Working hours

I am going to stick to this principle in office from now on. The work is estimated / planned for 8 hours and in a proper estimate, it is always calculated for a resource with average expertise on the skills. So I have to finish the same work in 5 or 6 hours if I am to be an efficient / excellent resource.

If this is not achievable, it is time to correct by asking out for guidance / help from managers.

Though it is a late realisation, it is atleast in the direction.

Acre - etymology

Acre is a common unit of measurement for agricultural lands. Its origin is explained as follows.

The word "acre" is derived from old English æcer (originally meaning "open field", cognate to German Acker, Latin ager and old Greek agros).
The acre was selected as approximately the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in one day. This explains one definition as the area of a rectangle with sides of length one chain and one furlong. A long narrow strip of land is more efficient to plough than a square plot, since the plough does not have to be turned so often. The word "furlong" itself derives from the fact that it is one furrow long.

1 acre = 4046.86 sq.m.
1 hectare = 100x 100 sq.m.
1 acre = 0.4046 hectare

[ref : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre]

old joke... but a good one...

A woman awakens during the night to find that her husband was not in
bed. She goes downstairs to look for him.
She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in
front of him. He appears to be in deep thought, just staring at the
wall.
She watches as he wipes a tear from his eye and takes a sip of his
coffee. "What's the matter, dear?" she whispers as she steps into the
room.
"Why are you down here at this time of night?" The husband looks up
from his coffee, "Do you remember 20 years ago when we were dating, and
you were only 18?" he asks solemnly.
"Yes I do" she replies.
The husband pauses; the words were not coming easily.
"Do you remember when your father caught us in the garden?"
"Yes, I remember" said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside
him.
The husband continued.. "Do you remember when he showed the shotgun in
my face and said, 'Either you marry my daughter, or I'll send you to
jail for 20 years?" "I remember that too" she replied softly.
He wiped another tear from his cheek and said, "I would have been
released today"!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

White rice and Brown rice

Difference between white rice and Brown rice

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food of over half the world's people and is grown on approximately 146 million hectares, more than 10 percent of total available land. Total world production is about 535 million tons of unmilled or rough rice (paddy). Ninety seven percent (97 percent) of the world's rice is grown by less developed countries, mostly in Asia. China and India produce about 55 percent of the total crop (IRRI, 1997).

Rice is one of the cheapest sources of food energy and protein. Most rice is consumed as white polished grain, despite the valuable food content of brown rice. These nutrients are lost when bran is removed in milling. Brown rice, once the form of rice eaten before the advent modern rice mills, has lost its appeal due to consumer preference changes for colour, nutty taste and other traits. Health-conscious people in European countries where rice is not a staple prefer brown rice. Drawbacks of brown rice are it requires more fuel for cooking than white rice, it may cause digestive disturbances and the oil in the bran tends to turn rancid and reduce storage life (Henry and Kettlewell, 1996).

ref : http://www.fao.org/inpho/content/compend/text/ch10.htm

The retail supply chain revolution

GDP - 22% agriculture

organised retail supply chain

laws prevent this. needs intervention of govt. no incentive for farmers to improve efficiency as govt regulates the prices. 10% of agri GDP lost in wastages. archaic infrastructure - inadequate to prevent wastages. private participation will ensure the infrastructure to improve due to capitalist motives to gain and hence will improve the efficiency. main opposition is the inevitable closing of the small popandmom shops. but there will be other job oppurtunities due to the organised retailing business and also the middle income group will benefit due to the savings. 13 states and 3 uts already passed laws allowing pvt players. central is lingering on the decision to allow FDI in this sector.