Voter Registration Drive

As elections are on the way, we see the problems around us. Especially in Pune where I am in, I hear form many people that they would like change. But then, most of them also don't have election voter ID card or if they have it, it is from their old address and they will not be able to vote this time unless they travel long distance back home.

So, we decided to set up some voter registration drive with the help of few volunteers and currently it is planned that we do this for every weekend in and around Pune.

If you would like to volunteer for such a cause, please contact me and I will be more than happy to coordinate and organise. It does not has to be every weekend. Even one weekend for 4-5 hours would be good.

Prime Minister Relief Fund - Accounts

After all the unfortunate incident at Uttarakhand (UK) and the ongoing effort to provide donations and other benefits, I saw several posts and also in news paper that PM has called for contribution to the relief fund.

So, I checked for past history and this money was utilized. Here is the link to Audited version of the expenses. Do check yourself too.

http://pmindia.gov.in/pmfunds.php

Here is the table copied from the link about.

Year	Total Income (Fresh contributions, Interest Income, Refunds)	Total Expenditure (Relief for Riots, Flood, Drought, Earthquakes, Cyclone, Tsunami, Medical etc.)	Balance
2008-09 (A)	353.49	216.31	1611.62
2009-10 (A)	185.11	120.26	1652.83
2010-11 (A)	155.61	182.31	1625.64
2011-12 (A)	200.79	128.41	1698.00
2012-13 (A)	211.41	181.52	1727.79

 A = Audited

It looks like fund received more money than actually spent. I am not sure whether we had less disaster in the country or we have more generous people. But something surely missing (and fishy)

Any knowledgeable person would like to share insight about it would be great.

Blackberry z10 discount deal

Saw in the news paper that blackberry in India is having discount of up to 11,000 INR for the exchange offer.

At first I thought that it is as lucrative as the deal for SamSung. But on further research it does not seems to be that good.

• It is not standard 11 K discoung. It is upto 11K. So, if you return blackberry curve, you may only get 3K discount
• The price of the base blackberry itself is very high
• If you deduct 3K from 37K, the phone is very costly even at 34K. 
• Galaxy Note 2 was 27K after 10K discount

Here is the related news.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/blackberry-launches-exchange-scheme-for-z10-offers-discount-up-to-rs-11000/403426-11.html

I doubt that in the long run, blackberry will be able to sell more phones.

Also, I am not convinced about paying more for blackberry services when you can get all your email and chat on unlimited internet (EDGE) for 150 Rupees.

The ROI seems to be not just there.

Even though I have used blackberry for more than 10 years, I have moved to android phones. Even 10K simple phone from Micromaxx is much better than what is offered by blackberry.