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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.
Maoists on the Streets of Mumbai? Coming Soon
BusinessWeek Asia is reporting some genuine news for me - about the growing threat of India's home grown Maoist insurgency, the Naxalite movement, that is starting to bubble over after decades of simmering in the remote countryside. Now that Maoists have overthrown the Nepalese government:
The World... Now Flatter Than Even Tom Friedman Ever Imagined
An untold number of business books heralded the new age - when all manufacturing would end up in China, and all services in India. But it's taking just a few blips in the world economy to undermine much of the competitive advantage of Chinese factories and Indian call centers. A weak dollar, rising fuel prices, and a global recession are all conspiring to undermine the cost advantage of offshoring. Oh, and then there's those pesky rising wages in places like the Pearl River Delta and Bangalore. The world really is flat... as BusinessWeek reports:
