Thought Garage

In brief, I believe the answer is a resounding NO. Otherwise, there will be no big companies like Microsoft/Google/Yahoo/*, because once they were small startups just like others and must have faced similar if not same situations. Recently, there was lot of buzz about the demise of few small companies because some big company entered the same niche market. And there was equal buzz and frantic and quite fanatic response by the blogosphere about Google's entry in to web based office software. Many, so called entrepreneurs are panicking that they can not simply survive. And many are suggesting that startups should look for way out, when a big guy enters the same market. "there’s no need to panic (yet), but it may help to think now about ways to get yourself out of the headlights" - OnStartups "the reason companies ought to be scared of the big fat guy is that since they have more resources (money, personell, exposure, media visibility), they can quickly replicate...

Mobile internet and Mobile commerce makes a lot of sense in the context of Indian market. There are more than 100 Million people equipped with a mobile phone. But there are only around 40 Million people actively using internet. Mostly because of the lack of internet access services. Most users do not have internet access at home and their primary place of internet access is either office or internet cafes. While access in office is restricted both interms of sites and work hours, accessing internet from cafes is totally insecure. So, many hesitate to buy stuff on internet. Mobile internet and Mobile commerce offers a solution that is a blessing in a situation like that. With Mobile internet, You can access internet any where, any time right from your mobile and it is very secure.  And Mobile commerce solutions like M-Wallet makes it much more safe and easy to do shopping, because you do not have to enter Credit card information every time you make a purchase. Keeping the importance...

Found a great post  The Top 30 VoIP Blogs  that you must read to stay in touch with VOIP World at  http://www.smithonvoip.com/2006/08/28/the-top-30-v... The listing of 30 blogs has been divided in to three sections. The top 10, that are read almost daily by almost every one in the VOIP industry and are a must reads. This list is followed by the Prominent 10 that are read atleast once in a week that cover a niche area of VOIP. And then the 10 worth reading blogs, that mostly cover news around VOIP. Top 10: Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch Om Malik - GigaOm .... The Prominent Asterisk VoIP News Alec Saunders .Log .... Always Worth a Read Ken Camp’s Realtime VoIP Solomon’s Ige VoIP Blog .... Wonderful compilation. One of the readers of the posting Dan York also left some links to Podcasts on VOIP.  Please visit Smith's blog for the complete listing of blog and podcasts.

Population: 79.7 million (2006). Capital: Hyderabad (est. population, 6 million 2006). State GDP: US$59.1 billion (2004/05). State GDP growth rate: 9.8 per cent (2004/05). Largest producer of rice in Southern India. Ranked second in the number of industrial estates. Base for nearly one quarter of India’s software professionals. Second largest minerals base. Largest exporter of pharmaceuticals. Hyderabad is the number one ranked centre for IT enabled services in India. IT is definitely getting better in Andhra Pradesh (look at bullets 7 and 10) and GDP growth (Growth: $5.79B, GDP:US$59.1 billion)is slightly better than Karnataka (Growth: $5.05B GDP: US$43.17 billion). Source: http://www.nfis.com.au/india/pdfs/1_why_focus_sout...

India Today's cover story 'India in Numbers', published on the eve of India's Independence day(15th August) attempted to showcase the 59 year old Independent India using numbers. Numbers are as complex as Indian psyche. They can lie flat out and hide the truth or can reveal the startling truth. But overall, an interesting compilation. Some are clearly encouraging and some are totally disheartening. Some are quite unbelievable and some are outrageously naive. It is very important to put them in proper context to see beyond the numbers. Otherwise, is there any significance to 59 ?? IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation) has links to the PDF documents of the original article by IndiaToday here . Letter from the Editor in chief India, at 59 Government: Who owns India Business & Economy: Three is a Crowd Education: On a New Slate Arts and Entertainment: Good News Talkback: Mindnight's Children On a New Dawn at 60

McAfee Avert Labs Blog posted last friday (25th August, 2006) about a Phishing attack, that is started by an SMS on your mobile phone. This may not be a direct security threat for your Mobile phone, but a severe threat for your desktop/laptop computers and network that you are connected to. This phenomena, which we at McAfee Avert Labs are dubbing “SMiShing” (phishing via SMS), is yet another indicator that cell phones and mobile devices are becoming increasingly used by perpetrators of malware, viruses and scams The attack starts with an SMS on your mobile phone indicating that you have signed up for a dating service and you will be charged $2 per day unless you visit a URL and cancel your subscription. And for many this looks like a real SMS. So when you visit the URL, the website will prompt you to download an application which is a Trojan horse that makes your computer a zombie, and exposing it to hackers. So, beware of such SMS messages. The SMS Message might look like  a...

If you haven't noticed, the mobile we knew of is gone. Today, we CAN take  pictures, record video, access email, browse internet, download music, watch TV, use cell phone as a smart card, pay at a shop, listen to podcasts, write your blog and the list goes on almost endless.  But, here is glimpse of what today's Mobile can do or have. You can carry all those gadgets seperately if you love to. Or you can carry Just Your Mobile that does all of them. We love to call having a mobile that does all these and a lot more, 'The Cellular Life Style', a mobile centric world. Luckily many mobiles available today have most of the features. For some like Video, not all current networks support the speed for an effective use and an enjoyable experience. But the networks are pretty close to getting an upgrade. So, that will not be a factor any more. Get a cool mobile and enjoy the life style. What do you think? What do you want from Your Mobile ? A plain old glorified cordles...

A life style apart. On 8th of August, 2006  Alltel Wireless , one of the top US Wireless operators in association with Melodeo launched  Axcess Mobilcast service that enables Alltel customers to listen to podcasts on their mobile for a monthly subscription price of $3.99. Users can not only get main stream podcasts from the likes of NPR and CNN but also podcasts from independent podcasters around the world. At the time of release, there are around 2500 podcasts were available with the Axcess Mobilcast repository at users disposal. More details at Alltel Wireless web site on Axcess MobilCast here . If you are using one of the following phones from Alltel, then you can start listening to podcasts on your Mobile: Kyocera KX5 (Slider Remix), LG AX355, LG AX390, LG AX4750, LG AX5000, LG UX4270, LG VX3200, Motorola V3c (RAZR), Motorola V710, Motorola e815, Motorola razr (V3C) Note that Alltel is still following a walled garden approach, meaning that Alltel users can not listen to whatev...

There were news reports all across the Main stream media about a proposed hike of 25% of visas ' for Indians '.  But, clearly the report looks to be a fake one. No press releases from US Embassy in New Delhi or any mention on the USCIS or any of the US media. Just few India news houses and ItWire Australia that started all of this. India likely to get 25% more H1B visas  : iTWire, Australia  H1-B visa for Indians to be hiked : Rediff, India  US may hike H1-B visa for Indians by 25%  :Business Standard, India  US proposes raising H1-B visas for Indians Times of India US to cut waiting time for visa applications Times of India All seems to have started with the iTWire, Australia reporting the issue first with an enticing title, ' India likely to get 25% more H1B visas '. There’s some news to cheer up Indian IT firms. Newly appointed minister of consular affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi, Peter Kaestner, announced that the US...

In year 2001, the Japanese Wireless Operator NTT DoCoMo started offering world's first 3G service. Most of the world was very skeptical about the success of 3G networks. Analysts declared it as the most riskiest endeavour ever taken by any wireless operator in the world. Most questioned why would anybody buy an expensive handset and play with a new interface with an unknown technology and an equally unwanted application. Not many had an internet connection to their computers, and why would some one need an internet connection on the cell phone. Most probably you are not an exception. You might be just one of them asking similar if not same questions. Why would any body want to use Mobile to access internet? What the heck is about ringtones? And the rest is history.  We believe, it is by far the most memorable and defining parts in the history of Mobile. Today, We assume that most of you have some sort of answers to most of those questions. NTT DoCoMo and its spectac...

Guy has posted a video of a panel discussion with 5 top Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs on "Startup Success" moderated by him at Churchill Club on 17th August, 2006. It does not have formulae or checklist for success, like the recent main stream media/magazine cover stories, but it got some great and genuine insights in to the topic. Speakers: Lauren Elliott, Founder, Personal News Network Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot Daniel Mattes, Co-Founder and CTO, Jajah Alex Welch, Co-Founder and CEO, Photobucket

One of the top stories on a local news channel in Dallas, is the growing demand for  statues of St.Joseph. The story reports that When it comes time to sell a house, some homeowners rely on a statue of St. Joseph. A centuries-old tradition claims that burying a statue of St. Joseph in the yard helps homes sell faster. I guess, wherver there is a religion, there is a superstition. And America is not an exception, but a bigger example, with lots of strongly religious people. Quick search on Google gave lots of superstitions and not surprisingly there were so many books ( a quick search on Amazon threw 68640 results ) as well. But here are some superstitions, that are pretty famous and are every day examples: An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Getting out of bed with left foot first brings bad-luck. Spit on a new baseball bat before using it for the first time to make it lucky. If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake with the first puff yo...

2 cents ( Rs.1) per minute to make international calls to US, Canada and Europe from Andhra Pradesh, India is quite irresistible !!  All you need is a broadband connection and phone unit. Visit the service website, ' Matallo ' for more information on rates and information about plans available. Calls to other states in India is not yet approved and provided by Nettlinx at this time as per the news report. Hyderabad-based Internet service provider Nettlinx, in association with Smart IMS, a US-based corporation is coming out with its VoIP services across Andhra Pradesh under the brand name of ‘Matallo’, which means ‘In Words’ in Telugu. Under the new initiative, Nettlinx will provide VoIP services with the help of special ‘Matallo’ VoIP phones that will enable the users to communicate to various international destinations  via the IP network of Nettlinx, according to Manohar Loka Reddy, director of Nettlinx. The company will be rolling out various mode...

Last month I wrote " RSS Marketing - Is it just hype? or the next best channel? " wondering whether RSS can be a viable marketing medium or not. The brief answer is 'NOT YET'. Despite many advantages of RSS over Email for content delivery, the RSS subscribers are still quite low and only techies and geeks seems to have so far embraced RSS. Read the recent post " What is RSS and Why it is better and safer than Email for content delivery " explaining why RSS is much better and safer for content delivery.  As per an article in Business 2.0 "The New York Times' digital makeover ", RSS subscriptions only generated about 4% of total page views. This number is quite in line with similar comparisons from other sources , confirming that RSS is yet to take off in the main stream. And even RSS newsfeeds, which the Times adopted early, are still "a niche," Nisenholtz says. (In June, RSS feeds generated 12.2 million pageviews for the site out ...

Guy Kawasaki has a wonderful post 'Ten Things to Learn This School Year' (actually 12 things) explains the most important things that one must learn at school. They are some of the most valuable things, one must learn to succeed in the real world. For an aspiring entrepreneur, they are MUST learn things. Unfortunately, none of them are taught at school. One must make explicit and deligent efforts to learn them on thier own. One more important aspect, and the most valuable asset in real life (I guess Guy missed) is 'experimentation' and 'application' of what you learn. Schools teach you to study, review, analyse and present. But never explicitly make you to apply what you learn, experiment and try out. This is quite a serious issue with educational institutions in India, right from a rural high school to IITs. And most schools teach you to 'conform' to rules of the game. Do what I say kinda conventions,  Never allowing or encouraging original, new an...

Normally, we don't get to hear about key people leaving Google or some ex-Googler is starting up something that competes directly with one of the Google's services. The Google PR and the media in general has so far did a great of job of creating such an image that makes such news unthinkable. Google is the best company to work for, it has the best of startup and big company alike,  and all that sort of PR style quotes. Ofcourse, every one has invested in Google and it does not make sense to say anything otherwise. But, I Just read on Niall Kennedy's blog that Jason Goldman , product manager of Google Blog Search and Blogger , is leaving Google at the end of this week.   I could have taken time off or switched to a different project, but I feel that after I'm finished doing the nothing I've got planned, I'm going to want to do something somewhere small. And, to be honest, I can't really imagine being at Google but not being involved in Blogger. Why Goo...

Good news for Dallasites, who are craving for a fresh not frozen(I truly mean it), authentic and delicious Indian kitchen. I noticed a small cafe, called 'Indus Cafe'  while driving on Coit Rd, went to try out. Its absolutely fresh and delicious and served really hot !!!. No wonder, in the last 3 weeks, I have gone there 5 times. There are few things that set this small Cafe apart from other Indian kitchens. All items are fresh, truly fresh. Not frozen. So you can enjoy for the first time truly fresh and served really really hot. (absolutely no microwave heated up food). I love the samosas (favorite Indian snack)in particular. For the first time in 3 years in Dallas, I felt at home. Remember, you can not hide them from guests if you take them home. The fresh aroma of peas khurma is so good that your guest know from the parking lot that you got Samosas. And your order is just made when you order it. You may think, why is it special and new, just with In...

Infosys Technologies's Chairman Narayan Murthy retired on Sunday, after 25 years at the helm of affairs at Infosys. He is definitely attained the status of an Icon in the hearts of many middle class Indians and ignited the Entrepreneurial fire in most of us. The history of Infosys will remain as one of the great examples of Indian Entrepreneurship. And his equally iconic wife Sudha Murthy's well known charity efforts affected lots of needy individuals. Though I loved the way Murthy and Infosys grown in to a $2B in annual revenues, I always felt Infosys did not stand firm on its values and did not stand up to its reputation if not just hype, regards to community and infrastructure. And I don't understand quite well what they mean when they say some thing.  Because they just don't match up. Narayan Murthy went on to say on television (CBS 60 Minutes) that Indian education system at large is the best and compared IITs with MITs in a way to glorify IITs and tried to conv...

Thrilled to see this head line on Google news. While it is a wonderful news that Indian internet population is growing at the fastest rate, it is not a good indication to compare growth. According to a survey conducted by US-based Internet firm, comScore Networks, India's online population is growing at the fastest rate in the world. The survey reveals that the total online population in the country, measured in terms of people aged over 15 years accessing the Internet, grew by 7.8 percent to reach 18.02 million in June, from 16.71 million three months ago. [ Source:TechTree News article ] While the growth rate is quite impressive and highest in the rankings, number of net users added is quite small comparatively. Since the growth rate is measured and expressed as a percentage of current users, this can be misleading if we don't take into account the current user base. US has 153 Million internet users. So even though US has only 1% growth rate, that would mean a net add...

It is not uncommon to see Firefox users producing short films, designing ad campaigns, logos, creative captions, and all kinds of merchandise to show their love of their browser. And Linux Users Group at Oregon State University found yet another creative manifestation of their love of Firefox. The FireFox crop circle . Here we go! Planned in under two weeks and completed in under 24 hours, the crop circle had a final diameter of 220 feet. We constructed the circle in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, where it was completely invisible from the road but unmistakable from the sky. Our team consisted of 12 people, mainly OSU students, and we carefully stomped down oats from 3:30pm Friday afternoon until 2:30am, putting on the finishing touches between 7:30am and 11:00am Saturday, August 12. The team that are posing the trillion dollar question "Does the sudden appearance of a Firefox crop circle imply which browser extraterrestrials prefer?"

Experience is the best teacher. One can read 100s of blogs and books or take hours of classes on Entrepreneurship. But succeeding in a business is a an art and mystery that only experience can teach. That is the reason, the best way to setup and succeed in business is by going out and trying to setup a business at the earliest possible. The Inc.com encouraged that spirit with their first ever Best Lemonade Stand in America contest.  A 9-year-old from Seattle, Wash., on Tuesday took top honors in Inc.com's first ever Best Lemonade Stand in America contest. Siena Jeakle , who sold pink lemonade for 75 cents a glass beside a giant eye-catching pink lemonade sign and donated part of the proceeds to breast cancer research, won for best overall concept and design. The contest, which started during the Fourth of July weekend and closed July 31, attracted hundreds of "kid-trepreneurs" between the ages of 5 and 12 from across the country, said Inc.com Editorial Director Lau...

The much awaited and anticipated Google WiFi network is finally switched on  and fully operational. Any one with a Google login can access the network. New users can signup for one. Currently users get 1Mbps connections speed, but I think it will be ramped up pretty soon. Chris Sacca , Head of Special Initiatives at Google says that at present the company is offering a one-megabit per second connection for everyone, and will tweak the capacity depending on how people use the network. For instance if a lot of people are watching online videos, then the capacity might get a booster shot. - [ GigaOM ] GigaOM has some technical details of the WiFi network that covers around 11.5 square miles: The network, which covers 11.5 square miles, features 380 access points , all supplied by Tropos Networks , a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company. One in six access points is a gateway by Tel Aviv-based Alvarion . There are three bandwidth aggregation points in the network that are con...

SmallBizResource.com article "Six Mobile Innovations That Will Change Your Life"   reports the following 6 Mobile Applications or concepts as Life Changing innovations in the Mobile world. Pay By Phone or Mobile Commerce Presence Based Applications Internet on Mobile Multimedia content delivery on Mobile Health Monitoring Applications on Mobile and Location tracking applications Read the full article here.

U.K.'s The Register  reports some surprising results of a survey of 1500 U.K. consumers, commissioned by hosting firm Hostway. Despite investment by operators in services such as i-mode and Vodafone Live, 73 per cent of respondents to a new survey said don't access the net from their mobile. Slow-loading pages (38 per cent) and navigation difficulties (27 per cent) were among the reasons cited why people would rather hook up to the net using a PC rather than a phone. A quarter (25 per cent of sites were unavailable to those with mobile phones. Key Reasons why 73% of people prefer not to access internet on their Mobile phones are: Too expensive to browse internet on mobile Too difficult to navigate through pages. Not comfortable to read the web content that is meant for desktop browsers on a tiny mobile browsers Download time is too high and tiresome Applications they want to access are not available Also, most people want to access maps than reading news and bl...

Despite resistance from the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners Lee himself, yet another Top Level Domain , ".mobi" (dotMobi) has been created. Dotmobi (.mobi) is a new top-level domain, intended for sites that are designed to be used on cell phones and other mobile devices . "A top-level domain ( TLD ) is the last part of an Internet domain name ; that is, the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.nintendo.com , the top-level domain is com (or COM , as domain names are not case-sensitive )." - Wiki See a List of current TLDs at Wiki . Dotmobi sites will be required to have a home page that conforms to the switch on! style guides (also called the .mobi styleguides) which are optimized for access through mobile devices. mTLD, the official registry operator for the new .mobi domain name is a joint venture funded by a consortium of companies including Hutchison, 3, GSM Association, Ericsson, Google, M...

With a booming mobile phone user base, a steady rise in the number of Internet users, high capital efficiency and a big opportunity for exits, India is seeing the return of venture capital –in the real sense of the word — through funds and via cross-border investments. After a lull between 2000 and 2004, the prospects for Indian start-ups are looking good again. Last year, India saw venture capital investments worth $482 million across 52 deals, and this year until June, there have already been investments worth $240 million across as many as 49 deals, according to Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private equity and venture capital activity in India. Spotted this  post on GigaOM giving nice insights into the VC boom in India and all the buzz about mobiles. According to Venture Intelligence, for the first six months of this year, 23 percent, that is nearly $55 million of venture capital was invested in online and mobile services companies, $44 million ...

I saw a post on GigaOM talking about Windows Live Writer , and with all my frustration with the current tools, I immediately downloaded the tool to see what they got. The very first minute, I started using it, I fell in love with it. Huge WOW! I have used w.blogger in the past. And then Qumana looked little better. But Windows Live Writer just rocks!!!. I loved it the first minute. The coolest feature is true WYSIWYG feature. The tool understands the styles that you have on your blog and show the post using those styles right at the moment you are editing. No more publish, view, and edit the posts. You are guaranteed that in the true sense, What You See Is What You Get on your blog. Simple, clean, just like any other Microsoft product it got an Intuitive user interface, and a special big WOW for WYSIWYG !!! You can download from the its blog Windows Live Writer here .

On 2nd August, 2006, CSE(Center for Science and Environment) released nationwide study on pesticide contents in soft drinks across India. The comprehensive study covering 12 states found dangerous levels of pesticides in all samples of soft drinks tested. Pepsi and Coke accounts for around 80% of Indian soft drinks market. The 2006 CSE study tests 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands, from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, spread over 12 states. The study finds pesticide residues in all samples; it finds a cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides in all samples — on an average 24 times higher than BIS norms, which have been finalised but not yet notified. The levels in some samples — for instance, Coca-Cola bought in Kolkata — exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane. Similarly, a Coca-Cola sample manufactured in Thane contained the neurotoxin Chlorpyrifos, 200 times the standard. “This is clearly unacceptable as we know tha...

GigaOm: Google to Invest $1 Billion In India : A few days after in announced plans to set up a R&D Center in China, Google has now decided to invest up to $1 billion on a back office in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, according to news reports . The proposed center, which the Indian government just approved, will likely be spread over a million square feet in what is called a ’special economic zone’ in the southern state. Dell’s and Accenture’s investments were also given the go-ahead. Google currently operates a development center in Bangalore. Google’s India office was responsible for coming up with Google Finance . About half a dozen technology companies have announced plans to invest a billion dollars or more in India I am guessing it would be Hyderabad, but it would be great if Google sets up in Visakhapatnam. Tags: andhra , google , inspions , india

Technorati is currently tracking about 50 million blogs. The size of the blogosphere has doubled almost every five months over the last year and a half as per Technorati statistics. More and more people are starting to rely on internet for news, content, music, social gatherings and communication needs. And keeping up to date with the information and content on internet is quite a task. It is simply not possible to go every web site or blog and look for  updates. Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and content that you want delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? A resounding YES, I bet. Good news is that it is possible. The technology that make it happen is called RSS, Really Simple Syndication.  At the heart RSS is simply a format of the file that delivers updates to content on web. But, with a small application like a RSS reader, the whole world changes. It allows you to see when sites from all over the internet have added new content. Yo...

An inspiring post from " Creating Passionate Users" blog ,  How to be an expert declares that Any one can become an expert if we just put in the time and focus on what we want to become. And its never too late to do so. So, no excuse for not being an expert at any point of time in your life. The only thing standing between you-as-amateur and you-as-expert is dedication. All that talk about prodigies ? We could all be prodigies (or nearly so) if we just put in the time and focused. At least that's what the brain guys are saying. Best of all-- it's almost never too late. Tags: expert , inspiration , creating passionate users , inspions

CNN - Crime News Network?  I just opened www.cnn.com and here are the 'TOP' stories at around 10.40 PM (Central). Click here or on the picture to see full picture with complete url. Wondering whether CNN just stands for Crime News Network? Tags: cnn , crime news , news , inspions

NASSCOM, National Association of Software and Service Companies (of India) and management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton,  released some of the key findings of a study “Globalisation of Engineering Services – the Next Frontier for India”, that assess the evolution of the engineering market between 2005 and 2020.  The report estimates that an additional US$ 40 billion opportunity for the Indian IT industry by 2020 , from offshoring of engineering services alone. The report also suggested some strategies for success in realizing the dream.  While it is a great outlook, it can be only a positive and highly optimistic estimation. We have some serious roadblocks to be cleared to realize any considerable portion of that $40B. Here are few serious challenges, in my opinion that might spoil the dream, if not taken care of with right strategy and in time: Narrowed Focus : All the top IT/ITes companies in India have been heavily focusing on North American mark...

$80 Million more to unleash the power within Indian Entreprenuers and fuel Indian economy. Just a few days back Matrix Partners setup a $150 Million India fund. And now, BTS Investment Advisors, a Switzerland-India based private equity advisor launched 'BTS India Private Equity Fund', a dedicated India fund that would invest in medium size enterprises seeking expansion capital. This fund will target lifescience / pharma, manufacturing, engineering, IT & IT enabled services, telecom and entertainment. “India is one of the largest emerging economies with a GDP growth rate of about 8 per cent and a vibrant medium size enterprise is constantly looking for growth capital", said K Srinivas, Managing Partner, BTS Investment Advisors P Ltd, India. BTS India Fund would have a corpus of $80 million with prominent international institutions as anchor investors. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) of Switzerland acting through the Swiss Investment Fund For Emer...

When you hear the word 'outsourcing', which country comes to your mind? I bet, it is India. India in the last few years became synonymous with outsourcing and painted a huge colorful picture of itself on the world map because of outsourcing. And recently, India upgraded its image as the Innovation pool and buzzing with 10s of startups incubated every other month. But in a record deal of $100 Million over the next 7-8 years, India's own Bharti (Airtel brand), the largest private Mobile operator in India, outsourced to IBM to provide better Content delivery platforms targeted for Indian audience. Read more at Reuters press release and an IBM Case Study (an interview that includes Sunil B.Mittal, Bharti's Chairman. Though Akhil Gupta argues in the interview ( IBM Case Study ) that IBM is as much as in Indian company, I do not fully agree. If that is how we define, then every global company, for instance Adobe, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and likes which have R&D...

After Reliance's Blue Magic mega plans, its time for MTNL and Bharti to reveal thier IPTV Plans. MTNL, India’s state-run telecommunications company Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is reported to be conducting trials of its IPTV service 'Tri-Band' in parts of Delhi and Mumbai. Also following in those footsteps, the premier Mobile operator Bharti (Airtel brand) is also conducting trials in Gurgaon.  MTNL is expecting to  target 200,000 broadband subscribers when it formally launches in the those cities. Financial Express News reports, The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) will enter into commercial arrangements with broadcasters like STAR TV, Prasar Bharati, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment, among others, for its soon to be launched Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services. Its IPTV service "Tri-Band" is currently undergoin trial runs in pockets of Delhi and Mumbai. MTNL's commercial services will be launched in New Delhi and Mumbai, targeting 200,000 broad...

Another feather in the cap for Indian entrepreneurs to keep up the startup momentum. Matrix Partners, set up a $150 Million INDIA Fund for Indian venture investments. Matrix Partners, a leading U.S.-based venture capital firm, today announced the closing of its Matrix India Fund. The $150 million, multi-sector, multi-stage fund was founded by Avnish Bajaj, previously co–founder, Chairman & CEO of India’s largest online marketplace Baazee.com (acquired by eBay), and Rishi Navani, previously Managing Director at WestBridge Capital Partners. Matrix India extends Matrix Partners’ bi–coastal reach in the U.S. to India and its rapidly growing economy. “Matrix Partners is the first leading venture capital firm to establish a fund in India,” said Paul Ferri, Founding Partner of Matrix Partners. “The burgeoning Indian market represents a new frontier of innovation and Matrix Partners is excited to be participating in the region’s growth.” Based in Mumbai, Matri...

Fitch Ratings on Monday unexpectedly raised India’s sovereign foreign and domestic currency ratings to investment grade, citing progress in the fiscal consolidation process, a “strong external balance sheet and an impressive growth story” as key factors prompting the upgrade. “Fiscal consolidation is at last taking hold in India, reinforced by the impressive growth story and India’s strong external balance sheet,” said Paul Rawkins, senior director at Fitch. “Public finances are still weak, but they are no longer an insuperable constraint on this rating.” With Moody’s already rating India as investment grade and with Standard & Poor’s ranking it just one notch away from prime status, with a positive outlook, the news will be a fillip to reformers in New Delhi arguing for faster progress towards full capital account convertibility. Read the Financial Times full news article here. Tags: india , fitch ratings , moody , inspions