Indian Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Interviewing With Indian Reporters–International Media Training

Today, Indians are a force to be reckoned with. They have made their presence felt in every field. When we talk of the Indian press during media training, we see that Indian reporters have a significant influence, especially in business media.

A large number of business reporters with Indian roots are internationally prominent. Consider CNN’s Senior International Correspondent Satinder Bindra based out of New Delhi. He is responsible for the Network’s coverage of India, and the South Asian region; Tunku Varadarajan is currently editorial features editor at The Wall Street Journal. He is a former chief TV and media critic for the paper and columnist for OpinionJournal.com, a WSJ sister site. And many more.

So, what is it that makes the Indian Reporter tick? How can we strike a chord with Indian reporters? Here are skills it would be wise to practice in media training.

Tips on Dealing With Indian Reporters

Honesty really is the best policy in this context. Be straightforward and factual. Indian reporters are a professional lot, aggressive and know how to find the underlying cause of an issue.
Getting an Indian reporter to trust you can be a tough job. Confidence, authenticity and being down-to-earth work a lot better than false pretenses with the India media. Never make up an answer! They will check your assertions.
It is quite all right to address the Indian reporter by his or her first name. There is no need to be excessively formal.
There is no such thing as telling a reporter something off the record. (If you are not already aware of this, it will be drilled into you during media training.) Indian reporters are no different. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to see in print or have aired on television! For a typical Indian, the most preferred source of information is television, newspapers, radio, and news magazines, in that order.
Treat the Indian media with respect and friendliness.

Indian journalists reflect a tough work ethic; they are comfortable with the English language and adjust comfortably with the western culture. They do not hesitate to go the extra mile to get their information. With their theoretical thinking and analytical mind, Indians have a global presence. They are patient by tradition, good listeners and sharp witted.

The Indian Press has the reputation of being among the best in the world, which is evident by the professionalism exhibited by the Indian journalists. The people of India are media savvy and have exposure to various forms of media. Investigative reporting has become quite prominent in India.

One such example is the sensational and controversial “Tehelka” issue where investigative journalist Aniruddha Bahal and his partner Mathew Samuel spent seven months posing as arms dealers and exposed top Indian officials and army officers taking bribes.

In an operation unparalleled in Indian journalism, Bahal paid bribes exceeding 21000 USD to India’s top ruling politicians and senior army officers to push for non-existent arms, secretly videotaping every transaction. This is probably why journalists play such an important role in influencing public opinion on vital issues – they believe that public opinion and interest are more important.

10 Indian Industry Sectors to Perform Well in Current Global Recession

As every business sector is affected by present global crisis and everybody is talking of slow down in business, still in India there are few sectors which will grow in this adverse situation. Lets have a look.

1. Food

No one can survive without basic food material like milk, vegetables and drinking water. Food processing companies will not be affected much and rather will earn profits by increasing the prices. These are the basic needs which we as a common man can not produce by our self.

According to MFPI, the food processing industry in India was seeing growth even as the world was facing economic recession. According to the minister, the industry is presently growing at 14 per cent against 6-7 per cent growth in 2003-04.The Indian food market is estimated at over US$ 182 billion, and accounts for about two thirds of the total Indian retail market. Further, the retail food sector in India is likely to grow from around US$ 70 billion in 2008 to US$ 150 billion by 2025

2. Railway

As the aviation sector has been affect much badly and resulting in sharp rise in the air ticket rates the frequent travelers will prefer railways to cut the cost of traveling and this will result in increased traffic in railways and long queues at railway booking counters. The freight traffic of Indian Railways has continued to grow in the last few months, albeit at slow pace, indicating only marginal impact of the global recession on the Indian economy.

The Railways registered 13.87% growth in revenue to Rs 57,863.90 crore in the first nine months ended December 31, 2008. While total earnings from freight increased by 14.53% at Rs 39,085.22 crore during the period, passenger revenue earnings were up 11.81% at Rs 16,242.44 crore. The Railways have enhanced freight revenue by increasing its axle loading, improving customer services and adopting an innovative pricing strategy.

3. PSU Banks

As seen in the private sector much of the job cuts due to global slowdown, its the PSU sector Banks which gained much confidence due to job safety and security. More and more people are likely to turn towards government institutions, particularly banks in the quest for safety and security.

A report “Opportunities in Indian Banking Sector”, by market research company, RNCOS, forecasts that the Indian banking sector will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 23.3 per cent till 2011.

4. Education

As Education is considered as the basic necessity and in India it is seen as a long term investment by parents and with respect to the demand still there is a huge supply gap. The craze to study in foreign university among the Indian youth still alive which will prompt foreign education institute to target India provided vast young population willing to join. We will see more and more foreign educational institutions to come up in India in recent coming years.

Huge government as well as private investment is likely to flow into the Indian educational system. D E Shaw, a US$ 36 billion, global private equity firm is planning to invest around US$ 200 million in the Indian education sector.

5. Telecom

People will not stop to communicate with each other due to global crises rather it has been seen that it will increase much particularly with mobile communication. With cheap cell phones available in the Indian market and cheaper call rates, the sector has become the necessity and primary need of everyday life.

Telecom sector, according to industry estimates, year 2008 started with a subscriber base of 228 million and will likely to end with a subscriber base of 332 million – a full century ! The Telecom industry expects to add at least another 90 million subscribers in 2009 despite of recession. The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally by 2010.

6. IT

Recent news shown that Indian IT sector will grow 30-40% next year. And on the other side to survive in current slowdown, industries have to decrease the cost and for that they will resort to customized IT solutions which will further boost up the software solution demand.

India is fast becoming a hot destination for outsourced e-publishing work. As per a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the industry is growing at an annual rate of 35 per cent and India’s outsourcing opportunities in the value-added and core services such as copy editing, project management, indexing, media services and content deployment will help make the publishing BPO industry worth US$ 1.46 billion by 2010.

7. Health care

India in case of health care facilities still lakes the adequate supply. In Health care sector also there is huge gape between demand and supply at all the levels of society. Still there are so many urban areas were you could hardly find any multi specialty hospital. And in case of metros the market sentiments itself created a need of psychological consultation.

Healthcare, which is a US$ 35 billion industry in India, is expected to reach over US$ 75 billion by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017. The healthcare industry is interestingly poised as it strives to emerge as a global hub due to the distinct advantages it enjoys in clinical excellence and low costs.

8. Luxury products

The high and affluent class of society will not be affected much by this global crises even if their worth is reduced significantly. They will not change their life style and will not stop spending on luxurious goods. So luxurious product market will not be affected and in fact to maintain the lifestyle those affluent will spend more for it. Luxury car makers are pouring in to woo the nouveau riche (Audi, BMW are the most recent entrants).

According to recent research on luxury trends, the number of families with annual incomes of more than $230,000 will have more than doubled from 20,000 in 2002 to 53,000 by the end of 2005 and will grow to 140,000 by 2010.

9. M&A & Marketing Consultants

As in the current business slow down survival will be the main focus, the marketing and management consultants will be called for to reduce the costs and to show the ways to survive and stay in market. Others may join hands to fight with this situation together will call for the Marketing & M&A consultants. In a booming market there are growth strategies and M&A opportunities to advise on. When businesses are cutting back, consultancies will be right there to help clients decide where to wield the axe.

According to Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s estimation, the current size of consulting industry in India is about Rs.10000/- crores including exports and is expected to grow further at a CAGR of aprox. 25% in next few years

10. Media and Entertainment

In current bad times, where people are losing jobs and getting enough time to watch TV, they will seek entertainment at home and hence advertising revenues will increase for the commercial channels. Also businesses like production of religious texts and religious materials, religious channels will do well. The TRP of religious channels will increase compare to the other entertaining/commercial channels.

According to a report published by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Indian M&E industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent to reach US$ 23.81 billion by 2012. According to the PWC report, the television industry was worth US$ 5. 48 billion in 2007, recording a growth of 18 per cent over 2006. It is further likely to grow by 22 per cent over the next five years and be worth US$ 12. 34 billion by 2012.

Differences in Indian Ads in the USA and American Ads

The style that Americans use for advertisements is different than some other cultures. For instance, if you see an Indian ad in the USA, it would likely stand out from all of the others because of the difference in tone and voice these countries use. These differences mostly relate to the cultural differences between the United States and India. Understanding these differences can help give you a clearer picture on what countries like India value in employees.

In countries like India, the people use tone and attitude to get their ideas across more than words. Therefore, the ads from this country are likely to be less wordy than those Americans are used to. This doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t have much to offer; rather, it will show you what is most important to the company. If you are unclear on something, you may need to contact the company directly to ask if it wasn’t included in the ad.

While both an American ad and an Indian ad in the USA will provide you with a headline, body, and possibly an image and tagline, the emphasis differs between the two countries of origin. In the United States, companies place most of their focus on the image and tagline for an ad. However, while Indian ads also place a majority of their focus in the same places, they focus more on the other areas, such as the headline and body of the ad, than their American counterparts.

The type of speech used in the different ads varies as well. For instance, American ads are more direct and to the point. They use concrete language that tells you exactly what to expect from the company. A country like India, however, tends to use more creative language, even in an ad. They will focus more on descriptions than hard facts, so you may need to read between the lines or ask for clarification if there is something else you need to know.

Understanding the differences between an Indian ad in the USA and an American ad can give you a glimpse into the way each country does business. While Americans tend to be very business-like with their ads, as well as their encounters, Indians often take a more personalized approach. This approach may seem unusual for Americans who view these Indian ads, but it is a reflection upon the Indian culture and is important to understand if you want to work with them.

Lessons for Marketers From Chanakya, an Indian Teacher From the 4th Century BC

[Chanakya] Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make it all yourselves!

[Marketing Perspective – Research] Time is short and is the most critical element. You need not make the mistake and then change your strategy. While sometimes you will make mistake but that should be accidental. You need to do a thorough homework/research prior to developing any plans. Analyse what competition closely – from a marketers perspective. This entails learning from competitor research – Research about their positioning, segmenting, marketing case studies and marketing strategies. Once you have researched, you will know how to develop your marketing/communication plans more efficiently.

[Chanakya] A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first

[Marketing Perspective – How to represent the message?] There is a way to communicate to your audience – revealing all of the properties/attribute has not helped many brands/companies. Several times, it has to be mended as per the current situation and understanding of the audience. This does in no imply that you need to fake stuff but you need to mend it in the right way.

[Chanakya] Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous

[Marketing Perspective – Confidence in your Plans/Strategies/Approach/Presentation] Try to be confident in the market. Unless it is a monopoly, brands/companies face huge competition and is subjected to several challenges to grab a piece of the market share. There are big fishes always trying to discourage you and trying to throw you out from the marketplace, hence you should be confident enough of your plans and strategies. Face the competition with utmost confidence, display it through your marketing/sales/business efforts, to your prospects, customers, investors, employees, analysts and other stakeholders. You know what they don’t know and things spoken with confidence, backed by facts/logic always works out.

[Chanakya] Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you!

[Marketing Perspective – Trade secrets] Perhaps the company deals with information that can make or break the company. Trademarks, copyrights, Intellectual property rights, data protection and security are all directed to this maxim stated by Chanakya.

[Chanakya] As soon as the fear approaches near, attack it and destroy it.

[Marketing Perspective: Change your idea/strategy/campaign] Juggling with a known problem is never a solution. It will cause you to be defeated at one point or the other. When you have identified an issue with a campaign, rectify it immediately or if a campaign does not workout, change your strategy and switch to your other option rather than keeping your ego and still juggling to make it work while wasting time, energy and resources on it. A marketer should remember that it is not a personal defeat if the campaign/idea does not work, rather it is for the benefit of the business that he is working for and hence should make possible efforts to attain the stated marketing and business objectives.

[Chanakya] Even from poison extract nectar, wash and take back gold if it has fallen in filth, receive highest knowledge from a low born person.

[Marketing Perspective – Innovation/Learning/Incorporating ideas] Unexplored market segments – take ideas from each one – a small idea/innovation can make a huge difference – receive feedback from your stakeholders – open communication

[Chanakya] Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing It, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

[Marketing Perspective] It is indeed true that planning is an important ingredient to the success of any campaign. A well thought and researched, clear objective based campaign has performed well in several cases.

[Chanakya] The world’s biggest power is youth and the beauty of a woman.

[Marketing Perspective – The right segments] These are the two segments that are really powerful. Brands/products/services launched in this category and that have been marketed well, have performed extremely well. Catching the pulse of these two target segments and doing targeted marketing will yield results.

The Indian Film Industry

Indian films began in 1896 when an agent from France brought his movie equipment and showed moving pictures in Bombay. That was an important point in Indian history and the start of the development of the Indian film industry.

The first film made in India was released in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke. The film’s title was Raja Harishchandra. It was a mythological film that has since been produced several times.

There are now different types of film industries in India categorized by their regions. These are: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi and Assamese films.

The first Indian film shown in India was the movie Alam Ara which was released in 1931. It was also the first movie that had sound effects; the movie was called a “talkie” because it was the first time the actors were heard talking in a film. This was again the beginning of a new era for the Indian film industry.

During the 1930s and 1940s Indian films began to have a modern outlook and adopted the emerging societal ideas and practices of the decade. Film makers added major innovations to their films. In 1935, the movie Devdas was released. It wasan important film of the decade. The film was directed by Pramathesh Barua. The movie was based on a love tale and presented the distinction between femininity and masculinity.

The world-famous Bollywood was a Hindi film industry that started in the 1970s. It is inspired by the American film industry’s Hollywood. Bollywood is now one of the leading film industries in the world which has released many movies and introduced popular actors and actresses.

The Golden Age of the Indian film industry began in the 1940s. Some of the best films were produced during this decade until the 1960s. The films Pyaasa and Kaagaz ke Phool were two of the movies produced during the Golden Age.

In the 1950s, the Parallel Cinema movement began, led by the Bengalis. Some of the movies produced during this era were Neecha Nagar and Two Acres of Land.

The Indian modern cinema was introduced in the 1960s. It was when romance movies and action films became popular in the Indian film industry. During the mid-1970s until the 1990s, Indian cinema began producing films about bandits and gangsters.

The Indian film industry continues to produce and release movies that reach the world beyond Bollywood. Indian film producers are known to make lengthy movies, with some films lasting three hours or more.

Indian Bloggers Income From Blogging Full Time

Bloggers like Amit Agrawal and Harsh Agrawal are earning more than Rs 40 lakhs per month. Not only them, several bloggers earning Rs 40 lakhs per month in India.

If you have patience and passion to write, start blogging. You need to spend minimum Rs 3000-5000 to book a domain and start web hosting. We will provide you tips to start blogging to earn money from home. Blogging is a secure passive income. Rest is a history.

Select a niche market. There are 100 of topics available to blog. We cannot be master of all. But, we can try to blog on different topics. After blogging for 20-30 articles, we will get an idea. Automatically, we will understand our expertise, passion and fun in writing.

We can start with travel blog, shopping or food. If you are good in technology, try for it. The market is open. Do not fear for the competitor.

With each blog, you will learn and perform better than the previous blogs. There is no thumb rule to be a successful blogger. Those earning Rs 10-20 lakhs per month by blogging are like us.

They also suffer setbacks, disappointment and even left blogging before tasting success. So, read popular blogs in India. Some are writing hindi blogs and earning a lot. We have to learn and earn.

There are various tips to start blogging to earn money from home available in YouTube as well. Watch them and read the success stories of successful bloggers in India. Below we will provide some blog examples.

I am giving a list of top 15 heavy traffic blogs in India. Learning from them will give us an idea how to start blogging to earn money from home.

BloggingX

Udit Goenka

Labnol.org

YourStory.com

Trak.in

Bloggers Ideas

Digital Deepak

99Signals

ShoutMeLoud

Bloggers Passion

JagoInvestor.com

Techpp.com

AllTechBuzz.net

PhoneRadar.com

VegRecipesofIndia.com

Before you close this page, see the income of best bloggers in India. We are showing the expected income per month from blogging.

Blogger (Earnings per month)

Amit Agrawal ( US$ 60,000)

Harsh Agrawal (US$ 52,434)

Faisal Farooqui (US$ 50,000)

Shradha Sharma (US$ 30,000)

Varun Krishnan ( US$ 22,000)

Srinivas Tamada (US$ 20,000)

Ashish Sinha (US$ 18,000)

Arun Prabhudesai (US$ 15,000)

Do you want to become a blogger and earn Rs 40 lakhs per month. You can be a stock traders and earn more. But, stock market is risky. Blog is not risky.

Don’t asked me how much I earn, I am just starting. And I will disclose my income after 2 years. For this I need patience, dedication and consistency in blogging.

The Watchdog of the Indian Markets – SEBI

What is the SEBI?

SEBI, which is a abbreviation for Securities and Exchange Board of India, which has functions similar to the SEC or Securities Exchange Commission in the USA. In other words the SEBI regulates the working of the financial markets in India, vis-à-vis investor protection and laying down of ethical standards for the working of the financial markets in India. This is why SEBI is also called as the watchdog of the Indian Markets. There have been many instances where SEBI has acted in the interests of the investor by preventing insider trading in various companies in the equity markets. Similarly there have also been cases when SEBI has acted in the interest of the small investor in the Mutual Fund Industry.

What is the mutual fund industry?

The origin of this industry in India is with the introduction of the concept of a mutual fund by UTI in the year 1963. Although the growth was slow at that time, it accelerated post 1987, when the non-UTI players entered the industry. Not everyone can time the equity markets as well as some investors do. For the benefit of those unfortunate investors who cannot, there is the mutual fund industry. This is an instrument which invests in equities on behalf of the individual investor so as to maximise his gains. A mutual fund is a basked of equity investments which are done based on exhaustive research and development. This research and development is carried out by the asset management companies of the mutual funds. They are also called as AMCs. The product portfolio of these funds contains investments in equities which would yield good results over a period of time. The mutual funds are rated by various rating agencies. This rating is carried out by the agencies like CRISIL, etc. These funds tend to hedge the risks for the individual investor so as to minimise his losses. At times they may also concentrate on one particular sector.

Role of SEBI

The SEBI was first established in the year 1988. At that time it acted as a non-statutory body for the regulation of the securities market. In the year 1992, it became an autonomous body with independent powers. Through the passing of an ordinance, more powers were given to the SEBI. Now it independently regulates the securities markets with its independent powers.

The main objectives of the SEBI are as under:

Develops the securities markets
Promotes investor interest.
Makes rules and regulations for the securities markets.

As far as the functions of SEBI are concerned, it performs the following functions:

Regulates the securities markets.
Checks trading of securities
Checks the malpractices occurring in the securities markets.
Enhances investor knowledge, with regard to the markets by providing education from time to time.
Regulates the stock-brokers and sub-brokers
Promotes research and investigation.

SEBIs introduction of the SEBI (Mutual Fund Regulation) 1993 was established to have direct control over the mutual funds for both the private and the public sector.

2 CASES

CASESTUDY 1:

On August 1st, 2009, nearly one year back, the SEBI, the stock market regulator acted to prohibit mutual funds from levying entry loads. Typically these funds used to charge entry loads at the rate of 2.25% of the of the NAV of the mutual fund in question. This money was then used to pay the agent commissions. In the new regime, SEBI wanted the investor and the agent to negotiate and arrive at a rate of commission, which would then be paid by the investor to the agent by way of a separate cheque.

Although this made it cheaper for retail investors to buy mutual funds, the fall in commission for its agents, effectively left few people to sell it to them. Now, even after one year of this rule being passed, there are net redemptions occurring in this industry. Assets under management for equity funds, which are said to have the most amount of retail participation among the various segments, have seen net redemptions in 8 out of 11 months since the ban on entry loads was introduced by the SEBI.

There have been net outflows since August 2009 in case of equity mutual funds. One industry person also said that the need for mutual funds could not be compared with the need for toothpaste and toilet soaps. The latter happened to be necessities, whereas the former were luxuries for people who had excess income after fulfilling their basic needs. As ULIPs began offering more commissions to its agents on their sales, agents dropped mutual funds and flocked to ULIPs. It is said that between July 2009 and March 2010, ULIPs managed to raise Rs108.83 crore in total. This incident clearly illustrates the power of commissions in a country which is just coming out of the throes of financial illiteracy.

There was an attempt to bring in parity between ULIPs and mutual funds, when SEBI said that all ULIPs should register themselves with the SEBI, but an ordinance that placed the controls definitively in the hands of the Insurance Regulator IRDA, and away from the hands of the market regulator put paid to a glimmer of hope for the mutual fund industry. Fund houses grappling with changes are said to be finding it difficult to wean the retail customer The head of a foreign mutual fund house said that the change was brought about too fast and the new business model will take time to percolate in the market. Thus the engagement with the end consumer has gone down as everyone is focussed internally.

CASE STUDY 2:

The ban on 197 FIIs and 342 sub-accounts from fresh buys, in the markets. SEBI said that if these organizations are willing to make these disclosures for other regulators, when why not for SEBI? The FIIs were given a deadline to meet these disclosure norms and those who flouted the rules were not allowed to take fresh positions. (There’s no impact of this on their current positions). More controversial is the proposed code of conduct of SEBI. This proposes to identify key people in merchant banks, mutual fund companies and brokerages, who can be held responsible for frauds and violation of norms. This is in addition to setting up a common database of defaulters that will carry information on past and ongoing frauds, investigations and defaults by market players, etc. Market analyst and CEO Value Research, is not sure how this will work but according to him it boils down to the legal framework and establishing the evidence of fault.

SEBI is doing this primarily to discipline the market so that the individual or retail investor may not hesitate to give his hard earned money to the mutual funds and securities markets. It is said that India was saved from the after effects of the global meltdown only due to the actions of this regulator which is acting as a watchdog protecting investor interest in a volatile market full of wannabe AMCs and mutual funds.