Professor Randy Pausch is no more

CMU Professor Randy Pausch of “the last lecture” fame is no more. He died of cancer on July 25, 2008.

 

On September 18, 2007, Professor Randy surprised everyone in CMU by giving a talk with an unusual title “The Last Lecture – Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. Quoting from his personal experiences he related to the career goals and personal goals of students during their formative years. It was such a touching, inspirational and thought provoking talk that millions of students watched his lecture that became the top video in YouTube video sharing service.

 

He was just 47; has 3 small children. The positive way in which he took life as it unfolds – cancer of pancreas and with just months of life left – is a lesson for all human beings. It reminds of Parikshit - the king and grandson of Arjuna, who had only seven days left; Parikshit used the seven days to listen to Srimad Bhagavatam in the form Saptaham (7 days), the tradition behind Bhagavata Saptaham till date.

 

Randy is no more; but he has left behind a better world – millions of people whom he influenced in the past 10 months are better human beings. That is ultimately the purpose of life!

Intel Teach Program event

It was a great experience to be with nearly 300 Principals of the various schools where Intel Teach program is active on Wednesday July 23, 2008 at RV Teachers College, Jayanagar.

 

Organized by Prerana Educators Network (President Ms Padmini being an extra-ordinary teacher & organizer), the event was well attended and organized.

 

Mr. Ashok Manoli in his keynote talked of the need to address issues of “digital divide” and “rural urban divide”.

 

Mr. Subodh Manav and Mr. Suryanarayanan of Intel were there; it is nice to see the young managers not only arranging Intel funding, but also contributing their personal time.

 

In my brief talk I brought the attention of the teachers to the fact that Intel Chairman Dr Craig Barrett was a professor at Stanford with an outstanding textbook to his credit.

 

I also urged the teachers to realize how lucky we are to be the teachers, who shape “India’s Tomorrow” (the true “IT) and how IT will be increasingly “invisible”. I also hinted to them that access (PC, network penetration), availability (reliability & costs) and affordability (costs) will NOT be an issue 5 to10 years from now. The challenge will be to engage the students in all the 4 L’s of Learning, namely, Lecture (e-Learning), Library (Digital Library), Laboratory (remote lab access like iLab) and Life. It will be possible to give “individual” attention to every student using technology (like N=1 of Professor CK Prahalad)

Using the experiment of installing ring tones where COO’s failed but the drivers succeeded, I also put at bay the “digital divide” is more of “digital dividend” (the same can be said of “rural urban divide” too.

Karnataka Chief Minister addresses the captains of IT & BT industry

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. Yeddyurappa addressed the CEO’s of several IT (Information Technology) and BT (Bio Technology) companies on July 23, 2008 at 8 PM over a Dinner meet.

 

He was joined by several of his cabinet colleagues (including Hon’ble IT Minister Mr. Naidu) and several senior IAS officers (including the Chief Secretary).

 

I was asked to give my opening remarks. I was a bit out of place (the only other Professor being Prof. Sharat Chandra of IISc). I used the opportunity to get across to the government that IT & BT industry have contributed a lot to the growth of Karnataka in general & Bangalore in particular.

 

There is no city in the world like Bangalore – the top 2 firms in every segment being present – HP & IBM, Intel & AMD, Microsoft & Oracle, SAP & Oracle, nVidia & ATI, TI & Intel, Samsung & LG, Siemens & ABB, Cadence & Synoptics, Philips & Samsung, Nokia & Motorola, Accenture & EDS, Microsoft & Redhat, Freescale & Infineon, and, of course, the world headquarters of Infosys & Wipro

Karnataka is No 1.

 

Yet, I also pointed out that just in the last year AP grew 40+ percent, Tamil Nadu grew 20+ percent, while Karnataka grew only 10+ percent. Companies like SAP who planned to grow only in Bangalore are growing elsewhere. It is time the government recognizes the trend, make it an inviting place and arrest the falling growth. Like human beings, industry also “want to be wanted”

 

Several eloquent speakers followed me; Kiran of Biocon and Kris of Infosys.

 

The team came on time; in fact, the CM was ahead of time. Everyone appreciated the spirit; one hopes Karnataka will be in the growth path again.

 

The CM agreed to meet 3 months later and apprise every one of the “ground level action”; it will be interesting to watch

 

 

 

CACM has a new birth

The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the first society in computing, re-launched its flagship magazine “Communications” today with July 2008 edition.

For many of us used to CACM (the way Communications is called) since 70’s, it is indeed heartening to see the transformation in

• Content

• Layout

• Design

And

• Branding

It is refreshingly pleasing to the eyes; there is depth in content; consistency in style; and, clarity in addressing the different stake holders.

I am sure CACM over the next one year will claim its exalted position within computing literature.

Lord Balaji comes to Bangalore

Reviving a 600+ year old tradition, the authorities of the famous Balaji temple in Tirupati Tirumala, namely TTD, had arranged for a Kalyanotsavam of the divine couple in the Palace Grounds on June 22, 2008 (Sunday). It was an exciting event. The pandal was large enough to hold as many as 3,00,000 people. All the devotees had free darsan. The lighting arrangement was superb; they had very large (up to 10 feet) screens for those sitting far away. The audio was excellent. They had re-created Tirumala temple in many aspects. The flower arrangement was fantastic. Prior to the Kalynotasavam starting at 6:10 PM, there was excellent music; Mandolin from Srinivas and Annamacharya kirtanas by one of the famous artiste, with a gifted voice. The temple priests did a great job; the devotion, festivity and the spirit of positive energy was palpable. The crowd was managed well, through a system of volunteers (though the VIP crowd gave them a tough time). The authorities brought 1,75,000 laddus all the way from Tirumala; distributed it along with food and water in 75 counters!

In all it was a great effort; hopefully the Lord will bring some relief to the battered government headed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, Hon’ble Chief Minister (who was present with his colleagues) and good progress for Karnataka in general and Bangalore in particular. His Excellency Mr. Rameshwar Thakur the Governor was present throughout. Only divine intervention can help the sagging spirit of Karnataka and Bangalore, bruised for long by people who let the slide continue for 40 months.

Toastmasters Club at CapGemini

It was nice to be with folks at CapGemini (top 10 global outsourcing company) at the launch of their Toastmasters Club. I had to speak on Ethics, Corporate Governance and Leadership.

All that I did was to take examples from Infosys, Wipro, HP and Microsoft (interesting life experiences of the founders) to drive home the point ethics must be practiced

Corporate governance is not one more “SOX utility” but the very DNA of the company

Ethics practiced well and corporate governance at ALL levels is the only sure way of leadership

NEN Start-up Day Zero at IIIT-B

NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network) had the first edition of their innovative idea “Start-up Day) at IIIT-B on June 19, 2008.

The concept is interesting; with start-ups getting to speed, there is a need to get the best students look up this option seriously. The Placement officers in the Institute are forced to give Day 1 slot to the companies to the companies that would offer the largest number of jobs (IT service companies) or highest salary (product companies, MNCs); start-up can match neither of them. Getting on the last date of placements does not help the start-ups. By keeping a day exclusively for start-ups that too on Day Zero (before the placement process starts) we expect to give the best option for both the students and the recruiters. There are also other innovations; “speed dating” so that the companies need not go through long presentations, written tests, interviews..

An interesting experiment, that is likely to go to other places also soon.

It was great listening to the founders / CEO’s of start-ups

RedBus, Mango Technologies, Mobisys, OutDo, Readiminds, Yos Technologies, Tyfone, 8KMiles

Sanjay Anandram, CEO of JumpStart mentioned some interesting ideas through pithy statements; those I liked include

1. Do you want to be the 72,942rd employee or the third or 20^th employee?
2. Journey is the award
3. Do you want to climb Everest or want to watch others climbing Everest in National Geographic TV?
4. The five things VC’s look for in a start-up during evaluation “Team, market size, growth, USP and business models”
5. Cost arbitrage, Labor arbitrage, Unique to India, Served out of India for the world – the four models available today for start-ups

Canara HCBC Oriental Bank of Commerce start India’s 19th Life Insurance Company

HSBC, the global banking & insurance giant, with $ 9 billion annual insurance premium alone, Canara Bank, the second largest public sector bank with more than Rs 260,000 crores of deposits / loans and Oriental Bank of Commerce a focused public sector bank with more than Rs 120,000 crores business in India announced the launch of its operation on June 16, 2008.

 

The first eight policies were issued to chosen children from the underprivileged sections of the society. The kids

• Eight yeal old Ganesh wanting to be an engineer
• Harinakshi (13) wanting to be a teacher
• Fouza (14) wanting to be an engineer
• Shabaz (7) wanting to be a doctor
• Amit (7) wanting to be an engineer
• Anubashri  (8) wanting to be the Principal of a school
• Prashant (13) wanting to be a teacher
• Prakash (13) wanting to be an engineer

represent truly the future India.

 

 

 

In addition to the MBN Rao, CMD of Canara Bank, Clive Bannister, MD of HSBC Insurance, David Fried of HSBC Asia, Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head, HSBC (India), and Alok Mishra, CMD, Oriental Bank of Commerce there was the first CEO of this new venture Harpal Harlcut.

 

Interestingly, Canara bank with $ 66 billion of annual business, and Oriental Bank of Commerce with $ 34 billion of annual business are coming together (making into a nice $ 100 billion) to start this joint venture.

 

 

 

HSBC the world’s local bank with $ 2.4 trillion assets and operation in 50 countries globally has deep Indian connections; there were 2 businessmen in the founding team way back in 1865; currently the able team of 33,000 people led by an outstanding leader Naina Lal Kidwai contributes $ 500 m to HSBC; HSBC installed the first ATM in India in 1987 and handles 5% of India’s export-import business.

 

It was instructive to see the Finance Minister referring to “inability of logical explanation to convince those ideologically opposed” in his speech. He also referred to the need of “simple” policies to meet the needs of “simple folks” of this highly under-insured country who manage to keep India a country with one of the highest savings rate (35%)

 

There was an excellent “Laser Show” for the launch; another Laser Show talked about Canara Bank reaching yet another milestone (reaching 1,000 branches in its core banking initiative)

Indian pharma Ranbaxy major becomes Japanese subsidiary

“Japanese drug firm Daiichi Sankyo announced the acquisition of a majority stake of more than 50 per cent in Ranbaxy for over Rs 15,000 crore” according to Economic Times.

 

It represents an interesting development;

 

• First, Indian firms could get such high valuation internationally, proving he arrival of the truly India-born MNC’s.
• Second, promoters are ready to accept reality than get bogged down by emotion.
• Third, globalization has made the full circle in India; Tata acquiring Corus steel, India-born Lakshmi Mittal emerging as the largest global steel company thru Arcelor- Mittal; and, Ranbaxy being acquired by a Japanese company.

 

Interesting times indeed.

Apple launches iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software

The January 9, 2008 launch of Apple iPhone 3G is a turning point in the mobile handset evolution. With 3G speeds (at least double of EDGE), added ffeatures (GPS, Search), SDK (Software Development Kit), affordable price ($ 199 for 8GB model), reach (70 countries including India) and ”AppStore” for third party applications, iPhone will “democratize” smart phones and elevate iPhone into a platform that will generate a huge eco-system for the converged (computing, communication, entertainment and gaming) market the way IBM PC did in 80’s for “computing”.

 

Though Apple iPhone sale of 6 million is insignificant compared to Nokia’s 400+ million, iPhone may be able to bring a level of focus to the fragmented market today that has vendor specific interface, operating system and services (often proprietary) forcing third party application developers to work with every major vendor (Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony-Ericsson’s) separately.

iPhone will also push 3G into mainstream, particularly in USA and India; WiMax might suffer in the process

The next few years will be interesting to watch the shape mobile handsets take