TRACK2MEDIA

Track2Realty releases India's 1st real estate yearly handbook--Focus 2012

2011-12-19T05:32:00.000-08:00

Dec 19, 2011

Track2Realty, the e newspaper on Indian real estate has launched India’s first real estate yearly handbook, Focus 2012. The handbook aims to cater to all the stake holders of the sector—developers, investors and end-users. The focus of the handbook is on the emerging market scenario of the sector where many of the industry’s leading names have contributed as the knowledge partners.

There are various section of the handbook with areas ranging from Outlook to the finance and investment opportunities in the year ahead. It was released at the India Habitat Centre by the representatives of the sector, including NAREDCO, RICS and KPMG.

Track2Realty, which is planning its webcasting channel on realty sector, had a Live webcast of the release of Focus 2012 as a test run to the upcoming channel. The realty channel is expected to take off in April 2012.

Track2Realty boycotts Jones Lang LaSalle for breach of trust

2011-12-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

December 3, 2011

In the wake of the unprofessional and unethical behavior of the real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India (JLLI), the editorial team of Track2Realty has taken a decision to boycott the firm for a month starting Monday, December 5. During this period Dec 5, 2011-Jan 5, 2012, none of the inputs, column, analysis, reports of JLLI would be used by the editorial team of Track2Realty for the news site, feature service or any other editorial service/facilitation.

The strong stand by Track2Realty comes in the wake of the JLLI team resorting to unprofessional and unethical practice that has been implied to sabotage the yearly handbook Focus 2012. The JLLI team has not only duped Track2Realty by dishonouring the professional commitment, but has even refused to admit its mistake. Though this makes it a fit case for a legal action, but a boycott and subsequent expose is the symbolic protest as unanimously decided by the team Track2Realty.

Jones Lang LaSalle India, despite of its written promise over mail for an exclusive column to the yearly handbook, Track2Realty Focus 2012, sent the same column to all the journalists across the country. JLLI’s Assistant Marketing Manager Arun Chitnis (known for his bad blood with very many journalists writing on realty sector) shamelessly justified the act, despite of being reminded about the written commitment on their part.

It is all the more surprising that such a professional mess has happened despite the JLLI Chairman and Country Head, Anuj Puri being conveyed about the need for an exclusive column by Track2Realty. This has been a fact that had been acknowledged and agreed by Shajai Jacob in their Gurgaon office as well. Now that the edition is in print, this breach of trust has left the editorial team shocked, and with no choice. It is not just a breach of trust, but even a conspiracy (at the behest of any competing media) can not be ruled out.

Irony is that the real estate consultants in general crib about the lack of unprofessional behavior in the sector. Often crying for reforms and asking the developers to be transparent and fair with the buyers, they often fail to understand that they also need to behave in a responsible manner and be transparent, fair and true to their commitment in the professional domain.

A series on realty consultants’ business model and functioning in India under the banner “Consultancy for whom and at what cost” is being planned by Track2Realty. After all, this business has thus far thrived on media support as well, with journalists often taking them at the face value of being ethical. The research team is taking inputs from some of the realty companies and the idea is to expose those who often take a “holier than thou” moral stand and preach what they themselves never practice.

A Love’s Journey through poverty, cruelty and beauty

2011-07-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

July 10, 2011

Jennifer Sebastian’s love journey is in the first impression no different from the ordeal of any other girl. It seems to be the story of a girl who has been bestowed with twin fault lines—poverty and beauty. Jennifer’s beauty is not her virtue but a liability in a cruel society where poor girls are better safe to be ugly. It seems the writer’s vast understanding of the dark realities of the world is always at the back of her mind and she is looking at this lecherous world through the Love’s Journey where the protagonist Jennifer is her eyes and ears.
The novel is not just the writer’s imaginative piece of fiction. It has shades of stark realities as well. It probably doesn’t even shake the collective conscience to see such exploitative and manipulative society for whom a beautiful young girl is just a female body. In our comfort zones we fail to introspect whether we are that cruel.
Caught up between poverty and survival, Jennifer can control her infatuation and love….but can the society control its perversion, lust and greed for exploitation? And it is here that a young determined yet vulnerable girl is finally forced to fall into the trap of compromises and cheap sex. But wait—before a conclusion is drawn there is more than what meets the eyes.
What makes the Love’s Journey worth reading is the fact that the story line seems to have been drawn from the real life. Rashmi Singh as a debutant writer has shown tremendous conviction in narrating the cruel face of society without getting judgmental or taking up advocacy. In her storyline she narrates how a Christian family being burnt alive has its after effects. It just reminds as to how religious fundamentalism had taken the life of a Christian missionary not so long ago in real life. The novel just reiterates the fact that it was not Jennifer’s mother alone who was raped and killed, rather the poor girl was left to be raped by society at large, throughout her life.
Similarly, when she narrates the murky world of bollywood and its exploitative ways, Jennifer just stands out as a mere character to showcase as to how cruel the world is to a lonely woman. It is the writer’s sarcasm, without actually spelling it out, which points to the fact that in the big bad world where innocence has no place, a hapless girl has to be either someone’s lady or the society will force her to be everyone’s bedfellow; if not literally than by sarcasm and every eyes will be raping her than comforting in hours of crisis.
Unlike many other novelists who get carried by their protagonists and characterization gets into either black or white, Rashmi Singh doesn’t fail to see that grey shades are there in the real world. Every sinner has a past and beasts too can have a soft side—a fact that Love’s Journey finds in some otherwise manipulative characters like the film director Shambhu Vasan. Jennifer finds a savior in a satan like him, and Rashmi Singh narrates a beautiful love story around this emotional connect called love; where there has been no burden of expectations and no sex. For a manipulative world, a love without sex may be a ridiculous notion; not for a sensitive writer who understands that true love stands above everything.
The character of Jennifer Sebastian seems to have taken up from the real life—both with its mystery and grey shade. Unlike many of the debutant writers who get carried by the protagonists, Rashmi Singh has not carried any such fancy ideas. This is what makes the character of Jennifer so real like. Like any other woman she is there often reading too much between the lines in the love showered over by Vasan. And it is her mean streak that in a fit of rage she tells Meeta Ma that her legendary director son was an impotent man. But then this character is so real; not a flowery make-believe who will not betray the trust of the man who made her what she was.
While reading Love’s Journey, it is often perplexing as to how narration of explicit love scenes have walked on the thin edge called eroticism. What is actually praiseworthy is the fact that she has consciously stayed away from getting into Shobha Dey zone, something that many newcomer writers overtly do for quick fame.
However, such writers often fail to portray a genuine female character like the Jennifer Sebastian. May be the feminine instinct in Rashmi Singh was always ahead of the writer’s instinct to do justice with the lead character. After all, only a woman with no undue baggage of advocacy can understand that howsoever successful a woman may be, she still needs an anchor, a male companion deep in her dreams. So did Jennifer, even though her journey was dictated by the destiny and went through poverty and cruelty.

BJP's catch 22 with Ramdev

2011-06-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2011

Ramdev’s theatrics have got the nation hysterical at a point of time when any moral high ground against corruption is sweeping the nation. The BJP has extended its support to the self-styled Bawa, initially tacit and then explicitly, and there is a general perception in the collective consciousness that Ramdev is playing into the hands of the BJP. However, the BJP that is going all out to support Ramdev and in turn hopes to revive their lost political ground is equally apprehensive of Ramdev’s theatrics.

A large section of the BJP leaders believe that Ramdev is not worth trusting and the way he took a U turn with the Congress, he is quite capable of doing the same with the BJP as well. Requesting anonymity some of the BJP leaders admit that since the party is a divided house with various line of thoughts—Advani line, Sushma line, Gadkari line, Jaitley line, but no party line; it is serving the purpose of Ramdev and the party in return is seen to be gaining in the short term. They believe the consequences in the long term can be very costly to the party’s fortunes.

The return of Hindu hard liners like Uma Bharti back to the party and with Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in sight, a section of the top BJP leaders are of the view that Ramdev can prove to be an ace up their sleeves. Though aware of Ramdev’s own ambitions, in the cost benefit analysis they feel it will take quite some time for Ramdev to float his own political party and by then the BJP can reap the benefits before dumping him.

However, not all in the BJP feel the same. The claim to train youngsters for yoga militia has not gone down well with the RSS. The Hindu hardliners believe that by getting into every district to raise cadre is the kind of road map that can make RSS insignificant and hence they are uncomfortable with Ramdev. After all, it would hit them hard if a parallel Hindutva cadre is raised by Ramdev. There is unanimous view among the hardliner Hindutva brigade that Ramdev is neither a natural ally nor his over ambitious streak will make him stick to the ideology of the BJP-RSS in the long term.

Some of the bitter critics of Ramdev in the BJP camp assert that any extended support to Ramdev will amount to creating a Frankenstein’s monster, whose support base suggests that he will eventually grow at the cost of the BJP only. That was precisely the reason why the backroom boys of the BJP preferred a soft dismissal of Ramdev’s yoga militia call by asking its Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussian to say that Bawa’s Ashtra-Shastra (weapons) are his vaani (sermon).

This happened on a day when the BJP leader Sushma Swaraj rushed to Hardwar to announce full support of the party and Sangh Parivar. After all, the BJP does not want to miss the opportunity to show solidarity with a yoga guru whose theatrics have carried the educated middle class in urban India. This has been traditionally the BJP vote bank. And hence the party can’t afford to miss it. But the voices of dissent in the party suggest that it can lead to a significant dent in its traditional vote bank as well.

However, there are very little choices left for the party which is trying hard to overcome the fact that they could draw little mileage despite of a series of scams and scandals coming out in the UPA government. Ramdev episode is seen as the last refuge by the party where internal bickering have led to significant loss of ground even among the fanatic supporters.

The BJP is equally conscious of the fact that the other pole of fight against corruption has maintained a distance with them. Anna Hazare & his team have not allowed the BJP to share dais on the issue and steal the show. They have instead gone to the extent of making it overtly clear that if Ramdev has to join them, he has to distance himself from the party sponsored protest. How can the principal opposition party not be a part of a protest that has been in the media spotlight, of late?

This inherent confusion and dilemma added to the fact that the central leadership of the party is a divided house, has led the BJP to officially support Ramdev. But the back room boys are working overtime to plan out a possible fall out. These may be early days for the final cost-benefit analysis, but the BJP is definitely in a dilemma over support to Ramdev. This catch 22 situation of the BJP is actually eroding its own vote bank, many of the party strategists believe.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma

2011-05-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

May 19, 2011

Poets have often described how a beauty looks into your eyes, utters a few words and your heart starts singing. But what poets often fail to narrate is the persona, the individuality of the lady and compensate it with flowery praise in her beauty. But then beauty is not just a female body, it is a personality…a complete packaging. And an element of mystery and enigmatic ways of this lady only adds spice to her aura. I could not have realised it so intense had I not met her.

Unlike the poetic parlance, this lady, a poetess herself, looked through my heart and soul, gave an assuring smile and my heart could not help saying, “Here comes a woman of substance”. Can the persona of a woman be so strong that even when she gets too rigid with her thoughts, you feel a special bond, something that can not be defined in words but felt from the core of the heart?

But then she is different, wears different caps at different times and it is often not that easy to identify which one is there before you—a thorough professional business woman, a creative artist, a loving friend, a hot headed rigid creature or a child like innocent girl. A chance meeting over social networking site Facebook led to personal interaction, initially more on a professional note than personal and later in the reverse order. This followed by spending time together as friends which led to an informal camaraderie, blossomed into a level of intimacy and started graduating into mutual trust for each other.

It often compels me to think whether a feminine charm can be that captivating. Masters and Johnsons in their masterpiece book on relationship, Sex and Human Loving suggest that a real woman is one who grows on you; the more you see her; the more you want to see and the more you meet her; the more you are captive of her charm and charisma.

However, what the relationship epic failed to narrate is that whether a woman can grow on you without even meeting frequently, without even knowing what all the other person has gone through in life. More importantly how the life has treated her and has changed her persona over the years? After all, no relationship expert has thus far met this dusky beauty to understand that there can be a true feeling beyond the boundaries of conventional relationships….where there are strong, deep and pure feelings, concerns and joys of companionship, and not the burden of relationship expectations.

Perhaps she is an anti-thesis of what is the prevalent norm in marketing, “packaging and not the product matters”. But then the yardsticks of a human existence can not be measured by the parameters of marketing. Her level-headed yet strong mind always reminds that beauty is deep within, and not cosmetic. Had it not been the case she would not have been an attraction for somebody who is repeatedly finding her a mystery wrapped in an enigma. What makes it all the more important is that there are no selfish expectations either.

She is no doubt different and this difference is not always for the right reasons either. A person who is so lost in herself that she often does not only take more than usual time to open up but suspects to the extent of reading too much between the lines. A confused girl who is probably not sure of what she expects out of this life. It may be convenient for the world to see through it as the true characteristic of this lonely woman for whom trust might have been the first casualty as and when she tried to get out of her self-cocooned world. But it is here that one needs the wisdom of Freudian psychology to understand this beauty in her true self and spirit. This is something which clearly suggests that she is no different from other girls in her age group, yet there is a difference.

It is not that at the age of 29 life has come a full circle for her and she is not longing for trust, loyalty and love. After all, which woman in this world would like to see her golden years gone waste? But the scars of some old wounds, insecurities, hurt and conservative upbringing are all forcing her to get back to her own shell. Perhaps her belief in the fairy tales often reassures her that there can be a reverse process in life as well. And it is from this innocent belief that she often seems to draw her strengths too when it is an off day. She may not admit it, may portray a different persona altogether, but the innocent girl in her is ever ready to revolt, provided that she gets the comfort level with someone.

Not that her dreams of a fairy tale life has not crashed. And it is in this contradiction that she often feels trapped and helpless. At times she just reminds me of the song, “sheeshey ki bani ek ladki patthar key shahar ko aayi, woh dhoondh rahi thi moti aur reit sey ja takrai” from the film Dastak. The issue here is not that whether she wants to; rather she needs to flirt, love and, more importantly, live life on the edge. The sooner she realizes this, the better it is for her. After all, poise, like consciousness comes from within. And my personal interaction with her has often found that she tries to come out of her shell, yet does not have the courage to defy the norms and boundaries imposed more by the self than the society.

Whenever she gets the courage, whenever in the inherent contradiction between the head and the heart, it is the heart that overpowers mind; she appears to be as cheerful and lovely lady as anybody else. In her subtle, shy and at times overt exchange of feelings, she reassures herself that she too is worth loving, worth adoring and worth being a true woman. Love her or hate her, you can’t ignore her.

It is true that woman is the most complex creature that God has ever produced, but she is more than a mere mystery wrapped in an enigma. And that is something which makes her worth in gold. After all, which man would not love his woman to see a bit mysterious. My only wish is that the eternal quest for the right man and right destination may not deprive her of the journey called life. Her dreams may have been crushed more than once, forced her to get into a shell and suspect all around; but then it is always a new beginning.

Oh women! Pity you are being befooled

2011-05-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

May 14, 2011

Frankly speaking, I would not have noticed anything beyond anti-incumbency politics in the emergence of Mamta Banerjee and Jayalalitha in the recent assembly elections. But then certain status message over social networking sites like Facebook suggesting this as a symbolic rise of woman power and token of feminism actually made me pity as to how men have carefully crafted theologies to keep women in good humour and continue to drive them the way it suits them the most.

“Mamta, Jaya, Maya, Shiela….oh women you have made it,” says an idiotic status message suggesting as if the women in general have really been empowered in India. And it is really a pity that the Indian women are really being befooled by this symbolic representation. This pseudo representation is the same as in the case of a dalit or backward leader’s emergence. Does it actually translate into a substantive change for the given masses? Had it been the case the dalit community of Uttar Pradesh under an overtly vocal leader like Mayawati would have made a fortune by now. But factually speaking, their plight under Mayawati is worse than what they had to suffer under caste conscious Brahmin and other upper caste leaders.

What actually compelled me to write this piece has been a bitter experience over social networking where a serious discussion over women empowerment was trivialized. It was not just a difference of opinion that was bone of contention. It was rather a carefully crafted design to trivialise the debate and thus put the real issue on the back burner. I can understand there are certain disgruntled elements who don’t like me for my overt criticism of the caste chauvinism that they carry. But the more dangerous breed are those polished & so-called sophisticated lot who project themselves in a holier-than-thou manner, but are breeding ground of chauvinism.

A person who is caste chauvinist about being feudal upper caste can’t be a true supporter of women empowerment. But then their real game plan is not to convince but to confuse women on the issue. And what better way to do it than give them a pseudo belief of symbolic representation, and in the process disturb any healthy discussion over what can be a substantive change in the fortunes of the fair sex.

I don’t need to prove my credentials over the subject to such shallow people. Of course, I feel really pity by the fact that even educated women in general fail to read what is hidden between the lines. I know my overt criticism and strong objection to symbolic representation of women might invite criticism from some section, but then I have always believed that if you can’t take a stand for what you believe in then it means you have no spines to support the cause either.

For me Maya, Shiela, Mamta, Jaya….or women like these have nothing to do with women empowerment. I define them only in the given context that they have done well for themselves. They don’t qualify to be role models. Their success is individual success. To qualify into being a role model the success has to be seen in the context of success achieved at what cost and for whose benefit. Unfortunately, the few and far between success stories on women empowerment that men so craftily proclaim and gullible women feel ecstatic about don’t have the intent to uplift women in general. These women are more male chauvinist in their approach than even a feudal man who is never comfortable with women standing on equal terms, forget being marching ahead.

Women who think they are educated and understand their rights are, unfortunately, as gullible as uneducated women. In fact, I have the case studies with me where uneducated women are more conscious of bringing substantive change in the lives of other women. I happened to meet a dalit scavenger lady, in due course of my research for a book, who has fought against the odds and is now running a small boutique-cum-beauty parlour. She wants her business to grow not only for her daughters but also for other young girls in one of the most backward districts of India, Alwar of Rajasthan. For me this uneducated woman is the real heroine of women empowerment.

Most of the successful educated women, whom gullible women look upto as role models, have no such claim to fame. Can any of these so-called educated and empowered women claim to have helped other women to come up in life? If you see the core team of any of these successful women, whether in politics, media or corporate world, the fact lies that they have never allowed a single woman to grow in their respective teams. Then how come they are symbols of women empowerment?

I feel if women in general are really concerned with their empowerment, they need to start it at their own level, right from the four walls of the house. They don’t need to look up for symbolic representation, and instead focus on the substantive role around them. For this they need to respect themselves and other women. After all, a woman is the first teacher in any man’s life. The day a mother starts treating her daughters equal to sons; half the problem will be solved. After all, male chauvinism has a deep rooted social conditioning in its genesis.

The idea of Track2Governance

2011-05-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2011

These are interesting times for any student of politics and governance in India. While the politics has always been the much talked about subject in this part of the world, governance as a subject of academic discussion is gradually taking the centre stage now. More importantly, governance had never been under so much of public scrutiny and hence there is a need to track the real governance, its agenda, issues and concerns. The collective consciousness is getting vocal on the issues of governance and it is time to shape the public psyche at large.

The Indian media, by and large, has often failed to differentiate between the politics and governance. No wonder, they are often seen to be a party on various issues. Moreover, the public perception and middle class outburst is more based on perception than ground reality. Hence the reactive tone & tenor of India could not be channelized for a positive change in the country.

This vacuum demands a governance think-tank platform, something that doesn’t mind going against the collective consciousness if it is not shaped by ground reality. This is where Track2Governance aims to position itself as a news platform with a clear focus on identifying the governance, its policies, plan and agenda. Our focus will be more on channelizing the public perception for constructive politics.

Advocacy and activism will be very much part of Track2Governance, and we may be rubbing the government the wrong way on occasion more than one. But then the team of Track2Media that has been behind conceptualizing the news project believes that the real journalism is not about asking the sweet questions, getting the sweet answers and filing the sweet copies. We are coming in the fray with a serious approach and intent to be whistle blowers as well.

We will also provide the much needed media support to the deserving movements on governance reforms. But at the same time we will neither be a party to any vested interests nor support any hypocritical media managed show in the name of fighting pro peoples’ causes. We would rather take a stand against attempt to promote extra constitutional mechanism. We are quite conscious of the fact that it will be very often interesting case studies, particularly in the wake of Track2Governance going against the tide.

After all, it is easier to sway the collective consciousness with a populist but irrelevant cause. What is challenging to stand up against the hidden agenda and tell the misguided masses that what they think as a legitimate cause is actually lending credence to the vested interests that have a large game plan in the process. Well, the emotionally charged people may not believe us in the short term, but then earning the credibility is always a long term road map and, of course, a challenge in hand.

It is not that efforts to launch news projects on governance have not been made earlier. As a matter of fact, there have been very many. A few of such governance news is doing good as well. However, we have made a proper study on competitive market and aim to position Track2Governance on a different level altogether. The existing news projects on governance are too bureaucracy centric in approach with overtly bureaucratic TG in mind.

Track2Governance doesn’t want to have bureaucracy as TG for the right reasons. We would be rather happy to note that we are at the wrong end of bureaucrats as our TG. Our real focus would be the impact of governance & policies on the common man. We don’t intent to be a mouthpiece or extended PR machinery of the government, its policies and programmes.

The common man’s issues and concerns with the government is what will matter the most to us. That is one of the reasons that we will regularly come out with the survey on various issues that concerns the performance of the government and the people’s expectations with the government and their local elected representatives.

For the first time in the history of independent India the TINA factor is so profound that despite of the series of scams and scandals, the collective consciousness is not ready to trust those who are trying to destabilize the government by means fair and foul. Isn’t time for a fresh approach on governance? Isn’t it time for Track2Governance?

Social netwroking is a blind date that needs precaution

2011-01-22T06:20:00.000-08:00

Jan 22, 2010

As if a Facebook status update or a Tweet with bad language, half baked perspective and ignorant rant was not enough. One of the recent relationship invites make me wonder whether social media is the new haven for all the disgruntled souls. I can conveniently ignore the overt advertisements inviting blind dates on various networking sites, but am clueless with some weird, strange quirks that let you into places you aren’t supposed to go. How can one fall in love with me just over couple of days of online friendship? It seems organized criminals are using one’s personal information shared on social networking sites in increasingly sophisticated ways to target victims.
Social media even without these gangs can never be a safe zone in a society where conflict resolution is more about compromising than collaborating. I often come across peculiar thought process that seem to shout at your face- “I don’t like your status updates/tweets anymore, not because your or mine literary tastes or social concerns have suddenly changed. My grouse is more with your snub to the common friend in the network who is more close to me.” All this makes me wonder whether we need a primary school of social networking to remind us that we are grown ups now. It is true that social networking is also about community building. But this close knit bonding for the right reasons often turn into wrong reasons when there is an element of subtle lobbying in the process.
In a free virtual world with no guidelines or regulations, we are getting used to see something online that makes us mad, find something offensive online repetitively nowadays. Bad language, cuss words, half-baked perspective, ignorant rant and much more that often gets to the nerves to react. Somehow I am learning to live with this reality that very much like the real life; problem with opinion online is that everyone has it. Perhaps even Lord Keene could not anticipate that in days to come everybody will be an expert on everything.
For a person like me with firm grounding in conventional means of communication, the conscious decision to switch to new online vehicles—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook was not based on its decency level any way. The experience of close friends over Orkoot was enough to suggest how a networking site can be a catalyst to behavior pattern shift in a virtual world. But then it was a need to take the clients’ presence to the new age tools. Something that Track2Media Consulting has done quite successfully over the last couple of years.
Over a period of time I started realizing the need of this necessary evil called social media, both at a personal and professional level. I have written extensively over the pros and cons of networking over the medium. I also keep telling the students of mass communication, with whom I interact as guest faculty in some institutes and universities that it is a necessary evil. Precaution is a must if you want to play safe.
Professionally as a brand communication expert and as an activist at personal level, my caustic, sarcastic and angry response is often not in sync with the opportunity cost of ignoring it. I often allow myself to get offended and outraged, and the activist in me just can’t resist giving it back to the offence. Though, of late, I have started questioning myself whether the person has been worth my reaction. Has my reaction only given him credibility? Still by and large I don’t care for the cost-benefit analysis of my reputation in a world where, as they say, those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter. Social media is big enough for all kinds of characters to stay and engage.
After all, social media is like a blind date. You can only wish that she turns out to be a hot chick. On your part you get your basics right and arrive in style in a blind date. Again you can only hope this date with hot chick doesn’t get goofed up. But if the prayers are not answered, who cares. And who would like to carry the blind date analogy to its logical, ridiculous extreme? If the conversation online is not right, or if the other person carries a placard suggesting he/she is the best, you just communicate for a while and walk your way, without any plans of engaging yourself.
I treat my online relationship in a similar way, and any interaction beyond this is always a slow and steady process. Handling a relationship is fragile and nurturing the respect takes its own time and judgment. It hardly matters if my friends’ list changes completely over a period of time, particularly in the event of failure to agree to disagree. As a matter of principle in my now almost two years of social & professional networking online, I have never asked someone for personal information. I have exchanged phone numbers only when regular online interaction has led to some common meeting grounds and the other person feels like connecting with me at a personal or professional level.
I have also never asked a virtual friend of the opposite sex to show me her real picture as to how she looks like. I have also never removed someone from the friends list just because her real face is not visible on the site. I have rather respected the individual choice of the person to be there online the way she wants to be. Her decision to keep anonymous might be guided by her desire to play safe in a world where photographs of even celebrities are morphed with nude pictures nowadays. Who am I to intrude into someone’s safety zones, just because she added me as a friend? For me these personal details matter if we become close enough to think of meeting outside the virtual zones. But such friendships are few and far between.
In general I am nowadays careful with who my friends are; they could turn out to be my worst enemies. There are some wonderful people whom I have met online and with whom I have interacted and built a relationship. However, there are also other people who misrepresent who they are and what their intentions are. In order to be safe, some of my female friends don’t put their real pix and personal details to be known to all. After all, they need to be constantly cognizant about who they trust and what they divulge online. It is important not to trust online connections before building a strong and solid foundation in the relationship.
Being safe in the world of social media is a choice that should not offend genuine people in the friend list at all. We have the example of Steve Boggan who discovered about the past life of his girlfriend of 12 years, Suzanne Halam, just by using the internet. It took just one hour for internet experts to find out almost every private detail of this woman's life. That includes her friends, education, embarrassing pictures, former boyfriends and long-forgotten relatives.
This happened because, in common with millions of people in Britain, Suzanne was using the social networking sites Facebook and Friends Reunited, and had signed up to the business networking site LinkedIn and Flickr, the photo-sharing website. Armed with this information, criminals could have also used her identity to commit fraud or resurrect minute details of her past, her movements and friendships to lure her into scams or even dangerous liaisons. It could have been used to con her into revealing her bank details and credit card numbers.
After all, even the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, a man not known for worrying about internet surfers’ privacy, suggested recently that young people might want to change their identities in the future in order to separate themselves from a past lived too openly on the internet.
The relationship invite that I received was thoroughly investigated by my e-sister (I found this kiddo online). She found objectionable stuff over there and hence asked me to block it. But I realized how these criminal gangs are carefully fishing for victims online. In the past, they would have sent out thousands and thousands of spam emails in a scattergun fashion — and many still do. These are called phishing scams where you are awarded millions of $ for having used the email. Some of them invite fake requests from banks asking people to confirm their account details, passwords and so on. The hope is that, once in a while, someone would be silly enough to reply.
Fortunately, I was not silly, will never be so. A love affair over couple of days of online friendship? Oh! Give me a break. Instinctively I am now addicted with social media and professionally it has benefitted me as well. Therefore, it is no longer a matter of choice to stay connected, but the need as well. However, being less than couple of years old on the social networking sites, I am fast learning the nuances of the medium. I hope the learning curve makes me careful in selection of friends/contacts in future, benefits Track2Media Consulting in its business and goads the mass communication students in the right direction with my shared experiences.

My profile in Prabhat Khabar

2011-01-12T04:11:00.000-08:00

Jan 12, 2011

Prabhat Khabar did my profile recently. Since my facebook post earlier was not readable, here's a readable version on public demand. Please click on the image above to enlarge and read.

Click on the image above to enlarge

Bihar resurgence more by design than default

2010-12-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

Dec 29, 2010

Critics dismissed the claim, Bihari Diaspora looked up with nostalgic pride and a large section of Bihar population kept wondering; but the conventional school of economics had just got a new case study. And the eminent economist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar was only stating the obvious. The state of Bihar, known for poor perception, projection and performance had managed to achieve a growth rate of 11 per cent at a time when the national GDP had nosedived to 6 per cent and many developed countries hovering around 2.5 per cent.
Everybody had their own reasons to react-the critics who were always apprehensive with the competitive edge of the talent pool were just comfortable with the denial theory. The Bihari Diaspora who has by and large seen the worst side of reverse racism in metro cities and has preferred silence in exchange of a decent living had suddenly found that their time had come. The large part of the Bihar, however, kept wondering that if Bihar has actually made history then where have the fruits of development gone?
The turnaround of the fortune of Bihar will be discussed and debated at various level- economic, social and political. However, the fact stands that this turnaround has been made possible without any economic package by the centre, without any big-ticket investment, and despite coping with the legacy of state being at the rock bottom of governance, all human development indicators and nature’s fury with flood. All this is a clear indicator of the resilience of the state.
No wonder, in a fragmented polity where anti-incumbency is the only indicator to judge the governance; the voters of Bihar gave the unquestioned mandate to its turnaround man in recently held Assembly elections. The real challenge for the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar starts now with the burden of expectations on governance and much more. The moot point now is that what is the road map ahead and whether Bihar can sustain its resurgence as the state with highest GDP.
The fact of the matter, however, is that much water has flown in the Ganges in the last five years and there is visible change in the perception and projection about the state. Already the economists have started discussing whether the new economic wave in India will be heralded through Green Revolution in Eastern India in general and Bihar in particular. After all, the migration rate of Bihar at this moment is the lowest in the last three decades and that is clear reflection of Bihar emerging as the food basket of the country.
Waiting for a young prosperous landlord at his place in Gurgaon of Haryana, I was pleasantly surprised to see him coming straight from his farm land in swanky car but hands all soiled. He was cutting a sorry figure for working himself in the harvesting since the third generation landlord was all clueless as to where have all the labours gone? After all, he had seen Bihari migrant labours since childhood, and never even dreamt of working himself in the field.
But it not just the migration check that makes me optimistic with the resurgence of Bihar. I recently met a well settled business man of Nepal, who was sulking as to how the improved law & order in Bihar has fled all the criminal elements into the Himalayan state. Unable to cope up with the emerging extortion demands over there, he is looking to shift base to Delhi. These are the case studies that suggest what is paving the way for investment in Bihar. What Bihar needs now is one big ticket investment and that will set the ball rolling. It will not just add to the employment opportunity in the state, but also be a trend setter for more investments, big and small.
Already there seems to be intent by the Bihari Diaspora to get back to its roots. When a well settled friend from Saudi called me up to inform that he has immediate plans to wrap up the flourishing business in the Gulf, I felt as if it is a routine story of the Indian Diaspora. After all, behind all the swanky living of the Indians across the world is a stark reality of accepting second class citizenship in exchange. But what surprised me is the fact that his future plans are to settle business in the home state of Bihar.
Already there are very many professionals who have, of late, opted for working at the grass roots in the state, instead of a cushioned job in the metro cities. There is no doubt a sea change in the perception, projection and performance of the state. Critics and pessimists among us may argue that Bihar’s resurgence and astonishing growth rate has been by default, but by all indicators its continuance and the roads ahead are going to be a case study for the academic and governance purposes. The Bihar’s reach to the pinnacle of glory will definitely be by design than default.

Broadcast Media is OUT, Narrowcast Media is IN

2010-12-22T02:45:00.000-08:00

Dec 22, 2010

With our core business & expertise in media consulting, at every year-end people keep asking as to which way the media is heading to in the year ahead. At the end of the year 2010, the very same curiosity has got even more relevance with the kind of media expose that the country has seen, both internally with Radia tapes and globally with WikiLeaks. Will it change the shape of things in media? And with TRACK2MEDIA Consulting launching its first news project in the form of e newspaper on real estate sector, Track2Realty, it is all the more necessary for us to release a fact-sheet on the media roadmap that we find shaping up in the year 2011.
Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the entry of more players will just add up to the number of jobs; or the increasing competition will have some impact on the pay packets as well. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media. But most importantly the new players who are eager to explore in the media business want to understand as to what makes a media project viable.
Well, TRACK2MEDIA Consulting as a communication management group has lost a couple of upcoming media projects in the year 2010 because we have been upfront in telling the clients that their approach to replicate the model, both in content & revenue, of existing biggies is fraught with dangers. Every wannabe in the media business, unfortunately, tries to replicate the existing news project, and in the process turns out to be the poor Xerox version of the existing players. When the global management consulting company McKinsey forecasted a few years back that India will soon see around 500 TV channels uplinked, it had probably no idea as to how the business of news & entertainment will see a horizontal growth than vertical one.
Some of the regional channels competing in a cluttered market are a testimony of the fact that it is not just niche market that is a key to success. Most of them have failed to evolve a serious game plan and hence unable to create a community around them. This failure has also brought a sea change compromise in the standards and ethics of journalism. Jobs are offered nowadays not just on the journalistic merit, but the ability to raise revenue from the region that is on offer. Still, most of the thinktanks of these media group are clueless as to where have the audience and revenue gone.
Nine out of 10 new media projects in the year 2010 have either failed flat or are struggling to make a break even. Indian media market has already seen dot com bubble burst, the TV channels closing down and even some big ticket print media projects failing to make a mark. Some of these projects have failed to get noticed despite of deep pockets of the promoters. On the contrary, there are other media projects, though few and far between, which are doing well despite of working in a low-cost model. This raises a question mark over the business model, brand differentiator and TG loyalty of the project.
All the successful media ventures may be devising their old success stories, but there seem to be a common pattern of almost all the failed ventures. That is their attempt to replicate the model of the existing successful ventures. After closely examining the evolving media market in the country, we always advise the clients to write their success stories, instead of replicating anybody. This goes true for our own venture Track2Realty as well, which has been conceptualized as a market differentiator in the real estate segment.
It is not that there is any dearth of media ventures in a lucrative sector like the real estate. But where Track2Realty stands out as a market differentiator is the fact that we are neither competing with the marketing supplements of the mainline newspapers, nor are we providing a B2B platform to the industry. For us real estate is newsworthy subject that has been a virgin territory. And we are here to track the real concerns of all the stake holders-realty companies, investors, consultants and the end-users.
The question that many people ask is that whether niche segment is the new potential zone to emerge. With a certain amount of conviction I keep telling the media wannabes that the days of broadcast format is over. Unless one has a few hundred crores with a long time span to get into competitive zone with the large media houses, there is no point to even think of a venture with broadcast format. Providing every bit of news for everybody is something that has been monopolized by the large media institutions. As a consultant I keep telling everybody that even if you have deep pockets, it is always better to channelize that resource on a road that has been less travelled by.
It is our firm belief that while the broadcast format may not work for the new players, narrowcast format brings in more synergy, room for creativity & experiment and connects instantly with the focused target group. The next wave in media is slated to be with the narrowcast format, where one may not be offering everything to everybody, but an exclusive offer for a niche audience connects much better with the desired target group. One may not target million of audience who will surf your news platform once in a while, but an exclusive offer to even thousands of audience will do if your offer is worth visiting twice or thrice a day.
News and for that matter any form of media is also about creating a community around your media vehicle. Perhaps Facebook is the best example, and also an answer as to why people in general spend more time on Facebook than a professional networking platform like the LinkedIn. Both Facebook and LinkedIn are available on the Internet, accessible to everybody worldwide. But while LinkedIn is conceptualized on a broadcast format where you can network globally with anybody on a professional level, you may not end up working together on a given project even if you need services in that given geographical location. This is because this professional networking platform may not bring in like minded professionals on the table.
On the contrary, with Facebook one may not be bothered about millions of users, but in a narrowcast mode one is closely networked, most often with same likes and preferences, with the friends’ list. The medium offers even more focused narrowcasting within the narrowcast in the form of creating a group. Our study on the business model, audience psychograph and emerging pattern clearly suggests that the future belong to such narrowcast format in media.
Among the three popular modes of media-Print, TV and Internet, the power of the word of mouse is tremendous; but has not been tapped fully because there is a credibility factor that is missing on the net in the absence of any regulation. It is a free for all medium. Columbia law professor in his recent book “The Master Switch” argues that Internet is as powerful as any other communications medium. He expects to see consolidation and government control over the web. That may be a blessing in disguise as most other media-Print, TV, Radio & Movies, have gone through phases of wild growth and experimentation, eventually settling into a pattern of consolidation, control and credibility.
If Print Media today is seen as the most creditable piece of journalism, it is largely due to the edit control mechanism of the medium. In contrast, Television may attract more eyeballs but edit control is relatively less in a Soundbyte driven medium. Internet media entrepreneurs need to adapt to this reality and reinvent their project into a digiprint format. It is not just the US President Barack Obama who contested the elections on the social networking sites, but across the world even the most conservative governments have started realizing the power of the medium.
China has launched a new search engine of its own to make foray into its 420 million strong net users’ market. Known as Goso.cn, China’s search engine has been aimed at countering the negative reports of the country on rival Google. It has been launched by the country’s largest newspaper the People’s Daily of the ruling Communist party of China. This shows how several countries view development of the internet as part of their national strategy.
Internet is a medium which enables one with a daily budget of even Rs. 10 to practice journalism and other forms of media activity. Internet has cultivated a public vested in its freedom. But then activism and radical openness of the web has to eventually set an organized pattern for the medium. With a bit of regulation, more serious players opting for the medium and the medium itself not just penetrating deep into the demography but also in the psychograph….the future is definitely calling to the digital media.

The idea of track2realty

2010-12-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

Dec 4, 2010

Isn’t it ironical that a sector worth $140 billion that has weathered the market crash twice in the last around a decade and still emerged as the fastest growing contributor to the GDP has not been granted even industry status in India? Even at the rock bottom in terms of the market sentiments today, the Indian real estate is poised to grow at a remarkable pace in view of the larger number of private investments and IPOs in the pipeline.
After all, the market capitalization of the real estate sector in India is just about 4.2 per cent of the total market capitalization, which is below the global norm of approximately 15 per cent, thus reflecting the scope available for growth of the sector. Sadly, the image makeover and fair trade practices within the sector have been ignored by all the parties’ concerned-government, realtors and media. The media focus seems to be as disorganized and haphazard as the real estate sector.
When a team of journalists with thorough knowledge & background of real estate sector got together to come out with a professional e newspaper, we first asked ourselves-why track2realty? We strongly believe that we can provide an alternative and viable media vehicle to the sector only when we are self-analytical and self-critical. Most of the real estate supplements of the mainline newspapers and realty magazines are actually marketing brochures of the sector and there has been absolutely no attempt to track the real issues and concerns of the sector.
It is here that track2realty is determined to make a difference. We may not act as a consumer rights’ activist group, but this e newspaper will not be an extension of marketing brochure either. We are a professionally managed media outlet for tracking the real concerns of the industry, investors and the end users. We will also come out with the research paper on the sector, and our periodical survey will reflect the true concerns of the sector.
Since real estate and infrastructure has emerged as the second largest economic activity in the country after agriculture, it has also given rise to a new economy including the media economy. The ad spend of the sector has gone up phenomenally in the last decade, surpassing even the FMCG sector in terms of growth rate. No wonder, most of the existing media foray on real estate sector are just a B2B platform with hardly any concerns for either the consumer empowerment or the industry regulation. We have well identified this demand-supply mismatch and our e newspaper will try to fill in this gap.
While we are providing news, views, reports and advisory to the readers, we are also providing a networking platform for the realty professionals. Our research reports will be aimed at providing industry reference, and survey will reflect the true state of the Indian real estate sector. At times, such hard-hitting research reports and reflective survey may not cheer up the industry, but then our focus would always be on what the industry needs and not what the industry wants.
And last, but not the least, our grievance section will be an open forum for everybody including the end users. In our sincere attempt to track the sector and raise voice for a better & organized market, we may at times rub a section or two the wrong way in the short term perspective. But we are very much committed to emerge as the genuine & reliable voice of the real estate sector in the long term perspective.

Corruption and political hypocrisy

2010-11-18T01:15:00.000-08:00

Nov 18, 2010

On the 1st day of Winter Session of Parliament JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav got agitated during a discussion on the corruption charges on Telecom Minister A Raja, CWG boss Suresh Kalmadi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chahvan. In the heat of the moment the former Union Minister got so much carried that he made a politically not-so-correct yet candid statement that once being a part of the Union Government he is aware that in India investigating agencies are so much under the clutches of the ruling party that any investigation has absolutely no meaning and corruption & political nepotism remains a way of life.
Though the allegation of Sharad Yadav was meant to target the Congress Party, it actually proved to be a revealing statement on how the respective governments in India have misused the central investigating agencies, and hypocrisy is the only buzz word on the issue. The question here is that whether corruption actually is an issue in India beyond middle class hysteria. Well, your guess could be as good as mine. Had corruption been an issue then the ruling Congress party that has been responsible for institutionalizing it had not been ruling the country uninterrupted for almost three decades since independence.
The fact of the matter is that corruption has never been an issue in India and the governments who have performed even decent on the given parameter of governance (development, social justice or just plain PR) have repeatedly been re-elected even after being declared corrupt by the investigating agencies and the court of law. The political parties that are stalling the parliament year after year seem to have learnt the art of engineering the middle class hysteria over corruption, while they are all hand-in-glove, and collectively determined to laugh their way to banks while plundering the public wealth.
What Sharad Yadav said in the House is only the tip of the iceberg. The malaise runs much deeper in the system. Have not we all seen the then CBI chief Joginder Singh saying in Patna that prima facie there is no case to charge sheet Laloo Yadav in fodder scam and then stating otherwise in Delhi in a matter of few hours? After all, he was only following his boss’ (Prime Minister) order against the wannabe Prime Minster. Did corruption charge desert the massive vote bank of Laloo? There are a number of examples where the corruption and other criminal charges have worked the other way and instead mobilized the gullible voters even further.
With the change of time, corruption has only snowballed into a kind of media trial, with the political parties more interested in engaging the public and engineering vote bank than reaching to a logical conclusion. If that not be the case why are opposition parties today demanding JPC with more members of ruling alliance than a PAC with more opposition members? The fact of the matter is that all they are interested in is a drift of DMK from the ruling alliance and not taking the corruption to its logical end. The ruling UPA alliance is playing equally smart to let the bedlam happen and in due course pass the tide. Public memory, after all, is very short.
Had public memory not been that short, the principal opposition party, BJP would not have gathered morale to raise such a hue and cry over corruption. After all, the track record of their own NDA government has been equally pathetic, filthy and stormy over the issue. The telecom scam is not just confined to the grant of 2G Spectrum; it actually started within the NDA Government. When one of the upright ministers, Jagmohan stood out as whistle blower, he was ungracefully shifted from the ministry and sidelined. Who doesn’t know how Reliance was given license for local loop phone initially and then all the norms subverted to favour the corporate house.
When the corruption scandal had surfaced in the Defence Ministry of the NDA government, did the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee showed the kind of leadership that the Manmohan Singh has now shown? The BJP had then gone “On Record” saying that it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to retain and drop a minister, and he is not bound by the wish of the opposition party. It had led to a new precedent in the history of Indian Parliament when throughout the tenure of the NDA government, the opposition kept the Defence Minister George Fernandes boycotted, and never asked any questions. Of course, the common gullible middle class kept wondering that whether our leaders have stood so low that even the coffins of war martyrs at kargil were not spared.
It is due to the all pervasive political hypocrisy that a political party raises a toast over Adarsh Society Housing Scam in Maharashtra, despite the fact that their own Party President is one of the beneficiaries. How conveniently they forget that one of the Chief Ministers of their own party had shamelessly defended corruption with a couplet, “paisa koi khuda toh nahin lekin khuda ki kasam khuda se kam bhi nahin” (Money may not be god but god swear is no less than god). May be the poor guy was just following the principles set by his Party President who was caught on camera accepting bribe, not leaving even loose currency of Rs. 10.
The country was not so shocked beyond middle class hysteria yet again. The rest had digested the first time whiff of power that brought the greed out of the holier-than-thou political party. They are any way not alone in becoming a poor Xerox copy of the Congress in terms of corruption. The respective Third Front Governments, often a by-product of disenchantment with the two leading political parties, too have been found lusting for the same booty through means fair and foul. Hence when a leading industrialist blew the whistle of being asked 15 crores for airlines license, nobody was surprised or shocked.
The moot point here is that when every political party has been equally shameless then whom to be blamed. The first blame goes to people like us for being hysterical with selective amnesia. So long we are a party to the political vote engineering in the name of whistle blowing on corruption, the soap opera called “war on corruption” will continue. As concerned citizens of the country our agenda should be to boycott the corrupt, and at the same time deplore those who have double-speak on the subject with a holier-than-thou war cry.

An open Letter to Bihar Chief Minister

2010-11-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

Nov 6, 2010

Dear Mr Nitish Kumar
As you are poised to take over the realm of the second largest state in the country, Bihar the 2nd consecutive time, I feel like interacting with you directly over certain issues that I feel deserves due attention. You or even many of my friends may dismiss this letter as a publicity gimmick and question my locus standi to such an interaction. After all, why should a lone person without any political mass base and a non-Resident Bihari who does not even cast his vote in the state evoke your interest? Still I felt like writing an open letter to a man who is my Hero but yet there are shades of grey in his governance that is a matter of concern as well.
Mr Kumar, you may be more concerned with admirers and critics who matter the most as far as the political calculation of the state is concerned. But then all these admirers and critics also have some vested interest that has goaded them to their respective line of ideology. I have none. Still I am one of your ardent fans. As a non-Resident Bihari I have been quite vocal on the issue of Bihari Diaspora and their legitimate rights. And this is precisely the reason that you are my Hero as far as Bihar getting its pride back is concerned. Had it not been you turnaround performance as the Chief Minister of Bihar, the state would not have got its due place back. You have suddenly transformed Bihar into new power centre in this part of the world.
The average non-Resident citizen of Bihar is no longer living with subdued silence in exchange of a decent living across the country. The unprecedented development of the state in the last five years has equipped us with the kind of statistics that the outside world often wonders. Of course, it is also backed by the fact that many of those who left the state in the last couple of decades have made a mark with their impeccable merit, unquestionable hard work and live in a new aspiration driven economy. Still a large share of the credit for the new-found confidence goes to you. After all, it is not just about boasting our individual success, but the issue has been perception and projection of the state at large.
Though you have absolutely no background in media, you have successfully cultivated the art of media management and the positive perception and projection of the state is a Case Study in itself. It is due to this dramatic turnaround that a section of regional parties mooting the possibility of another Third Front Government at the Centre think of you as the future Prime Minister. If that happens and when that happens, we all will hold our head high with pride. And it is precisely such a big picture in vision that I am compelled to write this open letter to you.
As we at the TRACK2MEDIA Consulting conducted election forecast survey in Bihar, I was wondering as to how opinion on your government’s performance has been diametrically opposite in different pockets. I can understand that normally in any given election there is a sharp contrast between the macro level indicators and micro level sentiments. But in Bihar there has been something more than what average pollsters would have noticed. For the last few days the political commentator in me was trying to figure out whether development always translates into votes. My understanding of Indian polity and electoral politics says that the governments who have performed even decently have got reelected in a democracy like India where political overtones on every nook and corner are most often silenced by the voters at large who are generous with least expectation level.
However, there are very many visible examples where development has not translated into votes. The question is if development doesn’t translate into votes, what else can be done? Well, it is just a matter of looking at development with a holistic vision-development for whom and at what cost? when development is confined into select pocket, when there is absence of inclusive growth and when the fruits of development are not shared equally in the society; it leads to not only the process of political marginalization and resultant mobilization, but also leads to long term social unrest. I wonder whether already divided Bihar (on caste and other socio-political parameters) can afford such unrest.
I understand that by and large you have served your constituency (caste, class, geographical and political) reasonably well. The failure has been more on the part of your alliance partner who remained so clueless with sudden found power in Bihar that they started repeating the same mistakes that Congress did during its alliance with the RJD Government. The BJP failed to either create a separate constituency or serve the section that has been its traditional strength in the state. But then the BJP today appears to be more Congressised than the Congress itself. They are well known to follow the Congress in their quest to understand the intricacies of governance, and their corruption and lust for power at every level is a testimony to it.
As far as you are concerned, I, and many like me, expect you to be a statesman. A proven performer who can do wonders for the state. And it is in this perspective that I feel your second term as Bihar Chief Minister will be even more challenging. This can well be your make or break innings in the state. I am not saying this because there will be sky high expectations to deliver; rather I am more concerned with the fact that my Hero should set a new benchmark for the overall inclusive growth of the state. Destiny, after all, doesn’t favour those who take corrective measures only when confronted with the crisis. Even Laloo Yadav did his best when dethroned from Bihar to turnaround the Indian Railways. It proved to be too little & too late. I just wish that the visionary Nitish Kumar will not repeat the same mistakes.
Yours….
A Concerned Non-Resident Bihari

Brand Bihar shines against odds

2010-10-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

October 27, 2010

When a prominent journalist made a faux pas on Bihar being a liability on tax payers’ money and Brand Bihar ignoring it, he was made to eat his own words by the strong reaction of the well placed Bihari community across the country. Prima Facie what seemed to be the new age technology and networking sites like Facebook giving a voice to the pride of the otherwise detached class of Bihar, had something more than that. A very close follower of the diaspora of Bihar and their sensibilities, it was heartening to see the emergence of “Brand Bihar” in true letter and spirit.

Had the resurgence of Bihar as a truly power centre of India been only for the academic purposes, the diaspora of the state would not have erupted with such a strong reaction. But the voice of the Non Residents Biharis (NRB), who may not have any plans of resettling in home state, was as curt as the residents of Bihar. This is a clear indicator of the fact that the resurgence of Bihar has come of age.

The economics of “Brand Bihar” is not the only indicator of the hidden potential of the state. Of course, the GDP rate of 11% at a time when the world economy was reeling under recession and even the national economy slumped to around 6% will always remain a matter of pride for a community that has been at the receiving end of reverse racism in its own country for nearly three decades.

However, what gives me a sense of satisfaction is that the economics of “Brand Bihar” has been equally supported by the sociology of emotional pride for the state. A History Graduate in me clearly understands that the civilizations turn into Great & Role Model for future only when the economics and sociology of the land and its people are inter-linked. I have time and again raised my voice at various forum that what is missing link in harnessing the true potential of the state of Bihar is the sociology, and not economics.

The unfortunate reality thus far has been this lack of emotional chord. There are two reasons responsible for relegating the Bihari identity into dustbin. I may be rubbing some of my own brethren the wrong way here, but it is high time that we look into the deep rooted malaise, if Brand Bihar has to be positioned like never before. Let’s face the facts bluntly. The curse of caste has been the bane of Bihar, as deep rooted in polity as in society. But the rising economy & high aspiration level is certainly reducing the caste divide. A strong focus on “Bihar Pride” will further cement the gaps.

Our own acceptance of fate as second class citizens in exchange of a decent living is something that the migrant Biharis had to live with. The poor projection of the state at various human development indicators led the collective consciousness to shape up against the residents of Bihar. An average working class somehow started learning to live with this crude reality of being under the social scrutiny for no fault of theirs. The strengths of the state of Bihar was not even allowed to be discussed in public for quite some time.

The wheels of fortune turned in the last few years when the state started showing signs of development and improved ranking of state on human development indicators. A catalyst to this undercurrent has been the fact that the thinly spread vocal working class with relatively better consciousness of their rights and pride started networking. Even though such networking has mostly been on the sites like Facebook, it subconsciously gives every other Bihari that he is not alone and can’t be cornered.

The moot point here is whether this emergence of Brand Bihar has been accepted beyond Bihar. It is here that I find graceful acceptance of this social reality few and far between. I can say with my own experience in Delhi that the people, who accepted us as one among equals, only accepted the elite class in us while their subconscious mind always gave them pseudo assurance of being more than equal and added superiority complex.

While reservations against the state have always been borne out of perception, the rise of Brand Bihar has not diminished it. It has actually further intensified among a larger section who see the state as a threat to their own existence. The detaste against Brand Bihar may not be vocal like a few years back, since calling somebody a Bihari with negative connotations is fraught with danger now even in public transport of metro cities. But the silent resentment is even more dangerous because you never know who is actually a frienemy.

It is not unusual to find people in metro cribbing that their children can’t compete in premium services like the IAS and IIT, since most of the seats are occupied by the students of Bihar. While the grudge to not competing in this meritocracy has always been there, the rise of Brand Bihar has inculcated a new fear psychosis in them. It may be silent, it may be hidden…but then Vinod Dua is not the only person who thinks Bihar is a threat, can’t be competed against and hence the only option is to demoralize the state with a negative perception created around it.

I wish they could see the new power house called Brand Bihar, and get benefited by acknowledging it. Come on guys….since you can not beat us, join us. Brand Bihar invites all Indians with arms wide open. We have been doing so since ages and our academic excellence in Nalanda has been a testimony to this.

Hey Ram...Save Rama from his fanatics

2010-10-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2010

Immediately after the Ayodhya verdict over Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid, a young man’s chat completely turned me off. “Sir Hindu Jeet Gaye” (Hindus have won)…This was not just a statement, rather reflected the thought process of a generation whom we expect to be progressive. I was all the more ashamed by the tenacity of this idiotic statement since it was coming from an educated person who is also a qualified lawyer. Legality of the judgment and ethics & plurality of the nation apart, the statement reflected an undercurrent of the psyche which still believes India should not move ahead of the medieval act that happened on the fateful day of Dec 6, 1992.
While the country eagerly awaited the verdict on Ayodhya, it was heartening to see the vocal class of India pleading peace and harmony over religious bigotry. If various social networking sites were any indication, the mood of the nation seemed to be in favour of moving ahead of the controversy over temple & mosque that has seen the turnaround of India’s polity in the last two decades. However, the big question remained: Will it be the same goodwill after the verdict? After all, a win-win solution for all the parties (consciously calling them parties and not religion) seemed to be only a wishful thinking.
However, while the questionable verdict was accepted by and large by the nation with an appeal for moving ahead, stray and loose comments in-between has got alarming proportions. It is true that 2010 is not 1992, an entire generation has been exposed to a different and progressive society; there is no devilish P V Narsimha Rao, conspirator L K Advani or idiotic Kalyan Singh at the helm. But then what is more dangerous to the humanity in general and plural character of the nation in particular is the thought & ideology than the individuals.
Coming to the ethics of the dispute and legality of the judgment, I wonder had it been the other way round then whether the fanatic Hindus (who are still vocal with war cry) would have agreed for moving ahead? Moreover, if it is Hindu victory (as believed by a few educated idiots) then why the hell is Hindu Mahasabha challenging it in the apex court? I am myself a devout believer of Lord Rama and believe that he is very much part of the nature, hence exists everywhere. After all, Sanatan Dharma and Vedic Living advocate the worship of even trees of Peepal, Banana and others. The fact of the matter is that Lord Rama’s existence and reputation is today more in danger from his own followers than the followers of other sects fighting over the Babri Masjid rights.
I am equally perplexed by the judgment which, according to me, raises more questions than answers the given dispute. Of course, the three bench judgment itself is divided and a clear answer was only a wishful thinking. However, one wonders whether the illegal demolition of the Babri Masjid has been legalized by the judgment. What would have happened had the mosque not been demolished as yet? Had it then been a legal sanction to the demolition of a religious shrine? What about the constitutional assurance to the minorities that all the religious structures should stand the way they stood at the time of independence?
But I suppose the jurisdiction of the court was confined to the title rights over the land. Under the given circumstances, with Archaeological Survey of India findings also inconclusive, the honorable judges confined their decision over the title rights of the land only. However, the socio-political nature of the dispute demanded that the state should have intervened over the issue to not only address the issue but also set a precedent.
Had there been a timely state intervention, it would have saved Lord Rama being victimized, traumatized and de-glorified. May be a national monument on the disputed site would have done no harm to the reputation and international image of India. It would have also acted as a deterrent to the lumpen fanatics who think Ram Janmabhoomi judgment is the run-up to Krishna Janmabhoomi. Most importantly, India would have really moved ahead in the true sense of the term.

Mythical perception of communication

2010-09-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

September 15, 2010

Communication strategy can be a funny business and the mythical perception about what constitutes an effective communication makes the job even more ridiculous for the serious practitioners of the business. More often than not the conventional wisdom that communication must aim at creating mutually beneficial relation between the organization and its stake holders goes for a toss, when the client reminds you that there are other agencies waiting to grab the account on the clients’ dotted terms. It may not shock me anymore, but definitely disappoints bitterly with the dogmatic ideas that collective consciousness of the business community carries as far as communication is concerned.
There seems to be a definite lack of understanding of how business relevant and business beneficial communication strategy can be. My failed brain storming with the management of a soon-to-be-launched consumer product reminds me yet again that India Inc communicates more to impress than to express. This lack of foresight results into a complete emotional disconnect with the audience for whom the product has been conceptualized. I fail to understand the point why a metro kid with all the polished Ps and Qs should be the face of a brand which has the least possibility to be consumed by that given segment.
I can understand a “method” into it if the product is aspirational in nature. But with a consumer product that would be mostly consumed by the tier II and tier III kids in their given comfortable budget, such an endorsement hardly reflects any serious thought process or strategy. As Ad man Suhel Seth recently said during FICCI’s “Brand Talk” that marketers who resort to Celebrity Endorsement of their products are the laziest people in the business.
With my academic perspective and market exposure of over a decade now, I often end up arguing, even at the cost of losing business, as to why all the communication (Advertising & PR) should be in the national English dailies. To an extent this is necessary from branding perspective, but the question is how much market share can be earned by shouting in a market where decibel levels are already too high. Based on my experience with TRACK2MEDIA Consulting where we always suggest for a market survey/research before any new communication campaign, I personally feel the Indian businesses still have to go a long way before they bank on expertise at every level.
In the absence of a scientifically evolved methodology, most of the board room decisions are based on perception than ground reality. A friend heading the corporate communication of a pharma major recently shared how they exhaust 80 per cent of the budget in the mainstream media and only 10-15 per cent in the vernacular media. Keeping in mind the fact that major product of the company is prescriptive medicine; this clearly defies any logic in a country where 50 per cent of the doctors are from Bihar.
But the think tank of the said pharma company is not the only one that seats in the ivory towers from where Ground Zero is more often than not invisible. No wonder, many of such management are pretty happy with their advertising in page 1 of national dailies, often with a jacket cover; while the PR campaign fails to take off. I would blame equally to the PR agencies for cutting a sorry figure before the clients. The day they stop overpromising on coverage in the national dailies, they would earn some respect for themselves and the profession as well, even if it means loss of business at times.
There seems to be an obsession of the clients to get published in the national English dailies, even if they don’t have a news value and their product does not address the readers at all. Many of them are not even open to the idea of any out-of-the-box strategy, which can earn them more reputation in terms of brand building, connect directly to the target audience and ensures more market share. But the medium is ever evolving, and it is the job of a brand strategist to make them understand that old school of communication is changing the world over.
If advertising used to be the king of communication till around a decade back, with a lion’s share of 80 per cent of the marketing budget, the rise of the branding tools and methodologies suggest it should not be more than 40-45 per cent now. Public Relations, Corporate Sponsorships, Corporate Social Responsibility, Online Reputation Management, two-way seamless communication to connect with stake holders……the medium is ever evolving. But the moot point is--before we put our foot down and say NO to the clients who believe in self medication, are we as communication consultants convinced that we are strategists and not vendors to the clients? Well, my guess is as good as many others who are in the business of communication consultancy.

Class as Caste turns sociology upside down

2010-08-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

Aug 15, 2010

A request by one of the followers of my blog, a young journalist, has evoked the sociologist in me to rethink the way we interpret caste and class. Even though my journalistic and migrant background has always goaded me to activism on issues ranging from caste, class, diaspora and regionalism, my understanding of Indian society and culture made me believe that caste is more often than not class in this part of the world. And hence the rebellious writer in me has always been up against challenging the class conscious society which has by and large stood shamelessly by its commitment to status quo.
The query that whether class has turned out to be caste now in the modern India actually led me to introspect as to whether the class & caste conundrum needs a fresh perspective. Has the conventional wisdom of sociology that caste is class not been relevant in today’s market driven elitist society? Certainly if the young generation like Abhishek Kumar of Political & Business Daily feels offended when asked as to how much he earns as his first class identity, I feel it is time for a serious discussion on the subject. A young man’s offence to his class in question also gives a ray of hope that the market driven society has not completely captured the class the way they would like to.
After all, the class conscious society in Delhi would have easily cornered a young migrant from non-descript city like Raxaul in Bihar. But my objection to the class as caste runs much deeper. Of course, I come across almost on a routine basis with such class conscious elitists for whom one’s address and swanky cars are the only introduction to the individual’s class. The more shameless breed doesn’t even mind getting into the economics of whether the flat that you live in is a rented accommodation or you own it. The car you drive is on loan or purchased with down payments….the list can be filthy disgusting.
However, the above examples are just tip of the iceberg and this shift from traditional school of sociology is merely the symptom, not the disease. If free market economy believes in currency as the new class, the social divide on grounds of rural-urban, native-migrant, English-vernacular and many such chauvinistic parameters make the notion of class even more profound. It seems the larger section of the society that has been at the receiving end of class ostracism will continue to suffer. It is just the fact of academic interest that while earlier their respective caste had been relegating them to that class, now the class (socio-economic) is relegating them to caste, or better to call them outcastes.
There are certain other parallels to be drawn out of this class and caste conundrum. While the social barrier still remains the same, the prerequisites to switch to the other side of the fence have not changed either. Of course, it has to meet the acid taste of not rubbing the sensibilities of the so-called upper class. Earlier it was the elevation of the lower caste in economic stream (read elite government jobs) that was qualifying them to rub shoulders with the upper castes, now it is the same professional ladder that provides them acceptability and turns their caste as per the elitists.
We as migrant professionals in Delhi and other metro cities witness this class turning out to be our caste day in and day out. The very same class which pretends as upper caste and disapproves our presence in the city wants to rub shoulders with us once we rise up the professional ladder. This may not be an acceptance of our migrant identity or our regional identity, but the acceptance is for our elite class, that suddenly turns out to be our new caste.
I know the truth is a bit bitter but there are a number of friends in Delhi who are neither comfortable with a migrant in me who has proven intellectual and professional sharpness over them, nor have they accepted a resident of Bihar. But then a communication professional in me is welcome to the very same people whose profile of CEO, TRACK2MEDIA Consulting defines his elite class to them, which in their perception is also his new caste. Call it fair or foul, but class has become the new caste today and it is definitely turning the conventional sociology upside down.

Grooming and nurturing at Tagore International school

2010-08-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

August 01, 2010

After spending more than a decade into audio-visual medium of communication it is hard to impress me with the kind of patchy work that is being taught in various media institutes nowadays. It seems mass communication schools that have mushroomed across the country are only mass production factory of low quality jack-of-all-trade stuff. And thanks to the television revolution in this part of the world, where the journey from one Doordarshan to 400 odd TV channels has not taken more than a decade, creativity and out-of-the-box thinking has been relegated to the dustbin.
Over the last few years of my professional life in various capacity, the first thing that I have always told to these young mass media pass outs is to unlearn on the job what all has been taught to them in their respective institutes. And hence when a friend of mine asked me to be one of the judges on the panel to evaluate the work of school children, I had a mixed feeling. Even though I have a natural love for children, I was not sure as to what sort of animation and television production the young kids could have done. Worst even, I had this apprehension that it will be more of schools competing against each other in the name of their students’ work.
However, the obligation to the friend drove me to the Tagore International School in the early morning of a working day on Thursday, July 29th. The cultured grooming and discipline of the children here is something that reflects in the overall ambience of the school. In an age when many of the schools, especially in the NCR region are in the news for all the wrong reasons, this school stands out in terms of class and quality of its students. The general feeling that I have carried home is that the children here are not taught but nurtured.
It was an inter-school competition with students of around 20 schools from India and abroad being invited to showcase their talent in the respective categories. Though the first impression in the school had already made me all the more curious to see whether their works also has the substance to stand out, I kept my expectation level way below with these kids. But the screening of the inaugural film that was supposed to be “of the children, by the children, for the children” was an eye opener. At least I have not seen any amateur group coming out with such creative work with perfect finesse in the last few years.
This is no mean achievement by a bunch of school going children who have no formal education in film making at any professional level. I wish the young professionals who come out of various media institutes and are desperate to make a career in the profession, show the same kind of creativity, passion and zeal. But then the differentiator here will always be the quest to make a career by every possible short cut routes and innocent passion by the kids.
The Ordinatrix Event has been one of the most fascinating experiences in recent times. The feeling is not just because the event was very neatly organized, but in a much larger context it also reflects the fact that the mass media revolution in this part of the world has not completely gone haywire. At least the animation and television production of school going children suggest the same. Some of the concepts, ideas and interwoven social responsibility in it were indeed an eye opening for me.
Even though these children completely stand out with their class act, their feet has been firmly rooted and they don’t seem to mature and overgrow their age and experience. No wonder, the journalist and sociologist in me was equally eager to figure out whether the overt courtesy and politeness was an inherent part of their grooming or it was all plastic emotions meant for the day.
The post event interaction with the core students’ team that organized the event along with the Principal Tagore International, Madhulika Sen, dispelled even this doubt. The innocent children admitted that many of them may have to leave the creative hobby as parents want them to become successful with Engineering and likewise socially accepted degrees. Probably they don’t value even the fact that along with their routine academic curriculum they have taken the best advantage of the computer lab set up by the school and honed their creative skills. Given more opportunity they can work wonders.
I just wish these children are allowed to do whatever they enjoy doing in their lives. I wish somebody would suggest the parents of these children to watch the movie 3 IDIOTS and take a leaf out of the experience. I wish Principal Madhulika Sen replicates the same role with these children as Aamir Khan did with his other two idiot friends. My wish list is a bit too long, may be, but my expectation level has been exceeded by the experience with Tagore International school.

Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you

2010-07-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

July 23, 2010

It is not easy for a blogger/journalist to eat his own words. But there are certain earth shattering moments when you are failed by your convictions; when your optimism falls flat in the wake of harsh realities; and when your role models ditch your trust. The obvious choice is then left between justifying your perception & assumptions to defend your ego and an honest acceptance about error of judgment.
Within a week of my last blog post on “Bihar elections and Barack Obama effect” where I had expressed pride and optimism about the state politics transforming into techno zone and opting for an inclusive dialogue with the common man through social media tools, ruckus in the state assembly has yet again shattered my faith. The world will notice the hooliganism in Bihar Assembly through the prism of collective consciousness about the state and its politics over the years.
However, a common man from the state and a writer in me hangs his head with shame for being optimistic about the state after a spate of development and seemingly sophistication on various social media sites. “Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you” is a result of this frustration with the collective failure of the Bihar legislature where all the political parties have been an active participant in turning the elected House into a den of street fighters and goondas.
Had it been the act of a few opposition members in the House, my reaction would not have been that strong. But on July 20, 2010 the entire bunch of elected representatives in the Bihar Assembly seemed to have vowed for callous disregard of every norm of civilized behavior in politics. I had earlier witnessed one such unruly incident in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in the year 1998. While I still remember my story “Constitutional climax in UP with opposition’s Governor”, I personally feel there was no such compelling politics in Bihar Assembly now to bring democracy to this low.
Though the outrage on the democratic process can not be justified in any given situation, what had happened in Uttar Pradesh had a much larger stake in retrospect. It was the question of survival for Governor Romesh Bhandai himself, Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, coup Chief Minister for nine hours Jagdambika Pal and Mulayam Singh Yadav. I wonder was there any such situation in Bihar at the moment. The drama that continued in the House till next day clearly reflect that it was not even heat-of-the-moment kind of situation.
In Uttar Pradesh the BJP had then taken a moral high ground following the Allahabad High Court intervention. However, the same party in the ruling alliance in Bihar has a lot to answer now since the responsibility for the floor management in the House rests with the ruling alliance. But when your own legislators are part of the fighting hooligans where is the question of any moral high ground? Probably the BJP, being on the other side of the fence in parliament, should have by now learnt the art of floor management with their own conduct. Whenever their MP’s slogan shouting creates ruckus in the parliament the Lok Sabha speaker has time and again adjourned the House to prevent further ignominy to the House.
The ruling party JD(U) is even bigger a guilty here and adding insult to the injury for the Bihar in general and democratic institutions in particular has been the statement of JD(U) national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP, Shivanand Tiwari. In an explicit display of no remorse for the damage done to the state and its democratic institution he defended the act by saying that this has not only happened in other states, but it happens across the world in democratic countries. It seems he is still carrying the baggage of his background with Laloo Yadav in RJD.
Nitish Kumar has over the last around four years quite successfully done the balancing act of turning his critics into admirers. However, he failed to rise on this occasion and came out of the House smiling, just dismissing the whole vandalism as the desperate act of opposition. The young lot of Bihari voters who sees in him dynamism and turnaround capabilities was expecting the Chief Minister to be the first one to condemn the legislators cutting across the party lines. He, however, was busy calculating the whole incident in terms of gains and losses in the forthcoming elections.
The Congress has to do a lot of introspection if they are looking forward to emerge as the first choice of youth in the state under the charisma of Rahul Gandhi. They seem to be making the same mistakes that created the crop of Laloos, Paswans and Nitish in the state. Of course, if a woman legislator was manhandled in the House, it needs to be condemned. But resorting to undemocratic norms and creating histrionics like the one Jyoti Devi displayed, reflects an ill designed method in her madness. There are much better democratic and civilized ways to protest, get noticed and emerge as better Brand Ambassadors of Bihar politics.
Laloo Yadav seems to be living in his own time zone that derailed Bihar from every possible Human Development Index. Crowded by fly-by-night alliances like the LJP of Ramvilas Paswan, he fails to see the larger picture emerging out of the state. It is no longer politics of poverty and deprivation with symbolic empowerment to few that he can continue with. He needs to understand that he has to replicate his performance of Union Railway Ministry and not his previous stint of Chief Ministership where lawlessness ruled the roost.
But the biggest culprit has been the Speaker of the House Uday Narayan Chowdhary for letting this bedlam happen. He failed to protect the integrity of the Chair and instead became a spokesperson of the ruling alliance. His stand that interference by any constitutional body or a statutory body in the functioning of the Assembly, its Public Accounts Committee or any other legislative committee would constitute a breach of privilege of the House, not only sets the Bihar legislature on the course of possible confrontation with the judiciary but also sets a wrong precedent in shielding the guilty and prosecuting future governments in office against scam.
It is debatable at the moment whether or not the Patna High Court order asking for a CBI enquiry into the alleged bungling of funds to the tune of Rs 11000 crore between 2002 and 2008 amounts to scam. And if it is scam, Rabri Devi led RJD Government has to answer as much as the Nitish Kumar Government. If BJP will have to explain being a coalition partner in Nitish Government, Congress will have to as much explain for its support to RJD Government.
The question here is if the guilty of yet-to-surface scam are all or none, then who is the beneficiary of bedlam in the Bihar Assembly? Has any political party came out with the moral high ground for whatsoever reasons? If the answer is none then what was the high voltage media show all about?
Should we assume that all the political parties were hands-in-glove in diverting the attention of the voters from the real issues? May be all the parties were carrying home the point with their own set of calculations that a House ruckus at this point of time would benefit them. It is difficult to point out which of the above two assumptions are more dangerous for the civilized Bihar, but the elected representatives have definitely put their electorates head hang in shame who are left with no choice but to so…..”Oh Bihar! My Bihar! I am ashamed of you.

Bihar elections and Barack Obama effect

2010-07-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

July 16, 2006

Can Bihar, predominantly seen as one of the most underdeveloped states of India in collective consciousness replicate Barack Obama’s model? I understand the question itself will be seen as cynicism but wait. Give it a thought and there will appear some parallel in these two different poles on various given parameters of governance, development and overall human development index. My assessment, or rather I should say optimism is not based on the phenomenal and unbelievable growth rate of Bihar in times of global recession. Of course, the GDP projection of 11 per cent by an eminent economist and 16.5 per cent by the Central Statistics office would definitely be a cause of envy even to the world’s super power in America.
However, my above assumption is not based on the reports of Bihar revival by the now unquestionable turnaround man in the Chief Minster Nitish Kumar. What has actually surprised me is the sheer presence of the state, its governance and its politics on social networking sites like the Facebook and Twitter. When the Economist magazine analyzed how politicians around the world from Venezuela to Japan and from Greece to Chile are using social media tools to get out their messages to constituents and voters, they had actually no idea about the penetration of the medium further deep.
Considering that LinkedIn was established in 2003, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, it no doubt seems to be a fast forward march by the politicians of the state. With some of them without any background in the formal university level education, it is all the more surprising that they are adapting and accelerating quicker and faster medium for political dialogue.
In a way it spells good for democratic institutions in Bihar where wide engagement combines with open sharing of information. It is clearly an issue, as social recommendation becomes bigger the challenge is to engage individuals deeply enough that they will escalate from passive viewer to active participant. Most of the Bihar centric discussion revolves around the performance of Nitish Kumar government and the forthcoming elections. By extension this also applies to those who aim to unseat him.
My Facebook wall is generally full of heated discussions on Bihar elections nowadays. What seems to be the result of the vocal nature of Biharis in general and educated and migrated non resident Biharis in particular is actually more than what meets the eyes. It is not that only the educated Biharis who have migrated to metropolitan cities for a decent living are the ones who are demand drivers of Bihar debate. The young lot in the state with limited access to electricity and even lesser access to internet are as much active on these sites as their non resident counterparts.
The question as to why development in the backdrop of politics and elections are the only issues to be discussed automatically comes into the mind. Perhaps the answer lies in the restlessness of the youth in the state, which had for around a couple of decades been clueless, have suddenly found a medium to air their grievances. Many politicians from the state too have sensed this transformation and want the first-movers-advantage in the cyber space networking.
The moot point here is that whether it is a natural progression of the state into technology zone or the political parties have taken this first-movers-advantage a bit too seriously. On the basis of Facebook and Twitter discussion Prima Facie it seems a carefully crafted social media campaign has been launched by at least two parties (JD (U) and BJP) in power, with Congress social media campaign racing up along the charisma of Rahul Gandhi, while the other two players (RJD and LJP) seem to be clueless as to what is this hype all about.
My assumption, however, proved to be wrong when some more searches found the presence of even Laloo yadav and Ramvilas Paswan on the Facebook. Not only this, individual ministers and MLAs in the state with relatively less exposure to the technology and global obsession with social networking too have got their own website done, with some of them adding dynamic features. It seems everybody is omnipresent on various social networking sites; even the illiterate ones too have social media managers for shadow boxing.
Easy to dismiss, but less easy to master; the mantra of social media is perhaps yet to come of age in Bihar politics. But its growing influence and ubiquity, particularly among younger voters, cannot be ignored. The complications of this new reality are that 18- to 24-year-olds are not prepared to consume political messages passively. The catalysts to this transformation have been the mainstream media that are largely into the mode of broadcast and not conversation.
The 2010 Bihar campaign can prove to be India’s first true social media electoral cycle, if the momentum picks up and reflects some tangible vote swing. Whether the JD (U) uses these tools to their maximum advantage or whether the BJP or Congress figure out how to employ social media to explain incumbent policies and rally their base will be analyzed in-depth following the November elections. It may not prove to be India’s first true internet campaign, won and lost Obama-style, Bihar elections nonetheless have a distinct Barack Obama effect this time around.

Fashion catastrophe & media ethics

2010-07-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2010

After writing a number of articles on the TV news channels’ mindless programming right from ghost chase to heaven chase, nowadays I prefer to keep my lazy Sundays off news channels. Even though some of the programmes on news channels are more of an entertainment beating even Bollywood flicks, my personal choice is Hollywood movies for the weekend. This Sunday, however, could not help getting hooked on NDTV India in the course of the channel surfing. It was Pankaj Pachauri’s show that kept me glued for a very specific reason.
The discussion that centered on the suicide of the model Viveka Babajee was allowed to not only discuss the business of fashion in its entirety, but the panelists and audience were even allowed to be critical of the role played by the “Media”. It is not that such media bashing has not happened in the past during TV shows. It happens off and on when the anchor loses control over the show and some of the smart panelists take charge of the content.
However, on this show anchor in Pankaj Pachauri was in complete control of the programme, often himself satirically introspecting with tongue-in-cheek statements like “when a fashion icon commits suicide it is news, and four suicides a day by the farmers across the country is not newsy”. It was a rare self introspection by the TV channel when the media was allowed to be criticized and one panelist went to the extent of calling the show as a “Pink Shiphon Condolence”. I wonder how many TV news channels will take a leaf out of such bold and candid shows.
I have always felt that the media perception of Fashion has been very flawed and superficial. Their understanding of a business worth more than Rs. 12,000 crores is confined to the size zero models, ramp walks and designer clothes. However, facts suggest more than what meets the eyes in the business of fashion. As per a study the business of fashion, or to give it more inclusive parameter “wellness” is not all about cat walk and designer clothes. Even though we don’t take into account a number of skilled and semi-skilled workforce that make such shows a big hit, the business statistics suggest a much bigger market beyond ramp walk. Needless to say, this also suggests that media must do more research before they assume themselves as authority on the subject.
As per the sales figure, the number one driving force behind the business of fashion and wellness is the beauty products for men, yes you read it right it is for men and not women. The much-hyped designer clothes come to the bottom of the fashion pyramid in terms of business. How many times the media has given space on the serious nature of the business of fashion? I blame print media more than their TV counterparts for this flawed vision of business. Fashion industry like any other industry is a serious business and demands a whole lot of hard work. Beyond hard work the nature of the business suggests that the aspirants need even more stroke of luck to succeed.
Unfortunately, this side of gloomy picture is rarely reported and never given a Page 1 space. The PYT pix and juicy masaala and rumours are the staple diet of Page 3 and city supplements. Added to this, a few Miss India and Miss World fuels the fire and every small town girl aspires to become the “Next Big Thing”. Since many of them are not conditioned to cope up with the failure in life after a heavy dose of glamour, the absence of emotional infrastructure leads to the incidents like the suicide of Viveka.
If the industry of fashion and MNCs making beauty products and advertising an unrealistic aspirational world are to be blamed for this, media is even more to be blamed. This is because it is the media which is not just the vehicle but the catalyst in most of the cases. However, till the time the editors will have the shameless defense of “we show it as it is” or “we sell what market asks for” things will remain the same. The irony of the business of media today is that the very same editor, who sends PYTs with size zero with high heels but no knowledge of fashion to cover Page 3 parties, is also part of the routine “Pink Shiphon Condolences”. No wonder, while a wardrobe malfunction gets Page 1 coverage, fashion catastrophe keeps crying for some media ethics.

Clash not class calling Indian youth

2010-06-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

June 23, 2010

A British Research Scholar on an Indian visit recently asked me as to how the Indian students, known to be politically volatile and radical in their approach, are more reactive than pro-active to society at large. He was referring to some news clips about intolerance and violence in the Indian universities. The general inference was that in the campus many violent incidents have been witnessed in the past and many more appear to be in the pipeline. University and violence have become synonymous in this part of the world, he suggested.

I must admit here that even though I defended the Indian youth with instances right from a successful JP Movement to the exemplary service by a few young parliamentarians, like Rahul Gandhi, deep down I knew that he was stating the obvious. The Indian youth today seems to be rebel without a cause and pause. The legacy of youth upsurge that toppled the might of the ruling Congress party to dust in the seventies has not been channelised into constructive politics.

The Indian universities are today exposed to the unfortunate reality of mindless violence. Student politics has seen its rock bottom in terms of quality leadership for the future. The phenomenon of violence in Indian universities has actually invited scholars to widen the concept of violence by including in it the concept of institutional violence or structural violence. In the context of Indian society universities have, no doubt, acted as the most vulnerable institutional structure to contribute to the growth of violence.

However, this analysis is not confined at all with the occurrence of violence on the university campus. The sole purpose here is to see how violence in India is related to the role performed by universities. I remember a decade back the brutal killing of CPI (ML) student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad was overtly projected as an attack on the youth politics at large. It was due to an eye over the vote bank on the university campus that the young leader was publicised as more of a student leader than a CPI (ML) activist. The local CPI (ML) leader in Bihar Shyam Narain Yadav was also killed in the same firing in Siwan, but his killing was never a selling point to provoke resentment. But a name linked with the university became so.

The reason for this may be traced in the very nature of our centralised politics, which leads to the formation of a strong central leadership demanding loyalty. This structure in which “Yes Boss” flows from the top to bottom is prevalent in the whole society. Within the universities also loyalty towards power-holders becomes a value. Vice Chancellors are appointed in the universities on the basis of their loyalty to the party in power in general and chief minister in particular. Vice-chancellors, in turn, demand loyalty from the teachers and the teachers from the students. This produces an atmosphere of flattery, sycophancy and intellectual servility.

Moreover, all attempts for educational reforms, meant for using education to improve the lives of individuals, have so far resulted in the rejection of prevailing values and beliefs, including more particularly notions like honesty, duty and discipline. Our universities are, at best, academic cafeterias offering junk food to young minds. At worst, they are breeding grounds of corruption, indiscipline, dishonesty and irresponsibility.

Young men and women, who come out of the universities without a developed critical faculty, are seen by business and government organisations as an asset, for they believe in ends, not means. A corporate boss has constantly to engage in activities which require shrewd execution. Politicians also need shrewd administrators. What people in power desire is loyalty for themselves and the ability to get things done by hook or by crook. Hence, a questioning mind, a spirit for novelty, creativity and scrupulousness has all been relegated to subordination.

The effect of economic inequality on educational institutions has also been conducive to violence. Two particular instances of it may be noted. First, it perpetuates the mass elite gap in India. Children of the upper social strata of greater access to higher education than those of lower strata. Secondly, it has intensified group conflicts. Legislation that gives special privilege to castes and tribes has encouraged many communities to claim more seats in colleges and administrative services, leading to clashes between the backward and forward castes.

Universities are contributing to violence in a subtle way also. The establishment of various regional universities has led to the growth of regional, local and parochial forces rather than a sense of nationalism. The same goes true with the universities and institutions meant for the minority communities as well.

Gone are the days when discipline and non-violence were written with a sunbeam on every student’s mind. Gone are also the days when universities produced students equipped with knowledge, culture, sympathy and fired with devotion to duty. Universities today are producing another kind of fiery lot who are sullenly moving with alcohol in their bodies, guns in their hands and hatred in their heart.

Holier Than Thou Journalism

2010-05-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

24th May, 2010

Around a decade back while working as Assistant Editor of a monthly newsmagazine I came up with some fancy ideas to revamp the overall look, feel & content of the magazine. While some of the ideas were appreciated by the management, I still remember the dirty look by the consulting editor, an industry veteran, when I proposed the byline mentioned with the position of the journalist. The idea, as a matter of fact, was not original one and the leading newsmagazine, India Today already had that style sheet during those days.

The disapproval of the editor was not confined to his overt gesture; he did not mince words to say that a serious newsmagazine should not be a self glorified pamphlet for the journalists. When I see all the mainstream English dailies in the country being redesigned, with glorified promotional campaign suggesting international designer giving it a global touch, I feel there is anti-thesis of what all has been taught to us in the good old school of ethical journalism. The mug shot pix of reporters along with the bylines overtly suggests that the newspapers are brand ambassadors driven and not content driven.

Five or six photographs on a single sheet of newspaper often makes it difficult to identify whether it is a news page or the advertising supplement where these reporters are IIT or Medical toppers and the coaching institute wants to make the best out of this publicity campaign. If this is the reality of today’s leading English dailies, anything said about the vernacular newspapers would be stating the obvious. And the semi nude photographs, which proved to be the calling card of regional dailies like Punjab Kesari has moved from city supplements to main newspapers, even getting page one positioning off and on.

The holier than thou variety of journalism, the print media is facing an identity crisis today and certainly is not far behind their television counterparts when it comes to shouting at the rooftop with their perceived achievements. It seems the glamour of television journalism is a cause of complex in the print media and they strive to catch up fast on that given scale. No wonder, following the footsteps of television news channels the leading dailies do not forget to remind the readers that this newspaper was the first to report on the given issue. Worse even, HT Impact or Times Impact of the news reports are glorified like never before.

I, Me, Myself syndrome is all pervasive in today’s print journalism when it comes to credit share. Print journalism, as a matter of fact, has always been plagued with this I, Me, Myself syndrome with individual journalists’ deep-rooted belief that they are god’s gift to the profession. My Story, my byline, my scoop, my expose…..it could never become a team job. No wonder, barring a few exceptions journalists could never specialise in team handling or man management. Snob value it seems gives a cutting edge to the editorial profile and everybody is found bitching up and down the editorial chain.

However, this inherent weakness in the nature of the business was always overshadowed by an intellectual clout where commitment to the news and profession remained more or less unquestionable. Personal glorification and personal graft remained that only…. personal. This is despite of the fact that most of the journalists in good old days of journalism were poorly paid and many of them even died in acute poverty.

However, the advent of TV channels brought about a sea change in the overall economy of the business. The new generation of print journalists landed up in their respective jobs with relatively comfortable salaries. Unfortunately, more money failed to raise the standards of journalism, nor did it contribute to the commitment or the integrity of the individual journalists. The only difference was visible in the lifestyle choice of some journalists and they appeared more corporate in their appearance and attitude than newsmen.

More money also initiated a greed driven economy in the print media and the line that bifurcated in the collective consciousness between editorial and marketing got blurred. Of course, the nature and character of the newspaper owners had also changed to the extent that the leading English daily in the country started overtly proclaiming its edition as “Made in Delhi”, and not published. Once newspaper became a product, like any other product, for the management, the marketing folks took the center stage and quality of editorial content nosedived like never before.

Barter deals (Ad for Equity) between the corporate groups and newspapers became the new market mantra and editors started getting notes from higher-ups to protect the reputation of barter deal clients. In such a win-win deal for both the newspaper and the company, the mediator advertising agencies were also laughing their way to the bank and the job of PR pros too became easy. The quality of editorial content remained nobody’s agenda.

Today’s print journalism is not dependent on right kind of sources for news, PR industry has mushroomed like anything to offer them readymade releases, features and what not. And somewhere in this evolving economy of journalism personal integrity has seen its rock bottom. Triple Cs of modern marketing (Concept, Contact & Corrupt) works in tandem and some of the PR agencies discuss three picks of the day (read three overtly paid stories) in their routine morning meetings. Needless to add, PR pros are always on prowl for such journalists who are available for moonlighting.

Print journalists love to ridicule television and most of the newspapers have a dedicated media page to evaluate the counterparts in television. I wonder how many times that space has been used for self introspection. I remember it was around 1995-96 that the media page of Thapar-owned newspaper Pioneer used to evaluate Media with feature stories on print media as well. At least I have not seen that kind of integrity or honesty with the print media of late.

I always suggest to my print journalist friends that the next time you mock at TV news, must remember that conventional wisdom suggests that those who live in the glass houses should not throw stones. But then one wonders whether wisdom has its way in the big bad world of journalism.

It's TV Stupid

2010-05-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

18th May, 2010

Ever since James Murdoch’s recent India visit the speculation is rife that Fox News is all set to enter the country. Murdoch has already met three key players in the Indian media market, including Shobhana Bharatiya of Hindustan Times and Vineet Jain of the Times of India for a possible tie-up. It is believed that the global media moghul is unhappy with the Anand Bazaar Patrika run Star News in India and the FDI cap of 26 per cent leaves him with no choice but to look for other partner in the region. Industry grapevine is that Fox News will start a news channel in English, followed by a Hindi news channel.

This sounds like an impeccable business strategy where the Star-Fox combine can control the business of news channels in the country with their own channels competing against each other in the top slot of the TRP and the ad pie. However, a cursory look at the Indian television news market gives confused and baffled signals. India TV has also announced to launch its English news and business channels. News X has only recently been relaunched and a couple of other players have big plans in the Indian television news business.

Media analysts are apprehensive that whether there is any room for more news channels in a cluttered and over crowded market where every other channel looks like the replica of another channel. The resource pool in terms of technicians and trained quality journalists also seem to be on short supply. So, where is the need and space for all these new channels to accommodate?

However, I personally feel there is not only room but urgent need for serious News Channels in India, since all the channels in the name of news are into business of triviality. The country is perhaps yet to see what a serious news channel should be. It seems mediocrity flows from top to bottom in the business and it went to dogs when a news reporter of a leading television channel asked the then Home Minister of the country, Indrajit Gupta as to what was his name.

This debate just reminds me of the outburst of a friend on the quality of newsmen in business. A journalist-turned-corporate affairs professional he recently remarked that in the world of intellectuals, journalists are at the bottom of the pyramid. He was reacting over a news anchor asking in the live news to the reporter on the spot of a fighter jet crash as to how many passengers were there on board. But this …OOPS Syndrome is a repetitive reality of today’s TV news rather than an exception. A news channel popularly known to lower the standards of journalism and scaling up the TRP ladder ran a story where voice over said the army chief will take the oath of office. It seems the television news channels in the country have grown horizontally than vertically.

In the rat race of TRP (the biggest racket in the business of TV news) the grammar, sensibility and ethics of TV news goes for a toss and an English news channel in its sting operation on changing face of prostitution goes to the extent of asking a sex worker as to what is her rate, per night and per stroke, and then airs it unedited. May be the promoters of the group of channels were calculating their bottom lines on those scales only where hundreds of employees were sacked on the basis of productivity report of an outside agency.

This marketing research consultancy agency had no media or news background and the productivity report was hence quantitative. More the number of bulletins you produce with lesser salary, the more productive producer you are. Poor journalists who focussed on the quality stories, and for a change knew the difference between breaking news, news flash and news update were declared non-productive. If a bulletin producer is so good with producing volumes of programmes, who cares for his linguistic skills. He can even translate an english copy suggesting two chief ministerial claimants to hindi as two chief ministers being installed in the state for the first time.

No wonder, if an anchor is available for overtime and presenting more bulletins, she is a better asset for the channel. One such anchor recently asked the CPI leader D Raja as to what is the take of CPM on the issue. The decency in the left leader made him say that his party CPI believes that……But every body is not found to be that decent. The President of International Tennis Federation was taken aback when an Indian television reporter asked him as to what should India do to make this rich man’s game to common man’s game. He bluntly put a counter question as to who is he to suggest what falls in the domain of Indian authorities.

It seems being dubbed as the Idiot Box, television news channels are determined to turn the tables and make the audience feel like idiots. Does anybody still have any questions as to whether there is any room for more news channels in India?

Media and Twitter

2010-05-16T04:19:00.001-07:00

16th May, 2010

Ever since my last post about Twitter and its overuse/misuse as a defacto public address system http://track2media.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-twitter.html, dated 22nd April, I have been flooded with extreme reactions. While some of the followers and friends from the online community agree that its use as a public address system by people in public life, like Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor will undermine the sanctity of democratic institutions, there is another set of people who have vehemently condemned the view point. “Don’t blame the medium for human follies,” is the argument in general. Actually one of the friends from the online community wrote a blog post on the issue with the same title and started a discussion thread on the Linkedin.
The series of arguments and counter-arguments had gone unnoticed had I not sensed a profile fixation in the thought process on the subject. While those who supported the theory of twitter role being confined to sharing and expressing professional info belonged to various professions, most of the die-hard tweet community was from media and communications. It seems to be a revolution of sorts in a country where the advent of computers in the mid ‘90s led to a number of journalists getting axed out of the system since they could not adapt to the new technology.
Coming back to the core issue of Twitter being overused/misused, do media and communication professionals give the devil more than its due? I have already analysed on this blog last year, July 17, as to how over reliance on social media only reflects strategic communication dilemma http://track2media.blogspot.com/2009/07/over-reliance-on-social-media-reflects.html. It seems the uncensored nature of the medium is something that is driving the new breed of media and communication professionals crazy for the medium.
The industry facts and ground realities are actually hilarious, to say the least. Last year the PR head of an Agency was replaced by a less experienced, and arguably less competent, person on the merit of his tweet knowledge. The management may have been awed by his tall claims of changing the way they used to function through the use of new age technologies, like Twitter. The tech savvy professional who tweets more often than even some of the celebrities promised to work on the expectation management of the clients as well and shift focus from the traditional media coverage. That appeared too fancy and tempting to an Agency that had been at the receiving end of clients for poor media coverage and lack of quality exposure. However, the clients were not amused by the tweet head of the Agency and his shelf life could not be more than a year.
Another practitioner of Brand Strategy and Management was recently caught off guard in a presentation where he emphasised the need for the use of new age communicational tools like the Twitter. What this smart operator had failed to realise was that the corporate house had their own internal team for the purpose of online reputation management. When they did a google check on his credentials, before inviting him for the formal presentation, they found out that he had a healthy follower list of five.
Some of the PR professionals are regularly into the habit of tweeting before every press conference. However, I have often noticed that none of their followers are actually the beat reporters for whom it has been tweeted. That points to the core issue as to whether Twitter is to express or to impress. For the new breed of media and communication professionals it seems to be a tool to impress. They are probably compensating for the failure of their previous generation to adapt to the new age technology with computer. And that is something I find quite funny. Isn’t?

TRACK2MEDIA-Shukrawar teenage Sex Survey

2010-05-11T03:37:00.000-07:00

11th May, 2010

For teenagers life revolves around sex, so it seems. Home, schools, colleges, public places- here, there, everywhere. Lack of privacy and opportunity may deter them but definitely not the morality or the much-hyped sex education programmes. Yet, sex and sexuality remains one of the most enduring topics on growing up that is shrouded in mystery, intrigue and fantasy. The advent of technology may have added fuel to the fire, but the teenagers from small towns with relatively less access to the modern tools are no different. While the parents and teachers seem to have failed to become friend, philosopher and guide, sharing and caring comes with the peer group on sexual fantasies. Still, sex, or discussing sex, continues to remain a social taboo with a generation that attains early adulthood with sky high aspirations. In a country with great tradition of storytelling where children listen with rapt attention tales of gods and kings who had several wives and sired many children, it sounds like an oxymoron.

A comprehensive survey on teenage sex by TRACK2MEDIA Consulting for weekly newsmagazine Shukrawar in ten cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Patna, Kanpur, Allahabad and Indore—has thrown up interesting results. The survey results have important lessons for parents, educationists and social scientists as paradigms have changed. If earlier it was pre-marital sex, today it is about teenage and pre-teen sex as with early puberty comes the risk of early adultery. It is all about the rush to attain adulthood in an age of information explosion where pressures of keeping up with peers are immense.

Facts suggest more about the teenage sexuality than what collective consciousness is ready to believe. 36 per cent of the 2000 teenagers polled for survey claimed to be sexually active. Among the sexually active teenagers 69 per cent teenagers actually had it by the time they were 15 years of age. More boys than girls experienced any form of sexually activity. As against 46 per cent boys, it is 26 per cent girls admitted to be sexually active.

In many instances, it is often a case of ambition getting ahead of a child’s physical and emotional growth. It is a syndrome where the children’s world revolves only around fantasies of the glamour world. It is a growing and dangerous social phenomenon. The survey showed that among the sexually active teenagers 69 per cent teenagers actually had it by the time they were 15 years of age. The survey showed that nearly half of the teenagers who got into sex had no proper place for the act. Only 12 per cent teenagers feel sexual intimacy before marriage is immoral, 6 per cent withheld their opinion, while 82 per cent are comfortable with pre marital sex. A substantial 33 per cent of the teenagers believe sex is fun and it is ok even if the couple are not truly in love.

With both parents working, youngsters are given a lot of money to make up for the lost time. With money to spend, company to be sought, teenagers and easy access to free content in Internet has only led to a sharp rise in early teenage sex as fantasies run wild. These young adults are, however, not apologetic about such casual sex and seem to be much more practical than earlier generations. The teenagers are not just asking them to be allowed to have a choice, they are making the choices too; often behind the parents’ back when not being allowed to. There are obvious pitfalls of such early hormonal rushes too, and in some cases scars are forever.

Most of the teenagers seem to deplore obsessive love and 65 per cent don’t think one should be seriously involved to have sex. A substantial 68 per cent teenager is not at all possessive about their partners. The minority 10 per cent who are extremely possessive about the girl friend/boy friend and often hit the headlines for sex related crimes are fast learning the ways of the world.

The survey showed that friends are also the ones to share sexual fantasies and boasting sexual encounters. While 68 per cent share sexual fantasies with friends, 77 per cent even lie to boast of their sexual encounters. It reflects that sexual encounters are the parameters to judge ones standing in the peer group. But 52 per cent of the teenagers blame peer group for manipulating them into sex.

Boasting of fake sexual encounters has also become common, lest somebody feels left behind. 77 per cent teenagers across the cities admitted to boast of their sex lives. This is one result that parents, teachers and social scientists worth take note of. Among the sexually active teenagers 35 per cent are not sure about birth control, and 65 per cent had unsafe sex at least once; even though 79 per cent of them are aware about sexually transmitted diseases.

But how relevant are the schools’ sex education programmes? Prevention is better than cure. But this may not be the best formula for a country with a high incidence of child marriages and teenage pregnancies. One of the most acute problems that India is facing or rather struggling with is that India has as many as three million cases of patients suffering from AIDS or have tested positive for HIV and out of them a considerable number of cases are in the age group of 20 to 30 years.

This startling fact not only burdens us with the problem of redeeming them from the maladies of AIDS, but also entails us with the additional problem of preventing the spread of this dreaded disease to the other sections of the society.
Sex education has been introduced in many states, but success has not been anything to drive home about.

Given our relative ignorance of matters sexual, the benefits of a nationwide comprehensive sex education programme are immense. In the survey 91 per cent respondents said they are not comfortable discussing sex related matters with parents, and 88 per cent say they would not confide in parents if they have a sex related problem.

About three-fourth respondents felt that children should be warned about “Good Touch and Bad Touch” by the age of 12. While 82 per cent teenagers feel sex should be considered a normal part of life, 77 per cent advocated open discussion on the issue within the family. Importantly, 72 per cent think modern living any way lacks privacy and sex lives of family members are all too obvious. Only 12 per cent of the respondents felt sexual intimacy before marriage is immoral, while 82 per cent are comfortable with pre marital sex.

As much as 68 per cent treat of the survey’s respondents treat sex as important or very important part of their lives, and 55 per cent have no qualms about sex with an older partner. Early sex or no early sex, the fact is that 92 per cent are not ready to accept that these sexual encounters ruin their career prospects or future married life. And 79 per cent of the teenagers admit to have fallen in love with their teachers. Stories of students having a crush on a teacher are not uncommon. Remember Shah Rukh Khan in Main Hoon Na?

There are others who would not mind sleeping with an older partner as commercial transaction. If you thought teenage sex was limited to glitzy urban metropolises, think again. Among the sexually active teenagers 39 per cent of the respondents were from tier-II cities, 34 per cent from tier-I cities and 27 per cent from tier-III cities. According to the survey sexual activity is the highest in Ahmedabad (47 per cent) and lowest in Kanpur (19 per cent).

With children being no longer uncomfortable about sex, it is only natural that parents are getting nervous. As the survey shows, its time policy makers, educationists, medical practitioners and the larger society wakes up to the emerging realities. The reality, however, is that the educationists themselves lack quality education as far as dealing with the teenage sexuality is concerned.

We the Twitter

2010-04-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

22nd April, 2010

It entered into the public space as a humble notice board, made inroads into our private space with the hook of fan followers, gradually made its presence felt with occasional scoops posted by the celebrities, started spreading its tentacles into the neo-techy masses and before we realised it had driven the otherwise largely technophobic nation into its tweet zone. From politicians to cricketers, film stars to media professionals; it seems everybody wants to tweet and be followed. Many have become addicted to the social media site and can’t seem to stay away from it. So, what is Twitter?

Is it the new face of expression in a society groping for recognition beyond mere identity of “We the Nation”? Has India readily accepted twitter as the new face of tangible recognition? More the followers the better standing you have in the society, so it seems. Facts suggest more than what twitter is supposed to stay for. In a developing society like India one may have to run from pillar to post to get a ration card or any other identity card, something that is not worthy of flaunting. But for the twitter exposed lot a twitter id is much easier to get and more fancy to flaunt.

When you first look at Twitter, it seems as though it is just a large bunch of random thoughts. It is actually much more than that. It is over hyped, over exposed and over estimated channel of communication. Twitter is being used and abused like no other media vehicle. It is true that one of the biggest scams of the era involving Cricket, Politics, Money and Sex has been exposed on twitter only. But twitter can’t take the credit of any worthy contribution to this. Had the mainstream media not followed it up, this twitter post would have gone as unnoticed as thousands of others in the day.

After all, everybody is tweeting. It seems twitter is the new public address system in the country and every one is busy twitting good, bad and ugly without any censorship-legal, ethical or whatever. However, this is India and definitely the soci0-political spectrum is not as tweety as France where the President asks for public opinion on political and personal agenda through his tweets.

Twitter, as a matter of fact, has been snowballing into the political spectrum of the nation ever since a Union Minister with a fair degree of international exposure during his stint with the United Nations started tweeting his not-so-politically-correct views on various issues. Nobody had then imagined that twitter posts are going to be his nemesis in the days ahead. The accusation against Union Minister Shashi Tharoor by the IPL Commissioner and Mastermind of Gambling Racket called IPL Cricket is just the precursor of the emerging trends of Indian politics. The victim of tweets, Indian politics has added a new vocabulary in its lexicon and vendetta politics will be henceforth referred as Twitter Politics.

The first high-profile casualty of twitter posts is not just the resignation of a Union Minister, or the surfacing of what seems to be the biggest betting racket of India thus far, called the IPL Cricket. The inherent dangers are deep rooted. If tweets are the way to go, I am afraid life in the public space will be less respectful, lesser trustworthy, and even lesser accountable to the democratic institutions. Imagine a minister making policy announcements on twitter rather than in the Parliament. Can a twitter mandate replace the trouble of conducting an exhaustive election procedure?

Probably those who conceptualised the idea of twitter first had no idea as to how BIG IDEA they had been working on. The cost of running a country like India can be brought to almost negligible if twitter has its way. The law makers would not have the trouble of travelling all their way to Parliament from respective constituencies in the remote areas. The easiest possible public address system called twitter is there to take care of the causes and grievances of the nation. Union Budgets will also be tweeted and law makers along with the common man on the streets can retweet their opinion on it.

Twitter was actually meant for interaction limited to commercial and personal reasons. It is now also being used for political and other vested interest purposes. Now that Twitter is in the mainstream, with all of its tentacles reaching as far into society as it does, it is not going anywhere anytime soon. The advocates of tweet politics will soon suggest taking the advantages of twitter and seeing how it can contribute to transform the democratic and institutional fabric of a developing nation like India. Of course, there is a price tag to this universal public address system that demands a thorough cost-benefit analysis. The question is whether the Indian society in its collective consciousness is ready to pay the price of “We the Twitter”?

Out-of-Box Strategy or Case Study

2010-04-12T23:04:00.000-07:00

12th April, 2010

Recently a prospective client asked me to present a case study of my agency credentials on the given industry. The client was surprised that how come an agency made a pitch without presenting a case study of the work done. I suppose mine was probably the only presentation in a multi-agency pitch that did not expect to get the communication mandate on the strength of the work done thus far. However, the idea to not to present the case study was a deliberate one. I had given it a serious thought and taken a conscious decision to not boast of the track record and instead focus on the SWOT analysis of the project and work out deliverables with tangible metrics.

The experience left me wondering as to whether it is the Case Study that is the differentiator between the agencies or it is your understanding about the needs of the clients and the given project. In my opinion it is the understanding of the clients’ brief and your suggested communication solution that gives the agency a cutting edge. However, what I find as a practice in the industry is to over emphasise the past track record called Case Study.

If an agency has handled two real estate companies, they are supposed to be an expert on the sector. The same goes true with other sectors, like health or education. I often fail to understand as to whether such agencies are really experts in terms of knowledge about the industry, or it is by default that they are in the right place at the right time. If they are really experts on the given industry, then how come their presentations and suggested communication solutions fail to reflect that?

Conceptually I am not against the idea of presenting the case studies, which does reflect your credentials in the given industry. However, my understanding of the industry is that such case studies are more often over rated and over projected. Say for instance, if an agency is pitching for communication mandate of a company going public with an IPO, a past track record of successful IPOs in the same industry is seen as an asset. However, what makes an IPO successful is a combination of various teams including the PR, Merchant Bankers, Finance Officers, Legal and Marketing team. Within the PR too, it is the agency and the in-house corporate communication team that works in tandem.

Ideally a successful case study like the above mentioned has very many claimants who have their share to make the campaign a success. If a product launch is successful, it is not just the PR that can make a bad product good or can substitute the marketing initiatives and dealership network. Just because an agency has been there at the right time in the right place (performance could have been good, bad or indifferent), is it logical to assume that they are an expert in the given domain?

I feel the Case Study and the so-called expertise in the media space is an over rated commodity in the communication business. It is the out-of-the-box strategy that should be the criterion of evaluation, and not the past track record which may look impressive by default.

Should communicators communicate self?

2010-03-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

As a communication professional our job is to communicate the message of the clients to the right media vehicle. Right? Well, not always. Communicators are paid to communicate the message of others and the conventional wisdom suggests against becoming the subject themselves. However, there is no code of ethics that refrains a communicator to communicate his own message. Is there any? I have my serious doubts, and unlike traditional journalism where objectivity and detached view point are the overtly pronounced parameters for obvious reasons, the nature of other forms of communication, Advertising & PR does not come in the way of a free flowing symmetrical communication.

The question as to whether a communicator should communicate self or not was posed by a journalist friend to whom I had sent the press release of the global tie-up of TRACK2MEDIA with Heusler PR, Australia. I have no doubts that the journo friend got confused with our going-global press release, since he was into the habit of receiving the releases of the clients from our end. The result was a prompt phone call to ask whether I was serious with it to be treated as the press release or it was meant for mere information.

What seemed to be an innocuous question actually made me introspect as to whether I crossed the ethical lines of the communication business. I also started questioning myself as to whether I had a need to communicate to the world in general and media in particular about self. However, on second thoughts I decided to stick to my inner urge to communicate, even if it is about self. I understand a number of journo and even some PR pros will contest the claim, but the fact of the matter is that a larger understanding of media business and ethics is needed in the given context.

What used to be unethical in old school of communication is no longer valid in today’s competitive media world. Cross channel promotion of media houses, self glorified version of impact of the news stories, and in some cases individual journalists being promoted as brands is an accepted reality today. And hence I firmly believe that the question of ethics and integrity crossing the line comes into debate only when one starts taking the advantage of being into the business. But so long one has a valid argument and newsworthy information; there is no reason why a communicator should not communicate about self.

After all, we communication professionals don’t function in a vacuum and unless we have something relevant to share, the traditional media will not entertain us, even if there is an element of personal friendship involved. It is not self glorification that can translate into media coverage, only by virtue of being in the same trade. Now if I probe the issue a bit deeper, I have the feeling that more than living under an enforced code of ethics on us, we have subconsciously relegated ourselves as mere messengers.

Of course, since we feel shy of becoming the news ourselves, there is a genre of media platforms that have emerged to keep the industry well reported. There are portals like exchange4media and afaqs, catering to the industry with a genuine B2B focus. In the mainstream media, even though the television channels have broke the clutter with their financial clout, PR professionals are still treated like vendors. The moot point is whether we take an offence to it, or subconsciously we accept it as an industry reality.

It is anybody’s guess as to what is the ground reality. Some of the best known communications consulting agencies, even the ones that specialise in helping the corporate world go to public, are privately held companies. It seems the dilemma of communicating self makes them feel shy of coming out with their own public issues. Intent seems to be very much there; otherwise some of them would not have been deemed public limited companies. But it is the conventional school of communication that acts as a deterrent and communicators fail to get a face lift by communicating self.

Thankfully, I belong to the new school of communication, feel proud of my job and the industry and will never feel shy of communicating self. Right time, right message, right media…..that is the professional philosophy of TRACK2MEDIA Consulting.

Socia Marketing loses relevance with over dose

2010-02-21T04:42:00.001-08:00

An advertising campaign of a telecom company that shows a stripey orphaned tiger cub running for cover urges people to “Save the Tiger”. The social marketing campaign of Aircel has roped in a galaxy of sports icons to endorse the cause. The suggestion is to raise the voice, write blogs….among other things. Well, the compassionate human in me feels tempted to be a part of saving the tiger, and hence write the blog. But on second thoughts, the communication professional in me fails to connect with the cause and the brand. There is a big question mark over efficacy of the suggested methodology here and I am still groping for an answer as to how to contribute the cause constructively.

The Social Marketing has been the buzz word, of late. It is very much the same as the Digital Media & Social Networking Sites have been the handy tool for the PR pros during the last few years. I have earlier written as to how over reliance on social media only reflects strategic PR dilemma http://track2media.blogspot.com/2009/07/over-reliance-on-social-media-reflects.html. However, very much like the Digital media getting over crowded and messages directionless in the PR world, the Social Marketing in advertising is getting vague, directionless and often offers no solution to the questions raised.

Nearly all the Social Marketing campaigns that have hit the newspapers, TV Spots and Billboards have started with a question and have failed to answer it conclusively. Advertising agencies focusing on Social Marketing should probably take a leaf out of Jaago Re campaign of Tata Tea which advocates about compulsory voting. No wonder, the campaign saw 28 lakh registrations on their website.

Even though I deplore voting in a political set-up where Right to Recall the elected representative is non-existent, I feel an emotional connect with the campaign. However, their next campaign that talked about corruption (Khilana Bandh Peelana Shuru) clearly showed conceptual fatigue and had no answer as to how to check the menace of corruption in a society where an honest man and not corrupt one is a liability.

This fine brand and message connect is quite evident in the Amir Khan endorsed Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God). It has all the necessary ingredients of a successful Social Marketing campaign-an emotional connect; promoting tourism as a brand and involvement of the TG, that is common man on the streets, while the pre requisite of a moral high ground in such a campaign has also been maintained.

However, there are other campaigns like What An Idea Sirji, where campaign takes off in a Caste Conundrum, changes track mid way amidst criticism and then goes directionless with its Save Paper message. It seems advertisers had no idea as to whether message should be kept at the fore front or the persona of film star as its brand ambassador. While the first message didn’t offer any solution, the second one is a copy & paste solution of successful global campaign of an IT company.

The petrol conservation campaign of PCRA where a school going son tells his father not to keep the car running at red light is more of a brand trying to connect to the TG through children as influencers. The statement of the child that he will open a bicycle repair shop in future may be seen as a threat by a section and is not something that will go down well with the sensibilities in the Indian cultural context. The element of moral high ground, which ideally should flow into two-way channel, is only through the perspective of the advertiser here. Most important, it does not offer a viable solution. In my opinion, such a campaign would have evoked more response if targeted around an option like Car Pool.

An ideal Social Marketing campaign is one that takes the Brand Positioning to a moral high ground, offers a solution to the core of the problem and not just holding a candle to the cause, blends well with the cultural context of the given market and connects instantly with the TG. Unfortunately, Save Tiger campaign fails on these parameters. Even though I whole heartedly support the cause, the brand connect feels like being thrust upon and solution is nothing more than holding a candle to the cause.

My worry, however, is more with the emerging trend in advertising where there is an over dose of Social Marketing campaigns. While the corporates need to introspect with the brand positioning through Social Marketing, advertising will do no harm to their reputation if they offer a judicious use of such campaigns. This evolving genre of advertising is applicable only when the Brand, Message, TG and a legitimate cause blend into perfection. Failing this Social Marketing will not only lose its cutting edge but relevance as well.

.........to hell with nationalism

2010-02-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

“To hell with nationalism…..” I said in reaction to a friend’s overt criticism of attack on the Indian students in Australia. My agitation has less to do with his nostalgic patriotism and more against the moral high ground in a society that is widely responsible of reverse racism on more than one account. Of course, it hurts to me also when I find an innocent Indian being under the racial attack for no fault. However, the question remains as to whether we Indians as a collective society are left with any moral right to condemn the kind of xenophobia that we too have subconsciously inculcated in us.

What kind of nationalism do we talk about in a country which is largely xenophobic within itself? People from Delhi and western UP think Bihar is all about labour class, Maharashtra gives a clarion call to ban the entry and work of people of UP and Bihar, a singer & a politician is asked to apologise for speaking as an Indian and not Marathi, a film star is victimized in his own Karmabhoomi for speaking the language of peace and harmony with a neighboring country, there is widening north-south divide, people from North East are victimized in north India, and a minister in Andhra Pradesh asks cricket team to boycott tournament since Hyderabad is not selected as venue for game….the list is endless suggesting aloud that we are all racists.

India as a society has the legend of championing the notion of nationalism much before the world knew the concept of nationalism as a fall out of French Revolution and Nation State. The claim may be challenged by the western historians but the fact remains that the legendary Chanakya of country’s first and mighty Magadha Empire had espoused the cause of nationalism much before the French Nationalism came into existence. The war rhetoric of “Kashmir se Kanyakumari tak sarvatra bhoomi hamari hai” is something that goes into the folk lore for its overt nationalist pride.

However, the friend of mine who has all the soft corner for the fellow country men being thrashed in Australia has no knowledge of the historical fact that the state of Bihar in its primitive stage of Magadha Empire has the credit to teach the nation what nationalism is all about. Being born in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh and brought up in Delhi, he has no idea as to what nationalism is and what it should be in a modern progressive society and economy.

The migration of labour class from the vary same state of Bihar which taught the world what nationalism is all about, makes him think that Bihar is all about labour supply chain, with no academic excellence. This inherent superiority complex makes him overlook the fact that Bihar has been centre of academic excellence since ages and Nalanda along with Taxila had been the only universities to begin with and torch bearers of academic excellence since ages. Even today sixty percent of the country’s premium service, including the IAS, comes from the very same state of Bihar.

The places like Banaras and Allahabad might have produced some of the best talents in the country, but for a section of Maharashtra the state of UP is all about Bhaiyyas and milkmen. This regional profiling is an inherent reality in today’s India suggesting that perception is larger than reality. As per the records of the National Crime Records Bureau, Muzaffarnagar may be the crime capital of India, but perception backed by myopic and xenophobic mindset would love to believe that it is Bihar that is producing all criminals. When I find people in Delhi and some other parts of the country taking a moral high ground on the issue of Marathi versus the rest, I feel as if we are not just racists but shameless too. Our sense of self-righteousness awakens only when we are confronted with someone who is more racist, more xenophobic and more unethical than us.

The fact of the matter is that racism is, more often than not borne out of our own incompetence and hence helplessness. Had it been the case of Maharashtrians excelling in the competition with incumbents from other states, the issue of Maratha pride would never have snowballed into political spectrum. The same goes true for Delhi as well. If the second-generation Delhi residents would have competed ahead of first generation migrants there would have been no sense of hatred. But high academic institutions like the JNU and Delhi University are being filled by the students of Bihar, UP and now South and North East. Not coping with this meritocracy, racism is the only undemocratic low that people often stoop to.

Let us face the facts. We as the collective consciousness of the society are all bloody racists. And till the time we live in the glass houses, we should refrain from throwing stones. To champion the cause of nationalism we must first get rid of bigotry, persecution complex, jingoism and conspiracy theory.

Social networking or online obsession

2010-01-30T06:27:00.000-08:00

“500 plus friends online….the person must be the loneliest creature on the planet”, said a journalist friend on the trend to be open networker and befriending those with whom one has never even met. A very private person and open critic of sharing personal and professional life with unknown people online, he was out rightly dismissing the idea of social and professional networking online. Well, I must admit that the argument has its merit even though I am myself glued to online communities for a large part of my personal and professional hours.
In an honest confession, I must admit that the networking forum like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter plays an influential role in my own social/networking life. I may pretend that I remain absolutely committed on a professional level, but the fact of the matter is that networking sites for me has happened like a deal with an open community. In my otherwise personal and professional life I have maintained a very strict admittance criteria for close friends and family only.
However, Facebook provides me a forum for trivial news share that I am always not very comfortable to discuss in an open forum. LinkedIn and Twitter has further helped me segregate such trivia from the more academic business exchanges I have contributed to, and profited from. Still the argument of my critic friend has forced me to introspect deep. Why??? May be because my growing sense of consciousness, backed by a few social research, has been telling me that the quality of relationships may actually be falling victim to the new-age networking tools.
Without knowing it, or at least without any conscious design, social media has also transmitted loneliness and a sense of social disconnection. In recent years, virtual escapism has effected change in numerous social groups and has given birth to new streams of revenue. Technology has drawn us into our interconnected webs, in the office, on the street, on the park bench, to the point that we exist virtually everywhere except in the physical world.
The quality time spent with friends and peer professionals is gradually getting less and we are subconsciously becoming a victim of internet obsession. Internet and its online communities are by its clinical nature cutting down the more fallible nature of human discourse: emotion, innuendo, political sniping. It lends a more objective, less risk-laden and therefore, I suppose, innocuous form of discussion. It's an ideal channel for those wishing to avoid the intricacies of complex humanity and family ties.
Relationships, both personal and professional, are hard work. Just because someone retweeted your post doesn’t mean you have a workable relationship with that follower. In order to nurture and sustain a viable connection with someone, you must have personal contact that not only reinforces what you are doing but who you are as a person and a professional. Social Media removes you from personal interaction with other people subsequently reinforcing social ineptitude.
Being a student of Freudian school of human emotions, I have always been interested in human presence and reaction and know from experience that reading faces, listening to tone beyond words and pure personal chemistry form the most powerful basis for collaborative and gratifying relationships. I must admit that such a holistic dialogue process cannot be sustained by networking sites alone.
The realization grew deeper in me be the mere phone call of a close friend, whom I have not seen for a long while. An admittedly internet addict in me suddenly felt an emotional chord by the vocal conversation and it gave me the realization of how much I value human interaction; and more importantly, of how much of it was moving away as our collective addiction to online community intensified.
While the online community is, and will remain an important aspect of today’s global networking, I have taken a conscious decision that I will never escape my nature. I'm a humanist, a communicator. Words, expression, nuance have always been the make-up of my character as well as the tools of my trade. Some where the modern day communication had created a widening gap between the conscious and subconscious mind, and it was the physical presence of a journalist friend, a one-to-one discussion that goaded me to bridge this ever widening gap.
I do hope that my peer group who swear by the online reputation management will not consider my conscious decision as an indictment of my proclaimed aptitude thus far. After all, I am not shutting down all the modern day dialogue channels, just trying to be more social on the parameters other than the social media.

Why Prabhash Joshi could not be my ideal

2010-01-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

On the sad demise of veteran journalist Prabhash Joshi, I find it quite strange, ironic and unfortunate that a whole new breed of journalists have declared him as an ideal and inspirational figure. It seems the new bunch of journalists have all jumped into the profession in the name of following the ideals of Mr Joshi. Had that been the reality, I wonder how come the new face of Indian journalism is so different from what he preached and practiced throughout his life.
When a journalist friend approached me to write an article for an obituary souvenir on Prabhash Joshi, it was much easier for me to take a moral high ground and declare him “My Ideal” too and follow the trend. However, being two generation post Mr Joshi in the business of communication, my conscience does not allow me to drag the name of one of the father figures of the profession as my ideal and continue practicing otherwise, if not altogether the contrary. To me Prabhash Joshi and his brand of journalism have been and will always continue to be an inspiration, yet he could not be my ideal.
Prabhash Joshi belongs to the old school of journalism where respect to the hierarchy and seniority was looked up to. It is not that the lobby and coterie kind of world did not exist in the media during those days. But the stature of Prabhash Joshi was much above that and in him there was always an inspirational figure whom everybody loved. He shaped the careers of many of the journalists but none of them ever became, or were allowed to become, sycophants.
It was always respect for the father figure of the industry who was there to guide the young lot. Such was the leadership qualities of this man that the young lot loved to be scolded, if found with lack of news sense or writing a poor copy. But along with this occasional pulling up to the reporters was an idealist editor who stood firm with his staff even when the Prime Minister himself wanted the journalist to be sacked.
By the time the next generation evolved in the media, the whole world had changed and liberalization had started spreading its wings in the media market as well. No wonder, many of the journalists who at one point of time sweared by the ideals of Mr Joshi started operating in a different manner. Respect for the hierarchy gradually turned into a flow of “yes boss’ from top to bottom. More money into the profession changed the face of journalism for all the wrong reasons and corruption in the industry became an accepted norm.
I remember my first chance encounter with Prabhash Joshi during a seminar at India Habitat Centre. Those were my initial days in journalism and I had heard a lot about him. This was added to the fact that by that time I had also came across very many intimidating editors for whom arrogance was the only yardstick of being a true leader. It was here that the mere body language of Mr Joshi was different; suggesting as to how true leadership is about earning the respect of your peer group and the juniors at the same time.
A soft spoken but full of satirical verses, this doyen of Indian journalism had a friendly chat with me. No intimidating body language and no editors’ attitude; yet there was an aura around that commanded respect which most of the editors under whom I have worked could not have managed to evoke. During the course of seminar on Media Ethics and Practices while his one-liner verses was all satirical, I felt that deep beneath a critical journalist’s tongue lies a dejected man who was not comfortable with the emerging realities of the profession. And he never minced words too as far as his detaste for the new brand of journalism is concerned.
At a time when the media world was looking for greener pastures and newspapers were “Made in Delhi and not Published”, Private Treaty was signed with the corporate sector and news space was being sold openly, Prabhash Joshi was among the first to openly condemn this overt commercialization. Sadly many of the Managing Editors who otherwise swear by his ideals and brand of journalism were too busy with their respective management in suggesting as to how more revenue could be generated.
That is the reason I have no remorse in accepting the fact that Prabhash Joshi could not be my ideal. Two generations post his era, the profession and its practitioners had changed. Neither could I get the professional upbringing that had been the forte of Prabhash Joshi and his ilk, nor did I fit into this next generation of journalism where the system demanded that being “yes man” was the first step to stardom. With a background of student politics, trade unionism in blood and a radical approach in politics, all I knew was to be a rebel for a cause. I have doubts whether I could ever have been an asset to a disciplinarian editor in Prabhash Joshi.
Yes, Prabhash Joshi has not been my ideal, nor do I pretend that to be. I just wish that the journalistic world would have followed his ideals, my professional upbringing would have been under this legend, he would not have been that involved in cricket that caused his heart attack or India would have played better on that day…….My wish list is a bit too long. But then had wishes been horses.

Media Forecast 2010

2009-12-25T23:31:00.000-08:00

With our primary role in TRACK2MEDIA being media consultancy, a lot of people keep asking as to which way the Indian media is heading to in the year 2010. Different people have different reasons to be curious-journalist friends want to know whether the gloomy picture in the media world will continue in the year ahead. The clients in the corporate world are always curious to understand the behavioral dilemma with the necessary evil called media.
Speaking from the perspective of TRACK2MEDIA as a media consulting agency and from a personal standpoint, what media means to us is something which is our forte, our core competency, and certainly our bread and butter. This is also one of the sunrise industries in the Indian market today. I know this statement will raise quite a few eyebrows in today’s context when the television channels are increasingly attempting to get top thin in their hierarchy and overall management practice.
One of the leading group of television channels has only recently hired a global audit firm to measure the employees’ productivity. With the mandate to roll the heads from the top (read all highly paid), restructuring resulted in many of the professionals being shown the doors. If industry grapevine is to be believed, another leading media house is ready with its own liability list. Country’s leading national daily with a financial daily, a news channel and a business television channel has also went through massive restructuring this year.
However, I am still optimistic and this euphoric state of mind has got nothing to do with the measured advertising expenditure in the year 2009. If I go by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s clearance to a number of television channels in the recent past, television as a medium of news certainly seems to be poised for another expansion spree. It may not grow vertically and qualitatively, but a horizontal growth and quantitative growth is certainly on the cards.
Even from the advertising and marketing sustenance point of view, on a macro level hardly anyone will argue against the fact that India has become the global hot spot for any global brand. From FMCG to luxury & super luxury, all roads are leading into Indian market today. India along with China has emerged as the market that is critical in any global brand’s strategy for expansion. However, I must admit here that the idea of advertising is vague. And statistics are just that – statistics.
A more critical look into 2010 for the two media platforms leading the way (television and online) will unveil a better idea of where the media is heading to. The rationale of evaluating only the television and online media is that print has apparently reached its saturation point in this part of the world and there is no major expansion on the cards. Even some of the global newspapers tying up with an Indian partner for the local edition over here have put their plans on shelves for the time being. Television and Internet, however, is heading northwards with more players joining the fray.
Journalist friends in the print media may crib that their intellectual superiority and low pay is shameful as against the triple S and one P (Sex, Sensationalism, Silly & Politics) driven television where PYT (Pretty Young Thing) is all you need to succeed. But television will continue to go some distance as against some other forms of advertising, including that of Internet and Outdoor. Television in India may be ridiculed by the serious but minority audience and academicians but it will never go away, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Actually the footprint of television in India is a case study as to how media is consumed and preferred in this part of the world. In terms of marketing strategy, 2010 may see the Indian television shifting from the traditional Ad-Breaks to that of Media Value. The fine blending of advertising and editorial content seems to be on the cards. In the US, this transformation has started long ago starting with the advent of online videos and digital video recorders. These technologies allowed viewers to skirt traditional advertising and put more pressure on media value and brand integration in the content themselves.
With more advertisers ready but cautious with their advertising dollars, the idea of branded integration will emerge as the new buzz word amongst agencies and content providers. Theoretically good content may be the king but advertisers still need to balance the idea of brand image with that of media value. To be precise, branded content may be more readily available, but media value is not about availability but if its right for the brand.
Internet opened up in India nearly over a decade ago and the new kid on the block immediately got a setback. The dot com bubble burst n late ‘90s was inevitable for two specific reasons- with very low internet penetration the whole idea was ahead of its time; and then everybody thought of making a million or two through the cheapest media vehicle possible with no quality content in the kitty. However, over the past decade the increasing internet penetration has ensured that Indian netizens grow phenomenally and online media is a formidable alternative platform to that of television, and believe it or not, even print. If the largest media baron of the world Rupert Murdoch believes the time has come for the paid content online, he has reasons to believe so.
While Internet advertising revenue growth in the US and some other parts of Europe has reached a saturation point of under 5%, Indian forecast of around 20% growth in 2010 sounds too lucrative. This has also led to digital advertising agencies appearing out of nowhere for the first time in the last couple of years. After all, this is where the key elusive demographic that the majority of global advertisers are salivating to get a chance to market is consuming their media.
For 2010, the big question about online advertising is not about why, but where. Google Analytics has suddenly emerged as much in demand as TRPs are there for television. Unlike television where advertising has more of a defined role of where trends are shaping the industry, online is fast emerging as the happy hunting ground for advertisers looking for low cost and high value medium with a global audience.
However, it seems that the lessons learnt from the first round of dot com bubble burst have been easily forgotten here. What is happening once again is that everyone is a content provider whether legitimate or not. In the absence of any defined regulation and the low cost operation, websites have suddenly mushroomed on anything and everything. This makes the job of serious website companies even tougher to produce more quality content and create the right marketing and promotion campaigns to make online advertising a legitimate success. As a practitioner of brand management I feel the online media will see some serious Off-line branding in order to create a market differentiator.
No wonder, when TRACK2MEDIA did a market feasibility survey for its forthcoming online news venture www.indianewsstreet.com, most of the marketers in this part of the world opined that online is a dynamic but fluid media platform. We do understand that advertisers understand the language of ROI (return on investment) and with constantly evolving platforms without rules and metrics, providing a sustainable business model will constantly be a major challenge. For 2010, it will be a year of proving out the validity of online as content providers, updated & instant platforms, and advertisers converge to figure out the right business model in the Indian market.
Television has an edge over here due to platform convergence because this not just ensures having the content available on both online and television, but utilizing both platforms to cross-promote the content and ultimately enhance the viewer experience. For television, online provides a whole new dimension of watching programs from audience interactivity and behind-the-scenes footage to an e-commerce component and social-networking aspect. The marketing strategy of TV 18 is a case study in this context.
If the serious engagement of both the print and television media with their Live Online Site is any indication in 2009, there will be some really serious competition in the segment. Thus, for the media groups with “Only Online” platform to offer, rich content, distinct market positioning and cutting edge exclusivity is the only answer. In the words of legendary Mark Twain, take the roads less travelled by and 2010 is the year for all of you seriously involved with the Online Media. Despite the ups and mostly downs of the media sector in the year, 2010 only promises a better and optimistic media market in India.

Era of quick capital appreciation over

2009-11-23T02:48:00.000-08:00

With the economy giving indications of recovery and real estate companies putting up a brave face, the question as to whether this is the right time to buy property has yet again been raking up. If the industry figure is to be believed, it seems many of the prospective home buyers who had put their plans on shelf due to the threat of job loss & inability to pay the EMIS borne out of recession are back in the property hunt. Booking of all the 1400 flats within hours of opening of booking by a leading realty company is also seen by a section of realty analysts as the rediscovery of confidence in the market. Crisis of confidence is said to be over in a market where one of the developers sold its entire 3,500 apartments in less than two days while selecting buyers through draw of lots.

According to a report of real estate research firm PropEquity, the sale of newly launched apartments have gone up from 7% in the October-December quarter of 2008 to 14% in January-March quarter of 2009, and further to 21% in April-June quarter of 2009. This suggests that as prices have fallen, end users are coming back to the market. Even the demand for office space is on the upswing. According to a global realty consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield’s report on office space, “The demand for office space across the country in April-June quarter of 2009 increased in excess of 65% over the January-December quarter.”
However, these industry figure also conceal more than they reveal on the pulse of the property barometer. The answer as to whether this is the right time to buy is not a simple yes or no, but it depends on a number of factors like whether a buyer is looking for first or second house, for living or investment, if investment then it is for the long run or short run etc. If we take Delhi-NCR as a Case Study here, it has seen two booms and two slumps in the last over a decade. The ups and downs may continue regardless of prevailing market sentiments, depending on the project, geographical locations and various other factors.
These booms and slumps predominantly affect active investors and traders in property who want to make money on every deal they make. Not for those who’re looking for a home to move into. Even when the market was worst hit with the recessionary impact there were good deals in market for those looking to invest in property. If the fundamentals are strong like clear titles, area where growth is expected etc and the price correction has already happened, then one may opt for buying.
This doesn’t at all suggest that the road to recovery for the realty companies is smooth. Many of the front line realty players are deep into debt, and their stock valuation has also nosedived. The boom period of real estate in India from 2005 to 2008 actually led to unrealistic valuation for the property and its stocks. However, it has fallen flat in the wake of economic uncertainty and property prices came down between 10 to 35% from the peak level depending upon the location.
The debate as to whether this is the right time to buy a property is endless since market sentiments is something that no analyst can gauge perfectly. However, the era of too fast capital appreciation in real estate, in some cases by 300 per cent, signaling a lot of liquidity and speculation in the sector seems to be over. While that may not be a good news for the builders, for the common man on a house hunt the slowdown in economy and real estate bubble burst may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

Quest for Rit led me to Rit International

2009-10-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

Ever since we at TRACK2MEDIA conceptualized the idea of launching out a venture in journalism, there began an eternal quest for issues. Not that there has been dearth of problems in a developing society like India, but amidst the problem of plenty there has been more skepticism as well. What should be the ideal subjects for a news platform aimed at advocacy and activism? There has been deterioration in every walk of public life.

Deteriorating healthcare and education with hospitals guilty of non compliance of mandatory free treatment to patients, Medical Council of India becoming a den of corruption, schools flouting even court directives on capitation, private banks like HDFC hiring goons to threaten credit card holders even when payment has already been made, Pepsi and Cola flowing in a country known for overflowing rivers and milk, poor public transport and infrastructure. You name it and the problem is there.

There have been some inherent dangers as well. There are actually very few subjects where championing the cause does not land you into playing into the hands of vested interests. What has been all the more challenging is the fact that who are the people and organizations on whose behalf we need to stand for. Corporate Social Responsibility seems to be a mockery of the very purpose when the companies producing carbonated drinks & other unhealthy fried foods are championing the cause with one or two healthy snacking options in their portfolio.

Discussion with a journalist friend gave some insight as to how to make the balancing act. However, the advice to look at micro level instead of macro level was more useful. Thank you sir, I know you read my blog on a regular basis. I am thankful to you for reminding of the fact that there can be people and organizations working for a noble cause around us, without much Page 3 kind of social hype. And I know one of them; actually we are working with them as their communication consultant.

I am talking about Chitra Awasthi and her education management group called Rit International. Rit literally means “Truth” in Sanskrit, and my quest for Rit landed me to Rit international. I agree, we should have thought of them much earlier. It is much easy to contribute less, hype more and get away with the awards in the given categories at various forums but what is challenging is to live up to your convictions and don’t let commercial interests come in the way of your ideals. This is where Rit International deserves all the appreciation by the entire team working on the project of India News Street.

I remember when Chitra Awasthi started her first project in Chuckkle.com, it proved to be a tough call from sustenance point of view since the concept was new and they were constrained by the financial limitations. But the kind of response that the project started getting, it was quite easy a road map to make it a paid site. However, she resisted the temptation to make it a paid website since it would have been anti-thesis of giving something back to the society if you charge kids who are interested in the website.

Looking towards the institutions and corporate world for the sponsorship was not that easy. There was no conscious effort of marketing in its true sense as well. However, the corporate world started coming to them for two specific reasons-as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility as well as companies who make children specific products. As part of the long term strategy also the corporates are now eager to adopt our programmes as means of the above stated reasons. So, the marriage of demand and supply, with no compromise at either side, is inevitable now.
Chitra Awasthi and Rit International is a case study in understanding as to how a business project can be sustained and taken to the next level, without compromising with your ethics, values and convictions. And my friend’s advice still alerts me, keep looking for case studies at the micro level and thus you will not only contribute symbolic but substantive to the society. Point well taken sir, that will also be our defence mechanism against playing into the hands of vested interests.

Life is beyond bylines

2009-09-28T03:43:00.000-07:00

“Meaningful journalism…..?”, the dirty look by an industry veteran was enough to intimidate a budding journalist in me. However, in the early `90s I could not read anything other than cynicism in the statement. The quest for getting an entry into journalism and earning the byline was so tempting that I failed to understand what really he wanted to convey. A couple of years later, on my first job as a city reporter the editor sounded more curt and straight when he suggested me to better forget about what all crap has been taught in the post graduation course of journalism. It was the love for bylines, strange fascination to see my name published, that yet again forced me to fall in line.

Over the next few years this byline syndrome drove me too far to even think of any real objective behind being the practitioner of journalism. Now as a communication consultant, the same question has yet again surfaced while talking to journalism students with whom I recently interacted as a guest faculty. The world may have changed over these years, and television may have stormed the media business, but what has not changed is the fact that it is the same old byline around which life of a journalist revolves. Television journalists too are a crazy lot for PTC (piece to camera) and Exclusive and even camera persons never fail to remind for mentioning their credit in the story.

It is not that I have now started detesting bylines, nor am I against given byline to a news story. I don’t actually mind even if the story headline says that “A girl has been raped in broad day light” and follows it up with “By Staff Reporter”. At times this credit to the beat journalist may confuse the average readers as to whether it was the staff reporter who had raped the girl. The idea here is to understand the state of mind where byline rules so supreme that we don’t really care for ethics, journalistic or humane. The cut throat competition among media houses and the rat race among the journalists have only deteriorated the objectives for which journalism ought to be practiced.

It seems we are not in the business to defend the cause of the victim but to victimize the one even further, be it a rape victim or someone who just lost the entire family in a blast. The lure of the byline and its by-product, thanks to the new breed of television journalism, “Exclusive” & “Breaking News” as the say, is so tempting that we fail to see there is a life beyond the credit line of the story too. It seems the entire journalistic objective is to persuade and manipulate the victim to narrate the suffering, and in the process relive the agony yet again.

It is not that journalists who are driven by this byline syndrome do gain something personally out of this “me first & me fast” syndrome. Of course, there are a few smart operators who make a fortune for themselves, but for most of the byline hungry lot it is actually love for the profession that drives them far and further. I know a whole bunch of journalists whose families have suffered due to their main bread winner being too involved in a profession where the only reward has been byline, with only a meager salary of course.

I wonder whether they can channelise this passion for something more meaningful. After all, whose interests are they serving if in the name of being ahead of other media and getting exclusives, the love for the profession too takes a back seat. But then that is a state of mind, which defies any rational explanation for even the best of the Freudians. Is there any way out? Can there be any avenue for meaningful journalism? May be yes, only if these dedicated journalists do get a media platform which is truly free, frank and fearless and not bound by editorial policy that is dictated by the advertising revenue.

In my opinion, only advocacy and activism journalism is the answer….and that too with a media platform that is not bound by editorial or marketing constraints. We need a media vehicle where there is no rat race for “me first & me fast” and where byline comes with your contribution to the cause, not by mere story filing. With these objectives TRACK2MEDIA is very soon launching www.indianewsstreet.com.

The news portal is being established to address major emerging issues and concerns, and welcome citizens’ advocacy and activism as well to coordinate and monitor progress in shaping the policies. The partnership would not merely be intellectual (championing the cause through advocacy) but also numeric (a large pool of activists to have a share in policy making). We look forward to actions that are substantive and not merely symbolic. Hopefully, we will make some of the media friends understand the fact that there is a life, and more meaningful life, beyond the bylines.

Why do you blog?

2009-09-21T09:09:00.001-07:00

“Why do you write blogs”, asked a friend while driving on way to what I can call a long drive after quite a while. Had it come from someone who would have been ignorant of the pleasures of academics and writing, I would have avoided it as another off-the-cuff query. But knowing the fact that she herself is an addictive blogger and admittedly a competing writer, if not a better one and works with a leading media house was worth reading between the lines. It was not a normal query and I could read something in her sparkling and even more inquisitive eyes.

To the extent of my understanding of human behaviour, often being judgmental through the prism of Freudian psychology, the query was borne more out of an ideological and professional dilemma. Hence I felt the issue had the merit worth a serious introspection. It was all the more so since it seemed to me as if she herself is looking to find an answer. Writers, good bad or indifferent, are often the captive of their own make belief world where self doubt rules supreme.

I have always maintained that a counter question can not be an answer to a question, something that I often tell her too. And hence I had no liberty of choice but to resist the temptation of asking the same question back to her. Blogging, of course, is not as unusual today as it has been a couple of years back. Of late, the new tool in the form of Linkedin has also been flooding my mail box with all sorts of ideas on blog. This query, however, has not been on the innovative and often stupid ideas as to how the blog can be an effective tool in increasing business and how to increase the traffic on the blog. Another school of thought suggesting how blogging can add to your business too did not figure in my scheme of things.

Thus, there has been a simple query yet it led me to introspect as to why I spend so much time on blogging. Is it the pleasure of leisure that drives me to write blog? Or is it the absence of creative avenue to express that I find a solace in blogging? Well, in my case both the options were ruled out. While the process of establishing a communication consultancy company keeps me on my toes, I have also been doing freelance writing quite a bit. Added to this my advocacy and activism on various media outlets and associations are keeping me over occupied.

What instantly I could think of as an obvious reason that drives any blogger to waste his creative energy is his passion to raise issues and voice concerns. I suppose blog is the ideal platform to raise issues as per your own taste and wish. It is not something which is bound by the editorial policy or editors’ wish list. I believe the blogosphere is ideal for advocacy journalism since there is “no time, length or editorial constraints" and information is immediately available to everyone. “Hmmm…”, the friend agreed and wished “as if we all could have got such an ideal platform in the mainstream journalism where you make a living out of writing your heart out”.

We finally reached to a road side food joint for lunch, but a simple innocuous question forced into some serious introspection. The very purpose of life at one point in time that drove me into journalism, advocacy and activism, had taken the back seat over a period of time. It seems to have resurfaced yet again and hence this debate was the genesis of my initiative for such a media vehicle www.indianewsstreet.com, where we can practice journalism for analysis, advocacy and activism. TRACK2MEDIA is coming out with the dream project very soon, and till then it is blog blog….. and then, of course, this habit forming exercise too will continue.

When metaphysics defies rational explanation

2009-09-13T01:50:00.000-07:00

“He looked into my eyes, uttered a few words and my heart started singing……”, it was early stages of my career in journalism that I wrote this intro for a satirical piece on a chance encounter with a fake astrologer. The heady dose of communism and socialism, something that I later renounced due to its inherent contradictions and hypocrisy, made me feel very proud of being rationalist. Discarding anything and everything that did not fit into the stated ideology was the in-thing and fashion during those days.

Coming out of the University with hot blood and activist mind, it was always ideology grappling for facts and figure and it never went the other way round. Therefore, astrology, metaphysics or occult science was something that was always a subject to despise. Over a period of time, some interest in psychology, followed by parapsychology and struggle of cruel fate in the fast lane of metro forced me into looking for so many developments which failed to give any rational reasoning. The failure of logic and the so-called worldly wisdom further led me to delve deep into metaphysics and the result: I got introduced to astrology in an attempt to find answer too many of the questions that otherwise would have remained unanswered.

Still, it was more to do with astrology and occult sciences as the subject of academic interest than a guiding force. Some of the wrong predictions amidst many right ones made me believe that astrology is not a prefect science. This was till the time I met Pradip Bhattacharyya, for whom it has been more than science; actually he studied the subject thoroughly to find out more about this to guide and counsel others.

This young Bengali astrologer in Delhi has a family tradition of astrology. But his fascination for the subject is so strong that he has become a perfect blend of astrologer, metaphysician, counselor and motivational speaker. He is all rolled into one, without probably himself realizing his all round area of expertise. A chance encounter through a common friend was filled with skepticism. And I must admit that I was determined to cross check his highs & depths, something that I normally do with astrologers without telling them how much I know about the subject.

It is here that I found Pradip Bhattacharyya to be different from the league. May be he is not professional enough to ask for money that adds to his charisma and persona. Even though some of my queries made him understand that I have some knowledge and command over the subject, the calm and composed astrologer had his business as usual. Of course, he admitted after convincing me and my queries that he had realized the amateur astrologer in me. Most of the practitioners in the trade today don’t have the required knowledge and depth over the subject and easily get agitated if ever get a client who is cross-questioning.

Pradip Bhattacharyya is different and was not agitated over once by the fact that there is somebody who is arguing with him over planetary transits and movements. He is the new breed of astrologers who has turned his childhood hobby into profession, something that he had never planned. But, as they say, stars have their own ways to determine the destiny of one and all. The young astrologer works as a content executive with a telecom company that provides astrology content to mobile companies.

In short, he is the man behind the SMS you receive in the morning predicting your future. And, mind you, writing daily scientific researched predictions in less than 100 words can be quite a challenging task. And convincing me has always been even more difficult, something that Pradip has done quite successfully. I am, no doubt, impressed. The question is whether you too believe in some stars and want to check out what is destined for you tomorrow. If yes, Pradip Bhattacharyya is the right person. Even if you are a so-called rationalist, try him out for once. Most of you won’t get disappointed.

Nurturing holistic development of children

2009-09-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Request by a journalist friend to meet an educationist working for kids and young adults was honoured by me like any normal invitation. To be honest, it was more to do with personal obligation than meeting or finding a platform to work for the social cause, so I thought. That is how I met educationist Chitra Awasthi and her organization, Rit International. Rit means truth in Sanskrit, and as the name itself indicates she set up this organization more as a cause and with a social purpose in mind. A strategic brand consultant in me never thought that it is not necessary to compete with the existing education in order to bring a meaningful reform. If there is a will, you can add value to the existing educational framework in the given society. What is all the more important is the fact that the society and educational institutions will be more than willing to accept and adopt you. A number of emerging replicas of this model is a testimony to the fact.

Of course, there has to be initial skepticism with many of the existing players feeling threatened. But the continued acceptance by the society only reflects the fact that there is absence of quality education in the country. More importantly, there is an urgent need to shape the young minds that are going to be our future. No wonder, the innovative approach in education management has driven Rit International to the forefront with various schools, institutions and children’s’ associations. However, and I must admit it honestly that as against the advice of TRACK2MEDIA as a strategic consultant, Chitra Awasthi has resisted the temptation to convert it into a business venture in the conventional term.

For Chitra Awasthi and her team of educationists Rit International has more to do with a mission than business vision. Actually, it was while working as consultant on various educational Programmes that she did realize the need to create a platform for the same purpose. Moreover, in a technology driven new India she also felt the need for an education management online programme to cater to the students, particularly the school kids.

In the kitty of TRACK2MEDIA it is interesting to have an organization where Vision and Mission Statement is derived from the social philosophy that every kid is special in his/her own unique way. And hence they believe in the holistic development of the child. More importantly, Rit International is a platform to provide academic and other creative avenues to each and every child, unlike some other platforms like the talent shows on various TV channels where it is meant for a select and privileged lot.

This is because Chitra Awasthi feels that unless we succeed in laying a solid foundation for all the children irrespective of the economic strata that they belong to, this sort of vacuum and demand-supply mismatch in education will always be there. The difference and the surprise package do not end here. Actually, in all their educational and other creative Programmes for the children and young adults, you will find a Brand Ambassador from the same age group only. Well, I am indeed impressed.

No bias towards Turtle Animations

2009-08-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

When a journalist friend from Hindustan Times called me to suggest him some case studies for the Independence Day special story on financial freedom, frankly speaking I had very many options to suggest. The newspaper had planned story on the young professionals who were dissatisfied with their day-to-day lives and hence took the initiative to foray into something meaningful and thus got their financial independence. A couple of clients, a few friends, even TRACK2MEDIA itself, it seemed to be a problem of plenty. Actually, this was going to be your story, my story and everybody story, so it seemed to be.

As professionals we all have come up in life like that only. In the given scenario my initial thought was that there is nothing extraordinary about any of them to be suggested. But on second thoughts I realized there is a difference among all of us who have been at the end of professional grinding before opting for this sort of financial freedom. And it is here that I vouched for Turtle Animations to be incorporated in the 15th August special story. I knew very well that I was doing it at the cost of annoying some clients and few friends who were overlooked. But then the professional in me vehemently argued in favour of Turtle Animations.

As a matter of fact, most of us have opted for entrepreneurship and financial independence out of the need, often compelling need. To be honest on professional grounds, had it not been forced by the destiny, TRACK2MEDIA was designed to take shape after another couple of years. It may have been conceptualized thorough professionally by me and some of my journalist friends, but chicken and egg syndrome was putting a brake on the execution. However, destiny has its own script that often takes us of our feet. The same goes true for many of other companies that I regularly deal with. An unpleasant experience, sudden flow of money from somewhere, family or peer pressure, growing expenses and need to survive, one or many such reasons have been the genesis of most of the start-ups and then they grew as a successful venture.

And it is here that Turtle is different from all of us since the promoter Sanjay Banerjee had no such compelling need. Turtle Animations is a case study of the urge, and not need, of a talented artist who preferred a career over taking over reigns of the family business of the largest pharmaceutical company in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. Coming out from a palatial bungalow to the dingy by lanes of South Delhi, he took up a job in one of the television production houses, worked overtime, and in between continued advance course in animation. How many of us have got courage and guts to do this?

Today Turtle Animation is a “Brand” in the true sense of the term with NASSCOM award in its kitty, Tata NEN nominating them as a hottest start-up and Hollywood Studio, Columbia, showing interest in their masterpiece conceptualization Angelina-joe-lee. No doubt, my conscience voted in favour of Turtle Animations to be figured in the Hindustan Times, even if it costs me a few annoyances. After all, we all work for some sort of satisfaction and a feeling of pride in whatever we do. I was not ready to sacrifice my “Creative Independence” on the day of country’s independence.

My lazy Saturday morning of the holiday on 15th August was cut short with a number of phone calls, mostly talking about the HT Business lead story even before I had actually opened up the newspaper. At least I had never received that many phone calls for one specific news item, neither as a journalist nor as a PR professional. Sanjay Banerjee called up to say that this coverage will remain as the best among whatever I have achieved so far for them. Though personally I don’t agree with this and feel that TV coverage on ET NOW has been the best of the lot. Others called up with appreciation and clubbed it up with their wish list too. With a profound sense of satisfaction I feel TRACK2MEDIA has a reason to feel proud. And an assurance to one and all, it is not bias towards Turtle Animations rather merit that works in their favour.

Turtle Animations broadened my horizons

2009-08-07T01:42:00.000-07:00

When a client from animation studios shared his wish to foray into education sector, at the first instance I just dismissed the idea. You should not distract focus from your core competence area, I said firmly. This was despite the fact that I could see the determination in the eyes of Sanjay Banerjee. I have known Sanjay Banerjee as a friend first and then as a client now who believes in certain level of perfection in whatever he does. During the course of our journey I have also realized that it is often his gut feeling that has brought Turtle Animations to where it is today.

From a mere another start-up venture a few years back, Turtle Animations has seen the professional heights to the extent that some Hollywood studios have now shown interest in their masterpiece work Angelina-joe-lie. Not that the recognition has came from oversees only. They have bagged the NASSCOM award for the said project and even the Tata Nen nominated them as a hottest start-up venture in its very first year of existence.

All that credentials added with the fact that I know the man and his mission in Sanjay was not enough for me to give my consent for the education foray. And TRACK2MEDIA being the strategic communication consultant to them, unlike other Indian PR agencies meant for mere press relations, it was imperative for Turtle to get the communication agency convinced. They reminded me of the fact that only a couple of months back another client from the real estate sector had ventured into education and TRACK2MEDIA went gaga for them.

Still not convinced I reminded them that there is a difference between an established realty player and a first-generation animation business. However, I was reluctantly dragged into the business venture meeting for the proposed institute. And now I will not shy to admit that my business world view had been a bit myopic. While I have always maintained that education is a recession proof business, the fact of the matter is that many existing institutes are just minting money today without offering anything substantial.

It may look from outside that the Animation business is cluttered in the market with biggies like Picasso, Big Animation, AAG, MAAC, and others getting the lions share, the fact of the matter is that they are just better positioned in the market be default. Turtle Animations is going to set the differentiator with its in-house facility functioning like a simulated production house complete with real world infrastructure and headed by a team of highly experienced industry experts.

Moreover, the new venture is also going to initiate Industry Academia Interface (IAI) under which it will sign with a few universities to give its students an exposure to the production environment and also an opportunity to interact with key industry players. The institute will also tie-up with one of the universities for accreditation of courses. The response of the companies offering JV partnership has overwhelmed me. It seems there is always scope in any given market provided you fill the vacuum in that given space. And I must say that Turtle Animations has taught me this lesson.

Social Media over reliance reflects strategic PR dilemma

2009-07-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2009

Recently in the wake of a bad press, a large corporate house handed over its crisis management to the PR agency which suggested the exclusive social media solutions, since the target audience has been net savvy. This made me introspect as to whether the social media is fast taking over the prime time or there is a strategic PR dilemma which is leading to over reliance on this new age medium. As a practitioner of brand management I am also a proponent of social media, often speak endlessly before the client to convince as to how social media is valuable. But the role of social media is effective only when we make use of a prudent media mix, including the traditional media, television and social media.

Unfortunately, what is happening is that like in the early days of Web design, SEO, PPC, email, and banners before it, there’s too much swooning and not enough thinking about social media right now. PR professionals are so engrossed in “how to use it” that they often don’t even think “why to use it”. The philosophy of relying on the exclusive use of social media under the pretext of the target audience being net savvy is in my opinion an anti-thesis of branding. This is because the very ethos of branding suggests that the brand is built by audience far greater than those who actually use the product. But at times such quick-fix solutions seem to be a win-win situation for both the agency and the client, since this agency also quotes the least price in the competitive pitch.

It seems the US Presidential elections and the emergence of the Social Media President in Barack Obama has made the public relations professionals across the world vouch for the use of new age technology to spread the awareness campaign. In almost all the competitive pitch where we have presented our PR plan, I feel we are not just obsessed but also suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder as far as the use of social media is concerned. While it is true that the American President’s use of the social media will go in the folklore of the PR history for the participation and communication with all American citizens, the question remains: can every PR campaign or brand recreate this kind of two-way conversation in every society?

The question becomes all the more critical in India since there have not been very many scientific studies to understand the audience’s concern which is always critical to the success of any PR campaign. As a practitioner of the trade, my understanding is that it was the overall PR strategy and not mere social media tactics that was critical to the success of the American President’s campaign. After all, it is the PR strategy that defines the success or failure of any brand or campaign and Barrack Obama’s success has been no exception.

Public Relations strategy is all about the process of identifying what is top of mind in a community and relating your brand, product, organization or campaign to what is most relevant to your community. That process is really all about listening to your audience and making what you have today relevant to their concerns. PR strategists have to first of all become true marketers to understand that what consumer wants, what they get, where are the gaps and how their product can fit into that gap. The same logic goes true for the foot soldiers of PR who deal with the media on a day-to-day basis.

Many of the PR practitioners today would lead you to believe that social media is ready for prime time and that you should forsake all other forms of publicity. That is probably a wishful thinking which is too ahead of its time. While consumers clearly want to engage with brands in social media, the number of social media users, though growing fast, is not yet overwhelmingly large. Moreover, the fallacy of “we’ll engage with our customers and let them do our publicity for us by telling their friends” reads well in a marketing plan, but is exceptionally difficult to execute unless your brand is compelling in a way that most simply aren’t.

What has become fancy but unavoidable today is that more for our own convenience than any strategic reasons we often try to convince the clients for the use of social media. This saves the agency from the dirty job of dealing with the journalists who belong to the traditional media. Social media channels can be highly effective public relations tools, but they can't replace traditional media entirely. Successful public relations programs meld social media and traditional media with other communications tools and techniques.

The best part in the business of branding is that there are no rules for a successful path. What worked for Barack Obama may never work for you or me. So, don’t be shy to get back to the old-fashioned PR ways of laying down your ideas on what to do in order to get people to learn about the brand, how to identify business with your brand, how to create awareness, how to create a viral campaign, how to interact, and how to manage a crisis (when someone talks bad about your company or product).

Social Media has the potential to penetrate deep into the target audience but it is finally PR Professionals who have to position themselves as the best qualified to oversee the extent of social media mechanisms an organization uses to communicate with its stakeholders. This is essentially because public relations puts a high priority on the whole organization-stake holder relationship than marketing or advertising does.

No UGC, No MCI, No Bar Council; Minister to have his own way

2009-07-07T23:28:00.001-07:00

Strange are the ways of functioning in the power corridors, so it seems. Instead of curing the disease, its symptoms are treated more often than not. When the issue of the capitation fee in medical colleges erupted in the media, suddenly the powers-to-be wanted to be seen in the media with their own wish list. Not only an ambitious blue print for reforms in the higher education mooted out, it was conveniently leaked to the media as well. The moot point here is what was the need to have a super regulator in the first place.

This attempt to remote control the academic institutions is nothing but an anti thesis of democracy, where the jurisdiction of independent bodies is being curtailed. After all, democracy is the art of decentralization of the power and not to decentralize it. If there are reports of corruption in states, should it mean that the centre should take charge of the states as well? What is the guarantee that the proposed super regulatory authority will be corruption free?

The basic tenet of democracy and the conventional wisdom suggests that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If there has not been a fool proof system in the admission procedure of medical colleges despite of so many regulatory bodies playing their role, how will the new super regulator do it without any check and balance mechanism.

Actually the whole business of getting into independent bodies is borne out of the desire to control the institutions. Not very long ago, the then Union Health Minister A Ramdoss tried his best to control the All India Institute of Medical Sciences by curtailing the wings of then AIIMS chief Dr Venugopal Rao. The move failed, thanks to the apex court intervention. And now is there another move to take control of the independent bodies, like the Medical Council of India, the University Grants Commission and the Bar Council of India. However, conventional wisdom would suggest that the centralization of power only adds to more corruption, but then probably wisdom has no place in the megalomaniac society.

Wanted a genuine PR professional

2009-06-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

The given headline here might give the impression of a routine vacancy for the job, but actually it does reflect much more. As a matter of fact, it also reflects an industry in dire need of genuine professionals. Around thousand plus companies in India who have hired various Agencies for the purpose of brand building are the worst hit in the absence of professionals. And media is not ready to take the industry and its practitioners who can’t differentiate between, news flash, news update and news break. The PR industry is really groping in the dark and mediocrity is ruling the roost.

In India who are the PR professionals in the first place? And how many of them have any depth or background in the Brand Management. There are dropout journalists, failed marketers, and a bunch of people who failed to make it big in their given professions. There is another breed of smart operators who started as a low profile second or third assistant of a PR or Corporate Communication professionals and grew up on the sheer merit of playing one against the other in the industry or otherwise playing into the hands of a lobby or two.

It works till the time you continue to operate in a system where favours have openly been exchanged. But when confronted with the demanding clients who mean serious business, these so-called professionals are left just shooting in the dark. Just imagine the Deputy CEO of a PR Agency criticizing a PR contract without realizing that it was he who actually finalised the deal. This happened when he got flak by the junior colleagues for the Agency working on a pharma client where targets are unrealistic. Unable to explain as to how things could be improved, the “boss” criticized the contract as being unrealistic. It left all the junior colleagues baffled. If the person who signed the dotted line of the contract calls it unrealistic, then why did he go ahead with the deal in the first place?

The fact of the matter is that these so-called “bosses” are there not on the merit of their professional competence. Nor have they risen from the ranks in the industry. They have just managed to survive at one given mediocre Agency by the cardinal principle of sycophancy and hence can’t e expected to understand the challenges of PR. No wonder, in the so-called training session of such “smart” agencies, what actually is being discussed is the story of rabbit and tortoise. I wonder whether they seriously need motivational stories or have not been taught all this in the schools.

Another top “boss” of a PR Agency was once found asking the junior most colleagues that what KPI (key point information) is. The said person has got a journalistic background and it was all the more surprising since in journalism that is the most common route to do an industry story. Now if a trainee level colleague will be asked such stupid questions by the seniors, how will the industry shape up as a knowledge driven sector? No wonder such seniors only learn through trial and error method that KPI is used only “in our organization”. And juniors are not to be blamed here since they have just begun their career and have hardly been exposed to how the professional world functions. Their survival instinct hardly encourages them to look beyond the given spectrum.

If the PR head of an Agency is so scared of facing a demanding client that she keeps asking junior colleagues for ideas to counter the client, then it is pathetic. There is a difference between exchange of ideas and evading behind your juniors. Sometimes the situation becomes hilarious when a junior is asked by the senior as to how to calculate a column centimeter. These people need to be told that there are much better paid professions than PR. But then it seems that PR has fast emerged as the last refuge of drop outs with people from as diverse background as hotel management and medical landing into the profession.

Professionalism can’t be expected of such bunch of mediocre and very often it so happens that over enthusiasm to do pro active PR often results into generating negativity for the client. I remember some time back it was the initiative of a PR Agency to get the PepsiCo product Quaker Oats certified by the Indian Medical Association. The story was pushed into the media without realizing the consequences. “If the Quaker Oats is a healthy food option then why the hell does it need an IMA certification”, media wanted to know. There were reports that the IMA has been sold into the hands of a multinational.

And in the wake of the controversy, PR Agency somehow backed out of the entire deal. Of course, industry grapevine has it that there was blame game within the organization and seniors conveniently put the blame on the junior executives. After all, PR is the only science without any definition. No wonder, it is also an industry where seniors don’t lead from the front, so it seems.

CLASH OF INTEREST; STILL IT’S MY BUSINESS

2009-06-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

PR in the decade is set to wipe out bullshitting

A leading corporate group recently invited pitch from the PR agencies for its prestigious account. The short listed PR agencies were given a level playing field and there had been nothing to suggest any element of favouritism when one of the PR Agencies clinched the deal on the merits of its exposure in the given industry. It looked like a normal competitive pitch where one of the Agencies got the account on its sheer merit.

It was so till the time another Agency which had lost it in the competitive bid poached for one of its key professionals. After that it was an expose of sorts. Switching to the new Agency made the professional change his loyalties too, and hence it was brought to the light that the Agency which bagged the prized account was actually handling the account of the competing brand as well which had a clash of interest with this client. The greed of the Agency had made them conceal this information despite of the fact that they had signed the contract with the clause that they will not handle the account of any competing brand till the completion of their agreement.

The expose was not confined to the board room of the Corporate Group. It was rather selectively leaked to the media and hence there were newspaper reports on the subject. The Agency was immediately summoned by the Corporate. To the utter surprise of one and all, the Agency tried to defend its act by reiterating that they are not handling any PR campaign of the rival group and are actually taking care of just the Investor Relations for them. And what does this Investor Relations mean? To the best of my knowledge as a communication professional, it means issuing Press Release and sharing other financial information with the audience who are key stake holders and have invested money in the company through equity. Well, if Investor Relations is not part of Public Relations, then I suppose even Event Management and Public Affairs too are not part of the PR business.

The said instance here clearly suggests as to how PR Agencies play the role of spin doctors to the detrimental of the clients. The contract of the Agency was revoked and they were shown the doors. However, this is not the only exceptional instance of PR Agencies working on the competing brands with conflict of interests without the knowledge of the client. If such agencies do not wake up to the reality that PR is evolving to a new level they will soon get mowed down. The next decade is going to call for PR to redefine its path and roles. Public Relations in this part of the world lack an identity because it means so many things to so many people. With almost anyone getting into PR, it is time it evolved into a genuine profession.

Nothing is more criminal in the business of PR than to work on the competing brand where there is clash of interest. However, some of the PR Agencies seems to believe in the theory of being indispensable just because there is no safeguard mechanism to protect the clients. A few clients from the same sector in the kitty and it goes to the head of the Agency to become self-styled specialists, and hence indispensable.

This criminal negligence becomes all the more grave if the Agency is doing it without the knowledge of the client, often misleading the client after signing the contract with the clause of “No Business” with competitors. Can anybody believe the same Agency working on the PR campaign of Crocin and Ibrufen in the paracetamol segment or Quaker Oats and Kellogs in the breakfast segment? I can understand Lays PR being in the same kitty since the product is not a healthy snacking option and hence there is no clash of interest. But this all happens within the PR industry and there are Agencies who shamelessly claim to be ethical and “clean” people despite of such unethical trade practices.

There are Agencies which have taken a smart way to deal with the situation in the wake of getting such competing brands with clash of interests. A couple of years back an Agency handling the account of one of the largest PSU telecom company got an offer from the competing private telecom company. Under the contractual obligation of “No Business” in the segment, they floated a new subsidiary of the parent company, only for the billing purposes, and henceforth it was business as usual with same set of people handling both the account.

While the PR industry world over is moving towards specialization, in India this specialization seems to be heralding for all the wrong reasons. In June 2004, Dejan Vercic at the IPR's AGM, commented that: "We, the PR community, are the essence of a free society, a market economy, and political democracy, and we should start thinking about ourselves as such. There never has been and never will be a closed society with public relations." I believe this comment is of great relevance as it extends well beyond PR to communications in general. Moreover, it also clearly suggests that specialization does not mean you start living into your own cocooned and isolated world.

Agencies that live in their own fool’s paradise, believing that since they operate in a given sector, like healthcare or education, they have become specialized ones. The arrogance becomes all too obvious if they continue with the business without getting exposed. Agencies who believe they can afford competing brands with clash of interest need some serious introspection for their own good. I have reasons to believe that such unfair trade practices would not last long. And for the sake of the profession and industry in general, let’s hope that PR in this decade will wipe out all the bullshiting as far as business norms and ethics are concerned.

PR CRITIQUE ON PUBLIC DEMAND

2009-05-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

It is not easy for a blogger journalist to repeat his writing on the same subject yet again unless there is an earth shattering development or impact. So, the resignation of Uttarakhand Chief Minister, the apprehension were raised in my last piece following the PR fiasco leading to election debacle, is not the reason what forced me to ponder over the legitimacy of my criticism. In my opinion, more than the impact of writing what actually drives a writer is success in connecting with his audience far and wide. That is the ultimate yardstick of satisfaction which often compels one to react further on the subject.

In a developing society where there are not very many performing politicians, it would not be ethically correct to take a pleasure out of B C Khanduri’s resignation, and now fate hanging in balance. “I told you so” or “me first” or worst even “impact of my writing” is something on which television channels and a section of print media thrives. The idea here is not to toe their line. At least, I have sympathy with the Khanduri whose only fault has been his innocence to take the tall PR claims on the sheer face value. Now the question is why am I writing then? The fact is that I am amazed by the response over the last piece and hence comes this admittedly lengthy one.

I always thought that blogs in this part of the world are read only within your acquaintances. This perception has many takers and there is a general feeling that unlike the western countries with more internet penetration and better literacy, it is not a medium to reach to audiences far and wide in India. Actually, I was wrong and could not anticipate the power of this new age medium. A host of phone calls, most of them establishing touch base with me through references was very touching. And, of course, there were usual close friends who in any case always stand by me and hence my writing. The response has actually overwhelmed me, to say the least. Many of these new callers even wanted to know which the PR Agency that I was talking about is.

Well, I have throughout maintained that it was more to do with the academic discussion on the trade practices and not a personal attack on any particular PR firm. Many of such standalone PR Agencies are in any way confined to category B and C publications and without any effective working relations in the mainstream media. Media is often found mocking over the quality of their work and working culture. Moreover, within the industry and circle of those who matter it has been an open secret now. The day the industry gets a bit more professional and is institutionalized, there will be no space for those who take the clients for a ride and are often found working on the competing brands with conflict of interests as well. There must be a check and balance mechanism to keep the clients informed as to whether the Agency is working for the cross purposes.

However, there are reasons to believe that such unfair trade practices can not be sustained for long. Many a PR Agency which were seen as doing well only a couple of years back, are out of the business today. You can not fool all the people all the time, the old adage still stands valid. In the industry a successful communication campaign may take time to evoke a response and get noticed; a failed campaign does not take that much time. It is a cruel world where every campaign is a challenge forcing you on the edge of the sword. One may not get his due appreciation for the job done, but any failures and critics have their way.

Some old friends from the JNU who established contacts with me after a long while and who know it all, insisted that the expose should have been more target specific. “If not Agency, at least person accountable on the given account who messed up with the campaign should have been exposed thoroughly so that one is seen in his true place within the industry”, they suggested. I won’t deny the fact that they have a valid point and an expose should be like that only. But the idea here has not been to expose just one or two black sheep of the industry; they are very many in any case.

Another group of friend, who are more into the teaching of communications, admitted that it is easier to preach it in the classroom than to practice. The actual practice of the business becomes all the more difficult if you have to implement the fancy ideas that you proudly preach on your own. You have nobody to blame in the given scenario. After all, communication and PR is not just about boring academics which have little relevance to the industry. The art of leadership has a much bigger role here, both to drive the team along and network & connect with the client and media. I have serious doubts as to whether this can be taught in any classroom.

What actually compelled me to write on the subject has been my commitment to the profession which is not being seen in a very high esteem in this part of the world. Unlike the western countries where PR professionals are seen as Image Consultants, in India the retained companies treat PR practitioners not as Strategic Consultants but order takers whose only job is liasioning with the journos. More the media jugaad, the better you are as a professional.

The industry has not evolved as a knowledge driven sector, even though a few cynics would like to believe that if you have knowledge driven clients in the portfolio, say like healthcare, you are also knowledge driven. The same wisdom (?) would also suggest that if you have clients from other sectors, say like Real Estate, your thought process is also like a builder. This heady mix of hypocrisy and myopia only reflects that we are not good brand ambassadors of the profession. When our own fundamentals of Image and Reputation Management are not clear within ourselves, how can we do the same for the clients? No wonder, such cynics are often found dragging their own career prospects within the same mediocre Agencies for decades.

We are, therefore, treated more like vendors who have been assigned a job by the client. And to be honest with ourselves, we are to blame us only for this. We never feel shy of resorting to unethical trade practices to get the clients. Moreover, within the organizational set-up of most of the PR Agencies today, it is “Loyalty to the Boss that Matters the Most.” “Yes Boss” flows from top to bottom and inquisitive mind, creative thought and critical reasoning are increasingly being relegated to the dustbin. Anybody defying the fundamental and cardinal principle of sycophancy to set the record straight and reward the performance and potential is often seen more trouble-maker than trouble-shooter.

No wonder, the organizational growth chart is heavily loaded towards Loyalty (to the boss), Potential (in the eyes of the boss) and Performance (boss and not client will decide the parameters). Anybody who has been taught in the management classes that Performance, Potential and Loyalty should flow in that order is a misfit in the given scenario and upright professionals are seen as liability. PR industry, therefore, has been facing the highest attrition rate even during the slowdown and there is always a musical chair waiting for the head of the PR team. Does anybody still have any questions as to why PR industry has not evolved as a respectable and knowledge-driven sector in India? Any way, this one is on public demand.

WRONG PR MOVES PROVED TO BE NEMESIS OF UTTARAKHAND

2009-05-17T22:31:00.000-07:00

As the General Elections come to an end with UPA’s miracle story, parties on the other side of the fence have gone into introspection mode. One pertinent question which has all along been asked from various quarters is that whether branding and PR campaigns of the political parties and individual candidates actually translate into votes. Well, the basic instinct of a communication professional will always like to answer into affirmative.

However, very much like the political parties, we communication specialists too need to do some serious introspection over the way we practice what in collective consciousness is known as PR. After all, we too have had only mixed results and have definitely gone wrong both in strategic moves and tactical delivery. And since we have the advantage of a section of media being with us, we always try to evade the unpleasant realities. As a result, while we often boast of the credit of our client’s (party or candidate) victory, we rarely want to share the blame when the client loses.

It may sound fancy to blame it on the non-performance of the client when things don’t go the way it was projected by the PR agency. Of course, we conveniently, and often shamelessly, forget the tall claims of conducting political audit and gauging the mood and pulse of the voters only a few months back. Let’s face this fact called hypocrisy in our business. Actually our complacency to the job and an approach towards “Groupism” within our own peer group makes us believe that whatever we discuss within ourselves is the mood and reality of the masses. Sadly this “I appreciate you and you appreciate me” mentality falls flat on our face when confronted with the ground realities. If communication specialists have to institutionalize the branding and PR campaign in the country the way it is practiced in the west, we have to get rid of the syndrome of “when I am good, I am god; when I am not, I am human.”

Let’s take the case of Uttarakhand state where the ruling BJP was shown the doors by the electorates despite of very many performance driven initiatives. Now if we analyse the message emanating from the General Elections of 2009, the message is loud and clear-Perform or Perish. The parochial card of caste, religion and other jingoistic instruments were put silent by the resonance of development and governance. Shiela Dixit in Delhi, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Shivraj Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and Y S Rajashekhar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh are classic examples of the message that those who have paid attention to governance have won the voters’ confidence and received handsome returns by way of refurbished mandates.

Then what went wrong with Uttarakhand which has not been far behind these states in terms of governance? An army man by instinct, B C Khanduri pushed forward the reforms process which has always been a challenge in the hilly terrains. Still the voters of the state seemed to be determined to derail his train. There is a big question as to why? Was it the problem of perception and projection? That should not have been the case as Uttarakhand Government had hired a PR agency much in advance. And industry and government sources suggest that the mandate to the agency was loud and clear—Change the Perception & Project the Achievement.

The idea here is not just to blame the PR agency. After all, they are in the business of communication and conventional wisdom would suggest that if they can’t do their own PR, then what is the point to be in that business? So, a little bit of self appreciation is acceptable here. But is not acceptable is the approach to treat a failed communication campaign as business as usual for them. Since the business of PR has only recently evolved in the country and most of the so-called communication specialists don’t have any depth or background in brand management, it is more a game of “advertising is what you PAY for; and PR is what you PRAY for”. Now all the wishful prayers can’t be answered all the time.

And more often than not it is client who prays more and suffers even more. Well, in this case, Uttaranchal Government hired a PR agency without getting into a competitive pitch. “High Level Recommendation” and “Influential Connections” seemed to be the only criterion behind the selection of the agency. Perhaps they should have taken a lead from the Haryana Government which was at the receiving end of media backlash after the police laathi charge on the Honda Workers. They hired a PR agency after a rigorous competitive pitch and the result: within ten months Haryana emerged as the number one state in terms of positive media coverage. This is a fact which has been backed by an independent monitoring agency, CIRRUS.

But Uttarakhand is a case in contrast. Perhaps in his overzeal to do what successful governments in western countries do, B C Khanduri failed to cross check the credentials and get into competitive pitch. The campaign for Uttaranchal’s “Perception & Projection” was handed over to non-specialists and it was not even cross checked as to whether the same set of people were working for the candidates belonging to the rival parties as well. “Money Hai to Honey Hai” mindset prevailed and Uttarakhand stood out as the only state which defied the national trend of “Vote for Governance”. And as the BJP sources claim B C Khanduri might be asked to step down, as part of the generational change in the party borne out of the election failure. What a costly price of wrong PR moves? This PR campaign definitely deserves to go down as a Case Study in the academics of Public Relations.

The only answer to the questions raised above is to institutionalize the business of PR, Branding and Communication. Only transparency will bring qualitative change in the way we practice this trade. It is a well established industry in the western countries. However, in India many political parties and state governments want to keep it low decibel information while hand picking the PR agency. As a result, most suitable and deserving specialists often don’t even come to know which government is on the look out for an agency. Needless to add, who suffers the most in this case. However, we communication specialists also need some serious introspection as to how we practice this business and how we ought to practice. But the moot point remains-in the fiasco of Uttarakhand PR campaign; will the real PR Agency please stand up and share the blame? After all, it’s just for the academic discussion on the trade practices and not “personal”, and I repeat not “Personal” at all.

Realistic Realtors Foray into Recession Proof Education

2009-05-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

The real estate sector in India, like worldwide, is reeling under liquidity crunch borne out of overall economic slowdown, increasing debt & lowering demand and an over cautious lending institutions. While some of the realty companies seem to have resigned to distress selling, there are a few realistic realtors in the country who are smartly turning this adversity into opportunity. These are the players who are diversifying so that the show goes on irrespective of the slowdown.
Some of the biggies of real estate are divesting non core businesses like the telecom which has further deepened the hole in the pocket. However, a clutch of mid-level developers have of late shown the way to their big brothers. These are the realtors who have realised that there is a safe haven which is also recession proof and hence are chalking up plans to invest in the education sector. In the last one month, four real estate developers have announced plans of setting up business schools across the country with the combined investment exceeding Rs 500 crore.
But the fifth realtor whose foray into the “business of education” has set a differentiator is the Delhi-based company AEZ Group. The Group has diversified into education with a 50 per cent stake in Mother’s Pride, the pre-school chain in north India which has been valued at Rs. 1000 crore. Now that is a huge investment and alone accounts for all the real estate investment in education. Mother’s Pride, which runs 26 schools across the National Capital Region has annual revenue of nearly 100 crore per annum.

AEZ Group plans to invest in another Rs. 500 crore over the next five years for the expansion of the joint venture. In the endeavour to catch pace with the growth plan in this emerging sector, the Group plans to add 100 branches across India over the next three to five years. The chain has 14,000 students on its roll and plans to have close to 1,00,000 students on board over the next five years. The school chain is also eyeing oversees expansion although plans have not been finalized as yet. The joint venture is also planning to have a new chain of schools, Sparsh which will cater to the physically and mentally challenged children.

The model has worked successfully in some countries like US and Canada. With diminished demand for housing and a cash constraint, it’s a natural progression for many developers with available land banks. The Chennai based R. R Industries, Ahmedabad based Omega Realty, Delhi based Ansal Plaza and Kolhapur based Sanjay Ghodawat group are the realtors all set to take a plunge in this lucrative sector. They feel that this is the right sector for investment which is upbeat, risk free and where revenue is growing at more than 50 per cent across the industry.
Ansal API also plans to invest Rs 200 crore in next three to five years for setting up private schools, engineering institute across various centre in the country. The group has already tied up with e-learning service provider Educomp and has leased out its three operational schools in Gurgaon to Educomp. The realty major also plans to build school in townships being developed by them.
Similarly, the Ahmedabad based Omega Realty plans to get into business schools - to be named as United World School of Business - with a proposed investment of Rs 105 crores. The three proposed schools in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad will commence operations in academic session 2009-10. Another builder to jump into the education bandwagon, the Kolhapur based Sanjay Godhawat Group plans to offer courses in engineering, management and also in the pipeline is an international school. The development of the 150 acre Sanjay Godhawat Institute will happen in three phases with an investment of over Rs 250 crore.
The trend seems to have a pan-India outlook and is now being seen amongst the builders in south too. Chennai based real estate firm R. R Industries has tied up with National Management School (NMS) which is being set-up by US academics to start 25 business schools across the country with an estimated cost of Rs 9 crore.
Experts say the reason for the rush into education is the burgeoning demand supply gap and also a logical extension into an adjacent category for builders who have the necessary wherewithal. High rate of returns on investment coupled with huge imbalance in demand supply is attracting real estate players towards the sector who will be at ease in setting up the required infrastructure who already have land banks with them.
However, the diversification won’t be an easy one, as similar initiatives have flopped in China. Among the realtors who have thus far announced their foray into education, only AEZ Group has announced to take the quality Indian education forward to the international platform. Now that certainly sounds like an attractive proposition.

Sleaze & Media Hypocrisy

2009-04-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

A small item in the inside page of a daily newspaper would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Crime and sleaze have become so repetitive that it no longer shocks collective or individual consciousness. The more the element of sensation, the more it is newsworthy and headlines material. Individual journos too seem to get a kick out of championing and taking a moral high ground while lambasting the police, society and the system in general. Introspection is the last word in the vocabulary of the media. So the news of Delhi Police arresting 9 people, including women, for allegedly duping several by running a fake Friendship Club is in no way an earth-shattering news item.

However, a couple of pages down the same newspaper edition there seem to be an element of hypocrisy with a number of advertisements. The bombardment of very many sleaze advertisements, inviting lonely hearts to “enjoy” either with Indian or Foreigner as per their choice made me reopen the page yet again. A number of classified and display ads were overtly and provocatively inviting men to enjoy with the beauty of their choice. No doubt, the role of the media had gone down the drains in the lure of paid ads and it was all too obvious that marketing guys were calling the shots in one of the leading newspaper of the country.

If there is an element of social responsibility for the media, such overtly suggestive advertisements are anti-thesis of social concerns. Delhi Hot Escorts, Foreigners only-Real Ramp Models only for 5 and 7 star guests, Escort Service by Decent Slim Educated Beautiful Gorgeous Girl, House Wife, Models, Air Hostess, Enjoy and Relax Your Mind, Complete Satisfaction for Broadminded Guests, these are some of the samples of such advertisements. Of course, most of such advertisements are guised under the Massage Parlors or the Escort Service, but the suggestive and provocative tone of the advertisements says it all. For instance, “satisfaction is necessity of every human culture; peace of mind guaranteed, any time/any where females from BPOs and MNC,” does one need to add more to it?

Though legally, such advertisements are within the framework of the specified law of the land, but apart from the legal standpoint, there is always a moral and ethical standpoint as well. And this is something that every media house in India proclaims to champion. In fact, one prominent publication with a bouquet of magazines has the stated policy of not accepting any advertisements by liquor or tobacco companies, even if the said ad is surrogate in its nature. It is in this background that one wonders where the media focus has gone wrong.

The newspaper, as part of its sacrosanct duty (?) puts a disclaimer on the page carrying all these ads: “Readers are recommended to make all enquiries and seek appropriate advice before acting any advertisement appearing in this publication…..Any subscriber entering into any commitment in relation to any advertisement published in this publication, shall do so entirely at his/her discretion, intelligence, and risk…….”

It is not about taking a moral high ground on the world’s oldest profession called prostitution. But the very nature of media business and its added social responsibility suggests that the three leading illicit business globally, that is narcotics, arms and flesh trade, should not be allowed to flourish in any given manner. After all, flesh trade is not guided by just the simple economics of demand and supply. Of course, there is demand for the trade to flourish, but more often than not supply is borne out of compulsion and helplessness. Critics may argue that these ads reflect voluntary flesh trade by the so-called high class. However, the voluntary nature of this business turns out to be a catalyst for the flesh trade to flourish and in turn is a rogue for the society.

If those in the media business think otherwise then why does any call girl racket gets into news. If this is an accepted norm for them, then the lack of unusual element does not make it newsworthy at all. And if it is not acceptable then one such news item followed by such suggestive and provocative advertisements are nothing but sheer hypocrisy. It is true that the media business is fast turning out to be market-driven than editorial driven, but then journalists too are responsible to be a party to the hypocrisy.

Mystery Wrapped in Enigma Called Politics

2009-03-26T23:50:00.001-07:00

“We politicians know our business much better than you journalists” said an MP from the Congress Party during an informal chat. He was referring to the media headlines about the unraveling of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Well, driven by the basic instinct of a communication professional who has spent nearly a decade in political journalism; I tried to bombard him with a volley of arguments.

However, later some introspection made me realize that there was some merit in his argument as well. At a time when political reporting is fast turning out to be political advisory and the line bifurcating between the editorial and the reportage getting blurred, there is a need to see our respective roles in the proper perspective as well. We must ask ourselves as to whether we have subconsciously assumed that we know the business of politics much better than even the seasoned politicians?

It is true that the access to the power corridors and some filtered inside information gives the media professionals a sense of empowerment. Over a period of time this sense of pride translates into an air of expertise, which further leads to “I know it better” syndrome. Journalists often forget the fact that the classified and confidential information which they think has given them a cutting edge, is more often than not fed to them by the vested interests from a section of the very same power corridors. It is not about media empowerment; rather it is “selective use” of journalists that the politicians are very good at.

Let’s face it. Any politician who has risen from the ranks knows his business much better than a journalist. Yes, at times media professionals show due smartness in reading what is stated between the lines. But they often fail to read it when it matters the most. For instance, when Laloo Yadav as the Chief Minister of Bihar was found guilty in fodder scam; he made the statement that he will rule the state from jail itself.

Journalists with their predominantly upper caste and urban middle class upbringing were prompt to write advisories. Many of them condemned Laloo for his ignorance about the law of the land that was all set to force him to resign. I don’t remember a single newspaper report which suggested what Laloo actually meant by that statement. But a super strategist in Laloo Yadav had his plans ready and he literally ruled the State by installing his wife as a puppet chief minister.

The media assessment of bad days ahead for the ruling UPA in the event of the Laloo Yadav’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP joining hands and forcing the Congress to go solo, is yet again fraught with strategic danger. This can also be strategic part of a grand design during these elections. Laloo Yadav has any way reiterated time and again that he is very much the part of UPA. But their separation will definitely led to realignment of the voters of Bihar.

Had there been a straight fight between the UPA and the NDA, the choice was cut out for the voters. While a sizeable chunk of OBCs with caste loyalties tilted towards Nitish Kumar have gone to the NDA, the Upper Caste distaste for Laloo Yadav have also added to the fortunes of the NDA. Added to this is the fact that Nitish Kumar has of late emerged as the face of development in Bihar. Now the voters of Bihar have their options from a bouquet of parties and alliances.

While Laloo Yadav still is a major force to reckon with in the Yadav heartland, the transferable votes of Ram Vilas Paswan will be icing on the cake that seems to wok to the advantage of both. And if Congress succeeds in making a dent in the Upper Caste votes, that can be nemesis for the NDA. After all, Congress is contesting as the only party in the state which is not holding the crutches of the regional OBC satrap today.

Similarly, media may find today the UPA’s growing list of estranged allies, like the PMK,TRS, MDMK, PDP and others, but the fact remains that almost all of them have been non-committal over joining the NDA. And any other front can not survive either without the support of the Congress or the BJP. Moreover, the post poll scenario may throw an altogether different picture as none of the estranged allies have gone on record against the UPA.

Laloo-Paswan duo declares them as the real UPA, while Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK has sent a message between the lines for the congress when he openly thanked Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi for their constant encouragement. Going solo or without the ruling UPA can also be seen as a smart move to counter the anti-incumbency factor. Imagine a post-poll scenario where the PMK-AIADMK combine wins most of the Tamil Nadu’s 39 seats, won’t the Congress dump the loser DMK and ally with them.

Only time will tell whether the strategy will work or not and more importantly, who will have the last laugh, Congress for its strategy or the media for its prophecy. But, till then, political class, irrespective of the respective parties, will be busy in various strategy and counter-strategy. Media will be busy decoding these strategies, with more miss than hit. Politics, after all, is the game of a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

In Defence of Political Horse Trading

2009-03-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

As the world’s largest democracy heads towards its biggest soap opera called the General Elections, there is a sudden spurt on the communication front as well. Media seems to be suddenly awakened from a deep slumber borne out of recession. Journalists are once again smartly playing the psephologists & destiny makers of India. Forget regional and vernacular media, even the mainstream newspapers are busy beating their own trumpets. Thanks to the impact of television, the medium that every print journalist feels it is their sacrosanct duty to criticize, elections are no less than showtime.

Newspapers are carrying the pix of reporters with every routine political reportage, like the constituency profile. Too many photos on the same page is baffling, often giving the impression of a Tutorial Advertisement where the candidate has secured distinction and hence chest inflated with pride. Reporters carrying beats as diverse as health and education have also been put on election duty.

It is party time for the communication professionals other than journalism as well. Some advertising agencies, thanks to the political networking, are making merry during the road show. Public Relation professionals are having their slice of the cake as well since respective political parties as well as individual candidates, all need a consultant for image makeover. However, in their scheme of things, the measurement of an image makeover is as good as their coverage in print media and television.

Some of the politicians have gone a step further and took the help of PR pros to launch their own website and blog. While the role of the new age media in attracting the fancy of youth can not be underestimated, the fact remains that a predominantly urban PR rhetoric has so far failed to translate into quantifiable votes. The fiasco of such a drive for NDA in general and BJP in particular has been quite evident with the Indian Shining campaign during the previous government at the centre.

The General Elections of 2009 are going to be one of the most complex one in the history of independent India. The report card of the incumbent Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is not too impressive, thanks to the global recession and terrorism. The main opposition party, the BJP and alliance has to put more efforts to keep its own house in order rather than harp on the anti-incumbency factor that has been the most dominant factor in the elections of late.

The failure of the Congress and the BJP to show an impressive report card as well to keep its alliance flock cohesive has yet again allowed the motley crowd of parties to raise their head in the form of a Third Front. Interestingly, all these fronts and alliances are all set to regroup in the event of a fractured mandate. As some of the columnists have rightly pointed out—the next Lok Sabha will see the emergence of a Fourth Front. Elected members from all the three fronts will realign, but all in the name of national interest and honouring your and mine verdict. Political compulsions will make strange bedfellows in the house called the Parliament where Lok Sabha represents bedroom.

Haven’t we seen money exchanging hands to buy loyalties, media busy with a series of sting operation and a prominent politician glorifying the role of MP (money power, of course), “paisa koi khuda toh nahin, per khuda ki kasam khuda se kam bhi nahin” (Money may not be god, but god swear it is no less than god). From Tehelka to cash bundles in Parliament, the sensitivities of the collective consciousness have started accepting this stark reality of Indian politics. Isn’t it an appropriate time to institutionalize the practice?

Even at the cost of being called an anarchist, I take the liberty to suggest the legalization of horse trading in the post poll scenario if the verdict comes out for the hung parliament. Let there be IPL-isation of the law makers in the country. At least a common man who has cast his vote will have the opportunity to know the price tag of his parliamentarian. If in the game of cricket we can accept the fact that every player has a price tag beyond his much-hyped national duty, why not in politics. I know all this sounds cynical, but in the theater of absurd called Indian politics, may be history is yet again reminding us that a chaotic state is the primary necessity of revolution.

Symptoms of Deep Rooted Malaise

2009-03-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

The rebel face of Nehru-Gandhi clan Varun Gandhi has once again landed himself in trouble. Election Commission has taken a strong objection to his anti-minority remarks. While the Election Commission and the district administration have declared Varun guilty, the Bharatiya Janata Party could not afford to stand for this poster boy who was always seen as a prize catch by the BJP against India’s first dynastic family.

With general elections round the corner, the BJP refused to stand by Varun Gandhi and instead preferred to dissociate itself from the statement. As a matter of fact, the party even refused permission to Varun Gandhi for holding a press conference at the party headquarters on the issue. The young leader’s uneasiness was evident when he was addressing the newspersons at his mother’s residence. While denying the remarks, he also said in a tongue-in-cheek statement that he has always followed the party philosophy of protecting the Hindus.

The question is that in today’s political culture of invectives, character assassination and war rhetoric why only blame the young Gandhi scion who just seems to have got carried in his over zeal to be in the good books of the party leadership. From Kalyan Singh to Lalji Tendon, and Sadhvi Rithambhara to Praveen Togadia, everyone has tried to reap the benefits of hate speeches in the land of Uttar Pradesh, where the banks of holy river Saryu have seen enough political bloodshed in the name of protecting the community and religion.

However, what makes the act of Varun Gandhi all the more unfortunate is that he represents the young face of a resurgent India. Are we seeing the emergence of Gen-next Narendra Modi? At least, Varun Gandhi does not seem to be cut out to fit into that role. He could have easily positioned himself in the league where some of the young politicians have of late shown tremendous amount of potential in terms of transforming the socio-polity of the country. This new breed of young guns are sophisticated, know their subject and constituency, connect better with the young India and have done reasonably well in whatever limited opportunity they may have got. A Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Milind Deora or a Rahul Gandhi, all have displayed potential to connect better with the new India than the so-called grassroot politicians who believe character assassination and inciting mob attracts more to their electorate.

The act of the Varun Gandhi is more of a deep rooted malaise in the Indian politics in general and the BJP in particular. Isn’t it true that the same young leader was earlier hailed by the party for some of his remarks which can not be termed decent for an emerging politician? Had the Election Commission not taken an objection this time, probably Varun would not have even realized as to how far he marched in the politics of hatred and invectives.

While the BJP has distanced and dissociated with the remarks as it doesn’t suit their elections and the allies, there are others who are ready to glorify the speech as it fits into their brand of politics. And this is where Varun Gandhi needs to do some introspection over his positioning within the framework of the emerging Indian politics in general and the BJP in particular. He has to understand that the BJP of today is no more the BJP of ‘80s era. It was an altogether different party and culture with no taste to power and only a symbolic Muslim face in the unit, that too in the backseat. The BJP of today has to accommodate with the alliance partners who may not subscribe hard-hitting communal overtones, because of their electoral compulsions in the state politics.

Amateur politicians like Varun Gandhi can easily be made scapegoat to pacify and win back alliance partners like the JD(U) or the BJD. Added to this, there are more Muslim faces in the party like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shahnawaj Hussain, who have tasted power, are vocal and media friendly. They will not feel shy of giving a piece of their mind in the event of communal overtones. Therefore, an ideal positioning for this young and ambitious leader would be that of a sophisticated and educated youth leader, someone who is an alternative to the youth faces within the Congress party.

Changing the political philosophy and overtones of one Varun Gandhi may not cleanse the Indian politics. After all, he represents the mere symptom of a deep rooted malaise. But Varun Gandhi has to make a choice as to whether he wants to reposition himself in the Indian politics and take a leap into New Age politics. May be those roads less traveled by, in the words of Robert Frost, make all the difference in Indian Politics in general and Varun Gandhi’s political fortunes in particular.

Relationship Index and Media

2009-03-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

RELATIONSHIP INDEX AND MEDIA

In an ironical twist of fate, a successful PYT (Pretty Young Thing) has preferred to be worldly wise and hence dumped a lesser mortal boy friend-turned-fiancé. It is true that the conventional wisdom would suggest that the Slumdog Millionaire damsel, Freida Pinto broke off the relation as her world had changed overnight and poor chap did not belong to the new league. After all, a star actress has parted ways with a non-entity whose only claim to fame has been a result of the media probe into the personal life of the actress.

The media obsession with this relationship gone sour actually forced me to discuss the subject with journalist friends, most of them specialists on relationship and gender-specific issues. There is a general consensus that what Freida Pinto did was a logical conclusion after her sudden stardom. Even Deepika Padukone did the same once she realized that her star status and nouveau riche lifestyle is no match to her erstwhile boyfriend with whom she had spent cozy moments thus far and must have repeated promise of dying for each other.

Some of the columnists went to the extent of reminding as to how many successful women, some of them basking with sudden and unexpected glory, did the mistake of marrying a lesser successful men, only to repent and divorce later. Well, I can quote hundreds, if not thousands of couples where one of the partner, women included, suddenly became a superstar in their own given field, but still honoured the commitment to their respective soul mates. But this is not precisely the reason why I wish to challenge the so-called conventional wisdom.

Those who believe a relationship with more successful women can not run smooth are subconsciously advocating a feudal social structure which suggests that “man is for the sword and women for the needle.” Come on guys, why should a relationship be a battle of sexes all the time. It is true that equal rights for women must be ensured in the relationship and beyond. But Ms Pinto’s behaviour reflects a women chauvinism which many of the columnists are justifying in media, all in the name of a fancy notion called feminism. However, it will always remain debatable as to whether this extreme women liberation mindset has actually done any good to the women.

Moreover, it is not that I have taken an exception to Freida Pinto’s worldly wisdom, only to counter the argument that relationship is primarily the battle of sexes. Why I call it an ironical twist of fate is because a relationship which involves a great dose of time, effort and emotion, suddenly becomes a game of mud slinging and dirty linen in public. And for this not only the PYT but her boyfriend is equally, if not more, to be blamed for entertaining the Page 3 sleuths. Equally to be blamed are the bunch of friends for whom a slice of media glare had more value than their own decency and star couple’s personal dignity.

The idea is not to suggest that one should stay in a relationship even when they turn out to be strangers, both socially and emotionally, for any given reason. But then there is always a dignified way of parting ways than using media for character assassination of the person who had been till recently soulmates, at least claimed to be madly in love. A word of advice for all the journalist and columnist friends: it is true that our profession thrives on being unconventional, but what is unconventional can not always be justified too. At least, I have strong objection to let the media and public transgress over an issue that involves time, effort and emotion of two concerned individuals.