Rumi Nations

The Economist had this article talking about the imminence of new licenses for the opening of banks in India. And I put in a couple of long comments on the article. Here they are. I will be extremely worried if Reliance gets a banking license. And why does Indian banking need Mr. Vikram 'Citi' Pandit's punidtry in Indian banking? Haven't American banks including Citi, JP Morgan and all the other too-big-to-fail banks and other financial institutions including hedge funds caused enough havoc to the American economy? Have not the GREED of a few men to make millions and billions of dollars per year caused enough unemployment for millions of Americans? We do not want a repeat of the mistakes of America.

Since I am a die-hard Apple user -- use iPods, iPhones, iPads, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros -- I thought to share a few innovation tips to the guys at Apple tearing their hair over what new features to add to their upcoming iPhones that will keep the competition at bay. Here are my top suggestions -- have an expandable external keyboard and screen. Let me explain and expand that. The iPhone screen of 3.5 inches can stay that -- but you can have a folded screen that will expand in a fun way when the user needs a larger screen, say to work on that document/spreadsheet/presentation while waiting for the flight or inside the flight. Oh and the user will of course need a full-sized physical keyboard as well. So include a full keyboard which nicely folds into the back of the phone. The material needs to be thin yet sturdy. Carbon fiber or carbon nanotubes might do the trick. You all of course know about the ever expanding storage. So I need not advise you to include 1...

Death is a good thing not merely because, as Mr. Jobs put it, “It’s probably the single best invention of life,” or “it’s life’s change agent,” but also because men of hubris are at last brought down to Earth (and indeed below the Earth) by the phenomenon of death. It’s a fate that no hubristic billionaire can escape … yet. The ordinary person can look at a hubris-laden individual engaged in some megalomaniacal activity and take some satisfaction out of this knowledge that death will conquer this villain as well just as it has claimed many other villains through history. What other areas of human activity can you think of where there’s virtual equality between all? Some path breaking inventions of medical science qualify. When a vaccine is available for polio, EVERYONE is suddenly safe from this scourge — street dwellers and penthouse dwellers. But they are few and far between. Technology seems to be one arena where this occurs more frequently. Consumer devices are at once cutt...