I had heard a couple of days back through common friends who are alums of MIT that something big has got invented and a prototype for a product that is literally going to change our world is available at as low as 350 USD. Now imagine a world where everything around you can become a visual interface and you could interact with any information with gestures using your fingers that gets visible on even your palm or the surface you are looking at? Absurd and crazy but its true.

Using simple computer techniques and applications and codes along with mundane hardware which we use daily this dude by name Pranav Mistry has come out with what one would call “multi-touch and multi-user interaction device that makes the entire world your computer.”

How does this happen? This prototype has a pocket projector, a mirror, a camera, a mobile phone. The projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector then projects anything you see around, whether its a wall, stone, someone face or whatever for that matter and then the camera recognises the users hand gestures using some highly advanced computer vision based techniques post which the the software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the coloured markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers. WOW!!!!

Incidently it also can show directions on a map, so companies in the business of GPS Navigations will be out of business? I mean there could be millions who could go out of business but I guess this guy will be bought over like in a couple of months or something

Also imagine reading a newspaper and you start seeing live video news or any related dynamic information you are reading? Or you do not have a wrist watch but you just draw one on your hand and the wrist watch gets visible to show you time 24/7? Man this is crazy and absurd but true.

So I know, watch companies, computer hard ware companies, navigation companies and I dont who else would be out of business, LOL.

But this is supreme stuff, check http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

BTW - I want to start streaming advts on these, Pranav, are you listening, I have a business model for you as ancillary revenue - LOL!!!

On this day of our country becoming a Republic its indeed a sense of pride for someone like me who was born in free India and see the numerous changes that has happened over the years for us to stand tall today and simply proclaim the largest democratic republic that we are.

It was imperative then to become a Republic so that this large country does not remain in the shadow of the British in whatever small way we would have if hadn’t turned into one in 1952. The idea was to not recognize the Queen of England as the Head of State where like many countries in the Caribbean and for that matter even Australia continue to recognize the queen still as the head of state though there isn’t any involvement from the queen in the ruling of the nation. Not getting a dominion status and the ask for total independence was a huge task for a country that never had any clue on how such a large nation would function.

Leaders like MK. Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Baba Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Indira and Rajiv have been those inspirational leaders whom we look up to today and I for one have been motivated to the hilt to contribute in some way or the other to our country. Even if I manage to contribute 1% of what these great people have then I would feel honored.

From then in 1947 to 1952 to 1962 - 1971 - 1983 - 1991 - 1993 -1999 - 2008 as years have had a significant impact in our lives as Indians. Independence, becoming a Republic, War with China, War with Pakistan, Winning the Cricket World Cup, Opening of economy, Mumbai Riots, Kargil, Bombay 21/11, a lot of this has only added to the determination of every Indian to just become progressive and be a powerhouse in the Asian region.

My generation is lucky to have witnessed a lot of what has happened over the years and it mesmerizes me to even think back on all the circumstances that has made India such a strong nation. On this Republic day I salute our nation on what it has achieved over the years as a republic, its because of those powerful seeds sown by our ancestors that we are seeing a wonderful nation called the Republic Of India blossom.

On behalf of NetworkPlay, I take this opportunity to wish everyone a great Republic day and as a head of this organisation commit that we would create an organisation that will cater to every aspiring Indian’s requirement in the small internet economy we are part of.

Best
Ram

Raj Kapoor, screen star of the black and white era, could express more joy, comic timing and pathos than many of the great stars today can do with the help of all the sound and graphics technology that Mr.Kapoor lacked. The weapon was “Showmanship”, which made him one of the greatest actors of all time.

Since acting is such a powerful tool to influence people, we all should take full advantage of it. After all, selling is an art of influencing people so that they buy
Showmanship is a salesmanship at its best! It plays a vital role in selling, and must be adapted by everyone. Adding the extra punch of showmanship will ensure towering sales. Every salesperson should set a stage and give a powerful performance which will fetch him guaranteed results and make him a superstar nominated for the Oscars!

Good showmanship has many functions in the selling field. Most importantly, it gives you a confined audience. A client may give a salesperson the courtesy of allowing him to go through his sales presentation, but this does not mean that the message is getting through. Many a times client sitting across the desk might not even hear a word that a sales guy utters. Without proper performance, the customer’s mind can fade a thousand miles or a million years away! However, adding some style and acting during the presentation will keep the client glued to your laptop.

As a top rate performer, one should picture the client/buyer as an audience who has paid a whopping amount to watch the performance and not as a potential buyer. After the stunning performance, fan following (clients) and stardom (business & recognition) will follow automatically
There’s a great similarity between acting and selling…..so c’mon friends lets give our best shot….Oscars awaiting for us in Bali….LOL

“By the grace of God, I rocked the interview”.
“If it were not for my boss, I would have never got this promotion”.
“Because of my friend’s help, I could pass in my exams”.

What is common in the above three statements? The fact that the credit for personal success is being passed on to someone / something else.

If you hadn’t prepared well for the interview, what could God have done?
If you hadn’t performed, would your boss have promoted you?
If you hadn’t studied well, your friend would not have been able to move anything.

In all of the above, the locus of control is external. That means, the person in question is relegating control of the situation to an external entity.

Which is not so bad here because in these cases it is credit that is being passed on. But consider the following:

“I failed because my teacher hates me”.
“I didn’t get promoted because of office politics”.
And the worst is -
“I did not do my target because the market is bad”.

External locus of control, where blame is being passed on. I know what people are thinking. That there ARE such situations where the blame is not entirely yours. I don’t disagree. But one also needs to look inward and do some introspection if those are the only reasons or is there more to it.

Did you fail because you did not take the effort to study hard enough because you thought the teacher hated you?
Did you get passed on for promotion because of office politics or because there was someone else more deserving and you hate his guts?
And did you miss doing your numbers only because the market was bad or because you gave up even before trying?

The trick is to shift the locus of control. Make it Internal instead of External. Introspect more, learn more and then you will realise that you are not trying to find excuses to not achieve your objective and also not indulge in false modesty by letting someone else take away the credit.

Internal locus of control!

Albert Einstein, the great physicist was once scheduled to conduct a lecture (the same lecture) multiple number of times. His driver would always accompany him and also listen to the lecture although none of it made sense to him. After having attended numerous such lectures, the driver knew the lecture by heart and could recite it at will with accurate references to the diagrams and charts, as required.

Einstein was so impressed by his driver that for the next lecture, he suggested that he and his driver switch places. Reckless as he was, even the driver agreed.

It was all very well till the lecture ended but after the lecture, a particularly curious audience member asked the driver a question, which obviously he wasn’t equipped to answer.

With sheer presence of mind, the driver said, “That’s an easy question. In fact, it is so easy that I will call my driver on stage to answer it for you”.

This story is probably not true but brings out an interesting point. When we meet people in our line of work, we often end up meeting people who are not empowered to make decisions or who have just been deputed by their seniors to meet us. Therefore, we need to figure out well in advance whether we are meeting the driver or Einstein? Needless to say, Einstein will give the business to you and not his driver. Meeting the driver is of little or no use. It is up to you to make sure that you are meeting the right person.

Also, the flip side; make sure that when someone is meeting you, he goes back with the satisfaction of having met Einstein and not his driver.

This is something that struck me, as I was sitting with two of my friends over the last weekend and discussing somethings, in which there were instances of me being guilty of not being responsible enough. Somewhere deep inside it probably made me uncomfortable, for my mood slowly shifted.

It was then that I began to wonder. There are people who have rarely faced criticisms. There could be two reasons for this. 1. Either they are so good that people don’t find anything to criticize in them. 2. There are things for which they can be criticized (I mean genuine constructive criticisms), but they are not being criticized by people for some reason. Most of the people are more inclined to assume that it is the latter case.

So, if this is the case, what could be the reason for people not criticizing? Perhaps, it is because they know that the person being criticized is not open to criticisms. Perhaps, in the past, when someone criticized them, for their own good, they have not taken it in the right spirit. And hence, they have come to the conclusion that no matter what is told to me, I wouldn’t listen, and hence it is futile trying to make me see.

It means that I probably need to be careful the next time someone criticizes me. I need to be alert so that that thing which people refer to as ego doesn’t jump up to defend itself. I need to be careful enough to keep that fellow tied down, so that the criticism is openly received.

Something else caught my attention as I was thinking about this. I have noticed that I do not criticize people that much.. or so I think. Is it because somewhere deep inside I do not want to be criticized? Is it because somewhere in the subconscious mind, I feel that being criticized is too hurting, and hence, I do not want to inflict this pain on others? It could be. I am not sure.

Whatever may be the case, the answer for this question is not going to come immediately. It will take some time. If it is true that I am not open enough to be criticized, I hope I develop that capability.

Probably the statement can be justified by a unique incident which happened recently and that too happened in such a place where people normally would not associate business as they refer tradionally. The incident took place where some Guianese’s business minds grasped the opportunity & turned it to be an ever flourishing and mind blowing business opportunity – ‘The IPL season III’.

Recently all the franchisee’s owners dwindled over capturing some of the best cricketing talents from across the globe for their respective franchisees. For which they gathered upon to spend fortunes. All these franchisee’s owners had almost a set squad from the past 2 season of IPL T20 living with them with a very limited liberty to bid for 12 slots of international and domestic players.

All these looks very ordinary if one looks straight as mentioned above. So where is the new dynamics of business or where the ingenuity of proactive business minds comes? The simple opportunity was turned into great business opportunity by some of the great business brains. In the recent bidding IPL had only 12 slots of international and domestic to be filled up by the franchiser. Hence they organize the bidding for the slots. What was interesting enough was the concept of “SILENT BIDDING”? All the listed players who are being bided upon has respective base price.

For example, Player X had a best price of Rs. 4 Crore. Now when the franchisees are bidding for Player X for the base price there is a chance that 2 or more franchisees are willing to hire Player X and such a scenario is considered as bidding tide. Hence the franchisee’s are supposed to nominate any amount over and above the base price of Player X and that price is not reciprocated to the competing franchisee’s and kept secret. Later on envelopes are opened and the highest bidder is declared. Hence the Silence is broken. But the money that is offered over and above the base price of Player X does not go to the player’s pocket. Instead it is IPL who gets the money.

IPL owners or creators for past 2 seasons made humongous gains from a more conventional approach like corporate sponsorship, broadcast rights, from tickets and similar ways but this time they have managed to devise some brilliant strategies to raise the bar of their profits and proposing new dynamics of business.

Watch out for IPL Season 4….

Heard a lot of people say that last 10 years have truly belonged to China but somewhere along India too has caught up to be a close second in staking claim if not more. Of course our country has to attempt bigger strides to gain any credible momentum in many areas; we certainly seem to be doing well in one – the digital arena.
There are problems– problems of ever delayed governmental norms and nods, problems of infrastructure, problems of security and problems of many kinds. However, there is no denying that the web and mobile have been the catalyst to social and economic change in India. After about 60 odd years of independence the country is connected, every little part of it. Everyone is rolling on technology to catapult their aspirations and digital media is playing its role in everyone’s dreams (including MINE ).
So while we look back on this decade that to my mind truly belonged to the digital, we realize that we’re actually at the cusp of greater digital convergence. With digital media the speed is numbing and the possibilities limitless especially for us Indians. In the next decade I believe the web and mobile space will bring out the highest employment numbers in an industry in this country & this space will make the Indian more global 

It’s been 9 years since I came to Delhi and I have grown up from an 18 year old kid to a 27 year old grown up (yet not so grown up). Graduation, Post graduation and then finally a job. Nice journey so far.

I don’t know how I started thinking about this, but in life, a few things happen to you just to make you realize your potential and make you grow.

Just last evening, I was idly wondering about how a life should be lived. I got my answer from the movie ‘Invictus’ , where Morgan Freeman who has acted as Nelson Mandela says “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

This worked as a motivational (actually sounded very motivational) force to encourage me to take charge of my life. Then came the real question “What does it actually mean?” (I told you it sounded motivational but I didn’t know what to do). More thinking, more dwelling upon.

Then it came to me. The 3C’s of being a master & a captain. Control, Challenge and Change.

Gain Control. If you have control over your feelings, habits and thoughts you can see your goal clearly. Small worldly things cease to trouble or hinder you.

Keep challenging yourself. You have to perform better than your expectations and keep doing it. This will make you a better person every time.

Change is a must. Change with the times and situations. Adapt. This gives you a better chance of winning each time.

I know if I can thoroughly follow the 3C’s, one day I will be the master of my fate and the captain of my soul.

Seems like telecom operators are going on with stiff tariff reduction wave as they are introducing one after another bumper scheme. They have only one goal: Reduce Tariffs. All operators have moved to providing one paisa per second tariffs.

Things have become bigger now and the next major innovation is that subscribers will get free Airtime and SMS for receiving personalized advertisements on their mobile phones including calls that would advertise a product via it’s jingles.

These advertisements will only be shown / played according to subscriber needs, likes and preferences – Targeted Advertising in other words. In the current scenario, the users are literally sent spam advertisements!

Personalization is the new mantra. The degree to which product is user friendly totally depends on how well it can be personalized by each user according to their needs and taste.

This might sound very nice initially. But have you ever thought about the circumstances? You may get calls at times that you would least want one to come. This again depends on how customizable do the providers make the advert system. Getting free airtime to listen to adverts is like selling your valuable time in the first place. Secondly, you are officially allowing providers to send you advertisements.

What will happen If I receive an Ad Call, just take it and keep the handset aside. Well, things may not be as simple as they seem to be. There might be a possibility of a system wherein the ads are interactive and unless and untill you speak something relevant, you won’t get any airtime at all!

For brands, this seems to be the next big thing in product advertising and marketing. This kind of a system makes sure that a product reaches a targeted crowd rather than a bunch of people who are least bothered in the category of the product. For e.g. A Biotechnologist will definitely not want to see or hear ads about the latest & cheapest cement company in the town. Subscribers would rather want to have ads of things that would benefit them in their daily work.

So Wait and Watch what happens??