Unveiling The ‘Sixth Sense’

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Missing Daughters of India

Son preference in India is a well documented fact and its implications on skewed sex ratios, female feticide and high child morality rates is no news either. For over a century India has shown marked gap in the number is boys vs girls born each year. With technological advancement this gap is only increasing.

Indians worship the goddesses in temples but kill their daughters at home. Preference for boys over girls is driven by these factors:

• Sons are expected to provide emotional and social care to parents especially in their old age as well as are responsible for their lineage while daughters will go away to other families. It appears sons compensate for the lack of social security in India.
• Only if the son light the funeral pyre can the parents ascend to heaven.
• Sons add to family wealth and property, whereas daughters will drain that in the form of dowry for marriage.
• Sons will protect the parents whereas daughters have to be protected.

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Brains Coming Back to Boost India

India has initiated reverse brain drain. Realizing how many scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionals they loose every year, Indian government is taking steps to lure them back to the country.

The scheme for NRIs, though still in infancy, has already netted at least 40 PHDs and MTechs working in academics or industry in countries like US, UK, Japan and Sweden.

“We are intensifying the drive. In 2007 alone, we received 150 applications from NRI scientists and engineers and finally picked up 22. The number of applicants is increasing, with the majority coming from US,” a top Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist said.

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What’s All The Racket About The Magic Racquet?

Leander Paes, who has saved India from several Davis Cup disasters and a medal hope at the Beijing Olympic Games in August, is going to play a miracle man who helps school kids in cartoon television series called The Magic Racquet.

Not much has been disclosed about the story line. Paes will play roughly his own age and will sport tennis gear. The story will revolve around a school with three to five central characters between the age group of 6 to 10. There are also plans to include other sporting stars as guests in a few episodes since the objective is to promote sports in general.

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Yahoo-TATA Pact

Yahoo has struck an agreement with Computational Research Laboratories, a unit of Tata Sons Ltd., to pursue research on “cloud computing” technologies. Yahoo said the project with the laboratory in Pune would use the world’s fourth-fastest supercomputer and Apache Hadoop, a framework for creating software that can handle large amounts of data using several computers.

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Made In India: Babies Outsourced

In India, there is a new IT industry: the new Infant Trading. After the adults, it is now the babies turn to be outsourced. Reproductive Outsourcing is catching on. The industry is valued at more than $450 millions, and the number of cases of surrogacy has doubled over the past three years. Commercial surrogacy has been legal in India since 2002. India is emerging as a leader making it into what can be called a viable industry rather than a rare fertility treatment. It has gained popularity for same reasons as outsourcing in other industries: a wide labor pool working for relatively low rates. In India womb is the new Web.

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More billionaires, poor billion

Forbes magazine just released its list of billionaires for 2008. Everyone is surprised by the news that Bill Gates is no longer the richest man: it is now Warren Buffett. Bill Gates has dropped to number three. Should we feel sorry for him? But what surprised me it that they are the only two Americans on top ten. Whereas there are four Indians on the top ten list:

• Lakshmi Mittal (ranks forth with $45)
• Mukesh Ambani (ranks fifth with $43 B)
• Anil Ambani (ranks sixth with $42 B)
• K.P. Singh (ranks eighth with $30 B)

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Chak de Railways, Says Lallu

Lallu Prasad Yadav picked a bollywood theme of his fifth Railway Budget. Chak de Railways, he exclaimed. In his presentation of the Union Railway Budget, he recited:

 

Sab kah rahe hain humne gazab kaam kiya hai,

Karoron ka munafa har ek shaam diya hai,

Phal salon yeh ab dega, paudha jo lagaya hai,

Sewa ka, samarpan ka, har farz nibhaya hai.

 

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Of Cow and Consumerism

“Why you spend so much money on hay?” I once asked Ramu uncle.

He was busy feeding the cows in his backyard. His overworked body was scarred but strong. He had no time for a pesky boy. I asked again.

He tuned to me with visible annoyance in his eyes, “What is that to you?”

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Smell of Fresh Ink

There are two kinds of books: one with fresh smell of ink and the other with musty smell of memory. While growing up the fresh smell was rare: once at the beginning of the school year and at the annual book fair. Most of the story books were either borrowed from friends or loaned from local library. Things have changed so much now. You get to browse book at the store without getting even a single poke by the store keeper. These days smell of fresh ink is everywhere. There are many new experiences, books, and authors.

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Free Conference Call

Here is a free conferencing service you may like to use. The company is called Sabsebolo.com. This is founded by the same guys that brought you Hotmail. You can call using any mobile or land line. Here are the setup information.

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