ICT brings about openness, accessibility, connectivity, democratization and decentralization that results ultimately in social transformation. To really capitalize on all the work we have done in the past what it means to me is to really bring broadband as major infrastructure to connect all our municipalities, connect all our panchayats, schools , colleges, R&D labs, governments so on and so forth. We have a program on National Knowledge Network to connect 1,500 nodes with 10-40 gigabit using fibre to interlink all our universities R&D labs, libraries to improve collaboration and share more information. Similarly, we plan to have a program to connect 250,000 panchayats to fibre. We already have 2,500 municipalities connected to broadband.
-- Sam Pitroda
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
The coming of e- stamps
The postal department is working with USbased consulting firm Accenture to prepare a detailed modernisation plan.The electronic form of postal stamps will fully substitute paper stamps in two years,” said an official with the ministry of communications and Information Technology. India Post currently has electronic stamping facility in select urban postal circles.
“There have been cases of revenue leaks due to postal stamps being forged in some parts of the country,” said the official, without getting into details. The department sold stamps worth Rs 606 crore in 2008-09 . It reported a loss of Rs 3,638 crore in 2008-09 after posting a 34% jump in expenditure to Rs 9,500 crore. Revenues grew only 6.6% to Rs 5,862 crore during the period.
Its accumulated losses stand at Rs 7,640 crore. Some premium segment products such as Speed Post are already using bar coded stamps and several large cities have computerised post offices. But most parts of the country, including rural and semi-urban areas , use paper stamps
Besides shifting to e-stamps , the postal department has initiated other e-enabled services to survive in a world that is going the digital way, particularly in the communications space. Its e-post service, for instance, allows sending of messages through email to be printed at post offices near to the address.
“There have been cases of revenue leaks due to postal stamps being forged in some parts of the country,” said the official, without getting into details. The department sold stamps worth Rs 606 crore in 2008-09 . It reported a loss of Rs 3,638 crore in 2008-09 after posting a 34% jump in expenditure to Rs 9,500 crore. Revenues grew only 6.6% to Rs 5,862 crore during the period.
Its accumulated losses stand at Rs 7,640 crore. Some premium segment products such as Speed Post are already using bar coded stamps and several large cities have computerised post offices. But most parts of the country, including rural and semi-urban areas , use paper stamps
Besides shifting to e-stamps , the postal department has initiated other e-enabled services to survive in a world that is going the digital way, particularly in the communications space. Its e-post service, for instance, allows sending of messages through email to be printed at post offices near to the address.
Conglomerates donating money.
Premji, chairman of India’s thirdbiggest IT services exporter Wipro, will do this by transferring about 8.6% stake worth over 8,000 crore to a private trust controlled by him. The trust will then use the money to finance the educational initiatives being carried out under the ambit of the Azim Premji Foundation.
Sunil Mittal of Bharti and Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies are spending money on education and the government is also stressing greater corporate involvement in social service activities.
Nadar recently donated over 580 crore by selling his 2.5% stake in HCL Technologies to fund the education initiatives of his eponymous foundation. Mittal’s Bharti Foundation is running free English-medium schools for about 30,000 students in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan , Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
Sunil Mittal of Bharti and Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies are spending money on education and the government is also stressing greater corporate involvement in social service activities.
Nadar recently donated over 580 crore by selling his 2.5% stake in HCL Technologies to fund the education initiatives of his eponymous foundation. Mittal’s Bharti Foundation is running free English-medium schools for about 30,000 students in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan , Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
India 2nd in manufacturing
A study conducted by Deloitte and the US Council on Competitiveness has revealed that India is ranked second behind China in manufacturing competitiveness and will only narrow the gap over the next few years.
The Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index , based on the views of more than 400 senior manufacturing executives worldwide, has rated the overall manufacturing competitiveness of 26 countries.
More surprising (than China’s rise to the top) is that India is now positioned at number two and expected to gain an even stronger foothold over the next five years. “India’s rich talent pool of scientists, researchers , and engineers as well as its large, well-educated Englishspeaking workforce and democratic regime make it an attractive destination for manufacturers,” the study said.
Executives surveyed said that research and development capabilities paired with engineering , software, and technology integration abilities were essential ingredients for manufacturing enterprises.
While China, India and South Korea, the three most manufacturing competitive economies would retain their position, Brazil is projected to replace US from the fourth slot. The US, where concerns of losing competitiveness are already causing some concern, is expected to slip to the fifth slot.
According to the senior manufacturing leaders who participated in the study, the most important drivers of global manufacturing competitiveness are the classic factors of production labour, materials and energy.
source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/India-ranks-second-in-manufacturing-competitiveness-Study/articleshow/7033483.cms
The Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index , based on the views of more than 400 senior manufacturing executives worldwide, has rated the overall manufacturing competitiveness of 26 countries.
More surprising (than China’s rise to the top) is that India is now positioned at number two and expected to gain an even stronger foothold over the next five years. “India’s rich talent pool of scientists, researchers , and engineers as well as its large, well-educated Englishspeaking workforce and democratic regime make it an attractive destination for manufacturers,” the study said.
Executives surveyed said that research and development capabilities paired with engineering , software, and technology integration abilities were essential ingredients for manufacturing enterprises.
While China, India and South Korea, the three most manufacturing competitive economies would retain their position, Brazil is projected to replace US from the fourth slot. The US, where concerns of losing competitiveness are already causing some concern, is expected to slip to the fifth slot.
According to the senior manufacturing leaders who participated in the study, the most important drivers of global manufacturing competitiveness are the classic factors of production labour, materials and energy.
source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/India-ranks-second-in-manufacturing-competitiveness-Study/articleshow/7033483.cms
Friday, February 26, 2010
UNION BUDGET 2010
HIGHLIGHTS
■To waive excise duty on solar panels
■Opposition walks out of Parliament over petrol price hike
■Petrol prices to go up
■Fresh services to be brought under service tax
■Service tax to GDP ratio 1%
■Service tax to result in net revenue gain of Rs 3000 cr
■Customs duty on silver at Rs 1500/kg
■Custom duty on gold to be reduced
■Mobile phones to be cheaper
■No capital gains tax on conversion of a business entity into Limited Liability Partnership
■To encourage manufacture of accessories such as battery chargers and hands-free sets, the concessions will be extended the mobile phone sector
■5% customs duty on crude petroleum back
■Peak customs duty unchanged at 10%
■FM raises central excise duty on all non-petroleum products from 8 to 10 per cent
■Revenue loss of Rs 26,000 crore on direct tax proposals
■Stimulus-led excise duty rollback partially reversed
■FM allows housing projects to complete projects in 5 years instead of 4 years to avail tax break
■One-time interim relief to housing and real estate sector
■Businesses up to Rs 60 lakh and professionals up to Rs 15 lakh to be exempted from auditing obligations of their accounts
■Uproar in Parliament over petrol price rise
■To levy excise duty of Re 1/litre on petrol
■New tax rates would offer relief to 60 per cent of tax-payers
■CET on petroproducts hiked by Re 1
■Uniform Direct tax receipts to fall by Rs 56,000 cr
■Standard excise rate up from 8 to 10%
■Large cars, SUVs excise up to 22% from 20%
■Sops for real estate, housing projects extended by a year
■Partial roll back the rate reduction in central excise
■Direct tax scheme to result in revenue loss of Rs 26,000 cr
■Compliance burden reduced on professionals and entrepreneurs
■Corporate tax surcharge down from 10 to 7.5%
■New income tax slabs will bring relief to the middle class
■Rs 20,000 additional tax break for infra bonds
■Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 18%
■R&D allocation increased 200%
■To unveil new Saral 2 form for salaried individuals in two pages
■Deduction of additional 10% for investment on infrastructure bonds
■Tax slabs: Broadening 1.6 lakh - Nil above 1.6 lakh-up to 5 lakh 10%
■5-8 lakh- 20% above 8 lakh- 30%
■Tax paying interface to be de-cluttered
■States to be offered assistance to computerise commercial taxes
■Greater transparency in tax administration targeted
■Centralized Tax Centre at Bengaluru fully functional
■Fiscal deficit at 5.5% for FY'11
■Rolling target for fiscal deficit 4.2%
■Gross tax receipts at Rs 7.46 lakh cr
■New symbol for Indian Rupee
■Tech advisor group under Nandan Nilekani
■Allocation for development of micro and small scale sector raised from Rs 1,794 cr to Rs 2,400 cr
■Rs 2,600 cr for Minority Affairs Ministry
■To create 50 cr skilled workers by 2022
■Rs 1,900 cr to UID authority allocated
■First set of UID to be issued by this year
■Rs 19,484 cr allocated for road development, to build 20 km of highway every day
■Subsidy for affordable housing extended
■Skill development programme for textile and garment sector
■Pvt sector to meet deficit in grain storage
■50% increase in women & child development allocation
■Development of rural infra remains high priority area
■Power sector allocation doubled to Rs 5130 cr
■Rs 400 cr corpus for micro-finance scheme
■National pension scheme allocation increased
■States to get Rs 3,675 crore for primary education at rural level
■Rs 400 cr corpus for micro-finance scheme
■NREGA allocation to Rs 40,100 crore
■National Social Security fund to be set up for unorganized sector
■Urban Development allocation to be raised by 75 per cent
■20,000 mw of solar power by 2022
■Rural development allocation to Rs 61,000 cr
■Indira Awaas Yojana allocation raised in proportion to plain and hill area housing
■Development of rural infra remains high priority area
■Social sector spending at Rs 1.38 lakh cr for FY11
■Rs 500 cr for Clean Ganga Mission
■Rs 66, 100 cr for rural development in FY10-11
■Allocation for school education up from Rs 26, 800 crore to Rs 31, 036 cr
■Rs 22, 300 crore allocated for Health Ministry
■Coal regulatory authority proposed
■Rs 300 cr for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana
■Bank farm loan target: Rs 3.75 lakh crore
■Rs 200 cr To Tamil Nadu for textiles
■Need to take firm view on opening up of the retail sector
■National clean Energy Fund to be set up
■Rs 200 crore to Goa as a special golden jubilee package to restore beaches and increase green cover
■To provide 2% loan subsidy to farmers
■Extend loan payment by calamity hit farmers
■Rs 400cr for four-part strategy for agriculture
■2% interest subvention for exports extended
■Additional banking licenses for pvt players
■4 pronged strategy for agriculture
■Rs 16,500 cr capital support for PSU banks
■Will consider Parikh report on fuel pricing
■Goods and services tax to be introduced in 2011
■Fertiliser subsidy to be reduced
■GDP growth for FY'10 is seen at 7.2 pc
■Rs 25,000 cr disinvestment target this year
■India weathered economic crisis well
■Direct tax code to be implemented from April 1, 2011
■Gradual phasing out of economic stimulus
■Pvt investment can sustain 9 pc growth
■First challenge: Return to GDP growth
■Manufacturing growth highest in the past 2 years
■Indian economy is in a far better position today
■FM is expected to simplify tax laws in 2010
■Biggest challenge is to make the growth all inclusive
■Need to strengthen food security
■Pranab: Indian economy has stood through the test of time
■Economic growth slows down to 6 pc in Q3
■Finance Minister presents Budget 2010
■Pranab Mukherjee presents his 5th Union Budget
■Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reaches Parliament
■Inflation is forecast to reach 10 percent in coming weeks
■Government borrowing was forecast to rise by another 2.2 percent
■Economists forecast India may cut its fiscal deposit to 5.6% of GDP
TAXES
■More services to be brought under service tax net
■Service tax to result in net revenue gain of Rs 3000cr
■Customs duty on gold to be reduced; silver at Rs 1500/kg
■Uniform concessional duty of 5% on all medical appliances
■Rationalising of customs on gaming software
■Custom duty of one of the key component of microwave oven reduced
■Peak customs duty unchanged at 10%
■Custom duty for importing of duplication of prints of films revised
■No capital gains tax on conversion of a business entity into Limited Liability Partnership
■Businesses up to Rs 60 lakh and professionals up to Rs 15 lakh to be exempted from auditing obligations
■Nominal duty of 4% electric cars
■Partial rollback of excise duty on cement, cement products, large cars
■To levy excise duty of Re 1/litre on petrol
■R&D Corp Tax break up to 200%
■Uniform Direct Tax receipts to fall by Rs 56,000 cr
■Pilot project for tax grievances extended to 4 cities
■Direct tax scheme to result in revenue loss of Rs 26,000cr
■Corporate tax surcharge down from 10 to 7.5%
■Rs 20,000 additional tax break for infra bonds
■Corp Min Alternate Tax up from 15 to 18%
■New tax rates would offer relief to 60 per cent of tax-payers
■Direct tax slabs: income upto 1.6 lakh = nil, 1.6-5 lakh = 10%, 5-8 lakh = 20%,
■above 8 lakh = 30%
■Centralized Tax Centre at Bengaluru fully functional
■Gross tax receipts Rs 7.46 lakh crore
■Deferment of goods & service tax negative for corporates in FY10-11
■Direct tax to be implemented from April 1, 2011
■Simple tax system with minimum exemptions near completion
MARKET
■Realty stock gain after tax sops for developers
■Nifty up 100 pts
■Sensex surges over 350 pts on direct tax sops
■BSE real estate index extends gains to 3% on sops to developers
■12.30am: Markets responds positively, Sensex up 300 pts
■Banking stocks up, react to banking expansion plans
■Markets up by 100 points
■Fertilizer stocks up, react to reduction of subsidy
■11.30am: BSE Sensex, Nifty up by 0.5%
■Markets react positively to Pranab speech
■9am: BSE Sensex at 16,296.59, 0.26%
■9am: NSE index at 4,880.55 0.4%
PRICES
■Gold gets cheaper
■Petrol, Diesel to be expensive
■Mobile phones to be cheaper
■Large cars, SUVs to cost more
■Petro products, cigarettes to be expensive
■Fertilisers to be costlier after the reduction in subsidy
■High fuel prices added to inflation: Pranab
■Pranab Mukherjee said the govt would initiate action to bridge the gap between wholesale and retail prices.
■Govt promises to tackle food inflation in budget
■Calls for fiscal discipline have gained urgency as inflation is forecast by some economists to reach 10 percent in coming weeks as high food prices fuel broader inflation expectations.
■To waive excise duty on solar panels
■Opposition walks out of Parliament over petrol price hike
■Petrol prices to go up
■Fresh services to be brought under service tax
■Service tax to GDP ratio 1%
■Service tax to result in net revenue gain of Rs 3000 cr
■Customs duty on silver at Rs 1500/kg
■Custom duty on gold to be reduced
■Mobile phones to be cheaper
■No capital gains tax on conversion of a business entity into Limited Liability Partnership
■To encourage manufacture of accessories such as battery chargers and hands-free sets, the concessions will be extended the mobile phone sector
■5% customs duty on crude petroleum back
■Peak customs duty unchanged at 10%
■FM raises central excise duty on all non-petroleum products from 8 to 10 per cent
■Revenue loss of Rs 26,000 crore on direct tax proposals
■Stimulus-led excise duty rollback partially reversed
■FM allows housing projects to complete projects in 5 years instead of 4 years to avail tax break
■One-time interim relief to housing and real estate sector
■Businesses up to Rs 60 lakh and professionals up to Rs 15 lakh to be exempted from auditing obligations of their accounts
■Uproar in Parliament over petrol price rise
■To levy excise duty of Re 1/litre on petrol
■New tax rates would offer relief to 60 per cent of tax-payers
■CET on petroproducts hiked by Re 1
■Uniform Direct tax receipts to fall by Rs 56,000 cr
■Standard excise rate up from 8 to 10%
■Large cars, SUVs excise up to 22% from 20%
■Sops for real estate, housing projects extended by a year
■Partial roll back the rate reduction in central excise
■Direct tax scheme to result in revenue loss of Rs 26,000 cr
■Compliance burden reduced on professionals and entrepreneurs
■Corporate tax surcharge down from 10 to 7.5%
■New income tax slabs will bring relief to the middle class
■Rs 20,000 additional tax break for infra bonds
■Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 18%
■R&D allocation increased 200%
■To unveil new Saral 2 form for salaried individuals in two pages
■Deduction of additional 10% for investment on infrastructure bonds
■Tax slabs: Broadening 1.6 lakh - Nil above 1.6 lakh-up to 5 lakh 10%
■5-8 lakh- 20% above 8 lakh- 30%
■Tax paying interface to be de-cluttered
■States to be offered assistance to computerise commercial taxes
■Greater transparency in tax administration targeted
■Centralized Tax Centre at Bengaluru fully functional
■Fiscal deficit at 5.5% for FY'11
■Rolling target for fiscal deficit 4.2%
■Gross tax receipts at Rs 7.46 lakh cr
■New symbol for Indian Rupee
■Tech advisor group under Nandan Nilekani
■Allocation for development of micro and small scale sector raised from Rs 1,794 cr to Rs 2,400 cr
■Rs 2,600 cr for Minority Affairs Ministry
■To create 50 cr skilled workers by 2022
■Rs 1,900 cr to UID authority allocated
■First set of UID to be issued by this year
■Rs 19,484 cr allocated for road development, to build 20 km of highway every day
■Subsidy for affordable housing extended
■Skill development programme for textile and garment sector
■Pvt sector to meet deficit in grain storage
■50% increase in women & child development allocation
■Development of rural infra remains high priority area
■Power sector allocation doubled to Rs 5130 cr
■Rs 400 cr corpus for micro-finance scheme
■National pension scheme allocation increased
■States to get Rs 3,675 crore for primary education at rural level
■Rs 400 cr corpus for micro-finance scheme
■NREGA allocation to Rs 40,100 crore
■National Social Security fund to be set up for unorganized sector
■Urban Development allocation to be raised by 75 per cent
■20,000 mw of solar power by 2022
■Rural development allocation to Rs 61,000 cr
■Indira Awaas Yojana allocation raised in proportion to plain and hill area housing
■Development of rural infra remains high priority area
■Social sector spending at Rs 1.38 lakh cr for FY11
■Rs 500 cr for Clean Ganga Mission
■Rs 66, 100 cr for rural development in FY10-11
■Allocation for school education up from Rs 26, 800 crore to Rs 31, 036 cr
■Rs 22, 300 crore allocated for Health Ministry
■Coal regulatory authority proposed
■Rs 300 cr for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana
■Bank farm loan target: Rs 3.75 lakh crore
■Rs 200 cr To Tamil Nadu for textiles
■Need to take firm view on opening up of the retail sector
■National clean Energy Fund to be set up
■Rs 200 crore to Goa as a special golden jubilee package to restore beaches and increase green cover
■To provide 2% loan subsidy to farmers
■Extend loan payment by calamity hit farmers
■Rs 400cr for four-part strategy for agriculture
■2% interest subvention for exports extended
■Additional banking licenses for pvt players
■4 pronged strategy for agriculture
■Rs 16,500 cr capital support for PSU banks
■Will consider Parikh report on fuel pricing
■Goods and services tax to be introduced in 2011
■Fertiliser subsidy to be reduced
■GDP growth for FY'10 is seen at 7.2 pc
■Rs 25,000 cr disinvestment target this year
■India weathered economic crisis well
■Direct tax code to be implemented from April 1, 2011
■Gradual phasing out of economic stimulus
■Pvt investment can sustain 9 pc growth
■First challenge: Return to GDP growth
■Manufacturing growth highest in the past 2 years
■Indian economy is in a far better position today
■FM is expected to simplify tax laws in 2010
■Biggest challenge is to make the growth all inclusive
■Need to strengthen food security
■Pranab: Indian economy has stood through the test of time
■Economic growth slows down to 6 pc in Q3
■Finance Minister presents Budget 2010
■Pranab Mukherjee presents his 5th Union Budget
■Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reaches Parliament
■Inflation is forecast to reach 10 percent in coming weeks
■Government borrowing was forecast to rise by another 2.2 percent
■Economists forecast India may cut its fiscal deposit to 5.6% of GDP
TAXES
■More services to be brought under service tax net
■Service tax to result in net revenue gain of Rs 3000cr
■Customs duty on gold to be reduced; silver at Rs 1500/kg
■Uniform concessional duty of 5% on all medical appliances
■Rationalising of customs on gaming software
■Custom duty of one of the key component of microwave oven reduced
■Peak customs duty unchanged at 10%
■Custom duty for importing of duplication of prints of films revised
■No capital gains tax on conversion of a business entity into Limited Liability Partnership
■Businesses up to Rs 60 lakh and professionals up to Rs 15 lakh to be exempted from auditing obligations
■Nominal duty of 4% electric cars
■Partial rollback of excise duty on cement, cement products, large cars
■To levy excise duty of Re 1/litre on petrol
■R&D Corp Tax break up to 200%
■Uniform Direct Tax receipts to fall by Rs 56,000 cr
■Pilot project for tax grievances extended to 4 cities
■Direct tax scheme to result in revenue loss of Rs 26,000cr
■Corporate tax surcharge down from 10 to 7.5%
■Rs 20,000 additional tax break for infra bonds
■Corp Min Alternate Tax up from 15 to 18%
■New tax rates would offer relief to 60 per cent of tax-payers
■Direct tax slabs: income upto 1.6 lakh = nil, 1.6-5 lakh = 10%, 5-8 lakh = 20%,
■above 8 lakh = 30%
■Centralized Tax Centre at Bengaluru fully functional
■Gross tax receipts Rs 7.46 lakh crore
■Deferment of goods & service tax negative for corporates in FY10-11
■Direct tax to be implemented from April 1, 2011
■Simple tax system with minimum exemptions near completion
MARKET
■Realty stock gain after tax sops for developers
■Nifty up 100 pts
■Sensex surges over 350 pts on direct tax sops
■BSE real estate index extends gains to 3% on sops to developers
■12.30am: Markets responds positively, Sensex up 300 pts
■Banking stocks up, react to banking expansion plans
■Markets up by 100 points
■Fertilizer stocks up, react to reduction of subsidy
■11.30am: BSE Sensex, Nifty up by 0.5%
■Markets react positively to Pranab speech
■9am: BSE Sensex at 16,296.59, 0.26%
■9am: NSE index at 4,880.55 0.4%
PRICES
■Gold gets cheaper
■Petrol, Diesel to be expensive
■Mobile phones to be cheaper
■Large cars, SUVs to cost more
■Petro products, cigarettes to be expensive
■Fertilisers to be costlier after the reduction in subsidy
■High fuel prices added to inflation: Pranab
■Pranab Mukherjee said the govt would initiate action to bridge the gap between wholesale and retail prices.
■Govt promises to tackle food inflation in budget
■Calls for fiscal discipline have gained urgency as inflation is forecast by some economists to reach 10 percent in coming weeks as high food prices fuel broader inflation expectations.
Railway Budget 2010
HIGHLIGHTS
•No increase in passenger fares
•Rs.100 reduction in freight per wagon for fertilisers and kerosene
•Free travel for cancer patients in 3rd AC classes
•Cost-sharing in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode in some gauge-conversion projects
•Further extension of Kolkata Metro on priority basis; stations to be named after Bahadur Shah Zafar, Tagore family
•Karmabhoomi trains to be introduced for migrant labour
•New Janmabhoomi train between Ahmedabad and Udhampur
•Special 'Bharat Teertha' train to be run around India to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary
•Railway line to be extended from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir
•Andaman and Nicobar Islands to get railway line from Port Blair to Diglipur
•Sikkim capital Gangtok to be connected by rail from Rangpo
•2011 being 150th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, special train to be run from West Bengal to Bangladesh
•Gross earnings in 2009-10 estimated at Rs.88,281 crore
•Working expenditure in 2009-10 estimated at Rs.83,440 crore
•Expenses during 2010-11 estimated at Rs.87,100 crore
•Thrust on expansion in 2010-11 with allocation of Rs.4,411 crore
•Kashmir rail link to be extended to Sopore in the north of the valley
•Net profit of Rs.1,328 crore in 2009-10
•10 automobile ancillary hubs to be created
•Twenty-two million energy saving CFLs for lighting distributed already
•Policy decision to employ one member of family whose land is requisitioned for railway projects
•North-south, east-west dedicated freight corridors to be created
•Construction of high-speed passenger rail corridors envisaged
•More multi-functional hospitals to be set up
•Educational facilities to be set up for children of 80,000 women families
•Special facilities to be established for gangmen
•Insurance facilities for licensed porters as part of railway's corporate social responsibility
•Centre for railway research to be established with Indian Institutes of Technology and
•Defence Research and Development Organisation
•Will involve unions in policy making
•Integral Coach Factory Chennai to be further modernised
•New wagon repair shop in Mumbai
•Design, development and testing centre for railway wheels at Bangalore
•Within five years, all unmanned level crossings to be manned
•Construction of more underpasses, besides road overbridges
•Greater coordination with state governments to protect railway property
•Security of women passengers to be improved
•Ex-servicemen to be employed in Railway Protection Force
•Five sports academies to be set up
•Astroturf to be provided for development of hockey
•Employment opportunities for sports persons
•Railways to be lead partner for Commonwealth Games
•Special drive to increase passenger amenities
•Upgrade of 94 stations
•Six new drinking water bottling plants in PPP mode
•Modern toilets at railway stations
•More ticketing centres to help the public
•Acquisition of cutting edge safety technology
•1,000 route km to be created
•Special task force for clearing investment proposals in 100 days
•New business model to be created
•No privatisation of railways
•But greater participation of private sector
•117 of 120 new trains for current fiscal to be flagged off
•No increase in passenger fares
•Rs.100 reduction in freight per wagon for fertilisers and kerosene
•Free travel for cancer patients in 3rd AC classes
•Cost-sharing in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode in some gauge-conversion projects
•Further extension of Kolkata Metro on priority basis; stations to be named after Bahadur Shah Zafar, Tagore family
•Karmabhoomi trains to be introduced for migrant labour
•New Janmabhoomi train between Ahmedabad and Udhampur
•Special 'Bharat Teertha' train to be run around India to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary
•Railway line to be extended from Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh to Leh in Jammu and Kashmir
•Andaman and Nicobar Islands to get railway line from Port Blair to Diglipur
•Sikkim capital Gangtok to be connected by rail from Rangpo
•2011 being 150th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, special train to be run from West Bengal to Bangladesh
•Gross earnings in 2009-10 estimated at Rs.88,281 crore
•Working expenditure in 2009-10 estimated at Rs.83,440 crore
•Expenses during 2010-11 estimated at Rs.87,100 crore
•Thrust on expansion in 2010-11 with allocation of Rs.4,411 crore
•Kashmir rail link to be extended to Sopore in the north of the valley
•Net profit of Rs.1,328 crore in 2009-10
•10 automobile ancillary hubs to be created
•Twenty-two million energy saving CFLs for lighting distributed already
•Policy decision to employ one member of family whose land is requisitioned for railway projects
•North-south, east-west dedicated freight corridors to be created
•Construction of high-speed passenger rail corridors envisaged
•More multi-functional hospitals to be set up
•Educational facilities to be set up for children of 80,000 women families
•Special facilities to be established for gangmen
•Insurance facilities for licensed porters as part of railway's corporate social responsibility
•Centre for railway research to be established with Indian Institutes of Technology and
•Defence Research and Development Organisation
•Will involve unions in policy making
•Integral Coach Factory Chennai to be further modernised
•New wagon repair shop in Mumbai
•Design, development and testing centre for railway wheels at Bangalore
•Within five years, all unmanned level crossings to be manned
•Construction of more underpasses, besides road overbridges
•Greater coordination with state governments to protect railway property
•Security of women passengers to be improved
•Ex-servicemen to be employed in Railway Protection Force
•Five sports academies to be set up
•Astroturf to be provided for development of hockey
•Employment opportunities for sports persons
•Railways to be lead partner for Commonwealth Games
•Special drive to increase passenger amenities
•Upgrade of 94 stations
•Six new drinking water bottling plants in PPP mode
•Modern toilets at railway stations
•More ticketing centres to help the public
•Acquisition of cutting edge safety technology
•1,000 route km to be created
•Special task force for clearing investment proposals in 100 days
•New business model to be created
•No privatisation of railways
•But greater participation of private sector
•117 of 120 new trains for current fiscal to be flagged off
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Who's your Competitor
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question - "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast ...or.... be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question - "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast ...or.... be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
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