socio-psychology and fashion trends (Indian Youth) INsightYOUng'10-11

INgene INsight's very ORIGINAL and farm fresh report

socio-psychology and fashion trends (Indian Youth) INsightYOUng'10-11

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As movies shrink into gadgets, young Indians watch on

New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) Roman Polanski once said, 'Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theatre.' Had the Polish-French director seen 30-year-old Vimarsh Bajpai enjoying movies in trains and cars, completely oblivious to his surroundings, he would have been a happy man.

Bajpai, a jet-setting Delhi-based communication and content consultant who consumes the majority of his cinema on the move, is a proud owner of an iPod Touch - the one gadget he 'will never bargain for'.

He belongs to a new breed of movie watchers who like their cinema personalised, isolated and customised - on laptops, iPods and other devious little portable gadgets. The tribe is part of a technological revolution which is changing the dynamics of the movie experience in India.

'For me, movie watching is not something that just has entertainment value; it also shapes my thinking. There are certain scenes in movies like 'The Shawshank Redemption' which I always remember and go back to for my personal experience, any time, anywhere, at the click of a button,' Bajpai said.

From the humble black and white TV and charming single screen theatre to snazzy iPods and nomadic laptops, the movie baton has passed through many mediums. Some bowed out with the changing times, while some have held their ground.

Tech-guru Rajiv Makhni calls the trend a 'revolution'.

'People are watching movies on iPads, laptops...All this is happening because we have gone digital. You can download a movie or you can buy one legally, the media has created this revolution and this is going to continue in many different ways,' Makhni, an authority on the subject, told IANS.

'It will change a lot of equations in future. Like if a movie is released Friday, how will it fare in the first and second weeks?' he added.

Makhni, of course, believes cinema halls will never be short of a loyal audience as 'movies will always be a large screen experience'.

So there will still be the Sunday movie outing for family members. But when they return home, animatedly discussing what they saw, chances are that a gawky 20 something will irritably hit the pause button on her laptop and ask them to hush up so she can resume watching her film, very much in the comfortable confines of her room.

Twenty-two-year-old Rakesh Rawat is one such youth. With a vocabulary that includes streaming videos, bit torrents, flash drives and DVD writers, Rawat has been downloading and watching movies on his laptop for three years.

'I don't like listening to people's comments in a movie hall. There's a certain forced ambience in a theatre that irritates me. If people find a scene funny and I don't, I hate to listen to their sounds of laughter,' said Chennai-based Rawat.

'But when I watch a film on my laptop, I can be my own self and not get affected by the artificial environment.'

While there are many who can't stop raving about their little weapons of entertainment, film expert Gautam Kaul doesn't quite welcome the trend.

'Traditionally, human society has had characteristics of a gregarious group. Cinema has been a form of sharing experience, a congregational activity. However, after the advent of the electronic age, for the first time the congregational activity has been disappearing,' Kaul said.

'You sit in isolation, you experience films but don't share your emotional notes with anybody. Cinema, in this form, is not able to give you any emotional nourishment. This ruins the original gregarious nature of individuals and leads to a change in human character. You become neurotic.'

Kaul even goes on to say that pornography will have a larger audience in future if the trend continues.

'If ever cinema is removed from its large assembly of audience, it will be a threat to family life and a loss of culture. Porn films will be having a major audience.'

The same emotions are echoed by Ashok Deshpande, 48, a worried father of a tech-savvy teenager.

'My son keeps himself locked in the room and is always watching some or the other movie on his netbook,' Mumbai-based Deshpande told IANS on phone.

'I tell him this is no way to watch a movie, it should be watched with the family. But how will he listen unless he removes those stupid wires from his ears?'

But the young are not bothered. They have after all downloaded and watched new movies like 'The Social Network' and 'Break Ke Baad' long before their actual release!

By Mohita Nagpal

Source: Yahoo News

internet is giving power to people in India to make a scam free country

While the CWG scam, Adarsh Building scam and 2G scam (and many more yet to come!) are still hot in news along with Mr. Tata's comment on bribing, this report shows how internet is giving power to people in a corruption driven country like India. Even, to book the train ticket or to get the passport done used to be through touts (and big bribes were involved, in this porcess) which, now, partially can be avoided through e-booking...this exactly shows why most of the politicians in India are opposing the computerization and e-movement and appearing unaware of many implimentations
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In Gujarat, e-literate paanwala googles NREGS, stumbles on Rs 1-crore scam

A newly e-literate village paanwala's (small shop owner) obsession with Google has blown the lid off a unique NREGS scam in Porbandar. The motley bunch of beneficiaries include affluent NRIs, doctors, government officials, teachers and well-off farmers — all shown as unemployed village labourers holding NREGS job cards. So far, the money siphoned off comes to nearly Rs 1 crore.

On paper, there are 963 NREGS job cardholders at Kotda village in Kutiyana taluka of Porbandar district. Records show they have been paid over Rs 95 lakh for their 'labour' over the past three years. In reality though, none of them have ever dug wells or built roads in their lives or actually received any money for the same under NREGS or otherwise.

The scam came to light after Aslam Khokhar (37), a Class X dropout and a paan shop owner in Kutiyana learnt how to use computers and searched NREGS on Google. "I was thrilled to find every detail of NREGS work in our area on the website. But I then came across the job card of a friend, who is a government employee.

I searched and found there are doctors, teachers and NRIs I personally know in the village, listed as 'labourers' on the site," said Khokar.

Veja Modedara, an independent councillor at Kutiyana taluka panchayat, and Congress worker like Bhanukant Odedara soon joined hands with Khokhar. The trio conducted door-to-door meetings with villagers named in the website and found they had neither worked on any NREGS site nor received any wages.

Several like Bharat Ganga (23), who has been to Muscat for the past three years, were shocked to learn that they were named as NREGS employees on record and have been even paid for their work. "How can this be? I moved out of India three years ago," Ganga told The Indian Express.

Varu Karsan Uka (38), an official with the Pashcim Gujarat Vij Company Limited for 15 years also holds the job card number GJ-21-005-030-001/726. Even his wife has been also named as a card holding labourer. According to the records, the couple had built roads and dug wells for 60 days and received Rs 6,000 for their work. "How can I possibly get an NREGS job card when I am a state government official ?" said Uka.

Dr Dayaram Babhania (58), a well-known physician in Kutiyana too holds a job card (number GJ-21-005-030-001/526), though he admits never to have lifted a pickaxe in his entire life.

Other like him on the list are Range Forest Officer Jesa Odedara, Forest Guard Arshi Bhattu, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) employees Meru Odedara and Arjan Odedara, teacher Leela Dasa, Ex-serviceman Kunti Rama and NRIs Haja Modha, who have long left the village and settled in Israel. On paper, all are 'labourers' and many have been paid too.

Kutiyana Sub-Inspector I Damor said the police probe will take a while since details of all the 963 accounts need to be verified.

Kutiyana Taluka Development Officer J Gamit said, "Preliminary investigation by the department has revealed that at least 73 cardholders are government employees, professionals or NRIs."

District Development Officer K D Bhatt said: "We will begin a door-to-door survey to find the exact scale of the scam."

Source: Indian Express through Yahoo

reviews and word of mouth are more important than the promos

Whether they're checking out Leonardo DiCaprio or enjoying the rib-tickling `3 Idiots', Youngistan is keeping its date with movies. They're such avid movie-goers that they often watch at least five a week.

And there's no more rushing to catch the first day, first show. GenY goes by the cast and prefers to read several reviews before deciding which one to watch. "I don't want to waste money on movies considering it's so expensive in Bangalore. Hence, I only go for movies that get killer reviews,'' says Aditi Gaitonde, first-year Mass Communication student, Christ University.

Aditi is a movie buff and loves foreign films, specially those from Hollywood. "But foreign language films are more touching and experimental such as `Amelie' and `City of God'. Going to theatres is expensive now and so I download some movies from internet. There are some good sites which provide all information -- from cast and crew to synopsis... Our college also has a movie club called Transtalkies, where we screen movies and analyse them," she adds.

If some prefer experimental cinema, others don't mind shelling out money if it's their favourite director. "I see who is the director and then read the reviews. I like to watch movies by Anurag Kashyap or Madhur Bhandarkar. I never go by the trailers which is just a publicity stunt,'' says Avanish Tiwary, first-year print journalism, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM). Avanish too prefers foreign films, specially from Iran. He either sees them on DVDs or downloads them.

While Sumana Sri, a BA student from Christ College, loves to watch movies first day, first show, her college timings make this impossible. However, she still manages to catch five movies a week. Though she prefers English and Hindi movies, she takes out time for Kannada and Telugu films with her family. "I watch Hindi movies mainly because of the script. When it comes to regional films, I have no other choice but to watch what my parents prefer,'' she says.

She adores films starring Leonardo DiCaprio. "I haven't been disappointed by his movies as yet,'' says Sumana. She's an ardent fan of action and thriller movies, but detests horror flicks. "I really can't watch brainless comedies,'' she adds.

Snigdha Bose, final-year MBA student from Symbosis, Bangalore, goes largely by the reviews. "I don't want to spend much on movies and due to my packed schedules, I hardly get time. So, I download them and see them on my laptop where I can fast-forward songs and scenes I don't like,'' she explains.

Some youngsters such as Hitha Gujjar, a third-year journalism student of Mount Carmel College, doesn't mind watching any film. "I watch movies of all languages -- Kannada, Hindi, English, Spanish and French. Sometimes, we choose movies by others' feedback. I read reviews before going to the theatre,'' she admits. The cast, crew, script and acting are other essential factors which Hitha considers.

Her friend, Tanu Kulkarni is majorly into movies and but she loves the less predictable one and those which give value for money. "I enjoy Hindi and English the most but make it a point to read several reviews before going," she added.

If some things haven't changed with students over the years, it's their passion for the silver screen.

Source: Times of India

Young Indians Watch TV more than they read

India’s youthful population is constantly described as a potential “demographic dividend” for its government and also a goldmine for the businesses here to tap, so expect a slew of studies by government agencies and firms on their habits. Last week, India came out with the first national survey to find out what young Indians are reading and how that compares to how much time they spend watching TV or surfing the web.

Visitors at the Delhi Book Fair in Sept.2006. India’s youth and their reading habits became a subject of a survey in 2009, a report on which was released in New Delhi late last week.

Last year, India’s National Book Trust, a government body that publishes and promotes books, asked the National Council of Applied Economic Research to carry out a survey of the reading habits of young Indians, classified as those between age 13 and 35. The report was actually completed in February, but only “officially” released late last week.

According to the report, in 2009 the number of people between 13 and 35 in India was 459 million, or 38% of the country’s total population. Among them 333 million were able to read, 44% of them women. About 62% of India’s literate youth live in villages, which is roughly proportionate with the number of Indians as a whole who do.

Of these young people, 77% are interested in music and films, 72% in news and current affairs, 59% in religious and spiritual topics, 35% in science and technology and 34% in environmental pollution.

When it comes to the language they prefer for “leisure reading,” 33.4% are most comfortable with Hindi, 13.2% with Marathi, 7.7% with Bengali and only 5.3% prefer English.

Only about 10% of those who can read are college graduates.

Some of the findings were surprising to say the least. According to the report, “a literate youth spends on an average 98 minutes daily viewing TV” and another 61 minutes dialy listening to the radio. The report also said these youngsters spend 70 minutes surfing the Net, 44 minutes reading a magazine and 32 minutes with a newspaper. That would add up to an average of almost five hours a day consuming one form of media or another, which seems rather a lot. What about school and work?

The survey covered 432 villages and 200 towns in the country, according to a public advertisement on the report’s release in newspapers.

“It is the first formal research into the rich possibilities that lie ahead for the nation in marshalling the intellectual capacity of youth for national progress,” said Rajesh Shukla, a senior fellow at NCAER who wrote the report, at its release according to a statement from the National Book Trust.

Source: Wall Street Journal

GenNext is not all about moolah- Time of India report

India's urban whiz kids may be quite different in reality from the picture many of us may have of spoilt brats who spend hours on the internet and the rest of their time splurging on movies and the like. They may also not be as money-obsessed in theircareer aspirations as they are often made out to be.

A survey of 10,000 children from classes VIII to XII or ages 12 to 18 spread across 11 cities in India has found that over 60% spend on average less than an hour a day on the net and 83% get less than Rs 1,000 a month as pocket money, about two-thirds getting less than Rs 500.

Interestingly, when it comes to career aspirations, the thing most kids wanted from their jobs was new skills, followed by an interesting workplace. A good salary came third in the list of considerations they had. So much for the much-lamented materialism of the new generation.

The choice of careers too is quite different from a generation ago. While IT and engineering were cited among the choices by about 80%, what was revealing was that medicine (39%) is now way down in the pecking order, below even government service (46%). The third preference is media & entertainment (64%).

A survey of 10,000 children from classes VIII to XII or ages 12 to 18 spread across 11 cities in India has found that the kids may not be as money-obsessed in their career aspirations as they are often made out to be. Over 60% spend on average less than an hour a day on the net and 83% get less than Rs 1,000 a month as pocket money, about two-thirds getting less than Rs 500.

The survey was conducted among children predominantly from English-medium schools in Delhi,Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar. It was conducted by TCS among those who participate in its IT Wiz quiz contest every year. To that extent, the survey reflects a particular kind of child, but the trends do perhaps tell us something about the bigger picture.

What was particularly interesting in the survey findings was the fact that the responses from those from the relatively smaller cities were almost identical to those from the bigger metros.

Over two-thirds of the students said they would like to go abroad to study at some point and here the figure (74%) was significantly higher for the mini-metros than for the metros (66%), a pointer to the growing aspirations in the smaller cities. Also, while a generation ago, most would have thought of doing their post-graduation abroad, now a majority want to do their graduation or even their high school abroad.

While the home remains the primary point of access for the internet, cyber cafes and mobile phones too are used for getting on to the net by over 50% in each case. Not surprisingly, 85% say they are on some social networking site or the other, the vast majority naming several.

As you would expect of students of this profile, about four-fifths have computers at home as well as mobile phones, but what might be less obvious is the finding that almost two-thirds also have a digital camera and an iPod or other digital music player. For those fond of stereotypes, here is one that finally seems to be true: GenNext is indeed as gizmo-crazy as all have believed it is.

Source: Times of India

A discussion on this at Yahoo

desi is becoming "online pop"

the "Desi" is now hot online! Though India has slipped further into corruption, the young consumers started opening their wallet to buy desi goodies from sites like Quirk

Love "Aj Kal" (today's love-relationship)

In the youth of my parents, which was a couple of decades ago, it was called courtship. And since it was a strict social setup the boy could seldom meet the girl, so it was done in writing. Long back when education was accessible to the girls of higher class, boys smitten by them would slip admiring notes into her library books, as the boy could not summon enough courage to speak to the girl directly. How he found out what books she would read remains a mystery. Wow! This is love….is it? Really? Lets take a plunge in the 21st century.

Fast forward to the computer age, which gave social networking sites like orkut and twitter a good kick. When once jokingly I asked my nephew who is just 12 years of age, that who his girlfriend was, he mentioned about a girl from Melbourne whom he is “seeing” these days. I wish I could capture the gesture of pride his mother had that time on her face for her son having a ‘phoren’ girlfriend. Leave alone kids. These networking sites are widely used by the middle-aged people of the society. The concept of saat phere has become a merry-go-round.

At times I wish I was born few decades back so that when I tell people about my boyfriend they do not at least ask me that on which networking site we met. It is really surprising when I read about girls and boys (now it hardly matters as article 377 being legalized) exchanging vows even before they meet. Concept of love has changed and now it is more about the liberation of feelings, where people without being committed want a tried and tested partner, just as electronic gadgets. Thank God human beings do not come with a warranty and a guarantee period. Instead of falling in love people prefer logging in love.

One such ‘love by computer’ was between a ‘phoren’ (non Indian) and a ‘desi’ (Indian). A guy from his office called up his dad and said that his friend was getting married with “e-mail”. His dad sighed and said “we are far behind in villages. We still have marriages with females.”

By Ragini Sinha, INgene Trends spotter, Delhi

"Being fair" still remains "crucial" in India

Fairness still in demand among India’s “midnight’s children” (older generation)

The obsession of Indians for white beauty and their craving for fair skin, shows how important it is for a girl to be white, in order to marry a so called “decent” boy! The boy may have been bestowed with ebony complexion, but screams loud in all the advertisements he puts for a prospective wife. And how wicked can commercials be when they portray fair skin as the key to success.

The Indian brown complexion is the most elegant symbol of beauty around the world and these morons of cosmetic companies and the iniquitous, uneducated, uncreative ad agencies are promoting fairness in a society where majority of people have a wheatish or dark complexion. The so called perception of white skin is rooted in Indian psyche from the British period and still it has its influence among the elder generation about “beauty”.

One commercial shows a sad father who wished to have a son and not a dusky daughter, whose complexion, he believed, diminished her prospects of attracting a good husband, and a well-paid job. She uses fairness cream to become an eligible beauty. Another ad shows a dark girl using the same cosmetic and thereby landing a job as an air hostess.

The photoshop images of bollywood actresses/ celebrities continuously influence the perception and acceptance level of skin tone among Indians which will change slowly along with the eradication of castes and classes in the society.

“Fair & Lovely” ads of “Fairness” cream can be seen in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-9tcXpW1DE

By Ragini Sinha, Trendspotter, Delhi

welcome back Ragini :)

We welcome Ragini in the team, again!

She, a very talented reporter and trend observer, was one of the core members who did crucial surveys and research for INgene at early years of its inception. At INgene, Ragini will play a very important role as the trendspotter and youth socio-psychology analyst of Delhi zone.

Here’s a small note what she wrote about herself:

“BEING ME....
By profession I am a journalist who also divides time between photography and observing people. An ardent fan of music and any form of time, I work with a development organization as a reporter. I can never be called a fashionable woman but has a nose for it and can easily identify fashion victims in the crowd. I can’t claim myself to be a well up-to-date, fashionista but feels strongly for those who claim to be uber-cool and actually should be arrested for committing fashion mistakes.
My idea of working with INgene was to hone my skills of observing people and bring it to some use and not be termed as someone who keeps on eyeing on public.”