Abhijit Athavale's Blog

No, I am not in North Africa or Arabia, but in historic Pune, the seat of Maratha Power. The Kasaba in Pune predates its eminence maybe by a thousand years, perhaps less. The Arabic and Turkish meanings differ somewhat, but not by too much -  A  kasbah  ( / ˈ k æ z b ɑː / ,  also   US :  / ˈ k ɑː z -/ ;  Arabic :  قَـصَـبَـة ,  romanized :  qaṣaba ,  lit.   'fortress',  Arabic pronunciation:  [qasˤaba] ,  Maghrebi Arabic :  [qasˤba] ), also spelled  qasba ,  qasaba , or  casbah , is a  fortress , most commonly the  citadel  or fortified quarter of a city. [1] [2] [3] [4]  It is also equivalent to the term  alcazaba  in  Spanish  ( Spanish:  [alkaˈθaβa] ), which derives from the same Arabic word. [5] [6]  By extension, the term can also refer to a  medina quarter , particularly in  Algeria . In various languages, the Arabic word, or local w...

Now that the Union Government has announced that it will not continue JNNURM in the same format, I am taking this opportunity to put forth my views on what our cities need. Please feel free to comment, agree or disagree. My feeling is that the JNNURM funds were clearly wasted on useless projects such as the BRTS, when they could have been better utilized improving basic infrastructure. This experience is of course Pune centric and other people may have different thoughts on the subject. With the likelihood of GST becoming a reality in the next couple of years, the GoI could really have a huge say in how the transport infrastructure within cities evolves and matures. Note: I am not commenting on traffic offenses and the need for enforcing traffic rules as that's another blog and I hope the new Motor Act legislation will effectively deal with it. Pay cash to the local body only if they agree to the following: Public Transport Privatize all public transport concerns i...

This is a repost from my wordpress blog. I am planning to shut that down. On Saturday January 9th, 2010, IIT Bombay Alumni Association's Pune chapter organized its annual Innovations conference. It was held at the Devang Mehta auditorium in Persistent Systems campus, and needless to say it was extremely well organized; starting with the registration, every detail was covered and numerous networking opportunities were provided. The event was kickstarted with a keynote by Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks , which is a Bangalore based optical networking startup. Tejas, which has been around for the last 5 years or so, is profitable and has revenues close to $150m. That is quite an impressive feat from an Indian high-tech startup, selling products from India worldwide. It is also a shining example to the naysayers who keep on saying that Indian product companies cannot sell products in the US. I hope that more people follow Tejas' lead and venture into the space....