The idea comes from the latest trend in India. Weekends are no more about Rangoli or Ramayan on Sunday morning over DD-1, mothers trying a new recipe or families trying to meet up to go out for small picnics in public gardens. Finally, the age has arrived when all the exit of the city are clogged by enthusiastic travelers trying to hit the nearest destinations and unexplored tourist destinations for weekend getaways.
However, a comprehensive know-how about such places are still publicized over word of mouth or are just absent. One particular book that stands out from most of the travel guides is "The Outlook Traveller". This title offers detailed coverage of the destinations. The ‘arounds’ from primary chapters, as mentioned under some of them, have been covered briefly therein.
What is still missing is basically the travel description itself. For example - Mode of transportation, if possible option of biking, what's the best restaurant or any special authentic place offering local specials, any petrol bunk on the way, or even more basic information like clean toilets etc etc. The book doesn't describe the experience, it doesn't suggest the type of crowd the place should be visited with - if the place is good for couples or for bunch of friends, it doesn't talk about traffic , the road or short cuts if any, any new places etc etc.
To fill this gap, Idea is to actually video blog such details and capture the experience of ordinary people. This would be better than some celebrity taking u through expensive places and talking about places u might never go. Also, the more realistic it is, the more compeling and helpful it would be to anyone planning a similar trip.
How do we do it ? It's not possible to go to every place in India. Also, it would need a hell lot of investment and has no credible source of return. So, the best way would be to crack it up and start with the simplest. Take the Outlook Traveller for any city we choose. Choose the 10 top and most popular destinations listed in the book. Read the section, remember but let's not follow it. Let's make the whole thing more realistic and video blog the trip. By the time we have 10, we would know if the things are helping anyone in anyway.
We can then either go to Outlook them selves to include the series as part of the book or can in parallel run our own show.....
But someone else paying for my vacation would be cool !!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Idea no 20 - Next Generation Insurance !!
Insurance is one sector that has missed the train to be a 20Th century product. Mostly I think its an obsession with the west that India majorly lacks having new creative Insurance policies launched. From what I remember, Insurance has always remained a myth to many and a tax saving policy to the rest.
So, definition of Insurance in today's world is "A Money/Tax management policy in which u invest to never see the money and only chances of higher returns is by your eventual death". Why should I invest in any policy that will see a greater return only if die ? - is something I have been thinking for a while, might be another reason why I stopped investing in pension plans/life insurance/Accidental policy etc etc.
Just for information, LIC is India's biggest bank. People invest in LIC over a life to see a 6-8% return and some unfortunate people never live to see it. I'm not interested in debating the success of the product but actually seeing how the same policy can be made more lucrative for people like me.
An Insurance policy should look like this -
Minimum Investment - 60,000 - Annual, 5,000 per Month
Rate of return - 4% simple interest on the total investment capital.
Minimum locking period - 3 Years
Return -
-----------
1. Half the interest rate on the capital at anytime after the locking period.
2. Membership to local group of Social club/fitness clubs/Gyms/Spa etc.
3. Membership to a holiday club like Club Mahindra.
4. Shopper club membership/ Flight membership. For example - Shopper's Stop etc
5. Privilege customer status for cinema halls/ restaurants / Pubs etc.
6. Easy access to Loans. Example - if a person can get others to pledge on his behalf their own policies to cover the loan amount, Loan should be offered at rate little more than the one being offered as returns.
This is what I call insurance, I hope someone in the business is actually thinking on similar lines.
So, definition of Insurance in today's world is "A Money/Tax management policy in which u invest to never see the money and only chances of higher returns is by your eventual death". Why should I invest in any policy that will see a greater return only if die ? - is something I have been thinking for a while, might be another reason why I stopped investing in pension plans/life insurance/Accidental policy etc etc.
Just for information, LIC is India's biggest bank. People invest in LIC over a life to see a 6-8% return and some unfortunate people never live to see it. I'm not interested in debating the success of the product but actually seeing how the same policy can be made more lucrative for people like me.
An Insurance policy should look like this -
Minimum Investment - 60,000 - Annual, 5,000 per Month
Rate of return - 4% simple interest on the total investment capital.
Minimum locking period - 3 Years
Return -
-----------
1. Half the interest rate on the capital at anytime after the locking period.
2. Membership to local group of Social club/fitness clubs/Gyms/Spa etc.
3. Membership to a holiday club like Club Mahindra.
4. Shopper club membership/ Flight membership. For example - Shopper's Stop etc
5. Privilege customer status for cinema halls/ restaurants / Pubs etc.
6. Easy access to Loans. Example - if a person can get others to pledge on his behalf their own policies to cover the loan amount, Loan should be offered at rate little more than the one being offered as returns.
This is what I call insurance, I hope someone in the business is actually thinking on similar lines.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Idea No 19 - Shop and Donate !!
20th century biggest innovation though never recognized is undisputedly Credit Cards. Credit Cards have opened up a whole new world, world were people carry buying power of millions in pockets, easiest way to get credit from banks, New ways for bank to serve easy fast soft loans, Shopping a whole new joyful experience and best way to blind fold consumers.
I'm not against Credit cards, I just want to define a more useful purpose a credit card can play in peoples life who probably would never be able to have one. Ever wondered what happens to all the points that get accumulated while you swipe your credit cards to glory?
Clueless, Yes I have been using these babies for around a decade now and I still do not understand the right meaning of collecting points and using them in any possible way. Basically it works something like this - "When a user swipes a card, for every unit (can be some amount of money, say 100) you earn some basic points". Well, its not practical for everyone to go back to check point balance or to see if they can be used in any possible ways month to month bases. So these points get accumulated over time and either get lapsed or get converted to some small negligible amount in our billing history.
Idea is to pick up these trashed away points earned over credit cards, consult the Bank and the user to get an agreement to use these points either for charity or trade locally produced products from small scale industries to help them beat the market and recession. To make this work, first we would need to convince banks to add this optional program and to mention these in auto teller messages for user awareness. Next step would be to identify these small scale industries falling into this bracket and get set with a list of featured products. Third would be to convince bank that the money conversion of these points is authentic.
I understand this is no direct way of making money, but helping these small and home businesses sustain and carry on can be huge boost for the economic weaker sections of business hierarchy !!
I'm not against Credit cards, I just want to define a more useful purpose a credit card can play in peoples life who probably would never be able to have one. Ever wondered what happens to all the points that get accumulated while you swipe your credit cards to glory?
Clueless, Yes I have been using these babies for around a decade now and I still do not understand the right meaning of collecting points and using them in any possible way. Basically it works something like this - "When a user swipes a card, for every unit (can be some amount of money, say 100) you earn some basic points". Well, its not practical for everyone to go back to check point balance or to see if they can be used in any possible ways month to month bases. So these points get accumulated over time and either get lapsed or get converted to some small negligible amount in our billing history.
Idea is to pick up these trashed away points earned over credit cards, consult the Bank and the user to get an agreement to use these points either for charity or trade locally produced products from small scale industries to help them beat the market and recession. To make this work, first we would need to convince banks to add this optional program and to mention these in auto teller messages for user awareness. Next step would be to identify these small scale industries falling into this bracket and get set with a list of featured products. Third would be to convince bank that the money conversion of these points is authentic.
I understand this is no direct way of making money, but helping these small and home businesses sustain and carry on can be huge boost for the economic weaker sections of business hierarchy !!
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