The Professor shares his discoveries, so that you can share them with others.
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
2013-07-21
2011-12-16
106/2011 The biggest e-governance project of the world uses FOSS !
I am proud to be an Indian, and a FOSS devotee
Imagine counting 1.2 Billion sheep before you go to sleep. Imagine having to give unique identification numbers to each sheep. This is exactly what the Adhaar project of India is trying to do. Aadhar (http://uidai.gov.in/) is a project of the Government of India, which involves assigning Unique Identification Numbers to each person living in India. India is the second most populous country of the world with about 1 170 938 000 people (basis Wikipedia http://www.google.co.in/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:IND&dl=en&hl=en&q=india+population), which is about 17.5% of the world's population. To add to this huge challenge, the fact that India is not amongst the richest of nations, makes such a project an impossible feat. In addition to counting and identifying every individual, many demographic statistics and biometric indicators are also to be acquired and recorded for each person. India's most prestigious and mammoth e-governance project, makes it unique in the history of Information Technology. And, to assist them in this mammoth and ambitious task, the Government of India (Unique Identification Authority of India UIDAI), chose FOSS tools and technologies. The FOSS tools they chose include :: RabbitMQ, Mule, Hadoop, Pentaho, Apache Tomcat, Mongo DB, Apache Solr, MySQL + + + .
The unique ID is a 12 digit number with some interesting mathematical properties.
What more proof do you want about what FOSS can do for us all ? Why should we still be slaves to vendors who make and sell fliMSy, and cluMSy products ?
Aadhar provides a flood of opportuniies for FOSS developers, to develop related applications.
I am proud to be an Indian, and a FOSS devotee, and I have got my Adhaar number.
partha
(Based on a story which appears in Linux For You, December 2011)
Imagine counting 1.2 Billion sheep before you go to sleep. Imagine having to give unique identification numbers to each sheep. This is exactly what the Adhaar project of India is trying to do. Aadhar (http://uidai.gov.in/) is a project of the Government of India, which involves assigning Unique Identification Numbers to each person living in India. India is the second most populous country of the world with about 1 170 938 000 people (basis Wikipedia http://www.google.co.in/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:IND&dl=en&hl=en&q=india+population), which is about 17.5% of the world's population. To add to this huge challenge, the fact that India is not amongst the richest of nations, makes such a project an impossible feat. In addition to counting and identifying every individual, many demographic statistics and biometric indicators are also to be acquired and recorded for each person. India's most prestigious and mammoth e-governance project, makes it unique in the history of Information Technology. And, to assist them in this mammoth and ambitious task, the Government of India (Unique Identification Authority of India UIDAI), chose FOSS tools and technologies. The FOSS tools they chose include :: RabbitMQ, Mule, Hadoop, Pentaho, Apache Tomcat, Mongo DB, Apache Solr, MySQL + + + .
The unique ID is a 12 digit number with some interesting mathematical properties.
What more proof do you want about what FOSS can do for us all ? Why should we still be slaves to vendors who make and sell fliMSy, and cluMSy products ?
Aadhar provides a flood of opportuniies for FOSS developers, to develop related applications.
I am proud to be an Indian, and a FOSS devotee, and I have got my Adhaar number.
partha
(Based on a story which appears in Linux For You, December 2011)
2011-12-10
The penguin in the court
(Linux for You, November 2011)
partha
PS: This is in addition to the amazing list posted in my earlier blog entry.
2011-06-09
A mysterious number .....
What is so special about this number ? Read::
http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue38/features/nishiyama/index
partha
2010-11-14
An Indian student does it .......
Today's Google will show you a doodle created by a student from India. Well done Akshay. We are proud of you.
partha
2010-10-03
And the loser is .....
About two months ago (2010-08-20), I posted an entry called "And the winner is ...".
On that day, I had had 262 visitors who were Linux users, and 131 visitors who were Win XP users (just 50% of Linux users).
Today, I notice that I have had 280 Linux users, and just 121 Win XP users. The number of Linux users has gone up. Win Xp users are fading out.
The writing on the wall is clear and loud.
You can make your own conclusions !
partha
On that day, I had had 262 visitors who were Linux users, and 131 visitors who were Win XP users (just 50% of Linux users).
Today, I notice that I have had 280 Linux users, and just 121 Win XP users. The number of Linux users has gone up. Win Xp users are fading out.
The writing on the wall is clear and loud.
You can make your own conclusions !
partha
2010-08-25
Shame on you
Shame on you Govt. of India
Vishwanathan Anand, the great chess master from India, a
world-renowned Indian, who brought fame and respect to India,
several times, was denied his doctorat honoris causa, because the
Govt. of India could not decide if he was Indian ! Never mind
that he holds an Indian passport, never mind that he represents
India in all international chess events, never mind that the Vice
Chancellor (aka President) of a University recommends his name,
never mind that the game he promotes so well was born in India
(unlike cricket). It took more than a year, and frantic efforts
of many respectable academicians, to establish that he is indeed
an Indian. All the dilly-dallying, ignorance, indifference and
irresponsible beahviour gets brushed off, stating that there was
"some" bureaucratic delay. We live in an age of instant
communication, mobile phones, Internet, FAX et al. Our Government
still runs on bullock carts, steered by mentally-retarded blind men.
Chess is a game which puzzles and overwhelms even the best of
mathematicians and logicians. In fact, Mr. Anand played an
exhibition match against 40 renowened mathematicians. All of
them, save one (who entered into a draw), lost to Mr. Anand.
The best comment I have seen was posted on the TOI website ::
QUOTE
Even the Indian HRD ministry can't believe that one of its citizen can be world number 1 in Chess. This is the reason they doubted his citizenship. Way to go!
UBQUOTE
Shame on you Govt. of India, shame on you Mister Minister. Would
you have dilly-dallied like this, if Anand was a politician ? For
every Anand who has been affected by bureaucratic delay, there
are hundreds of unknown Indians who are suffering and waiting.
When will you wake up from your slumber ?
partha
Vishwanathan Anand, the great chess master from India, a
world-renowned Indian, who brought fame and respect to India,
several times, was denied his doctorat honoris causa, because the
Govt. of India could not decide if he was Indian ! Never mind
that he holds an Indian passport, never mind that he represents
India in all international chess events, never mind that the Vice
Chancellor (aka President) of a University recommends his name,
never mind that the game he promotes so well was born in India
(unlike cricket). It took more than a year, and frantic efforts
of many respectable academicians, to establish that he is indeed
an Indian. All the dilly-dallying, ignorance, indifference and
irresponsible beahviour gets brushed off, stating that there was
"some" bureaucratic delay. We live in an age of instant
communication, mobile phones, Internet, FAX et al. Our Government
still runs on bullock carts, steered by mentally-retarded blind men.
Chess is a game which puzzles and overwhelms even the best of
mathematicians and logicians. In fact, Mr. Anand played an
exhibition match against 40 renowened mathematicians. All of
them, save one (who entered into a draw), lost to Mr. Anand.
The best comment I have seen was posted on the TOI website ::
QUOTE
Even the Indian HRD ministry can't believe that one of its citizen can be world number 1 in Chess. This is the reason they doubted his citizenship. Way to go!
UBQUOTE
Shame on you Govt. of India, shame on you Mister Minister. Would
you have dilly-dallied like this, if Anand was a politician ? For
every Anand who has been affected by bureaucratic delay, there
are hundreds of unknown Indians who are suffering and waiting.
When will you wake up from your slumber ?
partha
2010-08-12
P=NP
My last post was about the recent achievement by an Indian mathematician to solve the P=NP? riddle. I did a Google search which threw up 30 results. Of these almost a dozen were from Germany (or in German), a few in Russian, and a few were newspaper reports. Of course, there was none from any mathematical research institute from India. This explains why Mr. Deolalikar lives in USA.
Mr. Vinay Deolalikar, if you are reading this blog, please be convinced that there are some Indians (although very few), living in India, who recognise and appreciate your efforts. Congrats to you Sir. We salute you.
partha
Mr. Vinay Deolalikar, if you are reading this blog, please be convinced that there are some Indians (although very few), living in India, who recognise and appreciate your efforts. Congrats to you Sir. We salute you.
partha
2010-03-25
Begging for books
One of the challenges of teaching in India, is the lack of basic essential material for teaching :: books and journals. We do have bookshops, but they stock only run-of-the-mill books. Books which sell out fast. If you ask for a book which is even slightly higher than the average reader's intellect, you will have to face disappointment. It is not just money, it is just a lack of appreciation for anything above average. So what do I do ? I beg. I beg shamelessly. And I have friends all over the world who understand, and buy me the books I need so badly.
I have received today an exceptionally beautiful book on Lambda calculus, donated by a very close friend (I call him NVS, my children call him "karate master"). Thank you NVS.
If you are reading this blog, from any country outside India, and you wish to help an Indian teacher, just send me a signal. The books you send will be used, for teaching young Indians, so that one day India will also reach a stage where a teacher does not have to beg.
partha
Forget the chocolates, send me some books
I have received today an exceptionally beautiful book on Lambda calculus, donated by a very close friend (I call him NVS, my children call him "karate master"). Thank you NVS.
If you are reading this blog, from any country outside India, and you wish to help an Indian teacher, just send me a signal. The books you send will be used, for teaching young Indians, so that one day India will also reach a stage where a teacher does not have to beg.
partha
Forget the chocolates, send me some books
2009-11-28
Why is India an eternally developing country ?
Why is India an eternally developing country ?
See the attached picture.
Here is an advert by our University Grants Commission (UGC), the
supreme authority created by our government to ensure quality of
education in our Universities. This advert is proof of the
quality they can maintain. They say, UGC will now be renamed as
"University Grants Curses". How apt !
BTW, are we talking of just one scholarship, or just one
fellowship ? Or, are we talking of scholarships and fellowships
in plural ?
It may be recalled that our All India Council of Technical
Education (AICTE) is infected by a bribery scam which saw their top
management being suspended for accepting huge bribes. AICTE is
responsible for ensuring the quality of education in our
technical institutions (engineering colleges etc.). They say,
AICTE will now be renamed as All India Corruption of Technical
Education. How sad !
Now you know the answer to the question :: "Why is India an eternally
developing country ?"
partha
2009-10-08
Poland and India
As a fallout of my visit to Krakow, a possiblity exists for AGH Univ, Krakow to collaborate with an Indian University. My first choice was IIIT Hyderabad. I went to meet Prof. Rajeev sangal, Director of IIITH, yesterday. Apparently IIITH is already on the radar of AGH Univ. I am sure something exciting will come up, as a result of these developments. Insha-allah.
partha
partha
2009-07-10
Mega event in Hyderabad
A mega-giga-tera event of mathematics will be held shortly in Hyderabad. The International Congress of Mathematicians will be held from 19-27 Aug. 2010, in our own Hyderabad.
For more details, visit their website: http://www.icm2010.org.in/
This is the event when the greatest mathematicians of the world will be given the greatest awards for their contributions to mathematics :: The Fields medal, the Nevanlinna Prize, the Gauss Prize, and the Chern Medal (new). Be there, to see these great giants of mathematics being honoured. The Registration fee is of course rather steep, but it may well be worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime event.
The website of the International Mathematical Union is at :
http://www.mathunion.org/
If you can't attend the event, at least visit their websites marked above.
partha
PS: This retired Professor, invites kind hearted organisations and individuals to sponsor him or at least subsidise a part of the registration fee. I have no corporate or institutional support.
.
For more details, visit their website: http://www.icm2010.org.in/
This is the event when the greatest mathematicians of the world will be given the greatest awards for their contributions to mathematics :: The Fields medal, the Nevanlinna Prize, the Gauss Prize, and the Chern Medal (new). Be there, to see these great giants of mathematics being honoured. The Registration fee is of course rather steep, but it may well be worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime event.
The website of the International Mathematical Union is at :
http://www.mathunion.org/
If you can't attend the event, at least visit their websites marked above.
partha
PS: This retired Professor, invites kind hearted organisations and individuals to sponsor him or at least subsidise a part of the registration fee. I have no corporate or institutional support.
.
2009-06-09
More work for the Professor
And now, Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, invites Prof. Partha, to join its "Ask a Scientist" (AAS) program. ANL receives a wide variety of questions by email or via our web page from all over the World. These questions are assigned as physics, zoology, botany, molecular biology, fabric, cosmetology, chemistry, earth science, astronomy, engineering, materials science, math, computer science, weather, veterinary or they are placed into the general category. Two system operators (sysops) receive questions, jury them and email the questions to those scientists assigned in the category (ies) that best fits the question.
Details of the "Ask a scientist" (AAS) programme are available at ::
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/aasinfo.htm
Try AAS, if you have any questions, and dont know whom to ask.
Prof. Partha will be answering questions on :: Computer science (except those questions related to Microsoft), mathematics (particularly, discrete maths), Linux.
partha
Details of the "Ask a scientist" (AAS) programme are available at ::
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/aasinfo.htm
Try AAS, if you have any questions, and dont know whom to ask.
Prof. Partha will be answering questions on :: Computer science (except those questions related to Microsoft), mathematics (particularly, discrete maths), Linux.
partha
2009-05-27
Forget the chocolates, send me some books
One of the challenges I face, living and teaching in a "developing" country, is the difficulty in accessing good books. Either they are just not available, or they are astronomically priced. There are of course no good libraries where a freelancer like me can go and borrow books. So what do I do ? Simple -- I beg.
My first CDROM on Linux was obtained by begging on the internet. A kindly soul from the US of A donated a set of Slackware CDs and led me into the world of Linux. I will never forget that gentleman (Mr. Naidu). My first book on Linux was also a gift of someone (Mr. Thaths-Chandrasekhar) who responded to my appeal on the internet, several years ago.
I am sure some of my students and my friends who are abroad, are probably reading this blog. I am sure the world is also full of kind hearted people like Mr. Naidu and Mr. Chandrasekhar. I am sure some of you will be willing to donate a book or two, to a honest and sincere teacher in India. I can send you a list of books which I am dying for. Just email me.
Thanks a lot. GOD bless you.
partha
My first CDROM on Linux was obtained by begging on the internet. A kindly soul from the US of A donated a set of Slackware CDs and led me into the world of Linux. I will never forget that gentleman (Mr. Naidu). My first book on Linux was also a gift of someone (Mr. Thaths-Chandrasekhar) who responded to my appeal on the internet, several years ago.
I am sure some of my students and my friends who are abroad, are probably reading this blog. I am sure the world is also full of kind hearted people like Mr. Naidu and Mr. Chandrasekhar. I am sure some of you will be willing to donate a book or two, to a honest and sincere teacher in India. I can send you a list of books which I am dying for. Just email me.
Thanks a lot. GOD bless you.
partha
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