Tech devices to rescue

My credit card was stolen from bag, and thankfully  I was able to report the theft and do quick damage control because I had internet connectivity and international calling on my iphone to report the theft and disable the card. The person who stole my credit card had gone on a shopping spree buying stuff worth thousands of dollars within a span of few hours.  As I was out in the field when I discovered the theft, I used the Internet on my iphone to find the number to report the theft and used the roaming facility on my phone to make the call to the bank in the US.

Abundant mobility and hacks

I am in India conducting research, and as always amazed by the variety of cell phones and hacks that are available. One of our research partners brought my attention to the fact that many people in India have unlocked iphones, and have jail-breaked their iphones to install 'non-Apple" applications. A popular application is twinkle -- a twitter client that includes location based service. Twinkle is very popular with iphone users in India, who use it to twitter. It does not require sending a SMS for twittering. Iphone has not been officially launched in India as yet. It is expected to arrive later this year. But that is certainly not a deterrent for tech savvy Indians who aspire to own the iphones.

Amartya Sen on Indian Identity

We have been looking at the issue of identity for our Global ethnographic work in the BRIC countries. I just finished reading Amartya Sen

Article on the Indian consumer from Ambidextrous magazine

I just wrote an article on the changing Indian consumer culture for Ambidextrous, a magazine published by the Stanford School of Design. If you are interested, here it is:

Section: Point of View

Indian Consumer Culture by Mani Pande Every time I feel the airplane touching down at Delhi

IEEE Survey

I have been analyzing the responses from the survey we conducted along with IEEE of experts on science and technology. We had asked the experts their opinions on technologies looking out into the future 10-50 years from now. I was really impressed with the diversity of the respondents. We have experts from all over the world --the US, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Singapore and China to just name a few countries. In addition, we have an equal mix of academicians and industry experts. Most of the experts have about 15-20 years of experience in their field.

New risks for women

I have been thinking a lot about new risks for women in India. The

Changing economic risk in India

Last year when I visited India for our global ethnogrpahic project, I had conversations about new economic risks with knowledge workers that almost seemed absurd in the late 1990s. Everyone was very upbeat about the state of the economy, particularly the future of the IT industry, however the fear of getting laid off was new. Salaries of most workers in the IT industry have doubled or tripled within the last 2-3 years. It is not unusual to get an annual raise of 25-40% of your salary. However, many IT workers save a good percent of their salary, even as high as 50% in case they get laid off.

Migration in India

"The New York Times has done an interesting story on migration in India. The story points out that people are migrating from rural to urban areas in increasing numbers looking for work. Migration to cities offers opportunities that are not available to them in villages. Cities offer the only opportunities for a decent job. Many men who migrate to cities earn much more than what they would earn in their village, they are often able to send a sizable portion of their income back to their families in the villages, saving their families from poverty and unpredictability.

New pull factors for Migration

"I have been working on a perspective piece on migration. There are lots of trends in migration these days. Although I decided to analyze in-depth feminization of migration, there are other trends that caught my attention. One of the biggest shift in migration is that pull factors or attraction factors of migration are becoming as strong as the push factor or repulsion factors. Many are migrating globally to ‘cultural metropolises’ to improve their living conditions, not just economically, but socially, culturally, politically or spiritually.

India Telecom: Everyone's Going Wireless

India's telephone infrastructure has improved of late because it has taken the wireless route. Nearly everyone has a mobile phone these days. In fact, the mobile companies are targeting both the rich and the poor, and their ads emphasize that you don't have to be rich to afford a mobile. Most people buy pay-as-you-go services, which are generally cheaper. An interesting addition to the telecom mix I have noticed since my last visit three years ago is WLL (Wireless Local Loop) phones.