Food Commerce in India - Whose meal is it anyway?

On the next day that I wrote about Food, eating patterns and technology, I got a pamphlet along with the newspaper about ItsMyMeal. According to them, there are two types of people in India - people who eat oily food in the restaurants (or order online for home delivery) and those who eat at home, come what may. They are targeting the subset of the latter, who are unfortunately either not at home or lazy enough not to cook for themselves.

The concept is quite good - healthy food prepared in their kitchen taking into consideration balanced diet, nutrition and hygiene. One can register on their website at http://itsmymeal.in and after validation of the details, can start ordering food. The food is delivered at your doorstep in good containers, which are taken back after you are done with the meal. Menu and the prices are fixed and mentioned on the website. Beware, you need to order a minimum of 4 meals and any changes for the next day has to be mentioned in the site before 5 PM today (I pray not to fall sick suddenly, when I order food on this site!). The terms you would be hearing when someone talks about this company are - happy, tummy, meal, food-commerce, nutrition and hygiene.

The FAQ on their site gives a lot of details about the minimum number of meals to be ordered, service coverage areas, packaging details and refund of security deposit in case of cancellation. One phrase you cannot fail to notice in every answer is 'Please call customer care'. But interestingly one cannot place an order just by calling their customer care center (unless it's a bulk order for that go) !

The concept seems to be mainly targeted towards the corporate employees. I guess it is mainly the small and medium enterprises, where employees can order in bulk for multiple days in a month at one stretch. Would it work out as an economical option for the employees? Keeping aside my views on whether the model would succeed or not in the Indian context, I admire the application of technology for giving good food and convenience to those who seek them. According to the site, I can even analyze what kind of food I am having, based on the food ordered through their site.

If it is my meal, would I not be interested in having home-cooked food? Alternately, I can order from ItsMyMeal for similar quality food - so they say and term it as 'food commerce' !

Telecom Sector - 2 : 10 different ways to pay the bill for 10% mobile subscribers

India's telecom sector is divided into 23 different circles for effective operations and management - like licensing and restricting number of operators. With the introduction of mobile services in 1995, there was no looking back on the growth of mobile subscribers - the latest count being around 900 million ! With the largest operator, Airtel, holding about 170+ million mobile subscribers, how would they ensure that all the customers pay for their service in time?

It should be interesting to note that 90%+ of mobile subscribers use pre-paid services. This ensures a stead flow of cash (up-front) for the operators for the services being offered. There are both online and offline mechanisms to re-charge one's prepaid mobile number. In the offline mode, the authorized agents can re-charge an amount for a specific mobile number. This is made so simple through SMS-based update that mom-n-pop stores in street corners can become the operator agents. Simple but effective use of technology that affects 600 million subscribers !

For the post-paid bill payment, there are umpteen options being provided by each operator.

1. Online bill payment using credit / debit card and internet banking on operator sites
2. Pay at the operator service centers
3. Drop a cheque at drop-boxes provided at specific outlets
4. Make payment through 3rd party online authorized agents like paytm
5. Pay through Bank ATMs
6. Pay using pre-paid cards like ITZ card
7. Pay through Internet Banking
8. Provide standing instructions for direct debit from your bank account
9. Don't stand in the queue but pay at the self-service kiosks at operator centers
10. Interactive voice response systems (IVR) offer another mechanism for bill payment

If you are not interested in any of the above, a 'collection agent' would be present at your door stop. To be fair to the operators, we must think that they are asking for money 'after-providing-service' in case of post-paid connections.

The heart of all these operations are the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Billing Systems from Information Technology (IT) perspective. Recording the call durations, locations, generating itemized billing based on circles and billing cycles, sending notices (SMS or e-mail) to all those millions of subscribers and tracking their payments through different channels is no mean task. The billions of rupees investment required for capital infrastructure would not be possible without appropriate IT systems in place.

We must acknowledge Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel for strategically outsourcing the entire IT operations in the beginning itself. Even the telecom infrastructure is outsourced by them and they focus on core competency of innovation and marketing. He pioneered that model which is replicated in one way or the other even in other sectors too.

Telecom Sector - 1 : Mobile Evolution in India

Every three out of four people in India has a mobile - or so does the numbers say. There are around 900 million mobile phone subscribers in India, which has a population of about 1200 million people. The active mobile subscribers are supposed to be somewhere around 600 million. Interestingly there are only around 40 million landline phone subscribers. The growth for landline connections has been negative for some quarters. (source TRAI)

Before 90's people had to apply for a landline phone connection and wait for months to get the connection approved. In late 90's, mobile revolution has changed this scenario completely. With the convenience of anywhere-anytime, people have taken to mobile phones like duck to water. Prices were slashed over a period of time - both the mobile handset and the outgoing call tariff. Roaming charges were reduced which made the businessmen adopt it even more.

The traditional use of a mobile phone is to make voice calls and send short messages. I find the following to be general purpose calls on mobile phone. This is just a fraction of the possibilities, anyway and no offense intended to anyone.

1. Short-and-sweet call : Make a 'Honey, I am coming home…' call while leaving office
2. Office Travel : 'Hello Murali, I would like to go to airport on 12th, Can you come at 6 AM on that day?'

3. Friendship : 'Hi buddy, want to catch-up at coffee day tomorrow? I am bored'

4. Cooking Advice: 'When should I add salt to this dish? Is it while boiling tamarind? Oh! No tamarind at all !'

5. Buying Advice : 'I am buying Samsung Phablet. I am in a shop right now. He is quoting Rs. x. should I got for it?'
6. Out-of-office : 'Sorry. I am on vacation right now. I would be joining back the office on next Monday. Can you please call me back then to sort out the problem?'

7. Occasion : 'WoW ! That's good news. Congratulations !'

8. Pocket Money : 'I need more money this month. We are going for a tour this semester'
9. Drivers have a mobile : 'Driver, bring the car to the portico. I will be there in 2 minutes'
10. Pesky Calls :'I don't need a credit card and I don't want to give any more charity. I have enough loans to clear !'

As someone said, Mr. Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel was smart enough to figure out that people love to talk and one can make money by giving them a personal microphone and speaker. And thus the telecom revolution has begun in India !

It has to be noted that there is no mobile revolution without evolution of information technology. The rapid evolution of simple mobile handset to feature phone, smartphone, phablet, tablet, notebook, ultra-book and so on is all because of evolution of chip technology. It is noteworthy to mention that more than 90% of mobile phones worldwide carry chips (processor hardware inside mobile handsets) based on ARM Holdings technology. Isn't it amazing ?