ENagar

I was going through this article and wondering through intensive marketing most mobile phone service providers
already have a person who takes cash and recharges the mobile phone.
Why can’t he be upgraded into a person who would:
a. disperse/collect money
b. transfer money from one account to another. esp remittances from
city to families in villages.
c. Pay for the purchases at kirana stores etc.

This way without the need the need of armoured cars/atms and
investment in employees and infrastructure India could provide a bank
service for the masses.

Also the address proof and documentation required for opening a mobile
phone account is very similar to that required to open up a bank
account. Hence such a payment gateway won’t have a problem with RBI.

Currently mobile banking services require opening up a complex bank account, with branches, minimum balance, debit card annual fees etc. Also unless one has a expensive GPRS service, the only transaction possible is checking the account balance and status of a cheque drop.

Reliance m-pay is the closest to a comprehensive banking soultion, but that too requires
having a HDFC credit card (hence cannot serve the masses) I wonder
what is stopping the Airtels and Vodaphone from launching such a
service.

This post was written by T.R.Ramaswami who pens down the problems faced by people in their 30s and 40s.
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I write with reference to your front page headline “Sex in City Hits New Low” (DNA 11 Feb 2007). The reasons NOT stated in your article are two. Thirty/forty years ago, we graduated at 22, joined employment at about 24, married at about 26-28, finished our families by 30-32 and became Vice-Presidents/General Managers at about 40-45. Today although a man joins employment at 25, he becomes a VP/GM at 30, gets married at 35 and has his first child when he is nearing or already in his early forties. The wrong muscles are being used at the wrong ages with attendant consequences. Having worked so ‘hard’ at office for his stock options by writing sophisticated software, he finds that he is left holding (sorry for the pun) only very soft options at home and is unable to write a programme to boot his own hardware!! That this is happening when women are becoming more aggressive and demanding is a modern Shakespearean tragedy. The fertility clinic industry will become the fastest growing one in the coming years.

Go to any school at admission time. You will see parents who are in their late thirties/ early forties standing in line for admission to the nursery class for their first child. It is this phenomenon of having late children that is also responsible for a dramatic rise in the number of congenital birth defects, ADHD, Dyslexia, Down’s Syndrome etc. No doubt evolution will slowly take care of this phenomenon, but for an evolution, a century or even a millenium, is a blink of the eye. A related problem is the growing phenomenon of ‘only’ children. Parents are so exhausted by the effort to produce one that they stop thereafter. Contrast this with time of our grandmothers when pregnancy was an annual event! A whole generation is growing up without knowing the meaning of brothers or sisters and if their parents are also single children, then no uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. The family tree is now virtually a family pole! That this is happening mainly amongst the elite and the educated is a social and demographic tragedy whose effects will be known in a few decades. It has been revealed that the absence of siblings and/or close relatives also adds to the emotional stress, particularly if the parents have departed and this normally happens at around 40-50. This is called the Robinson Crusoe Syndrome.

Let’s go even further or younger. Fifty/sixty years ago, boys walked about in their birthday suits with their crown jewels revealed to all. Boys started wearing underwear only at about 12-14, when the consequences of wet dreams started showing on their school uniforms. Even then, the underwear was of the loose variety with a cord and no elastic. Thus the reproductive machinery had ample space to develop under ambient temperatures. Today a child is wrapped in diapers from day one and goes into tight underwear as soon as he is able to stand. Constricted by tightness, the effects begin to show 20/30/40 years later. Tight underwear only makes one a VIP – Very Impotent Person.

To put it in brief (again, sorry for the pun), the best software programme for good hardware is to go easy on the underwear. My letter may appear to be funny or frivolous. I assure you that it has been written in all seriousness, the ‘humorous’ language being used only to enhance readability.

I know that if a certain individual reads this post of mine, it might as well be my last one. This unnamed friend of mine is a glaring example of the hindi saying – “prabhu ki maaya, kahin dhoop kahin chhaya“. Despite being a happily (?) married man with a couple of kids, he was really taken aback when he saw a couple of porn videos. His comments left us laughing and rolling on the floor. His best being:

“WOW! What position is that??”

“Girls DO that? Hmmm…”

“What the hell is THAT?!?”

Being the last of the baby boomers, it can be safely assumed that he had no access to internet, globalization, computers etc. etc. when he really needed them. Thankfully, they have led us to a higher level of exposure (and action) in more aspects of life. Here’s one to Gen X and Y.

Vedas repeatedly say:
“Hate the Sin and not the Sinner”
What the line means is that one needs to have the ability to differentiate between the object and the subject. In today’s world, it becomes specially important because we seem to have lost focus. The focus of any good judiciary process is not to bring the perpetrators of a crime to justice, but to analyse why they did what they did. Then be objective to ones approach and try to mitigate the circumstances which forced/shaped them in what they are.
Our forefathers realized that life is transitory, it can be there today and not there tomorrow. The real problem in hand is not revenge, but to ensure that if you nip this bud, it does not lead to a 100 others. Setting an example of the guilty might be one of the strategy in this goal. However it should not be the only strategy.

Urban solid waste is a major problem in India. According to a TERI report, 70% of the Indian cities lack modern solid waste disposal system and of those who have it, don’t process more than 72% of the waste generated. Most municipalities simply dump the garbage in the landfills which leads to creation of leachate. Another major problem is the scarcity of land for dumping garbage near the urban centers of India.

Gasification reduces the total quantity of the waste. The ash generated does not have the foul odor of decomposing waste and is sanitized. The power generated from the process can supplement electricity supply. Considering the fact that most regions of the country face scheduled power cuts and the fuel import bill constitutes a major chunk of India’s imports, most electricity boards are also favor these mini power plants. Hence the only sustainable solution for India’s Municipal solid waste is gasification. The Government grants and subsidies aid in setting up of the plant, garbage collection and lucrative deals with State Electricity Boards make it an economically viable solution.

As per the MNES, government wants to bring and additional 299 Class I Cities and 36 Class II cities under “National Master Plan for Development of Waste to Energy in India”. The scheme is applicable to private and public sector entrepreneurs and organizations as well as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for setting up of waste-to-energy projects on the basis of Build, Own & Operate (BOO), Build, Own, Operate & Transfer (BOOT), Build, Operate & Transfer (BOT) and Build Operate Lease & Transfer (BOLT). Government is also ready to sign a long contract of over 10 years after the party demonstrates the requisite financial, managerial and technical capability.

I wonder what is still holding these entrepreneur back. There is more money to be made in garbage that they can possibly imagine

I have been brought up in a traditional middle class family where no morning starts without spending some time reading the newspaper. My school started on Thursday and I just now realized that since then have not touched the newspaper. This Sunday morning, while I was staring at the stack of 3 unopened newspaper, I wondered should I discontinue my newspaper subscription.

Is my newspaper like that gym membership which I had taken 2 years ago. I could never take the time out to work out in that gym, yet somehow the very idea of cancelling such a membership meant that I have resigned to the fact that I am too weak to improve myself, do the things we like.

How many times have we paid for the goods and services which we believe we should have, but also secretly know that it will be a complete waste of money.

One of the best way to create a brand position often does not involve having unbelievably tall claims but simple communications.

For example, take the ipod box.
On the black package, in bold white print its written: “Works with PC and Mac”

Unlike most other computer accessories/software packs, it has very little words and pictures. So each word that is written on the box has more emphasis. This simple line is important in a very subtle fashion it emphasizes the Mac notebook’s unique position.

I thought of updating my previous post on nuclear deal. 2 years ago, I had wondered why USA signed this deal. After all the terms of the deal (atleast those revealed to the public) seems to be lopsided in benefiting India. Even the gains made by the rest of the world because of opening up of india as a nuclear market seems to benefit Austraila, Russia and France much more than anybody else.

When India came to the nuclear negotiation table, it had 3 priorities:
1. Nuclear Fuel: India has excess of Thorium, but most of its nuclear program is Uranium based. The shortage of nuclear fuel had reached critical stage when the deal was signed.

2. Electricity: India is already short of electricity and as per India Core every 1% rise in India GDP needs 3% rise in electricity consumption.

3. Technology: Without being disrespectful to Indian Scientists and Engineers, there is always a lot to be gained by exposure and access to technology from a distant land. Plus one cannot ignore india’s skills in reverse engineering.

Areva recently offered not to install turnkey nuclear reactors but is also offering to sell its stake in Uranium mines of Africa.
So basically india is getting all it wants .. and that too at competitive prices.

A year and a half ago I had predicted that with a little effort, the Indian kirana stores can beat the MNCs, and big supermarkets black and blue.
Basically the big retailers have to:
1. Organized retail pay a much higher rent than the local shop/hawker
2. The salary in organized retail is much higher than the daily wage paid by the kirana store.
3. Its hard to believe that any retail can be more efficient than HUL and P&G in managing inventory and supply chain.

Today I read this news in telegraph which says that on a annual sales of 1070 crore, Spencer (RPG group) made a staggering loss of 289 crore.
Subhiksha went out of business and almost every other retail store is cutting back on its expansion plan.

Reading this post, you might feel that I am against organized retail. However personally I prefer malls and organized retail because of better retail experience.

In Indian restaurants the famous green and red dot help us identify if the food is vegetarian or not. However abroad often such distinctions are not so easy.
1. Language barrier: Its often very hard to communicate in a foreign language, the how can one be sure if you can specify its ingredients properly.

2. Definition of Vegetarian: In India cow milk and dairy products are considered vegetarian, but elsewhere it is not. Similarly I had an experience where the food contained fish and sea food.. because the chief did not consider fish as meats.

3. Boneless: Its almost impossible to tell if the cake/icecream contains egg or not. Hence most orthodox indians stay away from it. However sometimes even harmless looking stuff like burgers also have meats.

3. Feigning Allergies: One of the safest bet is to repeatedly and publicly announce that you are allergic to animal products and hope for the best.

If you are a vegetarian how do you cope up with the uncertainties of alien food. Do you believe that
“What you don’t know cannot harm you.”
or you have some other trick up your sleave