Welcome to the 30s

Happy birthday mate

WTF

Rahul Gandhi takes bath with special soap.....
And Mayawati's people will believe her !

Future of digital music

Good write-up on the challenges the record labels face in these connected times. You can read it here.

The migrant labourer

NREGS is one of the most extensive schemes launched for rural India . It guarantees work in the village. Yet rural india wants to move to urban areas for jobs. Why ?

Small town India optimism

My day job involves travel to small towns and villages across the country. Just came back from a day long visit to Modinagar & surrounding villages. Some general observations:

• This is the third time that I have seen a village(not town) youngster reply in halting English to questions asked in Hindi. Its almost like "Do not underestimate the village youth, give us time and we will match up to you"




• In neighbouring Modinagar, you just could not miss the "Spoken English" training institutes. There cannot be noise without demand. Its obvious that small town India sees english as its ticket to success. No wonder BPOs are moving to tier 2&3 towns in India



• Every person in the village or the town wanted "to do something". Moving out to look for better prospects is a possiobility for this generation unlike their parents who were married to their village, come what may.

• So should youth from villages move out to nearby cities for jobs? Or should jobs come to them in the villages? You can argue strongly on either side, but for the time being its the former thats driving aspirations in small town & rural India.