Category Archives: India

We pay special attention to India and the role it’s people are playing in technology and the World Wide Web.

Cryptocurrency, Finance, India, Technology

Lakshmi Coin India Consideration

Lakshmi Coin India Consideration

 

Lakshmi Coin

I ran across an blog post and video from GadgetsTricks.com discussing India’s interest in creating the Lakshmi Coin:

What Is Lakshmi?

The Lakshmi, or ‘Laxmi’ is the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity.  So it’s only right to choose a name for their digital currency, Lakshmi Coin.

Key Notes About This

Based on my research, I’ve come across the following:

Long Way To Go

While many use Cryptocurrencies, it’s not clear if the future’s bright for global acceptance due to some concerns and criticisms.  Thus, the Lakshmi Coin may face steady challenges for the future.

 

 

General, India, Technology, The World, Websites

The Popularity of YouTube in India

The Popularity of YouTube in India

 

The popularity of YouTube in India

The most popular YouTube videos in India get hundreds of thousands of views every week, attesting to the popularity of the video sharing service in India. Like in the Hollywood-dominated West the popular YouTube videos in India are the latest trailers of new Bollywood releases or the hottest songs from Indian rock stars or musicians.

Tamil actor/singer Dhanush’s “Why this Kolaveri” was perhaps one of the most popular YouTube videos in India and had an impact similar to the one created by the incredibly famous and record breaking YouTube sensation, Gangnam Style by South Korean pop start PSY.

Browsing through YouTube, along with Facebook, is what a majority of Indians do on their mobile phones. India is the fastest growing smartphone market in the world, and most Indian buyers use their ultra-cheap smartphones to watch videos on YouTube.

The Importance of Mobile

Indeed, mobile is the most important part of YouTube’s India strategy, as the company owned by Google focuses on non-PC devices in countries with relatively lower PC and internet penetration such as India. Worldwide, mobile accounts for 25% of YouTube’s daily views, 1 billion in all, and this percentage is much higher in lower income countries such as India, or for that matter, in Africa.

Udemy- Online Courses

India is one of YouTube’s top five markets in the world and hence quite significant. YouTube’s primary focus is to keep growing alongside, as the penetration of smartphones, internet and “smart” DTH television grows in India. The primary focus, as discussed earlier, is on mobile penetration. YouTube plans to take advantage of the rising popularity of YouTube videos in India by integrating YouTube videos with direct-to-home (DTH) television subscriptions provided by Indian companies such as with Airtel, Tata Sky and Dish TV.

Not Just A Bollywood Thing

While the most popular YouTube videos in India have related to Bollywood, it is not necessarily the case that all top content providers in India for YouTube have links to movies to India’s “City of Dreams”.

Harsh Agrawal, of ShoutMeLoud, offers SEO lesson:

There are a plenty of content providers for YouTube in the country who have done remarkably well with their educational videos – such as, “how to change your hard drive”, product review videos – “New Google Nexus 6 Review” or “iPhone 6 Review” or some thrilling videos such as the video of stuntmen in Mumbai performing dangerous acrobatics on a moving train, which became viral, and eventually created a huge political storm, leading to stricter monitoring of Indian trains.

Point is, there is a great hunger in India for new and original videos, interesting videos, and they may have nothing whatsoever to do with Bollywood.

Video Tutorial in Hindi:

YouTube Popularity For Politics

Even politicians in India have taken to YouTube in a big way for their campaigning, none more so than India’s popular prime minister, Narendra Modi. Mr. Modi made YouTube and other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook the corner stones of his campaigning in the recently concluded election, which he won by a landslide victory. Mr. Modi has been a pioneer in Indian politics and very good with technology – which makes him very popular among India’s young voters. Any YouTube video of the new Indian prime minister’s speeches, was likely to get hundreds of thousands of views. Indeed, fans of the Indian prime minister have a dedicated YouTube channel where his speeches were broadcasted. Hence, it’s not outlandish to suggest that YouTube could claim a small but significant role in Mr. Modi being the prime minister of India today!

YouTube-India Partnerships

Some of the most popular YouTube videos in India have been partnerships. YouTube has had highly successful partnerships with content creators such as the India Comedy Week a few years back, during which over 400 hours of comedy content were hosted by YouTube that featured originals and some all-time favorite TV comedy shows such as Mamman Bhai, Dilli Ki Billi and Shit People Say.

YouTube’s Diverse Language Options

Another important thing done by YouTube is not to cater to India’s most popular languages – Hindi and English – alone. YouTube has made a concerted effort to target speakers of other major Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Malyalam, Gujarati, Punjabi as well as various dialects of Hindi such as Bhojpuri and Rajasthani.

Moving Forward

While doing business in India, YouTube has been smarter than many other multinational companies. The big reason for YouTube’s great success in India is how well the US based company has “Indianized” itself and adapted to Indian tastes and sensibilities. And the best part is that, we have seen nothing yet – YouTube will only get stronger and more popular in India over the next few years.

India, Technology, The World

On Mobile Usage in India – All the Facts

On Mobile Usage in India – All the Facts

Mobile Usage in India

What is not so well known about the long running war between iPhone and Android is that India is where the battle between Apple, Google and Samsung is being played out, with frantic intensity. India is the world’s fastest growing smartphone market, according to Gartner, with smartphone sales growing by 166.8% this year and accounting for 53.6% of the new mobile devices sold this year.

Mobile Usage Challenges

India may have been slow at providing basic amenities for its people – still a large number of households in India, especially in rural Indian and in urban slums, do not have access to drinking water or proper toilets. Still, a significant percentage of Indian children suffer from malnutrition and in many ways, the country is still technologically backward, suffering from a creaking infrastructure. But if there is one area in which India shines, and shines really brightly, it is in the national mobile device usage.

There are 1.25 billion people in India and according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India’s premier telecom regulator, there are as many as 933 million mobile phone connections in the country. Which means that the mobile device usage in India is particularly high for what is still a very poor country.

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But that is not the full picture about the mobile device usage in India. The caveat here is that the number of unique mobile phone subscribers in India is actually less than half of the estimated number of 933 million total subscriptions. This is because Indian mobile phone users have an average of 2.5 sims registered in their names. While the sim penetration in India has reached almost 75% of the population, the mobile penetration has only reached 35%. There are more mobile phone subscriptions than mobile phone devices.

Promising Outlook For Mobile Usage

The anomaly is because the telecom market is highly competitive in the country, with half a dozen well established telecom companies battling it out for the attention of a vast population that grows richer and less poorer every year, and has more disposable income to spend, year after year. There is no question that many Indians are poor, but things are changing fast, and there is now no doubt that the country is on the right track. The fast growing mobile device usage in India is one of the biggest signs of a new wave of prosperity.

So to cater to the growing demands of a vast market, the big telecom companies in India, such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and Tata DoCoMo and to survive the tough competition try trick in the trade to attract new customers, offering freebies and great deals for subscribing to their connections. This, coupled with the really cheap smartphones available in the country has spurred the mobile phone usage in India like nowhere else in the world.

The smartphone market in India is another huge success story. While there were 113 smartphones sold in the country by 2013, and proceeding year – in 2014 – the smartphone sales have been estimated to have increased by 166.8% – a truly remarkable growth. While iPhones are getting increasingly popular in India, the real battle for the attention of the Indian consumer is being played out by the various makers of Android phones. While Samsung still lords over the smartphone sales in India, it is facing great competition – not from Apple, Nokia or Lenovo – but from Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, Lava and Karbonn. Micromax has been a great local success story and its great success against Samsung has been widely covered in business publications in the country.

Also interesting is the fact that more people in India use internet on their mobile phones than on their desktop. The internet penetration in the country (for desktop usage) is still quite low, which is being made up by increasing smartphone sales.

Mobile Usage For Social Media

Facebook and YouTube are hugely popular in India and account for bulk of the internet usage on mobile devices. Facebook claims to have 100 million users in the country, of which 84 million are said to use it only through their mobile phones.

Another interesting fact which suggests just why mobile phone usage in India is so critical is that over 90% of Indian mobile phone users claim to do research on a particular product on their mobile devices before placing an order for it online.

Lastly, an overwhelming majority of mobile phone subscriptions in the country are pre-paid connections (93%). Not just poor or middle class Indians, even the rich prefer to have pre-paid connections because of the mistrust associated with postpaid subscriptions, where the telecom companies are known to make frequent mistakes with the billing.

India, Technology, The World

List of IT Companies in India

List of IT Companies in India

List of IT Companies in India

The IT industry is huge in India, accounting for 7 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) according to NASSCOM. This is up from 1.2 percent in 1998. The Indian IT industry is a massive job creator and employs 10 million people in the country, either directly or indirectly. It is one of the engines that drive the Indian economy.

[The Role of Women in Modern India]

Here, we have a made a list of IT companies in India for you. For want of space, this list of IT companies in India has only the 10 biggest companies – as measured by their market capitalization or the number of IT personnel on their payrolls. You are probably very familiar with most of the names on this list.

TCS

TCS or the Tata Consultancy Services is not just the biggest IT company in India, but one of the top 5 IT and outsourcing companies in the world. TCS is a part of India’s largest conglomerate, the Tata Group of Companies, and was actually established way back in 1968. It has its headquarters in Mumbai and has its offices in over 40 countries around the world. TCS has a record 325,000 employees on its payroll and offers software services to the Banking, Healthcare, Travel, Telecom, Hospitality and Insurance sectors.

INFOSYS

Infosys is India’s second biggest IT company and has over 195,000 employees on its payroll. Infosys had been on a decline for many years till the appointment of industry veteran, Vishal Sikka, as the CEO changed things around for the company. Infosys grew faster than any other IT company in India in 2015. Infosys offers the following services -Management Consulting, Software Testing, Business Process Outsourcing, Engineering Services, Business Applications and more.

Udemy- Online Courses

WIPRO

Wipro is the third biggest IT company in India, which was started by Azim Premji, who is today one of the richest men in the world. Wipro offers services across the breadth of the IT sector including Cloud Management Service, Data Integration, Human Resource Outsourcing, Testing Service and more. Wipro clients include some of the biggest names in Manufacturing, Automotive, Banking, Transportation and Retail in the world.

HCL TECHNOLOGIES

HCL Technologies is India’s fourth biggest IT company and the #1 challenger to the hegemony of the top three IT companies. HCL is headquartered in Noida and has offices in over 25 countries around the world. HCL offers services such as Network Services, Cloud Computing, Business Process Outsourcing, Testing Services etc. HCL serves some of the biggest names in the public sector, Telecom, Electronics, Retail, Manufacturing and more.

TECH MAHINDRA

Tech Mahindra is India’s fastest growing IT company that was founded in 1986 and serves more than 50 countries around the world. Tech Mahindra offers services such as Software Testing, Web Content Management, Network Services, Business Applications, and more. Tech Mahindra serves some of the biggest names in Hospitality, Banking, Telecom, Insurance and Retail.

IBM INDIA

IBM needs no introduction – it is the biggest IT company in the world by far. IBM also has a huge operation in India, its biggest outside the United States. IBM hires 150,000 IT personnel across the country.

ACCENTURE

Accenture is an American IT company which has major operations in India, with a headcount of over 200,000 IT personnel in its offices across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Accenture is an ambitious company and plans to hire more than 95,000 IT personnel in India in 2016.

COGNIZANT

Cognizant Technology Solutions is another major American multinational corporation which offers custom IT, consulting, and business process outsourcing services and has a major operation in India. In fact, 66% of Cognizant’s 217,000 employees are based in India, which makes it one of the biggest employers in the country.

MINDTREE

Mindtree is a young Indian company that makes the list of the top IT companies in India as well. Mindtree has its headquarters in Bangalore and has operations in more than 10 countries across the world. It serves the Banking, Retail, Manufacturing, Finance, Hospitality, Travel sectors.

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Oracle Financial Services is a fast growing IT company owned by Oracle, one of the biggest software companies in the world. With a headcount of 15,000 engineers in India, Oracle Financial Services offers top-rated ERP solutions to businesses in emerging countries.

Finally, while nobody can doubt the contribution of IT and outsourcing to the Indian economy, it does seem that the growth of IT companies in India has stagnated a bit because of their failure to respond actively to the new business models in the industry. The future of Indian IT companies depends and their ability to provide more end to end technological solutions to customers across the business spectrum.

Business, India, Technology, The World, Websites

Top 5 Startup Automation and Robotics In India

Top 5 Startup Automation and Robotics In India

Robotics In India

The start-up scene is heating up in India with a lot of new companies doing exciting new things, including in robotics and automation. Robotics and industrial automation are used by companies around the world as they make manufacturing more efficient, reduce costs all-round and save time on almost every process.

The Importance Of Robotics In India

In India, some highly educated and talented engineers have caught the startup bug and are helping the country catch up with the developed world at robotics and industrial automation. India has a distinct advantage here as there’s no shortage of brilliant engineers in the country, looking to profit from their innovations by starting their own companies.

Here are the top 5 Indian startups in robotics and industrial automation to watch out for in 2017

High-Tech Robotics – Hi-Tech Robotics is a part of the Hi-Tech Group, which has been an important player in India’s tech industry for over 20 years. Hi-Tech Robotics specialized in artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and control technologies. It has over 15 patents to its credit and does everything from system integration to requirement analysis to concept development. The company aims to bring robotics to the masses. The automation solutions delivered by Hi-Tech Robotics help manufacturers boost productivity and efficiency in the factory. Hi-Tech Robotics has been working closely with the Indian Army to develop unmanned systems that minimize the risks faced by defense personnel.

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Grey Orange Robotics – Grey Orange Robotics is creates robots for warehousing and delivers advanced automation solutions.

The company focuses on creating disruptive technologies and delivers sophisticated solutions for logistics and distribution in warehouses. One of the most important products created by Grey Orange Robotics is the Butler System, which makes it easier for manufacturers to handle high-tech materials.

The Butler System improves speed, accuracy, flexibility and productivity at warehouses. Grey Orange Robotics operates from two innovation centers, one on Gurgaon in the Indian state of Haryana and one in Singapore.

Systemantics – Systemantics is a promising Bangalore based startup delivers highly sophisticated automation solutions that replace human labor and handle any tasks that are repetitive, boring and tiring, or even dangerous.  Systemantics has already done a great deal of original research and development on technologies related to the robotic arm, such as servo motion controllers, speed reducers, AC servomotors, joint angle encoders, etc. The company has received financing from top private equity companies such as Accel Partners as well as from many high net worth individuals. Systematics’ most important product is a pick and place robot called Scara, which is capable of performing tasks such as feeding, stamping and stacking – which makes it so useful to the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and the pharmaceutical industry.

Sastra Robotics – Sastra Robotics is a Kochi based start-up that develops some highly sophisticated robotic technologies and industrial automation systems targeted at the industry as well as for the purposes of academic research and entertainment.

Sastra Robotics’ best products include…

  • Genibo – Genibo is a robot dog with four legs which can walk on its own. Genibo is capable of recognizing its owner with its “eyes”, it can respond to your words and touch. It even has its own bag of cute little tricks and cuddle up to the owner.
  • Hovis – Hovis is a humanoid robot hit that can be used in 20 different forms, depending on the purpose for which you need it for.

Sastra Robotics offers advanced solutions in circuit design, simulation and verification. Bosch is one of the biggest industrial automation companies in the world and it is one of the biggest buyers of the products and technological solutions made by Sastra Robotics.

GridBots – Gridbots is an Ahmedabad based robotics company that develops products that are used in the nuclear and space industries. The robots and automation systems developed by Gridbots are used to perform inspection, welding and cutting operations in hard to reach spots. Gridbots robots are used by the Indian Army as well, for advanced battlefield tactics and smart reconnaissance missions. Gridbots is one of the most promising new players in the Indian robotics and automation industry.

 

Business, General, India, Technology

eCommerce Tips for Indians

eCommerce Tips for Indians

eCommerce Tips for Indians

What differentiates a successful eCommerce venture from an unsuccessful one? How do you get more customers and grow your business faster in India? Why do Indian eCommerce ventures such as Flipkart.com, Snapdeal.com and Healthkart.com have succeeded, while so many others have failed?

If you’re thinking of starting an online store in India, the eCommerce tips for Indians given here will be really useful to you and help make sense of the questions raised by us.

It’s All About the UX!

Essentially, all the eCommerce tips for Indians given here relate to User Experience or UX. It is the UX that determines if an eCommerce venture succeeds or not. To understand UX, it is important to know how UX is different from UI or the User Interface – which is the website design.

UI may be compared to an attractive car which looks great, with all the bells and whistles. UX is what drives the car – the functionality and the usability. So, as an eCommerce venture, your success will largely depend on the functionality of your website – how well the payment gateway works, if the items are displayed well enough, whether the navigation functions smoothly enough, if the user review section appears authentic and so on.

[Udemy India: Democratization of Learning]

Who are Your Customers?

Your customers – who are they? Are they men, women, college educated, higher, middle or lower income, are they from metros or are they from small towns in the hinterlands of the country – these are questions every eCommerce venture in India grapples with. It’s hard to know who your customers are in a country like India, which has 1.2 billion people with the sort of diversity that is not seen anywhere else in the world. But you should have some idea of your target customer, what motivates him or her, their passions, interests and dreams. What are they truly looking for and how can your business provide them the value they seek for their money? This is something you should think about very deeply.

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What Do You Aim to Achieve With Your Venture?

So how would you like your eCommerce venture to look like 2 years from now? What are the values you consider to be important and how can you make sure that your business will hold on to them? There is nothing about the eCommerce business in India that is for certain.

[Flipkart vs Amazon – Let the Games Begin!]

Companies such as eBay, which essentially began the eCommerce revolution in the country have lost out because of a failure to stick to the values that made them popular in the first place – such as great customer service and giving sellers the importance they should be given.

Others like Flipkart held on to their core values, which has led them from success to more success. Companies like Amazon have come to India with a plan and a definite goal, which is why they have had such a great start to their campaign so far.  So what are your plans with your venture?

What’s Your Marketing Strategy?

Most ambitious eCommerce ventures in India spend over one-third of their budgets on marketing. Some spend millions of dollars on TV advertisements, even hiring Bollywood stars and cricketers. Now, this is often a hit and miss strategy. If it works, it does get the eCommerce business a lot of attention and will boost the incoming traffic to their sites by a considerable extent.

But if the advertisements fail to get the public excited, it only means a lot of money down the drain, and possibly the end of the venture. It’s far better to grow gradually and affordably, through Pay-Per-Click advertising and word-of-mouth publicity, rather than to burn your fingers trying too hard to succeed in the shortest time possible.

Getting Your Customers Involved in Your Business

The best eCommerce ventures succeed because they get their customers to get deeply interested in what they do, talk about their services on the social media with their friends, check out the latest deals on a regular basis and be a part of its success. Flipkart succeeded because it built a strong and loyal customer base, people who were never really used to buying online before and found Flipkart to be a safe, reliable and fast way to get what they wanted.

Flipkart’s customers were happy enough to review the products bought by them on Flipkart’s user review section, led their family, friends and colleagues to the website as well, and became integral to Flipkart’s rise. It became cool to shop on Flipkart. While Flipkart’s success is not easy to replicate, there are certainly many lessons to be learned from its success.

Business, India, Travel

Small Scale Business Ideas in Mumbai

Small Scale Business Ideas in MumbaiSmall Scale Business Ideas in Mumbai

 

Are you interested in the best small scale business ideas in Mumbai? Yes, Mumbai is the most expensive city in India and life for many in Mumbai is a struggle to survive. Jobs are not easy to get as the competition for them is intense.

That’s why you should look beyond the traditional employment opportunities and consider starting a small scale business in Mumbai. There are a number of excellent small business opportunities in Mumbai; you just have to identify the ones that fit in well with your unique talent and skills.

We discuss some of the best the small scale business ideas in Mumbai; see if there are any you like. None of the small business opportunities listed here will require much of an investment. Let’s find out more about them.

[List of Online Business Ideas in India]

Some Business Ideas To Consider

 

Idea #1: Open an Ayurveda Spa – Ayurveda tourism is a major business in India. There’s a lot of demand for qualified Ayurveda practitioners in the country, especially as Western medicine has been found to be inadequate at dealing with so many health issues that people face. If you have a background in Ayurveda, you should consider starting a small Ayurveda spa. This will require a certain investment to be made, but it’s a very profitable business in the long run.  Click here for more information.

Idea #2: Start a Childcare Service – Childcare or babysitting is one of the easiest businesses you can start, especially for women. In Mumbai, there are many households where both parents work and so there’s a lot of demand for quality childcare and babysitting facilities. The only issue with starting a childcare facility is to find a suitable location for it, which in an expensive city like Mumbai, won’t be easy to find.

[Top 5 Alternative Sites like Udemy]

Idea #3: Start a Private Home Care Agency – There are a lot of families in Mumbai with older people. It is difficult for many to look after their aging parents or grandparents, when they have so many other responsibilities. Many older people stay alone while their children are settled abroad. So there is a huge demand for quality home care professionals. Home care agencies connect young home care professionals to the people who require their services and earn a commission for this noble task. Do you think you can start a home care agency? There’s a lot of opportunity for good money to be made in this business.

 

 

 

 

 

Idea #4: School and Office Supplies – One of the most profitable business ideas in Mumbai is to set up a stationary shop that supplies school and office supplies in some of the city’s busiest areas. This is a recession proof business as there will always be a huge demand for notebooks, pens, pencils and other stationary items from students and office goers.

Idea #5: Sell Photographs on Stock Photo Sites – If you have a camera and are blessed with excellent photography skills, you can earn good money by taking quality photographs of Mumbai city and its people and selling them on stock photo sites such as Getty Images and ShutterStock.com. There’s a lot of demand in the West for quality, artistic photographs of India and its people, perhaps you will be the one to take advantage of it.

Idea #6: Sell Customized Jewelry – If you come from a jewelry making background or have been trained in jewelry design, you should invest in jewelry-making equipment and create custom-made necklaces, earrings and bracelets and sell them online. There’s a lot of demand for unique pieces of Indian jewelry, both from within India and abroad, and if you are a creative person, there’s a lot of money to be made here.

Idea #7: Start a Financial Advisory Business – People in Mumbai make a lot of money, but don’t have the time to manage their financial assets. If you have extensive training in finance and have worked for many years for financial institutions, you should consider starting a business as a financial advisor. This is a very profitable business; a talented and trustworthy financial advisor will go far in Mumbai.

Idea #8: Start a Fast Food Business – Mumbai has a population of 22 million, which means there will always be a demand for quality food. You only need a small space to start a fast food business. The ingredients can be purchased easily; the menus don’t have to be too complicated. Fast food businesses do well regardless of the state of the economy, as food is the most basic human necessity. There are many enterprising men and women who began with nothing and are today worth hundreds of crores by starting a fast food business in Mumbai.

Hope you liked the small scale business ideas listed here and are inspired by at least some of them.

General, India

The Biotech Industry in India – Hurdles to Growth

The Biotech Industry in India – Hurdles to Growth

Biotech Industry in India

The story of the Biotech Industry in India is not a happy one. There was a time, not so long ago when Biotech was a sunrise industry in India and along as with Information Technology (IT). India had pretty much pinned its hopes on IT and Biotech and they were supposed to power the country out of poverty.

Someone like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the CEO of one of India’s biggest biotech companies, Biocon, had become one of the most famous people in India. Everybody thought that it was just a matter of time before India became a major player in the global biotech industry.

But unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. The story of the biotech industry in India has been a case hype over reality. One might say that Indian biotech has become a victim of its own initial success.

It’s not that the Indian biotech industry has been a complete failure. No, India has performed better at biotech than perhaps any third world country, with Indian biotech making close to $10 billion in 2015, which puts India among the top-12 leading countries in biotech. But it’s not really much as that’s just a 2% share of the total global biotech industry.

The government of India expects the biotech industry in the country to grow at an annual rate of 30%, which would make it worth around $100 billion by 2025, but that’s easier said than done, if past experiences are anything to go by.

The biotech industry in India is often compared to India’s IT industry. But the IT industry, one must understand, is a service sector, while biotech is about innovation. Exports account for 80% of the IT industry’s revenues. Only 50% of the money made by Indian biotech companies comes from exports.

[Is China Better Than India in Software]

IT is a labor intensive industry, and it doesn’t take much capital spending to run an IT company in India – just a matter of buying computers, software licenses, routers and servers. The main cost in IT relates to hiring software engineers.

Biotech, on the other hand, is a very capital intensive industry. It takes a lot of skills and resources to develop complex molecules. Biotech companies have to spend over 35 percent of their capital on research and development, while IT companies in India hardly spend anything on R&D. There’s no question that it is a lot harder for a biotech company to make money than for an IT company.

There is a huge gap between expectations and reality when it comes to the Indian biotech industry. One remembers how, back in the early 2000s, dozens of biotechnology courses were offered in universities and colleges across the country, creating tens of thousands of graduates, who thought a biotech degree was the surefire way to a successful career.

That wasn’t to be so as there was to be an oversupply of biotech graduates with not enough quality jobs to take them all in. Today, most of the biotech courses started a decade or so ago have been closed as reality has sunk in that the biotech industry in India is not as big as it was thought to be. Biotech graduates find themselves taking up jobs in other industries, such as teaching or call centers.
The other problem is a lack of funding. The biotech industry received over $1 billion in investments in the early 2000s, and while it still receives considerable investment from private equity and venture capital firms, it’s nothing to get too excited about. Most investors have tempered their expectations about Indian biotech. 

[Role Of Women In Modern India]

The other major issue relates to the regulatory hurdles to biotech in India, especially when it comes to agro-biotech. The Indian Supreme Court is yet to decide whether to permit the development of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in India. A parliamentary committee has also come down against the development of GMO crops, basically saying no to field trials. This has put the future of several agro-biotech companies on hold, which is really unfortunate. Certainly, as we approach 2016, the Indian biotech industry is not a happy place to be.

Business, India, Websites

Affiliate Marketing Tips for Indians

Affiliate Marketing Tips for Indians

online business opportunities in india

Very few Indian bloggers know about affiliate marketing. And those who do, are the ones who make the most money. We offer some very practical and doable affiliate marketing tips for Indians, which should go a long way in helping you earn a constant stream of revenue online.

[Recommended Affiliate Marketing Websites India]

If you are just starting out on the internet, you probably would focus on earning a passive income through Google Adsense. While Adsense is a highly effective way to make money, in India, unfortunately, the Adsense space is very much overcrowded.

Most bloggers in India focus on the news and technology niche. Others focus on helping internet browsers locate basic services – such as plumbers, electricians and so on, or finding properties and rented accommodations, etc.

While this represents a good way to make money, the advantage here goes to the early movers, those who offered these services right from the start and hence have had a massive start. New entrants get lost in the field.

That is why you should consider Affiliate Marketing, which is a terrific way to make money online, with very little investment required. Affiliate marketing is a business of marketing third party products on your blog or website.

[Best Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunities]

Once you register yourself as an affiliate marketer with a particular network, you will be compensated for each purchase, sale or even click made by visitors attracted by the advertisements on your site, which takes them to the website of the actual seller, where the purchase is completed.

Your role as an Affiliate Marketer is to create high quality content, which would compel readers to visit your blog and hopefully click on the ads, and make a purchase. You must build a degree of credibility with your audience for this strategy to succeed. This is only possible if you really have an idea about what you are writing about.

For instance, if you are a software engineer, you may want to write about the latest developments and technologies in software. You can then join an affiliate network that promotes paid WordPress plug-ins or various social media management tools.

This way, if you attract people with your knowledge of software technologies, you can subtly lead them to click on the ads displayed on your blog and make a purchase. Again, for this to succeed, it takes time. You must work hard on building your blog.

In India, the popular affiliate networks are, Tyroo Media Pvt Ltd, OMG Network, Payoom, Vcommission, DGM, Komli Media, Trootrac and Ibibo Ads. Affiliate networks hire you to sell their products and display their ads on your blog or website. They pay you for each sale or click achieved through your site.

Make Money Online India
Earning An Extra Income Online In India Doesn’t Have To Be A Challenge

Some important affiliate marketing tips for Indians:

Tip 1 – As we have said many times already, without quality content, you cannot make much money as a blogger on the internet. This applies whether you are trying to make money through Adsense, and also if you intend to make money as an affiliate marketer. Work hard on your content. Never spam your visitors. You must earn their trust, not put them off.

Tip 2 – Focus on products sold in the international market. In particular, you should focus on the US market, because that’s where all the money is, for an affiliate marketer. You should join a network that exclusively sells to a US based audience. It is certainly not easy, and takes a while to build your reach in these markets, but with effort, and high quality content, you can certainly achieve your goals. There are many Indian bloggers who earn thousands of dollars each month as successful affiliate marketers selling to a US based audience.

Tip 3 – Be smart about your product placement. Your banner space should be used well, as far as possible on the upper portion of the website. For this, you have to fiddle around a little with different positions and find out which approach gets you the best results.

Tip 4 – Building a list for your email newsletters is very important for success as an affiliate marketer. The most successful affiliate marketers in India have lists that have hundreds, and sometimes, even thousands of recipients.

That’s it! These are the basic affiliate marketing tips for Indians. We wish you all the success!

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Udemy India: Democratization of Learning

Udemy India: Democratization of Learning

 

There’s a huge demand for quality education and skill development in India, so as you might expect Udemy is already quite big there. There are tens of thousands of courses on Udemy and millions of subscribers, from all over the world, including from India.
Udemy is the leading online learning marketplace in the world, which aims to democratize education for one and all. Started only in 2010, Udemy has grown tremendously in the short time it has been around. CEO Dennis Yang says that his company has made scaling and democratizing online education one of its biggest priorities.

Udemy India

According to Yang, markets outside the United States, including India, account for 66 percent of the traffic that Udemy gets ad 45 percent of its sales. As of now, Udemy offers 21,000 courses and has over 10,000 instructors who serve four million students in over 190 countries – including India.

Udemy has opened up a lot of opportunities for Indian teachers and professionals to earn a decent online income by offering courses of their own. An average Udemy instructor makes about $7,000, which is big money if you’re Indian.

Indian Rupee
Because Udemy has a global reach, this includes promising opportunities for Indian residents!

What does this mean for students in India? There are many who say that students in India do not have credit card or debit card facilities and hence wouldn’t be able to buy courses on Udemy. This is not really true, as most of the courses on Udemy are targeted at college or university students, most of who own credit cards and debit cards.

 

Udemy courses are also useful to working professionals (especially IT professionals), who wish to upgrade their skills or learn new skills. For example, if you are a software developer who learned Java in engineering, you may want to pick up new programming languages such as Python or learn Hadoop and Big Data. You can do so on Udemy for a very affordable price.

Why Udemy India?

 

Udemy has several advantages…

  • You don’t own your course on Udemy. You can only keep 70% of the revenue, the rest goes to the company for hosting your course. If you want a full ownership of your course, you will need to host it on your own website – which, of course, has its own challenges.
  • Udemy offers many discounts. As a learner, you may appreciate the several Udemy discount offers, but as an instructor, you won’t like them all that much, as that would mean less money for you.

Regardless, Udemy is a great way to make money, especially in a country like India, where there is a real desire to learn and develop new skills. You can sign up for Udemy here.

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