Book Review – The Google Story

Recently, I had finished reading The Google Story by David A. Wise. This is not a geek manual. There is enough technical information to keep the story moving without losing the reader in code waffle. Google was founded in 1998 and within a span of 17 years; it has become a world leader in internet. Founders Sergey and Larry started Google when they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in computer science. They both had a crazy idea to download entire information available on the Internet.

There is a lot in the book about the culture of Google, which is compared to a university campus more often than a corporation. Most people works in teams of three to five maximum, and engineers are given 20% time, one day a week in which to work on stuff that’s interesting to them, regardless of its commercial viability. One of the colleagues even writes an equation to explain the whole phenomenon: “youth + freedom + transparency + new model + the general public’s benefit + belief in trust = The Miracle of Google”. The Google story seems to be the mission to prove that equation from first principles.

It is also a business story. For the business reader, it’s fascinating to learn how venture capital firms, still reeling from the post dot com collapse, approached the infant Google with great suspicion, but found the founders and their ideas irresistible. One lesson from the book – no matter how brilliant your science and engineering credentials, you need a business person to talk to the Wall Street and lead your company into the IPO.

It also answers a question that most of our daily users have asked to some point: how does Google makes any money? Vise sees Google as just like any other media corporation in that regard: Advertising. Again the Google Adwords model is described simply. It is a great story. It is a series of chapters that read like articles. There is a whole chapter on Google Chef, Issues in China, and competitive wars with Microsoft. The Google story is the living example of dedication and continued struggle of men who succeeded in achieving their magnificent goals.

Barriers & Panacea to Women Entrepreneurship

Women today play multiple economic roles in our society. They are consumers, farmers, labourers, teachers, bankers, innovators, scientists, pilots and astronauts. Many are self-employed while some are turning entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship provides the most powerful economically empowering avenue for the women, for the community and the nation. But according to a report, it is estimated that globally there are only roughly 9.34 Million women owned formal small and medium enterprise in over 140 assessed countries.

The above data is very small. So why there are so few women Entrepreneurs? In my opinion, the four main barriers to women becoming entrepreneurs are these. The first set of limiting factors is intrinsic i.e. within the self and family. Most educated women are turned to take up jobs; it is easy and lends the stability of a fixed salary. But with more women leaders coming to the forefront on corporate boards and as entrepreneurs, like Indira Nooyi, Chanda Kochar, and Kiran Majumdar Shaw hopefully all intrinsic pressures will slowly fade away.

The second set of problems is the most critical. These include lack of access to resources like credit, technology and markets. Lack of access to formal, easy, collateral free, and transparent financing for women start-ups is a major problem area. Women also lack access to latest technologies that could enable them to climb up the value chain. The third factor that is a hindrance is that women are not always equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to tap opportunities. They lack exposure to practical aspects of running a business.

The fourth issue is that of networking. Creating wide and sustainable network of women producers and consumers is essential to build and nurture women entrepreneurship. There are many corrective measures to increase women entrepreneurship in India. Increase the volume of women support systems like child care and family support. Enlarge upon development and capacity building processes for soft skills, technology and management skills.

Amplify mentoring and market linkage to support for women owned enterprises through networks like women entrepreneur associations. Simplify the external entrepreneurial ecosystem by enabling ease of doing business. Make simpler government schemes eligibility criteria, documentation and clearance mechanisms. Bring in smarter technology and better inter-departmental coordination to enable simpler, faster, transparent and effective service delivery for women start-ups.

Snow Trek Expedition to Laka

The best travel stories are the ones that teach you something along the road. Being a sports lover, the dream of my life is to experience most of the sports. I remember the cheerful times when I used to play hide n seek, carom, soccer, and now taking up adventure sports with nature. 2015 has been my ninth year to go for Adventurous Trips to North India. As Every year, this time also the place was new and exciting. I would like to thank the Youreka Team for making me a part of this wonderful expedition. This time I decided to do something daring and thus I went for a Snow Trekking expedition to Laka for a time period of 8 days.

Laka is situated on the base of Dhauladhar Mountain Range which is the highest peak of Himachal Pradesh. It is a beautiful valley surrounded by green trees, fresh air, snow, sense of peace, and with a height of 11000ft. This place is located above the Triund peak and one can see the beautiful range from the Triund base camp, which is above Mcleodganj near Dharamshala. I along with a group of 23 others completed this expedition successfully.

The Journey to this long expedition started from Delhi on Thursday night and the very next day we reached the beautiful campus in Dharamshala. After taking some rest and knowing some basic skills, next day we geared ourselves up to trek till Triund. A long trek of 1300m was athough challenging but the scenic beauty of the mighty mountains made it easier for us to do the challenge. We stayed there for a night and began to trek towards Laka the very next day which was our final destination. We reached Laka by Sunday afternoon and for the first time I had experienced Hailstorm in Mountains which was like no ordinary. The snowballs were as big as Ferrero Rochers. After pitching our tents there, we took some rest for sometime which was followed by collecting wood for the bonfire in the forest.

Next day, we began our day with learning some techniques of Snow Craft. As the session got over it again started raining and for the first time I experienced snowfall in the month of June. Temperature dipped below and nights up there were freezing cold. On Tuesday, we went to Lahesh Cave and spent an afternoon in the cave. The cave was surrounded by clouds that were at a height of 12500-13000ft which is one third the height of Mt. Everest. The following night was therefore very challenging because of the continuous rain and cold breeze that hit us. But we accepted the challenge with full courage and fearlessness.

On Wednesday, we trekked back to our campus in Dharamshala and after five days I finally took a refreshing and had a sound sleep on a mattress. I felt incredible and actually patted myself for the endurance I had shown. I got to know the importance of water, kerosene, natural resources, tissue paper, food, fire, wood, and many other resources. For the first time, I lived without any sort of gadgets and internet for five days that helped me explore that there is a much more beautiful world beyond these artificial things. Although, I felt the absence of Internet that connects to the world but its absence helped me explore the other world virtually. I want to keep this spirit of adventure alive in me for all my life. This helps me to be strong, blissful, fresh, and motivated and that helps me to lead a better life ahead.

I hope the next expedition is going to be more longer and challenging than this one!

Symbols of Women Power in India

The status of Women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. History of Women in India has been eventful. In Modern India, women have held high offices in India including that of the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Olympic Medal winner, an Astronaut, and to the CEOs. Women have done India proud in Sports where they were not counted for much.

If Kalpana Chawla is the first Indian Women to move in Space than Saina Nehwal is the first Indian to win a Superseries Premier Title and an Olympic Medal. These are no means of achievements in a country where people do not see beyond cricket and the place considered dangerous for girl child by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.

There may not have been any biopics made on the two champion women yet like the one on boxer M.C. Mary Kom, portrayed by Actress Priyanka Chopra, but there have been any number of outstanding Athletes who have inspired generations of individuals sportswomen. There was a time women outshone men. Take P.T. Usha, Shiny Abraham, Anju Bobby George in athletics or Karnam Malleswari and Kunjarani Devi in weightlifting.

I would love to watch a biopic movie on Kalpana Chawla, portrayed by Deepika Padukone. From political world to business world, Indian Women proved themselves as the top performer and a good manager. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is really an inspiration for entrepreneurs and society in India. At the age of 62, when most people retire, she is managing director and chairman of Biocon Limited.

Past two-three years, we have seen many campaigns on YouTube around the world for women rights. HeForShe campaign by UN Women, #VogueEmpower in India, No Ceilings by Hilary Rodham Clinton aimed at measuring the progress of Women’s rights. This is symptomatic of the deep malaise where the female child in India has her role defined very early in life and sports hardly features, essentially because the need for education itself is stymied. To become a nation of equality, it requires a large effort not only by government but by every individual of a nation.

It’s Time for “Apponomics”

Having an app is not a need now; e-commerce firms are actively pushing their consumers to their apps and encouraging them to buy through them with attractive discounts and sales. There was a time when sale was put on once or twice a year, but in present era it is every day and several hours sale. For a large percentage of Indians, the mobile phone is either the only or the primary gateway of the Internet.

Internet based companies and social media platforms are in race to acquire Mobile platforms companies. Mobile app also means less data usage and lower load on the server. Marketing cost on mobile app is lower than desktop. This year InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile advertising company launched its first book, “Apponomics – The Insider Guide to a Billion dollar App Business.” This book is helpful for developers to turn their apps into a successful and sustainable global business.

The great benefit of e-commerce is one can click and buy. But there is a biggest challenge in Mobile app, one has to demonstrate to the people how wonderful the app is so they can download it in the first place and then show them how great the shopping experience could be over and over again. Between a Mobile app and Mobile website, mobile apps are faster and can provide a better customer experience.

There are crucial differences in the way mobile apps and mobile websites allow customers to navigate and experience the shopping journey. Although a mobile app functions a lot like a mobile website but it has certain functional and operational benefits over a mobile website. It gives businesses the advantage of having their own corner on a customer device. Because users have to download and install the app, businesses have more control over their presence on a device. For instance, a mobile app can be closed or inactive, but it still works in the background to send geotargeted push notifications and gather data about the customer preferences and behavior.

There are various considerations before making Mobile apps for a business. Cost of development is high and need to be developed and maintained separately for iOS and Android. It is possible to design Mobile apps for offline usage. Mobile apps provide high speed and rich user experience. In the end, Mobile is the primary source of traffic and conversions and it is becoming one. Products or service is sticky resulting in high percentage of repeat visitors and transactions and a loyal customer base makes the business case for apps very easy.

IPL: Super Bowl for Advertisers

Cricket is most watched game in India. It may be because of famous cricketers like Sachin, Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni and others or it is due to back to back cricketing action. Despite five months of regular cricket, the hype around the sport is far from waning. Advertiser’s interest in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is proof of this. There were many successful campaigns launched between these time periods including the most successful #MaukaMauka campaign in India. 

IPL tournament is similar to Super Bowl in US, the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL), which is known for Brands showcasing of their biggest campaigns of the season. There are some of the big spenders in on advertising in the popular cricketing league this year. Amazon India latest campaign and its biggest so far have managed to capture the attention of audiences with its catchy jingle and tag line: ‘aur dikhao’ (show more). The advertisement has been created by Orchard Advertising.

Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd has rolled out its first television and multimedia campaign for its range of Indian ethnic beverages under the Paper Boat Brand. Vodafone India has chosen to lead its biggest campaign so far this year by highlighting the speed and efficiency of its 3G network. The mobile commerce firm Paytm continues with its advertising spree on television and other mediums. The company has said it is setting aside Rs 50 Crore just for this season of IPL out of total advertising budget this year.

The cola brand has taken to crowdsourcing for its latest campaign for IPL crash the Pepsi IPL. As part of the global Pepsi Challenge Program, the company is asking consumers to make a 30 second advertisement showing their love for brand. Winners will get exciting prizes. Snapdeal has roped in Hindi movie actor Aamir Khan for its latest campaign, with the tagline, ‘Dil ki Deal’. These advertisers are spending Crore in outreaching customers and compete with their competitors.

There are other advertisers who are not spending in TV ad but are spending in getting their names placed on Players jerseys and caps. Mankind, Rupa, Nokia, Aircel, Hero Honda, Royal Challenge, Videocon, UltraTech, WHSmith, Spice Jet, Just Dial are among the ones. In my opinion it is a tournament where advertisers are spending around 1000 crore this year. This is a good symbol for Indian Economy and other leagues in different sports will make companies to spend more money on advertisement.

Things to know about Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality has been in the news and on social media these days. Everyone in the world is talking about Net Neutrality. Some people are in support of it and some are not. The debate over net neutrality has now snowballed into a national movement and this is good news for a consumer. Here are few things to know about Net Neutrality.

A neutral internet is one in which all the websites are equally accessible on all internet connected devices. All of these should be accessible at the same speed and one should pay the same amount for said data regardless of the kind of content one is looking for. The fuss triggered by Airtel Zero which is a new platform created by telecom major which allows other corporations to pay, so that user get access to a particular service for free.

The TRAI has put up a consultation paper on regulatory framework for over the top services (OTT) on its website. It defines typical OTT services as Viber, Skype, Whatsapp, Chat On, Snapchat, Instagram, Hike, Line, e-commerce sites, videos and gaming sites. The telecom service providers aim to more closely watch and control these OTT services so that they can charge more or differential rates.

Telecom and Internet companies have spent huge sums of money on setting up infrastructure and that cost needs to be recouped. Their argument is that hugely profitable companies that provide OTT services have built massive profits by utilizing neutrality. All of these companies use internet pipe for free and in turn profit from millions of consumers. As an individual one must care for net neutrality.

If one don’t care or support net neutrality then in future one will face difficulty in accessing data on internet. There will be fast lanes and slow lanes of internet traffic. A company which pays more to an internet provider will come under fast lane. Access to information could be controlled online. E-commerce or other business sites can pay internet providers to block negative reviews sites. One might have to pay more and separate for different type of content online. As a whole one must support net neutrality and make these things to stop happening in future. After all, Internet can make India a trillion economy and there will be no living without Internet. 

Rural Connect is boon for Indian MNCs

Seven countries in Asia (India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Philippines) and three in Africa (Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia) collectively include about 2.2 Billion rural consumers out of more than 3.4 Billion rural consumers in the world and 3 Billion rural consumers in Asia and Africa. In India, more than 800 Million consumers live in rural markets and more than 150 Million rural migrants living in urban centres maintain links with their families, visiting them during festivals, weekends, and other occasions.

Rural Migrants living outside India are connected with their families through Skype and mobile phones. In BRIC countries Brazil and Russia are most urbanized with less than 15% and 26% of their population living in rural areas. Brazil is more urbanized than USA. USA urban population size is more than 80%. India and China are far away from USA. Now, it becomes very difficult for a company to grow in these markets. In India, progressive company grows by having an inclusive strategy that focuses on both on Urban and Rural consumers. It is in their DNA.

Consider HUL, although it is a European MNC but its DNA in India is rural along with Pakistan and Bangladesh. HUL caters need of more than 1 Billion rural consumers. Reaching Rural Consumer by “Missed Call” is the new thing adapted by companies in India. Even the Indian TV Industry is using Rural or semi-rural settings and stories to create successful TV serials. Many NGOs are helping rural people to connect them with urban areas and inclined them towards technology.

In my Opinion, the rural DNA of Indian MNCs is their biggest strategic asset that will be hard for any other country to match. They understand how to appeal to the aspirations of rural consumers amidst lack of infrastructure, economic and language diversity, and unorganized retail markets. Technology will drive Indian MNCs and rural consumers to connect with each other and make India a better country in the world.

New Government vision of 100 smart cities will turn out to be positive factor and Indian MNCs will grow more. Their strategy of connecting with people will shift more towards consumer aspirations and service, not to build awareness. To make a better future and country Round Robin work has to be done, and then only we will be counted as citizen of developed nation.

After E-commerce, it’s time for Taxi in Internet Market

The next big thing in India’s Internet marketplace after online retailers Flipkart and Snapdeal will be on demand taxi hailing service. Companies such as Ola, TaxiForSure, Uber, and Meru are experiencing a boom in demand for their cab services in a country where the transport infrastructure is still creaky and safe public and private commuting options are few. This is because of shift in consumer habits towards convenience and on-demand services, and most crucially, low prices, have fuelled the boom.

In present scenario, a person wants a smartphone first rather than a car. Such shifts in consumer habits including use of smartphones for buying goods and services are helping the industry grow exponentially. Ola and Uber have grown explosively over the past year by offering car rides at prices lower than the fares charged by auto rickshaws. These companies spend massive amounts of capital on marketing, discounts, recruiting thousands of new drivers and expanding into new markets.

Earlier, cabs were used for airport rides. That has changed now because of unrivalled ease of access offered by mobile apps. All the large companies, including Ola and Meru, get a majority of their business from mobile apps, while Uber is entirely app-based. Similar to online marketplaces Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon, all of which host product owned by third party sellers, Uber and its rivals have no ownership of the cars their customers use.

These firms don’t even employ drivers; they simply connect customers with drivers using technology and charge a commission varying 13-20% on each ride. All these taxi companies are funded by investors. Investors will pump in much more money this year to support the spending spree of the cab aggregators. Ola is also in talks to raise more funds. Ola, Meru, and Uber are rapidly expanding into new cities. Ola is planning to expand into 200 cities by March 2016.

While cab services are becoming increasingly popular with customers, Uber, Ola and others face significant regulatory hurdles. In upcoming time, Taxi companies will enter into Billion dollar business and some may open publicly. Third big thing in Internet market after E-commerce, and Taxi will be Food business online. We may see more businesses coming online and making needful impact in society.

Internet can make India Billion Digital Economy

Internet users in India are growing with rapid pace. It took 10 years for India to get her first 10 million users and another decade to hit the first 100 Million. Then the pace quickened. The next 100 Million came in three years between 2010 and 2013, and the third 100 million took only 18 months. Internet users crossed 300 Million in December 2013. By 2018-19, Internet users will reach to 500 Million. A digital population of 500 Million can transform India’s economy, business landscape, governance, and society beyond recognition.

Internet users could spawn an economy worth $200 Million from interrelated activities. This is a four-fold increase from where we are today and growth will come in three years. By 2018, every second Indian will have access to Internet. The biggest growth will come in E-commerce, which will expand five-fold, while education and healthcare via mobile internet will expand Internet use. Digital Marketing will be the key method to reach out your business to people via search and display advertisement.

Internet could also catalyze entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Global investors are already chasing Indian startups. With 500 Million internet users it will be equal to the size of Europe. There are challenges like low bandwidth, but that won’t prevent the upcoming Internet Tsunami. In each of next five years, India can see a startup of worth $1 Billion. Internet growth will also lead to massive job creation. About 4 lakh people now find direct employment because of Internet. This will expand to 20 Lakh by 2020.

Internet will also improve governance. According to etaal.gov.in, which tracks internet transactions, E-governance transactions increased from 0.5 Billion to 1.7 Billion between 2013 and 2014. However, there are many challenges too. Internet costs can harm Indian population. It may become very expensive in future. 90% of India’s population use pre-paid connection with average monthly recharge of Rs 50 to Rs 70 and 3G recharge of Rs 150. It will be very difficult to sell big data plans and in a huge cost.

More people are going online via free Wi-Fi or paid access. About 45 Million access Internet in Public areas and time spent online has gone up from 10 Minutes per day to 45 Minutes now. Government is also planning to make certain places in Metro cities free Wi-Fi enabled. So far Internet penetration in India has been in English while for new users demand for local languages will increase. According to reports, 10% rise in Internet penetration increases economy by 1.08%. If Internet were a sector then its weight in GDP would be greater than that agriculture and utilities. 

A Documentary of Thoughts

For all I can say, the BBC4 Documentary by Leslee Udwin was completely over the top, completely left me cold and flat. But the choice to watch or not was mine. The comments or problems occurred such as, “tourism is affected”, “a situation of tension and fear among women in society is created”, and then documentary was banned by the government. Banning the documentary was not the solution. It was like covering mindsets and crime again.

Despite tougher laws, there is a 69% increase over the past decade in crimes against women including molestation, rape, and domestic violence. We need to ask how and why 44% college students in modern India responded to a recent survey by agreeing that women have ‘no choice’ but to accept a certain degree of violence. We need to understand why our sex ratio in the 0-6 year old age group is the lowest in six decades. These are facts that shame any civilized society. But how do we even begin to start dismantling these horrific statistics unless we first try and understand the culture that allows them to thrive?

Protests on streets, signature campaigns, and changing the law, that was the easy part. But as anyone who grapples with patriarchy knows, changing the mindsets is far, far harder. To change the mindset it is important to know the mindset. That is why one needs to watch Udwin’s film. The one-hour long film reportedly includes a nine-minute interview with one of the rapists and interviews with two defence lawyers. This is a documentary of thoughts of a criminal, two government officials who were fighting the case and some people.

There were equally reprehensible statements made by lawyers and criminals. In the days following the December protests we’ve heard some astounding comments from a variety of politicians, university heads, religious cult figures, police chiefs, and other people. Each statement brings with it a torrent of protest on social media and elsewhere. And the statements made in the documentary fit part of that pattern.

There are interesting and valid questions being raised in the debate on Udwin’s film. But none of these should detract from the main crux of the debate, which is tackling misogyny and ending a culture of rape. The main crux is that there is a certain mindset that allows violence against women to flourish with impunity. Those whose national pride is wounded by the fact of a foreigner claiming to make a documentary that exposes an ugly truth might want to consider that the fight against patriarchy is a global fight that knows no borders.

Violence against women is the conversation across the world from North Kivu to Washington DC. In June last year, 1,700 delegates from 123 countries met to discuss how to end sexual violence in conflict in the US; the government is cracking down on an apparent epidemic of campus sexual assault. Everywhere, women and men like us are saying ‘Enough’. We lit a fire in December 2012. We started a conversation. Every bit that adds to that conversation, every scrap that leads us to think, every effort to end violence should be welcomed, not banned.

Will Websites become Obsolete in Future?

India has the third largest mobile users in the world. In future, usability of mobile will increase more and same for mobile apps. Major number of Internet based businesses in India, reach and does business through mobile apps. In the past, I wrote an article on Mobile apps named “Planet of the Apps”. Then a question strike in my mind, what if “Websites become obsolete in future’. In present time because of increase in number of mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, laptops, PC’s have become obsolete. After discussion with my friends, seniors, teachers, and internet research, finally I came to know about many views.

In my opinion, benefits of mobile apps are there reach-ability. One doesn’t need High Internet connectivity to operate an app. People outside metro cities can operate an app in low internet connection. They can place orders, view an online business app layout etc. But then I thought, an app can give information but one will always need website to get more information available on apps. Trend will shift to mobile optimized sites than PC but one can’t eliminate websites from mobile apps. This is possible in countries where mobile is becoming a dominating player. In some countries mobile utilization is still less as compare to PCs or Laptops. 

Now, I thought of usability of mobile and desktop computers. Desktop are used in many professions that still require power and flexibility that desktop offers, notably in movie making, video editing, and sound. It is all about using the right tool for the job. For a person who mostly browsers, posts socially and makes purchase online, then a portable device is needed and the choice between a desktop and a portable device is easy because it can meet all requirements and one can carry it around. However, if needs big screen desktop and work from one place then PCs are first choice. In future, we may see mobile becoming the portable devices replacing laptops.

So, I think future of devices will tend to towards a single device that can take many roles. Because presently there are many problems with Mobile phones in terms of Display power, screen technology, processing power and battery life. Future of websites will be driven by the hardware and the usage. We wouldn’t have mobile apps today if we didn’t have powerful mobile devices. Therefore, many thoughts emerged on this question of mine and finally I can say Future of Websites is not obsolete. We may see mobile driven websites and large portable mobile devices, which may take it years to hit the market.

Missed Call Marketing

India has 833.02 Million active mobile phone users as of December, 2014. Around 90% of mobile phones connections in India are prepaid. Giving a “missed call” is very common in India. Over the years, missed calls have been used by children to tell anxious parents that they have reached somewhere, to summon their drivers, or people to order food, receive cricket scores and bank balances and just about any other information or content.

Social Platforms companies like Facebook and Twitter are building large revenues in India by Missed Call Marketing. There is money in this business, which is why Twitter recently acquired Indian Company ZipDial and Facebook forged a partnership with Vivaconnect. It is a business that could be worth as $1 Billion of annual revenue, without putting a time frame to the estimate.

In 2013, Consumer Goods Company Hindustan Unilever Limited looked at ways to increase engagement with its consumers in Bihar and Jharkhand with Missed Call Marketing. The company sets up its own mobile radio channel along with a campaign to build awareness. Consumers to could give a missed call to a number and in return receive 20 minutes of free, on-demand content, ranging from Bollywood songs to popular Hindi entertainment. The campaign racked up calls from around 30 Million people, nearly 200 Million ad impressions and the consumption of around 500 Million minutes of content. That was the power of harnessing something as simple as Missed call.

State Bank of India and GlaxoSmithKline have also used Missed call marketing in India. It is an easy and cost-effective means for brands to reach out to a larger target audience, particularly in semi-urban and rural markets where Internet penetration is low. While most campaigns push information at consumers, Missed Call Marketing works the other way round. Companies in the business say a missed call marketing exercise could come as cheap as a few lakhs, and cost up to several crores depending on size and scale.

Missed calls phenomenon is already prevalent in Africa and Latin America, where it is called flashing or beeping. ZipDial, which has worked with Procter and Gamble India Ltd and Colgate Palmolive Ltd is optimistic about the reach and scale of Missed call Marketing. Twitter will be integrating ZipDial platform into its core platform to enrich the user experience. ZipDial mobile platform lets people follow and engage with content across all interfaces, SMS, voice and mobile web, and also facilitates offline consumption of content.

Facebook has integrated the tool into its interface for select campaigns. When a person sees an ad on Facebook, he or she can place a missed call by clicking on the ad from a mobile device. In return, the user receives content like music, cricket scores or celebrity messages, and a brand message from the advertiser. Still, companies need to realize that the missed call campaigns may not always generate high quality leads. As the tool matures, marketers need to find out what works for consumers. As users become pickier about the kind of content they wish to consume, brands will need to ask themselves why consumers would want to seek out their brand.

What Robots may do in 2045?

IT is the future of the world. Recently, Diwakar Vaish developed India’s first 3D-printed Humanoid Robot named Manav and his team is working on several other robotics projects. After 30 years, it is likely that the world’s population will include billions of people and billions of Robots, with the latter doing almost all the heavy, routine labour. People will work on improving the software for the Robots and the IT industry will be home to companies developing programmes for robots as they now develop apps for users to download and install.

To a certain extent, the boundaries between robots and humans will become blurred. Transplants using electronically controlled artificial organs and prosthesis will be a routine surgical procedure. Nanorobots will travel deep into the body to deliver drugs to diseased cells or perform microsurgery. Specially installed sensors will monitor people’s health and transmit their findings to a cloud based storage that can be accessed by the local doctor. All of this leads to a considerable increase in life expectancies.

Moreover, people will live in smart homes where most creature comforts will be fully automated. The software that runs the house will take care of energy, water, food supplies, and its replenishment. The resident only concern will be to ensure there is enough money in their bank accounts to pay bills. Our digital alter egos will finally be fully formed within a single global infrastructure capable of self-regulation and involved in managing life on the planet. The system will be geared towards distributing resources between people, preventing armed conflict and other humanitarian actions.

It will not just be dreary chores that are consigned to the history books; production of certain items will no longer be needed. Instead, 3D printers will enable us to design and create what we need. The PC might have started the whole IT boom, but by 2045, we will probably see it in museums. To be more precise, we will no longer need a single tool for working with data, which is basically a computer does.

There will be an even greater range of smarter devices and these different gadgets will steadily take over the functions of today’s PCs. For Example, financial analysis will be done by a server controlled by the organization concerned using electronic documents, not by an accountant on a PC. Not everyone will be excited by a brave new Robotic world. New Luddites will likely emerge to oppose the development of smart homes, automated lifestyles, and robots.

Metro to Marketing Train

Advertising to increase by 12.7% in the coming year, GroupM said in a report. From Digital to print advertising, businesses are fighting to give their ads and spending in crores to attract customers. Now, Companies are targeting Metro train coaches in cities to promote their business. I was travelling in one of the Yellow line metro and whole Train was covered with advertisement of E-commerce giant Amazon India.

It was very difficult for me to understand Where the Train was last up to. Everything was covered with ads from Amazon. Even the interior ad space was covered with E-commerce ads. The Delhi metro covers 190.03km across six lines and ferries close to 260,000 passengers on a daily basis. Part of it is underground and part overground. DMRC runs 216 trains with 1,282 coaches. According to a report, 8 Million people used its services in 2013-14. Presently, most of the Metro trains have become marketing trains.

Earlier companies fight for ads on TV and newspaper, now they are fighting for ads on Metro. It might a situation in India when companies will promote their business on Indian Railway, which is one of the longest networks in the World. In Delhi, after IndiaMart, Amazon, and Political parties, Myntra will be seen advertising on Delhi Metro coaches. Paytm and Snapdeal are also in discussions to do the same. Advertisers may around Rs. 25 lakh to wrap up six to eight coaches of the metro for a month i.e. on average Rs. 4 Lakh for a coach.

The companies are also hoping for similar opportunities in Bengaluru and Chennai. Mumbai smaller Metro has trains sporting ads from BigBasket, UltraTech Cement, and Oxigen, an electronic payment service. Consumer goods and mobile phones companies may also join the queue. Delhi Metro has awarded exclusive rights for displaying advertising materials including pictures, printed material, electronic media, smart posters, and visual displays. The concept is very popular in Singapore, Bangkok, Hongkong, Dubai, and the US.

This is very catchy and effective medium. This leads to increase in consumer base, more downloads of mobile apps, and increase in revenue. Even, people who are not aware of it know about companies. It becomes easy for sales person to reach out in a local market and sell products because of awareness of companies and products. What if Metro trains are also used to increase awareness of Social causes? Display ads of Government campaigns may increase awareness and it will last long. With changing scenarios of marketing in last two years, huge amount of money will flow in market and there will be more marketing trains.