The Śūnyatā (Openness) Blog

After some long posts, I have again entered a quiet phase in my blogging behavior. We celebrated Lasya's first birthday in India, (she had her first birthday in UK last year) on March 12 and had a get together on Sunday, March 18. Met some family friends after a long gap. Thats what get togethers are for, and this one really served its purpose. Lasya had loads of fun too. One of the guests asked me why I am still with TCS :-) And if I am with TCS, why am I in Bangalore and not in US or UK? lol ! I honestly did not know how to answer the gentleman in brief. And that was not the place to give a long winded answer. Don't worry..neither am I going to give a long winded answer on this blog. In response to the query by our guest, I just shrugged, smiled, and remarked that I am too lazy. He took it as a joke ( It was, at least partly). In any case, it is now time to declare ( and commit my self to the declaration), that I am finally happy about two business ideas that we (me and some ...

Here's the scenario: Like most people these days, you want to own an apartment in a good locality in Hyderabad or Bangalore or any other city (leave Mumbai out of this discussion please!). Going rates for a 3-BR from a reputed builder in Blr or Hyd are around INR 50-60 lakh. If you take a bank loan for 45 lakh for 15-20 years tenure, you will end up paying the bank approx Rs. 1 cr at the current rates of interest. And the life of an apartment can not be more than 25 years, if one looks at the construction quality these days. So, there is every likelihood that it doesn't make sense to you to shell out so much over the next 15-20 years. Instead, you wish to buy an apartment at pre-boom prices or may be even less. Say, between 10-15 lakhs for a 3 BR? Before you leave this site, assuming that I am going to propose some hare brained scheme, here's a disclaimer: I am just going to suggest this plan to you. You could execute this along with your friends.Some groups of friends that...

Blogger Anindita ( check out her blog ..she has a dew fresh writing style) posted a comment asking my thoughts on Chidambaram's tax proposals related to venture capital funds in the new union budget. I feel VC is like any other business activity and should be taxed. In the US, they have a system of creating transparent entities for taxation purposes, which we don't yet have in India. One could argue that VCs should be given tax exemption because the industry is still in a nascent stage in India. In fact, a number of players in the industry seem to feel that way. So, there is a confusion here. The FM has listed software and hardware, but not Internet :-) Some people interpret internet ventures as software plays. Definitely, if there is a Software-As-Service (SaaS) venture out there, they could request the pass thru benefit and should get it. But what about B2C plays (Naukri, Bharat Matrimony, 99 Acres and dozens of other such ventures) that have attracted VC funds? If the VC fu...

Here's a hunch. Most of us know about Warren Buffet, but very few would have actually gone on to the Berkshire Hathaway web site to check out his company. I shamelessly admit that even though I admire the man, I have never thought of visiting his company's web site. On the other hand, I admire Gates, but definitely not some of Microsoft's practices, but I visit their web site quite regularly. Goes to show that information consumption pattern could be quite different from personal opinions. Hmm..interesting. Coming back to Warren Buffet, I read a post on (where else !) Venturewoods today about Buffet's annual letter to his shareholders. As a matter of habit, I generally prefer to read the source than the excerpt. So, I promptly went to the Berkshire Hathaway site and discovered that the site has all of Buffet's letters to shareholders since 1977 ! I was 5 years old in 1977. You can access all those letters from this page. If you have any interest in how the stock m...

Cross-posting my comment on Atanu's blog post today. The post was about OLPC issue and why it will not work in India. Btw, even the HRD ministry has rejected the idea. Atanu had earlier written a lot about this . Srinivas has commented that Atanu has done a backflip on the 'education and technology issue' : Quote begins: The author goes from saying“The OLPC is irrelevant in the context of Indian education. It’s a technological solution, and the problem in India is largely non-technological.” and that “Electronics is neither necessary nor sufficient for education.” to doing a back flip “The solution to India’s educational problems will and must use technology intensively, but it will have little to do with children toting laptops around.” Before finally concluding “OLPC is a costly device for poor countries. It’s going to be a huge waste of money that could be more efficiently spent on other technological solutions such as radio, TV monitors, and DVD players.”. Wish he pai...

A good discussion is developing on the 'need for more incubators in India' at Sramana Mitra's blog . I thought I will post my take on it here first and then add a comment there. Ok..going by all the reports, more and more VC money is coming to India. But as we all have been told umpteen times, there are too few deals.I guess deals here refer to high tech and internet deals, and not non-technology deals. So, what does the eco system need really? Let us identify the issues first. 1.Experienced industry professionals prefer to work in IT service provider companies than working in Startps. Reason: Some of them did try to join startps around 2000 or so, but then the dot com bust made them get back to IT SPs, licking the wounds so to speak. 2.There are very few startups where the team is strong and has trust, a proper vision is in place, and they are backed by some able and experienced ('adult supervision' according to Sramana Mitra) grey heads. 3.Leave alone senior heads...

We have been planning to meet a friend and his family for almost 3 months now. Over the weekend, we finally managed it. This friend stays in a place called Bilekahalli, off Bannerughatta Road in Bangalore. I have never been to any of these residential areas developing on either side of Bannerughatta Road. Like the rest of the city, even Bilekahalli has literally scores of apartment complexes coming up. The talk soon turned to real estate, as it does between most IT professionals these days.But since neither of us are really looking for a real estate investment, it was more a general discussion on the boom than any thing else. And then, a third friend came by, carrying a bunch of glossy brochures of various residential ventures. This guy is actively looking for an apartment to buy, and is totally confused about the choices on offer. And guess what, there is no one trying to help him make what is probably one of the most important investment decisions he will ever make. And this is where...

Hello, and welcome back ! After my last post, I had to rush to UK again to work with a valued customer for 3 weeks.Came back in December, and then went off on a vacation. Must write a post on Maravanthe beach this weekend:-) Thought I will start posting here again (During my hiatus, I posted couple of times at TWIN ) . Especially after reading this post on Venturewoods . If you are still here, or have come back after reading the great post and the comments on Venturewoods, read on for my take: 1.Firstly, I don't think one needs an MBA to be an analyst at a VC firm. It is a different matter that majority of the VC crowd seem to think that way. It is more a question of being able to do basic math and demonstrating a lot of common sense, networking skills, interpersonal skills, etc etc. And of course, decent amount of domain knowledge in one or more areas, and yes, the ability to be an 'aggressive learner'. Some one who can read up on a new domain for a week or so, apply exi...

For many would-be entrepreneurs, setting up a Private Limited company involves a vision of meeting with auditors, and lawyers and waiting in Govt offices to navigate through the bureaucratic maze. Well, that's a myth. If you can spend a few hours now and then, it could be done in a month or less. And if you live in States where e-Governance is being implemented, it could take even less- may be a few days ! Click here to read about the eight steps involved in setting up a private limited company in India. Go ahead and do it now ! Having an incorporated entity is the basic prerequisite for approaching VC uncles.

Finally, I am able to devote some time this weekend to catch up on all the reading I have missed out since I returned to India in August. And also post a few thoughts. Going through the various posts, discussions and comments on Venturewoods , I realize they are doing such a good job. No point in me replicating all those links here again. It looks like VCs/ Y Incubators are more interested in funding the right team than simply a good business idea/plan.If the right kind of team is in place, and if we can show that its a stable, committed team, it seems to be alright even if the current idea being worked on by that team does not have a feasible revenue model.And in some cases, the investors may also supply the right tweaking of the idea to create a viable revenue model OR more interestingly, in the interactions between the team and the investor/s, new ideas with lot more potential for financial returns would take shape. The above point is in contradiction to what I have been reading/sa...

Lol ! That's been my sitaution ever since I returned to India. I have been travelling so much, and even spent 2 weeks in complete Internet/Mobile isolation. Now I am in Mumbai, staying at a guest house provided by my company, where there is no connectivity. And by the time, I get back to the guest house its almost 8 PM, and after dinner and calls to Blr and other places, walking the kilometre to the nearest cyber cafe is not on priority list :-) Will resume blogging after I get back to Blr around Dasara.There are some product/service ideas that i must blog about !

Just read a fantastic article on 'What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial'. Excerpt: "Yet, in our classrooms we teach potential entrepreneurs an extremely causal process-the sequential progression from idea to market research, to financial projections, to team, to business plan,to financing, to prototype, to market, to exit, with the caveat, ofcourse that surprises happen along the way.Seasoned entrepreneurs, however, know that surprises are not deviations from the path.Instead they are the norm, the flora and the fauna of the landscape, from which one learns to forge a path through the jungle.The unexpected is the stuff of entreprenurial experience and transforming the unpredictable into the utterly mundane is the special domain of the expert entrepreneur." If you are an entreprenur, or thinking of becoming one, or simply interested in the topic of entrepreneurship, this article is a MUST READ.It is one of the best pieces I have read in recent times. Credits: The a...

For the past six months or so, I have been reading a lot about the abundance of venture capital availability in India. Key Learnings for me: 1.There are several Silicon Valley driven VC funds that have set up or setting up a base in India, especially in Bangalore. 2.However, the perception among entrepreneurs is that there is very little traction in terms of seed capital investment. Most VCs seem to be playing the role of private equity investors, than true venture capitalists. 3.The VC funds on the other hand are bemoaning the lack of really good ideas from Indian entrepreneurs, lack of strong and focused teams, lack of robust revenue models, and an overall weak eco system that encourages seed/angel investment. 4.Most, if not all, of the entrepreneurs seem to be US-returned techies or business people with the capacity to invest their own funds at the seed stage. Questions: 1.What do we need to do to create a truly vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurship and VC activity in India? 2.The ...

I discovered Sramana Mitra's blog recently. She has accomplished a lot at a very young age. People with similar educational backgrounds in India end up working in MNCs or Public Sector at high salaries, where as, the enabling environment in the US has helped her become a serail entrepreneur and Strategy Consultant. After reading Sramana's Concept Arbitrage series of blog posts, and a few articles on her site, I started thinking about an idea for bridging the digital divide. Nothing really new. It is about convergence of mobile and television, where in one can use the mobile phone as the CPU, the TV set as a monitor, and use a key board and mouse as well if required. Most of our rural areas (in India) are witnessing the mobile revolution faster than the PC revolution.In fact, according to some industry reports, non-voice traffic (music and picture downloads) is many times higher than expected, in India's rural areas. And with technologies like System-in-Package (SiP) being...

Economic Census of India - Interim Findings Is rural India more industrialised than urban India? Are there more enterprises employing 10 people or more in rural areas than in urban areas? The answer is Yes, to both the questions, as per the interim findingsof India's Economic Census 2005. We have to wait till December for the final confirmed figures. But you can read some of the interim findings here. Interesting, very interesting. Here's my take though: 1.Most industrial units are located on the outskirts of urban areas because (a) the land is cheaper and (b) to benefit from the subsidies if any, offered by the Govt. 2.However, we can't really call these areas rural. In most cases, they have become part of the city. Just because the corporation or municipal council limits do not extend till these industrial areas (yet), it does not mean they are all located in rural areas. 3.IMHO, as part of the economic census, the very classification of whether an area is rural or urban ...

Just read this news item on Rediff. Apparently, officials of the Evacuee Property Trust Board of Pakistan, concealed the information from its Chairman, that the property to be demolished houses the only Hindu Temple in Lahore. And the Chairman 'unknowingly' gave the order to demolish the Krishna Temple and build a commercial complex in its place. Imagine if some thing similar happened in India. We would have seen major riots in most communally sensitive urban areas. But I guess Pakistan is much more secular than India, and so, demolishing temples or Buddha statues is no big deal - progress is more important. However, it is interesting to note that several opposition members of the National Assembly have raised their voices against this act: saying such an act could have a bearing on Pakistan's relations with neighbouring countries. So, it is not the question of hurting the sentiments of Pakistan's Hindu citizens, but about safeguarding Pakistan's reputation among th...

If I have to rate the top three bowlers of all time, Shane Warne would be among them.And I guess it is not just about the number of wickets he has taken, but the way he bowls. While Murali enthrals with his magic, and Mike Holding used to make us gasp in awe at the fluidity of the movement, Shane's simply so obviously cerebral in his bowling, and makes it look so effortless with his wizardry. Anyways, better writers than me have written about Shane and other great bowlers. I shall reserve my writing skills for a later day, when I feel in the mood to write about the cricketers I like (Gavaskar, Steve Waugh, Kumble, Shane and of course, the one and the only Sachin). The occassion for this post however, is to declare that Shane Warne has started his official blog, and I have just posted a Welcome to blogsophere kind of comment there. You can read Shane's blog here. . Or, if you are in the mood to see the best eight balls that Shane Warne has bowled (according to Shane that is):

I haven't blogged for about 10 days now. But in these 10 days, I must have logged at least 10 comments on various sites, esp on Sepia Mutiny.Mostly long comments :-) So, I keep telling myself that I should blog about an issue when I have a lot to say. But I also notice that I have a lot more to read than I have to say. Let me look at what I want to blog about: 1. The educational system in India- What can we do to improve primary education and make higher education more market oriented? 2. The infrastructure issue in India - Our urban areas in dire need of regeneration; rural areas need basic facilities like water, sanitation and power. And then the roads. We need roads, roads and roads. 3.The health care system in India - Primary health care facility for the poor.More research into India-specific diseases. 4.The polity and taxation- Why am i mixing politics and economics? Because I agree with people who say that politics is the business of managing a country's resources. Here, ...

What with almost every other site being choc-a-blog with the reservation issue, though my primary concerns are about the rural poor and primary education, and not the debate on higher education, I still felt compelled to participate on some of the blog-based discussions on this issue. Sepia Mutiny is one of the sites I have started frequenting of late. Some good posts and some quite ordinary ones.The perspective is avowedly Desi American, though on most posts, it comes across as more American than Desi, excepy may be in Amardeep's posts . Ok..I just logged a comment on Abhi's post on Sepia Mutiny. So, thought I will put my comment down here as well. Link to Abhi's post Abhi, While I fully understand that your perspective as a US citizen would be different from that of an Indian citizen, especially on matters such as this reservations issue, since you were any way blogging about the issue, you could have done better than depend on TIME magazine's perspective. As you ver...

Cross-posting my entry on Sulekha Blogs here: Francois Gautier has once again raised questions that are bound to be uncomfortable to those among us who harp on 'centuries old oppression of the downtrodden in India'. In a hard hitting article on Rediff , Gautier reveals that most of the Sulabh Sauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi are manned by the so-called upper caste, priestly class Brahmins. Also, that 55% of Brahmins in India live below the official poverty line. And according to a study done in Andhra Pradesh, a very large percentage of the State's Brahmins are employed as domestic servants. And more such damning statistics. Why damning ? Because, it seems to be that during the 5o years of its implementation, the reservation policy has created one creamy layer, but has added more people to the 'Dalit' category. More over, these Brahmins, who are the new Dalits, have no chance of ever being considered for any reservations. This reminds me. During the Mandal agit...