A genetically modified version of the baingan a.k.a brinjal a.k.a eggplant is at the center of a fascinating debate in India. [Time]
The brinjal in question is no ordinary vegetable: it’s full name is Bt brinjal, whose DNA scientists have fortified with a gene that kills a range of common pests. Its creators say the genetically modified vegetable will increase farm yields and bring a less pesticide-laden vegetable to Indian dining tables, where the fiery brinjal-laden baingan bharta enjoys cult status.
However, project baingan ran into a familiar buzzkill – politicians and …

…. desi ishtyle. Sujatha (Sue) Sachdeva, Koss’s former vice president of finance and secretary, had a penchant for clothing, jewelery and to put it in simpler terms “bling”. However, there is a reason for the use of the word “former vice president”, she reportedly pursued her love for “da bling” with her employer’s money. [MW]
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal had reported that the U.S. attorney in Milwaukee had filed a criminal complaint charging Sachdeva with embezzling company funds.
The complaint charged that she spent some $4.5 million to buy furs, …

Raj Kumar Hirani is the bearer of a lost art, the art of story telling. The problem is sometimes, he overlaps his piece of art with another of his own, that is still fresh in your memory.
And I’ll try to keep the review clean of any spoilers.
3 idiots is a movie ‘loosely’ based on one of India’s ‘best-selling’ novels, “Five point Someone, what not to do at IIT“, by Chetan Bhagat. A book, that critics love to hate and take a jab at it’s ‘popularity’, while a particular section of …

Globalization, India. India, globalization. [Outlook]
Thousands of undocumented workers with the same skill sets as the local populace, arrive by the proverbial boatloads, and “take away jobs” from the locals. Sounds like a Lou Dobbs’ wet dream come true.
The Outlook performed an “exposé” on thousands of undocumented Chinese workers in India.
Across the country, several thousands of Chinese workers are at work on infrastructure projects bagged by Chinese contractors. But the arrangement is not without controversy—the hordes of unskilled/semi-skilled imports from China are taking jobs from the unemployed Indian. One estimate …

When it rains, it pours cats and dogs. That seems to be moral of the story in the past few months.
Back when we started UD, finding Desis in the media was a big deal. I remember posts in SM and SAJA titled “Identify this brown person”, not anymore. Without over analyzing the situation, the fact is that we find stories about our people everywhere. And it was only a matter of time before they showed up on the wrong side of the financial meltdown.
The Sri Lankan Raj …

This short documentary on Time Videos hits so many facets of car ownership in rural India, that it could easily pass for a commercial if we did not know better. A farmer in rural Haryana is one of the first to own a car, he is able to do so thanks to the easy on the pocket Nano. From explaining his reason for upgrading from a scooter to a car – he could not fit his family of 5, including his mother on the scooter – the video talks of …

The automobile aficionados have long been looking forward to the cheap yet efficient trucks and SUV’s from Mahindra to hit the “western” shores.
The first review look promising for the company.
Overall, ride quality and noise, vibration and harshness is very competitive with current U.S. midsize pickups, if not superior to some. Shocking, we know, but it’s true. This is a truck that could function as a daily driver as well as a workhorse.

Although the reviewer drove a pre-production model, it looks like Mahindra will have a go at the more …

Walmart’s first store in India will be a wholesale store more along the lines of SAMS Club, largely targetted at wholesale buyers, aka, businesses and establishments. [Time]
Wal-Mart’s debut outlet, which will open in the city of Amritsar in northern India later this month, is a wholesale-only operation that will sell mainly to vegetable vendors, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and other companies.
Largely to bypass India’s restrictive commercial laws and to keep a low profile from politicians and activists, Walmart won’t even go by it’s own name. The store will be called “BestPrice …

CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, reportedly proclaimed American grads as being unemployable, setting off a controversy.

It looks like TVS Motors is all set to enter the US market with its motorcycle, Apache RTR (Racing Throttle Technology), and no I’m not kidding with the name. After Tata and Mahindra, TVS will be third company to sell in the recent past, talking about seeling its wares outside India. Bike enthusiasts would remember that Enfield has long been a staple of the American motorcycle scene.

According to the Economic Times

The Chennai-based two-wheeler company has cleared the mandatory technical and emission tests for its bike and plans to launch it …

Most of all, you’ll see guys. Lots and lots of guys, in ill-striped shirts, in ill-fitting pants and ……….. balding heads
[Time] (Karthik via email)
No. We’re not talking about a bunch of desi guys sitting in an apartment having a few beers on a Saturday night or at a Diwali potluck dinner. In this case, the guys are a bunch of golf enthusiasts, mostly amateurs. From personal experience and with all due respect to my buddies, after a while these male bonding events turn into sausage fests and could use, ummmm, …

“And so it begins”
-King Théoden, Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
Favorite desi hangout – now coming to the deshimg: via yahoo
It was bound to happen. The nation of price conscious customers and the store of everyday low prices. Walmart is opening its first store in the desh. [Yahoo!]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is set to open its first cash-and-carry centre in India next week in a signal of foreign investor confidence in India just days after a reform-minded Congress-led coalition won an election.
Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of …

Anantha (via Über Desi Twitter) points us to this inspiring underdog story by Malcolm Gladwell (of Tipping Point fame) of a desi basketball coach who used unconventional tactics to lead his vastly over matched team of eight graders to a successful season. [NewYorker] (via DeadSpin)
His strategy, play the full court press all the time. His reasoning for adopting the full court press was simple:
Ranadivé was puzzled by the way Americans played basketball. He is from Mumbai. He grew up with cricket and soccer. He would never forget the first time …

Neel is done carrying the cash. [WaPo]
Per Neel, Friday (May 1st 2009) was his last day as the head of the Treasury Department’s bailout operations. Kashkari’s whirlwind tenure was not without it’s critics …..
Although he scrambled to get the rescue’s operations running, often sleeping in his office and working seven days a week, during hearings lawmakers questioned his competence. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) once called him “a chump.”
…. and admirers.
“I deeply admire the guy,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview. “I think he’s a person …

In various parts of South Asia, leather products are often seen as a sign of affluence. These are troubled times in Pakistan with rising fears of Talibanization of the nation. But there may be hope yet, in the form of leather. [NYT]
Pakistanis become major exporter of leather fetish goodsimg: via NYT
deep in the nation’s commercial capital, just next door to a mosque and the offices of a radical Islamic organization, in an unmarked house two Pakistani brothers have discovered a more liberal and lucrative use for the scourge: the $3 …

Starting 2010 Tata plans on selling its Electric Indica in Norway.
Autobloggreen reports that the model that was on display at the Detroit Motor Show is already being tested in its new home.
Although the all-electric Tata Indica on display at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week is not the soon-to-be-released model, there’s a lot we can learn from the vehicle – and from TM4’s Eriz Azeroual – about how the technology will be implemented when the new model goes on sale in Norway either later this year or in …

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas
I know its from The Onion, but I don’t see why it could not become a real thing. Srsly.

Warning: An alert reader, Arti, points out that this may just be a concept being floated around. We’ve still been unable to determine if this is an official Apple campaign.
iTunes style ad features the Bollywood song “Bachna ae haseeno” in the iTunes trademark style featuring the protagonist with the earphones dancing against a technicolor silhouette. (tip Kiran via email)
I blogged about cross-pollination between American Top 20 and Bollywood filmi music a few days back. This iTunes style video seems to be inspired by the recent movie with the same name …

Translation: “Farmer is king”. This seems to be the mantra of rural India these days. [Boston]
Rural India shiningimg: via Boston.com
In the 2004 elections, the BJP came out with the now infamous “India shining” slogan. Big mistake. Rural India was still catching with it’s urban half. Urban India was indeed shining, rural India not yet.
The result: the BJP received a drubbing in the general elections at the hand of the rural electorate, which by the way accounts for over 70% of the total electorate. This time around the boot is on …

India may not have made a mark yet in auto Industry like Germany in engineering superiority, or Japan in durability and innovation.  But we do have a new feather in the cap – the world’s cheapest car – that comes with a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages. Tata motors have claimed their fulfillment of a promise to India and to offer a safer alternative (compared to 2-wheelers) when it comes to mode of transport in India and possibly other developing countries where Nano is set for launch in the …