Air India was founded by J. R. D. Tata in July 1932 as Tata Airlines, a division of Tata Sons Ltd. (now Tata Group). In 1948, after the independence of India, 49% of the airline was acquired by the Government of India, with an option to purchase an additional 2%. In return, the airline was granted status to operate international services from India as the designated flag carrier under the name Air India International.

Around 2006–2007, the airlines began showing signs of financial distress. The combined losses for Air India and Indian Airlines in 2006-07 were Rs 770 crores. After the merger of the airlines, this went up to Rs 7,200 crores by March 2009. This was followed by restructuring plans which are still in progress. In July 2009, SBI Capital Markets Ltd was appointed to prepare a road map for the recovery of the airline. The carrier sold three Airbus A300 and one Boeing 747-300M in March 2009 for $18.75 million to survive the financial crunch.

Today’s scenario:

Air India looses 20 crores daily. And the Indian Government prefers to just watch and give the tax-payer’s money from time to time so that it does not closes. It is time to punish the corrupt management and the union leaders who opt to go on strike whenever they want.

The question is how long this is going to go on ? If not privatization, strict action is needed. Recruiting top shots in the management may be the key.

And still the Air India Expects this:
Air India is hopeful that it would get the money approved for the VIP operations and also the fund approved in the budget after the monsoon session. At present, Air India’s annual interest cost stands at Rs 3,400 crore. The airline has a debt of Rs 44,000 crore and is currently awaiting a go-ahead for its turnaround plan from the government. The GoM will meet again on August 17 to decide on the financial and business restructuring plan.

[source: Economic Times]

As they say, it rains a lot in Mumbai.

It does rains a lot in Mumbai. It rains like cats and dogs.

The above image was taken when I went to Inormait Mall, Vashi in Lunch. The sky was clear and there was no sign of any rains. But when I came out, it was raining heavily. Had to wait for 30 mins for it to stop and head office back.

On 23rd July 2011, a meeting was scheduled with MP – Sachin Pilot. And I was assigned to present the presentation. This kind of opportunity was first time in my life. I was pretty excited as I would be meeting a MP first time in my life.

The news of meeting just came 24 hours before. So, I had only 4-5 hours to make the brochure and the PPT for the presentation. Preparing them was easy. On Saturday I headed with my other office colleagues to ITC Maratha. The venue and time was changed, so we went to Siddhivinayak temple to utilize the time. Going temple was obviously not my idea. But I had to go as you cannot decline a visit in temple. After that we headed back to ITC Maratha. The hotel was pretty good. And the 6 cups of tea cost us around 1500 Rs After that there was meeting with the MP – Sachin Pilot. I did not get the opportunity to present the PPT as he had called only two people from each organization – STPI, Indian Post, MTNL, NIC & CDAC. However I did get a clear glimpse of him after meeting. The meeting was good and we headed back.

Few things go unplanned but it is what you choose in the end.

As they say:

“To have a change you have to be a part of change”

I joined a STPI (Ministry Of Communication & IT) on March 16, 2011 as an Assistant Director. My selection was a big surprise to me. Cracking 3 Seats All-India is never easy and not for people like me.. got to be kidding me. Interview went good and I made it. I had to leave Noida and settle in Mumbai, the sad part. Still trying my best to live in Mumbai, well that’s the other story and also in one of my previous blog.

There were mixed reaction from my friends, me joining a Government Job. My parent were the most happy of it. So I joined. I work for a change where I work and I am already working on lot of changes here. Long way to go. Wish me luck

Finally, after my unsuccessful attempts in CAT, joined M.S. (Software Systems) from BITS Pilani 2011-2013, Distant Education. I always wanted to pursue technical course for my Post-graduate but due to increased job opportunities after MBA, I became more inclined to CAT when I was in final year of my college. I guess why I had a history of failed attempts in CAT While few of my friends joined on the equivalent scores. I never opted for it.

My past year’s CAT Scores:
1. 2007 Attempt (in B. Tech. – Final year) – 91 %
2. 2008 Attempt (in Pioneer eServer Pvt Ltd.) – Will Not Say
3. 2009 Attempt (in HCL Tech.) – 89 %
4. 2010 Attempt (in HCL Tech.) – Will Not Say
5. 2011 Attempt (in STPI) – No More CAT, screw you I am not made for it

So, finally I applied for M.S. from BITS Pilani (Distant Education) and my profile got shortlisted. Yay. Will be doing postgraduate finally. Classes begins from third week of July, 2011. Studies along with work can be tough and will be tough. But, I will manage

It is bit complicated and boring but in the end I was successful. I had the old version right from December v2.8 and I was avoid the upgrade as the Automatic Upgrade would hang at “Unpacking updates…” So i did a manual upgrade. These are the brief steps how i did it:

1. Backup your database to be on safe side. Though I never had to recover from it. Things went right.
2. Backup ALL your WordPress files in your WordPress directory. Don’t forget your .htaccess file as well.
3. Deactivate ALL your Plugins. This is important.
4. Ensure first three steps are completed. Do not attempt the upgrade unless you have completed the first three steps.
5. Download and extract the WordPress package from http://wordpress.org/download/.
6. Delete the old WordPress files on your site, but DO NOT DELETE

• wp-config.php file;
• wp-content folder; Special Exception: the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets folders should be deleted.
• wp-images folder;
• wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file do not delete that folder;
• .htaccess file–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
• robots.txt file–if your blog lives in the root of your site (ie. the blog is the site) and you have created such a file, do not delete it.

7. Upload the new files from your computer’s hard drive to the appropriate WordPress folder on your site.
8. Run the WordPress upgrade program and follow the instructions on the screen.
9. Update Permalinks and .htaccess. Update your Permalink Structure and merge the custom rules, if necessary, into your .htaccess file.
10. Install updated Plugins and Themes. Please review the list of Plugins that work in Version 3.2.1. Check for Theme Compatibility with 3.2.1 and ask your Theme author for any new version.
11. Reactivate Plugins
12. Replace the wp-config.php file
13. Review what has changed in WordPress. Open the Admin Page.

In case if something goes wrong, replace the old files that you had backed up.
All the best!

I was at home, enjoying my holidays. The day it got released. Monday I guess it was. Got the invite from a tweet-friend from US on first day itself. Though I could not explore much on the first day due to the internet speed constraint at home. When I came back, I tried my hands on it. Overall, I was not impressed. It does has some awesome features but I still love facebook & Twitter.

• The joke about “Google finally hired a designer” is old but true — the new design looks simplistic but elegant.
• From the start, the service just felt like it would be more useful than Wave. I anticipate G+ will stick.
• I see this app as a direct competitor to Facebook but not so much to Twitter. The appeal of Twitter’s 140 character limit will never get old. The Developer Apps is still to roll out i guess.
• Facebook’s saving grace is that its user base is already massive, and non-techies wont care to adopt GooglePlus. Where Google has an advantage over other community builders is the number of GMail and Google Apps users that will stumble upon G+.
• “Circles” instead of “lists” is just a fancy term, but they seem more pronounced on G+. The nice “Add to circles” mouseover effect reinforces that. As someone who likes his information organized, this feature pleases me quite a bit.
• Profile pages are a billion times cleaner than Facebook’s profile pages; with Facebook, there’s way too much going on.
• The photo upload feature and display system are pretty sweet from start to finish. From photo drag/drop upload, to live progress bars, to all of the great mouseover effects, G+ is able to utilize a lot of HTML5/CSS3 features without becoming a major turn-off. Well done to them.
• I realize that services like Facebook Places and Foursquare are popular, but check-in features are a surefire way to annoy the hell out of me and clog up my feed with crap.
• The long-polling (and probably future WebSocket) technology Google uses makes their app seem lightning fast. Probably difficult to construct the system but well worth it for all G+ users.
• I love the stream’s auto-fit-width and height. Loved it on Google Image search, love it here. Comment bubbles are a nice touch too.
• I don’t see a way to change a photo album’s name. Lame.
• I’m hoping that Google implements friendly links by username instead of the horrendously long profile URLs. I’d much prefer “/askrahul” to “/102551495343648090219″. Maybe that would too easily expose email address handles though?
• I use Facebook’s “Like” very much, so I did like the “+1″ concept. I wanted -1 to be there
• The small “Send an Email” feature is quite nice. No need to jump into Gmail, no need for access to direct email address.
• Profile editing somehow manages to stay elegant and organized despite being a one-page, inline process.

• The real test is when Google creates an API for G+; can G+ stay clean and organized then too? Or will G+ turn into a Facebook Farmville mess?

Those are my views on Google+. What do you think about Google+ ?
Though it has 18 Millions(as of today) users via invite but it can never overtake the 750 million Facebook viewers.