Blogs

At the end of a recent article headlined "A right to walk," Gurcharan Das suggested encouragingly that citizens can make a difference to city life if they really try. "The starting point is to extend your circle of concern beyond your front door (as Yudhishthira did in the Mahabharata when he insisted on taking a stray dog into heaven)," he wrote. "You will discover that municipalities do respond to citizen pressure if citizens are united and relentless." That's really great to know. But he has probably not dealt with the municipal authorities of Namma Bengaluru. It is not for want…

Entrepreneurs are often strapped of cash. Sreekrishna Sankar, who has just completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Management at IIM Bangalore, has come up with a list of tools that entrepreneurs can use in such times; most of this is free and freely available for use. Incidentally, Sreekrishna, and a couple of his batchmates at IIMB, Ajith Pai and Sahil Barua, have floated a firm Catalyst Ventures, which worked with a few start ups. Thanks for sharing this info, Sreekrishna.1. Business Plan developer for developing professional business plan templates which can be a starting point(free)2. Open Office - a free…

Dear readers, this post is the first in a series with investors, to provide a platform where entrepreneurs in Bengaluru can engage with investors. I am pleased to start this series with Subrata Mitra, General Partner, Erasmic Venture Fund, an early-stage fund based in the city. Read on to know more about the fund and get some insights into what they are looking for when they invert in companies. Subrata also shares some of his thoughts on the entrepreneurship scene in this city.Question: How did Erasmic get started and why did you decide to fund early stage ventures? Answer: We…

The spouse of a politician standing for election from one of several constituencies in Bangalore visited our home today to persuade us to vote for her partner. The entourage of about ten or twelve people brought with them not only the customary leaflet requesting us to cast our "valuable votes" in favour of their candidate but also a glossy, colourful, 20-page booklet in Kannada and English. The brochure, titled "My vision for the ... constituency," presented "an overview of the developmental activities" undertaken by the person concerned in the constituency he had earlier represented. "Let works speak rather than words," said…

Bengaluru - the city conjures different images to different persons. For those of us long term residents of namma uru*... Bengaluru... the city today is very different from what it was even a couple of years ago. The chaos, the confusion, as we step out on the roads, the streets, the pavements, the footpaths, the bye lanes... the infrastructure woes, the traffic jams, the pollution are a part of the tangible problems and difficulties we face in our daily lives. The list of these woes is endless... And then the latest in this brimming cup of woes...the inflation. Then there…

Now that people have sorted out voter roll/EPIC card issues (or given up on the same), the next thing to attend to is the candidates themselves. Campaigns are on full swing; But with the election commission laying down strict guidelines for the candidates, citizens are not inflicted with the usual din. However we still need to do the due diligence on who the candidate are in our constituency, whom do we vote for and on what basis? This is the information I found in the online space. From the EC's website: Election commission site (http://search.eci.gov.in/ae%5f2008e) provides info on- Party wise…

It gives me great pleasure to start the interviews on this blog with Kiran Nadkarni. Kiran is Founder & Director at Kaati Zone, a chain of quick service restaurants specializing in Indian foods. Kiran was among the early VCs in the country. Prior to starting Kaati Zone, he has held positions such as President, ICICI Ventures, and Managing Director, Jumpstartup Ventures. He has been an entrepreneur for over three years now and has raised funds for this venture.Read on to know more about why he turned to entrepreneurship and his experiences in running his venture started in Namma Bengaluru with…

As an entrepreneur you may have prepared a business plan or may be in the process of preparing one. What about an action plan? What about the results of your actions? Have you reviewed the results of your actions on a regular basis? In fact, many times, start ups miss out on this aspect, thus missing out on signals, that something that has been planned is not working out. Regular capturing, monitoring and analysis of data can help. In my first post in this blog "Thinking about the how and why of costs" I had mentioned one Bangalore Company in…

There was this story I once read... I do not remember the source, but I remember the story ... it has left its mark on me. It beautifully communicates the essence of what I want to say. So to this source .. whoever has thought of this story or has experienced it .. I convey my thanks. Now for the story...There are three young men who want to become actors. Those who look at the three persons see similar young men and club them together as birds of the same feather. One person gets more curious and asks the three…

Barcamp [Apr 19 - 20]I had gone to the Bommanahalli CMC today to help somebody submit Form 6. The BBMP control room lady was busy. Her colleague responded to my first question. When I asked for a clarification, he snapped, ‘I have lots of work, elections are coming up‘. Well, elections are the reason we were there too. Agreed it is our duty as citizens to ensure we get on the voter rolls. It looks like sometimes, we have to go through some agni pariksha for this! How many people can afford to take off from their work for hours…