Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Chintamani Bird Sanctuary - a Hidden Gem (or Forest) in Kolkata City


Want to find green in the midst of Kolkata, then your destination could be Chintamani Bird Sanctuary (চিন্তামণি কর পাখীরালয়) i
n Narendrapur. Truly speaking it's a hidden gem of Kolkata and dream destination for bird lovers or watchers inside the metro, where birds dwell in the long trees or come here every winter. 

It is like a Wakanda, the hidden city of Marvel comics. 

Monday, August 15, 2022

Adani's Plan for Private 5G Focuses on Certain States Only

Just before the start of 5G auction of India, Gautam Adani owned Adani Group had cleared the fact that they will not enter into commercial mobile space and they did the exact in the Spectrum Auction 2022. Adani Data Networks Ltd (ADNL), an arm of Adani Enterprises picked up spectrum in the mmWave band i.e. 26 GHz band only, and that too only in key 6 circles - Andra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu where industrialization is in massive scale and the scope of private 5G would be huge. They even did not spend money to win spectrum in Delhi-NCR circle. That's definitely not an aggressive bidding from Adani Data Networks. 

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

5G Auction of India: Adani Aiming New Vertex with Private 5G Solutions

26th July, 2022 can be a big day for Indian telecom. Well great golden days of Indian telecom is long gone. Presently only three private telcos and one govt. backed telco (BSNL & MTNL merger is unofficially done) are existing. But with the introduction of 5G, the telecom boom may reappear in the industry despite more debts will put on the carriers. 

The auction for 5G spectrum will start in few hours. Despite government brings huge platter of 72000 MHz of airwaves across 9 bands (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3.3 GHz, and 26 GHz), there are only four bidders - Jio, Airtel, Vi and Adani Data Networks. 

Saturday, June 25, 2022

How Mysuru King Tipu Sultan Got Calcutta Connection?

Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan has never put his feet in Kolkata, but there are two masjids in Kolkata, of his name, bearing the legacy of the Tiger of Mysore - one at Esplanade/ Dharmatala and another one at Tollyganj. For the uninitiated, Tipu Sultan was a ruler of Mysore, and fought against British during 1700's. Today Kolkata does remember him and his successors. Prince Anwar Shah Road and Prince Golam Mohammad Shah Road in South Kolkata bears the name of his son. But what is the link between Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and Kolkata?
George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

Friday, June 24, 2022

Top Biriyani Houses in Kolkata


Without any introduction it is obvious that Biriyani is the most popular dish in India, though it has several local varieties. Online food order & delivery company Swiggy notes that Indians ordered whopping 115 biriyanis per minute in 2021. In 2024 that number increased to 158 per minute, and 2024 saw 83 millions of Biryani order at Swiggy . They also noted that 4.25 lakh new Swiggy users chose it as their first order. On a funny note, Swiggy also remembers that their delivery partner travelled longest 39.3 Km to deliver biriyani in 2021. 

Biriyani came from the Persian word, 'Beryan' which means 'fried before cooking'. 

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Alliance vs Jio Fiber : Tariff Comparison

West Bengal’s top broadband provider, Alliance Broadband has expanded their coverage outside Bengal. It is now available in Bangaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. 

For the uninitiated, Alliance Broadband has became the top broadband player in West Bengal for last 7-10 years, beating the state-owned BSNL. Technically Alliance was offering cable broadband while BSNL relied on ADSL technology initially, but both now have moved to Fiber in most of the areas. Fiber offers faster data than cable or ADSL, and maintenance charge is also low. For last some years the cost of rolling out fiber has been declining due to huge deployment across the globe. 

At present I have both Jio Fiber and Alliance Fiber connection at my home. Downtime is rare with Jio, while Alliance has some 30hr+ downtime in my area, thanks to local operator. Also during thunderstorm Jio never goes off - making it seamless internet experience. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Jio Updates: Jio Enters into Satellite Internet Biz

This update which came in February, 2022 is actually a big update, though Jio did it silently - Jio enters into satnet biz by founding Jio Space Technology Limited (JSTL) by creating a JV with Luxembourg based SES (Société Européenne des Satellites). 

Jio owns 51% of the JV, while SES holds the remaining 49%. SES is already an established player in satcom business and newly formed entity will use multi-orbit space networks that is a combination of geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations capable of delivering multi-gigabit links (upto 100Gbps) and capacity to enterprises, mobile backhaul and retail customers across the length and breadth of India and neighbouring regions.