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Global Top 100 best outsourcing service providers of 2008
2008-03-09 17:35:00
It is been a long time since I have published a top lists. During the starting days of this blog, I regularly published quite a few lists which are great reference point to the readers. However, over last few months I have not been able to do that. Last year in I had published a list of Top 100 outsourcing providers of 2007 released by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). They have recently announced the 100 shortlisted companies for 2008. Note: This is just shortlisted list without any specific rankings. Relative rankings, selection process details, and company profiles will appear in the May 5th FORTUNE 500 issue.
More About: India , Service , Information Technology , Global

The rise of Indian Billionaires?
2008-03-07 16:01:00
The most surprising news in Forbes?s latest Global Billionaire list isn?t that Bill Gates has been toppled as the world?s richest man. No, the biggest surprise is the rise of the Indian rich ? four of the top eight billionaires in the world are from India. Topping the ranks is steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, whose worth Forbes puts at $45 billion. Next up are the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, with $43 billion and $42 billion respectively, largely from petrochemicals. Rounding out the list is KP Singh, the real-estate magnate, at $30 billion. This is an encouraging sign for the Indian economy. It shows that a country long known for brutal poverty can now compete with the U.S. and others in creating personal wealth. The Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini report says that India?s population of millionaires grew 20% last year, to about 100,000. That rate of growth was more than twice the growth of millionaires in the U.S.
More About: Indians , Billionaires , Rise

Fast rise and even faster fall
2008-03-07 15:28:00
India's stock market and Rupee growth has been fast and furious. The fall seems to come even faster. I have been going gaga over the rise of Indian stock market as well as the rise of Rupee against dollar in the recent past. This blog has seen number of articles published previously on rupee fall and its repercussions for export oriented sectors like IT/ITES. However the tide seems to be turning even faster. The stock market is plunging in big numbers every second day and the loosing streak does not seem to be ending. Indian stock market has come down to 15000 levels from high of more than 21000 levels in just 2 months. Investors have lost thousands of crores in this carnage. Current-Rupee-Dollar-conversion, dollar, dollar-getting-strong-rupee, dollar-into-rupee, dollar-rupee-conversion, dollar-rupee-price, dollar-to-rupee, dollar-values-on-30th-August-2007-India, dollarfuture, economy, exchange, exchange-dollar,
More About: Business , India , Money , Fast

The next Google will not come from Silicon Valley or even Bangalore, It wil
2008-03-05 11:44:00
These are the words from Rafiq Dossani, former editor of Business India weekly and author of his latest book "India Arriving-How this Economic Powerhouse is Redefining Global Business." I came across this excellent interview published in New America Media, where he is confident that the next Google will come from a small town in India rather than traditional entrepreneurial hotspots like Silicon Valley , Mumbai or Bangalore . Here are some excerpts from that interview:

Comprehensive coverage of Indian Mobile VAS
2008-03-04 05:13:00
The phenomenal growth in the Indian mobile market has been nothing short of miracle. It has clocked nearly 100% growth year on year. Here are some of the highlights Indian Telecom Overview Crossed 217 million subscriber base in Oct 2007 with approx 8 million subscribers adding monthly Despite record growth only 23% of India population owns a phone Projected to touch nearly 500 million subscribers by 2010 Prepaid subscriptions account for 85% of total subscriber base. VAS services contribute around 7% of total wireless telecom revenues Total Market size of VAS is expected to touch USD 926 million by end of 2007 This 138 slide slideshare presentation (released in December 2007) gives a comprehensive coverage of Indian Mobile and VAS Industry. It took me more than an hour to go through this whole presentation, but it was worth every minute. Any body even remotely interested in Indian mobile market should definitely go through this presentation. This presen...
More About: Business , Growth , Featured

Nunook community gaming network: how will users get hooked if they cannot r
2008-03-03 11:40:00
Community based gaming is growing at a fast clip in India. With majority of younger population hooked on to computers/ Internet more than ever before, this industry is set to grow even further. Quite a few players have already set their foot firmly in this sector. Players like Indiagames, Zapak and Game s2Win already command respectable user base. Additionally, other players like Indyarocks and FXlabs have made recent forays into this space. Undoubtedly, community based gaming has a huge potential in India and the big names are set to exploit this potential growth. I came to know about another startup in this space, when founder of Nunook mailed me about his startup. Here are my initial impressions. The idea behind Nunook is a very good one - allowing users to compete against each other, creating your own unique avatars and in the process socializing and interacting with your friends. I honestly was not too impressed as soon as I loaded the homepage (with quality of graphics an...
More About: Gaming , Community , Network , Users

Trak.in February Round-up
2008-03-03 06:42:00
Its that time of the month again - doing a quick round-up on previous month. February saw least number of posts published in a month since the start of this blog. Not an achievement that I would have liked. February traffic growth The traffic however remained constant with a marginal growth compared to January. This month saw close to 119,500 page views compared to 117,500 garnered last month. February subscriber growth From subscriptions perspective, February was a good month - It added close to 180 subscribers. On Feb 1st, Feedburner subscriber widget showed 1285 subscribers and as of today Trak.in has 1466 subscribers. A decent growth given that very few posts were published this month.
More About: Round Up , Round

Two Million Minutes: Comparison of school education standards between India
2008-02-28 12:13:00
Do you know one of the main worries India n parents have with children studying in US schools? It is how will their kids will cope up with Indian education standards if they move back to India. Ask any parent who have returned to India and had their kids studying in US schools. The students are just not able to cope up with the standard of education in India. Most often than not parents decide to put their kids a class lower for kids to cope up with the Indian standards. This is aptly attested by Robert A. Compton, producer of documentary called Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination Two million minutes is the mount of time a student leaves eighth grade until high school graduation. The amount of education gathered within these 2 million minutes by 3 different super powers of 21st century is the subject of the documentary. Compton was inspired to make Two Million Minutes to share his observations with American parents and students about the high education standards being set ...
More About: Education , Standards , School

Its official! Indians have better entrepreneurial skills than Chinese
2008-02-26 13:08:00
In a first of its kind survey conducted by US based executive search firm Korn/Ferry, it is found that Indians have far better entrepreneurial skills than their Chinese counterparts. I am sure that many will not be surprised by this survey given the way Indian entrepreneurs are going about doing their business. A brief look at the recent mergers and acquisitions will give you a glimpse of what Indian entrepreneurs are capable of. Although, far behind North American counterparts, Indian entrepreneurs fare better than our chinese neighbors. The survey concluded that Indian entrepreneurs have strong language skills and live in a society that encourages entrepreneurship. This was cited as one of the many reasons why Indians move up and occupy top positions in nations across the world.
More About: Business , China , Skills

Art of running a startup from Smartest Unknown Indian Entrepreneur
2008-02-25 11:31:00
Sramana Mitra has aptly named the title of her recent forbes column "The Smartest Unknown Indian Entrepreneur ". Who is it? It can only be Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of AdventNet, the company behind recently launched productivity suite Zoho. Zoho has been one of my favorite startups and products they have churned out consistently over a period of last 2 years are simply amazing. The article by Sramana is an eye opener. The way Sridhar has managed to aggressively grow his bootstrapped-mode startup is inspirational.
More About: Business , Running , Doing business

Blogbard: Get your content talking !
2008-02-23 06:16:00
Blogbard is cool new audio service (still in beta) for bloggers and web publishers. It turns any blog/site having rss feeds into your own personalized radio. I was rather impressed with near perfect text to speech translation and pronunciation. The tone and punctuation were right on the mark. Pretty good package overall. Here is a Trak.in feed widget. Just clicking on any of the headings will start the audio.
More About: Content , Talking

Top Indian B-Schools Salary Survey
2008-02-21 10:59:00
For 5th year in a row Salary increase in India has been highest in the world touching nearly 15% this time. Are you one of those who have salary in the top bracket or are you reeling at the bottom on the rung? In a quest to find out the truth about Indian salaries (specifically for B-School students), Amit Puri, one of our regular readers is taking an anonymous survey that will span across all Top Indian B-Schools to find out who are the best pay masters and who are not.
More About: Survey

Ummm?.Taco Bell is coming to India !
2008-02-20 11:58:00
One of my favorite fast foods living in US has been Taco Bell . The Nacho Cheese Chalupas, Nachos Bellgrande and 7 layered Burritos. I have freaked out on them. I can literally feel their taste as I am writing this.In my early days in US, Taco Bell was the only place (apart from Subway) where I used to eat - given that I am a veggie and most fast food chains in US rarely serve any good veggie items. Not to mention that they are relatively cheaper too. I have missed Taco Bell in India till now, but not anymore. Taco Bell is coming to Indian as early as mid 2008.

Now Free Internet access and Satellite television on Indian Rails
2008-02-19 13:50:00
Indian Union Railway minister -Lalu Prasad Yadav - the darling of the masses and the favorite whipping-boy of the media has added another feather to Indian railways. Two premium trains of India - Shatabdi and Rajdhani - will now be boasting on-board free internet and direct-to-home (DTH) services. The premium trains have been consistently loosing market share over past couple of years to low cost budget airlines offering very competitive rates. In a bid to stem this loosing streak, the Indian railway minister is expected to announce many new initiatives including Free Internet access and DTH services.
More About: Television , India , Satellite , Indian

Webcamp Unconference event: Barcamp on web frameworks in Chennai
2008-02-19 12:52:00
Webcamp, an unconference event on web frameworks is scheduled in Chennai this Saturday, Feb 23rd. The event is organized by Prabhu (co-organizer of pipesCamp) and sponsored by Jaspersoft. The topic of discussion for this unconference will be web frameworks- Ruby on Rails, django, erlyweb, Spring, .Net etc. Disclaimer: This event is a pure technical event and non-technical people should stay away from it. What: Barcamp on Web frameworks (WebCamp) When: Saturday, Feb 23 2008. Time: 1:30 pm - 7:30 pm Where: RailsFactory, 9/55, Karikalan Street, Jafferkhanpet, Ashok Nagar, Chennai, TN, India -600083. If you are interested you should register yourself immediately. Limited seats available.
More About: Event , Frameworks

Dish TV, Tata Sky and now Big TV: Consumer satellite-based direct-to-home t
2008-02-18 14:53:00
Just couple of years back India did not have a single household with Satellite television connection. Consumer s had to be satisfied with arbitrarily-laid-poor-signal terrestrial cable connections to watch their favorite TV shows. Not anymore- In last 2 years itself more than 8,00,000 (Eight lakh) subscribers have opted for satellite-based direct-to-home (DTH) services. The financial muscle of the two operators - Dish TV and Tata Sky - the Zee and Tata groups, respectively, has resulted in aggressive marketing and advertising blitz - Shah Rukh Khan is Dish’s brand ambassador - tipping the scales. Now, Reliance ADAG’s Big TV all set for March-2008 launch. They have already opened it up for Reliance employees and their families. Reliance ADA Group’s Big TV is reportedly slated to commercially go on air in late March 2008, though some Reliance employees are already using the service. The channel claims to have 86 channels on air right now, with 64 expected to come on b...
More About: Home , Direct

After People?s car, India gives world ultra-cheap mobile phones !
2008-02-15 11:48:00
India showed the world that Rupee 1 lakh car is very much possible and now Indian mobile company SPICE has showcased a mobile handset, sans screen display for as less as Rupees 500. Although, the price point is not fixed the mobile phone should cost some where between $10 to $20 (Rs. 390 to Rs. 780). Last year Reliance had launched its ultra cheap classic mobile phones with a price point starting at Rs. 777
More About: Business , India , Mobile , People , World

Will Reliance Communications acquire Capgemini to become India?s largest IT
2008-02-15 09:47:00
Anil Ambani is firing all cylinders in the quest to become India 's largest group (and Richest Indian), the coveted place currently held by his elder brother Mukesh. Close to the heels of Reliance Power - a $2.8 billion mammoth IPO, Anil has already announced his intentions of going public with his entertainment division. Now another big news has started making rounds. Anil Ambani run Reliance Communications is in talks with up-for-grabs French IT consulting firm Capgemini. Times Online reports: Capgemini, the French IT services group, has held early-stage talks with Reliance Communications, of India, that could result in the first acquisition of a significant Western IT house by one of India's fast-growing competitors. Reliance Communication's interest confirms Mr Ambani?s hopes to build a significant IT business. A move on Capgemini would give it access to a client base in continental Europe and catapult it among the world's top ten IT groups by market share. ...
More About: Business , Investment , Trends

Indian office space rentals are getting expensive?really really expensive!
2008-02-14 21:54:00
The real estate prices have soared in India over last 3-4 years. In some areas like Pune and Hyderabad, they have more than tripled and it is expected to rise even further. Not only outright purchases, even the rentals are touching the skies. In a recent study done by Cushman & Wakefield - Office space across the world 2008 - India scored very highly with 3 Indian locations ranking in top ten most expensive office spaces in the world. Mumbai CBD (Nariman Point) came in at 5th, Mumbai's Worli area coming at 7th and New Delhi CBD (Connaught Place) coming at 10th.
More About: Space , Growth

What the hell is wrong with Indian Markets?
2008-02-14 09:01:00
Last 2-3 weeks have seen Indian stock markets fall more than 25% on back of negative global cues and news of US in midst of recession. I have been trying to find reasons for this fall- and I am unable to find any! One of the main reasons that everybody seems to be pointing is the US recession, but if anything this recession will only help India more than anything else. I will come to that in a bit. Consider this: Our Political system moderately stable, we have the best people in right seats - PM and FM - both being right wing and pro open trade leaders, highly evident from the policies they have announced during their tenure. Sectors like automotive, telecommunication, retail, services, real estate and aviation are growing at scorching speeds. Indian companies are consistently giving positive guidance about their growth. Not only are they growing in India, but globally by way of mergers and acquisitions. The GDP growth still remains around 8.5 to 9% - one of the highest in the w...
More About: Markets , Hell , Wrong

Indians adopting Online billing and payment in big numbers
2008-02-13 15:58:00
Online bill payment is not new to India . Infact, I remember ICICI Bank offering online bill paying facility way back in 2000-2001. However, not many used the facility back then. It is only in last 2-3 years that online payments have caught up in India, given the rapid growth (If I can call it) of Internet. Living in US for 5 years, there was hardly an instance when I actually made a payment via cheque or cash - be it utility bills, newspaper bills, insurance premiums or even a co-pay to the doctor. 99% of the payment were done online. India now seems to be rapidly catching up to this phenomenon. Not only are individuals more inclined on paying bills online, even the companies presenting the bills are pushing netizens by giving more importance to e-billing.
More About: Indians , Indian , Online , Numbers

Doing Business in India - Intellectual Property Rights - Part 4
2008-02-13 05:23:00
Here is the last (4th) part of a 4 part article written by Sumeet Kachwaha of Kachwaha & Partners giving legal perspective of things if you plan on doing business in India . This aims to be an easy to read, yet comprehensive overview of legal issues involved in doing business in India. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS Indian courts vigorously protect intellectual property rights (IPRs). Following the GATT Agreement India has made its IPR laws TRIPS compliant. In this Chapter, we deal with the three major IPR laws viz. Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents. TRADEMARKS: Registration of a trademark is not mandatory as the law also recognizes and enforces the Common Law right of passing off. However for passing off, the plaintiff has to establish its reputation in relation to the mark and the fact that the offending mark is likely to confuse the public. On the other hand once the mark is registered it automatically confers on the proprietor an exclusive right to use the same in relation...
More About: Business , Property , Rights , Intellectual

Doing Business in India - Company Incorporation - Part 3
2008-02-12 15:12:00
Here is the 3rd part of a 4 part article written by Sumeet Kachwaha of Kachwaha & Part ners giving legal perspective of things if you plan on doing business in India . This aims to be an easy to read, yet comprehensive overview of legal issues involved in doing business in India. CORPORATIONS The law of corporations in India is governed by the Companies Act, 1956. Broadly, there are two types of companies ? Public Limited Companies and Private Limited Companies. While Public Limited Companies describe themselves merely as "Limited Companies", Private Limited Companies are obliged to indicate clearly the fact that they are a Private Company by adding after their name "Pvt. Ltd."
More About: Business , Doing business

Doing Business in India - Investment & Trade - Part 2
2008-02-12 14:58:00
Here is the 2nd part of a 4 part article written by Sumeet Kachwaha of Kachwaha & Partners giving legal perspective of things if you plan on doing business in India . This aims to be an easy to read, yet comprehensive overview of legal issues involved in doing business in India. INVESTMENT AND TRADE The India story changed dramatically from 1991 when Government announced its new industrial policy, basically de-licensing industry and introducing fiscal and regulatory reforms. This vastly encouraged foreign investment. The cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 1991 to 2007 has exceeded US$ 54,628 million (in 2006 ? 2007, alone it was US$ 15,726 million - a 184% increase from the previous year).
More About: Business , Trade , Doing business

Doing Business in India - The Legal Environment - Part 1
2008-02-12 14:08:00
Did you know that it takes 35 days to start a business in India ? and India ranks a lowly 134th in the world when it comes to ease of starting a business. And 35 days is a time in ideal circumstances. Here is the 1st part of a 4 part article written by Sumeet Kachwaha of Kachwaha & Partners giving legal perspective of things if you plan on doing business in India. This aims to be an easy to read, yet comprehensive overview of legal issues involved in doing business in India.
More About: Business , Environment , Legal , Doing business

Microsoft unveils next generation contextual advertising delivery through s
2008-02-11 15:07:00
Microsoft is leaving no stones unturned to increase its currently miniscule market share in lucrative online advertising space. It recently unveiled new contextual analysis and ad targeting solutions for online video content at the fourth annual adLabs Demo Fest at Microsoft’s headquarters. The Contextual Ads for Video offering uses speech recognition technology to translate the audio from online clips into text, which can then be matched to deliver targeted ads to the users. The algorithm used by Microsoft can differentiate between speakers (in the video) and even their conversations, parse the context of what’s being said, and use that data to deliver highly contextual ads to the users. Even though speech recognition technology has been around for years, it has never really taken off. Even the most sophisticated softwares have not been able to completely decipher the accents and tones of spoken english used throughout the world. Considering this, we will have to w...
More About: Microsoft , Advertising , Generation , Delivery

How India Earns, Spends and Saves
2008-02-07 17:55:00
India's economy is growing at fast pace, so are the earnings of Indians . A single visit to a Mall or superstore will give you a glimpse of amount of money Indians have in their pockets. But are Indian's just spending or are they saving something? I came across and interesting survey jointly conducted by Max New York Life and National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) - 'How India Earns, Spends and Saves' - that throws some light on what Indians are doing with their money. Here are some of the highlights of the survey
More About: India , Income

Want to know what others are searching on the web?
2008-02-07 09:51:00
Are you interested in knowing what others are searching on the Google? or what the current hot topic of search is? Thanks to Google trends you can now find out what your peers in India are searching on the web, that too on hourly basis. Google unveiled two new India centric services - Google trends and Google Hot Trends. What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to sports to political issues to the latest Bollywood gossip. Hot Trends aren't the search terms people look for most often; those are pretty predictable, like [weather] or [games]. Instead, the Hot Trends algorithm analyzes millions of searches to find those that show an unusual and fairly sudden increase in popularity. The outcome is the Hot Trends list. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day, so check back often.
More About: Searching

Trak.in January Round-up
2008-02-05 12:15:00
January has been a good month for trak.in blog in terms of traffic. Infact, it registered highest traffic since Trak.in started back in May 2007. I am actually surprised at the growth in traffic given that I have been posting less frequently off-late. Even though the traffic has increased, subscriber growth seems to have slowed down adding around 75 subscribers for the month of January.
More About: Round Up , January , Round

India now a global hub for Television commercial production
2008-02-04 08:12:00
I have mentioned this earlier - I love creativity of India n advertisements. They are not only fun to watch, they also create a lasting impression on viewers mind.I have seen numerous television ads in US and UK, but very few ads seem to capture viewer’s attention. Even during the game day (American Super Bowl Finals), ...
More About: Television , Commercial , Global , Production