India’s Saina Nehwal won the Hong Kong Open Super Series badminton tournament beating China’s Shixian Wang 2-1 in the women’s singles final here Sunday.

Second seeded Saina won 15-21 21-16 21-17 against third seeded Wang, an Asian Games gold medallist, in a match that lasted one hour and 11 minutes at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

For Saina the win was her fifth title of the year, which includes three Super Series and Commonwealth Games gold.

The Hong Kong Open was the fourth Super Series title for Saina, who won her first Super Series at the Indonesian Open last year and retained it this year.

Earlier on Saturday, overcoming mid-match blues, Saina Nehwal waltzed into the final of the Hong Kong Super Series with a 21-19, 17-21, 21-12 victory over Juliane Schenk of Germany in the keenly-contested semifinal at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Above news courtesy:  TOI

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So, this is how the semi final line up stacks up.

Uruguay  vs  Netherlands on 6th July 2010

Germany  vs  Spain on 7th July 2010

My money is on a Germany-Uruguay final.  But then, have the Germans peaked a bit too early? Spain might be looking at making it a grand double after winning the Euro-2008.  The Dutch with all their egos and infighting are capable of making it to the final too.

Pictures courtesy: FIFA

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Germany 4-1 England

It would be sad to see Germany and Argentina meeting in the next round as only one can go through.  Sad, i love both the teams.

Above picture courtesy: FIFA

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A good article here mentions about the top 10 reasons why the Euro will fail.  You can supplement these theories to other economies too and see why the fundamental argument for a common currency is a non-starter.

1. One interest rate cannot be suitable for everyone

Quite simply if there is a single currency there must also be a single interest rate set by the European Central Bank.  For the single currency to work, this single rate must be suitable for all member states.  It is difficult to see how a single rate could possibly be suitable for all of the economies in all foreseeable situations.  Take for example Germany and Ireland in 2001.  The German economy is on the brink of recession while the Irish economy is booming.  The Germans would ideally like a low rate while the Irish needed a higher rate.  The compromise rate is not suitable for either Ireland or Germany.  This shows that in the long term the result is painful for both countries as both countries have an unsuitable interest rate. One size cannot fit all!

Read the full article here

Above picture courtesy: Bized

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1. Games Indians Play – Why We are The Way We Are

If you are someone who easily gets offended by criticism, this book is surely not for you.  If you are someone who believes in chest thumping patriotism, the kinds we find in Sunny Deol – Anil Sharma movies or the kind of person who likes to forward chain mails which proclaim that 35% of employees working in NASA, Microsoft etc are Indians, then this book is not for you either.

Games Indians Play is a hard hitting look at the way we Indians manipulate our way around the system, looks at reasons why our cities are dirty, creaking, why our roads are full of potholes, why our system, law and order machinery is corrupt, why we keep raking up examples of our thousand year old culture and morals, but are the worst behaved, immoral and culture-less people around.

The author, V Raghunathan uses game theory to explain the ills of India, as to why we are free loaders, corrupt and do not stand up to our rights etc.

Though the author goes great lengths to analyse the problems facing India, he doesnt suggest ideas or solutions to mitigate the problem.  That i believe is the only negative point about the book.

A few comments on the book that i found at Amazon website reinforce the author’s point of view

“It’s a very interesting book and does a great job of explaining some of the bizzare things that go on in India and why people say “it’s like that only”. As an Indian living in US for two decades, I can relate to author’s observations about Indian and western societies. I have been puzzled by some of those things over the years but couldn’t figure out why it was so.

And to Mr. Raghunathan: Lots of Indians/asians in US don’t behave much differently. Just go to any temple and you can see a pile of shoes/chappals on the floor right next to empty shoe shelves & just below the sign “please don’t leave your shoes on the floor”. Or visit any south asian grocery store and you can tell instantly if they sell “paans” by looking at stains all over the parking lot.”

“As an expat currently living in India, this book affirmed what I’ve found difficult and perplexing about living in New Delhi. The constant helplessness, petty jealousies and a sense that some of the observed poverty is just another one of India’s treasured rackets (an alternative route for their bizarre and seemingly increasing corruption) is overwhelming and frustrating to watch on a day-to-day basis. I enjoyed this book immensely as it helped me to understand the behavior I see around me, why it continues without change (or question) and in the end, why and how others perceive their continued benefit from this seemingly irrational paradigm (from a Western view point).

Listening to Indians and the media in India, there is a view that Westerners are selfish, lack connected communities and have no “family values” or “morals” (whatever this means by whomever defines it). It’s almost as if Indians have it reversed from Westerners. In particular, Americans who value personal independence coupled with a sense of civic duty and responsibility to others whereas Indians emphasize family and communal relationships to guide their behavior and actions but do not necessarily extend their concerns outside their immediate circle.”

“The author postulates that it is ‘Supreme Selfishness’ which drives every Indian. The author then creates models of everyday situations using principles of Game Theory to explore how Indians react to such situations given that they are driven by ‘Supreme Selfishness’. For example, the author uses Prisoner’s Dilemma to model the common situation every Indian faces while emptying his trash can every morning – should I empty the bin on the road or should I have to walk two hundred feet to the nearest municipal waste bin?”

Games Indians Play
Author – V Raghunathan
Pages – 170
Publisher – Penguin Books

2. Germany – Cultures of the World

I have a good collection of the Lonely Planet series.  But they are books for the hardcore traveler.  Though i love to travel; finances, time and other considerations deny me that pleasure.  I love reading up on the countries, their cultures, people, society, food etc, but i find the Lonely Planet series of books too bulky to read and i find its a book good for people who like to micro-manage their travels.  As for me, i like to take the leisure way out and i just like to do a broad research of the place before i travel.

Europe is a dream destination for me.  Germany is one of my most admired countries and i happened to chance at this book in the library.  Its small, concise and covers all aspects of the country just the way i love it.  The book covers the geography, government, culture, food, people, cities, environment, politics, history etc in a precise manner.

3. Hiroshima – Story of the First Atom Bomb

Its a pretty small book, mostly for kids which traces the dropping of the first atom bomb on Hiroshima.  Capturing mostly pictures of both before and after of the destruction and a few explanations about the bomb, the politics behind it.  The book is mostly about Manhattan project, nuclear theory, progress of World War II, Truman’s decision to use the bomb, the mission of Enola Gay, results of the Hiroshima explosion and the subsequent use of the bomb on Nagasaki.

Above picture source: Amazon & Nowpublic

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He laid the foundation of India’s huge atomic energy establishment almost singlehandedly, nurturing and expanding it with his dynamic vision. Thanks in no small measure to Homi J. Bhabha’s dream, India’s atomic energy programme has acquired global stature today, capable of designing and testing nuclear weapons and aspiring to meet its growing demands for nuclear energy.

Born to Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha and Meherbai on Oct 30, 1909, in Bombay (now Mumbai), the young Bhabha led a sheltered and emotionally secure childhood. The very first glimmerings of a keen and inquisitive mind became apparent when a specialist told his very worried parents why he slept little — a hyperactive brain that kept him awake at nights.

Excellent family ties with the Tatas and their association with national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru and also with the British imbued the sensitive boy with a sense of nationalism and perspective.

In 1924, Homi Bhabha passed the Senior Cambridge exam at the age of 15. But by then he had grasped the complexities of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as well as the intricacies of classical painting.

His arrival in Cambridge, a fount of nuclear physics, three years later in 1927, permitted his native genius to bloom for the next 12 years, where he obtained his PhD in physics with specialisation in cosmic rays, in 1934. He was just 25 then.

Bhabha met many of the greatest physicists of the time, namely Niels Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi, who played key roles in the Anglo-American atomic weapon programmes.

In March 1944, even before the world acquired a nodding acquaintance with the mighty potential of nuclear energy, Bhabha, then a professor, wrote to Sir Dorab J. Tata, who headed the Tata Trust, proposing an institute for nuclear physics in India.

“When nuclear energy has been successfully applied to power production in, say, a couple of decades from now,” Bhabha wrote with remarkable prescience, “India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.”

Thus the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) came into being on Dec 19, 1945, just four months after Hiroshima and three years before Indian independence.

Bhabha served as its first director, which placed him at the commanding heights of the country’s nuclear future, until his premature death in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps on Jan 24, 1966.

Bhabha was very particular about maintaining excellence. Addressing the then National Institute of Sciences, Bhabha said: “This is a field in which a large number of mediocre or second rate workers cannot make up for a few outstanding ones, and the few outstanding ones always take at least 10-15 years to grow.”

As the new nation’s prime minister, Nehru entrusted Bhabha with complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programmes. Both of them shared a close rapport. In April 1948 at Bhabha’s bidding, Nehru agreed to legislate the Atomic Energy Act in the Constituent Assembly, creating the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).

On Jan 3, 1954, the IAEC decided to set up a new facility, the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET). In August the same year, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) came into being with Bhabha as its secretary. Till date, it remains answerable only to the prime minister. Prime minister Indira Gandhi renamed AEET the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Full article here

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Everything about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN) in Geneva is big. The money spent on the project — $3.8 billion — is big. Thousands of scientists, thousands of instruments are part of this mega project.

The 27-km tunnel is the longest for a project of this kind. The instruments which line the tunnel are a few thousand in number, especially the super-sensitive, super-precision magneto-detectors which are key to the success of the super-duper experiment ever in theoretical physics. It is here that Indians make their dramatic appearance, though it is kind of a bit role in the lavish drama. Fifty per cent of those magneto-detectors have been engineered by Indian scientists, right from conception to execution and installation.

What is overlooked in all this number crunching of the elementary kind is that beyond the big budget, big site-laboratory, big instruments and big teams of scientists is that it all stems from a big idea — what is the source of the universe. Without the pioneers’ passion to cross the frontiers of knowledge, to go back to the ancient beginnings — now reckoned to be approximately 13.7 billions years or so — the whole enterprise would be a titanic empty shell.

Consider what nuclear means for most informed Indians? It just brings to mind nuclear power, nuclear bombs, nuclear medicine, not necessarily in that order. But very rarely would it also connote in the minds of these people the teasingly infinite, infinitesimal universe of sub-atomic particles.

Indians will be able to cross this mental frontier if they can stop thinking of science in terms of its utility, in terms of visible technology and its benefits to India.

Click here for the full article

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Infosys Technologies said on Monday it had agreed to buy British consultancy Axon Group Plc for £407m (US$753m) as India’s second-biggest software services exporter looks for growth beyond an uncertain U.S. market.

The cash deal values Axon at £6 per share, a 19.4 per cent premium over Friday’s close of £5.025 and 33 per cent over the average price of the last six months, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

The offer price included any interim dividend that Axon, which has a market value of almost US$600m, may announce when it releases results on Tuesday, Infosys said. The Axon board has already ”unanimously recommended” the offer, with its large shareholders and some key employees also supporting the deal, Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan said.

”They wanted to enter Europe in a big way, and probably this is the reason why they have paid a higher premium,” said R. K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund in New Delhi.

”It’s a positive sign for the company because they were sitting on a huge cash pile, and it was not generating any return.”

Subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, Nasdaq-listed Infosys expects to complete the deal in November. Axon, which provides services to companies using products of German business software maker SAP, would be delisted, Infosys said.

Rest of the news here.

Above picture of Infosys Mysore courtesy: Karthik

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“Decision not to carry Olympic torch is entirely personal, not political. I am not doing this on behalf of any organisation or group. I’m not even asking others to join me. Not carrying the Olympic torch was an obvious decision for me as I am against the violence and oppression in Tibet,” he said.

Meanwhile, another controversy is brewing as Aamir Khan has been roped in by Coca Cola to carry the torch. The Tibeteans in India are warning that they will commit self-immolation if Aamir Khan goes ahead with the torch relay.

I am no one to tell any group of people how they should conduct their struggle. I am not part of it and am not going through what they are going through. But my heart goes out to them.

I request those of you who have asked me to stay away from the Olympic Torch Relay to understand that when I do run with the torch on the 17th of April it is not in support of China. In fact it will be with a prayer in my heart for the people of Tibet, and indeed for all people across the world who are victims of human rights violations.

Meanwhile the German chancellor Angela Merkel has indicated that she will not attend the Beijing Olympics and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy maintaining that he might boycott the opening ceremony of the games. More fun

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The acquisition will enable marketing and distribution of a range of pharmaceuticals including generics, biosimilars, biologics and other products in Germany and other European countries, the Indian drugmaker said.

Full article here.

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