The three IIT trained politicians in India who really matter ..

The first and foremost is Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of Urban Development. (IITB, CMU and MIT)

The second is Manohar Parrikar, (IITB) the present Chief Minister of Goa. If he sticks to his words, it can see the end of unauthorised iron ore mining in Goa to end once and for all. and the jailing of the business barons of Goa, Chowgule, Salgaonkar etc..

The third is Arvind Kejriwal who parted ways with Anna Hazare to start a new party. (IITKgp and IRS). He was with the Income Tax dept as Commissioner and is the most active and intelligent member in the India against Corruption movement.

These people got their basic BTech degree from IITs.

Let more IITians join the political mainstream in India and help make a difference in the country.

ge..

Depression - the whats, whys and hows.

With a higher standard of living, tension in daily lives and less of concern for others, most of the educated and affluent couples, middle aged, these days pass through a phase of depression in their lives. In most of cases depression recurs in couples.

Depression as different from other physical ailments , is the result of ill health of the mind due to many pressing factors over a long period of time... Total detachment from all things worldly may not be a possible remedy to escape depression for the majority of people in this world. How can society help these needy people ?

What causes depression : A constant source of irritation, tension at home, illness of children etc can result in depression that can cause lack of enthusiasm for active life, feeling lonely, lack of interest in others, disinterest in sexuality, suicidal tendency, inability even to do household chores etc .. This is not an irreversible process and if treated can be reversed leading back to helpful and active life.

Is this like cancer, the curse of affluence and neglect of the poor in society ? A life style disease ?

Please read the basics of what depression is and how to handle it effectively at nimh.nih.gov US govt site. Wealth of resources. For pdf form (27 pages), pl click here .. Updated 2011.

Presently a very close friend of mine is passing through this stage of mental ill health and I am in a process of helping them ( that does not preclude the possibility of depression not hitting me either..)

This Reader's Digest link gives an article that helps to understand causes of depression and how to handle it. ( From the book '7 stages of marriage', by Sari and Rita)

Most of us refuse to accept or are ignorant that we or our spouse is affected by depression. Statistics show that one in five women in Europe is afflicted with depression .. About 18 million out of 320 million people in US suffer from depression, ie. 5 %. Statistics in other countries is unavailable as they have not yet understood the magnitude of this malaise.

The recent suicide of playback singer Asha Bhonsle's daughter in Mumbai out of extreme depression points to the reality that wealth and pleasures cannot get any one peace of mind, on the contrary it can only bring extreme misery and depression !!


helpguide.org in collaboration with Harvard Medical School has come up with this site that gives extensive reading material and advice on how to cope with depression. Last updated Oct 12.

If not identified early, it can even lead to divorce. No one and no medical science talks of GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY !!


The first billionaire John D Rockefeller in 1912 also suffered from a similar malaise of dropping hair and shrinking skin at the age of 53, when his close confidant at that time advised him to give back to society. Rockefeller got rid of this unexplainable malaise when he decided to give back to society all his wealth and lived happily till age of 98. Then was born the Rockefeller Foundation .. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and other millionaires are now practicing these principles of giving back to society basically to keep them in good mental and physical health.

Hands that serve are more sacred than lips that pray - Mother Teresa. Let your spiritual life be just not restricted to praying and lip service, it also demands serving the society .. Gautam Budha gave all his worldly possessions and went out to pray, preach and serve the society, escaping depression. In a joint family the comfort and solace of other family members often was a great social medication, unlike the nuclear families of today where problem arise within families and end within families itself. The spiritual and social bonding from attending church services and cottage prayers go a long way in helping meet this malaise..

How far can medical science help to treat this ill health of the mind ? The societal support to such activities is it sufficient ?

Let us ponder !!

Ge..

Express mail delivery and DVD renting kiosk - service blueprint

Express Mail delivery Service Blueprint 

DVD renting service service blueprint

SC speaks firmly against unauthorised construction by the rich .. Bangaloreans ready ?

While only the slums and hutments of the poor are demolished by the state in their enthusiasm to prevent unauthorised construction, the rich and their construction are left untouched, probably because of he great healing power of grease money ..

The SC has come out against this discrimination by the state against the poor sparing the rich. Let the rich also feel the brunt of this.

It is said in bangalore almost 95% of houses are illegally constructed and unauthorised parts needs to be demolished. Are the people of  Bangalore ready to show the example to the people of the country by being the first to come forward and get the unauthorised part of construction of their homes removed or demolished ?

Are Bangaloreans game for it  or as cowards they wish to hide behind mama's petticoat ?   shameful ..

ge..

Great performances on asianet star singer..

Last evening it was simply superlative performances by Gayathri Ramanathan (tvm), Nandu (pala) and merin (kozhikode) on star singer season 6.

Gayathri came up with a mind blowing performance which was however not the star performance of the day.. Gayathri took me back 30 - 40 years when I grew up listening to these songs.. Fantastic rendering..

It was topped by Merin (left) who scored a perfect 100, song was Ooh la la by Shreya Ghoshal and Bappi Lahiri, out of the world performance .. for the first time a perfect hundred .. Single handedly Merin managed both Shreya and Bappi..

MG Sreekumar even remarked that if the original music director had also heard Merin singing the number, he would have asked Merin to sing it and dumped the famous Hindi duo..  So terrific, electrifying and thunderous performance ..

The original version of OOh la la by Shreya Ghoshal and Bappi lahiri from the movie "The Dirty Picture"  is here ..

Merin's singular effort is shown here  Fast forward to the third performance of the day from 19:12 minutes .. Gayathri's performance is the first one..

Very talented, spirited and enthusiastic, blessed youngsters rocking the stage beyond expectatiins !!!

Ge..

American apparels RFID experience ..

RFID youtube..

In the process of taking Inventory control classes for the MBA sem 1 students, this semester I have started the practise of giving case studies to students for reading and research offline and discussion in the class. So far I have finished Hard Rock cafe (op strategy), Apple (product design), Narayana Hrudayalaya (service design and strategy) and today I discussed American Apparels and their use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) technology (Inventory management). Discussion of these cases is sure to improve the understanding of the industry operations management practices for the students, leading to a better appreciation of the concepts.

Here is a short youtube video on RFID benefits at American Apparels. At AA, the items of cloth taken out by the customers on the retail floor are immediately informed by RFID readings and associated software to the employees on the warehouse floor, who after validation replenish the items immediately on the shelves. Thus only one item of each size and colour (stock keeping units is displayed) at any time on the display floor, increasing the variety of inventory visibility to the customer who can then make a wiser and effective choice.

The benefits of RFID implementation is numerous for American apparels, the largest in-house clothing manufacturer in US, apart from a 62 % rise in sales from 2007 to touch $ 341 million in 2012 and a  growth of upto 360 shops. They are

1. since only one item of each SKU is displayed on the shelf/rack at any time, the replenishment and the speed at which this happens is critical to the success of the shop. Using RFID AA has been able to replenish cloth SKUs on the rack in between 30s to 1 minute.

2. Since only need items are taken out of the warehouse and displayed on the rack, there is more accountability of stock, better keep of inventory count. less internal loss due to theft, pilferage etc.

3. In the conventional bar code system counting of all the dress items on the display floor takes  5-6 employees, 5 - 6 hours . With RFID it takes an employee only 2 hours to take stock of inventory across the whole display floor, accurately. 

4. Since the reader is capturing signals transmitted by the tag (transmitter) on the cloth piece, it is easy to find lost items and misplaced items on the wrong shelf.

5. With less of time spent in taking count, the employees have more time with the customers, giving them a very pleasurable experience, getting to know the merchandise well, good stocking and display styles etc..

6. More tiems are on display on the racks / shelves for sale to customers

7. better customer service possible

8. Due to the above positive factors, about 40% increase in sales in RFID stores have been realised over non-RFID stores

9. RFID can be used not only in cloth items, but across a large variety of items from books, medicine, files, hardware, vehicle parts, electronic components etc.

In Bangalore, Pantaloons used RFID tags and readers supported by Wipro, A demo stall of RFID hardware and software is on display at the Wipro corporate HQ in Bangalore. The Elevated Highway in Bangalore near Electronic city uses RFID on vehicles who have been given tags to enable faster processing of vehicles, avoiding waiting at queues. Wonderla in Bangalore uses RFID wrist band on their visitors to keep track of their rides, expenses and personal details.

In short, this is a very promising technology which has terrific applications across sections of the economy. In Govt offices files could be tagged with RFID making it easy to keep track of their progress and to trace lost / hidden files for faster decision making by the officers.

The capture of data regarding items and visitors can be misused leading to legal issues and claims. The electromagnetic radiations can damage tender human cells and damages the environment in the long run, example the case of vanishing sparrows from Bangalore city.

ge..

Seraphim Thirumeni at home ..

HG Dr. Abraham Mar Seraphim, Fr. Philip, Vicar,
Cathedral church, Bangalore 

HG making the discourse at the meeting ..

A view of the gathering of parishioners from Koramangala
at my home yesterday 7 Oct 2012.

It was a great occasion to welcome HG Abraham mar Seraphim, Metropolitan for Bangalore diocese of Malankara orthodox syrian church to my home for cottage prayer yday, 7 oct 2012.

HG spoke of the need to aim for salvation and redemption in eternal life than for worldly material and temporal gains by miracles and other myopic approaches ..

It was also taking a potshot at the miracle healers like M Y Yohannan ( who was camping in Bangalore on Saturday and Sunday) who give their talks to an innocent, gullible, materialistic, worldly, miracle and pleasure seeking public who seek instant gratification .... (Let us ignore the other spiritual entrepreneurs out there to make quick money like KP Yohannan, Dinakaran, Thangu and their likes, playing to the soft underbelly of the believers !! so pathetic ....)

Ge