It is IDEA-vodaFONE now!! New-born delight or old-dog survival?

Mergers are never an easy option for any company. It is a headache for both the employees and the owners. The employees are apprehensive whether they will be laid off or not. The owners worried about the market reception of such a move. But each knows that it is inevitable. The recent merger of Aditya Birla group and Vodafone India is an expected move. 

  

Vodafone was one of the market leaders in Indian telecom industry and was only rivaled by the likes of Airtel, Reliance or state-owned BSNL. Idea was quite popular in some places in the country but not as expansive as Vodafone. But the recent entry of Jio has shaken these two by their very core. The free voice calling and data-centric marketing of Jio has shrinked the market place for the other players in the telecom industry and disrupted the industry practices. Jio wishes to redefine the industry in its own terms by using a data-centric approach. But the traditional telecom industry has always viewed voice calls as the primary source of income.

These are hard times and hard times call for desperate moves. Vodafone is merging its Indian telecom arm with Idea to battle the Jio catastrophe. It is selling about 14% of its stake to Idea in a time of three years to allow Idea an equal stake of around 35%. The resultant venture would be run by Mr. Kumar M Birla with a CFO from Vodafone’s side and a CEO by mutual consent. This would make the telecom industry to be ruled by 4 big players namely Idea-Vodafone, Bharti-Airtel, Reliance Jio and BSNL.

But what can bring them back into the game? The brand had two distinct personalities and the new merged venture needs to present itself as a new fresh look. This is just the same difference between a new-born baby wonder and an octagenerarian who had a bypass surgery. People will have a delight to receive a new-born baby. The CEO will be responsible for the image upheaval in the market. A merger can be a double-edged sword. It depends on the use whether it hurts your opponent or you.  

Is Jio encouraging Internet consumption or addiction?

Time and again invaders and dictators have used their power to usurp the power of expression from people. They have taken away natural resources that have been the fundamental right of a person. A person has to pay for them. In this age of technological revolution, Reliance has come up with a new policy to enslave the Internet surge. Jio was the brainchild of Mukesh Ambani who calculated the potential of the rising number of users of Internet in India. He thinks that by being the first person to launch Jio 4G technologies in India he can make Indians addicted to the Jio experience. The initial bounty of free offers and unlimited bandwidth attracted the maximum number of unique customers to Jio. Then after the bounty period is over the people will have been quite used to the brand of Jio. This will make them pay for the usage and thus increase the usage. 

 

Internet speed and Internet consumption are just two sides of a coin. As one increases the other one also increases. People who are just concerned about the service will never understand this relation. But slowly the average consumption of a person will increase three to four times more than his current consumption. This will make them spend more on the Internet usage per day as compared to the current expenditure.

To understand this, consider a person who smokes one cigar a day at the price of a cigarette for 3 months. After the bounty period the seller can charge him the actual value of the cigar and the person will spend it. He will never think about smoking a cigarette again because he’s used to the cigar. In fact in some cases the person under consideration can also increase his consumption.

In this age of Internet proliferation even the United Nations has declared the Internet as a fundamental right of the people. Nations like Estonia and Lithuania are known for their free Public Wifi Internet. Why is then India the world’s largest democracy in the world paying for its Internet consumption? Possibly it is because the people never think of it. They never realize that Internet has now become like air and water. Will you pay everyday for breathing oxygen? But this can only be understood by the future technologies that are coming up. Like the Internet of Things, which will change the way data is used. But these are later things. Primary is to realize that it is time that Internet becomes free like an open source platform which is only under one surveillance and that is the government and not any corporates.

Cigar or cigarettes either are going to burn; or can people get away with these? But in the end the choice should be that of the people.

 

IPL is the new Cricket Arena

Cricket was not merely a sport for Indians. It was even more important than all other sports including our national sport Hockey and other sports like Kabaddi and Wrestling. The passion in the minds of people exuded and competed with those of religions. Even religion lost its ground when a match of India and Australia or South Africa was played.

But the latest test series against Australia proves otherwise. The Indian team which was in their best form was destroyed by the guest team on our own soils. But why a team- which is in their best form would, be bounced over by another team. Virat Kohli getting gutted early in the match is not something that is well understood, particularly when people say that he has been in the best form ever. What is going wrong? Are the stars not good for the Indian team? Or the Aussies have suddenly become too good for us? Well there are many explanations to it, depending on our imaginations. Another guess is the IPL series that is starting in April of this year.

Any IPL season the players are not part of any nation; rather a part of a club and that reduces the stress and tension on the players. They have a better audience to showcase their skills. The IPL arena is likely that of a typical Roman arena where each warrior has a different showmanship. This arena will not only generate recognition for him but also build his personal brand. It will increase viewers for his performance in non-IPL matches as well and also ensure a good bidder for himself during the next season of IPL the following year.

 

The players will definitely get more time for the IPL and also not lose their form. They will get an audience who was bored by the cold test series with Australia and will get more thrilled to see players at their best form playing for IPL clubs. The players’ best form will ensure a steady flow of people into the stadiums. This is where the players will be showcasing their real form, and not in an ICC stadium. The IPL has redefined the very word of cricket.

The time of the year after the IPL will be the time when the players will go back to playing for their national teams and I am sure Virat Kohli and his team will sure work the rivals after the IPL. Do we hear anybody saying, “See you after the season”?

Well, the people who throng into the stadium to watch an IPL sure get bored with the same song playing in the background. The marketing team of IPL will be out of options to promote the series with a new look that looks promising even to deceive the people into thinking that this season is a fresh theme.

I think it’s time to think of hosting the IPL in alternate years rather than consecutive years. This will not only prevent the brand from diluting its value but also prevent lack of performance in national cricket. After all we must remember that these players did come out of national teams.