by Sujoy on December 7, 2011
Kapil Sibal - Internet Censorship in India
Until the last week, he was more famous as the man who brought to the world, the $35 laptop. And today, he is a laughing stock, not only amongst us Indians, but also in tech blogs worldwide. Even Engadget (Link) is reporting this as a shameful initiative. And if we go by the trending hashtags of Twitter in India, you will find the top 5 to be pointing towards Mr. Kapil Sibal’s idiocy. This is a Harvard and St.Tephen’s alumni we’re talking about, who is now the Minster of Communications and IT in India. What made Mr.Sibal turn on his own head to become Mr.Scissorshands with the Internet?
I cannot decide if the initiative announced by Mr.Sibal to censor “the internet” is more stupid, or is it the incident which triggered this initiative which deserves a place on the stupid-er throne. He picked a post that targeted Sonia Gandhi, to be the reason why he wants the internet in India to be screened, censored and then released for the public. Now, I am not speaking in favour of anyone’s motive to malign a public figure. But across the world, we have a lot of “I hate abc” and “I love abc” clubs. The fact that a public figure like Sonia Gandhi has been picked on, and Mr.Sibal feels the need to censor the entire fucking internet in India is beyond me (well, I know his motive, well, sort of). So, here is my open letter to Mr Sibal.
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by Sujoy on January 31, 2008
The first big move in the wave of the predicted recession of 2008 in IT has come across as a huge blow to the entire IT community. One of India’s largest software exporter, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) has implemented a plan, according to which, all the salaries of the employees would be reduced by Rs.2000 (50 USD) a month, for the next 3 months.(figures- citation required, some sources even indicate it’s Rs.10,000 or 250 USD). This is what the authorities claim to be a step taken to meet the shortcomings in the project revenues resulted from the appreciation of the Rupee vs. Dollar. Although, IT communities across the country are condemning the business tactic through web campaigns and blogs, there is no legal way to combat it, as the move is perfectly legal. This comes as a big surprise, and could be an indication of the tough times ahead for the IT Industry as outsourcing will falter, as speculated by big industry gurus.
The message is loud and clear though. The IT bubble isn’t growing anymore. What is more surprising is that this news has come at a time of the year end review when most of us (IT professionals) expect their yearly appraisals. It also is a very depressing news for the new joinees and also the ones who have their dates scheduled to join TCS. 2008 hasn’t really started on a good note for IT ,especially in India. Earlier, IBM was in the news for laying off 100,000 employees (out of its approximately 350,000) worldwide. As I sit down to hit the Publish button on this post, there are many people of my fraternity, who are busy expressing their anguish in the comments sections on blogs reporting the news. Is the IT bubble soon going to go ‘boom’?
For Related posts, read these:
Economic Times
Discussion Forum on the TCS pay cut on DexterNights
Sify.com’s post
