BULL RUN 2006

Sensex in league with the DOW...Is that a cause of concern, or should we look for the next milestone? Is the Sensex as beleaguered as the Dow?

Stock market in India still may not be more expensive than the developed markets given the pace of earnings growth. Traditionally, despite higher growth rates, emerging markets have not got higher valuations than developed markets as they scored less in several other parameters like macro imbalances, corporate governance, inefficient resource allocation and weak banking systems. However, now America is seen as failing on all these counts, especially given its huge trade deficit and corporate governance issues.

For the second time in 11 years the Sensex crossed the DJIA. Interestingly, it was on March 29, 1999 that the DJIA crossed the 10000 mark for the first time. The two (indices) are obviously not comparable but some feel that the sensex has managed to breach a vital psychological barrier.

The growth has been faster for the sensex than for the Dow. But the two can’t be compared. So, what do we get to conclude??? The US is a mature economy, growing at a much slower rate than India’s. Ours is an emerging market where the economy is expanding at over 8% and is currently viewed as a darling of investors. Also, the Dow is a price-weighted index with adequate measures to boost liquidity, such as automatic stock splits. The sensex, in comparison, is a free-float market cap weighted index

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, as the race has just heated up. In the World Cup of stock market indices, the Indian bulls may have overtaken Uncle Sam, but there are still a few other players that are still in the reckoning. The market's got miles ahead!!!

3D- SEEK

Searching for this thingamajig or that doohickey? A new search engine could help you find the item in an online catalog not by its name or product number, but by its shape.

The 3D-Seek search engine, being developed by Purdue University and software start-up Imaginestics in West Lafayette, Ind., uses sophisticated pattern recognition programs to match sketches or finished illustrations with the right three-dimensional image file of an industrial part. The neat thing is that you can search 3D with 3D. You can search using a sketch or an image or using a 3-D part.

Although the software is initially geared toward the manufacturing industry, it could find its way to the ordinary consumer, helping shoppers at hardware or auto parts stores locate the correct component based on a freehand sketch.

Although the 3D-Seek catalog contains just 6,000 parts on a Web site that the company has invited the public to test out, the software is capable of sifting through millions of components.

INDIA - CHANGING PARADIGMS!

WHAT will be the number-one geopolitical story in 2007? Don't be surprised if by this time next year, India is the hot topic and Manmohan Singh, its prime minister, one of the world's most-watched leaders. The reason is, in part, the sheer numbers. India, with relatively young demographics, now has one billion people. By 2030, it is believed, India's population will outstrip China's. By 2050, the world's economy, it is predicted, will be led by the Asian-Pacific/Western quartet of China, India, Japan and the United States.

India should prove a deeply interesting story every step of the developmental way. It both flourishes from (and festers under) a democratic system of government that is long on federal, state and local checks-and-balances but is short on efficiency. In China � where once a decision is made, all discussion is over or else heads will roll � a bridge can be constructed faster than India can even make the decision whether or not to build one. India, with its tradition-bound, change-adverse bureaucracy, is not exactly built for speed.

But, paradoxically, its basic system may be well suited for the long haul. In the last decade or so governments have come and gone as political coalitions have risen and fallen; but the overall Indian vision of modernisation and globalisation has remained solidly intact, bureaucracy or not. But, as Singapore's founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, put the matter in a speech last November in New Delhi, "India must make up for much lost time. There is in fact already a strong political consensus between India's two major political parties that India needs to liberalise its economy and engage with the dynamic economies of the world. The time has come for India's next tryst with destiny."

India's current PM is a fascinating fellow. He is no Koizumi of Japan, all flare and hair and bold gestures lurking. He is not like the visionary and legendary former leaders of India, Gandhi and Nehru. Instead, Singh, though a most quiet revolutionary, looms of potential historic importance: it was the economic reforms that Singh implemented as Finance Minister in the early 1990s that helped uncork India's pent-up entrepreneurial energies and is now firing up its growing economy.

Singh is a modest man, quiet-spoken, deeply thoughtful, very well respected internationally, widely regarded as being above flattery much less corruption. Cambridge-educated, he is India's first non-Hindu Prime Minister, an ethnic Sikh, but a self-defined technocrat more than anything. Internationally, the Singh coalition government has tried hard to become aggressively engaged. It has moved from Nehru's neutrality to a kind of globalised practicality. It has developed good relations with the Bush administration without buying into Washington's India-as-China's-balance nonsense. And Singh personally has worked hard to defuse tensions with Pakistan. The sight early 2005 of the Indian PM and Pakistan's President Musharraf watching a cricket game together was both unprecedented and unforgettable.

An Indian success song under the baton of Singh would impact favourably in many ways. It would demonstrate that even slow-moving, consensus-needy democratic systems can rival an authoritarian one like China's in economic change. It could contribute to stability in South Asia, where Pakistan as well as India possesses nuclear weapons. And Indian diplomacy could begin to play a more significant problem-solving role in the region.

More vigorous diplomacy by the world's largest democracy is called for. The effect would be to create new winds of positive change in the region and demonstrate that the rise of a peaceful India in Asia is not without significant benefits and powerful consequences....

BACK FROM THE WILD!!!

Date: March 12, 2006

Time: 4am Location: New Delhi
Baggages packed, car fuelled we are all set to leave for an exciting journey to Jim Corbett Wildlife Reserve for a 3 day trip!

Time: 10am Location: Dhikala, Jim Corbett Park
We are driving down to our guest house which is situated inside the reserve. Our room is in the second floor and the balcony faces the Ranganga reservoir which is a manmade resrvoir for the animals...And there is the Kosi River in the far end and the Nainital hills beyond that...a very scenic place!
We have our breakfast and make the bookings for the open jeep safari for 5.30am the next day...Had plans of going for rafting in the river but lack of water spoilt the plans.

Time: 1pm Location: Corbett Hills
Me n my bro go for mountain climbing. We were asked to practice a bit on ground on hanging to ropes and then how to use the foot clamps etc and then we climbed the hills for quite sometime with our guide! It was a bit scary n then we were fine..Later became pretty tired n we came down...Coming down ws fun but a bit dangerous but we were pretty much fine :)))

Time: 5.30pm Location; Forest Guest House
We are bk in our rooms as we are not allowed to wander outside after 5.30pm...We were able to see lotsa deer near the river and were told to keep a lookout 4 tuskers and tigers....We waited and waited but :(((((((
We had our dinner around 8pm and cm bk went 2 d balcony n heard some weird noises....Peacocks n other birds were screaming which meant we could expect a tiger or some wild animal...
And then we saw a her of elephants nopes TUSKERS elephants with those huge tusks....It ws a v.long view but then these are huge creatures so we neednt hd 2 strain much..My bro hd borrowed a pair of binoculars with which he ws irritating me a lot but then it ws k...
And then we went to bed early with hopes of seeing lot more animals in our safari the next day!

Date: March 13, 2006

Time: 5.15am Location: Guest House Entrance
our jeeps are all ready...We had also packed our breakfasts n taken lotsa biscuits n bananas coz v were told there are lotsa baboons too which we can feed! :))) Ours was a green jeep n only d four of us so it ws kewl...And so we start....Our first spotting is an antella (belongs to the family of deer with huge horns) and then a barking deer....As we moved on we spot lots of birds - parakeets and few others whose names am unable to remember now.
All of a sudden everyone ws quite n there were lots of ssssssssshhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhh....A rare variety of python - rock python ws spotted... It had just had its prey and was resting. The prey whatever it was (the guide ws like it is just a rat coz the bulge was pretty small) was being digested...

We then get back for our breakfast around 9.30am! N then crash a bit get up 4 lunch n then go 4 r next round of the safari...Then again lotsa deer, wild boar, buffaloes etc...but our luck no other wild animals came over! Finally we return around 5.15pm n thats it for the day...That night again there ws a forest fire somewhere as a result of which there was a huge stampede of these tuskers and elephants near the river...We couldn't see it clearly but the sounds made it all pretty much evident. We were prohibited from going to the terrace so all we could see was from the balcony.
I then heard the next day that 2 baby elephatns had died in the stampede!!!:(((

Date: March 14, 2006

Time: 9am Location: Devi Mandir
There is this awesome Devi Mandir situated on a small hill(around 65 steps) on the Kosi river. its around 20kms from our guest house. They have built a small bridge (rememebr the movie KAAL) for us to cross...u cd also cross thru the water...As usual me n my bro walked through the river....There wasn't much water coz the ice hasnt melted yet. We had the darshan took snaps played a bit in the river n cm bk...

Time: 1pm Location: Corbett Falls
The last place of our visit...It was around 40kms from our place of stay...And this time i did the driving as the road was also kewl...Again not much water here but did lotsa trekking as there weren't much people around...Hardly a handful of visitors....Man me n my bro hd hazaar fun there...Shl upload all these snaps too...

Date: March 15, 2006

Time: 3.30am
We finally say bye bye to Jim Corbett and start driving back home....We reach around 8.30am n i hit bed n finally get up around 3pm for lunch...

There are times...

I have been lying quiet low now for a few days. But then there is quiet a lot happening thats why. And these are the times when inspite of the fact that there is so much happening, when it comes to telling what it is, you feel kinda..i dunno...like there actually is nothing much to say. Something like we meet up some friends after quiet sometime. There is so much that has happened in this time span. And yet none of that is really spoken. In some cases yes. In many cases, just superficially. Its like there really is no point telling something which is maybe a thing of the past. Thus though as and when events keep happening in your lives, you say to yourself that when I meet so and so, I will probably tell him this. Or maybe that I wish so and so was here for this to listen to. And when the time comes and you meet that person, these things are either long forgotton or maybe remembered but over with or maybe its just become inconsequential now.

I just wrote down something some time back. I really dont care when I wrote this one as to whether its turned up right. Whether it rhymed or not. It just felt right for me somehow. Its not perfect. But it quiet summarises what I go through a lot of times.

There are times when I have so much to say
Its not that I don’t find the words
Its not that I don’t have anybody to say to
Its just that I wonder
I wonder if I would ever be able to say it in entirety
The small details
The deep emotions
Maybe it’s the fear
Of being misunderstood
Or maybe of being understood
Of being felt sorry for
Its also because then nothing remains the same
Would we change
Our attitude to life?
Or worse still
Our attitude to each other?
Can everything ever be untouched again
I hear a no in my head
And it is this that scares me
But how then do I just keep it within me
This searing pain is almost unforgiving
I wish to just say it all
But then come the times when there is indeed no one
I find many
But none who would want to listen.

It’s a strange concoction
When there is the desire
There isn’t the courage
When there is the courage
There isn’t the desire
When there are both
There isn’t anyone

And hence
There continue to be times when I have so much to say
But I conclude
That perhaps
Some things are maybe not meant to be
Or maybe some things exist
But their time is yet to come.......

CHANGE - Juz unable to accept it!!!

Right now, I feel I’m wasting 8 hours of every single day. That's ONE THIRD OF MY LIFE!

Can I spend that time more productively? What if I discovered how to tap into the world of your dreams and CONTROL them? What if Idiscovered a world more REAL than real-life itself? A world that I could control entirely, with NO limitations?

With that sort of power, I could . . .

GET CREATIVE, DISCOVER NEW SKILLS!
Chat with Einstein, develop new ideas, come up with fresh inventions
Watch my fiction ideas play themselves out on a huge cinema screen
Discover solutions that NOBODY ELSE in the world has even thought about
Develop new skills and talents . . . let Tiger Woods improve my handicap!

Man! There are these times when you feel so damn irritated. I mean even as I am typing this I am punching the keys on my keyboard so hard. Its one of those days when I know I have tons of work ahead of me and that very thought puts me off. To add it, its gonna b weekend and still am not enthued about it. I have my project seminar coming up within a week or so and still have not done a thing! But damn I have been trying to read just the first two pages for the past one hour. And have not succeeded at all.. Its not that I cant work, its more like I don’t wanna. I just wanna freak out. Not that I am not already freaked right now! But freak out in the sense, just settle down on my bed. Read some nice books, watch some amazing movies on my laptop, have pakodas and chai in the evening. Write when I want to. Sleep as much as I want to. Blissssssssss, where are you ?

Its really irritating though at times like these. You know you should be doing something. You are trying to do something. But you end up doing nothing. Just the sheer workload means you should start crossing off things one by one from your list. But from morning I have just been pointless jumping from one task to another, completing nothing at all.

That’s why I have turned to writing now when nothing was happening. The best part about writing is that as and when you write, your feelings get released. Already I am feeling much better. Its like just (pardon me for the term!) flushing out everything that you want to! Writing is really a blessing for those who indulge in it. It gives you a kick when you can express something that you want to and in a way that the other person is also able to understand and relate to. Blogs have to be one of the best things to have happened till date.

I used to maintain a diary back till last sem. But then a diary is prone to being read by people you don’t want to. Moreover, taking a pen and paper and scribbling down random thoughts also meant that in case you wanted to erase something, you had to rub and make it look all ugly. Add to that the constraint of just having maybe half a page or one page depending on what kind of a diary you have or which day of the week is it in the diary. Some would give half a page for Sunday while others would give a full page to it.

I have made that transition from the pen to the mouse pointer and the keyboard. And when you are able to do that, you realise that it really is so much more fun. Especially if you have a smooth keyboard. Man I love smooth keyboard, The keys are all so light, that you just feel like typing and typing. Something that I am doing right now!

WATER - AN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY!

Oh boy oh boy!!! Water supposedly one of the mosy abundant resources has now become the most sought after commodity. The water shortage has created investment opportunities , and interest in water is at an all-time high. Why the interest in water? Like gold and oil, water is a commodity - and it happens to be rather scarce.

In the closing days of 2005, the PowerShares Water Resources Portfolio became the most recent addition to a growing number of ways to invest in water. And the reason behind all this is the simple same old geography we have been learning for years --- about 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water, but 97% of it is saltwater, which is unfit for human use. Saltwater cannot be used for drinking, crop irrigation or most industrial uses. Of the remaining 3% of the world's water resources, only about 1% is readily available for human consumption. Rapid industrialization and increasing agricultural use have contributed to worldwide water shortages. Pollution also highlights the need for clean water.

And this morning i check out Investopedia only to find indexes designed to track various water-related investment opportunities...

• Palisades Water Index - This index was designed to track the performance of companies involved in the global water industry, including pump and filter manufacturers, water utilities and irrigation equipment manufacturers. The ticker symbol for the Palisades Water Index is ZWI. The index was set at 1000 as of December 31, 2003. It closed at 1351.08 on December 30, 2005.
  
• Dow Jones U.S. Water Index - Composed of approximately 23 stocks, this barometer climbed from 500 to 800 over the 12 months ending December 31, 2005. The ticker for the Dow Jones Water Index is DJUSWU.
  
• ISE-B&S Water Index - Launched in January 2006, this new index represents water distribution, water filtration, flow technology and other companies that specialize in water-related solutions. It contains 20 stocks. The ticker for the ISE-B&S Water Index is HHO.
  
• S&P 1500 Water Utilities Index - A sub-sector of the Standard & Poor's 1500 Utilities Index, this index is composed of just two companies, American States Water (ticker: AWR) and Aqua America (ticker: WTR). In 2005, the S&P 1500 Water Utilities Index rose in excess of 45%

Source: Investopedia.com

Few days ago, even 93.5FM had a mention of WATER being an alternative transport route due to an increase in the traffic levels in cities...The big auto companies are now designing models of cars that can run in water....So watch out --- here's a great opportunity for all those teeming entrepreneurs.Chalo..... chalte hain chance pe dance karne!

SO WHAT ARE WE CELEBRATING???

Today, on International Women's Day, is there anything left to fight for?
The answer, it would seem, is a resounding yes: from women around the world who are using today to launch a raft of campaigns tackling everything from domestic violence to third world debt. The 8th of March has always given us an opportunity to think globally.

One of the most interesting campaigns to link to International Women's Day is Women Make the News. Run by Unesco, it's calling on all media organisations to ensure that the world's news output on the day is produced under the editorial responsibility of women. As new technology expands the range and power of the media, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that the news agenda represents women's needs and interests as much as those of men.

Of course men and women are not so fundamentally different as to choose entirely conflicting agendas - often it's about sensibility rather than gender, an occasional shift of emphasis rather than a complete change of subject. Of course, if all that activity doesn't appeal, you could always take the day off. Today groups of women worldwide will be striking for an end to no pay, low pay and too much work, demanding wages for all caring work, equal pay and paid maternity leave, as well as the abolition of third world debt, the burden of which falls heaviest on women.

So what are we celebrating? The myriad of advances that have improved the lives of women, particularly in the developed world, over the past decade. But still, globally as well as locally, there is plenty to think about, today and every day.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

Suddenly, the drive that moves me on to write something seems terribly missing. I've been a little tipsy turvy with my emotions .. be it an inexplicable sense of euphoria or a dark deep feeling of depression. I thought i had lost this urge to pen down my thoughts on the paper until today. Kudos to all those great souls who have time to scribble something on their blog everyday. But blogging need not actually make sense everytime right!!!

Today is a beautiful day. One can see the The bunnies, cats, bears, and hearts in the sky. Now i wonder how they take these recognisable shapes and patterns. Does the wind god and Brahma actually sit and make these impressions every day and constantly think how to improve on them everyday. Naah they are not software professionals!

Almost always, it's the unexpected that brings us joy. It may only be a shaft of sunlight, slanting through the pillars of a banyan tree; or dewdrops caught in a spider's web or just an invite for having a plate of poha and chai for breakfast watching the rain. All the way to my PS station, i dreamt of a cyclist in the park, trim under his sleek soft red helmet, cruising along the dirt path...at three miles an hour. On his tricycle. Dreams are so weird and strange. Sure they would have some purpose. I wish i had a dream analyser that would help me in finding out whats running in ones mind..when one is asleep. I wish i could interpret my dreams.

Today is a beautiful day for someone else too who has gone ahead to make their dream come true!!!