General

·       Barack Obama getting elected as the first African-American President on November 4, 2008 and his first speech cheered the whole world.

·       Chinese demonstrated their extra-ordinary skills in project execution by hosting Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing and by winning the largest number of medals in the Games; India created a record of winning the first-ever Gold for individual sport, thanks to Abhinav Bindra

·       ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) made India proud by putting Chadrayaan (lunar vehicle) into space on October 22, 2008 and successfully putting MIP (Moon Impact Probe) on to the Moon soil (with Indian tri-color painting on it) on November 14, 2008; they also put ten satellites into orbit in quick succession within tem minutes using an India-made launch vehicle PSLV on August 25, 2008.

·       Tate Nano (the $ 2,500 people’s car) that was showcased to the world on January 10, 2008 grabbed global headlines. Singur in West Bengal unfortunately could not house the plant that was set to roll out Tate Nano in 2008, thanks to petty politics; Tate Nano will roll out of Sanand in Gujarat.

·       Terror strike takes a heavy toll on India in the year 2008; Bombay terror attack on the “iconic” Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay on November 26, 2008 (India’s 9/11) and its scar will take years to disappear. This year saw terror attacks in Jaipur (13^th May), Bangalore (25^th July), Hyderabad (26^th July), Delhi (13^th September).

·       Major tragedies strike India in 2008; Kosi flood in Bihar (13^th to 27^th September) affects millions; Himachal Naina Devi temple tragedy (2^nd August), Jodhpur temple tragedy (30^th September)

·       Chinese earthquake in May, Myanmar cyclone in October, and blasts in Pakistan in October impacted many in the world

·       Tripura, Meghalaya & Nagaland in March, Karnataka in May, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram & Jammu-Kashmir get newly elected State Governments in 2008.

·       Left parties withdrawing support to Manmohan Singh-led Government, and the support extended by Samajwadi Party made the Government very weak

·       Inflation going past 12% in June 2008 hurts the common man most; luckily, it started climbing down by the end of the year.

·       Rupee that was at Rs 47 / USD appreciated to Rs 38 /USD in before crashing to Rs 50 / USD by the year-end.

·       Tatas did India proud by acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford in May

·       Reliance starts pumping oil from Godavari basin and expect to get about 16% of India’s oil needs

·       NASA Phoenix lands on Mars surface on June 1, 2008

·      Private sector built green-field airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad started operations on 23^rd March and 23^rd May respectively.

·       123 Agreement (Nuclear Agreement) was signed by USA and India on October 10, 2008

·       Central Government notifies the Sixth Pay Commission; the salary differentials between private sector and the government to reduce substantially; salaries for academic staff to increase dramatically.

·       The “Sub-prime” crisis in the housing sector in the United States causes a global financial tsunami in November 2008 that is set to impact all the countries (including India); US Government nationalizes Freddie and Fannie, bails out AIG and Meryl Lynch; Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy; the three US auto majors get bailout; Toyota set to declare losses the first time ever in 71 years. USA talks of 750,000 job losses in the year. Indian IT industry too will be affected, though it is too early to assess the impact

·       Oil prices that started at $ 60 per barrel in January shoot up to $ 143 in November before crashing to $ 37 in December

Products

·       Apple launching iPhone 3G on July 11, 2008 in USA (and August 22, 2008 in India) brought 3G and “Touch” to mart phones in a big way. Blackberry launches “Bold” in September and “Storm” in November; Nokia launches N96 in August, 5800 in October, N97 in November; Samsung launches Innov8 in November and Omnia in December; Sony Ericsson launches Experia in November; Palm launches Centro & Treo 800W; Apple and Blackberry push Palm way down – 8% by year end from 36% earlier) in smart phone sales.

·       Ultra-thin notebook computers saw action along with low-cost “Netbooks” (small footprint, low power consumption and less expensive notebooks). Apple launched MacBook Air in January; Lenovo launched x300 in May

·       Netbooks enter mainstream; sell more numbers than Apple iPhone; Asus Eee PC and Acer Aspire dominate

·       Firefox 3 browser was launched on June 17, 2008; creates history with record downloads within a week

·       Intel “Atom” processor (that consumes very low power) enters “Netbook” market and targets mobile users (including smart phones)

·       Intel also announces next generation Core i7 processors; Intel engineers do India proud by designing an energy efficient processor for Xeon server

·       Google enters mobile phone space by announcing G1 on October 22, 2008 (based on Android operating system); it also launches “Chrome” browser in September

·       NVidia launches “Telsa” personal super computer in India

·       Titan launches Braille watches for blind at Rs 995 along with National Association for Blind in November

·       Microsoft launches Windows 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 in May; also beta versions of Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Azure (cloud computing product); their  “Silverlight” platform to counter Adobe Flash during Chinese Olympics gains traction

·       DTH (Direct To Home) started gaining momentum with Reliance and Airtel announcing their products during Dasara and Deepavali season respectively (October and November)

Marketplace

·       Japanese Daiichi Sankyo acquiring Indian pharma major Ranbaxy for $ 4.6 billion was indeed a big ticket acquisition; Infosys bid to acquire UK-based SAP practice company Axon was nullified by HCL Tech putting a bid for a higher price and winning it for $ 753 million; other acquisitions include Mindtree acquiring Aztec Software, Birla-owned IDEA acquiring the first Indian mobile service provider Spice for Rs 2,720 Crores and Times acquiring job portal “DICE” from Cyber Media. Swan Telecom and Unitech selling off within months of taking GSM license smacks of corruption.

·       Globally, IT leader HP acquired EDS for $ 13.9 billion; Oracle acquired BEA for $ 8.5 billion. Verizon acquired Alltel for a whopping $ 28.1 billion; Microsoft bid to acquire Yahoo fails; JDA acquired Supply Chain software vendor i2 for $ 346 million; McAfee acquired Secure Computing for $ 465 million.

·       HP annual turnover crosses $118.4 billion as of October 31, 2008 a record by any IT company (including IBM)

Technology

·       HP researchers discover the 4^th circuit element (after Resistor, Conductor and Capacitor)

·       MIT researchers demonstrate “wireless” electricity (may change power charging for mobile devices), “raw solar” (will help wider adoption of solar energy) and thermoelectric cooling (might help data centers)

·       HP and QualComm announce “Gobi” chip for mobile phones

·       Blue-ray wins the standard war in DVD storage format

·       Lenovo and Apple launch super slim laptop products using advanced technology

·       Sony announces “TransferJet” with speeds of up to 375 Mbps

·       Zephyr solar plane clocks more than 83 hours of unmanned flying

Indian IT companies

Indian IT companies top the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) list of Top 10 global outsourcing companies with Infosys (3^rd), TCS (6^th), Wipro (7^th), Genpact (9^th) and Tech Mahindra (10^th) in the fray

Indian IT services revenue touches $ 52 billion by March 2008 (NASSCOM); IT services (including ITES) generate 1.6 million jobs; Karnataka benefits with IT /ITES jobs exceeding 500,000 (STPI November 200

Infosys headcount touches 100,000; gets included in “Global Dow” – 150 most innovative global companies

Wipro enters African markets by starting office in Morocco and Ethiopia

HCL acquires Axon for $ 753 million

 Airtel (India;s largest mobile service provider) reaches subscriber base of 83 million by November

 WNS gets $ 1 billion (over 10 years) contract from Aviva

Reputation Institute in USA puts Tatas in the 6^th position (out of Top 200) globally

TCS starts 1,000 seat facility in Ohio, USA

3i-Infotech turnover crosses Rs 1,000 Crores in 2008

MNC companies in India

·     Nokia rolls out its 200 millionth handset out of Sriperumbudur plant (near Chennai) in India

·     Motorola plant commences production in April in Sriperumbudur (near Chennai)

·     Dell laptops roll out of Chennai factory

·     CSC talks of doubling India count from 16,000 to 32,000 (before meltdown)

·     Chicago-based Agile software major “Thought Works”, expands in India

·      Virtualization major VmWare expands India operations

·      Fab-less semiconductor major ARM expand India operations

·     Yahoo Labs start in Bangalore

·     Juniper Networks increases headcount in India significantly

·     Sutherland talks of 10,000 seat BPO in Chennai

·     Semiconductor major (earlier part of Motorola) FreeScale

 expands India operations

·     French IT services major Steria has big plans for India

·     Citix to invest $ 200 million,

·     Intel 6-core energy efficient Xeon processor for servers is designed in India

·     Hyundai starts second car plant in Chennai

Telecom

·                Policy muddle in 3G and WiMax licenses, controversy surrounding the sale of Swan & Unitech Telecom stall India’s telecom growth story

·                Mobile phone subscriber base to cross 380 million by Dec 31, 2008 (it stood at 374.13 million as of Nov 30, 2008 with monthly additions exceeding 10 million as per TRAI)

·                IP telephony becomes legal from August 2008

·                Japanese telecom giant DoCoMo enters India thru Tate Telecom

·                India’s first 3G phone rings on December 13, 2008 thru MTNL

Education & Research

·                Six new IIT’s start at Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad

·      Indian Institute of Science celebrates the century year starting May 27, 2008

·                Supreme Court upholds OBC reservation excluding “creamy layer”

·                ACM Infosys Foundation Award for computer science takes off – Prof Daphne Koller is the first recipient

·                Indian Science & Engineering research Council (on the lines of NSF in USA) gets Parliamentary approval in December

·                Government starts 100,000 scholarships for outstanding high school graduates; SBI launches 100,000 merit-cum-means scholarships

Applications

·       Reserve Bank of India announces “mobile banking” guidelines

·       Airlines shift to 100% e-ticketing from June 1, 2008

·       Hughes to provide Internet connectivity across trains using their satellite network

·       Electricity Exchange take off in 2008

Infrastructure

·       Airtel laying US Japan cable

People

·       Barack Obama is the next US President

·       Bill Gates steps down from full time Chairman position in Microsoft; Yahoo Founder Chairman Jerry Yang retires

·      Nepal monarchy is gone; get its first President, Parliament and a new Prime Minister

·       Pakistan gets a new President and a Prime Minister; democracy returns

·       IIT Kanpur educated Dr Subba Rao is the new Governor of Reserve Bank of India

·       Chandu Bhave is the new SEBI Chairman

·       India-born Lakshmi Mittal-controlled Arcelor Mittel has annual revenue exceeding $ 100 billion in 2008

·       Bharti Mittal of Airtel joins ITU Board (the first for any Indian)

·       Kiran Karnick gives charge of NASSCOM President-ship to Som Mittal

·       Former Prime Minister VP Singh, spiritual guru Maharshi Mahesh Yogi and social worker Baba Amte pass away

Visitors to India in 2008 include

·       Prime Ministers of UK, Turkey, Nepal, French President, Syrian President and Prince Andrew

·      CEOs of IT companies (ARM, FreeScale, Microsoft and RIM), FMCG majors (Coca-Cola, Pepsico, and Unilever), automation major Schneider and defence electronics major Thales

·      Rupert Murdoch

·      Presidents of Cambridge University, Oxford University, UC Berkeley and Purdue University

·      Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus

·      Presidents of Royal Society, UK and IEEE Computer Society, USA

Interesting numbers

·       India’s student population in USA in 2008-09 (94,000)

·       Anil Ambani Power IPO subscribed 173 times (Rs 11,760 Crores)

·       Foreign Exchange reserves start at $ 240 billion, surge to $ 343 billion, crash to $ 240 billion and rise to $ 250 billion)

·       World lost $ 10 trillion in year 2008 stock market crash (the biggest ever)

·       SWITCH (Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCSm Cognizant and HCL) holds 2.4% of global IT outsourcing ($ 667 billion)

·       India’s GSM mobile subscriber base crossed 200 million; overall mobile subscribers crossed 300 million in March and 385 million in December

(Appeared in the Education Times Column of Times of India (Bangalore Edition) on January 5, 2008)

General

• Bad news continues to pour on the economic front with US economy shrinking by 0.3% in 3Q08 (July – September 2008); even SONY talks of axing 16,000 jobs; 3M to phase out 1,800; Dow chemicals to cut 500 jobs; IIP (Index of Industrial Production) in India has the steepest fall in 15 years; advanced tax collection (Dec 15) down by 22%

• Government announces excise duty cuts; PC prices are down by 4%; interest rates slacken; with a move to boost affordable housing, house interest loans become much cheaper for ‘low cost’ housing;

• Oil price drops to $ 37/barrel (from a record high $146 in mid 2008); petrol, diesel prices in India are cut

• Delhi, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh elect new governments

• Sheik Hasina becomes Prime Minister of Bangladesh

• Reliance Oil Refinery goes on stream (Dec 25)

• Reliance Communication launches national GSM service (Dec 2

• Indian Institute of   Science Centenary celebrations see many Nobel Laureates in Bangalore

• Pan IIT meet in Chennai

• The controversial decision of Satyam to acquire Maytas and a quick retreat opened up issues of Corporate Governance in IT industry that had held a high moral ground  for years

• Maruti 800 celebrates 25 years; in a way it is India’s Model T

• HP-UX completes 25 years (unusual for a tech product)

• PC Magazine stops “Print” edition (goes ‘online only’)

Technology

• Douglas Engelbart (Stanford Research Institute) designed “Computer Mouse” completes 40 years on December 9, 2008

Products

• HP-UX (HP implementation of Unix across workstations, servers and data center) operating system survives 25 years, and HP has plans to grow it for several years more!

• Intel Wi-Max products proliferate

• NVIDIA launches its Personal Super Computer in India (demonstrated in London in November)

Markets

• Wipro buys Citi’s Tech arm for $127 million

• Satyam announces its plan to acquire infrastructure company “Maytas” for $ 1.2 billion on December 15, 2008; retreats on the same night (within 10 hours) due to violent stock-holder reaction; there was general feeling of over valuation, nepotism (Mayas is promoted by chairman Ramalinga Raju’s sons) showing Satyam in poor light in terms of corporate governance; four independent directors quit; Satyam stock prices tumble; quite unprecedented in the Indian IT industry that has set high record of corporate governance

• Amazon.com posts best ever online sales of 6.3 million items on December 15, 2008 (the day with highest sales every year) compared to 5.6 million in 2007 and 3.9 million in 2006

• Panasonic to buy Sanyo for $ 2 billion

• Madoff fraud in US causes further damage to market sentiment

Indian IT companies

• Trivandrum-based Nest expands Europe operations by starting an office in Munich

• Tata Elxsi starts “Design Studio” in London

• Blackstone buys majority stake in CMS computers

• Infosys gets 5-year outsourcing contract from Aztra-Zeneca

• Infosys starts 2^nd centre in Hangzhou China

MNC Companies in India

• GE buys Bombay–based transformer company “Indo Tech”

• AT & T starts first data center in India

• Altos Origin to double headcount at 6,500

Telecom

• STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing) is 60 years old; on December 5, 1958 British Queen dialed Edinburgh from Bristol without an operator

• First 3G call rings on December 11, 2008

Education & Research

• Parliament approves Science & Engineering Research council

• INSPIRE Scholarship (nearly 100,000) for top 1% in 10^th class and 12^th class (nationally) announced

• IISc centenary year and Pan IIT meet gets many distinguished researchers to India in December 2008

People

• Former Yahoo employee Qu Li to head ‘search division” of Microsoft

Interesting Numbers

• Foreign exchange reserves after going down to $ 243 billion from a high of $ 340 billion over the year move up marginally to $ 248 billion in December

• US job loss estimated to be 533,000 in the year 2008

• Job-seekers registered with Indian employment exchange reduces to 3.99 million in December 2007 from the earlier 4.14 million in December 2006

• Commercial built-up space in India in the year 2008 continues to keep Bangalore (10.4 million) at No 1; Delhi (8.6 million), Mumbai (8.5 million), Chennai (4.1 million) and Hyderabad (4 million) follow

(Monthly Column of forthcoming issue of “IT Magazine” pp 12 to 13)

On December 28, 2003 Reliance changed the face of telecom in India with an affordable mobile phone service. Their business model was compelling; ‘phone call at the cost of a post card’. Within five years Reliance has managed a 60 million customer base. Earlier, Reliance bet on CDMA that accounts for less than 20% of the global mobile telecom, business. On December 30, 2008, Reliance started GSM service – that accounts for 80% of the world’s mobile population.

With investment of Rs 10,000 Crores ($ 2 billion) Reliance communications has launched the service in 11,000 towns within a year of getting its license (January 2008). They also introduced “customer experience” card that permits free calls worth Rs 5/day for 90 days, for a very low Rs 25/ - entry fee. It will be interesting to see the way Reliance grows in this segment in the next 12 months.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries gave a Christmas gift – a brand new refinery built at great speed on December 25, 2008 at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

Combined with an existing refinery with 33 million ton capacity, the new refinery with 29 million capacity leads to a new record –combined capacity of 62 million ton in a single-location; it is a world record.

While the earlier refinery was built in stages over 10 years, the new refinery was built in single go over 4 year period.

Opening a large facility with billions of dollars of investment ion December 25, 2008 (with the backdrop of the worst ever downturn in human history) demonstrates an unparalleled courage.

With the global markets slowing down, US market shrinking and oil price plummeting to $ 40 from the earlier high of nearly $ 145, there is considerable uncertainty about the demand for the refinery’s product, as well as profitability. The sophisticated control technology employed by the refinery product as well as profitability; with the sophisticated control technology employed by the refinery, as well as innovative design that permits unparalleled flexibility, Reliance refinery may sail through market slump.

Apple iPhone 3G that was launched in USA on July 22, 2008 interestingly is the most exciting gadget. The screen readability, intuitive, yet powerful rendering on the screen of even basic functions like e-mail and SMS is stunning. The “touch interface” is marvelous to browse web sites; of course, Safari browser adds to iPhone attractions. 90% of my mobile computing needs are met by iPhone 3G.

However, as a heavy weight user of Mobile phone, I am far from satisfied. Battery life lasts not even for a full single day; also we do not have the luxury of borrowing neighbor’s charger (a luxury I enjoy for 10 years with my every Nokia phone). Every time I go to another place, iPhone must be cajoled to find the service provider; my Nokia phones do it instantly. If I send SMS to 10 of my students my phone is gone for 10 minutes; I do not even get a ‘delivery repot’!

Funny it may appear, but the truth is Apple iPhone is the best mobile computer and an “also ran” mobile phone; may be good enough for Americans who never had great phones!

High school students are keen on knowing the prospects of IT/ITES careers in India. Here is my quick take

IT-ITES generates the largest number of jobs in India; currently there are 2.2 million employed in this category. 500,000 are in Karnataka alone; Government of Karnataka (GoK) employs a similar number! Considering the fact that many GoK jobs are in Class III / Class IV, IT/ITES sector is great for jobs.

The “slowdown” will impact everyone including IT/ITES; but it will eventually turn for the better; after all it is cyclical; by the time the High School graduates enter the job market (2-6 years from now), the position will indeed be good.

B Tech / MCA are the preferred qualifications. MSc / BCA / BSc too have openings. There is a confusion that IT/ITES careers are only for Math guys; while many engineers have taken to IT, it is open for others too. MP3 was inspired by music, iPod  is a design innovation; so IT is for everyone.

IT-ITES offers a variety; you can pursue M Tech / PhD and even chase a Nobel Prize / Turing Award. You can join services, grow into a project manager, have a “cool” and “comfortable” job with an attractive salary. You can turn entrepreneurial either immediately or later, and create jobs and wealth; in IT/ITES what you need is a compelling idea and NOT huge initial investment.

You can work in services companies as well as product companies; India has product companies like Infosys Finacle, iFlex, Tally, Subex, Megasoft too. There are R & D outfits like Infosys SET Labs, TCS R & D, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, HP Labs, Intel Research, Motorola research, Nokia Research..

Also there are technology & IP licensing companies like Ittiam and Sasken. There are hardware companies too.

Do remember IT-ITES has a broadband. Not all ITES, is a low end BPO. There are KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and LPO (legal Process Outsourcing) where you as an expert provide services over a wire at very high charges ($ 100 to 300 / hour!).

IT also has services that may not need a college degree; hardware servicing, support that too in remote areas can be sought even with SSLC / Diploma

In a nutshell, you have large number of jobs, well-paying jobs, opportunities for wealth creation and jobs for people with varying qualifications SSLC to PhD. You can earn money, win laurels or create wealth; IT /ITES offers all

Best of luck!

(Career Forum organized by Bangalore University and Eduquity at Central College Auditorium in Bangalore on December 6, 200

It is important for industry and academia to work together. However caution must be exercised. Such an interaction is the “icing on the cake”; it is important, but  the cake is equally important. Industry professionals bring the much needed “relevance” and “context” to the knowledge that academics must continue to impart at the highest level without sacrificing the rigor.

It is important for the students to study the classic and legendary textbooks and papers; product specific information can be utilized to illustrate the concepts. What is undesirable is to jump the gun; teach “Oracle DBMS” without the basics of RDBMS. Institutions should NOT be reduced to training outfits of corporations.

Academics are “slow” but they are “steady” and they have their role to play. This important role is being appreciated much these days, thanks to reckless investment banks.

(Panel discussion at EMC sponsored Storage Conference at Nitte Institute of Technology during Dec 3-4, 2008)

Compilers, operating systems, networking, databases, artificial intelligence or graphics are all subjects that undergraduate students study as part of the curriculum. They use products (Microsoft c++ compiler, Linux O/S, Cisco routers, Oracle DBMS, LISP / PROLOG and AutoCAD, for example). They all use storage on their desktop, but never get to appreciate the complexity; it is a peripheral (like printer). The back-end storage at the data center is something they do not see; the sophistication of enterprise class servers or the super-store employed by Google / Yahoo / MSN is part of the “cloud”. Naturally, storage is NOT part of the standard curriculum today.

Institutions like IIIT-B introduce storage as part of the “High performance computing” course.

To start introducing the subject of storage, it is best to start with an Elective Course that  the colleges can offer; industry must help the College thru the establishment and support of a Lab. That would be a sure shot way on “initiation”. Based on such an experiment, future strategies can be prepared.

(Panel discussion in the Storage Conference held at Nitte Institute of Technology, Karnataka during Dec 3-4, 2008)

e-Governance in India has both positive and negative elements.

First the positive ones

• India has the largest number of “award winning” eGovernance projects (Bhoomi in Karnataka, Dhrishti in Rajasthan and e-Sewa in Andhra Pradesh, for example)
• Indian projects have seen many innovations
• There are projects like MCA21 (where half a million companies file their quarterly returns online), Courts computerization (judgements becoming available on the Net within 24 hours) etc.
• Under National e-Governance Project (NeGP) Government of India has committed more than Rs 20,000 Crores
• Under NeGP there is a proposal to set up 100,000 kiosks under Public Private Partnership

The negative ones

• There is more emphasis on spending money than on creating value
• The emphasis is on “e” (computerization) and NOT on governance
• Too many “pilots” (what Prof Keniston of MIT terms as “graveyard of failed projects”)

(Keynote address in e-Governance Conference, Dayanand Sagar Institutions, Bangalore, November 27, 2008)