How to handle the fraudsters?

I got a fraud mail which claims job to me and asked me to pay Rs 14700. The content of the mail is bellow. I ignored the mail. What about the people who does not know about the fraudsters? Is there way where we can go and complain about them? Is the government taking any action against them?

This is the mail to me

Job OfferWednesday, September 1, 2010 12:46 AM
From: "Videocon Electronics India Ltd" Add sender to Contacts
To: undisclosed-recipients
--
REF: "VIDEOCON" DIRECT RECRUITMENTS OFFER.

Your Resume has been selected for our new plant. The Company selected 62
candidates list for IT,Administration,Production, marketing and general
service Departments, It is our pleasure to inform you that your Resume was
selected as one of the 62 candidates shortlisted for the interview. The
Company VIDEOCON is a brand name in Electronics manufacturing business in
India, The Company is recruiting the candidates for our new plants in
Delhi,Bangalore, Pune and mumbai.

Your interview will be held at The Company Corporate office in New Delhi on
10Th of September at 11.30 AM, You will be pleased to know that The 62
candidates selected 55 candidates will be giving appointment, Meaning that
your Application can progress to final stage. You will have come to The
Company corporate office in New Delhi. Your offer letter with Air Ticket
will be sent to you by courier before date of interview. The Company can
offer you a salary with benefits for this post 35, 000/- to 2, 00, 000/-
P.M. + (HRA + D.A + Conveyance and other Company benefits. The designation
and Job Location will be fix by Company HRD. At time of final process. You
have to come with photo-copies of all required documents.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS BY THE COMPANY HRD.
======================================
1) Photo-copies of Qualification Documents.
2) Photo-copies of Experience Certificates (If any)
3) Photo-copies of Address Proof
4) Two Passport Size Photograph.

You have to deposit the (Cash) as an initial amount in favor of Company HRD.
Department. for Rs. 14,200/- (Fourteen thousand two hundred rupees )
through any [STATE BANK OF INDIA] Branch from your Home City to Company
Senior HRD. Account NO, which will be send to you upon your response. This
is a refundable interview security. Your offer letter with Air tickets will
be sent to your Home Address by courier after receiving the confirmation of
interview security deposited in STATE BANK OF INDIA. This Company will pay
all the expenditure to you at the time of face-to-face meeting with you in
Company.

The Job profile, salary offer, and date -time of interview will be mention
in your offer letter. Your offer letter will dispatch very shortly after
receiving your confirmation of cash deposited in STATE BANK OF INDIA.

We wish you the best of luck for the subsequent and remaining stage. The
last date of security deposited in bank 1ft of September 2010 You have to
give the information after deposited the security amount in bank to The
Company HRD - direct recruitment via email. Your Letter with supporting
document will be dispatch same time by courier to your postal address after
receipt of security deposited confirmation in bank. The interview process
and arrangement expenditure will be paid by VIDEOCON. Lodging, traveling and
local conveyance actual will be paid by VIDEOCON as per bills. The candidate
has to deposit the initial refundable security as mentioned by HRD.

NB: You are advice to reconfirm your mailing address and phone number in
your reply. and 14,000/- (Fourteen thousand rupees ) will be the refundable
amount, as 200 rupees will be deducted as bank charges for funds deposit.
and if you are been selected or not, still the amount will be refunded to
you, as the amount is just to prove that you will be coming for the
interview in order for us not to run at lost after sending you the air
ticket and you don't show up on the day of interview.

Wishing you the best of lucks

Regards
MRS.ANAMIKA THAKUR - (Executive - HRD)
Videocon Electronics India Ltd.
H.O. - 174, Videocon House,
G.K. Part ? 1, Greater Kailash.
Email: recruitvideoconc2010@gmail.com
call:1132090523

Be genius and spend your time behind the bar

India went with Electronic voting machine before western countries. And we are able to count and declare results in a day. As a techy I was happy with EVM. I thought EVM like any other software/hardware has gone through its testing. However couple of people claimed it can be tampered. And they were asked to proof their hypothesis without giving access to the EVM.

How will one prove that EVM can be tampered without having access to one? I am unable to understand it. Hari prasad proved that EVM can be tampered. So he has done a good job in showing the flaw in our existing process. He could have sold his research to political party and earn millions. In stead of that he told it in public in front of media.

What did he get in return? He along with his research team are arrested. EC which challenged Hari Prasad along with others to prove that EVM can not be tampered has not taken any corrective action yet. I am not sure if EC going to use EVM which can be tampered in future election or will go back to ballot. EC has not made any statement in this regard.

I thought Hari prasad should have awarded for his brilliancy or should be called for some position which needs good knowledge on security etc. Rather he was punished. It made a bad precedent and people will prefer to use their knowledge in black market (like selling the research to political party) than making it public.

Another email for hacking your account

Today I got an email from ICICI Bank Ltd ( I am sure the from address is forged. The content of the mail is as follows

Dear ICICI Bank Member,

In view of the recent cyber attacks towards our customers, We at ICICI have introduced
a new security system against Malicious Online Identity Theft.

Kindly submit the form attached to this email in order to enroll your ICICI Bank account
in the new online protection System.

If you are using Internet Explorer please allow ActiveX for scripts to perform all data
transfers securely.

Thank you for using ICICI Bank !

Please do not reply to this email.
This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2010 ICICI Bank. All rights reserved.


ICICI Bank Account Enrollment form.pdf.html
1K Open as a Google document View Download


I tried opening the attachment both in chrome and IE with ActiveX enabled in IE.

With IE 8, I get the following information


This website has been reported as unsafe
188.72.243.72

We recommend that you do not continue to this website.
Go to my home page instead

This website has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.


This is the screenshot I was getting while using Chrome.




When I clicked on personal, I got an warning message,

Warning: Suspected phishing site!
The website at 188.72.243.72 has been reported as a “phishing” site. Phishing sites trick users into disclosing personal or financial information, often by pretending to represent trusted institutions, such as banks.
Learn more about phishing scams.

I have clicked proceed anyway to see what the phisher is doing, I got the following page. On the page, all the links goes to ICICI but when I put all the details (of course none are right, I got the following page,






After filling random details and clicking on update I got the following page




When I provided the grid details it took me to the following page.


Browsers are smart enough and stops one from going to the phishing site. Microsoft takes it one step further by not allowing the user to view the pages, however sometimes it is too late. One need not give her details to the phisher.

Be careful of the auto numbers

I have been frequently travelling by Auto at Bangalore. Some of them are nice guyz where are most of them are cheats. There is no point in complaining to police.

I thought one can safely travel with electronic meter auto, but that is of no use. Some of the autos with electronic meter are tampered where as some of the autos with mechanical meter are running as required. So I have decided to have a database of regular and tampered meter auto. This by myself is a herculean task, I am maintaining the database, anybody can send his details to me, I will add to my database and I will make the database publicly accessible and may hand it over to auto union or police.

This is what happened to me today

Auto Number:KA03-A5482
Starting Point: Ganesh Temple Marathally
End Point: Binnamangala Bus Stop
Route: Via Domlur flyover
regular price: Rs 60
Price in the auto: Rs 84

Anybody wishes to add any details can mail me at parsuraram.panigrahi@gmail.com

Indian citizen Vs American citizen

Indians have a cheaper life than that of the Americans. And we Indians have set the trend. It is not the american, but Indian people who does not value themselves.

Look at the BP oil spill and compare it with the Bhopal gas tragedy. The American president himself ensures that BP gets punished for oil spill. Where as Prime minister of India either let the CEO of union carbide go or did not bother to address the issue. He was talking to the chief minister regularly but not about the union carbide issue.

Congress party blames its chief minister, where as politicians blame judiciary and judiciary blames politicians. We are only good at blame game, but not in action.

In 2000 world cup foot ball, South Korea denied entries to a group of Indians who won the ticket to South Korea from Britania. more than 80 people were standing in Paris airport when there was a change in schedule in Air France. The list continues. Where as other countries respect American citizens.

When Indians are not concerned about their live, how do we expect others to be worried about us?

simple math

I was taught from class 6 that 25 * 25 = (2*3) hundred + 25 and so on

when calculating square of n5 (which is 10n+5) it is (n(n+1))*100+25

I never bothered to know why, but tested it with couple of numbers and said it is working fine.

I was explaining how to calculate squares orally to my wife without using pen and paper. To calculate square of 79, one can calculate it by (80-1)^2


Then i thought I can calculate that of 25 in similar manner.

(10n+5)^2 = (10n)^2+2.10n.5+5^2
=100n^2+100n+25
=100(n^2+n)+25
=n(n+1)100+25

Red Card to child labor?

Lots of NGOs are making hue and cry against child labor. Government has officially banned child labor. Since it has not been eradicated. I have seen child labor in firms during my childhood, and now seeing child labors in metro construction of Bangalore. It is more common to find children in restaurants. On my trip to Mysore, a child was literally begging me to buy 10 photos for Rs 10. Not sure if he is doing business or working as a labor for some store owner.

I feel pity for the children who are working in stead of studying and enjoying. But is it right for others to stop them working? If they are not working, what other alternatives do we provide? If a child won't work as labor means she will go to school or play with his friends, we should encourage it. What if the stop of child labor means she won't get proper 2 square meals which may force him/her to do illegal activities? Bubhikshit kim na karoti papah... How can anybody stop child labor without guarantees their situation? Government has no plan for employment guarantee. Or continuous income for non organized workers. They do not have any social security or insurance. On top of that how will the child survive when he/she become more than 18? If he has to work as a labor better start sooner. Do they have any other hope?

If we are looking to stop child labor, we need to work on employment generation and
showing the hope to the children who are working and providing minimum required condition to the people who are working. Banning child labor without working on the root causes may worsen the situation but won't solve it.

Protest against shifting IPL matches from Bangalore

Yesterday there was a blast in the Generator room at chinnaswamy stadium Bangalore. And today IPL Commissioner announced both the semifinals will be shifted from Bangalore to Mumbai.

What is the rational behind the shift? Safety of the players? Hey players are safe on 17th April just after the blast. The matches were not shifted from Jaipur in first IPL after a much intense blast. Look at the history, there were more number of blasts/terrorist attack in Mumbai including the last year Pak sponsered attack. How does Bangalore become unsafe?

I have not heard concern from any player about IPL or venue. Mr Thackrey has threatened Australian players, still all the matches are happening in Mumbai. What is wrong in Bangalore?

In case it is Bangalore who is loosing out matches why will it be hosted in Mumbai, why not in Chennai, Hyderabad or Kolkata or any other venue?

Mr Modi, these are the questions for you.

1) Who all decided to move the match from Bangalore. Contradictory to you Bangalore city top cop wants match in Bangalore.
2) Why matches to be held in Mumbai?
3) I am clear about home and away matches in the league. How does semi final ad final match venues r decided?
4) Had it been in mid of the league, would you have shifted other league matches from Bangalore?
5) Who are the players or player unions showed concern over security of Bangalore?
6) Are you not helping the people who planted explosives by shifting the matches? (they wanted to create panic and Bangalore be spotted as a place with weak security)

Secure your bank account

Today I got a mail from acct.admin@icicibank.com to secure my account. I know ICICI bank does not send such mail. As I am working in internet technologies, so I know it is fraud mail, so wanted to check how are they doing the fraud. Oh it took me to a site which looks like icici and asked me for all the details such as my user id, password, ATM pin, transaction pin etc. I entered all the details (of course none are correct). Then it to took me to a grid where it takes value of each grid from A-P as does by ICICI I did entered all the values (again random and none are correct), then it gave me a thank you message and redirected to ICICI bank.

So checking for domain name of mail id is not enough, and one can send mail from another domain with a domain name that does not belong to her. And ICICI bank does provide different layers of security beyond single password, and the hacker tries to get all the details. While going through details i tried clicking on the links provided by the hacker, it does go to ICICI's corresponding link (though no way to comeback to hacker's site from the ICICI site).

So be aware of such mails and do not eneter any details and do not compermise your account details.

Mail content

ICICI Bank
to
date Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 8:50 PM
subject Measures Against Identity Theft.
hide details 8:50 PM (1 hour ago)
Images are not displayed.
Display images below


In view of the recent cyber attacks towards our customers,
We at ICICI have introduced a new protection System against
Malicious Online Identity Theft

Kindly follow the link below to activate your secure service

CLICK HERE TO SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT

ICICI Bank apologizes for any inconvenience arising from this action.

Thank you for using ICICI Bank.
© ICICI Bank. All rights reserved.

Information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review the Security Tips in our Security Center.



When you click on a link it takes to http://andylambgolf.com/files/_update/onlineverification.do/indexx.html

Bollinger not Muralee Vijay is my man of the match.

Today IPL witnessed the highest score match with CSK defeating RR by 23 runs. It has a couple of Brilliances. The match was played in Chennai where there is little assistance for bowler. Muralee Vijay utilized the opportunity and scored a brilliant 127. Morkel provided an excellent partnership and scored 62 in 34 balls. Ojha and Watson matched the former and are about to chase the record run. It was Bollinger who made the difference. His 4 overs made the difference and helped Chennai to register the win.

I do agree Muralee Vijay played a prolific innings and scored 127 runs. He is behind the highest possible target. But RR was also giving an equal reply and Watson and Ojha were about to seal the win. It is Bollinger whose bowling was the difference between the two sides, and on top of it, Bollinger had the catch of the match (the catch of Pathan). So the win goes to Bollinger not Vijay. But cricket has its own history of being biased towards batsman and Muralee Vijay was named as the man of the match.

Who will be the 5th foreign player from RCB

IPL have a rule saying a team can have 4 foreign players. Till 7th match Kallis, Morgan, Boucher and Steyn were playing. In 8th match Pietersen joined the team and Morgan has to sit out. Ross Taylor would be joining RCB as he is free from his national duty (NZ and Aus test series is over). Looking at his form and power hitting he seems to be a definite player for the team. But the problem is who will be out?

Pietersen is the most expensive player and has done well on his first match and won the MOM award. So he is not the one who is going to sit out.

Boucher is not in his best and do not match the other players as a batsman. But he is a keeper and Bangalore team does not have any other keeper. Bangalore team may try Dravid with his gloves and ask Boucher to sit out. Bangalore has not utilized Dravid's batting expertise and may think it does not need in future with the current batting line up.

Batting is the strength of Bangalore and bowling is no where near to Mumbai (who I tipped for the top position). So Bangalore won't risk keeping Steyn away from its team of 11.

Kallis has the purple cap and MVP cap with him. But his strike rate is 123.25, which is low when you look at T20 standard. But his stay in the field allows others like Utappa or Virat to fire and team is doing well. So team can not go without him.

Ross Taylor was a key person why Bangalore success story in last IPL and made into dream team of IPL. He is in prolific form and a big hitter. It is tough to ignore him.

As Bangalore is doing fine and Utappa doing Ross Taylor's role Taylor may be 5th foreigner to sit out and not play the match.Or either dravid or Utappa will take the gloves (hey Mumbai does not have a regular keeper and still at the top of the chart) and ask Boucher to sit out. If none of them are injured, Kallis, Steyn and Pietersen are the 3 foreigners who are definitely going to play.

Astrology and Probability

Astrology is about probability and correlation. The believers and nonbelievers treat it alike. Believers claim how some prediction has come true and how some astrologer is about to predict her details etc. Where as non believers say how some astrologer is not able to predict it. And how astrology is all wrong.

But astrology is about probability and correlation. It is about getting most of the predictions right. It is never about predicting everything right. Famous astrologer Dr. B V Raman made some mistake in his prediction. I do not have access to the all the predictions of the great astrologer Parasar. I am sure he also would have made some mistakes. It is like weather prediction, which can not be hundred percent accurate.

The great sage Vasistha has made wrong prediction for the muhurta when Ram will be the king resulting Rama going to forest for 14 years in stead of being made king of Ayodhya. Lord Brahma has made wrong prediction for the Muhurta when the Khandav Forest has to be implanted resulting an end to the Khandav. So astrology is prone to error and nobody can tell with certainty that this is going to happen. It is not like when you add alkali to acid, it gives salt water, or when a fruit falls from the tree, it is going to hit the ground. Rather it is most likely it is going to happen. Some of the facts can be told with a higher probability.

IPL Prediction

20-20 matches are like a lottery. It is impossible to predict who will win from a specific game with hundred percent accuracy. This is what my prediction based on current form.


Champion: Being a Bangalorean my heart says Bangalore, and head says Mumbai. I do not want Rajsthan Royals/Deccan charger to take the cup again. As it is a prediction, I go by my head and give Mumbai the first place.

Runners up: I definitely want final between Bangalore and Mumbai, and want Bangalore to win it. But in case Mumbai wins it, I would go with Bangalore as Runners up.

3rd place: RR is my preferred team for 3rd place

4th place: DD will be at 4th place. I hope they will fire after Gambhir returns to the squad and will be able to make to the semis.

1st quarter final: Mumbai Vs Delhi and Mumbai wins
2nd Quarter final: Bangalore Vs Rajsthan Royals and Bangalore wins

Pain of a recruiter

I was reading an article in Silicon India on Human_Resource_or_Harassing_Resource. I was laughing out after reading the article. It is so funny, and the comments are sometimes close to truth. But are the recruiter responsible for harassing?

In boom days recruiter has to recruit people, there are enough open positions and not enough suitable candidates for the position. Recruiters (at least the ones I am closely working with) work more than 12 hours a day and 6 days a week. And they may not be able to find candidates who actually fits the position. In case they are able to find one, it is not sure whether the person is definitely going to join. In case the selected person says NO just 1 day before joining, recruiter has to start the work from the scratch and already would have missed her deadline.

In bad time, recruiter does not gain anything by saying the position is on hold or we will get back to you. She just conveys the message from the hiring manager. Hiring manager makes the decision as the face of the organization, she needs to tell the fact. Job applicant has the phone number/email of the recruiter but not the hiring manager. So applicants call the recruiter. Hey it is not her decision to hire or not. It is her decision to shortlist a candidate or not. So no candidate would probable hear your interview is on hold and we will conduct your interview after indefinite period. Recruiter has the rights to call candidates based on certain inputs. And they do a fairly good job in getting the candidates.

So when one blames recruiters for the bad news or delaying tactics, it is not her wish as well. She might be just doing this as her organization needs it.

Salary regulation in India

When I was studying in school, I was taught the president of India gets the highest salary and others including corporates gets salary less than him/her. Now I see people getting salary much more than the president of India. Flexi salary is the name of the game. People in IT leave their current job and opt for a new job based on salary. IT people get better salary from their peers in other fields.

It does create a vibrant middle class with nice salary and help increasing the GDP. But it comes with a cost.

1) The higher salary creates higher inflation. People can afford sugar 50 rs per Kg. So make the sugar Rs 50 per kg.
2) It creates a division between the people the elite and average
3) It makes everything unfordable starting from house to school. My total education cost is less than one year education cost of my daughter.
4) Builders increase the price of real estate hoping the new middle (elite ) class can afford it and one day the bubble is going to burst.
5) In this process India become a costly place to outsource and there are other cheaper alternatives available.


Common men find it difficult to buy a house. Even average paying software engineer can not afford to buy a house in Bangalore. Her life goes in a rented house.

We do not want a high salary rather want a quality of life. If I were to get one third of my salary but can stay in my own house and give quality education to my kids, I would be more happy than getting salary tripled and not able to buy a house and give quality education to my kids. Education and house are the the essential expenses of the middle class people whose expenses are going at a rate higher than the income level.

So government needs to put a cap on salary for every person, so no pouching based on salary and regulate house pricing and enable quality free education.

Salary negotiation

I get the question about salary negotiation from some of my friends and juniors. I have done it couple of times, some of them were good where as others were mediocre. I am putting an extract of whatever we discussed in a presentable form.

Before putting my ideas, let me clarify I am not an expert in this area and not going to write any brand new idea about it. I will rephrase or reuse the ideas provided by job sites or career advice portals. I am going to add a new dimension of my own.

When negotiation starts: When both employer and job seeker are interested for each other.

Objective: Get an agreeable salary where job seeker can join the employer.

Goal:
Employer: Pay him the lowest salary at which the job seeker is going to join and continue working for reasonable period of time.

Job Seeker: Get the best salary that employer is ready to pay her.

Process:
Employer and job seeker negotiate about salary. Employer mostly ask job seeker to quote a salary she wants. Most experts ask not to throw any figure rather ask the recruiter or hiring manager to put her figure first. Job seekers find it difficult to ask the figure. Or if they ask for a figure, they get an answer saying we would give you 10 percent hike from your current CTC. Many job seekers, mostly those who are paid lower find it difficult to ask for a higher hike. It does not sound good to say I want a 50 percent hike. It sounds stupid illogical. So the dilemma is how to ask for salary of your choice with being logical.

Negotiation is not a fair:
Let us look at the goal of an employer and job seeker. Employer wants to get the job seeker on board with minimum salary. Minimum salary may be 10 percent hike on what a job seeker is getting (even may be to a salary lower than what she is getting in case she was laid off or want to move because of personal reasons etc). To start with the negotiation, recruiter has the full information she needs, including her current salary, experience, any other offers in hand, her resume, interview feedback etc. So she has an idea what would be the lowest salary job seeker is ready to join. Where as job seeker need to know what is the best salary company can provide. It is rarely advertised with job so job seekers has no direct information about it. So recruiters have an edge over job seeker when negotiation starts.

No Pain No Gain:
But job seeker can make it fair by having the knowledge on the salary offered by company for similar position. She should do some research on figuring out what is the salary being paid for similar position in similar companies. Payscale provides some information about the salary. And she can use contacts to figure out what the company is paying. For example, job seeker got a job at Google. While applying for Google, it asks if the job seeker has experience in working in companies like Sun Microsystems, Yahoo, Amazon etc. If the job seeker does not know anybody from Google but knows people from yahoo, she can reasonable assume Google will pay as per or better than yahoo to the person who best fits for the job.

If she still has no clue of what the best company give her, she can ask it to the negotiator. Now let us look at the goal of the employer and job seeker. Recruiter starts with a x percent hike straight away with her goal. Job seeker should not expect the recruiter to do her job. She should start her job to fulfilling the goal: Getting th maximum salary the employer is ready to pay. How about asking a question what is the best salary you pay for this position. One of my friend got around 5 percent more hike than a salary he was ready to join, by asking, you should pay me fairly, so I should not feel that I am being unfair in my salary, so that we can have a good long term relationship.

Some external links on salary negotiation:

ace the interview tips

The Negotiation Dance

Tips for employer

Why astrology is not a widely accepted subject?

Astrology is accepted by many people and not by many others. People go to astrologer to get a prediction of their future and get remedies. But still it is not a widely accepted subject of study and research. I think the following are the reasons why it is not widely accepted as a formal subject.

1) Astrology is different than Sanskrit: Most of the astrology books are written in Sanskrit in stead of English. And educationists look astrology as a subset of Sanskrit, not a different subject all together. Most of the computer books are written in English, still nobody tells computer is a part of English. Once somebody knows basic English, English does not help someone to be better computer specialist. Similarly, one need to know Sanskrit to understand the original books, beyond that Sanskrit won't help to be a better astrologer. Astrology is a different stream all together to be taught by astrologer. It should be derived using mathematics not Sanskrit. Probable astrology developed when Sanskrit was the language of the learned people and now English is the common language among educated people. Astrology should have no problem in adopting english in stead of Sanskrit with the mathematical formula intact.

2)Astrology is not 100 percent correct: Astrology is about probability, it does not say with certainty. But the supporters of astrologer claim a hundred percent correct prediction with examples. Opponents discard it with wrong example. Many astrologer predicted Vajpayee will come to power again in 1998 but none predicted the same about Manmohan Singh in 2008 (at least the ones that post in the leading English dailies). Supporters take the right example where as opponents take the wrong one.

3) Why should one believe in astrology: Astrology has not answered why the prediction can come true. Many people claim it is the position of planet and cosmic rays affect one, they are not able to tell why the position of the planets not that of the people around u affect it. Say sun in mercury in 7th house gives an intelligent spouse why not father at 7th house gives an intelligent partner and grand mother in 7th house gives some other type etc. My honest answer is I do not know why the position of one's father does not matter, but that of Brihaspati matters. It can be a subject of research, but it works. We need to answer why before claiming it to be universally accepted. Similarly astrology says 1st house is for self, 2nd is for wealth and all. But it does not answer why 2nd house is for wealth and 7th for spouse.

4) Intuition: Intuition is an integral part of astrology. One can not be good astrologer without good intuition. Same horoscope is predicted differently by different astrologers. Unless intuition can be quantized, or astrology gives any different answers, it can not be accepted as a scientific study.

Is the growth story of IIM inclusive?

IIMs justify their fee structure with the high return on Investment. It is cheaper than equivalent non-IIM institutes. But hey IIMs are run by Indian government and not by corporates. I read IIMs claim There were no students who left IIM study because he could not afford it. I was not able to digest the fact. But did not have any proof either, so agreed with the claim.

Later I analyzed what might be happening. IIM is so expensive that common people might not be counting it as one of the opportunities. I have a friend who did his engineering with me and masters from IIT Delhi, he did not apply for engineering after his 12th, as the engineering application fee was expensive (the fee was around 100 rupees in 1993).
So there might be some people who might not have targeted IIM because of its expenditure.

My soul was buying the argument but my mind was not. I was confused until we went to Chennai for a recruitment drive. My boss told he did not apply IIM rather went for IISc as the application form for IIM was expensive. He was not ordinary student. He got distinction from Rajasthan (a rare accomplishment in those days) and become vice- president in his thirties.

So there are students who can not think of IIM because of cost alone. IIM can claim it is cheaper than ISB etc. But hey I am talking about IIM, that is government managed and made for the people.

Questions about IIM Salary

I was reading Times of India, and come to know about a salary of 1.6 crores by an IIM graduate. And comparisons among the IIMs and crore plus salary. I have lots of questions by looking what IIMs and paper advertise.

What is the lowest paid job at IIM? Does IIM salary is inclusive?

If IIM students get such salary, people won't mind joining free of cost and paying 10 percent of your salary for the next 5 year. Why don't we run IIM privately and make it free?

ISB has come up with a model of low cost housing. Do IIM have similar project?

What are the background of the person who got 1.6 crore? Is he from aam junta? I heard management jobs are unfair, it is heavily biased towards the upper class people.

Astrology and Engineering: Analysis and Synthesis

I would look astrology as a pure science where research is based on analysis and synthesis. Current astrology is about going and reading what is already present and it does not add much to the glossary. It either refers Parashar or Jemini or mix of both for doing analysis (both are great guys kind of Newton and Einstein of Astrology). if we look at the current physics, we look at Newton or Einstein as a great scientist, but science does not stop there. But astrology do not proceed much beyond them. BPHS (brihat parashara hora shastra) is still the most widely accepted book among astrologer. Not all astrologers predict as per BPHS only, but not many are trying to quantify when to follow BPHS and when not to. And they tell it as mix of science and arts.

Future research needs to quantify it and tell how to follow the details. Astrology is based on stochastic theory and probabilistic model. It needs to auto correct after adding random sample data.

For example, foreign trip was bad in past and people who cant afford to stay at home are using it. Now it is a part of luxury and prestige. So astrology needs correct itself for foreign trips. Marriage is an institution in India, but it is just staying together at some of the countries. SO one needs to analyze accordingly.

Vimsottari dasha is most widely accepted Dasha, but not all predictions coming from Vimsottari dasha are right. Researcher need to figure out when it coming wrong, and what Dasha should be used.

New Drama on Women's Day

Happy Women's day to everybody.

I am vocal about equality and oppose quota in any form. I was quite unhappy when 30 percent quota was applied to engineering students in Odisha in 1995. I would prefer 50 percent girls in engineering colege in stead of 33 percent, but that should be based on their merit. Simillarly I would like to see 50 percent women in Parliament instead of 30 percent, but it should be based on their merit. So I did not like the idea of reservation.

However being an anti-Lalu and anti-Mulayam entity I somehow wanted the ladies reservation bill to pass through the parliament though it is against my personal taste. Manmohan Singh told he is going to introduce the bill on 8th March 2010 on women's day. BJP, Left front, DMK, BJD were ready to support the bill. So congress has the required numbers. So I thought congress will be able to make the historic decision (blunder?). I was busy on the day with my usual work and did not get time to browse through the news, even skipped lunch because of hectic schedule and have not had any food till 7:30 PM. I rushed to cafeteria to grab some food before the next meeting starts, and watching TV for a the news.

I thought the women's bill would have passed in the parliament, and made an history. Hey what I saw was totally different. Congress was no different than Lalu-Mulayam. I started having respect for the Yadav duos. They at least speak what they preach. Not like the congress (even BJP) who speaks a different language and practices a different game.

Do IITians get undue advantages?

I have to take an interview in another 5 minutes and came to a logical conclusion of my work. So I thought of gossiping with my colleagues in stead of starting a new task. A few of my friends were talking how the people from IIT and IIM get undue advantage and they get a job just because they are from IIT and there are other people who are equally or better talented, but do not get the chance etc.

It is true that average IIT or IIM guy gets better placement or better salary than the others. Is an average IITian equivalent to an average of the other? I agree with the media report that current JEE exam does not get the best of all. It is flawed. So are the other ways of evaluation. If we consider marks alone, it is also flawed. I have seen people with less marks who are more capable than people with higher marks. But on an average people with higher marks are better.

Anyway we were not discussing the selection procedure of IIT, rather IITians getting undue advantage over others. When some people apply for a job, somebody's resume gets selected because she is from IIT, where as another's resume gets rejected because she is not from IIT. One gets job, promotion and everything else because of IIT. I partly agree with the first statement. One's resume gets shortlisted based on her college. But do not agree with the second one. When google looks to hire somebody it has limited openings and people above a certain intelligence can only make it. It has to limit the number of applicants. And easiest way to do that is to take only from premier institutes. The other common practices are allow only from specific branch or allow people above a specific percentage to apply for a job. Each of them has its advantage and disadvantage. And recruiter does it to reduce the number of applicants and when she knows she may miss the best fit, but can find a fit in a specific time and it reduces her work.

I have not seen people hiring because the other party is from IIT. It makes their resume stronger to be shortlisted. Average IITian works much better than an average non-iitian. In fact Mohan Das Pai from Infy said, they do not pick only because somebody is from IIT/IIM

Promotion is mostly based on performance and it has nothing ot do with where somebody has studied. It is what one has delivered and how her boss perceived it. People from premier institute get better work and thus promotion.

The environment in IIT/IIM gets the transformation of an intelligent student to an extra-ordinary student. Though I love 3 idiots and most of the content, I agree that IIMs and IITS produce better students.

Astrology and Engineering- Conflict resolution

I need an application which is secure, fast, user friendly, scalable, robust, available with minimum investment. Hey, I was talking about the dream requirement from any investor who wants to invest in IT. He wants it safe and he wants fast. Sending data over https makes it slower than normal http. He wants the application to be available all the time and wants it an minimum investment. Zero downtime means more investment on software and hardware (how is not the scope of the discussion). So the software requirements are conflicting among themselves. So one needs to understand the details to propose a solution.

Horoscope is the reverse of the engineering problem. Here we have the implementation details which can not change (the horoscope) and the same emits results which are opposite to each other and conflicting in nature. As an expert engineer can tune the application to the conflicting requirements, as expert astrologer can tune and predict the horoscope.

Let us say we are predicting about the first child. It can be predicted from 5th house. My 5th house has Venus, Sun and Mercury in it. Venus in 5th house will give daughter where as Sun in 5th house will give son. Mercury has no effect. As per rule venus is powerless when present with sun, so it should give son. Wait a minute, my 5th house Taurus which is own house of Venus and Taurus itself is a feminine sign, so it should give female. So here is the second conflict, whether Venus will overpower sun as it is in her own sign or Sun will over power Venus. By looking at the strength from the vinsopaka bala Sun has a strength of 16.2 where as venus has a Strength of 16.3. So both of them have almost equal Strength. It shows a marginal Strength of Venus and thus a daughter. But when we look at the vimsottari dasha during that time (3rd May 2004), my dasha was Saturn-Venus. Venus was the anatardasha and venus was frind of Saturn which is the dasha, so venus was over powering sun during that time (opposite to the handbook word venus is powerless when present near Sun). So the subject will get a daughter.

If you look at any horoscope you may find both raja yoga and Daridra yoga. Will the person be a king or poor? Roughly 33 percent people has budhaaditya yoga. Will all of them be learned and intelligent? My answer is no to second questions and depends to first question.

When we create a horoscope in south indian style it is different than north indian style horoscope. Which one is true and how to predict. The details need more conflict resolution technique than simple answers.

DOB: 31-may.1976, 21:45 Nayagarh, Odisha

Astrology and Engineering- Importance of Handbook

Astrology uses handbooks like engineering. A electrician who is repairing motor need not know about emf, a handbook on which wire to use and how much is suffice for his work. A person who is repairing television need not know what is a P type semiconductor and what is an N type semiconductor. He would definitely not know about VLSI chip and how it is fabricated. But he can go ahead with the handbooks provided. Other engineering disciplines have similar handbooks which enables a semi-skilled person to work on any engineering discipline.

Same with the astrology. People who look at the charts need not know why this happens to predict better. Sun at 10th house gives fame and power. Mercury in the Seventh House gives an intellectual partner and so on. By knowing what each houses mean and what each planets do one need not refer to the handbook often, and can come up with his own formula. When an astrologer looks at 7th house, she looks about partner. Mercury represents intellect, so mercury in 7th house gives intellectual partner. Moon represents mind, so moon in 7th house gives a moody partner. Mars symbolizes power and aggression, so mars in 7th house gives u an aggressive partner and so on.

Income tax: Are salaried people innocent?

Yesterday I was talking to a colleague. He was quite unhappy as government is not rolling back the hike in petrol price. He explained how petrol is costly in India and state and center government almost put 100 percent tax on it.

I explained reducing petrol price will affect the oil companies. Government will anyway collect tax. Reducing tax to maintain the price is one of the options. But it has other implications such as fiscal deficit. Then he explained how only salaried class is only paying tax where as others are evading it. And how government spends money for freebies which adds to fiscal deficit. And the talk went on.


I agree with him that government should ensure people pay right tax, but do not agree with him that salaried people are honest in paying tax. As there is deduction at source, most salaried people can't do much in evading tax. However many company structure their salary, so that the tax paid will be less. Some of the money they pay as fringe benefits in stead of salary. People forge their rent receipt to evade tax. People go and make forge medical bills to avoid tax and so on. So salaried employee evade the limited amount of tax that they can and businessmen do it with more as they have a better scope of evading tax.

We the salaried people make bulk of the purchase from the shop. My personal observation is most people prefer not to pay sales tax and get the duplicate bill/no bill. By doing so, we encourage the businessman not to show his income and go ahead cheat.

Astrology is an engineering act

This is subject which needs some understanding of astrology. It is not about getting the prediction, rather it is the prediction methodology is mature engineering methods and how astrology is part of engineering.

As an engineer I have the habit of looking details in an engineers eye. I found astrology uses many of the engineering techniques. This is the list of things why I think astrology is an engineering subject

1) Horoscope: What is horoscope? It is the snapshot of the universe when a person is born with the place of birth being the center of the universe. It tells you the relative position of planets with respect to the place where the person is born. Engineers use the maps more than others, so astrologers use engineering to get somebody's details. The same goes for prediction of a year or horray astrology. The crux of prediction is the relative position of planets.

2) Pattern recognition: Astrology uses pattern matching to predict the details. It uses patterns to figure out which house belongs to whom and how to predict based on the position of a planet at a specific position. This is pattern which is defined and its practiced based on pattern matching.

3) Separation of concern: Astrology uses separation of concern to predict the certain details. If you want to look at the age of a person look at 8th house, for property look at the 4th house and so on.

4) Derivation: It uses derivation to find out the responsibility of each house. 12th house is the house for expenditure. 12th to 12th is 11th house is the house of expenditure of expenditure (savings). 5th house is the house for first child. So 5th to 5th 9th house is the house of grand children and so on.

I will add more details in future.

Is India for Indians?

Rahul Gandhi said India is for Indians, and 99 percent people think it. I am with him in the first statement. I have no idea about the second statement and wish it were true. I want to know a little more deeper about his thought. Whether he is meaning Mumbai is for Biharis(No insult to Bihari brothers, you are fantastic set of people) or India is for Indians? In case he is talking India is for Indians, what are the places belong to India?

I know Kashmir is not for Indians, and for Kashmiris. Article 370 separates it from rest of India. Kashmir is even not for Kashmir Hindus who were thrown out from the place. Mr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was killed in Kashmir for visiting it. Does Mr Gandhi think in line with Mr Mukerjee? Or he just thinks Mr Abdullah was right in impriosioning Mr Mukerjee and Kashmir is not for Indians.

Mr Gandhi is more interested about Bihar and UP votes (Congress performed very badly in UP and Bihar since 1993). He is least interested with India is for Indians. I would salute him, if he can tell the same thing in Kashmir or Nagaland.

Phishing a threat to Internet security

I recently get a mail from a spammer From: "Bank Of India" to upgrade my Bank of India account. I do not have any account, so thought of checking how phishing works in internet. And what are the common steps that needs to be taken to protect yourself.

I clicked on the link, chrome is able to detect the phishing, where as Windows took me to the log in page. It has the proper security certificate. It has the image that it secured by verisign. Where you can log in using your user details. And when I provided any user details, it gives me an error message saying account details is not correct. Clicking on any link gives me 404 page not found error. The Phisher takes the user id and password information put by me and uses it to do any activity in the bank. I was safe as I don't have any account in bank of India and was aware it is an attempt to phish.

What about the users who does not know about it? How does one differentiate genuine mail from that of a phisher?
1) Banks send personalized mail where as phishers send bulk mail.
2) Bank has domain name registered for their bank, where as phishers use name or the mail id as bank but not the domain name. Sometimes they use domain names which are close (instead of icici.com they use icicibank.org or something simillar). So if the domain name is not right, then it is possible from some phisher
3)Use mozzilla or chrome in stead of IE. One more reason why I am a Google fan. Chrome is able to figure out a phishing site from a genuine site.
4) Do not go by verisign security from the image. The image is publicly available. Check if the site is really using https and certificates are valid. In this case verisign secured page was coming from a http page.
5) Do not provide your user name and password and click on upgrade, rather check some other functionalities, and whether the pages are there.
6) Don't go to the bank site by clicking on the link from mail, rather go to it by bookmarking it. It ensures you go to where you need to.

A question: Understanding the Business of airline agents

I was booking a flight ticket from Bhubaneswar to Bangalore. I looked for the flight details in makemytrip.com. It gave kingfisher as the cheapest flight (cost was my primary concern and time being the second one).

I checked the same in Yatra.com. It also provided Kingfisher flight IT3446 starting at 12.40 PM is the cheapest one. Fairs are almost comparable. Yatra was quoting 5,660 where as makemytrip.com was quoting Rs 5663. I was looking the price at kingfisher. It was quiting 5,649 with 250 flying miles. So I decided to book the ticket using kingfisher as it is the cheapest one for the same service.

I look at the business model of makemytrip.com or yatra.com. They do spend money in writing the software, buying hardware and getting all the data and maintaining it in their database. And providing high availability (high availability costs a lot, its not cheap). What ended up is I used their service to route to the appropriate site. Had the Indian airlines cheaper in Yatra,com, I would have looked at the price in Indian airlines in stead of kingfisher.

As a business user I may not be doing the right stuff for makemytrip or yatra, but as a rational user I look for lowest price for the same service. I believe there will be many users like me who uses Yatra or makemytrip for search but not to book.

If that is the case, then mykemytrip.com or Yatra.com is not going to be profitable business. They need to provide tickets at cheaper price than the airline itself. They do provide hotel bookings at cheaper price, but I don't need it either in Bangalore or at Bhubaneswar. I am not sure if the hotel bookings can be done at the hotel's site at a cheaper price.

I am confused how the business runs for them? How do they beat up price competition from the airline itself? What are the added advantage they provide to customer, so that customer uses their site, not that of the airline.

I have no clue, if anybody has some idea, please put them forward

IPL and Pakistani Players

None of the IPL teams bid for Pakistani players for the 3rd IPL. As a cricket lover I was disappointed. As a Bangalorean I would have liked Afridi in Bangalore team. Pakistani players deserved better than being left alone.

As an Indian I am happy. Pakistan needs more than one way to be humiliated. When Pakistan does not listen to India and Indian government is incapable of taking any action, it is better to give the message in one form or other. Let the pakistani people get the humiliation. Let the message be in economic than that of a military. Lat Pakistan feel how it feels to be alienated.

IPL, Shivsena and Australian player

Currently The Shiv Sena has threatened not to allow Australian players to play in Mumbai. I am fully with Shiv Sena about we should not be silent about attacks on Indian on Australia. I am fully with Shiv Sena IPL should be patriotic. The money is spent by Indians.

But what is patriotic? Not allowing world class players play in Mumbai? handling racist with more racist way? What will be the outcome? More racist attack on Indians by Shiv Sena equivalent people in Australia. Hey Shiv Sena guys, are you not attacking on Tamil, Bihari and UP guys in Maharashtra? If so, how are the Australian guys different than you or you are better than them? The Australian attackers and you do have the same thought and represent different people. Hey Thackrey, you are worse than the Australian as you are followed by a group of people and can make your statements public. There are racists and attackers in Australia, but nobody dared to say, let us attack any Indians as they take our job. Whoever are doing it and for whatever reason are violating the law and do not have guts to make it public. You dare to violate the law and justify your statement.

I am not a fan of Australian players for their attitude. But they are the best when it comes to entertainment. IPL is more of entertainment than anything. Why should we stop them?