VC - Following LG

Lucky Goldstar..what's that? We only know LG!

Lucky Goldstar, the merged entity of two different electronics companies from Korea, shortened its name to LG, probably to make it simple for non-Koreans. Repeating two words for an electronics brand, that too relatively unknown outside the home market would have made the consumers a little tired and pissed (if the brand didn't live upto expectations). This was probably a wise move, as they were definitely not as strong as Sony-Ericsson to have two words as a brand name. But, why would a single word Indian brand Videocon do such a thing as call itself VC outside India?

The name is lengthy and/or it is difficult to pronounce? Definitely not. It is and easy to pronounce

The brand Videocon may be difficult to sell outside India: well, VC is not going to be any easier as it is still going to be called an Indian brand.

Any other reason??

By the way, the executive in charge of this mission of creating a global brand for the Videocon group is Mr. K.R. Kim (ex-chief of LG India!). Co-incidence?

Games cricketers play...

I am not that a great fan of cricket...but while switching television channels, came across a news item on the Yuvraj-Steyn face-off in the ongoing test match with South Africa. Face-off? So what? It happens in all the games, not confined to cricket, you may say. Well, there's a point here. Earlier, these were rare instances for Indians, who used to have it only with Pak cricketers and even more seldom with others. Now, it is almost becoming a norm. Have Indian cricketers become more aggressive? Have they started converting a losing match into a draw, a drawing match into a winning one?? Well, I can't say anything on that. But, the trend suggests that the non-Indian cricketers become popular (notorious) here in India once they have an ugly spat with a popular Indian cricketer. Remember the Harbhajan-Symonds rift...and the IPL dollars Andrew Symonds got after that? Would he have got that kind of money, if he and Harbhajan hadn't fought?!!! Probably not. Without going into who-said-what-and-to-whom, this post looks at only the outcome of that event that happened in Australia. Andrew Symonds got almost double the money that Adam Gilchrist got, in fact the best pay among foreign players, even though there are numerous other better players than Symonds. Anyway, that, in itself, may not be a bad thing. Except for a Steve Waugh, who gets noticed for good things, there are not many cricketers (even Indian) who do such noble things and be in the news. Andrew Symonds chose the other end of the decency-spectrum to be in the news and got rewarded. Dale Steyn, it seems, is such a wannabe and is only following in the footsteps of the (not-so) great Andrew Symonds!!

Kya aap paanchvi pass se tez hai?

Literally translated into english, it means 'are you brighter than a 5th standard (grade) kid?' Let me rephrase that question....do you want to buy a lottery ticket? Confused? Here's the explanation.....This program from 'Star Plus' is yet another reality show where people call in or send SMSs to participate. This is to a special number that charges s special price (usually 5 times the regular call/SMS charges), the revenue from which is split between the telecom operator and the television channel. Sony's 'Indian Idol 3' reportedly brought in excess of 70 million votes. That meant Rs. 35 crore in SMS revenue alone. Taking out revenue sharing between telecom operators and 50% of the net proceeds as the sponsoring telecom operator's (Airtel) share, that still left Sony with atleast Rs.10 crore. No wonder Hussain and Mini Mathur kept asking us to vote repeatedly!!

Anyway, back to 'Kya aap...?', Star Plus was the pioneer of SMS voting/participation when it started KBC. They surely are going to make lots of money with this show as well. They keep the entry question so simple that it tempts even the most resistant critic. For example, the latest question for which call-in lines are still open as I write this post, which of the following capital cities is on the sea coast - Hyderabad, ____ (forgot the option) or Chennai. Choose your pick. For such a question, surely there'll be thousands of SMSes. In such a case, there's a very low probability of selection of a candidate. Something like one in a lakh or a million. So, how different is a lottery ticket from this now??

Nano gets a warm reception

Tata Motors (Tata) is getting a lot of western media coverage these days - thanks, in part, to their bid to acquire the Jaguar-Land Rover combine. So, when it displayed its 'Nano' to the world yesterday, it would have been inevitable for those media to ignore. Here's a company that wants to be at the either end of the spectrum - to produce cologne and eau de parfum (in the words of the former Arcelor chief Guy Dolle). When Tata had announced some five years ago that it would pursue making a car that would cost about 100,000 rupees, hardly anybody outside India noticed. Now, every gesture gets reported.

The Nano (the 'one lakh' car then) had sent shock waves to its competitors even before the launch with top rival executives questioning the safety aspects of the car, among other issues. Now that more details about the car are available (it passes Euro - III norms currently in place in India), it has silenced the critics for the time being.

Tata has done very well to keep almost every detail about the car - top secret. Right from the design to the features. No body had a clue as to how it would look like. They have done a nice job there. They now face a bigger challenge - to meet the desired expectations. Remember, Tata Indica was also launched with similar fanfare and expectations. But, once people got deliveries of that car in its initial days, they were totally disappointed. Tata did some modifications, and the later versions, as we know, were accepted well. But the damage was done to the brand. Of course, it was Tata's first foray into passenger car (if you don't count Tata Sierra and Tata Estate as cars, as they were essentially built on the likes of the current 207 pick-up truck platform, not a totally different base. Let's just hope that the Tatas have learnt from those mistakes, and the Nano does well when commercially launched. Congratulations! Tata Motors and the House of Tatas. And all the very best!!!

Incredible !ndia

The tourism department can add a new chapter to its advertising campaign. After the Taj Mahal, Rajastan, Goa, and a few other places, most western celebrities seem to prefer Mumbai's slums - for leisure tourism or otherwise. This time, it is the turn of Madonna. !ncredible? !ndeed.

DLF to develop New Bangalore

Just when the JDS was supposed to pass on the baton of Chief Ministership to the BJP in Karnataka (whether they'll do it or not is a different question), comes the news that the government has awarded a whopping Rs.60,000 crore project to develop a new township on the outskirts of Bangalore to DLF. H.D. Deve Gowda, the JDS chief, is not reputed for developmental works. More famous for putting spanners in the NICE corridor and the international airport (BIAL), this action looks swift, rather fishy. Is there more to it than meets the eye, or am I turning into a conspiracy theorist?

Related Post on Finance Writer: Realty stocks get re-rated after DLF bags mega project

Sreesanth and his heroics

S. Sreesanth makes a complete idiot of himself (yet again). Ex-captain Rahul Dravid had to put up a sorry face to Andrew Symonds in this Kochi one-dayer. I couldn't stop laughing at this photo. Hence, decided to post it here.

Saddam Hanging

A 69 year old man being executed by hanging. Ok ok...It is Saddam Hussein being executed. But does it change anything??

Fly away on Venga Airways....

Ok, Venga Boys haven't started their Venga Airways service in India yet. And I also don't know if it is a full service airline or the low cost variety. It is immaterial what type it is as long as it flies me cheap. Till a year ago, the only time I flew was Hyderabad-Chennai-Hyderabad on the Indian Airlines. Of course, that was a sponsored ticket. Otherwise, who would fork-out Rs. 16,000/- for a two way journey? Not me. I'd rather travel by train at Rs. 1,000/- max. That was four years ago. Fast forward to now, things have changed a lot. Better for travellers, worse for airliners, but who cares!.

After coming out with Apex, Super Apex, Super Duper Apex, Super Duper Fluper Apex fares, the regular airliners ran out of ideas. Then came a small-fledgling helicopter service provider who said that he'd fly us for the cost of only a high-end bus or a second AC train fare. It was difficult to digest this claim initially. That would be anywhere between one-fifth and one-eighth of the prevailing rates then. That airline, Air Deccan, still flies at almost the same price levels that it promised. In a candid interview (I can't recall with whom), Capt. G.R. Gopinath, its chief, said that their main goal was to fly from point A to point B for as cheap as possible and with a decent on time flight schedule. They do the first part of their job most of the time, but I doubt about the second. Wait a sec., I don't doubt it, I know they don't do it. It will be breaking news if an Air Deccan flight leaves on time. I've flown them 4 times now, and it was, you guessed it right, never on time. The closest it came was only a half hour delay. Only half an hour. Of course, my concern all these time was only to go from point A to point B. Reaching on time was not a crucial factor. If it was, I would never have entrusted Air Deccan with that. Even Capt. Gopinath admits that they've to improve a lot in that aspect. I completely agree. Not just me but everybody who have flown them. That will total up to one-fifth of all air travellers in the country during the last 12 months. Yep, they have a market share of over 22% and it is inching closer to 25% or a quarter. If airports in India are looking more and more like bus-stands and railway stations, you know whom to thank/blame. Remember, it is Air Deccan's mantra. i.e., Fly the common man. No wonder, they use the common man from R. K. Laxman's cartoon strip as their mascot.

Talking about the services and politeness of the staff, I am sure they are legendary by now. The less I write, the better it is (as they are the subject of another post). All I can say is, if you are looking for good customer service, you better don't travel by Air Deccan. Instead, fork out a few hundred rupees more and travel by SpiceJet or Go Air instead. I've flown both. It may be a little premature to say this, but for the fare I paid, they were quite impressive. Their schedule was almost on time (about 10 min. delay in each case). That's ok. I didn't even notice it till the Go Air captain owned and apologised for the delay, and didn't blame the Air Traffic Controller (Air Deccan's captain did) before taking-off. FYI only, he was not an Indian. Ok. Ok. Please don't send me hate mails when I mention that he was not an Indian.

Having said all the above stuff, I didn't mean to be mean to Air Deccan. It came out naturally. Ok. Ok. I'll stop it. One thing they need to be commended for is visualising a scenario where an aam aadmi (aur aurat bhi - don't call me a sexist now) could afford air travel. They have really worked hard (and continue to do that) to bring down their fares. They've shown that the low-cost model can work in India too. For how long, that is the question waiting to be answered. All the airliners in India (incl. the low-cost ones) continue to bleed. They generate revenue which is barely enough for their day-to-day operational expenses. If you have questions on their Leasing costs, financial costs, returns to share-holders, please don't ask them now. It would be adding salt to the injury. All of them say that fares have to go up for the industry to become sustainable. But none increases. They are not interested. Their main aim right now is to increase the size of the industry and bring air travel within the reach of ordinary citizen. Once they do that, they are gonna increase the fares slightly and experiment if there's any aversion to air travel because of that. Right now, except for Air Sahara, almost all of them have big bucks in their bank accounts to wage a fare war. Till the time they do that, you simply enjoy the ride.

YOU are the 'Time - Person of the year 2006'

Don't get confused....I am not talking about you but YOU. Alright, I'll make things a little easier to understand. The Time magazine thinks that it is not a single person that has changed the world but a lot of people did. Ordinary people with ordinary lives sharing ordinary stuff has produced an extra-ordinary combination that has redefined the way people communicate globally. It is all about what has now become a cliched term 'user-generated content', 'citizen reporting/marketing/blogging'. Be it in photo-sharing, blogging, video-sharing, social networking, or just about anything that constitutes the Internet 2.0. Armed with only an internet connection and some optional gadgets like digi-cam, camera-phone, people are transforming the world. So that makes me a recipient of this year's Person of the Year Award (if I can borrow Gaurav's words). I only hope they haven't noticed the time gap between posts on this blog.

Courtesy: Gaurav Sabnis, Sadagopan