We have already written about ISRO Bhuvan, but were not able to give our reviews as we could not download the application yesterday. But, the site is up today and we were able to get our hands on ISRO Bhuvan.

Here is the complete review of much-hyped, much-talked-about ISRO Bhuvan:

As soon as I went to the site, the first thing I tried to look for was the download link, unfortunately, you cannot get your hands on Bhuvan so easily, you got to first fill up a registration form and create your username & password. Once you log-in you will be able to get the download link.

The download link mentions it as a plugin, which is surprisingly close to 11mb (a plugin that too 11mb!). Anyways, I downloaded and installed it.

It installs something called TerraExplorer, which I really did not know what it was – No mention of Bhuvan anywhere.

If you click on the link in TerraExplorer, it takes you to skyline site and asks you whether you want to browse any of the sites in USA or France. No Sign of India or Bhuvan – Completely confused at this point of time.

I tried opening Bhuvan website, thinking that the plugin might kick in, but unfortunately the application does not seem to support either Chrome or Firefox. The message on the website says:

First off, the site is extremely slow, does not load most of the times and is visible only in I.E 6 or above.

To top that, following are the system requirements for you to get Bhuvan working:

Minimum System Requirements: (check the spelling of minimum on Bhuvan site :))

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista;CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+ ;System Memory (RAM): 512MB ; Hard Disk: 2GB free space ;Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec; Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM; Screen: 1280×1024,32-bit True Color
• To browse Bhuvan, you require the Bhuvan Plug-in which can be downloaded from this website, after registration and you will also need DirectX 9.0 or higher version (www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/) and MS .NET framework 2.0 or above for installing the plug-in. Please note that the Bhuvan Plug-in can be installed with administrative privileges only.

I think with these system requirements, 80% of Indians are already eliminated.. who the hell has 768kb/s network speed at home?, along with host of other requirements.

Okay, after getting my way through everything else, I presume that if I load the Bhuvan site in Internet Explorer 8, I will finally have something to see… But thats not to be.

I wait for Bhuvan application (or plugin) to kick in for more than 15 mins and absolutely nothing happens.

Conclusion of ISRO Bhuvan: Forget competing with Google Earth, Bhuvan is a big farce !!!. They really need to get their act together. I am not sure what I was thinking when I said that Bhuvan could be a Google beater – Thats crap !!!!!

Note: I’d be happy if I am proven wrong. If a user like me could not use Bhuvan after struggling for 1 hour, I am not sure how many people can !

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3. India Economic Survey – Analysis and Full Report

There have been lot of questions I have come across recently regarding Mobile TV, so thought it would be a good time to let our readers to know more about it.

What is Mobile TV?

Mobile TV is a service which allows cell phone owners to watch television on their phones from a service provider. Television data can be obtained either through an existing cellular network or a propriety network. [Source: wikipedia]

We can watch both live shows and pre-recorded program over Mobile TV. Live TV is transmitted through DVB-H (digital video broadcasting-handheld) and DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) while pre-recorded shows can be watched similar to Video-On-Demand services.

Is 3G a mandatory requirement to use Mobile TV?

As said above, the technologies we use for Mobile TV are essentially related to Broadcasting i.e. DVB-H and DMB. Hence any mobile phone which supports these technologies can be used to watch Mobile TV. In addition to this, transmitting sites need an IPDC (Internet Protocol Device Control) network to support Mobile TV.

Which operators provide this service in India?

Every operator right from Airtel to Idea to Reliance provides this service. Which means it’s available over both GSM and CDMA platforms.

What’s the current and expected market for Mobile TV subscribers?

As per Springboard Research, the potential market size for mobile TV services is estimated to be $360 million in 2008. 84 per cent of the current mobile phone users are interested in using Mobile TV service provided the service is commonly available and affordable. They also reported that mobile TV could reach a penetration level of 5 to 6 per cent of the total mobile subscriber base in India i.e. about 10-12 million users.

Enough said, but if it’s been around for a year why I’m not aware of it?

The major point is- TRAI is still unable to set some defined guidelines for the service. Also, the Spectrum allocation for the service is very recently done. But this would allow operators to lower the service charge and increase the quality of service in the longer run. As and when all the issues are resolved from the regulation side, big mobile operators (read Airtel and Reliance) will start promoting it extensively.

The other road block is having DVB-H compatible Mobile phones. Nokia has phones like N92 and N77 which are quite costly. Other mobile manufacturers are also launching their models to enable mobile TV, but user awareness about these phones is very less at this point.

Will it be able to generate business for Broadcasters and Operators?

From a Broadcaster’s point of view the answer is yes. Because in any case (whether the subscriber base is sufficient or not), they will get paid for their content from operators or service providers (TRAI’s regulations will also matter). But from operators’ point of view their profits will depend upon total number of Mobile TV subscribers (to negate operational costs).

Will it be able to change the face of Television in India?

That’s yet to be seen. TV as a medium is deeply rooted among Indians and it has its own charm. But for those who think TV as a device can’t cope up with modern innovations like Mobiles and i-Pods, Mobile TV can be the perfect solution! But still, its acceptance will depend more upon the accessibility and affordability.

[This Media Monday post has been submitted by Rabi Gupta, a start up enthusiast and soon to launch his first product iDubba (Intelligent Box).]

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Alternative energy is any energy that does not depend on oil of middle east. That seems to be the apt description. It could be Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Bio-Fuel and everything else in your imagination except oil

In his book “Hot, Flat and Crowded” Thomas Friedman describes the alternative energy should be renewable. Which means it should be abundantly available and clean. There are only few energy sources which fulfill that criteria. Solar and Wind are the obvious choices. And these are expensive to generate.

Though solar energy is abundant it is not very easy to generate. A land of 10,000 acres is needed for generating 1,000 MW of power. Huge chunks of land is required to generate power. Where do we have that kind of land? Well, we can ask Ramalinga Raju but he is in jail now. Same is the case with Wind Energy – huge area, huge investments.

When oil per barrel was at $147, the talk for alternative energy has heated up. Since then the oil saw its inevitable downfall and so did the enthusiasm of the alternative energy advocates. Oil per barrel is at $40, and the alternative and biotech stocks has lost a lot since their peaks.

OPEC wants the oil to be somewhere at $90 per barrel. That is because they don’t have any other source of income other than oil. They need that price to remain profitable. Alternative energy industry also wants oil at $90 per barrel. They don’t say it but they know it in their hearts.

While there are efforts to go green in bits and pieces sprinkled across like Jay Leno’s wind turbine or Intel’s data center which is powered by solar energy. The real push for alternative energy can come only when the oil barrel value is at $100. Only then the world would innovate to move away from oil into the alternative energy segment.

The biggest push has to come from America which incidentally is the biggest consumer of world’s oil. The latest stimulus bill has $150 bn investment going into the renewable energy market. This to me is the big chunk of investment which can alter the course. Unless the spending comes from governments across, it would be impossible to get away from the oil addiction and secure our future.

Coming to India’s situation the alternative energy boom is still to catch up. Reliance Industries has seen its profits dropping which is a good indication that it should look at other alternatives like alternative energy. There are investments in photovoltaic’s from companies like Moser Baer, Reliance Industries  and Tata BP Solar. There are also smaller companies like Daily Dump which generate energy out of kitchen waste. Suzlon Energy is provides equipment to generate wind energy.

These investments and initiatives will take a back seat when the oil rate falls. To compound these worries is our perennial subsidies of petrol, diesel, LPG and Kerosene. We all know how those works. With the impending general elections there is one more price cut coming. That to me is a start of yet another vicious cycle.

Why do we need alternative energy? Because we are running out of oil and burning fossil fuels generates a lot of CO2 which can eventually kill the planet.

Why aren’t we acting fast? Because the cheap oil is still available and there is no economic incentive to go and pursue other fuels.

What should we do?

*Image credit : lant_70 via flickr

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It is getting a bit monotonous these days to blog. Not that I am tired of it, but because the global contagion is so wide spread and hitting from all corners that it is really hard to ignore it. It is with great pain I am writing this. I am not sure what is really happening. How am I supposed to know, when the world’s central banks have no clue. I rely on what the media spits out. I hope you do the same thing.

I thought every other bank is going bankrupt. That would be wishful thinking. Now, countries are going bankrupt. I heard about countries going bankrupt but this is the first time I am witnessing it. Iceland is on the brink of bankruptcy. Rumours are that Pakistan is following suit.

Economist reports that American banks have lent 96 cents per 1-dollar deposited. European banks have lent 1.40 Euros of 1 euro deposited. Isn’t that the wrong thing to do as a bank? What exactly are the regulators doing? This illogical lending has led to nationalization of banks in major countries. I think the whole world came a full circle to where India was.

Though India went on a growth trajectory, it exercised caution all the way. It did not privatize its banks. Every body has complained about the customer service at the nationalized banks. I guess poor customer service is the price to pay for safe guarding your depositors. Leaving the ICICI rumours aside, Indian banks seem to be well capitalized or so they say. Though this is good news there is a lot of room for concern.

I am sick and tired of our financial minister and every other bureaucrat parroting the same words. “The fundamentals of the economy are strong”. Which raises doubts about believing those 7 words. Why is the Sensex and nifty tanking so much if the fundamentals are strong? Why were the dreaded p-notes re-introduced? Why did the RBI cut CRR rate by 150 basis points to 7.5%? Why are the global financial ministers meeting in an emergency fashion?

I can sense that something is seriously wrong. But not sure what that is. The persons who know are choosing to ignore the bigger problem instead of warning the investors and citizens. I am a born optimist but the global scenario and the way world banks and finance ministers are running around is making be pessimistic.

Optimism or pessimism I need the truth. Not false assurances. I want to know if the world is at the brink of a major financial catastrophe? I want to know when wills the bleeding stop?

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Are we going nuts over India’s inflation touching 11.5%?

Think about a country where the inflation is 2.2 million percent. Yes, that’s right Zimbabwe’s inflation has risen from 165,000% in February to whooping 2.2 million. Can you imagine that.

The prices of goods double or even triple in a day !

Now here is another surprise.. Central bank has introduced a note that reads $100,000,000,000 ($ 100 billion) to cope up with cash shortages in the country.

I do not have picture of 100 billion dollar note, but here is how $ 500 million note looks like.

You know the actual value of that note ?

One 500 million dollar Zimbabwe note is worth mere 2 US dollars :)

[source]

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I came across this report by Gartner while writing my previous post. It talks about major challenges faced by IT Industry that have not been resolved as yet. I am reproducing that report here for readers benefit.

Here are the seven IT Grand Challenges as identified by Gartner.

Never having to manually recharge devices:

Today, the ubiquity of portable computing and communications devices powered by battery means that many people would find it highly desirable to either have their batteries charged remotely or their devices powered by a remote source, bypassing the use of batteries altogether.  Despite more than 100 years of research since the invention of the Tesla Coil in the late nineteenth century, the most notable progress to date was achieved by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in July 2007 in their experiment to transfer non-radiative power. By this measure, any commercial application of wireless powering still seems a long way off.

Parallel Programming:

Rather than simply creating faster single-core processors to perform tasks serially, another way to meet the constant demand for faster processor speed is to develop multiple, slower speed processors that perform tasks serially. Simulations, modeling, entertainment and massive data mining would all benefit from advances in parallel computing. However, a challenge with parallel computing is to create applications that fully exploit a “multi-core” architecture by dividing a problem into smaller individual problems addressed by individual processors. To overcome this, key issues will need to be addressed, including effectively breaking up processes into specific sub-processes, determining which tasks can be handled simultaneously by multiple processes, scheduling tasks to be processed simultaneously and designing the architecture of the parallel processing environment.

Non Tactile, Natural Computing Interface:

The idea of interacting with computers without any mechanical interface has long been a desirable goal in computing. Some of the many challenges that remain in this area include the ability to detect gestures, developing a gesture dictionary and the need for real-time processing. Another set of challenges relate to natural language processing, which include speech synthesis, speech recognition, natural language understanding, natural language generation, machine translation and translating one natural language into another.

Automated Speech Translation:

Once the many hurdles of natural language processing are overcome to yield human-to-computer communications in one language, the complexity extends further when translation and output is required to a target language that is understandable to a human. Some rudimentary systems have already been created to accomplish basic speech translation, such as one-way and two-way translations.

Persistent and Reliable Long-Term Storage:

Current technologies are hard-pressed to perfectly preserve Dr. Francine Berman’s 2006 estimate of 161 Exabytes (x10 to the 18th power) of digital information on digital media for more than 20 years. The barriers to long-term archiving (in excess of 100 years) that must be overcome include format, hardware, software, metadata, information retrieval, just to mention a few.

Increase Programmer Productivity 100-fold:

As business and society’s demand for software development increases, and the apparent decline of students pursuing software engineering and computer science degrees intensifies, removing uncertainty from meeting future demands will have to be met by increasing the output, or productivity, per programmer. While the exploration and development of tools to enhance productivity continues to capture attention, it would appear that effectively and efficiently exploiting reusable code is one of the most encouraging rays of hope to yield more output per programmer. But many challenges exist there as well. Minimizing the time required to find the perfect software module and avoiding the need to modify reusable software are among the many challenges.

Identifying the Financial Consequences of IT Investing:

One of the most perplexing challenges faced by IT leaders has been to convey the business value of IT in terms readily understandable by business executives. As a discipline that conveys the business performance and results to internal executives and personnel only, management accounting could offer business advice and recommendations that would quantify the consequences of a particular IT deployment. Unlike financial accounting measurements which are standard across public companies, the particular management accounting metrics could be different for each company. This Grand Challenge would be considered conquered when a request for an IT project was argued with the following certainty: “If you invest in our IT proposal, you will see an additional $0.03 earnings per share directly attributable to this project by the third quarter of next year.”

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I came across this slideshare presentation, that I think is a must watch for readers. This well researched presentation was presented during “Duke GEMBA’08 – India Panel Discussion”.

This presentation talk about where India stands currently and the key highlights of current and future growth of India.

India: Regaining the lost glory…

(Please view the presentation in full screen mode)

| View | Upload your own

Via: Webyantra

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