Cases in Business Marketing

Just found - I am quoted in this book titled "Cases in Business Marketing", Published by Tata McGraw Hill 2013 Chapter 6 page 103 . "Indian OPD Industry orbiting its way to the core"

This has been taken from my column "Can we get an Indian Huawei?" published in FE 2011

Quoting G Krishna Kumar, Financial Express 2011 -
Eight of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies of 2011 are in the ICT domain, reports a US based magazine Fast Company. Not surprisingly, all of these are product companies. While India is the largest exporter of ICT services, generating revenue of $76 billion from the IT sector, but products contribute to less than 2%. India’s contribution to technology innovation is negligible.
The product companies witness non-linear growth (not proportionate to the head count)—the revenue per employee or profit per employee of Google or Microsoft is over 20 times that of India’s top services companies. Also, these technology giants serve as a beacon and are the undisputed trendsetters on the world technology road map.

Nasscom indicates that delivery model innovations such as SaaS and innovative revenue models could fuel IT product adoption in future.
BERD (business expenditure on R&D) and patents/IP management are key indicators of a country’s technology innovation capability. An EU commission report on ICT 2011 indicates that India lags behind China and other emerging economies in terms of BERD/GDP. While China has seen a 10-fold increase in the number of patent applications over the past decade, India’s contribution is insignificant. Generating IPs and protecting them is just one part of the story. Realising value from the IP is a different ball game. Appropriateness of the solution is the key. 

Getting set for the app economy

By: G Krishna Kumar and V Sridhar| Financial Express | FE-Reflect | July 23, 2015 11:49 pm

With increased adoption of smartphones and deployment of 3G/4G networks, the country is poised for the take-off of an app economy, a new term coined to describe the economic aspects of mobile applications and content.
With 3-5 million signing up for mobile broadband and 25 million smartphone shipments every quarter, the app economy is here to stay.
Alibaba, the Chinese top e-tailer made headlines for clocking about $9 Billion in just a day during the Singles’ day in November 2014. Not surprisingly a significant chunk was from mobile devices.  A latest KPMG report says that e-commerce (through traditional websites on PCs/laptops) will be overtaken by mobile based m-commerce very soon.
It is a trend that is gaining traction with all  e-tailers providing great user experience on mobile devices. Most recently, India’s leading e-tailer, Flipkart, offered special discounts for purchases made using mobile apps instead of their website. In fact, some of the e-tailers are gearing-up to do away with websites and take a “mobile app” alone route.
In general, the mobile app market has grown significantly over the past five years.  Google’s Play Store  and  Apple’s iStore, both boast of over 1.4 million apps. Is there a real market for app developers in India? How does the app economy work?
The apps market in India is likely to grow by more than four times to $626.23 million (around Rs 3,800 crore) by 2016, with paid apps contributing over 50%. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) estimates the total worth of Indian app economy at $150 million currently (about Rs 900 crore), with immense potential to grow further.
An average of 17 apps were downloaded in a year in India per user, out of which 4 were paid apps, compared to a global average of 26 apps, of which 5 were paid apps. India is among the top three countries by the number of app downloads
Interestingly, 80% of apps being downloaded in India are global apps. This may be due to the lack of India-specific apps. Unlike countries like China, Korea, or even Japan, where country-specific Apps are a smash hit like Weibo or KaKaoTalk, India cannot boast of many India specific app with millions of users. Bharti Softbank’s Hike messenger has about 25 million users.
A recent report states that there are over 3 lakh mobile app developers in the country. Over the past few years, quite a few Indian companies specialising in app development have emerged and are successful in developing apps for both B2B and B2C markets. InMobi has just released an engaging mobile advertisement delivery platform competing with Facebook and Google. Some companies have created a niche for themselves by focusing on iOS apps.
UK-based mobile app research company Vision Mobile has some interesting statistics about the Indian market from a developer stand point.  Android has emerged as the primary app development platform with over 56% developers using Android, while 20%  of the developers use iOS.  In terms of revenue model, advertising contributes to about 40% , followed by the ‘pay per download’ of 21% and contract work  and commissioned apps coming in with 20%.
What could be the niche areas for Indian apps? Diversity of languages is a unique trait for India. Firms such as Reverie Technologies have developed platforms for Indian language processing; mobile app developers, especially those related to media could look at creating apps that meet the needs of language diverse demographies of India.
Newshunt, the multilingual news feed platform for example has seen good traction amongst non-English speaking users.
Another area is the development of apps for improving day-to-day life of Indians. Congestion in roads, call drops on telecom networks, overflowing sewage, water shortages are some of the common infrastructural and public utility bottlenecks that we face day in and day out. How about a simple India specific weather forecasting application in local language? This could also be used for emergency alerts regarding floods/earthquakes,etc.
The Singapore government has made significant progress in enabling mobile  app based service delivery.
Singapore’s OneService provides a platform for residents to give feedback to the authorities on all the municipal issues. The ActiveSG app lets the public book sporting facilities and sign up for sports programmes. myENV allows the user to check  weather and related information.
India could adopt mobile app based governance systems. For example, the government had recently shortlisted 20 app ideas from over 9,000 entries with over 50,000 ideas in the PMO app contest—certainly a great initiative to spur innovation among the youth. Let us hope to see millions of downloads and active usage enabling a digital society.
The e-commerce companies are basically trying to provide some smoothness to the unorganised sector through digital intervention.  Similarly, apps can bridge the gap between citizens and the governments at various levels to improve public services.

Kumar is vice-president, Symphony Teleca and Sridhar is professor, IIIT Bangalore. Views are personal
First Published on July 24, 2015 12:25 am
 

Improve, innovate, implement: Smart cities' mantra

G Krishna Kumar, July 20, 2015, Deccan Herald/OpEd/Panorama

Rains in Gurgaon and Delhi have embarrassingly exposed the fragile infrastructure in these cities. This just proves that a downpour would leave our cities, old and new alike, in absolute disarray.   The civic administration, urban planners and politicians have miserably failed in planning and implementing basic infrastructure, be it drainage or pothole free roads in our cities.
Despite the current infrastructure woes in cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the laudable initiative of “100 smart cities” mission. Indeed, the right strategy considering India’s urban population is expected to grow to over 50 per cent in the next 15 years, contributing to over 75 per cent of the GDP.

Smart cities are expected to make the life of the general public better by using Information and communication technology (ICT), and bringing in efficiency and accountability. ICT can assist in efficient delivery of physical services to the public. The recently launched Digital India project would help in building-in transparency and creating an “ICT aware” society. 

It is estimated that an astounding Rs 40 lakh crore is required to build 100 smart cities. Will the existing cities be able to self-finance and manage the scale? May be the government should look at a complete overhaul of the archaic administrative set-up. 

The government plans to spend Rs 1 lakh crore over five years for the 100 smart cities project and 500 cities under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation). The AMRUT is aimed at improving the infrastructure of cities with over one lakh population.

It is an excellent idea as it aims at improving the quality of life and providing a clean and sustainable environment to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns including the much needed tourist spots. This will also help decongest metropolitan cities.

The government is planning for a two-stage ‘City Challenge’ competition that would allow states to compete with each other for funding. Among other parameters, past track record in implementing sanctioned projects, self-financing, city’s vision and strategy, innovation, scalability and cost effectiveness of the smart city plan will be part of the evaluation criteria.

Planning for the smart cities mission is strategic and long term in nature. Hence, there must be a “short term” focussed effort in handling initiatives that can provide immediate respite to the citizens. As a first step, we need better coordination between the government organisations within the city and thereby reduce costs. Why can’t the departments handling a city’s road repairs/ asphalting, sewerage/ water, work coherently?

Each city will have different priorities and civic groups must be involved in identifying key issues that can be implemented using the existing ICT system.  For example, a simple and effective parking solution during weekends and holidays could be created by using all the vacant parking slots available in government and private offices in the central part of any city.

Similarly, installing skywalks/escalators on roads with dense vehicle movement, providing bus arrival information system in all the bus stops can be some of the simple yet high-impact measures that the citizens would appreciate. Most cities have established e-governance systems that people use for paying utility bills, taxes etc. 

Can we improve the grievance redressal systems, provide time-bound response and establish a clear work-flow automation? This will greatly help in providing the exact status to the citizens availing any service. This can also reduce corruption to a great extent.

Sensing an immense opportunity, many countries and global companies are offering funding and technology solutions towards India’s smart cities mission.  We need “India-specific” and affordable solutions and hence copying from other countries may only result in significant cost with no meaningful impact to the citizens.  

For example, some European cities have implemented an underground pneumatic garbage disposal system. Basically, the moment garbage is dumped into the bin on the street, it gets immediately sucked into the underground system. Sounds impressive, isn’t it? But, do we need such expensive systems in India?

In fact, a research report suggests that an efficient traditional garbage collection system would just cost only 10-15 per cent of such sophisticated underground systems.

Innovate and implement
The smart cities initiative is a great platform to spur innovation. Using the ‘Mera Shahar Mera Sapna’ contest, Modi has made the right move by asking people for innovative ideas. Ideas should be bottom-up, while the planning would require a top-down approach. The government must create a platform to appreciate “engaged citizens” contributing ideas.

While large multinational technology companies are eager to participate in the smart cities’ journey, the government should create the right checks and balances to avoid monopoly. For sustained innovation, the start-up ecosystem must be encouraged along with a strong push for participation from smaller companies.

Synergies between the smart cities and the Digital India initiative can spur inno-vation and help in creating ICT jobs. The recently launched Skill India mission can act as a stimulus for encouraging entrepreneurship around smart cities. The government should consider creating specific

skill development programmes around ICT/smart cities by involving other stake holders.
As with any infrastructure project, implementation is the key. The government should publish measurable targets, accountability and a quarterly progress report. An Independent Evaluation Office to monitor the progress would greatly benefit.

Finally, only government’s willingness and a “make it happen” attitude will decide if the dream of smart cities can become a reality.  In the short term, will the urban bodies take a cue from the PM’s message and implement simple, yet high impact initiatives, create visible positive changes in our cities and gain the citizens’ trust?

(The writer is Adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru)

DoT report rekindles fire over Net Neutrality

Monday, 20 July 2015 - 8:04am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Reactions to the government panel's report on Net Neutrality range from stunned to amused, and most are wondering whether it has given in to the pressure from the telecom giants.
Nikhil Pahwa, a volunteer of savetheinternet.com and editor of MediaNama, said that while the department of telecom (DoT) committee has taken a middle path, it has deviated from the main objective of coming out with a regulation for saving the Net Neutrality to saving telecom companies' (telcos) revenues.
"What was supposed to be a regulation for protection of Net Neutrality has turned out to be more a regulation for protection of telcos' revenues. Curiously, the panel even states it so in the report and we are opposed to any such move," he said.

G Krishna Kumar, a Bengaluru-based telecom executive, is also quite amused by the submission of the panel to the telcos' demand.
"It is quite amusing that even after the uproar created due to Airtel Zero, it has been given an okay by DoT panel stating that Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) would take a decision on a case-by-case basis," he quipped.
Airtel Zero is a platform developed by Bharti Airtel that will charge app developers for data while consumers will get free access to it. Many believe it goes against the tenet of Net Neutrality as it will discriminate between apps.
At the same time, both Pahwa and Krishna Kumar believe that the panel's suggestions have some positives too. One of them being no licence required by over the top players (OTTs) for instant messaging services in the domestic market.
Pahwa, however, feels that institution of carriage fee for internet usage under Airtel Zero-like platform would be a disadvantage for start-ups and could compel them to set up their businesses elsewhere in the world.
 Krishna Kumar is of the view that pure Net Neutrality was just a wishful thinking.
"Telcos will need flexibility on cost and priority of data. While differentiation based on broad category of applications like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), streaming, etc., is okay, we don't want specific content providers' data to be given different priority. For example VoIP apps should be given higher priority, but within the group Viber and WhatsApp should not be differentiated," he said.
Even Mahesh Uppal, director, Com First India Pvt Ltd, said Net Neutrality of the kind in the West was a non-starter in India. He feels something like Airtel Zero was necessary to help telcos to come up with innovative pricing to subsidise people to come on to the internet. Today, internet penetration is as low as 20%. Given the low internet access, Uppal believes the debate on Net Neutrality, at this stage, was more like the 'if you can't eat bread, eat cake' argument. "Net neutrality cannot be treated as a priority, given India's level of internet usage and access," he said.
Many also cannot decipher the discrimination between Airtel Zero and Internet.org as they are not very different from each other. The government expert committee believes that the content and application providers like Internet.org should not be permitted to act as a "gatekeeper".
Internet.org, although criticised by DoT, has over 80 million subscribers in the world and over eight lakh users in India.
A Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BoA-ML) report on the issue said that government committee's stance seems "mildly positive for telcos" as it would reduce voice revenue cannibalisation from VoIP.
BoA-ML analysts Sachin Salgaonkar and Karan Parmanandka wrote if the suggestions were accepted by the government, new telcos like Relaince Jio (RJio) could look at acquiring VoIP licence.
"Given RJio's lack of traditional voice offering and considering that its Vo-LTE offering may not be mature immediately, we see possibility that Jio may look to acquire a VoIP license," they say in the report.
According to them, if such a scenario were to play out, then there would be no free VoIP call offers and this would be positive for all telcos as it will reduce cannibalisation of voice revenues from VoIP uptake. Their international revenues, however, would remain under pressure as that traffic would continue to move to VoIP.
 

Government gives telecom companies a ring on rising call drops

Wednesday, 8 July 2015 - 6:50am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Inundated with complaints on rising rate of call drops, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday talked tough with telecom companies (telcos) and announced a slew of measures the government would take to rein in the menace.
These included directing telecom service providers (TSPs) to optimise radio frequency network, a special audit of service quality by department of telecom (DoT), enabling in-building solution (IBS), modification of building by-laws to include a provision for telecom infrastructure and exploding myths on health hazards of radiation from mobiles towers.
Interestingly, even as grievances relating to call drops have shot up across all circles lately, as per the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report the parameter call drop rate has shown improvement during December 2014 quarter, compared with the previous quarter.
The permissible limit of call drops set by Trai is anything less than 2%. Trai's findings for the December quarter last year shows the call drop rate improved to 2.7% from 3.28% in September quarter.
G Krishna Kumar, a Bangalore-based telecom professional, said, with a "disparity" in the findings of various agencies on call drops and the actual reality on the ground, the government should look at taking direct feedback from consumers to get the real picture.
"Looking at the disparity between what subscribers experience and what is reported by the network operators/auditors and Trai, the government should actively consider collecting customer perception or quality of experience," he said.
Krishna Kumar also called for strict parameters for measuring the quality of service for data to study whether consumers were really getting 3G and 4G data service for the rates they were paying for. "The special audit suggested by the minister is most welcome. But it all depends on how well the operators will respond to the results," he said
One of the major reasons for call drops is the resistance of local people against installation of mobile towers in their vicinity because of the propaganda about its health risk.
The minister said such beliefs were aggravating the problem of call drops. "Talk of call drop and campaign for removal of BTS (base tower station) cannot go together. We need telecom infrastructure and BTS to improve service," he said.