tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12504892733204913152024-03-14T04:35:52.437+05:30It's all about Money, Honey! ®I will try to cover anything and everything under the sun. Be it business, management, new ideas, entrepreneurship, education, government, politics, international relations, social causes, sports, entertainment, opinions, international relations, films, and of course, humor and satire! Did I forget to mention conspiracy theories, ghosts and aliens? They will be a part too!Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-76910541915241952572017-07-25T10:39:00.000+05:302017-07-26T12:41:38.365+05:30The Mahabharata Murders by Arnab Ray - A five star thriller, no less<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3412570.Arnab_Ray" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" title="Arnab Ray">Arnab Ray</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">, probably better known by his blogger persona "greatbong", has pulled up another gem out of his hat with his newest murder mystery thriller - </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30058494.The_Mahabharata_Murders" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" title="The Mahabharata Murders by Arnab Ray">The Mahabharata Murders</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PR8dJ_dF4qo/WXhAeH8BIZI/AAAAAAAACNM/bYMSaxE_yzwhUexZE1V-lunPJfF2L0yigCLcBGAs/s1600/Mahabharata%2BMurders.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="365" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PR8dJ_dF4qo/WXhAeH8BIZI/AAAAAAAACNM/bYMSaxE_yzwhUexZE1V-lunPJfF2L0yigCLcBGAs/s320/Mahabharata%2BMurders.png" title="" width="228" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Both the author and his works, are unlike what sells like hot-cakes these days among the Indian English readers and can genuinely be compared to the international best sellers of similar genres. His previous one, the mafia saga </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733230.Sultan_of_Delhi_Ascension" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" title="Sultan of Delhi Ascension by Arnab Ray">Sultans of Delhi - Ascension</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> is another pointer in this regard.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Coming back to The Mahabharata Murders, it is one of those kinds of novels that grabs you by the neck and doesn't allow your attention to veer away even for a minute. Extremely well paced, the author takes you on one hell of a ride and the way he has developed the storyline, the readers can visualise, as in a good screenplay, the different situations unfolding in front of their own eyes. The heady combo of one of the greatest epics intertwined with the dark underbelly of Kolkata underworld, with the most unlikely of homicide detectives battling her own personal demons and trying to catch an extremely clever serial killer, who believes himself to the reincarceration of Duryodhana, makes it unputdownable.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">The classic double twist in the end (I could sense at least one of them, but wasn't prepared at all for the second) will leave the readers in shock and awe.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Again, probably no literally work is fool proof and at least in one of the murders, the justification seemed weak. But, the complete package is worth its salt!</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Overall, this is a </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">must read</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> and I can vouch that both the time and money of readers will be well spent.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">I sincerely hope that Arnab comes up with a sequel of Detective Ruksana Ahmed's exploits in a forthcoming novel. I also hope that this gets transferred in to the visual medium, either as film or a television series.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-31962346755736413652016-07-26T12:42:00.002+05:302016-07-26T12:44:14.385+05:30Review: Karbonn K105s and Technical Specifications<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">L</span>et's get it straight. The Karbonn K105S is only a basic phone available at rock bottom prices. At the same time, it is sturdy and boasts of good battery back-up.<br />
<br />
It carries a 1.8-inch TFT display rendering images and videos at a resolution of 128x160 pixels with a measly pixel density of 114 ppi. It has a very basic VGA digital camera at the rear end that can capture photos at 0.3 megapixels.<br />
<br />
However, the phone offers you a microSD slot that enables you to enjoy an extra storage space of up to 16GB which can accommodate sufficient number of songs and videos. The basic connectivity features packed in the device include GPRS and Bluetooth.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
The 1050mAh Li Battery ensures that the it will last for at least a day on a single full charge. The phone supports multiple languages, has an FM Radio and a torchlight.<br />
<br />
However, the ringtone is not always audible, especially when you are outdoors and you need to keep the vibration mode on too!<br />
<br />
In case you are looking for a back-up phone, which does not require charging every alternate hour, you can go for the Karbonn K105S. It can be easily carried around due to it's small dimensions. The support for multi languages makes it a handy buy for Indians. It also gives you a lot of space for keeping track of your favourite songs and videos.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uLKCB5_jZ8Q/V5NI06jVwlI/AAAAAAAACAs/mBhYdicu5E41bO4hb3hd4Kz0tcmw4SVwwCKgB/s1600/Karbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uLKCB5_jZ8Q/V5NI06jVwlI/AAAAAAAACAs/mBhYdicu5E41bO4hb3hd4Kz0tcmw4SVwwCKgB/s200/Karbon.jpg" width="108" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">K105s Black</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Karbonn K105s Mobile Phone Information:</b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(From <a href="http://www.amazon.in/Karbonn-K105s-Black-Red/dp/B00M2ZFL1Y?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00" target="_blank">Amazon.in</a>)</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<u>Technical Details</u></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Item Weight:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>159 gm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Product Dimensions:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>12.7 x 9.7 x 5.6 cm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Item model number:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>K105s</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wireless communication technologies:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bluetooth</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Connectivity technologies:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>GSM(900/1800 MHz)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Special features:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Voice Calling, Dual SIM, Music Player,Video Player, FM Radio</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Form factor:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Candybar</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weight:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>160 Grams</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Colour:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Black/White</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Battery Power Rating:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1050 mAh</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What's in the box:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Handset, Battery, Charger and User Guide<br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Warranty Details</u>: 1 year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including batteries from the date of purchase.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-88309115982060874232016-03-15T20:48:00.000+05:302016-03-16T16:30:57.271+05:30Kejriwal sees Modiji's hand in banning of cough syrup. Says, will go on a coughing strike!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">O</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: red;">riginally published at:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="http://my.fakingnews.firstpost.com/2016/03/16/kejriwal-sees-modijis-hand-in-banning-of-cough-syrup-says-will-go-on-a-coughing-strike-2/">http://my.fakingnews.firstpost.com/2016/03/16/kejriwal-sees-modijis-hand-in-banning-of-cough-syrup-says-will-go-on-a-coughing-strike-2/</a></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A</span>fter the <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/pfizer-abbott-shares-tank-after-ban-on-corex-phensedyl-and-327-other-drugs/articleshow/51389151.cms" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Government of India came up with a list of 329 drugs to be banned in India</a>, including cough syrups Corex by Pfizer and Phensedyl by Abbott, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal has taken a very strong exception to the case.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mr. Kejriwal, who is known to survive on his daily dose of anti-cough medicines, has been left </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rajendrashende.com/wp-content/uploads//kejriwal-cough-syrup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.rajendrashende.com/wp-content/uploads//kejriwal-cough-syrup.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy: http://www.rajendrashende.com/<br />
Original <a href="http://rajendrashende.com/coughing-with-scary-mandate-new-delhis-air-pollution/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Photo can be found here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
fuming. He, along with some of his ministerial colleagues see this as a clear and vicious attempt my the NDA government at the center to muzzle his voice by denying him his daily dose of medication.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Speaking to yours truly, a livid Kejriwal said, "First they went after innocent kids (at JNU) and now they are trying to play the same dirty tricks to stop me from raising important issues like <i>azaadi</i> inside India from different ills that plague the country. This clearly shows the fascist tendencies of the government and makes it crystal clear that they will try out all the tricks in the book to silence the opposing voices."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On further prodding, he <strike>ranted</strike> said angrily, "Everybody knows ... <i>ke main har waqt khaas ta rehta hoon</i>. If such good quality medicines are banned and I do not have access to them, then how am I supposed to give <i>krantikaari</i> interviews in news channels or raise slogans against the <i>tanashahi</i> of the Modi government?"</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After a brief pause induced due to a bout of coughing, he continued, "This kind of unilateral steps, without taking the opposition in to confidence, does not bode well for democracy and also shows the intolerance of the government to anything that it does not like."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I asked him about his next course of action, Mr. Kejriwal categorically stated (only pausing briefly in between to cough out loud), "<i>Hum dharne pe baithenge ji</i>! We will not allow the government to push its agenda unopposed and I, along with my party members, will go on a "cough unto death" protest till the decisions are reversed."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He did not allow us to ask any further questions and got in to his car to head for the place of protest. We will keep you updated on the happenings as and when we get to know the next part of the <strike>story</strike> news.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Till then, stay tuned!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-7944065951362886702014-06-25T11:29:00.000+05:302016-03-17T11:33:22.211+05:30Inundated with Candy Crush Saga, Farmville 2, Criminal Case requests? Block Apps by following these easy steps<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>hese days, it's hard to avoid the continuous stream of requests that are directed to any user in the social networks, especially <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. Inexplicably, these requests normally come from the long lost school friend with whom you had last interacted a decade ago or in Indian case, your brother-in-law's sister-in-law's aunt and generally urge you to play <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Crush_Saga" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Candy Crush Saga</a> or <a href="http://www.farmheroessaga.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Farm Heroes Saga</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Case_(game)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Criminal Case</a> etc.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are two ways to deal with these annoying notifications they send you on Facebook - </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Unfriend and Block the person or</li>
<li>Block the Application</li>
</ol>
<span style="text-align: justify;">If you follow the first option, the chances are that you'll be left with next to nothing friends on the social networks. So, the better option will be to block the application, so that it cannot send you further requests and/or notifications.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The process of blocking Candy Crush Saga/Pet Rescue Saga/FarmVille 2 or any such game from sending future notifications from friends takes all of 60 seconds at the maximum. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 1</u>:</b> Login to your Facebook account. Of course, that is necessary. :)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 2</u>:</b> Go to any of the Invitations, which has been sent to you by a friend.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">Candy Crush Saga Farm Heroes Saga Pet Rescue Saga Criminal Case</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-trWO1I6LdAg/U6qJOtL0sfI/AAAAAAAABZw/ttUYj5RirYg/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="114" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-trWO1I6LdAg/U6qJOtL0sfI/AAAAAAAABZw/ttUYj5RirYg/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Step 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">Clash of Clans Diamond Digger Saga Top Eleven Be a Football Manager</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 3</u>: </b>Left Click on the 'x' button, which is marked in the picture below. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">Clash of Clans Diamond Digger Saga Top Eleven Be a Football Manager</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLKZq-yjnRI/U6qJPfYIugI/AAAAAAAABaU/uz8K9tz4AHo/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="114" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xLKZq-yjnRI/U6qJPfYIugI/AAAAAAAABaU/uz8K9tz4AHo/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Step 3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">Pet Rescue Saga Trivia Crack Dragon City Hay Day</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 4</u>: </b>You will be prompted for further action. Choose 'Block Candy Crush Saga' or whichever annoying game you are trying to block.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">Papa Pear Saga 8 Ball Pool Subway Surfers Bubble Witch 2 Saga</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yvJx-hyTOdI/U6qJOiBx5ZI/AAAAAAAABaM/dNOeYO0lUDQ/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yvJx-hyTOdI/U6qJOiBx5ZI/AAAAAAAABaM/dNOeYO0lUDQ/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_3.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Step 4</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">Papa Pear Saga 8 Ball Pool Subway Surfers Bubble Witch 2 Saga</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 5</u>: </b>You'll be further prompted to get a confirmation on whether you would like to Block the App. Just Click on 'Confirm'.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">Criminal Case FarmVille 2 Texas HoldEm Poker</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WUb2suXnzq4/U6qJPbyWalI/AAAAAAAABaE/5wZxlPPjc5o/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WUb2suXnzq4/U6qJPbyWalI/AAAAAAAABaE/5wZxlPPjc5o/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_4.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Step 5</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">Criminal Case FarmVille 2 Texas HoldEm Poker</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b><u>Step 6</u>: </b>Once you have completed the Steps 1 to 5 successfully, you will get the following confirmation message. Click on 'Close' and you will not be bothered by these notifications in the future.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">Pet Rescue Saga Trivia Crack Dragon City Hay Day</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QgUQw2sdoqY/U6qJPvCMf1I/AAAAAAAABaQ/lJ8UNlVvExg/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QgUQw2sdoqY/U6qJPvCMf1I/AAAAAAAABaQ/lJ8UNlVvExg/s1600/Candy_Crush_Saga_5.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Step 6</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
I have personally used these steps to get rid of the annoying notifications from all the unwanted games on Facebook. Now it is your turn to employ these simple steps and to live happily ever after!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty Candy Crush Saga Farm Heroes Saga</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">Pet Rescue Saga Trivia Crack Dragon City Hay Day</span></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-71555012344652638762012-09-13T13:54:00.000+05:302012-11-15T14:50:11.710+05:30Operation (Flood) Accomplished - Rest In Peace Dr. Verghese Kurien<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p9MoHTfifw8/UFAuodiolaI/AAAAAAAAAzY/XF-GmSBL6QA/s1600/Dr-V-Kurien-RIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p9MoHTfifw8/UFAuodiolaI/AAAAAAAAAzY/XF-GmSBL6QA/s320/Dr-V-Kurien-RIP.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Amul Girl cries for the first time,<br />
since her appearance in 1960s.<br />
<a href="http://www.amul.com/m/amul-hits?s=2012" target="_blank">Image Source: Amul Website</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he year was probably 1987/88, and I had seen a film by <i>Shyam Benegal</i>, titled <i><a href="http://www.amul.tv/amultv/viewfeaturedmovie.html" target="_blank">Manthan</a>, </i>which coincidentally shares it's year of birth with me. In those days of <i>Door Darshan</i>, anything other than <i>Krishi Darshan</i> was eagerly lapped up, but a song from the film remained with me. This very song, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRK72kSm25c&feature=colike" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Mero Gaam Katha Parey</a>, sung by <i>Preeti Sagar</i>, would push me to watch the film again, years later, in around 1994, and I became a fan of Dr. Verghese Kurien.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If there's one single person ever, who has changed the entire landscape of a whole region, thorough his sheer persistence and relentless pursuits of the vision, which he believed in, here was the man. He took on the middlemen - the wholesalers, the moneylenders, and even the age-old feudal structure, present in the villages, in and around Anand. Nobody, from the moneyed classes, were happy with him. But his efforts resulted in the flowing of not red blood, but white milk, and led to a historic revolution among the local untouchables and the economically backward communities. Dr. Kurien lead from the front to create iconic institutions, such as, Amul, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Institute of Rural Management - Anand (IRMA) and many more. His open brief to Sylvester daCunha resulted in the creation of the <i>"Amul Baby" or "Amul Girl"</i>, perhaps the most iconic Indian brand symbols.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>When Dr. Kurien landed at Anand, the situation was bleak. But, his vision, coupled with the guts to walk the talk, started a chain reaction, which has been variously termed as <i>Operation Flood</i> and <i>White Revolution of India</i>. As Mr. R.P. Aneja, the former Managing Director of National Dairy Development Board and a colleague of Kurien for 24 years, <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article3885542.ece" target="_blank">recounted in The Hindu Business Line</a>, <i>"Before the IT industry made India matter in the world, the biggest success story of the country was its dairy sector."</i> <i>"Who was responsible for this revolution? One person who more or less single-handedly organised millions of small and marginal farmers into very successful organisations was Verghese Kurien." </i>he went on to declare.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3JHbND7XvVo/UFGXmHffQQI/AAAAAAAAA1E/UcMcYa-uVHg/s1600/Verghese-Kurien-later-years.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3JHbND7XvVo/UFGXmHffQQI/AAAAAAAAA1E/UcMcYa-uVHg/s200/Verghese-Kurien-later-years.jpg" width="181" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Kurien</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the decades immediately after the independence, India was hugely dependent on imports of milk powder for meeting its nutritional needs. After, Dr. Kurien's efforts bore fruit, India became self-sufficient in milk and even started exporting milk powder and other milk products. Its annual milk production increased from 20 million tonnes in the 1970s to 80 million tonnes in the 1990s and 122 million tonnes by 2010, earning the title of World's topmost milk producer in the process. Amul, which began its journey with just two village dairy co-operative societies and 247 litres of milk, has grown to be a Rs. 11,668 crore brand with milk collection of 3.88 billion litres in 2011-12. Today, GCMMF, which markets its dairy products under the Amul brand name, has emerged as India's largest integrated dairy products manufacturing and marketing organisation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">verghese kurien milkman of india amul baby shed tears</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But, Dr. Verghese Kurien's achievements and impacts are not merely measured by numbers or revenues in Rs . His actual impact can be gauged from the empowerment of millions of people, both from India and abroad, and who came largely from the so called lower strata of the society. Kurien emphasised that democracy in Delhi needed to be underpinned by democracy in the villages. He was a firm believer in the unmatched combination of farmers and professionals working together to serve the rural areas. And, the institutions set up by him have visibly demonstrated that cooperatives do work as democratic institutions in India. His efforts not only helped the marginalized people to gain their rightful place in the society, but also ensured that, unlike communist ideologies, all sections were part of the growth and the development process.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon obituary dr. verghese kurien</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Especially, in today's political atmosphere, vitiated by increasing levels of hatred and intolerance, Dr. Kurien's ideas of empowering the masses at the root, through the cooperatives model, and heralding in an era of inclusive development, stand tall.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">obituary dr. verghese kurien</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A truly remarkable man, among the very best, India has ever given birth to, Dr. Kurien, the Milkman of India, lived to fulfill a dream, which he had. There will never be another like him and his 58 years old <i>"baby daughter"</i>, the Amul Girl, has actually personified the grief of the entire nation. We can only salute you Dr. Kurien, and thank you for the real-life lessons! Rest In Peace Sir!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon obituary dr. verghese kurien</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon obituary dr. verghese kurien</span></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-70964427780923489722012-09-06T23:34:00.000+05:302012-09-07T09:17:23.174+05:30Vocational Education & Training in India - Industry Association thinks of Vocation University<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he <a href="http://www.cii.in/" target="_blank">Confederation of Indian Industries</a>, CII - in short, had recently convened a seminar on the need to train millions of workers, particularly at lower levels, and making them employable in an industry relevant way. Titled, <i>"Employment Exchanges to Employability Centres"</i>, the seminar had been convened at Chennai in the last week of July 2012. In the seminar, Mr S. Mahalingam, Chairman, CII National Committee on Skills and Executive Director cum CFO of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, said that vocational education programs were necessary to make the best use of the demographic dividend, which our country enjoys. He also emphasized the need for radical changes in the course curricula and the skill training infrastructure. There were a lot of skills required across sectors such as construction, manufacturing, service-related industry including hospitality and healthcare.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business blog vocational training</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The seminar ended with a note, emphasizing the requirement for setting up one or more <i>"vocational university"</i> in India.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">vocational training education university India CII</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This particular proposal, at first, made me uneasy. The very mention of setting up multiple university, meant that the government of India, through its regulatory agencies, had the scope of dictating terms. And, when that happens, we all know about the end results. A look at the state of the professional education in India is enough to make us understand about the negative impacts of regulatory bodies like UGC and AICTE. What these regulatory bodies ensure is that the curricula remain grossly outdated and irrelevant from the industry's perspective. As a regional head of an industry body had once mentioned, the professional courses teach our students to play cricket, while the industry expects them to be good at baseball.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">vocational training future sharp skills, gram tarang</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, on second thoughts, I could see the light in the argument. In India, probably the biggest barrier on the road to create the required pool of employable youths, remains the perceptions of the people. The prospective trainees, as well as, their parents and guardians, view the vocational training qualifications and certifications as inferior to the traditional degrees, although, traditional general streams, at least in India, have repeatedly failed to create an employable talent pool. This was highlighted by a McKinsey study, which had shown that only 10% of the General Graduates, being churned out every year, are readily employable. Although, this figure was still better than China, but China being China, will surely find out a way out. India, on the other hand, will continue to be a laggard, if something drastic is not done quickly enough.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">vocational training future sharp skills, gram tarang</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here, the vocational university concept may come handy. If the students get a university degree, then the negative perception of them being in an inferior intellectual strata, will go straight out of the window. The acceptance of the society, as a whole, will also increase and it should pave the way for more numbers of youth choosing the vocational route, over the traditional college education.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">shovon chakraborty business blog vocational training</span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, it has to be ensured that instead of agencies like UGC & AICTE, corporate entities and association of corporate bodies should have the final say in designing and implementing the course curricula, so that these remain industry relevant. Otherwise, the whole objective of imparting vocational training will be lost in the process.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business blog vocational training</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my next write-up, I'll talk about two case studies, which involves two distinctly different entities - one from the pure-play corporate sector, <i>Future Sharp Skills</i>, while the other is a part of a university, <i>Gram Tarang</i>. Between themselves, the have been doing quite commendable works in the fields of creating employable talent pools. But, their works have been commendable, because there have been almost zero government interference.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business blog vocational training</span>
<br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business blog vocational training</span>
</div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-7335903203374001552012-08-28T20:47:00.000+05:302016-03-17T15:34:26.858+05:30Speed, that was supposed to free up time! Tata DoCoMo Photon+ reviewed.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;">shovon chakraborty review product service india</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Photon+ advertisement promised, "Get Speed. Get Time." Catchy enough. Isn't it? The trick is to catch you first and then take you for a ride.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">shovon chakraborty review product service india</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Photon+, according to its parent company, is a high speed Internet access device and should be able to deliver uplink speed of up to 1.8 Mbps and downlink speed of up to 3.1 Mbps. These stats look great on paper, but the reality is a bit different.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty review tata photon+</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well, let’s start from the beginning. This Tata Photon+ came to me as a bundled offer with my Lenovo ideapad. Although apprehensive, due to my past "not so sweet memories", I decided to go ahead with Photon+, as it offered seamless connectivity in the North Eastern regions too, unlike Reliance Netconnect+. Starting then, it has been a tale of unfulfilled promises. Let me share a couple of such instances.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the first case, the speed had been down to a crawl. After I had lodged a complaint, someone from the Customer Care informed me that a technician would be visiting my house to check the problem. She further stated that if faults were to be found in their network, there would be no service charges. However, if the problem was at my end, I will have to pay Rs.150/- as service charge. The technician duly visited and could find no fault with my system. It seemed that the cause of the problem lay in their network. But, come next billing cycle and surprise! They had added an additional Rs.150/- as the services charge. When confronted, they claimed that something was wrong in my system, which, by the way, was a plain lie. How do I categorize this? As cheating, of course.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the second instance, which started on the morning of 25th May 2012, the connectivity had pulled a Sorcar like trick and had disappeared altogether. I tried calling the customer care at around 12.30 pm. No success. Around 6.30 pm on the same day, after 7th or 8th attempt, I could speak to a Customer Care Executive (CCE) at last. But, it did not solve the matters and the CCE told me that some kind of upgradation work is being done in the area where I lived, and assured me that normalcy would be restored within 2 hours. Even after 7 hours and 4 more phone calls, the situation remained the same. It was 1.30 am on 26th May 2012 by that time. What followed next is the tale of going round in circles without any solution in sight. However, by that time, I managed to do two things. I had sent a formal complaint mail to the Customer Care, thereby raising a ticket. And, I somehow checked the available bandwidth, which was a princely 11 kbps. After 36 hours had passed since the beginning of the connectivity problem, at last I could get a reliable estimate of time period till normalcy to be restored. A CCE told me at 10.45 pm on 26 May 2012, Sunday, that the services would not be back to normal state before Monday (27 May 2012) morning. Monday morning arrived, but the problem persisted. It was only around noon, that the issue was finally resolved and normal connectivity was restored. However, no one bothered to contact me for the resolution of the complaint till 31st May 2012, when a lady called me to say, ".... Sir, regarding your complaint with ticket number xxxxxx, I would like to inform you that we are closing the same as resolved, as the connectivity problem no longer exists." Without really giving me a chance to say anything, she ended the call abruptly. May be, that’s the newest way of resolving customer complaints!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Overall, the Photon+ service has not been able to stand up to the hype surrounding it. The major issues with the services, according to me, remain as follows -</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">1. <u>Pricing</u>:</span></b> Photon+ is definitely costlier than its competitors. When Reliance is offering 3G 5GB unlimited services at a speed of up to 7.2 Mbps at Rs.600/- per month, Photon+ 5GB unlimited data plan costs Rs.950/- plus taxes and that too at a lower speed of up to 3.1 Mbps. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">2. <u>Speed</u>:</span></b> As I have been using wireless Internet connectivity since 2005-06, I have had the opportunity of experiencing and experimenting with almost all the available service providers. I can definitely vouch that Reliance Netconnect+ Broadband provides a faster connectivity in Kolkata and surrounding areas. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">3. <u>Reliability</u>:</span></b> Photon+ does not provide a very reliable connectivity and as such, it should not be depended upon as the primary mode of Internet connectivity, especially by the professional users. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">4. <u>Signal Drop</u>:</span></b> Another major problem seems to be the drop in signals after a few hours of continuous use. The only remedy to this problem is to follow the Disconnect and Reconnect routine. At the middle of some serious work, it can be really annoying. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">5. <u>Customer Care</u>:</span></b> The less said about the Customer Care, the better. The CCEs seem to be totally clueless as to the happenings in the network. When it comes to even the most simple of trouble-shooting works, their lack of technical prowess comes to the fore. Add to that the tendency of the CCEs to finish the calls in a hurry, probably to meet some call time target, and you have what you can call a totally "uncaring" Customer Care.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On the positive sides, Tata Photon+ has got a decent network coverage, that covers even the North Eastern states. Also, one should get relatively fast Internet connectivity in all the major regions of the country. The same however, cannot be said about its competitors. In case someone has to travel a lot and the travel itinerary include the states of the North Eastern region, only then, I would recommend buying a Tata Photon+ connection.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Otherwise, my advice would be to steer clear of Photon+. One may check out other service providers’ offerings and settle for the one that offers reliable connectivity across different regions , without any substantial drop in the speed and at a cheaper price . With 3G and 4G services kicking in, it might not be a bad idea to consider a GSM product too. However, the only problem in choosing a GSM service would be the vast difference of speed between any of 4G/3G with that of an EDGE or a simple GPRS network.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>P.S.</i> While writing this review, I have had to follow the Disconnect - Reconnect routine twice!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-11230113036954516052012-08-17T12:14:00.001+05:302012-08-28T23:12:42.515+05:30In Focus - LiveChant.com, the start-up to watch out for<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I</span> have this habit of looking up random websites, new ventures et al. People fiddle with their television remotes for zapping through channels, while I go through web directories, search engine results, entrepreneurship forums and groups to learn about new ventures, visit their website(s), try to understand the underlying business model(s). If possible, I also try to analyze the robustness of the business basics, conduct a simple SWOT analysis and make an attempt at predicting how good, bad or ugly the business would fare in the future. Of course, I am no Warren Buffet, and I do this simply because of my love for strategic management.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rSKgw28i3Qw/UCop7vKcBoI/AAAAAAAAArY/vm9kfnn_IwY/s1600/livechant_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="LiveChant is derived from Live Merchant" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rSKgw28i3Qw/UCop7vKcBoI/AAAAAAAAArY/vm9kfnn_IwY/s1600/livechant_logo.png" title="Logo of LiveChant.com" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.livechant.com/" target="_blank">LiveChant</a>, a platform<br />
for sellers & buyers, is<br />
a portmanteau of<br />
Live and Merchant</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That's how I came across an interesting website, a virtual platform to be more specific, named <a href="http://livechant.com/" target="_blank"><b>LiveChant.com</b></a>. The very first impression, the so called <i>"halo effect"</i>, made sure that I would spend the next half an hour or so, exploring <b>LiveChant</b>. What attracted me was the simple, yet solid business model, that the promoters of the business have banked on.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant.com</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By the time I exited the site, I had already decided to showcase this tech start-up in my blog. So, I connected with one of the promoters, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/arindam-paul/1b/4b8/a26" target="_blank">Arindam Paul</a>, who is an engineer from <a href="http://www.nits.ac.in/" target="_blank">National Institute of Technology (NIT)</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silchar" target="_blank">Silchar</a> and prior to founding <b>LiveChant</b>, had worked with some of the biggest names in the IT sector. After a couple of rounds of detailed discussions, my belief about the viability of the business model and success of the business, were further strengthened. It does not mean that they do not have any vulnerability, but if they continue to play according to their strengths, there should not be any reason for <b>LiveChant</b> to not succeed. These discussions and my own background research, helped me in aggregating </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">enough information on <b>LiveChant.com</b>. Armed with these, let me try and decode its target client base, business model, value proposition and its </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">s</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">trengths, </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">w</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">eaknesses, </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">o</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pportunities and </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">t</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">hreats, i.e. SWOT, which, when combined together, would determine how the business will shape up in future.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">arindam paul livechant review</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To begin with, the name <b>LiveChant</b> is a portmanteau of two words - <i>Live</i> and Mer<i>chant</i>. Essentially, it is a <i>Local Search Engine</i> platform with in-built interconnect with the social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At this point, you would interrupt me, and smugly ask, <i>"There are</i> <i>quite a sizeable population of companies offering similar types of services.</i> <i>The idea about <b>LiveChant </b>isn't that unique or novel. So, what makes you say that its different from others in the same space?"</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant online platform for merchants</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, <b>LiveChant</b> is different, because it is indeed different! I do agree that a number of web based platforms offer <i>similar</i> type of services, but the similarity ends there itself. Even to a casual observer, the key <em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">differentiators would be too apparently visible.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant online platform for consumers</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During the first of our two sessions of Skype discussions, Arindam had pointed out that <b>LiveChant</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> is still in the beta testing phase, and a limited edition service for Bangalore has already been launched.</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> He further emphasized that</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">LiveChant.com</b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> provides and act as a common platform. A platform, where the merchants can showcase their products or services offerings to a highly focussed and relevant targeted group of prospective customers and can also communicate about the latest deals, discounts, freebies, offers, launches, loyalty programs, contests etc. in real time and in a hassle-free, low cost way. Most importantly, the marketers and the merchants can choose to address only the most relevant group(s), thereby saving on money, energy, efforts and time, most of which would have been wasted in case of an umbrella promotional campaign. Also, the marketers and merchants do not have to worry about flouting rules related to marketing campaigns, as the <b>LiveChant</b> team ensures that prior explicit approvals have been obtained from the prospects.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant online platform for b2c</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gLzv3SkQpvs/UCubas5LqtI/AAAAAAAAAsg/Ch7ytV4BedU/s1600/LiveChant-com-screen-capture-500x257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="164" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gLzv3SkQpvs/UCubas5LqtI/AAAAAAAAAsg/Ch7ytV4BedU/s320/LiveChant-com-screen-capture-500x257.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen Grab of LiveChant's Homepage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Team <b>LiveChant</b> isn't short of confidence either, and very rightly so. During our discussions, Arindam probably had the most harrowing time of his life, because he was trying to make me understand the intricate technologies being adopted and used by them. And, the less said about my technological prowess in these matters, the better. After a good amount of background research, I am pretty impressed with the finesse that Team LiveChant possesses. When I spoke to a very senior industry stalwart, and narrated the entire story to him, he too, was hugely impressed and said, <i>"I am really upbeat about the technology they are using. Node.js, MongoDb and Redis. Node.js is the buzzword in the start-up fraternity in the Bay Area in US. They seem to be one of the early adapters in India. High in performance and highly scalable, it holds lots of promises, lots of capabilities. We need to watch and see how they transform the merchant-consumer communication model. Most definitely, I will keep tracking their progress."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">livechant Shovon Chakraborty</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Coming back to my domain, that is the business side, I can foresee the newer avenues that LiveChant can open up. From a merchant’s point of view, they can communicate to the customers in real time, and in a manner, as if the customer has walked in to his premises. As of yesterday, merchants could get their listing in many online forums or trade directories, but not a single one of those gives them the opportunity of using a common platform, through which they can share consumer specific, personalized information in an easy way and without any time lag. For the merchants, this innovation has opened up a hitherto unavailable horizon, that too at a reasonable cost and offers a high RoI. It does not come as a surprise to me, that more and more merchants are queuing up everyday to add their businesses, products & services offerings and special deals, offers, loyalty schemes etc. to the LiveChant database. </span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">business review by shovon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From the consumers’ perspective too, <b>LiveChant</b> delivers great value. Let me share an anecdote, which should make it very clear. Suppose, while on a shopping spree in one of those huge malls, I just walk in to one of the stores and bought some clothes, accessories, footwear. I pay up my bill, collect the items and happily leave the store, having secured a 15% discount on the total value. Unfortunately, as I walk up to the next floor, suddenly my happiness vanishes. Why? Because, on that floor, another store, which is an even bigger brand, is offering a 50% discount! It’s only too bad, that I have already exhausted all of my expendable resources. There is no other option for me but to head home with a heavy heart and light purse. Now, imagine the scenario, if I had access to some service provider like <b>LiveChant</b>. In that case, I would have got a real-time update about the various offers, discounts etc., being offered by multiple outlets in a shopping mall. That would have enabled me to straightway head to the store with the best offer. The end result would have been a lighter heart and heavier pocket! Not only that, I would not have to waste time too.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">start-up business in focus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In case, you still do a<i> Jaaved Jaaferi</i> act, as in Maggi’s ad, and pop the question, “How is it different?” I will try to explain it from my personal experiences. Several times, I have thought of utilizing the great (and not so great too) offers on the popular websites, but having been bitten a few times, feel skeptical to commit to something without physical verification. Also, it happens all too often, that after the online transaction is successful, suddenly some “conditions apply” clause pops up like a genie out of the lamp, after I turn-up at the place to collect the product. With LiveChant, the possibility of something similar happening with the client is almost nil. I simply need to search the area where I am going to shop and find live deals from multiple merchants covering the entire range of products categories. It’s totally uncomplicated. I grab the best offer without paying anything or having to commit to it.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">live merchant</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For the time being, the services are available only for the residents of Bangalore and will remain so till the beta testing phase is over. Once everything's in place, they plan to expand to all other metro cities, as part of their Phase-I expansion strategy. Gradually, they intend to cover all major agglomerations and bring about a positive change in the quality of life enjoyed by the citizens. Looking at the vision, zeal and enthusiasm of the entire team, that day is not very far away. Oh, and of course, next time, before heading to Forum at Kormangala or some other mall, don't forget to check out <b>LiveChant</b>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">review by shovon</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com1Bangalore, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.594562712.724026199999999 77.2787057 13.2191712 77.910419699999991tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-38231835441569248772012-07-31T18:44:00.000+05:302012-08-14T15:41:07.303+05:30Dot Com - From boom to bust, an eyewitness account<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t was the year 1999 and apart from the impending Y2K problem, the overall picture looked rosy. Business confidence was high and so was the rate at which new businesses sprang up. In a way, it was the best of times for a fresher to enter the job market. But, as it turned out later, it was also the worst of times! No one knew about the impending bursting of the Dot Com bubble, and the recession, that would follow. After all, despite all technological advances, there are no ways to predict the future.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business blog</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a fresher, just out of the university with a degree in business management, I had also wanted to join the vibrant, cool and a quick-short-cut to riches world of the Dot Com industry. After all, it was 1999-2000 and every other young entrepreneur had secured funding for his/her dot com venture. It seemed that the venture capitalists were roaming around with bags full of dollars and were willing to hand it over to anybody, who could come up with a half-decent idea about a new dot com and a catchy enough name for the domain. On hindsight, I must agree that it was only fair that the whole thing would implode, as the fundamentals for most of the ventures were weak or even worse, almost non-existent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">dot com bubble bursting</span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, what went wrong? Well, almost everything!</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">dot com boom to bust followed recession</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let me share my own experience. I had been doing freelancing works for three channels - a portal where people could hire experts for getting their work done, a site which allowed people to send and receive e-mails through their mobile devices and a site which provided updates to people on the availability of targeted domain names. Let's call them <i>Adotcom</i>, <i>Bdotcom</i> and <i>Cdotcom</i> respectively, and see how they fared.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">dot com y2k problem business fundamental</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The idea behind <i>Adotcom</i> was to provide a platform to people from diverse backgrounds to virtually meet one another and leverage the diversity of their skills and experience. Sounds familiar? It should, because the same concept was later on used by <a href="https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome" target="_blank">Amazon Mechanical Turk</a> and other online jobs marketplace service providers to build sustainable business models, but <i>Adotcom</i> did not survive. Why? Because, in those days, there was an underlying belief that everything on the Internet should be free. So, for providing the services, that an offline intermediary would provide for a fee, the portal did not charge anything from the members. The whole burden for generating revenue was on online advertisements to be put up in the site. Today, the model might have made sense, with all the targeted advertising and payable additional services, but in those pre-Google days, it was not at all sufficient. To this basic flaw in business plan, if one adds the other drawbacks, the business plan would come across as a recipe for disaster. The number of Internet users in India was yet to attain a critical mass. Even the connectivity, mostly dial-up in those days, was erratic at best and pathetic at worst. Moreover, the people of India had a mind block, which prevented them from transacting online and the fact that core banking solutions were still some years away, only added to the woes. It comes across as no surprise then, that this venture folded up by 2001 itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">dot com weak revenue stream</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Bdotcom</i> was also some years ahead of its times. Mobile telephony was in nascent stage and was yet to achieve the level of penetration, that would have been required for such a venture to succeed. Moreover, the call charges in those days were really prohibitive and people even hesitated to receive a call on their mobile. It worked out to be cheaper if, i</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">nstead of receiving, the person simply disconnected the call and made an outgoing call from the nearest PCO. Under such circumstances, it was only foolish to expect a dedicated user base who would use the services for checking their mails on mobile. Even the Wireless Application Protocol or WAP, used in those days to communicate with the mobile devices, was in a relatively primitive stage and could not ensure a positive user experience. With the inevitable fate clearly visible, it wound up probably by the beginning of 2001.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">dot com shovon chakraborty first person account</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Cdotcom</i> was borne out of people's fascination with domain names in those days. Without a clear idea about the applicability of the the brick and mortar corporate and intellectual property laws on the online world, the general belief was that if someone could get hold of a domain name, there was a fair chance of holding off the rightful owner of the name and making way with a hefty sum by selling the name to the owner itself. As things became clear and the IPR related laws were enacted for the Internet, the demand for such a paid service drastically got reduced. Also, soon it became pretty clear that a snazzy domain name alone cannot guarantee success, as was seen in the case of boo.com, the first spectacular fatality that started a chain reaction of more such failures. So, bereft of customer interest, this one also died sometimes in 2002. But, it also showed that a paid service model was much more sustainable, provided there are enough numbers of willing customers and the fact that <i>Cdotcom </i>outlived the other two, bears testimony to that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: white;">dot com new age networks google facebook</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Today, when we look back at the amount of money that went down the drain, during the peak of the dot com frenzy days, we can't but feel saddened by the sheer wastage of good capital, which could have been utilized in business projects having much better viability. The ventures, which faltered and with them, took down venture capitalists too, were lacking any kind of solid business fundamentals. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some ventures failed due to being ahead of its time too. The over dependence on advertising revenue for sustaining the business, spelled doom for many ventures. The ones that survived the bursting of the dot com bubble phase and the recession that followed, had to reinvent themselves and work on creating multiple revenue streams. Those, who could reduce their dependence on the ad revenue and could generate revenues from multiple other streams too, are still around, albeit with varying degrees of success. If the early baby boomers had their swinging sixties, our generation had an equivalent in business terms during those heady days of late 1990s and early 2000s. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Somewhere down the line, between then and today, two companies, Google and Facebook, changed the whole market dynamics of the online businesses. But that's another story, to be told at a different time.</span></div>
</div>
Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-2207530519833650742012-07-25T03:23:00.000+05:302012-08-01T00:23:44.072+05:3011 free authoring tools for eLearning, based on Christopher Pappas' presentation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his write-up is based on the original post by </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherpappas" target="_blank"><i>Christopher Pappas</i></a>, who is the Project Manager at </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.antennagroup.gr/www/default.aspx" target="_blank"><i>ANTENNA Group</i></a>, which is the largest Greek media group in the world. Pappas had originally posted this write-up at <a href="http://elearningindustry.com/subjects/tools/item/207-free-authoring-tools-for-elearning?goback=%2Egde_27003_member_137787411" target="_blank"><i>elearningindustry.com</i></a> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and also at LinkedIn.com, where he has given the permission to share his presentation on blogs. As the tools seem to be quite handy, so I decided to share the presentation, along with the tools highlighted in the presentation. Additionally, I have also gone through the entire comments section and added the tools, which fit the criteria.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business weblog</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As the name suggests, this write-up provides a list of <i>"free authoring tools"</i> that one can use in the eLearning design and development process. <i>Pappas</i> has also requested anyone, who has used these authoring tools, to share with him, a demo of the final output at the URL given above. <span style="background-color: white;">In case, there are free authoring tools that is not included in the list please feel free to leave a comment describing the salient features and a link to the site.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ol><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.authorgen.com/authorpoint/index.htm" target="_blank"><b>authorPOINT</b></a> by <a href="http://www.authorgen.com/" target="_blank"><b>authorGEN Technologies</b></a><b>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">authorPOINT is an authoring tool that allows users to capture presentations and add pre-recorded audio/video/multimedia, all inside of Microsoft PowerPoint. authorGEN also offers authorPOINT Lite, which converts PowerPoint presentations to Flash.</span></li>
<li><b style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.dipity.com/" target="_blank">Dipity</a></b><span style="background-color: white;"> by <b>Dipity:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">From what we can gather from the company's website, Dipity is an online timeline creator. Users, known as <i>Dipsters</i>, can create their own content on subjects that are meaningful to them and share them with other users. <i>Dipsters</i> can also integrate social media into their timeline, utilizing real-time updates.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.jetdraft.com/eng/jds/about" target="_blank">Document Suite 2008</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.jetdraft.com/" target="_blank">JetDraft Software</a>: </b></span><span style="background-color: white;">Document Suite 2008 is an authoring tool that helps in transforming documents into online help modules.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.izzui.com/" target="_blank">Izzui</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.quicklessons.com/" target="_blank">QuickLessons LLC</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Izzui is a hybrid social learning application that can be linked with QuickLessons. Izzui uses Facebook as an LMS to track and deliver courses. Izzui also has an e-Commerce capability allowing users to charge and pay for courses that they have created.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.jackdawcms.com/" target="_blank">Jackdaw</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.e-learningwmb.co.uk/" target="_blank">e-Learning WMB</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Jackdaw produces SCORM 1.2 compliant content that is easily integrated into any LMS. Users can create interactive content either from scratch or with the the help of over 100 templates. Jackdaw also lets users create content that they can then sell on the Open Elms webstore.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.lessonwriter.com/register.aspx" target="_blank">LessonWriter</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.lessonwriter.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Lesson Writer</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">The company website tells us that LessonWriter is a tool for teachers, which allows them to create lessons from any passage. These courses allow teachers to be creative with their lesson plans and also saves them a great deal of time.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.mindonsite.com/en/produits/mos-solo/" target="_blank">MOS Solo</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.mindonsite.com/en" target="_blank">MindOnSite</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">MOS Solo offers a way for users to create content on the go without having to rely on a constant Internet connection. Even though they are using an offline content creation tool, they do not lose any of the functionality or power to create their multimedia content.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.udutu.com/products_myudutu.html" target="_blank">myUdutu Course Authoring Tool</a> </b>by <b><a href="http://www.udutu.com/" target="_blank">Udutu Online Learning Solutions</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">A free online authoring tool with a suite of WSIWYG tools, allowing users to create courses in an approachable environment. Claims to export SCORM 1.2/2004 conformant courses to be used in a 3rd party LMS or integrate into social media sites, such as Facebook.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="https://quicklessons.com/login/new/default.aspx?p1=1" target="_blank">QuickLessons Authoring Tool</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.quicklessons.com/" target="_blank">QuickLessons LLC</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">QuickLessons was built from the ground up to be a completely SaaS based content authoring tool, requiring the user to only have access to a web-browser. QuickLessons comes equipped with quizzes, games, characters, out-of-the-box animations and other customizable content to allow users to create truly unique and interactive flash-based content to meet their needs. Users can either use QuickLessons for free, publishing their content only to Facebook, or they can buy an individual, corporate or academic account.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Scratch</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT Media Lab</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">From what we can gather from their website, Scratch is a creative tool that helps users create content that is beyond the barriers of traditional page-turners. Scratch users can create interactive stories, animation, music, and art, then share their creations on the web.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="http://www.xtimeline.com/" target="_blank">xtimeline</a></b> by <b><a href="http://www.famento.com/" target="_blank">Famento Inc.</a>:</b> </span><span style="background-color: white;">xtimeline is a tool that allows users to create timeline based content for free. Users can also share their timelines with other users, creating a community.</span></li>
</span></ol>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">shovon chakraborty business weblog</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/13718217" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" width="427"></iframe> </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/elearningindustry/free-authoring-tools-for-elearning" target="_blank" title="Free authoring tools for eLearning">Free authoring tools for eLearning</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/elearningindustry" target="_blank">eLearning Industry</a></span> </span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
</span></div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-38331145240926352002012-05-29T19:34:00.000+05:302012-07-15T01:51:06.523+05:30"Offer Letters" at fifty thousand rupees - When will Indian students act smart?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span>n ex-colleague of mine had called me up last Sunday evening. He was a bit perplexed and wanted to discuss about a <i>"deal"</i> that his cousin has been "<i>offered"</i>. This cousin has been studying in one of the average private engineering colleges for her B.Tech in Computer Science and is currently in the last semester. Although a decent student, she had failed to land up any job offers during the major campus recruitment drives conducted at her college. As a result, she has been a bit tensed over the last 4-5 months and has been attending all sorts of fresher recruitment drives conducted in the city. That's how she came to know a certain person, who claims to be an HR Manager with a company of repute. She had meet this man at one of the pulled-campus events conducted at a different college and where final year students from multiple colleges took part. After the interview was over, the so called HR Manager informed her and some of her classmates, through their college's In-charge for Training and Placement, that theirs were borderline cases and that they could be accommodated in the company if they are ready to pay a certain amount as <i>"Training Fees"</i>. Once they pay the sum of Rs.50,000/- <i>in cash</i>, he would hand over the offer letters to them. He justified this by saying that the students did not meet the cut-off criteria set by the company and as such, the company will have to incur some costs in training them on the job and uplifting their skill-sets to the required standard. Even the In-charge of Training and Placement of their college was urging them to take up the offer. Now, the cousin is in a quandary and cannot decide whether to pay or not.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is just one example from the thousands of such <i>"offers",</i> which the students are bombarded with, every year. Of course, I told my friend that the most sensible thing to do in such a situation is to walk away. As far as I am concerned, I don't know of any company worth its salt, which will recruit candidates in this manner. But, every year many colleges and students are falling prey to these scamsters.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">India, today, is home to the largest number of private engineering and management colleges. Over the period of last 5 years, the total capacity of intake, for all the engineering colleges combined together, has more than doubled. In case of management, the percentage increase is even bigger. This has definitely enabled more youths to choose engineering or management disciplines as career option, but at the same time, this unchecked explosion has also resulted in lower quality of the final output, i.e. the graduating students. Moreover, students taking admissions in private colleges have an attitude that providing placement is the responsibility of the college authorities. The authorities, on their part, find it extremely hard to provide placement to students, who are not up to the mark. Again the market dynamics demand that to attract new students, the colleges will have to provide the best possible opportunities to the students.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It is in this grey area, that many an unscrupulous businessmen and companies have started operating of late. In fact, there are multiple instances of companies conducting recruitment drives in colleges, rolling out offer letters to candidates after collecting a good amount of money and then vanishing without a trace.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">These companies normally follow three types of <i>modus operandi</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A company may ask the students to enroll for a training with them after the final examinations are over. On completion of the training, paid for by the students, the successful ones are retained by the company and candidates who do not meet the expectation are discharged with an experience certificate. This policy, although not purely ethical, at least prepares the candidate in terms of their expectation.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are also companies, which act as an agent of another company, the actual recruiter. It is common knowledge nowadays that these agents can get a confirmation from the recruiting company on the minimum number of candidates that will be recruited from a particular campus. On the basis of that commitment and other internal dynamics, they charge an amount upfront as <i>Placement Charges</i>. In this case too, the chances of getting a fake offer letter is limited if the agent is chosen carefully.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lastly, there are the pure fraudsters. This can be anyone - a fictitious company, an unscrupulous agent, a rogue employee of a genuine company and even college authorities themselves! Their operation procedure is simple. They hype up the news of the recruitment drive and collect money from the maximum number of students in return for the offer letters. They promise that the final offer letters would be issued in near future and the candidates would be able to join the company on completion of their course. Once a candidate hands over the money, s/he normally does not get to contact the concerned persons again.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the number of such fictitious entities, employing the third, method is on the rise. And, this will continue unabated till the students and their parents refuse to pay any amount for getting a job. We have seen many such companies duping students to the tune of crores of rupees and yet, the college authorities and the students fail to learn their lessons. In fact, in some cases, even the college authorities are found to be hand in glove with the fraudsters. Over the period of last few years, at least half a dozen companies have taken the students for a ride. Astonishingly, the same persons come back in a different avatar after a period of time, carrying a different nameplate and continue their loot.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, my request to all the stakeholders - colleges, as well as students & their parents/guardians - would be to walk away from these type of offers. The simple reason is that none of the genuine companies would be recruiting someone in this manner. And, if a company promises you an offer letter at a price, then it does not follow ethical business practices and in all probability, does not have the requisite cash flow to sustain its operations. If a person or agency makes the promise, then either s/he is lying or s/he is cheating with her/his own company or client(s). In both the cases, if the actual recruiter's upper management has an inkling of what's going on, then the offer letters would have only one place to go - the waste paper basket. It is far better an option to enroll in a program for upkilling yourself and enter the job market on your own competence.</span></div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-84710209408947788072012-05-27T22:56:00.001+05:302012-05-28T16:17:02.970+05:30Great Indian Drama After The Petrol Price Hike<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ince the last price hike by the central government, there has been a lot of sounds of discontent from different quarters, specifically targeting the prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and the finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. Most of the political leaders have taken this opportunity to fish in the muddied water. So, we have a General Strike on 31st May, called by the BJP (or is it NDA?), we have a UP <i>bandh</i> called by Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party, we have protest rallies by CPI(M) & the left front, and even by their sworn enemy, the TMC. At last, amidst this intolerable heat and humidity, some good news! We are going to have some off days to chill. And, in the process, Indian economy will lose some hundreds of crores of rupees. But, that's acceptable. After all, the interest of the common man is sacrosanct.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Common man? Yes. At least the political leaders, as well as our netizens, would like everybody to believe that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You still end up asking an idiotic question. Who actually can be tagged as the all important "common man"? Now, come on! Please don't show the entire world the true depth of your intellect, you will be told. Still, you persist on knowing how the common man is effected by the hike in the price of the petrol. You will be told in a very condescending manner that the common man in India today owns 2 wheeler and 4 wheeler, goes to his workplace normally driving his own car, goes to the neighborhood market riding his bike and still you ask such questions. After all, isn't India shining? You shake your head in acceptance and walk away.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the fear of making a joker out of yourself, you fail to ask the questions that had been trying hard to open the lock-gate and come out of your mouth. There were so many of them. You wanted to know whether the people who cannot spend Rs. 32 per day in a metro or the people who earn Rs. 33 per day, are they called <i style="font-weight: bold;">"uncommon man"</i> ? The people who travel by public transport system everyday because they cannot afford a 2 wheeler, let alone a 4 wheeler, whether they also are called <i style="font-weight: bold;">"uncommon man" </i>or not. The villager, who depends on the 100 days work scheme, what's his tagline? How do you classify the hawker on the pavement, the conductor on the private bus, the porter at the rail station, the <i>panwalah </i>near your home, the newspaper hawker, the domestic help, the vegetable seller? And this list is endless. Are not they the numerically superior group of people? If so, following the principle of democracy, should not they be called the <i style="font-weight: bold;">"common man"</i>?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, come on! These are irrelevant questions and raised simply to derail the agitation of the leaders of the masses. So what, if the daily labourer and his family have to skip a meal due to the strike? If the people from the bottom most strata of the society go on empty stomach for half a day or one day, is that a big deal? After all, they are used to it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, we, the empowered common men of India, cannot travel in the crowded buses amidst this heat and humidity. We cannot walk to the market as we don't have the time. We have to switch on the AC in the car to beat the heat. And, all these require petrol as the source of energy. So, if the Government has given a free hand to the oil companies in deciding the price, that is so unethical. So what, if the oil companies have to bear huge losses by selling petrol at a price lower than the cost? So what, if ultimately the taxpayers' money is being used for compensating the oil companies? At least, we bought petrol at a cheaper rate <i>na</i>!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And the circus continues!</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>P.S.</b> This information is issued in the public interest, and is for all those men and women, who put up posters on Facebook and other social networking forums, claiming to provide a "break-up" of the cost to final price for a litre of petrol.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">At Kolkata, the actual break-up is as follows - </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Petrol Cost: Rs. 44.70</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dealer Fee: Rs. <span style="color: white;">1</span>1.50</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Central Taxes: Rs. 14.78</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">State Taxes: Rs. 16.90</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">End Price at the Pump: Rs. 77.88</span></i><br />
<i style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: The Telegraph, Calcutta. Friday, 25 May 2012. Front Page.</span></i></div>
</div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-13462108905238274552012-05-25T19:47:00.000+05:302012-05-25T19:49:01.552+05:30Recent Controversial Advertisements<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></b>hey say that an advertisement agency's job is a thankless one. Ad agencies are expected to deliver <i>that</i> killer ad every time, thereby resulting in a huge pile of additional cash for the advertiser. If it succeeds, the advertiser is the one basking in the glory. When it fails, it's head is the first one on the chopping block.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It should not come as a surprise then that the agencies would try to hardsell the advertisers' offering(s) through whatever means, law permitting. Consequently, the mantra for the ad agency is to "<i>sell, sell and sell</i>". And if "<i>everything else fails, then start chanting sex, sex and sex; because sex always sells</i>".</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the recent past, we have seen ad agencies falling back on this adage rather liberally and the resultant ad contents have sometimes bordered on the outrageous. As a consequence, both the agency and the advertiser have managed to more than ruffle a few feathers.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the end, even our parliamentarians took notice of the resultant commotion and there was a raging debate in the parliament on the ways of stopping such ads from appearing in the media and polluting the minds of the <i>innocent</i> general people of the country.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Actually it amazes me that the politicians view themselves as self-styled guardians of the very people, who are otherwise matured enough to cast their votes and decide that the same set of politicians would be running the country for the next five years. At that time, the people are capable enough to judge what's good or bad for them. But, when it comes to the depiction of anything related to the most basic urge in the media, these same people are considered to be incapable of taking the right decision. Hence, the parliamentarians have to act as chaperone!</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While I do not support the creation of yet another regulator or the idea of censorship, even then I have to accept that some of the advertisements were really in bad taste.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Let's take a look at the controversial advertisements that left a bad taste in the mouth.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>1. Clean & Dry "Intimate Wash":</b> The advertisement for a new skin whitening product for private parts, <i>Clean & Dry Intimate Wash</i>, was the latest in a series of controversial ads, which created a public outrage. The campaign earned the wrath of different women's groups, who called this <i>"an ultimate insult to women”</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">T</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">he commercial promises that the product, with its special pH-balanced formula, cleans and protects the private area, and even makes the skin fairer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To me, the very idea of the ad is sickening and the execution, appalling. When I first saw the ad, the questions that came across my mind were, "What the hell! Where are we going? What's next?" The fascination of the Indians about the fairer complex is well known. This has also resulted in a very real life discrimination against women of darker complex. Knowing all these, if a company introduces and promotes - during prime time - a product like <i>Clean & Dry Intimate Wash</i>, then the business ethics of the company should be questioned. Perhaps the company and its management are unaware of the term, <i>"corporate social responsibility"</i>.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe align="center" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nYT5Z9GM6Nw" width="400"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vfrr_-5pU-k/T79_RE7425I/AAAAAAAAAaE/lRfiduSpr18/s1600/Flying-Machine-Ad02.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vfrr_-5pU-k/T79_RE7425I/AAAAAAAAAaE/lRfiduSpr18/s320/Flying-Machine-Ad02.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flying Machine's campaign raised "some" dust.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>2. Flying Machine:</b> <i>Flying Machine</i> had hoped that its newest print ad campaign </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">would help engrave the brand into the minds of India's youth. Instead, it has flown into a storm of controversy. One of the earliest home-grown jeans brands, <i>Flying Machine</i>, had released a series of print advertisement where the camera zoomed on the buttock of a female model wearing tight fit jeans. The tagline in big, bold font screamed, <i>"What an Ass!"</i> It was probably meant to inject or highlight the oomph factor and the cool quotient in an old brand, perhaps even mimic the edginess of the <i>"All asses were not created equal"</i> tagline from the advertisement, released last year, by larger rival <i>Levi Strauss & Co</i>. While the jury is still to be out on whether <i>Flying Machine</i>'s latest campaign has been able to achieve the avowed objectives, the advertisement, most definitely, has been able to generate heat in some quarters, especially the women rights groups.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>3. Amul Macho - Yeh to bada toing hain!:</b> Frankly speaking, I never saw anything wrong with this ad. There were three different versions of this ad and were shown mostly during the evening prime time hours. I thought that the ads, although suggestive in parts, were pretty hilarious, as well as good and could capture the essence of the product's tagline, <i>"Crafted for Fantasy"</i>. Well, the persons, who actually matter in these cases, evidently thought otherwise. The ad was banned from the prime time hours due to its vulgarity and suggestive sexual acts. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry, later cleared it for public viewing. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Judge for yourself.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oak7_6Dgt_E" width="420"></iframe>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>4. Fast Track: </b><i>Fast Track</i>, the cool brand of watches & shades from the house of <i>Titan,</i> introduced a TV commercial titled, <i>"Why the world moved to autopilot?"</i> The ad starred cricketer <i>Virat Kohli</i> and the chirpy <i>Genelia D'souza</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. The content of the ad, created by </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Lowe</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">,</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> raised quite a storm as the ad showed the pilot getting cozy with the air hostesses. Predictably, neither the pilots nor the air hostesses were amused and asked for the withdrawal of the ad. I guess the ad agency guys were really over the top here. Worse, they stereotyped two professions and the professionals as of amorous nature. Check out the ad below.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/674kRV4Lzvk" width="420"></iframe>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>5. </b></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Tata DoCoMo:</b> The last one in my list is the awful <i>Tata DoCoMo</i> ad. </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In another case of stereotyping people associated with a particular profession, the <i>Tata DoCoMo</i> ad shows a</span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> maid stealing a mobile phone and her employer catching her in the act when the phones starts ringing. The tagline, <i>“No Getting Away”,</i> suggests that wherever you may go, you'll have access to the <i>Tata DoCoMo</i> network. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, the depiction of the maid in this ad created a lot of controversies. There were several complaints that the advertisement was extremely crass and in bad taste, apart from casting aspersions on the integrity of the domestic workers as a whole. Activists argued that the domestic workers were a <i>"super exploited lot",</i> without any customary – let alone legal – rights worth the name. They also contended that the ad further reinforced the common prejudices against the domestic workers through stereotyping them as thieves.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The ad was, indeed, in a bad taste and the concerns raised were also very real. As a result, the company had to apologize and withdraw the ad.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wWsGT63dAUU" width="420"></iframe>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In spite of all these, be rest assured that we shall be able to create another list of awful ads around this time next year too. In the mad rush for selling one's products or services to the most number of customers, both the ad agency and the advertiser sometimes allow ethics to take a back seat and the resultant output deeply offends the sensibility of the prospective consumers. In the end, the advertiser, instead of gaining new clients, manages to even lose a part of the existing base. Yet, neither the agency, nor the company, has learnt the lesson. That's the amusing part.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-50111870536121477932012-04-29T19:14:00.000+05:302012-05-25T19:59:49.727+05:30Vocational Education in India - Next Blockbuster or Dud?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">H</span></b>istorically, the Indian subcontinent, which covers the modern day Pakistan, India & Bangladesh, had its own system of education. Some say, they had the best system of the time, while some others, as usual, disagree. One thing is sure, in the historical entity called India, there were many avenues of learning. And this learning process not only included the teaching of <i>Vedas</i> or Economics or Jurisprudence etc. but also included different trades, so vital for the effective running of a society. <span style="line-height: 115%;">The education systems of those era, not only
concentrated on creating white collar professionals by teaching the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Nyay<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>or<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Niti-shastras,</i> but also
produced workmen<i>.</i></span><i> </i>A person, who wanted to be a carpenter or a soldier or a blacksmith, could learn the art of their chosen trade through their <i>Gurus</i> - that too, theoretically as well as practically, through apprenticeship, and the society accepted this as the general practice. It's true that a person with knowledge of all the <i>Vedas</i>, <i>Niti</i>,<i> Nyay </i>and economic theories would be revered by the society. But that did not mean that the carpenter or the blacksmith or the masons were looked down upon as being part of lower strata. This ensured the rise of the Indian kingdoms, which in turn gave rise to the stories of their legendary wealth. On hindsight, these stories of richness attracted the attention of many groups of people, who, although not as sophisticated or civilized as the locals, definitely had better martial skills.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Over the centuries, the region has been invaded by numerous groups, some of whom assimilated with the locals while others chose to retain their distinct identities. These people also brought along themselves, new beliefs, new systems and of course a different social structure. This melting pot of a country or sub-continent, thus developed a mixed system of beliefs, religions, social practices and over the ages, the dignity of labour was forgotten.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cut to current day India. An India, which has grown at a blistering pace over the last 20 years. A country, which has one of the largest talent pools - in terms of number of persons within the working age - and despite that </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">there is a scarcity of employable candidates in almost
all the fields</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. Now, isn't that a bit confusing? On one hand, we have the largest talent pool and on the other, we are not being able to effectively feed the hunger of industry's ever-increasing requirement of the manpower. This can only mean that either the industrial growth has been too high and as such the manpower requirements cannot be met from within the country or that our education system simply does not produce the skilled manpower that the industry is looking for. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As we know that our growth-rate or actual growth
hasn't been that high, so the only answer would lead us to accept the
shortcomings of our education system, which, according to an industry veteran,
teaches us to play Cricket, while the industry demands that we should be good
in Baseball. You'll have to add to it the perception of social status among a
large section of India's population.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was earlier talking about the great education systems of yesteryear, but can I claim the same for our present systems too? The answer is a plain and simple "</span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If we look in to our education system, we'll find it to be divided in to pre-schools/KG/pre-primary, Primary, Secondary & Higher Secondary and Tertiary sections. Out of these, pre-schools are mostly in private hands and the Government's real intervention starts from the Primary Education. In these divisions, where does Vocational Education & Training (VET) fit in? The best fit would be to introduce vocational education parallely along Secondary & Higher Secondary and may be allowed to continue up to the Graduation. Of course, professional and technical education run along a different track on a separate plane altogether. This would have solved the problem faced by numerous "<i>educationally qualified</i>" but unemployed, as well as unemployable youths.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Let's take the real life example of a person, who had cleared 10th standard with 41% marks and enrolled in the 10+2 Arts stream. He cleared the Higher Secondary examination too, but with a similar 43% marks and then enrolled in B.A. with Bengali, Political Science and Philosophy. In due course of time, he graduated with 42% marks and then started looking for a job.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A couple of very valid questions then arose regarding his employable skills and those questions are valid even today for thousands of youth like him. What kind of job is this guy fit for? And, where is the scope for practical application of whatever he had studied/learned for 15 years?</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately, this person, who had been one year my senior, has remained unemployed till date. In his case, the degrees obtained were merely for decorative purposes, so that his parents and family could claim that he is a graduate. The Indian psyche would still rate this "</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">good for nothing</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">" educational qualification as higher than that of a classmate who had enrolled in an Industrial Training Center (ITI) and earns five figure salary per month working as an automobile mechanic!</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Luckily for us, the situations have started to change at last, although the rate of change is way too slow. The ruling powers at both the center, as well as the states have or at least claim to have understood the importance of vocational training and have come forward with active support in terms of resources as well as creating an atmosphere that is conducive for such training and education. Suddenly, there has been a bevy of activities in this "</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">supposedly</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">" lucrative market segment in India and every Tom, Dick & Harry are coming up with a vocational education division. This may actually backfire and may result in people losing whatever faith they have in these training programs. Many of these companies also have some kind of tie-up with either the </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">National Skill Development Council </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">NSDC</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) or some state government department(s). But the unrealistic target that they quote in terms of number of youths to be trained within a certain time period, makes one wonder about the long term ramifications.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My personal experience tells me that no amount of Government subsidies or grants can ensure the success of the vocational education & training initiatives till the mindsets of the population are changed to accept the vocational qualifications as at par with the traditional degrees when it comes to deciding the social status. But, for that to happen, the entire primary education system, including the teaching methods, need to be overhauled completely. Moreover, the recruitment process for teachers should also be made free of the political considerations. But, in India, no one will seriously believe that such a thing could happen overnight. The Government can also help in this regard by designing courses/degrees which will be equivalent to the traditional ones.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">May be, the best bet for the vocational education & training would be to continue working with the same zeal and the results will start to show 5 years down the line. Its a long term business proposition in India. If the companies are there to make a quick buck, then they should rethink their position & goals and should take an informed decision whether they are in the right business or not.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ultimately, the success or otherwise of vocational education in India will depend on the seriousness of the training providers, quality of training being provided, a positive push from the Government's side and the perception of the general population, especially the middle class, about the vocational degree, diploma and certifications. By 2016-17, it should be clear to us whether we have been able to bridge the targeted gap or not.</span></div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-2226222238188645802012-03-08T14:14:00.001+05:302012-05-25T20:03:07.967+05:30Sexing Up the CV - An Indian perspective<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">J</span></b>ust the other day, I came across a <a href="http://jobs.siliconindia.com/career-forum/A_question_to_IT_Companies_who_do_background_checking_for_fake_experience-qid-1988-catid-27.html" target="_blank">message</a> in an HR forum, posted by a lady who presumably works in an IT company. She had a major cribbing point about the background checks done by different IT companies and the resultant actions taken on the rogue employees. Continuing her whining, she tried her best to justify putting false credentials & experiences in the CV - which brings us to the point of trying to understand the general perception among employees in India about the practice of "window dressing" or "sexing up" the CV.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately, in a country like India, where corruption is omnipresent, candidates, especially at the entry level, do not think much about incorporating false information about a skill, a certification or diploma or work experience if that helps them in bagging the coveted offer. They would then hope that the falsification(s) would not be detected by the prospective employer and that they will get away with it. Over a period of time, these lies can get accumulated and may create a semblance of a profile which would invariably be as different as chalk and cheese from the real competence of the person.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Going back to the post of "our lady in the HR Forum", the shocking part is the brazen manner in which she has tried to justify this unethical conduct. From my personal experience and inputs received from my professional acquaintances, this brazenness is reflective of the general perception of Indian</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> professionals</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">!</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A study by </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR)</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> during the first few years of the century had revealed that t</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">he phenomenon of fake CVs was not just restricted to the software industry. It was also prevalent in other sectors like ITeS, BFSI, Retail etc. They also pointed out that Rs. 400 crores had been spent by Indian companies for filling 200,000 jobs a year in those sectors and 10-12% of the selected candidates had submitted false information in their CVs, leading to a huge waste in recruitment costs alone. Since then, this figure has been on the rise year on year. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Risk Advisory Group (TRAG)</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, 65% of CVs submitted in 2007 contained false information, a rise of 16% on the previous year’s amount. The latest r</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">esearch figures suggest that as many as 3 in 4 people, i.e. a whopping 75% of candidates, deviate from the truth on their CV, mostly about qualifications, job description & period of employment and salary.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What's more interesting, is the perception of most of the candidates towards the crime being committed. Most of them lie in their CV because </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">they think </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">that everyone else does it and hence, to remain </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">competitive</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, they must do it too. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The general perception is that the sexing the CV or windowdressing are ‘</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">harmless</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">’ and the benefits of lying far outweigh the risks of being caught.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">TRAG</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, women in their early 30s were the biggest culprits, with 77 per cent of resumes containing some kind of untruth. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even among the statistically most honest group, men in their early 20s, half of all CVs featured misleading information.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Another company, which specializes in background verification services and screens over 3,000 candidates per quarter, said that job seekers misled firms over everything from gaps in employment to fraud committed against previous employers. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The most common inaccuracies were in employment history, with 55 per cent of candidates inventing a more impressive career. A further 36 per cent lied about their qualifications. While </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">many of the discrepancies are simple errors of omission, around one in ten are more serious, viz. failure to disclose criminal convictions, fraud against previous employers or even terrorist links.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Although exaggeration is widespread, outright lies can lead to a doomed career as it’s not so much a moral issue as a legal one. If a candidate is offered a job on the back of information contained in her/his CV that the employer believes to be correct, then the employer is legally entitled to withdraw the job offer or sack the employee without prior notice if they discover that the CV contains false information. So employees found guilty of lying can lose their job and worse still, receive a reference that refers to the reason why!</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">An </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ex-colleague's</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> case is a classic example of this. We used to work in the same division, although in different profiles and he had been with the company for a far longer period than myself. During the last quarter of 2010, he received a good offer from an MNC with around 40% hike in the salary. He did not even bother to serve the notice period and joined the new company within a short period of time. One month down the line, he was begging our VP to get his old job back. As I knew someone in the other organization, I came to know the reason behind this. There was a discrepancy in his Graduation degree and so the MNC had withdrawn the offer. He was out of job for the next 8-9 months before joining a much smaller and downmarket organization with a lower salary than his previous job. I would still say that he has been lucky enough to get another chance, but there have been instances when the companies, especially in the IT & ITeS sectors, have sacked employees en masse on integrity issues or candidates even ending up in prison on forgery charges.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The combined effect of all these have seen the birth of a new industry vertical in itself - that of companies specializing in Background Checking services. While </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">many bigger organizations outsource background checking to these companies, e</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ven the ones which do not, are wising up to applicants' lies and doing more checks than before. Even industry bodies like </span><a href="http://www.nasscom.in/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank"><i>National Association Software & Services Companies</i> (<i>NASSCOM)</i></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> have initiated efforts like </span><a href="https://nationalskillsregistry.com/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-style: italic;" target="_blank">National Skill Registry (NSR)</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> in order to counter this ever growing menace.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After being in the industry for a decade, it is crystal clear to me that if someone does not want to destroy her career, she should not resort to lying in her CV. There are ways of promoting a profile and making them look attractive to the prospective companies without resorting to lies. If one is gifted with words and expressions, one can do that herself. Else, one can always hire a professional CV writer. That really works. And, without having to jeopardize one's career prospect by lying.</span></div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1250489273320491315.post-43007472950206898282012-02-26T19:56:00.002+05:302012-05-25T20:02:47.809+05:30Myspace.com - From $580 million to $35 million<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">W</span></b>hen Justin Timberlake & Specific Media LLC bought Myspace.com, reportedly at $35 million, I was really curious to know as to what went wrong with the company. After all, it had been acquired by News Corp. at a whopping $580 million only 6 years ago. Even that amount comes across as a paltry sum when compared with its peak valuation in 2007, a cool $12 billion!</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since its inception in 2003, Myspace had been leading the social media sites pack till March 2008. The following month, Facebook overtook it in the number of unique world wide visitors. It took Facebook another year or so to overtake Myspace in the USA rankings. Since then, it has been a downward spiral with no sign of a turnaround for the company to which many a widget or accessories providers like YouTube, Flickr, Zynga, RockYou!, Slide.com etc. owe their successes to. In fact, now a days, one can access Myspace with a Facebook ID! They are trying to position themselves as a complimentary service to Facebook instead of being a competitor.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, what went wrong with the first real behemoth in the social media field?</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are many explanations and counter-explanations. But, as an early user of both Myspace & Facebook, I have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly sides of both. Myspace came across as too dependent on music & entertainment, that too, probably heavily tilted towards the tastes of a USA-centric audience. While Facebook, which initially looked cumbersome, added newer features, games, better security etc. to provide the users a whole "social media" experience, Myspace chose to remain largely the same, without caring for innovations.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moreover, Myspace had tied up with Google for a consideration of $900 million which enabled Google to serve ads based on Google Ad-sense. While this provided cash inflow for Myspace, it actually resulted in further slowing down of the site. At the same time, Facebook had been providing a clean, fast loading home page, which added with the offerings from different widget providers, further enhanced its appeal. At the same time, Myspace decided to do everything themselves and in trying to do that, spread themselves too thin instead of developing around the core idea of social networking.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Security vulnerability was another negative aspect. Myspace was viewed as less secured than Facebook, which indeed was true to a large extent. The publicised incidents of cyber stalking & identity theft further dented its credentials. Ironically, this can happen in any social networking site.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Probably, the last nail in Myspace's coffin was hit by its targeted user groups themselves. The "Myspace parties", where adolescent users organized parties and chose to spread the news over Myspace, leading to creation of law & order situations & even death of a teenager, created an overall negative perception among the prospective users. Myspace was being viewed by many as a part of the underground social network. While Facebook has been successful in attracting users from all age groups - young and the old alike, Myspace could not attract the older users and its appeal was more or less limited to the 13 years to 24 years age group.</span><br />
<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">gap</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All these factors, combined together, led to a downfall in the fortunes of the very first truly successful social networking site. While many others started with the Myspace model in mind and then gradually redefined and reinvented themselves depending on the market responses, Myspace failed to change itself with the changing times and ultimately, has become an also-ran today with a user base of around 30 million unique users. The way its fortunes have nosedived, it will be nothing less than a miracle if the present owners - piggybacking on Justin Timberlake's popularity, to some extent - can turn things around. Till then, its fate has been signed and sealed. Just like the Myspace User ID and Password, that I have forgotten over the years, it has been all but removed from the average users' memory.</span></div>
</div>Shovonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10165658413855925116noreply@blogger.com0Kolkata, West Bengal, India22.572646 88.36389499999995722.358632999999998 88.21019899999996 22.786659 88.517590999999953