Google image search made easier December 31, 2008
Posted by Arup Deb in Techbytes.Tags: Google, Google Image Search, Search
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Google has just recently made searching for clip art and line drawings much easier. This is yet another step towards making Google the best choice among search engines for all times. Some time back, Google incorporated photo search under the image search feature and prior to that they had introduced the face search feature. The new clip art & line drawings features would definitely be a good news for all those, who regularly search the web for images for personal and other reasons, as with the highly defined search parameters, the job will get easier. The idea behind the different image search features, is to eliminate all other images in the search result that do not fall in the searched category. Those, who are yet to experience the new features, must check out the same. It is really cool. See the Google screenshot down below; different image search options are available in a drop down.
Brazilian IT major Positivo looking for suitors December 14, 2008
Posted by Arup Deb in Techbytes.Tags: Brazil, Dell, Lenovo, Mobo Kids, Positivo, South America, Technology
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One of the largest computer hardware and software players from Brazil, Positivo Informatica S.A. is taking the merger and acquisition route to relieve itself of the hard-times, it is currently passing through. Due to the ongoing global financial crisis and the weakening of the Brazilian currency, Positivo saw a drastic drop in its market share. In the Brazilian laptop market, Positivo’s share dropped to 27 percent at the end of June 2008 as compared to 57 percent during the same period in the previous year. Positivo has been feeling the heat for quite some time now, due to rising production costs, as a good portion of the raw material is sourced through imports.
Positivo is a big name in the Brazilian IT market and also exports to countries in the west. It has a wide range of offerings in the computer hardware segment that include peripherals, and accessories and softwares. The new suitor may have a huge advantage in terms of leveraging Positivo’s ultra modern production facilities, professional manpower, vast sales and service network and a well established brand image.
The South Brazil based company is known for its innovative product design. The Positivo Mobo Kids Laptop shown herein, is a testimony of the high design sense that this company seems to have. And, it is also known for the quality systems that it adheres to for making world class products backed by an efficient customer support. 
Lenovo and Dell are reported to be in talks for acquiring the troubled technology major. It seems post financial turmoil era, global business will see emerging new equations, with the markets getting highly polarised and being shared by a handful of very strong players. Not only in the hardware segment but may be in several other segments too, within the IT products and services space.
Kaushalendra – the green revolutionary from Bihar, India December 1, 2008
Posted by Arup Deb in World Changers.Tags: ATMA, Bihar, Europe, IIM-A, India, Japan, Kaushalendra, Nalanda, Patna, PNB, Samriddhi, US
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Kaushalendra, a 27 year old Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad graduate from Ekangarsarai in Nalanda District of Bihar State in India, is nurturing a co-operative of vegetable farmers that we all should be proud of.
The young man, out of India’s premier management institute could have opted for the best of placements in top corporates and MNCs, but he chose something that would benefit a larger number of people rather than an individual. He founded a farmers’ co-operative type initiative christened as Samriddhi (prosperity), being managed through his for profit organization, KNIDS Green Private Limited, which sells vegetables in temperature controlled pushcarts on the streets of Patna, the Capital of Bihar. Samriddhi aims to propogate organic farming and use its marketing expertise to reach out to the markets.
A private-public partnership venture, Samriddhi was launched with just one push-cart a few months back, with help coming from Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA). Today, it has around 50 push-carts and plans to get into newer markets. Help has also come through a collateral free loan of US$ 100000 from India’s leading public sector financial institution, the Punjab National Bank. Kaushalendra has plans to take the Samriddhi brand to the US, Europe and Japan. Friends of Women World Banking (FWWB) too pitched in with soft loans.
ATMA a government body, is training the several hundred farmers that are associated with Samriddhi, in matters relating to high-yield seeds and crop protection.
The unique supply chain is all about reaching out directly to the consumers with the rightly priced and weighed, high quality garden fresh vegetables, while creating a bright future for the villagers. The tags attached with the produce also informs the consumer about its origin, like the name of the farmer and the village it has come from. That is a nice way of recognising the effort put by these deserving people.
Samriddhi’s mission is to make Bihar as the vegetable hub of India. With someone like Kaushalendra at the helm of affairs, it doesn’t seem to be too difficult.
But for a temporary blip, from ancient times Bihar had shown the path of enlightenment to the people of India. Kaushalendra continues with that legacy.
