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Showing posts from October, 2018

Google home vs Amazon echo - a comparative study through Indian perspective

The home speakers hit the Indian market on April 10 and as that of echo devices hit the market much before on October, 2017. It's been 6 months since Google home has become part of many families in India, even before its launch I was using home mini but was not able to use all its features and was eagerly waiting for an official release. Now, for quite a time I have been acquainted with both Alexa as well as Google home, and it's a perfect time to check where the two kindred virtual spirits lie with respect to the Indian market. Google home devices Alexa already had a head start of 4 months and on top of that was well configured for the Indian market right from the beginning. On the other hand, when home released the only thing that changed was that I was able to choose my default music provided from 2 more options - saavn and gaana, rest it was all the same as before. Though Google enthusiasts (me being one too) were quite confident about home getting all the features

Remembering Naipaul

 Nobel laureate VS Naipaul left for his heavenly abode at the age of 85. He is famous for his stern views on India's working and the comparisons he made between us and the western civilization. Right from his teenage he had developed a certain distaste for the Indian ethics. For nearly a year he traveled India to gain information about his book. His trip to India, certainly left a deep negative impact on him. As he witnessed lack of maintenance at public places, poverty stricken people everywhere - for a man who grew up in abroad, all these factors within five years of India's independence was shocking - and finally, his witnessing of caste division. He firmly believed that our Indian government and customs were responsible for abstaining India from growth. His book 'Area of darkness' dealt with these matters in an unrefined way. Though the book was banned, his next book 'India: A wounded civilization' was a strong comeback of the former book. He pored his obse

Dissent is a way forward

Just like a magnet has two poles, every judgement has many viewpoints. No one is perfect. We can never accept anyone’s opinion to be the omniscient one. Dissenting judgement ensures the democracy’s principles and the voice of the varied. Recently, the SC is on a flurry of comeuppance in judgements, some resulting in a dissent. In the history of judgements by the SC, three dissenting judgements stand out. The HR Khanna’s dissent in ADM Jabalpur vs SP Shukla case of 1976, where he stood for the Right to life. Chief Justice Subba Rao’s dissent in Kharak Singh vs State of UP (1962), holding against five of his brother judges that the Constitution guaranteed a fundamental Right to privacy, and that police surveillance regulations were entirely unconstitutional. Justice Fazl Ali’s dissent in AK Gopalan vs State of Madras (1950), one of the earliest judgments of the Supreme Court. He supported that the phrase in article 21 of the constitution, “procedure established by law” required that d