When did you first know you were a foodie? How soon will your children know?

Before Babyjaan came to Berkeley, she often ate on the move, a comet whizzing by with a tail. “One more bite baby,” the tail usually pleaded with the nucleus thundering on ahead.

You’re familiar with this scenario surely? Nannies and ayahs and parents and grandparents running after Indian babies cajoling and threatening them to eat just a little more. I know I’ve spent enough time in front of the rotating cake display at the neighborhood French Loaf bakery in Bangalore hoping that Babyjaan doesn’t notice she’s gobbling big chunks of a paratha as she stares saucer-eyed at the “happys” (birthday cakes). Of course that theory I had when I was childless/babyfree (depending on which way you swing) crumbled when it came face-to-face with a real, live baby. They’ll eat when they’re hungry, I realized, is something only aunts without children say. And so parents back home do the dinner dance every day…

But these days Babyjaan lives in a country where it’s mandatory to strap in your child every time you step into a car with her, starting the day you bring her home from the hospital. Compare this standard contained American baby visual with the equally common one of an Indian toddler popping her head out of a window or standing in the front seat as the car negotiates city traffic.

About the same time that Babyjaan got her car seat, she was also informed that she would have her own chair (not high chair) at the dining table. After a while we noticed that Babyjaan had learned to sit. Soon enough, she even began to get possessive about her chair. When she visited friends’ houses, she saw children partaking in meals and conversations around the dinner table.

America actually taught Babyjaan what it means to sit down and eat with the family. Taking her out for meals has become easier. She no longer wants to explore every corner of the restaurant. Instead, like her father, she waits impatiently for the food to be served. The other day she actually made a dent in her first kiddy meal.

Mealtimes are no longer as much of a chore. She’s also noted that the food on her omnivore father’s plate tastes far more exciting than the green leaves on her mother’s plate. A few days ago, she picked up her first chicken bone and gnawed it just like dad.

Berkeley has brought out the foodie in Babyjaan.

Also read the previous blogposts here

As a child we all have curated our scrapbooks with pages filled with pictures. But in times of digitization, even those scrapbooks have gone online.

Enter Pinterest: if you haven’t heard about it, you will very soon.

The virtual pin board.

The site has managed to grow ten folds in terms of traffic in the last six months. According to comScore, it had 10 million unique visitors in January 2012 in the US. It is the fastest growing standalone site in history.

The data further reveals that the average Pinterest users spends 98 minutes per month on the site compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr and 7 hours on Facebook. It is already the fastest site of any kind to hit that 10 million visitor mark.

Started by Ben Silbermann, who co-founded Cold Brew Labs Inc. in 2008, the site was launched in 2009. Since then, the California based company has grown in leaps and bounds.

Right now, the company is unprofitable and is following the same model that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter followed in their hey day, build the traffic without worrying about the profits.

According to a WSJ report the company has raised $37.5 million from Silicon Valley angel investors including Yelp Inc. chief executive Jeremy Stoppelman and top venture firms such as Bessemer and Andreessen Horowitz. “Pinterest is currently valued at around $200 million, according to a person familiar with the matter,” says the report.

So what is Pinterest?
Pinterest is little like Tumblr, in that it works on photos. But instead of showing one photo at a time like in Tumblr, Pinterest takes a step further and lets you ‘pin’ photos to ‘boards’ based on similar themes or items.

We spend so much time on the web browsing various sites and often coming across interesting things (read images). So, Pinterest lets you create your own pinboard-like thing but online. ‘Pin’ the image on the various ‘boards’ or ‘repin’ them from the vast pool of pictures on the site.

A snippet from the 'Beauty' pin board.

“Pinterest is as much about discovering new things as it is about sharing,” says the on boarding email. Craft projects, inspirational quotes, home decor, beauty, cooking, portraits, products or anything which catches your eye, can be pinned.

It is a great place to create activity and encourages collective sharing which is visually engaging.

Websites, which don’t want their material to be pinned, can add the ‘no pin’ option by integrating a source code available under the help section.

Interestingly, Pinterest is not just about individuals but also about brands. Its another thing that even the brand has to act like an individual (the etiquette guide clearly advices you to refrain from self promotion). It is not about selling or broadcasting, but about contributing in a genuine and individualistic way.

There are about 100 brands already using Pinterest. These include majorly retailers, newspaper and magazines, apparel brands, travel, beauty and fashion and many unconventional users too like publishing houses, colleges and non-profit organizations.

Newsweek's Pinterest page

So, after reading various blogs and articles, we give you a list of do’s and don’t which can help brands create a lasting interest in Pinterest.

1. Optimize the content: Any content can be lost forever on the internet if it is not optimized properly. As a starting point, brands especially e-commerce websites can start with adding a ‘PinIt button’ on their site, under the Goodies section. Importantly, the visuals have to be of good quality. Even if it has great text, it will not be pinned if doesn’t carry sharp, good quality and a nicely composed picture. It has to be appealing. To ensure copyright protection, watermark you images. Moreover, it will help the user trace back the product.

2. Integrate other social platforms: Every brand or company has to have a Facebook page, so you can integrate Pinterest button on the page also. It can be a part of your newsfeed or a photo album or a game. But make sure your platform can be used on handheld devices like tabs and mobiles. Similarly, one can add a Pinterest button on a blog too. But all said and done, you have to remind your existing social audience about Pinterest and it’s activities. Periodically share Pinterest content on other platforms with good imagery. It will bring more users to Pinterest and deepens the ongoing soical interaction on multiple platforms.

3. Interact: Show your core values through the boards that you create. Pinterest gives you ample oppurtunity to present the brand personality and its core values. It also reflects what your users think about you. Repin their posts which match your lifestyle and brand asthetics. Pinterest can be used to share larger pictures of a sector, like creating a focus group, sharing content on industry trends, or popular pins from your category including your followers. Behind the scenes and product reviews are some of the other things one can play around with. Media houses or e-commerce companies can try this before a launch for feedback purposes. Repin posts from your fans by creating a fan board, like “What our Fans Love”, a very simple yet effective way of interacting with your users. Commenting, liking and mentions are other ways of driving followers to your board. The bottom line is…ENGAGE.

4. And the other tips: Using keywords in the description of the product helps. Commonly used words in the category make search easy. Search for your name to see how many people are pinning your products by using the Search feature on the top left hand corner. It throws up all the results which have your mention. Now, do not forget to mention pricing info if you sell products. It doesn’t take long but provides a lot of information on your product.

Tell us what has been you experience with Pinterest? Also what are the other ways itcan be used.

So lets go pinning?

P.S. You can read what TechCrunch has to say about using Pinterest for brands here.

The furnished apartment we’ve rented is spilling over with books, almost like ours back home. It’s weird to wake up with someone else’s lifetime collection of books-they-have-yet-to-read. And while I can spot Cold Mountain and The English Patient, most of the books by the authors I recognize are those books that didn’t make it to that writer’s top three works.

So the Hanif Kureishi in this collection is not My Beautiful Laundrette, but Intimacy; and the Joan Didion is not Slouching Towards Bethlehem but A Book of Common Prayer.

And then there are gems like Bay Area Baby: The essential guide to local resources for pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

Why hasn’t anyone done baby guide books in India? I’m sure you remember Fiona Caulfield’s lovetravelguides.com? Surely there are more “clueless new parents” than “luxury vagabonds”, the eclectic group of readers Caulfield was writing for?

Personally, I found the baby book more interesting than Intimacy, the account of that long, last night before a man leaves his wife and two children (oh how motherhood impacts reading lists).

Bay Area Baby has an entire section on Where to Have the Baby. The authors, all parents with good childcare/helpful husbands compared facilities, prices, and the general pros and cons of various options available to Bay Area Parents. If you were pregnant, wouldn’t you kill for details on which Indian hospital is the best place to deliver your baby and why?

Babyjaan is nearly two years old, so I was more interested in the sections on local toy shops, swimming lessons, annual sales and child care options. The book is not simply a listing of facilities, but it also includes opinion/recommendations. So, for example, a typical store entry would read:

“Expect lots of ribbons and lace and 30 to 40 percent discounts on special occasion dresses for girls size 2T and up. Mom may find an evening gown in the process. Three floor walk up but worth it. Very limited street parking.”

And now I know that the San Francisco Zoo has a special Children’s Zoo.

Where to go with a sick child? What preschools options are available to you and when should you start looking? What should you look out for when you do start looking? How to interview a babysitter? I know my ma-in-law and me usually run out of questions in 3 minutes. There’s information on everything from diapers to disabilities.

We adopted Babyjaan less than two years after my dear pal S2 brought her baby girl home. She’s one of those super organized mammas who scoured the country to identify the best adoption options, and we just piggy-backed on her recommendation. In Delhi she lived in the same neighbourhood and it was great to have updated, ‘what’s hot, what’s-not’ type help. Plus I had my extended know-it-all gang of mammas. Because, really, there are so many questions when you’re a new parent.

So, go ahead, tap the smart parents in your city or even your neighborhood. Karol Bagh Baby has the makings of a bestseller. Write the book…just don’t forget to mention me in the acknowledgements.

Click to read previous Babyjaan goes to Berkeley entries

The unusual mid-February nip in the air has Delhiites complaining about the weather constantly. It is very unlike us to discuss the weather so much and we do so while dressed in half sleeve jackets and flimsy shawls. No wonder, one of my Brit friends raised her pert eyebrow and exclaimed “You people whine so much and dress so inappropriately.”

Until she said it out loud I hadn’t realised how true her observation was. Since then I do my usual best and stare everyone down in the malls, the metro, bars and at my workplace. Again at the cost of being a little snobbish I couldn’t help noticing that the people from the,  ahem, upper classes tend to be more fashion conscious even in the midst of freezing weather and wear fewer warm clothes. They are also the ones who whine most. Meanwhile the less privileged are the ones best fortified against the cold and without much thought to what trendy and what’s not.

Delhi, is nowhere near as cold as Kashmir or New York but the way things are going, I am (yes, I am) predicting snowfall in some years soon. Isn’t that the change the environmentalists keep warning us about? Our houses also lack cozy fireplaces and indoor insulation. In winters I walk into a freezing office in the morning and as the day passes and colleagues pour in, I am sweating from everyone’s body heat, the most common workplace warmth I am guessing.  The varying temperature is another reason for a poorly conceived wardrobe, at least for me.

The lucky many who travel by cars and are in offices with blowers and heaters, dress in the latest winter fashions, even though they are rarely warm. Don’t go by the colourful bubble jackets many wear, they are nothing like what North Face makes to ward of the chills. I have often eavesdropped on shopping conversations where warm durable overcoats are tossed aside for a flashy short cropped jacket with the justification that Delhi will never be that cold. Then why the hell do our lot keep whining and shivering in open air spaces or just huddle together indoors. It’s funny that our poor choice of clothes completely restricts our outdoor activities. Women don’t believe in socks and fleece stockings and the men believe rolling down the sleeves and wearing dark colours will suffice.

The ones you see while travelling by in an auto or the ones that politicians consider “aam janta” are the ones covered from head to toe with monkey caps, gloves, Rajasthani shawls, western rejects of trekking worthy jackets sold near Red Fort. They go about their daily business without complaining about the weather. They are the sensible but not so fashionable lot but then I am sure Michael Korrs or Rohit Gandhi did not have them in mind when planning their winter collection.

A recent holiday in the cold English weather taught me to dress appropriately for the weather. I was living in the countryside and it would have been suicidal for me to run around in my oh-so-ethnic but highly flimsy Anokhi jacket and without a hat. Experience is the best master they say and having experienced the bite of chill, I have learnt my lesson.

It’s not like Delhi stores are not stocked with their warmest best but the weird logic of no snow and short winters overrule good sense. The art of layering oneself is a good one to learn and having that one smart big cloak is a good investment too. Again, let me remind you I predicted snow sometime in the coming years and numerous news articles indicate longer winters starting this year.

You want to go high end then lucky loaded Burberry and Armani are good stores to go for coats. Zara and Tommy Hilfiger make some fashionable stuff too. Get more economical and even then there are options galore – there is a strangely named store Lakshita that has some surprisingly good coats or else there are the Indian brands like Giovani, Van Heusen and Allen Solly that make decent ones too.

So go brave the chill in your fashionable best but don’t whine if your outfit isn’t equipped for the chill in the air.

Last week for Lounge’s special issue on ‘How India Loves’  I worked on a story (The pecking order)  that talked about daily soaps in the Hindi GEC space going the Mills and Boons way.

Now, I don’t often watch Hindi daily soaps, so I really did not know what I was signing up for when I decided that as part of my research for at least 2 week before filing the story I would see all the soaps starting from 8pm. My evenings would start with Star Plus, move on to Sony TV with a little bit of Zee TV and Colors thrown in. There was hardly any breather between the sessions and sometimes (just sometimes) my need to see something funnier would prevail and I would stray off to catch That 70s Show’s reruns on Comedy Central.

As a part of my research for the story I also visited online forums dedicated to these soaps and that is where I made a few astounding discoveries: there are actually people who spend their entire day posting possible scenarios about future episodes; some write short stories about the characters;  others  get disgruntled when the soap is not progressing in accordance to what they perceive is the right away to go about it; and many spend time counseling each other on why they must stay with the show even if it’s story is going south . There are arguments, “bashing”, makeup sessions.

These people are invested, really invested in how the story progresses and obsessed with the characters and actors. They make an effort to track the director, production house, script writers, even TV journalists who visit sets to get that little piece of news about their favourite show. Some create “indexes” (essentially lists) of all their favourite scenes from all the episodes that have aired till date. Others make mini videos or VMs as they are called with the latest songs as the background music and scenes from the soap which fit the song.

The other strange discovery was that most of these online fans are not homemakers or students or for that matter all women. Some are men who obsess over the female leads as the women do over the male leads. Many of them are executives, some even with jobs that entail global travel and yet they do not forget that essential appointment with their favourite daily soap. Not only do they view it online from whichever part of the world they are at, they even take time out to comment and make observations about the progress of the story.

Yet, the voice of this lot seems ignored or unheard by the appointed channels personals. The ones I spoke to said in clear terms that these soaps are made not for the youth or sophisticated, urbane audiences but for women who will stay with their soap 5 days a week, women they believe reside in smaller cities of India.

After all urban audiences have many distractions: malls, eateries, movies, Internet but women from smaller towns in India make a special effort to stay with a show they like. Yet, the kind of audience that channels believe is not really interested in these daily soaps seems equally most invested in them.  So are the channels wise in ignoring this audience? Maybe not but as of now these online fans do not count in the TRP race. Perhaps until these people do not count in the TRP race, the channels really have no choice but ignore them. But when online audience will start to be factored in what makes a show popular, perhaps which is when Indian television will go through a shake-up it really needs at present.

I have this history with tigers in South India. I had only seen one of these big guys and that after six years of visiting the various parts of the Western Ghats. Yes, I have seen my share in Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh but that doesn’t count. Mostly because safaris there seem to be in the business of tigers, where most drivers know where the stripes are, drive directly to the spot and if the area is inaccessible, they will bring along an elephant and chase the tiger into being seen.  This should ideally hurt the sensibilities of most wildlifers, but when good revenues are coming in via the 200 odd jeeps that stalk the big cats, people tend to turn a blind eye.

Monkeys having a field day at Bandipur forests. Photo: Amoghavarsha

The dense jungles of South India (and the laws of the forest department) fortunately don’t allow these pleasure hunts, making the sighting of any the cats, tiger, leopards and most other predators like wild dogs and jackals, a rare sighting. The downside, the tiger obsession. The hours after a jungle safari in most south Indian forests camp resorts usually have an air of combined excitement and tension.  What did you see? Did you get images? The pressure to sight to some spots or stripes and that in the form of feline mammals is immense. For those who work in the field, the obsession is an irritant. “ Stop looking for tigers. Yes they are an umbrella species and are important but there are other endangered species that will open you eyes to nature,” stressed Karthikeyan Srinivasan, the chief naturalist of Jungle Lodges and resorts where we were staying during a recent visit to the Bandipur forest.

Save the Tiger Campaigns with the number 1411 flashed ever so often on TV have done their bit in adding to add to the rush. An ethos that the group of photographers I was with shared. That Saturday afternoon, we set out to experience the jungle. For the first hour in the forest we saw nothing but jungle fowl clucking across our paths ever so often. The Bandipur forest, a dry deciduous forest is now infested with the Lantana weed that made an entry into India as an ornamental creeper. But when Lantana dries up, it’s just not so ornamental. But the air was fresh and we proceeded.

Mouse deers are a rare sighting in the jungle. Nocturnal ,small and shy even seasoned wildlifers are said to have spotted them about once in a few years. Photo: Madhavan Ranganathan

After an hour of silence, one member of the group let out a hushed scream. “Stop! It looks like cat, but it isn’t,” he said. “Mouse deer!” someone exclaimed. The little guy, not taller than a domestic cat, stood startled for a few seconds behind the haze of lantana and then dashed away. Spotting a Mouse deer in daylight, is rare enough sighting for the chief naturalist of Jungle Lodges Resorts to have told us that we would just not see them. Two of the ten in the group got shots. Nocturnal ,small and shy even seasoned wildlifers are said to have spotted them about once in a few years.  “This is rarer than a tiger,” we were told.

Spirits lifted, the sighting also lifted our luck. Soon the forest seemed alive. A hawk eagle preyeing near a pond, elephants drinking water, Sambhar deer posing in perfect light and then the sunset. We took it in with silence and frequent clicking until we stopped at the sight a spotted deer with broken horns. In what looked like the sad remains of a fight with another male, the young deer sat looking defeated. Behind him a baby fawn ran around aimlessly and kids are want to do.

16 months old, the young male and his mother, named Gauri by the forest department. Photo: Amoghvarsha

We all grinned wide and happy as we headed out of the park when we heard commotion behind us. The driver of another jeep was waving frantically at us from around 300 feet away. We drove over to where he was and saw a tigress lounging on the path way. She didn’t care too much for our presence and glanced at the bush in front of her. From the bush emerged a young male. 16 months old, the young male walked towards his mother, named Gauri by the forest department. He was followed closely by two other siblings. In failing light, our group of photographers clicked away in burst mode. “This is like happiness, don’t look for it and it will come,” someone philosophized. This was Gauri’s second litter in 4 years. One of the cubs in this litter had gone independent and the other three would follow soon.

The big cats are fascinating to watch, there is no denying that, but when these four majestic creatures presented themselves to us without warning it seemed like thank you for not chasing them.  Back at the camp we drank to the mouse deer, and yes, four tigers.

I’ve decided to embrace the Berkeley way of life. Let’s face it: I am crunchy granola, (refer blog#2) always have been.

I turned vegetarian at 13 because I didn’t want to kill animals, for heaven’s sake. So yes, what’s not to love in organic, whole grain, pesticide-free, homicide-free food products? Edible flowers make me happy (and they’re available down my street every Thursday at the neighbourhood farmers’ market). So what if Babyjaan rejects the goodies at Cheeseboard and has already firmly indicated her preference for Pastrami? As long as she doesn’t wear powdery pink frilly dresses and doesn’t want to participate in vile televised baby dance competitions, I’ll be a relaxed mom.

If I lived here for 10 years, I would be in serious danger of turning into a Berkeley auntie. Salt and pepper hair, adopted baby, agarbattis, a houseful of books, a fridge full of organic foods…you get the picture.

These days though, my main goal is to help Babyjaan make friends.  So off we went to the Berkeley Public Library in search of toddlers. They have an entire floor of children’s books, puzzles, and toys. The pop-up book of the hippopotamus that had hiccups gripped me, but Babyjaan was more interested in running behind the bookshelves and playing hide and seek.

When a sweet 18-month-old finally approached her shyly, Babyjaan yelled: “No Mime!” (mine). Then she grabbed a book from an unprepared-for-attack one-year-old.  I spied a Gerber-sponsored flyer about the development of children aged 18 to 24 months. It reassured me that “among their favourite words are Me and Mine”. Of course it didn’t tell me how to deal with such behaviour.

The flyer did ask me to answer a couple of existential questions: What behaviours do you find most difficult to handle? Why? How were you disciplined as a child? How do you think that influences how you discipline your child? Hmm, well, my failure to discipline effectively will be detailed in another blog, this post is about friendships.

Making friends with kids

“Don’t worry, it was her first trip to the library,” my dear friend S2 reassured me. “She was probably very excited.”

We also did the Berkeley thing and signed up for a music class for toddlers aged 1 to 2.5 years at Jon’s School of Music run by the rather dictatorial Jon. “What is that I see on the carpet?” he asked a mother whose baby had a pacifier in his mouth. “That would be drool,” she replied, slightly embarrassed. “Would you please clean it up,” he said.

Luckily, Babyjaan didn’t put any instruments in her mouth (against the rules) at that first class and neither did she disrupt the class by stroking another participant’s blonde hair (also against the rules after 30 seconds) so I was relieved. Nobody seemed to notice that she said “Mime!” and “More!” a couple of times during the class. Phew. And she had a blast playing with the harp, keyboards, talking drums, bells, xylophone, and god knows what else.

It’s an “adult participation class” so we sat in a circle us eight mothers with our respective babies and sang loudly. Who knows if the class will throw up any friends but at least it was fun.

Going to the park every day is another of our activities and while there are some familiar faces by now, most children don’t really seem to want to play with other children. Finally, one day in the park, we encountered the landlady’s 4-year-old daughter baby L who stays above us. “Come,” Babjyaan told baby L, pointing to the swings. “Come.” Baby L was more interested in playing on the monkey bars, but she humoured the little girl and sat on a swing. That day, Babyjaan made her first neighbourhood friend.

Read the previous Babyjaan entries here

Badamoo, Brownie and their daughter Chutki are my three pets who live down the lane.

Every morning the family walks me to the autorickshaw walla and every evening they cheerfully greet me, hopping about, sniffing my feet, and by now I have recognized their I-want-cookie expressions. I think it’s one of those big city phenomenon where your tiny apartment and severe absence from that too, doesn’t allow you to keep any pets. So you vicariously live through your street friends.

If you’re that kind of a dog lover, then this story might be of interest to you.

Bangalore-based artist, Aarohi Singh and her dog-activist neighbour, Rakesh Shukla, clearly do more than feed cookies to their street friends.

Aarohi is a self taught artist who constantly uses her art to express herself and the causes she believes in. And this time she was inspired by Rakesh’s determined work for the care of stray dogs.

“Two years ago, my daughter fell in love with Rakesh’s retriever pup. From then till now, I’ve watched Rakesh look after atleast 20 stray dogs. He and his band of volunteers treat sick dogs, feed hungry dogs, take them to veterinary doctors, as and when they need to be neutered, and all this comes out of their own pockets,” says Aarohi.

Rakesh runs a website, www.strays.in, (Voice of Stray Dogs) that works as a watch dog for agencies who supposedly treat and neuter strays. With footage and photographs that chronicle stray dogs and the trauma that they’re cruel homo sapien cohabitants put them through, I’d suggest you log on with caution. Only if you have the stomach for it because Rakesh tells it as it is.

Anyway, it’s not all that a grim story.

So Aarohi admits that with her two boisterous children and her life as an artist, she couldn’t get into field work of taking care of strays, but the artist in her decided to come up with the Poonchh Collection, to raise funds for the Voice of Stray Dogs.

About a 100 unique limited edition pieces, the Poonchh Collection has a silhouette of a stray dog printed on to handbags, totes, laptop sleeves, iPad and phone cases, clutches and cushion covers. Well finished pieces with leather trimmings, made in cotton canvass and poplin, some with fleece lining and padding, these are chic pieces that will definitely make an impression.

“I thought many well-intentioned NGOs sell their merchandise to raise funds, but that merchandise is usually khadi bags that get relegated to buying vegetables. I didn’t want that. I want the Poonchh Collection to be a stylish accessory. That thought also came from Rakesh, when one day he mentioned that if only adopting strays could be made hip and fashionable, give it an aspirational quality, then things would change,” recalls Aarohi.

And the point of this whole thing is that 50 % of the proceeds go to Voice of Stray Dogs, especially for a mobile hospital to help spay and neuter strays.

So here are the details: The Poonchh Collection is on from 10 to the 12^th of February, at 100 Ft Boutique Bar Restaurant,  Opp New Horizon School, HAL 2nd Stage, 100 Ft Road, Bangalore.

Price ranges from Rs350 to Rs3,000, except for the paintings which are priced at Rs5,000 each.

So you may want to add to your bag wardrobe, while helping the Badamoos, Brownies and Chutki’s of the streets.

The rupee, which was the worst performing Asian currency last year, has appreciated over 8%  to 49.17 per dollar since the beginning of January, recording its biggest monthly gains in the past decade. The reasons for the move up: the Reserve Bank of India’s moves to curb speculation by withdrawing the facility to cancel and rebook forward contracts, deregulation of non-resident deposit rates, and the return of capital inflows.

Foreign institutional investors have pumped in $3.24 billion in Indian equities and $3.77 billion in debt since the beginning of January. While fundamentals have shown some signs of improving -  headline inflation slowed to 7.47% in December, industrial output rose 5.9% the same month – it was mostly sentiment. That is the case not only in India. For instance, abating concerns of China hitting a hard landing have also buoyed fund flows. But, analysts have turned cautious in the near term.

Most of the positive domestic macro data is already priced in, said Priyanka Kishore, currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank. “The rupee may bounce back to 51 per dollar by March end because growth is expected to fall below 6.9% for FY12,” said Kishore. This was re-affirmed by the government data on Tuesday which projected GDP growth for FY12 below 7%, first time in three years compared to the 9% forecast last year.

On the global front, concerns of Greece defaulting on debt have increased as the much awaited talks with private creditors have not materialized. Also, Europe is likely to remain the biggest risk for the global economy. Europe is expected to go for a second round of three year long term refinancing program to help banks reduce their funding stress. If this does not take off like last time, it may lead to another round of risk aversion, said analysts.

Also, the old concerns of the widening current account deficit may continue to put pressure on the rupee, said AV Rajwade, forex and treasury risk consultant. The current account deficit has widened to $16.9 billion or 3.7% in the second quarter. The trade deficit has been declining gradually led by increasing remittances, but still came in at $13.2 billion in November after rising to a record $19.9 billion in October.

Espirito Santo Securities in a report said: Concerns about the high current account deficit are unlikely to fade away and a further widening of CAD for FY12 to 3.3% of GDP (up from our estimate of 2.8% earlier) cannot be ruled out due to high crude prices and moderation in exports.

Lastly, the outcome of the major state elections and the upcoming budget may also keep the rupee volatile.

Most of the positive domestic macro data is already priced in, said
Priyanka Kishore, currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank. “The
rupee may bounce back to 51 per dollar by March end because growth is
expected to fall below 6.9% for FY12,” said Kishore. This was re-affirmed
by the government data on Tuesday which projected GDP growth for FY12 below
7%, first time in three years compared to the 9% forecast last year.

On the global front, concerns of Greece defaulting on debt have increased
as the much awaited talks with private creditors have not materialized.
Also, Europe is likely to remain the biggest risk for the global economy.
Europe is expected to go for a second round of three year long term
refinancing program to help banks reduce their funding stress. If this does
not take off like last time, it may lead to another round of risk aversion,
said analysts.

Also, the old concerns of the widening current account deficit may continue
to put pressure on the rupee, said AV Rajwade, forex and treasury risk
consultant. The current account deficit has widened to $16.9 billion or
3.7% in the second quarter. The trade deficit has been declining gradually
led by increasing remittances, but still came in at $13.2 billion in
November after rising to a record $19.9 billion in October.

Espirito Santo Securities in a report said: Concerns about the high current
account deficit are unlikely to fade away and a further widening of CAD for
FY12 to 3.3% of GDP (up from our estimate of 2.8% earlier) cannot be ruled
out due to high crude prices and moderation in exports.

Lastly, the outcome of the major state elections and the upcoming budget
may also keep the rupee volatile.

Amazon.com has come to India, but by launching under the name of Junglee.com, the company has caused some confusion among their Indian competitors. While some believe that Amazon’s entry is a good thing, other CEOs that we contacted were of the opinion that by not launching as Amazon, the company has limited the impact of its current launch.

The newly launched Junglee.com is a comparison shopping engine, and instead of competing with e-commerce vendors such as Flipkart directly, Amazon’s comparison shopping method collates the inputs from different sites.

Given the global success of Amazon.com, many were expecting a major disruption from their entry into India. Launching with a different name, under a different model, has provoked mixed reactions among the heads of various leading Indian e-commerce websites.

Junglee.com

Some, such as Kunal Bahl, founder and CEO of Snapdeal.com, a group-buying deals website, believe that the Amazon launch is a validation of the e-commerce industry in India, and that it will lead to investment and growth in the long term, regardless of the model Amazon follows. “The entry of Amazon in India is further validation of the immensely large e-commerce opportunity in India. I am certain their entry in India will provide an even greater momentum to this exponentially growing industry,” he says.

The belief that several company heads share is that Amazon’s entry will bring the focus of global funding to India, leading to more investor money, and creating exit strategies that could lead to return on investments for Indian e-commerce pioneers. Abhishek Shah, founder and CEO of online mens fashion retailer Fetise.com, says, “Any start-up ecosystem thrives on appetite of larger players to acquire niche startups. Amazon’s entry will create environment for niche start-ups and early stage investors to get acquired which otherwise lacks in a development market like India. Amazon for sure has been one of the most aggressive acquirers in US and globally—and they would definitely go the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) route in India too. Junglee.com is just a way to proactively gather lot of localised data and analytics on what works and what doesn’t while waiting for the regulatory issues to be ironed out.”

As Shah points out, a round of mergers and acquisitions would likely lead to greater money flowing into the Indian e-commerce industry, which could be used to achieve scale at a much faster rate than before. This is a view shared by Siddharth Puri, the business head of Tyroo Direct, one of the largest advertising networks in India. Puri says, “Amazon.com is the poster boy of e-commerce globally, and their entry into any region validates the scale and potential of the market. E-commerce is booming because retail in India is not organised. Amazon’s current form will help smaller retailers by giving them traffic at a lower cost than Google, which will also lead to more customers and a bigger share of online retail.”

However, not everyone is convinced that the model makes sense. Manu Agarwal, founder and CEO of online marketplace Naaptol.com, says, “Amazon is not going to be a major disruptor for now. Junglee is only positioned as a comparison engine. So if anything it will only help existing players. I think they are trying to understand the market, so that when FDI is allowed in retail they can start Amazon. Junglee is only a vehicle for some time.”

Gaurav Kachru, CEO and co-founder of group-buying site DealsAndYou.com also agrees that in its current form, Amazon will have a limited impact on the e-commerce space in India. He says, “Amazon has entered India with a market place product and not as a retailer. There are several local challenges with this approach which remain unaddressed and will make it a challenge to be a disruptive force. That being said, if Amazon with its strong logistics capability and technology is able to solve these challenges, it will help improve and benefit the entire e-commerce market in India.”

Others also feel that Amazon is not ready to bring their full product to India and have therefore launched as Junglee first to gather an understanding of the market. Harish Bahl, founder and chairman of the WPP-owned Smile group, which includes several online retail companies, says, “We don’t think Amazon entry to Indian e commerce will bring any major disruption as fashionandyou.com has already created its space in the market.”