APJ Abdul Kalam - A small Homage

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is a person who through his life has left a mark of how one could be simple in

spite having achieved humongous success in life. APJ Abdul Kalam as better known to all of us was a very simple human being curious to know and learn through his life.

He was the President of India because he successfully lead the Indian Missile program and ensured India carried out its second and more powerful nuclear test. These are his well known facts and He never entertained a thought to throw his weight around, he was a simpleton before he lived in Rashtrapathi Bhavan and he continued to be a simpleton after demitting office.

My friend's son was selected in the NASA conducted test and he gets a call from Mr. Kalam, while he was residing in the Anna University campus and expresses his desire to meet the young man. My friend fondly remembers the close to 2 hours time spent by Kalam ji with this budding young man. The curiosity with which he chatted with this young man shows how committed a learner he was through his life.

His love to meet the young minds during the office and before and after the same, only goes to show, how he wanted to ignite the desire to dream in the young Indian minds. Probably his term is the only one where there was always a preference for young people to visit the residence on Raisina Hill compared to regular politicians who throng there.

No less than 40 universities have bestowed their Doctorates on this one man, which goes to show, how well lettered and knowledgeable he was and still so simple n humble through his life. Recently we had a Chaiwala becoming the PM, but we had a Paper boy becoming a Nuclear Scientist and a President of a nation earlier in the form of Sri APJ Abdul Kalam, indeed it is a tribute to our democracy and its traditions of honouring the best n the noble.

When ever there was this news that circulated about his illness and media ignoring it on Facebook and Whatsapp, I used to feel, how ignorant are people. Today when I heard the news about his demise and the spontaneous out pour over the social media and elsewhere, I could feel the tremors of the nations love for this one man. I have never seen so much respect and love cutting across all walks of life to any other person. Probably there is no throat which is not parched today and no heart which had not shed a tear.

This is what I believe is leaving a mark in the minds of people, only achieved by great people and indeed today India had lost a great son and a true Indian, he belonged to no region, no religion, no caste, he is the universally accepted MISSILE MAN OF INDIA & a PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT 

Salute sir, keep blessing us from up there and there are 1.3 Billion Indians who are going to miss you.

Money Money Money – Is it growing on the net

Coming from my last article, which talked about making money online, some friends said, “LOL, what is this new business idea of yours”, now if you start feeling shy about this whole idea and start having second thoughts, then you are digging your own grave.

For any thought to fructify it takes it's own time and any amount of criticism that it can attract. If all the scientists were shy of their failures or inventions, we would not have reached this stage of reading this article on the world wide web probably on your smart phone. So keep your head high and pursue what you set out to do.

We talked about few successful people who have been making good income writing on the internet in my last article, What makes them successful is the fact they write consistently on the subjects in which people are interested in or want to know about. Now how do we get to know who wants to know what. Very simple, this is something we need to ask the 'Know all' of the world Google.

Google has many tools in the internet, through which we can get to know who is interested in what or what is happening around us Google Trends is one and another is Google keyword planner. Both the sites require you to sign in to deliver the best results. While Google Trends gives you a wider perspective of how each key word is performing over a period of time in the regions selected by you, Google keyword will help you understand how each keyword is in demand and how they are priced, indicating the popularity. This would help you to understand the perspective of the browsers in the internet in terms of what they are searching and how you can help yourselves in providing the same.

When you try to select your key word it is important that you select in such a way it helps in understanding the seriousness with which people are searching for it. Google defines High, Medium & Low, which primarily tells us, how people who search goes for action. If it is a blog, reading the same, e-commerce buying the researched goods etc. Based on search n action the keywords get ranked and their Adwords price bids are fixed accordingly.

I am talking about all these, because unless you know where to start and what to write, you will never be able to make an appeal to the reader of your blog. Let's look at some keywords 'Making money online' Adwords for this keyword is quite high. There are regular n frequent searches regarding this, which goes to show the interest of the browsers across the world in this mode. Even the cost of promoting in the

People tend to follow-up with action hence it gets 'High' rating for action, which means people read the articles written about ways n means of making money. Imagine a situation where all of us start writing about 'Making money online' then naturally reader will be following someone who is more successful among us and will tend to follow their writing.

It does not mean we cant write on other subjects, there is so much information on the net and people tend to get confused with 'the information overdose. If we can analyse and make it easy for people to comprehend the information they seek, then we have got for ourselves a good follow-up. Lets deal with this in my next blog.

Making money online – A Myth or for Real

When a friend told me you can make money online, I took at as a joke and tried to brush him off. While I have not made any money so far, thought I can tell you what others are doing to make money.

It is not all hunky dory when it comes to making money online, it is indeed a persisting task which can help you make money online. Each one of us has been endowed with a skill and it is up to us to put it to good use to earn some money online.

What could I do, probably writing, if writing, on what? It is very important that we write about things which people want to know or seeking info. Let's say i am taking the first step in that direction.

Most important principle in trying to make money online, there is no need to feel shy about it. Yes I have set out to make some money by writing about things which people want to know/hear about. If we set out with this approach we are likely to be more successful rather than trying to beat around the bush and hide behind niceties.

Similarly if someone wants to develop apps or websites, they have to be clear about their approach and make their terms clear. In the online business we cannot afford to have bad mouthing by our clients/readers.

Having decided to make money online, it is very much important we establish our credible presence online. That could mean we telling the world that we exist. For a writer like me it could be a blog, for a tech person he needs to announce his presence in a site like Fiverr. But just being present does not ensure we re noticed, we have to start making our presence felt. Let's say a writer like me has to keep writing on subjects of peoples interest and for a tech person, they need to ensure their presence is noticed by those who visit the site like Fiverr.

Some people have really made their presence felt and are reportedly making lot's of money. Among Indians Amit Agarwal ranks on the top with reported earnings of USD 50000 with his website labnol, Ms Shradha Sharma USD 15000/Month with her website Your story and this list goes on. When you look at these sites, it might sound too easy to earn the money, but it has been years of hard work, through which they have reached this level.

I have been a regular patron of Your story and have read many an article from that site. The interesting way they are presented and the success stories they pick up and share with us, is really an appreciable effort. Amit Agarwal of labnol who is a IIT n IIM alumni writes a blog on tech issues in limited words and useful manner. Let's realize both of them deal with info, for which people are looking for. Only when we satisfy the person seeking the info, can we expect him to be visiting us once again.

While the reality is there is scope to make money on the net, it is not a bed of Jasmine and with that realization we have to move forward.

(Picture courtesy http://privlechenie-deneg.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/invest-300x200.jpg

Government – Schools – Students – The Aadhar connection

When i got the circular from my daughter's school seeking her Aadhar number, the immediate thought that came to my mind was , why couldn't they adopt a similar method which was adopted by the Election commission, PAHAL the LPG subsidy site.

Apparently there is a huge gap between the above two programs and the schools info. First two are more or less Central govt projects and there is some primary data available, where as the schools coming under state subject education, we have to go through a long process of making this info connected.

However, if it was done the way the central issues were linked with Aadhar, there could have been lot more transparency for the parents. Not that they are providing some confidential information. What i have in mind is simply the following.

Government will first list out all the recognised schools in a designated website, listing out the permissions granted up to which class they can operate, category (Aided, Unaided, partly aided etc), which board (State board/CBSE/ICSE etc) they are authorised to offer, medium of education permitted and location where the school is situated in, The organisation which runs the school (usually trusts if the school is private) etc. After this the school would be provided access to the website to upload their student data.

Schools, on obtaining the access to the govt website, will start uploading the data of their pupils, class, section wise. Since the data will be based on school records it will be more or less accurate. Once this exercise is done, the schools will ask the parents to link the child's Aadhar number in this website. Parents can authenticate the input through a OTP (One Time Password) that will be sent from this site while updating the child's Aadhar number.

Parents will visit the site and select the school, class, section and identify their ward name and input the Aadhar number after getting a OTP. After doing this, it would be easier for the parents to verify the permissions the school has got and whether they got the permissions where their child is studying in specific. There are instances in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, where schools have been operating branches with one single license, a status which can put the child's education in danger if the authorities decide to disallow students of the branches which are not permitted.

This Govt. website can also capture the info and Aadhar number of the teaching staff. It is possible many a Govt. Teacher is teaching in a private school drawing double wages and depriving the Govt. school students of a proper teaching. Particularly it is more likely to happen in rural areas. Even parents can verify this info, if photographs and education qualifications are also listed.

This whole exercise will help bring in transparency in the education system, where parents can verify the schools permissions, staff qualifications. Govt will have total input on the schools admission process, RTE admissions (they could ask the schools to categorise the admissions) even fee structure prescribed to that particular school could be displayed, helping the parents to know whether they are being over charged by the school.

When a student is leaving the school, both transfer certificate (TC) and Marks list can carry the child’s Aadhar number, so that next institute can record the same while admitting the children be it at school level or higher studies. Even for a Banker while disbursing education loans this school record would be handy to know, whether the loan seeker has the required qualifications to pursue the next level of studies.

What i am writing about may not be too far from implementation and could be easily done under Digital India as visualised by the PM.

Aadhar - the card that will change our lives

Aadhar the UID project, the baby of Dr Nilakneni, is now becoming all pervasive. I, as a votary for this could not visualise how this is going to make our lives so much more difficult to hide from the Govt.

I just got a circular from my child’s school asking us to provide her Aadhar number', because government wants it. I am liking this, simply because, it is going to be much easier for the Govt. to connect all this info and know, how many unique children are studying in which school, in case they need to deliver any benefits, they can do so by looking at the linking done by the social welfare department, who again are seeking the same info from those enjoying reservations, scholarships etc.

Similarly all land owners are being asked to provide their Aadhar number in the land records like Patta/Adangal/RR etc, this will help government to know how much land is held in an individuals name, they can then see if the individual is holding land beyond the Land ceiling Act norms. Not only this they are going to connect the fertiliser subsidy to your Aadhar card, so that they know how much subsidy to be provided to each individual based on the land holding.

While enrolling ourselves in PAHAL, we have been asked to connect out LPG connection to the Aadhar card and also then connect our Bank account through the same Aadhar card. There is one more info to the Govt., whether we are also drawing Kerosene (Ration card holders have already been asked to provide their Aadhar numbers) by any chance, then they can ask us to give up one of them for getting subsidy. Look at how much money the Govt. is going to save on subsidies, since there are many people who draw both. Wherever Aadhar linked ration delivery has happened they have noticed substantial drop in off take of heavily subsidised goods like Kerosene. After PAHAL introduction Chennai city has witnessed a surge in the usage of commercial cylinders by 50000 cylinders, about 1.34 crore on subsidy saved per month by OMC.

I am sure most of us have been getting SMS alerts from our bankers asking us to link our Bank account with the Aadhar number. Once done government knows how many bank accounts we hold solely or jointly or in the capacity of a signatory. This info then would be used by the IT department to check if we use any account for hiding incomes. This in particular is going to be used in the case of Fixed Deposit's (FD), where many people put their unaccounted income in FD's to either please their banker or for their own reasons like avoiding TDS deduction. All this welath will now be tagged to the Aadhar number holder and naturally he will be expected to start being more truthful to the Income tax department.

We have already started linking our Voter ID with Aadhar number, this will eliminate number of duplicate votes, sometimes within the same city or elsewhere including another state.

IRCTC is asking us to link our passenger list with Aadhar numbers, this would help the Govt. to know how often we travel, which class we normally travel and if required to even check if all this travel is reflected in our income and expenditure statement. This might become a necessity for those who are going to the counter to book the tickets over the days.

I had even written an article about linking Aadhar numbers with the place of living, this will then tell the Govt., how many properties each individual is holding, at some point of time the old circulated joke about a guy trying to place an order for a Pizza and his whole life is read out to him by the order receiving agent.

There were many sceptics who criticised the idea of the UID and went hammer and tongs by writing many an article, i had seen this as a very powerful tool and now it is proving to be more than what i imagined. If you ask me it is for the good of this nation where we by habit try to hide lot of things other than income.

Bahubali – The movie

Saw this movie on Tuesday (5^th day of release), late night show in Telugu at Chennai, theater balcony was about 80% full.

Amidst all the reviews and publicity the movie got across the board, tried my best to enjoy the movie without any pre conceived notions.

Presentation of the movie was very up scale, i suppose it need not be compared against Hollywood movies, simply because the scale at which they spend, is just not matchable. The vast canvas makes it a watchable movie.

All the leading stars have put up a very decent performance, to the extent the movie offered them to show their prowess.

Even my friend who watched the movie with me was trying to compare it with another Hollywood movie, i requested him to see the movie as an Indian movie and then enjoy it.

It was meant to be a fantasy movie and so there is no scope for questioning unbelievables, the way the Hero Prabhas climbs the mountain or jumps/falls in the water etc. Many a scene could have been much better in terms of shot taking in particular when smaller actors were being shot. Maybe maximum focus was on the big stars n their performances.

If the movie had collected the monies that have been touted, then it is good news for the industry, single movie released in four Indian languages, simultaneously released across the world and India, i suppose it was for the first time. SS Rajamouli who had the vision to do this, has to be lauded.

We should be proud that we have in our midst someone, who can think so gigantic and execute the same and for him to be an Indian it is a proud moment to all of us.

Make up for Anushka, Nasaar must have been a time consuming thing and they have done their job quite well at it. Tamannah in that somber look was still stunning. Costumes, weapons etc have been well taken care of by those monitoring that division. As Mahesh Babu said the background score was quite good.

I wonder why we are seeing this beyond, as a movie and searching for reasons to criticise. Yes it leaves opportunity to provide us thinking process till the part 2 gets released. Already there are apps that talk about 'Which Bahubali character are you'. Maybe we will soon see some toys with the Bahubali characters and some video games. Today this is all part of the marketing of a movie and for an Indian movie to get all this happening, it is indeed a proud moment.

If you have not seen this movie, don't go with all the hype n mind but just go to watch a fantasy movie, as some one put it “Chandamama story”.

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