Touchscreen tables @CCD

Watch this demo video of CCD.

Brilliant concept and can potentially increase the engagement by a good multiple – hoping that it translates to more coffee.
What’s your take? Are Indian retail outlets getting comfortable with technology?

Recommended Read: Interactive Group Buying Meets Touch At Touche Diner, India’s First Touch Table Restaurant

Also see: What Business Are you In – Case Study: Cafe Coffee Day

LinkedIn launches localized hiring solutions for Indian market

Specifically for India, LinkedIn India is rolling out localized versions with India pricing for offerings like LinkedIn Recruiter, which will allow Indian recruiters to search and target profiles in India. The localised pricing is also an acknowledgment of the growing demand for customised solutions in the Indian market.

Microsoft acquires stake in 24/7, to harness the power of Big Data

Microsoft  and 24/7 Inc. have announced an agreement to jointly bring the power of natural user interfaces (NUIs) and data analytics at cloud scale (Big Data) to enable the future of customer service for businesses. The agreement includes Microsoft merging its interactive self-service assets (clients, people and technologies) into 24/7 Inc. The agreement also includes an R&D partnership, long-term IP licensing and Microsoft taking an equity stake in 24/7 Inc. [source]

Video Conferencing Facilities find its way in State, Central Government

One of the State governments has procured video conference products for 450 schools for virtual class rooms or podcast. The Governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra are running a pilot for video conferencing facilities in the jails. In general, departments such as jails, courts and schools are switching over to video conferencing facilities. This is in addition to connecting district and State headquarters. [source]

Tulip Telecom and IBM Build India’s Largest Data Center

IBM has worked with Tulip Telecom Ltd. to design and help build the largest data center facility in India to deliver new cloud and networking services. IBM’s data center and SmartCloud infrastructure services will support Tulip in dramatically extending its existing offerings to quickly meet customer demand. Covering more than 900,000 square feet, and 20 Enterprise Modular Data Centers in a four tower building, the facility is engineered to support up to 100 megawatts of power, making it the third largest data center in the world.

Govt sets the ball rolling to lift the pause on multi-brand retail FDI

The government has decided to start afresh the process of consultation with states to build a consensus on allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail after it was forced to roll back a Cabinet decision by its own ally, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, in December 2011.

“All commerce and industry ministers from the four southern states will be invited for the meeting. The idea is to address the concerns of individual states on multi-brand retail FDI and also to listen to their ideas. We also need states’ support for setting up National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs). The Cabinet has already cleared the National Manufacturing Policy facilitating the setting up of such zones,” [source]

A lower court in New Delhi told 22 social networking companies on Monday to put in writing the steps they had taken to block offensive content, and submit reports to the court within 15 days. It fixed the next date of hearing for March 1. The court in Rohini passed the order after the social networking Web sites asked for copies of CD’s which contained objectionable content and had been filed by the petitioner.

Facebook India on Monday filed its compliance report before the court. Google India also told the court that it has removed certain Web pages from the Internet on which objections were raised by the petitioners

[source]

Govt looks to PSUs for Aakash 2

The HRD ministry, which has developed prototype of Aakash, wants the public sector Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) to participate in the bid to supply Aakash 2 tablets from April this year.  What has prompted the government to look for public sector was inability shown by Datawind to supply Aakash 2 without cost escalation.

The new test specification proposed for Aakash 2 by Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan includes operation at -20 degrees, be water proof including heavy rains, and can with stand steep and sudden drops.

Our take: OLPC Founder’s Advice to Indian Government – “Make an inexpensive tablet, not a cheap one.”

IRCTC: SMS Can be Used as a Train Ticket

After announcing that Indian Railways will accept what it calls Virtual Reservation Message, which it defines as ‘a screen-shot of the e-ticket displayed through laptops/palmtops/ Mobile phone, IRCTC has now upped the ante and will now accept SMS equivalent to Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS).

So, please update your mobile number in IRCTC profile to receive SMS alerts for your ticket booking.

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“We have realised that educational institutes are not capable of handling tenders as it involves large sums of money and handling vendors. Public sector undertakings are much better equipped to handle it,” said a government official” [source]

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2G case: RIL, old players like Bharti Airtel to benefit most from auction

Biggest beneficiary of the move could be Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) enabling it to make a strong comeback into the telecom sector by becoming a full spectrum telecom operator offering both vanilla voice services as well as advanced 4G services.[source]

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Naukri Launches iOS and Android Apps

Naukri has launched job search apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps, plus a HTML5 site as well.

“Both the mobile app and the site is enriched with features which allow jobseekers to filter job openings by location, keywords, functional area, experience bracket and minimum expected salary. Also, users can create up to five custom job alerts on the basis of the search criterion defined by them.”

Dish TV eyes biggest pie of digital switch

About seven million homes are likely to make the switch (from analogue to digital cable) in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi andChennai, thereby opening up a potential market of 10 million new subscribers (homes with multiple television sets) for DTH and cable TV operators.[source]

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Uninor offers RED FM channels across India on mobile

The tie-up will enable Uninor customers to enjoy a wholesome music experience, in their preferred language, from their hometown radio station now easily accessible on mobile handsets

Latest Gadgets

Dell is on the prowl for an India acquisition worth up to $1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore), part of a strategy to bolster its information technology services business and compete better against the likes of IBM and Accenture.
The world’s third-largest computer maker wants to buy a mid-sized Indian tech firm with “several thousands of staff” and revenues of $500 million to $1 billion or even more [source]

Tomtom Launches Map Making Facility in Pune

Tomtom has opened its map making facility in Pune to introduce state-of-the-art standards for delivering fresh, accurate navigation content and routing intelligence to India.

CoolAge Partners with IITs/IIMs

CoolAge the online and mobile-web product launched by AOL for Indian colleges has entered into a long-term partnership with IIMs and IITs for being the online and mobile media partners for their respective college fests. As part of the partnership between AOL CoolAge and IIMs, IITs, AOL CoolAge will be conducting various events during the fests at the campuses such as blogging competitions, battle-of-bands, literary events, case studies and photo calls at their innovative kiosk. AOL will also provide its mobile and web platforms to these institutions to enable them to market etc.

Disney to take controlling stake in UTV

Disney announced on Tuesday it will take a controlling interest in India’s leading television producer, UTV, and delist the Indian media and entertainment group. UTV, which has interests from film and television to gaming and animation, has already acquired public shareholders’ approval to delist the company’s shares from Indian stock exchanges, after buying out the respective stakes.[source]

Telecom merger deals to be freed of spectrum transfer charge

In a bid to encourage consolidation in the sector, the Telecom Commission has decided against imposing a spectrum transfer charge on Merger and Acquisition deals. The Department of Telecom had earlier proposed imposing a fee akin to the duty paid to Government every time property changes hand. This was aimed at preventing fly-by-night players from making windfall gains by selling spectrum after taking it from the Government at below-market prices. [source]

At least 25 companies had called off their IPO plans in 2011 owing to the subdued stock markets. [source]

Cable operators facing set-top box shortage as digitisation deadline approaches near

Five months before time runs out for homes across India’s top four metros to switch to digital transmission to continue watching cable television, operators are battling short supply of set-top boxes as well as ignorance among consumers. More than 60,000 set-top boxes need to be installed every day to enable an estimated 10 million homes across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata to meet the deadline mandated by the government.[source]

AP plans Rs1,500 tablet? to promote e-learning

The Andhra Pradesh government, as part of its initiatives to promote e-learning, is planning to provide “Aakash” Tablets to students at a subsidised price of Rs 1,500. The state government has sent a proposal to the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry in this regard. “Once we get the approval, we will implement the scheme. We are planning to procure 10,000 tablets. Initially, they will be made available to the students in the state universities, engineering and polytechnic colleges,” State Commissioner of Technical Education S Balasubramanyam said.[source]

There has been a lot of fuss created by all the environment enthusiasts about eco-friendly products. But (on the supply side) how often does one see a complete stack of eco-friendly products in a supermarket or a big shoppe. And (On demand side) how often does one see people using eco-friendly products over more conventional ones.

There are hundreds of SMEs and micro enterprises, both in formal and informal sector, which have been operating in eco-friendly products space for many years now. But none of them could reach a ‘Pan India’ scale or get the eye balls rolling to say the least. There may be couple of reasons,

- Most of the enterprises in informal sector suffer from lack of funds and support and absence of any viable platform to sell their products.

- In formal sector, there is a significant presence of non-profit organizations and public welfare groups. Many enterprises suffer from lack of quality products and business acumen. Others offer very mundane and limited array of products which are mostly sold at one off events.

- Those that make good quality and novel products tend to be oblivious to India market. Most of their products are priced at a very high premium and are targeted towards foreigners, NRIs or people at the upper part of pyramid.

- Some others, especially individual artists and micro enterprises leverage only e-commerce platforms (like www.shopo.in) to sell their products, thereby catering to a very small chunk of consumer population.

So it would be unfair to reason out that India is not ready for eco-friendly products adjudging that Indian consumers are very cost sensitive and environment agnostic. ‘Partial success’ of some companies proves that there is a market for eco-friendly products out there if one is able to find a niche. And if marketed and sold through suitable channels, there is a good possibility that people would pay a good price for the product.

This brings us to the essence of the discussion, what can be a likely solution which can not only enable enterprises achieve economies of scale but also help eco-capitalism kick-off.

Any likely solution should touch upon following points.

1. Collaboration: “Competition should be considered only if it is not feasible to collaborate”. There is a need for all the stakeholders involved i.e. commercial waste producers, enterprises, NGOs and informal sector to look for ways in which they can leverage each other and work in synergies rather than competing against each other.

2. Visibility among masses: The products need to be visible to a much larger audience than they are now, in order to achieve desired scale. It becomes all and more important to choose the go-to-market strategy very carefully.

3. Branding: In my view, leveraging an established brand rather than trying to create own brand, can be a better option to start with. Once the products are well entrenched in the market, it becomes a lot easier to create own brand.

4. Cost competitiveness: In order to achieve economies of scale, it is imperative to keep the premium on products well within buyers reach.

Probably the best example for aforementioned points would be Terracycle, a US based company started in early 2000s which succeeded in achieving economies of scale through collaboration with the ecosystem. The company now operates in more than 15 countries and is expected to enter Chinese and Indian market by mid-2012.

There is a need to create a vicious circle of waste in the ecosystem, wherein people realize the value in waste and become a crucial part of the value chain; not only as consumers but also as resources, thereby beefing up company’s bottom as well as top line. It is only when people change their perception about waste, can there a larger change in the society be brought, and that is what any enterprise in eco-friendly space should be looking at.

[Guest article contributed by Ashutosh Garg.]

Also, the products by the global chains should be of ‘single brand’ only and be sold under the same brand internationally.

FDI in Single Brand product retail trading would be subject to the following conditions:
(a) Products to be sold should be of a ‘Single Brand’ only.
(b) Products should be sold under the same brand internationally i.e. products should be sold under the same brand in one or more countries other than India.
(c) ‘Single Brand’ product-retail trading would cover only products which are branded during manufacturing.
(d) The foreign investor should be the owner of the brand.
(e) In respect of proposals involving FDI beyond 51%, mandatory sourcing of at least 30% of the value of products sold would have to be done from Indian ‘small industries/ Village and cottage industries, artisans and craftsmen.

“The Cabinet took the conscious decision to liberalize policy for FDI in single brand retail. We have now allowed foreign investment of up to 100% with riders that FDI beyond 51% there will be mandatory sourcing of at least 30% of the total value of the products sold from small industries. This step will provide stimulus to domestic manufacturing value addition and help in technical up gradation of our local small industries.” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said.

[Via:NDTV/ET]

UID Set to ..Trash?

A parliamentary committee is set to reject the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010, inflicting a severe blow to Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani and raising doubts about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pet project.

The committee’s draft report giving the thumbs down to the Bill is ready and will be adopted on Thursday. Sources in the panel indicated that the decision to recommend that the government should withdraw the present Bill and bring a new one was taken “unanimously”. Even Congress members found the project “directionless”.The committee has questioned the technology used in Aadhaar. The draft report is learnt to have termed the technology as “unreliable and untested”. It has also cited the experience of foreign countries with similar schemes and said that many European nations withdrew their UID projects after opposition from the public. Noting such discrepancies, the committee has recommended that the Bill is not acceptable. [source]

Our take: This is BS.

DoT accepts BSNL’s offer to surrender its broadband wireless airwaves

The telecom department has accepted BSNL’s offer to surrender its broadband wireless airwaves in most regions of the country, a senior official said on Wednesday. After BSNL returns the airwaves, the government may go in for a fresh round of auctions to sell this spectrum,[source]

Ways to enjoy free Twitter access on Airtel till 1st March 2012

• Twitter mobile website: Visit mobile.twitter.com (with or without GPRS subscription), follow simple sign up process by entering your mobile number and start using!
• Create new account on Twitter on SMS: SMS ‘START’ to 53000, upon receiving reply – SMS ‘SIGNUP’ to 53000. Next, type a username (unique and less than 15 characters) and send that to 53000. Once Twitter approves your username, you will get a confirmation message, prompting you to SMS a chosen password to 53000. On completion of this process, your Twitter account will be created. Sign up is only required if a user wants to tweet
• Follow specific Twitter users on SMS: To receive updates from a specific user, SMS ‘Follow ’ to 53000. Users can follow others on Twitter on SMS even without having a Twitter account of their own

Idea biggest gainer in MNP sweepstakes

Only three GSM incumbents have gained customers through MNP. Idea Cellular tops the charts with a net gain of 15.7 lakh customers followed by Vodafone and Bharti Airtel at 12.1 lakh and 3 lakh, respectively.
RCOM has been the worst impacted as the telecom has a net loss of 13.4 lakh users, followed by Tata Teleservices that lost 8.6 lakh and BSNL which recorded a net loss of over 5 lakh users [source].

TRAI expects to complete cable digitisation ahead of deadline

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) expects the digitisation of nationwide cable network in India to be completed well ahead of the recommended deadline of 2014. For rural areas, the respective State Government may float an SPV for the purpose, he said. After which, everything will fall in line and there will be a complete digital eco system in place. Digitised, cable operators will be able to offer at least 400 channels. They should actually look beyond just offering cable TV services. [source]

Video-on-demand service & Catch-up TV on Tata Sky soon

Video-on-demand (VoD) service, aimed at subscribers of both its regular and high-definition services, will allow users to choose from nearly 1,000 titles comprising Bollywood and foreign flicks, among other content across languages and genres. Catch-up TV, on the other hand, will help subscribers to watch select TV shows after they have been broadcast and that too without recording them because these shows will be available for download. [source]

MapmyIndia has launched portable gadget charger which helps users charge their portable devices on the go, such as Navigator, CarPad, Mobile Phones, iPods, Portable Gaming Devices, Bluetooth Handsfree devices etc.

RInfra Launches Security Deposit Receipt Download Service For Mumbai Consumers

Power distribution company, Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RInfra) has launched an online initiative for Mumbai suburban consumers. RInfra consumers, who have made their Security Deposits payment online, can now download their payment receipt and save it on computer and / or can take a printout[ source].

airtel launches iRadio

Airtel digital TV, the DTH service by Bharti Airtel, today announced the launch of iRadio – a 24/7 entertainment application that has 21 Radio channels available to all its customers, at no additional cost. The introduction of the 21 channels on iRadio is consistent with Airtel digital TV’s efforts of enabling customers to enjoy their entertainment experience in a language of their choice, wherever they go in India.

This latest addition to Airtel digital TV’s portfolio caters to the growing demand by customers for entertainment in a language of choice. AIR Radio has been a favourite of listeners across the country its unique entertainment mix of Music, News, Talk Shows, Variety, Interviews, Current Affairs and documentaries. iRadio is yet another compelling reiteration of DTH’s clear advantage over analogue systems in offering unique non-channel content across genres like education, music, movies, farming and lifestyle.

iRadio is now available along with the other five attractions, iFasal, iGoodlife, iDarshan, iLearn and iAstro. [PR]

FlashMob

Flashmob hit Mumbai and has been a phenomenal rage. If you are wondering what a Flashmob is, well its a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, or artistic expression [wikipedia].

Watch the video.

From driving auto rickshaws to running small restaurants and tea shops, Indians have learnt to fend for themselves.

One giant industry of this kind is that of small retail outlets (commonly called Kiranas), millions of them across the country dotting the landscape. They sell everything imaginable in a tiny area, from freshly prepared snacks to packaged FMCG commodities from leading multinationals. At last count, there were 33,100,000 people employed in such stores across India.

In comes the new FDI policy on retail

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has released a new policy where they are considering allowing 100% FDI in multi brand retail. This will pave the way for behemoths like Wal-Mart and Carrefour to enter India. With the economies of scale and the organization which these companies bring, in the long term, it spells a blow to the small retailer around the corner.

While it is silly to take a view like that taken by politicians that these stores need to be “burnt”, we really need to think about whether this move is appropriate in the current context.

Undoubtedly, from the point of view of the individual customer, a store like Wal-Mart is beneficial. In a market economy, what is best for the customer must always prevail. So to keep an inefficient sector on life support is not wise.

At the same time, the Government should consider the immediate implications of such a move. Reforms have to be accompanied with a vision, a road-map, a goal for the future. With a vision, a goal for development and economic growth, the market itself would have paved the way for these large retail stores to enter India and flourish.

Tying it up

What we need is a vision and roadmap for planned economic growth. Specifically, we need to focus on creating jobs in manufacturing and smaller service sectors to employ the roughly 25 million youth who join the labour force every year.

Once we have robust job creation in these areas, people will not have to fend for themselves and can enter the workforce. At such time, if FDI in retail is introduced, the economic impact will be less severe.

At this stage, when we are (ironically) a labour rich work force with a (high-tech) service driven economy, this is not the right move.

Arguments in favour of FDI (and whether they make sense)

Argument 1:

One big argument is that these retailers will improve storage and warehousing infrastructure in villages and towns and thus reduce the criminal wastage of grain and vegetables that happens. This inturn will reduce food inflation.

Response:

Warehousing and storage systems can be disaggregated from retailing. There has been a crying need for storage systems and warehousing for a long time. The Government ought to have included that as a priority item in infrastructure creation and social spending. Indeed, that is one of the mandates of the Food Corporation of India as per the Food Corporation of India Act, 1964.

To abdicate that responsibility is taking the easy way out. That is certainly not an argument.

Argument 2:

These stores will not affect the small retailers. Countries like China have Wal-Marts but their retail industry is still flourishing.

Response:

Maybe not, if they are not located in the city centre but far from the city centre. In that case, people will still frequent the around-the-corner store for their basic needs. But if they are built in cities, in close proximity to urban centres, they will definitely have an impact on retailers. That is plain common sense.

Conclusion:

As a nation, if we want to move over to a new & more efficient system, we need to create an alternative for the people who currently depend on unorganised retail to earn a living. Investing in creating a robust manufacturing sector, for instance, may create alternatives and absorb some of the people working in the unorganised retail sector.

We can and should gradually bring in such reforms (FDI in multi-brand retail) over time. Now may not be the right time.

Agree/Disagree? What’s your take on FDI in multi-brand retail?

[About the author: Contributed by Hrishikesh Datar, founder of vakilsearch.com, online legal services provider (Legal Advice, Legal Documents & more).]

[Image credit: Yeshwanth Rao/Flickr]

“The shoe will be sold in villages through a distribution network,” Hainer said, adding, “We want the product to be self-funding. [source]

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Higher-resolution India maps by 2014

The Survey of India (SoI), the country’s apex map authority, plans to release by 2014 a series of maps that are 25 times more detailed than the current ones. This will benefit India’s nascent geospatial industry as well as the states that are trying to use three-dimensional (3D) maps to dispense public services.[source]

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HDFC Bank, Vodafone India launch mobile banking product for rural coverage

Under this initiative, HDFC Bank will be able to use select retailers of Vodafone to represent the bank as sub-agents and enable anyone to send money or withdraw cash through their outlets.

A farmer can deposit cash at this outlet, which will reflect on his mobile instantly. He can choose to withdraw it later or send the money to another person by selecting one of the options available on the mobile and authenticate it with a security PIN. The beneficiary or receiver can go to a Vodafone outlet and collect the money based on the SMS he receives.[source]

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Google Internet bus to begin Bengal journey

Besides Kolkata, it will travel to other towns such as Durgapur, Asansol, Kharagpur, Ulberia, Chandannagar, Haldia, Bankura and Purulia. The Internet bus has already travelled 11 States covering 130 towns and touching 6.5 million people [source]

What’s also important to note is that one of the riders of this recommendation is that such retail chains can only be opened in towns with population of more than 10 lakhs, restricting the target segment to only 51 towns in India.

What this means for ecommerce? For sure, expect more funding/investment in retail/ecommerce market, as investors have been waiting for increased FDI in Indian retail market. Most importantly, the 2% difference (earlier FDI was allowed for 49%) will redefine the ownership/decision making powers of foreign brands and expect companies like Amazon to further drive the pricing war and hence, consolidation in the coming days.

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More details as we get them, but for sure these are exciting times in Indian retail/ecommerce market.

“Out of a total 20 million requests for porting by users, nearly 5 million have not been carried out. BlackBerry services, a caller ring-back tune, lifetime validity cards, promotional STD or SMS packs are often cited as reasons for rejection of MNP requests.”

Yahoo India Expands video section

Yahoo India earlier launched MoviePlex, a premium video destination allowing users to enjoy licensed, full-length movies for free through the Internet on demand and has now announced new partners for its Video section.

Yahoo! Video will provide original content across multiple genres such as news, entertainment, lifestyle and movies from 35 content producers which include NDTV, Star TV, Shemaroo, Headlines Today, PVR Pictures and Ultra.

“Online video consumption is growing at a rapid pace. However, a large portion of this is user generated content, which is often a rip-off of content. So, a lot of the content available is illegal and pirated” [PR]

Also see: Google Brings Youtube Partner Program to India

7.12m GSM users added in October 2011

GSM operators added 7.12 million new subscribers in October, taking the total GSM subscriber base to 625.41 million. In October, the growth was led by Uninor which added 2.66 million new users, taking its total user-base to 32.31 million at the end of October, 2011 [COAI]

Bharti, Vodafone, Idea seek PM’s intervention

To increase pressure on the government regarding 3G intra-circle roaming (3G ICR) agreements, the promoters of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd, Sunil Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla, as well as the global chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, Vittorio Colao, have jointly written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking his urgent intervention in the matter.

They have also said that if the roaming agreements are declared illegal, the government would have to return the money paid by the telcos for the spectrum as well as the money invested in building 3G networks [source].

Linkedin already has sales office in NCR and Bangalore with India HQ in Mumbai with a total of about 50 employees.

Linkedin has almost 12Mn users in India, second only to US. That is about 10% of Linkedin’s total user base. For those who think Linkedin is any less popular, well the number is about 31% of the Facebook user base in India.

What do you think of Linkedin as a social network? Is it only your profile page or is their any regular activity?

Nielsen came up with the “The Nielsen Global Online Shopping and Savings Strategies Survey” which analyzes the spending habits of consumers in 51 countries and across 25000 consumers. 

A few of the interesting stats - 

• In India, 31% of users will exercise the option of ordering online to save on the costs of travelling and better utilization of time – if the option were available to them. Nudge nudge to a few online retailers I am sure if you can come up with a viable business model.
• 22% also prefer going to a store and picking up groceries already chosen. Again an interesting option for some larger players to explore.
• A startling 77% in Asia Pacific mention that they are likely to take advantage of the online shopping and home delivery option.
• Indian consumers are apparently choosing larger pack sizes to take advantage of the reduced prices when you order larger volumes.
• Indian consumers are also seeing value in shopping closer and with value retailers. Needless to say increasing petrol prices are taking their toll.
• Another interesting stat is that usage of coupons in Indians is lower compared to others in Asia. Good data point for deal sites, I guess?

As with all surveys, the statistics need to be digested with some deep thinking. What are your thoughts – what do these stats point towards? What about online grocery trend that’s building up in India?

[Image credit:crowbert/Flickr]

While the two operators haven’t yet announced the price of iPhone 4S in India, be assured that it will be tied with a complex data+voice plans.

Important to note that the unofficial iPhone 4S Price in India starts from INR 42,000.

Also see: Will Galaxy Nexus Hit The Indian Shores The Day It Launches Globally?

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TRAI dials up international regulators for lowering roaming tariffs

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has opened channels with its counterparts in other countries, including the UK, to address the issue of high tariffs for international roaming services. TRAI has suggested that regulators should ask local operators in their countries to enable bilateral roaming agreements aimed at bringing down the tariffs.[source]

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Rs 50 cr penalty on Airtel, Tatas for ILD licence violation

The Telecom Ministry is understood to have imposed a penalty of Rs 50 crore each on Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications for providing international private lease circuits to foreign company SingTel in violation of ILD licence terms and conditions.[source]

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WestBridge launches India evergreen fund

Investment firm WestBridge Capital has raised India’s first so-called evergreen fund from global investors, or limited partners (LPs). Unlike traditional funds, the $500 million (around Rs. 2,500 crore) corpus that WestBridge has raised will not have an investment cycle. Instead, returns generated on investments will automatically be ploughed back into the investment pool, creating a perpetual flow of capital for investments. In other words, this evergreen fund will do away with the need of raising subsequent funds for investments.[source]

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Videocon looking to sell stake in unit for $75-$100 mn

Videocon Industries is looking to sell a 25% stake in its direct-to-home broadcast services business for roughly $75 million to $100 million and is in talks with private equity firms. Potential investors in the unit, branded D2H, include ICICI Venture, the private equity arm of ICICI Bank, sources said. Videocon has hired UBS to find an investor [source]

India PC Market Share Estimates for Third Quarter of 2011 (Percentage of Shipments) 

Vendors	3Q11 Market Share (%)
Dell	15.0
HP	13.3
Lenovo	12.1
Acer	10.8
HCL	5.6
Others	43.2
Total	100.0

A major part of this growth can be attributed to the mobile PC shipments, which has increased by 29% as compared to the same quarter last year. This growth means there is a parallel market for mobile PCs and other mobile devices, since the use of mobile phones and tablets is also on a never-before-rise in India, as pointed out in this story at PI.

Gartner attributes the festival season Q3 in India to be a major reason behind the growth, and expects sluggishness in the market in Q4. I would not buy that fact though. Increased awareness, penetration of internet to remote areas, peer-pressure, and the increasing involvement and impact of social networking in our offline lives can be daunting enough reasons for people to go towards buying new devices.
An earlier report (Dec 2010) by Gartner forecasted 25% growth in PC shipments in India in 2011 totalling to 13.2 million PCs. With Q3 scoring 13%, even being the best-performing quarter, looks like that expectation was a bit far-fetched.

Affordable mobile devices and even more affordable data plans is an important factor in the growth of mobile devices in the price-sensitive Indian market. What do you think? Will this growth in the PC shipments sustain over a long run? Will new adopters of the internet be more inclined to buy a PC or a mobile phone/tablet? Will the seasoned users prefer buying a new laptop or a shiny tablet?

Is this growth seasonal or will it continue?

“I am getting into e-commerce. The space interests me a lot so I am getting into that. There are a couple of products that I am planning to launch online,” [via/tip]

Few other ventures by Bollywood actors:

• Shilpa Shetty Launches A “Group Buying Real Estate Ecommerce Company”
• Ajay Devgan Launches Movie Ticketing Site

Our take: This is bubble! Check this interesting infographics (Indian eCommerce And The Hype)

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CBI Joins Facebook

CBI Bhopal has joined Facebook (page). The CBI’s Bhopal unit opened its Facebook page last week and also sought help from the public on any reliable clues to solve the murder case of RTI activist Shehla Masood (source).

Airtel to disconnect users inactive for 60 days

Bharti Airtel will start disconnecting subscribers who do not use their phones for more than 60 days together.

The company has been forced to do this due to a shortage in phone numbers after the Department of Telecom tightened the allocation criteria. The move is likely to affect about 20 million subscribers across the country. After deactivating inactive subscribers, Airtel will recycle the freed up numbers to new users.[source]

Google Doodle India Winner Announced

Google has announced the Google Doodle winner for India and Varsha Gupta.

Varsha Gupta’s artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme has won her a technology starter package that includes a laptop, a year’s Internet connection and a Rs.2,00,000 technology grant for her school. Her doodle will also be featured on the Google India homepage on 14th November 2011 to mark the occasion of Children’s day in the country.
We are overwhelmed to see great participation from young children and schools year-on-year since 2009. The designs for this year’s theme “India’s Gift to the world” were incredibly creative across all grade groups. In addition to selecting Varsha Gupta as the national winner, more than 1 million public votes helped us determine the three group winners, each of which will receive a Technology Starter package.

• Grades 1-3: Shibajyoti Choudhury (Group I) from Jamshedpur won the group prize for his doodle titled ‘Developing excellent India and World’
• Grades 4-6: Abhinav R. (Group II) from Coimbatore won the prize for his doodle titled ‘India’s contribution to the world – Tradition’.
• Grades 7-10: Nishi Bordia (Group III) from Indore won the prize for her doodle titled ‘India’s gift to the world – India itself’. [source]

Other news:

• Microsoft India appoints Chakrapani GK as Head of Consumer Channels Group, India
• HTC Rhyme now available in India For Rs. 24,799
• Panasonic Launches Toughbook for Indian market
• Location Labs Expands Presence In India

A suggestion : Hey Google India – Have some mercy on the Indian Kid [Doodle]

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Indian Government to Launch e-payments scheme

Central Government employees might start receiving SMS’s soon from the government that salary has been credited in bank account. Even retired employees will not have to go to bank to enquire about their pension as they could also be alerted by SMS from the Government.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the new payment mechanism could be the contractors. Since there will not be any human interface involved in the system, there will be no scope for giving bribery to get payments.

The Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG) would result in the elimination of physical cheque processing system and traditional issues associated with it, which would ensure major cost savings for the department by greatly enhancing the overall payment processing efficiency; Online reverse file (payment scroll) giving MIS on unique e-Authorization ID for all e-payment fund transfers; Online auto-reconciliation to facilitate major savings in time and efforts and speed up the compilation of accounting processes; and Ensuring a secure single point data capture of transaction data thereby eliminating duplication of work and data inconsistency.

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F1 - Aapki Yatra Mangalmay Ho

Well, this is Indianization of the global F1 race (pic courtesy) and if McDonalds is forced to sell McAloo Tikki, if Nokia is forced to rethink its Dual SIM strategy, if Groupon is forced to change its sales model (for India) – your business needs to have a local flavor or at least an understanding of needs, emotions and culture differences across geographies.

A fits-all strategy is a thing of the past and a lot of MNCs fail to recognize these emotions of the local mass (Read: Local Companies vs. MNCs in the Emerging Market).

In fact, Pluggd.in receives a lot of enquiries from global companies regarding their India foray and very often we recommend them to Indianize the messaging/offering. For most of such big players, it’s a lot about ‘just being present’ and not creating a business-impact (short term thinking by managers focused on next appraisal cycle). But for a startup, this localization could be the key differentiator.

What’s your take? If you are an Indian startup expanded globally, how have you done it?

The proposal to move to 11-digit mobile numbers has been shelved for good. The telecom department has accepted the short-term solution from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to create additional capacity in the ’7′ and ’8′ series and this will free up 650 million mobile numbers to cater to the industry’s demands for the next 30 months.

As a long-term solution, the Department of Telecom(DoT) has also decided to open up levels ’5′, ’6′ and ’3′ for mobile services. This implies mobile phone numbers of the future will begin with these digits. This will free up an additional 2,750.9 million (2.75 billion) mobile numbers [ET]

Over 18 m users have switched operators

More than 18 million subscribers have requested to change their operators using Mobile Number Portability at the end of August. During the month, 2.5 million subscribers put in their request, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Out of the total requests around 9.72 lakh pertains to Haryana where MNP was implemented from November 2010. In rest of the country, the facility was launched in February this year.[The Hindu]

Cisco and Government of Karnataka in PPP to Pilot Remote Healthcare in Shimoga District to Bring Inclusive Growth

Cisco has announced the launch of its Cisco® healthcare solution pilot program to enable remote healthcare for two primary healthcare centers from the district hospital in Shimoga District. The chief minister of Karnataka, Shri D.V Sadananda Gowda, and Aravind Sitaraman, president of Inclusive Growth, Cisco, attended the event.

With this project, Cisco advances its Inclusive Growth vision of using technology to bridge the urban-rural gap. Earlier this year, Cisco launched the initiative so that rural communities can get access to essential urban services like healthcare, education, a marketplace and access to public services through technology and bring them into the mainstream economy. Using the network as a platform, these services can bring about transformational change and greatly reduce the urban-rural divide [source].

mydala.com breaches the 5-million subscriber mark, launches WAP browser

mydala.com has announced the launch of India’s first and exclusive mobile WAP browser for discounted deals, which will help mobile internet users to access mydala deals quickly on any internet-enabled mobile phone using GPRS or Wi-Fi. The company claims to have crossed the 5 million subscriber mark.

BSNL has written a letter to Department of Telecom (DoT) offering to return BWA spectrum in 17 circles… (It) wants to retain only Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana service areas,”. BSNL has been facing severe financial pressure as its losses have more than tripled to about Rs. 6,000 crore during 2010-11, mainly due to hefty outgo for employees’ salary and expenses borne by the PSU for procuring 3G and BWA spectrum. The company had registered a net loss of Rs. 1,823 crore during 2009-10.[source]

NIIT Ltd has sold its entire stake in US-based Element K Corporation to SkillSoft Ltd for $110 million.

Element K is into learning products and solutions and its portfolio includes e-learning content, virtual labs, and classroom materials. SkillSoft is a provider of e-learning content, online information resources, learning technologies and support services. “This deal is about moving from competition to collaboration model. Both Element K and SkillSoft were competing in learning products business, although SkillSoft is a larger player in that segment. Now we will collaborate with SkillSoft,”[source].

Katrina Kaif Becomes World’s Most Searched Celebrity in Mobile Videos: Vuclip

Katrina Kaif has become the world’s most searched celebrity in mobile videos, ahead of Britney Spears who ranked second, according to the findings of latest Global Video Insights Report for September, released by Vuclip, mobile video service.The top ten celebrities globally also included India’s Kareena Kapoor (Global Rank: #4) and SonakshiSinha (Global Rank: #6), alongside international stars such as Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce and Shakira.[source]

DoT panel rejects 10-digit proposal for fixed-line phones

A Department of Telecom panel has rejected the telecom regulator’s proposal to introduce 10-digit number series for fixed-line telephones. The committee has said that the fixed-line phone number should continue to be eight digits, but the series should start with digits 2 and 4 only.

Currently, eight-digit fixed-line telephone number series starting with 3 is used by subscribers of Reliance Communications, 6 belongs to Tata Teleservices and 5 has been allocated to HFCL and Sistema Shyam [source].

Reliance Industries readies plans to roll out 4G data services, low cost tablets in 2012

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries plans to offer high-speed data services on attractively priced tablets by early next year and scale it up to a countrywide network by the middle of 2012.
The company, which made a comeback to telecom last year, plans to offer fourth-generation or 4G-enabled data cards that can be plugged into computers and laptops, apart from providing tablets at a game-changing price of 3,000 or even lower to hook customers [source].

Finance Ministry for white-level ATMs to boost banking access in country

In a bid to increase the penetration of banking services, the Finance Ministry has favoured setting up of white-level ATMs in the country. White-level ATMs are not owned by banks but by private ATM service providers. Customers from any bank can deposit or withdraw money from such ATMs. Besides, it will help sponsored banks to set-up ATMs without incurring capital expenses for owning money dispensing machine, sources said.[source]

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“One source says the company is being valued at $80 million to 100 million, and that Disney already owns roughly half of the company, meaning it will end up spending as much as $50 million on the remaining stake. Other Indiagames shareholders include Adobe and Cisco Systems.”

In December 2007, UTV’s ventured into production of gaming software and content through its subsidiary UTV Media by acquiring Indiagames Ltd. It later went on to acquire Ignition Entertainment Ltd. and US-based True Games.

During the year, the results of the Games Content segment included consolidated financials of Ignition and Indiagames for the full year and financials of True Games for the period September 11, 2008 to March 31, 2009. During the year, the Gaming segment reported an increase in revenues of 49% to Rs. 1,105 million from Rs. 742 million in the previous year. In the current year the Gaming segment also reported a loss Rs. 289 million, as against a profit of Rs. 75 million during the previous year (source).

Earlier, Disney acquired UTV (which owns a stake in Indiagames) and as per a report by Business Standard, the company recorded a profit of $400,000 on revenues of $11 million in its last fiscal year, though they are one of few companies that has been successful in creating a business model for games via subscription (Games On Demand).

Recommended Read : Articles written by Vishal Gondal, founder of Indiagames:

• Why Wipro, Infosys and TCS are “Axis of Evil” for Indian startups!
• ABCDs – The Poison Pill for Indian Startups ?
• Why Loser is The New Winner
• Playing the Number Game [Entrepreneurship Lessons]
• Decoding the Brain of an India VC
• Of Obsessed Entrepreneur and Do VCs need security guards @Work? [Fund me or I will Kill you!]

More than a million people will enroll for unique Aadhaar identity number per day by October which has so far been provided to 37 million people across the country. “new people are getting enrolled across the country at the rate of 6,00,000 a day in about 20,000 locations, by October the figure will be one million people per day”.[source]

Also see: Indian Government Approves UIDAI (Aadhar) To be Used For KYC Norms

Bollywood movie Mausam tests waters for PE-funded films

Vistaar Religare Film Fund, with a corpus of Rs 200 crore and co-promoted by financial services giant Religare, is the coproducer of Mausam, the Rs 30-crore Bollywood extravaganza directed by actor Pankaj Kapoor.

Mausam could well turn out to be the template on how future productions are funded. If the film does well, a lot of its success will be due to having identified the best content available, putting together the right team and marrying it with best accounting practices,” says Sheetal Vinod Talwar, the film’s producer and managing director, Vistaar Religare Film Fund.[source].

Qualcomm spectrum cancellation stayed by Indian telecoms tribunal

Giving relief to the company, the tribunal’s chairman Justice SB Sinha passed an interim order that restricted DoT from forfeiting Qualcomm’s bid amount and giving BWA airwaves meant for Qualcomm to any other operator till further orders. The tribunal also asked DoT to reply to the company’s petition within two weeks.[source]

Most Trusted Brands 2011: Nokia slips from the top spot

Nokia’s dream run at the top of the charts has come to an end. After being voted India’s Most Trusted Brand three years in a row, the Finnish cellphone manufacturer slips to No. 5 this year. While being in the Top 5 is still something that most brands would give an arm and a leg for, it nevertheless marks one of the sharpest declines from the top in the history of the survey.[source]

GlobalLogic acquires US-based consultancy firm Method

Software product development services provider GlobalLogic today said it has acquired San Francisco-headquartered global design and innovation consultancy firm Method for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition will help GlobalLogic to better serve clients in social media, mobile commerce, IPTV, medical devices, and tablet computing segments, GlobalLogic said in a statement.

Indian Government’s $35 Tablet Is Launching On October 5th [Finally]

The much-awaited and debated “$35 tablet” will be launched on October 5th. The tablet was supposed to be launched in the month of June, but the project was delayed as HCL tender was cancelled, owing to bank guarantee related issues.[source]

Government of India Notification No. 14/2010/F.No. 6/2/2007-ES dated December 16, 2010 which recognises the letter issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number, as an officially valid document as contained in Rule 2(1)(d) of the PML Rules, 2005.

In this regard, a reference is invited to paragraph 5 of our circular DBOD.AML.No.BC.77/14.01.001/2010-11 dated January 27, 2011, wherein it was stipulated that when bank relies exclusively on the Aadhaar letter as complete KYC document for opening of an account, such an account would be subject to all conditions and limitations applicable to ‘Small’ accounts as detailed in the Govt notification referred to above. After further consultations with Government, it has now been decided to accept the letter issued by the UIDAI as described above as an officially valid document for opening bank accounts without the limitations applicable to ‘Small’ accounts..[source]

So finally, the first mainstream implementation of UIDAI is on its way.