my student finishes his PhD at Cornell ..

My UG student at Goa Engg college, Pranav Bhosle today successfully defended  his thesis in Mechanical Engineering by developing a walking robot at Cornell University

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLepY1AsaRk

Cornell Ranger walks non-stop 40.5 mile ultra-marathon

The person on the right with white and black T-shirt is Pranav ..

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Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Lokayuktha Karnataka in T John College ..

It was a great occasion listening to Justice Santosh Hegde speaking to students on the occasion of the inauguration of the 2 day science fiesta of T John college of pharmacy.

When a person indulges in corruption, he loses the moral right to be a human being !! - Justice Hegde.

It was Sri Ramakrishna Hegde former Chief Minister of Karnataka ( I was a great fan of his..) around 1980-84  who initiated the post of Lokayuktha in the country for the first time.

The Governor of Karnataka has even told that if the CM Sadananda Gowda recommends Justice Hegde's name for the post of Lokayuktha a second time, he will clear the file in a minute's time.. !!

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US Business schools on Indian shores ..?

Recently Harvard Business School and Wharton have put up notices and ads in magazines announcing their short-term courses being offered in Mumbai and other cities in India during 2012.

Another news reported the Dean of University of Viriginia ( http://www.economist.com/whichmba/full-time-mba-ranking) no. 4 in 2011 global MBA rankings. ahead of Harvard Business School, was in Mumbai and talking to HR heads of Tata Motors and Mahindra exploring avenues of employment for their graduates in India.

Times are changing ..

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Arvind Eye hospital, TED speech ..

The change a single person has done to society, Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy ..

"When we grow in spiritual consciousness, we identify ourselves with all that is in the world, so there is no exploitation. It is ourselves we are helping, it is ourselves we are healing ..".

http://blog.seva.ca/2010/11/11/ted-talk-on-aravind-how-low-cost-eye-care-can-be-world-class/

It is a pity that modern society lacks this connect with the poor man, a part of the society .. This is the reason why we aspire to be super rich inspite of seeing the poor in the society. Why some among us tend to be corrupt. We lose that connect with the society.

Aravind Eye Hospital Madurai and Social entrepreneurship ..

a great great contribution to humanity by Dr Venkatapathy, a retired eye surgeon of govt of Tamil Nadu. I read somewhere that it is the only medical institute in India where medical interns from Johns Hopkins and Harvard Medical School come for one year internships..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e7v3BI0zFQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L045HMoHjS0

The gift of eye sight is indeed a great gift .. God blass soul of Dr Venkatapathy in Heaven ..

Two weeks back when I could motivate students and faculty of T John College Bangalore to do a Free eye camp with Narayana Netralaya through NSS, we had 300 eye screenings, 56 surgeries for cataract done and 150 spectacles were distributed. All done for FREE , including travel, food, stay and SURGERY for the residents of Subash Nagar , a slum area in Begur in the Bangalore city..

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FDI in retail, how it benefits the poor ..

65% of Indian population earn a living by working on the farms, food crops or cash crops. It could be their own farms or as labourers on others' farms.

The whole ruckus on FDI in retail sector relates to the food sector considered as an essential area and which has direct implication on the wholesale price index. Other segments like apparel, footwear, cosmetics and toiletries can be neglected for the time being.

15-20% of our population are the traders who buy from the primary sources and sell to the customers / big retail chains. It is here that the costs of the food grains / cash crops goes up by at least 15 - 20% of costs given the margins / costs of transportation / costs of storage etc. Every link in this supply chain takes its cut ranging from 3 - 5 % before they deliver to their end customer. Finally before the end customer buys the items off the shelf, he will end up paying for the cuts to all the players in the chain which sees the prices jacked up , even by a conservative estimate by about 30%, at the extreme it may even go upto 60%.

When big single brand and multi-brand retailers enter the market this unnecessary cost addition but resulting in no value addition to the final customer, can be distributed between fewer players starting from the retailer himself right upto the farmer.

The farmer will end up getting at least on the minimum an increase of about 20-30% prices on his produce. Consider that about 40% of the Indian population, ie about 500 million people will benefit, either through better prices for their produce or higher wages for their efforts on the farm, this is going to be a pro-farmer action set to chage the rural landscape for ever and put a lid on the urban migration and poor living standards.

Why are politicians opposing this pro farmer action of the govt ? Is it because the votes and moolah come from the trader community, on which most of our political parties are dependent to a greater extent ? and not the poor farmer ?? Nobody wants to farmer to prosper ..

Let the political parties think more openly and care for the farmer and not for the cost incurring, no-value-giving middlemen who like a parasite would like to consume the entire agri-supply chain.

When FDI comes in the agri-supply chain, which accounts for at least 50% of the $ 400 billion retail market in the country, it is going to benefit the nation in terms of setting up excellent infrastructure all along from the farmer to the retail warehouses, in terms of transportation and storage, reduce the time it takes for produce to reach the retailers shelves across the country, reduce the wastage  which otherwise is the greatest bane of the agri supply chain amounting to almost 40% of the total quantity and equally in terms of value, bringing down the end customer's spending on food items and thus reigning in inflation !

Are the politicians not ready to rein in corruption by middlemen and inflation of the common m?

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Mullaperiyar song by my neices ..

A good attempt for a social cause by twins ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5I0_lQnnh0&sns=fb

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