Economy

Many persons in Bengaluru are becoming entrepreneurial and venturing on their own. We also have many venture capitalists (VCs) who are here in the city as well as those outside looking to fund promising start ups. However, sometimes, even if an idea is promising and the team is good, the venture may not be ready to go to a VC. Kumar and his start up are a case in point. Gyan, an advisor, was interacting with a group of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in Bengaluru in late 2006. Kumar was one among the group and asked many questions about how…

Marketing need not necessarily involve cash outflow. Sometimes one can earn money, while reaching out to new customers in the process. Gift coupons, for example, offer you the double advantage of making money while reaching out to new customers. Your existing customers and well wishers can buy these, to gift as vouchers to those who may not have heard of you. We have two such companies in Bangalore who believe in this. Active Canvas, a one of a kind art school for people of all ages, offers a variety of courses and hosts events. It now offers gift coupons. Many…

 Entrepreneurship is about thinking differently, creatively. Innovation is not limited to having unique ideas or projects. Innovation can be in the way one manages operations, the way one implements projects or in a combination of all this.One of the key problems faced by entrepreneurs... and no prizes for guessing... is shortage of money. Some entrepreneurs have come up with creative solutions to manage with limited finances at their disposal. What may seem like an essential cost to most persons, have been reviewed and innovatively reduced or managed.One such cost is the cost of routine administration work. While it may seem…

"Birth and death are the only certainties in life..." but in our culture, weddings are almost certain, too. And to celebrate the wedding, we need to hire wedding halls or Kalyana Mantapas. However, the hiring of these seems to be beset with various difficulties, and the wedding hall sector seems to be an unorganised one. According to Eshwar Bhosle, who publishes a directory of marriage halls of Bangalore, titled "Kalyana",(see box) about 10 new halls come up in the city every year, and an average of 60 to 80 weddings are performed in each hall every year. There are about…

A number of recent verdicts from the IV Additional District Consumer Forum in the city is a virtual alert for consumers. The cases range from violation of MRP on goods to damaging household effects during shipping. Vinay Prabhu had bought an Aquaguard Water Purifier (model Inova) on 6 March 2007 from Eureka Forbes ltd. in Benaganahalli, Bangalore. But from the date of purchase the purifier gave him trouble. The purified water was bad and difficult to drink. White and black particles floated inside the water and he immediately complained to the shop. He had to complain several times before they…

The club culture can be very addictive to most of us who after a hard day's work imagine that instant health and happiness awaits us at the club. They promise to give us untold delights - free access to all clubs, free air tickets to holiday resorts, sites with coconut groves, swimming pools, movie clubs and much more. The reality is shocking. Three disgruntled consumers who were badgered, coaxed and almost forced into becoming members of The Country Club here have had to complain to the consumer forums which have ruled in their favour. Three more approached CREAT, a consumer…

If fools did not go to market, cracked pots and false wares would not be sold. -- Jean Le Malchanceux (in the twelfth century). In India, consumers have had a raw deal in the market place and suffered in the field of health and welfare. Earlier they had recourse to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act. But after The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 came into force, and key amendments took effect in March 2003, consumers have been learning to assert themselves while buying goods and services. As a Bangalorean, what should be the first thing on your shopping…

If you were going to buy a residential apartment from a building named 'Radiant Manor' you would quite naturally except to get a perfect home to live in. This is what Venkatesh Narayan Baichwal of Jayanagar had hoped for when he entered into a construction agreement in March 2005 with Radiant Homes (Proprietor, Manohar Karkal). This firm had agreed to construct a residential apartment for him measuring 975 square feet on the second floor of a building named Radiant Manor. The agreement was that the seller would pay Rs.11,97,500 for construction of the apartment inclusive of Rs. One lakh towards…

On 20 September, the III Additional Bangalore Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum ordered a Bangalore based dentist to pay up Rs.One lakh as compensation to a young student who suffered due to deficient service from the dentist's clinic. M A Shilpa aged twenty, doing her post graduation course in economics and business, in an evening college in Bangalore, went to the Tarana Dental Clinic in Padmanabhanagar, Bangalore, during the first week of June 2006, complaining of pain in her lower right jaw. Dr Archana Hegde, (B.D.S. Esth. Dent.USA) examined her, filled a cavity in her tooth, and prescribed some…

Every morning, Mahadev rises and soars with the soggy monsoon sun as orders surge. It’s boom time in IT city, after all. “I haven’t seen such a busy season for three years,” he smiles, as he wends his way over the half-manicured streets of HSR Layout. Mahadev is 12. He doesn’t know, therefore, that his princely wages of Rs.70 per day earned for moulding iron gates and grids is a shameful secret. That his earnings are a breaking story of sorts, though not for the same reason as those of IIM-B graduates. His salary is invisible as his employment violates…