Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Inspiration ??

Saw this UBS advertisement in the Wall Street Journal ..........One of the biggest bank in the world wants tenacity of a Sherpa ........................................................


garbage disposal in Kathmandu .....Can Khate enterprise be a solution

What Sucks ?

  1. Kathmandu Metropolitan city has 31 tippers, four loaders and two excavators to collect and dispose of garbage. Of these, 15 tippers, three loaders, two dozers, three loaders and one excavator are not functional. Shortage of vehicles and equipment, coupled with bad roads to the dumping site, has added to the problem in collecting and disposing of the garbage. click here to read more
  2. People living around landfill sites have been stopping garbage trucks for any number of reasons, even trivial ones. click here to read more
  3. Nearly 400 metric tonne garbage is generated in the Capital daily and it takes two weeks to properly manage garbage.click here to read more
Possible solution ?

Affordable Ambulance

What Sucks ?
Ambulances operated by various cooperatives and social organizations in the capital are charging excessive fares.

“As per the rules, an ambulance can charge only Rs 20 per kilometer from patients,” Indira Pandey, focal person of the committee, said adding, “But ambulances are charging patients as much as they can.”

Solution ???
To learn about the pricing strategy of dial1298,start watching the clip from 3 minutes....... interesting revenue stream ,however, I not sure how they deal with the "free rider problem" ??

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Tata nano - not serving the Nepali bottom of the pyramid market ...


Tata nano's price in Nepal is 5 X compared to the price in India . GNI per capita in India is $1220 compared to GNI per capitaof $440 in Nepal ... Tata should stop calling nano a" people's car "




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Time Magazine 2007


Tata hopes the Nano will help millions of poor people around the world — the "Bottom of the Pyramid" in developing world marketing-speak —switch from two wheels to four.

A lot is riding on the the world's cheapest car. In the words of Ratan Tata, chairman of the company behind the upstart econobox, India's "People's Car" will be a "safe, affordable, all weather vehicle for a family which is today traveling on a two wheeler." The entry level model is ticketed at just over $2,500 — or the equivalent of 100,000 rupees or one Lakh — a revolutionary price where the average lower middle class income is $200 a month.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702264,00.html#ixzz1Wl4DR2B9
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Car Advice December 2010
Tata sales in India are steady, with the company reporting a monthly increase of one percent. The company sold just 509 examples of its Tata Nano however, down from October’s 3065 units.It may be the world’s cheapest car but it has had its fair share of problems since its debut in 2008. More recently it has been involved in a number of fire incidents. Reports of the vehicle catching fire were made which forced India’s largest private company to retrofit safety devices to them. click here to read more

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Times of India, June 2011
Almost three years after Tata Motors launched their "People's Car" in India, the Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, reached Nepal, one of Asia's poorest countries.
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Economic times,June 2011

Tata Nano sale starts in Nepal at an introductory price of (Indian) Rs 5 lakh
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MSN,2011
"While in Mumbai, the Nano Standard costs about (Indian) Rs.1.51 lakh, in Nepal, the price escalation is due to a whopping 240 percent taxes. These include 76 percent customs duty, 60 percent excise duty, 13 percent value addition tax, 5 percent road tax as well as an annual NRS 16,500 road tax."






Social impact diaspora bonds can be a innovative financial product to put remittances to good use..

How does it work ?

"In 2010, an organisation called Social Finance raised £5 million (about $8 million) by issuing bonds to investors. It handed over the money to the St Giles Trust, which counsels offenders while they are in jail and helps them find work when they get out, reducing recidivism by as much as 40 per cent. The trust will put the money to work at the Peterborough prison in Cambridgeshire. If it fails, investors get nothing. If it cuts recidivism by 7.5 per cent, investors start to see returns. And if it does better, the United Kingdom’s justice ministry will pay more, up to a maximum of 13 per cent.

This could be the next big thing in impact investing. Social impact bonds can tackle problems that governments find hard to solve, because elected officials find it harder to fund prevention than cure. David Robinson, a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action in the United Kingdom puts it thus: “It is difficult to get rid of the ambulance at the bottom of the cliffin favour of a fence at the top.” With social impact bonds, taxpayers pay nothing if society does not benefit.

Read more: http://www.business.in.com/article/isb/impact-investing-harbinger-of-a-brighter-future-and-a-friendlier-bond-market/27862/0#ixzz1WkqjA9r0