Emergic: Rajesh Jain's Blog

It is a question I am asked by many people. Why am I not more active on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Other than republishing my RSS feed, I don’t tend to do much else – atleast for now. My answer has two parts: lack of time, and need for chunky time in what [...]

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My last two visits to Delhi have both been on Indigo Airlines (to and fro). I have been impressed with their punctuality and fares. Only one of the flights was delayed by about 30+ mins. They tend to be quite focused on ensuring a quick start – sometimes moving out a few minutes before the [...]

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Every so often, I will rapidly read a few fiction books. I read two recently — “The Defector” by Daniel Silva, and “The Apostle” by Brad Thor. Of these, I liked the former more. The Defector is centred around the Israeli spy-assassin Gabriel Allon. I had earlier read “Moscow Rules” and had quite liked that. [...]

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A few weeks ago, I was taking a 1:45 pm flight to Bangalore. I left office at 12:15 pm – on a normal day, the airport (about 12 kms) is a 30-minute drive at that time of the day. Little did I know that the Shiv Sena was out in full force on a weekday [...]

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One of the first things I learnt during my first Communications course at Columbia University during my Masters was the M/M/1 Queue Model. Simply put, it states that it is much more efficient to have a single queue when there are multiple servers.  The person at the head of the queue goes to the first [...]

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This is a series from November 2006: Understanding two-sided markets is especially critical for entrepreneurs and managers in the Internet and mobile space. One of the dominant models that has emerged over the years is that of giving away services for free. While this has been around for some time, the Internet provides scale which [...]

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This week’s links: The “Free” Business Model: by Bill Gurley. “If a disruptive competitor can offer a product or service similar to yours for ‘free,’ and if they can make enough money to keep the lights on, then you likely have a problem.” Apple, RIM Outsmart Phone Market: from The Wall Street Journal. “Apple and [...]

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I did a presentation recently on Education. Here it is. Ideas in Education View more presentations from rajeshjain.

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The Differentiation The Foundation will be different from existing think tanks in at least two different ways: (a) It will focus on developing policy ideas for practical real-life issues, rather than engage in mere theoretical pursuits, and (b) Engaging with policy makers and opinion leaders will be an integral part of its mandate, and it [...]

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The Objectives and Activities The two main objectives of the Foundation are: Research and propose new policy alternatives to address pressing national issues. Disseminate the work of the Foundation widely, especially with a view to directly impacting the course and content of national policy. The Foundation will take up a number of activities: Undertake research [...]

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The Solution There is a cross section of society who believes that there is space for new thinking beyond being wedded to socialist ideals. The Group believes that there is scope for new ideas with a right-of-centre thrust, on a range of economic and social issues in the country. This group is coming together to [...]

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One of the ideas that a group of us have been thinking is the creation of a centre-right policy foundation / think thank. Amit Malviya and I, with help from a few others, have put a concept note on the idea. We would be keen to get your feedback on this. The Problem India since [...]

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I wrote this series in 2001. The idea: Create an Technology Utility company, to offer a one-stop solution for SMEs globally covering business and technology needs in four areas: Computing: Management of SMEs local IT infrastructure – the remotely managed desktop Communications: A Local Server on the SMEs LAN with “intermittent connectivity” to the Internet [...]

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This week’s links: Wilderness of Childhood: by Michael Chabon in New York Review of Books. “Art is a form of exploration, of sailing off into the unknown alone, heading for those unmarked places on the map. If children are not permitted—not taught—to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of [...]

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Spam on phones is an even bigger problem than spam in emails. But not all spam is equal – messages that take into account our profile and have our permission are most welcome. In a way, these are messages we invite into our lives – think of it is invited advertising, or “Invertising.” This is [...]

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Today, the mobile phone operator has the data regarding whom I call and how often, whom I message and with frequency, where I am at any given moment of time, and so on. In other words, my personal and social profile resides in the collection of actions that I do with my mobile. In India, [...]

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The big advantage of the mobile is the in-built microbilling platform. Operators control that – both for postpaid and prepaid users. The Internet lacks a similar capability and is thus largely limited to relying on advertising as a business model. In the mobile space, micropayments by subscribers is an order of magnitude larger in India. [...]

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For the most part, GPRS plans are priced at about 5-10p per 10 KB. This works out to Rs 5-10 per MB. The problem is both with the price and the concept of metering. What is needed is a flat-priced plan that is less than Rs 100 per month. Smartphones are capable of doing a [...]

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The arrival of new mobile operators in India never seems to stop. In the past few months, Aircel has gone national with its roll-out, Reliance has launched its GSM service, and Tata Docomo is also going national with its GSM service. There are a few more who could still come in. And then we will [...]

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I wrote this series in 2002 — on how to create a better system to navigate, search and derive value from news. “Even though news is critical for our lives and drives a lot of decisions we make, the way we process news leaves a lot to be desired. One can of course pay for [...]

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