This year has not been good for any of the Industry, except I guess for Medical Industry in India (Thanks to Swine Flu, recession related diseases :)).

The tourism in India has seen a steep decline over last 12 months and the effects of that have seen Hospitality Industry in India cut to half.

ASSOCHAM recently released the report on the performance of Hospitality Industry. Mumbai terrorist attack combined with the global slowdown, have severely impacted the bottom line to the extent of 64 per cent of the Indian hospitality sector, as per the analysis carried out by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Here are some of the key findings of the report:

• The average net profit of 10 hotels has declined by 65 per cent in Q4 FY ’09 as compared to the Q3 FY ’09.
• Out of these 10 hotels, in Q4 FY ’09, 8 hotels have registered decline in net profit on sequential basis.
• The interest cost of 10 hotels went up by 51.65 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY ’09.
• The fall in total income was about 4.47 per cent as compared to the third quarter of FY ’09.
• The total expenditure in fourth quarter of FY ’09 rose by 7.47 as compared to the third quarter of FY ’09.

I think that we now have seen the worst (atleast I hope so), and the coming quarters will see a turnaround. Hoping for a much better 2010

Here is the complete report by ASSOCHAM:

The mobile Landscape is changing. Although a lot of innovation is happening at the top-end Smartphones, nothing much seems to be going on for high volume low-end feature phones.

Microsoft seems to have targeted this high volume huge potential market with its launch of Microsoft OneApp.

Microsoft OneApp allows low-end “feature phones” to run popular mobile phone applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and Mobile Wallet.

This is very interesting and probably the need of the hour for market like India where more than 400 million people are using low-end feature phones.

With OneApp, these users will be able to do things they couldn’t do before with their feature phones — anything from paying their bills to helping diagnose their health issues or just staying connected with friends and family.

Here is one of the Microsoft guys talking more about OneApp and showing a simple demo of how OneApp works:

Here are some of the features of OneApp:

• The OneApp lightweight on-phone footprint of just 150 KB makes the initial installation easy and fast.
• OneApp dynamically launches just the parts of a mobile app that a person wants to use, eliminating additional installation time and the need for a person to store all of the mobile apps on the phone.
• OneApp includes cloud services that help offload processing and storage from the phone to the Internet, improving overall performance.
• OneApp uses data networks efficiently to reduce data access charges, saving money for the customer.

The other good feature about OneApp is that it is open for software developers, who can write new apps for OneApp using industry standards such as JavaScript and XML. The OneApp software developer kit is expected to be available for developers by the end of 2009.

Microsoft is launching OneApp application on test basis in South Africa in partnership with Blue Label Telecoms. It will probably test waters there before moving to voluminous markets of India & China.

Interesting times ahead !

What do you think of the above snapshot?

A new search engine?

Nah..you got it wrong. This is the internet home of one of the biggest Venture Capitalist firms Sequoia capital who have funded the likes of tutorvista, cotton county retail along with the real biggies like Apple, Google et all.

Surprised, well you should be. Even I was shocked the first time I saw the revamped homepage of Sequoia. Now, had I not known what Sequoia capital before, I would have branded it as a wannabe search engine.

Well, how on earth could a website rewrite the limits of minimalistic Web UI with just providing a search box as their landing page. But then, Sequoia did it and it is for all of us to see.

All said and done, how was it accepted by the folks in the Internet space? I can’t vouch for a huge dataset but a search on twitter suggests that Sequoia has managed to raise as many eyebrows as praises for this crazy move they pulled off. Surprisingly, this time around it is not unjustified criticism that is doing the rounds.

The critics have been spot on with their concerns and allegations.Here are some of the finer points that I could pull up. They have all been sourced from twitter search and would have loved to credit all of them individually lest for causing redundancy and link overload

• Poor usability
• Caters to only a matured and well targeted user base, thereby making itself hidden from the normal crowd
• An ego boost-"Everyone knows us"
• Making relevant information difficult to access
• Calling it stupid – period
• A publicity/marketing stunt gone too far

There were more and probably will continue to crop up as more and more people come across it.

Given the fact, that I am no where close to call myself a VC literate, I frankly did find the search results not to my liking. But, then did I actually know what I wanted to search for? may be not… but for something that I did know what a VC site is to be used for , I did type the following in the Search box.

"How do I get funding"

And boy-o-boy, it did the job for me. Bulls eye it was. I was straight on their ‘Submit a business plan’ page with their contact details right there.

So, from all that I gather the move is a bold and refreshing change from the usual change we have gotten accustomed to. Now, that’s why I call challenging the Web 2.0 limits.

More than generating truck loads of BUZZ , positive or negative, it is something that is shouting out what they actually are-Venture Capitalist. Here is why I think so.

I may not have read too much literature on the VC dynamics , but whatever I gathered from my scant readings, here are some terms that epitomize VC’s

• Bold and Crazy – Yes, you have to be crazy enough to invest millions of dollars into a company that may not even have a ongoing revenue model. A Venture Capitalist firm and its team have to be crazy to back ideas that may sound crazy at first
• Risk Takers- Imagine investing a dime into a so called product idea that has never been tried before. It is impossible, but it is just another day at work for a VC firm.
• Believers in Change- Entrepreneurship is on most counts bringing about change, moving away from the usual. A VC firm has to be a believer in change too. What better way to go ahead and be a part of the change.
• Stretching Boundaries- VC firms help worthy ventures break the growth barriers. How about pulling one off by stretching the limits themselves.
• Focus on The Target Audience- With a well identified target audience comes better analytics and better insights, that’s what VC’s help the backed up ventures to achieve. So, why not do it for themselves.

With the website usability getting shrunken to a more educated and a matured user base, they have the right audience searching for right information

This is my hypothesis and the extrapolations may not be right. But, I heartily admired the Paradigm Shift that Sequoia capital might have initiated with their website re-design. In fact, with ‘Targeted Search’ being touted as the next paradigm of the Internet, Sequoia Capital have arrived at the scene quite early. And don’t we know, VC’s have the knack of foreseeing future before the rest of world does.

However, I am not completely biased in my opinion. I did try some relevant searches like "Clients","portfolios" etc, which surprisingly uses Google Custom Search Results for their content. The results were basically their Press Releases of investments etc. Not much to my liking !

With that I bring to rest my case. They have taken a bold step and I applaud them for that – Whether it works for them, time will tell.

Goes without saying that i would appreciate your thoughts on the website re-design in question. Would you approve of it??

PS:: With Channel V doing a not so great ‘I saw The Change’ campaign on Twitter, I wonder if I can pull their slogan and say – I saw the change at Sequoia !

[This post is written by Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]

WOW…This is just wow !

Nokia has revealed the specs for their much awaited Mobile + Netbook Combo called the Nokia Booklet 3G – source

These are the signs to come – just other day I was talking to my friend about a device that would do everything for you, from making phone calls to browsing Internet to watching video to giving presentations. This Nokia Booklet 3g is probably the closest to this all-in-one gadget !

Here are some of the highlights of Nokia Booklet 3g :

• Intel ATOM processor
• 10.1” inch Screen
• Microsoft Windows Operating System
• 3G and Wi-Fi connections
• Nokia Ovi suite of services
• 12 hours of battery life (wow)
• in-built HDMI support
• in-built GPS receiver
• Aluminium Chassis
• hot-swappable SIM card slot

The Nokia Booklet 3G sure does pack a punch !

Nokia was expected to launch this kind of device sooner than later, as it was under pressure due as it was loosing the market share in mobile space to its competitors – LG & Samsung.

According to Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales fell 6.1 per cent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2008 – although smartphone sales were up 27 per cent. Nokia’s market share fell from 39.5 per cent to 36.8 per cent, as Samsung and LG gained share. (source)

Additionally, Dell, has recently revealed its plans to enter the smartphone market. Nokia is the leader in the smartphone market but even there it is facing stiff competition from RIM’s BlackBerry and the Apple iPhone.

The price point of this device will be released within a weeks time, but I really hope this device costs sub 25000 rupees, which will make it really attractive to masses.

I am really excited about this device, and I am sure our readers will be as well !

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (cbe73e83-e03e-43d5-86c1-0be591234f69 – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

I first got to know about 3-D TV while reading this and thought of sharing. Technology is advancing at a pace which is really difficult to track even with tools like Wikipedia and Google and truly speaking, I didn’t have a clue about them before I read this news.

But it’s very much official now- Panasonic is promoting its 3-D TV very aggressively and even Sony is trying for it. Philips is already out with its 3-D TV prototype. Samsung is 3rd in line. When I did a wiki I got to understand the working procedure behind this. Here is a simple diagram which tries to clarify the technology behind it:

As we can understand from the figure the procedure is to first get the 3D content from Broadcasters. This can be done either by direct 3D recording or by converting existing 2D content to 3D content. After that it’s coded, transmitted and at the end is viewed over any 3D television using special glasses that come along with the TV itself.

Seeing the usability, I think that this type of TV is best suited for video gaming. Just think of it, the amount of fun element it will add to Video Gaming. As its very difficult to convert traditional videos into 3D format, new games can very well adapt to the situation and can start creating new games which will be 3D compatible.

I can hardly wait for the enjoyment that experience will provide me!

Has any of the readers seen or know more about 3D-TV, would be great to hear from them.

[This Media Monday post has been written by Rabi Gupta, a start up enthusiast and co-founder of iDubba (Intelligent Box).]

Editors of some major news channel Broadcasters have formed this ‘BEA’ association to “strengthen the values of objective and fair broadcast journalism” and to “protect and promote the freedom of expression.” –indiantelevision.com

Though I’m OK with the second part of the motive, but keeping in mind the channels which are promoting this association I’m very much critical about the first quote -“strengthen the values of objective and fair broadcast journalism”.

What ‘objective and fair’ journalism?

Except for the news over some handpicked of channels, rest of the channels show everything except news. Forget about being fair, the news is rather scripted and recorded by journalists themselves.

They shouldn’t be called journalists but ‘short movie’ scriptures and the news should be called as a ‘you tube’ video on Television.

Let me explain this- there are some channels which still capture genuine news and their “Breaking News” does mean something which is important and not any news which will break one’s heart!

Just to give an example of what some of the Indian Channels think of Breaking News:

“राज ठाकरे के कुतों का अंग्रेजी नाम”

WTF?

English news channels don’t suffer from this stigma (at least for now) because of their TG. But who knows, with increasing number of channels by the day someone might come up with this idea of launching a comedy English news channel.

And yes that might be the ice breaker and we may see several other channels such as ‘Comedy Business news”, “Comedy Stock market news” and blah blah. Ohh that might be the killing day for TV content!

I strictly want that I&B ministry should categorize Channels such as “India TV”, “News 24” and “IBN 7” as ‘entertainment news’ rather than ‘news channels’ and stop allowing them to be a part of such associations where they would do nothing more than creating another “Breaking News”!

[This Media Monday post has been written by Rabi Gupta, a start up enthusiast and co-founder of iDubba (Intelligent Box).]

Punjab made year 2009 the year of educational reforms. It is really funny because educational reforms, if and when they happen, would come after financial reforms. Though we got the order wrong, at least we have the reform mindset going and people acknowledge that reforms are essential for feeding a billion strong nation.

Reforms mean different things to different people. When it comes to education it is not as simple as finance. In finance, if you allow 74% foreign direct investment in, let’s say, insurance sector then that is a reform. If you allow 100% then you are a rock star reformist and darling of the stock market.

Educational reforms are slightly different. In fact, they are radically different. Educational reforms could as well be having more qualified teachers in a school or having any teachers at all. It might be increasing the number of teachers to have a better teacher student ratio.

In the case of Punjab it is having parent teacher association and having meeting with parents once in a month. That’s a good start, as it is missing apparently.

All students would be properly informed in advance two days before PTA meeting and parents would be provided monthly progress report cards and the daily signed.

Besides students work books would be regularly checked by the class teachers and school heads, he said.

He said that for surprise checking of schools, inspection teams had been constituted at district level comprising seven lecturers or masters from Science, Mathematics, Social Science, English, Punjabi, Hindi, and Computers faculty. (Mint)

Shouldn’t all of this be already present? Well, it is not and hence it can be called as a reform.

Education reforms as per Kapil Sibal are doing away with class-X exam. Now, that’s a tall order and not an easy task. Most of the colleges weigh heavily on those exams and those exams alone. If you are a bright student for the whole of 10+ years, you toiled for more than 10 years and you are sick for an all important exam and you failed. There will be blot on your score card and your educational history. That is very depressing for any teenager who is ready to enter the next big thing in life.

Does that seem fair?

Should one exam have such a huge say? It is not fair and it should be that big a deal. Students should be evaluated through out the year. And our honourable minister agrees. But doing away with the exams and moving to a grade based system poses a different problem of gigantic proportions.

India is still a yes-sir country. What do you expect? British ruled India for 200 years just because of these two hyphenated words – Yes-sir. Now, the Indian courts have done away with the ‘Your Honour’ drill in the courts which promised to be a good start. But, the yes-sir culture is so ingrained in our DNA that it is hard to imagine an average Indian who is not afraid of another person – boss, teacher or the cop. If a cop stops someone, that person readily goes into the yes-sir mode because he is afraid.

What does this has to do with education? That is where it all starts. As a student you are bound to say yes sir. You have to raise when a teacher enters a class and again when the teacher exits. You have to say good morning or whatever the ritual is.

The clout a teacher has on the examination and the outcome of it is enormous. That is the reason why all public examinations papers are graded by neutral entities. So, if we do away with the exams, who has all the power in the world to decide a kid’s future?

Yes-Sir. Yes he or she has all the power. Now we are back to our petty politics of pleasing the teacher. That makes me think that may be exams are a better option even if it means more stress. I don’t know what an ideal model for education is. But, for a country like India going the grades way is not the obvious choice as it gives enormous power to the teachers who can abuse it.

Reforms, at least we are thinking about them especially in a sector which matters the most. As I said reforms means different things to different people. It could be doing away with exams, bringing in more information technology as Sam Pitroda wants and as the state of Maharashtra is already doing it. It could be anything. The important thing is it should happen.

I would rather remember 2009 as a year of education reforms rather than the year of India’s biggest scandal, or the comeback of India’s biggest party or the year of the flu.

The whole India should go on a reform path and that doesn’t mean making an Indian language as the first language.

PS: Beefing up the reservation quota categories does not qualify as a reform either.

It quite interesting how soon things are changing. Just 5 years back, when anyone used to call US /UK from India, it used to cost a bomb ! Close to 20 rupees per minute (or even higher), over last few years ISD costs have come down and now you can call America for as low as 5-6 rupees a minute.

But now Indian users can actually make ISD calls for as low as ONE RUPEE ! Thanks to Google Skype Phones introduced by Belkin.

As you may have understood by now, these phones do not work on normal Telecom Networks. The calls from these phones are done via Internet (or VOIP).

These are actually Wi-Fi phones that work on Internet connection (whether wireless or wireline). If the phone is in the vicinity of a wireless Network, it will connect automatically to your Skype account via Internet.

Once the Skype phone is logged in, you can make calls to a Skype number or a mobile number of a person overseas or in India. Calls rates are as cheap as Rs 1 per minute via Skype to other mobile phones overseas.

The Belkin Google Skype phone has most features that your normal phone has:

• Capacity to store upto 500 Skype and Skype out contacts
• Call hold/release, call pickup/park, muting, redial and call-timer display
• Exceptional clarity offered by the special TFT screen
• Provide high level of voice clarity
• WEP and WPA-PSK ensuring superior security
• Software update wirelessly

So subscribers having Skype-out facility can make International phone calls for as low as One rupee.

The phones come in two flavours – Wireline and Wireless – priced at Rs 7284/- and the Rs 9712/- respectively.

The company is also bundling these phones with 30 Skype Out minutes and one month of free voice mail to a first few users all the phone buyers.

Although this is first time that phones like these have been launched in India, they have been around in US / UK and many other countries for a few years now.

Infact, many heavy International Callers in Indian have been using it (although illegally). They procure such phones from abroad and use it here in India. Companies like Vonage offer unlimited International calling for $20 a month.

We will have to see how popular these Belkin Skype phones get and whether BSNL / MTNL will have anything to say about them :). We will have to wait and watch.

What are your views?

We do not have much to share with our readers today, so thought of doing a wrap-up of Interesting stories that we published over last few days.

These stories saw quite a buzz and read them if you have missed it earlier.

• Top 10 Most Admired Companies in India

• ISRO Bhuvan Full Review & Analysis

• Are Movie Reviews Fixed?

• What you may not know about Ganesh Festival

• Top 10 Wealthiest Cities in India (This is 2001 data)

• Crowd Sourcing-The Winning Edge For Your Business

Have a great weekend !

Just 5 months back, RBI had announced that ATM customers will be allowed to withdraw money from any bank ATM of their choice with levying any extra charges.

But citing logistics issue, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) has now put certain limits for doing transactions in banks other than the home bank.

Based on the information gathered over last 5 months, since the inter-bank withdrawals were introduced,

There were a small minority of users who withdrew very large sums on account of high card limits given by some banks to privileged customers.
At the other extreme, there were some customers who withdrew miniscule amounts, or made other kinds of inquiries. This created several logistics problems causing avoidable expenditure for banks at the cost of the common user. (source)

Now, I think it is a wise decision and probably should have taken when it was launched initially.

Basically inter-bank ATM withdrawal service should (thats what I think) be used in emergency cases when you are unable to carry out transactions in your Home bank ATMs.

It will be quite unfair on the home branch to offer unlimited ATM services to users from other branch.

Infact, the new rule that was announced put banks like ICICI and HDFC who had high number of ATMs in big disadvantage compared to other banks who had less number of ATM locations.

I think putting a limit to the transactions from outside-home bank ATMs helps both the Banks as well as their customers.

According to the new proposal made by Indian Banks Association (IBA),

The customer will be allowed to make 5 free transactions upto Rupees 10,000/- above which a charge of Rs. 20/- will be levied to the user. 

Like I mentioned earlier, it is a fair proposal and one that should help Consumers as well as banks equally!

What is your take on this new proposal?

Finance Friday is our weekly round up of buzzing stories relating to Finance and Indian Stock market.

Tech Mahindra’s plan to raise capital up to Rs 1,000 crore via a qualified institutional placement (QIP) has not gone down well with the potential investors. It is notable that TECHM secured the board mandate almost two months ago but the issue is yet to be floated.

This might prove to be a big dent into Tech Mahindra’s plan of raising finances to pay for the acquisition of the beleaguered Satyam Computer Services.

The interest payments on its borrowing are actually hurting TECHM’s balance sheets. In the last quarter, the firm had paid Rs 57.1 crore as interest on its total borrowings.

It is however not a one off issue with TECHM. The problem of Low Investor Interest is being felt across industries in general.

Over 100 companies have announced plans to raise more than $16 billion (around Rs 77,000 crore) in institutional placements this year (Source: Bloomberg)

In fact GMR Infrastructure had put off its plans to raise $500 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) through a QIP given the market conditions.

With TECHM’s QIP, I think it is owing to the ongoing uncertainty about Mahindra Satyam’s finances.

Ever since the acquisition of Satyam by TECHM, the market consensus clearly suggests that TECHM management has been shying away from sharing details about finances, operations etc citing compliance issues. It has clearly deterred Investors-retail and institutional alike from buying into the company stocks.

PS:: QIP is one of the finance jargons. Please head to the end of the digest for explanation

Img Src (Moneyvidya.com)

The ongoing week has been a see-saw ride for the Indian benchmark stock index. BSE Sensex has been volatile for the complete week, signifying low investor participation and more of a trader favourable market sentiment.

In fact, the 7 day pattern clearly suggests that every gain was followed by a drop the very next day cancelling out the previous day’s gains. It is interesting to note that the markets have been range bound mostly in the ~14.5k to ~15k region. The day-to-day movement has been just enough to negate the previous day gain-fall.

The 15300 level for Sensex is what I think is a strong resistance level. If that is broken on the positive side, we could witness a positive upsurge to 16k levels.

On the negative side, the next support level should be at 14.5k level with a further downside taking it close to 14k.

It however, is going to hugely depend on the monsoons. Monsoons have been playing a real spoil sport and have affected the Stock markets badly among other things. In a recent meeting the FM declared that 246 districts have been declared drought hit.

Lack of adequate monsoon has hit the country badly with drastic reduction in the agricultural produce. In fact, Friday’s inflation numbers shows a marginal increase of 24 basis points in line with the RBI’s expectations. The inflation is set to go higher with the monsoon situation still worrisome.

Qualified institutional placement (QIP) is a capital raising tool, primarily used in India, whereby a listed company can issue equity shares, fully and partly convertible debentures, or any securities other than warrants which are convertible to equity shares to a Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB).

So, in basic terms QIP is just another route that the companies can take to raise capital other then the preferential allotment via IPO’s etc. QIP however is hugely favoured by corporate then other routes for various reasons

Unlike an IPO or a rights issue, The formalities on issuing a QIP are very less. It can be highlighted from the fact that for a QIP a company’s audited balance sheet are enough

Since, the formalities are less and multi-level approvals are not needed to come out with a QIP, it saves organizations considerable time and money. With the right kind of investor interest, the whole process of a QIP can be completed in a very short time.

However, the transparency of QIP’s has been questioned time and again. Market manipulation via pricing is something that QIP’s are subjected to often. Moreover, QIP is a purely capitalist instrument. Hence, it is a deviation from the people-participation instrument at large.

[This Finance Friday News Digest is written by Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]

Yes, you are reading it right. It indeed is Crowdsourcing and not Outsourcing that can give your business the winning edge. Unfortunately, Crowd Sourcing, a term first coined by Jeff Howe in his article The Rise Of Crowd Sourcing is not as famous as its rhyming twin- Outsourcing.

In it’s most crude form, Crowd sourcing is nothing but harnessing the power of Crowd. On a much formal note, Crowd sourcing bears the ideology "More the brains, more the Solutions"…OK, I made that up :).

But then, in all its context, that’s what Crowd sourcing is about and much more than that. We could always look for the perfect definition of Crowd Sourcing on Wikipedia. Oh, did I just mention the biggest and the best example of Crowd Sourcing. Yes, I just did, Wikipedia is indeed the best example of using the masses to create one of the biggest Knowledge repository that the world has come to terms with.

So, how does Crowd sourcing come to play when it comes to giving your business that winning edge. Come to think of it, Crowd sourcing has indeed become a business in itself. Here are some real world examples on how startups and businesses are efficiently utilizing Crowd sourcing to get that winning edge.

Innovation is the bottom line for any business. And what better way to innovate that actually meets the dynamic and constantly changing of your customer. To innovate and better yourself so that your product never fails to satisfy your customer, what better way to let the Customer define the Innovation that is needed. Sounds too good to be true.

• Dell’s IdeaStorm is as real as it gets when it comes to outsourcing virtually the ‘R’ of it R&D. IdeaStorm is their platform to collaborate with the Customer and let him decide what DELL should come up with next to make the product better. For those who love stats, out of the 12k ideas that the community has contributed, DELL has actually implemented over 365 ideas

But, DELL is big enough to allocate resources monitoring and moderating these communities.

How does the Crowd sourcing angle fit into the Small Business Space?

The Startup World has the answers. If you have been on twitter even for a few months and followed some folks from the Internet Start up space, the importance of Crowd sourcing for the Startups is multi fold.

Crowd Sourcing For Small and New Businesses

• 
  Need a logo and can’t afford to hire an expensive designer

  In comes, 99designs for the rescue. Just turn your design requirements into a contest and launch a project. And there you have hundreds of budding designers churning their best designs out for you. All for a minimum cost of 150$ odd. And given the popularity of the site, I doubt if quality gets compromised for the price

• 
  Crowdsourcing can help you get the beginner’s advantage by launching your product earlier then expected.

  May be its me, but I have seen a lot of startups launching their Alphas to the crowd unlike the Beta versions more prominent. This can be a little tricky if your product is a bit too buggy, but if you have faith in the product, there is no harm in letting it loose to the public (Crowds).
  Why? Because if you are solving a problem, the user might just be able to live with a few hiccups here and there. Moreover, he/she will be more than happy to help you identify those bugs since it is going to make his/her life easier.

• If you are struggling to introduce that new feature which will enhance the end user experience or rather get you a totally new segment of customer base, you only need to listen/ask. Listen to the crowd talking about a product in your niche, absorb what is missing in the existing product and work on incorporating that in your product. That’s value addition at the cost of your competitor.

Barring the first bullet point, the last two have solely come out of my real time experiences of Crowd Sourcing at work at what has become one of the best Crowds sourcing platform a.k.a Twitter.

1. Buzzom, a twitter management tool is an example of listening to your target customer and give them what they want. They have been instrumental in listening keenly to their target users and ensured that the user’s desires are met. They have used twitter to constantly improve and enhance the product they offer. And that has contributed to Buzzom making waves and making it big.
2. Twitsnaps, a twitter based photo sharing site is another example of using Crowd sourcing to fill the loopholes in the existing product in their niche. They have kept the user at the helm of matters and the product innovation has been on a constant upside.

All said and done, there have been valid apprehensions of whether Crowd sourcing can be effective without the so called Incentives.

Even from its definition, there has to be something for the crowd to benefit from their contribution. In most of the leading business crowd sourcing platform, monetary rewards seem to be the best incentives to get the best from the crowds 

In fact, there was an interesting post about government using Crowdsourcing to reduce the electricity theft. The author raised a valid point by asking if the move had worked if not for the monetary reward for the contributors.

Interesting take on the viability of the idea of Crowd sourcing without Incentives.

Here are my two cents on why I think it is not necessarily a matter of monetary incentives, it however is to identify the kind of incentives needed.

When it comes to crowd sourcing, I think it is more a question of identifying what kind of incentive could work with the user. It need not be a monetary one at that.

Considering the above examples, crowdsourcing can dole out incentives in all its varying kinds and still get the best out of the community. And if the decision to crowd source is kept at bay for the lack of an incentive scheme, I doubt if it is a good decision. Solely for the fact that there is no way to determine what the customer/user considers a good incentive.

For its very definition, it is the crowd at play, so why not ask the crowd to decide the Incentives that will make them contribute.

What are your thoughts on the power of crowdsourcing. Do you believe that Crowd sourcing has the potential to provide a winning edge to your business?
Or do you think, it is not a worthy element to be an integral part of your business.

[This post is written by Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]

India’s telecom juggernaut is still going strong. Though the ARPU’s are going down, it still adds 10 million subscribers every month. That increases the communication inclusiveness for India as a whole.

Research suggests that mobile phone penetration is directly linked to the economic activity of  region. It can contribute to as much as 5% increase. The tele-density of India is now at 40% though slightly skewed towards urban areas.

Indian telecom is directly contributing 1.5% to the GDP. Any given day, Indian telecom will be a case study in many management areas. Strategy, leadership, marketing and few other things. How can we apply this success to other sectors in India?

In the TED Talk of charter cities, Paul Romer talks about how having a well-developed city like Hong Kong, which he calls a charter city, has helped China gain economic prominence. It then has set-up few other areas as the special economic zones to spread the economic activity. He also argues that there can be multiple charter cities across the world which countries can leverage.

If we try to apply the same principle to sectors, and take Indian telecom as a charter sector, can we apply the same principle or slightly modified principle for other sectors? India needs a new sector to rise to meet the employment needs of India’s rising young population.

Information Technology cannot be that sector because it only makes a select people rich and touches select demographics. If we look deeper there are auto rickshaw’s, paan wallahs, cab drivers, house owners and many more stakeholders who were benefitted by the IT boom. Did I forget the real estate darlings? But the impact is superficial and did not leave the metro cities.

What would that sector be? Biotech, Cleantech, microfinance, insurance or some completely new industry? Or am I wrong about IT?

{Update: The following rankings are based on consensus done in 2001, and have been correctly pointed out to us by one of our readers D7Y. We will be judicious to provide readers with latest data going forward.}

Any Guesses?

I hear most of you saying it is undoubtedly the financial Capital of India – Mumbai.

But you are wrong, that is not the right answer. I was also quite surprised when I read it, but immediately sense prevailed

Chandigarh is actually the wealthiest City in India

(source)

Dont be surprised, that is actually true. Although Mumbai has the largest quantum of money, it is also the most populace city with majority of them living below poverty line. Mumbai may probably have as many beggars compared to rest of India put together (this is just a guess I am making without any factual backing up of information)

Wealth of a city can actually be calculated based on wealth per capita (total wealth divided by total number of people). A more standard term for comparing wealth between countries is PPP (Purchasing Power Parity)

So from that perspective, Chandigarh seems to more average wealth per person than any other city.

I hope that puts to rest the question of why Mumbai is NOT the wealthiest cities.

1. Chandigarh
2. Panaji
3. Delhi
4. Valparai
5. Greater Mumbai
6. Pune
7. Ludhiana
8. Chennai
9. Shimla
10. Jalandhar

Surprisingly, no Bangalore or Hyderabad feature in the list, while it is dominated by “B” cities like Chandigarh, Valparai, Ludhiana, Shimla and Jalandhar.

This just goes to show that there is more wealth in Towns than in the cities !

I am happy, Pune features in the list :)

Recent volatility in Global Market did pose a question on the credibility of outsourcing market; hundreds of highly trained and hard working professionals recruited from India’s best colleges/universities were laid off to save the multi billion dollar companies from vanishing.

These moves not just made consideration of uncertainty in one’s career important but also lead to changes in trend of employment statistics in India. And as said “Change is always good” (at least I believe so!) the situation demanded the working population to think about other possibilities.

Self Employment came out as a major resultant of the situation. No doubt the idea doesn’t promise six digit salary and added perks and luxury but it does manage to give self reliance to an individual.

Many of you might question how does it save one from uncertainty? In fact it escalates the same. For that doubt I don’t have any sound fact to defend but a simple logic, just the way in a highly paid job we tend to bestow our faith in its management (obviously run by key individuals), in case of self employment the onus falls on one’s self (SELF EMPLOYMENT).

So, this form of employment is more than just earning money (analogy is intended for the perks). Indian employment sector is witnessing evolving growth pattern in this area.

The dependency rate which is estimated to be around 17.1 (17 for 100 working people) for India in 2025, is expected to go down if the trend continues. Until now rural India has dominated this sector with self employment of 57% among males and nearly 62% among females. The corresponding figures in urban India were 42% for male and 44% for female.

Though there are reasons to cheer for the shifting trend as it reflects the growing entrepreneurial values among the masses and the healthy quest to explore possibilities there are reasons to be concerned about as well.

Our government is still contemplating to give this sector its share of recognition, self employment is still regarded as part of Unorganized Sector, which could be a major turn off for aspiring participants.

Moreover, while education system does play its part to inculcate basic skills among youth, traits like creativity and innovation can’t be taught, they can be harnesses and honed. MNC’s can play a vital role here to make up for the missing attribute of our present education system.

So instead of working aimlessly for these big corporations’ youth can work for a reason, this not only offer challenges to ones skill but the psychological factors can release many from the gloominess of mundane and extracting work life.

Would love to hear your views on this!

[The post has been written by Kirti Agarwal, an engineer by profession and aspiring consultant/analyst. you can reach her at kirtee.agarwal@gmail.com ]

Telecom Tuesday is our weekly Digest that brings you snippets of Buzzing stories related from Indian telecommunication Industry No More New Telecom Service

I am sure by now you have already heard about one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by Indian Government – The Unique Identification Project headed by Mr. Nandan Nilekani.

Now there is an interesting point of view that I came across in one of the Forbes article, – of using Mobile Phone database along with Voter’s ID card to collate the existing legitimate citizen demographic data.

The database of voters is a credible starting point. Almost 586 million people have this card. But there is another database which is equally powerful: the mobile subscribers.

”You get 40 percent penetration straightaway and this data has been verified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),” says Guru Malladi, partner, Ernst & Young. Mobile connections of 427 million, however, do not mean subscribers. Some subscribers have more than one connection.

Research firm Gartner estimates that 10 percent of connections fall in this category. Based on recent Department of Telecommunications audits of leading mobile operator’s subscriber bona-fides, anywhere from 5 to 10 percent might turn out to be invalid. Assume 5 percent as the conservative estimate. Then there are connections being used by companies for their business operations. Add another 5 percent. The number that remains is 350 million. (source)

Its easier said than done, but it sure can be a starting point!

According to the Voice & Data 100 Annual Survey, Tech Mahindra has been named as the top telecom software service provider in India.

Now I dont think there is any surprise here, Tech Mahindra over the years has created a niche in providing telecom related software service, primarily due to their tie-up with British Telecom in early days.

Tech Mahindra, previously ranked sixth largest software exporter by IT industry body Nasscom, has moved up one place because of Satyam’s exit from the list following the multi-billion dollar fraud at the IT firm early this year.

Many of the Iphone users have one common complaint with their phones, the lack of push mail facility. Many of Corporate Iphone users have actually switched to Blackberry due to this reason.

But now, a new Iphone app – GPush, aims to bring Gmail push mail to Iphone. This simple Iphone application provides push notifications for new emails in Gmail. It doesn’t open emails, or send emails, it just lets you know when new ones arrive, as soon as they arrive, and no matter what you’re doing.

And it cost a measly 99 cents, I am sure this app will be one of the most popular apps in coming time. (source)

[Note: I had written this article in September 19, 2007, but I am reproducing this again before Ganesh Festival, so that you will take proper precautionary measures while buy Ganesh Idols. The links in the article are not working anymore, but the information in the post is very pertinent. Please spread the word]

Ganesh Festival is really a time for festivities; it slowly starts to get Indian people into festive season mood that spans till end of Diwali. If you live in cities like Pune and Mumbai, you will know the kind of celebration that happens for 10 straight days. The streets are overflowing with people to see the beautifully decorated Ganesh Idols. The roads are closed at night, loud music and expansive lighting greets you everywhere.

At the end of 10 days, the Ganesh idol immersion is done with even bigger processions. It’s like a carnival. Dhol and Tasha sounds fill the air.

What happens next ?
Have a look…

Source: Ultrabrown

The sight of these Ganesh Idols is appalling. To be honest I could not even see the pictures, it is so awful. Seeing the Ganesh Idols lying on the shores like these, whom we worship all our lives is mind boggling. Thanks to Ultrabrown blog to bringing this pictures up.

This post is an appeal to Trakin readers to spread the awareness and importance of using Environmentally friendly Ganapati Idols. Read this…

The idols are made out of Plaster of Paris(PoP), which casts typically disintegrated water, thus making it necessary to be non-suitable for bathing, showering, or other activities involving contact with water. In addition, Plaster of Paris casts are not air permeable, and thus do not allow for the circulation of air beneath the cast which greatly facilitates the evaporation and removal of moisture trapped between cast and skin. This often leads to skin maceration, irritation, or infection.

These idols are then painted with ‘some’ dyes which contain poisonous elements like lead,mercury,carbon and cadmium.

In Mumbai alone every year 70-80 thousand Ganpati idols are immersed at about 50 different places during Ganesh Chaturthi resulting in huge amount of pollution. This polluted water is a threat not only to water creatures, but to us equally.

*** Do you know that photography is not allowed the next day at the beaches where immersion takes place? If you ask why then that’s because the beaches are full of desecrated idols, decaying flowers and dead fish the next day, and the Government tries its best to hide this from media and other activists.***

EcoGanapati is an initiative by bunch of guys from fropper. I wish them all the best in this initiative and I am sure Indian bloggers will join this cause, spread awareness and sign the petition that they have put up.

Here is the message from EcoGanapti:

Since internet is one of the greatest sources available in the modern world, it will assist us in spreading knowledge, escalating the matter and, thus, a greater and a purer revelry.

So, what we intend to do is:

• Spread knowledge
• Seek public interest
• Learn more ways and ideas of celebrating the occasion with more purity
• Share the results of this activity with the Government, the Mayors of Mumbai and Pune and the other concerned authorities.

*** I intend to take print-out of the Petition page and, personally, deliver it to the concerned ministers and the Mayors.***

Also, the matters will not end with just submitting the petition, I will keep on updating about the action being taken by the authorities in this matter and will follow up diligently.

What you can do is:

• Participate
• Spread knowledge
• Learn more ways  and ideas of celebrating the occasion with more purity.

Please also check Relevant Links page to read more about this and to learn how to make eco-friendly Ganesha idols at home.

So, please do sign the petition and leave your comments. The onus lies on us to make a difference with whatever resources we have. For suggestions, or if you are interested in joining this awareness campaign, please leave me a mail at ecoganpati@gmail.com.

Again, sign the petition and help the cause.

E-Learning space is slowly but surely arriving in India and it ain’t coming easy. Amidst the age old master, student and classroom way of education prevalent in Indian subcontinent coupled with a very price sensitive target consumer, currently e-learning space has not reached half its potential.

But, with more and more people getting Internet and Mobile Savvy, there is a ray of hope for the E-learning startups. Their cause has been helped by the fact that more VC’s are pitching in to invest in E-Learning ventures.There has been a spur of activity in the e-learning space, notable one’s being

• Helix Investments has invested under $10 million in LearningMate Solutions Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai based provider of e-learning education solutions.
• Pearson Investment has invested around $12.5 million in Tutor Vista, a Bangalore based e-learning company

The fact that the VC’s are betting on E-learning ventures is a testimony to the fact that E-Learning is the way to go forward. With more and more of the youth getting hooked to Internet and mobile phones becoming more a need than luxury, the pre-requisites for becoming an e-learning customer are in place.

Moreover, with the race to be the best getting more competitive, E-learning might just provide the winning edge. Be it studies, corporate training or any job enhancing skill under the sun, E-Learning solutions have the answer.

E-Learning can get you access to the right answers from the right person effectively.

Moreover, with knowledge imparted on the Internet or through phone, the target consumer base has no limits too. Now, there’s a win-win for everyone, isn’t it.

So, if I had always wanted to know, "How To Get Into Harvard", who could answer it better than someone who has indeed made it to Harvard. And e-learning is making that possible.

E-Learning has the potential to provide a truly global platform for its stakeholders.

If you are a student of art/culture, imagine being able to discuss it with like minded folks across the globe at the same time.That’s e-learning for you bringing the whole world at your finger steps.

E-Learning can help businesses seamlessly streamline and optimize their training processes.

With global boundaries diminishing and businesses waiting to go truly international, how effective will it be to ensure that the workforce getting the same uniform training regimes.This itself could save companies save millions in training costs.

Above all,

E-learning is one enabler that can help envision the dream of a 100% literate India.

All said and done, for e-learning to reach its full potential and be the enabler, it has lot many hurdles to clear.

• 
  Infrastructure in India is the number one barrier.

  Even with all those ads of telecom companies reaching the villages and far-flung areas, we are far from being truly connected. For e-learning to grow and expand, the infrastructure will have to come good and come fast.

• 
  Lack of a feasible and viable revenue model.

  Setting up e-learning is capital intensive and the woes are quadrupled due to a very price sensitive target customer. Truly speaking, the onus is on the E-learning providers to come up with innovative revenue models or rather personalized and customizable pricing strategies.

To bring my point to justice, let me share a very noble e-learning initiative by a start-up VoiceTap.They help you connect with knowledgeable folks from different streams and let you gain knowledge or ask questions through phone.

Yes, your mobile phone becomes a classroom. But, would you be ready to pay for the call if they charged you on a per minute basis. A poll on their website says, a majority 57% will not. That can be disheartening for any startup.To some extent, I would mind paying because I dont have the option to listen to only what I want to listen or know. What I would be ready to shell out money for is to have my question answered spot on and the ability to revisit the transcript of the call when I want.

So, a uniform pricing strategy is something that I don’t think can work out for E-learning space.The pricing needs to be specific to the target customer. For eg, a working professional seeking queries on GMAT and a IIT JEE aspirant may not be ready to shell the same amount, can they?

With increasing awareness and effective pricing, I am sure E-learning space will get more interesting and help the cause of teaching India. With E-learning spreading its wings wider, I hope the day isn’t far, when we would actually be able to say,  

"Padhega India, Badhega India" (Indian will study,India will march ahead)

What are your thoughts on the potential of E-learning space. Do you think it has the potential to educate India at a mass scale?

[This post is written by Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]

It seems our Indian Government is finally awakening to the steep decline India’s Tourism industry has faced this year. You may not be interested in this news, but I’m actually influenced by the way they are targeting the global tourism market to attract tourists.

Tourism officials have decided to showcase “India Incredible” ads during Oscars, Grammy and BAFTA award ceremonies on E! Entertainment Channel.

This is interesting, as these award ceremonies are watched by the whole world and attract influential artists from both cinema and music world. Moreover, if Indian ministry is able to catch few stars who could speak in favor of India during these ceremonies it would be an ‘icing on the cake’.

Apart from these major events, “Incredible India” spots will also be placed at-

1. Major pan European channels during renowned world events. 
2. Famous news channel, mainly during the "Talk Asia" programme. To attract ethnic Asian population.
3. During World Economic Forum and the G20 summit. 
4. During the popular "Hollywood Bowl" held in Los Angeles in September. 
5. It will also feature during all road shows to be held in Moscow and St. Petersburg in September this year.
6. Apart from road shows and television spots, the advertisements will appear in the in-flight magazines of all major international carriers. 

Looks like, this whole strategy is created by a very creative and experienced marketing team for Travel Ministry.

The Travel Ministry Officials quoted:

“About 5.36 million foreign tourists visited India in 2008. The first five months of 2009 showed a sharp decline in the number of foreign tourists’ arrivals in the country, compared to the same period in 2008. But from June onwards, a slight increase was witnessed.”- ET

[This Media Monday post has been written by Rabi Gupta, a start up enthusiast and soon to launch his first product iDubba (Intelligent Box).]