An assortment of stuff I came across in cyberspace, offered second hand, for anyone who may be interested.
- If you haven’t read it already, Thomas Friedman’s penultimate op-ed 9/11 Is Over, is a must-read.
- China has now started blocking all RSS feeds as well.
- A woman has been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for committing adultery. Kamangir and a group of Iranian bloggers are trying to stop that from happening.
- Microsoft launches HealthVault, an online repository where consumers can store medical information for free in an encrypted database. For once, Microsoft beats Google to something!
- Ashok talked about “Collective Intelligence” in the comments discussion on my post “Runaway Train“. Techcrunch reveals that a new site, CrowdChess, has launched. You log on and sign up for a game. Each side is made up of teams of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people. Anyone on a team can suggest the next move, and the move that gets the most votes is the one that is played out. Like Erick, I too wonder if any number of amateurs can ever beat a grandmaster in this scenario! What do you think?
- MMP has his own insightful analysis of why he blogs. He has developed an interesting universal model that shows how we all live in blogging CAVES. Check it out.
- Check out Ashok’s take on the various categories of Indian bloggers to have a healthy laugh at The Blogosphere Zoopedia.
- A US Senate Judiciary Committee has passed the Free Flow of Information Act. There is still a long way to go and final outcome seems uncertain at this stage. See Are Blogging Journalists Shielded? for background information.
- The Economist paints a sordid and bleak picture of the challenges involved in revamping Mumbai. A must-read if you care about Mumbai.
- Financial Times puts Rahul Gandhi’s first populist action after ascending to the Congress secretaryship as the backdrop to describe how political short-termism is hampering retail reforms.
- I had pondered on a few questions regarding cricket’s status in India in my 10 Thoughts on T20 World Cup Win post. Social psychologist Ashis Nandy has some interesting answers in his interview with Outlook magazine. He says there are only three areas of our life—cricket, cinema (Bollywood) and crime that recognize capability wholeheartedly and unconditionally.
- I have written about the contempt of court ruling regarding Justice Sabharwal. Vinod Mehta brings greater clarity to the issue and wisely cautions that if the media and the judiciary engage in a war, the only winners will be the politicians.
- To bring this potpourri full circle back to the US, Rajinder Puri takes on a lot of controversial issues in his take on the decline of the US. Some of his comments resonate with Shefaly’s comments in the discussion on Right To Free Speech: What does it mean?.
India’s Kerala state government is counting on open-source software to boost its IT literacy rate.
“Kerala has always been a leader in literacy, and now we want to make Kerala a leader in e-literacy,” said Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achutanandan. “We believe that free and open-source software is an essential component in our drive to democratize information technology and bring its benefits to all sections of society.”
While this effort is laudable, on the other hand, the Kerala government took a left turn on retail.
The Indian Express reports:
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala is all set to bring in a law to ban corporate retailers, both Indian and MNCs, in the state.
This would be the first attempt of its kind in the country. Divakaran said the Left in Kerala doesn’t intend to draw the line for big retailers at peddling food grains, as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did for Bengal a few days ago. It will be a blanket ban and, according to the minister, the new legislation will more than make up for “the lack of teeth” in the Central Essential Commodities Act.
“We don’t want to tell MNCs from Indian corporates, both are bad for the state. We don’t want to go for a conditional or limited ban because we really don’t want them here at all,” Divakaran said.
The legislation has the backing of the state’s powerful traders lobby, the Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithy, whose protest shutdown was a complete success.
With such protectionist measures, erecting insurmountable barriers to free trade, Kerala’s consumers are sure to be left behind in India’s retail revolution.
Mumbai’s dabbawallas never cease to amaze me. They have received temendous publicity in the last few years, mostly because of the Six Sigma certification by Forbes, the Prince Charles visit and wedding invitation, and the support of Virgin’s Richard Bramson.
But this was news to me: “Microsoft has tied up with Dabbawallas to Offer ‘Asliwala PC Offer’. The main aim of this campaign is to spread the awareness about the benefits of genuine Windows software. Under this scheme the leaflets will be distributed to 2 lakh customers of Dabbawallas with the message about the benefits of genuine Windows software.
Against this leaflets customers may buy PC, Laptops, etc from Zenith computers at discounted prices. Dabbawallas will be wearing the T-Shirt and cap of Microsoft Vista – the new operating system recently launched by Microsoft. Your friendly Dabbawalla will be paid Rs. 100/- for every PC or Laptop sold through this scheme.”
Read the original “press release” straight from the Dabbawalas themselves!
I’m so happy to see this 120-year old institution growing more than ever.
In the News
“There is a service called FedEx that is similar to ours – but they don’t deliver lunch.”
Recent New York Times story.
“On a bicycle we are king of the road, We can go down no-entry roads, through red lights. You can’t do that in your car, can you?”
An account from The Independent
Unraveling the Color Coding (From Mumbai’s Amazing Dabbawalas)
Management Gyaan
(From What You Can Learn From A Dabbawala, and Mumbai’s Amazing Dabbawalas)
- “Error is horror!” In the event of a dabbawalla meeting with an accident en route, alternative arrangements are made to deliver the lunch boxes.
- The dabbawalas must be extremely disciplined. Consuming alcohol while on duty attracts a fine of Rs 1,000. Unwarranted absenteeism is not tolerated and is treated with a similar fine.
- Branding: The Gandhi cap serves as a potent symbol of identification in the crowded railway stations. Not wearing the cap attracts a fine of Rs 25.
- No retirement age, and any person can work till he is fit enough to carry on the tasks required of him.
- Put the customer ahead of everything else. It is said that when Prince Charles expressed a desire to meet them during his visit in 2003, the dabbawallas requested him to schedule the meeting such that it did not interfere with their mid-day delivery timings.
Quotable Quotes
(From Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta, The Indian Express)
- “Our computer is our head and our Gandhi Cap is the computer cover to protect it from the sun or rain.”
- “The uneducated have an ability to memorize and retain more as opposed to the educated who are used to writing down everything.”
- “Till one is 25-30 years old, you can eat anywhere, but after that home cooked food is what suits the the stomach and health.”
- “Even if someone in their family falls ill, they first deliver the food and then attend to them.”
- “Our ancestors fought in Shivaji’s army and just the way they had to climb mountains while fighting, we have to climb stairs to deliver the tiffins.”
- “I made every worker a shareholder. This way they would put in more effort and since everyone is a shareholder, there would be no question of a union or strike.”
- Q. “Have any of your disputes reached the police or the courts”
- A. “No, never.”
- Q. “How did the people in Italy react to you?”
- A. “They are amazed that uneducated people like us can carry out a business like ours so accurately. They rely on their call centres for every small problem whereas we have to be accurate with our delivery every single time.”
‘Nuff said!
Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing at London Business School, and a renowed marketing guru:
“Q: Do you think the growth of retailers — like Reliance, etc — and the advent of biggies like Wal-Mart could kill the small grocer or kirana shop in India? A: It’s very simple: no competitor can kill another competitor. A competitor gets killed only when the customers stop visiting him. Because of India’s socialist and communist structure, we think companies kill each other. Actually, it is the consumers who choose which companies to go to. No big retailer can kill the kirana shops. Their fate rests with the consumers.”Read the full interview on Rediff. There was also an online chat with him few days back, if you’re really interested in the Indian retail scenario.
While Wade Rathke is mobilizing an anti-Walmart campaign in India – to “fight for the rights of the poor” and ”protect small businesses and communities” - a different group of small businesses has a different way of
responding to the corporate big-business ”threat”.
Small chemist shops across India, who’ve enjoyed a monopoly all these years, are gearing up to big pharma companies
operating chemist stores with value added services. They’ve hired none other than E&Y and Accenture to “modernize their traditional chemist outlets”. Now, would anyone argue whether this is good or bad for consumers?
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An Unquiet Mind by Mahendra Palsule is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
