What Happened to Subhiksha?

 Once a favorite model of retail success, now a study of financial failure

It was in 1996 that the idea of Subhiksha (prosperity in Sanskrit), organized retail services came to the mind of Subramanian, and IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. He opened the first shop in Chennai in March 1997. By March 1999 there were 10 Subhiksha shops in Chennai. Its unique discounting model enraged the retail trade in Chennai

By 2000 Subhiksha grew to nearly 50 shops in Chennai retailing groceries and medicines. ICICI Venture's decision then to pick up a 10 per cent stake in Subhiksha for Rs 15 crore gave the retailer enhanced credibility in the market. This money was used to expand outside Chennai, into the rest of Tamil Nadu. By 2002-03, Subhiksha had 140 stores across 30 towns in Tamil Nadu. Sales grew steadily. Cash flows were reasonable and debt, at Rs 15 crore against the net worth of Rs 23 crore, was comfortable.

Tamil Nadu was not enough for the growth of Subhiksha. Subramanian wanted to expand it all over the nation. There was two choices- expand Subhiksha in one state by one and expand many states at a time. The subhiksha model proved to be successful. He choosed second option. Between late 2004 and early 2007, Rs 160 crore worth of equity was raised. That apart, a debt of Rs 220 crore and a bridge loan of Rs 125 crore (for pending raising of equity from capital markets) was arranged to fund the national rollout.

On an average, 60 to 70 stores were added in a month. The pace of rollout is evident from the fact that till September 2006, Subhiksha had a store count of just 160, but by March 2007 it had shot up to 670 and by March 2008 to 1,320. By September 2008, it was 1,650-in all 1,500 stores were added ih just 24 months. 2006-07 and 2007-08 Subhiksha doubled the stores, tripled revenues and almost quadrupled profits

At the time of tough retail competition with the entry of Reliance, Tata and Aditya Birla group into the field Subhiksha had become the country's largest mobile phone retailer with an annual turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. The performance of Subhiksha attracted the investors. Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, in March 2008, picked up the 10 per cent stake in Subhiksha that was offloaded by ICICI Venture for Rs 230 crore, pegging the company's valuation at Rs 2,300 crore.

That was the time for Subhiksha to capitalize Premji’s interest in the company. Company kept postponing the IPO. It did not want to dilute the shareholders interest. So it continued to raise money through debts. During September 2008, people lost their interest in share markets. There was a complete collapse of equity market. At the time when liquidity was tight, Subhiksha needed Rs 125 crore in cash to repay the loan.  It was due for Subhiksha to repay the bridge loan. The working capitals were diverted to rescue and expand Subhiksha with the hope of IPO in the confidence of success of the model. Working capital eroded. Many shops were closed as a rescue measure. Suppliers stopped supplying. Shops’ stands became empty. The security guards did not turned to the work. These all happened in less than 3 months. And finally in February 2009 there were not a single Subhiksha faced even cheque bounce case. Ajim Premji accused him for financial fraud. ICICI asked for detailed investigation of financial mismanagement. And he and his company became defaulter for over Rs 750 crore to 13 banks.

Probably, if IPO was done instead of postponement, equity could have been used to reduce the debt and Subhiksha would have survived.

Adopted from a case study in IGNOU MBA question paper.

Made in China and the Common Man

In a management class, a lecturer told that he had taken an oath not to use any made in China products to protect the economy of the country, even in broader sense the economy of the rest of the world except china. He also told he did not have a single made in china product with him. I pointed out his Nokia mobile. Obviously it is from Finland and he was confident of that. I asked him to remove the back cover and see the battery; the original battery in it was made in China. This is an example, how we are forced to use made in china products.

I started counting the made in China products. My notebook is manufactured for Lenovo and made in China. I have no doubt on ZTE and Huawei modems from China. 99% of my desktop PC components are made in China. My mobiles phones are made in china though they are branded. Even the tennis racket like mosquito bat we have at our house is Made in china. I had used many toys that were made in China when I was a kid. I can definitely tell; I have used products from China more than any country, may be more than that of my own country.

I have many friends who don’t like to buy made in China products. They are ready to compromise with the brands they like to buy a product not having china tag. But they are helpless many a times. Many a times there are no alternatives for made in china product. Some people tend to buy non-branded made in China products. They know the poor quality of the product they are buying, but they feel it is worth for the price it is being offered. It again increases our dependency on China. We, the common people never think in macro level. But even in micro level, China products are found to be harmful. Many food products imported from China has chemicals that are not suitable for human consumption. The toys and other electronic items have harmful metals on the surface for attractive finishing. Though we can’t completely get rid of made in China, at least let us try to decrease the number of such items we buy.  

An MD who does not work on Sudays

We always tend to think of highly successful people, who are the top in their line of activities. Many a times we never look into the news makers who make the news in our daily read newspapers. There are people at the top positions of the companies we know; who are inspiring and leading their life interesting. One of such news maker grabbed my attention was Mr. Y M Deosthalee, Chairman and MD of L&T Finance Holding, featured in a small column of the Business Standard recently.

Mr. Yeshwanth Moreshwar Deosthalee was at in the lead stories of business magazines with L&T Finance for an acquisition exercise by which it acquired Fidelity in India. Mr. Y M Deosthalee was CFO of the L&T earlier to his present assignments as Chairman and MD of L&T Finance Holding. He never went to a business school. But the nation has been served by his talent. He was at the committee set up by the government of India to address the liquidity crisis during the 2008 economic downturn.

To be an achiever, that too a successful CEO, one may thinks he should be a workaholic. But BS writes he is not. He goes home by 6.30. He does not work on Sundays. He also believes that one should not stick to the chair thinking he is irreplaceable. He believes there is life beyond work. He learnt Hindustani Music for three years and now music has become his passion. Shouldn’t we try to follow him?

A Non IITian Success Story

A M Naik, Chairman and MD, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) 

Success never asks for the certificates given by an institution. It is an inspiring story of Mr A M Naik (See Wikipedia), who struggled to speak in English climbed the top position in L&T, one of the prestigious corporate group of the country. This story by Shyamal Majumdar was published in Business Standard .

Consider what A M Naik has achieved in terms of making Larsen & Toubro (L&T) one of the most respected engineering conglomerates in the country. Now, consider his initial experience at L&T. Apart from the fact that he was not from any of the Indian Institutes of Technology (Naik did his mechanical engineering from Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College in Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat), his poor knowledge of English led him to make seven to eight mistakes in the first employment form he filled.


When he applied to L&T, he got a job, but the company reduced its initial offer by Rs 90 to Rs 670 a month and offered him a lower designation than what it had initially promised — all because the final interviewer thought he was a bit arrogant. Years later, Naik attributes this to a communication gap between him and the Englishman, who was the final interviewer. “I used to think in Gujarati and then translate it into English; the Englishman perhaps misunderstood what I had intended to say,” Naik said.


Naik could have easily given up on the L&T job, but didn’t, just to prove a point. He joined L&T on March 5, 1965, and became the workshop in-charge within one and a half years of joining the company. When he was not even 25, some 800 people reported to him. The rest is all too well known.


By the way title of the article was Opportunity in failures.

Big Bakra of Big Bazar

Big Bazar Great Exchange Offer

A fat lady wearing posh saree entered the Mall with an old damaged bag. It was obviously some mismatch between the how she looked and the bag she was carrying. She walked to the Big Bazar counter; instead of baggage counter she gave the bag to the person sitting in front of a computer in between the old useless household materials. He opened the bag and counted old clothes, shoes, and few books, then printed and gave her a voucher. It raised my eyebrow and I saw a board “Exchange Offer!” Exchange anything for extra 25% off. I have never seen Big Bazar doing any charity by taking your old jeans for Rs 300 or a kg of Newspaper for Rs 30 and give you something new. Kishor Biyani can never be a fool. Conditions obviously apply. The only question was what are those stars making us blind?

First I should tell how an exchange offer should work. One has an old Alto a/c car. Now he wants to buy a new Swift. He visits True Value shop. After negotiation he agrees for exchange at a price say Rs 2 lakh. This amount plus bonus if any will be deducted from the new car price say Rs 5 lakhs and he pays only Rs 3 lakhs to drive the car home. They never tell you to buy car with the price tag Rs 8.00 lakhs to get the benefit of Rs 2 lakhs so that the amount reduced does not exceed 25%.

Come back to Big Bazar. The lady exchanged the old jeans for an exchange voucher of Rs 300. To get the complete benefit she has to make the bill worth Rs 1200. Only then bill amount will be reduced to Rs 900. That means she got 25% discount. This is the maximum benefit scenario. What if she buys an item worth Rs 600? She will get a discount of 25% or Rs 150 only. To get the full benefits she fills her kart. She can’t make it exact Rs 1200. It becomes Rs1500. Then She doesn’t get 25% off, it will be Rs 300 only, i.e. 20%. Also, not all the items are under the 25% off offer, this is the maximum discount offered by them. If she had done a five-minute pre purchase research I can bet this same material would have cost less than this at some other shop. She lost old jeans and spent few bugs for this exchange offer. She ended up in purchasing 4 times the value of her old stuffs as evaluated by the Big Bazar in their convenience, without a second thought whether she is in need of what she is buying.

Congrats, Big Bakra of Big Bazar.

RuPay: India’s Own Card Brand

There are 225 Million ATM cards in India, of which 90 Million are from a single Bank- State Bank of India, 0.55 Million merchants have PoS machines, Rs 3000 Crore is being dispensed every day from ATM machines. We are using American Branded Visa and Master Cards for all these. How much money they are making from giving their technology and brand name? What is the volume of personal financial data is getting transferred to US every day? So there comes an idea of India’s own card brand- RuPay.

NPCI- National Payment Corporation of India is a section 25 non profit organization formed by RBI and other Indian Banks. To bring the competition in cards, reduce the cost of card payments and card issuance and most importantly to secure the data within the nation NPCI has brought its own brand of card called RuPay. Already 12 co-operative banks and Regional Rural Banks are using the RuPay ATM cards, which can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs. By the end of March 2012, debit card will be launched using the flat form of Axis Bank and SBI as acquirer (bank to which PoS machines belongs to) and issuer of cards and Union Bank of India and Bank of India as card issuer. RuPay card holder can do shopping by April 2012. It will be ready for online transactions i.e. ecommerce by June 2012.

Apart from the main stream card business RuPay is also concentrating on financial inclusion. Adhar enabled biometric cards are being issued in Jarkhand by Axis Bank, Bank of India and SBI. RBI has given permission to 18 prepaid card service provider to issue prepaid cards with easy KYC to non bank customers and migrant labours.

RuPay will not be just an domestic card. RuPay has tie up with Discover Cards which is a neutral player for Indian market and 3rd largest card issuer (Visa and Master occupy first two positions and Amex occupy the position next to Discover. RuPay cost is 50% lesser than the Visa and Master cards which are dominating Indian market.

Also read A cashless life to come soon! about the mobile payment system developed by NCPI.

A cashless life to come soon!

The information given here is derived from the address by Managing Director of NCPI Mr A P Hota to SBI POs at State Bank Institute of Information and Communication Management on 4 Feb 2012

"Make a pan (Beetle Leaves and nuts) with extra Gulkun"
Panwala prepares the pan
"Take it sir"
"How much?"
"Rs 8"
You pay Rs 100 note.
"Sorry sir, I dont have change. Can you please credit to Mob No 9876543210, MMID 123456?"

Be prepared to face it. India is going to change, rural India is adopting cost effective convenient technologies. Get your mobile banking service soon, be registered for mobile payments and be sure you are not a financially illiterate in front of your Panwala or a Vegetable Seller. Now let us see how you can pay that Panwala. It is possible immediately within 30 seconds through Inter bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS), a unique concept of mobile based account to account funds transfer, which is the brain child of National Payment Corporation of India- NCPI. Inter bank Mobile Payment Service enables one to send money to another bank account using the mobile number and MMID of the receiver. MMID is a unique number called Mobile Money Identifier given to every account holder having IMPS. So what you need to do is just open your mobile banking application, select fund transfer, then IMPS, enter the amount to be transferred, the payee's mobile number and his MMID. Confirm the payment using your PIN, within 30 seconds payee gets and SMS telling stating that he has got the credit in the account from you. The payments completed and you can walk away without arguing for changes of soiled noted.

The PoS payments in the rural areas could not penetrate much due to the cost involved in it. There are 225 million ATM cards are issued, where 90 million cards are issued by SBI alone. But the availability of PoS merchants is as less as 0.55 million. Merchant need to install a machine, and then he has to pay commission for every payment which ranges between Rs 1.20 to Rs 2.50. But the mobile payment system is absolutely free of charge. It can be even used for usual fund transfers. Advantages of IMPS are availability at 24x7x365 days irrespective of a bank holiday, no need to share your bank accounts with the person who sends the money, confirmation of the transaction to both the parties, hence fool proof. Many bank accounts can be linked to single mobile number using different MMIDs. MMID helps the error free transfer of money by matching with the mobile number. You can do a lot with IMPS viz mobile to mobile money transfer (don't get confused, both the parties should have a bank account), ATM to mobile money transfer, Merchant payments etc. This is the fastest inter bank fund transfer service available at present.

Visit National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)to know more. To register to mobile banking and MMID contact your bank.

Online Shopping- in the way of making life more easy

I was in Hyderabad for the first time. Accommodation provided by the organization was away from the city and I did not know anything about the city. I had planned to visit some place the second day. I was shocked to know my 4 GB SanDisk Memory card of the camera was not working. It was showing memory of 1.3 TB and unable to format or recover. My schedule was little tight and I knew it could not be a fair excuse to go away from the schedule to go in hunt of new memory card. I had a good experience with Flipkart earlier to this. They had delivered most of my orders within a day. I believed in them and placed an order in the evening. The Flipkart Cash on Delivery guy was at the door of my office by 11 A.M that is 5 hrs before the 24 hours of my order.

I should appreciate Flipkart.com for bringing the change in the dimensions of the online shopping in India. Earlier to Flipkart, e-bay, India Times, Rediff Shopping were present and unable to attract the customer, may be due to the inferior quality brands they were selling through third parties. I always felt the business with these players were not as reliable as the Flipkart. Even today though Naptol, SBI Card Mega mall like shopping sites tries to provide the same materials at cheaper price due to the third party participation I never bought anything from them.

I have also tried with infibeam.com and letsbuy.com. Prices in both the shopping sites are very competitive to any of the others. But the delivery time is very high compared to Flipkart. Infibeam delivered few books in the interior city of Karnataka in 10 days were Flipkart within 3 days through courier. I purchased electronic items both with the Flipkart and Letsbuy, Flipkart COD was delivered in 1 day where Letsbuy took 7 days to deliver on COD. Advantage with the flipkart is that in all the major cities it has its own delivery services. The flipkarts self delivery service is really appreciable. Once I had doubt about the product packed due the way they have packed, the delivery guy of fliplkart asked me to open and confirm the product, and otherwise I can return without paying the amount. This can not be expected from the courier services employed by others.

Now my most of the Electronics, Durables, Home appliances and very importantly books are purchased online. I never experience the under quality products, cheating or frauds as some of my friends are frightened to do online shopping. I can even compare, read the reviews and compare prices in online shopping as against conventional shopping. It is really a hassle free.

Private Banks, Money Laundering and Frauds

Sri K. Kashivishwanath did not know that he owned a mining company. He was unaware of the continuous transactions of crore of Rupees taking place in his bank accounts. Lokayukta reports read "it has been observed that crores of rupees have been deposited in banks and also withdrawn in cash from these accounts. Such illegal money transactions have been further trailed/proceed to accounts in bank of various persons/companies/firms and others."

The same banks which creates an image that they follow a strict KYC norms by asking tens of documents for changing correspondence address legally supports illegal money laundering. One of such bank, without which this article goes incomplete is Axis Bank. Is it possible to do such transactions without the support from the bank? Definitely impossible. The banks named by the Lokayukta report are Hospet and Bellary branches of Axis Bank and

Lakshmi Vilas Bank. Times of India repor

ted "Trail of the company's Axis Bank (Bellary) accounts points to large number of suspicious cash withdrawals in denomination of Rs 9 lakh in the names of persons suspected to be benami"

Couple of years back the same leading private bank had a client Shree Om Sai Nath Car On Rent Pvt ltd. This was a chain market company, which collected a huge amount from the public. Initially cheques were duly paid by the bank. Within a year the account was freezed by the court. The bank could have shown social responsibility and could have saved hard earned money of poor people.

The similar cases also been reported by Belgaum. Sri Sai Multi Service (SMS) was another fraud company involved in the chain marketing with a full banking support from the Axis Bank, collected a huge amount from the public through its account DDs and wannabe fraudster company was raided.

I hope you have not forgotten fraud happened in City Bank in Gurgaon. The main accused of the City Bank Fixed deposit scam Sanjay Gupta of Hero Corporate Services owned two firms G2S and BG finance company. These companies were registered as consulting firms but did not have any offices. Even then these companies had accounts with Axis Bank. Police seized Rs 20 Crores from their Axis Bank account. A company no needs to have an office to open an account with Axis Bank! Finally the state run SBI officials helped the police to find the kingpin of the scam

The fraudster’s relationship with the Axis Bank does not end here. A single google search will though a lot of news of fraud companies having accounts with the Axis Bank. Kadri Police of Mangalore arrested Pravin Shetty who is said to be partner of Global Index Investment Company and seized the account with the Axis Bank. The bank which opened the account of the fraudster company was mentioned and forgotten

These banks are target driven. The top executive put immense pressure on the sales executive. Sales personals bring such customers and accounts of the fraud companies get open in the bank based on the documents submitted by them. They even satisfy the KYC norms according to the present regulation. The will power of the banker to show some social responsibility and serve the society against such frauds can only prevent such fraud accounts. In don’t think you can expect it from private banks that are running behind the numbers.

Note: This article is supported by the various news reports and the author is not influenced to write against the institutions mentioned.

Selling your privacy for cheap discounts

Visit any supermarkets or shopping malls. When you get your billing done and come out of the counter you will be welcomed b some guys holding a pen and a slip. He tells you to fill the form and get 10% discount when you shop again. Or it could be some lucky draw where you have to fill all your information and drop into the box to get a gift. Why they are doing so? Are they fool to ask you to fill some details to get some gifts?

Your personal information is very much important to them. Just think, if they are giving some discount for your personal information; it means information you have provided will be more valuable than that discount. They ask you to fill name, contact number, occupation, income, family members and education in common. They segregate the data and use these data for marketing their products. If there is a small car to be launched they will select the potential buyers from the list and contact them. It reduces mass advertising. This again saves in millions. Your personal information is of million rupees value for them.

Suggested Reading: Privacy- Fundamental Right or Marketable asset?

What for you? A small gift is yours for filling all your personal details patiently. If there is a lucky draw some sought of excitement for few days. Then disturbance! When you are in a very important meeting a message from Big Bazaar reaches your mobile- Buy onion on Wednesday and get discount on potato! You keep your mobile back into your pocket, another message from The Mobile Store- Get your mobile serviced for free! Rush today to nearest mobile store! This is all you get for providing your personal information for some discounts or gifts.

It is up to you to decide how valuable your privacy is. Whether such discounts worth more than our privacy? Are you ready to sell your privacy?

3G spectrum bid creates liquidity problem

You may find it interesting Avoid Telecom Shares for Short Time

In the 3G spectrum auction, which closed on Wednesday, the government will receive Rs 67,719 crore. According to market sources, the government is likely to garner an additional Rs 12,000 crore from BWA auction. So, total revenue from the spectrum action will be Rs 80,000 crore which is Rs 40,000 crore more than the budget. This has become an aid for the development work for the government of India.
Where will this fund come from? As we know, Telecom companies has to pay this amount to the government. No telecom company has that much fund in hand to pay. They have to move to their financiers, the major banks in India. It will be a challenging task for them to arrange this huge fund. This may create liquidity problem among the banks and the telecom firms. In June 2010 as close to Rs 100,000 crore goes out of the banking system.Once the very huge fund has been gone by the banks the banks have to wait until the government spends the money which will take a few months.
No firm has made a call in all 22 circles is an evidence that they are not able to meet fund requirements. When they look at the bankers this became head ache of the bankers to arrange he fund. The short term interest rates may also go up due to the huge demand. It might change the current situation for few months. The ordinary customer is less likely to be affected by this move.

ISKCON LTD is a good investment Choice

If you are looking for a better investment option ISKCON LTD will be a good choice!! It is not a real investment guide. An imagination if ISKCON goes for IPO and becomes a limited company which will never happen!!

ISKCON is running recession free business using Indian God Sri Krishna. Even if the recession attacks other businesses the Krishna Consciousness will arise in the recession hit people and hence ISKCON will continue to give good performance. Only a small part which might hit id fund raising activity though it will sustain as it has other way of fund raising apart from corporate donations.

ISKCON is running very innovative business. Even from the god to Prasadam! You might find Lord Krishna, Lord Narasimha some where near your house. But ISKCON gods are innovative products as they are Radha Krishna Chandra, Prahlada Narasimha etc. Even customers also get confused that they are different gods from what they usually see.

ISKCON has variety of Pasadam. It starts from simple Pngal to Gobi Manchurian. They have cakes, donuts, fizzas. Sometime the temple visitors get confused and visit the temple on the eve of Christmas. Music also very different and hears like rock band. The youth are targeted in this way and business is focused to be achieving further heights.

They are also investing in real estate. They are building Theme Park, Krishna Lila Park and are going to open their own super markets there. They already have their supermarket inside the temple. Market yard is hundred times more than the worshiping area which is their main business. From food to food grains, music to books, readymade dress to fancy item are available there.

Mid day meal program is also running successfully where in even government and some other major MNCs have their shares. In spite of number of cases and blames by the authorities it is being praised a lot by the general public.

ISKCON might be the first corporate office which is open to the general public.

Now it is Bing Vs Google

Bing- if you wish to insult it you can expand it as ‘But, It’s Not Google’. But certainly it is not true. Bing is a new search tool from Microsoft which looks like next version of Google, but with some added features. While Google is taking over Microsoft’s monopoly with release of new tools, it is now Microsoft’s turn to shock Google and its supporters.

Bing is much like Google, that’s why I called it as next version of Google! There is a search box with all the options for specifying search for image, maps, shopping, videos, news etc. Difference could be felt once you enter some thing for search and hit search button.

Here in Bing, no need to click on the result link to see what is inside. Just point on the result link, a pop up balloon shows the first few lines of the content. You need not to leave the result page to see what is there in it.

Bing gives a number of options to get what you looking for. Like in Google, if you search for Katrina you get the options for image search for the celebrity along with the search result. Here in Bing if you search for name of the celebrity you will be given option to choose news, image, quotes, biography etc. Similarly if you search for a disease, you can later choose to go for causes, treatment, remedy, news.

Similar to Google, Bing also allows you to search images. In Bing you can customize the size of the thumbnail. Also, there is no need to go to next page to view more images. You feel like you are viewing image from your own system. Details like sources, pixel are hidden and will be shown in balloon when you point to it.

Unlike Google video search, you can preview the video in Bing search for few seconds by pointing cursor to the thumbnail. Again you need not leave the result page to preview video.

Bing is just a child. It lacks a lot of features that Google offers. But for a normal search use it is now preferable along with Google. Bing makes searching more easy.

MyToday is no more reliable

I started using MyToday SMS alert services by subscribing to few services two years back. It was very much reliable in the beginning. Time sense was so appreciable that it was sending alerts at exact time. But now, it is not older MyToday.

Kalnirnay- daily calendar alerts may not reach you most of the days. Some days you will get it in the morning, on other days you might get it in the evening for next day. It is just an example. So I don’t read the SMS that tells it is from MyToday most of the time. SMS alerts from Google are found more accurate and friendly. Not even with a single disturbing ad. I have subscribed to few Google SMS alerts that start with Google like GoogleNews, GoogleNewsTechnology and so on. They all come at a time thrice a day, so that I need not to look at my inbox every time when every message comes. Once you open the inbox, about five different alerts will be ready to read.

I am happy with the Google alert, so tried to stop MyToday alert. There I found another way of fooling the users. MyToday often changes its number. I could not even unsubscribe for the alerts. When I tried to do so, it reverses back with the message ‘this service is not available’.

Another interesting incident should be shared with you. I got a message from MyToday that if I subscribe for REC44, I will get my mobile freely recharged. So I sent the message START REC44 to 9945499454 to see what it is. Immediately I was replied with a message that my mobile will be recharged within 72 hours and with a request to tell it to my friends. Already MyToday has lost its reliability, I decided to wait for 72 hours and then can tell to everyone if it really works. It was not recharged even after a week. Instead they started sending promotional messages at midnight 1.30am of some fake, span websites related to earn 100$ per day using your internet connection. Later I came to know this is a Mob and not a controlled alert. But as subscribing to mob or a alert is same one may not differentiate what it is. Fed up with this, when I tried STOP REC44 to the same number just after a week, it did not work. Think before subscribing MyToday.

Related Article: Google SMS channels thrash MyToday?

Inflation calculation in India- never gives true picture

Every media highlights downturn in inflation in recent days. It could be due the peak level we have witnessed in last few months, also due to the political reason- approaching general election. Today's news papers read "inflation at 6 years low at 2.4%". This could make you feel the prices have gone down and no need to spend more. Still it means the prices index that too wholesale price index is at 2.4% higher than what it was one year ago. Then what does the explanation "inflation gone down" means? It just means the rate of increase compared to last last week has gone down. But there is rate of increase. So until when there is +ve inflation (simply- inflation) you have to open your wallet more than what you were doing last year. Only when inflation is -ve (deflation) we can tell prices has gone down. Both are not good economics. There should be a stability.

With this come to the method of calculation of inflation in India. In India we use wholesale price index - WPI. It covers about 435 commodities in 3 groups- 1- primary articles, 2- fuel, power and lubricants, 3-manufactured products. These are given weightage for calculation as 22.03%, 14.25% and 63.75% respectively. WPI is calculated as point to point raise in prices i.e. comparing recent WPI to a point of time in past, that is a year ago. This method has two disadvantages- as it is calculated year to year basis, the seasonal prices can mislead the calculation, secondly, most important disadvantage is as it is based on WPI, it will not give true picture of consumer prices.

As in other countries India should also adopt CPI for measurement of inflation. A common man won't buy goods at whole sale price. Whole saler won't transfer complete downturn of price to consumer. Hence whole sale price index is a way of misleading the people. Even the WPI of some commodity drops at 20% CPI hardly drops 10%. So even when the inflation rate based on WPI is at 2.5%, inflation based on CPI could be 10%. In January, when the inflation was at the rate 3.03%, CPI for working class was 10.45%, for agricultural labour it was 10.62% and for rural labourers it was at 11.35%. Think how we are made fools!!

Airtel.com, Airtel.in and Domain squatting

Before going in detail I have to tell you what is domain squatting. Domain squatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. Now the question is whether the following case a domain squatting?
Let us analyse the situation. Click on Airtel.in. You will be taken to India's popular cellular service provider Airtel. Airtel is largest cellular service provider of India with more than 79 million subscribers as of November 2008. Now click on Airtel.com. You will be navigated to Vodafone Spain site. It may be a Spanish, where Airtel has no service, it still is the competitor’s website. Airtel has tough compitition with Vodafone in India. Whoever types Airtel.com and looks for Airtel detail he will be taken to Vodafone's website. Vodafone gets free traffic from Airtel.
What could be legal action? Before tell it I should also inform how I can write about this. I am a student of Post Graduation Diploma in IPR Laws in National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Now come to the case. By the definition of Domain squatting or Cyber squatting, if domain name Airtel.com is registered with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else that is well established Airtel, then Vodafone could be asked to transfer the domain name according to the WIPO Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. WIPO takes care of transfer of domain names to the true trademark owner.
But this case is quite different. Look at this information:

Domain name: AIRTEL.COM
Host IP 212.73.32.153
Created on: 1998-12-15
Updated on: 2008-09-29
Expires on: 2009-12-14
Registrant Name: AIRTEL MOVIL, S.A.
Contact: AIRTEL MOVIL, S.A.
Technical Contact Address: Psg. Lluis Companys, 23
Technical Contact City: Barcelona
Technical Contact Postal Code: 08010
Technical Contact Country: ES
Contact Phone: +34 935074360
Contact Fax: +34 933102360

The domain name is registered very long back in 1998, when cellular service called Airtel was there in Spain. But later it is acquired by Vodafone and they took the advantage and started redirecting the traffic from Airtel.com to their Spanish site. So Airtel-India can not do anything on this issue. But the domain name Airtel.com will get expired on 14 Dec 2009. Hope Vodafone will not re-registeres the domain name and continue to use it.
What happens if Vodafone re-registeres Airtel.com even though now it does not own trademark Airtel? I have to ask our lecturer, IPR expert, advocate J Suresh to answer this question. If you know the answer you are free to write a comment.

Satyam and emergency: A real cartoon

No need to tell you Satyam story here again. Look at the photo. Ambulance, emergency number 108, then Satyam symbol- looks like a real cartoon. This photograph is of an ambulance of government of Karnataka, which the project was recently inaugurated. Satyam provides technology and call centre services for this service. Now Satyam is in need of service.

Economic Meltdown Kisses Biotechnology Research

Finally world economic meltdown kissed biotechnology too. It took time, may not be at that extent other fields are affected, but it is. There are several reasons to say it will continue even after other firms recovers.
I have some friends working for both research institutions and biotechnology companies. One of my friend in an Indian research institution tells they started re-using eppendorf tube which they have never done earlier. Instead of thrown in to dustbin, now they wash it and sterilise. This is because they are not getting sufficient fund from the corporate firms who were always in back of these research. If this continues for quite a long time they may have to stop research. That is true, research works in biotechnology requires a huge fund, that a research institution alone can not afford. So many firms and also government bodies sponsor these research as their corporate social responsibility. At this economic condition how can you expect funds?
While bio tech companies are still seems to be stable at stock market are also running short of research capital. The capital comes from investment companies and most of the investment firms are now at their worst condition. So now, the research in large bio tech firms have also lost support from capital investment firms.If research in bio tech loses support, it could be a worst hit to mankind.
Photo: part of affinity chromatography column; 2007©Akshay Bhagwat