Apple's iPad: iBook

 The suspense is over.Yesterday,Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple's tablet computer aptly called 'iPad'.Being an avid reader,what got my interest more than anything was the 'iBooks' application.Here are some of the feature of iBooks:

• iTune like online bookstore -"It looks like a bookshelf and there's a button to....iBook store to discover,purchase and download e-books right on your iPad".Currently five publishing houses are present on iBook store and according to Jobs - "it will open the floodgates for other publishers starting this afternoon".

• Pages can be changed at the top of screen,or by using gestures to move the pages naturally.
• Features include browsing table of contents and customizing fonts.
• An optional plug-in keyboard for those who write,as well as read.

Apple's iPad vs Amazon's Kindle.

1. Kindle is just for reading entertainment whereas iPad is apparently more than that.It is for watching, listening, gaming, browsing, sharing photos, and communicating with friends & family.I think in time Kindle will have to be more than an eReader to survive in the market.
2. For the same price, more is better.Consumers will prefer a multi-purpose entertainment tablet over a single-purpose reading device as their prices match.Currently,Kindle costs nearly half the price,starting at $260 versus $500 for the iPad.But,What will happen when price of iPad reduces?And that is going to happen in near future because Apple's revenue will come from different other streams -music,movies,games,apps,advertising,and more.-giving them the margin to reduce the iPad price.
3. From publishing point of view,iBook is using the open EPub format,whereas Kindle's format is proprietary.Anyone with requisite technological know-how can make an EPub version of their own book.Smaller publishers,if allowed,will be able to get in the game relatively easily.

     

  what could you do if you ran Kindle?

Should education sector be privatized ?

With so much happening in education sector- deemed university status withdrawal and probability of recognized foreign educational institutions coming to India - first question that comes to my mind is "Should Education sector be privatized?".Profit is being – and will continue to be – made whether government allows it or not.It’s better to recognise it, so that the focus can then be solely on quality and access.Businessmen, entrepreneurs and investors have swarmed the education sector in the past few months suggesting that education has become an even better business than it was before.They do make profits but they are not allowed to say so.Now the onus is on government to take right course of action to ensure a better educated India.

Why :

The government cannot prop up higher education due to a lack of funds.The present expenditure in the education sector is planned at 6 per cent of the GDP. Of that, only 0.77 per cent goes to higher education.India has largest population in world with 13.5 cr pupils in primary education and second largest population in the world of over 110cr people.Educating such a massive population is a not only expensive but a very difficult one. 

There has been growth in infrastructure but huge gap still remains.There is shortage of skilled labour in various sectors.Just to put this point into perspective,we will take the example of software sector.The phenomenal success story of India’s Software Sector is well-known. To sustain this growth there will be a significant requirement for quality manpower at various levels.As per NASSCOM, there will be a requirement for 2.3mn IT professionals by 2010. There will be a shortage of quality trained personnel required by the IT Industry of 5,00,000 by that year. This is even as the country enrolls nearly 10mn students annually in its colleges and institutes of higher education. A total of 4,95,000 technical graduates, 2.3mn other graduates and over 3,00,000 post-graduates are produced each year from the system.How are we going to sustain our growth?That's a big question mark.

The Way Ahead :Public-Private Partnership(PPP)

Ownership of schools is not allowed except under a trust format.currently,India face a backlog of 2,00,000 schools and provide easy access to education for all children.

If government allows the ownership of schools to private player -enabling them to make profits by legitimate means -the ownership of school would become much easier and may lead to more schools being open up and thereby improving the access to education.With poor teacher training  and poor teacher-student ratio,it becomes very difficult to provide  quality education to all.But with private player in picture,these gaps will be bridged ensuring quality and easy access of education to vast majority of deprived masses.

Concerns :
How would schools be effected by privatization? How would poor people be able to afford a decent education? How would standards be made? Here comes the role of government.Government as a regulatory body should lay down the regulation and guidelines under which these private institute will function and hence taking care of these concerns.

Do you think the privatization will benefit the Indian education sector?

Let me know your viewpoint.

Management Lessons from "3 Idiots"

1.Never Try To Be Successful

Success is the bye-product. Excellence always creates success. So, never run after the success, let it happen automatically in the life.

2.Freedom To Life

Don’t die before actual death.Live every moment to the fullest as you are going to die today night. Life is gifted to humankind to live, live & live @ happiness.

3.Passion Leads To Excellence

When your hobby becomes your profession and passion becomes your profession. You will be able to lead up to excellence in the life. Satisfaction, pleasure, joy and love will be the outcome of following passion. Following your passion for years, you will surely become something one day..
4. Learning Is Very Simple

Teachers do fail. Learners never fail. Learning is never complicated or difficult. Learning is always possible whatever rule you apply.
5.Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention
Necessity creates pressure and forces you to invent something or to make it happen or to use your potentiality. Aamir Khan in this film, 3 idiots, is able to prove in the film by using aqua guard pump at the last moment.

6.Importance Of One Word In Communication
If communication dies, everything dies. Each word has impact and value in communication. One word if used wrongly or emphasized wrongly or paused at a wrong place in communication what effect it creates and how is it affected is demonstrated very well in this movie.
7. Industrial Leadership
Dean of the institute ,Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) is showing very typical leadership. He has his own principles, values and ideology, and he leads the whole institute accordingly. This is an example of current institutional leadership. In the present scenario, most of the institutes are fixed in a block or Squarish thinking.

Reading :Love of my life

I felt in love with reading, few months back.When i look back i realize that this is one of the most beautiful thing that ever occurred to me.Apart from normal gyan,What is there that makes reading a awesome activity.Being a avid reader,i always wanted to know what is there in reading that keeps readers like me going.So in introspection,i found out the answer.

Relaxation:After a hectic schedule at the office(which is quite often in life of a software engineer), i needed something to relax.I had two choice - movies or books.I first tried watching movies but after seating in front of the screen for whole day it was not possible to watch a movie on laptop .So i finally decided to go for reading.Now when i look back i think i did one of the most amazing thing.The courtship is still intact and growing stronger day by day.Now i can understand the reason why people say that the book "DaVinci Code" is better than the movie.

Gives me something to talk about :I am a kind of person who always wants to interact with new people(specially girls) and explore unknown territory(please don't read between the lines).But the problem was most of the time i used to run out of stuffs to talk about.This can be uncomfortable sometimes.However,now that i am into lot of reading, i am never out of words.I always have something to talk about.The possibility of sharing is endless.In fact people have given me compliments saying that they feel good talking to me as they can relate with my words.Thanks god i started reading!!!

Changed my life :How many time you have heard that books can change somebody's life? Believe me there are people whose life have been influenced or shaped by books.There are lot of people especially entrepreneurs whose philosophy of life have been influenced by books.It opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking that was not depressing and dull.It was the first step in my path of choosing my own life .In fact my decision to quit my software job and do something more interesting has been influenced by certain books that i have actively read.

It has got some type of healing effect on my mind.My relationship with books (reading) was and is one of the best thing to have happened to me.This relationship holds a special place in my life.At this point i would like to pick up a line from Rang De Basanti , "May the insanity and romance never die".I would like to keep my courtship with books alive and kicking forever

Indian Foreign Trade :On the road to recovery.

According to the Press Release on Indian Foreign Trade :In November'09 ,exports at $13.19 billion were 18 per cent higher than a year ago.Cumulative value of export for the period April -November,2009 was $104.24 billion as against $134.20 over the same period last year.For this month,imports were valued at $22.88 billion representing a decrease of 2.6 per cent over same month last year.This could provide some relief to the import sector given the double-digit decline witnessed through the fiscal year till October.Positive export growth along with decline in import helped in decreasing the trade deficit to $66.18 billion during April - November,2009 from $100.15 billion during the same period last year. Given the continued fall in the both imports and exports for nearly 12 months , trade figure for November 2009 could give some hope of positive growth for year 2010.

Due to recession during last fiscal year in the major overseas market like United States,Japan and Europe,there has been a decline in the demand for goods which resulted in the decline in export in India along with other exporting economies.But with the worst of the recession behind them,these countries would be able to import more from India.An appreciating rupee has been other area of concern for the export sector but with improving american economy it will not be a big hurdle in coming months. .Central government decision to continue with economic stimulus package till the apt time is a positive move as this will help in sustaining the positive trend in exports over the remaining months so that the annual target is achieved.With government willing to support export sector particularly the labour-intensive export segment and all other positive trends, year 2010 seems to be a promising year for import-export sector.

Kindle :An Indian Perspective

There is no denying the fact that electronics is the future.Present generation is a product of modern digital age that spends significant time and money on gadgets like iPod, iPhone,play stations,digicam etc.So,i will be talking about such a gadget called Kindle which is a e-book reader.They are going to redefine the way we read.

Honestly, if u just give a glance at it you will find it difficult to fit an e-reader in present digital landscape.I mean,books are portable.Books don't run out of battery,they don't break and they have been part and parcel of human's reading habits for long.

Yet,there are massive advantages to e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle.It is rather slim- just over one by three of an inch,as thin as most magazines, and lightweight-lighter than a typical paperback.It is like library on move as it can store up to 1500 books. Reads like real paper without glare,even in bright sunlight.Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed. Indian newspapers starting with Hindustan Times are available on the Kindle store.Soon other Indian newspaper and magazines are expected to follow the same.

Wow.......but before thinking about buying it ,lets look at other important aspect.It costs around $259(Rs 12,170) at the Amazon store and books like Atlas Shrugged cost around $12
(Rs 560) to download.Hindustan Times, Kindle version will be available for readers at a cost of $9.99(Rs 470) per month.In comparison,you can get an entire year's print subscription for
about half that price,and you can get some of that price recovered by selling the paper later,if you really want to compare cost,that is. Paperback copy of Atlas Shrugged costs around Rs 260 in India.In India,3G service is still patchy.Only government-owned BSNL and MTNL have 3G services in India,and private telecom operators are yet to receive 3G licences and 3G spectrum.Without sufficient 3G coverage and exclusive tie ups between Indian newspapers,wireless network service providers and Amazon kindle,it is doubtful to see how successful such ventures can be at this point.

I don't think it's for everyone, but for a subset of people.People who buy a lot of new books every year, so that the half-price books make it cost effective, people who spend a lot of time in transit, and people who travel a lot for work.It makes sense from ethical perspective-think of all trees we will save.It just matter of time before Kindle catches up in India as things fall in place.

It is a device that you should consider if u can afford it.The days when most of the publishing will be done electronically are not far off and device like these is going to redefine the way
we read.

My First Blog

I am in the beginning of late twenties, but unlike most of my peers, I have never had a blog. But I have a facebook and an Orkut page where I am active for a while now.