Yen is the equivalent of cents, not dollars, thats why the confusion, yen doesnt have a concept of 100 cents=1 xxx. In Rupees case it is an equivalent of dollars, 100 paisas = 1 Rupee.
So in this case 60x is a reasonable assumption except not including the Purchasing Power Parity.
IITs have been increasing seats at a rate that is often unsustainable. During my stay at IITB from 2007-2012, I saw the number of undergraduate freshmen increase from about 500 to about 900. I think the largest issue has been scaling infrastructure and faculty.
And no, IITs don't have any nobel laureate to boast about, largely because of the lack of core sciences and graduate/post-graduate programs when compared to MIT/Stanford etc.
>So this seems like a great strategy to improve market discovery for Amazon.
I am guessing if walmart does something similar, it is not brilliant, but in fact evil. I don't understand the enthusiasm for things like this if it is a brand that we like.
Remember walmart tried to open its own bank, guess what happened?
Not sure if you are trolling or you really believe that IITs should be producing Nobel laureates. Nobel prizes are given for: Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics and Medicine, not engineering. IITs are engineering institutes - famed largely for their Undergraduate program. IISc has a much better core sciences program than any IIT.
Not saying it should produce nobel laureates. All this talk about as if IIT is the only place in India, when the real work and research is done by graduates of other universities.
And nice cop out saying engineering is not science.
> the real work and research is done by graduates of other universities
9 not 10 Indians have been honored by Nobel Price, out of which only 4 are for sciences. Out of these 4 only CV Raman did his research work in India and that too before IITs were even conceived[1]. So no, if Nobel prices are the criteria for your judgement, you are wrong. And I am offended, you are insulting my work and that of my peers and professors. May be you have done groundbreaking research in your life or have seen that happening in other institutes, it is most definitely true. I do not wish to say that IITs are the only institutes in India. If you check my last comment you will notice that I have explicitly mentioned that IISc has a better Core Sciences curriculum.
If you believe that we do not do real work and research, either back your claim or keep your prejudice to yourself. IITs are involved in research work[2] and we do not do fictional/worthless work. I have no idea what qualifies as real research work for you, but I am sure you will find a lot of decent research work happening in IITs if you are willing to shed your prejudice.
[And I do not believe that this is the right place to discuss this. We can discuss it here if you wish to continue, you can leave a comment on my profile: https://plus.google.com/112310425433589490684/posts]
I'm sure most people, probably all people are ok with it. It's the difference between hiking out to your mailbox just to throw useless paper into the recycling bin (why can't my USPS mailman do that for me?) and pollute the environment versus ignoring the small text comment on the right side of your monitor while you look at lolcats.
>For example, while Amazon may step on the shoes of the likes of Borders, look at what it is doing for consumers. On a global scale, we should be focusing on improving the lives of people, but at the same time we should continue to promote competition.
The same people who love Amazon are the same people who hate walmart and complain walmart is putting local businesses out of business. When in fact, Amazon pretty much grew their business by hiring walmart executives. And also while you look at what amazon is doing for consumers, also look at what it is doing for the enviroment.
Amazon has done two environmentally positive things that I can think of off the top of my head.
1. Pushing for frustration-free packaging. Less waste if the packaging isn't designed to attract eyeballs and deter shoplifters in a retail environment.
2. When scheduling grocery deliveries with Amazon Fresh, you can see when they will already have a truck in your neighborhood. My groceries essentially carpool on their way to my house.
So in this case 60x is a reasonable assumption except not including the Purchasing Power Parity.