---

IN THIS ISSUE

MAIN FEATURE
Helping Hand? The State and India’s Software Industry
By Romi Mahajan

eBUSINESS
Managing IT Resources: The World at Your Web
By Amber Cargile

IT COMMUNICATIONS
DSL: Newer Faster Internet
By Murali Bhat


About Us • Java World: Beginning Class
Law: Immigrants’ Spouses • Finance: Retirement Accounts
Health: Dealing with Heartburn • Culture: Raga Marwa • Yoga: Eye Exercises
Bollywood • Telugu Cinema • Recipe: Kashmiri Dum Aloo • Horoscope

About Us:

We are a magazine for Silicon Valley South Asians with special focus on the Infotech industry in particular and science in general.

In addition, it will also look at the broader aspects of South Asian hi-tech life – covering an all encompassing gamut that can include issues as diverse as law, philanthropy, health care and relationships. We are not above throwing in a mouth-watering recipe to add zest to your dinner table.

|TOP|

Main Feature

A Helping Hand?
The State and India’s Software Industry - By Romi Mahajan

As the Indian stock market sends Information Technology stocks soaring and India exports software worth billions of dollars, free marketeers are clamoring for the state to go jump in the lake. Not so fast, cautions Romi Mahajan, who argues with verve that the state has a key role to play in ensuring the long-term sustenance of India’s IT bonanza.

A friend of mine was recently commenting on the fact that the year 2000 ushered in one of the worst phases in the recent history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Her next comment was even more interesting to me: She mentioned that an entire generation of stock brokers and stock investors had never really seen bad times — “They don’t have any conception of what is happening; they’ve never had to witness falling markets!”

I nodded appreciatively and smiled. But what she didn’t know is that I was thinking about the Indian market when she made the comment, not the U.S. market.

Anybody who has been watching the Indian stock markets knows that the indices have soared to dizzying heights and that the bull market has been propelled largely by Information Technology stocks, of which software stocks are the leading lights. In addition, a few Indian companies have listed their shares on the NASDAQ and anybody who got in to those shares (INFY and SIFY) early is sitting pretty. The New York Stock Exchange estimates that as many as 10 Indian IT companies will list on U.S. exchanges this year and many people I know are making cash available to invest in these upcoming issues.

But hold your applause.

This go-go market has unleashed free-market orthodoxy of the most extreme kind, with a convenient intellectual sleight of hand that ignores the pivotal role the Indian state played in nurturing India’s software potential. Silicon Valley tycoon Kanwal S. Rekhi, a 54-year-old IT entrepreneur who made $300 million before he retired, told the New York Times in a Feb. 29 article that “he went to America so his brain wouldn’t go down the drain in socialist India,” and added condescendingly that his business trips to India are “missionary work.”

And recently at an address at Stanford University by India’s deputy planning chief B.C. Pant, Rekhi harangued Pant with the caustic remark that the government should get out of planning anything, period.

Luckily for Rekhi, the advice could not be applied retroactively. For if it were indeed applied retroactively, then the much derided Nehruvian planning would have been jettisoned in the 1950s, and there would be no IITs. No IITs means no coveted degree for Rekhi and hence no $300 million.

This sort of remark is typical of the ostrich-in-the-sand myopic fulminations that are clouding common sense.

The reality, whether in India or in the U.S., is that the state role has been crucial in the development of IT industry — don’t forget that in the West, two of the key elements of IT both came from the public domain — the internet from the U.S. Defense Department, and the world wide web from the Geneva-based European physics research organization CERN.

And lest history vanish into thin air, destroyed by PR and rhetoric, it is important to remember that the great ascendancy of the U.S. in high-technology is largely due to the government’s role in nurturing the incipient technology companies of Silicon Valley and Route 128.

In India , the intellectual knowhow to tap the vast potential of IT has sprouted in the plethora of state-funded engineering training institutes of which the IITs are just the acme.

It is important, though, to remember a few things here as well:

• The entire edifice of higher education in India is increasingly moribund; despite an enormous pool of science and technological manpower, India’s contributions to innovation are trivial.
  
  
• Even the much-vaunted IITs are not comparable to the dynamic institutions of the West (Caltech and MIT being prime examples.) Any institutions that get the brightest few thousand kids from a country of one billion people are bound to look good since, no matter what, these kids will go on to become successful. Still, the Indian state must be given bouquets and not brickbats for having the foresight to create these institutions and make them almost without exception affordable.
  

It is through a complex and fruitful interaction of the state and the market that the long-term health of India’s software industry can be guaranteed.

Yet the market frenzy has drowned all sense of perspective.

In India, trading volumes are at all-time highs and companies that were quoting below Rs. 100 a share a mere two years ago are now quoting in the thousands. As Rajneesh Mahajan, director of Composite Securities, a Delhi-based brokerage house, told me, “With IT scrips in this incredible bull run, we are finding that investors feel that they can’t afford NOT to be in the market. These are heady times — volumes are stratospheric and despite commissions being razor thin, profitability is high as well.”

Judging by the markets, one would think that Indian software companies are the best, most innovative companies in the world.

But just like the stockbrokers and investors who have never seen bad times, investors in Indian IT stocks who have entered the market in the past two years may get a rude awakening if Indian companies can’t justify their lofty valuations.

Now let me be clear. I am not predicting a stock market downturn and am not trying to begrudge Indian software companies their enormous success over the past decade. In fact, I am optimistic about these companies because I know from direct experience that many of them (certainly not all) are managed professionally and employ technical talent that of extremely high caliber.

I also know that there are increasing forays into international markets (especially the U.S.) that are allowing Indian companies to grab market share in the biggest software markets of the world (the U.S. market is itself responsible for between 40 percent and 50 percent of world demand).

But what gives me pause is the fact that Indian software companies are still at the low end of the value chain and are not innovative; furthermore, there is little sign that they are moving up the value chain because they compete on one factor alone -- comparative cost advantage.

In the fast-moving world of technology which itself is embedded in an increasingly competitive global economy, competing on cost advantage and not on the ability to innovate is not sustainable. Without innovation and constant striving to move up the value chain, India’s competitive advantage that may for a while be derived from cost advantage will erode as technologies evolve, terms of trade and patterns of investment change, and as new locations spring up that can undercut India on price.

While the stock market bulls may call me a naysayer it is useful to consider the following:

• If one digs, one finds that Ireland’s total software exports exceed that of India;
  
  
• India’s share of the global software market is by most estimates about one half of one percent only;
  
  
• Software development is not an indivisible black box — the nature and constitution of the software work done in India forces one to rethink the very basis of the much-touted success of the Indian software industry — it is largely well-defined, low-level work that is offshored by Fortune 500 companies. Nikhil Sinha, CEO of iDLX Technology Partners, insists that “grabbing offshored work is not the answer. Only low-end work can be offshored — non-creative, portable type work. India needs to compete on skill sets and domain knowledge, not just cost.”
  

“We are trying a new model at iDLX — we are not an offshore company. We compete for the high end of the U.S. value chain.”

To understand what is at issue, it is useful to look into some of the more theoretical aspects of technology and economic growth.

Scholars generally agree that technology is a driving force for economic growth and international competitiveness. In fact it has become a truism that countries that can create and deftly adapt technology into usable processes and products have an advantage over countries that cannot sustain innovation. The Nobel laureate Abdus Salam in fact averred that what distinguishes the developed world from the developing is “the ambition, the power, the élan which…. stems from their differing mastery and utilization of present-day science and technology.”

Using the Indian software industry as a platform for analysis, it is useful to understand that the science and technology gap or innovation gap results not just from constraints to innovation in developing countries imposed by a world system of unequal exchange, but also as a result of institutional incapacity in countries like India to manage innovation.

Simply put, India does not have the institutional capacity to create a milieu of innovation on the model of a Silicon Valley. The reasons for this are manifold and complex, but it is important to understand them at a qualitative level.

There are three issues that are of particular salience here: Product Cycle Theory, international subcontracting/offshoring, and lack of domestic demand.

Product Cycle Theory states simply that products pass through phases during their life cycles in which the necessary inputs for production change in their relative importance. Witness the now ubiquitous Walkman. First developed by Sony in Japan, it was truly an innovation in consumer electronics; most readers will recall that when it first appeared on the market, it cost over $50 and wasn’t as functional and sleek as the Walkman is today. But as the market grew and the production process became increasingly rationalized, production of this product was offshored to low-cost South East Asian countries. Now, one can get a Walkman for $10 that has more functionality than the original. In other words, as different factors of production are emphasized, the geographical location of production migrates from advanced to developing countries.

In the early or innovative phase of a product’s life cycle, high skill-intensity personnel are important, sophisticated R&D systems are necessary, and proximity to the main market is crucial. Quite clearly, this implies that the innovative stage will occur in advanced countries, with large markets and an abundance of highly trained humanware. This theory suggests that high-end steps in the creation of software are done in advanced countries and the low-end, portable steps are offshored to countries like India, where medium and low-level task can be performed at a fraction of the costs reigning in the advanced countries.

The issue of offshoring is important in any analysis of the Indian software industry. Trans-national companies are happy to outsource low-end work to Indian companies since software programmers in India earn about 10 percent of what they earn in the U.S. These companies subcontract “job-work” to Indian companies that compete only on the basis of cost.

While subcontracting certainly brings great promise in the short-term, dependence on subcontracting for revenue also brings great peril. First, well-defined, project-oriented job-work may pay handsomely, but it does not create a recurring stream of revenue. Second, it creates a sense of technological stasis in the subcontracted firm since it is generally low-level, labor-intensive work that is subcontracted. Third, it creates technological dependence on the multi-nationals that actually design, produce, and market high-end products and systems that subcontractees have to buy. Thus, a constant diet of low-end, subcontracted work militates against the need for and creation of an innovative base within India itself.

Still, if they want business, Indian firms must scramble for subcontracted work since the domestic market in India has not shown the buoyancy that pundits have been predicting since 1991: During the last fiscal year, the total internal demand was a paltry $1.25 billion. The lack of domestic demand is perhaps the single largest constraint on innovation in the Indian software industry. Close proximity to a large source of demand is critical in order to encourage and sustain the types of feedback loops that are necessary for innovation.

Clearly, there are enormous odds against the creation of innovative milieus in India, but there is no reason to believe that these are permanent features of the Indian economic landscape.

I started this article with talk about markets; I will conclude it with a warning about markets.

There are two worrisome trends in Indian economic discourse that compound the already existing problems of India’s low place on the value chain. Both of them have to do with markets. First is the constant invocation of comparative advantage principles — from which it is argued that since India’s advantage is cheap labor, India should do its best to grab low-end, outsourced work and not worry about high-end, innovative areas since cheap labor hardly helps in these areas. This market-dictated, static view of comparative advantage has never stood any country in good stead.

Second is the mantra of the “market,” adopted with the vast reforms in the Indian economy staring in 1991. Implicit (often stated) in the rhetoric about the market’s ability to push India out of the economic doldrums is that the state must recede from the productive milieu. My research indicates that such thinking is wrong-headed, even disingenuous.

Even a casual stroll through the history of technological innovation over the last century and a half leads to the conclusion that the role of the state in promoting innovative enterprises is of singular importance — whether you look at Silicon Valley and Route 128, the M3 Corridor, or Tokyo.

Second, only the state, an actor that still strides like a Colossus on the economic scene, can preside over (in concert with other actors) the types of institutional reconfigurations needed if India is ever to create an innovative base and truly compete on equal terms with other countries.

What other entity could manage what planners refer to as “social re-engineering?” What other entity could make proper investments in education, health care, the legal system and a host of other institutions that are necessary for the creation of a skilled populace not completely burdened by the existential issues that necessarily arise in an environment vitiated by scarcity?

Markets are important to the upward pushes of any economy, but market fundamentalism will lead India down the wrong path.

What we really need in India is an honest assessment of our social, economic, and political institutions. Only after such an assessment is made can we hope to set processes in motion that will allow the economy to prosper.

While the Indian software industry has had considerable success over the past decade, there is a large task ahead.

Only if we heed the lessons of other countries and create a framework in which the state, a reconfigured and recast state certainly, can work synergistically with educators, politicians, entrepreneurs, and other actors will we be able to move up the value chain.

I do not wish here to make specific recommendations (though I do that in my consulting work). The aim in this piece is to make a broad point: I want to reintroduce in the state to the agenda in policy discussions.

The question, “Can Indian software be innovative?” can only be answered truthfully once India creates the basic preconditions for innovation.

Though riding high now (and rightfully so), the Indian software industry must take the long view and expend energy and resources into creating structures and institutions that make moving up the value chain possible.

– Romi Mahajan is an associate of the
Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute
at the University of Texas, Austin. He is editing a book on
Indian software to be released November 2000 by Penguin.

|TOP|

Learning Java
Introductory Lesson - By Marian Corcoran

Java is the hottest programming language today. In last month’s issue Marian Corcoran gave an introduction about how it is used in the real world. In this issue she begins a series of articles that walks you through the basic concepts of this cutting-edge language.

Part I: A Basic Introduction to Creating Classes in Java

This begins a series of articles on an introduction to Java, starting with an introduction to classes and inheritance.

This introductory article assumes no knowledge of object-oriented programming and is designed to get you thinking in terms of how to create classes. I won’t use the exact syntax of Java yet. It is most important to get the idea of thinking in classes first.

Classes

The most important construct in the language is the class. It is used as a way to structure and organize your program. Think of how you would separate things in the world. Think of one thing, a person perhaps. What attributes might a person have? Name, age, height, etc. You would combine these things into a class doing something like:

class Person

name

age

height

You would create a specific instance of the class by filling in the attributes. One specific instance of a class might be:

name : Sriram

age : 28 years

height : 5’9”

You could think of yet another instance of the class:

name : Mary

age : 37 years

height : 5’8”

Another item might be an employee:

class Employee

name :

SocSecNum:

A particular example of this would be:

name : Sing Lei

SocSecNum:0983451234

Inheritance

The concept of classes allows them to be put together as building blocks to model the real world. In Java and other object-oriented languages, the construct to model the real world is inheritance. Inheritance allows you to extend the functionality of the class. For example, there are specific kinds of employees: managers, software engineers, human resources.

The class for the manager might include the department he or she manages. The class would be:

class Manager

extends Employee

department:

A particular instance of the class Manager would include the properties from the class Employee plus the property from the class Manager, so you would have something like:

name : Sitaram

SocSecNum:1234567890

department: research and development

You could also create a class SoftwareEngineer to extend the Employee class:

class SoftwareEngineer

extends Employee

languages:

A specific instance of the class would be the properties from the class Employee plus the properties form the class SoftwareEngineer:

name : Jack

SocSecNum:0987654321

languages: Java, C++, Fortran

In the above examples, you have seen how to create classes and specific instances of a class from a conceptual point of view. You have also learned how to extend the functionality of a class by creating another class, using inheritance.

Next month, you will learn about getting started using a Java compiler and some basic language constructs of the Java syntax.

Marian Corcoran can be reached at marian@centeradv.com

- Marian Corcoran is president of Technical University
of Silicon Valley. She consults and teaches Java, C++
and Windows. She has taught at Stanford University and UC Berkeley.

|TOP|

Ask Ron Faulkner, vice president for customer service technology solutions at Cotelligent, about the impact a good Management Service Provider can have on a company and he’ll sing its praises.

Cotelligent was one of the beta customers for @Manager, a service recently introduced by a rising-star MSP called @Manage, based in Sunnyvale, Calif. A software professional services firm that provides information technology consulting and outsourcing services, Cotelligent conducts operations from offices in 27 metropolitan areas across the United States.

“Cotelligent was having problems with its network, “ said Faulkner. “We were troubleshooting problems and trying to patch it up, but couldn’t figure out why the network wasn’t working properly. With the help of @Manage, we got a handle on the problem. They monitored our system and documented how many times our server was down and impeding our flow of business. With this hard data, we were able to justify additional hardware to top management which eliminated all down time on our system.”

Cotelligent appears to be on the right track. According to Gartner Group analyst Stephen Elliot, using such services is a good strategy for companies that want to gain control of their internal information technology infrastructures. Elliot, who coined the term Management Service Provider, said MSPs eliminate the need for companies to buy, maintain or upgrade management systems. In a recent article in Networld Fusion, Elliott said that by allowing the MSP to take over responsibility for monitoring, measuring and reporting on its servers, networks and applications, a company is able to fully focus on its core competencies, while still maintaining control of its network resources.

@Manage, which recently received $1.2 million in first-round funding from NetAngels and other strategic investors, is the only Web-based MSP that remotely monitors and manages IT infrastructures for small to mid-market companies. In addition to Cotelligent, @Manage clients include Oracle Business Online, Fannie Mae, Washington Post.com, HotBiz, and Chipshot.com.@Manage delivers its management services to clients through its suite of tools, which includes @Manager and @Monitor, services that are currently powered by Sun Microsystems and hosted on servers co-located at Exodus Communications.

The company was founded in 1998 by CEO Paras Gupta,along with VP for business development Christine M. Flores, CIO Xun Fang, and CFO Derrick L. Arias, all former Exodus employees. Under their leadership, the company is realizing its vision to provide a cost-effective enterprise management solution for e-businesses that monitors and manages anything, from anywhere, anytime, over the Internet.

Using Web technology, @Manage customers can get a desktop, consolidated view of their IT resources, right on their Web browser. “One of the great aspects of our services is that management can access the information anywhere, anytime,” said Gupta. “An administrator can be laying on a remote Polynesian beach, sunscreen in one hand, wondering how his system is running, dreading the sound of his beeper. All he or she has to do is go back to his hotel room, fire up the laptop, connect to the Internet, and voila!, the administrator can get a consolidated picture of the status of his or her IT resources, in real time,” he said.

For many clients the biggest appeal of using an MSP is the bottom line, which can translate into big dollar savings. “@Manage believes information technology should support the growth plans of businesses, not hinder them,” said Gupta “However, many top-tier enterprise management solutions require considerable investment of resources that most growing companies cannot afford. This puts this kind of capability fiscally out of reach for many small to mid-size companies. And of course finding qualified IT professionals is a major challenge as well. But our services make that kind of critical protection an affordable reality for our customers,” he added.

“Our services help management on many levels, from ensuring they know about their IT problems before their customers do, to ensuring the company’s vendors are performing up to their service level agreements. This is essential in a business environment where a company must literally operate and respond to problems on Internet time in order to survive, ” said Christine Flores, co-founder and vice president of sales & marketing.

@Manager monitors and manages networks that contain equipment from a variety of vendors and over different operating systems. It provides real-time monitoring, reporting, and alerting for Internet, Extranet, and Intranet IT resources. It offers advanced functionality that ensures ongoing availability and performance of servers, networks, applications, and services. By continually monitoring IT resources, @Manager identifies potential problems before they impact operations, thus ensuring that IT resources continually deliver responsive service to the end users.

Businesses using @Manager can view a graphical representation of comprehensive metrics for key IT resources and also have direct access to raw data that can be exported to third party analytical tools for further analysis. IT resources are color-coded and handicap-enabled to designate the overall status of each resource.

These graphs empower system and network administrators to control and respond to IT problems before their end-users experience any disruption in services. Automatic alarms can be set based on user-defined thresholds and @Manager immediately reports conditions that require corrective action and can send alerts to appropriate personnel via either an “event console”, a pager, or e-mail.

For a limited time, @Manager is offered at $199 per IT device per month for a one-year commitment.

The company’s @Monitor service, offered for free, was introduced last year and provides hourly, daily, weekly, and/or monthly graphs to measure performance and utilization and allows for trend analysis and capacity planning of IT resources. This helps to ensure high availability and performance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for e-Commerce, email, file servers, database servers, and ftp servers.

@Monitor also performs diagnoses on key system components such as CPU, Memory, and File System for UNIX, LINUX, and NT Servers. Secured browser access to all performance and historic data allows for trend analysis.

The key benefit to using @Monitor is the ability to run leaner systems with predictable costs and scalability. The system provides immediate implementation and return-on-investment, solutions that reduce the costs of technology ownership, and additional valuable time that can be spent on other aspects of managing and operating a business. It also helps avoid the risk of errors in costly technology planning and implementation.

“We recognize that effective monitoring and management of networks, systems, applications, and services is critical for businesses—by using an MSP, companies are buying a technological insurance policy against the uncertainties of the future,” Gupta said.

MSP ADVANTAGES

@Manage: The Players

Paras Gupta, CEO – Born in New Delhi to a family of entrepreneurs, Gupta attended a private, English-language school in India before heading to college near Des Moines, Iowa, where he majored in computer science and computer engineering at Graceland College. Gupta worked in both Kansas City and Minneapolis before settling in Silicon Valley and pursuing his own business and entrepreneurial dreams.

Inspired by the success he witnessed first-hand at Exodus Communications, Gupta first set out on his own with the successful Unify Consulting Group, which he formed with his fellow Exodus comrades Christine Flores, Xun Fang and Derrick Arias. The four segued their experience and successes at Exodus and Unify Consulting into founding @Manage and recently securing $1.2 million in first-round funding.

Christine Flores, VP of Business Development – Flores was previously the VP of Sales for Unify Consulting, where she was responsible for sales, marketing and business development. As strategic account manager at CompuServe, she was responsible for managing over $6 million in revenue from Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Symantec and Borland. She also worked with Exodus Communications, MCI and Informix.

Flores, as chair of the board for the Center to Develop Entrepreneurs, oversaw the successful launch of over 60 new businesses in high tech, biotech and consumer retail industries as president for the Center to Develop Women Entrepreneurs from 1996 to 1998.

Xun (Shawn) Fang, CIO – Fang is one of the principal architects and strategists for @Manage’s distributed computing environment and associated services. With the others, Fang co-founded Unify Consulting Group and was responsible for leading all technology initiatives there, including managing R&D and Operations.

Fang has extensive experience in software design & development. His expertise includes programming in JAVA, C++, TCP/IP, object-oriented methodology and database application development.

Derrick Arias, VP Operations – Prior to co-founding @Manage with Gupta and company, Arias was CFO and co-founder of Unify Consulting Group Inc. There he was responsible for leading the company’s financial and operational strategies and was instrumental in securing seed capital for the company from the SBA. At Exodus Communications, Derrick was a senior systems analyst.

- Amber Cargile works for a
Silicon Valley-based public relations firm.

|TOP|

LAW:

Visas and Viraha:
Spouses of Immigrants - By Anu Gupta

If the person you choose to marry plans to live in the U.S. permanently, chances are you will have to suffer the pain of viraha – separation – before you get a visa. Immigration attorney Anu Gupta walks you through the various legal steps you have to go through.

If you decide to marry a person who is a permanent resident of the United States, and you want to immigrate to the US, there are “/images/transpcr.gif”numerous steps you must take. First, upon marriage, get a court license/certificate of license as proof of your married status. Apply to the US Embassy/Consulate of your city for your immigration as the spouse of a permanent resident. At the Embassy, you will be required to fill out Form I-130 and will have to provide documentation to prove who you are and proof of your marriage. After your application is processed, you will be entered in a que. This que is based on a quota system. Each country is allocated a certain number of green cards in each family based permanent resident category each year. Your “number” (“priority date”) is the date upon which the US Embassy/ INS received your petition. This date is stamped in the left hand corner of your Notice of Receipt that INS will send to you.

Once when your priority date becomes current, you will be interviewed at the US Embassy and if your petition is approved (if the marriage is genuine), you will be given a “Green card”. Generally it is a number , starting with “A–” stamped on your passport at the Consulate. You will also be given a package to be given to the INS officer at the airport at which you land into the US. Based on this, your “Green card” will be mailed to you at your local US address within 6-8 weeks after you land in the US.

The green card that you are given is temporary, valid for 2 years. Within 3 months of your approaching this 2 year date, you need to re-file for a permanent green card. You basically must prove that you and your sponsoring spouse are still married and living together. You and your spouse will be interviewed by INS and you will be approved for a permanent green card unless INS suspects fraud.

TimeLine:

After filing with INS/US Embassy or Consulate abroad, it takes approximately 6 months for your petition to be processed. After this period, you are in a que. Currently the que for India exceeds 4 years. This means you will be outside the US for approximately 4 years before you can join your spouse in the US.

In the meantime, you will be denied an non-immigrant visa because, by filing for an immigrant visa, you have proved your intention to immigrate permanently and have lost the non-immigration intent. Non-immigrant visa basically includes tourist, student and business visas.

There may be other options that you may have available to you:

• If your spouse has been in the US and has been a green card holder for close to 5 years, she/he may apply for citizenship. Depending on which state the spouse lives in, their citizenship may be processed in 1-3 years. If you have your petition sponsored by your spouse (as a green card holder) pending with the INS, it will get upgraded to the petition for a spouse of a citizen and you will be able to rejoin your spouse shortly after they get citizenship.
  

Options if you do not get married.

• If you have a college degree and related experience, you may be able to get employment in the US and may be able to get a H-1B visa processed. The time for this is normally 8-12 weeks.
  
  
• If you are currently employed by a company with offices in the US, you may be able to get transferred to the US, again on a H-1B visa. Again you will complete the process in 8-12 weeks in most cases.
  
  
• If your current employer has a US office or wants to open a US office/ or if you are self-employed, you may be able to visit the US prospecting for business opportunities. You will first get a business visa (B2), then upon entering the US, apply for a L-1 visa. If approved, after a year of L-1visa, you may apply for a green card. After being approved for a L-1 (normally 8 weeks processing by INS), you can get married. However, note that if you leave the US, you may have trouble coming back.
  
  
• If you want to study in the US, you may apply for a student visa (F1). This is tough to get, but if you do get it, you can come to the US, you can get married in the US and file for a green card through your spouse. However, if you leave the country in this situation, you most probably will not be allowed back into the US.
  

- Anu Gupta is an immigration attorney
based in Fremont, Calif.

|TOP|

IT COMMUNICATIONS:

DSL:
Newer Faster Internet – By Murali Bhat

High quality Internet connections are no longer exclusively a hi-tech concern. Everyday folks have come a long way from the days when they used the Internet just to send E-mail to grandma. DSL – the new fast way to the Internet – is exciting a lot of people. But what is it, what it can do, what it cannot do and what the other choices are – these are all frequently asked questions. Murali Bhat has the answers.

Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, is a technology for bringing high-bandwidth connectivity to homes and small businesses over ordinary copper telephone lines. xDSL refers to the family of digital subscriber line technologies, such as ADSL, HDSL, and RADSL. Connection speeds for DSL typically range from 1.544 Mbps to 512 Kbps downstream and around 128 Kbps upstream. In addition, a DSL line allows for one line to carry both voice and data signals, and for the data part of the line to be continuously connected. DSL achieves higher data transfer rates by utilizing more of the available bandwidth spectrum. Ordinary telephone service only makes use of the 0 - 3400 Hz frequency range, which accounts for the 56 Kbps speed limit on standard analog modems. DSL eludes the 3400 Hz frequency boundary by outmoding the digital-to-analog conversion that modems perform and connecting both ends digitally. Hence, larger bandwidth is available, allowing higher transfer rates.

DSL’s use of the existing twisted pair infrastructure makes it cheaper to install than other services which require additional cable to be laid. And unlike cable modems, DSL is not a bus technology, so the bandwidth available to the end user is more consistent. However, despite all of its positive attributes, DSL is not without flaw. For instance, in order to be eligible for DSL, the end user must be geographically within a certain distance from the central telephone office, otherwise the signal degradation is too great and DSL is unfeasible (for ADSL that distance is two miles.) In addition, numerous standards still exist for DSL, hardware is still comparatively pricey, and service is available only in limited areas. Despite these drawbacks, DSL is still a faster alternative to analog modems and ISDN, and should rival cable modems as far as actual bandwidth offerings.

What is DSL?

DSL is the acronym for Digital Subscriber Line technology. DSL is a relatively new technology that makes use of the old copper phone lines to significantly increase bandwidth between the phone companies and their customers. DSL is a service that everyone should have if they are using a standard dial-up connection and want faster internet. Remember DSL uses your existing phone line and does not require an additional phone line. The DSL service uses your existing phone line. This gives you 24 hour access and does not tie up your line and cause it to have a busy signal if you’re on the web. In its various forms — DSL offers users a choice of speeds ranging from 32 Kbps to more than 50 Mbps. These digital services can and will be used to deliver bandwidth-intensive applications like video on demand and distance learning. Today DSL is putting high-speed Internet access within the reach of homes, small and medium-size businesses. DSL takes existing voice cables and turns them into a high-speed digital link. Over any given link, the maximum DSL speed is determined by the distance between the customer site and the Central Office. Most ISPs offer a range of speeds so customers can choose the rate that meets their specific business needs. At the customer premises, a DSL modem connects the DSL line to a local-area network (LAN) or an individual computer. Once installed, the DSL modem provides the customer site with continuous connection to the Internet.

DSL, Analog, Cable, or ISDN?

Analog Modems use a telephone network as is. That is, there are no special provisions that are required to use analog modems in today’s telephone networks. Analog modems simply allow digital data to flow over the telephone company’s already analog network by performing a digital to analog conversion for transmission onto the network and vice versa on the receiving end. The only necessity for analog modems is that each end of the call must have a compatible modem. In essence, this makes analog modem connections the most ubiquitous form of data communications available today. However, analog modems are thus limited by the telephone company’s voice bandwidth service. Current analog modems are struggling to achieve rates of only 56Kbps. With only a bandwidth of about 3,000 Hz, there is a extremely small finite limit on the amount of data that may be encoded and sent reliably through this network. User requirements far outstrip what analog modems can obtain today.

ISDN is a telephone company technology that provides digital service typically in increments of 64Kbps channels. ISDN has been around for many years, but it’s popularity is now only beginning to increase due to the limitations of analog modems and the rise of Internet usage. ISDN requires the phone company to install services within their phone switches to support this digitally switched connection service. Roll out of this service initially got off to a slow start and was stalled by high costs, lack of standards and low acceptance rate by consumers.

DSL is technology backed by telephone companies to provide next generation high bandwidth services to the home and business using the existing telephone cabling infrastructure. DSL to the home over existing phone lines promises bandwidths up to 9Mbps, but distance limitations and line quality conditions can reduce what will actually be achievable. DSL technologies will use a greater range of frequencies over the cable than traditional telephone services which in turn allow for greater bandwidth with which to send and receive information. This technology is still in the early stages of roll out with standards and products just getting under way. Driving this market is the competition from competing access providers and the pursuit of your Internet access dollar.

Cable modems are devices that attach to the cable TV network connection in a home. This broadband technology is being driven by the cable companies to provide services beyond traditional broadcast cable TV such as Internet access. Along with xDSL, it is still in the early stages of development. There are a number of challenges faced by this industry, including return path capabilities, customer service issues and standards. However, potential bandwidth estimates range upwards of 30Mbps from the service provider to subscriber. Cable networks are inherently different in design than telephone networks. Cable networks are broadcast oriented, with each subscriber in an area receiving the same signals as all others in that area. xDSL is circuit oriented so that each connection is independent of all others. Cable networks are inherently hierarchical in nature and thus require two paths, one for downstream and one for upstream. This requires either a second cable plant for upstream or a second frequency band allocated onto the existing system.

Wireless

There are a number of different wireless schemes proposed, planned and implemented throughout the world. Wireless access technology takes shape in a number of different forms such as via a satellite TV service provider or a cellular phone network. Wireless systems can provide ubiquitous access to a large number of subscribers in a relatively large area. Bandwidth can range from a few kilobits a second to many megabits and be either symmetrical or asymmetrical. Like all other technologies, there can be deployment issues which may include spectrum licensing, interference and noise problems, or bandwidth limitations.

How fast is DSL?

DSL speeds have a wide range. Typically ADSL users can expect maximum downstream rates of 1.5Mbps. Other DSL standards have their own specific speeds.

What type of DSL is best for me?

ADSL is generally best for home and small business use. This is because of its larger data rate downstream. This means that the typical user will be able to download faster than they can send data. Which, is very typical of most home users. Customers who require larger bandwidth might do better with SDSL or HDSL.

– Murali Bhat is a software professional
based in Santa Clara, Calif.

|TOP|

- Dr. Bhupinder Bhandari is a gastroenterologist
based in Fremont, Calif.

|TOP|

Bollywood: | Guftugu | Hindi Film Review I | Hindi Film Review II |

Guftugu

Winner

From giving up drug addiction to braving two long years in prison to reestablishing himself as an actor, Sanjay Dutt has emerged a winner all right. After two decades in the industry, the junior Dutt has finally made the industry sit up and take notice of him once again.

1999 was the beginning of a new life for Sanjay Dutt as an actor. After the much recent Khoobsurat, where he alone with his performance held the film together, Sanjay is back in the reckoning with his soul-searching performance in Vaastav. Having won the Screen-Videocon award and the Filmfare award for Best Actor, Sanjay has begun a new life at forty.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Mohnish’s Joyride

One more actor to have reinvented himself in the year 1999 is Mohnish Behl.

Nominated for Filmfare’s Best Supporting Actor for Hum Saath Saath Hain,

Mohnish lost it to Anil Kapoor in Taal. But the very fact that he stood out amongst his more well-known colleagues like Salman and Saif Ali Khan is noteworthy.

It’s commendable how this actor has without any hesitation moved into the villain slot, after having begun his career as the leading man, and then moving on to character roles. The latest we hear is that Mohnish is trying his hands at comedy in Shyam Bajaj’s Salman-Rani starrer, Kahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Fire over Water

Deepa Mehta has done it again. Her penchant for picking up issues that need to be brought out in the open has again led to opposition from the self-appointed moral guardians of India. The shooting of Water, which deals with the life of the Varanasi widows in the 1930s, was suspended after an irate 200-strong group of the RSS wing demolished the sets at Dhobi Ghat and burnt a set at Bahdauni in Varanasi.

While Mehta maintains that the film celebrates the dignity of women and in no way besmirches Kashi, its people or the river Ganges, the fanatic pressure groups threatened self-immolation. But with generous invitations from other state s like West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra, Mehta might just be able to resume shoot soon.

For the show… has to go on.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Tress-passing

Speaking of Water, one has to remember that earlier the movie was in the news for having the two main leads, played by the Fire team Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, shaving and cropping their hair for the movie. While Shabana tonsured her head, Nandita Das happily cut away her lustrous, long tresses for a crew cut in preparedness for a shave. If our memory doesn’t fail us, this is precisely the reason that Bollywood actresses like Manisha Koirala chickened out on the offer, since director Deepa Mehta believed that only the original crop would give the film a touch of authenticity.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Flying high

With his performance in East is East, Om Puri has now gained international recognition. Something that we knew and recognized all along. Gaining recognition in Bollywood with his phenomenal performance in Ardh Satya, Om Puri is one complete actor that we know of.

From parallel cinema to commercial flicks, from a serious role to a comic characterization, Om Puri has been there and done it all. And as for the buzz that he has been spotted by David Dhawan to be cast in his next film, all we can say is “better late than never.”

For once Dhawan seems to have set his eyes on the right star.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Rosh(a)n-I

With Kaho Na… Pyaar Hai a star is born... No, we are not exaggerating, it’s a fact.

For Hrithik Roshan is the current heartthrob, finding a pedestal higher than the Khans of Bollywood put together.

It’s not just us, even the Khans think so. Or, at least one Khan does. No, he didn’t tell us so, but it was clear for all those who took to the television sets to watch the recent Filmfare awards ceremony.

When Hrithik took to stage, showing off his muscles and impeccable dancing talents, the cameraman wisely focussed on Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan’s taciturn, jaw-clenched face. Shocking, of course, for we thought the only Khan to be affected would be Salman, for Hrithik doesn’t even have to remove his vest and T-shirts to impress his brawn on the women folk.

Now, isn’t it a pity that the cameraman couldn’t spot Salman in the crowd?
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Star Kids

To substantiate what we have already stated as obvious is the fact that Hrithik has been signed up by the great showman Subhash Ghai for his next film Yaadein. Now if there’s one person who’s a master at spotting talent in the industry, it is the great godfather himself. Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff – history speaks for itself. There’s one more talent he seems to have settled his eyes on the star kid-sis of Karisma, Kareena Kapoor.
|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Hindi Film Review I:
Simply A Must-see Film

HEY! RAM

Director: Kamal Haasan
Music: Ilayaraja
Starring: Kamal Haasan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerjee, Vasundhara Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Atul Kulkarni, Saurabh Shukla, Hema Malini and Girish Karnad.
Producer: Kamal Haasan

Hey! Ram goes on to reinstate the much established fact that Kamal Haasan is an actor par excellence. By producing and directing a movie that is way above average Hindi films, Kamal Haasan emerges a winner yet again. The cinematography, editing and set design is immaculate. He could have done with a tighter script, though, and have easily done away with some of the special effects which were a bit over-the-top.

Set in 1946, when the call for Partition tore Calcutta apart due to the ensuing communal riots, the story is told through the life of a common man Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan). The film looks at how personal loss and grief could turn a completely rational and educated archaeologist like Saket Ram into a murderer, bringing in mob psychology and the fact that there are always people ready to cash in on your weaknesses.

A South Indian Brahmin happily married to a Bengali woman Aparna (Rani Mukerjee), Saket Ram gets sucked into the turbulent times after witnessing his wife’s brutal death. Out on the streets avenging his wife’s death, Saket Ram has a chance encounter with a firebrand Hindu extremist, Abhyankar (Atul Kulkarni), who succeeds in converting him from a civilian bystander to a man on a mission.

Mahatma Gandhi’s decision to grant an independent Muslim state called Pakistan spurs Saket Ram to join a mission to kill Gandhi.

Of course, entangled with this tale is Saket Ram’s personal life story – the journey from the bloody streets of Calcutta to Chennai and his reluctant second marriage with Maithili (Vasundhara Das). Here is where the script could use a little editing. The passion with which they end up kissing every few minutes takes away from the main thrust of the story.

The entire story unfolds as a flashback while 89-year-old Saket Ram is being taken to a hospital for emergency treatment Dec. 6, 1999, as the city is once again engulfed in communal riots.

While there can be no comparison of Kamal Haasan’s performance except that he seems to be competing with and excelling himself with each successive film, the rest of the cast seem to have all come tailored for their respective roles. Rani Mukerjee, sans make-up and shorn of the short-skirt phenomenon wearing starched Bengali cotton saris, looks absolutely gorgeous as she fits the plump Bengali teacher-wife image to perfection. The endearing way she mixes up Bengali and English words with Hindi lends all the more credibility to her character.

Shah Rukh Khan as Amjad Ali Khan, a friend who compels Saket Ram to re-examine the choices he has made, has for once left all starry images aside. Here’s a truly restrained performance that is shorn of all Shahrukh’isms.

Whether it’s Atul Kulkarni, Saurabh Shukla or Vasundhara Das, everyone fits into the characterization effortlessly. Vasundhara Das, a model who makes her debut on the silver screen, slips into this talented crowd with ease.

However, Hema Malini, Om Puri, Girish Karnad and Naseeruddin Shah as Gandhiji seem sadly under-utilized.

But that does not in any way undermine the fact that it’s a meticulously researched and detailed film, with authentic sets that sport even advertisements on pavements that pertain to that age. A film that unbinds one’s thoughts, letting one figure out how and where hatred replaces love and trust, and how one’s hatred gives leeway for vested interests to take advantage of you.

Simply a must-see film.

Rating: **** (Superior)

|Return to Bollywood Index| |TOP|

Telugu Film Review:
Poor Direction, Insipid Music

Gayatri Films
VAMSODDARAKUDU

Screenplay & Director: Sarat
Music: Koti
Story & Dialogues: Parachuri Brothers
Starring: Balaiah, Krishnam Raju, Radhika, Saakshi and Ramya
Producer: M. S. Reddy

Suryam (Balaiah) is a physical director in a local college. His mother (Radhika) is a widow. The college in which Suryam works belongs to industrialist Sudarshan Rao (Charan Raj). Rao is the brother-in-law of business tycoon Raja (Krishnam Raju). Raja has two sons, Brahmaji and Ravi Babu.

Sudarshan Rao has a son, Srihari, and a daughter, Saakshi. Saakshi is a student in the college. Satyabhama (Ramya) works as a junior physical director in the college. Suryam and Saakshi, who used to have regular rich-gal-poor-guy fights, fall in love. Satyabhama loves Suryam too.

When they visit Khajuraho on a college tour, Satyabhama accuses Suryam of attempted rape. However, Sudarshan Rao had actually brought Satyambhama into the college to malign Suryam so that his daughter Saakshi hated Suryam.

Satya, it turns out, is the daughter of a conspirator, Giribabu. She is asked to trick Suryam to save her ailing father.

Sudarshan Rao agrees to the marriage of Suryam and Sakshi, but he wants to know why Suryam’s mother appears as a widow even though her husband is alive. Suryam, is not even aware that his father is alive.

Later on Suryam comes to know that Raja is his father. Suryam’s mother used to work as a maid in Raja’s house. When Raja got involved in a murder, she took the fall. Moved, Raja married his maid. Sudarshan Rao, brother-in-law of Raja, engineers a situation where the maid is thrown out.

Suryam decides to set things right and the rest of the film presents that story.

Balaiah does well, given his character’s limited scope while Ramya and Saakshi both play the roles of glamour dolls.

The story is old and cliched, and the film is suffers from poor and unimaginative direction. Paruchuri brothers’ dialogues have little freshness or punch. Koti’s music is insipid.

This film lacks quality both in terms of print and production, as post-production was compromised to meet the Sankranti deadline. The result was bad editing, insipid re-recording and no DTS.

Watching this film gives a feeling of watching a typical commercial film of the early 1980s. Balaiah unduly favored Sarat and Koti. S.A. Raj Kumar, who was the original music director for this film, was unceremoniously dropped to accommodate Balaiah’s favorite Koti.

The saving grace of this film is the massive popularity of Balaiah that drove the masses to this film. But once viewers are seated in a theater, they experience a rude shock. We have to wait and see how this affects box-office collections.

|TOP|

Recipe:
Kashmiri Dum Aloo – By Niti Sachdev

One of the famous vegetarian dishes from Kashmir, which is known more for its non-vegetarian food. It tastes good with almost anything but is mostly eaten with steamed rice. Niti Sachdev tells you how to cook it.

Ingredients

• 1 pound small potatoes (red or white)
  
• 1 tablespoon oil (veg, corn or canola)
  
  
• Masala to be ground:
  
• 4 tablespoons sauf (aniseed)
  
• 2 1/2 tablespoons jeera (cumin)
  
• 7-8 cloves
  
• 5 big black cardamom
  
• 6 medium pieces dalchini (cinnamon)
  
  
• Masala to be used without grinding:
  
• 1/4 teaspoon hing (asafoetida)
  
• 3-4 cloves
  
• 1 1/2 katori (cup) yogurt, whipped
  
• 1 tablespoon red chili powder
  
• Water according to thickness of gravy desired.
  

Method

• Heat the masala slightly and then grind finely. Sieve.
  
• Boil the potatoes and deep fry them till golden brown.
  
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add 3-4 cloves and the hing and immediately add red chili powder mixed with 1-2 tablespoons water. Stir. Add the yogurt and stir continuously to prevent clots from forming. Add the ground masala, potatoes and water.
  
• Simmer for 30 min. till the gravy is of the desired thickness.
  
• Remove from heat, garnish with coriander and serve hot.
  

– Niti Sachdev, a homemaker, lives in Fremont, Calif.

|TOP|

March-April Horoscope

ARIES (March 21 to April 20): This is the right time to ask for favors from people in power as Sun transits house of gains. You will be attracted towards a person from the opposite sex. A trip will be fruitful and relaxing. Strong Jupiter will help you gain wisdom and knowledge. You will be learning new things in profession.

TAURUS (April 21 to May 20): Grab the offer made to you recently. Sun in house of career and gains will get you the power and authority you always wanted in career. Venus will make love life exciting and you will be involved in religious activities this week. A reply from the government will come.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20): Mars will cause some tension at work. Avoid any argument with the boss or a colleague. Planets will give you a chance to grab some easy money. You will be helped by in-laws. Business will get better and profits will rise. Let someone from the past go and do not let memories haunt you.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22): Money forgotten will be recovered. Some of you may cash stocks for a profit. Strong Venus could cause distraction in personal life because of outside influence. You will take a short trip to meet old friends. Some of you will be working on a big change in career.

LEO (July 23 to August 22): Strong planets will help you make few good financial decisions. Some of you will be changing jobs and moving in near future. Offer is getting delayed but will not be denied. Do not associate with a person with shady past. Try to keep the promise you made with an important person.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22): Do not let opportunity slip away and grab the easy money. Spouse may feel exhausted and may not keep well. Try to settle the issues without getting into argument. Saturn, though weak, will not let real opportunity come closer for a few more months.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22): Jupiter may cause health problems to spouse. Look towards naturopathy for the cure. Competition will grow in business but cannot hurt in long run. You will meet some old friends at a social gathering. Rahu in tenth will help fulfil your political ambitions.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 22): You will receive some good advice from a learned person. Big changes in your financial strategy are seen. If you get out of the deal, you will suffer losses. Trip undertaken now will be useful. There will be some positive but small developments in career.

SAGITTARIUS (November 23 to December 22): Soft planets will bring some extra cash through speculation. Some of you may go on a business trip this month. You will successfully convey your message and get the job done. Spouse may spend money on unnecessary items. Handle all machinery and tools with care.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19): You may come under sudden financial pressure. You will be writing a few big checks. Career-related tensions will get resolved to your satisfaction. If you were looking for a better job, you will get one this month. Another member will be added in the family soon.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18): You will need to deal with the government in some way. You will be applying for a loan to meet a commitment made earlier. There will be expected changes in career. You will have good time with family and friends. Stock values will rise.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20): Try to relax and get a second opinion about plans, project and people you are planning to associate with. Mars can give some temporary blood pressure problem. A child will apply in far off places only. You will make new friends and enjoy the trip. Do not make financial decisions without consulting experts.

Bay Area-based astrologer Pandit Parashar can
be reached by email at: parashar@ix.netcom.com.

|TOP|