Rural is the new urban.
Looks like anything rural is the flavor of the month. Nokia has launched low-cost handsets targeting the rural consumers. ISRO is working on a satellite for rural Internet connectivity. All the telecom major’s are laying their networks to connect the rural areas as the urban market is near saturation.Now, its [...]
Online shopping is yet to take off in India but with the increasing Internet reach and scarce parking space, I bet it would soon see a revolution. Until now, for lack of better options I take a list of books to either Landmark or Sapna Book House, park my car, go inside and give the list to the guy at the counter. He checks the whole list and comes back with only 2 books. I have to pay the full price for the books, 30 rupees for car parking and close to 80 rupees for the fuel. That is 110 additional expenses. I am not trying to make a case here for e-commerce. That is as old as the Internet and it would be foolish on my part to give a e-commerce 101 here. My point is why go through all the trouble when you can get it at the click of the mouse. I might have saved 150 rupees at least on the transaction.
Other thing is the disappointment factor. I am a book geek and feel like a little kid in a candy store once I am in a book store. I feel like a kid who has denied candy if I don't find a book. What if I were to say that I don't have to go through all the trouble and feel disappointed sitting at home and saving few bucks along the way. That's what Pustak offered me. A choice. A great one at that !
With 12 million titles, Pustak is the largest collection in India. Best of all you can see a price difference any where between 30% to 50% (sometimes it can go up to 100%). Pustak is based out of Bangalore and comes from a Amazon alumni, Anand Rao. The shipping time is little long (4-6 weeks) which is understandable given the fact that the books are sourced directly from US. Since the sourcing process is streamlined, Pustak is able to give something back to the customer. Given the low prices and the convenience of Internet the shipping times would be a small price to pay.
If you are a startup or thinking of starting up (yes, even in this recession), there is no better place to start than watching this video by John Edmonds. What a gem !
Most of the entrepreneurs think that business plan is required, only if looking out for funding. Yes, a good business plan does help in secure funding, but more so it helps you granularize your thoughts and get clarity in execution of idea – probably the most important ingredient for a startup to become successful.
This video is long, one hour and twenty four minutes to be precise, but it will be worth every minute of it. If you do not have time right now, bookmark it and watch it later, but do make it a point to see this !
You see the first 5-10 minutes and I am sure you will see it till the end.
Let me know what changed for you after watching this video !
There will be no hikes next year (for IT) but we might keep our jobs. Isn't that the brightest thing in this whole financial mess? I can say with fierce conviction that I will be happy to forego my hike for keeping my job. But, that is just me. If given a choice your opinion might differ. But, choice is hard to come by. It is fine if you have been living in a cave for the past 10 months. Just pick up the paper tomorrow morning and you will catch up and agree with me.
Citigroup to slash 52000 jobs worldwide
Germany is in recession.
US is in recession.
Hong Kong and Italy are in recession.
Circuit City files for bankruptcy. (I really like Circuit City and their Black Friday sale)
I can go on and on but, you get the point. Now, lets get back to India and IT. Nandan Nilekani of Infosys admits that the growth has slowed down. I have recently blogged about Infosys's 50% salary and working for an NGO. TCS has said that it would be cutting the cost by not giving any hikes next year. Wipro says that there is global slow down but there is no slowdown in India yet. Whether you are living in denial or procrastinating the fact, the truth is 2009 could possibly the worst year in your entire adult life (mine for sure).
Should you be worried? The answer is yes and no. IT industry has many rags to riches stories. There are too many expectations for the industry. Any salary below 1 lakh is not a salary at all. IT guys are the blue eyed boys and most wanted grooms. From that expectations, 2009 would be disappointing. But take that euphoria lens of the past 5 years out and see with a fresh perspective. Wouldn't you be happy to keep a job rather than losing a hike? Who is giving you a choice anyway? Besides, growth of 15-20% for IT is still a good growth. Most importantly its growth.
If there is no hike, then so be it.
Have you ever tried going to airtel.com domain name. If you have not…try it now - The name is forwarded to vodafone website. Yes, it may be a spanish Vodafone website, it still is the competitor’s website !
Nice domain-jacking I must say..
But can’t Airtel lay claim on the domain, I think not. if you see [...]
Tata Teleservices has sold a stake of 26% to Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. The deal value is $2.7 bn. Tata Tele has 30 million CDMA subscribers and is rolling out its GSM services. Some say the deal is over-valued and some say its not easy to put value on the fastest growing mobile market in [...]
In the first time ever kind of move, Infosys has provided an option to employees to go on a sabbatical and work for NGO’s for a year. For an employee to qualify, he or she should be with Infosys for at least 2 years. Employees will be paid 50% salary during this time and the [...]
Today’s guest post is written by, Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of Indiagames, who also recently started a new venture called Sweat And Blood Venture Group – an early stage startup investment fund.
The age of the Internet has thrown up some hot topics of discussion that almost always centers on social networking and Web 2.0. Many individuals and businesses are using the power of the internet to expand their horizons, make friends, exchange photos and make a lot of money. However, as we all know, everything good comes with its share of the bad and this new technology is no exception. It has thus, led to newer problems like Cyber Terrorism and other criminal activities. It seems criminals and anti-socials have also realized the power of the Internet and harnessing it to commit, what I call, Crime 2.0
However, I have an important revelation to make! All of us super internet folks and fancy internet companies are to some extent aiding these "bad elements" to flourish. Let me show you how. Let's start by carrying out a simple search on Ebay.in (and similar sites) for your favorite movies, games, iPhone, mobile phones or laptops and there is a big chance that you will very soon see, not one but multiple deals, offering you these goods at prices far below the market rate and other online sites too. You may also find many products which are not officially launched in India and some products which the manufacturer doesn't even manufacture!
Honda, which launched its hybrid car (Civic) in June this year has slashed the price of the car by 8+lakhs. The new price will be applicable for a limited period, till December. The price for this car when launched was 20+ lakhs. Now it is 13 lakhs. Citing a demand for the car and sensing [...]
What is common between Reliance and Samsung? Samsung launches new mobiles and Reliance enters new businesses every fortnight. That is where the similarities end. Oh! Wait. I forgot. There is one more thing. The caption Next is what? I think Aamir Khan and Anil Ambani will be thinking every night the same thing. Next is [...]
Tukka.in is a strange name for a website. The website is strange too. It does not have any text on the home page. What we see is bunch of circles, rectangles and other irregular shapes thrown at you in a regular fashion. Most of them are triangles though. Each shape is differentiated by a color [...]
It is double bonanza for Maharastra. Just a few weeks back, a study showed that Pune would be the 7th Indian metro. Now, its Mumbai’s turn. Mumbai is the top Indian city in the list of 65 financial centres of emerging economies. This is for the emerging economies of Russia, China, India, South Africa, Thailand [...]
Just a week back, Prime Minister met with India Inc CEO’s and requested for an assurance from them. The assurance is, job cuts will be the last resort. After that, there were bunch of rate cuts by the RBI and several monetary policies. Did anything change in a week? Yes it did. The job loss [...]
How do you like a Indian facebook? That is what 20 year old Kashyap Gada is after. He wanted a Indian version of the social networking site. Truly Indian. He came up with Slmbk (read slam book). The company made it to the top 40 of the possible 588 nominations in the Tata NEN [...]
It is not even a day since Modi made a comment about the Indian IT industry and the Nano model and we already have an answer. ISRO has announced a world class product. ISRO's Bhuvan is all set to become a Google Earth beater, at least in India. Chandrayan launch is still fresh in our minds and ISRO has one more thing to cheer about.
Bhuvan will use the data recorded by the Indian satellites only. Prototype will be available by the end of November and the product is available in March 2009. It will also be limited to Indian sub-continent. Now we can know what the Pakistani Prime Minister is doing on his terrace. We can also know if Aamir Khan's neighbors really have a dog. We cannot know if Aamir Khan's dog's name is Shah Rukh or not.
