New Role for Nandan Nilekani

In the past 15 years, India's identity has undergone one of the biggest transformations that any country has ever experienced. It was once synonymous with poverty, snake charmers and the Taj Mahal.
But stop someone on the street in the West today and say "India," and the words that come back at you are "brainy," "software engineers,'' "call centers" and "the country most likely to take my job"!
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One of the Indian engineer-entrepreneurs
most responsible for creating the new
reality that has produced this
new Indian image is
Nandan Nilekani.
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Sseattle has Bill. Bangalore has Nandan. He was one of the founders and president, of Infosys Technologies Ltd., based in Bangalore India's Silicon Valley. Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services are the Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems of India. What makes Nilekani unique? It can be summarized to one phrase: great explainer. Yes, he and N.R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys' legendary chairman, have built a great global company from scratch. But the reason Nilekani, 54, is so sought out is that he has a unique ability not simply to program software but also to explain how that program fits into the emerging trends in computing, how those trends will transform the computing business and how that transformation will affect global politics and economics. It was his insight that the global playing field was being "leveled" by technology.
In this era of mounting complexitywith more people, systems and products entwined in a bewildering web of global networksexplaining is an enormously valuable skill and Nilekani is blessed with this inimitable power.
Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore. His father Mohan Nilekani was a manager in Minerva Mills. Nandan Nilekani had his initial schooling in Bangalore. Due to his father's transferable job Nandan moved to his uncle's place at Dharwad at the age of 12. This taught Nandan Nilekani to be independent. In 1973, at the age of 18, Nandan Nilekani got admission in IIT Mumbai. The stint at IIT Mumbai transformed Nandan Nilekani from a small town boy to a confident mature man. The lessons he learnt were-meritocracy; the ability to work as part of a team; hard work; and the importance of giving back to the society-have stood him in good stead.
After graduating in electrical engineering from IIT Mumbai in 1978, Nandan Nilekani joined Patni Computers. Here he worked under Narayan Murthy. Three years later in 1981, Nandan Nilekani along with Narayan Murthy and five other co-founders founded Infosys. While Narayan Murthy stayed in India, Nandan Nilekani shifted to the US to take care of Infosys' interests there. He was the company's marketing face.
In 1980s and 90s Nandan Nilekani and his team worked hard to build Infosys. Today Infosys' success story has become a legend in India's corporate history. Today, Infosys has an employee strength of 58,000, annual revenue of $2 billion and $21 billion capitalization.
Infosys is now looking to buy information technology (IT) firms in Europe, South America, Japan, West Asia and Australia that earn $450-500 million a year in revenue and cater to the healthcare and energy sectors. Nilekani, who could have conveniently been the possessor of his selfish goals, kept his heart inspired and ever afire with enthusiasm to live for a nobler cause and meaningful strife for the country.
With resolve sufficiently strong, desire exclusive and faith complete, Nandan Nilekani with his mind and senses, intellect and reason, all turn introvert and unflinchingly took the path of righteousness and struggled to achieve excellence in his every endeavor and today he is all prepared to serve the nation with modesty and magnanimity of the purpose.
Nandan Nilekani, one of the biggest brands of corporate India will head the national project for creating a database of citizens, took over as the chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) on Thursday, July 23, 2009.
Nilekani will rig in as cabinet minister in his new responsibility. He has been inducted into the government by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh to head the Unique Identification Authority of India.
The man, who impressed everyone not only by his scientific imagination and inventive skill but by his pride and patriotism, while bidding adieu to Infosys said, “I am generally very articulate but this is not the day or place where I can be articulate. I have been wrapped up in Infosys for 28 years. My only identity is Infosys. I will be going to lead a programme to give identity to every Indian. But today I am losing my own identity”.
The simple and deep-seated conviction in Nilekani's mind that there is a unitary whole which manifests as a manifold made the software czar Bill Gates believe in him and the new project when he expressed his keenness on partnering with India's ambitious project of issuing national identity cards to one billion people, which he hailed as a "great initiative. “According to Gates, Nilekani has a "challenging task" on hand.
The necessity for a centrally issued ID is accentuated by the growing problems of illegal immigrants in various parts of the country. The ID is expected to serve as a unifying document to identify the citizens of India.

The events of 26 November in Mumbai have hastened the set up of the National Authority for Unique Identity. The body was set up on 27 January 2009. The initial phase of the project is expected to cover nine States and four Union Territories. The UID will be issued to people living in the coastal villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The Union Territories of Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands shall also be covered in this first phase expected to deliver the identity cards by early 2010.
Issuance of identity cards to 1.2 billion, certainly a Herculean task, will be accomplished in a meticulously planned way. The first set of unique identification numbers will be issued to the citizens within 12-18 months. These numbers will not only provide an identity to citizens but will also help them in obtaining benefits of government scheme and also undertake with ease other activities like opening bank accounts and availing electricity connection.
The objectives of the NAUID (MNIC) Project is to obviate need for multiple documentary proof; facilitate easy verification and easy availing of government or private services; help welfare programmes to reach intended beneficiaries and serve as basis for e-governance services.
The ID will effectively serve numerous purposes like the preparation of National Population Register (NPR); preparation of National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC); preparation of National Register of Residency (NRR) for non-citizens; to provide National Identity Number (NIN) to each person; provision of Multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) to each citizen and also Multi-purpose Residency Card to non-citizens
Every individual citizen of the country is expected to be provided with a UID by 2012.
The UID authority shall work closely with the National Population Register proposed to be created by the Home Ministry through the Registrar General of the Census of India concurrently with the census 2011 in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Citizenship Act.
Unique Identification Authority of India will ensure every Indian with an identification proof in form of unique 16-digit number which also has the possibility to serve the individual with the same 16 digit mobile number as well. The smart card issued will have identification details like name, sex, address, marital status, photo, identification mark and finger biometrics of a person. Karnataka has been selected for the pilot implementations of its ambitious Unique Identity Number (UIN) project by Unique Identification Authority of India.
Nandan Nilekani is recipient of several honors and awards. In January 2006, Nandan became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He figures among one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006 & 2009. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in field of economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, Nandan Nilekani was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors of India.
A man who always believed in hard work and remained industrious throughout his career will now be instrumental in redefining nation building in an innovative way.

Unveiling the Dynamism Within... Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Born: 1952 (age 56–57) Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India
Fields: Biochemistry and Biophysics
Institutions:MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England
Known for: Structure and function of the ribosome; macromolecular crystallography
Notable awards: Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2007), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)
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The Nobel Prizes, instituted in 1901, annually honour outstanding contributions to literature, world peace and various sciences. Thirteen Indian citizens or people of Indian origin have been honored till date, but only three of these are or were Indian citizens, and seven of Indian origin. Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1913 and similarly Chandrashekar Venkata Raman won it for Physics in 1930; Hargobind Khorana won it for Medicine in 1968; Mother Teresa won it for Peace in 1979; Subramanian Chandrashekar won it for Physics in 1983; Amartya Sen won it for Economics in 1998 and with this Venkatraman Ramakrishnan added to the list of Nobel Laureates for chemistry for the year 2009.
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Afalling apple led Issac Newton to discover the power of gravity that culminated in the formulation of his famous laws. This example proves that innovation can happen to anyone, anytime. The glocal world believes in the power of Innovation and the need for innovative ideas as ideas alone allow exploring creative faculties and taking the world to new heights of excellence. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, with his dexterity and mental alacrity made India proud by winning the Nobel Prize (2009) for chemistry.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan stirred the world with his new findings and studies on one of life's core processes: the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is gifted with the capacity to choose his present action, which is called self-effort or 'Purusartha'. All along his life, he has been exercising this power in him and an aggregate of all these past self-efforts has determined his present destiny. In other words, the sum total of all past 'Purusartha' will be equal to his present 'Prarabdha'. 'What' one meets in life is destiny and 'How' one meets it, is self-effort.
His 'Prarabdha' is the outcome of his determination to follow his ideas as conviction and convert them into existence to give birth to a brand new visage of the topical world. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath has been awarded for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level.
They have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome. Inside every cell in all organisms, there are DNA molecules. They contain the blueprints for how a human being, a plant or a bacterium, looks and functions. But the DNA molecule is passive. If there was nothing else, there would be no life.
The blueprints become transformed into living matter through the work of ribosomes. Based upon the information in DNA, ribosomes make proteins: oxygen-transporting haemoglobin, antibodies of the immune system, hormones such as insulin, the collagen of the skin, or enzymes that break down sugar. There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. They build and control life at the chemical level.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan generated 3D models to show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, now a US citizen was born in 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. He is a Senior Scientist and Group Leader at Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan moved to Baroda (Vadodara) in Gujarat state at the age of three, where he had his schooling, except for spending 1960-61 in Adelaide, Australia. Following his Pre-Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he did his undergraduate studies in the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship, graduating with a B.Sc. in Physics in 1971. Immediately after graduation he moved to the U.S.A., where he obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. He then spent two years studying biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego while making a transition from theoretical physics to biology. Ramakrishnan is married to Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books. He has a stepdaughter, Tania Kapka, who is a doctor in Oregon, and a son, Raman Ramakrishnan, who is a cellist in New York.
To a gleaming intellect like Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, the world appears to be a field of magnificent phenomena of the discovered and the undiscovered, of great power and potentialities. Realizing this truth he reformed and reconstructed his inner instruments of experience so that the world is interpreted by him in its true perspective. The realm of different perspectives ultimately culminate to generate an idea that forms the rock bottom of every discovery that shapes the world and thus it can truly be interpreted that if one masters the mind, one can master the world.

Upmanyu - The great disciple

The recent changes in the world whether in technology or ideology, underline the fact that emerging Indian talents are monumenting their own alcove globally. The age old 'Guru-shishya padhatti' though taken a new shape in the modern context but still clinches tight to the same roots of dedication, conviction and a strong bonding between a teacher and a student.
The values generated and the energies channelized rightly by 'Gurus' for their pupils have given birth to some great geniuses like Yudhisthir, Arjuna, Eklavya, Rizwan, Upmanyu etc.
Upmanyu was one of the favorite disciples of Saint Ayodhdhaumya. He was assigned the task of looking after the cows. One day when he returned after his days work, the Guru called him and said, "Son, you look very healthy and radiant. What do you eat while you are working?" Upmanyu replied with all humility, "Sir, I eat whatever I get in alms." The saint who wanted to test Upmanyu stopped him from feeding himself on alms and asked him to give those to the Saint (Guru of Upmanyu) himself. Upmanyu agreed and from then on offered all that he received to his guru. The Guru used to take everything and gave nothing to Upmanyu.
A person like Upmanyu is recognized as one of the geniuses in the East. In contemporary parlance, a genius is not born but is the result of self-discipline, self moulding and self development guided by their teachers and shaped by the individual himself/herself.
A few days later, the Guru again asked Upmanyu, "I take away all that you beg for, so what do you eat?" Upmanyu replied that whatever he received by begging the first time, he offered it to his Guru and then went out and begged again a second time. The guru said, "Son, this conduct is inappropriate for a resident of the hermitage. By begging twice you hinder the earnings of other pupils as you cut into their share of alms. Besides, this also confirms your greed."
Upmanyu listened to the guru and agreed not to do so again. A few days later, the guru again asked Upmanyu how he still looked so robust when he had stooped him from eating anything. To which Upmanyu replied that he drank a little of the cow's milk while he took them out to graze. The guru forbade him to do that without his permission. A few days later, on seeing Upmanyu still looking healthy, the guru again called him and asked how he was surviving. This time Upmanyu said that he drank the foam that the calves drooled while feeding on their mother's milk. The guru again forbade Upmanyu to do so and said that this would affect the health of the calves as they would drop more and more foam for Upmanyu to feed out of the kindness of their heart.
Upmanyu agreed to this too and went back to graze the cows as was his duty. Now that all avenues of getting food were closed, Upmanyu felt really hungry. When he could not tolerate the intensity of hunger he went and ate the leaves of a plant called `Aak', the leaves of which produce a bitter, sour, acidic and poisonous juice. Due to the effect of this juice Upmanyu was instantly blinded. He kept wandering in the woods and fell into a dry well.
After sunset, when Upmanyu did not return to the hermitage, the saint started worrying about him. He said to his other pupils, "I have closed all avenues for Upmanyu to get food. He is probably angry at this and hence has not returned, so let us all go and look for him." So they went to the woods to look for Upmanyu. They called out for him and heard a feeble voice from the well. They hurried to the well and when they peeped inside they saw Upmanyu. They asked Upmanyu how he fell inside the well. Upmanyu said, "I was so hungry that I ate the leaves of the Aak plant. I then became blind and while I was trying to find my way home I fell into the the well." After hearing his story they pulled him out of the well and his Guru told him to pray to the physicians of the Gods, Ashwini Kumar, so that his eyes would be healed. Upmanyu did as he was told. Ashwini Kumars (twins who are the Physicians of Gods) appeared before him. They said, "Upmanyu, eat this sweet that we have brought you and you shall be healed." Upmanyu declined and said that he cannot eat anything without the permission of his guru. The gods then told him that they had offered his guru some sweet and he ate it without asking the permission of his own Guru. So if it is okay for your Guru to eat without first asking permission from his own guru then it is okay for you too.
But Upmanyu again declined and this devotion and obedience of Upmanyu towards his guru pleased the gods. They blessed him and Upamnyu's eyes were healed and all his teeth turned into gold. Upmanyu then went to his guru and was blessed by him. His guru was so pleased with him that he blessed him with instant memory and told him that he will know the Vedas and Dharamshashtras (other religious texts) automatically without any effort.
To make life worthwhile and fruitful, one must generate enthusiasm and conviction in oneself that is inculcated by none other than Guru and should be followed religiously. Generation of enthusiasm righteously directed by the teachers will help their pupils discover a goal and attach them to the Alter with a spirit of dedication, reverence and love. Once the pupils have surrendered themselves to it, the ideal itself will provide the pupils with the inspiration and strength. Then nothing can hinder the progress of pupils to march towards their goal and the ideal.

IIT-JEE 2009 Paper 2, Questions and Solutions

Jee 2009 Paper 2

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Arun Majumdar, a harbinger of ‘Obama vision’

Arun Majumdar, a harbinger of ‘Obama vision’, is putting in his heart & soul in bringing about a change which a must to Resurrect the society from turbulence to peace and from exploiting the limited sources of nature to their optimum usage.

Today the entire world is writhing under the juggernaut of the scarcity of natural resources. In the technocratic world, where the rat race for better standard of living luster the human eye, ignoring the grave fact of continuous depletion of natural resources. Carrying the ‘Obama Vision’ bold and loud, Arun Majumdar is determined to bring an ‘Energy Renaissance’ by designing buildings to be super energy efficient and then generating any energy they need through rooftop solar, creating the possibility of net-zero energy buildings. ‘Zero net energy a goal for every home’, the renaissance man is determined give a fillip to the general society, who can crowbar the entire generation, who can lift the entire society to a higher standard of life, and such men are mighty.

The fragrance his thoughts, the might and glory of his ideals give the momentum to the society for its benefit. Arun Majumdar’s significant contributions in cutting gas emissions and improving energy efficiency made him reach the epitome of a visionary. His diligent act, his passion to excel, his gusto to improve, his spirit to consume his present abilities to the fullest ignited him with a spark to unleash the portals of excellence in his each and every endeavor, Arun Majumdar, truly a pride of India, has writ large his name not only in the tabloids of America but also on the key administration post dealing with energy research.

Arun Majumdar, an amalgamation of proficiency and efficiency, has made Indian existence & its education bold & vociferous in the firmament of change. A product of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering in 1985 and his Ph.D. In 1989 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Arun Majumdar, a harbinger of ‘Obama vision’, is putting in his heart & soul in bringing about a change which a must to resurrect the society from turbulence to peace and from exploiting the limited sources of nature to their optimum usage. Arun Majumdar is the Director of the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), an organization tasked with reducing America’s reliance on foreign energy supplies, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and improving energy efficiency.

Majumdar also held the position of the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Majumdar with his proven dexterity to bring skill, dedication and expertise in the important and key areas in Obama administration propelled the president of ‘Super power’ to work in close proximity with him.

Majumdar owns a highly distinguished research career in the science and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage ranging from molecular and nanoscale level to large energy systems. For his pioneering work, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2005. In 1997, he held the Almy and Agnes Maynard Chair Professorship in the College of Engineering and headed the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Majumdar cemented the Lab’s role as a world renowned leader in energy efficiency research in close collaboration with India and China, a feat the White House has been quick to recognize and reward.

At Berkeley Labs and University of California, he helped shape several strategic initiatives in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy as well as energy storage, and testified before Congress on how to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

He has served on the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate, was a member of the advisory council to the materials sciences and engineering division of Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences, and was an advisor on nanotechnology to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Majumdar has also been an entrepreneur and has served as an advisor to startup companies and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley.

At the time when Washington is hectoring the world, principally India and China, to cut emissions, amid a growing trade and job protectionism, an (Indian) immigrant engineer-scientist heading the premier agency sounds pretty strange but Majumdar, an articulate persona, considers that holding a key position under Obama is a rare privilege and an honor especially when the President finds an individual capable in such a pivotal capacity. Majumdar being a part of Obama administration sends ripples across the country’s scientific-academic community.

“I came to this country as an immigrant and am deeply appreciative and indebted to this nation for opening the doors and welcoming me with open arms. I have received so much. This is my way of stepping up and paying back”, says Majumdar.

Not that the IIT-Bombay graduate has forsaken his roots in fact, according to him his roots may well have been responsible for his nomination.

Among the lab’s partnerships is the Berkeley-India Joint Leadership on Energy and the Environment brings together researchers from Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley, and other US and Indian universities and institutions, with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining sustained economic growth in both nations.

Another partnership between the Lab and China’s Tsinghua University is to promote the shared development and implementation of building energy efficiency, a move intended to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the US and China.

In fact, Majumdar’s mentor in academia was Professor Chang-Lin Tien, a legendary Chinese Don who went to become the Chancellor of UC Berkeley in 1990, the first Asian to head a major university in the United States. Majumdar’s India-China connections helped him get noticed and awarded by Obama for wonderfully carrying out Obama vision as the two countries are being considered pivotal in the upcoming energy debate.

For more than a decade, Majumdar, who is also the founding chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Nanotechnology Institute, has been the country’s leading materials scientist, making spectacular advances in energy conservation. He was recently credited with developing a way to use silicon nanowires to capture and use the energy lost as heat during the production of electricity. The futuristic technology could someday be used to convert the large amounts of waste heat into useful electricity.

Arun Majumdar cultivated a system of order in our inner equipments of experiences and his exemplary foray in harmonizing the lives of the individuals makes him the uncrowned king and truly a ‘Green Czar’.