Brands behind IPL 2016

The annual T20 cricketing extravaganza in India, the Indian Premier League (IPL) turns nine now. Over its journey, starting from 2008, the newbie has gone through many ups and downs, from controversial to financial irregularities and usage of drugs in post-match parties to betting and match fixing scandals. But its acceptance among millions of television audiences and cricket lovers has not faded.

Apart from increasing television viewership, the fact that after eight seasons, companies and brands still wants to associate with IPL is testament of that. Currently, not only are more than 80 different brands and companies are directly associated with eight IPL franchises, but companies like Cargill Foods, Mother Dairy and Kent RO have also joined pool this year. The estimated Rs. 20000 crore IPL brand is a platform that brands can leverage to reach millions of eyeballs without having to fight too much.

Through visibility in IPL, in terms of branding on team jerseys, ground etc. brands can claim a space in consumer minds over the two month period. Kent RO, Cargill Foods will be participating first time this year. Mother dairy has become the principal sponsor of the Delhi Daredevils Franchise. It is also coming up with consumer engagement programmes at select outlets in the capital. Brands from diverse fields, from hotels to health drinks, cooking oil to AIDS awareness campaigns, IPL are a preferred platform.

Major brands associated with IPL are:-

Kolkata Knight Riders: - Sponsors – Gionee, Sansui, Lux Cozi, SRMB TMT, Colors Bangla, KeoKarpin, Khadims, PepsiCO. Delhi Daredevils: - Sponsors – Daikin, Skill India, Officer’s Choice Blue, RBL Bank, KS Deos. Rising Pune Supergiants: - Spykar, Gulf, Gemini Cooking oil, Finolex, LYF Smartphone, DBS, Marriott. Gujarat Lions: - Oxigen Wallet, TVS Tyres.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: - United Spirits, Hero Cycles, 7UP, Kingfisher Premium, OLA, Fever FM, Lloyd AC, Britannia, DNA, Acer, LYF Smartphone. Mumbai Indians: - Videocon D2H, Etihad Airways, DHFL, Samsung, Deeraj. Kings XI Punjab: - Tata Motors Prima. Sunrisers Hyderabad: - Idea 4G, DTDC, Thumbs Up, UltraTech, Tyka, Red FM, DCB Bank, and Haldiram.

Best Salesman of Technology Industry

Some of the most successful tech leaders are often the greatest salespeople too. They understand you have to be able to sell your product and vision to take your company to the next level. These 7 Billionaire tech moguls are proven sales masters who could probably sell you anything.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff – Benioff was a star salesman early in his career at oracle, making him Oracle youngest VP ever. He turned his sales knowledge into Salesforce, a software maker that helps salespeople make sales more efficiently. The company now worth $50 Billion has been selling record size deals lately, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oracle Co-founder Larry Ellison – Ellison is known for creating a super charged sales environment at Oracle, his sales tactics are legendary which is how he turned Oracle into a $38 Billion in revenue giant today. In fact, he was even able to sell a struggling Hawaiian Airline he once bought to a VC in the area.

Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs – Jobs wasn’t just a visionary, he knew how to sell the products he created. From his presentations to small talking, every move was aimed at creating a stronger brand and popular product. iPhones have grown in sales every year, while Apple is now one of the most valuable companies in the world. Steve Jobs was even able to sell NeXT Software, a company he founded, to Apple, when he returned to the company.

LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer – Ballmer was Microsoft very first salesman. His energy and explosive sales pitches played a big role in transforming Bill Gates tiny startup into the largest software maker in the world. When Ballmer took over the Microsoft CEO role from Gates in 2000, some people saw it as the triumph of sales over technology and innovation.

Dell CEO Michael Dell – Dell showed signs of a great salesperson from an early age. In High school, he was already making $18,000 a year selling newspaper subscription. Soon, in his college freshman year, Dell started selling upgrade kits for personal computers, which became the basis for Dell Computers, once the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban – Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is now an investor, but he started his career selling computer software. He was able to make a $15,000 sale just 9 months into his job, and later started his own PC consulting business. His biggest feat is probably selling his own startup called Broadcast.com to Yahoo for over $5 Billion. One of his favorite phrases is “sales cures all.”

Zenefits CEO David Sacks – Sacks has a history of building startups and selling them for billions of dollars. He was PayPal COO when it was sold to eBay for $1.5 Billion in 2002. His next startup, Yammer was sold to Microsoft for $1.2 Billion. He is now on to his third Billion dollar startup, Zenefits, which was last valued at $4.5 Billion.

Past and Future of Internet

In December 2015, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation asked Apple to open a ‘backdoor’ to break into a phone recovered during the San Bernardino massacre. Apple refused, and is now fighting a battle to overturn a court order that went in favor of the FBI. In January 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India banned the use of differential pricing by telecom companies, effectively putting an end to Facebook plan to roll out Free Basics, a scheme under which subscribers of a partner telecom companies would have free access to a subset of websites.

Both incidents appear to pitch the state versus a technology company. However, a brief history of the Internet will show, the implications to be drawn for the future of Internet governance are different in each case. In the 1990s, as the Internet grew in scope, the US government contracted the Domain Name System (DNS) registry, the task of ensuring unique identifiers for the different servers connected by the Internet, to Network Solutions Inc., creating a private monopoly of $1 Billion.

However, in 1992, the Internet society (ISOC) created a memorandum of understanding to assign governance functions, with representatives from businesses, intergovernmental organizations and ISOC itself. In 1988, the US department of commerce rejected the MoU process and recommended the DNS system be managed by a non-profit company, leading to the creation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The past 15 years have seen a remarkable growth of the Internet, with the number of websites increasing from 12 Million at the turn of the Millennium to over 1 Billion today.

However, traffic is heavily concentrated in websites belonging to a few corporations. The global slowdown and the decline of the BRICS have resulted in the coining of a new acronym of power – FANG, referring to Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Many Internet Companies are based in the US and place their servers there, thus giving the US government access to data from foreign countries while reducing the control of local governments over their information, and their ability to prosecute the managements of these companies.

So far, users have been willing to give away large amounts of information for the benefit of free services. However, the possibility that the government can gain access to their information may exercise a chilling effect on their usage and create an insurmountable obstacle for the future of the Internet Business Model. For the first time, as the Apple Episode shows, the US has specific interests which may be best served by allowing other states the freedom to pursue their own goals with respect to the Internet, thereby giving US itself similar powers, despite its diminished share of the Internet market. 

Lessons from Bhagat Singh

Eighty five years ago this month, Bhagat Singh, along with his revolutionary colleagues Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, were hanged to death in Lahore Jail. They were executed for the killing of Assistant Superintendent of Police John A. Saunders. Bhagat Singh was born a mere 23 years before then to a politically active Punjabi Sikh Family. His grandfather, Sardar Arjun Singh, was strongly opposed to British Government and initiated his sons and his grandson into that tradition.

Bhagat Singh learnt English, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit at the DAV School in Lahore. He subsequently attended National College in Lahore, which was set up by Lala Lajpat Rai in 1920. Even though seeds of Bhagat Singh Revolutionary path were sown in the early days after his visit to Jallianwala Bagh, he became a committed revolutionary after the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.

The forum for the discussion of the response to Rai death was the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). The HSRA predecessor, the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) had been established in the immediate aftermath of the Chauri Chaura incident in which 22 policemen were burnt alive in a retaliatory incident. The most significant action of the HRA was the Kakori Train robbery undertaken in 1925 to finance its activities. Many leaders of the HRA, including Bismil, were hanged for that incident.

Bhagat Singh short and eventful life had many strands. He displayed an extraordinary commitment to his cause. He was an avowed atheist. He was a revolutionary and a socialist. He was a fearless patriot. He believed in using arms to gain self-respect and independence. He read and wrote a lot. Even though Bhagat Singh methods were wrong, his dedication to a cause is worthy of emulation. His fearlessness came from an inner determination and was reinforced by his extensive reading.

Bhagat Singh himself would have frowned upon a jingoistic, non-nuanced adoption of any of our heroes. That may be the most important lesson of all for today young. Shaheed Bhagat Singh, socialist and revolutionary himself said, “Bombs and pistols do not make revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas”.

Source: - Livemint.com, Monday Mar 7-2016.

Book Review: Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer, an accomplished climber, joined a commercial expedition run by guides for paying clients, many of whom had little or no climbing experience. In “Into thin Air” he gives a thorough and chilling account of the ill-fated climb and reveals the complex web of decisions and circumstances that left a group of amateurs fighting for their lives in the thin air and sub-zero cold above 26000 feet, place climbers call “The Death Zone”.

Into Thin Air reveals the harsh realities of mountaineering and echoes with frantic calls of climbers lost high on the mountain and way beyond help. On May 9^th 1996, five expeditions launched an assault on the summit of Mount Everest. The conditions seemed perfect. 24 hours later one climber had died and 23 other men and women were caught in a desperate struggle for their lives as they battled against a ferocious storm that threatened to tear them from the mountain. In all eight climbers died that day in the worst tragedy Everest has ever seen.

With enough determination, any idiot can get up this hill, observed Rob Hall, the leader of a commercial expedition on his 8^th tour of Mount Everest. “The Trick is to get back down Alive”. This book covers journey of Jon’s 1996 expedition starting from Dehradun, India to top of Mt. Everest and back to Seattle, USA. Every point of stop while trekking to Everest (“Sagarmatha” in Nepal language) base camp is clearly explained with all experiences.

Using all his powers of observation and reportage, Krakauer simply takes me to Everest, to a monastery where a lama proudly shows off a picture of himself posing with Steven Seagal, to the base camp. Everest can be climbed from Nepal region and Tibet region. Experiences from both sides are shared in this non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. Stories and strength power of Nepalese Sherpa are also shared. Up until May 1996, Mount Everest had been climbed some 630 times and had claimed 144 lives.

Although a record 12 people died in 1996, 84 reached the summit, which actually made it a safer than average year. One who wishes to know about what it takes to climb Everest (world largest mountain) and what happened in 1996 storm which took lives of famous climbers in theoretical and picturization way, Into Thin Air is a perfect read. With this book, I finished my 25 readings of life; next book to read is “Land of the seven rivers”.

India’s top Tech Billionaires

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji leads the pack of Indian Tech Billionaires followed by HCL cofounder Shiv Nadar and Infosys chairman emeritus NR Narayana Murthy, according to Forbes 2016 list of World’s billionaires.

Azim Premji, his net worth is $15 Billion and global rank is 55. He is the founder and chairman of Wipro, India’s third largest software exporter. His family office Premji Invest has invested in companies like Snapdeal, Myntra, PolicyBazaar and Cyanogen among others. Shiv Nadar, net worth $11.1 Billion and global rank is 88. He is the founder and chairman of HCL, India’s fourth largest software services exporter. He is also a philanthropist with Shiv Nadar foundation.

NR Narayana Murthy, net worth $1.9 Billion and global rank is 959. He is cofounder of Infosys, India’s second largest software services exporter. He was the Infosys CEO from 1981 to 2002 and as chairman from 2002 to 2011. His private investment firm Catamaran Ventures has invested in Yebhi, Hector Beverages, Coverfox, and also has a joint venture with Amazon called Cloudtail which is the largest seller on Amazon India.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, net worth is $1.6 Billion and global rank is 1121. He is cofounder of Infosys and its chief executive from 2007 to 2011. He contributed 225 crore to setup the Centre for Brain Research at the IISc in Bengaluru and also backed a stem cell centered multidisciplinary programme on mental diseases and blood disorders.

Nandan Nilekani, net worth is $1.6 Billion. He is cofounder of Infosys and its chief executive from 2002 to 2007. He was the chairman of UIAI until March 2014 and is currently chairman of EkStep. He has backed companies like Team Indus, Fortigo, Mubble, LetsVenture, Power2SME and Systemantics.

Binny Bansal, net worth is $1.2 Billion and global rank is 1476. He is cofounder of India’s largest ecommerce platform Flipkart and took over as its chief executive in January 2016. He is currently responsible for operationally driving the company and overlooks all its business areas. Sachin Bansal, net worth is $1.2 Billion. He is cofounder of Flipkart and was its chief executive until January 2016, post which he assumed the role of executive chairman. Along with Binny Bansal, he has backed startups like Ather Energy, InShorts, Tracxn, and Tinystep.

K Dinesh, net worth is $1.2 Billion. He is co-founder of Infosys and was the board member from 1981 to 2011. He is retired as the Head of Quality, Information Systems and the Communication Design Group in 2011. SD Shibulal, net worth is $1.1 Billion and global rank is 1577. He is cofounder of Infosys and was its chief executive from 2011 to 2014. He setup a startup incubator Axilor Ventures with Kris Gopalakrishnan.

What’s Ailing Women Football?

FIFA estimates that more than 750 Million television viewers watched at least 60 seconds of action during the 2015 Women World Cup in Canada. The final between the US and Japan was the most watched soccer match in US Television history with 25.4 Million tuning in. The tournament also broke television viewing records in Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, China, South Korea and Norway for Women Football.

Women Football is heavily reliant on the spectacle of international tournaments to widen its popularity. The struggle has been to sustain that interest and make it bleed into Women Club Football. Women World Cup fall in the “in between” years, when there is no men’s World Cup or European Championship, which makes it ripe for strong television viewing and attendance figures.

In the US, soccer is more readily accepted as women’s sport. The sport history is not shrouded in the same patriarchal cultural baggage as it is in much of Europe. In recent years, other nations have risen to challenge the US dominance such as Japan and Germany. Lately, teams such as France and England have developed pleasingly while the Brazilian national side is no longer just 10 girls and Marta. The international picture is panning out to be more competitive, which will only serve to generate more interest.

One must be careful not to compare women’s football with top level men’s football. Women’s Football is played in a different style, for a start. But the concept of women’s football is still in its infancy. In England, women were banned from organizing themselves professionally in football until the 1970s. Women Football is bridging a gap of around 100 years of development compared to the men’s game. The tectonic plates of the domestic game in women’s football continue to collide. With the suffocating coverage of men’s football and the rolling soap opera of La Liga, the Premier League and the Champions League the women leagues struggle to be noticed.

India women national side holds a higher FIFA ranking than their male counterparts. It remains a mystery that such a populous country with a consuming passion for football continues to have such an uninspiring participative legacy. The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 with the ultimate aim of creating a flourishing domestic football scene. The women’s game in this sprawling nation requires a similar notion to put itself on the emerging map of women’s football.

Match Fixing: Horse Race to Tennis

Section 115BB of the Indian Income Tax Act spells out the “tax on winnings from lotteries, crossword puzzles, and races including horse races, card games and other games of any sort or gambling or betting of any form or nature whatsoever”. That is, if one bet and win, one must pay his taxes. The money we make from betting on Horses or anything is taxable.

The existence of this section suggests that such money is above board and legal. But here is the kicker horse racing is the only sport in which betting is legal, there are licensed bookmarkers who will take our bets on any given race. If one must declare winnings from betting of any form as income and pay tax on it, why is only such form of betting legal? To me, making horse racing the only sport that one can legally bet on is as entirely lacking of sense.

But all this has been on my mind because of the latest uproar over betting in sport. The recent news that matches fixing has happened in professional Tennis for years, and even in Grand Slam tournaments. Without naming anyone, it was reported that “28 top level players, including winners of Grand Slam Titles”, have been involved in Match Fixing, that the tennis establishment has known this and yet not acted against these players.

Until now, the only instance of match fixing alleged in pro tennis was in 2007, when World No 4 Nikolay Davydenko played a much lower ranked Argentine, Martin Vassallo in a match in Poland. Out of the blue, huge amount of money were placed on Martin victory, even as Nikolay opened up a comfortable lead in the match. Later, Nikolay claimed an injury to his foot and forfeited the match.

We also knew well that people bet on horse races and cricket and archery and every other sport on the planet and that there are inevitably, inexorably, attempts to influence the outcomes of those games. Whatever the explanation, the inescapable truth about sports is that people will bet on matches and attempt fixes.

Book Review: What the Dog Saw

Finished reading “What the dog saw” and in this brilliant & provocative book, covering everything from criminology to ketchup, job interviews to dog training, Malcolm Gladwell shows the most ordinary subjects can illuminate the most extraordinary things about us and our world. Looking under the surface of the seemingly mundane, he explores the underdogs, the miraculous and disastrous and reveals how everyone and everything contains an incredible story.

This book is a series of 19 short stories that each addresses a different question or issue. What’s the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there tons of varieties of mustard but only one type of ketchup? It turns out that different people like different levels of sweetness and bitterness, so we see twelve varieties of marinara sauce on the supermarket shelf, and another dozen flavors of soft drinks on the market.

How do you know whom to hire? Does intelligence really matter once you get away from college? What does hair dye have to do with Feminism? He talks about what makes a good salesman. It’s not just the ability to ask for the money. There needs to be an engaging, interesting presentation that draws the audience in. Gladwell discusses the difference between mystery and puzzle, and between the two types of serial killers. He keeps readers on their toes with unlikely comparisons and his unique points of view.

Another story takes a look at the homelessness problem, and we discover how one homeless man cost his city over one million dollars. How can a group of sane people get admitted to mental hospitals, and kept there for weeks even though their symptoms have subsided? And what does that have to do with gathering intelligence? Was Picasso a genius, a late bloomer or neither? What makes someone good at something, and what do they become recognized as great? Gladwell answers all these questions and more in his book.

My First International Olympic Duathlon

7^th February 2016, I participated in my first Olympic Duathlon and started practicing for it. It’s a competition that is composed of running and biking. The format for a Duathlon is run-bike-run. It was 5 km run, 40 km cycling and 10 km run. I nailed it in 3 hrs. 15 min (approx.) I was very excited for this event. After long days of practice and strict Diet, I completed Olympic Duathlon within a committed time to myself. 

My favorite quote in life is – “The moment you stop accepting challenges, is the moment you stop moving forward. Keep Moving”. This is what keeps me moving in life. It was the motivation for me throughout this event. Getting up early in the morning for pedaling & running few miles, and then focus on work wasn’t easy as I thought would be. But after this event I got to know few things about me. I need to practice running and exercise regularly especially before an event like Duathlon/Triathlon.

The event started with Run: 5 Km. One loop outside of stadium went well. I started with good pace and finished a loop inside the stadium. Cycle: 40 Km. Four loops outside of stadium and finished in about 1 hour 20 minutes on my Mountain Bike. Run: 10 Km. After fast ride and run, I was bit tired, my throat dried up and I felt hungry. I wasted lot of time at first pit stop but at last I finished 10km run in a good time and last one loop inside the stadium. It was a well spent day with fellow athletes.

A big credit goes to organizer and volunteers who helped and motivated me during the event to complete it & Delhi Police to ensure that the traffic was moved off our lanes when we were there. At last, the moment of the day was receiving medal from Mrs. Deepa Malik, an Indian Athlete. She is a paraplegic. Whether it is swimming against the strong Yamuna current, or riding a special bike or even taking a shot at the Paralympic Games, she has done it all. She has won bronze medal in Women Javelin throw. She has got nominated in Limca book of records for her swimming records. She is an inspiration for me.

I want to try more events in my life and keep going because the day I stopped accepting challenges in my life is the day I stop moving forward. Thank you to event organizer Chiro Mitra, Sangeeta Saikia and team for organizing this event in a well-structured way and looking forward to you for more events. 

Native Advertising

Advertisers and publishers are not new to ad blocking. It has been in existence since the time of desktop publishing. Over the last couple of years they have rushed to native advertising primarily because of the sharp rise in ad blocking. It works with the theory that if an ad is harder to identify as an ad, it would perform better against ad blockers.

Take fashion brand Lifestyle promotional campaign that highlighted its end of season sale. For the announcement ad, the company tied up with popular content site, and created a fun and engaging article on the types of people on average shopper would meet during a sale. The good thing is publishers are actively handholding advertisers to get around entry hurdles.

Twitter India, for instance offers brands the know to how to leverage native advertising through a host of products such as Promoted Tweet, Promoted Trend, and Native Video, that surface in the form of content that the user is familiar with. Brands need to be where their customers are, but that is increasingly a challenge as consumer’s consumption of content today takes place across multiple platforms from TV to online to mobile apps.

There are few things to remember while using native ads. Always add value for users. If users find the branded content informative and in line with their interests they’ll read and share it. Native content that is identified as sponsored and has a clear call to action performs the best. Being transparent is important to retaining the user trust and leading to engagement. Since native ads look and behave like the content around it, strive for quality content that’s good as the editorial content.

While consumers transition between devices they expect the content to be consistent whether on desktop or mobile and that goes for advertising too. Native ads are especially effective for cross platform campaigns, from PC to mobile. The look and feel of the native ad should be in line with the content on the page. Native ads flow in with the user content experience. With digital video consumption is on rise, and the user love for short snacky content, brands need to explore native video as well as stretch the creative boundaries on content genres.

Other Social Networks

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social networking platforms, and have the highest user base. Facebook has an active user base of 1.5 Billion; Instagram has 400 Million users and Twitter 316 Million users. A look at the lesser known platforms reveals the likes of Snapchat (200 Million) and Tumblr (230 Million) are not exactly languishing on the fringes. They are quite close to Twitter and Instagram in terms of user base, even though Facebook leads the way.

Tumblr is a unique blogging platform that offers myriad social networking features for those who log on. In terms of features it is closest to Facebook. You can chat with your connections, put up posts (called blogs), share posts by others and like posts. Your home page shows all your blogs and it can be viewed by anybody. One doesn’t have to be on Tumblr to see your homepage. The blogs can be photos, text or videos. What makes it more fun is the customization it allows. You can modify the home page and add new themes. The platform unique approach makes it very popular with bloggers looking to catch up with other bloggers. There are some limitations; you can’t publish blogs beyond a certain number.

Snapchat is a messenger where photos and videos delete automatically, there is a lot more to Snapchat. It is fast emerging as a platform for digital marketing as it’s quite popular with youngsters. Snapchat key highlight is the Story mode which allows individuals to broadcast a series of photos and videos with fun filters, text and drawings. A broadcast remains on the platform for 24 hours and can be seen by anyone on Snapchat. It is used by digital brands such as ESPN, Daily Mail, and Comedy Central to promote their content.

Reddit is a slightly off beat social networking platform which lays more emphasis on building conversation instead of encouraging random sharing of photos and videos. The design is a bit archaic but there is a wide variety of content to read. Reddit has strict guidelines and every post is scrutinized to ensure no one puts up offensive content. The Ask Me Anything is another popular feature of Reddit where an eminent personality takes up question from the Reddit community called Redditors. It has a unique section called suicide watch where Redditors try to talk people with Suicidal thoughts out of it. 

Measuring Digital Economy

The dramatic rise of the digital economy presents unique challenges to the bean countries who try to measure the size of national economies. Most economic activity was about the production of standard stuff such as wheat or steel. The growing use of modern barter or peer to peer deals in what has been described as the sharing economy?

For example, we use to book airline ticket through a travel agent. Now, airline site allow us to book tickets on our own. The effect is same, but what used to once be a market transaction that involved payment to a travel agent has now become a household activity for which no money is paid. National Income has actually declined even though the underlying transaction is the same.

There is very unique way digital products are priced. They have high fixed costs but zero marginal costs. A software company spends big bucks to write its code. It can replicate this code at zero cost. Or think about a new age music band that can distribute its new album at minimal cost over the Internet despite the initial high costs of recording. The prices of many digital products tend to fall to zero because of their unique economies.

Many business models are designed to create other revenue streams such as advertising since the main product is given away free to build a large customer base. There is again not much agreement on how to capture these changes in national accounts. GDP is the cornerstone of all national economic statistics. It measures how much output is produced in a country in a particular period.

The digital economy presents a new set of challenges. Economists have struggled to understand what the transition from an economy of atoms to an economy of digit actually entails. Most of the emerging debates are not about the productivity effects of digital economy. They are more about how to measure an economy where some important distinctions are getting blurred.

Democracy of Information

Were you listening to Music in 2000? If so, one would remember Napster. It was born back of the then newly discovered MP3 Technology – the compressing of digital files allowing them to travel over the net easily. As a result, young people were ripping songs from compact discs and sharing those. Unable to take the weight of sustained litigation, Napster collapsed but so did the music industry – before bouncing back 13 years later. Therein lies the whole story of what the media industry newspapers, radio, TV Films, has been going through over the past 15 years.

This democratization, the ability of consumers to reject, redo, choose what they want to read, listen, watch, whenever they want it is the first big change that the past 15 years have forced on the information industry. Everything from the Nirbhaya documentary to Aamir Khan Comments becomes a trending topic. The blurring of lines between the Armchair Amateur and the trained professional creates all kinds of disruptions – socially, economically, and creatively.

The blurring also has some nice implications – notice the amount of talent coming out because of YouTube. Everybody from a cook in Noida to your Cat can become an online sensation, forcing mainstream media to drop its snooty. From Star’s Hotstar, Zee’s Ditto TV and Eros’s ErosNow, mainstream media firms are trying hard to get the 100 Million people watching online video in India. In the process, they are joining hands with names they wouldn’t have considered earlier. For Example, Star has signed on AIB, an online video creator popular for its spoofs.

The second is the havoc this democratization has wrecked on business models. But while, disaggregation is good for consumers, it has not yet translated into solid benefits for Media companies. In the US, for example, the newspaper industry has seen one-third of its revenues wiped out over the past 15 years, even as the number of people reading news has increased. One could call this evolution if the third thing about this democratization wasn’t true.

Those offline revenues of newspapers, film studios and television firms are funding the thirst for this disaggregated content online. Note that the bulk of traffic on search engines, social media and on a host of news sources comes from professionally generated content. More than three fifths of YouTube traffic comes from the videos put up by the large studios. Building shows with big stars, aggregating mass audiences for advertisers online does exactly what other media platforms do. That begs the question what really is democratic about a medium and a business where revenues and audience power are so heavily concentrated.

India’s Women Athletes in 2015

2015 was a great year for India’s Women Athletes, as they valued and ran into uncharted territories, secured Olympic Qualifications, and raked in the trophies. While it was a stupendous year for Sania Mirza, one in which she won a stellar nine titles with Martina Hingis, including two Grand Slams, and reached the top of the doubles world rankings, there were other Indian women too who made 2015 a year to remember. In their respective disciplines, these athletes broke new ground, took the world by surprise, and gave us something to look forward to in 2016, the year of the Olympics.

Lalita Babar: The daughter of a farmer, Babar broke the national steeplechase record thrice this year. The icing on the cake was becoming the first Indian to qualify for the final of a track event at the World Championships. For the Rio Olympics starting in August, Babar has two tickets – for the steeplechase and marathon.

Hockey Team: Indian Women Hockey Team was officially confirmed as participants for the 2016 Rio Olympics. For the Indian Women Hockey Team which has played at the Olympics only once before this, in 1980, on invitation, this is a watershed moment. Full of girls from small towns and whose popularity seems restricted to Shah Rukh Khan’s 2007 film ‘Chak De! India’, this is a telling goal scored just in time.

Dipika Pallikal: Pallikal began the year brightly, winning the Winnipeg Winter Club Open in February, but hit plenty of roadblocks midway through the season. Having failed to get past the first round in three previous events, Pallikal surged into the quarter-final of the prestigious US Open in October with a hard fought victory over World No. 5 Alison Waters. Pallikal also spoke openly about gender bias and refused to participate in the National Games since the prize money for male and female winners wasn’t the same.

PV Sindhu: She won Macau Open in February 2015 and beat World No. 1 Carolina Marin in Denmark Open.

Deepika Kumari: She went into the London Olympics in 2012 as the World No. 1 and made a first round exit. After two years, she overcame the shadow of failure & led the women recurve team to silver at the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, booking them a ticket for Rio.

Apurvi Chandela: Part of the generation that was inspired by Abhinav Bindra’s gold at Beijing 2008, she has her sight set on the ultimate prize. She took the first step towards it by bagging bronze at the Changwon World Cup in April and qualifying for the Rio Olympics in the 10m air rifle event. She is the only shooter besides Jitu Rai to have booked a berth. She shot an impressive 206.9 to win Silver at the Munich World Cup in September.

Dipa Karmakar: Karmakar achieved the massive feat of becoming the first Indian to make it to the final of an event at the World Gymnastics Championships. She finished fifth in the final of the vault event, which means her chances of getting a wild card to compete in the Rio Olympics are pretty high.

Saina Nehwal: Last year, she had become the first Non-Chinese player to win the China Open Superseries. 2015 was the sting back in Nehwal game as she became the World No. 1 singles player, an astonishing feat in a sport dominated by the Chinese. Though Saina Nehwal had a few significant firsts to her name – like a world championship and an All England medal – the big titles eluded her. Expectations are high from her in 2016 Rio Olympics.