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Internet in India

my column

Column: Only Indian Language content can bring majority of Indians online

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Offline or online - life needs to be colorful. From a shop in Antebes, France
Offline or online – life needs to be colorful. Photo location: Market in Antibes, France

I was invited by Bangalore’s leading newspaper Deccan Herald to write about the current status, successes, failures of Indian languages on the internet. Yesterday (June 29, 2011) it was published with the title “Growth pangs of Indian languages” [PDF scan of print]

Languages are like colors, it brings beauty and life to the Indian internet arena.

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Column: Ecommerce – save on group buying sites

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My 14th column in “Vijay Next” newspaper (Kannada) was about Group Buying in India. Main points were,

  • The year 2010 has seen very good ecommerce activity in India. We saw one of the leading ecommerce companies, Makemytrip.com, got listed in the US stock exchange successfully.
  • Bulk buying is nothing new. In Bangalore the rates in city market are cheaper because a lot more people buy from them. Retail users (families) get vegetables at almost whole sale rate.
  • Group buying has become very popular in the US. Sites in India have been inspired by US major Groupon.com
  • Group buying sites promote just one deal for each city every day. For e.g. if a Pizza costs Rs 200, it will be available for Rs 100 on their site provided a certain number of Pizzas are sold.
  • The famous ones are Taggle.com, DealsAndYou.com, Mydala.com.
  • There are sites that don’t insist on group buying but yet offer products at great discounts. One such site is snapdeal.com.
  • At times you save 60% on MRP! What more do you want? And when you buy a product you don’t have to use it the very same day. For e.g. if you buy a coupon for a restaurant, you don’t have to go the very same day.
  • You can save anywhere from 20-60% on some products.

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