Publishing news while it is still in making

Arun Leave a comment

I just noticed that ibnlive.com is mentioning about New York’s New Year celebrations in “past tense” … as if already happened.

It is still 2:30 pm EST here which means it is still a good 10 hours to new years.

So, perhaps ibnlive guyz are feeling too lazy to post this news as an upcoming event for now and then update later in the night actually describing the event.

At New York’s Times Square, the New Year’s Eve Ball celebrated its centennial with more than a million revelers witnessing the lowering of the ball, which went ‘green’ this time. The motif this year was ‘Let there be light’ and featured a stylised, radiating sunburst on each of the 672 crystal triangles on the ball, creating a kaleidoscope of hues.

what the heck …. this just made me realise that somebody out there prepares headlines while the news is still in making.

It just felt a bit spooky, something like the villain in James Bond Movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” used to do (remember the quote “There’s no news like bad news.”)

Free Trade Agreement (India and US and rest of the world ….)

Arun 2 Comments

I just completed reading the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. He has talked about lot many things in the book!!! I think some of those things are not even related to globalisation but the way he looks at it – it seems everything is globalisation.

Anyways, I will review the book in some other post maybe but one of the things or “flattening factors” as Mr. Friedman has emphasized on is – importance of free market or FTAs.

FTAs can be loosely defined as “agreement where a designated group of countries have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas and preferences on most (if not all) goods between them” – as quoted from wiki.

I remember reading about FTAs back in school and college days, but then I found this topic utterly boring .. to the extent that I used to sleep even before our teacher / professor could complete the definition.

But now – since I myself am being “globalised” – I suddenly find myself interested. I started to wonder with questoins like “what all countries have signed such FTAs” “How many FTAs India have signed till now” “How many FTAs USA have signed till now” “Is their are any further negotiations going on for FTA.” etc etc

As my quest for knowledge, I turn to wiki and found following links useful :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Free_Trade_Agreements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

Then I thought further – Is there any possibility of FTA between India and USA? At this point of time it seems very logical to have one .. isnt it? I dont know. I have a feeling that an FTA between India USA will not be liked on both sides of country. Some people will simply hate to have one. On other hands, maybe it will be welcomed by many people – I think I belong to them. I think an FTA between India and USA will benefit both India and USA – as Mr. Friedman also mentioned repeatedly in his book.

Hmm anyways, I was still wondering if somebody on either side of world have already thought about the idea? If any round of negotiation is already going on …. you can call me utterly ignorant but It seems yes, it seems right now they are focussing on FTA for at least IT services sector.

Hmmm … that seems the logical thing to do. In fact I went – wow!!! That would certainly change lot of things. To start with – that should mean easy employment for Indian IT professionals with american companies back at home or even in terms of visa norms. Ha !! No more H1B visas !!!

Anyways …. I will certainly keep watching all FTAs now. As I know many things are going to change in next 50 years – as far as globalisation is concerned – and I know FTAs have a big role to play in that.