The Offshore Captive Conundrum

Seeing the fantastic margins that Indian software vendor make (upward of 20%), many buyers have wondered if they are paying too much for software services from India. Over the last five years, many companies have attempted to setup their own, captive software centers in India, thus bypassing the margins they have to pay to the vendors.

While this approach has some easy to see benefits, the reality has been rather disappointing. A 2007 research by Forrester had this to say about captive centers:

Happy Deepavali!

H A P P Y     D E E P A V A L I !

No, that is not a spiral galaxy in the middle. That is a bhuchakra spinning away to glory!

While I am trying to have some good, clean fun with my kids celebrating Deepavali the traditional way, here is how Times Of India wishes it’s readers on Deepavali day

Party Poopers!

Somebody should tell these Greens to go get a life!

A Musical of the Adults by the Children for the Adults

Rangashankara staged Choon-Hyang – a Korean musical (in English) on Wed & Thu.

This rather laborious old-world melodrama about love, separation, and reunion was brought alive by the bunch of kids who played almost all the adult roles.

If this musical had been enacted by adults I would have fallen asleep, but these bindaas Korean kids, bursting with energy and enthusiasm were clearly enjoying themselves tremendously. And such enthusiasm is contagious!

Amidst all the fun and frolic, there was an amazingly disciplined fan dance routine which took everyone’s breath away!

Kudos to Rangashankar for bringing this troupe to Bangalore.

Chandrayaan-1

more about “Chandrayaan-1“, posted with vodpod

The China-US Tango

In my earlier post on the US Dollar, I referred to the strong dependence the US has on China to keep the Dollar Cycle pump primed. Keeping this Dollar Cycle in mind, it is possible for us to get new insight into what is being said by various players.

Yesterday, CNN Money carried a report Paulson: Global cooperation is crucial to end crisis.

Here are some excerpts from that report and my interpretation:

Where is the US Dollar heading?

The current strength of the US dollar seems counter-intuitive.

Here is a country which has been living on debt for a long long time. It’s financial system has imploded. It’s real economy is all set to tank. And yet, it’s current is strong? This could happen only with the USA. If this were a third world country, all lenders would have pulled their money out long ago.

Here is an excellent Dollar Cycle diagram I found at The Market Oracle that explains how the US dollar keeps the wheels of global commerce turning:

An Unlikely Quartet

Eliana Burki and her Alphorn

The Swiss Consulate in Bangalore recently brought together an unlikely quartet for a fusion performance.

I could not attend this but my nephews assure me that the Alphorn is not a single-note instrument. A recording I heard afterwards actually sounds like a sax!

Boogie Time!

Who is this guy!

Amit Mishra

Unknown guy, comes into the India team, bowls on a dodo of a track where even the Indian oldies are able to pile-on the runs, and pegs the mighty Aussies back with a five wicket haul!

Thank god Kumble could not play due to injury!

There should be a more systematic way of inducting new talent, I say! We should not keep waiting for the old war horses to break an arm or a leg to let the new guys in.

I Vote for Joe the Plumber!

This guy is very impressive. More impressive than the two candidates!

(Sorry, I am unable to get rid of the advertisement which sometimes precedes the video)

I wish our electorate was more like this Joe the Plumber. Particularly when he refuses to disclose who he is going to vote for.

How Markets Move

A hilarious one from the blog of Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel prize winner for Economics:

From The Economist, 1987