Bottom of the pyramid?

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=b29c749a-082b-4da1-b0b5-671bcd3af0ce&&Headline=Makeover+plan+sees+Dharavi+prices+skyrocketing

Located in what could be called the heart of Mumbai - Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia has seen real estate prices skyrocket in the past few years. Real Estate speculators are actively investing in Dharavi with a short term appetite for capital gains. This bodes well for the mazdoors, who toil there and have been toiling since time immemorial in hope of a better life. It's about time they got their due.

I bet Vardhabhai must be turning in his grave.

Classic DIY advertising

Seen at a South Indian eating joint called Ananda Bhavan, I couldn't help commenting on the line, "We are using Olive Oil.." It reminded me of my old Algebra/Geometry teacher from school, who frequently used the same tense in a sentence ("you are wanting to draw a line from one point in the circumfrence of the circle to another point to determine its diameter.")

Look at the poster. To an Ad professional, it reeks of disaster (typeface, colours, highlights, copy etc.). It serves its purpose though. A person queueing up for an order won't miss it. Probably won't be compelled enough to order it as well.

Transformation

Impossible is nothing. Chain-smoker, Bollywood superstar, mega-millionaire, aged over 40 years old. How did SRK find motivation to change? Maslow's self-actualization, perhaps?

Setting a great example to all.

Flat Earth Economics

..democratization of ideas.....long-tail economy...user-generated content - it's incredible. The world's getting more entrepreneurial and ordinary people getting more empowered.

I predict that maybe 40 years from now, in the service industry - we'll start seeing more corporations turning into co-operatives. A shell company tying assorted freelancers together.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=120493

Before you think, "Yeah right! Maybe that's going to work for creative services companies, where individual talent is the biggest irreplaceable asset and this will never happen to banks or savings & loan companies", have a look at http://www.zopa.com

UK Police fear migrant impact

This is a little dose of karma.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7001768.stm

A Police chief in UK fears migrant impact. Too bad. They should of thought of this 400 years ago when they came uninvited to distant lands and colonized them. It's karma I guess.

Something India Needs

I could not help but think that this is something that all Indians must actively develop. Using the web to promulgate consumer activism. With the Indian judicial system on sleep mode (no offence to sleeping judges, lawyers, defendants and attendees) for such a long time, it's up to ordinary people (at least the privileged middle classes) to begin this assault on reckless, heedless, avaricious, self-serving, unrestrained corporations and entrepreneurs.

http://adage.com/garfieldtheblog/article?article_id=121049

Let He Who Is Without Com Cast the First Stone
Comcast Must Die: Part 8
By Bob Garfield Published: October 10, 2007 The site, comcastmustdie.com, finally went up Friday. Since then there have been more than 100 posts, mainly from frustrated Comcustomers, but also from Comcast employees and generally disgusted consumers of cable-telecom services far and wide. Most heartening is the fact that, as per my evil scheme, Comcast has been forced to monitor the traffic. Aggrieved customers who post their account numbers are getting calls from Comcast trying to resolve their problems. That, of course, is the entire point of the exercise. In a perfect world, the corporation would also be busying itself to create its own internal structures to address consumer complaints, feedback...even praise. But this is a start. The onus is on Comcast to continue its attentiveness. Be assured, I will be paying close attention -- and so will many, many others.

Public administration and babudom

In a recent Mckinsey Quarterly interview with Smt. Sheila Dikshit (CM of New Delhi, India), she suggests that the central government in India must create city-states for increasing efficiency in governance. The system currently in place is that the big metro cities are capitals of the states in which they are located. States being vast provinces, there are terrible inequities with urban cities growing at breakneck speed, while rural areas languish and in many cases regress. New Delhi however is an exception. It's a state created from a former union territory (think Washington DC), essentially a city. India's capital at that.

The success of New Delhi that has seen substantial and positive infrastructure development in the past 5-6 years is a clear cut example that the city-state example will work.

Now the reason I write this here is that I had once proposed this idea to my Economic teacher in the context of Mumbai. It was more like a question. This was sometime during the handover of Hong Kong to China and the class was discussing economic policy implementation. So I asked why can't the government make Mumbai a city-state? A separate zone governed by its own laws and rules. While some may call this discriminatory and the people in power would never agree (Mumbai contributes a lions share of taxes for Maharashtra state), it is perhaps a much needed remedy to make cities competitive and more importantly livable.

The fundamental flaw with "Indianism"

True story.

Azad Yadav's son, a teenager nicked his father's unlicensed revolver and used it to settle a score in his school. Shocking and tragic, I know. But this part caught my attention.

"...Yadav also said he had noticed nothing amiss in his son’s behaviour that morning. “I had no idea that Akash had taken my gun. When I found it was missing, I went to a priest in Ballabhgarh for a puja -- hoping that he might be able to tell me where it was. In the afternoon, my wife called and told me about the shootout............”

This is either a plain lie meaning the father (justifiably) is weaving a story to avoid being indicted in 'aiding and abetting' the perpetrator OR this is the truth and in my opinion - a prime example of why India continues to falter. A firearm goes missing and the owner goes to a priest to find out where his firearm is? Through a 'pooja'? Through an offering? Through cosmic intervention?

Had he told that he went to the priest to pray so that nothing unfortunate would transpire from his transgression (keeping a gun at home), I'd have understood that. But the reason he gave - probably thinking that it would be acceptable to all - makes me wonder. Isn't this irrational? Had he gone to the Police or acted responsibly, the probability of such a tragic event happening could have been reduced. This is a clear case of Indians taking religion too seriously.

Father surrenders, says Akash will have to pay
NEERAJ CHAUHAN

Posted online: Saturday , December 15, 2007 at 12:00:00Updated: Saturday , December 15, 2007 at 12:36:01
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Gurgaon, December 14 After a few days in hiding, Akash Yadav’s father Azad Yadav surrendered before the Gurgaon police on Friday evening and told officers that the gun his son had used to kill classmate Abhishek Tyagi did not belong to him but to a friend.
At 7 pm on Friday, Yadav made a quiet entry to the Sector 40 police station and gave himself up. The police have charged him for illegal possession of a weapon and may also book his friend who holds the licence. Yadav’s friend had given him the gun for safekeeping while he was away.
South Gurgaon DCP Satheesh Balan met the media in the evening and said Yadav had been hiding because “he was scared of the police”.
Earlier in the day, Newsline managed to speak to Azad Yadav on his cellphone. He said, “I am shocked at what my son has done. It is shameful.” Yadav said he had sold off land in the village and moved to Gurgaon so that his two sons could get a proper education. “I did not think this would be the outcome,” he said.
Yadav said, “I am not in a condition to do anything for Akash. His mother Kamlesh is very ill and even my younger son Sunny is scared. Akash will have to pay for what he has done,” Yadav said.
Yadav also said he had noticed nothing amiss in his son’s behaviour that morning. “I had no idea that Akash had taken my gun. When I found it was missing, I went to a priest in Ballabhgarh for a puja -- hoping that he might be able to tell me where it was. In the afternoon, my wife called and told me about the shootout.”
Azad said he has a licensed weapon of his own, but it’s double-barrelled and not the handgun allegedly used in the shooting. The police have said the pistol used in the shooting was of US make and did not have a licence. Azad told Newsline, “The pistol used by my son belongs to my close friend Raj Singh Dalal, who gave it to me on December 6 before leaving for Hisar.”
He said Dalal was a wrestler and did possess a licence for the gun. Yadav said, “I called Dalal that night to tell him what had happened. He rushed back to Gurgaon and met police officers. Why are the police still saying the gun belonged to me?”

The Mary Jane Trio

They were swinging one Christmas season at the Cathay atrium. Absolutely "switched on". Wish I could have stayed longer and heard the whole set. :( A good example of a 'customer delight' activity. They did attract a lot of onlookers.