This fortnight was dedicated to People’s movement in India led by Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption drive. The remaining spotlight was shared by IPL-4 season of T20 cricket, even as the country digests the pleasant news of ICC World Cup 2011 victory.

At the end of the week, IT behemoth Infosys Technologies hogged the limelight but for all the wrong reasons as disappointing results and resignation of Mohandas Pai from the company. Unfortunately, the stock lost a tenth of its m-cap on Friday. Here’s a round-up of latest buzzing news of the week:

Government mulls BSNL-MTNL merger

I’ve almost lost the count of the number of times the merger plans of state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL merger has been shelved out. It is of no secret that both the PSU firms have lagged big time in their performance in the highly competitive telecom industry, which is now dominated by private telecom operators.

In a bid to optimize resources and synergize the business operations of both the state-run telecom companies, the Union government is said to be seriously mulling options to merge BSNL and MTNL to give its customers a nationwide footprint apart from better coverage and services.

Airtel’s 3G handsets below $100

3G is the flavor of the season – something that could well propel the penetration of (mobile) internet into the interiors of the country. Little wonder that Airtel is trying hard to strike a deal with major mobile handset manufacturers to roll out 3G-enabled handsets below the price of $100.

But, in my opinion, it’s not the 3G handsets that is a hindrance for the reach of the fast-speed internet services, but the premium services itself. However, the first step is to bring down prices of 3G-enabled handsets without which 3G services won’t really take off too well.

My question to Readers: Is Airtel really diversifying into handset business or is this step just to boost its 3G services’ reach?

Lokpal Bill draft meeting audio recorded

Even as the effectiveness of the Lokpal law has come up for debate on various forums, the first 10-member joint committee meeting, comprising of five ministers and five civil society representatives, was held today and the bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament.

Moreover, the meeting ended on a cordial note, with the government agreeing to audio-record discussions and hold public consultations on the anti-graft law.

Top Wealth creators and Destroyers

A report points out that Gautam Adani (Adani group) followed by Azim Premji (Wipro), Rahul Bajaj (Bajaj group), Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel) and Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharma) have been the biggest creator of wealth of fiscal year 2010-11. Ironically, the richest Indian, Mukesh Ambani, was not the biggest wealth creator of the season.

On the other hand, junior Ambani topped the list of wealth destroyers for the last fiscal year, by the virtue of huge under-performance of ADAG stock prices. Savitri Jindal (OP Jindal group) and Saurabh Tayal (Jaybharat Textiles) came next in the list of laggards.

Related posts:

1. News Buzz: India largest Economy by 2050, 3G services launch, BSNL MTNL merger & more…
2. What’s with BSNL, mate?
3. BSNL and Esssar are going on an African safari. What’s the real reason?

The ICC World Cup frenzy has truly gripped the nation over India’s good performance especially in quarter and semi-finals. At first, it was revenge against Aussies followed by continued good run of Team India against Pak in World Cup games.

The buzz in the atmosphere was prolific in my locality – while some apartments had organized a social get-together, others celebrated the occasion by bursting crackers. The homely lot enjoyed the event by savoring the fast food for the special occasion.

I am still trying to figure it out – whether it was actually a hype or a madness? But, it was understandable, given the grand occasion. Let me rundown across some of the interesting news over the last few days:

Yummy! Pizzas & Burgers all the way…

While most of the offices called it a day a bit earlier than usual, it was a sign of unusual business at food joints at most of the country’s buzzing localities. A report points out that leading fast-food chains cashed-on to the occasion with bulk orders as cricket fanatics were hooked onto an exciting Indo-Pak clash.

Moreover, even the home-delivery volumes shot up sharply by around 50% for pizza and burger joints such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s.

India’s population grows to 1.21 billion

1.21 billion – Yes, that’s the number of population that boasts of India growth story as their own. Alternatively, you can say that little less than a fifth (17.5%) of the world’s population resides in India, according to provisional data of the 2011 census.

While the positive take away being India’s effective literacy rate has surged by 9.2% to reach 74%; the new national census also reflects that there is still continued preference for male children over females in this country. Sad!

Yahoo! to unveil new Search engine for India

How many of us try search engines other than Google? Well, no points for guessing please. That’s the type of hold that Google has on the netizens in terms of attracting search queries.

Image Source 

Internet giant Yahoo! is all set to unveil its latest search engine “Search Direct” in India by the second half of 2011. The new search engine predicts search results as fast as a person types – character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a search experience that goes beyond mere blue links.

Fastrack – Moving beyond time game!

Call Fastrack and you’re reminded of Titan’s high-end watch series. Recently, this Titan stable had won the ‘Most Popular Youth Brand – Eyewear” award. But, now the premium youth brand is all set to move past the watch and sunglasses play; into other lifestyle products and accessory segments.

Fastrack is now already into accessories such as bags, wallets and belts. Further, Titan is planning to extend their reach to shoes and motorcycle helmets as well. You would be surprised to know that this youth brand has 1 million followers on Facebook.

Indian kids much savvier

Yeah, Indian kids are financially and tech savvy both. The ‘New Generations 2011’ study by Cartoon Network says that 79% of the respondent children are mobile phone users. Indian children are more computer-literate than their parents. Furthermore, girls are equally active gamers as boys.

Moreover, the GenNext of kids are also well informed about financial products and various other money matters involved with their life. Interestingly, 55% of the kids, including girls, save part of their pocket money.

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So what comes to your mind when someone says BRAND VALUE??? According to Millward Brown "Value-D" ranking based on surveys of 150,000 consumers in 24 countries; AMAZON.com, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 has emerged as the strongest brand globally & in the U.S.

Amazon is recognized as the strongest brand globally as measured by how consumers perceive value vs. the associated costs. It’s the first time the unit of WPP’s Kantar Group has released the value-based ranking of brand strength in the Millward Brown’s research report.

The list of winners in the rankings primarily includes brands based on the Desire-Price relationship (known as value-D score). Value D score was developed by WPP’s Millward Brown and is based on BrandZ, the world’s most comprehensive and reliable collection of brand equity information available. Created 13 years ago, BrandZ contains data from more than one million consumers in 30 countries. Globally, Amazon is followed by Colgate, Nokia, Pampers & others as shown in the chart.

The report emphasizes that Price alone is not rather brand has increased in importance relative to other purchase drivers such as price, location, convenience and habit. On average worldwide,

only 7 percent of consumers buy on price alone, down from 20 percent ten years ago. On the other hand, 81 percent regard brand as an important purchase driver. The study is designed to be a practical and relevant tool for sharpening customer’s perception and improving profitability.

The irony is that tech giants like Apple and Google didn’t make the cut, but Nokia did. The basic reason may be people find Apple too expensive & Google on contrary provides services for free so cannot be measured on the price angle.

On that same pricing spectrum, while Starbucks and other premium coffee brands might be more desirable overall, Nescafe globally and Folgers in the U.S. make the top 10 on price perception.

Value-D measures the gap between the consumer’s Desire for a brand and the perception of the brand’s Price. By quantifying this gap, Value-D helps brands optimize their sales, profit and market positioning potential. Since the score essentially measures the gap between what consumers think the brand is worth and how they think it’s priced, the higher the score, the greater the potential & flexibility for raising prices and boosting profits.

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This is one list that we have been featuring on trak.in since 2007 and this year is no different. Zee Business has released its ranking on Best Business Schools in India. As is usually the case IIT’s and IIMs rule the roost with 7 out of the top 10 business schools going to them.

The Zee Business School survey which is into its 3rd year, is ranked on 10 different parameters covering nearly every important aspect of the institutions. Here are 10 different parameters on which B-Schools are ranked on:

1. Industry Interface
2. Course content
3. Faculty
4. International Internships
5. Student Exchange Programme
6. Global Faculty
7. Placements
8. Intellectual Impact
9. Infrastructure
10. Selection/Admission Process

Top 25 Business Schools in India [Overall Ranking]

S.No	Institute
1	IIM – Ahmedabad
2	IIM – Bangalore
3	IIM – Calcutta
4	Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur
5	IIPM
6	Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
7	IIM – Indore
8	IIM – Lucknow
9	Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad
10	IIM – Kozhikode
11	IIM – Shillong
12	Symbiosis institute of business management (SIBM), Pune
13	SP Jain institute of management and research(SPJIMR), Mumbai
14	IIFT – Delhi
15	Institute of management technology ,(IMT) Ghaziabad
16	Xavier institute of management  (XIM), Bhubaneshwar
17	Narsee Monjee (NMIMS), Mumbai
18	Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai
19	Jamnalal Bajaj institute of management studies, Mumbai (JBIMS)
20	MDI Gurgaon
21	Amity Business School – Noida
22	ICFAI – Hyderabad
23	KJ Somaiya institute of management studies and research , Mumbai
24	NL Dalmiya institute of management studies & research, Mumbai
25	EMPI business school  – Delhi

Top 10 B-Schools on Course Content

1. IIM, Ahmedabad
2. IIM, Bangalore
3. IIM – Calcutta
4. Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur
5. IIPM
6. Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad
7. IIM – Lucknow
8. Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
9. IIM – Indore
10. IIM – Kozhikode

Top 10 B-Schools according to Overall Placements

1. IIM – A
2. IIM – B
3. IIM – C
4. IIM – Indore
5. IIPM
6. Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
7. Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur
8. Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad
9. IIM – Lucknow
10. SP Jain institute of management and research(SPJIMR), Mumbai

Top 10 B-Schools according to Global Exposure

1. IIPM
2. IIM – A
3. IIM – B
4. IIM – C
5. Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
6. IIM – Kozhikode
7. IIM – Indore
8. IIM – Lucknow
9. Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad
10. Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur

Top 10 B-Schools according to Infrastructural Facilities

1. IIM – A
2. IIM – B
3. IIM – C
4. Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur
5. IIM – Kozhikode
6. IIM – Indore
7. Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad
8. Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
9. IIM – Lucknow
10. Symbiosis institute of business management (SIBM), Pune

Top 10 B-Schools according to Intellectual Impact

1. IIPM
2. IIM – A
3. IIM – C
4. IIM – B
5. Faculty of management studies FMS – Delhi
6. Xavier labor research institute (XLRI),Jamshedpur
7. IIM – Kozhikode
8. IIM – Lucknow
9. IIM – Indore
10. Indian School of business (ISB,) Hyderabad

There are 2 Business School survey rankings that I closely watch – One is Zee Business School survey and other is the Outlook B-School survey. We will be featuring that as well when the results for same are out !

Related posts:

1. Top 50 Business Schools in India: Career360 ranking
2. Top B-schools in India for 2009
3. The top 25 Business schools in India

Entrepreneurship has been the most abused word around according to me. Each and everyone seemingly want to start their own venture. Each and everyone think making business plans is as easy as writing a mail. Each and everyone think that getting the funds for the same will be pretty easy. Each and everyone want to be his / her own boss.

But is it really so easy? Is entrepreneurship just about starting new businesses? What kind of people become entrepreneurs? How does one make the right business plans? Which kinds of industries and sectors one can enter? How does one get the right ideas and opportunities? How does one achieve successful execution? There are some of the hundreds or thousands of questions which one has to consider before getting a business plan ready for a VC.

But then can one really be taught entrepreneurship? Does it have any theories or rules which one has to follow? Are there any textbooks for the same? According to me, the simple answer to all these questions is a big NO! There is no school or college or university in this world which can really teach you the way to start a business.

A person who wants to start a business may search for an idea by brainstorming with his friends, getting information from newspapers, searching for new ideas based on current products which are there etc. Has he learnt any theory for that? NO! Currently there are entrepreneurship cells across various b–schools in this country, entrepreneurship is being taught as a subject, business plans are being organized and there are also programs like the Family Business Program at SP Jain. But are these generating entrepreneurs at organizations?

In an entrepreneurship class a student is taught what are ideas and opportunities. He / She is taught about business models for various companies. Then there are also assignments of various kinds on business plans, case studies on various entrepreneurs and their stories etc. etc. But has a person really learnt to start a business from this? Has he / she gained the confidence in his idea from the same? Has he / she taken this subject just so that he has nothing else to study? Is the aim of the subject to encourage people to start businesses or just give some gyaan? Your guess is as good as mine.

And this is the reason, I personally don’t seem to understand the role of an entrepreneurship subject at a B–School. One can’t start developing ideas or business plans just by learning some theory regarding the same. And this is the reason I wonder what do entrepreneurship institutes and programs teach us in this country.

What is needed is to build a culture wherein more and more people are encouraged to start businesses. Already top colleges like IIMs, ISB etc. have allowed students will to opt out of placement and start their own jobs, placement opportunities in the ensuing years in case their businesses fail. Having entrepreneurship cells at colleges would help if they have business plans organized and supported by VCs rather than ones which are known to give big prizes and forget everything else.

In a country where the number of small and medium scale businesses grows faster than one can snap his / her fingers, entrepreneurs do have a chance to enter. But unless a culture of entrepreneurship can be built in this country, no one would want to enter the tough and risky world of entrepreneurship.

And till the time we keep teaching ideas, opportunities, business models and such theories at b – schools, no one would be really interested. All they would do is by heart the theory and vomit in the exam.

Interestingly, a famous person has said that an MBA going on to becoming entrepreneur can be the biggest disaster ever!

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3. Social Entrepreneurship in Technology – Finally the IT sector joins the bandwagon

Earnings season is upon us once again, and if initial pronouncements are any indication, corporations are delivering returns 35% above the same quarter of a year ago. Earnings are great, but “guidance”, the harbinger of things to come, is the attention getter. In that vein, business leaders remain cautious, but optimistic. The debate goes on as to why companies are not putting the throttle down on domestic hiring, but balance sheets are awash in nearly $2 trillion in cash, awaiting investment and other forms of capital deployment. Comments abound about a slow growth recovery, but CEOs seem to be walking the tightrope of maintaining a positive outlook for the future with the hope to lower future expectations while having the objective to lower bar for next quarter.

Purchase managers indexes in the United States and Europe indicate optimism and confidence about future prospects. Corporate leaders, however, try to look the other way when pressed about domestic growth in both developed parts of the world. The fact is that everyone is banking on growth coming from anywhere but in his own home market. From one earnings conference call to another, the four-letter word on everyone’s lips is “Asia”. Regardless of the complexities of language, legal infrastructure, or having a foreign presence, the consensus opinion is that the developing countries of the world have the cure for everyone’s economic woes, their massive population of new consumers eager to emulate western lifestyles.

China appears to have successfully navigated a “soft landing” from their high growth years down to more reasonable demand from developed countries in the world. Officials have stated that the next goal is to transition the country’s economy from being driven by export demand to one more dependent on the needs of its consumer base. Wherever China goes, India will be quick to follow. The missing piece in the equation is what the local officials in China and India expect from foreign firms looking to profit in their respective domestic markets. Multi-national corporations with aspirations in Asia may be viewed as “carpetbaggers” of old, although they will be arriving with shipping containers laden with products instead of bags filled with their belongings.

In United States history, "carpetbaggers" was a derisive term given to Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Suitcases were non-existent, but two pieces of carpet sewn together with handles was a worthy substitute. The outsiders were viewed as opportunistic and presumptuous with questionable objectives. They meddled in local politics, bought up plantations at fire-sale prices, and generally took advantage of the local populace.

Basic human nature around the globe has not evolved beyond this isolated case in our country. Every society on the planet is suspicious of the motives of any outsider that attempts to profit at their expense. The Chinese have a long history of dealing with opportunistic Westerners, as do all other Asian societies. The road to growth on the backs of Asian consumers will not be as easy as modern day plunderers may believe.

The shear numbers, however, suggest that a workable compromise will be found. The global energy market, the largest industry on earth at $6 trillion and growing, is a case in point. The developed countries of the world, some 10% of the population, consume 50% of global energy output. Something has to change in that picture if consumers in China and India are to be served. Electricity generation, storage, distribution and usage technologies will all need addressing on a monumental scale if the smart grid of the future is to run effectively and economically.

The Chinese are not sitting on their hands. If they have learned one lesson over the past century, it is to plan well ahead for the needs of their burgeoning population growth. Despite proclamations by the Obama administration to expand investments in Cleantech, the Chinese have already committed billions in the renewable energy sector. They already have solar, wind and smart grid companies with excess domestic capacity looking to external markets to generate profits and returns. Chinese solar companies have already achieved a 50% global market share.

The Chinese can be aggressive marketers, too. The solar industry in Spain grew dramatically over the past few years due to heavy government subsidies. Demand for solar panels was so great that auctions for Chinese panels were held on board container ships before they reached port. A subsequent asset bubble formed, and its collapse contributed to Spain’s debt problems. The crisis in Europe last May rocked Forex markets and sent Forex brokers back to their screens to manage Euro volatility.

Is there any reason to believe that “Asia” will gladly make our cash registers ring at home? To the consternation of Western business leaders, the opposite scenario probably has a greater probability of occurring.

[This is a paid post]

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If you are looking for a office space in Hong Kong, be ready to shell out more money than any other country in the world. According to global realty consultant Cushman & Wakefield, Hong Kong tops the list for most expensive office space in world, while Indian city of Mumbai comes in 6th place.

Last year Mumbai was ranked at 5th and has slipped by 1 position, which clearly shows that there seems to be some stagnation coming in Realty space in Mumbai. Rentals for Class A space at the Nariman Point area in south Mumbai typically range between 300 to 400 rupees per square foot per month. Mumbai had been ranked No. 5 last year in a similar survey.

Cushman & Wakefield said lack of new supply and limited demand for office space is likely to keep office rentals stagnant in Mumbai

London came in as the 2nd most expensive city behind Hong Kong followed by Tokyo.

Top 10 Most expensive cities in world for Office spaces

1. Hong Kong – USD 241 per square foot per year
2. London – USD 233 per square foot per year
3. Tokyo – USD 166 per square foot per year
4. Rio de Janiero –
5. New York
6. Mumbai – USD 114 per square foot per year
7. Moscow
8. Paris
9. Zurich
10. Milan

The survey said that after recording the largest rental decline in 2009, Asia witnessed a sharp rebound in 2010.

In India, Bangalore witnessed the highest rental growth of 12.68 per cent in 2010, followed by Pune (9.09 per cent), vis-a-vis the previous year.

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As per the latest report for Jan-11  published by ComScore, economictimes.com has emerged as the leading financial and business news site with 3.6 million unique visitors.

Recently it has introduced a much more accurate method which is called unified approach – a combination of  panel and tag data. In the first month of being unified economictimes.com has been adjudged as the leading website in terms of unique visitors.

Top Financial & Business portals in India

1. economictimes.com (3.6 million)
2. moneycontrol.com (3.5 million),
3. Yahoo India Finance (1.7 million),
4. sifybusiness.com (0.7 million),
5. businessstandard.com (0.6 million) 
6. livemint.com (0.2million) 

It is interesting to see this numbers from comscore, as Moneycontrol has always been considered at the top finance & business website. However, the comscore report shows that ET is marginally ahead of Money Control.

[Press Release]

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Amazon S3 has always been looked upon as an uber cheap and efficient storage solution. But many consumers were not too happy with Amazon S3 services as it did not allow to host websites.

But, Amazon has taken a note of it and introduced a service that which makes hosting a static website a breeze and very very cost effective solution.

According to latest announcement by Amazon S3, now users can configure root of their websites (which was not possible till now).  The new feature makes it easy to host static websites on Amazon S3.

Customers who are already using Amazon S3 to host images, video, and other content for their websites haven’t been able to effectively host their entire website on Amazon S3. That’s because even though customers can configure an Amazon S3 bucket as a website, users accessing the root of the website (e.g.http://trak.in) would see the list of objects in the Amazon S3 bucket instead of the website’s home page. Also, if an error occurred, users would see an Amazon S3 error message instead of a website specific error message. In response to customer requests, Amazon has added support for root and custom error documents to address these issues.

To get started, open the Amazon S3 Management Console, and follow these simple steps:

1. Right-click on your Amazon S3 bucket and open the Properties pane
2. Configure your root and error documents in the Website tab
3. Click Save

For more information on hosting your static website on Amazon S3, review the Amazon S3 Developer Guide or attend the Introduction to Amazon S3 Website Features webinar on February 24th.

I think this is a big announcement by Amazon, and something that other hosting services should be wary about…

What do you think?

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