Wake up India and vote for change!!

Welcome to 21st century India... a growing superpower and on verge of change....but recent terrorist attack has some open looof us loopholes in the internal security.

It is sad state that lack of political will and corrupt politicians is hampering growth of our country. I think time has come that each one of us as Indian citizen should vote in upcoming 2009, and ensure that we vote for right people in the system to seriously bring in some serious changes in the system.

I know there can be many If and But on this view, but seriously how many actually vote..not many. As long we dont vote, I think lets not then blame the system because we will get what we vote for.

Maruti A-Star Test drive - My reviews

Went for a test drive for new Maruti A-Star yesterday. Well, first look is definately impressive and you will surely see it fitting in family car segment. It is 998cc engine car

Good things is looks, design, VXi version comes with integrated music player, central locking, key locking, power windows for all 4 windows, nice interiors and good body design.
I was little diappointed in terms of boot space and felt leg room was little less than i10(or maybe I was demanding much more for the price)
Driving is smooth and AC seemed effective. Gears are very smooth and it reminds me of similar driving experience as that of Swift.
Dealer quoted On road price in Pune of INR 4.2Lakhs which seems pretty ok.
Out of 5, I would rate it as 4. Definately worth considering !!!!

Barack Obama's Victory: Three Lessons for Business - By Jack Welch

Finally Obama has been elected as 44th President of The United States.
I came across this interesting article on Obama's victory and lesseon for Business written by Jack Welch.
: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_46/b4108000836030.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story
Welch has clearly mentioned for any business to grow, the leader need to have
a- clear, consistent ­vision
b- The next leadership principle should sound familiar: execution
c- unexpected way to gain an edge—in the usually overlooked caucuses
d-finding new customers and opening new markets along the way
e- start any leadership initiative with your "high-level friends" firmly by your side
Courtesy- Business Week
Nice read .....

Telecom as new marketing ground

Its offcial, it is no more FMCG, Telecom has taken over as the king for Marketing playground and it is become fiercely tough and pure B2C play and commodity.
Soon, you will see budgets dedicated towards telecom more than FMCG...
Yahooo!! Telecom rocks!!

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn | Guy Kawasaki

Web Strategy is the way forward and here are some thoughts from management guru Guy Kawasaki.

http://blog.linkedin.com/blog/2007/07/ten-ways-to-use.html

I really like LinkedIn as a tool for professional networking.

Lehman Brothers put itself up for sale- Wall Street

The day has arrived. After so much talk about mounting losses in billions, Lehman Brothers could not help much in stopping eroding stock price which closed 45% down to $3.97. Analyst has recently downgraded the stock value seeing $7 bn losses.

I had previously mentioned in my blog about possible sale of Lehman Brothers , though people close to bank still denied the fact.

As per CNN, The No. 4 U.S. investment bank is scouring Wall Street for a financial lifeline as its losses soared to almost $7 billion in the last two quarters alone, primarily because of wrong-way bets on mortgage securities and other risky investments. Its shares nose-dived a staggering 42 percent Thursday to close at $4.22. That's down more than 94 percent from their 52-week high of $67.73.
Bank of America Corp., Japan's Nomura Securities, France's BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG and Britain's Barclay's PLC have been mentioned this week as potential buyers.

I think HSBC too will take a chance to bid for it.

However as per The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Lehman is actively shopping itself and said that suitors included Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and British bank Barclays (BCS).

Company officials are trying to get a deal wrapped up and announced by Sunday night, people close to the deal tell CNBC.- CNBC

Bank of America is name which is looking positive as front runner.

Rock On- Rocks!!!!

After along time, saw this well directed movie- Rock On!!
Really liked the direction which has been well coupled with lovely music.
Farhan Akhtar- Good job man!!

Review- Dont want to spoil your fun- Go and watch yourself.... Worth a watch

Citibank-- Bank which always sleeps

Citi- Never sleeps!! That is what they claim....
But if you happen to go their branch, things are found to be opposite.
It took Citibank,Pune- 2 hours to make my DD. I went early to avoid rush and was there at 10.30am sharp, submitted my form.
Upfront I was told, it wil take 1 hour to make it. Man I was surprised, even our sarkari banks like SBI or BOB issue DD within 15 minutes. Anyways, thought maybe that the cost i have to pay as a customer of large'global' bank.
Only to realise that even after 1.5hrs of waiting, they were not aware of status when asked. Front desk lady told me that it is getting done( as if someone is getting ready for marriage).
Finally when I told them in clear sharp words, they called up someone to get the DD, after waiting for another 30mins, DD came down.
What a pathetic bank man... had it not been my corporate account, I would have closed my account then and there.

Inflation at 12.42% in Sep 2008

I see inflation softening... and I think it should be back to around 5-6% by march 2009 .... this is based on macro economic factors...

Bengal revolution for Tata and Nano

And it has started officially. Politics in communist state could have their say in past decade but today we Indians know how to work in democracy. We are not supporters of communist which speaks Chinese thoughts on soil of India. We want growth and we want progress, jobs, money..

Post announcement by tatas about their decision to move from Singur, there are Educated people who have taken to street for real protest againt policy of some selfish political parties of stopping growth in the state. IT proff working in Kolkatta organised rally against the unfortunate happenings in the state against Tata. If Tata moves opt it will hit bengal in bigway of every company thinking about their investment plans in the state.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080904/jsp/calcutta/story_9784546.jsp

Question comes- What happens to poor farmers. First they have already been made scapegoat by political parties and what if their land is also taken away for industries. I think its time that every state sets up a panel to review land possesion for such projects. This will ensure a smooth transition and growth of both farmers and industries.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080904/jsp/calcutta/story_9784546.jsp

Tata pulls out of Bengal - Whats next for Nano project ???

Tata Nano which was helping in painting enhanced brand image of India, has been sabotaged by some crooked bunch of political ideas, egos and bad role of govt in settling Singur row.

Does anyone know whether farmers really want land back, I don't feel so. Infact farmers will benefit through industrial growth.

Surprisingly this is happening against Tatas. Tatas is one industrial house which is respected for their fair policies and good corporate governance.

This is really going to put big black spot on booming Indian picture as automobile manufacturing hub. What which could have been solved by across the table conversation has nothing but put more trouble to farmers which are mere spectators being sandwitched in yet another Indian politic saga.

By the way, it was observed that very politicians which oppose tata plants came filled in Tata sumo, tata indica cars ..... What an irony ::)

Curtains up on Google Chrome

Finally, Google chrome is here. I have already installed Chrome and this post is first one through Chrome on my blog. I think UI is little different , but then I dont think much can be done on layout. Yes, there are other special features like tab switch, website search, etc.
Chrome is yet another competition to giant Microsoft. I think IE8.0 will keep doing well, but enterprise opting for open source components might look forward to deploy Chrome.
So, eventually it will be Chrom v/s Firefox to start off with

B-Schools- Beyond i-Banks

I have always wondered what are Indian B-School focussed on..??Managers..leaders....Analytics....Consultants....??

Well, seeing the trends in admission criteria of Premier B-Schools in India, I really felt it not test of attitude/aptitude but of marks and maths solving. Thanks to this criteria, most of IIMs see i-banks lining up for students. Great!! But question remain... Then what is difference between Top B-Schools and Indian B-School.

One difference I felt was selection criteria. Western B-School do care about GMAT and marks but thats not the sole criteria of judging the candidate. They see beyond that... persons ability to work on the field, enterpeneurship, social contribution.

And even students there opt for unique ideas. One such example is World’s best B-school grads opt for sarkari internships. India's planning commision is most sought after department for internships.

How many of us actually know that summer 08, RBI took in 43 students, including 13 from universities abroad, like Stanford.

I guess India is surely emerging as the destination of growth and opportunities and I feel Indian B-School should also try to focus on domestic sectors.

XOBNI- A new search application

Tried Xobni, new email search application today. I was recommended this piece of free software but after installing the application, realised that my lapi went real slow.

This software sit along with your MS outlook. I did explored this application wherein it displays different stats realted to your emails...might to useful for instant search. But making my lapi slow I had no other option but to uninstall it.

Maybe, I will try again once its out from it beta version.

Infosys buys Axon for $753mn

Finally, IT giant announces its strategic acquisition of Axon, SAP consulting for $753mn all cash deal. There has been lot of talk about Infy planning acquisition since it was sitting on lot of cash and required some strategic inorganic growth.

With Axon, Infy is expected to gain strong foothold in SAP consulting market, a high paying service offering and also it will help diversifying its revenue contribution coming from US. Axon has its 55% revenue coming from Europe and 45% coming from US geos. It also has operations in Malaysia.

On other hand HCL too has announced its $20mn acquisition of Control Point, telecom software services vendor.

IT giants are increasingly looking for inorganic growth to increase their presence. This can also be seen as Indian players dominance in IT versus Chinese counterpart. Chinese IT companies are still in stage wherein they are playing resourcing game, on other hand Indian IT players are moving into value chain game with strategic acquisitions.

Alto Rally in Pune - Let's Go

Participated in Maruti Alto rally organised in Pune on 24th Aug, sunday.
Well organised rally by Maruti team , wherein they also gave participating gifts and organised games, fun, lucnch for participants as well as their family.
I had fun time driving 51km route which started off from Garden court in pashan at 9.30am. The competition was about Best mileage so one need to drive in right gear and speed. I covered my path (without a navigator) through mumbai -bangalore highway....katraj, bharati vidyapeeth, AFMC, Bund garden,Yerawada, Holkar bridge, Wakewadi, University road, Aundh, ITI road, baner, Pashan, NCL , back to Garden court ....in 1hr 45 min.
Mileage- I was really surpirsed to see that I covered 51kms in just 1.54litre of petrol, that come to whopping 34 km/lt average.. I rem some people claiming more than that too.
Btw!! They also offered tank full of petrol at Rs40/lt :)

Well about the prize- I was not feeling well, so came back little early... but I was optimistic about the prize...anyways.. had good time
Maruti Alto- Let's Go

KDB warned against buying Lehman Brothers

Korea Development Bank has been warned by South Korea's financial regulator on buying stake in Lehman Brothers. source FT.com

I had mentioned about trouble in which Lehman brothers is in my blog on 24th June 2008.

Reason can be many for LB. As per Financial times, Lehman is considering a variety of options to raise cash before its mid-September earnings report, which analysts expect to include writedowns of up to $4bn. The possibilities include a sale of a stake in Lehman itself or the sale of all or part of its asset-management arm or its commercial real estate portfolio.

LinkedIn- A new connection

I have been on linkedin for more the year now and really like this networking site.

Though social networking is booming like anything but I really find many of them without a purpose.

Facebook , though it is very famous but I dont find it interesting. After all, why should I go every time and then and update what am I doing for play some childish games with people on networks. And more over, why should it be seen by others.. Come on Man, I have my personal life too. So, I have deleted my profile from there.

Orkut.... well it is fine..but I have gone little back foot on that too. I guess it is popular for collegians.

So, I feel there are two clear segments emerging for social networking and new ventures need to really focus on just one of them..you go for both and you will go bust soon.

One segment is clear youth or people with strong need for personal profiling. Hi5, facebook, orkut..all cashing on it

Second is more professional, like linkedIn... which focus on business side of things.. you have these interesting interactive answer sessions, and options to network with people across globe.

One good thing I like is security and layers to avoid people sending spam request..

So, just before I sign off for this note, let me remove one layer and invite people interested to share their views with me on linkedin.

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=7368003&trk=tab_pro

The Freedom Writers Diary- Must watch

Though I rarely watch movies, but today while flipping through channels came across this movie on HBO and somehow I thought to see it. And that was for good :)

This movie turned out to be based on real scenario which happened in Wilson High School in Long beach, California. It shows how this teacher practically changed non-interested bunch of students who hates studies and are into gangs fights and made them learn and understand how hatred among each other can cause misunderstandings.

Reco- Must watch esp for teenagers, college students and infact everybody :)

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers ( Source- Amazon)

The chindia factor- a reality of 21C

chindia- A new word derived to represent China and India together
chindia word has its roots from last decade of 20th century and with advent of 21st century, the phenomenon is witnessing some real action or adverb in its image.
Mahindra and Mahindra today announced its joint venture with Chinese tractor manufacturer Jiangsu Yueda Yancheng - 18 August 2008
And this is not the first, Indian congomolerates has been increasingly forming JVs with Chinese companies.
Joint venture co-invested by Bharat Forge Co Ltd. (BFL), the flagship company of Indian Kalyani Group and China's auto giant First Automobile Works (FAW) Co. Ltd began operations recently.
India's Tata Tea Ltd. announced an agreement recently to set up a joint venture in China's Zhejiang province with Zhejiang Tea Import Export Company to manufacture and export various tea products.
GAIL too has revealed its plans to form joint venture with China Gas.
This might create new detroits of the world, merely from component or back office sourcing areas. The common synergies of these two countries surely is going to take tough time to western markets, which on other hand will see western consumers getting benefited. Sounds like a misnomer in real life.
What need to seen however, is management art to mix cultural and working styles of two different class to form the perfect case study of globalisation. Till now, globalisation was one way, wherein you have this client in west and weell suited workforce trained in their culture as theri vendors. Here, JVs need to work in tandem to achieve a common goal- Thier country's success.

Why Your Office Isn't Like Google's

Came across really interesting thought by Jack Welch in Business Week. THis is about how Most managers want to empower their workers, but reality can get in the way.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_34/b4097100925793.htm

Thanks to business week for publishing it :)

MVNOs and Indian telecom market

TRAI recently released its recommendations on MVNOs in Indian market.
For more - please visit www.trai.gov.in
The executive summary of the recommendations of the Authority on MVNO is as follows:
1. MVNO to be introduced as a distinct service provider with its own licensing and regulatory framework
2. MVNO free to choose its business model (Full or Intermediate or Thin)
3. Arrangement/ agreement between MNO and MVNO to be driven by market forces
4. MVNO to be issued a license under Indian Telegraph Act
5. The license service area of MVNO to be same as that of parent MNO
6. Any Indian Company with networth -10% of that of MNO for the service area and paid up capital - 10% of prescribed networth and fulfilling other licence conditions is eligible for MVNO licence.
7. Agreement with MNO to be submitted before issue of license to MVNO
8. No limit on number of MVNOs attached to a MNO
9. MNO to pay the spectrum charges for utilisation of spectrum by MVNO
10. Entry fees for MVNOs – 10% of MNOs subject to a maximum of Rs.5/3/1 crores for category A/B/C areas
11. Annual licence fees same as that of MNO of the service area
12. Allocation of Numbers, Number portability, Interconnection with other service providers and Roaming to be provided by parent MNO.
13. Subscribers to be protected on failure of agreement between MNO and MVNO or MVNO quitting service
14. No Roll out Obligations for MVNO
15. FDI limit 74% (same as MNO)
16. Bank Guarantee: FBG – equivalent to two quarters license fees;
PBG – 5% of MNO
17. Restrictions on Mergers and acquisition on similar lines as MNOs

Following these recommendations, activity on MVNO front has already started with Tata making statement that it hold exclusive rights with Virgin in India. Now, it need to be seen who is next MVNO players approaching Indian telcos

India and Olympics- Whats next

Abhinav Bindra recently bagged gold medal at Olympics making whole nation proud.

The back ground for achieving this medal help in throwing light on why India never get into top list of achievers at Olympics.

Bindra is from a very well-to-do background and his father opened a shooting range for him when he was young. Now, he has even gifted his son a 5 star hotel as a gift for winning the medal.

Even Bindra himself has commentd that cricket alone can never tak India into big league of sports world.

Given right environment and support, Indian have it in them to crack top position. But what is n the ground in sharp contrast.

Pathetic sports complex and services, no financial support, no encouragement, etc etc..

All money been allocated is eaten up by corrruption and rest is not spent.

Even after winning this time and knowing what exactly the problem is, it is sad that in my view, govt is still not waking up for the vision as sports power.

ndian Big-3 to be Megavendors Soon- Gartner

Even analyst have started acknowledging it- ndian Big-3 to be Megavendors Soon- Gartner

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies (collectively referred as 'India-3' for the purpose of the study) will emerge as the next generation of IT service megavendors, according to Gartner, Inc.

According to Gartner, the emerging megavendors have leveraged four critical competencies to achieve their status as emerging megavendors. The competencies are: process excellence; world-class HR practices; providing high quality services at a low cost; the achievement of significant and disproportionate 'mind share' compared to their actual size.
The Indian providers will have to address the issue of moving away from resource-intensive revenue growth to a model that provides higher leverage and increases revenue without a linear relationship to head count, which is the situation that exists today, suggested the study

What need to seen now is the game strategy of mid-tier IT players. Coming time surely seem to getting more excited

Olympics 2008 in China- What a opening!!

I was really amazed by seeing opening ceremony organised by China at Olympics 2008 in Beijing.
For simple thing which we saw, the fire cracker show, it took 4 years of practise to organise crackers fired from 1000 locations in Beijing to display those spectacular looking show. Not to forgot other opening ceremony show...all was great!!
China has surely proved it that it has come of ages and is surely stepping fast in developed country league

India wins first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics

India won its first ever individual gold medal at Olympics 2008 at Beijing, China.
As an Indian , I am both happy and sad.
I am happy and have best regards to our champ, Bindra, who has won that gold medal.
But frankly, I am more sad. We all know the reason.
With second largest population on this planet earth of more than 1.1 billion, we have just few atheletes and sports champ which you can even count on fingers.
Its time that India takes initiative for all sports and stop making cricketers the god.

New transport policyin China to reduce pollution

China has recently introduced new transport policy to reduce pollution and be better prepared for Olympics 2008 in Beijing.
As per the new policy, most Beijing vehicles will only be allowed to operate on alternating days from July 20 to Sept. 20 to reduce air pollution during the Olympic Games.Cars with odd-numbered license plates will operate on one day while those with even-numbered license plates will operate on others. This system was succesfully implemented during the 2004 Games in Athens.
But this idea has some loopholes. One clear idea is to buy one more car with other number, odd or even. Though only rich can afford this idea.
I think more work for home should be encourage for profile which doesnt require always to be in office. This can be good way to keep some cars off from road.

China is set for Olympics 2008

New Beijing expressway after odd/even transport policy

Current Indian Political Saga and K- Serials of Saas Bahu

Indian political scene has turned up similar to famous K- serials which dominates Indian Television TRPs.

- First, both has offlate been able to attract highest TRPs seeing the highly dramatic situation

- Second, both was like long going story where every thing was moving fine in festive mood, that got disrupted by a strom of nuclear deal( read extra marital affair for K- Serial)

- One party or one side of family is against excepting an idea, just then enters another political party with lots of shaking cameras

- And boom!! all excitement begins!! Lot of twist and turns in the story almost evry single day

- Situation that keep everybody guessing wat will happen in next day serial which comes with a new dramatic twist

- As it happens in K- Serial, there is a vamp/villian waiting to take revenge, they join with opposing or cursed party to take revenge from primary family.

- Yeh one more similarty, these moments are also telecasted in 8-10pm slot ;)

- K-serial families are shown to be rich families with so much of wealth etc, but noone in their family actually work during day time for their business, instead all men will be at home clad in nice well embrodary kurta pyjamas ;).... same is happening in political front, every one is busy with vote numbers and work has taken back front( not to forget, all politicians also wear Kurta pyjamas)

- Both K-serial and political saga is being dominated by women power

Now the only catch is gender based. Each of them has got one of the gender as the most loyal viewers.... You know the answer very well here....dont you !!!

Windows XP still available :)

I was going through this interesting article today at www.cio.com
What Does It Take to Get a PC With Windows XP?
Chris has surely done an extensive research on various options available for getting XP with laptops.
I have Windows Ultimate installed on my personal laptop and inspite of 2 GB RAM, I am not happy with Vista's performance. Moreover, inspite of buying original Ultimate pack for a high cost, I still had to download almost 100MB of updates from internet( I dont know what did they then charged for) :)
I am sure XP was far far better than Vista.
Vista doesnt even support my wireless mouse from Logitech

SITM campus pictures

Recently visited SITM campus at Lavale and took few pictures:

Library:

What we stand for :)

View from campus of lush surroundings:

Academic Block:

Road to campus on hill top

Brand Endorsement- an extension

I recently posted my thoughts on brand endorsement and got some interesting feedback from my friend Neehar.
There is one more segment in Indian market where brand endorsement does enhance revenues. And that segment is 'Rural India'
Rural India is next big market which most of the companies from Telecom operators to FMCG and Automobiles are targeting aggressively.
Consumer behaviour observed as Neehar told me from his summer internship observations titls high on brand endorsing. People in rural villages or town recollects things based on the person who endorsed the product in ads. Ex, Woh Abitabh Bacchan wala Pen, Sachin wali choclate etc.
I think he hasa point for sure :)

Apple i-Phone 3G launched

Came across interesting picture of AT&T and Verizon stores.
AT&T surely reflect as happy partner of Apple. iPhone 3G saw record sale of more than million handset on the very day of launch.

Pic 1: Outside a AT&T Store

Pic2: VRZN's empty HRZN

Brand endorsement- Yes or No!!!

Brand endorsements are tactical, not strategic - This is what I read somewhere!!!
TO some extent - Yes!! they are like quick fix solution. It will work as long as the fad, and once celebrity demand goes down, brand gets a kill and its tough to maintain it by the quality it offers to end-consumers.
Ex- How many times have you thought to opt for a chocalate just because it is endorsed by a celebrity. I would say many wud still like to buy taste which they like.
You go out shopping for Fan- Would you think about Dhoni flying in air just because you sawhin in XYZ ad, knowing well how many times would he bought a fan himself ;)
I see customer segmentation as an important criteria for optiing brand endorsement for product. Kids is one such segment where a relevant celebrity will surely make a dent. Kids tend to really get impressed by celebs and they have high selection critieria based on their favourite hero/heroines
Youth- This is an interesting segment where you need to target your product rather than celebs to impress them. Does their thought and aggression matches key features of product. If answer is Yes, you wurely will end up high target bonus this time.
Mature and Old peopls- Cost and Value is all which will drive them , be it a needle, milk or a car.

So big question- Why do companies do celeb marketing.
Answer- World is full of herd mentality wherein one always feels that by Not Doing XYZ, marketing is incomplete.
Whereas true meaning of marketing is not ad and pomp and show but taking different approach to fulfill your customer problems, revenue follows for sure.

Best external storage drives

As per my analysis, there are 2 good options for external USB drives
- Toshiba USB2.0 320GB- Might cost you around 100-150USD- Slim and handy and good performance
- Western Digital USB 2.0 320GB My Passport series- 100-130USD
Sleek drives and durable, WD is known for good performance drives-
Happy Shopping

Bangalore airport covered by Arabian media

Seems like Dubai and Bangalore do have some linkage. Leading news portal Arabianbusiness.com covered an article about growing traffic at Dubai airport and traffic snarls in bangalore to reach airport :)

PS- I did mention about my thought published as a comment

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&Itemid=1&id=523317#comment-19498

Dubai Vs Singapore- Even media talking same line

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/524686-taxi-shortage-latest-threat-to-dubai-boom?ln=en
Good to see that Arabian media do acknowledge about taxi problem and its linkage to business growth in a city like Dubai.

Telecom as backbone of growth

What is so different about telecom Vs other sectors like Banking, auto, manufacturing etc. All these are B2C but still where one hand there is talks about slowdown in other sectors, telecom is accelerating its pace.

Telecom from past 50 years have been yet anohter sector which depended on govt for investment. For single wireline connection, there use to years of waiting. Even in other global markets, telecom although was seen as advanced sector in terms of technology but not much was seen on commercial front.

And then came mobile boom!!!

With outcome of mobile and people connectivity, what countries also realised that telecom is very crucial for growth of economy. Telecom can bring about revolution ideas of optmising costs,it can drive and increase growth and demand and more important reduce the biggest factor- Distance between the people.

India is surely reaping the benefits of policiies of govt of opening up telecom sector to private players. With telecom came new ideas right from corporate and urban customers to remote farmer. Now even a farmer can negociate for best price for his product.

I am really keeen to watch further advancement and its links to economic growth once 3G come in.

Symbian goes open source

Symbian is world's leading mobile OS. It was formed as a constorium with members like AT&T LG Electronics Motorola Nokia NTT DoCoMo Samsung Electronics Sony Ericsson STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments Vodafone.

Nokia actively adopted Symbian as their preferred OS and by the time Microsoft came into picture, Symbian had gained major market share of close to 70 % in smartphones.

Now, Nokia has acquired most of Symbian stake for around $264mn and it has plans to take it as open source platform.

I see this as learning of Nokia to increase its market share and also preferred platform in competitive scenario. Mobile OS market is clearly getting new OS and with Microsoft al set to make a dent in high end smartphone segment, Nokia moves strong strategic.

It is getting all leading development vendors and operators under one roof under the shadow of open source message. Although I feel only a part of Symbian will be open source, but not all module will be open for developers.

Symbian -Nokia ia growing fast with 3, Mexico-based America Movil and Brazil's TIM Participacoes, Marvell, Aplix, EB, EMCC Software, Sasken and TietoEnator have also endorsing the foundation.

India diversity reflects on its currency also

India is truly a diverse country and same reflects on its currency also.

I came across a fact that picture on backside of 20 Rupee note is actually has been taken at southern most tip of Andaman and Nicobar island.

Now can you believe that..!! Well I am glad to see how innovatively govt thought and got that pic.

Btw!! I have been to this place in Andamans and for your info this island is called 20Rupee Island ;)

Indian market at Bottom!!!

13000 and going further down... well this is very dialogue which you can hear on any business TV channel in India.

I see this a good buying opportunity and create portfolio.

As Warren Buffet says- you should get greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy

IPOs - All gone bust

I had a major argument with my peers when sensex was reigning 18-20K.
My view has been not to bet on IPO as gamble. IPO were selling hot cakes just because they were shorcut to double money. Well unfortunately, those who are sharp make money and exit but layman in general gets greedy to keep stock making more money.
Result- Sensex came down and IPO dreams got busted. Today most of IPO are trading at 40-50% discounted price.
Stocks are not gamble, they are be played with calculated risks for making all profits.

Good equity mutual funds in India

Did some research on mutual fund to list out few good bets:

- DWS Investment Opportunity Fund

- Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Focus

- SBI Magnum COntra

- Kotak Opportunities

- HDFC Top 200

- DSP TIGER

- Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Midcap

Balanced:

- HDFC Prudence

- SBI Magnum Balanced

Mutual fund is subjected to market risk, please read offer document carefullt before investing. The above are my own personal view and are not meant to influence anyone. Please invest at your own risk.

iPhone in India....$299!!!

Answer is not $299 I guess.. There are views that iPhone might not be prices at Rs.8999 as it was speculated some time back when new iPhone 3G was launched.
AT&T in US is offering huge subsidy since they match up revenues from minutes, whereas in India minutes are already at al time low 2-3 cents/minute. With this, expected price for iPhone is said to be around 20K.
Lets wait and see!!!

Dubai - New Singapore in Making??

Dubai and Singapore, one is upcoming business hub while latter is established business hub of Asia Pacific belt. Been there to both Singapore and Dubai, I feel these two cities do have some common synergies. Singapore has its unique and very positive story behind its success. It grew up to become business hub when Asia was just opening up and growing to industrial change. Dubai too has moved up from just Middle East transition to becoming regional hub when Middle East is opening up ffrom traditional "Oil" image. Today you can see MNCs setting up their offices, tourists attractions etc etc. But how about the way forward - Singapore has developed its model...Dubai still trying to figure out. With exponential growth, Dubai is now struggling with what is called City Planning and Infrastructure. Wide roads were good to manage tourists, but business requires more than that. Kilometres long traffic is common thing in Dubai nowadays and people end up travelling for 2 hours on an average in long traffice jams. With cheap oil, car is not a luxury in Dubai. Cost of living has been growing very fast, with just renting an apartment has gone 8-10 times higher. Weather is one another factor along with infrastructure. Dubai is still cashing on development which was done a decade ago. Wide roads of that time is not able to take load now and Airport traffic too is seeing fast growth. Added to it is strike by cab drivers. Cab drivers are very crucial since many people depends on taxis for their daily work.
Dubai really has shortage of taxis. On an average you might end up waiting for an hour during peak hours to find a taxi. I very well remember that day when I walked around 2-3kms for close to 90minutes looking for a single taxi in Bur Dubai at 9am. Result- I ended up late for a meeting. Singapore on other hand has real efficient taxi services, with all GPS systems. I rarely faced any problems with Taxi services during my stay in Sgpr.

Pic- Me stuck up in Dubai traffic jam :(

Singapore on other hand has high execution expertise. Changi airport is one world-class airport and caters to connecting flights to western regions, experience ofcourse is unmatched with that of Dubai counterpart. Sgpr has strict car laws with high excise duties and one car/family law. Added to that they have metro running across singapore along with efficient public transport and cab services. This eases traffic woes to an extent. Traffic jams are there but during rush hours/ 2 hours bracket only and thats a common scenario even in US. Weather too is good throughout the year. Singapor in true sense is cosmopolitan city.

What is the next turnmoil in world economy- Water???

It has been money( subprime crisis).. so money is ruled out
It has been crude($140/barrel).... it will continue... ruled out

Water- Maybe yes.... With depleting water tables and high pollution of natural resources, very soon water will be the reason for next world crisis.

Its high time we as an individual step forward and ensure that atleast each one of will not waste water. Even with simple steps, we can save lot amount of water in our daily use

Nano Effect

Tata Nano- A revolution.. yes i feel so.
Reason- Post Nano , all major car makers have announced investment in sub $3000 cars including likes of Nissan, GM and even Merc.
Indian govt has already increases excise duty on cars above 1500cc.
India fast becoming auto-component sourcing hub
Indian design center buzzing with increased headcount and global majors investing heavily in R&D centres in India
Tata is the only auto company in the world to have complete end-to-end product..right from Nano to JLR/LC

Global Environment Awareness

With global warming started showing danger signals, countries are making keen investment to save environment.
Latest is China- They have decided to control number of mountaineers climbing on Mt Everest every year. With 1000s of climber taking on the peak, Mt Everest is witnessing pollution which is leading to fast melting of glacier. China now will be issuing permits to limited climbers every year.

Lehman Brothers- Next Bear Stearns?

US financial body Fed is trying its level best to avoid another bear stearns by pushing Lehman Brothers struggle and overcome their losses. Read this in businessweek recently!!!
Well , Lehman bet on mortgage business has taken them into bad debt and now they are next bear stearns in making. Fed however is trying best to avoid this situation since that would take away all the trust from i-bank world.
Although, Lehman is smallest of top10 i-banks, its fallout could further worsen the global economy through ripple effects

Global Inflation riding on the bull now

Inflation- Thats a global word now.
China, India are feeling most pressure from it and fighting to cool it down from double digit figure to sub 5% levels. With rising crude prices and OPEC not in mood to increase demand, I guess these two emerging markets will have to struggle for some more time with Inflation numbers.
Western markets too are feeling the pinch now, people in west are reducing their long drives and expenditures.
Interesting thing however is that dreaded word "Recession" is no more heard. There is still sense of optimism in global market of things recovering back in medium term and everything will be alright.
I feel too there are chances of the above facts. OPEC meeting last sunday resulted in divided views by members which means crude is soon going to see correction in prices. Saudi and Kuwait are pro-demand increase so as to fill the demand-supply gap.

Barrel Effect in US - Drop in traffic jams

US freeways and driveways are anyones delight. And if you get cheap gas and powerful gas guffling SUVs, it can be one of the best experiences. Personally I am a speed and car freak. I too got a chance to drive around pontiac in US and was excited to vrrooom of engine.

But now with soaring gas prices as high as $4/gallon, US surely has put gentle accelerator on driving.

As per one report, there has been a considerable drop in traffic density is US. With highest being in Washigton area of 4.4%, west coast is down by 2.8%, East Coast - 1.4% and 1.8% in great lakes area.

This phenomenon is also following suite in other parts of World too, there has been steps with the oil price rise this time. There will be surely acceleration in efforts by researcher to come up with energy efficient and different source of energy for automobiles.

India too has electric run Reva which has got good ratings, but I think the company can very wel cash on this oopy with price rise to really increase its sales.

Blanket ban on shopping plastic bag in China

Sometimes it is good how communist form of govt can really benefit country and environment..China has imposed complete ban on plastic bags from June 1,2008.
World Environment Day should give some thought to Indian govt to think about this option in India too. I would say we should promote jute made bags since they are enviromently friendly and also promote employment oppys.

Telcos growing across boundaries

Where will be next billion subscribers coming from?

As an execution step towards the answer, telcos are all set with cross boundaries growth.

AT&T, one of the early entrant in Indian market made a decent profit of around $250mn after selling its stake in Idea back in early millenium. Thats a different story that current value of same stake is more than $2billion.

AT&T is standing right there waiting for its chance to enter Indian market again. Phenomenon of strong Indian telecom story is definately attracting major player across geography.
The reason is beyond just putting its dot in emerging market map. It is about getting balance sheet strong by matching up slow growth in current geography with fast emerging market for players in saturated market.For emerging market player, it is more to quench their thirst for larger play and ambitious plans.
With Middle east too witnessing fast growth in telecom sector after recent liberisation by the government, players in those region have realised the importance of moving out from reginal shell and spread its business in similar markets.
Etisilat recently confirmed its plan to enter Indian market through an Indian player, it is already in talks with Spice Communications, Datacom to name a few.
Also, there has been lot of unseen synergy which players like MTN and Reliance are working on, after Bharti opted out of race for MTN.

Similarly, players in middle east are actively working on buying stake in Indian wireless players and new greenfield players. This reaction from Middle east players came into picture after Vodafone's strategic acquisition of Hutch India to get emerging market as part of its growth plan. Major players like MTN, Qatar Telecom , Etisilat are all eyeing pie in Indian market since their hoem market will soon start witnessing lot of comeptition from new players. It becomes very important to open international strategy to make sure revenue dependency is not region focused.
Interest developed by middle east players in India and vice versa has opened one more dimension of growing business attractions between middle east and India for telecom landscape. This is an exciting step since it was not predicted or talked about option.
Major telco like Bharti and Reliance have been trying continously to enter Middle east market. They have been trying by bidding for licences but in vain. So now, they see ruote through mergers and acquisition as the best way to spread their expansion plans.
With western players actively eyeing Indian market, middle east players working aggresively to move out from regional shell and Indian players working on their global expansion plans, Telecom landscape is clearly geting more eventful and exciting.

Oil..Oil...Oil.. That is latest news in every circle

Today crude is trading at $130 and see no sign of retreat to lower number. OPEC still claims that they see no problem in supply-demand gap, whereas countires across globe are witnessing huge oil crisis.Most effected are ofcourse emerging nations like India and China. Commodity is highly dependant on oil prices since majority of tranportations means are based on oil and slight increase in oil results in a direct propotionate hit on inflation numbers.
Analyst say that they see some corrective measures coming into picture by year end, and that crude should be down to $80/barrell price.
Now, what has to be seen if how economies are going to take the balanced approach to minimise the impact of crude hit

Next rulers in Corporate world!!!

What is the next driving factor for corporate growth.... is it just corporate strategy and organisations who blindly put people after it without taking care about employees interest....
or
Second- innovative corporate strategy which leads the organisation with people along with it and use employees strength areas as the tool.

I feel the latter.. and this is thought is somewhat similar to what I read in one of Tom Peters book Re-Imagine.
Employees and HR is the next big area which can play as game maker or game broker in corporate strategy world. As well and done on boardroom presentations can go to dumps if right execution of keeping employees motivated is not done.

It is a truth that company priority is to maximise shareholder value but this is often assumed that shareholders are only one who are their buying stocks. THe goal then becomes to make them rich.And in this process, the main shareholders or the real executors "the employees" are least cared of.
Past 2 decade might have seen some companies flourishing only through corporate strategy but coming two decade will only favour those organisations which will move priority to make their employees rich and happy only as a logical step to make their shareholders happy.

Solution Accelerator- New face of service delivery model for telcos

Fast changing Telecom world has resulted in new challenges for telcos worldwide. With shirking business boundaries and growing customer expectations, telcos need to not only adopt to new scenario but also keep their customers and shareholders happy.The challenge is finally ending up with business systems of telcos to match the growth.

Solution accelerator is the saviour here for telcos. As Forrester defines it Solution Accelerators is "Pre-developed software that is used by the IT services firm to automate a particular business process or aspect of product development where 30% to 70% of the code can be reused across clients." (Source: Forrester)
Previously, it was simple integration of products which was considered to the answers for telcos problem. But it has been realised that besides just simple integration, business processes have major play in the whole game.To establish faster RoI and increase satisfaction, setting up right business processes is equally important along with right integration of product.
Patni recently launched one such and first marketready offering for communications service providers to set up core customer- and partner-facing business processes under one consolidated operational model.

Patni atoms™ process-centric platform is designed for providers needing to provision new converged services. In the case of a start-up operator in high growth markets, atoms™ enables the licensing of the systems required to ramp up service delivery in a short period of time. The Patni atoms™ platform also accelerates the business transformation program for existing operators and provides a blueprint for future operating models. As providers start using Patni atoms™, the whole community of userscan share in the resulting enhanced packaged solution. Patni recently acquired intellectual property from Carphone Warehouse that formed the basis of atoms™.

Patni atoms is already running live with their customer which has also quoted about its enhanced capablilities.

“It’s critical for us to respond rapidly in the entrepreneurial business we are in and the solution we have co-created has enabled us to complete the first phase of our planned roll out at Carphone Warehouse. As the co-creators of Patni atoms™ we have been delighted to have played our part in what is undoubtedly a quantum step forwards in the evolution of telecoms industry operations,” said Simon Post, Chief Technology Officer of Carphone Warehouse. “The solution will be instrumental in allowing us to manage rapid growth in both business scope and scale whilst underpinning our successful business transformation.”

With telcos and media companies expecting to save 15-18% of overall project costs and and expecting to change sourcing scenario from typical offshore advantage game from ‘Time & material’ to ‘Value Pricing’, this space is definately heating up for lots of action.

MVNOs in India

MVNOs are welcome!!!
This is what Indian govt is saying as of now for its second fastest telecom market in the world.
Question is however the feasibility and timing of MVNO entry in Indian market. With spectrum and new licenses already been given to so many player to create competition , MVNO entry will surely deplete margins and might have negative impact.
MVNOs are typically opened in market where market is close to saturation and carrier want to seek new avenues of revenue. Whereas in India, teledensity is still around 24%.
Entry of MVNO will see price decline and as well negative competition , much more churn and might not be positive for Indian markets as of now.

Time for Indian govt to think again

China Inflation at 8.7%

China came out with their inflation figure and it is 8.7% which is actually a high figure. Inflation is directly linked to price rise including commodity prices which effects country growth trend.
This shows that in globalised world, however secluded a country remains cannot be left alone from global economic signs like slowdown or growth.

China too has been impacted by slowdown in western world and has seen 15-20% correction their markets too. Time to see how China copes with its image to maintain its country business in coocon environment policy.

Indian Budget 2008

India is gearing up for next election for biggest democracy. On one hand where global market is going through sub-prime crisis and talking themselves into recession, India still confident of its growing economy along with dfferent challenges.
Indian bidget by PC has been a right balance on tight rope. On one hand current congress government is trying to lure voter for next election by populist budget, on the other hand it has to be seen that India keep growing with its current rate.
Budget 2008 is very much for Aam aadmi, with tax slabs being changed showing straight saving of 50K for average person. Auto industry said cheers with PC announcing subsidy for small car. I am sure Nano effect is already showing its 'side effects'

The question now is whether the plans announced will show positive signs on Indian economy.

IPO mania- Is this the end of the road....

India growing at 9% and going on.... Halt!! It is time to sharpen the saw.

Economy can never be trained or set as a process.It needs constant revisit for the road to future and to design a clear strategy for growth sector.Big money cycles which originates with foreign investments are now showing how wild these demons can get. Current down trend in global market will see emerging market revisit their strategy.Time has come where focus need to turn around from just infra and IT to manage Rupee-Dollar ratio and foreign investments.
Recent example $3bn IPO from big industry house which attracted $100bn of application, only thing is that is opened and closed at 30% discount. I think issue was too aggresively priced without even a single project going live. This can be linked to complacency getting developed in Indian markets. Assumptions made are optimistic appraoach on earning 100% return on every rupee invested. Last week too, Emaar, Builder of famous Al- Burj, World tallest tower of the world failed to attract investors for IPO which led to company withdrawing its IPO, same with another company Wockhardt. SO I think people should expect the blame that they thought of such IPO with so much of hype and when things went bad, thewy blame markets, company etc etc. People, please accept that dreams are going irrational now.
Today India talks about high growth, development. Recently started New Delhi- Gurgaon expressway and woes that is being witnessing daily reflect that we still are far away from infra experts. New international bangalore airport still doesnt have road connectivity, and we talk about development. I think infra story still need a revisit here to be so optimistic about this grwoth sector.
Market correction is giving India its real valuation, which means Indian market were overheated and I am surely positive that this correction was for good future of India

Stock Market Crash- What Next??

January 21, 2008 was yet another Black Monday followed by Black Tuesday.
Indian Sensex fell by more than 2000 points along with other Asian markets which corrected by 6-10%.
Reason- Growing speculation of US recession. There has been concerns growing about US recession, which will also impact global economy. Emerging economies like Taiwan and China are highly dependent on US exports, which range upto 60% of GDP for taiwan.
For Japan, it is concern on growth on internal japanese economy which got fuelled up by US factor.

US Fed has taken immediate emergency step by rate cut of 0.75% highest ever since 1984. US want to influx confidence in Global market to delete concerns of US economy and recession.
Indian market howevver saw lot of negative action. $160bn gone in 4 hours. In India, market had touched 21000, wherein lot of speculation has taken in place. Power stocks which had een great bull run were deeply hurt which corrected upto 70% in stocks.
Correction might be seen as good opportunity for buying stocks but here are few advice for you:
- Let the market stabilise, retail investors stay away and dont jump in to average in falling market

- Stay invested, what goes down will see its way up

- learn from this burn and invest in stocks based on fundamentals

- Don't run and invest your major part of portfolio in one sector

Supply chain and Marketing- Both gets innovative

Ever thought of food supply chain and finance.... read on for the answer!!!

After achieving six sigma, delivering excellence lectures at IIM Ahmedabad and attracting students from Haword, Dabbawallas have again gone innovative.

Reliance Money has just got new marketing channel via dabbawallah to promote upcoming and most looked after Reliance Power IPO. Dabbawallaa has most extensive network in Bombay which is very difficult to scale to by any other network. Reliance on other hand is all set to make a record breaking IPO offer for its Power company. Reliance marketing team has roped in Dabbawallas to deliver Reliance Money/Power IPO form along with every dabba delivered. Since they cater to people who are working and has huge financial aspirations, Reliance has got a right hit at target market.

Advantage- Reliance power gets marketing and Reliance Money attracts new customers seeing IPOs rush.

Reliance has always been known to focus on retail customer and with this innovative way of marketing, both Dabbawallas and Reliance have proved their innovation yet again to be the leaders.

Funny moment

It is embarassing too!!

When you are in queue to enter a lift and you realise that it just got filled before you could enter.

Man!!! its really funnt to see face expression on person who is standing outside the life..(with all 10 person inside the lift glancing at the other person.... Poor!!