A Feast for the Car Lovers

With Tata ready to unveil its Rs. 1 lakh car this month, all eyes are set on this little thing which is giving a tough competition to the entire automobile industry. Meanwhile, Bajaj, the country's second-largest two-wheeler maker in collaboration with Renault and Nissan unveiled the prototype of its small car today with the promise that it will be twice as economical to run as the most fuel-efficient small car in the market and ofcorse with a competitive price as that of the Tata's. These small cars have been targetted to the middle class incomes and time would speak about the success stories!!!

So, coming back to the real feast....... 2008 is all set to launch some of the hottest models ... errrr ... i mean the car models of different makes. I was spellbound at the sight of these hot cars, so, I jus thought attempting to list down some of my hot favs:

1. Maruthi Suzuki Splash : This car is likely to replace Maruti's Wagon R model, which has already been launched in the US market and is ready to be launched in India next.

2. Maruthi Suzuki A-Star : Alongside the Tata Rs 1 lakh car, it is perhaps the most eagerly awaited model at the Auto Expo. Kitted with a newly-developed 1 litre Euro V-compliant aluminium petrol engine with CO2 emissions lower than those of European competitors (target: lower than 109g/km), the car will be a hatchback positioned in the A segment.

3. Skoda Fabia : Skoda Fabia, based on the Volkswagen platform, will be Skoda's first small car in India. The Fabia will be up against the Chevrolet Aveo UVA, due to roll out sometime later this year or next.

4. Renault Sandero : The design of the sandero is a mixture of European Clio (Renault's popular hatchback) with some characteristics of Logan.

5. Volswagen Jetta : Jetta is being pitted against mid-size market leareds like Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Aveo and this will be made at the Auranagabad plant of Skoda.

6. Fiat Linea : It's a four-door sedan based on the Grande Punto. It is 4.56 metres long, 1.73 metres wide, 1.5 metres tall and has a wheelbase of 2.6 metres, as well as a 500 litre luggage compartment.

7. Chevrolet Captiva : The Chevrolet Captiva has been mainly developed in South Korea by GM Daewoo, with a view to global sales. It comes with 2.4-litre (133bhp) petrol and 2.0-litre (150bhp) diesel engines, with the options of a seven-seat layout and a five-speed automatic gearbox.

8. Dailmer C Class : The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a luxury compact car. First introduced in 1993 as a replacement for the 190 range, the C-Class was the most affordable model in the marque's lineup, until the 1997 arrival of the A-Class.

9. BMW [M series] : M5 and M6 are the ones being launched in this series. The BMW M6 is a high-performance version of the 6-Series automobile, designed by BMW_Motorsport division of the German manufacturer.

10. Honda Civic Hybrid : It’s a hybrid version of the Honda Civic sedan.

So, guyz watch out for the zooooooommmminggggg year ahead!!!!

A 1480 on 1600 ............... Wow !!!!!!!!!

This was the only reaction in the whole college in the year 2004 (my 3rd year of Engineering).
This should have been an easy guess for all those US Aspirants ...... yaaa, I am speakin about the GRE score ...... and this was the highest score in the entire college in the year 2004. It was the score of my class-mate who was in a renowned Univ in NJ.

The whole year was supposedly the year of the GRE/TOEFL/IELTS aspirants. The college air was filled with each one speaking about their score, the Univs they had applied to and the best among them and the Sem in which they would join the Univ, the recomendation-letters and much more. I was also one among those so called " US-philic Personality" who wanted to be a part of this bandwagon desperately, but unfortunately couldnot .

I see a substantial increase in the number of students going abroad for their higher education year after year ...... the reasons why?

1. Better quality of education?
2. Better Job opportunities?
3. Better pay?

The above reasons could jus be some of the many possible reasons for the increasing number of immigration. Lets analyse these points:

Quality Education : With due respect to our country's educational system, let me first speak about the gradual decrease in the number of our own students doing their higher education here. How many students do u think at the age of 5 -6 have a practical exposure of the subjects studied. We are still in the system of by-hearting the answer and reproducing the same in the answer sheet. Any change in the question .... evn for tht matter a change in the mathematical figures would leave the student blank ..... such is the education system in India where everythin is spoon-fed. Students in India get practical exposure only when they get an opportunity to be a part of an IIT or an IIM. The 'Out of the Box Thinking', OOBT as I call it, is something that lacks in our education system. Students are a merely prone to remember the formulae and derive at the answer rather than understanding the problem and then deriving at the answer. It's time that we now creep out of this tiring coventional education system and give the future of India a better learning opportunity, which could help them be on par with any student in this world. The subsequent effect is something that we would analyse next.

Job Opportunities and Pay: Students who go abroad for their higher education develop a very strong bond with that country and, they can find no reason of coming back to their homeland and serving here. Students who graduate out become a part of giant organizations and they are offered handsome salary and perks. The comfortable lifestyle that they get used to there is something that they really find hard, to let go.

So, its time that we begin analyzing this major defect and motivate the future of India in a better way.

The Age of Mobile CPU Box

Over the last 20 years we have all witnessed many ups and downs in the IT industry. What's really commendable about this industry is the speed at which it bounces back. Just when we think all's over the industry comes up with a brilliant spark from some obscure corner of the world and the whole industry is on fire again. Every time some leading light has made a sarcastic remark about something impossible in IT, we see it turning 'possible' the very next moment.

As someone rightly said, 'Necessity is the mother of all inventions'. This saying happens to be increasingly true in this Modern Age of Gadgets. Today, mobile phone and laptop growth rates have surpassed that of landlines and PCs. Thankfully, there's still enough market in India for all to coexist, but there are debates over what will happen in the future. Will the new avatar of the mobile phone--- smart phone, takeover from PCs, and even laptops? Probably not, but they will become a complementary and essential commodity.

The accelerating trend in the use of smart phones and PDAs has infact narrowed down the need of an employee to attend office just for the need of sending an important e-mail or preparing a presentation for an importan meeting, while he can actually work on the same from 'Home' ... sounds cooooolllll. But, ...... every new invention has its own set of 'if's and but's' .... to analyze some of the most common hiccups in this invention, majorly what we really start to miss is a proper keyboard, mouse, and a large screen for viewing, which can be easily resolved by passing these signals to external equivalents over wireless technologies it already supports, like Bluetooth, Wireless USB, etc.

The other limitations that remain are insufficient storage, computing power, and a feature-rich OS that supports lots of apps. Storage won't remain a problem for long, thanks to the umpteen external storage boxes that are available. In the future, high capacity solid state hard drives will become common and get integrated into the smart phone. 60 GB SSDs have been announced, which is more than enough to store OS and apps. For the rest, computing power will be addressed by Moore's law, so you'll have powerful enough computing and graphics for your routine productivity work.

So, one fine day we would all walk into the office with our PC in the pocket.