The week gone by saw the world celebrate the 25 th birthday of the internet on 23 rd August. On this day in 1991 , the public gained access for the first time to the World Wide Web, which had been designed & deployed by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland. But today’s GK Nugget is about something else. On 24 th Aug 2006 the International Astronomical Union clarified the definition of a “ planet ”. It said that a celestial body must meet the following criteria in order to qualify as a planet: 1) It must be round. 2) It must orbit the sun. 3) It must have “cleared the neighbourhood" of its orbit. This means that as a planet travels, its gravity sweeps and clears the space around it of other objects. Unfortunately, Pluto (which was discovered on Feb 18 th , 1930 ) doesn’t meet criteria #3 & therefore it was classified as a Dwarf Planet . For the common man, this was a shock, but amongst the circle of astronomers it wasn’t so surprisin...

Last week there was an article in the newspapers talking about the instant messenger ‘Hike’ getting another round of funding & becoming the next Indian Unicorn . But what exactly is a Unicorn ? So this weekend’s GK Nugget is going to simplify the start up space & Unicorns. Originally , a unicorn is a legendary horse-like creature that has a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. But the tech world uses the term to describe technology start ups which have a value of over a billion US dollars – which means if you had to buy the company, it would cost you that amount (The sales or profits of the company are not to be confused with its valuation – those are separate numbers.) India has a total of 10 companies that are considered Unicorns: Flipkart, Snapdeal, Shopclues, MuSigma, PayTm, Zomato, Ola, Quikr, InMobi & the latest addition, Hike . According to CB Insights (a venture capital database) there are 170 Unicorns in the wo...

I'm sure you're enjoying the long weekend with our 70th Independence Day being celebrated on Monday. In honour of our great nation, here are some amazing facts about our Independence Day. Other countries that celebrate their Independence on 15th August  include South Korea  (from Japan) in 1945, Bahrain  (from UK) in 1971 & Republic Of Congo  (from France) in 1960. The national flag was hoisted first on August 7, 1906 at the Parsee Bagan Square in Calcutta. The flag was composed of horizontal strips of red, yellow and green. The red strip at the top had eight white lotuses embossed on it in a row. The green strip had a white sun on the left and a white crescent and star on the right. The current flag  has three colours in it. The top strip saffron stands for courage and sacrifice ; the middle portion white for peace, truth and purity  and green for faith, fertility and chivalry . The blue Ashok Chakra at the centre of the fl...

The world’s biggest sporting extravaganza is on top of us again. The 31 st edition of the Olympics is being held on the South American continent for the very 1 st time . The Games will run from 5 th to 21 st August 2016 in Brazil. 11,239 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees , including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part. With 306 sets of medals , the games will feature 28 Olympic sports . These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city of Rio de Janeiro & at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil's largest city), Belo Horizonte , Salvador , Brasília (Brazil's capital), and Manaus . While the Indian media has extensively covered the Indian contingent participating in Rio, this week’s GK nugget – while wishing the team all the very best – will focus on some trivia about the Olympics as a whole. Here’s goes: The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world ...

So you’re an expat and a guest in our country? Welcome and I hope you have an enjoyable time. But let’s face it, this country of 1.3 billion people isn’t the easiest to navigate and takes some getting used to. Let technology come to your rescue and help you get what you want quickly, easily & cheaply (in most cases). So here’s a list of 12 must have Apps for Expats that makes life easier for them here in India. (I’ve given links to their websites – depending on the phone that you are using you can either download the apps by searching in the App Store or Google Play or be redirected from their websites.) 1)   Ola / Uber      Need to hail a cab? Conveniently log onto the Uber app or the Ola app. Both apps allow you to pay using credit cards though Ola also lets you pay cash (I’ve been told that Uber also accepts cash in India). Both apps also accept payment via mobile wallets like PayTM & MobiKwik (digital wallets – details below). ...

It doesn't matter whether you fly every week or once in 6 months, we all remember our 1st time on an airplane . And we all remember our 1st time on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet . But it could be the end of the runway for the iconic humped jetliner as Boeing plans to halve production of the jumbo jets, to 6 a year, with a possibility of stopping production soon. With that background, I thought we'll take a flight down history lane and reminisce about the world's most recognizable plane . The 747 was in the skies before the Concorde (remember that plane?) & before man set foot on the moon (The Boeing 747 first flew in February 1969, just five months before Apollo 11 landed on the moon).  Since it's 1st commercial flight on 22nd Jan 1970 (with Pan Am Airlines), over 1,500 of these planes have been built.   Building an airliner bigger than those of its competitors was a bold move & a huge commercial risk that required borrowing some $2 billion fr...

How's your Sunday going? This week has seen the year's biggest fad develop  - No, I'm not talking about the excitement around Kabali . Instead I'm talking about Pokémon Go .  So this weekend's GK nugget is about this augmented reality game that is making people run around their neighbourhoods with their smartphones held high. First up, what is Pokémon? Pokémon is the name of a game released by Nintendo 20 years ago . It's a cult classic and led to many video game sequels, TV shows, movies & merchandise being sold. So why the excitement 20 years later? Nintendo has added a new twist to the game, using new age technologies which are easily available in smart phones (cameras, GPS & augmented reality capability) . So now people are downloading the app on their mobile phones to play the new version - Pokémon Go . And what's so different about the new version? When you start the game, Pokémon Go  uses your smart phone's camera ...