Flipkart : India ka Apna Amazon!

I just love this website. Since long time I was looking for a Indian website which will give me power to order the books which I keep looking at Amazon and do not order due to various reasons. Although Amazon rocks with its reviews and gives lot of confidence when buying a book.

Flipkart has changed the scene with lot of books available, both Indian and International Edition. When I first used their service I smelled Amazon :) ..Well later in a magazine I read that both the founders had a small stint @ Amazon :).

What I like :

• Intuitive website design
• Good collection of books, both Indian and International authors.
  
• Get to order a book which is recently released Internationally
• Super fast delivery - almost got all my orders till date within 3 days of order placed
• Good packing in bubble wrap
  
• Cash on Delivery option : This is something everybody will love as you not get bothered by Internet Payments.
• Good search mechanism
• Free delivery of books
  

What needs improvement:

• Make website design with less clutter
• Special attention to Book Reviews and Book view page should have less Ads!
• Please give Bookmarks with all books :)
• Need to have star rating on book reviews
• Give more discounts on International Editions!
  

Overall the idea rocks!. I am sure they will go long way with their innovation and offer more discounts on international editions to have more buyers! I have not used their other items which they sell too like Mobiles, gifts etc.

I wish they can also influence some International publishers to publish Indian Editions of books available outside India.

I wish them good luck!

Yakult in India!!

Those who don't know, Yakult is a fermented milk drink!. I remember my good old days of driving Energy Drink ....not many stalls see now having that milk bottle. Now we have Yakult in India!. I used to drink this in Singapore.

In HDB apartments in Singapore there used to be Yakult Ladies delivering Yakult at door step. Now we have similar concept in India too. If you like flavored milk, you will like Yakult too!...try once!

Daily Piyo, Healthy Jiyo !!

Indian Mutual Fund Strategy for coming months - Part I

I believe it is time to redefine the strategy for Mutual Funds for coming markets. I have been thinking about it for sometime now. I am not expert on this but I believe that one needs to experiment a bit in order to gain in this kind of market where nobody knows whether it is in bearish phase or bull phase !

For those who were lured by the Borkers/Agents/Advisors to invest in Indian Mutual Funds in last six months or in late 2007 must be thinking that this Mutual Fund boom is over. And one should not never invest it in again. Just get out of the current investment and go back to good old Fixed deposits ..that too with Nationalized banks only ;) :)

Well I have a different opinion here. There is no need to panic with markets or try to run away from it. Just because the bears are back and they are taking away your returns as never before :)

But at the same time having good strategy do helps. Here is mine.

• Stop all SIPs - Yes don't believe the Fund Managers and don't panic, but at the same time STOP SIPs for now
• Redeem all Funds with profits - If you are lucky and still have some profit left in your earlier investment, please redeem that NOW!
• STOP all Manual Investments - This is the most important point here. Many people have lost their profits just because they could not redeem the Funds as they were in a manual method. It was just laziness or ignorance which stopped them from redeeming E.g. Don't know what to do for redeeming, who is CAMSONLINE, Broker not available...etc
• Prepare Net worth Statement - You need to take stock of your investments as well as expenses and income at once. If you have never made a Net Worth Statement till date. Search on Google and you will find many sample templates for doing this stuff easily.
• Define Objective for Investments - If you had never done this. It is important that now we understand this concept of Investing with Objective and starting doing that. This will create lot of positive thought process in you - after going through this bearish phase - still counting though !
• Pay mortgage partly - If you have home loan or any other loan. Please pay little bit more than what you have been paying monthly as EMI. Not too long ago (2003-2007) advisors/brokers/agents used to say that invest first and pay loan later from profit. I believe we need to do both together to gain most.
• Start Online Investment with AMCs - In order to save 2.25% entry load, start investing with AMCs directly. Try do some research on this. Wait for few days and I will post something about it!

This is what I am doing for now. I will post more about how to plan the Investments in Mutual Funds and Stocks directly too in my Part II.

Happy Investing!

cheers
Sandeep

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Sensex 18k : Mystery of India’s economic growth

Well Sensex in India reaches 18K yesterday & still going high !. What does it really means to India. This definitly means that the economy is doing well & probably it will continue to do well in future for sometime(well no one dares to say more than that). Read a good article about this in The Economic Times today " Mystery of India’s economic growth ".

Some paragraphs caught my eyes "

The quality of public services in lousy. Surveys show that only half the students in Class VII can read simple texts or do simple maths (unless they have private tutors). Public health is in bad shape. Economists Das and Hammer report that when government doctors are not absent from office, fully half their recommendations are likely to harm rather than cure patients. The quality of bijli, sadak and pani is terrible.

Corruption remains high. Transparency International lists India 72nd out of 180 countries, a poor performance. Nor have reforms been comprehensive enough. The annual Index of Economic Freedom compiled by the Fraser Institute and others puts India at only 104th position in the world.

Supposedly India has rule of law. But enforcement of contracts takes 10 years on average. Politics is criminalised since no criminal is convicted beyond all appeals, thanks to moribund police and courts. Maoist violence now affects 157 out of the country’s 600 districts.

In sum, the quality of India’s policies, institutions and governance leave much to be desired. Other countries with such problems have often suffered economic stagnation or collapse. Yet India has accelerated to 8.6% for four years, a feat rarely achieved in history.

So we really need to understand economics more deeper to understand what is behind this Growth Story & how far it will continue like this. Personally I am definitely positive about it and will continue to watch the trend.

I hope to get some more answers on this Mystery in coming days/years ...hopefully ...till then enjoy the India Growth Story on TV channels !