Dhruva Almighty

I just completed reading the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. He has talked about lot many things in the book!!! I think some of those things are not even related to globalisation but the way he looks at it - it seems everything is globalisation.

Anyways, I will review the book in some other post maybe but one of the things or "flattening factors" as Mr. Friedman has emphasized on is - importance of free market or FTAs.

FTAs can be loosely defined as "agreement where a designated group of countries have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas and preferences on most (if not all) goods between them" - as quoted from wiki.

I remember reading about FTAs back in school and college days, but then I found this topic utterly boring .. to the extent that I used to sleep even before our teacher / professor could complete the definition.

But now - since I myself am being "globalised" - I suddenly find myself interested. I started to wonder with questoins like "what all countries have signed such FTAs" "How many FTAs India have signed till now" "How many FTAs USA have signed till now" "Is their are any further negotiations going on for FTA." etc etc

As my quest for knowledge, I turn to wiki and found following links useful :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Free_Trade_Agreements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement


Then I thought further - Is there any possibility of FTA between India and USA? At this point of time it seems very logical to have one .. isnt it? I dont know. I have a feeling that an FTA between India USA will not be liked on both sides of country. Some people will simply hate to have one. On other hands, maybe it will be welcomed by many people - I think I belong to them. I think an FTA between India and USA will benefit both India and USA - as Mr. Friedman also mentioned repeatedly in his book.

Hmm anyways, I was still wondering if somebody on either side of world have already thought about the idea? If any round of negotiation is already going on .... you can call me utterly ignorant but It seems yes, it seems right now they are focussing on FTA for at least IT services sector.

Hmmm ... that seems the logical thing to do. In fact I went - wow!!! That would certainly change lot of things. To start with - that should mean easy employment for Indian IT professionals with american companies back at home or even in terms of visa norms. Ha !! No more H1B visas !!!

Anyways .... I will certainly keep watching all FTAs now. As I know many things are going to change in next 50 years - as far as globalisation is concerned - and I know FTAs have a big role to play in that.

Here is another beautiful Deepawali Card / Picture that I got this year.
(click to enlarge)

I saw following video today on one of my friend's orkut account.



Above song is "Toss The Feathers" by The Corrs - which is an Irish band. I knew Corrs but I didnot know they were Irish.

Anyways, I was almost sure that above is the music which was played in "The Real Party" in Titanic. But then I found I was wrong and the titanic party song was "irish party in third class" - by some hitherto unknown band "Gaelic storm"




Now I am almost sure the first video is also used as a soundtrack in some of the movie but I dont remember which. Anybody reading this knows, can you tell me please? This is driving me crazy today.

Businessworld used to be my favourite business magazine back in college days - and it still is.

But then I started working and had to travel abroad also from time to time - so did not have time to grab the "latest issue" - and hence the weekly dosage of BW magazine was one of the things which I used to miss those days.

Then I found BW publishes all the magazine content online also.


I was delighted to find that and then I started following the site religiously.

But BW might have gauged the popularity of the website, hence they thought to encash it and put a price tag on top of it - so one was able to read headlines but can access complete storey only after he registers by paying certain amount of money.

Ha!! ... i was disappointed and I knew it was a foolish thing to do. Even if someone is a very very very religious follower of BW, he is not going to register to website and pay to read the stories. So, I stopped following that site and moved to other websites.

One year later when I came back I found out that they have realized their mistake and again opened it for FREE. I smiled at 'my smartness and understanding of internet' and their 'foolishness and lack of common sense'. But till now I was "matured" enough to move to RSS feeds - now I read these "changing content pages" on RSS - not to confused with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh :D - so I subscribed to BW's RSS.

But then I realised that they publish 1-2 lines on their RSS content (and want user to goto their website to read full story) I think this is again a fullish thing to do - I can read 20 RSS stories in 2 minutes - but cannot do that if I surf. And I dont have enough time to surf to find which stories I will like and are worth spending my time. I know the logic behind putting a limited RSS content is so that user is forced to goto website and become more aware about the site and also generate some ad revenues. But a typical internet user is smart enough to understand this and will not be forced to do something.

I think Indian Media (like BW, IBNlive, Moneycontrol etc) has taken at least first correct step by focussing on the online portal and making it more user friendly and making it "free". But I think RSS is the next big thing - and very soon all net savvy users will embrace RSS feeds as their way of reading blog or news content - so all media sites like BW/IBNlive etc should make RSS "more readable" and useful.

I hope they understand my logic and maybe they will correct their mistake so as to publish RSS with complete stories.

Online DVD rental service is a concept which I found pretty innovative and useful in USA. The best part is nobody told me about this concept and I found about it myself :D!!


It so happened that one fine day in April I wanted to watch a movie but did not want to go to nearby DVD store to pick up a DVD (or should I say I could not go there as I did not have a car back then). Then suddenly this idea hit me that there can be a service where one can select and rent movies online - and next moment I knew somebody already must have created a business model around this concept. I googled on online dvd rental and I found "netflix".

I subscribed to netflix and watched loads of movies and all the seasons of my fav sitcom friend.

Now, cut to October - one fine day I was discussing with one of my colleagues that how this business model can be replicated in India and my friend disagreed with me that it is not possible to send DVDs via normal post as in USA - people (even postman) will torn out DVDs out of envelopes, DVDs will be lost etc etc - I was convinced.

But to my amazement today while I was reading an article on Business World - I found that somebody at India has already started playing with this concept. Since as I pointed out that DVDs cannot be delivered by normal post in INdia - they have modified the model a bit so as to tie up with Courier companies to deliver and pick up DVDs!!!

I found three sites catering to this service - clixflix, catchflix and seventymm. The similarity about them cost per DVD comes around Rs. 60 to 100 depending upon which plan you choose.

They all follow the same model as outlined in three steps:-
* User selects the movie online.
* A courier company delivers movie to user.
* A courier company picks up movie from user

ClixFlix
I researched a lot about this, but found out later that THEY ARE AVAILABLE ONLY IN MUMBAI. They bost of having 7 Walkin Stores, 15,000 Members and 10000+ Movies
http://www.clixflix.com/ext/Plans/
My fav plan - Since I am based in Delhi at the moment so ClixFlix is useless for me. But anyways, my fav plan can be 25 DVDs (Rs. 1749) for unlimited days.






CatchFlix
They are serving in "Bangalore | Chennai | Delhi-NCR | Hyderabad | Kolkata | Mumbai"
http://www.catchflix.com/pricing.php
Only One 1 DVD Rs. 99 Rs. 99
Double Impact 2 DVDs Rs. 149 Rs. 75
Triple Treat 3 DVDs Rs. 189 Rs. 63
20 DVD Pack 20 DVDs Rs. 1219 Rs. 61
50 DVD Pack 50 DVDs Rs. 2899 Rs. 58

# When you buy a Movie Pack, you can rent DVDs over a period of one year by selecting two or more DVDs at a time.
# You can pay by check to buy a Movie Pack. Just send us a check for the Pack’s price. Make the check for Catchflix Services Private Limited. Write your name, email, and phone number on the backside of the check. Mail it to our address on the Contact Us page.


SeventyMM
They are serving in "Bangalore | Delhi-NCR | Chandigarh | Chennai | Hyderabad | Mumbai"
http://www.seventymm.com/Content/WhatItCost

I think I found SeventyMM best on the lot till now. I also read that it is the only one which is funded by an american VC - so there must be a good thought process and ground work behind - and not some nerds trying to create "next big thing".

But I guess I will not have any time in India to watch any DVDs - after travelling 2-4 hours a day between home to office and working like a freaking a** in the office!!!!