January 2012

How To Win The War Against Piracy – It’s Not SOPA

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

In the wake of the recent trashing of the SOPA bill and the collective uproar that surrounded it, I’d like to investigate a few things relevant to us as online entrepreneurs, creativity and ownership. Just in case you have been living under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about, the US government recently tried to… Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged as: give away your product, json, piracy, pirate content, single, small-business, sopa, young

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Preparing a Rent Agreement for your Business? Read this first!

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Lawyers at VakilSearch guide you As an entrepreneur, you often have to enter into a Rental Agreement. Very few entrepreneurs have the luxury of buying property, and therefore it is vital that your rental agreement is comprehensive and protects you completely. At the outset, it can be stated that most problems arising out of a tenancy / rental agreement occur due to the tenant failing to comprehend the implications and meaning of certain terms or clauses in the agreement. While most people use the words “Tenant”, “Landlord” & “Property”, being lawyers, we may be referring to them as “Lessee”, “Lessor” & “Scheduled Property” respectively). We have compiled a list of clauses which you as an entrepreneur should watch out for while preparing your Rental Agreement. By following these clauses, you can avoid making common mistakes many people (and not just entrepreneurs) make. Responsibilities of both the parties : There are various acts that the parties agree to perform. Every agreement has to guarantee that the tenant will have free and unrestricted access to the property. If it is for a commercial purpose, also make sure that you can put up sign boards or name boards outside the property. Every tenant should also demand a guarantee that he / she will have access to water, electricity and sewerage (although you may have to pay for it). Typically, every city has a sewerage board (like the BWSSB in Bengaluru), so insert a clause which says that the landlord should make sure the property has the necessary facilities provided by the appropriate boards. Likewise, the landlord will demand that the tenant maintains the property in good condition, and that it should be returned in the same condition that it was received in. If you are the tenant, make sure that the agreement is subject to normal wear and tear and something called “force majeure”. “Force Majeure” basically means that if there is a flood, earthquake, natural calamity or any other such eventuality, and the property is damaged, you as the tenant will not be held liable. Many agreements do not contain this clause, so this is a very common mistake: watch out for it. It is a healthy practice to allow the landlord to inspect the property at a mutually agreeable time; The landlord will expect the tenant to be responsible for prompt payment of utility bills (water, electricity, etc) and rent payment as per the agreement, so if you want the landlord to pay those bills, make sure you specify that as well. Which Court will be responsible for hearing disputes? This may not seem like a very important clause, but do not underestimate its importance. If you are originally from Hyderabad and living temporarily in Bangalore, you can insist that jurisdiction will be with Courts in Hyderabad. Very often, people do not expect anything to go wrong, so the other side may agree. If something does indeed go wrong, it will save you the trouble of travelling to Bangalore each time. Choose the place of jurisdiction intelligently. If you expect to be in Bangalore for a long time, then make it Bangalore only, and not Hyderabad. Description of the property : This is key. Every property must be clearly defined and details like the Door no, Floor, Street no, Road name, Area and Pin Code along with boundaries and in the case of an independent house, information regarding the surrounding properties must be mentioned. Typically, the property schedule looks something like this: “An Apartment, situated at Plot No 13, G2, ABC Apartments, DEF Housing Society, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore – 560024 We will be writing on other clauses in the next part, which will follow shortly. We will be focusing there on tax payment, your security deposit and repairs. So keep reading! YourStory.in readers can now use the code YST10 to get a 10% discount on legal advice and other services on vakilsearch . com About VakilSearch VakilSearch is India’s leading online legal services provider for businesses and individuals. As the official partner of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and knowledge contributor to Sulekha.com, the Hindu Business Line, Entrepreneur Magazine and the All India Rubber Association, VakilSearch reaches out to thousands of businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals on a regular basis. So when you visit vakilsearch . com , you can be assured of quality legal guidance and comprehensive documentation for your business and personal needs, at affordable prices.

Tagged as: advertising, business, education, guest-columns, india, indian, learning, microsoft, paas, pallav-nadhani, technology

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Seal the Deal: The 6 Laws of Successful Sales

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Each and every business focuses on its sales numbers. Whether a company offers products or services, their ultimate success depends on how many people they can convince to invest in them. While many believe that the executives in their ivory towers determine the daily success of a company, the people truly steering the ship are the salespeople. These are the individuals who know best what customers want, what customers are concerned about, and what it takes to get prospects to become customers. That’s not to say, however, that each salesperson couldn’t benefit from some help. A change in mindset can be all it takes to change the course of your ship – and your company’s. Here are the six laws that each sale hinges on: 1. The Law of Vibration Everything carries a frequency or vibration, and the highest form of vibration is thought. Things in the same frequency will resonate and attract, while elements in different frequencies will repel or oppose. This means that fixating on positive thoughts will attract more of the same, while ruminating on negative thoughts will prevent you from bringing positivity into your fold. Great entrepreneurs have command over choosing the thoughts they’re aware of, and therefore, giving the most energy toward. Focusing on thoughts that empower you attracts more deals, better customers, and high-quality team members. 2. The Law of Cause and Effect Ralph Waldo Emerson called this “the law of laws.” The concept of cause and effect doesn’t begin at the physical action/reaction level, despite what you learned in high school physics. Rather, it begins at the conscious thought level. The cause (the ideas or perspective you choose to focus on consciously) creates feelings (vibrations) that lead to an effect (the frequency you are in). Again, this attracts opportunities and challenges that are in line with the vibrations you’re giving off. You and I bring about our thoughts the majority of the time. To change your results, you must first change your thoughts. 3. The Law of Engenderment Everything in life has an incubation (engenderment) period. Babies, for example, incubate over an engenderment period of approximately 280 days. Deals and sales cycles are the same way. Some sales cycles and products move on impulse; others do not. A good rule of thumb for entrepreneurs and salespeople is to remember that you’re always 90 days away from your income potential. This means that what you’re doing today will not likely manifest into real income potential until 90 days from now. To jump-start this incubation period, be proactive. Start calling and visiting prospects – you never know which sale will mark the beginning of your big 90-day period. 4. The Law of Rhythm There’s an ebb and flow to the universe. Great entrepreneurs understand that this rhythm applies to their business and sales as well. They work to cash in on the high tide in their business or industry so they can create cash reserves for the low tide. There’s one constant: change. Don’t assume that the good times will last forever – or that the bad ones will, either. Accept that you will encounter both, and prepare accordingly. 5. The Law of Compensation Compensation is a function of 1) the need for what you do, 2) your ability to fill that need in comparison to others, and 3) how difficult – or easy – it is to replace you. For salespeople, this encourages you to take ownership of your job. You certainly need to focus on your customers and their needs, but you also need to ensure that you have the skills and confidence to tackle their needs head-on. Focus on your abilities and your growth as a seller, and you will attract more success. 6. The Law of Minimums A phenomenon that I have witnessed over my work with no fewer than 10,000 entrepreneurs and salespeople over the last decade is that of big goals. Most people who meet with great success set large goals, which is key to stretching their comfort zones. This, in turn, forces them to increase their awareness. However, the vast majority will stop when they achieve what I call their “acceptable minimum,” rather than their actual goal. This is important to remember. When all five other laws are in play, we are operating on autopilot, and the target destination will invariably be some minimal acceptable standard we fall back on that’s in the general direction of our most-desired dreams. With this in mind, the purpose of goal-setting outside of our current performance level is two-fold: 1) it requires us to increase our awareness and grow, and 2) it ensures that our acceptable minimums from yesterday do not remain our acceptable minimums of tomorrow. We have to continue to move ahead. Great salespeople produce 90% of an organization’s sales. They’re operating from a higher level of minimums within their subconscious. They may or may not set goals, but all of them inherently have “acceptable minimums” that exceed the status quo. This causes them to default to a higher autopilot level, and therefore, receive more than the majority of their counterparts. Why shouldn’t you be one of them? Following these laws of selling will not only strengthen your thoughts and abilities as a salesperson, but your sales will also grow as a direct result of the changes you’re making within. Gandhi said it best: “Be the change you wish to see.” It will also be the change your company wishes to see – and you’re the one who can make it happen. Chris J. Snook has spent over 11 years as an author, entrepreneur, and venture catalyst and has spent the last 5 years in the investment community incubating media startups as the Managing Partner of TLEC Ventures. He co-authored three international best-selling books entitled Wealth Matters 2007 and 2011 (2nd Edition) and Burnout: How to Transform Frustration to Fortune in 2005 .

Tagged as: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, sales, small-business, success

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Microsoft Advertising Invites Marketers and Agencies in India to Join Global Creative Storytelling Contest

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Do you think the storytelling element is missing from most marketing campaigns these days? Microsoft Advertising’s storytelling platform aims to change that. Today they announced the launch of The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards, which is a creative storytelling contest. Marketing and branding professionals and agencies from 30 countries around the world have been invited to submit a campaign idea for a brand or non-profit of their choice. The campaign idea needs to be a hypothetical digital media plan (a creative idea) for the brand or non-profit of the marketers choice. The media plan should address a ‘key business challenge’, which the organization is expected to face in 2012/13. This award competition does not judge work which has already been done. Rather it provides branding experts a unique opportunity to create an innovative media plan for a brand using the technology and solutions offered by Microsoft Advertising. Mr. David Sable, Global Chief Executive Officer, Y&R (also the head of the global judging panel for this contest) summed it perfectly when he said, “Rather it is all about inspiring digital marketers to take their discipline back to its roots by developing fresh ideas that focus on reaching a target audience with a powerful story”. So a marketer can use MSN, Windows Mobile, Windows Live, Xbox, Microsoft Messenger, etc for this exercise. Entries from India will be judged by some of the leading names in the country’s marketing industry, including Tushar Vyas, Managing Partner-South Asia of Group M, Anita Varma, Director, Digital Driftwood Pvt. Ltd and Florist Van Hjeist, General Manager-Marketing & Operations at Microsoft Corp. The contest has been split into two phases. The first phase is the local heat. In case of India all entries need to be sent in by 31 st March, 2012. The winners from every local heat will progress to the second stage, which will be the global finals. Two winners will be selected and will be crowned with the Global Microsoft Advertising Story Award 2012. The winners will also get a chance to travel to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2012 as Microsoft Advertising’s guests, which is slated to take place between the 17 th and 23 rd of June in Cannes, France. Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd’s Country Director of Advertising and Online, Mr. Neville Taraporewalla provided a great insight about Microsoft’s objective of launching this contest. He said, “At Microsoft Advertising, we have initiated this unique contest to highlight the wider focus of the business, which is to help brands step back from the clutter, and put storytelling back at the heart of marketing.” For more information on how to enter the competition, check out the Microsoft Advertising Story Awards website . To register for the Contest click here .

Tagged as: business, cloud news, disclaimer, facebook, forbes-india, indian, namrata-shah, pallav-nadhani, partners, random-member, tech, technology

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The Entrepreneur Duo behind 21 Fools spread the “Be foolish, Be happy” Mantra; plan to add a personal touch to greeting cards

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

When two Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) graduates start a company and say that their mission is to make people smile and spread foolishness, you need to pay attention to what they have to say. They want to make people smile and feel optimistic, which is quite a bold statement to make. (Needless to mention here, quite an interesting venture to start!) Divyanshu, co-founder of 21 Fools , says that the seed idea for starting the e-magazine came as they were tired of reading negative news stories and reports in newspapers and magazines. The idea first surfaced during a road trip around Rajasthan. They wanted to create a positive impact on the readers and present negative news in a different way. Divyanshu met Surendra, the other founder, at D CE and that is where the journey of 21 Fools started. On the 12 th May, 2010 the e-magazine was launched. 21 Fools is a fortnightly e-magazine and includes Daily News , Podcasts, Video Diaries and other interesting content . Their goal is to become a full-fledged online media house. Shifting base from Jaipur (where they were based out of) to Mumbai was the natural next step. The 21 Fools family is growing rapidly with a number of freelance writers, graphic designers, etc joining the team. YourStory caught up with the founders of 21 Fools and had a fun chat with them. Both Divyanshu and Surendra actively participated in DEC’s annual cultural festival. While still in college Divyanshu tried his hand at entrepreneurship. He started an informal society called ‘Endeavour’ in the first year itself and by the fourth year he started a city based social network called www.boljaipurbol.in . Surendra wanted to become ‘the best coder in the world’, but meeting Divyanshu put a brake on that plan. He made a full-length feature film with industry level equipment and a budget of over Rs. 15 lakh. The film was premiered on Doordarshan on 5 th September, 2010. Interestingly, 21 Fools says that it was less of a challenge at the beginning. The real challenge has begun now. According to them putting together the right team was the biggest challenge. They did not want professional writers or journalists. The passion for writing was what they were looking for and also people who were willing to work as volunteers. Over a period of time the founders built a great rapport with the writers and they have now become part of the family. The initial challenge has now become an asset. Besides Divyanshu and Surendra, there is Samarprita Mukherjee, who is the editor, and Kaumudi Bharadwaj, who is developing content for the greeting cards portal. Then there are numerous volunteers who contribute articles, photographs, graphics etc on a regular basis. The 21 Fools family is taking their mission of ‘We Make People Smile” to the next level. So how are they doing it? They are poised to expand their offerings and launch a greeting cards portal. In the age of instant messages and Facebook status updates, 21 Fools is passionately trying to bring the personal aspect of greetings back in business. The portal is under construction currently and 21 Fools is collaborating with another startup called Zepo, for the same. It is slated to be launched on the eve of Valentine’s Day. There is no revenue model in place for the e-magazine and they want to keep it like that. If things go according to plan the greeting cards portal will bring in the revenue and support the magazine as well. So far they have not approached any VC or angel investor and are channelling all their energies towards making the new portal a success.

Tagged as: business, disclaimer, facebook, forbes-india, investment, pallav-nadhani, partners, random-member, startups

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Education Technology Startup eDreams Software Raises Investment from Mumbai Angels

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Bangalorebased education startup eDreams Software raises investment from Mumbai Angels. Their flagship offering Funtoot is an intelligent personalized tutor that teaches children in a fun and interactive manner. Currently, 1000 students across three schools use Funtoot. Speaking about the investment, Anil Joshi of Mumbai Angels said, “There is a strong need among the parent community for personalized attention for their kids, and Funtoot solves this problem in a very interesting manner using technology.” Also, speaking about the team, Anil said, “Rajeev Pathak ( founder of eDreams Software ) is a BITS Pilani alumnus and has experience of leading teams in companies like Wipro. Rajeev has successfully built a very good team at eDreams” The investment happened as a part of Bloomberg UTV’s Pitch. The size of the investment is INR 5 crores. For further details, please visit http://www. edreamssoftware.com/ and we shall soon bring to you a story on Funtoot.

Tagged as: business, cloud, facebook, funding, microsoft, namrata-shah, news, paas, pallav-nadhani, technology

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51% Facebook users are concerned about Facebook Timeline; reveals Sophos’ Survey

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

We are all familiar with Facebook ‘Timeline’. A number of users have already adopted the new look, but there are others who are either confused or indifferent. Now Sophos, an IT security and data protection company, has revealed that more than 50% of the existing Facebook users are concerned about the Facebook profile update. Sophos has a presence in 150 countries and over 100 million users depend on them for complex threats and data loss. Over the next few weeks Facebook will phase out the old look and make the ‘Timeline’ format mandatory. ‘Timeline’ will present a scrapbook of all your past activities on Facebook. This format encourages users to share more personal details about themselves and their life experiences. It will make it much simpler to view any particular user’s information and will also make identifying fake profiles and stalkers easy. All Facebook apps will be integrated with the Timeline and updates from those will also be published. So the last song you listened to on Spotify or the last article you read on Washington Post will be published on your Timeline and you do not have to ‘Share’ or press ‘Like’. The survey Sophos conducted had 4100 respondents from around the world. This online poll asked them what their opinion about the Facebook Timeline is. And what came out of the survey? An incredible 51% of the respondents are worried about their Facebook Timeline. A miniscule 8 % liked their profile’s new look and another 8% think that with time they will get used to it. The most interesting fact to come out of the poll is that 32% of the respondents still do not know why they are on Facebook, in the first place. Sophos’ Senior Technology Consultant, Graham Cluley, thinks, “The Facebook Timeline will be a wake-up call to some that they have shared too much in the past, too freely. In my case, the Timeline was the catalyst to reassess my relationship with Facebook – and so I’ve killed my account.” He further believes that the Facebook Timeline will give people a chance to stop for a minute and reassess what they share online. A number of users have cleaned their public profile and online friend relationships. The amount of information available on Timeline is like a goldmine for scammers. Facebook Timeline will change the way the over 800 million users behave on Facebook, henceforth. Facebook needs to take measures to make users feel more comfortable with Timeline.

Tagged as: business, cloud, disclaimer, microsoft, news, paas, pallav-nadhani, popular-on-cloudstory-in, press releases, random-member, technology

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Oystor: Cloud based offering to simplify your world

by Paul Joseph January 31, 2012 Featured

Over the years, investments in IT has facilitated large companies to manage data, files and information better, but that knowledge has not been extended up to a desired level to individuals and small business owners. This issue is being tackled by m9 Tech Solutions with their product ‘Oystor’. “Data today resides in many forms which make it difficult to manage. We see the need for secure point-to-point document transaction and retrievals and want to fill in that gap for businesses and consumers alike”, says Krishna Prasad, founder m9 Tech Solutions. We got in touch with Krishna to know more about Oystor. Key Features Omnipresence: Oystor is a secure online document and information management system that helps busy families and small businesses manage what matters most precious documents like birth certificates, education certificates, health records for the family or finance, legal, customers, employee records for the business. It is one place that is accessible anytime, anywhere from your PC. Scan: Every organisation or even a family has lots of vital information stored in paper documents. At Oystor, we strive to provide a robust solution that not only encompasses storing and sharing, but digitization services as well. Our partners will help to scan and upload your documents at their retail outlets or for businesses, onsite at your premise. Share: The Share aspect of Oystor makes transacting with your real estate, doctors, insurance agent or lawyer easy. You can quickly find the documents you need and share it with them. Store and simple search: Oystor is a safe warehouse where you can put in all your important files and documents with a sense of security. By simply filing your documents into common and intuitive categories and adding tags or details to them, search is pretty easy. Media also has a separate category. Other features include collaboration, centralized administrative console, enhanced search and total synchronization. Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and work experience. A true Bangalorean, graduated in commerce from St.Josephs College having more than a decade’s experience in Sales, Call Center Management, Operations, Business Process Improvement, Training, Logistics and prior to Oystor, was working with Dell as Supply Chain and Logistics Manager for India Consumer and Retail and am a certified PMP and Six Sigma professional. Where are most of your customers from? Oystor is already delivering value to a number of professionals and businesses. Oystor has been successfully deployed at law firms, accounting firms, design studios and IT companies. A good example has been that of Oystor being used as a billing system. Instead of mailing or emailing invoices, they simply upload invoices and other supporting documents onto Oystor and share it with their clients, logistics providers, accountants and employees. What was the technology used to build the platform? We use Cloud technology. It’s not so much about following trends as it was about what makes sense. The cloud is a smarter, sensible and more convenient architecture. It gives us flexibility to deliver a solution to a wider spectrum of users, be it enterprise, small and medium businesses or consumer. This technology, coupled with the rising capabilities of smart phones, tablets and laptops, helps ensure that everyone in and out of the office is able to access the most updated information. This is especially so with the way businesses are no longer bounded by the four walls of the office. There are a few other products with similar offering. How do you differentiate? It’s important to have documents and data readily accessible to facilitate important events such as University admissions, Property buying or selling, Loan applications, to name a few. These processes touch large corporations like banks as well intermediaries like lawyers, brokers and agents, as well as the end customer. Along with our technology and service partners, Oystor provides a single platform that allows Secure Storage Sharing (with access rights), Collaboration, and Workflows Business Networking And Information Management, all in the cloud. How does the revenue model work? Our business model is based on an annual subscription model which is On-demand, meaning the user can select the features, plan and the storage requirement. How big is your team? Where are you based? We are close to 20 people, majority of them in the development center located in Chennai, while our marketing team works out of Singapore. We are currently hiring in Bangalore and other metros for business development and are partnering with technology clients and scanning solution providers. Which cloud platform are you hosted on? We are hosted in a robust infrastructure provided by Singtel as well as Amazon. What are your views on the digital world increasingly moving on to the cloud? Having an infrastructure designed to digitize, store, search, retrieve, reproduce, authenticate, validate and publish the data to facilitate some of the process mentioned above will produce huge efficiencies for both the provider as well as the requester of the data. This data will be managed with all the features of security, privacy, standards-based, back-up as to make it useful and accessible whenever and wherever needed. To move it from its point of origin to any point of need quickly and efficiently—is imperative to support the various demands that will emerge in the future. Oystor is currently offered Free for individuals to try and give their feedback. Also, there is a referral prize with a chance of winning an iPhone4S. Log on to Oystor.com for further details

Tagged as: cloud, facebook, indian, mobivi-popular, namrata-shah, paas, pallav-nadhani, partners, popular-on-cloudstory-in, random-group, random-member, story-in-rehan

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The Other 99% Of Entrepreneurs

by Paul Joseph January 30, 2012 Featured

In my recent piece Reengineering Capitalism I highlighted a phenomenon that the global entrepreneurship ecosystem is paying very little attention to: Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek funding get rejected. Yet, the entire world is focused on the 1% that is “fundable.” The media, when pitched a startup story, is interested in who funded the venture. They seldom ask how much revenue the company has or if it is profitable. Incubators take pride in how exclusive they are and how many “deals” they “reject.” Angels and VCs, of course, discard most of their “deal flow.” And entrepreneurs? They seem to have confused the definition of entrepreneurship altogether. Entrepreneurship, they mistakenly believe, equals financing! This is wrong. There are numerous stories of successful businesses that have been built without a penny of outside financing. I want to share with you some wisdom from the heroes of the other 99%. They live in a world of entrepreneurs who enjoy their freedom and are not looking to sell their businesses or take them public. You could say these businesses are built-to-enjoy, as opposed to built-to-flip. Needless to say, outside financing, by definition, requires an “exit,” and for most businesses, that means a sale to a larger company. But the entrepreneurs I will introduce you to today are not interested in selling their companies. They just want to continue doing what they are doing: building value. Meet Girish Navani, CEO of eClinicalWorks, a super-successful healthcare IT company based in Boston. He has never taken any funding but has built a $100 million-plus business by delivering value to customers. Girish says, “I don’t foresee leaving the company for at least 10 years. I would like to leave it a private company with no external investors and absolutely no thoughts whatsoever about Wall Street. I am having fun and take great pride in my freedom. There is no reason I would give that up. We are a cash flow positive company. We have recurring revenues and no debt. We have a large customer base that is growing exponentially.” [You can read Girish’s full story here .] Meet Andrew Fox, CEO of ClubPlanet, a $30 million-plus nightclub ticketing services company that is also 100% founder-owned. Andrew loves nightlife and says, “The business is very successful and has a lot of room for growth. I think that we have a lot of suitors out there who mention really ridiculous numbers at times. This is such a great lifestyle business that I don’t know if I could ever sell it. All of my previous businesses I built to sell, but this time around you might find me right here in thirty years. I hope by then it is $300 million a year. Based on our growth trajectory, we are seeing really good signs of improvement. [You can read more of Andrew’s story here .] Then there is the oft-cited Sridhar Vembu, who has turned all tables with Zoho, a $100 million-plus SaaS company that competes with Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce.com without a penny in outside capital. I have had numerous conversations with Sridhar over the years, and each time he reinforces the same basic philosophy: “I want to build this without outside capital. I don’t want to sell the company.” [You can learn more about Sridhar’s methods here .] Each of these entrepreneurs could raise money in a nanosecond given how much success they’ve had. The fact that they don’t gives you an idea about the advantages of the self-financed, organic growth model. No matter how much Wall Street gyrates, these entrepreneurs experience and demonstrate a level of stability and steadiness that is exemplary. Imagine if the American economy had many more such steady private companies that are far removed from the movements of the speculative markets, how much more robust things would be? It really is time that the media starts celebrating more of these kinds of heroes: the other 99%. And for young entrepreneurs, as you evaluate role models to emulate, perhaps it is not a bad idea to also consider some of these lesser-known heroes. They can give you a picture of the realities of an alternate, deeply satisfying universe. In conclusion, I want to leave you with a 1:49 minute video message. Please listen to it, and stop for a moment to think about your path forward. Is a single-minded focus on fund-raising your only option?

Tagged as: disclaimer, facebook, forbes-india, microsoft, namrata-shah, paas, pallav-nadhani, partners, popular-on-cloudstory-in, sramana-mitra, story-in-rehan

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International Finance Corporation of The World Bank Group Invests in Mahindra Solar One in Rajasthan

by Paul Joseph January 30, 2012 Featured

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing $5 million in debt financing to Mahindra Solar One for a 5-megawatt solar power project in the Indian state of Rajasthan to expand access to clean energy in rural areas and address climate change. The new solar photovoltaic power plant will generate enough electricity to serve about 60,000 rural homes, and is expected to avoid some 8,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Mahindra Solar One, a joint venture between the Mahindra Group and Kiran Energy, planned the project as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, a government initiative to expand solar production in India by 1,100 megawatts over the next two years. The Rajasthan plant is expected to generate about 9 million kilowatt-hours annually to help electrify rural parts of the country. By supporting this project, IFC recognizes the potential of large-scale solar-power generation to help meet India’s enormous energy needs, agreed both Vish Palekar, Mahindra Cleantech business head, and Ardeshir Contractor, managing director of Kiran Energy. “The project is aligned with our strategy of promoting clean growth in the region, and also complements our knowledge partnership with the government of Rajasthan,” said Anita George, IFC Director for Infrastructure in Asia. “IFC’s strategy in the solar sector is to increase energy access in emerging markets by investing in technology and scaling new business models, reducing costs so that more people use solar power.” Much of India receives high levels of direct sunlight throughout the year, making solar power economically and logistically viable. More than 13,500 square miles of the Thar Desert in northwestern India have been set aside for solar power projects, with much of the activity located in Rajasthan. Last year, IFC’s Advisory Services team hosted a conference, Rajasthan as a Solar Component Manufacturing Hub, to help investors and solar energy producers recognize Rajasthan’s potential as a hub for generating solar energy.

Tagged as: business, facebook, funding & deals, namrata-shah, popular-on-cloudstory-in, random-member, social & green news, story-in-rehan, yourstory-in

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January 2012

WEBSITES FROM BOLENAY MEDIA