Got home safe !

And am indulging in all sorts of high-fat delicacies !!

Oh hell, redistribution again !

I wrote sometime ago about my belief that the Iraq War is being used as a means of redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich. I am now convinced that wealth redistribution is more ubiquitous than I initially imagined.

It was a radio article on NPR that triggered this thought. The article talked about the town of Bethlehem, PA. This town was the headquarters of the now-defunct Bethlehem Steel. At one point, 50% of the town's population worked for the company.

Now, the town is rife with crime and unemployment and is also deep in debt (300+ Million dollars in the red). And the town management came up with a solution - Casinos. I simply cannot reconcile America's pre-eminent position in the world with an economy that has to turn to gambling to turn-around "disaster areas" (New Orleans, Detroit and Bethlehem being some of them).

And then it struck me, casinos will generate some employment, but to a large extent, they are yet another means to get the poor's money and make the rich richer. Guess who is the proponent of casinos in Bethlehem ? The consortium that runs the Sands Casino in Atlantic City.

And who spends the most money in casinos chasing after an elusive dream ? The poor.

Pataudi lives in Coimbatore ?

Check out this hilarous article ...
(via: Raapi)

Muy Interesante ...

I have read so much about Wal*Mart and their labor practices that an image formed in my head of an extremely exploited workforce, paid at minimum wage levels.

I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today - It was about Wal*Mart's CEO Lee Scott asking the government to raise the minimum wage levels across the country. I found this extremely interesting. I found to my surprise that Wal*Mart actually pays all of their employees above minimum wage. Hence, Lee Scott's demand makes perfect business sense, as it would have the impact of increased costs for other retailers that pay only minimum wage while having very little impact on Wal*Mart themselves.

I find Wal*Mart fascinating - They are almost a country to themselves, with their own distinct corporate culture ... (No unions, executives cannot give external interviews without corporate approval etc..)

And of course, Bentonville, AR, the location of Wal*Mart's headquarters has the highest number of churches per capita. The residents of the town do not pay property tax - Similar to the town that Disney World is located in.

I have read articles that state that Wal*Mart's workforce is 25% illegal. I wonder if that's possible ... But I must say that their Supply Chain operations are phenomenally well-organized.

Bad Timing

Continental Airlines is starting their non-stop service to New Delhi on Nov. 1st - I wonder why they did'nt start a week earlier - They could have raked in the Diwali traffic moolah ...

Netflix has a new DC

in Raleigh, North Carolina ... Pity that this is happening just as I leave for India ...

Aeroflot :-)

Off to India for 75 days to get a prototype ready for a new business that I am in the process of starting up. I am extremely excited about this trip, especially as I get to spend Diwali in India after a long time.

The only flight that could get me to India in time for Diwali and that was not full was Aeroflot :-) I think its going to be an interesting experience ... I have heard mixed feedback about the airline, but atleast they have banned smoking on-board (In 2002 !)

I found this Letterman Top-10 list online. Its quite hilarious !

Top Ten things Aeroflot can do to improve it's image

10. Shoo the bats out of the lavatories
9. Promise delivery within two days
8. Stop asking smaller passengers to sit in the laps of larger passengers
7. No longer have Moscow to Leningrad flight connect through Dallas-Fort Worth
6. Modify plane to resemble giant airborne potato
5. Stewardesses with necks
4. Water down the captain's vodka
3. Remove Chernobyl cured ham from inflight menu
2. Paint over Gorbachev-inspired red mark on top of fuselages
1. More Aero, less Flot

PS: This is my 200th post !

Blog Consolidation ...

In the US, mainstream TV media is almost completely polarized with the liberal group (CNN, Comedy Central) and the right (Fox, MSNBC) being the major groups. Print media is similarly biased with the NY Times and Wall St. Journal serving as flagships for the respective political blocs.

There was a time, a few months ago, when blogs were being positioned as an unbiased source of news and information that could serve as a credible substitute for mainstream media.

I think the opportunity has passed for bloggers .... Mainstream blogs look no different from mainstream media. These blogs have neatly organized themselves in various sections of the political spectrum. I cant think of one popular blog that caters to people of every political viewpoint. It almost seems like the only successful blogs/news services are the ones that are divisive.

And, inevitably blog consolidation is starting ! (I predicted this a few months ago). I read an article on Business Week that referred to a company that has "purchased" 90 blogs recently and started offering all of them in a single site.

This has advantages for blog owners as it gives them the ability to negotiate better advertising rates with Goliaths such as Google's AdSense. On the other hand however, this is inevitably going to add a dangerous "editorial" component to the content of these blogs.

Maybe we are just destined to have one-sided stories ....

How many generations ?

In June, I wrote about a popular Tamil saying - "No family ever remains very rich or very poor for more than three generations". I believe that this is quite true of countries as well. Most countries in the course of their history have gone through cycles of alternating affluence and poverty. India and most of the other ancient civilizations (Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, China) are in varying stages of relative poverty now - Of course this was not the case a few hundred years ago !

In most countries/civilizations, the start phase is one in which the country is in a stage of poverty and hunger - The country then works its damnedest to pull itself up to a position of affluence by dint of sheer hard work and persistence.

The second generation in this country has grown up in affluence and money is no longer the prime driving force. Power and significance in world politics becomes more important and the country goes through a phase where development is driven by the desire to create things more for the grandioseness anand prestige of the achievement, rather than for the utility.

Money and power hold no attraction for the next generation, which seeks to find the truths of the world in art, beauty and abstract thought. Although this generation creates some beautiful monuments, it is inevitably the start of the decline because the population by and large has lost its hunger and desire for success.

An example of the three generations in Mughal India:

I. Babur-Humayun
II. Akbar-Jahangir
III. Shah Jahan

The US has bucked this trend to the large extent and has seen a steady increase in prosperity and importance for the last 250 years or so. I puzzled over what the secret behind this was .... Especially because it is not often that these Tamil proverbs turn out to be proven wrong.

I think I have figured out the reason .... Its immigration !
The influx of immigrants has artificially introduced a first generation (hungry, poor, desperate for success) from time to time. So while a good deal of the population moved from being money seeking to power and art seeking, there was always a group of people being imported that brought the necessary spark to keep the economy growing.

Things have changed in the last few years, with immigration becoming increasingly restricted to qualified, well educated folks, who are likely to have had an affluent childhood, which means they would be Generation II's rather than the Generation I's. (The only exception being illegal immigrants from Mexico/Cuba).

If the US becomes more closed, the population will quickly become full of Generation III's and will self-destruct - Too many philosophers, not enough blacksmiths :-)

The sound of America is ...

... Wal*Mart's registers on Friday night ...

Junk Mail & Blackmail

Every mail service worth its salt now has a junk mail filter. Yahoo, Outlook, Google Mail etc ... I sometimes wonder what sort of criteria these mail services use to filter email and tag some of them as being "junk".

I have been puzzling over this for quite some time and I dont understand how it works ... There is an email I get from some vague company called "Palisade Risk". Every two days I get a marketing message from them on my yahoo account, which I mark as spam. However, although I have tagged it as spam more than 20 times, the email is never delivered to my spam folder.

I must give yahoo credit for weeding out most of my junk mail though. I am curious though on whether these two situations (hypothetical) could ever occur.

1. Legitimate companies, sending out necessary and important emails are approached by mail services and asked to pay a service fee, in lieu of which their emails would automatically be classified as spam

2. Spammers paying mail services a price in order for their messages to be delivered to the Inbox rather than the Spam folder.

Unlikely to hapen maybe, but I love conspiracy theories :-)

Guatemala !

I got a recent visitor from Guatemala and for some reason, I am all thrilled about it !

Mensa Invitational ....

(via DH)

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are my favorites from this year's {2005} winners:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops brightideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little signof breaking down in the near future.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. (My favorite !)

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an as*h*le.

I got tagged ...

by Sneha !

I am supposed to publish the 5th sentence of my 23rd post. Here it is ...

"I "I have a very comfortable life and I assume that you do as well – However, while you use your comfortable life as a reason for the perpetuation of the current system at the cost of others, I believe that my being blessed with comforts gives me an obligation to improve the lot of others who have not been similarly blessed."

This is from a post titled "An Open Letter to Reddy K" - It was in response to some dumbass who was trolling me.

And in order not to break the chain I need to tag 3 non-enlightened ones who are waiting to be blessed!! I tag Olinda, Chenthil and Anya

Here are the Rules:
Delve into your blog archive.
Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
Post the text of the sentence in your blog.
Tag atleast 3 people with these instructions.

Happy Tagging!!

Logistics in War

I usually perform atleast some research before writing my posts .. However, this post is purely based on my perception, which might be completely wrong.

"War is won or lost by the quartermaster" said Rommel, one of the shrewdest tacticians among the Nazi forces. "An army travels on its stomach" is another one of the long list of quotations that reinforce the importance of logistics in war.

Getting the right rations, ammunition and other necessities is a pre-requisite to successful warfare. Of course, today's soldiers have a much greater degree of comfort/infrastructure than the soldiers of the past. Soldiers in Iraq even have access to computers, air conditioners, microwaves etc ...

And I think that is phenomenal - No doubt that this does a great deal in boosting the morale of soldiers ...

However, I am inclined to think that this might have gone a bit too far ... Do American soldiers by virtue of the luxury they are accustomed to back home, require a much greater degree of infrastructure than say a Chinese soldier ? In other words, both of these armies have different definitions of what "minimum infrastructure" is, meaning that an American soldier would require a lot more to get the same degree of morale boost as a Chinese soldier (because the Chinese soldier probably sleeps on the floor at home anyway).

If there is an impending war between the US and China, it would almost seem to me that the US would require a much greater amount of time to get their "minimum" ready as compared to China.

Would that be a disadvantage in a war where the US isnt the aggressor ? A war in which the US doesnt get to dictate the timeframe and terms of engagement ? I certainly think so.

Oh my god !

That's Arvind Swamy (Roja, Bombay, Minsara Kanavu).

Music Search - Generation II

In the words of Mr. V, my constant critic, I have become more of an Opinion Mani than an Idea Mani. Hopefully, this post will correct that record ;-)

The iTunes music store recently went through a major renovation. And although there has been a great degree of improvement in the user friendliness of the store, I am still waiting for another upgrade.

Music is such an ubiquitous part of our life today. The TV shows we watch have an opening jingle, movies have songs in the background and the latest trend is advertisements with popular tunes as background music.

Sometimes I hear a song somewhere and I break my head trying to remember who sung it. What if we could have an option on iTunes to search by situation/relationship ?

For example, I love the song on the Coke commerical (Starry Eyed Surprise by Paul Oakenfeld). I think it would be awesome if I could go onto iTunes and enter this search phrase: "Coca Cola commercial" and have a list of songs that served as background music for coke commercials.

Similarly, if I liked a song that was being hummed by the actors on "Becker", all I would have to do is search for "Becker Group Song" on "Episode where Becker almost loses his license"

And in the meantime, if someone could tell me the name of the Spanish dancer on the Bose demo videos at their retail stores, I would be obliged !

PS: I know I could google it, I don't want to.

The Iraq War ... Its economics, stupid !

I hate war - In fact, several of my early posts were oriented around the Iraq war.

From a very early age, children (predominantly boys) are exposed to a culture that glamourizes war - Movies, mythology (Mahabharatha/Iliad/etc), toys and religion (in some places).

Most children grow out of it.
Some don't, and that is the source of the world's best and worst.

I have realized one thing though - The billions of dollars that are being spent on the Iraq war arent really being "wasted". The war is just a mechanism to transfer money from the poor to the rich in the US. And although there are other ways to do it (unfair taxation, force-feeding of commercialism etc ...), war is the perfect vehicle for it.

What else could fire up factory workers in Alabama, living on the verge of poverty to make personal sacrifices and accept increased financial burdens ? War makes the patriotic poor (a generalization) willing to give up their hard earned money, more easily than anything else.

Of the billions of dollars being spent, a great deal of it is re-entering the US - However, the money now belongs to a few large corporations instead of the millions of Americans.

Tell me, under which other circumstances would "ordinary" Americans sit back and accept such a blatant redistribution of wealth ?

Of course, the insurgency has thrown a spanner in the works ....

Throw the CEO a bone ...

CEO pay has often been the topic of heated discussion on TV shows, magazines, newspapers and at coffee shops - Especially recently, with the scandals at Enron and Disney.

I personally believe that CEOs deserve every penny that they make - In salary, stock and everything that is linked to company performance. I do not think they should get the bloated severance pays that has become the norm recently. CEOs that were kicked out for non-performance ended up walking out with Millions of dollars. The Merck dude, the HP dudette, the Disney dude et al.

A great CEO is a sight to behold.
An inspiration, the person who never tires, the person who sets the direction and strategic vision for an ENTIRE company. I find that amazing !

Once when Lee Ioacocca, then CEO of Chrysler was asked why he was paid so much, he had a phenomenal answer - "How do you define my salary as being too big ? Especially when the owner of a large Chrysler dealership makes more money than me !"

Isnt that true ?!
I know of petrol pump owners who are richer than Indian Oil's chairman, personally.

Of course, the entrepreneurs have much more at stake, after all, its their own money they have invested in their company.

On the other hand, the pressures on a CEO, especially with the retarded Sarbanes Oxley act are immense as well.

So, heres to more performance linked pay schedules and less out of the world severance packages ....

The death of a genre

The other day, while I was chatting with Olinda about movies and we both realized that the "Tragedy" genre has all but died out in the recent years. No more of those movies with sorrow at every turn, with the protagonists forced to endure the most improbable sorts of torture.

The best examples of these movies that had a "sad ending" were probably the Hindi movies made in the period 1960-1980 and also every Malayalam movie ever made (It seems like !). And Bengali movies too.

We were racking our brains trying to remember the last tragedy to come out of Hollywood and the only one we can up with was "The English Patient" - which arguably was not a mainstream movie (Studio: Miramax).

Some other movies in the recent years with strains of tragedy are

Moulin Rouge
Mystic River
Gladiator &
Hotel Rwanda

I wonder why this genre is being run over so dramatically by the action/comedy/romance genres ?

eBay Shenanigans

I got a surprise phone call today .... From a Canadian cop.

He introduced himself and said that he was investigating the theft of about 1,000 Blackberry handhelds in Ontario. Apparently, somebody had stolen a huge consignment of the handhelds, and sold a bunch of them (657) on eBay.

And I was one of them :-) I had bought my 7100g on eBay about 2 months ago. I have bought several phones online without a problem before. The officer then went through a whole list of questions about my eBay transaction and I was quite thrilled, this being the first time I was participating in an investigation.

The officer told me that Research In Motion, the maker of Blackberry handhelds was not going to de-activate the stolen phones as a goodwill gesture. He told me that he was exclusively assigned to investigating the sale of stolen goods on eBay.

eBay claims that less than 0.0001% of their listings are estimated to be fraudulent, and I believe them.

In other eBay news, whats the deal with them buying Skype ? I think its one of the most retarded decisions eBay has made. I cant believe they spent more than 2.6 Billion just to provide users with the option of calling each other using Skype.

Bankruptcy

Nope, its not me thats declaring bankruptcy.

These are a few of the companies that have declared bankruptcy in the US in the last few months.

Enron
United Airlines
US Airways
Northwest Airlines
Delta Airlines
Worldcom
Global Crossing
Adelphia
Mirant
KMart

Of course most of these companies continue to operate, almost as if nothing has changed. The one major difference is that most of them have transferred their pension obligations to the Pension Guaranty Organization, run by the US Govt. In addition, they have been able to squeeze out a bunch of concessions from suppliers and employees.

A few other companies look set to declare bankruptcy - GM, Delphi and Independence Air.
Delphi has asked its assembly line workers to take a paycut from $50/hour to $10/hour and is warning that if they do not, bankruptcy is inevitable.

Coming from India, I guess maybe I dont quite understand the significance of bankruptcies in the American business context.

I keep thinking of how things would be in India, under the following hypothetical scenario:

Bankrupt
Reliance Power
Air India
Indian Airlines
Jet Air
Sahara Airlines
BPL Mobile
Aditi Technologies
Satyam Infoway
BSES
Pantaloons

On the verge of Bankruptcy
Maruti Udyog
TVS Group
Kingfisher Airlines

Would'nt investors in India be freaking out !!
The fact that nobody really seems to think that theres anything wrong with the US Economy despite these bankruptcies shows one or more of the following:

1. The American market is super mature and deep to the extent that these bankruptcies dont affect the overall environment
2. The American psyche has gotten inured to bankruptcies
3. The whole country is on crack :-)

Of course, the bankruptcy system is set up in a way to favor the corporations more. Which in a way is good because Exectives feel able to take larger risks, with the potential for huger pay-offs.

Can you imagine what would happen to the Indian stock market if even one of the companies I listed above actually declares bankruptcy ?

Bridge Ices before Road

Yesterday, going down the highway, this struck me - There are signs saying "Bridge Ices before Road" ahead of every bridge on the road.

Why ? Do you have to do modify the way you are driving when a bridge ices before road ?
I personally never have ...

A brief web search reveals that there are 588,768 bridges in the US.
If it costs $250 to put up and maintain a sign, thats $147 Million.

Go ahead Department of Transportation - Get rid of these signs.
And please expand I-40 near Cary, NC while you are at it ;-)

Note: Readers have informed me that the sign is related to actual ice, rather than the verb ice that refers to a level difference on the road, which was what I thought. Still doesnt make sense to me though - People should know this anyways, and if they slow down only when they see the sign, which is like 1 meter ahead of the bridge, theres going to be no use.

Note II: A reader sent me this story ....

Tour in USA – the warning sign “watch for ice on bridge”
8th December 2005 from Memphis to Dallas

The rented car-drive to here, Dallas, from Memphis was ok, 7 hours plus 2 * 20 minute break, the car was a Dodge Stratus 4door sedan, 2.7 liter engine automatic. The fuel consumption = some 9 Liter/KM.

Actually I hoped for a better km/liter consumption actually I planned to drive at 60MPH speed, but as the traffic flows at 70mph including - and mainly - the huge gigantic trucks/lorries, I had to be a bit faster and switch to a steady 75mph (120km/h), so not having the trucks "sitting on my tail".

Dallas to Houston.
I arrived here to HOUSTON safely Thursday 4pm afternoon DEC the 8th, from DALLAS, after over 15 hours on the road, instead of 5(!), driving in the most terrible and fierce road-conditions I ever experienced.

HORROR ON THE DALLAS-HOUSTON FREEWAY:
People killed, injured, wounded, vehicles crushed and wracked, all this due solid ice on the road surface of the many bridges.

Begin this episode back in Dallas. Wednesday evening the temperature fell well below zero and the sizzling rain built up this ice cover condition. Even to walk became very difficult. I asked for the meaning of the warning sign “watch for ice on bridge”, was explained that because there is a very cold airflow beneath the bridges this builds up a thick firm solid ice covering.
We listened to the weather forecast, and learned that more the later the condition will get more hazardous. I started out at midnight, after a double-espresso at Starbucks, and full tank of petrol (gas).

At the first ramp to a city freeway a car nervously “sits on my tail” but I continue the ascend and the curb very cautiously. Reaching the freeway this car ignores road conditions, and accelerates to overtake me. He skids right in front of me, loses control, I see in the mirror as he swings 2 lanes, crashes “head on” to the concrete wall, than spins and gets “smeard” to the wall. I couldn’t stop for the traffic flow, was just sorry for him and his brand new car.

I “feel” the road-condition and set my speed to 40mph (yes 40 and NOT 70), and upon approaching a bridge with that ice warning sign I slow down to 15mph (!) with warning blinkers on, and flashing all possible warning lights for the fellow behind. The trucks, the lorries and the semi-trailers (here called “18 wheelers”, though some have 40 or more) kept regular speed, ignoring weather/road conditions, they are heavy and safe – that what they thought than. As I drive on in my pace I see many crashed/overturned vehicles in the roadside in the opposite direction, including those gigantic huge heavy lorries, sometimes 2 or 3 collided together, overturned upside-down, back-to-front and facing opposite direction.

Who knows what happened to their drivers/passengers. The same scene appeared nearly near every bridge, we mean the small bridges just 10 – 30 meters long those over creeks and landfolds, and there are many dozens of them on the highway, (not those big and long bridges over rivers / connecting islands). Driving on, suddenly the whole traffic is stalled, must have happened a major accident, judging by the volume of emergency/rescue vehicles on site. Somehow we managed to detour, than I drove into a nearby village to take a pause, but the village was completely darkened, all asleep, not knowing nothing about all the horror going on the highway, the merciless weather has caused. The temperature was 18F ( -6C, minus six Celsius) very unusual for the south DALLAS-HOUSTON probably the reason for not knowing how to drive in these conditions (it’s not wise just to press the gas pedal, what is even fatal).

So then after I returned to the road, driving very carefully as approaching these ice surfaced bridges. Driving at my pace, we came to another road block, and this time we stalled for 1 and a half hour, just sitting in the heated cars and watching the rescue vehicles arriving from the opposite direction. Must have been a very heavy collision. At the closest gas-exit I turned off the highway, but still everything was closed. No choice, keep on driving, and now I meet a fatal accident on a bridge itself, the police cars were already there, I see several cars crashed up and blocking the right lane. On the road were lying 3 covered bodies, and parts of clothing scattered all around. From a sleeve was a hand-palm peeking (!). I continued with even a slower speed. 30mph road and 10 mph (yes, ten) approaching a bridge.

What actually stopped me from continuing driving was the following:

I noticed 2 cars overturned and a man climbing the bank to the roadside waiving his both hands as for help. I see his 4X4 overturned and all wheels spinning full speed.

I assumed somebody perhaps trapped inside, I stop very gradually and back up to him asking if help needed. No he says, I just want to warn to drive slowly, and to notify the police. Suddenly he yells WATCH OUT! I see in the mirror another car pulling up behind me, he lost control and came skidding right into me!! The last fraction of a second I managed to move forward, and saw him spinning into the ditch. Phew! What an escape! I drove off, let rescue cars do the rescue job.

At the next first exit I got off the road for a long time, just hanging around some McDonald’s or alike, have coffee, read newspapers, making phonecalls.

When I got back to the highway, the road-conditions were the same even 9am, the not yet eased. The only difference was the behavior of the drivers’, the speed was much slower. So I kept my pace, 30mph road 10mph bridge.

An example to Chinese curse: “let your life be an interesting one”!

Off to Houston ....

So, there will be no posts for the next three days ....

Chennai Vibrations ...

Several of you must have heard about the atrocious clampdown on personal freedom in Chennai during the past few days. Several kilobytes have been written about the incidents by Chenthil and Nilu, two extremely talented and passionate bloggers.

For the impatient, here is a synopis ....

There was a private party at "The Park", one of the top luxury hotels in the South Indian city of Chennai. At this party, there were several women drinking and several couples "making out". A photographer from a popular local newspaper (the equivalent of the National Enquirer/Sun) gate crashed and took several photgraphs of couples kissing and women drinking. These were splashed all over the front page of this rag.

This motivated the Police Commissioner of the city to arrest the managers of the hotel and issuing arrest warrants for the people whose photographs appeared in the newspaper.

Of course, considering that this was a private party, the photographer had no business being there and the police should have no problem with them considering that they were not disturbing the public peace.

The commissioner and the judge before whom the case was heard declared that this sort of "party culture" went against the roots of the 2000-yr old Tamil Culture and that women should not drink/kiss in public. In other words, men could, but women shouldnt. Double standards/chauvinism at their very worst.

I am disgusted by the police action. Modifying the words of Voltaire, "I may not share the moral outlook of the party-goers, but I will fight unto death for their right to live by their moral code".

Several causative factors have been discussed as being reasons for these actions including political gain, sheer narrow mindedness and others.

However, I believe that two reasons have been ignored.

1. Economics

In India, with the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, we have been waiting for the social upheaval that is almost unavoidable.

Is this it ?

Not one person who has ever set foot in the Park as a paying customer is likely to have an income of less than 5 lakhs per annum (Which is quite big). A drink at the Park costs Rs. 500 or so (a weeks salary for a bus driver).

Is the reaction of feminist and religious groups that purports to be moralistic, actually jealousy, with the political parties fanning it up to use the British philosophy of divide and conquer ?

Certainly, it is the poor around the world that are more "religious".

2. North vs South

The South (especially Tamil Nadu) has been the site of several anti-North, anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindi struggles in the past, leading to and resulting from the formation of the Dravidian parties (ADMK, DMK and off-shoots). I personally know that a disproportionate number of party-goers in the Chennai have North Indian roots.

Are Tamilians afraid that their culture is being spoilt by "aliens" from the North ?

Tough to steer these ships ...

I am fascinated by the similarities between countries and companies.

Larger countries (in terms of the size of their economy), like large companies have some inherent advantages and disadvantages.

The most important advantage is that their size and the resources at their disposal act as a significant barrier to entry to other companies/countries (co/co's). Huge marketing budgets, huge R&D budgets, a well-known brand and the ability to attract and retain talent make large co/co's extremely difficult to unseat.

On the other hand though, the very size of these companies is sometimes a disadvantage. It is of course, much easier to turn a smaller ship than a larger one. And the sheer size of large co/co's makes it more difficult and costly to implement changes.

For example, a corporate restructuring at General Motors would be much more expensive and painful as compared to one at a much smaller company like eBay.

Similarly, the costs of making changes in a developed country as against a developing country is larger by a degree of magnitude.

Lets assume that a new technology for roads was invented that is vastly superior to existing ones. How much would this cost per mile in the US as against India, for example ?

The cost/mile constructed in India is $1.4 Million - 4 lanes
Cost/mile constructed in the US is $12.4 Million - 4 lanes

And the Indian figure is from the Golden Quadrilateral project, with road quality at acceptable quality standards.

Even if the quality of US roads is considered to be twice the Golden Quadrilateral roads, the cost is about 4 times India.

Similarly, if it would cost $200 Billion to re-build New Orleans, it probably would be much, much cheaper if an equivalent Indian city was destroyed.

I think the high costs in developed countries will ultimately end up making infrastructure costs higher and higher to the extent that developing countries will be able to catch up very quickly, because of their lower base costs.

Its simple economics - And in a truly free world market, no country would ever remain the richest for more than a few years because the other countries would be cheaper places to build newer infrastructure.