Talking Moments

I started a new blog exclusively for photos - Talking Moments. I hope to post a few pictures every week if not daily. I have been updating this blog for quite sometime now.

It was Rajiv's suggestion to start a new blog only for pictures. I did look at a few exclusive photoblog sites like uber, flickr, etc. but finally settled for blogspot itself.

F1 2008 - my pre season analysis :)

A few more days left for the first F1 GP of 2008. This year promises to be more exiting than ever (coz of the interesting new rules). Being a strong supporter of Alonso, for me personally it not the best of times. Renault has been developing the 2008 car from scratch from the starting of 2007 itself and they are no way close to Williams or BMW forget Ferrari or McLaren– probably they started the development from a bullock cart. So the official stand for me this year is “I am a supporter of the game – F1” :). This is the stand most F1 fans take when their teams/racers are not doing well – same is the case with me :P. I used to be a fan of McLaren but just can support them anymore after all the mess they created last year. I hope Ron retires sooner than latter.

Ferrari – I am great fan of the legendary Luca, but I equally hate that pig faced Jean. Probably because he was part of the Schumacher team (there were times when they won races because of their lawyers, money and cheap tricks rather than Schumacher’s racing skills). It was such a pleasure to see him loose to Alonso in 2006. And I hope Jean too retires soon.

I am hoping against hope that BMW or Williams will give a tough competition to both McLaren and Ferrari.

Anyways these are my views; everyone has the right to have theirs.

The main theme of this post is the new rules that FIA have brought in. Pretty interesting actually –

• The most important rule. Almost all electronic driver assistance has been removed – that includes traction control and electronic braking systems. All team will be using the ECU (electronic control unit) developed by Microsoft!!!! Shit I hope the engineers and drivers don’t have to see the Microsoft copyrighted BSD (the dreaded Blue Screen of Death) during the races.
• 5.5% of the fuel used should be sourced from biological sources – basically ethanol. Green is the way to go but I don’t understand the logic behind this – don’t know in what way this will help the environment. Did someone mention Carbon Credits :P.
• A new design requirement has been brought in to give additional protection to drivers’ head. A change introduced after the 2007 Australian GP accident involving Coulthard and Wurz. Coulthards car missed Wurz’s head by inches :o in that accident.
• Same gearboxes should be used for 4 races. Teams like Super Aguri will be celebrating – they will have to worry about the gearbox costs only once in 4 races.
• Qualifying has been changed to 20/15/10 minutes format. With 7 cars being eliminated in the first two segments.
• This could be tricky – cars will not be allowed to refuel from the start of the last segment – Q3 till the start of the race. A tricky change, will be interesting to see how teams adapt to this in the first few races.
• There are some restrictions on testing - 350KM i guess. – not very sure of this rule though.
• Each team can have only 2 assembled cars at any time during the race weekend.
• Also exact rules have been specified to verify fuel temperature.
  

I guess most of these rules were brought in to assist the poorer teams. The new ECU rule will have far reaching consequences. I was hoping that the slick tires too would come in this season itself, but I guess that will happen only in 2009.

There will be a good competition between Ferrari and Mclaren for the top slots and between Williams, BMW and Renault (i hope) for 3rd, 4th and 5th positions. Renault could come strong in the latter half of the season (when its too late). My predictions would be Kimi, Lewis (i hope this idiot too goes out of McLaren with Ron - dont know from whom he will copy the car setup this year) and Massa.

But everyone lives on hopes and I hope that Renault pulls of something spectacular this season to help Alonso win, if they don’t – I am supporting F1, not any specific team or driver ;)

Opps how could I forget to mention this – I hope our very own Force India F1 team with the support of 1 billion hearts makes atleast one podium finish.

What is so local about it!!!

A lot has been said and written about this issue. It has been a while since I though I should put down my opinion on it.

Now the question – should locals be given preference in their native states for jobs. My answer both YES and NO.

Broadly I would like to divide the jobs into two sections. The first section – the professionals – IT, banking, management, consultants, etc, basically people with a professional degree. The second section – what you call the blue collar jobs, which includes manufacturing, construction, sales people in malls, security staff, house keeping staff, etc.

People who qualify for the first section of jobs are well educated and also the jobs in this section are very demanding. Competition should be the order of the day for these jobs. For this category there should absolutely be no preference given to the any category of people. As David Sarnoff (the founder of NBC) said “Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people”. Only the fittest should survive. There should be no discrimination here.

The second section is the mass jobs sections. It is absolutely necessary to have some sort of reservation for the locals here. Taking a broader view – not doing this will lead to many social problems (Did someone mention about naxalism spreading rapidly in South India?). The jobs in this section do not require high degree of skills and even if they do need, it can be met with some basic training. The people who qualify for this section generally belong to the lower class of the society as CK Prahalad puts it – people from the “bottom of the pyramid”. They are the people who form the majority of any society. The welfare of these people should be the main concern of any government (obviously they also form the biggest vote bank).

Certain state governments have done better than others in attracting investments into their state. They have worked harder at providing facilities to companies than other states. They have acquired lands from people in their state to give it to these companies, in the hope that these companies generate large employment opportunities. They have provided water and electricity at subsidized rates (as a result the whole state pays extra to offset this) to these companies. They have invested large portion of the state revenues to develop infrastructure (though they are not sufficient). Having been part of all the sacrifices what is wrong when people from these progressive state demand some preference in jobs. These people should have the first right to the fruit of success of their states.

Why should the people of these progressive states pay for the mistakes of the governments of these non progressive states? Sprit of nationhood should exist but that not at the cost of the well fare of the local population. I am surprised to see the politicians from these non progressive states reading out rules from the constitution regarding equality (Opps I am just wondering if they ever had opened this book ever before!!!). Had they followed this very constitution properly in their states, their people would not have come to other states in search of livelihood. These politicians should get their priorities right before they do anything else. Rather than shouting their hearts out, they should look at emulating the progress of other states in their own states.

Is it a coincidence that a larger percentage of Biharis are getting the railway jobs? Is it a coincidence that more and more trains are being introduced to Bihar (from all over the country)? Bullshit – shamelessly they talk of the spirit of nationhood.

Having said all this, do I approve of the kind of tactics that Raj Thakre employ? – NO.

It was sad to see, the extents to which people go to promote ones own political ambitions. These people are more interesting in publicity rather than the welfare of their own people.

If regional parties like our very own KRV are really concerned about the local population then they should –

• Lobby with the governments to open more ITIs (industrial training institutes). These are the institutes that impart training to people for manufacturing, construction, etc. They do wonders to the economy of any state. Provide a larger pool of skilled workers. This will attract more companies. It’s a vicious circle.
• Stop opposing English as a medium of instruction. Kannada or the local language should be made compulsory, but there is no point in opposing English. It is this language that will finally decide if someone gets a job or not.
• Open more finishing schools. These schools (similar to the ITIs) provide essential industry specific skills for people who wish to join the retails industry, call center jobs, etc. IIIT Bangalore opened recently opened one such school to help local IT graduates.
• Lobby with the government to see to that companies that handle large infrastructure projects in the state hire people locally rather than people from outside. I have seen a few infrastructure companies from AP getting people from AP to do jobs here. For all government jobs, the companies should be forced to use local labors.
  
• Instead of targeting IT companies for reservation in IT jobs, they should focus their energies on large retail and construction companies, house keeping companies, textile companies to hire local people.
  

But taking up these issues wont provide the regional parties with instant publicity and fame that they want, they wont get the TV coverage like what they get when they attack IT companies or outside people.

Mr Narayana Gowdare its time to rethink your game plans, having a non violent stance will legitimize your demands and also help you win over more people. You cause seams to be good, but the way you want to achieve it does not.