Pawan Kujur

While the positive growth of entrepreneurial environment has led Indian youth to join or set startups, the recent recession too has fostered the same The current market scenario has given a new level of confidence to the younger generation which is reflecting in business school graduates who are taking substantial amount of risks in a much planned way. Add to that the success stories of entrepreneurs across various sectors too which has encouraged and challenged business school graduates to start something of their own. Reasons galore… “Entrepreneurial trend gives people an option to do something of their own, create employment, generate revenue for country and society which is actually good especially in a downturn," - Jaya Joshi, PRO, IITMumbai Reasoning this trend, Laura Parkin, executive director, NEN says,“Now, since there isn’t as much job security attached to big firms, people have become more open to the idea of working in or running start-ups.” Murari P, recruitment coord...

You might have missed this school tucked away in the bylanes of Ranchi town if it wasn’t for the crowd that gathers outside it these days. Come poll season and Ranchi’s unique Netagiri Vidyalaya is buzzing with aspirants who want to brush up on politics. The school, which claims to groom youngsters to become future leaders of tomorrow, says enrollment has shot up from just 10 students to a sizeable 200 following the announcement of poll dates. Brainchild of 50-year-old Raj Ranjan, brother of former Congress leader Gyan Ranjan, the school was set up in 2001. When he was general secretary of the Bihar Congress, Ranjan said he realised how poorly qualified politicians were in comparison to other professionals and bureaucrats. That is when the idea of the school was born. The course covers the basics of political science, economics, social psychology as well as leadership and organisational skills. ‘‘The candidate seeking admission needn’t be very highly educated but should be able to comm...

I have joined MindTree Limited today as a Senior Associate in Knowledge Management team. It was a amazing day today, I met Ashok Soota and Subrato Bagchi personally. Today was the MindTree's Annual Awards day and KM team was awarded the best enabling team for the year 2008-2009. New MindTree minds joined on 2nd February 2009.

New Year 2009

2008 was a pretty monumental year both personally and professionally. In addition to becoming a first-time dad and purchasing a car, I have learned a lot from life. And in this very last day of the year, I am thankful to all who has helped me to make this year as a great year for me. A special thanks to my parent and my wife, who have always supported me. In year 2009, I am looking forward to achieve more success and create a milestone for my life.

Happy birthday to you, The number of candles you blew, And the number a years that flew All the strength that you drew And the happiness you knew All the old things and new The love you found so true The dreams you did pursue Coffee and chocolate fondue The white hue and morning dew All these makes you get through Thirty two years in the que Happy birthday to you

Obama’s team has launched a new website change.gov which would document and inform people on the agenda items and ask people for their feedback and ideas on how to run the country (or at least some aspects of it). It has a blog with videos and you could even apply for a job. The transparency of his team and campaign is just absolutely astonishing. He is open with his ideas and even more open to idea contribution from people in general. If what he is doing is well harnessed then he would be able to achieve the wisdom of crowds . Its probably the first time idea collaboration for political reasons at a large scale. He is surely a very technological forward president and he has been doing all the right things to tap into this source of information, knowledge and people power. It would be interesting to see what will happen and change once he steps into office in January.

Many times I think sitting in my office cubicle, "Is this life for me?". Having a high end desktop and a phone to do my job, Is this the only job for me in my life? Sometimes yes, because I have been trained to do this kind of job, Sometimes no when I think about my dream to have my independent business. When I was exploring the TATA NEN site, I came across different types of successful ideas, which seems to be very silly at the first sight. http://www.hotteststartups.in/coolestStartupHome.do?method=fetch&businessFn=homePageRecentNominations

Deccan Chronicle, Los Angeles, October 30, 2008 Looking for growth in new markets where it is increasingly being bypassed, Microsoft said this week that late next year it would begin offering a new "cloud" operating system that would manage the relationship between software inside the computer and on the Web, where data and services are becoming increasingly centralised. The company needs a new kind of operating system for a new computing world populated not by a single style of desktop computer, but by dozens of different kinds of Internet-connected appliances ranging from smartphones to mini-laptops called netbooks. More of those devices use programmes that reside on a remote servers rather than on the device itself. The servers, in the so-called cloud, deliver what are called Web services, which can be anything from customer relationship software or a Facebook game. Microsoft is a late entrant into a market that is crowded by a range of players offering every flavour of cl...

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the e-mail straight through, and you'll get the point. 1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Contest. 4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress. 6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners. How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. They are not second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields.. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one: 1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through sch...

The Financial Express - October 20, 2008 It is increasingly clear that the impact of the financial sector crisis in the US is spilling into the real economy and it is not unreasonable to forecast a longish recession in the US, given the severity of the meltdown. The impact of a protracted slowdown in the US will be felt abroad as well especially by its major trading partners. India will certainly be affected—the US is one of our major trade and investment partners. Also, unlike the slowdown, which followed the burst dotcom bubble that only impacted the technology sector, the impact of the present economic downturn would be felt across a wide range of sectors including IT, gems and jewellery and other merchandise exports. Any slowdown in the US hits Indian IT badly—60% of India’s exports of IT/ITES are to the US. And around 60% of the companies operating in the IT/ITES sector have been working for American financial corporations like Goldman Sachs, Washington Mutual, Citigroup, Bank of ...

Date: 16.09.08 Venue: Good Shepherd Auditorium, Bangalore

My HCL office at Electronic City, Bangalore.

Google’s new browser, Chrome, is named for something it mostly lacks. Among software developers, chrome refers to the menus, buttons and boxes that surround the main window of a program. The Google browser, which was unveiled Tuesday, dispenses with most of these in favor of a stripped-down look that is in keeping with the spare aesthetic of the company’s search site. The clever name sets a more understated tone than those of the browsers Chrome will compete with: Explorer, Safari and Firefox. But in a roundabout way it also hints that the most ambitious elements of the browser are invisible. Chrome sharpens Google’s already intense competition with Microsoft, the maker of Internet Explorer, by far the most popular browser on the Web. Google hopes that Chrome will loosen Microsoft’s grip on the browser market, which it fears Microsoft could leverage to promote its struggling search and advertising business at the expense of Google’s. But Google also said Chrome was created in large par...

The solar eclipse that takes place on August 1, 2008 will be a total eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 1.039 that will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern Canada (Nunavut), Greenland, central Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, western Mongolia, China and India. It belongs to the so-called midnight sun eclipses, as it will be visible from regions experiencing midnight sun. In Siberia, the total eclipse zone will pass through populated places, including the "capital of Siberia" Novosibirsk, and the cities of Nizhnevartovsk, Barnaul and Biysk. Greatest eclipse duration will be reached near the town of Nadym in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Northern Siberia. A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including eastern North America and most of Europe and Asia.

Bangalore Habba from 3rd December to 10th December 2006

Google has announced a $1.65 billion stock deal to buy hot young video-sharing website YouTube. “The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google’s mission to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement. YouTube soared to online popularity after its launch in February 2005. The com p a ny cl a i m s t h at m o re than 100 million v i d e o s a re watched daily by visitors to the f re e website, wh i ch features content provided by users. YouTube would continue to operate independently with its headquarters in San Bruno, California, after the acquisition is complete, according to Google. All of YouTube’s 65 employees were to remain with the company. In unofficial Silicon Valley tradition, YouTube was launched on its meteoric rise from a garage. It announced a first round of funding of $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital in November of last ...