Where is the plan?

BSE Sensex hits 20K. 540% increase from 2001. Good.
GDP growing 8 -9 % a year. Great.
Mukesh Ambani is almost the richest man in the World. Nice.

But where are we heading. Is there any real plan or road map or even any discussion happening on Food security, Water Security, Energy Security, Basic Infrastructure and Environment?

70% percent of population still working in agriculture related industries which doesn't even contribute 20% of the GDP and is still growing at 3-4 % a year. Next green revolution is over due.

Retail Industry is multiplying with a blink of an eye. We have a Reliance, a Tata and a Subhiksha fresh retail stores on the same street in the interior Vijayawada. What happens to those millions of small vendors.

Good that we have plenty of rains. What do we do if we have 2-3 draughts in quick succession.

Where is the infrastructure. The roads in the cities are not even good to walk, forget about driving. The sound pollution and the smog. Billions of hours wasted in the traffic and hundreds of unnecessary accidents and deaths every day.When would our freeways get safe and hit 110 km/ hr speeds. How long before the IT revolution reaches the second level cities. Where is the broadband connectivity.

When would India make significant Science and Technology breakthroughs. When would India win Olympic golds at will. When would India have its own Google, its own BMW, its own SONY, its own Nokia, its own Samsung?

Is there a plan, a vision, on where we want to be and when we want to be there, not to mention how?? When would we cross the bridge of mediocrity to the side of Excellence???

Future Tech Mantra

You are only there.. if you are Everywhere!!!

How about mobile OS for non smart phones??

Device independent mobile operating systems like Palm, WM, Symbian, Blackberry all target at mobile phones with data plans/ web access and mainly aiming at providing advanced features which most of the mobile users do not need or do not want to pay for. Of course there is an option of buying these phones unlocked and just not pay for the dataplan, but there is also this mental picture in the common masses on what a smart phone means. We now have the device makers and carriers come up with their own versions of the software that they ship with the devices. There are no open standards and this system is a closed one and doesn't allow innovation. There are some java apps out there that are supported across multiple OS,
but the utility is minimal where u need to download the apps over the air?


There can be many advantages of having these open OS platforms even in the non smartphones. There can be many applications that can be designed and built for mobile phones with PC - Mobile Eco System like iPods which doesn't need web access. This would probably help the carriers and device makers move out of the software business and concentrate on providing hardware and services instead, which are their core business.

This is one rung lower than what Google is suggesting for the 700MHz spectrum. And a good first step in that direction.

World Wide Widget Web

You see Google Gadgets and iGoogle, Mac OS X Dashboard and iPhone, Yahoo Widgets, Yahoo Badges and Yahoo Go, MS Vista Sidebar gadgets and Live gadgets, Opera Widgets and Facebook applications. They are not all the same, but they are everywhere. These small applications give access to your online services like Email, News, Weather, Calendar, Maps and the like and they run off the servers. The desktop versions still work even when you are offline and syncs when you are connected.
All these services point to the direction of pervasive computing, where you have access to your data everywhere. The widgets are important because eventually they work the same way on your PCs, your Mobile phones, your mp3 players, your in-car entertainment devices, your GPS devices, your televisios, your game consoles, tivos, your digital photo frames and many other platforms. Right now, you have multiple platforms, operating systems for each and every one of these segments and its a hassle because the developers cannot build their applications for every new platform that crops up now a days. The only unifying aspect as of now to some extent are the web browsers with unified standards. But the web browsers are built for PCs with a mouse and a keyboard. And we see how the developers are struggling from many years to port that to the mobile devices with small screens and still there are no where close to interoperability. they all still suck. Now add the future generations of internet connected devices like set top boxes or gps sets. The web browser doesn't make much sense.
Since most of these widgets essentially use the web technologies, I guess there soon would be a time where you can simply port widgets from one platform to another. Google already does that with its desktop and iGoogle versions. Yahoo does that with same base code for mac and win. Other companies would join and probably release simple tools to just port widgets from one platform to another and it might not be very long before that happens.
That makes it easier to adapt to the newer electronics and gadgets connected to the web and it is of course good for the tech companies as it gives them more places to reach to the customers with out having to invest a lot for development. Companies like Slide and Widgetbox have a lot to look forward to.

Lets see how long it takes for the W4 to materialize.

It's not Google, It is Adobe!

Looks like Adobe has the best chance to be a Microsoft Killer!!!

Sure Google is doing great on the web, but that was never Microsoft's money making machine. It's strength is its operating 
system, its development platform and the office suite where MS makes most of its money which it could funnel into the newer fronts. It could sustain losses for multiple years for its Xbox platform and Mobile OS and of course it would do that with 
Zune which is soon going to be a force in the MP3 player market. Google is putting its billions to take the Office suite with its web based apps. But the fact is that it is no where close to challenge MS on that front and it would be few years before it could come up with a serious challenger. Of course MS is not going to sit sucking its thumbs. Already there is a major push 
with MOSS to improve collaboration using the office tools. Also Google doesn't have much experience with Enterprise Business sales, which is on a different plane when compared to Adwords accounts it has got.

But it is different with Adobe, whose intentions are getting clearer by the day. It has already got a great foot hold in the small business with it Creative Suite and its Macromedia web tools. And it has got a dedicated army of developers who use their tools. It started with the online versions of its creative suite. Then came the killer Adobe Integrated Runtime, which I think is the future of the software with its unique ability to bring the best of the desktop and web worlds together and has very little learning curve for the scores of the web developers to adopt to. With the huge success of Mac OS X in the recent days and lack of cross platform support with .net (they are trying), there is a great potential for Adobe to become the choice for the developer community. And then it has Adobe flash which is on 98% of the browsers and is improving with every version. 
Now it is coming with the Office suite based on AIR. With its amazing presence in the small business world in both PC and Mac worlds and its connections with the web developer community, Adobe has all the armour to take on MS .net  and their office suite. 

I think Google has to stick with its ad selling business and take it to television, radio, news papers, magazines and hoardings and make the most of the 1 trillion dollars of Ad Money out there.
And leave it to Adobe to cut the life line of Microsoft.

Recall and Media

It is amazing how media feeds their interests into the general public minds like a slow poison. Subtle references and opinions are embedded all over the commentary in the news or op-eds or talk shows.
Last week I was watching a news cast in CNN about the recalls of toys in United States sold by US companies which happened to be manufactured in China. And there is a collective media effort to blame it on the Chinese. OK, agreed. Chinese plants are not sticking to the standards. But they are just factories and manufacturers. If there is a problem with the quality of the products, it is an issue between the company that sourced its manufacturing to these Chinese companies. It's the US companies which are selling those toys in USA and it is their responsibility to make sure they are checked for Quality and are adhering to the standards of the market they are selling into. Even a kid can understand that.
But if you watch day after day, show after show, they blame it on the Chinese. And even more subtle is the way the Media project China as a nation. Check this comment from Lou Dobbs.
Tonight, a massive new recall of dangerous toys imported from communist China, another recall, another example of our government's failure to protect American consumers from dangerous toys, food, and other imports from China.
He referred to China as 'Communist China'. Where does communism come into picture in this scenario. There is no nation by the name 'Communist China'. Given the fact that, here in US, the word 'communism' is more or less a swear word it shows how the media is using to slowly inject the poison into the people heads. And trying to brand China with poor quality. If there is any one to blame here, its the US government and the Company which released them into the market.

And now you have 21.7 million pounds of Beef recalled from the US company from a US source, which is much more dangerous and serious situation than having a little lead in the toys. And I am curious to know the adjectives the media use for United States. Beef recalled from 'Chauvinist US', 'Imperialist US', 'Democratic US' ... hmmm.. Don't get me wrong here...I love US and I think it is the best place to live in.. but can't turn a blind eye on such manipulations. So in the true American tradition, I don't act on it, I just Blog ;)