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!!

Indian Real estate - Parkwayz Wakad in Pune

Parkwayz is a premium residential township by Mittal Construction Group at Wakad, Pune.
With growing industrial activity in pune, wakad area is seeing upswing in real estate activity.
There is Parkwayz yahoogroups - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/parkwayz_pune/

This group is association of owners of apartment in Parkwayz,Wakad and people related to it.The objective of this group is to bring people together and form a nice environment in our Parkwayz!!!
Poeple and owner at Parkwayz can interact thorugh parkwayz_pune@yahoogroups.com

Formula1 - Delhi - 2009 ..... Its Official!!

India has won the rights to host Formula One race in 2009... its official now

Indian govt have to be on their toes now for getting required infrastructure in place within 2 years timeframe which is a big challenge. But I feel we can do it :)

Its race against time now... China we are going to be there too ;)

Amp'd goes bankcrupt

MVNO in US are in trouble. Next one to file for chapter 7 is Amp'd Mobile, an MVNO.

As per media reports, Amp'd could not keep up with its IT systems for its growing customer base and things went bad from operational point of view.

I came to know Accenture was their systems integrator, which means MNC which is known for its "tiger" could not help a small player to keep up with IT systems.???

I believe Indian vendors like Patni, Infosys etc are doing great job as partner with growing companies in US and Europe specially for convergent service providers.

I believe it is not just about making your employee "Tigers" but also far more important making your customers as "Tiger", "Lion" too..

Sausalito moments

Sausalito gives am amazing view of SFO and Golden gate bridge.

Lovely place and drive...

John Tucker Must Die!!!!

Chill.!! Noone is getting killed here ;)

This is one real romantic comedy flick ...some 2006 year debut.

John Tucker Must Die is a 2006 American high school comedy film about a trio of girls (played by Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Arielle Kebbel) who plot to break the heart of manipulative basketball star John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) after they learn he has been secretly dating all three and pledging each is "the one". They recruit cute wallflower Kate (Brittany Snow) in their scheme to publicly humiliate the cad.

Events unfold and there are moment which will take guys like you (and me) back to college days for sure ;)

Exclusively for back benchers....and those front benchers studious people please stay away from this one since you will never get the feel of this flick :P)

Microsoft new creativity

Here is latest innovation from Microsoft, and its worth mentioning a praise.... Its their 'Surface'
Minority report has arrived.. and UI just getting new defination...

I am not sure how much will it click for home users initially but it looks fine to me for business users. Hospitality , Retail and other customer oriented business will see it usefull for business.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs appear together

Windows and Mac.... rather I would say its always Windows OR MAC.

But recently it was Gates AND Jobs together at D5,All things digital.. making historic appearance together.

It was interesing conversion as I read in Wall Street Journol and each other even appreciated other point of view.. Jobs acknowledged the fact that Gates did good job to make PC for masses with windows.

Gates too was supportive of fact that Jobs is real creative person and his ideas are great.
Any consolidation here ;)

For more, read it at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118066046287520886.html?mod=googlenews_wsj




Can we smell any consolidation here ;)

Airliner giant to recycle aircraft

Airplanes are now treated like paper... well I am not talking as cost but the way they will be processed.

French Airliner maker Airbus and US based giant Boeing have decided to recycle airliners now.

This is real good initiative to reduce pollution and dumping. Companies has set up R&D team to design process for recycling.

Normally, dumped airliners are moved to resting area near hanger and they are left for rusting. Now, this will not only give more space but also help airlines to recover cost.

With aviation market growing fast in emerging countries like China and India, this will help Boeing and Airbus to imporve their margins too...

Good initiative!!!

European telecom authorities plans new regulation

Telecom authorities in Europe are planning to form new telecom authority body and design new policy for making market more competitive and decrease monopoly of telecom giants.

If you see a map of operators, europe has maximum telecom giants with average $30bn revenues...thats huge
www.wsj.com

California west coast drive

Amazing and Awesome ....these 2 words fit good here and true for the drive parallel to pacific coast of US and then you have lovely phiffer beach.

The road goes through hillside and and then you have these wonderful cliff..

will write in detail... need to finish off the work ;)

pics are here

Hongkong Experience- A funny one

Connecting flight to SFO landed at HKG and then I went through something funny. After 3 hours of flight from Singapore to HKG, all the pasengers were requested to board off the flight and then after coming out were went throught one more round of security check and screening. Going through one gate and entering again from other was indeed funny.
I dont know even you know, but current HKG aiport is new airport built recently after its old airport develop safety concerns being in middle of the city.Since HKG has space crunch , authorities actually filled up portion of sea linked to the land and made this modern airport over it including the runway. Amazing I must say!!
But yeh!! someone traveling from CHangi to HKG will surely see lack of experience in terms of shopping etc at HKG airport.

Singapore experience- after 3 years again

Got a chance to travel again by Singapore airlines on my way to US. Singapore airlines has been rated best airlines globally and it truly reflects in their services, right from the way they make passengers board the aircraft to their in-flight services.
Had a connecting from singapore so enjoyed my time at Changi airport, which once again has won best aiport award many times and it truly deserves it.Spend some time at their ineresting internet kiosks and then some shopping at attractive duty-free shops.And how can such an interesting trip be completed without somethng interesting. So, I did made some blunder which ofcourse I cant mention here, but was lucky to get over it.
Even got a complimentary singapore trip for 2 hours from SIA,which made me remembered my time which I had in Singapore some 3 years back। Truly a global city.

Google Blog - Ab Hindi may bhi

गूगल कि यह नयई करामात.
अब हम हिंदी में भी blog कर सकते है!!!

बस्स फिर इंतज़ार किस बात का.... जय गूगल :)

Bheja Fry - Review

Great piece of comedy, with Rajat Kapoor planning to call an idiot for friday dinner and then the real fun starts.

Every actor besides Milind has really done wonderful acting. Comedy timings in movie is perfect.
Vinay pathak and Shorey are again at their best with great chemistry. I just love ranvir way of acting....he s in one guy!!
Will give 4/5 with ' Must watch' label

Experience- Fire in the next building

weekend went kinda exciting and with difference.Enjoyed this hilarious flick ' Bheja Fry' - Must watch, believe me you surely gonna have good laugh!!
Then sunday formula 1 race, though I had to entertain a friend of mine so could not catch up with it till chequered flag.It was just an hour after I came back home at 11pm,I heard screams from outside. When I peeped out from window it was actually a real movie drama.Neighbouring building was on fire and seconds after I heard explosion of cylinder. Rushed outside and called 101 and then 100 for bire brigade. I was really surprised to connect with them in just one ring.After 1 hour of firefighting ,people got the fire off and then like typical hindi movie fire brigade came( after 1 hour) ringing bells. They can't change ;)
Anyways, luckily no casuality happened.
Good nite!!

Hamilton rocks at Bahrain - McLaren...!!

The fairytale start to Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One career continued in Bahrain on Sunday. His second place made him the first driver in history to finish his first three Grands Prix on the podium. Not only that, he also took the joint lead in the drivers’ championship standings

Money transfer as next killer application

You surely must have read about even seen data transfer from one mobile to another using bluetooth or infrared but this time technology is showing somethng new.

Umm!! What about tranfering money from one mobile in US to another in India and getting it encashed at nearest certified outlet. ???

Believe me that is possible now.
This is expected to be next killer application for telcos and surely going to give Money transfer banks sleepless nights.Currently, services like Western Union charges $24 for tranfering $100 thats roughly 1/4th the amount,but using mobile transfer service like Vodafone's MPESA, it will be merely $8 and that is big difference.
M-PESA is a pilot project run by Vodafone. On similar lines, Bharti, cellular operator in India too have launched M-Wallet services and now mChek
As per figures, roughly $260 bn is transferred from migrant workers back home globally.

Data services surely is lucrative for increasing ARPU but this money transfer business will definately smell more cheese to operators soon.

Formula1 2007 season began today

It was all new machines with teams...changed colors and sponsorship.

Melbourne grand prix:Pole position- Raikkonen.. No doubt since its a combo of machine + driver
Followed by McLaren's Alonso and Hamilton.... Alonso truly is an expert driver who could thrust McLaren engine... Merc has best tech in terms of V6 engines, but team Mc needs to work little more to get Alonso on pole position in coming sessions
Most interesting event was 360 degree turn which Renault's driver performed ;) and he managed to zoom back too ...funny indeed
Vodafone replced by ING as main sponsors and Bridgestone boards by V-Power.Also was seen Kingsisher on Toyota car.
I wonder how is ING taking its sponsorship for F1.!!!I am not able to corelate a bank trying to map with a segment which signifies speed.
Maybe you can help me a bit on this!!

Chinese govt all set to check population

Yesterday on BBC ( http://www.bbcworld.com I watched this documentary on how China is keeping check on its growing population and at the same time taking care of citizens.
The documentary covered one aspect featuring incentives given by chinese govt to people who have girl child. In China, it is law to have only one child. People who go for second child are not given any incentives. On other hand, people who get girl as their first child are allowed to go in for second child. The reason being most of China is base on agricilutre and rural areas, where parents support in their old age from their son.Govt funds education of girl chidl till she grows up to look after her parents.
The second aspect showed how young people are moving towards big cities like Beijing to work and earn more money.They covered one family whose boy has moved to Beijing to work as labour and earn $4 a day from which he saves money and send it back to its family in village.

With Olympics due in 2008, China is moving fast with its infrastructure and development.
China surely catching up fast with global economy... India any lessonss??

Stock Market turbulence across globe

27th Feb saw turbulence across stock markets globally.
With Chinese market witnessing selling, and a drop of 8% the effect was reflected across asian markets including Japan, Thailand, India, Singapore moving further to Dow Jones.
Dow Jones dropped by percentage which is lowest after 9/11. However, the stocks seems to be moving up positive now
As about Indian market, Sensex need to build more fundamental growth than just money inflow one.Most of Indian stock are measured by multiple factor wherein stocks should be measured by growth weight.The moment there is change in sensex, its fall as in bottomless pit like it happened on 23rd May,2006.
India quikly needs to keep stringent check on inflation and Real estate price.Too much money coming as FII, can lead to Bubble in real estate market.
Key sectors to gain money in stocks would be Infrastructure, IT and Telecom

West -- Outsourcing is globalisation;Accept it

Outsourcing is no more sales pitch of Chindia. It is globalisation.West started the phenomenon to save cost in IT leveraging Indian IT skills, and now when Indian companies are developing new innovative models, wherein they are providing customers ways to provide better services to their customers.

SO, ultimately it is people in west who are getting the advantage.And it is not just service advantage, but even employment in countries like US/Europe will increase. If companies will gain through better efficiencies, they in turn will hire more people to cater to their growing business.

Budget 2007 - Nothing new in the store

It is something which every comman man of India look forward to in, Annual Budget .2007 was no exception though it did not came with what was expected.
Finance Minister P.Chidambaram focussed this budget for agriculture and not for industry or middle class. THough there has been allocations done for agriculture to grow the sector, there are no such good news for salaried class.
Tax slabs remains same, exemption limit increased by 10k but then education cess increased to 3% and service tax to 20%. Now even ESOP will be taxed under FBT( though I am not getting them ;) )
Taxman!! you really have tough time ahead, geting industry to support ;)

Drive on Jaipur-Delhi Highway :)

Driving is a lovely experience specially when you get a chance to drive on routes like Pune-Mumbai , Delhi-Jaipur.

My latest one is from Delhi to Jaipur, which is around 250kms and I covered it from door- to -door in 5 hours.
Initial stretch till Gurgaon was little bad because of construction of expressway but once we crossed Manesar, it was time to zoom accelerator.
And soon, I was driving my machine at 120-140kmhr and then it was no looking back.

This made me remember my pune-mumbai drive which I went with my friend. Only difference is pune expressway is gaurded on whole stretch so one can speed throughtout.

Jaipur highway is little different since it has villages which makes driver to be active throughout.

Anyways, it was fun driving to and fro!!

Delhi- Bird's eye view

Just another bird's eye view of Delhi :)
Thank god it was not foggy else I would have hovering over Jaipur for an hour.

Commerce Ministry to Brand Handicrafts of India

I was surprised and delighted to hear new campaign of India's commerce minister Kamal Nath.
Delighted because Commerce Ministry has started campaign to Brand Indian Handicrafts in International Market. Surpirsed!!! because after long time I heard sensible approach from politicians( Last time i was happy when Rajiv Gandhi talked about Computers)
The approach here will be to form a co-operative which will participate in various events and represent Indian handicrafts and promote them.
I think they will be coming out with a name for the campaign though I am not aware of it as of now.

Above pic are of Jaipur Sarees, 'Bhandhia' :)

Changing faces of the Pink City- Jaipur

Jaipur is well known as Pink City. Thats because one can find its heritage painted in Pink, as also seen in pic below. This picture was clicked on way to Bapu Bazaar, famous old market of Jaipur.

And above is changing new face of Jaipur, Infrastructure has improved a lot since I last visited Jaipur some 6 years back. It is new destination for next generation companies in IT, Finance. Infy, Genpact all lining to open their centres there.

Nice place with culture as its heritage which can be seen all around.

Incredible India

Incredible India(www.incredibleindia..org)

Thats Brand campaign for India.

India is just full of landscapes, the side one is bird's eye view of river Yamuna as seen on the way to Delhi.

Vodafone wins Hutch India

Yes, it is official, Vodafone has emerged as highest bidder for Hutch India with an enterprise value of $19.3 billion which comes to $794 per share.

This race for Hutch stake started a month fron now when Hutchison Hongkong showed interest to exit Indian markets.

In the race were, Anil Ambani Reliance Infocomm, Hindujas, Essar.
Though this deal of vodafone will be through partnership with Ruias of Essar, 67% stake will be controlled by Voda.
Vodafone needs to also disinvest their strategic 10% stake in Bharti as per regulation.

To mention, Bharti is top competitor for Hutch in India.

Offlate, Voda has shown a good amount of interest to enter emerging markets and have been exiting saturated market in europe, latest one being in swutzerland wherein they sold their 25% stake to swisscom.Voda has earlier also exited japan also in 2003.Winning Hutch India was very crucial for Vodafone to reduce the pressure building on their share price mainly because of reducing profitabilty and margins.

With Indian telecom market growing by close to 70-80% unlike 5% of UK, this was surely a golden chance for CEO Arun Sarin to take a stragic decision.Offlate, Sarin too have been pressure from management on falling margins with increasing competition in telecom space in UK
Voda interest in telecom can into focus when they bought stake in Bharti , with Singtel which is also having a strategic stake.
Nest step on closing the acquisition will be regulatory issues, govt clearance.Voda had a close door meeting with top official from Govt of India to discuss FDI route last month.
The biggest challenge, will be starting after the acquisition. Indian market is price sensitive market unlike Europe and what needs to be watched is how Vodafone is going to put its Red Round logo strap in neck of Indian Hutch Pug!!!!!

Before ending, just an interesing thought ;) check out this link:

http://fonearena.com/blog/what-will-vodafone-do-with-hutch.html

Peschardt's People

Peschardt's People is a BBC program wherein they interview person each time from different domains and countries .

Today on 11th febraury, they interviewed Indian writer, Shobha De.
I like the ideas and thoughts of Shobha since they are different, I have also earlier mentioned on my blog about her interesting book 'Spouse' launched in August 2005

http://priyank24.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html

Shobha's interview was focussed on her books and what she thinks about her critics.Her critics are many who says Shobha writes more on women sensuality to sell her masala books.

On being said by interviewer that Indian painting have too much of bright colours, she boldly answered, that Indian culture is unique and we dont have customised traditions or art to suit international market, accept India and cultural as it is.We will not change our traditions to suit any specific taste.
On her views on India as emerging market, she mentioned India has already emerged and that
its playing a far bigger role in world economy now.I really appreciate the way she said her points to british anchor.

Indian Steel- Making a mark again

After LN Mittal acquiring Arcenol, India has again made a mark in steel industry.

This time it is Tata's who have acquired Brasilian steel maker Corus only to become 5th largest steel maker in the world.
The bidding which went through 9 rounds saw Tatas taking off Corus from CSN at 608 pence per share. Analyst like Stan Chart have real positive view for Tatas and same is there from other analyst firms too.

The only thing is to watch for the global demand for commodities. The sudden down trends in that can spoil Tatas party. China market has huge demand due to growing economy and has major consumption.

This deal however is pursued by Tata to tap growing european market.

World Economic Forum@Davos 2007

Davis meet is usually centered around business but this time the mood is different.

The topic has revolved around global warming, politics and then ofcourse some business.
Davos has raised some serious questions on industrialisation and global warming.There has been a change in climate across globe and this is serious concerns.Though developed countries might blame it all to Asia because of the 'growth' but its not hidden that developed countries like US too are contributing big to global warming.

Today, China leading People's China quoted about chinese govt thinking to take serious steps to control warming.India, however, is yet to issue comments, though there are always statements as and when required.
Truly, business has moved juct beyond economics and marketing. It is about culture, knowledge, unrest, infrastruture, talent, policies and most important the trends.
But yeh!! Davos surely has seen good asian presence including Indian IT company Infosys's CEO Nandan Nilekani also sharing his views as speaker.

Indian companies to sponsor F1 team now :)

After making news in M&A by buying out companies abroad, its turn for Indian companies to make news by sponsoring F1 teams.
After Tata promoted Narain for driver, its none other than Kingfisher group owned by Vijay Mallya.
Kingfisher is sponsoring Toyoto team for F1 2007 for its kingfishers airlines brand.

This was announced and displayed at recently Toyota F1 launch in Germany.

Indian companies are all set to leave their mark everywhere :)

Retail chain/business moving to a new era

I am not being partial but seeing Kishore Biyani expanding his business from a kirana store in 1998 in calcutta to million dollar retail business surely deserve recognition.
Entering a new business maybe still easy for corporate with money and muscles,but I think its takes a vision to built such a business from scratch.
I have read books which talks about strategy and features of growing company and I am happy
to see those models working at company like Future group.
Biyani has surely tried to blend glocal touch with his thoughts. He hired executive from Goldman Sachs for Strategy and Business, working big time on supply chain, developing a volume based business which surely has chances to click more in India.
Although, I havent purchased anything besides a tie at Pantaloons but its surely keep updated by latest fashion and daily trends.I have realised this recently so surely Pantaloons will be worth trying next time for economical and good shopping.
With talks of FDI for retail moving towards 74%, I know Biyani group will be one which is going to be hit hardest and this shows clearly from his articles and interviews.
Recently, N R Murthy of Infosys shared views saying retail should be opened up.And my views here is that maybe its little early to open FDI In retail. The very emotional reason to support is that Indian group should be given some lead in the race to atleast grow and come to a platform to handle competition and form perfect competition in the market which are going to then benefit customers.Secondly, MNCs and retail biggies if allowed so early in market will lead to resource crunch thus moving costs up and also it will create a wave of mergers and acquisition too early in the market.

M&A is good for any market in little long run to being that correction which in turn benefit customers.But if it happens early,biggies creates a seller market which will also make it difficult for any new start up to penetrate in market.
Govt should first alllow Indian players like Reliance, Future group, Bharti, etc to set their operations and create awareness for retail market. This will also get more revenue for govt when foreign players will enter market.
Retail surely in next market to cheers after Telecom in India.

Retail going online-FutureBazaar

India surely makes a different market in terms of business models and customising approach towards customer.Retail business is the one which has started trying new models now.Today, saw huge billboard of FutureBazaar,owned by Biyani's Future group.I think they are wroking to rebrand their retail chain.
As far this futurebazaar goes, it is online retail shop. Looks like click and pay and home delivery.I still remember during my B-School days,when Me and my friend actually had discussion on such a online model in retail. And I even mentioned the idea on my blog in August 2005.

The challenge which for these retail chain in India will be modifying the business model.Such a model is visible in cities and metro wherein people are short of time.One thing important here is supply chain.Now Biyani is investing lot of money and also it has started working on its back -end,maybe they will be able to Click the opportunity.

Book Review!! Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins

First of all I would like to thank my friend Rahul at ISB who get me great books to read issued from there.

Surely, ISB has good collection of books, you name it and it has :)

Now, this book which I am reading surely give some out of the box thinking.How can one win by making most mistakes!!!?
Well, like most of us I also had the same thought, until I came across this interesting book written by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes.Authors here, have pen down a different approach and thinking as to how mistakes eventually take us more closer to success rather than taking us away from it.
The book with introduction of terms success and failure as defined by most of us, which shows that overcoming a failure is defined as success by most of us. Given a chance to quote one event of success in anybody's life, most of us would narrate an example how we came across a challenge and overcame it. Still, we always fear failures which gets us success eventually.
The next part explains how one normally fails towards success. Taking example from once daily life it can be easily seen that everyone has passed through troughs and crests of success and then failure.So, its not that success can be a repetitive phenomenon instead it is driven more from failures and what we learn from them. Authors have taken ample examples from corporate and individual world to explain that most of the innovation and discovery are results of failures.For example, widely used 'Post-It' was a result of failure of an experiment, which 3M later realized. Examples are mentioned in books of IBM, Xerox, Abrahim Lincoln and many others which shows that it is failures that is most important path to success.
Book later provides a very different approach to definition of word 'Success' which I think will make everyone sit and analyze that what we curse today by saying 'Failure' is actually a path to victory in disguise.
Although the book is of small size and just 120 pager, but every page is filled with learning and execution.I will definitely recommend this book as worth sparing some time, which not only will add a new dimension towards our approach to success but will also adopt a more optimistic approach towards failures

Top Tax saving Mutual Funds

Year Closing is back again and season to invest to save Tax!!! :)

I would recommend these tax saving mutual funds

1. HDFC Taxsaver
2. SBI Magnum Taxgain
3. Principal Tax saving
4. Birla Tax saving
5. ING Vysya Tax Saving ( little risk but good returns)


Cheers and Hppy savings!!

Accident!!

Well just relax, Its not a real accident like falling from rooftop or etc!!
Its a virtual accident ...and only one person can understand it :)

And the best thing it resemble accident because it takes 2 months to recover from your accident too..


More to follow soon on this!!

Stress and Relax- Can we do it??

Recently in meditation lecture at Patni, I observed something.

We as human being were originally having a very different lifestyle and then we observe one word in everybody life, Stress!!!

There is anxiety, health problems, hurriness,etc which most of us are facing. These are very well symtoms of stress.
Why did people in history doesnt had stress then?? or did they?

Well I wil say, they did but less since they had a balanced way of living. They had patience, balanced good diet, proper way of breating,etc.

Just look at a small baby, he enjoys life like anything..why??

Because he does things with patience, he enjoys everything he does.. playing, eating ,etc.

So one thing we should do is enjoy our present, do simple little exercise to feel fresh air and gain good diet

Sensex at 14000

2007 opened on good note for Sensex .
It traded and touched at 14000 today on 3rd Jan....

So what is in future..? I think 15K surely but correction is also on the way next.