Berkeley Professor Eric Brewer is ACM Infosys Foundation 2009 Award winner

ACM announced  today (March 15, 2010) ACM Infosys Foundation Award (next only to Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize in Computing) for the year 2009 and named Professor Eric Brewer as the award winner.

Professor Brewer is best known as the Founder of Inktomi search engine (acquired by Yahoo); his academic contributions include the CAP Theorem concept, and “Wireless Hypothesis”

What I like most about his work is that he is able to

• work on cutting edge computer science that too of fundamental nature (CAP Theorem – Consistency, Availability and Partition tolerance incompatibility, like Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem) ,
• build solid real-world engineering experimental infrastructure (like Network of Workstations (NoW), and,
• contribute enormously through his societal initiatives (Wireless Hypothesis and his TIER Network that has helped thousands of patients to benefit through Tele-medicine from experts in Aravind Eye Hospital in India)

He visited IIIT-B in the year 2008 on an invitation from Professor Balaji Parthasarathy

Infosys has done India proud through the endowment of this Award that identifies outstanding young (around 40 years of age) computer scientists;

Professor Daphne Koller of Stanford for the year 2007,

Professor Jon Kleinberg of Cornell for the year 2008,  and,

Professor Eric Brewer of UC Berkeley for the year 2009

This was part of the contribution of Infosys towards a larger cause in the Silver Jubilee Year (25th year of Infosys. that was founded in 1982)

This is what Kris said as part of the Press Release

“S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris), CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies said, “We are especially proud to honor Eric Brewer for contributions to computer science research and his demonstration of the use of IT for the benefit of disadvantaged populations in many regions, especially in developing nations.”

IIMA Professor on IIM pay packages

For a while the Indian media have been projecting a “much more than rosy” picture of the “fat” salary that IIM graduates reportedly get

Figures of “Crores of Rupees” routinely get mentioned.

This has led to “heart burns” for students and the general public who actually get salaries that are far below.

The mushrooming B Schools in the country use such news item to “lure” potential candidates

Unfortunately, so far most Institutes were not “bold enough” to tell the world that what gets reported is NOT truth, though the item portrays the Institutes in a formidably positive way.

In this backdrop I am so happy that Professor Saral Mukherjee, Placement Head, IIM-A decided to write a very balanced article “Truth about astronomical IIM salary packages” in Economic Times on March 12, 2010.

The learned professor’s words “”It is a signal to the world that IIM-A students are mature enough to disassociate themselves from a very flattering portrayal if the portrayal is not true” should make IIM-A proud

I wish EVERY member of B School Management, faculty and students read this article

Apple iPad is reported to have sold nearly 90,000 units on Day 1

Apple opened bookings for Apple iPad – Wi-Fi versions for $ 499 to 699 (16 GB to 64 GB) and Wi-Fi + 3 G version for $ 629 to 829 (16 GB to 64 GB) on March 12, 2010

On Day 1 it is reported (Apple is yet to confirm) that 90,000 units  bookings (worth more than $ 50 million worth) happened on Day 1

If true, Apple iPad will be the third “roaring success” for Apple (iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007 and now iPad in 2010)

Forbes list of Billionaires

Forbes list of Billionaires was out on March 10, 2010

What is interesting this time?

Bill Gates moves to No 2 making way for Carlos Slim of Mexico (Telecom tycoon)

Larry Ellison of Oracle (6th), Google founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page (24th), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (43rd). Apple founder Steve Jobs (136th) and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (212th) are the IT guys who make it to the list

Two Indians make it to the “Top 10″ – Mukesh Ambani (4th) and Lakshmi Mittal (5th)

Asia, South America and Eastern Europe are slowly entering this list dominated by USA and Western Europe!

USA (22), Swede (3), Germany (3), France (2), Spain (1), Canada (1), Italy (1), Hong Kong (2) and Saudi (1) represent the “old rich“; India (6), Russia (4), Brazil (2), Malaysia (1) and Mexico (1) represent the “Neo Rich” among the “Top 50“

In the “Top 5″ India has 2!

Mukesh Ambani (4th), Lakshmi Mittal (5th), Premji (28th), Anil Ambani (36th), Ruias (40th) and Jindal (44th) are the Indians in “Top 50″

Interesting times indeed!

My take on Karnataka Budget 2010

Karnataka 2010 budget was presented today AN

It was nice to see Education getting the highest allocation (Rs 10,000+ Crores)

The vision of “Education for All” up to 10th Standard and 25% Enrolment for College Education should be translated real fast into reality within 3-5 years

I liked the Rs 100 Crores School Development Fund

Of course there are many sub-critical funding – particularly for Universities. I do hope that at least in the next budget some bold and significant initiatives get announced.

Overall it is a good budget

My take on Budget 2010

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for 2010-2011 (April to March) on February 26, 2010

Things I liked most

1 Symbol for Indian Rupee, I always wondered as to why UK Pound , US Dollar, European Euro, Japanese Yen had a symbol but not Indian Rupee; finally, before the end of 2010 there will be a symbol for INR! To me it is the biggest contribution of Budget 2010

2 PSU undertakings are doing great; it is time that they get listed; in the process there will be more accountability and people (retail investors) will benefit. Being on the Board of Bank of India, NMDC, BEL, NLC I particularly feel happy that Finance Minister is talking proudly about the recent NTPC, REC and the planned NMDC divestment

3 Capital infusion into PSU banks Rs 16,500 Crores to enable all Banks to get Tier I capital

4 Increase in outlay for School Education by another Rs 5,000 crores beyond Rs 26,000 Crores provided last year; higher education did not find any mention though!

5 Skill Development Mission of touching 500 million Indians by 2022 is a noble goal (In fact I am the Chair of one Sub-committees of the five Committees set up by the Planning Commission); the budget allotted some more money though not much!

6  Technology Advisory Group for UID Project gets created and the project gets additional budgetary support

7 R & D investment get 200% tax concession (up from 150%) and University funding gets 175% tax concession from 125%; good for scientific establishment (specially biotech industry R & D);

8 Mobile phone assembly units get duty exemption / reduction; low cost mobile handsets will cost less! Good for aam admi

Microsoft Phone Software has some traction

Launched in Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain on Feb 15, 2010 Microsoft Windows 7 Phone Series seems to get traction even from people who have given up hopes of Microsoft ever getting its Mobile strategy right!

The code base and interface are complete re-write from bottoms up. A “Nike” veteran is in charge of design. Microsoft has moved away from “catch up” mode to “set the benchmark” mode

The partner strategy appears brilliant

Will they deliver? Wait till Holiday Season (Oct end 2010)

Samsung launches Wave phone with “Bada” operating system

In the Mobile World Congress 2010 Samsung launched its Wave phone GT S8500.

Powered by “bada” operating system it is an amazing phone. Its 3.3″ AMOLED display is stunning

Will the mobile handset industry accommodate one more operating system – Symbian, Apple Mac OS, Palm Web OS, Android, Windows Phone 7..?

Only time will tell

Mobile World Congress 2010 @ Barcelona, Spain Day 1 highlights

Day 1 (February 15, 2010)

1 Microsoft Windows Phone 7 (seems very interesting departure from PC centric Windows Mobile)

2 Samsung Beam phone with built-in projector

3. 40 leading telcos (including Airtel & China Telecom) talking of global appstore architecture

4. Voice over LTE (delivered using IMS) getting traction

5. Intel & Nokia agreeing to merge their Mobile OS platforms (MobiLin & MeMo) into MeeGo platform

Interesting days ahead

Theater @ Campus in IIIT-B on Feb 13, 2010

It was truly amazing to see YoursTrulyTheater Group an interesting form of Theater that involves the audience!

Their ability to “in situ” create scenes out of just a few words from the audience that too relating to the particular campus was touching

We were proud to have our own alumnus (Sumit Acharya of the Class of 2004 who works for Oracle) as part of TAC Group

I do hope one day we can teach Software Engineering through such form of Theater!