India Started Currency trading

MUMBAI: India kicked off its first exchange-traded rupee futures on
Friday with heavy trading reported in the first minutes of business and
front-month contracts seeing the highest activity. Dealers said banks
and large companies made the bulk of trading, even though the
contract size is small compared with exchange-traded currency futures
elsewhere.
By 10:14 a.m. (0444 GMT), more than 8,000 contracts were traded on
the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the first of several platforms
planned, with the heaviest trade on the September and October
contracts, NSE data showed. On the spot market, the rupee was
trading at 43.74/75 per dollar, slightly firmer than Thursday close at
43.78/79.
India is trying to develop more sophisticated financial markets and
hedging tools to support its rapidly growing economy and Finance
Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said at the start of trading the
government needed to push on with more instruments.
"After having launched currency futures, we need to revitalise
exchange-traded interest rate derivatives markets, offer
exchange-traded credit derivatives and also need to strengthen the
corporate bond markets," he said. "These three products are high on
the priority list of the government and I ask the government to move
forward on this."
Each contract size is $1,000, smaller than 12.5 million Japanese yen
($115,000) or 100,000 Australian dollars (US$86,000) contract sizes
on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Multi Commodity Exchange
of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange have also received
in-principle approval to offer exchange-trade currency futures.

Energy Saving Initiative

Microsoft the nonprofit Climate savers Computing initiative and a start up called Verdiem are combing to put the spotlight on the energy saving opportunity in PCs and distributing a free software tool to consumers to help them do it.

In its a drive to go green, the technology industry has so far focused mainly on big targets like corporations and especially computer data centers the power-hungry computing engine rooms of the internet economy.

Next come the hundreds of millions of desktop and lapping personal computers in households worldwide.

Microsoft, the nonprofit Climate Savers Computing Initiative and a start up called Verdiem are combining to put a spotlight on the energy saving opportunity in PCs, and distributing a free software tool to consumers to help them do it.

The potential savings in both dollars and pollution is huge, analysts say, when the estimated one billion PCs in use globally are taken into account. The research firm Gartner estimates that 40% of all carbon dioxide emissions resulting from information technology and telecommunications are attributable to PCs. Data center computers account for 23% and the rest is attributable to printers and telecommunications equipment.

If you are going to tackle climate change and curb energy use, you have to deal with consumer devices like PCs which promote energy efficient products and practices.

For more than a decade the federal Energy Star program has developed voluntary power-management standards for PCs, and suppliers like Intel and Microsoft have steadily improved the energy efficiency of their chips and software. But it is estimated that less than half of PCs met those standards, in part because more energy efficient hardware adds slightly to production costs.

The free software, called Edison is a consumer version of the PC energy saving software sold to corporate customers by Verdiem.

Verdiem based in Seattle, has 180 corporate and government customers, including Hewlett-Packard, which bundles Verdiem’s Surveyor program on is desk top PCs sold to corporation. Though sales figures are not disclosed, the company’s chief executive says revenue should triple this year.

There are other free tools for calculating and managing PC power consumption, including the EPA’s EZ Wizard, CO2 Saver and a Google energy-saving gadget. But Edison allows the user more flexibility especially in making the settings as stringent as they want.

If a user sets the software to put the machine in a deep sleep mode after a few minutes of not hitting a keystroke the hard drive powers down and the PC sips just 5% of its normal energy consumption. That kind of energy diet is far from standard practice in homes and offices. Half of all electricity consumed by a standard PC is wasted according to environmental and industry studies.

In addition to the above already energy-efficient, compact fluorescent lights are now being made eco-friendly too by applying stringent EU norms. In an effort to make the energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) even more better and eco-friendly, manufacturers are adopting latest European norms on restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS).

Currently, most CFL manufacturers worldwide use liquid mercury due to its cost effectiveness and simple technology. The disadvantage is that, technically, it is extremely difficult to limit the weight of liquid mercury, something that is extremely toxic in nature. In fact, the average CFL contains at least 3-5 times more liquid mercury than that prescribed by global or even Indian norms.

Now, CFL manufacturers are going in for ‘pill-dosing technology’, which uses an amalgamated mercury pill that is less harmful to the environment as compared to the conventional use of liquid mercury.

These pills also conform to the domestic and international standards o the use of mercury in CFLs. In India, Delhi-based Havells is one of the few firms at the forefront of his endeavor converting all three of its assembly lines to the latest technology.

The step couldn’t have come at a better time as, globally demand for CFLs is about to explode due to global warming issues and many countries increasingly phasing out GLS lamps. This would be significant as lighting consumes about 20 percent of electricity in India, and experts say a switch to CFL will help, for it uses only a fifth of the power of traditional bulbs for similar lighting. So making them eco-friendly would be an added advantage.

India-Research and Development Hub

"Today India has become one of the strongest in the world in terms of scientific manpower in capability and maturity. Hence, we are in a position not only to understand the technologies that we may have to borrow, but also to create our own technologies with extensive scientific inputs of indigenous origin. It is important for India to put all her acts together to become a continuous innovator and creator of science and technology intensive products". Dr. A PJ Abdul Kalam

"We take satisfaction from the fact that over 100 global companies have come to India to set up R&D Centres, affirming the intellectual capital of our scientific and engineering community. Science must grapple with the key challenges facing the country today." Dr. Manmohan Singh

"A phenomenal transformation in the attitude and approach to R&D in industry has taken place. From a 'back seat' position a mere ten years ago, R&D in Indian industry is now in the 'front seat' of corporate strategy. In several sectors, business driven research has given way to research driven business." Mr. Kapil Sibal

"India is one of the hotspots for innovation of low cost and high quality products and services. Now we can enter the complex high technology areas." Dr. R. Chidambaram

"The current S&T ecology does not seem to provide either physical income with career opportunities matching other service sectors or psychic income derived from uninhibited pursuits of passion with science." Dr. T Ramasami

"The challenge was how to continue to tap the incredible dynamism of global R&D so that Indian institutions and companies could assume the leadership in creating high-wage jobs and building new industries" Dr. R A Mashelkar

Future of Indian consumer durables market

Indian Market is fast moving towards high-end customized products, which are aesthetically designed to complement the modern households. The need at this moment of time is to continuously innovate and come out with product variations across categories to meet the expectations of a varied class of customers.

This year, the leading consumer durables players forecast 15 per cent growth for the sector. In 2006, the consumer durables and home appliances sector experienced growth of 14 per cent and was pegged at Rs 3.7 billion.

According to sources, dismantling of quantitative restrictions on imports of consumer electronics has let to customer tariffs gradually coming down. In such environment, the industrial units could only survive by improving the efficiency and productivity.

India is a fast developing country and is proving to be a major challenge to the already established countries of the world. The industry expects to grow by 10 per cent for refrigerators and 60 per cent for washing machines this year. In a sector, where new products are being introduced with increasing frequency and lifecycle of products getting shorter, research and development plays an important role.

I believe that this area needs to be regularly updated with newer technologies, so that the innovations are meaningful to the customers. Setting up of manufacturing facilities by MNCs in India, which not only meet international standards but also reduce trade barriers between two countries and give a thrust to the exports of the company, which is very important.

At this moment of time, the consumer electronic industry has come a long way and is making state-of-the-art products and quality is earmarked immense importance. Point to be noted here is that the quality of any product is directly linked with exports from India to other countries. India has lately become a manufacturing hub for many companies to make quality products. In the last few years, this sector has shown tremendous growth, resulting in annual growth rate of close to 50 per cent.

India-Huge market for Mobile VAS

Stanford University and BDA, through a combination of interviews of executives in leading VAS firms, secondary research and analysis of prevailing trends has released it’s research report on “Future of Mobile VAS in India“.
Here are key excerpts:

Subscriber base:

• Population: 1.112 billion
• Fixed Subs : 39.41 million (Oct 2007)
• Mobile Subs : 217.14 million (Oct 2007)
• Internet Subs : 9.22 million (Jun 2007)
• Broadband Subs :2.67 million (Sept 2007)

Of the mobile subscribers:

• Prepaid connection comprise 85% of total subscriber base (expected to increase to 90%); and over 95% of new additions.
• By the end of 2010, the mobile teledensity will be almost 44% with 497 mn subscribers (driven by semi-urban and rural areas)

VAS in India:Past, Present and Future

• VAS constitutes 7% of of total telecom revenue for Indian operators.
• SMS consituted 55% of VAS revenue in 2006 [P2P/A2P/P2A, A = Application, P=Person), the growth was majorly driven by reality shows like Indian Idol/Kelloggs/KBC etc.
• Digital music (including CRBT and ringtones) constitutes 35% of VAS revenue.
• CAGR of 44% (2007 – 2010), VAS revenues will reach USD 2,744 mn (926mn $ by 2007): This is dependent on several factors like regulatory (e.g. number portability) and non-regulatory factors.
  • Growth acceleration will begin in 2009, as various challenges are overcome, size of mature user base increases, and telco focus on high end user VAS heightens
• Bollywood and Cricket is the killer content - though no significant investment has gone beyond developing local apps or even content/services.
• Revenue share between telcos & content providers / aggregators is 70:30, substantially more skewed in favor of telco than in other countries - further aggravated by lack of payment mechanisms.
• SMS/IVR/Music downloads/Internet Apps/Search will see an upsurge; limited growth of UGC and mCommerce
• Almost half of Indians use ULCH (Ultra Low Cost Handsets)

Entities in VAS Value chain

• Content/Application Owner - cos. like saregama/mauj/Rajshri who develop coyrighted content
• Aggregator - aggregates content like games/wallpapers/ringtones and distributes it to suit customer needs [players : mauj, hungama mobile, indiatimes mobile etc]
• software developer - develops applications (like payment/games/middleware etc.) for mobile VAS [players - mchek/July systems/webaroo/affle etc]
• Technology Enabler - provides the platform that plugs into telco networks and acts like a bridge between aggregator and telcos [players include OnMobile, cellnext. mauj etc]

Operators still dominate the revenue sharing arrangement in VAS [Of the amount paid by end users, 60-70% is kept by operator, aggregator gets 20-25% and content app/owner gets 10-15% of the revenue]

Challenges:

• Lack of content localization
• Shortage of spectrum
• Slow adoption of GPRS mobiles (only 6.1 mn GPRS users compared to 200 mn overall subs)

Future VAS trends:

• Location Based Services
  
• Mobile Music update will increase with better bandwidth
• Migration to 3G will result in increased ARPU
• Local content is on the rise - regional/rural IVR seen as a major opportunity
  
• Mobile commerce doesn not look too promising (India is still a cash and cheque country)
• IVR will see large scale adoption, especially in rural areas.
• Mobile E-Mail will primarily be driven by enterprises
• Stocks on mobile will see an uptake

The current state of VAS can be candidly summed in one sentence “Novelty of VAS on mobile is short-lived and innovation is the key to success which means technology companies like will have to increase their investments into R&D”

Soap Market in India

Personal Wash (Soaps)

The personal wash can be segregated into:

• Premium- Lux, Dove
• Economy- Nirma Bath, Lifebuoy
• Popular- Nirma, Cinthol

The price of the premium segment products is twice that of economy segment products. The economy and popular segments are 4/5ths of the entire soaps market. The penetration level of toilet soaps is 88.6%. However, the per capita consumption of soap in India is at 460 gms per annum, while in Brazil it is at 1,100 gms per annum. In India, soaps are available in five million retail stores, out of which, 3.75 million retail stores are in the rural areas. Therefore, availability of these products is not an issue. 70% of India's population resides in the rural areas; hence around 50% of the soaps are sold in the rural markets.

Growth
With increase in disposable incomes, growth in rural demand is expected to increase because consumers are moving up towards premium products. However, in the recent past there has not been much change in the volume of premium soaps in proportion to economy soaps, because increase in prices has led some consumers to look for cheaper substitutes.

The major players in personal wash (Soap) market are HLL, Nirma and P&G. Now ITC and Godrej also come in the Race .

The future of e-learning in India

The future of e-learning in India

Although e-learning has potential in India, adoption has been slow and will need a major marketing and awareness effort.According to IDC, the revenue earned worldwide from e-learning was $6 billion in 2003. That’s expected to rise to $21 billion by 2008.As is apparent from the above figures, the Indian e-learning market is still at a nascent stage.But thanks to an increasing emphasis on honing individual skills, e-learning is slowly becomingpopular in India.

State of e-learning
e-learning permits the delivery of knowledge and information to learners at an accelerated pace,opening up new vistas of knowledge transfer.Early adopters are companies that have tried to supplement face-to-face meetings,demonstrations, training classes and lectures with this technology. “The adoption of e-learning in all spheres—corporates, schools, universities, etc—is low at present. The Indian market is not substantial when compared to the international market which is worth about $6 billion to $7 billion,” says Harish Joshy, Vice-president of LionBridge Technologies, an e-learning player.
E-learning in India has been most successful in the corporate segment where it is seen as a means of achieving business goals and motivating employees.
Virtual universities
Countries without university education can access universities in other countries via the Web, a solution much cheaper than building university infrastructure.
In underdeveloped countries, e-learning can raise the level of education, literacy and economic development. This is especially true for countries where technical education is expensive,opportunities are limited, and economic disparities exist.
However, one of the problems with e-learning in India is the lack of course content, especially outside the mainstream focus areas of IT education, English-language content, and tutorial-like courses. There will be high demand for people who can develop multi-lingual courseware that addresses various topics. Gartner says that one of the top 10 positions among Global 1000 companies of the future will be that of an online learning designer. LionBridge has recognised two types of requirements for e-learning—one is a catalogue for courses which is quite generic in nature and can be used by everyone; for example, a course on Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint. The second type is customised development such as product training for a specific customer.A traditional learning structure does not guarantee the delivery of a consistent message,We wish to reach out to every computer user who wishes to create his own content, enhance it whereas consistency is assured in e-learning.

Advantages of e-learning
Nothing can replace traditional classroom teaching, but e-learning complements the process and can help reach out to the masses. “There are several companies that are working towards e-learning in India.Some product focus is on providing simple, cost-effective e-learning tools for individuals. We wish that every computer user who wishes to create his own content, enhance it using multimedia, append to it as and when information changes, share it with others, and make effective use of the same for self-learning as well as to teach others.The biggest advantage of e-learning lies in its ability to cover distances. For an organisation that is spread across multiple locations, traditional training becomes a constraint. All trainees need to
come to a classroom to get trained. Additionally, the trainee’s learning pace is not addressed as all trainees are treated as having equal abilities and there is little flexibility in terms of timing and completion of the course.“The major advantage is the consistency that e-learning provides. e-learning is self-paced, and learning is done at the learner’s pace. The content can be repeated until it is understood by the trainee. It can be made compelling and interesting with multimedia, and the trainee can be
given multiple learning paths depending on his or her needs,A traditional learning structure does not guarantee the delivery of a consistent message, whereas consistency is assured in e-learning.”
Trends in e-learning
Business-to-employee initiatives will address e-learning Companies will build B2E intranets or corporate portals to conduct business with employees, and provide them self-service for access to benefits,forms and information. B2E capabilities will become increasingly important tools for recruitment, retention, and employee-relationship management.e-learning will extend to customers CRM initiatives might include customer education.Companies can use e-learning to introduce new products, educate customers in self-service techniques, and compare competitors’ products and services.Simulation, gaming and interactivity will enrich e-learning .Research shows that student understanding and retention improves when they learn by experience.
Technologies such as collaboration, interactivity,modelling, simulations, virtual reality interfaces and gaming will help students experience the skill while being taught.There will never be enough of the right skills Along with technologies and business practices,some skills are changing so quickly that they’re outdated within a few months of introduction. In addition, the number and range of skills required of the average employee is increasing.
Every person a creator
In a market such as India where the concept is still new, one crucial element that will make a difference in generating a good response is marketing. This not only holds true for segments such as government and education, but for the corporate sector as well. Experts are of the view that there needs to be a mindset for the adoption of e-learning.The other point is content. If content providers are giving off-the-shelf content, there should be scope for customization since each organisation has its own needs.Every individual must be treated as a potential creator of content. Each one of us must have specialised tools that would help us create well-structured content, allow us to append information, and not make us totally dependent on external sources for content.
Bottomline: the Indian market is still young, but it will continue to adopt the concept of e-learning in order to meet its communication needs and seize business opportunities.