Reflections

THE NEW NORMAL We are in the middle of a complete nationwide shutdown, now in its 26 th day… with around 16 more days to go. Shops, establishments, companies, etc – all are in minimal or shutdown mode. Economic Activity is at a complete standstill; but there will be a day when things will re-start, when life will begin crawling back to normal. With regard to that, a lot of thoughts, facts and/or factoids are being shared by all. In the same line, here is my analysis of The Coming Days for us, Indians. THE BACKDROP What will happen will essentially depend on the runup to the event itself, the disease outbreak. If you will recall, we were going through a rather challenging phase on the economic front as a nation, with a plethora of problems to deal with. Clearly, they aren’t going away; this needs to be kept in mind. The going wasn’t great to start with; and on top of that, we have this outbreak. So, prima facie, things look rather tough – but there is more to the story....

JIO – An Analysis of Prospects and Challenges A common refrain, question, discussion point among at least us Telecom Professionals {those outside Jio at least} centers around what it is doing, what it plans to do, what disruptive impact it will have on services as well as devices and whether it will achieve whatever objectives it has set out for itself. My humble submission here is one simple statement: the key question is not among the points being pondered above; the real question is whether it, or indeed we as a nation, can afford it to fail? Indeed, does Jio have a choice in the matter except do what it is doing? Before we move into details, just look at the numbers involved: as per Telecomtalk & Economic Times articles dated January the 14 th 2017, it has infused 1,71,000 Crore into this venture; another 30,000 Crore is being planned. That brings the investments to 2,01,000 Crore. Its current subscriber base is between 67-73 Million Customers as on date, a...

The Internet, The Digital Age and Social Media is all over and ubiquitous, at least in Modern Urban Life; everywhere you look, everywhere you turn - you can spot its presence, its over-arching and all-pervasive influence. Virtually every news media, every conversation on the topic of the internet - all of it focuses on its all pervasive presence and the impossibility of staying without the internet & social media  on a personal level. This is now getting into an entirely new field : The Smartphone. It is increasingly thought that the power of the smartphone can replace the old desk- and laps by a segment of thinkers; that the smartphone can do just about everything; that it is now as essentiality; that be it personal or professional, you cannot survive in the modern world without the smartphone; that it is not a luxury but a felt and present need, as essentiality. Life put in my path a chance, an opportunity to test both hypotheses, this all-prevalent under...

Is the consumer really the king, as a multitude of marketing books proclaim her to be? Or is it a mere empty nice-sounding statement? Recent events would lead the cynic to question the entire premise of “king” or “queen” or anything remotely comparable; conversely, these same events would lead the avid supporter to comment “It is a mistake”, or “it wont happen to me” or “This is a one-off event”, jumping to the defence of Corporate India, who cuts their paycheck in that they are employees in some company or the other. Well, the same Corporate India cuts my paycheck, and I see no reason to defend it, or not ask   some pretty hard questions of it. Before we continue, read this beauty from the Times of India Article : “ I am the real hand behind Maggi action, 'junior' food inspector says ” : “ Not to be outdone, Singh said he had followed the case for more than a year; … he picked up Maggi samples from a Barabanki market on March 10, 2014. "We sent them to a Gorakh...