Monthly Archives: March 2010

No Google Voice on iPhone – Competition or Corporate Spite

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

David Pogue writes about Line2 in the NYT. Line2 is a service that gives you a separate phone number from which you can make calls, receive calls, get voice mail etc. etc. on your iPhone over cellular or WiFi. Everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Comments Off

Why Pre Existing Conditions Must Go

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

In response to my previous post on healthcare reform, a reader writes in from India …Why should an insurer agree to insure a pre-existing condition? It does not make sense to expect a business to agree to a proposition wherein … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Government | 20 Comments

My Personal Tale of Healthcare Insurance

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

I wanted to get this story out before the Sunday vote in the House. If you believe in healthcare reform, call your Congressman. Most of them will have their offices open tomorrow. Here’s my personal experience with healthcare from this … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Government | 3 Comments

Lehman and Ernst & Young

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

The repo sleight of hand at Lehman was an atrocious piece of work. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention here’s how it works. Lehman had a boatload of assets on its balance sheet supported by a thin … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance | 5 Comments

Why are Non-Fiction Books so Boring?

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

I read a lot of non-fiction. But I seldom finish the book. I find that as the book goes along, the incremental insight gained per chapter keeps reducing, till it is no longer worth my time to keep reading. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | 11 Comments

Online Education is Coming, And Fast

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

An in depth piece in the New York Times magazine looks at an effort to improve teacher quality through training. While this particular initiative may be better than the hundreds of other such initiatives, I find myself wondering if teacher … Continue reading →

Posted in Government, Technology | 7 Comments

An Indian Passport and Indianness

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

M. F. Husain surrenders his Indian passport and takes up Qatari citizenship. As the drama plays out and now peters out in the media an interesting question to ask is what is it that makes one an India. Now one … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, India | 1 Comment

What I Am Upto

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

While things keep me occupied on the personal front, I have been refashioning my professional work to fit it. And it’s been going surprisingly well. First, I have started taking on consulting work. Most of it is strategy and business … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Updates | 15 Comments

Reuse is Like Cutting Consumption in Half

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Basab Pradhan

If you are like me you don’t send Fedex packages too often (not yourself, at any rate). I happened to do that a couple of days ago and was quite tickled to see a simple change that Fedex had made … Continue reading →

Posted in Sustainable Living | 2 Comments