Chaotic endgame

Opinion Editorial

February 20, 2014   Updated: February 20, 2014 03:02 IST

End-stage mistakes grab disproportionately greater attention than blunders at the beginning. With the Congress and the Central government bungling at almost every stage in the handling of the agitation for a new state of Telangana, the mismanagement of the vote on the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill should have been no surprise. The chaos and confusion, and the blackout of television coverage, on the day the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha all pale into insignificance when seen in the context of the larger failures to find a political consensus, and to reduce differences over crucial issues in the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Whether it was due to a technical glitch, or a “tactical glitch” as the Leader of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj, described it, the blackout of coverage by Lok Sabha TV was only a minor part in the Telangana endgame. Flip-flops and cynical political manoeuvring were part of the Congress strategy right from the beginning on the Telangana issue. Petty electoral calculations ensured that the party leadership led the government in the decision-making process. Indeed, too much was left to the very end as part of a deliberate strategy of buying time and averting a debate and discussion in Parliament. The highly charged spectacle of violence and disruption in the Lok Sabha over the Telangana Bill in the last few days is the culmination of the cumulative mistakes of the Congress and the Centre. 

If the Congress can take any credit from these sordid happenings it is in the browbeating and arm-twisting of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Although the BJP had a pronounced pro-Telangana stance even before the Congress committed itself to the bifurcation, the party resorted to doublespeak on the issue in an attempt to discomfit the Congress. But later the Congress managed to put the BJP in a fix, and eventually to lend support to the Bill. The two parties appeared to have read each other’s mind very well: to blame the other for any failure to pass the Bill. The BJP blinked first. The party, which did not have substantial political stakes in Andhra Pradesh, was hoping the Congress would alienate both pro-Telangana and Seemandhra sections if it failed to push the Bill through. But there was also the danger that the Congress might turn around and blame the BJP for its doublespeak and allowing the Bill to lapse. In the end, the two parties appear to have decided to share the credit for creating Telangana rather than blame each other for failing to have it passed. Irrespective of how the two parties manoeuvre the Bill through the Rajya Sabha, there is very little comfort to be had from such bipartisanship. 

Source: The Hindu

Lights, Camera off, Action: That’s the scene in LS as it passes Bill to split Andhra Pradesh

Express News Service | New Delhi | February 19, 2014 2:21 am


The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2014 was adopted by voice vote along
with several official amendments. (PTI Photo)

The contentious bill that will split Andhra Pradesh and allow the creation of Telangana, India’s 29th state, made it through the Lok Sabha Tuesday despite opposition, tumultuous scenes and a controversial “blackout” of the live TV broadcast of the proceedings.

The house passed the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Bill, 2014, by voice vote even as those opposed to it demanded a division vote and termed the process a “sham” and a “black day for democracy”.



Around 3.10 pm, Lok Sabha TV stopped showing the live feed of proceedings in the house as Speaker Meira Kumar went ahead with the process of passing the Bill and then moving amendments pushed by members from across parties.

The government also moved a series of official amendments after leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj indicated that her party backed passing the Bill. Only Swaraj and pro-Telangana Union minister Jaipal Reddy of the Congress spoke briefly on the Bill.

Armed with posters, MPs from the CPI(M) and a few others from Andhra Pradesh stormed the well and shouted slogans against the bifurcation of the state through the proceedings, rendering the Speaker’s words inaudible.

One of them tore a copy of the Bill and flung its pieces in the air.



A number of amendments moved by MPs, notably Saugata Roy of Trinamool Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMM, were defeated by voice vote even as both demanded a division vote, which the speaker did not allow.

Instead, the speaker resorted to a “headcount” of MPs for and against the Bill and the amendments by asking them to stand up — a move Roy and Owaisi protested against.

“We are not a herd of sheep, we protest this move by you, madam. We want division vote,” Roy was heard shouting. “The idea that is India is being challenged today.”

Seeing that the opposition BJP did not join the protest, a number of protesting MPs too stormed the well and alleged that both the government and the opposition had reached an understanding “to pass the bill by flouting established processes”.

Independent MP from Assam, S K Bwiswmuthiary chanted anti-bifurcation slogans through the 90-minute process.

But the fact that there was no live broadcast of the proceedings visibly irked a number of MPs who shouted that it was “a black day for democracy”.

The TMC’s Roy also lodged a protest in writing saying that Rule 367 had been flouted by not going for a division vote.

The ruckus continued nonetheless as Shiv Sena MPs along with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav stood up to join the protests.



With both Rahul and Sonia Gandhi in the House, Congress MPs Sanjay Nirupam and Mahabal Mishra moved to the well ostensibly to assuage the protesting MPs. Former minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Finance Minister P Chidambaram were seen directing the treasury benches in their participation in the voice voting.

The Bill will now be brought to the Rajya Sabha.

Union minister from Andhra Pradesh, K Chiranjeevi, told reporters that while he had no intention of resigning at the moment, he would join in to stop the bill from being passed in the upper house.

Source: The Indian Express

A Cruel Twist of Fate

By K Naresh Kumar - HYDERABAD

Published: 17th February 2014 09:12 AM        Last Updated: 17th February 2014 09:20 AM

As a writer, playwright and screen play specialist, Vijay Tendulkar, obviously needs no introduction. In his writing career spanning more than five decades, Tendulkar has written 27 full-length plays and 25 one-act plays. Several of his plays have proven to be Marathi theatre classics. His plays have been translated and performed in many Indian languages.

One such play Hatt Teri Kismet, translated by Vasant Dev into Hindi, was staged at Lamakaan on Saturday night by Udaan Performing Arts. Originally written in the ‘70s, this play, a political satire in essence, talks about the unabashed addiction of power politics. Smartly customised to suit the current situation, the theatre group made it very contemporary and interesting.

In what seems to be turning into a popular format of Udaan - just two main characters on stage - the 70-minute play takes off right from the beginning when an out-of-power Chief Minister (Saurabh Gharipurikar) is shown plotting his return to the coveted chair. He comes in contact with an aam aadmi (Ashutosh Patwardhan) in the process, who quizzes him on various issues -- most of them trying to understand how these scums operate in society. The Chief Minister-in-waiting boasts about his survival in the quicksand of politics and how he is always self-centred and focused, often at the cost of his family and their desires. In fact, some of the comments the politician makes are dangerously close to reality -- especially when he says that ‘all that he does is strengthen the hands of the PM who is otherwise dumb and controlled by the Delhi madam’.

The unexpected twist comes when the politician decides to exchange his dress with that of the commoner when he sees an angry crowd approaching him and wants to escape their wrath. Along with the costumes, the faces also get inter-changed and voila! All hell breaks loose. This is the first swipe of bad luck that affects the politician.

Before his very eyes, the neta sees the commoner assume all those traits and characteristics which he possessed while he gets demoted to being pushed to a clerical position, where he inches up slowly in a year’s time. During this period, the commoner, now the Chief Minister goes from strength to strength and the original politician is now frustrated and desperate to come back to his original slot at any cost. He manages this by cunningly overpowering the commoner physically and assuming his original personality.

Once again the crowd returns and thrashes the original Chief Minister black and blue for being a terrible and corrupt administrator and rewards the commoner, who enjoys a second stroke of luck, the opposite effect of the politician who gets the rough end of the stick once more!

Liberally plucking anecdotes from day-to-day happenings and aptly placing it in the plot (like the LPG cylinder subsidy and allusions to the common man and his corruption-affected life), the play takes potshots at the authoritarian power structure of Delhi politics and the people who run it, blissfully oblivious to a myriad of problems.

A 100-strong audience thoroughly enjoyed the show on a windy evening.

Source: The New Indian Express

Love in the times of Telangana-Seemandhra

Sulogna Mehta,TNN | Feb 15, 2014, 04.10 AM IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: 'True love knows no reason, no boundaries, no distance. It has a sole intention of bringing people together to a time called forever.' So what if wily politicians are conspiring to play villains in the real life love stories of many couples hailing from the two regions of Seemandhra and Telangana with their bifurcation moves, the much-in-love couples in the city celebrated Valentine's Day leaving behind the division blues for the day.

Like the pyaar-kiya-toh-darna-kya attitude of final year engineering students R Geethika and D Sudhir who are going steady. While Geethika hails from Hyderabad but has been living in Vizag for the last few years due to her dad's posting, Sudhir is from the Port City. "Our parents don't know we are in a committed relationship though a few of our trusted friends and cousins are aware of it. After passing out of college, we will seek the blessings of our parents and nothing can stop us from getting married. We won't let bifurcation cast its shadow on our love as it is being carried out by politicians with vested interests. It's one language, one culture and above all, one country for us," said Sudhir, chilling out with Geethika on Beach Road.

Twenty-six-year-old Swapna Reddy from Hyderabad who got married to her 29-year-old sweetheart Kiran Kumar from Vizag, on V-Day last year. "I met Kiran when he came to Hyderabad on work. When so many inter-state, inter-culture, inter-religion, and even cross-country marriages are happening these days, who cares about Telangana and Seemandhra in the matters of the heart?" averred Swapna, currently pursuing her MBA.

Regional politics has no room in the lives of Karunakar Rao, 28, from Srikakulam and Vimala, 27, from Hyderabad who had a love marriage three years ago after years of online courtship. "We fell in love even without meeting each other. And finally jab we met, we decided to tie the knot despite objections from our families owing to our different backgrounds and castes. But we never bothered about such superficial differences. So why should we fight over Hyderabadi biryani, Telangana's garela pulusu or coastal Gongura mutton now?" quipped Karunakar, a private sector employee.

And while the families of yet-to-be-married couple V Saritha, hailing from the Port City, and Sunil from Hyderabad are a worried lot, the couple, which got engaged in December last year, are resolute. "There's no question of breaking our alliance just because of an illogical political decision. But our families are worried about fixing the wedding date, which was supposed to be sometime in the middle of this year. With elections coming up, the auspicious date now needs to be carefully selected as there's every possibility of agitations and strikes, both in Telangana and Seemandhra, over the bifurcation issue. Conducting a marriage in the midst of such chaos would be quite risky and we wonder if we would have to postpone the ceremonies till things settle down," pointed out Saritha.

However, there are some who are worried about the future of their children. Like private-sector employee T Ravi, who hails from Hyderabad. "My wife belongs to Prakasam district of coastal Andhra. We have been married for two decades and have lived in three different states but were never prepared for this kind of a disturbance in our own state. Though the bifurcation issue has not impacted our family relations in anyway because it's all a political move, we are worried about the higher education of our children as far as seats in medical and engineering colleges are concerned. The purchase of new property and its safety is also doubtful at the current juncture so we have to reconsider our investment plans carefully."

(Names of most couples have been changed on request)

Source: Times of India

New portraits of Bard of Avon found

International » World    Washington, February 14, 2014    Updated: February 14, 2014 02:42 IST

PTI

 

A then newly discovered portrait of William Shakespeare in March 2009. Photo: AP 

 

Scientists have discovered two previously unknown portraits of English playwright William Shakespeare — one which shows a youthful Bard of Avon and another which shows his whole person for the first time.

Hildegard Hammerschmidt–Hummel, a professor of English at Mainz University, Germany, said he subjected the images to fundamental tests of identity and authenticity, and found they were “true–to–life portraits of Shakespeare.”

One portrait, possibly painted around 1594, when Shakespeare was about 30 years old, depicts only the facial features of the Bard of Avon.

Hung in the bedchamber of Prince Franz (1740—1817), in the Gothic House of the Dessau—Worlitz Garden Realm, the portrait was seized by the Soviet army in 1945.

Archival research shows Prince Franz brought the picture from his trip to England from 1763 to 1764. Records show it was given to him as a gift by Thomas Hart, a distant relative of Shakespeare, ‘Discovery News’ reported.

Short stature

The second portrait shows the whole person of Shakespeare for the first time.

“We can see he wasn’t a very tall man,” Hammerschmidt—Hummel said. The painting shows Shakespeare at the age of 50, about two years before his death and it portrays the Bard as an affluent, older gentleman living in retirement.

The portrait shows Shakespeare sitting on an elaborately carved chair, holding a book in his left hand and resting his right hand on the head of a dog, which is sitting to his right. Careful examination of the image has determined the breed of the dog, which appears to be a Lurcher, a cross between a Greyhound and a working dog.

“I am calling it the Boaden Portrait because I found it in a rare, richly illustrated edition of James Boaden’s work of 1824,” Hammerschmidt—Hummel said.

Source: The Hindu

శ్రీ కౌముది ఫిబ్రవరి 2014

5 Places Where People Slow Down Aging

Posted By Kaitlyn Wells on Feb 05, 2014

FIRAT SOLA via Flickr


Around the world, people are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. One area this is most visible is in the number of centenarians, or people living to the age of 100. In 1840, there were 90 centenarians in the United States—one for every 189,000 people—according to United States Census Bureau records. Today, there are more than 53,000—or one for every 5,800 people. Though we know people are living longer, we don’t necessarily how they do it.

After discovering that there are longevity hot spots where people tend to live especially long, writer Dan Buettner spent the last 12 years locating and documenting these areas, dubbed “blue zones.” “I increasingly was interested in mysteries that dealt with the human condition,” says Buettner, a National Geographic fellow.

Through that research, he found several factors that might prolong health and life for people in blue zones. “Longevity is a consequence of constant, longterm little things,” Buettner says. “There’s no silver bullet.” Buettner shared the findings in his books The Blue Zones (2009) and Thrive (2010); here are some of the high points:

Ikaria, Greece: Enjoy a nap after tea
Residents of this Greek island are three times as likely to reach age 90 than people in the U.S. Living to nonagenarian status may be more likely when you get some bonus shut-eye.

Among Ikarian elders who regularly nap in the middle of the day (90 percent of them, according to a 2011 study in Cardiology Research and Practice), none of them exhibited symptoms of depression, while many of the non-nappers did. A broader study examining the sleeping behaviors of all Greeks found that those who cat-napped for at least 30 minutes had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who didn’t.

Being under Sandman’s spell isn’t the only thing helping them live longer: They also regularly enjoy herbal tea. Traditional Greek teas include wild mint, which fights gingivitis and gastrointestinal disorders; rosemary for gout; and artemisia for blood circulation. Many local teas also contain mild diuretics that can treat hypertension. This may explain why Ikaria has half the rate of cardiovascular disease compared to the rest of the region.

Okinawa, Japan: Maintain positive relationships
Living to an average of 83 years old, Japan is the nation with the highest life expectancy in the world, reports the World Health Organization. Okinawans are especially long-lived, and are three times as likely to reach 100 as Americans. Buettner attributes that feat to close ties with social networks. “Having a grounding sense of purpose is something we see in all five Blue Zones,” he says.

Okinawans remain faithful to traditional Japanese culture, including an emphasis on maintaining lifelong friendships called moais, which provide emotional and social support. The moais are cultivated throughout adolescence, and the members become confidants for the rest of their lives.

Just the presence of moais can be a benefit, as it increases social interaction and support. Take for example, a study in Social Science & Medicine that examined the mental health of older adults in Japan. Those who weren’t married reported a higher positive well-being and less distress in their lives when they had social support. Simply put, the closer your friendships, the happier you’ll be.

Loma Linda, California: Eat your veggies
Sixty miles east of Los Angeles lies Loma Linda, where the proportion of people aged 85 or over is more than double that of the rest of California. Roughly four in 10 Loma Lindans are Seventh-day Adventists, whose adherents live longer than any other religious group in America, according to BlueZones.com. The Adventist faith endorses healthy living by discouraging smoking and alcohol consumption and encouraging exercise.

A recent study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, examined the eating habits of 73,000 Adventist from across the U.S. and Canada. The vegetarians in the group were 12 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and renal disorders combined compared to the non-vegetarians.

Another study found that female Adventist vegetarians live four years longer, and males live seven years longer, compared to other Californias. The study concluded that regular consumption of  nuts, fruit, cereal fiber, green salad, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as wild salmon, safflower oil, and peanut butter) was associated with reduced mortality rates.

Nicoya, Costa Rica: Drink some juice
In Nicoya a man at age 60 has twice the chance of reaching 90 as a man living in France, Japan, or the U.S. It may have something to do with their diet. Nicoyans typically eat their biggest meal in the morning and their smallest at night, which Buettner says helps them avoid overeating. “The Blue Zones eat a lot of food, but the key is their foods are calorically less dense,” Buettner adds. “It’s not that Americans are stuffing their face all the time, it’s that we’re eating a little too much every day—about 200 calories more than we should.”

Large quantities of tropical fruit, which are low in calories, are staples at meals in Nicoya. Oranges, sweet lemons, and a variety of banana are popular choices. Nicoyans also eat a couple of more distinctive fruits: maroñon, a red-orange fruit with more vitamin C than oranges, and the anona, a pear-like fruit rich in antioxidants. Some studies have shown an association between a reduced risk of cancer and diets that are high in foods that contain vitamin C, but lab tests studying use of vitamin C by itself have produced mixed results.

Sardinia, Italy: Take a walk
In addition to a large number of centenarians, Sardinia is also home to a remarkably high population of sheep considering its size. The Mediterranean island’s shepherd and farming community is loaded with centenarian men who, in their younger years, regularly walked up to five miles a day across rugged terrain to tend to their shepherding duties, according to Buettner’s site, BlueZones.com. Daily trips to the grocery store are also carried out on foot, and climbing the stairs in each multi-story home provides more exercise. 

Source: NAUTILUS

Why Microsoft Got It Right With New CEO Satya Nadella

By Cade Metz 02.04.14  9:35 AM

Satya Nadella, the new CEO of Microsoft. Image courtesy Microsoft

Though Bill Gates is stepping down as chairman of the board at Microsoft, we’re about to see a company that looks more like Gates rather than less.

This morning, in addition to announcing that Gates, the company’s co-founder and spiritual leader, will cede his chairman role to former Symantec CEO John Thompson so that he can spend several days a week at Microsoft in a more direct advisory role, Microsoft confirmed that its CEO post will be filled by 22-year company veteran Satya Nadella, who many say is cut from similar cloth.

According to those who know him, Nadella has an unusually firm grasp of both the technical and the business side of Microsoft, yet he also has a knack for pushing the tech giant in new directions. That bodes well for the company, which is still struggling to match the commercial success of rivals like Apple, Google, and Amazon in the technological areas most likely to define the future, including cloud computing as well as the rapidly growing world of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
‘If you’re looking for your most Gates-like president — in terms of really having technology genius plus business genius — Satya seems like the best bet’

— Sam Ramji

“If you’re looking for your most Gates-like president — in terms of really having technology genius plus business genius — Satya seems like the best bet,” say Sam Ramji, the former head of open source software at Microsoft who worked under Gates and outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer for many years and, at one point, alongside Nadella.

The 46-year-old, India-born Nadella first joined the company in 1992 and spent the last three years running its Cloud and Enterprise group, the extremely lucrative — and rapidly changing — division that oversees the Windows Azure cloud service as well as the old-school data center software Microsoft sells to big businesses. But it’s Nadella’s personal demeanor that may truly set him apart from Ballmer.

Replacing the 57-year-old Ballmer — the big, boisterous, business-centric boss who has presided over the company since the turn of the millennium — Nadella will undoubtedly bring an added level of technical expertise to the CEO job, but also a more calm and considerate and collaborative way of dealing with both the Microsoft brain trust and those who work beneath him. That could be vitally important as he seeks to remodel a company whose internal culture is nearly as complicated as its vast empire of software, hardware, and internet services.

“The reason why I have mountains of respect for Satya is that he’s first and foremost a great and sincere and honest human being…It’s a weird thing to say, but that’s a rare thing at Microsoft, because you have so many hardcore technologists who have risen up through the ranks,” says Bill Hilf, a veteran of IBM who until recently worked under Nadella at Microsoft and now oversees cloud services at a third tech titan, HP. “He is able to connect with people, understand the dynamics between people or understand the impact something might have — not just to a product but to the people involved with it.”

The rub is that Nadella has never run a company on his own. Although he carries a business administration degree as well as engineering and computer science degrees, some say he can’t yet match the business and sales know-how or the executive experience of Ballmer or Gates — or, for that matter, some of the other candidates considered for the CEO job, including former Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop. “What Ballmer had in spades — in spades — is this incredible business instinct,” says Hilf. “He’s not the technologist Satya is, but I think the inverse of that is also true: Satya is not the business martial arts expert [that] Steve was.”
Change. But Not Too Much

On the whole, the choice makes enormous sense for Microsoft. The company is entrusting itself to someone who has proven he can shift its direction — push it into areas outside its comfort zone. It’s not just that Nadella guided the rise of Windows Azure. It’s that Azure and other technologies developed by his Cloud and Enterprise group now underpin Microsoft internet services such as the Bing search engine, the Skype internet phone service, and the Xbox Live online gaming service. And before taking the reins of the cloud group, he worked on research and development for Bing and eventually oversaw the search engine as a whole.

“He has proven not only that he understands the Microsoft culture, but that he can change it in very big ways,” says James Staten, a vice president and principal analyst with Forrester Research who has closely followed Nadella and his Cloud and Enterprise group through interviews with many people both inside Microsoft and out, including Nadella himself.
‘He has proven not only that he understands the Microsoft culture, but that he can change it in very big ways’

— James Staten

It’s also important that Nadella drove such change on the internet, which, in the years to come, will sit at the heart of everything the company does. Nadella deeply understands the way modern online services are built, says his old colleague Hilf, and that’s no small thing.

In tapping Nadella, Microsoft passed over not only Elop but other candidates with far more experience in the mobile market, another enormously important part of the near future of computing. But this is the area where Microsoft is furthest behind — and far less likely to catch rivals Google and Apple.

Hilf, Staten, and others argue, however, that Microsoft isn’t necessarily shifting its business away from phones or the rest of the consumer tech market. After all, its Xbox game console has become enormously popular in recent years, and the company just paid $7.17 billion to acquire Nokia, the Finnish smartphone maker where Elop was CEO. But the choice of Nadella is a statement that, in the coming years, cloud computing will be a more crucial field to dominate. After all, cloud services ultimately feed the mobile as well as the gaming world, providing a way for software developers and businesses to build and host and operate the mobile applications that run on a world of smartphones and tablets.

As Steve Ballmer once famously said: “Developers! Developers! Developers!” Through software builders, a company can not only grab intelligence about what’s happing in a market — including mobile computing — but gain a foothold that provides a means of improving and expanding consumer products and services.

What Microsoft doesn’t have is a brain trust with much experience working at the giants of Silicon Valley — companies like Apple and Google and Facebook and Twitter, which have come to define the modern world in ways that Microsoft does not. That includes not only Nadella but his lieutenants. But, for better or for worse, Microsoft typically doesn’t mix well with those steeped in the new Valley culture.

This is a nearly 40-year-old company based in Redmond, Washington whose business still rests on the success of traditional software such as the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of business software applications. It must straddle the old and the new, the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. For those who know the company well, it’s best to do this with leaders intimately familiar with the company’s unique culture. It’s best to it with a CEO who was there for its heyday as the king of computing — but realizes the world is now very different.
‘A Good, Unique Place’

When we sat down with Satya Nadella at a San Francisco restaurant in the fall of 2011, he was about nine months into his job running Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group — though it wasn’t called that at the time. It was still known as Server and Tools, and many people were still asking whether Microsoft was serious about cloud computing, a technology that lets you rent computing power over the internet instead of buying and installing your own hardware.

“We’re as serious about the cloud as we are about evolving our businesses,” said Kurt DelBene, the head of the Microsoft Office group at the time, with a nod to Nadella, who sat beside him at the table. “We always look a little askance when we get the question, because it always seems odd to us. Particularly as engineers, we say: ‘[The cloud is] the way the world is moving.’”
It’s no small thing that Server and Tools is now known as Cloud and Enterprise — or that the new Microsoft CEO oversaw its recent transformation

Microsoft would continue to drive much of its business through traditional software, Nadella explained, including the server operating systems and databases and virtualization software offered by his Server and Tools group, but the company also realized that the world was moving towards online services like Azure and Office 365, services that businesses could use in lieu of buying traditional software. Because Microsoft offered both services and software, the company was in “a good, unique place,” said Nadella, a thin, extremely fit man who typically wears dark-rimmed glasses and keeps his head close to clean shaven.

Today, Microsoft still trails Amazon in the cloud computing market — very much so — but under Nadella, the Server and Tools group has significantly changed the way it operates, and in doing so, it has expanded the influence of Azure and other modern services. According to Bill Hilf, Nadella was instrumental not only in shifting Microsoft towards the new, more rapid way of building online services, but in moving the group to a new licensing model that encouraged the sales staff to sell online services as well as traditional software.

Crucially, the group embraced many modern technologies that Microsoft once avoided at all costs. The company now runs all sorts of open source software on Azure, including the Linux operating system, long held up as the enemy of Ballmer’s Microsoft, and this shift brings the company that much closer to the new computing paradigm fashioned by the likes of Amazon and Google.

It’s no small thing that Server and Tools is now known as Cloud and Enterprise — or that the new Microsoft CEO oversaw its recent transformation. It shows that Nadella understands how Microsoft must evolve in order to compete in the modern world — but also that the company must continue to push many of its older but still lucrative businesses forward. It’s called Cloud and Enterprise. Not Cloud.

This is one of the reasons Microsoft is intent on hiring from within, though corporate culture has a lot to do with it as well. Nadella hasn’t been with the company nearly as long as Ballmer, who joined as employee 30 in 1980, before Microsoft hit it big with the MS-DOS operating system on the first IBM PC. But the new CEO does have a good two decades in Redmond, working on a broad range of products, services, and research projects.
From India to Redmond

Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India, a southern city that was traditionally known for the pearl and diamond trades, but has now evolved into a major tech hub. Some call it “Cyberabad,” and it’s home to the largest Microsoft research and development operation outside the United States.

According to Reuters in India, Nadella is the son of a government official who worked in Hyderabad with the Indian Administrative Service, and he attended the elite Hyderabad Public School, alongside his future wife.
It looked an awful lot like Ballmer was reorganizing the company so he could personally push it into the next decade

Later, he studied electrical engineering as undergraduate in Mangalore, further south on the Indian peninsula. “When all other students will quietly listen to what I would teach, he will ask a lot of questions — ‘why does it have to be like this, why can’t we do it like this?’” one of his Manipal University professors told Reuters. “Sometimes, it felt like he was just testing my patience.”

Then, in 1988, carrying a bachelor’s degree in engineering, he moved to the States. After finishing a master of computer science degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a business administration master’s at the University of Chicago, he joined Sun Microsystems, then a hugely important and influential server and software company, working not on the business side but on the technical staff.

After joining Microsoft in 1992, he served as a vice president in the company’s business division — which oversaw Microsoft Office — and eventually took the reins of the R&D operation that served the company’s online services, including Bing. He then took over the entire Bing business, and in February 2011, he was named the head of Server and Tools — one of five Microsoft executives who reported directly to Steve Ballmer.

In July of last year, Ballmer significantly reorganized the company, placing a new set of lieutenants just beneath him. Some execs, like Kurt DelBene, departed, but Nadella remained. For Sam Ramji and others, this looked an awful lot like Ballmer was overhauling the company so he could personally push it into the next decade, but a month later, Microsoft announced that Ballmer would retire as CEO, saying the board would find a replacement within the next year.

At least in the press, Nadella wasn’t discussed as the heir apparent. When Microsoft acquired Nokia a month after Ballmer’s retirement was announced, Elop looked to be the new CEO in waiting. Even before Elop left Microsoft in 2008 to take the reins at Nokia, many insiders assumed he would one day succeed Ballmer. “He has so much charisma,” says Ramji. “We all thought: ‘That’s Steve’s bench. That’s the next CEO of Microsoft.’”

But perhaps because Nokia lost money hand-over-fist under Elop, because Nadella has more technical chops, or because Nadella has a much longer history inside Microsoft, the board has skipped over the Nokia man, and some now question his future at the company. Whatever Elop’s fate, many assume that Nadella will restructure the company yet again. “If you look at the leadership structure that Steve put in place just before he was forced out,” Ramji says, “he built a Microsoft that could only be run by Steve.”
Ballmer He’s Not

One thing that will surely change is the culture at the top of the company. Ballmer was very much a screamer — he’s even been known to throw a chair on occasion — and in many ways, his hard-nosed approach pervaded the company. But according to Bill Hilf, who worked closely with Nadella as the product manager for Windows Azure, the new CEO is extremely different.

“He is very inclusive. He brings people in and gets them excited to work on stuff, and that’s what I think his magic is — his authenticity and the way he is able to inspire people and not just push them,” says Hilf. “He can inspire them to do great work and get them motivated and excited. That’s really about him as a person: Whether he was running a technology company or a non-profit, he would have the same demeanor.”

Jason Hoffman, a vice president of corporate strategy at telecom giant Ericsson who spent many years competing with Nadella and Azure as the chief technology officer at San Francisco cloud company Joyent, says that Nadella is someone with unusual “grace” and that this grace is just what Microsoft needs. “This is the best thing Microsoft could do,” Hoffman tells us. “He’s always been an exceptionally thoughtful, calculating person.”

Whereas Ballmer often wanted to maintain as much control as possible over the people and businesses beneath him, Nadella is more of a collaborator. He provides firm direction — and he certainly has hard side, according to some — but he’s willing to give his lieutenants the freedom to make many of their own decisions. “Satya isn’t so ferocious about total control. He directs, but he also tends to look for innovation and insights for the people who work for him,” says Ramji.

Considering that the company was so slow to find its footing in the cloud and mobile markets under Ballmer, this is a welcome change. Ballmer’s 14-year tenure is littered with missed opportunities, as he clung to Microsoft’s old way of doing things. As the press so often points out, Nadella knows his technology, perhaps more so than Ballmer. But the bigger point, some say, is that Nadella can feed the other technical minds at Microsoft. “It isn’t just about knowing how to code,” Hilf says. It’s about getting the most out of all the others who know how to code.

Cade Metz is the editor of Wired Enterprise. Got a NEWS TIP related to this story -- or to anything else in the world of big tech? Please e-mail him: cade_metz at wired.com.

Read more by Cade Metz

Follow @cademetz on Twitter.

Source: WIRED

Northeasterners Find the City Less Discriminatory

By K Shiva Shanker | ENS - HYDERABAD   Published: 02nd February 2014 07:55 AM

Kevin Panmei from Northeast who lives in Hyderabad | Express Photos

Natives of North-eastern states living in the city say that they face discrimination even here, however,  it is much less here when compared to other states.

Around 800 students and employees from Kuki community and approximately 300 from Nagaland stay in the city besides people from other North-eastern states.

A day after a student from Arunachal Pradesh was beaten up in Delhi which led to his death, Express spoke to the students from north-east, who are either pursuing studies or are working here.

“I stayed in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai before coming to the city. We face discrimination everywhere and we are treated as foreigners in our country. Even here, people from North-east are discriminated against, they call us names, but fortunately it is far less compared to other states. People are warm and welcoming here. I hope the situation becomes better” said Francis O Haokip, president of Kuki Students’ Organisation, Hyderabad.

He added that when such incidents of discrimination or victimisation take place, speedy justice will bring them some comfort and confidence.

“In addition if people from other communities support us during such incidents, it will be of support to us,” Francis said. He said for cultural festivals or other programmes of the community which are organised in the city, they invite localites so that they get senitised to their culture.

“During our orientation program, we ask students who are new to the city to speak to people from other communities and not to alienate themselves from others,” added Francis.

Corroborating the opinion, a native of Meghalaya who works in the city said that an increasing number of students from North-east choose to shift to southern part of India. “Some people do go to Delhi, but it is because they do not have an option. If given a chance, they will shift to southern states like Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” he said.

However, he pointed out that women from the states are discriminated and physically abused in the interior parts of the city. “Auto drivers and youngsters misbehave with women from the north-east. Sometimes, it becomes very disgusting” he said.

“People come and ask me if I am from Malaysia or Indonesia, it might be because of my looks. But I don’t think I need to get upset over this,” said Kevin Panmei who lives in the city.

Speaking about her experience of staying in the city, Gabriela Chongloi, a student at English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, said, “Being a woman and having experienced Delhi for about a year, I find Hyderabad way better and safer. Here, I personally have never faced any serious ethnic discrimination apart from being looked at out of curiosity. But what irks me is when kids call me Chinese or Japanese. They should have been taught better”.

Source: The New Indian Express

EC Asks Parties Not to Vitiate Purity of Poll Process

By PTI - NEW DELHI     Published: 31st January 2014 09:25 PM
Last Updated: 31st January 2014 09:56 PM

"Trust of voters should be sought only on those promises
which are possible to be fulfilled," the EC order said. (PTI photo)

Political parties will avoid making promises which are likely to vitiate the purity of election process and will have to spell out the rationale of promises made and the means of financing them in their manifestos, the Election Commission has said.   

In the draft guidelines for election manifestos issued by the EC today in the wake of Supreme Court directions to it, the parties and contesting candidates will be allowed to make only such welfare promises in their manifestos that are enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution.  

"The election manifesto shall not contain anything repugnant to the ideals and principles enshrined in the Constitution and further that it shall be consistent with the letter and spirit of other provisions of Model Code of Conduct," the EC said in its guidelines to check parties from announcing freebies as part of their manifestos.   

In the interest of transparency, level playing field and credibility of promises, the poll body expects that manifestos reflect the rationale for the promises and the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for it.   

"Trust of voters should be sought only on those promises which are possible to be fulfilled," the EC order said.   

The draft guidelines will be finalised and formally incorporated in the Model Code of Conduct after comments/suggestions from all political parties. The EC has asked all national and state parties to send their reactions to it by February 7.  

Majority of the parties had earlier objected to the EC's intervention in putting checks on election manifestos and the promises made by them.   

"While the Commission agrees in principle with the point of view that framing of manifestos is the right of the political parties, it cannot overlook the undesirable impact of some of the promises and offers on the conduct of free and fair elections and maintaining level playing field for all political parties and candidates," the EC said.

Source: The New Indian Express

నీతి నిలబడితేనే మనం నిలబడతాం - కాకి మాధవరావు

Published at: 31-01-2014 00:31 AM

వ్యవస్థలో మార్పు కోసం శ్రమించే వారిని వ్యక్తులుగా విడదీసి అశక్తులుగా నిలబెట్టాలని చూస్తుంది సమాజంలోని ఒక వర్గం. అదే పనిగా కుతంత్రాలు చేస్తూ, కుంగదీయాలని కూడా చూస్తుంది. వాటిని ఎదిరించే దిశగా అడుగులు వేయలేకపోతే ఎవరైనా నిలువునా కూలిపోవాల్సి వస్తుంది. ఎన్నో అవరోధాల్ని అడుగడుగునా ఎదుర్కొంటూ నీతికీ నిబద్ధతకూ మారుపేరుగా నిలిచిన సీనియర్ ఐఏఎస్ ఆఫీసరు కాకి మాధవరావు. మూడున్నర దశాబ్దాల ఐఏఎస్ అధికారిగా, ఏడు దశాబ్దాల జీవన యాత్రికుడిగా కాకి మాధవరావుకు ఎదురైన కొన్ని సంఘటనలే ఈ వారం 'అనుభవం'

కృష్ణాజిల్లాలోని పెదమద్దాలి మా ఊరు. నేనేదైనా ఒక స్థితికి వచ్చానూ అంటే, అందుకు దోహదం చేసిన బలమైన సంఘటనలు కొన్ని నా బాల్యంలోనే జరిగాయి. మా నాన్న ఒక పాలేరు. చుట్టుపక్కల చాలా ఊళ్లల్లో ఆయనకు బాగా శ్రమించే, నిజాయితీ గల మంచి పాలేరుగా పేరుంది. ఆ రకంగా తనకు లభించిన గుర్తింపు వల్లో ఏమో గానీ, ఆయన నన్ను కూడా పాలేరునే చేద్దామనుకున్నారు. ఆ మాటే అమ్మతో అంటే, లేదు. వాడ్ని బళ్లో వేద్దామంది. "బళ్లో వేస్తే ఏం చేస్తాడు? గాడిదల్ని కాస్తాడా?'' అంటూ అసహనాన్ని వ్యక్తం చేశాడు నాన్న. అయినా, అమ్మ చదివించాల్సిందే అంది. ఎంత మాత్రం వీల్లేదంటూ నాన్న వెళ్లిపోయాడు. నాన్న ఆమోదం లేకుండానే అమ్మ నన్ను స్కూల్లో చేర్పించింది. పగలంతా పనికిపోయే నాన్నకు ఆ విషయం తెలియకుండానే ఉండిపోతుందని కూడా అనుకుంది. కానీ, కొద్ది రోజులకే ఆయనకు తెలిసిపోయింది. నేను చెప్పినా వినకుండా వాడ్ని స్కూల్లో చేరుస్తావా? అంటూ నాన్న ఆ రోజు అమ్మను గొడ్డును బాదినట్టు బాదాడు. అడ్డం వెళితే, మా అన్నయ్యనూ, నన్నూ కూడా తన్నాడు. అంత జరిగినా "ఎన్నాళ్లు కొడతాడో చూద్దాం మీరు మాత్రం చదువు మానేయొద్దు'' అంది. ఆ కారణంగా అమ్మను ఎన్ని సార్లు కొట్టాడో లెక్కలేదు. చివరికి విసుగు పుట్టి వదిలేశాడు. నా చదువు, మా అన్నయ్య చదువు మా నాన్న అయిష్టత మధ్యే కొనసాగింది. మాకు తెలిసి ఆయన తన జీవితంలో ఓటమి అంటూ ఎరగడు. కానీ, ఈ ఒక్క విషయంలో మాత్రం నాన్న ఓడిపోయాడు. చూసే ప్రపంచం చిన్నదైపోయినపుడు ఎంత వారికైనా ఓటమి తప్పదేమోనని నాకనిపిస్తుంది.

చేయని నేరానికి....

సుబ్బయ్యని మా నాన్నకు ఒక సోదరుడు ఉండేవాడు. చెరువులోని తామరాకుల్ని కోసి వాటిని పొట్లాలు కట్టుకునేందుకు మిఠాయి షాప్‌లకూ, మాంసం షాప్‌లకూ అమ్ముతూ బతికేవాడు. ఒక రోజు సాయంత్రం ఏడుగంటల ప్రాంతంలో నేను చెరువు పక్కనుంచి న డుచుకుంటూ ఊళ్లోకి వస్తున్నాను. అప్పుడు నాకు 8 ఏళ్లు ఉంటాయేమో. అప్పటికే చీకటి పడింది. రోజూ లాగే ఆయన తామరాకుల్ని ఎండబె ట్టి ఆ తర్వాత వాటిని ఒకచోటికి చేరుస్తున్నాడు. సరిగ్గా అదే సమయంలో పెద్ద గాలి దుమారం వచ్చింది. ఆ తాకిడికి ఆకులన్నీ ఎగిరిపోతున్నాయి. అది గమనించిన ఆయన "ఓరి దేవుడా నా పొట్టకొట్టావురోయ్, నాకు తిండి లేకుండా చేశావు. ఈ ఆకులన్నీ పోతే నేను ఏమమ్ముకుంటాను? ఏం తింటాను.?'' అంటూ పరుగులు తీస్తూ ఆ ఆకుల్ని పట్టుకునే ప్రయత్నం చేస్తున్నాడు. ఏదో కొంత సాయం చేద్దామని నాకు సాధ్యమైనన్ని ఆకుల్ని ఒక చోట చేర్చి, ఆ తర్వాత వచ్చేశాను. ఇంటికి వచ్చేసరికి బాగా ఆలస్యమయింది. మా నాన్న గుడ్లురుముతూ నా మీదికి వచ్చాడు. ఎక్కడికి వెళ్లావు.? ఎందుకు ఆలస్యమయింది? అనేమీ అడక్కుండా, నన్ను చితక బాదేశాడు. ఎందుకు కొడుతున్నాడో నాకు అర్థం కాలేదు. నే ను మంచి పనే కదా చేశాను, పైగా ఆయన సోదరుడికే కదా సాయం చేశాననే మాట నా మనసులో ఉంది. అయినా, ఆలస్యానికి ఇదీ కారణమని చెప్పాలని కూడా నాకనిపించలేదు. నేను తప్పు చేయకపోయినా కొడుతున్నాడనే బాధ నన్ను వేధిస్తోంది. తీవ్రమైన ఒక అంతర్వేదనతో ఆ రాత్రంతా గడిచిపోయింది. దీని మీద నా నిరసనను, నా కోపాన్ని ఆయనకు ఎలాగైనా తెలియచేయాలనుకున్నాను.

మా నాన్న ఎప్పుడు క్షవ రం చేయించినా మంగలిని జుత్తు మరీ చిన్నదిగా చేయమని చెప్పేవాడు. నేనే వద్దూ వద్దూ అంటూ ఉండేవాణ్ని. అలాంటి నేను మంగలి వద్దకు వెళ్లి గుండు చేయించుకుని వచ్చాను. అంతే కాదు అమ్మతోనూ, నాన్నతోనూ మాట్లాడటం మానేశాను. ఆ మౌనంలో నాకు ఏవేవో ఆలోచనలు వచ్చేవి. త ప్పు చేయకుండానే ఇలా దండించారే..! నిజంగానే తప్పు చేస్తే ఏం కావాలి? ఒక వేళ నిజంగానే నేను త ప్పు చేసి ఉంటే అప్పుడు నా వద్ద సమాధానం ఉండదు. అందుకే జీవితంలో తప్పంటూ చేయకూడదనే ఒక నిర్ణయానికి వచ్చేశాను. స్నేహితులు, సరదా కబుర్లు, ఆట పాటల లాంటివన్నీ ఆ రోజునుంచి నా జీవితంలోంచి పూర్తిగా అదృశ్యమైపోయాయి. ఫలితంగా, నాలో క్రమంగా పెరుగుతూ వచ్చిన సీరియస్‌నెస్ నన్నొక పుస్తకాల పురుగును చేసింది. నాన్న చేతిలో నేను అన్యాయంగానే హింసకు గురైనా అది నాలో వేరే రకమైన కసిని పెంచింది. హింసను ఒక వైపునుంచే చూస్తే మనం కూలిపోవడం ఖాయం. అలా కాకుండా ఆవలి వైపు నుంచి చూస్తే అది మనల్ని నిలబెడుతుంది కూడాను అని నాకనిపిస్తుంది.

నక్సలైటుగా ముద్రవేసి....

నేను వరంగల్‌లో కలెక్టర్‌గా ఉన్న సమయంలో జనాన్ని తీవ్రమైన ఆందోళనకు గురిచేసే పరిణామాలు కొన్ని జరిగాయి. నక్సలైట్లు అన్న పేరుతో పోలీసులు కొంత మంది స్థానిక యువకుల్ని అడవుల్లోకి తీసుకెళ్లి కొద్ది రోజులు ఉంచేసేవారు. ఆ తర్వాత ఒక ఇన్స్‌పెక్టర్ వాళ్ల తలిదండ్రులను కలిసి, పోలీసులు ఇవ్వాళో రేపో మీ పిల్లాడ్ని కాల్చేస్తారు, మీరు ఇంత డబ్బు ఇస్తే పోలీసులకు చెప్పి విడిపిస్తాను అంటూ బేరం పెట్టేవాడు. మోహన్ రావు అనే సిపిఐ నాయకుడొకాయన నాకీ విషయం చెప్పాడు. వెంటనే ఈ విషయాన్ని నేను ఎస్.పి గారికి చెప్పాను. ఆయన అలాంటిదేమీ లేదని దాటవేశాడు. మళ్లీ ఒకరోజు అదే మోహన్ రావు ఫలానా అడవిలోని ఫలానా కొండ మీద 16 మంది యువకుల్ని బంధించి ఉంచారంటూ సమాచారాన్ని చేరవేశాడు. అప్పుడింక తట్టుకోలేకపోయాను. సబ్-కలెక్టర్‌గా ఉన్న జి. పి. రావును, అసిస్టెంట్-కలెక్టర్‌గా ట్రెయినింగ్‌లో ఉన్న హరిని ఆ ప్రదేశానికి వెళ్లమని చెప్పాను. వీళ్లు అక్కడికి వెళ్లి చూస్తే 16 కాదు 22 మంది ఉన్నారు.

వాళ్లను వెంటనే విడిపించాను.

ఆ సంఘటనతో పోలీసులు నా మీద కన్నెర్ర చేశారు. వివిధ కారణాలతో అప్పటికే నా మీద ద్వేషంతో ఉన్న కొంత మంది ఎం.ఎల్.ఏలు, ఒక మంత్రి ఇదే అదనుగా 'కలెక్టరు నక్సలైటు' అంటూ నా మీద ఒక పిటిషన్ తయారు చేసి అప్పటి రాష్ట్రపతి వి.వి. గిరికి అందచేశారు. ఈ విషయం స్థానిక పత్రికల్లోనూ, వివిధ జాతీయ పత్రికల్లోనూ ప్రచురితమమయ్యింది. కాని ఎకనామిక్ అండ్ పొలిటికల్ వీక్లీలో మాత్రం నా గురించి చాలా పాజిటివ్ వ్యాసం వచ్చింది. దాని శీర్షిక 'నక్సలైట్ ఇన్ ఐఏఎస్ క్లోత్స్..!' అని. అందులో "అన్యాయంగా తమ భూమిలోంచి తరిమివేయబడ్డ పేదవారికి ఆయన తిరిగి ఆ భూమిని ఇప్పించాడు. గీతకార్మికులకు కాకుండాపోతున్న తాటి, ఈత చెట్లను వారికి అందేలా చేశాడు. ప్రభుత్వం ఇచ్చే కరువు నివారణా నిధులను పేదవాళ్ల పొలాలు చదును చేయడానికి, బావులు తవ్వడానికి ఖర్చు చేశాడు. ఈ చర్యలన్నీ నక్సలిజంలో భాగమే అయితే ఆ కలెక్టరు నక్సలైటే' అంటూ రాశారు. ఈ వ్యాసం కూడా అప్పటి రాష్ట్రపతి వి. వి. గిరి దృష్టికి వెళ్లింది. ఆయన విచారణకు ఆదేశించారు.

ఐ.బి జాయింట్ డైరెక్టర్ కూడా నా వల్ల పోలీసులకు చాలా ఇబ్బందులు ఉంటాయని భావించి కొన్ని కుయుక్తులకు పాల్పడ్డారు. అందులో భాగంగా డి.ఎస్.పితో ఈ కలెక్టర్ మీద ఏదైనా ఒక నెగెటివ్ వాక్యం రాయండి. నేను అతన్ని తన ఉద్యోగ విధుల్లోంచి తొలగిస్తానన్నాడట. అయితే అలా రాయడానికి ఆ డి.ఎస్.పి మనస్సాక్షి ఒప్పుకోలేదు. అందుకే రాయలేదు. పైగా "అతని వల్ల కొంత మంది ఇబ్బంది పడుతున్న మాట నిజమే కానీ, అతనికి నక్సలైట్లతో సంబంధాలు ఉన్నాయని చెప్పడం నిజం కాదు'' అంటూ రాశాడు. పలు ఆరోపణలు ఎదుర్కొంటున్నా, నేను అక్కడే కొనసాగడానికి అది దోహదం చేసింది. అయితే, ఐ.బి జాయింట్ డైరెక్టర్ తనతో అన్న మాటల్ని ఆయన తన మనసులోనే దాచుకున్నాడు. వెంటనే నాకు చెబితే, 'నానుంచి ఏమైనా ఆశించి అలా చెబుతున్నాడని నేననుకుంటానేమో అనుకుని ఆ విషయాన్ని నేను రిటైర్ అయ్యేదాకా అంటే 1998 దాకా నాకు చెప్పలేదు. ఆ రహస్యం మరో వ్యక్తికి కూడా తెలిస్తే మంచిదని నేనంటే కేంద్ర ప్రభుత్వంలో సెక్రెటరీగా చేసిన జి. పి. రావు ముందు ఆ నిజాన్ని బయటపెట్టాడు. విధినిర్వహణలో సమస్యలు ఎప్పుడూ తప్పవు. కానీ, అత్యున్నత హోదాలో ఉండే వారు సైతం వక్ర మార్గం పడితే సమాజానికి ఇంక మనుగడేముంటుంది? హోదాల్ని కూడా మనుషుల హృదయాలతోనే కొలవాలన్న సత్యం ఆ సంఘటన నాకు నేర్పింది.

ఔదార్యానికి హద్దులా?

నిజాయితీగా ఉండడమే కాదు. మన నీతిని అనుమానించే పరిస్థితి ఏర్పడకుండా చూసుకోవడం కూడా అవసరమనుకుంటాను. ఎన్. టి. రామారావు ప్రభుత్వం అవినీతిని అంతమొందిస్తాం అంటూ అధికారంలోకి వచ్చింది. అవినీతికి పాల్పడే వారి గుండెల్లో రైళ్లు పరుగెత్తడం మొదలెట్టాయి. సరిగ్గా అదే సమయంలో మా అబ్బాయి పి.జి పూర్తి చేసుకుని సొంతంగా ఏదైనా పరిశ్రమ స్థాపించాలన్న అభిప్రాయానికి వచ్చాడు. అందుకు నేను అనుమతించలేదు. "నువ్విప్పుడు ఏ రుణంతో ప్రారంభించినా అది నేను అవినీతికి పాల్పడి సంపాదించిన డబ్బుతోనే పెట్టావని అనుకుంటారు. అందువల్ల నువ్వు సివిల్ సర్వీసెస్‌కు చదువుకోవడం మేలు'' అని చెప్పాను. వాడు ససేమిరా అన్నాడు. "ఒకవేళ నువ్వు అంతగా అనుకుంటే నేను రిటైర్ అయ్యేదాకా వేచి ఉండు అప్పుడు పెట్టుకో'' అన్నాను. "16 ఏళ్లు వేచి ఉండడం అంటే చాలా కాలం వృధా అవుతుంది కదా !'' అన్నాడు. "అయితే నా ఇంట్లోంచి బయటికి వెళ్లిపో, నాకూ నీకూ ఏ సంబంధం లేదనుకున్నాక ఇంక ఏమైనా చేసుకో'' అన్నాను. "అంత కఠోరంగా ఎందుకులే నాన్నా మీరు రిటైర్ అయ్యాకే ఆ పరిశ్రమేదో పెడతా'' అన్నాడు. అప్పటికి వాడికి 38 ఏళ్లు వచ్చాయి. అన్న మాట ప్రకారం 1998 దాకా ఖాళీగా ఉండి ఆ తర్వాతే మా గ్రామస్తుడైన సుజనా గ్రూప్ ఆఫ్ ఇండస్ట్రీస్ చైర్మన్ వై.ఎస్ చౌద రి (ఎం.పి) గారి కంపెనీలోని ఒక యూనిట్ తీసుకుని దాని మేనేజింగ్ డైరెక్టర్‌గా పని ప్రారంభించాడు.

కానీ, ఆ పరిశ్రమ నష్టాలే మిగిల్చింది. పరిస్థితి గమనించిన చౌదరి గారు ఆ పరిశ్రమ తిరిగి తానే తీసుకుని ఆ నష్టాలన్నీ తన మీదే వేసుకున్నాడు. నైరాశ్యానికి గురవుతున్న మావాడిని అంతటితో వదిలేయకుండా, తన కంపెనీల్లోని ఒక యూనిట్‌కు మేనేజింగ్ డైరెక్టర్ ఉద్యోగం ఇచ్చి కొండంత అండగా నిలబడ్డాడు. వాస్తవానికి నేను రిటైర్ అయ్యేనాటికి నాకు సొంత ఇల్లే లేదు. అప్పటిదాకా ఉన్న అద్దె ఇల్లు ఖాళీ చేయాల్సి వచ్చింది. నా కొడుకుకే కాదు, మా మొత్తం కుటుంబానికి ఆశ్రయంగా తన కంపెనీ హౌజ్‌ను మాకు ఇచ్చాడు. నేనున్న ఈ దశలో వై. ఎస్. చౌదరి లేని జీవితాన్ని ఊహించడం కూడా కష్టమే. జీవితమంతా ఒక కోణాన్నే చూస్తూ అందులో మనం ఎంత నిష్ణాతులమైనా కావచ్చు. కానీ, జీవితానికి మనుగడనిచ్చే మరో కోణం గురించి ఏమీ తెలియకపోతే ఎంత ప్రమాదమో ఈ పరిణామాలు నాకు తెలియచెప్పాయి. జీవితానికి విలువలు ఎంత ముఖ్యమో, ప్రాణానికి ప్రాణంగా, ఒక ఆలంబనగా నిలిచే స్నేహితులు కూడా అంతే ముఖ్యమని నా జీవితం నాకు నేర్పిన ఒక తాజా సత్యమిది.

'కలెక్టరు నక్సలైటు' అంటూ నా మీద ఒక పిటిషన్ తయారు చేసి అప్పటి రాష్ట్రపతి వి.వి. గిరికి అందచేశారు. ఈ విషయం స్థానిక పత్రికల్లోనూ, వివిధ జాతీయ పత్రికల్లోనూ ప్రచురితమమయ్యింది. కాని ఎకనామిక్ అండ్ పొలిటికల్ వీక్లీలో మాత్రం నా గురించి చాలా పాజిటివ్ వ్యాసం వచ్చింది. దాని శీర్షిక 'నక్సలైట్ ఇన్ ఐఏఎస్ క్లోత్స్..!' అని.
- బమ్మెర
ఫోటోలు: జి. రాజు

Source: Andhra Jyothi

Akkineni Nageswara Rao no more

Features » CINEMA PLUS                

Hyderabad, January 22, 201         Updated: January 23, 2014 09:48 IST 

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

 Veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. File photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam The Hindu

 

The 91-year-old Telugu screen legend lost a battle with intestinal cancer, dying at a private hospital here on Wednesday

Legendary Telugu film actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who stole the hearts of millions of fans across the world, is no more. He breathed his last in the early hours of Wednesday at a private hospital where, for the past few months, he was undergoing treatment for intestinal cancer.

The 91-year-old doyen of the Telugu film industry is survived by three daughters and two sons, including actor Nagarjuna, and grand-children. His body will be taken out in a procession on Thursday and later cremated with police honours.

Born in Venkata Raghavapuram of Krishna district on September 20, 1924, the first-generation actor’s 75 year-old career comprised 256 films across social, romantic and mythological genres. He started his acting career with theatre but soon switched over to silver screen and made his film debut in 1941 with Dharmapatni, interestingly playing female role.

ANR, as he was popularly called by his fans, wrapped up his work with Manam that featured three generations of the Akkineni family, including him, Nagarjuna and grandson Naga Chaitanya.

He has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award and the NTR National Award. 

Source: The Hindu 

కంప్యూటర్ రంగంలో 'పవన'వికాసం

Published at: 25-01-2014 08:38 AM

ఆండ్రాయిడ్ వెర్షన్ పీసీని రూపొందించిన తిరుపతి యువతి
సీఈఎస్ 14లో టాప్ టెన్‌లో నిలిచిన హెచ్‌పీ స్లేట్ -21 ప్రొ
(ఆంధ్రజ్యోతి, తిరుపతి)

ప్రపంచ కంప్యూటర్ రంగంలో ఓ తెలుగు తేజం మెరిసింది. దిగ్గజ మైక్రోసాఫ్ట్ పెత్తనానికి చెక్‌పెట్టేలా ఆండ్రాయిడ్ పీసీని రూపొందించి ప్రపంచ ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ మార్కెట్‌లో సంచలనం సృష్టించింది. తిరుపతి పట్టణానికి చెందిన పవన పోలినేని.. హెచ్‌పీ స్లేట్ 21ప్రొ ఆల్-ఇన్-పర్సనల్ కంప్యూటర్‌ను డిజైన్ చేసి అంతర్జాతీయ యవనికపై తెలుగువారి సత్తా చాటారు. ఈమె తయారు చేసిన ఈ కంప్యూటర్ 2014లో టాప్ టెన్ ఉత్పత్తులో ఒకటిగా నిలవడం గమనార్హం. ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ ఉత్పత్తుల ప్రదర్శనకు సంబంధించి లాస్‌వెగాస్‌లో ప్రతి ఏడాది వినియోగదారుల ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ షో (సీఈఎస్) నిర్వహిస్తారు. ప్రపంచంలోనే అతి పెద్దదిగా, ప్రతిష్టాత్మకమైనదిగా భావించే ఈ ప్రదర్శనలో సుమారు 1.50 లక్షల మంది ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ రంగ నిపుణులు పాల్గొంటారు. కొత్తగా తయారు చేసిన కొన్నివేల ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ వస్తువులను ప్రదర్శనలో ఉంచుతారు. ఇందులో భాగంగా ఈ నెల 7 వతేదీ నుంచి 10వ తేదీ వరకు అమెరికాలోని లాస్‌వెగాస్‌లో జరిగిన సీఈఎస్- 2014లో పవన డిజైన్ చేసిన హెచ్‌పీ స్లేట్ 21 ప్రొ సంచలనం సృష్టించింది. వ్యాపార వినియోగదారుల కోసం ఆమె డిజైన్ చేసిన ఈ పీసీ ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ రంగంలో కొత్త ఒరవడికి శ్రీకారం చుట్టింది.

తిరుపతిలో విద్యాభ్యాసం

పవన తన విద్యాభాసాన్ని తిరుపతిలోనే పూర్తి చేశారు. ఎస్వీయూ ఇంజనీరింగ్ కాలేజీలో బీటెక్ పూర్తి చేసి అమెరికాలోని టెక్సాస్ ఏ అండ్ ఎం యూనివర్సిటీలో ఎంఎస్ పూర్తి చేశారు. కొంతకాలం డెల్ కంపెనీలో సాఫ్ట్‌వేర్ ఇంజనీర్‌గా పనిశారు. ప్రస్తుతం హెచ్‌పీ గ్లోబల్ మార్కెటింగ్ మేనేజర్‌గా టెక్సాస్‌లో విధులు నిర్వహిస్తున్నారు. పవన తల్లిదండ్రులిద్దరూ అధ్యాపకులే. తండ్రి పోలినేని రామకృష్ణ చౌదరి ఎస్వీ యూనివర్సిటీలో ప్రొఫెసర్‌గా పని చేసి రిటైరయ్యారు. తల్లి డాక్టర్ పి. అనసూయమ్మ చంద్రగిరి ప్రభుత్వ జూనియర్ కాలేజీ ప్రిన్సిపాల్‌గా పనిచేసి ఉద్యోగ విరమణ చేశారు. పవన భర్త ఫణిభూషణ్ గద్దె టెక్సాస్‌లోనే ఆయిల్ అండ్ గ్యాస్ ఇండస్ట్రీలో సీనియర్ అనలిస్టుగా పనిచేస్తున్నారు.

గురువులకు, తల్లిదండ్రులకు కృతజ్ఞతలు

ఎలక్ట్రానిక్ రంగంలో తాను ప్రపంచ స్థాయి గుర్తింపు పొందడానికి కారణమైన గురువులకు, తల్లిదండ్రులకు పవన కృతజ్ఞతలు తెలిపారు. తను విద్యాభ్యాసం చేసిన ఎస్వీ యూనివర్సిటీ క్యాంపస్ స్కూలు, ఎస్వీ ఇంజనీరింగ్ కాలేజీ అధ్యాపకుల కృషి, తన తల్లిదండ్రుల ప్రోత్సాహంతో ఈ స్థాయికి ఎదిగానని ఆమె తెలిపారు. తిరుపతి మహిళగా తను సాధించిన ఈ విజయం రాష్ట్ర యువతకు స్పూర్తి కలిగించాలని పవన ఆకాంక్షించారు.

బిజినెస్ కస్టమర్స్ కోసం తక్కువ ధరలో ఆండ్రాయిడ్ సాప్ట్‌వేర్‌తో 21.5 అంగుళాల స్క్రీన్‌తో ఈ ఆల్ ఇన్ వన్ పిీసీని తయారు చేశారు. ఇప్పటి వరకు మైక్రోసాఫ్ట్ ప్లాట్ ఫాంపై క్రోమ్ ఆపరేటింగ్ సిస్టమ్ పనిచేస్తూ వచ్చింది. హెచ్‌పీ స్లేట్ 21ప్రొ రంగ ప్రవేశంతో ఆండ్రాయిడ్ ఆపరేషన్ సిస్టమ్స్‌తో కూడా పనిచేయనుంది.హెచ్‌పీ మార్కెటింగ్ అధినేతగా పవన పరిచయం చేసిన కంప్యూటర్ హెచ్.పి స్లేట్ 21ప్రొ ఆల్ ఇన్ వన్ 21.5 అంగుళాల స్క్రీన్‌తో ఫుల్ హై స్పీడ్ డెఫినిషన్‌తో పనిచేస్తుంది. ఐపీఎస్ టచ్ స్క్రీన్ కలిగి ఉంటుంది. బిజినెస్ కస్టమర్లు ఎక్కువగా వినియోగించే సిట్రిక్స్ సాఫ్ట్‌వేర్ కంపెనీ భాగస్వామ్యంతో ఆండ్రాయిడ్ ఆఫీస్ సాఫ్ట్‌వేర్‌ను ఇందులో అమర్చారు. సుమారు పది లక్షలకు పైగా యాప్స్ ఈ సిస్టమ్ ద్వారా లభ్యమవుతాయి. 4.3 ఆండ్రాయిడ్‌పై నడుస్తుంది. క్వాడ్ కోర్ ప్రాసెసర్, హెచ్.డి వెబ్‌క్యామ్, 2జి.బి ర్యామ్, 60 జీబి మెమరీలు దీనిలో లభిస్తాయి.అమెరికన్ మార్కెట్‌లో దీని ధర కీబోర్డు, మౌస్‌తో కలిపి 399 అమెరికన్ డాలర్లు (భారతీయ కరెన్సీ ప్రకారం.. సుమారు రూ. 25 వేలు)గా నిర్ణయించారు.

Source: ఆంధ్రజ్యోతి

No Fee Barrier at This School

By Swati Sharma
Published: 19th January 2014 06:00 AM

P Vasundhara is a mother to many. The 55-year-old fulfilled
her wish of being a parent by starting a school in Hyderabad
to educate underprivileged children for free. | Photo/ R V K Rao

She may not have children of her own, but P Vasundhara is a mother to many. The 55-year-old fulfilled her wish of being a parent by starting a school in Hyderabad to educate underprivileged children for free. 

Vasundhara came up with the idea while attending satsangs at the Nachiketa Tapovan Ashram. “After visiting Vaddera basti in Madhapur, Hyderabad, I realised children there did not get an opportunity to go to school,” says Vasundhara, founder of Nachiketa Tapovan Vidya Mandir.

The foundation of the school was laid in the late 90s on a plot of land owned by Vasundhara’s husband. “In 2004, we constructed the school building and from then on began functioning,” she says.

The Vidya Mandir has also put in place a novel initiative to recycle paper and plastic waste and in the process make a little money. “Under the project, we request people to collect plastic and paper waste such as cups, sheets, use-and-throw polythene bags and drop it at the Tapovan. We make around `16,000 to 18,000 per month just by selling 2,000kg of recycle material,” she says.

The student strength at the moment is 250 and classes are conducted till 10th grade. The school’s mission is to reach underprivileged city kids by involving them in creative projects while teaching them the core high school subjects. The children get free food, uniforms, books, and shoes. Many teachers here are IITians and all have volunteered to work.

“Many children who enrolled didn’t have basic education or ambitions. But now if you ask any child what they want to do, they all have goals and are working hard to achieve them,” she beams.

“In the last few years we have had a few students who cleared their Board exams with high scores and are now doing their intermediate,” she says. “There was Shiva who is now studying at Vignan Engineering College. Another student, Nagamani, wants to become an IAS officer,” she says, proudly.

With most of the children coming from slums, health care often emerges as a serious issue. “Every week, a free medical camp is conducted where doctors from top hospitals volunteer. Also, we provide food and milk for the children on a regular basis. The students are taught yoga and practice surya namaskara and meditation before class every morning,” says Vasundhra, who also runs a block printing unit from her home that provides employment to underprivileged women. The profits made by this unit are used to fund the school.

“The children are taught in English and are able to follow and respond well, be it in English or Telugu,” says Anuradha, a teacher.

Vasundhara emphasises the habit of saving money so that the children learn to plan for the future from an early age. “The students make a lot of craft items such as diyas, writing pads, paper bags, envelopes and rakhis for sale. Some percentage of money from these sales goes to the school and the remaining amount is deposited in the students’ individual account,” she says.

With enrollment increasing, Vasundhara has had to expand her premises. “I have asked for the government’s permission to construct one more floor, but we are still awaiting confirmation from their side,” she says.

Source: The New Indian Express

Two shades of immunity

January 12, 2014 10:46

January 12, 2014 10:46


 She had signed an agreement to pay her domestic help, Sangeeta Richard, $9.75
 an hour. Instead she paid her only $3.31 an hour.

As we move away from a monocivilisational world of Western domination of world history to a multicivilisational world, our minds must begin retooling themselves. We have to develop the capability of carrying competing, if not contradictory, narratives and understand that both may be correct, even if they contradict each other. We will have to learn to shed black and white judgements in favour of multi-hued, complex assessments.

A perfect example of equally correct but contradictory narratives is provided by the case of Devyani Khobragade, an Indian consular officer arrested by US authorities on December 12. In American eyes, it is a clear, black and white case. She had signed an agreement to pay her domestic help, Sangeeta Richard, $9.75 an hour. Instead she paid her only $3.31 an hour. As Khobragade had violated US laws, it was both legal and legitimate for the US attorney, Preet Bharara, to have her arrested and charged. Reflecting mainstream American opinion, The New York Times editorialised that “India’s overwrought reaction to the arrest of one of its diplomats in the United States is unworthy of a democratic government”.

This American narrative has a point. Khobragade has her rights. So does Sangeeta Richard, the employee. Richard was clearly the underdog in this exercise (even though by being employed in America, her wages increased 25-fold). Indeed, the traditional American concern for the underdog is one of the strongest aspects of American society. So is the egalitarian spirit of American society, which has gone much further than any other human society in removing and eradicating all traces of feudal culture. In my first book on America and the world (entitled Beyond the Age of Innocence), I praised the American doormen who would look me in the eyes and treat an ambassador like me as an equal, and not act in a submissive manner like any Asian doorman would.

Shekhar Gupta has waxed eloquent on the egalitarian virtues of American society. He noted that barely within a year of leaving office as deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott had to scramble for a taxi in New Delhi like any other commoner. More amusingly, he told the story of a famous Indian film actress who refused to marry and settle down in America because Indians in America refused to allow her to cut a supermarket queue, even after they had recognised her. The good news for our world is that this American egalitarian spirit is gradually infecting other societies, including Asian societies, and therefore making them less feudal.

Ironically, however, even as this American spirit of egalitarianism infects the world, American government officials continue to insist on feudal-type privileges while serving in other countries. It is normal for American diplomats to receive diplomatic immunity. Rather abnormally, the American government expects that even its non-diplomats should receive immunity. In some cases, they have literally, not metaphorically, gotten away with murder. Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, was whisked away from the Pakistani judicial system after shooting and killing two Pakistani citizens. In the ancient days, only feudal lords stood above the laws of the land. Today, American government employees also enjoy feudal immunities overseas (even though most of them are law-abiding citizens while working overseas).

Sadly, few Americans are aware that the American government practices double standards in the application of laws. It allows no foreign government officials, including a powerful person like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund, any immunity from American laws. Yet it expects its government officials to be — in theory and in practice — immune from other countries’ legal courts. Whenever any US government official faces the threat of prosecution in a foreign legal court, he or she is quietly whisked away, as few governments can withstand bilateral pressure from the US government. Since many Americans are puzzled by the Indian outrage, they should know that Indian society was deeply shocked that a senior Indian official was subject to a strip search. This created a deep sense of cultural outrage, similar to the outrage that Americans would feel if a black citizen is called a “nigger” today. Any Westerner who cannot understand this analogy will be unable to absorb a multi-civilisational perspective.

All governments in the world are aware of this schizophrenic attitude of the US government (which, I must stress, reflects the views of the US Congress). On one hand, the US government is second to none in defending the rule of law at home. On the other hand, the US government is second to none in defending immunity for its officials from all foreign legal courts and judicial procedures.

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) Statute came into force on July 1, 2002, the US government undertook a massive campaign to get over a hundred foreign governments to sign what have been called “article 98 agreements” or “bilateral immunity agreements (BIAs)”. These agreements stipulate that these countries would not send US citizens to the ICC. Similarly, the US Congress has developed a long-standing practice of extra-territorial application of its domestic laws on other countries and their citizens. But it is extremely reluctant to allow the extra-territorial application of other countries’ laws on its own territory.

This schizophrenic attitude of the US government explains why virtually every other government in the world was quietly cheering on the Indian government as it insisted on total reciprocity in the treatment of Indian and American officials. Few governments in the world have the geopolitical heft or the moral legitimacy to look the American government in the eye and demand such absolute reciprocity. India does. Hence, even India’s biggest detractor in the world, Pakistan, is quietly cheering on India. They hoped that India would finally succeed in persuading the US government to accept a level playing field in dealing with other countries.

The Indian government’s success in persuading the American government to allow Khobragade to return home and not face charges in an American court will therefore be cheered all around the world. Most countries realise that they would not have had the weight to shift the US government. India is one of the few who could do so. And in doing so, India has also enhanced the rights and standing of other foreign diplomats on American territory.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, India may have actually done America a favour. Why? The former American president, Bill Clinton, has wisely counselled his fellow citizens to prepare for a world “that we would like to live in when we’re no longer the military political economic superpower in the world”. His wise advice indicates how the two contradicting narratives can come together: Americans should work hard to create binding international law regimes that would apply equally to American and non-American officials and citizens. In the final analysis, a level playing field in this area would demonstrate that the American egalitarian spirit is influencing international law too.

Kishore Mahbubani

The writer is dean and professor in the practice of public policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore
express@expressindia.com

Source: The Indian Express