INGENE

Indians are among the happiest!

2012-02-13T22:13:00.002+05:30

Notwithstanding the economic woes and conflicts, the world is a happier place now than what it was in 2007 and Indians are among the happiest on this planet, says a survey.
According to a poll conducted by global research company Ipsos, despite woes, conflicts, world a happier place than in 2007 as 22 per cent (up 2 points) of global citizens say they are "very happy" and the happiest people reside in Indonesia, India and Mexico.While eight in 10 (77 per cent) citizens in 24 countries surveyed said they are 'happy' in their lives, one quarter (22 per cent) said they are 'very happy' ? a key measure that identifies comparative depth and intensity of happiness among country citizens and the world, the report said.On a national level, Indonesia has the highest proportion of happiest people with 51 per cent citizens reporting they are 'very happy' followed by India and Mexico (43 per cent) each.Brazil and Turkey shared the third position, where 30 per cent of citizens expressed their contentment, followed by Australia and the United States each at 28 per cent.On the other end, Hungary (6 per cent), South Korea (7 per cent) and Russia (8 per cent) have the lowest number of 'very happy' people, followed by Spain (11 per cent) and Italy (13 per cent).Regionally, Latin America has the greatest proportion of 'very happy' people (32 per cent), followed by North America (27 per cent).Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa shared the third place with 24 per cent of 'very happy' people.Not surprisingly, it is citizens in Europe who drag the global average assessment of happiness downward as only one in six (15 per cent) say they are 'very happy'.The poll of 18,687 adults conducted from November 1 to 15 2011 also demonstrates that those who are married appear to be the happiest when compared to all other groups, especially those who are not married. Besides marriage, age and socio-economic factor also played an important role for determining the level of contentment among people.Those who are under the age of 35 are more likely to say thet are 'very happy' than those who are in the age bracket of 35-49 across all countries surveyed, meanwhile, those with a high education and those with a high household income are among those most likely to be 'very happy'.The greatest improvements were found in Turkey (up 16 points since 2007) followed by Mexico (up 10 points), Australia (up 7 points), Japan (up 6 points) and India and Canada (each up 5 points).Of the 24 countries measured, 9 countries experienced increases in happiness intensity compared with 13 that dropped and two countries with no change.Those countries experiencing the greatest drop in happiness intensity were Brazil (down 9 points) followed by Indonesia (down 7 points), Russia (down 6 points) and South Africa (down 5 points).

India still a foreign investment hot spot - E&Y

2012-01-30T16:34:00.001+05:30

Foreign direct investment in India is set to swell in coming years as investors stomach a lack of transparency, poor infrastructure and policy paralysis in their search for growth, professional services firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) said in a report.

Overseas investment in Asia's third-largest economy rose for the first time in three years in 2011, the report noted, as global investors put their faith in rising salaries, an expanding middle-class and a large and cheap labour force.

"The fundamentals that make India attractive to investors remain intact," Farokh T. Balsara, head of markets at Ernst & Young India, wrote in the report released on Sunday.

"However, our respondents continue to cite inadequate infrastructure and a lack of governance and transparency as major obstacles to investment."

Foreign direct investment (NYSE:FDI - NewsFDInull) in India rose 13 percent to $50.81 billion in the first 11 months of 2011 frhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifom a year earlier, while the total number of projects rose 25 percent to 864, the report said, citing data from the Financial Times' FDI Intelligence service.

For graphic on E&Y's India attractiveness survey see:

http://link.reuters.com/ruk36s

For graphic on India's GDP and industrial output see:

http://link.reuters.com/wys35s

Business confidence in India has declined over the past year, as economic growth slowed from an annual rate of 8.5 percent in 2010/11 to about 7 percent, and corruption and policy paralysis discouraged investment in big projects.

Just over half of chief executives in India are still "very confident" of revenue growth in the next 12 months, down from 88 percent a year ago, according to a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The majority of companies surveyed by E&Y were confident in the long-term prospects for investment in India, given sluggish growth in the United States and debt problems in Europe.

Almost 70 percent of 382 international companies surveyed said they plan to increase or maintain their operations in India, said the report, which was prepared for the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Just 19 percent said they had no plans to enter the country or were preparing to withdraw.

Robust domestic demand, cost competitiveness and a cheap, ever-growing labour force were cited India's key benefits.

"Although the ongoing global uncertainty...(has) prompted some discomfort among global investors to make long-term commitments, India's inherent advantages and its proven resilience to counter macroeconomic challenges far outweigh these concerns," Balsara said.

Automakers led the way in investing in India last year, boosting spending by 46 percent, E&Y said.

Technology and life sciences companies were other big spenders, while spending by foreign companies on infrastructure and retail projects declined.

Ford Motor Co, which said this month it would spend $142 million on its Indian operations, and the Renault-Nissan alliance are among companies that are stepping up investment in India.

Other companies, particularly retailers, are not so sure.

Sweden's IKEA, the world's biggest furniture retailer, said this week that would be difficult to set up shop in India because of complex government sourcing rules announced this month.

Plans by companies such as Wal-Mart were set backhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif in December when the government, under pressure from political allies, abandoned a long-mooted policy to open up the supermarket sector to direct investment by foreign companies.

Source: Yahoo finance

social swarming: transparency matters!

2012-01-26T17:33:00.003+05:30

Transparent Chennai, a group of enthusiastic youth in Chennai aggregates, creates and disseminates data and research about important civic issues facing Chennai, including those issues facing the poor. Their work aims to empower residents by providing them useful, easy-to-understand information that can better highlight citizen needs, shed light on government performance, and improve their lives in the city, one issue at a time. Our goal is to enable residents, especially the poor, to have a greater voice in planning and city governance.

They actually creates maps and data to understand issues facing city residents. Transparent Chennai believes that a lack of data has sometimes allowed for government to evade its responsibilities to provide basic entitlements to all city residents, and to exercise force with impunity over informal settlements and workers.They work closely with individuals and citizens’ groups to create data that can help them counter inaccurate or incomplete government data, and make better claims on the government for their rights and entitlements.
Some of their data is available in the form of interactive maps, which can be layered on top of one another to contextualize information. Mapping can provide useful information to citizens, identify gaps in government data, create insights into policymaking, help create more accountability for elected representatives and bureaucracies, and help residents to “think spatially” at a time of rapid urbanization.

TC team members also conduct in-depth research into select issues of importance in the city. We have conducted research into urban governance, electoral accountability, participatory planning processes, pedestrian issues, slums, sanitation, and solid waste management, details about all of which can be found on the site.

Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements.

At the MP and MLA level, individual legislators are rarely associated with particular bills, and voting happens almost exclusively along party lines. As a result, when most organizations collect information about the performance of elected representatives, they look at other pieces of available information: their attendance in the legislative council or assembly, the number and kinds of questions they asked while they were there, and their spending from their local development funds. Ward councilors are slightly different: in Chennai, they propose resolutions usually related to issues affecting their constituency that are then approved by the Council and implemented. “However, we realized that simply collecting information about resolutions, questions, and attendance, did not tell us the entire story about a ward councilor’s performance. We were also interested in outcomes – how did the ward actually fare under their leadership with respect to urban services?” the team told.

This is a hard question to answer because of the paucity and inconsistency of data available to connect a legislator’s performance with outcomes at the constituency level- especially those of the city and the ward (High Powered Expert Committee 2011, 45). Official statistics on most aspects of city life, such as access to sanitation, extent and quality of sidewalks, slums, and public health are incomplete, and almost never disaggregated to the ward level. Even when data is present, it is often skewed as it fails to record (or even acknowledge) the deficiency in urban services to many of the city’s residents because they are seen to exist in the realm of the ‘informal’; like residents in a slum.

This is why Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements. they began their efforts in a single ward. Each Saturday, nearly a hundred volunteers from civil society groups and colleges throughout the city walked around the streets of ward 176 (formerly ward 152 and parts of 151) in the southern part of the city, to capture data about three kinds of outcomes: public sanitation, garbage collection, walkability. they used paper maps and pencils to mark locations of piles of garbage and measured their size, and marked the locations of dustbins and whether they were usable. We found public bathrooms, and recorded their conditions. TC also evaluated the road’s walkability, marking locations of broken sidewalks and problems with crossing the street. they also took photographs and videos, and filled out quick surveys to supplement the information in the map. During the survey, also tested a mobile-app built for them by a local company to see whether GPS readings from it were accurate enough for wider use as a tool for documenting civic issues.

The volunteer team worked with Transparent Chennai to digitize the data, converting it from paper to spreadsheets and digital maps that could be analyzed.
The experiment yielded strong data that underscored some of their suspicions about local conditions. 40 of 111 (36%) dustbins on 87 roads that CT covered were unusable, and piles of garbage were most prevalent in the poorest parts of the ward. Only 2 of 11 public toilets met basic standards for usability (they had water, lights, and did not have any blockages). And only three out of the twenty roads that they surveyed scored well on walkability, while the rest required improvements!
At the end of the process, they have held a public meeting where we invited all the candidates for ward councilor, as well as residents from the ward. TC shared the data and analysis with attendees, and invited councilor candidates to share with us their plans for the ward. Candidates came from four political parties, the BJP, AIADMK, Congress and the DMK (although the last candidate came far too late to contribute to the meeting). All of them promised to take action based on the information, but both residents and press covering the event expressed skepticism about their ability and willingness to follow through on their promises.

For the mapping, we used low-tech paper maps, so anyone can use these tools, not just those who have access to smart phones and are familiar with the Internet. We believe that this is a crucial element to making these tools inclusive. Using our experiences from the Experiment, we will be refining the methodologies, and making them available in the form of Toolkits in both English and Tamil on our website. Our hope is that we will be able to assist volunteers from many other wards carry out similar exercises locally.

The Transparent Chennai team was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers, who came week after week to map local conditions and to digitize data.
“But what we are most excited about is the promise behind the experiment – that citizens can actually come together and create the data they need for greater accountability of elected representatives” the team states.

Reference: http://www.accountabilityindia.in/accountabilityblog/2340-mapping-local-accountability
http://www.transparentchennai.com/
High Powered Expert committee 2011, Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services, High Powered expert Committee.

Roy, A 2009, ‘Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization’,Planning Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 76-87.

Youth social swarming : Cyclothon for Clean Yamuna by Swechha

2012-01-25T21:20:00.004+05:30

Swechha, a youth-run, youth-focused NGO operating from Delhi, India, engaged in the issues of environment and social development was started life as the ‘We for Yamuna’ campaign in 2000, launched by a student volunteer activist group. They have three cross-cutting focus areas which run throughout our varied programmes: environment and education, youth and civil society and active citizenship. On the 22nd of January 2012, the Yamuna Cyclothon, a Swechha initiative, gathered over 1,000 citizens, who cycled along the length of the river Yamuna to pledge their support to Delhi’s ailing river and reinforce their commitment to be environmentally conscious citizens.

The first thing that the Cyclothon does well is to put the “issue” front and center. The event is meant to highlight the sad state of the Yamuna River, which they describe as Delhi’s lifeline. By having cyclists literally travel along it, the event will draw immediate focus to the pollution plaguing the river and may also encourage more people to volunteer for the cause.

Instead of merely having the Cyclothon, the event’s organizers have been careful to build a series of events around the Cyclothon to attract and sustain interest. These range from flash mobs and smart mobs to presentations at schools and universities across the city – raising the profile and scope of the event. None of these “sub-events” would have been too difficult to organize, yet they lend tremendous credence by converting the image of the Cyclothon from an isolated event to a movement. You see, people merely attend events; but they want to become a part of a movement.

People turned up to do their bit for the river cycle marathon, probably the largest seen in Delhi in the recent past, wound its way across heavy traffic through Civil Lines and the Wazirabad Road before hitting the old Railway bridge. Cyclists took a U-turn from there and cycled back through the Ridge. "The cyclothon serves two purposes. First of all it is our endeavour to take people to the river and have them connect to this natural heritage. A substantial part of our 22km cycling stretch will be along the river, starting from Wazirabad to the Loha Pul. The second purpose of this project of course is to promote cycling among people, especially in a city like Delhi," added Jha. However, those who turned up definitely did not need any further motivation to cycle. Girish Gandhi, a businessman turned up with his son from Ashok Nagar because he "loves cycling " and wanted to do his bit for the Yamuna. "The government has done a lot for the river but unfortunately there are no results to prove that. If cycling draws attention to the plight of the river, I am more than happy cycling for it," he said. Arnav Agarwal, a 10-year-old who turned up accompanied by his equally enthusiastic father, said he loved cycling and was glad to be able to raise awareness about the river. "I love cycling and am hoping this morning will be a lot of fun," he beamed. Swechha reported that 350 people had officially registered for the rally but 100 volunteers, including foreign nationals who are working with the NGO and about 150 cycling club members joined in the cyclothon. Of the registered participants, 150 rode on bikes especially organized by Hero Cycles, co-organisers of the event.

References:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Braving-the-chill-for-a-cause-pedalling-to-save-lifeline/articleshow/11597305.cms
http://nvonews.com/2012/01/18/cycling-drive-for-clean-yamuna/
http://onionlive.com/2012/01/18/cyclothon-for-clean-yamuna/

Social Changemaker : sanitary napkins for grassroot women in India

2012-01-25T17:43:00.004+05:30

In our country where population is touching 100 crores, the value of sanitary napkins used by women exceeds 1000 crores annually and it is increasing year after year. In India manufacturing of these sanitary napkins is in the hands of very few companies, mostly controlled by multi-nationals. The set of machines used are very expensive, the price of each set running in to crores. Most of the raw materials used are also imported. Even for middle class women, napkins sold in the market are becoming expensive.
Few Indian women can afford sanitary towels. But one social entrepreneur aims to change that, and provide an income too.

Sanitary napkins manufacturing unit

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The road to creating the world's first low-cost machine for making sanitary towels begins with a man who wore a sanitary towel himself. In 1998, Arunachalam Muruganantham was a workshop helper who lived below the poverty line in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. His research into sanitary towels began when he caught his wife, Shanti, trying to slip away with some filthy rags. When questioned, she said the choice was between buying towels for herself or buying milk for the family.

Her situation isn't unique: 88% of women in India resort to using ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and even husk sand during their periods, according to a report by market research group AC Nielsen called Sanitatary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right. As a result of these unhygienic practices, more than 70% of the women suffer from reproductive tract infections, increasing the risk of contracting associated cancers.

Faced with a challenge, Muruganantham decided to create a low-cost towel for his wife. His entrepreneurial spirit emerged quite early when his father, a handloom weaver, died and Muruganantham had to drop out of high school at 14. His mother earned a tiny amount as a farm worker. To supplement these wages, he began looking for low-cost business opportunities that addressed a need.

Cooking and delivering breakfast to factory workers pressed for time was his first successful venture, but he had to abandon it when he received threats from a competitor who copied his idea. At 15, he joined a workshop where he worked on gates and windows.

Bored by the repetitive designs, he adapted decorative Rangoli patterns to the metalwork and became so popular for his craftsmanship that he started his own workshop. For a child who grew up selling fireworks, sugarcane, lamps and statues of Ganesha, crafting a sanitary towel didn't seem like a big deal.

He started out by purchasing the best quality cotton he could find and made a few samples. Unaware of menstrual cycles, he presented them to his wife and demanded immediate test results. But his wife and sisters refused to discuss his creations with him.

"I was so consumed with research that I'd be up at the crack of dawn, to visit my sisters and ask them about it," he says. When his sisters saw him coming, they'd shout loudly to his wife next door to say that if he was going to ask them about towels, he'd better go back home. Undaunted, he approached female medical students and, when they refused to enter into discussion, gave them feedback forms. Convinced that he was using sanitary towels as an excuse to get close to other women, his wife left him a year and half after he started his research.

With no women willing to discuss Muruganantham's handmade sanitary towels in any depth, he decided to test them himself. Collecting goat's blood from a butcher shop and treating it chemically to prevent coagulation, he wore a bladder-and-tube contraption and women's underwear for a week. His homemade uterus would release a small dose of blood whenever pressed.

Unsatisfactory results prompted him to try another approach. He distributed the towels free and asked women to return the used ones. "It wasn't easy," says Muruganantham. "They thought I would use it for black magic." For his mother, stumbling upon a storeroom full of used sanitary towels was the final straw. She left too.

Muruganantham's breakthrough came at the end of two years of testing different materials. He figured out that towels were made of pine wood cellulose derived from the bark of the tree. He pretended to be a millionaire interested in setting up a manufacturing unit and approached American manufacturers via email with the help of local teachers. The manufacturers sent him board-like sheets that he puzzled over for 10 days until he tore them in half to reveal compressed fibres.

Reclaiming the fibres into usable cellulose, Muruganantham discovered, required a machine costing more than £300,000. "I decided to make a simple version of this machine, to re-engineer it," he says. It took him more than four years of trial and error to fabricate one in his workshop. Two years later, in 2006, his machine won the award for the best innovation for the betterment of society from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. And he was finally able to persuade his family to come back.

Looking at Muruganantham, it isn't immediately apparent that you are meeting a man who endured public ridicule for years, or received a presidential award for innovation. Softly spoken and unassuming, this 46-year-old inventor leaves you howling with laughter as he narrates his tales. The ability to mock himself is one of his chief charms. "Women fled at the sight of me; people used to call me mental and wondered if I had weird diseases," he recalls. "I was even suspected of being possessed by a bad spirit. No one used to come near me during full moons because of that. I had to meet what friends I had in secret."

Passionate about social change, he presents his deeply held convictions without inhibition, which makes him a novelty in the conservative society that surrounds him. He drives his own car, doesn't have a secretary and lives a quiet life – all of which confuses people who are used to seeing more obvious signs of wealth or fame.

Currently more than 600 machines made by his start-up company, Jayaashree Industries, are installed across 23 states in India. In spite of numerous offers, Muruganantham refuses to sell his innovation to the corporate world. "I didn't take the money route because I saw my parents struggle for survival," he explains. "I knew that this machine could provide a sustainable livelihood for many rural women."

His company sells the £1,600 machines directly to rural women with the help of bank loans, as well as through NGOs and women's self-help groups. An operator can learn the entire towel-making process in three hours and then employ three others to help with processing and distribution.

A basic machine produces 1,000 sanitary towels a day; the pneumatic version churns out 3,000. Women pack around six to eight towels in a packet and sell them for as little as 13 rupees (16p). On average, each woman earns the equivalent of £30 to £65 a month; in comparison, farm workers earn between 35p and 85p a day.

The towel-making machine transforms cellulose into sterilised towels in a four-part process. In the first stage, it chops up wood using a powerful motor. Then the operator compresses the pulp manually into a towel shape by controlling a core-forming unit with a foot pedal. They wrap each towel with a non-woven fabric and seal them with another pedal unit. Finally, they sterilise the towels by exposing them to ultraviolet light, trimming the end product and affixing strips before packing.

The entire system operates on a woman-to-woman basis. Women making the towels spread awareness of the product locally, eventually helping others make the shift to this more hygienic method of control.

"I am trying to create a second white revolution," says Muruganantham. Setting up 100,000 units, he says, will generate employment for one million women. "No one is bothered about uneducated and illiterate people. Through this model, they can live with dignity."

It is hard to create a revolution when the entire topic is largely taboo. "Women cannot ask family members to buy it for them, because they have shyness as a problem," says Nilendu Chatterjee, manager of the corporate social responsibility division of Jindal Steel & Power in Orissa. The company has installed four pneumatic machines that employ 32 women through its Shodashi (sweet 16) programme. Currently selling towels to women in 189 villages with the aid of nurses and midwives, it hopes to expand that number to 350 villages in the next two years.

However difficult it might be, Muruganantham isn't deterred. Seven months after visiting a tribal village in Uttarakhand, he received a call from a mother who told him that her little girl was going to school. It was the first time a woman had made enough money to give her daughter an education in the history of that community. This, Muruganantham says, was "his greatest compliment"

reference: http://newinventions.in/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/sanitary-towels-india-cheap-manufacture?newsfeed=true

Heterogeneity of youth market

2011-12-30T10:44:00.002+05:30

The youth market worldwide is not homogenous and brands fail to understand this basic truth! Raising Giants like China and India is very different than the saturated youth markets as UK or USA. Hence, the logic applied in those countries will not work at the other.

Here's a case study:

Last year, when an apparel giant opened four stores in China and failed to gain a significant portion of the retail sales, multinational retail stores took note. The Gap, an apparel line successful in more than 3,000 locations worldwide, had everything going for them. So, what went wrong?

The Gap’s biggest mistake was the cookie cutter approach it took to establishing its presence in the world’s largest youth market. The Gap sought to target the increasing middle-income consumers in the rapidly growing Chinese market, but failed to capture the attention of their most important customers, the Chinese youth.

In China, the Gap is perceived as middle class apparel selling for a luxury price. Status and luxury are important goals for China’s consumers, especially for the youth. However, a premium price for a middle class product is a cost youths are not willing to bear. Moreover, The Gap chose to open stand-alone stores rather than locating in mall areas, forcing customers to go out of their way to make a special trip just to visit the store. The majority of Chinese consumers purchase apparel at a mall because they can use it as a single destination for shopping, eating, and entertainment. The Gap failed to realize that China’s middle class youth consumer is very different from an American consumer.

The Gap is not the only apparel company unraveling in the Chinese market. American Apparel also has had issues targeting the youth market. While in the U.S., American Apparel advertises its style as “sexy,” Chinese female consumers prefer “cute” clothing. With all of these differences between the Western and Asian markets, how can a multinational company succeed in China?

While many companies are struggling in China, some have found a path to success. Enovate, a consulting company based in Shanghai, uses its strengths of networking and social media to successfully navigate the complexities of China’s youth.

Why is China’s youth market so challenging?

While the youth market is a difficult target, the Chinese youth market poses additional challenges for companies attempting to enter China. An important segment, Chinese youths have both the desire and means to spend. Disposable income is growing for younger and urban households, and the younger Chinese tend to spend more than save.[1] With rising income levels, the youth are able to afford more diverse and discerning tastes in their purchases.

What sets China apart from other nations is the one-child policy and its effects on the Chinese youth market. Since the implementation of the policy in the 1980s, which has resulted in 90 million only-children, the Chinese youth market is unique. The result of the policy is that a single child is now the focus of two parents and four grandparents, often leading to over-indulgence and high-pressure. These one-child policy children are regularly referred to as “little emperors” and are very persuasive in how their parents spend their money. In comparison, youth in the U.S. tend to have siblings whose parents balance the demands of each child. With so much familial attention and pressure focused on cultivating these only-children, the Chinese youth are interested in expressing their identity through personal choice. This desire to separate and differentiate makes the youth market a broad and diverse demographic.

Many companies looking to enter the Chinese market have yet to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how to successfully target the Chinese youth. Companies still believe that younger Chinese consumers are particularly influenced by Western trends in music, fashion, celebrities and sports. According to Passport GMID, “Chinese brands are slowly picking up market share, and even respect, amongst the fashion-conscious set, but foreign [Western] brands are still king in this marketplace and especially amongst the younger age groups.”[2] However, this old tactic of pushing Western brands without understanding the Chinese consumer is likely to fail.

Although popular culture is reported to be heavily influenced by Hollywood, regional and local influences are not to be ignored. Neighboring countries’ celebrities are also popular in China, evidenced by celebrity endorsements by Rain (Korea) and Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan). Strong foreign trends come from Japanese and, more recently, Korean pop culture, and resonate with many of the Asian youths. In addition to looking towards their neighbors, the Chinese youth also are impacted by Chinese pop culture. Popular Chinese celebrities are Faye Wong (Beijing), Andy Lau (Hong Kong), and Jay Chou (Taiwan). Additionally, half of box-office sales in China are for domestically produced motion pictures.[3]

Furthermore, China has regional differences, affecting preferences for local and foreign influences. For example, Shanghai tends to adopt more Japanese and Western aesthetics whereas Beijing is influenced by its indigenous arts and music culture.[4] Clearly, companies entering China must not underestimate the power of regional and local influences in the diverse youth market when introducing Western brands and culture.

Soruce: http://business.in.com/article/thunderbird/the-race-for-chinas-youth-market/30252/1#ixzz1hzZEO8Rp

India- Ahead 2012

2011-12-29T12:00:00.004+05:30

More than 35% of our population is below the age of 20. By the end of 2020, it is expected that 325 million Indian will reach working age, which will be the largest in the world.This will come at a time when the rest of the developed world will be faced with an aging population. It is estimated that by 2020, US will be short of 17 million people of working age, China by 10 million, Japan by 9 million and Russia by 6 million. At the same time, India will have a surplus of 47 million working people. Even when compared to developing countries, Brazil’s working population is set to grow by 12%, China’s by 1%, Russia’s will decline by 18%, while ours will grow by 30%. This is the reason Goldman Sachs predicted that only India can maintain a 5% growth rate until 2050.

With a huge working population will also come a huge consumption boom, as it has happened in China. China accounts for 20% of world’s consumption of aluminum, 35% of the global demand of steel and coal, and 45% of the worldwide cement purchase. The challenge for India will not only be economic growth, but also make it sustainable and bearable for the environment.

But keeping everything in mind, India will become the biggest consumers in the world, that means right from education to FMCGs the demand will cross countries like USA (already a saturated and deteriorating market) and UK.

Before the FDI policy opens in India, the Foreign investors should look at these opportunities and establish their brand, long ahead the demand reaches to the peak. Unlike China, India has its own consumption pattern which is influenced with the strong ethnic root as well as colonial rules.
The brands/ retailers / companies should consider a serious consumer research before venturing into this subcontinent otherwise they will face constrains and lagged growth.

Indian teenagers losing sleep over excess use of tech: study

2011-12-28T22:34:00.001+05:30

Teenagers spend maximum time on gadgets such as computers, video games and cell phones, which causes sleep deprivation, resulting into health problems like obesity and depression, a study has said.

These days children spend over eight hours a day playing video games, browsing Internet, sending SMSes and watching TV, an Assocham study said.

“Easy access to technology with lack of parental supervision is the main reason for increasing technology addiction among youths. Activities like watching TV and chatting online have greatly reduced teenagers' sleeping time,” it said.

The chamber surveyed 2,500 youths (both males and females) in 10 major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune.

The study said majority of youngsters, mainly in the age group of 10-18 years, are getting less than eight hours of sleep.

“Children of working parents are found to be more technology addictive in the absence of parental supervision as compared to those whose single-parent is engaged in employment,” it said.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article2747496.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

the viral music video and internet swarming : Kolaveri di

2011-12-22T11:52:00.022+05:30

In a multilingual country like India, its not easy to break the social and semiotic barrier to become viral. For long, the north south division of language and culture made a huge barricade on promoting local-lingo influenced videos across Bindha mountain (a mountain which is in the middle of Indian subcontinent). Various reasons can be cited for this. The pronunciation of southern languages are very different than the north as well as the meaning and expression of the words. Interestingly, the "Kolaveri di" broke this barrier smoothly and became instant hit among the younger population in India. The words in this song are simple, easy to pronounce and emotional (the love-break-hate is very catchy theme among youth). The singer used Tanglish (quirky mix of Tamil and English) which is very popular way of communication (bengali+english, Hindi+english, punjabi+tamil etc.)among the youth (read my earlier posts on language innovations among the youth in India). Also, the tune is simple to adopt into any language or sing.

(Original video)

(Punjabi version)

(Garhwali version)

(Gujrati version)

(female version)

'Kolaveri di', a song from the upcoming Tamil movie '3', sung by popular Tamil movie star Dhanush has become an internet rage. That Kolaveri Di, which will feature on the soundtrack of the forthcoming Tamil film 3 starring Dhanush, has found success beyond anyone’s expectations is obvious. Almost a month after its release, it is still being given more airtime than Anna Hazare! According to 18-year-old composer Anirudh Ravichander, the director Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush (who is the wife of the actor Dhanush) wanted a "light-hearted" song about failed love. Ravichandar quickly composed the tune. Dhanush then began work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing and writing. In an interview to The Times of India, Dhanush said "When I was writing down the lyrics, I kept in mind all the English words that are used in the Tamil vocabulary. Words like I, you, me, how, why, cow.. I just framed them into sentences and thats how I came up with the song." The promo of the song, which was released on November 16, became an instant hit on social networking sites for its quirky 'Tanglish' (Tamil-English) lyrics. The promo features the actor-playback singer Dhanush, son-in-law of superstar Rajinikanth, singing the song in a studio, and composer Anirudh at the piano, while wife & the director Aishwarya Rajinikanth and co-star Shruti Hassan watch along and give suggestions.

"Why this kolaveri di. 24 hours 83000 you tube views. Thank you guys. For making it the most viewed you tube video in music category yesterday. God bless," Dhanush tweeted on the day of the release of the song. The song Kolaveri appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21. The lyrics of the peppy song are simple and since it is a live recording, Dhanush keeps firing instructions while singing, making it more endearing. "yo boys I am singing song soup song flop song why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di rhythm correct why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di maintain this why this kolaveri..di.." goes the song.

Last weekend, the viral video of the song reached two milestones that confirmed its arrival in the YouTube hall of fame. It reached 15 million views—the target that Ashok Parwani, the associate director at Sony Music, which promoted the song, set for it on 25 November. It also got its own “Hitler gets angry about...” video—an essential accolade for any Internet meme and also the first for any Indian music video. (For the uninitiated, Hitler gets angry about is a series of videos featuring a scene of Adolf Hitler ranting in German from the 2004 movie Downfall. Subtitles are changed to make it seem like the subject of his rant is the meme in question.)

According to social media analytic firm Social Hues, the song was being talked about up to two weeks before the video appeared on YouTube on 16 November. A fan from Chennai, with the Twitter handle @arundanush, alerted both Dhanush’s sister-in-law Geetanjali Selvaraghavan and the composer of the song, Anirudh, to the fact that the song had been uploaded to YouTube on 31 October. His tweet, which read “Kolaveri song from 3 again uploaded in YouTube, pls inform Dhanush”, suggested it was not the first time such a leak had taken place.

Over the next few days, people began tweeting about the lyrics of the song and other details of the film. The publicity was global. Between 1 and 10 November (even before the official launch of the song), there were 43,800 mentions of Kolaveri in the US, 7,000 in France and 4,000 from the UAE. Tamil movie fanatics (mostly male) and non-resident Indians drove most of the traffic in the US and the Gulf, and students studying abroad made up the majority of mentions in Europe.

"Kolaveri di" Flash dance at Auckland

Kolaveri already had a significant following days before the official video appeared on the 16 November.

"Kolaveri di" Flash dance at Bangalore

(Kolaveri dance in urban India)

Aishwarya Dhanush said she was alerted to the leaked version via Twitter. “Even now I do not know the source (of the leak),” she said. “Initially I was upset, but since I felt that people needed to hear the right version, I wanted to bring out an official video. In two weeks (we) put together the video as there was no time for CD covers or publicity. Something of this magnitude cannot be planned. It just happens.”
That might be so, but even if the leak wasn’t planned, it’s clear that Sony Music India was quick to capitalize on it and turn it into a marketing advantage. Parwani told NDTV that the video accompanying the song was recorded at 2am, the night before the release on the 16 November, and edited the next morning.

But he also insisted that “we wanted this song to go viral in cyberspace. We marketed aggressively to make the song a national rage”. Parwani said that his team had been posting the song on Tamil, Hindi and international Facebook pages to drive traffic. From 16 November on, according to Social Hues, the rate of Twitter mentions of Kolaveri increased by nearly 200% every day, starting at 179 and peaking a week later at 14,907 tweets on 24 November—the day after it became the first Tamil film song to be played on MTV and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan had tweeted about his admiration for the tune.

It is not easy to send a video viral, despite the claims of myriad Web pages touting lessons from Kolaveri on how to make a viral video. The publicity has to be spread across all forms of social media. In Kolaveri’s case most traffic was driven by Facebook, which accounted for nearly 80% of social media mentions of the song, followed by Twitter and YouTube, according to Social Hues.

Dhanush’s song had something else going for it. The novelty of the word kolaveri was a great driver of interest. Twelve per cent of all conversations on Kolaveri were about the meaning of the word, generally translated as murderous rage.
Then, a series of serendipitous news events drove the #kolaveri hashtag (a hash sign followed by a tag word to indicate importance). When agriculture minister Sharad Pawar got slapped by a youngster on 25 November, tweeters cheered Kolaveri and a Punjabi version of the song known as the Sharad Pawar slap song appeared on YouTube the same day. It has logged over one million views of its own. The following week, when bail was finally granted to Tamil Nadu member of Parliament K. Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case, the felicitous assonance of her name with Kolaveri did not go unnoticed.

Overseas, the selling point seemed to be the Tanglish lyrics; the Huffington Post tweeted: “Adding a ‘u’ sound to the end of English words is the latest trend in India.” London radio presenters Sunny and Shay raved about the novel lyrics to the song on air when they broadcast it on BBC Radio 94.9 on 26 November.
Nearer home, Sony Music was trying to decide how to encash the Internet buzz. It hadn’t originally monetized the YouTube video, because, according to Shridhar Subramaniam, president of Sony Music Entertainment India, “We initially wanted to release it through Vevo, which is a video platform owned by Sony, but there was some delay because of Thanksgiving weekend, so we decided to release it on YouTube.”
In order to make money out of the swarming viewers, Sony needed to become a content partner with YouTube, which it eventually did on 30 November. Since then, Sony has taken 50% of the revenue generated by the video, Subramaniam said.
Viral popularity might be great publicity for the song, and, therefore, for the film, but it isn’t necessarily an immediate money maker. The nine million odd views that had accumulated before Sony monetized the video would remain unharvested, but the loss would only be an estimated $4,000, he said. “It is a $1 CPM here. The same on Vevo would have been a $40 CPM.” CPM is short for cost per thousand impressions, a term used in digital marketing.

Still Kolaveri’s popularity online must be attractive to marketing gurus looking for inexpensive ways to promote movie songs. Kolaveri marks a tipping point in the industry, after which the social media will emerge as a mainstream option alongside the television and radio, says some analysts.

It is only fair to point out that Kolaveri is not the first movie promotion to be launched on social media first—makers of the movie Peepli [Live], the hit song Sheila ki Jawani and music band Euphoria, among others, have in the past experimented with releasing bits and pieces of their work on Facebook and other social networks.

Nothing on this scale has, however, been attempted before. Don’t be surprised if you find film makers hoarding social networking sites trying to recreate the buzz and popularity of Kolaveri, says one analyst.

“If something is a hit on social media, then your fans become your ambassadors and it goes viral in no time,” said Jehil Thakkar, executive director, KPMG India. “No one can really say what works, so replicating it (success of Kolaveri) is next to impossible.”

Seeing the popularity and far-reaching appeal of the song 'Kolaveri Di', the police have decided to capitalize on its fame to ask motorists to remain calm on roads - a step that might help in bringing down road accidents.

Chennai Police has already brought out posters asking 'why this anger' with the words 'Kolaveri Di' painted in bold. The same poster was added to Delhi Police's Facebook website by a member and became an instant hit.

The idea has got the thumbs up by hundreds of Facebook users - it has 130 "likes" - and the site is awash with suggestions to replicate the same campaign in Delhi. Even joint CP (traffic) Satyendra Garg was taken with the idea and added his comments. He seconded the thought that "murderous rage" (meaning of the Tamil word 'kolaveri') is a contributing factor in road accidents in the city.

"Going by the national obsession with the song, Chennai Police rightly utilized its value for safer traffic measures. This applies to other cities including Delhi. Why this kolaveri? Just drive without anger...'' Garg posted.

In another post, the joint CP emphasized the need for "restraint'' during driving. "Let there be restraint and disciplined behaviour. It isgood for the safety of everybody,'' he wrote on Facebook.

However, not everybody was as optimistic. A central district officer told TOI that everybody in Delhi won't understand the Tanglish version of the song, so the idea will not find resonance with some. "However, we have always welcomed help of any sort to ensure discipline on roads and any effort by the citizens is appreciated," said the officer.

However, that has not stopped youngsters from showering praise on Chennai Police and urging Delhi Police to follow suit. "Well this is now imaginatively cool,'' commented Ankit Nauriyal. "Imaginative, intelligent thought...now this song has been used for better causes,'' commented Vishnu Panicker.

various brands and retailers started using the phrase as their ad-taglines innovating new "meanings" of "kolaveri".

(Ad for "discounts" at a furniture shop)

(Ad for "fruit shop" a juice joint)

(Amul butter ad)

This soup song has become an anthem for the future managers of the country too! The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are treating the popular song Kolaveri Di from an upcoming Tamil film '3' as a classic example of viral marketing.

IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A ), for instance, plans to dedicate a session to Kolaveri Di as part of its course on Contemporary Film Industry: A business perspective. Bharathan Kandaswamy, faculty and co-ordinator of the course, says, "I will discuss Kolaveri Di as part of a session on social media and online tools when my class starts in December. Kolaveri Di is a perfect case of viral marketing,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif which has created a huge difference in the world of publicity."

Why this Kolaveri Di, which means 'Why this rage towards me, girl' has actually become a rage across IIMs with faculty of marketing playing the song during class.

Professors of IIMs - Bangalore, Rohtak and Lucknow - have played the song in class and later discussed its strategy. The institutes have also made videos of the entire class singing to Kolaveri Di and posted them on networking sites. "Kolaveri has been screened in many classes in IIM Bangalore . The professor sits along with the students and enjoys-... Real Rage," posted Ramya, a student at IIM Bangalore on a social networking site.

(this one is "ladies version" of the same song!)

for more information about this viral video: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_This_Kolaveri_Di

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/brandline/article2692416.ece

10 Indians among Forbes' 'tomorrow's brightest stars'

2011-12-22T11:23:00.000+05:30

Ten Indians rub shoulders with the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, human rights activist Ronan Farrow and pop stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber in a Forbes list of 'tomorrow's brightest stars'.

The US business magazine's '30 under 30' list profiles about 360 young 'ultra impressive up-and-comers' that the companies should either 'hire today' or would be working for them in the future as they are the young people of today 'who matter'.

Among the Indians on the list of people from 12 diverse fields, including energy, finance, media, law, entertainment, science, design and technology, who are 'reinventing the world' is Kunal Shah, at 29, the youngest managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Also on the list is Param Jaggi, 17, an 'award-winning high schooler' at Austin College, who created an algae-filled device that fits over a car's tailpipe and turns carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Vivek Nair, 23, chief executive of Damascus Fortune, is developing a technology that transforms industrial carbon emissions into carbon nanotubes.

Vikas Mohindra, 25, financial advisor at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch gathered $38 million in three years from scratch, while Manvir Nijhar, 28, co-head of European Equity Derivatives Sales at Citigroup, gave 'Citi's derivatives business a jolt.'
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Raj Krishnan, 29, chief executive of Biological Dynamics is developing blood tests that use electric fields to detect key signals that a patient has cancer from the blood.

Sidhant Gupta, 27, a graduate student at the University of Washington, is developing new sensors and software for the home that conserve electricity, heat and gas.

Nikhil Arora, 24, co-found a business that sells 'grow-your-own-mushroom' kits using one million pounds of recycled coffee grounds and Maneet Ahuja, 27, a producer at CNBC and a hedge fund expert has been on Wall Street since she was 17.

source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/10-indians-among-forbes-tomorrows-043142201.html

flash dance and swarming among the youth in india

2011-12-15T12:26:00.006+05:30

Flash mob dance is the latest stress buster and thrill trait among the youth in urban India:

Delhi Flash mob dance

flash mob dance in Mumbai

flash dance as promotional tool

Some attempts fail too

my article on the psychology of "being in denim"

2011-12-09T15:40:00.000+05:30

denimisation of youth in India- my article in Streetwear international India

View more documents from Kaustav Sengupta

what youth learns from Social Media and Mobile- TEDx presentation

2011-12-05T16:23:00.000+05:30

What youth learns from social media and mobile

View more presentations from Kaustav Sengupta

various expressions of youth in India

2011-12-05T11:54:00.004+05:30

by Gaurav Asolia

"desi" foods are getting redefined, in India and around the world

2011-12-01T12:45:00.002+05:30

Panipuri - an Introduction to perfection in food design.

View more presentations from Abhishek Thakkar

Social media, its relevance, the “flattening of social space” and assumption of “otherness”

2011-11-30T17:09:00.003+05:30

India, being numerous countries inside one country and further divisions of regional, religious, cast and sub sect makes a indefinite complex social pyramid structured social positioning which is tough to avoid for brands that seeks consumer attention, visual impact and indigenous usability. The visual representation of one’s social position is very important in this subcontinent which gets reflected right from the clothing, architecture, political posters to the grass root day-to-day customs. The so called “big fat Indian marriage” is nothing but one’s exhibition of social class and positioning. The belonging to certain spiritual, religious and political parties are also a display of one’s class and “otherness” from the mass.

Certain brands or products fail to understand this situation and enacts in a way that India is a “utopian” super-flat democratic society where everybody is visually equal and has the urge to speak/ exhibit of what they are / wants to be or with whom they wants to belong to. The problem broadly exists with those brands who unfortunately doesn’t understand that their products are actually an asset in stead of consumption. The western brands once imported in India with high import duty and currency conversion, certainly lifts to the higher market segment but fails to understand its high impact on how the brand should be portrayed in India.

For example, the vision of Nano car was to replace the two wheelers which it failed to address due to the social pyramid of consumption and perception of product value. A car is considered as an assent among mass India and they will not compromise with the “look” of the product because an asset is supposed to be “exhibited” to enrich the status quo of the owner (first generation riches, mostly). Nano failed here due to its fragile non-classy “dumb” look. It would have been great if Nano appeared as “cool car” among the youth in India where the cast / class doesn’t matter but “desi coolness” is counted (say, Nano offers cool colors, funky decos, add on accessories and appears as a “consume and dispose” car rather than “own” a car concept!).

Interestingly, Social media is an active tool / social platform where class doesn’t exist but one’s intelligence to interact, instant humor, story telling capacity and PR matters. The Facebook is an excellent example on how this social media is literally diminishing the regional, religious and cast barrier in India (at least virtually) which, I believe will have a long lasting influence in offline social division to restructure our society in a new frame.

Facebook provides equal space for everybody to display his/ her photos / works etc. and share the thought in Wall. The discussion is open and anybody from the friend’s list can comment on any topic (no social / political king pins dominating the discussion). Anybody can like the photos but, it has no dislike option!

But, mobile is not as socially flat as social media! This product has become the symbol of class division from the very beginning of its introduction in this subcontinent. There are the brands for “haves” and “have-nots”…for example, today Nokia is the brand for “have-nots” where as “Blackberry and iPhone” are for haves…unfortunately Nokia does not understand this and trying to become the brand for the other class. This “other class” represents not more than the one third of this population! Hence Nokia actually has a better segment to cater, which they are not focusing!

Social media is also a place which is not having gender barrier or age barrier.

Though it will take decades to bring this ‘flat society” concept in India unless the perceived division between the haves and have-nots exist and both of them are very conscious of this existence to showoff their “otherness”!

macro trend directions : youth in India 2012

2011-11-30T11:54:00.000+05:30

Indian youth macro trends by kaustav sengupta 2012

View more presentations from Kaustav Sengupta

Kaustav spoke at TEDxYouth

2011-11-22T16:55:00.000+05:30

http://tedxyouthchennai.com/speakers.php

Bllurp magazine added kaustav's profile

2011-11-22T16:53:00.000+05:30

http://know.burrp.com/my-city/chennai-my-city/chennai-recommended/29319

Cops and political leaders are the least respected individuals among the youth in India

2011-11-21T18:15:00.003+05:30

A survey by INgene among the youth (16years to 26years) in 4 metro cities reveal that Cops and Political leaders are the least preferred individuals with whom youth in India ever wants to interact! they are neither inspired to opt for these professions nor has any respect for them!

the blow report of utter injustice proves why they youth disguises these individuals:

___________________________________________________________________

How Cops can "fix" you in India:

Super’ SHO spins a web of charges to frame innocent BPO executive. THE INSTANCES of police haughtiness may still be an inescapable part of life in the boondocks, but such an incident bang in the middle of the nation’s Capital belittles people’s faith both in law and the lawenforcers.

In the latest such incident, the Mayapuri police recently slapped cooked-up charges on BPO executive Rajat (name changed) and threw him behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. The high point of the injustice: Rajat was accused of disturbing public peace at the very moment he was sitting inside the Mayapuri police station in front of SHO Rajender Singh Pathania and his staff to defend himself.

After the matter went to court and the police’s vigilance inquiry nailed the tainted cops, the ‘super’ SHO was removed from his post along with two colleagues for allegedly forging papers to illegally detain the west Delhi resident. Pathania was shifted to south district and given an ‘ inconsequential’ posting pending a departmental inquiry, which was scheduled to begin on Thursday.

The victim’s father, Deepak Verma, said no one turned up for the departmental inquiry on Thursday. “I reached the DCP (south) office at exactly 11 am but neither the additional DCP nor the Mayapuri SHO and the other policemen were present. I have been asked to come again on November 21. I hope this is not a delaying tactic,” he added. Incidentally, Pathania is a ‘super’ SHO who has worked at many high- profile police stations, including Karol Bagh (considered the most lucrative).

In Delhi Police parlance, a ‘super’ SHO is one who continues to head a ‘sensitive’ police station beyond the six year tenure. Pathania had even been served a contempt notice for allegedly daring a lower court judge by yelling at him that he was “not touched” despite even the high court initiating action against him.

The current case against Pathania took place on September 27, 2009, when Rajat and his cousin — on their way to the local market in Mayapuri — noticed that a bhandara (a religious function where free meals are distributed) had resulted in a traffic snarl. When Rajat enquired from the organisers if they had the requisite permissions, a scuffle ensued between the parties.

Deepak said: “The organisers called up the PCR but reached a private hospital instead of waiting for the police. We got to know on September 29 about the police case. It was a case of causing simple hurt (which is a non- cognisable offence) but they soon added Section 341 (wrongful restraint) to the FIR to make it a much more serious offence. The fraudulent addition has since been deleted by the court and noted by the vigilance department in its report.

“When my son was arrested on October 3, we went to the police station to bail him out but the police refused to let him out. Shockingly, the police said my son had again disrupted the peace in the area when he was caught fighting on October 3 too. How is that possible when he was at the police station throughout the day?” the anxious father asked.

While the SHO and his subordinates have been taken to task for implicating and wrongly arresting the complainant under CrPC Sections 107/ 151, west district’s former DCP Sharad Agarwal — at whose instance the first case was registered — has been let off by the police brass. “My son lost his job after the police jailed him in the false case. Besides, there was no police or MCD permission for the bhandara ,” Deepak said.

Andaman DIG Sharad Agarwal, who was then the DCP (west), said he did not remember the case. “I don’t remember the case or the complainant. A lot of complainants come to meet a district DCP. I do not know either the complainant or the other party involved in the case,” he said. Pathania and his staff also lied in the court that Rajat was disrupting public peace. The cops prepared a false arrest memo six days after the incident.

VIGILANCE NAILS SHO’S LIE
Probing Deepak’s complaint, the vigilance department found several discrepancies in the police report. In the doctored arrest memo of October 3, Deepak’s signature at the police station confirmed that Rajat was rearrested at 7.30 pm. “… The complainant marked the time as 7.30 pm while the medical examination at the DDU Hospital was conducted at 7.40 pm… which is not possible in this short duration,” the vigilance report, signed by Jt CP (Vigilance) N. Dilip Kumar, states.

It also negates the memo regarding the October 3 “street fight” and the presence of “eyewitnesses”, besides stating that there was no PCR call as claimed by the police. It also nails the police lie by stating that the daily diary (DD) entry for October 3 showed that Rajat was arrested at 8.50 pm while the medical examination took place at 7.40 pm.

ALLEGATIONS against DCP Sharad Agarwal: He recommended to the SHO that a case be registered against Rajat and his cousin for the Sept 27 scuffle. Stringent provisions of law were wrongly added to the non-cognisable case. This addition has been deleted by the court and noted by the vigilance department, but still no action has been taken against Agarwal.

ALLEGATIONS against SHO Rajender Singh Pathania and others: When Rajat was arrested on October 3 for the September 27 incident, Pathania and his men denied him bail. Instead, they cooked up a story about him being involved in another brawl on October 3, at the time when he was inside the police station, so he could be arrested on the charge of disrupting peace. Police prepared false papers, reports and witnesses to frame him. A departmental inquiry has been ordered against the SHO and his subordinate staff.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/how-cops-can-fix-you-.html

India: The next university superpower?

2011-11-12T21:06:00.003+05:30

India has ambitious plans to increase graduate numbers in a way which would give it the size and status of an education superpower.
The figures are staggering. India's government speaks of increasing the proportion of young people going to university from 12% at present to 30% by 2025 - approaching the levels of many Western countries.

It wants to expand its university system to meet the aspirations of a growing middle class, to widen access, and become a "knowledge powerhouse".

It will mean increasing the country's student population from 12 million to over 30 million, and will put it on course to becoming one of the world's largest education systems.

"We will very likely be number two if not number one in terms of numbers," says Pawan Agarwal, a former civil servant and author of Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future.

With US enrolment stagnating and the UK cutting back on university places, "Indian graduates will become more visible globally, particularly in technical and engineering fields", Mr Agarwal predicts.

'Great leap forward'

KN Panikkar, vice chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, describes India's higher education spending as undergoing a "great leap forward".

The amount of money in the central budget for higher education in the current five year plan (2010-2015) is nine times the amount of the previous five years.

But there is a steep hill to climb. India's National Knowledge Commission estimated the country needs 1,500 universities compared to around 370 now.

Hundreds of new institutions are being set up, including large new public universities in each state. The number of prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Management (IIMs) are being expanded from seven to 15.

India's private university sector is also growing rapidly, particularly in professional education in information technology, engineering, medicine and management where there is huge demand from the burgeoning middle classes.

But that will not be enough. To bridge the gap the government last year tabled legislation to invite foreign universities to set up branch campuses. The Foreign Providers Bill is currently making its way through parliament.

'Fever pitch'

Last year there were reports of up to 50 foreign universities being interested in setting up in India. The hype reached fever pitch in November during the visit of US President Barack Obama and a large group of US university presidents.

UK Higher Education minister David Willetts and the largest-ever Canadian delegation were also in the country, enthusiastically talking of university partnerships.

Some foreign universities are already in place. The UK's Leeds Metropolitan University provides management degrees on a 36-acre campus in Bhopal in central India.

Lancaster University runs courses at the GD Goenka World Institute - a 69-acre site near Delhi. Both institutions opened in 2009 as joint ventures with Indian non-profit partners under existing laws.

Some bring faculty and staff from their home institutions, but even the most prestigious public institutions, including the IITs, are struggling to fill top faculty positions and teacher student ratios are deteriorating.

Foreign institutions able to lure staff with higher salaries will make the situation worse, detractors of the Foreign Providers Bill point out.

Mr Panikkar says foreign and private institutions are not the answer. "If only 1% of the population can afford the fees, then it will be very serious for the country in terms of equity."

Fair access

Access is an important issue for the government which came to power because the benefits of India's rapid economic growth were seen to have bypassed the country's poor.

Students in the chemistry department at the private Amity University in Noida While more than 95% of children now attend primary school, just 40% attend secondary school, according to the World Bank. That in itself will limit growth in university enrolment.

The World Bank has said India's economic success cannot be sustained without major investment in education, including higher education, with public spending on the sector still lagging behind countries like China and Brazil.

But the gold-rush mentality has dissipated. The Foreign Providers Bill is stuck in a parliament that has done little business since a telecommunications corruption scandal erupted last year.

"There has been some toning down of expectations of foreign universities," said Rahul Choudaha, associate director, World Education Services in New York and a close observer of the sector.

"The public university system in many countries is in crisis, facing serious budget cuts. They are not ready to invest money in partnerships."

Some "gold diggers" were dissuaded as the government made it clear for-profit companies would not be allowed to exploit India's thirst for higher education.

Unlike Singapore and China, the Indian government does not want to appear to favour foreign institutions by providing public money or large land grants.

Duke University, based in North Carolina in the US, has been interested in India for some time.

"We want to develop Duke as a globally-networked university. The best researchers are those connected globally," says Gregory Jones, Duke's vice president and vice provost for global strategy.

'Eastward shift'

But its Shanghai campus will be in operation first. "They [Shanghai] were willing to donate and build the first phase at their expense so it was a financially-viable proposition for us," said Mr Jones.

"It is not yet clear how we will develop our presence in India. It is a complicated reform bill."

An eastward shift in the geography of science and technology is a major draw as international companies set up research and development sites in India and China.

"We are tapping into the research potential of these Asian countries," says Professor Pradeep Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering.

The prestigious US institution has teamed up with India's Shiv Nadar Foundation to open an engineering college in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

But these joint ventures are not fully-fledged overseas campuses. "Only a handful of overseas universities are thinking about that seriously," said Mr Agarwal. "But even if they go ahead it will not be enough. They will only increase capacity for hundreds of Indian students, not millions."

That means huge public spending on colleges outside the cities, says Mr Panikkar who has written extensively on social justice in higher education. He believes the enrolment targets are too ambitious given limited public resources and bottlenecks in staffing and infrastructure.

"What is achievable is adding perhaps 10 million students to existing capacity in the next five to seven years," he says.

That would still be a major achievement, but some way from making India an education superpower.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12597815

Mobile apps in India- a survey

2011-11-05T09:49:00.001+05:30

Are people living in mumbai more interested in finance than those living in other cities? Are south Indians more fond of mobile gaming? Or are people in the North-East more inclined towards education? Their usage of mobile phone apps certainly seem to suggest so.
According to a survey conducted by Nokia, 16% of those surveyed in west download finance apps (the highest of any region), 23% south Indians mostly use gaming apps (again, higher than any other region) and 29% of people from the North-East download educational apps. Nearly 30% of south Indians surveyed use the apps on their smartphone during commutes, while 32% use them at home. Over 40% of those surveyed in the North download music apps-more than in any other Indian region. Around 25% of people in the North-East use almost all the apps they download on their smartphone, while their neighbours in the east, are the highest users of social networking apps (39%). The survey was conducted on 501 Indians last November.
"The mobile apps market in India can be pegged at $2 billion. Of the 70 crore mobile phone users in India, smartphone users account for around 1 crore," says Prashant Singhal, partner at Ernst and Young. A recent study by Informate Mobile intelligence, a telecom research company, says that 70% smartphone users visit a Value Added Services (VAS) portal and Operator VAS portals are most popular among their subscribers. "Value Added Services (VAS) contributes to around 10% of revenues of telecom companies and currently, apps seem focused on games, music and social networking," says Hemant Joshi, partner at Deloitte Haskins and Sells. "To make apps profitable, companies must introduce utility apps like banking and healthcare, for which users wouldn't mind paying Re 1 a day."
Gartner released a list of the most important mobile applications in 2012 on Tuesday that focus on high-end devices with an average selling price of over $300 (around Rs 15,000). Location-based services, social networking, search, commerce, payment, content-aware service, object recognition, instant messaging, e-mail and video will the top apps for 2012.
"VAS in India include SMS, caller ringtones and general web browsing, so mobile apps is still a small market, though it is growing quickly," says Jaideep Ghosh, executive director at KPMG India."Utility apps haven't been able to become very popular in India on the mobile platform due to lack of awareness for these apps among the target groups." Globally, mobile application store revenue is projected to surpass $15.1 billion in 2011, both from sales and advertising revenue. This is a 190% increase from 2010 revenue of $5.2 billion.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-25/india-business/28633905_1_mobile-apps-smartphone-users-mobile-gaming

Several Kanpur girls silently bear sexual abuse: Survey

2011-11-04T15:37:00.001+05:30

Nearly 40 per cent of girls in the city are victims of some form of sexual abuse, revealed a study conducted by the home science department of Chandra Shekher Azad (CSA) University of Agriculture and Technology. It includes girls who are in the age group of 9-12 years and have been molested either at schools or homes. Many girls have faced physical and emotional neglect and social abuse as well.

Out of 249 girls surveyed, 123 reported of instances where their private parts were touched. While 41.2 per cent were forced to expose their genitals or subjected to other forms of sexual abuse. Whereas many girls reported of sexual act where the abuser forced the girl to touch his genitals.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-21/kanpur/28618805_1_sexual-abuse-neglect-sexual-exploitation

India "most improved" in bribery index

2011-11-02T13:17:00.003+05:30

Chinese and Russian firms are the most likely to pay bribes while operating abroad, and the most corrupt sectors are public works contracts and construction, according to Transparency International's latest "Bribe Payers' index".

China and Russia rank bottom, in 27th and 28th place respectively, in the 2011 index released on Wednesday, while the Dutch, Swiss, Belgians, Germans and Japanese get the top scores. Britain and the United States rank eighth and ninth.

But the Berlin-based anti-corruption campaigners said not one of the 28 countries surveyed -- which include all of the G20 -- was perceived as "wholly clean of bribery" and few had made a major improvement since the last bribery index in 2008.
"India's score improved the most, with an increase of 0.7, but it still remains near the bottom of the table. Canada and the United Kingdom saw the most significant deterioration in their scores with a drop of -0.3," read the report.

The group asked 3,016 business executives in 30 countries -- selected by the value of their foreign direct investments and exports, plus their regional significance -- how often companies based in countries in the survey engaged in bribery.
Transparency urged countries to ratify conventions against bribery under the auspices of the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union.
"In their meeting in Cannes this week, G20 governments must tackle foreign bribery as a matter of urgency," said Huguette Labelle of Transparency International in a statement.
"It is of particular concern that China and Russia are at the bottom of the index," it said, citing their increasing global presence, especially in oil and gas in Russia's case and China's investments in infrastructure and mining, in particular in Africa.

China's decision this year to expand anti-corruption laws to Chinese firms operating overseas and foreign companies in China was an important step, but there was still a risk of "bottlenecks", said Ran Jianmin of Transparency in China.

New Russian laws outlawing foreign bribery gave rise to hope, Transparency's Russian research head Elena Panfilova said, although she added that there were as yet "no islands of integrity in Russian public and business life".

Russia came joint 154th of 178 nations in Transparency's 2010 index of public-sector corruption and China ranked 78th.

Breaking down the bribery index into 19 business sectors, public works contracts and construction were the most prone to bribery and agriculture and light engineering were the least, but no single sector scored above 7.1 on a 10-point scale.
Mining, oil and gas, real estate, and legal and business services were also very prone to bribery, it said, adding that they were "all characterised by high-value investment and significant government interaction and regulation, both of which provide opportunities and incentives for corruption".

Transparency said it was surprised that the likelihood of bribes being paid from one private firm to another "is almost as high as bribery of public officials across all sectors".

"Bribery can also be disguised through offering clients gifts and corporate hospitality that are inappropriate in value," said the report.

New British legislation this year making bribery between firms an offence, including any company incorporated overseas or carrying out business in the United Kingdom, "sets a new global standard" that should be widely imitated, it said.

It said corruption in public works contracts and construction often compromised safety in public buildings, "which, as witnessed by the many deaths from earthquakes in highly corrupt countries, has a very real impact on human lives".

(Reporting by Stephen Brown; editing by Andrew Roche)

more information: http://www.transparency.org/

Metallica concert in India

2011-10-31T21:43:00.003+05:30

Music is perhaps a quintessential part of youth, and implicit in the development of the notion of the 'teenager', providing a way to sculpt an identity and at once rebel against authority figures, with each generations music being considered better in every way than the predecessor. It should come as no surprise then that the upcoming series of gigs planned by Metallica in India have caused such furore. Not least when the first had to be cancelled due to safety issues.

The audience reacted to the news that the gig was cancelled in a way that is reminiscent of 1969's infamous Hell's Angels plagued Rolling Stones concert, and certainly at odds with the international perception of a skilled, intellectual generation of Indian teens coming through. Could it be that the implied violence associated with the 'Metal' genre inspired such reaction, or could it be the result of a newly established youth conscience within India? What is certain is that the uproar came as a shock to the world observing it eliciting commentary from, amongst others, the Huffington Post. What is undeniable however, is that the event proves Indian teens to be a passionate collective, dedicated to their interests.

As one of the world's youngest, and yet largest countries it stands to reason that India has reached a state of national (and cognitive) maturity to enable the demarcation of a group of individuals that can define themselves in such a way as to spontaneously protest, however, it would be unfair if the world viewed both India, or the individuals involved negatively as a result of them mimicking decades old behaviour of likeminded teenagers.

Additional information: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-29/gurgaon/30336704_1_lars-ulrich-metallica-concert-indian-fans

the Media consumption of Indian youth

2011-10-25T11:02:00.002+05:30

Source: http://www.bytecolumn.com/08/big-digital-launches-youth-online-reality-show/

BIG Digital launches India’s first youth online reality show ‘Transform India- Youth Uncensored’

2011-10-25T10:55:00.000+05:30

BIG Digital, the digital content and marketing arm of the Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd., is proud to announce India’s First Youth Online Reality Show, which promises to play the role of a catalyst, in initiating a youth movement in the country. Aptly titled ‘Transform India- Youth Uncensored’, the reality show will empower the youth by providing a platform for them to voice their opinion through an extensive social media initiative.

Consuming information through multiple platforms and translating it into highly opinionated discussion forums either online or with peers, the youth of today have a mind of their own. It is against this milieu that BIG Digital launches ‘Transform India- Youth Uncensored’, a high voltage online reality show which will address social problems ranging from escalating corruption, safe sex, eve teasing to gender discrimination from the perspective of the youth.

This digital reality show will bring over 100 colleges from across the six cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to fight the battle to Transform India through their innovative ideas, on raising concern for issues and tackling them thereafter. Colleges will compete against each other, as they upload videos on how they believe they can best tackle societal issues. These videos will be judged by an esteemed jury panel, and will then be left open for online voting. Teams will be given a socially relevant topic and will be asked to upload the video of their proposed recommendation to tackle them. It goes without saying that as the show progresses the battle between colleges will be very exciting and audiences the world over can watch its un-edited version online.

Hard pressed for time and a challenging audience base to garner attention from, with 70% of brands in India struggling to communicate and engage with, the youth are a key audience base that marketers today chase. Transform India – Youth Uncensored, brings forth a unique opportunity for both youth and marketers looking to connect. While it offers the youth a platform for expression fuelled by issues that make for serious conversation currency, creating engaging environments leading to a transformation – an India 2.0, it will provide fantastic opportunities to marketers to get associated and play a pivotal role in piloting India's transformation.

BIG Digital will ensure a holistic treatment to this property, across its media verticals ranging radio, television, out of home, on-ground promotions and of course digital.

Soumen. G. Choudhury Business Head, 92.7 BIG FM said “It is our constant endeavour to offer pioneering initiatives, and Transform India: Youth Uncensored is a leap in that direction. We want, through this initiative to galvanize a movement in the youth space as we allow them to focus their energies towards this path-breaking social media initiative. We are confident of the youth coming on board to express their views, while we offer an excellent platform for advertisers to partners with.”

Transform India will culminate in an online reality show which is fun, motivational and educational. Every episode will capture imaginations of millions of youth, featuring unique tasks, controversies, goof-ups and sincerity. The content will be packaged to create a rage among Indian youth. The content will mirror the face of bold Indian youth willing to go to any extent to accomplish tasks that will transform people, the city and India!
About BIG Digital:

BIG Digital, is Reliance Broadcast Network’s initiative in the digital space, creating a surround of innovative digital media integrations on the mobile and online platforms. BIG Digital works with fresh talent across regions, in the music and entertainment space, to create intellectual properties for brands via digital endorsements. It thereby creates platform agnostic ideas bringing brands and content, closer to the consumer.

Source: http://pearlriseentertainment.blogspot.com/2011/08/big-digital-launches-indias-first-youth.html

Most of the Indian youth reads news at the online sites

2011-10-25T10:52:00.000+05:30

The year 2010-2011 can very appropriately be termed as ‘The Year of Scams’ for India. From CWG to Adarsh Housing Society, India witnessed scams in almost every major sector. The common man in India who has seen and heard about numerous such scams with regularity that leaves the outside world astonished, is mostly unflustered after any such news breaks. But the sheer number and magnitude of scams those were unearthed before the common man in the past year surprised and generated interest from all in the country.

While television and newspapers have remained the primary source of information for any news, internet has also played its role in creating awareness about these scams and providing readers with more details and facts around these. ViziSense, in its report, analyzed and highlighted that contrary to common perception, a substantial chunk of audience is from the age group of 15-24. The report highlights readers from the 15-24 years age group constitute 24% of the total size of audience that has read scam related news online. But the largest chunk of 40 % is formed by working professionals, the age group of 25-35.

Not to surprise an astonishing 77 % of readers read about the 2G scam on the internet which is said to be one of the biggest scams of recent times. This was followed by the CWG scam read by 16% of readers. Adarsh, land scams and LIC corporate loan scam followed the list.

The data was analyzed and collected basis ViziSense panel’s consumption of news content across top news / web portals.

Source: http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Scams...Indian-youth-make-a-beeline-for-online-news-sites/5097947932

facebook brings in "other life" of "romantic utopia" in the life of urban and rual youth in India

2011-10-17T11:30:00.003+05:30

The adopted otherness in a SNS away from the conservative society and ever increasing social pressure brings in SNS utopia as a "release point":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=begUTxCzoZw&hd=1

here's a statement from a viewer in youtube:

"I actually had an incident like this happened to me a few months back .. I met this girl from out of town a day before she was leaving... We clicked and I was like ... Shinning .. So i gave her my card and told her to get in touch with me.. She mailed me .. got me on facebook .. We send mails back and forth ... and she told me she would come to town in a few months .. Then a friend who happened to know her.. told me She was married.. She came to town yesterday ... I won't meet her.. :'(" - oooohyaaah100

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=begUTxCzoZw&feature=player_embedded#!

Social life at bangalore for singles

2011-10-13T13:57:00.001+05:30

If you’re in Bangalore, single and are looking for a social circle that doesn’t involve married friends, here’s a great new place to hang out. Floh (Find Life Over Here) is a start-up that aims to bring together urban professionals in their twenties and thirties not with the ambition of setting them up, but to give them a platform to mingle and find interesting people outside their immediate social circles.

Siddharth Mangharam, entrepreneur and founder CEO, hit upon this brainwave after meeting his wife at a cheese-tasting event, an interest they both share. Having realized how increasingly difficult it has become for urban, well-settled single men and women to venture out and meet other singles outside of work and the comfort of friends, Siddharth and his wife decided to pitch this idea to singles within their personal networks, i.e., friends and professional contacts who had hit a dead end in dating.

Having said that, Siddharth is quick to assert that Floh is not a dating site or even a matrimonial one even though it has been instrumental in bringing some singles together. His business model works on the premise that singles have as much right to a happening social life as married people do – in fact, being free from rigid commitments and obligations, singles should find it an active social life easier than their not-single counterparts. There is no matchmaking involved, though. Every member is vetted and personally interviewed by a Floh founder and ‘determined’ whether they’d fit in with the network and enjoy interacting with its existing members before they gain entry.

There is also a very thoughtful right-of-admission reserved – access to Floh is on an invite-only basis, where only an existing member can invite you and refer you to Floh. Siddharth insists he doesn’t want this to balloon to unmanageable sizes and says that it’s not at all about the numbers. Considering the number of women members trump the number of men in the Bangalore venture currently, this ‘security’ measure is much welcome.

S, (name withheld on request), a marketing professional in her thirties, vouches for this. Having been a member since its inception, she’s still single, but welcomes the opportunity to meet like-minded people (or otherwise) outside her hectic corporate life once in a while and let her hair down. Her work and lifestyle have included a lot of travel so far, but she’s now in Bangalore for a good while and highly recommends Floh to single women in Bangalore.

Though this network is open to people in their twenties, Joe, an artist in his mid-twenties, found the evening event to cater mostly to the 30+ crowd, something Siddharth says depends on the event you attend, since the network caters to people in the 25-40 age bracket. Floh events are bracketed into 4 categories – food (cook-outs), beverages (trips to vineyards, cocktail events) outdoors (nature sports, heritage walks) and cerebral/artsy (theatre workshops, photography). One can choose the event based on their likes and preferences. This way, the chances of meeting like-minded singles increases dramatically, says Siddharth. He tries to organize at least 4-8 events a month and covers a wide variety of interests including the recently concluded and hugely successful paint ball event for the perennially-young-at-heart populace.

With experience at McKinsey & Co. and Microsoft, Siddharth with his latest initiative seems to be poised on the edge of hitherto uncharted territory in urban India. His mantra is perfectly summed up in his own quote: “Emotions are best expressed when two people meet in a no-pressure, natural environment.”

He hopes to expand this to Delhi and Mumbai soon.

Bangalore’s Floh already has close to a 1000 members in 6 months of existence, but they’re handpicked and have to go through the Floh screen to gain entry. Floh’s only requirement is that if you find someone you’d like to date in their network, you’ll have to quit the network – a small ask for a terrific opportunity to meet interesting people and to skip the odious matchmaking ritual by well-meaning but largely irritating relatives and/or having to register on matrimonial sites with no surety of authenticity of profiles.

Note: Visit the Floh blog for write-ups and articles by members.

Youth in Manipur demands "change"

2011-10-06T12:41:00.003+05:30

It's hard to see anything positive coming out of the 60-day economic blockade in Manipur (India). But the blockade and counter blockade by two communities have actually led to a new wave of consciousness in this northeastern state with people, particularly youngsters, getting together and demanding a change in the present state of affairs.

With assembly elections due next year, many people are networking online and off it too to organise themselves and be the arbiters of their own 'destiny' in the Congress-led state wracked by unrest.

Anguished by the poor state of affairs in his home state, Bimol Akoijam has started an online campaign on the social networking site Facebook titled 'People's Campaign for Assembly Election 2012: Deciding Our Destiny'.

'It's time we act in order to have a life with dignity and well-being. The right to choose our political leadership is the basis for the change that we are seeking. The aim is to make the political class accountable for the mess and decadence that we are in today,' Akoijam wrote on his Facebook page.

The economic blockade called by the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) Aug 1 and a counter blockade called later by the United Naga Council have crippled normal life in Manipur, making prices of household commodities soar and resulting in acute scarcities, including of life-saving drugs.

Among the various activities planned is one on Oct 18 that aims to bring together all those who have moved out of the state for education, employment or other purposes and take their help in spreading awareness about the upcoming assembly elections and urge people to vote for the right candidate and make it an 'issue-based election'.

The meet, which is to take place in different cities across the country, has found many takers.

Yet another online group, 'Debate on Economic Blockade in Manipur' has scores of followers voicing their opinion.

'The economic blockade is happening because some people have political authority over their tribe, but even their own tribe people condemn this (blockade). Majority of people- whatever be their tribe- are suffering because of this,' wrote Achilles Vaiphei.

'The people of Manipur have been taken for a ride for far too long,' said Sharmila Singha, a homemaker from one of the worst affected districts, Chandel. 'Because of the interest of a handful of people, the entire state is in doldrums. And all the while the government has not been able to do anything about it.'

The main bone of contention in the logjam is the demand by the SHDDC for a separate Sadar Hills district, which is strictly opposed by some other sects as the area also includes some ethnic-Naga settled areas.

So, as the clashing communities remain firm on their demands, the rest of the state looks on helplessly and pays a heavy price.

Therefore, even as people in other states protest the rise of petrol prices to Rs.67 per litre, in Manipur it is being sold at around Rs.200 in the black market. An LPG cylinder can cost anywhere between Rs.1,800-2,000.

'We have gone back to using firewood for cooking. How can anyone afford a cylinder at such prices? Whatever be the issue, it's always...always the common man who suffers,' said a bitter Priyanka Yumnam, a homemaker.

Madhu Chandra, who hails from Manipur and is the spokesperson of the Northeast Support Centre in Delhi, told IANS: 'There is a feeling that there is a dearth of things in the state, but these are available in the black market for those who can afford the high prices...the blockade has therefore unleashed corruption in a big way.'

Mandira Singha, a 20-year-old who lost her father to the blockade because of lack of life-saving drugs, added: 'There is government apathy towards our condition. It's been 60 days and nothing has been done by the centre. Why? Had this happened anywhere else in the country would the reaction have been the same?'

(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.rahman@gmail.com)
Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/demand-change-cry-manipur-youth-052243212.html

Indian youth is comfortable to add their parents in facebook

2011-09-23T01:54:00.003+05:30

In India, the youth thinks their parents are cool to add in facebook. 64% said their parents are cool enough. One said 'its no big deal... i send my parents messages and i chat with them on it since i don't get to see them now that i'm abroad . i dont mind them seeing my page. what am i hiding.... she also knows where to draw the line between having a look at my page and being nosy. Besides fcbk is not the place to put info you dont want some people to see'. another stated that 'parents shud be added...in my view first parents,then comes everyone...parents shud also know with whom we are talking to, what we are sharing..and ofcourse keeping them upto date with the technology'. 'Its cool to have my mom, aunts and uncles on my fb.... even my grand parents !! its a good way to keep in touch, especially if u dnt call them up regularly... they get to know wat i'm up to, who i'm with or i broke up with... its all there.you dnt hv to go around explaining, how, why, what, where or when. Its there for them to kno... so its alrite'.

It's interesting to know that some of them has dual account! one for parents and other for friends/ 'not so known friends'. 'tatz y i hav 2 account .. 1 fr ma family member and known... another for making frndz nd known frnds.... :-'.

source: http://campus.yahoo.com/debates/friend-your-parents-facebook-c659f8f55dae1fd452c753534286193ba8b1d1e4

the youth in India- La Tomatnia or anna team?

2011-09-15T10:37:00.010+05:30

To me, India is not one country but a "theme & ideology" under which many countries stay together...the demography, psychography and even economy changes in each 500kms...we have more than 200 languages, varied cultures, rituals, society. Even the religious belief for each religion are diversified (even within same religion)...it is actually very tough to create one movement pan-India.

Interestingly, I understood that we do have common AIOs (Youth segment) for few factors...one of them is the "hatred against the politicians and bureaucrats". the "anna team" (the team behind anti corruption movement in India) understood it well and created the movement successfully. This is the first ever post-independent movement in India which appeals to all the youth in India across the demography, culture, class, economy and social barrier. the team successfully promoted it through alternative media, word-of-mouth, open press, radio stations to gather support. The govt was bent, finally.

in other hand, we have "other india" who lives in socio-cultural Utopia and dreams of being "exotic" in this very country.

In the wake of a popular Bollywood movie which glorified Spain through its crap story, half Indian actress and a six fingered Hero, the “La Tomatnia” came in India!

The original La Tomatina festival which once started in Spain (once a year) to overcome the over-production of Tomatoes and reincarnate Spanish tourism is now being enthusiastically “copied” as a “social activity” by some enthusiasts in Bangaluru and Delhi! It’s unfortunate that we, being Indian, fail to understand that this country is culturally rich enough to arrange or re-invent any mode of “social activity” (which is fit for our demography) rather than merely copying the “others”. A socio-cultural activity as “Holi” (which unfortunately became religious, later) was designed by our fore-fathers to initiate the social network, break self-barrier, social belonging, spreading happiness and peace; the same motto, that La Tomatnia has in Spain.

The fetish of being “westernized” is rooted so deep in our gene that we fail to recognize the price of a tomato (in India) vis a vis the hungry Indians (for original La Tomatina at Spain, the tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive and are grown specifically for the holidays, being of inferior taste)!

Or is it actually a fetish of showing off the power of money to the “other India”? A fetish that is growing in monstrous proportion in the cities like Bangaluru and Delhi… “See I can smash so many tomatoes with my girlfriend which you might never have eaten in your life”…a Spanish dream in dreadful Bangaluru traffic!

The most common disease in “India.inc” is ‘living in a socio-cultural Utopia’ which many youth relishes everyday. When these day dreams break, they lands into the Smokey, polluted, poverty ridden, class barricaded roads of modern India…

Read more about Anna team and La Tomatina, India:

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/anna-team-anticipates-every-step-centre-plans-meticulously-214

http://www.benglued.com/tomato-festival-in-bangalore/

http://www.latomatina.co.in/

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:854YhvOwXGIJ:post.jagran.com/juice-up-your-coming-weekend-with-la-tomatina-festival-1311845291+la+tomatina+delhi&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in

celebs are encashing on "anna phenomenon"!

2011-09-07T15:11:00.001+05:30

Brand Anna has gone beyond corruption; marketers have begun dismantling the components of Anna Hazare's successful sway over India in what is now acclaimed as the biggest online and offline public campaign India has ever seen.

Many have already jumped the gun, and latched on to Annagiri to promote subjects Anna Hazare might not endorse, or even be aware of.

Arindam Chaudhary: Ramlila Maidan, Day 11

IIPM thought beyond the Nobel, and created the Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize. Even after Anna Hazare rejected the one crore rupee prize this year for undisclosed reasons, Arindam Chaudhary somehow got on the stage on Day 11 of Anna's protest. With Mahatma Gandhi's giant poster and his sequel listening on, he ranted about murdering "some two hundred million people of our country before the age of 40…" so that we can live till 80.

This, from the founder of an institute which sued Google(!) for unfavorable results, sued a media house for an unfavorable article and just lost a defamation case against a website after the court quashed the case.

Sankalp Srivastava: 'Anna Chalisa'

Anna Chalisa, a five minute track was written, composed and sung by him, and Sankalp even distributed free CDs to support India Against Corruption.

Unlike Arindam's rant on the Ramlila Maidan, Sankalp Srivastava's Anna Chalisa could be a genuine case of Anna-holism.

But Sankalp's background as an event manager makes this suspect; free giveaways are an old marketing gimmick. The poor are always poor, the protesters are always protesting - where was Sankalp when we needed him then?

Sanjay Leela Bhansali: My Friend Anna

There's a lot of Bollywood regulars on the social activism scene. Rahul Bose was quietly lending a hand in the rubble of the Indian tsunami, and even owns an NGO.

Shabani Azmi has done a lot of children and women's rights, the rights of displaced migrants.She' also the Goodwill Ambassador of the UNPF as well as for the HIV/AIDS programmes for SAARC region. Gul Panag works actively for Col. Shamsher Singh Foundation and Gul 4 Change to work for gender equality, addiction awareness, education and employment, environment and disaster management.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has never been seen doing anything - even light a candle at the fashionable vigils. And now he's distributing 'My Friend Anna' T shirts to blatantly promote his upcoming My Friend Pinto.

KRK, Salina Wali Khan, Yoggitta Dandekar: Stripping for Anna Hazare

Kamaal Rashid Khan tweeted his willingness to strip at Ramlila Maidan. In his own embarrassing words: "bhai logon maine kapde nikal diye hain. barish ho rahi hai na. Ramleela maidan mai nanga baithoonga.(sic)." (Brothers, I have taken off my clothes. It's raining. I will sit naked at Ramlila Maidan)

Ditto for Yuvraaj Parashar (seen in 'Dunno Y... Na Jaane Kyon' )..'I will strip for Anna. He is like a God to me,' says Yuvraaj "I am totally inspired by Anna Hazare. Woh humein batana chahte hain ki humein apne haq ke liye ladna chahiye. And this is why I am giving my support to his cause, totally."

Marathi actress Yoggitta Dandekar's willing to do a Poonam Pandey; she's ready to run topless in a marathon if Anna wins, or so she claims. She's already painted her body in the tricolor to support to "pledge support" to Anna Hazare's cause.

Salina Wali Khan is willing to do the opposite. The Delhi-based actor and model has claimed that she will dance naked if Anna's Jan-Lokpal Bill is not passed.

Amusingly, she also stated: 'My decision is not for gaining publicity. I am not like other models who make controversial claims for grabbing eyeballs. I am not doing it to be famous but for the common people."

Federation of Indian Animals Protection Organisation: Donkey Rights

In a letter to Anna Hazare, the organization wrote of India's 1.6 million donkeys, used as "objects to mock at corrupt officials…"instead of being treated as the "innocent, hard working animals who truly bear the burden of the world"

The donkeys, FIAPO wrote, "were undoubtedly terrified and confused…" and "had no vote in the matter", requesting Anna to ask his followers to not use donkeys as symbols of corrupt politicans

DJ Jenni: Stripping Against the Casting Couch

intoday

"We need an Anna Hazare in film and music to curb this menace… ", says Jenny D, talking about the "open secret" of the casting couch in Bollywood and Indian music industry.

Mumbai based DJ, Jenni Costa has launched a Facebook campaign called

'Fight the Casting Couch', and has received support from Citizen Action Forum.

According to her: "Has anyone wondered why there are so many female singers and musicians, but hardly any female Music Directors in the film industry? The reason is simple - the Casting Couch. I myself have been a victim of this nasty phenomenon, and I had to face humiliation in the past. I know a lot of girls who just give in because they have almost no other option…"

However, apart from regular posts from Page Admin to invite others, there is nothing actually happening on the Facebook Page. There's a post about 'Ten Bollywood Models' who will strip nude to support the cause, but no one knows how they are. Another Poonam Pandey?

Source: http://www.mensxp.com/

"Anna phenomenon" is not "cool" to all!

2011-09-07T15:01:00.002+05:30

there's a growing irritation and protest against "Anna Hazare" who is being called as "prop" to appeal the young population of India and create a movement against "corruption.

Democracy is the freedom to wear an I Am Not Anna T shirt in the public and not get beaten up.

TV news didn't give you all the facts - it was clearly fighting for TRPs, byte for Anna byte, to offer viewers counterpoints to the Jan Lokpal, or even to Anna himself.

Neither did the newspapers, if the headlines of two of India's leading English newspapers during the Anna fest are counted.

For a readymade platform of dissent against Anna, the simplest, and fastest way of getting the trickle-downs from all over the internet, all on one page is Facebook.

And the only stand we take at MensXP.com is for people who stand up and be counted.

Anna Hazare is NOT India

Former fighter pilot Shashank Shukla created 'Anna Hazare is NOT India' to speak out against the dangerous precent that Anna Hazare set at Ramlila Maidan.

His page talks bout the “Jan Lokpal Bill and the current Anna Phenomenon”.According to him:“…the issue is correct, the methods being employed by Anna ji of undermining (the) authority of parliamentary democracy sets a very dangerous precedent”

Shashank even planned a“counter-sit-in” on Thursday near the Maidan against Team Anna's protest.Shashank has also mentioned the ignorance of Lokpal supporters when it comes to understanding the Bill.

I am for a non-corrupt democracy, not an Anna Hazare dictatorship.

DemocracyNotAnna

The Facebook Page URL for this page is actually shorter - Facebook.com/DemocracynotAnna. The most happening Anna-dissent destination on Facebook is also the most thought provoking. Members give perspective to the media hype of #Anna, present individual inquiry into the workings of Lokpal bill, and both Fans and the Page Admin post analytical content from the internet. If Anna was hype, DemocracyNotAnna is a just a few carefully considered Likes, longer, carefully thought comments and a regular eye on the going-ons of the Anna-verse.

Why I Hate Anna Hazare and Co.

Not about hate, but the logical opposite of hate - an indifference to Anna's popstar appeal. A bit of rightful scorn though - it seems to be a cathartic notepad for those who can't speak against Anna in the public domain. Users question the reality of his 12 day fast, the pasts of Team Anna members, and the necessary LOLs that every Facebook Page needs.

Also, busting the few myths floating around on SMS - including the implementation of Lokpal bill in Singapore (its a myth!).

And the Page Admin has agreed to argue against every point you write for the bill.

Against Anna JanLokPal Bill

There's only 45 members right now, but with regular links presenting different perspectives on Anna's protests, an active admin and a critical focus on the Jan Lokpal Bill and Anna Hazare, it is necessary Liking for the Anna-athiest.

THE JOKE OF LOKPAL

There's always people here willing to argue you out of your belief of the Lokpal Bill. Armed with the kind of Lokpal IQ that would give the most righteous Anna fans a pause, comments are supplemented with news, links to other Anti-Anna/Lokpal Facebook pages and Notes breaking down the Bill and it's flaws.

Democracy or Hazare ?

Find like-minded people on one the biggest Anti-Anna Groups on Facebook. Question Mr. Hazare's unwillingness to run in the elections and specific examples of how the media overstepped the ethics of journalism in supporting Anna for TRPs. Pro-Anna posts aren't abused, but thoughtfully critiqued.

Youngest Female Sarpanch (Village Head) Makes Her Village IT-Enabled

2011-09-07T14:22:00.001+05:30

It's a story that's actually many stories.

A village named Soda didn't have water. So the young sarpanch, Chhavi Rajawat (incidentally a young, female MBA graduate) got inquisitive about the funds allocated to the village. Since more had been spent than allocated, she raised funds on her own.

Money came from family and friends - 20 lakh rupees wasn't enough for the Rs 3.5 crore that the reservoir needed.

So Chhavi Rajawat got more even inquisitive about the funds sanctioned to her village. Files at the district headquarters in Tonk revealed a calculation error. Chavi decided to get proactive about the lack of transparency and accountability. Soda thus became India's first IT-enabled village, after tying up with a German software vendor to set up an internet and intranet portal. along with a technology education lab.

The portal allows Soda's 10,000 strong population 24x7 access to the funds sanctioned for the village.

There's also online postings of birth and death certificates, besides posting land records online.

"A fire in Tonk had destroyed land records of many villages," says Rajawat. "This ERP (enterprise resource planning) application will have an electronic database, and store all land records in servers."

Rajawat recently represented India at a recent UN poverty summit.

"Most youth in the village are unemployed, as they don't have higher education due to absence of a college. We want to change that with e-education," says she.

There's even a website, www.soda-india.in where Chavi posts info about funds allocated for projects such as a village bank, community centre for weddings and cataract surgery for the needy.

Theres even plans to link Soda's portal with the state government's websites.This will make Soda the first fully computerized Panchayat in India. While there has been a sanction by the Central government (Rs 4,500 crore) for the e-panchayat project, matters of fund allocation and project monitoring are not clearly mentioned. (MensXP.com)

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/youngest-female-sarpanch-makes-village-enabled-105116396.html

Anti corruption movement, Anna phenomenon and the youth in India

2011-08-27T12:27:00.002+05:30

Anna Hazare, widely known as the last Gandhian, who forced the federal government to agree to introduce stringent anti-graft legislation, has become a rallying point for youths in India. The 71-year-old former Indian army driver-turned-social reformer’s five-day hunger-strike, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi galvanized youths across religions. It also imitated freedom fighter Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who drove the mighty British imperialists out of India. Hundreds of thousands of people joined Hazare’s crusade. As the wave of support grew into an avalanche through candle-lit rallies in many towns and cities in India and from around the world through social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the April 5-9 fast for an anti-graft law shook the Congress-led federal government and brought it to its knees to concede to the popular demand. Hazare would not have evoked such unprecedented public support had it not been for his austere Gandhian lifestyle. The white topi (cap) worn and popularized by Gandhi is back, and has captured the popular imagination of the masses. Writing about the “Father of the Nation,” Einstein said that “generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this [Gandhi] ever in flesh and blood walked on this earth.” The half-naked fakir touched the scientist deeply. The next generation who will not see the last Gandhian - Hazare - in the flesh will perhaps express similar sentiments.Born Kisan Baburao Hazare, his journey from the non-descript Yadavbaba temple in Ralegan Siddhi, a village of 3,000 near Pune where he lives, to becoming a youth icon has been a remarkable four-decade long story.
Hazare’s singular motive to rid the country of corruption, especially in government, ignited the masses which have had to bribe officials to obtain basic documents such as passports or birth and death certificates. Two things changed the frail man’s life dramatically and spurred him into being the icon to the younger generation that he is today - poverty and divine intervention.

The voice of the youth against corruption is gathering momentum on campuses all around the country. Irrespective of political affiliations, students are in favour of the cause espoused by Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign.Anna Hazare’s agitation has highlighted many a disconnect in today’s political setup. There is the disconnect between the young and the old schools in the Congress. The younger lot of MPs fear an Anna wave against corruption while the veterans hope to ride the Anna storm with the traditional recipe of caste combinations during elections. The public rhetoric by the MPs is different from their private views. Many are apprehensive that the 74-year-old man who has drawn a huge response from ordinary people all across the country — in all probability even he did not expect it — is making them redundant. The MPs, cutting across party lines, have to pay lip service to Anna because of the current public sentiment. The government, which sent him to Tihar jail, has suddenly started ‘saluting’ him, and Congress spokesman Manish Tewari has even apologised to Anna for calling him corrupt. The fear of being made irrelevant has united the political class to take up the issue of ‘Parliament’s supremacy’ and enacting laws following the due process, which includes referring it to the Standing Committee. Anna cannot be allowed to dictate a timeline or the contents of a bill to Parliament, they say. For, if they accept it, they would have no role though people have elected them.
If they give in to Anna’s demands, it would open a Pandora’s box, they claim. What if several thousand Kashmiris hold an indefinite fast demanding an independent Kashmir and threaten to die if their demand is not met? What would happen if several thousand Sangh supporters demand building the Ram temple at the disputed spot in Ayodhya? Or hundreds of millions insist that the government does away with OBC reservation in jobs and institutions… Should the government give in to all these demands just because thousands congregate and there is a fear that some may die? While politicians have a point, it is also true that they have suddenly woken up to their rights and duties as parliamentarians. Nobody squeaks when 17 bills are passed in an hour or when demands for grants are guillotined year after year within a few seconds. And, as those gathered at Ramlila are quick to point out, politicians themselves have brought the situation upon themselves. The fact is people are now finding a connection between the high-level loot (the entire Anna episode has to be seen against the backdrop of the 2G spectrum allocation scam and the Commonwealth Games 2010 scam) and their plight as they have to battle rising prices and unemployment. Though a handful at Ramlila might have actually studied the pros and cons of the Jan Lokpal Bill, they support it because they suspect the intent of the government and the political class. Today, Anna’s bill has become synonymous with the fight against corruption. His indefinite fast has touched many hearts, mostly urban, middle class and net-savvy Indians. But MPs admit the more the agitation lingers, the deeper will be the impact on the country. Already several MPs have been gheraoed in the hinterland. For good or for bad, Anna has captured the moment. Given the support he has, he is no longer pushing for just a discussion on his bill in Parliament. That was his demand about a month ago. Now, he wants Parliament to pass the bill and in his given timeframe. Naturally, this is difficult for every political party as MPs will have no leeway in government matters. Whatever the outcome of Anna’s agitation — and the situation is still fluid — he has given a jolt to the political class. Let us hope that the agitation will strengthen both the citizenry and the functioning of Parliament.
Padmaraj Menon, a final-year law student, said he backed the new Jan Lokpal Bill suggested by Anna Hazare. “There is a quote that goes like this; ‘Corruption is more dangerous than prostitution.’ Prostitution may endanger the moral values of an individual but corruption endangers the moral and ethical fabric of the entire nation. The level of corruption indicates the economic backwardness of the country. So I am supporting the bill.
Sanitha T S, a post-graduate student of Maharaja’s College has no doubt regarding her stand. “Fight against corruption is always good for society. I express my solidarity to Anna’s movement,” she said.

The crusade against corruption unleashed by Anna Hazare has given a platform for each and everyone to voice their opinions they have been pent-up for long. In connection with this, seminars and discussions were held in many colleges.
“The campaign is not to support a person but to back a noble cause. We support it whole-heartedly. There are many offices like village offices and police stations where people often knock for help. But it has become a breeding place for corruption. So it is good that these offices come under the purview of the bill,” said Janardhana Shenoy, general secretary, SFI.
Though they are supporting Anna’s cause they have their apprehensions too. “The campaign against corruption is always welcome. But it should not throw any challenge to the existing Parliamentary system. The first and major step in this regard is to eschew bribe,” said Jinto John, district president, KSU, Kerala.
For infotech professional Sachin Dombe, the Independence Day weekend starting on August 13 indeed became an extended one. He decided to extend his leave by a day on Tuesday, citing support for anti-corruption crusader, Anna Hazare’s Lokpal Bill movement, as the reason. Hazare, in his appeal televised across the country on Monday and Tuesday, urged people to participate in a mass movement to coincide with his fast-unto-death stir from Tuesday in support of a strong Lokpal Bill.
More than 40 voluntary groups in Pune organised a rally from Nal Stop to Balgandharva Chowk on Tuesday morning to support Hazare. Nearly 3,000 youth participated in the agitation. At Balgandharva Chowk, the volunteers sat on a relay fast and a makeshift pandal was set up opposite Balgandharva Rangmandir. They raised slogans and sang patriotic songs. Dombe was one of the many young professionals who took the day off to participate in this movement.

“I have taken a day off on Tuesday to be present for the rally and the relay fast,” said Dombe, who carried an “arrest me” placard and wore an “I am Anna” Gandhi cap. Like him, many other youngsters were in the forefront of the protest. Telecom professional Deboshri Mitra travelled from Kharadi to participate in the rally and the relay fast. She had taken the day off on Tuesday and was planning to decide whether to take leave on Wednesday too. Her colleague, Harshal Marathe’s leave was not sanctioned, yet he made it a point to be present for the rally on Tuesday morning. “We have been conducting the campaign on behalf of the India Against Corruption (IAC) in our company and our friends since April this year,” he said.
The Internet is being extensively used by young information technology (IT) and other professionals from Pune to spread the word.
“The Facebook page of IAC is flooded with hits and we are updating the latest news on it,” he said.
Vikas Sutar and Shrikant Sapkal, who were among the protesters in Pune, said they felt this was a ‘now or never’ situation as far as the Lokpal Bill was concerned. They felt compelled to participate in the public movement.

Reference:
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/report_annas-jolt-exposes-gaping-disconnects-neerja-chowdhury_1580149
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/kochi/citys-youth-find-a-saviour-in-anna-hazare/306977.html
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_youth-force-backs-anna-hazare-in-pune_1576832
http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/05/09/anna-hazare-becomes-a-youth-icon/

How Anna Hazare became the face of anti corruption movement

2011-08-25T22:05:00.005+05:30

We for sure need a Lokpal Bill because it will bring in a clean government. Anna Hazare should be worshipped for what he is doing," Sonu, a barber, told me earlier this week. Not just Sonu, but many I chatted with believe the Lokpal can be a solution to all their problems, from water supply to ration cards to gas connections. So what do we understand from the Sonus of this world?
A) Many supporting Anna Hazare's movement don't have the slightest clue about the specifics of the bill. They think the Lokpal is a magic cure for all the ills in the country.
B) Team Anna (led by Arvind Kejriwal) has captured the imagination of everyone tired of the bureaucratic and political corruption in this country. Their call to fight 'corruption' with a 'fast' is working wonderfully in mobilising people.

What is being forgotten in all this is that the team is offering a simplistic solution to a complex problem. Team Anna is offering a quick fix to corruption via the Jan Lokpal Bill.
Khristina, a journalist, says when people see something good happening, they instantly want to become a part of it.
"Even when there's an illusion of something good, we would want to be a part of it. I guess this happens because all of us want to be a part of the 'greater good'; to say 'I was there'. Of course, there could also be a 'herd mentality' at work. In fact, many may not fully understand Anna's 'Fight Against Corruption' and its implications, but the knowledge that it may result in something good is causing this frenzy," she explains.
This is where Team Anna have got their strategy right: they are fighting for the good and the betterment of the nation. A vast majority feel they should be behind Anna Hazare and support the movement. On the other hand, the government has failed to explain its stand to the nation. Its communication strategy, if it has one at all, has failed miserably. Jharna, a cricket journalist, says: "I feel Anna and his supporters are trying to rouse public sentiment against established evils like corruption, but the resulting wave will do very little towards actually getting rid of bribery in daily life. The leaders are merely encouraging blind faith and putting themselves on pedestals to be worshipped the same way modern-day politicians do."

How the UPA lost the plot

How has such a mass movement built up over the last couple of months? The UPA has much to answer for. Instead of trying to bring to book people behind its mega-scams, it was busy cementing its coalition and running down activists behind the Lokpal movement. From maligning protesters to spreading rumours, the government has tried several dirty tricks. What it hasn't done is to tell the misinformed masses what the Jan Lokpal bill is all about and how it can't solve all the nation's problems.
The government isn't speaking lucidly about how our country already has independent agencies such as the Central Vigilance Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor General's office, the Election Commission, and the Central Bureau of Investigation to fight corruption. A Lokpal would only add to the long list of investigating bodies in the country.
Instead of explaining why it is against Team Anna's version of the Lokpal, it goes about arresting Anna and creating a huge sympathy wave for protesters, bringing back memories of the Emergency era. Anna's arrest catalysed common citizens. It made them take to the streets as they saw the government's action as undemocratic, an obstruction of their rights. The Congress has spoken in many voices, confounding the issue further. From a minister calling Anna Hazare mad to Abhishek Manu Singhvi announcing the government is open to discussing 80 per cent of the bill, the UPA has made a farce of the issue. Manu Singhvi's statement shows that the government was ready to extend an olive branch only when things seemed to be going out of control. The government has blamed Lokpal activists of compromising India's security and integrity, when there was no vandalism, and even a basic law-and-order problem was not in evidence. Some Congressmen were so foolish as to draw a parallel between the recent London riots, comparing anti-corruption protesters to hooligans.

These are the mistakes that have fuelled the public sentiment against the government. Kapil Sibal says Anna is undemocratic. Manmohan Singh says his government is taking the strictest possible action against the corrupt, but everyone knows how he had no role in nailing those guilty in the 2G and the Commonwealth Games scam. It was only after our apex court intervened that arrests were made.
This is proof enough that the government is not serious about curbing corruption

anti corruption movement is touching the grassroot

2011-08-20T11:33:00.011+05:30

Yesterday was an iconic day when Mumbai citizens were deprived of their dabbas (packed foods/ lunch boxs) at offices. Striking work for the first time in their 120-year-old history, Mumbai's famed dabbawalas (who deliver more than two lakh dabbas to offices every day, have a “six-sigma” certified error rate — reportedly on the order of one mistake per 6 million deliveries) Friday extended support to anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare in his fight for a stronger Lokpal bill (anti corruption bill to include even the Prime Minister in its power of action). 'Dabbawalas joined in large numbers to lend their support to Annaji,' said Nutan Dabbawala Trust president Raghunath Medge. 'They all wore caps with Anna's name on it and marched peacefully on the side of the road from Churchage station to Azad Maidan (in south Mumbai) without disrupting any traffic. This is Anna's way of peaceful protest,' he added.

Nearly two lakh Mumbaikars depend on the dabbawalas for lunch. But this Friday, they either ate at their office canteen, or ordered from or visited a neighbourhood restaurant -- if they were not on a holiday due to Navroz, the Parsi New Year. Meanwhile, those who had a working day Friday complained of being deprived of home-made food. For finance professional Akshay Magji, it was an 'additional pressure' to eat from outside. 'It has been an additional pressure on me. Yesterday (Thursday) buses and trains disrupted the local commute. Now with dabbawalas on strike, I was forced to eat outside in some restaurant. It took over an hour, plus I didn't get to eat home-made food,' he rued. Raghunath Medge, however, said that they called for strike Friday keeping in mind that most offices will be closed owing to Navroz. 'I agree that our valued customers were inconvenienced owing to the strike call, but I am sure it will be a small percentage,' he said. Those like Khantil Shah, who had a holiday, were relaxed. 'Yesterday (Thursday) when I heard about the dabbawalas' strike, I thought I would have to waste time and money to eat at a restaurant. But then I remembered it is a holiday and relaxed,' said Shah, a public relations professional who has been ordering tiffins the past three years.

Nutan Dabbalwala Trust secretary Kiran Gavande said: 'We are breaking our 120-year-old tradition by not providing tiffins today (Friday). This is the least we can do to support Annaji.' Speaking at Mumbai's Azad Maidan day before yesterday, Sopan Laxman Mare, President of the Mumbai Lunch Box Suppliers Association, said the dabbawalas, renowned in the world for their efficiency, would go on strike for the first time in their 120-year history. "We have already pledged our support to Anna Hazare. He is fighting against corruption for the people of the country. 5000 dabbawalas and 200,000 customers will go on strike on Friday in support of Anna's movement," Mare added. He also said that while bad weather and natural calamities had never made the dabbawalas to take a day off, Hazare's fight against corruption was a much bigger issue as such they had resolved to join him this national cause.

The Mumbai dabbawalas, with their never-say-die attitude have, delivered tiffins to their customers regardless of prevailing situations. “Even during the July 26 floods, we have delivered tiffins to all our customers. Many dabbawalas starved for hours but only went home after the job was complete. This is a special occasion and we will definitely pledge our support to Anna,” Mr Mare added. He also said that the one-day strike will not create trouble for the Mumbaikers. “The Mumbaikers have strong willpower and one-day strike will not make so much trouble for them. In fact, many of them will be joining us in the rally,” said Mr Mare.

Photo & information source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article2369850.ece?homepage=true
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/for-anna-mumbais-dabbawalas-to-take-a-.../833839/

Read more: http://itsscrapped.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-should-i-care.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Scarcity-of-water-at-Anna-Hazares-protest-venue/articleshow/9672272.cms
http://www.annahazare.org/

few TV commercials that cought the AIOs of young India

2011-08-16T11:25:00.002+05:30

Here’s few Indian commercials which catches the best of Indian youth’s AIOs (Attitude, Interest, Openion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDuUIww9AIU

(Cadbury India’s ad)

This ad shows how important it is (for any Indian youth) to pass in an exam…play cards... meet a Bollywood celebrity…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwi-T1l6znU

(Cadbury India’s ad)

Respecting the elders is still a valued tradition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaPh9kGS0v0&feature=related

(Cadbury India’s ad)

Gifting at Diwali (Indian festive) is very emotional…in India

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asEn619BfaM

(Cadbury India’s ad)

Family is most important to an youth in India. You can see, a teddy is an integral part of a teenager!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6dEI6D_rcI

(Cadbury India’s ad)

Relationship…love…female are becoming more “smart” than male…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2wBnjtmmg8&feature=related

young couple's family romance…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efRNKkmWdc0

(Vodafone’s ad)

The character Zoozoo was very popular among youth…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26MLjHFK4Jk

(Samsung guru ad)

On, how important is music in an Indian youth’s life…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk4ru6_YAs0&feature=fvwrel

(Samsung Guru double sim ad)

This shows that parent’s approval is most important, in every purchase…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRm6avC_85I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxzrGBc2d_o&feature=related

(Samsung)

Mobile is a tool to maintain relationship…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ECJrnqPcI

(tata tea)

How youth are voicing against corrupted political leaders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQSz7nnTUP4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTuJNPZlreM&feature=related

(tata tea)

Against bribing

Dhruv Lakra and the Mirakle Courier - a tale of new India

2011-08-15T11:18:00.005+05:30

The new generation of young entrepreneurs in India are creating new directions for business opportunities as well as social responsibility. Dhruv Lakra, an MBA graduate from Oxford started Mirakle Couriers, a courier company with a difference which employs only deaf and dumb youths. A courier service requires minimal use of speech and hearing, which is why Dhruv thought of starting this business for the specially abled people. Barring the 4 management staff, all employees are hearing disabled. He has 2 branches in Mumbai and already plans to go pan India in the long run.

In his own words Dhruv stated a moving tale of how he got this idea: "Once upon a time, Dhruv was sitting on a bus next to a young boy looking eagerly out the window. In fact he was not just eager but actually being very restless. He was looking around anxiously, seeming slightly lost. Dhruv asked him where he was going but the boy did not respond. It took him a few seconds to realise that this boy was unable to hear or speak. He was deaf. Though the bus conductor regularly announced the stops this boy still did not know where he was. Dhruv took out a piece of paper and wrote to him in Hindi asking him where he was going. Through the back and forth pen and paper exchange, it suddenly dawned on Dhruv how difficult life was for the deaf. Something as straightforward as a bus became a struggle...It is an invisible disability. You can not know when someone near you is deaf as there are no obvious physical attributes, and so its totally ignored. It is also a silent (voiceless) disability. There is very little public sympathy for the deaf, and by connection, a severe lack of government support for them in India. Particularly when it comes to employment there are no opportunities because no one has the patience or the foresight to learn deaf language and culture. This is how Mirakle Couriers was born...Over the next few months Dhruv spent time exploring the deaf culture and learning Indian Sign Language. He focused on a courier business because it requires a lot of visual skills but no verbal communication. The deaf are extremely good at maps reading, remembering roads and buildings because they are so visually inclined...Over the last two years Mirakle Couriers has grown to operate in 2 Branches in the city, employing 70 deaf employees and delivering over 65,000 shipments per month. We have won several awards including the 2009 Hellen Keller award and the 2010 National Award for the Empowerment of People With Disabilities."

INgene salutes the spirit of "new India" in the morning of 64th independence day of the nation.

India infographics

2011-08-15T10:42:00.001+05:30

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/india--stats--facts-and-trivia.html

my article

2011-08-11T18:41:00.000+05:30

my article available online: http://www.imagesfashion.com/content/ContentDetail.aspx?pg=1&cid=1023

"slut walk" and "Changing the attitude towards women"

2011-08-01T14:45:00.010+05:30

In every 29 minutes, a rape case is reported in Delhi (UNIFEM 2010). Besides Delhi has the dubious reputation of being one of the world’s most unsafe cities for women and to its utmost surprise, nothing is being carried out to salvage its image except a few news conferences and some unplanned patrolling. Recent cases of gang rapes have left the city shamefaced in which a 30 year old BPO employee was molested in a moving car and more recently when an 18-year old met the same fate.

However, the accused were caught by police after rigorous patrolling and checking but one can ask, is it necessary that there should be a heinous crime to wake our police officials from a deep slumber? Can’t one ask when will be the capital of India be a safe place to live like other foreign cities like Seoul?

Evident from the crimes that occurred just in a week time, point the finger towards the non-serious police officials. For instance, the Dhaula Kuan rape case in which 5 people were arrested were also booked earlier in separate crimes and surprisingly they were let off on bail. Other cases which reflect the same police apathy include the Mongolpuri rape case and Rohini stabbing episode in which a person attacked five girls with surgical blades.

Likewise, a Seemapuri woman was gang raped by six men in a moving car on 6th December but no FIR was registered by the police against the accused for two days. The action was initiated only after the doctors from GTB hospital confirmed it as a rape case.

Judicial system also lags behind in bringing the culprits to books. Few days back, a convict Mukesh Kumar was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 14 year girl. But it took five years for the judiciary to punish the guilty. Some politicians give such incidents a U turn by portraying it a handiwork of migrants and some others blame the opposition parties which, unfortunately they are not doing it for people but for their own political gain. Statistics available with Delhi police show that 83% of people involved in crime are from Delhi, while only 17% were found to be outside.

70% of women feel unsafe in Delhi compared to Gurgaon's 65%. Survey shows that 64% of women have been personally harassed or eve teased. But what about those women whose voice is never heard or who don’t want to be named or does not have faith in the justice system. The records show that it is the eve teasers who got emboldened when they don’t get the required punishment.

And it is not only the case of our capital city Delhi. A look on the current status available in leading newspapers show that Madhya Pradesh tops the list of rape cases and Manipur is perched at the bottom. In every nook and corner of India there is eve teasing, molestation, rape and murder either by the officials or by a common man. Work place molestation is a day to day routine now and to its utmost disgrace no one is bothered about it.

As per National Crime Records Bureau Data a total of 21,467 rape cases were reported in 2008, which increased substantially to 3.5 per cent over 2007. Provisional data for 2009 shows that 21,397 rape cases were reported during the year.

Madhya Pradesh reported as many as 2,937 cases, accounting for 13.7 per cent and highest of total rape cases, followed by West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh at 2,263 and 1,871 cases respectively. These states were followed by Maharashtra (1,558), Assam (1,438), Rajasthan (1,355) and Bihar (1,302). The lowest number of cases were reported from Nagaland (19).

"Rape is one of the most violent forms of crimes against women, which not only impacts her bodily integrity but in the long-run, impairs her capacity to develop meaningful personal and social relationships, and affects her life and livelihood," Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath said in a meeting. She said the Supreme Court had directed the National Commission for Women (NCW) to evolve a "scheme so as to wipe out the tears of unfortunate victims of rape" (Source: http://www.merinews.com/article/delhi-capital-city-or-rape-city/15839155.shtml)

So, the much-awaited and controversial Delhi SlutWalk — titled SlutWalk Arthaat Besharmi Morcha — got going on Sunday, with a loud call for society to change its attitude rather than force women to hide indoors. While it lacked the lingerie, fishnet stockings and skimpy clothing of its western versions, the march still managed to bring more than 250 supporters to Jantar Mantar with bright signs and loud chants.

The run- up to the protest had promised celebs, including Nafisa Ali and Gul Panag, but the only one who turned up was Nafisa. The actress- activist, who stressed the importance of gender equality education at home, said the movement was strengthening by the minute and that it was time the practice of blaming women for rapes and molestations was discouraged.

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/photos/it-s-a-start-delhi-s-walk-of-no-shame-1312183273-slideshow/

The Slut Walk has had its fair share of supporters and cynics. The women who are supporting it believe that its high time that women reacted to the vulnerability they are subjected to owing to the onslaught of baseless judgements of the society and that women should be free to wear whatever they want without being held accountable for other people’s behaviour. The criticisms are basically directed towards the name i.e Slut Walk. People feel the name is not appropriate. It is seen as insulting and derogatory. The founders and the supporters of the movement have justified the name by saying that “we want to reclaim the word ‘slut’ and use it in a positive, empowering way. Historically, it has been used by misogynists to degrade women who are sexually assertive – whilst men in the same position have been hailed as ‘studs’ or ‘ladies’ men’. We wish to make it know that women are well within their rights to have consensual sex and to display their sexuality however they like”. Moreover, in a city like Delhi, it is felt that the protest march may become a visual with no or little impact.

The Slut Walk is a good initiative and is addressing an important issue but what is required to make movements like these successful is sensitizing the society. Women should be respected and so should their rights to live their life the way they want. Read more at the website of Besharmimorcha: http://www.besharmimorcha.in/

More reference: http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-9-o-clock-news/slutwalk-delhi-copycat-feminism/206640

http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2011/06/slut-walk-delhi-a-fight-to-reclaim-dignity-and-rights/

The dealmaker- an interview with Kunal Bahl

2011-07-22T16:14:00.001+05:30

Having transformed a village in Uttar Pradesh so much so that it's now called Snapdeal.com Nagar, the e-commerce specialist, Kunal Bahl tells us how its done.

The start up
There weren't many career options I explored beyond academics growing up. I went to school at Delhi Public School RK Puram, New Delhi. We grew up in a middle class family and there was no concept of pocket money. But, if we wanted something, it was usually not refused, as long as the request was reasonable.

There was a significant focus on academics in our household from the beginning, and this discipline probably ensured that both my brother and I ended up doing reasonably well at studies. He went on to go to IIT-Delhi and then IIMCalcutta. I went to Wharton, which is honestly, something I regret in hindsight. But, it's never too late.

Nerves of steel
Entrepreneurship at a young age, especially if you have a good academic background, is a fairly irrational decision, because the short team economic opportunity costs as a result of becoming an entrepreneur would never make sense otherwise.

We faced every kind of challenge-funds, hiring good people, finding the right business model, dealing with daily problems, convincing potential partners that wisdom doesn't only come with age and 24 year olds can be good at something too. For both, me and my friend and co-founder, Rohit Bansal, giving up was never an option. After a certain point, we didn't know of a life outside building our company.

It was challenging, and continues to be. Rohit and my biggest contribution to our business is the team we built. Many respected people in the industry often tell us that Snapdeal has the best team in the Internet industry in India, and that's of course just not Rohit and I - it's our entire team of rockstar professionals.

Lose some, get some
Sacrifices are part of life and definitely a part of building a business. Both Rohit and I try our best to take time off to go on a vacation once or twice a year, or a Sunday off and play video games. We still go out for frequent dinners after work, which has been a ritual since the early days of the business. I would go as far as to say that our friendship when we first met in class 11th over a decade ago was based on our mutual love for food.

To be honest, professional life does take over most things, but as long as you are having fun, it doesn't really matter. One should spend time doing what they love and lead a regretless life. And for us that special thing is our company.

The good samaritan
We always wanted to build a socially responsible company, and recently we came across a situation where we found out about a village in Uttar Pradesh. The village has approximately 2,000 residents (about 650 families) and didn't even have access to basic necessities like water. We realised that we could solve this problem very easily. By investing a reasonably small amount of Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh, we installed 15 hand pumps so that instead of walking 1 km everyday, the villagers now have easy access to clean water within 50-100m of their homes.

I spent a couple of days in the village, interacting with the villagers, and trying to understand how we can further help them, and how this initiative of ours, changed their lives. The community wanted to extend its gratitude through the gesture of renaming their village after our company to Snapdeal.com Nagar. One of our colleague's family hails from a place very close to Shiv Nagar and that is how the problems of the community were brought to our attention.

Food, movies and books
I love food and right now, I am experimenting with some innovative food related concepts, which may eventually be commercialised, but that is not the intent with which I am pursuing them. So, there is a lot of experimentation that is happening in my kitchen. In addition to food, I like reading and travelling, but my undying love is movies. Hopefully, one day I can write a book, which I can make a movie about. Now that would be something.

Source: http://in.education.yahoo.com/news/yeduindiatoday/-dealmaker-20110718

The “we” factor of generation Y and the need of “involvement”

2011-07-15T11:31:00.002+05:30

In the book “how cool brands stay hot-Branding to Generation Y” Joeri Van Den Bergh and Mattias Behrer(2011) mentioned that there is an ancient saying that bears much truth: ‘people resemble their times more than they resemble their parents’. More than half of the world’s population is under the age of 30. Gen Y (those born between 1980 and 1996) is currently one of the largest demographic groups and will soon outnumber the Baby Boomers generation. Unlike previous generation, this youth generation has been bombard with commercial messages from their birth. However, they have learned to filter out all those loud messages and they have been empowered by their parents and teachers to have an opinion of their own and never merely believe whatever somebody is proclaiming. To survive in the current, cluttered and fragmented environment, today’s teens and adolescents use collective peer wisdom and social connections. Youngsters pick and mix individual parts of media to create their own personalized products and services that fit their individual needs. The Dell and Nike website gives freedom to their consumers to pick and mix the products to create their own computers or shoes.

This Gen Y is a generation of “givers” and ready to contribute to the “we” factor than remaining as “I”. There are an increasing number of forums, sites, movie uploading sites like youtube and torrents (ie. Piratebay) which offer free advices, do-it-yourself demos, movies and having enormous content of valuable material for “free use” which shows statics that though they are as competitive, commercial and ambitious as any other generation in history but they are abandoning the prevailing ethos of their parent’s generation of baby boomers and adhering more to the values of their grandparents, the war generation. In a 2006 USA Today poll, 61 percent of thirteen to twenty five year old felt personally responsible for making difference in the world; 81 percent have volunteered in the past year; 69 percent consider a company’s social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop; and 83 percent trusted a company more if it was socially/ environmentally responsible.

In his lecture, Thomas W. Malone of MIT mentioned parallels between the emergence of democracies in political and business worlds, and technological advances in communications. He notes that in the age of the Internet, businesses are growing decentralized, markedly departing from “command and control” organizational models to newer environments where “workers seek advice instead of approval.” Empowered by new technologies, workers will exercise ever greater strength in important decisions -- even while corporations expand and sprawl across borders.

Unfortunately, India is still following the Top Down model and this model wont work in current scenario where collaborative initiatives are the only way to sustain in a new digitally democratic world.

Learning "Sanskrit" is becoming cool among the youth in India

2011-06-30T14:04:00.002+05:30

Source: The Hindu, Thursday, june 30th, 2011

GenNext gears up to take control at India Inc

2011-06-30T12:07:00.002+05:30

The elevation of Wipro chairman Azim Premji's elder son Rishad as the vice-president (V-P) of the information technology (IT) giant is the latest in a series of sons and daughters of India Inc's promoters moving in to charge at the top.Last year, Shravin Mittal, the 23-year-old Bharti Airtel scion, had joined as manager, Bharti Airtel International- Netherlands (BAIN), the company's subsidiary.

Before being promoted as VP, Rishad Premji was chief strategy officer (CSO) at Wipro. The latest move is said to be in line with a succession plan that has long been speculated about.

However, a Wipro spokesperson said, "According to our company policy, we don't comment or make an announcement outside about our internal promotions." Rishad joined Wipro in July 2007 as business manager in the banking and finance division. In 2009, he was promoted as general manager of investor relations and was made CSO in September, 2010.

An MBA from the Harvard Business School and BA in Economics from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, Rishad worked with Bain Consulting and GE before joining Wipro.

Shravin was meanwhile instrumental in BAIN's highprofile acquisition of mobile and data services operator Zain Africa. Before joining BAIN, Shravin had worked with JP Morgan Cazenove as a technology analyst.

"Unlike earlier, business families or promoters nowadays educate the young generation and through business exposure and training make sure that they are in a position to take up bigger responsibilities," said P. Vijayakumar of the Center for Social and Organisational Leadership (CSOL) at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

"These young generation leaders are exposed to the interactive and structural tools that need to be used in strategic and day- today decision making," he said. Sidhartha Mallya, 23, son of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, was integrated in the UB group's top-level management at the age of 18. He has played an important role in formulating the company's marketing strategy.

Sidhartha's leadership helped UB group acquire Glasgowbased whiskey maker Whyte & Mackay in 2007. Later in 2010, Sidhartha joined United Spirits as the deputy general manager for new sales outlets.

According to brand consultant Harish Bijoor, the induction of GenNext into family-run businesses is a natural phenomenon. "They will imbibe the culture of the company better," Bijoor said.

In 2009, Roshni Nadar, daughter of HCL founder Shiv Nadar, joined her father's company as chief executive officer (CEO) at the age of 27. Prior to that she had served at the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

A one-time television producer, Roshni had studied Social Enterprise Management from Northwestern University.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

As a young entrepreneur, Pallavi Gopinath, the daughter of Captain GR Gopinath, played a key role in the launch of Air Deccan, India's first lowcost airline. Having three master's degrees — in media, literature and aerospace — she joined Deccan 360 as a management trainee in 2008.

TVS Group's managing director Venu Srinivasan's daughter Lakshmi Venu, 27, who recently got married to Infosys scion Rohan Murthy, joined as vice-president of Sundaram Clayton Ltd, the holding firm of TVS Motors. She studied economics at Yale University and has a PhD in manufacturing management from Warwick University.

Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.
Source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/GenNext-gears-take-control-yahoofinancein-2362959437.html?x=0

Involvement and crowd-sourcing: the new brand mantra

2011-06-24T21:21:00.000+05:30

As the online tools and websites are enabling youth to achieve wider social interactions and knowledge, the broader offline communities are in decline unless the community is providing something more than just “community feeling and interaction” (ie. Class differentiation, social status, safety, religious identity, patriotism etc.). If the individuals/ brands are not included in the “cloud” of “peer factors” and immediate inner circle they are less and less interested to interact/ connect with them. Social media can be a spring board for the brands to interact with the young consumers and use the crowd-power of float ahead. According to David Fischer, vice president advertising and global operations, Facebook, FB currently has 25 million users in India (number three position in the world largest internet users list) and the figure is hardly 10 per cent of the total Indian population! According to the report, From January, Municipal Corporation of Delhi has also started using Facebook for users to post problems for immediate action on areas like sanitation and garbage cleaning and the response is amazing!
The Bangalore based adventure accessories company Wildcraft has 637,802 fans in their Facebook page who actively participates in discussion on new product range, new store locations and promotes Wildcraft’s new products via Word Of Mouth. In return, Wildcraft gives them the tips on adventure, cool sports, allows them to upload their adventure photos (they share or contribute content related to their expeditions and outdoor adventures with each other) and obviously offers the “adventure gears”. Gaurav Dublish, director, Wildcraft stated that every post on Wildcraft Facebook page receives 400 comments on an average and about 500 photographs have been uploaded by followers on the page so far. Wildcraft crowd-sources ideas (through Facebook) related to design and colours to develop new products through suggestions by fans.

Lay's (Frito Lay) took an initiative to involve consumers by 'Lay's be a little Dillogical'. This concept was initially launched to make a strong connect with the youth - talking about what one wishes to do versus what one has to do. After successfully launcing the media ad, they took the idea a bit further and launched the 'Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour' campaign which was spread over three phases, the campaign first asked consumers across the country to send in their entries with flavors and tips . The response got 1.3 million entries and the judges chose four winning flavors. In the second phase of the campaign, the selected - Cheesy Mexicana, Tangy Twist, Mastana Mango and Hip Hop Honey & Chilly - flavours were piloted in the market with the theme 'Bachega sirf tastiest'. The four winners were chosen and “Mastana Mango” emerged as the winner with over 15, 77,891 votes out of the total 41, 64,886 votes given by consumers! Sagar Devruhkar Mastana (who sent the flavor) got to take home Rs 50 Lakh and 1 per cent of the sales turnover of the flavor.

Contemporary Youth marketing strategies

2011-06-24T21:16:00.001+05:30

After my decade long experience with youth and youth-aspired brands/ products, the best youth marketing strategies appear to be more of an organic fruit garden, where the trees (read consumers) are nourished and pampered to deliver more fruits, and those fruits are being used to create more trees!

In this process, the trees will happily grow as well as the garden (read brand). Moreover, the trees are not only growing but also suggesting what kind of manure should be used and what is the best landscaping method to increase the “homeliness” and “coolness” of the garden! In an organic manner, they are informing the kind of expected “pest attack” to the gardener each moment…they are shouting loud to make sure that the gardener understands that the garden is built with the trees but not the gardener’s investments! The feel of “being used” to mint money is diminishing. Today, the profit, of a brand is the byproduct of “interaction”, “sharing space” and “peer commitment” to be at the core inner circle rather than just selling products. Unfortunately, most of the brands in India have no clue about the evolving semiotics of youth or they are taking them “for granted”!

The youth in India, is excepting wide degree of choice to interact and play with the brand elements to feel “at home” with the brand. The young influencers are creating their own identities and “personal brands” by combining and mutating with the peer characters, web-influences and media perception which are becoming most important criterias for a brand to understand and implement in their brand elements. As we all know, the “brand loyalty” is fossilized but they are selectively loyal to those vital elements of a brand that touches their personal aspiration, identity and sentiment and is important to create a unique identity to the peers.

Youth in India and their mutating consumer behaviour

2011-06-24T20:28:00.001+05:30

youth in India and their mutating consumer behaviour- My article at IMAGES FASHION (Vol. XII, No.6-June'11)

View more documents from Kaustav Sengupta

Rural contribution as CSR initiatives spreads in India

2011-06-17T17:22:00.002+05:30

Snapdeal.com Nagar. It's a real place. A village, ironically where 25% off on Victoria's Secret doesn't mean a thing.

While us of the urban variety wouldn't acknowledge it past a search on Google Maps (which couldn't find it!), it does exist. It is, in fact Shiv Nagar, a village in UP which is now under the care of India's biggest online group buying brand. Adopted as a part of Snapdeal.com's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) efforts, the portal will look after the village, managing it's infrastructure, water, the local school and hospital.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the company who pitched the name. The villagers, recognizing the extensive efforts on the company's part chose this name, something only done last forJamshetji Nusserwanji Tata (Tatanagar), and Gujarmal Modi (Modinagar).

According the village Sarpanch of Shiv Nagar, Mr. Sureshpal says – “We are thankful to Snapdeal.com for the support extended to our families. It is definitely beneficial to all the villagers, and it will help to address our problems effectively. To express our gratitude we have decided to change the name of our village to Snapdeal.com Nagar".

In just one and half years, Snapdeal has changed the face of how India buys cheap, with over 5 million users .

According to the Snapdeal blog, the idea arose after a brainstorming session on contributing to society. The blog says: "….why not start from grass root level? One of our colleagues, started talking about his native village, Shiv Nagar, where people have to walk for 3 Kms to get water. And that’s where it struck us!"

After two months of discussion, Snapdeal.com became a part of the lives of 2000 villagers and nearby villages. The first phase will see solutions for unavailability of portable drinking water in the form of water pumps.

Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal.com, believes that this is the company’s way of giving back to the society. “We are glad to contribute and support the villagers in various infrastructure needs such as creating provisions for drinking water, and also help them with necessary inputs for their upcoming school and hospital in a long term association with the community.”

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/life-work/now-snapdealcom-nagar-article-ilmx.html

Insight in the lifestyle pattern of youth at Manipal, India

2011-06-09T13:23:00.004+05:30

A survey conducted by Aniketh Dsouza gave an insight about the lifestyle, gadget and internet usage by the youth in Manipal, India. The city of Manipal is the hub of education in India and is a home to 20,000 students every year. This survey gives fresh insight in the lifestyle pattern of youth in India.

The infographic:

Source: http://anikethdsouza.com/marketing/infographic-manipal-youth-survey-results/

education and entrepreneurship are the two steps for social independence- case of Bhavna Botta

2011-06-08T13:04:00.004+05:30

In India, among the mass youth, education and entrepreneurship are the two steps for social independence.
Bhavna's life and achievements are worth reading :

The eyes have it
by DIVYA KUMAR (published at The Hindu, dtd. 5th June,2011)

Is Bhavna Botta, who has Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, the world's first student to have completed a Bachelor's degree with the use of only her eyes?

The first thing that strikes you when you meet Bhavna Botta is how full of smiles she is. Not surprisingly, she was voted Miss Smiley — and Miss Final Year — at her B.A. Corporate Secretaryship department farewell party in Ethiraj College this year.

It has been a remarkable journey. Bhavna was born with Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, which means she is unable to walk, write by hand, or communicate verbally. Yet, she has defied all odds to complete her Class XII exams from a mainstream institution, Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao Matriculation Higher Secondary School, and now her Bachelor's degree from Ethiraj, all using a unique system of communication by ‘eye-pointing'.

“She is definitely the first person in India — and possibly in the world — to have finished a college degree using the eye-pointing system,” says Kalpana, her mother. With this system, Bhavana communicates — and writes her exams — using a chart of alphabets in numbered columns, spelling out what she wants to say by pointing at the columns with her eyes. The chart was developed specially for her at Vidyasagar (a voluntary organisation that works with children and young adults with cerebral palsy and other neurological disabilities), where she studied until Class X. That's what she uses during this interview as well, spelling out her answers so rapidly at times that Kalpana can't keep up.

Foremost on her mind is her emotional parting with M. Thavamani, her principal at Ethiraj College who retired recently, and whom she went to college to say goodbye to. “It was a very unique feeling,” says Bhavna, “something I've never experienced before.”

Thavamani describes the meeting in touchingly similar terms: “It was a very emotional moment for both of us; I can't begin to express the kind of affection Bhavna's shown me, the department and her classmates.”

She adds: “When I first met the child, I did wonder if she would be able to manage. But today I can say that having been Bhavna's teacher — I taught her accountancy in her first year — is something I'm truly proud of in my career of 35 years.”

Like any youngster, Bhavna's fondest memories of her three years in college are of the friendships she formed and of all the fun she's had. The word she spells out most often is ‘fun', amidst plenty of laughter, as her mother talks about her adventures in learning to wear a sari and her insistence on going to the beach even though the salt water plays havoc with her wheelchair.

Is she signing up for a postgraduate degree? Her family is trying to convince her to do so. But her mind's made up and it has been since she was in Class VIII — Bhavna plans to start her own business. “She's geared all her decisions towards this, whether it was taking accountancy in Class XI or choosing Entrepreneurial Development as her elective in college,” says Meenakshi Subramanian, member of Vidyasagar's Disability Legislation Unit (DLU), and Bhavna's close friend and scribe.

She's already decided on the sort of business she's likhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife to do — a socially responsible venture selling organic cotton and ahimsa silk saris and dress materials — and she has friends and family collecting information for her on different aspects.

But when Kalpana talks about family funding the venture, Bhavna protests vehemently — she's determined to start her business with a loan from the National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) instead. Her answer to my question “Why business?” was simply to spell out “independence”.

“What's the next step?” earns a similarly simple response: “Launching the business.” With this plucky young woman's track record, you've got to believe it will happen, sooner rather than later.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2076658.ece?homepage=true

Kaustav at the BBC : Secrets of the Superbrands

2011-06-08T11:06:00.002+05:30

Kaustav was interviewed by BBC for youth consumer insights.

See the part here:

grassroot youth in delhi

2011-06-07T16:19:00.001+05:30

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iQGr_EMCfg

Happy Kumar is uncool! shifts in the Ad imagery in India

2011-05-29T23:09:00.001+05:30

Ad imagery in India is evolving as the consumer shifts from functional products and brands to lifestyle and luxury brands. What’s an average Indian aspiring for?

55-year-old Happy Kumar is now a happy man. He has finally managed to buy a flat. Though his Maruti 800 is already five-years old, he believes, it will have a smooth run for his lifetime. In all these years, he has managed to collect all household appliances – be it a refrigerator, a colour television or a washing machine. He is quite content with his life. Up till the early 90s, Happy Kumar would have been considered an achiever in Indian society because he now has everything that makes his life comfortable and would last his lifetime. But today, he might be called ‘uncool’.

Kumar’s 25-year-old son, who works for a leading IT company, is an ambitious young man. He wants a house in an up-market colony, an LCD television, a mid-segment car and a highend mobile phone which would enhance his lifestyle and the family’s status in society. Between 1985 and 2005, the average household income has grown by approximately 6 percent and in the next two decades, it is expected to grow around 7 percent. At the most obvious level, it’s about the need to advertise one’s possessions. It’s about the watch that boasts of unmatched precision or the car that has been the preferred vehicle of a celebrity, or the leather handbag that was seen with a Page 3 socialite. Today, simple possessions mean a host of unique values to the owner.

Indian households are fast moving from functional products to lifestyle products. In the last decade, these consumers have faced a major challenge to their beliefs. From a market where every product or brand was rated for its durability, or cost effectiveness, the market has changed, demanding product upgrades, and even dumping of old products much more quickly. While increasing average household income and easy availability of finance has had a major contribution toward this change in mindset, the marketers have done enough to lure and inspire consumers.

Along the way, the definition and understanding of luxury, as it is understood in India today, has also evolved into something that approaches global views. For instance, when LG entered the Indian market, many Indian brands had predicted that the television market in India was already saturated. The belief was that there may be a few who would switch to colour television sets from their black and white box, but the transition would be in limited numbers as colour televisions were fairly expensive and the household had already invested in a black and white television. Plus, there was no market for discarded televisions. But brands such as LG and Akai changed the ules of the game. LG offered an exchange price for the old television sets, while Akai cracked the market by offering a Japanese brand at Indian prices.

Once the market opened up, the rest was relatively easy. As multiple brand offerings came in, a pecking order was duly established, with a brand like Sony tasting serious success. Of course, the sustained rise in prosperity means that even a Sony was not enough. Making it easier for the market to make a shift to next generation LCD’s, and that too, bigger, more expensive screens. A similar situation can also be seen in the automobile sector. Till the late 80s, simply owning a car was a luxury, with a purchase expected to serve at least two generations. When Maruti entered the middle-class homes, owning a car became a reality. The tagline ‘realise your dreams’, was apt as it re-defined the meaning of personal transport in the country. Here too, with the inevitable entry of all major brands, the market has now evolved to make space for the truly luxury offerings. As per a study done in 2007, the luxury car market is estimated to be growing by 50 percent every year.

The launch of brands such as Volkswagen Beetle or Honda Jazz – a hatchback more expensive than a sedan – corroborates the fact that Indian market has matured to accept these ‘luxury’ brands. Let’s compare two different ad spots that typify this new bridge between the old and new luxury– the latest Volkswagen Beetle TVC and another TVC of Hyundai Accent from the past. The Beetle shows a couple driving the New Beetle. As they stop and step out of the car at a cafe, a valet is shown staring at the car. The man asks the valet the charge to park the car. The smitten valet replies that it will cost Rs. 200 but in a twist to the tale, ends up paying the amount to the couple instead of taking the money from them and drives the car away.

The TVC for the Hyundai Accent is also based on a similar situation. In this, the valet salutes the owner of the car because he believes that the person is a big man as he drives a big car. This latest Beetle TVC explains that big is no more a luxury for the Indian consumer. For them, luxury is what enhances their social stature.

Another sector, which has taught the Indian consumers to upgrade to a lifestyle product frequently and enhance their image, is the telecom sector. In less than a decade, the same consumer has shifted from a black and white screen mobile phone to a colour screen mobile phone and then to a Blackberry handset. Today, the basic service is probably the cheapest part of the package, when a rich consumer opts for a mobile connection. It’s because the mobile phone has become a lifestyle statement for many – the more expensive the handset, the higher the status. This reminds me of another television commercial for a handset brand where a man hides his mobile phone because it had a black and white screen.

What drove the growth in the telecom sector - applies for IT products. In these two sectors, the value- added product was offered at no extra cost. Today, one can buy a coloured screen mobile phone at a cost lower than what he would have had paid for a black and white screen mobile phone, some eight years ago. Thus, easy availability became the next issue that helped prepare the ground for luxury further. The next dimension to luxury is the freedom to do what one wants to do and self indulgence.

Luxury brands increasingly appeal to the user’s sense of independence. With a whole new generation that has benefitted from a growing economy, and earning well, a luxury brand is now an indulgence to reward oneself. Today, it’s easy to find a L’Oreal beauty salon in the neighbourhood, in any of the Indian metros. The brand’s tagline is – ‘Because you are worth it’ – inviting people to self indulge!

The average Indian man and woman is shifting from spending just on necessities to personal products. As per a survey, if people were spending 4 percent of their income on personal products in 1995, they are expected to spend 11 percent on the same by 2015. A look at how the luxury market is growing would indicate the growth of the luxury market in India. The market for high-end watches is estimahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifted to be at INR 600 crore and is growing at about 20 percent annually. Similarly, ownership of a private airplane, or even a helicopter, the ultimate status symbol, one might argue, has shot up over 300 percent over the past 10 years. Indians are turning luxurious by the day. Or we should just believe in Shah Rukh Khan when he says – Don’t be santusht (satisfied)! Or Karo Jyada ka Irada…

[Prajjal Saha is deputy editor, afaqs! He started his career in advertising as a copywriter for an agency called Campaign in Kolkata, and moved to journalism shortly after. His experience with the world of journalism spans over a decade. He joined afaqs! seven years ago. Previously he has worked with media2media, where he was associated with niche publications.]

Source: http://www.imagesfashion.com/content/ContentDetail.aspx?pg=1&cid=585

Blow berry!! young influencers from india talk about Blackberry (and more)

2011-05-27T10:27:00.000+05:30

Blow berry young influencers from india talk about blackberry

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India, China lead global economic recovery: UN

2011-05-26T16:36:00.001+05:30

The emerging economies of India, China and Brazil are leading the global economic recovery, according to a UN report released on Wednesday. "The rebound has been led by the large emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, particularly China, India and Brazil," the report said. The mid-year issue of the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP), said that "weaknesses in major developed economies continue to drag the global recovery and pose risks for world economic stability in the coming years". The report said that many developing countries have been able to use the policy buffers (in the form of ample fiscal space and vast foreign-exchange reserves) they had generated in the years before the crisis to adopt aggressive stimulus packages. The report said that while developing countries continue to drive the global recovery, their output growth is also expected to moderate to 6.0 per cent on average during 2011-2012, down from 7.1 per cent in 2010. It said that that China and India''s GDP growth is also expected to experience some moderation in 2011 and 2012. The report said that the volume of exports of many emerging economies, including Brazil, China, India and other developing economies in Asia, have already recovered to, or beyond, pre-crisis peaks. The study said that exports of developed economies have not yet achieved full recovery and were still 8 per cent below the pre-crisis peaks seen in the third quarter of 2010.

Source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/India-China-lead-global-pti-2632147440.html

India among most entrepreneur-friendly nations: global poll

2011-05-26T16:23:00.003+05:30

India along with US, Canada and Australia, has been ranked among the nations with the best cultures in the world for people to start a new business, a new global poll has showed. While India finds itself bracketed with the better ranked countries, Colombia, Egypt, Turkey, Italy and Russia are the least friendly to innovation and entrepreneurship, showed results of the 24-country BBC World Service poll. The world''s two major economies - US and China - are also among the most favourable countries for innovation and creativity, according to the results. In both nations, 75 per cent say that their country values innovation and creativity -- second only to Indonesia (85 per cent), and well ahead of other emerging economies such as Brazil (54 per cent) and India (67 per cent). At the other end of the scale, only 24 per cent of Turks and 26 per cent of Russians and Egyptians say they feel that innovation and creativity is valued in their country. The results are drawn from a survey of 24,537 adult citizens across 24 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, the US, among others. Most countries surveyed in Asia were found to have a well-developed entrepreneurship culture, and except Pakistan, all had good ratings on the entrepreneur-friendly index. Indonesia scored the highest ratings of all participating countries in the survey (2.81), just ahead of the US.

Source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/India-among-most-entrepreneur-pti-773898865.html

Asian lower tier youth: Youth market trends from India & Indonesia- cocreated report by INgene

2011-05-20T12:50:00.000+05:30

Asian lower tier youth: Youth market trends from India & Indonesia

View more presentations from YRPasiaTrendsReport

BlackBerry - Getting younger with time

2011-05-16T19:18:00.003+05:30

BlackBerry's (BB) growth graph underwent some noteworthy changes since Indians first began using the smart phone. Year 2010, in particular, contributed to pushing it higher. Last year, the smart phone maker came up with a smart move. It introduced lower-end variants for consumers who were young but could not afford expensive phones. It changed young India's way of looking at themselves and their peers. Blackberry's approach to the young rode on the BB Messenger (BBM).

When it was launched, BB was the gadget that helped corporate honchos organise their schedule better, stay connected to one another and avail official emails and other internet resources instantly. This year, however, the BB's TG expanded beyond expectations. What began as a high-end premium product found its way into the restless, enthusiastic hands of India's vast pool of youth. Today, the BB is as much a gadget of the youth as it is an official phone.

The youth took to BBM with unbridled enthusiasm. Just look at how many teens, tweens and young adults have furnished the 'About Me' section of their Facebook pages with their eight character-long BB Pin Numbers. This enables other BB owners to connect with them and find a place on their instant chat-list. This section used to be one where users of the social networking site could write a few words that described them best and gave those who visited their page some insight about the person, his likes, dislikes and core personality traits. Instead, BB-obsessed addicts merely put up their Pin, a seemingly dry, alphanumeric, sometimes only numeric string of letter and numbers.

On the creative front, brand BB gave the advertising industry something to talk about when it awarded its creative mandate to Orchard Advertising. The brand's media duties lie with Starcom MediaVest. Though the brand is not too active on the communication front, it has managed to expand seamlessly. In the recent past, the brand made some noise with an ad film that floated the catchphrase, "Do what you love, love what you do". This happened to be the first time BB - which relies on word-of-mouth communication - rolled out any big advertising message in the TV space.
Service provider Vodafone took note of the youth-slant and launched a much-talked about advertising campaign that attempted to position the phone as a device not just for uptight executives, but also for trendy youngsters who checked their emails and 'pinged' their friends every twenty seconds. The campaign titled BlackBerry Boys was created by Vodafone's creative agency, Ogilvy India. The campaign served to push Vodafone's BlackBerry service plans for its prepaid customers in India at affordable prices. While premium variants such as the BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry Bold did well, the brand's affordable products such as the BlackBerry Curve also grew increasingly popular.

The Messenger was used in various other ways. UTV World Movies, for instance, launched a special BlackBerry Messenger to reach out to cinema fans across India and provide easy access to a range of content on world cinema. UTV World Movies used BBM as a platform to discuss world cinema, share related information and execute interactive contests with its users.

BB has had a good time, barring the run-in with the government about access rights. According to brand consultant Ashok Dhingra, BlackBerry has evolved into an iconic, cult brand in 2010, so much so that it makes Nokia look outdated. He however claims that the marketing strategy followed by BB is exactly the same as that of Nokia. "Nokia used to come up with new innovations and premium variants every now and then, milk them for a while and then drop the price of its previous variants. BB is doing that now," he elaborates, adding that it has helped the brand percolate to all sections of society.

Source: http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=29293_BlackBerry+-+Getting+younger+with+time

Indigenious Trendsetters report- INgene co created

2011-05-11T18:41:00.000+05:30

“Trendsetters are innovators in term of product adaptation, and reference in term of lifestyle”

Is this email not displaying correctly?
http://enterthelab.com/index.php?m=insight&s=detail&id=104

Indigenous Trendsetters From Middle East to Far East

Tarek Kasser, CEO of Young Berry Agency (Lebanon)

Trendsetters lifestyle differs from the rest of the mainstream and this is how they want to position themselves, whether they understand "personal branding" or not

Trendsetters in the Middle East are looking for various things, could be one or all the below:

1. Social Status - trendsetters majorly want to be positioned better among peers and rest of the community. They love their lifestyle by being the first and unique.

2. Empowered Voice: trendsetters are confident people of what they say and want their voice to be empowered by being able tostate their opinions to the brand managers.

3. Access: trendsetters want access to the newest and latest trends in the U.S. and Europe (Fashion: New York, L.A. and Paris). Access can help even brand managers and agencies identify whether they are still relevant to the youth culture.

Fashion Trend in the Middle East:

Noor Al Naimi: http://celebs-style.blogspot.com

Kaustav Sengupta, Research Head of INgene (India)

"Eco-cool" and the "Fakoconsciousness":
A strong emerging trait of young influencers in India at SEC1 cities… to show off that they are ecologically conscious!
This is a characteristic which INgene coined as “fakoconsciousness” : a process of faking oneself as ecologically and socially active to remain “cool” among peers (when the on-ground observations states a different scenario).

Emerging “DIY” initiatives among In‘glo’dians
In contrast to the traditional “get it done” attitude of affluent class in India, the In’glo’dians are embracing more DIY to remain “alternative” and “personal”.

BB babies vs. iphoneIn‘glo’dians
There is a strong emerging difference among various categories of young and young adult segments in India. The Neuvo riche Indians in their 20’s and 30’s are opting for Blackberry where as the “alternative” cool In’glo’dians are moving towards iphone latest version. The aspiring “Indian” categories of youth are opting for BB look alike. The “Bharatiyas” are buying Chinese fakes, “no name/low- branded” local made mobiles.

Narcissism grows
The digital liberty is making this generation more and more narcissous….showing of self is rampant, virtually (in a country with strict social norms, offline)

Muhammad Faisal, Executive Director of YouthLab Indo (Indonesia)

Digital VS Grass root
Indonesian trendsetters emerge from 2 different universe, the digital and the grass root world:
Digital influencers are the young people who are actively shouting their opinion on a wide range issues, from economic, eco-green, politics, to celebrity gossips. They came from diverse background, although most of them are creative worker or academician. They have massive follower on social media and engage with them almost 24/7.

The Grass root trendsetter are youths who specialized themselves in a particular hobby such as lomo camera, fingerboard, music, fashion, surfing, or fixed gear. They’re more active offline than online. They love to ‘nongkrong’ or ‘kopdar’, which means ‘hangout’ or ‘having a coffee break’. This type of trendsetters are the leader when it comes to creating a social currency.

Creating Public Spaces
Because the youth center aren’t really working as it suppose to be in urban cities and almost all youth public facilities dated back to the 70’s. Trendsetters now also take part in creating new public spaces, or rejuvenating old ones as a decent place for youth.
‘Build this city’ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n351T8SP9rs
Is a one of the many example of how a community of youth trendsetters (unkl347) invest in creating a space for youth.

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''Rural households paid over Rs 470cr bribe for basic services''

2011-05-01T17:15:00.000+05:30

Ranging from Re one to Rs 950, rural households in the country could have paid a whopping Rs 471.8 crore last year as bribe to avail basic facilities such as ration, health, education and water supply, says a study.

The ''India Corruption Study: 2010'' report prepared by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a survey of 9,960 households in 12 states, says on an average a rural household could have paid Rs 164 as bribe for availing these facilities in a year.

The study said the total amount of Rs 471.8 crore is "equal or less" than the total expenditure made under MNREGA during 2010-11 in states like Assam, Gujarat, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra.

"The estimation of bribe amount paid by the rural households brings out an amount of Rs 471.8 crore...The percentage of rural households that paid bribe during the last year was relatively higher in PDS (11.5

per cent), followed by hospitals (9), schools (5.8), water (4.3)," the study said.

It claimed that the socio-economically weaker sections were most affected by corrupt practices in public services.

More than 40 per cent of rural households belonging to OBC and SCs felt that the level of corruption has increased in public services during the last one year while 28 per cent each opined that the level of corruption has remained the same, it said.

An analysis by income level indicated that three out of four rural households which had to pay bribe in any of the public services have monthly household income of Rs 5,000 or less, indicating the high dependence of the economically poor households on these public services.

"As reported by rural households, they had to pay even Rs one-two to get a family member examined as an out-patient, mostly to get the registration or OPD card and as high as Rs 900 to avail diagnostic services such as X-ray, blood or urine tests at a public health facility," the study said.

A rural household had to pay Rs five as bribe to get an application form for ration card while they had to pay as high as Rs 800 for getting a BPL card without documents, it said, adding, for getting admission form, rural households had to shell out Rs ten as bribe while some paid Rs 700-800 to get scholarship or admission in schools.

"For proper water supply, the bribe paid by households for various services ranged between Rs 15 and Rs 950. The wide gap between minimum and maximum amount paid as bribe for the same purpose indicate that even submission of a request requires paying bribe apart from paying bribe to get water at the right time to irrigate the agricultural field," it said.

The study said Rs 156.8 crore might have been given as bribe in PDS while for water supply services, rural households could have paid Rs 83.3 crore. Another Rs 130 crore have been paid to avail hospital services.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/rural-households-paid-over-rs-470cr-bribe-basic-100100121.html

State of the Nation- survey among youth of India (by Yuva-MaRs)

2011-04-25T15:28:00.003+05:30

This survey was published in the March 2011 issue of Yuva magazine just prior to the out break of Anti corruption revolution among youth in India.

youth in India survey-State of the nation by yuva-mars

View more documents from Kaustav Sengupta

Cyber cafes (the internet surfing centres, once the hub of youth to be online) are fading off

2011-04-24T22:13:00.005+05:30

The cyber cafes (once the only option for mass young India to be online) is not going great now a days due to the fast-spread of personal internet connections in India.

During 2000, a study found that The average time spent on surfing [at cafes, as there's no other options] was 1.2 hours, with Delhiites logging the highest of 1.7 hours and Bangalore clicking the lowest time of 0.8 hours.The majority of frequenters to these Internet access spots were college students in the age group of 19-25 (49.1 per cent), followed by executives and businessmen in the 26-35 age bracket (32.1 per cent). The survey found that most popular activity was sending e-mail and participating in chats. A majority of them also come from affluent backgrounds.On the spending trends of cyber cafe users, the study found that video games, video cassettes and recorded music were more favoured in comparison to buying of newspapers and magazines or watching television. They spend one-third of their total infotainment budget on cyber cafes. Another interesting finding of the survey was that though 70 per cent of the cafe visitors said they were aware of Internet commerce, only a tenth of them had actually conducted transactions through the Net. The most popular items of purchase were books and CDs.

Yesterday, a news published at The Hindu indicates that with unlimited broadband connection available at less than Rs.1, 000 at home, few come in cafes (other than the students who has no net connections at their rooms). A cafe owner stated “After one year, I suspect there will be hardly any of us around, especially with 3G mobile services in such demand,”. With business having dropped by more than 60 per cent in the last few years, there is hardly any profit made now after the rental and maintenance charge, he says. "Regular scrutiny by the police which ensures cabins are not closed and the demand for details from customers irritate those who seek privacy," said a cafe owner. “We had more than 150 browsing centres in this area alone till last year. While many have shut down, the intense competition has forced most of us to offer unreasonably low tariffs of less than Rs.10 an hour,” says Kannan, who runs the fourteen-year old Galaxy Net in Triplicane. He says he makes barely Rs.8,000 (US$178) a month, which according to him hardly covers the depreciation cost of computers now. He no longer hires assistants like he used to five years ago when the business was at its peak.

Some cyber cafes still make about Rs.15,000 a month, but only by staying open for 14 hours every day. For the ones in areas where power cuts occur frequently, life is all the more difficult. Some also admit that quite often they resort to dubious means in order to survive, ranging from downloading new movie releases to allowing users to surf objectionable content!
Holding online study centres and examinations, arranging video conferencing between companies and even matrimonial alliance management for families are things we do to keep business on track, says A. Subburaman, who runs a cyber café in T. Nagar.

Since most cyber crime activities originate from cyber cafes, we are extremely strict about recording the identity of the user so that it can be tracked down,” says Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, CCB, M.Sudhakar. Regular checks by instructors also help in deciding which cyber cafes licenses are not to be renewed, he adds.

And then there are the lucky ones like Satheesh Babu, who started Genius Planet, a cyber café in 2002, only to shut it down in 2008. He says, “The regular walk-ins had stopped coming by 2007, and the customers were restricted to medical representatives, and some emergency browsers. I did face a loss of Rs.5 lakh, but that was the time to take the cue.”

2011-04-21T11:04:00.002+05:30

Kaustav is the member of YRP (Youth Research partners http://youthresearchpartners.com). The collaborative youth insight presentation is released at YRP slideshare channel:

Indigenous trendsetters from middle east to far east

View more presentations from YRPasiaTrendsReport

Nokia has lost the "cool" among the youth in India

2011-04-19T12:48:00.002+05:30

Nokia is loosing grip over the mobile market in India (for last 2 years) and has already gone off from being either cool or staple among youth.

here's some facts as per Mobilepundit:

Nokia’s market share reduced from about 64% in 2008-09 to nearly 52% in 2009-10
Samsung gained from 10% to above 17%
In the past 3 years, Micromax, Spice and Karbonn have emerged from nowhere to become number 3, 4 and 5 respectively
Nokia India, which is second biggest market for the company after China, contributed Rs 18,000 crore to the company’s worldwide sales in 2009
The Indian mobile handset market has grown by 30.17 % from 116 million handsets in 2008, to 151 million handsets in 2009, as per Analysys Mason data
As per a CyberMedia Research report, the Indian mobile handset market will grow 25% by volume in 2011 to 210 million units with smartphones contributing sales of nearly 12 million units in 2011

More information at : http://business-standard.com/india/news/reconnect/432525/

Indian male are fascinated with fairness!

2011-04-16T12:11:00.004+05:30

Further reference http://ibscdc.org/Articles/Fairness-Products-Market-in-India-Fairing-Well.pdf

www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/221856/mens_grooming_products_in_india.pdf

Rapid growth in India, China aids fight against poverty

2011-04-16T10:26:00.001+05:30

Thanks to rapid growth in India and China, two-thirds of developing countries are on track or close to meeting key targets for tackling extreme poverty and hunger, the World Bank and IMF said today. On the whole, the fight against poverty is progressing well, said the Global Monitoring Report 2011 noting based on current economic projections, the world remains on track to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty. "On current trends, and despite the recent global economic crisis, developing countries are on track to reach the global target of cutting income poverty in half by 2015, thanks in large part to rapid growth in China and India," it said.
The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day is projected to be 883 million in 2015, compared with 1.4 billion in 2005 and 1.8 billion in 1990. "Much of this progress reflects rapid growth in China and India, while many African countries are lagging behind: 17 countries are far from halving extreme poverty, even as the aggregate goals will be reached," the report said. India is also on track to meet the MDGs, but the scheduled tribes are largely off track, it said. "Although educational enrolment rates are fairly high for all groups, scheduled tribes suffer from high under-five mortality, poor access to water and sanitation, nutrition deprivation, and low levels of adult literacy." The report said India's strong growth-focused since the 1980s on moving from a state-controlled, inward-looking economy to an outward-oriented, market-led economy-has not been damped by its poorly performing targeted programmes. Wars have led to shifts in priorities among international donors, it said noting "China and India, with some other developing countries, have emerged as economic powerhouses." Trade bounced back in all developing regions, driven by a vibrant rebound in emerging economies. By 2010, all developing regions recovered to their pre-crisis export volumes, with East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, especially China and India, leading this recovery. "Good macroeconomic policies remain crucial to progress toward the MDGs," said Hugh Bredenkamp, deputy director of the IMF's Strategy, Policy, and Review Department. "The challenge in low income countries is to sustain and accelerate growth through better policies that will create jobs and greater opportunities for the private sector. "Advanced economies need to do their part to secure the global recovery, by repairing and reforming their financial systems and tackling their fiscal imbalances," he said. (IANS)
Source: http://headlinesindia.mapsofindia.com/india-and-world/china/rapid-growth-in-india-china-aids-fight-against-poverty-80438.html

few of my published articles on youth insights @ India

2011-04-15T11:31:00.001+05:30

articles on insights of youth in India (micro and macro-trends, socio psychology, AIOs)

View more documents from Kaustav Sengupta

Anti corruption and "Hazare" are now the "element of cool"!

2011-04-12T00:24:00.004+05:30

There's 24 badges in www.picbadges.com commercially promoting "hazare" as a brand!

The Tee shirts are also sold with "hazare" quote as an element of "cool".

Source: http://www.tshirts.in/xtees/mens-tshirt_mt00574/mera-neta-chor-hai-support-anna-hazare-fight-againt-corrpution-tshirt.htm

the serious anti-corruption movement is showing a tendency to become "COOL"!

2011-04-10T10:35:00.001+05:30

The anti corruption movement (among the youth in India) which we have reported in our earlier post is showing a tendency to become "cool" and "fashionable". The online games are appearing as well as tee shirts and caps.

These can make the movement more "funky" and in process will dilute the seriousness to generate another "fake-o-consciousness".

Source: http://ypm.ibibo.com/

India: A global power in the making

2011-04-08T23:30:00.005+05:30

India's shining all over again and it's not just the cricket team that's making waves across the globe. The G-20 has predicted that India will be one of the 10 largest members in the IMF and its rank in the IMF will improve to eighth position from the current 11th in terms of quota.

Leaders from across the globe are all set to meet in the US later this year for the prestigious Wharton India Economic Forum meeting to discuss how India continues to position itself to compete and succeed in the rapidly changing global environment. The theme for this year's conference is ''India: Gaining Momentum''. With an economy that's growing over 8%, that's hardly surprising.

The country is an emerging global power. R Seetharaman, the Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank in Qatar, says "India will become one of the most sustainable economies in the future and by 2030, Asia's economy -- mainly encompassing India and China -- will be larger than that of the US and European Union combined." Seetharaman said the world has seen India and China emerging as the main contributors to the recovery of the global economy from a crisis situation.

Another point to note here is that the Sensex crossed the much awaited 20000 mark. The Indian indices defied all global markets and held its fort through the disaster in Japan and the Libya crisis. Exports too have been advancing greatly.

So what is contributing to India's stupendous growth story?

• Youth population
• An Educated society
• High domestic Consumption
• Investments
• Grass roots entrepreneurship

India's Gen Y is its best asset and will be the biggest contributor to India's growth. In the next two decades, it will add over 200 million people to its working age - between 18 to 60 years - population. Much more than any other country in the world.

For India, more working people means more income. More income means a more prosperous nation. For a country that will become a middle income nation - per capita annual wages of $1,200, translating into Rs 4,500 a month - by the end of 2010/11 after more than a century of penury, its young population presents a never-before opportunity for transition.

Now if only we elect the right leaders, there's no stopping India from being the next super power.
Source:http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/India-A-global-power-making-yahoofinancein-945208064.html

Anti corruption movement and the youth in India

2011-04-08T11:43:00.017+05:30

During 2008, INgene reported the growing anger and irritation among youth in India against corruption (http://ingene.blogspot.com/2008/08/indian-youth-lifestyle.html) and now the obvious out break is visible through Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption. Earlier, I have also mentioned how internet is giving power to people to be aware of corruption and put their voices against corruption ( http://ingene.blogspot.com/2010/11/internet-is-giving-power-to-people-in.html).

The awareness is spreading faster throughout the country among younger generation of India and growing anger is clustering into protests even in Sec II cities (http://therealtimer.com/Nagpur-comes-out-in-support-of-Hazare). This is the time for a-political revolution against corrupted individuals in politics, Govt. officials, and social classes and this is the first time in India, the politicians were politely denied the right to join in with Hazare on stage so that nobody can gain any political advantage from it (http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/no-politicians-on-stage-anna/195861?from=NDTV) . "We've decided that politicians can't come upon the stage. If they want to come and listen, like the public, they can sit in the audience, not with me or on the stage. We've decided that no politician will be allowed to manipulate our movement," said Anna Hazare, who is on fast-unto-death demanding a strong anti-corruption law.

A new tactic of movement against corruption, which Anna Hazare coined as “Swaraj and Shivaji” (non violent yet aggressive) way is spreading through social networks (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=166826046705957) , micro blogging sites(http://www.convoflow.com/search.php?searchfield=Anna%20Hazare), bulk mails, sms texts which are considered as more reliable and “non corrupted” media to spread the awareness other electronic and printed media. It’s reported that more than 40,700 netizens have already joined the Facebook page of the movement 'India Against Corruption' (http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/apr/070411-Hazare-agitation-gathers-steam-online.htm). Even, the support is pouring from the Indian students in Oxford (report added below).

The youth are promoting this movement in their own way via youtube, like this video:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSSSwZ4BXQ8

the anti corruption movement started spreading through youtube with videos and musics like this:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQM5zHqpiVg

More photos of the movement:

Even the movie stars are voicing their protests through various alternative media:

Report:

Aamir Khan, Bollywood support Anna Hazare

6 Apr 2011, 1756 hrs IST, AGENCIES

Bollywood celebrities including superstar Aamir Khan have come out in the support of veteran social activist Anna Hazare, who is on a indefinite hunger strike demanding a comprehensive anti-corruption bill. The 72-year-old activist began his hunger strike yesterday demanding the government to draft a new Lokpal Bill, which will give more powers to Ombudsman to check corruption.

Aamir has reportedly written a letter to voice his support for Hazare's movement while other celebrities took to twitter to back the campaign. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur said, "I support Anna Hazare's fast for national debate on Lokpal Bill. Atleast need Parliament to come out and respond to issue. People like Anna Hazare will force a people's movement against the system. Like Gandhi did against the British."

Anupam Kher asked fans to join the campaign. "When somebody is fighting corruption, I don't judge his ways. I applaud his intentions and actions. I am with Anna Hazare. Are you?," he said. Actress Diya Mirza tweeted her support. "Finally, people are voicing strong support for a man that has, should and will be a great example to our generation. I support Anna Hazare."

Actor and social activist Rahul Bose said: "That it takes an Anna Hazare fasting unto death to effect systemic change is comment enough. corruption part of our DNA." Juhi Chawla said, "I am complete and absolute supporter of Shri Anna Hazare! All those with a conscience and a clean heart speak up.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar: "Overwhelming momentum generates in for Anna Hazare's fight against corruption. Is India gonna be the next Egypt??" Pritish Nandy: "Proud to see common man come out in support of Anna Hazare. It took a 72-year-old man to fast unto death to wake us up." Ranvir Shorey: "Anna Hazare's crusade is a great litmus test to see if India has any grit left at all. Or have we become a country of corrupt schmoozers."

Source: http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/4369701.cms

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Report:

Support for Hazare grows in Mumbai, more youths join

7 Apr 2011, 2149 hrs IST, AGENCIES

The third day of veteran social activist Anna Hazare's indefinite hunger strike demanding a comprehensive anti-corruption bill, saw youngsters joining the campaign here in large numbers.

"My friends and I will go to the Income Tax office and hold a peaceful protest," Nandita, a student, told reporters at the sprawling Maidan where supporters of the noted Gandhian have been congregating since the last three days to show solidarity with him.

"The campaign is gaining momentum and more youth want to participate in the movement against corruption," she said.

A rally of youth was later organised, starting from the Maidan and making its way to the Gateway of India.

The protest is being supported by NGOs like National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).

Meanwhile, villagers in Ralegan Siddhi, Hazare's native place in Ahmednagar district, today announced they will intensify their agitation to support the anti-corruption crusader.

"Now, around 350 villagers are on a relay fast. Tomorrow, we will hold a 'rasta roko', followed by a relay fast and morcha at the Parner tehsil office," Datta Awari, who handles Hazare's office at the village, told PTI.

Source: http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/4369792.cms

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report:

Indian students at Cambridge University have extended support to the anti-corruption campaign being led by Anna Hazare and called for a more transparent system of checks and balances at the highest level.

In a statement, the student group Swatantra-- Forum for the Advance of Civil Society—expressed "deep concern" over the current state of governance in India and said there was "urgent need to integrate civil society as an extension of the government in order to achieve greater transparency and accountability".

"We sympathise with Anna Hazare’s demands for a strong coalition between the government and its people. Continued inaction by the previous governments over a long period of forty two years reflects poorly on the State. Further, the existing legislation does not grant complete autonomy to agencies such as the Lokpal, resulting in a weak and ineffective regulatory mechanism," said the statement issued by its "chairpersons" Abhimanyu Gahlaut and Arun Sarkar.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1611651.ece

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Report:

Anna Hazare leads People’s Uprising in India

After sweeping the Arab World, the wave of People’s Uprising has reached India. As the Uprising in the Arab World was against dictatorial rule and for bringing democracy, no one would have believed that such an Uprising could ever happen in India – the biggest democracy in the world.

Democracy alone is not a guarantee for good governance. Politicians in India have exploited the weakness of the democracy and indulged in large scale corruption. Public anger against corrupt politicians has been accumulating for last several decades and reached the tipping point after recent mega scams specially 2 G and CWG. What was needed was an outlet for people to vent their anger. Problem was that almost all political parties have been marred in corruption at some point of time and therefore the general public perception is that all politicians are corrupt. While the opposition parties were hoping to cash in on people’s anger against corruption, people were in no mood to support any particular political party.

Against this backdrop, when respected social activist Anna Hazare started his movement against corruption, it immediately touched a chord with the people across the entire country. Anna Hazare was a perfect flag bearer for the moment against corruption as he has never associated with any political party and at the same time has been working for people’s cause. The present generation of India may not have seen Gandhi but they have been recently primed in favour of the Gandhian Philosophy by the Munna Bhai series of bollywod films. Anna Hazare’s Gandhian way of protest by fasti-unto-death has invoked the Munna Bhai inspired fascinations of Indian masses.

The movement is growing manifolds with every passing hour since last two days. It has perplexed not only the Government but also the opposition parties. On one hand the Government has been forced to sit up and take notice while on the other hand opposition parties have been unsuccessfully trying to piggy back on the movement and convert the same into votes against the ruling coalition. Thankfully, the organizers of the movement have managed to keep the politicians at bay and have not allowed them to exploit the situation. Political leaders like Chautala and Uma Bharti were stopped by the public from sharing the dais with Anna Hazare and hopefully this would have given a clear signal to other politicians also.

The government on the other hand is confused. It doesn’t know how to handle this situation. If it was a protest organized by an opposition party, it would have been so easy to rubbish it by launching a counter offensive and by pointing out the corruption cases of the concerned political party. But how to deal with a 72 year old Gandhian who owns nothing, lives in a 10ft x 10ft room, has no family, is ready to risk his life by embarking on fast-unto-death and above all has suddenly become the darling of the masses. Government can not counter attack, they are forced to be respectful, they must give the impression of not rubbishing the protest and demands of Anna Hazare and yet thwart his attempt to form an independent Anti Corruption Authority called the LokPal. The Government is already having enough troubles with the existing independent authorities such as the CAG, the Supreme Court and the goof up with CVC appointment. In that sense, the ruling parties would probably get a tactical support of even the opposition parties as no political party would like to have an independent anti-corruption authority who could investigate against any minister (including the prime minister) or bureaucrat without having to seek permission.

Anna Hazare’s Movement against Corruption is fast galvanizing all social activists under one banner. Within two days the movement has spread to nearly 440 cities and towns. TV coverage of the moment looks more like a dream movie than being real news.

Soon after the World Cup victory, once again the people are out on the streets; once again the people are on a high but this time for an entirely different cause, for an entirely different purpose.

Source: http://virtualopinion.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/anna-hazare-leads-people%E2%80%99s-uprising-in-india/

Report from TV:

An advertisement against corruption:

Further reading: http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/To-The-Youth-710.asp

http://www.samachar.com/Hazare-deserves-greater-support-than-cricket-team-Aamir-Khan-lehdKqegggh.html

http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20091209/236744.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/debateshow/7883197.cms

http://republicyouthfederationryf.blogspot.com/

Details of Jan Lokpal Bill can be read here:

http://www.youthforbetterindia.org/lokpalbill.html

Tata Nano story : the downfall saga

2011-03-30T22:32:00.010+05:30

As per the available report : "Tata nano the wonder car from Tata motors group has not shown up impressive sales figures as the sale of the India's smallest and cheapest car saw a decline of 509 units in November when compared to last month's sales of 3,065 units.”

(Source: http://www.cardekho.com/india-car-news/tata-nano-sales-drop-in-november-2010-3205.htm). The much talked cheapest car is now facing a downfall in sales.

As I have understood with my decades experiences in socio-psychology of India, the “car” is not supposed to be the “cheapest” to sell in this country (it is not a staple need till date) neither it is perceived to be as affordable to 80% of India. Unfortunately, Mr. Tata understood it wrongly.

Car, in India, is not a “consumable FMCG product” but an “asset” and like all the assets, a car is supposed to be “valuable” and “long lasting” product which will give maximum return in long run.

Tata nano was targeted to Mass and middle class India (Bharatiyas and Indians, in my socio-psychological segmentation) as a replacement of two wheeler! Actually, for them a car is an “investment” of their “hard earned money”.

As Mr. Dheeraj Sinha, the Chief Strategy Officer, Bates 141 (writer of the book ‘Consumer India: Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet') rightly stated “One reason Tata Nano has not taken off is because it was seen as a cheap car. That's a symbol enough to say that even that mass segment of buyers is seeking a premium, in the sense that they are seeking an upgrade, and not value for money. Value has to fall into place but it is one of the drivers, not the only driver.Brands, in the rural space, need to add a bit of imagery to themselves. Those consumers are reaching out to brands that are giving them that sense of premium. We see that across the spectrum, from shampoos and deodorants to mobile handsets. Rural India is seeking a sense of moving up in life, a sense of pride.” (Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/brandline/article1543730.ece)

So, instead of pushing nano as the cheapest car made for “have not’s”, Mr. Tata should try to push nano as a car for in’glo’dians who will use it as consumable car for “daily use” (kind of use and throw).

further references: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Tata_nano_losing_favor_November_sales_drop-nid-74890.html

http://www.marketing91.com/tata-nano-sales-drop-drastically/

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356418,drop-tata-motors-says.html

http://www.stratoserve.com/2010/12/why-are-tata-nano-sales-down-in-india-re-positioning-needed-as-lower-middle-class-do-not-want-to-be-seen-as-cheapskates.html

More news: http://www.motorbeam.com/cars/tata-nano-cars/tata-nano-flames-up-yet-again/

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/77921-tata-nano-fire-incidents-updated-tatas-analysis-pg34-37.html

recent report on nano and how Tata is trying to promote the car through extended services: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/03/report-tata-nano-sales-stage-big-rebound-in-december/

what's up yaar:) a Face to Face interview with young fashion innovators of India (style, fashion and more..)

2011-03-25T17:31:00.002+05:30

Nuovue Riche and the luxury in discount

2011-03-24T13:56:00.001+05:30

Nuovue Riche youth of India are buying “luxury” in discount! The rich segment is getting distinctly classified and “traditionally rich” and “new rich” and both clusters are consciously becoming distinct through lifestyle, AIO and fashion, following my theory of adopted differentiation.

Here’s a website selling discounted perfumes!

http://www.tradus.in/fashionaccessories/perfumes-personal-care

"brands are trying to become youthful but not for young!"

2011-03-23T10:32:00.002+05:30

(Dheeraj Sinha, Chief Strategy Officer, Bates 141, is a passionate miner of consumer minds. One manifestation of this passion is his book ‘Consumer India: Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet', launched at Mumbai hangout Blue Frog on March 11. Billed as a practitioner's account of what the Indian consumer wants, the book is an enjoyable read, rewarding in insights and rich in perspective. In conversation with BrandLine, the author dwells on some issues addressed in the book, and what the takeaways for marketers could be. Excerpts here from The Hindu, Business Line)

Youth Brands Vs Youthful Brands

There are far more young-looking brands in India than there are brands for the youth. Given India's large young population, that's a huge disappointment.

In apparel, for example, there are no true blue youth brands. There's an opportunity for youth brands, not the ‘youthful' brands that the Levi's and Nike are becoming. We have a young population that buys apparel through multiple formats of unorganised retail, which stock clothes for people from all walks of life. There's a huge opportunity for retailers to dip into that and make an opportunity out of it.

There's an opportunity in telecom, apparel, food and restaurant retailing. Some part of it is being addressed by the Café Coffee Days and Baristas of the world. They are, in a way, evidence that catering to this segment can prove profitable. What if we had a chain of dating restaurants?

In insurance, what if we don't sell retirement plans to young India, but an ‘entrepreneurship plan'? Can we encourage youth to start saving for that?

We need to look at youth as a separate segment and not address them with brands that are ‘youthful'. Merely having a younger-looking brand ambassador and advertising does not mean you are targeting the youth. Marketers need to get that clear.

Slicing India

India is big, India is growing. Creating a product that will cater to a billion Indian customers at one go is simply not possible. At the same time, hyper-segmenting can be detrimental in a market like India.

A mid-way segmentation, with three big segments, is what I think works. In that segmentation, the partition segment provides the biggest opportunity. When we talk about India, we do not talk about that segment at all.

We say India is young and every brand wants to become youthful. State Bank of India has done a huge campaign trying to look youthful, while there is enough evidence to show that people in the age group of 45 to 65 years have saved money, in part because they felt their sons or daughters may not turn out the way they wanted them to. They have a huge amount of savings and they want to spend that money.

The net result is that second homes are becoming far more popular. LIC is building old age homes. There is huge scope for luxury in several categories such as hospitals and insurance plans that are far more padded.

In advertising today, older people are mostly used as jokers, if at all. Not all brands need to look young. In a banking relationship, I would expect warmth, trust, and expect to be taken care of. I am not expecting a yuppie, yo! looking relationship manager!

Somehow we have this obsession with youth and tend to paint every brand with the same brush stroke.

Premium Opportunity

Most talk about India centres on the bottom of the pyramid. In 2008-09, Audi had a growth rate of 68 per cent. Top-end brands in the premium segment are doing very well. If we do an overlap of premium and youth, that is again a huge segment.

There is a segment of first- and second-generation entrepreneurs with far more money to spend. There are young people getting into sexier jobs with high incomes. Not many brands have targeted this segment dedicatedly. Few exceptions do exist. I would say Max Bupa is the first premium insurance brand in the country. I would imagine there is a huge opportunity for a premium telecom brand. Hypothetically, if Kingfisher was to launch a Kingfisher First mobile service, it would have to be far more differentiated than what the average cellular service gives you.

We can pretty much take any category, carve out a premium segment and create a differentiated offering for them. Targeting the upper end would allow brands to offer services they would otherwise not be able to add. A number of additions have happened at the premium end in apparel and automobiles, but there are many other categories which haven't been tapped.

Rural Enigma

The biggest myth about rural India is that it looks for purely functional benefits — it has, for long, been looked at as part of only the bottom of the pyramid. We did extensive research in rural India. We found, for instance, Pantene sachets in rural households that did not even have a television.

One reason Tata Nano has not taken off is because it was seen as a cheap car. That's a symbol enough to say that even that segment of buyers is seeking a premium, in the sense that they are seeking an upgrade, and not value for money. Value has to fall into place but it is one of the drivers, not the only driver.

Brands, in the rural space, need to add a bit of imagery to themselves. Those consumers are reaching out to brands that are giving them that sense of premium. We see that across the spectrum, from shampoos and deodorants to mobile handsets. Rural India is seeking a sense of moving up in life, a sense of pride.

Women in rural India are saying, ‘Yes, I am married. I wanted to become a teacher but ended up as a housewife. But within the boundaries of my family life and responsibilities, can I start doing tuitions?' That's again a progressive mindset. There are women in rural India who want to start a small beauty treatment business while managing the home. What we see is that this sense of progress is even more in rural India. Unfortunately, a large segment of marketers are lagging in their understanding of rural India, and driven by stereotypes.

Why the Book?

Most titles in the deluge of books on Indian consumers suffer from the problem of painting the larger India picture — of explaining how we have come from being a British colonial state to becoming this power house. They write about it in awe, singing the ‘Slumdog Millionaire' tune.

I have tried to write about India ground up, and drill deep, getting into specific consumer segments, and map the changes that are happening in those segments. The belief is that once the point of view is available, we can reach out to them with products and services created for those untapped segments.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/brandline/article1543730.ece

Next Job for the rest of world: Made in India or China! (TIMES)

2011-03-23T10:23:00.000+05:30

There is a chance, and maybe even a good one, that you'll walk into work one Monday morning and find out your job is being moved to China or India. Millions have already seen that happen, from shop-floor machinists to IT specialists, in places as disparate as Italy, the U.S. and South Korea. China is a manufacturing machine, charging into the global market for everything from cars to solar panels. India's highly trained engineers are outdueling Stanford grads for jobs in R&D, software development and other sectors that are supposed to be the West's economic salvation. The harsh realities of the globalization of labor have left much of the world's workforce feeling despondent. Everyone in places like London and Los Angeles is competing with smart applicants from Bangalore or Shanghai who are willing to work long hours for a pittance. When there are 2.5 billion people in those two Asian giants combined, how can anyone's job be safe?

Yet there's another way of looking at the great shift of economic power to the East, one that is much less scary and perhaps even inspiring. Those 2.5 billion people are getting richer by the day. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for the workers of the world.

Thirty years ago, the average person in China or India could afford almost nothing beyond basic food and other simple necessities of life. That poverty was a problem for all of us. With so little spending power in the developing world, the global economy was dependent on a handful of wealthy nations, especially the U.S. Today, however, China and India have become a new source of growth for the global economy. Hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians can now splurge on Sony LCD TVs, Australian steaks and Apple iPhones. Last year, Indians and Chinese bought 19.9 million new passenger vehicles, 70% more than Americans did, according to J.D. Power. This new bonanza for consumer goods increases demand for copper, cotton and other natural resources; the machinery to manufacture those goods; the ships and trucks to transport them; and the people to design and sell them. The result is higher sales and bigger profits for companies such as Boeing and Rio Tinto, as well as more jobs.

We've already seen the benefits. If not for the continued rapid growth in emerging economies like China and India, the world might easily have descended into a real depression in 2008. China lifted all of East Asia out of the recession by buying capital equipment and consumer goods from Japan, South Korea and the rest of the region. U.S. exports of goods to China reached $92 billion in 2010, a 32% jump. The influence of China and India will only spread and strengthen as the two countries get wealthier and purchase more from the rest of the world. In Western Australia, the local chamber of minerals and energy believes the industry will create 40,000 jobs over the next three to five years in that state alone, in part because of expanding exports to China.

The newly rich of China and India are also bringing their money right to your doorstep. Their citizens are becoming active tourists, filling hotel rooms and dining out in Times Square and Tokyo's Ginza. According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization, the number of Chinese traveling outside the country rose to 47.7 million in 2009, 54% more than in 2005, and they spent more than French, Japanese or Canadian travelers. Chinese and Indian companies are expanding overseas in a quest for global presence and markets, creating jobs everywhere. Mumbai-based IT giant Tata Consultancy Services — a firm built on outsourcing from the U.S. and Europe — employs more than 13,000 non-Indians, nine times as many as in 2005. Chinese firms invested $56.5 billion abroad in 2009, up from only $12.3 billion in 2005, and they tend to hire locally as they invest, to absorb talent and know-how. Not one of the 450 people who work in the U.S. for Chinese appliance maker Haier is from China.

The advance of China and India demands an overhaul in the way we think about jobs. You might just find, for example, that your biggest customers are in Chengdu, not Chicago, or that your boss sits in New Delhi, not New York City. Your paycheck could come in renminbi or rupees instead of in euros or dollars. Sure, in this new economic order, your job may be lost to Chinese or Indian workers. But don't worry. They'll give it right back.

Youngest CEO in the world- 14year old girl from India

2011-03-23T09:47:00.002+05:30

Sindhuja Rajaraman, a ninth standard student has become the world's youngest Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The 14-year old girl became the head of Seppan Company, an animation firm, in October 2010. The company was set up by her father.

She was adjudged the fastest 2D and 3D animator by software lobby NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) at the Gaming and Animation Conclave 2010 held in Hyderabad.

"I am just proud to be an animator. The CEO is just a post given in this company," Rajaraman.

"I am learning animation for this CEO post to make myself worthy for the CEO post," she said. "There is no age bar or age limit for animation. Everybody can do animation."

"The scope for animation in India is growing everyday. There is going to be a big boom in India and all industries are into the animation, they need animation and multimedia. I am enjoying work and I am also getting challenging works," she added.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/14yearold-chennai-girl-becomes-worlds-youngest-ceo/765270/

http://in.news.yahoo.com/meet-14-old-ceo-20110319-222644-151.html

Facebook ads are focusing on "flesh value!"

2011-03-22T17:29:00.000+05:30

the "basic instincts" are more in focus at facebook! At least their advertisements are telling so…have a look:

is this the symptom of near-death or else why they are so desperate to lure more young Indians?

Image source: Facebook page

Not rebels, but Mama’s boys and girls- The Hindusthan Times report

2011-03-20T13:28:00.001+05:30

It’s a generation that loves television, hang out with friends and shop, enjoys Bollywood films and filmy music, doesn’t exercise too much, isn’t at all enamoured of smoking or drinking and is either hostile or indifferent to drugs. The Hindustan Times Youth Survey 2011 seems to suggest that India’s Gen X is full of Mumma’s boys and Mumma’s girls and reinforces the image of the youth as a conservative group quite comfortable in its own skin.

In movies, Bollywood is the clear choice of this generation – two out of three prefer the fare dished out by Mumbai’s Tinsel Town. Another one in five, say regional cinema is their preferred choice of entertainment. This trend is particularly strong in the south – in Hyderabad, almost nine out of 10 (88%) and in Chennai, seven out of 10 (72%) vote for local cinema.

“Many people in previous generations either thought Bollywood was low brow and, therefore, not worthy of their attention, or were shy of admitting their love for it. But this generation has no such inhibitions. It’s a sign of our growing confidence as a nation,” says Sukhdev Bhattacharya, retired professor of psychology of NBU.

Their choice of music is also decidedly Indian – 56% prefer Bollywood music, 13% Indian classical and 11% Indi-pop. But western music (pop, rock, hip-hop and R&B) is also quite popular – 20% of youth list one of these genres as their favourite.

Sartorially, be Indian, wear Indian is the motto of 18-25 women. A majority (52.9%) wears salwar kameez, but a large minority (one in three) prefers jeans and Ts.

And how do young Indians spend their spare time? By watching TV (34.3% list this as their favourite spare time activity), spending time with friends (18.4%) and listening to music (16.9%). But reading (8.5%), surfing the internet (8.4%) and sports (4.2%) aren’t very popular past times.

Today’s youth is very interested in current affairs. More than 50% of youth read newspapers for 15 minutes to an hour every day. Another 35% read papers for less than 15 minutes a day. But one out of eight don’t read papers at all. Nine out of 10 young Indians don’t smoke or drink. And drugs? It’s not even a topic for debate. Only 12.3% of respondents say marijuana should be legalised, while another 15% believe it should be legalised for medical purposes only.

But youth in Bhubaneswar broke ranks with their peers across the country. A fairly high 37% of males and 32% of females want marijuana legalised. Guwahati (27.5%), Hyderabad (23.5%) and Kolkata (22.9%) are the three other cities where there is a reasonable degree of support for marijuana.

The numbers are not alarming, says Juju Basu, creative director of Contract Advertising. “India’s always had a significant hemp culture. Our sadhus are always smoking it and the hippy movement of the 1960s was very prominent here,” he adds.

If anything, he’s surprised the numbers aren’t higher. The current generation of 18-25-year-olds are, after all, kids of the Hare-Rama-Hare-Krishna generation, and going against the norms of older generations is, perhaps, every youth group’s one driving force.

But one thing that’s clear is that this generation seems to be full of what our parents generally term “good kids”. Rebels with (or without) a cause seem like a thing of the past.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/chunk-ht-ui-youthsurvey-topstories/Not-rebels-but-Mama-s-boys-and-girls/Article1-655680.aspx

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Indian youth prefers mobile to Facebook to break the big news-The Hindustan Times survey report

If you needed proof that India has missed the Internet bus, here is one more. The Indian youth does not make big announcements on Facebook or Twitter or e-mail. Instead, it prefers the mobile phone.

This finding was published this morning by The Hindustan Times which conducted as survey of Indian youth across 18 cities. The finding showed that 35.1% of the Indian youth aged between 18 to 25 years gets on to the mobile phone to communicate important information.

The SMS is the next popular device. It is used by 27.1 % of the Indian youngsters to communicate. The two modes add up to 62%, establishing that this generation of Indian youth can be called the mobile phone generation.

Interestingly, person to person communication is still alive, and 22.2% of the youth like to communicate important information personally.

The Facebook, which has emerged as India’s number one social media site, is used by 10.1% of the youth. E-mail surprisingly is not considered as so personal. Barely 3.6% use e-mail for major personal announcements. Twitter too is not too popular, with only 2.2% of the youth tweeting what matters to them.

Source: http://easymedia.in/2011/01/29/indian-youth-prefers-mobile-to-facebook-to-break-the-big-news/