Vyakarnam Anjenaya Sastry: The man who donated shares worth Rs 1,850 crore to Infosys

Sastry, the first non-founder to get on the Infosys board, plays down his generosity saying that he was only returning a favour.

BANGALORE: When Infosys celebrated its 30th birthday in 2010, all employees were gifted a share each. But not many of them know that it was the benevolence of a former colleague that made such a gesture possible. Vyakarnam Anjenaya Sastry, 71, had joined Infosys in 1990 when the Bangalore-based software maker's revenue hovered at just Rs 2.5 crore.
He had bought about 2% of Infosys for Rs 1.6 lakh but donated half of his holdings to the Infosys Employee Welfare Trustwhile leaving the company in 1996. If he had held on to the shares, they would have been worth about Rs 1,850 crore (1% of Infosys).
But Sastry, the first non-founder to get on the Infosys board, plays down his generosity saying that he was only returning a favour. "I was supposed to join Infosys in April-May, but then (Infosys founder NR Narayana) Murthy said that if you take the shares before March 31, then you will be able to have bonus shares. So even
Murthy showers praise on Sastry
Murthy, who recently came back from retirement to once again head the company he founded for a brief period, is effusive in his praise of Sastry. "He (Sastry) is a wonderful professional and a thorough gentleman," Murthy said in an email. "He is a true Infoscion in every sense of the word." The admiration is mutual. Sastry said Murthy did the right thing by coming back from retirement.
"I still back him because I feel even when everyone and everything was against him, he decided to come back (to Infosys). It takes guts to do it at this age, and I think he was successful in doing both the things: finding a successor and getting company back to growth." Sastry, who now holds less than 0.5% of the company, had first met Murthy in 1989 while planning to put up a stall at the computer show CeBIT in Germany.
Both Infosys and Sastry's then employer, Macmet India, a mathematical modelling and simulation company, couldn't afford the entire amount. So they shared a stall. After coming back, Sastry asked Infosys to buy his company's simulation unit. But Nandan Nilekani, one of Infosys' cofounders, had other plans. "Nandan said 'we have decided that we won't be able to buy that particular unit but we have decided to buy you'," recalled Sastry, who became a multimillionaire when the company went public in 1993.
He was offered a seat on the Infosys board and asked to set software quality standards across development projects for clients, including Reebok. For his part, Sastry has always believed in maintaining a low profile, and staying away from the limelight. V Balakrishnan, a former Infosys board member and chief financial officer, remembers Sastry as an early champion who established Infosys' reputation globally.
According to Balakrishnan, Sastry had a major role in Infosys getting the coveted ISO 9000 certification. "I still fondly remember the glass of champagne we all had at our Koramangala office when we actually got the certification," said Balakrishnan. "It requires a very big heart to donate such a large amount of money for the welfare of employees.
Very few people can do this." Over the years, Sastry has used his wealth to fund philanthropic activities and create successful startups. He cofounded RelQ, a software testing company, which was sold to EDS in 2007 for around $40 million. As for Infosys' new CEO Vishal Sikka, Sastry has some words of advice. "The only thing I wish to happen is for Sikka to move to Bangalore and start living here.
Because unless he lives here and starts working from here, it could become a little bit of challenge," he said. "No matter how many times he comes, he will always be a visitor."

The IT Ghost Towns On OMR

 

In March 2011, the central government ended the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme, which extended incentives and tax holidays to IT companies.

As a result, the last three years have seen an exodus of sorts with smaller IT firms (now forced to pay taxes up to 30 per cent) quitting the scene. This means that several buildings and IT parks built along the OMR during the scheme are now lying vacant.

Realty consultancy Knight Frank estimates about 4 million sq. ft of vacant space along the OMR, indicating vacancy levels of 18 to 20 per cent.

Builders believe that these vacant spaces can be converted into income-generating buildings. “Allowing these spaces to be used by non-IT commercial units could be a solution. During the STPI scheme, builders were allowed higher FSIs (floor space index) and given permission to build high-rises if they were for IT/ITES use.

These were incentives given to them to build high quality buildings even when the construction costs were higher than those for commercial or residential spaces,” says R. Kumar, Navins Housing.

Although the government is allowing the buildings to be converted for other commercial use, it is demanding a fee towards the extra FSI. “In Mumbai, builders were given similar extra FSI in erstwhile IT buildings but when there were no takers, the government took away the extra fee for conversion. The spaces were absorbed by the banking and finance sector. That could work here too,” says Prakash Challa, SSPDL. As of now, the rent for IT buildings that lie before the toll gate (from Taramani to Perungudi) is around Rs. 40 per sq. ft, while beyond Perungudi, rentals range from Rs. 22 to Rs. 30 per sq. ft.

One of the other proposals from the government is to allow these spaces to be converted into Special Economic Zones, which it says could ease the pressure off developers. However, P.B Balaji, Chennai-based real estate lawyer, questions the move. “Such a conversion would fall under the Special Economic Zone Act, which comes with a large number of specifications, which most of these IT buildings will be unable to fulfil. The process would take even longer than waiting for the IT industry to revive, if at all,” explains.

When neighbouring Hyderabad and Bangalore have attracted multi-million dollar office absorption from non-IT firms such as Deloitte and Flipkart, developers are asking why Chennai is lagging behind. “The government has mooted a ‘financial city’ with new buildings to attract non-IT investment, but won’t converting these large vacant spaces be ideal instead?” asks Kumar. “It will bring in a lot of income to the State and the benefits will also be passed on to the residential sector on OMR,” he points out.

Ashwin Kamdar, CMD, Prince Foundation, has a different view: “I don’t believe this is a solution. The other sectors are not in great shape either and this would only cause oversupply again. The IT buildings have large floor plates of 40,000 sq.ft or more, which is more than what most commercial companies are looking for. Apart from commercial use, I suggest demolishing them and converting them into residential spaces. IT buildings work on return on investment (RoI), and the prevailing Rs. 20 per sq. ft post-toll gate can only yield Rs. 2,800 per sq. ft whereas residential spaces sell for Rs. 6,000 per sq. ft, which is more viable than waiting for an IT revival.”

Either way, it is time the government came up with a viable and practical way to use the huge developments that are lying vacant on OMR.

How Jasoos Kutty Beat Brazil In A Football Match

Parankimala. A hill overlooking the sea. Years ago, when a group of explorers crossed the seven seas and reached here, it had many kinds of trees, mysterious flowers, plants of the kind never seen, but none that appealed to the visitors. They didn't take the trouble to know what they were or why they were there. Today the hill is acres of rubber plantation that resemble Idukki and Wayanad, from where the adventurous lot had come. Somewhere between the hill and the sea a small town has come up. In appearance, in flavour, in colour it resembles any Kerala town, but drive a few kilometres here or there, you are in a different country. Brazil .

It is highly unlikely the Malayalees took the voyage to the Mecca of Football for their passion for the game. But once here, they embraced the sport, and showered it the love they never showed to kuttiyum kolum (Gully danda).

When the football world cup came here, I had no doubts where I would set up base. Kutty Tea & Toddy came up in one corner of the town, with a clear view of the sea and the bikini. You might wonder what kind of shop mixes tea and toddy, but that is how I am. My day here involves loitering, drinking, eating, watching football and regaling my customers with stories of my adventures, of which I have a long list.

I was busy experimenting with my drinks when a group of youngsters entered my shop. I sized them up. Indians. Wealthy. Fatigued. Homesick. Vulnerable.

"Murugaa 3 shikanji, 2 sambharam and 3 lime water for the beautiful ladies. Table No 5. Welcome to Kutty Tea & Toddy friends."

"How did you know what we wanted?"

"He is Jasoos Narayanan Kutty. He knows all," shouted Georgio, two tables away.

Georgio is a regular here, comes to read newspapers, talk football and listen to my heroics. His real name is quite long, I have jotted it down somewhere, it could be on the calendar, on a newspaper I read months ago, on a restaurant bill...

"Oh, Kutty. You must be from Kerala. How did you land here," one of the guests asked.

"It's a long story. How I, after opening my tea shop in Everest, Moon and Mars, landed in Parankimala."

"A story worth listening to," Georgio gave his approval. The bait was set, but will the prey fall for it?

"Mallu tea shop in Everest and moon, the old joke," one of the visitors said.

"No, no. Kutty can do anything. You just don't know him," Georgio plodded on, "Kutty, tell your story."

"We anyway don't have much to do," said one, "How did you come here?"

"Like I said, it is a long story. It happened long before the Goddess of Small Things won the Booker, Maradona won the World Cup, arrack was banned in Kerala and before I did a Marquez in Malayalam... Speaking of my novel in Malayalam, that is also quite a story. Very interesting and exciting. Should I tell that story first?"

"No. Tell us how you came here."

"OK. As you wish. See children, football in this part of the world is a bit like cricket in Mumbai. It is the lifeline of Brazil . Every town, every village has its own football stories to tell. Every Brazilian identifies with a football team. And they are passionate about their teams. This much you know. What you don't know is the extremes a team will go to to ensure they have an advantage over their rivals. Add to this the rivalry with Argentina and the scouts from Europe . Each of them trying to spot talent. This is where I came into play."

"I thought you were a spy."

"Yes I am. But a CIA friend of mine asked a favour for his friend who was working for a European club. I was asked to search the alleys and beaches of Brazil for the player of the future, the chosen one. Even a headstart of two years would help them buy talent cheap. 'Bypass the system', he said, 'We do not want to wait till he plays the local league'."

"Some kind of inside info."

"Exactly. I infiltrated a community in Rio de Janeiro first. Mingled with them, went to football matches with them, and finally I joined the local team of what we call in India the galli players."

"You play football also?"

"Central defender. Not many appreciate us defenders. But we are the backbone of any successful team. The unsung heroes. The world worships the strikers but how many know about Puyol, Baresi, Maldini."

"Only the connoisseurs."

"Actually, I have won several tournaments in India. As a central defender, I even scored a few goals. One of them I remember vividly. It so happened I took the ball out of our box, and kept running, running and running, dodging one opponent after another. All of a sudden I found myself again in the penalty box. Then I heard someone shout, 'shoot ch****e, shoot.' I didn't think twice, kicked the ball hard. Goooooooaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll."

"You made up the story, didn't you?"

"You don't believe me. See this is how I did it."

I took a football from the shelf, took aim at an imaginary goalpost, shot the ball to the top left corner of the post. Seconds later we heard the egg seller down the road scream, giving us an exact location of where it landed. It happens. You need a large heart to understand football, and Brazilians have it. But this particular egg seller walked down, seeking damages. My worst fears were confirmed. He was a 24-carat Malayalee. People like him sully Brazil's name. I had to shell out a few reals to get him off my back.

"That must have been quite a goal."

"Kutty omitted one bit," said Murugan bringing our guests crispy vadas soaked in sambhar, "It was a self goal."

Let me tell you one thing, man to man, heart to heart. Never, ever help a bachpan ka friend. Even if you want to, never employ him in your business. These langotiya yaars will out you every chance they get just to prove how close we are.

"Kutty and I are childhood friends. We went to the same school, sat on the same bench, ate from the same plate, when there was no food in his house, I used to get him pazhankanji. He still remembers those years. He brought me here, to Brazil, gave me work. So what if it's just a waiter's job, at least he did that much."

See this is what I said. Never, ever employ a bachpan ka friend, he will do this to you.

"The referee called it a self goal. But to this day, I believe there was some fixing."

"Kutty, I believe you," said one of the women, and gifted me a lovely smile.

"If not for you, what would this world be! What is your name?"

"Let us say my name is Dhanno."

"Such a nice name, Basanti would have been better."

"Kutty, the story please."

"Yeah the story. Which one?"

"Your clandestine mission in Brazil to scout soccer talent."

"The team I joined, I again became the central defender. We played in several cities, villages, on the streets, in the fields, on the beaches, on every vacant bit of land we could find. But soon I found myself in trouble."

"What happened?"

"See, I take my job very seriously. In this case the defender's job. I perfected the art of adangi maarna there. No striker worth his salt could get past me. Soon maar adangi became a common phrase in our part of Brazil, and I became the focus of attention. Bigger local clubs started approaching me to sign me up."

"Did you sign for any club," asked Dhanno.

"No. I was here on a different mission. I couldn't have. Then one day I met my match. A striker who could break the chakravyuh I built. A young boy with magnetic boots. Unbelievable ball control. As if the ball was tied to his boots with a string. He decided if he needed to loosen the string or tighten it. He dribbled like a ballet dancer, swerving, ducking, leaping... what a beauty. You could compose music to match his moves on the pitch. He broke down our defences at will, scored two goals."

"You lost the match."

"We scored two of ours. But it became a prestige issue for me. If he breaks down the fort I built, then he will have to become Abhimanyu, I decided. We asked two of players to mark him. If he gets the ball in the box, create a melee out there, a free for all. It worked fine till the 90th minute. He came like a raging bull, skipping every adangi on the way."

"Then what happened."

"Well, there was no way I was going to allow him a goal. I did what was required of me."

"You brought him down."

"You kicked him"

"You broke his leg."

"Something similar. I hit him where it hurts most."

"What do you mean?"

"The oldest trick in gali football. I caught him by his balls."

"No, you didn't."

I took Dhanno's sambharam, poured a little vodka into it, drank it in one go and started telling them the story of my novel in Malayalam. It is better than Marquez, I guarantee.

The Disappearing Universe

 

“I realise now that I wanted to disappear. To get so lost that nobody ever found me. To go so far away that I’d never be able to make my way home again. But I have no idea why.” -Jessica Warman

When you lie down on your back on a clear, dark, moonless night, what is it that you see? If your vision is outstanding and observing conditions are just right, you’re likely to see not only a few planets and thousands of stars, but also star clusters, some faint nebulae, the plane of the Milky Way, and maybe even a distant galaxy or two.

Image credit: © Royce Bair of flickr, viahttps://www.flickr.com/photos/ironrodart/sets/72157627607005290/.

But when you start to look more deeply — beyond what you can see with your naked eye — you start to find that there’s an amazing Universe past our own galaxy, past the stars, clusters and nebulae of the Milky Way out there. What once seemed like faint, fuzzy, inconsequential smudges have since revealed themselves to be distant galaxies, or island Universes not so different than our own, consisting of anywhere from hundreds of millions to many trillions of stars.

And the Universe is full of them, with roughly as many galaxies in the part observable to us as there are stars in the entire galaxy we inhabit.

Image credit: Tony Hallas of Astrophoto.com, via http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070719.html.

What’s perhaps surprising about these galaxies is that the farther away we find them, the faster they appear to be moving away from us. This was one of the most puzzling discoveries of the early 20th century, and it was finally put into order by Edwin Hubble (and, independently, Georges Lemaître) who realized that this was a consequence of living in an expanding Universe.

The resultant relation — that the farther away a galaxy is from us, the faster it appears to recede — is known as Hubble’s law. The only exceptions to this rule happen when a galaxy has been subject to an intense,local gravitational interaction, giving it what’s known as a significant peculiar velocity. But on the largest scales, Hubble’s law, or the velocity/redshift relation, shows itself incredibly clearly.

Image credit: Andrew Liddle’s Introduction to Modern Cosmology.

You might instinctively wonder, especially if you know about the framework of the Big Bang, whether this will continue forever or not? Hubble’s famous law was formulated all the way back in 1929, and for the majority of the 20th century, scientists were seeking the answer to that very question.

Image credit: retrieved from John D. Norton at University of Pittsburgh, modified by me.

You see, the Universe originated from a hot, dense, very rapidly expanding state. It was full of matter and radiation, and over time it expanded, cooled, and the expansion rate began to slow. In addition, gravitational imperfections grew into galaxies and clusters of galaxies, or shrank into great cosmic voids.

From a time billions of years ago when the Universe was almost perfectly uniform, with no life, planets, stars or galaxies in it, we now have — on average — hundreds of billions of stars in each of hundreds of billions of galaxies, populating an observable Universe some 92 billion light years across. And it looks something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08LBltePDZw

Sure, the Universe started off expanding very rapidly, but it also started out with a tremendous amount of matter-and-energy in it. Over time, gravitation slowed the expansion rate down. And things are still expanding… for now.

But that’s our past history. What about the future?

You can imagine — as most scientists did for most of the 20th century — three possible scenarios:

1. Gravity wins. If there’s enough matter-and-energy, then gravitation could eventually overcome the initial expansion. The Universe will reach a maximum size where the expansion rate drops to zero, and then a contraction phase begins. Over enough time, the Universe will return to a hot, dense state, and ends in a fiery fate known as the Big Crunch.
2. Expansion wins. If there isn’t enough matter-and-energy, then gravitation fails to slow down the initial expansion sufficiently. Distant galaxies will continue to recede away, and even though the expansion rate drops, it will never reach zero and will never reverse itself. Eventually, everything will be so far apart that it will end in a state where all its matter is arbitrarily close to absolute zero: the Big Freeze.
3. The “Goldilocks” case. If the Universe had just one more proton in it, it would recollapse and end in a Big Crunch. If it had just one fewer proton, it would expand apart forever. But in a critical Universe, the expansion rate and gravity sit right on that edge. The expansion rate asymptotes to zero, but freezes at the slowest possible rate without recollapsing.

For a long time, we attempted to measure which of these three options described our Universe. Was it going to recollapse, was it going to “coast” forever, or was it the critical case?

Image credit: Pearson / Addison-Wesley.

Imagine our surprise when the data came in — just in 1998 — indicating that it was none of these options! Instead, the expansion rate isn’t going to keep dropping, but will asymptote to a finite, non-zero value.

This means that each and every galaxy, as it moves farther away from us, will recede faster and fasterover time, appearing to accelerate away!

Image credit: NASA & ESA, via http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9919k/.

In one sense, this is just the nature of the Universe, doing what it does by obeying the laws of physics. But in another, more thoughtful sense, this is incredibly depressing.

You see, in the three scenarios we had envisioned previously, if you left Earth in a rocket ship that could move at arbitrary speeds, you could always reach any galaxy in the observable Universe, given enough time. Sure, the more distant a galaxy was, the longer you’d have to travel to get there, but everything was reachable in principle, no matter how dim, faint or distant it was. Because gravity would decelerate the expansion rate over time, if you were dedicated enough, and traveled at a fast enough speed for a long enough time, you could inevitably run down anything in the Universe.

Image credit: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight.

But not if our Universe is accelerating. If something is receding from us right now at more than 299,792.458 km/s — faster than light speed — and it’s accelerating too, how could anything reach it? Even a photon, moving at the speed of light, wouldn’t be able to reach such a galaxy. Instead, anything beyond that point will do something that cosmologists call red out, which means they’re sufficiently redshifted that anything we do today could never, ever reach them, and only the light they emitted in the past will ever reach us. We are already causally disconnected from them.

And one incredibly frightening thing is that any galaxy with a redshift bigger than about 1.5 (which is notthat big a number) is already gone.

NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI).

Consider an image like this: 10,000 of the faintest, most distant galaxies we’ve ever discovered. By measuring their redshifts, we can determine (going back to Hubble’s law) precisely how far away these galaxies are.

And as it turns out, about 40% of the galaxies in this image are already unreachable, even for a beam of light that left today. If we zoom in to this region of space and imagine what these galaxies look like as far as “depth” goes, as in the video below, we’d find that everything left in the image after about the 0:38 second mark has already redded out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFkRCFvdtTw

And as the Universe continues on in time, more and more galaxies are redding out as the Universe continues to accelerate. With each second that goes by (on average) thousands of stars and their planetary systems cross that horizon forever, and leave our ability to reach them for all eternity. Of the hundreds of billions of galaxies (maybe even as many as a trillion) in our Universe today, only about 3% of them are still reachable. And every time a mere three years goes by, another one fades from our present reachability.

Image credit: Steve Bowers, via http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48545a0f6352a.

We can always hope that some type of controlled wormhole, or spacetime-bending faster-than-light travel can save us, but there’s no evidence that such an innovation — despite our best science fiction dreams — can ever be practically realized. Until then, we’d better plan on starting our journey sooner rather than later.

Because the expansion marches on.

Readability — An Arc90 Laboratory Experiment

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‘Jurassic Park’: How Have The Special Effects Held Up So Well?

Universal Pictures

Despite hitting theatres over two decades ago, the visual effects in 1993's “Jurassic Park” still hold up very well. The velociraptors, the T. Rex, and other dinosaurs are just as believable today as they were more than twenty years ago.

But why is that? How have Steven Spielberg's effects in “Jurassic Park” stood the test of time, while other movies have not aged so well?

When used properly, computer generated visual effects can help transport viewers into the world of the movie. Filmmakers can use VFX to build sets they could never build practically, or to render fantastic creatures and locales. When used poorly, though, CG imagery sticks out like a sore thumb. There’s nothing worse than being engrossed in a movie, only to be taken out of it by a bad or fake-looking piece of VFX.

In the early 1990s, movies were suddenly filled with VFX and barely any of it was up to snuff with the Industrial Light & Magic’s Oscar-winning work on “Jurassic Park.” It’s hard not to cringe looking back on some of those early efforts.

“Jurassic Park” helped ignite a revolution in Hollywood, one that saw movie studios rush to replace things like sets and creatures with computer generated. Spielberg’s film proved that almost anything could be realized with computers, and in many cases it could be achieved for less cost. It was the first step towards almost fully computer-animated films like “Avatar” and “Gravity,” but like any first steps there were a few stumbles.

As it turns out, the real secret to making VFX look realistic is lighting.

Universal Pictures

It’s no coincidence that many of the scenes featuring computer-generated dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” take place at night and in the rain. The weather and darkness helped mask what the filmmakers didn't want you to see -- that is, still fairly rudimentary computer generated creatures. Putting a dinosaur in the dark or behind an object went a long way towards convincing the audience that it was the real deal.

There's some debate in the VFX community as to how lighting should be used. "District 9" director Neill Blomkamp actually favours a completely opposite approach, playing up the harsh lighting to make the CGI look more realistic.

"We set out to work with digital creatures, lighting and compositing environments that are conducive to something photo real," Blomkamp told the LA Times in 2009. "My stuff tends to be [computer generated] in very harsh light, like sunlight. Harsh shadows. It feels real. Sometimes it’s easier to make stuff look photo real in that environment.”

Jurassic Park

Another secret of “Jurassic Park's” effects? Most of the dinosaurs were actually created using tradition practical effects, like animatronics and costuming. There is about 15 minutes worth of dinosaur footage in “Jurassic Park,” only six of which are computer-generated.

Most of the big shots featuring the Tyrannosaurus used a life-sized animatronic dino built by special creature effects guru Stan Winston (the guy behind the Xenomorph from "Aliens" and the titular "Predator." As well, many of the raptors were actually just men in suits.

Universal Pictures

Amazingly, "Jurassic Park" wasn't originally supposed to even have any computer-generated VFX. Spielberg and company originally planned to use a technique called Go Motion, a stop-motion animation technology developed by "Star Wars" effects guru Phil Tippett which added motion blur to the creature. However, after seeing early VFX tests put together by ILM without permission, Spielberg and company were convinced that CG was the way to go. Tippett stayed on as "Dinosaur Supervisor," overseeing the animation of the beasts.

via Tumblr

However filmmakers decide to create their computer-generated creatures, even today it's a huge challenge to make them look believable. Sometimes you're just better off taking a practical approach.

It's absolutely incredible that more than 20 years on, the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" still look as good as they do. Will we still say the same thing in another 20 years?