Who Is Responsible For Reliance Communication Current Situation

Just like a fairy tale story once upon a time…. in 2004 -2005 era Reliance communication was the darling of every user in India. Wow, then what happened; Reliance communications business came to younger son of Respectable DB Ambani and he changed the track of the company direction. Reliance was instrumental in bringing devices to common hand and thought that once user will get habitual like alcohol then start charging end user. As a smart user, once user stopped getting the free talk time they moved to other service provider without closing the existing connection. That led to detoriation of HLR vs. VLR active user % and also impacted the ARPU.

It is really interesting to observe that Reliance communications selected CDMA just opposite of majority of other player and in turn lack of fashionable devices and it also helped competitor to snatch the remaining user base. The growth rate of Reliance Communication landed at the lower end as they invested in domain like undersea cable to data center where the business is capex intensive but global downturn as well as offering of better value proposition based cloud based solution blocked Reliance Communications path to prosperity.

In most recent quarterly report, the user Base came down to 102 mn andARPU is one of the lowest among peers. They claim to have 34 million plus data user Base and generating one of the lowest again.

In order to reestablish itself, they merged with MTS brand ownerwhere Reliance communications will still hold 90%, on the other side they are talking with Aircel another Indian service provider reeling under huge debt plus failed to attract high ARPU userbase.

I am following Reliance communications for the last 3.5 yearand every year they come up with one or another punch line that they are going to sell their tower business and they are in discussions  including exclusive discussion  but unfortunately the tiered investor all the time keep on waiting.

Six months back they announced that they are on the verge and equity price got the bump upwards and now they are saying that it will be done post Aircel deal. How they can claim that it will be done post Aircel deal when Aircel deal discussion just got extended.

In my point of view, that equity investor will not buy the point that what is your EBITA and concern regarding serving of debt but they actually want them to see tower and other non profitable business to reduce the interest cost and in turn increase the earning per share.

The current state of Reliance Communications foundation happened on the day they started giving subsidized device with Reliance communications connection.

Now they are doing another mistake of forcing more than 6 mn to port to their new network otherwise they are disconnecting the service. I am sure it is not going to help them as well as take them anywhere.

It's a strategy of Reliance communications to stream line the business and then get acquired or merged with Reliance Jio. We should not forget that how Reliance Jio entered into it indirectly.

What Prompted UK to Go for Referendum to be Part of Euro Zone - Impact Analysis

In 1999, European countries led by leading country like Germany, France, UK convinced smaller countries to be part of European Union with common currency to create the super market area with free flow of one country citizen into another to increase better understanding of culture. In the beginning itself many country adopted common European Union Currency but many like Denmark, UK and few others kept them self away from adopting common currency.

European Union decided to keep the administration center at Brussels and down the line managed to tag in most of first lot of 27 countries. In order to create economic zone and with a agenda to attract CIS countries also they also allowed Soviet dominated countries in Euro Zone and supported them with billions of Euros on their infrastructure to bring to the same level.

Its a saying that when all good then all tries to take the credit and that what exactly happened. It was clear that Brussels headquarter got dominated by Germany, France and Belgium whereas UK were treated like supporting partner.

The Financial crisis in Greece, Portugal and Spain first showed the differences within different group of countries within EU.

The crisis led European Union into recession and rich countries were liable to keep funding reckless countries which failed to put a tab on their pension to expenditure.

Then came the influx of skilled and semi skilled labor in rich countries for better future also impacted the job prospect of locals.

In my point of view, I was expecting UK step for the last five years given their political commentary

UK always used to be in the mind set of leading the European point of view on the world forum found its self isolated. Most of the major decisions were moved from UK to Germany and its partner. UK opposition received golden chance to press the parliament to go for referendum post terrorist attack in France followed by in Brussels by inflicting the fear factor among UK citizen.

The impact of UK exit from Euro zone will have double sword attack across European Union attach counties. Already reeling under recession, Euro Zone will go further into recession and more importantly the creditability of Euro currency will get dented whereas UK will have to reestablish the diplomatically and commercial contact again. In my point of view, UK currency will also get the hit in the first few quarter whereas the maximum gainer will be US $ and can showcase that US $ is the only alternative to trade which Euro attempted to break when may Middle East counties started demanding payment in Euro's.

The biggest beneficiary of Politico- commercial disruption will go in Russia favor and they will have upper talking point with CIS countries to be associated with Russia for Trade and Russia and other CIS countries may open their market completely for UK given recent tension among EU and Russia over Ukraine.

In my point of view, UK will decide to move out of EU and the reason will be security and on the commercial side, Gold will fly upwards like never before.

Transition Required Worldwide - United Bombing Center To World Food Center

 Post World War 2, all countries decided to create an environment where people can leave peacefully. The atom bomb on two cities of Japan showed the whole world the destruction impact on humans and its generation. Post war two group got created and that led to cold war between USA and Soviet Union which again landed as in a situation of 3rd world war.

At one side, developed countries were busy in showing their strength and spent billions whereas many countries in the absence of support from developed countries turned into economical and cultural trouble.

The fight of dominance also brought the best of Technology in all domain and started changing the human life. Developed countries captured United Nation indirectly and started dictating the world. Most interesting act was the security council. I failed to understand the inclusion of UK and France and the veto power to china and USA.

Some time I feel that United Nation lost its relevance by now. The emergence of Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan and USA support to local to fight Soviets started the terrorist culture and many terrorist group which received unlimited funding.

Now, the learning we provided is turning the world into United bombing center and now no one guarantee where and when bomb will fly.

At the same time many countries are reeling under drought and people are suffering from Hunger. Children's are dying but we are dropping bomb and developing cutting edge destructive ammunition.

Can't we all which include all counties come to common platform and agree upon that whatever ammunition we are developing and the budget we allocated, we will deduct that by half and will help poor countries where really the need of food is there will be taken care off. Many countries sells Food grains and make foreign currency. Cant we just agree that we will give the same to people who needs to fill their stomach.

It's surprising that we are throwing Trillions of $ in arms but cant spend or give away Billions for human beings. Let's make our society as United Food center.

It's my personal view.

Microsoft Acquisition Of Linkedin - Direct Acquisition Of Creamy Layer User's

Few days back, I wrote an article titled "LinkedIn as undisputed king of Professional world" Came true as Microsoft took a bold step to acquire LinkedIn with phenomenal 49% premium to their current share price. I was reading article floating here and there that Microsoft paid extra for the LinkedIn and is it possible for them to recoup their Investment and RoI. Many analyst started talking about Microsoft failed acquisition in the past and I can understand that its always easy to find out the negative approach in any acquisition.

My take on the acquisition are as follows:

It clearly indicate that US based companies are getting confident about the US economy and M&A is on the rise. The case is also supported with another tech acquisition of Blue Coat by Symantec.

When Facebook paid huge premium to Whatsapp then every appreciated because that it was having userbase at the same level as LinkedIn is having without any monetization plan. My query to all that, Why Facebook paid $19 Plus billion for Whatsapp. We don't have an answer but they played with the user usages pattern and accordingly populate the advertisement on user facebook to make more money through advertisement. We all observed huge growth in Facebook advertisement business and infact without advertisement revenue Facebook is nothing.

Google attempted to suppress most of the organization through their Android ecosystem and made it mandatory to have 30 different type of Google services and making Billions of $ in revenue as well as imposed their browser too. They are also using BI and AI to populate advertisement platform and we all know the size of their advertisement business.

The most interesting move of Microsoft is their tactical business move to cloud and mobility based focused on dynamic service. We must agree that their Skype acquisition started showing positive result and millions of users are getting attracted towards the robust service. Recently, I observed that they started monetizing Skype through advertisement business and very soon it will be major contributor to their overall revenue with very high EBITA.

The acquisition of LinkedIn with 440 Million plus userbase, around $4Bn Revenue with positive operating cash flow will enable Microsoft to make the organization profitable quickly through synergy.

The competitor of  Microsoft in the B2C segment should be ready to face the new unmatched product with Skype attached LinkedIn Service and It may Challenge YouTube in the field of professional world.

LinkedIn additional assets SlideShare can be additional assets for Microsoft to integrate with their Window operating system or convert it as another product MS office Suite.

Regarding the offer price, based on the result, LinkedIn balance sheet is having $3.2 billion of cash and marketable securities and acquisition is inclusive of cash means the actual payout is around $23 Billion. 

In my point of view, Microsoft will come out very fast with multiple Product line which will have Skype plus LinkedIn and one should not be surprised that it goes mobile in big way

Worldwide Telecom Regulatory Body Should Consider Charging Spectrum Fee Linked With User ARPU

We all are aware that Spectrum is one of the most precious assets of any country and regulatory body faces uphill task to manage the balance within different segment of Industry and most importantly defence sector.

We are also well aware that the auction of 3G spectrum in Europe triggered Telecom initiated global recession in 2001 to 2004 wherein many Telecom service providers put in multibillion $ bet in auction with a view that data centric products and services will fly off without any problem. Unfortunately, the limitation of 3G supported devices, concern around device battery, and lack of coverage delayed the maturity time from 5 years to 10 years. On a contrary, Japan, South Korea, USA, and China succeeded in adopting it and user responded back with higher adoption.

Given the successful adoption of Technology and growth, many countries only adopt the procedure without digging down deep to understand geo political condition. None of the Telecom Networks run by any service providers cannot be successful without the maturity of ecosystem which is combination of services, platform and Applications as it is the building blocks of Telecom service provider revenue stream other than voice services.

For Example, China government control Telecom services through three entities and ensure that Telecom service providers are supported in all way. That is one of the reason that the implementation of home grown 3G and 4G standard being adopted by even global equipment supplier to ensure that they capture most lucrative market.

If we look at the APRU both on Voice and Data, I want to keep it to abstract level and want to mention Japan, USA, South Korea, China, Germany, Switzerland, UK as some of the countries where ARPU is generating high APRU on both voice and data front. One of the major reason of the same is the voice an data package bundled with device which help user to shell out minimum to acquire data centric service. While package gets over and user device gets unlocked by the Telecom service provider; user understand the true value of offered services and subscription success rate achieve higher percentage.

On a contrary, Developing and nascent stage countries trying to connect their citizen with telecom services identified it as an opportunity to raise funds for the government without analyzing the cascading impact on overall economy. India is one of the unique examples of the same. With every auction of spectrum, the regulatory body raised the base price per Mz and focused on the number of user instead of APRU generated by each user. It shocking to know that even African countries where Airtel is offering their service generating higher ARPU than India both on the voice and data side. In that scenario why we call African countries poor countries.  I failed to understand the higher base price for the spectrum. If regulatory body is so confident about the Telecom growth then I challenge Indian regulators to put their skin in the game and offer free spectrum to Telecom service provider and be a partner of all Telecom service provider. In my point of view, the developed countries based regulators should consider giving free spectrum and they should take the path of revenue share to ensure recurring revenue for the government.

In the current form of Government policy of auctioning spectrum plus charging hefty direct and indirect taxes on the Telecom service provider which is landing Telecom service provider into debt and it's not far away that they will crumble into another segment with higher NPA. Most interesting post auctioning the spectrum regulators should not interfere the voice and data pricing as it is contracting to their statement that spectrum auction is on the basis of market discovery.

In my point of view, Regulator should recommend the Government of different demographics to be part of the ecosystem and enjoy the growth as well as they should burn their fingers if losses popup. It will release higher free cash flow for the Telecom service provider which in turn will get circulated within ecosystem and will have huge driver for the continuous growth irrespective minor hurdles

Reader’s feedback will be highly appreciable.

News Aggregator Application Entry into India -Indian News Application Publisher shooting itself

The growth of Android and iOS mobile operating system based Smartphone coupled with high speed network attracted many players. One of them are news centric companies in order to grab more market share & reaching out to millions. It bypassed their previous limitation of global, regional or local level based on their dominance.

At the same time, the open source Android ecosystem and higher agility offering to user through mobility device forced many established player's to reduce their reliance on print segment and started adopting the mobile centric offering of news.

The dynamically Android provisioning mechanism of news feeds to user received very good reception by end user and the adoption of news applications were flooded in the market place. Many leading newspaper captured existing and new user which in-turned acted as inventory to promote third party application or generate advertisement revenue as the time spent by an active user is at higher end of the ecosystem.

The higher monetization potential in the news segment attracted many players who struggled to monetization of their application even after having 2 to 3 Mn DAU (Daily Active User) base.

In the absence of monetization & Stickiness, most of the companies reached out to blogger community to news paper application providers to get their feeds so that non performing application on the monetization part start generating revenue whereas News Applications provider thought that they will get the traffic and offered their feeds to news aggregator applications provider or third party applications provider with different content.

I want to remind News Application providers that they have spent Multibillion $ to acquire user and what was the need of that if at the end they decided to give their news feed to others. Why user will keep 10 apps of new but will prefer to have aggregator one.

In my point of view, its shooting on your feet All the best to such News Companies offering feeds to 3rd party.

Reliance Jio Launching 4G Network & LYF Device - Confusing State

I am truly impressed with the kind of speed Reliance Jio owned LYF Smartphone brand is getting flooded in the market place. More impressive is the price point which is really very competitive and may offer competitor tough time to match. As per the report, Reliance Jio, placed multi million device order to its contract manufacturer getting the price benefits and implemented their refinery business model into wherein they are playing on volume with thin margin.

More interesting that its available across online and offline channel which in turn playing disruptive in the market place.

They have launched some of the device wherein mentioned categorically mentioning the supported network but one needs to understand that in wireless network there are different categories and Reliance Jio is launching 4G network offering very high speed of data transfer which is very much dependent on Network.

Some of the launched devices are as follows and one can observe the RAM and Battery specifications.

Water 5.0, 1GB RAM, Battery 2000 mHA

Flame1, RAM 1GB, Battery 2000 mHA

Flame 6, RAM 512 MB Battery, Battery 1750 mHA

Some of them are for GSM but it should be communicated very clearly to end user as most of the user by now in India is aware that Reliance is going to offer very low priced data. In that case the adoption of such devices at the lowest possible rate will be flying out of the shop in no time.

Just to add that the mentioned devices even with 1GB RAM and mentioned battery will  not be efficient enough to give good experience on 4G network as it is more on the data and that too video centric. Even though Reliance Jio offer best network, device battery will dry out in no time and will face heating problem.

What i can understand that Reliance Jio wants to grab the market share in device market to ensure multi billion $ valuation of that business unit while making its loss marking service business turn out to be positive.

In my point of view, Reliance Jio must go to market with an advertisement that LYF device support all network and not dependent on only Reliance Jio network so that they grab market share even more quickly. Right now it's very confusing which I believe they should correct.  Keep going 

Upcoming Outcome of Indian Spectrum Auction - Telenor may shut their operation

Telecom Ministry of India is gearing for one of the biggest auction of spectrum in coming months and expecting to mop-up more than $100 Bn. How good to hear that government is going to garner revenue which will enable them to reinvest in government backed project to kick start the Indian economy.

Indian Telecom service providers are already reeling under more than $70 Bn in debt and recommended base price of very efficient 700Mz is so high that it is enough to bankrupt established players of the ecosystem.

Telenor tried to re-established itself post cancellation of their license post Indian Telecom Department identified Telecom Scam and now operating in 6 Circle of India and 4 out of 6 are non tech savvy states and only 25% of its total user base are Internet user base.

Telenor already ordered infrastructure in order to launch 4G services but they cannot sustain heavy competition in upcoming months and years until unless they are present across all circles. Any user at any point of time prefer service provider offer services across all circle. Many of the low hanging fruits who wants to experience 4G may latch onto Telenor 4G network and subsequently move out another service provider using Mobile Number Portability ( MNP)

Telenor head quarter and Indian management quadrant on multiple occasion indicated that the recommended base price of spectrum in different band are too high and will not help service provider to even achieve RoI.

I believe that Telenor HQ will prefer to quit India and take one time Goodwill and focus on their remaining userbase where they have high ARPU user base. I strongly believe that it will be the first causality of upcoming auction of spectrum

Hiring Delay Mess - Self Created Trouble By Startups and Brand Impact

In recent weeks, many startups have hit the headline of print media for all wrong reasons and that is the delay of hiring new resources due to the strategic change of their business model. The whole process exposed the lack of communication skillets of the well established start up organization making the buzz around the globe.

In the last two years we observed the Bull Run by Start up to hire resources from reputed institute and treated as their pride which is now pinching them the most. As per the standard business practice, all organizations during their Annual Operation Plan (AOP) ensure that the visibility, strategy, execution process and resource requirements are locked-in and in that scenario, the failure to follow this process by many startups clearly indicate that coordination within the business unit is not seamless.

The aggressive push by the institution clearly indicate that they want to defend their reputation where their students are getting jobs in top organizations with fat pay package and at the same time supporting student's demand for the compensation for the delayed joining date which is not even confirmed joining date for them.

 It clearly indicate the early wave of downturn in many segments where well known startups operate and realized in due course that they have to train the students from scratch which ad to their cost.

The university's and college's  move to blacklist such organizations will have long term impact on the their hiring plan and as we all know about Indian Professionals that they are very cautious about their professional stability hence it would have another stretch point of retaining existing and attracting new talents.

My full sympathy is with students and wishes them all the best to get even better job at the earliest. More the hurdle more the success waiting for you. 

Panasonic Mobile - Transition In Two Years From Bottom To Leader Quadrant

Panasonic Mobile once considered as dominant player across globe shocked world when they decided to pull out from Mobile Device production segment post multiple quarter of loss and mounting competition in 2013. At the same time, Panasonic catches the potential of selling Rebranded Panasonic Device in India and other parts of the globe through outsourcing model.

When Panasonic Launched their first device under rebranded outsourced model, the organization faced uphill task to move the inventory and decided to move slowly with product while improving the channel and sales team.

The team under India Panasonic Mobility head Mr.Pankaj Rana did fabulous job while designing the devices and more importantly focusing on device performance through rigorous testing model to reduce post disastrous misstep when some of the devices were launched with heating problem.

The coordinated branding by hiring the brand ambassador helped Panasonic Mobile to popular in youth segment as well as focused design started attracting Indian Smartphone buyer. By keeping the device price segment in two domain of 6k to 10 INR and 10K onwards; Panasonic strategy worked seamlessly to capture both prosumer and consumer segment.

Based on recent interview of Mr.Pankaj Rana across leading print media and his confidence of reaching 2500Cr to 3000Cr with 25 plus device launch during remaining part of 2016 is more on the conservative side. I also observed which many may overlooked that Panasonic Mobile will come out with low end Smartphone loaded with all feature should be considered as warning bell for many established player's in the Industry. The Total shipment of 3Mn device forecast by him is also on the conservative side.

Here Are The Reason Why I Think That His Statement Is On The Conservative Side

1.  Even during the downturn in Smartphone sell through in the last couple of month, Panasonic Shipment is growing while competitor is struggling to maintain their shipment level.
2. Every month shipment growth is around 12 to 15% and the percentage of data user is very high. It is a clear indication that Panasonic Mobile is very popular in prosumer segment.
3. Most of the Panasonic Mobile User bases are data user.
4. The Smartphone market will attain the growth path once replacement cycle will start from Sept or Oct 2016 as in India, replacement cycle is 1.8 years.
5. Indian Smartphone market size for 2016 will be around 110 Mn and hence it will offer Panasonic to capture market share through their planned launch and especially enter into low margin but volume game centric cheaper device.
6. It's the unmatched strategic and tactical maneuver of India Panasonic CEO Mr. Manish Sharma and Jaina Marketing India (P) Ltd MD, Mr. Pradeep Jain.

In My Point Of View And Assessment Done By My Organization

Panasonic will be selling around 4 Mn device in 2016 and will be in top 5 Smartphone seller in 2017 . Hats off to Panasonic Mobile outsourcing partner Jaina Marketing India (P) Ltd ; CMO Mr. Shashin Devsare visionary modulation of brand enhancement skill set. Keep going....

Read more here 

Tata CLiQ e-commerce platform - Serious Competitor

For the last three year, India is the talking point everywhere around e-commerce boom with more than 70 million user uses e-commerce portal for one or another reason. The potential ofe-commerce is huge provided tackled properly in a strategic manner given the fact that mobility data user are growing. Till now only 23% of total data users are opting for e-Commerce sites; be it mobile or WEB and transaction rate is in low single digit until unless e-commerce portals are going for flash sales.

Interesting maximum revenue of established e-commerce companies revenue comes from electronics section and predominantly from mobile devices. Still e-commerce companies only sells around 15-17% of the total shipped Smartphone through their portal and rest falls in Local Retailer segment. After observing the trend of e-commerce companies performance as well as the threat points; at last Tata group announced their entry into the said segment.

We should remember that they have very strong experience through their retail business around fashion, electronics and other segment and many of the Tata Sons controlled companies offer many products such as capital goods and all. During phase 1 of retail business, they defined the process of procuring to warehousing to channel management to delivery management which is very crucial for any organization to be successful.

 Secondly, Tata sons also controlled one of the finest companies in the IT segment and can change the tide on the basis of innovative mechanism which no one can even think off. Given the above facts, CLiQ may immediately impose itself as non avoidable competitor in the market place using its unmatched brand value, great market reach, producer of many product.

They may opt to connect their retail outlets with CLiQ where user can place an order online whereas delivery or demo can be done through retail outlets.

Given the branding, most of the buyer and seller will be more than happy to get attached with them and on top of that, Tata may not opt to reverse strategy where they choose to acquire only profitable user base instead of user base to generate virtual valuation to get the funding.

In my opinion, the combination of CLiQ and Tata Group controlled retail outlet may pose very stiff competition to its competitor and believe that it will be learning for everyone. Its a move by Tata Sons which carry a capability to change the market dynamics

Refugee inflow in European Countries - Can Be Used To Trigger Economy

The crisis in Syria and Iraq recently propelled unwarranted situation in both the countries but Syria got more affected. The local citizen of Syria turned towards European and other adjourning countries to save their life but Europe observed major inflow and millions crossed their borders.

Many European Union attached countries welcomed them whereas many opposed them and blocked them at their boarder. Historically, Syrian society is known for friendly and calm people and is proud of their heritage. They have seen starvation instead of peaceful life back home during the long transition from one to another continent. Many lost their loved one and going through pain which i think none of the human being deserve.

European countries are known for expensive resource cost and many countries are facing the gap between younger and retired age group. As we all know that European countries are going through under major recession and they need to kick start growth and infrastructure and agriculture which is the easiest way to start growth.

What refugee group need is to have moral support and language training in order to get adopted within the society. Till the time they undergo the social adoption processes, many countries can put them on temporary job on semi skilled segment which is extremely costly is such countries. In that way, countries accepting refugee on humanitarian ground will not be coming under financial stress instead of that will be supported by the adopted citizens’ new avenue of revenue.

Think about it..

Ford Motors Must Thank Tata Motors To keep Jaguar and Land Rovers Leading Brand Image

During financial crisis in 2008, USA automobile sector faced survival issue. Major company like GM and other even went for government loan to survive wherein Ford was trying to survive without the government support. They had many iconic brand and one of them was " Jaguar & Land Rovers" Brand. Based out of UK, Jaguar and Land Rovers got acquired by one company and then sold to another company and in 2008 nobody was willing to take the risk of taking that brand over.

At that point of time Tata Sons Chairman with his visionary eye catches the potential and acquired it in all cash transaction of $2.3 Bn. At that point of time all criticized or questioned Mr. Tata move but he was aware that if Tata Motors wants to go global then branding is very important and he took that risk.

The first thing he did is to inflict the confidence within jaguar & Land Rovers team that they can change everything and he is willing to invest without second thought. The interesting twist happened when he showed it employee by announcing investment plan for UK plan for modernization as well as generated thousand of Job in UK through supplier community of acquired Brand.

The trigger of trust by Mr. Tata on acquired brand motivated all ranks and best came out of them. By 2011, they started showing Y-o-Y growth and cutting edge design and received unconditional positive feedback from auto analyst. Mr. Tata moved further and did a strategic collaboration with Chinese auto firm and started producing the acquired brand to capture China market so that brand awareness and to mitigate the geographical based recession impact.

The downturn in Tata Motors domestic business and extra ordinary growth of acquired brand helped Tata Motors keep generating $bn of profit an free cash flow and keep continuing investing in new product line.

It is interesting to note that Tata Motors acquired iconic brand is generating one and half times of profitability w.r.t acquisition price. The respectable margin and profitability enabled Tata Motors to continue upped its arm length in R&D and modernization of assembly plant which in turn will give exponential return to its investor.

The UK government and Ford Motor must thank to Tata Motors as well as Mr. Tata for their conviction in acquired brand and associated resources. Keep going...

Is India Government believe in Cess & Levy - Where we are heading ?

The Government of India post assuming office chalked out ambitious plan to clean India to change the image of India. The vision of government was very noble and launched the program with fanfare wherein everyone nominated their favorite to be part of it.

Indian Media in order to capture the user base, followed the organized events by the government and flashed images of ministers to local people trying to keep the street to colony clean. The opposition bombarded government and called it as PR activities. In order to generate awareness among the common people government spent heavily through print and digital media by allocating multi million $.

Time moved on and Indian citizen moved on and we all know what happened in Delhi when Local MunicipalCorporation went for Strike and whole Delhi get converted into Garbage Center. We all observed that all politician to local citizen kept talking and blaming each other including popular Indian Media houses but no one initiated collectively to clean the city.

As government spent heavily and in order to fill up cost, Finance ministry came out with fantastic Swachh Bharat Cess wherein there is no Cleanness. To be my utter surprise they started charging the cess attached with service tax and other taxes. If go by the collected tax and projections; finance ministry will be generating $1 Bn in FY17 but we don't see any changes on the ground.

In my point of view,  no one who got nominated by prominent personality is even bothering to go out to the street and observe the situation.

Country faced severe drought and Finance ministry came out with Krishi Kalyan Cess and expecting to garner around $800 Mn per annum.

Finance ministry observed that India is moving fast towards digital and mobile Internet and how to garner additional revenue from it so came out with equalization levy of 6% popularly known as Google tax. With growing digital and mobility business, they will be generating around $400 - $500 mn in tax collection per annum.

Now Raining season is coming and most of the metro cities will be flooded as there is no sewage mechanism and strongly believe that finance ministry will be coming out with Sewage cess.

I appreciate the initiation but it should be reflected on ground. I also do understand that it takes time to change the mindset of people but also believe that  government should not be squeezing common people in such a way that at the end they start thinking that their contribution is going under water. In point of view, The income tax payers should be kept away from above cess but non- paying  income tax citizen should be charged service tax and other cess. Would love to see everyone comment

Who is Responsible for Yahoo Current Dire Situation - Reckless Acquisition or Lack of Leadership or Confidence around Alibaba & Yahoo Japan Stake

Yahoo - is One of the pioneer of Internet during Internet era of 1995 onwards which acted as driving force of innovation. The revolutionary email and chat solution from Yahoo attracted millions of active users on daily basis and their equity price skyrocketed during Internet bubble. The higher price point enabled Yahoo to acquire multiple to mid range companies through Share swap mechanism in order to grow their business. The Internet bubble burst during 2001-2003 and loose coupled integration of acquired organization by Yahoo landed yahoo in a situation where they failed to monetize the properties.

The entry of Google by 2006 - 2007 in big way also attracted many organization towards Google for search engine due to their fast and clean business model whereas Yahoo struggled to maintain their falling equity price in flagging revenue with near to zero growth.

This led Yahoo to fire multiple CEO's and landed in paying Millions of $ in Golden parachute  package and every CEO tried two things; Acquiring new companies and taking huge charges for firing thousand of resources with an commitment to stakeholders that they will be on the path of growth soon. Unfortunately nothing happened. Most interesting in each and every investor conference call, they touched Alibaba and Yahoo Japan operation which is the Jewel in Yahoo Crown to deviate the shareholders. During Alibaba IPO, 

Yahoo made handsome capital gain and distributed it among shareholders to keep them happy rather than introspecting about their product line and subsequently investing in Research and Development for the betterment of Future product roadmap. They acquired Tumblr which is a blogging site with an intention to attract more users and paid $1.1 Bn but it seems that they will close that too in next few years.

Most interesting when Microsoft made an acquisition offer, they felt that the offer is undervalued and rejected the offer and I am sure that all must be regretting today for shooting down the offer. In my point of view, Yahoo should get out of the Confidence factor that they have multi billion $ cash hoard in the form of equity in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba and focus on their product line in serious manner. As they are open for sale but what is the use of being tagged as looser in Technology world when they were the pioneer of the segment. Cheer up Yahoo team and come up with revolutionary product line.

The Ongoing Indication from Indian e-Commerce - Consolidation is Inevitable

Most of the e-commerce companies are making round of news for all wrong reasons. The latest one is the delay in honoring their commitment to Campus selected student into professional world. The even interesting part of lack of communication from e-commerce companies with proper answer to such universities so that universities plan for the alternative for their budding high quality brains. It seems that e-commerce companies started a feel that by the end of 2015 that they are governing the economics of India and went from humble to arrogant mode.

In my point of view, recent regulation and missteps landed them in a soup

1. Regulation around Discounting
2. Stiff Discounting to acquire and retain userbase
3. Hiring Named and Famed professionals without any defined Roles
4. Very high attrition rate is very high as experienced resources donot need Brand but Brand needs them and hence many of them left abruptly and all project running under them went underwater
5. Left and right acquisition without clear vision on Integration and synergy
6. Product Quality sold on their portal
7.  All e-commerce companies fighting for the limited number of userbase and In India; e-Commerce centric userbase is not more than 140 Million
8. Problem around order something and receive something dented their image
9. Their main revenue stream relied on Electronics and that too Smartphones supported by heavy discounting by e-commerce sites
10. Lack of Innovation and Cross Collaboration
11. Lavish expenditure on Offices and resources. Recently many e-commerce companies announced that they are closing their office in tier 2 and Tier3 cities

It lands us to think that E-Commerce companies relies mainly on metros and sub-metros cities based userbase. Also concluded that retention of the userbase is very low and also the process of registration with their applications to portal is bit cumbersome as per the Indian user standard. The stiff competition and continuing discounting as well as in/out acquisition of companies coupled with many investment landed them in cash crunch.

When they thought of raising the fund and started preparing for the same; Analyst firm started marking down their valuation and put them in Cat and Mouse game.

In my point of view, 90% of the Indian e-Commerce companies will ultimately land into closure mode and rest of them will be forced to join hands to survive. They must also realize that most of the Indian State imposed taxes on their shipped products and in-turn the last mile benefit offered by e-commerce companies coming to an end and they must think of alternative revenue to be viable in the market place. We all should introspect that why our e-commerce companies are not making profits whereas the international e-commerce companies operating in other countries making profits. It's better to join hands and fight collectively instead of fighting internally.