Retrospection

 Hello. எல்லாரும் நல்லா இருப்பீங்கன்னு நம்பறேன்.

It has been 10 months since I  put up my last post. As expected அந்த postla எழுதிருக்கறதுல oru 20% கூட செஞ்சு முடிக்கல .

However I learnt one thing, for me everything has multiple restarts and needs a constant push. இந்த புஷ் அப்படிங்கிறது ஒரு train ah தள்ளுற அளவுக்கு ஒரே மூச்சா தள்ளணுமானா இல்ல . This is more of a gentle nudge more frequent in the course of time.

அதனால இந்த blog la போடுற ஒவ்வொரு postum ஒரு nudge. என்னடா nudge nu சொல்லிட்டு இவ்ளோ gap வுடுறியேனு கேக்கலாம் , நியாயமான கேள்வி. அத சரி பண்ணத்தான் இப்போலேந்து ஆரமிக்கலாம்னு இருக்கேன்.எதுக்குமே ஒரு ஆரம்பம் வேணும்ல?

Let me recap what  I  said  in my last post as a summary:

1. பொருளாதார கட்டுரைகள் படித்து வலைப்பூவில் எழுதுவது 

2. வேலை மட்டுமே பாத்துட்ருக்கறது காண்டா இருக்கு 

3. முயற்சியை நிறுத்த கூடாது 

4. Blog டிசைனை ஓரளவுக்கு மாத்துறது 

First is a failure, இன்னும் ஒரு கட்டுரை கூட எழுதல ஆனா ஒரு நல்லது நடந்துருக்கு , சில கட்டுரைகள் படிச்சேன் , முக்கியமா Personal Finance அப்படிங்கிற realm la concentrate பண்ணலாம்னு இருக்கேன் . அதோட நீட்சியா Capital Markets பற்றி படிக்க ஆரம்பிச்சுருக்கேன். 

Second one is still a problem, although it is much better than what it was previously in May 2020. I made sure to take some time off for Marriages, a short marriage/trip to an Office colleague's wedding.

I'd say I have done better than before on the second point.

மூணாவது விஷயமும் ரொம்ப successfullனு சொல்ல முடியாது, இருந்தாலும் ஒரு ரெண்டு மாசம் முன்னாடி கூட இந்த postah எழுதலாம்னு நெனச்சுட்டு இருந்தேன் , அதுனால முயற்சி கொஞ்சம் இருக்கு ஆனா இது பத்தாது .

As expected there is still not much improvement on the 4th point as well. Although just before writing this post, I managed to rearrange the width of the Main blog content, and added a visitor counter just to keep track of it. Right now it looks much better than a squished main section which was the case earlier.

So என்ன பண்ணிருக்கேன்னு பாத்தோம் இப்போ இத தவிர வேறு சில விஷயங்களும் பண்ணேன் அதென்னனு பாப்போம் 

1. Learning Flute

2. Working on a side project

3. Learning in depth about my company's software product at a scale that was not expected

இதல்லாம் பெரிய விஷயமா இல்லாம இருக்கலாம் அனா இதோட impact in my life is very high.

அதே மாதிரி I  am  planning to experiment with blog posts written fully in English. உங்க mindvoice நல்லாவே கேக்குது , major சுந்தரராஜான்னுலாம் படத்தை போட்டியே டா அப்டினு நெனைக்கிறீங்க , I get that, while it is more easier to connect using such a language, the problem is with typing. Naalaam உக்காந்து type பன்னுறதே பெருசு, இதுல ஒரு கோர்வையா post போடும்போது , typing maathi maathi adikuradhu romba gaandaah irku.

So I have decided to stick to English in writing my post, but I also have plans for writing a separate தமிழ் blog once I get hold of the writing skills and be more regular.

For now this retrospection would be enough, I'll be back soon with my next post which I promise would not be self bragging.

A New Start, rather one of the new starts

This blog was started around 2009 (I was doing my 11th) , intended purely to be a blog dedicated to quiz and started with impulse. Surprisingly I did carry the momentum for sometime. 

However suddenly my focus area on quiz expanded one day and I put in 2 posts regarding BRICS and Eurozone crisis, not sure what was my mindset then but I do realize post this the blog became extremely uninteresting, those posts being extremely long and verbatim from various websites as it is. There also seems to be one Post about a LYTRO camera (சத்தியமா இது எதுக்கு எழுதினேன்னு தெரியல). 

Between you might see பேச்சு வழக்கு தமிழ் (Major சுந்தரராஜன் மாதிரி ,with mistakes obviously) , the reasons being my long term love for Google input tools and an effort to connect with the people more easily. 

Coming back I truly do not know how my blog has got a hit over 8000, with such boring design and content. I am not sure how much time people spent on my blog but seeing the blog itself I'd say it is very hard to even browse the older posts for 5 minutes. I'll try to work on making the Blog and the posts pleasing to the eyes. 

இவ்ளோ நாளா "Content is King" அப்டினு டயலாக் விட்டுட்டு இருந்தேன் ஆனா இன்னைக்கு ஒரு blog tips website la "If content is King, Design is Queen"  அப்டினு செருப்பால அடிச்சுட்டாங்க .

I promise to take inspiration from one of my favorite(damn, US dictionary of blogger) blogger Giri, who has an awesome site(or rather a blog) at Giriblog . Perfect writer who connects with many people for his thoughts.

சரி இவ்ளோ நாள் புடுங்காதத என்ன புதுசா புடுங்க போறனு  நீங்க கேக்குறது எனக்கும் கேக்குது . 

இந்த  lockdown டைம்ல வேலை மட்டுமே பண்ணிட்ருக்கர்துக்கு கொஞ்சம் காண்டா இருக்கு அதுனால கொஞ்சம் புதுசா புடுங்கலாம்னு இந்த முயற்சி .

சரி ரொம்ப நேரம் லேகியம் வித்துட்டுருக்கமா matterku  வா அப்டினு சொல்றதும் கேக்குது .

நேத்து ஒரு office friend oda பேசும்போது ரகுராம் ராஜன் பத்தியும் , 2008 உலக பொருளாதார பின்னைடைவு பற்றியும் ஒரு பேச்சு வந்தது. College முடிச்சு, ஒரு டீசென்டான IT வேலைல இருக்கற எல்லாரும் பேசற topics தான். அதுவும் நாம வேற இந்த UPSC ku ஒரு 1 வருடம் முக்கிருக்கோமா இந்த மாதிரி பொருளாதரம் , நிர்வாகம், Current Affairs போன்ற topics வந்தா ஒரு euphoria வரும்.

அதனால பொருளாதாரம் பற்றி கட்டுரைகள் எழுதலாம்னு இருக்கேன். இதுக்கு என்னோட UPSC text books and reference books வெச்சு தான் ஆரம்பிக்க போறேன். இந்த பொதுநலன் மாதிரி தெரியுற initiative la ஒரு சுயநலமும் இருக்கு , கடந்த சில வருடங்களா எந்த ஒரு முயற்சி எடுத்தாலும் அது முழுசா முடிக்க முடியல , அதனால இத ஒரு சவாலா எடுத்து பண்ணலாம்னு இருக்கேன்.

நீங்க கேக்கலாம் நீ என்ன பெரிய பொருளாதார வல்லுனரா, என்னத்த பெருசா எழுதி கிழிச்சுட போர அப்டினு , மிகச்சரியான கேள்வி.

நான் மேல சொன்ன மாதிரி இது எனக்கு நானே குடுத்த சவால் , அதுல தவறுகள் இருக்கலாம் , செய்திகள் விட்டு போலாம் , ஏன் இந்த முயற்சியே பாதில நின்றுபோலாம் . மொதல் ரெண்டு நடந்த கால போக்குல திருத்திக்கலாம் , ஆனா கடைசி விஷயம் நடக்க கூடாதுனு இப்போ உறுதியா இருக்கேன், பாப்போம் . 

இந்த தொடர்ல என்னலாம் இருக்கும்னு இதே postla சொல்லிட்டா சுவாரஸ்யம் எங்க இருக்கு?

(தமிழ் தவறுகள் ,கூட்டெழுத்துக்களில் பிழை இருந்தால் மன்னிக்கவும், தமிழ் எழுதி 9 வருடங்கள் ஆகிரது ).

BRICS -PROMISING PROGRESS

The BRICS (Brazil,Russia,India,China ,South Africa) refers to the group of 5 large countries that are developing and have the maximum potential to tap into their market and make fortunes.

Initially it was BRIC having the world’s fastest economies, but then in December 2010 China invited South Africa to join the group and from then on it was BRICS.

The BRICS nations are not bounded through a common currency or a common supervisory body like the EUROZONE but have been formed of the sole view to develop the individual Nation’s economy, to promote economic harmony among its member states, to become new superpowers of the Economy in near future.

In the wake of the Economic crises in the USA and EUROPE, and the failure of Eurozone to contain the Financial Instability, motivated the BRICS to form a Bank that tries to form a strong backbone and to avert such a crisis for its member nations. It also purported to be an alternative in lending to the West -dominated World Bank and IMF. Although such a statement will seem to be ambitious until the policies yield the expected results, it is common for any Economical Body that is set up new to follow the Standard, existing framework of such organizations.

The BRICS Bank plan was formally signed at the 6^th BRICS Summit held at Fortaleza, On July 15^th by the member states and was named as New Development Bank, with a whooping capital of US$50 Billion, with each country contributing $10Billion, and the capital would be increased over time. The focus of this bank is on lending to infrastructure projects, that will walk the economy forward. The Bank is headquartered at Shanghai.

Still the BRICS Nations have a lot of problems that may hamper their collective effort for a growing economy, some of them are:

1. BRICS nations are still haunted by unsustainable development and too much reliance on a single sector, for example China on Infrastructure
2.  Political uncertainty among the powerful Nation of the Group, namely China and Russia, which do not have an exactly democratically elected Government
3.  The extent of Participation of South Africa is highly uncertain because of it being a bit economically inferior to other countries
4.  The Disputes among members may prevent neutral operation of the Bank, notably Territorial Disputes between India and China

If BRICS nation could address these problems, by policy framework backed by a strong capital,no wonder The New Development Bank will be an alternative to IMF and World Bank

China has very recently proposed a rating agency which is again an alternative to the Western Dominated Agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's, will write about it in the next article

EUROZONE CRISIS AND ITS PROPOSED MITIGATION

The European financial system is a complex system that has come into existence in the last quarter of the 20^th Century. Let us look back with a bit of history.

The European financial system had its roots attributed to the Eurozone. A consortium of eleven member states of European Union with an aim to develop the Economy of the member states of European Union  who all lacked economic robustness and to ensure Fiscal Stability among the developed nations of the European Union. The countries which want to adopt Euro as its currency it has to fulfill the Euro convergence Criteria.

Apart from clearly laying a road towards a common currency the Eurozone (member state 19 in number who have adopted the Euro as their sole currency), Eurozone also laid plans for a strong financial stability by establishing European Central Bank (ECB) that administer monetary policies, look over exchange rates and take care of whole stability just like any National Bank of a country would do.

The problems intensified with the financial crisis of 2007-2008.Member states of EU especially Greece was worst hit in this crisis. To mitigate this crisis and to stop the worsening crisis in the Eurozone, Watchdog organizations like Economic and Financial Committee of European Union(EFC) and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) conducted a Financial Sector Assessment Program(FSAP) to assess the fiscal and financial Stability of the EU. This was conducted from 27^th November to 13^th December in the Year 2013.

The major countries that were completely affected by the Eurozone crisis are 

1.Greece

2.Ireland

3.Portugal

4.Spain

5.Cyprus

The following were few reasons put forward by the Committee for Financial Turbulence in the European Union:

1. Major crisis is attributed to the policies of the EU and EMU and its poor handling of the Contagion of Financial Crisis when it started spreading between multiple nations of the European Union

2. Too much reliance on traditional bank based finance that led to tight lending measures, which slowed down the economic growth in the region

3. The absence of a clear framework for the central financial institution across borders, resulting in different nations adopting different frameworks.

4.Structural gaps in capital,labor and product markets are cause for concern as they continue to present obstacles to financing investments

The Mission also outlined important decisions to mitigate this crisis, of which the following are notable:

1. Raising private capital for Banks and strengthening them. Setting up of a Banking Union for the Eurozone, that will have a supranational outlook

2. Setting up of Single Supervisory Mechanism that will administer supervision in the Eurozone pertaining to different requirements of different economies in the region

3.Deployment of resources from non-tradable to tradable sectors,to improve capital and then creating jobs to improve labor structural gaps

Such a supranational framework and clear outlaying and demarcating of powers of SSM and BU from Eurozone powers will definitely lead to large improvement and ensure fiscal and financial stability across the regions, as noted by the mission

END OF PSEUDO DEMOCRACY

The title may bring to one's mind several instances of the end of pseudo democracy in the world,but this article restricts itself to the context of  ending of such a pseudo democracy in one of the most conflicting countries of South East Asia,SRILANKA.I try to give a brief article on the reasons for the defeat of Mahind Rajapaksa who was so sure of his victory that he called in an election 2 years before its scheduled happening!!!

I quote from the Guardian on the day of the result
"If seven weeks anyone had said Mahinda Rajapaksa would be conceding defeat and vacating presidential office in quite such an apparently docile fashion it would have seemed a very brave prediction indeed. No one expected a challenge, let alone a defeat."

This was the true state of politics of the island nation up until last week. Though people have been wanting to change the authoritarian rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa, they did not.In my view it is partly  because  Rajapaksa finally ended several decades old ethnic conflict,by killing Prabhakaran,the long feared Tiger supremo,this gave the sinhalese people a thought of saviour about Mahinda Rajapaksa.Though this thought gradually diminished due to his ruling and him modifying the Srilankan constitution to give uncontrolled executive powers to him,and deprived of the Judiciary its Independency. The Acts of the Rajapaksa Government enacted in this regard at the Parliament were passed keeping one thing in mind,To allow Rajapaksa or the President to have unduly powers not guaranteed by the present Constitution.The popular result of several amendments of the constitution was the removal on the limit of presidential terms of the President.A striking similarity is observed with the United States is the limit on the Presidential terms is still there in United States because,the legislators perfectly know that they will lose popularity with the people so openly with such a rule and will explicitly show their thirst for power,which normally never goes well in a country with a certain mood of Democracy.These amendments has resulted in calling Rajapaksa regime as authoritarian, a word that is apt and has reversed the entire system of democracy in Srilanka paving way for a monarch or autocratic Government in this 21st Century,wherein the masses have been duly educated about the merits of Democracy and when the rights of Citizens were fought much in every spectrum of the country,this authoritarian Editing of a subject that too the Constitution Of A country has proved to be gravely unpopular 

One other reason people struck with Rajapaksa was that  they were not given a convincing choice about who could lead the nation if not for Rajapaksa. This feeling too was partly fueled by the winning of the Ethnic War by Rajapaksa  and partly because of the crippling policies of Rajapaksa even from the beginning which slowly wiped out an effective opposition to his rule.Rajapaksa was calculative even from the beginning of his rule not to go easy on free media and a free opposition.

The winning of the ethnic war and his projection about it has garnered Far-Right nationalist support to Rajapaksa even which he slowly lost due to Authoritarian laws in the Constitution that threatened the Basic rights of the people in a long term,

The growing discontent among the ethnic tamil population and Rajapaksa's partial implementation of the provisions of the Government as guaranteed in the Constitution of srilanka have resulted in no support from the ethnic tamil groups,the appointing of the Governor of Northern Provincial Council and again giving him unduly powers openly has undermined the tamil support to the Central Government as has been the case for the previous Central Governments of Sri Lanka,who have systematically denied the rights for tamils for the fear of being ousted though such fearsome rights were never demanded by any of the people who led the Tamil Diaspora starting from S.J.V.Chelvanayakam to Velupillai Prabhakaran,this discontent and the absence of support from the tamil people was expected but Rajapaksa could have mobilized a support for the tamil people after the ethnic conflict was finally over by properly designing rehabilitation camps and displacement camps and then properly giving rights and placing them in proper place would have ensured the support of tamils at least at the end.The Governor appointee of the Northern province was also not due to the popular opinion of the people of the Northern Provincial Council but due to the whims and fancies of the President has ensured that a puppet Governor with Unduly powers than an elected Chief minister.Though this move may seem to appease the nationalist population,the percentage of such a population has constantly dwindled over the years and now people want to live peacefully,so they also want to give the liberal rights demanded by the tamil people so that further ehtnic conflict may be avoided.On the whole like previous Presidents of Sri Lanka,Rajapaksa was a huge failure in garnering the support of tamils,even after the clear mandate given by the people Rajapaksa failed to devolve the powers to the Northern Provincial Council properly and this led to his added unpopularity with the Tamil people who constitute 11% of the population

Lastly to say Rajapaksa did one of the grave mistakes,he has taken the route of dynastic politics wherein one family controls the monopoly of several spheres of economy so that the laws and legislations can be enacted to ensure the profitability of their chosen sphere,even when such a legislation is crippling to that field.The Defence seceretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa,Brother of the President took most decisions that benefited him in the Defence matters which is a grave threat to national security.Directly or indirectly his family controlled of over 70% of the national economy which is definitely a huge percentage in a participative democracy wherein equal representation of every body is required and the able minded administrators administer the legislations to that region where they are given their powers.The family members effectively eliminated competition in their respective fields denying others a chance even when they were better equipped than the Rajapaksas.This also led to the downside of his victory

In a way and Rajapaksa and his brother even after being accused of war crimes continue to deny the allegation and also continue to deny a neutral free and fair  investigation by a statutory body like the U.N.The relief works are also carried out by a very minimal people from International Statutory bodies like red cross on a promise that the Government itself will give the best care to people affected of the War,but which the Government never does.This also raised the eyebrows of international strategic analysts as a move that will definitely have an impact on the vote bank specially that of Tamil diaspora due to the varied Diaspora of tamils from sri lanka being settled in other nations.

Finally to conclude this article Rajapaksa fought lost a cause even after fighting and winning it but he did not learn to mobilize the surging support he got by winning the war,to end this I finally quote again from The Guardian

"A prolonged period of political chaos would open the way for a Rajapaksa comeback in the mid, if not the short, term."

Looking for DSLR??Here's something Better

LYTRO

This word has made buzz with the tech guys quite some time back.Most Guys know it like its a different camera (or) a light field camera that costs a bit more than a medium DSLR(Priced at 41000 in INR).So what's this light field technology(or) a plenoptic camera???This article tries to explore a bit of all this from a common man's point of view

The Normal DSLR camera:

Basically a DSLR(Digital Single-Lens Reflex) Camera consists of an interchangeable lens (or) a lens mount that supports a variety of types of lenses.A pentaprism technology that precisely takes up an image through a 5 sided prism.The transmitting faces of the prism i.e the faces through which the image enters and leaves are coated with a non reflective coating while the reflecting faces are like mirrors and transmits the image without any change in its orientation(technically it does not tamper with the chirality of the image).A simple variation of this pentaprism called as roof pentaprism that utilises a rooflike structure or two prism sides inclined such that angle between them is 90 degrees.and when the light is reflected at such a joint the handedness changes and hence convenient for us to view through the eyepiece of a digital camera.This roof prism technology is used in almost most of the DSLRs.This pentaprism(or sometimes a pentamirror is used) is the main element.It also consists of a mirror that is slotted at an angle of 45 degrees when taking a picture so that the image is exactly reflected through a matte focusing screen, the function of a matte screen is to merge a foreground image into a background and it is photo friendly.Its exactly the photo printing paper kind of thing.Light then passes through a condenser lens and a pentaprism described above.and the transmitted image is seen through the viewer of the camera.The image processing is done by a focal plane shutter and an image sensor at the back of the mirror.When picture has to be taken after focusing the mirror moves completely upwards allowing the entire light and image to fall on a focal-plane shutter that controls the amount of light entering(the entire process is called exposure) and then the image falls on a photo sensor,that  converts all the light signals to electrical signals and is saved in a memory card or any other electrical storage medium.
So to sum up a traditional DSLR cam goes on to focus an object  as it is with the required quality which changes according to price range,the focused object however cannot be altered to focus a different object on the scene.

The LYTRO Camera

The first handheld consumer camera of the plenoptic camera type.A technology envisioned  in 1908 by Gabriel Lipman has been made true in the form of a common man's camera by Ren.Ng's dissertation  at Stanford University.
The difference in the technology would be the DSLR as explained above captures the individual light rays from the focused object and does not capture the parallel rays from a far away object on the same scene hence refocusing after taking the image is not possible,or atleast if refocused digitally on a computer screen which is popularly known as zooming will result in considerable loss of quality.The light field technology in particular the thesis of Ren Ng tries to address this problem of  refocusing and gets success in it by exploiting the light field technology.
To be technical from a lay man's view we can say that a conventional camera records the sum of all light rays that strikes the image plane of the camera or the image sensor part as described above ,Whereas the new Digital light field photographic technology(as referred in RenNg's Dissertation) tries to capture the light field inside the camera which is essentially recording both the light ray and its direction.So let us see how does LYTRO do it

The Marvel named Microlens

The major part of LYTRO camera,that consists of many small lens which are usually size of mm and ranges to as small as micrometer.In LYTRO an array of microlens are  used to capture the  light field inside the camera.Theses lens cover the photosensor, essentially are placed before the photosensor. Each microlens covers a small area of photosensor array pixels that is, it essentially covers the array of photosensors and separates the light and microlens array and allows small amount of incident lighting proportional to size of the microlens onto the photosensor.

The Microlens array is basically used so that it has a better directional resolution of light rays which is totally absent in DSLRs.
Thus the powerhouse of a LYTRO camera is its microlens array and a powerful photosensor that captures the light from the microlens and reproduces it as it is.This arrangement is named as light field engine.
To simply put in the LYTRO is actually a camera that records not just the amount of light from a picture but the entire light field,the difference being a DSLR  just records intensity but the LYTRO goes a step ahead and captures the directional orientation which potrays the spatial orientation of the entire image in a new perspective

LYTRO ILLUM

The major reason for writing this article is this new buzz created by the next version of the LYTRO camera named LYTRO ILLUM.Basically it has a bigger sensor than LYTRO of magnitude 40 mega ray,i.e it captures 40 megarays of light at a time,we will update on this on a later blog post.It basically resembles a Modern DSLR camera which is advantageous.

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