Rupee gets symbol (among Controversy!)
Jul 15th
The rupee has achieved parity with major currencies such as the dollar, euro, pound sterling and yen in one respect: it now has its own symbol. The Union cabinet on Thursday approved the adoption of the new symbol after holding a competition that drew more than 3,000 entries, which were evaluated by a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India as well as artists and designers.
It was supposed to happen in last week of June, but for some reason the Rupee symbol has not been finalized out of the 5 shortlisted ones.
However, there is a Shocking story behind how the 5 symbols were shortlisted, which was revealed after an RTI application was filed by Mr. Rakesh Kumar Singh. He left a comment on one of our earlier posts giving details of the same. The RTI Application is in Hindi (given below)
Here is the first shocker – There were total of 3331 entries that came in from the design competition announced by Indian Government. The jurors took only 17 hours to go through all the 3331 designs, which means roughly 18 seconds per design were given.
The 5 shortlisted symbols are not bad, but they are not good enough when you consider that over 3300 designs were received.
Here is another thing, the person, Ms. Nondita Correa-Mehrotra, who had given the suggestion to go in for this competition is one of the 5 rupee symbol shortlisted candidates.
The RTI query also clearly shows that the procedure was not at all transparent – It was not video-graphed, which now-a-days is a norm for all such government decisions. Additionally, whole jury was not present during the rupee symbol presentations.
It is really a shame that our Government Babu’s have made shambles of such a symbolic & prestigious task.
The RTI filing reply as given by Mr. Rakesh Kumar Singh (Hindi) – You can also go to save Indian Rupee Symbol for more details.
(credit: track.in)
10 most common faults of the human brain
Jun 16th
As humans, our minds are jam-packed with biases whether we’re aware of them or not. There seems to be no end to the mistakes we make when we process information. Luckily, Listverse kindly compiled the ten most common faults in human thought, so we can try to avoid them. See a few below:
- Illusion of control.
- Just-world phenemenon.
- Cryptomnesia.
See all ten at Listverse.
Fifa world cup 2010 calendar
Jun 11th
“Vuvuzela” trumpets blasted and flags flew proudly across South Africa on the eve of the continent’s first World Cup which Africans hope will transform negative global perceptions of them forever.
You can catch the official news right here on Fifa’s website but don’t forget to check out the calendar here.. Its a most super cool calendar I’ve ever seen for any event.
Google has also came up with a special page fo football fans.
Time to quit Facebook ?
May 24th
Time To Quit facebook ?
Blogsphere is buzzing with Facebook privacy concerns, where the social networking site gives access to all your profile information to advertisers. Well, I think if you are using ’social’ networking site, you sholdn’t complain about privacy.. right? More info below :
What’s all the fuss, anyway?
This interactive site entitled “The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook” shows visually exactly how site changes to the privacy settings over time have encroached on users’ privacy, revealing more of their data to more and more people.
A recent poll from Sophos found that an estimated 60 percent of users are considering quitting Facebook over privacy issues. More than 11,000 people have committed to ditching the social-networking site on May 31, according to QuitFacebookDay.com. And more people are searching Google for ways to delete their Facebook accounts than ever, according to the Search Engine Land blog.
But leaving Facebook can be almost as confusing as navigating the privacy backwaters on the site. This New York Times graphic shows that there are 50 settings and more than 170 options to managing the privacy of a Facebook account. Here are some tips on deleting your account and answers to questions about what that means for your data, and more.
How do I delete my Facebook account?
It’s not as easy to find out how to delete your account. I clicked on the Account tab and then Help Center and typed in “delete account” in the search window. Under the question prompt “How do I permanently delete my account” there is a link to this page where you can click the Submit button or the Cancel button.
If I’m not ready to leave Facebook what can I do?
You can shore up your privacy settings and hope that Facebook doesn’t make any new modifications that will undo what you’ve specified. There are several tools that can automatically check your Facebook settings and set them to the most private option, including browser bookmark tool SaveFace and a Facebook privacy scanner available at ReclaimPrivacy.org.
To block ads from sharing your information you can click Account Settings from the top-right Account tab on your main page and click the Facebook Ads tab and switch it to the default “only my friends” to “no one.” The Huffington Post has a helpful video that walks through all of these steps.
And if you want to just make a statement but not leave the site, you can join the Facebook Protest movement and avoid logging on June 6.
Update 27 May 2010: Facebook, today, responded to user comments and concerns about privacy by announcing it will introduce simpler and more powerful controls for sharing personal information. New settings will give the more than 400 million people who use Facebook the power to control exactly who can see the information and content they share, all with just a few simple clicks. In addition, new settings will be added to make it easier to turn off third-party applications or websites. Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg officially announced the changes in a blog post.
(credit: cnet)
Euro zone Problem
May 10th
Following are few facts to know the Euro zone Problem Better:
Greece:
The epicentre of the deficit default problem.
Its total fiscal deficit stands at 13.6% of its gross domestic product (GDP).
Its total outstanding debt is 270 billion euro or 115% of its GDP.
More immediately, it needs 50 billion euro in 2010 to roll over debt of which 25 billion euro is needed in June.
Unemployment rate is 11.8% and GDP is slated to contract by 3% this year.
Creditors hesitate to buy its bonds. Greek two-year notes are quoting at a yield of 14.9% over German bunds. But if Germany and France bring in the first tranche of cash before May 19, Greece won’t have to come to the market to borrow.
Spain:
It has a fiscal deficit equaling 10% of GDP.
Unemployment is close to 20% and its GDP is expected to contract by 0.5% this year. And grow by just 0.8% in 2011.
Given this, Spain may not be able to reduce deficit to its target of 3% by 2013. Also, if growth falters the support it has to give its banking system to restructure assets and beef up capital may increase.
Lately, its spread over German bunds has risen to 200 bps, which means borrowing costs are rising.
Portugal:
Its macroeconomic parameters are certainly better than its big neighbour Spain.
Its deficit is a tad lower at 8.5%.
The economy is expected to grow from hereon but only at a modest 0.5%.
Even if fiscal deficit falls, total debt will rise to 90% of GDP. Already the country is borrowing at 5% over German bunds. If yields rise further, all bets on growth and deficit can go wrong.
Ireland:
The smallest of the pigs countries has committed to bring down its deficit from 14.3% in 2009 to 11.7% this year.
But deficit is expected to rise to 12% next year.
Unemployment is still running at a high 13.5%.
GDP contracted by 7% last year and is expected to contract this year as well by 0.9%.
Meanwhile, the country’s borrowing costs have shot up from 1.7% to 3.5% for a 2 year loan.
Image below was appeared in New York Times dated May 1, 2010.
(credit: Capital-K Financial Advisory Services)
Bad decisions cost Mumbai IPL title
Apr 26th
Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Super Kings in a stressfull final yesterday.
The whole world is asking one big question to whoever made this decision – “Why Pollad was kept waiting in the dugout for so long?”
There was absolutely no need to tweak with the team that was performing well. Didn’t understand why Nayar was promoted and why Harbhajan was trusted to accelarate run rate than proven Pollard.
Sachin was also not looking cofortable. If I were Sachin Tendulakar, I would have imagined myself lifting the trophy and for that would have clean shaved to look better in photos.. but Sachin was looking to tired.. as if he just wanted to let it go.
Dhoni on the other hand was very confident, cool and very much in control, even when Pollard was hitting Bollinger hard. That guy R Ashwin is dangerous. His style of releasing a ball after a brief pause is tricky.
Mumbai had put up a great show so far and it was really disappointing to see them loose yesterday. Really wanted to see Sachin lifting the trophy. Not sure if he will be in the same form next year. And next year, I will be cheering for Pune Warriors.
Anyway, this year’s IPL was hugely entertaining – on the field as well as off the field.
Spell with flickr
Feb 3rd
Isn’t it cool?
You can also spell your name with Flikr using this site. Website is a bit ugly but its fun.
Give it a try.
iPAD doesn’t rock :-(
Feb 2nd
Like everyone else in the Tech world, I was also eagerly waiting for rumored Apple tablet announcement. Stayed up late to watch Steve Jobs unveiling his so called greatest-invention-ever iPAD! Well, it was a huge disappointment. I’ve tried to express my feeling using a small comparison below :-
Jokes apart, iPAD has some serious flaws. Its just an eye candy, good for show off. It just can’t beat the cheap notebooks yet. But it will be a bit unfair to criticize so heavily as it is a version-1 product. Remember version-1 of Zune? and then how Microsoft made a great comeback with Zune HD.
Future looks promising for touchscreen tablets as there were lot announcements in recent CES. Bottom line is, iPAD just doesn’t rock.. atleast not today.
Hello world!
Jan 1st
Guys, thanks for visiting my page.
I’ve just moved from a static website to something dynamic like this one. Give me sometime and I’ll make it look better.
Cheers !
