Read at http://www.vfxworld.com/articles/article/powering-bollywoods-sci-fi-sensation/page/2,1
Endhiran (The Robot), a sci-fi extravaganza released at the beginning of this month, has been breaking all box office records in India, grabbing around $75 million to date. Directed by S. Shankar, Endhiran features superstar Rajinkanth in dual roles as science professor and super android robot. After nearly a decade of pre-production, the film was shot two years ago for a record $35 million, with a vfx budget of $12.5 million for 2,500 shots, also records. Meanwhile, the Sun Pictures release has been released simultaneously in three languages --Tamil, Hindi and Telugu -- another first. Mamta Narang recently interviewed V. Srinivas Murali Mohan, visual effects supervisor & CEO of Chennai-based Indian Artists Computer Graphics Pvt. Ltd.
Mamta Narang: Congratulations! How are you feeling now, after the release of Endhiran?
V. Srinivas Murali Mohan: Extremely happy. Everything has worked well. Everybody has worked hard: Rajnikanth (the highest paid actor in India), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan(former Miss World), S.Shankar, the director, Rathnavelu, the director of photography, Sabu Cyril, the art director, Alan Scott of Legacy Effects and the editor, Anthony Gonsalves.
MN: What was it like when you were first approached by S. Shankar for this opportunity of a lifetime?
SM: December 2007, he called me. I had already worked on three projects with him. I knew him. He described the project. He narrated the project to me for 4-5 hours and I didn't imagine any vfx work, I forgot vfx. I was imagining the movie only and enjoying that imagination. But, today, we have done it. We took one-one step every time.
MN: Do you have a comfortable association with S. Shankar?
SM: Yes, there is a deep understanding between us. I had done three projects with the [him] before doing Endhiran; namely, Boys, Anniyan and Sivaji in which we did digital skin frafting. Sivaji won the 2007 Indian National Award for Best Special Effects.
MN: You ventured into visual effects and computer graphics way back in 1989 itself. This is a futuristic vision. How the work scenario differed earlier and now?
SM: Earlier technology was tough. We used to type commands on DOS prompt and lots of parameters were needed to fill in. Now-a-days it's very easy for an artist to operate user friendly software and click the mouse button and an innovative and intelligent algorithm works in the background. There are many algorithms available. In India we have lots of talent. Sixty percent of the work done in the vfx field is done in India.
MN: What are the new technologies used on Endhiran?
SM: New in India, but not in Hollywood. We used animatronics. Out of the 62 scenes, we pre-visualized 40 scenes. Every scene of Endhiran has vfx work. Twenty-two scenes were done using animatronics done Legacy Effects, formerly Stan Winston Studio. For capturing the facial emotions and texture, we used the Dome Light Stage, a patented technique by Mr. Paul Debevec, also used on Avatar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the Spider-Man franchise. This Light Stage scanning helped in capturing high-resolution CG faces with tremendous details. Since the humanoid face had special makeup and shine, Paul Debevec did the scanning himself.
MN: What was the nature of the animation and vfx sequences?
SM: It's a mix. Some sequences like the climax, with the fire/burning robot and dancing robot were done in 3D. Some sequences like dual role (Scientist Vasi and Robot Chitti) were done using compositing and some sequences were a blend of 3D, animatronics and compositing.
MN: How many companies were involved in the vfx work of Endhiran?
SM: The majority of work was done in my studio, Indian Artists Computer Graphics Pvt. Ltd. Animatronics and special makeup were done by Legacy Effects from LA. Frankie Chung of Kinomotive studios Hong Kong and Eddy Wong of Menfond Electronics Arts & Computer Design of Hong Kong were also involved in the vfx supervision. There were also some freelancers from London, Canada, Iran, Germany, France and Hong Kong. Other Indian companies involved were Pixion Chennai, Vensat, Firefly Creative Studios, EFX Prasad Studios, Oysterr and Ocher Studios.
Read the full interview at http://www.vfxworld.com/articles/article/powering-bollywoods-sci-fi-sensation/page/2,1
Friday, October 22, 2010
The Last Drop
Dry wind whistles. It whistles due to friction it creates as it is devoid of any moisture. The raindrop fells swiftly. It is the last drop of water on the earth. It comes out from a minute cloud that probably has only one drop.
Humans across the globe are struggling - dying. There is no water left. Sun scorches.
With all their might, a few people are digging the old wells and the new wells. Though statistics claims water has been exhausted long ago, but they dig because they see the water - the mirage. The hallucination makes them happy. They are unaware. They are dying of thirst and they don't know that.
A month earlier people killed each other for water. Many of the families managed to save water bottles in lockers. Now family members fight among themselves.
3 to 4 days without water - enough to turn a person mad. People see sea around them. They have left houses. The AC works. It runs on solar power. It is cold inside and hot outside. For water, they are out on the streets. Under the bitter sun - people are wearing clothes and not wearing clothes. Those who are naked, are not burning the skin under the sun, they are swimming in the cold sea.
Some people have cut there body parts to drink their own blood.
There are no trees. The last leaf has been stolen from the tree museum an year ago. Animals too are non-existent. Only insects survive. Many new breads have taken birth on the dead humans.
The last drop is quivering. Who will have it? Where it will end up? Below, there are mad people all around. A few men, women and children have their tongue out to taste the raining water. Only one man in senses sees the trembling drop - the last drop.
Suddenly, wind gushed and ate it.
The little drop disintegrates in the dry wind. For a moment, it accepts the end, and henceforth trembles at the thought of being responsible for the end of the world. But, next moment, it recollects - 'only the last drop has the ability to save the earth. The mighty force of wind has broken it into many a small drops. The heart of drop fights with the mighty force. It fights and fights and collects all the minute drops, units them, becomes a round shape shining drop.
The drop fights till it leaves the clutches of wind.
It soars high in the sky, then into the space. The drop has never been out of earth but as if knows the path to take. It lands on mars. The last drop unites with many more drops. It forms a group and soars high again and collects more water drops from milky way and unknown planets. Then, the last drop pushes each drop to move in the direction of the earth.
A cloud is formed when the group of drops enters the earth's ecosystem. On a bright sunny day a big cloud envelops the earth and it rains.
People are unable to differentiate the real cloud and the imaginary cloud. They continue to enjoy the rain.
The last drop doesn't fell. It goes back and bring clouds continuously till all people are drenched. Moreover, it waits to fell on that man who had seen it quiver.
The little drop finds that man. He is dancing, rejoicing but still thirsty and waiting for that drop to reach out for him. People who have regained the senses are helping him, forcing him to drink and eat.
When he comes back to senses, the little drop fells on his head.
Humans across the globe are struggling - dying. There is no water left. Sun scorches.
With all their might, a few people are digging the old wells and the new wells. Though statistics claims water has been exhausted long ago, but they dig because they see the water - the mirage. The hallucination makes them happy. They are unaware. They are dying of thirst and they don't know that.
A month earlier people killed each other for water. Many of the families managed to save water bottles in lockers. Now family members fight among themselves.
3 to 4 days without water - enough to turn a person mad. People see sea around them. They have left houses. The AC works. It runs on solar power. It is cold inside and hot outside. For water, they are out on the streets. Under the bitter sun - people are wearing clothes and not wearing clothes. Those who are naked, are not burning the skin under the sun, they are swimming in the cold sea.
Some people have cut there body parts to drink their own blood.
There are no trees. The last leaf has been stolen from the tree museum an year ago. Animals too are non-existent. Only insects survive. Many new breads have taken birth on the dead humans.
The last drop is quivering. Who will have it? Where it will end up? Below, there are mad people all around. A few men, women and children have their tongue out to taste the raining water. Only one man in senses sees the trembling drop - the last drop.
Suddenly, wind gushed and ate it.
The little drop disintegrates in the dry wind. For a moment, it accepts the end, and henceforth trembles at the thought of being responsible for the end of the world. But, next moment, it recollects - 'only the last drop has the ability to save the earth. The mighty force of wind has broken it into many a small drops. The heart of drop fights with the mighty force. It fights and fights and collects all the minute drops, units them, becomes a round shape shining drop.
The drop fights till it leaves the clutches of wind.
It soars high in the sky, then into the space. The drop has never been out of earth but as if knows the path to take. It lands on mars. The last drop unites with many more drops. It forms a group and soars high again and collects more water drops from milky way and unknown planets. Then, the last drop pushes each drop to move in the direction of the earth.
A cloud is formed when the group of drops enters the earth's ecosystem. On a bright sunny day a big cloud envelops the earth and it rains.
People are unable to differentiate the real cloud and the imaginary cloud. They continue to enjoy the rain.
The last drop doesn't fell. It goes back and bring clouds continuously till all people are drenched. Moreover, it waits to fell on that man who had seen it quiver.
The little drop finds that man. He is dancing, rejoicing but still thirsty and waiting for that drop to reach out for him. People who have regained the senses are helping him, forcing him to drink and eat.
When he comes back to senses, the little drop fells on his head.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Last Drop
Dry wind whistles. It whistles due to friction it creates as it is devoid of any moisture. The raindrop fells swiftly. It is the last drop of water on the earth. It comes out from a minute cloud that probably has only one drop.
Humans across the globe are struggling - dying. There is no water left. Sun scorches.
With all their might, a few people are digging the old wells and the new wells. Though statistics claims water has been exhausted long ago, but they dig because they see the water - the mirage. The hallucination makes them happy. They are unaware. They are dying of thirst and they don't know that.
A month earlier people killed each other for water. Many of the families managed to save water bottles in lockers. Now family members fight among themselves.
3 to 4 days without water - enough to turn a person mad. People see sea around them. They have left houses. The AC works. It runs on solar power. It is cold inside and hot outside. For water, they are out on the streets. Under the bitter sun - people are wearing clothes and not wearing clothes. Those who are naked, are not burning the skin under the sun, they are swimming in the cold sea.
Some people have cut there body parts to drink their own blood.
There are no trees. The last leaf has been stolen from the tree museum an year ago. Animals too are non-existent. Only insects survive. Many new breads have taken birth on the dead humans.
The last drop is quivering. Who will have it? Where it will end up? Below, there are mad people all around. A few men, women and children have their tongue out to taste the raining water. Only one man in senses sees the trembling drop - the last drop.
Suddenly, wind gushed and ate it.
The little drop disintegrates in the dry wind. For a moment, it accepts the end, and henceforth trembles at the thought of being responsible for the end of the world. But, next moment, it recollects - 'only the last drop has the ability to save the earth. The mighty force of wind has broken it into many a small drops. The heart of drop fights with the mighty force. It fights and fights and collects all the minute drops, units them, becomes a round shape shining drop.
The drop fights till it leaves the clutches of wind.
It soars high in the sky, then into the space. The drop has never been out of earth but as if knows the path to take. It lands on mars. The last drop unites with many more drops. It forms a group and soars high again and collects more water drops from milky way and unknown planets. Then, the last drop pushes each drop to move in the direction of the earth.
A cloud is formed when the group of drops enters the earth's ecosystem. On a bright sunny day a big cloud envelops the earth and it rains.
People are unable to differentiate the real cloud and the imaginary cloud. They continue to enjoy the rain.
The last drop doesn't fell. It goes back and bring clouds continuously till all people are drenched. Moreover, it waits to fell on that man who had seen it quiver.
The little drop finds that man. He is dancing, rejoicing but still thirsty and waiting for that drop to reach out for him. People who have regained the senses are helping him, forcing him to drink and eat.
When he comes back to senses, the little drop fells on his head.
Humans across the globe are struggling - dying. There is no water left. Sun scorches.
With all their might, a few people are digging the old wells and the new wells. Though statistics claims water has been exhausted long ago, but they dig because they see the water - the mirage. The hallucination makes them happy. They are unaware. They are dying of thirst and they don't know that.
A month earlier people killed each other for water. Many of the families managed to save water bottles in lockers. Now family members fight among themselves.
3 to 4 days without water - enough to turn a person mad. People see sea around them. They have left houses. The AC works. It runs on solar power. It is cold inside and hot outside. For water, they are out on the streets. Under the bitter sun - people are wearing clothes and not wearing clothes. Those who are naked, are not burning the skin under the sun, they are swimming in the cold sea.
Some people have cut there body parts to drink their own blood.
There are no trees. The last leaf has been stolen from the tree museum an year ago. Animals too are non-existent. Only insects survive. Many new breads have taken birth on the dead humans.
The last drop is quivering. Who will have it? Where it will end up? Below, there are mad people all around. A few men, women and children have their tongue out to taste the raining water. Only one man in senses sees the trembling drop - the last drop.
Suddenly, wind gushed and ate it.
The little drop disintegrates in the dry wind. For a moment, it accepts the end, and henceforth trembles at the thought of being responsible for the end of the world. But, next moment, it recollects - 'only the last drop has the ability to save the earth. The mighty force of wind has broken it into many a small drops. The heart of drop fights with the mighty force. It fights and fights and collects all the minute drops, units them, becomes a round shape shining drop.
The drop fights till it leaves the clutches of wind.
It soars high in the sky, then into the space. The drop has never been out of earth but as if knows the path to take. It lands on mars. The last drop unites with many more drops. It forms a group and soars high again and collects more water drops from milky way and unknown planets. Then, the last drop pushes each drop to move in the direction of the earth.
A cloud is formed when the group of drops enters the earth's ecosystem. On a bright sunny day a big cloud envelops the earth and it rains.
People are unable to differentiate the real cloud and the imaginary cloud. They continue to enjoy the rain.
The last drop doesn't fell. It goes back and bring clouds continuously till all people are drenched. Moreover, it waits to fell on that man who had seen it quiver.
The little drop finds that man. He is dancing, rejoicing but still thirsty and waiting for that drop to reach out for him. People who have regained the senses are helping him, forcing him to drink and eat.
When he comes back to senses, the little drop fells on his head.
Monday, June 21, 2010
How could US government give impetus to Patient’s privacy, security and fraud before equal and affordable healthcare for everyone?
In April 2001, I got an assignment to do the feasibility study of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
I prepared the report, and reverted to my employer based in Pune. I emphasized, it’s a gold mine for any IT company. HIPAA compliance was a mandate for every US based healthcare entity. The implementation time line was rigid – 14th April 2001 to 14th April 2003. A penalty was possible. At that time point, the dot com bubble burst had skirted the fear of job loss. My friends would tell the stories of layoffs. Many IT companies in India closed down. We understood a phenomenon called recession.
HIPAA was a bonanza for any software firm to stay alive in the recession.
Soon, in a span of a year, new companies with expertise in HIPAA took birth. Softwares fought, claimed, they’re HIPAA compliant whereas HIPAA was/is a business process, an organizational reformation of how the data of patient should be protected and how IT should work. Data transaction and access should be in certain format – a standard template for electronic data interchange across organizations and departments.
HIPAA had a similar blow as Y2K. Clock was clicking. 71% of the healthcare organization hired additional staff to implement. In 29 % of the organizations gave the additional responsibility to the existing staff. Organization had and have allocated budget in their capacity for regular trainings for the computer, HIPAA and communication skills.
2008, six years later, recession bounced back. At this time point, centuries old banks go bankrupt. 2010, schools in US are hit by recession too and there is a healthcare reform. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate on 24th December 2009. The House of Representatives voted ‘YES’ by majority, yesterday 22nd March 2010.
The current reform bill doesn’t ensure ‘NO EXPENSE’. Saving of billion of dollars at the cost of billion dollars money input.
Is it funny or is it ironical, in US the law of patient’s privacy came fifteen years before the thoughts of affordable healthcare for everyone.
While working on a patient information manager for palm III in 1998/89, I had forgotten to sleep. I was part of a team developing the application from India for a client based in Boston. 500 customers had bought the application before it was complete. There were many a patient information manager in the US market after a year and so, but none of them achieved near perfection.
It’s a blessing to be an Indian. I can call my doctor on his mobile and request him to prescribe me medicine on the phone. I can call up a chemist and request him for a cough syrup just like an OTC product. My driver met with an accident, a nearby hospital’s doctor operated him quickly.
I have a few unanswered questions
1- How could US give impetus to Patient’s privacy before equal and affordable healthcare for everyone?
2- In the reform bill, why the insurance cover mandates a dependent child’s age below 27 years? In US, a child gains independence early.
3- Do we have the statistical data in monetary form– which proves that HIPAA was/is beneficial?
4- Why US healthcare system has to address fraud and abuse specifically? It’s in India we have the recycled saline bottles and syringes.
5- Do US doctors have the error free and most efficient and intelligent patient information manager yet (not a mere e- Patient Record System)?
I prepared the report, and reverted to my employer based in Pune. I emphasized, it’s a gold mine for any IT company. HIPAA compliance was a mandate for every US based healthcare entity. The implementation time line was rigid – 14th April 2001 to 14th April 2003. A penalty was possible. At that time point, the dot com bubble burst had skirted the fear of job loss. My friends would tell the stories of layoffs. Many IT companies in India closed down. We understood a phenomenon called recession.
HIPAA was a bonanza for any software firm to stay alive in the recession.
Soon, in a span of a year, new companies with expertise in HIPAA took birth. Softwares fought, claimed, they’re HIPAA compliant whereas HIPAA was/is a business process, an organizational reformation of how the data of patient should be protected and how IT should work. Data transaction and access should be in certain format – a standard template for electronic data interchange across organizations and departments.
HIPAA had a similar blow as Y2K. Clock was clicking. 71% of the healthcare organization hired additional staff to implement. In 29 % of the organizations gave the additional responsibility to the existing staff. Organization had and have allocated budget in their capacity for regular trainings for the computer, HIPAA and communication skills.
2008, six years later, recession bounced back. At this time point, centuries old banks go bankrupt. 2010, schools in US are hit by recession too and there is a healthcare reform. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate on 24th December 2009. The House of Representatives voted ‘YES’ by majority, yesterday 22nd March 2010.
The current reform bill doesn’t ensure ‘NO EXPENSE’. Saving of billion of dollars at the cost of billion dollars money input.
Is it funny or is it ironical, in US the law of patient’s privacy came fifteen years before the thoughts of affordable healthcare for everyone.
While working on a patient information manager for palm III in 1998/89, I had forgotten to sleep. I was part of a team developing the application from India for a client based in Boston. 500 customers had bought the application before it was complete. There were many a patient information manager in the US market after a year and so, but none of them achieved near perfection.
It’s a blessing to be an Indian. I can call my doctor on his mobile and request him to prescribe me medicine on the phone. I can call up a chemist and request him for a cough syrup just like an OTC product. My driver met with an accident, a nearby hospital’s doctor operated him quickly.
I have a few unanswered questions
1- How could US give impetus to Patient’s privacy before equal and affordable healthcare for everyone?
2- In the reform bill, why the insurance cover mandates a dependent child’s age below 27 years? In US, a child gains independence early.
3- Do we have the statistical data in monetary form– which proves that HIPAA was/is beneficial?
4- Why US healthcare system has to address fraud and abuse specifically? It’s in India we have the recycled saline bottles and syringes.
5- Do US doctors have the error free and most efficient and intelligent patient information manager yet (not a mere e- Patient Record System)?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Who is creating jobs in US?
Today, every citizen of America expects the president to create jobs. Is the president both a politician and an entrepreneur?
On 24th February 2009, in his first major speech, Obama ballyhooed the economic stimulus plan, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law. Over the next 2 years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector, jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, laying broadband and expanding mass transit."
One year has passed. One year remains.
The number of bills, turning into acts, is growing. Each bill passes with the music of job creation. Barack Obama pledges to generate jobs, again and again.
Peep into the brilliant bills
On 18th March 2010 President Obama signed first job creation bill having value of $17.6 billion with the intention to provide tax break for businesses and to fund the highway and the transit spending.
Alabama House also approved a job creation bill called ‘Reemployment Act of 2010’ on 6th of April 2010. It would allow companies to have a state income tax deduction of up to 50 % of the gross wages paid to any person who is currently drawing unemployment benefits or with expired benefits.
The Local Jobs for America Act is yet another persistent effort in job creation. The legislation will directly save or create one million jobs for teachers, police officers and emergency responders. In addition, over the next two years, the bill would put another 750,000 Americans directly to work in the public and private sectors.
The Startup Visa Act of 2010, allows an immigrant entrepreneur to get a 2-year visa if an investor is willing to grant $250,000, the minimum amount for the startup venture of the immigrant. The sound of bill is promising. These new small companies would employ minimum 5 people over a period of 2 years, a small drop to make the sea.
The above-mentioned small bills pacify the path taken. A small company creates more jobs than a bigger company does. The government should boost entrepreneurship among the US citizens. Sanction them loan. Create new, needed and recession proof businesses. It is happening. Believe it, have a breath of relaxation.
On 24th February 2010, The U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a $15 billion job bill which includes tax breaks for small business on hiring new workers and grant tax credits for up to $250,000 in capital expenditures for 2010. The approved bill known as the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act would save or create 1.3 million jobs.
Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act of 2009 intends to increase the loan limit and provide low interest rate for refinancing. This bill can create or save 200,000 jobs. This bill values those 27 million small businesses in the US that supply almost a trillion dollars to the financial system, create 66% of new jobs annually, and build up more than 50 % of the U.S. workforce.
Peep into the verticals, the immigrant entrepreneur and the new startups by US entrepreneurs should focus on to create jobs in US.
Healthcare: The healthcare reform bill is a boost to Indian IT sector. It will create in all probability more jobs in India. In US the cost of human resource to implement healthcare reform is high. It is economical to outsource the services offshore. Qualification, skill sets and experience can’t be cultivated quickly. Else the other option remains is to train people; add more to the cost and workload. Neither big companies, nor small companies would go for it. Jobs created by the healthcare reform are skeptical. An entrepreneur should see the opportunity to open shops in US for the implementation of reform to generate the lead and touch base with client regularly and offshore the work to India or China to meet the deadline. Telemedicine, robotic surgery, genetic engineering or other niche areas of research and development in healthcare and life sciences will always be an opportunity to explore and conquer.
Automobile: The breathlessness in the US automobile industry began in 2005. The big three were under pressure in the shrinking market and decreasing profits. Wages and health plans were the added burden. Bankruptcy was inevitable. The rising gasoline prices hinted and demanded a shift in the transportation style. Tata, India and Geely, China bought a few portions of Ford. Innovative commuting operations, fast transportation techniques, and high fuel-efficient vehicle are the need and necessity of future: a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs to innovate and cater to the world market need. There is a world petroleum crisis. It’s decidedly profitable to put cars out of street.
Retail: Apple and Amazon are the high performers in the US retail industry. Apple launched iPad and own stores. Amazon grabbed market share. Pricesmart offered bargains – something a common man would brood on to save cost. Netflix cashed on the online digital stream. In the fashion retail Buckle and Urban Outfitter followed a strategic move worth studying. Buffalo Wild Wings, BJ's Restaurants, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Texus Roadhouse performed around cost ideas only. Wal-Mart is in India, working in collaboration with Bharti and poised on reinventing the farming processes.
Manufacturing/Construction: The manufacturing industry is struggling more than the construction industry. The infrastructure bill will create jobs. DuPont, Sony laid off two years back. Job creators in March -
Information technology – Adobe, 3M, Alcatel Lucent, and AT&T had laid off people in 2008. For long, Apple has been innovating products, marketing and selling techniques to make money. Bing, Twitter, Facebook are working probably because psychologically people would like to connect more in times of insecurity. (This is the opinion of author). Obama government has taken the step not to provide any tax break to US headquartered companies, having subsidiaries overseas to make profit. Google, Intel, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and fortune 100 companies fall in this category. The change in plan, revealed by Obama is to prevent US firms from enjoying foreign tax credits on income that is not subject to US taxes.
Pharmaceuticals - Why an immigrant would set up shop in US when research and development in his or her own country is cheap? For a US based entrepreneur investment in drug discovery, innovative and alternative drug development methodology would surge the cash flow in long run. Scientific community is recession safe.
Entertainment – Not only India and China are emerging markets for Hollywood movies, they testify the surge of new talent. Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, Reliance and Steven Spielberg tie up has shifted the aptitude. Avatar did a business of 6.7 crore on the opening day in India. Oprah Winfrey show is coming back with the travel show targeted in India and China.
Hospitality – Hyatt is setting shops in India.
Agriculture – Food, cloth and shelter are the necessity. Strong agriculture roots of country will always prove beneficial. Startup in agriculture will survive and remain in demand, no matter what and open the linked restaurants
Health and spiritual growth – In this time it’s important to be happy and at peace and focus the mind. The healthy mind will provide ability to think creatively. The business of calm mind, healthy body and soul is booming in the world and it is something that can work for new ventures too easily.
Investment industry need to revamp and come forward, listen, and groom the ideas. A previous study done in job creation sector-wise is of utmost importance to come up with more ideas.
How many presidents in the history have created jobs? Every president of US has created jobs except President Herbert Hoover. The great depression had skirted his tenure from 1929-1933 : 44% banks went out of business, the job market growth drowned to -6.4% and average household income fell by -9.0%.
1993-2001, Bill Clinton created highest number of jobs, 11.3%.
Clinton created jobs by investing in education, health care, science and technology. He opened foreign markets for the US products. The low inflation rates, increased wages and higher percentage of homeownership boosted economy.
2001-2009, in the decade long tenure of George W Bush, the job creation was negligible.
In 2001-2005, it was 0.01%, the least in the statistics of the century. 2005-2009, it was 1.1 %, again very low. The rise in average annual household income was 0.002% to 0.2% - the lowest amount in the century.
President Obama needs to convert -4.0% of job creation field into a positive number. The graph above reflects that Obama inherited a decade of stagnant job creation and stagnant rise in average household income percentage.
$787 billion stimulus could have created 787000 millionaires in US. But, running the economy of banks runs the future economy of every household in US and to a greter extent globally too.
It’s important to create decent jobs, not jobs.
A study by Jeannette Wicks-Lim of Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 2009 states the need of creating decent jobs in the US. Obama has made note of this point too. Amendments are preening the labor unions to come back in the organizations.
Signs
Job creation done in April and May 2010 will reflect the continuity of positive signs in the graph of employment. March had a number of 162,000 after a long two years.
Obama and his team is working hard, taking every minute step to create jobs. New reforms based on new strategic moves, old footsteps taken by Franklin Roosevelt to create large number of jobs after the great depression, and steps of Clinton.
Believe it or not, Obama is creating jobs in the US. An entrepreneur should enact upon the long-term business opportunity. He is eyeing every opportunity.
On 24th February 2009, in his first major speech, Obama ballyhooed the economic stimulus plan, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law. Over the next 2 years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector, jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, laying broadband and expanding mass transit."
One year has passed. One year remains.
The number of bills, turning into acts, is growing. Each bill passes with the music of job creation. Barack Obama pledges to generate jobs, again and again.
Peep into the brilliant bills
On 18th March 2010 President Obama signed first job creation bill having value of $17.6 billion with the intention to provide tax break for businesses and to fund the highway and the transit spending.
Alabama House also approved a job creation bill called ‘Reemployment Act of 2010’ on 6th of April 2010. It would allow companies to have a state income tax deduction of up to 50 % of the gross wages paid to any person who is currently drawing unemployment benefits or with expired benefits.
The Local Jobs for America Act is yet another persistent effort in job creation. The legislation will directly save or create one million jobs for teachers, police officers and emergency responders. In addition, over the next two years, the bill would put another 750,000 Americans directly to work in the public and private sectors.
The Startup Visa Act of 2010, allows an immigrant entrepreneur to get a 2-year visa if an investor is willing to grant $250,000, the minimum amount for the startup venture of the immigrant. The sound of bill is promising. These new small companies would employ minimum 5 people over a period of 2 years, a small drop to make the sea.
The above-mentioned small bills pacify the path taken. A small company creates more jobs than a bigger company does. The government should boost entrepreneurship among the US citizens. Sanction them loan. Create new, needed and recession proof businesses. It is happening. Believe it, have a breath of relaxation.
On 24th February 2010, The U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a $15 billion job bill which includes tax breaks for small business on hiring new workers and grant tax credits for up to $250,000 in capital expenditures for 2010. The approved bill known as the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act would save or create 1.3 million jobs.
Small Business Job Creation and Access to Capital Act of 2009 intends to increase the loan limit and provide low interest rate for refinancing. This bill can create or save 200,000 jobs. This bill values those 27 million small businesses in the US that supply almost a trillion dollars to the financial system, create 66% of new jobs annually, and build up more than 50 % of the U.S. workforce.
Peep into the verticals, the immigrant entrepreneur and the new startups by US entrepreneurs should focus on to create jobs in US.
Healthcare: The healthcare reform bill is a boost to Indian IT sector. It will create in all probability more jobs in India. In US the cost of human resource to implement healthcare reform is high. It is economical to outsource the services offshore. Qualification, skill sets and experience can’t be cultivated quickly. Else the other option remains is to train people; add more to the cost and workload. Neither big companies, nor small companies would go for it. Jobs created by the healthcare reform are skeptical. An entrepreneur should see the opportunity to open shops in US for the implementation of reform to generate the lead and touch base with client regularly and offshore the work to India or China to meet the deadline. Telemedicine, robotic surgery, genetic engineering or other niche areas of research and development in healthcare and life sciences will always be an opportunity to explore and conquer.
Automobile: The breathlessness in the US automobile industry began in 2005. The big three were under pressure in the shrinking market and decreasing profits. Wages and health plans were the added burden. Bankruptcy was inevitable. The rising gasoline prices hinted and demanded a shift in the transportation style. Tata, India and Geely, China bought a few portions of Ford. Innovative commuting operations, fast transportation techniques, and high fuel-efficient vehicle are the need and necessity of future: a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs to innovate and cater to the world market need. There is a world petroleum crisis. It’s decidedly profitable to put cars out of street.
Retail: Apple and Amazon are the high performers in the US retail industry. Apple launched iPad and own stores. Amazon grabbed market share. Pricesmart offered bargains – something a common man would brood on to save cost. Netflix cashed on the online digital stream. In the fashion retail Buckle and Urban Outfitter followed a strategic move worth studying. Buffalo Wild Wings, BJ's Restaurants, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Texus Roadhouse performed around cost ideas only. Wal-Mart is in India, working in collaboration with Bharti and poised on reinventing the farming processes.
Manufacturing/Construction: The manufacturing industry is struggling more than the construction industry. The infrastructure bill will create jobs. DuPont, Sony laid off two years back. Job creators in March -
Information technology – Adobe, 3M, Alcatel Lucent, and AT&T had laid off people in 2008. For long, Apple has been innovating products, marketing and selling techniques to make money. Bing, Twitter, Facebook are working probably because psychologically people would like to connect more in times of insecurity. (This is the opinion of author). Obama government has taken the step not to provide any tax break to US headquartered companies, having subsidiaries overseas to make profit. Google, Intel, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and fortune 100 companies fall in this category. The change in plan, revealed by Obama is to prevent US firms from enjoying foreign tax credits on income that is not subject to US taxes.
Pharmaceuticals - Why an immigrant would set up shop in US when research and development in his or her own country is cheap? For a US based entrepreneur investment in drug discovery, innovative and alternative drug development methodology would surge the cash flow in long run. Scientific community is recession safe.
Entertainment – Not only India and China are emerging markets for Hollywood movies, they testify the surge of new talent. Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, Reliance and Steven Spielberg tie up has shifted the aptitude. Avatar did a business of 6.7 crore on the opening day in India. Oprah Winfrey show is coming back with the travel show targeted in India and China.
Hospitality – Hyatt is setting shops in India.
Agriculture – Food, cloth and shelter are the necessity. Strong agriculture roots of country will always prove beneficial. Startup in agriculture will survive and remain in demand, no matter what and open the linked restaurants
Health and spiritual growth – In this time it’s important to be happy and at peace and focus the mind. The healthy mind will provide ability to think creatively. The business of calm mind, healthy body and soul is booming in the world and it is something that can work for new ventures too easily.
Investment industry need to revamp and come forward, listen, and groom the ideas. A previous study done in job creation sector-wise is of utmost importance to come up with more ideas.
How many presidents in the history have created jobs? Every president of US has created jobs except President Herbert Hoover. The great depression had skirted his tenure from 1929-1933 : 44% banks went out of business, the job market growth drowned to -6.4% and average household income fell by -9.0%.
1993-2001, Bill Clinton created highest number of jobs, 11.3%.
Clinton created jobs by investing in education, health care, science and technology. He opened foreign markets for the US products. The low inflation rates, increased wages and higher percentage of homeownership boosted economy.
2001-2009, in the decade long tenure of George W Bush, the job creation was negligible.
In 2001-2005, it was 0.01%, the least in the statistics of the century. 2005-2009, it was 1.1 %, again very low. The rise in average annual household income was 0.002% to 0.2% - the lowest amount in the century.
President Obama needs to convert -4.0% of job creation field into a positive number. The graph above reflects that Obama inherited a decade of stagnant job creation and stagnant rise in average household income percentage.
$787 billion stimulus could have created 787000 millionaires in US. But, running the economy of banks runs the future economy of every household in US and to a greter extent globally too.
It’s important to create decent jobs, not jobs.
A study by Jeannette Wicks-Lim of Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 2009 states the need of creating decent jobs in the US. Obama has made note of this point too. Amendments are preening the labor unions to come back in the organizations.
Signs
Job creation done in April and May 2010 will reflect the continuity of positive signs in the graph of employment. March had a number of 162,000 after a long two years.
Obama and his team is working hard, taking every minute step to create jobs. New reforms based on new strategic moves, old footsteps taken by Franklin Roosevelt to create large number of jobs after the great depression, and steps of Clinton.
Believe it or not, Obama is creating jobs in the US. An entrepreneur should enact upon the long-term business opportunity. He is eyeing every opportunity.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Are you aware of the exact amount of money you spend on social networking? No or yes?
No need! (Is this your answer?)
No, it’s not free. If you are assuming that in a social networking web site - all is free, kindly rethink. There is nothing like a free lunch, remember. So, ‘all is free’ is not ‘all is well’. The user registration is free - you may argue. We all accept the terms and conditions without actually reading them because we value our time. By the way, have we ever calculated the monetary worth of our minute?
Twitter has 75 million users now. Approximately 10 to 15 % are active users. The growth rate is still in 1000+ percentage. Facebook currently has more than 400 million active users and more than 100 million active users’ access facebook via mobile phone. Linkedin, Myspace, flickr are few more famous social networking sites where our digital presence is important. Bebo, Badoo, Blackplanet, Classmates.com, Flixster, Habbo, Hi5, Last.fm, Xanga, and Windows live spaces – all have more than 20 million users. There are domain specific social networking websites for music, for traveling, for books, for scientists, for arts etc.
The total population of the world is approximately 6,800 million and the world internet usage stat shows that 1,733,993,741 people across the globe access internet which is 25.6 % of the total world population. If we assume that 100 million people (5.8% of the internet savvy population) across the globe are spending 5 minutes daily on social networking, and their earnings or their parents or spouses’ average earnings per month is $1000. Total money spent in 5 minutes on social networking is
$26.04 x 100,000,000 users = $2,604,000,000
If you reduce the amount of salary to $500 per month, the cost of social networking for 5 minutes is reduced to half the amount, which is $1,302,000,000.
One can calculate the cost of electricity for the 100,000,000 active users in 5 minutes across the globe per day per month or per year. There are many electricity consumption calculators available online. One can add the infrastructure cost and the maintenance cost, the impact on health etc as the invisible cost.
For a media or entertainment person who is earning few million dollars per month or per year, hiring a PR and maintaining the digital presence on the social networking site is affordable. For a common working class person – think before you devote your precious minutes. What do we gain in return? Addiction, contacts or friends?
The biggest advantage of social network- it has brought people near to each other. One can sit and travel miles in seconds to talk to the person. Sharing pictures provides an insight into the life, way of living, cultures and happenings. We feel comfortable to know him or her before actually pitching him or her - the business need, professional need or to show the rest that we know him or her or really befriend and learn something.
Cons – the electricity consumption has gone up. Global warming has gone up. Electronic garbage is growing at the alarming rate. We intend to peep more in other’s life rather than improving our self and learning from the nature. Creativity needs inner peace, aloof moments, it can never be nurtured by being online dedicatedly. This is my perspective.
So, a social networking website of the people, by the people and for the people has terrifying side effects too.
Now we all can calculate - how much amount of money Shashi Tharoor spends on twitter. But, his voice reaches to an audience of 680,000+ people in few seconds and anyone from any part of the world can send tweet message to him.
Count your seconds. Moments are precious.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9148878/Twitter_now_has_75M_users_most_asleep_at_the_mouse
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
No, it’s not free. If you are assuming that in a social networking web site - all is free, kindly rethink. There is nothing like a free lunch, remember. So, ‘all is free’ is not ‘all is well’. The user registration is free - you may argue. We all accept the terms and conditions without actually reading them because we value our time. By the way, have we ever calculated the monetary worth of our minute?
Twitter has 75 million users now. Approximately 10 to 15 % are active users. The growth rate is still in 1000+ percentage. Facebook currently has more than 400 million active users and more than 100 million active users’ access facebook via mobile phone. Linkedin, Myspace, flickr are few more famous social networking sites where our digital presence is important. Bebo, Badoo, Blackplanet, Classmates.com, Flixster, Habbo, Hi5, Last.fm, Xanga, and Windows live spaces – all have more than 20 million users. There are domain specific social networking websites for music, for traveling, for books, for scientists, for arts etc.
The total population of the world is approximately 6,800 million and the world internet usage stat shows that 1,733,993,741 people across the globe access internet which is 25.6 % of the total world population. If we assume that 100 million people (5.8% of the internet savvy population) across the globe are spending 5 minutes daily on social networking, and their earnings or their parents or spouses’ average earnings per month is $1000. Total money spent in 5 minutes on social networking is
$26.04 x 100,000,000 users = $2,604,000,000
If you reduce the amount of salary to $500 per month, the cost of social networking for 5 minutes is reduced to half the amount, which is $1,302,000,000.
One can calculate the cost of electricity for the 100,000,000 active users in 5 minutes across the globe per day per month or per year. There are many electricity consumption calculators available online. One can add the infrastructure cost and the maintenance cost, the impact on health etc as the invisible cost.
For a media or entertainment person who is earning few million dollars per month or per year, hiring a PR and maintaining the digital presence on the social networking site is affordable. For a common working class person – think before you devote your precious minutes. What do we gain in return? Addiction, contacts or friends?
The biggest advantage of social network- it has brought people near to each other. One can sit and travel miles in seconds to talk to the person. Sharing pictures provides an insight into the life, way of living, cultures and happenings. We feel comfortable to know him or her before actually pitching him or her - the business need, professional need or to show the rest that we know him or her or really befriend and learn something.
Cons – the electricity consumption has gone up. Global warming has gone up. Electronic garbage is growing at the alarming rate. We intend to peep more in other’s life rather than improving our self and learning from the nature. Creativity needs inner peace, aloof moments, it can never be nurtured by being online dedicatedly. This is my perspective.
So, a social networking website of the people, by the people and for the people has terrifying side effects too.
Now we all can calculate - how much amount of money Shashi Tharoor spends on twitter. But, his voice reaches to an audience of 680,000+ people in few seconds and anyone from any part of the world can send tweet message to him.
Count your seconds. Moments are precious.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9148878/Twitter_now_has_75M_users_most_asleep_at_the_mouse
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Finger Image in Unique ID Project - how the accuracy and search will be achieved
JPEG Image
BMP Image
Referring to the post in the following link http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/27/stories/2009092755850900.htm
That contains following lines:
“If any agency wants to confirm the identify of a person, it would have to just take the fingerprint of the person on a cell phone and send it across to a central database and receive authentication within seconds.”
UID project is one of the biggest IT projects of the world. There are many identified and unidentified risk areas. Image work associated with the Finger image detection which will identify the uniqueness of any individual in biometric identification needs deep attention.
Till date there is no image search engine around the whole world. Few of the dedicated research labs are working towards the same. We are very optimistically talking about capturing the image from an ordinary low-end handset, may be a high-end handset where the high-level mega pixel camera is used.
To my knowledge in every handset/camera the image generated is captured in the proprietary raw format and rendered into a common format e.g. JPG which is very widely used.
Of all the available images formats– JPG – the most common standard format is a COMPRESSED format. (Data is lost in this format) For biometric identification we need accuracy that means we need raw data format e.g. BMP format (Lossless data format) format or PNG format for storing the image in the central repository. Most of the scientific work involves TIFF image format.
SVG is a new image format, it is scalable but to my limited knowledge - how many handsets would convert the image in this format is the key.
Now if we take JPEG format, an average image takes say 5 KB of space. 60 million images mean 60 million*5 KB of database space in the central repository.
Besides security, identification, authorization, authentication, database design, backup, application failover mitigation, 24 *7 availability, adaptability – in case of power failure, natural disaster, adaptation, failover and security issues under low network bandwidth, flexibility to scale up or scale down the whole software architecture, finger image scanning in few seconds over the provided network bandwidth is the key to the success of this project.
BMP Image
Referring to the post in the following link http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/27/stories/2009092755850900.htm
That contains following lines:
“If any agency wants to confirm the identify of a person, it would have to just take the fingerprint of the person on a cell phone and send it across to a central database and receive authentication within seconds.”
UID project is one of the biggest IT projects of the world. There are many identified and unidentified risk areas. Image work associated with the Finger image detection which will identify the uniqueness of any individual in biometric identification needs deep attention.
Till date there is no image search engine around the whole world. Few of the dedicated research labs are working towards the same. We are very optimistically talking about capturing the image from an ordinary low-end handset, may be a high-end handset where the high-level mega pixel camera is used.
To my knowledge in every handset/camera the image generated is captured in the proprietary raw format and rendered into a common format e.g. JPG which is very widely used.
Of all the available images formats– JPG – the most common standard format is a COMPRESSED format. (Data is lost in this format) For biometric identification we need accuracy that means we need raw data format e.g. BMP format (Lossless data format) format or PNG format for storing the image in the central repository. Most of the scientific work involves TIFF image format.
SVG is a new image format, it is scalable but to my limited knowledge - how many handsets would convert the image in this format is the key.
Now if we take JPEG format, an average image takes say 5 KB of space. 60 million images mean 60 million*5 KB of database space in the central repository.
Besides security, identification, authorization, authentication, database design, backup, application failover mitigation, 24 *7 availability, adaptability – in case of power failure, natural disaster, adaptation, failover and security issues under low network bandwidth, flexibility to scale up or scale down the whole software architecture, finger image scanning in few seconds over the provided network bandwidth is the key to the success of this project.
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