Challenges to India’s growth story
India’s path to being an economic superpower and the challenges on way are commonly discussed topics. The most frequently cited challenge is the poor infrastructure. Somehow another one, social inequity and internal strife, is seldom discussed in spite of it being stated as a larger challenge by many reports. Its easy to understand why not, as most of the urban people and urban media look at only what is around them – out of sight, out of mind. At best we celebrate a Bihar when it nearly tops the GDP growth charts or moan the loss of lives when massacres happen . Arundhati Roy’s long article in Oulook gives a much needed perspective from the other side. This also helps explain why there are divergent views within the Government on tackling Maoists. I think this is a macro trend that all of us should pay attention to.
Wall Street as cloud computing vendor
Here is an intriguing story on Wall Street looking at sub letting their data centers during off hours to cloud computing providers. Its intriguing because it is silent on the supply side concerns of security. Its also intriguing from a demand side; why would a cloud computing provider want fluctuations in its capacity during a single day? I don’t know these firms but this sounds like a dream many CIOs have: turn a cost center into profit center. Most of the times, they fail to win CEO approval as RoI numbers never measure up and also because a cultural change is required.
While you are on that site, do check out the feature on World’s largest Data Centers. Microsoft has 3 in the top 10 while Google and Amazon have none.
New Computing Technology
HP Labs has used memristors, that they discovered about 2 years ago, to develop memory that can compute too. They’ve also been able to demonstrate switching times that make this technology more practical. A memristor, to put simply, is a device that uses presence/absence of resistance instead of electric charge for computing/memory. The article speculates on some usage. An interesting implication is that computers/devices made of memristors can be just switched off/switched on like a light bulb. However, its not clear what changes would be required in software designs of today for this to work. A disruptive tech to watch out for in the next decade.
This is some stuff I’ve read recently and thought of sharing.
The spat between IRDA and SEBI on ULIPs has been ugly and the only victim is the common investor. This article by Jeff Gerth on Propublica shows how such spats are more common (than at least I thought) and lead to sub-optimal outcomes for the common man.
A lot of people get very confused on legal aspects of software licensing. Here is a checklist for buyers which would be useful for entrepreneurs too. Do note its a good starting point but isn’t exhaustive.
We all have had our own frustrating experiences with Corporate IT and most of the time we have just given up for the sake of ”reliability, scalability and security”. Here is a very comprehensive and pithy rant/counterpoint against the Corporate IT. I like it because it covers it all and makes a persuasive case. Also because James is a CTO with Dept of Works and pensions in UK. He’s arguing for change from inside the heart of the beast!
James is also sharing his learnings from his experiments to monetise his online book. I’ve reproduced below what hit me the hardest but do read the entire article.
Retweets are excellent predictors of Google’s pace at recognising content
Here’s the top line, though: “Pay What its Worth” works less well than the Tip scheme, and I think its because people don’t like having to make a decision on value AND tell me what they think it is. When I told them what the fixed amount was, they were far easier with it.
This is a description of a Facebook based phishing attack conducted by a security consultant for its client as a penetration test. While the consultant makes his points about remedies, I think a crucial point is missed
Another interesting finding is that targeted users will often provide more than one login and password when a displayed page indicates “Under Construction.” Frequently, a respondent will enter a relatively hard password, but with a numerical sequence like Summer1, Summer2, and so on
Isn’t this behavior a result of the security policy of password reset every 3 weeks and it can’t be any of past 5 passwords etc coupled with no single sign on? I think most people have many passwords to remember and to make it easy they end up making up passwords that a computer thinks as “strong” but really is weak for a human mind.
Here are some interesting insights and data from the Mobile world:
- Chris Skinner has a very interesting round up of three case studies on Mobile Banking across US, Africa and Japan. India does not figure here but my guess is that in account count though not in deposits or transaction value, India will figure in top 3 within a year. This would be largely be driven by the Financial Inclusion drive by RBI.
- Smaato published the March metrics for click through rates (CTR) for different mobile operating systems and the fill rate for the different mobile ad networks. An intriguing statistic is that Android languishes at the bottom on the Global CTR index but zooms to top when it comes to South East Asia. I wonder why?
- Some insightful statistics on Location based mobile advertisement from McDonalds in Finland reveal a fairly high CTR on both the advertisement (7%) and the navigation option (39%). While these numbers look good, I’m not sure that location based advertisement would work across categories.
- Some insights into the Apps usage for the Middle East Market. My guess is that the users have higher ability to pay than the US users and hence the higher price. Also, messaging’s popularity reminds me of a bluetooth based messaging app which was wildly popular as it was a way of blind dating in a restricted society. Maybe this is an extension
I was recently looking at the business cards that I had collected at the recently concluded NASSCOM Product Conclave and I was struck by the utter confusion that is written on many of them. It seems that many haven’t really thought through the reasons for having a card.
To begin with the name itself has problems. First they have a logo – the brand name of the product they have created – with a nice TM next to it. Second they have the company name which is different from the brand name! Now if you’re a startup and are trying to create awareness of your name, why are you confusing people by giving a second name? Think about it, a business card is not a legal document that requires you to have the name of the company on it. The best, of course, is to have the brand and the company name as the same – say Apple. But let’s say that RoC didn’t give you the name you wanted and you like the brand name more. So, why not just promote that one name that you’ve chosen as your brand?
Another related problem is to not have a tagline or description of the product/offering. Fewer people make this mistake than the ones making the dual name one. But this is as serious. A business card is what you leave behind and should have all the information needed to get its holder remember you. If they need to go to your website to remember who you are then you probably lost a large chunk who decide not to. A few lines on the card helps them save the effort and remember you better. These few lines should cover what your product promises to do. That promise is what hooks people and gets them to call you.
Still another one is to not understand the relative importance of the address. Its probably the least important piece of information on the card and yet it occupies most space. Think about it – first, people want to know who you are (Name and designation) and then what you do (Product Name and product’s promise). When they need to get in touch with you, they would either call you (Telphone no or Mobile no) or send you an email. It is very unlikely that they would turn up at your address unannounced. So why is it taking so much space on the card? Its probably a legacy of an earlier time when email and mobiles didn’t exist. In my book, its the least important bit that can go at the back of the card. The email and phone numbers need to be emphasised leaving enough room for you product name and product promise.
While we are on the subject of business cards, here is another thing which is easy to do but I haven’t seen many do. The next time someone says they’ve run out of their cards, ask them for their email IDs and mobile if they put it on their business card. Note it down or enter into your phone right away.