e commerce in India : the current scenarios

Apart from booking flight / train tickets/ paying bills (as tht's cumbersome process offline), buying books from amazon (after noting that the book is not available at local book shop) or booking movie tickets(it's cool to surprise your counterpart with the "smartness" of "online booking") the country is not yet comfortable to transact online. Reliability is the core, that lacks currently. Then comes the after sale service... replacement as well as smooth / uncorrupted money transaction. online business has to earn the faith of people.. As stated by the blogger Sriram Vadlamani " I have booked train tickets on IRCTC, bus tickets on Redbus and ordered books on Flipkart. That was a neat little circle I have drawn around me for eCommerce. For the first time, I came out of my comfort zone and ordered a Samsung camera on Yebhi.com. What followed is my biggest nightmare and probably the nightmare of many consumers as well...."

Zinnov consultancy report has placed  e-commerce at only 12 per cent of total retail sales in India.

here's a report as published in The Hindu newspaper:

Only a small fraction of the roughly 5 million Internet users in the late 1990’s even transacted online. Faltering dial-up connections and text-only browsing made the purchasing process cumbersome. Credit card usage was limited to a few, and even fewer were ready to disclose their card details over the Web.

The economics of online commerce, however, have changed so much since then, that Rana Athreya is now attempting to cut the Gordian Knot of e-commerce — setting up an Internet pet food store.

In 2011, Mr. Athreya co-founded Dogspot.in, a Gurgaon-based start-up that shipped over 35,000 kg of dog food last year. 

“A number of factors over the last decade have given us the chance to prove that the pet category can be successful online,” said the 30-year-old entrepreneur. Dogspot.in hopes to break-even next month, ending the year with sales of Rs.3 crore. Online pet stores are always mindful of the tale of Pets.com Inc, a publicly-traded firm in the U.S. that sold pet products online and then went onto become a popular victim of the dot-com bust over 10 years ago. The California-start-up, founded in the late 1990’s, raised over a hundred million dollars and went public in 2000.

After spending millions on marketing, it burnt through most of its cash and laid off over 200 employees — eventually shutting down in late 2000. Today, Dogspot has 10 employees compared to the 350 that Pets.com had and aims to become a $40 million company by 2015. A combination of factors, including a better ecosystem, increased credit card penetration and a jump in Internet users has made this possible.

A new litter of online-only niche product stores, including groceries, women’s apparel and sporting goods have emerged over the last two years. 

Backed by venture capital firms in some cases, these start-ups represent how the economics of selling merchandise over the Internet have evolved since the late 1990s. Over the last ten years, the cost of almost every aspect of launching an e-commerce website has plummeted. 

Plummeting costs
 

A large part of dropping costs comes from the boom of a tech-ecosystem that takes care of website creation, site hosting and the servers that are required to create an e-commerce portal.

Overall, it is ten times easier to launch an online retail business than it was a decade ago, says Suneet Manchanda, former Business Development Head, SifyMall Ltd.

“Back when we were setting up SifyMall, the technology and people who could build a website were hard to find. Furthermore, the companies who could create it were expensive to source from, it was a costly nightmare,” he said.

The rise of businesses such as Amazon’s web services allows companies to rent computer power and storage, reducing the need for start-ups to buy their own servers.

Mr. Manchanda said it cost anywhere between Rs.20 lakh and Rs.25 lakh to start up SifyMall and took over six months before it could go live. Now, it would cost Rs.3 lakh and could be live in 10 days, eliminating the need for investors or loans. Mr. Manchanda, last year, founded an online luxury women’s apparel store (ladyblush.com). 

Easier logistics
 

Another advantage is the growth of a cottage industry that helps in logistics, mainly storing and shipping of products. A common complaint of the Indian e-commerce industry is the huge damage and losses that companies incur in shipping while using India Post.

New shipping start-ups such as Delivery.in or Chhotu.in, however, offer logistics that are better tuned to the e-commerce industry by reducing damage losses to less than one per cent, calling customers before delivery and charging their clients only when they make a sale.

“Something that sets us apart from India Post or even major courier companies is that we are a straight business-to-business company. This allows us to reduce our capex, letting us charge much lesser rates.

“We are a natural logistics extension for e-commerce companies,” said Navneet Singh, CEO, Chhotu.in.

“Right now, close to half of our customers are start-ups. Our services complete this whole ecosystem that lets them really thrive,” he added.

According to Abraham Koshy, who founded an online sports goods store last year, it took less than Rs.3 lakh to launch the company, excluding buying inventory. He was able to hire outside software engineers to create the website, shopping-cart system and paid a few thousand rupees for Internet service. Setting up warehouses has also become relatively easier, with third-party companies charging a storage and per-shipment fee, allowing start-ups to reduce costs.

“It’s become increasingly easy to join the field without large investment. Take a simple thing like payment gateways for example. The (payment gateway) charges on customer credit card use have dropped from 6- 8 per cent to around 2 per cent over the last ten years or so,” said. Mr. Koshy, who left his job at Amazon Inc two years ago. 

While competition has become increasingly fierce due to dropping costs, there are already signs of consolidation among the bigger players in the market.

Flipkart bought Letsbuy, a rival firm, for a reported Rs.100 crore. A few months later, Snapdeal bought online sports retailer Esportsbuy.com, for an undisclosed amount.

A info-graphic by Track.in :

Gen Next are striving towards imparting sex education in India

Though the sex education is still a taboo in India; but the GEN Next Indians are striding forward faster than the others.

Sixteen year old Aparna Bhola is an aspiring gynecologist who gives sex education lectures to peers in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in India. She grew up in Kolkata and then moved with her mother, a sex worker, to the red-light district in Kamathipura. From a young age, Bhola was surrounded by women who were stigmatized for their profession and lacked support from the medical community.Her mother was sold into sex work for the equivalent of $120 when she was twelve years old and gave birth to Bhola at age fourteen. As the daughter of a sex worker, Bhola received little education, few medical resources, and was anemic due to malnutrition at times. She also drank alcohol heavily.

Aparna says she was distressed by the way doctors routinely mistreated sex workers because of the stigma against their profession. Her mother, diagnosed with uterine cysts, was unable to get treatment for them because of the bias against sex workers. Aparna remembers a niece being refused treatment by a doctor who said he didn’t want to bother with such poor people.

When sex workers like Aparna’s mother would become pregnant, the “doctors would treat them so badly,” Aparna recalls. “They would yell at them, and even slap them sometimes. They would say things like ‘You go and pick up anyone’s child and come to me with your stomach swollen. When you were doing it, you enjoyed yourself and now what happened?’ ”. These encounters made Aparna want to become a gynecologist. Even when she was younger, she would share with her friends and peers whatever sexual health-related information she could find. “I want to work with gynecology to cater to sex workers because I know the issues they faced,” says Aparna, her face set in a determined expression. “If I became a doctor, I could give whatever information the mothers need when they are pregnant. There would be someone to talk to them nicely when they are in pain.”

Bhola joined a women’s rights NGO called Kranti in July 2011. There, she received needed support and resources, learned how to teach sexual education classes, and battled with her alcoholism. Bhola’s goal is to attend medical school and change the system for the better. She is currently in twelfth grade and preparing for her medical school entrance exams.

“There’s nothing to giggle or be shy about; there’s no shame in it. It’s important for us to learn about these things. Be totally bindaas (carefree) and ask me questions,” says Aparna Bhola, with a wide smile.
She also represented Maharashtra state in the Youth Parliament, an advisory group to the state government, where participants recently discussed whether sex education should be introduced in Indian schools.
“I used to think that my whole world is within the four walls of my room, of the house,” says Aparna. “Now I see that there is a big, big world beyond that where many things are possible for me.”

“What I really want is that girls become powerful and aren’t scared of anyone,” says Aparna. “They should think in their minds that ‘I will go ahead and progress and no one can hold me back.”

What's up yaar : Understanding youth in India

(This chapter is the part of Kaustav's book "What's Up Yaar : Understanding youth in India")



“Indefinite peacocks: definite desire”



Why the hell a male peacock (peafowl) spreads his wings and “dances”? Nops, not that he wants to show-off his “beauty” to us who visits a zoo nor he thinks spreading wings will bring him a reward from the zoo keeper (unlike monkeys who knows that if they jumps the zoo keeper will give him a banana)... then?

Yes, I know u have a better answer....that, male peacock’s dance is a courtshipping behaviour. They try to impress potential partners. The problem for the male peacocks is, that while they are dancing, it is hard to escape predators. Especially when they are displaying the tail in forest.... but still the urge to find the right mate compels them to take the risk! Interestingly, various human tribes around the world picked up the movements of male peacock and exhibited the dancing skills mostly performed by the female species and not as a courtshipping act!


But, again, how the spreading of wings ensures that the male peacock is most suited one for the approaching peahen (female peacock)? Why not any other acts (shouting like a female frog or displaying chivalry by a loin)? Well, the dance (movements, grace etc.) and the display of wings (the quality and arrangement of feathers...the way lights reflect from them etc.) exhibit that the peacock is very healthy and hence a most suitable partner for the approaching peahen. Male peacocks display their iridescent feathers for prospective female mates. Females may check out the feathers of a number of different males before deciding on a suitor. The length and quality of a male peacock's feathers can indicate his age, vigour, and status. But, why only the male peacock “dances”, why they needs to attract the female? Why not the other sex? Well there must be many reasons, and one common reason is that the male peacocks are polygamous! As per various researchers the evolution of sexual dimorphism relies on a difference between the forces of sexual selection acting upon each sex (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 376). This differential of forces is closely tied to the distribution of reproductive control. Generally, males have a virtually unlimited supply of extremely small and inexpensive gametes, meaning they are rarely the bottleneck in the reproductive process (Alcock, 2005, p. 373; Freeman & Herron, 2004, pp. 376-377). Conversely, females produce large, relatively expensive gametes in far lower quantities, a trend that usually dictates their role as the limiting reproductive reagent (Alcock, 2005, p. 373; Freeman& amp; Herron, 2004, pp. 376-377). In addition, females often provide the greatest proportion of parental care to their offspring, with their reproductive success depending mostly on how many eggs they can produce and how well they can raise their young to maturity (Alcock, 2005, p. 373). Though the situation is reversed in some species, males resort to polygyny, obtaining as many mates as possible in order to enhance their reproductive success (Freeman& amp; Herron, 2004, p. 376). With a higher variation in mating success, males are most frequently exposed to greater forces of sexual selection than females (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 377). Furthermore, sexual selection can act upon a species in two main ways: Intrasexually, as males compete with males and females compete with females (e.g., sperm competition, infanticide and combat) and intersexually, as males and females attempt to attract members of the opposite sex (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 380; Moller & Pomiankowski, 1993). Though male-male intrasexual selection is a considerable force in many species, it is female preference for certain desirable males that makes the final decision since females controls the sought after eggs (Alcock, 2005, p. 365).

You must be wondering why I am explaining these in details when the book is supposed to focus on Indian youth’s contemporary socio-psychology. The scenario prevalent among peacocks is now common among the youth in India!



“Hope in a tube vs. Men in glows!”

Let’s consider few facts. Based on McCann Erickson's Consumer Insights Report the desire for fairness as an essential physical attribute has been steadily on the rise over the past few decades. Out of the current $180 million skin care market in India, which is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually, more than half of the revenues are now generated by fairness products alone. Among many, the undisputed leader of fairness cream is HUL’s “Fair & Lovely”. In company’s own language “Fair & Lovely was launched in 1975 and Indian women finally found hope in a tube”! The brand is marketed primarily to young women in the 18-35 year age bracket. Considered to be the most elite of the fairness creams, the price of a standard tube of Fair & Lovely best suits the middle class and above, but it is sold in many corner shops and drug store in cities across India. Indeed, at the rural level, Fair & Lovely is being made available to poor villagers in the form of inexpensive sachets. South India (where the population is dominated by people with darker complexions) is the largest market, while the relatively fairer populations in Northern and Western India each have a smaller yet significant market share. However, even though Fair& amp; Lovely is one of the leading fairness cream brands, it faces growing competition from cheaper skin-whitening products, such as Revlon's Fair & Glow and CavinKare's Fairever.

As per Neilson Co. Data the men’s fairness cream market was Rs.200 crore in year 2010. The first ever fairness cream was launched by a Kolkata based personal care product manufacturer Emami Limited in the year 2005 as “Fair and Handsome” in the southern state of India, Andhra Pradesh. According to the Confederation of Indian Industries report (CII) on the fast moving consumer goods segment in India, men’s fairness cream segment has seen a growth of 28% in July September quarter of 2010 which is higher than over all growth of fairness segment!

A report on the share of spending on apparel-All India and zones (by The Knowledge Company, Technopak and published in The Marketing Whitebook-2009-2010) shows that Indian men spends 9% in the accessories where as the women spends 8%! A snap poll conducted by TIMESLife! in five metros -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore - on the spending habits of youngsters, indicated that only young Kolkatans seem to be saving, from their average allowance of Rs 2,000 per month. Girls saved up to 13 per cent while boys kept about nine per cent aside. The rest of the country's youngsters seem to be blowing up their entire allowance and not managing to save anything. Looking good and appearances are important and youngsters across India spend the most each week on clothes, mobile phones and going out as per the study. Boys from the South were found more romantic as compared to their counterparts in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In Bangalore and Chennai, boys spent 18 per cent and 13 per cent respectively on their girlfriends while Mumbai and Delhi boys spent five percent and Kolkata spent just one per cent on dating and girlfriends.

A global research, carried out for Travelodge (2011), found that on an average morning men spend 23 minutes in the shower, compared to 22 minutes for women. On average men spend 81 minutes a day on personal grooming, including cleansing, toning and moisturising, shaving, styling hair and choosing clothes, the study found. Women have their beauty regime down to a fine art and get hair, clothes and make-up done in just 75 minutes. Men then take 18 minutes on their shaving regime, compared to 14 minutes for women despite them having to trim legs, armpits and bikini line. Men take a minute longer - 10 minutes - on cleansing, toning and moisturizing.


The thriving business of gyms or fitness clubs, spas and salons in India are now focusing on men’s grooming. Kaya skin care started separate product & services for men with a note that“Men need skin care too. Men's skin is thicker and more oily compared to women's skin. They are exposed to the sun, pollution and prone to excessive sweating, which is why Kaya brings to you skin care exclusive for men”. In an article titled “Why men are romancing spas” was published at DNA (Daily News & Analysis) newspaper dtd. March25th 2010 from Bangalore stated “...This is the beauty ritual of many men in the city who now believe that spa treatments are a lifestyle investment. They reserve most of their weekends for visits to the spa, for procedures that could take anywhere between three to eight hours. Oum Pradutt, founder, Phase 1, loves spas and has set apart three days in a month just for them. “I don’t think going to the spa is a luxury anymore, it is a necessity,” he says. “I also feel that I deserve this treat. I am in an industry that is very stressful and after a spa treatment, I feel like I am floating on a cloud. I often gift spa vouchers to my employees too.” Nina Bual, director, The Spa.ce, a city spa, finds that many men in the city are addicted to being pampered. “Ninety per cent of the clients in a spa are men nowadays,” she says. “There are special spa packages for them, like the Just for Men spa treatment that costs Rs 4,100. Massages have been around for thousands of years in our country and have been associated with good health and well-being. People have re-discovered them now.” Netscribes (India) Pvt. Ltd., a knowledge consulting solutions company, published a report as Wellness Services Market in India 2010 covering an industry which is expected to witness phenomenal growth (INR400bn. By 2014). The rise in discretionary expenditure and changing consumer lifestyle is expected to fuel the demand for wellness services.

Why the boys in India are spending more on accessories, fairness creams, gifts for their girlfriends and grooming? In-spite of their stressful career why they are visiting the wellness centers? The affinity is stronger among the young, single working men (in their late 20s or 30s) at the fastest growing cities like Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad etc. where they stays alone / with peers; away from their helicoptering parents and family.

According to the recent census(2011) report India has male population as 628,800,000 (628.4 million) and female population as 591,400,000 (591.4 million). According to the report 'Power, Voice and Rights: A turning poing of gender equality” by the UNDP(2010), while India had 48.2 per cent female population at birth, Pakistan had 48.5, Bangladesh had 48.8 and Japan 51.1 per cent. The sex ratio at birth in India was 1.08.India also has 42.7 million women who were missing in the year 2007 and the mean age at marriage is 20 for women and 25 for men. According to the report, almost half the adult women in South Asia are illiterate, more than in any other region in the world. But interestingly, Cabinet in India has recently approved the introduction of a bill which would reserve one third of the seats in parliament and state legislative assemblies for women. 33 per cent of seats in local bodies in rural and urban areas were reserved for women, with some states reserving up to fifty per cent.


Fortune India's November 2011issue ranked India's '50 Most Powerful Women in Business', for the first time. "Indian women span generations and today we find them in every field. Acquisitions, garnering profits, successful new ventures, pioneering concepts, snagging mega deals...all important factors, no doubt, when defining power. We looked at the changes they brought in, and the way they transformed businesses," says Dibyendra Nath Mukerjea, editor of Fortune India. The issue covered pivotal women like Bharatratna award winner Chanda Kochchar who heads ICICI Bank, Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO or Axis Bank, Mallika Srinivasan, Chairperson TAFE, Aruna Jayanthi, CEO Capegmini India, Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries etc. In IT, Bank and BPO sectors the women (mostly in their late 20s and mid 30s) are in slowly raising to power. Women workers constitute about one-third of the total Call Centre and BPO workforce in India and account for only 11 per cent of the leadership roles in senior management (Newsline Noember 2008).


Notice this interesting scenario. The literate, well placed and most desirable women are lesser in misbalanced population of India and over it the young men are becoming self sufficient to decide their own partners (rather than allowing their parents to select the right one). Hence, the peacock phenomenon prevails among Indian young men and the growing fight for best partner to select from the fewer options!


The young women are also becoming more confident to select the best partner and the only method to impress them is to become more desirable through grooming, accessorizing, and becoming “fair & handsome”!The above mentioned “look good” traits also collaboratively exhibit the money power a young man has in pocket which can satisfy the age old need of “safety and security” of an Indian female.

for more details about the book or this chapter, you can connect Kaustav at kaustavsengupta@yahoo.com

Suicide rate among the youth highest in India - Survey result

According to a new Lancet study, India has the highest suicide rates in the world with maximum number of young people on the brink, worse it may soon turn out to be the biggest killer in the country.

According to Registrar General of India's first national survey, 2001-03, suicides claim twice as many lives per year as HIV-AIDS and could take over maternal mortality as the biggest killer in the country with an estimated 1,87,000 suicides in 2010.

The suicide cases among the young, wealthy and educated are the highest. 40 per cent of men and a whopping 56 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 29 commit suicide.

Suicide rates were also found to be much higher in rural areas and nearly ten times as high in the southern states.

Author Vikram Patel said, "The most worrying trend is young women and men are committing suicide. In young women it will become the primary cause, there’s a huge social change in our country but lack of coping with that main reasons behind these suicides are depression and alcohol use."

Psychiatrist Sameer Malhotra said, "On one hand we are seeing the stress levels go up so when we talk about metropolitan cities, despite the money factor are still leading lonely lives. Two we are seeing that there some kind of disintegration of family system Patch and you miss out on those kinds of support systems."

About half of suicide deaths were due to poisoning or ingesting of pesticides. Adding to the key stressors is the lack of mental health facilities.

The Indian Health Ministry is currently revising the National Mental Health Program. Even as the World Health Organisation estimates that globally there has been a 45 per cent increase in suicide rates the last 45 years.

Why India? Why now?

India has witnessed great social, political and cultural change since early 1990s. As the world’s largest democracy, it’s most diverse nation and one of the fastest growing economies, India is now, sixty years after Independence, widely regarded as an emerging superpower. India’s gross domestic product passed the trillion dollar mark and this is the first time in history that it has been valued so high. But, the most interesting fact is that it will pass the next trillion-dollar mark in nine years at most- by 2016 at the latest.  And the composition of that second trillion dollar market will be very different from that of the first.

The findings from the latest study, The Bird of Gold- The Raise of India’s Consumer Market published by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), reveal that if India continues on its current high growth path, over the next two decades the Indian market will undergo a major transformation. Income levels will almost triple and India will climb from its position as the 12th largest consumer market today to become the world’s fifth largest market by 2025.  As Indian incomes raise, India’s middle class will swell by over ten times from it’s current size of 50 million to 583 million people. By 2025, over 23 million Indians- more than the population of Australia today- will number among the country’s wealthiest citizens. While much of this new wealth and consumption will be created in urban areas, rural income growth will benefit too. Forecast for India’s real GDP growth rate over the coming two decades generally range between 6 to 9 per cent per year. MGI forecasts real compound annual growth of 7.3 percent from 2005-2025, a marked acceleration from the 6 per cent growth of the previous two decades. In this growth rate, average real household disposable income will grow from 113,744 Indian rupees in 2005 to 318,896 Indian rupees by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 5.3 per cent. This is significantly more rapid than the 3.6 per cent annual growth of the last two decades with the exception of China, and much quicker than income growth in other major markets. For example, US average real household income increased at a compound annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent over the past two decades; for Japan the figure was 0.25 per cent. Rising income will create a 583 million-strong middle class. India’s raising real incomes have already had a significant impact on poverty reduction.

In 1985, 93 per cent of the population had an annual household income of less than 90,000 Indian Rupees, or less than $1,970 per year or $5.40 per day- an income bracket categorized as deprived. By 2005, this had dropped by about two-fifths to 54 per cent of the population, with the biggest fall occurring since 1995. Thus more than 103 million people moved out of desperate poverty in the course of one generation. This is all more impressive given that India’s population grew by 352 million during this period. MGI’s forecast shows that overall economic growth will continue to benefit India’s poorest citizens and that the deprived segment will further drop from 54 per cent of the population in 2005 to 22 per cent by 2025. India will become the fifth largest consumer market by 2025. The aggregate consumption in India will grow in real terms from 17 trillion Indian rupees today to 34 trillion by 2015 and 70 trillion by 2025- a fourfold increase.

After income growth, the second largest factor driving India’s development as a consumer market is its continued population growth. India’s strength has always been in numbers and today it is the second only to China in this respect. However, China’s strict adoption of a one-child policy means that India’s population is growing significantly faster by comparison.

According to UN projections, India will overtake China to become most populous country in the world by 2030. The rapid population growth will give India a youthful demographic profile as its dependency ratio (the ratio of children and elderly to income earners) drop from 60 today to 48 by 2025. This signifies a rapidly growing labour force and quickly expanding consumer base. Between 2010-2030, India will add 241 Million people in working-age population (and that means the children who are currently in our education system), Brazil will add around 18 million, while China will add a meager 10 million people during the same time. So even with all the drawbacks that India has, this particular Indian aspect is going to prove pivotal in making India the world leader in coming years.

The demographic outlook for the BRIC countries  (Brazil, Russia, India and China) could hardly be more different. In terms of the demographic transition model, India is at the beginning of stage three (declining fertility, population growth), Brazil and China are at stage four (low mortality and fertility, population trending towards stability), while Russia is already at stage five (sub-replacement-rate fertility, declining population). Not surprisingly, the differences in the projected change in the working-age population the economically relevant variable are very significant in both absolute and relative terms. [Source: DB Research]

The demographic developments in the BRICs over the next 10, 20, 30 years will vary greatly. This will impact not only economic growth prospects, but also savings and investment behavior and potentially if somewhat difficult to quantify financial market growth prospects.

India is demographically in a substantially more favorable position than China and Russia.Brazil’s demographic window (defined here, non-technically, as a falling dependency ratio) will close around 2020-25, while in China and Russia it is closing right now. India, by contrast, will enjoy a very favorable demographic momentum for another three decades. So even though in current scenario, India may not exactly be mentioned in the same breath as US, UK and China, the picture in next couple of decades will be quite different.

So, it's wise to be in India, at this moment and experience the "wave".

Internet freedom, Hacktivists and The Anonymous India : Youth movement in India

The Indian laws made in immediate post-colonial period are still in use! For example, the copyright law, which was constituted during 50’s and remains almost unchanged, till today. The recent ban on file sharing sites like Piriate Bay has created controversies across media and society. Specially, the youth population (In’glo’dians and Indians) are protesting against it by various means. Their arguments are valid…. A student said “the copyright law was made in 50’s where there was no way a movie could have made money other than selling the tickets.. but today, a movie makes profit even before its released! Take the case of Ra One… it made money via endorsement, tie ups, music CDs…. So, why should the copyright law give protection to the producer to make sky high profit by banning the file sharing websites? Is not it a conspiracy? A business- politico nexus…” In a democratic country how come the Government gags file sharing! The war between the forward thinking youth and orthodox silver hairs are growing in various ideologies including the internet space.



At this scenario, the emergence of The Anonymous is natural. The international hacktivist group launched 'Operation India' , taking down the websites of the Supreme Court of India, DoT, MIT, AICC, BJP, and Copyrights Labs. The Hindu report stated “Online hackers collective Anonymous, that has gained global attention for its symbolism and high-profile tactics, made its public presence felt across the country on Saturday, as volunteers took to the streets to register their protests over growing concerns of Internet censorship. The ‘OpIndia' protest gained more traction in some cities than others — notably New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — as groups of youths dressed up in black suits and sported the iconic Guy Fawkes mask.  The protests coordinated via Twitter and Anonymous’s IRC channels were held at: Mumbai, Delhi - India Gate, Chandigarh, Indore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Calicut, Pune, Ahmedabad, Manipal, Trivandrum, Coimbatore. They carried placards and raised slogans against the government's alleged attempts at backdoor censorship online. In some cases, they made up for the lack of numbers by showing some flair in dressing up iconic figures in the protest clothes. The street protests were peaceful. The group, however, waged a virtual war online since the stroke of midnight on Friday, as it upped the ante to bring down intermittently two government websites - www.india.gov.in and www.cert-in.org.in. The two identified Twitter handles of Anonymous India, exhorted volunteers to launch DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. It turned out to be a cat and a mouse game as the Twitter accounts got disabled, and Anonymous continued to operate through new accounts. Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu, one of the groups that pledged support in Chennai, distanced itself from DDoS attacks. But it noted in a pamphlet distributed to the public that the protests were specifically over developments that sought to curb freedom of expression online: Section 69 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 that would allow government officials and investigating agencies to listen in to all phone calls, SMSs and emails even without a warrant from a Magistrate; and Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 through which “Government has enacted laws that gives it a free pass to censor Facebook posts, listen to every Skype conversation, monitor tweets or blogs or access private photographs and documents stored online, or track locations using mobile phone to keep under surveillance all of our online activity.” Protesters said they were not willing to buy Union Minister Kapil Sibal's explanations about “self-regulation” online and saw the government moves, including some amendments in the Indian Copyright Amendment Bill (2012), as an attempt at backdoor censorship. There were not enough provisions to safeguard Internet intermediaries — like search engines or file-sharing sites — whereas the amendments vested disproportionate powers with those who might complain of violations. The recent John Doe order by the Madras High Court over an anti-piracy complaint that eventually led to the blocking of some file-sharing and video-sharing networks seems to have been the tipping point for the protests.” Continuing on Saturday, it attacked the online portal of Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE) because it obtained a John Doe order to prevent access to sites such as file-sharing portal The Pirate Bay, video-sharing service Vimeo, and more.

                                (Activists meeting at the beach in Chennai)

(Protesters from the Anonymous India group of hackers wear Guy Fawkes masks as they protest against laws they say gives the government control over censorship of internet usage in Mumbai, June 9, 2012)

The hackers have previously attacked websites of the US department of justice, US Copyrights Office, Sony PlayStation Network and FBI and the Egyptian government. "We aren't harming the websites or changing their content. This is a silent protest," said Anonymous told .

(Activists supporting the group Anonymous wear masks as they protest against the Indian Government's increasingly restrictive regulation of the internet in New Delhi on June 9, 2012)

 Anonymous has hacked AITMC (All India Trinamool Congress) website. The homepage of AITMC (All India Trinamool Congress) website was replaced with Anonymous ‘mask’ and is now redirecting to Twitter The above is the screen capture of the hacked website of TMC.

But concerns for Internet freedom in India are not new, and stem from an update to the country’s Information Technology Act in April last year. The new rules regulating Internet companies – providers, websites and search engines – instruct them that they must remove "disparaging" or "blasphemous" content within 36 hours if they receive a complaint from an "affected person."

(An activist supporting the group Anonymous wears a mask as they protest against the Indian Government's increasingly restrictive regulation of the internet outside a shopping mall in Kolkata on June 9, 2012)

(An activist supporting the group Anonymous holds a poster as they protest against the Indian Government's increasingly restrictive regulation of the internet outside a shopping mall in Bangalore on June 9, 2012)

The Facebook supporters are also growing. Here's the facebook page of one supporter.


The Facebook page of The Anonymous is here

More news : http://www.livemint.com/2012/05/29230711/Anonymous-does-not-mean-you-ar.html

http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/hacker-group-anonymous-india-warns-it-will-get-worse/20120601.htm

Clean Ganga movement : A eco-spiritual movement

The eco consciousness is spreading across social layers in India. A country with multiple socio-economic layers embedded in the cultural system, its difficult to gather all across social strata. After the Anti corruption mass movement, the eco-movements are gaining momentum. In this country the spiritual emotions are always layered with social cause to make a strong statement and mass involvement. For example, the Clean Ganga movement… Today, hundreds of locals and activists initiated a foot march in Allahabad to spread awareness about the Clean Ganga campaign on Sunday, and urged the Central government to take firm steps to clean up the holy river.

Lalvar Tiwari, an activist, said that people were now awakened to save the river, which was worshipped by devotees from all over the world.

"The pure water of our sacred river Ganga has become severely polluted. The polluted water of drains is falling in River Ganga. We are here to create awareness about the Clean Ganga campaign. We have called more than 100 workers for the success of the campaign. If the river is not cleaned, in the coming days hundreds of workers from the nearby villages would start a bigger movement for saving it," Tiwari said.

A physically challenged man also participated in the foot march saying that he was united in the movement to clean the sacred river.

"We have sacred feelings for the river Ganga and we are united to clean it. Although I am physically challenged, I have come here to show my support for the cause," Rajesh Singh Yadav, a local, said.

Apart from the shrinking river, the accumulation of silt deposit and garbage along the banks has worried the environmentalists despite millions of rupees being spent on the Ganga Action Plan.

In 2011, the Central government approved a $1 billion loan from the World Bank, to fund an eight-year project to clean the Ganga, in particular the large stretches heavily polluted by industrial effluents and domestic waste.

INsightsYOUng 2012 -13 Trend directions in art fashion design and lifestyle

INsightsYOUng 2012 -13 Trend directions in art fashion design and lifestyle

View more PowerPoint from Kaustav Sengupta

Being "green" ! Enviornment vs. Indian economy

Imagine a world where human well-being, social equity and protection of our natural environment are the primary considerations for making business decisions. Sounds too utopian? Not if you go by what some of today's foremost environmental think-tanks call the Green Economy. Environmental circles are buzzing with the term, much like the well-bandied sustainability. But what exactly does it mean? To understand it, we need to first look at India's track record in economic terms.

The GDP smokescreen

Between 1990 and 2008, India's wealth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rose by a whopping 120%. But a myopic focus on economic capital is flawed, contends Professor Anantha Duraiappah, Executive Director of the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Change. When measures of natural, human and manufactured capital were considered together to obtain a more comprehensive value in a recently released report (see image),

India's "Inclusive Wealth" rose by a mere 9% from 1990—2008. In other words, India continues to post positive GDP growth but is rapidly exhausting all its natural resources while doing so. The GDP then becomes an unintended but nevertheless dangerous smokescreen; According to a new "Inclusive Wealth Indicator" designed to augment the GDP as a measure of economic progress, India's natural capital or the sum of a country's assets from forests to fossil fuels and minerals, declined by as much as 31%. (Source: Inclusive Wealth Report, 2012)

What is needed is an indicator that estimates the true wealth of nations— natural resources, human and manufactured, coupled with the social and ecological constituents of human well-being. As Manish Bapna, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the World Resources Institute, puts it, "The prevailing economic growth model is focused on increasing the GDP above all other goals. While this system has improved incomes and reduced poverty for hundreds of millions, it comes with significant and potentially irreversible social, environmental and economic costs. Poverty persists for as many as two and a half billion people, and the natural wealth of the planet is rapidly being drawn down.

Green..er?

In a recent global assessment, approximately 60 percent of the world's ecosystem services were found to be degraded or used unsustainably. The gap between the rich and poor is also increasing; between 1990 and 2005, income inequality rose in more than two-thirds of countries." This is exactly where the "Green Economy" can come in and promote the triple bottom line: sustaining and bettering not just economic, but also environmental and social well-being.
However, transitioning from a business-as-usual economy to a green economy is not easy. It requires a habit and thought process overhaul which reflects in decision making at all levels. It also requires a variety of institutional reforms and regulatory, tax, and expenditure-based economic policies and tools, customized to the country in question. For example, the Republic of Korea has adopted a national strategy and a five-year plan for green growth for the period 2009—2013, allocating as much as 2 percent of its GDP to investment in several green sectors such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean technology and water. Countries are also constantly exploring ways to tax pollution so that those that generate it can be made to take responsibility for the environmental and social costs associated with it. This would presumably drive businesses to seek more environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways of providing products and services, thus helping to green the economy. While many heartwarming possibilities for altering patterns of production, industry, agriculture, the organization of cities, construction systems, and transport has been highlighted as economy-greening initiatives, the truth is- easier said than done.

Will policies trump politics?

Image sourced from Greenpeace.org.uk under Creative Commons License.Not surprisingly then, the Green Economy has its detractors, who label the very idea as a "naïve expression of very good intentions, without any possibility of altering the current course of the planet". As Edgardo Lander, Professor of Social Sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, points out, "the capacity of existing political systems to establish regulations and restrictions to the free operation of the markets—even when a large majority of the population call for them—is seriously limited by the political and financial power of the corporations". He goes on to provide the example of the United States, where no environmental regulatory policy and no international commitment can be assumed by the government without the prior approval of major corporations potentially affected by such measures. It is a sad fact that these corporations have the capacity to veto policies they do not agree with.

The extraordinarily unequal power relations existing in today's world on the one hand and the needs of the poor on the other. What experiments will remove this binary and implement concrete plans to activate the beyond the GDP green economy model.
According to India's erstwhile Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, by 2015, India will report a GDP that takes into account environmental degradation. How well India maneuvers its way towards this is fraught with politicking, ideological nitpicking and mounting realities.But as the stats show, is there another way out or in?

Source: Yahoo news

A classroom on the phone : an oppertunity ahead

Globalisation, as defined by the rich, is a very nice thing, the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter once reflected. “You're talking about the internet, you're talking about cell phones, you're talking about computers,” said Carter. “This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people in the world.” That was in 2001; a lot has changed. In Kenya, mobile phones have become an integral part of cash transfer schemes, enabling poor people in urban areas to buy food. In remote rural areas of Peru, computers provided by the Euro-Solar programme are fuelling an appetite for learning among children. And the senior U.S. Political Adviser Alec Ross — acknowledging the galvanising influence of social media on the Arab spring — has described the internet as “the Che Guevara of the 21st century.”

If the global spread of technology can do all this, what else might it achieve? Quite a lot, according to the authors of a report prepared by the GSMA mobile industry body and published to coincide with last week's eLearning Africa conference in Cotonou, Benin. 

India in the study

Shaping the future — realising the potential of informal learning through mobile, explores mobile technology's potential to improve access to education for young people in developing countries. The study looks at Ghana, Morocco, Uganda and Maharashtra, in India, identifying young people's aspirations and priorities, exploring the education and employment challenges they face, and scrutinising their mobile phone use.

The endgame is to establish how the mobile industry and international development community can pool their expertise to create m-learning services that improve teaching and learning, and therefore promote long-term development. 

“It's a big step in the right direction in terms of putting the possibilities in front of the GSMA's members and raising awareness of the commercial and business opportunities education represents in the developing world,” says John Traxler, professor of m-learning at the University of Wolverhampton in the U.K. “Clearly it's a small sample, covering only four countries, so it's indicative rather than representative. But if the networks get the message, it's a valuable piece of work. Networks don't need to hear it's virtuous, they need to hear it's profitable — just enough to encourage them to get out there and do something.” Mobile phones are increasingly ubiquitous in poor countries, which now account for four in every five connections worldwide. As Elsie Kanza, of the World Economic Forum, recently said: “Regardless of social class, almost everyone [in Africa] has a mobile phone, or two or three. Even in remote villages, mobile phones have replaced the bicycle or radio as prized assets.” An obvious caveat is that voice-calls far outstrip data use in poor countries, which remain an emerging market for smartphones and other data-enabled devices. One reason is cost. A quarter of the young people surveyed — and almost half of those from Ghana — said a shortage of money was the biggest obstacle to accessing educational resources. Even so, the rapid spread of mobile technology offers clear possibilities for learning. Of the young people participating in the study who had accessed the internet, half had done so on a mobile device. 

One female student from rural India told the GSMA researchers: “In class, I sometimes record the lectures on my phone so I can listen to them later in case I forget or don't understand. I can use the calculator to help me with my maths. My favourite subjects are maths, science, history and economics. If you could get these on your mobile it would be good.” Enthusiasm for learning was a common thread in the feedback. Only family and health were felt to be of greater importance by the study's participants, 30 per cent of whom said having a good career ranked higher among their priorities than marriage or home ownership.

Despite this aspirational outlook, however, only a quarter said the classroom was their principal source of information and education. Friends and family were identified as more important by 41 per cent, while 43 per cent gleaned most of their knowledge from TV programmes. 

So can m-learning help? Yes, say the report's authors, who suggest that, by using the study's findings to tap into common interests among young mobile users, the reach and impact of educational material can be increased. Many of those surveyed used their devices to access music and sports content (49 per cent and 24 per cent respectively across the four areas studied); by bundling learning material with, say, football updates, the GSMA researchers believe technology can make a significant difference.

Others, however, are sceptical. Some experts say there is little demonstrable evidence of m-learning's impact, suggesting it threatens to undermine traditional teaching methods and — by leaving those without access to devices at a disadvantage — reinforce inequality. 

Traxler believes such arguments are misguided. “You don't have to pay for mobile technology, and it reaches the people you want to reach,” he argues. “Computers, books, television sets and college buildings may be infinitely more respected, but people already have mobile phones — they buy them, pay for them, and carry them. So let's look at how the technology is representative of our society, and how we can use it, rather than worrying about the niceties of education.” The report preaches a message Traxler has long championed, one he hopes will now trickle down not only to mobile networks and their commercial departments, but also to governments. “That's where the action needs to happen,” he says. “We've had 10 years of relatively small-scale, short-term projects, and by their very nature I'm not sure how much they would really have told us, or how rigorous they were. 

“The case that needs to be made is about sustainability, scale, return on investment and impacting on government policies. If the GSMA can do a better job than the rest of us have done in the past 10 years, then good luck to them — and I think they probably will.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2012