So whats in a name you ask! Amazon believes there’s so much to  it. By the looks of the logo and the sound of the name, it conveys the amazon-ness of the venture and its wasn’t bad after a visit to the site. A check on the history of junglee.com reveals, Amazon as early as 1998 had thought of entering India. Just kidding a reading of this article makes it evident that they had bought out Junglee way back in 1998 when it was a database technology company in Sunnyvale.

Now there is a Indianess to the name Junglee, what could it mean and would you be interested to do the trek in there? Looks like they are working around the law especially the one Mamata Didi didn’t want that of the FDI in retail. A visit to Junglee.com was pretty interesting, they had done a good home work and the design was minimalist and clean white space used to the optimum.

They had my attention, there are enough department – oh departmental stores sort of.  They had everything under the sun, not the kind of launch that we normally see when they tell you we are working to get more for you.  So I click on the featured departments thinking it would make my work easy.

It does to a great extent and I could use any of the departments to narrow down and make my purchase. As I concentrate there were these two small font sized line “Starting at ” and “Offers from” which gave the least price and how many people are selling…made me thinking if I had entered a aggregator site. I click on one of my favorite books and get an awesome pricing… but wait, there is Indiaplaza but no Flipkart and no Infibeam… we almost had an aggregator to tell us the best pricing on a title.

Now its also a store for some already existing brands, I got to see the featured sellers on this page during my trek at Junglee.com! A lot of names one of the big south based cellphone retailer Universal Mobiles, Snapdeal etc were present. Now this is a killer idea to get even those on ground to go online and you dont have to think about your branded online store and you get much better credibility than that of an auction site read ebay. Only time will tell how it will work out. It will take long for us to identify with this style of ecommerce model.

The question here is  how will the customer perceive the product will it be just the price factor, will he look at premium products at all, Indian scenario will sure be the lesser the price the higher the hits. Though these are early days, Amazon by virtue of its brand has a big following and now it will be interesting to watch how the existing players read – Flipkart.com and Infibeam.com slug it out with Junglee.com.

In a way the launch has now stopped the much often repeated “when is Amazon gonna launch” and lo they are here. By being a platform to start with they wanted to play it safe, you know you need to crack the most important ‘Delivery model’ for this place called India. So I thought I should search for Amazon’s own product Kindle, here too it directed me to Amazon.com, India specific site details where they said they have started shipping to India now. If you are ordering over US$ 100, it doesn’t have extra shipping charges.

So it has now come to India officially, and bet interesting times are ahead. One more doubt linger on will they also have Amazon.in in the near future . But I am sure in all this one person is sure to win, the Indian online consumer who will now be spoilt for choice and the best in customer service will win hands down. As of now, Junglee.com will work only for the comparison part of the pricing and holds no repsonsibility for deliveries, a bit disappointed that we cant experience Amazon delivery.

As I was about to log out, I saw this line in small thin font… “We help you discover over 1.2 crore products. You choose where to buy!” They almost got one product for almost 10% of the our population!  Now that’s a really ambitious target anyday! Or one for every active internet user which ever way you look at it.

Well about the name Junglee,  Indians can easily identify with it for the desi version of Amazon. Our forefathers were living in forests if you go by Darwin, and Amazon would wants you to take a trip except that this is all virtual.

R Senthilkumar

(Thats Me with Daniel Ricciardio at RBR Speed Street in Delhi!)

I am keeping a promise that I made to myself and this is a beginning of writing about the F1 Teams and the drivers regularly. This year the F1 circus is going to be really huge and we can start imagining that there will be a real contest on the cards. Unless of course that the guys at McLaren and Ferrari don’t take themselves seriously.

The way the seats got filled so early is a good pointer, there are at least a couple of seats undecided as I write this, nevertheless its a heave of sigh for quite a young set of people and of course quite an old set of people – read Pedro La Rosa it is now a settled affair.

The most important point here would be that its is becoming a sort of champions round akin to what we have in our National Racing Championship. All the champions are there when you have Kimi also joining in, it will be fun to watch. I am only sad that Adrian has not been confirmed yet and would be forced to comment if they came together at a corner or if any of them were to be racing together at some point in a race. I wish Webber and Massa also had a chance to be champions so almost half of the grid would be champions.

Now lets see how they stack up, Red Bull  remains the same team, and we should only be looking at their style and they can be a great team in the making, I am talking long term. If one team which has the potential to be a threat to Ferrari fan base in the long run without being in the motorsports business, trust me it could be only Red Bull. Not because I was the official blogger, but you should know the branding that Red Bull is capable of and how they were on top in both the forms of racing today – the circuit and the forests, I mean the racing and the rallying they have been there. They are building a loyal fan base, if you have doubt check out their Facebook page with 25 million likes and almost a million people talking about it.

Just check out this article which underlined how Red Bull has now really become the content and media in a way that they are doing a great job of most importantly selling the energy drink. I have been associated with the brand up close, and some of the branding association and the branding on ground is pretty close to the energy drink literally. Take the case of the Red Bull Racing Cans, the students get to make cars out of Red Bull cans and get to do a race like event with trials, qualifying and the race. For the first time when I watched, I didnt know they had a final with all the cars on the grid! In a way as one participant pointed out you had to control the remote very well and aerodynamics can wait, still it was fun to see the cars going all over and you know how they get stuck in a corner and et all. And there are appeals to the Marshals and Chief stewards after the results are announced.

Then the best one happened when I was with Team Red Bull Racing at Khardung La, running an F1 car at 18,380 feet above MSL to be precise is not everyone’s idea of owning an F1 team. Here’s how they make themselves heard and they are loud about that when they do it.

To top it all they had their Kart Fight this season in India. Its a nice way to be there, and I know for sure what they are capable of, setting the trend as they did a few weeks before the Inaugural GP blazing the road at the India Gate.

Once Yohann Setna in a conversation long ago had said, ‘You wont be surprised if you can see Red Bull on anything that moves, motorsports in particular, and most important they have only one product!’

If you can add up all these, they are slowly building up the momentum to be the franchise that everyone would want to associate with. And you can easily do it with so much of action on the ground and off the ground, at the races, rallies and even in the Himalayas!

On the other hand they have a formidable Young Drivers Program, and that’s getting really into the mode. Daniel Ricciardio who will drive for STR is a Red Bull prodigy in their terminology. You get to be the best under Red Bull.

Now back to the teams, Mc Laren and Ferrari  have so much at stake atleast start pretneding to be guys, and make a match, while 2011 was boring except a couple of races, we need to see some down to the last race happening this year in 2012. Would be interesting to see someone fail me in that aspect.

Button will continue in his form and Lewis will try a resurrection from the bad times he has had on track and his personal life. Fernando and Massa will be watched eagerly by all the F1 fans and that eventually means Ferrari fans at large.

Then there is Mercedes, with Schumi and Nico they are trying hard and probably they were the ones who tried hard last year. Lotus Renault, we can call them with full honours with the other Renault becoming Caterham, will love to see them challenge the guys on top. Will wait to see  how Kimi a part owner too, will play his part and make it happen, we are for sure in for some real fast entertainment. The Iceman is back as an owner/driver at Lotus Renault.

Down the order we have, Force India – Sahara Force India to be honest, only wondering if the Kingfisher’s problem should not rub off on to the team, its been an excellent progress to date for the team. Though I would have loved this team to have an Indian driver in Narain or Karun, I am sceptical of Mallya approving my idea. On that front, I think the erstwhile Lotus Renault did make us look bad when they didnt put Karun in for Indian race giving Mallya a big boost for his idea of Indian drivers not being upto the mark.

Then there is Williams, where are the glorious days Mr. SFW? But I have the highest regards for such an independent team on the grid, lets hope they get some pace and make themselves heard.

Sauber, our Amul’s Brand car if I may call it and then HRT, STR and Marussia to complete the list.

Personally sad to see Sir Richard Branson leave, he is my entrepreneurial hero away from the tech world.

Will write about the teams and the drivers in details in the posts to come.

Till then signing off!

R Senthilkumar

(Indian F1 fan)

Source: WhatsOutt.com

Announces two more industry heavy weights as keynote speakers along with the global execs from PepsiCo and comScore

ad:tech, world’s No.1 Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising event, has announced that the upcoming event in February next year will live up to its promise of being bigger and better. The first Indian edition of ad:tech held earlier this year was hugely oversubscribed with as many as 2500 delegates attending the event. With the promise of getting bigger, better, and bolder, the second edition will feature more number of tracks and sessions in the conference, a larger exposition area, and will be held over three days instead of two days. ad:tech New Delhi 2012 will also showcase more than 80 industry stalwarts as speakers, including 7 ground breaking keynotes.

ad:tech New Delhi has announced a lineup of  global thought leaders as keynotes for the 2012 edition including Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages and Gian M. Fulgoni, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, comScore, Inc. Arvind Rajan,  Managing Director & Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn, and Kent Wertime, Chief Operating Office, Ogilvy Asia Pacific and also President and Representative Director, Ogilvy & Mather (Japan) K. K.

Commenting on ad:tech New Delhi 2012 Rammohan Sundaram, Event Chairman, ad:tech India and Founder, CEO & Managing Director, Networkplay Media Pvt Ltd. said “Just like the last edition, we promise to make ad:tech New Delhi 2012 a confluence of leading global digital marketing experts. The event will cater to the best in marketing, advertising, digital, media and communications industries to empower organizations with knowledge to adapt to the ever changing digital marketing ecosystem. With continued growth in technology and use of social media, the event will present an interactive platform for marketers to discuss and share strategies that will shape the digital landscape of tomorrow.”

The agenda for ad:tech New Delhi 2012 includes two parallel tracks of insightful panel discussions with 18 sessions conducted by experts from the advertising, media and marketing industry. “It is ad:tech New Delhi’s earnest attempt to provide an ideal networking platform for like-minded professionals to facilitate meaningful conversations to explore new avenues in the digital advertising arena,” adds Ram.

The last edition in April 2011 included presentations by global experts like Babs Rangaiah, VP Global Communications Planning Unilever, Yahoo’s CMO, Elisa Steele, Google’s India MD, Rajan Anandan, among several others. It was at ad:tech New Delhi 2011 that David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations officially announced that the social networking site Facebook had crossed 25 million users in India.

As the book arrived, I was looking at the cover, already familiar with the image, I was expecting a college fest and a romantic saga and may be some fashion statement to be made. To start with this is a story of a girl and slice of her first career spanning over 3 months or so.

As I started reading the first few pages, it was a bit different in the sense the narrator of the story herein Saumya lands up at a Steel Plant, for her first job after her MBA. Thus the setting had gone for a toss for Saumya who had thought of a corporate career in a five star setup or atleast in a city environment. So welcome to Toranagallu.

Once there, she is taken by surprise at the being so rural and has no choice but to appreciate the positives wherever she could think about. She has no other go but decides to make amends and starts liking the place on some of the most appreciable things she comes face to face in life.

At her age and in a male dominated workplace, she is a sort of out of place. She takes the challenge head on and makes head turn literally at all places so much so at one instance a worker fatally falls in Sulphuric acid.  The storyline also has some characters in Malappa, Amit and her boss.

Another character who influences Saumya is one Shubro who she accidentally meets when she is on her leisure trip to Hampi. Though we get to see some glimpses of Shubro at their meeting and a bit of his past, it is not until he comes into her life while she decides to quit the company.

What we see in the rest of the story is a blossoming and untold love between these two and may they think the other would make the first move.

In all this there are characteristic display of wantonness of being the person they are, the author takes liberty in portraying their weakness too.  On the other side he makes it up with some of the most positives we tend to normally ignore because we take them for granted or may be we see it as we already knew this person was going to be so.

Saumya gets a chance to impress her peers as also Shubro in his time at the social club when he changes the life of almost 10,000 people in this tiny village in Karnataka.

Shubro lives by what he calls ‘Lets move on’ theory a fascinating aspect in reality because we would love to do it, and it keeps him from staying at one place, but as we see it it clear in the later part, he is there to make the change that he wants.

So we get to see how they were so close yet far.

In the end we get to see Saumya make up her mind and taking off to live what Shubro had believed in as his dream and reality.

Its a fast paced book, but then there are breaks which the reader doesn’t quite expect, the blog at the end is a bit long, and thats too late for the reader to say something so important about the character.

A nice read and I dont know if the readers think the characters are different from who they are since all the youngsters, given a chance could tread Saumya’s path without blinking an eye.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Qutub Minar is old and so thought of rendering it in B&W! and here’s the album!

Qutub Minar in Black & White

And the slide show here for you:

So to my new found love, photography goes this post! Tried my hand at India Gate in the night, not bad I shud say!

And here’s the slide show:

Well, the inaugural Airtel Indian GP was a run away success by any international standards. It has been in the waiting for almost three years and we were still unsure of how it was going to unfold given the niceties that we encounter with a popular government issuing diktats to the organizers everytime something big was going to happen.

Ask Narain Karthikeyan who was all smiles after his completing the full race without any hitch, it was surreal as he had quoted. It was always a ‘will this ever happen in India’ question for people like him. They had their reasons, Narain the pioneer in F1 in India broke many a shackles when he became the first F1 driver in 2005 with Jordan F1. It was a result of his commitment, unwavering confidence that led him to his seat, not to miss the sponsors who saw the potential in his abilities.

Things had changed fast after that, the Indian GP dream was unfolding and it was almost three years of waiting for the calendar to be finalized and what we saw when it was unveiled was really the best of infrastructure and a track the country could be proud of. It was a great moment for us when the country stood for the National Anthem before the race started.

It was also a great moment when we saw Narain Karthikeyan race for HRT though it was one off race. The car had Hero (Hero Motocorp) written on the rear wing, and Narain was the Hero in fact of this show. Karun who was also expected to race had a disappointment at the last moment and it was really tough for the Indian fans to miss another Indian on the grid. F1 has been a business driven sport and it can hand harsh and stricter business decisions like this one.

Micheal Schumacher and Narain won the crowd as one commentator said Vettel too deserved the applause and the standing that Schumacher and Narain rightly deserved.

So the Friday we could see that the place was dusty and the rack was dirty when the first MRF Championship support race started, Hormadz Sorabjee tweeted saying its so dirty and the cars are all over the track.

So this being a new track and like someone in my stand said, this has been a [addy field so you are bound to see lot of dust.

The big moment was the first practice and literally a dog had its day when it forced a red flag. Welcome to Indian GP and the first red flag was due to a stray dog on the track and it took almost five minutes to actually drive it off the track.

As the laughter subsided there were talks about how even Turkey had its dog moment. But in Indian context this was not a big deal if you ask me. Its not uncommon that we find animals in the roads on a lighter note.

The drivers said the same thing, its like very tough and very dirty and you had to take the racing line and you miss it the track will punish you for that. But over all they had praise for the track and new challenge for them and it was a proud moment for the Jaypee Group and thye had definitely put India on the world sporting map. Some lessons for the govt how a private enterprise can pull off such a big event given the much needed logistic support. You will fail if you don’t praise the road leading to the track I am sure the people who drove would have touched easily the max on their car without any problem, this road Yamuna Expressway was a track for the driver in you. The road signs had the people drive in perfectly to the destination.

Ofcourse the final day and the second day the traffic woes did remain a matter of concern since all roads were leading to the track. These are early days and the organisers will ofcourse look into the issues in the long term.

As the Friday practice concluded there was a big sigh of relief for everything went well no hccups no untoward incidents except ofcourse a Marussia Virgin car was involved in a crash when the rear suspension gave way.

The Qualifying was a good one with Red Bull team making it known that they were very much in the business after having collected both the trophies for themselves, the drivers and constructors championship. On the other hand the race for the second place in driver’s championship was going to be really competitive with Webber, Button and Alonso and Hamilton in the fray.

In the end Red Bull making it to the pole was sweetest moment for me as a Red Bull Official Blogger and ofcourse we did see the P1 stance from Sebastian Vettel. It is ofcourse a bit boring since nobody is challenging that anyways, still I did predict this quite long back. It was a matter of fact that the track would easily help the reigning champions.

As we would close the day, the Indian star Narain Karthikeyan would have a bit of disappointment when he was penalized for blocking Schumacher on his flying lap, Narain commented ‘there is just a single racing line, how will we give in?’ it didn’t earn him anything better and the race day he started last.

It was an anticlimax again when he started last from the grid. But on the drivers parade he led form the front and the crowd were all smiles and were cheering him as he strode gallantly in a classic vintage and the other drivers followed suit. It was great to see them in nice vintage cars. The loudest of cheers was reserved for guess who, Micheal Schumacher. I would love to put on record we grew up with F1 knowing his exploits on track and F1 for quite some time was Micheal Schumacher and now turning to be Sebastian Vettel, the common factor that they share being German nationals.

The race was a great starter akin in a dinner course, but it was going to be expected result when Sebastian Vettel went on to make the historic win for the inaugural Indian GP. It’s going to be in the history book of motorsports for ever. That’s what every driver looks to do and Sebastian was perfect that weekend. Narain finished 17^th in what he could term as the historic moment for Indian motorsports in front of a home crowd and in front of his family to be precise. All his family had come to watch him race in India a moment we had all been waiting for.

The race winner Sebastian Vettel received the trophy from the Honourable Chief Minister Mayawati.

Absolutely perfect weekend no issues to ponder, on the track and kudos to Team Jaypee led by its CEO Sameer Kaur, and its mentor J P Kaur. The event had sealed its place for the coming years as an exciting destination for F1 circus.

All compliments are also due to the Uttar Pradesh Govt  who joined Jaypee Group in making this a grand success.

Indian F1 Fan

Not so often do we get to click those people in power, but during the recent trip to Khardung-La, Mr Omar Abdullah obliged with this shot for me! thanks a lot Mr. Chief Minister!

Excellence & winning is never an accident! I saw this in a different vein and this would encapsulate the whole experience for me! I have always seen F1 from a team perspective and it would get into everyone right from the driver to the mechanic to contribute to the team’s success.

This day would be the day of reckoning for the team and forget not this has been a hardwork and a culmination of smart work over the last six months. And as we inch closer to the pinnacle, its becoming more challenging.

The South Pullu experience has taught the team that we need to check the engine as we get closer to the summit. So at every capable distance they stopped the car and check the engine and lo it went to life without any murmur of dissent.

As we were on our way we had a pleasant surprise in Honourable Mr. Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. He was kind enough to do a symbolic flag off on the way and later would meet us at the Summit – The Khardung La Pass!

A note about the Chief Minister, a very attractive personality and a very enthusiastic individual he was mesmerized by the machine he saw and took all out effort to familiarize about it from Neel Jani.

So As I stood watching Neel explain his all important Steering wheel, Mr. Abdullah was all eyes and ears to what Neel was saying.

‘It’s a kind of your PSP steering wheel, you have controls and shift paddles here, ( he was showing all the knobs and paddles) but the only thing is if you make a mistake in your PSP there wont be any problem but here in you do a mistake it will be costly!’ said Neel.

That made Mr. Abdullah laugh and he was pleasantly surprised with the fact that Red Bull chose his state for its record feat and went on to say it was sort of unbelievable and incredible to see an F1 car on hilly road in the Kashmir valley!

This is what the Honourable chief Minister  had to say ‘Its great fun! it was an incredible experience. I never thought I would get to see an F1 car attempting to make its way through Khardung La! Hats off to Red Bull Racing for doing this.  All the best!’

The Tourism Minister, and the Director of Tourism were also accompanying him, and not miss his young nephews who were also enjoying the car.

You would also want to remember Neel’s friend and the No.1 driver at Red Bull will seal the Title Championship at Japan today. Just one point separated him from being the youngest 2 time World Champion.

Its always nice to be a part of history when being made, you have years on to keep going back and reminiscence those moments.

Yes I forgot to mention something important, it had snowed all night and the way now was all snow and it was looking pretty white everywhere. Akshar even tried playing snow ball, and Tomaz was shelling his snow ball on all the windscreens whenever we had to stop to a convoy or an upcoming traffic.

Our trucks were well on their way to Khardungla after Neel had done some 15000 plus feet on the car and the roads were getting slippery and the tyres were changed for better.

Just as we were getting near the summit there was a huge traffic jam, no it was not Delhi but this happens when there is a truck or a vehicle trapped on the road and you had to travel all the way down to get spares or even repair the puncture.

Somehow after almost an hour we reached the place, it was so colorful with the stupa in there. There were prayer flags fluttering around thought the temperature was really below zero degrees, we could sense that but in the heat of the moment literally we forgot that we were in minus 12 degree out there.

To tell you more before I conclude this marathon blog, there are several places of interest you should visit once you are on this Khardung La. There is this cafeteria nice one dishing out Maggi and tea to everyone. It is awesome feeling to taste their Maggi at such altitude. The tea would also taste sweet and turn cold if you thought about something for a moment.

There was a souvenir shop and you should buy something for the simple reason you were there. It would have the Khardung La name on it. A super special memorable gift to oneself if you want it.

The camera crew was now buzzing around so too were the Team RBR. They had just checked the car just some 2 kms away to start and they had been positive about it and so the were only looking to clear the logistics around the truck and were waiting to clear the traffic which had gathered as a result of us being there.

It took some time to clear the traffic and make some clean road for the F1 car to be driven by Neel. Meanwhile Neel was also enjoying this time chit chatting with engineers and the crew. He would give in to any request for a picture and be on his wonderful smile.

So the traffic cleared but the winds weren’t happy though, it started snowing, and it was getting cold  all the more. We were there and we didn’t want to be outdone by external factors, so we kept working and the whole team waited with bated breath when the car was started up. It got into full drive mode and Neel went on to drive one of the most memorable drives which will lead him to history as the one who drove the first F1 car atop the highest motorable road in the world at 18380 ft to be precise.

It was a moment to cherish for everyone from Team RBR, the Case productions and ofcourse the Team Red Bull India.

As the car came to a halt, it was celebrations galore with team cheering up Neel on this mission and making it successful, there were hugs around and for me it was one of the high points in life, literally and more so emotionally, its been a great run with F1 in indirect terms with watching races and writing blogs and reaching out, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I shall report one of the most challenging F1 project ever undertaken from a team as respected as Red Bull and I shall be so close to the making of history.

Now was the time for photo ops, the cameras were on roll and the shutters didn’t stop. The team was estatic, they had made the best of engineering possible to fire the engine at such altitude and also had a formula for the fuel to make it happen.

The ride height being raised was one of the factor I had already talked about, but on the other hand the fuel was 97 octane petrol and a new engine management software took care to manage the fuel mixture the ratio of fuel to air in order to compensate for less oxygen.

Anthony Ward, Head of Brand for Red Bull Racing said, “It is a testament to the engineering crew of Red Bull Racing that we have been able to get a Formula One car running from 11,000 feet, all the way up to the 18,380 feet mark. Logistically too, this project demonstrates Red Bull Racing’s commitment to continually pushing boundaries.”

For Tony Burrows, The Team Head, they had done exceedingly well in a sense they got the car to start without a hitch at that altitude and it was a great day at office for the whole team.

For 27 year old Neel Jani, veteran of drives like Red Bull Racing’s journey to Table Mountain in South Africa, this was an experience he’s unlikely to forget in a hurry. “Of all the places I’ve driven around the world, Khardung La has got to be the most humbling. The Himalayas are as imposing as anything in the world and to become a part of history here will be a cherished memory,” said Jani.

The Red Bull Speed Street Leh project marks another milestone for Red Bull Racing; it joins the team’s other impressive runs, including the Formula Santo Domingo Beach Run and the Canadian Red Bull Frozen One on ice.

As for me it was a culmination of what was a dream come true, not so often do you get your chances of being at the summit, with an F1 car and a team which literally gives you Wings. The Team Red Bull.

Signing off

R Senthilkumar