Author Archives: Nikhil

Some Indian Rock Music Available For Download

The new stuff:
1. Menwhopause have uploaded an album for download at The Pirates Bay, here. This is similar to what TAAQ did, and I kinda hope it catches on and more bands upload their music. I’m skeptical about most Indian rock music, but if I like it - I always buy the CD.You shouldn’t have […]

Who thinks up these things anyway?

From the Delhi Book Fair (had gone on three days, once with Jai and Aishwarya)
Umm…not what immediately comes to mind.
I’m not sure if I clicked this one for the title related to chocolate sex or a name like Marsha Mellow
Go figure
The photo isn’t clear: it’s called “The autobiography of an ex-coloured man.” Black or white?
No […]

Why it’s better to pick stocks based on your own assessment…

[link]
So, it seems that Mathew Easow has been fined just Rs.20lakh for advising people to buy stocks which he himself sold. Big Brother SEBI was watching, or was tipped off.
We all take recommendations when buying shares, yes? Not everyone has perfect knowledge of each and every company, which is where taking a broad range of […]

Musings on TV & Newspapers

If I wanted to watch exclusive coverage of the navratras/Durga Puja/Dussehra, I would have watched NDTV 24×7 or CNN-IBN. To avoid that useless coverage I switched to CNBC-TV18 for business news - if not from India (national holiday and all that), then the global markets. And I found similar coverage during India Business Hour.
That stupid […]

Mayhem at TC

Naah, not what you’re thinking - Sunday’s gig at TC (Update: TC is Turquoise Cottage at Adchini…sorry Reeta :) wasn’t called “Mayhem”. It just turned out to be the craziest f’in gig I’ve ever been to. I know, I know - I’d said that earlier about the Numero Uno Rock Out last year, but this […]

Domain Name search sites or cybersquatting?

It seems that there’s a difference between domain name search sites and cybersquatting. Y’know…the kind of sites with lots of links for popular keywords on its page, and seem mostly like typos? I always thought they were squatters. But apparently it’s a business, and there are some big names getting into this business. “It (NameMedia) […]

CII Marketing Summit ‘06: Madison CMD Sam Balsara’s Mantras for Marketers

Sam Balsara began by rattling off figures. He specified 5 factors for change:
1. Demographics: 60% of india will be in 15-54 by 2010, 38% of indians will be in urban India. 75% of Tamil Nadu will be urban. 61% of Maharashtra will be urban.2. Easy finance: People are willing to incur 30% interest for impulse […]

CII Marketing Summit ‘06: Tamar Kasriel, Head Knowledge Venturing, Henley Centre Headlight Vision UK

I missed the beginning of Tamar Kasriel’s presentation since I was searching for HCL’s Ajai Chowdhry to ask him about his plans for the IPTV LCD screen monitor. When I returned to the conference, Tamar was talking about urban society, and needs and wants. From a purely economics perspective - very interesting. Unfortunately, it […]

CII Marketing Summit ‘06: Britannia MD&CEO Vinita Bali on Marketing to the New Indian Consumer

Vinita Bali said that she thinks marketers are focusing too strongly on just numbers, and failing to understand consumers. What they don’t realise is that there are essentially two kinds on consumers in India: There are those from the pre-liberalisation days where there were limits to consumption - you booked a vehicle and forgot about […]

CII Marketing Summit ‘06: HLL CEO Douglas Baillie on Global-Local dichotomy

Douglas A. Baillie began his keynore address with an icebreaker - ‘teaching my grandmother to suck eggs’ is an idiom most at this summit might not understand, because it’s not used in India. That is the problem with global branding.
For branding one has to focus on value, not price, and there just isn’t enough investment […]