In Indian culture, teachers and knowledge have always been held in high regard. Mathematicians in ancient India made fundamental contributions in number theory (zero, the decimal system, numerals, binaries), geometry, infinite series (foundation of calculus). That long tradition and comfort with abstract conceptual thinking explains modern India’s success in IT – and not merely knowledge of English.
via livemint.com
The core market for education services in India, particularly schools and colleges, is highly regulated and intended to be run on a not-for-profit basis, thus keeping venture capitalists (VCs) away. But supplementary and tertiary segments, though fragmented, offer benefits of potential scale in a country where families spend up to 20% of disposable incomes on education.
Last week’s Intel Capital funding of education assessment firm Vriti Infocom followed a raft of similar deals earlier. Blackstone Group, New Vernon Private Equity and Deutsche Securities pooled Rs94 crore into Chennai-based e-learning firm Everonn Systems India Ltd in May and earlier this year KPCB (Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers) and Sherpalo Ventures funded education portal StudyPlaces.com. Earlier venture fund rounds in the sector were at Bangalore’s TutorVista Global Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai e-learning services firm 24×7 Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi-based exam preparation tutorial Career Launcher India Ltd, Hurix Systems Pvt. Ltd and Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd, among others.
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Cultures differ in their approach to tasks, time and relationships among other things. Not having an understanding of cultural differences makes for painful business interactions.
via The Boston Globe
Ask John Leiter, who came back a changed man from three months in Uruguay in 2006 under Ernst & Young’s corporate social responsibility fellows program. A Boston-based senior manager for the accounting firm, Leiter normally helps companies carry out internal investigations into financial wrongdoing.
In the capital of Montevideo, he was assigned to help a 12-year-old information technology company develop its first real five-year strategic plan. That meant doing a new kind of work, at a new firm, while coping with language and cultural differences. For a fast-paced American, even the traditional quarter-hour of chit-chat preceding meetings was a tough adjustment.
“I worked out of my comfort zone the entire time,” recalls Leiter. Now, back home, he operates differently, trying first to get an overall sense of client needs before starting work. “Oftentimes, we have such a myopic focus, and it doesn’t allow us to take a large view of the issue,” says Leiter.
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via International Herald Tribune
In the blink of an eye, India has gone from faith, prudence and chastity to Brittany, Courtney and Tiffani. On Sunday, a team of Washington Redskins cheerleaders landed in Bangalore to help create India’s first cheerleading squad.
According to the Redskins’ Web site, the cheerleaders will “conduct a national audition of Indian women.” The aim of the exercise is to set up a squad of indigenous pompom wielders for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, one of eight teams that will play in the Indian Premier League, a rich new Indian cricket league.
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Now the best polo players are Argentine.
via TIME
Tea, for example, that most English of drinks, was first cultivated in India by British growers, who quickly undercut their Chinese competitors on price. Like cricket (which the English introduced to India) and polo (though its origins are Persian, the modern game began in northeast India and was later encoded and spread by the British), drinking tea is a joyous ritual that binds Delhi and Doncaster. (Polo is a rich man’s sport, of course, but class and caste have long mattered in both countries.)
Then there is language. English may be Britain’s greatest gift to India (which, today, is home to the world’s largest English-speaking population), but Hindi has spiced the language with a masala of words long-since codified in its dictionaries: chit, guru, jungle, pajamas, pundit, sentry, shampoo, and thug, to name just a few.
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On the account of Tamil New Year’s today – April 14, this post is dedicated to Fay Dimase of Rosario – who considers herself an “Argentine Tamil”. Enjoy the recipes, Fay!
via BlogHer
Tamil cuisine also uses many spices, with the word “curry” actually coming from the Tamil word Kari.
there is an entire blog dedicated to indexing Tamil Recipes where you can find a huge assortment of interesting dishes to try.
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You have to work hard to see an overweight person on the streets of Buenos Aires. All youngsters look quite athletic.
via The Independent
Sport comes easy to most people here. Without the financial advantages of so many of the world’s leading sporting nations, Argentina is producing an ever-increasing number of champions across a whole range of sports.
Football has long been king in this corner of the planet and the 1978 and 1986 World Cup winners have always exported their greatest talents to the game’s biggest clubs, but Argentines are now taking other stages by storm. The golfer Angel Cabrera won last year’s US Open, Argentines swamp the men’s world tennis rankings, Manu Ginobili is one of the big names of American basketball and even the country’s rugby union players went further than the All Blacks in finishing third in last year’s World Cup. Read the rest of this entry »
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Image via Wikipedia
