Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired from Test cricket, post drawing a match against Australia at the MCG yesterday. The timing and the method of retirement were extraordinary. It caught the media contingent and everyone completely unawares. He was in a post match press conference less than an hour before the press release announcing his retirement. The press conference was as normal as it could be, not a hint of the impending announcement. Now, if ever there was a case of keeping one’s emotions in check, then this was it. Brilliant! He retires as the Captain of the Indian cricket team and statistically, the most successful man to have done the job. Under his supervision, India won approx. 40% of the test matches they played. A lot has been written about his home v/s away records. Regardless of all of that, the way he carried himself on and off the field defines his legacy. He has been one of a kind simply
Employment in Govt. organization
Over the past few years, the Indian government has made various attempts at divesting its stake in enterprises that have been a drain on the exchequer. Every time that this issue is brought up, the socialist India awakens, hoots loudly about how the poor and the labor would be adversely affected by the sale of the public enterprise. A recent article in the Economist on a global trend of poorly performing state owned companies is quite telling in its assessment. While the article only touches upon the performance of the banks in India in comparison with other enterprises across the world, there are any number of examples of Government owned companies struggling to remain relevant in an increasingly fast paced and competitive landscape. The social demographics in India dictated that those who were educated to be a Doctor or Engineer in the 60s, 70s and the 80s would invariably look for opportunities only in the Government sector. It is this
Phil Hughes
I simply had to write about the shocking and saddening news of Phil Hughes’ demise after being hit by a cricket ball while playing the game. It feels like a travesty to call it that – “playing a game”. One can not die while playing – can they? Not cricket, surely?! I do know there have been instances in the past, Raman Lamba, for example, famously died when hit in the head while fielding at forward short leg. That was a freak accident and somehow seems more comprehensible than to die after being hit while wearing a helmet and protective gear while batting. I do not know Phil Hughes. I did not follow his career closely. My impression of his cricketing ability was that he was one of many openers that the Australian cricket team had been trying in the past couple of years, looking for the right combination. Now, I do know a little more about him. I know
Amazon’s monopsony
In an interesting blog post by Paul Krugman this week, he lays into Amazon and the power that it wields in the books marketplace today. Amongst many other points he makes, he mentions that while Amazon is not a monopoly in trying to use its power as a dominant seller to increase prices but instead, is a monopsony – using its power to keep prices low for its customers. In the particular example of Amazon v/s the book publisher Hachette, Amazon was able to squeeze the publisher into giving a larger share of the book sales to Amazon by disrupting the sales of their books on its website. Books from Hachette would take longer to be delivered when compared to books from other publishers and such. Amazon used its power to influence the market place to benefit itself and also its customers. In the Indian landscape, Amazon has not yet achieved the kind of power that it ostensibly wields in
Networked road travel
Continuing from my previous blog post on connected cars, the allure of the networked cars is too strong to resist for the Computer Networking engineer in me. Once the driverless cars are connected to the grid and are able to decide on an optimal route to take to reach a destination, the problem of getting the cars there becomes one that has been solved in the Internet Protocol (IP) routing world a few decades ago. While the Internet itself functions on the ability of the data to be split into “packets” that are transported from a source to a destination via routers that decide on the shortest path to take to reach the destination, it is a very real possibility to apply this thought to the world of traveling. The road networks that exist today offer a ready made infrastructure for travel without drivers and with a reduced incidence of accidents. Smart cars, which would be connected to a GPS
Mithun's Musings 