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Suresh Dumbre's day starts with a text message on his mobile phone. The message, in Marathi, usually comes at 7 am. The 40-year-old vegetable farmer in Dawadi village in Pune reads it aloud: Cabbage. Pune: Rs 64 for 10 kg. Mumbai: Rs 80 for 10 kg. Kolhapur: Rs 80 for 10 kg. Now, Dumbre knows how much his cabbages will fetch him in the nearby wholesale markets. He leaves home with his stocks only after reading the message.

Every day, at seven, 100,000 farmers in Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab receive similar messages tailor-made to their specific crop and market requirements. Each of them has paid an average of Rs 50-Rs 100 a month for this service. Reuters Market Light (RML), the SMS-based information service targeted at farmers, was launched two years ago by the $13.4 billion Thomson Reuters Group. "We expect subscriber numbers to touch one million in three years," says RML's Managing Director, Amit Mehra.

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Last Thursday was an eventful day in Dumbre's life. He sold his cabbages at Rs 88 for 10 kg, the highest price they have ever fetched him. Later that evening, at the Sarpanch's office, he describes his experience to others over a cup of chai: A 10 kg sack of cabbages used to fetch him just Rs 25, and if he was really lucky, Rs 35. "I was at the mercy of middlemen who dictated the price." Dumbre became an RML customer barely a month ago and is thankful to his Sarpanch, Hore Jijbhau Manohar, for introducing him to RML. "The daily price updates have helped me make a profit of Rs 500," he says with a smile.

Apart from market alerts, Dumbre also gets weather and temperature alerts, fertiliser prices and technology tips on his phone. Bantu Desai, a grape farmer in Nashik grasps for words as he recalls how an RML weather alert once helped him save Rs 2 lakh. "Humidity is disastrous for grapes. An RML message warned me that humidity would be high in Nashik. I quickly bought a humidity-cover spray and saved my crops." Another farmer, Vilas Todkar, was not so lucky. He had not subscribed to any such alerts and says that he lost crops worth about Rs 4 lakh.

RML is trying to reach out to as many farmers as it can, says Amit Mehra. It is now all set to roll out services in other states, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. "I believe this service could lead to (cumulative) savings of $5-6 billion," he says confidently. Mehra describes RML as a social enterprise initiative from the house of Thomson Reuters. "We wanted to take a lead in offering market solutions that have an impact on the society, and yet, are profitable."

Source: business.outlookindia.com SMS Farming

Schools are adding and revamping classes on the meltdown, its roots and consequences. Professors say they want students to avoid repeating mistakes blamed for the blow-up.

Among the class lessons: Question assumptions behind financial models. Probe for better information about complex products. Don't let greed motivate decisions. Better understand the role of regulatory agencies and governments.

Schools began introducing these themes last school year, but now are incorporating them more systematically. "It would be a mistake to go into the classroom in today's world and not offer very serious reflection of these issues," says Stuart Gabriel, a finance professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. Students need "an understanding of the profound earthquake that has rumbled through these areas."

A leading topic at many campuses: financial modeling.

As a result of the crisis, professional investors and analysts were criticized for not adequately considering potential flaws in the assumptions behind their models.

Source: Live Mint M.B.A Lessons That Fit The Times

• Cyber police is watching Government can monitor, intercept or even block any online content including e-mail that it thinks is offensive or could threaten national security. Could lead to misuse.

• Personal data up for grabs Government agencies can now demand users' personal data from internet service providers. Could lead to privacy issues and litigation.

• Beware of e-mail/MMS/SMS jokes Exchange of messages/data that are "offensive, annoying or cause inconvenience" over any computing device will be treated as an offence. Open to interpretation.

• Intermediaries are better off Service providers will not be held responsible for offensive content put up by websites, but will have to respond to state orders to block remove content within two hours. Could lead to technology issues.

Pretty soon, millions of Indian users will find that it's no longer easy to put up just about anything on the internet without bothering about it. A photograph, a joke or an innocent, honest comment on a contentious issue could prove to be troublesome depending on how a government agency interprets it.

Drafted under the broad umbrella of cyber security, the rules give teeth to a new law passed by the government late last year.

It changes the system of penalties for cyber offences and makes it easy for government agencies to seek any information, including users' personal data. This sudden extremism over Net activities stems from the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai last year, where internet and mobile technology was allegedly used to plan and execute the operation. India's action here is not isolated and follows a pattern among countries like US and China, who are targeting terror aided by the internet.

Source: www.outlookindia.com IT: CYBER LAWS, What Was The Password?

According to the sources, Saigal demonstrated with his software that by keying in a certain code number, one could ensure that every fifth vote cast in a particular polling booth goes in favour of a particular candidate or party.

Alms business is serious business in Ajmer, where pilgrims believe that giving enhances spirituality. What they don't know is that the old beggar woman is an employee of a larger syndicate that's run with the efficiency of an FMCG company. She's an employee, on the job and at the end of her stipulated five hours of begging she'll get the contracted Rs 550 from the syndicate. In return, she will hand over whatever she made, which could actually be less than what she's being paid.

Till about four years ago, begging in Ajmer during Urs was an informal affair: beggars assembled from all over the country, each fended for himself, and went back with whatever he or she managed to get. But then came the first syndicate. Now, there are about 10 of them at work during the 15-day Urs at the Khwaja Garib Nawaz Dargah. When Urs ends on July 5, the syndicates together would go back home or to their next venue, possibly Pushkar, where the fair begins shortly with about Rs 10 crore.

As business models go, the begging syndicate makes perfect sense. Running a syndicate is a `master'. He's the faceless boss. Under him is a shift-in-charge, and reporting to this person are the areas in-charge. Each syndicate hires beggars, who are offered a fixed sum per shift.

Source: Times Of India In Ajmer, begging's Rs 10cr biz

Your's Truly Sanjay, editor of this website, was on CNBC Awaaz on June 14, 2009 from 6-6:30 pm and 7-7:30 pm.

In addition to discussing the rising rates of property, Sanjay also answered viewers questions related to property all over India.

Click here to watch the show.

• Qubrex MD Sanjay Sharma on CNBC Awaaz June 14, 2009 Part 01
• Qubrex MD Sanjay Sharma on CNBC Awaaz June 14, 2009 Part 02
• Qubrex MD Sanjay Sharma on CNBC Awaaz June 14, 2009 Part 03
• Qubrex MD Sanjay Sharma on CNBC Awaaz June 14, 2009 Part 04
• Qubrex MD Sanjay Sharma on CNBC Awaaz June 14, 2009 Part 05

Barely four months after dropping its proposal to force TV channels to show only “authorized” feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Draft rules released this month empower a designated Central government officer to block public access to any information on the Net for wideranging reasons of security and national interest.

One glaring infirmity in the draft rules prepared by the department of information technology is that they make no stipulation for a prior hearing to the affected website. This is despite the fact that the web host who does not comply with the direction to remove the offending information is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to seven years.

Times View: The desire to curb the media’s freedom seems to run deep in the government. How else do you explain that while the draft rules give sweeping powers to officials, no attention has been paid to a basic thing like a hearing first? Babus tend to be quick in dubbing things as anti-national or compromising national security. Why should their ‘‘request’’ always be heeded? Also, what will these babus do if the web host is located outside India? Will the domestic media, therefore, bear the brunt of this potential abuse of power? The government should think this through before it finalises the draft rules.

Website gag: IT Act amendments not final Government had made an abortive attempt to gag TV channels through a draft notification amending the cable television network rules, but the sweeping power to control the content on websites is being fleshed out in the rules drafted under the recent amendments to the information technology (IT) Act.

Though it was passed by Parliament in December and the Presidential assent to it came in February, the IT amendment Act 2008 will not come into effect till the various rules drafted under its provisions, including the one on blocking public access to websites, are finalized.

Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a “complaint” against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A: interest of sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

If it is satisfied about the need to pull the challenged information out of the public domain, the department concerned will send a “request” in the prescribed form to the “designated officer” at the Centre chosen by the secretary of the IT department. An interministerial committee headed by the designated officer will recommend whether the request to censor the web site should be accepted or not.

If the IT secretary approves the committee’s recommendation to take action, the designated officer will direct the intermediary or web host to block the offending information within the stipulated time. In the event of non-compliance, the designated officer can initiate criminal proceedings under section 69A, which imposes a maximum sentence of seven years on the web host.

The only remedy provided by the draft rules to media organizations is that a review committee will meet every two months to check whether the directions to block information have been issued in accordance with the IT Act.

Source:Times Of India Website Gag: IT Act Amendments Not Final, Govt Arming Itself To Censor News Websites

• Caught In The Web; Draft Rules Stir A Hornet's Nest: From Business-Standard