Costs are often the biggest obstacle to overcome in establishing a market. In India, 400 million people have no access to power. When we look at broadband penetration, on one hand, we can see the gaping hole of denial in a basic need on the other – electricity. Or the billion dollar opportunity. Four Indians saw the …
An article in the Wall Street Journal is evoking sharp responses – Why Chinese Mothers are Superior. The question is really one of the diametrically opposed views on parenting. Western parents will not criticize or condemn. They expect that their children will learn on their own at a pace they are comfortable with. Chinese mothers don’t …
In any function at a ‘star’ hotel, these are the norm. Plain rusted iron chairs are made to look ‘premium’ with a dress stitched specially for them. Usually white, with a small padding for the back and the seat, they are slipped over the chairs in a matter of minutes. Premium chairs are hard to …
Displaying a website on the mobile has always been tricky. The small form factor, the profusion of models and operating systems – Symbian, Android, Maemo, Bada, Java, Web OS and their ever-changing versions have developers scrambling to provide a streamlined experience for users – apart from tackling issues like click and touch interfaces. While Opera Mini is the preferred browser for mobiles, …
They walk around the city with a huge cloth bundle slung over their shoulders. It’s their mobile showroom.They live with their competitors in seedy hotels and carry a small diary that lists every single one of their customers. From their villages in West Bengal’s interiors, they make the difficult journey to the borders of Bangladesh …
Seth Godin pointed me to BA Magazine( Before & After) helmed by a quiet, introspective designer called John McWade. It concentrates on the nuances – something that evolves only after years of experience. In the primary years, most designers are too busy looking different, wanting to blaze a new trail, try out colours and typefaces that leap out …
Which camp do you belong to – the one that changes ringtones every month, or the one that doesn’t bother to change the one that came straight out of the box? Listening to phones going off in restaurants, malls, and cinemas, Nokia’s default tone is the one that I hear most often. I suspect navigation …
Gyrating wildly but completely out of synch with the music were several frenzied partygoers. It didn’t matter because, in the haze of created smoke and laser lights, everyone was having a ball. It was a funny experience raising lighted candles and singing ‘auld lang syne‘ with strangers, just before the countdown clock kicked in. A …
The distance between the new airport in Hyderabad and the city has created problems and opportunities. The old airport was plumb in the middle of the city and it was like getting off a bus and joining the mainstream. This is a good 20 km’s away. The taxis are priced at the normal rate, but …
Landing on a cold and foggy morning at Hyderabad airport, I was astonished to see some sprightly sparrows hopping and chirping about. They haven’t taken well to the urban spread. In apartment blocks, pigeons nest and liberally spray dung over parked cars, but sparrows are a rare sight. They don’t have the natural aggression of …
