Indian SMBs can do more with less

In December of year 2012, PC Quest conducted its popular SMB Forum series of events across major cities of India namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Chennai. The event focused around technologies that can help Indian SMBs to do more with less, i.e. how to  “Do More”,  improve productivity, enhance customer service,  “With Less”, reduce operational costs.

Hence  Mr. N K Goyal, President CMAI Association of India and I were invited by PCQuest  as  Keynote Speakers to The Park Hotel, Delhi (India) on December 14, 2012 .

PCQuest Speaker: Anil Chopra, PCQuest

PCQuest Moderator: Binesh Kutty, Online Editor, PCQuest

Key Takeaways: Mr. Goyal took a different angle on “doing more with less”. He spoke about spirituality, and how it can help in coping with daily pressures of targets, and productivity. The audience were mesmerized with his talk on stress management. Mr. Goyal’s colleague,Prerna Jain, AGM – Development, CMAI Association of India and a blogger of International repute assisted him in the keynote speech and spoke about the importance of social media, DropBox  in marketing, customer care, etc for products and services.

Broadband brings telecom back to monopoly tendency

Quoting Mr. N K Goyal 

President, CMAI Association of India,

The nineties saw big dose of privatization in telecom sector. Country after Country invited private telcos to invest and provided various incentives for their growth. Sector moved from monopoly to duopoly to multipoly and in case of Indian context about 13 telecom operators competing for subscribers.  Private telcos brought in tremendous development. In India within 10 years the subscribers have increased to 560 Millions.

Electronic and knowledge connectivity leads to economic connectivity leading to an inclusive growth across all sections of society. Now during 21^st century the growth and development of a nation is increasingly becoming reliant on advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Till 1998 we had only 0.3% global broadband subscribers and number grew to 10% within span of last four years. 1.1 bill of world’s estimated 6.6 bill people are on line out of which broadband subscribers are about 570 Millions as of December 2009. By 2013 global broadband subscribers are expected to surpass 1 Billion.

Though ICTs have spread rapidly in the last decade, penetration levels are insignificant in rural parts across the world and the same is true for India we well. The broadband penetration in India presently is hardly 8 Million which is less than 5 %. The targets set by the Government for broadband have not been achieved due to variety of reasons. In India, more than 70% population living in rural areas can benefit from Education, Telemedicine and Financial services enabled on the Broadband Network.

The Governments have realized the impact of telecom growth in GDP, economic development. Telecom also brought in empowerment to lowest citizen at the bottom of pyramid. Countries are realizing that e-governance is the key to economic development and they sees now need to increase the broadband penetration. Governments are realizing that broadband growth is also necessary for job creation.

This, however, needs massive investments. Take the case of India, where US $2.6 billion investment by 2010 and US $5.35 billion by 2020 will be needed to achieve the growth. The investment is needed primarily in field of urban networks, domestic and international backhaul, content delivery and rural build out process.

Internet access via mobile is gaining momentum. In many parts of world, the first screen seen by a citizen is cell phone. More than $ 140 Billion revenue is expected from mobile broadband by year 2014.

Interesting things are happening now. Each telco swears by broadband and does everything possible on this earth to get spectrum, yet the Country and its citizen’s cries for broadband and internet. The private initiatives results in broadband network are lagging way behind compared to wireless penetration. Surprisingly now every telco expects Government to provide stimulus, subsidy or grant. There are lobbies and pressures mounted on Government to be proactive and bring additional investments and subsidies to close the gaps in broadband. Government has also succumbed to this tactics and several Governments are announcing grants and investment plans for broadband.

Major search brands such as Google, Yahoo and MSN have now realized success and are fast developing solutions for mobile Internet.

Latest trends

USA announced $7.2 billion broadband stimulus package as a means toward transforming rural and low-income areas. This package comes with net neutrality, due to which all major existing operators constituting 85% of existing lines did not applied. Another factor not to apply was fear of stringent regulations and peep into business practices. So there have been numerous applications for grant by relatively lesser known smaller companies.

Australia created a separate Ministry of Broadband. The broadband Penetration per household is already over 90% using DSL or cable modems. The Government has announced $31 billion laying fiber and other networks to get ahead in an emerging high-tech global economy to cover 90% of Country by 1 Gbps by 2014 by FTTH network. They have formed NBNCo, which will get majority funding come from Government, supported by contributing from Building Australia Fund, Aussie infrastructure bonds etc.

Finland recognizing Broadband as a fundamental right to all citizens has planned 100 Mbps by 2013 for all citizens. Broadband of 1 Mbps is available to 90% of citizens.

Canada has Broadband penetration of 94 percent households, yet 22 percent of rural households are still without broadband. Canada Government announced in July 2009 Broadband Canada Connecting Rural Canadians as a part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, which gives $225 million to Industry Canada for development and implementation of a strategy for improving broadband coverage. Federal Government supports up to 50 percent of cost for network equipment purchases and hardware/software upgrades, as well as long-term network capacity investment costs.

UK Government announced Digital Britain Plan to deliver 2Mbit/s broadband to all citizens by 2012.

South Korea has 43 Millions mobiles out of which 1/3^rd are on 3G. About 50% of them provide more than 50 Mbps speed. The State has invested a lot in broadband penetration for all citizens.

Malaysia wants to boost Broadband penetration to 50% by 2010. They would like competition based on services, not infrastructure. The Government is a co-investing $ 284 Millions and Telecom Malaysia $3.2 Billions.

Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Singapore has planned S $1 Billion investment for National Backbone Network by 2012 covering 95% of Singapore. IDA is investing S $ 750 Millions. The project operates on three levels. OpenNet is planning to roll out the dark fiber for the 100-Mbps network. This fibre would be sold to whole sale provider Nucleus Connect, a Star Hub Company. This will sell to retail service providers. OpenNet is supported by SingTel, Singapore Power, Singapore Press and Axia NetMedia, Canada.

China announced £300 Million project for every family to provide broadband and to link them to their children’s schools to access progress reports on attainment, behavior and other needs. It involves nationwide rollout of home access programme to get laptops for 270,000 families by 2012. China during January, 2010 has also urged the acceleration of triple network convergence.

French Government during January, 2010 detailed investment plans of E 5.4 Billion for building fiber outside cities by private investors.

Portuguese Government during January, 2009 announced E 800 Million Credit plus E 60 Million tax break for connecting 1.5 Million homes through FTTH.

European Commission plans to lay down Guidelines for Government funding to boost broadband rollouts to ensure higher level of broadband coverage.

Factors for low private investment

The complexity of a private sector business model comes from expectation of returns to shareholders and a bankable project putting profitability as a prime consideration without any linkage to social service or economic growth. Low paying capacity of rural subscribers, costs of laying fiber, right of way etc. and building cell towers throughout the Country appears makes Telcos see a un viable business. Government on the other hand is not constrained by these factors.

The laying of dark fibers around cities can also be viewed as any other civic utility infrastructure like sewerage, electricity etc. and need to avoid duplication of the same. Is that not returning of monopoly of Government?

Government’s constraints

Government always has budget constraints in doing so alone on large scale. Government has also its limitation to meet the timelines because of open transparent procurement procedures coupled with answerability to public at large. In Indian context it includes Rights to Information Act, Central Vigilance Commissioner, Auditor General, scrutiny by Parliament etc. Also higher the controls of Government, lesser chances for competition for private sector. So there is need for out of box thinking for Public Private Partnership.

Way forward

One fundamental issue is Governmental urge to earn revenue. While on the one hand Government wants broadband on the other hand it always plans to earn maximum revenue by auction of spectrum and other available resources. There is need for Government to give spectrum to rural areas and un served areas as a social cause.

One way forward is that local Governments and utilities departments who need broadband for education, medicines, E Governance builds the infrastructure from Government funds with private sector involvement wherever feasible and then lease it out to a Internet Service Provider or a telecom operator for applications, operation and maintenance.

A large operator has its own compulsions for profitability and exhaustive set up. In most of sectors throughout world there has been co existence of large and small players. The Indian telecom regulator TRAI has recommended for allowing niche operators who can establish network for smaller areas of their choice, as against present policy of granting permissions for the entire State. This concept needs to be encouraged.

Singapore model of four separate levels can be considered, the infrastructure, the network services, the value-added services and the applications. It will allow enough space for Government and private sector to play its role. Several players competing on a somewhat monopoly-based infrastructure will need proper regulation considering privacy and security issues.

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Demystifying Rural Communication : Much Talk Less Achieved

Also refer :  Rural Communication in India

Quoting Mr. Rahul Sharma, President TEMA, and, Business Head, Sterile Optical Technologies Ltd, BSNL  

Communication – the Human DNA

The importance of open, accessible, and relevant communications for fostering National development, Social fulfillment and human dignity, is undeniable. The more communicated a society is, the more opportunities it will generate. Let us face it. The essence of communication is in the very DNA of each and every person on this earth viz. to communicate with each other without going into frivolous parameters decided by the Society. There were several initial ways of communications.

 

World Supports Rural Economy

More than 2.5 Bn. people (about 40 percent of the world’s population) live in the rural and remote areas of developing countries where access to telecommunications is still very limited. Entire world, ITU, All Governments, UN give high priority to communications for rural and remote areas.  Valletta Action Plan (1998), Istanbul Action Plan (2002), WSIS Plan of Action (2003) all have confirmed the need to promote basic telecommunication, broadcasting and the Internet as tools for development in rural and remote areas.

So Then why still rural communication success is evading us- Attempt to demystify it

Tremendous growth of teledensity in urban areas, thanks to mobile technology, which has further widened the digital gap between rural and urban areas

Communication starts

In initial stages Communications was taken an essential need for citizens and duty of Govt. to provide it.Govt. invested heavily and started providing fixed line phones, wireless communication  technology for defense, as monopoly, without any intention of profit rather as a service for its people.  Getting a phone was always a matter of pride world over.Somewhere down the line mobile technology started to be used for civil services as well.Private sector saw profit and started lobbying for privatization.Govt. after Govt. started opening up.Tremendous success achieved by private sector in increasing the reach and subscriber base.

Rural waiting

Realization started  that   rural communication is not speeding up.  Ditto for broadband. So world looked back to Govt. for growth in broadband.For broadband, Govt. after Govt. started announcing plans for investment and laying Optical fiber and increasing use of e services in Government.Big investments by Govt. for rural Communications are still awaited.Every body in world looking for magic turn for rural communications.

Aims of Rural  Communications

• To put rural people in a position to have the necessary information for informed decision-making and the relevant skills to improve their livelihoods.
• To have a close-knit family by connecting people across developed and developing parts of the world.

Benefits

• People’s participation and community mobilization
• Confidence building
• Raising awareness
• Sharing knowledge
• Changing attitudes, behaviours and
• Lifestyles (e.g., female foeticide, rapes, etc)
• Foster decision-making

 

May be for this smile?

Rural Communications-Difficulties

 

—  Problems of Rural Community as such:

1. Spread and Diversity- the large number of consumers scattered across the Country with diverse geography, demography etc.
2. Low population density large distances
3. Hard physical terrain not easy to access
4. Low per capital income leading to low ARPU
5. Low literacy Levels- Language and physical communication barriers
6. Poor Infrastructure Facilities- lack of roads, telecom facilities, postal services, TV, prints media etc.

—  Rural communications face challenges driven by both technological and economic considerations.

1. Backhaul connectivity
2. Erratic or lack of power supply, where the equipments are Largely power hungry.
3. Very expensive to build for smaller capacity.
4. Requires skilled manpower to install commission and maintain.
5. Designed and optimized for high – ARPU high density user base.
6. With High Capex and Opex affecting the business competitiveness

Technologies

Technologies are being created  by    scientists, engineers, researchers    largely with passion for being the ”most advanced” , “ for the first time”, “Fastest” rather than what is needed. The initial model was need and then invention or solution. Now first invention and then marketing needs.At times new technology announced may be because we have failed to achieve what we promised in last technology.It is not that what power, infra is available that will lead to technology…it is the reverse technology demands so and so power and infra.Compulsion of researchers to see world as one market and make technologies that can make best money in shortest possible time frame.So question is does technologies suit for rural communications? What about like MARR, Cor dect?

Telecom Standards

• —  Who makes the standards?
• —  Largely the technology inventors, taking into account what they have made.
• —  Result is standards largely dominated for urban areas and elite people.
• —  We have seen apple I phone, ipad, 4G, 5G…never heard of minus 1G for rural areas or a  5 USD handset for rural areas.
• —  Compliments to GIFSI and ITU, who have been doing great job for rural standards.
• —  So question is what else is needed for specific standards for rural areas across the globe?

Equipment Suppliers

 

—  Thanks to global market,. we see

• —  limited equipment suppliers across globe
• —  Manufacturers depend upon volumes for cost optimization, which rural communication evades
• —  Difficulties in providing after sale service, maintenance to large scattered rural areas across globe with highly qualified and talented engineers and technicians.
• —  Each and every company inn globe swear for rural communications’ and vigorous Research & Development and innovations.
• —  So question is do we need  new strategies by global manufacturers or is there need for localized manufacturers with support from global companies ?

     Service Providers

Thanks to mergers and acquisitions, we see few service providers for fixed   line and mobile.They need to invest heavily in infrastructure, licenses, regulatory compliances. Service providers face brunt of customers expectations for the hypes created by Technology providers.Service providers answerable to their shareholders have to be necessarily look for profits.Unfortunately rural Communications is comparatively seen as nonviable.So first question is if rural communication is non viable, why not to drop it all together?And second question is if there is need for a separate class of operators dedicated for rural areas?

  Multi Government fundings  

—  Several Schemes, funds, incentives by

• —  several agencies for rural areas development
• —  ITU, UN does a lot
• —  Almost every Country has USO for telecom
• —  Departments of rural development, health, roads, Panchayts, employment generation, electricity, education, drinking water, housing, alternate energy,  and so on have several rural development plans, incentives and funds
• —  A Big Question should Govt. ( and all its departments) take telecom, mobile, spectrum for big moneys or for development?
• —  Question is if these schemes need to be coordinated in a effective way for sustained growth?

Government’s assistance in    Telecom Sector

• —  In India the assistance under —  USO is limited to service operators.
• —  In USA when President Obama announced plans or broadband, the assistance was extended to department of rural and agriculture development.
• —  So question is if there is need for extending assistance under USO and other schemes to manufacturers, technology providers, local bodies for rural communications?

Major policy stakeholders

• —  Telecom Operators, Equipment Suppliers, Technology providers
• —  Ministries – design and implement communication policies (e.g., Communication, Infrastructure, Rural Development, Food and Agriculture, Science and Education)
• —  Media outlets – TV, radio, print, internet, either private, public or from the civil society;
• —  Representatives of farmers’ or rural peoples’ organisations – to collect and formulate the
• —  communication needs of their clients;
• —  Development organisations for policy advice and harmonisation of development interventions.

On Innovations

Any “invention” is not a one   time thing rather its a tool that needs to constantly evolve time and again to cater different ad-hoc tastes of people and even a “re-invention” to change how we communicate and how we think. With technology, we ride high on efficiencies and usability it brings along with it, less concerned about its penetration in the society and its adoption demographics.

So what is Task?

The task is not just an issue of Resources and Technologies, nor of hardware and software. It is also a matter of wise priorities, good policies, intelligent leadership, transparent decision, and population involvement.

Thoughts are endless, Ideas are endless,  Talks are endless!! Lets us start action .           

Internet: The driving force behind the growth of the Economy

Quoting Mr. N K Goyal 

President, CMAI Association of India,

 

 

What an alteration of life! What a change in life! The whole world is changing. Definitions are changing. Even this article is written via a text-writing software on a laptop. Instead of using a courier service, I sent this text electronically by ‘E-mail’. Little did we realise the ease and comfort of the whole process. We are so used to all the electronic and computer aided programs that we hardly think of thanking James Watt and Graham Bell for playing the vital role in the life that is led by millions across the globe. Their contribution in science led to invention of the most comprehensive mode of communication called the “Internet”, a tool that has all the ingredients to bind the globe into a small community.

This thought brings a great deal of optimism in developing parts of the world like ours, making us believe that we all are well connected and are a close-knit family which may sound like a toned down approach, especially considering India’s prowess in Information Technology. The IT skills in the Country are one of the most unmatchable attainments in the world in terms of quality and quantity. But here the challenge is not in solving the problem, rather to determine the problem itself.

Plethoras of solutions are available with the enterprises and organisations, but with their approach, unfortunately few are the takers. Technology is changing at an unimaginable pace  that no one can even dream of. Who would have imagined ten years down the lane that majority of people would have mobiles in their hands? Who would have thought that letters and the postmen will become old school? Even now, even today, even in this moment, prediction of future technology is hard. Computers have reduced in their dimensions from room sized computers to desktops, to laptops to smartphones. And now we are hearing of computer screen contact lense in eyes itself?

With each passing day, new technologies and new techniques come and go. With technology, we ride high on efficiencies and usability it brings along with it, less concerned about the penetration in the society and it’s adoption demographics. We forget the essence of communication that it is in the very DNA of each and every person on this earth to communicate with each other without going into frivolous parameters decided by the Society. But we fail to observe, lest realize it. The most common example is of Iridium phones, launched a decade and a half ago to provide communication on any spot on earth. It was a satellite based system, superior at the time of its launch, yet a failure and, a nothing short of a disaster that led Company into heavy losses. Even  pagers, FAX and the so called ISD calls or international long distance calls, all fall in this category of technological calamities.

Internet has crawled deep into people’s lives since 1970s, bridging the gap between multitude and getting people more closer than ever before. The radio communication technologies in public domain are a new addition to the technology world. The rapid rise of GSM made it a worldwide favourite, with almost 80% market covered by it in comparison to other cellular technologies. More superior technologies like UMTS, IMT, 3G, 4G,LTE are also coming up. This again brings us back to the fact that just by having a solution does not mean that we will succeed. We should understand the problem, with the local flavour so that we can accordingly dish out a tailor made solution.

In India’s case and many other growing economies of the world, excitement and affection towards technology is very high in comparison to the western economies, primarily because they have matured with new technologies. This zeal amongst people should look very promising to the operators, Internet providers and the Governments alike, but at the same time it should be treaded cautiously as expectations are high. Some time it appears as if the technology experts have not been able to deliver what they promised for a particular technology and then  came up with a new technology, talking of higher speed, higher user friendly, higher secure and so on. Yet they all talk of providing High Data speed and Mobility.  All the access technologies are Internet friendly, doing away with traditional POTS system which dealt with only voice on analogue systems.

With New Generation Technology which is more core based and flat hierarchy, allowing different applications to be run on the system and access technology neutrally, it would be a major boost for Indian and other growing economies of the world. The reason is that we would be able to buy an application based device and software rather than a bundled computer. This would actually bring down the cost. The specific or few application based devices would allow a farmer to know about weather, communication over VOIP, and enable him to play a game or movie. This would enable a pervasive internet usage, accelerate more inter dependent economies.

The tremendous growth of internet has resulted in non availability of IPv IV address protocols and we are moving to IPv IV 6. Very soon we will have a connected world where even machine to machine will talk. This will result in more increased demand for IPv IV 6 protocols. Solutions for the wide number of ad hoc devices to be used is in form of IPv6, Web 2.0 again are playing a good role of networking platform for like minded people to share the thoughts and experiences.

Business demands via IT have increased over the years. Various companies are facing a cut throat competition for their survival at an exponential rate so as to gain customer attention, market share and revenue. IT Service Providers are expected to play a more significant role in the overall performance of the enterprise. IT leaders have responded to enterprise growth by reducing costs. But reduction in cost alone is no longer sufficient. IT is also a revenue driver. “Business” need to learn how to align its goals with IT by adapting itself to new technologies, making process improvements, and by aligning its IT and business strategies.
IT and IT solutions have offered India a global perspective. It has acted as our ‘window’, opening wide to the rest of the world ensuring that we in other industries like manufacturing, media, etc. see it in the same sense.  IT is also penetrating rural India now, offering opportunities to those in small towns and villages, broadening horizons and offering livelihoods where there were not any.
Those Companies that realized the importance of IT are planning to expand their IT infrastructure and are investing in hardware applications and in enterprise applications and management tools. Indian industries expenditure on IT is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 15 percent.

India is the seventh largest and second most populous Country in the world. It is also the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of PPP. A series of ambitious economic reforms aimed at deregulating the economy and stimulating foreign investment has moved India firmly into the front runners of the rapidly growing Asia Pacific Region and unleashed the latent strength of a complex and rapidly changing nation.

Today India is one of the most exciting emerging markets in the world. Skilled, managerial and technical manpower that matches the best available in the world, and, a middle class whose size exceeds the population of the USA or the European Union, provide India with a distinct cutting edge in global competition.

India’s time tested institutions offer foreign investors a transparent environment that guarantees the security of their long term investments. These include a free and vibrant press, a well established judiciary, a sophisticated legal and accounting system, and a user-friendly intellectual infrastructure.

India’s dynamic and highly competitive private sectors have been the backbone of its economic activity and offers considerable scope for foreign direct investment, joint ventures and collaborations.

Industrial Sector was among the first sectors to be liberalized in India in a series of measures. Industrial licensing has been abolished except in a small number of sectors where it has been retained on strategic considerations.

The Government’s liberalization and economic reforms programme was initiated way back in July 1991, under the new Industrial Policy Resolution. The industrial policy reforms have substantially reduced the industrial licensing requirements, removed restrictions on expansion, and facilitated easy access to foreign technology and foreign direct investment.

Foreign Direct Investment in India is allowed on automatic route in almost all sectors except some strategic categories. In electronics and telecom, India allows 100% FDI for manufacturing. As a signatory to WTO, India permits duty free imports of all components and products.

Our thought on internet will not be completed, if we do not talk of accountability part of it. There is hardly any answerability as to who has sent the message or how the internet is touted. There are associate problems of spam, fishing, data theft. Every day while we have a new solution, we also have a new problem. Our mail boxes are full of unwanted mails. The problem appeared to be insoluble. Luckily it has got the attention of ITU during WICT Conference in Dubai and thanks God a solution has been found. We can now hope of a proper routing and answerability.

Finally, it is important to understand that Internet is not a ONE TIME INVENTION rather a tool that needs to constantly evolve time and again to cater different ad-hoc tastes of people and occasionally a re-invention to change how we communicate and how we think. That’s why the Internet has to be taken as the biggest Invention than anything else on this planet, simply because it touches the lives of people and it is empowering people across globe.

Innovations to drive economy in developing countries

When we speak of innovations, one question arises in our mind, what does this term ‘innovation’ means? Is it too broad to describe? Is it a taboo?

Innovation is nothing but developing a new thing or increasing the usability of previous ones. It is certainly not a ‘rocket science’ . It can be as simple as inventing a  safety pin.

When we talk of development and the developed countries then we see a vast concentration of discoveries and inventions.  No doubt development in the field of science and technology have fuelled their economic growth.

Hence , the same applies to the developing countries.

When we talk of developing nations like India, China, South Africa we find  immense manpower waiting to be harnessed and capitalized. Even a small impetus can drive the people of these economies, considering that Indians and Africans are everywhere in west, we cannot doubt on what can be done in these countries.

Starting from 2000 BC, when most part of the world was still nomad, need not to mention the Indus Valley Civilization which prospered in India. And even today we owe many simple inventions to them ranging from farming, buttons, ink and many more innovations in the field of medicine.

Now, shifting our focus to Modern India. When  entire world became mobile on tablet devices then we invented a cheap tablet known as Aakash to bridge the gap between the rich and poor who can use these devices. No need to mention other innovations which originated in Rural India like organic farming etc.

When we see African continent, there we find even more interesting innovations by the aboriginals because they use locally available products to solve a problem which results in an interesting innovations like the TUTU van , orange sweet potato etc.

Talking about the economic aspects of these innovations and inventions, According to estimates by World Bank and other private firms, these innovations can produce an annual GDP output of more than $50Bn. Big enough to eradicate the poverty and hunger problems of these countries. Combined with the available natural resources in these countries, the prospect is immense.

The need is the free flow of available knowledge and instruments so that these innovations can reach the masses globally and become affordable.

Indian Consumer Market : A change from pyramid to sparkling diamond

India’s ascendance as an economic power has forced the world to unveil the mystery called “India” .  and  an intriguing element of this mystery is its consumer market  characterized by diverse languages, regions, religions, economic and social status. This market has always been a tricky proposition to understand.

The Indian market has undergone a paradigm shift due to India’s rapid economic growth . The favorable demography of the Country makes it a market that is  impossible to miss. Global corporations view India as one of the key markets from where future growth will emerge.

The growth in India’s consumer market will be primarily driven by a favorable population composition and rising disposable incomes. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) suggests that if India continues to grow at the current pace, average household incomes will triple over the next two decades and it will become the world’s 5th-largest consumer economy by 2025, thereby shifting upwards  from its current 12^th rank .

India’s consumer market till now was broadly defined as a pyramid; a very small affluent class with an appetite for luxury and high-end goods and services at the top, a middles-class at the center and a huge economically disadvantaged class at the bottom. This pyramid structure of the Indian market is slowly collapsing and being replaced by a diamond – a relatively large affluent class at the top, a huge middle class at the center and a small economically disadvantaged class at the lower end. The diamond represents increasing volume and value across all classes of Indian consumer market.

Organized retail

Indian consumer purchasing is largely through the unorganized sector or through the kirana stores. Organized retail constitutes a small percentage of the Indian retail market. However, with urbanization and increasing value-consciousness among consumers, the organized retail format is beginning to root.  The organized retail format promises consumers better quality and better shelf-life for products due to their excellent storage facilities and anti-tampering checks. An important factor attracting consumers towards formal retailing mechanisms are  hypermarts and departmental stores that enhance their shopping experience.

These shopping outlets allow consumers to explore their choices and touch and feel products in the comfort of a glitzy and energetic environment, something that  kirana stores or mom stores  or pop stores have never been able to offer.

Few Insights

According to International Air Transport Association (IATA),India’s domestic air travel market would be among the top five globally. As per Airline Industry Forecast 2012 -2016 , only Kazakhstan, India and China would experience double-digit growth in domestic passenger traffic during the period, recording 22.5, 13.1 and 10.1% growth respectively, adding a total of 49.3 million new passengers.

“No other country is expected to experience double-digit growth rates over the forecast period,” the IATA study said.

By 2016, the five largest markets for domestic passengers would be the United States (710.2 million), China (415 million), Brazil (118.9 million), India (107.2 million) and Japan (93.2 million).

India  overtook China as the world’s fastest-growing market for luxury goods in 2012. The world’s second-most populous country will grow at a average rate of 22% a year over the next five years. India will reach $7 billion in value by 2017, while China will grow by 15% over the same time.

“The main reason why India is such a hot destination for luxury goods is because of India’s growing number of high net worth individuals,” said Manjunath Reddy, analyst for Euromonitor International Asia Pacific. The number of the wealthy grew by 35% between 2008 and 2012 to about 170,000 and that number will increase to 450,000 by 2015.

Global luxury brands are also increasing their presence in large and well established malls across India (not necessarily luxury malls) to increase their reach to the Indian consumer.

LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton bags, was the leading firm in India with a 6.6% share, followed by Swiss watch maker Richemont, Gucci owner PPR, Britain’s Burberry and Hermes.

“What we are seeing is more consumer acceptance in the market and services spreading through to more cities across the country,” said Shital Mehta, chief operating officer, international brands and retail, Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, which operates four premium multi-brand retail stores called The Collective and  recently bought British men’s clothing brand Hackett.

Foreign brands that got in early have made rapid progress. Upscale watchmaker Tag Heuer, which has averaged 40% growth in India over the last three years, expanded from 80 shops to 120 in 2006; and Jimmy Choo  opened 10 shoe stores by 2011.

Acc to Tomas Ernberg, Volvo Auto India Pvt Ltd, Managing Director, Volvo has sold 811 units in Indian market  and  has achieved a 155 per cent growth in India during 2012 in the luxury car segment.The company has targeted a growth of 50 per cent in 2013, so as to sell 1,200 units.

German luxury car maker, Audi, achieved a massive 63 per cent jump in total sales at 9,003 units in 2012 in terms of new product roll outs and enhanced dealership network. The car-maker had sold 5,511 vehicles in 2011.

The SmartPhone segment is the fastest growing segment and continues to outpace the overall handset market for the foreseeable future. With a CAGR of 40 percent, the smartphone segment is expected to reach 97.2 million units by 2017, accounting for 29 percent of the total handset volume.

Nokia currently leads the smartphone market, with a share of 46 percent. Samsung has significantly grown and has close to 30 percent of Indian smartphone market share.

Blackerry, HTC, and Sony follow have a market share of 13, 4.3, and 4.2 percent respectively. Other prominent smartphone vendors include Apple, Motorola (mobility business now part of Google), and LG. Indian vendors like Micromax, Lava, tasted success in  feature phones segment.

Competition is expected to intensify as more and more domestic vendors hit the market with their ranges of smartphones. As a  consequence, the average selling price (ASP) for smartphones is expected to decline in the coming years.

On mobile operating systems front, Android is the overall leader, accounting for more than half of all smartphone shipments.

Samsung was the largest contributor to Android’s success, accounting for 45.4 percent of all Android-based smartphone shipments. Symbian operating system demand continues from its most ardent users. BlackBerry has average demands.  iOS has recorded a strong year-over-year growth with sustained demand for the iPhone 4S.

Linux maintained its presence in the worldwide smartphone market, and Windows Mobile Phones are expected to make significant inroad in the worldwide smartphone market.

The intense competition is also compelling handset manufacturers to enhance the application ecosystem and invent products. While market entrants are likely to be daunted by sheer numbers in the market, they will identify abundant opportunities in the rural and semi-urban market for the next three to four years. For the mobile handset market, the rural market offers exciting prospects due to its significant uptake of feature phones.

India is hence undoubtedly the largest market for cars like Audi, BMW, Ford . It’s a market for high end products . It’s a market for luxury brands like Louis Vitton that have their show rooms in many malls . India is a large market for real estate with immense opportunities for high value consumers where big houses costing odd crores of rupees are in high demand. India is a vast market for aviation sector like helicopters and choppers. Its a large market for high cost large screen LCD and LED TVs. India has witnessed huge sales of Canon cameras and printers, Samsung SmartPhones and TVs ,LG refrigerators and TVs and the list is unending.

The Rural Communication in India

 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Author : Prerna Jain   (Also refer : Demystifying Rural Communication)

Introduction

• In initial stages of communication, Govt monopoly prevailed in India.
• The Govt felt responsible for providing a mobile phone to each and every countrymen without any intention of profit. It was suppose to be a service for its people.
• The Govt started fixed line phones, wireless communication  technology for defence and army along with other heavy equipments.
• —We forget that the essence of communication is in the very DNA of each and every person on this earth, viz,  to communicate with each other without going into frivolous parameters decided by the Society.
•  —It was in 1990’s that importance of “communication” dawned upon Govt. and  felt that each and every person should be connected, thereby, empowering the whole nation.
• —It was then Govt initiated liberalization and started opening up, thereby allowing participation and involvement of private sector.

An Insight:

• — —Human resources development is essential for food security and market integration.
• —Achieving sustainable agricultural development is less based on material inputs (e.g., seeds and fertilizers) than on the people involved in their use.
• —Hence increased knowledge, and information sharing about agricultural production via apt communication methodologies, channels and tools is of utmost importance.
• —But due to poor linkages between peasants and advisory services (like consultancy, business development and agricultural information services), the adoption of new agricultural technologies by farmers is often very slow.
• —The ineffective technology delivery systems, poor information packaging, inadequate communication systems and poor methodologies result in low agricultural production and even inflation .

What Should be done ??     

—

(1) Poor farmers in rural areas should be linked with urban developed world to promote and enable mutual learning and generate, share and use agriculture-related technology, knowledge, skills and information.

(2)  Create a system that integrates farmers, educators, researchers and the private sector (support and input services, traders) to harness knowledge and information from various sources for better farming and improved livelihoods.

(3) The specific or few application based devices would allow a farmer to know about weather, communication over VOIP, and enable him to play a game or movie. This would enable a pervasive internet usage, accelerate more inter dependent economies.

Why Should It Be Done ??

• Any “invention” is not a one time thing rather its a tool that needs to constantly evolve time and again to cater different ad-hoc tastes of people and even a “re-invention” to change how we communicate and how we think.
• With technology, we ride high on efficiencies and usability it brings along with it, less concerned about its penetration in the society and its adoption demographics.

Reality Check :

—

• —However, this integration among rural people and extensionists has not been successful in many parts of the developing and developed world.
• —Rural communication is an interactive process in which information, knowledge and skills, relevant for development should be exchanged between farmers and advisory services either personally or through media such as radio, print and IT.

Aim:

• To put rural people in a position to have the necessary information for informed decision-making and the relevant skills to improve their livelihoods.
• —To have a close-knit family by connecting people across developed and developing parts of the world.

Benefits :  

• —People’s participation and community mobilization
• —Confidence building
• —Raising awareness
• —Sharing knowledge
• —Changing attitudes, behaviours and
• —Lifestyles (e.g., female foeticide, rapes, etc)
• —Foster decision-making

—Problems Faced:

• —Dearth and absence of local communication providers
• —A fragmented market many or individual clients
• —Relatively few clients scattered over a large area
• —A lack of well developed IT infrastructure and low levels of IT skills.

What Can Be done ??

—

• —Policies,
• —Media strategies,
• —Participatory methods,
• —Farmers’ or rural people’s organizations,
• —Regular monitoring and evaluation,
• —Capacities of service providers with a positive attitude to communicate with clients even in rustic areas.

Major policy stakeholders are:

• —Ministries – design and implement communication policies (e.g., Communication, Infrastructure, Rural Development, Food and Agriculture, Science and Education),
• —Media outlets – TV, radio, print, internet, either private, public or from —the civil society,
• —Representatives of farmers’ or rural peoples’ organisations – to collect and formulate the communication needs of their clients,
• —Development organisations for policy advice and harmonisation of development interventions.

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Doing More With Less

 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Author : Prerna Jain (Also refer Indian SMBs can do more with less )

 Take a Heed :

—When you hear ‘doing more with less’, two ideas click you. The two proponents in school of thoughts are:

• —Spiritual point of view for Life
• —Business point of view for Enterprise

 Spiritual Aspect:

 How do you define what is ‘more’ or how do you define what is ‘less’?

• A Ten Rupee Note is ‘less’ for me but ‘more’ for a beggar living across the street.
• I’m not happy with even 1 crores of rupees but the beggar, being a small businessman, is sufficed with Rs. 20.

—An Insight: 

• —The terms ‘more’ or ‘less’ are not determinable.
• —Not definable in terms of capital, or, size of industry.
• —Holds true on both ends: customer side and business side.

An Example: —

—

• —As a customer, I go to a 5 Star Hotel and ask for free water, free tea, free lunch, free dinner, free internet.
• —Even free drinks!
• —Where To Stop?
• —Not sufficed by whatever being offered to me.

Art Of the Trade:

—

The contentment depends on:

• —Upbringing,
• —Spiritual thinking,
• —Type of business,
• —Type of philosophy in business,
• —Goals set-up for yourself.

Everyone and everybody wishes to be happy. Seeks to prosper.

— 

So, where to find happiness, felicity? How to be happy?

——

—Happiness is here. Happiness is Today . Happiness is Now. Happiness is not Tomorrow.

Illustrations:

• —Enjoy that you are sitting here reading this article.
• —There are people who are dating , meeting PM, adoring Almighty in temples, but still not enjoying the moment. Not happy. Busy On Mobile Phones, talking with nearby persons, cribbing temple/place alleged bad points.
• —Youngsters aspire for a job to be happy, joyous. But when they get the job, they are unhappy (Boss, room, desk not good).

Prosperity is also comparative.

• —Things needed for human survival: food, air to breathe and place to sleep.
• —You will sleep when sleep comes..anywhere anytime…nothing needed
• —You can have a gold decorated bed, gold coated plate, but at the end, you need 3 by 5 feet to sleep, you need food to eat to satiate your hunger.

Hence prosperity is what we expect, and, how we define happiness.

—

• —You cannot make me happy or unhappy. Neither can I make you happy or unhappy.
• —Variables are same: $ 5m do not make me happy.
• —Any humiliation does not upset me. Because ‘I do not think of it as a humiliation”.

—Its all in mind. Its how you react to any given situation…

—

• —Failures too do not affect me.
• —Yet to see a failure.
• —Even if I fail, I do not see it as a shortcoming, depressing , demotivating event. Because I know if I was not able to get something done in one way, I still have other ways to try.
• —Albert Einstein - “I have not failed, I have just found 10000 ways that don’t work.”

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—

 Business Aspect:

How can SMBs do more with less via technology and other business strategies ??—

• —Now that business is booming again for most Indian companies, it’s time to re-visit your IT infrastructure and ensure that it’s in line with your business objectives.
• —There are certain elements in an IT infrastructure that must be added if not already there, and optimized if you already have them.

An Insight:

• —The rapid growth of technology has offered new possibilities to enterprises.
• —E.g.,  Smartphones create enormous opportunities for businesses to engage with customers.
• —For SMBs, which have a smaller customer base with big chains, it’s all about keeping connected and actively engaged.

Do “More” : Improve productivity and enhance customer service.

With “Less” : Reduce operational cost.

How SMBs can make their business more efficient and productive:

1) Mobile computing solutions:  Skype, sleek tablets computers, eliminate/reduce waiting for all sorts of “approvals” to bring in new technologies

2) Business intelligence applications: managing “big data” via deployment of business intelligence solutions

3) Social media marketing tools: exploit email marketing. Specific profile metrics about who, what, when and why on Twitter, Facebook etc

4) Cloud-driven storage, back-up and disaster recovery services/solutions: what’s the point of backing up to a server that is located in the same site as the one being protected, Or, to tapes stored in a basement across town?

5) Video-enabled collaboration applications: Telecommuting via video chats and video-enabled IP telephony. Why miss out on visual cues in conference calls (without video) that could tell more of the “story” about what someone is saying. Hence face-to-face contact is important.

6) Call centers for customer support (technical support)

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The 5 Myths About Future Technology

Will all be driving flying cars? Will robots be our friends? Can climate change be stopped?  Can artificial intelligence (AI) and machines out rule the independent thinking and creativity of humans, and emerge as the planet’s dominant species?  Let’s explore.  

5 .  Soon We’ll All Be Driving Flying Cars

4 .  The Technological Singularity Approaches

3.  Moore’s Law Will Always Hold True

2.  Robots Will Be Our Friends

1.   We Can Stop Climate Change

Full Article :  Myths  

How important is soldering?

Say it with me – ‘Yes, I really can solder that’! Yes, you really can solder that and anything else. This article includes basics of soldering. What’s soldering flux? Find out the rules for good soldering.

Among the foremost of reasons an electronic project frequently fails to work properly is due to “poor” soldering practices.

Let’s discuss the correct procedures for soldering electronic projects.

Dry joints when soldering

At first glance many solder joints appear to be quite “O.K.” but on closer examination many are in fact defective. The insidious problem with dry joints in soldering is that the circuit frequently performs alright for a period of time, even years before failure.

This problem even occurs with manufactured equipment. Ask any TV / Video repair technician who has torn a lot of hair out over an elusive fault ultimately traced back to a dry joint.

Good soldering practices for your electronic project

The cause of dry joints in soldering is mostly the improper application of heat. Both the component leg and the PCB need to be both heated simultaneously to the correct temperature to allow the solder to flow freely between BOTH surfaces. Obviously this requires practice and most newcomers inevitably get it wrong.

Improper heating while soldering and its consequences can be seen below.

Figure  – correct soldering procedures to avoid dry joints

Full Article : Electronics-Tutorials