My Fortnightly Column, A Dose of IT that discusses Six point agenda for health and well being of Bangalore citizens Kapil Khandelwal QuoteUnquote with KK www.kapilkhandelwal.com

1. c m y k c m y k
15Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 16 November 2009
FB RESCUE: Rodney Bradford, a New
Yorker who was arrested for armed
robbery, has been exonerated thanks to a
status update he posted on Facebook. The
accused was in Manhattan at the time of
the crime — a claim he backed up by an
update he made to his FB page from a PC
in Manhattan building, prosecutors said.
DC
ISTORES: Apple said it plans
to open 40 to 50 retail stores
next year as it expands its
reach to customers. More than
half of the new stores will be
outside the US.
business
TECHNOMICS
COST CUTTING: IT services
firm 3i Infotech plans to
offshore some of its work as
well as implement a 4-day
work week for its US
employees to cut costs.
Agenda for
a healthy city
Kapil Khandelwal
I
n India, urban social
infrastructure plan-
ning for healthcare is
very rare. Bombay First,
an NGO for citizen
action, recently held an
event in Mumbai to dis-
cuss issues that can help
turnaround the city into
being the world’s best
place to live in.
Among other things,
urban social infrastruc-
ture for healthcare was
discussed; so was the
issue around climate
change and health risks.
Closer home, Namma
Bangaluru Action Plan
2012 (NBAP 2012) or
the Plan Bangaluru 2020
posted by ABIDE?
Agenda for Bengaluru
Infrastructure and
Development Task Force
— does not yet have a
focus on health.
Like Mumbai,
Bangalore Metropolitan
Region (BMR) will grow
to be a bustling city of
over 20 million inhabi-
tants by 2020 — a popu-
lation that would be larg-
er than some rich and
well developed coun-
tries! On major health
outcome indicators,
Bengaluru still lags
behind other seven
emerging megacities in
India.
How can we make
Namma Bengaluru, the
No. 1 city in India to live
in and an internationally
prominent metropolis
without due focus on
health and wellbeing of
its residents?
In the last 10 years,
Bengaluru’s population
has increased by over 40
per cent, consisting
mainly of the migrating
white collared knowl-
edge workers. We need
to focus on lifestyle-
based aliments, the rates
of which are rising at an
alarming rate as our
workforce ages.
Estimates suggest that
this may have an impact
on city’s output by 5 per
cent in the next five
years, eating into the
huge healthcare
resources.
Another key issue for
Bengaluru is the fast
depleting green and the
Garden City tag. With
climate change, we face
the risk of higher inci-
dence of diseases such as
drug-resistant malaria,
TB, dengue. Our city is
also home to a large
internationally migrant
population and the
recent swine flu out-
break and management
exposed weaknesses in
our health systems.
It is time we have an
inclusive strategy to
health and wellbeing
through a six-fold agen-
da.
First, create an effec-
tive plan to adapt to cli-
mate change. Second,
drive a vision for
Bengaluru as a great
place for the next gener-
ation to grow up in.
Third, draft inclusive
health and well being
policies that impact all
health and economic
indicators. Fourth,
implement a plan for a
strong urban economy.
Fifth, create healthy
communities around
BMR as we become the
world’s large megapolis
by 2020. Last, plan for
models for right ICT
intervention to serve and
empower residents to
manage their health.
Singapore, an island
nation, already has an IN
2015 plan: an intelligent
nation, a global city
powered by infocom.
Why should Namma
Bengaluru be left behind
in this global race?
Kapil Khandelwal is a leading healthcare
and ICT expert. Kapil@KapilKhandelwal.com
A dose
of IT
A dose
of IT
Bengaluru’s
Garden City tag
is fast depleting.
With climate
change, we also
face the risk of
higher incidence
of diseases such
as drug-resist-
ant malaria, TB,
and dengue.
Talent gap can hurt
Indian animation
SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA
DC | BENGALURU
Nov. 15: Alpha and Omega,
a 3-D animated Hollywood
film, is a heartwarming love
story of two wolves, sched-
uled to premiere in October
2010. It also happens to be
the first 3-D animated
Hollywood film that has
been conceived, produced,
and animated by an Indian
company — Mumbai-based
Crest Animation Studios. A
team of 250 people at
Crest’s Ghatkoper studio are
currently hard at work, sup-
ported by a team from
Crest’s California sub-
sidiary.
While this movie is sure to
catapult Indian talent to an
entirely new dimension
globally and attract tons of
new animation contracts for
movies, TV shows and ad
commercials, the reality is
sobering. “India cannot take
on huge volumes of work
due to a shortage of skill
sets,” says M R Balakrishna,
president, Association of
Bangalore Animation
Industry.
“Although Nasscom has
estimated that the Indian
animation industry, which
generates annual revenues
of $400-$500, can cross $1
billion by 2012, the dearth
of talent in India will make
it difficult to achieve this,”
he adds.
The animation industry
currently employs 15,000
people in India and industry
observers say, 20,000 more
jobs will be available over
the next 2-3 years.
A K Madhavan, CEO of
Crest Animation Studios
says animation is one of the
hottest career opportunities
available to the country’s
unemployed youth.
“About 40,000 jobs at all
levels, starting from a
trainee to a CEO, will be
available in 2010 alone,” he
says.
Crest currently hires raw
talent from creative and
technology backgrounds
who are trained over a peri-
od of time to deliver on the
job. The company has a pro-
duction team of 500, a spe-
cialised IT team, an in-
house scripting team and a
project management team of
25 plus, to measure, control
and improve production.
Yet another high-growth
career opportunity is in
Visual Effects (VFX) —
VFX is a process that
involves the integration of
live-action footage and
computer generated
imagery in order to create
environments which look
realistic but would be dan-
gerous, costly or simply
impossible to capture on
film otherwise.
“Animation and composit-
ing software makes it possi-
ble for big-budget films
such as King Kong to use
VFX to seamlessly merge
live footage with computer
imagery, which would have
been near-impossible to
achieve in real life,” points
out Reno K Subramaniam,
VP — Research,
Frameboxx Animation and
Visual Effects.
While animation training
schools such as ANTS
offers nine courses includ-
ing specialist courses and
act as feeder schools to ani-
mation companies who pay
anywhere between Rs 8,000
to Rs 15,000 for beginners,
it is not enough to meet the
demand, say analysts.
“Huge investments are
required to be made in
Public-Private Partnerships
where industry, academia
and government can work
together to bridge the
demand-supply gap,” says
Balakrishna.
Ashok Kumar C Manoli,
principal secretary to the
Government of Karnataka,
Dept of IT, BT and S&T,
says the state will soon start
working on a state policy for
animation and gaming.
Chinese want to snatch California from USCHRIS BUCKLEY
BEIJING
Nov. 15: Chinese Internet
users want to quiz US
President Barack Obama
about trade feuds, basket-
ball, Tibet and whether he
will cede California to
China, according to web-
sites seeking questions for a
“town hall” meeting.
Obama arrives on Sunday
for a four-day visit to shore
up ties between the world’s
biggest and third-biggest
economies, and a public
high point will be a planned
question-and-answer meet-
ing with young Chinese in
Shanghai on Monday.
The White House hopes
the quiz session will have a
“web component,” although
details are still being nego-
tiated, said Richard
Buangan, a spokesman for
the US Embassy in Beijing.
“We’re still in discussions
with the Chinese govern-
ment over whether the event
will be broadcast live
nationally and how it will
be carried over the
Internet,” Buangan said
from Shanghai, where he
was helping organise
Obama’s itinerary.
But state-run websites
have already begun to solic-
it possible questions for
Obama from the country’s
estimated 300 million
Internet users, including via
a Chinese-language website
of the official Xinhua news
a g e n c y
(ask.home.news.cn/).
The questions collected
reflect the mix of anxiety
and expectation the US
president is likely to
encounter when he meets
President Hu Jintao and
Premier Wen Jiabao.
Obama’s possible meeting
with the Dalai Lama — the
exiled Tibetan leader
scorned by Beijing as a
“splittist” for demanding
self-rule for his homeland
— ranks high among the
worries of both China’s
Communist Party leaders
and many citizens.
“Are you planning to meet
the Dalai Lama after visit-
ing China?,” asks one
Internet user. “We hope
you’ll respect the feelings
of the Chinese people and
not send the wrong signal to
this character threatening
Chinese sovereignty.”
China is also riled by US
backing for Taiwan, the
self-ruled island that
Beijing calls an illegitimate
break away. “Just what is
the United States? China’s
friend or enemy?” asks one.
Others wanted to press
Obama on trade, accusing
Washington of hypocritical
protectionism by mounting
anti-dumping cases against
Chinese goods.
Chinese worries about the
US are diluted by a passion
for American sports and
culture, especially with
China’s Yao Ming among
the stars of the US National
Basketball Association.
“Can you have word with
the NBA to let Yao Ming
and the Houston Rockets
win one championship?,”
pleads one Internet user.
Others raised bigger
hopes.
“Russian media reported
that in 2010 the United
States will cede California
to China,” asked one. “How
do you view this?”
The website of the official
People’s Daily newspaper
was also seeking questions
for Obama
(bbs1.people.com.cn/).
Chinese authorities often
scour websites for any
views that offend policy —
a point one Internet user
managed to make. “How do
you view freedom of speech
Chinese-style, with the
Chinese propaganda author-
ities filtering Web com-
ments and taking down
messages?,” one Internet
user on the People’s Daily
site suggested asking
Obama.
— Reuters
Dell gets
into smart
phones biz
Nov. 15: Dell has finally
confirmed what has been
bouncing around the mar-
ket for some time, that it is
entering the smartphone
business.
It’s not saying very much
about its strategy, other
than that it is using
Google’s Android operat-
ing system.
What Dell is doing is not
starting by fighting head-
to-head with Samsung,
HTC, Motorola in the US.
Rather it debuting its prod-
ucts in two big developing
markets where, presum-
ably, its core strength in
delivering generic technol-
ogy cheaply will be valued.
Dell said it will distribute
its first Android handset,
the Mini 3, through China
Mobile, the largest phone
mart, with half a billion
customers. In Brazil, the
phone will be sold through
Claro, the Brazilian wire-
less outpost of América
Móvil, a big chain of wire-
less companies controlled
by Carlos Slim Helu, the
Mexican financier.
The company did not
release any specifications
for the Mini 3 handset. It
released a few photos that
make it clear that the
phones are thin touch-
screen models with no
physical keyboards. — NYT
Honeywell
to hire 1,000
next year
New Delhi, Nov. 15:
Business conglomerate
Honeywell said it is consid-
ering to increase its India
headcount by about 1,000
employees next year as it
expects growth to bounce
back in line with global
economic recovery.
The company is also plan-
ning to provide bio-fuel
technology for the coun-
try’s airlines industry.
“This year the growth has
been flat, but still we are
hiring 500-700 people for
the entire group in India.
Next year we should recruit
about 1,000 people as our
domestic base expands,”
Honeywell Automation
India MD Vimal Kapur
said.
The firm, which has an
employee strength of
11,000 people, has been
adding about 1,000 staff
every year in line with its
annual growth during the
last few years, he added.
“The new recruitments
will be done in all our ver-
ticals, including R&D,
avionics (aircraft cockpit
system), auto components
and chemicals division,” he
said.
On Honeywell India’s, the
wholly-owned subsidiary
of the US-based firm, new
initiatives in the country,
Kapur said: “We are devel-
oping bio jet fuel technolo-
gy as part of our energy
saving initiative and the test
flights are being carried out
in the West. Our aim is to
introduce this in India.”
The company plans to
work in conjunction with
fuel suppliers, like HPCL
and BPCL, for use of the
technology in the Indian
aviation industry, he added.
— PTI
Shots from animation films created by Bengaluru-based Mediateck Animation Studios.
The world is look-
ing towards India
as an animation
hub, and we
believe that India is
well placed to
leverage this
opportunity. The
last few years have
seen the industry
evolve and mature
to deliver projects
of high international
standards.
Som Mittal, president,
Nasscom