Digital Social Networks over conventional publishing platform !!

Social Networks are the buzz word of the day. Every day you learn controversies created by social networks. A Minister had to face wrath for tweeting about the cattle class and governments going down because Social Networks provided platform to people to unite against the tyranny of the state. One prominent spokesperson of a leading political party had to go in hiding after follow up taken by netizens about his deeds ( You can read about this more in my earlier post here )

We have seen rise of Social Networks in India not more than last five years. People started using Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Slide Share etc. to keep their friends informed about whats happening in their public as well as private life by using these social networks. At certain point in time in the past suddenly Social Networks went viral and now you will find every fifth person using internet on at least one of these social networks. Following are some of the important characteristics of social networks.

Land full of Dichotomies !!!!

We the people of this land are full of dichotomies. Since last many days I am thinking on this post and the more I started thinking I got more evidences of this phenomena which I believe now is very deep rooted in our society.

We criticise politicians and government officials for being corrupt and being manipulative and promoting dynasties in politics.

What we do in our daily lives is no different than what our politicians do.

• We offer bribe to get our driving license,
• When we jump the signal we happily pay 100 bucks to the cop not insisting on receipt of the penalty.

Few battles of my life !!!!

Yesterday I heard Mahesh Murthy first time live :) in NASSCOM EMERGE OUT Pune 2012 and it was an awesome experience. He started speaking in his calm and soft voice about the journey of an entrepreneur. He spoke about eight to ten battles every entrepreneur has to fight and succeed to become an entrepreneur and what an amazing observation. At one point he said and I quote ' Just do what you are destined to do if you firmly believe in what you do, you don't know what ripple effect it will have on the world in the long run'.I literally had tears in my eyes and goosebumps in my stomach.

Now I'm almost a 40 year old largely unsuccessful entrepreneur however when introspected my journey I realised though I'm largely unsuccessful in most of my ventures however every failure contributed to make me what I am today. I guess apart from these classic battles Mahesh spoke about I was caught in an additional kind of battle during my every venture and it was trying to do something which is a bit ahead of time. Today I have decided to open the archives of my entrepreneurial journey and share the same with you.

Why I love Apple !!!

I am a convicted gadget enthusiast :) I have been using electronic gadgets since I started earning money. It started with a small 64 K Casio Digital Diary way back in 1996 and the journey is still on. I get amazed by the innovation happening around and so many interesting and fantastic gadgets showing up in the market to make life easier. 

I hooked up to mobile phones in early 2000. I bought my first Panasonic Mobile Handset in year 2000. Flaunting mobile phone was a kind of style those days. Later I shifted to Nokia and stayed with Nokia till late 2006. I shifted to Blackberry and started using Blackberry for their push e Mail service (At that point in time Push e Mail was a kind of unique thing and it was available only with Blackberry in India) I used a couple of Blackberry handset also used Palm Trio in the meanwhile then again shifted to Nokia E71. I still feel that E71 was the best smartphone available during that time and I think Nokia was so busy celebrating their success in that segment they almost ignored the entry of another giant who swiftly taken over the smartphone market i.e. Apple IPhone. 

The real issue of JOBS in our College Campuses

It was around the corner, people use to talk about this in whispers, all the stake holders were aware that it was happening but it all came out in open due to this article in Business Today

Please refer the article here http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/recruitment-racket-fraud-it-companies/1/187011.html

Placement is the real BUZZ WORD !!

As a Technology Enabled Education Services consultant I have been visiting college campuses since last seven years and whenever I meet the stake holders there such as Institute Directors, Principals, Training & Placement Officers or in few cases Students the only issue discussed is placements. Yes I do realise the importance of this particular issue and yes placements are really important in the career life span of a student and institute however there are few questions which needs to get answered before we dive deep into the problem itself.

I helped them loosing 10 Million in Sales !!!!

Our life is surrounded by experiences of number of products and services some good many bitter :( unfortunately in the country like us where consumer is still unorganised one can just pant and fume over the bitter experiences and let go on the other hand regarding some good experiences we cant share them effectively to aid others to make their mind in choosing the right options.

One of Alok's tweets reminded me of an idea I thought about sometime back to teach a bloody lesson to the companies who don't care about their consumers.

Today these companies are fooling us happily as they know that disgruntled customer cant do much besides due to gigantic growth they are getting loads of first time customers as a result they don’t bother to retain their existing customers. Actually its a saying in Sales that its easier to retain the customer than to acquire a new one however such sayings are becoming myths :( You walk in to any mobile company sales outlet and you find chaos, old customers quarreling for inefficient service and immediately next to them new customers buying the connections.

I have thought of a website which will quantify the harm done by stupid performance of the product or bad quality of the service received by the consumer on the sales of that company.

911 through Social Networks

The first disclaimer we all read when we run through the home page of Skype or similar kind of applications is that we can't assume this to be a communication tool we can depend on in the case of emergency. Still I would like to propose a strong case for use of Social Networks in the case of emergencies of any kind.

While checking out my timeline yesterday I found a couple of interesting tweets. Now if you notice this caring and helpless father on a traveling train is asking for help by using 140 Character twitter as his 911 distress call. I would like to bow to the ingenious of this person and immense faith he has got on his tweeple (Digital synonym of People) If you check the tweet it has received 23 retweets !!! Assuming that every user has minimum 50 followers, in the first chain of distribution the message must have spread to at least  1150 people in a flash and if these 1150 chose to retweet in such case you can just imagine the number this whirlwind can reach up to.

Is our Healthcare system healthy ?

The recent episode of 'Satyamev Jayate', on Medical Malpractices have created an cataclysimc effect on overall discussion on this topic. Though it will be too early to comment on the success of Amir's SMJ however one must admit that at least the choice of topics made is definitely good and thought provoking. The entire episode can be found here

Ultimate solution to save our democracy !!!

The real pity of our democracy is we don't choose at all !!! I mean not only we don't choose right people but many a times we simply don't choose people. If you look at any elections happening for last many years post independence the percentage of voting on average has never been above 50 % on national level of the entire vote eligible population. I really can't comment firmly as I don't have access to authentic data but its my understanding that the lower percentage of voting is not in the illiterate section of the population in fact it's the educated and elite class which don't vote. They have lot of logical and legitimate sounding reasons for not voting.

Fifth Pillar of Democracy: Social Networks !!!

When any civil structure gets dilapidated support needs to be given to the same to keep it stable. It is said that our democracy is founded on three pillars of Legislature, Judiciary and Executive however when we felt that three pillars are not sufficient to make the structure strong we provided support of the fourth pillar i.e. Press (Print & Electronic) It was expected out of this fourth estate to stay vigilant and question the wrong doings of the remaining three pillars. Now it seems that our weakening democracy is going to need another pillar to support itself, A fifth pillar now which is known as Social Networks.

When Idiot Box was not Idiot !!!!

It all use to start like this at 1730 hours every evening !!!!

I am talking about an golden era of our age old Doordarshan. When the idiot box use to wake up in the evening at 05:30 PM and go to sleep at 11:00 PM in the night and whatever use to happen in the meanwhile is something which no one from my generation can ever forget. There was only one channel on Doordarshan and till 08:30 PM we use to have regional programs on it and after 08:30 PM we use to get National Network programs. Some of the regional programs which I still remember are Gajara, Marathi comedy program, Santakukdi, Awo Mari Sathe in Gujarathi, a program on health care 'Arogya Sampada', 'Dyandeep', I remember that time Dyandeep Mandal (Group) were formed in many cities conducting various social programs. Certain TV Serials left a permeant mark on me for the lifetime like Nukkad every Monday at 09:00 PM

Paid Drinking Water Fountain: Business Idea to save Environment !!!!

I have written about this earlier somewhere however  now I feel the time has come for this idea to become a business. As I am aware that building businesses and seeking funds these days is not a child's play and therefore I am just letting this idea go. If someone finds this to be interesting either he/she can approach me or just take the idea forward and convert this into a business as ultimately its going to benefit mother nature and the environment.

No Cards Just Cash !!!!

Just received my Credit Card statement and realized that since last few months I'm on a kind of spending spree. Thanks to all sorts of Credit Cards I have got by the mercy of credit loving banks, though I have hardly missed any due dates for my credit cards ( After suffering from the famous debt trap for quiet a long period and it's a subject of another blog) somehow I realized that I'm spending on pretty unnecessary stuff or at least some of my purchases either could be postponed or even cancelled after a deep second thought.

Just notice your buying behavior and and how it changes in the presence of a card payment. We normally plan purchases and allocate funds to make those purchases from our budgets. We hardly consider the credit limit on our cards as a line of credit when we plan our purchases and in most of the cases purchases made on a credit card are unplanned or impulsive purchases. When you start convincing yourself how it's reasonable to make some unplanned or unscheduled purchase and you can do that by using your credit card you can straightaway assume that your have become a shopaholic. By the way there is a beautiful movie on this theme 'Confession of a Shopaholic', a must watch movie for all who feel shop crazily till they drop.

The Whole Fiasco of SRK detainment at US Airport.

Long ago in our country people indulged in entertainment industry were considered inferior. I am just stating the facts here and I do have respect for artists, actors and dancers however I just want to remind all that few years back it was considered inferior to act on the stage or on the screen. People who use to act or sing were never accorded equal stature in the society. Over a period of time we started giving importance, star status and glamour especially to the Film Stars and starlets (At times more than due importance) and slowly they started being treated differently than all of us. We forgot one thing that they are professionals and whatever they do they do so to earn money and hell lot of a money in this case.

Barring few respectable exceptions all the Film Stars are fake whatever we see on the screen is the cumulative effect of the story, direction, photography and hell lot of post production expertise and not only because of the genius of that star alone however success of the film is always accorded to the star alone. Off screen these people behave like they own this country and expect them to be treated differently or rather with some VIP privileges. Unfortunately in India we treat these junkies as celebrities and our government machinery dances to their tunes many times ( There are couple of exceptions wherein Sanjay Datta and Salman Khan were sent to prison however both of the cases are still pending and they are still roaming scot free on a bail)

Ten Years Ago !!!!

Ten years Ago
When we had to search for anything it used to be a very cumbersome process. Ask friends, associates or go to the library and search for the books from where you might get some information about your query. There was no guarantee that you would get the information and there was no guarantee at all how much time you would need to do this.

After Ten Years
Just google what you want to know and millions of pages would pop up in a fraction of a second to give you every piece of information available on the world wide web.

Ten Years Ago,
If you are new to any city and need to find an address it use to be very frustrating. Keep on asking people who may led or misled you to the intended place. Consider the time lost doing this exercise

After Ten Years,
You have google maps, GPS based navigators just enter the name of the place where you want to go and bingo the devise will give you turn by turn instructions.

Why I love Samsung Home Products

Why I love Samsung Home Products ?

A realization that we have bought the right product is such a good feeling and as a consumer we always long for such a feeling. While making the buying decision we ask friends and relatives, search for forums, visit many stores to understand different offerings and then we take a final call.

I'm sharing a story of my journey with Samsung a famous Korean brand with you which will definitely help you to make your buying decision if you are still stuck somewhere.

We all have been using many white goods such as TV, Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Microwave and many other since last many years. In fact in past owning these things was considered to be a mark of a stable and rich family however now thanks to the increasing living standards and disposable income had made it possible for anybody to have these now not so luxury products. I remember an era where TV was always use to be Crown, Fridge = Godrej, Mixer = Sumeet, Water Filter = Well O Fill. Life was easier then as the choices were very limited and products use to perform for lifetime. I remember some people use to buy brands like Sony, National, Panasonic, Voltas however such number was very limited and from the high class of the society.

The picture changed after the wave of globalization in early nineties. Many national and international brands jumped into the market to woo billions of Indian consumers. Each of them came with millions of dollars of budget for advertisements. Because of the multiplicity of brands buying decisions became complicated.

At such a juncture I started buying things for my home. The first purchase I made was of a fridge and washing machine and somehow we decided to go with Samsung, that time recently launched Korean brand. Since then we have added many products of that brand in our home and we are really happy and enjoying all these products without any problems.

What is amazing is the simplicity in the product design, features and ease of use of all the features. Intuitive user controls, very less clutter and an excellent after sales support. For any problem just dial their toll free 1800 number and pleasant and informed voice will ask you a couple of quick questions and will try to resolve the problem over the phone ( it happened with me twice as they could resolve the problem over the phone and that was amazing ) else they will promise a call back from the technical team, the call will come in next few hours from the relevant department to get few more details and bingo a trained, professional mechanic will ring the bell, the same day ( Most of the times ) and quickly and efficiently resolve your problem. Not only that he will give you some tips to use the product more effectively.

The feeling that you are backed by such a professional support network had been so strong for me that when it comes to buying any home product I first check with Samsung and if it's not available then hunt somewhere else.

Thanks Samsung for making my life easier !!!!!!