According to a report by AFP, candidates with names such as Adolf Lu Hitler-Marak, Frankenstein Momin, Predecessor Rumnong, and Process Sawkmie are set to contest the upcoming elections in Meghalaya.

Nasscom has posted an interesting interview with Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, who talks about the status of the program and some of the imminent changes that we are likely to see in the next few years as a result of Aadhar.

Harvard has sent a team of ~fifty researchers to study the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. The focus of the study is on how the government accommodates the [large number] million pilgrims who flock to the city, from the perspective of infrastructure, health, and other services.

Amidst the usual faff over Aakash 2 (and its perennially imminent release) is the following nugget by the Telecom and IT minister, Kapil Sibal:

"Recently, we had this very, very unfortunate event in Delhi and I called Rajat and said I want a technological solution of the safety of girls and women in our country."

Silly, but funny. This is a sketch from the 1967 comedy show, At last the 1948 show, and the actress—with the voice like a "a choir of frantic mice"—is Aimi MacDonald.

Penguin India and its subsidiary, Author Solutions, have set up a company to enable aspiring Indian authors to self-publish their books and distribute them across the world. The company, named Partridge Publishing, provides services that cover all facets of publishing from editing to design and marketing to sales.

If you're a vegetarian, you might be able to relate to some of these anecdotes in a BBC article subtitled, "What do vegetarians eat in a country where refusing meat is regarded as a sign of madness?". They include such doozies as:

In South Africa, requesting vegetables is like swearing at the wait-staff. One bewildered waiter told me haughtily, "But, vegetables is what food eats."

According to an article in DNA, a significant number of smokers with deeper pockets are switching to e-cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes which are also known as personal vaporisers have been steadily gaining in popularity in the West, initially as a way of breaking the smoking habit, with the added benefit of being completely smoke (and stink) free.

Well, India may not be one of the worst place to be born into on this planet. Worser might be a closer approximation if you go by a "quality-of-life" index published in The Economist.

Indians over a certain age might remember "Giant Robot" (or "Giant Robo") with a degree of nostalgia. Back in the day when Doordarshan was the Hobson's choice of TV viewers, we were treated to some pretty exotic features such as this Japanese TV show which I believe was telecast at around 7:00 pm.