Anurag Jain's Blog
Monday, June 28, 2004

Why do people start businesses?

Why bother about sleepness nights of starting a business. In fact, why bother even thinking about starting a business?

While talking about what it takes to be an entreprenur, the topic suggests that Entrepreneurs are guided by their own volition all the time. Not True! So, for a change lets not concentrate too much on the personal attributes of the potential entrepreneur. Rather, let me take you to the other end of the spectrum: Environmental (or external)factors.

A lot of times, the surroundings, and in general, 'externalities' are the key factors for a person's decision to start a business. In such cases, the person is not exactly 'looking forward' to starting a business. But the circumstances force him/her. Lets call such people Accidental Entrepreneurs (borrowed term). One such circumstantial factor is "Personal disloaction". Its something that a lot of people with sound background dont have to worry about. But if you see the history of major businesses around the world, personal disloaction has been the major motivating factor behind the start of many a great company.

Another example of environment turning an ordinary guy into an entrepreneur: dot-com era. I call Entrepreneurs from dot-com time .combabies (I am one, btw). Now, Can u attribute that activity to a sudden spurt in Entreprenurial spirit of IIT/IIM junta? No. It was the external stimuli that provided the opportunities, and people were just trying to grab a piece of the pie.

The take-away is that dont just concentrate on the 'internal' but also on 'external' while talking about what it takes to be an entrepreneur!

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Saturday, June 26, 2004

Stamp Collectors in Bangalore

Came across an old pamphlet in the post office in our campus about Philex Bangalore - A Bangalore Philatelists' event that was held during 18/04/03-20/04/03. For more information about Philately in Bangalore, get in touch with: Philatelic Bureau, Bangalore GPO. Ph: 22863434.

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Friday, June 25, 2004

Eighth South Asian Management Forum

The Eighth South Asian Management Forum will be inaugurated in Lahore, Pakistan on 28 November, 2004. The Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia, (AMDISA), organizes the South Asian Management Forum (SAMF) every two years. This forum provides an opportunity for member institutions and faculty to share their research findings, and to interact with business leaders, policy administrators and other academics from different parts of South Asia.
This is the first time this forum will be held in Pakistan and we are expecting more than 200 paper submissions. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,

Dr. Syed Zahoor Hassan
Vice Chancellor and Professor
Member, SAMF 2004 Steering Committee
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Lahore, Pakistan

South Asian Management Forum, SAMF 2004
email: samf2004 AT lums.edu.pk
homepage: www.samf2004.org
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Macabre way of bypassing ads in Gmail

Personally I dont think its an issue, but for those who are overly concerned about privacy issues regarding ads in gmail, while reading this article Yahoo Boosts Email Space in response to Gmail on ./ , I came across this 'interesting' comment on how to get rid of ads in gmail:

how to get rid of ads (Score:5, Interesting)
by supernova87a (532540) on Tuesday June 15, @09:46AM (#9429026)
For those who might be curious, I found an easy way to get rid of ads when reading your gmail (if for some reason, ads really bother you).

Just ask everyone to put the word "died" at the end of their messages. Gmail has this filter that tries not to be too insensitive by plastering your browser with ads for caskets next to news that Uncle Bob just died, so I guess it searches for words like that.

I tried with the words "disaster", "died", etc. and they all caused ads to disappear.

It might be creepy though after a while if every email had the word "died" at the bottom.... )

Spooky? Morbid? But effective, you bet! So, is "Died" gonna be the new sig line? :)

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Book Quiz at Oxford Bookstore

Oxford Bookstore, Bangalore will host a Booklovers Quiz.
QM: Stanley David
Date:Thursday, 24th June 2004
Time: 4:00pm
Venue: Oxford Bookstore
Leela Galleria,
23 Airport Road, Bangalore 560008

Call 51155222 or email hgrover AT apeejaygroup.com to confirm your entry or for clarifications about the event.

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Monday, June 21, 2004

Aviation business in India

As I am evaluating with serious interest the Indian civil aviation market (cargo & passengers both) as a business opportunity, I have been looking at numbers. Here are some of 'em(source indiastat ):

* Domestic Passenger 2003-04:22.44m, Growth Rate: 8.5%; International Passenger 2003-04:16.8m, Growth Rate: 6.0%
* Total Aircraft (Domestic+International) movement in India (2001-02): 509959, Total Passengers (Domestic+International) 2001-02: 19.06m Domestic + 14.06 International= 33.96 m. Hence Average flight size=33.96m/509959=66.5 !
* Total Freight Traffic in 2003-2004 was 648861 Tonne.
* Looking at 1988 to 2004 data, freight operations of Air India is almost stagnant in terms of growth index (100 to 100.1).
* Foreign operators handled freight: 462141 Tonne (2002-03); Domestic operators handled freight: just 92866 Tonne! (2002-03)
* Of Total Scheduled International Traffic,
Foreign operators handled passengers: 9203168 (2002-03)
Domestic operators handled passengers: just 3957034! (2002-03)
* 2002-03 Annual Non-Scheduled International Aircraft Movements at Five International Airports in India: 7626 (Chennai 3312 !, Mumbai 1509, Delhi 1046, Calcutta 422, Thiruvananthapuram 134)
* Average Load Factor on Scheduled Services of Indian Carriers in India(2002-2003): Domestic: 56.3, International: 73.9
* There appears to be no major cyclicality in the passenger traffic.
* Competition/liberalization has had its effect: Passenger Load Factor of Scheduled Domestic Operators has fallen from approx 75-80% in late 90s to 50-55 % in 2003.
* Aircraft and Parts market in India (1999): 1190m USD. Imports: 1145m USD!
* Some 40 Non-Scheduled operators with 121 aircrafts in 2002 (3 operators with 6 aircrafts in 1990).
* Number of Commercial Pilot License Issued in 1991: 176, 1999: 181, 2000: 89 (upto 07/08/2000).
* Average Distance Flown Per Passenger (2002-3):920.9 km.
* Average Number of Passengers Carried Per Aircraft (2002-3):77.5
* Average Speed of Aircraft (2002-3): 561.8 Km/Hr
* Passenger Load Factor (2002-3): 56.3%
* Average Stage Distance Flown Per Aircraft Departure (2002-3): 815.0 km
* Available Seat Kms. (2002-3): 44239 (Million).

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Friday, June 18, 2004

The KQA's 21st Anniversary Celebrations

Greetings and welcome to a new quizzing season!

The Karnataka Quiz Association will hold a Quiz Festival titled ASKQANCE on Sunday, June 27th 2004 in commemoration of its 21st Anniversary.

ASKQANCE, the 21st anniversary event, derives its origins from the word `askance' meaning `sideways, to give somebody or something an oblique glance, to be skeptical' etc. The name incorporates the acronym we are commonly known by. It suggests asking questions and also alludes to lateral, creative thinking. It draws attention thus to the philosophy underlying all our events - that working things out intelligently is more important than mere knowledge, be it general or specialist.

ASKQANCE features three quizzes and will be held at Guru Nanak Bhavan, Bangalore

Cognito
The Anand Memorial School Quiz
Quizzing event for school students (Std. VIII-X only)
Teams of two members
Each institution is allowed to field a maximum of 4 teams
No entry fee
Quizmaster: Shreeram Shetty
Schedule
Registration: 0930hrs
Prelims: 1000hrs
Prizes totalling: Rs.10, 000/-

SplitScreen
The Corporate Entertainment & Sports Quiz
SplitScreen will feature questions drawn from music, movies, television and sports.
Teams of two members
No restriction on the number of teams per corporate house
Entry Fee: Rs. 250/- per team
Teams may register at the venue; visiting cards essential
Mixed teams (comprising members from different organisations) not allowed
Schedule
Registration: 1230hrs onwards
Prelims: 1300hrs
Finals: 1415hrs
Quizmasters: Ochintya Sharma & Arun Hiregange
Prizes totalling: Rs. 12,000/-

SESAME
The OPEN! Quiz
Teams of four members
Open to all, irrespective of age or institutional affiliations
Entry Fee: Rs. 50/- per team; Free for school teams (Std X and below
only)
Registration at venue
Registration: 1500hrs onwards
Prelims: 1545hrs
Quizmaster: Arul Mani
Prizes totalling: Rs 19,000/-

The KQA Yearbook, a compilation of about 500 questions from the season 2003-2004, will be released on the occasion. The Yearbook will be available for purchase at the venue.

Queries about the anniversary may be addressed to
Ochintya Sharma (ochintya AT motorola.com)
Arul Mani (arul_mani AT hotmail.com)

You can also call Arul Mani at 98452-06690 and 080-2542-2001

See you all on 27th June!
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1st BKF Mallikarjun Mansur Music Festival

dhwani sur mansur
June 26-27 2004
St.John's auditorium, Koramangala

Detailed Programme:
June 26th: (Saturday)
5:30-6:00 PM: Inauguration
6:15-7:45 PM: Pt. Rajshekar Mansur (Vocal)
8:00-10:30 PM: Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor)

June 27th: (Sunday)
10:00-11:30 AM: Smt. Priyadarshini Kulkarni (Vocal)
11:45- 1:30 PM: Smt. Shuba Mudgal (Vocal)

6:15-7:30 PM: Sri.Biswajit Roy Chowdary (Sarod)
8:00-10:30 PM: Gana Saraswati Kishori Amonkar (Vocal)

Tickets :
Season passes : Rs.1000, Rs.400 (for all sessions), Single session passes : Rs.100 (only balcony seats)
In all the sections, seating is on 'First come first served' basis (No seat numbers)

Available at :
Music World (Indiranagar, Central, Malleshwaram, Brigade Road, Kempfort)
Calypso, Jayanagar
Landmark, at The Forum
World Space at Brigade Road, Koramangala, Jayanagar
Maharashtra Mandal, Gandhinagar
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Sunday, June 13, 2004

Circa 2000: Revisiting Dotcom Phase

Two event in the last fortnight or so brought back the memories of dot-come phase when I had taken the entrepreneurial plunge briefly (Feb-April 2000). Those were the times when you wanted to 'do a dotcom' just because you didn't want to be left behind the crowd. Also, you were frightened at the prospect of telling your grandchildren that you were sleeping when it all happened!

First news was the acquisition of Netkraft by Adea of USA and the second was Monster buying job portal Jobsahead for Rs. 40 Crore (US $10m). These news brought back memories because we dealt with the people associated in the two Indian companies mentioned above for our start-up. I had started eduisfun - a dotcom in Education domain, with my PGP (MBA) batchmate Vikas Kedia. The seed/angel funding to our venture was provided by Puneet Dalmia, CEO of Jobsahead (also owner of Zipahead). Puneet also happens to be an alumnus of IIMB. As for Netkraft, it was relatively much small company back then. It used to have a product called Tango (I still have a demo copy of that!) which I guess didn't play out very well in the market. Anyways, I think Netkraft had just then recieved the first round of venture capital funding. I interacted with the founders Atul Jalan and Prashanth for strategic tie-up. They were ready to invest in our venture but we had differences over the amount of equity to be shared. We were haggling over .5 to 1% of equity because we were betting big on our company's valuation a few months down. (Remember those were dotcome days :-) Eventually, we couldn't cut a deal and hence we never tied up with NetKraft. Instead I pulled in another small company called N.R. Infotech based in BTM Layout as strategic/technical partners.

Well, those were the heady days. Encore please! :)

(PS: Actually, what a coincidence: These guys are doing an encore with 24-hour dotcom !)

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Friday, June 11, 2004

All India Mixer

We are organizing a Ryze All India Mixer on Aug 21, 2004 at The Club, Bangalore! Ryze is growing fast and quick!
Lets meet at the ALL INDIA MIXER on August 21st in Bangalore. Please register at www.allindiamixer.com


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Finally, some PhD advantage?

New York Times is reporting on how Google is reaping benefits of employing a huge number of PhDs. Feels good to hear that. I am waiting for a similar news-item in future about Management PhDs!

About google, before you forget, both google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were almost done with the PhDs when they quit and started google. :) Some neat (read funny) comments on the discussion from /. :

---------------------------
BS = (obvious)
PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper
---------------------------
PHD = Permanent Head Damage
---------------------------
Someone told this story on Slashdot regarding over-qualification months (years?) ago...
Essentially, someone had a Ph.D but was looking for some sort of relatively menial but steady work so he could continue to eat. In order to avoid being thrown out for being over-qualified and therefore requiring more pay / risk of leaving for better work, he changed his resume to the still truthful:
Education
Diploma: Smalltown High School, 1975
Hobbies
B.S in Mechanical Engineering, Foo State University, 1979
M.S. in Physics, University of Bar, 1981
Ph.D. in Physics, University of Bar, 1984
He was hired, and told that his soon-to-be employer "approved of hobbies."
---------------------------
On this page [google.com], they claim to have only 50 Pigeon Harvesting Dogs (PHDs). Now they're up to 700? Wow....
---------------------------
Oxford doesn't give out PhDs. A doctorate from Oxford is a D.Phil (short for "Doctor of Philosophy"), in contrast to most other universities, which use the term PhD (Philosophiae Doctor, which is exactly the same thing in Latin).
---------------------------
From Monster.com;
"Ph.D. a plus" returned: Jobs 1 to 50 of 399
"MCSE a plus" returned: Jobs 1 to 50 of 503
---------------------------
From monster.com:
"Ph.D. a plus" average pay: $150,000 out of 399 jobs
"MCSE a plus" average pay: $32,000 out of 503 jobs
---------------------------
PhDs are sort of a double-edged sword
guess it's a good thing to see someone hiring a lot of PhDs these days. Most people with PhDs in technical fields (especially the sciences) these days have a lot of trouble finding any kind of employment, because once someone sees that "PhD" on your resume and you're not applying for, say, thermodynamic research at GE or machine translation research at Google, they just toss it in a wastebasket.
This is what is known as "being over-qualified", and it's a killer. You wouldn't think that, after all that hard work in getting through school and finally getting a doctorate in a hard science or engineering, you'd have trouble finding work, but you do. Ever see a PhD working a helpdesk? Not a tech PhD, that's for sure.
---------------------------
Also, the amount of free time provided to PhDs at Google to do their own thing seems like it would be pretty standard - after all, they've hired the best and the brightest, how else do they expect to retain them? Isn't this standard at other companies, too?
---------------------------
PhDs are supposedly experts: somebody who knows more and more about less and less until they eventually know everything there is to know about nothing.

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Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Music fundas

I recently attended a music quiz at the Crossword, a music and book store. And even though I couldn't clear the elimination round, it was fun nevertheless. Both trivia and serious questions. Here are some of the questions as I recall them. Will post answers tomorrow.

Prelims Round
1. What musical first was created in 1985 with the release of Dire Straits' album Brothers in Arms?
2. Which album recently took over Michael Jackson's Thriller as the highest selling album ever?
3. What's common to the initial careers of Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia?
4. Name the late 60s band that over the years had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page as its guitarists.
5. Which song was written in protest to Neil Young's Southern Man?
6. Which song of Swedish pop group Abba was a tribute to Mexican Civil War?
7. Led Zeppelin first sung this classic "Kashmir" in a Bombay club in late 70s. Name the club/discotheque.
8. Which Airlines' inflight entertainment magazine is named RedHot?
9. Which band first used term Heavy Metal?
10. Which CD/Album first used an inlay card?

Mains Round
1. These guys were originally all set to do the cover act for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert to be held at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. But the Casino burnt down during the concert, after some stupid person fired a flare into the Casino's ceiling. That incident became the subject of/inpiration for their most successful song.
2. It was probably the first professional use of this synthesizer named after its creator Dr.____ After that, of course it became quite popular in music industry.
3. This band got their name from their High School gym instructor.
4. An MIT engineer goes on to start his own recording company and a band. Who?
5. He started a group called Humble Pie. And his pioneering use of the talk-box guitar effect became a trademark part of his performances. Which is the largest selling live album by this legendary rocker? The album included hits such as ""Do You Feel Like We Do".
6. An announcement about the formation of a new band backed by a legendary rocker created unprecedented hype. The newly-formed band released their debut album and then the band split forever!
7. Which album's smash success in 80s gave this British band a foothold in USA.
8. Who oiriginally sung the classic song "American Woman" (of which Lenny Kravitz version is more popular)?
9. Which movie soundtrack featured the works of ZZ Top, Ted Nugent, Rick Derringer, Foghat?
10. Originally (incorrectly) thought to be an anti-Vietnam band, these guys came to be known as quintessential American Rock Band as symbolized by one of their early songs.
11. Which song from the soundtrack of movie "Forest Gump" has lyrics from actual verses of Holy Bible?
12. What's the Britain's equivalent of Woodstock?
13. ZZ Top consists of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. What's bizzare/striking/ironic about the band (Hint: its about a member's name)?

Update. June 09: Answers
Prelims Ans.
1. First album to be released on a CD. "One of the first rock acts to record a purely digital album was Dire Straits. "Brothers In Arms" was released in 1985 and is still one of the cleanest-sounding "
2. Eagles - Greatest Hits
3. Both started as Australian soap opera artistes. Natalie Imbruglia starred in "Neighbours" with Minogue before they both enjoyed singing careers.
4. The Yardbirds
5. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
6. Fernando
7. SlipDisc (or Slip Disc)
8. Virgin.
9. Steppenwolf.
10. I also dont remember answer to this one and can't find on the Net either! Lemme know if you find out :)

Mains Answers
1. Deep Purple's most well-known song: "Smoke on the Water". The lyrics actually tell the story of the recording of Machine Head.
2. Moog Synthesizer in the song "Lucky Man" by Emerson Lake Palmer.
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd after Leonard Skinner, a legendary antagonist of longhaired students!
4. Tom Scholz (Boston)
5. Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton.
6. Blind Fate backed by Eric Clapton.
7. Breakfast in America by Supertramp.
8. The Guess Who.
9. Dazed and Confused.
10. Grand Funk Railroad ("We are an American Band")
11. Turn Turn Turn (Pete Seeger)
12. Isle of White festival.
13. Gibbons and Hill sport two of the longest beards in all of show business, while Frank Beard is clean shaven!


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Saturday, June 05, 2004

IndiRock Band Marketing

I am promoting an Indian rock band called Ocean Blues. A very young band, their favourites happen to be my favourites too! We need to organize a show for Ocean Blues in Bangalore, preferably during/around the Durga Pooja time (Aug-Oct). Lemme know if you need a neat band for a mega event and I would arrange for a demo CD.

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Sunday Jam: The Club, 6pm

GURUSKOOL
presents
SUNDAY JAM
@
The Club(Mysore Road)
on
June 6th from 6pm Onwards
Musicians who want to perform , please register by 5.30pm with Siddhartha/gopal or Michael......... First come First served. Bring your own instruments. Drumkit and great sound provided. All genres of music welcome.
www.guruskoolmusic.com
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004

The India MBA network meet at Bangalore

Start networking even before you go to the school.

Calling the new admits, current students and alumni of the Indian MBA Network for a meet on the June 6th 2004, in Bangalore.

Indian MBA Network is a non-profit organization comprising of Indian B-school students and alumni from select premier business schools worldwide. As of now, the community comprises of the following schools:

Berkeley (Haas), Chicago, CMU (Tepper), Columbia, Darden, Duke (Fuqua), Harvard, INSEAD, Kellogg, LBS, Michigan, MIT Sloan, Richard Ivey, Stanford, Stern, Tuck, Wharton, Yale

Visit http://www.indianmbanetwork.org/ for more information on Indian MBA network.

This summer, the new admits are making preparations to enter their dream schools and the current students are starting their internship. This is a good time for all of us from various schools, to meet and know each other. We also eagerly look forward to meeting our alumni for mentoring and networking with business leaders.

RSVP: ravi_trivedi AT yahoo.com
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WEEKEND ADVENTURE GETAWAYS

Celebrating -"WORLD EARTH DAY 2004- 5 June'04"

Introducing our new packages, Now need not to worry canceling of your appointments on Sundays or relaxing.. Our package takes you back to your dreamed destinations at Western Ghats with our one-day trekking program at Coorg or overnight camping experience in and around Bangalore.

1. One-day overnight camp at "TADIYENDAMOL'- COORG - June 5'04 @ Rs 699/-
Departure on Friday night and return on Sunday morning to Bangalore.

2. Over night camping and trekking.
Check in the night for Dinner and walk out after Lunch on next day.
Destination: MAKALIDURGA @ Rs 399/-

3. Two-day Trekking and camping at BISLE RESERVE FOREST @ Rs 899/- *
Departure on Friday night and return on Sunday night.

"TREE PLANTING PROGRAM @ MAKALIDURGA"
If you love nature, want to involve in conservation, then call us up and check out how u can involve in this noble cause. We invite individuals, corporate firms, groups, entrepreneurs to come with your family and friends to plant trees at Makalidurga.

For more trip schedule check it @ www.natureadmire.com/trips.html. Please feel free to contact us @ 080-23340065, 51280998, 51280989 or email us info AT natureadmire.com.

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