Welcome to Voicetap

I would like to share the launch of Voicetap with you .Voicetap – a service which allows users to ‘tap’ into the intangible knowledge of experts using the medium of ‘Voice’.

Check out this presentation that we made at Startup Saturday to understand the nitty gritties of how it works.

Voicetap uses the same back end technology as used for earnings calls, to provide access to knowledge related to three evergreen areas for today’s youth: Career, Education and Entrepreneurship. We had our first call on the 5th of April where last years IITJEE rank number 3, 4 were the experts who gave last minute practical tips and tricks to this years IITJEE aspirants. The call was a huge success and very well received. As part of the knowledge series, we have already scheduled some other calls:

• Idea Validation for Entrepreneurs – 2nd May.
• BITSAT - 3rd May
  

And many more…

Will keep you updated on the latest happenings at Voicetap

Its not IIT Mumbai .

This post is for those who cannot differentiate between brand names and city nomenclature.

I guess the Govt of India 50 years back while establishing one of the elite technical institutes, was unable to foresee the Raj Thackeray trend.(I guess there was no McKinsey at that time that could predict the Bombay to Mumbai campaign )
But then with absolutely no respect,(and yes I am being RUDE) IITBombay is a brand name and for the record its a single word.
Its not IIT Mumbai .

There is nothing like IIT Mumbai .
No body in the world knows IIT Mumbai.
People have known it as IIT Bombay.
Stop tagging photos on facebook as IIT Mumbai.
Stop referring it to as IIT Mumbai in thanking speeches,endnotes, debates,discussions.

Information Explosion...

These are the best of times,these are the worst of times.For today we live in a era where almost each one of has access to an unimaginable breadth and depth of information.
But then the era of Information Explosion has more and more air blown into the Bubble.

Thanx to the information explosion.
SPAMMING ,although being the last thing that a marketer would ever like to do , seems to be on a high .
Filtering content is another challenge that people are now getting used to.
And to add to that the hyped Talks ,workshops,Sessions,Lectures are getting monotonous

The podcasts have replaced the interviews.
Slideshare has replaced powerpoint presentaions.
Youtube has better talks or workshops .
Add to that blogs .
To be precise , now you can actually choose to stay out of a event ,since you know for sure, the Internet has better alternatives.

As far as my experience goes ,yes i was a die hard fan of GYAN.
I craved for it.
I used to read almost over 100 blogs a day on social media,SEM-SEO,Blogging,Internet Marketing......
I loved the sessions at Barcamps.
I enjoyed being a part of this ecosystem that was evolving like never before.


But then , i guess what looked like the driving force for joining such communities, turned against itself. And the obvious reason being perhaps the INFORMATION OVERLOAD on the internet
Add to this -the general story telling .

"THE MOST CLICHED STORY"

I was a common man. I had a idea--but had no idea how to implement that. Then we thought over it .
But then we had no money. Then we bootstrapped Then we hunted for VC's. After n iterations in the product plan,
and 2n meeting's we got funded. n now ,I am THE ENTREPRENEUR.

With all due respect to the ecosystem and the entrepreneurs .Nobody would or even can/ever raise a question over your credibility as a entrepreneur or the amount of efforts you have put in.
But then,
As the audience we get this story everytime..in Livemint, on Radio,Podcasts,Blogs n everywhere.
If you can present the entire journey as a casestudy , it might add more value to the story.
Telling the general story,i guess really wont attract ME.

So today i think twice before i enter a session on Startup's or VC's speaking, or rules of blogging,tips on Internet Marketing,or for that matter even technology.
And even if i enter it ,the repetition of topics, drives me out.

The freshness quotient ,i guess has been lost or atleast decreasing.
Everytime i see a mailer/poster about a session by XYZ , i think !!!

DO WE REALLY NEED TO GO AND LISTEN TO THEM ?
WHY CANT WE LISTEN TO THEM ON A PODCAST
OR SIMPLY READ ABOUT THE RULES OF .........
WHY DO WE NEED THE SAME THING OVER N OVER N OVER?
DONT U FEEL saturated ALREADY?

I guess i need a break,BADLY. SO I shall logoff from the Community for a while.

The Tragedy that never happened.

This one comes straight from my heart.
I have been thinking to right this from past one month but then, realised a brand name(Room No 368) was at stake.But then decided to against it.
For a change u shall read something really serious

When the Pathology Lab in IIT Hospital, claimed to be a nothing but just a bacterial infection,i like any other student would have.
By Wednesday they decided that it was Salmonella and not just another bacteria, so under the rules they had to name it TYPHOID.
First thing that came to my mind after that was the concept of REMIDSEM ,because it was already 28th, and the doctors had declared strict bed rest for 2 weeks after one week .

But then my WHITE BLOOD CELLS started disappearing , and then the entire Typhoid treatment was postponed for 5 days.
And it was on the 4th day , when the IIT Pathology Lab was closed (thanks god!!) another blood sample which was sent to Hiranandani Hospital came out clean.
NO TYPHOID
The worst part was the fact that another second year student had made plans to skip midsems simply because he was told that he too had TYPHOID.
And then on the fifth day just before getting admitted in ICU ,one of the doctors confessed that the PATHOLOGY DEPT is too primitive to not to detect typhoid.

Take home message--Being part of a institute that

• has funds well over 100 Crores
• hosts festivals with budget exceeding a crore (not to mention the ECell has few lakhs to spare)
• gets funded every second year from its Alumni
• also has students who opt to fall sick to justify their casual leaves.

But then blood test is something that is recommended to most of the people and that too quite frequently.
N to get it wrong ,with such a huge margin of error sends the wrong signal.
We can practically get screwed up.
We need to realize that there is something that is between Gulmohar and Convocation Hall, and if not all, some people do have Medical problems and this continues ,all we would be doing is wasting the doctors out there.

Throughout my experience at IIT hospital, the entire staff was amazingly cooperative and sweet and caring, something that was missing in Hiranandani and Riddhi Vinayak Hospitals.
But then it really wont make sense if they don't get the blood reports right.

I dont need to write what all can a false report lead to .
We all can well imagine the consequences.


P.S>>>
IF NYBODY FROM THE AUTHORIES HAPPENS TO VISIT THIS BLOG PLEASE TAKE THIS AHEAD AND GET THE LABORATORY EQUIPPED WITH THE LESSER PRIMITIVE TECHNOLOGY.WE SERIOUSLY NEED HELP.

Love Thy Smoker

Love Thy Smoker!!

With this blog post ,i would like to introduce Malvika Parmar, as a guest author on this blog. Malvika happens to be a old school friend, whom i met after 6 years courtesy Social Networking . Since i have only 1000 Mb of space left on this blog, i shall register a new blog to introduce the epical stories of Malvika.



I am a person of very peculiar and sometimes strange likes and dislikes, and I guess the latter outnumbers the former. So I thought that since this is my first post, let me just pick something on which I have plenty to talk about-the ‘dislikes’. Sounds contrary to the title? Well, I don’t blame the readers! But seriously, I am going to discuss one serious ‘dislike’ of mine.

I often come across people saying, “I hate smokers”. And this is exactly what I seriously, positively DISLIKE. I really fail to understand the logic behind it. Let me dissect the statement now, in an effort to understand the deeper meaning hidden within the spaces. To hate “smokers” means hating people who smoke (we are not talking diesel buses here for god’s sake). I don’t as often hear people saying, “I hate nose diggers” or “I hate men peeing on the pavement” as much as “I hate smokers”.

If you are so against smoking why don’t you say “I hate Marlboro” or “I hate cigarette lighters”? That would really be more logical. Its insane to hate someone for a habit that only goes to harm him. And yes this reminds me of the good old rationale of ‘passive smoking’ which people often come up with as a defence to their hatred. To all those people who think passive smoking of cigarettes would kill them, honey, the vehicular pollution affects you much more adversely. So you can start saying “I hate automobiles”!

I can understand if someone says that he/she hates the habit of smoking, like Mahatma Gandhi said, “hate crime and not the criminal”. Just imagine you have a very dear friend who you have known for a very long time and share a great bond with. Will you start hating him if he starts smoking? Will he suddenly be a less of a friend or a lesser being? He would undoubtedly hold similar importance and significance in your life. In fact you might just become a lot more caring for his lungs. I fell in love with a person who smokes and that really changed nothing, just like it wouldn’t have mattered if he snored while sleeping.

People, smoking is just another habit and I urge you not to judge a person’s character by a single habit. It pains me to think that people who lie, cheat, deceive, bitch and backstab their own friends get more respect just because the don’t possess any of the so called “anti-social” habits.

I am not a chain smoker. I smoke like ten cigarettes annually, but some of my dearest friends smoke on a regular basis. And whenever they are subjected to this social bias just because of one habit and others ignore any talent or the kindness they possess, it hurts me to be a part of such morally blind society.

This article was a result of a long argument with another friend of mine who apparently “hated” smokers. I managed to change his stance to an extent and thus I decided to write this article with the hope of changing a few more ‘opinions’.

So as they say, in spite of all the inhibitions and doubts, “love thy neighbour”, we can also follow another modern ‘sister saying’ “Love Thy Smoker”

Reality Check --India US Nuclear Deal !!!

These are the best of times.
These are the worst of times.
Today when we have access to a breadth and depth of information, some of us still continue to live in a virtual world. While some of us live in a world away from cause and effect, some of us live a life which is more driven by the things happening around. The latest thing happening around forced me to share some of the facts and figures.

And while I write this post,I continue to wonder over the Intellectual Immaturity the Media has been creating. The image as portrayed by the media of the Indo US nuclear deal is nothing less then " a step towards the Utopian World".

The quick check on what people believe Nuclear Deal is –

* It offers uranium at cheaper cost
* It provides us rocket science technology for Nuclear Energy.
* It offers us Cheap Reactors.

They believe so because they have been told by MEDIA –

· It provides us access to Latest Technology

---strengthening indigenous program.

· Access to Uranium and Reactors

---To help our power generation.



Reality Check –

· Since we use HW reactors, Fast breed reactors that are based on Thorium Utilization (a technology that is much better then Uranium based reactors) and we have 90% components that are indigenous ,why the hell do we need Tech Imports ?

· We have Uranium resources sufficient only for 10000 reactors,in a world where we hardly have 140 reactors operating.

· Quality of ore possessed by us varies from 0.1% to 14 -15% ,where as the Uranium Hubs in the world including Australia-Kazakhstan's exported ore is of < 0.1% quality.

· There is enough Uranium for all the Nuclear Supplier Countries but just not for us the lesser mortals.

· We are signing off with a nation that REFUSED TO ACCEPT US AS A NUCLEAR POWER AFTER POKHRAN.

Reality check for the Media---

Integrated Energy Policy, Volume I ,Xxii

---"Even if a 20 fold increase takes place in India's Nuclear capacity by 2031-2032 ,the contribution of India's nuclear power to energy generation, at best is expected to be 4 -6.4 %

For possibility of such a marginal contribution, our Government and Media are hell bound over mortgaging our strategic interests.

Growth of Nuclear power is indeed a definite solution for Energy Crisis and need of the hour but rather than continuing with the perpetual dependency and import we can explore our options and expand our capabilities.

Last but not the least—

Some more misconceptions—

1. 1.GOVT must see some point in this

* At a point in history our govt went to the extent of buying Cowdung
* We bought pulses,rice,wheat at very high costs while our farmers were waiting for their crops to be sold at nominal prices.
* We want to have One Laptop One Child program ,when we are struggling with figures at Primary level !!!

2. The Media –they cannot be stupid !!

Those who still believe in present media please mail me back, I have better reasons to not to trust them.


Facts and figures --
Collected by Anurag tripathi- anurag.r.tripathi@gmail.com-Phd Student -Dept of Chemical-IIT Bombay from Talks by Arun Shourie ,P.K.Iyengar,A.N.Prasad

Reality Check-Indo US nuclear Deal -

These are the best of times. These are the worst of times. Today when we have access to a breadth and depth of information, some of us still continue to live in a virtual world. While some of us live in a world away from cause and effect, some of us live a life which is more driven by the things happening around. The latest thing happening around forced me to gather few quick data analysis on "Indo-US Nuclear Deal".

And while I write this post,I continue to wonder over the Intellectual Immaturity the Media has been creating. The image as portrayed by the media of the Indo US nuclear deal is nothing less then " a step towards the Utopian World".

The quick check on what people believe Nuclear Deal is –

· It offers uranium at cheaper cost

· I T provides us rocket science technology for Nuclear Energy.

· It offers us Cheap Reactors.

They believe so because they have been told by MEDIA –

· It provides us access to Latest Technology

---strengthening indigenous program.

· Access to Uranium and Reactors

---To help our power generation.

Reality Check –

1. Since we use HW reactors, Fast breed reactors that are based on Thorium Utilization (a technology that is much better then Uranium based reactors) and we have 90% components that are indigenous ,why the hell do we need Tech Imports ?

2. We have Uranium resources sufficient only for 10000 reactors,in a world where we hardly have 140 reactors operating.

3. Quality of ore possessed by us varies from 0.1% to 14 -15% ,where as the Uranium Hubs in the world including Australia-Kazakhstan's exported ore is of <>

4. There is enough Uranium for all the Nuclear Supplier Countries but just not for us the lesser mortals.

5. We are signing off with a nation that REFUSED TO ACCEPT US AS A NUCLEAR POWER AFTER POKHRAN.

Reality check for the Media---

Integrated Energy Policy, Volume I ,Xxii

---"Even if a 20 fold increase takes place in India's Nuclear capacity by 2031-2032 ,the contribution of India's nuclear power to energy generation, at best is expected to be 4 -6.4 %

For possibility of such a marginal contribution, our Government and Media are hell bound over mortgaging our strategic interests.

Growth of Nuclear power is indeed a definite solution for Energy Crisis and need of the hour but rather than continuing with the perpetual dependency and import we can explore our options and expand our capabilities.

Last but not the least—

Some more misconceptions—

1. GOVT must see some point in this

· At a point in history our govt went to the extent of buying Cowdung

· We bought pulses,rice,wheat at very high costs while our farmers were waiting for their crops to be sold at nominal prices.

· We want to have One Laptop One Child program ,when we are struggling with figures at Primary level !!!

2. ShivSena is supporting them –Can they spell the word "uranium"?

3. The Media –they cannot be stupid !!

Those who still believe in present media please mail me back, I have better reasons to not to trust them.

Ant and the Grasshopper and the NEW VERSION

An Old Story:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or
shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.

• "NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
• The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
• Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
• Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .
• Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.
• Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
• The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .
• Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
• CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
• Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
• Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.
• Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
• Bollywood launches a new Series of Movies over the scandal and of course ...
• eKta Kappoor launches another tv series for the "Krasshoppers"

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government
and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

• Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.
• Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.
• CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '
• Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly."

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar
company in Silicon Valley
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere
in India,
..AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers
.
India is still a developing country…!!!
I know its stupid to post a forwarded mail but cudnt help avoiding it ..
We definitely need to send one copy to the Lok Sabha ,Rajya Sabha (if nybody has the address please mail them)
Can't think of better place to fire off a discussion like this one ..
wat say u ..??