Wanna Be millionaire!

THERE are a million ways to make a million. Here is one. If any one would have invested Rs. 10,000 in buying shares of Infosys in 1993 when it floated its initial public offer, today your money would be worth, hold your breath, Rs 14.7 lakh (or Rs 1.47 million). Not bad.

While I was going through Sunday Business Times, headline read as "Infy net up 33.2% at Rs 2458 cr". So finally Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy , Chief mentor Infosys Technologies has lived upto its old habit again. I was watching a clipping on a news channel in which while inagurating the new corporate headquarters in 1994 Mr. Murthy Chairman and CEO at that time announced "We will be a globally respected corporation that provides best-of-breed software solutions delivered by best-in-class people".
It took them 23 years to cross the first Billion Dollars of annual business and then within next 23 months another 1 Billion Dollors. So its good to celebrate 25 th anniversary in this way. Infosys is the first listed Indian company with this distinction (TCS crossed its Billion Dollars but it was NOT listed in 2003).

Interestingly Microsoft crossed its first Billion Dollars in its 16th year (Infosys did in 23rd year). Microsoft took another 2 years to cross $ 2 Billion; Infosys did the same!

So considering that Dollor has much more weight than Indian Rupee and Infosys has bulk of the employees in India, this is indeed nice performance!

Days Ahead

Over the next few days or probably next 1-2 months I am looking for following things :

FIFA World Cup 2006 : Its exactly 50 Days to Kick-Off. World Cup 2006 is starting on 9 June 2006 in the Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany. World Cup 2006 will be worth 24.5 million Swiss Francs ($18.75 million) to the winning team.
I am looking forward for Brazil taking on Croatia, Australia and Japan as the defending champions are looking solid this time also. Brazils 3R's Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo and Ronaldihno are going great. I think the Brazilian national football team is the most successful national football team in the world, with five FIFA World Cup victories, including the most recent tournament in 2002.

OnHollywood 2006 conference : OnHollywood conference will focus on the challenges, opportunities and business models of the digital era, showcasing the leading private companies that are revolutionizing the way media and entertainment is created and distributed. The event will be held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA from May 2-4, 2006. Tony Perkins, editor and founder of AlwaysOn mentioned that OnHollywood will feature an impressive line-up of speakers as well as pioneering private companies, giving the media a rare opportunity to be exposed first hand to material and interviews with top executives, VCs and other key industry leaders within digital media.

Krrish & Fanaa : As the trailer opens to Hrithik's stomping footsteps pulsating the Dolby Stereo, the screen flashes with lines that define his character. He was born with a gift. He was special like his father. Krrish, the sequel to the biggest blockbuster of 2003, 'Koi Mil Gaya' will also be Hrithik's first film since 'Lakshya'.
Fanaa: I was overwhelmed by a trailer for a film barely a month away. The film is highly anticipated as it marks the end of Kajol's four year sabbatical from the film industry. Also is features her first time pairing with Aamir Khan. According to sources, Aamir Khan will don the role of a terrorist whilst Kajol will play a Kashmiri girl, though this is not confirmed.
There are few other things to mention but I am running out of time time now.
I will update this post soon.

Reservation

General Elections are due in four states of India and just before that the Govt. of India has decided to increase the percentage of reserved seats in institutions which are under central govt. This will include prestigious institutes even IITs & IIMs. I think Reserving 49% of seats in every discipline is a complete disgusting idea.
Suddenly raising percentage of reserved seats from 22% to 49.5% (plus seats reserved for foreign nationals) will left near 50% seats for general category. The competition to get into IITs will become more brutal now.
A lots of people group are coming forward to condemned this move saying that it will dilute the brand name of these prestigious institutes. Well yes it would. If diluting the brand is good for the country - especially for its poorer sections then I can favour that.
But I think that govt. have not bothered to argue how reserving seats in IITs would lift OBCs out of poverty. In order to even appear for the IIT entrance exams, you need to have completed 12 years of schooling. How many poor OBCs will get that far? Now what will happen that poor OBCs will continue to drop out of school to support their families. Middle class and upper middle class OBCs who have all the opportunities that every other middle class person in India has will get a back door entry into elite institutions. Since they won't have to go through the rigorous competition that everyone else has to go through, the quality of these elite institutions will suffer.
If the Govt had real interest in doing good for OBCs it would have created conditions to allow poor OBCs to get educated till the high school level. And then introduced this reservation to give them a leg up into elite institutions.