Hail India..
Celebrate India's 56th Independence day with words from Arun Shourie!

Am eagerly waiting the second part of the article..

:-)

Two Eggs..
So I was given two eggs when I visited this 100 floor building.. And the one who hand-delivered the eggs to me had time to explain to me that both the eggs were identical.. And they will break when dropped from a particular floor in the building and all the floors above.. When dropped from any floor below that particular floor, the eggs wont break when dropped..

My job was to find out from what floor will the eggs start breaking.. And I had to do that in a minimum number of attempts.. By 'attempt' I mean a drop of one egg..

I was given the freedom to break both eggs in the process.. Provided I give him the answer.. In the minimum number of steps..

I seem to have a method.. But want to check out if someone has a better one..

Coke, Pepsi and Pesticides..
Here is a report that talks about a survey conducted recently on the pesticide content in popular drinks sold in India. Most popular drinks have tested with content levels far higher than what is considered "safe" in western countries. The side effects listed does make it look scary.

Interestingly, Times of India reports that the reason for this could just be that the water used by these industries are not regulated by any clear norms by the Indian Government. The bottled water industry supposedly has stricter regulatory requirements as compared to these soft drinks.

Important to note that the levels of toxic pesticides in these same soft drinks sold in USA and Europe are well within the safety limits. Now does this mean that Coke and Pepsi have standards tests in these countries(as part of their production process?) to check for pesticide levels but dont have them in India - just because the govt. does not have a regulation and these tests might mean extra cost to the company?

This point leads me to this article wherein Swaminathan points out to a retailer(Carrefour) who has successfully adopted western standards in Indonesia and which inturn has helped improving the overall standard of food produce sold in that country. But the scenario we have now with Coke and Pepsi in India probably just shows that MNCs don't always do that. They are ready to bend their standards according to the regulatory rules in the country they operate if that makes business sense!

0 + 1 = 0..
Okay, so what is the problem with the comment counts at my blog (and a few others).

Can someone throw light?