Quick Online Tips » India

Celebrate Joy of Giving Week: What Will You Give?

QuickOnlineTips — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:55:08 +0000

The Joy of Giving Week is being celebrated from 27th September to 3rd October 2009. The Joy of Giving initiative is a national movement, that aims at engage Indians in different “acts of giving” money, time, resources and skills.

A lot of events are taking place as celebrities, corporates, NGOs and individuals are giving their support to the initiative.

Some key events taking place are

Design for Giving contest aims to reach out to over 30,000 schools and have over 100,000 children for bold, fresh ideas that will be documented and showcased to demonstrate that our children can ‘design’ solutions for India’s greatest challenges!
India Giving Challenge provides a way for NGOs to raise even more money for their cause through a matching grant from GiveIndia.
7 Day Gift challenge – Give one gift each day for 7 days to a friend or a complete stranger. Put a little thought to each of the gifts that you make. See the world change and see the change in you.
Joyfest is a cultural event in your campus, during the ‘Joy of Giving Week’ where the students will make it happen. Your college will invite a local NGO of its choice (orphanage, old people’s home, blind school) as guests of honour and put up a cultural performance with a mix of popular events.
Battle of the Buffet – Leading 5 star hotels & top restaurants in the city sponsor a fundraiser for NGOs. A donor who makes a donation of Rs 5K to an NGO will be given an invite to this event.

What are you going to give?

Must Read Related Articles

Play HALO 3 ODST Game on PVR Super Size Screen

QuickOnlineTips — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:46:14 +0000

Halo 3: ODST is releasing September 22, 2009 and hot invites are trading for the 12 Hour Gaming event on PVR super size screen in Delhi being organized by Xbox 360 India.

Here is HALO3 ODST Event on Facebook. The event starts at Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 6:30pm, and ends Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 6:30am at Gold Class, PVR Premiere, Select CityWalk, Saket, New Delhi. Xbox 360 India Twitter page is actively send out invites and very few are left now.

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for Xbox 360. In Halo 3: ODST, a prequel to Halo 3, the players assume the role of a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), instead of the Master Chief. You can preorder Halo3 ODST today and get the game as soon as it is released.

Hurry and grab the invites and you could get a chance to play Halo3 ODST all night long on the biggest screen ever. Watch these trailers to get motivated.

Must Read Related Articles

Apply for Google India Women in Engineering Award

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:59:13 +0000

Google wants to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, and announced the 2010 Google India Women in Engineering Award. These awards recognize and reward deserving women students in Computer Science and related majors, and inspire them to become active participants and leaders in creating technology.

The eligibility criteria suggest that the candidates must be enrolled as a full time student in a recognized Indian institution in fields of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related majors. Second to final year students from a bachelor’s program and all students from a master’s or PhD program can apply provided you have a cumulative CGPA of at least 4.0 on a 5.0 scale, 8.0 on a 10.0 scale or equivalent.

The award recipients will receive a cash prize of INR 1 lakh. Remember it is not a scholarship, but one time reward. And the good part is you get a lot of publicity. See the 9 award recipients in 2009 and 16 in 2008.

Applicants need to submit a detailed resume and 2 essays on given topics (from a choice of four). Apply online now. Applications close 31 October 2009. You could win the next Google India Women in Engineering Award.

Must Read Related Articles

Delhi Observes Earth Hour Today, Then Every 3 Months

QuickOnlineTips — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:04:37 +0000

The Delhi Government is celebrating Earth Hour again today, following the huge power saved during the last Worldwide Earth Day held on 28 March 2009. New Delhi recorded a huge 1000 MW reduction in power during that one hour when people switched off their lights to support the movement towards a green earth.

Delhi Government has announced Earth Hour today and encourages people to switch off non essential lights between 8:30-9:30pm on 31 July 2009. Here is an official letter by the Environment Secrertary (.pdf) available from the Department of Environment, Govt of Delhi website. It is proposed that Delhi environment department will organise its own quarterly Earth Hour on the last working day of every third month.

Earth Hour 2009 encouraged billions of people worldwide to “Vote for Earth” to stop global warming by simply switching off their lights for one hour on March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

If you are in Delhi, remember to switch off at 8:30 pm and save power.

Must Read Related Articles

Google Conversion University: Analytics Conference

QuickOnlineTips — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:30:58 +0000

Want to learn more about Google Analytics to optimize your business to get more search engine traffic. Join the Google Conversion university, which is hosting a Google Analytics conference on 8 August, 2009 in Gurgaon, India.

Register on the website and your attendance will be confirmed by email a week before the event. The invite is non-transferable and there will be no spot registration. Although it is free registration, there are limited seats, so hurry.

The venue is Google India Pvt Ltd, 8th and 9th Floors, Tower C Building No.8, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon, India. There is an amazing line up of speakers and includes the first three Google Analytics Authorized Consultants in India

- Arjun Narayan – Lead of the Product Specialist (AdWords) team in India
- Siddhartha Paul Tiwari – AdWords Product Specialist
- Jesse Nichols – Google Analytics & Google Website Optimizer guru
- Vivek Bhargava – CEO and founder of Communicate 2
- Carl D’Souza – Account Manager at Interactive Avenes
- Ravi Pathak – Co-founder of Tatvic - a web analytics and optimization firm
- Pooja Srinivas – Manages the Google Analytics team in India
- Rajiv Mohan – Founding members of the Google Analytics India team
- Deepak Kumar - Google Analytics India team
- Neha Jain – Google Analytics Specialist
- Koti Ivaturi – Search Quality team at Google
- Amit Singh – Customer Solutions Engineer at Google

Must Read Related Articles

Book Eclipse Flight: See Total Solar Eclipse at 41000ft

QuickOnlineTips — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:53:13 +0000

The longest total solar eclipse is occurring on July 22, 2009 and for the first time in India, you can book an Eclipse flight air ticket and see this celestial event at 41,000 feet flying high above the thick Indian monsoon clouds.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and they all line up so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. A total solar eclipse is a rare natural phenomenon and people travel to remote locations across the world to observe it, while earning travel agents a good buck.

Photo by n0ll (under CC license)

This year, NASA says that “On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s.”

First time ever in India, The Eclipse Flight is jointly organized under the technical guidance of Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum (ECa), the eclipse sphere of SPACE, & Cox and Kings. They promise the perfect view of the Eclipse, above the Ganges valley, Patna where seeing the Sun’s Corona is virtually guaranteed.

Book Solar Eclipse Flight Tour

Cox & Kings, a top travel company has launched a solar eclipse tour in India for viewing the solar eclipse at 41000 ft far above the Indian Monsoon clouds. The A brand new JetLite 737-700 chartered aircraft will fly under the lunar shadow to let eager tourists and astronomy enthusiasts see the greatest eclipse of the 21st century is occurring on 22nd July 2009.

Tour Cost Per Person Ex-Delhi is Sun Side Seats Rs. 79000 (about $1600), Middle Seats Rs. 67000, Aisle Seats Rs. 59000, and Earth Side Seats Rs. 29000. For Indian Amateur Astronomer affiliated to an Indian amateur astronomy organisation, the earth side window seats are at 10% discount.

The aircraft has 21 ‘Sun Side Windows’ and 21 ‘Earth Side Windows’ and the eclipse fight will take off at 0430 Hrs IST, fly towards and hold over Gaya till its eclipse time. The intercept point has been planned over Taregna, a village 35 kms south of Patna.

Fly from Delhi to Eclipse to Delhi and back to your office in one day. Though the trip is expensive, I am sure there are many people who are willing to pay for witnessing this rare event. Now more travel companies will come forth with more unique travel trips like these now.

Must Read Related Articles

First MySpace Secret Show in India: Free Concert Tickets

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:11:19 +0000

The Myspace Secret Show has made its debut in India and now Indians can get free concert tickets to the show to be held in Mumbai, India on 29 May 2009! Are you on MySpace?

MySpace Secret Show India is being held at Bandra Amphitheatre (at Bandstand, Mumbai) on 29 May, 2009 at 6.30pm. The show will feature artists Motherjane and Scribe with Black.

How to get free concert tickets? Sign up to Myspace and then you must add secretshowsindia as a friend. Print out� your Myspace profile, which is also your ticket to the show. So basically you just need to “Add to Friends” to get free entry. Now that is so easy.

Why is it a secret show? Because inspite of the buzz and preparations,� the identity of the artists is kept secret till the last moment.

When did Secret Shows start? The series began on January 29, 2006 when Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley played at the Hotel Caf� in Hollywood. View the last MySpace Secret Show in US.

This will change the music scenario in India, while reinforcing the MySpace brand in India. Now more online social networks will look forward to actively engage their members offline using means like these concerts. Get ready for the best in music – Rock, Metal, Folk …

Must Read Related Articles

Indian Elections 2009: The Internet Version

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:36:10 +0000

Indian Elections 2009 are in full swing and Indian politicians have changed the way they are communicating with the Indian public to draw votes for the elections 2009. The new Internet has changed the way an informed electorate goes to vote…

1. Online Advertising – You can easily spot major political parties running Google Adwords campaigns which run via Adsense ads across millions of sites. A month back most of our site pages showed these ads only for Indian visitors, meaning they were targeting with a huge budget on lots of broad keywords.

2. Mobile SMS – Everyday I am getting many SMS messages from politicians in my constituency on my mobile phone. Bulk mobile number lists are easily available for sale at cheap rates in India. Bulk SMS rates have got even more cheaper than before, and the promotion directly reach the individual mobiles which is really targeted. How they bypass the Do Not Call registry, I can’t figure that out.

3. Social Networking – Most political leaders have developed a Facebook presence to get personal with the voters (see the Congress India page). Twitter is a rage in the election scenario too with many political parties are twittering away with their fans (Find @bjp_ on Twitter), though it is often difficult to establish if its the official one. You can also find many fan groups and local leaders active on other social networking sites like Orkut. Obama had used Twitter successfully to tap the voters.

4. Online Videos – As broadband internet has spread throughout India, online videos have become popular media and politicians are using video sharing sites like Youtube for maximum propaganda and voter reach. See how BJP Channel on Youtube keeps uploading new insider videos.

5. Blogging – Many politicians have blogs via which they are directly communicating with the electorate (like LK Advani’s blog). Blogs allow leaders to directly express their views and communicate with voters on a personal basis, bypassing the party pages.

6. Old & New Join Hands - Big online giants like Google pitched in to track the Indian elections and partner with old media giants� like Hindustan Times to bring up to date information about Indian elections. More tie-ups between new and old media are the future.

7. Celebrity Buzz - More and more Indian celebrities pitched in to encourage voters to vote and select the right people to form the government. See the initiative below (Hindi) -

Must Read Related Articles

Airtel Launches 16 Mbps Fastest DSL Broadband in India

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:55:10 +0000

The broadband internet speeds are all set to rise for the Indian net surfer with Airtel announcing the availability of 16Mbps broadband, which now claims to be the fastest DSL broadband in the country.

Airtel has announced that Airtel�s Carrier Ethernet Network, will be initially available in the cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with phased roll-out to additional cities of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata. Airtel delivers its broadband service through a fibre backbone of Carrier Ethernet Network with last mile delivery on copper using ADSL2+ technology, enabling ultra high-speed broadband which is scalable and affordable.

Airtel is offering 2 plans with 16 Mbps broadband
A. Speed Combo 2999 – 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 20 GB for Rs. 2999 per month
B. Speed Combo 4999 � 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 50 GB for Rs. 4999 per month

I always prefer unlimited data transfer limit broadband packages, even if the speed is a little slower as the monthly bill is fixed and there are no download limits whatsoever. Data transfer limits ensure that customers get charged for every MB download after the limit is over and can turn up a huge internet connection bill. I see the most practical package with Airtel is Value 1599 combo which provides 512Kbps speeds with unlimited data transfer for Rs 1599 only. See more Airtel plans.

How long will it take before 50Mbps broadband connections will become common, and more importantly affordable in India.

Must Read Related Articles

How to Apply for Microsoft India MVP Award

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:42:25 +0000

It’s an honor to become a�Microsoft Most Valuable Professional or MVP, but how can you apply to become a MVP in India. If you are a top blogger, tech expert or outstanding technical community leader, its easy to become a MVP.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals or MVPs are well known for their exceptional technical community leadership skills, and selfless sharing of their expertise in offline and online technical communities. These experts share a deep commitment to community and willingness to help others.

Become Microsoft MVP India

Visit the MVP India website to get the latest news and information. MVP candidates are nominated by self, other MVPs, Microsoft employees, and other members of technical communities.

To qualify to become a MVP, you need to be above 18 years of age and your community contribution should be exemplary, regardless of your profession. Your technical knowledge on any� Microsoft Product should be good and you should show willingness to help the community with your expertise and passion for technology. Your community participation can extend to blogs, wikis, forums or offline as for book authors, speakers or technical leaders etc., and not necessarily Microsoft hosted communities. For more information, download the MVP program guide (.pdf).

Apply by downloading the MVP nomination form (.doc), fill it� and email it to them.� MVP applications are reviewed by a panel of Microsoft personnel and only very few make the MVP award based on your past year activities. The MVP awards are given every quarter and they accept nominations throughout the year. However, to maintain the standards, an MVP Award is valid only for a year, after which you need to reapply.

MVP benefits

So why would you want to become a MVP. Here are some exclusive India MVP benefits to motivate you-

- Executive Recognition Letter
- Exclusive MVP �thank you� Gift each year
- MVP Certificate proclaiming your status as an MVP
- $150 voucher to the Microsoft Company Store
- Exclusive Chats/ Webcasts with Product Teams
- Share expert, real world insight and feedback as Tech Reviews
- MVP Academy offers instructor led online training
- Choose an annual subscription to either MSDN or TechNet
- Provided with a copyrighted, official logo to display
- MVP profile shared across the Microsoft.com web properties
- Invited to the MVP summit with sponsorship.
- MVP Lead keeps each MVP plugged in with latest updates
-� MVP Private Newsgroups for stronger relationships
- Access to Microsoft Product Alphas and Betas
- Receive early access to product information from Microsoft.

Check out the Indian MVPs and you will find the best tech experts in the country; apply now and you could be one of them.