FDI in Insurance to rise, Left to Protest !

Finance minister P Chidambaram indicated on Thursday that the government would introduce a legislation in the Budget session of Parliament to hike FDI cap in insurance sector to 49% from the existing 26%, triggering fears of a fresh policy feud with the Left.

Reacting to the suggestion, Left vowed to kill the latest attempt to relax the ceiling percentage — seen as a big put-off for international majors in the sector. It is likely to put up a stiff resistance with CPM's Prakash Karat insisting that communists had not diluted opposition to such proposals. [source]

The mistake that the Finance Minister is doing, despite knowing the fact that India needs 100% FDI in Insurance, is by indicating that the FDI cap will be increased to 49% and not 100%.
He knew the left would protest, but it would have been much easier to convince the left to accept say 74%, if they were protesting against 100%. Now, if our Finance Minister does yield to the left, there won't be much room.. Ah! the art of negotiation.. He should shop from Karol Bagh more often.

I have always maintained that the FDI cap on Insurance should be raised to 100%, the sooner the better. We already have a strong regulatory body. And there are BIG Insurance companies already knocking at our doors. Also, LIC is already BIG enough that it shouldn't be scared of competition. With the kind of brand recognition, penetration and trust that LIC commands in India, it shouldn't really be a big deal. LIC needs no protection from the government, and already with sovereign guarantee, which is far more protection than any Public Company would ever need.

Opening the FDI in the insurance sector would be good for the consumers, in a lot of way.
Not opening wouldn't benefit anyone other than the employees of LIC, for whom it was expected that the LEFT would protest.

Why India Needs an Increase in the FDI on Insurance?

By only Increasing the FDI in Insurance, we could even wait out a little longer on the FDI caps in other sectors. The CEO of a Private Insurer once told, that increasing the FDI in Insurance would take care of the year's FDI target of the country in one go.
But that is not the reason why I say that increasing the FDI in insurance only would affect a lot of other Industries in a positive way, and that we could even do without the FDI in many other sectors for sometime, Real estate for one.

FDI in insurance would increase the penetration of Insurance in India, where the penetration of Insurance is abysmally low with insurance premium at about 3% of GDP against about 8% global average. This would be through better marketing effort by MNCs, better product innovation , consumer education and so on.

How would it affect the economy?
India is hungry for Long term capital needs to fund the building of infrastructures, which is the need of the hour.

Infrastructure, or the lack of it has been the brake, which have hindered the leap of the Indian Economy. Despite shortcomings, Indian Economy has come a long way, but every industry leader would crib at the infrastructure bottlenecks that they have face everyday in their effort for growth.

Unlike new and progressive government policies that the left would jump into protest at every opportunity, investment in infrastructure is something the government won't face any protests. It would employ millions directly, and more millions indirectly. The only bottleneck being long term funds, infrastructures being very Huge and very long term investments. Even Public-Private partnerships wouldn't be sufficient, and how much can the world bank lend, without strings?


The answer lies in raising long term capital from the masses, and come to think of it, Insurance is about the only avenue where people put in money for as long as 3o years even more. An Increase in FDI in Insurance would indirectly be a boon for the Indian economy, the investments not withstanding, but by making more people invest in long term funds to fuel the growth of the Indian Economy.

With, good infrastructures, industry leaders would agree that they can gallop!!!

Chinese Destroys Satellite with Missile, US worried!

China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.[source]

US is very worried because
"If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide security issues"

eh?

But the US has the capability to shoot down satellites for decades now. Now that USSR is gone, they want to be undisputed King of the Space. How about India? Software to Spaces huh!

Hugh MacLeod On Entrepreneurship

Hugh's Pearls of Wisdom on Entrepreneurship:
Says he is "certainly not in the same league as people like Fred Wilson or Jason Calacanis"

But what he has to say are Pearls that are fun to read as well.
Some points I liked ( I liked all but I liked these best)

9. Some people think that once they secure venture funding, their problems will be over. Wrong. That’s when your problems REALLY begin.

11. If an average guy in a bar can understand what you do for a living, chances are you’re halfway to becoming a commodity.

12. It’s easier to turn an ally into a customer than vice versa.

And the BIG Pearl:

If you’re happy in your career before the age of thirty, you’re probably doing something wrong. Heck, if you’re happy in your career before the age of seventy, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Despite The perks and Hikes, I am not yet happy. I am restless...
And I am Glad for that.
And I am glad Hugh put it so well.....
There is Nothing wrong!!!!

Many more Pearls.

Guru, Lucky for Aishwaryra and Abhishek

Hmm....

How was Guru?
I guess I went with a lot of expectations .. So, I would say, the movie was just about OK.
But not worth watching twice, and I watch many movies many times over.

Movie was directed well, I should say, and Vidya Balan Looked good as ever.
Lets not even start about Aishwarya Rai, and Abhishek Bachchan and Aish looked very much like husband and wife.. Though I overheard that Abhishek looked more at home with Rani Mukherjee. Back to Ash, I have always dismissed anyone who said anything remotely bad Ash as mere jealousy. She is just so beautiful. I guess she is not liked because she looks so perfect and breaks the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" myth.. She looked all the more better in Guru. She is looking better and fresher as she ages.

She acted well, but she would have been much better if she acted a little lesser. She should stop thinking that she had to be perfect. All she has to do is just be normal..

Abhishek Bachchan leaves much room for improvement.
He should stop imitating his father as well. I know it is natural "Ai". But he needs to come out of that Shadow. He will grow, he will mature, and he is get better.... He needs much refinement though. He delivered much better in ...what was that godfather remake... Yeah Sarkar (Had to google ).

His lopsided smile was not too convincing..
Every one is going ga ga over Abhishek, but Guru didn't deliver the promise because of Guru himself..

Mithun was great, Vidya Balan's role was small but sweet and apt, Madhavan's was as expected, saala Abhishek main maar khaa gaya. Direction was good by bollywood standard...

He is the most promising star though..
Or is it the case of the country of the blind?

Congratulations again to Aishwarya and Abhishek on the engagement.

This Blog is Number 1 in Blogsearch for Keyword Anthony

Google shows 149000000, yes that is 149 Million, results for the word anthony, and 24 million results for the keywords "Anthony+Blog".

But do a blog search on search.blogger.com for the word Anthony, and this insignificant blog is the number one blog. or Is that a random result?

Even above the main results, it shows up on the highlighted results.
Very unfortunate that people hardly use blogger search, and people hardly search for Anthony.
Many people come looking for Journey though!

Wedding at Gun Point!

And I thought it happens only in Manipur.

Samman, an educated guy from Mumbai visits a friend in Bihar at a wedding. There, he meets Kakul, the pretty daughter of a politico-business magnate from Patna and charms her with his flirtatious ways. So far, so good. But soon realizes that he is a consenting, yet mute spectator, at his own wedding with Kakul at gunpoint! [more]

In Bihar, in perfect opposite to dowry system, if a guy is liked by the daughter of someone high and mighty, it is mighty easy to get the boy's consent for marriage. In Manipur, if a girl can pull the right strings, it is not at all uncommon to see guys being forced to get married to the girl. Happened that, a girl turns up on a guys wedding, much like movies, with militants, and get forcibly wed to that guy coz they were seeing each other at some point of time.

But then Bihar and Manipur are a lot similar. Similar ailments, albeit different symptoms. Poverty, political breakdown, economic famine and goons. Who once said that a place where Policemen are prosperous can never be peaceful..? And Policemen in both states are very prosperous indeed.

Solicitations in Orkut. Gigoloes galore

He has even put his Mobile number there.

And only 6000 Rupees.

For Unsatisfied Woman.

He is energatic(sic).

Viagra Startup companies: Doubling valuation

Peter Rip General Partner, at Early Stage Venture capital firm, Crosslink Capital, shares some very intersting insights about approaching a VC for funding. Be Focussed.

Pick one application; serve one type of customer and be in that business. Show how you can conquer a specific set of competitors by virtue of the technology, but don’t be in the technology business. If you can persuade your investors that the first beachhead is attainable and interesting, you will get credit for subsequent applications and the big, horizontal play. Tell a story that shows you understand who your customer is, how to get to them, and why they will buy or use your product/service. Show how powerful the technology and team are, but stay on message about the focus.[more]

Delhi Bloggers Meet 3rd Anniversary

Come one Come All!

The Delhi Bloggers Meet DBM XV, the third anniversary of DBM..

More on the delhi Bloggers Meet Blog.

13th January
2 PM onwards
Lodhi Gardens...

Don't miss it..


Contact details : Twilight Fairy :Deleted :)
Amit Ken : Deleted :)

iPhones trademark Infringement battle

Intellectual property is the lifeblood of Silicon Valley and we all have to protect our property.

The iPhone trademark is owned by Cisco. We (Cisco) had hoped to reach an agreement to share our trademark with Apple, yet they decided to use the name without our agreement, so we, unfortunately, are having to go to court to stop them from using the name. John Earnhardt, Senior Manager of Policy Communications for Cisco Systems. [via: Siliconvalleywatcher]

Steve Jobs said that they were in talks with Cisco about the trademark, when they decided to go ahead with the launch of iPhone. Seems like the talks weren't going so smooth.

Since Cisco was the first the park the domain, oops, trademark, iPhone, despite everyone talking about iPhone for the past 2.5 to 3 years. Well iPhone had to be the obvious sister for iPod, and even before Apple said anything about it, everybody assumed that it won't be long before Apple came out with the iPhone. Only, the name was spoken for .. and no, apple doesn't hold the trademark rights to i+*wildcard* and Cisco was lucky. They have the trademark since 2000 when acquired a company called Infogear technology, which had developed a product that combined web access and telephone. .

But it so reeks of domain parking. I rather start registering iCar, iShoes, iCondom eh...

Not that there is anything wrong, but Cisco had to know that iPhone is a trademark apple would want, though for no obvious reasons, or is it obvious?

So much for iPhones. I definitely would love one though.. Wouldn't they tie up with airtel or something? The price might seem steep to a rich American, but not to a yuppy new age middle class Indian. We have been paying as much for every new Nokia releases.

Hey Steve, the iPhone would be such a killer here in India. Tie up with Airtel, we will get it from the grey market. Screw Cisco.

On Feminism and 80 Kilo suitcases

It all started when desipundit linked to this post , and Curious Gawker responded in his trademark style, Ash responded well, but when falstaff responded , "I'm also firmly of the opinion that anyone who packs an 80 kg suitcase deserves to have to carry it herself / himself". I can't but laugh.

How so true.. Out of courtesy, as gawker mentioned, hmm I always help carry luggages of my female friends, and I always insists. But my brother never does.. Different or not, many girls tend to pack these 80 kilo suitcases, and my brother being a light traveler, never carries more than 2 pairs of dress, just in case and his toiletries. And so whenever he comes or goes back from his vacation when in college, and they used to travel in groups. Him with his almost empty rucksack, and his female friends with their baggage. And he always lets them know that he travels light because he don't want to carry any luggage. And the most courtesy he extends is help bargain with the porter.. It was a long time away, and falstaff reminded me of an old sweet conversation with my brother.. thanks.

Blogwatch

I discovered digital Inspiration via technorati. When I looked for blogs tagged with India. It was quite a long time ago, and Amit was a quite blogger, then. He never came up in the Indian Blogosphere Buzz, untill the recent ban. Well a few months before that. But, his was a Big Blog. Counting the technorati links, and in most Blog parameters. I quitely admired his blog. The second in the list of the blogged tagged with India came far below. And it was very unusual for an Indian Blog to have such huge Links. Usually, US, Australian, or Chinese blogs get such number of links. Of course, there are similar blogs (very similar) now on Technology new snippets, like Quickonlinetips , with good number of links on technorati.com/blogs/india ( Quickonline tips have also been around for a long time).

The point is that I found out about such blogs only via technorati.com/blogs/india, and didn't think there would be other more popular(linkwise) Indian Blogs. Indian Bloggers don't like to link out.

And Wait! he lives in Australia!

Today again I was doing a search for popular blogs as I was updating feeds, and did a technorati.com/blogs/internet, and surprise surprise, I saw another Indian Blog with.... Links more than Digital Inspiration.

This Blog, according to Technorati has 2069 blogs linking to it as against amit's 1849. Wait wait, he don't even post that often, and his feedreader count is way below Amit's.

His secret was a 3 column k2 wordpress template he created .
With 10000 downloads, it is no wonder that he attracted such a huge number of links.
Want links, learn designing nice templates...

How to Download videos from Youtube

When Ronaldo's ex girlfriend tried to sue and threaten youtube for posting spicy videos of herself and her banker boyfriend, on youtube, the Daniella Cicarelli video clip was duely removed from Youtube last week, though it has moved to google video.

When news of the lawsuit broke out, everyone rushed to Youtube to search for the video. But you can only watch the video or embed it on your website. And since you know that youtube might remove the video, you so wanted to save it... But how do you save it?

Download this small addon from firefox, VideoDownLoader .

Some of the sites that the Firefox VideoDowLoader supports are:

Youtube, Google Video, iFilm, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Myspace, Angry Alien, AnimeEpisodes.Net, Badjojo, Blastro, Blennus, Blip.tv, Bofunk, Bolt, Break.com, Castpost, CollegeHumor, Current TV, Dachix, Danerd, DailySixer.com, DevilDucky, Double Agent, eVideoShare, EVTV1, FindVideos, Free Video Blog, Grinvi, Grouper, Hiphopdeal, Kontraband, Lulu TV, Midis.biz, Music.com, MusicVideoCodes.info, MySpace Video Code, Newgrounds, NothingToxic, PcPlanets, Pixparty, PlsThx, Putfile, Revver, Sharkle, SmitHappens, StreetFire, That Video Site, TotallyCrap, VideoCodes4U, VideoCodesWorld, VideoCodeZone, vidiLife, Vimeo, vSocial, Yikers, ZippyVideos...

enjoy

Will the Real Estate Correction Start soon?

Good News,

Despite rising income levels, bankers said rising property prices have had an impact on home loan growth rates. Property prices have increased by about 50% to 60% in the last one year, though in some pockets the rise was as much as 100% to 150%.


"We could see a correction of around 20% to 30% in real estate prices in 2007," said analysts. HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh had said property prices could see a 15% to 20% correction. However, builders and developers do not seem to buy this argument.

"Growth in home loans has been slowing this year. This is largely on account of rising property prices and higher base," said Rajiv Sabharwal, senior general manager, ICICI Bank. The home loan portfolio, which has registered a growth rate of about 30% year-on-year, has dipped to 25% this fiscal.[source]"

Which means fewer people are buying homes, though the construction never stops, and of course land acquisition. The reason could be the rise in home loan rates, combined with the irrational rise in property prices. Genuine buyers won't be hurt, though they might feel some dissonance. Real estate companies won't be hurt either. Most of them have raised good money from the market at the right time. And anyway, they can now grow upwards. As the developers add more and more floors upwards, it will beneficial for all. But if there be speculators who have leveraged to invest in the property boom directly, and have entered in the last one year, they migth be hurt, and I have no pity for them.

Times of India, delhi also reported a news about yesterday's DDA auction which went for a lower than expected price ( It doesn't mean though that it went below the reserve price, but it was below the market price). Another Signal??

This good for Home buyers who have been waiting for a correction. The same article above also mentions a correction of about 15-20%, which is not new though. I see more correction than just 15-20%.

I won't exit the housing stocks just now though. But soon enough. Time to switch to Sugar.. Damn cheap I tell you.

MyBlogLog Bought by Yahoo!

MyBlogLog now joins the Yahoo developers network.
Techcrunch Reports that MyBlogLog the Link tracking software turned amazing widget that provides a faceroll as well as integrate your comments with the faceroll to give a face to commenters, has been bought by yahoo for a consideration in the neighbourhood of 10-12 millions.

JEREMY welcomes the MyBloglog team.

Can a New Search Engine Replace Google?

“The more Google starts to think about taking on Microsoft, the less it is a pure search play, and the more it opens the door for new innovations,” said Mr. Moldow, A partner at the Foundation Capital, a Venture capital Firm which have recently invested in a new search engine, Powerset, aimed at taking google's business away when google is busy competing with Mirosoft...Richard at Siliconvalleywatcher reports.

Now perhaps a better mouse-trap might not be enough to replace google, and google is not a just a better search engine, but already a name synonymous with googling, oppps, searching with billion of dollar warchests and a work place that attracts the best talents..

But then everybody says that about a King!!! And there is always a new King... If google topples Microsoft, someone else has to topple Google. That need not be a Search engine. Or perhaps it is a search engine after all, user validated results? . Afterall, the flavor of the new age have been the USERS.

Imagine, search results, that are edited by a million volunteers... Volunteers validating backlinks, keyword relevance, linking neighbourhood etc etc...

Toshiba Portable USB External HDD

I so very want one of this.. I recently bought a seagate laptop hard-drive, fixed up inside a casing, and looks quite like this toshiba, from nehru Place. The assembled drive costs me something like 4000 INR, about 100 dollars, for 80 GB. It also has USB and powers up with the Laptop... Only the USB port was loose despite having changed the casing again, so that I need to keep it on a flat place and not move while I use the same.

This Toshiba external HDD reportedly comes for about 140 Dollars for a 100 GB drive. I'd say it is a good bargain, and toshiba is always good.


I use a Toshiba Portege R150 and I love it, despite the speed, when running heavy applications. I have added an extra 512 MB of ram which I am thinking of upgrading to an extra 1 gig.
[Via]

Fiction to Reality, Ito Ora!!

Heard of Ora Ito? or rather ito morabito.
Read About him long time ago in a magazine article. I was talking to a designer friend, and casually mentioned Ito, and she hadn't heard about any Ito. The article had so caught my fancy then that I remembered everything about the story. I had to google the article today..

Ito is a Design School Drop-out who wouldn't hired by any big brands. He was a kid, and had no credentials.

But he knew a thing or two about designs, and what he was create fictional designs for some well known brands, like louis vuitton and Apple, and published them on some fashion Magazines, in a creative media stunt.

When real people started ordering his fictional products online, the brands took notice. His website was getting 200,000 visitors a day within the first few weeks of the publication.

This alluminium heineken bottle won awards for design, and boosted sales for the beer giant. Within months of the bottle's launch, Heineken doubled the number of French outlets that carried its aluminum bottles, to 2,000.
The Fictional designs are below.... Amazing designer!! He calls his designs "simplexity".




More of his designs here.

Google Might Kill Digg and Delicious!

Or perhaps buyout Digg! Del.icio.us might be dead for sure.

And just when I just started using Google reader. I have the habit of analyzing popular blog's referral logs, and google.com/ig and google reader have been popping up quite a bit here and there, and since it is Google I decided to set my homepage to Google homepage on my browser. So very convenient. Little like page flakes, but not as heavy, for whatever that mean. I find google homepage lighter(Both use Ajax, don't they?). I never got used to pageflakes.

About killing Digg, Delicious and all other lovely sharing and bookmarking sites, It is being discussed in the A-Listers Blogs that, with a slight tweak in the Google reader Algorithm, and they have the resource bandwidth, they can easily beat the shit out of all sharing sites by aggregating and displaying how many people Shared each post and then calculated the most popular ones.

Scoble thinks, " the result set is more diverse than TechMeme (more Z listers, yeah!) and more focused than Digg (less noise, more tech)".

Now most of this sharing sites, survive by acting as Google's distributers , and as a sensible manufacturer, google should let them be and focus more to be a better searcher. After all Search is the future, PPC and contextual might just kill good ole marketing as we knew it, and Google is the reigning Caesar.

But of course, in a user ruled world, if Google can provide us with more User Delight, we won't complain.

Why Google Will Dominate the world!

Read this convincing post by Rich Skrenta.

Points like:

Google is the start page for the Internet.
(Maybe we switch on the computer and instead of windows starting up we can expect Google Starting up)

Google's CPMs are $90-120, vs. $4-5 for an average browse page view elsewhere.
(That is the ad on google serach results page againts other websites like this blog)

How zero switching costs paradoxically yield a winner-take-all market.
( This one is interesting. If switching cost were zero, since u only have type the url to switch between Google and a new Search engine, won't it be easy for someone to just switch the moment better search engine comes along? Not quite!!)

Brand Perception, "users who see Google's logo on top of Yahoo's results perceive the results to be of higher quality; users looking at Google's results with Yahoo's logo on top view them as having less relevance."

Yahoo Could make an extra $ 1.5 Billions by partnering Adwords.
(Ego should never mix with business eh!)

Microsoft isn't a player online any more than IBM is..??
( This was Nice... IBM?)

All Hail the New King Google.. But Of Course.. I have always agreed :)

I have shifted to New Blogger

Anthony's Mirror shifted to new blogger.. Labels and all that. I thought of shifting to wordpress, but decided that I will keep this as is, on blogger instead of shifting and maybe start a new one on Wordpress if need be. This is a directionless blog, much as my mind is, and hence the variety in topics. I know a few things about a lot of things, and maybe I will start a few topical blogs.

This blog started as a journal of my life and hence will remain so. When I do start a new blog, it will be on my own domain, as my cook blog is, and the group blog on Life that is yet to take off. General Lethargy, and well my work schedule, but then I have some spare time during the night. I don't sleep much, anyways..

Blogging will only take on newer highs..
I have a couple of projects in mind that I want to start.. Let's see what Time has to say about it..

Now this was so a journal Entry :)

Man Sues Girlfriend for Blogging about their Sex Life

It is always fun to read cat blogger, and their sexual escapades. But one girl landed into a legal soup after blogging about her sexual Life with her Boyfriend. Her boyfriend sued her for blogging about sex life..

When Robert Steinbuch discovered his girlfriend had discussed intimate details about their sex life in her online diary, the Capitol Hill staffer didn't just get mad. He got a lawyer.

Soon, though, the racy tidbits about the sex lives of the two Senate aides faded from the front pages and the gossip pages. Steinbuch accepted a teaching job in Arkansas, leaving Washington and Jessica Cutler's "Washingtonienne" Web log behind. [source]

How Google makes Money from Longtail!

OK Amazon and Netflix makes quite a few Millions from long tail, by selling products that are in low demand or have low sales volume but can collectively make up a volume more than the current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. Made all the more easier with the reach of the internet.

Now keyword gurus target keywords that are not competitive or "best selling", and bid for thousands or even millions of keywords that makes up the long tail of search, but that is how people make money off adsense and adwords.

The topic said, how google makes money from the long tail. Now this is a different longtail. A post on valleywag about a disgruntled small adsense user, who makes less than the minimum payout of $ 100 by google. Now, as with long tail, there must be thousands if not millions of such publishers whose money Google is holding.

OK eventually, google will payout the money to the publishers, and some google won't pay, if the publisher quits before he/she reaches 100$, but google charges advretisers as soon as the click happens, and already they have a one month Float even with big publishers. So, Google holds in its accounts Millions or perhaps Billions of unpaid dollars that will generate a huge sum of interest Income. Interesting indeed. There are companies like gift certificate operators, or food coupon operators like Ticket Accor that survives on interest income from float.

No wonder, people are predicting that google stock will touch 600$ by 2007 end.

Technorati tag:: Adsense : Adwords : Long Tail

Performancing Blogging Plugin Rebranded as Scribefire

The Performancing Blogging Plugin which was not part of the acquisition of performancing by Payperpost, has been rebranded as Scribefire.. The site will be launched shortly [Breaks Techcrunch]

Technorati tag:: Performancing : Scribefire

Yahoo News Message Boards Closed!

The Yahoo News Message Boards - a forum to discuss the articles on Yahoo News - have been closed today, seemingly due to trolls and other vocal users ruining the experience for everyone else. reports mashable!

[Troll image Courtesy: santharia ]

Saddam Dead. Has Been Executed

Saddam Hussein has been Executed, hanged.

Saddam Hussein has been hanged, state-run television reported Saturday.Saddam's lawyers had asked a U.S. judge to stop his execution. He was sentenced to die in November for the murders of nearly 150 people in Dujail after towns people attacked his motorcade in 1982.Saddam met with his two brothers Thursday and reportedly handed over his will. Iraq's prime minister wouldn't allow a delay in his execution. [source: here]

Technorati tag:: Saddam : Iraq

BBC's Best Tech Picks of 2006

BBC's panel of technology experts gives you thier best Tech Picks of 2006. The Panel includes Fraser MacDonald, Editor, Stuff magazine; Martin Lynch, Editor, GIZMODO; Katie Lee, Editor, Shiny Shiny; Gina Trapani, Editor, Lifehacker; and James Beechinor-Collins, Editor, T3 Magazine.


1. Fraser Macdonald : Sony Playstation 3 or PS3

2. Martin Lynch : High definition projector.

[Many people think that the only way to get high definition content into their living rooms is by forking out for a LCD or plasma HDTV. There is an alternative though and it comes in the form of a high-definition projector.]

3. Katie Lee : Nintendo Wii

[I think the PlayStation 3 will be the gadget of next year, but for 2006 it definitely has to be the Wii.]

4. Gina Trapani : Parallels, a computer that runs both Mac and Windows operating systems.

5. James Beechinor-Collins : Nintendo Wii

[source]

What is Zapak !

Zapak! Sounds like the sound of something flat being pasted on the wall? You are near. That is what comes to my mind when I see the zapak.com billboards being pasted across the cityscape. Get gaming, it says.

Today I saw Salman Khan telling me to visit Zapak. And I just did! Zapak is a Free Gaming site, and have huge plans in the offing. It is Owned by Anil Ambani so many is not a problem. Get the eyeballs, he must have told Mr Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance entertainment Ltd. Or rather, their finger on the keyboards..

It so very reminds of the Hometrade.com days. All those Billboards with Hritik Roshan, Sachin tendulkar, and who not? Hometrade died, maybe for the wrong reason but it died.

Ok but then Hometrade was started in the wrong time, and the owners were seedy.

And eHarmony have proven that TV and other offline media can be used to build an online brand, and generate revenues and scale. But then what eharmony did was to use the money they generate from membership fees to get more customers who paid membership fees.

And Indian Internet users are still wary of paying for some online service, unless it is for finding a suitable groom or bride. Even then, the matrimonial sites are going offline as well. Some converting the free members into paying ones won't be a wise idea for Zapak.

Zapak do have plans to start Kiosks all over the country, and is investing a whopping hundred Million Dollars, unheard of by any Indian Internet Company. The kiosks might not be a bad idea, what with most of the reliance webworld users being gamers ( on a casual observation, 1/3rd the seats in most R-world cyber cafes are playing games). But then, would gamers only want to play games at zapak.com, the gaming portal?

About the only thing I like about Zapak, and this press release, is that the $ 100 million investment will also be used to set-up a development centre. With such Investments, I can see, zapak growing or evolving into an IT services company on the Gaming Vertical, with a few products, but mostly outsourced Product development.

The post started with how the "zapak- get gaming billboards" are splashed all across the city, very hometrade like. Which means that primary target for the gaming portal is for the Indian Market. With the kind of Investments they have have in mind, they would be better off targeting the Asian Markets, and restrict their Advertisements to PPC campaigns.. Afterall, Gamers are still a Niche, however large and Niche are best targetted by PPC campaigns, since this Niche use the internet to play games.

Even with all the Billboards, alexa traffic shows that they have yet to cross Amit agrawal's Digital Inspiration, however inaccurate some people might claim Alexa to be.



Note: I have a feeling that few Indian Users have Alexa toolbar installed, unlike US users, though I don't have the data, a site with vistors from US and europe majorly will have a better Alexa ranking.

Delhi To Grow Upwards, Skycrapers coming to town!

I had recently posted that the only way the Real Estate Market in India will rationalize is by letting it grow upwards. Not to restrict on the number of Floors that can be built, if technically viable. Economically it is much more viable. Seems like the developers knew it all along.. Time to buy Ansal Housing Stocks huh!! [The stock had been hitting the upper circuit the past few days after some Analyst lady came on CNBC and explained that it was trading way behind its peers.. Man, we can be such herds!!! ] {By the way, they signed some agreements with the UP Govt *wink*}

The city skyline could change dramatically, with Centre planning to allow re-development of certain areas by allowing up to eight-storey apartments and permitting construction between 20 and 60 floors at locations earmarked for new development.[source]

And once the master plan comes public, the prices of houses might come down, and if lucky, like nine pins. I'd wait for a little longer now.. The cost you are paying is now for a house is not for the construction cost, but for the number units per hundred crores paid for that land. With 60 storey house, the number of Units will multiply, like bunny rabbits?, and well the prices might just rationalise.

Another Delhi Girl Gangraped in a Running Car!

Another Running car, another lift, another gang-rape. Rape capital, still!

A 17-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by four men at Janakpuri in west Delhi on Tuesday. While the medical examination report is still awaited, the girl has alleged in her complaint that the four accused, two of whom were her friends, abducted and raped her in a moving car. [MORE]

Two of them are friends of the victim!

US Death in Iraq crossed 9/11 Count

It all started with with 9/11, to save more lives, but The US Military Death toll in iraq has exceeded the 9/11 count[more].