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| The Konkan railway skybus |
The Skybus initially looked like a great idea. But of late, I am beginning to think that Konkan Railway is over-optimistic about the potential of the Skybus.
First there was the accident in which one enginner was killed. Yesterday, while B Rajaram, MD of Konkan Railways was talking to a reporter, a door of the Skybus came loose and fell off. Rajam called it 'unbelievably stupid'.
Stupid, yes. But I am not sure KD has been doing this properly. There seems to be too much of a hurry.
And maybe because I am clueless about infrastructure expenditure requirements - but even the cost of 50 crore rupees per kilometer sounds too much to me. Maybe its 10 times less than a metro service, but still...
I am beginning to think the dedicated, separated bus lanes for high capacity buses which has been implemented in Columbia is the best option for India. It costs a damn lot less. BW recently carried an article about it, but theirs is a registration-based site now, so I won't bother to paste the link.
Meanwhile here is our latest update on the Konkan railway skybus
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| posted by a correspondent @ 1:08 AM |
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| Sunday, January 16, 2005 |
| Ford Endeavour - out-SUV those SUVs |
This is my favourite SUV - even though I hate the fact that many illiterate politicians own them. The size is what the illiterate politicos seem to love. Our own Virar ka chokra has one too - he's hardly illiterate, and I would like to believe that researched Indian SUVs thoroughly before he bought it.
The Ford Endeavour has presence. Standing still, it looks like it has just rolled over you and your Maruti 800. The Dara Singh of SUVs in India. How I wish it would also roll over some Honda CR-Vs.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:45 AM |
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| Letters from the dilliwallah |
Here he cometh at us again, mouthing Hindi we can't understand.
Vikas Tripathi has sent his second letter from Dilli. As a loyal Mumbaiwallah, I refuse to publicise its contents in the blog. His first letter is here. We do not murder him, just because he has a cute daughter.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:41 AM |
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| Harpreet and the art of surprise readership |
The other day, after a normal ruinous day, while checking the log file, I noticed a sudden spike in visitors. What the... Then I noticed that they were all landing up on dear little Komal of Aastha's page.
What happened was that a site which was focusing on Indian TV serials - and which surprisingly had a large number of visitors - gave a link to the Komal Aastha story. And in a single day, 300 people read it! Not only that, every single day since it ws taken by the search engines, it is read by at least 5 people daily, more often ten. Take a wild guess, and the little girl has given us say.. 5 visitors X 30 days X 6 months + 300 visitors in one day = 1200 visitors! Just one article!
Actually Harpreet has a knack for this. Every single article of hers - I take a look at them and say - interesting, but not many will read it... and have to eat my words. Every month. Keep it going, Harpreet!
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:31 AM |
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| The AKJM school spy-mike!! |
In this great school where I was a student of, one principal once installed spy-microphones to listen to the conversations of his students, and possibly taechers! So the technology-based spying has always been there, we say. Good intentions, of course, were behind the hidden microphones.
Anyway, after the Mac Festival, we have a 'muck festival!' So here are the two stories on sex, spycams and cinemascope and one on Feminism in the time of MMS writen in response to an Amrita Shah column.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:19 AM |
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| Honda CR-V 2005 in India |
Interesting car. Pretty good looker. Though in the golden trim, it looks too much gaudy - like the Gujju Hyundai Sonata too used to, in golden colour.
Otherwise, neat vehicle that needs a lot of fuel. Available only in petrol. Why would Honda bring the diesel anyway if this one is already selling well!! Anyway, the company seems to kow the value of advertising on the Web, and they are using Google Adsense. As did Tata, during the Indigo Marina launch. Good going there. Here's our story on the Honda CR-V manual 2005
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:16 AM |
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| Ratan Tata is DWS Man of the Year |
JM thinks Ratan Tata is a 'people's tycoon' and much more. I suspect his real reason is that many others think the Tata big chief is too cool, and he doesn't want to lag behind! I am in fact waiting for him to deliver on his 'one lakh car'. Last week, he told BW that the car woud be out in 3 years. What I would like to know is - the One lakh of 3 years back when he started talking about it, or the one lakh of 2008, or the one lakh of now? How come nobody mentions this when they talk to him? The rupees one lakh of 2008 would be less than the Rs 70,000 of now. And bikes already cost that much. The Karizma or the Comet, for example. So what doe she really mean? Will someone enlighten me please?
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:08 AM |
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| Wednesday, January 12, 2005 |
| Mac Mini, ipod shuffle and ilife |
Meanwhile, the most secretive company of them all continues to churn out more and mnore brilliant products. The single product that cound indicate a turn in the strategy of Apple since ages could well be the Mac Mini - or the headless Mac - that does not have a monitor, keyboard or mouse. All of whcih you can attach yourself to it, but costs only $ 500. That puts it squarely in PC territory.
Only by the time it reaches India, it would cost upwards of Rs 35,000. Our guess. Sad.
Apple's other new products are: The Ipod Shuffle, iWork and iLife.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:29 PM |
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| Latest stories on DWS |
Someone with us thinks that N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys does speak too much. For one, he talks about sacrifice, values, and long term investments etc when his company has not survived because of any of that but due to the way in which he almost broke Patni, set up Infosys, was lucky enough to find long-term investors and still cold not avoid a Phaneesh Murthy scandal. Read about NR Narayanamurthy's bluster here.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 8:26 PM |
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| Sunday, January 09, 2005 |
| Hindustan Times (HT) coming to Mumbai |
Finally, Hindustan Times coming to Mumbai.
Finally Times of India will have another deep pocketed newspaper to contend with. And perhaps one that can almost all of the tricks that Times of India can play.
Let us wait and watch.
All you drooling journalists out there who are planning your marriages after a better paying job in HT Mumbai, we shall definitely keep you posted. Get ready to work in Panvel, though!
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| posted by a correspondent @ 11:34 AM |
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| Wednesday, January 05, 2005 |
| Tsunami relief and information site |
Since December 26, there has been only one news item of any importance - The Tsunami and after-effects.
I was in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala on the day Tsunami hit India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, attending a wedding. We knew that the massive waves had ravaged Kollam, the adjoining district only a 100 kilometers away, only at night, when the wedding was finally over.
Any way, DWS does not have a news page on Tsunami - you can find it on just about every website. However, we have a Tsunami relief information page here. Chose your charity, and help in any way you can.
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| posted by a correspondent @ 11:58 AM |
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