Thursday, April 20, 2006
Election Freebies...
We have heard of election campaigns in the past promising free electricity or free water for farmers (whether they are feasible or not if implemented is another issue). For the first time however there is an election campaign that promises a free Colour TV for everyone !!!! Yes, a TV and this 'brilliant' idea has been proposed by the none other than the DMK supremo Karunanidhi.
Of all things, why a TV ?? Maybe he wants everyone to sit and watch Sun TV !! Yeah, but the TV doesn't run on air it requires something called 'electricity'. I think he completely forgot about that point or does he live under the impression that all villages in Tamil Nadu have power supply in the first place ?? (forget 24 hrs power supply, thats a luxury by current standards).
Well he didnt stop with just this one 'amazing' TV idea. Next, he came up with a Rs 2/Kg rice promise !! 'Amma' (JJ) laughed this idea off as being infeasible only to come up with an even more crazier idea of distributing 10 Kg of free rice to ration card holders!!
Of all things, why a TV ?? Maybe he wants everyone to sit and watch Sun TV !! Yeah, but the TV doesn't run on air it requires something called 'electricity'. I think he completely forgot about that point or does he live under the impression that all villages in Tamil Nadu have power supply in the first place ?? (forget 24 hrs power supply, thats a luxury by current standards).
Well he didnt stop with just this one 'amazing' TV idea. Next, he came up with a Rs 2/Kg rice promise !! 'Amma' (JJ) laughed this idea off as being infeasible only to come up with an even more crazier idea of distributing 10 Kg of free rice to ration card holders!!
Really, there ought to be some provision in the constitution which bans parties from making such crazy promises. Instead of emptying the coffers of the state with such infeasible promises, the politicans should realize that if employement is guaranteed for everyone, the poor could purchase the rice and TV(someday) themselves without any subsidy from the state. Employement for everyone ? Now, that seems to be a distant dream in India......
Monday, April 10, 2006
Hamara Bajaj....
Bajaj is not just 'hamara' anymore. Gaongqing Union Auto Co, a Chinese company has come up with a imitation of Bajaj's well known CNG autorickshaws. Well that's the standard Chinese business model - first come up with an imitation, mass produce it and then sell it at very competitive prices till the original is driven out of the market itself. At a first glance this case seems to be on expected lines, however there is a shrewder twist to it. The Chinese company is marketing the imitation model as 'China made Bajaj autorickshaws'. Liberally using the brandname without paying any royalty or having any kind of tie up with Bajaj.
Bajaj's reaction is on expected lines. Bajaj plans to take up this matter with the Chinese authorities but one wonders whether anything would come out of it. As a industry analyst was quoted saying - "It's a country that thrives on copycats, where even global brands like General Motors and Yamaha have not been able to stop sales of copies of their vehicles . It wont be easy for Bajaj either". Uhmm.... so what is the Chinese word for Hamara?
Bajaj's reaction is on expected lines. Bajaj plans to take up this matter with the Chinese authorities but one wonders whether anything would come out of it. As a industry analyst was quoted saying - "It's a country that thrives on copycats, where even global brands like General Motors and Yamaha have not been able to stop sales of copies of their vehicles . It wont be easy for Bajaj either". Uhmm.... so what is the Chinese word for Hamara?
Sunday, April 02, 2006
God helpline ??
While aimlessly surfing channels over the weekend I happened to notice an announcement in a evangelist channel regarding a certain '24 hour prayer helpline'. What exactly is a 24 hour prayer helpline? Do you call up and listen to some religious sermons/hymns being played? Or is it a means by which you explain your problem and ask others to pray for you? I am not quite sure. Nonetheless, there must be someone on the other end who has to attend your call, uhmm... a call center to handle this too? Was watching with rapt attention when non-Indian evangelists were preaching, just to see if the telephone numbers listed were Indian, curious to see if outsourcing happens in this holy area too...
The meaningless surfing did finally run into some worthwhile information in one of the channels which happened to be showing the life of Dalai Lama. Apparently, he is one of the few leading religious heads who honestly believes that people of other faiths and practices too can have their place in heaven (if such a place did exist) i.e. they don't have to be necessarily Buddhist to get there. The feature also provided some insight about the great man, his sense of humour and his fascination for science and scientific breakthroughs, unlike other religious heads who are skeptical about science in general.
The meaningless surfing did finally run into some worthwhile information in one of the channels which happened to be showing the life of Dalai Lama. Apparently, he is one of the few leading religious heads who honestly believes that people of other faiths and practices too can have their place in heaven (if such a place did exist) i.e. they don't have to be necessarily Buddhist to get there. The feature also provided some insight about the great man, his sense of humour and his fascination for science and scientific breakthroughs, unlike other religious heads who are skeptical about science in general.
