Monthly Archives: February 2010

Kindle Doesn’t Quite Work for Non-Fiction

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

Felix Salmon writes I’ve come to the clear conclusion that it simply isn’t suited for reading the vast majority of non-fiction. You might not even notice it when you’re doing it, but when you read a non-fiction work like this … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | 3 Comments

Europe is Getting Less Secular

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

The latest flap over halal meat served in a restaurant in France A French fast food chain’s decision to serve only halal meat in eight restaurants with a strong Muslim clientele has sparked a wave of criticism from politicians decrying … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Government | 3 Comments

My Son and Asperger’s Syndrome

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

Autism is in the news. My Name is Khan was released last weekend. The movie takes on some important topics (Asperger’s, religion based profiling). The movie was very average, but any movie with SRK in it is automatically big news. … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Updates | 17 Comments

Is Offshore Services a Scale Business

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

Earlier this week I wondered why Indian Offshore Services companies weren’t “bulking up” – basically acquiring companies just like themselves – just smaller and with perhaps lower P/Es. A reader left a thoughtful comment : I guess one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Offshore Services | 7 Comments

An Unsmart Phone and an iPad

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

My relationship with my phone is at a nadir. As I explained in an earlier post I had to get an Android phone because I use Google Voice which Apple refuses to allow into the iPhone app store. I got … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | 7 Comments

Employees Vote Apotheker Out of SAP

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

There are several interesting things about the change of guard at SAP. That Leo Apotheker resigned, (or his contract was not renewed) is hardly unique. But for the Chairman Hasso Plattner, to actually apologize to customers, and take some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business | 4 Comments

Offshore Services: Whither Consolidation?

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

In the last 18 months the markets took a deep dive and then recovered. Valuations in the Offshore Services industry yo-yoed, business prospects sank and then recovered. Yet amidst all this, the pace of acquisitions didn’t go up much. Apart … Continue reading →

Posted in Offshore Services | 12 Comments

Money Begets Power Begets Money

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

Larry Lessig calls campaign fund-raising another form of corruption. It is interesting that in India if it were possible to get special interests to lawfully contribute to the campaign funds of politicians and not their own private accounts, we would … Continue reading →

Posted in Government | 2 Comments

Corrupt Congress

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

Larry Lessig has an important article in The Nation about how campaign fund-raising has corrupted Congress. This is corruption. Not the corruption of bribes, or of any other crime known to Title 18 of the US Code. Instead, it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Government | Comments Off

Sena Mobocracy

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

As the Shiv Sena stokes the fires of communalism, parochialism and other uglisms, Shahrukh Khan remains unfazed. Siddharth Varadarajan writes When confronted by the mob power of the Shiv Sena, MNS or other right-wing groups, the police in India invariably … Continue reading →

Posted in India | 4 Comments