The browser war

I guess, it is fair to say, is restarting.

The world is flat - my impressions

I was pretty skeptical about this book. Partly because of comments from Sudarshan and Channu. And partly because of the mixed reactions I had heard elsewhere. I'm happy to say that the book didn't disappoint me.

I can understand Channu giving up reading it because the book starts off with some basic stuff that "global-economy-expert" might have found too fundamental :-)

And Sudarshan, well... he is just being too picky :-) The author might have gotten few things wrong but on the whole he has done a good job.

The book starts off by describing the triggers or drivers for globalization. Ten in all from the fall of Berlin wall to the boom and bust of the dot-com era.

It later goes into describing the effect of globalization on the world. Why some countries (e.g. India, China) are thriving and some others (mostly gulf countries) are not.

The criticism on US Govt. for being complacent and focusing on wrong priorities (the war on terrorism instead of education of next generation) I think is well justified. It's quite obvious that the author is not a fan of Bush Jr. and his policies.

There is quite a few of warm-and-fuzzy accounts of experiences in India. At times the author seems awestruck by the progress India (and China) have made in last decade or so.

On the controversial issue of outsourcing, my favorite was the India/Indiana story. The gist of which is that the govt. of Indiana invited bids for some contract work. TCS was awarded the contract whose bid of 8 Mil. less than that of the next US competitor. Because of outcry from the opponents of outsourcing the contract was divided into sub contracts and given out to most US companies. The interesting question is: who is the loser here? Indiana tax payers or TCS.

I would recommend it to everybody in this group. If nothing else, it does give a peek into how the global landscape is changing and what the future might hold.

Sudarshan, what do you think?

Space tourism taking off

Recognize this woman?