The New Symbol for the Rupee

Sooner or later the government will announce its choice for a unique symbol for the rupee.In fact this was to have been announced last month.Yet, for the new signage to act as a signpost for the future of India's currency, the govt. must pull out all its policy stops that erode the strength of the rupee vis-a-vis other currencies.
It is no secret that the govt. shies away from the prospects of a strong rupee. Mainly this is a blinkered approach that is solely guided by the interests & lobbying strength of India's exporters; those from the IT sector, in particular, & earlier jewellery & textile exporters. When this country's currency appreciates against other currencies- the US dollar in particular- the rupee earnings of firms that are exporting IT services to other countries would take a hit. Such is their figurative as well as real importance in the national economy that the govt. & Reserve Bank have opted to work towards keeping the rupee artifially weak against other currencies in recent times.
There is the case of China that has flooded global markets with its goods that are led by a cheap renminbi. However, there are several counter-arguments that favor the view hat in the medium & long term this country would be better served by a stronger rupee. A strong rupee does not necessarily imply weak exports. Almost all of India's exports are associated with low technology as well. This is particularly true of the IT sector. Much of the export basket in this sector comprises how value services that were outsourced by the US & other advanced economies in their boom areas. Now the necessity to boost domestic economies & jobs at home are bound to curtail the growth of outsourcing in the coming years- at least the low-value part of it. New growth of global trade will be driven by silos where technology & production quality is more important than ever before.
A stronger rupee could provide a compelling solution in this scenario. For one it would bring down the cost of technology imports as well as cheaper raw materials that could be used for value-added exports in turn. Notably, this would benefit the entire manufacturing sector & all the inputs that it requires. People & companies from this country are involved in the development of high technology almost everywhere. It is just that an artificial cheap rupee cancelsout the reasons to create such products & services at home, especially for exports.
Many exciting things will happen around the new symbol. There will be intensive publicity campaigns. However, like everything else in business, strong symbols deem stronger substance. That necessarily be the future of the rupee.

Operation Blue Star, 26 Years On

Twenty seven years ago almost to the day of an event occurred in Punjab that shook the Republic of India to its very foundations.
Sikh extremists seeking to carve an independent country had been slowly but surely taking control of the state over the previous couple of years, striking terror in the hearts of politicians, law-enforcers & the general population.
Operation Blue Star 3-6 June 1984, was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, to remove Sikh separatists, led by Janrail Singh Bhindranwale, who were amassing weapons in the Golden Temple, Amritsar.
The Operation was carried out by Indian Army troops with tanks & armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy & the government's justification for the timing & style of the attack are still under debate. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.
The impact of the military assault, its aftermath & the increased tensions led to assaults on members of the Sikh community within India & uproar amongst Sikhs worldwide. In India, many Sikhs resigned from armed & civil administrative office & returned their government awards. Some who perceived the attack as desecration of the Sikh shrine pledged revenge. Indira gandhi was assaulted by two of her Sikh bodyguards on 31st October 1984.
Bhindranwale had earlier taken refuge in the Golden Temple & made it his headquarters in April 1980, when he was named as a suspect in the killing of Nirankari Gurbachan Singh. Indira Gandhi first asked Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha, then Vice Chief of Indian Army to prepare a poition paper for assault on the Golden Temple but the officer advised against any such move, given its sacrilegious nature according to Sikh tradition.
On 3rd June, a 36 hour curfew was imposed on the state of Punjab with all methods of communication & public travel suspended. Electricity supplies were also interrupted, creating a total blackout & cutting off the state from the rest of India & the world.
The Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple on the night of 5 June under the command of Maj. Gen. Kuldip Singh Brar. The forces had full control of the Golden Temple by the morning of 7 June. Bhindranwale, Maj. Gen. Shabeg Singh, & several other militant leaders were killed in the operation along with a large no. of followers & civilians. The armed forces also suffered many casualties. Operation Blue Star coincided with a Sikh annual festival. Pilgrims, including the elderly & the children were trapped inside the temple when the operation began & many were wounded & killed as a result.
Why I have chosen this topic?
This Operation was brought into action in the month of June almost 26 years ago. Whose fault was there for this big disaster is not worth to comment but the question is that whether the innocent who were killed were liable to get messed between the fight of Bhindranwale & Indian government or whether is was right & in convenience with humanity to kill such a large number of innocent people for the sack of killing only a few persons? The answer is with none. But it depends upon us now the future citizens of India to learn from the past mistakes & move ahead with the life & try to avoid any such mishappenings in the future. Because "Zindagi aage badhne ka naam hai piche mudkar dekhne ka nahi!!"

Set to grow

Before the recent slowdown, an ebullient economy, along with favorable demographics, meant that the entertainment & media sector was one of the fastest growing in the country. Rapid expansion, buoyed in part of record advertising revenues led to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% during 2004-08.
Price Water House Coopers'(PWC) recently launched annual report on the E&M industry preicts that the sector will record a CAGR of 10.5% during 2010-2013. The print media is also expected to grow with the launch of new magazines & steady growth in newspaper publications which accounts for the majority of the segment.
However its emerging media segment such as the Internet & the digitised content platforms, that are set to grow drastically. Such predictions are hardly new but whether or not digital content can transform the E&M scene like in the West remains to be seen. KPMG's report on the E&M industry earlier this year too hailed digital content both print & interactive as a possible way forward. But while news publications have increasingly gone online for free, interactive media platforms such as games & movies are yet to make a real impact. One reason to remain cautious about Internet advertising is that many Indians simply do not have adequate access to the Internet at reasonable prices but this is set to improve with additional investment.
PWC's bright picture of the E&M industry in India augurs well for investors both foreign & domestic who still believe in the region's growth potential. India has whethered the global recession better than most countries. Its GDP grew by 5.8% during the last quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007 & by the same amount in the first quarter of 2009, which is encouraging for those who link GDP with ad spends. However with the decline in per capita income levels post-slowdown from 6.9% in 2007-08 to 1.4% in 2008-09 it makes one wonder whether or not consumer sentiments have changed after the recent slump.

World at your fingertips

When a friend of mine lost her Nokia handset in January, her life seemed to come to a standstill- not because of the cost of acquiring a new phone, but because her lifeline to the world was cut off. Apart from calls, her mobile had allowed her to check her e-mail, update her Facebook profile,send text messages through MSN messenger & also play video games. And when she travelled, she could Google for her information research- all done, while she walked, talked & surfed.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers in India's Tier 2 & Tier 3 towns, are at the epicenter of a wireless revolution. 2 years ago, Internet access meant cyber cafes or a PC at home with bad Internet connection. Or, if you were lucky, you could get an occasional peek in someone's office. But now, all that is changing with the mobile Internet revolution, which is slowly overtaking the country. In a sense, even in the remotest part of India, access to the worldwide net is at your fingertips because of the cellphone. For consumers, mobile service providers & cellular manufacturers, a magic box of infinite opportunities has been opened.
Cell phone connections in Tier 2 & Tier 3 towns are growing. Data from Cellular Operators' Association of India shows that, in January 2010, Tier 2 had 150.7 million subscribers as compared to 99 million in January 2009. Similarly, the Tier 3 subscriber base has risen from 34 million in January 2009 to 59 million in January 2010. A study conducted by the Internet & Mobile Association of India & IMRB in January 2010 found that 127 million subscribers in India use the Internet through their mobile devices. While online communication is the main attraction, 60% of them use mobile Internet for social networking or m-blogging too, while 23% use it for information research.
"The misconception that Indian consumers only want to talk on the mobile is wrong," says Alok Goel, product manager, mobile, Google India. "Falling GPRS prices have seen a massive rise in data usage over mobile phones. The industry is growing & innovative packages are needed to attract consumers."
Within the Tier 2 & Tier 3 segments, 70% of mobile Internet consumers fall in the age group of 18-35 & use mobile Internet to access google.com, orkut.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, rediff.com, wikipedia.org, songs.pk etc, for chatting, social networking, search & mobile blogging. Quite a few mobile Internet users, like farmers, use mobile Internet to access data on land records, feed prices & weather reports. One factor that has contributed to this growing trend has been the falling prices of general packet, radio service ready, mobile handsets. One priced at Rs. 10,000, a GPRS-enabled mobile phone handset can be acquired now for as low as Rs.4000-Rs.6000.
All this is happening because in terms of reach, mobile handsets have, to a significant extent, penetrated the remotest areas in the country, making anything accessible. And the race has now started among mobile service operators to provide a host of value addition services. Cellular manufacturers are also coming up with more and more innovative products that can satisfy consumer demand for information on the move. Cellular companies such as Airtel, Tata Docomo & Aircel are hoping to lure customers from Tier 2 & Tier 3 areas to avail of their services with tariffs of less than Rs.100 a month. Aircel's Rs.98 per month pocket Internet card allows unlimited browsing, gaming & music. Airtel's data plan for Rs.95 per month also is specifically targeted at Tier 2 & Tier 3 towns, where broadband connectivity is poor.
Tata Docomo has gone one step further. Its monthly pack for Rs.48 has a 30-day validity, with 100 MB transfer during the day & 2 GB transfer during the night. Other offers also include a package of Rs.5 per day for unlimited Internet access.
Approximately 45% of consumers opt for GPRS. It's mostly teenagers who go for social networking & mobile Internet is their best option to keep in touch anywhere all the time.
To meet this demand, many cellular operators are opening their own application stores, where customers can download what they want on their GPRS handsets. Aircel has tied up with Infosys to produce a range of applications for Aircel's customers, whereby Infosys will provide the IT backbone & software. Airtel plans to use IBM's service development platform from a host of 100 companies such as Indiagames, Mobile2Win, Versa, Symbiotic, Pyro, Hungama & OnMobile, to provide applications & services for its customers.
Customers today want a variety of applications because it's no longer just walk and talk, it's much more with personal requests. Through these applications, the consumers have the power to choose what they want to have & live their lives the way they want to, at the click of a button.
Mobile phone manufacturers too are in the race. Nokia, with 1,80,000 developers, is witnessing over 1 million downloads everyday. So popular is its app store Ovi, that Nokia is templating a desi version, with content in local languages, for the Indian market. Others like Samsung, RIM, Motorola & Sony Ericsson are all set to launch their app stores in India soon.
People are looking for a converged multimedia device that will suffice their growing communications & entertainment needs & give them instant access to the external world. People in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities & towns have started realising the utility of owning a mobile device & are moving from voice & SMS to a host of value added services. Rural VAS, such as commodity pricing, holds huge potential.
With cellular companies offering cheap & innovative plans, where consumers can access the world anywhere, demand for mobile Internet is expected to skyrocket. So, be it cellular operators, cellphone manufacturers or even consumers- the world now revolves around someone's fingertips.

MANANIMITY- Sometimes it is a loss

This is an incident when I was around 15 years old. I had gone to purchase some daily need items with my Father. There at the shop I chose to remain outside the shop as there was rush in the shop. So my Father went inside the shop leaving me outside in our car. Then a small boy approximately of age 10-11 years came to me. He then began asking for 1 or 2 rupees from me. He said that he has lost his Parents & now there is none to take care of him. So he need money to satisfy his hunger. I got very much touched by his condition so I gave him a coin of Rs.2.
On the same day I happened to cross the same place at night around 11:30 P.M. I was with my family & we were returning to home after attending a marriage. I coincidentally saw the same boy playing the game of cards with some other people including the kids of his age as well as some adults. The boy was also smoking & the other persons were consuming liquor. Some money was also there. I suppose that they were gambling at cards.
I described the whole incident to my brother. He just smiled and said sometimes magnanimity gets converted into losses & misfortunes for some persons. By this incident I realized that no matter I got satisfaction that by helping that boy I have done a great job but my magnanimous behavior proved a loss & misfortune for that small boy as he wasted the money collected by so many people like me in his misdeeds & wrong doings & this is not only a loss & misfortune for the future of that small boy but also a loss & misfortune for the future of our nation as the young boys & girls are the future of our nation.
Everyday a lot of persons like me encourage begarry knowingly or unknowingly in one or the other way. I agree that some beggars are really in need of money & beggary is the only option before them to make their both ends meet. But a lot of other people try to take advantage of the magnanimous behavior of human beings & try to make money without much efforts. So it becomes a duty & responsibility of every citizen of India to try to help only those beggars who are actually in need of money & the government plus the citizens should try to help sending the kids who are beggars to some orphanages or NGOs so that these kids can become the assets of India & not the liabilities of India.

Retail sector in India

In the sphere of today's scenario, the world has become flat so everything has been globalized from education to trade as the playing field has been leveled. Same scenario can be seen in Indian retail sector as well. The concept of retail is not new in India. Previously we had small forms of retail sector like haat bazars and kirana stores. Today these two still exist but we have organized retail market as well since these two come under unorganized retail market. Today approx. 3-4% is organized and is growing at the rate of 25-30% per annum.
The players of retail market are coming up with new models of retail stores like speciality stores, malls, discount stores, factory outlets, departmental stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets, convenience tores, multibrand outlets etc. That's why India has been rated as 5th most emerging retail market and has been ranked 2nd in a global retail development index of 30 developing countries drawn by AT Kearney.
There are multiple drivers leading to this consumption boom of retail sector like favorable demographics, growth in income of middle class at the rate of 10% per annum and raising aspirations of young India for value added good sales.
ITC is experimenting with retailing through its e-chaupaal & chaupaal sagar for rural hypermarkets. HLL is using its project Shakti for leveraging women self help groups to explore rural market. Mahamaza is leveraging technology & network marketing concepts to act as an aggregator & serve the rural markets. IT has been proved as a tool for plyers like Amazon.com & eeBay as they are leveraging new concept of e-tailing. Companies are tying up with horizontal players like rediff.com & Indiatimes.com. Sachet revolution is reaching to the bottom of pyramid as it has been recognized as the most powerful tool to penetrate the rural market of India. Today retail sector is contributing to approx. 13-14% of net GDP & 8-10% Indian population is employed in retail sector.
As we switch to retail agriculture now India has come up with APMC Act, 2008, which includes 14 states allowing farmers to sell their produce directly to the buyers offering them the best price. Reliance retail has linked with 100 acres of farms in Punjab, WB & Maharashtra with $5.6 billion. Pepsico bought 4 million orange trees in Punjab for Tropicana juice. There has been mergers in retail industry like between Wal-Mart & Bharti, Pantaloons & Starbucks, Lee Cooper & Reliance & Bata.
But there has been some weak points also regarding retail sector like it may give rise to inflation then Indian money is going out so there willbe deterioration in value of money & there has also been a big question mark whether Wal-Mart will succeed in India or not as it has always followed the model of opening its stores at the outskirts of city but in India it is in confusion. Wal-Mart was thus been thrown out of Germany as money there was going out since people there were interested in buying its low priced items. But inspite of all these factors retail industry is considered as sunrise industry in India & it will be interesting to watch this boom.