Monday, April 30, 2007

Why is the dollar falling?

I can't believe that the US Dollar is now Rs. 39.90... just a few years back it was Rupees 50 and then it stayed in the Rs. 44 - Rs. 47 range...

So why is the Dollar falling so sharply against the Euro, Pound, Rupee et al? Methinks its because Iran has been steadily selling oil in Euros; so many countries now need to hold less of the Dollar. Will this continue? it sure looks like it...

So what is the correct price of the Dollar? I think the Dollar still my fall another 12% - 14% in the next 12 months. After that it will stabilize as it will be at its correct level. Ofcourse many factors could derail this prediction, such as increased US exports due to weak Dollar, or Iran takeover Iraq style. But I think all this won't happen in the next 12 - 18 months, so here is to a cheaper holiday for us Indians to the US, Dubai (Duabi's Dhiram is linked to the US Dollar) and many other places.

LTTE air attacks in Sri Lanka

While Sri Lanka were playing the final against Australia, Colombo plunged into darkness as the LTTE attacked from the air. This being the 3rd air attack by the LTTE in a month.

The result was that Colombo plunged into darkness and chaos. Emirates Airlines & Cathay Pacific immediately suspended operations.

This is the 1st time aircraft are being used by any liberation organisation anywhere in the world. Its a huge step and creates a lot of questions. There is an article here in the Outlook that asks these questions and makes an interesting read.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Great News: Computer population to double in 7 yrs

He was the original one with the vision of a "computer on every desk in every home", and now in his closing hours at Microsoft he's taking that vision one step ahead by rolling out ultra low cost operating systems worldwide and aiming to double the world computer users population to 2 billion users in 2015 from the current 1 billion users. Read about it here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4032594a28.html

This is indeed great news for the world, because with MS they will make a big push towards educating schools and governments around the world to adopt computers. Simultaneously Linux is on a roll and that big push is happening these as well.

"But Linux is Free" I hear you say, so what's so great about low cost Windows & Office? The great thing about MS as compared to Linux is that they support many more languages, so they will get regional usership down to the villages.

Anyway, regardless of Windows or Linux, I am confident that we will now indeed double worldwide computing.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Building a lawless India

Everyone already knows that the Indian judicial systems is weak and any prosecution or dispute resolution takes forever. This pathetic state of affairs often causes people to take the law into their own hands and leads to lawlessness.

Now instead of strengthening the judicial process, the politicians are doing their best to dismantle it. Last week the Prime Minister came out against the judiciary and warned them about interfering with the political process. Just yesterday political parties broke into the offices of newspapers and tv channels and thrashed them...why? Why not respect the law? If you have a grievance with someone, take it up in court. Political parties are bypassing the law by taking the law into their own hand and keeping the judiciary weak by starving it of funds.

Is this anyway to build a safe and secure India? No it is not. Law and civil resolution is the foundation of civilised society... they were created so that instead of beating up and shooting each other, one goes to a court and gets relief.

Comeon politicians, strengthen the judiciary.

Have guns will shoot

Another day, another campus shooting in the US...when will those guys learn? Just last week there is a story in the Indian press about an army corporal shooting his superior. The Indian army has a higher incidence of people shooting colleagues that the civilian population, going to show that it is the availability of guns that leads to these severe crimes.

But the gun control battle rages on in the US....I am really surprised how a society of highly educated people can debate on this. Ban guns without license NOW.