The business of terror

This is about the 5th or 6th time this year that terrorists are striking on Indian soil - Bangalore , Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and now Mumbai. The latest attack on Mumbai leaves the earlier ones in a shadow as far as audacity is concerned. When 20 terrorists can get down on Gateway of India waterfront with machine guns and grenades and start occupying hotels and cafes, it makes you wonder if this is for real or just scenes from Die-Hard series.

Emotions are running high right now. And they ought to be. The biggest learning from this terror attack is clear : India is completely ill-equipped in its Anti Terrorism effort. Forget about stricter laws like POTA or Guantanamo like facilities, the most important missing element is MONEY.
US set up Department of Homeland Security after 9/11 and created an entire eco-system including government agencies, businesses and intelligence think-tanks. India must do the same. The government must start working on a sophisticated survelliance network using the latest technologies.

There is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to create businesses which can help incubate this network. A simple example is jammers. On getting the first indication of trouble, the security agencies should be able to switch to a dedicated security spectrum and rest of the spectrum should be jammed ( preferably in a restricted area) . Ditto for Wi-fi , cable and any other connectivity. Similarly, one could create robots which can tackle this kind of hostage situation or employ them for survelliance. The possibilities are endless. But who will take the lead?

Pro opinion

Proopinion is a company which pays you to fill online surveys ( a dollar for 10 opinion points). They identify niche groups and stay connected to them through multiple media. It is a classic example of incentive driven permission marketing. If you are a brand champion, your opinion matters and the brand should pay to get that information from you. Similarly, if you saw an advertisement, the client would like to know if you liked it and what exactly you liked. This will lead to more robust metrics in measuring ad performance.

I think this is a brilliant model and one that can change the way market surveys are done. The old methods of filling in forms or even online surveys ( as annoying popups) will soon be redundant simple because of "information overload" and "lack of incentive".

I haven't seen any Indian company trying to use this model for mobiles given the reach of this medium. Mobile web will definitely not reach majority and SMS/MMS is not suitable for survey format. How about a survey application ? What do you think?

Airtel Telecom innovation fund.

Bharti Airtel , India's leading mobile operator , has launched an INR 200 crore innovation fund targeted to early stage businesses with a business model built around telecom and telecom services.

This is a much needed boost given that early stage capital in India is hard to come by. Hopefully, we will see some good ventures getting traction.

Finally on Twitter

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/bipinsingh.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service launched in 2006. It has now moved on from early adoption phase and folks in India are using it as well. Basically , it allows you to update status using 140 characters. Not very different from status updates on facebook and orkut. You can follow people or have them follow you.

Bill Me Later gets acquired

Follow the news here.

Bill Me Later is a novel payment mechanism which uses your credit history and your unique info ( social security number/birthday combo) to make cashless/cardless payments. Payments can be made for online stores as well as B&M stores. Bill Me Later sends you a bill every month for all the purchases you made using their service. How do they know you will pay ? Answer : Thats the business they are into. Verifying you and your credit history before you can use their service. They are a bit like post-paid mobile talk plans in contrast to pre-paid mobile plans.

Advantage : No credit card info to remember or share.
Peers : None ( Paypal requires you to register your card with them)
Result : Ebay acquires it for 820 million USD. Nov 7th,2008.
India : CIBIL ( Credit and Information Buraeu of India Limited) is creating a database of users and their credit history. It will be used by banks and Financial institutions. There could be a business model lurking in there.