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Indianomics
India is not a market for evolutionary products like iPad. It is a market for revolutionary products. iPod was a revolutionary product but it clicked in India only after it went through iterations. By the time iPod reached India many fakes were in business. Just like Xerox meant photocopy, iPod now means a music player. It doesn’t matter if it is from Apple. Apple’s iPhone went through the same fate. Though there were no iPhone fakes, not many iPhones were sold. That strategy was immediately dubbed as a skimming strategy from Apple. It was testing the markets. Well, I believed it the first time. It’s subsequent releases of 3G and 3G S have seen the same response. It no longer is a skimming strategy but it was targeting just the cream. And I don’t like the fact that Apple always gives India a step-motherly treatment. But this time it is in the best interest of Apple to skip India. At least the first revision of iPad. If Apple doesn’t skip, India should skip iPad. India is just getting into the habit of book reading. Overall literacy rates are low but people who know how to read, hardly read. If a book sells 5000 copies then it’s a instant best seller. And Indians who read, they read it to improve their English or to get motivated. Robin Sharma is one of the popular authors in India. Chetan Bhagat is the other author who is getting Indians to read. I almost never see anyone carrying a book in a bus. But when I do, it is either 2 States or 5 point someone – both written by Mr. Bhagat. iPad as a device to get people to read doesn’t work here. It costs $499 which translates to 23000 Indian rupees for the plain vanilla version. Suddenly Amazon Kindle is much cheaper with a 17000 rupee price tag. If you think the touch would get people to use iPad then you are mistaken. Touch or no touch it has to pack a punch and be cost-effective – all at the same time It doesn't matter if you pack Pamela Anderson into the iPad. It always boils down to price in India. And we need a bargain on it too. India likes cheap, functional, good looking products. One of the biggest reason for the success of IMEI numberless Chinese mobiles. In addition to Amazon Kindle, we now have India’s own e-book reader. Infibeam’s Pi. It is not revolutionary product. But it's functional and not expensive. It costs 9999 rupees. Priced just the way Indians like it – also known as the Bata rate. The only limitation of Pi is the number of books available on it. Maybe Pi should run Kindle software. Kindle software already runs on iPhones. I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t run on Pi. That is a win-win for Pi and Amazon. But iPad is not an eBook reader Right on. It is not an ebook reader. Then what is it? Is it a netbook? Or is it a phone? Well, not exactly. It is a cross between a netbook and a Smartphone almost making netbooks redundant. Until it is established that there is a market for a new gadget to fill the gap between a Smartphone and the netbook, we can wait. By that time, it would be time for a new version if iPad. Traditional thinking is this – If you have a killer app or product then it will be sold. In India, it works the other way. If it is sold in India, then you have a killer app or a product. The question then is, how many iPads can you sell in India?
Indian software provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) website is hacked. The hacker posted a a "’For Sale’ message on the website. The screenshot of the message can be found at TechCrunch. When I checked, the site was restored.
TCS is the software arm of the Tata conglomerate. It is the leading software service provider by revenues. Websites being hacked is nothing new on the Internet and to India. Last year, 692 Indian government websites were hacked in 30 days. That’s a different story, as they are not equipped. But a software maker’s website being hacked? Time to get a grip on the security front. Does this also mean Indian websites are worth hacking? Since the hacker has posted ‘For Sale’ message, I wonder what would the price be. Any guesses? Update : The reaction to this, as usual is, this is bad for Indian software industry. My question is - why exactly? We are aware that TechCrunch, Twitter and Google were hacked. Nobody stopped using Twitter or Google. TCS hack when compared with them is innocuous. TCS doesn't host my emails or my search history or my tweets. This hack should not be reflected directly on what TCS does. It should serve as a warning signal to TCS.
With 7500 kms of coastline, India has the 19th longest coastline in the world. Yet it is not known for its beaches. That has to change and this particular list might be start of things to come. Beach Sustainability Tourism Index 2009 (BSTI) has published the top 30 beaches in India. This list researched and published by India Hotels is first of its kind list in India. Kerala and Goa have topped the list with 12 beaches between them. Here are the top 30 beaches in India :
Of the total 7,517 kms of India’s coastline, Goa has a mere 100 km stretch. Yet it managed to get 7 of its beaches on the list. Gujarat for having the longest coastline of 1670 kms had no beach on the list. Andhra Pradesh with 972 kms of coastline managed to get 2 beaches on the list. Both of them are in the same city, few kilometers from each other - Did I mention that I used to live 10 kms away from those beaches?
To put things into perspective, I have gathered the list of state-wise coastline’s.
Whether you agree or disagree, we all should commend India hotels for coming up with the list in the first place. Come next year the beaches on the list might find their way through and the beaches which have fallen behind might buckle and push their way through. Either way it’s a win win for the cities and a good reference point for the tourists. Methodology involved is not clearly given but the parameters broadly used are as below :
The scores are given based on the survey responses. There were positive and negative points attached to each parameter. For example Beach sports is a positive parameter while Beachfront Urbanization is deemed as negative. Again crime incidents earn negative points while safety scored a positive. If you think a popular beach is left out, then IHR has a disclaimer :
We need more beaches to be developed in India. States like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharastra need to find new beaches. Not for foreign tourists but for Indians who like to unwind.
Some employees want new management at BSNL. The unions have sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This is one of the finest proactive approaches I have seen in the recent past. The employees have exceeded expectations. In some parts of the world this could be called 'bitching about the boss'. Here is the crux of that letter:
Yeah right. How about a written test and a group discussion after that? Once the talented professionals outside the government come to BSNL, they become part of the government don't they?
What guarantees do we have that the new management will rise above the interests of the lords? It further goes:
I agree to that one. Old is not always gold. BSNL unions (not necessarily the same unions) have objected to BSNL’s IPO plans in the past. How is IPO related to the management and the performance? It is related. There is really no motive for the management to run the company. Maybe a rolling stock ticker could give it. When private players entered the telecom sector, BSNL enjoyed the ‘first mover advantage’. It did nothing but cherish that position and lost its footprint steadily. Now it is being displaced by every other new entrant. BSNL management is staring at a dead end. The Indian telecom sector itself is in its toughest phase. Newer, nimbler companies are finding it hard to stay afloat. BSNL doesn’t even have a chance. What it needs is a revamp. That means a lot of red tape. Cutting through the red tape is a tall order with the current set-up. Though it’s a public sector unit, BSNL’s management is not responsible to anyone. It’s is almost like a unlisted family business. The worst that could happen to BSNL is, it would be classified as a sick PSU. Changing the management alone would not help. Nothing is going to change until there is a partial privatization. If the stake is sold to different private partners they will take care of the management part. Then the management will not be servile and will rise above the interests of the new lords – the shareholders. Suggested Reading: Who can help BSNL?
Jan Aushadhi, an initiative of Department of pharmaceuticals (Government of India & few other organizations), is trying to bring down the cost of healthcare. It offers generic drugs at a fraction of the prevailing rate in the market. The contents of the medicine will be the same. The difference is in the price. Does that sound like too much of a good thing? It does because it is. Take a look :
The prices shown above might be the actual cost of manufacturing that drug or the government has subsidized it. If the government has subsidized, then it would be one of the better subsidies and much needed. Much better than the oil or fertilizer subsidies we are seeing. This might remind you of Michael Moore’s movie Sicko. Health care in Cuba is considerably cheaper than it is in the US. The prescription drugs are available at a fraction of the price. This Government of India initiative is something similar. Like all ‘too good to be true’ stories this has its fair share of problems. It has suffered from the lack of political will and stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical companies. There was a target to open 100 stores across the country. So far only 25 were opened. Buying a medicine is like buying a shirt Shirts solve a single problem. They cover one's body. The Allen Solly's, Zodiac's and the Park Avenue's are shirts too. So are the unbranded one's which one can get for 350 rupees. In case of Allen Solly there is a brand promotion cost built into the shirt. Unbranded shirt manufacturers are off the hook. Generic medicines are something like the unbranded shirts we are talking about - cheaper and functional. If Ranbaxy or Cipla manufactures the drug then they will have to add their R&D costs, manufacturing costs and branding costs. Generic drugs don’t have to do that. Would the doctors prescribe it? We are living in a society where doctor's clinic has a attached pharmacy and the drugs prescribed by the doctor are available only in that pharmacy. There is another nexus of diagnostic tests (blood, urine etc…). Though they are generic tests they should be done at a specific (read expensive) diagnostic center. If the test is done in any of the cheaper places then the test is not valid. The poor guy has to redo the test this time at the specific center. The big reason given by the doctors is the scale is different and we cannot really trust these other centers. I agree, the scale is different. I bet you meant the money scale DOCTOR. Yet another example. If you take your kid to a pediatrician for regular vaccination, for any vaccine, there will be two options. One is a normal one and the other is the expensive one. The result is the same. One costs 900 rupees and the other 2300 rupees. The choice is yours. You want the best for the apple of your eye. You go with the expensive version. At least I did. It is less of medical science and more of psychological evaluation. Healthcare is probably the only industry where you don’t know what you are paying for. It might also be the only industry where the cost goes up when you are not too sure of the outcome. I bet the doctors won’t even prescribe Jan Aushadhi. Even if you ask for it. How will they? When they are pestered daily by 10-15 medical representatives selling them the brand new drug which is the latest brainchild of one of the big pharmaceutical companies. This whole thing is a nexus. Easy to get in. Very hard to get out. What about the hospitals? The government hospitals might use this option. The private and corporate hospitals would say this – You gotta be kidding me. We make our profits selling medicines you don’t need at costs you cannot afford. How else will Jan Aushadhi succeed?
IIM Bangalore has withdrawn group discussions as selection criteria and is using essay writing instead. Thank you very much. Someone has to do it and I am glad IIM B followed IIM Ahmadabad. I have my own reservations about group discussions. The biggest of all is - Why are we doing it? Why are we pitting a person against another person to know who is best? I never understood group discussions. May be that was the reason why I wasn’t part of one. The discussions around the chai parlour or the discussions around the chutta corner are different. They don’t have a structure to it. The problem comes when we assign a structure to it. In a group discussion, people are nervous about what they are going to talk. They hardly listen to what others are saying. At the end of the group discussion if you ask someone what the other person's views are on the topic given, I can guarantee you the answer would be "I don't remember". That is because he or she never listened. Even I wouldn't listen. I will be more conscious about what I am going to say next or how I will shoot down the next guy's argument. Ability to think and articulate are the qualities being judged. To achieve that you don't have to pit two people against each other. Two people can do it at the same time with the least amount of friction. Essay writing provides us with that option. It is much more cultured when compared to group discussion. Whoever has group discussion (GD) in their selection criteria should ditch it for a better tool. GD is not a measure of a man's communication skills by any means. It is a measure of a man's hunger to survive and eventually win.
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