Platter of Half Baked Ideas

I read this article by Paul Krugman first in New York Times, and then again in Economic times and simply loved it both the times. You can find the original article here . The article: To understand the furor over the decision by Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, to downgrade US government debt, you have to hold in your mind two seemingly (but not actually) contradictory ideas. The first is that America is indeed no longer the stable, reliable country it once was. The second is that S&P itself has even lower credibility; it's the last place anyone should turn for judgments about our nation's prospects. Let's start with S&P's lack of credibility. If there's a single word that best describes the rating agency's decision to downgrade America, it's chutzpah, traditionally defined by the example of the young man who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy because he's an orphan. America's large budget deficit is, af...

My sister received a job offer from Maruti Suzuki today. All she had to do to secure the position was to pay a refundable security deposit of Rs. 16,900/-, and she would land up with a job paying anywhere between Rs. 62,000/- per annum to Rs. 20,00,000/- per annum! Seems like a bargain, does it. Thankfully, my sister smelled a rat and forwarded the JD to me for comments. I am pasting the contents of the JD below: MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD (MSIL) Head Office Maruti Suzuki, India Limited Nelson Mandela Road , Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070 Board no.46781000 Email:  freshjobs_msil@live.com Tel: +919873128829 (10:00 AM TO 5:30 PM) REF: "MARUTI SUZUKI" DIRECT RECRUITMENTS OFFER. Your Resume has been selected from one of the various job sites we hire from for our new plant. The Company selected 62 candidates list for Senior Engineer, IT, Administration, Production, marketing and general service Departments. It is our pleasure to inform you that your Resume was...

Read this on Knowledge@Wharton Site... the original article was published here . When C. Northcote Parkinson -- economist, historian and humorist -- wrote "East and West" in 1963, the book's basic theme was that one day, India and China would combine to take on the West. At the time, the Sino-Indian war had just ended, and the book didn't make many waves. Over the past few years, however, things have changed; everyone has been talking about the powerful combination of India's expertise in software and services and China's capabilities in manufacturing. Today, there's a new twist. China has been upping its strength in the former and India has a newfound confidence in its might in the latter. This is not confined to the IT arena. "India will emerge as a strong manufacturing base," predicts  Janat Shah , a professor of production and operations management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and founder-chairperson of its ...

Came across this article in TOI and found it important enough to share here. The original article can be found here . A superbug immune to almost all known antibiotics has been found in Delhi's water. British scientists said they have found the   New Delhi   metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) 1 gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to all known drugs in the capital's public water supply used for drinking, washing and cooking. In August last year, after announcing the existence of this superbug created by the NDM1 gene, scientists had said it was hospital-acquired. "Now, we know it is not present in hospital ICUs but is actually freely circulating in Delhi's environment, both in the water people drink and those that lay stagnant," Dr   Mark Toleman   from Cardiff university told TOI. "Drinking contaminated water will help the superbug enter our bodies. However, we still don't know how many in the population are already carrying the superbug,...

Artist and urban planner Neil Freeman lines up various transit systems to illustrate just how they compare, at scale

India has a unique opportunity to bridge its energy gap with renewable sources. India is on the road to development. Urban populations are growing exponentially, rural villages are being electrified and the emerging middle-class is flaunting its newfound wealth. But this growth begets challenges. One of the pressing challenges will be providing energy to all that requires it. McKinsey estimates that by 2017, India’s energy demand could be as high as 335 gigawatts (GW)—up from just 120 GW in 2008. In order to meet this demand, India will have to triple its current capacity. Not an easy task. However, this seemingly difficult challenge also presents a great opportunity. Like other developing countries, India has the option of meeting its growing energy demand by employing clean energy solutions. In a way, starting off right is easier than trying to implement new technologies after the fact. This is the dilemma facing many developed countries—the United States, Japan and Germany. ...