"I represent India.. is this UK all about.. its scary" these were the words from the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty after getting into a war of words with Jade. Hats off to Shilpa. She maintained the dignity through out the confrontation. While Jade Goody was a perfect example of an illiterate, boorish, unscrupulous citizen of United Kingdom. The show is called "Celebrity Big Brother" a special edition of Big Brother and was meant to be only for celebrities. Jade was a former winner of Big Brother and her claim to fame was her friendly and lovely nature. But this time, its the evil side of Jade which has taken over the show. Undoubtedly, the viewership has escalated to 33% from 17% after the racist furore broke out. About 27,000 complaints was registered with the Channel 4 in which this show is broadcasted. This episode has knocked the doors of the British parliament with MPs discussing over the racist comments passed from Jade to Shilpa. Gordon Brown justified that UK is always against racism when he faced questions on this incident in his Bangalore trip.
The flame of hatred fired up when Shilpa cooked chicken for all the housemates but was not cooked properly. Jade commented saying that Indians are thin because they ate half cooked food. Supporting to this Danielle another paritipant who became a celebrity after her Miss Great Britain title was dismissed due to her boy friend who was a part of the panel commented saying "Indians eat food with their hands and i wonder where she (Shilpa) has been keeping her hand". The initial trigger came from Jackie (Jade's mother) a nerd, who often referred to Shilpa as "the Indian" and other offending names due to her lack of ability to pronounce her name (wonder if it is a tongue twister !!!). Jade went face to face with Shilpa in an outrageous war over the cubes. Jade abused Shilpa in a F-language which had the extensive usage of the word "fuck". But Shilpa behaved extremely descent and matured and handled the situation boldly. She never used any abusive words nor over reacted. She kept her calm through out and also made several attempts to calm Jade who was on a rampage but in vein. The agitated bull took several hours before its ire tranquilized.
This episode has caused a major outcry of racism in UK. The carphonewarehouse who are the sponsors of Big Brother pulled out of its 3 million contract. The perfumes of Jade were withdrawn. Jade came under severe criticism from all over UK and India. Yesterday night, Jade and Shilpa were nominated for the eviction. People had to vote to any of these two contestants. Results arrived and Jade was evicted. All credits to Shilpa Shetty who played the real life role of the brand ambassador of India and carried the Indian pride on its high.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Future of Outsourcing in India
With plenty of talent and cheap cost labour, US and Europe are outsourcing all their back office work to India. The ability to understand and communicate in English is one of the competitive advantage that India has over China. Though China has cheaper labour than India, it has never been able to compete in the IT industry. With an intention to have a bite in this outsourcing pie, other countries like Pakistan, Russia, Columbia are already in the race. But India is way a head of this race and leads the show. India is the number one choice for outsourcing in the world. But can India sustain this leading position ?
With George Bush's regime coming to an end in 2009, the next most likely party that would win the elections and come to power is the Democrats. But Democrats have a different tune to sing. They are more concern over the job insecurity which is now a major issue, among the Americans. Infact, a new word called "Bangalored" is added to the dictionary which actually means an American getting a pink slip due to the work being outsourced to Bangalore. Democrats are against the idea of outsourcing. But the business class favours outsourcing as they can get the work done at a cheaper rate, which gives them strategic advantage in the industry competition. Though Democrats cannot take a drastic decision of stopping outsourcing completely, a possibility of making outsourcing difficult cannot be ruled out. The answer to this can be obtained in 2009 after the US Presidential elections.
Though IT companies are enjoying huge profits and low taxes, the rules that favour this industry are valid only till 2009. Indian government wanted to promote IT outsourcing and hence had reduced the taxes and most of the laws favoured IT companies. But in 2009, in order to balance between the economic status of different industries in India, it is likely that the tax would be increased on IT products and services.
Inspite of the above arguments which doesnot favour outsourcing, there is some good news for IT industries in India. The type of jobs that are outsourced to India are those of callcenter types or includes repetitive work which can be easily replaced by automation. But the US and the European countries have realised that Indian talent pool is much beyond this call center job. Top level jobs, strategic jobs, middle level management jobs are also being outsourced to India. The demand will shift from the software engineer's level to the middle and the top level management. With this trend slowly starting, India has nothing to worry about sustaining its position as the "Leader of Outsourcing".
With George Bush's regime coming to an end in 2009, the next most likely party that would win the elections and come to power is the Democrats. But Democrats have a different tune to sing. They are more concern over the job insecurity which is now a major issue, among the Americans. Infact, a new word called "Bangalored" is added to the dictionary which actually means an American getting a pink slip due to the work being outsourced to Bangalore. Democrats are against the idea of outsourcing. But the business class favours outsourcing as they can get the work done at a cheaper rate, which gives them strategic advantage in the industry competition. Though Democrats cannot take a drastic decision of stopping outsourcing completely, a possibility of making outsourcing difficult cannot be ruled out. The answer to this can be obtained in 2009 after the US Presidential elections.
Though IT companies are enjoying huge profits and low taxes, the rules that favour this industry are valid only till 2009. Indian government wanted to promote IT outsourcing and hence had reduced the taxes and most of the laws favoured IT companies. But in 2009, in order to balance between the economic status of different industries in India, it is likely that the tax would be increased on IT products and services.
Inspite of the above arguments which doesnot favour outsourcing, there is some good news for IT industries in India. The type of jobs that are outsourced to India are those of callcenter types or includes repetitive work which can be easily replaced by automation. But the US and the European countries have realised that Indian talent pool is much beyond this call center job. Top level jobs, strategic jobs, middle level management jobs are also being outsourced to India. The demand will shift from the software engineer's level to the middle and the top level management. With this trend slowly starting, India has nothing to worry about sustaining its position as the "Leader of Outsourcing".
Saturday, December 30, 2006
America's conspiracy behind the infamous Iraq War
Saddam Hussien is now history with his execution today (30th Dec 2006) morning at 6:05am. This is the result of the unfamous Iraq war. The reason behind the war as explained by Americans was the Iraq's illegal possession of nuclear weapons. But did Americans find any? Absolutely NO. How can one wage a war without complete information ? Was this an intelligence failure ? Again a NO. With so many questions being raised, few anti-war supporters who have seen beyond the obvious, have given an explanation for this act. My blog just rephrases their opinions.
The main reason for America to go on a war on Iraq was for the oil. Before i continue with this, i would like to inform about the economic status of USA. The most powerful nation in the world has a debt of $44 trillion plus. With the average increase in debt rate of 6.8% every year, USA is headed for a major economic crisis. Inspite of this, what makes America so powerful? The answer is "dollar" itself. The world wide acceptance of dollar gives America a strong hold on the world's economy. When OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) was formed in 1960, Americans insisted that the transaction be done in dollars only by a UN resolution. When oil was exported from the OPEC members they were paid for it through dollars from the buying countries. The OPEC members preserved the dollars in American banks. And when anyone wanted to purchase oil they needed dollars to pay for it. Hence they bought dollars from USA in exchange for services or products. So the dollars circulated from USA to buyers, buyers to OPEC members and back to American banks. All USA had to do was to just print the dollar !!! This is how America maintained a strong hold on the world economy.
In Aug 2002, Iraq and North Korea decided to change the transaction currency to Euro. This meant that oil consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their reserve funds and replace it with Euros. As a result of this, the dollar would crash from 20-40% in value and would lead to a currency collapse and massive inflation. Hence the Bush government master minded the war on Iraq to save itself from a major economic crisis. From this, they would not only control Iraq but also place a huge military in the Gulf to maintain the fear among the rest of the OPEC members who had planned to switch to Euro.
The main reason for America to go on a war on Iraq was for the oil. Before i continue with this, i would like to inform about the economic status of USA. The most powerful nation in the world has a debt of $44 trillion plus. With the average increase in debt rate of 6.8% every year, USA is headed for a major economic crisis. Inspite of this, what makes America so powerful? The answer is "dollar" itself. The world wide acceptance of dollar gives America a strong hold on the world's economy. When OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) was formed in 1960, Americans insisted that the transaction be done in dollars only by a UN resolution. When oil was exported from the OPEC members they were paid for it through dollars from the buying countries. The OPEC members preserved the dollars in American banks. And when anyone wanted to purchase oil they needed dollars to pay for it. Hence they bought dollars from USA in exchange for services or products. So the dollars circulated from USA to buyers, buyers to OPEC members and back to American banks. All USA had to do was to just print the dollar !!! This is how America maintained a strong hold on the world economy.
In Aug 2002, Iraq and North Korea decided to change the transaction currency to Euro. This meant that oil consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their reserve funds and replace it with Euros. As a result of this, the dollar would crash from 20-40% in value and would lead to a currency collapse and massive inflation. Hence the Bush government master minded the war on Iraq to save itself from a major economic crisis. From this, they would not only control Iraq but also place a huge military in the Gulf to maintain the fear among the rest of the OPEC members who had planned to switch to Euro.
"Wierd" Advertising
Consumer centric markets is the mantra. Every product, every service almost everything puts consumer first. Hence the success. Advertising has placed consumer emotions on its top priority. Using babies has been so common these days that every three out of five ads have babies in them. Continuing with this trend of marketing on human emotions, a new concept of advertising has emerged. This time marketers will play with your neurons. Everything is stored in the brain as neural circuits. Everytime you remember something, a neural circuit is established. It is seen that you can easily remember things those that are very silly. You would forget the most important place that you visited recently but you would never forget a silly joke that was told to you by your friend on the way.
This concept is now used in Advertising. One such example is of the beer named "Cobra" which is an indian lager. I dont think we get this beer in India itself but we have it here in UK. The advertisements of Cobra beer are very silly and they are no way connected with the beer nor specifying its characteristics. The ad goes like this- the beer bottle is shown then they show a football player making a goal, then they show an earth worm crawling, then they finally show the beer bottle again. Made any sense ? No ? Thats what the marketers are looking for. Ads are so confusing that you tend to think more on it and remember it more. In a shelf space market where there are plenty of beers to choose from on a single shelf, how can anyone remember its characteristics, its color or any feature of it. These Ads make you remember only its name. If the consumer remembers a product name then its more likely that he buys the product.
There is another advantage of this kind of advertisements. They need not repeat the Ad to make you remember as you would never forget. Very high cost savings has been proved through these kind of advertisements. From normal "we are the best" Ads to playing with emotions and now the neuro Ads.. who knows what the marketers are targeting next ?
This concept is now used in Advertising. One such example is of the beer named "Cobra" which is an indian lager. I dont think we get this beer in India itself but we have it here in UK. The advertisements of Cobra beer are very silly and they are no way connected with the beer nor specifying its characteristics. The ad goes like this- the beer bottle is shown then they show a football player making a goal, then they show an earth worm crawling, then they finally show the beer bottle again. Made any sense ? No ? Thats what the marketers are looking for. Ads are so confusing that you tend to think more on it and remember it more. In a shelf space market where there are plenty of beers to choose from on a single shelf, how can anyone remember its characteristics, its color or any feature of it. These Ads make you remember only its name. If the consumer remembers a product name then its more likely that he buys the product.
There is another advantage of this kind of advertisements. They need not repeat the Ad to make you remember as you would never forget. Very high cost savings has been proved through these kind of advertisements. From normal "we are the best" Ads to playing with emotions and now the neuro Ads.. who knows what the marketers are targeting next ?
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