Renewal of Passport

It is ten years since i got my first passport and time for renewal. Much has changed in the last ten years (at the regional passport office, bangalore)
* I reserved an appointment online to submit the application and was able to complete the submission process in about 35 mins. It took more than 3 hours of waiting in large queues ten years ago. Appointment through the web was unheard of.
* You can view the status of your application on the web, phone or even via SMS
* New passports are expected in 40 days, a huge improvement from the 3 to 5 month wait earlier
* Documentation has been simplified but there is still room for improvement
* Amenities (waiting halls, seating, hygiene, audio systems etc) for users at the office require improvement, has not changed much in the last ten years though it looks a little more organised. A new passport office is being built in Koramangala and this might make it better for users.

Look forward to the police verification and issue of the new passport soon.

Emergic: February 14, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 14, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Role of Venture Capital (Part 2)

Venture capitalists should also think of building up an ecosystem of companies along a value chain in the selected areas, rather than making an independent string of investments. This is because most of the elements of the value chain that are required to make a new venture succeed do not exist fully in India. This lack of legacy can be turned into an opportunity rather than a drawback through smart thinking and investing. It is a bit like the keiretsu approach of Japanese companies. Such an approach will require thinking at an early stage of what tomorrow�s world is going to be � and then working to put in place all the companies that are required to make that world a reality....

Emergic: February 13, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 13, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Role of Venture Capital

What is the role venture capital can play in addressing these challenges?
Venture capital in India has to be thought about a little differently from that in developed economies. India lacks not just the ecosystem of seed (and angel) funding, but also a large base of first-generation entrepreneurs and education-industry interaction. In addition, the value chain of entities required to capitalise on the new world being created is also not there. So, how can venture capitalists help build out the Indian Internet and mobile businesses?...

Emergic: February 10, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 10, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Connecting Indians (Part 2)

The opportunity in India of addressing the Internet and mobile needs of the tens of millions of users thus lies around the twin tracks of providing an Internet computing infrastructure for the next 100 million users, and building a content and services platform for them so that urban users can (among other things) alleviate life�s daily inconveniences and rural users can increase their incomes. How do we build this out?....

Emergic: February 9, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 9, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Connecting Indians

This backgrounder brings us to the second issue.

What is required to service 300 million mainstream connected Indian consumers with diverse usability requisites & language barriers?

Let us first segment the customer base. I like to look at this from two different viewpoints. The first, who these potential users are, and the second, what devices are being used.

There are five segments in which users (and usage) can be classified: home users, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, educational and rural. Of these, the large enterprise users are most likely to be like their brethren in the developed world � using mostly mid- to high-end desktops (and increasingly, wireless-enabled laptops) to get their work done. The two biggest opportunities in India are with home and SME users. The penetration of computers in both segments is about 10%: about 5 million out of 45 million middle and upper-middle class homes in urban and semi-urban India have computers, and about 1 in 10 of the 50-odd million infoworkers across SMEs have access to computers. There is very large �non-consumption� across both segments....

Emergic: February 8, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 8, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Mobile Challenges

It is somewhat ironical that commercial Internet and mobile services were launched in India at the same time � August 15, 1995. Today, the mobile industry is way ahead of the Internet. With calling rates amongst the lowest in the world, Indian mobile operators have been forced to adapt their business models to make money. The result: a user base of 75+ million users growing at nearly 5 million a month. The mobile industry is the big success story in India. In other words, it has been a win-win situation: for consumers and for the service providers....

Emergic: February 7, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 7, 2006 Archives
TECH TALK: India Internet and Mobile: Internet Challenges

We would like to explore the salient challenges facing businesses predominantly driven by Internet & Mobile.

The Internet user base in India is said to exceed 35 million with two-thirds of that access coming in from cybercafes. I believe that for the Internet to play a significant role in our lives much of that access has to shift to homes. Only then will people start building their lives around the Internet. Availability of access away from home for a few minutes a day is not how the Internet usage will take-off, even though the user base may keep growing.

Emergic: February 6, 2006 Archives

Emergic: February 6, 2006 Archives