Yahoo launches maps for India !!

There are no driving directions yet but you at least look at the map and find out nearest ATMs and Bus Stops !!

Link

Biggest bottleneck in the upliftment of India farmers

Times of India's editorial asks a great question today:

Why does the hard-working Indian farmer — one of the world’s lowest-cost producers — is unable to compete globally.

For example, India is one of the world’s biggest producers of horticultural products; it grows nearly 11 per cent of all the world’s vegetables and 15 per cent of all fruit. And India’s production costs are less than half of those in other parts of the world.

But, despite being a large, low-cost producer, India’s share in the global market is insignificant — it accounts for only 1.7 per cent of the global trade in vegetables and 0.5 per cent in fruits.

A recent world bank study cites three reasons:

1. The biggest reason is the broken and inefficient supply chain we have. The high costs of getting agricultural produce from farm to market erode any advantage the Indian farmer enjoys by virtue of being a cheap producer. For example, it costs three times more to transport grapes from India to the Netherlands than it does from Chile to the Netherlands, although Chile is twice as far from the destination as India is. I am hoping with the new retail chains like Reliance Fresh, we will now start seeing some private investments in the creation of a supply chain.
2. Quality Control and Quality Assessment Methods are lower in India - a concern costantly raised by foreign consumers. The concerns voiced by foreign consumers today will be the concerns raised by domestic consumers tomorrow and players will have to adopt to this. We are already seeing leading players seize the initiative here. Haldiram already has some of the cleanest and high quality facilities in India now.
3. The third reason is the protection mechanisms from foreign regimes. There is no easy solution to it but WTO negotiations are a step in the right direction.

Remedying bottlenecks from farm to market is arguably a higher priority than raising farm productivity. Consider this: 20 per cent higher yields will only lower the final price by less than three percentage points.

In contrast, a 20 per cent reduction in transportation costs alone will reduce final prices by as much as 10 percentage points.

In fact, without more efficient logistics, increasing production — through subsidised credit, power and fertilisers — can lead to gluts that hurt rather than help farmers. Radical reform in services is also necessary.

Providing farmers better access to services — from transportation to distribution — will enhance the economic gains from, and strengthen the political case for, agricultural trade liberalisation.

A willingness to reform its own trade regime — which in any case subsidises the inefficient intermediary more than the farmer — will enable India to take a more forceful position in the WTO negotiations.

It can then more effectively secure not just lower levels of foreign protection, but also greater transparency, simplicity, and predictability in foreign trade regimes.

Reliance launches first Reliance Digital store (near our NOIDA office)

Mukesh Ambani's Group has launched the first Reliance Digital store in Shipra Mall, Ghaziabad (incidentally, very close to our NOIDA office). While I was in NOIDA last week - I saw this store under construction.

Reliance plans to launch 170 stores nation wide which will carry all international brands as well as private labels. They are also trying to launch a consumer finance company to support easy finance to allow people to buy these goods.(they recently hired AmEx India's CEO to head this group)

India's telecom base: 150m wireless and 2m broadband users

Some quick numbers from TRAI:

• At the end of 2006, India had 190 million wireless+wireline subscribers and it was adding 20 million subscribers every quarter. (11.7% growth Q on Q).
• In that quarter, wireless subscribers grew from 130 m to 150m. Wireline subscribers declined from 40.5 m to 40.3 m.
  
• ARPU (average revenue per user) per month was down to INR 316 ($7.5) declining 6.2% QonQ.
• Internet subscribers grew to 8.5m (5.9% growth Q on Q). Broadband subscribers constituted 2.0m out of that (growth of 11.2% Q on Q)
  

IBN Video of the first Reliance Fresh store in Hyderabad

Reliance has launched 90 grocery (perishables) store all over the country and has decided to invest 25,000 crores rupees ($6 Billion) in this business. IBN's vidoe report:

Online Groceries Coming to India via Reliance Retail

Reliance Retail is planning to launch online groceries in India. They are calling it an e-commerce portal where people can buy groceries which will be then delivered to their homes. Mukesh Ambani announced it yesterday on his 50th birthday. They plan to target both B2B and B2C markets.

Unlike USA - where the biggest challenge is the cost of delivery - India's biggest challenge is penetration of credit cards with the common man. As is well understood, reliance' strategy has always been to target the large middle class base and not just the top 1% that have always had access to cellphone, credit cards and internet.

Perhaps, Reliance will allow a CoD (cash on delivery) service to offset this issue. (just like delivery services from Domino's and McDonalds)

Anil Ambani group has already launched a Reliance Credit Card (in collaboration with Citigroup) to target common man.

Some economic facts from India

Indian exports reached $125 billion, doubling from $63.84 three years ago.

Citigroup is investing $400 million in the Indian property estate sector. (time to buy that property is NOW !!)

An UN report forecasts the economy to grow at 9% in 2007.

The gross telecom sector base has touched 190 million. India could become the world’s second largest steel producer by 2016, and an Ahmedabad based company claims to have developed the world’s most advanced IP surveillance camera.

A chart of history of housing prices

Yale economist Robert Shiller’s chart of historical housing prices is shocking to say the least:

5 most important open source projects for web 2.0

In this article in IDG.se Niklas Andersson comments on the continued progress of Web 2.0 and, like the O’Reilly Radar, notes how Web 2.0 is essentially a synonym for composite applications built on Open Source components. In light of that context, Niklas points out 5 Open Source companies/projects that people should be looking out for:

• OpenID - Identity Management
• OpenMPI - Multi-Processor Handling
• Hyperic - Systems Administration
• Memcached - Memory Caching
• Mogile - Distributed File Systems

Delhi is the best city to live in India !!

Mercer survey for 2007 which rates various cities all over the world find Delhi (worldwide rank of 148) is the most livable city in India. Mumbai came a close second followed by Bangalore and Chennai.
The survey ranked 215 cities all over the world on 39 criteria which included:

• Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement, etc)
  
• Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services, etc)
  
• Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc)
  
• Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)
  
• Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools, etc)
  
• Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion, etc)
  
• Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure, etc)
  
• Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc)
  
• Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services, etc)
  
• Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

Indian cities ranked poorly on health and sanitation parameters as most have high air pollution, are densely populated and have poor waste removal and sewage systems.

China, in comparison, did slightly better with Shanghai at 133 and Beijing at 166.

How to buy a car?

What is the best time and method to buy a used or new car? Edmunds.com sends one of their reporters undercover to work at two different car dealers as salesmen to find out the scoop. My learning from the report is never go into the dealership till you have worked out the deal with a cool, rational mind. This is what I will do for my next car purchase:

1. Do the research on the internet to find out the make and model you want. Also research what custom options you want pre-installed and research their prices as well. Know what you want BEFORE you got the dealer to the final detail.
   
2. Consult Consumer Reports to find out the dealer prices for the car. For a small fee, consumer reports will tell you how much dealer has likely paid for the make and model you want.
3. Get pre-approval from your bank or credit union for this amount. Shop around looking for the best rates. Have a check ready in your hand for this amount.
4. Make a list of all dealers that sell this particular make in your area. Get their "internet sales" contacts.
5. Wait till morning of one day before the last day of the month.
6. Then send an email to all the internet sales contacts with following details:
1. full make and model name with all the options you want and if you have a color preference.
   
2. that you want to come and pick the car the next day.
3. that you want to know a committed price (including all fees and taxes) for your selected model and not interested in just "estimates".
   
4. that you are contacting other dealers in the area.
5. that you believe a fair price is what CR has told you.
6. that you have financing and will pay on the spot with the full amount.
   
7. Wait for the offers till late evening that day.
8. Ignore all offers with no committed price then find the lowest price.
9. email all dealers once again with this lowest price giving them a last chance to beat it
10. Wait till late next afternoon to find the lowest/best deal.
11. Call the selected dealership and ask them to fax over all the paperwork to you so that you can review it and bring it to them later in the evening.
12. Verify that the papers are in order and have the same terms and price that you expected.
13. Go to the dealership. Hand over the paperwork and pick the car !!
    

Read the entire edmunds.com report here.