SMS ECONOMY TELEVISION AND INFLATION

Answer a simple question (by SMS) and win a free trip to Singapore........................"
"Poonam Dhillon ko bachane ke liye SMS Karen POD................................."
"Is gaane ko apna caller tune banana ke liye SMS Karen ............................."
Do these sound familiar? I bet they do. It is amazing how so many cable TV channels (each one of them worse than the other^*) and shows from the weird to bizarre are flourishing in India. Given the fact that rural India, or most parts of it do not have access to cable or satellite TV. Does proliferation of Cell phones have anything to do with it?
Be it a news channel, a sports channel, music channel or any other TV channel, you have that omnipresent TV presenter / host, trying to persuade you into sending an SMS on some or the other pretext. And mind you, these SMS messages are three to twelve times more expensive than the ordinary ones. Be that as it may, a host of entrepreneurs seem to be making a killing through SMS messaging.
Apart from subscriber to subscriber messaging, stock quotes, Banking services, Cricket / Sports updates, ring tones, caller tunes, jokes, travel services, astrology, ................., (the list is endless)a host of other services are all available through SMS, at a premium of course.
Telecom service providers are laughing all the way to the bank, and TV channels share a substantial part of the revenue for encouraging morons like us to send ridiculous SMS messages.
Doordarshan India in the era of Satellite and Cable Television has become passé. Now we are in the era of soaps, mega soaps, reality shows and talent hunting (Indian Idol and its cousins). A year or two back I did not know what a reality show was. That was till the infamous row between Jade Goody and our very own Shilpa Shetty in the British reality show 'Big Brother'. And now all that I see on the Idiot box, while channel surfing are reality shows.
Let's take a look at the Telecom revolution in India. Just about a couple of decades back, maybe a bit more, the fastest means of communication available to the common man was the Telegram. And the cheapest was the Post Card. Telephones were the exclusive privilege of the high and mighty. It would take a few years and connections at the right places, not to mention greasing of palms of God alone knows how many peons and clerks, to get a new Telephone connection in those times. Liberalisation of the Indian economy post 1991, took care of that. And by mid nineties we had private cellular operators working in select cities. To use a Cellular phone in that era would have made a big hole in one's pocket. Remember, incoming calls were charged at the same rate as outgoing calls, not to mention the astronomical rates. And ten years hence, a paan or a rickshaw wallah has two cell phones. Imagine, in these inflationary times, the cost of usage dropping from Rs 16 to Rs 18 per minute of air time in 1998, to a single paisa per second in 2009. That, for the more mathematically inclined is a drop of more than 96 percent. That is unprecedented and unparalleled negative inflation.
Is there a parallel in Cable TV? Well the number of TV channels has increased from a mere four in 1992 to more than 400 and counting in 2009. Where at one point of time, it was unthinkable that a full time news channel was commercially viable, we have today, not one, but scores of news channels on air. The rates have not crashed like they have in Telephony, but they have not skyrocketed like Dal(Pulses) either.
Coming back to our topic, the Number of TV programmes based on SMS messages for public at large is rising by the day. One forecast predicts that SMS volumes would reach 191.6 billion in India by 2013 and the country would have more than 750 million mobile connections (almost 75 percent penetration assuming a population of a billion). Out of these if only a tiny five percent use SMS for services available every day, at current rates(Re1/- per SMS^#) it would mean a turnover of Rs 3.75 Crores per day. And it would be pertinent to point out here that current margins on SMS are more than 70 percent. Aren't these figures mind boggling?
Small wonder then, that there is such a race on for Television programmes and reality shows from weird to bizarre and Top actors including the bollywood shehenshah, Big B himself queuing up to rake in the moolah.
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* No offence meant to anyone.

# Varies from operator to operator.

HOW SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL ?

The Telangana controversy has added a fresh dimension to the problems of Insurgency infested India. Including the Maoist insurgency, more or less, half of India is in the grip of Insurgency. Now, demand for smaller states (division of existing states) seems to be emanating from several other corners of the country. Unless, the issue is tackled firmly and quickly, there is the real possibility of the movement for demand of smaller states taking on much bigger proportions and inevitably be followed by armed struggle.

Had the Maoist Insurgency been nipped in the bud, while it was still in its fledgling state, we would not have had to see state apparatus being not only challenged but also being held to ransom at will by Naxalites on numerous occasions in the past year alone. Now this issue with the Government, needs to be put to rest once and for all before the very notion of taking up arms to get their demands met even crops up.

The Armed Forces, largely the Indian Army, along with the Para military forces, have been embroiled in Counter Insurgency operations in the North Eastern states for more than five decades and in J&K for more than two decades. And still there is no end in sight. The Army has so far been kept away from Maoist Insurgency, but unless things take a drastic turn for the better(which seems unlikely) that situation is set to change. It is probably only a matter of time.

On the issue of Telangana, the Union Government is walking on thin ice. If they are not careful, the situation may just get so out of hand, that military intervention in most if not all states of the country would eventually become inevitable. What a catastrophe, that could be, I shudder even to think.................Civil war in the country.

In an earlier piece on this blog, I had delved into the fallacy of our slogan "Unity in Diversity". Here we have a situation where there is no unity even in small states, leave alone the country.

TWITTER MANIA

I have not understood what all the fuss is about............... Twitter is making headlines in the national media, what with the flamboyant, new kid on the political block, Shashi Tharoor, creating a needless controversy by calling economy class air travel, cattle class. No doubt it is a bit insensitive of him, given the fact that air travel by itself, is kind of a dream for more than 98 percent of Indians. However, Twitter is Mr Tharoor's private space..............and doesn't the Indian constitution guarantee freedom of speech to all Indians.

The tweet itself, was triggered by Pranab da's so called Austerity Drive, that has triggered quite a debate on whether it is required in the first place. However, talking of Twitter. How should anybody be interested in what someone is doing on a minute to minute basis. Who in this day and age has got the time to keep following what Mr Tharoor or for that matter anybody else is doing in real time. Aren't, sms, emails, tele marketing calls, needless spam and what not, enough to fill 24 hour work day. I am at a loss here...............

BTW, all that Mr Tharoor tweeted on ths subject was, "@KanchanGupta absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!"

Yes out of curiousity and since I have a lot of free time these days, I logged in to twitter and went throgh his tweets.

SWINE FLU DEATH IN PUNE : WHO IS TO BLAME

The first death due to swine flu in the country was reported from Pune a couple of days back. Today my son came back from school much earlier than scheduled with a notice from the Principal, that the school would remain closed till 10 Aug. Apparently, a student from the school was suspected to have contracted the 'dreaded virus.'

Rida Sheikh's death was indeed most unfortunate. In its aftermath, the media is giving all and sundry bloody hell. The hospitals, Doctors, government, health care system, etc. But if we put things in the correct perspective here, without sensationalising the whole issue like mainstream media, what do we have.

Govt of India Press release dated 05 Aug reports a total of 162380 cases worldwide with 1154 deaths (0.71%). In India on the day, there were 596 cases with one death (0.17%). It does appear that the India has dealt with the threat quite well. So far at least. I am not for a moment suggesting that the health care system in our country is top notch, but let's be fair, govt needs to get credit for the handling of the pandemic so far.

In Rida's case (God bless her soul), initial diagnosis was probably wrong. Big Deal. Diagnosis was wrong : well here is the sad truth, 'eighty percent of medical profession is guess work', when it comes to diagnosis. So, at times some guesses are bound to be wrong. If all hospitals were to send every person suffering from common cold or cough or mild fever for an H1N1 test, the whole system for screening and testing put in place by the health ministry would simply collapse. (as is happening in Pune, thanks to Arnab Goswami and company).

Lets look at it from a saner perspective. The WHO on Tuesday maintained that roughly two billion people could become infected with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, Reuters reports. "By the end of a pandemic, anywhere between 15-45 percent of the population will have been infected by the new pandemic virus," Read full report here. And we are talking about world population here.

That means that swine flu would be as common as the common flu. So, with all due respect, Mr Arnab Goswami and company, what is the entire hullabaloo about???????

Grand Indian Tamasha

I am not much for watching soaps on the tube, but at times I am forced to watch some of these bores, cuz my better half is watching. No, not only watching, she is even discussing it with me.
So it was, that I saw this tamasha of a fully faltoo Rakhi ka Swayamvar, and got an update from my wife whenever I could not watch.
Well, what can I say, it sure beats me to see the crazy ways in which imagination is running riot in the minds of these producers of reality shows. Each one of these shows beats the other hollow in being rotten! wouldn’t you say. And as for Rakhi, she sure knows that it would be too much for her to succeed in meaningful Cinema, or TV, so why not make a spectacle out of herself.
And if that were not enough, we have a whole bunch of even more faltoo News channels covering this absurd event in Prime time News.
However, I do feel like making a prediction, “before a year of the two cartoons(Rakhi and whatever his name is the guy with a beard which makes him look more like a goat than a man) getting married(if at all) they are sure to get divorced.
I cannot but feel sorry for the generation which has come to this world in the times of Reality TV.

NON VEG REASON FOR FOOD CRISIS

Once you have finished eating from the periphery of the huge tray, dive right into the middle to finish off the rest. The most savoury portion lies in the middle.

"SUBHAN ALLAH"