Remember Fanie De Villers

Fantastic to see this interview of Fanie with @WisdenIndia

Suarez: Stunning goal from Conferations Cup

I sure hope Suarez can find a way to play to his full potential in the Premier League instead of going to LA LIGA.

Exceptional Catch - Younis Khan

An Interview with Rahul Dravid

CNN IBN's Gaurav's interview with Rahul Dravid. As usual introspective and intelligent.

Thanks Gaurav (@gauravCNNIBN) for a good interview

Indian Express article on FDI in practice

FDI in practice

I believe it is good in general for FDI in India for the retail segment. And I sure hope it gets passed at one point or the other.

I above Indian Express article portrays the positive effect on FDI for Cash & Carry wholesalers. I would like to know an opposition view also, without the rhetoric.

Apparently, Mobile number portability not much of a hit

I saw a report on NDTV: Mobile number portability not much of a hit

To be truthful, this report surprises me. The following are the observations given in the report.

1) Only over two percent subscribers have so far opted for the service --> Why is 2% such a bad number? The idea of number portability is if a customer does not like the service of a service provider, he can change the provider without changing his number. How do you determine if this is a hit? if 20% opted, does it become a hit? Isn't that idea idiotic? if 20% changed doesn't it say a really bad name for the mobile service providers in India? Should they be happy if only 2% opted for the service instead of 20%. This measure is only to ensure that an option exists for the customer and mobile service providers must do their utmost to retain them.

2) A key reason for the slow port-in and port-out is that 95 per cent of the country's mobile customers are in the pre-paid category says Samaresh Parida, director (strategy) of Vodafone India --> So pre-paid customers do not mind changing numbers as and when they want? Is that the interpretation. Is there any analysis to come up to this conclusion. My singular thought is a customer is happy to carry 2-3 prepaid numbers for himself in his dual SIM phones and uses the one that fits his need or provides him better service. I do not think any reasonable conclusion can be drawn from the statement above.

3) "In order to gain customers you need to be different. Quality of service and plans offered by most of the operators are almost the same," said Abhishek Chauhan, senior consultant for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) practice, Frost and Sullivan, a research and consulting firm. --> Possibly the one rational statement in this report.

Life insurers with 10-year business can go public: IRDA

IRDA's recent announcement that I read in Moneycontrol: Life insurers with 10-year business can go public: IRDA

I wonder,

Why 10 years and what is magical about this figure? Shouldn't the guidelines be on the basis on some meaningful parameters, for e.g.

a) How many customers does an Life Insurer have? [both active, cancelled and serviced]
b) How many assets and holding does the Life Insurer have?
c) What is the presence of the Life Insurer?
d) Does it service all sections and strata of the soceity?

Savings Bank Interest rate deregulated in India

According to an RBI notification today, Saving's bank interest rate has been deregulated in India. Indian Express has the report here: RBI frees savings deposit rates, hints pause in further rate hikes
 
The below is from the news report.  

Cheering depositors on Diwali eve with deregulation in the SB deposit interest rate with immediate effect, the RBI said banks are free to determine their savings bank deposit rate if they meet two conditions. 

Each bank will have to offer a uniform interest rate on savings bank deposits up to Rs 1 lakh, irrespective of the amount in the account within this limit. “Second, for savings bank deposits over Rs 1 lakh, a bank may provide differential rates of interest, if it so chooses. However, there should not be any discrimination from customer to customer on interest rates for similar amount of deposit,” Subbarao said. 

News papers are going ga ga about this news. The idea that is being spread around is that the rates will increase and customers will earn more.

or really???


Does RBI really think that private banks will be acting on the interests of common man and provide better rates? Even if it does, has RBI given any direction on the various caveats and conditions that will be imposed by the banks for the "better" rates? Will common man and elderly who depend on the saving rates be protected from future rate decreases?

I can think of no better example than in US, where the saving rate is...wait for it... an awesome 0.5% per year. if you are lucky you will find a bank here that will offer you 1%.

I am no economic expert or a finance expert. But I am concerned that people are not being exposed to both sides of the coin in this matter.

Valley of flowers

A lovely picture from Indian Express

Courtesy: Indian Express

Corporate World

No one can represent this better than Calvin & Hobbs

Corporate World according to Calvin