The early morning cuppa refreshes and rejuvenates you for the day ahead. The mandatory accompaniment to it is of course the morning newspaper. Most of us still buy a proper printed braodsheet newspapers, while some of us like me have taken to reading it off the net (at least till the time the service is free, at least). So a look at a balmy Thursday morning's headlines, engineered to make your blood boil because of the mismanagement of Public funds on such an immense scale by what we deem to be the goverment.
Bankrupt after 29 years is a story of West Bengal, which spends more than it earns, and fritters away its prosperity (State GDP growth over 7%). While this is the story of West Bengal, even the other "prospersous" states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana etc. are not far behind in their profligacy. In fact, it is by now common knowledge that if you sell anything to a state government, you might stop hoping to get paid. Consider it to be a donation. (http://businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=220862)
Meanwhile, as the first link maight tell you, the Public Distribution system is in shambles now. A bucket full of holes, where the money you pour in is hijacked by numerous unintended recipients, it is a symbol of the rot that governance in this country has become: a self-perpetuating monstrosity. It is perhaps the acknowledgement of this fact which has made Rang de Basanti (http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/12493/) to be the hit it is today. Of course it is difficult to agree with the means that those boys took to deal with the problem. But as Pramod Mahajan remarked on an NDTV show, politicians have been killed on screen on flimsier pretexts.
And the poster boy of modern civil engineering in the country, the Delhi Metro? It must surprise most that the system is running at just 20% of the projected capacity...that's almost as bad as the much derided Kolkata Metro. And that was a result of irrationally skewed projections of the traffic that the Delhi Metro was expected to carry...about 21lakh passengers a day, when the DTC buses in the city carry only about 25 lakh people a day! What optimistic ewxuberance made the planners think that they would put the entire existing Public transport system out of reckoning, especially when it is infinitely more convenient over short distances. The Delhi Metro will be roughly 4 times its current size by 2020, but perhaps its time to ponder whether it is worth the investment.
(http://businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=220925)
After all, most metro train systems in the world run at a loss. So is there any point in deliberately bleeding yourself dry?
What is to blame of course is the perverse nature of political decision making which concentrates on earning short term brownie points for immediate electoral gains. (Delhites must remember both Madanlal Khurana and Shiela Dixit rushing in to claim credit at the inauguration of the metro with an eye onthe polls). Town planning requires vision and innovation, both sadly absent from the powers that be in our country.
A knot of tangled hair clogging the drain...Welcome to the undirected, unmanageable, irresponsible urban jungle! Vision 2020!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Rural SEC
The Rural Market Environment is divided into SEC R1, R2, R3, R4
Calculated as a function of Educational Qualifications of the Chief Wage Earner and the type of the household he stays in – Pucca, Semi Pucca or Kaccha)
Marketing: SEC Grid Urban
This is the SEC grid as applicable to a urban audience which I am putting up after being requested for it by many friends in Marketing MBA courses around the country. For the Rural counterpart, please refer to the link above (Puru's blog is an unparalleld source for info relating to common marketing issues in our country) or the related post that I will put up shortly.
Some comments to comprehending the Urban SEC grid:
If our Target group is SEC A and SEC B thus includes all of the following:
SKILLED WORKER:
1. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
2. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
PETTY TRADERS
1. GRADU-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
2. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
SHOP OWNERS
1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH NO EMPLOYEES
1. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
2. SSC/HSC
3. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
4. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
5. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH 1-9 EMPLOYEES
1. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
2. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
3. SSC/HSC
4. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
5. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
6. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH 10+ EMPLOYEES
1. ILLITERATE
2. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
3. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
4. SSC/HSC
5. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
6. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
7. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
SELF EMPLOYED/ PROFESSIONAL
1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
CLERICAL/ SALESMAN
1. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
2. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
3. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
SUPERVISORY LEVEL
1. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
2. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
3. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES JUNIOR
1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES MIDDLE/SENIOR
1. ILLITERATE
2. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
3. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
4. SSC/HSC
5. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
6. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
7. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL
So ILLITERATE OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES MIDDLE/SENIOR or ILLITERATE INDUSTRIALISTS/BUSINESSMEN with 10+ employees will fall in SEC B1
Interesting; and too broad to say the least.
The important thing is to take SEC as a starting point of our search for the target audience…and make sure that we do narrow it down further to give our marketing plans a focus.
Being Cyrus!
Read my review on Mouthshut.com for the movie Being Cyrus.
Talking about movies, this is a preview of THE LAST LEGION: a Hollywood movie starring Aishwarya Rai http://youtube.com/watch?v=MqihhLq5iVg. The best way to watch it would be to let the whole video load(in fits and starts) and then press replay, to watch it seamlessly. Have fun!
Talking about movies, this is a preview of THE LAST LEGION: a Hollywood movie starring Aishwarya Rai http://youtube.com/watch?v=MqihhLq5iVg. The best way to watch it would be to let the whole video load(in fits and starts) and then press replay, to watch it seamlessly. Have fun!
Monday, April 03, 2006
When will India be a common market? GST by 2010?
Time to integrate into a common market, its high time we stopped focussing on carving out separate states from the land. This has been in discussion since the 1950s. Now, its possible due to IT.
The European Union has become an Economic Union with one currency, free mobility of factors of production(men, money and materials. We have a single currency in India ever since our Independence. But what about a common market?
For that to happen there needs to be a single rate of Goods and service tax that is levied on all transactions across the country. As of now we have VAT, but there is a divergence of rates across states, there is octroi or entry tax that delay consignments. There are CENVAT, MODVAT, what not. All this only leads to huge inefficiencies, scope for manipulation and subjectivity.
The result? Why to perpetuate corruption another name for rent seeking, not for any service provided, but to facilitate transactions. Our corporates spend their time not increasing productivity to compete globally, but in battling the capability of the system to destroy productivity.
On the other hand, it affects 'public' services equally. Tonnes of wheat rot away in Punjab and Haryana one year, because the Food Corporation of India finds it too expensive to transport it to states like Orissa where people are starving for want of food. Too many taxes along the route!(The state will tell you that rotting mango kernels are traditional food for the rural populace, but don't for a moment believe them. No one cares for the voiceless downtrodden, and the media attention fades away, inevitably, as another crisis intervenes.)
In the name of National integration...don't just keep singing Vande Mataram. Think economics. Think Common market.
Vote for Higher productivity
Vote for more jobs.
Vote for cheaper goods and services.
Banish shortages.
Banish the ghost of the licence-permit raj.
The European Union has become an Economic Union with one currency, free mobility of factors of production(men, money and materials. We have a single currency in India ever since our Independence. But what about a common market?
For that to happen there needs to be a single rate of Goods and service tax that is levied on all transactions across the country. As of now we have VAT, but there is a divergence of rates across states, there is octroi or entry tax that delay consignments. There are CENVAT, MODVAT, what not. All this only leads to huge inefficiencies, scope for manipulation and subjectivity.
The result? Why to perpetuate corruption another name for rent seeking, not for any service provided, but to facilitate transactions. Our corporates spend their time not increasing productivity to compete globally, but in battling the capability of the system to destroy productivity.
On the other hand, it affects 'public' services equally. Tonnes of wheat rot away in Punjab and Haryana one year, because the Food Corporation of India finds it too expensive to transport it to states like Orissa where people are starving for want of food. Too many taxes along the route!(The state will tell you that rotting mango kernels are traditional food for the rural populace, but don't for a moment believe them. No one cares for the voiceless downtrodden, and the media attention fades away, inevitably, as another crisis intervenes.)
In the name of National integration...don't just keep singing Vande Mataram. Think economics. Think Common market.
Vote for Higher productivity
Vote for more jobs.
Vote for cheaper goods and services.
Banish shortages.
Banish the ghost of the licence-permit raj.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)