Mangalore, next BPO boom town - CNBC TV18 Reports

Came across this video in youtube, in which CNBC TV18, one of the premier business news channels in India reports of Mangalore, calling it next BPO boom town and a serious challenger to India's silicon valley Bangalore according to a NASSCOM study! Watch the video to know more.

CNBC TV18 reports, Mangalore is now home to 27 outsourcing firms including big names like Infosys, Wipro and Mphasis. With over 186 educational institutes in and around Mangalore and over 3000 engineering graduates every over boom is here to sustain. Being in one's home town is certainly a dream nowadays as one goes in search of jobs to India's big cities. So, Mangalore provides a window of opportunity in the near future for more Mangaloreans to stay in their home town. People interviewed by CNBC too echoed the same opinion. Even the people who moved into this town from outside too were also happy about the city, typical cosmopolitan nature of Mangalore evident from many years. Sky scrapers in the city are common scene now. Real estate prices have gone up. City's economy is changing with new malls coming up. But again infrastructure is the main concern here too as in the state capital.

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The 3 Mistakes of My Life : Book Review

New books of any best selling author is awaited eagerly by his readers. Chetan Bhagat is the same case. I had read the prologue of 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life', which had been given in his site www.chetanbhagat.com. After reading the prologue, I had the option to send the link of the just read stuff to 3 more people by giving their e-mail adresses to get the Ist chapter for reading. In other cases, it would have been the case of spamming but considering Chetan and his credibility, I proceeded and read the first chapter, got thrilled and on the following weekend bought the book from Landmark, Forum, Bangalore.

Chetan in his new book, has stuck with a story revolving around 3 friends much in the similar fashion as in his first book, Five Point Someone. But this time, the story is not from the corridors of prestigious IITs. As he says, it is from small towns like Ahmedabad. Anyway, I never thought Ahmedabad was a small town at all. As the book's synopsys says it is a book about 3 of India's passions - Cricket, Religion and Business, personified by the 3 characters - Ishaan, Omi and Govind. As in Five Point Someone, this story is told by one of the characters, Govind in first person.

Though Chetan starts off with Cricket, story line turns into religious aspects quickly. Chetan follows up the series of India v/s England and India v/s Australia in 2001 and shows up how these 3 guys react to the match results and this forms the core of the story but there is nothing extraordinary about that as you would have already heard or seen yourself the live analysis, aftermath of the cricket matches in regular households.On the other hand, I felt most of the times that he is presenting the same old stuff about religion, churned out most often by the media again and again, which shows up only one side of the story. I also saw little merit in tracing Gujarat's history from 2001 which comprises earthquake, religious clashes etc, as enough has been said and it has been the hot topic of discussion in the intellectual circles of the country. What is disappointing is the same perspective of the state from India's west, thrusted upon by the media is reiterated by the author. But Chetan has attempted to be different when one of his characters says about Chimpazees kissing after the fight among themselves akin to religious clashes and that dialogue among people is what is missing in India in these situations.

Cricket, a national time pass has also been seen from a businessman's point of view, which may be relatively new to the young readers. Businessman also sees religion in an agnostic point of view. The common glue which binds the 3 characters though they pursue different passions is cricket. Well, how can one forget the romantic part of the story, typical to Chetan's novels. Here too one of the characters falls in love with a girl and events which lead to this is presented in almost similar way in Five Point Someone. But Chetan here conveys some serious stuff yet jokingly.

Happy ending is any author would love to provide to his readers after all the trauma and Chetan follows the tradition here too but with some sacrifices. One liners like his first novel are witty and worth 2nd read. All in all, it is not a must read but can be useful if you can take the real jist out of the full write up.

Regards
Raveesh

Buy Three Mistakes of My Life here

In Search of New Patrons

'The New Indian Express' is the latest brand to switch to a new logo. There has been lots of logo changes in the last few years by media, industrial and banking brands. But the big question remains the same - Does a new logo open up new fortunes for the organization? Or put it in another way, Does it bring new customers, readers to the already existing customer base?

Last year, 2 major banks in India went for brand makeover. One for just the logo change and other for both name and logo change. Yes, you got it right, former is Canara Bank and latter is Axis(earlier UTI) bank. Canara bank in its new logo - blue and yellow triangle interlocked, represents the strong between the bank and its customers both inside and outside the organization. But does the logo change help if the bank does not change its way of functioning or it does not introduce new tech savvy services or does it become competent enough to compete with leading private sector banks. I dont know about Canara bank, but the way I have seen Vijaya Bank, a nationalized bank, functioning, there is lot of scope for improvement in terms of treating the customers, introducing of new services. Most of the public sector banks still operate in a bureaucratic way. But, yes the logo change does help in changing the first impression someone will have next time when hear about that bank. UTI bank had to change its name to Axis bank for legal reasons. One of the most important thing to keep in mind during a image makeover is retaining the old reputation and enhancing upon that. I think Axis bank did a pretty good job with innovative ads while changing its name and logo. Just look at the below ad which features identical twins.

It is a completely different story when a media brand goes for a image makeover. Since it is the first look on any newspaper, magazine which makes your initial opinion to buy that or not, I think image change has a profound effect on the readers. Moreover, the newspaper's popularity lies in how it presents news,views to the public in an appealing way. Supporting this view is the fact that whenever a newspaper/magazine changes its logo/font it also changes the layout of the different news sections. The New Indian Express too follows this trend. One of the examples, I would like to quote is that of Sportstar, from The Hindu group. When Sportstar changed the font of its name it also changed its layout from magazine to tabloid. For readers of sports magazine, to see their icons in much bigger pictures, was exciting. It changed the way of presenting the articles too. Also, from a fortnightly, it became a weekly! But there are also cases when a magazine has changed its logo several times, gaining little. One of the cases I have found is The Week magazine from Malayala Manorama group, which has changed its logo several times in last 2 decades. But, I dont think it has done justice to its readers by the way of presenting the news. Also, news presented sometimes is stale. Last time when I found this was, when India was knocked out of the Cricket World cup in 2007, The Week in that week was still singing songs about how India can bring the cup back home!

Regards
Raveesh

References:
Canara bank: new image - new services?
UTI Bank is rechristened Axis Bank