Double-edged sword on Nokia

Currently Nokia is facing double whammy. Clearly with so many advertisements airing on the TV, online and print media, they are bearing huge costs to sell their phones. Also revenues are down from the previous high. Currently it is very short in losing the top position for top mobile makers. Stephen Elop joined Nokia as CEO from Microsoft. He is the first non-Finn to become so. Nokia is closing the Meego division, a joint venture with Intel. Thats also after launching a single phone (Nokia N9). Nokia is also shutting down the Symbian division and will be releasing only Windows phones from now on. They are transferring the Symbian division to Accenture They should follow what Samsung has done. Samsung is the lead Android phone maker apart from HTC. It is also making phones on Bada platform and on its own proprietary OS for lower end phones. So different phones at different price tags for different type of people. So is it all lost for Nokia. Will it see another bright rise. Well that is for time to tell. What do you think which strategy will work for Nokia. Or is it becoming a Titanic midway to the iceberg.

Current Crude prices pinching more

 

Currently India is among the nations which pay the highest prices for gasoline (petrol).  The current petrol is hovering around INR 70 (USD 1.46/liter).  There are numerous reasons for this.  Currently the supply from many of the countries is on the low side due to ongoing conflict state of affairs.  In contrary to this, there is currently a decline in demand from Europe due to Italy and other countries. 

But what is happening in India.  Currently India is facing shortfall in exports; both in manufacturing and services.  The current IIP (Index of Industrial Production) have gone to the 2 years low.  RBI has increased the cost of lending by increasing the interest rates on loans.  This has affected the manufacturing sector both supply and demand side.   The Software services are experiencing turbulence.  Infy is currently facing the music for migration related issues in the US, its biggest market.  Wipro is currently not at its best right now.  Due to Satyam, the image of the IT companies has taken a beating.  The imports are currently at the same position.  Even with increase in prices, currently there is no shortfall in demand of petroleum products.  This has led to the deterioration of Rupees – Dollar exchange prices.  Three months back the USD was floating around INR 43-45.  Currently due to export crisis, it is around 48.  Due to Europe and Middle East crisis, the crude oil prices have also increased.  Currently it is at $115.  Three months back it was below $100.  This has become a double blow on India.  So if we see, before we use to pay INR 4,300 for a barrel, currently we are paying 5,520; a rise of around 28%.  What can be done about it?  Will the prices ever come down? 

I think the answer is yes. But it has to be worked upon.  Crude prices are not in our hands.  As suggested by the Planning commission, Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is not a solution.  Even after forming SWF and investing in petroleum assets, there is no proof that we can gain significant control of crude oil prices.  Also SWF will result in suboptimal returns; well that's a different topic altogether.  The best thing to go for is reduction in usage in all forms; whether its diesel, petrol, kerosene, derivatives etc.  The other thing is fiscal austerity measure.  In current form we are paying around 55% of the prices as tax to the State and Central Government.  With the prices rise, the taxes we pay also increases and who would not like rise in income.  That's why no State/Central Government is interested in decreasing the taxes.  And also they would not say anything about price rise.  The tax on petroleum products should reduce. 

The Great Telecom Circus

The Great Telecom Circus Government of India is thinking for pan India license and also discussing the possibilities for companies who dont want to pursue mobile operations to surrender their license. This will lead to a potential mobile call rates escalation all over the country. Currently there are over 15 operators in some of the circles. Considering this move of Government, it will result in few bigger operators and will wipe out the smaller companies which currently have operations in some of the 22 circles of our great country. So who will be benefitting from this situation.Obviously Government. Lets see how. If the existing smaller telecom companies merge with the bigger companies, there will be tax benefits to Government. If they return the license to Government, Government will have additional spectrum which Government can sell at market rates given the hue and cry concerning the 2G scam. Also license fee is given by the companies. As competition will reduce, so the call rates in existing markets will go up. So is this the end of Great Indian Telecom circus.

Banish your doubts!

Most of us spend a great deal of energy every day of our lives doubting our abilities – to our great detriment. We doubt ourselves at practically every turn; we doubt our abilities to write well, speak to a group, come up with a new idea or solution, overcome an obstacle, market a product or service, or negotiate with a difficult person.

Many times, we question our self-worth, how much we deserve to be paid, or how valuable or talented we are to an organization. We doubt our ability to overcome rejection, start over, or confront a challenge.

Banish doubt from your life – all of it. This doesn't mean you should start doing foolish things or making childish decisions. It means you should start trusting in yourself. True obstacle lies within the doubt itself – and all doubt lies within your own thoughts.

It's silly to hold on to any doubt in your life. It does no good. All doubt is a waste of energy and interferes with your natural ability to do things. Whatever doubts are lingering in your mind, let them go.
From: http://harekrishnanetwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/banish-your-doubts.html

Pathetic State of Government and Judiciary

 

The Government is under tremendous pressure from everybody. The three years old Cash for Vote Scam is an old one. But seriously it shows the lame attitude of Government and Judiciary. The 2 BJP MPs-turned Whistleblowers have landed in Jails for showing that they have received 3 crores from the opposite party for not taking part in no confidence motion in the Parliament. The middlemen are also in Jail for routing the money. But the beneficiary is enjoying in the Parliament. I suppose there would be many others MP s who have got money and kept quiet. They are also enjoying. So why the MP s who have turned into whistle blowers should be subjected to this harsh terms when they are exposing what is happening outside the parliament.  Don't we have some Whistle Blower Protection Policy which will protect them. 

Couponing Websites - Scaming Nest

Currently I am tracking many websites which gives coupons (free or for cash). I don't like the part where they ask for email/phone number upfront before displaying any offers. Its just like you have to drop your card before even you see what products are there inside. Its very nudging just like you have entered the store, you have enter your details in the register.

I don't understand the fact why the hell you need the email id/contact details. If I like the store, I will come again. Have an option to subscribe (and unsubscribe) to the email newsletter. If I like, I will subscribe to that section and officially say yes to receive your email. Remember the recent hack on Sosasta.com database hack. These websites can be easily hacked and your emails can be spammed any time.

Also there is another offers going on in mydala.com. They are offering the chance to win a product at a very low price. That's understandable when so many people are agreeing to buy goods at a very lower price. The point of contention is why the hell are you not allowing to use the existing points which I have accrued from the past deals and not won anything. First of all if you compare, these deals have got better traction than any other deals on their website. We understand that you need cash, but what about the cash we gave you before.

Feel free to use the comment section.

Filmy Drama: Adarsh Land files missing: Again

Yes its the fourth time that Adarsh Land files are missing from various Government offices. This time key documents like maps and survey records pertaining to the land where Adarsh Society is currently build is missing from Land Records office itself.

Previously also files related to CWG scam were also missing. I wonder why the tainted officers and ministers are allowed to continue in their capacity when an ongoing investigation is due. They can tamper with evidence. The offices should be cordoned off.

It is for the fourth time that key Adarsh land documents between 1847 and 1882, which could have shown whether the Adarsh plot existed at the time, have gone missing.

The records were first missing at the Maharashtra government's urban development department, then at the central government's ministry of environment and forests and then at the Army headquarters in Mumbai, and now, at the office of land records in Mumbai itself. This all looks like bollywood filmy drama to me. Congress shying away from Lokpal bill & tainted ministers. Crucial files missing in cases. Looks like we are watching a movie. We all know at whose instance these files are missing.

Rahul Gandhi Same as Feroze Gandhi ?

Rahul has never fought real elections. Standing from Amethi, which has been a traditional Congress hub is nothing. Even a small minion from Congress will win the seat from Amethi. What great achievement he has accomplished. Recently he sat at dharna against the tyrannies of UP government. Where was he when there was lathi charge against Baba Ramdev supporters. He see only problem with other states where there is non-Congress government.
Why he is not speaking of Maharashtra which is currently rocked by Adarsh Land Scam. I wonder where is the blue-eyed boy of Congress when the Congress is rocked by Lokpal Bill, CWG scam, 2G scam, NREGA scam, Antrix Case and many others. Why is he not open about those cases. Why don't he protest against them. I wonder if he can act like his grandfather Feroze Gandhi which exposed Congress double standards and led to the nationalization of insurance companies into LIC.

Lets see what future holds for AICC and India. I am welcome for all the Bricks and Bats. Use the comment section.

Political Clout of Family

It is said that, movies are a mirror image of society. They portray the current events happening in our lives. Sometime back, I saw a movie in which, a High Court judge was pressurized to give judgement in a person’s favour because the person was connected to the main political party in the state and they had kidnapped his wife and son.

Currently it seems, the same drama is going on in the centre, with the Supreme Court Judges being changed for Kanimozhi bail case. The current judges have taken recluse from the case and new judges are being appointed for the case. The case will be heard on this Monday. Meanwhile Kanimozhi’s mother is in Delhi to support her. And remind of the movie “No one Killed Jessica” in which Manu’s mother keeps on asking his husband “Mere Manu ko kuch nahi ho chahiye”. CBI is asking that bail should not be given to Kani as she can influence the witness. No wonder if she is given bail on Monday as the Judges have been changed. Such is the political clout of the family, may be the judges are in fear. Let’s see, what happens on Monday. My Lord, till then I rest my case.

Update: SC denies bail to Kanimozhi and Sharad kumar. They can apply for fresh bail application.

New Feature in Google Chrome - Instant Pages

Google Chrome has a new feature called Instant Pages. Previously they launched Instant Search, in which the results of Google search were launched instantly as you type in the search box. Now with Instant pages, as you type in the omnibox, the pages would be displayed instantly. But for this you have to update your Google Chrome with the latest version. Mine Google Chrome Browser version is 12.0.742.100.

After you are updated then go to Google options option i.e. Click on Wrench icon and select options. It will open new tab with options page in your chrome browser. Now Click on basics tab on left and go to search option in right. Click the checkbox that says “Enable instant for faster searching and browsing”. Check out the following screenshot to see this option.

Source: http://www.blogdefined.com/2011/06/how-to-enable-google-chrome-instant-page-feature-in-google-chrome-browser/#ixzz1PVIAj1uT

Fuel subsidies...Doing more harm than good

Recently there was news of recent increase in fuel prices across the country. And I tried to search what is the amount of tax, State Government levies on petroleum products. According to an estimate, around 30-40% of any state revenues comes from taxation from fuel. The central government has little control over the state taxes. Basically the central government is funding the states government in form of taxes and subsidies. I found a very good article on Value Research by Sanjay Kumar Singh. The whole article can be found at http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=16965. Few of the excerpts from the article is given below.
India should end giving subsidies because of
1) Fiscal Consolidation. Because of high prices and high export volume of petroleum, it would be difficult to control the fiscal deficit
2) Encourage Conservation practices: High fuel prices give a phillip to usage of alternate fuels.
3) Subsidy is a cost borne by everyone. Even the companies are not happy as the subsidy don't come in time. There is a lag in subsidy payment and payment for fuel.

Read the whole article and you will come to know about the harms the current fuel subsidies are doing to us. What are your views on this.

IBSTimes 117th Edition

Open publication - Free publishing - More business

India Air(in the)lines. Do we need the national carrier

Do we need a national carrier?
Recently the pilots strike has ended. It is estimated that the loss due to this strike was around 180 crores. But this strike has raised another question too. Do we need a national carrier? Even after pumping crores of rupees, the airline is not able to get on air. According to DGCA, it has 14.9% share in the domestic market. It ran at around 61% seat factor in March 2011 due to lean season. Compared to this Jet ran at 69% seat factor in the same month. Jet airways have 17.5% market share in the market.
The last time Air-India was profitable was in 2005. It was once a flag bearer for India, but now it is struggling from overcapacity and unprofitable routes. It is also not able to cut neither costs nor trim the staff. The 2007 merger between Air India and Indian Airlines was to deliver economies of scale and scope. But it has remains a case study on how to turn profitable airlines to unprofitable ones.
Today Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines are ranked above Air India. Also many of the other national airlines like Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Alitalia are only partly state-owned or even fully privatised.
The problem is that Air India is run by pack of politicians and IAS officers who have no experience of operating an Airline. The politicians run AirIndia like it is their property. And why they are interested in running Air India, because its the only airline which offers free tickets to netas. Last year there was news that Poorna Patel, daughter of Prafful Patel, the then civil aviation minister pulled out a scheduled AI flight for IPL players to transport them from Chandigarh to Chennai.
The problem is that the airline is falling into abyss of death, a point from which it is very difficult to return to profit. No investor will not be willing to buy a stake in the airline even if privatised. Again the question, should the government run an Airline or a hospitality entity. We have seen equity infusion of around 2000 crores in the airlines in the past and may 1200 crores in 2011-2012.
The best thing for Air India would be to divide the operations in Ground Staff. The same ground staff can give services to other airlines thereby generating money for the enterprise.
As part of entry into Star Alliance, they have to unify the domestic operations and international operations. So this cannot be ruled out. As a Star Alliance member, a passenger would be able to book ticket from Ranchi to Chicago even if Air-India runs operations from Ranchi to New Delhi and New Delhi to New York. As a unified ticket, the passenger would be able to save money. Currently the passengers are avoiding Air India as they are not getting single ticket to their destinations.
What do you think? Your Comments are most welcome.

Tradable Fixed Deposits

The very thought of investment in India means a Fixed deposit in a Bank. They provide a secure way of returns. All the fixed deposits in banks are guranteed by a wing of RBI(Dont remember the name right now). So there is no risk like return of investments.

All the banks are free to price (rate of interest) their fixed deposits as per their liking and demand. Generally they are in the range of 7-10%.

But there are many flaws in these systems. One of them is the liquidity. All these FD's are not liquid. These FD's are not transferable. They dont have a market.

So if you need money now and not a year later, you cannot trade them. Also if another bank is offering better rates, you cannot switch. The person has to go to banks and sold these FD back to the bank at a penalty. The penalty is around 2% of the amount deposited.

This is also a problem if you have kept deposit as hedge against a loan. This is due to deposit being on fixed interest rate and loan on floating rate. When the RBI changes the key interest rates (mostly upwards due to inflation) the gap between both the rates also increases.
The other problem is tenure. You cannot get a Fixed deposit of the tenure you want. Suppose you have payout after 7 months and no bank is willing to offer the tenure you want. Either you have to keep the money in your safe or do multiple transactions.

Now whats the solution for this. One of them is to make these FD's transferable. other is to create a market for fixed deposits for trading. As all these deposits are secured there is no default risk. These FD's can be considered bonds with interest rate payments as its coupon. Based on the current market, the value of this FD's would fluctuate. For example, during the time of interest rate hardening, a bank issued 9% FD. That FD is now listed in market at 9% discount. Now with easing of market, the same bank is issuing 8% FD. Obviously the 9% FD would fetch higher value due to higher interest rate.

Advantages:
Depositor: Would not be paying penalty on breaking of FD. Switch easily to get better returns. Market available to depositor. Deposit of his tenure available.

Trader: Deposit of his tenure available. Easily turn to FD if equity markets are giving better returns. Market Makers.

Market: Keep track of who is holding the FD. Keep track of transactions.

Bank: Would not have to worry about early payment on FD's. Just have to pay interest to the person holding the coupon. No need to worry who is holding the FD.

Disadvantages:

Bank: They would loose the penalty.

What do you think of this concept. Give your concerns and queries in the comment section.

BSNL.....Keep it Simple Silly

There is a series of tv ads for Tata Docomo featuring Ranbir Kapoor doing just like Jerry Seinfeld, a stand up comedian...Given the proliferation of 3G operators, I was searching the best operator. Then I remembered our g(ood )old BSNL, which was the first operator to be given the first free 3G license (albeit they have to pay the money now). I visited their page. Here there are so many schemes and data, I feel like lost. Why there are so many tables on the page. Why can't they keep it simple. Why can't they revamp the website to something which looks like Web 2.0. See the websites of other operators. I think the problem with them, it is too much fragmented. What I think, the state-wide website like ap.bsnl.co.in or gujarat.bsnl.co.in are maintained by the regional BSNL office and not by a single office. Give it a toss and express your views.

Is Reliance reliable

Reliance has a very long history of taking "panga" with the law and the government. I suppose many of you must have read the polyester prince to know about the history of reliance. The latest one has been with KG D6 gas output. First the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) accused Reliance of not carrying out the work program of drilling adequate wells. According to the Field Development plan (FDP), the production from KG D6 should be 61 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd), but the current output is 49 mmscmd in the first week of April. Then there is a priority sector in the gas allocation to sectors like fertilizer units, plants extracting LPG from natural gas, power firms and city gas distributing companies selling CNG to automobiles.

Currently Reliance is producing enough gas to meet priority sector demands.
But it has entered into stringent ship-or-pay contracts with all its customers, wherein it has committed to transport the contracted quantity failing which it has to pay the pipeline transportation cost.

Since July, last year, Reliance had implemented pro-rata cuts all across the contracts. But the ministry directive is supply gas to the priority sector and leaving non-priority sector like steel and refineries without gas. But Reliance has denied that order, saying the government should indemnify the company against financial cost.

My question, can the company enter into a contract for the distribution of a natural resource over which the Government should have first say. My other question, as a business owner can you believe Reliance (which had another contract with RNRL to supply gas at cheaper prices and later retracted).

Your Views????

PS For Readers a link of polyester prince is given below.

Polyester Prince-The Real Story of Dhirubhai Ambani(Banned in India)

India Pakistan League (IPL)

Recently Shahid Afridi called out BCCI for including Pakistani players back in cash rich IPL. According to him, they would have no problems playing in India as they easily played in the World Cup. And this will also result in good relationship between Pakistan and India. After the Mumbai attacks, every franchise considered Pakistan players untouchables and avoided taking them. In 2008, he was the costliest Pakistani player to be picked in IPL at $675,000 by Deccan Chargers.
Also Sohail Tanvir was the most successful bowler in the first season of IPL. In the third season, Pakistani players name were there, but no player was picked. This was the time when Pakistan won the T20 World Cup. Franchise said they avoided Pakistani players because they were doubtful of their availability and don't want to risk their money on them.
Do you suspect any politics involved in this. In the previous two seasons, security concerns related to Mumbai terror attacks were shown to avoid Pakistani players.
I think, IPL is a great medium where players can play their natural games, without the hype surrounding some classics matches like India-Pakistan and Australia-England. Its a fast paced game. I think they should be allowed to play in IPL. What do you think. Do you think Indian Government is pressurizing franchisees not to pick Pakistani players. Should they be allowed to play in IPL.
I have kept a poll just beside this post. Cast your vote in that

Lokpal Bill An(na)alysis

Recently Anna Saheb Hazare broke his fast for the Lokpal Bill to be introduced in Monsoon session of Parliament. The Government wanted it to be toothless organization. With so many people supporting and organizing marches, the government finally gave in. With so many people wondering what is the Lok pal bill. I thought of publishing an analysis of Lok Pal bill already there on Scribd.
Whats your view on this.

PS. Its not written by me.


Lok Pal Bill -- An Analysis

A single key is a key to success

When we were kids we often heard this proverb "Too many cooks spoil the broth". Here in India, we are experiencing the same situation. UPA is cooking broth (schemes) and adding many c(r)ooks (ministers) to make it. And they always spill it the wrong way. 2G scam, CWG scam and latest one Antrix scam and many other in making. God knows when they will stop. Lets see if Anna Saheb can make some changes.

There is no doubt that Manmohan Singh (MMS) is a honest minister, but a weak leader. He cannot take decision single handedly. He has to consult madamji (Soniaji) for every decision. And if she is away or anything, the decision gets delayed without any reason. But other ministers of his ministry are very fast in taking decision without even consulting him or madamji. The good example of them are A. Raja and S. Kalmadi. When so many people are involved, you always have to compromise on the work you want to do. Thats the reason I don't like multi party governments. A single person can make you change the decision in his favor.

I think the same fate our PSUs are suffering. They cannot take decision effectively. They are at the mercy of the respective ministers. Take the example of Air India. The ministry of civil aviation takes every decision on behalf of NACIL - the company behind Air India. And later these decision are shoved up NACIL's neck. Any decision regarding Air India takes months sometimes years to come. Till then, the problem has become much huge and large amount of money may be required to again solve it. As in the case of civil aviation, good lucrative routes were offered to other airlines and obligatory but less profitable routes were given to Air India. May be they should take some lessons from Idris Jala of Air Malaysia.

Same case can be observed in BSNL and MTNL. Their problems are further aggravated by the unions. Multiple unions are present in these PSU's. All these combined have multiple goals but not single objective of keeping the company profitable. This is because they are sure that whether the company is working or not, they will get their salary. Its like you drive the car, and if there is a problem, you will get another car and not liable for the damages you have done to the car.

Whats your view on this.
Idris Jala video follows

Flipkart Off(the)line strategy

For a regular web surfer, it is normal to see ads regarding deals and websites on the webpages they are surfing. And it is logical also. As they are related to the same domain. Google Adsense is the leader for displaying advertisements in various sources like webpages, online videos and RSS feeds.
Recently I saw the ads of snapdeal.com,flipkart.com and bigrock.in on TV and I was shocked. Bigrock ad was still ok, as it was targeting customers to start their websites. Do their target customers have changed. Or the ad rates on TV has decreased.
This tendency of spending huge bucks on advertising on alternative medium comes in when easy money comes in business.
Before targeting customers on TV, have they changed their way of working. Do they allow buying of books on phone and later cash on delivery. The answer is no. Then what is the purpose of showing ads on TV. If they think by showing ads they can manage good conversion. Well I don't think so. According to me this should be called spray advertising or simple carpet bombing. See the ads for yourself and decide. What do you think. Think as a person who is not connected to internet.

The worlds richest board given tax exemption by India

Recently one of the worlds richest sports board ICC was given 45 crores tax exemption by the Indian Government. This move has been questioned even by the members of the ruling party. The board has no shortage of funds. Given that Sharad Pawar was present in the Union Cabinet meeting and he is the current chairman of ICC, we can understand at whose behest this tax exemption has been given. The question is was it necessary to give this tax exemption. This was at a time, when the government is at shortage of funds and budget of Sports Ministry for various events is being slashed. Prafful Patel, a MP from the same party as of Sharad Pawar suggested that law provides for such an exemption. But if that is the case why tax these boards at all. Do we will always looks for the loopholes in laws. The democratic tax system always say that take taxes from those who are capable and give to those who are not taxable.
Also ICC recently banned journalists from the matches but after some backlash they allowed the journalists to cover the matches.
Do you think its such a good move.

Problems Grappling India rite now

Everyday I hear, that India market index has suffered the most losses this year apart from the Middle east crisis and Japan Quake. So I thought of compiling a list of problems which India is suffering rite now. The non exhaustive list is given below. I have also created a poll for people to vote. So you can vote which is the biggest problem India is suffering rite now

Red Tapism still exists
Corruption and Scams
Inflation
High Interest Cost
Highly dependent on Crude Oil
Delayed Judicial systems
Caste Related Favoritisms
Vote Bank Politics
Power Shortage
High Cost of capital
Aged Politicians
Crippled Infrastructure

So vote for your favorite option in the window aside this post. As always for any comment use the comment section. If you got some other point too present it to the public also.

Do Earth (Hour) Matters

Earth Hour is more talk and less action.  It’s more of being with your friends and family rather than concerned about environment.  If it would have been, it should have action related to environment in its itinerary. So rather than just switching your non essential lights for just an hour, you should give a thought of replacing them with more efficient lights.  It could save electricity round the year.  Is it not more relevant to the Name “Earth Hour”?

Currently Europe is mulling to ban the Yellow Edison Bulbs which emits more heat than light, but it is met with resistance from people.  I read somewhere that people in Europe are purchasing those incandescent bulb in bulk which could last their lifetime.  So effectively the ban on incandescent bulb will be of no effect to them. 

If we come to home, India, we always make very ambitious plans.  We thought of replacing some of the incandescent bulbs with CFLs with the cost recovered from selling CERs.  We don’t know the result of this scheme yet.

The Earth Hour takes care of just 0.01% (1/ (24*365)) of the time in the year.  Do you know that it takes hours to power down a coal fired plant and hours more to power it up back again?  World over the contribution of the coal fired plants is maximum.  So during the Earth Hour, they maintain the frequency in the grid even if the demand is low, but the production is never changed.

Another thing is with the candles people burn during the Earth Hour.  These candles are made from paraffin, a component of crude oil.  So they emit those CO₂ (or even more) supposedly lost by less usage by powering down the lights for one hour.

If you will search the net, regarding the benefits ( or loss) of the Earth Hour, you will find many links.  Now what do you think

Interest rate in Savings account: Pebbles or Boulders

The difference between NBFC and Banks are the offerings like savings and current account and other special services which only banks are allowed.  In some time, RBI would be awarding banking license to these NBFC also.

The interest rates offered by these banks on saving account are a matter of great concern. Some year’s back I remember Kotak bank offered higher interest rate on idle cash in your savings account.  Now 30% of their customers have switched to this facility and they are managing around 44% of their retail deposits through this scheme now.

Now RBI is soon going to be discussing and publishing a paper on deregulation of interest rate on savings account.  While SBI chief is being sounded cautious in the speech where he is clearly against deregulation of interest rate.  What I think is this will result in good competition...I have always recommended expansion of market.  This could be a new pitch for the existing and new coming banks to play on. While this could be detrimental to the existing banks like SBI and other nationalized banks.  I hope this brings some level playing among all the new banks and NBFC.

All these years these banks have been regulating the savings accounts by offering miniscule interest rate and offering loans at much higher interest to other customers. Last year, in April 2010, RBI mandated daily calculation of interest instead of 10-days average savings account balance.  Further, with the deregulation of interest rate it would result in good competition among banks to offer better rates to the depositors.  Of course this would hurt the bank prospects in terms of cost of capital and their margins would squeeze a little to lot.  But I think this would make them more proactive.  They would start taking risks.  Is it for good or bad?  What do you think?  Seriously I think, the Indian banks were saved from the turmoil the whole world was suffering from because of the lack of pro activeness of our bank employees. 

What do you think? Deregulation of savings banks will be good or bad.  Tell us your views through the comment section.

Japan Quake on India

Today I and my friend were discussing a possible impact of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami on Indian shores and market.  Due to the blast in the nuclear reactor, Japan will be more cautious in the nuclear fuel and reactor treaty for India-US.  Japanese companies are deeply entangled with US and French companies which have the expertise to build nuclear plant.
Due to the destruction of nuclear plants there would be change in the pattern of power production in Japan.  Japan had 3 nuclear reactors on their land.  Currently due to blast at one of the reactor, there would be huge impact on  the power production at the island.  Lot of demand will be on the crude oil and natural gas.  So the world may observe a little hike in the prices of crude oil and gas in medium term.  India will be impacted due to the increased prices of crude oil and gas.

Many of us may not be knowing that Japan is the biggest lender to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, Philippines and India is one of the biggest borrower from ADB.  This year we may see a trend reversal and Japan may borrow some money from ADB for reconstruction and rehabilitation activity.  So the proportion of loan which India may be seeing from ADB this year would be less.  The proportion of investment by ADB in may see a decline for 2-3 years.

A good news may be for India would be the export of Steel and cement to Japan may rise for the reconstruction activity. It may result in mild rise of domestic prices of steel and cement but I suppose Government will take care of that.

With that I may rest my case.  If you agree or disagree please use the comment section.  If you think, there would be some more aftershocks, please share with others.
Bharat   

My Name is Khan....and I don't have much work these days

Have you recently observed Shahrukh khan and work he is doing these days.  Recently he has been awarded Bollywood Razzies award for being the worst celebrity for 2010 and I totally support that.  Currently he hosted a show  (zor ka zhatka) on NDTV Imagine and it had TRPs even lower than that of Rakhi ka insaaf.
I think it was a total wastage of his talent. Today I saw an ad of some toothpaste brand in which SRK is a brand ambassador.  The words were buy the paste and do something for making SRK ask yours kids do brushing daily.
Common man.  We know you are old enuf running around trees and doing stuff.  But that does not mean you should be shitting around.  Currently he is seen in every award function hosting events.  I really liked how he climbed from being no one in the industry to the king of the bollywood.  He is not coming in much film these days.  I suppose he is following Amir Khan's formula making one film in a year.  Lets see how he fares out this year.
Share your views and comments through the comment section.

Personalized list of websites from Discount Guru

I am known as discount guru in my office circle for the discounts and savings I bring to them. The previous post was taken from Pluggd.in.  Here is my personal list of deal sites which I visit very often to have discounts for me and others.  Hope you would like it.  Please appreciate me through your comments and sharing the list with your friends.

Some of the websites which I visit often and offer good deals (and Pluggd.in missed them in their list) is below.

• Khojguru.com: They have recently received funding from investors to expand their services.  They dont charge anything to the user.  All the deals are free and charge the user in points which they can acquire by adding friends in their network.  Previously good deals used to appear on this website but currently it seems they have lost their lustre.
• apnacashback.com:  Every website offers some commission for referring them and this website offers a part of the commission to the user back.  So apna cash back.  Deals i would say are ok with some good websites in its kitty like flipkart, cleartrip and others.  Do register if you are concerned even for your last penny
• retailmenot.com:  Its an websites which carries coupon in a better manner.  It actually hosts coupons from the users who upload them.  So it may or may not work for you.  It has got an extensive list of websites but beware not all coupons may work for you.  
• upto75.com:  Its a multicity website.  The deals are often for registered customers.  It is free to register on the website.  The offers by them are ok.  
• fishthedeal.com:  It offers a single deal a day.  Usually the product are from IT.  They offer good discount.  
• buytheprice.com:  Recently they received funding from investors.  This Hyderabad based company offers discounts at various websites and their prices are the lowest among all Ebay and allied websites. The shipment is fast.  The number of products offered by them is currently less but they are expanding their portfolio.  They offer deals in which prices decrease as more number of people purchase the same product. 
• tradus.in:  This website is a sister website of ibibo.com and offers good discounts on various products. Their prices are at comparison with Ebay and sometimes even less.  Discounts coupons can be found on many websites.
• goibibo.com:  This websites is also a sister website of ibibo.com.  It offers flights and holiday booking for travellers.  With discount coupons, it offers prices which are even less than the operators website (like spicejet).  Usually Travelocity offers the cheapest rate in the travel segment.  But this website with its discounts is among the cheapest.  It also offers referral scheme where you can earn money by booking tickets for you and your friends.  (If you are a heavy user of flight, you can become my affliliate)
• freecharge.in  This website offers prepaid online recharge and offers coupons of CCD, McDonalds, Dominos Pizza.  The coupons come by courier to your location.  For delivering they charge 10 rs for the courier.  Currently limited to 4 coupons per brand, they used to offer good deals before.

This is not the complete list but the majority of it.  So people have fun and Happy shopping saving.  Will appreciate or any commets on the list.  If you know any other good websites, please share through the comments section.

Deal ya No Deal

Pluggd.in recently carried a huge list of Groupon Clones.  For the people who don't know Groupon, it is a website which gives deals and offers for various products and offering online and offline.  Groupon is currently active in 35 countries and recently have entered India and purchased Sosasta.com.  I knew this website from long ago.  There is not much change in the website or the deals they are offering.  So here is the list from Pluggd.in

1. SnapDeal – They are the leaders in terms of traffic with Alexa India rank under 25. That is more traffic than Naukri or IRCTC, making it the No.1 ecommerce portal in India in terms of traffic. Yes, I just said that.

Not only that but it has actually crossed Groupon.com’s reach in terms of global traffic (Alexa). How much did they spend to get there? How many transactions/revenue do they do per day? Well, we will keep that for the founders to reveal. SnapDeal is a one of the only ecommerce player, apart from OTAs to take up the TVCs route (to best of my knowledge).

Bangalore based Grabbon was acquired by SnapDeal and according to the founder that was the turning point for them. They are lately aiming to be THE place for deals and offers with even deals from institutes like NIIT on offer. I have been a big critique of SnapDeal’s execution strategy all along but it seems the marketing $s can actually buy you all the attention in world and in course a multi Bn. 

$

 Rs. valuation also.

Startups, they are into a different ball game. They are good at what they are trying to achieve with SnapDeal, the way they want to achieve it. Don’t burn your fingers by replicating or following them. The game is beyond our playground.

Oh, did i mention they roped in a deal for date with Gul Panag.

2. Taggle – $8.75Mn funding is what got it the initial attention. Traffic is rising steadily with a major upbreak in mid-January. Advertising is driving traffic but the spend isn’t much. They have about 187K fans on Facebook but the activity is really negligible. The whole idea of mixing ecommerce with social reach of consumers seems to be almost dead in all other sites as well.

3. MyDala – This was my favorite in terms of quality of deals but with time the edge is lost. Traffic is pretty much stable. 54K fas on Facebook with little to no activity.

4. Koovs.com – Traffic is seeing new high since new year. They are bringing in electronics on sale as well. Not much action apart from Delhi / Bangalore. Exclusive local deals just seem to be missing.

5. SoSasta/Groupon India – The action seems to be just starting here. The ads are getting more visibility lately. Surely will be the player to watch out for. For now they either have repeated deals from other competitors or it is mostly ecommerce deals. They have all the insights from their global presence but will the international strategy work in India?

6. Dealivore – Traffic is very unstable and on a downtrend. The 306K fan base seems to be sleeping. The team hasn’t shown anything remarkable yet. They already claim to have spent over Rs.2Crs. and this is the reason why Zuckerberg is so rich.

7. DealsAndYou – The founders hate me for their acquisition announcement that we covered earlier but I will try and reciprocate some love (while being neutral). The fanpage with 171K fans is the most active amongst all the above players. Their initial stand of making it a mix of social media promotion + lead generation for local businesses seems to be strong. They are also exploring a dedicated section for travel/holiday deals. The ad spend is aggressive and they stand second to SnapDeal in terms of traffic.

8. BuzzInTown – Their long standing content play is definitely visible on the fan page. Their updates about deals get double the feedback as compared to DealsAndYou, though same in % of fans. The presence is only in Delhi and Mumbai, with Bangalore being added lately. The portal is willing to spend Rs.25 per new registration for the deals(DGM) which seems to be a sensible UAC but isn’t very low. As far as I remember they were earlier spending Rs.10 per registration during non-deals days. They haven’t entered deals for electronic products yet which is a sign of the fact that they have more in the kitty to show before they give up, if they ever do.

9. Ebay – The big daddy of e-commerce is still testing its local deals app with presence in Delhi and Mumbai. It is certainly giving a step-motherly treatment to local deals though. Who in the world came up with the URL koupananIndia.ebaysocialapps.com. Its even difficult to find a link from ebay.in to this app. No doubt the traffic is so poor. They are barely able to sell 3-4 deals for every offer.

10. Groffr.com – One player that is actually standing out with deals for high value purchases like real estate, cars, bikes etc. They seem to have some offline action as well. Activity is mostly around Mumbai.

11. Groopoffers.com – These guys are trying to achieve everything with deals on restaurants, salons, real estate and products. The action seem to alive and building up, may be they will make some buzz.

12. Coupon2Buy – A relatively new player that is not showing much action and not doing anything remarkable yet. The deals are just getting started in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai.

13. CityOffers.in – Based out of Ahmedabad the action here is around this city only. Again a very new site with not much moolah to get in the race.

14. Foodome – Based out of Chennai these guys are concentrating on restaurants deals and home delivery of food only. Absolutely no marketing at all till now.

15. Dealmagic – Not sure if these guys are starting up or shutting down as they have no live deals. The fanpage hasn’t seen any update in past 3 weeks.

16. Masthideals – Not sure what they are upto. The “h” in the name suggests they are south India based, Chennai indeed. No deals live currently, past deals were around beauty salons and electronics mostly.

17. Groupon.in – Started as Groupoff they claim to have acquired the “Groupon” trademark in India. Deals are decent and traffic seems to be building now.

18. Scoopstr.com – Based out of Bangalore with presence in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. Deals are decent, not much to talk about.
In the next post, I will be posting my personal list of discounts and websites which I visit personally for the discounts.  Hope you like them.  Meanwhile please send your comments and happy savings

Cool Roofs - A small answer to Global Warming

Everyday we hear about Global Warming and we feel singled out thinking what we can do as individuals.  We stay in India, where the average temperature varies through out the year.  We have very hot summer and very cold winter.  These days due to Global warming (or cooling) the temperature have broken their records either side.  Now the summers are approaching.  People are getting busy buying coolers and ACs to lower the temperature at their office and home.  All these additions will further aggravate the Global warming situation as more power would be required to power them.  As summer approaches, the power generation due to hydro power plants is reduced due to water shortage in the reservoir and increased demand for water consumption and irrigation.  So more and more power is derived from coal and natural gas fired plants.  This means more carbon dioxide is pushed into atmosphere.     

 Apart from that, it would also mean increase in the requirement of peak load.  The peak load is the high load at particular points rather than average power demand. This is the time when the demand for power is maximum i.e morning and evening.
So what can we do to fan out the heat.  One thing which Stephen Chu, US Secretary of Energy, promoted was painting your roof white.  The roof is always exposed to sun rays in day time.  Just like earth (as they made of same materials) they capture heat in the daytime and release them in the night time.  So the even the nights in the summer are very hot.
The pavements and the roofs in an city (currently covers around 60-70% of city area) form a effect called urban heat island effect.  Due to this, the city is hotter than the outskirts and surrounding villages.  As they are black, they absorb around 70% of the heat incident on them.  So whats the solution, paint them white.  This will increase the reflectance of the roofs.  This will also reduce the cooling needs of the room and the building.  Current estimates of the savings is around 15-20% of the energy demand.  Thats a substantial savings.  Also as a result, less energy is needed and less CO2.  Thus reducing your carbon footprints.  Will this technology work even in winter.  I would say no.  The places where there is high snow fall, should avoid it coz less sunlight means less evaporation of snow.  But most of India, is not facing snow and they can do their contribution with whatever they can.  What do you think.

150 days of Kricket

Ever wondered how much cricket are we exposed to in a year.  I tried to find the stats, through ESPN statsguru.
In 2010, India played around 14 tests, 27 one day and 7 T20 matches . Considering each test matches of 5 days, these are equal to
14 *5 =70 days
(27 +7 )* 1 = 34 days
 This makes a total of 104 days.  Now IPL was of 44 days.  This makes it total of 148 days.  This makes 40% of the days in a year.  Now some people in India are just mad about cricket.  They follow match day in and day out even if they are very late in to night.  Apart from that leave other forms of cricket played at local level.  
And believe me this year the count would be even higher, given the world cup and 51 days of IPL (again).
Also found this nice video.  Its title is Kricket se aapko kya mila.
Seriously I don't understand what people are getting watching this much cricket.  If you know, please lets us know by the comment section.

Google Maps Code - Possible Extension

A year back or so I gave an interview for Google Maps.  Though I could not clear that interview, I really like the organization and the facilities inside.  I believe Google is the most innovative tech company.

An amazing idea struck me today. I ordered a pizza from Domino's and that was my first order online at my room.  I had great difficulty explaining the room location to the girl at the other end.  Although after two minutes, I told her another landmark and asked the delivery body to call me.  In my mind I wished if there was a code or something which I could give to them, it would make my task and other customers task easier.  Then Google Maps came to my mind.  

I suppose Google can implement a 8-digit which anybody can share with anybody to give there whereabouts.

To search for the person, you can either click the whole link which can be something like "http://maps.google.com/code/aFG78ert" or go to http://maps.google.com and enter "aFG78ert" in the search box.  By having such a code its possible to shorten your address and also show your location on Google maps.  For Google it can be a medium to create shortage and increase the usage of Google Maps.  With shortage I mean, these codes can be custom made or computer generated.  So the appropriate ones, disappear first.

 With these 8 digit code, it is possible to create 2.8 trillion codes as it can includes 26 letters of alphabet and 10 numbers.  I suppose these would be enough for Google maps initially.  Later if they want they can increase the number of letters.   What say guys do you think this will work out.  Share it with friends to find out what they think.

P.S. My room mate is working with Google Maps and I had no discussion about this with him.