E-Commerce India: Easy access to Bollywood and Cricket Entertainment

Way back in 90's, when we wanted to see a movie we get ready, go to theatre well in advance (depending on how recently the movie was released) and stand in the queue to book tickets. People used to discount hot sun, eagerly watch the faces of audience coming out from the previous show to get a pulse of the movie. There is chaos many a times, when star movies (say Chiranjeevi) are released and police personnel controls the mob, which is mainly the star fans. When the tickets are over, the heart-break of the folks who missed them, is inexplicable. As the theatres are usually in a cluster, people run from one to the other to check out tickets (even for a movie with bad review from neighbors). This hit and miss scene is slowly getting obsolete - welcome e-commerce in India ! Check out BookMyShow at http://www.bookmyshow.com.

One can leisurely watch trailers, read movie reviews (if the movie is released and reviewed) and buy tickets at the click of few buttons. No need to get disappointed about not getting tickets after reaching the theatre, it could very well be known at any hour in a day, well in advance. Re-planning is just a 2-minute job. I can browse through the cinemas or movies in my city, make payment and get the tickets blocked. 

Bookmyshow is the official ticket partner for this season of IPL. All those cricket fans can easily book their tickets online and savor the matches. I watched a football match in a stadium but an IPL Match. Time to buy IPL tickets online !

The best part of this site is the coverage of other events like theatre plays. One would typically not know where there events are happening, even if they are interested.

To make it convenient the information in the site is accessible through specific applications on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Facebook. This site is a classic case of vertical e-commerce with focus on selling tickets for different kinds of events. I can bet, this company can grow to smaller cities and get bigger behemoth by 2015 !

For the Bollywood and Cricket frenzy nation, would there be better convenience ? The ubiquitous entertainment in India thrives with e-commerce !

Job connection between Academia and Industry in India

I always wonder about how the students in tier-2 and tier-3 colleges seek job opportunities and make a career. With government focusing on higher education, colleges have mushroomed in India and the order of students is 10 lakhs and 4 lakhs approximately per year in engineering and management streams! Would all those students who 'successfully' pass-out of these colleges get employed?

There are so many job portals in India now. The number of resumes available in any of these portals at any point in time would only be in multiple millions. But who are these members applying for jobs? Does everyone in this repository really get placed through them? I guess not. If that is the case, how would so many offline Human Resource (HR) Agencies survive? Anyways, the opportunities showcased to colleges in either case are nothing special. There are always umpteen restrictions from companies during the placement - should have secured more than 70% throughout the career, should have passed-out only in last one year and must be fluent in at least one non-Indian language (yes, I made this up :-). The process with these online or offline touch-points does not prepare students enough to enter the Industry.

CoCubes (derived from 'Connecting Colleges Companies') precisely fulfills this need - http://www.cocubes.com. It provides a technology platform to help placement cell in a college (and apparently students in these colleges) find suitable jobs with companies. It enables companies to register on one side and students from registered colleges follow these companies. The companies can showcase their potential in the form of news, articles and photo gallery. The platform helps conduct online tests also to screen the students for an organization. The system clearly brings the students (especially in tier-3) closer to the Industry and helps the companies to seek authentic and high potential candidates easily. I wish CoCubes also offers Internships like in case of LetsIntern, which would provide opportunities for students from a broader perspective.

In the current ecosystem, all the participants in the platform - colleges, companies and students - benefit extensively. Should this collaboration between academia and industry exist only in terms of 'job opportunities'? I believe there must be strong ties between these entities to foster continued Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the two pillars of a thriving economy ! What do you think?

E-Commerce India - Prasad from Temple, home delivered !

India is a land of thousands  of Gods and Demons. There are more number of sacred places across the length and breadth of our Motherland. People worship Gods of their belief and visit deities in temples accordingly. It is always a practice to visit the temple, offer prayers and get prasad. Prasad is considered to have God's blessings and taken to those others who could not visit the temple.

This practice might change in the future - thanks to e-commerce in India !

Men used to walk for hours or even days to visit temples of their belief. With evolution of transport, it has become easy and convenient to reach a destination. Another leap in technology evolution, in the form of TV, allowed us to watch the ceremonies and functions of Temples LIVE ! One can watch these live telecasts from the luxury of home, not moving an inch. This is a boon for senior citizens and disabled people. It is at the discretion of others to decide how they prefer to have darshan.

Taking a step further, even the prasad is made available online in this Internet Age. Check out http://www.onlineprasad.com. They can deliver the prasad from specific temples to your door step. I wonder how people are going to perceive this aspect of e-commerce. Will every one adopt it thanking technology for offering blessings and convenience? Or will they think that even temples are not left out of commercialization in this wave of e-commerce in India?

The part which fascinated me the most in the site is grabbed in a mini-screenshot and shown below:

I studied my PUC in a Residential College, where we got to study in a temple premises on lake-side. The peace and tranquility of those times are never forgotten. We used to get blessings and awesome prasad at the door step of God !