Monday, September 28, 2009

LIfe In Metro's !!

                      I've lived in four of the most prominent  metro cities  of India. There are certain  aspects that I have  learnt  about each of these cities. Although I was born in Hyderabad, I spent most of my life in Mumbai, Delhi & Chennai.While I was sitting in my bedroom thinking what these cities have given me, I wasn't surprised by the things i learnt in these four amazing places. The lifestyles, Food, People, Transport. Night Life, Shopping Malls all of these are poles apart in these four cities, Hence I would love to share my experience with all of you. Next four days. I will be writing about these four cities.

                         Delhi, the capital of India, definitely proves its stature with its mind-boggling architecture, mouth-watering food, extreme climate and over-dressed people. To start with, Delhi is a perfect place for kids to grow up, by having, excellent schools of International standards with recreational facilities and sports facilities. The kids have a gala time in this Mega city.Hanging out in Hep places and Joints like select city walk and Ambience mall. Although Places like Ansal Plaza were supposed to be one of the first few Shopping Malls in India, It now gets numbered in a different category of being the worst.While you take a walk around the outer circle in Delhi, you would see a dozen shopping malls and a couple of pubs in every possible nook and corner. While I was staying in Mumbai, I was so curious about how people dress in this city. I always thought that people here would be simple, wearing salwar-kameez and chudidaars. But when I stepped into this city for the second time, I was proved wrong. With my mouth wide open in awe, I roamed around the city for a couple of days.Never did I imagine girls smoking and wearing dresses i never thought Indians could wear, Guys wearing Blazzers in summer and glares in the dark, Driving Volkswagen's and BMW's. This city had a life of its own. You can consider these aspects to be either positive or negative. But thats how this city is, Vegetable tenders selling Drugs, Alcohol stores in every part of the city. And when it comes to food, there is no other place in India with the variety and taste of food this city offers. A million food joints spread across the city like Chandini chowk, Cannaught place, karol bagh, Lajpat nagar. From Lassagne to parotha's every single food item you find in this city would be delicious.Now coming to the worst aspect of the city,i.e. the transport, It is definitely the worst compared to the rest of the metro's, But now since the arrival of the Metro rail, things are picking up. And maybe by 2020 the transport maybe the best in the world.

Pro's-

  • Delicious Food.
  • Extravagant Night life.
  • Eye soothing scenic places and architecture.
  • Various Shopping zones. Ranging from streets to high profile Italian Brands.
  • Fashion Sense. (Very good dressing sense (Not applicable to Boys)
  • Excellent infrastructure.

Con's-

  • Terrible Modes of transport.
  • Unfriendly People .
  • Extremely harsh Climate  .

Friday, January 9, 2009

WORLD'S BIGGEST FRAUDS

After we saw what Satyam computers was upto, its time we named the worlds biggest frauds.We have witnessed all sorts of frauds despite many rules and regulations in place.So here it is:

Charles Ponzi-The term "Ponzi scheme" is a widely known description of any scam that relies on a "pyramid" of "investors" who contribute money to a fraudulent program. He promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage. Ponzi was probably inspired by the scheme of William Millar, a Brooklyn bookkeeper who in 1899 used the same pyramid scheme to take in $1 million.



Bernard Lawrence Madoff (born April 29, 1938) is an American businessman and former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. He started the Wall street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960 and was its chairman until December 11, 2008, when he was charged with perpetrating the largest invester fraud ever committed by a single individual. FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. On the day prior to his arrest, Madoff told senior executives at the firm, that the management and advisory segment of the business was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme".Madoff was then arrested based on a tip-off from his sons, Andrew and Mark.Five days after his arrest, Madoff's assets and those of the firm were frozen and a receiver was appointed to handle the case.According to federal charges, Madoff himself admitted that his firm has "liabilities of approximately US$50 billion.


Jérôme Kerviel is a French trader who has been charged in the January 2008 Societe Generale trading loss incident, resulting in losses valued at approximately €4.9 billion. Société Générale characterises Kerviel as a rogue trader and claims Kerviel worked these trades alone, and without its authorization.He hacked into the bank's computers to carry out his trading tricks. The French bank took a hit of 5 billion euros in one of the world's largest scams.

His total salary and bonuses amounted to less than euro 100,000. Kerviel joined SocGen after earning a masters degree in finance at a business school at Lyons in 2000.





Giancarlo Parretti is an italian financier.He formerly owned the movie studio Pathe and in 1989 took over Cannon Film Group Inc. from Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In 1990, Parretti also bought METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER, using money borrowed from a Dutch subsidiary of Credit lyonnais and contingent on future profits financing the purchase from mogul Kirk Kerkorian.

With the financier, MGM released almost no movies (one victim being the James Bond franchise), while Parretti enjoyed a Holiwood Mogul lifestyle. He fired most of the accounting staff and appointed his 21-year-old daughter to a senior financial post. He used company money for presents to several girlfriends, including a former runner-up for Miss Universe.In 1999, he was found guilty of misuse of corporate funds and fraud and he was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison and fined 1 million francs by a Paris court.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

INTRODUCTION

A very Happy New Year guys.This is a blog where i hope you will have some meaningful fun .This is where i will try to talk and discuss about burning issues on the environment, economy, politics, and finance. I hope all people willing to change and bring about a change will contribute to this effort.

Talk about this subject more frequently.

Hi guys.I would like to tell you, these topics are often not discussed, cause they are never ending, and most of you find them boring, But we don't have any other option. Its time we start talking about global issues or Moral issues rather than discussing about movies, games etc. We need to spread awareness, firstly in our parents. Next, in our friends. The more we talk about it, the better it is. Follow all the steps given. I know its not easy. Even I am finding it difficult. Please try to bring about a change, And never procrastinate.

As they say "Charity always starts in your home", I've started this in my home. And now trying to spread it among my friends.


I would just love it. If you live "Environment-Friendly".

Most of my work is compilation. So I have given credit, wherever required.

Thanks.

ITS TIME TO DO SOMETHING !!!

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we may be reaching a tipping point - and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life - convinced that there is still time to make a difference.

With wit, smarts and hope, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization.
------------- An Extract from "An inconvineant Truth".

Our Genertion has the responsibility to initiate change.We are not very much behind the Americans in adding to global warming. As our population is highly increasing, our per-capita emmision of CO2 gasses, which in-turn leads to higher temperature levels in our country, is decreasing. On the face of it, our Per-capita emmisions, are completely misleading and if we have a look at the total CO2 emmisions, We are among the Top-10. America has already started to take action , their CFC levels and CO2 levels have dropped drastically. If every citizen, no matter which country he belongs to, takes some steps to prevent this Catastrophe, we can deal with CO2 emmision.


  • If we start conserving energy. By not using taxi's or Auto's or saving fuel by not using personal cars, we can use public transport. Say, u can do car-pooling.
  • We frequently use, hot water to take bath. If we can use warm water instead.It'll help the situation.
  • Turn Of electronic devices when not in use. You can turn of your monitor screens when you are'nt using your computer, or switch it of, rather than putting it in sleep-mode.
  • Using flourescent light bulb's rather than normal light bulb's, will save 150 pounds of CO2 per year.
  • Plant trees, now this dosent sound that difficult . Does it?.
  • Recycling.The more you recycle, the better it is.
  • Adjusting your thermostat, let it be extreme winter or summer. Adjust your thermostat in a range of, not more than 2 degrees.

Please click On this Image

Do read this Image, by clicking on it.

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?

Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.

The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence.1 The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitat, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.

The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.2

Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.3


The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.4

At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.5

If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.

Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.6

Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.7

Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.


Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.


The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.8


More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.9

There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now – TAKE ACTION.


1 According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this era of global warming "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence of the global climate."
2 Emanuel, K. 2005. Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years. Nature 436: 686-688.
3 World Health Organization
4 Krabill, W., E. Hanna, P. Huybrechts, W. Abdalati, J. Cappelen, B. Csatho, E. Frefick, S. Manizade, C. Martin, J, Sonntag, R. Swift, R. Thomas and J. Yungel. 2004. Greenland Ice Sheet: Increased coastal thinning. Geophysical Research Letters 31.
5 Nature.
6 World Health Organization
7 Washington Post, "Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change," Juliet Eilperin, January 29, 2006, Page A1.
8 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. 2004. Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Also quoted in Time Magazine, Vicious Cycles, Missy Adams, March 26, 2006.
9 Time Magazine, Feeling the Heat, David Bjerklie, March 26, 2006.


Extract Taken from climate-crisis.--Pranav