The economics of the MGNREGS

Ten years after it was launched, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which promises 100 days of employment to every rural household, is back in the news. More people in rural India are seeking employment through the programme across the country, with job numbers scaling a five-year peak

Although the MGNREGS seems to be reaching many more rural households than before, urban opinion on the programme is sharply divided, both in the mainstream and social media. Even the Narendra Modi government seems divided on the programme, with the ministry of rural development declaring that the 10th anniversary of the programme was a matter of "National Pride" barely a year after Modi had derided the programme as a ditch-digging exercise on the floor of Parliament.

Academic opinion on the MGNREGS, however, appears far more favourable than is evident from the public discourse on the issue. A growing body of research on the MGNREGS suggests that it has helped dent poverty, reduced distress migration and raised the bargaining power of rural labourers, especially among lower castes and women, the biggest beneficiaries of the programme.

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The impact of disruptive technology: A conversation with Eric Schmidt

From computational biology to 3-D printing, Google’s executive chairman provides a look into the future of technologies that will change business models and lives.

In this video, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt explores the phenomenon of technological disruption and selects those technologies likely to have the greatest impact on economies, business models, and people. This interview was conducted by James Manyika, a director in McKinsey’s San Francisco office, in February 2013. What follows is an edited transcript of Eric Schmidt’s remarks.

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Interesting articles to read -- 04-10-2012

Interesting articles to read -- 04-10-2012

Bangalore should not be the next Silicon Valley: SAP Labs India MD Read

Entrepreneurship Lessons I Learnt from Scientists Read

Beauty lies in the ‘domain’ of the highest bidder: Icann, the global authority dealing with domain names, is hastening the threat of monopolisation on the internet through its new scheme to sell generic words. Read

How you can invest in Google, Apple and Exxon Read

Dr. Subbarao’s haircuts. The economics of haircutting is the last frontier of economics. Read

No quotas for higher studies, please. By P.V.Indiresan, Former Director of IITM. Read

Dr Vijay Mallya Speech @ IIT Bombay
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Cloud Storage Economics for Dummies

Determine the real cost of storage infrastructure by understanding that the cost of acquiring assets is just a small percentage of their total cost to own. Data storage economics focuses on measuring the total cost of ownership to align information technology investments with corporate goals.

Download this free eBook from Hitachi Data Systems and understand why price doesn't alway equal cost and become an economic hero in your own organization.

As 60th Anniversary Nears, Tape Reinvents Itself

The 60th anniversary of IBM's digital tape is coming up in May. Oh yeah, and tape is dead. Or so industry pundits have declared, echoing similar prognostications for the mainframe.

But in reality, tape has a long life ahead of it. At 60, in many ways, it's just getting started.

That's because, unlike the mainframe, tape's role in the enterprise is dramatically changing. Only a few years ago, with the emergence of cheap, high-capacity disk drives, many pundits thought tape would be relegated to the dusty storerooms of long-term data archive. Gone were the days when tape was used for primary backup and recovery or streaming media.

But, with the performance of next-generation tape drives hitting 525MB/sec. -- and at a price of around $25 per terabyte of capacity -- tape is too fast and too cheap to write off. New open file formats are also making it possible to use tape in new markets.

IBM's first magnetic tape device for digital storage, the 7-track tape, was introduced in 1952. The IBM 726 tape was about the size of a pizza and held 2.3MB of data with a transfer rate of about 7.5KB/sec. That's about enough to store a minute and a half of a song on your smartphone.

IBM arrived in the tape market a year after the first magnetic tape was introduced. It was used to store data from the Eckert-Mauchly UNIVAC I, the enormous piece of equipment that was the first commercial computer in the U.S. That tape reel held just 224KB of data.

IBM's 726 tape unit was released in 1952. Each tape held 2.3MB of data.

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CLOUDONOMICS: The Economics of Cloud Computing

There are many reasons for organizations to move from traditional IT infrastructure to Cloud Computing. One of the most cited benefits is the economics of the Cloud. Yet while many people point out the cost savings that Cloud Computing brings to an organization, we believe attention should be drawn to four distinct mechanisms through which these cost savings are generated; By lowering the opportunity cost of running technology; By allowing for a shift from capital expenditure to operating expenditure; By lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO) of technology & By giving organizations the ability to add business value by renewed focus on core activities This paper details these four mechanisms and introduces several case studies and examples to show the increased economic value that Cloud Computing brings to an organization.