Recently wrote an article which was published in HimVani. The way I see, current elections in Himachal were a farce. There was no manifesto and neither the candidates presented their vision for their towns and villages. At best these elections were a big party.
New year and new pursuits
With the beginning of 2011, life has come full circle for me. A journey which started in 1998 of growing out has moved to be of growing within. Back then I was a teenager raring to go out and explore new territories. Leaving behind high mountains and a doting family to find out what I wanted to be.
The journey has been long and eventful. In this period I did loose some loved ones and met some many more loving and affectionate people. No doubt that I can now claim of have friends sitting in every nook and corner of this world. Be it micro finance practitioner in Kenya to a techie in New york or a Doodhwala in AMUL.
Over the years I had dreamt of moving back to Himachal and so I did with a IL&FS in 2007. But it is only now that I have truly started exploring my real dreams of being an entrepreneur. Last few months have been quite exciting and at the same time have tested me as well. From managing HimVani.com,one of the largest read news portals about Himachal to hosting the toughest Mountain Biking Challenge in India and helping start GreenKrafts, a handicrafts based social venture near Dharamshala. Have tried my little bit of contributing to the society in a positive manner.
More recently have been involved with few like minded entrepreneurs to start an IT initiative in Himachal Pradesh. We have some interesting plans for up-skilling the youth in the region and hope to generate employment for many. In the process we probably will end up guiding few youngsters in setting up similar initiatives.
So the task is cut out in front of us and we shall use every second of this year working towards fulfilling our dreams.
Ending this piece on a rather selfish note, I seek your blessings, support and guidance throughout the year.
So wish us luck ! Bon Voyage !
Price comparisons of VOIP telephony operators
VOIP services in India have become legal for quite some time now. Moreover with family and friends staying all over the world reaching out to them is also becoming common. Keeping this in mind I tried to figure out the cheapest possible VOIP service available.
The figures are based on the pricing sheet provided by these service providers on 30th March 2010. The Euro and the Dollar conversion rates into Rupees are also of the same date. Hope this is of some value to my fellow internet users.
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Pricing comparison of VOIP operators (Rs / Min)
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as on 30th March 2010
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| Smart VOIP | Skype | Just VOIP | Webcalldirect | VOIP Buster | vBuzzer | ooVoo | |
| Dubai Landline | 10.12 | 13.92 | 10.12 | 9.15 | 9.01 | 13.52 | 12.62 |
| Dubai Mobile | 10.12 | 13.56 | 10.12 | 5.88 | 12.17 | 13.52 | 12.62 |
| Germany Landline | 0.00 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.35 | 6.76 | 1.08 |
| Germany Mobile | 5.15 | 12.75 | 5.76 | 4.24 | 9.91 | 20.28 | 13.07 |
| India Landline | 0.79 | 4.78 | 2.91 | 1.33 | 9.01 | 6.76 | 4.51 |
| India Mobile | 0.79 | 4.78 | 2.55 | 1.33 | 18.02 | 6.76 | 4.51 |
| Saudi Arabia Landline | 2.55 | 12.71 | 6.49 | 0.97 | 2.48 | 11.72 | 12.17 |
| Saudi Arabia Mobile | 5.39 | 13.70 | 10.12 | 3.94 | 7.21 | 13.52 | 12.17 |
| South Korea Landline | 0.73 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.90 | 9.01 | 1.58 |
| South Korea Mobile | 1.21 | 3.79 | 1.46 | 0.97 | 2.70 | 11.27 | 3.83 |
| Switzerland Landline | 0.36 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.90 | 9.01 | 0.00 |
| Switzerland Mobile | 7.21 | 19.02 | 7.21 | 6.55 | 14.87 | 18.02 | 0.00 |
| US Landline | 0.00 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.01 | 6.76 | 0.90 |
| US Mobile | 0.00 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 9.01 | 6.76 | 0.90 |
Exchange rate
1 Euro = 60.53 INR
1 $ = 45.06 INR
HRTC gets service oriented
The HRTC taxi service in Shimla connecting The Mall with various suburbs of Shimla is a real blessing. Without doubt we should complement the people who designed this service and have made it accessible for common man to reach the Mall. I recently got the taste of the service while travelling from Chakkar. In the past, travelling from areas such as Panthghati, Chakkar, New Shimla to the Mall was always being on a mission.
Imagine you just had your Sunday lunch and now you want to go to the Mall to meet your friends. It certainly is a difficult proposition for lazy bones like mine to getup and catch a bus where in most likely circumstances I will not get a seat. This service atleast gives me a positive reinforcement to execute the plan.
Moreover Rs 20 from New Shimla to the Mall doesn’t seem to be expensive as one would spend more than this amount if travelling in bus or own vehicle. Another first with service is the introduction of electronic ticket vending machine by the corporation. The driver acts as a conductor and provides an electronically printed ticket instead of the pre-printed one which is then punched by the bus conductors.
The transport corporation is now planning to introduce electronic ticketing machines in all its local buses as well as inter-city buses. This would certainly prevent cheating on part of both the conductor and the commuter. The tickets printed from the machine are specific and provide details of fare as well as the name of the destination unlike the old tickets. So a passenger, who does know the cost of journey, cannot be overcharged by the conductor. Similarly a passenger cannot dupe the conductor.
In spite of the upsides there remains apprehensions such as paper roll getting stuck in the machine or how the conductors will provide tickets in over crowded bus running in the Shimla town. Since the new system is yet to be introduced the downsides will come to be known only with time.
Public sector all the way in financial sector
Himachal has recently seen a spate of financial institutions opening offices and branches here. In the past 2 years banks like ICICI, HDFC have opened branches in the major towns of the state. The skylines are dotted with hoarding of insurance companies such as Bajaj Allianz, HDFC Standard Life, Reliance Insurance and Max New York life amongst many others. So are the offices of brokerage and share trading firms like Reliance money and India Infoline. Certainly the people who were once left to deal with public sector behemoths have newer options and opportunities to seek better financial services. But the question here is “Are these private sector firms offering any better services?
The picture is not so rosy when it comes to the service delivery aspect of it. In the last 3 months HimVani team has been hearing stories of customer apathy from many of its readers and citizen journalists. Boudhayan, who had recently moved to Shimla from Delhi wanted to renew his motorcycle’s insurance policy. The last one was issued by Reliance General Insurance in Noida. But he was shocked to find that in spite of having centralised systems the companies branch in Shimla was unable to process the renewal of the policy reason given was that branch did not fall in the same zone as Delhi. The option available to him were to go back to Delhi with his vehicle, get it inspected and then a new policy would have been issued.
Service delivery in private sector bank is no better. On a visit to ICICI bank in Shimla one is bound to find bored to death faces of front desk staff, which is just doing its job rather then creating a customer experience. The latest PR campaign of the bank says that it is well capitalised and has high networth. Well Mr. Kamath, certainly your bank is doing well in financial terms but customers expect good service. The “Hum Hein Na” factor is missing in this part of your operations.
Closer by on the mall road, the branch of HDFC bank is no better. Recently a friend wanted to open an institutional savings account for their society in the bank. She was surprised to find that the staff did not proper knowledge of the product as well as the documentation required for it. An account which normally takes an hour to open in a public sector banks is yet to be opened after chasing bank officials for more then 20 days. At the time of application the bank executives found that the board resolution is not in the format which is acceptable to the bank. However they accepted the application with a promise that they will be able to take approvals from their Cluster Head for the same. Surprisingly the approvals are yet to be taken in spite of chasing the bank executives almost every day.
Surprisingly in the both cases the ray of hope came in the form of the much criticised public sector institutions. Boudhayan who finally went to United General Insurance in Shimla had a new policy issued in one hour . All his paper work, vehicle inspection and processing of papers was done by an agent of the company who did not even charge any money from him. Shilpa got her societies account opened with State bank again in one hour and could put in her first cheque the same day. In both the situations the paperwork was completed and the service delivered at the branch itself. The same would have taken 15 – 20 days in private sector institution as service delivery comes from centralised offices in Mumbai or Gurgaon. It is due to this the HDFC bank executives are still figuring out whether they will get approvals from their bosses or not.
An analysis into the situation shows that in public sector institutions the branch managers have lot more decision making authority. Moreover for them the business is totally dependent of relationships and not on the process. A branch executive in a private sector institution is not confident while committing a service delivery to their clients unlike their counterparts in public sector institutions. Now that most of the public sector institutions are heavily using IT to deliver services through ATM and Online banking the staff is lot freer to offer personal services to customers thus increasing the whole customer experience as well as competition for the private banking and financial institutions.
Hunting a house in Shimla
What happens when at 27 your yet to be father in law expects you to own a house? Quite obvious in love you get into searching mode to find home which not only suits your needs but also matches expectations of your would be and her extended family. A similar scenario recently happened with a friend in Shimla who for past six months has been trying to locate a heavenly abode.
As usual his search began with newspaper advertisements which are rare, few and far in between. Thanks to extremely localised newspapers such as Divya Himachal or Amar Ujala, one does lay hands on few advertisements and with bated breath call up the mobile number to find out the prices. The polite but uncomforting voices from the other side give answers like these. 3 bed room flat in New Shimla is for Rs 26 Lakh. A flat scheme claiming to be 10 min drive from Mall road starts at Rs 30 lakh although I must tell that vehicles cannot be taken to the mall by one and all. A godforsaken one room flat at the far end of housing board colony in Kelston starts at Rs 7 lakh. This is the same price at which the owner bought the flat few years back. A quick check with HIMUDA, the government agency surprises you even more. Their flats in Kasumpti region start at Rs 35 lakh. The real charm of living in Shimla is of living right on the Mall road. However the last advertisement which I happened to see on an online property website quoted a price of more than a crore of rupees for a property near the mall.
If finding a land or a flat with few hours of sunshine was not enough a challenge then dealing with property dealers certainly is. The major issue in finding the right property in Shimla is that there is no proper mechanism of price discovery. A property dealer remarked that one will get the best deal if property dealers are not involved. If a property dealer gets to hear of a deal which does not involve them they will ensure that seller will jack up the prices beyond the buyers capacity and the deals would never materialise. There are properties around the town which are waiting to be sold but the prices are too inflated.
By the end of all this, one starts wondering is it worth a place to shell out prices equivalent to housing schemes in Faridabad and Ghaziabad. After all Shimla beyond mall road is just a heap of garbage, most of it is sinking under its own weight and the dust looms large belittling the town which claims to be capital of one of greenest states in the country. Moreover the price escalation will not be as quick as one sees in the NCR region. So one wonders is it the right time to invest in a property in Shimla. Well the answer lies in long queues of people lining up at SBI Shimla to file applications for DDA scheme in Delhi.
Pilgrimage to Dhule
It took us 6 years for our college friends to come toegther on this August 15th. Well the pilgrimage as I term this journey lasted 2 days and we did not realise that it was time to leave. There were 10 of us who managed to reach Dhule from Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Pune and Shimla. It felt good to see the familiar faces who we had almost forgotten. Most of us had added few kilos to our weight so it may have been possible that if we were to meet randomly many of us would not have even recognised each other.
The city has changed a bit in the last 6 years but college seems to be as we left it. All building but somewhere the soul of an educational institute is missing. The vibrance which we felt when were there is simply not there anymore. The diversity of crowd during our times is also minimal. Dhule however has a new Adlabs theate (Remember Manohar, it has been bought out and converted with AC and Electronic signages like a multiplex). Roads now have dividers so less of chaos. Ganpati no longer has the swimming pool and the clientle is also not there. Prabhakar still shows films with dancing lights during song sequences. Poornima it seems now serves the best food in town.
College campus has a new computer lab however the hostels are in shambles. The toilets in the main building are without water. The only addition has been a drinking water facility in every floor. We were told that new faculty has been recruited but retaining them is an issue. Rs 1.5 Lakh is the going rate for taking admission in the college and the admissions this year are touching near 200. More money for the Gangamai Society but little is being done to improve the basics.
The good thing was that the college took the initiative to welcome its alumni to the campus on 16th August. A small felicitation function was organised where we all got an opportunity to share our career paths with students and faculty. The college authorities also planned to setup an alumni body for which an annual fund of Rs.25000/- have been earmarked by the college administration. There was also a proposal to organise a large alumni reunion to be funded by the college.
As expected the weather was good. It rained on all the days but it was a slow drizzle. The whole area green and welcoming. Somehow the people seemed to be more welcoming then what it used to be 10 years back. Duttamandir to has lost its charm. There are very few students staying in PG’s and rooms on rent in the area. Tri Murti (TMT) still exists and so does the chai ki tapris. Maurya still serves meals but the upkeep is really bad.
Overall a very memorable trip. Wish there were few more people who just could not reach due to last minute cancellations. I have uploaded photos and videos at my end. They are available at
Water Water Everywhere
Come summer’s and you are bound to find “Water water everywhere†especially if you happen to reside in Dev Bhoomi’s own capital Shimla. Well if by any chance you are thinking of owning an accommodation or travelling to hill station, kindly be aware that you will get into situation and think about “Water water everywhereâ€. As reader you are confused as to what I am trying to convey. Well I am talking about a city which once boasted of being the summer capital of India and today hosts one of the largest populations of tourists travelling to any destination in this country in summers. However the city as of today is running dry. So if you are honeymooner travelling to Shimla, you might get a rude shock at the hotel when staff at the reception tells you “Sir, there was no water supply last night so kindly use water cautiously†meaning you just have water for bare essentials. Continue reading “Water Water Everywhere”
Garbage queen Shimla amongst garbage capped mountains of Himachal
Thinking of Shimla, Dharamshala or Manali will lead you to think of snow covered peaks, green and pollution free environs. Let’s get the record straight as most of these hill stations in Himachal will welcome you with tonnes of garbage lying along the streets or thrown along the crevices in forests. The local newspapers write every other day about the crisis like situation in Shimla with respect to garbage disposal. Few days back Nityin a blogger from Shimla raised this issue in his blog. The issue is being raised constantly but a solution is no where in sight.It will be unfair to put the complete blame on the government or Municipal Corporation. A fortnight ago, I saw a young worker of the municipality cleaning the road near bus stand in Shimla at 5:30 in the morning with temperature down to -9 degree Celsius. I distinctly remember him using a broom with bare hands. A news article in one of the prominent Hindi news daily, mentioned about the shortage of staff for keeping Shimla clean. Continue reading “Garbage queen Shimla amongst garbage capped mountains of Himachal”
Brocolli revolution in Himachal; brothers from Mahunag show way
By: Varun Rattan Singh
Often we hear people saying in Himachal: “Nothing can be done hereâ€. These words have been abused to an extent that the very idea has become firmly engraved in minds of young people in Himachal. The basic idea of Young Guns column at HimVani, here is to break this thought process. So far, the kind of youngsters the column has covered, come from a city background with families to support them. The story, which follows is, of a novel and noble idea pursued from fancy to reality by two brothers belonging to a remote village in Himachal Pradesh.
Mahunag is a small village located on the periphery of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The nearest town is Karsog which is roughly 35 km from the village. Like most of the villages in the state, the civil infrastructure is well in place. Mahunag has a High School with nice small playground. There was even an eco-tourism club in the school. Other amenities such as drinking water supply, 24 hours electricity, forest rest house, rural telecom exchange, bus service, health centre are well in place. The visible signs of development were attributed to two local politicians, Mansa Ram and Mast Ram. Both belong to rival political parties and did their bit for the constituency when voted to power.
Continue reading “Brocolli revolution in Himachal; brothers from Mahunag show way”