In the back row of the darkened hall, three ladies were busy trying to pick the winners. They would quickly review the shortlist that appeared on the big display screens; short animated bursts of chat, and each selected her most-likely-to-win candidate. Once the winners were announced, there were a couple of low-fives, and a sigh or two. Not exactly the kind of excitement that you would expect to see at a mutual funds awards event. The evening of 17 March 2011 celebrated the success and recognised the achievements of the captains of the mutual fund industry. This second year of the Businessworld-Value Research Best Mutual Fund Awards was special; apart from recognising the funds themselves, it also marked the achievements of individual fund managers. Coming as it did on the heels of the global financial meltdown of 2007-08, creating wealth for investors at a time when everyone was talking about survival and preserving capital was really important. Recalling the words of the Oracle of Omaha, legendary investor Warren Buffett, Prosenjit Datta, editor of Businessworld, said: "It is only when the tide goes down that you know who is swimming naked! When the tide went out in the Indian markets a couple of years ago during the global financial meltdown, most Indian fund managers had their swimming trunks well in place." The evening gathering — held at the ITC Grand Central in Mumbai — had a sizeable turnout, even though it was an event-packed day: the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced changes in the interest rate regime in its mid-quarter review of monetary policy the same afternoon.In his opening remarks, D.D. Purkayastha, managing director and chief executive officer of the ABP Group, said: "Mutual funds have attracted investors of every kind, from housewives who want to put small parts of their savings into equity markets to middle-income managers looking to create a corpus for retirement to sophisticated corporate and finance managers who want to park excess cash for both the short- and medium-term." He added: "We are gathered here to honour the managers who run the country's best performing funds in different categories. They have been entrusted with a lot of wealth by the investors and they have repaid that trust by producing excellent results year after year." Praising the mutual fund industry for spreading financial literacy among people beyond tier-1 cities and the English-speaking public, U. Venkataraman, executive director, MCX Stock Exchange, said: "If we do a crystal-ball gazing of the mutual fund industry in the decade to come, I see a well-informed retail investor base across the country, asset under management (AUM) of 10x from the present level, 100 million demat accounts, and more exchanges to facilitate investment goals." In his keynote address, the chief guest, Thomas Mathew, joint secretary (capital markets), department of economic affairs, at the Ministry of Finance, applauded the mutual fund industry for its efforts of transforming from a non-transparent one without much investor protection to a robust, transparent, well-regulated and well-managed industry. However, Mathew also pointed out that for all its success, the industry is still shallow. "Not more than 1 per cent stake of the household in this country has some share in the mutual fund industry; this implies the potential which rests with the mutual fund industry," said Mathew, who emphasised: "If you (mutual fund industry) ensure that there is financial inclusion, then the industry would gain greater depth, which is critical for the nation to move forward in the 21st century." Mathew went on to point out that today the mutual fund industry depends on corporates (institutional money), and this has to change. "We find 42 per cent of the AUM comes from retail investors, compared to the US, where almost 86 per cent of the total AUM are from retail investors; Japan is 68 per cent and for Korea, it is 67 per cent." Mathew also talked of the responsibilities of the mutual fund industry in spreading financial literacy and penetrating rural India. According to him, on the longer-term basis, the industry has to focus on investors' education, financial literacy, greater penetration in rural areas and, more importantly, self-imposed code of conduct so as to make sure that investors are not misguided. That way, he suggested, if the US sneezed (as it did in 2007), India would not catch pneumonia, even if it caught a cold. "Build confidence in investors. Unless you are able to win the confidence of investors, the mutual fund industry would not be able to achieve depth," said Mathew. The finance minister, in his budget speech, has given the nod for opening up the mutual fund industry, giving it access to qualified foreign investors, added Mathew. "This is what I think is a game changer," he stressed. HDFC Mutual Fund's Milind Barve walked away with the Best Asset Management Company (AMC) Award, while Sankaran Naren, CIO-equity at ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, won three awards this year, including Best Equity Fund Manager and Smartest Fund Manager. The best debt fund manager of the year award went to Ritesh Jain of Canara Robeco Mutual Fund. At the end of the formal ceremony, the Businessworld's Best Mutual Funds special issue was unveiled by Thomas Mathew, Aveek Sarkar, editor-in-chief of the ABP Group, and Prosenjit Datta. As Pavan Varshnei, president (English magazines) of ABP Group, said in his closing remarks, "You will find the special issue very informative. It not only gives an exhaustive analysis of what the best mutual funds do differently, but also how fund managers are generating good returns for the investors." The presenting sponsor for the awards was MCX Stock Exchange. Whyte & Mackay partnered the event, while Bloomberg UTV was the television partner.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 04-04-2011)
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Can't remember just how many laptop screens I've ruined by forcing them to lean too far back or forward as I settled into notebook-unfriendly positions on my bed. So I'm all for experimentation on screens that swivel or tilt or do whatever they have to do to fit into the user's way of working.Well now, thanks to HP, we do have a reclining screen. Two of them, in fact. The HP TouchSmart 610 for consumers and the TouchSmart 9300 Elite for businesses, have all their machinery (including 16GB RAM and possibly the Intel Sandy Bridge processor), housed within the single unit — and the whole lot tilts back rakishly to 60 degrees.However — and it's a 23-inch however — the HD wide-angle 1920x1080 resolution screen is a full PC and bed is not the place for it. It's too huge, too heavy and it's not a laptop so I'll give it a miss when it becomes available sometime between now and May, for $900 and thereabouts. I'm afraid I've become a non-desktop person for the remainder of my living days now. If I hadn't been, I'd have certainly gone in for some screen lean just because it looks so good and HP has packed it with applications that are touch-optimised.Touch screen PCs or laptops haven't been considered a good idea (including by Steve Jobs) because it doesn't take two minutes for a user's arm to begin aching from pointing at a screen as it's held up higher than heart level. That's an old problem brought right back to life. You could opt to touch the screen minimally and work on a keyboard most of the time, but then what would be the point, and what a waste of touch anyway.So HP's tried to solve that problem by slinging the screen really low and making it become almost flat as it swivels forward. I have to admit it looks severely cool that way; very hi tech. We'll only know how it really feels to use long-term when users report on the experience.People have been comparing these touch screens to tablets, but other than for a few applications such as using the screen to select music or playing some games etc, there's no comparison. They're different form factors and one of them is mobile after all. It is true of course that tablets and smartphones are overtaking PC on the sales front now, so PC's can't be blamed for trying to innovate.The author is editorial director at Mindworks Global Media Servicesmala(at)pobox (dot)com,@malabhargava on Twitter
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Expect to see around you many more of those dizzying black and white patterns called QR (Quick Response) codes.The thing with these 2D square cousins of the barcode we see on so many products is that they instantly convey specific coded information with very little processing needed and with even less fuss.As with many clever things, the QR matrix barcode started out in Japan in 1994, created by Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary. The codes were generated and used to track car parts during manufacture. But since then, the QR code has moved up in life and now is really poised to come into its own - thanks to smartphones.All you need on your phone or camera-enabled tablet is an app that scans QR codes. There are plenty of apps that do the job. Once the phone is equipped with the scanner, you launch the app and aim the camera at the black and white square. In a mere second or two your phone will receive the information loaded in the QR code. Now, when the code contains a URL, you're really ready to have some fun because the applications are endless and can work for virtually any industry or field of interest. A QR code planted in an ad, for example, can get the somewhat-inclined to see more information on the product or even to buy it online. Many fashion houses have been using codes for a while now. Ralph Loren used one in a print ad to offer a discount on a limited edition collection. L'Oreal used one on a bottle of something to give instructions on how to use the product. Bluefly used one on TV in an ad during an episode of Desperate Housewives, again for a special offer. Calvin Klien used a big QR code on a hoarding. And Audi had one up that is said to be the largest in the world, at 159 sq meters. Passing by a hoarding with a huge QR code? Just aim your phone at it, and then walk or drive off with your phone's browser fired up to a special offer, or a snappy video. You could have a QR code next to a painting in a museum and aiming your smartphone at it could give you a whole background on the artist.You can even scan these codes off computer screens which means you could perhaps pass by a kiosk and pick up information on a house you might want to buy. For that matter, you could be given a virtual tour of it through your browser. One insurance company put a big QR code on the door of a house and led viewers into the video of something crashing through the roof. Rather naughty, that. QR codes could also be a great way of adding value to newspapers and magazines. A couple of days ago, Cyber Media, publisher of several technology magazines (and where I used to work at one time) for the IT industry and consumer, began using QR codes for their magazines. Working with the belief that the future of print in India is tied to the mobile they decided to enrich the text content of their publications with videos, presentations and other media. This should make for a much more interesting and involved experience for readers. Interviews, reviews, background information on products and companies, how-to's, slideshows, or anything could add interesting aspects to stories. I tried it on Wifi and it was quick and smooth, but with 3G already available in several Indian cities, linking codes to games, web pages videos and more will work well enough. For advertisers, the ability to use QR codes in print ads is an interesting opportunity. They can use codes to measure response as well. The business computing publication, PCQuest, has been the first to start using QR codes on its pages to link to reader contests, announcements, videos, discounts and even social networking sites. This sort of interactivity (and one can get really innovative with it) is a good way to spice up print publications.Mid-Day has also experimented with a QR code letting you download and set their pin-up as your mobile wallpaper Creating the codes isn't difficult either. There are services online that will generate them. There are many personal uses for these codes possible as well. Just as bit.ly turns long URLs into tiny ones, other online sites like qrcode.kaywa.com will turn them into QR codes. And you can use them in many ways--such as, on your visiting card.The author is editorial director at Mindworks Global Media Servicesmala(at)pobox (dot)com, @malabhargava on Twitter
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April 1st I found it difficult to believe any and every news item I read. That was difficult because I didn't know whether to believe whether Facebook had actually put in the ability to migrate your personal page to a business page, whether it was true that Ali Davar the founder and CEO of the iPad news aggregator Zite, which I wrote about recently (and which has become one of my favorite news apps) received a cease and desist order from US publishers. I also didn't know whether Google has really come up with a face recognition app and whether the CEO of GoDaddy really killed an elephant. It seems this is serious.By now you will all have fallen for the wonderful Google April Fool pranks and seen how LinkedIn suggests you connect with Robin Hood, Tolkein and Hemmingway. If you missed those, they've gone down as internet history, so you must see them. My favorite is the one in which a Michael Taylor explains how he started out as a Spellchecker for Google, predicting what it is you're trying to search for when you make a spelling mistake and Google asks "Did you mean…" He graduated to Autocompleter and is the one person who quickly types in the results when you search for something on Google Instant. But the work is too much for one person and Google needs more autocompleters. But a story that is not funny, no joke, and unfortunately true is that thousand of sites (or millions, says PC World) have been hit by a massive cyber attack. And it's an attack that's still going on. Making us realize that while we've been busy with our cricket fever and April Fool jokes, someone has fooled us yet again and with full malice. Named LizaMoon after the site that the malicious script spreading over the internet links to, it's called an SQL Injection and leads the user to a rogue site called the Windows Stability Center and tells you that your computer has many viruses and that you have to pay for their removal. It's worth skimming through the FAQ at WebSense even though it's technical. After all, with people falling for the most outlandish pranks online, you never know what they'll believe.The author is editorial director at Mindworks Global Media Servicesmala(at)pobox (dot)com,@malabhargava on Twitter
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There are two companies going through something similar right now; Twitter and Google, not necessarily in that order.Both of them are worrying their third-party developers somewhat. Twitter wants to move on with making Twitter a business and so it needs to take some control over a platform that it claims is too fragmented. Ryan Sarver, Twitter's platform product developer says that with more people joining Twitter and accessing the service in multiple ways, "a consistent user experience is more crucial than ever". He's actually asked developers to stop making apps and tools that focus on the basic Twitter functions.Frankly, users don't seem to agree and are happy enough to pick and choose from the innovative apps and tools that third-party developers have been creating away while Twitter sat quiet. But on the plus side, Twitter isn't going to stop the use of hugely popular clients and is going to only insist that the companies that developed them follow a set of stringent rules on privacy and security. Great, but I wish they were handling it differently instead of seeming to forget that it isn't Twitter that thought up compelling ways of making the platform usable - it's the developers. For heaven's sake, you couldn't tell who was saying what to whom until clients like Tweetdeck came along.The other company coming down hard on developers is Google. Now, unlike Twitter, the world of Android really is fragmented. And in so many ways. Not only is Android housed on many devices from many companies but it's in several versions, creating some degree of confusion. Something updates, something doesn't, something works, something doesn't - it's a riot of openness. The fact that Android is an "open" system, allowing third party developers to freely create apps and the user to freely customize an Android device, has been a big anti-Apple strength and has contributed to how Android has surged ahead to grab market share (at 31 per cent) from other smartphone operating systems. But things are getting messy, as was demonstrated nicely with more than one malicious attack on apps in the Android Market. Google is asking for quality. And unsurprisingly, most people support that. It's pulled out many apps it thinks might be troublesome and is also looking at licenses for services and devices that companies are providing.Well, we're all for an ecosystem that can be both free-ish and clean, so good luck, Google.In an interesting coincidence, both companies also have their founders returning to take charge. Co-founder Jack Dorsey tweets that he's back at Twitter and that new things are coming up for Twitter. Meanwhile, at Google, Larry Page is back with a bang, leaving the world wondering what he's going to do next.Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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Are you a big fan of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series? Are you tickled by the thought that the sexy Lady Gaga could be a man? Do you feel you'd like to help Japan in its time of need as it continues to be bombarded with horrific aftershocks and the frightening prospect of radioactive leakage? Well, there's a scam for that.Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone. I must admit that from day one I've been extremely wary of all those apparently-fun apps on Facebook that tell you whether your friends think you're good looking, match a colour to your personality, tell you what your name really means, and so on. I'm even more suspicious of games, which thankfully I have no time for anyway.But for all those of you who may be "addicted" to Facebook, where you make it a point to take every quiz and play every game that comes your way, here's a home truth: Expert scamsters are leaving no stone unturned to make money by exploiting your habits, from hijacking your whole account and making off with it, to sending you event request, to enticing you into clicking to see an "OMG" video. These exploits are well-crafted and implemented — not like the clumsily-worded Nigerian scams of yesteryear (which nevertheless snare many victims).Facebook users also readily take the bait. After the US, the people who fall for Facebook scams happen to be… you guessed it, Indians. That's according to security firm, BitDefender, who used a free account-protecting tool called Safego to study Facebook scam-scape. In their analysis, they show how the hugest number of users get taken in by the "see who viewed your profile" line. This particular scam gathered 1,411,743 clicks. Offers of free iPads, shocking images, videos apparently featuring you, and even fake versions of popular games have been used as part of scams that spike the click through rate to get the scamsters money. Search for BitDefender infographic to see a visual of the stats.Recently, a friend of mine kept claiming that her Facebook account had been taken over by someone. I was a little reluctant to believe her, until I discovered there were indeed enough instances where accounts were hijacked or recreated. The cyber-criminal sends out messages to the account holder's friends about some kind of emergency and asks for money to be sent immediately.Other scams work by using your interests and behaviour to get you to click on pages set up to use you to spread the scam further and further. The Twilight scam is a recent example. Go ahead and Like the Facebook page for security firm, Sophos. This is a good place to keep track of scams that are doing the rounds. In fact, if you're tempted to click on something suspicious, go check here first. Sophos shows you, in a video, just how you're clickjacked to a fake game page. The user is baited into allowing access to the basic Facebook account information and putting up wall posts. There's also a survey which the user takes to add to the scamsters coffers.Scams are being created so cleverly they keep abreast of the news and use what they know to make the content of their bait more realistic. There are many social media companies due for IPOs this year and this fact is being used to come up with scams on sales of unregistered shares. One trader actually tricked investors out of $9.6 million for fake Facebook and Google shares, news reports say.Incredibly, according to Security News, there's even a scam that says Facebook is closing down because it can't handle so many accounts. Users who want to keep their accounts alive are lured to click somewhere or the other. Another crazy scam experimented (and did pretty well) with not using a celebrity or anything very dramatic but apparently linked to a video about how students are going haywire while a teacher is turned to the blackboard. "Teacher from behind" being the operative terms here. For heaven's sake.If only people would stop for a moment and think.Facebook isn't amused by these scams, as you'd well imagine. After all, how would it benefit Facebook if everyone were to get spooked and stop clicking on everything? All that hard work for nothing! Here's what they say: "… (we have) a large team of professional investigators who quickly remove these (groups and pages that violate Facebook policies) when we detect them or they're reported to us by our users. "Facebook says they advise people to be suspicious of anything that looks or feels strange online - whether it's an unfamiliar link in a message from a friend who hasn't contacted you in a while, or a promise of something valuable if you take a certain action or provide personal information. They suggest you keep in touch with the Facebook Security Pages and blog to protect yourself. Meanwhile, they're working on ways of automatically removing scam messages.Can't be soon enough for those 600 million users!Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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This month, Samsung launched enough products to make your head spin. Did someone say sixty three?From its stunning Smart TVs to air conditioners that are said to kill off the H1N1 virus if it's anywhere in the room, to an army of note- and netbooks, one of them as thin as the MacBook Air. You'd have seen blatant electronic-greed in my eyes if you'd been at the Samsung mega-launch.Although I wouldn't say no to most of the products I saw there, what interested me most were the smartphones and tablets - particularly the tablets.So now Samsung is daring its competition to do what it will because it's ready with a tablet in practically every size. There's a "multimedia device" called the Galaxy S 5 which is positioned against the iPod Touch, at 5 inches. It's slim and slick and has what you'd expect from a multimedia player or tablet, except full connectivity and calling. It works on wifi. Then there's the original 7 inch Galaxy Tab. But then, there's also the brand new 8.9 and the 10.1 inch versions. So the 5 inch competes with the Dell Streak, the 7 inch with the Blackberry Playbook and possibly a new one from Motorola, the 10 inch with the iPads and the 8 inch is for good luck. Depending on just which 8 inch steps into the battlefield. In a market still very much in its puppyhood, tablets are fighting it out over bells and whistles. The Playbook, which has been received with thoroughly mixed reviews, is the multi-tasker of the lot. The iPad still has the most finesse. Many of the others have the new Honeycomb operating system for tablets. When the market begins to settle though, I really think size will be an important consideration. A step up from 7 inches to 10 may not sound like much, but this has dramatically different implications for portability and experience. And I think early adopters should keep this in mind.For instance, if you want a tablet because you think you can use it at work to input data while you're on the go throughout your work area - a 7 or 8 inch would probably be more convenient. If you want to bring home a versatile device with something for the whole family, you need the screen real estate for there to be a riveting experience. A very personal e-book reader or something you can play Scrabble on, read the news etc would mean you could drop the size to make the tablet easier to hold.If you're one of those who can't wait for the scene to settle, don't let specs overshadow size when you choose your tablet.Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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Ah, I love a good fight! And here it comes.Apple is suing Samsung. And Samsung has gone off to find something which it can use to hit Apple over the head with, in retaliation.Apple tends to keep its legal department rather busy, actually, and is currently suing Nokia and Motorola as well. With the lawsuit it's hurled at Samsung though, an interesting situation has been triggered off because Apple happens to be Samsung's second biggest client, ironically for parts that go into the disputed products.On the face of it, the reasons Apple is going after Samsung, sound rather silly. Apple says Samsung is "slavishly" copying many aspects of Apple's product design and packaging. A black border around the screen, square-rounded icons, round-rectangular product shapes, a metallic line around the body, icon styling, and so on. But when you take all the points that Apple is complaining about together, detailed in a 373-page lawsuit, you see that the similarities extend to the overall look and feel and packaging, including the silver lettering on the boxes.So, why did Samsung not take the trouble to create its own signature styling rather than get within a whisker of Apple's iPad and iPhone? Perhaps the idea was to get away with as much as it could and leverage on the success of Apple's design. I'm sure Samsung worked out, with its own legal advice, what it could do though they say they developed their own designs and technology independently. The question now is whether the Samsung products are getting so close to Apple's that they could confuse the buyer. Well known tech analyst, Nilay Patel has had a good look at the Apple lawsuit and simplified it, and he explains that trade dress law is violated when people buying the products are actually getting mixed up between them. Of course, I rather doubt that this is the case since no one goes into a shop and asks for a Samsug-iPhone or even otherwise picks up one when they wanted the other. In the present times, buyers are savvy enough to know what they're buying. Incidentally, the Apple lawsuit makes for interesting reading. Apple i-pad (AP) I'm not very business-savvy else a) I'd be very rich and b) I'd understand exactly why Apple is suing Samsung. Where will it get critical parts for its products (including for MacBooks and iPads) if Samsung were to delay or withhold these in a countermove? What would happen to the technologies these competitors were actually working on together? Is this a pure anti-Samsung move or an anti-Android move, or just a temporary spanner in the works to buy time and strengthen its position, taking back share from Android? Of course, it isn't necessary that the whole Apple-Samsung relationship would go to pieces because the business they do together benefits both companies – obviously.If Apple wins this battle, it will put Samsung at a bit of a disadvantage and stem the flow of me-too devices being rushed to market. If it doesn't, such products could flood the place and the edge Apple has could be under threat.All I can say is I hope, while Apple and Samsung are busy with each other, someone will leave the warehouse doors open and let us get at those phones and tablets.Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional. Contact her at mala@pobox.com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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