Myanmar, China..............who's next on nature fury list........

Ever wondered, whats common between two very recent disasters separated by just a month. They both belong to ASIA and even share boundary with each other. The disasters might be look different, one being pouring cloud and the other shaken earth, but the commonalities far exceed this conspicuous difference.
Asia - being the continent of two most populated, polluted, home of many fastest growing economies etc etc. Are these to be blamed for nature looking for its own amends. When Bush was quoted as saying that India and China were responsible for the inflation all over the world, we were taken aback. But now if someone stand up and say that these two countries are responsible for nature's fury all over the world, I will not be surprised. The continent is home for over 50% of the world's population, growing at magnanimous 2.7% pa, and you just cannot blame the god for correcting the imbalance between growth rate of population and growth rate of agriculture. Just think for a while, if these corrections do not take place, then will earth be able to sustain that burden for another 100 years. These are ways to create balance between growing population and reducing deaths.
We are depleting the natural resources at blistering pace, in the name of growing and developing nations. But we should remember that by just blatantly arguing with the rest of the world that developed countries should pay the price of our growth, will not serve the purpose. If another cyclone hits our coasts then we ill not be able to handle the misery like china and US. This is the irony with climate change. It does not hit the countries which can negotiate its effects.

Kill Gill

Few days back I was hooked to the interview of Mr KPS Gill on CNN-IBN. I was shocked to see the authority with which he defended blunt plea of resignation by chief-editor of the channel - Rajdeep Sardesai even after a disastrous 14 years reign over Indian Hockey which brought it to shambles. Barely 2 days later I was overjoyed to see a footnote on the very same channel which read "Gill Sacked". The impossible was made possible though better late than never. It goes on to prove of how strong are these beaurocratic institutions which run the Indian Sports committees.
These institutions did bring bad name to not even the sport but to the country as a whole. This desicion has was made on the pretext of the threat by Federation of International Hockey to take back the offer from IHF to host the world cup in 2010. This would surely have been a blow to IOC dreams of hosting the Olympics in 2010.
The icing on the cake has been the desicion to give the control for the time being to the committee which will be run by Olympians, which will be the right step in direction of reviving Indian Hockey. IOC also showed interest in building infrastructure necessary for upliftment of hockey which includes the laying of astro turfs which have been long delayed since past decades. I wonder without this basic infrastructure how Mr KPS Gill even thought of reviving the sport. Surely the promises were false since past 14 years. Phew, need i say that i am not proud being an Indian.

ALIRTEY(unjumble the words)---->>>>>Retail or Reality.

Reliance, bharti, godrej, Birla's .........the list might go enlessly after a decade but all these are synonymous and you may have guessed it right..........Supply Chain Management or Retail. Todays ET prompted me to write my views on this topic. The views will be grossly biased as the article has changed my perspecive towards Retail completely.

Till yesterday i belived these retail giant will revolutionize the 400$ retail market amongst which only the 2% belongs to the organized sector, but the article focussed on these kinds of popular myths. Indeed when you see all the newpapers putting only one view in resonance then you tend the narrow down your thoughts. Now we get to serious business.............

The most lucrative aspect which prompted these big corporate houses to put huge some of crores at stake was
the ROI, which they thought would sum up to as large as 40% of the capital invested. Did any of them had a look at he underlying risks involved all in a hurry they fell for the pie and it may be possible they all are licking thie wounds in years to come.

So what are these risks. Mckinsey report suggested that 25-30% of the perishable goods gets destroyed in the inefficient supply chain, coupled with middlemen the ROI rises to 40%. Other reports sugested that farmers are being grossly underpaid close to only 10% of the actua; market value of the food product, and this can be harnessed into by integration of the fragmented supply chain.


Now the truths about these report cannot be defyed but they did not mention that these inefficiencies can be easily coverted into bucks on table. This is where the pit lies. It is impossible to convert one form of energy to another without loosing some in the processes. Does supply chain also follows same laws after all its a chain of processes.

to be continued......

Kntting MAYAjaal

Friday was 'D' day for indian political system with Uttar pradesh waiting in frenzy for its new chief minister. It was already decided in the deluge of exit polls that Mulayam Singh getting reelected was as disillusioned as India winning a world cup, a impossible by any standards. Even mulayam would have got vibes ling before UP actually went for polls.

My Friend broke the ice by giving me a dismal news that Mayawati has sweeped the UP polls with a clear majority. It was disheartening, may be because of the OBC quota controversy keeping the general candidates high and dry, for a change they felt to be children of lesser gods. It seems you have to be backwards to move forward.

By the night the news has thoroughly swept my mind by a majority. channels were airing a salwar clad iron lady cheerfully thankful to upper and the lower caste for choosing her a unanimous leader. The next morning newspaper was no different. As the days has past by, the victory of dalits truly sanked in my mind that i accepted my defeat, defeat of urban middle class ignorant about the very meaning of word 'dalit', till i read today's newspaper about the dalit girl raped in UP village a fortnight back and police refusing to lodge an FIR because of the upper caste accused. Even the hospital turned its back to a DALIT girl.

This has not been a one of incidence but to our vibrant middle class we turn page to these news pieces feeling pity many a times trying to reconcile and blaming the poor girls fate for the tragedy. The options could have been many in the minds of UP junta but they rejected the hindutva, youthism, muscle power to show full support for their caste because they have been duped, bashed, killed by BJP, congress and SP. Little they could have done except proving a point to all these parties by their invaluable VOTE.

It might be tough journey ahead for the oppressed with crime deep rooted in the minds of muscle men. For a change they have something to smile and a hope to cheer. Good luck UP.

Mera Number kab aayega?

A saying goes, "it's tough to reach the top, but often times, it becomes even tougher to maintain that top position", Today this saying was defyed by the australians. They made team like South Africa seem like minnows in semo finals. I wondered an anti competetive law must be slapped on the australians for destroying the enthusiasm of the Semi Finals. It made me to ponder over the position of numero uno and how some companies make it look so simple to retain despite the competetion.

Intel has done it over the years and now i think AMD has gotten used to of it and would have stopped trying to even eye the market leader's position. Last year Mr Rahul Mittal must have taken a cue from the australians otherwise how can someone even think of aquiring its immediate rival and destroying the compitetion with such ease. Mittal steel now is undisputed leader and will remain so for decades to come.

Google might have given Bill sleepness nights but have not yet come out with a product in tussle with Microsoft Windows. Though standford graduates went a step ahead and changed the rules. They took Microsoft unaware abount the potential in the online market and captured the majority share in no time. Carefully planned aquisition of You tube has also helped them maintain health lead of microsoft which now seems unconquearable by any standards.

Enough has been said on leaders, while i was watching finals yesterday(it has been long i tried to complete my article) i noticed a perculiar thing at barbados. All the brands flaunting their logos on the grounds had major presence in India. Be it Hero Honda, Hutch(now Vodafone Hutch), Korean brand LG, and many mare were banking on Indian team putting atleast a respectable show at world cup. I feel sorry for them but a quick thought crosses my mind, all the money they bet on Indian cricket has be routed from our homes so we should rather be sorry for ourselves. God bless us......

Insuring Faith.

It was match between Bermuda and Bangladesh that inspired me to make this thought a part of my blog. Indian Cricket team has let down millions of fans by their dismal performance in the world cup, but for most of us it will just be a passing phase. Gradually from the front page, to the third and eventually to the last before being disappeared in oblivion, but what we forget is that this one off instance must have given sleepless nights to many, obviously to the Indian Cricket team, but many more who perhaps do not own this tragedy. Lets take each one of them one at a time and count their losses which will be tough for them to reconcile in time to come.

Probably biggest losses will be suffered by Sony Entertainment Television (SET) which was banking on India's performance to make huge profits. India's 70% population shares passion with India Cricket team, with 1 billion + population 70% indeed makes a huge share. This craze attracts the brands and pester them to pay as much as 10 lacks for a meagre 10 second spot in India's encounter. With early exit this viewership is set to fall by 40-50%, and with most of the brands already committed with the spots, they are likely to suffer. And if they decide to pull back, its sure to hit SET's revenue margins.

Pepsi with its blue billion campaign comes a close second in terms of facing losses because of our own men in blue. I am sure Indra Nooyi must have kept herself updated with India Srilanka scorelines, although is most likely that she will not be a cricket fanatic. If you would have noticed Pepsi unveiled a new ad featuring SRK in India Srilanka encounter. That ad with host of others were decided to be unveiled later, but it seems all of them now have to take a curtain call without seeing the face of television. It will spell doomsday for Pepsi Co, with summer round the corner cricket or no cricket Pepsi will have to rethink their brand positioning strategy. Coke on the contrary played a safer bet by choosing neutral themes featuring Aamir. and this might prove to be a blessing in disguise.

An Indian media house have recently launched a magazine focusing on Indian Cricket:- which they proudly call First ever magazine focusing totally on Indian Cricket- Cricket Info. well the idea sure was not bad but timing couldn't have proven to be worse than the post world cup debacle. Indian Hockey too faced tough times after the hey days before being forgotten into oblivion. That day may be drawing closer with consistent pathetic performance by our champs whom we admired and on whose shoulder brands like LG and Samsung had built palaces in the hearts of millions. That's why i would advise insurance houses to start insuring faith which was instilled in by our own cricket team only to be brutally shattered later.

The A to B of branding

Vodafone has paved exit for the pug, quite rightly so because it would have meant extra burden in maintaining additional brand amongst its own in several countries. This recent demolition of “Hutch” brand and rise of “Tata” brand intrigued me to put on my thinking cap on the Branding industry and how does it work.

A “Brand” is collection of images, a product showers. The image could be of trust, integrity, responsibility, luxury and host of other emotions. I am going to illustrate the most popular brands and their journey to the top.

The opening slot will invariably be grabbed by “Google”. Goolge run to the top slot in close to no time has made him undisputed leader in branding. The brand Google stands for Innovation. Lately they have managed to dig inroads into the social responsibility by opting for solar electrification of their campus. No doubt these factors make Google the most coveted brand by the tech geeks. None of its competitors had ever thought of the hidden potential in web search but Google has transformed, or rather replace the word “search” in the dictionary. “Search the web” is slowly getting transformed to “Google the web”.

In India close second to the brand Google will be “Airtel”. The Brand spells Trust and leadership. Poor connectivity in technology by some of its rival brands have given it an unintentional edge but it will be wrong to take credit out of Sunil Mittal cap, Telecom Czar the the first one to launch the mobile service when it rested expensively in hallowed countries of the west. Few could afford then a single call. Though the Brand “Airtel” has taken a backseat in the minds of telecom king but it still leads the Branding Brandwagon in India.

Amongst the big commodities Brand how can we forget our own Big B as a magnanimous Brand. Even after sixty years on earth when a warrior is expected to retire from his proressional life, Big B has risen to endorse “Life after sixty”. His second innings had a sour beginning but we all know every Brand needs time to position itself in the market. Lets see if SRK does enough justice to his Brand in his new stint……..