Blog entries from Krishna Kumar

So long, farewell to you and you and you...

Krishna Kumar — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:39:16 +0100

This is my last post on this blog. It is time for me to move on.

You will any day now be holding the 32nd issue of DARE in your hands. It took more than a year of work for us to get the first issue out. So, in total, that is almost 45 months for me with the concept of a platform for encouraging and showcasing entrepreneurship. That is a long time for me to be associated with any single project. In short, it is time for me to move on, to other challenges.

I will continue to Read More...

My unnamed Pakistani friend in Dubai : Why Indians and Pakistanis must be friends

Krishna Kumar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:30:00 +0100

Every time there is an India - Pakistan standoff, my mind goes back to that evening in Dubai.

This was many years back, much before 9/11 and 26/11. I was on a visit to Dubai and and my return flight was at midnight. Having finished the mandatory sight seeing and having checked out of my hotel room, I sat down on a road side bench to watch the Dubai traffic whizz by.

Some time passed and the Sun was beginning to set, when I heard some one ask me in Hindi - "Are you ok?" Turning aRead More...

How many entrepreneurs are there in India?

Krishna Kumar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0100

How many entrepreneurs are there in India?

200 millions.

How come?

Strangely that is a question that has not exercised many brains. I asked this question recently to a lot of people, and the answers I got ranged from well thought out answers like fifty thousand all the way to the adventurous one crore (10 millions). Lots of Googling, Binging and Yahooing later, I still did not have a fix on how many entrepreneurs there are in this vast country of ours.

So, thRead More...

Marriage, Modeling or Masters?

Krishna Kumar — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0100

One of my meetings recently was with a young lady, who had just graduated from the arts stream of one of Delhi's premier colleges. And amongst the many things we discussed was of course the chances that graduates from her class would choose the path of entrepreneurship.

What are your classmates likely to do in life, I asked. The answer was something of a surprise -according to this young lady, her peers would end up in one of three choices - modeling, masters or marriage.

The taj Mahal: a 16.8 crore rupee opportunity for India post

Krishna Kumar — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:04:45 +0100

This year, some where close to six million paid visitors will visit that monument of love, the Taj Mahal. About a kilometer away from the entrance to the Taj, they will queue up for their entry tickets. Entry to the Taj costs Rs. 20 for Indians and Rs. 750 for foreigners and you get a fairly good entry ticket, one of the best for a monument in India.

Now, the entry fee is not a single item. Out of the twenty rupees, 10 goes to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and 10 is tolRead More...

6 reasons why you can no longer kill the competition

Krishna Kumar — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0100

In the nineties and early twenty hundreds, it was common for corporate strategist to consider options of "killing the competition". I remember sitting in, in the strategy meeting of one of India's leading business houses. On the first day no recording or note taking was allowed, So I am repeating from memory . The Chairman, a leading light of his industry ended his opening session by exhorting his senior-most team to "kill off the competition". Fast forward to today, the company in question hRead More...

All you want to know about Indian trains in just 7 web sites

Krishna Kumar — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:01:06 +0100

The Indian railways has often been called the life line of the country. Running across the length and breadth of the country, it is one of the largest rail networks in the world and transports over 6 billion passengers and over 350 million tonnes of freight. Here are seven websites that cover (almost) the entire gamut of railway operations that you and me will ever get involved in.

1. erail.in

Companies and brands need to continuously understand the market, customer needs, get feedback to their products, etc. The standard way of doing this is to do market research. Unfortunately, market research usually costs a pretty penny and many, particularly startups being hard pressed, are unablRead More...

12 rules for businesses wanting to be on Twitter

Krishna Kumar — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Most of the stuff out there on what to do when using twitter is for individual users. So, I decided to compile a list of guidelines for businesses that are increasingly using the microblogging site. Doadd your own rules in the comments.

1. The best way to use twitter is never to go to twitter.com for tweeting. Use one of the many clients instead.

2. While you have 140 characters to play with, you should leave as much free space as possible so that others can retweet your message easily.

Secrets SEO experts will not tell you about search engine traffic

Krishna Kumar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Talk to any SEO expert and they will inundate you with talk on how getting the right set of keywords is the most import thing in driving search engine traffic to your site.

There are atleast three other factors that have a larger say in determining your website traffic.

1. Frequency of updates

This is the most important one. More important than any keyword based strategy. Search engines tend to degrade the ranks of content that is older, while moving up fresher contRead More...

10 things CEO's should know about social media and online communities

Krishna Kumar — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:30:00 +0100

This is a companion piece to this month's cover story "How Social networks can help your business" and is prompted by Jai Vikram Bakshi's question on Linkedin.

0. Social media efforts need people, money and time, like with any thing else

It is not one more task for that intern in marketing. If you want to use social media or online communities as leverages for your business, then be ready to invest resources into it. And the most important resource you need to invest is peRead More...

Possible security issue with Alt-n's MDaemon mail server's ComAgent client

Krishna Kumar — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Just came across a security issue with MDaemon mail server that has been informed to Alt-n and since rectified.

MDaemon has a locally installable client called ComAgent. You install ComAgent by logging in to your account from the web using world client and going to options / ComAgent / download the ComAgent installer. Among other things this shows the number of messages in your mailboxes and alsolets you send instant messages and files to other logged in users. Clicking on a mailbox naRead More...

A business plan contest with added benefits

Krishna Kumar — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Here is a business plan contest with a slight twist. The winners will get the usual cash price plus space at a tech park.

"Enterprize" is being organised by TiE Chandigarh along with the department of IT, Chandigarh Administration, STPI and IAN.

The top three teams will get space at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park as well as Cash prizes from STPI

There will also be workshops by DARE,

Mentoring by TIE,

And access toRead More...

Healthcare: living in two different worlds

Krishna Kumar — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Sometime back I was invited to moderate a panel discussion on the needs for the health care industry. There were about a hundred doctors and health care administrators present in the room,from both government and private hospitals. No sooner had the discussions started than one point was abundantly clear.

We were talking about two different sectors, not one.

The public and private sectors were completely different; as different as chalk and cheese in their objectives, their Read More...

Which is the best business to be in?

Krishna Kumar — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:30:00 +0100

Irrespective of which industry you are in, the best business to be in, in terms of share of the pie, is that of the middle man. The producer takes most if not all of the risks associated with the product and ends up with the smallest share of the pie. The retailer whose role is largely limited to making available the product where the customer wants it gets a small percentage of the final price paid by the consumer, and takes only minimal risks. Even that is sometimes not there, because in Read More...

Fried chicken and porotta: A cottage industry in Kerala

Krishna Kumar — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:30:00 +0100

In my previous post, I had mentioned Porotta and fried Chicken. Fried chicken to the Malayalee (as the Keralite prefers to be called, after the mother tongue) is what Tandaoori chicken is to the Punjabi. the method of preparation is similar, but for the final step. While the Punjabi bakes the chicken in a tandoor, a clay oven, The Malayalee fries it in oil. And Porotta is not the Paratta you get in North India. Porotta is made out of a dough made of maida, oil and the white of eggs, coiled and fRead More...