Chillies and French Fries

When I was a delivery boy!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:22:00 +0000

Some months ago I had met a finance man, who among our other discussions, stated and demonstrated how a discount a company's salesman gives to a customer has an impact on the company's balance sheet. Some days ago a CEO explained how one department's work impacts other department's work and thus the company's income, profits, etc.

So I was quite intrigued to experience this first hand. Thought it will add some gyaanbazi to my MBA education. So I decided to try out at the lowest level. It meant I needed to be someone else. Many people pray and sometimes even crib how they want to be someone else. Some are just plain eager to know how it feels to be someone else. TV shows have been made on this concept. So I was quite excited to be someone else, to be in someone else's shoes; of a delivery boy.

I had seen lotsa delivery boys moving around in the city, delivering orders to customers' homes, hardly noticed or given much importance. Over the last 11 years of my professional life, I have been used to attention, respect (whatever it is) etc wherever I've visited. So I wondered how I would feel being treated otherwise. My professional life taught me that anything you do, even though it looks a waste of time, invariably adds to your learning and comes handy somewhere in your life.

So I was delivery boy last Sunday, for a group of farmers who home deliver fruits and fruit products. Their delivery boy got a paid off that day. I started at 9 AM and ended my day at 9 PM with 15-16 deliveries covering almost all ends of Pune. At the end of the exercise, I walked off with some valuable learning and revelation, instead of what I had set out for. Putting down my observations and thoughts on it.

A bit of background: Companies spend hugely to understand customer analytics, customer demographics, her likes, dislikes, gathering more knowledge about her, etc etc. Reason is simple, the more you know about a customer, the more accurately you can design you marketing campaigns, products, pricing, etc to get the maximum output from your customer. Companies also blow up lotsa cash on marketing.

Now to the exercise:

First I called up all customers to ask if they are / will be at home when I walk in. I chose to go to first-time customers; those had not bought anything earlier. I spoke in polished English, with a humble tone, asked bit of directions in case of confusing addresses and I set out. I wore formals, with polished shoes, the same attire I generally wear to office. As expected, I got curious looks when the customers opened their doors; two of them were suspicious.

All the curious ones welcomed me inside their house, offered me a chair, even asked for water, when I fumbled to pull out the products from my back. Do we do that for all delivery personnel that come to our place? Food for thought, I'll come to that. One very sweet aunty asked me if I'd care for a cold-drink and if she should make coffee. Her husband, sitting across the table, was a Kargil war veteran. I got goose pimples when he mentioned that.

By the time the customers got cash, another member in the house brought up some subject. We could not just sit staring at each other. Mostly it ended up being about this farmer's group. I got chatting passionately about the farmers, the fruits, why they needed to do this, and how we friends are trying to help them.

Being the expert at interviewing that I am, the customers also told me how they came to know about the farmers, who in the family liked what, what they did for a living, whose relatives are in which country, etc. etc. When I saw kids in the house, I smiled at them, said hello, asked their name, and also gave them a gift, which was a merchandise created by the farmer's group, asked them which school they are in. A look around the house also gave me an idea of the family background, the vehicles parked in the dedicated parking also helped me peep into the world of the customer, everything without intruding into her/his privacy. All this for free, in about 5 minutes.

This is exactly the customer analytics, customer demographics, etc for which companies blow up lotsa cash.

The point I am trying to fire up here is that the delivery personnel are the most important people for any customer facing company, particularly ones who provide home delivery.

Companies should put in their best people on the job as delivery personnel

Why?

1. The delivery force is the eyes, ears, nose of the company to provide it an insight into the customer's world. It can get back valuable insights and save a lot of cost for the company. These insights will help the company take important, business-impacting decisions, which include about marketing and reaching out. The insights that I got from my exercise were extremely helpful to have a targetted marketing and profit-maximisation from the particular customer.

2. This is the most important reason. The delivery force is the face of the company before the customer. A prospective customer is like the beautiful girl you wanna patao and spend your life with. So when you are meeting her, you make sure you meet her in your best avatar, behave the best, and treat her best. When the delivery personnel reach customers homes, it's the company reaching out to the customer. You need to make sure you are at your best.

Now for some icing and cherry on the cake. This is from the book Rework – Change The Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Marketing is not a department

Do you have a marketing department? If not, good. If you do, don't think these are the only people responsible for marketing. Accounting is a department. Marketing isn't. Marketing is something everyone in your company is doing 24/7/365.

Every time you answer the customer’s or a prospect’s phone, it’s marketing
Every time you send an email, it's marketing
Every time someone uses your product, it's marketing
Every word you write on your web site is marketing
If you build software, every error message is marketing, your coding is marketing?
Every time you write on your website, it’s marketing?
If you are in the stock broking business, your trading platform is marketing?
If you are in the real estate business, your construction is marketing?
If you're in the restaurant business, the after dinner mint is marketing
If you're in the retail business, the checkout counter is marketing
If you're in the service business, your invoice is marketing

My Ugly Duckling Days at Muktangan

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 18:04:00 +0000

I had a great meeting last week with a classmate from my school. We met after 12 years; the first time since we had left school. The two-hour meeting over coffee evoked memories that I had buried deep in my heart long ago. There are some memories you don't forget and some you can't. Others are just worthless to be in either of these; like I have had of my school.

I studied at Muktangan English School at Pune for 12 years; two years of kindergarten and then till I cleared Class 10 in 1998. That was more than half of my pre-adult life. It may be surprising that even after spending a large part of my formative years in the school, I don't find the memories worth remembering. Those who watched Taaren Jameen Par would remember the poor Ishaan struggling with his surroundings. I was perfectly in his shoes, though not dyslexic. With no 'best friend', I was alone all along through my school years, desperately struggling to find my identity.

I was never in any of the so called groups in school, probably because no one wanted me there. I don't know why, but I am sure students hardly noticed me even. I had a classmate whom I first saw in junior KG. Light skyblue frock, hairband with a flower, and a confused, about-to-cry face. Sounds strange, but I instantly had a crush, and her image still remains in my mind. Born on 9th August, she had the same middle name (father's name) as mine, and I retained the crush on her for 14 long years that we were in the same class, even in junior college. Long years... because I struggled in vain all through to speak to her. Early this year, I saw her in Abhishek hotel at Pune, gathered courage, walked up to her and said hi.

She was with someone and looked at me with the same confusion she had on her face when I first saw her. I told my name, still she did not remember. The confused look turned suspicious and also transferred onto the face of the 'someone' as they looked at each other. I said we were in Muktangan. "Oh yeah, we were in the same batch, different class," she told the someone. It was my turn to be confused. She was supposed to be intelligent, as she was among the meritorious students of our school, but such a dumb memory. I didn't bother to tell her we were in the same class for 14 years. Just said bye, and left.

Wasn't her fault, she just had never noticed me. The fault was in the school, particularly teachers, who labelled me as mischievous, good-for-nothing, shameless, and what not. I was just fun-loving, had loads of sense of humour (something teachers and students lacked), loved technology & technical things, was intolerant to mistakes, and was too disaster prone. Teachers found this objectionable and stuck the brat tag on my forehead. I had a tough time at office in those days, the principal's office that is. So ultimately, they had classified me as the ugly duckling (Andersen’s fairly tale, remember?) and all classmates believed it.

The class was broadly divided into studious and not-so-studious students, who respectively flocked together. There were some midway folks, who had made their own small groups. I had a sharp brain and was reasonably good at studies. I never identified myself with the brats, so I was not in their group. With the ugly duckling tag on me, the studious folks did not want me. I ended up being lonely and unwanted. This feeling of being unwanted is very awful; it almost kills you. It's a feeling you can't and don't want to tell anyone; not even to yourself. This feeling, when you are a kid in school, makes you see the world as your enemy. And you revolt. I was no different. I think no teacher understood this. My dad told me teachers complained that I lacked concentration in many subjects. But I see they had failed to make their subject interesting enough. And they tried to hide their failure by labelling me a dumb and useless.

But I wasn't as useless as my school dubbed me to be. I strongly believe in nature and admire its style of maintaining equilibrium. There is an objective for the existence of every thing and every person in this world. After the objective is accomplished that person or thing needs to vanish from the system. My objective of coming into this world was yet to be fulfilled, so I did not vanish in the ordeal that would have killed anyone else. It was 15 July 2000, when I had a road accident. An accident put me unconscious for 4-5 days and erased many days and incidents from my memory. Doctors Sushil Patkar, Shashank Shah and their team at Poona Hospital brought me back to life after six hours of surgery. Hospital reports say I had some 30 stitches on my skull and cosmetic restructure on my face.

Sometimes, only a jolt can put you on track. I believe the accident was nature's style of jolt. Before the accident, I was Class 12 Science failure and was in the most depressing phase of my life. After a week I recovered from the accident, and in a month I was back to my routine. My friend, philosopher and guide — my dad — stood by my side all through in school and even now, introduced me to his friend who owned a newspaper. I joined him without any agenda. I became a journalist at 18, and four months into my first job, my life turned around. I was in an atmosphere conducive enough for my potent talent; something my school should have provided. But why would it do this for an ugly duckling, no?

Andersen’s ugly duckling transforms into a swan when spring arrives. My accidentally-found profession became the spring for me and made me into what I see as an asset for the society. I don’t jump signals or drive through no-entries. I don’t smoke or drink. I don’t run away from accident sites nor do I stand there as a meek spectator. I don’t view and treat transgender, gays and lesbians with disgust. I don’t honk at elderly people who stretch their hands out to cross the road. I don’t misdirect people searching for an address on the road.

Why did I write this?

I know there are many ugly ducklings out there; I hope this helps them in some way!
I know there are many parents out there, whose kids in school would be treated as ugly ducklings. They would never open up or may not be able to open up this to their parents. I hope this serves as an indication for parents to be bit more observant towards their kids.
Schools are a big business today. Gone are the days when teachers became teachers because they wanted to become teachers. My observation over the last decade says that over 90% of the teachers became teachers because they could not become anything else. Do not look to ‘outsource’ parenting to the school. If you can be hardly available to your kids in their formative years, please do not bring them in this world
I want to suggest to young parents that whatever the world says about your kids, you need to always support them. Believe me everyone has a talent and so would your kid. You need to identify that talent, help your kids nurture it and become the best in it.

While we are at the subject of talent, let me give you an interesting example.

Our school mathematics lesson had some distance related questions that went something like this 'A car is travelling on a road at 60kmph. A truck is travelling in the opposite direction on the same road at 48kmph. The vehicles are 2 kms apart. How much time will it take before they collide and how far will they collide from the starting point of the car.' Most of us would have faltered at finding the answer. Those who can get an answer in a jiffy, would are considered talented. Generally!

Last month, I observed this example in real life.

I was travelling on a highway in a luxury sports car. It was indeed a shame to drive that car below 100kmph, so the driver was overtaking other vehicles. It was a two way road, so he had to drive onto the right side of the road, overtake and return left. Vehicles were coming in the opposite direction and every time the perfectly-trained driver missed collision by whiskers. Mind you, every time he had to calculate his own speed, the speed of car he overtook, the speed of advancing vehicle --- plus, width of the road, and the distances between each of the three vehicles. All this in a split second. The driver had barely completed primary education, but he did that calculation perfectly for over 100 times in our 2-hour, 180 kms drive.

As we stopped over for tea, I asked him how he did that. "What?" he said. He'd been asked this for the first time, so he thought for sometime and said "I don't calculate. The brain does it." Exactly the answer I expected. We, so-called educated folks, would have looked down on this 'uneducated' driver. But he could do the same calculation faster than we could do, though in a different way. Would you consider him untalented? I would not.

Entertainment ke liye aur bhi kuch (copy) karega!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:35:00 +0000

I knew we had loads of copycats in our country. So many serials are copied from, so many films are copied. Today I got to see an act which was copied. Sony Channel telecasts a program called Entertainment Ke Liye Aur Bhi Kuch Karega. The format of the show is that individuals or groups of individuals have to entertain the audience and the judges Annu Malik and Farah Khan in one minute. If they are innovative and entertaining enough, they are allowed to perform, else they are hooted out. Those who are not hooted out get a prize of Rs 11111. Two of the best performances from Monday to Thursday are chosen and put together on the Friday show, where all of them have to better their performance and the best of them wins a grand prize of Rs 5 lakh.

On 21 Sept, that is today, a performance by a group called Psycho Flippers caught my attention. The group displayed an act of table tennis in Matrix style. The moment they started, I understood what it was. But the audience and judges were all over it. The audience clapped and the judges seemed to be spellbound. Farah Khan asked they group how did they do it, how did they think of it etc etc. The group leader, obviously clever, brazenly told her that the act was loosely inspired by Matrix and all the ideation of the act was his (or the group's) own thought. The judges seemed to be impressed further and gave them the prize of Rs 11111. What's more, they even selected Psycho Flippers as the one of the two best performances that day. Actually, the group which did the statue act was much better.

Now the catch here is that the group leader had not spoken the truth. The entire act of Psycho Flippers was copied step by step from a video more than four years old. But the judges also believed what the group said, obviously as they were ignorant that such an act existed. They even said the act was mindblowing, outstanding etc etc. They even gave them a standing ovation. All this for an act that was step to step copy of something very original and innovative. What a pity.

You can find the Psycho Flippers copycat act here and the main original act here. See how polished the original act is and see how the copied act is a step by step copy.

Happy to get my first phishing email!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:08:00 +0000

I have been hearing about phishing attacks or emails for a long time, but never had the privileged to see one. However, I was recently treated to this privilege when I got an email that was purported to come from ICICI Online® Accounts Alerts.

Thankfully I use Gmail, so that email was already flagged as a phishing email. It had a link that claiming to be http://secureupdate.icicibank.com/security/verify?action=acct_update.aspx. I wanted to check it out, so I clicked on the link.

I was using Google Chrome and it did not allow me to access the website saying that the website was classified as a phishing website. Smart chaps, haan! So I decided to use Internet Explorer, which was not bothered if the site I am accessing was good or bad.

In Internet Explorer, I clicked on the link which was showing itself to be http://secureupdate.icicibank.com/security/verify?action=acct_update.aspx. This link actually took me to http://www.amerisat.com/lyingliars/viper/icici/index.php, where I got to see the following screen.

This looks similar to the actual screen of ICICI bank, as seen below. Mark the URLs in both the screens.

In the phishing screen, I did not enter anything in the user id and password columns, and pressed the log-in button. Even then those morons took me to the next screen.

In this screen too, I entered nothing and pressed the verify button. It threw up this screen showing that it was directing me to enter my ATM Grid details.

They took me to a this webpage which has an elaborate layout of the ICICI ATM card's grid layout. In this screen too, I entered nothing and pressed the OK button. Still they took me to the next screen.

These phishers also need to have some common sense. In this screen, the intelligent morons thanked me for updating and verifying my account, happy that they have stolen my bank account details.

And then they landed me on this actual webpage of ICICI bank. Cool, but not so cool.

So folks, the bottom line is that you should use Gmail and Google Chrome and verify the URLs before entering any details.

Here are some details you need to keep in mind if you are an ICICI bank customer. Log in at www.icicibank.com. Some phishers may try to trick u in with URLs like www.iciciibank.com or www.icicibnk.com. Mind it. If you still wanna be sure, count the characters. The legitimate URL has 17 characters. 3 W's, 3 I's, 3 C's, 2 dots, and 1 each of A, B, K, M, N, O.

Once you login, or before you login, ensure that the URL on the browser begins with https://infinity.icicibank.co.in.

A popular phishing method is to show one web address but actually point users to another. Hover your mouse over the link to make sure that the actual link is always either icicibank.com or infinity.icicibank.co.in

Ignore all pop-up windows asking for login details or other sensitive information. ICICI will not ask for any information in pop-ups.

Verify the security certificate of the site you are on by clicking on the padlock icon of your internet browser.

And Above all, before you think of entering details as asked in the phishing screenshots above, please use your common sense that all these details, are given to you by the bank itself. So naturally it has all these details in its systems. So why would ICICI or any other bank ask you to give these details again?

Sony launches world's thinnest LCD, but its engineers seems to have faltered on technology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Consumer electronics manufacturer Sony India introduced its high-feature, thinnest LCD television, the Bravia ZX series in India recently. However, the company's engineers seem to have overlooked the fact that radio frequency (RF) remote control technology, a key feature in this premium product, does not work with the direct-to-home (DTH) service, thus defeating its purpose. Industry experts see this as a major flaw that is likely to hinder the sales of this premium product. This model is expected to be in showrooms next month.

The 40-inch Bravia ZX, priced around Rs 2 lakh, claimed to be the world’s slimmest LCD TV at 9.9 mm, comes packed with the latest technologies. One of these is a wireless receiver which eliminates the need to connect cables to the TV. The input channel, like a cable or terrestrial antenna, has to be connected to the wireless receiver and can be kept out of sight. Coupled with this, the RF remote control technology allows TV functions like changing channels to be controlled without pointing the remote control towards the TV, unlike the conventional infra-red based remote controls.

This technology, however, fails to operate with a DTH set top box as well as with DVD players which have dedicated remote controls. These remote controls use infrared technology which does not work unless the remote control is pointed towards the instrument for all operations.

"The radio frequency (RF) technology works well with cable since the controls for viewing cable channels are on the TV remote itself. I am not sure if it would work with DTH inputs," a technical official from Sony India said. Sunil Nayyar, general manager, sales, Sony India, expressed his inability to confirm the working of the technology. "Our engineers would have thought about it," he said.

India had 11.1 million DTH subscribers at the start of 2009, according to a report by the industry regulator TRAI, released in April. An industry expert, who saw the product, said, "High income families and individuals are the potential buyers of this high priced television. Almost all of them are likely to use DTH, as it is hassle free, offers more channels and better picture quality than cable networks. DTH can be connected to the Bravia ZX but then the set top box cannot be kept away from sight. It will have to be kept next to the TV, along with the wireless receiver and its remote has to be pointed towards it every time for giving commands like changing a channel, reducing the sound, etc. This defeats the purpose of the wireless technology and paying a premium for it."

omkar.sapre@timesgroup.com

Women candidates could hit record this Lok Sabha elections

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000

The percentage of women candidates contesting Lok Sabha elections could be the highest this time, if number from the first two phases is of any indication.

According to the final lists of contesting candidates from the first two phases (for 265 constituencies), women candidates sum up to 6.47% (243 / 3756) of the total candidates contesting. This number is 7.11% (122 / 1715) in the first phase of elections (for 124 constituencies) and 5.93% (121 / 2041) in the second phase (for 141 constituencies).

According to the nominations of all the phases, the filings for some of which are still on, 5038 candidates include 336 women, which at 6.67% is the highest percentage of women candidates so far.

The percentage of women candidates has grown consistently since 1957 from 2.96% to its so far best performance of 6.53% in 2004. The total number of women candidates also grew consistently from 45 in 1957 to 355 in 2004, with the exception of 1996, when 599 women were in the fray. However, women seem to have failed miserably in keeping up the percentage of victories, which dropped from 49% in 1951 to just 13% in 2004.

An analysis of the 265 constituencies going to polls in the first two phases reveals that 107 Constituencies do not have a single woman candidate, while 98 constituencies have one candidate each of the fairer sex. 44 constituencies have two, while 12 constituencies have three women con-testants. The Baramati constituency of Maharashtra clocks the highest number of female Lok Sabha aspirants in a single constituency at 7, where 10 men are also contesting.

The Tura constituency in Meghalaya is the only constituency so far, which has female candidates in majority, with three contesting against one male.

Bathinda in Punjab (5 / 7), Jhalawar-Baran and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan (both 2 / 3) are the other constituencies with women aspirants in majority, but they will go to polls in the fourth phase and filing for nominations there is still on.

In the statewise performance, none of the states (with more than two constituencies) have women candidates beyond 10%. Madhya Pradesh tops the chart with 9.6% women candidates (19 / 198). Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of female contestants at 39, which is just 6.85% of the total, it also has the highest number of constituencies without a female candidate at 18. Maharashtra has 37 females (5.94%), followed by 30 in Bihar (7.28%).

omkar.sapre@timesgroup.com

Time for Chinese mobiles to bomb

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:20:00 +0000

EVER wondered how low-cost, feature-rich Chinese mobiles make their way into India? Here’s how. Importers advertise for people with specialised skills and experience in clearing them from the Customs. Though they have been dubbed as threat, pirates, etc by various authorities, there is nothing they can do to stop the sales.

(Click on the heading to know more)

Mumbai Terror Blasts, revisited in Pune!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:16:00 +0000

It was 5 in the morning on 21 Dec and a loud blast woke up residents in the adjoining areas of Shivdarshan, a suburb in Pune (Near City Pride Satara Road Multiplex). With the visuals of the Mumbai terror attacks still fresh in their minds, residents could think of nothing but the possibility of a terrorist attack on Pune. Hundreds of residents sacrificed their morning sleep and spilled on to the streets to find out what happened? Right then a series of blast started and eight blasts followed in a span of around an hour. Residents saw thick clouds of black smoke erupt in the air with each blast, confirming the possibility of a terrorist bomb blast. Some brave souls left on their bikes for the place where the blasts were erupting. They returned with a piece of information, which was no doubt scary, but at least of relief. The blasts were not from any terror attack. An LPG cylinder godown had caught fire, and nine cylinders had passed off their gas because of the intense heat. The firefighters were struggling to put off the fire and succeeded in their efforts within an hour. Relieved that the city was safe (at least for the moment), residents headed for their homes (in fact, beds) and sunk in a deep slumber. Not surprising that he milkmen in the locality had to spend extra time knocking on the doors of the residents to deliver their share of milk.

SHOP ONLINE ON PUNE STREETS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:46:00 +0000

We must have shopped online umpteen times for buying stuff like headphones, pendrives, and many other items. But how about buying stuff from your neighbourhood shop and that too online?

Try out this shopping website www.laxmiroad.in, which allows you to shop online from your favourite shops.

This website features shops like Chitale Bandhu, Kale Sugandhi, Kheliya, and many others which are favourites of Punekars (a tribe of Pune residents, but starkly different that Puneites).

This website seems to be thought because of the chaotic traffic, and paucity of parking space, because of which shoppers often dread to venture out for shopping. But may be with online street shopping, they would find shopping easy.

An entrepreneur Zelam Dixit started the concept of streetwise online shopping, with www.laxmiroad.in. Many shops from Laxmi Road are selling their stuff here. Some of them are Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, Kale Sungandhi, Kheliya, Varma Book Center, Neelam, Pankaj Tele-Video, Tashkand, Sri Krishna Pearls, Mother's Boutique,Venus Traders, Champion Sports, R. P. Vaidya, Popular Book Stall, Karachi Sweets, the Cake and Cream Factory etc. What's more, you can also shop for a Guruji to do pooja for festive occasions.

All orders are said to be delivered within 24 hours by Palande Courier with delivery charges of Rs.25/- per order. Payments can be made on delivery or through Pay Pal.

By the way, a maxim says that one can sell anything, even mud, on Laxmi Road and get good rates. Wonder if the 'virtual' Laxmi Road, gets the same returns.

Criminals (albeit indirectly, but officially) fund development of sports in Scotland. Ain't it cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:54:00 +0000

Sports in India is just politics and in some cases crime too! (you know how).That is the reason why never fare good in sports internationally (except of course in cricket, sometimes). We did win three medal in Olympics this time, including a first ever individual gold, though the government had no contribution in it. Read This Post to see how we did it. However, in a country called Scotland, which is a part of the UK but a seperate nation, criminals (albeit indirectly) provide funding for development of sports. (That's officially, ok?) Click on the heading to see how exactly they do it!

By Omkar Sapre

Theatre release of a film is a teen-din-ka-khel. Baki sab piracy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:53:00 +0000

Gone are the days when films like Sholay or Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge ran for 25 weeks, 50 weeks etc. Now the business is limited to just a three-day-play, after which piracy takes over. Film producer now release multiple prints are multiple locations and try to recover their money in three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And this strategy is proving useful.

(click on the heading to read the full article)

Farmers from Maval taluka join hands to benefit from agri-tourism!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:57:00 +0000

The Maval Taluka, which was hitherto famous for the Pavana dam and controversies around land deals of actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan etc, now has a special thing to be proud of. 25 farmers in the taluka have joined hands to practice agri-tourism and earn some additional income. They have formed a co-operative society, which is said to be the first of its kind in India for agri-tourism. The society, called Maval Agri Tourism Development Co-operative Society is based on the model of Agri-Tourism Development Corporation set up by entrepreneur Pandurang Taware, in ….

(click on the heading to read the full article)

Animation institutes are booming and fooling students!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:47:00 +0000

Animation-training institutes are having a booming business. In Pune alone, the number of training institutes has reached 26 from a mere 10 two years ago. With a capacity of almost 4000 students, in courses ranging from 3 months to 20 months. With fees ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh, the training business rakes in almost Rs 100 crore yearly. While the animation industry needs people with artistic skills, industry experts say that training institutes merely focussing on filling the market with people who know just tools, and in turn decieving....

(Click on the heading to read the full article...)

Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming getting hot in India!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming or MMOG's as they are called, are getting hot in India. They will effectively take online games to the next level, which were till now targeted at the individual casual player. Three Indian companies in the MMOG business, Zapak, Kreeda and Vibrant, are working on aggressive expansion plans to propogate MMOG. As these companies plan for release of new games, all of them are banking on the network of Internet cafés.

(click on the heading to read the full article...)

Bollywood actors are busy giving voices for animation movies!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:19:00 +0000

A host of actors and actresses from Bollywood, both young and old are busy clearing their vocal chords and giving their phonetics a once over. Over 300 artistes across the film and television industry in India -- from Shahrukh Khan and Rajnikant to Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Shatrughan Sinha -- are busy doing voiceovers for animation movies being produced in India, says Omkar Sapre

(please click on the heading to read the full article...)

China bullied foreign officials to swing results in its favour!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:51:00 +0000

Chinese badminton coach threatened us, says Indian badminton umpire Girish Natu to Omkar Sapre
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RVRELzIwMDgvMDgvMjQjQXIwMTMwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
IN its attempt to top the medal tally at any cost, China is learnt to have intimidated foreign officials throwing sportsmanship to the wind, in the badminton events. Pune based Girish Natu, a Badminton World Federation (BWF) certified umpire and one of the two Indian technical officials at the Beijing Olympics confirmed to SundayET that Chinese officials subjected him to ‘unjust and unfair’ practice....
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How Lakshmi Mittal & his not-for-profit trust helped India get 2 of its 3 Olympic Medals!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:17:00 +0000

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RVRELzIwMDgvMDgvMjQjQXIwMTQwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
India has finally made its mark at the Olympic Games winning the first ever Gold, olong with two bronze medals. While politicians and sports associations of the country (all headed by politicians, including the Indian Olympic Association, headed by Suresh Kalmadi) will attempt to take credit for this achievment, it was the planned strategy of steel magnate and richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal and his not-for-profit sports trust Mittal Champions Trust, headed by his banker son-in-law Amit Bhatia. The trust supports athletes and players who are medals prospects and two of India's three medals were won by the Trust's players. And what's more, all other athletes, who, unfortunately, ended just whiskers away from the medal, are all supported by the trust....
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Missing deadlines a norm for CYG!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:20:00 +0000

For the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG), missing deadlines seems to be the norm. The latest it missed was on August 15 when all sports venues were to have been ready. Now, the dress rehearsal for the track events of the CYG will be done on the warm up track since the main stadium and its track will not be ready in time. The dress rehearsals are slated to be held from August 29-September 2. The hotel, which is supposed to accommodate the athletes, is still undergoing basic fitouts.
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Risk of Physical Threats to Corporate India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Raghu Raman, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group and a corporate risk consulting expert, gazes into the crystal ball and predicts physical threats to be one of the biggest concerns for corporates in times to come. He feels that this major risk to corporate security is often ignored and deserves more attention and understanding. In this article, Raghu attempts to educate readers on the Do's and Don'ts for Bomb Threats.

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The much needed entrepreneurial spirit!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Bill Gates (Microsoft) , Steve Jobs (Apple), Dhirubhai Ambani (Reliance), NR Narayana Murthy (Infosys), Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel) and many others like them have contributed to make our lives easy. Though they come from diverse backgrounds and diverse businesses, they are tied together with a a single string, which is of entrepreneurship! Yes, all of these are entrepreneurs who have recognised opportunities, taken the risk of organising and operating the new venture, and then led the venture to success. In my new post, I present some of the very enterprising and interesting new age entrepreneurs, whom I had written about.
By the way, did you know that Almighty God was the world's first entrepreneur?
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A 1975 Car That Was Strikingly Similar to Tata Nano!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:32:00 +0000

Another era, another Nano dream, but this one died a silent death!

The iconic Mr Ratan Tata was lucky enough to realise his dream of the people's car, the Nano. However, there was another person, who cherished the same dream, but wasn't luck enough.

The two decades from 1949 to 1975 saw an Indian car called Meera, which was strikingly similar to the now-eternal Tata Nano. Developed by a 7th-standard-pass Late Mr Shankarrao Kulkarni, this car was apparantly killed by the politicians and red tapism...

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Series on the Devgad Alphonso Mangoes and mango production!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:18:00 +0000

Say Alphonso and your senses will feel the taste and aroma of this king of fruits. The mango production from the Konkan region went a biy haywire this year due to the erratic nature. Sudden rains wiped out a significant part of the mango produce. Whatever mango came to the market was sold at high prices. Then came the processing industry which helped the mango growers to atleast recover some losses!

I had done an article series on the Devgad Alphonso mangoes and the production of mangoes this year. The first article came in December 2007 and the rest in May 2008.

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Series on the Commonwealth games scheduled in Pune and Delhi

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:18:00 +0000

The Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) are hardly two months away, and the host city Pune is far from being prepared to host them. The sports complex at Balewadi is under construction, and presents a bleak picture for the games. The civic infrastructure of the city is too in shambles.

India had won the bid in 2003 to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, while Pune was not even a part of the bid. The youth games were also to be held in Delhi, at the stadiums that were to be constructed and upgraded for the 2010 games. However, the organising committee, headed by Suresh Kalmadi, realised in 2006 that the sports facilities in Delhi would be under construction for the 2010 Games and thrust the youth games on Pune.

Sheer lack of foresight has led to demolition and reconstruction of 50% of the games , though the sports complex is just 14 years old. BG Shirke construction company and architects Shashi Prabhu and Associates had constructed the complex in 1994 for the National Games, and both of them are again involved in the reconstruction project...
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The Spectacular Beijing Olympics 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:49:00 +0000

China's preparation for the world's biggest sporting event:Beijing Olympics 2008
The much awaited sporting extravaganza Olympics 2008 inaugurated today on 08-08-08 and as it was expected, China pulled out the most spectacular and the opening ceremony, which has surely set the hearts of London beating faster.

The spirit of competition and excitement surrounding the 2008 Olympics had engulfed the world into the elite gaming event. China and her athletes poured a huge amount of innovation, endeavour and commitment into hosting and participating in the world's biggest sporting event. Beijing, the capital city of China underwent an extreme makeover, along with some high-tech athletic preparations. construction of innovative and friendly infrastructure, and used some amazing science and technology to combat unforeseeable challenges.

As the host city, Beijing's mission was to set the stage for an Olympics that turned out to be technologically robust, green and distinctively Chinese. Creating an Olympic city was not just about creating grand designs, it was accompanied by real challenges like pollution, weather, road congestion and language barrier. The Chinese discovered their utmost resolve and passion to host the most memorable games in the history and present of Olympic games.

What makes a gold medallist? This always puzzled Chinese athletes, who were gunning for gold in the name of sporting excellence, national pride and Olympic history. Since 1988, China has steadily has steadily climbed the Olympic medal tally. After having won a meagre five gold medals in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, in less than two decades, it has come close to the top spot. China won 16 golds in the 1996 Olympics, 28 in 2000, and 32 in 2004, finishing second in the medal tally, both gold and over all. Its goal is to be the winner of the highest number of medals in its home location.

Beijing was one of the most polluted cities on the earth. Cars were increasing by around 1000 a day and exhaust emissions made for almost third of Beijing's air pollution. Beijing's environmental chief took actions to turn Beijing's smoggy grey skies to blue to make the Olympics a success.

Environment:
1) China has created the world’ first ever forest park, twice the size of New York’s central park, with over five lakh trees, to act as lungs for the populated and polluted city of Beijing. This will be the venue for tennis, archery and hockey during the games.
2) Lasers sensors have been set up at checkpoints across Beijing to monitor emission levels, with stringent controls been placed on air quality.
3) The country is relocated its fourth largest steel factory from the centre to out of the city.
4) To address the region's poor air quality and recurring sand storms, China undertook a restoration project called the Great Green Wall bordering the Gobi Desert, which is capable of blocking 15 million tons of blowing sand.

Language
Over 300 million Chinese, including taxi drivers, learnt English and other languages like Spanish and French to give the visitors a warm welcome during the games.

Weather:
1) Almost 7000 anti aircraft guns with silver iodide shells have been stationed all around Beijing to tackle the threat of rainstorm. The shells, when fired into the clouds, will force them to burst before they reach the Olympic venues.
2) The weather bureau releases weather balloons every six hours to get data on pressure, temperature and humidity. The balloons rise 30 kms in the air and send data back through radar.

Sports Science
1) China is employing physiotherapists, sports scientists, ancient Chinese techniques, and technology like electromyography to strengthen their athletes. They analyse the athlete’s body and give such a minute finding, for example to gain an extra fraction of a second, the swimmer needs to strengthen the smaller muscles like the lumbricals of the fingers and toes.

Stadiums
1) China has built one of the biggest stadiums in the world, which is the Beijing National Stadium. A 332 metres long and 27 storey high, the structure is supported by 36 kilometer long steel frames which hold the structure without any pillars. This allows each of the 91,000 spectators to have a clear view of the action.
2)The Aquatics centre is made of 90 kms of steel tubes, covered with 4000 translucent cushions made from a revolutionary fabric, which assists in the heating and cooling of the centre.
3)The badminton and rhythmic gymnastics is designed in the shape of shuttlecock and will seat 7500 spectators.

Traffic
1)Beijing has built another ring road above the ground, 13 new subway lines, 300 kms of new highway and a high speed airport link to service the new airport terminal. The goal is to transform Beijing's four line subway system into the world's largest.

Security and Technology
1)China is using the world’s largest biometrics team and a cutting edge facial recognition technology to ensure safety of athletes, spectators and combat terrorism. More than 1,00,000 cameras have already been installed in Beijing to track individuals.
2) Microchips will enable to people to see TV on their mobile phones. With potential audience of 1.4 billion in China, transmitters and boosters have been installed throughout.

The paradox of Indian media. Journalism no longer a journalist's profession!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:46:00 +0000

If you are a journalist in any Indian print media, this statement would not shock you. You would then agree that the media hardly cares for people who make that media (journalists) and craves only for those (sales people) who are in media because of journalists. This is the glaring paradox in the media and the best example of how money commands respect.

Journalists traditionally started the media business in India. Balshastri Jambhekar, Lokmanya Tilak and others who pioneered the Indian media were journalists. Dr. J.E. Brennan, Dr. George Brit, Robert Knight, Henry Curwen, Charles Kane, T. J. Bennett , who were instrumental in the genesis and growth of The Times of India, since 1838, were all journalists, in variations of degrees.

But the Indian media seems to have forgotten this fact. The condition today is that journalists are seen as cost centres and sales people (response) are the pampered lot. You will find that sales people get much higher salaries and more so in the print media, for same years of experience. This can also be judged from the outcomes of the recently concluded ‘festival’ of appraisals in most publications. While organizations have reaped huge profits, thanks to the media boom, journalists have got far less (percentage) appraisals than the sales people. (Apart from a limited number of journalists, you-know-who)

Now one would say that sales people get the money that is needed to run the media or the newspaper, by way of advertisements. Agreed, but one cannot sideline the fact that it is the journalists who are responsible for giving the newspaper the character, on the basis of which the newspaper can be sold. But no one considers this contribution of the journalists.

Let me give u a concrete example. The Economic Times sells around 7 lakh copies daily, according to ABC figures. This figure is far more than all the Indian business dailies put together. Now what is the reason for this?

Simply put, other papers sell lesser than ET because lesser readers buy their copies. Why do lesser readers buy their copies?

Because they do not feel they should part with their hard earned money to buy those newspapers.

Then why do they buy ET?

That is because they want to read what is written in ET, as almost all articles impact the pockets of the readers in some way. The news, views, opinions, etc expressed in ET are extremely valuable to them and they take vital decisions based on the articles in ET. I have not come across any person who buys ET just because he wants to read advertisements published in ET.

So I am saying that the sale and popularity of ET is on the basis of the news, which helps the newspaper to reach the ABC figures. The sales people quote these circulation figures to get advertisers to spend money.

What do the journalists get in return? (Across all newspapers)

Yearly appraisals ranging from three to four-digit figures, with no incentives. And on top of it, the appraisals are pre-decided, with hardly any relation to the amount of work that the person has put in the earlier year. And for sales people? Yearly appraisals ranging from mid to high five-digit figures, incentives running in lakhs and in some cases, an all paid trip to Malaysia.