Blogging

According to the sources, Saigal demonstrated with his software that by keying in a certain code number, one could ensure that every fifth vote cast in a particular polling booth goes in favour of a particular candidate or party.

Alms business is serious business in Ajmer, where pilgrims believe that giving enhances spirituality. What they don't know is that the old beggar woman is an employee of a larger syndicate that's run with the efficiency of an FMCG company. She's an employee, on the job and at the end of her stipulated five hours of begging she'll get the contracted Rs 550 from the syndicate. In return, she will hand over whatever she made, which could actually be less than what she's being paid.

Till about four years ago, begging in Ajmer during Urs was an informal affair: beggars assembled from all over the country, each fended for himself, and went back with whatever he or she managed to get. But then came the first syndicate. Now, there are about 10 of them at work during the 15-day Urs at the Khwaja Garib Nawaz Dargah. When Urs ends on July 5, the syndicates together would go back home or to their next venue, possibly Pushkar, where the fair begins shortly with about Rs 10 crore.

As business models go, the begging syndicate makes perfect sense. Running a syndicate is a `master'. He's the faceless boss. Under him is a shift-in-charge, and reporting to this person are the areas in-charge. Each syndicate hires beggars, who are offered a fixed sum per shift.

Source: Times Of India In Ajmer, begging's Rs 10cr biz

Tomorrow never arrived and yesterday kept replaying itself in slow motion. Connors found a way out: trying to exit by tossing a live electric toaster into his bath tub. But Sonny and Cher were back again next morning, telling him there was no escape from suffering. There was a serious problem: his mind didn't understand him. Or perhaps he didn't understand his mind.

The movie, now a cult flick, ends with Nat King Cole's `Almost like being in love' as Murray falls for his dream woman and walks with a spring in his step. The change comes about slowly as Murray realizes that the world was not repeating itself before him; it was he who was at fault. He realized he had been self-centred, looked down his nose at those around him and failed to help others. He kept repeating himself till he realized his true self. Finally, Murray figured out the mantra of life: Renew yourself each day; do it again, and again, and forever again. The Hollywood film ends with this Buddhist sutra. It also raised a profound question: can the self guide itself out of its self-created misery?

This is what was discussed all this week in a cosy conference room in the middle of a pine forest right under the snow-capped mountains. The Dalai Lama and a select group of neuroscientists, philosophers from some of America's leading universities and a bunch of dharma followers, including Hollywood star Richard Gere, were locked in intense discussion on the issue of self. For five days, they discussed the concepts of attention, memory and the phenomenological study of the mind as part of the Mind and Life Dialogue an interface between Buddhist monks and neuroscientists to find cross-cultural ground between the two traditions.

Source: Times Of India Groundhog Buddhism

Thirty-two-year old Amit Agarwal, an IIT-Roorkee grad, quit his software engineering job in 2004 to start blogging full-time. He wanted to showcase his work and lap up freelance assignments that abound on the Net. "I knew that even if the blog did not work, I could still land a good job. So, I decided to take the plunge." says Agarwal who christened his blog `Labnol' because it was `unique and search-friendly'. He pumped in content on software and gadget reviews, personal web applications and tutorials into it. In time, the number of visitors grew and Agarwal added advertising to his blog. He soon realised he was running a full-time `business' and did not need to take up a job. Five years down the line, Agarwal's gamble seems to have paid off. His site has about 40,000 registered users and he makes around Rs 2 lakh from it a month.

Indeed, what began as weblogging (the term blog has its origin in weblog) in the US as a satisfying mode of self-expression, is already becoming a revenue-grosser for many in India, where the concept was introduced barely five years ago. Now blogs are run as companies; their owners are CEOs.

Most blogs start out as editorial initiatives by individuals who put out regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, and other material like photos, graphics or video. But once the blog has sufficient content, and it attracts a sizeable amount of traffic, there may be opportunities to directly connect with advertisers who bring in the money. Depending on the agreement, the advertiser pays the blogger for clicks, impressions or leads (potential customers) sourced through the blog.

Says popular travel and technology blogger Ajay Jain, "If the traffic on your blog is not very high and does not attract advertisers, it may also be a good idea to join forces with other bloggers and make a joint pitch to prospective advertisers." The emergence of pixel advertising sites (of which Blogertize is a recent Indian example) have also opened up new avenues of earning for bloggers. Bloggers purchase ad space of varying sizes on these websites and advertisers pick and choose among the blogs on display.

Agarwal says that the monetisation period was around six months. "There are two ways of monetising a blog--indirectly, through showcasing your marketable skills and directly, through advertising," he explains. Firstly, to monetise a blog, a user must have his or her domain space and allot space on it for ads. Since most beginner bloggers cannot get ads on their own, they opt for Google's AdSense service. AdSense is a `contextual advertising' tool that tracks users' blog posts and puts relevant ads on the blog or personal website. The blogger is paid every time a visitor to the blog clicks on the advertisement. However, the revenues from AdSense take a while to accumulate, according to certain bloggers.

Rajesh Barnwal, editor of Alootechie.com, a blog that tracks Indian dotcoms, says, "Apart from advertising we have monetised the site through paid job postings and events. We also send regular newsletters and that has helped us generate readership, which indirectly impacts advertising. Since we have been incubated by Goosefish Media Ventures (GMV), generating revenue is important to us." Alootechie was started in September 2005 and has about 21,000 registered subscribers. Barnwal runs the blog along with team mate Satrajit Sen.

Source: Economic Times Blogs are not just for self-expression. A clutch of entrepreneurs are also making money from blogging and living off it.

As part of its online campaign, the Congress party is setting up around 600 internet kiosks countrywide to showcase its achievements. A dedicated IT team set up by the Congress is putting up these kiosks, which will feature customised interactive software, sources told TOI. The kiosks will be used to register youth members on the party's website and will also beam excerpts from the speeches of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi, among others.

Not to be outdone, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also going the whole-hog and has formed an IT cell.

An official pointed out that not only is the party keen to automate its offices throughout the country, it has appointed over 15 state IT conveners to oversee regional operations.

The Congress manifesto specifically mentions that should it come to power, it would connect all villages to a broadband network in the next three years. As part of its preelection plan, around 50 internet kiosks are to be set up in Gujarat alone, where the party is making concerted efforts to topple the BJP's Narendra Modi government.

Source: Times Of India WEB IS THE NEW WEAPON

Welcome to a newly-wired India, where political parties are using text messages to send updates and leaders are sprucing up their pages on social networking sites in an effort to connect with the country's growing young and plugged-in generation.

With nearly 700 million people eligible to cast their votes in an April and May general election, the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are devoting more time to first-time voters and the tech-savvy middle class.

The reasons are not hard to find: a booming economy that grew at about 9 percent in the last three years encouraged rapid penetration of Internet and mobile phone ownership, giving politicians tools to connect with even far-flung areas.

"We have 100 million first-time voters in the age group 18-24, and they are all most likely connected via the Internet and mobile phones," said Diptarup Chakraborti, a principal research analyst at Gartner consultancy.

Now, after a successful presidential campaign by a youthful, tech-savvy Barack Obama, as well as the Mumbai attacks last November, a groundswell of activism and political awareness among the youth is apparent, particularly in the cities.

Both Congress and the BJP's prime ministerial candidates are elderly, but that has not stopped the parties from reaching out to the youth, using text messages, campaign tunes and videos.

L.K. Advani, the iPhone-carrying, 81-year-old leader of Hindu nationalist BJP, has posted his own blog (http://blog.lkadvani.in).

"In my own political life spanning six decades, I have enthusiastically embraced every new communication technology -- from the early simple Casio digital diary to iPod and iPhone," he wrote in a blog that drew more than 100 comments.

BJP teams have made YouTube campaign videos and their election offices in New Delhi are packed with youngsters glued to computer screens to update campaign websites.

"There are emotional and functional reasons for using technology: functionally, it is more cost-effective and more participative than say, a rally or an advertisement," said Kiran Khalap, co-founder of brand consultancy Chlorophyll.

"And emotionally, they want to be like the cool urban youth they want to connect with," he said.

A YOUNG GANDHI
The BJP's main competitor for the youth vote may be Rahul Gandhi, 38, son of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and head of the party's youth wing. He is tech-savvy, and has been doing the rounds of colleges, mingling with students and posing for pictures taken on camera phones.

Gandhi has thousands of supporters on Facebook and his portrait dominates many election billboards, even though it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 76, who is the party's candidate for the top job.

The Congress party has bought the rights to Oscar-winning anthem "Jai Ho," whose title is Hindi for "Let There Be Victory," from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

But the two main parties' reach may pale with the 55,000 YouTube views of Omar Abdullah's rousing speech in parliament last year in defense of secularism and a civil nuclear deal.

Abdullah, 38, the youngest chief minister of restive Jammu and Kashmir state and seen as a rising political star, has a Facebook profile and also wrote a blog.

One-fourth of the electorate is below the age of 25, but in previous years few parties courted this segment because it was not so politically-inclined.

Now, an ad for a mobile firm shows a leader using text messages for feedback from her constituency, while a campaign (http://www.jaagore.com) aims to persuade urban youth to vote.

Only about 10 percent of urban youth voted in the last general election in 2004, said Sangeeta Talwar, an executive director at Tata Tea which is running the Jaago Re campaign.

"If the youth are made to feel they have the power to influence the outcome of the election and the future of the country, that's a very powerful motivator," said Talwar.

But a hit song and blogs alone can't do magic, said Khalap.

"Awareness may grow, but whether it will change attitudes and behavior of voters and politicians remains to be seen," he said.

Still under construction, the website will have details of her political career and her two-year journey as the city mayor "it's my window to reach out to the masses," as she puts it.

While Malhotra, the Leader of Opposition in Assembly, had launched his website months be fore the Assembly elections last November, Advani has relaunched his web campaign before the forthcoming general elections. Malhotra's website was loaded with city issues ranging from BRT to the Masterplan of Delhi, and Advani's website understandably deals with national issues such as terrorism and the economic crisis.

Former Delhi BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan, who had launched his website about five years ago, believes technology is the need of the hour. "Internet has become so accessible that it is the easiest means of reaching out to people these days," he says. "Besides interacting with Delhiites, I also regularly exchange notes with people based abroad through my website." He says a website is the simplest way to seek ideas and sug gestions from the masses.

Septuagenarian Malhotra agrees that websites are "an ideal platform" to reach out to the youth. "It is like an open forum where all ideas and suggestions are welcome," he says.

Mayor Mehra says her upcoming website will showcase her work as the mayor. "As mayor, I cannot directly bring issues into the municipal House," she says, referring to the `Sumedha Scheme' for educating the girl child to be introduced in the civic body in the coming fiscal. "It was my initiative but as the mayor I could not directly introduce new initiatives.

"But I will be able to reach out to the people through the website and tell them about new initiatives I have been trying out." Trying to score a political point on the issue of tech-savviness, Malhotra says BJP leaders have taken the lead in launching their own websites: "Few Congress leaders have their own websites we have always been the trend setters, the Congress will follow us." Mehra, meanwhile, has already uploaded some information on the mayor's page of the MCD website even as her own site is under construction.

But the politician in her is slightly apprehensive about the "reaction", "Since this is going to be the first time any mayor in the country will launch a personal website, I don't know the kind of reaction awaiting me. I have been trying to delay the launch," she says.