Need For Health !!!

Before the invention of modern technology, most of the people’s routine eventually could be considered as physical activity. They never wanted additional physical exercises to take care of their health. Many discoveries led to the savvy touch of human society, which lead to the mechanical life style to take over people’s health very badly.

The best investment one can make is on his own health. Rather than picking an exciting life insurance or health insurance at the leading insurance company, we can keep our body fit and healthy at least to spend the earnings which we have done.

Now a days, we can see health Conscious people a lot around us. They get up early in the morning and hit the clear fields and streets for walking followed by a meeting in a hotel to compensate the calories they have burnt in the walk. What is the use???

A proper diet with a regular routine of exercises can fetch us a good health. I see people often giving the reason they are way too busy to take care of their own body. Everyone in the world is busy, but our preference brings the difference. Taking a good care of our body before we are admitted in super specialty hospitals for irrespective of the reasons will make sense. By spending time and money to look upon on our body yields a good result.

In search of success in competitive world and running a marathon of life behind money is making most of us to prepare for the disastrous living after time flies. Without physical activities our body won’t respond to us like the way need it to be.

Physical activities and exercises do bring a lot of surprises in our lives. It changes our life style. It gives the new charm of living and attitude. A healthy body yields a healthy mind; a healthy mind in turn makes the society healthier, a better place for living. The Buddhist monks in the South East Asian countries train their body so hard even the sharp and hard objects fail to make a scratch on their body. They have a great control over their body and that is the key reason for their inner peace.

Human body was made to hunt saber tooth tigers and walk for many miles per day. But what we do is to rest our back on the funky spinning chairs and sofas, staring at the PCs or T.V. with a glass full of beverages and junkies all around us. This part may not be true in all cases, but the case sets itself true for the majority of the present situation.

Many of the youngsters approach the gym nearby and quit very early, because they didn’t get 6 packs!!! Self-motivation and patience is very necessary for everyone for everything. We might come across few tips like “To be physically active, take steps rather than elevator” Are you going to do the same if your cabin is at 10th floor??? Every time we cannot take the stairs or can’t go for a walk early morning. At least what we can do is, spending an hour at least in the gym or doing yoga at home for the better ourselves. The important thing is to fix a time for the exercise and make it as a daily routine.

If you are not been in the set of Active people, start slowly and try being one of them.

Learn about the types and amounts of activity that are suitable for you.

Pick the appropriate activity which suits your fitness level.

If you want to choose cycling or running as your exercise make sure about the equipments and especially shoes if you are running.

Rewards for Exercising

·         Physical activities help us to burn calories. When we can burn calories more than we intake, it reduces weight in no time.

·         Regular fitness activities improve the quality of life, bring increased strength and stamina, reduce tension and anxiety, promote healthy sleep and relax the body and the mind.

·         Chances of living longer and healthier will be increased.

·         Keeps you away from heart and lung problems.

·         Helps to prevent diabetes.

·         It helps to maintain muscle strength, improving balance, reaction time and flexibility.

·         Being in sports helps to increase level of concentration.

·         Increases tolerance to stress, improves mood and reduces the risk of depression and anxiety.

It’s not about the age factor or profession you are in. if you are not involved in any physical activity and treating your body like your smart phone.

Just remember “It’s never too late to start”.

Anti-socio dimension of Smart phones

 “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots”- Einstein.

Just have to wonder how he came up with quote like that long ago to describe the present scenario. Smart phone usage across the world has spread rapidly even faster than SARS and MARS spread in the South East Asian countries.

If you are irritated with smart phone addicted people when they meet you and keep using their device, you will be tagged as “old fashioned”. It’s a common sight to see the families at the restaurants for an outing. But now a days, its way too common that none of them speak with each other and throughout the dinner they remain focussed on their smart phone activity.

It’s not only the smart phone factor; it’s the cocktail of smart phone features and social network. The drive of sharing every small things and trying to get attention of others is increasing rapidly.

We need smart phones to keep a track of things to do. Many of us do not remember what day it is and rely on phone for checking it. To move your back off from your bed in time also needs alarm in your smart phone. The ability and activity of human brain in getting nullified day by day due to the use of smart phones.

People are forgetting how to interact with each other. The early morning walk also will be accompanied with smart phones. A columnist in a local paper confessed for being a phonoholic. “My phone has become the 207^th bone in my body. I think I would barely feel barely upright without it. . . Such a feeling has been named nomophonophobia- the fear of being without your mobile phone.”

Smart phones make you forget basic manners and conversation skills. They make us think it is acceptable to keep staring at a couple of inches screen in the presence of another human. We have got into an idea that this sticking with smart phones make us look smarter or we could impress someone else. We are trying to communicate with the far away people avoiding the ones who are in front of us.

People are tempted to text and post updates on social networks while driving. This is the main reason for the increase in the number of accidents all over the world. Most of the European countries and in US there are laws that could make you pay fine if you walk using smart phones creating trouble for others.

Using smart phones is injurious for  our health. The radiations emitting from it is injurious to various organs of the human body. The glow of the smart phone prevents our bodies releasing serotonin, which helps us fall and stay asleep. Your brain needs sleep to be smart- so again the smart phone doesn’t make you smart. No smart phones in the room at least in your home will be a smart idea.

The device is not bad. It contains all the potential facts to be considered as positive product, provided that it is used wisely. But considering the earth itself to be unfortunate, the smart phone is not used to enhance our skills in various fields, but as a means of distraction that is turning the whole generation into mindless creatures.

Technology can enable us to reach out to people in ways that were never possible before, but at the same time, it is also extremely capable of bringing out the absolute worst of humanity.

Reservation - "Assasin of Achievers"

Reservation – a word which is a boon for few people, and a curse for the rest. Politicians use reservation schemes to make sure to fetch most from the respective vote banking communities. During independence, the reservation system was introduced so that the ill treated people will get a chance to work with others and study expecting a social balance. But now everyone is confused, who are ill treated???

India is a country where one can find the castes more than the languages spoken. After independence, the Indian constitution introduced reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes to give a respectful representation for the ill treated people. 22.5% of the seats in higher education institutes and public sector undertakings at both state and central level were set-aside for them.

In 1989, 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in public sector and state-level educational institutions was introduced. This made the percentage of general category seats to drop to only 51%, where in this 51% the OBCs can also take their seats.

Things were bad, more than the night mares when the government wanted to introduce 27% reservations for OBCs in IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS. There were many revolts entire the country. When protest was gaining its strength, the government showed its brutality by attacking them physically using police force. The doctors had to look upon their job after many days participating in the anti-reservation protest, since it caused problems for the common people. After the protests melted down, on 10^th April 2008 Supreme Court upheld the reservation in IITs, IIMs and other premier educational institutions.

There are reservations which should be welcomed with honor. A few of them are sports, handicap, military and children of ex-service men. Those who come under these categories should be given reservation because they deserve.

India is a vast country with varieties of culture. Until the majority of us face the counseling of our UG and PG seats we won’t worry about the caste. When the counseling is given a start, your caste and under which category you will be is more important than your marks scored. The 10000 rank holder won’t get a seat because he was unfortunately born in general category. And the one who ranked 50000 will get a seat in his hometown itself, since he was born in the GOD’s categories which are treated as minorities.

How reservations affect and make the difference??

Considering a student of general category who has scored 5000 rank in CET, his interest is Electronics. He won’t get a seat for his desired specialization and college. He needs to compromise with his desires and study something else. If he has to take up his desired course the management fee will be equal to one of the family member’s earning. Considering he is from a middle class which has constituted major part of our country, he is already in all sorts of pressure. His future is also not secure, because “reservation” may stand in his way if he is willing to work in public sector.

Whereas the student with reservation gift, enjoys all the scholarship and he may even get into higher position in job with lesser marks also.

This naturally brings the system morale very low. Most of the senior officers who are backed up with reservations won’t be in a position to take their own decisions and work efficiently.  It leads to many conflicts which the organization has to face for one’s problem.

 If the opportunity is given on the basis of merit, and not on reservation. We can expect progress in the organization which reflects the progress of the country. The world’s best engineers and doctors are Indians. The appointment of Dr.Vivek Murthy for Surgeon General of USA is the live example for the class of Indians in various fields. If reservations take over the future of bright minds, we should be afraid that we may not see the “Achievers” in any field.

The population of the reserved category community has outnumbered the general category. They can apply under general category for education and jobs. The current scenario is like the so called “Backward Classes” are living a luxurious life with a gift coupon of “reservation” for lifetime. The general category is considerably struggling to make a mark, since they miss out most of the services of reservation.

The exploited general category persons who have been cheated because of the reservations are struggling and leading a pity full life in the poor economic conditions of our beloved nation.

India needs a non reservation path of selection in education and public sector jobs. Only then we can dream about the development. If developed nation is our finishing line, the first hurdle is the great Indian reservation system. When we back up the real talent with irrespective of the category he/she belongs to, support them if their financial conditions is weak. We can see a bright full future at least for the further generations. Let’s say NO to reservation, because someone’s future is in the hands of RESERVATION.

The Wake up Call - "The Monk who sold his Ferrari"

It was the beginning days where I insisted myself to go with novels. I had just started to visit library and my interest was gradually shifting to the ocean of books. I came across this title “The monk who sold his Ferrari”; I was very much hypnotized by the title in no time. Soon as the title hit my senses, there were a lot of questions within me. Why a monk sold his Ferrari? How come a monk own a Ferrari? The speed of the mind and its thinking can sometimes cross the speed of light.

Proceedings are done lamely using two guys who are lawyers by profession. I think all the top writers have the tendency to make the book slightly boring for a couple of pages and take us with surprise and continue the rhythm.

The first chapter explains us how one can screw his life when he becomes a workaholic and misses precious things in life. The story even though it’s fictitious makes us believe it and try doing the things which we can manage in our daily life.  I found this book was eventually a master piece because after completing this book, there was an inner peace which made me feel light every time at least for the couple of days.

The explanation on miraculous of Julian mantle may make feel some of us to give a try and be young unlike others.

“On your death bed you will never wish you spent more time at the office”, these kinds of words alarms us to do the things which we are passionate and fond of. The magical changes in physical appearance of Julian mantle is elaborated with all the basic things which we also may need to adopt. Not in case of trekking to Himalayas may be exaggerated thought though. Living simple, giving us our own time, taking control of our self….

The captions below each chapter headings are sayings of greater personalities. “I am an artist at living – my work of art is my life”. You need to feel the words if you have to excel in life.

The cup and tea scenario describes amazing explanation technique. When Julian is asked to explain his changes he starts pouring tea into a cup, he keeps on pouring into it even after the cup is over flowing. When questioned for the strange behavior he replies just like this cup you’re full of your own ideas. I can’t force you them to let within you, you need to empty your mind so that you can grasp a bit.

The book is a wake-up call which is documented. You will be made to think beyond what you’re doing and re-assemble all the passions and the things you wanted to do. It leads us to the brighter life style.

Most of us are blindly running behind two things. One is profession and the other is money. There are many things which money can’t buy. I agree a healthy financial condition is very essential. Like the quotes “it is better to cry inside a BMW, than on a bicycle”. Feeling secured in money matters is not condensable. But in the path of earning one should not lose his path of art of living and health.

When our mind is not set free from the regular routines, as in computer if memory de-location process does not take place then system may not perform well by welcoming a lot of awful errors.

This book is recommendable for all those who are interested in altering and build up their routines and habits that can transform their lives. If the monk sold his Ferrari in search of his inner peace. We don’t have any problem to spend few bucks on the lovely book which makes us better .

What is wrong with Indian economy??

The economy of India is the tenth-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).The country is one of the G-20 major economies. India is the 19th-largest exporter and the 10th-largest importer in the world.

Whether India’s currency has stabilized is another matter. There is plenty to worry about. The prospect of the Federal Reserve ending its purchases of bonds draws ever closer, especially with good news from the American economy recently. That means the loss of money from emerging markets may continue. Both Indonesia and Brazil raised interest rates recently to protect their currencies, making India relatively less attractive.

Outdated technology, and lack of organization and inefficiency, has seen the Indian retail industry slowly and steadily pull down India’s economy. The Indian retail industry’s has an annual revenue of $500 billion as of 2011 and employs the second-most number of people after agriculture, a sector that is respectively linked to the retail sector.

Yet, the Indian retail industry is also one of the most unorganized sectors in the country. 90% of the retail industry is controlled by small-scale, family-run operations with big chains making up just 10% of the market. Thus far, Indian suppliers have not been able to deliver to the consumer.

Missing governance, With absence of any form of reliable governance, markets are extremely shallow in India. The vast majority of the people still resort to gold and other such means to preserve/transfer wealth. Public sector efforts/undertakings have tried to ‘complete’ many of these markets but they simply cannot do it. The incentives of politicians/bureaucrats are entirely opposite to those of the community.

The primary focus on IT and service sector and the neglect on the manufacturing sector which even showed negative growth during recent times. Some of the major reasons for downfall of Indian economy are:

Problem of Current Account Deficit
When the value of imports exceeds value of exports, it is known as current account deficit. This has been one of the major fears to India's economic fall.

The current account deficit is narrowing, but continues to pose a threat to the rupee and economic growth. Gold imports, which are part of the reason India has a high current account deficit. Huge Current Account Deficit that has reached alarming levels accompanied with high inflation rates that the government has largely been unable to control despite the monetary policies.

Slow Speed of Economic Change

The slow speed of the economic growth in the recent years has put lime light on the need for economic reform in a situation where most of the foreign investors are wrapping up their business. The initiatives to increase investments failed when the budget disappointed market expectations. The major failure is considered as the fact that the government failed to respond to issues like a cut on outstanding taxes on debt investments.

Corruption and Loop Holes in the Infrastructure
The country’s mining sector is the perfect example of the corruption that took place in the country. If India is hoping to increase supply, draw investments and speed up growth, corruption is the first obstacle to remove.
The Colgate scam as it is most recognized by, came out after a report by India's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that accused the ruling UPA government of selling the coal field unlawfully. This later took the shape of one of the biggest scandals in India.

The list doesn’t end here. Over the recent years the country witness even bigger scams like the around the Commonwealth Games, the telecom scam, and most recently in cricket, with the Indian Premier League etc.

The other important factor is purchasing of things by common people, may be electronic gadgets or so on which are the products of the companies which belong to the other countries. This causes the more revenue flow to their respective countries leaving a major setback in revenue for Indian economy.

The schemes which are offered by ruling parties to impress people to fetch more number of votes is the another important factor affecting Indian economy. If an average quality of rice is given to people below poverty line for a single rupee, where the actual price is exceeds rupee thirty also. This makes the government’s treasury go low in no time. When the money is not spent on the healthy issues without return and with welcoming a huge amount of loss we cannot expect a balance in the economy.

Synonym of Cricket - "Sachin Tendulkar"

“Beneath the helmet, under the unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even though who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives”

Most of us don’t have the ability to think in broader sense. When we speak about rose, we get a red rose in our mind. We won’t let our mind to think about yellow rose, white or other. There are many examples like this if you keep on thinking. Even most of the Indians are suffering from this dilemma, it’s simple. We have the synonym for Indian cricket as SACHIN TENDULKAR. It’s not the narrow minded thought we have. It’s the impact of his personality and sportsmanship.

“I had to remind Gary Kristen often that he was in the covers to field against Sachin not to applaud him” – Hansie Cronje

For any sportsman it’s difficult to perform well under the crowd. They will be distracting, cheering their team. In these cases one finds hard to concentrate and may not perform well. You can make a blind person to feel the depth of the well or steep of the hill by making him jump to the next step in staircase. And tell him, this took a fraction of second, but you may take a few mins to reach the floor when you jump from a level to make him know about the heights.

When it comes to pressure on Sachin, no one can describe how much it was? How did he handle it?

When he was hit by the bouncer of Waqar Younus in his debue match at Pakistan. He was only 16 yrs of age, he was bleeding. But the next ball was shown way to the boundary. He never backed down.  He was gifted. He was matured. He had this threshold level very high compared to others. He never wined on umpires for the bad decisions even he had heaps of pressure. He is the definition of a sportsman and gentleman.

Sachin has the largest fan following in the world. When he was suspended for a test match because of referee’s decision on what it seemed to be ball tampering. The revolt against the decision in India made ICC not to allow the referee inside the ground and suspension was removed on Sachin, since he was innocent.

Greatest leg spinner of all time Shane Warne was famous for his misbehavior in bar and was known as ladies man. Ricky Ponting had temperament problems. Most of the sportsmen lose their temper at some stages, and there is one exception. It is Sachin Tendulkar. If Navjoth Singh Siddu was at the receiving end of the bad decisions from Steve Buckner like Sachin did, I’m afraid I should have called the “Mr. slow death” as Late. International umpire. Sachin was born to create history, destined to be a legend. He is the greatest batsmen ever produced in the country. If you want to know how good you are in batting. Sachin will be the mark and you have to look how close you can get to him

Just imagine a 6 feet hunk bowls at a small guy with a furious pace, and the ball will be sent back like a bullet. The humiliation faced by the bowler is ridiculous.

His strokes were perfect cricketing shots. If you ask me, they could be used as definition for the various cricketing terms. The sheer class and standard of the cricket is measured by how well one can play like Sachin. There is no one in the world who can play the straight drive with a high bat lift like him, “for that shot ,children please refer page no 36” if I come across these words in Indian schools in future I wouldn’t be surprised.

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to play against the deadliest bowling attacks in cricketing history, Shahrukh khan was a small actor on television, A.R.Rahman was still known as Dileep kumar, Pete Sampras had no grand slam title in his career, Michel Schumacher was just a funky name, David Beckham was a football hero of his high school team. We have had champions, we have seen legends. But we never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we will never have.

Review on Jack Welch's Winning

Jack Welch was General Electric chairman and CEO from 1981 to 2001 and is one of the best business icons. He has been travelling around the world and interacting with people, sharing his wisdom on management.

The book is very interesting unlike other books composed of winning strategies. The candor in his writing, which he refers as a very important perspective in the organization’s and an individual’s growth. When you are reading the book you will have the feel of interaction with Jack Welch himself.  There are numerous advices which are sensible and convincing and you feel like you’re already taking the author’s side in the views of running a management.

This book comes with a handy experience of forty five years and with sheer class capabilities of how one should run a company and manage it. No one else could have explained with the simplest terms and the scenarios like jack Welch, the author and the Ex- CEO of GE.

The book has got a comment printed on it done by Mr. Warren E. Buffet quoting ‘No other management book will ever be needed’, at first sight you may feel it’s exaggerating but once you finish reading the book. You will agree with those wordings.

The reason for the success of this book is the experience of the author. He has explained every management strategy through his experience, which makes it so reliable and adaptable.

The demise of Arthur Anderson and Enron reminds of many things around us. It’s almost like how Irfan Pathan lost his place in the Indian national cricket team. He was a gifted swinging bowler, who has many records in his name till the date. His downfall started when he started to focus on his batting, trying to be an all-rounder.  People often forget the domain in which they are better and try to establish themselves trying in a new context.

The book answers a lot of management questions which you’re having.  He is very straight in his way of narrating. It may make some lazy bunch of people curse him for his differentiation theory. The “Your Company” and “Your Competition” sections gave some good insight for people at the top of a company, whether they are owners or just top-level management. The “Your Career” section gave some bottom-line advice about one’s own choices made in life.

The author is aware of management terminologies and boredom if he narrates only using business organizations. He uses base ball game very fluently and describes very smoothly about the team work and what management must do to ensure the team spirit. The comparison goes hand in hand with baseball team and corporate sector.

The book successfully explains about the crisis management. The manager roles are explained very effectively. The positive approach emphasized by the author is very appreciating during worst case scenarios.

When it comes to the strategy the author backs upon making clear cut choices on competition. If the strategies are providing good results and expansion of the business, there is no need to change it. That’s indeed a very simple, but riskless and efficient logic for the companies.

He lends us his view on the budgeting and its effect on the company functions. In the “Your competition” section, he speaks about the companies trying to expand their bodies to run new ventures, which could be very disastrous. The resources available will not be good enough, unless we get the experts to play their role on the respective venture.

The six sigma concept was not so complete like he described the other topics. Relating six sigma concepts with a dentist was not convincing, may be because he had explained other topics using baseball game and pizza for teamwork and competition more effectively.

For a fresher this book means a lot, there is clarity in explanations regarding selecting the job, about the pay and finding the like-minded co-workers or to be in a better place where you are suitable. If you enjoy what you do, you will succeed eventually. It’s like the broker turned to CEO as of in the real time example by the author.

He describes working for Fortune 500 companies is like winning Olympic medal. He does not forget to mention that there are smaller companies in which they offer experiences and exposures which are very classy.

The selection of job is something more than important. If you do not have heart on what you are doing you will not be excited. You end up as pale employee. Every time luck won’t be favoring you. The student who attends interview for being employee at Wal-Mart is a car freak, just because of the pressure and intension of his father he was at Wall-Mart. The world could not have known Pranav Mistry or Sachin Tendulkar if they had swapped their intensions because of someone else’s dream. The author is very scintillating about the right job selection and he delivers his view in the best way possible.

It’s a must read book for jobseekers looking for their first job, managers, and everyone has something to fetch for themselves in “WINNING”.

Can traditional news papers be replaced with internet??

A decade ago, if you wanted to read about the news, then the source would be none other than the newspapers. This is definitely true because you had to have a daily or monthly subscription if you want to know about the happenings going around you and the world. Other Medias like TV and radio had the time fixed for the news hour. But with the rise of the internet, things have definitely changed. Nowadays, more and more people are using the internet, if they want to get some updates about certain events

 It is already possible to have the type of news you specify delivered directly to your mobile phone, free of charge. It’s a matter of time before millions of people receive news this way. Cell phone screens are getting bigger and clearer, making them suitable for reading for longer periods, and the costs of downloading mobile data are falling worldwide.

You will even be able to find celebrity and entertainment news on the internet. Because of the accessibility and convenience of the internet, traditional media outlets are already experiencing a drop-off in sales and readership.

 The chain Associated Newspapers sold a controlling stake in the London Evening Standard as it announced a 24% decline in 2008 ad revenues. One industry report predicted that 1 in 10 UK print publications would cut its frequency of publication in half. Rapidly declining advertising revenues continue to be the industry’s core problem.

Print losses far exceed online gains. For 2011, the ratio was more than roughly 10 to 1. In 2006, online revenues were still growing quickly and covered about 80% of print losses. Then in the 2008-2009 recessions online flattened and fell slightly. For the last two years, revenue lost in print is nowhere close to being replaced by digital gains.

The newspaper market varies greatly by country due to such factors as long-standing historical and cultural traditions in each region; levels of social development in terms of education, literacy, and income; the news industry’s organization, economics, production and distribution system; and overall structure of public subsidies, government regulations, and national levels of democratization.

 The bitter reality is, a lot of newspaper companies have definitely experienced the heat because of the lower number of newspaper subscriptions in most countries. This is probably because a lot of people who live in city outcast the number in subscriptions of newspapers relatively compared to rural people are already turning to the internet if they want to learn about the world news, local news, or science news and updates. 

Most of the websites offer information for free, so this definitely translates to a lot of savings.

 Just like other countries, especially in China, the quality of facts reporting in the newspapers is sometimes under suspicion. They have a powerful government and they usually control the Medias to prettify some facts for their benefits.

Nowadays we can also find lots and lots of advertisements bombarding your eyes with several pages in the newspapers. People use the internet to release some governmental officials' corruptions or other illegal behaviors. Some people are brave enough to expose the truth because they only use a false name for registration without worrying about the consequence. In addition, people from different places can interact by discussing in the follow-up boxes. Whereas newspaper cannot provide these exciting events in timely manner.

News papers are becoming greedy and loosing the morality of spreading better news. It could have been no worse than a news paper printing in Karnataka published in Karnataka having the better things done add by tamilnadu government. One should have sense at least to publish the ads of a government in its on native land.

Newspapers are still a prominent part of many common people. Especially the ones with retired career life, their day starts with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. Few of them have the habit of going through various newspapers in their free time. There are people addicted to solving Sudoku puzzles and crosswords which appear in the newspaper every day.

When you talk about responsible journalism and factual reports, people still turn to traditional media for the latest news and updates. Readers still look for a source that they can trust, and newspaper articles are definitely the best way to go.

Journalists need to curate social media to find out what the news is and verify what is real and what is not from all the information out there, which isn’t always reliable. Newspapers need to stop treating their websites as a dumping ground for print stories and treat each somewhat independently, carefully selecting the stories better suited for each media. Including an environment that encourages innovative ideas will be very good in order to survive in the industry.

This is absolutely something that they should look into because people still believe in newspapers because of the level of respect that they have for these media outlets.

Lumia 520 .. Reaching expectations with Technology

The transition from a simplest basic mobile to the Smartphone could never be easier, thanks to Nokia Lumia 520 and Windows 8.For its primary usage as a phone- Excellent voice quality, speaker phone is at its best.

 Signal reception is also very good. SMS Interface is very different than regular basic phones and I found it to be quite innovative.

 The conversation view, add and search recipient option just above the message screen makes user easier to choose recipients. This avoids sending of messages to the irrelevant person.

Screen size of 4' is quite appropriate. It fits in your palm well. Display quality is excellent. It may not have the best viewing angle though, but for a single viewer, you get the best. Highly responsive touch brings even a brighter smile on us.

Windows 8 feel is very unique. Very user friendly, desktop kind of interface and positioning of applications could not be simpler. It will not be wise to ignore Windows phones thinking that it does not have enough apps. You would find apps for almost all of your needs.

The common complaint on all smart phones was that smart phones gets hang several times a day when applications are more. Whereas Lumia smart phones do not have the problem of hanging. We can switch into different applications very sooner than that of the other smart phones.

Nokia Music lets you download all the old and new songs direct to the phone at very impressive download speed.

Build Quality is so good and the mat finishing on its back gives you a firm grip.

To add, they have given all Nokia exclusive features like HERE Map, drive, transit; Cinemagraph, Smartshoot, Panorama lenses; Nokia Music with free music download for 3 months. Talking about design, one can easily say that it’s the best looking phone out there not only in its price range. The sleek look, bright funky colors, rectangular design, can easily make anyone say “I want it...!”

Nokia has also given an option to exchange shells. So you can buy an extra shell of any color. It is especially useful for those who want a colorful phone but office standards restrict them. Buy a black/white one extra and your problem is solved.

If you want a phone for your social needs, then don't look for any other phone. Windows Phones are best in this category as they have Facebook, Twitter, Skype integration, and a lot of IM apps to keep you connected. People Hub, merges your contacts from FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and show all of their latest updates on single tile. The colors on the screen appear very sharp and real.

HERE Drive is the one of the important application and very useful for the users while travelling. The navigation is crystal clear and it works very effectively in the rural areas also. The distance shown is very much reliable and the audio navigation brings upon a greater help to the one who is driving the vehicle.

HERE Maps is also a navigational application provided in Lumia, unlike HERE Drive it displays the details of the present location and surroundings with the possible details including street number and the name of the area. It has features including turn-by-turn walking navigation.

Using Lumia 520 makes u feel rich, the wide spread of android OS is the main reason for this, Android OS is becoming very common, the mid range smart phones with android platform has almost the same display with that of the  higher end smart phones. Whereas Lumia 520 being a windows operated gives u new feel of using Smartphone and the change which most of the people were waiting for.

How better may be the product but they do come with drawbacks, here are few drawbacks of the Lumia

Ø  Battery backup is inefficient.

Using internet explorer or while staying for in an audio call drains the battery very quickly. We can notice the notifications popping up at top of the screen as “Battery draining quickly 10% in 15 minutes”.

Ø  No front camera.

Ø  No flash provided in camera.

Ø  Relatively poor quality images in spite of 5mp camera.

Ø  The Bing search button provided at right bottom corner always comes in to play interfering with applications running due to touch sensitivity.

Cloud Computing at its simplest form

Cloud computing is delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, where by shared resources,software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network.

Cloud computing consists of hardware and software resources made available on the Internet as managed third-party services. These services typically provide access to advanced software applications and high-end networks of server computers.

Cloud computing provides computation, software, data access and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. The concept of cloud computing can be parallel drawn with electricity grid, wherein end-users consume power without needing to understand the component devices or infrastructure required to provide the service.

Cloud computing refers to software services and platforms that are offered through the internet... An easy to understand example is e-mail; some people access e-mail from a program on their computer while others use e-mail services online such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail.

The different types of cloud computing services are

Software-as-a-service(SaaS)

   Services offered by cloud computing are actually software, but the software is never installed on a computer; this is what’s known as software-as-a-service.

Platform-as-a-service(PaaS)

   Provides a computing platform and facilitates the applications to run smoothly without the cost and complexity of installing and managing hardware and software and provisioning hosting capabilities.

Infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS)

   Is a form of hosting? The IaaS provider will generally provide the hardware and administrative services needed to store the applications.

Network-as-a-service(NaaS)

    Delivers network services virtually over the internet on a pay-per-use or monthly subscription basis.

 The different types of cloud computing are

Private cloud

It is a cloud computing platform that is implemented well within the corporate network traffic, under the control of the IT department.

Public cloud

It is the most recognizable model of cloud computing to many consumers, in which a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the internet.

Hybrid cloud

It is an integrated cloud service utilizing both private and public clouds to perform distinct functions within the same organization.

Community cloud

Here, infrastructure is shared between several corporate networks with common concerns like security, jurisdiction and so on, whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally.

Cloud computing importance

Cloud computing is an efficient way to store and maintain databases.

It’s an easy way to organize information in different departments while still allowing for company-wide collaboration.

Cloud services are updated by the provider, so everyone is always working on the latest platform.

Since it is accessible from anywhere it is generally less expensive than other solutions.

Top cloud computing service providers are:

Amazon

Amazon Web Service (AWS) provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings in the cloud for organizations requiring computing power, storage, and other services.

The customers can create virtual machines (VMs) that is, server instances called Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on which the customer can load any software of his choice.

Google

Google App Engine is Google’s platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offers building and hosting web applications on the Google Infrastructure. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offers business email and collaboration. It’s similar to the traditional office suits, including Gmail, Calendar, Gtalk, Docs and sites.

Microsoft Azure Service Platform

Azure Service Platform is Microsoft’s PaaS offering an operating system called Windows Azure that serves as a runtime for the applications and provides a set of services such as:

.NET Services, SQL Services, Live Services

Proofpoint

Proofpoint provides SaaS and IaaS services in the cloud related to securing the enterprise email infrastructure, with solutions. Proofpoint’s solutions are priced on a per-user, per-year basis, depending on the product features.

Targeted Users

All MNCs irrespective of their product and services will be having an IT department, at least with a database of its own. These departments will be linked with cloud services so that they can focus more on their primary objective. The data will be stored on the cloud and they need not worry during system crash scenarios.

Among the first companies to adopt cloud computing are small and medium business. The lack of infrastructure will be the main problem for small scale companies, and IaaS overcomes this drawback.

Main reasons to consider cloud computing are:

Cost

IT equipment and support contracts are not cheap. Traditionally the better software systems were expensive to buy and required their own server in their own place and that come with maintaining your own software and servers. However, now with cloud computing we can get access to software on a pay per user per month basis, without owning any licenses or any servers.

Productivity

Having access to data and applications and even your PC and servers from anywhere at any time really changes the business landscape.

We need not worry about the location of the service provider, or how they are providing. We just need to enjoy the service.

Drawbacks of Cloud computing services are

Reliability: Service provider makes no guarantee as to the availability all the time.

Security: They will not make any guarantee as to whom they will disclose your data.

Persistence: Ensuring persistence of data is complicated.

Network : the virtual network that allows cloud services to communicate has some quite   limitations

Cloud computing makes business dependent on the reliability of your internet connection.

Future of cloud computing

According to many analysts, the market for cloud computing solutions is booming. Forrester Research expects the market for global cloud computing to reach $241 billion in 2020, compared to $40.7 in 2010. cloud computing opens a great deal of opportunity for savvy telecom companies so it is important to understand if you could be competing with or developing partnerships with this sector.