student of visvesrya national institute of technology enginering

Startups are like “2012″!
Posted: 21 Nov 2009 04:06 AM PST
I don’t know how many of you have watched the Movie “2012”, but I watched it 2 times and found it an extremely interesting one! It’s not just about the story, the way a person can relate to Movie is also appreciative. But somehow I thought that the movie teaches many lessons, especially from an Entrepreneur’s point of View.
There are many instances where a Startup can easily see it’s own picture on the Screen. When I watched the movie second time I could relate some dialogues with my own life. It was quite funny too. For instance there is a scene in 2nd half where they talk of selling shuttle seats for some billions of dollars to a Saudi Sheikh – They argue that it’s unfair – To this US Mayor yells “Do you think without billions of dollar aid from Private Investors this mammoth task was ever possible?”.

Startups also think the same way- don’t they know what we are creating is huge? Why don’t they understand that without some initial investments this mammoth task is impossible ?
The Movie (for those who haven’t seen) is based on Mayan’s Calendar and Nostradamus’s prediction that this world is going to end by Dec 21st, 2012. They are predicting that due to the increase in temperature of earth’s core, there would be various natural disasters like Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tsunamis on a huge scale which would eventually lead to our extinction. The only survivors would be those people having political influence or huge cash reserves.
Initial one hour of Movie is filled with extreme adventure and thrill! It feels like a rollercoaster ride. Very similar to startups -Right?
Initial days of a startup are filled with extreme adventure – taking an idea from concept stage to reality and creating a team of passionate people involves a lot of fun, hard work and luck! At times we face a dead-end (or it looks like one) and then from somewhere we get a ray of hope and things start moving forward. If everything is well by the end of this phase, both startups and movie move forward!
There are many incidents in between where I saw similarity – for e.g. key-people (read Investors here ..) don’t believe that the problem on hand really exists in first place, even if it exists they believe that they themselves can solve it. But true fighters keep on fighting, until the world stands up and watch what they are doing.
And when the problem reaches a certain level and its visible those key-people buy our idea and then we have to work for them! They even demand that no one else should know about the idea.
Did that happen to you anytime?
The movie is filled with such Dramatic scenes which are pretty much relevant to an Entrepreneur’s life. In one scene there is a conversation like-
“If god wants each one of us to die, then why are we trying? And who all will survive?”
“I think that God only chooses who all will survive. We are lucky that we’re chosen by God”
In the same way, though Startups face intense competition at start only a handpicked are survived and are able to make it big! That’s why entrepreneurs just listen to their heart and don’t worry about competition.
In the end Movie is about saving humankind from extinction. It’s about facing the end, and see how your solution works against all odds to save your life. Facing “The Day” is so similar for startups. The day people are ready to experience your product, it’s like a survival game. But it’s also about the team and how your team members behave during crisis situations. You can’t be selfish enough to not think about others. Unless you learn humanity and work with dignity, you can’t survive!

Posted: 19 Nov 2009 05:08 AM PST
Forbes has recently released the list of Billionaires in the world. The total List consists of 793 Billionaires living on this Earth – The economic downturn however has taken a heavy toll – Last year there were total of 1125 billionaires out of which 373 have fallen from grace.

The world’s richest are also a lot poorer. Their collective net worth is $2.4 trillion, down $2 trillion from a year ago. Their average net worth fell 23% to $3 billion. The last time the average was that low was in 2003.
Bill Gates lost $18 billion but regained his title as the world’s richest man !
Now, how many Indians are in the List – that’s what this list is all about – Out of 793 Billionaires – Only 24 of them are Indian Citizens.
In Last year’s billionaire’s list 4 out of top 10 were Indians. Its not so this time around though. We have only 2 Indians in top 10 Billionaire Rankings. Mukesh Ambani at 7th and Laksmi Mittal at 8th. The stock Market crash has eroded their wealth big time !
Here are the list of 24 Indians that figure in the list of Billionaires:
RANKNAMECITIZENSHIPAGENET WORTH ($BIL)RESIDENCE
7Mukesh AmbaniIndia5119.5India
8Lakshmi MittalIndia5819.3United Kingdom
34Anil AmbaniIndia4910.1India
59Sunil Mittal & familyIndia517.7India
83Azim PremjiIndia635.7India
86Shashi & Ravi RuiaIndia655.6India
98Kushal Pal SinghIndia775.0India
124Kumar BirlaIndia414.2India
183Adi Godrej & familyIndia663.3India
205Dilip ShanghviIndia533.0India
234Savitri JindalIndia592.7India
246Malvinder & Shivinder SinghIndia332.6India
318G M RaoIndia582.1India
334Micky JagtianiIndia572.0United Arab Emirates
397Gautam AdaniIndia461.8India
397Indu JainIndia721.8India
430Shiv NadarIndia631.7India
468Cyrus PoonawallaIndia671.5India
468Anil AgarwalIndia551.5United Kingdom
601Uday KotakIndia501.2India
601Kalanidhi MaranIndia431.2India
601Chandru RahejaIndia681.2India
647Subhash ChandraIndia581.1India
701Anurag DikshitIndia371.0Gibraltar

Local Calls 10 paise and STD at 25 Paise – A Raja asks Telecom Companies

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 09:02 AM PST


I had really thought that Indian Telecom companies are digging their grave by slashing their rates to bare minimum and offering schemes like one second billing to keep their share in Indian Telecom pie



But here is something that has surprised me no end – According to Indian Telecom Minister A. Raja, the rates of telephony need to come down further – Infact so low that local calls should be charged at 10 paise per minute and STD calls at 25 paise per minute. He thinks its very much possible.

And if he says it, it must surely be possible !

Here is what Mr. A. Raja had to say (source)

“I have requested all operators to reduce the termination charge by 2010, and this will help to lower the tariffs further. Local call charges can come down to as low as 10 paise a minute and STD charges to just 25 paise, if this happens.” The termination charge is the levy paid by one operator to another on whose network the call ends.

Mr. Raja said operators were also asked to make optimum use of the Universal Service Obligation Fund to build telecom infrastructure in rural areas. The Centre was further simplifying the rules for the operators to get money from the Fund to boost rural telephony. The Fund has more than Rs.16,000 crore collected from all operators.

India already has lowest mobile call rates in the world and cutting them further nearly 5 times – Local calls at 10 paise per minute !!!! beats me ! speak on your mobile for half hour and you end up paying 3 rupees…

Do you think we can see that sort of rates?






10 days after launch Windows 7 still not available to consumers

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 05:14 AM PST


We have written a lot about it and have been blown away with the new operating system called Windows 7. One of the very few products that has managed to create right kind of buzz !

Indian Consumers were quite happy that not only did Microsoft offer discounted rates to them, but also introduced 2 cheaper flavours of Windows 7 that were not available in developed countries like US and UK



Everything looked good till this point – But here is something that will not go down too well with consumers who are ready with cash to get their hands on this O.S

Windows 7 has still not reached the retail Outlets and no Indian consumers are able to buy the O.S
Reason: Retail consignments of Windows 7 along with other over-the-counter (OTC) or packaged software are still held up at immigration checkpoints across the country due to anomalies over excise duty.

Here is another shocker – No one knows how long it will take to get these packaged Software’s out on the streets. It can be day, weeks or even months !

Here is the reason why – There is a Dual Taxation that is being levied on these softwares – Packaged software like Windows 7 now attracts both countervailing duty (CVD) at the point of import, as well as service tax at the point of sale."

Knowing the pace at which Indian Government works in these kind of matters is well known – Essentially, potential Windows 7 buyers are stuck indefinitely.

One of the reasons why Microsoft had launched Low Cost Editions as well as Discounts in India were to curb some amount of Piracy – but with this issue, it is more likely that pirated versions of Windows will be selling like hot cakes with roadside pirate sellers !

There is a small silver lining here though – The OEM versions or the versions which come along with new laptops / Netbooks pre-installed are spared. Luckily, for new buyers it will not be an issue.

Now the question is – Who is to be blamed for this? The Indian Government (finance Ministry) or Microsoft itself who knew about this issue before hand. Should they have launched Windows 7 in India after it was resolved?

Let us know your views

Indian Cricket Team had trailed Australia by four ratings points before the start of the series - Cricket News Updates
A rampaging India will have one more reason to give their best in the fourth one-dayer against Australia at Mohali tomorrow as a victory there would dethrone the visitors from the top of Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championships table.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men have narrowed down the gap with Australia (127 points) at the top of the table to just one ratings point after taking a 2-1 lead in the seven-match series.

India had trailed Australia by four ratings points before the start of the series. An Australian victory will, however, open the gap to three ratings points. South Africa are third with 121 points.

Per Second Billing and how it is haunting the Indian telecom sector
Posted: 01 Nov 2009 05:16 AM PST
Boy-o-Boy!! Is the one second billing thing changing the face of Indian Telecom!

It makes me wonder if Tata DOCOMO has opened a Pandora’s Box of sorts taking the Indian Telecom Industry into frenzy.


Even with a little exaggeration, per second billing to me is as revolutionary as the invention of the telephone itself. No wonder the world wants to know how the companies are able to do so and make hefty profits at the same time.

A friend working at AT&T, US told me that that AT&T is actually studying the business model of Bharti Airtel to understand the magic formulae of customer friendly prices.

A few months back, the whole BHARTI-MTN episode was doing the headlines. Bharti had been oh so desperate to make it big as a global telecommunication giant. A part of that desperation according to me was the Indian companies getting over-competitive and ARPU’s being rather low in India.

But, with DOCOMO’s per second billing and the subsequent announcement of TRAI making it mandatory for all operators to introduce “Per Second Billing”, it sounded alarm bells all around the telecom sector and Bharti Airtel was no exception.

The announcement saw many operators sit down and put their efforts to come to terms with the per second billing. It is estimated that the telecom industry can lose billions in revenue.

So, it came as no surprise when Singapore telecom (SINGLTEL) announced that it would be increasing its effective stake in India’s mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel to 31.95 percent from 30.43 percent.

SingTel which is a sponsor for Bharti Airtel would purchase an additional 730,000 shares at an estimated payment of between 18,073 million to 30,084 million INR.

It is clearly evident that Bharti Airtel is feeling the heat after joining per second billing price wars. The constantly increasing competition in the Indian telecom sector is definitely not helping the matters.

On Friday, Bharti Airtel gave a downbeat outlook due to a price war after posting its slowest pace of profit growth in at least six years, sending its shares down nearly 7 percent.

With per second billing slated to decrease the operating margins, the profits are surely going to be hit, lest the ARPU’s see a dramatic increase.

It has been an eventful quarter for Bharti Airtel starting with the MTN deal and the SINGTEL announcement hence forth. In one line, I think what can be said about the recent developments featuring Bharti Airtel is,

The Buyer has turned Seller

The problems are not for Airtel alone though, until and unless the telecom operators find innovative ways to increase the user spending and do it fast enough, the telecom sector might face some serious problems. One area which each of them have to look at seriously making ground is Mobile Value Added Services. The basic telephony is just not enough for these companies to sustain.

What do you think of the “per second” predicament. The customer is surely going to be happy but how are the telecom companies going to cope with it?

[This post has been written by our regular contributor Ankit Agarwal, an ERP Consultant by profession, a wannabe entrepreneur and stock market stalker by passion]