Author’s Note: This post and accompanying photographs are copyrighted by the author and/or Microsoft (photo-credits) or others. and any unauthorized replication, storage or publishing of this material without the author’s express written (and signed on paper) permission is prohibited.
The Speech
This Part-2 details Mr.Bill Gates' speech- reported as heard and remembered by the blogger- Mr.Nalin ( nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com ). Please see earlier posts- Part-0 for Event Background and Part-1 for Venue Details and other people in this event.
Mr.Bill Gates kicked off the talk by Dreamspark- Microsoft's scheme of giving for free, it's latest development tools to students in colleges and high-schools.
Mr.Gates then shifted gears to talk more about his own motivations for trying to solve global problems. Most of this article touches upon Mr.Gates's motivations and reasons- for doing what he is currently doing with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
During t
he 80s and 90s Microsoft was making a lot of money. But even at that time, Mr.Gates thought a lot about how he could contribute to alleviating the world’s problems. Mr.Gates believes that all the problems are because of overpopulation- that in many parts of the developing world, preventable infant and adult diseases kill so many people that people are unsure about the chances of survival of their children or are not sure if they and all their children will continue to live up to be healthy and fit that they have many children as a means of support and insurance against the diseases prevalent.
If healthcare was better people would live healthier lives. And when people rise above subsistence and survival- then, Mr.Gates feels that the population pressure will decrease and that in turn will- over time- help solve all of the world’s hunger, poverty and other problems.
And it is true that in 1960, the rate of child (children under age 5) mortality due to Measles was about 20 million infants and children annually and in 2004, even though the world’s population had more than doubled the rate of child mortality due to measles had more than halved- which is a big achievement- because measles is not as deadly and life threatening a disease as it once was.
(These numbers seemed somewhat alien; therefore the author, Mr. Nalin Savara verified this number; and here's a reference: http://www.results-resultats.ca/action/actions/2008/2008-02-en.aspx)
Mr. Bill Gates talked of Polio and India’s fight against polio- and the varying success rates of Polio eradication between different parts of India- and how more research-work and action was needed on that front.
But it’s also true that while capitalism is the best system developed till now, the way capitalism works, miniscule amounts of money are spent solving problems for those at the bottom of the pyramid.
For example, the amount of money spent annually researching polio and cures for polio till recently was about 10% of the money spent researching cures for baldness.
And it’s also true that till the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation chipped in, researchers could not typically expect rewards for their efforts. In US and even more outside the US, researchers just did not see rewards or money for solving the tough problems that affect the poorest, the most needy and the most deprived people in the world.
Mr.Gates also saw that currently it often takes long to get research-funds- and many long, tough-to-understand descriptions are submitted as the researcher goes through a tiring and exhausting process for meager funds.
So that’s why, when the last time they invited ideas to fund; they asked-for got two-page descriptions and got around four thousand short descriptions of various ideas from many researchers- and then they got 60 people to evaluate the ideas- and they told the judges the following:
(1) Each evaluator selects three ideas he liked best.
(2) Automatic US $100,000 funding to the idea each evaluator liked best- and the Gates’ Foundation would get back in a year to see how much progress was made.
(3) For the idea each evaluator liked second-best:
a. If the idea was from the US, then it would get $100,000 in funding if three evaluators liked it in their top three ideas.
b. If a idea was from outside USA then even one evaluator liking it as second best would get the idea $100,000 funding- because they want to get people all around the world working on ideas- they want researchers to be finding and developing solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, rather than worrying about funding.
c. For each idea selected as a third best idea by any researcher, more criteria will be applied- but whatever happens, Mr Gates felt that opening up the purse-strings would really get people digging into and researching ideas.
Mr.Gates further mentioned a idea submitted as a 2-page synopsis by a lady in India, which suggested a way of trying to control AIDS by creating nano-particles which resemble the AIDS causing HIV virus- and when nano-particles resembling the virus impersonate the virus and when the virus interacts with those, they cause the virus to get de-activated.
Mr.Gates further added that irrespective of the (credentials of the researcher and the) details, since this was presented as a outline only, they don’t know if it’ll be useful or not- but since the evaluator presented with the idea liked the idea; they gave the lady who proposed this idea $100,000 for her research- and they’ll get back to her in a year to see what progress she’s made on this front.
Mr.Gates continued, and told us they have funded atleast 6 or more ideas on finding a cure for AIDS… and in a few years- when the researches bear results- they start to find if the ideas were non-starters or how much closer they have come to finding a cure for AIDS.
He also talked of a instance when they found a youngster who after winning a contest was invited to work for Microsoft in USA for some months- and he was made Mr.Gates’ personal assistant. And this youngster from South India got a chance to do many cool things and these days the youngster is doing great, doing his Master’s Degree (Graduate Studies) in a US university, on his way to becoming a great software professional.
Mr.Gates went on to add that while he remembers fondly all that he and his friends did as teenage programmers back at high school, the opportunities and access to information they had was nothing like what is available to the youngsters and students of today. He mentioned when he was young, he would ask many questions and sometimes he’d get satisfyingly informative answers and many times he wouldn’t get as much information as he wanted- but today he has a son too (is he talking of his son Rory John Gates, born 1999 ?)- and when his son asks him questions he cant answer, Mr.Gates either gets the information himself from the internet… or he directs his son to go check it out on the internet… and added that the sheer amount of information and knowledge available on the internet is unbelievable and till a short time back, even specialists found it hard to get so much information on their fields…
He then invited the audience to field some questions to him…
Question-Answer Session Between Mr.Bill Gates and Audience at IIT-Delhi
Question: Neha Jain from NDTV Profit asked for Mr.Gates’ opinion on the election of Barack Obama and his opinions about the current recession as well as the effect Obama’s election would have on the current recession and it’s outcome.
Mr.Gates spent almost 10-12 minutes offering his own extremely optimistic views on the subject and he said that he feels that a fresh approach from Obama would help find new solutions to old problems.
Question: A student from IIT Delhi asked about what can we do about the world’s problems since we have more access than Mr.Gates and his 5-friends in his days.
Bill Gates' Answer:
- Youngsters in India have more familiarity with problems
- You people are closer to and exposed to the Challenges of Poverty
- Mr.Gates criticized the university curriculum in his own days and said that in the days Microsoft was wildly successful and he was making all his money he would bemoan and regret that his own University Education did not expose him more to the problems of the world, the challenges of poverty and how difficult life actually is in the real world.
- He said that given your own awareness of the hierarchy of problems that poverty and under-development creates, you should try to face these challenges and find solutions to the problems of underdevelopment and poverty.
Question: What do you say about Masters’ (Degrees), higher studies- how is that important ?
Bill Gates' Answer:
Mr.Gates said there are huge opportunities in the world today for research and for finding new solutions to problems. He said that a increasing percentage of students should go for their higher studies and PhDs and that even his Bill and Melinda Gates’ foundation tries to encourage and reward research results such that researchers focus on the problems of the developing world and the problems faced by those at the lower end of the economic strata.
Question: A student from IIT Delhi asked Mr.Gates about Microsoft Surface technology.
Bill Gates' Answer:
Mr.Gates answered that a digital camera as a electronic component could be had as cheaply as US $3 or $4 and that Microsoft through a combination of software and hardware would like a scenario, where a “surface”- like a table-top or whiteboad could have a camera behind it- that tracks the user’s hand touches and movements- and uses that information about the user’s hand or touch movements as a input device for a computer.
Mr.Gates mentioned how the cost of surface technology had decreased from almost US$1800 in v1.0 to around US$400 in the current version- and how, someday surface technology would make it easy for students, researchers and many others to collaborate at a distance even across continents.
Question: Mr.Gates answered one more question from a youngster in a engineering institute in Delhi, who asked why Microsoft doesn’t support open source.
Bill Gates' Answer:
Mr. Gates replied that Microsoft has a variety of pricing models and that Microsoft as far as possible gives out a lot of software for free to students and educational institutes and tries to make it’s money from big-corporations. So for example, he said that if you (student) may get a lot of development tools free while if we are giving our software to say a Oil-Refinery with support and maintainence contracts, then we will charge them money for it.
He added that he believes Open-Source and Microsoft’s own commercial software efforts are complimentary to each other and each has it’s own place in the world and that he personally is not against Open Source software but Microsoft has to support a variety of licensing and pricing models to survive as a corporation and to support research and development and so that it can support and help students and researchers in universities.
Question: A reporter from DNA asked Mr.Gates:
a. What is the approximate Dollar-figure for the software Microsoft’s dream-sparks program plans to donate.
b. What are Mr.Bill Gates’ views on the impact of the upcoming slowdown and possible economic recession on the outsourced software majors from India.
Bill Gates' Answer:
Mr.Gates mentioned that while they expect over 10 million student developers to benefit; with programs like these you just cant put a dollar figure since Microsoft does this for students and not by calculating the value of the software.
About effect of recession on Indian IT majors; Mr.Gates said that based on the exchanges he has had with India’s IT giants, he feels that the market demand for IT services will remain and that he feels that given the IT majors are playing a long-term game; he feels that the Indian IT Giants will continue to hire and grow- because of their own long-term visions- and the current recession will be like another speed-bump which will come and go.
Please do feel free to comment here OR to mail me- nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Part-2: A Detailed “Here’s what I saw” account of Mr.Bill Gates’ talk- Bill Gates Speaks at IIT Delhi - November 5th 2008
Part-1: Details of the Venue - Bill Gates Speaks at IIT Delhi - November 5th 2008
We arrived at IIT and entered the hall around 1:-iitdel-billg-stalls-1-far.jpg)
45 pm on Wednesday 5th Nov, 2008. After several minutes of waiting and watching a movie about dreams (since the event was called DreamSparks)-.
The stage was taken first by Mrs. Daggubati Purandeswari (hon. Minister of State for Higher Education) who gave a long-ish talk about the details of Microsoft’s plans and contrib-iitdel-billg-stalls-2-near.jpg)
utions.
A portal called Sakshat and a program called ICT Champs to create : 100,000 IT literate teachers was mentioned.
The goal to reach 35 million students in 11 countries with Microsoft’s professional level design and development tools was also mentioned.
After that, a professor from IIT Delhi, gave a friendly introduction to Mr.Gates. He quoted a Harvard Professor about one of Mr.Gates’ student-day escapades. After being introduced to a previously unsolved problem in a introductory maths class by his Harvard professor, Mr.Gates along with another of his Harvard professors solved the problem- and published the results in a mathem-reg-cntr.jpg)
atical journal.
Part-0: Background - Bill Gates Speaks at IIT Delhi - November 5th 2008
This article is divided into 3 parts: Part-0: Background, Part-1: Fluff and Details of the Venue and Part-2: A Detailed “Here’s what I saw” account of Mr.Bill Gates’ talk. Scroll Down-- to Part-2-- if you want to SKIP ACCROSS TO Mr.Gates' speech without this introductory text.
The event m
arked the launch of Microsoft’s “DreamSparks” free software to students distribution program- but in the talk, Mr.Gates talked mainly about his humanitarian activities and his underlying motivations and approach to improving the world.
I am posting this article as a detailed “this what he said account”, because the words about Mr.Gates thoughts and his approach to various activities tells the listener or reader a lot more about Mr.Gates as a person, than any number of articles or opinions written about him.
A Disclaimer: This is “as I saw it”- and while I happily accept corrections and missed details- I present this for information and entertainment- and by reading this, you agree that the author cannot be quoted OR be sued OR be otherwise held liable for the accuracy and veracity of this content.
Author’s Note: This post and accompanying photographs are copyrighted by the author and/or Microsoft (photo-credits) or others. and any-reg-cntr-gimp.jpg)
unauthorized replication, storage or publishing of this material without the author’s express written (and signed on paper) permission is prohibited.
Part-0: Background
Like everybody else, no matter what my own personal opinions about Mr.Bill Gates- when I heard Bill Gates is in town- I wondered what it would be like to see him in person.
I recently read a newspaper article about how a meeting between the a Tech-Startup Founder and representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation at Uttam Nagar in South-West Delhi turned into a meeting with Bill Gates and his father and sisters- because they decided to show-up and represent the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
And, my thought was “Wow… if BillG comes anyplace near where I am; I am will definitely go and see BillG myself”.
So, when I learnt BillG is speaking at IIT-Delhi, there was nothing to hold me back from showing up- to check out how Bill-G is in person.
So people; if you’re curious “I wonder how it went…”—here’s my post aimed to be as detailed as possible- to give you all a ringside view of this awesome talk by Mr.Bill Gates. Personally I liked Mr.Gates much more than I liked watching Mr.Steve Ballmer on TV- and no matter my views about Microsoft—I found Mr.Gates to be a epitome of gentleness and kindness- a impression that none of the articles I’ve read have conveyed to me—and that’s why I’m transcribing the event as best I remember it- so that you too can get a feel of just how it felt sitting there listening to Mr.Gates.
Also, though Mr.Gates did infact show up with a Elderly Gentleman and two ladies of roughly the same age as Mr.Gates- but ofcourse, I’m not sure if like the newspaper reported they were his father and sisters.
Were you there ? Do you see inaccuracies or gaps ? Do you have a opinion, positive or negative about this article ? Do you want me to add to this or send you any more information ?
I am happy to hear from all of you- and I am happy to reply mails and comments and if I can be of help- I am happy to be of service.
Please feel free to drop me a mail at nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com OR to comment just below this blog post.
Also, my thanks to M-baxi-billg-iitdel-2.jpg)
r.Abhishek Kant and Mr.Abhishek Baxi(In Photo) of Microsoft- these guys are total professionals and they are doing a great job- guys you rock!!! They do their job so well, that it sets a very high bar in my mind, on just how well things can be done.
Mr.Kant and Mr.Baxi are responsible for MVP program and certain other developer relations activities in India and South East Asia- and if you need any information or help- please do feel free to drop them a mail.
Finally saw him!!! Yes!!! I finally saw Bill Gates… heard the man speak!!!
Read through the details of Part-1 OR jump right across to Part-2 about the details of Bill Gates’ talk.
Friday, August 1, 2008
TiE Retail Summit 2008, Aug 1st New Delhi
I had the opportunity to check out the TiE India Retail Summit 2008- not all of it—but a few hours towards the end and I’m using this platform to put down a brief account of the same—all comments, questions, suggestions and queries are welcome, either here or by mailing me on nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com- also, incase you’d like me to add to this article, if you want me to make corrections or if you want me add specific details I may have missed out, please feel free to mail me.
For information on author's copyright, reprint-permissions and mirrors of this article, please scroll to the notice at the end of this post.
The TiE India Retail Summit 2008 was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Saket, on August 1st 2008 and it had one main conference session, with 2-3 simultaneous workshops, and it talked about various aspects of organized retail in India.
This is by no means a complete account of the event- but rather a synopsis, followed by some of what I saw and really liked about the event.
I’ve attended a lot of tech events but not many on retail, and I’m blogging this account mainly for the benefit of people like myself who wonder how’s TiE’s retail event would be- from a human perspective, beyond the networking-value and beyond what a layperson or a journalist would talk about. Also, since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m also posting here a few snaps I clicked there too.
The session kicked off at 9:00 in the morning, and the schedule as per the pre-published program mailer was as below:
Introduction and Opening Remarks
• Arvind Singhal, Chairman, Technopak Advisors
Keynote Session – The India Story
• William Bissell, Managing Director, Fabindia Ltd
• Arvind Singhal, Chairman, Technopak Advisors - Chair
Learnings from Indian & Western Retail Models
• Viney Singh, Managing Director, Max Hyper Market India
• Mark Ashman, CEO, Marks & Spencer
• Andrew Levermore, CEO, HyperCITY Retail
• Himanshu Chakrawarti, COO, Landmark (Trent Ltd). - Chair
Tea
Hot New Retail Stories
• Rajiv Agarwal, CEO & Director, The Mobile Store
• Ashutosh Garg, Chairman & Managing Director, Guardian Life Care
• Kamal Oswal, Cotton County (tbc)
• Anurag Batra, Editor –in Chief & Publisher, exchange4media Group – Chair
LUNCH
Workshops
• TiE - Milagrow: How Small Will Become Bigger
Rajeev Karwal, Founder & CEO, Milagrow
Sanjay Shani, Director, Ritu Wears
• TiE - KPMG: Retail Financing
Narayanan Ramaswamy, Executive Director, KPMG Advisory Services
• TiE - IBM: Retail IT
Rafiq Shafi, Retail Industry Solutions, IBM India
Tea Break
Workshops
• TiE - Technopak: Retail Operations
Krishna Kumar, AVP-Retail Operations Practice, Technopak
• TiE - Cushman & Wakefield: Retail Property & Infrastructure
Rajneesh Mahajan, Director, Retail Services, Cushman & Wakefield
• Guru Session/Mentoring Clinic
Venue: The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Saket. A great venue that offers superb ambience. There was a session happening in the Dynasty ballroom with 3 other parallel tracks happening simultaneously.
The Sheraton, Saket was earlier called the Marriot, Saket. In it’s current avatar as the Sheraton- a Starwood Property- this hotel definitely lives up to Starwood’s legendary standards of elegance, ambience and hospitality- which are world-class.
Event: I showed up sometime after the tea break; and after running through the Tea Break, I had the chance to attend the session on “Retail Operations” by Mr.Zahir Abbas, Mr Kostubh Rishi and Mr.Bikram Chatterji of TechnoPak.
Takeaways:
Informative Sponsor driven sessions are often long and theoretical, but this “Retail Operations” session; though 120 slides long, was one of the most informative and thought provoking.
Zahir spoke at length about key factors, choice points, criteria involved in the organized retail industry.
Subsequently, Kostubh, spoke about a consulting assignment in which technopak had helped a major retail chain expand and set-up stores in South Indian cities that involved selling farm produce and groceries among other things to Sec-A and Sec-B households, where-in the retail chain partnered to a extent on the local milk-men and newspaper-sellers to fulfil orders.
Just summarizing Zahir and Kostubh’s responses to some of the “after-session questions” will give the reader a idea of the sheer depth and hands-on practicality of the session:
When asked by a IT professional for a example of the role of IT Infrastructure in Organized Retail ?
Zahir’s Answer: If you have a pen-and-paper note-book type of accounting and billing mechanism, a item gets sold, and it takes over a month for information about the sales-figures, transaction-times and selling prices to reach head-quarters if at all, while if you have a point-of-sale (POS) system with a centrally accessible database, someone managing operations and sitting in another city can instantly or at the end of the day see, who bought what, at what price and what quantity remains in inventory- which is important because 80% of the sales comes from 20% of the items in stock.
A interesting answer I must say, and refreshingly simple and totally free from all the jargon we hear today about SCM, CRM and ERP- even though the description provided would encompass all these buzzwords.
When asked by a professor of retail marketing from IIM-Lucknow about whether connecting with the consumer through milkmen and newspaper-boys is a good idea- might not it be better not to connect to consumers through government census data and vehicle registration databases ?
Zahir and Kostubh’s Answer: Milkmen and newspaperboys- because they deliver daily and show up with bills each month, typically have better information about the socio-economic status of each household than most surveys and statically collected data- and moreover if a retail chain wishes to distribute a free-sample or introduce itself, then the milk-men and newspaper-boys would have better and freer entry into the house-hold than say a team hired to survey the neighbourhood or a team hired to sell or distribute free-samples which does not already have a existing business relationship with each house-hold.
Technopak incidentally talked to and collected information from over 1000 such milk and newspaper vendors for this particular consulting project.
New Products and Brands:
I saw a product called VFConnect, which lets retailers use Bluetooth wireless networks to connect with consumers- send consumers a image or text about their shop/retailing outlet- it just broadcasts to consumers mobile phones whenever they walk past a cinema or a shop and the consumer can see the picture/advertisement OR text on their mobile which tells them about the shop/brand or about special offers available.
NIIT I had assumed was out of the training for retail space after it sold off NIS (National Institute for Sales) to Reliance, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a new brand called NIIT Imperia- in collaboration with the IIMs, NIIT Imperia tries to provide “advanced higher education” to those who’re already working.
Whenever I surf to shopping.Indiatimes.com or to MagicBrix.com, I assume these companies have in-house developer teams working on their online shops—so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these names, and others actually depend on a company to provide the software backend for their virtual shops- and ANMSoft – a Mumbai based company is the one that provides the e-commerce software backend for these sites.
Presence of Academia: Another thing I found interesting about TiE’s retail conference compared to other similar industry events was the visible and active presence of youngsters and faculty from a cross section of academia, famous-name colleges, but also colleges I haven’t heard much of but which are actively absorbing what’s happening in the world and in the process actively building their brand, and this is one thing I really liked and appreciated.
And active as-in really active, both in asking questions and in trying to go beyond the answers of the speakers to volunteer answers to audience questions.
Some of the colleges present included:
(1) BIMTECH – Birla Institute of Management and Technology- This is primarily a MBA college, which to encourage interaction with industry has a Center for Retail, a Center for International Business and a Center for Insurance and Risk management, and the student attendees from the Center for Retail it seems had been notified about this event by their inhouse mailing-list- interesting. To say the least
(2) Design and Innovation Academy – This college in Sector-58 Noida teaches students design- all the various facets of design which include jewellery design and multimedia, amongst others—definitely sounds like a interesting course atleast to me.
(3) NIFT – yes indeed; the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
(4) IIM Lucknow- that’s right, there was Professor B.S.Nayyar, Professor of Retail Marketting from IIM Lucknow attending and he’s the gentleman who I mentioned earlier in the bit about the question-answer session.
Some Photos from the Event: (a picture says a thousand words- and if you want, you can click on many of these photos to see larger sized high-resolution pictures)
Here’s one session I would have loved to attend but which I regretfully missed, anyone know of a blog that covers this OR if you have the slides from this, do drop me a mail!!!
VFConnect: This company makes Bluetooth advertising technology- broadcasts to the mobiles of passer-bys information about a retailer's shop or about special offers
A Upcoming TiE event
Lounge Conference: As the conference proceeds, the lounge area is filled with folks interacting and networking
Tea-Time- The rush for food.
A Cross Section of the Attendees at Tea time
Pradeep Sonthalia (Langham Capital) and Avinash Aggarwal (RouteGuru.com) pose for a photo at Tea-time
Vishal Singhal of CellStrat looks on as Tea-time proceeds in the background.
Mr.Ranjit – of the Indian Venture Capital Association takes the stage before Technopak’s 120-slide long (but extremely interesting) presentation on retail operations commences.
Zahir Abbas of Technopak presents- while Bikram Chatterji and Kostubh Rishi (sitting, also from Technopak) Look on
A Member of the Audience takes the mike as a very informative and lively QA Session proceeds. 
We are all students- of life!!! but here's a snap of some students of the Design and Innovation Academy who had come to attend the TiE Retail Summit 2008- was great seeing active student participation at a event like this-- see article above.
With most events, I tend to be atleast a bit critical, suggest something for the better, but this is one event which I found perfect; and I’d like to compliment and commend Ms.Geetika Dayal (Executive Director TiE New Delhi, geetika(at)tienewdelhi(dot)org) and Mr.Nitin Aggarwal (Assistant Director TiE New Delhi, nitin(at)tienewdelhi(dot)org) of TiE New Delhi for a job well done.
Also, my special thanks once again to Mr.Nitin Aggarwal of Tie New Delhi.
Author’s Note: This post and accompanying photographs are copyrighted by the author; and any unauthorized replication, storage or publishing of this material without the author’s express written (and signed on paper) permission is prohibited.
The author has been in the High Tech industry for over a decade; and can be reached on nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com or mobile: 9811109407 and is happy to attend and blog about events, product launches and technology news; please feel free to contact him with your questions, comments, opinions and info about tech events.
A mirror of this post is also published on Venture Woods - The Venture Capital and Start-up Blog.
I look forward to seeing your comments about this post, you can post comments here, at DelhiVoice.blogspot.com itself or you can mail me..
Monday, July 21, 2008
Proto.in Delhi - 18-19 July 2008
Author's Note: This post and accompanying photographs are copyrighted by the author; and any unauthorized replication, storage or publishing of this material without the author's express written (and signed on paper) permission is prohibited.
The author has been in the High Tech industry for over a decade; and can be reached on nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com or mobile: 9811109407 and is happy to attend and blog about technology events and technology news; please feel free to contact him with your questions, comments, opinions and info about tech events in delhi.
Also, before everything else, my heartiest compliments and thanks for a great job done--- to Vijay and team (Sudhir, Divya, Kiruba, many others whose name I wasnt exposed to)-- my only complaint :-))) -- u cud do it bigger!!! 10 times bigger next time guys!!! :-)))
Also, the main reason I'm posting is because I googled around; but couldnt find any articles that did justice to the awesome event that proto.in 2008 at IIT-Del was...
This article is also on posted on VentureWoods - The startup and venture capital blog. will also be posted on my DelhiVoice Blog... http://delhivoice.blogspot.com --> and I encourage you to visit that blog too...
Hi Folks...
I was there at proto.in at IIT Delhi on 18-19 July 2008.
This was my first time at Proto.in- as earlier I wasnt sure if it'd be worth it- since I'm not actually looking for any funding from VCs nor do I have a product idea for which I need to create a buzz- but anyways, some college buddies who're also ex-Trilogy God programmers were here in Delhi showcasing their startup's concept and I took the liberty of hanging around them, feasting my eyes and ears on the intense startup and ideation action around me.
It was a amazing, awesome, mind-expanding experience- to understate it and to put it mildly. It was something everyone in the tech industry should check out-- even if you're not even remotely looking to interact with VCs and even if you have no entrepreneurship thoughts even from a distance.
Here's a bit of what I saw that inspired me to make the above statement.
(1) You heard "Allah ke bande has de" from the Movie Waisa bhi hota hai ?
You seen the Quick Gun Murugan commercials on your fave music channel ?
---> Shashanka Ghosh... the guy who conceived and executed both of the above was there talking about his filmmaking experiences and on the perspectives he got to hear from folks like Ram Gopal Verma when he presented his ideas to them. Furthermore, beyond any book on writing business plans, he shared his thoughts on getting funding; interacting with financiers and why he took some of his ideas only as far as he did-- and not as far as they could have gone.
And he did it all in a talk that was peppered with humour and a projector showing rushes from some of the movies/commercials he has done and some which are upcoming...
(2) There was Kiruba Shankar... one of India's premier podcasters competing with everyone else in the quiz and taking his shot at running the ideation session... a idea jam... where people would grab the mike and spout forth on ideas; as others expanded them and took things forward.... a lively entertaining session; which incidentally was surprisingly fruitful in generating some ideas on changing the shape of Indian society and indian politics... which kept the audience on it's feet and entertained throughout and which (surprisingly!) gave out prizes to ideas that generated the maximum momentum - and momentum was judged and measured in a surprisingly objective way.
(3) There were startups too; with loads of great ideas, presenting their concepts... and pushing their buttons and there was a session where all the startups were asked to sit on different tables in the luncheon area and attendees were encouraged to stroll by and talk to whoever they wanted to and see whichever demo they fancied seeing...
I personally had a pleasant surprise learning that one of the hot idea start-ups had as it's CTO a guy who was once one half of a team whose other half... it's chief marketting officer & CEO I had interacted extensively with over Ryze and over yahoo messenger... always great to learn it's a small world... and the world is round too!!!
(4) Food and coffee flowed freely and the ambience of IIT-D added to the atmosphere... but for me atleast, what really brightened up the atmosphere was the pleasure of running into and meeting a whole bunch of hot-shot techie faces I had heard or read about...
There were indeed a whole bunch of interesting people. There were folks who're agewise kids compared to me but who I respect as upcoming God programmers. And there were people I have heard and read about in techie circles but have never met. And then there were individuals I knew at college years back as God-programmers who are now senior technologists. And many others whose acquaintaince I will cherish... there was everybody... a electric mix but in a very civil garb... and a pleasure to rub shoulders with and interact with...
I'm sure the startups presenting their products must have got their mileage too; for I saw people wearing badges of various incubators and every Seed-stage and mid-stage funding company I could think of and a few I had never heard of and I saw lots of interesting potentially lucrative products being presented... but yeah, I thought I'd share my take on stuff as a attendee-- so that folks that wonder abt the value of buying a pass to proto.in and attending-- but who are doubtful about showing up or doubtful about spending money see the value and do show up next time.
Some of the startups / attendees / people I met at proto.in 2008 included: (I hope my posting your names is ok- if any comments for additions/deletions, please mail me)
LifeBlob http://www.lifeblob.com
ApnaBill http://www.fourfractions.com
SocialWebFactory http://www.socialwebfactory.com
iStrait http://www.istrait.com
Eko - Mobile Financial Azadi http://eko.co.in
WebEx http://www.webex.co.in
Mustseeindia http://www.mustseeindia.com
Inkfruit (a t-shirt publishing company!) www.inkfruit.com
Medianama http://www.medianama.com
Muziboo http://www.muziboo.com
Lords of the odds http://www.lordsoftheodds.com
Pureplay Media
2i Capital India Pvt Ltd
... and many more... this was just a sampling from the names I remembered and the visiting cards I collected...
Posted below are some photos I shot at the Proto.in Delhi 18-19 July 2008... I hope ya like them... reach me on nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com or on 9811109407... and I'd be happy to hear your comments...
Also, Lets make a flickr photo-pool of Proto.in snaps or if there is; please do inform me...
Also, finally, my thanks to Mr.Bakshish Dutta (dbakshish@hotmail.com), General Manager - Startups and Emerging Markets (Web 2.0) at sun microsystems; who when phoned him and asked him if proto was worth it and if he had a extra pass for me; strongly advised me to show-up and check out the atmosphere-- even if I showed up for a few hours...
A plug for Sun: Guys if your startup needs servers or if your web application uses a database; chances are you will be using MySQL- which while still free; is now owned and supported by Sun-- and I strongly advise you to atleast talk Sun Microsystems; enquire about their offerings and their prices-- they are doing a lot of interesting work to encourage startups... and a lot of their offerings beat the grey market/nehru place offerings fair and square; and their price includes the extremely valuable advice/information they share about servers, technology and technology options!!!
Please feel free to comment/ share your opinions.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
DYSOC 2008 Countdown - Russia ahead in Arctic 'gold rush'
In our Countdown towards DYSOC 2008's Youth Climate Charter to be released on May 29th 2008... we'll be covering some aspect of climate change each day... till May 29th 2008...
| By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website |
As the arctic ice-melt continues... the Russians are leading a new "gold rush" in the high north, with a bold attempt to assert a claim to oil, gas and mineral rights over large parts of the Arctic Ocean up to the North Pole.
Check out this article... posted by the BBC...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6925853.stm
-----
| By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website |
The Russians are leading a new "gold rush" in the high north, with a bold attempt to assert a claim to oil, gas and mineral rights over large parts of the Arctic Ocean up to the North Pole.
Russia's most famous explorer, Artur Chilingarov, complete with nautical beard, led the expedition to plant the Russian flag in a capsule on the ocean seabed under the pole itself.
"The Arctic is Russian," Chilingarov said earlier. "We must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian coastal shelf."
Russia is claiming that an underwater mountain known as the Lomonosov Ridge is actually an extension of the Russian landmass.
This, it argues, justifies its claim to a triangular area up to the pole, giving it rights under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.
Under Article 76 of the convention, a state can claim a 200 nautical mile exclusive zone and beyond that up to 150 nautical miles of rights on the seabed. The baseline from which these distances are measured depends on where the continental shelf ends.
Russia lodged a formal claim in 2001 but the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf told it to resubmit the claim. The flag-planting can be seen as a symbolic gesture in support.
At the same time, other states are acting to protect their interests in the Arctic. Canada is planning to build up to eight new patrol ships and the US Congress is considering a proposal to build two new heavy polar ships.
The rush for the Arctic has become more frenzied because of the melting of parts of the polar ice cap, which will allow easier exploration, and by the urgent need for new sources of oil and gas. A new sense of nationalism is also evident in Russia.
The ice thaw is predicted by a team of international researchers whose Arctic Climate Impact Assessment suggested in 2004 that the summer ice cap could melt completely before the end of this century because of global warming.
If the ice retreats, it could open up new shipping routes and new areas where natural resources could be exploited.
The US Geological Survey estimates that a quarter of the world's undiscovered energy resources lies in Arctic areas.
At the moment, nobody's shelf extends up to the North Pole so there is an international area around the Pole administered by the International Seabed Authority from Kingston, Jamaica.
But quite apart from the Russian claim there are multiple other disputes.
The US and Canada argue over rights in the North-west Passage, Norway and Russia differ over the Barents Sea, Canada and Denmark are competing over a small island off Greenland, the Russian parliament is refusing to ratify an agreement with the US over the Bering Sea and Denmark is claiming the North Pole itself.
North Pole solutions
The five countries involved are considering two other potential ways of sharing the region, in which all the sea would be divided between them.
The "median line method", supported by Canada and Denmark, would divide the Arctic waters between countries according to their length of nearest coastline. This would give Denmark the Pole itself but Canada would gain as well.
The "sector method" would take the North Pole as the centre and draw lines south along longitudes. This would penalise Canada but Norway and, to a lesser extent, Russia, would gain.
One major problem is that the United States has not ratified the 1982 UN convention, largely because senators did not want to have international restrictions placed on American actions.
However, in May 2007, Senator Richard Lugar, a senior Republican, pleaded for ratification in the light of the Russian moves, saying that an American voice was needed at the negotiating table.
2) Lomonosov Ridge: Russia argues that this underwater feature is an extension of its continental territory and is looking for evidence
3) 200-nautical mile (370km) line: Shows how far countries' agreed economic area extends beyond their coastline. Often set from outlying islands
4) Russian-claimed territory: The bid to claim a vast area is being closely watched by other countries. Some could follow suit
Delhi Youth Summit on Climate - May 28, 29 2008 - (DYSoC 2008)
The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) /Delhi Greens and the Nehru
Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), in collaboration with LEAD India,
Fountain of Development Research & Action (FODRA), The Climate Project
- India, SAYEN/UNEP and in partnership with the YP Foundation is
organising a two day "Delhi Youth Summit on Climate" (DYSoC 2008) at
Teen Murti Bhawan, on the 28th and 29th of this month.
The two-day event will bring together youth from different parts of
the city and different backgrounds - to discuss, debate, share
concerns and find innovative solutions to the pressing problems faced
by Delhi and to shape a vision towards securing and safe-guarding our
common future.
All concerned citizens between the age group of 18 - 30 years are
invited to participate in this historic event - to hammer out a Delhi
Youth Charter on Climate. Individuals outside the age group are
welcome to attend the summit as observers. Pre-registration is
mandatory for participants while observers can do spot-registration on
the event day(s). The summit will conclude with a white paper or the
"Delhi Youth Charter on Climate", that would be presented to the Chief
Minister, Environment Secretary and all decision-making bodies in
Delhi.
To find more, read what the media is saying about the summit and to
register yourself, visit: http://iycn.in/dysoc
(Registration is now open and shortlisting is being done on a
first-come-first-serve basis. Pre-registration is a must to
participate in Summit)
Kartikeya Singh
Event Coordinator
Indian Youth Climate Network
iycn.in
Ph: +91-9999-00-88-07
E-mail: kartikeya@delhigreens.org
--
Govind Singh
IYCN, Delhi Greens
M. +91-98111-477-54
E. govind@delhigreens.org