Clickd Inaugural Edition

8/6/2019 Clickd Inaugural Edition

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2/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e

The March of TechnologyThe Editors

The march goes on. The studying of natural

phenomena through inquiry and

experiments, their re-application and

blending to create new things and ideas, the

whole scientific method that started duringthe Renaissance era has greatly improved the

human condition. If we look at history we find

that technological progress, invention,

creation have been the dominant recipes of

successful growing civilizations whether it be

ancient Greece, post-AD India, the early

Islamic rule, Renaissance Europe or 20th

century USA. The heartening thing is, almost

all cultures and nations today realize the

benefits that technological progress brings,

and that has made it a global phenomenon.

We called it a march. But it is also a drumbeat

which keeps getting louder. A point comes

when the drumbeat cannot be ignored. As we

all know, established businesses have a

tendency to stick with what works, for their

motive is to make money and not take undue

risks. New technology, which attempts to

change the structure of an industry and to

upset the titans, has normally been the

preserve of startups and entrants, which the

titans tend to either ignore or only grudgingly

accept. But that keeps on getting everdifficult. Whole industries which didn't listen

to the drumbeat and changed accordingly are

getting upended. How many people do we

know who buy music on CDs and cassettes

nowadays? How many use fixed line phones?

Last year the eBook industry registered

larger sales than physical books, a trend

which won't get reversed. Currently, the

upheavals and the casualties are still confined

to information processing industries. For its

true that products cannot be atomized like

information into bits and sent across at zerocost. But those who take comfort in this fact

will do well to understand that know-how

related to manufacturing products can indeed

be passed along, and then it is an open game.

If you are still skeptical, consider the growth

of firms in high technology industries in Asian

countries, who kept working their way up by

manufacturing inexpensive products for the

West and kept on acquiring technological

knowledge to finally emerge as global players.

But all this talk of civilizations and businesses

tends to distract us from the larger issue thatwe fleetingly touched in the beginning, the

improvement of our collective condition. Why

only technology, you may ask. Aren't there

economic and political solutions? Or instead

of getting into the abstruse workings of

nature, can't we just have social harmony and

care for each other? Economics and politics

are concerned about allocation of that which

already exists, the sharing of a fixed pie. If

some get more, some have to do with less.

Social harmony is of course desirable, but

that alone does not guard us against thescarcities and natural disasters that we face.

Caring about each other is one of the noblest

human traits, but it also implies that there are

problems which lead to the necessity of

caring. Why not attack these problems

themselves? Technology alone comes across

as the win-win solution. It gives us

permanent capabilities, improves

productivity, helps do more things with less

and gives us control over our environment.

To get a perspective of what happens to a

society which does not invest in technology,consider the Roman Empire. The ancient

Romans were practical, assertive, hedonistic

people who loved democracy and went about

their businesses, earning what they could,

spending on pleasures, with little patience for

mathematics, science, invention, etc. which

the Greeks before them had delighted in.

When Rome felt the need for more resources,

it would battle and acquire foreign territory.

With little change in productivity, finally

resources proved inadequate to the needs of

the empire, and it went into a gradual decline,never to rise again.

As discussed, these are heady times to be

thinking about technology, given the huge

activity taking place. So we are really

delighted that the IIMs, recognizing the

importance of technology to society, have

come together for the first PAN-IIM

Technology magazine, going by the name

ClickD. We asked Subroto Bagchi, co-founder

EDITORIAL


3/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e

of Mindtree and a great thought leader, to

provide the inaugural cover article for Clickd

and set the tone for this whole initiative.

Pushpanath Krishnamurthy (affectionately

called Push), a great climate change

campaigner, and his colleague Viva Kermani

provided us some great perspectives ontechnological issues and other concerns

related to climate change.

We had also given a call for articles to

students across B-schools, and got a response

exceeding even our crazy optimistic

expectations. We enjoyed reading the articles

for they all talked about different things.

Some discussed about future products, some

about technology in finance, some about

outsourcing, some outlined the strategies that

technology companies follow or shouldfollow. Still, after a lot of discussion and

debate, we decided to pick 3 articles, and we

heartily congratulate the authors. The first

analyses Google's entire business strategy

and how it has been a phenomenal success,

the second talks about some of the mobile

technologies that are going to rock the future,

and the third is an interesting application of

swarm intelligence in embedded systems.

Apart from that, we received manycontributions from enthusiasts, which spoilt

us for choice.

We raise a call for articles for the next issue,

and we want our readers to go berserk and

send technological perspectives from all

fields, whether it be aeronautics, deep ocean

photography, microfluidics, genetics,

whatever one fancies about. The more niche

and unusual, the better. Articles on

fundamental research and science-fiction like

imagination hold a special place in our heartsand will be especially considered. Enjoy

reading and writing about technology.

The Editorial Team (Mail any queries and feedback to [email protected])

Chief Editor

Kalpesh Muchhal

Editorial Board

Bharadwaj Srivatsan

Varun Sharma

Creative Head

Ginvanglian

Content Review Team

Syed Hussain

Kanwar Rajan Singh

Neelabh Singh

Abakash Saikia

Advisory Board

Avinash Parhi

Alok Kumar Jain

Technical HeadDinesh Gadge

Editors Clickd


4/33 I n a u g u r a l I s s u e

Setting the tone

A Short Talk with Mr. Bagchi.....1Subroto Bagchi, Co-founder and Chief Gardener of Mindtree, shares his perspectives on technology,

innovation and what enables them.

Brilliant StrategyGoogle New Offering Framework......3The firm has released many path-breaking products, many of them free. Is it just good at heart, or a shrewd business too?

Drool

Mobile Technologies of the Future...5Caution. The article will make you crave for gadgets and technologies which arent really available or affordable yet. Life will

turn really miserable waiting to get your hands on them.

Imminence

The Coming Age of 3D.. .....73D games, 3D movies, 3D everything. Feel the coming of technoutopia as you read this. Learn how the technology works.

Special Feature

Meet the Pilgrim who walked to Copenhagen.....10Puspanath Krishnamurthy or Push, a renowned climate campaigner, and his colleague Viva Kermanidiscussing on the various facets of climate change.

Geekitude

Swarm Optimization in Embedded Systems.......15Swarms, consisting of simple agents like ants and bees, carry out highly complicated tasks. Here we apply them to optimize the

performance of embedded systems.

Technology for Society

Getting the most out of AADHAR.....18The government has started rolling out the AADHAR project. But how do we use it? Here the author categorizes and discusses

11 important applications.

Practical Advice

Challenges in Software Project Management....22Projects fail a lot, and many deadlines get extended. Much of this trouble can be avoided, by some simple fundae. Easier said

than done, but still needs to be said.

Techno Gyan

The Definitive Guide to Web Browsers.... 23So many browsers, so much confusion. Our in-house expert cuts through the clutter and tells you everything you need to know.

Parting Shot

P vs. NP and the Limits to Computing..........26A proof still remains elusive. The question itself, emerging from the throes of computational complexity theory, has

implications for all of society.

IN THIS EDITION


5/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1

A Short Talk with Mr. Bagchi

What do you feel is a technologists or an

innovators role in society as opposed to say

an economist, politician or an artist? Whatis the importance of innovation?

The term technologist can mean anything.An innovator may or may not be atechnologist and most technologists are notinnovators. An innovators role is to question

status quo, to not lecture about it like apolitician, but be an engaged catalyst; so the

innovator not only questions but producesthe possibility of a changed, higher state. Aneconomist is usually a sense maker of eventspast but people like Mohammad Yunus provethat an economist, when involved, can also bean innovator. Innovators and artists havesomething in common; the urge to create. Anartist may not always care about adoption. Aninnovator does. The importance of innovationis in solving real problems in every walk oflife; in everyday life. Without innovation, wewould be held hostage to incumbency andeventually, perish.

Prof. Govindarajan in his recent book talksabout how companies while toutinginnovation are actually built for efficiency,rather than to innovate. How big ideas are generated, but rarely implemented. Howthe organizational structure and performance measures do not incentivize

innovation. What are your perspectives onthis issue?

Vijay is very right. Organizations do notinnovate. People do. Organizations are madeup of salaried people. Most of them build anengineering-led approach to life. They seek

efficiency and not novelty. They are mostlyleft-brainers. Innovation comes fromamygdalic people, not people who look at lifethrough equations, not people who see theworld as cause and effect.

Managers have been mostly enablers intheir organizations, when it comes toinnovation. Can they and should they take amore active role?

The word manager castrates the power toinnovate. The term says it all: manage; forheavens sake, manage and manage some

more, and manage more efficiently. Themanager is therefore, all Bramha - sansVishnu and Siva. The terms manage and in

some sense management are mindless and

originated in the factory-economy; they fallshort of what the world needs today. We needa new set of terminologies to begin with andnew mindfulness. Expecting the so-calledmanager to innovate is like seeking affection

from someone who has never experiencedaffection. That may sound dramatic but if youlook under the hood, you would see that theaverage manager was bred as a left-brainthinker and suddenly we call him and ask himto take an active role; it cant happen like that.

You cannot deliver when you are notpregnant, and spasms are necessary but notsufficient conditions to deliver a child.

Considering a broader issue, do you thinkB-schools in India groom leaders andvisionaries or do they just create managers.Do they encourage radical thinking when itcomes to solving big problems throughtechnology? Do you think that is too muchto ask of a B-school education? Can suchskills be taught?

I think B-Schools in India are looking at theuniverse in a present forward manner, not in

SETTING THE TONE: COVER STORY



a future backward manner. They are largely

focussed on efficiency and not creativity,continuance and not disruption, job seekingand not entrepreneurship. While innovationmay even have a genetic factor behind it butbuilding the innovation eco-system is a

systemic possibility. At least that part can beexplained, taught, understood and the resultscan be dramatic.

Developing countries like China and Indiaare always keen on technology transfer from the developed ones, which the latterare naturally loath to. What are thechallenges to developing the requiredtechnologies indigenously?

We must get out of this indigenous versusimported mindset. If you study the nature ofinnovation, the nuances of societies thatbreed innovation, you would understand thatit is not about policy and control; it is aboutaspiration, long view of time, celebration ofdiversity, the right education system andopenness as a basic value.

We read that at one point in your life, youwere considering becoming a civil servant.Can you try recreating such an alternate

life if you had become one? How has therole of a civil servant changed since then?

When I started my work life, becoming agovernment servant was the thing to do.Almost all my friends in college, and certainlythe best amongst them, became governmentservants. It was an option for me as well,particularly because I come from a

government servants family. But somehow, itdid not happen. I did not choose that path. Iam happy I did not. I would not trade my pastfor anything because I have created my ownpath, I deserved all the ups and downs andruminating on what else I could be is really afutile exercise. As an individual, I seldomthink of the past.

How has the civil service changed? It is barelyrecognizable from what it was when we were

ready for it. Society itself has dramaticallychanged; so has governance and as a result,the civil service. But I am not a part of it andwouldnt be the right person to make a

comment.

What differences do you find in firstgeneration entrepreneurs nowadays vis--vis yourself/your pals when you foundedMindTree?

You make me sound archaic and ancient.

Have a heart; MindTree is only 11-years old.We are now-a-days.



Google New Offering Framework

By Sajith Shetty

There are about 50 major products which arecurrently supported by Google. Have you everwondered about the strategy behind theplethora of products released by Google? Howdo the products relate to Googles corporate

vision and business model? This articleproposes a framework which capturesGoogles product strategy. The framework

argues that four underlying themes - Mass Appeal, Information Channels, ProcessInformation and Integration form the basis forall of Googles products.

Where is the money?

Google is the worlds largest ad-driven mediacompany. A vast majority of its revenue (97%

in 2009) comes from online advertising(Google Investors, 2010). One of the subsegments under online advertising is PaidSearch, which is accomplished by Googlestwo advertising products AdSense andAdWords. The other sub segment is OnlineDisplay Ads, which consists of graphical adsembedded into web pages (Wikinvest Google,2010).

Clearly, advertising is Googles core business.So what is the strategy behind all the free

products like Gmail, Gtalk, which Googleoffers on web? It has to be related to Googles

business model i.e. advertising. Using this asthe strategic intent, when Googles portfolio

of products is studied, four prominent themesappear. These four themes capture the linkbetween advertising (core business) and newproduct offering (product strategy).

Fig: Google new product offering framework

Mass Appeal

A key strategy for Google is that its productsare available and used by as many people aspossible. A simple reason is that more thepeople use Googles products to accessinformation, more the customers that can betargeted for advertising by Google. Hencemost of Googles products do not target any

niche segments. The products are meant to beused by all netizens.

Now in order to diffuse mass products Googleobserves two simple product aspects. The

first is that the product should be simple touse. To quote Albert Einstein - "Makeeverything as simple as possible, but notsimpler." Gmail, GTalk, Google Search areexcellent examples of simple to use products.This makes the products usable to even themost nave users of the internet. The secondproduct aspect is that the product has highrelative advantage to boast. This again helpsto diffuse the product and to capture marketshare. For example, Gmail, an e-mail service,was launched with 2GB free space. This was

simply unbelievable at the time, since existinge-mail providers were either charging moneyfor extra storage or gave miniscule storagespace. Chrome, Googles browser, is anothersuch example.

Information channel

One of Googles business strategies is to coverall possible information channels. Google

Mass AppealInformation

Channel

Process

InformationIntegration

Advertising

BRILLIANT STRATEGY



would like anyone accessing information togo through at least one of Googles products.This again ties up to Googles advertising

business by increasing the share of targetsegment. Internet is of course the primarychannel for information exchange and Google

has captured almost all the possible platformson it. Gmail covers the mail platform, Gtalkcovers the chat platform, Chrome covers thebrowser segment, BlogSpot covers theblogging space, Buzz covers Twitter kind ofplatforms, Orkut covers the social networkingspace, Google News covers the new segment,YouTube covers streaming content, etc. Inconclusion, Google would like to come upwith products which try to include anuntouched information channel. This isevident from the launch of Android OS toinclude the mobile channel, and the plannedintroduction of Google TV to finally get accessto one of the most diffused informationchannels the TV.

Process information

It is very important that a Google productshould be able to process and store userinformation. One key differentiator inGoogles advertising business is context-based advertising. Google uses information

collected from users to provide ads relevantto the context. For example, while reading anemail in Gmail, if the content of the email hasto do with MBA, Gmail will displayadvertising related to admissions in MBAcolleges. To judge the ethical impact of suchan act is out of the scope of this article. Whatthis article wants to stress here is thatcollecting and processing user information isan important competitive advantage forGoogle. So all of Googles products aredesigned to both access and process

information from users.

Integration

The last recurring theme observed isintegration among Googles products. There is

a conscious effort by the firm to integrate itsdifferent products. For example if you open a

word attachment in Gmail, it opens by defaultin Google Docs. Similarly, if you receive a mailin foreign language or if you open a website inGoogle Chrome which is in a foreign language,Google Translate automatically kicks in andasks whether you would like to translate themail or the page. Integration accomplishestwo things - first it introduces a potential userto a new Google product, second it makessure that users stay within the Googleproduct portfolio for all their needs. Henceintegration across products is another theme

in Googles product strategy.

Conclusion

Googles mission is to organize the worlds

information and make it universallyaccessible and useful (Google Corporate,

2010). After reading this paper, you canclearly identify how this mission meetsGoogles core business of advertising. Everytime an individual tries to access information,Google wants the individual to use a Google

product. This in turn fuels more contextbased ads. Hence, Googles mission of makinginformation accessible acts as a driver for itsgrowth. Currently Google is one of the mainplayers in the information channel that is theInternet. It has already made inroads into themobile channel with Nexus and Android. Ithas to be seen how Google will fare in thegrandest information channel of all, the TV.

Sajith Shetty is a 2ndyear PGSEM student atIIM Bangalore. He holds a Bachelors degree in

Computer Science from National Institute ofTechnology Karnataka, Surathkal. He workswith Manhattan Associates as a Senior Analystand can be reached at [email protected]



Mobile Technologies of the Future

By Dhivakar Thiruvalan R

Simple communication devices of yesteryearhave rapidly evolved into all-encompassingmobile work stations, highlighting thestunning advances in mobile phonetechnology. Mobile handset industry is the

most dynamic among the tech industries,with a new model or technology beingintroduced almost every month. Industrypioneers like Apple and Nokia are trying towoo customers with their cutting edgetechnology and innovation. When Appleintroduced multi-touch features in its iPhone,it took the world by storm and revolutionizedmobile phones, especially the smart phonesmarket, and catapulted Apple into the top 5global manufacturers, starting from nowhere.So what could be the next big thing in mobilephones? Lets look at some of the upcomingtechnologies that have the potential torevolutionize the way weuse mobile phones in thefuture.

AMOLED

An abbreviation forActive Matrix OrganicLight Emitting Diode, thisdisplay technology is

touted as the next bigthing in mobile phonesand television. It hasseveral advantagesincluding low cost, ability to be fabricated onmultiple surfaces, better viewing angles,increased brightness, faster response timesand efficient energy usage. Companies likeSamsung, Nokia and Sony have startedinvesting in this technology with Samsungcurrently holding 98% of the worlds

AMOLED market. The flexibility of AMOLED

has also led to the development of roll-updisplays as demonstrated by Sony recently.

NFC (Near Field Communication)

A simple extension of existing RFIDtechnology used in smart cards to mobilephones, this is a short range communicationtechnology that would enable their use as

credit cards, smartposters and electronickeys. This aims tointroduce the concept ofmobile wallet that

would booste-commerce and helpintegrate various devices into the mobilephone in the future. Research forecastsindicate that one in six mobile users will havea NFC phone by 2014.4G Network Successor to 3G and 3.5Gnetworks, 4G promises internet access and ahost of other multimedia services at ultra-high speeds. Countries like United States,United Kingdom, South Korea and Canada

have already started building infrastructure,aiming to roll out 4G services by the end of2010 and mobile phone makers like HTC andApple have started manufacturing 4G enabledphones.

3D display

With the advent of 3Dtelevisions on a massscale, 3D mobilephones have not

lagged behind andindustry leader Nokiahas already developeda prototype 3D mobile phone, N810. Thisdevice doesnt require special viewing glasses

and runs on proprietary software. With theincreasing development of 3D multimediacontent, such devices could gain a hugemarket share in the future.

Solar powered devices

Increasing awarenessabout global warmingand the need toprovide connectivityto rural householdswithout electricityhave led companies todevelop energy efficient mobile phones.Vodafone recently launched a solar poweredmobile phone in India that costs just Rs. 1500.

DROOL



Other companies like Samsung have followedsuit and have introduced similar devices,specifically targeting Asian and Africanmarkets. This could provide a huge boost torural connectivity and lead to development ofmore energy efficient phones in the future.

Eye controlled interface In an effort tomake mobile phones savvier and moresophisticated, Japanese operator NTTDoCoMo has built a prototype device thatcould be controlled by the movement of oureyes. Simple operations likemaking/receiving calls, playing and pausingmusic can be done just by moving our eyes tothe right or left. This could very well be thepredecessor to increased natural-gesture

interfaces and a whole new way tooperate/control mobile phones in the future.

Dhivakar Thiruvalan R is a 2nd year PGPstudent at IIM Ahmedabad. A member ofGenesys-the Systems and Technology Club of

IIM-A, he holds a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering from MadrasInstitute of Technology (MIT). He worked withInfosys technologies as a software engineer for3 years and can be reached [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]



The Coming Age of 3D

By Master Rohit

Remember the days when one used to getred-green glasses when one purchased 3Dissues of Diamond Comics. That technologyhas evolved at warp speed and the future of

3D entertainment has just arrived. Movies,Multiplexes, Console games, TVs, Cameras,Computers, Mobile phones, name anythingvisual, 3D is increasingly becoming a hygienefactor these days.

The end of the last decade has seen atremendous growth in 3-dimensional (3D)display technology. 3D content is gainingpopularity over normal visuals and this inturn is driving the evolution. Most of themainstream technology products are nowshifting towards it. One of the biggestmilestones was the release of the filmAvatar by James Cameron which grossed

over $2.7 Billion in the box office. There was aflurry of 3D movies that released over thepast 2 years and the trend is that one out ofevery five heavy budget movies released isgoing to be in the 3D format. Hollywoodstudios increased their production of 3Dmovies in 2009 by 150%, to a total of 20, andover 50 were planned for release in 2010.The marginal cost of implementing 3D is a lotless than it was for HD, and 3D cinema iscreating a 'halo' effect helping drive adoptionof 3D related products in general, which isprojected to be worth more than $17 Bn by2014, according to a new report from marketresearch firm Generator Research. All themajor hardware players, Samsung, Panasonic,Sony, and LG introduced models whichsupport 3D quite some time back, rangingfrom 32 inch to a gigantic 152 inch costingaround INR 4 Crores. Along with these is the3D console market for video games which is

expected to be around $11.3 Billion at the endof 2010, which includes the Xbox 360, SonyPS3 and Nintendo Wii. Apart from this thereis a considerable growth in 3D devices in thedigital camera segment, the laptop segmentand the latest craze, the tablet PC segment.

However 3D capabilities are not just used forentertainment; they have a lot of industrialuses too. 3D has also been long used by

professionals for applications whereinformation can most usefully be analyzed ormanipulated in three dimensions. Seeing theirwork in 3D can be helpful to a car designerexperimenting with a new style or a scientistsearching for oil and gas in complex layers ofseismic data. Semiconductor industrydevelopments will drive 3D Chip technologyto new heights. Systems design,implementation and usage are other areaswhere this is of immense use. Movies andother parts of the entertainment industry canmake many applications out of this.Interactive education (e.g. showing things likedissecting frogs without actually killing afrog) is another possibility. Gaming is

another. Educational content e.g. the study ofthe universe, of the human body, of objectsand shapes in the mathematical field (e.g.geometry) can all be made more interactiveand believable with this technology. Medicalsurgical procedures, civil structure designsand simulations, all become easier. In thefield of media, photography-relatedapplications could get a huge fillip. CAD CAMapplications will soar to new heights. In theprofessional sector, 3D is already a valuabletool for industries such as oil and gas,

automotive and medical imaging and weexpect that these will continue to grow as thetechnology becomes more accessible" saysNishant Goyal, Head of Sales, South Asia,Nvidia.

The technology behind 3D

3D imaging uses the fact that humans seethings with two eyes that are set slightlyapart, to reproduce a sense of depth inaddition to horizontal and verticalinformation. There are primarily three types

of technologies used behind 3D. The first oneis the oldest, using polarized glasses. Thesecond one uses active shutter technologywhich has been pushed by technology majorNvidia for its gaming and PC display systems.The third one has the most potential and willsee immense activity in the future, 3Dwithout glasses. The likes of the third hasbeen used by Nintendo 3DS handheldconsole, the upcoming Apple gadget and even

IMMINENCE



in mobile phones (Spice 3D). With these smallgadgets displaying so much potential forglasses free 3D, televisions wont be farbehind. The following diagrams show thethree systems in depth.

Polarized Glasses

Polarizing filters only allow light whichoscillates in specific ways to pass through. On

a polarizing TV, both perspectives aredisplayed simultaneously as a series of

alternating vertical bands, with each setsitting below same-width bands of one of twodifferently polarizing filters. The two lensesin the 3D glasses use corresponding filters, sothey only let light from one set of bands topass through. As a result, each perspectivecan only be seen through its correspondinglens.

Active shutter glasses

This technology works by wirelessly

synchronizing the image on screen with thelenses of a pair of battery-powered glasses.The different perspectives replace oneanother on the TV every 120th of a second,and LCD blockers in the glasses lenses flicker

on and off alternately at the same rate. Each

eye is therefore only able to see one of theperspectives. The flickering is so fast, its

imperceptible without the glasses on, thetwo perspectives appear overlaid.

Auto-stereoscopic (glasses free)

As with polarizing, both perspectives are

displayed on screen in vertical, alternatingbands. The lenticular overlay consists ofvertical prismatic strips that direct the lightfrom these bands in one of two directions:either towards the right eye, or the left. Inaddition, a parallax barrier (a layer ofmaterial covered in tiny vertical slits)prevents the left eye seeing the rights bands,

and vice versa. Nintendos 3DS and FujifilmsW3 3D camera use this technology.

Lagging Adoption

Though the technology exists, there is still alot of volatility in the market as to what willbe the future standards of 3D content anddisplay. One has to deliver 3D content in theform of DVDs, which is an added cost. Inaddition to this 3D glasses cost extra and onealso has to have Blue Ray 3D players orproper interface with a computer to watch.While this might be enjoyed individually, this



becomes the biggest drawback when a groupof people are watching content at home. Mostof the brands are very eager to introducetheir own 3D capable TV sets. High prices andcontradictory views from analysts andmanufacturers indicate a confused future for

3D technology in India.

The major key challenge for marketers is toget 3D hardware into homes as sales dependon how brands can get people excited aboutbuying new equipment at premium prices.But the current consumer is quite satisfiedwith the quality shift to HD recently and maynot prefer a sudden change again. In themeantime it means that it is a boon formultiplexes which are gaining huge footfallsdue to this technology.

Nvidia, one of the leading graphic cardchipmakers, has also joined the bandwagon toposition 3D within the reach of technologyenthusiasts and has collaborated with suchleading consumer technology brands as Acer,Alienware, Asus, BenQ, Dell, Fuji, HCL,Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and ViewSonic. Wesee that the opportunity for 3D is immensebut the support is lagging.

Promising Future

According to Deloitte analysts, 3D may just bethe next trend over the coming years if thepricing is right and content availability picksup. 3D games are popular on LCD TV and thiscould be an important aspect of entry and

growth of newer technologies in 3D TV.However, the pricing will define the successor stagnation of this technology. Last year U.S.consumers were expected to purchase a mereone million 3D TV sets. But by 2013, 4.3million or 25% of all televisions and nearly

50% of HDTVs sold in the U.S. shouldinclude the new technology. Companies thatcreate and deliver content like Disney,DreamWorks and DirecTV will all take a bigshare of the revenue pie, but televisionmakers are set to make the most from thenew technology. And of that group, Sonycould easily come out on top since its bettingso big on 3D as the future. With every sphereof technology going into 3D, there is going tobe a convergence of all platforms, frommovies and entertainment, gaming, portabledevices and communication systems. FromVirtual Reality to Augmented reality, all willbecome a part of our lives and it will berefined continuously. In fact, taking 3D onestep further, the concept of 4D is alreadybeing tested out and a number of otherinteractive and mind-boggling innovationsare brought out every day. The best way toenjoy the 3D evolution is to just go with theflow.

Rohit is a 2nd year student at IIM Bangalore.He is a tech geek and a marketing freak. Heinterned with Samsonite in a marketing role.He can be reached at [email protected]


14/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 0

Meet the Pilgrim who walked to Copenhagen

Pushpanath Krishnamurthy, or Push as he is better known, is a climate campaigner, who isrenowned as the man who walked from Oxford to Copenhagen on foot to highlight thedisproportionate effect of climate change on developing countries. He works for Oxfam UK and iscurrently in Bangalore researching on the impact of business on society.Viva Kermani is Director (Finance) of Centre for Social Markets (CSM) (www.csmworld.org), aprominent non-profit looking to make markets work for the triple bottom line people, planet andprofit. She is currently based in Bangalore.

Both kindly agreed to share their perspectives on the issue, which led to this special feature.

Where is the worst impact of climate

change being seen?

Push: You have to always measure the worstimpact in terms of human impact, and alsoecological impact, because of theinterdependence in nature. We were just

looking at some rankings done in terms ofdisasters. The most number of disastershappened in America around 540 in aparticular period. The US stands first in termsof number of natural disasters, but thenumbers of deaths in the US were quite low,in double digits. If we look at India, it will runin the thousands. So the impact is aconsequence of how prepared you are and

what kind of strengths do you have toovercome a disaster.

Through the Climate Hearing process, webring people in the frontline to start telling uswhether the climate is changing and whetherit is changing for the good or bad. Thesehearings reveal many things. Every droughtsets back a poor family by 8 to 10 years.Sometimes a flood does that. What I mean by

that is that the little you have is finished. Forthe only asset that many families have is onecow. For them to get a cow as an asset is forus equivalent to buying a house. It takes along time.

The hearing also showed us that women arethe most vulnerable. In Bangladesh, duringcyclone Aila, there was this woman shoutingat her husband to protect the goat kid. Shewas worried that the kid will die and thehusband may too, but she wanted to protect

the kid for it was the only property she had.This is something to think about. Women, andeven urban women, those living at themargins, are the first and the hardest hit.

How can technology help, both from a

curative and preventive perspective?

Push: Most countries have what we calldisaster preparedness (DP). Disaster happensoften, but it becomes a hazard when people,animals and living things die. Western

countries have spent a lot of money on DP,especially if you take the example ofNetherlands, for their land is submergedotherwise and they have to keep it reclaimedfrom the sea. For this you need bothresources and technology. Both from animmediate view, as in how do you recoverfrom a threat, and how do you mitigate orreduce the impact in the long term.

SPECIAL FEATURE
http://www.csmworld.org/http://www.csmworld.org/


15/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 1

There are some good examples. Since seawater levels are rising and soil is becomingmore saline, farmers in Bangladesh arebeginning to cultivate in the water itself.Earlier they were using chickens, now theykeep ducks. Small meteorological stations

help to gather local information so thatpeople can see, for example, that in the last 3years the wind has changed this and that way.So there are alternate technologies even atthe simplest level. There are a lot ofopportunities in mitigation too. For e.g. betterseeds is one approach. Technology to harvestthe water that is going to waste is another.Renewable energy will play a big part.

Also, technology doesnt happenindependently. There are very clear interests

that develop around every technology. If yougo to Copenhagen or Cancun, one of thelargest delegations comes from the oilcountries. Whereas a country like Maldiveswhich is going to be submerged has only afew people representing because they dont

even have money to come to the event. Thereare many technologies that we can use, butwhose interests it is serving is equallyimportant.

Can technology alone deliver or do we

require other approaches too?

Viva: I dont think technology is the only

solution. It also has to be behavioral change,and at the personal level. We also requirechanges in policies. If you start putting a priceon some of the services provided by the

environment, then a lot will change. Today if

somebody wants to build a dam, they will doa typical CBA (cost benefit analysis). Theynever really take the cost of ecosystemservices into account.

A big breakthrough has been the TEEB report.

It was done by Pawan Sukhdev who advisesthe World Bank and he has figured that theonly thing people understand is money. Solets monetize, lets find out the value of ourforests, of our natural assets. The last onecame out in Sep 2010. If you think about it,climate change is the worlds biggest marketfailure, in that while making something, wedont factor in the cost of destroying theenvironment. Maybe a market mechanism todeal with this can help.

You have visited so many countries. Howoriented are their governments towards

committing themselves? Have thenegotiations, over so many years, reached

anywhere?

Push: Whenever we go through a planetaryor civilizational crisis, like the one we aregoing through now, we never respond to itunless it hits us. And much of it is rational.Now the rationality of climate change sciencetook a long time to be established. If you look

at the IPCC report, the scientific proof isfinally given. But despite the science havingbeen developed, there is a whole group ofclimate change deniers. In a US congressionalhearing a politician said that we are deadagainst this business of stopping reduction incarbon. Why? Because plants have a right toall the carbon dioxide. How can you reducethat, they should get as much as they want.These are the kinds of arguments they comeup with, even in a formal hearing.

A finance minister will ask that things mayhappen 40 years from now, and I only havemoney now, so in anticipation of things goingwrong then, how can I invest now? Rationalquestion. Nick Stern, in his book Economics

of Climate Change did the costing and he said

if you do not spend $1 today [on climatechange prevention], you are going to pay $4in less than 15 years.


16/33


17/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 3

when that happens there is going to be hugedevastation.

Also, there is something called a lag time inthat carbon stays in the atmosphere for a longtime. Currently it is at almost 390 ppm. At the

beginning of the industrial revolution it wasat 285. Using carbon present in long frozenice cubes, scientists have demonstrated thatcarbon levels in the atmosphere have neverbeen this high.

Given the political nature that the subject

has developed, and hence the stalemates,

shouldnt climate change efforts direct all

their energy bracing for impact rather

than looking for long-term solutions?

Push: Good point. That is why organizationslike Oxfam, who are working with the poorpeople, are shouting about adaptation.Climate change is costing lives and livelihood,and it needs to be said that the impact isparticularly poor women, young children andthe elderly. These facts have to be said. Andthat is why we are talking about adaptationquite a lot.

But the other aspect of mitigation is equallyimportant. There are meetings in which

people dont agree and it is considered finebecause they can agree later. But now time isrunning out. If temperature rises, theconsequences keep getting severe. Each of thedisasters we have seen in the last 5 years, wesay, God, we never looked at it this waybefore. Even the scientists at IPCC look attheir predictions of 3 years ago and find thatthey were so conservative. That theyunderestimated the whole thing. The monsteris getting so big, that you cannot help but talkabout how you demolish the monster itself.

So you cant separate mitigation fromadaptation. How far will you adapt, until youare dead? We have to hit at the heart of theissue, which is how do we stop and how dowe reduce. And indeed we never had agreater opportunity to do that. We can in factmake a fantastic business case for it.

Viva: People are not even making theconnection between climate change and the

economy. In Australia, the recent floodshappened in the areas with rich naturalresources, with coal. They are already seeingthat the price of electricity is going to go up.And they have lost 0.5% of their GDP. So if youmake that link, then people will act. Or you

have to price coal differently. Why is coal socheap right now? Because it is not fully priced,because they dont include the cost of

environmental degradation and the impact onhealth. Solar and wind are expensive, onlybecause coal is cheap.

Push: While I was walking, I wondered howdo we attack the root of this problem. Then Istarted to think that one of the root problemsis cities. Cities occupy 2% of the land mass butthey emit 80% of the carbon. So we have to be

working in cities. It is also true that in citiesmost of the wealth is created, by businesses,who contribute almost 40% of the 80%emitted. And so the question arises, is businessa force for good towards a sustainable society?And so we have to reconsider the way in whichwe look at success, because the old way ofmeasuring success is not going to take usanywhere. We are researching into this.Businesses are already doing a range of things,some are innovating, some are presentingthemselves as inclusive, etc. We are exploringboth commercial and social enterprise, lookingat where there is convergence, and where wecan remove some blockages. And as much aswe look to reduce, we should also check moreefficient ways of using energy. Indeed, somepeople say that if you attend efficiency, youcan tackle the problem. And efficiencybusiness is currently one of the largestbusinesses one can enter into.

In India, how do we make the environment

a politically decisive issue? So that when

we go to vote, we consider whether theparty is going to be pro-environment or

not.

Push: We have to use different tools. For e.g.getting people on Facebook to put three thingsthey value into a pot called My Earth, or MyIndia, or My Bangalore. And then to make thepot bigger and bigger as people keep putting


18/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 4

things in it. A large number of people can bereached quickly using that.

When Gandhi was asked about developmentsimilar to the western civilization, he had saidthat if everyone developed like that, we would

need 3 earths. Today they have got actualfigures saying that the way we are going, wewill need 2 and a half earths. That leads me tothink about generational responsibility. When Iwas walking in Copenhagen, I met a lot of youngguys who were criticizing the older generation,

saying that they were not doing enough. One ofthem said thatthe negotiations started in 1992.I am already 18 and you guys have been justsitting and talking. By the time I am 40 you guyswill be dead and you will have destroyed the

planet by that time. So when are you going to

make a decision?

It is a great challenge, to make it a burningissue. The only way it is going to happen isthrough young people.


19/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 5

Swarm Optimization in Embedded Systems

By Kapil DhakaEver wondered why all the electronic devicesranging from mobile phones, mp3 players,and digital cameras to laptops are gettingslimmer and faster day by day. Well, one ofthe reasons is the improved way ofSoftware/Hardware partitioning of the

embedded systems, which form the core ofthese devices. In Software/Hardwarepartitioning, each function of an embeddedsystem is implemented using either hardwareor software, in order to optimize the systemin terms of processing speed and requiredarea. A relatively new algorithm, calledparticle swarm optimization is being used

for the partitioning purpose.

Objective

An embedded system is any computer system

designed to perform one or a few dedicatedfunctions with real time constraints. Thesesystems consist of one or more processors,which run some software, and another set ofhardware blocks implemented using an ASIC.With the development of IC technology, thescale of modern embedded systems hasbecome much larger and the functions morecomplicated. Nowadays, embedded systemsare used in wide range of industrial areas.

This mixture of software and hardware is

beneficial since hardware is usually muchfaster than software and also more powerefficient. Software, on the other hand, ischeaper but slow and consumes more power.However, this kind of system design createssome challenges. One of the most criticalsteps of the design process is partitioning, i.e.deciding which component of a system shouldbe realized in hardware and which ones insoftware. This problem is referred as thesoftware/hardware partitioning problem inembedded systems.

Our objective in this project is to solve thisproblem of partitioning using particle swarmoptimization technique.

Particle Swarm Optimization

Motivated by the behavioral and sociologicalcharacteristics of bees and flies, Eberharttand Kenedy proposed the PSO algorithm. Ithas been observed that bees usually identify

their food by a collective effort. The dynamicsof a bee to move towards the target position(location of food resources) depends on threefactors:

I. The current direction of its motionII. The global best position identified by all

its fellow bees until this time (gbest)III. The local best position that the bee has

experienced so far (pbest)

Let xi (t) be the current position of the ith beeat time t, vi (t) be the velocity of the ith bee attime t, pil(t) be the local best positionexperienced by the ith bee until time t, pg (t)be the global best position of all the bees attime t, then the dynamics of the i th bee can bedescribed by the following two equations,

vi(t) = w v

i(t - 1) +

t

l(pi

l(t) - xi(t))

+ tg (pg (t) - xi (t)) (1)

xi (t) = xi (t - 1) + vi (t) (2)

Where w, tland tg denote the inertialvelocity, local acceleration coefficient (LAC)and global acceleration coefficient (GAC).

PSO algorithm

Input: Initial position xi (0) and velocity vi (0)for each bee i, the fitness function f()

Output: The global best position attained by

the bees collectively

Step 1: For each bee i, evaluate f(xi)

Step 2: Evaluate the bees next position byexecuting the basic PSO equations (1) and (2)in order.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 untilconvergence occurs in all xi.

Software/Hardware partitioning

Problem definition

We have to address the problem of HW/SWpartitioning using PSO, with the aim ofachieving a near optimal solution efficiency.We have three parameters: cost, executiontime and area, based on which we have tooptimize.

GEEKITUDE


20/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 6

There are three ways to optimize thepartitioning.

i) Minimize the Execution Time, keepingCost < C0and Area < A0

ii) Minimize the Area, keeping Cost < C0and Execution Time < T0iii) Minimize the Cost, keeping ExecutionTime < T0and Area < A0

where C0, A0 and T0 are arbitrary constants.

The partitioning formal problem would beexpressed as follows:

Given a set of tasks that together represent a

design, the problem is to find a partition ofhardware and software implementations,such that by joining them we can construct anequivalent system with minimum cost, while

satisfying performance constraints.

Problem Representation

To partition a design, first it must be mappedinto a task graph. An application can be easilybroken down into distinct tasks at a coarselevel of granularity and can be specified by adata-dependence based task graph.

Task graph is a directed acyclic graph. Itconsists of a set of nodes and a set of edgesand is represented by G = (V, E). Each node v

C V denotes an operation (task) that has aspecific cost, execution time and area forimplementation on HW and SW platform.Each edge e C E denotes data dependenciesbetween nodes. The edges in the data flowgraph have communication delays dependingon the partition in which the two nodesincident on the edge are present.

Each particle is represented as a string of bitsthat illustrates a scheme of systempartitioning. The length of the particle isequal to the number of tasks. Each bit definesthat a task in the system must be eitherimplemented in hardware or developed with

software. Consider the example particlebelow where zeros determine softwaredevelopment and ones determine hardware

implementation.

Partitioning Methodology

The evaluation of the fitness function needsvarious parameters as input. In the beginning,particles and corresponding velocities arerandomly generated. In each iteration, thefitness of each particle is evaluated and anestimation of cost and time is achieved and piland pg are determined. Then position andvelocity of each particle is updated using (1)and (2) respectively. This process iscontinued until the termination condition ismet.

Fitness function of the ith particle is definedby

a> (a) Fi = Cj , when time & area constraintsare satisfied (3)

else Fi = Infinite

(b) Fi = tj , when cost & area constraintsare satisfied (4)

else Fi = Infinite

Where tj denotes the execution time on theVLSI platform and Cj denotes cost of

implementation.

Fig: Optimizing with 118 nodes

1 0 1 1 0 0

HW SW HW HW SW SW


21/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 7

Experimental Results

Fig: Price vs Iteration Curve

This graph was obtained when we tried tooptimize price keeping area and executiontime within a boundary.

This graph was obtained when we tried tooptimize execution time with constraints onarea and cost.

CONCLUSION

Particle Swarm Optimization has

proved to be an efficient techniquefor software/ hardware partitioning.As iterations are increased, resultsrapidly move close to theoptimization point. Although PSO cannotbring perfectly optimized results, it can bringthem close in reasonable run time.

[Note from Editor: The paper submitted ismuch more comprehensive and elementshave been pared down to keep it simple. Docontact the author for more depth and

information.]Kapil Dhaka is a 1st year PGP student at IIMIndore. He holds a Bachelors degree inInformation Technology from JadavpurUniversity, Kolkata. He can be reached at

[email protected]

Fig: Execution Time vs Iteration Curve

4440

4490

4540

0 50000 100000 150000

Price

5550

5600

5650

0 50000 100000 150000

EXEC_TIME


22/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 8

Getting the most out of AADHAR

By Maheswar Avadhani

Of late, GOI took up UIDAI (Aadhar project)with an intention to provide a unique identity(biometric based) to all the citizens of India.The total estimated cost of the project is a

whopping 150, 000 crore ($ 33.75 billion)[of course, another estimate puts it at $ 6billion]. It is glad to note that the project isrunning as per the schedule and was able toroll out the first set of numbers during Sep2010. I would like to argue that once Aadharis rolled out completely, GOI will have acleaner and simpler way to capture thedemographic information of most of thecitizens of India at each of the encounters(touch points). Hence the question ofavailability of relevant data is pretty much

answered. This opens the doors for datadriven governance.

This article assumes that after subsequentdeployment of Aadhar program, GOImandates usage of the same extensively, bylinking the UID number to bank accounts, topassports, to credit and debit card numbers(so that all cash based as well as non-cashbased transactions are tracked), to propertyregistration transactions, to precious metalpurchases, to literacy programs, to healthcare programs, to social welfare schemes, toemployee registries, to crime registries, etc.As the identity of an individual would beestablished with UID number (with no scopefor forgery) through a very simple and fool-proof biometric system, a lot of governanceapplications can be built upon UID.

APPLYING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUES

Clustering is the task of segmenting aheterogeneous population into a number ofmore homogeneous subgroups or clusters. Itcan applied in various ways,

For improving voter turnout

Going by the past data, it can be found thatthe typical turn out in any election variesbetween 50 to 65%. Such a lower turn out cancause election of a non-suitable (non-desirable) contestant. In order to alleviatesuch risks, its important that voting turn outmaintained as close to 100% as possible.Below indicated clustering based approach

can help in the identification of non-voters sothat appropriate measures can be taken toimprove the turnout.

GOI can implement the measure of comparingthe biometric information of voters with thatof all citizens eligible for voting in order toidentify the pool of non-voters. Once thecharacteristics of non-voters are identified,appropriate measures can be devised forimproving the voter turnout. Though electionis not a frequent phenomenon, its an

important process in our democratic societyand any measures that can improve thesituation shouldnt be undermined.

Below indicated are few of the possiblemeasures for the improvement of voterturnout.

Simply publish the information in thepublic domain so that citizens feelresponsible and act in a more responsiblemanner by voting.

Launch of advertising or sensitizingcampaigns targeting those clusters whodemonstrate a non-participative and non-responsible behaviour.

For bringing more people under the tax net

Today GOI is not able to mop up tax revenueat full potential due to systemic problemssuch as fake identities, non-traceable

TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIETY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rupee


23/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 1 9

transactions by commercial bodies, etc. AsUIDAI provides a unique identity that cant befaked, GOI has better control over tracking alltransactions in cooperation with banks andfinancial institutions, by deploying necessarycontrols through possible levers (e.g.

mandating mention of UID for alltransactions, be it related to currency or be itrelated to precious metals). Once such leversare tightened, clustering can be used toidentify segments of people/bodies that dont

pay taxes either fully or partially. Uponidentification, GOI can easily bring all suchpeople/bodies under the tax net therebyincreasing revenue.

For customized literacy and healthcareprograms

In his paper titled The influence of the

demographic characteristics on adulteducation A market segmentationapproach, Prof. Vishnuprasad Nagadevera

(IIM Bangalore) has identified the need tocome up with customized literacyimprovement programs by takingDharmapuri as an example scenario.Availability of demographic data uponsuccessful deployment of Aadhar providesmany more opportunities to GOI in coming up

with customized programs that haverelatively higher potential for success. It helpsGOI in adopting the right approach at theright time through the right means ratherthan the current one size fits all kind of an

approach.

APPLYING DECISION (CLASSIFICATION)TREES TECHNIQUES

Classification consists of examining thefeatures of a newly presented object andassigning it to one class among the predefinedset of classes. The classification task ischaracterized by a well-defined definition ofthe classes, and a training set consisting ofpre-classified examples.

For spotting fraudulent/low performance

dealers

As per 2008 data, India has a total of 6,38,596villages and 2,47,033 Rural Local Bodies

(RLBs). GOI runs several social and welfareschemes under 14 categories namely such as20-Point Programme, Animal Welfare,Backward Classes Schemes, Child Schemes,Disabled Scheme, etc.Deployment of theseschemes usually happens through RLBs and

dealers (especially in the case of PublicDistribution Systems (PDS)).

Once GOI completely rolls out the Aadharprogram, and gathers the results of variouswelfare programs, it can subsequently makeuse of classification techniques to identifyfraudulent dealers and weed them out fromthe system thereby making deployment moreeffective and less error-prone. The techniquecan be also used to identify whether aparticular dealer is corrupt or not, thereby

having a better basis to decide upon whetheror not to award the dealership to that person.

For improving supply chain efficiency and

distribution effectiveness of PDS

PDS is one of the largest supply chainnetworks in the world with 4.99 lakh FPS(Fair Price Shops) and is operated under thejoint responsibility of the central and the stategovernments. PDS supply chain consists ofseveral central and state government bodies,

private industries, farmers, warehouses andtransportation agencies. Though the PDSsupply chain provides basic commodities tovast majority of the Indian population, weshould accept the fact that the whole chain ismismanaged by corrupt officials. Thoughenough produce is procured and distributedby PDS, the beneficiaries often face difficultiesin getting what they are entitled to. Inconjunction with other technologies like RFID(Radio Frequency Identification Technology),GPS (Global Positioning System), data mining

can help in weeding out inefficiencies fromone of the largest supply chain networks.Please refer to the proposed model in thepaper published by Ms. S.Ranjithakumari &Kathiresan.V. Rule-based classification datamining technique can be used to identifysuspicious moving behaviour of objects.


24/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 2 0

APPLYING NEURAL NETWORKS

TECHNIQUES

Neural networks are a class of powerful,general-purpose tools readily applied toprediction, classification and clustering.

For help in budget estimation for inclusivegrowth

Techniques like neural networks can beapplied in conjunction with techniques likeclassification or clustering in order to arriveat budget estimates at state as well as at thecentral level. Such bottom-up approach helpsin GOI being strategic (goal oriented withspecific targets) and accountable rather thanthe present day top-down approach wherestates have to manage the allocated budget in

fulfilling their needs. While the current dayapproach leaves scope for disparity, a muchmore refined approach using data miningtechniques can help in GOI honouringinclusive growth by allocating the rightamount of resources for the right causes.

For predictive models in social welfareprograms

Since 1991, Indias per capita GDP increasedby 50% while malnutrition in India has fallen

by only 6% points, despite all the socialwelfare programs/initiatives taken up by GOI.While the systemic problems in poorimplementation and corruption are to beblamed for such a poor success rate, nationallevel schemes and their planned way ofimplementation can be relooked forimprovement in the wake of Aadhar data. Amore systematic analysis using predictivemodels can help in predicting which of thesocial welfare programs may fail so thatnecessary corrective actions can be

undertaken.

APPLYING ASSOCIATIONS TECHNIQUES

The task of affinity grouping is to determinewhich things go together.

For improved healthcare through

associations

Aadhar program data when integrated with

the national health registry can help inidentifying associated patterns of diseases.For example, there are few geographicalregions where the content of Fluorine inwater is quite high leading to diseases likeFluorosis. Such type of associations can be

easily identified through affinity groupingtechnique so that necessary actions can betaken by GOI to control such type of diseases.

APPLYING DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

TECHNIQUES

Discriminant analysis is a method used forpattern recognition and machine learning tofind a linear combination of features whichcharacterize or separate two or more classesof objects or events.

For countering disproportionate assets

Discriminant analysis technique could be abest fit to identify disproportionate assets.Today, due to the systemic loopholes presentin establishing a unique identity of a personin an unchallenged manner, a lot of peoplecontinue to hold assets that hold norelationship to their incomes. Many also holdassets on benami names. By plotting ameasure like Personal Assets Value vs.Annual Income (similar to ROI vs. Current

ratio), the section of people who hold assetsin a disproportionate manner can beidentified. Subsequently, measures likeissuance of show-cause notices, and cripplingthem by not allowing them to perform anyother transactions until either properjustification is provided or until theyvolunteer to forego the disproportionateassets can be implemented. This approach

not only helps in bringing outdisproportionate assets out, but also arrestslarge scale corruption as people will run short

of avenues to deploy their unlawful earnings.

For countering unemployment and paving

way for inclusive growth

Another problem that can be well tackledthrough discriminant analysis isunemployment. By plotting a measure likePopulation vs. Unemployed people, pocketsin India where unemployment is rampant can


25/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 2 1

be identified. Further by encouragingindustrialists to establish firms in suchregions by offering additional incentives (e.g.SEZ locations), India can look forward toinclusive growth.

APPLYING FACTOR ANALYSIS

TECHNIQUES

Factor analysis is a method used to describevariability among observed variables in termsof a potentially lower number of unobservedvariables called factors.

For Crime Reduction

Aadhar program paves the way for thecreation of a national crime registry. Further

analysis of people from such a registry mayshed light on the observable andunobservable (the ones that can bediscovered through data mining) patternsthat make these citizens susceptible to crime.Once leading patterns are established, GOI

can take suitable measures that can reducethe crime rate.

TO SUMMARIZE, AADHAR will enable GOI toadopt a scientific approach to policy makingand deployment.

Maheswar Rao Avadhani is a PGSEM student atIIM Bangalore. He can be reached [email protected]


26/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 2 2

Challenges in Software Project Management

By Neelabh Singh

According to a study done by the StandishGroup in 2009, 24% of projects failed and44% were not delivered on time amountingto a staggering 68% of projects either having

failed or getting rejected due to bad quality ordeadline extensions. In the words of JimCrear, Standish Group CIO, in Chaos Summary2009, These numbers represent a downtick inthe success rates from the previous study, aswell as a significant increase in the number of

failures. These results are in compliance withseveral other studies done over a period oftime in the area of software engineering. Thisillustrates the need for effective softwaremanagement to manage the complexities andchallenges inherent in large software

projects.

Clarity and completeness in requirements

The construction of a building cannot beundertaken without a proper floor plan androom layout done by an architect. However,there are plenty of software projects in whichcoding begins before the requirements areclearly specified. Even when we achieve themiraculous task of agreement we hit the nextroadblock in terms of frequent customermodifications. The customer keeps on adding

changes to the original design unaware of itsimpact on the budget and the schedule. Thisproblem can be resolved through a strongrelationship with the customer and themarketing staff that will enable the team tounderstand and receive all the requirementsin a single batch and make their definitionmuch simpler.

Controlling Feature Creep

Microsoft's Windows Vista was planned to bea minor release between Windows XP and the

next planned release, codenamed Windows"Blackcomb"(Windows 7), but it itselftransformed into a major release which took5 years of development and was cumbersometo use due to the continuous addition ofunnecessary new features. Over imaginativedesigners or the requests made by customerswell after the requirement gathering stagecan lead to a bloated software project. This

phenomenon is called " feature creep." Extrafeatures go beyond the basic function and canresult in over-complication rather thansimple design. Feature creep results in

software products that are slower and harderto use and often go over budget and overschedule. It can even kill products andprojects as was observed in the case ofApples Copland operating system.

Creating and maintaining an Effective

Team

According to Rainwater in Herding Cats: A primer for programmers who leadprogrammers the task of creating andmaintaining an efficient team of software

developers is similar in difficulty to herdingcats. The Project Manager must be deliberateand sometimes heroic to achieve coherence inthe team so that there will be effectiveperformance management. Individualistic bynature, programmers should be managedcarefully to enable them to use theircreativity and ingenuity on one hand andherding them to move in the same directionas others.

The need for a limited team with conceptual

clarity can be best expressed by thisquotation from Brooks book on The MythicalMan-Month: Software products are bothcomplex and fiercely competitive in schedule.

Any product that is sufficiently big or urgentrequires the effort of many minds and must beconceptually coherent to the single mind of theuser and at the same time designed by manyminds. The importance of social interactionamong team members is also stressed uponby software development gurus likeMcConnell and Grady Booch.

I would like to conclude this articleemphasizing the importance of projectmanagement in the software industry, by thisquote from Tony Collins -Computers rely fortheir functioning on reason but projects defylogic because of human caprice.

Neelabh is part of the Editorial team

PRACTICAL ADVICE


27/33I n a u g u r a l I s s u e 2 3

The Definitive Guide to Web Browsers

By Varun Sharma

Among those reading this article, all of thosewho have done your MBA or who have beenin the tech industry long enough will knowthe oft talked story of how Microsoft killedNetscape Navigator by 2002. Its a wonderful

real life story one that defines the powerthat Microsoft had (some would say still has)in the tech industry, the politics of which evenKautilya would be proud of, and a story thatwould define the debate on softwarecopyrights, software monopoly andcompetition over the years. Those years arelong gone now and Microsoft has had itsshare of litigation from the US governmentand the European Union. At the center of thisstory lies a strange entity called the WebBrowser something mysterious to all thosewho dont understand the technology and

something of a miracle to all those who knowits history.

Wikipedia defines a web browser as Asoftware application for retrieving,

presenting, and traversing information

resources on the World Wide Web. Seems

like a simple enough definition. In laymans

terms one would say the browser is a windowto the Internet that behemoth of a creaturewhich purportedly has all the information(ranging from the useful to the useless, fromthe benign to the dangerous) in the world. Toaccess the Internet one has to have a webbrowser - its as simple as that. The lastdecade has seen Microsoft lose its monopolyover the browser business. Today there are 6primary players in the web browser business Microsoft, Mozilla Foundation, Apple Inc.,Opera Software, Google and Nokia. Except forNokia all the others are major players in thedesktop web browser business and in thisarticle I will be primarily exploring thisbusiness.

The first big name in the browser businesswas the Netscape Navigator. After its demisein 2002, Mozilla Foundation rose fromNetscapes ashes. Mozilla Firefox, in the betatesting phase for its 4.0 release today, is oneof the most popular browsers in existence itis loved by developers and has the best

extension support among all the existingbrowsers. Firefox cameinto existence when theopen source movementwas gaining momentum

and both have gainedfrom each others

existence. I believeFirefox is the bestexample out there for anopen source movement, after Linux. It is oneof the best executed open projects and hasbeen responsible for popularizing manyfeatures that we expect of a web browser tabbed browsing, search box and extensibilityto name a few. One could almost say that itwas single-handedly responsible for forcingMicrosoft to come up with newer and saferversions of Internet Explorer. MozillaFoundation describes itself as a non-profitorganization dedicated to preservingchoice and promoting innovation on theInternet. Mozilla Corporation, a for-profitsubsidiary of Mozilla Foundation, drives thedevelopment of Firefox and Thunderbird (anopen source email client). Its sole revenueshave been from the fees that Google pays toplace Google search as the default option in

its search box. A strong ecology consisting ofMozilla employees, hundreds of volunteerdevelopers (who double as first line oftesters) and a long beta release cycle hasbeen associated with the Firefox developmentcycle. With the sole aim of the corporation toprovide a better web browser, the companyhas its heart in the right place. However theplace of an open source company in the highrevenue earning tech environment of today isyet to be cemented so we have to wait and seehow the company moves forward.

Microsofts Internet

Explorer 6 is what mostof us would haveassociated with Internetbrowsing while growingup. The browser camewith tons of ads, tons oftoolbars and tons of security holes. AndMicrosoft took its time before it came up with

TECHNO GYAN


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the next version of Internet Explorer in late2006. As late as July 2009, IE 6 was in the top3 browsers that people used. Microsoftsprimary strategy in the software categoriesthat it participates in is to be the one with thelargest market share. Over the years it has

adopted various strategies to ensure this like copying the most popular Mac OSfeatures, developing an office suite andallowing early adopters like students anduniversities to use them for free or at minimalcost, developing a developer environmentclosely modeled upon the office suite and soon. Internet Explorer was one of the waysthrough which Microsoft tried to lure usersinto using its operating system, Windows. Bymaking it a default feature and offering itfor free in its operating system, Microsoftensured that users didnt need to look beyond

Microsoft for solutions. The monopoly overoperating system that Microsoft has enjoyedover the years ensured that Internet Explorerwas the most used browser in the world. Andtoday Internet Explorer in its variousversions is still the most used browser (above41% according to w3counter). Microsoft iscurrently in the beta stage for InternetExplorer 9. Despite its interesting features Idoubt if hardcore Firefox and Chrome fans

are ever going to be enticed by this product one can only wait and see.

Google was a lateentrant to the browserbusiness. As expected ofGoogle, it did somethinginteresting before therelease of its browserand published a verynice story talking about the structure of abrowser in layman terms in the form of acomic. Google Chrome was released inSeptember 2008 and was immediatelydownloaded by many and tried. The userexperience on Chrome was completelydifferent compared to that on otherbrowsers; it was blazingly fast andconsequently many people started enjoying it.After multiple releases Chrome today is the3rd most popular web browser in the world. Itis interesting to think why Google, a search

company, wanted to develop a browser.Googles revenue model is ad based. Thus themore of a web page the user is able to see, thebetter for Google. Look at Chrome; it is theweb browser which takes the least screenreal estate to display the URL, menu options

and the tabs thus ensuring maximumvisibility of the web page and all the ads alongwith it. Google has also promoted the Chromebrowser, through billboards and videoadvertisements, as a precursor to its ChromeOS where the whole netbook will only havethe Chrome browser as its primary interfaceand all the user data will be stored in thecloud. Once again we can clearly see how thisstrategy ties in closely with its fundamentalrevenue generation model. Google hasreleased most of Chromes code under open

source and I guess it is a smart move. As longas the Chrome browser is adapted quicklyand people like the website real estate that isoffered by the browser Googles work isdone.

Opera Softwaresfundamental business isthe browser business. Ithas a large installedbase in the mobilebusiness and its primaryrevenue model is likethat of Firefox. Opera has been the pioneer ofmany of the browser features that peopleaccept as given like tabbed browsing. TodayOpera has one of the best browsers inbusiness, feature wise, but its adaptation hasbeen low. Chrome and Firefoxs popularity

has meant that Opera has had to suffer in itsadoption rates.

Safari is the primarybrowser for all the OS

platforms coming out ofApple primarily MacOS and iOS. In themobile arena Safari isdeemed by manyreviewers as the best inbusiness. Apple has tried to push the sale ofSafari on the Windows platform, sometimeseven going as far as silently installing it along


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with iTunes or QuickTime update, but itsadoption in the platform has been low.

As we can see, each of the top players hascompletely different reasons for being in thebrowser business, i.e. the reason for them

competing is completely different. Like in anycompeting economy, in this ensuing battle,the consumer has benefitted the most. Therate at which the consumer has beeninundated with new features and new tweaksis staggering. The consumer now has a choiceto run any browser and each one offers someunique features that others dont it can besaid that the consumer is spoiled for choicenow. Another interesting thing to note in thiswhole browser war is that many a times thecompetitors have been collaborators too.

Safari and Chrome run on the Web KitJavaScript engine which was created by Appleand further enhanced by Google. Firefox alsouses the Web Kits assembler to create its

JavaScript engine. All the 5 companies havecome together many times to determine theway forward with HTML5 and other webstandards. The recent decision by Apple tonot allow Flash on its handheld device and byGoogle to stop supporting H.264 in Chrome -

comes at a time when video related standardsare being hotly debated. Thus we can see thatthe whole browser environment is still in thedeveloping stage without a clear idea ofwhose strategy is the correct one. It will taketime before we will see a sure shot winner orsome sort of balance being achieved in thisarea. But as users it will be a very interestingjourney as we discover newer ways toexplore the web, observe the variousstrategies that are adopted by differentplayers, and see and decide who emerges asthe winner.

Varun is part of the Editorial team


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Across Down

4

X is a person. If X had his way, avian fluoutbreak would have crippled theInternet.

(5,8) 1This US satellite TV company caught thehacking community unprepared before asuper bowl event.

(7)

7Wars in the virtual world admittedlybrought down nuclear power plants.

(7) 2Jimmy Wales is furious with those whoparody his pet creation.

(12)

8 Firefox, but without the Firefox logo!! (6) 3Virtual equivalent of Great Wall of China.What is the official name?

(6,6,7)

12

A competitor to USB, this standard could

never garner the market share it hadhoped for. (8)

5 Thanks to X, I like ;qjkxb. Identify X. (6,6)

13

Whats common between an Americancomedy film and a technique foranonymous communication over theInternet?

(5) 6

Budding entrepreneurs may learn a thing ortwo from this person on how to make amillion dollars from a single page website.Identify the person.

(4,3)

14X defied the power of 2 rule in the warof cores. Identify X.

(3) 9CPU is so traditional. I like my algorithmsfaster on a Quadro using X.

(4)

16Feeling hungry!! Complete the series:Cupcake, Donut, clair, _________,Gingerbread, Honeycomb.

(5) 10This virtual office assistant invited a lot offlak and so, was put to rest.

(6)

18This is a sequel to a game released in1996. Development started in 1997 andgamers will be lucky if they get to see itthis year. What are we talking about?

(4,5,7) 11

In his own words, he is an 'Internet expert'.

Ironically, his experience also makes himreluctant to allow internet access to hiscompatriots. Which country are we talkingabout

(5,5)

19I am in jail. Please take care of my file

system. Who am I?(4,6) 15

X is the second word in the name. X is a

homophone for heard. While running, it

declares the death of a server

euphemistically. What are we talking about?

(3,4)

17This has got to be an easy one. Our own

Spidis backend.(6)


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