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As the primaries draw to a close in the US, it is also time to remember that elections in the world’s largest democracy are also around the corner. I came to read a post from friend Selva’s archives that lists the issues and problems that prevent voters from casting their votes, and then offers solutions. A good read.

And while I appreciate his concern, I find some of his suggestions unworkable. Comments follow.

1. Make people accountable. Yes, it sounds easy to legislate that people should be held accountable for not voting. Standing in the queue at the tahsildar’s office is punishment enough. But consider the amount of administrative work involved. Tahsildar’s offices in India are small and poorly run. They are highly inefficient at whatever they do currently. If they had to cope with this mountain of new work, they would explode. Moreover, how will you ensure that everyone who does not vote comes to the tahsildar’s office to file reasons. In India, we still haven’t found a way to collect income taxes properly. The population that should file tax returns should be much lesser compared to those who are eligible to vote. The amount of paperwork involved in this process would be just too much for anyone to handle.

2. Increase security at polling booths. Increasing security at polling booths and public broadcast of activities in polling stations will only work well in movies. Considering the not-so-honest nature of the law enforcement agencies, increase in security might be considered by the voter as an increase in security for the offenders. It is easy to play with CCTV systems. Keanu Reeves employs this technique to deceive Dennis Hopper in Speed. Again, administrative work is enormous. And who pays to install these systems at polling booths? And that too, once in five years (or a few more times, if you consider state and local elections)

3. Offer free commute. The argumentative Indian will ask, “Won’t the parties use this as a means to lure the voter into voting for them?” And what if people from different parties offer a ride to the same person at the same time. If the parties don’t pay, then who does?

4. Avoiding elections in off-seasons. Though this is a good suggestion, I’m unsure if it will work. Throwing in the weather into an already exploding criteria list will make it unworkable.

5. Postal votes. Offering this on an on-demand, payment-only basis sounds good.

6. Special efforts to include names. Good idea.

7. Use of Internet in voting. It might work in the not-so-distant future, when touch screens become more common and less expensive. Otherwise, fear of technology will put off many voters.

8. Incentives for voting. Good idea, though I would personally recommend disincentivising the non-voters, knowing fully well it has the ability to touch off a civil war!

9, 10, 11. Disincentivizing non-voters. Ah, birds of a feather flock together! Didn’t read this earlier.

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Filed under: Politics

As feared earlier, the Chennai Super Kings are faring poorly without the Aussies in the line-up. Two successive defeats, stemming from paltry totals, have temporarily derailed the Kings. Come on Chennai! Bring home the pride!

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Filed under: Cricket

While the 2007-08 season has been one of the closest fought in recent years in the Premier League with regard to the top three, the relegation battle has been terribly interesting as well.

This isn’t new. A couple of seasons ago, we witnessed Bryan Robson’s West Brom miraculously survive the relegation dog-fight by jumping from 20th to 17th on the last day. Last season, West Ham needed Carlos Tevez’s heroics at Old Trafford to produce an unlikely victory against champions Manchester United, while Wigan had to beat Sheffield United the same day to ensure their survival and the latter’s drop.

This season, Derby confirmed their relegation a few months into the season. The other two relegation spots have been occupied by many different clubs during the course of the season - Sunderland, Boro, Wigan, Bolton, Fulham, Reading and Birmingham City. The latter two are now in 18th and 19th spots respectively. Of the lot, Roy Keane’s Sunderland were the first to ensure another season in the top flight.

Earlier today, Wigan and Boro secured their survival, leaving Bolton, Fulham, Reading and Brum fighting for the remaining two survival spots. Bolton gave their survival chances a major boost by beating Sunderland at the Reebok, while Fulham mauled Birmingham in a potential six-pointer.

The last round of matches will be intriguing. Bolton play Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge. Given that Chelsea will be gunning for victory at home, Bolton might have to be content with their haul of 36 points. If they don’t lose by more than a couple of goals at the Bridge, Bolton should remain in the Premier League.

Fulham, currently on 33 points, are away to Portsmouth next Sunday. Portsmouth are a tough side to crack at home. But considering they are in the FA Cup final a week later, Pompey might field a weakened side, or one which has almost nothing to play for. And given Fulham are the form side, winning 3 of their past 4 games, the Londoners might yet secure the victory that keeps them in the Premiership.

Of the teams in the relegation battle, Reading have the easiest fixture on the last day. They play away at Derby. Reading’s goal difference of -29 does not compare favorably with Bolton’s -19 or Fulham’s -23. To sustain their sojourn in the Premier League, Steve Coppell’s side might need to win by a margin of 7 or 8 goals, assuming a Fulham win.

For Birmingham City, even victory at Blackburn, a daunting prospect in itself, might not be enough. Their survival depends on the final day fortunes of the other teams. They are looking likely to join Derby for another season in the Championship.

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Filed under: Football

… is the greatest software application ever. Period.

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Filed under: Tech

In 1999, when Manchester United were playing the second leg of their semi-final tie versus Juventus away at the Stadio Delle Alpi, it required their captain Roy Keane to produce arguably the best performance ever by a player wearing United’s colours to propel them into the final at the Nou Camp. Keane has moved on. So many others from that fabled team of treble winners have. Paul Scholes remains.

And though he did not have to produced the same kind of “as if he had the Devil on him” performance, the quiet laddie let his boots do the talking, scoring the only goal - a marvelous one albeit - of a fiercely competed semi-final to push the Red Devils past a Barcelona team, who, though they might be on the wane, gave it their everything. Here is the goal.

For United to have accomplished this without the services of Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic was commendable. Such was the tempo of the game earlier today that those of us watching on TV would have felt quite exhausted just watching the spectacle. United’s work-rate was of a different order in the game compared to their dodgy outing at Stamford Bridge just a couple of days ago. (I personally felt that Park Ji-Sung outshone everyone else tonight - he was both leonine and workhorse-like.)

Chelsea host Liverpool tomorrow, and the Blues have an away goal advantage. Should be a good game. Considering United have beaten Liverpool on multiple occasions this year, maybe the Scousers would make a good final for us.

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Filed under: Football

One of the nicest things about the Indian Premier League is that the Chennai team lead the pack now. Still the only unbeaten team in the league, the Kings of Chennai rock!

Incidentally, I thought the Mumbai Indians would do better than lose four in a row.

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Filed under: Chennai, Cricket

Some (crazy) activists throw pies at Thomas Friedman as he begins a speech at Brown University. Ridiculous, but not funny.

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Filed under: Media

1. When in the midst of a group of people discussing about innovation, you find yourself saying “It is not at all necessary for companies to innovate. It is more important to be a fast follower than an innovator”, do you call yourself a pragmatist or a pessimist or worse, a combination of the two, i.e. a businessman?

2. Isn’t it ironical that the United States has a quota of 20000 visas for students with advanced degrees from US universities under the H1B visa program (which the Government claims is to enable highly skilled immigrants work in the country and thereby gain citizenship in the long run), and yet one of only two conditions for rejecting an F-1 student visa is that the visa seeker is a potential immigrant?

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Filed under: Miscellaneous

When you apply filters in Excel 2007, and then copy the filtered data from one sheet to another, you will find (to your frustration) that what has been copied to the new sheet is not just the filtered data, but also the invisible data that was filtered out. Oh, the ways of Microsoft! If I wanted to copy all the data, I would do it without using the filter. When I apply a filter, I am only interested in the resultant subset. And to think that this wasn’t a problem in previous versions of Excel baffles me even more.

Help is at hand, though. If you want to copy only the filtered result set, select it, then hit F5 to open the “Go To…” dialog. In this dialog box, click on the “Special…” button, and select the “Visible cells only” option. Now when you copy, only the visible cells are copied to the clipboard. And solves the problem!

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Filed under: Tech

After months of anticipation, the Indian Premier League kicked off today with a meek surrender by the Bangalore Royal Challengers, whose batting was neither royal, nor seemed like posing any challenge to the others teams in the league. Kolkata, in contrast, turned out to be awesome (though I am not impressed by their team name).

It would be interesting to see how the IPL impacts the future of cricket. One possible scenario is that cricket might be played more along club lines, like football. But I think it is currently more possible than probable. Regional cricket (like county cricket in England and state tournaments in India and Australia) face a greater threat due to IPL’s emergence. If the organizers were to expand the IPL from its current, compressed two-month schedule, regional cricket is sure to take a huge hit.

Interestingly though, Michael Vaughn’s recent comments made some sense in this regard. When asked if the IPL could threaten county cricket in England, Vaughn pointed out that each country could have its own league, and then the top clubs from each country could face off against each other in a super league, much like the UEFA Champions League in football.

I have some doubts if this would indeed turn out to be the case. India’s financial clout in cricket could make it extremely difficult for similar leagues in other countries to thrive.

Anyway, Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League have definitely made the “business” of cricket more dynamic, and a space to watch out for. It is, as many have already said, the best way to take the game to a more global audience.

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Filed under: Cricket