In 2005 when I first began working on the idea of taking jobs to people rather than bring people to jobs, I began putting together this blog. The blog was more to collect and share interesting things I found along in my journey. As the project picked up, I found less time to spend on my blog. The project became a company, the company grew and consumed all my time.

2 weeks back I took a sabbatical for a year. I have some time now and everyone is asking me to begin writing again - this time more original stuff. I am keen to write as well - especially on the choices I made and how we came where we came. There are also several dilema's in ones mind, several issues on which it is hard to find adequate reading material. And finally some strong opinions I have formed along the way.

Rural BPO

Here's a post from Vijay's Blog on the Rural BPO work that I am involved with:

The Rural BPO team of TeNeT certainly seem to think so and they are progressing well on that end. From simple data entry tasks of converting handwritten application forms into digital entries, to converting english-language multimedia content into regional language content, they have done it and pride themselves in being in par with any work the city whiz kid could do. They are looking to expand and get more projects to further scale their efforts. If you do know of any BPOs that have a SCR (Social Corporate Responsibility) division and want to do something for Rural India, this would be very ideal.

more available here

The Hardest Lessons for Startup's to Learn

Paul Graham [via Rajesh Jain] writes in his essay:

What you should fear, as a startup, is not the established players, but other startups you don't know exist yet. They're way more dangerous than Google because, like you, they're cornered animals.

Looking just at existing competitors can give you a false sense of security. You should compete against what someone else could be doing, not just what you can see people doing. A corollary is that you shouldn't relax just because you have no visible competitors yet. No matter what your idea, there's someone else out there working on the same thing.

That's the downside of it being easier to start a startup: more people are doing it.

Quote for the Day

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.

It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

Anonymous

How much do we know about 'unsexy' India

Here are 2 questions that DNA India asked its readers - was wondering what you think. Do leave your comments or mail me - salonimalhotra [at] gmail [dot] com

Q1 Which recent incident from non-urban India touched you the most?

Q2 If you had to work in rural India, where would it be and what would you do?

Get Ready To Be Bangalored, in Bombay

Sixty kilometers away from Jallikakinada is the village of Eethakota, Here, in another, recently constructed 50-seater BPO, young graduates or process associates as they are called work two shifts (6 am to 2 pm and on to 10 pm), performing another range of internal processes for Satyam including the filling up of time-sheets for staffers on external projects.

read more about GramIT, Byrajju Foundation's Rural BPO here

Steve Jobs

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

More quotes by Steve Jobs on Wired