Vivek Paul at Satyam? January 14, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Kiran Karnik, Satyam, Satyam Fraud, Vivek Paul
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Who made Wipro, the Wipro it is? Azim Premzi and Ashok Soota or Azim Premji and VivekPaul – The jury is still out on that. In my view Azim Premji and Ashok Soota laid down the foundation and Azim Premji and Vivek Paul built the magnificient structure which we all see today.
The name of Vivek Paul has been doing rounds in the past too, someone had mentioned that his name is under consideration for Yahoo alongside Arun Sarin’s about two months back. Now with Vivek Paul’s name being mentioned for Satyam Chairman/ CEO is not only interesting, it is also encouraging. Deepak, Parikh, Kiran Karnik, Vivek Paul – I think the valuation of this team alone could be a billion dollars.
Vivek Paul means energy and focus to an outsider like me, these are the two things he brought to the table when he was in Wipro, his being media savvy of- course helps.
What are the other names which could bring in significant value? Subroto Bagchi, Dr. Dhruv Nath, P Rajendran, Ishwar Hemrajani, V Sreenivasan. Anyone of them can bring stability to the team and action on the ground.
Let us see who is willing to take up this challenge, not many of his own would congratulate him though.
Is Your Website Alive? January 13, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Internet, Internet Sites, Updating, Website Definition, Website Development, Website Maintenance, websites
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What kind of website do you have? Your choices are: Alive and Kicking, Alive and Living, Alive and Sleeping, Alive but in Coma, Dead.
Alive and Kicking: Alive and Kicking are those websites which get updated every minute 60×60, 24×7.
Alive and Living: Websites which get updated at least once every hour.
Alive and Sleeping: Oh! They are updated once a day.
Alive but in Coma: If a site is updated once a week, but every week
Dead: Yes, if your site doesn’t get new content for a week, it is dead.
This is the new definition of websites, this is the new Internet order. UGC, social networking, aggregated, publisher based, syndicated – whatever you call it, to be in business you need to ensure that you are alive and kicking. The fact that you get traffic every minute is no longer sufficient. Do you have something new to offer every minute, this what holds the key to dream millions and billions.
Kiran Karnik at Satyam January 11, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: India, Kiran Karnik, Satyam, Satyam Board, Satyam Fraud, Software Companies
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Feb 7, 2009
I share with pleasure the news of Kiran Sir taking over as Chairman of the Board at Satyam. It is a great news and speaks very higly about the Indian IT industry ecosystem. The Satyam Saga shows to the world that even if things go horribly wrong, as a nation we have an ecosystem in place to put them rightback where they should be.
___ The original post as done on Jan 11, 2009
The news About Kiran Karnik Ji joining Satyam was music to ears. He is the right man to rebuild the confidence and the organization. It is a great move by the government to get things going. I have had no personal interaction with Mr. Deepak Parikh or Mr. C Achuttam, so I will zero down on what Mr. Karnik’s joining Satyam Board means to Satyam and to the Indian IT Industry.
As a member of Nasscom I have had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with Kiran Sir at number of occasions the following few statements reflect my personal observations and should not be seen as Compare Infobase views.
- Kiran Sir has worked with Raju closely when Raju was Chairman of Nasscom and Kiran Sir was President, it would make it easier for him to get him talking and come clean
- Integrity and above the board approach would bring immense benefits
- His inside knowledge of the industry and good equation with business leaders from all walks of the industry is a real asset
- His standing and stature will stop the share price slide and rebuild share value
- His command and understanding of the business can retain clients and employees
- The scientific approach to problem solving is what Satyam needs today and that is what Mr. Kiran Karnik brings on the table
If Satyam is traded tomorrow, I will buy Satyam just because things can only get better.
Good job done. The worst is over. The rebuilding of Satyam has begun.
Satyam – My View January 11, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Satyam, Satyam Fraud, Satyam Saga
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Every year Nasscom yearly review is sponsored by Satyam. As the review remains next to me in my office through the year, the Satyam logo also stays put. I first thought that I will remove the cover, the main bind doesn’t have the logo, I decided to let it be there. The reason it would ensure that we don’t gó astray, ever. What happened in, to and because of Satyam can be a big lesson on how not to run a software business.
Some random questions?
- Why PwC is not being chased by media?
- Who was Maytas CFO?
- What was the composition of the equity before the scam?
- Why there is no talk about attaching Maytas assets?
- Was the meger deal better than what Satyam has got into?
- How much is the personal landholding of Satyam family?
- What was individual wealth ten years back of Satyam promoters?
- Why Government waited for two days after the scam broke out to arrest Raju brothers?
Ano Tai Chinese Restaurant Review January 8, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Ano Tai, Chinese Restaurant, Chinese Restaurant Review, Delhi, Eating out, Food, Food review, India, New Delhi, Vasant Vihar
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Name: Ano Tai
Country: India
City: New Delhi
Location Basant Lok Shopping Complex
Neighbourhood: Vasant Vihar
Located inside: Vasant Continental Hotel
How many of us: 3
Cuisine: Chinese Speaciality
Overall Experience: 9/10
Staff Grooming and Training:6/10
Menu Completeness: 10/10
Presentation of food: 9/10
Quality of raw materials used: 9/10
Taste of food: 9/10
Do I recommend: Yes
Did we leave any food unfinished: No
Ambiance: 10/10 – You must look around and wait for the best seat, they offer you “Passer by” seats.
Prices: $30 – 40 per head without drinks
Soup: Lemon Coriander Prawns – 8/10
Soup: Lemon Coriander Veg – 10/10
Starters: Veg Pepper & Salt – 10/10 we asked for a repeat starter
Starters: Mushroom Chili – 8/10 – Must tell to make it less Chili and more Mushrooms
Main-course: Haka Veg noodles: Good, but must tell them to make less oily. 8/10
Main-course: Mix veg on Sizzler with Garlic Cloves: 10/10
Microblogging and Mobile Interface January 7, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Dil Khol Ke Bol, Microblogging, Mobile Computin, UI, UX
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As I learn, I share -
What is it in reference to: Dil Khol Ke Bol – An India centric microblogging platform – http://DilKholKeBol.com
What was the challenge: To get the mobile interface for the microblogging site going quickly under Agile Software Development Methodology.
The team: Chavi and Nandita with Hitesh holding the integration fort.
Cycle Zero: In cycle zero, we had the interface going. As a UI it looked good, but was brain damaged. UX was a complete disaster. It took me 8 minutes to get a post of 140 characters going. We made the Cycle Zero live, very clear that we will tweak it and get it going.
- Cycle One: We compromised on the look and feel of UI, and also on some features, for instance from Mobile you can post only 120 characters currently. We implemented predictive typing and made downloading and going live very simple. It now takes just two minutes to get a 120 character message going.
UX has improved from 2/10 to 8/10. It runs. We would work out and make it 10/10.
Cycle Two: To get the SMS interface going and to give an option of integrating SMS to Blogging interoperability
Microblogging and Traction Points January 6, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Dil Khol Ke Bol, Microblogging, Traction Points
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As we move ahead with first level challenges in establishing a microblogging platform largely tackled, the focus shifts to increasing interaction and building a community.
It looks like the most important aspect from Traction point is the flavor of your first page messages. If your first page messages are good as per the “üser” he may choose to become your member and contribute. To get a million people onboard you need at-least 50,000 traction points. It looks like, name and concept would attract, traction points would convert and technology would retain.
To get all the traction points right, you need to define or classify differnt groups and get mesages from diverse sections collated to your homepage. Maybe it is the group messages which do the trick for the homepage and not the individual messages.
Cars, Mobile Phones, Camera, Date, Fashion, Hair Style, Restaurant, Travel are just a handful of the 50,000 odd traction points which are required to create and grow a community.
More to come…
1 Egg Breakfast Recipe January 6, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: 1 Egg Recipe, Breakfast recipe, Microwave Recipe
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What do you need:
1 Egg
1/2 Red Onion finely chopped
1/2 Tomato finely chopped
2 slices of bread (Regular Size)
1 Potato mashed
1/2 Green Chili (Optional and finely chopped)
2 Tea Spoons Olive Oil
How to cook:
Beat one egg and keep it
Soak Bread Slices in water or milk, drain them out fully and mash them
Put one Tea Spoon of Olive Oil on both sides of a covered small microwave dish, regular Omelette dish would do
Mix all other ingredients together as well as you can to get consistency
How to cook:
Microwave for 2 minutes on one side and turn over and microwave on the other side also for even bake (1500 Watt).
I have tried with some Mozzarella added to it, works well
SEO Unique Sources January 4, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Google, Microblogging, Search Engines, SEO
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Over last 10 years on the Internet, I would have personally worked on over 300 sites. In some I had a bit role and in others I worked on the project since birth of the idea. In 1998 we made the site for the Internet environment, in 1999 we started making site for Yahoo and the Internet , from 2002 we have been making it for largely Google environment. and others. A change is in the air, I see myself working for the Internet again. Google is important, very important, but it looks like there are certain set of projects which need Google for growth not for their survival. What would be the relationship of these projects with Google. It looks like Google would need them more than they would need Google. Facebook and Twitter are two of the many examples which come up when you think of changing environment.
While working for Dil Khol ke Bol, our microblogging platform deployment – Google was not the central character of my To Market Strategy. My central character was Engagement. How do we engage even one person who lands on our site. If we can engage him he will engage others. If one website uses Dil Khol Ke Bol to promote their website, slowly hundred would and over a period of time 100,000 and maybe a million in couple of years. Google is like a honeybee, it is in act of enriching user experience of its own users. Where there is so much of action, Google would surely be proactive, it goes well with its character.
So what do I see as a checklist from an SEO purposes:
- Google/ Yahoo/ Live
- WordPress
- Quantcast
- Quarkbase
- Vertical Specific Blogs
- Geography Specific Blogs
- Vertical Specific News Websites
- Geography Specific News Websites
- Student Interaction Websites
- Other blogging sites
- Other microblogging sites
- Homepage of your site
- Each landingpage of your site
- Google Analytics
- Google Insights
- Your competitors homepage
- Your complimentary sites homepages
- Your Graphic Images
More to come…
Mapsofindia.com The Story Continues January 3, 2009
Posted by simarprit in Uncategorized.Tags: Compare Infobase, India, Mapping Website, Maps, Mapsofindia
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Mapsofindia.com along-with Indiamart.com are two sites which have stood on their own for now over ten years. Maps of India has been owned by Compare Infobase and my friend Dinesh Aggarwal has been running India Mart ever-since. Dinesh about an year back get into an investment alliance with a Times of India group company and has been working to take India Mart to higher heights. On the other side his decision left MapsofIndia.com as the only non VC funded business in the Indian Internet space.
Do Internet businesses which are not VC or PE funded have any long-term chance of growth and market leadership? It is a tough question. There may not be any easy answers to it. It depends on which vertical you are in and how passionate you are about the business. Having said this, would Mapsofindia.com continue leading the Indian mapping space on the Internet? As of now it looks like yes. The site has been growing and maintaining its position. It was a top 250 website in the Indian Internet space when there were only 2,000 sites focused on India. It maintains its position today competing against over 200,000 websites focused on India. For the long-run say next ten years, Mapsofindia.com has a lot to do, it has to grow by relationships as much as it has to grow by technology enhancements and product offerings. MOI needs to have a reason for every age group, every business, every ethnic group from every geography to hit the site at-least hundred times every day. Which in numbers means the site must get at-least 100 Sindhis in the age group 11 – 17 to visit MOI everyday, and it must get 100 visitors from Jabalpur too. Everyone must get a need fulfilled by being on Mapsofindia. It must mean a lot more than a map website to them.
To achieve this Mapsofindia must set its goal higher. It must target top 100 position in next two years. It must target a Google Page Rank of 8, it must target information seekers (for India) from all countries to find and use Mapsofindia.
There is a bright future for Mapsofindia, and I am confident that the team Mapsofindia led by Mani and Usha would ensure that it grows and maintains its status in the Internet space.
