Puru Pratap's design to spruce up the Google logo for a day (see below) beat out designs from other Indian contestants. It ran on the home page Saturday and Pratap got a laptop for himself and the equivalent of $2,100 for his school. His counterpart in America, meanwhile, will take home a laptop, $15,000 for herself and $25,000 for her school. Granted, a dollar goes further in India than in the U.S. But $2,100 vs $40,000 is a huge divide.

Asked Shalini Singh at the Indian website TechGoss: "Are we children of a lesser Google?" Maybe. Or perhaps Google is trying to deliver India's kids a lesson in the harsh realities of globalization.

(Pic by Anil Jadhav)

The popular Facebook application version had already been banned by the social network, both in the US and in India, but a new version called Wordscraper appeared, but now competes with official versions from Mattel and US rightsholder Hasbro. (Image by k1v1n)

The diesel-electric is fitted with a parallel hybrid system integrated into the transmission and provides drive power at start, additional power on command, stop/start functionality and regenerative braking capabilities. For the time being, enjoy that sweet teal train-like goodness seemingly following the GM methodology of making sure everyone knows you're driving a hybrid via large stenciled letters on the side. Also, there's a hood scoop. We're not entirely sure why that's important, but yeah, there it is. We'll be getting more details for you when things open up officially. For now, we have to work on outrunning the Detroit police.

The accused, Lakshmana Kailas K, has sued the ISP, Airtel, for more than $4 million, according to Techgoss.

But thanks to the vagaries of Indian law, if Lakshmana has a case, it's not because he was arrested for an act the right to free speech should protect. It's because he was wrongly accused of that crime.

The story goes like this. After a Google user posted a profane picture of the Hindu saint Shivaji to Google's social network, Orkut, Indian authorities contacted Google to ask for his IP address. Google complied. Then, Indian cops took that information to the ISP, Airtel. Airtel handed over a physical address that it claimed corresponded with Google's data. But it was the wrong physical address, leading to Lakshmana Kailas K's subsequent arrest, harassment and beatings.

Here's the scary part. If Airtel had been more competent in its record-keeping, Indian authorities would have likely arrested and beaten the actual poster, and you'd never have heard about any of this.

(Photo by phauly)

What about you, Mormons? (Ha ha ha "multiple multiple" ignorant polygamy joke should go here but too lazy.) And what's with Austin, Texas being the capital of Ann Coulter fuck-or-hatefuck fantacizing? Okay, also assfucking= Tampa. Angelina=Toronto, followed closely by Turkey again! And, oh god someone stop us before we do this all day but here's something that may shed light on Dov Charney: masturbation = Montreal.

Except that I'm back — thanks again, Rick Abruzzo, for writing Valleywag last week.

Yes, it's a good Monday to return to work. Here's Valleywag friend Theo DP to stoke your xenophobia with an item to remind you that techies aren't the only ones losing jobs to India.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. Or an overtired No Child Left Behind tutor working the third shift in India. After learning that more than 2,000 schoolchildren have been interacting with 250 unscreened tutors based in India who claimed they were in Texas, the NYC Dept. of Education suspended the $2.4M-and-counting contract of TX-based Socratic Learning (aka SL INC), who is apparently the 'US based market leader' owner of Tutors World Wide India (TWWI). Socratic Learning came to investigators' attention after allegations were made that the company illegally offered computers to parents of students who completed its tutoring program, an event which nets the company about $2,175 per student. According to a recent Usenet post, TWWI offers tutors 8,000 rupees per month, or about $177.

Photo by Ashbloem [Flickr]

[TechGoss]

Google tapped Yahoo's India CTO, Prasad Bharat Ram, as its head of R&D. The hire looks like not only a chance to steal talent from the company's main rival, but also a way to bring someone who could pull in more researchers. Google hopes Ram can take its 100-odd research staffers and reproduce his role building a team of 750 for Yahoo.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, India finds that three in four of its engineering graduates lack the technical skill, English fluency, or teamwork ability needed in engineering jobs. That's a minor reason that Americans are working in India.

Google caches Yahoo!'s top geek in India [DNA India]
Skills Gap Hurts Technology Boom in India [NY Times]

• Microsoft and other Seattle tech companies import their brainpower, says the Seattle Times in an article that imagines the city going bust. Thankfully for Seattle, if Microsoft wanted to move out of the city to the source of its employees, it'd have to search for that source, and we all know how Microsoft does at search. [Seattle Times]
• Watch the headlines about Silicon Valley long enough and you'll notice that India loves to name the "next Silicon Valley." Most recently, that's Project Nano City (ugh, I know), a town entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia (co-founder of Hotmail) plans to force-clone in northern India. Of course, by the time his 10-to-15-year project congeals, the tech world will be abuzz about some exciting new field (say, the mojito industry), and the city's planned industries of nanotech, pharms, computer tech and energy will be dead. [Gulf Times]
• Like electropop and the Transformers, solar power is hot again. [San Jose Mercury News]

India's per capita GDP is $3300. Fifty million of its billion people are online. But hey, can't blame Nicholas for not scoping out his intended market. He was too busy finding just the right shade of orange for his little toy.

India rejects One Laptop Per Child [The Register]

Most damning are the figures around India's "new economy" of IT work — just 1.3 million of its 400 million workers are in IT and business processing. And the Indian business stars the American press pimps, such as losing state chief minister candidate Chandrababu Naidu, are no match for a dissatisfied lower class.

But on the up side, the Indus Valley learned one thing from Silicon Valley — no matter how bad things really are, always act like tomorrow's your big break.

The myth of the new India [NYT]

Apple drops out of India, cancelling 3000 planned jobs and sacking the staff, before CEO Steve ever got to visit. [CIOL]

Meanwhile, IBM moves into India. Tomorrow, IBM's CEO speaks in the former palace of a maharajah. A touch of symbolism? [NYT]

IBM, by the way, was convicted years ago for co-operating with Nazi Germany, something Yahoo CEO Terry Semel should worry about. [Sploid]

More wrap-up after the jump-down.

Terry Semel's new salary ($1, announced last week) is less the punishment he deserves and more a way to keep his taxes down as he collects millions in new Yahoo stock options. [Forbes]

Forbes admits what Google's CEO (pictured) won't: "But as charming as he is, [Eric] Schmidt runs Google about as much as much as the Dalai Lama runs the world's spiritual life." Oh snap. [Forbes]

Granted, the rest of that article gives a little too much credit to all the self-styled Googlestars manning the cubicles.

Google CFO George Reyes's brother, Greg Reyes, gets in the Merc News. Congrats, Greg! The former Brocade Communications CEO is being investigated for securities fraud to the tune of a few million bucks. [Mercury News]

As far as we know, Microsoft president Bill Gates still hasn't replied to the open letter from ZDNet writer Steve Gillmor, in which Steve: 1. asks Bill to retire, and 2. asks Bill to use Steve's product. (Some...trust...product...thing; I don't know, I didn't pay attention.) [ZDNet]

When the New York (behind-the-)Times says teens are leaving MySpace, it means they're already out of the building. [NYT]