Shyam's Blog

I see so many Ads on TV about online shopping in India. Below is a sample list. http://www.flipkart.com/ http://www.quikr.com/ http://www.myntra.com/ http://www.jabong.com/ http://www.junglee.com/ http://www.tradus.com/ http://www.olx.in/ http://www.ebay.in/ With fast growing Internet users, customer base for online shopping is increasing. I have started to do a bit of research on this market. Few questions that need to be answered... 1. Why are there so many players? 2. What is the business strategy to attract Indian customers? 3. How is online shopping in India different from that in the West? 4. Why is Amazon not a player in India? 5. How is 'cash-on-delivery' working compared to credit card payment? 6. What will be the scene 10 years from now? I haven't done any online shopping in India. As a shopper, I am more comfortable visiting the store and getting a closer look at the product. This seems to be faster than ordering something online and waiting...

I am a customer of BSNL in Bangalore and I find that they are the best and worst telephone service providers in the city. Coming to best part first - 1. Most cost effective service. 2. Broadband is the fastest among ADSL vendors. I can go on and on with the other side of the coin. 1. Worst customer support. I had to change homes twice in one year. Each time, I was out of connection for more than 45 days. It takes a lot of effort and follow-ups to get the connection transferred. The linesman, Assistant Engineer, Executive Engineer - none of them pick up their cell phone most of the times. Once in a blue moon, the phone rings and I get to talk to them about my transfer request. 2. If a fault occurs, we have to better keep our fingers and pray the Gods crossed to get it resolved. Once, my broadband account had got locked due to unknown reason. I had to struggle for 15 days to get it re-activated. 3. Bills don't arrive, but, line gets disconnected if not paid. Due to system ...

I have been noticing road traffic offenses. Some rules that are broken regularly in Bangalore roads are: 1. Two wheelers riding without helmet 2. Riders talking on cell-phone 3. Wrong side riding/driving 4. Changing lane without indicators (it is an offense as per rules) 5. Jumping traffic signal 6. Parking in the middle of the road 7. Overspeeding 8. Driving/riding without driver's license 9. Driving with alcohol influence 10. No proper headlights/tail lights. Now, to some fancy calculations: Number of vehicles registered in Bangalore - 36,53,368. (source = here ) . This is, as of 2009. I see an offense being made at every beat of my heart! If we assume, an offense every second, total offenses per day = 86,400 This is less than 3% of the total vehicles mentioned above. Minimum penalty is Rs. 100 (For complete of penalties and offenses list, see here ). Total penalty collected per month = 86,400 x 30 days x Rs. 100 = Rs. 25,92,00,000 (Rs. 25.92 crores). If 10...

It was the same team that did the road trip in the year 2000. Then, we called ourselves ‘Santro Team’.   Now after 12 years, we did a similar road trip with one person (Sumanth) less. We can call our current team, ‘DZire Team’. Destination was Kaidala and Aralaguppe. We started off from our houses as early as 6am. By the time we were in the outskirts of the city, we started getting hungry. Without much hesitation, we had a sumptuous breakfast at CTR, Malleswaram. One plate idli-vada and one dosa kept us through the trip. Kaidala was out first stop. We reached there by 9:30am. The priest there, Sri. Parthasarathi, gave us good information about the temple. The idol was destroyed by a person few years ago (about 10 years ago) because of land dispute. It was ‘re-assembled’ to perfection within a week, largely with the help of a   Sculptor, Sri. Jayannacharya from Chikmagalur. Chennakeshava at Kaidala is a marvel. He is standing on the lotus, on which is mounted Shiva...