The Product Mindset 2013- India report

This reports compares responses from Indian manufactures and consumers on various issues relating to product purchase decisions and compares same with global set. Interesting aspects of the report:

• Neither Indian consumers nor Indian manufactures concede cost/price is a deciding factor in purchse.
• Product reliability, safety, environment, are important.
• But unlike global peers who consider innovation as the primary driver of success Indian manufacturers & consumers attach least importance to innovation.
• Low level of importance to innovation can be due to sourcing strategy- sourcing is the most global function of  Indian manufacturer's globalization. Innovation does not merit for Indian consumers as novelty wears off by the time the product reaches late majority segment. 

Source: UL

3D holographic projection technology

A new complex technology pioneered by Indian politicians? Well, that is 3D Holographic projection technology introduced into the country by Modi and now adopted by KCR, Chandrababu Naidu and others.

Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corp, made a virtual appearance at the “World Congress on 

Information Technology 2008”, where he was reproduced on stage as a holographic simulation.The size of the projection was 4.6m and appeared in front of the audience of around 400 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Three-dimensional holographic projection technology is loosely based on an illusionary technique called Peppers Ghost, and was first used in Victorian theatres across London in the 1860s. In August 2009, Endemol, the producers of the famous reality TV show Big Brother, working together with activ8-3D holographic projections, beamed housemates' friends and families into the house to deliver messages of support and encouragement. In January 2009 Coco-Cola gave a holographic sales conference presentation in Prague for over 800 people. Senior directors of the company were beamed into the stage as 3D holograms before giving a presentation about how the Coco-Cola brand has evolved over the years. The content of the presentation was also in the form of 3D holographic projections. Musion Systems have installed the UK's first 3D - Eyeliner™ Holographic projection system to appear in a retail mall as part of the new Toyota retail concept store launched at Bluewater Shopping Centre. Visitors can see a full sized car rotating in mid-air. 

In India the system is introduced by Mani Shankar and Raj Kasu, promoters of NChant3D sourcing technology from Musion, UK. Inventor UWE MAAAS invented the first polarised 3D laser projector and founded Musion Germany in 1997 and built the first Eyeliner for an event by jewellery giant Swarovski.

Future: Holographic meetings replacing video conferencing? Mahatma Gandhi seeking votes for congress?

More: Source

Entrepreneurship training in India

EY Entrepreneurship Barometer 2013 places in India at rank 11, scores in access to funds, entrepreneurship culture are at same rank. Lower rank of  19 for tax & regulation and higher rank of 5 for coordinated support are also on expected lines. But lower rank of 20 at the bottom for education and training is a surprise. What is this parameter and why are doing this activity so badly?
Entrepreneurship education uses indicators like  Pre-university education, University education, Entrepreneurship specific training and Informal education/lifelong learning. The survey findings on this:

• 84% agree or partly agree that they need specific education to become successful entrepreneurs. 
• 52% say that university and business school courses for entrepreneurship have improved in their country.
• Sharing success stories is ranked as the most impactful way to inspire people to become entrepreneurs.

What is missing: an integrated approach. 

• Engineering technology students with innovative ideas are separated from MBA students.
• Business plans and domain knowledge have no relationship. 
• Students not exposed to real-world business challenges. 
• Large corporations, philanthropists and existing entrepreneurs need  support educational courses, as well as business games that give young people an early experience of what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

E Governance in Estonia

AADHAAR hopefully will survive political transition. It is interesting to learn how a small country Estonia embraced technology to provide e-governance to its citizens.

Electronic government is the use of information and communication  technologies in government to provide public services, to improve  managerial effectiveness and to promote democratic values and  mechanisms; as well as a regulatory framework that facilitates  information intensive initiatives and fosters the knowledge society.

• Estonia of the 1990s did not have an industrial policy, nor did it engage in policies that would target the ICT sector or companies directly.
• General government spending on research and development in the 1990s was below 0.5 percent of the GDP, and there were no crucial technology or innovation policies to speak of . Even the spending on information and communication technologies (ICT) remained modest from 1995 to 2003 in comparison with other countries. Estonian government budget has allocated about one percent for the ICT expenditure throughout this period, while many other countries spend 2.5-4 percent of the budget.
• Only exception to this hands-off policy is the fact that in 1997 Estonia’s public sector did support the launch of the Tiigrihüppe (Tiger’s Leap) program, which provided information technology to many schools. 
• The electronic exchange of official government documents is still limited still in 2007 because different departments purchased different software solutions which are not compatible with each other. Since the Estonian government departments tend to rely on proprietary solutions, then vendor lock-in is wide-spread.

Despite absence of grand plans and regulations, Estonia succeeded in e-governance because enlightened leadership believed in  e-democracy, good habit of attention to detail, an effective legal  framework, and  the macroeconomic stability  of the country.

MNCs offer to donate technologies to Social Entrepreneurs targeting poverty reduction.

Potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to reduce poverty by improving poor people’s access to education, health, government and financial services has led to many programs in India and Outside. Popular are ICT plans to help small farmers and artisans by connecting them to markets. Health and solar are another group of technologies leveraged by social entrepreneurs.

Capital remains main concern of social entrepreneurs , while technology deployed is undifferentiated/ open/ non-exclusive, the business plan netting the funding has to be innovative. The new generation social entrepreneurs are more comfortable with changing technology and plan to base their ventures on technology as key factor. And they need technology `free' and MNCs are willing to `donate' that technology.

One of the platform connecting social entrepreneurs/ NGOs with MNC is crush poverty now.
Technology seekers can write to:

 Kewal k. Likhyani, Ph-D; CLP

 President, IP2Revenues.com

 302-252-5056
  kewal.likhyani@comcast.net

last date: 15th April 2014