The dates for Ted India have been announced:
4th to 7th November 2009

Venue is the Infosys Campus in Mysore.

What’s TED?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design, an annual conference that defines its mission as “ideas worth spreading”.

Links:
Wikipedia;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TED_(conference)

Official site: http://www.ted.com/

TED India: http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia/

The Official Ted YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TEDtalksDirector

One of my favourite video is this one by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran,

Venue: Trinity, Taj Residency, Bangalore.
Date: 20th January 2009
Official Website: http://www.nokiadevcon.in

If you have been itching to do something on mobile apps, this would be the place to be. With 3G coming to India soon and the already existing millions of mobile subscribers, mobile apps are hot. Serial entrepreneurs & tech industry gurus, all are betting big on mobile applications.

I guess, it would be wise to hear from entrepreneurs who already have a head start in this business. The speaker’s page is here;
http://www.nokiadevcon.in/speakers.html I recall meeting one of the speakers in 2004 & he had a working prototype back then! Right from govt officials, guys from Forum Nokia, operators, mobile game developers, everyone from the telecom industry would be attending, so, I guess it would be a good opportunity to network & keep abreast with the latest in mobile technology. Presentations on Java, Symbian, Web 2.0 etc. are scheduled and interaction with industry these experts too.

The different sessions are Mobile VAS Industry, Mobile Technology Evolution, Technology Showcase, Developer Evangelization & more details are on the sessions page here; http://www.nokiadevcon.in/session.html

This Nokia Developer Conference is bought to you by Forum Nokia, and according to their own words

“The objective of the conference is to inspire and fuel the dreams of developers to create killer mobile applications through support and collaboration.” and also “The Conference will provide the developers a forum, where best minds in the industry will meet and discuss the evolution of the Mobile VAS industry and what the future holds.”

I just read that there are great prizes for mobile application developers at the Nokia Bangalore Conference on the Forum here:
http://www.nokiadevcon.in/forum/index.php

Cya there.

I had the privilege to attend the Iron Maiden Mumbai Press Conference held at JW Marriott Mumbai, India on 31st January. Thank You Ajay. All major Indian newspapers & their photographers were present for this Iron Maiden Mumbai Press Conference.

Here are some of the questions & their replies from Iron Maiden band members.

1) Why was this tour named as Somewhere Back in Time World Tour.

Bruce Dickinson said that Iron Maiden are now than they have ever been before & that several fans all over wanted to play their greatest hits & favourite songs. Also, because Iron Maiden had a previous album called Somewhere in Time, so it was apt to name this current live tour as

2) what are the band member’s favourite concert Iron Maiden songs?

Bruce Dickinson : Moonchild, Rime of the ancient mariner.

Steve Harris : Hallowed by thy name

Nicko McBrain : Hallowed by thy name

Adrian Smith : Moonchild, Rime of the ancient mariner.

Janick Gers : Likes to play them all.

Dave Murray : Rime of the ancient mariner.

3) What does the band think of the current state of heavy metal music like speed metal or thrash metal.

Bruce said that everybody has their own taste in music & everyone is entitled to follow what their music taste desires. Even his son likes/plays thrash metal in which the singer goes…wrrroooohhh [ Bruce imitates a thrash metal vocal intro ]

4) What are the bands comments on 3 guitar line up?

Dave: The sound is lot more heavier, fuller & richer now. Since they are covering songs from the last 30 years, every guitarist’s sound comes across all these numbers.

5) Last year at Bangalore Iron Maiden Concert, all the songs were recorded on a Master track recording system, so would these songs be used anytime?

Steve: We record everything, these can be used later on. It’s important to have all recordings, as every gig has something special which can be used later on.

6) Why is India first on the list of the tour?

Bruce : Well, India is on the way to Australia LOL. But more seriously, that the way the flight path has been designed & also India, becuase, there are lots of fans & demand for Iron Maiden in India.

7) For guitarist, what would they advise newbie bands & musicians?

Janick Gers : Practice & more practice. Stick to your style & work hard, very hard.

Adrian : Work hard think of expressing yourself, through your work, to the point in which you evlove your own style.

Afterwards, lot of photo ops, autograph signing followed. I shall post a few pics here later.
You have any good quality pics of the Iron Maiden Mumbai concert photos, let meknow, I can post them here. Thx:)

The Official website is: http://www.tatapeoplescar.com which has photos, pics specs of Tata Nano

**Update**

9th July 08, Today’s Economic Times, says that the Tata Nano bookings would start from September 2008. The Tata Nano bookings will be done online from Sepetember onwards with a target for deliver from October onwards.

The site is now Live: CNN IBN Forum for students (CFS) is here; http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/cfs/

Pune has been selected or rather students from Pune colleges have been selected by CNN IBN , for a new initiative for students to express their thoughts & views online on IBNLIVE http://www.ibnlive.com/

CNN IBN Forum for Students (CFS)

Students studying in Pune colleges have to become members of this CNN IBN Forum, after selection, they can blog on ANY national or international news or events. The blogs of these Pune students will be shown on IBNLive.com

At the end of an year, CNN IBN, will review the comments on these blogs. Top 50 rankers will receive Certificates from Rajdeep Sardesai. These certificates will mention the how the Pune student’s views on national & international news & events were accepted by people.

Some students will get to appear on Rajdeep Sardesai’s show: ‘The Verdict’, met Rajdeep & rest of the experts on the show.

The whole idea of CNN IBN Forum for Students is to get youth involvement in reading, sharing & providing their opinions on news & events. So, this is basically, making good use of ‘Freedom of Speech’ at a international level as IBNLive has a global audience primarily with Indian news & events in focus.

Students will be benefited, in turn from the response they get on the comments on their blogs. Students through the feedback on comments, would know how acceptable their views on issues are, when they would soon have to face the ‘real’ world, when they step out for employment.

I personally feel that this is a great opportunity for students, you lucky Pune college students! Join now, here are the details. Simple, just write an email to Shilpa Dhamija.

Students studying in Pune colleges, who would be interested in applying for the CNN IBN Forum for Students (CFS) should write to Shilpa Dhamija here:
shilpa.dhamija @ network18online.com

You can now register on the site itself, instead of writing of Shilpa.

Original post here

& the large image is here.

Gphone to ring in September

How many of you think that this iPhone competitor really is gonna roll out soon? Me? I don’t think so. But with G, there are always surprises.

The product tour is here:
http://www.google.com/help/reader/tour.html and the official Google Reader Blog is here:

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/

While trying out the Google Reader, try out my RSS Feed from this blog, you shall have to enter this url into the reader: http://www.iprash.com/feed/

The Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka has organised a photography contest during Dasara (between September 23rd to October 2nd). There is No Participation Fee & the Topic of the Photographs is “Mysore during Dasara”.

Deatils of the Photography Contest is available here:

http://www.karnatakatourism.org/sites/photocontest.html and

http://www.mysoredasara.com/contest.htm

During Dasara, the Palace is illuminated & it’s a breathtaking sight, the entire City is decorated and illuminated too.

I could not be there this year , but, hopefully will try to make it the next year.

On 7th Sepetember, there was a similar news: TCS plans to recruit 30,000 people this year !!

Similarly, if you trackback over this financial year, you shall find that all major companies in India are hiring in 1000s.

From the Financial Times article:

The problem of talent shortage that faces the nation’s infotech sector is also plaguing the banking, finance, insurance and manufacturing sectors too. The supply of talent is just unable to keep pace with the Indian economy’s growth rate, causing a major shortage, said the daily.

Well, with the shortage of qualified people salaries are going up, & with more companies announcing their mega hiring programs, I wonder as to “From where are we gonna fill this gap?”

TCS, Infosys, Wipro & others have already started hiring people from outside India. I can see that, in the near future there’s gonna be an influx of people from countries in Asia migrating to India in large numbers.

Where do we go from here??