Yeh Jo Halka Halka Suroor hai

From a rather young Nusrat Fateh Ali.

Mumbais hotting up!

It is gettin really hot and hazy these days! worse still there is hardly any wind  read weather bureau forecasts

Yesterday the climate was rather funny, and even at noon there was that haze and smog reducing visibility slightly reminding me of Bejings pollution woes.

Bengaluru Flip Flop

Bengaluru politics has never been this interesting. Hearding politicians to hill stations, seems to have worked for the JDS for now. The change in climate seemed to have brought about a change in the attitude of some of the rebel MPs, who seem to have pulled the support rug from under  the feet of the Congress CM nominee, MP Prakash.

Its happening again, this time its time for the the Governor of Karnataka who is doin the flip flop. So finally the Madam certified Governor Thakur is doin a Deve Gowda (Gabbaaar) on the combine, buying time by goin to Delhi to seek the advise of the Madam(i didnt mean the PoI).

Surprisingly im also becoming a big fan of sify news for its somewhat balanced and improved reporting. Et has a rather confusing but interesting piece too.

In news unrelated the Tn don’s nominee at the centre seems to be in a bit of soup these days, as SC has finally woken up by issuing a notice for contempt.

Indias Political ramblings

Are our elected politicians herding animals? Seems so from the fact that elected representatives of all parties need to be herded by their respective party heads, time and again and packed to a hill resort somewhere!(this however doesn’t apply to laloos rjd … he is a professional and genetic herder of cattle, him included)

In other news Mayawati was involved in theatrics. The way the ministers are using public funds these days makes me think that the nation is goin to the dogs …err buffaloes. Sadly gone r the days and the ethics of the likes of Tilak, Gandhi, Shastri and Patel.

If we have VAT all over India then why does Maharashtra and Mumbai BMC still enforce collection of Octroi? Does it not amount to double taxation? Is it to increase income of the corporation or of the officials collecting the said octroi including higherups going up right till the Mahsul mantri?

Gold ETF

Holding gold in commodities market and NCDEX is nearly impossible to small investors as the margins demanded are too high and volatility can be sharp, increasing risk.

There are now at least a half dozen gold mutual funds including etfs which one should think of adding to ones portfolio.

Im seriously thinking about it though the time doesn’t seem right as divali is round the corner and the speculators in the international mkts have already ramped up the prices, as it is well known that Indians are the largest consumers of the yellow metal.

My interest stems from the Dollar depreciation and turbulence well documented by Ila in her post The USD quagmire.

In other news, Ankur has a nice post on why the inflation is low even as the prices of all the essential commodities is skyrocketing. Ila explains it a lot better in The not so good news on inflation.

unrelated to all this, the book Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy would definitely be a good read.

Configuring Mtnl Mumbai Triband on Dlink 502t

Configuring MTNL Triband on Dlink modems is easy aibit if u can put in the settings right.

First get the line isolation right by attaching the direct line without any parallel instruments and connections to the LINE on the pots splitter or GLB adsl router.

Phone line >> Pots splitter/Glb line>> to Phone connections

Australian old model DSL502T (click for detailed setup by socrates)

In Interent explorer :

192.168.1.1 >> login and pass admin >> Run Wizard >>

configure the Time Zone +5.30 hrs and click on Next>>

Internet connection type :select ‘PPPoE/PPPoA’ and click on Next >>

Username -Your Tel No (note new connections have @a added to them)

Password (your CA number, Customer Identification number). This available on your tel bill.

VPI 0 VCI 32 Connection type PPPoELLC. Click Next and Restart.

U should be done.

When the modem restarts, try and access a site like google.

If not then login again or refresh and in Wan Chk if PVC is PVC0

If not make it PVC0 and Apply changes and goto

TOOLS >> SYSTEM scroll down & click on the ‘Save & Reboot’ button

Once restarted u can login again and click on Status: Device Info to see if ur status is connected or not. Simpler thing would be to try and access a site like google.

ON New INDIAN GLB 502T

In Control Panel >> Network Connections >> Local Area Connection

Right click >> Properties and double click on the checked item

“Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

Click on “Use the following IP Address” and give it the following values:

IP Address: 192.168.1.2; Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0; Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

and click OK.

Try cmd Enter then ping 192.168.1.1 and chk if response is 100%.

U should be connected to the router now and the lan light should be lit up.

To setup MTNL

In Interent explorer : 192.168.1.1 >> username and pass is admin

In Setup under WAN setup click on “New Connection”

Connection Name: Mtnl (anything u choose)

Type PPPOE

Sharing Enabled in old mtnl servers / Disabled in @a servers

VPI 0 VCI 32

Username -Your Tel No (note new connections have @a added to them)

Password (your CA number, Customer Identification number). This available on your tel bill.

click on Apply and in Tools click the first option on the left and Save All.

U should be done with the settings, when the router restarts u should get the pppoe light to start in about 5 seconds max , after the adsl lights up .

Mtnl helpline 1504 >>> 2 assistance 3 online help (free in mornings)

admin server http://register.mtnl.net.in

Hope that will help

Common mans security

Thanks to a PIL, finally the Delhi high court has woken-up to the misuse of police, NSG and security personnel intended for security of the common man but blatently misused by Politicians at public expense. Read

Mumbai piclife!

Another 6 months of traffic jams at Churchgate

hello kitty !

Eye catching Advertisement.

*Pics from my 1.3 mp nokia mobile cam

Lessons from Turkey?

Just reading this article from the times.

Turkey is a Secular muslim country and one of the most secular, in the Islamic world.History tells us that the Ottoman turks were the ones that took Islam to the Gates of Vienna. They were the most modern of Muslims then and things haven’t changed that much now.

Mr Erdogan said “If a neighboring country is providing a safe haven for terrorism . . . we have rights under international law and we will use those rights and we don’t have to get permission from anybody.”

Military action could be avoided only if the Americans and Iraqis expelled the PKK, closed its camps and handed over its leaders, he said.

Mr Erdogan said that last week’s parliamentary vote authorising military action showed that Turkey’s patience was exhausted. He would not be drawn on the scale or timing of any operation, but Turkey is thought to have more than 60,000 soldiers massed along the Iraq border. Other Turkish officials said that the PKK had six training camps and 3,500 fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq.

The Kurdish strife is another continuing saga stemming from the splitting up of the Kurdish heartland during the division of the old Turk empire after the WW2  wherein the Allies divided the Old Turkish empire in such a manner that things would keep on sweltering underneath and the new nations would be kept busy among each other rather than become a power that could threaten their hegemony, just  as the British did out of Undivided India.

Doesnt it ring a bell?Doesnt it bring Jnk to ur mind. There are a lot of lessons to be learnt from the outcome of this battle for India.

Stock Mkts or Shock Mkts ?

I, like Ankur was bewildered to see the steep rise in the market indices in India. The fundamentals are still the same but the valuations are haywire.

The Nse fell today on opening and how – a straight downward circuit of 10% on the much belated announcement of seeking views on restricting derivative PN flows. It did however recover after some right noises from the FM , and some purchases by Lic and others later in the day. The Bjp and the new opposing supporters CPM is demanding a JPC on the whole circus.

Ajay the free mkts proponent explains the whole game that puts the whole argument in context. Its not about the Pnotes after all it is the Capital Account controls.

The announcement in the long to medium term is a positive development nonetheless but will give pain in the short term when the market has gotten illegally irrationally exuberant. This thanks very strong flow of hot n cold dollar coming in from the west, partially due to the continuous fall in the dollars value resulting in rupee gaining strength.

The Indian stock markets are under owned by many Indians. This being my personal opinion stems from the fact that most middle class Indians still prefer the safe FD route and hardly any of the rural population has access to the equity markets. Things are surely changing no doubt, but it will take time for India to compare with Usa where even a barber and a masseuse have a portfolio or a mutual fund investment with Vanguard or Templeton . The Sebi powers are weak, insider info sharing is rampant, fines are negligible and the small investor is always the last to know and his interests are seldom looked after.

There is definitely fear in the minds of people and the most important thing is to not panic, though the fear is not unfounded if you look into the history of the markets.

Sucheta Dalal has time and again exposed the scams, and it is not difficult to sum up the fact that Govt interferes in Psus, Autonomous bodies, and markets while politicians run Psu firms like their personal fiefdoms.

People still remember the UTI mess, the Ifci Idbi Nabard mess .. list will go on.The scamsters are almost always in league with either the politicians or bureaucrats and even after the endless scams and the endless jpcs and gazillion inquiries no real punitive action is ever taken.

Look at UTI 64, a trust fund in the guise of a mf whose Trustees were untrustworthy and were in league with pvt fund managers and corporates instead of them looking after investor interests. Why wouldn’t they if past precedent meant that the rules could be broken – like investing in companies recommended by politicians of political party s or for Psu disinvestment at high prices. Net net the small investor suffered thanks to the unilaterally imposed governmental package and smart decision of implimenting STT by the current fm to simply force a write off of the capital loss suffered by most unit holders.

Read 10 years of scams,
Sucheta on KP and Sucheta on tehelkas backers

So my friends Caveat Emptor still rules our markets.