Aakash Tablet – Datawind not booted, but IITR is.. [The Reality]

In last few days there has been a talk about Datawind being the shown the door – Most of the online media sites covered this story. We also wrote about it citing NDTV & Livemint articles. However, the reality seems to be quite different.

We have learnt from reliable sources that Datawind is very much in the equation – Infact, if anything, they are doing a good job with Aakash Tablet.

Datawind had delivered Aakash to IIT Rajasthan exactly based on the specifications given in the initial tender of 100,000 tablets. Yes, they did get delayed on the timelines, but from hardware perspective, Aakash did not have anything missing.

We have also learnt that initial Aakash tablet had a rejection rate of 17% out of which over 90% rejections were related to screen getting detached from tablet due to heating with persistent usage. The screen was actually a snap-on plastic screen which covered the LCD panel. Other major reason  was to do with loosely held battery which made noise when you rigorously moved the tablet (due to improper fitting). Both of the reasons were accepted and replaced by Datawind.

To demonstrate the quality and durability of Aakash tablet, Datawind did a drop test with Aakash tablet being dropped from a height of 30 inches on to a 2 inch thick piece of plywood placed on a concrete floor. It worked flawlessly even after that without any issues.

However, on the other hand, IIT Rajasthan is definitely out of this project. Although, we could not learn the reasons why exactly IIT-R was shown the door – I am assuming that they failed to do proper usability testing on Aakash Tablet and were not able to manage the procurement of Aakash properly.

Although, Indian Telecom & HRD minister made a statement few days back that Aakash will be developed indigenously, it is not expected to happen immediately. Creating a tablet at such low cost will take years of R&D before it comes out to market. Currently, only about 25% of tablet will carry “Made in India” tag.

We are trying to get more details on New improved Aakash II, the tender for which is expected to come out in couple of months time. We will update you once we have the information.

HDFC launches Mobile Payment Service with Movida!

The 2nd largest private bank in India today announced the launch of its mobile payment service that allows its customers to make payments through their mobile phones using their debit / credit card registered with the bank. 

Movida, a mobile payment joint venture between Monitise and Visa, will provide technology that will enable mobile devices to make payments on phones. HDFC Bank customers can make mobile payments for range of services like Insurance payments, Utility Bill payment, top-up prepaid cards, buying movie tickets etc.

The mobile payment services will be completely free and it will be available across all mobile operators and all kinds of mobile handsets.

How will HDFC Mobile Payment Service Operate?

HDFC users will have to first link their debit or credit cards to their mobile number following which they will have access to service via simple menu based USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data - A protocol used by mobile phones to communicate with the service provider’s servers) mobile technology. After that, it is just a matter of selecting the payment service require and making the payment. The simple menu can complete a transaction in only a few steps [source].

The service will be complete secure and safe for users to use – Only the mobile phone registered with user’s bank can be connected to the service. User also has to setup a unique PIN number on the phone to access the account information.

The best part is, user does not need to have a high end smartphone to use this service – even the most basic mobile handset can be used to avail the HDFC mobile payment services.

The service will be first available to select group of users before being rolled out across the country later this year!

The Logic of Bada OS: Why Samsung Still Persists with it

Samsung is one of the largest mobile manufacturers for the Android OS and the Windows OS. Both these OSes have strong ecosystems which sustain and enhance their growth. Samsung however is still going ahead with its Bada OS, and has recently launched three power packed Bada OS smartphones; Samsung Wave 3, Samsung Wave M and Samsung Wave Y.

Question is why is Samsung still persisting with an OS like Bada with relatively low ecosystem?

This post attempts at answering some of the reasons for this strategy.

Hardware Experimentation and Testing

Samsung is one of the world’s largest mobile phone and mobile phone components manufacturers in the world. Samsung is constantly researching and developing newer hardware technologies. Samsung needs a homegrown OS to experiment, test and refine all its hardware.

Bada OS caters to all the hardware requirements Samsung might have. The OS is made to push all the hardware Samsung comes up with to its Limits. Bada OS lets Samsung collect hardware performance for its smartphones and hardware in the real world scenario through analysis of the models released to public. This freedom isn’t possible with other OS like Android, which wouldn’t give enough low-level control to test hardware and collect data.

Entry level strategy:

Samsung launched its Bada OS with the purpose of making smartphones as affordable as possible. Using Bada Samsung can extract the most out of even the most basic entry-level smartphones.

An indigenous smartphone OS helps the company have greater flexibility in creating smartphones phones at lower costs. Samsung has in fact stated this as their vision behind Bada OS – That of creating affordable smartphones that can help conventional feature phone users migrate into smartphones.

Power of Negotiation

You don’t need to be a Harvard MBA to realize that options give you greater bargaining power. OS companies such as Microsoft and Google have made alliances with multiple smartphone makers to gain market share, it is also important for smartphone makers to make models in different OSes to cater to varying User perceptions and demands. On the negotiating table, these bargaining chips always add greater value to the company.

Samsung must also be prepared for a hypothetical situation where Google may change its approach with Android. Google may decide to push its own hardware in the near future (through Motorola post its acquisition in 2011) or Google may not release new Android versions for other manufacturers. Samsung must persist with Bada OS should such a hypothetical situation arise.

Bada OS gives Samsung access to a pool of dedicated developers who can take up the task of churning out quality software for the rising demand of Samsung’s customers, a demand that would be impossible to meet relying solely on Google in that situation.

Potential market share for low cost smartphone segment

Samsung’s Bada has doubled its market share in the span of a year from Q3, 2010 to Q3, 2011 (refer table below). With Bada, Samsung has made a good quality OS for the low cost smartphone, in comparison to the current crop of low cost Android smartphones that feature outdated, non-upgradeable OSes such as Android 2.1 or 2.2. It will be sometime before Microsoft would have a low cost entry level smartphone available in its platform. Clearly, Bada has open advantage for this high potential low cost market.

Mobile Operating System Market Share

Better Hardware at a lower price point

Bada OS phones are priced less than Samsung Galaxy range of Android phones with similar specifications. Samsung is able to do it because it doesn’t have to pay royalty to Microsoft for the sale of Android phones. This gives options to a set of price conscious users who prefer better hardware versus more options in Apps.

Summary

Bada is a great example of necessity transforming to innovation. Bada’s evolution to become the rising superstar among young Oses even to usurp the likes of Microsoft is commendable.

Samsung’s Wave 3, Wave Y and Wave M will continue to get attention from the company and ample promotion on the TV and Newspaper media. Samsung has expanded its strategy for its self promoted OS by bringing in Tizen. However, it must persist with Bada considering its rising market shares, its ability to act as leverage in Negotiations and to create a distinctive high quality OS for low end smartphones. Whether Samsung follows up on this or replaces Bada completely with Tizen, only time will tell.

Using social media for generating funds in India!

Indian NGOs have come a long way in terms of raising funds for charitable causes. While most major Indian NGOs have a fairly good web presence since the past few years, GiveIndia and GuideStar India has emerged as mature online platforms that allow online donation, fundraising and linking potential donors to the correct charities.

Until recently, NGOs in India have had a tough time raising funds though traditional channels like personal appeals, expensive advertising banners, seeking famous brands mascots, hiring committed volunteers who can spread the message, holding events and so on.

But fundraising trends are now changing and NGOs in India are using social media to raise funds – Here is how…

How is social media being used in India to raise funds?

Mint quotes an example of how a 23-year-old engineer working for Teach India wanted to raise Rs. 50,000 for buying academic materials to teach his students. He simply set up a pledge on GiveIndia in 2011, posting details about the funds he wanted to raise. This pledge was a part of GiveIndia’s India Giving Challenge, a 6 week online fundraising event in which participating NGOs and corporates set up fundraising pages online, outlining their causes and goals. By utilizing the sharing option on Twitter, Facebook and GiveIndia’s own database, they reached out to friends, family, acquaintances, stakeholders, clients and donors to seek donations.

To facilitate and promote donations, GiveIndia gave out limited ‘matching’ grants, on a daily and weekly basis. Dhaval Udani, CEO of GiveIndia states that this event was amongst the first of its kind in India in terms of scale and its use of technology for fundraising. It also marks a shift from the traditional methods of ‘giving’ that have been used in India until now. He says,

Since this event started in 2009, it has nearly doubled the total funds generated and seen a substantial increase in terms of the number of participants. It further reported that Teach India was one of the champion fundraisers only because of their effective use of Facebook, Twitter and other online social networking tools.

Udani stated that Teach India utilized Facebook very well for the challenge. They went up from providing only 10 referrals to more than 1000 per day to the GiveIndia site.

“They know how social media works, they are on Facebook all the time and have managed to reach out to their friends and colleagues and raise a lot of money online just through that.”  - Dhaval Udani, CEO of GiveIndia  [Source]

On the other hand, Surf Excel celebrated the 2011 Joy of Giving week through a unique social media initiative by contributing products to NGOs, as the HUL website reported. Users were asked to visit the Surf Excel Facebook page. For every ‘Like’, Surf Excel donated Rs 11 worth of goods requirements to charity organizations around Mumbai.

Users could also go to the ‘Make a difference with Surf Excel’ section and invite friends or upload a badge on their profile picture to inadvertently promote the cause and display their support. HUL employees were personally involved in the distribution of goods to the NGOs generated through this unique form of social media fundraising. Images, videos and testimonials of their experience were posted back on the online Surf Excel community to maintain and increase traffic.

Similarly, many other Indian NGOs are using social media to leverage promotion and fundraising.

Other social media techniques that Indian NGOs can use on social media to raise funds

Here are a few interesting ways of using social media techniques to raise funds and promote awareness of charity campaigns. Some of these that Indian NGOs can start using are:

Active Twitter usage:

Some NGOs in India that use actively Twitter to promote their events are

• @SmileFoundation,
• @JaagoRe,
• @goonj,
• @TeachforIndia
• @NanhiKali,
• @Joyofgivingweek,
• @GiveIndia 

Active Twitter usage helps in making donors believe that the NGO is consistently going something good.

Crowd Sourcing:

Crowd Sourcing is a technique that allows customers, employees and stakeholders to supply ideas, designs and features for a business’ products or services. In India, The Joy of Giving Week has also been successful in using crowd sourcing for fundraising for other NGOs.

Online Coupons:

With the coming of age of coupon and deal sites like Snapdeal and Naaptol, they can become platforms for listing special vouchers and deals, the margin of which would be given as proceeds to NGOs. The popularity and large visibility of such sites can also help in promoting a charitable cause.

Deadline-driven appeals:

Instead of having generic open ended donation campaigns and volunteering initiatives, the use of social media pages can help NGOs to fix countdowns and limits for campaigns that can be tracked. Social media pages can help in reminding potential donors about a certain campaign in an interactive way, which can in turn, further last minute donations.

Apps:

Although challenges such as having different local languages or inadequate access to Internet are still being dealt with by NGOs to use social media to raise funds, using mobile apps for charitable fundraising is the next thing to watch out for in India. Samhita, an online philanthropic platform for supporting other NGOs states that using apps to improve operations for NGOs working on specific community based projects has big potential.

Fundraising and online charity in India has come of age and Indian NGOs can and are using social media for a variety of objectives – from online promotions, recruiting volunteers, increasing campaign awareness to fundraising of course. More innovations in this area are awaited in the future.

Good news for Indian B-schools: Finally climbing international rankings!

4 Indian business schools out of 6 in the list have finally made the mark amongst top 10 B-schools in the Asia-Pacific region, according to QS Global 200 Business Schools Report. IIM-Ahmedabad is ranked second, IIM-Bangalore is ranked fifth, Indian School of Business has been ranked seventh and IIM-Calcutta is ranked eighth.

IIM-A and IIM-C have shown the biggest improvement in employer opinion this year in the region by notching up four places. On the other hand, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research is at the 16^th place and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade at the 21^st.

What is the QS global report all about?

The QS global report begun to be published in the early 1990s. It provides a detailed overview of the most popular business schools around the world based on information given by global recruiters. They report lists out 200 business schools from which employers prefer recruiting MBAs. The ratings are made according to the region namely Africa and the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. The report this year was further based on a survey conducted between March and July 2011 in which 12,100 employers answered questions about MBA recruiting, reported Wall Street India.

QS Global 200 report states that "Business schools in India continue to climb up the rankings… In an economy that is rapidly growing in global importance, the rise in employer opinion of MBA graduates is extremely promising."

Scope for further growth: Limitations to overcome

Although this is great news for Indian B schools, there are areas that need focus and attention. In comparison to 90 percent international enrolment at INSEAD Singapore, IIM-A saw only 1 percent, IIM-B saw 10 percent and IIM-C saw 5 percent. About 5 percent non-Indian representation has been recorded in Indian B school classes, reported Wall Street India and TOI. In fact schools from China and Hong Kong too have reported high international enrolment.

India has never been viewed as an international destination for students even after Indian B schools started meeting international standards. That’s because of the surrounding infrastructure. India doesn’t have a system where international students can work alongside study, there are not enough options for subjects, there isn’t much flexibility of taking semesters, exams and enrolments, the technology used in classrooms still isn’t at par with international standers and so on.

The kind of exposure that a student gets by studying in a class made of students from different countries can provide a completely different perspective and edge. The report further observes that most Indian B school graduates have been restricted to being employed in companies based in India and a few surrounding countries.

“While employers recognize the skill sets and ability of MBA graduates from India’s well-respected business schools; their lack of international exposure during the study course results in an inability to operate on an international scale." - Nunzio Quacquarelli, MD of QS Quacquarelli Symonds and author of the report  [Source]

The report goes on to state that most schools in Asia Pacific, especially in India are still not the preferred choice for employers over schools like Harvard Business School of Wharton Business School, for instance.

"Though Indian business schools are becoming more reputable, an employer based in the U.S. for example will always prefer to recruit from a top business school like Wharton or Harvard than a school based on another continent. And they will clearly be able to find some of the brightest, India-familiar, management talent on those campuses too." says Nunzio.

India has come a long way in notching up the quality of its management education. Will it be able to export education and bring in more revenue by attracting international faculty, international students and international curriculum? Do we have the power to create Knowledge Cities that Gulf countries have managed to?

If we can, we will only see Indian B schools surpassing Australia and Singapore in the rankings in future QS reports.

Will MCX IPO revive the Primary market in India?

Initial Public Offering (IPO) has lost its sheen on the Dalal Street since a long time now. Invariably, the sentiment in the IPO market is directly proportional to the optimism-count in the secondary market.

Now that the market sentiment has improved since more than a month, led by brightening macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy; it’s high time that the primary market lights up its courtyard with a bandwagon of high-profile fund raising sprees.

On this note, what better than the MCX IPO, India’s largest commodity exchange by turnover, to mark the turn of events in the ailing primary market – it can easily be termed as mother of all the IPOs in the recent times.

The multi-commodity bourse MCX, which is also the 5^th largest exchange in the world, is all set to hit the capital markets to raise up to Rs.663 crore. Investors can subscribe to the MCX IPO at a price band of Rs.860 to Rs.1032 per share starting from 22^nd Feb to 24^th Feb, 2012.

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) allows trading in over 40 commodities across sectors and accounts for almost 87% of the market share of the Indian commodity futures exchange industry. Interestingly, MCX is also the largest silver exchange in the world and 2^nd largest gold, copper and natural gas exchange globally.

[MCX DRHP]

The listing will take MCX on par with other global exchanges such as NASDAQ, NYSE Euronext, CME Group and SGX. Moreover, the credit rating agency CRISIL has assigned the top-most rating of 5/5 for the MCX IPO indicating ‘strong fundamentals’ of this Indian exchange.

In its grading rationale, CRISIL has reaffirmed MCX’s leadership position in the Indian commodity futures market over the last four years, with a share of over 82% of the overall traded turnover in FY11, led by volumes in bullion, crude oil, copper and natural gas. ‘

The rating agency has also credited the company with a strong technology-backed trading platform, and infrastructure supported by its promoter Financial Technologies, apart from the exchange’s ability to provide high liquidity and low impact cost of transactions.

MCX IPO Details

• Issue Period: Feb 22 to Feb 24
• Issue Size: Public offer of 6,427,378 equity shares of Rs.10 each
• Issue Type: 100% Book building
• Price Range: Rs.860 to Rs.1032/-
• Face Value: Rs.10/-
• Market Lot: 6 equity shares
• IPO Grading: 5/5 (CRISIL)

Over the last 3 years, MCX has benefited from volume explosion in bullion trades, especially, gold and silver. While gold volumes have remained constant over the last year, the silver volumes have been the top driver in commodity-wise contribution based on traded value for MCX since FY11. In order to further spur its volumes from bullion trades, recently, MCX has introduced Gold Mini and Silver Micro contracts, which are aimed at local and retail investors.

VALUATIONS: At the upper price band of Rs.1032, the issue is reasonably priced at 18 times, based on annualized FY12 earnings – which are lower in terms of valuations as compared to other exchanges and relatively slower growth rates. Investors can subscribe the IPO from both listing gains and long-term investment perspective.

Grey Market Premium for MCX IPO: Rs.300-350 per share

Government to build fully indigenous Aakash – Datawind kicked out!

As was expected, Datawind, the manufacturer who supplied MHRD with Aakash Tablets has been shown the door. The new & upgraded Aakash will not be sourced from them. As we had reported earlier, ITI along with C-DAC are now in-charge of procuring Aakash Tablets. Telecom & MHRD minister gave a statement yesterday:

There have been some problems with Datawind, I must confess. Therefore, I have got into the act. IT ministry has got C-DAC and ITI into the act and I am going to ensure that this product is fully indigenous and truly an Indian product.

He also confirmed that improved version of Aakash with upgraded hardware specs will cost the same as previous.

So essentially both the previous parties involved (IIT Rajasthan, the procurer & Datawind, the manufacturer) have been shown the door. We will now have to wait and watch as to how ITI & C-DAC perform this challenging task of building a fully indigenous & Indian Aakash.

We had earlier learnt that MHRD is planning to float a tender for millions of Aakash tablets in coming months, however with this new development we are not sure if the new tender will be floated, as the mandate has already been given to ITI & CDAC to develop it internally!

Datawind on their part have not yet fulfilled their earlier commitment of delivery of 100k Aakash Tablets. Only 30k have delivered, while rest of tablets were expected to be delivered by end of this month. However, with IIT Rajasthan expecting upgraded specs for the rest of them, it seems to be a logjam at this point of time. Datawind on their part have not given a clear statement if they will be providing rest of the Aakash tablets with upgraded specs.

5 things Government needs do to promote the Tourism Industry in India

It’s always easy to have armchair discussions about what the government should do and what it isn’t doing. Notwithstanding that, here are a few things we’d love to suggest to the tourism ministry, because we can’t help but say again and again that India can make a lot of money off its tourism wealth but it we are simply letting opportunities slip from our hands.

Allow corporate sponsorship for heritage buildings

One of the biggest charms of Indian tourism is its architecture and wealth of historic monuments. And there’s a long list of heritage monuments that are still sitting in squalid environments.

An effective solution for this would be to outsource the maintenance and exterior lighting of the heritage monument to corporate giants in return for some branding opportunity at the monument.

Many think this is outright commercialisation. But this is a much better option than leaving it an abandoned state and let it decay.

Create experiences, not sightseeing spots

If you closely notice, many tourist destinations around the world are merely made up of created experiences. Be it botanical gardens, architectural monuments, backwaters, the Himalayas, the tourism ministry should see the potential of a place to attract tourists rather than merely banking on the natural beauty of a place.

The tourism industry which includes the government and private players, need to manipulate destinations as experiences and not sightseeing point alone.

For instance, steps can be taken to make the tour replete with tour guides, activities for the children, culinary tours, interactivity for the tourist with the culture of the place etc.

Build great roads and access points

It would completely wrong on anyone’s part to simply say ‘Create better infrastructure’. This is a very generic statement. But it is critical to build good roads and approach points to a certain tourist destination.

For foreign and domestic tourists alike, a bumpy ride with potholes and a punctured tire only to reach an exotic Indian destination is no good.

Packaged train travel, easy bus connections and safe car hire services with knowledgeable personnel combines with great freeways and highways may sound utopian but are critical features for an unmatched tourist experience.

Aggressive tourism marketing strategies

Many people seem to be having a problem with exoticizing India to the West but at some point if that strategy allows for the raking in of moolah, then why not? We’re not promoting India as the land of snakes and charmers anymore, but the tourism ministry should surely pursue aggressive online and other marketing strategies to promote India as a must-visit location. Whether it is broadcasting ‘Incredible India’ campaigns abroad, holding tourism seminars or offering Indian locations with facilities to promote foreign film productions in the country. Aggressive marketing is absolutely critical to be seen and heard well.

Sell niche tourism areas separately

India is currently in a position where it can make a cash cow out of selling customized experiences, luxury spa sessions, rare animal sanctuaries, religious pilgrimage tours and extreme Himalaya tours.

With too many points of differentiation available, Indian tourism should focus on how it has something on offer for everyone in every category with all budgets. India on shoestring, India in luxury, the royal India, urban India, the common man’s India, historical India and much more.

The way information is packaged and distributed can go a long way in improving tourist traffic in the country.

Although the government has already started making a lot of improvements in this area, we still have a long way to go to let tourism alone generate significant revenue for the country.

We need to capitalize on India as a destination where the royal Bengal tiger, a common labourer, a few millionaires, religious dichotomies, exotic culinary treasures and some of the most expensive spas of the world co-exist. Now, that’s quite a challenge, isn’t it?

Do you have any pointers to add?

Blackberry sets up its server in Mumbai

After nearly 2 years, Blackberry has finally agreed to setup its server in Mumbai, India. This controversy has had quite a effect on Blackberry’s business in India. According to the latest report by convergence catalyst, Blackberry marginally lost its market share in smartphone category.

According to the news, the servers installed by Research in Motion have been inspected by team of Indian security officers for direct linkage for lawful interception of encrypted communication happening over Blackberry messaging services.

Blackberry’s local server setup will now allow Indian law enforcement agencies real time monitoring and interception of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service data.

However, RIM is still unable to provide interception of highly encrypted data of their BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), the solution for which is not as straightforward as BBM services.

In India, over 5000 businesses use BES & BBM services. Now, with the data being monitored by Indian enforcement agencies, one will have to see as to how the corporates will respond. I am sure they will not want anyone, even the government, snooping on their communication.

For RIM – they had a tough task on their hands – If they did not provide access to security agencies they would have to bid good bye to Indian shores, while providing access would severely dent their USP and negatively affect their business in India.

Now, other mobile manufacturers like Nokia will have to brace themselves to set-up for similar kind of interception services as Indian security agencies will not settle for anything less!

Would love to hear your comments on this!

Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet [Infographic]

This infographic is strictly for Small Businesses and Individuals who are just starting out in Social Media space.

Folks at Flowtown have put together a infographic that will help the newbies to understand how and what they can do on various social media platforms. Infographic gives quick overview, their pros & cons and how they can begin using it.

If you don’t know anything about Social Media and just starting out – This infographic may well serve as the perfect start!

Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet [click to enlarge]

How Social Media is Revolutionizing the Agriculture Sector

Recently farmers in Maharashtra have found an unusual ally in Facebook. The turmeric farmers there were facing a challenge as over supply had reduced the prices drastically. So they struck on an innovative solution. They formed a group on Facebook and started inviting farmers from across the region to join the group and have since then been deciding on the supply to help sustain the demand for turmeric.

Later they went a step ahead and started talking to farmers from Andhra and Orissa on the prices of turmeric in their region. The farmer have also used Facebook for class action like boycotting local market auctions if they feel the price is not correct. Every afternoon the whole group would get together on Facebook to decide on the future course of action. The best part is that most farmers used their smart phones to connect to Facebook. As there are more mobile phones in India than computers, it is given that this is the route for the propagation of technology and social networks.

Well this is not the first time that Farmers have been using technology. I know of this case study done on the fishermen in Tamil Nadu who used SMS to great effect. They had a mailing group in which they would know of rich catchment areas for catching fishes, the prices for the day and which market was offering the best prices. After the Tsunami they included services like storm alerts to this SMS group.

Similarly plantation owners in Coorg used a blackberry app to find out the prices of coffee, which is an internationally traded commodity. They also used the app to give out alerts on pest activity especially the ones caused by the white stem borer a common infestation especially with the Arabica coffee plants.

I think Agriculture is yet another sector that is on the verge of transformation. The implications are immense, from crop prices to sharing best practices and also forming co-operatives for collective bargaining. And these are some of the steps that I feel would be coming in the near future.

1. Farmers, Fishermen and Plantations using smart phones extensively to connect to others and the external world.

2. Transfer of information in the form of applications to be used on the phone

3. More and more entrenchment of social media especially with the rise of vernacular versions of some of the networks.

4. Social media becoming a way of life for the farmers for sharing best practices with other farmers across the globe

5. Finally farmers selling direct to consumers through forums like Community Supported Agriculture.

There might be other implications and steps. I want to hear your opinion on the same, please do let me know. As usual comments are welcome.

Airtel launches Online Account Management & Itemized billing for Pre-paid customers

Post paid mobile users had a major advantage over pre-paid users till now – They could easily manage all aspects of their mobile & value added services through Operator’s website. Pre-paid users on the other hand did not have any such facility.

However, according to recent TRAI directives, telecom operators in India were asked to provide similar services to pre-paid users as in case of post-paid users.

Taking note of TRAI’s directives, Airtel today launched India’s first online self care services for its prepaid mobile users. Now, Airtel prepaid mobile customers can simply log onto Airtel’s website and start managing their mobile accounts.

Airtel users can not only request for detailed itemized bills, but also manage various services like activating 3G, subscribing or stopping VAS services, raising and tracking service requests etc. The self care services portal also allows users to recharge their mobile services online.

It is great to see Airtel launching these services for its prepaid users in less than a month since TRAI’s directive came into effect.

Over 95% of Indian mobile subscribers are pre-paid subscribers and very soon we will see all operators follow suite and launch similar services for their subscribers as well.

However, offering these services may affect Telecom Operator’s bottom line, as post-paid customers are more lucrative (from ARPU’s perspective) than pre-paid customers. Now, with pre-paid customers also getting similar facilities, there is little reason to go for a post-paid mobile connection.

What do you think?

Developers offered Free Blackberry Playbook to convert Android Apps to BB apps!

Here is a golden chance for Indian mobile developers to lap up a shiny new 16 GB BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet. We are slightly late in reporting this as there are only 4 more days to go, but I guess it is still worth all the effort!

Alec Saunders, Blackberry’s Vice President of Developer Relations made the announcementabout this initiative a few days back on Twitter.

To qualify, developers have to simply repackage an Android APK into a PlayBook BAR (Blackberry App) and submit it to Blackberry App world. The submission of the repackaged app should be done by February 13th for it to be eligible for the offer. Also, applications need to meet the standard BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines. Its that simple!

Some important things that developers will have to keep in mind:

• Developers will have to remove all mention of the word Android from their app, in the application description and in the app itself, before submitting your app to BlackBerry App World
• Developers will Remove all links to the Android Market from within the submitted app.
• The app should be built with minimum of OS 2.0 compatibility.
• Ensure your app is signed. Learn about code signing.

5 Top-Selling Indian Novels of all time!

India has produced many revered and highly acclaimed English fiction and novel writers who have garnered prestigious literary awards such as the Pulitzer and the Booker Prize, in the last few decades. Although English has been passed over in India as a colonial tradition, the novels written in English have been deeply expressive, rich and culturally embedded. Check out some of the top selling Indian novels you’ll love reading:

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

Roy’s Magnum Opus won the Booker Prize award in 1997 and till date stands as one of the most celebrated Indian novels on both the national and international literary platforms. The story is set in Kerala and revolves around the lives of two children Rahel and Esthepa and how they weave and imagine their childhood experiences while constantly trying to cope up with their highly dysfunctional family. It narrates a poignant tale about love, betrayal and kinship ties. Roy’s political propensities too are vividly fleshed out through this text as the novel deals with questions of caste, class and discrimination.

[Buy Now]

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Shadow Lines

by Amitav Ghosh

Written in 1988 by the Padma Shree Award winning Indian writer Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines is an invigorating story about the borders that mark and limit our imaginations and memories. The story essentially revolves around the narrator who is trying to consistently juggle through memories and events from past and present in hopes of finding closures and answers to his life. Written in a non-linear manner, there are consistent references to major historical events such as the Swadeshi movement, the Second World War, the Partition of India and the Communal riots of the 60s in Dhaka and Kolkata. As you can expect, this book won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989.

[Buy Now]

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Fasting, Feasting

by Anita Desai

Fasting, Feasting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize award in 1999. It is a story which reveals the deeply entrenched patriarchal family system of India. Set in a small town, it narrates the life of Uma, a grey haired spinster who feels smothered and imprisoned by her parents. The novel seeks to show how daughters in Indian families are always burdened with many responsibilities and eventually are forced to sacrifice their own aspirations and dreams in this process. It is an endearing novel which seeks to open a conversation between family values, cultural norms and individual aspirations.

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A Suitable Boy

by Vikram Seth

Published in 1993, A Suitable Boy went on to win the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Award the following year. A thick heavy bound book with around one thousand four hundred pages, it is one of the longest Indian novels ever to be published. The story is about a mother who is in search of a suitable boy for her daughter’s marriage. Set in post-independence India, the novel constantly engages with the events and the anxieties which shaped the nation building processes immediately after the independence and the partition. It is an engaging epic about romance, love, politics and families. Be ready to read this familial saga over a few months!

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Train to Pakistan

by Khushwant Singh

This historical novel narrates the events that marked the partition of India in 1947. It revolves around the people of a village which geographically lies on the border of India and Pakistan. Through his character development and storytelling skills, Singh implores the readers to incorporate a more humanitarian world view. It is a haunting narrative about conflict, war and violence and seeks to formulate a social understanding of such communal situations without taking any sides or making any sensational political commentary.

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Indian novels, as this list suggests, offer a wide and an extensive array of options. Along with the powerful political and cultural engagement, these novels ensure a riveting experience to readers.

The Making of A 3D Printer

 

A few weeks ago, we posted A 2D Tour of a 3D Printer Factory, with lots of photos of 3D printer manufacturer Buildatron Systems's facilities. But there was one important piece missing: the actual step by step building of a 3D printer. We plan to build one ourselves shortly and detail the experience in a separate story. (More precisely, Analyst Tony Hoffman will be working on and overseeing the building of one, while I run tests on a pre-built printer provided by Buildatron, for yet another story.) In the meantime, Buildatron provided us with a set of photos that show the process from beginning to end. If you're considering buying a kit to build your own printer, or are just wondering how a 3D printer goes about printing, you should find these steps more than a little interesting.

The object of the exercise is to start with everything that's on the left side of the image above—the parts for the case along with all the pieces in the two boxes—and wind up with the fully assembled printer shown on the right.

When you're done, you'll be able to print objects as shown here (assuming, of course, that you put all the pieces together correctly). Buildatron calls this particular object a twisted bottle, with the bottle on the left and the lid on the right. (Both pieces get printed at the same time.) The gold object just above the bottle is the extruder nozzle, which is the 3D-printer equivalent of the nozzles in an inkjet print head. Note that this nozzle is visibly different from the one in the prototype printer shown in our tour of the Buildatron facility. According to Buildatron, it's still developing the nozzle, but the company expects the final version to be similar to this one.

The first major stage is building the internal frame that holds all the working pieces, including the motors that move the extruder (the equivalent of a print head) in the X (right and left), Y (back and forth), and Z (up and down) axes. You first need to build two triangles like the one shown in the upper left; two crossbar assemblies, shown in progress in the upper right and finished in the lower left; and then put the pieces together to wind up with the basic frame shown in the lower right. Buildatron says that the components are designed for long term durability, with steel rods, nuts, and washers along with ABS plastic for the joints.