Thursday, October 29, 2009

KOLKATA--THE FUTURE TELECOM CORRIDOR OF INDIA

Well as of now , Kolkata is yet to achieve this goal . It has to go a long way to be in the league of the branded cities and their renowned epithets. Just as Bangalore is famously known as the silicon valley , and Hyderabad –the genome valley, can Kolkata be left far behind , specially with such a huge ambition. Kolkata has undergone a metamorphosis ; from a cultural hub to a telecom major, it had undertaken a series of initiatives in salience with the yet to achieve brand image.

The already existing major players in the telecom industry –BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, smart, reliance, are vying for the consumers ears. To add to the woe, recently Tata Docomo, idea and MTS, too launched their telecom services in Kolkata.
Well in a market that is already cluttered with so many operators , nearly confusing the consumers, the operators should feel the need of their subscribers , by focusing strongly on network connection, coverage and service offerings both on quality and price aspect and most important of all providing the consumers a customized approach.


Tata Docomo , to consider a case , announced a novel, “ pay –for-what –you-use” model for subscribers in Kolkata, with a pulse of one second and a pricing of just one paisa per second. According to Ratan Tata , Chairman , Tata Sons, - “ the value proposition offered by Tata Docomo is a unique and a revolutionary idea which symbolizes the spirit of innovation an inventive genius.”. he feels the launch of pay-per –use, pay-per-second concept will create a paradigm shift in the overall telecom experience for the customer and provide a service that is refreshingly different.
While the government is planning to come up with tax incentives for the telecom segment, TiE(The Industry Entrepreneurs), a non-profit organization along with the state of West Bengal is taking initiatives to promote Kolkata as a possible destination for telecom entrepreneurs.
Industry sources say that TiE’s big idea is to try and create domain-specific expertise in the telecom segment. To do this, TiE is initially looking at the possibility of setting up a telecom centre of excellence at Kolkata to provide infrastructure and trained manpower for the telecom sector.
The centre of excellence will provide the required infrastructure for software testing as well as ready manpower.. it will also talk with major telecom players of the country to set up the centre of excellence and the initial response is quite encouraging. The centre of excellence will serve the needs of Indian telecom software as well as service companies, who are handicapped by the absence of a proper testing centre and paucity of trained manpower
The second stage will be to brand the city on the lines of Bangalore and Hyderabad. For this, TiE is providing inputs to the consultants McKinsey, to create a road-map for the IT segment..
The brave step that has been taken by TiE, is a good news indeed , and only time can say whether kolkata too will be in the league of the high profile branded cities.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

ITS ALL ABOUT “OM SHANTI OM”….

A brief hiatus and I am back. Durgapuja and Kali puja.. a month long celebration in West Bengal.. the biggest festival ever for the Bengalis. As I went pandal hopping from one part of the city to the other , with huge lights glaring and sound blazing, crowds moving in herds, I was amazed at the huge transition that these pujas had gone through. From the ‘parar pujo’ ( neighborhood puja) to totally a corporate sponsored puja with a particular theme in the perspective…the Bengal pujas have seen them all.


While wandering through my memory lanes it reminded me of Renuka Chowdhury..the India’s tourism minister , when she immediately after taking charge of her new assignment , announced before a group of reporters .”.I want to open up unconventional avenues, like religious tourism, not in one part of India , but all over the country.”

India has emerged as one of the lucrative market for religious tourism. A study by the Delhi based National Council for Applied Economic Research( NCAER), shows that out of the 230 million tourist trips undertaken in India, the largest proportion is made up of religious pilgrimage. India has increasingly become a religious hub in the S-East Asia , with its diverse religion and cultures . For instance as many as 23 million people visited Tirupati, a temple town near southern India devoted to Lord Balaji. Tirupati’s annual list of pilgrims is higher than the total no of travelers visiting Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata put together.

Realizing its huge untapped potential , various religious trusts, state and central governments , have beefed up their managerial skills along with the blending of world class infrastructure. Travel masti a travel portal provides religious packages to tourists which covers as many as 23 destinations across India. Golden temple at Amritsar, the Tirupati temple offers online booking for accommodation and security to their pilgrims around the temple complex. Japan’s Nikko hotels has lined up with a series of hotels along the Buddhist circuit in east India. India’s railway tourism corporation runs a special package tour , while India’s only helicopter ferry service , Pawan Hans; runs a helicopter service right up to the temple. Another hot religious spot among the pilgrims is Orissa, where the state government has upgraded the condition of the roads. The temple managements are becoming more and more pilgrim friendly. From a data by NCAER, it gives an idea about the religious traffic in India.

• Tirupati ------- 23 million.

• Puri-------18.17 million.

• Vaishno Devi------17.25 million.

• Hardwar…….11.04 million.

• Naina Devi------8.28 million.

• Mathura-----8.28 million.

• Ajmer Sharif-----8.22 million.

• Amritsar-----7.13 million.

• Shirdi( W.India)------6.21million.

• Badrinath and Kedarnath-----4.1 million.



Well considering the splurge of devotees we can safely say that all of us..from the pilgrims to the businessman.. the whole hulla is about an intangible concept…OM SHANTI OM.