A Blog for Senior Citizens by a senior citizen. Most posts are written by me and others are relevant news items. Emphasis on India. As posts could be made in quick succession, please see the Index (Archive) to see earlier ones. If you comment I won't lament.
Here is some exciting news for Gmail customers. We are becoming luckier day by day. Now you can compose email messages in Indian Languages.
The number of Gmail users in India is so large that Google India Office has been working on improvements to Gmail that are highly specific to Indian users. Gmail has now introduced Indian language composing right inside Gmail. In the compose window you will find an additional icon on the left extreme to use this feature. Simple choose the language among: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam. To use this feature, simply start typing in English. A few simple self-evident rules need to be observed: aa, ee, ii for long vowels, capital characters for 'hard' variants. As a word is typed in, the word appears in Indian script chosen by you. After completing a word several variants appear helping you to correct it if need be. Mixing of English and other languages in the same message is possible.
This is a great feature I have been waiting for with interest. The feature is enabled by default for all Indian users and others can get it by settings in Labs. Corporate users have to wait for a little longer. We need to remember that this is still under testing (Labs) and may land us into trouble occasionally.
Dr P Vyasamoorthy, 30 Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015 Ph 27846631 / 9490804278
A large number of countries are talking about eliminating terrorism.Various solutions have been tried: banning political outfits, imposing economic sanctions, arm twisting through fair and unfair means, 'pressure' from the UN, mobilizing international opinion etc. But none of these have helped. I have another somewhat crazy idea – even this may not be practical but will certainly work if the rest world other than terrorists themselves unite and co-operate fully.
It works like this. Terrorists thrive on publicity. They need recognition and sympathy for their cause. They are blind, agitated, frustrated and are the worst misguided lot. Don't give them the publicity they crave for. Shut out all news about terrorists' activities. Even if a thousand innocent persons are killed in a mad terrorists attack, just put a blanket ban on any kind of news being published. Not a word should be uttered in any media, Radio, news paper, or on the Internet. There will be lot of rumors. Quench it with an iron hand by punishing rumor mongers.
If the world is sincere in eliminating terrorism just follow one golden rule: Don't give a damn for the temporary loss of a few thousand innocent persons. After all in any major natural calamity like Tsunami even lakhs of people die. The terrorists will die pulling each other's tongues. And don't talk about this either. Wait for six months. At the end of a year no single terrorist would remain.All of them would have died because no one cares or shows he cares or is scared. How long can the terrorists madly hold on when they are simply totally ignored? They will yield andcommit suicide.
When a terrorist attack occurs attend to it by all means. Rescue those who you can. Kill the attackers mercilessly. Provide all medical care to victims. Carry on with surveillance and sharing such info. BUT when an attack occurs never, never give out any news about loss to human beings buildings etc. Just carry on as if nothing ever happened. Punish all media immediately and severely who misbehave and leak out any false or real news.
This is easy to control in the country by that country. Put a clamp on dissemination on any kind of news about any terrorist attack. The world will be a peaceful place in less than a year.
Gmail offers a new feature in Labs. You can view YouTube, Picasa, Flickr or Yelp links right inside Gmail. You don't have to do a cut and paste of the link that you get in your message. Gmail understands and allows you to view the video in the message itself. No need to open the link in another window or as a new tab. This is a great facility saving time.
In the case of Picasa the photos or pictures themselves are shown.Only thing that we can not use immediately in India is the YELP Reviews. Yelp provides ratings of US restaurants based on user reviews. When you are discussing setting up a meeting in a restaurant, YELP review is picked up from the URL you send and it is available (Address Phone Ratings etc) in the message itself.
Gmail has already integrated several things like Events or Documents earlier. When a message speaks about a forthcoming event, there is a provision to create an event in the calendar quickly and automatically. Minor editing may be needed. Similarly entire message content can be quickly converted into a Google Document by the click of a key. You may see appropriate links on the right side column. I have noticed that when a message contains many events Gmail fails to sense it as an Event.
With all these improvements introduced day by day most users will be so much addicted to Gmail that they may give up other email systems slowly.
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Dr P Vyasamoorthy, 30 Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015 Ph 27846631 / 9490804278
BSNL is still the largest Telephone service provider in India. Being a public sector company it has certain additional responsibilities such as reaching out to rural masses, cover every nook and corner of India, exhibit a greater sense of Corporate Social responsibility etc. Faced with stiff competition BSNL has been losing customers to competitors. To win them back a number measurers have been taken up. Some of these include frequent downward tariff revisions, combined offers of mobile and landline, schemes suiting to various sections of the society such as students, government servants etc. Let us see now what BSNL can offer to senior citizens. You may think of this as an Open Letter to policy makers at BSNL.
BSNL may offer special concessions or discounts to senior citizens. After all they form nearly 8.5% of the total population. This may be given to seniors living alone as identified by Voters Lists or Government ID Cards. A certain number of calls may be free or at reduced rates. As senior citizens are lonely they would like to engage themselves in talking to others over phone or mobile. Greater the discount more will be the utilization.
Senior Citizens do not like to be disturbed by unsolicited commercial callers, advertisers, tele-marketers etc. Such calls are very annoying especially in the afternoon hours while they take a nap. The Do Not Call registry, though available in principle, does not work. Many do not know how to register in Do NOT CALL Registry. Moreover the registry presently works on the principle of excluding those who register from the attack of commercial callers. It should be the other way round. Only those who have given explicit permission to be disturbed by tele-marketers can be called. If this can not be done then senior citizens may be helped through a help line on using the registry.
BSNL may tie up with local NGOs. NGOs may collect used mobile phones available as donations or throw away. BSNL may help senior citizens to get used mobile phones for free or at cheaper prices and provide some kind of minimal training in the use of cell phones to elders. Mobile tariff to senior citizens may be given at a discount. Many older persons, though having cell phones, can not send simple text messages. How cell phones can help them in emergencies, in tracking patients with dementia etc may be explained.
If large companies like BSNL can not take up such socially pro-active tasks, who will?
Dr P Vyasamoorthy, 30 Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015 Ph 27846631 / 9490804278
[BSNL offered last year a free accident insurance facility to each and every subscriber to the tune of Rs 50000/- Looking at the way it was implemented, one doubts whether the whole scheme is just a gimmick]
Last year BSNL announced Accident Insurance free of cost to all its subscribers. The scheme included all of 3.37 Crore BSNL subscribers of all categories – Landline, Mobile or WLL. The sum assured per subscriber was Rs 50000/-. It was an accident cum death due to accident scheme. Permanent total disability is defined as: loss of both eyes or loss of both limbs or hands or a hand and a limb. Natural or suicidal death was not covered. Only individuals were covered as against corporate subscribers. In case of subscribers having more than one phone line each subscription was eligible for Rs 50000 with a cap of Rs 2 Lakhs.
The eligibility was automatic. No application or medical examination was required. Bajaj Alliance (75%) and Oriental Insurance (25%) were the insurers. All claims need to be made to the former at their Pune Office with applicable attachments. Complete details are available in BSNL website. The scheme was experimental one lasting just for a year effective till 13th January 2009.
With competition growing hot BSNL was losing out Landline subscribers. To arrest the attrition rate and to boost the corporate image especially prior to IPO (which, incidentally did not materialize)BSNL initiated a series of actions to boost the sagging brand image. Some of the actions taken included: Frequent downward revision of tariff rates; Offer of innovative combo schemes for Landline and Broadband; incentives aimed at different sections like students and government employees etc. They also threw in another gimmick: This free accident insurance scheme.
Why I call that a gimmick is that there no real commitment seen to benefit subscribers through this unique scheme. First of all, though the scheme was effective since middle of January 2008 details were made available after a lapse of six months. There was no aggressive publicity to popularize the scheme. Enquiries were attended to with lukewarm interest. The GM of BSNL Goa publicly admitted (lamented) that there were no takers (meaning no claims) as of November 2008. Others were simply silent.
When a substantial sum of money is spent as premium to insurance companies by way of such group insurance schemes and BSNL is lethargic about its implementation one tends to suspect that the whole thing is just a gimmick. There may be some tacit understanding between BSNL and Bajaj Allianz in fooling the public. They are hand in glove I feel. If this is not the case can BSNL publish data regarding premium paid, claims made and amounts disbursed by the insurer?
In Hyderabad alone about three persons die in traffic accidents every day. And a large number suffer serious injuries. On an all India basis about 2% of all deaths are due to traffic accidents. Many of them must be having BSNL lines either Land line or Mobile. If you consider other types of accidents the number of victims must be more. What percentage of these accident victims were aware of or ever claimed compensation from BSNL is a mystery.
One way to tackle such half baked schemes is to encourage "ambulance chaser" lawyers as in the west. Lawyers abroad take up cases of accident victims on their own to get compensation from insurance companies. They do not ask the victim to pay any fee. Fees are collected when Insurance claim materializes. We need such aggressive guys who do follow up in genuine cases. This will expose gimmicks played by public sector firms in collusion with private insurers.
