While a majority of big media organizations have already developed or acquired a citizen journalism platform, #mumbai room on Twitter was where all the action was yesterday and given Twitter’s adoption that’s not going to change anytime soon. So to all big media companies betting big on Citizen Journalism - it’s hard to change consumer behavior, so hoping users will come directly to you and provide news and assets is hoping for a bit much. Full credit to CNN TV in covering the Mumbai terror events -  without waiting for assets to flow into iReport.com, it was apparent that CNN staffers were actively monitoring the twitter streams yesterday and in fact invited some active twitter users to speak on TV from Mumbai.

I was speaking with a WSJ blogger last week, right after the Motrin incident on Twitter, about the relevance and significance of Twitter. In his daily quest for breaking news, he said he’s now closely monitoring Twitter - following several people on Twitter and keeping a close eye on trending topics. The stream of data on Twitter is just that (raw data), and it’s upto the mainstream media given their resources and creditworthiness to mine this data and filter the signal from noise.

There’s a new Indian take-out place in the area. it’s called the “Banana Leaf”, and its run by 3 brothers originally from Tamil Nadu, India. It’s basically a converted van, looks likey an ice cream van except it has a stove and a dosa pan. While this is not the first mobile van in the area that sells Indian food, there’s another one called “Taste of India”, the Banana Leaf has quickly become popular. There were only a handful of people the first couple days, but more recently people have been queuing outside the van waiting for 15-20 mins for their food order. Banana Leaf sells variety of dosas, rolls and curries, and they’re parked in Newport by the PATH station every evening from 6PM to 10PM.

It’s an ingenious idea - low investment, very low fixed cost, mobile (not constrained by location). I’m not quite sure if they have to pay taxes or a parking fee. They don’t have a fixed parking spot, so my guess would be they don’t pay anything. I’m still waiting for a slow day so I can talk to the Banana Leaf owners and find out more. Know more about the owners and/or the mobile van business? Feel free to share in the comments section.

CUSTOMER NEED (high) - There’s definitely a need, as the working women population keeps growing and as safety on the road becomes a concern for women of all ages.

WILLINGNESS TO PAY (medium/high) - Forsche charges Rs 200 per hour, according to this Hindu article. Our services are 20 per cent higher than other taxis, claims the founder of Forsche, Revathi Roy.

ATTRACTIVE MARGINS (medium/high) - While this is a CAPEX intensive venture, upfront investment to purchase the cabs, the ongoing fixed cost is not very high. Each driver takes home Rs.9,500 per month. As a 24 hrs operation and assuming each driver works a 12 hr shift, Forshe should breakeven on the salary expenses within the first week of each month. I’m guessing the second biggest expense would be gas/petrol

But something hit me recently about Forsche - this is not just a novel cab service concept. Imagine the thousands of female passengers that get on and off the Forsche cabs everyday, and right there you’ve a very niche, targeted demographic. They can be directly targeted with samples/products in the taxi, and through magazines and TV screens. Forsche has managed to create a new vertical for direct marketing to an affluent, female demographic and a secondary revenue stream (in the form of advertising) for the venture!

After his best years in the 70s, Pancham was overlooked by the Indian film industry in the late 80s and early 90s. Arguably, he was ahead of his time. I remember talking to Manohari Singh, his music assistant and saxophone player, in 2003 long after Pancham’s death. Manohari Singh said, “Pancham knew we were back in the game when he had finished composing the music for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942: A Love Story. Pancham told us be ready for good times again.” Unfortunately, Pancham passed away on 4th Jan 1994, just weeks before the release of the film.

Vishwas Nerurkar writes in his book on Pancham, “My assessment of a great composer is that he should fulfill three criteria: 1) timeless compositions, offering the same freshness of melody years after their period or lifetime; 2) originality; and 3) trend-setter in the industry. On each of these three vital conditions, Pancham emerges in bright colors and honours.”

During his peak in the 70s, Pancham claimed he was composing 4-5 songs/day. A couple songs from lyricist Gulshan Bawra’s tribute to Pancham. In a heavy Punjabi accent, Bawra introduces these songs with anecdotes on how they were composed.

Kasme Vaade Nibhayenge Hum (the sarson saga)
[See post to listen to audio]

Jane Jaan O Meri Jane Jaan (the newspaper influence)
[See post to listen to audio]

Samandar Mein Nahake (the monsoon magic)
[See post to listen to audio]

Pancham has collaborated with many western musicians, but his work with Jose Flores to produce ‘Pantera’ is commonly known. Though the Pantera songs are not among Pancham’s best compositions, they’re very rare. So I’ve uploaded the Pantera title here, and the hindi version he used for Priyadarshan’s Gardish.

Pantera (with Jose Flores)
[See post to listen to audio]

Rang Rangeeli Raat (Gardish)
[See post to listen to audio]

Pancham was a genius in inventing new sounds - rubbing a comb against plastic tube for Mere Samnewali Khidki (Padosan), blowing into an empty ‘Thumbs Up’ bottle for Mehbooba Mehbooba (Sholay), tapping glass with a spoon for Chura Liya Hai (Yaadon Ki Baarat). These are Pancham’s original musicians demonstrating his talent for composing and inventing new sounds.

And in this one, his musicians are jamming away to some of the old classics.

Writes Wired, “These are well-engineered roads with sporadic law enforcement and a high straightness index. They’re in places where fairly consistent temperatures prevent car-tossing pavement buckles and there’s no danger of road salt corroding your $200K engine-with-wheels. In these pace havens, speed limits are just a running start.”

Wired’s list:

1. I-75 (Alligator Alley), Florida, US — Distance: 82.9 miles
2. A81, Gottmadingen to Weinsberg, Germany — Distance: 121 miles
3. Mumbai-Pune Expressway, India — Distance: 55 miles
4. Goudies Road, Reporoa, New Zealand — Distance: 9.1 miles
5. Attiki Odos, Greece — Distance: 35.6 miles

While stories of accidents due to speeding on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway are fairly common, I didn’t realize drivers were doing 200kmph on the expressway.

As the former President of Nasscom, Karnik focussed on IT and its benefit to society and also on India’s attempt at shifting from a service based economy toward manufacturing.

India’s GDP: 22% agriculture, 54% services

IT-BPO exports = 40 billion dollars = 5.5% of GDP

Distribution of exports by region: Bangalore 36%, Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon 17%, Mumbai/Pune 15%
How is IT benefiting the Indian society?
* Gender Equality: Young women earning at par with male counterparts.
* Good work ethic: Long working hours in a professional work environment.
* Application towards public service and social causes: NGO emergency services, online payment of bills, online rail reservation, etc.
Total organized labor force in India = 15M; IT accounts for nearly 2M direct jobs, and 7-8M indirect jobs (support/household services).

As a services-based economy, India is losing out on its two competitive advantages:
* Rupee getting stronger against the dollar.
* Wage inflation - salaries rising 15-20% every year.

Problems with the education system in India:
* Individualized - no group projects or class discussions; the only team work is when students decide to collaborate during exams (cheat)!
* Poor talent pool - Only 25% grads are suitable for direct employment, the remaining 75% varying degrees of training.

Photo courtesy: NYTimes.com from a recent article about debt collection services moving to India.

For anyone that has traveled in a crowded (understatement) local train in Mumbai, where there’s hardly any breathing space, what are the chances that a TC (ticket checker) walking into the train and checking for tickets. Not to mention, the serpentine queues at the ticket window in case you’re not a regular monthly pass holder. So an Indian entrepreneur came up with the ingenious idea of providing insurance for getting caught traveling without ticket. You pay 500 rupees to get insurance, and if you do get caught traveling without a ticket, you pay the 250 rupees fine to the TC and then turn in your receipt for a full refund.

You can run the numbers to figure out the value proposition for the traveler and whether this is a profitable venture. But on the surface it sounds like an unethical business practice – the venture is encouraging people to travel without ticket. Well, here’s the twist – if you’ve ever been caught by a TC, you probably also know that there’s a pretty good chance you can bribe your way out of it without having to pay the full penalty. Hence, the Indian Railways doesn’t see a dime. However, this venture insists you pay the fine in order to get a receipt. Therefore, it discourages you from bribing the TC. Less corruption!

This story was originally published on this blog and was later even picked by Freakonomics.

Photo courtesy: WSJ.com. View the complete slideshow here.

Note: I haven’t had the time to figure out how to insert a table within Wordpress, therefore I created an img. Please click thru the img to see full table text.

Indian government finances 50% of its infrastructure projects. Therefore, India is not as highly levered as China where the govt only invests 16% from the budget and 54% is funded by debt from banks and private sector. However, India has very high subsidies and inefficient distribution system and hence loss-making operations. For e.g. 45% of the total power distributed is lost due to theft (illegal tapping of power lines).

In India, only 44% villages have power. Farmers enjoy subsidies, and power is delivered for free to villages. On the other hand, 99% of China’s villages are powered. Rural taxes are often higher than those in urban areas.

Said Lall, India’s biggest challenge - Leadership. Enough said!

According to health research from Rutger’s University the causes of sunburn include the following:

• Ultraviolet light is the culprit in sunburn. It is invisible and cannot be felt, yet seventy or eighty percent penetrates water and clouds, and can be reflected off water, sand and snow. As the atmosphere thins at high altitudes, more rays filter through. For these reasons hikers, skiers, swimmers, and beach-goers need to protect themselves from overexposure to sun, and especially from the rays of ultraviolet light.

• Certain substances can make the skin more susceptible to burning: drugs, such as certain antibiotics and birth control pills, or antibacterial agents in medicated soaps and creams. In addition, many drugs and chemicals are sun-sensitive and may cause allergic-type rash on parts of the body exposed to the sun.

So, question – are Indians just becoming “soft” by adopting new skin regimens that increase the likelihood of sunburn? My cousin did claim he has become more “sensitive” since he moved here. Perhaps the American obsession with beauty and grooming has finally taken its toll. Now that I think about it, I have noticed that his toiletry case, once meager, is now swollen beyond capacity with grooming products. Maybe our mothers were right, perhaps one bar of Chandrika ayurvedic soap for daily cleansing, and Parachute coconut oil treatments on the weekends was enough? Maybe it’s the multitude of products he has now become accustomed to (face wash, face moisturizer, skin toner, body washes, body lotion, shampoo, conditioner and deodorant) that are causing his skin to be so sensitive.

But that doesn’t explain why as a “foreign return” to India, he burns everywhere else but home. So perhaps it’s the poor air quality and smog that serves as protection? What’s India’s air pollution in comparison to the U.S.?

According to Wikipedia, below are the most polluted world cities by Particulate Matter:

Particulate matter ?g/m³ (2004), City
169, Cairo, Egypt
150, Delhi, India
128, Kolkata, India (Calcutta)
125, Tianjin, China
123, Chongqing, China
109, Kanpur, India
109, Lucknow, India
104, Jakarta, Indonesia
101, Shenyang

If you have any theories on this subject, feel free to share.

Sahana Jayaraman grew up in Mt. Laurel, NJ and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. And yes, she uses sunscreen everyday!

In a nutshell, Earth Class Mail scans your snail mail and brings it online. For a subscription fee, you can now scan and shred your snail mail online. TechCrunch covered the company a while back, the comments to the post are very interesting. The pitch by Ron (skip to 13:50 mins of the video - sorry MojoHD doesn’t provide an embed option), CEO of Earth Class Mail, to India Post was entertaining. It is hard to tell whether the India Post officials really “drank the koolaid” or just being polite.

It’s hard to see any value proposition for India Post and the average Indian, for various reasons - including lack of internet penetration outside the cities (5.3% in all of India). Not to mention, India Post is facing increased competition from private courier services and is getting creative to boost revenues and keep its staff busy. In the past, they’ve even experimented with retailing and services, including delivering milk. I went to the India Post website and they do have an ePost feature. It’s email-to-snail mail or vice versa service, and that makes a lot of sense, again considering the low internet penetration.

If you’re currently living in India, would love to hear stories of encounters with India Post services and your experience using ePost.