India: Its size, its people, its coming of age.
Swati Prasad is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist who spent much of the mid-1990s and 2000s covering brick-and-mortar industries for some of India's leading publications. Seven years back when she took to freelancing, India was at the peak of its "outsourcing hub" glory and the world of Indian IT, telecom and Internet fascinated her. A self-proclaimed technophobic, Swati loves to report on anything that's remotely alien to her--be it cloud computing, telecom, BPOs, social media, e-government or software and hardware, and also how high-tech sectors impact the Indian economy.
In his book Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century, Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, talks about how the future of India depends not just on simple economic growth, but also on reforms and innovations in all sectors of public life.Today, he has the rank equivalent to that of an Indian Cabinet Minister to put many innovative ideas to practice.
Do companies that wash their hands of several functions--especially "customer care"--by handing over contracts to business process outsourcing (BPO) outfits really "care" about their customers?More importantly, even after nearly a decade of having them around, most call centers remain centers of inefficiencies.
Sentiments undoubtedly play an important role in an economy. In recent times, we have seen how sentiments can swing consumer and investor behavior, thereby affecting the economy in some manner or the other.
It is election time here in India, and there is not a dull moment on TV-–shoes are being hurled at some politician or the other; candidates are making offensive speeches and remarks, and there is always news about how many fake voter ID cards are being found in various constituencies. The great Indian political circus is in full swing.
Artificial intelligence is getting more intelligent by the day. And honestly, this is something that scares me.
During the mid- and late-1990s, multinational carmakers were launching older editions of their hot-selling cars in the Indian market. Rumors were that some MNCs even brought in their junked plant material and machinery into India, in the name of foreign direct investment.
Strange things tend to happen during a recession. A recent report by Economist Intelligence Unit (Global Economic Outlook 2009-10) states that during recession, lipstick sales tend to go up.
Habits can change fast. For decades, I would head for two things in the morning--a hot cup of tea and a bunch of newspapers.
On Feb. 6, I received an invitation from a friend to join a group on Facebook--A Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women.