A fuel-cell / battery-powered Tata Nano

In my long post on the Tata Nano of Jan 14, I had said there are three things required to be done before we all "bless" the otherwise well-intentioned Nano . Here is the "framework" I proposed :

(1) Introduction of incentives and disincentives to confine the sales of the Nano and other cars to rural and semi-urban areas, rather than to the severely congested urban areas of India
(2) Introduction by the Tatas of an electric powered Nano, even if this be at a significant added cost, as an imperative owing to the climate change problem
(3) JVs between Tatas and world auto makers to co-produce electric Nanos for the global market so as to replace the 600 million cars already in existence (and which contribute to over half the world's global warming today, if I remember my numbers right )

It looks like the Tatas have already been at work for some time now on (2) and (3) above. I didn't quite know that. My soothsaying in my above post of Jan 14th seems to be in the right direction :-)

Thus, on (2) viz. electric vehicles :

Fuel cells (liquid hydrogen powered), electric vehicles, hybrid (petrol + electric) engines and also biofuels have been under consideration or development by the Tatas for some time now.

Much of the work has been for the Tata Motors buses and some on their mini-trucks and the Indica car.

In Nov 2007, it was announced (here is one report and here is another) that in 2008 we can expect to get fuel-cell powered Tata buses.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is partnering with Tatas in developing the capability to handle the liquid hydrogen (they know how to handle liquid oxygen already, for their rockets). Liquid hydrogen and air are put through a fuel cell installed the vehicle, resulting in electric energy and water vapour.

If this launch goes through as scheduled, it will be nicely timed (from the business sentiment point of view) for the Tatas indeed, what with the Nano's commercial introduction scheduled for October 2008.

Of course, there will obviously be a lot of things (stations to handle the liquid hydrogen, for one) required to make this initiative succeed commercially.

On (3) above :
Yesterday came the announcement that the Tatas have signed an agreement with Chrysler to produce for them up to 50,000 Ace mini-trucks for the U.S. market, that will be (electric) battery operated.

What we now also need are appropriate signals or measures by the regulatory authorities to make the Nano and other cars more of a semi-urban and rural transport - see (1) above and my post of Jan 14th below.

Now let's see when the Nano goes electric...

These are all-long haul measures, btw. But it's important to have a framework like the above measures (1), (2) & (3) in place that takes us all in the right direction.

Na, No to the Nano ?

Everything that could have been written about the $2500 Tata Nano has, within days, nay hours of the launch, probably already been written. Juicy nuggets on how the Tatas did it, what the common man and what Detroit think, what this means for all concerned et al are all out. A lot of the discussion is around : overall, is it a good thing or bad ?

NY Times says it looks like a mango while the Wired says "It's almost smiling".Someone called it the ultimate reverse status symbol. A record 130,000 people (200,000 by another report) visited the Auto Fair in Delhi on Sunday, 12th January, drawn primarily by the Nano.

Everyone agrees however that the Nano is an innovation of consequence, not unlike the Model T of 1908 which led to mass penetration of automobiles in the U.S. and the Volkswagen in Germany's 1930s which led to the autobahns.Increased auto sales will result.

It's time therefore to do a sum up and, as a true blooded marketer, give one's own take. Are the benefits to consumers and society greater than the negative consequences ? Here is a six part answer to this question.

1. What are the facts regarding the Nano's entry ?
2. What are the positives ?
3. What are other, indirect benefits of the Nano's entry?
4. What are the negatives ?
5. What can be done to overcome the negatives?
6. To sum up, under what circumstances can one say the Tata Nano's introduction is a good thing ?

1. First, the facts :

• The Nano was conceived 10 years ago by Ratan Tata and been 5 years or so in design / production.


• A team of 500 Tata engineers worked on this.


• The production will commence in October 2008 in Singur in West Bengal and the cost thereof will be Rs. 17 billion (1700 crores). Over a 100 plus vendors will be used to manufacture components needed.


• The capacity of the plant will be 250,000-300,000 cars p.a. going up in 3 years to 1 million cars p.a.


• The engine is a 2 cylinder 624 cc as against 796 cc of the Maruti. It is rear mounted with the boot in front. Unconventional design is seen elsewhere too e.g. the battery is placed under the driver's seat.Among other things this design helps reduce the car's dimensions, thereby cuts material consumption and costs.


• The body is all steel, rather than alloy or high tensile steel like all other cars. (No doubt owning Corus & Tata Steel will be of help here).


• Lest anyone copy the design, there are 34 patents already filed for the car itself, as well as 200 patents on related items.


• The basic or standard version comes at Rs. 100,000 + VAT tax + transportation without an A.C. ,radio or automatic windows. There will be two deluxe versions. As against this, most American cars cost above $10K.The Maruti costs over Rs. 200,000 and the next cheapest car in the world, the Chinese QQ by Cherry Motors that costs $3000.


• No one has yet sat in it and the company has yet to provide details.
  

2. Here are the direct positive benefits of the Nano :

• In India, entire families travel on 2-wheelers. This is very unsafe. This in fact was the primary motivation in creating the Nano. (Ratan Tata)


• It has 20% more inside space than the Maruti 800 despite being smaller than it. It is 10 feet 2 inches long which is 9 inches smaller than the Maruti and 4 feet and 11 inches wide which is 3 inches wider than the Maruti.


• It will give 20 km / litre as against 16-18 km/litre got in city traffic for Maruti. Other existing cars give less than the Maruti. In contrast,small mobikes give 50-75 km/litre.


• All steel monovolume body will keep out wind & rain too. (Not clear what this is, seems to be that the shape of the Nano keeps the inclement elements out).


• The Nano is safe, it has passed all the crash tests required in India. These happen to be the full front crash tests. As and when it is launched abroad, it will be ready to meet the offset and side crash test required there.


• On emission norms, it is Bharat III & Euro IV compliant, with CO2 levels levels lower than even current 2-wheelers.

3. The indirect benefits accruing from the Nano's introduction:

• Big benefit in semi-urban and rural areas. (This also seems to be Ratan Tata's chosen target market).
  In India,the average distance between a district court, nursing home, child welfare centre, adult literacy centre, college, railway station etc. from a village is 15 km. And the average distance of a bus stop from a village is 4 km. This is where the Nano will add real value.


• Our avg. road density is 3.5 4-wheelers per km of roads, which is lower than in countries such as Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand and Indonesia. What this means is that congestion will be restricted to the urban cities.


• 8 million in the number of 2-wheelers sold annually; these owners can potentially upgrade to a 4-wheeler now.


• Big boost to the automobile industry, the world's biggest industry, a leading contributor to GDP and an employment multiplier. (This and some of the stats above by Dilip Cherian, Director General, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).


• Big boost for brand India. Evidence that Indians have design and manufacturing capabilities, are innovative.


• Emerging consumer base worldwide will be a major engine of growth. Will lead to debate on many things viz. manufacturing methods, materials, energy efficiency and transportation. Will lead to innovation in other things. The Nano's innovation is itself within the "Sandbox" of affordable price, scalability in volumes, high aspirations & efficient utilization of resources. (This gyaan by management guru C.K. Prahalad, for whom it is a Nano leap into the future. Vijay Govindarajan, the strategy guy too thinks it is a great example of innovation).


• Thus, while many argue (see below) that the Nano will choke infrastructure, other like the professors above believe that citizens and interest groups now have a reason to lobby the government to increase infrastructure dramatically.


• This launch shows that in India, contrary to any contrary perceptions, one can be both successful and honest. (Vir Sanghavi - writing in The Hindustan Times - on the Tatas).

4. The negative implications of the Nano launch :

• Some are skeptical of the Tatas being able to deliver a quality car. They quote the Indica. These critics say that Tatas cars have initial quality problems and "drive like a truck".


• Increased congestion is social problem no. 1. Mumbai for example has 700,000 vehicles and 500 are added daily. This growth rate could easily double or more with the introduction of Nano and other, competing low cost cars. Road network is not growing to meet this expansion nor is parking. South Mumbai has been said to have just 9000 parking spaces across 89 parking lots. My building has absolutely no more parking space.


• Higher pollution. Inspite of a reduced fuel consumption (20 km/litre) and low CO2 emission (Euro IV norms) per car, the higher volume of sales of low-priced Nanos will increase overall air pollution. 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers are today any case the #1 contributors to air pollution. Our public policies have not allowed for enough public transport so cheap automobiles will lead to high congestion.
  Apparently, disposal of used engine oil & tyres is a problem too.


• To pollution, add high fuel consumption and increased import bills / dependencies thereof for the Indian economy. See this news item.


• Global warming. Note that currently 57% of CO2 emissions in India are due to the transport sector.


• Increased propensity for road accidents. In the developed world, road accidents are the leading cause of death among below 30 year olds.

5. What can be done to overcome the negatives like congestion & pollution, especially in the urban areas ? The following have worked well in cities like Singapore & London:

• Increase the onetime tax on vehicles from current 7% of purchase price to 15% (Singapore is 150%, Shanghai 50%)


• Congestion tax for vehicles entering city


• Insist on 3 person occupancy on high density routes


• Dedicated bus lanes


• Compulsorily scrap old car when you buy new one


• Increased parking charges


• Car-free days in month


• Even and odd car days


• Walk-only zones for pedestrians


• Vastly improved public transport


• Greater public acceptance of car pooling


• Improved social consciousness leading to reduced propensity to purchase cars

6. Under what circumstances is the Nano socially justified ?

Social costs like congestion, pollution and CO2 emission are overwhelming for vehicles. The Nano's entry can be justified if :

1. It's entry is restricted to rural and semi-urban areas through various incentives and disincentives of the type mentioned in section 4 above.
2. The Nano is converted to an electric vehicle. Even if it costs $5000 extra to enable this, the total cost of a Nano EV would still be lower than most cars sold in the developed world today.
3. The Tatas enter into JVs with automakers the world over to manufacture Nano EVs.And public opinion and public policy in these markets ensures replacement of the hundreds of millions of automobiles currently on the roads with these non-polluting vehicles.
   
   Else, the Nano's entry sets a bad precedent : the ensuing flood of low priced cars in the world will lead to grave social costs.
   
   Note what an Indian auto industry offficial (quoted by Shyamal Menon in The Hindustan Times) said on congestion:
   
   “You cannot appeal to people’s consciences or, when they are stuck in traffic, point out that they themselves are part of the problem. People want others off the road, not themselves. All you can do is price the problem out of existence through taxation or government intervention. Market forces will not work – just look at how long people are willing to sit in their cars in Mexico City or Bangkok - for the independence a car brings.”
   
   On CO2 emissions, climate change is accelerating, with just a few (~7-8 years according to one estimate) left to reverse the problem.
   
   Unless Tatas,the auto industry,policymakers and consumers alike take a broad-based view of the consequences of the Nano, one could be in for some hard times.
   
   Thus the "poem" by one Ravneeesh Mehra in his posting on a message board in rediff.com :
   
   NANO MEANS: New Anti Nature Organisation and as below
   
   1) Nano space on roads
   2) Nano clean air 2 breathe
   3) Nano space 2 park
   4) Nano space 4 pedestrians
   5) Nano margins 4 dealers
   6) Nano steps 2 combat global warming
   7) Nano tolerance among old drivers with all the new/ unprofessional drivers coming on the roads
   8) Nano enjoymment in driving in future
   
   In other words, unless the Tatas, the global auto industry and policymakers i.e. governments the world over take the long-term,pragmatic three-point view given above under section 6, we need to say Na (Hindi for No :-)) or No to the NaNo.

Growing India's financial services market

The great thing about being a marketer in India is that there are many half-filled glasses (that need filling), many bare feet (which need shoes). Market penetration rates are typically single digits for most emerging categories (telecom at 25% penetration and growing at nearly 1% a month is an honourable exception).

The marketer's story - being recanted in this blog - is essentially about tracking this market penetration rates story and about the lessons / actions marketers need to draw/employ to move the needle faster.

The panel discussion

Thus, there was this interesting panel discussion by The Ad Club, Mumbai at the Taj Lands End Hotel on Fri, Jan 4th that I attended. The theme was the "latest trends in global consumer banking" though it was all in context of India's financial services market.The speakers were Sanjeeb Chaudhuri of Citibank and Ajay Kakar of Reliance Capital with Anuradha Sengupta, Features Editor of CNBC serving as moderator. The audience was small (~50) but keen. The Club & the hotel did themselves proud with great refreshments prior to the show. Well-known ad honchos from the Mumbai scene viz. Pranesh Misra of Lintas & Palekar of Eureka Forbes played host.

Sanjeeb Chaudhari of Citibank EMEA (Europe, Mid East & Africa) and ex-RHL, Unilever & Colgate, who began his Citibank career with Diners cards in India in 1989, spoke about the retail banking consumer in Europe. His main themes :

1. Consumers are today overwhelmed with an overpumping up of advertising volume. Citibank U.K. itself sends out 100 million pieces of direct mail - in a country of about 30 million people.Do Not Call lists, spam blocker for mail, ad blockers and fast forwarding of TV commercials (TiVo)are all symptoms of an overwhelmed consumer.

2. Meeting the needs of this overwhelmed consumer are key. Sanjeeb predicted that there is going to be a regulatory push on protecting consumer interests i.e. privacy.

3. In this environment, brand building has to be more bottom-up and P2P.Brands need to find a way to be invited to the conversation. "Tribes" and blogging are in.

4. Be obsessed with the consumer. In banking, one tries to build the brand around life events e.g. marriage, birth, anniversary. Reinforce the brand with every interaction. And for this, use technology. Also,develop a topdown competence within the organization. For example : Contact optimization. Citi Europe can today create an unstructured product for a single customer (customer of 1) in 24 hours.

5. Another example of using technology for becoming customer-centric is "Lights out automation" or, automation that minimizes human interaction. Scotia Bank used a mix of simple and complex triggers to achieve this. A third technology : interaction marketing, which is what supports inbound marketing. A fourth requirement : site optimization. Lloyds TSB has optimized their site for visitors.

6. At each touchpoint, we have : Touchpoint <=> Decision engine <=> Database

Ajay Kakar of Reliance Capital (and ex-O & M) presented the story of the Indian financial services industry from a marketer's perspective.

1. Over 40 plus years after the industry started out with UTI's ULIP (in 1964),there are today 32+ mutual funds with assets totalling Rs. 550, 000 crore.But,this translates to a mere 4% market penetration after all these years. And there is a similar low penetration in other financial services : 2% for general insurance (despite 14 players here) and 17% for life insurance.The key issues impacting this penetration rate are as under.

2. While - overall across product categories - the Indian consumer is getting sophisticated per se, aspiring to be a global citizen et al, when it comes to personal finance he remains a simpleton. He is confused between financial categories, cannot distinguish one from the other. He also sees many similar products with similar claims.He does not and cannot evaluate between all these.

3. People delay their decision to invest. In addition to finding it confusing to decide, they don't seem to find it exciting to do so.

4. The financial services companies/banks have brought this upon themselves.These players tend to have identical products, offers and marketing.It is difficult to differentiate between products within a brand or across the value propositions of different brands.

5. Separately, all that Indian companies seem to be doing is customer acquisition.Companies are not looking to create value.Listening to customers is not happening.

6. The solution for such early stage markets is education i.e. educating cosnumers and would-be consumers. That is what Prudential did in the U.K. (Sanjeeb). Unfortunately, the cost of such education is too high to be borne by a single player alone. Thus,it's necessary for the indutry to get together and talk,abandon their individual positions and look at a mutuality scenario.The sentiment of the panel and the audience though was that this today looks like a distant proposition.

7. We need training academies for our people who sell financial services.

8. Direct Selling Agents (DSAs)wield a disproportionate influence today on the business ("have led the financial companies to a near abdication of control over the business").

9. In this business, trust is paramount. The customer is more interested in whom is he buying from rather than what he is buying. Who is saying that the product is "safe" to buy,is what the consumer seems to be asking. Is this product being referred by a known person ?

In fact,said Sanjeeb,trust is so important that a trusted non-financial services company can well enter the field and "disintermediate" financial servies companies.

Lessons from the panel discussion for marketers & Internet folk

• Ajay's observations are good food for thought, nay a brief, for marketers and advertisers looking to create a mass financial services brand
• Since upmarket & early adopter users in India would behave similar to consumers in evolved markets like Europe, Sanjeeb's thoughts are pointers to what needs to be done for these important segments.
• Since lack of trust is the # 1 issue preventing mass growth of investing, online social networks - where non-investors are in online contact with friends & acquaintances who invest - will help. See also here my presentation on Social Networking : Learnings & Opportunities.
  
  

Calling Product Managers

Product Managers are the lifeblood of the Internet industry. But here in India they are in short supply. Yahoo India , AOL India, Indiatimes, you name it, are all looking for some.

There are almost no schools (companies) where one gets trained in product management. There is no real big consumer technology industry (local manufacturing by the likes of Apple or Sony) either.

In contrast, "out there", they have outfits like these. This organization ought to be good, their white papers are a resource recommended by Vinod Khosla, no less.

Here's a great, great JD for a consumer Internet product manager. This one is by Ibibo, the South African/Gurgaon/"Chinese QQ" company.

Well, prize bulls per this one JD simply don't exist. But :

• If you are indeed considering a career in the Internet industry or if you are an HR guy or recruiter here, the above JD is one which can give you a good idea of the product manager's role and what it takes.
• If you already are a PM in the industry, these are the sort of skills you want to have.

Likewise, here are some good job descriptions for two other key positions in a consumer Internet company, the CTO & the HR Head.

Social Networking : Learnings & Opportunities

That's the title of a talk I gave at Web Innovation 2007 on December 19,'07 at Bangalore. Some key themes from the talk :

1. Don't think the story is over with (the likes of) Facebook and Orkut. Facebook will not end up ruling the social networking world, nor will any one site.There is potential yet in this technology.Many specialized networks with varying applications will emerge.

2. Each one of us can profitably be a member of 7 different specialized social networks.

3. The key value addition that online social networks bring to the Internet landscape is the creation of trust capital. While connecting people around the world is now easy because of the Internet, the problem that had hitherto not been solved was getting people - who are online but who haver not seen or met each other - to actually trust one another enough. Trust is the #1 issue in scaling up on the Net i.e. getting people who are online to actually use and embrace the Net.

Innovation by the likes of Friendster and Facebook have together shown the way. Friendster showed how to use connect and add people who were separated by more than one degree of separation. Facebook has shown how to well use sophisticated & personalized privacy controls to create virtual walled gardens. Social networks are now a tool to accumulate trust online.

Here is the ppt of my talk. Read on !

Here (and here) is some news coverage of the event and my talk.

And here is my blog post on the proceedings at Web Innovation 2007. There were several other interesting talks, here is the complete agenda / list of speakers

If you have difficulty accessing the ppt of my talk, let me know and I will zip you a copy.

And, Happy New Year to you all!

Internet market surveys - more on social media & video

The online video & social media juggernauts keep moving on in the U.S. As I said in a previous post, these are the new online killer apps :

1. On Video :

Harris Interactive surveyed 2455 U.S. adults and found that over the last one year :

• 65% had watched a video on You Tube - as compared to 42% in previous year.
• Further, 42% said they visit You Tube frequently, as against 33% who said so in the previous year.
• You Tube was also the most favoured video site , with the stated reason being that users found it to contain almost all videos.
• However, as against 65% who used You Tube, as many as 43% had also watched videos on TV network website, 35% on news sites and 30% on search engines.
  
  And online viewers say they are more interested in full-length TV shows & movies and less in the amateur videos or video news that currently dominates video. Good omen here for the first movers .
  
  Her Royal Highness The Queen is now officially on You Tube. A watershed event of sorts. I still remember the interest the online coverage of Princess Diana's demise & funeral had aroused; it was a landmark in Net usage at that time (ten years ago), people the world over found it convenient to convey their condolences online.

2. On social media :
Pew Internet has come out with a report on teens & social media. Three salient findings :

• There is an increase in content creation (64% of all teens between 12-17 as against 57% in 2004).
• Girls continue to dominate most aspects such as blog creation and posting a photo or video online.
• 28% of all teens are "super-communicators" and these are more likely to be older girls.

Not much buzz about video and social media in India yet. Yes, social networking much talked about but even this has yet to get the widespread usage. Orkut was only 5 million (and Facebook will be much less) when I last checked the site's stats.This in a market of 32 million active users a month.

There is indeed an opportunity to create an online video and an online social media market in India. More on this later.

Internet draws youth away from TV

That's the title of an article that appeared in The Hindustan Times dated Nov 17.They have quoted MediaScope, an annual media survey that is done in 11 West European countries for the European Interactive Advertising Association by market research agency Synovate.

Key trends from the survey :

1. Almost 6 out of 10 (169 million ) West Europeans now regularly access the Internet.
2. 8 out of 10 Internet users now use a broadband connection.
3. A user spends on an average about 12 hours a week online.
4. Among young people (16-24 year olds):
- For the first time, they are more likely to go online for most days of the week than turn on the television. 82% use Internet at least 5 days a week while only 77% use TV for the same period.
- Average use of Internet per week is 14.7 hours, or 10% than the average use of TV of 13.4 hours per week.
5. Internet consumption is fast increasing among all demographics, the +55 age group and women in particular.
6. 42% of all Internet users now use social networking, making it the third most important application after search (87%) and email (81%). Very interesting.
7. The number of people watching TV, film or video clips is only 30% of all users but has grown 150% since 2006. Another killer application here.
TV Advertising will move to video & rich media ads online big time, considering the 80% + broadband penetration.
8. Over a quarter (27%) of Internet users post on rating & review sites, a growth of 42% over previous year 2006. A similar number viz. 26% post on forums. Social media is big.
9. The most commonly visited sites (% of all Internet users who visit at least once a month) were:
News 65%, Local information (52%), Travel (51%) and Banking & Finance (50%).

The contrast with India is of course stark, one source for India data is the annual I-Cube study by IMRB. Here is the executive summary of their 2006 report.

More on trends of Internet usage in India and other countries in subsequent posts.

Indian Internet market : Hindu rate of growth Part I

I have just returned invigorated from the Bangalore summit Web Innovation 2007. Will soon update with notes of some sessions that I attended. Will also provide the presentation I made there on social networking.

Meanwhile, herein are my much delayed views on why India's Internet market has been growing slow and what can be done about the same.

The answer is in three parts :

I. Why is the Internet important
II. Why is the Internet user base not growing fast enough in India
III. What can be done to make the Internet base grow (this is the flip side of the question in II above)

This post is about item no. 1.

Why is the Internet important ?
(Don't laugh, there are several shades to this answer. The answer also has some bearing on questions II & III above).

1. Large numbers online (globally currently 1.25 billion are online via PCs alone).

2. Network effects : a potentially viral medium. You can make your idea or product travel through above large number of people faster than is possible through any other medium. Yes, you have to be smart about it.

3. Low cost of going online. And any one can be a publisher. Thus all in all a democratic medium. Gives every one of us access to information, various tools as well as a Voice.

4. Global Encyclopaedia, with well-regarded Big Brother (you know who, first two letters of name start with Go :-) manning the gates to this.

5. Easy Internet access across devices (beginning with mobile phones ) and in remote locations (probably via wireless technology) will boost usage,leading to a virtuous cycle of benefits.

6. Technologies getting popular currently e.g. VOIP, video, RIA etc. will provide many-fold benefits and growth in usage.
The best is yet to come e.g. Vincent Cerf believes that only 99% of the Internet applications have yet to be invented. A universal language translator, online, any one ?

7. New paradigms e.g. Web 2.0, 3.0, Semantic Web and the like makes the Internet grow through its own self-renewal.

8. Hypothesis : The more underpriveleged the Internet user, the greater benefit does the Internet possibly provide to him / her. This does needs an explanation :-)

When I worked at Rediff.com, we did much to understand Indian Internet users, including focus groups with consumers. And the sense I got then was that there is an even greater hunger among, say, young SEC B girls in small towns of U.P. to log on to the Internet than there is among upmarket metro users.

Education,jobs,travel,marriage, the Internet provides it all. The Internet is thus seen by underpriveleged as their passport to break out of immediate constraints of locality, gender and the like and partake of mainstream opportunities.

So the Internet is a tool to address social inequality concerns. And today income inequality in India is a more worrying issue than it is in any other large country. I was at a TIE Summit last week wherein C.K. Prahalad touched on this. He presented data on changes to India's Gini cooefficient ( a tool to measure disparity in incomes) over the years vias-a-vis comparable data for China and U.S. Income disparity is increasing faster here while at the same time our absolute i.e. average income levels are also much lower.

From the above, I would argue that in the long-term in India we have even "more" to gain from the use of the Internet than do China or the U.S.

9. Great impact possible in societal issues. The Net's impact will be even greater in non-business / non-profit concerns affecting us all. The new social media has a role here.More on this big statement in a subsequent post.

I was looking at a reason # 10 to create my own Ten Commandments, couldn't find one, and now will leave you, the esteemed reader of Marketer's Kaleidoscope to take a go :-)

Coming up : Parts II & III regarding "India's Internet market : Hindu rate of growth".

A truly open cellular phone network ?

An interesting Op-Ed piece by Tim O'Reilly in the New York Times, that I first picked up in the editorial page in Deccan Herald newspaper (here and here respectively).

Some cataclysmic possibilities lie ahead in the cellular world.

Unlike Internet which is based on and which owes it's success to open standards (such as HTTP & HTML), the cellular world is one of carrier-centric closed networks.

Google threw a small stone in this tranquil pond a few weeks ago by announcing a few weeks ago the Open Handset Alliance.

Verizon (in the U.S.) is the first cellular carrier to announce that it will go "open" (towards year end). Which mean that it will allow any application and any device to connect with it. It will enable this by publishing technical standards which developers can then use to design products to interface with the Verizon Wireless network.

Tim O' Reilly (yeah the same guy behind the books and Silicon Valley conferences by the same name and the one who wrote the most quoted piece on Web 2.0) says it looks like Verizon is only opening up just a bit. To him really opening up is sharing up databases of calls made and the like.

In case the carriers don't move fast enough, Google & Co. could get there first. Then, history is witness as to what happen when networks open.

The other interesting move here is the one Nokia is making to go Internet with a vengeance (more on this later).

Web Innovation Seminar

There are quite a few events coming up that will be possibly of interest to the Internet folks:

1. TIE Entrepreneurial Summit on Dec 11-13 in Delhi.
This is actually the cross-chapter annual TIE jamboree, traditionally held in Mumbai, that is being held in Delhi this time. They expect 1500 delegates. Interestingly, it's being billed as "India's first climate friendly conference".No idea why.

2. Web Innovation 2007 , from 18-19 Dec at Bangalore subtitled "The Next gen technology : Web 2.0 and beyond", organized by TFCI and sponsored by Microsoft, among others.

3. India Digital Summit, from 10-11 Jan at Delhi. This is organized by industry body IAMAI. Agenda yet not known. And IAMAI is organizing a Seminar on Gaming in Mumbai today.

Am speaking at the Web Innovation meet. Will pontificate on social networking.