Wish you a very happy birthday Sri Sripathi Panditharadhyla Balasubramanyam garu. Please continue to entertain us with your soulful voice.

Companies which take back their retail e-Waste

'Take back', takes off
'E' waste, or discarded computers, mobiles, TVs, equals
'E' - environmental - disaster. Here's what you can do........Gargi Gupta

What do you do with a 'dead' phone? Give it to the maid or driver, or exchange it to get a few hundreds off on a new one? Here's another option - give it back to the company, which will recycle it in an eco-friendly way. You may not get anything for it, but there is the satisfaction of knowing that you've done your bit for the environment.
This is important because mobile phones contain toxic chemicals like lead, cadmium, mercury, etc and if burnt in an incinerator or dumped in a landfill - which is what generally happens - pollute the air and soil. Anyway, electronic waste - discarded computers and peripherals, TVs, mobile phones - will become a huge problem in the days to come. 'Take back' schemes have been around for some years now, especially in the Europe Union which has stringent laws. But it's now beginning to take off in India, albeit in a small way, with mobile phones and computers. Here're a few companies that offer 'take back' and how to reach them.

Nokia
Launched a full scale 'take back' policy in India in January this year
n A network of 1,300 recycle bins located at priority dealers and customer care centres where you can drop phones, batteries, hands-frees, etc of Nokia and other brands. Just SMS 'green' to 55555 to find the nearest bin. Nokia also undertakes to plant a tree for every handset it gets. Plus, you get a Nokia mug with green messages.

Samsung
Has had a 'take back' policy for mobile phones since September last year. But it's a well kept secret - the only communication from the company are notices in its 28 collection centres across India.
n Samsung India is considering extending the policy to TVs, ACs, fridges.

LG
Launched 'take back' of its mobile phones two months ago, with a network of 50 collection bins at service centres and branch offices. Pamphlets inside new handsets tell buyers about where to go but existing users will have to wait for the new LG India website, or troop down to a branch office to know where to find the bins.

Wipro
Has had a 'take back' policy for Wipro branded products for some years now
n Customers can drop their stuff at 17 collection centres across the country. The Wipro website also gives names, addresses, email ids and phone numbers of whom to contact. But it's not entirely free. Customer are required to pay Rs 5-7 per kg "towards freight and logistics" - which works out to Rs 150-170 for a typical computer.

Dell
Has had a 'take back' policy in India for Dell products since 2006. It's free for individual consumers and Dell has the old computers picked up from your house. Anyone who wants to make use of it must write to the company

Lenovo
Has had a recycling programme for end-of-life Lenovo and IBM PCs, etc since September 2007 - but they haven't got back a single computer. Phone numbers and email ids are on the company website. The service is free and machines are picked up from users' homes.

HCL
Has had a 'take back' policy since 2007 for its own products to individuals; for companies there are "upgradation and replacement options".

The HCL Infosystems website gives directions to its EcoSafe helpdesk with phone numbers and an email id, ewaste.safe@hcl.in. Plus, there are addresses of 11 collection centres across India where consumers can drop discarded machines. It's free but consumers must bear the transportation costs.

Philips
Has recently started a pilot project in India, in line with such programmes in Europe. Damaged, end-of-life Philips products can be dropped off at 27 authorised service centres in eight cities across India, the details of which are on the Philips India website.

URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=RSSFeed-Business&id=fd8f072e-219b-457a-8406-d9e5ed9996cb&Headline=%e2%80%98Take+back%e2%80%99%2c+takes+off

Some videos released by Loksatta party on common concerns and issues.

Health - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXi_fqzKQ7M
Reservations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2PLEdicEFw
Youth -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ocQecc6pY
Agriculture -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ePS27eVxmg

They are in Telugu.

AR Rehman you are a Genius!.
Chitra you are a Genius!.

That makes it two thank you for Kanna moochi.

Message from facilities team in my office just a while ago!

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-APCPDCL,HYDERABAD had announced  a POWER CUT for Madhapur, Hyderabad from 06.00 AM to 12.00 PM on ALL DAYS, until further notice.
-During this period, all our offices in Hyderabad will run on Diesel Generators.
-All Communications, Data  Rooms, Servers, and UPS will run normally.
-In view of this power cuts, you will experience variations in the room temperature being maintained.
-In public areas like GYM & CAFETERIA - air conditioning provision will be restricted.
- As energy production levels have come down and unable to reach capacities, Government had made this power cuts mandatory, till further notice.
-We have taken up with concerned Officials on this to shift this power cut timings to 06.00 pm instead of 06.00 am, and they are yet to revert to us.
- We shall keep you posted on the developments on this power cuts, if any.
- Kindly forward this to all concerned as appropriate.

Please  bear with us and thanks for your continued support  & cooperation in this regard.
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I took the following "Vrat" last week - Glad that it completed successfully - without any hassles. So will be back to
work as usual from tomorrow

                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Team,

I will have to work from home from tomorrow 4th March until 9th March and should be back
to working from office from 10th March. I have to prove to my wife my multi tasking skills, viz.,
take care of the cooking, feeding the kids, making Abhinav do his home work, take care of laundry
along with the office related work - while she is away. Amen!.

I hope BSNL and APCPDCL help me during this period.

You can reach my mobile if you miss my voice - or I am available on OIC or AIM.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Found this in the Lotus Pond, Banjara Hills.

Q: Why did Akshay Kumar get a Padmasri
A: Because He said "Singh is Kingg".

My Dear Log file,

Just wanted to put down my thoughts on this topic for quite sometime - but haven't due to lack of time. So I thought let me do more than one posts on this one - rather than one mega post.

I strongly believe that the first step towards making India a better country is to make ourselves as a better  'Indi'viduals.

Good citizens make a great country. Over the years - may be because of how diverse our country is - we have become habituated to break rules/laws. It pains to see youngsters (College going) care a damn to the traffic rules/discipline (Cutting across lanes, Helmet/ Seat Belt, Riding Triples, Tailgating, scant respect to pedestrians, Arrogance, speeding at will, etc etc). Most of these youngsters who cherish a dream to go to US/UK or other developed countries follow all the rules of the 'alien' land - infact learn all the rules even before they land there - do they do that just becuase the penalty of breaking the rules is heavy in those countries - does that mean that they maintain discipline only because its enforced. Do they have no respect to their motherland ?. Patriotism is not about winning oscars/cricket matches and celebrating, Patriotism is about loving and being passionate to make our country better. If the educated behave like this - where can we expect our country to go forward.

Development is not about multiplexes, malls, ipods, wifi, hispeed internet or celebrating Valentines Day (No i am not from Sri Ram sene) , Halloween , Mothers day or Fathers day. Neither is this called sprit of being an Indian. If we can learn and practice the western customs, listen to their music - why can't we lean the other good practices that can redefine our lives ?

I think we should wake up *NOW* - its not too late. Jago Bharat Jago!

The best way is for parents to teach their children about being better - atleast our next generation will benefit out of it.

Heard from one of my team mates... it sums up well the essence of "Art of Living" (Not of Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar fame).

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO-HOO what a ride!”

Weakened before the weekend... Gosh! all of a sudden so much work to do, and much more home work to do this weekend.

In Andhra Pradesh - offlate there have been so many incidents involving violence on women folks, these are not just limited to eve teasing, dowry and the rapes - but mostly to do with morals of an individual.

Most of them pertaining to jilted or rejected lovers resorting to violence and most of those leading to the death of the woman.

If an organization is resorting to violence against women drinking, dancing and smoking in pubs and think its their right to react against women for behaving against our "culture and tradition" , they should first start the moral policing the Men who are senior most in terms of violating our morals - eve teasing, dowry harrasment, violence against women are older than the pub and party culture.

So called Ram followers should first try to understand the Ramayana understand the morals followed by Rama before doing anything.

Lately, I have started reading (whenever time permits) on history. Indian history has always been my favorite topic, I used to score well in my school days in this subject, I have lost track of it since my +2 since there is no history beyond Xth class.
I chanced upon a blog today on history - I have to now go find time to read it -

http://ancientindians.wordpress.com/

Saw this some where... quite amusing....

"Opinion is like an ASS#%$@..everyone has one..and most of them stink"

One should not take accolades if he cannot accept criticism.
There will always be people who praise and the same people may criticize you in a different situation - they do not suddenly become enemies when they do that. Like they say in telugu - "Hitam korevadu Snehitudu"...
Not sure when some people will learn.

Recession is the buzz word these days - almost every one talks about it.
I think it should be "Re-Assess-ion" : To Assess where we stand in terms our job and financial position.
I have canceled all my future expenses and busy trying to find out how can i bring down my Home loan EMI - (ICICI Sucks!!!!) - trying to find a banker who can bring down the EMI or the term. Sigh!.

Yesterday I went to Reliance digital for buying a boom box for my cousin's parents. It was so difficult for me to curb my instinct to buy electronics, there were just too many things I wanted to buy (A sharp aquos 42 Inch LCD TV - up for grabs for Rs 70K; An onkyo Home theater with a DVD player free for Rs 20K (Yummy!!), ipod Nano 8GB for under 7K, sony inear head phones for under 2K.. the list goes on).

Another day this impulsive buyer would have surely taken home the Sharp or Onkyo (at least.. Its been a dream), but for now I will have to be happy with my Onida 29" and my Philips LX 600 HT.

I hope 2009 brings in good days Amen!.