there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.
How about the facts for food price increase? From SAJAForum;
Falling USD rates reduces profit margins for India's or Global food exporters (many of whom are US companies)
Prosperity of others is good only because they can afford American goods
Food distribution pattern is changing and US is on the other side of the equation which it subjected others to because of strong USD
The government of India had decided to outsource visa services because of the sheer volume of applications received in the consulates. "Travisa Outsourcing was given just 38 days to develop a new and entirely outsourced visa application process throughout the United States, and in doing so we created new technology that is revolutionising the visa application process," Jan Dvorak, CEO of Travisa Outsourcing told India Abroad.
Currently, Travisa Outsourcing is the only US firm that handles visa outsourcing for an entire country. India is now one of only two countries that issues same day visas; China is the other, Dvorak said. Travisa has taken care to ensure that most staffers speak at least one Indian language.
It is interesting to see how factors like consumer satisfaction, economy, globalization play out. Globalization is definitely a two way street.
The dream of millions of cricket fans in India has come true.
The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders, deemed the 'First Ladies of Football,' will be traveling to India on April 10th to create the first ever cheerleading squad in that country for cricket's Royal Challengers Bangalore, part of the new Indian Premier League (IPL), in their inaugural game on April 18th. Source
When I saw cheerleaders for the first time, the first thing on my mind was "This is great. Now, why can't we do this in cricket?". Thank you, Redskins! You will be etched in Indian history forever.
Indian cricket was inspired by the draft format of athletes in US. They call it "auctioning". Very original! I guess one of the IPL guys saw all the cute babes shaking their thing and immediately realized its potential.
If they can get some famous actresses to do this, I'm sure the tickets would sell twice as much. I'm visualizing Bipasha Basu - now that is worth paying twice the money! ;)
Now, IPL will decide how much cleavage should be shown, how short the skirts or sarees should be, etc. Of course, the conservative groups will do everything possible to get some PR with this juicy opportunity - stage protests, burn effigies. They will cry that women are insulted while secretly admiring when they shake. Ahh..let the drama begin. I'm waiting, India is waiting.
This post by KrishAshok is hilarious on so many levels.
Startup Sundaramoorthy and Venture Venkatakrishnan meet up at Barista, Besant Nagar over some coffee. Actually make that Latte with carcinogenic artifical sweeteners. And they discuss some very disturbing Internet stats.The Indian Blogosphere is also overwhelmingly dominated by women. A look at any comment thread in the Indian Web will convince you of that.
Alarmed by statistics like 60% of Facebook and 55% of MySpace users being women, they wonder how they can reinvent / invest in Web 2.0 for Indian men. They break down the usage pattern of Indian men online.
After looking at stats, they decide to launch these Web 2.0 companies:
Pigg.mc
An exclusively male social platform where men can share, discuss and vote up ideas on how to restore male hegemony on the Indian blogosphere.
Mattr - beta Flickr for Indian Men - I used to be a Flickr user, but now there are too many women there. They and their enhanced visual sensitivities, passing judgement on my weak reds, insubstantial beiges, poor shadows and anaemic contrast. Bah. I have always wanted an all-male Photosharing app where real men can post photos without all this critical commentary from women, where we can also privately share images of item girls we secretly love. JolluTube
An exclusive social video site dedicated to videos/songs we cannot watch with the family.
FeetBurner A social platform, where rural machismo is on central display. I’m talking Kaavadi, extreme piercing, Jalli kattu and of course, walking on coals.
Sadly, there is a lot of reality in KrishAshok's post. A very important lesson for Web 2.0 aspirants in India is:
The Web 2.0 in India is way different than the Web 2.0 community elsewhere
Indian users just want to hang out; they are not interested to express themselves or create content
There is not even a single online forum or digg-like blog. I think some Indian company even tried and failed. Even if it was successful, I highly doubt there will be any useful information sharing. If you look at the Rediff forum discussions, you will never go back to that site. I'm also positive that most guys stalk gals on Orkut and leave "can I be your friend?" messages.
She is a good girl. Absolutely fantastic. If you haven't met her you don't know what you are missing" insists one testimonial writer on a orkut profile. As a reader - I am not sure how to react to these testimonials. They make me feel like a customer. I like what I am seeing.
But what confuses me more is that these Shailaja's of the world have allowed these testimonials to do a fantastic marketing pitch for her but she wont let boys have 'fraanship' with her. In the 'about me' column she writes 'please dont request friendship from me if you dont know me' (this is really really common in most girl's profiles).
And the boys in orkut. Boys in general. I mean God had a wicked sense of humor when he created such a sex starved species such as the male homosapien. I guess most men in orkut are walking hard-on's. Most men enter orkut , browsing through profiles, internet, skype directory thinking " i need to get laid. will she work".
The 53% who want to make friends are obviously part of the desperate-for-dating gang members, but the rest of the stat is important for one reason:
To understand What is it that Indians do not use a social network for? The answer, as I understand is “Hanging out”..
Unlike the US kids who spend a good amount of time on myspace hanging around and “expressing themselves”, Indians aren’t the usual hangout (or ‘cool’?) kind, and instead use socionet for a defined purpose.
Now, this obviously goes against several socionet startups’ mantra (who want Indians to express themselves by uploading cool pics/videos and more..) and a clear reason why few of them have folded (like jhoom.in) and others are almost on the verge of dying.
I don't want to imply that building an online community is impossible. I don't see enough websites that facilitate fun and content generating ideas. Almost all of them seem to be ripping off crappy MySpace. I haven't seen a original, content generating site...yet.
That's the state of India Web 2.0. If anyone is dreaming to build an online community, build content, get a lot of traffic, monetize it and be a successful company, it's really hard. Good Luck with that.
For the musically illiterate, Sitar is a guitar-like (?!) Indian musical instrument. By looking at the sheer abundance of Sitar Hero parodies and wannabes in the "internets", I'm sure this will be a hit. I'm not just sure; I'm HIV positive.
The Indian animation industry is moving away from being just a back office for Hollywood studios and other international production houses. It is now creating original content for the local market.
With the success of animated movies like Hanuman and Bal Ganesha, production houses and studios are realizing the potential of the domestic market. Apart from animated movies, animation series on television with original content have also been garnering huge TRP ratings such as J Bole To Jadu on Nickelodeon, MAD on Pogo among others.
Adventures of Hanuman (narration by the deep voice guy, heh!)
Over the next four years the growth in domestic demand for TV/Broadcast animated content is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.5 per cent. It is forecast the domestic market will be worth Rs 150 crores ($1.5 billion) in 2008 and will touch Rs 300 crores ($3 billion) by 2010.
There is so much content that can be produced for children and adults. I watched the drama version of Mahabharata for almost 8 years and still don't remember everything. It is exciting to see a lot of original content from in-house studios.
I'm sure people are tired of changing mobile numbers everytime they change service providers and get calls from unknown contacts.
A lot of people have been crying foul about the delay in TRAI’s recommendation. Reliance has been waiting to get a GSM license, and it was alleged, primarily by the GSM operators, that the number portability was being worked upon, primarily to help Reliance. Once the scheme is in place, it was alleged, Reliance can offer lucrative schemes to allure customers from the Reliance CDMA service to its new, GSM service.
Norwest has just opened its second India office by roping in former Motorola veep Mohan Kumar as India-based executive director to be based out of Bangalore. It had recently brought in Niren Shah as the country head for India which also marked Norwest setting up its Indian office in Mumbai. Pramod Haque told the media in Bangalore that the focus would increasingly be on harnessing and leveraging the reservoir of product and process innovation — much of it internet driven — that is available in India. The venture fund has direct investments in tech driven India-based entities such as Sulekha.com, Yatra, Persistent Systems and Adventity.
I got this email from my friend which is lately making rounds in IT-enabled inboxes (is that a word?). I think it paints a fair picture of "the situation on the ground". I'm talking about what is going on in that Indian IT guy's/gal's mind when they are not working. Let's walk-through.
"Real Estate price hike is known open robbery from IT guys by brokers / whoever it is and it's not only Flats / Real Estate, IT guys undergo open robbery from all rich shop owners / a person who wanted to become rich as fast as possible...
The salary whatever we get, it's our hard-earned money, most of the times sitting in the night, away from family functions, friends, etc...but all our money or most of the money are going to someone who just takes advantage of our stressful life (both mentally and physically) and our new western life style. "
Very true. There is no doubt that selfish non-IT individuals systematically swindle money from the highly paid IT workers. There is no ground for any increase in expenses and over-charges. The mail points to some instances where there is a price increase for no apparent reason.
Pop Corn (Sathyam Complex) (month and half back) - Rs. 20 Today (almost the same quantity) - Rs. 30
Corn in Garuda Mall (month back) - Rs 20 Small, Rs 30 Medium and Rs 40 High Now, "real" small has become Rs 35 now and Rs 45 for high...
The moment you say that you are from Software company, the price automatically increases..."
Real Estate
The real estate market is filled with greedy people. With almost no government regulated prices, the sellers and builders quote any price they wish. If a house is quoted at $60,000 and some retard starts a rumor - "there is a new software park coming up next week" - the quote changes to $100,000 immediately. No questions asked.
Almost all the techies get housing loans of $30,000 to $100,000 at alarming rate of 10% or more for 20+ years. By any stretch, $30,000 is a LOT of money if the salary is earned in Indian Rupees. Even with significant increase in salaries, after paying off the mortgage, monthly expenses, groceries, etc, etc they will end up with nothing or fall short. This is of course assuming both the husband and wife work. If the wife is a home-maker, sorry.
I have no idea who sets the real estate prices. Is there any regulatory body? It's just people making up their own estimates. Where is the f*ing government?
Now, what about the average, below average and poor population which is the majority?
That is the most disturbing impact. Families with average and below-average salaries are caught in this spike. Top earning techies are struggling to cope up with increased day-to-day spending. I can't imagine what the average income families are going through.
1. The new facility will employ only a handful of Indian “process people”. It will mostly rely on local talent.
2. TCS chief S Ramadorai told DNA Money: “There is a limit to how much we can make do with H-1 B visa workers. This facility will ramp up to 1,000 professionals. There will be a good mix of freshmen and we will do a lot of lateral hires for our global consulting business.”
3. TCS is reportedly in talks with Boeing and Lockheed Martin for defence and aerospace contracts held by those companies. This work can only be done in the US by American citizens or green card holders.
Inspite of eye-popping growth (217 million subscribers by Oct 2007), barely 23% of the population owns a phone. So, there is a vast amount of potential there. In 2007, mobile Value Added Services (VAS) generated $926 Million, which is still barely 7% of the total telecom revenues for Indian operators.
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died earlier this week, at the age of 91.
Arthur C Clarke The man who showed the world how powerful science fiction is. One small example: In 1945, at the tender age of 28, Clarke sketched out the idea of orbital communication satellites. He "extrapolated" the future for us.
My fascination for science, fiction and reading started with one of his books - 2001: A Space Odyssey. He will be missed.
You [IT Service companies] have changed our image from being a land of snake charmers to the land of software programmers. But my thanks stops right there. You are also the culprit of taking away complete attention from other important industry. You rob us of passion of the young minds to make them Xerox machines. Your growth is welcome, but its avarice and appetite is overwhelming. We are not able to proceed to the next step. Our fear is we will get stuck right here
1] In India most of the Graduates are self-contended with any type of Job, they compare with their neighbors & start fantasizing to become like them. Example: If A & B are Friends, If A got the Job in Infosys [pakka service], B starts fantasizing about A & B feels himself inferior and degrades himself. In this scenario B never thinks of starting a company.
2] In India, parents never encourage us to start a company because they want us to marry a good family girl as soon as we get the Job.
3] In India, most people rhapsodize other’s success but never get self motivated enough to start his/her own concern.
4] There is a lack of awareness about entrepreneurs in India. Only those who have entrepreneurship in their blood begin to search for information due to his Interest in Entrepreneurship.
5] There is tremendous lack of awareness about new technology in India. Very few in India know about Ajax, Web 2.0 & the upcoming Adobe’s Apollo project [ which i am much interested in].
6] People are very very reluctant to learn new things.
7] Most of the graduates don’t know HOW important product companies are and why.
8] There is trend in India which is inherited like this: Senior to his Junior [who wants to start his own company] “First get experience for about 4 to 5 years and when u become PM you can get your own Clients [again Service company mentality] and start developing your own company”. After 4 to 5 years he is almost 30; Parents start urging him to marry. Once married he never again thinks about starting a company.
9] The person who wants to become an entrepreneur will fail to become one after getting a job in a good company because of the hefty salary.
10] It is hard to find similar mindset [Entrepreneur & Techie] in India. When they think starting about product company they begin to compare with GYM and the rest, forgetting they too were startups once.
I think I'll have to agree with those statements.
There is hope. Few percentage of youngsters are trying to make a difference. My favorite is DhanaX. It is a startup by ex-employees of Oracle and GE, in the Micro-finance area. A startup to make a difference and makes a lot of business sense in an economy like India.
That quote, by the way, is by Jim Cramer (MadMoney)
Market keeps falling, the economy is at snail pace, barely moving at 0.8% in 2008 and by 1.4% in 2009 (hopefully). People using weird words like "stagflation"
A cartoon is a great way to understand what the **** is going in sub prime crime. It all started like this: (Click to launch the side show)
The fools, errr...everyone, is paying the price now. Bear Stearns goes down. Read the link to relate the cartoon to reality.
Everyday, the fools at the White House, reassure us that everything is OK. But whatever they do, is proving the Feds are trying desperately to delay the inevitable - RECESSION.
Again, to get the big picture about recession, mhh....go to Big Picture
While almost everyone seems to know what to do, except Bernanke. He is credited as the "Destroyer of US Dollar" and/or many US homes and lives. He even testified before Congress that the sub prime damage won't spill. No wonder, he works for Bush.
Marc Faber says, if he was Bernanke's professor, he would have failed Bernanke, forced Bernanke NEVER to get a job at any job, let alone the Fed reserve Bank. He also says "Bernanke is fit to work with Government of Mugabe" Oouch!!!
