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Rural India Snaps Up Mobile Phones
By Eric Bellman In the village of Karanehalli, a cluster of simple homes around an intersection of two dirt roads about 40 miles from India’s high-tech capital of Bangalore, Farmer K.T. Srinivasa doesn’t have a toilet for his home or a tractor for his field. But when a red and white cellular tower sprouted in his village, he splurged on a cellphone. While the way his family threshes rice -- crushing it with a massive stone roller -- hasn’t chang...
- Region
- South Asia
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India to Follow $2,000 Car with $20 Laptop
The project, backed by New Delhi, would considerably undercut the so-called $100 laptop, otherwise known as the Children’s Machine or XO, that was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US. The Children’s Machine, which received a cool reception in India, is the centrepiece of the One Laptop Per Child charity initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT’s Media Lab. Intel launched a simila...
- Region
- South Asia
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Sunil Jain: Top of the pyramid
Management guru CK Prahalad popularised the concept of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), and among others, the country’s top mobile phone players seem to be taking this quite seriously given how they?re wooing BOP customers. It is, however, not quite clear how this strategy will pay off. According to a study by consulting firm BDA with chamber of commerce Ficci, the top 9 per cent of mobile phone users in India contribute 29 per cent to industry?s revenues and 45 per...
- Region
- South Asia
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BOP Shock for India Inc.
New Delhi: Indian companies seeking their pot of gold from the lower-end or bottom of the pyramid (BOP) consumers are in for a bit of shock: The market may be much smaller in reality. While earlier, this market was supposed to be formed of 400 million people, now market research firms Technopak Advisors and Evalueserve are saying that it is not more than 160 million. Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors says that around 35 million households or around 160 million people that...
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- Livemint.com
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- South Asia
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Bring Break-Even to the Bottom of the Pyramid
How much does the global slowdown impact India? What should be the corporate structures and strategies to weather the current storm? Can India overcome the growth blip? Which sector is in need of urgent reform? We put these questions to management guru Prof CK Prahalad, who was in the city for a CII session on ?India@75: The emerging agenda?. ?There are dramatic changes in demand and cost structures and in some cases excess capacity?all of these require a rethink in the break-even vol...
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- South Asia
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Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid
A decade after founding SKS Microfinance, CEO Akula explains how to make money at the bottom tier of the economic pyramid while raising the living standards of the people who occupy it. His company, which provides many small-business loans and other financial services to poor women in India, has a customer base that has been nearly tripling each year and now numbers more than 2 million. Akula attributes his firm’s success in part to heeding three principles: Adopt a profit-oriented approach ...
- Region
- South Asia
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New Frontiers: Story at the Bottom of the Pyramid
By Anisha Motwani Rural India seems to be the latest flavour in town. From finance ministers to corporate India across industries, everyone seems to be shifting focus to the bottom of the pyramid. All boardroom discussions are getting centred on finding ways and means to grab a share of this lucrative pie. Numbers look seductive with statistics and data giving enough evidence of volume potential... smaller ticket sizes but more buyers...
- Region
- South Asia
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4 Lessons to Learn from Tata’s Nano
The announcement in January by Tata Motors of its newest car, the Nano, was revealing on many levels. The announcement generated extensive coverage and commentary, but just about everyone missed the Nano’s real significance, which goes far beyond the car itself. But, OK, let’s start with the car itself - particularly the price. At about $2,500 retail, the Nano is the most inexpensive car in the world. Its closest competitor, the Maruti 800, made in India by Maruti Udyog, sells...
- Region
- South Asia
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