February 3, 2006
For all you budding managers and entrepreneurs here is an opportunity to test your skills and reap monetary benifits.
Get Ahead presents the TCS Smart Business Case Study Contest for young managers,along with The Smart Manager,the management magazine!The winner will take home Rs 25000
For more information and to go through the Case Study kindly click Here
January 26, 2006
As I was sitting idle and thinking about what to browse online I decided to search my own name.I did this to check whether my blog came up(I had tried several times before but it never showed up in the result).Thankfully my blog was the first result this time.But just a few links below was a newspaper article and it had my name.For a moment I was shocked and scared thinking as to what I may have done to find my name in a newspaper.Moreover the paper was a Mumbai based one.
On clicking the article to my pleasant surprise I found that one of my posts had been quoted for an article on the terrorist attack in Bangalore.
The other bloggers quoted there are quite prominent in the blogosphere.I only wonder as to how the hell did they manage to find an obscure blog like mine????
For the article kindly click HERE
January 25, 2006
Road transportation has always been a problem in our country.More so in the past few years as India has developed rapidly(atleast in urban areas) and our notorious infrastructure hasn't been able to cope with it.Now there are several problems plauging our surface transport sector.There are the ever crumbling roads,rash driving etc etc.But I will limit myself to the problem in Chennai.
Traffic in Chennai,like in other metropolitan cities has been consistently rising.The increase in the no of cars and two wheelers has quite literally put tremendous pressure on its roads.However even then there are innumerable people who still use public transport.They ply by MTC or Electric Trains.However even these modes of transport haven't been able to completely bear the ever increasing load of people.Hence the Chennai government decided to introduce a new public transporting system throughout the city.They first proposed Metro Rail.Metro rail seemed to be the popular choice as it was doing well both in Kolkata and Delhi.However after initial inspections,officials claimed that such a system would not be viable in our city.Hence they decided to go in for Monorail.It was to be executed by the MTC and was to be ready in 2-4 years.However yesterday the PMK,as expectedprotested against the government's decision.They instead proposed the Bus Rapid Transit system.They claimed that this was cheaper and would serve the people much better than monorail.
Hence I decided to do a bit of research(mostly from wikipedia) about the above mentioned modes of public transport and also tried to find out what could possibly be the best public transport system for my city.
I think we all are quite familiar with the metro rail system.Yet I decided to write a bit about it here.Though there isn't a clear cut definition for the metrorail system according to Wikipedia,
One definition of a metro system is as follows:
Metrorail primarily functions only in the city's "core" and usually doesn't extend to the surburban areas.A distinct advantage of the metro rail system is that it has the ability to transport a large volume of passengers.Metrorail is quite a popular form of tranport and it is prevalent in different countries spread all over the world.Infact there are several cities like London, Moscow, New York City, Paris, Seoul,Tokyo and Osaka where people prefer to use the metrorail rather than purchase their own automobile.A distinct disadvantage of this form of transport is that it requires a lot of financing for both construction as well as its maintainence.And for a country like India where apathy is genetic trait I am quite surprised that cities,like Mumbai,Bangalore,Hyderabad, have decided to adopt this form of tranport.
Now on to monorail.According to Wikipedia,
A monorail is a transit system, resembling a metro or railroad with a track nominally consisting of a single rail (actually a beam), as opposed to the traditional track with two parallel rails. Monorail vehicles are wider than the beam they run on.
The most prominent advantage of the monorail system is it compactness.It occupies minmal space and wouldn't serve as a burben on our already fragile infrastructure.However this very advantage could serve as a disadvantage as the volume of people it transports is limited and hence this doesn't really solve the problem we are encountering in our city.
Finally,the rapid transit system
Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a broad term given to a variety of different transportation systems that, through infrastructural and scheduling improvements,.It attempts to use buses to provide a service that is of a higher quality than an ordinary bus line. Each BRT system utilizes different improvements, although many improvements are shared by many BRT systems. The goal of such systems is to at least approach the service quality of rail transit while still enjoying the cost savings of bus transit.
The biggest advantage that the BRT seems to possess is that it doesnt require as much capital investment as in the case of the previously mentioned systems.However to have a extremely efficient BRT system one needs a very sound infrastructure and certain special provisions.This includes
Again as in Monorail space is a constraint and hence the volume of people it transports is limited.
Personally I would prefer all the three systems in my city.Here is my proposal for viable public tranportation in Chennai.
I would advise the simultaneous initiation of both the metrorail as well as the monorail system.The metrorail system could be limited to the prime areas of our city and the monorail system can take care of transportation to and from the surburban areas.The metro project could either be completely outsourced to a private system or it could be a joint venture between the government and any infrastructure company.On the other hand the monorail could be a complete government venture.I think this would solve the problem of high volume and it would also ensure the all parts of the city are connected.As for the rapid transit system even that could be implemented after a few years in our city.Infact I feel that our MTC buses are already following the several provisions required for a BRT.They don't follow the lanes and overtake at will.Signals,for them, are non existent and hence they never stop.As for traffic management well our MTC drivers ensure that no one else comes in their way.Their either blare their horns to push the driver out of their way or ensure that the driver gets knocked out of their way.Well if we seriously intend to implement the BRT then we will have to ensure a change in the attitude of our MTC drivers and also upgrade our buses.If possible we could even privatise our MTC(I think it was a private enterprise earlier).
To sum up all these three systems seem to have their share of advantages and disadvantages.However no matter which system we choose,it can't succeed unless we have a sound infrastructure and a responsible and responsive public.If our people continue to remain apathetic all efforts to improve transportation systems in our city would come to a nought.
January 23, 2006
Dear Friends,
If you know any high school student who is a very high scorer and from a poor family, here is a great opportunity to get a nice scholarship to go to college.
Applications can be obtained by writing to
Mr. S. Ramanathan,
17 North St, Kalai Nagar,
Madurai – 625014.
Tel: 0452-2640678
Email- ramrajam2002@yahoo.com
Scholarships are given by NORTH SOUTH FOUNDATION OF USA, based on exam grades and family situation. The annual family income should be less than RS.38000 in urban areas and 26000 in rural areas. The scholarship amount mostly covers 100% of tuition fees and ranges from 5 to 10 thousand rupees per year. If called for interview, 50% of the travel cost will be reimbursed.
Courtesy:-Kartik Kannan Iyer
January 13, 2006
I came across the following post on a forum.This incident took place in Bangalore.Kindly go through this
"The message below is for the all riders of any vehicles, so please read carefully and pass on to as many people as possible.
A North indian girl and a guy happened to ride on their 2 wheeler from their office,through the outer-ring road near Koramangala around 7.30 p.m, they happened to see a school boy with a heavy school bag on his back requesting them for a lift, the girl never cared for any sympathy and rode away, but the guy out of some compassion slowed down his vehicle, he was smart enough and happened to see a syringe in the boy's hand from his mirror, he became cautious and got back to his original speed and when he happened to come close to the boy, he slapped the boy severely and the boy fell down , the rider stopped his vehicle and came near the boy and asked him to throw the syringe.
He asked him what was he upto? The guy was taken aback as the boy told him that he was chosen by a group of 10 miscreants to get the job done.He said that he was asked to stop the riders passing by and ask for a lift, then the boy would inject the syringe to the rider afterwhich the rider would fall down unconscious , then as per their plan,the miscreants would come, rob the rider of his cash,gold, debit card,credit cards, vehicle etc, if needed they would murder the rider. To meet their needs, they would use school boys and girls, old people, and other soft targets, coz such people would arise a soft corner in the rider's mind and they would definitely offer a lift. So please be careful in chosing your passenger, do not show any sympathy for anybody whom you do not know. It is time for us to take care of ourselves and fight against such gruesome crime. Please pass on this message to as many people so that people alert themselves and can reduce crime to some extent."
