water , water everywhere , not a drop to drink

this is a short film created by Karthick,

Sethusamudram & Swami

It is strange that in the politically and religiously charged discussion on Ram Setu, nobody is talking of the (lack of) economic benefits of the project. Entire media seems to be following only one politician’s statements vs. the other. One good article listing out the economic reasons on why the project SHOULD NOT be carried out. Courtest Swaminathan Aiyar and his website





SWAMINOMICS




150-year dream for 150-year-old ships


SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR



Religion and history do not mix well. I shrug my shoulders at those opposing the :placeSethusamudram Canal because it will damage the remains of the bridge that Ram’s army used in the Ramayana.
Now, i too oppose the canal, but on economic and environmental grounds. Its rationale is more political than economic. It will become one more public sector white elephant.
The Palk Straits, between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka , are so shallow that only small boats can pass through. So, east-west coastal ships have to go around :placeSri Lanka . So do ships from Europe and Africa to the east coast.
Sethusamudram will be a furrow dredged in the sea-bed of the Straits, deep enough to accommodate ships of 20,000 DWT. The canal will save ships both distance (saving fuel) and time (saving daily charges for chartering ships). So, it should be able to charge ships for passage, like the Suez :City and Panama Canals . This revenue is supposed to make the project economic.
The project is a political gift for Tamil Nadu. It will hugely help Tuticorin port, which today can receive ships only from the west, and not the east. It will improve the viability of existing and planned minor ports in the state. Hence, Tamils call the canal a 150-year dream about to come true (it was first proposed around 1850).
Dreams are costless, but canals are not. Project documents claim that the canal will save ships 36 hours of time and 570 nautical miles of distance. But a recent study by Jacob John in Economic and Political Weekly exposes these claims as highly exaggerated. Up to 70% of the traffic through the canal is projected to come from Europe and Africa . And John estimates that the time saving from Europe to Kolkata will be only eight hours, and the distance saving 215 nautical miles. From Africa to Kolkata, the time taken will actually increase by 3.5 hours (being piloted through the canal is a slow process), and distance reduced will be only 70 nautical miles.
John calculates that ships could lose up to $4,992 per passage if they are charged the tariff laid down in project documents. In which case ships will find it cheaper to go round :placeSri Lanka . If the government cuts the proposed tariff to attract traffic, John estimates that the project’s rate of re turn could fall to an uneconomic 2.5%. I expect that the project will also suffer cost overruns in capital and maintenance dredging, and hence be in the red.
The canal is supposed to be ready by November 2008, not far off. So why has the project not been able to sign up potential users? The finance mini ster has appealed to private shipping companies to participate in a project that will benefit them, yet no shipping company has come forward. The economics of the canal look much too dicey.
The Suez and Panama Canals save ships thousands of miles, and that makes them profitable. Sethusamun daram is not remotely comparable. It is designed for small ships (the project documents talk of 20,000 DWT), whereas the Panama Canal takes ships of up to 65,000 DWT and Suez takes ships up to 150,000 DWT.
The Suez and Panama canals were dug through land corridors, and once dug stayed dug — they did not face sand inundation from the sea. However, Sethusamudram will be a furrow in the sea-bed, at the constant mercy of currents bearing sand.
The government’s environmental assessment has cleared the project on ecological grounds. Yet, much of that assessment was not about sand incursion, but about fears of possible damage to coral reefs, coastal erosion, oil spills, and changes in ocean salinity and temperature. Besides, the ecological studies were done from the Indian side of the Palk Straits, and not the Sri Lankan side, and so are technically incomplete.
My major fear is not so much that the project will ruin the environment, but that the environment will ruin the project. I fear that ocean currents will keep dumping fresh sand in the furrow of the canal. The Palk Straits are shallow not by accident but because sand-bearing currents have made them so. Combating the full force of nature is perilous, expensive and sometimes impossible.
The project envisages maintenance dredging of two million cubic metres per year, infinitely more than required by the Suez and Panama canals. Jacob suspects (and so do i) that actual maintenance dredging will far exceed project projections, rendering the canal uneconomic. An extreme event (like the 2005 tsunami) could dump enough sand to close down the canal.
Finally, global shipping is shifting to ever-larger vessels. Bulk carriers and tankers often exceed 200,000 DWT, and those under 60,000 DWT are being phased out as uneconomic. Old general cargo vessels have been replaced by container ships, which started small but now exceed 35,000 DWT, and may soon touch 75,000 DWT. Such vessels cannot use the canal. So, Sethusamudram will be unsuitable for the large vessels of the 21st century. It is a 150-year-old idea for 150-year-old ships. That may be its epitaph.

Campus Interviewing

Lightning Strikes Everyday: Campus Interviewing


this is taken from one of the blogs i read everyday.... just felt like sharing this with you all... wonderful read... and how true the article is

Digital Art: Yahoo - Microsoft merger?

Digital Art: Yahoo - Microsoft merger?
RK has been doing quite some interesting stuff on his blog....

Home Town..........................

Following on from the last post..

We never got the fridge we had ordered till 23rd, then thought enough of the experience from Home Town and cancelled the order.

Now another unique experience happens.. they dont refund the money paid, we keep following up until yesterday(6th may)... and we thought of solving the issue once and for all and walked into the store. We are introduced to the fourth different guy, he gives an amazing answer, " the fridge was not delivered because the bill was not computerised", and finally gives us a copy of a mail.

GOD KNOWS WHEN THE MONEY WILL BE REFUNDED

Disappointed with Home Town

Recently the Future Group has opened a Home Town outlet at The Great India Place( really a cool mall to hang out, large one , very exhaustive), and as excited as I was with the display and the format of the store , I persuaded my friend Rajesh to buy a fridge from there.

And he bought it, that was long back on the 8th of April with a delivery deadline of 12th April. The day came and went , nothing happened. We made frantic calls to find out when it was being delivered, waited at home, nothing happened. Decided to walk in and find out. We were led to an exec, who promptly said he would deliver on the 18th evening, nothing happened. Then we decided to meet the Head of the store, he promised to sort the issue in 20 mins flat and give us a call.. nothing happened yet again.

Now we are lost, dont really know where to go. Am only bothered if this is what happens in the beginning of the service, what would happen as they scale up? Delivery time of two months? In that case am happy to buy things from my local dealer than from here.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

hi guys

I need some help from you all.....

I need you guys in supporting two needy guys in their college fees...

those of you who can for go one of their treats, or one of their allen sollys in a year can contact me....

Am really looking big on your support

those of you who can give a helping hand can mail me at spsarathy@gmail.com

Thanks in Advance

A milestone

I achieved another milestone in my endeavour to master the kitchen. I learnt to make rasam. It was after several days of mental preparation that i got courage to make one and eat it too.

Blogs to Brands- An Article on exchange4media

World is taking note of the blogging community seriously.....

Below is an article on the media industry website exchange4media today.

Blogs to Brands: It can hurt if you are not on it

Jagadeesh Krishnamurthy
March 13, 2007

The Internet space in India is galloping towards newer heights with features like blogging and social networking sites receiving immense responses from the users. Blogging as a tool for communications, across the vast digital space, has been on the rise over the years with more users relying on reviews on them, before subscribing to a service or buying a product. In that sense, these are becoming the next form of advertisements for the brands and most importantly, the companies owning the brands as any negative publicity about them or the brand will be detrimental to their sales.
With the growing knowledge of Internet and in this case, blogging, brands and corporations are trying their best to maintain a good image among the consumers. As a result, PR companies are acting on behalf of the clients to quell any negativity about their clients and a new segment called ‘e-initiatives’ are emerging in this area.

“With the increasing PC penetration in India, we believe that there will be more focus on Indian companies using blogs, community sites like Wikipedia, Youtube, Orkut etc. I see this change by the turn of the decade,” observed Ameer Ismail, President, LINOpinion.

Explaining these e-initiatives, N Chandramouli, CEO, Blue Lotus Communications said, “This so-called uncontrolled forum, which is still in its nascent stage, is bound to grow by ten folds in seven to eight months. There are two parts involved in the process – one is the company’s image building, by reinforcing the positive image with as many touch points as possible, and second, is the control of negative information.”

Agreeing that the medium is nascent, Sunil Gautam, MD, Hanmer & Partners, explained the medium, and divulged some of the initiatives H&P has taken here. He stated, “At present we continuously monitor niche segment blogs and keep the blog owner updated on developments on our clients, who fit the blog’s profile.”

Ashwani Singla, CEO, Genesis Burson-Marsteller believes that as a representative of a client, a public relations company can respond to those views, correct any factual inaccuracies or present facts not known, or presented. He remarked, “The most important part of this dialogue is ‘transparency’ and ‘disclosure’ of the person or the company making the representation.”

When queried on the increasing plugging and falsifying of data, Chandramouli observed that it is inevitable in any medium. However, Gautam feels that blogging is a form of media and hence an opinion maker. “Therefore, as long as the blog has a strong editorial policy governing its content, I am sure it can continue to maintain its fiercely independent stance, thereby reducing chances of ‘plugging information’ or publishing biased opinions,” he pointed out.

Echoing similar thoughts, Ismail noted, “They are the voice of real people who may exist or potential stakeholders of a company. Blogs essentially are an unregulated platform for ordinary people to speak out and talk about their experiences.”

Concluding the conversation, Gautam remarked, “Going forward, we do expect blogging to become an important and integral part of corporate communications, especially since internet search is becoming a mainstay of primary research and data basing,”

With almost every PR agency on an image building drive of their clients, there has to be a thin line of differentiation between fact and fiction; good and bad. The problem is, ‘Who will draw the line?’ No one knows.

Stereo typing of youth in media

What you find above is a front page article in a leading newspaper , the day after the Pune Rave party raid. I totally find these type of journalism wierd. They have taken a huge dig on the whole IT/ITES workers in the country.

For those of you who could not read the above piece , here are a few snippets from the above master piece.

-The IT /ITES guys get lots of money at an young age. They dont know how to spend the money they earn , so this leads to a lavish life style.They also get the opportunuty to go abroad and which spoils them more.

-The stress levels in these industries are more so they get 2 days off per week. And also the companies organises parties to beat stress, where the guys learn to drink and take to partying and dancing with women. The dance helps in development of intimacy between the couple which leads to an intercourse.

This article also goes on to discuss the disc culture in cities and how the spoil the youth.

I have always thought that the guys who write in the papers (atleast the front page articles) are well informed and maintain the a non -biased attitude before they write an article. This hardly stands up to any of teh expectations.

In a country which, in the disguise of celebrating HOLI lets loose all its inhibitions in the streets , I hardly find any reason to panic if a person goes to a disc or dances with a person from the opposite gender