KNOWLEDGE HUB

શા માટે 'Follow' થાય છે ગુજરાત?

2011-02-18T05:33:00.000-08:00

હવે ગણતરીના દિવસોમાં જ ગુજરાત સરકારના 2011-12ના વર્ષ માટેના બજેટમાં વિકાસની નવી તરાહ અને નવી સીમા રેખાઓનો નકશો રજૂ થશે. ગુજરાત સમગ્ર દેશનું 'ગ્રોથ એન્જિન' બની ચૂક્યું છે. નવા વર્ષે તેની આવક અનેકગણી વધે એ માટેના પ્રયાસો થશે. અનેક નવા કાર્યક્રમો નવી નીતિઓ, યોજનાઓ જાહેર થશે. દરમિયાન વર્તમાન સમયમાં ગુજરાત વિકાસની દિશામાં આગળ વધી રહ્યું છે. તેના પર એક નજર કરવાનું રસપ્રદ રહેશે. આ રહ્યો એ સંપુટ...

વિકાસ દર : રાષ્ટ્રના 9 ટકાના વિકાસ દર સામે ગુજરાતનો વિકાસદર 12.79 ટકા, સૌથી વધુ છે.

કૃષિ વિકાસ : રાષ્ટ્રના 2.5 ટકાના વિકાસ દર સામે ગુજરાતનો કૃષિ વિકાસદર 11.2 ટકા

માનવદિવસ : ભારતે ઔદ્યોગિક ક્ષેત્રે 46 લખથી વધુ માનવદિવસ ગુમાવ્યા. ગુજરાતે માત્ર 87000 માનવદિવસની ખોટ કરી.

ગ્રામ વીજળીકરણ : રાષ્ટ્રના 82 ટકાની સરેરાશ સામે ગુજરાતમાં 100 ટકા પૂરી.

માથાદીઠ વીજવપરાશ : રાષ્ટ્રના 704 કિલોવોટની સામે ગુજરાતમાં માથાદીઠ વીજવપરાશ બમણી 1414 કિલોવોટ.

રોજગારી : ભારતમાં રોજગાર વિનિમય કચેરીઓ દ્વારા અપાયેલી રોજગારી 1,77,000, જ્યારે એકલા ગુજરાતમાં 99,000 (56 ટકા)

ડ્રોપ આઉટ રેશિયો : રાષ્ટ્રીય 9.36 ટકાની સામે ગુજરાતમાં માત્ર 2.98 ટકા

માથાદીઠ આવક : રાષ્ટ્રની સરેરાશ માથાદીઠ આવક રૂ.33,283ની સામે ગુજરાતની માથાદીઠ સરેરાશ આવક R 45,773

સામાન્ય પગારદારની માસિક આવક : રૂ.12,200 અને કરવેરા : રૂ.2357

કેન્દ્ર સરકારની પોલિસી અને પ્રમોશન વિભાગના જણાવ્યા પ્રમાણે 1991થી 2008ના 17 વર્ષોમાં થયેલાં આઇઇએલ ઇન્ડસ્ટ્રીયલ એન્ટરપ્રેન્યોરીઅલ મેમોરેન્ડમની કુલ રકમમાં સમગ્ર દેશમાં ગુજરાત પ્રથમ નંબરે છે.

રિઝર્વ બેન્ક ઓફ ઇન્ડિયાના જણાવ્યા મુજબ રાજ્યની 100 યોજનાઓમાં કુલ રૂ.62,442 કરોડ આઇએમઆર (લગભગ 15 અબજ ડોલર)નું રોકાણ અંદાજાયું છે, જે દેશના કુલ રોકાણના 22 ટકા હિસ્સા સાથે ગુજરાતને પ્રથમ ક્રમે મૂકે છે.

પ્રોસેસ કરેલા હીરા અને દિવાલ ઘડિયાળનું વિશ્વનું સૌથી વધુ ઉત્પાદન ગુજરાત કરે છે. જામનગરની પેટ્રોલિયમ રિફાઇનરી વિશ્વની ત્રીજા નંબરની સૌથી મોટી રિફાઇનરી છે. વૈશ્વિક સ્તરે ડેનીમ કાપડના ઉત્પાદનમાં પણ રાજ્યનો ત્રીજો નંબર છે. ભારતનું સૌથી મોટું કપાસ ઉત્પાદક રાજ્ય ગુજરાત છે.

વિવિધ ઔદ્યોગિક ક્ષેત્રો જેવાંકે રસાયણ, પેટ્રો રસાયણ, દવા-ઔષધ, ડેરી, સિમેન્ટ, સિરામિક, હીરા-ઝવેરાત, કાપડ અને ઇજનેરી ક્ષેત્રોમાં સમગ્ર દેશમાં ગુજરાતની જ નેતાગીરી છે.

'સેઝ' (સ્પેશિયલ ઇકોનોમી ઝોન) હેઠળ આવરી લેવાયેલા દેશના કુલ વિસ્તારમાં ગુજરાત પ્રથમ નંબરે છે. રાજ્યામાં 60 સેઝ મંજૂર થઇ ચૂક્યા છે. 'સ્પેશ્યલ ઇન્વેસ્ટમેન્ટ રિજિઅન (સર)', દિલ્હી-મુંબઇ ડેડીકેટેડ કોરીડોર, પેટ્રોલિયમ-કેમિકલ-પેટ્રોલિયમ ઇન્વેસ્ટમેન્ટ રિજિઅન, ગુજરાત ઇન્ટરનેશનલ ફાઇનાન્સ ટેક સીટી (ગીફટ) અને નોલેજ કોરીડોર રાજ્યમાં વિશેષપણે સાકાર થઇ રહ્યા છે. રાજ્યમાં 202 ઔદ્યોગિક વસાહતો અને 83 'પ્રોડક્ટ કલસ્ટર' ઉભાં થયેલાં જ છે.

સમગ્ર રાજ્યમાં 2200 કિલોમીટરની ઇન્ટીગ્રેટેડ ગેસ ગ્રીડ ધરાવતું એકમાત્ર રાજ્ય ગુજરાત છે. ગુજરાત પેટ્રોલિયમ નિગમને આંધ્રના કૃષ્ણા-ગોદાવરી ક્ષેત્રમાં ગેસનો ઘણો મોટો જથ્થો મળી આવ્યો છે.

કેન્દ્રના ઉર્જા ખાતાના જણાવ્યા પ્રમાણે સમગ્ર દેશમાં વીજળીની સ્થાપિત ક્ષમતામાં ગુજરાત ત્રીજા નંબરે છે.

કુલ ઔદ્યોગિક ઉત્પાદનમાં ગુજરાતનો હિસ્સો 16 ટકા, કુલ નિકાસમાં 21 ટકા, શેરબજારના રોકાણમાં ભાગીદારી 30 ટકા.

કેન્દ્ર સરકારના પોતાના આંકડાશાસ્ત્ર અને કાર્યક્રમ અમલીકરણ વિભાગે 20 મુદ્દાના કાર્યક્રમના શ્રેષ્ઠ અમલ માટે ગુજરાતને 'નંબર-1' જાહેર કર્યું છે.

Video of proposed ‘Moving Tower’ of Ahmedabad

2011-02-10T03:04:00.000-08:00

Presented above is a video of proposed 82-feet Moving Tower of Ahmedabad. The video is created by Redtripod films, Ahmedabad.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is planning to set up this engineering marvel at Sabarmati riverfront near Vasna barrage..

The robotic steel tower will twist, change shapes and colours.

The tower was broadly designed by National Institute of Design and Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi had done the feasibility report.

The first tender for the project was cleared by the standing committee in October, 2009 and the contract was given to Oriental Manufacturers Private Limited (OMPL) for constructing it at an estimated cost of Rs 4 crore in 10 months.

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2011-02-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

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Mahatma Mandir, gandhinagar (VIDEO)

2010-11-17T02:31:00.000-08:00

OBAMA IN INDIAN LOOK

2010-11-10T02:21:00.001-08:00

Amitabh Bachchan’s new Gujarat Tourism ads:Dwarka, Gandhian and Harappan sites(Video)

2010-11-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Gujarat Economic Profile - Oct 2010

2010-10-20T07:33:00.001-07:00

Fastest Growing Cities of the World

2010-10-16T04:20:00.000-07:00

Mukesh Ambani’s House

2010-10-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

See different Views of Ambani’s House here

Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani who has already got familiarity as a billionaire is making another history for his billion dollar luxury living place named Antilla. Mukesh Ambani’s house being constructed in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, snatched the attention of people by its luxury facilities such as modern parking system, car maintenance, entertainment and healthy floors, amusing balconies, helipad, air space floor and so on.

It is not surprising that most of the rich people who are especially billionaire usually spend billions of dollars indeed for making their living places. The world’s richest people Bill Gates and some others like Lakshmi Mittal are not exceptional in this case. Followed by the rich tycoon, Mukesh Ambani bought house property sized around 49,000 square feet plot placed in Mumbai in the year of 2002 and made some special plans regarding construction.

The world’s fifth richest person Mukesh Ambani is the chief of petrochemical giant Reliance Industries, the biggest private sector project in India based on Mumbai. According to Forbes Magazine, Ambani possesses more than 43 billion US dollars. The Asian billionaire is a businessman by profession. He is an Indian origin and now resides at 22 storied Mumbai tower. Ambani got married with Nita. The couple has three more children.

Ins and outs of the luxury house:

Ambani’s highly expensive building that was estimated 60-storeyed home is situated in one of the posh street- Altamount Road. Its cost was fixed approximately two billion US dollars and four thousands crores Indian rupees. The height of the Mumbai skyscraper will suppose to be 173 meter.

The building is planned to build with very gorgeous designs as like as maharaja’s palace. It was designed by Chicago’s eminent skilled designer Perkins and Will.

If anybody ask why Mukesh Ambani’s house is so important to talk about, the answer is very easy that it is exceptional in terms of its diverse facilities. The special features of the building can mention here are, for instance, helipads, three rooftop landing areas, family residence of four floors with eye catching scenery of the Arabian Sea, apartments for guests hospitality, swimming pool, gym, health centre, garden, balconies, foliage floors, entertainment centre called theater reserved for cinema watching, car parking extra rooms that made it expensive and extraordinary as well.

Goes with up-do-the-minute:

A number of smooth and easy elevators, several storerooms, lounges are added some specialty in the luxurious features of Ambani’s Mumbai home. The entertainment hall room is decorated with up-to-date digital monitors, speakers and pricy substances. The visitors can find indoor or outdoor bar, entourage room, green room. There are some other particular arrangements for security system where guards and assistants are deployed round the clock.

What makes Antilla so expensive?

Though the building is designed to build 60 more stories, it will actually stand just 27 stories only as there would be considerably space between the floors. Each of the floors will be higher than the usual average of about three meters.

Parking and maintenance :

For keeping the vehicles in well organized inside the house, at least six more floors are reserved for parking where two are booked for personal use of Ambani’s family. Besides, an in-house car servicing centre is installed in fact that is allocated for the seventh floor.

Keeping residents healthy:

A floor (number ninth) called ‘health’ is kept for physical exercise having some sports arrangements like swimming pool, athletics, health club and gymnasium. And for entertaining guests of Ambani family, glass fronted decorating two floors is allotted that is placed just on top of health floor.

Special decoration for the family:

Having nice and wonderful views along with designs of Arabian Sea, the top four floors are arranged for using Mukesh’s family included his wife, Neeta, children and mother Kokilaben.

Entertainment floor:

Holding 50 people capacity, a mini theatre hall is set up at the eighth floor with a view to providing pure entertainment and amusement.

Air space floor – helipad:

There is an air space at the very top two floors which will act for landing helicopters on the helipad on top of the building. It can be mention here that three helipads will be deployed above the multi-storied building.

Imagination would come in true!

Source : iworld4u.com

Statue of Unity – Gujarat

2010-10-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

On the eve of entering 10th year of his rule as Gujarat Chief Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed a press conference in Ahmedabad’s GLS auditorium on Wednesday, and announced state government’s plan to install Sardar Patel’s 182 meter high ‘Statue of Unity’ 3 km away from Narmada dam at a place known as Sadhu bet.

Proposed statue will be double in height compare to America’s Statue of Liberty, and five times higher than Reao Di Janero based Jesus Christ statue. It will be the highest statue in the world, The Chief Minister in his video presentation said, there will be surveys conducted for environmental and other issues related to this project. He said, a research centre for good governance will come up in the statue complex. One would be able to reach the statue through boat ride in the river.

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2010-09-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

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Ideas for a Changing India: Nandan Nilekani

2010-09-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

“In the '60s and '70s we thought of people as a burden. We thought of people as a liability. Today we talk of people as an asset. We talk of people as human capital. And I believe that this change in the mindset of looking at people as something of a burden, to human capital, has been one of the fundamental changes in the Indian mindset.

Only if the people have education, they have good health, they have infrastructure, they have roads to go to work, they have lights to study at night –only in those cases can you really get the benefit of a demographic dividend. In other words, if you don't really invest in the human capital, the same demographic dividend can be a demographic disaster,” says Nandan Nilekani, the the visionary co-founder of outsourcing pioneer Infosys.

Imagining India: Nandan Nilekani

His book Imagining India asks big questions: How can India –which made such leaps in the past two decades –maintain its demographic advantage? How can democracy and education be promoted? How, in the midst of such growth, can the environment be protected for the next generations?

In his talk at TED, he explains four brands of ideas that will determine whether India can continue its recent breakneck progress. Check out:

Balloon Journey at Ahmedabad

2010-09-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

At kankaria lakefront, soon you would be able to go up into the sky to have a view of the city from height. A tethered balloon will be brought here and tied by motorised rope. It and will go up for more than 300 ft vertically. It will be steady there for some time, and will be brought down then after. In a platform of balloon, several people will be able to stand and enjoy the view from height. The balloon is being imported from England for this purpose. This will be the first of its kind attraction in India. The ticket prices are yet not decided.
Source : Deshgujarat

Khushboo Gujarat Ki

2010-08-26T22:40:00.001-07:00

O'Really

2010-06-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

माइक्रोवेव बनाने की युक्ति तब मिली जब एक वैज्ञानिक रडार ट्यूब से गुजरा और उसका चॉकलेट पिघल गया।

बार्बी डॉल बानाने की प्रेरणा 1930 में जर्मनी में प्रचार के लिए इस्तेमाल की गई गुड़िया से ली गई थी।

मनुष्य के जीभ में 2,000-8,000 टेस्ट बड्स होते हैं, जो भोजन के स्वाद का पता लगाते हैं।

एक ब्ल्यू व्हेल एक दिन में तीन टन भोजन खा सकती है और वह 6 महीने तक बग़ैर कुछ खाए ज़िंदा रह सकती है।

वायलिन लकड़ी के 70 अलग अलग टुकड़ों से मिलकर बनता है

बोइंग 747 विमान में एक बार में 2,16,847 लीटर तक ईंधन भरा जा सकता है|

टमाटर दुनिया का सबसे मशहूर फल है वह सेवफल और केले से ज्यादा बिकता है

जॉर्जिया में आदमी के चेहरे या पृष्ठ भाग पर थप्पड़ मारना कानूनन अपराध है।

छींकते वक्त आपकी आंखें अपने आप बंद हो जाती है

चांद पर पहुंचनेवाले पहले व्यक्ति नील आर्मस्ट्रांग ने सबसे पहले अपना बांया पैर चांद पर रखा था

दुनिया के आधे समाचारपत्र अमरीका और कैनेडा में छपते हैं।

एक चूहा पानी के बिना ऊंट से भी ज्यादा समय तक जिंदा रह सकता है।

बड़ों से ज्यादा नवजात शिशु सपने देखने में समय बिताते हैं

पृथ्वी पर प्रति मिनट 6000 बार बिजली चमकती है!

लॉस वेगास के गैंबलिंग कैसिनोज चौबीसों घंटे खुले रहते हैं !

ताश के पत्ते पर लाल पान के बादशाह को छोड़कर सभी की मूंछे होती हैं।

एम्पायर स्टेट बिल्डिंग में 1 करोड़ से अधिक ईंटों का इस्तेमाल हुआ हैं!

पूरी जिंदगी के दौरान इंसान 60000 पाउंड खाना खा लेता है, जिसका वजन लगभग 6 हाथियों के बराबर होता है

औसतन हर व्यक्ति वर्ष में 1460 से अधिक बार सपने देखता है।

क्या आप जानते हैं पैंगुइन हवा में 6 फुट ऊंची छलांग लगा सकती हैं

केले और हरे सेब को सूंघने से आप अपना वजन कम कर सकते हैं!

कनाडा के मार्क हेनरी का दांत दुनिया का सबसे बड़ा दांत है।

source : dbcorp

Amazing Pictures of Thailend Festival

2010-06-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

source: http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in

Headquarter ING Group

2010-05-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

Headquarter ING Group

This is the headquarters of the ING in Amsterdam, called the "Boot" because of characteristic shape structure. History of ING in the Netherlands started in 1743 with the foundation Kooger Doodenbos (Koog, Noord Holland) - a regional mutual assistance fund, which is to XXI century has become one of the largest financial corporations in the world ING Group.

Engineering Masterpiece - Hoover Dam Bypass

2010-05-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Creeping closer inch by inch, 900 feet above the mighty Colorado River , the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam slowly take shape.
The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself.

When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona . In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be supported on the two massive concrete arches which jut out of the rock face.

The arches are made up of 53 individual sections each 24 feet long which have been cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.

The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000 feet across. At the moment, the structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge. But once the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side will be removed. Extra vertical columns will then be installed on the arches to carry the road.
The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called the Mike O'Callaghan- Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan.
Work on the bridge started in 2005 and should finish next year. An estimated 17,000 cars and trucks will cross it every day.

The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York to San Francisco . The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead , is 110 miles long and took six years to fill. The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936.

An extra note: The top of the white band of rock in Lake Mead is the old waterline prior to the drought and development in the Las Vegas area. It is over 100 feet above the current water level.

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Swarnim Gujarat Celebration Pictures

2010-05-04T03:50:00.000-07:00

Swarnim Gujarat Celebration Pictures

Swarnim Gujarat- Song Composed by A.R Rehman specially for 50th foundation year of the state.

2010-05-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

HAVE U EVER SEEN?

2010-04-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

SAVE TREE & SAVE LIFE

10 Strangest Trees on Earth

PIRANGI CASHEW TREE,BRAZIL

TREE OF LIFE, BAHRAIN

CHAPEL OAK OF ALLOUVILLE – BELLEFOSSE

BAOBAB – MADAGASCAR

GERMAN SHERMAN – (SEQUIA NATIONAL PARK)

SILK COTTON TREES OF TA PROHM,CAMBODIA

TULE TREE OF OAXACA, MEXICO

DRAGON TREE, CANARY ISLANDS

WOLLEMI PINE, AUSTRALIA

SAVE WATER

2010-04-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

SAVE WATER, SAVE LIFE

તમારી પાસે પાણીનો એક ગ્લાસ હોય તો તમે શું કરશો? નહાશો કે પીશો? તમારે એક વિકલ્પ પસંદ કરવો પડશે. આ કલ્પના નથી, પરંતુ ભવિષ્યની કડવી સચ્ચાઈ છે. હવે પાણીનું મહાસંકટ ખડું થયું છે. જો આપણે તેને નહીં સમજીએ તો પંદર વર્ષમાં આજની સરખામણીએ અડધું જ પાણી મળશે અને ૪૦ વર્ષ પછી તો સ્થિતિ વધુ ખરાબ બનશે.

એક ગ્લાસ પાણીથી નહાવું પડશે!ભારતમાં ૧૫ ટકા ભૂગર્ભ જળસ્રોત સુકાઈ જવાની સ્થિતિમાં છે. દુનિયામાં સૌથી વધુ લગભગ ૨૦ લાખ ટ્યૂબવેલ ભારતમાં છે, જે ધરતીને ચીરીને સતત પાણી ખેંચી રહ્યા છે. વિશ્વ બેન્કના અહેવાલ અનુસાર આગામી ૨૫ વર્ષમાં ભૂગર્ભ જળના ૬૦ ટકા સ્રોત ખતરનાક સ્થિતિએ પહોંચી જશે. ભારત માટે આ સ્થિતિ એટલા માટે દયાજનક બની જશે કે આપણી ૭૦ ટકા જરૂરિયાત ભૂગર્ભ જળસ્રોતોથી જ પૂરી થાય છે. કૃષિ અને ઉદ્યોગધંધા બરબાદ થઈ જશે, સાથે આપણી વસ્તીનો એક મોટો ભાગ પાણીના એક એક ટીપા માટે તરસ્યો રહેશે.

હવે તમારા મનમાં એ સવાલ થવો વાજબી છે કે અંતે આ સંકટ પેદા કેવી રીતે થયું? જળનિષ્ણાત રાજેન્દ્રસિંહ જણાવે છે કે કેટલાંક વર્ષ અગાઉ કોઈએ કલ્પના પણ નહીં કરી હોય કે આપણા ભૂગર્ભ જળભંડાર ક્યારેક ખાલી પણ થઈ શકે છે. અગાઉ તો થોડા ફૂટ ઊડે ખોદતાં જ પાણી મળી જતું હતું, પરંતુ થોડાં વર્ષમાં જ તેનો ઉપયોગ એટલો બધો વધી ગયો કે તે હવે ઘણી ઝડપથી ખાલી થઈ રહ્યા છે. આવનારાં કેટલાંક વર્ષમાં આ સાવ ખલાસ થઈ જાય તો તેમાં આશ્ચર્ય પામવા જેવું નહીં હોય. તેનો પ્રારંભ પણ થઈ ચૂક્યો છે.

અમેરિકાની અંતરિક્ષ એજન્સી નાસાના રિપોર્ટ અનુસાર ૨૦૦૨થી ૨૦૦૮ દરમિયાન દેશના ભૂગર્ભ જળભંડારોમાંથી ૧૦૯ અબજ ક્યુબિક મીટર (એક ક્યુબિક મીટર = એક હજાર લિટર) પાણી ખલાસ થઈ ગયું છે. છેલ્લાં ત્રણ વર્ષમાં સ્થિતિ વધુ ખરાબ થઈ છે. નેશનલ ઇન્સ્ટિટ્યૂટ ઓફ હાઇડ્રોલોજીના એક અભ્યાસ અનુસાર ભારતના આર્થિક વિકાસની ગતિ વધવાની સાથે દેશમાં જળસંકટ પણ વધુ ગંભીર બનશે. ભારતમાં જીડીપીનો દરમાં વધારાની સાથે લોકોની આવકમાં પણ વધારો થઈ રહ્યો છે. આધુનિક જીવનશૈલીના કારણે પાણીના વપરાશમાં વધારો થઈ રહ્યો છે.

આજે ભારતમાં વ્યક્તિદીઠ રોજની પાણીની માગ ૮૫ લિટર છે જે ૨૦૨૫ સુધી ૧૨૫ લિટર થઈ જશે. તે સમય સુધી ભારતની વસ્તી પણ વધીને એક અબજ ૩૮ કરોડ થઈ જશે. તેનાથી રોજની પાણીની માગમાં પણ કુલ ૭૯૦૦ કરોડ લિટરનો વધારો થઈ જશે. જેની સીધી અસર જળસંસાધનો પર પડશે. આ માગને પૂરી કરવા આપણે ભૂગર્ભ જળસ્રોતનો સહારો લેવો પડશે, જે પંદર વર્ષ પહેલાં જ ખલાસ થઈ ગયા હશે. એટલે કે લોકોની પાણીની માગ તો વધશે, પરંતુ આપણી સરકારો એટલું પાણી પૂરું પાડવાની સ્થિતિમાં નહીં હોય. આજે વ્યકિતદીઠ પાણીની ઉપલબ્ધિતા ૩૦૭૬ લિટર છે જે ત્યારે ઘટીને અડધાથી પણ ઓછી રહી જશે.

૧૮૦ કરોડ લોકો પાણી માટે વલખાં મારશે

વર્ષ ૨૦૨૫ સુધી દુનિયાની વસ્તી ૮ અબજ અને ૨૦૫૦ સુધી ૯ અબજને પાર કરી જશે. ‘યુએન વોટર’ કહે છે કે આવનારા પંદર વર્ષમાં દુનિયાના ૧૮૦ કરોડ લોકો એવા દેશોમાં રહેતા હશે, જયાં પાણી લગભગ સાવ ખલાસ થઈ ચૂકયું હશે. આ દેશોમાં ઘાના, કેન્યા, નામિબિયા સહિત આફ્રિકા અને એશિયાના દેશોની મોટી સંખ્યા હશે. અત્યારે દર છમાંથી એક વ્યકિંત પાણી માટે ઝઝૂમી રહી છે. તે સમયે બે તૃતીયાંશ એટલે કે સાડા પાંચ અબજ લોકો ભીષણ પાણીના જળસંકટનો સામનો કરતા હશે. શહેરીકરણની સમસ્યા વધુ જટિલ બની જશે. વિશ્વ બેન્કના રિપોર્ટ અનુસાર વર્ષ ૨૦૨૦ સુધી દુનિયાની અડધી વસ્તી શહેરી વિસ્તારોમાં રહેતી હશે. શહેરની નવી વસ્તીને પહોંચાડવું એ એક કિઠન પડકાર હશે. દરરોજ એક લાખ લોકો મઘ્યમવર્ગમાં જોડાઈ રહ્યા છે. તેની પાણીની બગાડની ટેવોને કારણે પણ સંકટ વધુ ગંભીર બનશે.

ગ્લોબલ વોર્મિંગ અને જળસંકટ

વરસાદનું પ્રમાણ ઘટવાની સાથે વરસાદના દિવસોમાં પણ સતત ઘટાડો થશે. પરિણામે વરસાદથી મળતું પાણી ઘટશે અને જળના ભંડારનું સ્તર વધુ નીચે જશે. વર્ષાચક્રમાં પણ ગડબડ ઊભી થશે. ગરમીમાં વધારો થતાં બાષ્પીભવનની પ્રક્રિયા વધુ ઝડપી બનશે. અત્યારે કુલ પાણીનો લગભગ ૨.૫ ટકા હિસ્સો પાણી વરાળ બનીને ઊડી જાય છે. ઇન્ટરનેશનલ હાઇડ્રોલોજિકલ પ્રોગ્રામનું અનુમાન છે કે ગ્લોબલ વોર્મિંગને કારણે આવનારાં ૧૫ વર્ષમાં બાષ્પીભવનની ઝડપ આજની સરખામણીએ બમણી થઈ જશે.

બાષ્પીભવનની પ્રક્રિયા ઝડપી બનવાને લીધે નદીઓ તથા અન્ય જળસ્રોતમાં પાણીનું પ્રમાણ ઘટી જાય છે. ગરમી વધવાથી ધ્રુવોનો બરફ ઝડપથી ઓગળશે. તેનાથી નુકસાન એ થશે કે આ મીઠું પાણી દરિયાના ખારા પાણીમાં ભળી જશે. આમ મીઠા પાણીના સ્રોત જે પહેલાંથી જ ઓછા છે તેમાં ઓર ઘટાડો થશે. એટલે એવું કહી શકાય કે આવનારો સમય ભારત સહિત દુનિયાના મોટા ભાગના દેશો માટે અત્યંત કપરો હશે. વધતી જતી વસ્તી, ભૂગર્ભ જળનો વધુપડતો ઉપયોગ, ગ્લોબલ વોર્મિંગ વગેરેના કારણે પાણી એવી ‘લકઝુરીયસ’ વસ્તુ બની જશે, જેનો ઉપયોગ એવી રીતે જ કરવો પડશે, જે રીતે આજે આપણે ઘીનો કરીએ છીએ.

સંકટ બન્યું મહાસંકટ

સંયુકત રાષ્ટ્રનાં જળવપરાશના ધોરણો અનુસાર પ્રત્યેક વ્યકિતને દરરોજ ઓછામાં ઓછું ૫૦ લિટર પાણી મળવું જોઈએ, પરંતુ સ્થિતિ તેના કરતાં ખરાબ છે. દુનિયામાં છમાંથી એક વ્યકિતને આટલું પાણી મળી શકતું નથી. એટલે કે ૮૯.૪ કરોડ લોકોએ અત્યંત ઓછા પાણીથી પોતાની તમામ જરૂરિયાતો પૂરી કરવી પડે છે. ભારતીય ધોરણો અનુસાર એક વ્યકિતને ઓછામાં ઓછું દરરોજ ૮૫ લિટર પાણી મળવું જોઈએ, પરંતુ આપણા દેશમાં ૩૦ ટકા લોકોની આ જરૂરિયાત પૂરી થતી નથી. તેમાંથી મોટા ભાગના લોકો ગ્રામવિસ્તારોમાં રહે છે, હવે શહેરોની સ્થિતિ પણ ખરાબ થઈ રહી છે.

સબ-સહારા આફ્રિકી દેશોના અંતરિયાળ ગામોમાં તો લોકોને મહિનામાં ૧૦૦ લિટર પાણી પણ માંડ માંડ મળે છે. આ દેશોમાં પાણી પાછળનો ખર્ચ એકંદર ઘરગથ્થુ ઉત્પાદન (જીડીપી)ના પાંચ ટકા કરતાં પણ વધુ છે. નિષ્ણાતોની ધારણા છે કે આવનારાં વર્ષોમાં આ ખર્ચમાં વધારો થશે. આ તો આજની સ્થિતિ છે. તેનાથી સ્પષ્ટ થાય છે કે પાણીનું સંકટ હવે મહાસંકટમાં બની રહ્યું છે.

હિજરત વધી જશે

જળસંકટ વધવાને કારણે એક સમસ્યા લોકોના હિજરતના સ્વરૂપે સામે આવશે. કેટલાંય ક્ષેત્રોમાં પાણી સાવ ખલાસ થઈ જવાના કારણે જયાં પાણી મળતું હશે ત્યાં લોકો હિજરત કરી જશે. સંયુકત રાષ્ટ્ર અનુસાર ૨૦૩૦ સુધી ૭૦ કરોડ લોકોને પોતાનો વિસ્તાર છોડવા માટે મજબૂર થવું પડશે. હિજરતનો એક દુષ્પ્રભાવ એ પડશે કે આ લોકો જે વિસ્તારોમાં જશે ત્યાં આર્થિક અને સામાજિક સમસ્યાઓ પેદા થશે. એટલી હદ સુધી કે સ્થાનિક રહેવાસીઓ અને હિજરતીઓ વચ્ચે પાણીને કારણે સંઘર્ષ પણ થશે. જે દેશોમાં હિજરતીઓ જશે ત્યાંની અર્થવ્યવસ્થાનું ભારણ પણ વધશે.

સંઘર્ષ વધશે

આગામી વર્ષોમાં પાણીને લઈને સંઘર્ષ થશે એ નક્કી છે. કટારલેખક સ્ટીવન સોલોમને પોતાના પુસ્તક ‘વોટર’ માં નાઇલ નદીના જળસંસાધનને લઈને ઇજિપ્ત અને ઇથોપિયા વચ્ચેના વિવાદનો ઉલ્લેખ કરીને લખ્યું છે કે દુનિયામાં સૌથી વિસ્ફોટક ક્ષેત્ર પિશ્ચમ એશિયામાં હવે પછીની લડાઈને પાણીને લીધે જ થશે. આ વિસ્તારોમાં ઇઝરાયલ, પેલેસ્ટાઇન, જોર્ડન અને સીરિયામાં દુર્લભ જળસંસાધનો પર નિયંત્રણને લઈને આંતરિક ચરુ સળગી રહ્યો છે, જે એક યુદ્ધના સ્વરૂપે બહાર આવી શકે છે. આ જ રીતે પાણીને લઈને ત્રીજા વિશ્વયુદ્ધની વાત પણ હકીકત બની શકે છે.

પાણી ખેંચવાની પ્રવૃત્તિ દોઢ ગણી વધી જશે

આગામી વર્ષોમાં પાણીની માગ અને પુરવઠા વચ્ચેનું અંતર સતત વધતું જશે. ભારતમાં અત્યારે પાણીની કુલ માગ ૭૦૦ ક્યુબિક કિલોમીટર છે, જ્યારે ઉપલબ્ધ પાણી ૫૫૦ કયુબિક કિલોમીટર જ છે. ૨૦૫૦માં માગ લગભગ બમણી થઈ જશે, જ્યારે ઉપલબ્ધિ ૧૦ ગણા કરતાં પણ ઓછી હશે. પાણીની માગમાં વધારો વસ્તીની સરખામણીએ ઘણો ઝડપી હશે. વર્ષ ૧૯૦૦ અને ૧૯૯૫ના ગાળામાં દુનિયાની વસ્તી ત્રણ ગણી વધી, પરંતુ પાણીનો વપરાશ છ ગણા કરતાં પણ વધુ થઈ ગયો.

‘યુએન વોટર’ના ૨૦૫૦ સુધીના અનુમાન અનુસાર વિકાસશીલ દેશોમાં પાણીનો વપરાશ ૫૦ ટકા અને વિકસિત દેશોમાં ૧૮ ટકા વધશે. વૈશ્વિક જળસંકટ નિષ્ણાત અને કાઉન્સિલ ઓફ કેનેડાના સભ્ય માઉથી બાર્લોએ પોતાના પુસ્તક ‘બ્લ્યૂ કવિનેન્ટ’માં લખ્યું છે કે,‘વર્ષ ૨૦૫૦ સુધી માનવીય વપરાશ માટેના પાણીના પુરવઠામાં ૮૦ ટકાનો વધારો કરવો પડશે. સવાલ એ છે કે આટલું પાણી આવશે કયાંથી?’ પાણીનો પુરવઠો વધારવા માટે વધુ પાણી જમીનમાંથી ખેંચવું જ પડશે. એટલે કે છેવટે જળસંકટ વધુ ગંભીર બનશે.

ત્યારે આપણું શું થશે?

૨૦૨૦ સુધી દુનિયાની અડધી વસ્તી શહેરી વિસ્તારોમાં રહેતી હશે. જો આ રીતે જ પાણીનો ઉપયોગ કરતા રહીશું તો મોટા ભાગના જળસ્રોત સુકાઈ ગયા હશે.

વિશ્વ બેન્ક અનુસાર ૨૦૨૦ સુધી ભારતમાં પાણીની ઉપલબ્ધતા ૩૮૦ ક્યુબિક કિલોમીટર વાર્ષિક રહેશે, જ્યારે માગ ૮૧૦ કયુબિક કિલોમીટર થઈ જશે.

પડોશમાં સ્થિતિ વધુ ખરાબ

આપણા પડોશમાં પણ સ્થિતિ સારી નથી. ૬૦ વર્ષ પહેલાં પાકિસ્તાનમાં વ્યકિતદીઠ ૫૦૦૦ કયુબિક મીટર પાણી મળતું હતું, જે હવે ઘટીને વ્યકિતદીઠ ૧૫૦૦ કયુબિક મીટર થઈ ગયું છે.આવનારા ૧૦ વર્ષમાં તેમાં વધુ ૫૦ ટકાનો ઘટાડો થશે. પાકિસ્તાનમાં ૯૦ ટકા પાણીનો ઉપયોગ સિંચાઈમાં થાય છે. ભારતની જેમ ત્યાં પણ સિંચાઈ માટે પાણીની માગને પૂરી કરવા માટે ભૂગર્ભ જળભંડારના ઉપયોગમાં વધારો થયો છે. તેનાથી ભૂગર્ભ જળના સ્તરમાં ઝડપથી ઘટાડો થયો છે. લાહોરમાં ક્યારેક કેટલાક હાથ ઊડે જ પાણી મળતું હતું, હવે તે ૬૦ ફૂટ કરતાં પણ નીચે જતું રહ્યું છે.

દેશની જીવનરેખા સિંધુ નદીના પ્રવાહમાં પણ ઘટાડો નોંધાયો છે. એવી આશંકા પણ વ્યક્ત કરાઈ છે કે આવનારાં વર્ષોમાં તે બિલકુલ ખાલી થઈ જશે. અફઘાનિસ્તાનમાં તો સ્થિતિ વધુ ખરાબ છે. સંયુક્ત રાષ્ટ્રીય ચેતવણી આપી છે કે પાણીની અછતને કારણે ૨૫ લાખ કરતાં પણ વધુ અફઘાન નાગરિકોના અસ્તિત્વ પર જોખમ તોળાઈ રહ્યું છે. દેશમાં ૩૬ લાખ કરતાં વધુ કૂવા સુકાઈ ગયા છે અને આ કારણે પાણીના પુરવઠામાં ૮૩ ટકા જેટલો ઘટાડો નોંધાયો છે.

source : http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in

Master Blaster turns 37

2010-04-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Sachin Tendulkar cannot live without his iPod? On the cricket maestro's 37th birthday, we dug out some not-so well known facts about Tendlya.

Despite attaining his iconic status, Sachin's feet are firm on the ground. His simplicity has perhaps been his greatest virtue.

Tendulkar sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through Apnalaya, a Mumbai-based NGO associated with his mother-in-law, Annaben Mehta.

Sachin's agility is not restrained just to cricket. He was taught swimming in some half an hour by Manoj Prabhakar on the 1990 tour to England. The ambidextrous cricketer also likes to play table-tennis and carries his own racquet on tours. He is also fond of adventure sports.

Sachin attended the MRF Pace Foundation to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee suggested the small-framed prodigy to focus on his batting instead. The suggestion further moulded the cricketing path that was undertaken by Sachin. After his family moved closer to Shivaji Park in Bombay, Sachin's game began to improve.

At the age of twelve and thirteen, he was practicing and playing school matches for a total of twelve hours a day on some days. His passion for excellence was relentless. He once played fifty-four matches in a row. When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar gave him a pair of his own ultra light pads.

During practice sessions, Tendulkar's coach and mentor, Ramakant Achrekar used to put a one-Rupee-coin on top of the stumps, and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar used to get the coin. If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach used to give him the coin. The 13 coins won by Tendulakar paved way for bigger, better awards and prizes but those 13 coins are still priceless for the Master Blaster.

He started showing signs of what was to come in the years that followed.

Sachin Tendulkar, 14, compiled a 664-run unbroken partnership with his childhood friend Vinod Kambli for Shardashram Vidyamandir against St Xavier's at Azad Maidan. The two kept batting ignoring coach's signal. They later revealed that they got scolding of their lives after the game. Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 326 and it remained the highest partnership recorded in any form of cricket, until in November 2006 two schoolboys from Hyderabad overtook the record with an unbeaten 721-run partnership.

On 11 December 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar scored 100 not out in his debut first-class match for Bombay against Gujarat, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class debut. He is infact the only player to score a century in all three of his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debuts.

At sixteen, Sachin was picked to play his first Test match for India against Pakistan. His father signed the papers for him, because Sachin was too young.

On the final day of his first Test series, he was hit on the nose by a bouncer by Waqar Younis who also made his debut in the same series. Sachin fell down but got up again to play. He declined medical assistance and continued to bat even as blood gushed from his nose. He went on to score 57 runs in the match.

On 24 May 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a paediatrician and daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta, elder to him by six years.

His friends say that Sachin and Anjali met through mutual friends and fell in love. The year of marriage served to be a lucky one for Tendulkar, in that very year, he signed a five-year contract worth Rs 31.5 crore with WorldTel, which made him the richest cricketer in the world.

Ignorant about cricket when she first started dating Sachin, Anjali said she read up everything about the game soon after but the man himself didn't like discussing the sport with her.

During their courtship, Tendulkar had to come in disguise, wearing a beard and spectacles, to watch a movie with Anjali and her friends but the plan went haywire very soon and the couple had to leave the hall midway through the film.

Tendulkar is blessed with two children. His daughter Sara was born on 12 October 1997 and his son, Arjun on 24 September 1999. Despite all the fame and adulations, Sachin does not allow anyone to intrude and intervene in his private life.

After India's disappointing stint at the 1999 World Cup, Sachin was reappointed as the Indian captain against his consent. Bowing down before the greater good of the team, Sachin had to accept the proposition. Sachin Tendulkar, the captain, salvaged the nation's pride as India defeated World Champions Australia on their own soil. However, Tendulkar resigned within a year itself in 2000 allowing Sourav Ganguly to take over. The same trend followed as immediately after stepping down, Tendulkar was his usual firey self again.

In 2002, while commemorating Sachin Tendulkar's feat of equalling Don Bradman's 29 centuries in Test Cricket, automotive giant Ferrari invited Sachin Tendulkar to its paddock in Silverstone on the eve of the British Grand Prix (23 July 2002) to receive a Ferrari 360 Modena from the legendary F1 racer Michael Schumacher. India's then finance minister Jaswant Singh said the customs duty imposed on the car as a measure to applaud his feat but political and social activists protested the waiver and filed PIL in the Delhi High Court. With the controversy snowballing, Sachin offered to pay the customs duty of Rs 1.13 Crores or 120% on the car value of Rs 75 Lakhs and the tab was finally picked up by Ferrari.

The unstoppable Sachin crossed 17,000 ODI runs in 2009 during the India-Australia ODI Series, outdoing his initial record only to re-establish himself as the highest run scorer in ODI cricket. Tendulkar also achieved his personal best against Australia and described it as one of his best innings but said it could have been better had India won the match.

The man who gave the term perfection a new name emerged unscathed from every upheaval. Sachin Tendulakr knew best how to perfect perfection. In February this year, in a stunning display in Gwalior Tendulkar became the first male player to score 200 in a single innings in a One-Day International. That too off just 147 deliveries. No wonder the iconic player has been referred to as God by millions of Indians.

Sachin's greatest hobby, according to his close friends, is music. He has a vast collection of western pop and serious music and spends every available leisure hour listening to his favourite artists.

Source : http://cricket.ndtv.com
photos from : http://cricket.ndtv.com

A New Gujarat within Gujarat - Dholera, Special Investment Region(SIR)

2010-04-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

Project Vision

To develop Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) as global manufacturing and trading hub i.e. "The engine for economic resurgence of the country" which is supported by world class infrastructure.

"The Development Plan, taking into account the DMIC objectivs and goals, should focus towards creating and enabling environmentto protect local industries, enhance investment climate, improve quality of life, upgrade human skils, create world class infrastucture and attract global investment".

Project goals are to double the employement potential, triple industrial output and quadruple exports from the region in next five years.

Dholera SIR - Overview

Total Area : 800 sq. kms: a green field location
Developable area: 500 sq. kms.
Economic activity area : 360 sq. kms
World-class infrastructure & connectivity: within & outside
Central spine express way & Metro Rail to link the SIR with mega cities
Airport & Sea Port in the vicinity
Proximity to mega cities: Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Vadodara
Benefit of sea coast, nature park, golf course
Premium civic amenities
Capable to cater to both International & Domestic Market
Close to Guajrat International Finance TechCity (GIFT)
Close to Petro-chemicals and Petroleum Inv. Region (PCPIR)
Logistic support of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DMIC)
Benefits of the high impact Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC)
Public investment in core infrastructure

Project Highlights & Opportunities

Dholera SIR: Highlights

A self governed economic region enjoying full support of the government and full potential for private sector participation
Logistic support of the Delhi-Mumbai Dedicated Freight Corridor linked with efficient rail and road network.
To be linked with Ahmedabad city with metro rail system
Proximity to sea port, Closeness to international airport
Premium civic amenities
Close to Gujarat International Finance City (GIFT)
Close to Petro-chemicals and Petroleum Inv. Region (PCPIR)
Autonomy in operations
Flexibility in decisions
Single window clearance
Dispute Resolution mechanism

Opportunities in SIR

To build the industrial parks, townships, knowledge cities
In building its infrastructure: road, rail, hospital, water, sanitation, tourism, and hospitality
Set up the metro rail system & international airport
Potential for development as a multi-modal transportation hub due to lesser distance to all the northern Indian States.
Build world class transport service foreign markets

Current Status

Pre-feasibility study completed by M/s Feed Back Ventures
Location identified along with details of the area
The work on the central spine road already started
Notification issued for delineation of 879 Sq. Km of Area as DSIR
Government allocates 1700 Hect. land for adjoining Airport
Anchor Tenants already in place
Master planning underway by M/s Halcrow, UK
Water logging, seismological & environment studies underway
The legal framework enacted: The SIR Act 2009
Project development corporation (GICC) formed

For more details visit : http://www.dholerasir.com

Gujarat International Finance Tech-City, Gandhinagar, India

2010-04-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

…India’s biggest major planned skyscraper CBD outside Mumbai, Gujarat’s and India’s tallest commercial skyscraper, Gujarat’s first major commercial skyscraper, and one of the biggest single megaprojects in India!

The Indian Skyscraper Race is ON.

This last year has been big for Indian architecture and development fans. A total of 7 megaprojects with supertall towers have been either approved or beginning construction (sadly, only a handful of them with renderings released), each of them vying to grab the coveted title of “India’s Tallest Building.”

But this latest project, located at Gandhinagar, the capital city of the über-industrial Indian state of Gujarat, and nearby the state’s commercial capital of Ahmedabad, its a home-run hit deep to left field (or maybe I should try to speak in cricket terms… a deep sixer(??)) Why? Although it may not necessarily win the title of India’s tallest building (not for long anyway), the project certainly has all the megaprojects made public beat in terms of sheer massing and scale.

For more information, renderings and news of this project originally posted by me on Skyscrapercity.com, read on!…

^ Views of the CBD and skyline

Boasting 17 high rise commercial buildings — the tallest being the signature 80-storey, 400m “Diamond Tower” — as well as an artificial island, integrated mass transit and dedicated expressways, residential townships, and dedicated power supply, the 500 acre GIFT aims to be Global Financial Services hub. The project, is being developed by the Gujarat Finance City Development Company Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between the Gujarat government and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) as a Public-Private partnership, will employ 400,000 people and house 50,000 residents.

^ Perspective and View of the GIFT skyline

Arguably India’s most economically proactive and reform-minded state, Gujarat’s second-tier metropolises have chafed under the shadow of nearby Maharashtra state’s (and India’s) financial capital of Mumbai. It is this rivalry that has triggered the rapid industrialization of the state and the vision and drive to try to directly compete with India’s biggest city (though with a population of 5.7 million, the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar urban agglomeration is no slouch either.)

The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, well placed between the political and commercial capitals of Gujarat, was conceived as the beginning of that competition. Designed to kick Mumbai in the FDI balls, GIFT is developed as India’s first major supertall CBD project that is designed to be the focal point of India’s booming financial services market — in direct competition with Mumbai — by providing companies with all those things Mumbai is still developing: comprehensive infrastructure, power, verticalized office space, and a well designed, planned and expandable urban form. Its strong proximity and infrastructure connectivity with Mumbai ensures that mutually beneficial development occurs between the two metros.

The project is being planned to be at or above par with presently acknowledged globally benchmarked financial centers such as Shinjuku (Tokyo), Lujiazui (Shanghai), La Defense (Paris) and Dockyards (London). Size-wise too, at over 7.5 million sq. feet of built up space in Phase 1 of the project alone, it is almost twice as massive as in Shinjuku, Luijiazui, La Defense and Dockyards combined! However, with India’s financial sector employing 10 million people by 2020, it hardly puts a dent in the 800 million sq feet of office space needed for this industry alone… implies what big things are in store for Indian commercial development in the near future!

__ ______________
^ Views of the highrises and of Diamond Tower

Inspired by the boom cities of China, the city is being masterplanned by East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI), which is responsible for planning much of Shanghai, and Fairwood Consultants India, one of India’s largest and fastest growing consulting firms. According to Mr Yao Wen Lin, board chairman of ECADI, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City will be designed “to a standard that would be superior to one in Shanghai, China”.

^ Riverfront recreational and greenspace development

GIFT is designed as an extremely environmentally friendly development that will have the lowest per capital energy consumption of any Indian metro. The project itself will boast an impressive green area covering 65% of the total land, in large part due to the number of skyscrapers. In addition, the area long the Sabarmati River’s banks will be developed into a riverfront recreational area, complementing the riverfront developments planned for Ahmedabad. The project will also boast a museum, large conference center and gardens on the man made Fortune Island, where Diamond Tower is located. In addition to expressway linkages, GIFT will also boast underground arterial road, as well as MRTS/LRTS/BRTS connections and abundant parking.

Phase 1 of the project, which will begin construction in March, 2008 and to be completed by 2010, will consist of the 400m Diamond Tower and the core CBD of GIFT, comprising a total of 25.8 million sq ft. Already, 15 million sq ft. of the floorspace of this first phase has already been secured by a host of national and international companies, with MOUs for the other 10 million in the works. Two more phases will then be rolled out for an eventual 2017 completion date.

Exciting times for the Indian architecture enthusiast indeed!

Cheers,

source : http://indianskyscraperblog.wordpress.com

Have u ever seen???

2010-04-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Must watch

વિશ્વનું સૌથી મોટુ Underwater Museum

2010-04-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

વિશ્વનું સૌથી મોટુ Underwater Museum

શું તમે ક્યારેય દરિયામાં રહેલા સંગ્રહાલયની મુલાકાત લીધી છે? ના તો પછી તૈયાર થઇ જાઓ અમારી સાથે... અમે તમને મુલાકાત કરાવીશું દુનિયાના સૌથી મોટા અંડરવોટર મ્યુઝિયમની.

મેક્સિકોના કેનકનમાં દુનિયાનું સૌથી મોટુ અંડરવોટર સંગ્રહાલય બનાવવામાં આવ્યું છે. કેનકનના ઇસ્લા મુજેરિસના નેશનલ પાર્ક વેસ્ટ કોસ્ટ ખાતે કેરેબિયન સાગરમાં આ સંગ્રહાલય બનાવવામાં આવ્યું છે.

કેનકનને તેની સુંદરતાને કારણે પહેલેથી જ ઉત્તમ ટુરિસ્ટ પ્લેસ માનવામાં આવી રહ્યું છે. અને જ્યારથી કેનકનમાં આ અંડરવોટર મ્યુઝિયમની શરૂઆત થઇ છે ત્યારથી પ્રવાસીઓ વિક્રમજનક સંખ્યામાં ત્યાં જઇ રહ્યા છે.

દર વર્ષે આ જગ્યાએ સાત લાખ કરતાં પણ વધારે પ્રવાસીઓ મુલાકાતે આવે છે. આ સંગ્રહાલયમાં આશરે 400 જેટલા કોંક્રિટની મૂર્તિઓ મુકવામાં આવી છે.

source : http://divyabhaskar.com

Sholay V/S 3Idiots

2010-04-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

Sholay V/S 3Idiots
Sholay Budget : only Rs.2 Crore
Profit : Rs. 768.81 crore

3 Idiots Budget : only Rs. 35 Crore
Profit : Rs 400 Crore

Sholay is an Indian film directed by Ramesh Sippy. It is the biggest hit in the history of Bollywood, India's Hindi film industry. Released on 15 August 1975, it stars Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan. The movie, shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara, Karnataka, is the story of two petty criminals hired to capture a ruthless dacoit by the name of Gabbar Singh.

Sholay is the highest grossing film of all time in Indian cinema. The movie has earned Rs. 768,81,00,000, equivalent to US$ 160 million, after adjusting for inflation. When first released, the film was declared a commercial disaster. Word of mouth convinced movie-goers to give the film a chance and soon it became a box-office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in one Mumbai theatre, the Minerva. Sholay racked up a still standing record 60 golden jubilees across India and doubled its original gross over reruns during the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Sholay was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate a silver jubilee (25 weeks) at over a hundred theaters across India.

In 1999 BBC India declared it the "Film of the Millennium"; Indiatimes movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[4] The same year, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards awarded it with a special award called Filmfare Best Film of 50 Years.

3 Idiots

3 Idiots is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India. It was the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend in India and has the highest opening day collections for a Bollywood film. It also has the record for highest net collections in the first week for a Bollywood film. Within 10 days of it's release, the film crossed the INR 1 billion mark in India and became the first film of 2009 to do so. The film also created a new box office record for a release in the last quarter of a year (October to December), breaking the previous record set by Ghajini. It is also the highest-grossing film to be released in the second half of the year (July to December), breaking the previous record also held by Ghajini.

3 Idiots has become the highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time in India. The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 400 crore (US$ 87 million) worldwide.It is expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres on March 25, 2010. The film also went on to win many awards, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, and ten Star Screen Awards.

whats your opinion ? which movie you like most? 3 Idiots or Sholay ?

source : http://en.wikipedia.org

IPL - 3 : રમતનો વેપાર

2010-04-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

>>> કોચીની ટીમ ૧૫૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયાથી વધુ રકમ આપીને ખરીદાઈ છે. જોઈએ કેટલી ઝડપથી વધે છે આઇપીએલનું સામ્રાજ્ય.

ટ્વેન્ટી૨૦ ક્રિકેટ ઘણી જલદીથી મોટા કારોબારમાં ફેરવાઈ ગઈ છે. ભારતીય ક્રિકેટ બોર્ડ (બીસીસીઆઇ)ને ટીમો તથા પ્રસારણ અધિકારોથી થતી અબજો રૂપિયાની આવક તેને વિશ્વની સૌથી મોંઘી ટૂર્નામેન્ટની જમાતમાં સામેલ કરવા માટે પૂરતી છે. બોલિવૂડની ટોચની હસ્તીઓથી લઈને ઉદ્યોગના મોટા દિગ્ગજો તેની સાથે જોડાઈ ગયા છે. જેમ જેમ આઇપીએલમાં રોકાણ કરવામાં આવતી રકમ વધી રહી છે તેમ તેની પણ આંગળીઓ પણ ચિંધાવાનું શરૂ થઈ ગયું છે.

>>> દિવસે-દિવસે વધતો રૂઆબ

- આઇપીએલ-૩ની બ્રાન્ડનું મૂલ્ય ૪.૧૩ કરોડ ડોલર એટલે કે ૯,૦૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયાનું આંકવામાં આવ્યું છે.
- આ આઇપીએલ-૨ના મૂલ્ય (૨.૦૧ અબજ ડોલર) કરતાં બે ગણાથી પણ વધારે છે.
- નામાંકિત કંપનીઓ બ્રાન્ડ ફાઈનાન્સે તેને વિશ્વના છઠ્ઠા સૌથી મોંઘા રમતના આયોજન તરીકે માન્યું છે.

>>> કેટલા દર્શકો આવશે તેનું અનુમાન
- ટેલિવિઝન પર ૨૦ કરોડ કરતાં વધારે.
- ઇન્ટરનેટ પર ૫૦ કરોડ.

>>> ટૂર્નામેન્ટનો સમય
- છ સપ્તાહનો સમય. પ્રત્યેક ટીમે ૧૪ મેચ રમવાની છે. આ ઉપરાંત સેમિફાઇનલ તથા ફાઇનલ પણ રમાશે.

>>> કેટલાનો વીમો ?
- ૭,૦૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા.

>>> ટાઇટલ સ્પોન્સરશિપ
- ડીએલએફની ૫૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયામાં.

>>> સૌથી મોંઘી ટીમો

- પૂણે ( લગભગ ૧,૭૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા). આઇપીએલ-૪માં રમશે.
- કોચી (લગભગ ૧,૫૩૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા). આઇપીએલ-૪માં રમશે.
- મુંબઈ ઇન્ડિયન્સ (૫૧૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા). આ ટૂર્નામેન્ટના પ્રથમ તબક્કામાં રમી રહી છે.

>>> કોને કેટલી આવક થાય છે

બીસીસીઆઇ : ટીમોના અધિકાર હરાજી કરીને રૂપિયા કમાય છે. ટેલિવિઝન, ઇન્ટરનેટ, મોબાઇલ, થિયેટર્સમાં પણ પ્રસારણના મોટા સોદા કરવામાં આવે છે. બોર્ડને ૨૦૧૦માં ૭૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા કરતાં વધારે આવક થવાનો અંદાજ છે જે આઇપીએલ-૧ કરતાં ૪૦ ટકા વધારે છે.

>>> પ્રસારણકર્તા
- સેટમેક્સ (સોની)એ ૧૦ વર્ષના પ્રસારણ અધિકાર ચાર હજાર કરોડમાં ખરીધા છે.

>>> પ્રમોટર્સ-માલિક
- ઔધોગિક જૂથો, ફિલ્મસ્ટાર્સ, અન્ય ટીમો તથા ખેલાડીઓની બોલી લગાવે છે. તેમને પ્રાયોજન અધિકાર વેચવાથી આવક થાય છે. ટીવી પ્રસારણના અધિકારોમાંથી બીસીસીઆઈને થતી આવકનો હિસ્સો તેમને મળે છે.

>>> સટ્ટાબાઝાર
- ૫૦૦કરોડ રૂપિયાનો સટ્ટો આઇપીએલ-૩ની દરેક મેચમાં લાગી રહ્યો છે. સેમિફાઈનલ-ફાઇનલમાં આ રકમ વધી શકે છે.
- ૩૦,૦૦૦ થી વધુના દાવ લાગવાનું અનુમાન છે સ્પર્ધાની ૬૦ મેચમાં.

>>> કમાણીના નવા નવા નુસખા
બીસીસીઆઈએ ઇન્ટરનેટ પર મેચોના લાઈવ પેકેજિંગ માટે યુ-ટયૂબ (ગુગલ) સાથે ૮૦ કરોડ રૂપિયામાં સોદો કર્યોછે. યુએફઓ મૂવીઝે થિયેટરમાં મેચ દર્શાવવાના અધિકાર ખરીધા છે. કલર્સ ચેનલે ત્રણ વર્ષ માટે ૧૦૦ કરોડ રૂપિયા ચૂકવ્યા છે.

>>> ક્રિકેટ એસોસિયશેન
આ મેચોના આયોજનનો ચાર્જ ભોગવે છે. તેને ભરપાઈ કરવા માટે ટિકિટ અને જાહેરાતની જગ્યા વેચે છે.

>>> ખેલાડી
આઇપીએલમાં વિવિધ ફ્રેન્ચાઈઝી માટે રમી રહેલા એ-ગ્રેડના ખેલાડીઓને આ સિઝનમાં ૧૪ મેચ રમવા માટે અંદાજે પાંચ કરોડ રૂપિયા મળશે.
source : http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/2010/04/14/ipl---3-playing-business-872468.html

Mahatma Mandir - Gandhinagar

2010-04-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

The Mahatma Mandir is located at Gandhinagar
1) The project is to bedeveloped in TWO phases.
2) Phase 1 will be completed by December 2010 which will host “Vibrant Gujarat 2011”.
3) Phase 2 will be completed by December 2011
4) Phase 1 includesconstruction of museum, foodcourt, convention center, exhibition center, service building, landscaping and pathway

http://www.vibrantgujarat.com/mahatma-mandir/mahatma-mandir.aspx

Importing bookmarks from Firefox to IE7

2010-04-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

Importing bookmarks from FireFox to Internet explorer 7 (IE7) is really easy and straight forward.

First of all click on the add to Favorates icon in internet explorer 7 and choose "Import and Export..."

This will start the import/export wizard. Click next...

Select "Import Favorites" then click next

Now the "Import from File" is already selected and its the only option. You basically need to locate the path to firefox's bookmark file.

The location depends on your operating system and your windows user name. Also Firefox assigns a random name to your profile but you don't need to know it, it's probably the only folder there.

For Windows 2000 and XP the location of the bookmarks file should be here

C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME]\Application  Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[RANDOM NAME].default\bookmarks.html

If all went as planned you'll get this window which will allow you pick to the location of your bookmarks

And then when you click next you'll get the message you are waiting for "Success!"

source : http://tredosoft.com

IPL 2010 Schedule – Cricket Match Timetable 2010

2010-03-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

March 12 2010 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Hyderabad
March 13 – Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals – Mumbai/Nagpur
March 13 – Kings XI Punjab vs Delhi Daredevils – Mohali
March 14 – Chennai SuperKings vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad – Chennai
March 14 – KolkataKnightRiders vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Kolkata
March 15 – RajasthanRoyals vs DelhiDaredevils – Jaipur
March 16 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs Kings XI Punjab – Bangalore
March 16 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai SuperKings – Kolkta
March 17 – Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians– Delhi
March 18 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs RajasthanRoyals– Bangalore
March 19 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab– Vizag
March 20 – RajasthanRoyals vs Kolkata Knight Riders– Ahmedabad
March 20 – Mumbai Indians vs RoyalChallengersBanglore– Mumbai/Nagpur
March 21 – Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad – Delhi
March 22 – Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders– Mumbai/Nagpur
March 23 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs Chennai SuperKings – Bangalore
March 24 – Kings XI Punjab vs RajasthanRoyals– Mohali
March 25 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Daredevils– Kolkta
March 26 – Chennai SuperKings vs Mumbai Indians– Chennai
March 26 – RajasthanRoyals vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad– Ahmedabad
March 27 – RoyalChallengers Banglore vs Delhi Daredevils – Bangalore
March 27 – Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight Riders– Mohali
March 28 – RajasthanRoyals vs Chennai SuperKings – Ahmedabad
March 28 –Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians – Vizag
March 29 – Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight Riders– Delhi
March 30 – Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI Punjab – Mumbai/Nagpur
March 31 – Chennai SuperKings vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Chennai
March 31 – Delhi Daredevils vs RajasthanRoyals – Delhi
April 1 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad – Kolkata
April 2 – Kings XI Punjab vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Mohali
April 3 – Chennai SuperKings vs RajasthanRoyals – Chennai
April 3 – Mumbai Indians vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad- Mumbai/Nagpur
April 4 – Delhi Daredevils vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Delhi
April 4 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab– Kolkata
April 5 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs RajasthanRoyals – Hyderabad
April 6 – Mumbai Indians vs Chennai SuperKings – Mumbai/Nagpur
April 7 – RajasthanRoyals vs Kings XI Punjab– Ahmedabad
April 8 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad– Bangalore
April 8 – Chennai SuperKings vs Delhi Daredevils– Chennai
April 9 – Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai Indians – Mohali
April 10 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Bangalore
April 10 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Chennai SuperKings – Hyderabad
April 11 – RajasthanRoyals vs Mumbai Indians – Jaipur
April 11 – Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab – Delhi
April 12 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Hyderabad
April 13 – Chennai SuperKings vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Chennai
April 14 – Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils – Mumbai/Nagpur
April 15 – RajasthanRoyals vs RoyalChallengersBanglore – Jaipur
April 15 – Kings XI Punjab vs Deccan Chargers Hyderabad – Dharmsala
April 16 – Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai SuperKings – Delhi
April 17 – RoyalChallengersBanglore vs Mumbai Indians – Bangalore
April 17 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs RajasthanRoyals– Kolkata
April 18 – Deccan Chargers Hyderabad vs Delhi Daredevils – Hyderabad
April 18 – Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai SuperKings– Dharamsala
April 19 – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians – Kolkata
April 21 – Semifinal Match 1
April 22 – Semifinal Match 2
April 24 – 3rd Place Match
April 25 – FINAL Match

Sachin Tendulkar's 200 runs in ODI

2010-02-28T02:11:00.000-08:00

12 Practical Tips for Building Bug-Free Software

2009-10-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Does your software application have bugs? Of course it has, every software application that’s out there has bugs and bug-free software is a myth. But it’s still possible to greatly minimize bugs, security problems and errors in your application by following a few tips and techniques I outline in this posting.

Recent studies show that up to 40% of system failures are caused by software bugs and that common memory and concurrency related bugs account for 60% of system vulnerabilities and security problems. So reducing software bugs in your application is the best way to increase the stability, reliability and security of your software.

Here is list of 12 practical tips for building bug-free software (or at least software with fewer bugs):

1. Code Reviews

Four eyes see more than two. That’s why you should let other developers review your source code on a regular basis. Pair programming on the other hand, a technique where two developers write code together for longer periods, isn’t for everyone and is often not needed. But complicated, important or security related code greatly benefits from code reviews and will improve your code quality a lot.

2. Beta Tests

Beta tests play an important role with keeping your software’s quality high. But most times, it doesn’t make sense to release beta versions of your software for minor updates. Major releases on the other hand, should be tested by end-users and customers before going gold. You can test your software as much as you want, if you cannot control the execution environment, the chance is high that end-users will find bugs and problems with all the different computer configurations out there. Also make sure that your software reached a high quality standard before giving it to beta testers. You don’t want to waste the testers’ time by letting them find and report bugs that you already know about.

3. Automated Tests

Automated tests like unit tests or automated GUI tests can be used to guarantee the functionality of application modules, application programming interfaces (APIs) and user interfaces. You don’t have to be a test-driven development wizard to make good use of automated tests. Using unit tests for key parts of your application can go a long way towards building more reliable software. There are tons of unit testing frameworks, web and GUI testing tools out there that you can utilize.

4. Logging

Using log files or live logging during development and production usage is an important and useful technique to identify bugs, find concurrency problems and to analyze and find out why an application crashed. Advanced logging tools are also able to log complete objects, trace threads and distributed systems and offer rich viewer tools to monitor your application. Instead of writing your own basic logging framework, you should use proven and advanced libraries and tools. Many open-source and even some commercial offerings have been released over the years, including .NET, Java and Delphi logging tool.

5. Error Reporting

To find and resolve errors and exceptions, you first have to know what kind of errors your users and customers are experiencing. Many users of trial software won’t get in touch with you to report any errors. Instead, they will just uninstall your application and test a competing product. To make error reporting for end-users easier and more useful to you, you should use automated error and exception reporting techniques. When an unhandled exception occurs, your application should show a friendly dialog offering the user to send an error report back to the developer. Error reports should contain all kind of information to help you identify the problem, including error messages, call stacks, version numbers and log files.

6. Customer Feedback

Similar to error reporting, you should make giving feedback as easy as possible for your users and customers. You can also use a short (optional) survey when a user uninstalls your application. This survey should only have a few questions and besides other things ask why the user uninstalled your software. If a lot of users report that they uninstalled your software because of stability problems, you will know that your application isn’t as high-quality as you have thought.

7. Use Proven Code

You should build the core functionality and main features of your applications yourself, because only then are you able to easily and quickly modify and improve it. But for many other parts you can reuse existing and proven code. It will take you years to build a stable, easy-to-use and feature complete reporting engine or setup builder, for example. Often times it’s better to use proven existing code, either from internal libraries, third-party companies or open source solutions if the license permits this.

8. Dedicated Testers

If possible, you should have dedicated testers in your organization for quality assurance. In fact, you should have lots of them. For simple standard applications, one tester per developer is a good rule of thumb. For applications that are complicated and time-consuming to test, two or more testers per developer are needed. Many small organizations cannot afford dedicated testers. If this is the case, developers should test each others’ code. It’s important that others test your code and functionality, because general wisdom says that developers do a really bad job testing software that they wrote themselves.

9. Virtual Machines

To test your software on as many different environments and operating systems as possible, you should use virtual machines with tools like VMware, Virtual PC or other available virtualization software. Besides allowing you to test your software on all kinds of configurations, you will save tons of time because you can easily copy, share and reset the virtual machines. It’s a good idea to create many different standard images for all the operating systems you regular test on and put them on a file server. When you need a specific configuration to test something, you can then start with one of your base images without installing the operating system, drivers and required software and so on.

10. Write a Specification

Many bugs are caused by badly designed class hierarchies, inaccurate interfaces, wrongly understood requirements and the therefore required workarounds. That’s why an experienced developer or architect should write a specification with all the collected requirements and technical implementation details before writing the first line of code. But as always, requirements change during the lifetime of a software application. That’s why it’s important to keep the specification up-to-date and plan the architecture changes for any new or altered requirements.

11. Use a Good Debugger

If you use an IDE like Visual Studio, Eclipse or Delphi, you already have access to a powerful debugger that you should use. But with many development environments and development platforms like PHP, Windows Scripting, Python and Ruby, many developers aren’t using a debugger. In those scripting environments, developers often try to squish bugs by try and error, changing code parts, adding a few print statements and so on. This is not only a very cumbersome and time-consuming way of identifying and solving bugs, it’s also very dangerous if you don’t fully understand your code and are able to step through it with a debugger. Do yourself a favor and get a good debugger for your development platform (and there are debuggers for almost everything).

12. Debug and Strict Options

Many development environments allow you to enable special debugging options like range checking, overflow checking and memory corruption checking. Such options should be enabled during development and sometimes even during quality assurance to identify hard to find bugs. Many script languages like Perl or PHP on the other hand allow you to enable certain rules and warnings that will force you to declare variables before using them. This is especially useful if a script language is case-sensitive and it’s easy to make typos.

How to Scope your Projects

2009-10-27T07:27:00.001-07:00

The "project scope" is all of the things that must be produced to complete a project. These 'things' are called deliverables and you need to describe them in depth as early in the project as possible, so everyone knows what needs to be produced. Take these 5 Steps to scope your projects:

Step 1: Set the Direction
Start off by setting the direction for the project. Do you have an agreed Project Vision, Objectives and Timeframes? Are they specified in depth and has your customer agreed to them? Does everyone in the project team truly understand them and why they are important? Only by fixing the project direction can you truly fix the project scope.

Step 2: Scope Workshops
The best way to get buy-in to your project scope is to get all of the relevant stakeholders to help you define it. So get your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders in a room and run a workshop to identify the scope. What you want from them is an agreed set of major deliverables to be produced by the project. You also want to know "what's out of scope".

Run the workshop by asking each stakeholder for a list of the deliverables they expect the project team to deliver. Take the full list of deliverables generated in the workshop and get them to agree on what's mandatory and what's optional. Then ask them to prioritize the list, so you know what has to be delivered first.

Step 3: Fleshing it out
You now have an agreed list of deliverables. But it's still not enough. You need to define each deliverable in depth. Work with the relevant people in your business to describe how each deliverable will look and feel, how it would operate and how it would be supported etc. Your goal here is to make it so specific that your customer cannot state later in the project that "when they said this, they really meant that".

Step 4: Assessing Feasibility
So you now have a detailed list and description of every deliverable to be produced by your project, in priority order and separated as mandatory / optional. Great! But is it feasible to achieve within the project end date? Before you confirm the scope, you need to review every deliverable in the list and get a general indication from your team as to whether they can all be completed before your project end date. If they can't, then which deliverables can you remove from the list to make your end date more achievable?

Step 5: Get the thumbs up
Present the prioritized set of deliverables to your Project Sponsor and ask them to approve the list as your project scope. Ask them to agree to the priorities, the deliverable descriptions and the items out of scope.

By getting formal sign-off, you're in a great position to be able to manage the project scope down the track. So when your Sponsor says to you in a few weeks time "Can you please add these deliverables to the list?", you can respond by saying "Yes, but I'll either have to remove some items from the list to do it, or extend the project end date. Which is it to be?". You can easily manage your Sponsors expectations with a detailed scope document at your side.

The scope document is the Project Manager's armor. It protects them from changes and makes them feel invincible!

Paypal Integration

2009-10-27T07:00:00.002-07:00

The Basics:

- After shopping all the required items and filling up the checkout form when the "Order" button is clicked, the customer is taken to the paypal website wherein the customer is prompted for either payment through paypal account or through credit card (if not having a paypal account).

- Now during this redirection from checkout page to paypal website, we need to collect/prefill some values that are required on the paypal website. And these values has to be collected/filled in certain pre-defined "html hidden form variables" termed as "paypal form variables". So we have to put an intermediary page between checkout page and the paypal page where these values can be collected.

- The following is the list of paypal form variables:

* <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_ext-enter">

* <input type="hidden" name="redirect_cmd" value="_xclick">

* <input type="hidden" name="business" value="testgods@gods.com">

* <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">

* <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Your testGods order">

* <input type="hidden" name="amount" value ="OrderAmount">

* <input type="hidden" name="test_ipn" value="1">

* <input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2">

* <input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://192.168.101.90:8013/Thanks.aspx">

form>

From the above list, the fields marked as * are the minimum required fields. Out of which the "test_ipn" variable is required only during the test mode. When making live this variable should be removed. In the

tag, the value action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" - this url is meant for test mode. When making live this url needs to be changed to action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr". The testing environment is termed as "sandbox environment".

Sandbox Environment :

- Now, as mentioned in the very first sentence when the customer is taken to the paypal website - the customer is prompted for either payment through paypal account or through credit card (if not having a paypal account).

- During sandbox environment we have to create some test accounts such as "personal" accounts and "business" accounts. A “Personal” account means the customer accounts that can make payment through paypal during sandbox environment. "Business" account means the client account/merchant account from whom the customer is purchasing the products.

- In order to create "personal" and "business" accounts we need to signup with https://developer.paypal.com. After signing up with developer.paypal we can create/manage sandbox accounts using this login account.

- To create/manage sandbox accounts (i.e. personal and business accounts) login to https://developer.paypal.com.

- You can get information on how to create sandbox accounts from - https://www.paypal.com/en_US/pdf/PP_Sandbox_UserGuide.pdf

- Whenever a new "personal" or "business" account is created an e-mail is fired. This e-mail contains a confirmation link, by clicking on this link only the account is activated. As soon as we login to https://developer.paypal.com. we can see various tabs such as "Home”, "Sandbox", "Test Certificates", "Email" . We can access the e-mails by clicking on the Email tab.

- After creating a "personal" or "business" account, the next step is to "Add a Bank Account" and then "Add a Credit Card" for the "created"

account(s).

- To add a bank account or a credit card we need to login to the respective "personal" or "business" account. After signing in

Navigate to My Account > Profile. Under the Financial Information header, click the Bank Accounts link or Credit Cards link.

- While adding a bank account there are certain things to be kept in mind for some specific countries.

(Reference - https://www.paypal.com/en_US/pdf/PP_Sandbox_UserGuide.pdf)

- While adding a credit card, only add Visa cards.......because only VISA cards are valid in test mode.

- A credit card may have limitations of transactions upto certain amount. After that we need to add a new credit card number for that particular "personal" account.

- Imp : We need to have test credit card numbers to test the transactions for those who don’t have paypal account. To create such credit card numbers, login to any of the "personal" account created in sandbox - go through the normal process of adding a credit card. But most imp. thing to be kept in mind is that as soon as the auto-generated credit card number is displayed, just make note of that credit card number and don't click on the "Add Card" button.......instead click on "Cancel" button otherwise that particular card number will be valid for that particular personal account and not available for non-paypal account holders. And this auto-generated credit card number can be used to test transactions for non-paypal account holders.

- Note : While running the application in test mode you need to keep an instance of https://developer.paypal.com opened in a separate browser and also needs to be signed in with the login with which sandbox accounts were created. And need to check every 10-15 min. whether the session has expired. During test mode enter any of the "personal" accounts created in sandbox i.e. enter any of the personal account email id and password to do the transaction in test mode.

Making Live:

Following things need to be kept in mind :

1) Remove the "test_ipn" variable from the list of “paypal form variables".

2) In the tag, change the value of action="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" - this URL is meant for test mode. When making live this url needs to be changed to action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr".

3) Change the value of the variable named "business" to the original value.

ASP.NET Interview Questions

2009-10-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

ASP.NET Interview Questions

Describe the role of inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll andaspnet_wp.exe in the page loading process.
inetinfo.exe is theMicrosoft IIS server running, handling ASP.NET requests among other things.When an ASP.NET request is received (usually a file with .aspx extension), the ISAPI filter aspnet_isapi.dll takes care of it by passing the request tothe actual worker process aspnet_wp.exe.
What’s the difference between Response.Write() andResponse.Output.Write()?
Response.Output.Write() allows you to write formatted output.
What methods are fired during the page load?
Init() - when the page is instantiated
Load() - when the page is loaded into server memory
PreRender() - the brief moment before the page is displayed to the user as HTML
Unload() - when page finishes loading.
When during the page processing cycle is ViewState available?
After the Init() and before the Page_Load(), or OnLoad() for a control.
What namespace does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy?
System.Web.UI.Page
Where do you store the information about the user’s locale?
System.Web.UI.Page.Culture
What’s the difference between Codebehind="MyCode.aspx.cs" andSrc="MyCode.aspx.cs"?
CodeBehind is relevant to Visual Studio.NET only.
What’s a bubbled event?
When you have a complex control, like DataGrid, writing an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite tedious. The controls can bubble up their eventhandlers, allowing the main DataGrid event handler to take care of its constituents.
Suppose you want a certain ASP.NET function executed on MouseOver for a certain button. Where do you add an event handler?
Add an OnMouseOver attribute to the button. Example: btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onmouseover","someClientCodeHere();");
What data types do the RangeValidator control support?
Integer, String, and Date.
Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code?
Server-side code executes on the server. Client-side code executes in the client's browser.
What type of code (server or client) is found in a Code-Behind class?
The answer is server-side code since code-behind is executed on the server. However, during the code-behind's execution on the server, it can render client-side code such as JavaScript to be processed in the clients browser. But just to be clear, code-behind executes on the server, thus making it server-side code.
Should user input data validation occur server-side or client-side? Why?
All user input data validation should occur on the server at a minimum. Additionally, client-side validation can be performed where deemed appropriate and feasable to provide a richer, more responsive experience for the user.
What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Why would I choose one over the other?
Server.Transfer transfers page processing from one page directly to the next page without making a round-trip back to the client's browser. This provides a faster response with a little less overhead on the server. Server.Transfer does not update the clients url history list or current url. Response.Redirect is used to redirect the user's browser to another page or site. This performas a trip back to the client where the client's browser is redirected to the new page. The user's browser history list is updated to reflect the new address.
Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?
Valid answers are:
· A DataSet can represent an entire relational database in memory, complete with tables, relations, and views.
· A DataSet is designed to work without any continuing connection to the original data source.
· Data in a DataSet is bulk-loaded, rather than being loaded on demand.
· There's no concept of cursor types in a DataSet.
· DataSets have no current record pointer You can use For Each loops to move through the data.
· You can store many edits in a DataSet, and write them to the original data source in a single operation.
· Though the DataSet is universal, other objects in ADO.NET come in different versions for different data sources.
What is the Global.asax used for?
The Global.asax (including the Global.asax.cs file) is used to implement application and session level events.
What are the Application_Start and Session_Start subroutines used for?
This is where you can set the specific variables for the Application and Session objects.
Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it?
When you want to inherit (use the functionality of) another class. Example: With a base class named Employee, a Manager class could be derived from the Employee base class.
Whats an assembly?
Assemblies are the building blocks of the .NET framework. Overview of assemblies from MSDN
Describe the difference between inline and code behind.
Inline code written along side the html in a page. Code-behind is code written in a separate file and referenced by the .aspx page.
Explain what a diffgram is, and a good use for one?
The DiffGram is one of the two XML formats that you can use to render DataSet object contents to XML. A good use is reading database data to an XML file to be sent to a Web Service.
Whats MSIL, and why should my developers need an appreciation of it if at all?
MSIL is the Microsoft Intermediate Language. All .NET compatible languages will get converted to MSIL. MSIL also allows the .NET Framework to JIT compile the assembly on the installed computer.
Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to load your generated dataset with data?
The Fill() method.
Can you edit data in the Repeater control?
No, it just reads the information from its data source.
Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control?
ItemTemplate.
How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control?
Use the AlternatingItemTemplate.
What property must you set, and what method must you call in your code, in order to bind the data from a data source to the Repeater control?
You must set the DataSource property and call the DataBind method.
What base class do all Web Forms inherit from?
The Page class.
Name two properties common in every validation control?
ControlToValidate property and Text property.
Which property on a Combo Box do you set with a column name, prior to setting the DataSource, to display data in the combo box?
DataTextField property.
Which control would you use if you needed to make sure the values in two different controls matched?
CompareValidator control.
How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain?
It can contain many classes.

Web Service Questions

What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service?
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is the preferred protocol.
True or False: A Web service can only be written in .NET?
False
What does WSDL stand for?
Web Services Description Language.
Where on the Internet would you look for Web services?
http://www.uddi.org/
True or False: To test a Web service you must create a Windows application or Web application to consume this service?
False, the web service comes with a test page and it provides HTTP-GET method to test.

State Management Questions

What is ViewState?
ViewState allows the state of objects (serializable) to be stored in a hidden field on the page. ViewState is transported to the client and back to the server, and is not stored on the server or any other external source. ViewState is used the retain the state of server-side objects between postabacks.
What is the lifespan for items stored in ViewState?
Item stored in ViewState exist for the life of the current page. This includes postbacks (to the same page).
What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or off?
It allows the page to save the users input on a form across postbacks. It saves the server-side values for a given control into ViewState, which is stored as a hidden value on the page before sending the page to the clients browser. When the page is posted back to the server the server control is recreated with the state stored in viewstate.
What are the different types of Session state management options available with ASP.NET?
ASP.NET provides In-Process and Out-of-Process state management. In-Process stores the session in memory on the web server. This requires the a "sticky-server" (or no load-balancing) so that the user is always reconnected to the same web server. Out-of-Process Session state management stores data in an external data source. The external data source may be either a SQL Server or a State Server service. Out-of-Process state management requires that all objects stored in session are serializable

source : http://blogs.crsw.com

10 Tips for Project Success

2009-10-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

1. Starting out: Make sure that when you start out your customer defines their requirements in depth. You need to know exactly what it is that must be delivered, to who and when. Make it specific, write it up formally and get them to sign it off. This document will become the basis upon which to measure your success.

2. Customers: Involve your customers throughout the entire project life cycle. Get them involved in the analysis and planning, as well as execution. You don't have to seek their approval, just keep them informed. The more you involve them, the greater their level of buy-in and the easier it is to manage their expectations.

3. Timeframes: Keep your delivery timeframes short and realistic. Never agree to lengthy timeframes. Split the project into "mini-projects" if you need to. Keep each mini-project to less than 6 months. This keeps everyone motivated and focused.

4. Milestones: Break your project timeframe into "Milestones" which are manageable pieces of work. Add delivery deadlines to your milestones and try to deliver on every deadline, no matter what. If you're late, tell your customer about it as early as possible.

5. Communications: Make sure you keep everyone informed by providing the right information at the right time. Produce Weekly Status Reports and run regular team meetings. Use “Project Management Templates” to save you time.

6. Scope: Only authorize changes to your project scope if there is no impact on the timeline. Get your customers approval to important scope changes first and then get their buy-in to extend the delivery dates if you need to.

7. Quality: Keep the quality of your deliverables as high as possible. Constantly review quality and never let it slip. Implement "peer reviews" so that team members can review each others deliverables. Then put in place external reviews to ensure that the quality of the solution meets your customer's needs.

8. Issues: Jump on risks and issues as soon as they are identified. Prioritize and resolve them before they impact on your project. Take pride in keeping risks and issues to a minimum.

9. Deliverables: As each deliverable is complete, hand it formally over to your customer. Get them to sign an Acceptance Form to say that it meets their expectations. Only then can you mark each deliverable off as 100% complete.

10. Your team: Great projects are run by great teams. Hire the best people you can afford. Spend the time to find the right people. It will save you time down the track. Remember, good people are easy to motivate. Show them the vision and how they can make it happen. Trust and believe in them. Make them feel valued. They will work wonders.

Debugging - A Important Aspect in Programming

2009-10-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Debugging - A Important Aspect in Programming

In this tutorial you will learn about Debugging - A Important Aspect in Programming, Detection or Finding of the Bug, What the bug or fault is, Where it has occurred, How it is caused, Important Factors to Consider while debugging, Debuggers utilities and functions - Step-By-Step, Breakpoint.

After developing a program the next step is to test the program to find whether the program function and produces output as desired. In real situations the program when run immediately after developed will give errors of different types say syntax errors or logical errors and so on. This is where debugging terminology figures out. Debugging is the step by step process of finding errors or bugs in a program so that the bugs can be removed to make the program function in the way it was desired. There are several tools available to do the above defined debugging process. These tools are called debuggers.

As we have seen debugging process involves the identification of bug in a procedural way the sub events involved in this debugging process are namely:

Detection or Finding of the Bug:

This is the primary process or activity of a debugging process. For doing this with key attention the output or the value at each stage of the module or program must be checked. If any discrepancy is found then with greater attention that sub portion must be checked to find the values passed to each variables and the output that occurs from each process in that subdivision. One can also add some temporary statements or print or output statements for checking the values of variables. These temporary statements must be removed carefully after the debugging process. In some cases it may be necessary to recreate the bug to identify where it has occurred. Thus the main idea of this step of debugging process is to identify

What the bug or fault is – This can be done by recreation of bugs or by careful checking of values

Where it has occurred – By writing temporary print or output statements or finding the place where value is changed or reasons why data is not in proper format and so on.

How it is caused and so on.

Having done the major process of debugging the next step in debugging is to fix the error or bug.

Bug Fixing or Error Correction: This is also involved in the process of debugging because while we fix an error or bug there is possibility that it may give raise to some other bugs. If it happens again the process mentioned above namely detection, correction takes place. This continues until the system is found to be bug free.

Important Factors to Consider while debugging

· While correcting or fixing a bug always make it a habit to make comments containing description about date, purpose of fixing, username who fixed the bug and so on. This is very essential because this will be helpful if the person who made the bug fixing later on want to refer the bug for some reason for fixing some other fix or it would be helpful for other users since it act as a documentation which provides an easy reference.

· Make it a practice that while debugging to make a change and test it immediately. This is because when a change is made to the existing code it may pave way for some more bugs. After ensuring that the corresponding fix works fine by testing then go for next change. In other words it is essential to be systematic in approach while debugging..

· It is very essential to remove the temporary code added just for debugging purposes like temporary print statement to check the value of variables and so on.

· When a fault is found in debugging process after correcting and fixing it always have a broader vision and think whether the same fault or similar situations can occur in other parts of the program. This vision will help in reducing the time in debugging process. .

· While debugging it is always good to follow the modular approach. Since by viewing details in module level greater details and bugs can be detected if any existing and also correction of bugs becomes easier at the modular level and proceed as such to different modules and then proceed to interfaces between modules. .

· Before starting the process of debugging it is good to have an overview of what the program or modules is about and prepare a step by step approach. This process though takes time will help in proceeding systematically in debugging process and helps while the debugging is going on.
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· First a step-by-step eye viewing manually on the program or module is needed to find what happens to value of variables and to decide whether any temporary statement needs to be inserted. After this if the process is complex debugging tools or symbolic debuggers etc can be used for debugging process.

Having known a lot about the concept of debugging now let us see how to do this process of debugging in a simplier and efficient way. This is done by the use of debuggers

Debuggers have many utilities and functions in it to name a few are

Step-By-Step – It helps watching the variables or value of the program in each step and therefore thorough analysis can be made easily.

Breakpoint – This is used for pause the program at any time needed. Say for instance if a user wants to check the value written in a file when enter key is pressed then after enter key is pressed if this breakpoint is used then program is paused and the user could check the file.

The above mentioned is only a few of the numerous abilities or functions available while debugging using debugging tools. Whatever may the tool used it is important that one should definitely debug their program or in other words it is vital to follow the debugging step in software development life cycle in order have a quality product.

Software Development Life Cycle

2009-10-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

The product developed which achieves customer satisfaction is not done in a single step. It involves series of steps in a software development process. This is needed to develop quality products with error free products to achieve customer satisfaction. There are many models available in the software development process.

But majority of software development process follow the model named as software development life cycle. This software develop life cycle has number of steps in it. The below article describes about the software development life cycle and the steps involved into it.

Software development life cycle model is also called as waterfall model which is followed by majority of systems. This software development life cycle process has the following seven stages in it namely

1. System Requirements Analysis
2. Feasibility study
3. Systems Analysis and Design
4. Code Generation
5. Testing
6. Maintenance
7. Implementation

Let us discuss each of these to have an overview about teach of the following steps in software development life cycle.

1. System Requirements Analysis:
The first essential or vital thing required for any software development is system. Also the system requirement may vary based on the software product that is going to get developed. So a careful analysis has to be made about the system requirement needed for the development of the product. After the analysis and design of the system requirement phase the system required for the development would be complete and the concentration can be on the software development process.

2. Feasibility study:
After making an analysis in the system requirement the next step is to make analysis of the software requirement. In other words feasibility study is also called as software requirement analysis. In this phase development team has to make communication with customers and make analysis of their requirement and analyze the system. By making analysis this way it would be possible to make a report of identified area of problem. By making a detailed analysis on this area a detailed document or report is prepared in this phase which has details like project plan or schedule of the project, the cost estimated for developing and executing the system, target dates for each phase of delivery of system developed and so on. This phase is the base of software development process since further steps taken in software development life cycle would be based on the analysis made on this phase and so careful analysis has to be made in this phase.

3. Systems Analysis and Design:
This is an important phase in system development .Here analysis is made on the design of the system that is going to be developed. In other words database design, the design of the architecture chosen, functional specification design, low level design documents, high level design documents and so on takes place. Care must be taken to prepare these design documents because the next phases namely the development phase is based on these design documents. If a well structured and analyzed design document is prepared it would reduce the time taken in the coming steps namely development and testing phases of the software development life cycle.

4. Code Generation:
This is the phase where actual development of the system takes place. That is based on the design documents prepared in the earlier phase code is written in the programming technology chosen. After the code is developed generation of code also takes place in this phase. In other words the code is converted into executables in this phase after code generation.

5. Testing:
A software or system which is not tested would be of poor quality. This is because this is the phase where system developed would be tested and reports are prepared about bugs or errors in system. To do this testing phase there are different levels and methods of testing like unit testing, system test and so on. Based on the need the testing methods are chosen and reports are prepared about bugs. After this process the system again goes to development phase for correction of errors and again tested. This process continues until the system is found to be error free. To ease the testing process debuggers or testing tools are also available.