Blog by Praful

2010-02-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

Five Myths About India

India's 7.9% economic growth in the third quarter of 2009 vividly illustrates a dramatic transformation in the country's image, from a land of elephants and snake charmers to that of an IT powerhouse and an emerging economic giant. While both sets of perceptions are valid, they hide far more than they reveal. Indeed, when it comes to the Indian economy, what most people believe to be true contains more fiction than fact. We highlight below five common myths about India and discuss why the reality on the ground is quite different.

Myth No.1: The information technology sector has been the primary driver of India's economic growth.

India is indeed a global powerhouse in information technology and IT-enabled services. Yet the IT sector is little more than a tiny, though highly visible, niche in the Indian economy. The total revenue of this sector added up to $72 billion in 2008. Translated into value-added terms, the IT sector contributed only about 4% to India's gross domestic product last year. Its contribution to employment is even smaller: About 2 million people are directly employed, and an additional 8 million jobs are created indirectly. Those are tiny numbers in a country with a labor pool of 700 million people.

The fact that India's IT sector is just a niche is actually a blessing rather than a curse. Notwithstanding IT's annual growth rates of 25% or more, the bulk of the recent growth in India's economy has come from manufacturing and other services. Only the manufacturing sector has the scale to create jobs for hundreds of millions of people, most with relatively limited education. If India is to realize its potential as an economic superpower, it will have to keep following China's path by becoming one of the world's factories. The IT sector gives India a good brand image, but most Indian jobs will have to come from manufacturing.

Myth No.2: India is decades behind China.

Most visitors to India and China form their impressions about these countries by comparing such cities as Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore with Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. The difference between the two countries' urban centers is truly stark. China's top cities now look more modern and sleeker than New York or London. By contrast, India's premier cities are still vivid examples of the third world. Yet most people overlook the fact that, even though China is clearly ahead of India, the former looks stronger than it is while the latter is stronger than it looks.

In 2008, China's GDP was just a bit more than three times that of India. If India's GDP grows at 8% to 9% a year over the next decade—a reasonable prediction based on analyses by Goldman Sachs (GS), the U.S. National Intelligence Council, and other analysts—India's GDP in 2020 will be almost the same as China's in 2008. Of course, China would have powered ahead by then, but the fact remains that India's economy is about 12 to 14 years, not decades, behind China's. This is exactly the difference from 1978, when Deng Xiaoping launched China's reforms, to 1991, when India jumped onto a similar train.

Myth No.3: India's democratic politics will prevent a rapid build-up of the country's infrastructure.

Given its fiercely democratic political system, any Indian government will find it impossible to relocate quickly a few million people from a city's center to make way for gleaming office towers and elevated expressways. Note, however, that infrastructure consists of more than beautiful roads and buildings. It also includes ports, airports, power generation and transmission systems, telecommunications, airlines, and railways.

The only aspect of infrastructure that India's democratic politics hinders in a major way is the beautification of cities. The number of people who need to be relocated to build interstate highways, intrastate expressways, and most other infrastructure components is minimal and thus largely unconstrained by democratic politics.

From 1995 to 2007, China spent about 8.5% of GDP on infrastructure. During this period, India spent only about 4.2%. Today, though, the situation is radically different. India is currently spending about 8% of GDP on infrastructure and has plans to increase the figure to about 9%.

Ugly and crowded cities, while an eyesore, are unlikely to derail the ongoing manufacturing revolution, which needs interstate highways and intrastate expressways far more than easy-to-navigate city centers. In short, given its political system, India is more likely to become a manufacturing power long before its cities begin to look modern.

Myth No.4: Uncontrolled population growth is a major burden for India.

China's one-child policy has clearly achieved a major reduction in birth rates and population growth. In contrast, when one thinks of India, the enduring picture is one of cities overflowing with poor and teeming masses. Hence the question on many people's minds: How can India sustain uncontrolled population growth?

Notwithstanding the utter inability of India's democratic political system to impose any type of birth control policy, it is critical to remember that, as people become richer and better educated, they choose to have fewer children. Fertility rates (i.e., average births per woman) in India are declining rapidly—from 4.65 in 1980 to 3.25 in 2000, to 2.68 in 2007. A similar steep decline has occurred in the population growth rate—from 2.15% a year during the 1980s to 1.5% a year from 2000 to 2005 and 1.35% a year since then. If current trends continue, as is almost certain, fertility rates in India should drop to about 2.0 within the next 10 years, and the population's annual growth rate should fall to about 0.6% a year, similar to China's today.

In short, population growth in India is a self-correcting problem that is getting addressed on its own at a rapid rate. In any case, in a democratic country such as India, it is far easier and wiser for the government to focus on how to make the economy grow at, say, a 9% rather than an 8% rate. Over 10 years, that can be as effective a mechanism for population control as any other.

Myth No.5: India's education system is world class.

In launching the "Race to the Top" fund for educational reform in the U.S., President Barack Obama encouraged schools to develop internationally competitive standards so that American students can take on "folks in Beijing and Bangalore." President Obama is right on the money in noting that, in today's era, labor markets are global and that kids in Los Angeles are competing against not just their peers in Chicago but also those in Beijing and Bangalore. It would, however, be incorrect to conclude that India's education system is anywhere close to world class.

India is not just a large country but also one of the world's most diverse, with extremely high levels of income and educational disparities. The elite engineering and business schools (the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management) are tougher to get into than Harvard or MIT and have produced a disproportionately large number of CEOs and senior executives for some of the world's biggest corporations.

Yet one cannot overlook the fact that adult literacy in India runs at only about 61%, far below the 91% figure for China, the 90% figure for Indonesia, and the 89% figure for Brazil. During the past five decades, China has placed far greater emphasis on primary and secondary education. In contrast, India has placed far greater emphasis on tertiary education. The manufacturing revolution, which is now in full swing and must continue, will need high school graduates and vocationally trained people far more than highly trained engineers and scientists. As in the U.S., transformation of the educational system and rapid upgrading of the infrastructure will be two of the most desperate needs for India's economy over the coming decade.

Courtesy to: Srini Pallia

Test Cricket is Still Alive

2010-01-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

Since the T20 big shows i.e. ICL, IPL, Worldcup introduced to world cricket many cricketing fan including me would have saw end of Test cricket in few years time. T20 was short format and everyone started falling into it. After few months I started realising its not cricket which I had been following for 18 years.
Even though longest version takes your valuable time but it has own beauty. Its not just playing few good shots and becoming hero or blowing fews overs.
Recently finished two test matches caught my attention and again proved, why 5 days format of cricket called as toughest. First was Pak vs Aus.. Pak couldn't believe they are going to win test match in downunder and bundled in 4th inning. The reason was test matches is not only about your technical skills, it also checks your mental strength, your ability to be compose and concentrate on goal for 5 continous days. I tell you no other sports in this world demand such kind of ability from a sports person.
Secondly I saw End vs SA.. each day of this match was bringing new excitment. SA was fighting to level home series and Eng was for clinching it. What else you can ask from a test match where result was not decided untill Styne bowled last delivery and Swann defended that to draw.
I sure to see more such matches and keep enjoying it!

"The Golf Balls" - Set priorities of life

2009-10-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

When things in your life seem, almost too much to handle,
When 24 Hours in a day is not enough,
Remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
He picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students, if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - family, children, health, Friends, and Favorite passions –
Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, Your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else --The small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' He continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, You will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So ... ...

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

'Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

Economics: The Great Shift of 2009

2009-07-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

I was thinking from while now to write something on so talked world economics, got some thing interesting. Every once in a while, we stumble upon a chart or table that says it all… here’s one hot off the press:

Oh my, where do we begin? So many to talk, lets put in points

1. Obviously, Wal-Mart is no longer No. 1. That title now goes to Royal Dutch Shell. The American consumer is out, and a global oil conglomerate is in… ’nuff said
2. There’s a clear sea change in American business. AIG, Lehman and Bear Stearns fell off the list from 2008-2009. Nike, Google and Amazon moved up
3. The world is increasingly less Amero-centric. An American company is not No. 1 for the first time in over a decade. In the whole list for 2009, 140 companies are American, the lowest number on record
4. The world is increasingly more Sino-centric. Look at China National Petroleum and Sinopec. Both Chinese companies are by far the biggest movers up from 2008-2009. Sinopec, an oil and gas company, also marks China’s first foray into Fortunes’ top 10. China now has 37 companies in the list of 500, its largest presence ever
5. Oil is still where it’s at. In spite of all the price drama over the last year, seven of the top 10 firms are oil companies
6. In the face of the worst global economic environment of our lifetimes, the world’s biggest companies are still making lots of money. The 2008 top 25 pulled in $4.88 trillion in revenue. This year, they made $5.38 trillion
7. And GE… what a black box. The world’s producer of everything was one of very few companies to retain the same position from 2008-2009. And despite the infamous GE Capital, the finance arm that apparently threatened to torpedo the whole company, GE ended up increasing revenues by nearly $7 billion.

MMS... A Weak PM ??

2009-04-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

Since the day Mr. ManMohan Singh become PM, a tag of "Weak PM" is following him. Opposition parties, specially BJP, keep targeting as an then but Mr. PM never respond until couple of days back. Why so late? Is he really weak? Was PMO driven from 10 Janpath? At some extend Yes.
He is great economist no doubt about that but not a grt politician. During last 5 years, we hardly seen him standing solidly on any initiative always under Shadow of Mrs Gandhi. Does that looks strong? FYI.. Mr. Singh never contest any election so far, all the time he was member of upper house(I call that as back door entry to be in Govt.). Why don't he go in middle of people and face them. Unless you wont feel our real problems, you can not resolve.
When asked why you not accepting Mr. Adwani's chellenge for open debate, he said I do not like to talk loud. Being citizen of India I like to see how my next PM will address the current issues, same way here in US how Obama n McCain did. Whats wrong in that.. again is this his weakness?
You decide on this.....

iND vs nZ 2009

2009-04-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

A historic cricket tour it was!! Series win in both ODI n Test had never been easy task in Newzeland. Congrats Dhoni n team.... beginning of tour we lost T20 matches, was it over confidence, could be.. yes we are world champs but it doesn't mean we will play whatever way we want to be... Dhoni is a smart captain n he understood this very quickly...
we played sensible and attacking cricket in ODIs, result was 3-1 series win. Sachin showed he has lot of cricket left in him with an inning of 163, tht was truly amazing; n another landmark record was Shewag's fastest century from India. Same time we again missed clean swipe, reason could be again over confidence. In this area Dhoni has to work on.
Moving to Test matches without any practise match.. I was praying for team india.. it was first NZ tour for most of squad member including Skipper.. hats of team.. the way they played entire series. apart from couple of session each one in all three test were dominated by us. Again it was superb Sachin in 1st test. We saw another wall(Gambhir) in second test... wht was tht.. single handed he saved tht match. We again played excellent in 3rd match but i was disappoint with captaincy.. why 617 runs target.. in 125 year none of team ever chased 500. Dhoni was happy to win series by 1-0, he did same wht Dravid did in England test series.. we are still not mature enough to take high risks. End of day we won and that what important for every one.. me too happy.
Both Delhites(viru n gauti) openers are key for India's success in all format.
Sachin was undoubtly in grt touch, Dravid n laxman came with experience whn required most, harbhajan n zaher were impressive through out series.
Series over.. lets get ready for Modi's IPL-2 saga

XML transfer between two interface( like: Sharepoint to SAP )

2009-04-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Some time back, I got a requirement in my project. We need to send a xml file from sharepoint to SAP system and get response back from them. Note: This transaction can be done between any two application.
I thought what would be easiest and best approach. Hmmm, lets try with basic HTTP Post/Get method to do that. As in sharepoint I can use compile .NET code so no problem for me to go for it.

.NET Code to do that:

WebRequest req = null;
WebResponse rsp = null;
try
{
string fileName = @"D:\Projects\abc.xml";
string uri = "http://localhost/sap/test/test.htm";
req = WebRequest.Create(uri);
//req.Proxy = WebProxy.GetDefaultProxy(); // Enable if using proxy
req.Method = "POST"; // Post method
req.ContentType = "text/xml"; // content type
//If end user doesnot has rights to update than pass required credential explicitly
req.Credentials= CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
req.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("abc", "xyz");
// Wrap the request stream with a text-based writer
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(req.GetRequestStream());
//read the xml file
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(fileName);
string ret = reader.ReadToEnd();
reader.Close();
// Write the XML text into the stream
writer.WriteLine(ret);
writer.Close();
// Send the data to the webserver
rsp = req.GetResponse();

//Get response from server; ex: two parameters is passed from receiving server
string strContents, strContents1 = "";
strmContents = rsp.Headers["test1"].ToString();
strmContents1 = rsp.Headers["test2"].ToString();
}

Pre-Lok Sabha Election 2009

2009-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

15th Lok Sabha(Indian parliament lower house) Elections are round the corner. All parties are geared up with full force. I always waited for this period and also enjoyed election time since childhood. Why?? Being related to a political family, I followed all the political development and saw the strategic discussion. I see this as a fascinating career field but yes with lot of ups n downs. Single statement can change your entire political career("Jinha was secular" and Adwani had to leave from post of party president).
Lets talk about this election:

Last day BJP announced its manifesto, as expected Ram mandir was there. You know many times I thought, once Ram Mandir will be built then what BJP will do. They will not be having any distinct issues. Apart from this, rest all points were hijacked from other manifesto.

Congress looks confident to win majority, they should not forget what happen to NDA in last election with India Shining campaign. The major plus point with them is Sonia and Rahul. Both with clean image, its highly impressive the way both of them maintain their stature.

Now King makers; SP, RJD, NCP, LJP, BSP, Left, TDP.... long list who are ready to wear the crown or have capability to change king. All are interesting characters, one best I like about them is: They never feel bad if some one tells bad words and you never know who is friend of whom. With "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar" attitude, they are unavoidable elements of Indian politics.

With my predication of Hung parliament this time... singing off.

To SHRINK the log file in SQL

2008-07-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

Your sql log file size are huge and you are sort of harddisk memory...

Just execute this command in sql browser, with replacing your DB name to "DBName" in below query:

DBCC SHRINKFILE(DBName_log, 5)
BACKUP LOG DBName WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY DBCC SHRINKFILE(DBName_log, 5)

Here 5 is the reduced memory size, your log file will reduced to 5MB.

How to find out w3wp process for the web application

2008-07-08T02:54:00.000-07:00

Very general issue when two developers are working on same server, on different sites; they don't know which w3wp process is belong to their application for debugging. And for the solution they just add all the w3wp process whild debugging. with effect of this, other developer site also goes in debug mode. So whats solution... Here it is:
1. go to command promt
2. go to cd windows\system32
3. Type cscript.exe iisapp.vbs
All the w3wp process list will come with the web site... now you can see which PID is for your application....

Now you can debug your application without disturbing other users on same server.

Happy debugging :)

Form Based Authentication in MOSS

2008-03-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Introduction:
Form Base Authentication (FBA) is a newly introduced feature in Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007. It gives flexibility of using a Sharepoint Web Application (Site) from outside of your firewall. Same webapplication can be used by Company Employee via Intranet with their windows account and by Partners or Customers via Internet with their custom database account. Custom database source can be SQL Server or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
Description and Implementation:
This section will describe about the implementation of FBA in real time scenario. I divided in to four section Database setup, FBA for WebApplication, creating user for FBA and FBA for MySite. In this article I will explain using SQL Server database. Same we can do with LDAP also.
Section 1: Prepare database.
We can setup our custom database for Authentication. One important note is, this database should be in a predefine schema which can be recognize by sharepoint. Microsoft provides a utility to setup database. Follow the below steps to create database:
1. Open a Command prompt, CD (change directory) to C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727.
2. Type aspnet_sql.exe and press Enter. This will open up ASP.NET SQL Server setup wizard.
3. On Next click, Choose Configure SQL Server for application services.
4. Enter SQL Server name and database name, if you do not have any specific requirement then create database name as ‘aspnetdb’.
NOTE: Make sure User for which you are going to create the below site should have access on the database.

Section 2: Configure your web application to use Forms authentication
This section will tell you about converting web application authentication from Windows to Forms. Here I am converting my application to FormAuthentication. If you want to create separate application for Windows authentication and Form based authentication then you can extend this application in to intranet zone and keep the authentication mode as windows, which will be used for AD users in your domain and change default zone to Form Based Authentication as explained below
NOTE: If you are going to use WSS or MOSS Search also in your Form Based Authenticated then you have to extend the FBA site in a zone (may be intranet) and login with your crawl search account. One more thing you need to add same user in Policy for Web Application section of Application management with at least full read access (see reference for more).
1. Open SharePoint Central administration site.
2. Create a web application (ex: - http://124378m4) with required site collection.
3. Open web.config of your web application in a text editor (Notepad, or Visual Studio 2005).
4. Add connection string to point to the aspnetdb database. It is preferred that you add the string below

name="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=124378M1;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb;Integrated Security=True" />

NOTE: You may change the yellow highlighted string based on your environment
5. Add membership provider, role manager name in web.config. It is preferred that you add the string below

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
applicationName="mcc"
requiresUniqueEmail="false"
passwordFormat="Hashed"
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5"
minRequiredPasswordLength="1"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
passwordAttemptWindow="10"
passwordStrengthRegularExpression=""
name="FBADemoMember" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
applicationName="mcc"
name="FBADemoRole" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

NOTE: Here applicationName section contains a name, by changing the applicationname you can differentiate the set of users in your aspnetdb database. If you have only one site as FBA then you can write like that also applicationName=”/”.

6. Go to Application Management tab; click Application Providers (under Application Security).
7. Make sure that the current selected web application is the one you want to change to use Forms authentication, click Default (under Zone). If you extended the current site in intranet zone then you will find out one more zones. That time keep intranet zone in windows and change default zone as below.

8. Set Membership provider name, Role manager name as below:
You can verify these name from web.config for your application.
9. Click OK to save the changes.

Change the Central Administration web.config:
After changing to Webapplication we need to change the CentralAdmin web.config also. This is required step because first time we have to enter one user by central admin only.
NOTE: Please take a backup of web.config for safety reason.
10. Open the web.config your SharePoint Central administration site in a text editor, and add same connection string:

name="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=124378M1;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb;Integrated Security=True" />

11. Add membership name & role manager string:

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
applicationName="mcc"
requiresUniqueEmail="false"
passwordFormat="Hashed"
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5"
minRequiredPasswordLength="1"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
passwordAttemptWindow="10"
passwordStrengthRegularExpression=""
name="FBADemoMember" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
applicationName="mcc"
name="FBADemoRole" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

NOTE: The only thing here worth noticing here is that we need to ensure defaultProvider for roleManager is set to AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider. And here applicationName tag has same significance as explained in webapplication.
12. Save the changes.

Section 3: Creating users and roles in database (aspnetdb)

Here you can define your custom database users and also can define or create roles. These users and roles will be recognizing by sharepoint application. It is not necessary to create all users by this method but you have to create at least one user by this so that you can log in to FBA site first time. Rest of users you can enter either by sql server or by creating a console application. Roles are very useful utility, you can create different role depend on your requirement and assign particular user to particular role. These roles you can use in giving different permission in sharepoint.
Here are the steps:
1. Open Visual Studio 2005.
2. Click Open menu -> Web site …
3. Click File System, and browse to the folder where your web application (which created above) web.config resides, and click Open. My application is under 81port so…
4. Click Web site menu -> ASP.NET Configuration. This launches Web site administration tool in IE.
5. Click Security, and add roles & users as needed.

6. You can check the membership provider and role provider by clicking the provider tab.

Add first user for your Forms auth web application:
1. Open SharePoint Central administration site.
2. Go to Application Management tab. Under SharePoint Site Management, click Site collection administrators.
3. From the Site collection list, make sure that you have selected the site collection which you want to change.
4. In Primary / secondary site collection administrator, type in a Forms auth user, and click “Check Names” icon.
5. After it succeeds verifying the user, click OK.
6. Now the first Forms auth user is successfully added, you can use the user to login. As an alternative, you can also click Policy for web application (under Application Security) and define a Full Control policy to the web application for your Forms auth. By doing this, you don’t have to set site collection administrator individually for each site collection in your web application.

Section 4: Enable My Site for your Forms auth user
Step 1: Create a mapped web application for SSP admin site
1. Open SharePoint Central administration site.
2. Go to Application Management tab and click Create or extend Web application (under SharePoint Web Application Management).
3. Choose Extend an existing Web application.
4. From web application list, choose the web application hosting SSP admin site.
5. Set other parameters (i.e. port, zone etc.) as you feel needed, and click OK.
6. After you create the mapped web application, click Application Management -> Authentication Providers (under Application Security).
7. Choose the web application hosting SSP admin site from the web application list.
8. Select the zone (set in step 5) which is for the mapped web app.
9. Set same Membership, Role manager name, and click OK.
10. Open the web.config for the mapped web application in a text editor, and add same connection string, membership, role manager string:

name="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=124378M1;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb;Integrated Security=True" />

…

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
enablePasswordRetrieval="false"
enablePasswordReset="true"
requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false"
applicationName="mcc"
requiresUniqueEmail="false"
passwordFormat="Hashed"
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5"
minRequiredPasswordLength="1"
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"
passwordAttemptWindow="10"
passwordStrengthRegularExpression=""
name="FBADemoMember" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString"
applicationName="mcc"
name="FBADemoRole" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider,System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

11. Save the changes.

Step 2: Grant “Create My Site” permission to your forms auth users.
1. Open your SSP Admin site through the web application with Windows authentication.
2. Click Personalization services permissions (under User Profiles and My Sites).
3. Choose Add Users/Groups.
4. Type in Forms auth user, and click Check Names.
4. Also check “Create personal site”, “User personal features” … which you see fits, and click Save.
5. The forms auth user should now see “My Site” link after he logins.

Additional features in Form Based Authenticated webapplication:

1. After changing the authentication to Forms, when you will access the site users will get the default login.aspx screen to login. In your application you may not want this default sharepoint screen. I found some workaround to put our custom login screen instead of this.
a. Change the default location of login page in web.config file of webapplication.
instead of this login page you can give your custom page url with session time out condition. Like:

b. After changing login page now you are thinking how to validate user to sharepoint from your custom page. For that I got some solution:
if (Membership.ValidateUser(_username, _password) == true)
{
FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(_username, true);}
You can use this code on sign in button click; here you need to pass your custom database username and password. Sharepoint will automatically authenticate user.

Business applicability:
This functionality can become very efficient in real time business scenario like:
1. While creating a Sharepoint portal if requirement for giving access to external users. Here an external user means the user which are not present in Active Directory or who are not employee of that particular organization.
2. Another case where you need to create MySite for your external user, that time FBA will help you to resolve. Here one interesting thing is you can retain same URL of your webapplication for MySite. Because by default your webapplication URL and MySite URL will be different.

Conclusion:
FBA functionality in MOSS can take us at another level of development. By this we can effectively handle the situation of giving access to outside user.
We have certain advantage by using Form Based Authentication in compare to SPS 2003 functionality.
1. ISA server completely removed from the architecture as MOSS 2007 can directly authenticate against AD.
2. External users are authenticated against a different domain (in AD) from the Employees, so there is no security risk.
3. No need to create any dummy user IDs for giving access to other external users as it require in SPS 2003.
4. Clear separation of the Internet and Intranet traffic.
5. Latest features offered by MOSS 2007 incl. My Sites, Wiki, Blogs, Workflows etc. can be leveraged