The Maverick Chronicles

As reported in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, ( Read the article here ) the US employers in a short span of time are set to reach the annual limit for applications for the highly coveted skilled worker visas. This is a clear sign of the rebounding US economy. This also augurs well for the overall job market in the US as this will have a domino effect on the other related sectors which will further help in job creation in those sectors also, hopefully. As per WSJ, this is the first time since the 2008 crisis, that the limit has been reached by the US companies in less than a week. USCIS, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the nodal agencywhich runs the program announced that based on feedback, it may receive more petitions than can be accepted as per the H-1B cap between April 1, 2013 and April 5, 2013. If more petitions are recevied than can be accepted, a lottery will be conducted and those applications not selected will be returned. On April 1st of ev

Since it was founded in December 2002 and launched officially on 5th May 2003,  LinkedIn has taken the professional networking world by storm. Though it may not have clocked stupendous membership numbers like its other famous social media network i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn has become the be all end all tool for working professionals to network on and be seen on it. I wont be exaggerating if I say that it is embarassing for a working professional not to have a LinkedIn profile nowadays. I for one, do make it a point to search for a potential employee's/clients' LI profile first before meeting him/her in the real life (yes, it still does exist in this age of social media).   As of January 2013, LI has reported 200 million members in 200 countries and terrritories and growing at a phenomenal rate. LI actually helps people to expand their professional networks, canvass for real jobs, form their own relevant alumni meetings/groups, company networks, etc. LI has actually turned

Well, i am back to penning or rather blogging my thoughts after a long time. The primary reason I was away from blogging was because I was trying to understand and convince myself about the relevance of this social web avatar (blogging). Well, since the last 2 yrs, the smartphones have taken along with the rest of the world, India also by storm. Most of the applications that you use are available on the respective eco-systems out there. Research also shows that blogging is on the wane due to the emergence of the era of the smartphones. But, after seeing my old blog after almost 2 years, I would definitely like to come back to this form of social web. This has so much to express compared to say Twitter where you are limited by the characters. Also FB is a for lack of a better word juvenile..So, heres to new beginnings and blogging...

With the Government freeing petrol from the price controls mechanism, the oil companies have gone wild pricing the petrol as per their whims. I understand with the public sector companies pricing it as per the international prices prevalent in the world, the prices would increase. But when the global crude prices fall, I have never seen the petrol prices ever been reduced save one instance some years back when the NDA was in government. This year has seen petrol prices being hiked at least 7 times in the year while ATF prices have been slashed twice. If this doesn't take the p*&^ out of petolheads then what will, evidently is the fact that every time the Oil PSUs complain of huge losses, the government promptly raises the prices. I have never seen petrol prices been reduced because of the decrease in global crude prices. The latest comment from Montek S Ahluwalia is a gem: "If you are importing energy, you should in fact align energy prices with world prices...there

I was just watching an episode of 'The Big Fight' on NDTV 24*7 on Sunday morning which featured Sanjay Nirupam (ex Shiv Sena now Congress), Akhilesh Dubey (Legal VP,MNS,dats a mockery),a SP MLA and some academic of South Indian origin and DMK MP Ms. Kanimozhi joining via VC. The debate was on the entire incident after Abu Asim Azmi was slapped after taking his oath in Hindi. In the entire debate, the one thing that struck was that the North India politicians from SP & Congress were vehement on Hindi being spoken & accepted as the National language. Just because Hindi is the language of choice of the 2 major BIMARU states in India and just because 40 crore Indians speak that language it doesn't entitle it to become the National language. Though, I dont support Raj Thackeray, I am firm in the belief that the influx of the North Indian migrants into Mumbai is bleeding the city I love, and its imperative for us to protect the Marathi language.If people can come in Mumb

Though I am not a huge fan of the Shiv Sena supremo, I firmly stand behind him when he says Sachin should concentrate on cricket and not politics. Though, I am all for a globalised world and free movement of labour and the opening of the world economy and all that crap, I firmly believe that Mumbai my beloved city is bleeding to death because of the unchecked influx of migrants from the North. Though, the comment by Thackeray is of political nature, I however think that Sachin should not pass such comments when the entire issue is one which has been blown out of proportion. Its very easy for Sachin to pass such statement when more than half the time he is touring the world playing the silly game of hitting the ball with the bat and rest of the time leading his comfortable super duper rich lifestyle unlike the common Mumbaikar who has to deal with everyday Mumbai grind and the crumbling infrastructure.