Anything Could Be Outsourced to India

India is known for their cheap labour plus they have lots of people that are highly skilled in the computer technology sector. Hence, lots of call centres for software/hardware/information technology businesses from throughout the world are based in India. India is known as the outsourcing king in the world.

Besides the hi-tech sector, a city in India is gaining fame for outsourcing in the health sector. In the city of Anand in India, there is this Akanksha Infertility & IVF Clinic based at Kaival Hospital where it's known for a unique service - outsourcing of pregnancies.

Their mode of operation - will match a lady in Anand city with an infertile couple which could come from United States, Taiwan, Britain and local Indians. The surrogate mother will then be cared for by a team of maids, cooks and doctors during pregnancy and delivery. Post-natal counselling would be provided too. The cost - US$20,000.

Commercial surrogacy (also known as 'wombs for rent'), the jargon for such business, has opened an avenue for the ladies in Anand to earn an income where it will take 15 years for an average lady in Anand. Nowadays, the list of future surrogate mothers are neverending.

What will other countries outsource to India in time to come?
Reading: Pregnancy becomes latest job outsourced to India - USA Today

Tags: Akanksha Infertility & IVF Clinic, Kaival Hospital, IVF, Infertility, In-Vitro Fertilization, India, Anand, Outsourcing King, Outsourced Pregnancies, Surrogate Mother, Commercial Surrogacy, Wombs For Rent

Banished English Words

A university in USA, Lake Superior State University, has banished a number of words that have been nominated by people from all over the world. Reasons for banishing such words:-

* Overused
* Non-word trying to worm its way into the English language
* Misused
* Out of context
* Youth lingo overuse
* Pointless phrase

Some of the words being banished:-
-PERFECT STORM
-WEBINAR
-WATERBOARDING
-ORGANIC
-WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING
-AUTHOR/AUTHORED
-POST 9/11
-SURGE
-GIVE BACK
-BLACK FRIDAY
-BACK IN THE DAY
-RANDOM
-SWEET
-DECIMATE
-EMOTIONAL
-POP
-IT IS WHAT IT IS
-UNDER THE BUS

If you have any words that ought to be in the same list (or it was hard for you to spell it, remember the meaning of it, etc.) you can nominate/submit it to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit_word.php
Tags: Lake Superior State University, Banished Words, English Language

Chelsea Blasted FIFA

Chelsea has sounded out that the ridiculous African Nations Cup being played at Ghana in the month of January/February 2008 as being crazy. Their Chairman, Bruce Buck, has blasted FIFA to deal with the tournament's schedule.

Why oh why Chelsea? Why the sudden call for a change of dates? Can a club which has a rich owner change another continenent's tournament schedule just to fit one club? How come Chelsea felt that brunt of this tournament?

One conclusion - you guys don't have a balanced team in this case. Harry Redknapp, the manager of Portsmouth did mention the same issue as Portsmouth will lose the services of at least 5 African players. You have contracted the players without proper planning of future tournaments that could affect your team's selection. Arsenal will lose 2 players too. Hopefully Man Utd can capitalise on this.......hehe!

Next time, hire only players who are not full international players and you won't have to deal with such an issue. So, if you have been lousy with your planning and purchases, don't try to shift the blame to others.
Tags: Chelsea, Bruce Buck, Harry Redknapp, Portsmouth, FIFA, African Nations Cup, Ghana, Africa, Football, Soccer

Actual Credit Cards Liability

Upon reading the newspaper article on Most unaware of RM250 limited liability - Stars, found it perplexed that financial institutions kept quiet on this Clause 13.2 of Bank Negara Malaysia’s ("BNM") Credit Card Guideline.

It was stated that if you have reported on the loss of credit card to the financial institutions as soon as possible, you would not be liable for any expenses that was incurred fraudulently but up to a limit of RM250 only.

It was also mentioned that financial institutions have kept quiet on this Clause 13.2 but have added this instead "that all transactions carried out before the loss of the cards are reported to the banks, are deemed to be carried out by the cardholders".

One has to be aware of the time limit for "as soon as possible" as stated in BNM's Clause 13.2. I would reckon that besides the "as soon as possible", the other aspect is if you can prove your whereabout when your credit card was used fraudulently. How can a bank force you to pay up for a fraudulent charge when you were actually at another part of the city.

The financial institutions are declaring profits of up to hundreds of millions per financial year but they will still go to this extent of charging their customers fraudulently. Maybe that's how the financial institutions raked up those millions in profits, by profiteering from uninformed customers. Not uninformed but purposely don't inform or misinformed.
Tags: Bank Negara Malaysia, Credit Card Guideline, Credit Card, Financial Institutions, Bank, Fraudulent

Relaxing Sunday

Today I had another much relaxed Sunday which was totally different from those busy drama weekends. By 12pm plus, we were out of church already. Went to Sri Petaling to have our Ipoh Chicken rice with. Quite costly for 3 families - RM87.

By 2.30pm I was back home and went to sleep around 3pm ........ hehe. Woke up around 9am in the morning and went to sleep 6 hours later. That's life!

Woke up at 5.30pm and then out for dinner at the nearby food court.
Tags: Relax, Sri Petaling, Ipoh Chicken Rice

Catching Up With Good Life

Saturday, 29 Dec 2007 - a really good rest day for me. Had been missing this sort of Saturday since the month of Oct 2007 owing to the Christmas dramas. Enjoyed those busy days too and today was a deserved Saturday for me.

Woke up at 10.00am and walked out to a mamak restaurant for my breakfast after a good time of procrastination, ding dong here and there and finally arrived at the restaurant around 11.00am. Ordered a roti telur with a teh tarik and sat down there reading the Star newspaper till 1.30pm. In between, took another cup of teh tarik.

Afternoon - more resting period ........... hehe till I'm so lazy to go to gym.

In the evening, went for dinner at a nearby restaurant with 3 other families. No time for photos as we were catching up on lost time with one another. Even though all of them were involved but then they were in different dramas thus missed this kind of get-together.

Tomorrow night will be New Year's Eve and the nearest big event to me will be held at The Boulevard, Mid Valley. The big event is called the Mid Zone Countdown 2008.

Where would you be on New Year's Eve?
Tags: Resting, Mamak, Roti Telur, Teh Tarik, Mid Valley, The Boulevard, New Year's Eve, Mid Zone Countdown 2008

Broadband Service in Malaysia

All this while I'm only using a dial-up service while at home. The service is just nice for me even I though I blog a lot. Only one issue, it's too costly maintaining a dial-up service with my long usage.

I'm interested to sign up for a broadband service but not too sure on which service provider should I go for. Following options:-

* Celcom Broadband
* Maxis Broadband
* tmnet Streamyx
* Izzi
* Netlynx (limited area coverage)

While still deciding on which service provider, I read about the comparison between the service providers in the following websites:-
* Celcom Broadband vs. Maxis Broadband
* Celcom Broadband: RM68 Broadband In Malaysia

Tags: Broadband, Celcom Broadband, Maxis Broadband, Streamyx, Izzi, Netlynx