: Candidates should not be more than 40 years.
Qualification: Candidates should be B.E./ B.Tech in ECE or M.Sc Physics/ Electronics with 2 years of experience in the relevant field.
Salary: Candidates will get consolidated salary of Rs.15000/- p.m.
4. Lab Assistant
Age limit: Candidates should not be more than 40 years.
Qualification: Candidates should have Diploma in Electronics of Electrical Engineering or B.SC with relevant experience.
Salary: Candidates will get consolidated salary of Rs.8000/- p.m.
5. Project Fellow
Age limit: Candidates should not be more than 40 years.
Qualification: Candidates should be M.Sc Physics/ Electronics.
Salary Candidates will get consolidated salary of Rs.8000/- p.m.


I was quite amused.. Here I am sitting in sweden, not a PhD yet (and there are scores like me) being paid $2000 a month by goverment of sweden (they pay twice this much to their regular students) to do research here and there is quite joke of an ad, trying to hire highly qualified people (freshly minted PhDs no less) for paltry sum of $400 a month?? .. this has to be a joke right I thought.. something is wrong here.. This college of mine was rechristened as an autonomous university for achieving excellence in research and development, a college creating fake quotas, organizing bull-shit seminars, crap-o-fests with rent a hour bhands, speakers with next to little pedigree (the present VC included), would surely step up in the arena of what is supposed to be their forte.. for the very purpose they were formed.. to establish a world class institution imparting quality science and technology education in india.. but no.. in this country of scam a day running into crores, this minor anomaly (scientists for sale at a price you could not even get a decent, disease free escort for an hour anywhere on this planet) is going unreported, undetected and infact celebrated on the front pages of a reputed scientific university.. I for once cannot let this travesty go unnoticed..


This is from dce.edu website not under any copyrights, so I assume i can copy and paste it.. the source has been duly cited

following are the people recruited to the above mentioned posts..
Following Candidates are selected for various scientific and technical positions based on the Interview held on January 18th 2011

1) Ambrish – Senior Technical Officer
ambrish.juit@gmail.com

2) Swati Rawal - Senior Scientific Officer
swati.rawal@yahoo.com

3) Shruti –Senior Technical Assistant
i_shrutisingh@yahoo.co.in

4) Monika Rajput -Senior Technical Assistant
monika_scholar@yahoo.com

5) Rahul Khurana –Lab Assistant
rahulkhur1@gmail.com


a quick google search tells me that these people posses superior skills and qualifications.. it is saddening to see such talent stuck in a dead end job with no prospects of salary increments or promotion.. This saddens me.. while venture capitalists all over the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPE29CxRVZg

a vying for indian talent, this talent in its home cuntry is treated with utter disrespect. a little bit about TIFAC CORE
Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) is an autonomous organization set up in 1988 under the Department of Science & Technology to look ahead in technologies, assess the technology trajectories, and support technology innovation by network actions in select technology areas of national importance.
In 1993, TIFAC embarked upon the major task of formulating a Technology Vision for the country in various emerging technology areas. The outcome of the Technology Vision 2020 exercise led to the set of 17 documents, including sixteen technology areas and one on services. The effort was a unique and pioneering exercise that involved more than 5,000 experts including scientists, technologists and corporate managers from academia, industry and the government.


TIFAC continues to strive for technology development of the country by leveraging technology innovation through sustained and concerted programmes in close association with academia and industry.



all this balbber jabber and what do they do for retaining talent in India?? Jack Shit.. For the benefit of my brothers and sisters in the science community, I put here this link

http://scholarization.blogspot.com/

go apply for scores of scholarships available on this website.. your talents are in demand all across the globe accept in india.. let these dumb ministers harp on about scientific glory lost to rest of the world as they pocket bucket loads of money and park it into swiss bank accounts.. you for once.. have a right to a life with dignity, a quantum of respect which exceeds that afforded to low costs escorts selling their wares for an hourly sum that exceeds your monthly salary

peace

LFA

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

deciphering meluhans : Who gets to decide what is good and what is evil

a very happy new year to whosoever reads the ramblings of this self-professed analyst.. Its been four years writing this blog.. The past four years of my life have been extremely eventful and this blog and its readers, ever dependable companions.. The primary purpose of starting this blog was to write down and channelize my thoughts on topics of relevance. I am no God and yet reflecting on whatever I have written thus far in this blog, I sense a bias.. What good is an analysis if there is a presumed bias.. who am I to decide what is right and what is wrong? why should I castigate someone or something if all they do differ from me in their opinion?? If i dont like like the acting of bhai himesh then maybe I should shut up or if I like a movie why should I praise it?? or if I dont like the events of the past 18 months at my alma mater then I should not vocalize my feelings on a public forum.. I was forced to ponder over these existential questions while reading thie noval called 'Immortals of Meluha' by amish an IIM grad turned writer. The work is a modern take on civilization of the Indus valleys written under the assumption that Indus valley civilization was set up by lord ram and lord shiv was a human of flesh and blood; this work being part one of a trilogy detailing his efforts to save this brilliant civilization.

It is now clear to me that there is no right or wrong. Every human being, by definition has the right to have an opinion and by corollary should have the freedom to express dissent in any form they choose as long as it does not the life and liberty of public at large.. This is the ideal scenario. In this day and age however, there is an omni potent and omnipresent mahadev whose darkest con has been to make itself inconspicuous. allow me to unmask the kalyugi mahadev by using the recent DCE/DTU controversy I blogged extensively about in the last 8 months. This got very personal for me for two reasons. a) I am an alumnus and b) I am an intellectual and my job is to question things. So I blogged and blogged away. I raised some meaningful arguments which was dismissed as double speak and heresey kind of what suryavanshishs did to chandravanshishs in this novel. It is easy to dismiss things as heresay.. people rarely have concrete proofs. I mean comeone, will I ever find a journal entry in Dr P.B. Sharma's personal diary which says "I converted DCE to DTU so that I could get five more years of salary and retirement benefits as the VC of a deemed university" ?? I wish I or any one else was that lucky. While what I and a lot of students parents and alumni chose to say about this conversion can be dismissed as heresay, what CBI has to say about talwars in the arushi talwar murder case is portrayed as solid proof in Indian Media. It is a disturbing trend I have been noticing for the past five years. We dont see the facts being reported. We see the news that we are meant to see, that helps certain quarters while undermining the interests of others. The nira radia expose is a prime example of such misuse of power by the Indian media exercised by selling their ethics to the highest bidder driven by ideological or financial gains. Therefore, in this day and age, the Mahadev or the God of Gods is the Indian Media. The people lap up what they report as the absolute truth and the rest is heresay.. I mean come on.. If they can find the sex tapes of a swami and an actress, I am pretty sure they can find incriminating evidence against errant army generals, IIT professors (one of whom coincidently happens to be on the board of DCE/DTU), bank executives and CWG organizers. but then again, where is the fun or to put in their own/my language, 'TRPs/somras' in that??

In the immortals of meluha, the word of neelkanth is said to be absolute, he is the destroyer of all evil and harbinger of all things good. good or evil, in this day and age, the word of Indian media is absolute. In this kalyug, there is no asura and no deva there is only Indian media..

(Side note : Noticeable achievements of Dr Sharma since 2004 are an autonomous vehicle that still cannot fly autonomously because the students choose to use the evolution boards instead of designing the whole thing from scratch, a bunch of other toys, schematics of which can be found online, a bunch of fake quotas which can be misused for monetary gains by a mere ration card, hiring sub par faculty, starting redundant courses which puts unsuspecting students in a position where they cannot find jobs in their areas of core competency ( his MOUs with third rate IT companies look good for inflated placement rates), starting an MBA program for 60 odd students with three full time faculty members, sitting idle when students were lathi charged(a shameful first in the history of this college), sitting idle when students were being beaten up inside the campus, running an entrepreneurship symposium with a third rate TV bhand at the center of attraction (possibly the first such exposition in the world TBH soon) and so forth. But then again, his doings are far less severe than those of his more powerful contemporaries and hence unworthy of the attention of Indian media. I hope mahadev reads this one day or abandons his thirst of somras (TRPs))