Cashless Carnival

The Honda City which has so far been the undisputed leader in the C-segment appears to be feeling the heat from the recently launched Maruti SX4 and also from the other diesel offerings from its competitors. The SX4 seems to have caught the fascination of the buyers, presently the booking period of SX4 is ranging from 2-3 months.

The guys at Honda seem to be realizing that having a futuristic looking, bland economical car may not really help in taking on loaded models like SX4 or other diesel cars in the segment which are economical and score high on performance as well.

This month’s Autocar has run an article that states that Honda has plans of releasing a new model of City within the next few weeks, the new model will have safety features like ABS and Airbags and the VTEC engine which at the moment is available only in the high-end City will be put on to the GXI variant as well.

So, if you have a month or so to wait before you switch cars, the new Honda City may be worth the wait .  Of course, the City will always command a premium price for the brand. But, if paying a few thousands [read it as 20 - 30 K] more than what you are ready to pay for the SX4 is really not going to hurt you much, the new City may be worth waiting for.

I was quite surprised to read in today’s newspapers the excerpts of our Prime Minister’s speech which he delivered at the opening day of the CII conference and the socialist tone his speech had.

“the need to avoid high salaries for executives, discourage conspicuous consumption, even keep profits “within the limits of decency””

“In a country with extreme poverty, industry needs to be moderate in the emolument levels it adopts,” Singh said. “Rising income and wealth inequalities, if not matched by a corresponding rise of incomes across the nation, can lead to social unrest”

‘Conspicuous consumption’,'moderate emolument levels’. I find it hard to believe that these words are coming from the man who is widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform programme. Immaterial, of however I look at these statements, it still does not make any sense to me.

My reasons for disagreement:

On one hand .. OK … , even if the corporate honchos agree to what you are saying and become magnanimous, would that make India prosperous and bridge the gap that is being referred to?

On the other hand .. Instead of suggesting this to the corporate honchos, why don’t we start with the people who we have elected. I am just picking an example here [am sure, there are much better ones]. Why do we see such a mismatch in your own speech and deeds. This website tells me that your own assets run to the tune of a few crores.

What say Sir?

Talking of statistics, the presentation “Shift Happens” which won the first prize at the “World’s best presentation contest” is really worth having a look:

[slideshare id=33834&doc=shift-happens-23665&w=425]

Do also checkout the presentation on Panipuri, the presentation which was the People’s choice first prize winner.

[slideshare id=38134&doc=panipuri-an-introduction-to-perfection-in-food-design-27986&w=425]

You can get the links to other presentations and more details about the contest and the winners here.

Statistics at times feels abstract and cannot create the same kind of impact which a picture can. This website looks at american culture through the camera lens.

Some of the statistics that have been captured through the lens:

• 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used every 30 seconds
• 60,000 plastic bags used every 5 seconds
• 15 million sheets of paper, used every 5 minutes
• 125,000 one hunder dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount that is being spent every hour in the Iraq war
• 426,000 cell phones retired every day

The site is worth having a look.

There is some controversy or the other always brewing at Bollywood either due to acts by Bollywood citizens or by their Hollywood cousins when they come visiting Bollywood. The controversy which originates out of a supporting act becomes headlines and stays on in the minds of the people but the main event of which the supporting act was just a part blurs away.

The latest being the Gere-Shetty episode. The moral policing and the ‘breaking news’ acts did such wonders that when you try to recollect about Gere’s visit to India, the first thing that comes to the mind is the Gere-Shetty episode and not the fact that he had come here to champion the HIV-AIDS awareness program.

Now, if you wind back a bit, can you recollect (within a few seconds) why Angelina and Brad Pitt had come here for? No .. No … Yeah ?

Nevermind, have a dekko at this video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5tYuR5H1Sg]