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Bulk International SMSes banned by TRAI – Now what?

Arun Prabhudesai — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:55:49 +0000

After the TRAI’s directive to introduce stringent fines on Telecom Operators as well as marketers, Spam calls and SMSes to Indian mobile subscribers have definitely reduced. If the earlier frequency of such smses were 10 a day, it has come down to probably 2 or 3 a day. Though, the problem of Pesky messages did not resolve completely.

The reason is that marketers found new ways to circumvent this ban. The TRAI directive was applicable to local telecom operators, but not the international ones. Marketers took advantage of this and started sending these bulk smses through international gateways. Infact, no sooner did that TRAI ruling came into effect on 27th September 2011, many companies started advertising their services of sending Bulk smses through International gateways.

TRAI has taken note of this and has now come out with yet another ruling to ban bulk international smses. To address unsolicited commercial communications and to effectively control SMS coming from international locations, TRAI today issued a direction to all the Access Providers and the operators mandating them to take the following steps, within next thirty days:

All international SMS containing alphabet header or alphanumeric header or +91 as originating country code should not be delivered through the network.
If any source or number from outside the country generates more than 200 SMSes per hour with similar ‘signature’, the same should not be delivered through the network.
Only valid codes associated with the network of those entities with whom agreements have been signed by the Access Providers shall be allowed in the network.

Essentially, within next 30 days, most mobile subscribers in India should be fully Spam-SMS-Free, unless marketers find yet another way to circumvent. Though, in my personal opinion, this should be final nail in the coffin for marketers as far as sending unsolicited messages go. Even if they end up finding any other way, it would not be cost effective or feasible enough for marketers to use it!

[TRAI ruling PDF]

HP Vayu – Potentially Revolutionary Cheap Internet on TV device!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:17:29 +0000

Aakash is history – There is another device in the making that may prove to be more revolutionary than Ultra Cheap Aakash. According to ToI story researchers at HP have created a mass internet access device that enables people access internet content on even the most basic TV sets and manage all screen operations using basic TV remotes.

It is definitely not a new idea – Accessing internet on TV can easily be done with latest Television sets, which now-a-days have Wi-Fi enabled. Infact, Smart TVs, like the one from Samsung is specifically made for accessing internet content on TV. However, these are expensive and can be availed by very very few people, especially in a country like India.

HP Vayu can be termed as a Set-top-box that enables users to access internet on TV and it does not require a Keyboard and a mouse. Everything can be controlled using the normal TV remote control.

Although, HP Vayu is not launched yet, ToI got a preview of it and they have some interesting things to say about it. Here are some of the highlights of HP Vayu as described by ToI article:

HP Vayu comes in-built with various apps that include stock prices, horoscope, Bill pay facility and even getting Train information. Also, Vayu has a facility where it third party developers can create apps on this platform.
HP Vayu runs on Linux based operating system, and also can be used as a regular PC. It also has a facility to attach a keyboard and mouse.
HP Vayu has a facility where users can create categories and store websites, blogs of their choice.
HP Vayu has a storage capacity where users can store photos, videos, documents among other things
It can be paired with a Mobile phones as well and paired mobile phones can send messages. Users can share web urls, photos etc as well using a mobile phone.

Technical Specifications

Linux Based OS
1 GB RAM
8GB Flash Memory (facility to add additional 300GB space)
Zigbee Sensor Network
USB Ports
Wi-Fi
Ethernet
Bluetooth
Infrared Connectivity
HDMI Output
Regular AV Channels
3G / GPRS /HSDPA
Built-in Microphone & Speakers

Vayu also boast many other features including motion sensors, contact list, white-boarding etc. However, success of HP Vayu will depend upon the price point it comes at. HP Vayu VInd has a production cost of roughly Rs. 5000/- and with mass production, this price is expected to come down as well.

If HP Vayu’s retail price comes in range of Rs. 6-7k, it surely will be a very attractive proposition for Indians who cannot afford to buy a PC which costs roughly Rs. 20k.

Would love to hear readers thoughts on this potentially revolutionary HP Vayu Internet on TV device!

Yahoo Stars: Well implemented Celebrity updates aggregator!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:38:26 +0000

The Twitters and Facebook’s and Google Plusses of the world have made one thing simple – Fans can follow their celebrities first hand. However, in last 2 years many celebrities have joined multiple platforms making it difficult to follow your favorite celebrities on a single platform.

Yahoo has come to rescue and made it simple to follow everything that you want to know about your favourite star. Yahoo Stars, the latest initiative by Yahoo brings all Bollywood Star updates on a single platform – And it has been implemented beautifully!

To be honest, there is absolutely nothing new about the concept – In simple words it is an aggregator or sorts that puts together tweets, pictures, videos and updates. Yahoo Stars does not produce any unique content or is not a platform for user generated content as well. Infact, is you want reply to comment on a tweet, you actually do it through Twitter itself. If anything, they have allowed commenting on a Video update.

The USP of Yahoo Stars is in the way they have presented the content – For once, I like it. They have collated the latest tweets, Videos, Pictures, Links & news from various sources and presented it beautifully in a format that will help a fan to get a single one-stop integrated view of everything regarding his / her favorite Bollywood Star.

Yahoo Stars also has a functionality that will allow a fan to explicitly subscribe to updates, which will then inform as soon as a update is posted on the platform.

Give Yahoo Stars a spin and let us know what you think about this new initiative by Yahoo India, Remember, it is still in Beta stage and probably has more in store in future. Yahoo has been lagging behind most of its peers when it comes to launching anything new – so this a welcome change from Yahoo.

Why market research is a sheer waste of time?

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:43:38 +0000

Market research is one of the activities that most brands indulge in regularly. But more often than not it has been proven that is a waste of time.

Now most of you reading this would be finding it difficult to believe above statement, after all brands spend Crores of rupees in this activity. All business schools teach us that this is the most important activity that precedes any market launch. But just hear me out before you dismiss this statement out right.

Market research was firmly established in the early part of the 20^th century as an important activity. This was further fuelled by the belief that most brands can capture the felt and latent needs and wants of its consumers. This activity is again divided into qualitative events like focus groups or interviews and quantitative techniques like questionnaires.

The net result was a result based on which the brand managers would develop the 4Ps – product, price, place and promotion for the service or product before positioning it to the consumers. But most of this activity is a sheer exercise in justifying a promotion that the brand has about the market segment and does not have enough evidence to guarantee the success of a launch.

A good case in point was the launch of new Coke. Post World War II Coke had almost 65% share of the aerated beverages market in North America. But by 1980’s it had fallen to 24%. This was mostly due to the launch of the Cola wars by then Pepsi president John Scully, who introduced a series of blind taste tests that proved that most consumers preferred Pepsi for taste if the brand name was not disclosed. The tests were even televised and by 1980 the results were causing considerable alarm in the Coco-Cola headquarters in Atlanta.

So the CEO Robert Goizueta launched the vision of new Coke, a new formula which was field -tested and backed by market research. It had an acceptance rate of almost 70% and only 10 % of respondents felt disappointed with the new taste. But when launched on April 23, 1983 it was a disaster. Most loyal Coke drinkers formed associations to ban the new drink and Coke market share fell further.

Finally Coco-cola relented and brought the old Coke back. It cost them Billions of dollars and some very angry consumers.

The market research did them in and Coke took some time to come back to level terms.

There are countless examples like this when Market research has actually harmed the company more than it benefitted them.

On the other end of the spectrum there are companies like Apple which do not rely on market research at all. Steve Jobs in fact abhorred market research and relied on his personal knowledge and intuition. What he famously said was – The consumers do not understand what they want or what is a “great product”, they come to know it when you give it to them!

Similarly no sane market research specialist would have advised Larry Page or Sergei Brin to launch yet another search engine when Yahoo was the going great gins. Also, Mark Zuckerberg may have never launched Facebook if he relied on market research.

So how does one go about launching new products or services if one has to completely do away with market research? Well the answer is not so simple but a good place to start is the sales data.

Sales data both from competing and substitute, products and services are a great place to start to get inputs into your own product development. Many great marketers have stressed on the need to be in the field and observe the consumer buying behavior at the point of sale. The issues and concerns of the consumer form a good insight into a product development, like for example storage of songs was an important input into the iPod.

Secondly product packaging and design would form the second key component. This again cannot be ascertained from field tests of focus groups but one has to just look at the packaging of Tobacco products to understand how something so deadly can be beautifully packaged to look attractive. A good example in India is the ITC soap brand Fiama Di Wills.

Thirdly sales training to ensure that they communicate the right message which was the input from the design. This could be from the sales data, point of sales experience or the design of the product.

All these three require considerable effort and are not for every firm, but only those with the right investment in sales, marketing and design. For the rest there is always the luxury of stale market research.

Would love to hear your views on this!

Indian Govt. proposes Free Medicine for all!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:29:39 +0000

I happened to read a report that appeared in ToI yesterday which says that Indian Government is considering Free Medicine for all initiative, especially for poor and needy people. This scheme will be offered through Public Hospitals and health facilities across the country.

Prima Facie, this is an excellent initiative if Government is able to execute it well. To avail this facility, citizens will have to procure a National Health Entitlement card (NHEC), that will guarantee access to primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare fully funded by the Centre.

There will be fixed level of healthcare services under national health package offered by center, but state governments are free to add additional services. The health package will focus on the most common and high-impact healthcare requirements only.

From citizens perspective, they will not be able to avail additional services just by paying a difference. This is to ensure that people who can afford to pay from their pocket or with their insurance services do not take advantage of this initiative. This initiative is primarily targeted at people who cannot afford medical facilities or insurance to pay for healthcare.

Some countries like U.K have very similar model called NHS (National Health Service), where free medical facilities are provided to to their residents.

In India too, currently, comprehensive health care facilities are provided free of cost to the Central Govt. employees and pensioners and their dependents under “Central Government Health Scheme” (CGHS). Every person covered under this scheme has a CGHS card, that entitles them for free healthcare facilities. It looks like the proposed National Health Entitlement card (NHEC) will also be based on similar lines.

Panel setup for this purpose calculated that 52% of the patients across India will take benefit of this scheme. This scheme will put a additional load of Rs 28,675 crore during the 12th Plan period.

If implemented successfully, this new initiative will surely usher a new era in Indian Healthcare space!

What do you think?

Google Bus Transit extends to Navi Mumbai, Kalyan & Thane!

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:01:10 +0000

After covering over 8 Indian cities Google Transit has now spread its wings to Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane. This is surely going to help people who stay or travel on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Although travelling within Mumbai and its suburbs is relatively easier, if one has to travel from, lets say, Kalyan to Thane it gets difficult due to various modes of transport agencies involved. Once has to literally change 3 different modes of transport to reach the destination . In such a situation, Google transit can really be of great help!

Google Transit has now tied up with NMMT (Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport), KDMT (Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Transport) and TMT (Thane Municipal Transport) which will enable them to give timings and directions to commuters traveling to & fro from Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane. Mumbai Central Railway and Western Railway is already covered by Google Transit.

Lets take an example to see how easily commuters can get the direction even for complex directions!

Google Transit Directions from Kalyan to Thane

As you can see from the screenshot above, Google transit not only offers directions, but also bus numbers, their timings, various alternatives and also the total approximate time required for the travel.

With Google Transit being on mobile as well, commuters can find any travel directions anytime!

Here is a question to readers – How many of you have used Google Transit earlier and how effective and helpful was it to you? Let us know..

Google Chromebooks will soon hit Indian shores!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:09:49 +0000

Google Chromebook made quite a splash when it was launched earlier this year – it has been receiving mixed reviews from the users that have started using it. Looks like they will soon be hitting Indian shores as well!

Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps, Google, has made a comment stating - “I would be very surprised if Chromebooks are not shipped in India by early 2012. We see India as a huge potential market for us,”.

If you are not aware, Chromebooks essentially are “Nothing but Web” device, that runs a Chrome Browser doubling up as a Operating System itself. Unlike, Netbooks and Laptops, it does not have a locally residing Operating System. Additionally, all the storage happens on the cloud, so it does not have a Hard Disk either.

These Chromebooks are targeted mostly at people who are continuously on the web. If a user does not need to run processor intensive applications, Chromebook looks like a very good fit.

Chromebooks are Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, so as soon it boots up, it immediately connects to your wireless network or Mobile Network (via 3G) so you’re on the web right from the start.

Google has partnered with Acer and Samsung to manufacture Chromebooks and are available on retail in USD 400 to USD 450 range. They had also announced earlier at the Google I/O conference that Chromebooks will be offered on a Monthly Subscriptions to students and Businesses at $20 and $28 respectively.

I am not sure if this scheme will be extended in India as well. But if it does, I am sure many will lap up these devices!

What is your take on Chromebooks? will you buy them?

How to stay Safe & Secure online [Google Good to Know]

Kaushambi — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:21:15 +0000

How does Google collect my personal data? How can I stay safe online? How will Google use my data? These are questions that plague most of us and if they don’t plague you, we bet this read is going to change the way you look at internet in general.

The internet has been abuzz with rumors and unconfirmed reports on how the data of an average person like you is used by Google and other search engines. It seems like Google has finally stepped up and released its very own resource center or shall we say, information portal which lays out the abc’s of your online privacy, uses of your personal data on the internet and by Google. Here’s a bird’s eye view of what Google’s advice on staying safe online and much more – Google Good to Know.

Google Good to Know – Stay Safe Online

Google Good to Know is divided into 4 sections, and Stay Safe Online is the first one. This section lays out information on basic things like how to make up a safe password, how to spot malware, how to shop online, what are secure sites and a short brief on online family safety.

Prima facie, most internet users who have an average understanding and knowledge of how the internet works will already be on top of these tips on online safety. However Google has made this a great place to start for beginners who are learning the ropes of the online world.

So for all you technically challenged users out there, the Stay Safe Online section of Google Good to Know is your step 1 in learning tips on how to protect yourself from the dirty side of internet.

Google Good to Know – Your data on the web

As the name suggests, this section is Google’s humble attempt at informing the lay person of how websites and search engines use their personal data or location to give tailored results.

If words cookies and IP address confuse you, we highly recommend a visit to this section because all this IT jargon is explained in simple language. From guessing your local language to remembering your previous searches to give you personalized search results, your IP address and cookies will do much more than simply give out your physical location. Definitely good to know, we think!

Google Good to know – Your data on Google

Before we even get to what this section of Google Good to Know is all about, let’s take a classic example. Let’s assume you searched for "priyanka chopra pics" in Google. According to Good to Know, the following will be stored on Google’s servers.

Your IP address – your general location and your Internet Service Provider
The exact time and date you searched for "priyanka chopra pics"
Your exact search query, which in this case is "priyanka chopra pics"
The browser you use, i.e. Internet explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc
Your operating system, i.e. Windows 7, Mac OS, etc
Cookies that will remember your search preferences and the websites you have visited
Your web history, which is a log of the sites you have visited before and after you have searched for "priyanka chopra pics"

Have you just been left feeling stripped naked of your privacy?

We strongly suggest that all internet users must read up thoroughly on this bit because it is a real eye opener that may leave many thinking "Gee, maybe I should think twice before searching for content" All the information collected will stay stored in Goggle’s servers for a limited time, ranging from 180 days to 9 months or more. From using this data to give you personalized searches to target relevant advertisements and promotions, Google will use this to benefit you, themselves, and to a certain extent, their partners.

Google Good to Know – Manage your data

Did you know that Google had a special team called the Data Liberation Front which allows users to access or remove their private data from Google and its services?

It is things like these that Google points out this section of Google Good to Know. It lays out lesson 101 in how you can manage, control or erase to a certain extent, your data and information from Google services and websites in general.

Again, a stellar source of information that is free of jargon to help the average internet user learn a bit more on keeping a tab on how their data floats around on the internet. For example, if you are using Google Chrome, you can opt to surf in Incognito Mode which will make sure that your web history is not recorded in Google Chrome and all your cookies will be deleted when you shut down the browser.

I am sure after reading Google Good to know, your browsing habits are bound to change! What do you think?

Government Boosts MSE Access to Market by making it Mandatory for Government Depts to procure from them!

Ankit Agarwal — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:52:19 +0000

In what looks like a festive gift for MSEs, the cabinet cleared a policy that aims to boost the growth of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in India.

Public Procurement Policy for goods produced and services rendered by Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) makes it mandatory for PSUs and government departments to procure 20% of their products and service needs from MSEs

The policy can do a world of good to MSEs by not only providing an opportunity to aim for a pie of high value contracts that various state and central departments dole out, but also provide them a chance to rub shoulders with large enterprises and compete at a larger scale.

With 26 million MSMEs in India that employ about 60 million people who contribute about 8% to its GDP, 45% to its industrial output and 40% to its exports, there is no doubt that MSEs, SMEs together are critical for the Indian economy which was highlighted by how SMEs handled the recessionary marketplace. An opportunity like this will only enhance their chance to sustain and succeed

The policy will implemented by next fiscal but will be made mandatory 3 years from now on and government departments will then have to set a target of procuring a minimum of 20% goods/services from MSEs.

Additionally, out of the 20% a minimum of 4% will be earmarked for MSEs run by Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes but incase on non-participation by such MSEs other MSEs can fill in. Also, departments who fail to fulfill the 20% quota will have to provide reasons for the same to a committee

The move highlights the importance of MSEs in the Indian economy and the policy focuses on boosting the MSE sector in India. The move can also help improve the credit worthiness for MSEs helping them secure loans easily since banks will take into account the large opportunity available. This will be in addition to attractive loan options available for SMEs already

Policy sure seems out and out beneficial on paper but like all other policies, execution will decide how real the benefits are. However, preferential procurement is not an entirely new concept and countries like South Africa have seen success by making procurement policies (BEE) with an intention to help domestic companies

What do you think about the mandatory procurement by MSEs? Do you think this will benefit MSEs and in-turn increase their contribution towards the economic development of India