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கம்பனும் மதுவிலக்கும்…..

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மது அருந்துவது தீய பழக்கம் என்று கம்பராமாயணத்தில் பல இடங்களில் பதிவுசெய்கிறான் கம்பன்

ஆங்கிலேயரது ஆட்சிக் காலத்திலேயே தமிழ்நாட்டில் மது விலக்குக்காக 1886-ல் மதராஸ் அப்காரி சட்டம் என்ற ஒரு சட்டம் இயற்றப்பட்டது. அப்காரி என்ற சொல்லுக்குப் போதை ஊட்டும் பானங்களையோ மருந்துகளையோ தயாரிப்பது அல்லது விற்பது என்பது பொருளாகும். இச்சொல், பெர்ஷிய மொழிச் சொல்லாகும். இந்தச் சொல்லுக்கு இன்னொரு பொருள் மதுபானம் மற்றும் மருந்துகள் தயாரிப்பது அல்லது விற்பதற்கு விதிக்கப்படும் வரி என்பதாகும்.

மதராஸ் அப்காரி சட்டம், 1905, 1913, 1929 ஆகிய ஆண்டுகளில் திருத்தம் செய்யப்பட்டு, அதன் பின்னால் ஒரு புதுச் சட்டமாக 1937-ம் ஆண்டு தமிழ்நாடு மதுவிலக்குச் சட்டம் இயற்றப்பட்டது. இந்தச் சட்டத்தின் முதல் நோக்கம் என்னவென்றால், போதையூட்டும் பானங்களையும், மருந்துகளையும் தயாரிப்பது, விற்பது மற்றும் அருந்துவது ஆகிய அனைத்தையும் தடை செய்வதாகும். ஆனால் பின்னாளில், மதுபானங்களின் தயாரிப்பு, விற்பனை மற்றும் அருந்துதலை ஒழுங்குபடுத்தும் சட்டமாக இது மாற்றப்பட்டுவிட்டது.

1947-ல், இந்திய நாடு சுதந்திரம் அடைந்த பிறகு, 26.1.1950-ல் நமது அரசியல் நிர்ணயச் சட்டம் அமலுக்கு வந்தபிறகு, அதில் மருத்துவத் தேவையைத் தவிர மற்ற எந்தக் காரணத்துக்காகவும் மது அருந்துவதைத் தடை செய்வதற்கு எல்லா மாநிலங்களும் தீவிர முயற்சி எடுக்க வேண்டும் என்னும் உறுதிப்பாடு, பிரிவு 47-ல் கொண்டுவரப்பட்டது. இது ஏட்டளவில் நின்றுபோய், பெருவாரியான மாநிலங்கள் மது விலக்கைத் தளர்த்தி, குறைந்தபட்சம் இரண்டு தலைமுறைகளை உடல் மற்றும் மனவளம் குன்றியவர்களாக ஆக்கிவிட்டது. கடந்த 67 ஆண்டுகளாகச் சுதந்திர இந்தியாவில் பல மாநிலங்கள் மது விற்பனையால் வரும் வருமானத்தைக்கொண்டே மக்கள் நலத் திட்டங்களை அமல்படுத்துவதாகக் கூறுகின்றன. கண்ணிரண்டும் விற்றுச் சித்திரம் வாங்குவது போலவும், கோயிற்பசை செய்வோர் சிலையைக் கொண்டு விற்றல் போலும், வாயிற் காத்து நிற்போர் வீட்டை வைத்து இழத்தல் போலும், நம் நாட்டின் மதுவிலக்குக் கொள்கை அமைந்துவிட்டது.

 

கம்பன் கண்ட கோசல நாடு, கிஷ்கிந்தை மற்றும் இலங்கை கூட, இந்தக் குழப்பத்துக்கு விதிவிலக்குகளாக அமையவில்லை போலும். எனவே, கம்பன் பல இடங்களில் கோசல நாட்டு மக்கள், கிஷ்கிந்தை மற்றும் இலங்கை மக்கள் கொண்டிருந்த குடிப் பழக்கத்தை ஆங்காங்கே காட்டிவிட்டு, அதேசமயம், பல இடங்களில் இப்பழக்கத்தைக் கண்டிக்கவும் செய்கிறான்.

யுத்த காண்டம், பிரம்மாத்திரப் படலத்தில், இந்திரஜித்தனின் பிரம்மாஸ்திரத்தால் அனைவரும் கீழே விழுந்து கிடக்கும் செய்தியைக் கேள்விப்பட்ட ராவணன், ஒரு வெற்றிவிழாக் கொண்டாட்டத்துக்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்கிறான். இந்தக் கொண்டாட்டங்களைக் களியாட்டுப் படலத்தில், கம்பன் கற்பனை வளத்தோடு விவரிக்கிறான். அந்தக் கொண்டாட்டத்தில், அரம்பையர்கள், அரக்கியர்கள், அசுரப் பெண்கள், நாக கன்னியர்கள் ஆகியோரை ராவணன் ஆடவைக்கிறான். அப்போது, கள்ளுண்டு ஆடியவர்களுடைய நிலை எப்படி இருந்தது என்பதைக் கம்பன் சொல்கிறான் :

நல் பெருங் கல்விச் செல்வம் நவை அறு நெறியை நண்ணி,

முன் பயன் உணர்ந்த தூயோர் மொழியொடும் பழகி, முற்றி,

பின் பயன் உணர்தல் தேற்றாப் பேதைபால், வஞ்சன் செய்த

கற்பனை என்ன ஓடிக் கலந்தது, கள்ளின் வேகம்.

அதாவது, நல்ல கல்விச் செல்வத்தால் பெரியோர் களது உபதேச மொழிகளை அறிந்து அவற்றால் வரும் பயனைத் துய்க்க வேண்டிய தருணத்தில், ஒரு மூடன் மனதில் ஒரு வஞ்சகன் வைத்த கற்பனை எப்படிப் பரவி நிற்குமோ அப்படிக் கள்ளின் வேகம், மகளிர் கூட்டத்தில் பரவியது என்பது இப்பாடலின் பொருள். கல்வியால் பெறும் தெளிவைக் கள்ளினால் வரும் மயக்கம் அழித்துவிடும் என்னும் உறுதியை இப்பாடலில் கம்பன் காட்டுகிறான். இதில் பின்னால் வரும் இன்னொரு பாடலில் கள்ளுண்டு ஆடிய காரணத்தால் தாளமும், காலமும் தவறி ஆடிய பெண்களைக் கம்பன்,

‘பாணியின் தள்ளி, கால மாத்திரைப் படாது பட்ட நாணியின் முறையின் கூடாது, ஒரு வழி நடையின் செல்லும் ஆணியின் அழிந்த பாடல் நவின்றனர்’

என்று விவரித்தான். கள்ளுண்ணுதல் பெரும் பாவம் என்னும் கருத்தையும் பல்வேறு இடங்களில் குறிப்பிடுகிறான்.

யுத்த காண்டம், நிகும்பலை யாகப் படலத்தில், தன்னை இகழ்ந்து பேசும் இந்திரஜித்தனுக்கு மறுமொழி உரைக்கும் வீடணன், தான் குற்றமற்றவன் என்பதற்கு அத்தாட்சியாக

‘உண்டிலென் நறவம் பொய்ம்மை உரைத்திலென் வலியால் ஒன்றும் கொண்டிலென் மாய வஞ்சம் குறித்திலென், யாரும் குற்றம் கண்டிலர் என்பால்;

என்று உரைக்கிறான். எனவே, மது அருந்துவது என்பது, பொய் சொல்வதற்கும், பிறர் பொருளைக் கவர்வதற்கும், வஞ்சம் செய்வதற்கும் இணையான குற்றம் என்பதையும் கம்பன் பதிவு செய்கிறான்.

‘ஏயின இது அலால், மற்று, ஏழைமைப் பாலது என்னோ?

“தாய் இவள், மனைவி” என்னும் தெளிவின்றேல், தருமம் என் ஆம்?

தீவினை ஐந்தின் ஒன்று ஆம் அன்றியும், திருக்கு நீங்கா

மாயையின் மயங்குகின்றாம் மயக்கின்மேல் மயக்கும் வைத்தாம்!

‘கள்ளுண்ணல் ஐம்பெரும் பாதகங்களில் ஒன்று. தாயையும் மனைவியையும் வேறுபடுத்தி அறியும் அறிவைக் கள் அழிக்கும். மற்ற எல்லா அறங்களைப் பின்பற்றி வாழ்ந்தாலும், கள் அருந்துபவனுக்குப் பிற அறங்களால் என்ன பயன்? மனிதப் பிறவி எடுத்தவன் ஏற்கெனவே மாயையின் மயக்கத்தில் ஆழ்ந்து கிடக்கும் போது, அந்த மயக்கத்தின் மேல் இன்னொரு மயக்கத்தை ஊட்டுவது எஎவ்வளவு விந்தை’ என்று ஒரு மாயையின் தத்துவத்தை இப்பாடலில் சுக்ரீவன் பேசுகிறான்.

‘வஞ்சமும், களவும், பொய்யும், மயக்கமும், மரபு இல் கொட்பும்,

தஞ்சம் என்றாரை நீக்கும் தன்மையும், களிப்பும், தாக்கும்

கஞ்ச மெல் அணங்கும் தீரும், கள்ளினால் அருந்தினாரை

நஞ்சமும் கொல்வது அல்லால் நரகினை நல்காது அன்றே?

விஷம்கூட அருந்தியவரைக் கொல்லுமே தவிர, நரகத்தில் தள்ளி விடாது. ஆனால், மது அருந்துவதால் வஞ்சனை, திருட்டு, பொய், அறியாமை, தொன்று தொட்டு வந்த மரபுக்கு மாறான கொள்கை, அடைக் கலமாக வந்தவரைக் காப்பாற்றாத தன்மை, ஆணவம் ஆகியவை வந்து சேர்ந்து நரகத்தில் கொண்டு விட்டுவிடும் என்கிறான் சுக்ரீவன்.

இப்படி சுக்ரீவன் மூலமாக மது ஒழிப்புக்கு ஒரு மிகப் பெரிய அடித்தளத்தை அமைத்துக் கொடுத்த கம்பன், இந்திய அரசியல் நிர்ணயச் சட்டம் பிரிவு 47-ல் கொள்கையளவில் ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளப்பட்ட மது விலக்கு, நடைமுறையில் காற்றில் பறக்க விடப்பட்டதை நமக்கு நினைவுபடுத்திக் காட்டுகிறான்.

– உயர் நீதிமன்ற நீதிபதி வெ.இராமசுப்பிரமணியன் எழுதிய ‘கம்பனில் சட்டமும் நீதியும்’ நூலிலிருந்து தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட பகுதிகள் (வெளியீடு: வானதி பதிப்பகம்).

source….வெ.இராமசுப்பிரமணியன் in http://www.tamil.thehindu.com

Natarajan

” சுந்தர் பிச்சை: இணைய சாம்ராஜ்யத்தின் தமிழ்ப் புயல்…”

NatarajanLeave a comment

சுந்தர் பிச்சை | கோப்புப் படம்: கமல் நரங்

சுந்தர் பிச்சை | கோப்புப் படம்: கமல் நரங்

இது கூடத் தெரியாதா உனக்கு? போய் கூகுள் பண்ணுப்பா’ என்று அறிவுறுத்துகிற புதிய வழக்கு உருவாகிவிட்டது. தேடுதல் என்ற வார்த்தைக்குச் சமமாக இன்று கூகுள் என்ற இணையத் தேடுபொறி மாறிவிட்டது. 2006-ம் ஆண்டு ஆக்ஸ்போர்டு டிக்ஷனரியிலும் அந்தச் சொல் சேர்ந்துவிட்டது.

கூகுள் சாம்ராஜ்யம்

எந்த ஒரு விசயத்தைப் பற்றி நாம் கேட்டாலும் அதனை கோடிக்கணக்கான இணையதளங்கள் செயல்படுகிற கணினிகளில் இருந்து தேடி எடுக்கிறது கூகுள். நல்லது, கெட்டது, சரி, தவறு எல்லாவற்றையும் நம்முன் படைக்கிறது. அதிலிருந்து அன்னப்பறவை போல உங்களுக்கு தேவையானதை எடுத்துக்கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

இன்றைய இணைய உலகில் கூகுள் ஓர் அசைக்க முடியாத நிறுவனமாக மாறிவிட்டது. உலகம் முழுவதும் பத்து லட்சத்துக்கும் அதிகமான ஆதார தகவல் மையங்களை அது வைத்துள்ளது. அமெரிக்காவை மையமாகக் கொண்டு உலகின் பல நாடுகளில் கூகுள் செயல்படுகிறது. 52 ஆயிரம் பேருக்கும் மேலாக தற்போது இந்த கம்பெனியில் பணியாற்றுகின்றனர்.

அத்தகையப் பெரும் இணைய சாம்ராஜ்யத்தின் தலைமை செயல் அதிகாரி (சி.இ.ஓ) ஆக தமிழகத்தைச் சேர்ந்த சுந்தர் பிச்சை நியமிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளார். ‘ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் ஒன்’ என்பதைப் புதிதாக கூகுள் அறிவித்தபோது அவர் பிரபலமடைந்தார்.

ஆலமரமாய்…

சுந்தர் பிச்சை 2004-ம் ஆண்டு கூகுளில் இணைந்துள்ளார். 2011- ல் கூகுள் குரோம் ப்ரவுசர், ஜிமெயில், ஆப்ஸ் உள்ளிட்ட பிரிவுகளுக்கான உலகளாவிய பொறுப்பாளராக அவர் நியமிக்கப்பட்டார். 2013 முதல் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருளுக்கான பொறுப்பாளராகவும் அவர் நியமிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளார்.

1998-ல் லாரி பேஜ் மற்றும் சேர்ஜி பிரின் எனும் இரண்டு நண்பர்களால் இந்த கூகுள் நிறுவனம் தொடங்கப்பட்டது. உலகிலுள்ள தகவல்களை ஒருங்கிணைப்பதே கூகுளின் நோக்கமாகும்.

ஒரு நாளில் 100 கோடிக்கும் மேலான தகவல்கள் கூகுளில் தேடப்படுகின்றன. அதி விரைவாக கூகுள் வளர்ச்சியடைந்துள்ளது. பல புதிய மென்பொருள் சேவைகளும் அதனால் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளன.

ஜிமெயில் எனப்படும் கூகுள் மெயில், கூகுள் டாக்குமெண்டுகள், கூகுள் பிளஸ், கூகுள் டாக், கூகுள் மேப்ஸ், கூகுள் நியூஸ், பிளாக்கர், யூ ட்யூப் போன்ற பல்வேறு கிளைகளை பரப்பி பிரம்மாண்டமான ஆலமரமாய் அது வளர்ந்துள்ளது.ஆண்டுதோறும் லட்சக்கணக்கான கோடிகள் ரூபாய் மதிப்பில் அதன் வியாபாரம் விரிந்துள்ளது.

விரியும் ஆதிக்கம்

சமீபத்தில் குரோம் ப்ரவுசர் என்னும் இணைய உலவியையும் கூகுள் வெளியிட்டது. அது தற்போது இணைய ப்ரவுசர்களின் மார்க்கெட்டில் 32 சதவீதத்தை கைப்பற்றி உள்ளது. ஆண்ட்ராய்டு என்னும் செல்போனை இயக்கும் மென்பொருள்தளத்தையும் அது வெளியிட்டது. அதனால் செல்போன்களின் துறையில் பெரும்தாக்கம் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது.

உங்கள் கைகளில் விளையாடும் டச் ஸ்கிரீன் செல்போன்களில் ஏற்பட்டுள்ள புதுமைகளுக்கு எல்லாம் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் இயங்குதளம் எனும் மென்பொருளும் ஒரு காரணம். தற்போது செல்போன் உள்ளிட்ட 120 கோடி கருவிகளில் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருள் பயன்படுகிறது.

சென்னையின் புதல்வர்

சுந்தர் பிச்சை சென்னையில் பிறந்தவர். மேல்படிப்புக்காக மேற்குவங்கத்தை சேர்ந்த கரக்பூரில் உள்ள ஐஐடியில் சேர்ந்து படித்தவர். அமெரிக்காவின் ஸ்டான்ஃபோர்டு பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் எம்.எஸ் பட்டமும், பென்சில்வேனியாவில் இருக்கும் வார்டன் கல்லூரியில் எம்.பி.ஏ. பட்டமும் பெற்றவர். கூகுள் நிறுவனத்தில் சேருவதற்கு முன்பு மெக்கென்சி நிறுவனத்தின் சாஃப்ட்வேர் நிறுவனங்களுக்கு கன்சல்டன்டாக இருந்திருக்கிறார்.

சுந்தர் பிச்சையைப் பற்றி கூகுளின் இணை நிறுவனரான லாரி பேஜ் “அவர் ஆழமான தொழில்நுட்ப அனுபவம், உற்பத்தி மீதான சிறப்பான கண்காணிப்பு, தொழில் முனைப்புத் திறமை ஆகியவற்றின் அரிய ஒருங்கிணைப்பாக இருக்கிறார்” எனப் பாராட்டுகிறார்.

சுந்தர் பிச்சையின் அப்பா சென்னையில் உள்ள பிரிட்டிஷ் பன்னாட்டு கம்பெனியான ஜிஇசியில் எலக்ட்ரிகல் இன்ஜினீயராக இருந்துள்ளார். சுந்தர் பிச்சைக்கு 12 வயதில் ஒரு மகள் இருக்கிறார்.

அடுத்த பாய்ச்சல்

கூகுள் நிறுவனம் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருள் மூலம் தனது அடுத்த தயாரிப்புகளைத் திட்டமிட்டு செயல்படுத்தி வருகிறது. இவை போன்ற தயாரிப்புகள் எல்லாம் மனித வாழ்வில் பெரிய தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்த உள்ளன. இத்தகைய திட்டங்களில் முக்கிய பங்காற்றுபவராக சுந்தர் பிச்சை இருக்கிறார்.

ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் ஜீனியஸ் என அழைக்கப்படும் சுந்தர் பிச்சை இப்போது சி.இ.ஓ.வாக நியமிக்கப்பட்ட நிலையில், கூகுளின் அடுத்த பாய்ச்சல் நிச்சயம் மகத்தானதாக இருக்கும் என்ற எதிர்பார்ப்பு கூடியிருக்கிறது.

Source….த.நீதிராஜன்  in http://www.tamil .thehindu.com

Natarajan

” The Rise and Rise of Sundar Pichai….”

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Pichai Sundararajan aka Sundar Pichai. Photo: Kamal Narang

Pichai Sundararajan aka Sundar Pichai. Photo: Kamal Narang   The Hindu

“Super excited about his progress and dedication to the company,” says Google co-founder Larry Page.

Google’s announcement on Monday that it would be subsumed within a new parent company called Alphabet had a bonus for people of Indian-origin world over: the company’s head of Products and Engineering, Chennai-born Pichai Sundararajan, was anointed the CEO of the new, “slimmed down” Google.

Underscoring his confidence in the man known as Sundar Pichai (43), Google boss Larry Page said of the restructuring in the company he co-founded with Sergey Brin, “A key part of this is Sundar Pichai.”

Mr. Pichai, who is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University, had “really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses,” Mr. Page said in a blog post, adding that he and Mr. Brin were “super excited about his progress and dedication to the company.”

They may well have reason to feel fortunate that Mr. Pichai is the man to head their $66-billion revenue, $16-billion profit, company– by most accounts he combines a deep passion for engineering excellence with a rare managerial quality of attracting the best talent into the teams he works with.

Mr. Pichai started at Google in 2004, where he was known as a “low-key manager” who worked on the Google toolbar and then led the launch of the market-beating Chrome browser in 2008.

Following this his rise through the ranks of Google took on an increasingly meteoric tenor, and soon he became Vice President, then Senior Vice President, and ultimately was charged with supervising all Google apps including Gmail and Google Drive and finally given control of Android itself.

His promotion to Product Chief in October 2014 literally made him Mr. Page’s second-in-command with oversight of day-to-day operations for all of Google’s major products including maps, search, and advertising.

Some of Mr. Pichai’s colleagues describe him in the media as a skilled diplomat, including Caesar Sengupta, a Google Vice President who has worked with Mr. Pichai for eight years, and said to Bloomberg News, “I would challenge you to find anyone at Google who doesn’t like Sundar or who thinks Sundar is a jerk.”

Nowhere was Mr. Pichai’s easy blending of techno-diplomatic competence evident than in early 2014, when the fracas between Samsung and Google was reaching fever pitch, at the time over Samsung’s Magazine UX interface for its tablets, which Google felt may have been deliberately underselling Google services such as its Play apps store.

According to reports “Defusing the situation fell to Sundar Pichai, the tactful, tactical new chief of Google’s Android division. Pichai set up a series of meetings with J.K. Shin, CEO of Samsung Mobile Communications, [where] they held ‘frank conversations’ about the companies’ intertwined fates [and a] fragile peace was forged.”

Since then, Samsung has apparently agreed to scale back Magazine UX, and the two corporations have announced a broad patent cross-licensing arrangement to implement which they “now work together more closely on user experience than we ever have before,” according to Mr. Pichai.

Another apparent talent of Google’s new CEO – his thinking seems to be ahead of the curve. Although Mr. Pichai trained in metallurgy and materials science at IIT Kharagpur, and Stanford and did an MBA at Wharton, he was already deeply immersed in the world of electronics.

According to one of his college professors Mr. Pichai “was doing work in the field of electronics at a time when no separate course on electronics existed in our curriculum.”

The Google founders no doubt recognised that Mr. Pichai was a man on an evangelical-type mission for pushing the boundaries of technology.

Mr. Pichai most eloquently outlined this mission when he said, “For me, it matters that we drive technology as an equalising force, as an enabler for everyone around the world. Which is why I do want Google to see, push, and invest more in making sure computing is more accessible, connectivity is more accessible.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Mr. Pichai on his appointment as Google CEO.

Source….Narayan Lakshman in http://www.the hindu.com

Natarajan

A Mini Punjab in Tamilnadu….

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Workers from Punjab at Akal farm in Vallanthai village. Photo: S. James

Workers from Punjab at Akal farm in Vallanthai village. Photo: S. James..The Hindu

Hard working farmers from Punjab are greening dry tracts in the interiors of Ramnad district.

Ropar in Punjab or Ramnad in Tamil Nadu, it no longer makes a difference to Jaspal, Harpal, Gagandeep and Rajendra Singh. Wearing colourful turbans, long white shirts and pyjamas they are out in the fields doing what they love — tilling the land.

“If you love nature and understand the interconnectedness of life, you can do farming anywhere,” says the youngest in the group, Jaspal, in chaste Punjabi.

The sun shines bright in Vallandhai village in Kamuthi taluk of Ramnad district. The farmers, with smiles on their sun-tanned faces, move around pulling out bunches of groundnuts. A lady in salwar-suit walks into the fields with a thermos of chilled lassi (butter milk) and the men take a break.

The group of Punjabis have beautifully blended into the sun-blistered landscape of one of the driest districts in south Tamil Nadu and shown the locals how a farmer’s faith and hard work can yield amazing results.

Till about a decade ago the land here was covered with thorny bushes (kaattu karuvelam) and abandoned by the locals. Today, a big iron gate welcomes you into the area now called the ‘Akal Farm’ that boasts of lush green orchards and sustainable green farms. It has not only become the talking point in the district but also a model example of cultivation showcased to tourists, agriculturists and visitors.

With apt knowledge, experience and some experimentation, about two-dozen farmers from Moga and Sangrur districts in Punjab are now successfully growing mangoes, water melons, papaya, guava, cucumber, pumpkin, amla, carrot, ladies finger, oranges, sapota and custard apple. “We are gradually acquiring more land and increasing our farm produce,” says the soft-spoken Darshan Singh, one of the two group leaders-cum-supervisor who can speak a smattering of Tamil and was invited by the District Collector last month to address local administration staff and farmers from the region.

 

Workers from Punjab at Akal farm in Vallanthai village. Photo: S. James

“It was my first attempt at public speaking and I felt humbled,” says Darshan Singh, “to share tips because I know every farmer anywhere shares a special relationship with the real food.” “I managed to convey my points as I was asked to motivate the people who had rejected the same land for farming,” he adds.

“Sab rab di meherbani hain (everything is God’s grace),” says Darshan Singh, who feels the yield is not yet as high as desired. But we all are happy to have turned the infertile and fallow lands into lush green orchards and fields, he adds.

It all began when Darshan Singh and his friend, Manmohan Singh, left behind their families and chose to travel more than 3,000 kms to this backward belt seven years ago. They followed the suggestion of a retired agriculture officer to explore cultivation in the arid lands of south Tamil Nadu.

“We migrated for farming beyond our home State lured by the cheap land that was in short supply back home,” says Sarabjeet Singh, another senior member in the group. “We were discouraged by the locals who were always grudging against the long dry spells. But we did not mind experimenting because the land was being sold at a throwaway price – Rs.10,000 per acre,” he adds.

The friends pooled in money and jointly bought 300 acres. They also took a house on rent in nearby Virudhunagar and travelled everyday to the hamlet. It took three years to clear the land, dig two dozen borewells, instal drip irrigation and make it ready for plantation.

“We toiled round-the-clock as cleaners, gardeners, farmers, night guards…initially the locals were hostile to us,” says Darshan Singh, “but everybody’s hard work and patience is bearing fruits now.”

“The results took time but we did not lose hope,” asserts Sarabjeet Singh.

Life has taken a new turn inside this mini-Punjab in Vallandhai. The Akal farm now encompasses 600 acres and also has a neatly fenced campus with small cottages, dormitory, a common kitchen, dining area and meditation room. “We no longer feel we live outside Punjab,” says Darshan Singh.

The farmers and their families celebrate Lohri, holi, baisakhi, rakhi, teej and diwali. The women cook the daily dal-chawal and roti-subzi together and even feed the visitors. They also join in pongal and Tamil new year celebrations with their local friends. “The villagers have become friendly now,” says Darshan Singh.

In fact with the Punjabi farmers setting a trend, some local farmers have joined them as workers in the Akal Farm. Some have even returned to them offering to buy the green fields at a higher rate.

A retired Village Administration Officer, Syed Segana, has been with them for the past six years helping in administrative work and translations. “I am trying to teach them Tamil,” he smiles, “but our friendship is beyond language, food and boundaries now.” “Nature and greenery binds us together and it does not matter where we belong to and where we stay and work,” he adds.

Workers from Punjab at Akal farm in Vallanthai village. Photo: S. James

The Akal Farm yields

Amla and guava on 40 acres each, mixed dry fruits like cashew nuts and almonds on five acres, papaya on 10 acres. The farmers have planted 5,000 mango trees on 80 acres besides coconut and timber-value trees on 10 acres each and an assortment of other fruits and vegetables. They also cultivate inter-crop and this season harvested 15 tonnes of pumpkin, five tonnes of cucumber and 20 tonnes of water melon on a daily basis.

Source…..Soma Basu in http://www.thehindu.com

Natarajan

 

Lessons from Sundar Pichai’s rise: Meritocracy, not mediocrity, is way forward….

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The elevation of Sundar Pichai to CEO of tech giant Google marks a triumph for four ideas we in India are uncomfortable with: giving meritocracy its due, allowing people to rise regardless of age, valuing diversity, and inviting talented immigrants to work for the country.

Stuck as we are to politically-driven social justice systems where quotas and reservations dominate the agendas of political parties and have become an end in themselves, we have paid inadequate attention to meritocracy. Any society that places such a low value on getting the right talent into the right job and giving him or her opportunities for growth will pay a huge price on several fronts – innovation being one of them.

Mediocrity, whether in government or in corporations or in academics, can provide only incremental gains for society. Multi-bagger gains come from promoting meritocracy.

It should thus come as no surprise that India has invented almost nothing since the humble “lota” of centuries ago, even while Indian techies dominate Silicon Valley’s startup culture, accounting for 15 percent of the total. Our belief in “jugaad” may be useful when resources are scarce, but “make-do” is a poor substitute for “make something new.”

Support for meritocracy, effective mentoring, and an ability to discriminate in favour of talent (as opposed to just seniority and age) is vital for innovation.

Consider Sundar Pichai (the name is actually a shortened version of his original name Sundararajan Pichai). He joined Google in 2004, and in 11 years he is holding the top job at age 43. It is difficult to visualise any Indian company giving this kind of opportunity to a talented foreigner. To be sure, we do have the occasional foreign talent heading Indian companies (the Tata group has some examples in this area), but the cases are few and far between as most Indian companies tend to be family-dominated or narrowly based in terms of their talent pool. And the talent we get from abroad is usually past its prime.

Sundar Pichai Reuters

Even Infosys, our home-grown tech pioneer in offshoring, fell into the trap of giving the founders first right of refusal to the CEO’s job till bad performance and a changing operating environment finally forced them to get new blood in the form of a Vishal Sikka last year.

A Satya Nadella would have been languishing at some middle-level position in an Indian tech company if he had sought to make his career here, but at 46 he made it to the top at Microsoft as CEO in early 2014, a successor to Steve Ballmer.

Sundar Pichai was also not made by accident. Before he became CEO, he worked closely with CEO Larry Page, and played major roles in creating the Google Toolbar, the browser Chrome, and in managing the growth of Android, the world’s largest mobile phone operating system. Page did not hand over his job to Pichai because he liked the guy. He watched Pichai’s progress from close quarters, and after handing him one assignment after another, decided that he was the man to take over his own job. Page wrote in his Google blog yesterday (10 August): “I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that. Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation – continuing to stretch boundaries. I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organise the world’s information.”

Note the degree of supervision and support Page gave Pichai. He also wrote this about Pichai: “Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together. He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses. Sergey (Brin) and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google. I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations.”

Now, why wouldn’t a Pichai kill for such a strong vote of confidence, support and faith from the bosses of Google?

Unfortunately, the Indian DNA is about losing talent. India produces tech talent by the thousand, but still loses them by the hundred (if not the thousand) to Ivy League schools or tech companies in Silicon Valley. This is because we are unwilling or unable to give our talent the kind of support and mentoring, not to speak of challenge and opportunity, they need.

The recent incident, where IIT Roorkee had to expel 72 students for failing to make the grade, is instructive. Most students who get into IITs are, by definition, hard and talented workers. They would have spent years in coaching classes and worked hard to crack the IIT-JEE exams. The question is: why then would 72 of them fail to make the grade?

Answer: we fail to give them the support they actually need – or not enough of it – after they get into the institution. As this Indian Express story points out, “90 percent of the IIT-Roorkee students who were expelled were from reserved categories (SC, ST and OBC) and scored average to high ranks in their respective categories in the 2014 IIT-JEE (Advanced). Once on campus, however, several factors pull them back, prominent among them a lack of fluency in English.”

Consider the sheer loss of talent we face if students have to be turfed out not for lack of engineering talent, but lack of proficiency in English.

The problem is not the quotas themselves, but the assumption that quotas by themselves are enough. In fact, excessive dependence on quotas to deliver social justice does damage by, first, marking such students out as somehow untalented, and then ensuring their failure by not giving them the support they need to cope with the rigours of an IIT academic session. We have conveniently forgotten that quotas have to be supplemented by effective mentoring and help by mentors. Without this, quotas will become self-defeating and divisive. (Some IITs do this effectively, but not all).

One can be sure that the same thing is happening in other areas of reservations and quotas, where the successes are vastly outnumbered by failures due to the lack of mentoring, including in our government.

Quotas are useful only if they succeed in reducing the need for quotas, not if they end up perpetuating and extending it by promoting mediocrity and a sense of victimhood among the beneficiaries.

We need to learn how to do things right from the elevation of Pichai, a first-generation immigrant to the US who rose to the top because their system favours meritocracy even while encouraging affirmative action and social diversity in institutions and corporations.

For now, though, we should see Pichai’s and Nadella’s rise as slaps in the face of our mediocrity-driven culture.

Source……R.Jagannathan ….www.firstpost.com

Natarajan

“Sundar Pichai: Google’s new boss from humble roots…..”…. A Report From BBC

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With Google creating its own parent company, Alphabet, there’s a bit of moving about in the Google boardroom.

Larry Page is now chief executive of Alphabet. Sergey Brin is its president.

And moving up to be in charge of Google is 43-year-old Sundar Pichai.

Sundar Pichai

Great news for Pichai, and good news too for India – his appointment makes him the latest Indian to earn a massively high-profile job in the US technology industry. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is the other notable example.

Pichai’s life story is remarkable, and his rise to the top of Google is a glowing endorsement of India’s standing in the global technology industry, and equally, a reassuring reminder of the so-called “American Dream”.

Pichai was born and schooled in Chennai, India. He captained his school’s cricket team, leading it to win regional competitions.

He studied Metallurgical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur). According to one of his tutors, quoted in the Times of India, Pichai was the “brightest of his batch”.

He has evidently used his talent to great effect at Google, a company he joined in 2004. Products under his watch include Google’s web browser, Chrome, as well as the Android mobile operating system.

Android is by far the world’s most popular mobile OS – a fact made perhaps more startling by the fact Pichai’s family did not possess a telephone until he was 12 years old.

Challenges

According to a profile in Bloomberg magazine, Pichai’s upbringing was humble. His family lived in a two room apartment. Pichai didn’t have a room – he slept on the living room floor, as did his younger brother.

The family didn’t own a television, or a car.

But Pichai’s father planted the seeds of technology into his boy’s mind, partly thanks to his job at British conglomerate General Electric Company (not to be confused with the American General Electric).

“I used to come home and talk to him a lot about my work day and the challenges I faced,” Regunatha Pichai told Bloomberg, adding that Sundar had a remarkable talent for remembering telephone numbers.

After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, Pichai was offered a scholarship at the ultimate breeding ground of tech geniuses – Stanford. The plane ticket to America cost more than his Dad’s annual salary.

At Google, Pichai is described as soft-spoken, and well liked. He is also very popular among developers – he runs Google’s annual developer event, I/O.

“Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together,” wrote Larry Page in his blogpost announcing all the big changes.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been hands-off with Google’s day-to-day running for sometime, and so, in Pichai’s life, today’s announcement is simply making it official: he’s in charge.

His remit is best summed up as Google’s core products – the bits that make the real money. That includes things like search, advertising, maps and YouTube.

He has challenges to navigate, like YouTube’s increasingly intense battle with Facebook in the video space. The social network has dramatically increased the amount of video being watched on its site – but YouTube still holds the title of most popular, for now at least.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC.

Source….Dave Lee in http://www.bbc.com

Natarajan

 

Here are 8 Things You should know about Sundar Pichai….New CEO of Google…

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Sundar Pichai: Here are 8 things you should know about the new Google CEO

Sundar Pichai talking about Android at the conference. Reuters

We saw this coming, didn’t we? A major shake-up at Google last year had put Sundar Pichai at the fore-front and in-charge of all products, except YouTube that was headed by CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Over the years, India-born Sundar Pichai has slowly yet steadily become a fore-runner at Google. After a leap from heading Chrome to in-charge of the core Google products including  Google Research, Google+, Google Maps, search, ads and more, he is now set to become the Google CEO. Over the last one year, he has been on stage demonstrating most Google products including the Android Pay lately.

In a surprise move, Google announced on Monday the launch of Alphabet Inc as its parent company with co-founders Larry Page as its CEO and Sergey Brin as president. This has paved way for Pichai to become the next CEO of Google, which will be the new entity’s largest fully owned subsidiary, a trimmed version of what it is known now. The new structure, which will take shape over the next few months, was announced by Page in a blogpost and in a filing to the Security and Exchange Commission.

Google’s main business will include search, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android and all related technical infrastructure.

“Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies,” Page said in the post, adding: “Our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed.”

43-year old Pichai Sundararajan, popular as Sundar Pichai joined Google in 2004. We’ve encompassed this decade of his journey and rise to fame in our timeline below:

Education and background
Pichai was born in Chennai, India and completed his schooling from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan. He later earned the Bachelors of Technology (BTech) degree from IIT- Kharagpur, and further went in for an MS from Stanford University. He also holds an MBA degree from University of Pennsylvania.

Before joining Google
Sundar Pichai has earlier worked for McKinsey & Company in management consulting. He has also worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials.

Google and pre-Chrome era
Pichai joined Google in 2004  and is known to have worked on popular products like Toolbar, and also others like Google Gears and Google Pack, before Chrome was launched. However, it was the success of the Toolbar that helped Pichai pace through his career as Google noticed that it was significantly increasing the number of  user searches. This eventually made Google believe that it should have its own browser.

Rise of Chrome and Pichai
At Google, Pichai is popular for having led product management and innovation of Google’s client software products such as Google Chrome and Chrome OS. Pichai is believed to be the man responsible for driving Google’s Chrome OS and browser forward. In 2008, he was appointed as VP of product development and introduced Chrome browser. It was soon followed by Chrome OS in 2009. It was from 2008 that people started seeing more of Pichai at Google presentations and he soon became a known Google face. By 2012, he was the Senior VP of Chrome and apps.

Appointed as Android chief
Though Pichai had spent almost a decade at Google, it was only in 2013 that he became a well known figure worldwide after stepping into the shoes of Andy Rubin. Interestingly, Pichai joined Google in the same year that Rubin brought Android to Google via acquisition. Though Rubin helped develop Android to a great extent for almost a decade, Larry Page soon felt that Pichai would help give it a further push.

Ties with Samsung and Android One
Sundar Pichai is believed to be the man responsible for keeping smooth ties with partners like Samsung. He recently also launched the Android One initiative in India by teaming up with local manufacturers like Micromax, Spice and Karbonn.

CEO candidate at Microsoft
He was also rumoured to be one of the key candidates being considered for top position at Microsoft, which later went to India-born Satya Nadella.

 

Products head
Last year, Larry Page promoted Pichai to oversee core products including search, maps, Google+, commerce, advertising and infrastructure and more. This means, the heads of these departments will now report to Pichai. This puts Pichai at a very key position at Google, as the company’s main services such as search and advertising units help generate major chunk of the revenue.

 

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Source…..www.rech.firstpost.com

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Meet Alphabet, Google’s New Corporate Boss As Sundar Pichai Takes Over The Search Company…

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Google just rocked the world with some light news on a Monday. It has restructured the company and everything will now report up to “Alphabet Inc.” a new corporate name. That includes Google, which will now be CEO’d by Sundar Pichai (one less Twitter CEO candidate).

Its site? https://abc.xyz/. Strangely enough, Google doesn’t own Alphabet.com (yet?).

BONUS: Click this period and the site links to hooli.xyz (a Silicon Valley reference)

The CEO of Alphabet will be Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page. His missive on Google’s blog (headlined G is for Google) explains what the new holding company is:

What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, will serve as Alphabet’s president (which includes the X lab), and Eric Schmidt will be chairman. In fact, he digs the new name:

Page went on to say:

Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet. I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President.

I guess we don’t want to have a Google+ or Glass kerfluffle again, where a product drags the mothership through the mud. Page basically confirms this by saying:

…the whole point is that Alphabet companies should have independence and develop their own brands.

If they fail, they die. But they do less damage to the umbrella.

The stock will be changing over from Google to Alphabet, but still trading under GOOGL and GOOG (which were set up after its stock split). The company says this will allow them to focus on Google as a product even more than before, and at the same time, Google will also be able to regain its focus on its own products.

Google’s main business will include search, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android and the related technical infrastructure. Nest will report up to Alphabet.

It didn’t seem that Pichai, who heads up all of Google’s most important products, had a chance at becoming Google’s CEO (ahead of Page) anytime soon. Pretty creative way to work around that, I’d say.

It looks like the stock market is reacting favorably to the announcement. Google’s…er Alphabet’s stock is up over 6 percent after hours.

Source…. ,

Sundar Pichai …Now CEO of Google …

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Sundar Pichai is Google CEO

Sundar Pichai is Google CEO

Google announces formation of new umbrella firm Alphabet

NEW YORK, AUGUST 11:  

In a significant restructuring at Google, India-born Sundar Pichai has been named the new CEO of the technology giant as the company co-founder Larry Page today announced the formation of a new umbrella firm Alphabet, of which Google will be a part.

Page, in a blog post, announced the formation of the new parent company Alphabet, of which he will be the CEO and Google co-founder Sergey Brin will be its President.

Chennai-born Pichai, 43, has been named CEO of the new Google, which Page said will be a “a bit slimmed down.”

“Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet. I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President,” Page said.

He said Pichai will be a “key part” of the new structure that will “allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside Google.”

He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our internet businesses. Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google,” Page said.

“I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that,” Page added.

Source….www.thehindubsinessline.com

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India’s ‘Anaconda’ parody rap against Hindustan Unilever….

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Ms Ashraf says she never expected Nicki Minaj to acknowledge her song

Ms Ashraf says she never expected Nicki Minaj to acknowledge her song

Indian activist Sofia Ashraf’s “parody rap video” against consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever has clocked nearly two million views since it was uploaded on YouTube last week. BBC Monitoring’s Vikas Pandey speaks to the activist about her decision to use singer Nicki Minaj’s hit song Anaconda in her video – and her use of rap as a form of protest.

Corporate giant Hindustan Unilever found itself pitted against an unlikely opponent last week: a YouTube video titled Kodaikanal Won’t, modelled on Nikki Minaj’s hit song Anaconda. The video called out the company for allegedly dumping toxic waste in the soil and the water in Kodaikanal, a city in southern India.

With two million video views and widespread coverage of the rap in both local and international media, the company has in response issued a statement saying that safety is its “number one priority” and that studies showed there had been “no adverse impact” on Kodaikanal’s environment, except in some of the factory premises.

‘Minaj shout out’

Ms Ashraf told the BBC that she decided to create a rap video over the issue because she believed that “social media had the power to add much-needed global voices to the campaign”. But she says she never dreamed that Minaj would actually respond – as she did on Twitter.

“I never expected that. I decided to use her song for [the] parody to ensure that it gets noticed,” she said.

The “shout out” by the pop star ensured media outlets and social media took notice of the song and brought the Kodaikanal issue back into the spotlight.

Activists allege that a thermometer factory belonging to Hindustan Unilever dumped mercury waste, polluting local water supplies and the soil.

Environmental group Greenpeace first reported the alleged violations in 2001. Unilever subsequently shut down its factory and ordered an investigation into the functioning of the unit.

Health workers who conducted a survey of 30 Unilever workers and ex-workers have also alleged that they found many people with “gum and skin allergy-related problems which appeared to be due to exposure to mercury”. Another significant finding, the survey reported, was the high rate of absenteeism and resignations from the job owing to health problems. The report was accepted by the Madras High Court, which has been hearing a petition against Hindustan Unilever by its former workers since 2006.

As the video grew in popularity, the company issued fresh statements over the incident.

A Unilever spokesperson said: “We would never allow our employees to suffer ill-health because of their employment with us and not address it.

“Several independent studies, carried out by experts on mercury-related health complaints, concluded that our former employees were not harmed by working in our factory in Kodaikanal.”

Hindustan Unilever did not dump mercury waste, but “glass scrap containing mercury residue” had been sold to a scrap dealer near the factory, the company said. This was “in breach of our company rules” and the company had removed “both the glass and the underlying soil” to address this.

Studies had showed “no adverse impact on the environment in Kodaikanal, except in some areas of the factory premises”, the statement added. “We are keen to continue work on clearing up the factory site.”

‘Burka rapper’

Kodaikanal Won’t did not happen in a vacuum. Ms Ashraf has composed rap songs for social causes in the past as well.

“Rap is often used as a form of protest. It just feels empowering to use rap for a cause and the success of the Kodaikanal Won’t song just proves that,” she said.

Her foray into rapping began in her early 20s, where she rapped about injustice against Muslims. She was nicknamed the “Burka Rapper” because of her attire and the subject of her performances.

“I was strongly religious. I loved my religion [Islam] and all it entailed. It was beautiful, it defined me and it gave me purpose”, she explained.

The 28-year-old does not wear the burka anymore and says she no longer feels connected to any specific religion. She now finds “purpose” in promoting social causes.

And instead of the burka, she has gone for a traditional South Indian look in her video.

“Some of the clothes I have worn in the video were my own choices but we thought that wearing Indian garments like sari will give the video a distinctive look,” she said.

‘Fight not over’

Ms Ashraf has stressed that the video was “not a solo effort”.

She told the BBC that the dancers, the photographers and activists invested time and energy in making the video free of charge “because they felt strongly for the cause”.

Ms Ashraf says her songs are a result of collaboration with different artists

Ms Ashraf says her songs are a result of collaboration with different artists

Ms Ashraf is thrilled with the success of her video, but stressed that the “fight” is far from over.

“We understand that the shelf life of such social media campaigns is not very long. So we will have to come up with ideas to sustain the momentum we have got from the video,” she said.

Source….www.bbc.com

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