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!
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.
Just checked Google earth.. and it looks like there has been a major data update. Lots of places are much clearer. Not very high resolution, but much better then before!. My home town, Mangalore now looks great, and I can see my house ! :)
Check out this picture of Infosys Mangalore - My office back at Mangalore…
I still have all the PCQ CDs with me back at home. Offcourse, during those days (1995/96), a CD was something great, and getting a CD for ‘free’ with a magazine was pretty cool (even though you had to spend around Rs. 100 for the Mag!)
Initially, I used to religiously buy the magazine from the newsstands, but it was always tough to get the issue with the CD. But I think I never missed a issue for a couple of years. I finally subscribed to the magazine after sometime. Was subscribed for nearly 3 years I guess.
But after that, somehow, I felt that the quality of the magazine was degrading, and I missed a couple of issues too. The customer service was bad too. So, finally stopped my subscription.
But then, the Internet revolution had gained momentum, and internet became my main source of Info to the world of IT and downloads.
Talking about Linux, I did try installing Linux couple of times from the PCQ CDs (and direct downloads), but never fully adapted it for some reason or the other!
Cell Phones. One area where India rocks. No questions.
Ok, lets see the differences :
In US, first of all, its very difficult to get a cell phone connection!. You need to have a good “credit history” to get a cellphone. If you don’t have a credit history, you need to pay some deposits. And guess what? I was told that I need to deposit $750 to get a cell phone connection since I did not have any credit history!!! In India, almost everyone can manage to get a cell phone service. No major deposits etc!
In US, almost all the providers ask you to sign a 1 year or 2 year contract. In India … “What contract?? Are you kidding?”
In US, you get a mobile phone with your plan. This is good one way, but then you will have to sign a one year contract for sure (and pay some money for the handset…offcourse less than the market price - but this depends on the plan and the phone in question)!. In India, you have the freedom and flexibility to select your phone, based on your budget, from Rs 500 to 25,000! And you can change your handset anytime (except CDMA providers)
In US, the airtime charges (or the call charges) are way too high!! There is air-time charge for incoming calls too!. In India, incoming is *free*, and the outgoing calls tooo are hell lot cheaper compared to US. Infact, I had almost forgot the term “air time charges” !
In US, some plans charge you for receiving SMS !.. Nice way to get screwed!. In India, I don’t know of any plans where you get charged for receiving SMSes.
In US, sending out SMS is pretty expensive (from 4 cents to 40 cents!!!). In India…….its 1/10th the price!
In US, prepaid SIMS are contract free, but are way too expensive. i.e., the postpaid plans them self are expensive, but prepaid is more expensive. In India, the call charges on pre-paid and post-paid are almost comparable.
One more point is, in US, with most of the plans, you get some free minutes. If you are within the limit, then you are safe. But if you exceed, then you will be charged like crazy. And the minutes are used even if you call a Toll Free number! Most plans count the minutes for incoming call too!
I also noticed that in US, Nokia handsets are not that popular. I haven’t seen many people use Nokia handsets. I found more people using Motorola handsets.
Clearly, India is far ahead! Hope to see similar progress in other areas too!
All set, and ready to fly. I would be starting today, and would reach kingsport, TN on Saturday afternoon (EST). So, this would probably be my last post from Mangalore, India before I fly.
So, my next post would be from Kingsport, TN once I settle down. Hopefully with some pics!.
As I had mentioned in my previous post, I would mostly be travelling to our client location at Kingsport, Tennessee, United States on an work assignment. If all goes well as planned, I would be starting on the 27th of this month, and reaching there on 28th.
So, now the race against time has begun!. Lots of things to do in the next couple of days, and the checklist of “things to do” is ready. The “doing” part has kind of begun. Today, came back home early from work and went out for shopping. Bought a big VIPtravel bag. Also bought a carry bag which I can use for cabin luggage. And then a couple of jeans. Did some other minor tasks. Lot more shopping and “To Dos” planned for the next couple of days.
