The human ATM

The geographic and economic constrains of this subcontinent are bringing professional opportunities to many young aspirants!

Swati Yashwant, a 29-year-old mother of one, is part of a growing legion of roving tellers (human ATM) intent on providing bank accounts to the nearly 50 percent of India’s 300 million households that do not have them. Using a laptop computer, wireless modem and fingerprint scanner, Ms. Yashwant opens accounts, takes deposits and processes money transfers for farmers and migrant workers in this small town 70 miles south of Mumbai, India’s financial capital.



To reduce the risk of robbery or theft, no transaction by law may exceed 10,000 rupees (about $212). And in practice, many amount to no more than a dollar or two. But with the bulk of India’s population living in villages that have never had a bank branch, Ms. Yashwant, with her electronic devices, is a missionary of financial modernity.



Many Indians “don’t know anything about banking,” she said in her small office here, which is decorated with a garlanded picture of Ganesh, the Hindu god believed to remove obstacles. “I want to open their accounts and help them understand banking.”
Economists and policy makers say mobile agents like Ms. Yashwant represent one of the most promising ways to help the rural poor save and protect their money. Many people in India who do not have bank accounts, for instance, buy gold necklaces or simply keep cash in their unlocked homes.

“This is something that could be powerful,” said Abhijit V. Banerjee, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wrote “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty” with Esther Duflo.

The banking agents enable the poor to easily save money they otherwise might be tempted to spend, Mr. Banerjee said. And when times are lean, people could withdraw money they had saved, instead of borrowing cash at high rates of interest. The accounts earn currently earn 4 percent annual interest, which is standard for savings accounts in India. There are no maintenance fees or charges for deposits or withdrawals. “It’s true that this will not make them rich,” Mr. Banerjee said, “but it will make them less likely to face starvation someday.” Ms. Yashwant is one of an estimated 60,000 of what Indian bankers call “business correspondents,” who are not bank employees but earn commissions that the banks pay them for each transaction.

The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, began the push for banking correspondents about five years ago. After slow initial growth, the central bank predicts the ranks of correspondents will more than double, to 126,000, by March. The Reserve Bank has ordered commercial banks to set up correspondents in every village with more than 2,000 people and has assigned each of those villages to one bank or another.

For India’s banks, it is a relatively inexpensive way to recruit customers. While about 70 percent of India’s population is dispersed among more than 600,000 villages, the entire country has only 33,500 bank branches. Correspondents like Ms. Yashwant have set up 74 million bank accounts in India.

“If you used the traditional high-cost banking system, you will never reach these people,” said Jayant Sinha, who is managing director of the India office of Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm set up by Pierre M. Omidyar, the founder of eBay.

Ms. Yashwant has been a correspondent in Kolad for four months, for State Bank, India’s biggest bank. The $200 or so she earns in an average month is a good wage in rural India, where the average monthly income is only about $65.

Traveling by bus or rickshaw to villages around her town to recruit customers, Ms. Yashwant meets a variety of challenges. In some remote villages her wireless Internet connection fades in and out. Frequent blackouts disrupt the work. And the fingerprint scanner can struggle to read the calloused fingers of farm laborers.
On a recent rain-soaked afternoon, in her Kolad office, she patiently persevered to take a print from Rajashri Nakati, a 35-year-old farmhand. “I want to save my money,” said Ms. Nakati, a mother of five. “If I leave it at home, it will get spent.”

Ms. Yashwant dragged Ms. Nakati’s rough fingers over her scanner several times, sighing as her laptop beeped when the scan did not render an acceptable imprint. She repeated the exercise with six fingers, three on each hand, as a gaggle of women, friends and relatives of Ms. Nakati, dressed in brightly colored saris watched through a window.

Finally, Ms. Yashwant captured a print. That scan, with a simple one-page application and a passport-size photo of Ms. Nakati, would next go to the bank’s back office. It would take two days before the account was ready for Ms. Nakati’s first deposit of 100 rupees (about $2).

Such banking represents the kind of “frugal innovation” that India has become known for in recent years — finding inexpensive solutions to its development challenges.

State Bank is also buying hundreds of solar-powered A.T.M.’s that have fingerprint scanners and do not need air-conditioning at temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) from an Indian company called Vortex Engineering. The machines are being placed in small towns, and, for now, are meant for customers who open regular bank accounts, not the no-frills accounts set up by the roving correspondents, which do not come with A.T.M. cards.

Because of the small sums involved, State Bank says it loses money on most of the accounts opened by correspondents. The balances in those accounts total 1.1 billion rupees ($21.8 million), not even a rounding error relative to State Bank’s total deposits of about $200 billion.

Still, officials said that while the average account balance was only 160 rupees ($3.30) at the end of August, it has increased steadily. As recently as March, the average balance was just 100 rupees. Over time, State Bank officials say, they expect the accounts to be large enough to be worth the bank’s investment. “Right now, it’s more of a social obligation,” Krishna Kumar, a managing director at State Bank, said in his wood-paneled 18th-floor office in Mumbai. “But in a few years, it will be significant.”

INgene report on the Comic Con and various trend directions

Comic con india 2012

View more presentations from Kaustav Sengupta.

Social Changemakers: meterpodu- crowdsourced local problem-solution

The local problems are getting addressed by the new breed of young experts through their knowledge and experience. The "social good" is prevalent in various efforts like the one mentioned below:

Most visitors find two very good reasons to hate Chennai within minutes of landing in the city. One, the weather. Two, the auto drivers. Nothing can be done about the first one. And nothing has been done to address the second reason - auto drivers who compulsively fleece passengers.

Here's a fact: fare meters in Chennai autos have just ornamental value; they aren't used. For the same distance by auto, Chennai would be comparatively far more costlier to any other city in India. The fare for each trip is decided in advance - the result of hard and tiring negotiations between the parties. This has been the case for decades, and yet absolutely nothing has been done by the administration. Of course, the story circulating for years is that it's the policemen who own most of the autos plying the city.

So Chennai-ites have often been left to wonder why on earth, for example, does the auto driver in Kerala not take a paise more from his passenger than what the meter indicates. There's always anger in Chennai on this point - arguably not good enough to translate into votes. That's why a Mirinda ad, in which actor Asin gives it back to an unruly auto driver, was so well received. In fact, someone I know even wrote to the State Government suggesting that it take over the auto service in the State. And, why not, when the Government seems to believe it is its duty to provide everything from rice to laptops free. It is thus hardly surprising that a recent initiative called meterpodu (or put the meter) has created some buzz. Its creators, Anantha Subramanian and Mayur Narasimhan, both of whom have worked in the US, came back home to the shocking auto scene and decided to do something about it. The Website meterpodu.in is the result. It works on a crowdsourcing model - users of its info also add to its info base.

So, for instance, you log in to the site (or use sms) to find out the likely charge between two points in the city. The meterpodu model then digs into its database (contributed by other users) for an answer. You now are better equipped to bargain. There ends your problem. But the meterpodu team wouldn't like you to stop there - ideally, they would like you to feed the fare you paid for the trip so that the database becomes better. That's how crowdsourcing could be a success.

Here's the interesting point. Despite what the name suggests, meterpodu wouldn't make auto drivers adhere to the meter. It would only ensure the user is aware of the going rate - still the product of hard and tiring negotiations. So even a visitor would be aware of that going rate, wherever he wants to travel.

That would be the state unless the administration wakes up to the problem of the ornamental meter. For the time being, this seems a solution which the auto drivers won't find unacceptable. Because, it's unlikely that the database gets weighed down by rates that are near what the meter would prescribe.

Both Anantha and Mayur have no plans to gain monetarily from this exercise. So, its success would depend entirely on users voluntarily coming forward to do their bit to limit fleecing. Like all crowdsourcing projects, it also runs the risk of finding it tough to motivate participation from users. For the time being, though, meterpodu is an indication that at least someone is thinking about the problem!

Check this initiative here: http://www.meterpodu.in/

Half of India's homes have cellphones, but not toilets

The penetration of mobile phone in India is faster than even the basic necessities like Toilet.

Census sheds new light on changing nation

Though half of all Indians do not have a toilet at home, well over half own a telephone, new census data released on Tuesday show.

These and many other contrasting facts of life have come out in Census 2011. The data on housing, household amenities and assets cast new light on a country in the throes of a complex transition, where millions have access to state-of-the-art technologies and consumer goods — but a larger number lacks access to the most rudimentary facilities.

Live, connect, move - census at a glance (PDF)

It shows Indian society is overwhelmingly made up of nuclear families. They have ever more access to electricity and gather their information from television, rather than radio. At the same time, women are forced to rely on traditional smoky fuels to cook, and less than a third of the population have access to treated drinking water.

Only 46.9 per cent of the total 246.6 million households have toilet facilities. Of the rest, 3.2 per cent use public toilets. And 49.8 per cent ease themselves in the open. In stark contrast, 63.2 per cent of the households own a telephone connection — 53.2 per cent of mobile phones

Releasing the data, Registrar-General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli said the lack of sanitary facilities “continues to be a big concern for the country.” “Cultural and traditional reasons,” he argued, “and lack of education seemed to be the primary reasons for this unhygienic practice. We have to do a lot in these areas.”

However, the data also show significant deficits in areas that have nothing to do with cultural practices or poor education. For example, two-thirds of households continue to use firewood, crop residue, cow dung cakes or coal for cooking — putting women to significant health hazards and hardship.

The data also show that just 32 per cent of the households use treated water for drinking and 17 per cent still fetch drinking water from a source located more than 500 metres in rural areas or 100 metres in urban centres.

There has been an 11 percentage point increase in households using electricity, from 56 per cent to 67 per cent. The rural-urban gap for this indicator has dropped by seven percentage point, from 44 per cent to 37 per cent.

India, the data show, is now overwhelmingly made up of nuclear families — a dramatic change from just a generation ago, where joint families were the norm. Seventy per cent of the households consist of only one couple. Indian families are overwhelmingly likely — 86.6 per cent of them — to live in their own houses, but 37.1 per cent live in a single room.

Though there has been a nine percentage point jump in the numbers of households who own a two-wheeler, 45 per cent own a cycle, which remains the primary mode of transport.

The data cast light on the changing character of the media. There has been a 16 per cent increase in the number of households watching television, but a 15 per cent decline in the use of radios and transistors. A total of 47.2 per cent of households own a television; only 19.9 per cent have either radio or transistors.

tablet war

the battle of tablets are in full swing! Last year, DataWind in association with the Government of India came out with a 7 inch Android tablet for students. Named Aakash, the tablet costs Rs 2,999 in the market; while its subsidised rate is just Rs 2,250. Aakash, which was hailed as the cheapest tablet in the world, was projected as revolutionary and was talked about the world over. In fact, its makers got lakhs of pre-orders. Before the euphoria could die down, though, public sector telecom operator BSNL has come out with an extremely low cost tablet of its own. Manufactured by Noida based Pantel Technologies, the Penta IS701R tablet has WiFi and is priced at Rs 3,499.
The tablet market is clearly getting divided among the have ("I have an iPad") to haven't ("I can't afford an iPad, hence the cheapest is better"). The marketers are missing the concept of "disposable gadgets" (use it for a year and renew it to a newer one) ! Today, like other products, the gadgets have very less life (before its faded into the "uncool" category) and almost no resale value. The marketers should en-cash it and sell the "cheap" gadgets as "disposable one" rather than calling it as cheap / for poor!

The greed and death of massification

The recent hiccups in Blackberry’s network and deliverance brought another interesting case study on why going to mass looks lucrative but can be a killer, in India.

The earlier case study where I argued that the hibernation and certain death of Orkut (the first ever “ice age” social network in this subcontinent) was due to the sudden “en-mass” appeal of it.

India is clearly divided in between “have” and “have not”. The have will always try to float ahead of have not and prove that they are away from the clutter. A struggle for “identity” (the flick kick of “struggle for existence”) is what defines a product in this subcontinent.

Many products understood it early and succeeded or they got it as they have evolved. For example, Facebook now has the “timeline” app that differentiates one who “knows” the apps from the one who’s mass citizen of FB and not app savvy! In future FB will add more features that will distinctly divide FB India between “Have” and “Have not” (need not be the economic definition but social currency). Now the blackberry is available at a price of any smart phone in India and hence it’s moving towards the mass.

This massification will eventually kill Blackerry’s charisma and convert it into another museum piece like Nokia. The consumption psychology and adapted differentiation theory has to be well placed before the “greed” of capturing the “whole India”.

The global consumer trends and influential local trends among youth in India

Below are few pivotal macro trends that are emerging in the global consumer scenario:

1. Personalization and interactivity: the consumers are demanding more personalized products that will have a story to tell and will be capable of “interacting” with the user in a smarter manner. The “mute” products with no relevant stories to be connected are appearing as “dead” products to display one’s association. Right from the Levi’s “custom fitted” denim to the Gucci bag “for a cause” (where the money donated for the betterment of AIDs patients in Africa) has their own stories to tell and carry over. Even in the luxury watch segment, the customized watches with personal touch (ie. Writing one’s most memorable incident in the dial, a miniature tattoo at the back or the number of diamonds equal to the age of the consumer) are in demand.

2. Environment friendly, organic, recyclable or ethical: with the growing awareness of global warming, ozone layer destruction and carbon credits, the global consumers are looking for products that will enable them to exhibit their belonging to the cause. The survey also suggests that the consumers are willing to pay more if the products are eco-friendly, recyclable or ethically produced. The organic shapes are becoming predominant in product design.

3. Multi functional: Consumers are looking for products that will have multi functionality. A mobile that can also function as a computer and a TV, a laptop that will also be a data warehouse, mobile office, TV etc. or a jewel that can be worn at multiple occasions with equal relevance and adorning various body parts.

4. Globally local: the local products with global essence are in vogue. Right from the discovery of long lost jewellery craft skills to the herbal local medicines the consumers are becoming conscious (and proud) about their local heritage and craftsmanship.

The Indian young consumers will look for three distinct yet interconnected product directions: the affordable affluence, cultural & social connectivity and power prominence.

An affordable product that doesn’t “appear” affordable will be in trend. The retailers must carefully choose the promotional mode so that the products doesn’t overtly exhibit the essence of being affordable or otherwise the product fate can be similar to the “people’s car” Nano! Today the consumers don’t like the fact that the products will loudly speak their “cheapness” thus demeaning the economic status of the user.

Consumers will love to reconnect with the glorious past and redefined heritage with eagerness to contribute to social cause. The Corporate Social Responsibility will also emerge as a defining factor of the product. Protecting the heritage will fuse with CRM. The pseudo luxury of acquiring the gold / diamond will move to real luxury of philanthropic activities.

The Power of womanhood has to reflect in the product. The retro trends of 80’s “power women” will be back with extravaganza. The designs should suit the varied role of young women in contemporary social environment.

The recently published Juxt Indian Women 2011 study report (in the Marketing Whitebook 2011-2012) states that the order of priorities for Indian women in different strata has been changed from the previously perceived one. The highest priority in life is money (76%) which comes above family (35%) and taking care of children (15%)! The romantic relationship (2%) and spiritual experience (1%) is at the bottom of the list. One must be wondering of why the money is in the top of priority list and what the ladies will do with this money? Will not they be tempted to flaunt their newly acquired economic power? Will not they be taking their own decisions without depending on their counterparts? Will not they love to “wear” their power rather than appearing as a decorated (by the family members) docile housewife? The luxury and fashion is an essential tool to exhibit one’s monitory power so that she can access the desired social status denied till date. In the slow economy scenario, fashion is also an essential trait to exhibit that one is far ahead of the “have not” / grassroots (who will presumably suffer in economic downfall). As the Valblen’s theory of Conspicuous Consumption states, the over consumption is one method to show that one is “having power to consume”. The new Indian women in corporate and political arena are proving that they can play the pivotal role when it comes to appear “strong yet emotional” and they can also camouflage well within the social norms. The latest directional trends towards men’s checks and prints being introduced among female shirts, the broad shouldered suits, the stilettos and the “manly” BlackBerry mobile

Kaustav was quoted at WGSN trend insight report

Recently Kaustav was quoted in the insight report of WGSN (www.wgsn.com), a leading trend forecast agency. A snapshot is added. For more details, please visit the original website of WGSN.

Indians are among the happiest!

Notwithstanding the economic woes and conflicts, the world is a happier place now than what it was in 2007 and Indians are among the happiest on this planet, says a survey.
According to a poll conducted by global research company Ipsos, despite woes, conflicts, world a happier place than in 2007 as 22 per cent (up 2 points) of global citizens say they are "very happy" and the happiest people reside in Indonesia, India and Mexico.While eight in 10 (77 per cent) citizens in 24 countries surveyed said they are 'happy' in their lives, one quarter (22 per cent) said they are 'very happy' ? a key measure that identifies comparative depth and intensity of happiness among country citizens and the world, the report said.On a national level, Indonesia has the highest proportion of happiest people with 51 per cent citizens reporting they are 'very happy' followed by India and Mexico (43 per cent) each.Brazil and Turkey shared the third position, where 30 per cent of citizens expressed their contentment, followed by Australia and the United States each at 28 per cent.On the other end, Hungary (6 per cent), South Korea (7 per cent) and Russia (8 per cent) have the lowest number of 'very happy' people, followed by Spain (11 per cent) and Italy (13 per cent).Regionally, Latin America has the greatest proportion of 'very happy' people (32 per cent), followed by North America (27 per cent).Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa shared the third place with 24 per cent of 'very happy' people.Not surprisingly, it is citizens in Europe who drag the global average assessment of happiness downward as only one in six (15 per cent) say they are 'very happy'.The poll of 18,687 adults conducted from November 1 to 15 2011 also demonstrates that those who are married appear to be the happiest when compared to all other groups, especially those who are not married. Besides marriage, age and socio-economic factor also played an important role for determining the level of contentment among people.Those who are under the age of 35 are more likely to say thet are 'very happy' than those who are in the age bracket of 35-49 across all countries surveyed, meanwhile, those with a high education and those with a high household income are among those most likely to be 'very happy'.The greatest improvements were found in Turkey (up 16 points since 2007) followed by Mexico (up 10 points), Australia (up 7 points), Japan (up 6 points) and India and Canada (each up 5 points).Of the 24 countries measured, 9 countries experienced increases in happiness intensity compared with 13 that dropped and two countries with no change.Those countries experiencing the greatest drop in happiness intensity were Brazil (down 9 points) followed by Indonesia (down 7 points), Russia (down 6 points) and South Africa (down 5 points).

India still a foreign investment hot spot - E&Y

Foreign direct investment in India is set to swell in coming years as investors stomach a lack of transparency, poor infrastructure and policy paralysis in their search for growth, professional services firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) said in a report.

Overseas investment in Asia's third-largest economy rose for the first time in three years in 2011, the report noted, as global investors put their faith in rising salaries, an expanding middle-class and a large and cheap labour force.

"The fundamentals that make India attractive to investors remain intact," Farokh T. Balsara, head of markets at Ernst & Young India, wrote in the report released on Sunday.

"However, our respondents continue to cite inadequate infrastructure and a lack of governance and transparency as major obstacles to investment."

Foreign direct investment (NYSE:FDI - NewsFDInull) in India rose 13 percent to $50.81 billion in the first 11 months of 2011 frhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifom a year earlier, while the total number of projects rose 25 percent to 864, the report said, citing data from the Financial Times' FDI Intelligence service.

For graphic on E&Y's India attractiveness survey see:

http://link.reuters.com/ruk36s

For graphic on India's GDP and industrial output see:

http://link.reuters.com/wys35s

Business confidence in India has declined over the past year, as economic growth slowed from an annual rate of 8.5 percent in 2010/11 to about 7 percent, and corruption and policy paralysis discouraged investment in big projects.

Just over half of chief executives in India are still "very confident" of revenue growth in the next 12 months, down from 88 percent a year ago, according to a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The majority of companies surveyed by E&Y were confident in the long-term prospects for investment in India, given sluggish growth in the United States and debt problems in Europe.

Almost 70 percent of 382 international companies surveyed said they plan to increase or maintain their operations in India, said the report, which was prepared for the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Just 19 percent said they had no plans to enter the country or were preparing to withdraw.

Robust domestic demand, cost competitiveness and a cheap, ever-growing labour force were cited India's key benefits.

"Although the ongoing global uncertainty...(has) prompted some discomfort among global investors to make long-term commitments, India's inherent advantages and its proven resilience to counter macroeconomic challenges far outweigh these concerns," Balsara said.

Automakers led the way in investing in India last year, boosting spending by 46 percent, E&Y said.

Technology and life sciences companies were other big spenders, while spending by foreign companies on infrastructure and retail projects declined.

Ford Motor Co, which said this month it would spend $142 million on its Indian operations, and the Renault-Nissan alliance are among companies that are stepping up investment in India.

Other companies, particularly retailers, are not so sure.

Sweden's IKEA, the world's biggest furniture retailer, said this week that would be difficult to set up shop in India because of complex government sourcing rules announced this month.

Plans by companies such as Wal-Mart were set backhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif in December when the government, under pressure from political allies, abandoned a long-mooted policy to open up the supermarket sector to direct investment by foreign companies.


Source: Yahoo finance

social swarming: transparency matters!

Transparent Chennai, a group of enthusiastic youth in Chennai aggregates, creates and disseminates data and research about important civic issues facing Chennai, including those issues facing the poor. Their work aims to empower residents by providing them useful, easy-to-understand information that can better highlight citizen needs, shed light on government performance, and improve their lives in the city, one issue at a time. Our goal is to enable residents, especially the poor, to have a greater voice in planning and city governance.

They actually creates maps and data to understand issues facing city residents. Transparent Chennai believes that a lack of data has sometimes allowed for government to evade its responsibilities to provide basic entitlements to all city residents, and to exercise force with impunity over informal settlements and workers.They work closely with individuals and citizens’ groups to create data that can help them counter inaccurate or incomplete government data, and make better claims on the government for their rights and entitlements.
Some of their data is available in the form of interactive maps, which can be layered on top of one another to contextualize information. Mapping can provide useful information to citizens, identify gaps in government data, create insights into policymaking, help create more accountability for elected representatives and bureaucracies, and help residents to “think spatially” at a time of rapid urbanization.

TC team members also conduct in-depth research into select issues of importance in the city. We have conducted research into urban governance, electoral accountability, participatory planning processes, pedestrian issues, slums, sanitation, and solid waste management, details about all of which can be found on the site.

Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements.

At the MP and MLA level, individual legislators are rarely associated with particular bills, and voting happens almost exclusively along party lines. As a result, when most organizations collect information about the performance of elected representatives, they look at other pieces of available information: their attendance in the legislative council or assembly, the number and kinds of questions they asked while they were there, and their spending from their local development funds. Ward councilors are slightly different: in Chennai, they propose resolutions usually related to issues affecting their constituency that are then approved by the Council and implemented. “However, we realized that simply collecting information about resolutions, questions, and attendance, did not tell us the entire story about a ward councilor’s performance. We were also interested in outcomes – how did the ward actually fare under their leadership with respect to urban services?” the team told.

This is a hard question to answer because of the paucity and inconsistency of data available to connect a legislator’s performance with outcomes at the constituency level- especially those of the city and the ward (High Powered Expert Committee 2011, 45). Official statistics on most aspects of city life, such as access to sanitation, extent and quality of sidewalks, slums, and public health are incomplete, and almost never disaggregated to the ward level. Even when data is present, it is often skewed as it fails to record (or even acknowledge) the deficiency in urban services to many of the city’s residents because they are seen to exist in the realm of the ‘informal’; like residents in a slum.



This is why Transparent Chennai started the Ward Accountability Experiment, where they are using citizen efforts to create data about issues in urban services at the ward level, data that could potentially be used to hold elected representatives accountable for making improvements. they began their efforts in a single ward. Each Saturday, nearly a hundred volunteers from civil society groups and colleges throughout the city walked around the streets of ward 176 (formerly ward 152 and parts of 151) in the southern part of the city, to capture data about three kinds of outcomes: public sanitation, garbage collection, walkability. they used paper maps and pencils to mark locations of piles of garbage and measured their size, and marked the locations of dustbins and whether they were usable. We found public bathrooms, and recorded their conditions. TC also evaluated the road’s walkability, marking locations of broken sidewalks and problems with crossing the street. they also took photographs and videos, and filled out quick surveys to supplement the information in the map. During the survey, also tested a mobile-app built for them by a local company to see whether GPS readings from it were accurate enough for wider use as a tool for documenting civic issues.

The volunteer team worked with Transparent Chennai to digitize the data, converting it from paper to spreadsheets and digital maps that could be analyzed.
The experiment yielded strong data that underscored some of their suspicions about local conditions. 40 of 111 (36%) dustbins on 87 roads that CT covered were unusable, and piles of garbage were most prevalent in the poorest parts of the ward. Only 2 of 11 public toilets met basic standards for usability (they had water, lights, and did not have any blockages). And only three out of the twenty roads that they surveyed scored well on walkability, while the rest required improvements!
At the end of the process, they have held a public meeting where we invited all the candidates for ward councilor, as well as residents from the ward. TC shared the data and analysis with attendees, and invited councilor candidates to share with us their plans for the ward. Candidates came from four political parties, the BJP, AIADMK, Congress and the DMK (although the last candidate came far too late to contribute to the meeting). All of them promised to take action based on the information, but both residents and press covering the event expressed skepticism about their ability and willingness to follow through on their promises.

For the mapping, we used low-tech paper maps, so anyone can use these tools, not just those who have access to smart phones and are familiar with the Internet. We believe that this is a crucial element to making these tools inclusive. Using our experiences from the Experiment, we will be refining the methodologies, and making them available in the form of Toolkits in both English and Tamil on our website. Our hope is that we will be able to assist volunteers from many other wards carry out similar exercises locally.

The Transparent Chennai team was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers, who came week after week to map local conditions and to digitize data.
“But what we are most excited about is the promise behind the experiment – that citizens can actually come together and create the data they need for greater accountability of elected representatives” the team states.








Reference: http://www.accountabilityindia.in/accountabilityblog/2340-mapping-local-accountability
http://www.transparentchennai.com/
High Powered Expert committee 2011, Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services, High Powered expert Committee.

Roy, A 2009, ‘Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization’,Planning Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 76-87.

Youth social swarming : Cyclothon for Clean Yamuna by Swechha

Swechha, a youth-run, youth-focused NGO operating from Delhi, India, engaged in the issues of environment and social development was started life as the ‘We for Yamuna’ campaign in 2000, launched by a student volunteer activist group. They have three cross-cutting focus areas which run throughout our varied programmes: environment and education, youth and civil society and active citizenship. On the 22nd of January 2012, the Yamuna Cyclothon, a Swechha initiative, gathered over 1,000 citizens, who cycled along the length of the river Yamuna to pledge their support to Delhi’s ailing river and reinforce their commitment to be environmentally conscious citizens.

The first thing that the Cyclothon does well is to put the “issue” front and center. The event is meant to highlight the sad state of the Yamuna River, which they describe as Delhi’s lifeline. By having cyclists literally travel along it, the event will draw immediate focus to the pollution plaguing the river and may also encourage more people to volunteer for the cause.



Instead of merely having the Cyclothon, the event’s organizers have been careful to build a series of events around the Cyclothon to attract and sustain interest. These range from flash mobs and smart mobs to presentations at schools and universities across the city – raising the profile and scope of the event. None of these “sub-events” would have been too difficult to organize, yet they lend tremendous credence by converting the image of the Cyclothon from an isolated event to a movement. You see, people merely attend events; but they want to become a part of a movement.

People turned up to do their bit for the river cycle marathon, probably the largest seen in Delhi in the recent past, wound its way across heavy traffic through Civil Lines and the Wazirabad Road before hitting the old Railway bridge. Cyclists took a U-turn from there and cycled back through the Ridge. "The cyclothon serves two purposes. First of all it is our endeavour to take people to the river and have them connect to this natural heritage. A substantial part of our 22km cycling stretch will be along the river, starting from Wazirabad to the Loha Pul. The second purpose of this project of course is to promote cycling among people, especially in a city like Delhi," added Jha. However, those who turned up definitely did not need any further motivation to cycle. Girish Gandhi, a businessman turned up with his son from Ashok Nagar because he "loves cycling " and wanted to do his bit for the Yamuna. "The government has done a lot for the river but unfortunately there are no results to prove that. If cycling draws attention to the plight of the river, I am more than happy cycling for it," he said. Arnav Agarwal, a 10-year-old who turned up accompanied by his equally enthusiastic father, said he loved cycling and was glad to be able to raise awareness about the river. "I love cycling and am hoping this morning will be a lot of fun," he beamed. Swechha reported that 350 people had officially registered for the rally but 100 volunteers, including foreign nationals who are working with the NGO and about 150 cycling club members joined in the cyclothon. Of the registered participants, 150 rode on bikes especially organized by Hero Cycles, co-organisers of the event.











References:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Braving-the-chill-for-a-cause-pedalling-to-save-lifeline/articleshow/11597305.cms
http://nvonews.com/2012/01/18/cycling-drive-for-clean-yamuna/
http://onionlive.com/2012/01/18/cyclothon-for-clean-yamuna/

Social Changemaker : sanitary napkins for grassroot women in India

In our country where population is touching 100 crores, the value of sanitary napkins used by women exceeds 1000 crores annually and it is increasing year after year. In India manufacturing of these sanitary napkins is in the hands of very few companies, mostly controlled by multi-nationals. The set of machines used are very expensive, the price of each set running in to crores. Most of the raw materials used are also imported. Even for middle class women, napkins sold in the market are becoming expensive.
Few Indian women can afford sanitary towels. But one social entrepreneur aims to change that, and provide an income too.

Sanitary napkins manufacturing unit

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The road to creating the world's first low-cost machine for making sanitary towels begins with a man who wore a sanitary towel himself. In 1998, Arunachalam Muruganantham was a workshop helper who lived below the poverty line in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. His research into sanitary towels began when he caught his wife, Shanti, trying to slip away with some filthy rags. When questioned, she said the choice was between buying towels for herself or buying milk for the family.

Her situation isn't unique: 88% of women in India resort to using ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and even husk sand during their periods, according to a report by market research group AC Nielsen called Sanitatary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right. As a result of these unhygienic practices, more than 70% of the women suffer from reproductive tract infections, increasing the risk of contracting associated cancers.

Faced with a challenge, Muruganantham decided to create a low-cost towel for his wife. His entrepreneurial spirit emerged quite early when his father, a handloom weaver, died and Muruganantham had to drop out of high school at 14. His mother earned a tiny amount as a farm worker. To supplement these wages, he began looking for low-cost business opportunities that addressed a need.

Cooking and delivering breakfast to factory workers pressed for time was his first successful venture, but he had to abandon it when he received threats from a competitor who copied his idea. At 15, he joined a workshop where he worked on gates and windows.

Bored by the repetitive designs, he adapted decorative Rangoli patterns to the metalwork and became so popular for his craftsmanship that he started his own workshop. For a child who grew up selling fireworks, sugarcane, lamps and statues of Ganesha, crafting a sanitary towel didn't seem like a big deal.

He started out by purchasing the best quality cotton he could find and made a few samples. Unaware of menstrual cycles, he presented them to his wife and demanded immediate test results. But his wife and sisters refused to discuss his creations with him.

"I was so consumed with research that I'd be up at the crack of dawn, to visit my sisters and ask them about it," he says. When his sisters saw him coming, they'd shout loudly to his wife next door to say that if he was going to ask them about towels, he'd better go back home. Undaunted, he approached female medical students and, when they refused to enter into discussion, gave them feedback forms. Convinced that he was using sanitary towels as an excuse to get close to other women, his wife left him a year and half after he started his research.

With no women willing to discuss Muruganantham's handmade sanitary towels in any depth, he decided to test them himself. Collecting goat's blood from a butcher shop and treating it chemically to prevent coagulation, he wore a bladder-and-tube contraption and women's underwear for a week. His homemade uterus would release a small dose of blood whenever pressed.

Unsatisfactory results prompted him to try another approach. He distributed the towels free and asked women to return the used ones. "It wasn't easy," says Muruganantham. "They thought I would use it for black magic." For his mother, stumbling upon a storeroom full of used sanitary towels was the final straw. She left too.

Muruganantham's breakthrough came at the end of two years of testing different materials. He figured out that towels were made of pine wood cellulose derived from the bark of the tree. He pretended to be a millionaire interested in setting up a manufacturing unit and approached American manufacturers via email with the help of local teachers. The manufacturers sent him board-like sheets that he puzzled over for 10 days until he tore them in half to reveal compressed fibres.

Reclaiming the fibres into usable cellulose, Muruganantham discovered, required a machine costing more than £300,000. "I decided to make a simple version of this machine, to re-engineer it," he says. It took him more than four years of trial and error to fabricate one in his workshop. Two years later, in 2006, his machine won the award for the best innovation for the betterment of society from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai. And he was finally able to persuade his family to come back.

Looking at Muruganantham, it isn't immediately apparent that you are meeting a man who endured public ridicule for years, or received a presidential award for innovation. Softly spoken and unassuming, this 46-year-old inventor leaves you howling with laughter as he narrates his tales. The ability to mock himself is one of his chief charms. "Women fled at the sight of me; people used to call me mental and wondered if I had weird diseases," he recalls. "I was even suspected of being possessed by a bad spirit. No one used to come near me during full moons because of that. I had to meet what friends I had in secret."

Passionate about social change, he presents his deeply held convictions without inhibition, which makes him a novelty in the conservative society that surrounds him. He drives his own car, doesn't have a secretary and lives a quiet life – all of which confuses people who are used to seeing more obvious signs of wealth or fame.

Currently more than 600 machines made by his start-up company, Jayaashree Industries, are installed across 23 states in India. In spite of numerous offers, Muruganantham refuses to sell his innovation to the corporate world. "I didn't take the money route because I saw my parents struggle for survival," he explains. "I knew that this machine could provide a sustainable livelihood for many rural women."

His company sells the £1,600 machines directly to rural women with the help of bank loans, as well as through NGOs and women's self-help groups. An operator can learn the entire towel-making process in three hours and then employ three others to help with processing and distribution.

A basic machine produces 1,000 sanitary towels a day; the pneumatic version churns out 3,000. Women pack around six to eight towels in a packet and sell them for as little as 13 rupees (16p). On average, each woman earns the equivalent of £30 to £65 a month; in comparison, farm workers earn between 35p and 85p a day.

The towel-making machine transforms cellulose into sterilised towels in a four-part process. In the first stage, it chops up wood using a powerful motor. Then the operator compresses the pulp manually into a towel shape by controlling a core-forming unit with a foot pedal. They wrap each towel with a non-woven fabric and seal them with another pedal unit. Finally, they sterilise the towels by exposing them to ultraviolet light, trimming the end product and affixing strips before packing.

The entire system operates on a woman-to-woman basis. Women making the towels spread awareness of the product locally, eventually helping others make the shift to this more hygienic method of control.

"I am trying to create a second white revolution," says Muruganantham. Setting up 100,000 units, he says, will generate employment for one million women. "No one is bothered about uneducated and illiterate people. Through this model, they can live with dignity."

It is hard to create a revolution when the entire topic is largely taboo. "Women cannot ask family members to buy it for them, because they have shyness as a problem," says Nilendu Chatterjee, manager of the corporate social responsibility division of Jindal Steel & Power in Orissa. The company has installed four pneumatic machines that employ 32 women through its Shodashi (sweet 16) programme. Currently selling towels to women in 189 villages with the aid of nurses and midwives, it hopes to expand that number to 350 villages in the next two years.

However difficult it might be, Muruganantham isn't deterred. Seven months after visiting a tribal village in Uttarakhand, he received a call from a mother who told him that her little girl was going to school. It was the first time a woman had made enough money to give her daughter an education in the history of that community. This, Muruganantham says, was "his greatest compliment"

reference: http://newinventions.in/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/sanitary-towels-india-cheap-manufacture?newsfeed=true

Heterogeneity of youth market

The youth market worldwide is not homogenous and brands fail to understand this basic truth! Raising Giants like China and India is very different than the saturated youth markets as UK or USA. Hence, the logic applied in those countries will not work at the other.

Here's a case study:

Last year, when an apparel giant opened four stores in China and failed to gain a significant portion of the retail sales, multinational retail stores took note. The Gap, an apparel line successful in more than 3,000 locations worldwide, had everything going for them. So, what went wrong?

The Gap’s biggest mistake was the cookie cutter approach it took to establishing its presence in the world’s largest youth market. The Gap sought to target the increasing middle-income consumers in the rapidly growing Chinese market, but failed to capture the attention of their most important customers, the Chinese youth.

In China, the Gap is perceived as middle class apparel selling for a luxury price. Status and luxury are important goals for China’s consumers, especially for the youth. However, a premium price for a middle class product is a cost youths are not willing to bear. Moreover, The Gap chose to open stand-alone stores rather than locating in mall areas, forcing customers to go out of their way to make a special trip just to visit the store. The majority of Chinese consumers purchase apparel at a mall because they can use it as a single destination for shopping, eating, and entertainment. The Gap failed to realize that China’s middle class youth consumer is very different from an American consumer.

The Gap is not the only apparel company unraveling in the Chinese market. American Apparel also has had issues targeting the youth market. While in the U.S., American Apparel advertises its style as “sexy,” Chinese female consumers prefer “cute” clothing. With all of these differences between the Western and Asian markets, how can a multinational company succeed in China?

While many companies are struggling in China, some have found a path to success. Enovate, a consulting company based in Shanghai, uses its strengths of networking and social media to successfully navigate the complexities of China’s youth.

Why is China’s youth market so challenging?

While the youth market is a difficult target, the Chinese youth market poses additional challenges for companies attempting to enter China. An important segment, Chinese youths have both the desire and means to spend. Disposable income is growing for younger and urban households, and the younger Chinese tend to spend more than save.[1] With rising income levels, the youth are able to afford more diverse and discerning tastes in their purchases.

What sets China apart from other nations is the one-child policy and its effects on the Chinese youth market. Since the implementation of the policy in the 1980s, which has resulted in 90 million only-children, the Chinese youth market is unique. The result of the policy is that a single child is now the focus of two parents and four grandparents, often leading to over-indulgence and high-pressure. These one-child policy children are regularly referred to as “little emperors” and are very persuasive in how their parents spend their money. In comparison, youth in the U.S. tend to have siblings whose parents balance the demands of each child. With so much familial attention and pressure focused on cultivating these only-children, the Chinese youth are interested in expressing their identity through personal choice. This desire to separate and differentiate makes the youth market a broad and diverse demographic.

Many companies looking to enter the Chinese market have yet to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how to successfully target the Chinese youth. Companies still believe that younger Chinese consumers are particularly influenced by Western trends in music, fashion, celebrities and sports. According to Passport GMID, “Chinese brands are slowly picking up market share, and even respect, amongst the fashion-conscious set, but foreign [Western] brands are still king in this marketplace and especially amongst the younger age groups.”[2] However, this old tactic of pushing Western brands without understanding the Chinese consumer is likely to fail.

Although popular culture is reported to be heavily influenced by Hollywood, regional and local influences are not to be ignored. Neighboring countries’ celebrities are also popular in China, evidenced by celebrity endorsements by Rain (Korea) and Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan). Strong foreign trends come from Japanese and, more recently, Korean pop culture, and resonate with many of the Asian youths. In addition to looking towards their neighbors, the Chinese youth also are impacted by Chinese pop culture. Popular Chinese celebrities are Faye Wong (Beijing), Andy Lau (Hong Kong), and Jay Chou (Taiwan). Additionally, half of box-office sales in China are for domestically produced motion pictures.[3]

Furthermore, China has regional differences, affecting preferences for local and foreign influences. For example, Shanghai tends to adopt more Japanese and Western aesthetics whereas Beijing is influenced by its indigenous arts and music culture.[4] Clearly, companies entering China must not underestimate the power of regional and local influences in the diverse youth market when introducing Western brands and culture.

Soruce: http://business.in.com/article/thunderbird/the-race-for-chinas-youth-market/30252/1#ixzz1hzZEO8Rp

India- Ahead 2012

More than 35% of our population is below the age of 20. By the end of 2020, it is expected that 325 million Indian will reach working age, which will be the largest in the world.This will come at a time when the rest of the developed world will be faced with an aging population. It is estimated that by 2020, US will be short of 17 million people of working age, China by 10 million, Japan by 9 million and Russia by 6 million. At the same time, India will have a surplus of 47 million working people. Even when compared to developing countries, Brazil’s working population is set to grow by 12%, China’s by 1%, Russia’s will decline by 18%, while ours will grow by 30%. This is the reason Goldman Sachs predicted that only India can maintain a 5% growth rate until 2050.

With a huge working population will also come a huge consumption boom, as it has happened in China. China accounts for 20% of world’s consumption of aluminum, 35% of the global demand of steel and coal, and 45% of the worldwide cement purchase. The challenge for India will not only be economic growth, but also make it sustainable and bearable for the environment.

But keeping everything in mind, India will become the biggest consumers in the world, that means right from education to FMCGs the demand will cross countries like USA (already a saturated and deteriorating market) and UK.

Before the FDI policy opens in India, the Foreign investors should look at these opportunities and establish their brand, long ahead the demand reaches to the peak. Unlike China, India has its own consumption pattern which is influenced with the strong ethnic root as well as colonial rules.
The brands/ retailers / companies should consider a serious consumer research before venturing into this subcontinent otherwise they will face constrains and lagged growth.

Indian teenagers losing sleep over excess use of tech: study

Teenagers spend maximum time on gadgets such as computers, video games and cell phones, which causes sleep deprivation, resulting into health problems like obesity and depression, a study has said.

These days children spend over eight hours a day playing video games, browsing Internet, sending SMSes and watching TV, an Assocham study said.

“Easy access to technology with lack of parental supervision is the main reason for increasing technology addiction among youths. Activities like watching TV and chatting online have greatly reduced teenagers' sleeping time,” it said.

The chamber surveyed 2,500 youths (both males and females) in 10 major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune.

The study said majority of youngsters, mainly in the age group of 10-18 years, are getting less than eight hours of sleep.

“Children of working parents are found to be more technology addictive in the absence of parental supervision as compared to those whose single-parent is engaged in employment,” it said.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/info-tech/article2747496.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

the viral music video and internet swarming : Kolaveri di

In a multilingual country like India, its not easy to break the social and semiotic barrier to become viral. For long, the north south division of language and culture made a huge barricade on promoting local-lingo influenced videos across Bindha mountain (a mountain which is in the middle of Indian subcontinent). Various reasons can be cited for this. The pronunciation of southern languages are very different than the north as well as the meaning and expression of the words. Interestingly, the "Kolaveri di" broke this barrier smoothly and became instant hit among the younger population in India. The words in this song are simple, easy to pronounce and emotional (the love-break-hate is very catchy theme among youth). The singer used Tanglish (quirky mix of Tamil and English) which is very popular way of communication (bengali+english, Hindi+english, punjabi+tamil etc.)among the youth (read my earlier posts on language innovations among the youth in India). Also, the tune is simple to adopt into any language or sing.




(Original video)


(Punjabi version)


(Garhwali version)


(Gujrati version)


(female version)

'Kolaveri di', a song from the upcoming Tamil movie '3', sung by popular Tamil movie star Dhanush has become an internet rage. That Kolaveri Di, which will feature on the soundtrack of the forthcoming Tamil film 3 starring Dhanush, has found success beyond anyone’s expectations is obvious. Almost a month after its release, it is still being given more airtime than Anna Hazare! According to 18-year-old composer Anirudh Ravichander, the director Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush (who is the wife of the actor Dhanush) wanted a "light-hearted" song about failed love. Ravichandar quickly composed the tune. Dhanush then began work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing and writing. In an interview to The Times of India, Dhanush said "When I was writing down the lyrics, I kept in mind all the English words that are used in the Tamil vocabulary. Words like I, you, me, how, why, cow.. I just framed them into sentences and thats how I came up with the song." The promo of the song, which was released on November 16, became an instant hit on social networking sites for its quirky 'Tanglish' (Tamil-English) lyrics. The promo features the actor-playback singer Dhanush, son-in-law of superstar Rajinikanth, singing the song in a studio, and composer Anirudh at the piano, while wife & the director Aishwarya Rajinikanth and co-star Shruti Hassan watch along and give suggestions.










"Why this kolaveri di. 24 hours 83000 you tube views. Thank you guys. For making it the most viewed you tube video in music category yesterday. God bless," Dhanush tweeted on the day of the release of the song. The song Kolaveri appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21. The lyrics of the peppy song are simple and since it is a live recording, Dhanush keeps firing instructions while singing, making it more endearing. "yo boys I am singing song soup song flop song why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di rhythm correct why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di maintain this why this kolaveri..di.." goes the song.









Last weekend, the viral video of the song reached two milestones that confirmed its arrival in the YouTube hall of fame. It reached 15 million views—the target that Ashok Parwani, the associate director at Sony Music, which promoted the song, set for it on 25 November. It also got its own “Hitler gets angry about...” video—an essential accolade for any Internet meme and also the first for any Indian music video. (For the uninitiated, Hitler gets angry about is a series of videos featuring a scene of Adolf Hitler ranting in German from the 2004 movie Downfall. Subtitles are changed to make it seem like the subject of his rant is the meme in question.)



According to social media analytic firm Social Hues, the song was being talked about up to two weeks before the video appeared on YouTube on 16 November. A fan from Chennai, with the Twitter handle @arundanush, alerted both Dhanush’s sister-in-law Geetanjali Selvaraghavan and the composer of the song, Anirudh, to the fact that the song had been uploaded to YouTube on 31 October. His tweet, which read “Kolaveri song from 3 again uploaded in YouTube, pls inform Dhanush”, suggested it was not the first time such a leak had taken place.

Over the next few days, people began tweeting about the lyrics of the song and other details of the film. The publicity was global. Between 1 and 10 November (even before the official launch of the song), there were 43,800 mentions of Kolaveri in the US, 7,000 in France and 4,000 from the UAE. Tamil movie fanatics (mostly male) and non-resident Indians drove most of the traffic in the US and the Gulf, and students studying abroad made up the majority of mentions in Europe.






"Kolaveri di" Flash dance at Auckland

Kolaveri already had a significant following days before the official video appeared on the 16 November.

"Kolaveri di" Flash dance at Bangalore


(Kolaveri dance in urban India)

Aishwarya Dhanush said she was alerted to the leaked version via Twitter. “Even now I do not know the source (of the leak),” she said. “Initially I was upset, but since I felt that people needed to hear the right version, I wanted to bring out an official video. In two weeks (we) put together the video as there was no time for CD covers or publicity. Something of this magnitude cannot be planned. It just happens.”
That might be so, but even if the leak wasn’t planned, it’s clear that Sony Music India was quick to capitalize on it and turn it into a marketing advantage. Parwani told NDTV that the video accompanying the song was recorded at 2am, the night before the release on the 16 November, and edited the next morning.

But he also insisted that “we wanted this song to go viral in cyberspace. We marketed aggressively to make the song a national rage”. Parwani said that his team had been posting the song on Tamil, Hindi and international Facebook pages to drive traffic. From 16 November on, according to Social Hues, the rate of Twitter mentions of Kolaveri increased by nearly 200% every day, starting at 179 and peaking a week later at 14,907 tweets on 24 November—the day after it became the first Tamil film song to be played on MTV and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan had tweeted about his admiration for the tune.

It is not easy to send a video viral, despite the claims of myriad Web pages touting lessons from Kolaveri on how to make a viral video. The publicity has to be spread across all forms of social media. In Kolaveri’s case most traffic was driven by Facebook, which accounted for nearly 80% of social media mentions of the song, followed by Twitter and YouTube, according to Social Hues.

Dhanush’s song had something else going for it. The novelty of the word kolaveri was a great driver of interest. Twelve per cent of all conversations on Kolaveri were about the meaning of the word, generally translated as murderous rage.
Then, a series of serendipitous news events drove the #kolaveri hashtag (a hash sign followed by a tag word to indicate importance). When agriculture minister Sharad Pawar got slapped by a youngster on 25 November, tweeters cheered Kolaveri and a Punjabi version of the song known as the Sharad Pawar slap song appeared on YouTube the same day. It has logged over one million views of its own. The following week, when bail was finally granted to Tamil Nadu member of Parliament K. Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case, the felicitous assonance of her name with Kolaveri did not go unnoticed.

Overseas, the selling point seemed to be the Tanglish lyrics; the Huffington Post tweeted: “Adding a ‘u’ sound to the end of English words is the latest trend in India.” London radio presenters Sunny and Shay raved about the novel lyrics to the song on air when they broadcast it on BBC Radio 94.9 on 26 November.
Nearer home, Sony Music was trying to decide how to encash the Internet buzz. It hadn’t originally monetized the YouTube video, because, according to Shridhar Subramaniam, president of Sony Music Entertainment India, “We initially wanted to release it through Vevo, which is a video platform owned by Sony, but there was some delay because of Thanksgiving weekend, so we decided to release it on YouTube.”
In order to make money out of the swarming viewers, Sony needed to become a content partner with YouTube, which it eventually did on 30 November. Since then, Sony has taken 50% of the revenue generated by the video, Subramaniam said.
Viral popularity might be great publicity for the song, and, therefore, for the film, but it isn’t necessarily an immediate money maker. The nine million odd views that had accumulated before Sony monetized the video would remain unharvested, but the loss would only be an estimated $4,000, he said. “It is a $1 CPM here. The same on Vevo would have been a $40 CPM.” CPM is short for cost per thousand impressions, a term used in digital marketing.

Still Kolaveri’s popularity online must be attractive to marketing gurus looking for inexpensive ways to promote movie songs. Kolaveri marks a tipping point in the industry, after which the social media will emerge as a mainstream option alongside the television and radio, says some analysts.

It is only fair to point out that Kolaveri is not the first movie promotion to be launched on social media first—makers of the movie Peepli [Live], the hit song Sheila ki Jawani and music band Euphoria, among others, have in the past experimented with releasing bits and pieces of their work on Facebook and other social networks.

Nothing on this scale has, however, been attempted before. Don’t be surprised if you find film makers hoarding social networking sites trying to recreate the buzz and popularity of Kolaveri, says one analyst.

“If something is a hit on social media, then your fans become your ambassadors and it goes viral in no time,” said Jehil Thakkar, executive director, KPMG India. “No one can really say what works, so replicating it (success of Kolaveri) is next to impossible.”



Seeing the popularity and far-reaching appeal of the song 'Kolaveri Di', the police have decided to capitalize on its fame to ask motorists to remain calm on roads - a step that might help in bringing down road accidents.



Chennai Police has already brought out posters asking 'why this anger' with the words 'Kolaveri Di' painted in bold. The same poster was added to Delhi Police's Facebook website by a member and became an instant hit.



The idea has got the thumbs up by hundreds of Facebook users - it has 130 "likes" - and the site is awash with suggestions to replicate the same campaign in Delhi. Even joint CP (traffic) Satyendra Garg was taken with the idea and added his comments. He seconded the thought that "murderous rage" (meaning of the Tamil word 'kolaveri') is a contributing factor in road accidents in the city.

"Going by the national obsession with the song, Chennai Police rightly utilized its value for safer traffic measures. This applies to other cities including Delhi. Why this kolaveri? Just drive without anger...'' Garg posted.

In another post, the joint CP emphasized the need for "restraint'' during driving. "Let there be restraint and disciplined behaviour. It isgood for the safety of everybody,'' he wrote on Facebook.

However, not everybody was as optimistic. A central district officer told TOI that everybody in Delhi won't understand the Tanglish version of the song, so the idea will not find resonance with some. "However, we have always welcomed help of any sort to ensure discipline on roads and any effort by the citizens is appreciated," said the officer.

However, that has not stopped youngsters from showering praise on Chennai Police and urging Delhi Police to follow suit. "Well this is now imaginatively cool,'' commented Ankit Nauriyal. "Imaginative, intelligent thought...now this song has been used for better causes,'' commented Vishnu Panicker.

various brands and retailers started using the phrase as their ad-taglines innovating new "meanings" of "kolaveri".


(Ad for "discounts" at a furniture shop)


(Ad for "fruit shop" a juice joint)


(Amul butter ad)

This soup song has become an anthem for the future managers of the country too! The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are treating the popular song Kolaveri Di from an upcoming Tamil film '3' as a classic example of viral marketing.



IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A ), for instance, plans to dedicate a session to Kolaveri Di as part of its course on Contemporary Film Industry: A business perspective. Bharathan Kandaswamy, faculty and co-ordinator of the course, says, "I will discuss Kolaveri Di as part of a session on social media and online tools when my class starts in December. Kolaveri Di is a perfect case of viral marketing,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif which has created a huge difference in the world of publicity."



Why this Kolaveri Di, which means 'Why this rage towards me, girl' has actually become a rage across IIMs with faculty of marketing playing the song during class.



Professors of IIMs - Bangalore, Rohtak and Lucknow - have played the song in class and later discussed its strategy. The institutes have also made videos of the entire class singing to Kolaveri Di and posted them on networking sites. "Kolaveri has been screened in many classes in IIM Bangalore . The professor sits along with the students and enjoys-... Real Rage," posted Ramya, a student at IIM Bangalore on a social networking site.


(this one is "ladies version" of the same song!)










for more information about this viral video: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_This_Kolaveri_Di

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/brandline/article2692416.ece