Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
There is so much of excitement in the mobile market with 13 entrants fighting it out amonst themselves . The prices have hit an all time low when Tata Docom introduced thet 1 paisa / 6 second to all Tata numbers plan last …
During a discussion yesterday someone mentioned that the next thing is to give free calls … But looking at similar situations in other industries seems to indicate that this is not the case !
Take a look at what happened with the aviation industry in India , there used to a time when flight tickets were available at Rs 500 and sometimes even as low as Rs 100 !!! … This golden period existed for 3 years ! And then the operators started to see that lower prices are not helping anyone !
Then there was a so called cartel formed by these companies and some consolidation in Kingfisher buying Deccan Airlines. After this slowly the minimal rate for a ticket has risen to Rs 2500 …
So we can expect a similar situation to happen and then the call rates should stabilize at a price which would allow then to make money ! Lets see if this happens ..
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
It was 1909. Forty-year-old Mahatma Gandhi penned continuously for 10 days aboard the ship Kildonan Castle, employing both hands. He penned since he could no longer “suppress himself.” At the end of this uneasy period he made a claim, “I have written an original book in Gujarati.” This book was Hind Swaraj (or Hind Swarajya, as originally titled), which got published in his journal Indian Opinion. In the last lines of Hind Swaraj Gandhi made a claim, “My conscience testifies that my life henceforth is dedicated to its attainment.”
This book was thought of as “a very dangerous thought” by the British, not because it encouraged revolt but for its open advocacy of Satyagraha to overthrow British supremacy. As expected, this book was banned by colonial government. Gandhiji translated the book into English and published it as Indian Home Rule. This simple book baffled its readers and continues to do so even today (talk of people who pursue reading as a hobby). Gandhiji thought that it was so simple that it could be placed in the hands of a child. And yet, it continues to elude its readers.
What was ‘it’ that he refered himself to? And what fate awaited the text? Gandhiji’s dedication was towards essence of Hind Swaraj, which is neither ahimsa nor Satyagraha. It is the concept of civilisation. Civilisation for Gandhiji is that mode of conduct that points us to the path of duty, where the performance of duty is the same as morality. Gandhiji says that a ‘real’ civilisation creates the possibility for us to know ourselves. This in essence was Swaraj for Gandhiji. Swaraj, for him was not self-rule but rule over oneself. All that happens around us which excludes this possibility is the ‘reverse of civilisation’, Kudharo in Gujarati and ‘Black Age’ or ‘Satanic Civilisation’ in its English rendering. Modern civilization shifts the focus of human worth to things. This is where machines become the measure of man. Gandhiji’s Hind Swaraj advocates against modern civilisation. Gandhiji is so utterly convinced of this formulation that he says that this civilisation is certain to be destroyed.
It is this critic of modernity and belief that it was not a universal fact but a passing, almost a temporary aberration that baffled its readers. Gopala Krishna Gokhale, otherwise a sympathetic elder to Gandhi, was perturbed by this pamphlet. He felt that it was “crude and hastily conceived” and he said Gandhi was certain to destroy it after spending a year in India. Not strangely, Gandhiji’s faith in the vision of Hind Swaraj sweetened as he came to inhabit India and this faith deepended with the weaver and the farmer. By 1919 he became a leader of the national movement, the printing and sale of Hind Swaraj became the symbol of defiance during the non-cooperation movement. Curiously, there was not much discussion on the text itself, not in English or Gujarati! The Congress ignored this document, prompting Gandhi to declare in 1921 that he was the only one to follow the ideals of Hind Swaraj, while the rest of the country had accepted only non-violence, that too as a strategy and not as an ideal.
More to follow in couple of days…