Alumni in the news - Sep 7

Bharat Desai, Syntel, says, "We are on the cusp of a new wave of growth, driven by new areas such as on-demand services, grid and cloud computing, and IP-based solutions."

The companies that will survive the current slowdown will be able to set themselves apart from the crowd in terms of their approach, their service portfolio, or by concentrating on specific industries or technologies. These players will come out on top because they understand their clients’ needs and are able to adjust their business model to continue to drive value to their customers and deliver competitive advantages in the marketplace.

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Believe it or not, here's a cost-effective, environmental-friendly solution to our rain woes. IIT alumni Dr Raja Marathe has been making rain in Nanded, not once or twice, but 14 times. Sunday MiD DAY travels with the rainmaker.

Everybody may love a good drought, but there is always the exception.

Dr Raja Marathe, IIT Bombay alumni and a former Naxal leader who returned to India from the United States a few years ago, may as well be known as Nanded's rainman. Armed with burning tyres packed with salt, Marathe has single-handedly floated his own rain seeding project in the villages of Nanded (constituency of CM Ashok Chavan) called Lavan Vajra that has now been sanctioned by the collector of the district.
 

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“So why you not as famous as Mark Zuckerburg?” I ask Beerud Sheth, tongue firmly in cheek. Pat comes the reply: “Because in India, the approach is firangi, not tirangi.”

Sheth happens to be the co-founder and CEO of Webaroo, which owns SMSGupShup.com, and if he is to be compared with Zuckerburg, the founder of Internet social networking phenomenon Facebook, it is in order. Sheth is looking for a fortune at the bottom of the social networking pyramid. The IIT, Mumbai and Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated whizkid is moaning about the fact that there is so much media hype over Facebook and microblogging (tweeting) site Twitter in India because it is “firangi” while its own (tricolour) site SMSGupShup.com is ignored despite its roaring success.

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With the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) advising BJP leader L K Advani to assume the role of mentor, speculation about his successor is rife. According to a report by Poornima Joshi in Mail Today, the likelihood of the four top contenders – Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar – being picked for the job is remote. The RSS, it says, is betting on a dark horse.
Goa Leader of the Opposition Manohar Parrikar is the strongest contender for the post, out of a shortlist of three, the other two being MP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh. But, says the report, the RSS wants to avoid disturbing chief ministers.
So Parrikar, 54, is said to be the most eligible for the job. He can bring a generational change in the BJP, because he presents the contemporary face of Hindutva. The IIT-Mumbai graduate also scores very high on personal integrity, is committed to the ideology, has never figured in any controversy, and isn’t part of any faction, says the report.

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