Prakash Advani's Blog

The more I read Mark Twain’s Quotes, the more I like him.. here another one of his on India.

“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by
man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the
sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten,
nothing overlooked.”

–Mark Twain

Mark Twain on India

Mark Twain’s Quote on reading

Mark Twain’s quote

I had the opportunity to test drive a Verna, Hyundai was kind enough to organise a car for the day. Lets looks at what I liked about the car.

• The car has excellent suspensions, ideal for Indian road conditions. We drove through bad Mumbai roads and in the monsoons the roads can have some really big pot holes. Ideal situation to test any car’s suspensions and the Verna did well in our test drive. We hardly felt any of the bumps.

• The Gear is smooth and easy to change. Reverse gear is not as easy to figure out for people moving up from a small car. Once you know this, its easy. So before you take you new darling for a spin, make sure you know how to switch to reverse.

• The car also has a clutch lock and the car doesn’t start unless the clutch is pressed. This is a safety feature.

• RPM meter on a dashboard is nice to have, although the dashboard could be a tad better considering all the fancy new dashboards. The Honda Civic has the best dashboards and had a set a new standard for other cars to follow, although Civic falls in a completely different category.

• Lots of space inside and well designed interiors, It has space for small things, bottles, sun glasses, cellphones, coins and more. There is also a nice storage tray right under the steering wheel which is useful to keep things like maps.

• Adjustable seats have two levels of adjustment which is nice but its not as easy to quickly switch to two different setting. This may be useful if two different people of different height drive the car and want to adjust the seat height.

• The diesel car that we test drove had a good pickup. It was also very quite while inside the car and didn’t feel like some of the other diesel cars that I have driven before. In fact it doesn’t feel like a diesel car at all, thanks to the CRDi technology. This is a 1500CC engine.

• The petrol engine is 1600 CC all aluminum, which make the engine lighter and hence better pickup and mileage.

• The car is a pleasure to drive and unlike a small car, you also don’t realise when you touch 100kmh as you don’t realise you are driving fast inside the car.

• The headlights are adjustable so you can point it on the road correctly and can be adjusted depending on if more people are in the car or if the car is loaded.

• The AC is very powerful and effective too.

• ABS option: I would personally highly recommend taking this option, cause safety shouldn’t be an option. Hyundai should seriously consider making this as a part of standard accessory.

What I didn’t like.

The gear ratio requires frequent changing between 2^nd and 3^rd gear in city driving. This is a problem I face with the Santro as well which I own and find this a pain especially if you are driving often in Mumbai traffic.

Final Verdict

Overall an excellent car and very good value for money, the diesel may be better for some who do lots of driving and want to save on running costs.

Hyundai Verna web site

Note: The site works best only with IE and I couldn’t get some of the pages to open in Firefox or Konqueror.

Related articles:

Hyundai i10

Tata Nano: 1 Lakh Rupees ($2500) Car

Maruti Suzuki Swift Vs. Hyundai Getz

Honda Jazz coming to India

Hyundai Santro Vs. Maruti Suzuki Wagon-R

This is the most impressive resume I have seen.

EDUCATION /Qualification:

Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh,
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Panjab University, Chandigarh,
1954; Wright’s Prize for distinguished performance at St John’s
College, Cambridge, 1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of
Cambridge, 1957; DPhil (Oxford), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on
India’s export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience:

Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59; Reader, Economics,
1959-63; Professor, Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh ,
1963-65;

Professor, International Trade, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi,
1969-71; Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi,
1976 and Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi,1996 and Civil Servant

Working Experience/ POSITIONS:

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade

1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance

1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India ; Director, Industrial
Development Bank of India ; Alternate governor for India , Board of
governors, Asian Development Bank; Alternate governor for India, Board
of governors, IBRD

November 1976 – April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department
of economic affairs); Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission;
Member, finance, Space Commission

April 1980 – September 15, 1982 : Member-secretary, Planning Commission

1980-83: Chairman , India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study
committee September 16, 1982 – January 14, 1985: Governor, Reserve
Bank of India

1982-85: Alternate Governor for India , Board of governors,
International Monetary Fund

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

1985: President, Indian Economic Association

January 15, 1985 – July 31, 1987: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

August 1, 1987 – November 10, 1990: Secretary-general and
commissioner, south commission, Geneva

December 10, 1990 – March 14, 1991: Advisor to the Prime Minister on
economic affairs

March 15, 1991 – June 20, 1991: Chairman, UGC

June 21, 1991 – May 15, 1996: Union finance minister

October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket

June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance

August 1, 1996 – December 4, 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standing
committee on commerce

March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance

August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rules

Aug 1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges 2000 onwards: Member,
executive committee, Indian parliamentary group

June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

Aug 2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:

India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth
-Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1964; also published a large
number of articles in various economic journals.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge , 1956

Padma Vibhushan, 1987

Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;

Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia, 1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

1966: Economic Affairs Officer

1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section, UNCTAD

1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on International
Monetary Reform

1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings

1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting

1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting

1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus 1993: Human
Rights World Conference, Vienna

RECREATION:

Gymkhana Club, New Delhi ; Life Member, India International Centre, New Delhi

Name: Dr Manmohan Singh

DOB: September 26, 1932

Place of Birth: Gah (West Punjab )

Father: S. Gurmukh Singh

Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur

Married on: September 14, 1958

Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur

Children: Three daughters

The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh seems to be the most qualified PM all over the world. Can’t imagine a politician being so qualified!

From this article on Novell-Microsoft Agreement.

Prakash Advani, Linux practice head of Novell Indian subcontinent said, “With this agreement we aim to make customers work in a mixed environment where they use both Linux and Windows. It’s essential that both operating systems work seamlessly.”

Want to get a quick view of the world economy without know anything about economics? Hans Rosling’s presentations are the best I have seen so far which explains economics in such a simple way.

See this one.

New insights on poverty and life around the world

See more of  Hans Rosling if you are interested.

“I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.”

- Kahlil Gibran