9.88 mln new Mobile subscribers added in Jan, crosses 900 Mln in all

It is great to see that mobile subscriber growth trajectory is back – 2011 had been a lackluster year as far as mobile subscriber addition goes. While previous years averaged about 15 mln additions every month, 2011 saw it fall to less than half!

According to the TRAI report released yesterday on Telecom Subscriber Data, India added 9.88 million new mobile subscribers in the month of Jan 2012, taking the total tally of mobile subscribers in India to 903.73 million.

Highlights of Telecom Subscriber Addition (Jan 2012)

• Active mobile subscriber based in January 2012 was pegged at 660 million, which now makes nearly 73 percent of all mobile numbers active based on usage of atleast once in a month (VLR data)
• Mobile Number Portability requests increased to 32.79 mln from previous 29.24 – 3.55 mln new requests were made in Jan 2012. Looks like the steps taken TRAI to smoothen MNP process is bringing positive results.
• India now has a overall teledensity of 77.57, with Delhi having the maximum density of 237.5 percent while Assam has the lowest with 46% teledensity
• Here are the details of Mobile as well Wireline subscriber additions:

Operator Wise Net Subscriber Addition (Jan 2012)

Uninor has been showing stellar performance for past quarter – Infact, in last 3 months it has garnered a quarter of all mobile subscriber additions. Idea seems to be the biggest benefactor of MNP and its performance has also be better than all others.

Operator Wise Telecom Market Share (Jan 2012)

In last 3 months, Uninor has managed to more than double its market share to 4.29%. While the Bharti still leads comfortably, its market share along with Reliance and Vodafone is eroding to the likes of Idea and Uninor.

Uninor’s performance makes one thing 100% clear, there is not better strategy than “Cheap pricing”. If you are cheaper than others in cost, you will definitely be the front runner. While other providers did not choose to play the “tariff” card over past few months, Uninor played it, and capitalized on it as well.

Broadband Growth

Broadband growth has been lackluster in India since start – It never really caught on. Even today, India has only 13.42 million broadband subscribers. The Top three ISPs in India are – BSNL with 8.68 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 1.36 million and MTNL with 1.03 million subscribers.

Finally, Indian Govt. releases anti-punishment guidelines for School students

I am sure most of you must have read news one time or the other about the brutal punishments meted out to students in many schools in India. In my personal opinion, this is one of the worst ways to discipline a child. In most western countries, there are extremely stringent laws against any physical punishment given to students. However, in India it is commonplace to beat students up in school.

Taking note of many recent incidents of students being grievously harmed, Indian Government has come out with anti-punishment guidelines much to the relief of millions of Indian students.

The guidelines state formation of special monitoring cells that will take action against Teacher / School in cases of physical punishment meted out to students. Teachers will have to sign undertakings against physical punishments and social audits of schools will be conducted in areas of corporal punishment.

These “guidelines for eliminating corporal punishment in schools” was formulated based on detailed study which was conducted in 2009-10 involving 6,632 children across seven states in India. The NCPCR survey revealed that the use of physical punishments was rampant in Indian schools and cane beating by teachers was a common practice.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am glad Govt. has taken steps to curb the torturous punishments given to children – It was a must. However, it is also important that parents and students do not take undue advantage of this – It is very much possible that teacher may be persecuted for every act of discipline or probably even based on false reports by students of teachers. This should not happen. There has to be balance, otherwise these guidelines may actually prove counter productive!

Would love to hear your views on this!

Top 5 Expectations from Union Budget 2012 !

The centre of attraction Assembly Election 2012 results is out of the way now. All spotlights will now focus on the Union Budget 2012 announcement on March 16. Prior to that, the Union Minister of Railways Dinesh Trivedi will narrate the Railways Budget on March 14.

In fact, days before the Budget, the Indian Railways has dropped the bomb on the industry by hiking freight charges by up to 25% for most commodities including coal, food grains and fertilizers, raising fresh fears of stoking inflation further. However, railways have reduced rates for iron ore exports by up to 4%, by shifting it away from the most expensive class and reworking the distance slabs.

In this post, we will try to put across expectations from the Union Budget 2012 from the aam-aadmi and corporate India’s point of view. Hopefully, Finance Minister Pranab’da comes true to the public expectations by balancing both the social and industrial obligations of the government.

1) Modernization of Railways: Most of Indian railway infrastructure was built during the British rule in the country and has outlived its utility to say the least. India now needs complete up-gradation of railway’s communication system and centralized train motoring system. Sam Pitroda has pegged the total expenses for railway modernization roadmap at Rs.8 lakh crore, over the next 5 years. The big question – how will government arrange for such a huge sum, though gradually?

2) Implementation of Tax Reforms: The top-most priority at the Centre should be fast implementation of the two main tax reforms – Direct Tax Code (DTC) and the Goods and Service Tax (GST) – that has been on the back-burner since last two years.

In fact, prompt implementation of GST in itself is likely to add around 1%-1.5% to GDP growth. It would also result in moderation of rates, simplification of laws and better compliance.

3) Start Fiscal Consolidation: With the election season come to a draw, its high time that the government withdraw some of the highly populist measures played as a part of its vote bank politics.

The gross fiscal deficit in the 2011-12 at 5.5% of GDP is unlikely to meet the government’s fiscal projection of 4.6%, in the back drop of faltering economic growth and skewed tax revenue collection. The only possibility of a bailout in the new fiscal year could be windfall gains from auction of 2G or 4G telecom licenses.

4) Align Personal Tax slabs to DTC thresholds: Common man automatically comes under the radar when we speak about personal tax slabs; it goes without saying that the expectations of an aam-aadmi is almost always skewed towards increase in tax exemption limits, as a relief from high inflation eating into their wealth.

This year should be no different – Pranab Mukherjee is expected to align the personal tax slabs in this budget to proposed DTC thresholds, to narrow down the differences in the structure and swift carry over to the new direct tax law. We can expect the minimum income limit not subject to tax to be raised to Rs.2 lakh from the prevailing Rs.1.9 lakh threshold.

5) Deregulation of Diesel prices: The government has de-regulated petrol prices in the past, but it still provides subsidies on other fuel products such as diesel and kerosene oil to enable the common man to have access to these basic necessities at affordable prices.

The under-recoveries on the sale of price-controlled fuels for FY12 has left a hole in the exchequer’s pocket to the tune of almost Rs.97,313 crore up to December 2011, as per a report. Moreover, under-recoveries from subsidized diesel sales has ballooned to more than Rs.56,700 crore in the first nine months of FY12.

What say? Do you have any special expectation from Pranab’da?

5 traits of an efficient leader

Those of you familiar with MBA textbooks, business coaching material and management babble already know that effective leadership styles can range from being Transformational, Visionary, Affiliative or Democratic amongst many other approaches. But what does being an effective leader really mean in simple terms? Is it about setting direction, pumping the bottom-line, inspiring employees, being ethical or all of the above? Let’s take a look and find out.

Be a Super Communicator

Management books, executive coaches and practicing CEOs have repeated ad nauseam that being a great communicator is the first and foremost key to becoming an effective leader. Your message, whatsoever it may be, has to percolate loud and clear to the lowermost rung of your organization – and that remains much easier said than done. With Indian companies expanding operations globally, communication is the only tool that will help you as a leader to cut across challenges like assembling virtual teams for impromptu problem solving, managing diversity, formulating inclusive strategies of decision making, engaging with employees to discuss their welfare and so on. From stakeholders to employees to vendors to potential investors – everyone will validate a leader or a CEO to be effective, only if he/she is a great communicator.

Promote an attitude of learning

Gone are the days when leaders were expected to ‘always be right’ in hierarchical institutions. In flatter organizations these days, leaders are as much human as their subordinates and they are known to accept their mistakes in the open, if any. To accept mistakes doesn’t necessarily mean to be humiliated and to say you’re wrong.

The real motive of becoming an effective leader by accepting your mistakes is that you promote a culture of ‘Make mistakes as long as you learn from them and don’t repeat them’, thus eliminating the employee fear. Since growing, learning and innovating often involve a great deal of trials and repetition, you will only ‘humanize’ the process of employee performance by being a part of your subordinate group rather than being ‘above’ them.

Focus on growth and innovation

Being an effective leader is not just about execution, maintaining the bottom-line and delivering results in an emerging marketplace like India. While that is a part of the job, an effective leader will get an edge if he/she allows subordinates to grow by preparing for the future, by innovating and by ideating.

Linda Hill, a Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the co-author of ‘Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives of Becoming a Great Leader and Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership’ tells TOI on her recent visit to India that it is in fact dangerous for Indian companies to focus merely on delivering results since India is an emerging market and a key player in the global context.

She states that effective leadership is all about enriching the collaborative process in an organization by bringing people together from different perspectives, creating a community of shared values and probing capability in people to bring about innovation.

Being accessible

Watching shows like ‘Undercover Boss’ or reading about how heads of Indian organizations mystery shop at their own retail outlets will only surprise you. There is an immense lack of familiarity that employees at the bottom most level have with their leaders. Forget knowing their face, employees of many mid to large sized firms don’t even know the names of their CEOs if they’re not very famous. This simply shows how inaccessible and unavailable leaders are, sitting in their ivory towers in corporate headquarters.

Leaders may not be available all the time on a one-on-one basis, but they can take advantage of the growing power of social media, podcasts, video conferencing and other such IT tools to present them as being accessible to their employees. If you want to be an effective leader, don’t just show up at annual meetings.

Allow your behavior to reflect what you want for the company

While this obviously includes ethical behavior, with the Satyam scam being a case in point, effective leaders must always maintain an image which they want their employees to see. Talking about cost cutting while you jet set for unimportant seminars and conferences or asking for a focus on innovation when you as a leader are not willing to tolerate even the slightest of monetary loss will not make for good examples. Wall Street Journal India states that in the age of information being freely available and completely transparent, leaders are bound to be under constant public scrutiny. A great tip for becoming an effective leader is to consciously think about the repercussions of your words and actions while you are and aren’t at your workplace.

MyDlink – Create your own private personal Cloud

Cloud Computing has become so popular that even people who do not understand it, talk about it (and hilariously so…). While some believe that cloud computing is no different than traditional internet hosting, others swear by it.

Many analysts & experts have predicted that most of the desktop applications (the remaining ones) will be moved to cloud in next 3 to 5 years. Consumers will access everything from cloud and there will be no real need to desktop software anymore.

Given the popularity of cloud amongst internet consumers, DLink, leading provider of networking and connectivity solutions announced launch of “mydlink cloud” product range for Indian consumers that includes network cameras, routers, and storage devices.

Essentially, DLink cloud devices will be completely integrated with online mydlink platform that allows you to effortlessly access, share, view, and control your network devices – anytime, anywhere. 

Here is an example – You can setup Dlink Cloud Network Camera at your home and view it from anywhere on the internet (with proper security credentials). Or you can have a Dlink’s storage device which will be accessible from anywhere only to you!  Routers, cameras, and network storage devices all can be reached instantly using a computer or portable device like an iPad or smartphone. Dlink has introduced mydlink app for iOS and Android mobile devices so making it easier for the consumers.

Some Highlights of Dlink Cloud Products Offering

• D-Link Cloud routers can be managed through the mydlink website.
• Security controls let you determine who uses your network, how it’s used, and when it’s used.
• Push notifications and e-mail alerts inform you of intrusion attempts and new users connecting
• Remotely control Internet access for all computers and devices connected to the router
• Check web browsing history for each computer and device
• View your camera’s live view through a web browser or mobile device anytime, anywhere
• Stay informed of what’s going on with e-mail notifications
• Store your entire media and document library, and share whatever you want with your friends, co-workers, and family.
• Back up important documents to protect them from loss
• Stay in control of your personal data without worrying about privacy issues

According to Dlink website, going forward, most of D-Link products will come under the umbrella of mydlink cloud services.

Is Social Media hurting Telecom Operators?

Ever since I have started using my blackberry my mobile bill seems have to dropped significantly. It is down by more than 40%. When I analyzed this month’s bill I suddenly realized that I had much fewer calls and the number of SMS’s has dropped drastically as well.

Though my conversations though my phone have increased, the channels have become more diverse. I use G talk to talk to my close friends, Blackberry messenger to connect with my current and former colleagues. Facebook chat to talk to my trusted network. All these have eaten into the mobile operator’s share of my wallet.

So am I the only one feeling this way?

Not exactly, in a recent report the management consultant firm Ovum estimates that mobile operators lost about $13.9 Billion due to social messaging. The number was close to $ 8.7 billion in 2010. So clearly this is a global phenomenon which is adding on to the woes of the mobile operators resulting in a further decline in ARPU (Average revenue per user).

This loss today represents almost 9 % of the total revenue from messaging. Applications like Blackberry messenger, G talk, Facebook Chat and Whatsit are eating into the SMS revenues of most operators globally.

In 1997 in an interview, Dr Martin Cooper who made the first mobile call 1973 and is considered the father of mobile technology, he spoke about how SMS was a revolution in communication. Today in little more than a decade the social network apps have almost started what would be the end of the SMS.

The Ovum report further warns that mobile operators need to relook at their services in order to stay competitive in the future.

So what can mobile operators do to reverse the situation?

1. Concentrate on data services: Most operator’s today focus more on voice and messages, but with the rise of smart phones it is data services that would drive revenue. A good example is the increase in data services revenue for NTT Docomo in Japan after the advent of smart phones.

2. Mobile broadband: With launch of 3G services the faster mobile internet experience would be through broadband and this is yet another area of growth for mobile operators.

3. Collaboration with App developers: Currently the apps built for various platforms are the ones that will eventually eat into the operator revenues. Working with these developers, operators can co-create apps that would keep the users on the mobile operator’s network. For example if I had a choice between the Airtel Live and a App from Wall Street Journal, the user experience of the WSJ app is far superior to Airtel Live, hence despite being an Airtel customer for over a decade, I have not spend more than an hour till date on Airtel Live.

4. Value added services: Increasingly many transactions are shifting to the mobile phone. Services like mobile banking, mobile commerce and mobile ticketing would become the norm rather than the exception. It is time that the operators work collaboratively with this increased ecosystem and enhance their services.

But this is just the tip of the ice-berg. What are the other strategies that operators can run to leverage the growth of social media and smart phones?

I would like to hear your views on the same.

Mukesh Ambani tops Bloomberg’s list as Asia’s wealthiest !

The global stock markets are somewhat out of the woods – and this has thrown up some interesting set of numbers in terms of list of the world’s richest people.

However, there is a twist in the tale – until now, we were familiar with the Forbes list of billionaire club that announced the list of wealthiest people in the world on an ‘annual’ basis. But, for some, this was too long a waiting period to get the list of the elitist people in the world.

This said, here we have debut of a truly new kind of rich list – the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – that updates the ranking of the world’s 20 richest people on DAILY basis, by calculating net worth of the wealthiest people on the globe on most transparent estimates available.

For instance, if you want to know what’s cooking on with the net worth of business tycoon Warren Buffet, you can fetch latest data on Bloomberg’s ranking index; whereas if you log on to Forbes data for the same, you get the picture last updated as of November 2011.

Bloomberg Billionaire Index as of March 5, 2012

{[Source: Bloomberg]

Expectedly, Mexico’s telecom czar Carlos Slim Helu tops the list of billionaires by Bloomberg with net worth of $68.4 billion as of March 5, 2012. Going by Forbes data, the estimated net worth of this richest person on Earth was pegged at $63.3 billion as of Nov 2011.

Moreover, the coveted 2^nd and 3^rd position in the list of the billionaire club has been notched by business tycoon-turned-philanthropists – Bill Gates and Warren Buffet – with a net worth of $62.1 billion and $44.3 billion respectively, as per the dynamic measure of Bloomberg index based on changes in market, economy and current exchange rates.

Mukesh Ambani emerged as Asia’s richest person with a net worth of $26.5 billion, even as the shares of Reliance Industries under-performing big time on the Indian bourses. Unfortunately, Forbes had ranked the elder Ambani brother at No.9 in terms of richness a year ago, but under the Bloomberg data Mukesh Ambani is pushed back to No.11, ahead of China’s wealthiest Li Ka-Shing.

Lastly, steel baron Lakshmi Mittal is the only other notable personality in top 20 list of billionaire club from India’s perspective, to be ranked at 17^th position of glory with a net worth of $23.2 billion.

5 smart ways to manage incompetent and annoying employees

Managing incompetent and annoying employees is every manager’s worst nightmare. The reality is that no workplace is void of such employees who are a drag on the performance of their own teams and colleagues. If you are a manager or an employer, read on and find out how you can smartly manage annoying employees without getting into a messy situation.

Monetize performance

One of the easiest ways to deal with incompetent and annoying employees is to monetize performance, or in other words, put a price tag on different targets. In such a situation, an employee’s actual productivity is directly driven by how much money they can earn over and above their base pay. Similar to the tried and tested Carrot-Stick approach, make your employees work towards a particular task or target and lure them in with a reward, whether it is an incentive or a one-time cash bonus.

Managers should remember that an incentive does not always need to be cold hard cash. In a recent article in TOI, Monika Tripathi, VP of a well known recruitment firm says "…The young task force is hungry for success and appreciate the flexibility to manage their time." In line with this, many FMCG giants like Hindustan Uniliver, Asian Paints and Jyothi Laboratories allow their employees to manage their work schedules including leave applications.

In 2011, a statement by Google read along the lines of "…We provide individually tailored compensation packages that can be comprised of competitive salary, bonus, and equity components, along with the opportunity to earn further financial bonuses and rewards…" This was on the back of Google being voted as one of the top companies to work for in India, according to a survey by The Economic Times and Great Place to Work Institute.

Utilize annoyance to your advantage

Managers are increasingly learning that utilizing talents and skills of even the most annoying employees is a smart way of converting a problem into a rewarding solution. Below are a few examples.

If you have an employee on the floor who engages into a lot of gossip, make him/her your eyes and ears on the floor. Get that employee to report to you about the latest happenings to use it to your advantage.

If you have an employee whose only skill is the ability to have great conversation, consider shifting him/her to a role that is communication centric.

If you have an employee who never comes to work on time, you may want to consider allowing him/her to work from home if that is feasible with his/her job profile or complaint to your company’s policies.

Set an example

One of the classic principles of leadership and good management is to lead by example. If you want your employees to do something, show them how it is done by setting a prime example yourself. Because if you don’t, your employees may write off your orders and instructions to label you as a ‘someone who only preaches’ rather than ‘someone who does what he/she says.’ How do you think it would look if you harassed your employees to make it to office by 9 am when you don’t make it by 10 am yourself? As common sense suggests, employees will not heed to your advice until you do it yourself.

Keep a log of an employee’s mistakes

"Slackness can also appear in the quality of work. So if the employee repeatedly makes mistakes, be sure to point out specific errors, rather than just saying, "Your work is sloppy." - Mr Das, Chief of HR at ICICI Prudential [Source]

That’s exactly what all managers need to remember and implement. If you find an employee repeatedly slacking and making little efforts to come in line with expectations, it is best to start keeping logs of his/her shortfalls. Firstly, this log will help you pin point the exact deficiencies in performance when you reprimand your annoying employee. It will help you accurately tell him/her where, when and how he/she needs to improve. Secondly, if the day comes where the employee needs to be deprived of monetary benefits or fired from his/her job, you will have a log which serves as proof and support for your actions.

Let HR take over in delicate situations

Managing incompetent employees may be easy for managers in small to mid-sized firms. However, when we talk about larger corporate houses, managers often leave tricky cases up to HR. After all, that’s what the HR guys are paid for, aren’t they? If you’ve been facing the wrath of an incompetent and annoying employee who refuses to heed your advice and change for everyone’s benefit, talking to a guy in HR may be your saving grace. Not only because the guys in HR are trained to deal with difficult employees but also because you can evade the liability of a future spat between the employee and the employer. After all, the last thing you’d want to be faced with is the trouble of Harassment or a Discrimination law suit.

4 Android apps to Send FREE SMS across India

Do you send a lot of text messages to your friends in India? Do you have friends or relatives abroad who you keep in touch with via SMS? If you do, and you have an Android phone, there is really no need to spend money on recharges or watch your post paid mobile bills soar higher.

Here is how you can save money and send free SMS with these Android apps that you can download on your phone.

Free SMS to India

Free SMS to India is an Android app that allows users to send free and unlimited text messages to any mobile in India directly from an Android phone. This app gives you the advantage to use multiple gateways like Way2SMS, FullonSMS, Site2SMS, 160by2 and YouMint. The developer is also open to being contacted to add more gateways.

The interface is simple and Free SMS also allows you to choose from the huge library of sample texts for different occasions that you may be sending messages for. What seems like icing on the cake is the developer’s claim that this app saves battery life and RAM as it transfers the processing and operations to external servers.

Download Now

JaxtrSMS

Launched in November 2011, JaxtrSMS allows users to send unlimited and free text messages to any phone anywhere in the world. The SMS recipients are not required to install the app before using it. This makes it the world’s first mobile based SMS app which is completely open, claims Sabeer Bhatia who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Jaxtr, TOI reported. Amongst a host of free SMS services, this ‘open’ feature of JaxtrSMS gives it an edge over other SMS apps. According to Bhatia, this ad supported multi-platform app will make traditional texting redundant.

Download Now

Free2SMS India

Like the other apps, you can enjoy sending free and unlimited text messages to anywhere in India with Free2SMS India. It currently supports way2sms, fullonsms and site2sms and more gateways are likely to be added soon.

Using your data plan, Free2SMS India can also perform functions like switching gateways easily, allowing you to access Sent and Received messages from the app and integrating your Contacts to send text messages directly through the app. This app has got some great reviews and a 4.2 star rating on Android Market mainly due to its simple and easy to use interface.

Download Now

Free SMS Way

With Free SMS Way, you can share not only texts but also links, phone numbers and other numericals captured from Barcode Scanners. For the user’s ease text messages are shown in conversation view from where the sender or the receiver can be called directly. This app supports numerous free gateways and also provides a range of emoticons and smileys for the SMS-obsessed. Users have consistently given this app good feedback on Android Market.

Download Now

Do you know of any which you have used to send Free SMSes in India from Mobiles – Do let us know!

Bigbasket.com gets USD 10 Million funding from Ascent Capital

This is the largest first round funding for an Indian startup. BigBasket.com, a online grocery store founded by serial entrepreneurs K. Ganesh & Meena Ganesh (of TutorVista) along with Fabmart & Fabmall founders (V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and V S Ramesh) has bagged a cool USD 10 million first round funding according to report in TOI.

With names like those behind the venture, it is not too surprising that VC’s are backing BigBasket.com big-time.

Although, online grocery selling has been much talked about vertical, no single player has been able to make a mark. Most offline grocery superstores like Food Bazaar, Reliance Fresh and Star Bazaar have their online shops, but consumers have not taken fancy to them.

BigBasket.com hopes to bring about a change here – and like others, they have an ambitious plan of setting up ambitious direct-from-farmer supply chain to compete on pricing and make it attractive.

I did go through Bigbasket.com briefly, and as of now, I am not sure if they have the direct-from-farm supply chain in place, as the prices seem to be similar to what you would expect from normal vendors.

Given the track record of people behind Bigbasket.com, this one e-commerce startup will be one to be watched closely!

Siri equivalent Google “Assistant” coming on Android phones soon

Its about time it came! Siri was talk of the town when it was launched. We still see many people go gaga over Siri’s antiques.

Android users have been waiting for Google to launch an equivalent  of Siri, and looks like their wishes will finally be coming true. According to a post on Techcrunch, Google will be launching Google “Assistant” by fourth quarter of 2012.

The expected Google Assistant will probably be much more that what Siri does. According to TC post, Google Assistant will have three main parts:

1) It will collate world’s knowledge into a format a computer can understand.

2) Create a personalization layer — Experiments like Google +1 and Google+ are Google’s way of gathering data on precisely how people interact with content.

3) Build a mobile, voice-centered ‘Assistant’ that’s less about returning search results and more about accomplishing real-life goals.

In short, Google Assistant will be an voice recognition engine that will understand what you speak or ask and give you close to human answers by processing huge amount of content from different channels. Not only that, unlike Siri, Google Assistant will be open to third party developers, so that they can build interesting applications around it.

Just to take an example – if a racing game on Android is integrated with “Google Assistant” APIs, the user has to just say the commands, instead of pressing buttons or tilting the device. Games could be voice activated, so when you say “Jump”, “turn right” or “brake” – the game will actually understand and execute them as designed.

Additionally, as VB reported, Google Assistant will be able to tap Google’s powerful search engine for knowledge and integrate Google services like Gmail, Google+, and YouTube, making it easier than ever to do anything on your phone

Being an Android user for past 3 years, this is one feature I am personally looking forward to. It has potential to bring about a lasting change in the way we communicate with our mobile & other digital devices.

fopping.com – Making online shopping more social

Couple of years back no one expected ecommerce to catch on so fiercely in India, but today not a week passes when we don’t hear about either a new ecommerce site getting launched or someone getting funded in this space.

We have yet another one joining the ranks – Fopping.com. It is based on the premise of making shopping more social. It has more deeper integration with customer’s social network than most others. fopping.com integrates consumer’s social profile in determining price of the product.  Consumers earn rewards based on their social strengths and friend circle.

We spoke to Mr. Rama Jamili, Director & Co-founder of fopping.com and here is what he had to say:

1) With Indian Ecommerce space getting saturated, especially in verticals that fopping is into, what do you see will be USP of Fopping ?

R.J - E-retail has caught the fancy of many as the growth of technology has empowered consumers in India as never before. Many websites have sprung up over the last one year who is looking to tap into this emerging market.  The key to survival for any e-commerce website is to provide a wholesome shopping experience to the customer while giving him the best value on the products.

As the customer is not able to see or feel the products, the onus of reciprocating him for this as well as keeping his faith in the website is the driving force behind fopping.com. We want to make online shopping a fun experience so we have linked our share and gain reward system with social networking sites like Facebook and twitter. Ours is the first website in India that uses the social networking strength of a person (based on his friend list) to reward him with fopps.  Each fopp is equal to a Rupee that can be redeemed for a certain amount on each and every product on our website. We believe in delighting the customer with our deep and varied categories, share and gain fopps along with prompt delivery. This is our USP.

2) How does Fopping plan to capture Consumer mindshare?

R.J - Today Google, Facebook and Twitter rule the Internet space. We have focused our unique share and gain model on fopps earned by sharing products from our website onto the customer’s personal page. Depending on his friends list, he is rewarded fopps. But more importantly, through him we are able to reach more of our targeted market segment. At the same time, by rewarding the customer, we are delighting him as we are demonstrating his socio- commercial impact. We constantly endeavor to get every kind of merchandise on our website- from Haute couture designer wear to cult brands, hi- fashion to home-furnishings. Our website also stresses more on visual merchandising through our banners and product displays to capture the imagination.

3) Offering points (Rs) based on Social Connections – Is it a big enough reward for users to come and buy at fopping. What happens if a user has very low social connection?

R.J - It may or may not be. But we have this vision of making Shopping more social, with that we have started. Soon you will see more innovations from our end to make Fopping more Fun and social.

4) I have not understood it really works…can you please elaborate on it

R.J - In simple steps, Share product before you buy, Earn FOPPS depending on number of friends a user has and last is buying the product.

5) What are future plans and targets you have set for fopping.com

R.J - We want to maintain our uniqueness and bring out more innovative ideas into implementation to make shopping more social.

6) Ecommerce market is heading towards consolidation, what are your thoughts on those.

R.J - Consolidation is good for us. Our uniqueness helps us in a consolidated market.

7) What is the existing customer base and are you seeing any transactions currently?

R.J - We are in stealth mode in regards to this. Our competitors are prying on us, but it is reasonable to say we are growing at a good rate

——

Gender Equality: Where do Indian women stand [MasterCard Report]

TIME Magazine, Forbes Magazine, The Economist and other such prestigious publications have year after year covered lists on the lines of Top 100 Influential Persons or Top 50 Women in Business. And the results have often carried the names of Indian women. These are the crème de la crème, but what about the average woman from India or any Asia-Pacific country? On March 2, 2012, MasterCard announced the results of its latest Index of Women’s Advancement, which measures the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men for 14 Asia-Pacific countries.

How are scores calculated: A detailed description of the metrics used

Here are the details regarding the metrics used to draw results for the research:

• The Index is measured on the basis of five indicators – Business Ownership, Business & Government Leadership, Workforce Participation, Regular Employment Opportunities and Tertiary Education.
• Each indicator measures the ratio of women to every 100 men in each of the 14 Asia-Pacific markets that have been covered by the index.
• Scores are indexed to 100 to indicate how close or how far women in each market are to achieving socio-economic parity with men.
• A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favor of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favor of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes.

Highlights of the results: The best and worst of each category

Top Scores:

Countries with the highest overall score were predictably Australia (83.3) and New Zealand (83.1).

Growth Trend:

As compared to the last 3 years of this index, 12 countries saw an increase in their overall Index scores. India (48.4) currently ranks the lowest amongst all the Asia-Pacific countries but has seen an upward trend since 2010. Whereas, China (73.7) has been experiencing a consistent decline in its score since 2007.

Tertiary Education:

Enrollment rates for women in tertiary institutions have surpassed men for most Asia-Pacific countries. This has been proved by the score in 11 countries, with New Zealand (137.7) being the highest and Singapore (98.1) being the lowest. The only exceptions to the case are Japan (89.6), Korea (73.1) and India (69.5), where enrollment rates for women were lower than that of men.

Workforce Participation:

India (35.9) ranked poorly in the category of workforce participation rates for women, with countries like Malaysia (57.1), Indonesia (61.0) and Philippines (62.8) following closely. Most other countries were averaging over 70.

Regular Employment:

11 countries offered equal opportunity for both men and women. Again, the exceptions being India (52.9), followed by Vietnam (71.6) and China (82.8).

Small Business Owners:

13 countries had fewer than 50 female business owners for every 100 male business owners, with Australia (56.6) faring the best and Hong Kong (29.0) faring the worst. This simply signals that this category requires greater amount of attention and empowerment.

Business/government Leadership:

This research has thrown up a startling figure of 6 out of 14 countries to have at least 50 women business/government leaders for every 100 male leaders. Philippines (192.3) took the prize here while Japan (15.0) took the beating. India (65.8) predictably fared well in this category.

India has seen a fairly low score in all the categories except women’s representation in business and government. Although we see more women making it to the top in Indian corporates like Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, Anu Aga of Thermax, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC, Vinita Bali of Britannia and Anjali Bansal of Spencer Stuart India amongst many others, the key is to make sure that empowerment percolates down to the lowest rung of the socio-economic strata.

Andrew D. Mason, World Bank’s lead economist and coordinator of the gender program for East Asia and Pacific Gender mentions that gender equality encompasses a number of issues, such as having good infrastructure so that women in rural areas don’t have to spend too much time fetching water from point A to point B, having similar maternity and paternity leave structures, promoting non conventional education programs so that maximum number of women can be involved in education, having a reasonable national childcare system so that a young mother has time to invest in education and employment and so on.

Yes, easier said than done. But taking part in solutions and initiatives like these should be a part of India’s strategy moving forward. Only then perhaps may we see India faring better in these indices in the following years and more importantly, the increase in the position of the average Indian women in the workforce. Especially after nearly 7% of them having dropped off from the workforce in the 5 years leading up to 2011, according to ET.

MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement
Market	Overall Score 2012	Five Indicator Scores
		Tertiary Education	Business Owners	Business & Govt Leaders	Workforce Participation	Regular Employment Opportunities
Australia	83.3	134.5	56.6	73.1	81.6	105.5
New Zealand	83.1	137.7	46.8	77.1	83.2	111.1
Philippines	77.8	125.8	47.1	192.3	62.8	98.1
Singapore	77.4	98.1	46.0	65.5	74.0	113.6
Vietnam	75.0	107.2	37.5	32.7	90.1	71.6
Thailand	74.6	133.2	38.5	36.0	79.9	95.2
China	73.7	118.4	42.6	24.0	84.3	82.8
Hong Kong	73.7	104.2	29.0	48.4	75.1	110.1
Taiwan	73.5	107.0	30.4	34.3	78.8	109.0
Malaysia	68.3	135.9	32.5	58.7	57.1	111.2
Indonesia	67.9	103.3	35.9	45.9	61.0	94.4
Japan	64.8	89.6	29.4	15.0	69.0	105.3
Korea	63.5	73.1	42.2	17.3	68.9	102.8
India	48.4	69.5	32.5	65.8	35.9	52.9

The scores above show the proportion of women to every 100 men for each category. Scores of over 100 are truncated to 100 when the overall Index score is derived, so as to ensure one component does not skew the overall Index score.

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