Home Visits & Online Tax Help: IT Dept.’s initiatives under Tax Return Preparers scheme

The Indian Income Tax Department has been coming up with initiatives to ensure that Tax filing can be done with minimum of efforts. The have now come out with 2 new initiatives –Online Tax Help and Register for Home Visit.

Both these initiatives have been launched under the Tax Return Preparer (TRP) scheme in which tax payers can take the help of registered professionals to file their returns. The scheme is currently available in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Patna and Lucknow. The IT department said that more cities will be added.

To use the TRP scheme, tax payers will have to log on to www.trpscheme.com and can either click on Register for Home Visit or Online Tax Help.

From the website, tax payers can either fill out details on online forms or look for registered TRPs in their states and districts. If tax payers choose the online route, their query will be answered either via email or phone by tax experts.

If the home visit route is chosen, a TRP will schedule a home visit and assist the tax payer.

Who are TRPs?

Tax Return Preparers or TRPs are registered professionals, who with the support of the government can assist individuals / HUF to file their tax returns. For their services, TRPs can charge up to Rs. 250 for preparation of every return.

Additionally TRPs will receive an incentive from the IT Dept. which will be a percentage of the tax paid, up to a maximum of Rs. 1,000. These incentives range from 3% of tax paid by every new assessee followed by 2% and 1% in the second and third year respectively.

For old and existing assessees, TRPs will receive a flat fee of Rs. 250 from the IT Dept.

What will the TRP do?

Prima facie, it seems that TRPs will be responsible in assisting tax payers to prepare their IT returns. They will also furnish the returns with the IT Dept and subsequently maintain a record of the filing. It is important that TRPs are not be confused with accountants or auditors.

In formal capacity, their role merely seems to be that of a person who can assist and help to file and organize an IT return.

Who benefits by these initiatives?

The lay man tax payer can avail professional help to fill out tax returns without paying more than Rs. 250. The TRPs on the other hand can charge tax payers, and earn incentives from the IT Dept. On the TRP scheme’s website, success stories of TRPs claim that registered professionals are now taking advantage of this initiative and are assisting thousands of tax payers every year. With figures like these, being a TRP could very well be a mainstream income source.

Of course, there is benefit for the IT Dept as well. This initiative may go a long way into increasing collections for government coffers as TRPs will assist tax payers in filing the right amount of returns. Additionally these initiatives also have the potential of drawing in first time tax payers with the apparent notion of ‘ease of filing Tax returns’.

Google Search’s Maths Calculator is just Awesome!

Just Wow! Google search sometimes really surprises you with some awesome stuff.

Google Search’s newest feature, a maths calculator, is so awesome that you will be floored by its flexibility and utility. A user just needs to type in any calculation straight into the Google search box and bingo… it will give you all the mathematic sums.

And the Google calculator it does not stop at simple calculations, it also has scientific functions built into it – which means, scientist will not have to look for scientific calculator to do complex calculations. Google Search box will be everything they may need for doing their calculations.

Here is a simple yet a long maths sum that I gave put in Google Search

The flexibility that Google’s calculator offers to users is just awesome. You can put your mathematical query in numbers or simple English language. If you see the query which I have used above, you will see that I have user a hybrid query which includes numbers as well as words. Google Calculator comprehends everything and represents it in numerical equation and offers exact answer!

Most people NOT exempt from filing Tax Returns for income below Rs. 5 Lakh

Government has made it official that an individual who earns income below Rs. 5 Lakhs need not file their Income Tax Return. However, don’t jump with joy because most will still have to file the returns due to the conditions IT Department has attached with this rider.

In this article Taxmantra will help you in understanding the situation better and make you aware of all the condition related to it and the people to whom such exemption limit does not apply. Further, we will also brief you on the benefits of filing Income Tax Returns and why it is important to file your Income Tax Returns.

People are aware of the fact that government has granted exemption to individuals from filing their returns if they earn a salary income below Rs. 5 Lakhs. But they are unaware of the conditions relating to it and to whom it does not apply.

The following class of persons cannot avail such exemption:-

1.) An individual who has multiple Form 16 (has shifted from one employment to another)

2.) An individual who earns income other than income from salary and savings bank interest

3.) An individual whose total Tax Liability has not been paid through Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and has some amount of Tax Payable

4.) An individual who has some amount of refund due to excess deduction of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

5.) An individual whose interest income on savings bank account is above Rs. 10,000.

Further, the following class of people can only avail such exemption limit:-

a.) An Individual whose source of income is Salary income and Tax has been deducted on such income through TDS and there is no amount of Tax Payable or Refund.

b.) An individual who earns interest income on savings bank account and such income isbelow Rs. 10,000.

Common people are confused over the issues relating to return filing. Their main concern is regarding the exempted limit of return filing. As we are aware of the fact that Government has exempted individuals from filing return those whose salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

But in this article Taxmantra is advising you to always file your return even if your salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Benefits of filing Tax return even if the salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs

1.) Form 16 does not stand as a valid proof of your income. Further, ITRV received from the Income Tax Department stands as a valid proof of income and is accepted everywhere.

2.) In case you want to apply for a Loan (Housing Loan, Car Loan, Personal Loan, etc.,), the Financial Institute such as bank will ask for 3 Years ITRV as a proof of financial stability which can be maintained only by filing your Income Tax Returns every year.

3.) In case you want to make a Visa application it is necessary to file your Income Tax Return.

4.) It is always advisable to maintain a Financial record of Income in the form of ITRV to stay Hassle Free and be able to present such record whenever needed.

Thus, considering the above points it can be summed up that one should file return even if salary is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Only 20% Indian Engineers possess language skills for Business Writing & Client Interaction!

We pride ourselves for having one of the largest English speaking population in the world. We need to rethink that notion. It is probably the Hinglish that we are talking about and not English.

According to survey conducted by Aspiring Minds, majority of recently passed out Engineers in India lack the basic language competence required in Business as well as local environment.

The findings in the Aspiring Minds report  are based on the objective test-attempt data of 55,000 engineering students from 250+ engineering colleges across multiple Indian states who graduated in 2011. All of them undertook AMCAT English, a competency-based standardized assessment of English developed by Aspiring Minds.

Comparison of English comprehension skills

According to the report, 25 to 35% engineers cannot even comprehend English used in day-to-day conversations. Given that Engineering curriculum and lectures offered are all in English, the level of knowledge transfer during classes is surely a huge concern for colleges and universities.

Nearly half of the Indian engineers (50% to 60%) are unable to construct grammatically correct sentences even for writing emails. In the context of employment, especially in the knowledge based Industry like Information Technology (where maximum number of engineers are recruited), written communication plays a very important role.

The report also finds that only one in four engineering graduates (27%) have superior grammar, comprehension and vocabulary command over English language. This is generally the level that is required for research and analysis profiles in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry. This level of competence is also required incase he/she is considering higher studies or studying abroad.

One of the reasons why we see this low level of competency in English language among Indian engineering graduates is because more than 90% of students complete their their school & high school studies in their local language. English comes in as 2nd language. When they enter Engineering, everything is taught in English without the use of local language. Given that their basics are weak, they graduate without much proficiency in English.

The report opines that to achieve good level of proficiency in English language four years of Engineering alone is not enough and the onus lies with schools to clear the basics and inculcate in students a love for reading and writing in the English language.

MBA – Do you need it?

Every year 150,000 plus students in India attempt the various MBA entrance examinations. The more popular ones are CAT, GMAT, MAT and XAT. There is an entire industry that has sprung up to help these students attempt these examinations

But my fundamental question is do you need an MBA?

Before we try to answer those questions, let me tell you candidly that I have an MBA. And I entered an MBA institute with 5 years of work experience in the healthcare services industry. This means I was more or less aware of my strengths and weak nesses, and came with a clear mandate on which areas I wanted to focus on.

90 % of our MBA aspirants in the country come with no or less than 1 year of experience. For most it is an extension of their graduation, where they waltz through the 2 years and focus on the placements and the rupee figures at the end of the term.

Little importance is given to core areas like Industry networking, Industry short term projects and even the academic projects are looked upon as chore rather that something to learn from.

As most Indian B schools promise a summer internship and final placement, students don’t even bother leaving the campus to build their own bridges in the Industry.

In my opinion, most Indian graduates need to put in a few years in the industry before opting for an MBA. This will help them make wise decisions, rather than going through the process and landing up in jobs that they are not passionate about.

The other challenge is the fundamental nature of the B school curriculum in India. Every year the students learn close to 21 subjects and I am not sure if the human brain is built to retain such vast quantities of diverse curriculum in equal proportions.

This brings to my second point, knowing what and where to concentrate is a good thing to have in a B school, but until and unless you have worked and identified your strength in the battle field, it will be difficult to pick and choose your battles.

In conclusion, do you need an MBA?

I don’t think so, unless and until you are sure of what you want to concentrate on, I think, it is more of a social exercise without any industrial value in it. Like others it is just a tick in the box and more a requirement for our marriage market.

But I would like to hear your views. Do you think an MBA without experience has helped you? If yes then how? If not then why not? Do let me know what you think.

How Companies’ fool & misguide you through marketing E-Mailers [Case Study]

I am sure most of you who are reading this article may have come across an unsolicited email that has arrived in your inbox with some unbelievable offers or wins or worst some downloads  etc. Majority of the users are now aware of it (and delete it), but, there are some new unaware internet users who fall for it.

Fortunately, most e-mail platforms do a good job now-a-days to divert such mails to spam avoiding users falling into their traps.

However, there are breed of companies’ and marketers who also use not-so-clean tactics to misguide email users. I just came across one such email today and wanted to show our readers how they easily fool email users.

Today, in my Gmail inbox, I got a mail from “Airtel Live” with subject line “Keep track of missed calls with airtel missed call alerts.”.

Though, I am not a Airtel user, I was quite curious about the mail. Once I opened the email and scrutinized it – It was clear that it was a marketing email not coming from Airtel, but fromyoumint.com, a rewards point company. The email was sent so that I should sign-up for their program.

See the Email Screenshot given below:

You can also see the online version of not-so-genuine ad here. [Update: This link was previously taking me to Youmint website for sign-up… Looks like after this post, the link has been diverted to Airtel Website]

Now, there is a chance that Youmint.com might have partnered with Airtel – even then, this mail misguides the user completely into thinking that this mail has directly come from Airtel. There is absolutely no mention on Youmint.com anywhere in the email.

Now, this is just an example, but marketers use such tactics widely and users have to be careful about clicking on any such emails. These kind of emails don’t only fool the users but also the Email Spam filters.

Even Brands (like Airtel in this case) have to be careful about their name / logo being used for such purposes.

Google launches Web Academy in India with NIIT

In partnership with NIIT, Google has launched Google Web Academy in India. The learning program has been created to train young Indian professionals in online programmes using Google technologies. The main aim of this program is to help professionals and organizations reach out to a larger audience. Courses will be delivered through NIIT’s centres across India.

Initially students will register for a Certificate Programme for Online Professionals using Google Technologies, which will have a 60 hour course duration. From the program details on NIIT’s Google Web Academy website, it seems that the curriculum will include different modules revolving around knowledge about Google Apps and using them to create, build and promote an online presence, including:

• Picking up on the basics of using Gmail and related apps to store and organize communication and data
• Creating an online identity with Google+ and Google website
• Developing an online strategy by using Google Tools to look for potential customers and target advertisements
• Sustaining and expanding online presence via social media, YouTube and Blog
• Generating revenue with Google Adsense
• Tracking and analysing online presence with Google Analytics

The release on NIIT website mentions that Google Web Academy will later evolve into a comprehensive training program offering courses in mobile apps, cloud computing and integration of more Google products and 3^rd party apps for individuals and businesses. NIIT CEO Vijay Thadani said "….This pioneering initiative will introduce the latest technology to students and working professionals to help them carve a challenging career path in emerging internet economies."

‘Emerging internet economies’ seemed to be the keyword both the companies wanted to hit here. Complimentary to what Thadani had to say, Rajan Anandan, VP & MD Google India mentioned "As the Indian internet market continues to show robust growth, we believe a capacity building program to help young professionals gear up for the opportunity is the need of the hour. Google Web Academy is part of our initiative for emerging Internet economies and we’re very excited to launch this in India first…."

This is not the first time NIIT will be partnering with a tech giant to offer training courses in India. In the past, the BSE and NSE listed company has partnered with the likes of Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Oracle.

Google on the other hand too, has an ocean of online courses and tutorials dabbling in various aspects of online presence and programming. But this will be the first time that it reaches out directly to the online Indian population in India.

The core structure of the program is based on Google services and apps. If the academy becomes a hit with India Inc, without a doubt, there will be a spike in users of the online giant’s services.

So would it be fair to say that while Google teaches Indian professionals how to reach out to more customers online, it is doing so for itself?

Regardless of the answer, Google Web Academy seems to be set to empower Indian professionals and organizations with skills to squeeze out the potential of an online presence.

India at Olympics: Journey to London 2012 [Videos]

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will be host to more than 10,000 athletes from 200 plus countries. India is taking 81 athletes, its largest ever contingent to the Olympics in the hope of more medals and wins. In wishing team India good luck, we take a look at how India’s lead up to the 2012 games has been over the years.

2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China

2008 Summer Olympics has possibly been India’s most successful ever Olympics campaign. Abhinav Bindra won India its first ever individual Olympic gold medal in the 10 m Air Rifle Event. In 2009, Bindra was honoured with the country’s third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. Wrestler Shushil Kumar defeated Kazakhstan’s Leonid Spiridonov and mighty boxed Vijender Singh Ecuador’s Carlos Góngora, both winning bronze medals for their achievements. Both athletes were awarded with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest honour for achievements in sports.

Abhinav Bindra’s Gold Medal at Beijing Olympics

Sushil Kumar’s Bronze Medal at Beijing Olympics

Vijender Singh’s Bronze Medal at Beijing Olympics

We could not fid video of his Bronze medal performance, but here is the Gold Medal performance at Commonwealth Games.

2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece

Ace shooter and NDA Pune Alumni Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore made India proud by winning the country its first post independence individual silver medal. He competed in the Men’s Double Trap Event and brought home a silver medal. Subsequently, Rathore was conferred with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award, latter being given for outstanding achievement in sports. Post independence, India saw a silver medal only once in 1960 when the Indian Hockey team won it in Rome.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s Silver at Athens Olympics 2004

2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia

"I tell myself that every individual has a duty to their country. I did what I could for my country as an Indian" is what Karnam Malleswari said in an interview with TIME magazine in 2000. And she had every right to utter those words. Malleswari was India’s first and till date, only woman to win an Olympic medal so far. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, weightlifter Malleswari won a bronze medal in the Women’s 69 kg category. She lifted a total of 240 kg, 110 kg in the Snatch and 130 kg in the Clean and Jerk.

1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA

In the news for all the wrong reasons at the moment, India’s tennis star Leander Paes won India’s first and only Olympics medal in Tennis.

Paes defeated Brazilian player Fernando Meligeni to win the bronze medal. By doing so, he ended India’s 44 year drought in individual medals after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won the bronze for wrestling in 1952, Helsinki. Since then, Paes’ name has almost been synonymous with tennis in India.

India at Olympics: Post Independence to 1980

Post independence, India has won 5 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals at the Olympics out of which all but 1 bronze have been for Hockey besides K D Jadhav’s bronze win in 1952.

[Img Src: Facebook.com]

After heartbreaking and painful 4th place finishes by P T Usha in 1954 and Milkha Singh in 1960, India’s medal count at the Olympics has picked up steam only in the last decade or so after Paes brought home the bronze in 1996. And that has been possible because of the likes of Karnam Malleswari, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender.

One can’t help but asking the question, why has a country of more than a billion people won only 20 medals at the summer games? In comparison, China has won 385 medals despite the fact that it competed in the Summer Olympics for the first time in 1952. This question has possibly been asked hundreds of times before and critics have slammed the presence of sports, while optimists have been hoping for light at the end of the tunnel.

India at 2012 Summer Olympics in London

So who all are going to be representing the land of billions this time at London 2012? Of the names we have mentioned already and other popular sporting figures in the country, we will be seeing Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in badminton. Vijender Singh is a medal hopeful in middleweight boxing. There are also high hopes from the Indian hockey team led by captain Bharat Chettri, looking to end a 32 year drought after gold in 1980. Abhinav Bindra will be competing in the 10 m rifle event, in which he won gold in 2008, Beijing.

Amidst much controversy, Mahesh Bhupathi will be pairing up with Rohan Bopanna for men’s doubles tennis while Leander Paes will be partnering with Vishnu Vardhan. Sania Mirza will be playing women’s doubles with Rushmi Chakravarthi and mixed doubles with Paes. India’s Olympic champ Sushil Kumar will hope for a second medal win in wrestling.

At Trak.in, we look forward to Indian athletes shining and winning at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. We hope that the prayers of a billion people stay with the Indian athletes and help them bring back medals, pride and glory. Here’s wishing team India the best of luck at London 2012.

[Source: International Olympic Committee via wikipedia]

London 2012 Medals Poll

We want to know from our readers – What do you think, how many Gold Medals will India win in London Olympics 2012.

Top 10 Indian business news of the week

After a recent spike in the market and hopes of a better economic outlook in previous weeks, this week remains a mixed bag of news for India Inc. Here’s a recap as we take a look at the top 10 Indian business news of the week gone by.

Ratan Tata stands up for PM Manmohan Singh

After being labeled as an underachiever by Time magazine and in some ways, criticized by top honchos from India Inc including Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy, PM Manmohan Singh has found an unlikely supported in Ratan Tata. During the week, India’s Top CEO came out in defense of the man he labeled as the ‘architect of 1991 reforms’ and mentioned that it was wrong for everyone to single out the PM for the country’s economic woes. However, he did have a few words of advice for the PM and said "…. our PM must break convention, restore government credibility, place the country on a growth path once again by implementing promised reforms, removing roadblocks to growth and controlling crony capitalism" as reported by TOI.

Reliance Industries in the news: RIL profits drop 21% in Q1 2012, sells 80% stakes in Kurdistan oil blocks to Chevron

RIL posted a third consecutive drop in profits. Q1 2012 profits were down 21% at Rs. 4,473 crore but there were no surprises as analysts were expecting a drop of more than 18%. The drop was fuelled by the conglomerate’s 3 core business segments of petrochemicals, oil and gas, and refining. It also announced the sale of its 80% stake in two Kurdistan oil blocks to Chevron, one of the largest companies in the world in terms of revenues.

Maruti Suzuki’s General Manager (HR) dies after workers’ rampage at company’s Manesar plant

In a rampage that shocked India Inc, workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant mercilessly hunted down senior executives. Awanish Kumar Dev, General Manager HR, succumbed to his injuries after sustaining multiple fractures and then being burnt to death after his office was set of fire by the irate mob of workers. Many other top level executive including VPs and plant heads were targeted, injured and hospitalized. It is believed that unrest began after a minor scuffle between a supervisor and a worker. The Manesar plant has remained shut since the incident on Wednesday.

Mercedes takes on Audi and BMW head on: To launch B-Class Sports Tourer

By Q3 2012 Mercedes plans to launch its B-Class Sports Tourer in India to take on Audi’s Q3 and BMW’s X1. B-Class is the lower end of the premium car segment. It seems that the German car maker has taken note of the popularity of its rivals’ entry level models. C-Class, Mercedes’ cheapest car in India is currently priced just below Rs. 29 lakh. It is about 10-15% more expensive than Audi’s Q3 which is priced between 26-27 lakh. Currently, BMW and Mercedes hold 1^st and 2^nd spot in the luxury car market followed by Audi.

1,800 crore wiped off Adani Enterprise Ltd stocks after rumour fuelled by blogger

Stock prices of many companies under the Adani Group took a tumble after a blogger posted incorrect rumours about Gautam Adani’s arrest in connection with Jayanti Gohil, NCP leader’s arrest. The blog, run by a Vadodara based blogger mentioned "Believe it or not: Our Ahmedabad Bookie says: Mr. GAUTAM ADANI is been arrested? What will happen to ADANI STOCKS? Something related to Kidnapping of Congress Leader…We are Hearing (Rumours or Facts??) Let’s see…" The stock dipped 8.4% and closed at Rs. 195 on Tuesday.

Tihar Jail products on shelves of retail shops in India

Tihar Jail, the largest prison complex in India is partnering with India’s largest retailer RIL, Vishal Retail and Spencer’s Retail. The Jail’s products have already found their way to Reliance stores in Gurgaon but this move will possibly see growth. Tihar Jail’s products currently include bakery, spices, handloom, textile, apparel, detergent, soap and other household goods. Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, former DG Tihar Jail, expects profits to soar beyond Rs. 30 core.

Citibank gives order worth $200 million to HCL Tech’s BPO

If market rumours and a recent TOI report are to be believed, HCL Tech’s BPO has won a $200 million outsourcing order from Citibank. This will possibly create more than 800 jobs within the company and comes at the back of a recent $250 million outsourcing deal with UBS.

Mahindra & Mahindra beats Tata Motors to become India’s 3^rd largest car maker

Bolero, Scorpio, Xylo and the latest XUV500 have powered M&M’s into becoming India’s 3^rdlargest car maker. During this week, numbers revealed that M&M’s sales for April-June 2012 spiked 28% to 61,504 units as compared to a 7% slump in Tata Motors’ sales which tallied at 60,405 in the same period. Currently, Maruti Suzuki remains India’s largest car maker followed by Hyundai’s India arm at 2^nd place, and now M&M at 3^rd.

Flipkart.com in the news: Increases minimum order value for delivery amidst reports of increased funding needs

Flipkart.com announced a 50% increase in its minimum order value for free home delivery from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300. In the last 12 months, Flipkart.com has aggressively added more categories to its portfolio in moves to counter growing competition from bigger players including Amazon’s India arm Junglee.com, Indiatimes Shopping and many more. This was not the only reason Flipkart was in the news this week. Reports also emerged that the online shopping portal would need in excess of $150 million in extra funding over the coming 12 months.

Kingfisher Airlines in the news: Stock price drops below face value, DGCA note missing, Mallya has potential FDI investors

Despite recent clarification by the Aviation ministry that they will not close down KFA until they have at least 5 aircrafts running, the debt ridden and crisis plagued airliner’s stock price closed below face value on Tuesday. During trading, it touched all time lows of Rs. 9.8, later closing at Rs. 9.9. Later during the week, ex DGCA Director General Bharat Bhushan claimed that a controversial note questioning KFA’s safety has gone missing from the premises. Owner Vijay Mallya on Saturday announced that he had talked to potential foreign investors who wanted to put money into the carrier.

Mobile Advertising: Better Phones yield higher Revenues

If you are an advertiser, you may be surprised by this stat – A thousand Ad impression on an iPhone generates over 12 times the revenue on average as compared to a Windows phone. This is according to the first edition of the State of Mobile Advertising report released by Opera Software.

The report, based on over 35 billion ad impressions, comes out with some interesting statistics which primarily shows that devices with better usability (i.e., larger screen size, touchscreen) and those with features that allow more interaction between the advertisement and the device’s functionality (e.g., click to call, expand, play video) have better monetization potential than less capable and less user-friendly devices.

iOS and Android mobile devices are the ones which yield much higher clicks and revenues as compared to other mobile platforms. According to the Opera report, iPad has the highest average eCPM (Revenue per 1000 impressions) of USD 3.96 across Opera Mobile ad platform.

Rich Media Ads

The report’s Rich Media Index points to the fact that rich media ads create more engagement and there by more conversions. 66% of mobile users that click through a video Ad will complete the interaction, with an average dwell time of 52 seconds. Photo-taking capabilities have an even higher dwell time (1 min 25 secs), and about half of consumers will continue to interact with the ad post-click thereby ensuring very high rate of conversion.

HTML 5 is becoming more and more mainstream and fast. The report finds that in 6 months from period between Jan 12 to Jun 12, HTML5 rich media and video ad executions nearly doubled from 28% to 51%

Mobile Advertising Revenues

Business & Finance categories clearly lead the mobile ad revenue chart accounting for over 30% followed by “news and Information” which accounted for close to 15%. As far as the geographical distribution goes, North America accounts for nearly three fourths of all the Mobile advertising revenue generated globally. Comparatively, Asia accounts for only 10% of over all revenue. India as a country stands 8th in the world for its mobile advertising revenue share.

The report also throws light on some interesting aspects of mobile advertisings:

- The ad networks with the highest fill rates tend to have lower eCPM payout rates, while those with high payout rates tend to have low fill rates.

- High paying ad networks’ eCPM rates fluctuate radically (as much as 370%), while ad networks with lower eCPMs (and high fill rates) fluctuate at lower levels (but still as much as 43%).

India’s first Instant Online Credit Card approval launched by StanChart

In the United States, it is customary to sign-up for credit cards online and even get the approval instantaneously. They have a very structured way of assessing Individuals’ creditworthiness as everything is tied back to their Social Security number.

It is very easy to assess one’s creditworthiness and eligibility because in USA they have full access to the historical financial transactions done by the assessee. FICO score, a point based system lets the lenders know about Individuals creditworthiness.

In India however, for lack of such a centralized system – it was difficult for lenders to have a standardized way of assessment. However, thanks to CIBIL, the credit rating agency, Lenders and Bankers now have a way to know about Individuals past financial activities.

Standard Chartered Bank has become the first Bank in India to start offering instant online Credit Card approval process. The applicants has to just visit their site, fill in their personal & demographic details. The online application process involves verification of key customer details such as the Permanent Account Number, mobile number, email ID and credit history through CIBIL, and other internal eligibility criteria.

Once applicant submits the application, immediately he / she will be shown whether they have been approved (AIP) or not.

If the application is approved, the applicant is contacted by the bank for collection of documents. The final approval process involves completion of ‘Know Your Customer’ and credit approval processes.

The application also be tracked online by going to their application status page.

I am sure other banks and credit card companies will start following similar methods, which cut down the approval times from days to minutes and with great convenience to applicant as well the Bank.

If you are interested in picking up a credit card, do give it it try and let us know what you feel. However, before you do that, make sure you read this article on how to effectively manage your Credit card debt.

The Dual Sim Siege: How Samsung & Nokia beat domestic competition in India

The beginning of the new millennium (around 2005 to be more precise) saw a new force appear in the mobile phone bazaars of India. A new wave of smaller, low cost phones made by a motley crowd of local manufacturers was beginning to enthrall customers.

The giants of India, Nokia were suddenly being attacked by names that no one had heard of, Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. The list seemed long and the devices seemed promising. One particular aspect of the lot seemed the most compelling reason why people were suddenly attracted to them- The Dual Sim functionality.

The trend caught fire quickly and more local manufacturers churned out Dual Sim phones at all price ranges. Nokia and Samsung caught on late to the game but as latest evidence would have it, they have beat out competition in the market.

This post looks at the Dual Sim battle between the giants and the rabble of local players.

Indians and the Dual Sim obsession

The usage of dual or multiple SIM cards among mobile phone users has been rising sharply in India and other developing countries. According to a Nielson report which was published recently, there are 71 million unique subscribers in India who use multiple SIM cards accounting for around 61% of the whole mobile phone sales in the country.

The report also states that most of these multiple SIM card users are youths who are college students, newly employed or working professionals. They use multiple SIM cards to avail better offers through different carriers which give them the cost advantage.

In the same Nielson’s report of multiple SIM usage, 4 out of every 5 multiple SIM card users own a single handset and mostly, they switch SIM cards manually. It was stated that over 7 out of 10 of those multi-SIM card users polled into the survey intend to acquire a dual-SIM mobile phone soon.

How Local Brands Managed To Acquire the Low End Market Share

People with shallow pockets wanted their phones to have all the necessary features even though they were low on quality. Unknown Chinese brands came into picture and they offered cheap multiple SIM cards, touchscreen, multimedia playback, camera and really loud speakers to attract those consumers.

But the problem with the Chinese brands was that there was no after sales support at all and they even got into some legal issues over the absence of IMEI numbers which should be present in every mobile phone.

Enter- Micromax, GFive and Lava et al… The local brands then came up with similar things but they also offered better quality without legal issues and also offered after sales support. The big brands Nokia Samsung, LG and even Sony Ericsson ignored the renaissance of sorts in the low cost segment mainly due to low profitability.

While the giants slept however, the local players slowly captured market space. But when people started preferring multi SIM mobile phones while buying lower priced handsets, big brands like these started realizing the value of this market. By then, almost whole low end and dual SIM mobile phone market was acquired by local players such as Micromax, Karbonn, G’Five and Spice.

Micromax in particular would go onto become one of the leading mobile makers of the market with over 10% market share in 2011.

Nokia & Samsung Regained the Sales in Dual SIM Mobile Phone Market

To revive their slowly sinking ship, Nokia started releasing Dual SIM phones two and half years after the local players. They held their weight behind the new Asha series as well as other entry level dual SIM phones for regaining the lost ground in the low end market.

C1-00 and C2 were the first dual SIM phones from Nokia which did not sell much because a user could only switch from one SIM to another manually as they were not ‘dual-standby’. Nokia then went on to release probably the biggest hit among the dual SIM phones with X1-01. The phone sold like hot cakes as people loved the fact that it is from their favourite reliable brand and had all the necessary features at rock bottom price of INR 1,799. All the new dual SIM phones from Nokia and Samsung are now dual-standby so that you can receive calls on both the SIM cards without switching them manually.

Fast forward to 2012, Nokia now leads the multi SIM mobile phone market with 30% share in multi SIM mobile phone market. When Nokia’s sales were at troublingly low level in Q3 last year, they were able to revive sales up to some extent due to sales of their dual SIM mobile phones as per this Gartner report.

Samsung trails at 2nd position with 16% of this market share. Samsung got back into the dual SIM market with their Duos line of phones across all their other segments, be it Champ Duos for feature phone users, Guru. After the advent of Android smartphones, people were drawn towards them and wanted to use them but not without dual SIM facility.

Samsung then introduced their lower mid-level Dual SIM Galaxy smartphones with Android. Samsung Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos were one of the most sold dual SIM Android smartphones due to presence of all necessary features at reasonable prices. Samsung have recently targeted their TV advertisements towards college going or newly employed youths for marketing of their dual SIM smartphones.

The Future of Dual Sim

The trend of selling multi SIM mobile phones which was started by firms such as Micromax and Karbonn are not in the top place which has been eaten away by manufacturers such as Nokia and Samsung who now collectively own nearly half of the market share.

Other brands like Lava, Spice, Karbonn and G’Five who started the trend of dual SIM mobile phones are remained with just single figures of market share. Now even HTC and Sony have entered the dual SIM phone market with HTC Desire V priced at INR 20,399 and Sony Xperia Tipo Dual which is expected to be priced between INR 12,000 to INR 14,000 respectively.

Dual sim market is already burgeoning with over 85 models among 20+ brands. With the entry of dual sim smartphones into the market, it seems dual sim maybe becomes the minimum expected feature for most phones. Can Nokia defend its title as reigning mobile manufacturer in 2012 even as more players enter the lower budget segment of dual sim phones?

Can Sony and HTC beat Samsung’s dual sim Androids? We are heading for interesting times.