This Week I Learned - Week #147

This Week I Learned -

* With REST APIs for spell checking, computer vision (including detecting if image is racy or pornographic in nature), face detection & recognition, emotion recognition, motion detection & tracking faces in video, speech recognition & synthesis, voice recognition, Microsoft's Project Oxford is amazing!

* json2csharp site takes JSON as an input and provides you the C# object model.

* The Firefox 1.0 installable was around 4.5 Mb when it came out in 2004

* Google CEO Larry Page tends to focus on how to make a sizable business out of whatever problem this or that technology might solve....he knows the right questions to ask....a question he likes to ask: “Why can’t this be bigger?”

* ..the most valuable asset on the WhatsApp platform is the free user-generated data, mostly generated real-time, by close to a billion users that it has worldwide, without paying for it. “There is a lot of consumer intent and interest which is captured on WhatsApp.”

* The Indian IT industry created 3 million jobs for achieve the first $100 billion

* With over 100 development and delivery centers worldwide and approximately 219,300 employees as of September 30, 2015, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500

* According to LinkedIn, the top three hottest in-demand-skills in the Indian job market are:
Cloud and Distributed Computing
Statistical Analysis and Data Mining
Storage Systems and Management

* One out of three Swedish companies based in India feel that 'not paying tax was a competitive disadvantage'.  Scam-tainted & now defunct Enron paid $20 million as "educational gifts" in 2001. Critics consider these payments to be bribes to clear the project

* Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) claim settlement at 98.19 per cent is better than the entire private sector’s 89.40 per cent.

* India is a sub-4 metre paradise as compact cars form 70% of market. From 34 models in FY12 to 47 models in FY16, in five years, the industry has added thirteen new models. 9 years ago, this segment opened up in India after the government lowered the excise duty to 12 per cent, compared to 30 per cent for bigger cars.

* The Sensex has slid 18.5 per cent from its January 2015 peak, nearing the 20 per cent level that some investors consider bear-market territory. The worst start to a year for global stocks extended into a third week as oil sank to a fresh 12-year low. Brent crude oil briefly fell below $28 a barrel as Iran pledged to boost exports and Nomura Holdings Inc predicted a potential drop to $25. A 14.7 per cent fall in exports in December last year, coupled with a widening of the trade deficit by 27.1 per cent during the same period, hit sentiment ... - The Business Standard

How the different Mutual Fund categories have fared over the years - Value Research Online

* When the Sensex crashed to 8,160 in March 2009 due to global economic crisis, it was back to 14,300-level two months later in May — a recovery of 75 per cent. Within seven months, it touched 17,300-level, or 112 per cent.

* Fund managers say the 10 most invested companies are also top companies in their respective sector. Hence, MFs are bound to have high exposure to these. Currently, there are about 460 equity-related schemes offered by the MF sector. The asset size being managed is Rs 4 lakh crore.

* January 26 marks the formal adoption of the Constitution, an extraordinarily extensive document that sets out the essential framework for governance and society in India. Critically, the foundation of this, the world's longest written Constitution, rests on a guarantee to ensure equality before the law for all Indians, irrespective of caste, religion, race, place of birth or gender....Partial results of the fourth National Family Health Survey in 13 states and two Union Territories show that the sex ratio has worsened, a poor reflection of the regressive nature of Indian society.

* The Shah Bano case - Shah Bano, a Muslim mother of five children, was divorced by her husband in 1978. She filed a criminal suit in which the Supreme Court ruled in her favour and she won the right to alimony from her husband. However, the then Congress government, enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The most controversial provision of the Act was that it gave a Muslim woman the right to maintenance for the period of iddat (about three months) after the divorce, and shifted the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Wakf Board. The Act was seen as discriminatory as it denied divorced Muslim women the right to basic maintenance which women of other faiths had recourse to under secular law.

* India’s Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that the country’s large cities must provide shelter for 0.1 percent of the population....This winter, Delhi expanded its shelter system to accommodate more than 18,000, but the number of homeless is vast — likely more than 100,000... a sprawling gray market has taken shape around the city’s vast unmet need for shelter. In some places, it breeds ...a “sleep mafia, who controls who sleeps where, for how long, and what quality of sleep... What the homeless in Delhi need: 2 rupees to use public toilets, 5 rupees to bathe, 5 rupees for a half-cup of tea, 10 rupees for half a quilt - NY Times

* Dharwad Pedha,Tirupati Ladoo and the Hyderabad Haleem are among the few ‘foodstuffs’ with region-specific GI (Geographical Indicator) Tag.

* Once thought to be deaf and ear-less, praying mantises actually hear ultrasonic or high-frequency sounds through just one ear located deep in their chest.

* “Inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work.” - Chuck Close