Author Archive

Having read too many views about the Bharat Bandh that happened today – which had real impact from what I saw in Mumbai, and what I saw reported in the media – I can definitely say that the Bandh has impacted everyone in India in some way or other.

There were some incidences which could have been avoided. In my relative’s office, one of the officers was beaten up for ‘showing the courage’ to turn up for work. Really, such incidences can be avoided, infact should be avoided – they leave a mark in the minds of those affected. continue

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On May 1, Maharashtra (and Gujarat) turned 50. While it is true that the state is among the leading states as far as development is concerned, the development is extremely uneven and in spurts. It is also the state where farmer suicides has been a huge problem over the past 5 years or so. continue

In November 2009, Papers around the qorld were shouting from their front pages about the Dubai Recession: continue

(Last time, I wrote about the qualitative classification of Mobile phone buyers in India. This is a continuation of that post. )

Firstly, to give numbers to the last time’s classification – NCAER numbers of 2006 are as given in the chart above. The survey takes into account data for 209 mn households. continue

For 2 weeks now, I have been doing my bit about understanding the mobile handset market in India from a ‘qualitative’ perspective. It is expected that very soon 50% of the Indian population will have a mobile phone in their hand. I tried to understand 3 things – What works, what doesn’t – what does the consumer really look at when he goes out to buy a cell phone? continue

On Feb 10, Google launched a new social networking product – Google Buzz, right inside Gmail. After that there have been scores of blog-posts regarding the privacy flaws in Google buzz. Clearly the transition from something as personal as Mail to another thing as public as buzz wasn’t going to be simple. The latest update on this issue is that Google has admitted that testing of Buzz was insufficient. continue

All over the internet – be it tech blogs, twitter, facebook pages or anything that has remotely to do with technology – there has just been one topic of discussion over the past few weeks – What will Apple do on their show this Wednesday – Jan 27. The invite is as simple as ‘Come see our latest creation’ and is handed to the top bloggers/press in the USA. Its accompanied by this picture as well. continue

Ever heard of these names: Prajakta K. Kshatriya, Vrushali Kale, Vineet More ? Well, you are not alone in not knowing these names.  My guess is 90% of readers who read this article haven’t heard of these names either. These are names of students in the age range 13-22, who ended their lives in Maharashtra, due to what authorities speculate ‘intense academic pressures’. continue

As 2009 comes to a close, we keep looking at the best of 2009, the past decade and million other things. So I thought, it might well be interesting to look at what are the things we can look forward to in 2010. Here is my take on it:

1. Touchscreen tablets – Those who have used the iPhone or the iPod touch know the ‘awesomeness’ (a pure fanboy lingo used there ) associated with the user experience associated with the device. It is widely expected -atleast in the crazy world of tech-blogs that Apple would debut its Touchscreen tablet (size range 9 to 12 inches) in the New Year, perhaps even as early as Jan 2010. Whats more, another device called the JooJoo, though mired in controversy, has already started taking pre-orders. Its a capacitive touchscreen tablet worth 500 USD. Now, why is this something to look forward to? I strongly believe that the keyboards we are using today are the biggest impediments with regard to non-English languages coming onto the internet. How I would love to blog on strat/other blogs in Marathi or Hindi, even Sanskrit maybe! 2010s may well be the decade when we see a lot more people adopting the internet as a medium of communication in India and touchscreen tablets can be the tipping point of that revolution thats coming through! continue

(Note: This post has nothing to do with strategy. Its a post in the reflections category, and yet hopefully would be worth your time.)

Over the weekend, I visited Pune – one of the biggest IT-related success stories of India of the past decade.  Over there, I went to this ‘Neera’ (a fruit extract which is served cold and acts as a rejuvenator) shop run by a physically challenged person. He was an old man , probably over 65 years of age and I have seen him selling Neera over there atleast for the past 7-8 years. During my chat with him, I asked him – ‘Aap itne saal se Neera bech rahe ho, aapka koi yadgaar khsan bataiye’ (Tell us some unforgettable incident you must have had while selling Neera) . He narrated that incident and then said something that was invaluable in my opinion – continue