Bombay & the art of begging $40M a year.

The papers this week have been carrying stories about how a government survey shows that Bombay beggars earn $40 million a year. Totally believable and not at all surprising. Infact goes to show the wealth of Bombay.

Beggar Masters
Many years back I knew a guy called Sar Zammen Bhai who was a beggar master. He used to collect unwanted children (normally with physical disfigurations) from poor families and put them in his slum colony. He then trained these kids to become beggars. In return he provided them with food, shelter and love.

A beggar kid has two sources of earning money. The obvious is earning through begging. The unknown is beggars also work as spies for businessman and mafia. They hang around their targets on streets, railway stations, office buildings, etc and eavesdrop on their conversations. Some of the beggars are also experts at eavesdropping through walls.

Begging Tribes
The second kind of beggars in Bombay are tribal beggars. These are tribes which solely live by the profession of begging. They have done this for 1000s of years. They are true professional beggars. Some of them perform street stunts and beg; some of the irritate you and extract money from you; others have animals like monkeys, snakes and parrots which they use in their begging arsenal; and some, the best, are experts at make-up and acting to make them appear totally wretched. In these tribes, the entire family moves to cities during certain months and begs while living off the pavements or in slums; and during planting & harvesting time they move to their villages to tend to crops.

Hijras
The third kind of beggars are Hijras. These are so called Enuchs or Transvestites. Apparently men who were born gay and this was detected at a very early age, so their penis has been chopped off and they are now a 3rd sex. They look like men and dress like women. They have this special way of clapping to alert others of their presence. They put on a lewd and comical act which people laugh at. They work closely with watchmen in buildings, who alert them of any wedding or new birth in a building, where they immediately show up and start their nuisance creating act. They have also created a myth about themselves that if you don't give money to a begging Hijrah you will have bad luck forever. Another well created structure by them is that every Thursday one must give money to Hijras.

Scamsters
The fourth kind of beggars are scam artistes. These are educated people who are well dressed. They will often approach you in a respectable and unusual location, like a bookshop, and tell you a sad story like how their son is about to graduate and how he needs Rs. 5000 ($110) for some last minute books. That you can even buy the books for him from this very bookshop. Ofcourse after you do, the scamster in league with the shop owner or salesman return the books and splits the money.

Beggar Haunts
The usual hangouts for beggars are: near religious shrines; traffic signals in upmarket localities; airport; railway stations; outside open air eateries: a person begging while you are eating is a very compelling sight!; and in tourist areas.

The Solution
So why is it so hard for us to do anything about beggars? Well what can you do with beggars? Indian is a democracy so we can't beat them or shoot them; the only thing that can be done is fine them. And if they don't pay? Well they are beggars, so they are happy to go into jails and receive free meals. So there appears to be no way out.

Bombay's Problem
Why Bombay, why does it have so many beggars. People tell me there are no beggars in Delhi or Pune or Bangalore or Hyderabad, atleast not as many as Bombay. So whats up? Its because Bombay is a rich city, much richer than the other cities. And the rich always feel guilty and need to give away their money to feel better (Gates & Buffet like)....

Indian govt blocks all blogs in knee jerk reaction

This blog has been off the air in India since Sunday 16 July. And so have all other blogs on blogspot & typepad !

Can't believe this is happening in what is touted as the "world's largest democracy" ? Well it is. Apparently this is a security measure in response to the recent Mumbai blasts. Yea, we have smarter security than the Americans, Brits & Spaniards, who didn't ban blogs after their respective tragedies.

Making MSN talk to Yahoo Messenger

Finally, I don't have to run Yahoo for those few friends who insist on using it. You can chat with Yahoo friends through Windows Live Messenger (fancy name for the new version), by simply adding them as you normally add a contact with their full id, such as user@yahoo.com or user@yahoo.co.uk.

However to make it confusing, the below message appears on Windows Live Messenger, making you believe that you have the wrong version. Just ignore.


More on MSN Messenger's Blog, click here

Update: 1 day after I tried this it's not working everywhere. Some of my friends in India on the Yahoo side aren't receiving "add" requests. So I guess we'll have to wait a while....wonder if this will cause the idea to bomb?

Re: are you ok?

Hi,

thanks for asking.

Situation here is that 127 people train commuters have died. Millions were stranded due to stoppage of trains.

It was great to see ordinary citizens come forward and give water shelter food to the stranded.

Now office has reopened and its amazing too see everybody back, considering many got home at 5 & 6 am, and there is no fear in people...

RYK

Bombay needs a CEO more than ever

The blasts today have elevated the need for a Bombay CEO beyond ideological & argumentative levels. This city just cannot recover from emergencies as there is no-one incharge. No one to coordinate between police, trains, municipality, buses, hospitals, etc. Every agency is doing their own thing, and everyone from the Chief Minister to the Police Commissioner are scrambling to coordinate.

So the political parties have to put their ambitions aside for once, and have to reform the political system to bring one person in charge of Bombay. I don't care what they do, make Bombay a SAR within Maharashtra or any other formula. It just has to be done.

Maturing of the Indian BPO industry

The last 5 years have all been gung ho stories of how companies in the US & Europe and shifting their back office operations to India. Movies have been made on the subject and Westen legislators have even tried to pass bills blocking offshoring to India. All the while Indians have had a glow on their faces about how India has arrived and how they are going to win all the jobs from the West.

Now comes the reality check, with three hi-profile BPOS shutting shop in India: PowerGen UK, Apple Computer, and Belair UK. There have also been stories of how some UK banks have been advertising that they take their calls "at home" and have won customers as a result.

These are all signs that BPO activity in India is maturing. Like every story there are two sides to it and the second side is now emerging. Naturally offshoring to India is not for everyone; and India is a 3rd world country with massive red tape problems and infrastructure shortages. The BPO story that was built on the backs of massive undersea communication cables and India's large English speaking population, is now running into India's legendary red tape and infrastructure shortage reality.

So, its not going to be all gung ho stories from now. Good. Better to have a real picture than a rosy one. It'll stop Western companies from foolishly rushing into India and they'll now take a more serious calculated approach, by doing a better study and deputing better managers.

Will BPO growth stall? Does water ever not find its own level? As long as there are cost efficiencies to be achieved, companies in the West will continue to offshore to India. Then will come a time, when due to sheer practice, like in software, Indian companies will posses competencies ahead of their Western counterparts and will become essential to offshoring.

Further, all parts of the BPO industry are now maturing, from the attitude of workers to the attitude of the government and the infrastructure requirements. BPO outfits too are maturing. Going are the <500>

Blogs tracking VC/Investment activity in India

1. www.vccircle.com - written by a journalist tracking the India scene

2. www.venturewoods.org - put together by a bunch of Indian VC & Angel types

3. www.earlystagevc.typepad.com - not India related, but a good insightful blog by a Silicon Valley VC

Good news entrepreneurs: Angels have landed

Agnus my good friend today asked me how she could get a "good investor" to help scale her beauty business. She hadn't been able to reach out to any investors who would invest Rs. 1 crore at this early stage. She was quite frustrated and was further concerned that because shes a woman if anyone would take her seriously.

This has been the story for long in India. There has been no organized way of reaching early stage investors. So the only ones who could grow were those with family money or those who had something to mortgage to raise debt. Or you could start a business like Agnus has, but you couldn't scale it. There are millions of such stories, resulting in massive frustration amongst Indian entrepreneurs.

Some time back TIE came with promise of helping entrepreneurs in this critical phase, but in reality has done precious little in India. I myself was so frustrated that I have been planning to set-up a network of early stage investors. Now I'm glad someone has beaten me to it...

Band of Angels India is an organization of investors who invest anywhere between Rs. 25lacs to Rs. 5 cr (approx $50,000 to $1 million) in your company if they like you, like your team and like your idea. Not only do they invest, they tend to play an important role in guiding you and helping through their contacts and resources.

If you want to win the patronage of an Angel, you need to submit a short note about yourself and your idea. Try and pick an investor who has interest in your sector and is from your city (historically it is found that Angels usually invest in companies founded out of their own city because its convenient for them to keep and eye and play a role).

In the event you receive an investment, make sure you keep everything clean, above board, and report every week to your investor what you are doing.

Why does the Angel invest? Typically, Angel investors are looking to grow their money 10 times in your company within a period of 3 - 4 years. So if they put in $100,000, they would like $1 million back in 3 years. No this is not a loan so you don't have to pay it back by selling off your house. What you need is have a high growth plan that in 3 years time will require a much larger investment by a Venture Capitalist ($3 million upwards), and the VC will buy out the Angel's equity in your company, thus enabling the Angel to get his money out and make a good return on it. Ofcourse this is not always the case and there are many models, but this is generally the model.

I also suggest you do lots of research before you contact the Angels, so that you thoroughly understand the entrepreneur investor relationship; and you understand what investors want. Research through Google and Google Blog Search.

Good luck and here is wishing both you and BOA India tons of success. If you have any questions feel free to ask through the comments section of this post.

Bombay's annual holiday

Today is Bombay's forced annual holiday, occurring every July. The city's transport comes to halt with the train system and the roads shutting down. Why? because it rains. Or as the Chief Minister puts it "unprecedented rain".

So every year we receive "unprecedented rain", and every year millions are stranded in their cars, trains and buses. Offices are shut and deadlines are missed. Businesses suffer massive losses. Tourists and outstation business people miss their appointments. Its a mess.

The people of Bombay put on a brave front and call it "the spirit of Bombay". How we brave the rains every year and still put on a smiling face that week at work after being stranded for as much as 6 - 8 hrs on the road without toilets.

The politicians & bureaucrats couldn't care less, about the spirit or the people of Bombay. They are too busy with one upmanship and fighting their daily petty battles with each other.

So it continues......

Levels of Intelligence

Einstien Said:

"The Levels of Intelligence go as follows:

- at the bottom you have Dumb
- next comes Intelligent
- then Smart
- Brilliant
- then Genius

- and above all Simple "

Send flowers to your fav team!

Flora2000.com has been running a cool service since the start of the worldcup allowing you to send flowers to your favourite team. The flower delivery happens in Germany straight to the team's hotel and card containing your message to your fav player is attached.

Mumbai rudest?

Mumbai Skyline
Originally uploaded by shivampancholi.

A recent survey shows mumbai to be the world's rudest city. Why? because unlike other cities Mumbai is not trained to say pseudo Thank Yous; and not trained to hold doors open.

The survey was carried out by 2000 journalists, who obviously have more book knowledge than a connection with themselves.

Mumbai isn't clean, or slick, or 1st world; but Mumbai is easily one of the most pleasant & safe cities to live in. Ask any woman who lives in Mumbai and she will immediately tell you "I love how safe I feel here". The ultimate test: "feelings", not actions!

Viva Africa

Ghana Fans after Victory

Ghana's advancement to the 2nd stage puts Africa's stamp on the world cup.

Never has the world cup seen more beautiful football than played by the African teams. Their grace, passing, clean play are all superlative, surpassing even the mighty South American teams.

And football is just the sport for the poor nations of Africa. In India we play elitist cricket, an extremely expensive sport that requires lots of equipment and ground maintenance. WORNG CHOICE for a 3rd world country like India.

Go Africa Go.

Believe in Ghosts?

Nither did I. Till i saw this video of a car advertisement filmed in the UK. The advertisement was never released because of the strange phenomena.

In the video as the car moves along something strange can be heard and seen among the trees. Watch the video carefully with sound.

Live: World Cup RSS Feed

For those of you using Google.com/ig, view World Cup scores, timings, results, etc as an RSS field.
Click here or on the image above to add this to Google.com/ig

After you add it, this is how it appears on Google:

Bombay property bull run over too

Along with the end of the Bombay Stock bull run (now a bear hug), property prices have stablized and infact they seem to be ready to move down.

Had to happen. Property went up between 30% & 80% June to Feb. What were people thinking? This is gonna sustain. Just shows how underexposed Indians are to market forces.

Anyway, the situation now is that prices have frozen at their peaks and very few transactions are happening. Let see how much longer sellers can hold on. Interest rates up at 8.5% dosen't help anyone, so it looks like we're at the start of a bear market.

Good time to sell if you find a buyer, but don't count on it!

Mad India Video

Oh yea

Have just finished a Sat night at Seijo and am waiting for the valet to get my car. Rs. 28,000 is not a bad bill for 8 considering it's been an eventful 2 weeks at the Bombay Stocks and my friends were going heavy on the single malts. Its sweltering and the damn valet is taking long to get my car. Idiot. Probably comes from a village.

Rs. 20 is too much of a tip for making us melt in the heat for 15 mins. Anyway its generous considering everybody else only tips Rs. 10. Who carries small change anyway.

Read the Sunday papers all about some idiot in Delhi who tried to burn himself over the quota issue. Yea what quotas you ask, exactly, who cares. Education quotas. We all know its all a political gimmic anyway. Nothings gonna change. Anyway what differance does it make, India's booming and nothings gonna stop the boom. I'm sure anyway that these facts that 600 million people in India live on Rs. 45/day are wrong. But then maybe not. Rs. 1350 a month is a lot in a village and anyway they don't pay any taxes, we do, so they're living of us. Yea, did you know Bombay pays 80% of India's income tax.

Good to see the Chief Minister getting rid of slums in Bombay. These people have no business squatting on public property. Indians are such a civic less species. Its such an embarrsement to pass these slums, especially with foreign visitors in town. Thank God, Shantaram was published and has romanticized the slums. Anyway, foreigners don't understand like we Indians do that these people are used to living in slums, so dosen't make a differance to them.

Same with the beggars. These people are not beggars, they are professionals. Begging is hard work. Look at them carefully, thats make up they have on, its boot polish. Otherwise how does your face become so black, just by begging? I've been seeing the same beggars for years, they all have a new gig every few months. Rotten creatures. Its the no. 1 reason why India dosen't get enough tourists, because people are always harrasing them.

Good Aamir Khan stood up to the BJP and gave them a piece of his mind. Those guys have gone too far. Its about time someone took the political parties on. A friend of mine has become a politican. Idiot. Who wants all the stress. Its all games anyway. I don't even vote, or know anyone who votes. Its a waste of time standing in lines and anyway our vote dosen't count. I'm sure in a few years there'll be Internet Voting, will vote then.

They've changed the national anthem playing at the movie halls before the movies. Its better and clearer now. But I noticed strangely that none of the instruments in the national anthem are Indian. They are all brass band. Idiots. Someone should tell them to use some Indian instruments...

Interesting Mosaic

Someone has created a very cool algo that does an endless mosaic using real images. Very fascinating and some high quality photography as a bonus.

http://interact10ways.com/usa/information_interactive.htm

Skype Handphone

Have been using this US$15 Taiwanese handset with Skype for sometime now. It plugs into the USB port and starts working immediatelly. To make a call, simply double click your Skype contact, or dial the number from the phone!

When you receive a call, the handset rings(!) and you can answer it just like you answer a cell phone.

I've taken Skype In numbers in the US & UK, so my friends and busines associates call me on those all the time.

The quality is amazing, similar to a good cell phone connection. The device is simple to use, even for non techies, and no hassle with stupid headphones and mic.

Reading RSS thru Google.com/ig - RePrinted !

Now that I have started this blog, I'd like to share with you how you can read this blog and the thousands of other blogs out there.

The best tool I have found till date is www.Google.com/ig. Here you can set-up this page and all the content from the blogs you want to read, or any other publication for that matter. See my Google.com/ig page above.

1st you need to sign in with your Gmail account. After that, you can add content from the Blooggers you like, for example, to add this blog click in Add Content on the top right hand corner and feed in http://bombaycurry.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

Another way to add to your Google page is click the "Add to Google" button you'll find on blogs like this one (right hand column usually).

Go on now, give it a try, its a great way to track news and niche publications. This way you will always be able to keep an eye on news that is meaningful to you.

---------------------------------------
This blog was 1st published 2 months back; I thought I'd run it again since a lot more of you are reading now.

PS. Not just Blogs, you can read all RSS feeds thru www.Google.com/ig

Skype SMS & Google Notebook

Just a quick blog here to tell you about 2 new interesting releases this past week, have been using them since, and am happy to recommend them here as useful additions.

Skype 2.5 Beta

Cool new feature here is sending SMS to your Skype friends. There are some bugs in it, so maybe you want to await the main release.
Get Skype 2.5 Beta here>>

Google Notebook

This useful tool is a downloadable and it allows you to copy stuff from the web and paste it in your Notebook, without losing the format/layout. For example, you could copy a section of this blog and paste it into your notebook for future reference.

There is an online dashboard along with Notebook where you can view, search and manage all your notes.
Get Notebook here>>

Thailand Tales

Stayed at the Nilert Park on Wireless Road. ( this photo is from their poolside). Remind me to bypass it next time. Great loaction and property, but there appears to be something amiss in the quality of maintenance design in general (creaking doors, no hot water at night, faulty lamps). Gives the impression the Swiss should stick to running banks as hospitality dosen't seem to be among their strong points.

Not a total disaster though; visiting chef Boris Benecke, Michelin 2 stars, put together one of the finest lunches I have ever eaten. Cheers to you Boris. If you're in BKK and reading this anytime before 14th May '06, go get yourself a great meal.

Bangkok as usual totally swept me off my feet. If there is a more energetic city anywhere, I haven't been to it. By day BKK is a bustling business town with high transaction business being conducted in sophisticated buildings. By night, Bangkok is a tourist and entertainment paradise, offering everything from fine dining to Go Go Bar entertainment. And its not just the indoors, the outdoors are buzzing with life 24/7!


I was looking to find out what's happening on the Internet scence in Thailand. Looks like lack of early stage Venture Capital hasn't allowed the Internet business to fully develop. Which is a pity because Thailand has an estimated 8 million users, and growing fast. Lets not forget, this country now has 51% mobile phone penetration, so keep in mind the sophistication of the users. The leading portal in Thailand appears to be Sanook.com, with MSN, Yahoo & Google not far behind. I think it's a matter of time before the Chinese and Korean portals enter to service this large and vibrant market.

It's interesting to see the large expat workforce in Bangkok, working harmonously with the Thais. Many senior managerial positions are filled by expats, which is great, as it ensures world class quality in the Thai companies. I think it's a super mix and something India must encourage too. Globally, including the UK & US, its common to find several expat and overseas managers...the hallmark of a world class workforce.


The quality of Thailand's infrastructure is truly dazzling, with everything well thought out and immaculately maintained, which says a lot about the skills and culture of the everyday Thais. This country will go a long way both in capatalizing on opportunities in Asia and in surviving tough times.

Phuket

Last week was a short week in Bangkok, both with Labour Day Monday and King's Coronation Friday, so decided to do a quick trip to Phuket on Friday.


If you hadn't told me the Tsunami hit Phuket on 26th Dec '04, I would never have beleived it. Look around and there isn't a trace of the Tsunami. The infrstrature is immaculate, the beaches are clean and the people are always smiling. It's truly Amazing Thailand.


Rented a bike and drove around to some of the main beaches: Kata, Katong, Kamla & Patong. While Patong is more your Pataya style Go Go Bar entertainment and fun to visit, the other beaches have fine dining and classy bars. Had a great dinner at Boat House on Kata beach, highly recommended.



Its easy to see why Phuket is one of the most sought after places gloabally for a 2nd home. The great infrastructure, nice people, super value, excellent weather and tons of water sports, all add up to a combinations thats hard to beat. If you haven't been there yet, don't miss out any longer, the time spent getting there is more than worth it.


Clicking on images

Did you know that you can click on the still images in this blog to see a larger version of them? Try it.

Rocking You

(please wait for images to load above)

cool? see www.RockYou.com

YouTube, Myspace, Blogger, Wiki....

Love the entire self publishing phenomena thats going on. Blogger kicked it off, where bored guys like me could pen down their advise for the whole world. Then MySpace brought a whole new twist to personal pages and expressing yourself on the web. Wikipedia was the intellectual's contribution where anyone could go contribute their knowledge on any subject. And now YouTube allows you to post your home videos and share it with anyone, confirming your theory that there are a lot of wired people out there. Click on the image above to watch this hilarious video posted on YouTube

Cool Service: Streamload

I recently discovered Streamload, which gives you 25GB free online storage! You can back-up/store any files you like. You can then download the files when and where you want. Far better than storing them in your Gmail account :)

File emailing

Instead of emailing large files and clogging office email systems, Streamload allows you to upload the file to their system and it then sends a link to the recpients. Very nice for those large 5MB attachments. This is a free service.

File Sharing

You can even share selected files with anyone you like. For example, I can upload a presentation to streamload and then email a link to those I want to share it with; or I can post the link here on my blog and users can download the presentation. Checkout this WorldCup 06 file I've uploaded and am sharing - click here.

India needs: to consider it's export markets

PayPal, Netscape, Blogger, Google, Friendster, Ebay, Amazon, Cisco, etc., as one looks around the Internet landscape, we see it filled with companies with roots in Silicon Valley. Infact, one would be hard pressed to find a major Internet company that does not have some form of linkages with the Valley. Or another way of looking at it, there would be very few cool new products and companies if the Valley wasn’t around.

Secret of the Valley

One thus has to ask, what got the Valley started. And why do other parts of the world not have the equivalent of the Valley? Is it the technology, the ideas, the capital? Or is it something else. There appears to be ideas, capital, technology all over the world, so why isn’t there the equivalent of a Valley elsewhere? Or is there? In Taiwan, there is the equivalent of the Valley for consumer electronic companies; in Israel, there is the equivalent of the Valley for defense products; and one could even stretch and say there is the equivalent of the Valley in India for spiritual products (show me a modern spiritual product without linkages to India). So what is it that drives the creation of a Silicon Valley?

It is market that drives the creation of a Valley. Once there is a market, capital, technology, ideas all converge to capture it. In the US, the size of the domestic market and ease of accessing it has led to the creation of the Valley. In Taiwan, the strong OEM market has led to a flourishing consumer electronics industry. In India, the strong domestic market for spirituality has led to the creation of an eco system supporting spiritual products (why do all the Gurus come from India?). Similarly in Israel, constant struggle with Arab neighbours created a market for defense products and with the government allowing the private sector to participate a robust industry sprung up producing innovative defense products.

Getting your market

So how do you get your market? You can sit and wait for a domestic market to arrive. Or you can look at the greater picture and factor in the export market, like Korea, Japan, Taiwan have done so successfully. Why be constrained by borders? Why do people get scared of international markets? Israel’s Foreign Minister said “We produce defense products for 1.1 billion people, 0.1 in Israel and 1 billion in India”. But I never heard an Indian CEO talk like that.

What Indian CEO & Brand Mangers are afraid of

India is scared of export markets, especially in the consumer space. That is why we don’t have a SINGLE consumer brand abroad. Not even one. Not tea, not beer, not TV, not furniture, not software, nothing. Even Sri Lanka has Dilmah tea. But India has nothing. Speak to marketing managers and brand managers in India about creating products & brands in export markets and they look at you as if you should be in the mental ward of Breach Candy hospital. It’s the classic story of the frog that never ventured beyond his pond to the ocean. Indian managers will go on telling you about how to tap the domestic market, about how cool India is, and about how much progress we are making as a nation. Ok agreed, but please go and see the ocean beyond your boundaries.

This psyche is possibly there because of 2 reasons:

1. India is a large country with a historically decent domestic market, so, unlike Japan, Korea, Taiwan, one never really had to go abroad to get a market.
   
2. Indians have never really traveled overseas much, especially in their youth. This was due to governmental constraints. This is changing fast, but the formative years of the current generation have been inward looking.
   

We need to change

But we need to change fast. We have a unique opportunity ahead of us. Thanks to a large number of Indians that immigrated to the US in the 70s, 80s & 90s, and made it big, India commands respect and connectivity in the Valley and other circles that matter. And we have strong domestic talent to back this up. We have great managers, engineers and vendors; we can roll out products faster & cheaper than our friends in the US or Europe. Given this combination, India can be at the forefront of new & innovative technology & media products.

We now need the market; and we can’t wait for the market for technology products to reach 50 million Sec A users (5 – 7 years away). We need to go out and get this market from the Asian region. India + Middle East + South East for example, easily gives us the needed market. Or India + Australia gives us the needed market. It’s a question of tweaking our products and designing them ground up for these international markets; and undertaking a marketing roll out. All the other ingredients are there.

So will Indian CEOs & Brand Managers wake up? I sure hope so. Because if they keep waiting for this Indian market to arrive, they are going to disappoint a lot of our NRI supporters in the Valley & elsewhere. And more importantly, they will do injustice to the opportunity ahead of them.

Bombay, managing the next 8 years

In the excitment of India's new awakening, the fact that Indian cities are woefully underequipped to handle the pressures of growth, is being left out. Everday I meet people who are commuting 4 hrs a day to get to work and back, in conditions that guarantee a fast burnout. Everyday I hear from people about how they are facing chronic shortages of water in their apartments. And evey other day newpapers carry stories on how Bombay like the rest of India might soon face severe power cuts. On the flip side I don't see the political leaders taking any serious steps in addressing these issues. Yes, things are happening in pockets, like privatization of airports and a series of flyovers; missing are greater steps like building a metro rail system, overhauling the city administration processes, agumenting water supply, etc.

There are NO major projects that have gotten off the ground that can assit Bombay in water, power & commuting for the next 8 years! What is the city going to do in the meanwhile? How do businesses stay productive?

As the captain of my ship, inorder to survive the next 8 years and ensure that productivity does not take a majot hit, I am:

1. Stopping recruitment from areas beyond 8 KM. If my HR can't recruit from a catchment base of 5M people, it can take a hike!

2. Moving key officers into the 8 KM radius zone

3. Considering reloacting the office to a more central area so that more officers come into the 8 KM radius zone

4. Installing power backups in the office

5. Increasing office water storage capacity and arranging for water supply by tanker

6. Increasing the strength of the "property management" team

One ofcourse wonders what the politicians are upto. Instead of taking up non issues like shuting down dance bars and acting as moral police (when scoiety needs none), they need to become better leaders ensuring that Bombay and other Indian cities keep climbing up the livability charts instead of going in the opposite direction. But I'm not optimistic that they can see this. After all, most politicians hail from rural areas and their exposure to city and world living is weak. They also do not seem competent enough to focus on the greater picture of livability (as compared to money). So the going will be rough.

The bail out will come from the huge private cities coming up in the SEZs by companies like Reliance. These privately administered cities promise to be infrastructure complete and well run. The 1st one is expected to start by 2009, reaching maturity by 2015, providing relief to much harried Bombayite.

Party Over?

- 3 record months of Mutual Fund collections

- Property prices 100% up over August '05

- Gold, metals and commodities at record high

- Housewifes turned day traders

- Taxi Drivers buying stocks

- Stock market increasing 25% in 3 months

...here comes the headache

- Oil at $70... and predicted to rise

- Looming war in Iran...Attack in June (the US always starts a war in June)

- Falling Rupee...with oil zooming, the rupee has to tumble

and the hangover...

- Falling Rupee means FIIs will pull out of India becasue market gains will be offset by the Rupee fall

- Because almost everybody in India has put money into stock, funds, property, or gold in the last 6 months, it looks like there isn't any more liquidity left

- Will the oil companies revise prices? Yes, within a few weeks, making all products a little bit costlier

- Iran war means OIL is in trouble and all big projects are postponed

Yours truly predicts the party in all Indian markets is over:

- Get out of your Mutual Funds

- Get out of your Stocks

- Get out of Gold (partially, though Gold is always good longterm)

- Get out of Rupee if you can and into Euros

- Get out of Art, your Jamini Roy has reached its peak

- Postpone all Property Purchase decisions

- If you have any Property that you have wanted to sell, start doing it ASAP

Safest things right now:

1. Fixed Deposits
2. Cash
3. Euros

How bad will be the crash?

- Actually the fundamentals of the Indian growth story are real, but becasue of speculators, the markets are off, so expect corrections

- The stock market is about 20% off, so expect a correction to around 9500 to 10,000

- Property market is anywhere between 20% & 50% off, so expect some serious corrections there

- Gold has historically shown only an upward trend, so if you have sustaining power, hold on, else sell. I would say Gold will undergo a 10% correction

The best thing to do...

...is start a new business or invest in the growth of your own business or a known venture. India is ripe with opportunity in almost every sector. Look for good management teams and invest in them, they will reap a great harvest and beat ANY gains you can possibly make by speculating.

...if you buy property, make sure its rentable fast. Don't buy for speculation, buy to earn from day one

...and please get rid of your Indian art. Thats an overhyped bubble of paintaings that no self respecting European gallery will even stock, only bought previously by Indians from each other because they couldn't afford real art. Now hyped by speculators who don't know the differance between a Tayeb Mehta, a sofa, and a Pablo Picasso (was Pablo the same as Picasso they ask;) )

Follow up note (16th April 06) The day I posted this the Bombay Stock Exchange fell 342 points and the next day it fell 118 points. While this may be profit booking, it could also be the factors mentioned above in play.

Follow up 2 (18th April 06) The market wiped out all its losses and even made a nice gain. The results of TCS, BHEL and other companies were extremely good and the outlook is bright.

CreativeCommons huh?

With the ever growing mass of user generated content on the web, the question of rights of the material and its usage, sharing, modification, etc have come into question. If you upload an image to FLICKR can it be used by magazine for profit? Can your contribution to Wikitravel or material from your blog be used? And how do you disallow the use of the material for commercial purposes while allowing general usage on the web (sharing, reference, etc) for non-commercial purposes? The recent Adam Curry vs. Weekend case has brought the Creative Commons license to limelight and has upheld the license which has been a huge boost to online contributors such as myself.

So what is Creative Commons again?
From Wikipedia:

"The Creative Commons website enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws create for the sharing of information.

The project provides several free licenses that copyright holders can use when releasing their works on the web. They also provide RDF/XML metadata that describes the license and the work that makes it easier to automatically process and locate licensed works. They also provide a "Founders' Copyright" [1] contract, intended to re-create the effects of the original U.S. Copyright created by the founders of the U.S. Constitution.

All these efforts, and more, are done to counter the effects of the dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture pervading modern society; a culture pressed hard upon society by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema."

In the Curry vs Weekend case, Adam Curry (a well known MTV presenter) had published pictures of his family on FLICKR under Creative Commons. A Dutch tabloid, Weekend published these pictures in their magazine. Curry challenged this in court and won a ruling in his favour upholding the Creative Commons license.

Yesterday I released the above images (shot by me) to Wikitravel (See my contributions to Dubai & South Bombay) under the CC-by-SA license, feeling safe that they will contribute to user created content and can be shared liberally under a contempory license which uploads the GNU ideals.

Widely generated, mass contributed, copyright free ideas, creatives, techniques are in the ultimate self interest of mankind. They leverage the collective mind and promote efficient, high quality, low defect material. Go on become a contributor.

Doing Business in India

As the story of the growing (some would say "Miraculous" ) economic boom in India spreads, I'm getting calls and emails from friends and associates far and wide. Everyone wants to know whats going, whats changed and if the market is too hot to enter. Ok, so even the most conservative of equity mutual funds have grown 50% year on year last 4 years. The property market has doubled in the same period. So have salaries. And there are jobs for everyone; and money for anyone who wants to set-up a business. A friend of mine raised $18 million last month; another raised $7 million. Yet another, who is a real estate developer has just purchased a 2000 acre island off Bombay and is developing that into a complex of luxury homes. A travel agent in Delhi ordered a 100 Airbus ..... and so on & on......

So how do you get in?

First, read these reports from E&Y: One is suitably called Doing Business in India; and the other is about Conducting Private Equity Transactions in India. Both these reports should give you an introduction on the state of affairs here.


Second, fimalirise yourself with news and business headlines from India. Some good sources are: Times of India, Business Standard, MyIRIS, Google News India.

Third, start correspondence with Indian head hunters, investment bankers, your consulate and trade bodies.

Fourth, read Shantaram :)

Fifth, get out of your ac office and make a trip down here. Goto Bombay, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. It will give you a feel of the place (chaoitic) and the mood of the people. Try and time it with a trade show or conference.

Sixth, If you have time, check out Dubai & Bangkok, and you'll get a sense of the whole region and how it all plays out.

Good Luck

Google Finance - Made in India

Google Finance is the 1st visible release from the India Dev Centre in Bangalore. Apparently created by Navneet Loiwal & A C Narendran in the 20% self time that Google gives programmers (surprising how Google credits everything to the 20% time nowdays...nothing happening during billable time :)) and developed in "record time".

If you check out the Google Jobs section, there are pages and pages of positions open in their India offices. So expect to see lots more products coming from there.

I also heard some whispers that a major rewite of parts of the Google search engine were underway at Hyderabad...keep watching this space.

Mobber - Web 2.0 Chat - site visitor to visitor

Just added Mobber to this blog, go see it at the bottom and sign-up. Mobber allows you to see who else is on this site and have a real time chat with them. Super Cool.

I love these Web 2.0 ideas, the innovations out there just blow me away. These innovations are a paradim shift in the way we communicate; and the way businesses reach out to customers. They make things so much simpler and cheaper. Awesome.

Welcome Indian SEZs with investment of $23,000 Million!

India yesterday cleared 140 Special Economic Zones with a proposed investment of $23,000 Million. Wow! This is going to drive the already super charged Indian economy into Turbo drive.

Think about it, the implications go way beyond the $23,000 million infrastructure investment:

• This is going to create new privately run cities and industrial zones, where more than likely the administration is going to be superb.
• Here foreigners can buy housing and set up companies Tax Free for 10 years. This is going to lead to massive migration from Europe to occupy these well run, low cost, great weather cities.
  
• Indian business can move from poorly run govenment cities like Bombay & Banglore to these new private cities.
• The investments in non infrastructure, like buildings, factories and everthing that goes into filling them up is likely to be a several times multiple of the infrastructure investment.
  

Yours Truly has been predicting here that India & Asia is the "new world", and these are the surest signs towards this.

Here is another related story on some of the plans of one of India's large business houses.

Harvard to open 3rd research centre in Asia

Next week Harvard opens its 3rd research centre in Asia, in Bombay. This is significant, considering it only has 1 in Europe, 1 in South America and 1 in California. Why does Asia get 3? Its booming and it's the future. These are all signs of what I have been reporting here as the huge influx towards Asia.

Read the full story here: http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=6923&section_id=7

Asia, the new world

Another sign of the growing Asia-Asia global role, Indian & Chinese bilateral trade will exceed $20 billion in '07.

India has made huge efforts to grow relations within Asia, showing remarkable maturity in policy. Some examples:

• Free Trade Agreement with Thailand signed last year
• Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN to be signed by year end
• Open Skies agreement allowing unlimted flight with South East Asian countries

All this means freer movement of people & products in the region.

What does this mean for the world? We already know that Asia is an incredibly low cost place to live and produce goods. It has great weather year round and generally provides a fabulous lifestyle. One only has to visit Bangkok, Phuket, Kula Lampur and Dubai to see the huge number of European expats who have made these places home. Soon, other Asian cities will improve their infrstructure and attract more & more expats. Did you know there are over 65,000 Americans living in India? And 3 months back I read a Business Week story that carried a survey showing that over 2 million Brits wanted to buy a home in Asia.

Yet another story carried today.

What has so far been a minor trickle is bound to become a flood. I predict that we are going to see massive migration of people from Europe to the Asian region starting now and continuing for alteast 40 years. This will make Asia the global leader in talent.

Whats the Internet India story?

As many of you now know, InternetWorldStats reported that the total no. of Internet users in India crossed 50 Million in Dec '05. Just today, PwC released a research report which estimates Internet Advertising will grow at a CAGR of 50% to increase over 7 fold from the current $22 m/pa to $170/pa by 2010.

Yet, many still still doubt this. Infact, a fellow Indian blogger has recently posted that he estimates the regular Internet users in India at around 5M.

So whats going on?

I am afraid the doomsayers are wrong and the Indian Internet story is booming. Lets not talk about household connectivity, but lets talk instead of connectivity, most of which is happening in offices. In each and every office I have been to in India, and this includes small time property agents, sharebrokers, travel agents, car garages, etc., I have seen that the staff have access to the Internet. From checking cricket scores to chatting and surfing media sites, I always find it enlightening when I sneak a peak at the monitors I'm passing by.

And like most things in India, the Internet in India is being delivered through the unorganized sector: your unfriendly neighbourhood cablewalla (cable operator). These guys get a 1 or 2 MBPS line from an Exxat or Hathway and supply 30 - 40 people at Rs. 500/month, no guarantee for uptime. Thats good enough for surfing in a country where even the power is not guaranteed 24hrs a day in most places!

Further, I have always maintained that all statistics miss out the unorganized sector in India. Take the case of flowers. By classic statistical methodology, flowers are sold through florists as bouquets or arrangement. So according to APEDA, India is one of the lowest flower consuming countries in the world. Wrong. Indians use flowers everyday, from daily puja (prayer) to women wearing it in their hair everyday. The Indian style of using flowers as compared to the West is different: In India flowers are consumed without stem, and the heads are woven together to form a haar (leis) or gajra (wrist or hair band). These haars & gajras are sold through temple shops; or delivered by vendors to peoples homes every morning; or sold on traffic signals. Net result: India has amongst the highest hectares of flower cultivation per capita of population, worldwide !

InternetWorldSats obtains it's Internet usage data from Nielsens, which uses a comprehensive methdology, including accounting for all the hardware equipment sold in a country like routers, lan cards, monitors, mice (is that plural for a computer mouse?), cable wires, mother boards, etc. Again, with most computer hardware supply in the unorganized sector in India, this is great methodology.

For those of you who are interested, you can chew over reports released by the Internet & Mobile Association in India at http://www.iamai.in. Don't miss the report that shows 4.6 M Indians use online banking, and please, observe their methodology before you discount it.

Welcome friends from WebmasterWorld

Now that I have added this blog's address to my profile in WebmasterWorld, many of you have emailed me. Thanks for your support and I hope that I am able to give you a good "India View". Keep those mails coming.

Those of you wondering what the above means, I am a "Senior" member on WebMasterWorld, an (influential) online forum where the dot com guys hang out. Go check it out: www.WebMasterWorld.com

Dubai ports deal

Leno: Did you hear about this, now to get even with us the United Arab Emirates … they are talking about not buying any American-made products. Oooh. Yea, we got them there too: We don't make any, they're all made in China & India

Finding blogs using Google Blogsearch

Are you still reading the papers everyday or watching TV news channels to get your news? Well I've got news (!) for you: you're a dinosaur. They call it mass media for a reason: it's for the masses! If you want cutting edge, raw, non censored news & information, you need to read blogs on various subjects from around the world.

To search for Blogs you have to use Google's specialized Blog Search Engine: http://blogsearch.google.com

Try some of these searches:

India Internet

Gmail Talk - the new messenger within Gmail

Bush Visits India

India Stocks

European Economy

Iran Next Steps

AJAX PHP

Reading blogs on a daily basis

Now that I have started this blog, I'd like to share with you how you can read this blog and the thousands of other blogs out there. The best tool I have found till date is www.Google.com/ig. Here you can set-up this page and all the content from the blogs you want to read, or any other publication for that matter. See my Google.com/ig page above.

1st you need to sign in with your Gmail account. After that, you can add content from the Blooggers you like, for example, to add this blog click in Add Content on the top right hand corner and feed in http://bombaycurry.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

Another way to add to your Google page is click the "Add to Google" button you'll find on blogs like this one.

Go on now, give it a try, its a great way to track news and niche publications. This way you will always be able to keep an eye on news that is meaningful to you.

BombayHigh

before I settled for BombayCurry, I wanted to call this blog BombayHigh, but it was taken.
Go see for yourself whats on http://bombayhigh.blogspot.com/

Why this blog

While there are many blogs from India, and even from Mumbai (Bombay), I am yet to find one which provides a holistic perspective from Bombay on technology, youth, the Asian region and how India is shaping up in light of the dramtic awakening going on all over Asia.

So here goes......