Well, after waiting for years, the new Infosys Mangalore development center is ready for business. Its named Nethra after the river Nethravathi which is the lifeline of mangalore (and its pretty close to the river too!!) .
Unofficially, the center started operations on 15th October, with 83 people on-board!
When phase 1 is fully ready – it would accommodate upto 3200 people. And since its in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), it means that certain percent of the people working there must be freshly recruited! Which is a great news to the entire Dakshina Kannada region. Phase 2 and 3 would bring in more growth!
This has been a much awaited project. Have been hearing about it even before I joined Infosys in 2002!
Kudos to everyone involved. An official inauguration ceremony is planned sometime in the coming months!
Will try to post more pictures as soon as I get them!
One of the most asked question I get to hear is, “Can I drive in USA with my Indian Driving License?”
Well, the answer is, “It depends on the state that you would drive in”. All most all states in US allow you to drive with your Indian License for a period of one year. After that, you need to get a US drivers license. However, if you become a resident of the state, then you need to get a US license within a months time.
One more thing that I get asked is about “International Drivers Permit”. Well, to be frank, its quite useless if your Indian Driving License is written in English. The permit basically tells that you have the license to drive back in India in English. So, its the License thats important and not the Permit. In fact, in some states, International Drivers Permit is not even recognized. So, don’t bother getting it. In any case, your Indian Driving License must be valid and active.
A very good way to confirm what the specific state laws are is to search the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) website for the state in question. This site has the links to DMV sites of various states. Or, you can search google for pharse like “Texas DMV” and see if you can get to the official site of DMV. Once you are on the site, you would normally find a “Drivers Handbook” (or equivalent), which has all the official rules and regulations for that specific state.
Even if you don’t plan to buy a car in the US, I would suggest getting a US drivers license for the reasons given below:
Your Driving license works as your Identity card too in most of the US states. This helps because, you don’t need to carry your passport and other important documents around all the time. If you dont want to drive or dont know to drive, then most states issue a State ID card – so make sure you get it. Trust me, its very helpful!
If you plan to drive in the US (say car rental etc), a valid US driving license helps. It will save you a lot of money on car insurance too.
If you do buy a car, then almost all states in the US make it mandatory to have Auto/Car insurance. If you don’t have a valid US drivers license and drive on an Indian license, then your insurance premium will shoot up! (by at-least $400 to $500 or more for 6 months!)
In some states & cities (like in Texas) there is one thing that might force you to drive with an Indian Driving License… and that is the validity of your Work Permit (H1B or equivalent). In Texas, if your work permit expires within in the next six months, the DMV won’t allow you to apply for a US Driving License. So, keep this in mind, and apply six months before your Work Permit expires if possible! However, this is true for Texas (confirmed in Houston), but may not be true at other states.
Oh – Last but not the least, if you are driving in the USA, make sure that you have auto insurance. Its a must and will save you lot of money and headaches in case of any eventualities!
If you are already in the US, I request you to comment below on your states policy on Indian Driving License!
If you are an Indian and have come to the US recently, you will be ‘shocked’ to see how closed and primitive the US cell phone market is! Well, except for the iPhone which is by no means primitive — but its ‘locked’ to the not-so-popular AT&T network.
Imagine getting charged for receiving SMS messages! Its really a sad story out here. There is no easy way for an average person to buy a phone of his or her choice without signing up for a contract. And the contact is normally 2 years! Which means, you must be a subscriber of that cell phone provider for the period of the contract at an agreed upon price. The average cost of plan such plans – around 40$ to 45$ a month (data plans would cost extra!), which is way to expensive compared to India!!! And if you want to switch to an other network, you need to cancel you current contract by paying an “early termination fee”.
If you want to buy a phone without a contract, you need to spend a fortune and its equally painful to get a service from a good provider (without buying a new handset). In other words, its in no way a free market. And, clearly, the down side to this entire thing is … the entire US cell phone market is lagging years behind the ‘world’!
Do check out this very interesting article on the US Cell phone industry which compares the US cellphone industry model with the “The Soviet Ministry Model”….: Free My Phone
I feel privatization is a good thing for India, but competition is very important too. And the most important thing is there must be a very effective regulatory authority like TRAI, which kind of enforces the rules to which the companies in India comply. Kudos to the Indian telephone industry!!
I wish India never gets into a situation like the US when it comes to telecommunications.
If you are still browsing the internet the ‘old’ way, then you must have a look at this video…
Personally, I have been a RSS feed addict for over 3 years now, and have never looked back!
I use Google Reader as my primary feed reader.Do try it out and see the difference!
