India Syndicate 2.0

It is amazing how many “intellectuals” and actually smart people still feel Obama is doing a better job than George Bush did with the economy. People still feel that their tax money is being better spent by Obama than it was by Dubya.

The war on terror is estimated at $1.05 trillion USD by the National Priorities Project site that has a running counter for this cost. The official number for the cost of the federal bailout so far is $700 billion USD.

So, effectively Obama’s spending rate is way higher than was Dubya’s. To top it off, the US market still seems to be unstable.

The worst crisis, however, for the Obama presidency has been the BP Oil spill disaster. And the President’s response -  blame BP. This is laughable when you realize that there is actually a government agency - the erstwhile Minerals Management Service (MMS) - that regulates offshore drilling. The MMS got a bad rap when its officials were found to be conniving with officials of Oil companies in exchange for favours. It has now been renamed to clean it of the stigma ! Coming back to the point, the government has absolved itself of this failure to regulate and shifted the blame completely to BP. BP should be made to pay through their noses for their negligence, but the government cannot be allowed to go scot free…but it will.

That is why, it is amazing that smart people feel better under Obama as President…after all there is something called charisma..it almost - almost - fills in for competence.

In follow up to an earlier post I had written about getting connected in the US, I started wondering why consumers had to pay for incoming calls here while incoming is free back home in India. Apparently, its only the US and Canada where you have to pay for incoming calls. Europe and Asia are “free incoming” zones.

The reason is that in Europe (as in India) cellular service providers pay each other to ensure that all incoming calls are free. When you make a call to a cell phone, the two service providers - one on the sender and the other on the receiver’s side - have to process the call ( in terms of routing, billing etc). While the service provider on the sender’s side is able to charge their consumer directly for the (outgoing) call, the receiver’s service provider has no such incentive. This is why, in the US, your service provider charges you even for incoming calls.
However, if the sender’s service provider promised to share his revenue from the outgoing call on his side with the receiver’s service provider, there would be no charge to the receiver. This is something that has been established in India and Europe but not in the US and Canada.
The cell phone service providers in India are not into charity. The agreement to share revenue was hammered out by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) in late 2003 under heavy pressure from what was then a hi-flying technology - WLL. WLL stands for Wireless Local Loop. WLL was once a highly popular technology in India when they threatened to outpace cellular phones. WLL - also known as Fixed Wireless - offered consumers the mobility of a cell phone while still being in effect a landline. For consumers, this meant good mobility at landline prices.
Cellular companies were distraught.Bringing down call rates would not be possible since the government charges hefty license fees. The only way to compete with WLL was to make the cellular phone more like a landline. In India that stands for “free incoming”. Since this could not be done by one or two service providers on their own, the COAI came into picture. “Free incoming” is such a huge factor for the Indian cell phone market that companies are offering free lifetime incoming (meaning you pay one fee and can receive incoming calls on the phone for ever…better than a landline which charges monthly rent). You can now even make money for incoming calls !
Why didnt a similar story unravel in the US and Canada ? I honestly do not know. But I have seen the cell-phone market here and it stinks of a cartel - a cartel of not just the cell phone service providers, but also a cartel of service providers and cell phone device manufacturers.
You cannot buy an iPhone independently in the market…you have to buy it with an AT&T 2 year contract. Once you sign the contract, they will give you the iPhone at a “subsidized” price. The Google Nexus One can be bought “unlocked” for a hefty $529. It comes “subsidized” with various service providers for $199. Before you think that is a good deal, consider this: If you happen to break the contract with the service provider for your Nexus, you not only pay the difference (i.e $350 or so in this case) to the service provider, you also have to pay Google a $200 “fee” ! That is either a “fee” or a “penalty” … I am not so sure.
All these cartels have, over the past many years, made the US cell phone market leaders untouchable. They are able to price their voice and data plans at rates they prefer without fear of being overpriced. The so-called innovators (read Apple and Google) have only happily joined this cartel. There was word when Google launched Nexus One that they wanted to change the way business was done in this market with their entry. They wanted to move the market balance from service providers to cell phone manufacturers ( which is why they are about the only major manufacturer who are willing to sell an “unlocked” version of their device). But sadly, they did not bother to try and shift the balance in favour of the consumers !
Why all this is happening in the US market and not in the Indian market is not something I am in a position to analyze. The fact that US companies are leading the device market (Apple is the most popular cell phone manufacturer taking over from Nokia) and the software market (Apple’s iPhone OS and Google’s Android rule the major cell phone devices) may have something to do with it.
There is scope here for a company which can integrate these two markets (ie. making the device and providing the service). It will not be an easy task, but there is a huge market for such a company. It cannot be a “garage startup” because of the scale required, but it cannot fail if executed properly.

I just recently had to take a short trip to the US on work and I thought I would jot down some of the challenges I had to face in terms of connectivity in the hope that this would be give some pointers to others in the same boat.

I must point out upfront that I am a little technologically challenged (even though I have been an IT professional for the past decade !) when it comes to connectivity, phones etc.

The first question I had even before I got on the plane was how would I be able to charge my laptop, cell phone etc when I was in the US. I explored quite a few options including voltage convertors. It is surprisingly hard (atleast not easy) to find an adaptor/convertor in electrical outlets in India - surprising because I live in Hyderabad from where so many people supposedly travel to all parts of the world daily and I had thought that there would be a great demand for this.

A friend suggested that I check out the Samsonite store and see if they have an universal adaptor. I did and this is what I found. It is called a Worldwide Adaptor Plug and it can be used with any device anywhere in the world. It has an input socket that allows you to plug in all kinds of electrical devices from anywhere in the world. You can then select the plug based on which continent/country you want to use it in (North America/Australia/UK etc). It cost me Rs 1450 - a tad expensive. But I believe it is a good deal.

One important thing to remember about the plug is that it is just that - a plug. It is not a voltage convertor (even though the guy at the Samsonite store assured me that it could convert voltage — I did take the precaution of checking the manual and there it was on the very first page of the manual !) But that should not be a major problem because most electronic devices ( I am mostly referring to cell phones and laptops here) come with adaptors that can take inputs ranging from 100-240 V. All you need with such devices is a plug, anyway. But be sure to check the readings on the charger that comes with these devices before you plug them in.

The second thing in terms of connectivity was getting a phone once I landed in the US.

You have conventional options in terms of calling home as soon as you land i.e buy one of those expensive calling cards from vending machines for 10 or 20 USD, use a pay phone and make the call. This is expensive and can only be used to make that “safe arrival” or “pick me up I am at the ariport” calls.

A much easier and less expensive option is localphone.com which is very similar to a calling card, but much less expensive. The idea is simple yet effective: Once you register with the site, you can specify a location from where you expect to make most of your calls during your stay in the US (you can change this location as often as you want if you expect to be travelling around the country a lot) or any other country for that matter. The website will provide you a local number for that particular location that you can call directly from a cell phone/landline/pay phone etc. You will then be asked for a account id and PIN for verification. After you are verified, you can go on and dial the number you wish to call. The international calling rates are some of the best available at 2-3 cents per minute for India. Further, if you want to get rid of the hassle of entering the verification information (account id, PIN etc) every time you make a call, you could go to the localphone website and specify a number from where you expect to make your calls most of the time (again, you can specify multiple numbers and change them frequently) When you call from this registered number, you go straight to calling your destination number. But the best thing I liked about this was the speed dial option. You could specify a number that you expect to be calling frequently (your home in India for example) and add that number to your “speed dial” on the website. The site will then provide you a local number specifically for this India number. When you call this local number, you go straight to your India number…just like that !

In addition to this, the website will also allow you to call a toll-free number instead of the local number we talked about above but at a higher calling rate. I believe it all evens out in the end.

Another inexpensive option is the famous Mother India calling cards. This has features and rates very similar to localphone though I am not sure if they have the “speed dial” option.

Keep in mind that since registering with these sites would require internet access and probably a credit card, you would do well to get this all sorted out before you leave India unless you have ready internet access, credit card etc in the US as soon as you land.

Most people are, of course, familiar with Vonage, MagicJack etc which are VoIP calling options that turn out to be much cheaper. I, however, could not explore these options since they usually require you to install something on your computer or to sign a contract (in case of Vonage, I think). But if you know you are going to be in the US for a reasonable amount of time (say a year or two) you should definitely explore these options.

(Its worth saying that localphone also has a VoIP option and there are several SIP phones available in the open source market. I have, however, not fully explored these options yet)

The last connectivity issue I wanted to write about was getting an actual, physical cell phone here in the US which I could use as a contact number. It is crazy to think that I spent the first 26 years of my life happily without ever feeling the need for a cell phone, but I now find survival very difficult without one, even if it is only for a week !

The challenge here, of course, is that since I am on a short trip, I cannot sign the contracts that US cell phone service providers would need me to do. The same providers, however, have been a little considerate these days…they give you something called a prepaid card - yes, the same old prepaid card that most of us in India use everyday !

This prepaid card is slightly different in that it (amazingly) does not require an ID or address proof (atleast not in Walmart where I bought mine) as they do in India. You could just pick up the prepaid kit from the shelf and check out ! The prepaid kit comes with a phone (you have options here, different “packages” come with different phone models), a sim card, and some bonus airtime. Once you rip out the package when you get home, you can find instructions for “activating” the phone. These involve calling a toll free number or logging onto the internet to the service provider’s website and providing the details mentioned on the card. You can buy refill cards either at stores like Walmart or online at the service provider’s website.

Again, there are multiple options here in terms of how you want to use your airtime. There are the “pay per day” options where you are charged only for the days on which you use the cell phone. For example, AT&T has an option where they charge you $3 per day you use the phone and then on those days, you have unlimited talk time. This turns out to be prohibitively expensive since you will mostly use your phone every day and hence end up paying $90 per month which sounds ridiculous. There are also other options where you pay a flat 25 cents per minute on all calls. In addition to these, you can purchase feature plans such as unlimited talk time for a fixed dollar amount every month. The service providers all have mostly the same price range and I went for AT&T only because my friends here recommended it above the others. But you could get the same value from T-Mobile, Verizon, BoostMobile etc

Remember, though, that there is no free incoming in the US. All calls , incoming or outgoing, consume the airtime that you are going to purchase. So bear that in mind before choosing the right plan.

I believe I have covered most of the options that I know of. If you know of any thing else that might help folks travelling to the US, let me know and I will include it here.

Spending a lot of time alone at home, I seemed to have re-discovered the riches on youtube.

Two videos I am besotted with these days:

Ananthapuram 1980 (remake/dubbing of a Tamil movie)

Duffy - Mercy

What’s common in these songs ?

The understated rhythm just wont let go….mercy anyone !

Enjoy…

The South Africans played a wonderful game to take the first test match at Nagpur. They are playing an equally wonderful game to tell the world and anybody else who would listen that they think the Indians will dig up the pitch at Eden Gardens.

If I were the Indian team management, I wouldn’t bother with the pitch. I would just create hype that pitch was going to turn from day one and play three spinners in the eleven. That should do it. The South African batsmen will start treating every delivery as if it pitched on a mine-field.

Not that bad pitches are good for the game, but someone has to ask the question: When teams come touring to India and they end up playing on a horror of a pitch, why is it that they always lose ? At the risk of sounding insane, I believe that it is the same pitch for both sides. There is no way the groundstaff can prepare one pitch for the Indian batsmen and a completely different one for the visitors.

Bad pitches are bad for the game. Period. But the Indian team management is also taking a huge gamble everytime they “ask” for a bad pitch.

Visiting teams need to stop talking about pitches and start talking about why they are not able to adapt to bad pitches. Indian teams have been imploding on swinging and bouncing tracks overseas for decades now. All we hear everytime this happens is that the pitch was the same for both sides and the home team there had adapted better to the conditions then. Why does the same logic not hold when India wins on a “minefield” ?

P.S: A “minefield”  any day is better than a dud that was the Nagpur pitch where for the first two days there was nothing. Was it not for Dale Steyn and Morkel’s pace, that test match would have ended in a horrid draw. Just goes to show that South Africa have the game to crack open a dud match and India do not. At the moment. So, stop fussing over the pitch - both sides. If Ishant Sharma cannot bowl at 145K, and Steyn and Morkel can, that is that. Even on a “minefield”. Especially on a “minefield”.

Continuing with my penchant for nonsensical infinity-related posts, here is another one.

One of the comments on my previous post was that humanity will die out before it explores infinity. That probably implies that there is no such thing as absolute infinity - only a relative sense of something so large that for all practical purposes it is infinite.

So, would it be any different if humanity was not just a tiny speck in this universe ? Would it help if humanity had the life span to be able to explore the depths of this universe ? Would we have infinity then or would it cease to remain just a theoretical concept ?

The question I ask is nothing new. It has been asked in many forms ever since humanity started contemplating time and space beyond its own existence. But with every passing year, the boundaries of human existence are expanding. We are now no longer limited to our solar system.

Would it be meaningless to say that humanity will once be able to explore the outer reaches of space ? Or will humanity be too spread out to exist as a single species and eventually die out because of being spread out so thinly across the universe ?

Will we as human beings capture infinity before infinity spreads us too thin to exist ?

Consider a small thought experiment — well, maybe not.

Consider that technology advances so much that we are able to hold a piece of information (call it a bit, call it a byte, call it anything you want) in a single molecule/atom/electron/whatever.

Since we believe (I believe, anyway) that there are a finite number of molecules/atoms/electrons/whatevers in this universe, will there be only a finite amount of knowledge that we can hold as human beings ? Rather, are we destined to know only so much and not keep learning for ever ?

Is that suffocating yet ?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has to have to some drama around it, doesn’t it ? Last year, we had the whole security thing. Now, it is the turn of the Pakistani’s being “disappointed” at the “snub”.

First to the “snub”. It doesn’t make any sense at all. We are told that the 11 Pakistani players were included in the auction because one or the other of the franchises had especially requested for them. So, why weren’t they picked up ? We will never know, ‘ cause we won’t be told.

Now to the reactions from Pakistan. Pakistan - the government, the people, the PCB et al - needs to decide what its stance towards India is. First they say they will support India in its “fight against terror”. Then they release all the accused in their courts. Then they say they will not send their players to India for the IPL 2because of “security concerns”. Then they raise a hue-and-cry over the fact that their players were not allowed to play in the IPL2.

From the bouquet of inconsistencies contributed to by both the IPL and the Pakistan set-up, needs to emerge some clarity. People over in Pakistan need to understand that without any positive statements and without cutting down on jingoistic comments like “we are ready for any adventurous moves from the Indian Army”, things are not going to get back to normal. Nobody expects Pakistan to actually do anything about terrorism - the least they can do is to shut up for a while. It seems even that is beyond them now.

As for the IPL, it needs to decide whether it wants Pakistani players or not. There is no point in first asking for the players to be included in the auction and then rejecting them. Not acceptable.

But then what can you expect from groups, organizations, and governments that have absolutely no accountability at all !

ODIs played by India no longer have any actual value - there are so many of them these days. However, they are good indications of certain other things. One poignant moment was when Mohd Ashraful dropped his second catch in as many overs against the Indians while falling on his bottom. There was something in it that lent itself as a metaphor. When Ashraful first came on the scene, he was seen as the next big  thing from the sub-continent - kind of how Umran Akmal is seen these days. He also produced a couple of stellar knocks to re-inforce that perception - a ton against the Aussies in a historic win in England, for example. He was supposed to rival the likes of Sachin and Aravinda.

But somewhere, something happened and Ashraful was forgotten. He was given the captaincy in the subcontinent tradition of the best batsman in the team getting the captaincy irrespective of whether or not that batsman has the required abilities to be a captain (note how I said “best batsman” and not “best bowler”, or “best all-rounder”. We are talking about the sub-continent, you see !). His runs were no longer making the news as much as his lack of runs did. His leadership was virtually non-existent and his halo had been more or less been swallowed by the darkness of mid-career gloom.

In some ways Ashraful’s career is a reflection of how many talented youngsters fall by the sidelines as they try to come to grips with their own talents. I think there is special talent required to handle talent itself. As dubious as that last sentence sounds, it holds a light to the likes of Sachin and Ponting who have been able to take a lot of cricketing talent and do something exceptional with it. The reason I pick these two is because they are so complete as cricketers. Ponting is a gem of a fielder in addition to being one of the all time greats with the bat. To add, he has shown that he can lead - controversies and Ashes defeats not-withstanding. Wicket-keeping is the only thing that Sachin has not tried his hand at.

The way these two approach the game is to look at each scenario, each game, each knock as a problem and try to figure out how to solve it. I read somewhere that Federer approaches each point as a problem and tries to figure out how to solve it. I believe there is something of the “here-and-now” to this approach that blurs out the larger worries about career, form, and self-doubt that most mortals struggle against. There is something of staying-with-the-moment, fighting-this-problem-here in this approach.

Great talent, more so great potential, can be destructive. Sometimes it is good not to have so much talent if you do not have the mental strength to cope with it. Possessing talent is not a boon in itself…the actual boon is the struggle that comes with it - the struggle to ensure that you use your talent and not the other way round.

I believe it takes that something special to take a young Ashraful and create a champion…that something else.

Watching the 3rd day’s play in the 2nd test between India & Sri Lanka at Kanpur makes one realize why it is only a matter of time before Australia take the number one crown back (in tests and ODIs).

SL were down and out after those quick blows before lunch in their first innings. What they had to do logically, from there, was to keep playing as if they were on par with India. The pitch was still looking good, the bowlers were the same ones they had dominated only a few days ago at Ahmedabad…in short there was hardly anything to worry about. Except for that 642 on the board. And that is what took down the rest of the SL wickets to fall in the day - that 642 on the board.

We saw Australia being put under similar pressure during the recent ODI series against a far superior Indian side (on paper…alas). Game after game, the Aussies fought back with increasingly limited resources. Given tests and ODIs are different, but its still the same game, the same skills, the same country ! Remember that exceptional throw from deep cover by that ‘whats-his-name-again-offspinner’ Nathan Haurtiz to get rid of Pravin Kumar during that chase in Hyderabad ? That was Aussie heart, not skill.

It is not just SL that can crumble. India have, in the past, crumbled in similar situations. The only shining light is probably the fact that India have shown some will to survive…atleast a little more than the Sri Lankans showed today. The marathon 2-day effort at Napier, the 1.5 day effort at Ahmedabad…if the wicket is harmless, India will probably staff off defeat…but only probably.

This is not a blurb for Australian cricket…just feeling let down by my favourite sub-continent cricketers. Two of those non-Indian sub continent players that I admire are Mahela and Sangakarra…that run out today felt like being punched in the stomach. It made me feel very sick…it made me feel very sad.

Please don’t let the Aussies dominate cricket again….please…