In 2003, while working on various Projects, the
concept of Radio/Mobile Taxi came to my mind which is very close to the latest
concept of “Taxi Aggregators” less the App. I envisaged it with communication
through the mobile/cell phone network. Later over the years, when GPS, and
faster Internet were ready for use by the mobile Apps, the concept was
fine-tuned to the present state.
Have you ever noticed that there are about 50 Banks, 44 Mutual Fund AMCs, and 29 Life/ General Insurance Companies in India. Anyone having Rs. 1 Billion (100 Crores) can open a Life Insurance Company, or Rs. 5 Billion (500 Crores) can open a Bank, albeit with Govt permission. Do they all make profits, or provide value for the people? The answer is a big NO!
During the writing of my article (Administrative Reforms in
India) in 2007, I mooted the idea of consolidation of these financial entities
to clear clutter, improve efficiency and profits for them. The Govt has just
woken up last year and started doing that with the Banks starting with SBI.
Till 2015 they were granting new Banks, new AMCs etc. Ideally, we should have
only 6-8 Insurance companies, 8-12 Banks and 12-16 AMCs for a healthy
competition. On the other hand if we see the Telecom service providers, the
competition has cut their number to size about 6, which is good enough.
In 2002, while working on a Hotel Project, the concept of a “Budget Hotel” struck my mind. I worked out certain attributes and characteristics for this concept and put forward in my Project Report. Three years later the Tatas formed a separate company for Budget Hotels in 2004 and started their Budget Hotel in the name of “Ginger Hotels” in 2005 which was the first in India.
During my childhood (in the sixties), I was wondering if we could combine the comfort of a car and the power of a Jeep. There used to be one “Station Wagon” model that time, but it was just a jeep with doors- not much comfort. Later, over the years (in the eighties in India), came the concept of SUV (Sports & Utility Vehicles). Now we have several of models to choose from.