Monthly Archives: December 2009

Seminar on technology and operations management in Telecommunications – 19 Dec

Events,

What: (Paid) Seminar giving an overview of technology and operations in a telecommunications business, by Prof. Suresh Borkar, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
When: Saturday 19th December, 9am-12pm (technology) and 2pm-5pm (operations)
Where: Deccan Rendezvous, Apte Road
Registration and Fees: Rs. 500 per track, payable at location. Lunch 12-2pm included. To sign up, contact Nusrat at nusrat@kpoint.in, +91 20 4131 1142, +91 20 4131 1100, +91 982 237 8516

Agenda

Technology Track: 9am-12noon

  • Covers Telecom Services, Architecture, and Evolution
  • Structured around the latest standards and advances
  • Provides the framework for developing competitive strategies and making informed decisions
  • Case studies and option analyses

Lunch: 12noon-2pm

Operations Track: 2pm-5pm

  • Covers Telecom Service Life Cycle: market development to operations and maintenance
  • Market and Process expertise for business success
  • Case studies and option analyses
  • Coverage of transformational technology and process leadership

Who should attend

Executives and senior managers; senior faculty members and department heads with a focus on market and technology and research leadership. A typical participant is responsible for:

  • Delivering in the face of changing market dynamics, evolving technologies, and
    challenging competitive environment
  • Making strategic decisions and setting future direction
  • Developing own team through in-depth expert-level training

About the speaker – Dr. Suresh Borkar

Suresh is an acknowledged expert in telecommunication topics backed by 30+ years of industry experience. He has performed leadership roles in product management, R&D, and customer management in wire-line switching, telecom data management, wireless and computer networks. Suresh is active at conferences and panel discussions on WiMAX and VoIP/Next Generation Networks (NGNs). His background:

  • Currently a faculty member in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, USA.
  • CTO and MD, Tata-Lucent Telecom Joint Venture and Lucent India, Inc.
  • Director for Customer Management for 3G Wireless systems at Alcatel-Lucent, US, and various other roles.
  • Suresh is a B Tech (IIT Delhi) and MS, PhD (IIT, Chicago) in Electrical Engineering.

(Note: This is a paid training program. Disclaimer: PuneTech does not accept any remuneration, monetary or otherwise, for publishing content. Postings of a commercial nature (e.g. paid training program) are posted solely on the basis of whether or not they fit in with the charter of PuneTech, the fees involved, and whether our readers would find those interesting. Please let us know your views on this issue. We’re posting this one because the fees are nominal, the speaker has solid credentials, it involves knowledge that wouldn’t be easily available elsewhere, and we believe it would be of  interest to a number of PuneTech readers.)

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Startup Saturday Pune: 12 December

Events, ,

What: Startup Saturday Pune featuring a panel discussion and 3 startup pitches
When: Saturday, 12 December, 3pm-5:30pm
Where: Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road. Map: http://bit.ly/VenCen (To reach Venture Center, go past NCL towards Pashan, pass the cricket ground adjacent to NCL and then you’ll find NCL Innovation Park / Venture Center on the right hand side.)
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Register at: http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=11

Details

Click on the logo to see all PuneTech posts about Startup Saturday
Click on the logo to see all PuneTech posts about Startup Saturday

This time there is a little change in the format. The speakers make a short business plan presentation (read elevator pitch), followed by questions, suggestions, feedback and constructive criticism by the advisory panel. Then its open to the audience for a short time. For every startup, we will have one person from the same industry.

For this session the panel includes

  1. Vasu Ramanujam, Director, http://www.entercoms.com
  2. Girish Narasimhan, http://www.cfaw.in
  3. A VC from Bangalore
  4. Rahul Chandawarkar, Freelance Photojournalist
  5. Sunil Nambiar, Managing Director, http://www.indiasoft.co.in

And ventures taking the hot seat are

  1. Gautam Jayaraman http://www.uniken.com talking about TranSafe, a security product for banks
  2. Basant K Gupta http://www.zeusnumerix.com talking about CAD CAM etc.
  3. Kanhaiya Kale from http://www.indictranstech.com

And we have a startup showcase by Riyaaz Sheikh http://www.xtechindia.com talking about SMS platform.

Register at http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=6. Call Sandeep at 98900 42670 or Vishwa at 99236 00353 for more details.

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Pune Rails Meetup – Dec 19

Events, , , , ,

What: Pune Ruby on Rails Meetup
When: Saturday, December 19, 4pm-7pm
Where: ThoughtWorks Technologies, Tower C, Panchshil Tech Park, Yerwada
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Register here.
Event Page: Link

Details

Click on the logo to find all punetech articles about Rails in Pune

Hang out with other Rails geeks in Pune, discuss what’s hot, learn about the bleeding edge and find other like minded people on Rails!

Sessions:

  • Introduction (conducted Session introducing practicioners and their apps on Rails)
  • BlankApplication (Vincent – ThinkDry)
  • my experience at Lone Star Ruby Conference (Gautam, Josh Software)
  • Engine Yard Cloud (Anthony, Sapna)
  • General Open Forum – ask questions to other rails practicioners
  • other spontaneous talks
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Training session on Microsoft Azure

Events, , , ,

What: A full-day event by the Pune (Microsoft Technologies) User Group (PUG) on Windows Azure
When: Sunday, December 13, 10am to 4pm
Where: Venue details will be mailed to registered participants
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all. Register here

Details

Click on the logo to find all punetech articles about Pune Microsoft Technologies User Group Events

The theme of this training is to allow the participants to understand the value proposition of Windows Azure. And hand holding to deploy applications on the Azure platform. All participants will get a certificate of completion.

To be able to understand this session you need to be familiar with the

This event is free, but you need to register: http://www.qsitglobal.com/qsitmailers/november_2009/azure/azure_ugform_nov30.htm

Venue details will be mailed to registered participants.

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Correction: 6 Pune blogs (including http://trak.in the “India Business Blog”) nominated for IndiBloggies

Miscellaneous,

Earlier, we reported that 5 Pune blogs are nominated for the IndiBloggies awards. Unfortunately, due to an oversight, we missed the fact that one of Pune’s most read blogs, Trak.in, is also nominated in the “Best Business IndiBlog” section (#13). Please check that out also.

That brings the total Pune nominations to 6. The full list is:

“Creative Writing by Vikram Karve” in the “Best Humanities IndiBlog” (section #4).

“Without Giving the Movie Away” (aka wogma.com) the Hindi Movie Reviews website by meetu (aka meetumeetu) in the Best Entertainment IndiBlog (section #8).

In the “Best Science and Technology” category (section #11) there are two Pune nominees. Dhananjay Nene’s /var/log/mind about programming and architecture and Brajeshwar, who writes about technology, and programming and linux.

Trak.in by Arun Prabhudesai in the “Best Business IndiBlog” (section #13). Please note that it is listed as “India Business Blog.”

And finally in the “Best New Indi MicroBlog” (i.e. best twitter account) PuneTech is nominated.

The link for voting is: http://multivote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/21900

The IndiBloggies blogger awards, Pune blogs, and visibility… Please vote

Miscellaneous,

Quick summary: The IndiBloggies awards, started by Pune’s Debashish Chakrabarty, are, in spite of flaws, India’s top awards for blogging (and now for twittering). From thousands of submissions 6 Pune blogs have been nominated by a panel of prominent bloggers – which means that these blogs are worth checking out. And, to determine the winners, voting is in progress, so check out the nominees and vote for the ones you liked – the last day for voting is Thursday, 10th December. (Disclaimer: PuneTech is one of the nominees in the ‘Best MicroBlogs’ category & and I’m also connected to wogma.com one of the other nominees.)

Background

The blog world (or the blogosphere), by its very nature, is gloriously disorganized. Thousands, if not millions, of new blogs are born everyday, and probably an equal number fall into disuse. Most blogs are drab and dreary “Dear Diary” types, which are of no interest to anybody other than the author and a few close friends. But even if a very tiny fraction of a percent are good, insightful, informative, interesting blogs, that’s still a very large number of good blogs worth reading. There is everything from deep science, insights into technology, snippets of literary brilliance, and in-depth analysis of current events. It’s better than newspapers – trust me.

While some people enjoy the process of discovering great new blogs, many others would prefer that someone else did the searching for the needle through the haystack. That’s where blogging awards come in. And the most venerable one in India right now is IndiBloggies, started in 2003 by Pune blogger Debashish Chakrabarty. In recent times, they’ve been having trouble – there were no awards in 2007, and the 2008 awards are delayed until the end of 2009. There are other problems – it is a travesty that @sandygautam‘s The Mouse Trap did not get nominated, and instead a blog that is just a bot reposting a feed got nominated. And other glitches. But, almost by nature, all awards have such problems. In my mind the question isn’t whether they managed to find the best or not (although that would be great), but whether they managed to give visibility to good blogs, especially ones that did not have much visibility before. In this department, I think the IndiBloggies still score.

Pune Blogs nominated

“Creative Writing by Vikram Karve” find a nomination in the “Best Humanities IndiBlog” (section #4). Vikram blogs about a wide variety of topics, including a number of short stories. If you’re interested in literary writing, you should check it out. Even otherwise, you might want to check out, since he writes about cooking and technology and various other things.

“Without Giving the Movie Away” (aka wogma.com) the Hindi Movie Reviews website by meetu (aka meetumeetu) is nominated in the Best Entertainment IndiBlog (section #8).

In the “Best Science and Technology” category (section #11) there are two Pune nominees. Dhananjay Nene‘s /var/log/mind about programming and architecture is one of our favorite blogs and has been extensively covered and republished in Pune tech in the past. If you don’t know about it, you’ve not been paying attention. Brajeshwar, who writes about technology, and programming and linux, was until recently a Bombay blogger, but has recently moved to Pune, so now qualifies as a Pune nominee. They reason we’ve never covered anything by him in PuneTech is because he wasn’t in Pune. But check out his blog, its one of the more popular blogs in the tech world in India.

Trak.in is nominated in the “Best Business IndiBlog” (section #13). Please note that it is listed as “India Business Blog.” Trak.in by Arun Prabhudesai is probably Pune’s most read blog with a huge readership of hundreds of thousands from all around the world.

And finally in the “Best New Indi MicroBlog” (i.e. best twitter account) PuneTech is nominated.

(Note: since I am personally connected to both “PuneTech” and “Without Giving the Movie Away” I have refrained from giving my opinions on them.)

Of course, there are a number of non-Pune blogs there which are worth following. You should check them all out. Honorary Punekar Preeti Shenoy (who now lives in UK) is also nominated for Just a Mother of Two. The Ribbon Farm, by @vgr, is a must read if you’re into technology or business.

Vote

The final winners are going to be decided by a democratic poll over the internet. The url for voting is here: http://multivote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/21900

Check out the blogs, and vote. Most bloggers (at least most of those in the nominees list) are writing because they’re passionate about the subject. They get little or no tangible rewards other than appreciation of readers. And recognition in the form of nominations and awards helps keep them motivated. And, of course, the visibility results in increased readership, which is a good thing for both the readers as well as the bloggers. They don’t have any marketing budgets and don’t have ads on TV, but often their content is better than the rediffs of the world. Give visibility to deserving blogs – Vote.

IEEE Innovation Symposium: Engineering Pune’s future via Education, Employability, Entrepreneurship, and Environment: 5 Dec

Events, , ,

What: IEEE Pune subsection presents an Innovation Symposium with a Panel discussion & an open house on “Innovation: A perspective for engineering Pune’s future via Education, Employability, Entrepreneurship and Environment
When: Saturday, 5th December, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Where: Hotel Deccan Rendezvous, Apte Road, Shivajinagar
Registration and Fees: Rs. 250 per person (includes lunch). To register send mail to ieee125.pune.symposium@gmail.com

Click the logo For all PuneTech articles about IEEE Pune
Click the logo For all PuneTech articles about IEEE Pune

Details

The session aims to bring together people from academia, industry and the NGO fraternity to share their perspectives. The whole day is spread over 4 sessions on each topic viz. education, employability, entrepreneurship and environment.

The panelists are Padmashree Dr.Vijay Bhatkar – Scientist & Fellow of IEEE, Mr. R G Deshpande – MD, Vishay components, Dr. Anupam Bhide – President and CEO, Calsoft Inc., and Dr. Anand Karve – President ARTI. The Sessions are an hour each. First half an hour will be for views sharing by each speaker and the next half hour will be for open house discussion.

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Pune’s SMSONE gets techcrunched: Mirco-local news to make Silicon Valley Jealous

Featured, News,

Pune-based company SMSONE (see previous PuneTech coverage) has just been covered by TechCrunch, one of the most influential and widely read tech blogs in the world (as a result of an introduction by PuneTech).

Sarah Lacy, editor-at-large at TechCrunch was in India for about a month in November, and she was in Pune for a day, hosted by Abinash Tripathy. During her Pune visit, PuneTech introduced her to a bunch of local companies, and SMSONE was one of them.

Excerpts from her article:

But every once in a while I find a company that hits the trifecta: It’s addressing a big problem locally, it’s something I don’t think is offered in the US, and…. I want it. And when a product in undeveloped, chaotic, messy India can make someone in Silicon Valley feel jealous, you know that entrepreneur has come up with something good.

I’m talking about SMSONE Media, a company I met in Pune about a week ago. Like most of the impressive companies I saw in India, it’s aimed squarely at the base of the pyramid and is using basic SMS to deliver services to people some of India’s most unconnected areas. It was started by Ravi Ghate, who proudly points out that none of his core team graduated from high school, much less attended an IIT or IIM. (Typically not something you brag about in India.)

Later, the article quotes Ravi Ghate, CEO of SMSONE, on their future plans:

Right now Ghate’s operation is in 400 communities, reaching roughly 400,000 readers. He just got an investment from the government of Bangalore to boost that reach to five million readers in the next four months.

Ghate is clear that the money will be used strictly to reach more people. The company already breaks even and Ghate makes enough to pay his basic living expenses. He doesn’t care about fancy cars or clothes. It wasn’t too long ago that he was one of those disadvantaged kids, selling flags and berries on the side of the road and being told to go away. He still regularly travels between villages by bus and stays in $5/a night hotels

FYI: There’s one detail that her article gets wrong. The article says:

The economics work out like this: Out of a 1000 rupee ad sale, 300 of it goes to the reporter, and Ghate pays him an additional 50 rupees for each news story. That adds up to a nice income for a village kid

Actually, of the Rs. 1000 that an ad earns, Rs. 300 is kept by SMSONE and the rest goes to the reporter. But other than this inaccuracy, the article does a great job of capturing the essence of SMSONE.

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