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Talk News India Episodes - | Beth Loves Bollywood | Beth Watkins is a self-confessed Bollywood addict, and is part of a growing tribe of Bollywood fans in North America. Her interest in Bollywood underscores a growing trend that Bollywood films appeal to a wide audience who are not necessarily from Asia or Africa, the traditional domain of Hindi films.
Pico Iyer summed it up very nicely when he said, "The notion of America is so large that often when we ask people about American culture they say Michael Jackson and Madonna. But American culture at this point has also incorporated phenomenon's like Bollywood and Ravi Shanker." In his first book, "Video Nights in Kathmandu," (1988) Iyer recounts how in his travels around the world one of the first questions that he is asked is about Hindi films.
Beth's fascination started about a year ago when she watched her first Hindi movie "Mujse Dosti Karoge?" (Will you be my friend?). The three hours of of histrionics (as critics of Bollywood like to describe Hindi movies), and the song and dance routine, the whole package worked for her, and Beth became a convert to Indian films.
Interestingly, Beth reads up about Bollywood from another American's blog called Gorilla's Lament. Beth can reel of names of movies, actors, songs, locations...she knows everything about "fillums."
"The top few I can tell you, though, and they switch around in order - Kandukondain Kandukondain, Dil Chahta Hai, Hum Tum,, and Main Hoon Na." She struggles to name her favorite stars since so many vie for her attention. Rani Mukherjee is one of her favorites, and she likes Lillet Dubey. "I haven't seen Aamir Khan in very much but he's so impressive, no matter what he's doing"
She counts Saif Khan as one of her favorite actors. I asked her, "What about King Khan, Shar Rukh?" Beth replied, "And despite my initial confused reaction to him, I have a very hard time resisting the charm of Shahrukh, of course, and I almost always really enjoy his performances (especially Swades -that was amazing)."
Beth's fascination with Bollywood has translated into a general fascianation with India, and when she is not watching films, she is busy catching up on her reading on India. She hopes to travel to India soon, and also is keen to organize an India exhibit in her university town, where she works at the musuem of world culture.
I guess that Bollywood is no longer the opium of the Indian masses alone. | to send to friends | Download Beth Loves Bollywood
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| In Conversation with Adam Greenfield author of "Everyware." | TalkNewsIndia has a podcast on Adam Greenfield.
Adam Greenfield is the author of a new and fascinating book called, "Everyware." Adam says everyware is "information processing embedded in the objects and surfaces of everyday life." Naota Fukasawa san famously describes this kind of behavior in an elegant and simple way: "Design dissolving in behavior." That is, our actions are so unconscious that we are not even aware of the underlying technology that makes our unconscious acts possible. These devices are essentially invisible, or attain near invisibility that we don't pay attention to them.
Everyware is an umbrella term that Adam coined to capture the unfolding of this fast moving phenomena that many of us are not paying attention. An interesting upshot of this everyware technology is that people are unaware that they are using it. An old example of this is the cell phone, but that has been replaced by new and nifty devices that we use in our everyday life, and we are not even aware of it points out Adam.
Some of them include the touch and go pay system credit card that Chase Bank has introduced in New York; the RFID technology that is used to tag goods, and in some cases used to tag people (some patients have RFID chips embedded in their arm that help doctors get instant access to their medical history and prescription); the instrumented floors used to build houses for senior citizens in South Korea...these are just a few examples of how technology is increasingly meshed into our lifestyle. Adam labels this development as "colonization of everyday life."
And with the coming of the IPV6,, the next generation Internet, Adam thinks that every grain of sand in the world could have an IP address. Every device at that point could have multiple IP addresses. Currenlty, we are using the older IPV4 technology, where we are running out of IP addresses for these rapidly proliferating devices. The fact that every object in the world could potentially have an IP address is partly what worries Adam.
Through this book Adam wants to create awareness of the unintended consequences of everyware and the impact that it will have in our collective lives. One of the worrying aspects of this development is that all kinds of information can be gathered, tagged, stored and searched for future reference. So, every action of yours persists in some kind of a meta database for a long time. That in turn has him worried about privacy issues, and how that will impact society.
Adam is also worried that the User Interfaces being created for such devices are not-so-friendly and can have unintended consequenes. By addressing these issues early on in the debate perhaps some of these issues can be addressed and corrected is Adam's line of reasoning. Adam is in some ways advancing and pushing forward a debate that Howard Rheingold of Smartmobs started a few years ago with the coming of IRC, mobile phones and PDAs. Adam was involved with the first Moblogging Conference that took place in Tokyo in 2003.
Adam's book is available on Amazon and will be releaed next week: Feb 18, 2006.
More on ubicomputing:
The father of ubiquitous computing is Mark Weiser, who worked at Xerox's PARC Lab in Palo Alto, California. Weiser spoke about how computing will pevade our life, and become nearly invisible. It was his seminal research in ubicomp that triggered research in mobile computing.
Here is what Weiser said in Scientific American article titled "The Computer for the 21st century"
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. "
And here is more:
"Whenever people learn something sufficiently well, they cease to be aware of it. When you look at a street sign, for example, you absorb its information without consciously performing the act of reading.. Computer scientist, economist, and Nobelist Herb Simon calls this phenomenon "compiling"; philosopher Michael Polanyi calls it the "tacit dimension"; psychologist TK Gibson calls it "visual invariants"; philosophers Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger call it "the horizon" and the "ready-to-hand", John Seely Brown at PARC calls it the "periphery". All say, in essence, that only when things disappear in this way are we freed to use them without thinking and so to focus beyond them on new goals. "
Mike Kuniavsky of Orange Cone has outlined defintions of ubicomp, pervasive, and physical computing, and what constitutes ambient intelligence. | to send to friends | Download In Conversation with Adam Greenfield author of "Everyware."
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| Interview with Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd at New York Stock Exchange | Talk News India brings you a podcast interview with Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Ltd, from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street. Mr. Premji and Mr. Suresh Senapaty, CFO, rang the closing bell at NYSE this evening. Others who witnessed the ceremony included Catherine Kinney, President and co-COO of NYSE; John Thaim, COO, NYSE; Sudeep Banerjee; President, Enterprise Solutions, Wipro; Sridhar Ramasubbu, Investor Relations-US; Timothy Matlack, and CEO, Consulting Services, Wipro.
The occasion marks the fifth year since Wipro listed at NYSE, and earlier in the day the company held its 2006 Analyst Meeting.
The closing bell ritual is about 10 years old explained an NYSE media person. The room where the bell is rung is about 100 years old. The bell is rung at precisely 4.00 pm and it is a 10 second event. In fact, it was a bit of an anti-climax when the bell rang. I think you get a better sense when you this 10-second event on TV.
This was the fourth time that Mr. Premji rang the closing bell at the NYSE. "And, all four times we took the market up," commented Mr. Premji with a smile.
Afterwards Mr. Premji came to the members gallery and spoke to the media, where he answered question about Davos, Outsourcing trend etc.
(Mr. Premji a low-keyed billionaire rarely gives interviews. He took over his family's business when his father unexpectedly died in 1966. At that time he was studying Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, California, and did not get to complete his studies. The company has grown and expanded to offer BPO and IT services, and is today the third largest IT company in India.)
Wipro is focussed on non-linear growth commented Mr. Premji. Focussing purely on linear growth could eventually become a challenge he said. Recently Wipro acquired two companies, one in the US, and the other in Europe he said. While he resisted on giving any kind of figures on growth he did that the company plans to do better than the industry forecast of 28%.
Recently General Motors announced a $15 billion outsourcing deal, and has already awared 50% of the deal to various vendors including Wipro. When asked if he expects to bag any further order from GM all he would say is, "No comments."
Mr. Premji has been on the road for the past few weeks and attended the World Economic Forum event at Davos. "I think India put a very good show," he said. He specifically mentioned the bhangra dance event on the last night, and said that from 11.30 pm to 5.00 am about 500-600 Americans and Europeans were out on the dance floor dancing to bangra music. "It completely stood out in warmth...in comparison to China," he said.
He said that India has about 65% share of the outsourcing market currently, and expects to earn about $23 billion this year from outsourcing according to Nasscom and MacKenzie. He however cautioned that India needs to stay one step ahead of emerging competition from China and East Europe. Wipro recently opened offices in Beijing, China and Bucharest, Romania he said.
Besides me, others who asked Mr. Premji questions included Swapna Vora, Lalith Jha of Indian Express, Uttara Choudhary of Daily News and Analysis, Abha Singh and Anita Ghai Malhotra.
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India Podcasts | to send to friends | Download Interview with Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd at New York Stock Exchange
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| In Conversation with Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices | Rebecca MacKinnon is a co-founder of Global Voices, and a recovering TV reporter-turned blogger. Global Voices is a non-profit citizens' media sponsored by Berkman Center for Internet and Society of Harvard University. Currently, Global Voices averages about 10,000 visitors a day from all over the world.
Rebecca became interested in blogging about two years ago, when she first read Joi Ito's blog . Subsequently, while on a sabbatical at Harvard University Rebecca started her first blogging project called North Korea Zone .
Prior to entering the world of blogging, Rebecca worked at CNN for 12 years, and served as bureau chief at both Tokyo and Beijing.
I met with Rebecca in January, 2006, when she was in New York. In this podcast Rebecca shares with us on what it was like to spend her formative years in Asia, and how she came to develop an interest in covering international news. Disappointed with the way in which international news was being covered, Rebecca turned to blogging, where she finds that contributors are optimistic, enthusiastic, and want to listen to the on-going global coversations.
Disclosure: I am a Global Voices contributor. | to send to friends | Download In Conversation with Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices
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| Remembering Mahatma Gandhi | On January 30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) was shot dead. He was on his way to his evening prayer meeting at Birla Mandir in New Delhi. He was 78 years old.
Flower Silliman was a student at Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, during the mid-1940s. She was part of the choir that sang during Gandhiji's prayer meetings in Birla Mandir.
In this podcast Flower shares her memories of Gandhiji.
In our previous podcast Flower spoke to us growing up in India as part of a tight-knit Baghdadi Jewish community. | to send to friends | Download Remembering Mahatma Gandhi
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| Flower Silliman: Third Generation Baghdadi Jew from India | Flower Silliman, mother of Jael Silliman, is a third generation Baghdadi Jew, who was born and brought up in India. She currently lives in New York.
Flower talks about her experiences growing up in India before 1947. During World War II Flower lived in Delhi, where she studied at Lady Irwin College. The reason she was sent to study at Lady Irwin was because Hannah Sen , the principal of the college was of Jewish descent says Flower.
In our next segment we will be talking to Flower about her days at Lady Irwin and Mahatma Gandhi. Lady Irwin College was a hub of activity during the freedom movement says Flower. | to send to friends | Download Flower Silliman: Third Generation Baghdadi Jew from India
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| Jael Silliman of "Jewish Portrait:Indian Frames," talks about the Baghdadi Jewish Community of Calcutta, India | Jael Silliman of "Jewish Portraits:Indian Frames" talks about the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta. Once a thriving community in Calcutta, the Arab-speaking Jewish community has dwindled to a handful of people points out Jael.
In her book Jael chronicles the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta through the lives of four generation of women in her family. Jael's great-grandmother Farah moved from Basra, now in Iraq, to Calcutta after her marriage; her grandmother Miriam lived in Calcutta, London and finally migrated to Israel; while her mother Flower lived in India, Israel and now lives in the USA.
According to Jael, the first Baghadadi Jew to arrive and settle in Calcutta was Obadiah Ha-Cohen. Cohen came from Aleppo, Syria to India in 1798, and Jael's family traces their roots to him. Over the next 250 years Baghdadi Jews continued to migrate to Calcutta, and by early 20th century had emerged as a tight-knit, prosperous community. But, today there are no more than a handful people that live in Calcutta, many of them have migrated to Australia, Israel, UK and USA.
In this podcast we speak to Jael about her book, the women in her family and the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta. | to send to friends | Download Jael Silliman of "Jewish Portrait:Indian Frames," talks about the Baghdadi Jewish Community of Calcutta, India
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| Waterborne and Google Video | We have a scoop and you heard it first on this podcast.
Google unveiled the Google Video at the
2006 Conssumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.
"Waterborne," an independent film produced by "Smriti Mundhra" and directed by "Ben Rekhi," is one of the first films to be available on "Google Video."
The film stars
Christopher Masterson,
Jon Greis,
Ajay Naidu and Shabana Azmi.
You can watch a trailer of the film
here.
In this podcast we speak with Smriti Mundhra about the film and Google Video. | to send to friends | Download Waterborne and Google Video
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| New York Street Performers | Welcome back!
Street perfomers,including
including street dancers, can be found in almost any subway station, park or street corners of New York.
In this podcast we talk to three "street performers" from "New York." Rick, Ray and Lavelle, the b-boys or
breakdancers have been performing for over 20 years and they are an utter delight to watch.
The next time you visit New York try and spend sometime watching these street performers, a unique feature of this vibrant and dynamic city. You can always find a couple of them either in
Times Square subway station or out on the streets. | to send to friends | Download New York Street Performers
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| New Year in New York - 2006 | Happy New Year. Thank you for your support and for tuning in to our show.
Millions of people around the world and in New York watched the famous ball drop at New York's Time Square at the stroke of midnight. This was also the last time that Dick Clark hosted his famous New York's Rocking Eve.
But, what was it like to walk around the streets of Manhattan on New Year's day? The streets were filled with shoppers, skaters, tourists, street performers and entertainers. In this podcast we bring you the sounds and sights of Manahttan as I walked around
Times Square,
Bryant Park,
Fifth Avenueand in the
Central Park area.
Tune in and listen to the sounds of New York. | to send to friends | Download New Year in New York - 2006
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| New York's Transit Strike | Welcome back!
We have switched to a features-based format. Today's podcast in about the New York transit strike. New York has the country's largest networks of trains and buses, and about 7 million people use this system. We spoke to a few small business people to find out how they are coping with the strike. | to send to friends | Download New York's Transit Strike
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| Oct 13, 2005: Headline News from India | A tremor measuring 5.6 hits India and Pakistan
US Sect of State Condolezza Rice visits Pakistan and promises more aid
The Right to Information Act goes into effect from today
Silicon Valley VC companies Norwest Partners and Gabriel Ventures plan to acquire stakes in Indian IT companies
Apple unveils iPod for video
Googleand Comcast in talks to acquire a stake in AOL
The
IIPM and Indian bloggers
Who will win the
Nobel Prize for Literature
Fox cancels
The Simple Life series starring Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton | to send to friends | Download Oct 13, 2005: Headline News from India
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| Oct 12, 2005: Headline News from India | Andaman and Nicobar Islands rocked by earthquake, but no damage
PM Singh tours Kashmir and pledges $111 million in aid
Earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan hampered by weather and transportation
Infosys and TCS announce strong 2nd quarter results
Narayana Murthy to retire next year
India's water crisis may worsen in the next 2 decades
Amitabh Bachchan turns 64
The search for the new James Bond is over, and it will be the first blond James Bond
Rahul Dravid's new bundle of joy | to send to friends | Download Oct 12, 2005: Headline News from India
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| Oct 11, 2005: Earthquake Special in India and Pakistan | Here is a short list of some resources about the recent earthquake in India and Pakistan. The International Red Cross has set up a family link, where people can try and locate their family members who may have been living or visiting the earthquake hit areas.
In India, you can contact the cell disaster management at the Indian Home Ministry. If you are calling from outside India, you can call the following numbers:
91-1123093563
91-11-23093564
91-11- 23093566
For information on relief and aid organization in Pakistan please visit the website Earthquake in Pakistan here.
The website has furnished the phone numbers of some key organizations that are looking for donation.
Edhi Foundation (042-879193)
Islamic Relief (051-2292412 / 2290237)
Red Crescent (051-9257404 / 9257405)
Church World Service (51-7215604)
Oxfam (051-4449791)
SUNGI (0992-333414
Here is a brief list of some key international organizations that are involved in the relief effort.
The International Red Cross is assisting earthquake victims and help identify family members, you can visit here
Through the family news network of the International Red Cross people can try and locate their family members who were hit by the unexpected earthquake.
Interaction is an association of over 150 US-based relief organizations
Relief International
Oxfam
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) - USA
Blogs: In an electronically connected world, blogs and bloggers are providing dynamic content on the fly in real time. Listed below is a brief list of blog that are focused on the earthquake in South Asia
Pakquake
Lahore Blog
Quakehelp
Wikipedia on the recent earthquake
Wikipedia on Pakistan | to send to friends | Download Oct 11, 2005: Earthquake Special in India and Pakistan
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| Oct 5, 2005: Headline News from India | Foreign Minister Natwar Singh completes his trip to Pakistan and the two countries issue a joint statement
Investment component of FDI will be $5 billion
Standard and Poor says India's banking sector is financially stronger than China's
Japanese company Itouch to increase its presence in India
Reliance Life Sciences and Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceuticals to collaborate on genome project
Mobile network congestion may impact services
Nobel physics prize announced | to send to friends | Download Oct 5, 2005: Headline News from India
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| Oct 4, 2005: Headline News from India | India and Pakistan sign two security agreements
France and India to sign the Scorpene deal
An Indian oil company may acquire stake in a Russian oil company
Indian employees to see a steep hike in their pay scale
Toonz Animation India signs a joint venture with Vijay Amrithraj's First Serve Entertainment
Digital music is 6% of world music
New top level domain .Travel introduced
Nobel Prize for Medicine announced
Nicholas Cage names his new born son after Superman | to send to friends | Download Oct 4, 2005: Headline News from India
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| Oct 3, 2005: Headline News from India | Foreign Minister Natwar Singh visiting Pakistan
Advani wants a public debate on the Mitrokhin papers
Economy grew by 8.1% in the previous quarter
Mahindra and Mahindra on an acquistion spree
Manpower Inc to double its operations in India
Infosys to expand its China operations
Microsoft plans to introduce a low-cost verion of windows system
3 Indian companies make it to Forbes' 50 fabulous Asian companies
Sania Mirza on the cover of Time magazine | to send to friends | Download Oct 3, 2005: Headline News from India
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| Books & Book Reviews: Interview with Author Roy Moxham | We bring you a 2-part interview with author Roy Moxham, who wrote, "The Great Hedge of India: The Search for a Living Barrier That Divided a Nation," and "Tea: Addiction, Exploitations and Empire."
Mr. Moxham recently retired from the University of London library, where he was in charge of preservation and conservation of books.
He is currently spending time in India researching for his third book, "Malabar Dreams."
In Part Ã??I of the interview he talks about his books, India, and how he researches for his books.
In Part-II he talks about his new book project, and how he goes about researching and writing for his books. | to send to friends | Download Books & Book Reviews: Interview with Author Roy Moxham
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| Sept 16, 2005: Headline News from India | Three-stage plan proposal to tackle Bangaloreâs infrastructure problems
Airport workers plan to go on strike on September, 29, 2005
Plans to set up $3-4 billion semi conductor fabrication plant by a NRI consortium
Off shoring in financial sector to double by 2008
Aylus Network sets up R&D facility in Bangalore
GangaGen and Eli Lilly to develop anti-bacterial products
Cricket: Saurav Ganguly says that he was asked to step down from his captaincy | to send to friends | Download Sept 16, 2005: Headline News from India
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| TechTalk Interview with Sudar Muthu of KPing | In today's TechTalk we have 23-year old
Sudar Muthu, a computer programmer, a power blogger, and a collaborator of KPing, a free pinging service.
Sudar lives in Chennai, India, and started working from May 2004, when he graduated from engineering school. What is interesting is that Sudar's collaboration wtih Fred Giasson of KPing happened in real-time over the Internet using chat and Skype. Currently, KPing has over 100,000 subscribers. Sudar says that it was the Internet that made it possible for him to work on KPing. "I used the internet for the first time in 1998 at an Internet cafe with 32kbps. And till few months back I was in dial-up and right now enjoying the luxury of broadband," he says.
Sudar reads about 75 blogs a day and his top 2 favorites blogs are from Jeremy Zawodny and Robert Scoble.
Sudar says that the Internet has changed his life, and his work habits. He is now is evaluating a couple of business plans to start a company, and don't be surprised if Sudar becomes the CEO of a company. Sudar, in many ways, represents the new, new way people are working and harnassing the Internet to their advantage. | to send to friends | Download TechTalk Interview with Sudar Muthu of KPing
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| Setp 9, 2005: Headline News from India | BSE crosses 8,000 mark
Finance Minister Chidambaram's response to the stock market
Idea and Air Cellular's IPO plans
Opto Circuits to buy 2 US companies
Fire at ONGC rig in Andhra Pradesh
Asian Development Bank forecasts 6.8% growth for India
eBay in talks with Skype
Surya Mantha appointed Senior VP of Interactive Services at SIFY
India Infoline acquired by Shakti Group
IIM-Bangalore graduate gets a job offer of $193,000
Lance Armstrong and Cheryl Crow to marry | to send to friends | Download Setp 9, 2005: Headline News from India
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