Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Press * and 9 to copy the song


Press * and 9 to copy the song. Charges 15 rupees per hello tune, and monthly rent 30 rupees.

This is what I hear most of the time, whenever I call any Airtel number which has caller tune set. The lady tells this very slowly, so that you don't miss anything that she says. After all that, if the person is busy and could not pick up the call, then I will listen to the caller tune that they have.

I feel this is so ridiculous. We pay Rs.30 per month, so that all the callers can listen to the song we set. But, these cell phone providers give this message most of the time, which is defeating the purpose of the caller tune in the first place.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Does the leader have to take Responsibility for Everything?


Many decades back, when there was a train accident, then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Sastry resigned. Many people praise him for that. At the same time, there are many people, who says that, if there is a train accident at one remote place, how is the minister responsible for that?

Of course, there are enough arguments on both sides. I believe, if the no.of incidents is not negligible, then the leader must take the responsibility.

Just to take an example of Railways only, there are more no.of railway accidents recently. Previously for the maintenance of the compartments, Railways used to take one week per month. Now, they reduced to half week per month with the same resources. That is one reason, why the no.of accidents increased recently. If Her Excellency Mamatha Benarjee suspends few officials, that will not solve the problem. Let's suppose, if she increases no.of trains by reducing the maintenance time, it would be her fault only. She will have to make sure that, either they would get enough time to maintain the engines and compartments, or she has to provide enough resources, so that, they can do the full maintenance in less time. If she does not provide time or resources, and at the time of any accident, if she suspends few officials, that will not solve the problem. On an average, if there is one train accident per month, she cannot say that, it is due to somebody else. She has to take the responsibility of the accidents, and take appropriate action.

The same thing can be observed in any industry. In software industry, generally, the top manager decides the technology and high level design. Sometimes, the developers do not get any say in deciding those. If the manager chooses wrong technology/design, then the entire project will fail, and most of the time, I see managers saying that, the developers are incompetent and it failed. But, only the manager should be responsible for the failure and not anyone who does not have power.

If somebody has power, then they must take all the responsibility for that.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Good Change in Medical Insurance


The health insurance companies decided to stop cashless transactions in the high end hospitals (like Apollo, Fortis, Ganga Ram, Max or Medicity) in Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. If we see the statistics, 11% of the hospitals are consuming more than 80% of the claims. More than 50% of the claims are from the top four metro cities. [Source: Times of India]

This is one very good step taken by health insurance companies. If you go to any big hospital, and get treatment done with insurance which provides cashless transaction, then the bill would be atleast double to the actual cost that you would have incurred, if you had paid from your pocket. In almost all the big hospitals, if they see anyone with health insurance, they just get unnecessary tests and treatments, and say that, since you have insurance, you don't need to worry. Most of the time, they double the treatment cost. If a hospital unnecessarily charging more money from the insurance company, then insurance company will increase it's premium, which in turn effect the consumer. If the premium is more, then those who do not use health insurance significantly, will drop out. And, there will be further increase in the premium amount, and if it continues, finally there may not be any benefit of having insurance.

If the treatment costs a lot, and if insurance company takes a lot of time to process the amount, then typically, consumers would prefer to go for cashless transaction. If the insurance companies process the claims quickly, then it would help both the company as well as the consumers.

Generally, I don't prefer to tell anyone that, I have health insurance. I know that, the moment I say that, they charge like anything. I would prefer to pay for the treatment, and later on reimburse it. Still, I had to tell this at almost all homeopathy hospitals. Since, no homeopathy doctor tells the medicine names that they are going to give, and no insurance company is going to process the claim without knowing the medicines they used. So, I had to tell them to get the information on the medicines they used.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Nana Chudasama on Emergency during Emergency


22 September, 1975

1975 Was women's year
But all years are hers


14 March 1976

New pack of cards
One Queen
Few Jacks
Rest Blank


21 March 1977

When
Mrs 'I' Became
All 'I'
People said Good-Bye

Source: Nana Chudasama Mumbai’s Original Tweeter