Hyderabad India - Opinions, News, Developments etc...

We have moved !

2009-08-01T13:21:00.007+05:30

Hello All,

This website has moved to http://hyderabad-india-online.com/ to better serve you. We hope to see you at the new site !!

We have added many more importantant updates at the new location after the last post at this location. The major sections in the new location are:

To go to the new home page it is easy just click here

Hyderabad City Personal Income Tax Collections Fell for 2008-09

2009-06-04T02:34:00.002+05:30

India's Personal Income Tax grew by 9.9% for 2008-09. The personal income tax also includes Fringe Benefit Tax, Securities Transaction Tax and Banking Cash Transaction Tax.

However, personal income tax has declined in Hyderabad and eight other metro cities including Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Some other cities in the list of lower income tax collection are Nagpur, Meerut, Bhopal, Bhubneshwar and Guwahati.

According to the data, Mumbai fell short by Rs 2,275 crore in the personal income tax collection segment or 5.6 per cent in the last fiscal, if compared to the one year old data. Bhopal division has recorded the biggest decline in the collection, which is 43 per cent.

Still trying to find the exact percentage drop for Hyderabad. Will update the posting when I find that data.

WaterFront Restaurant - One of the Best in Hyderabad

2009-06-01T03:49:00.002+05:30

What's good:

Live music
Over looks the lake (Hussain Sagar also called Tankbund)
Nice area - good sidewalk for a leisurely walk
Food is awesome - multi-cuisine (Indian, Thai, Indian Chinese)
Ambience is great
Serves liquor
Parking is pretty easy to find

Whats not great:

Staff is a bit overly focused on maximizing the bill
Sometimes the place gets too loud. The restaurant is a bit crowded

Overall:

For those looking to experience the best that Hyderabad has to offer. Can be crowded but still a great place. Reservations are accepted. They have a minimum billing policy - if you walk in you have to make a minimum bill from Rs.350 to Rs 500 per person (changes based on weekday or weekend).

Fine dining experience. The best part of this restaurant is that it is on the Lake shore. One side of the restaurant is full glass wall that overlooks the lake.

Radio Stations Hyderabad

2009-03-25T23:26:00.013+05:30

The radio stations in Hyderabad page is now updated at our new site - Hyderabad-india-online.com. Thank you for visiting us at the new website for the list of FM Radio Station Hyderabad, as well are Medium wave and short wave radio stations.

Our apologies for the inconvenience caused! In addition to the information on radio stations hyderabad, you will find new information on Hyderabad including updates, humor and information that will help you live more comfortably in Hyderabad

Hilarious: Wanted Candidates - Qualifications sought are...

2009-03-12T23:59:00.002+05:30

Wanted Candidate #16: Smart, genial young person willing to take harsh criticism and mental torture with a Smile.

Wanted Candidate #43: Intelligent MBA with multiple skills. Should have the ability to fax, e-mail, staple, Xerox and make a good cup of coffee.

Wanted Candidate #54: Young and friendless man with no life, willing to spend all weekends and holidays at work.

Wanted Candidate #35: Executive Assistant from a rich family who wants to work for experience and not money.

Wanted Candidate #76: An optimist who always looks at the bright side of getting a 5% increment.

Wanted Candidate #24: Mr. Trustworthy, who can always be relied upon to hear other colleagues’ grievances and report them straight to the boss.

Wanted Candidate #19: Professional with excellent communication skills. Should be able to say just the right things to please the management.

Wanted Candidate #32: Eager professional more than ready to take on extra workload including the boss’.

Wanted Candidate #63: Young, English speaking executive with a talent of looking interested when faced with hours and hours of lecture.

Wanted Candidate #22: A problem solver. Who can efficiently clean up the mess his boss might land himself into.

Wanted Candidate #85: Ph.D. with a giving personality when it comes to passing on the credit to the boss.

Wanted Candidate #52: A talented loyalist with a glue-like personality. Who once sits on a chair doesn’t move for years to come.

Courtesy: Naukri.com Calendar 2009

Paradise Persis - Best Biryani Restaurant in Hyderabad

2009-02-04T03:29:00.013+05:30

Hotel Paradise Persis at the Paradise circle in Secunderabad (forms part of Hyderabad - north of Tank Bund lake) is the best restaurant to relish the Biryani in Hyderabad. Offering a rare combination of authentic hyderabadi biryani served in a place with good ambience with good service from the staff. Plus, the rest rooms are very well maintained. Also, the restaurant is centrally located so it is easy to find both public tranportation or an auto / taxi. If there is only one place you can go for Biryani in Hyderabad, then go to Paradise Persis Restaurant.

There are a lot of restaurants in Hyderabad that get the authentic biryani part right - however, they fall short on either ambience, hygiene or hospitality.

One thing to remember; this is a very large restaurant - that caters to many segments of customers. One section handles mostly blue collared and construction worker kind of people. There is also another section that caters to beverages and snacks. Then there is the Garden - which used to be great place earlier. But due to the pollution around this area, you should avoid it. Finally, they have Persis Gold and Persis Platinum that are more upscale.

At one time, this place was not as big, so the experience was much better. However, after they constructed a gigantic new building - things can be very impersonal sometimes. It is likely that everytime you come, you may have a different experience.

Plus remember, restaurants in Hyderabad like big group of people. So if you turn up alone or with another person, you may feel a bit neglected.

If you are caucasian you are fine. If not, dress well - they have some staff who will classify you and direct you to an appropriate section of the restaurant based on their 'profiling'. You are better off dressing sharp.

They serve good biryani both chicken and mutton. They have a variety of kebabs(chicken and lamb) which are delicious. Some popular entrees (dishes) are dumkha chicken, butter chicken, and kadai chicken. They serve an assortment of Indian breads - tandoori roti, naan and roomali roti. Overall, stay with the standard dishes. For desserts the authentic desert is Qubani ka meeta (made from Apricots) and Double ka meeta (made from bread fried in oil, then sweetened along with Indian cheese). They are good and the taste is gold standard. This is not a place to try novel dishes - rather a place where you get to taste the authentic moghlai food.

The food is spicy with many Indian spices. However, the use of hot chilli pepper is a little mild compared to other restaurants in town. However, sample the food and make sure you can handle the spice. Most of the dishes are cooked in large volume - the ability to serve with lesser spice will be limited (even if you ask for low or medium spice).

Despite its small quirks - Paradise Persis is hands down the best place in Hyderabad for Biryani and Moghlai cuisine. This restaurant has been in business for over 50 years, so they are not in to pinch a few extra rupees from a meal. If you are new to Hyderabad hire a taxi or an auto and just say "Paradise hotel - Paradise circle, Secunderabad". Go for it and hope you like the food!

Hyderabad – No longer the best city in India

2009-02-01T23:28:00.000+05:30

I went to Necklace road for dinner with friends on Saturday. The newly laid road looked so nice. There were no potholes, the lanes were painted, and driving on the road was a pleasure. I thought this must be some new technology, as this road looks really good. This thought (new road laying technology) was on my mind, as I went walking in to the restaurant.

It was only much later on the walk back to the parking lot after dinner that it struck me. It has been so long since the roads were good in Hyderabad that I had become unfamiliar with good roads. So unfamiliar and not used to it – that I think of new technology for something as mundane as tarred roads! Probably will help you understand the degree of change in the public infrastructure in the past few years.

Four years back, I had gone to Bangalore seen the public infrastructure and could not help but feel proud – Hyderabad was different. The roads in Hyderabad then were good, things got done (workers swept from mid night to early hours of the day and still do even today) Very unlike Bangalore.

Back then, my friend worked in an MNC in Bangalore, the building was good. However, the road outside was not paved. I incessantly teased him about it. In order to get to Whitefield, you had to get over a bridge that had only 2 lanes (for both sides of traffic). They said there is a plan to expand the road. However, the land belongs to the Indian Railways and it has been delayed for the past 5 years. I remember telling a hundred people after my visit from Bangalore, how proud I was to be from Hyderabad. Things get done here, this is the best city to live in India.

However, things are different now. It is a pale shadow of its past. Infrastructure has crumbled, legislations help special interests instead of everyone, corruption has increased, administration efficiency has decreased. There is more show and less substance. Smartness on big picture is replaced with Cleverness on small things. Greed dominates, professionalism and work ethic have taken several steps back. The trajectory of the developments is not even flat – it is downwards!

Fresh Engineering Degree Graduates - Most Will Be Condemned To A Life of Misery!

2009-01-22T23:56:00.013+05:30

Engineering Degree Holders Everywhere, But Very Few Are Capable And Employable!

Imagine being marooned on a boat at sea without fresh water, there is ‘water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink’. Similarly, the mushrooming of ‘education industry’ is turning out lot of degree holders but very few are employable.

Colleges offering professional degrees have grown like weeds. The weeds grow quickly and add to the greenery. They look good. However, just like weeds hinder the growth of crops, many of these private professional colleges have prevented a solid educational foundation for the youth of Andhra Pradesh.

Last year, about 1.8 lakh engineering and MCA students completed their education. Not even a small fraction of them have got jobs. The job market is so disappointing that many students just stopped looking for jobs. Fresh graduates no longer enroll for computer courses to enable them to get jobs. Computer training institutes are not seeing enough people enroll.

When someone does an engineering or MCA it is a one-way route. You cannot really get out of that field into another field. Honestly, how many pharmaceutical companies will hire a BTech Civil Engineer as pharma salesperson. Or how many retail companies will hire BE (Computers) as Customer Service officer. However, if the same person had done a BA or BCom they would not have an issue with either a pharma sales job or the retail customer service job. A couple of years later, they can always do an MBA or MCA and change their careers and be a productive and responsible members of the society.

Over the past decade, with the increase of engineering seats from 4,000 to about 2 lakhs - every Yelliah, Mallama and Ramulu can get a seat in Engineering. The student and family feels great - like they did for those who graduated last year. I am doing Engineering or my son will be an Engineer. A parent might have thought – my son’s life will be ‘settled’. Well that was till last year!

The quality of education and the talent levels of those admitted are so low for 98% of all these engineering students that they may be condemned to a life of misery. Their career prospects or chance of a well paying professional job no better than someone who does an Unani or Ayurveda Medicine degree from some unrecognized institute.

The Satyam saga may ultimately affect a few thousands familites– that too only temporarily! However, the epedemic growth of higher education colleges has destroyed or will destroy the future of lakhs of lower and middle-income families. There are so many of them who have taken loans, sold possessions and made many sacrifices in the hope that their kids will be well settled.

Today, their kids employability is a question mark. However, in order to get those degrees they borrowed lakhs of rupees. The chance of the kids repaying the loans with a well paying job are not very promising. Not for this year, but for a long time into the future.

With lakhs of low quality students being admitted into professional courses – there is a possibility that the current education policy has destroyed the future of an entire generation who may have been better of doing ITI / Polytechnic diplomas or a regular BA, BSc, BCom degree. Such degrees might have helped them find a honest and stable technician or service jobs that would have been better matched to their abilities.

The only good thing about the current recession is that it may compell many parents to really think hard before admitting their ‘not so smart kid’ into a low quality college offering professional degree. A degree from such a college has little value in the job market. Even NASSCOM publicly admits that only 25% of the engineering graduates are employable! That was a few years ago, before the vast increase in new professional engineering colleges.

State of Real Estate in Hyderabad - January 2009

2009-01-19T03:28:00.005+05:30

Deccan Chronicle is the English paper of Hyderabad. If you want to get results from advertising in Hyderabad newspaper, then you basically put up Ad in Deccan Chronicle. Their advertising rates are higher but they work. That is how it works. Deccan Chronicle (DC) has a special section on Real Estate that comes out every Friday that is called DC Estates

Earlier, big real estate companies used to put half page ads in DC Estates. The smaller ones either put in mid sized ads or sometimes very small ads. Last year, you would find anywhere between 20-40 advertisements in each weekly edition.

For the past several weeks, the DC Estates has reducted to half its previous size. From 4 pages earlier, it is now down to 2 pages.

That has been happening for roughly two months. But on Friday, 16 January 2009 not one single ad appeared in the entire DC Estates section. Essentially, not even one builder in Greater Hyderabad thought it worthwhile to put even a small ad.

A tell tale sign of the status of the real estate market and the interest being shown by real estate buyers!

Only thing Big about Big B is his ego and constant craving for attention!

2009-01-18T23:45:00.010+05:30

Ego helps some champions to achieve more, to set higher standards - they do not settle for anything less than excellence. However, in case of Big B – it is a constant craving for privileges, entitlements and attention. And a nasty habit of belittling others achievements.

Big B declined Bill Clinton’s invitation to join the Clinton Global Initiative(CGI). No issue with that, he could have said a "No, thank you" privately. But not Mr. Big B who derided the invitation publicly and said why should “I sing and dance…” or “travel to a foreign land to lend cause to a foreign initiative, patronized and guided by a foreigner, for his benefit.”

For God’s sake the Clinton Global Initiative does projects in 150 countries. A Foreign company called Dow Chemicals has committed to Rs.140 crores to help create community water systems in India to help provide safe drinking water for 1.1 crore people in rural India. The Clinton Global Initiative is about creating projects of your own choosings in your own neighborhood to suit your strengths and capabilities.

Well what can you expect from Big B. Maybe because it is required to make Commitments to Action in the Clinton Global Initiative– concrete, measurable steps towards improving lives. Otherwise, they are not invited again! Well that is maybe what scared our Big B. He could not just do some ‘dancing and singing’ and get away. He needed to do something meaningful. If Big B really cared for Mumbai and terrorism - he could have made a commitment to do something about it and make an impact. Instead he made a very careless comment and sought to indulge the auto / taxi wallahs of Lucknow and many star struck housewives looking for ways to idle away their time.

Recently, he said something stupid about ‘Slumdog millionaire’ a couple of days after it got the Golden Globe Awards.

Big B cannot think beyond his village pond, even if we put him in the Indian ocean. I know ten times more desi fans of Jackie Chan in Hyderabad, than all the ‘white’ fans of Big B in even a large city like New York.

I have seen people say some Indian actresses look ‘Hot’. But never met anyone who said he watches Indian films. I have seen movie theatres flocked with thousands of Indians for a hit Indian movie. But never saw one white family or a even a group of ‘two’ white people (on their own – not tagging along with an Indian group) come to watch a popular Bollywood movies.

They have mentioned seeing a Indian movie song and surprised by the colors of the dresses or the raunchyness / craziness of the dances. But never seen anyone who said, I like Indian movies and cannot live without seeing one every other month. Or have any white person ask me ”Hey, any good Indian movies you would recommend?”

The situation is entire different with Indian food. Every part of USA has Indian restaurants. And many white people geniunely relish Indian food. They are clear what they want to order and why they like a ‘Chicken Tikka masala’ or ‘Naan’. In a business meeting, I once came across someone who was crazy about Muligatawny soup and was surprised that I did not know what it was though I had lived in South India. Turned out later that the ‘Muligatawny soup’ was a fancy name for ‘Sambar’ (yes, of Idli Sambar fame!!)

So wake up Mr. Big B. Just understand that appealing to every low class Bihari, UP, Rajasthani and Haryanvi is one thing. It is another thing to appeal to an international audience. I know your ego hurts after all the ego massaging you get from million and millions of low IQ fans of yours. I don’t think people who are more refined and more intelligent will be as blatant with their adulation for you.

Yes, you are the North Indian Champion. Not even a National Champion. Not sure how many villagers in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu will know you. And be humble and realize that there are some Olympic champions.

Maybe, it is the money that Anil Ambani’s ADA Group gives you that motivates you to keep creating ‘noises’ and ‘unnecessary controversy’ to promote the ‘Big Adda’ blog and brand. Grow up, face the reality and stop indulging your ego!

Authentic Hyderabadi Biryani

2009-01-17T04:12:00.026+05:30

Authentic Hyderabadi Biryani! Looking for some but confused! You are not alone. Many restaurants both in Hyderabad and outside (within India and abroad) claim to serve authentic Hyderabadi Biryani. However, just naming the dish or claiming it to be the original recipe does not make it authentic.

You can determine if a restaurant is serving authentic Hyderabadi Biryani by checking how it is served, finding how it is cooked and by the characteristics of the restaurant.

Here is what you should get with an authentic Biryani. An authentic Hyderabadi biryani comes with Mirchi ka Saalan (Green Chili in brown gravy), dahi chutney (curd & onions) and onion salad with some lime pieces. If any restaurant does not provide you all of these at no additional cost - you can just walk away. These are absolutely the basic things that make the 'Biryani' meal. If any one item is missing it is like serving a Pizza without the dough.

Secondly, the only authentic Biryani is the Dum ka Biryani . It means the Rice and the meat are cooked together in steam in a large conical vessel called a deksha. The lid is sealed with dough to prevent the steam from coming out and the food is slowly cooked typically on charcoal. This cooking method is what gives it the distinctive flavor and the taste. This way of cooking in slow steam is difficult. A chef cannot really examine the biryani while it is cooking. Once they remove it from the flame, and the meat is overcooked or undercooked - the chef cannot really make adjustments.

Many restaurants serving non-authentic biryani serve what is called pukki biryani - which means the meat and rice are cooked separately. Then, they mix them both at the end to create a biryani. This is like mixing curry and rice.

Finally, remember that the Biryani was originally designed to serve quick meals to troops during war. So any good Biryani restaurant will typically serve a large number of guests. The good biryani restaurants in Hyderabad serve tens of thousands of meals a day.

The above should hopefully help you figure out if a restaurant is serving Authentic Hyderabadi Biryani!

Sankranthi, Fighter Kites & Hyderabad

2009-01-16T23:43:00.000+05:30

Sankranthi is probably the most important festival in coastal andhra and Rayalseema. Though not a big festival for people around Telangana where Dassera is the most important festival. While for people from the North Indian business communities Diwali is the most important festival.

However, Sankranthi for old time hyderabadi's is fun time. However, People get on the 'terrace' or roof the house to fly the fighter kites. There is drama - music, large groups accumulate, their is shouting / war cries of "kaateh" whenever a kite is cut. People say the same 'kaateh' in their own personal way and in their own voices - each putting an emphasis on a different syllable and choosing to either say it in a long drawn out way or abruptly. The pitch is always high though!

I would not say the same environment stands true for newer settlements in Hyderabad. However, all the old settlements and neighboorhoods - both rich and poor actively engage in kite flying. This cuts across religions - Hindu, Muslim, Christian & Jains. The only thing that matters is are you interested in this "sport" or not.

A few enterprising groups set up blaring music and some even install public address systems. From experts to amateurs everyone participates. For most grown-ups this is the only time they fly kites in the year. For kids - they are more likely to fly kites for several weeks before sankranthi and a few weeks after.

Over the years, the growth of high rises and other developments have caused much changes to in the kite fighting area. A couple of decades back most people would fly kites from a open ground or from the street in front. A small number who lived in houses with a proper terrace would fly from there. Back then, the houses were ground floor or maybe 1st floor. There used to a lot of obstructions, trees & electric poles.

Now with the proliferation of flats - the trees and electric poles has ceased to be a hindrance. God help those who live in a 2 floor building with a 5 floor apartment in front. They just cannot do much kite fighting from their building. However, with people flying from different heights - it does make kite fighting more complicated. There are so many angles of the kite line. Earlier everyone was flying from the same level so it was far more simple

With several innovations, ease of travel and courier service is changing the dimensions of kite fighting. Over a decade back, the "manja" (pounded glass coated thread) from Bareilly first started being sold in Hyderabad. This manja would have no knots in the entire manja charak (spools), dark in color (so kite line is not seen easily) and was inexpensive so kite flyers started using a lot more manja. More recently, any development in one area of India is now copied or distributed to another area. One friend gets his manja from Rajkot thanks to his aunt and claims it is far superior to the Hyderabad manja.

What I am driving it is that these innovations or changes forced fighter kite flyers to alter their techniques and methods. More recently, the introduction of nylon thread rather than cotton thread for making manja forced people to change their technique and methods. Being both stronger and also having different properties it does give advantages to a person flying fighter kites with Nylon Manja.

Thousands of people are employed in making these kites in Old city, who work throughout the year to have the kites ready for this seasonal festival. I am not sure the traditional Manja makers in Hyderabad have changed to adapt to the new developments.

As people seek positions of advantage in order win more kite fights. I am pretty sure today's developments are not the end of innovations. As more kinds of new thread materials are adapted they will find a way into the world of fighter kites. So as we end today, after an entire day of loud and continous shouts of "Kaateh" filling the ears - we bid adieu to the Sankranthi 2009. We may be a bit tired, have a dark tan, have many cuts on the fingers but hopefully many of you are content with the scorecard or the fun you had this Sankranthi.

Hyderabad - Little Known History

2009-01-12T01:45:00.010+05:30

Today, Hyderabad is the largest city in Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) State and its capital city. The prior statement does not clearly show the difference in development between Hyderabad and other cities in AP like Vishakapatnam, Vijaywada, Guntur, Kurnool, Tirupathi, Warangal and Karimnagar. On many parameters Hyderabad is way ahead of other cities from A.P. on parameters like population, infrastructure, public services, cosmopolitan outlook, education, presence of institutions of repute and quality of living.

If ones goes out to any other city in A.P. - the outlook is NOT cosmopolitan. Barring Vishakapatnam, the others are still rustic agricultural towns.

One of the reasons for the cosmpolitan outlook of Hyderabad could be that the Nizam's territory included populations having different mother tongues - the erstwhile Hyderabad state now covers present day Andhra Pradesh (mostly Telangana area), parts of present day Karnataka and a significant part of present day Maharashtra (upto Aurangabad). Since the Nizam was originally a Governor of the Moghuls (based out of Delhi), there was lot of North Indian influence on Hyderabad. Being the Capital of erswhile Hyderabad State, it was the nerve center and had visitors from all part of the Hyderabad State. It would also have regular visitors from the sorrounding kingdoms. This history created a foundation for a cosmopolitan outlook as seen in Hyderabad today.

Many old timers who went to good schools (mostly used to be Missionary or Convent schools) had an almost equal number of Hindu, Muslim and Christian classmates. This forced the brighest people from Hyderabad to get to know other cultures early in their lives, thereby cultivating a cosmopolitan culture in Hyderabad.

This is the first post on this topic. There will be many more posts on this topic in the coming weeks and months that will hopefully help you understand the culture of Hyderabad.

Realty is a fragmented market. Local factors are the biggest influence.

2009-01-09T02:55:00.003+05:30

In a previous post, I had mentioned that "big name" realty companies are fringe players.

Realty is a fragmented market. That means there are several thousands of companies that serve the demand in the industry. No player has a market share that is considered significant as compared to the overall size of the market. This is how the real estate market was in India and will remain as such. So stop chasing the "big name" realty firms – they are good with propaganda and want to make you believe these dozen companies construct every single home or every single good home in India. There could be nothing farther than the truth!

Realty is also a local market. The price of housing and the demand supply are mostly determined at a local level. Though macro factors affect the pricing, it doesn't affect each real estate market uniformly. The state of the industry supporting the employment of the local population has a big impact on the pricing on that city or neighborhood. If there are very few developments in a neighborhood, then due to the supply bottlenecks, the pricing of the existing homes in that neighborhood may be high. Similarly, an oversupply of homes in a neighborhood causes a price reduction (as seen today in Nizampet opp. JNTU Kukatpally).

The "big name" realty firms use their almost total control of media and public relationships to create negative impressions about small firms – quality of construction is not good, they will not be able to survive, quality of material is suspect etc. However, the truth is that housing will be fragmented. There will be good, average and bad realty firms. This will be irrespective of the size of the firm.

A home is a big ticket purchase – you need to assess a property properly and make the right choices. You are not buying a cup of tea for Rs.5/- that you can shrug off and walk away in case you don’t like it how it tastes. You will have to live in that home for a long time and possibly an entire lifetime. A good choice will mostly likely take a lot of hardwork, patience and analysis. So be prepared for it! Having the right frame of mind and expectation wins half the battle!

Choosing a Company Accountant

2009-01-08T23:40:00.005+05:30

As outlined beautifully in the book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, a good businessman needs good advisors. One of them will be a good, professionally certified accountant. When someone is starting a business, you will most likely not need a full time accountant. Also not sure if a good accountant, well versed in the skills and practices would join a new business. So most likely you will lean on finding a professional accountant. Most of them have an advanced professional degree.

A degree, however, does not mean that person is competent. Accounting, first and foremost, needs an attitude. If the person is not good with organizing systems definition and compliance, he, in my opinion, cannot be a good accountant. The person should also endeavor to do accounts to ensure the fall benefits from tax and statutory authorities that are available within law.

An accountant for a startup can play a key role in ensuring compliance with financial laws. In this role, he can advise the client on implications. By ensuring proper filing of forms, adequate record keeping and storing of transactions, they play a key role in helping the owners focus on the business, i.e. find and keep customers.

Well kept records and financials help the business person from getting overly involved in the highly time consuming accounting process. Also, various statutory organizations require reports, data and impose submission of forms. A good accountant can help take this load of the business man. This may look trivial, but bear in mind that the first year or two in business means a lot of work and sleep deprivation. Studies have shown that the setup years of a new business is equal to having new born child in the family.

By now you know how accountants can help take the routine but important activities of your plate. However, finding a good accountant is not easy. The following will help you -

They should be competent in tax and accounting laws.
Most accounts work involves repetitive tasks. They should know how to create systems and processes so that work can happen accurately and quickly.
They should be very detailed oriented. That is why they are called bean counters.
Beware of accountants who are very salesy. In general it is very difficult to be both salesy and detailed oriented.
They should know the implications of treating transactions in a certain way. A good accountant will help save taxes by recording transactions properly (within laws) to get your business the benefits that are due to you.
They should, above all, know what matters are strictly enforced by statutory organizations and authorities and make sure you follow them.

Most good accountants have modest but well maintained offices. They are not shabby and they are not fancy. They have staff that is disciplined and follow procedures. Good accountants are well organized and will understand the value of your time and handle things quickly and efficiently.

I was motivated to write this note after seeing a very unpleasant experience faced by a close friend while dealing with an unprofessional chartered accountant in India. That experience motivated me to write this article. Hope you find this useful and you have good luck in finding an accountant who lets you focus on building your business.

Roti, Kapda, Makaan and mobile phone!

2009-01-08T03:12:00.006+05:30

They are called cell phones in the US and mobiles in India. India is the largest growth market for mobile phones adding about 60 lakh mobile phones every month. There are around 26 crore landline and mobile phones. India expects to reach 50 crore subscribers by the end of 2010.

Your maid servant has it, your painter, plumber, electrician and pretty much everyone has a cell phone. Its almost like any adult who wears footwear has a mobile phone.

The fact that people across all walks have it makes it easy to get things done. You need to find directions, go to a landmark close to the destination and call the person. Your contact will most likely give your a live updates and commentary as you find the location.

It has a nuisance value too. Since every one has it and the incoming call is free. You have no disincentive to pick up the call. Unlike in the US where you will be charged for picking up a call from a unknown number! Thus, telemarketers feel free to call you. It is very easy for the cell phone to become a nuisance.

In the US, many people buy a cell phone for emergencies. They hardly ever use the phone and look for the cheapest plan with a small number of minutes included in the plan.. I have seen many people buy a cell phone, when their car becomes old and unreliable. A tool to call the towing company or a friend when the vehicle breaks down.

In India it is a status symbol. People buy expensive cell phones with organizers, email capable and many more features. However, a vast majority hardly use the productivity related tools. They use the media player and the camera. People generally are very savvy with fancy ringtones and other emotionally appealing features.

It it amazing how the same tool can be used for one functional whereas in another country a totally different use is put for the same device. Isn't that interesting?

Real Estate Hyderabad India

2009-01-08T00:01:00.007+05:30

Real Estate is such a hapenning area and especially since so much of talk in hyderabad and for NRI's from Hyderabad happens on this topic there is a substantial section devoted to posts on this topic. When the market was hot it made many millionaires and also it made a billionaire a pauper i.e. Satyam's Raju. You can like it or hate it but you cannot ignore real estate. Atleast while talking about Hyderabad.

The selection of posts on the Real Estate are listed below - enjoy...

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The Coming Bust in the Hyderabad Real Estate Bubble

LIC Housing Finance Property Show - January '09

2009-01-06T10:29:00.003+05:30

LIC Housing Finance Property Show was conducted on Jan 3rd & 4th at Institute of Engineers Khairtabad. This exhibition was a waste of time since the prices were not adjusted to the market conditions. There were hardly any properties on offer in localities where people are looking for homes.

Secondly, with the tightening of the credit norms by banks - it is difficult to get larger loans like earlier. However, real estate companies have hardly any decent property options to offer for the loan amount + savings that most people can arrange. Thus, there is a big imbalance between buyers and sellers.

The good thing was unlike other shows, there was more variety and smaller firms were in good presence. Many of the big companies other than Aliens were conspicious by their absence. There was a good crowd, the parking lot was congested and lot of middle class families visited the show.

There were several developers from Hafizpet and Nizampet area. My contacts in that area tell me that there is hardly 5% booking in that area and builders are under huge strain.

Some developments were quoting Rs.2,500 to Rs.3,200 about 25 kms away from Khairtabad. The prices were off course negotiable. Even if the proposed Hyderabad Metro was operational today as planned - the last stop for these developments would have been tens of kilometers away. In my opinion, these properties are not city locations though they may fall under GHMC limits. It will be very difficult and inconvenient to commute to a job in the city from these developments.

Within the city, one apartment in Srinagar colony was being quoted at 5,000/- per sft negotiable. The size available was about 2600 sft for a flat. At that price the cost of the flat was coming to around 1.3 crore. Based on some rough calculations, this person or family should have a income of Rs.30 lakhs per year and put down some 25 lakhs down payment. You can guess how many can really afford this apartment.

With the builders still quoting exhorbitant rates, only a small number of purchase transactions are possible in Hyderabad real estate market today. Since most real estate companies are looking to get the maximum value from their properties, it appears to me that most of these real estate companies will be exiting this industry and "venturing" into other areas. If someone was really into this business for the long-term they would plan and operate in a different manner.

Road conditions deteriorate badly in Hyderabad

2009-01-01T04:55:00.002+05:30

Want to develop a spondilitis condition?

Then drive through this stretch - JNTU to Chandanagar on the Mumbai National Highway. It is not a road, it is a test track build for thoroughly evaluating the Land Rover All terrain and Multi Purpose vehicles before a crazy African Jungle expedition.

Overall, the quality of roads in Hyderabad has deteriorated very badly. In my opinion, from around early 90’s to a few years back Hyderabad had the best roads for a city in India. Now it is going back to the horrible 80’s. Though I was a small kid I could not help but notice that every time Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi visited Hyderabad, the roads they traveled on would be recarpeted (even if it was the third time that year). While the rest of the roads continued to be neglected and badly potholed.

In the last 3-4 months, some roads are being re-laid (maybe because the elections are getting closer). However, this is very adhoc and not need based. Roads in Hyderabad seem to be classified into 2 kinds - VIP roads for the 'masters' and I guess the rest are for the ‘slaves’. The slaves have to travel on the badly potholed roads for committing the crime of paying taxes to fill in the coffers of the government run by the VIPs.

This can be best seen in Panjagutta. The road from Begumpet to Road No. 1 and 3 Banjara Hills is well carpetted. The Raj Bhavan road is also very good. However, Panjagutta to Saradhi Studios is badly potholed. I have been watching the steady deterioration of this road for the past 2 years.

The “prized jewel” (worst patch of road) of GHMC is a small stretch of road underneath the flyover at Panjagutta X Roads. Since the Kukatpally- Dilsuknagar is the lifeline road of the city through which about 10 lakh people travel everyday. There must be some very “intelligent” reason known only to the city administrators for not properly maintaining this road (a full six months after the flyover is completed).

If this trend continues it will not be surprise if it takes 4 hours to travel from Panjagutta to Shamshabad airport. As I painfully went through 2 kms of obstacle race on the JNTU to Chandanagar road, I could not help but thinking. GHMC is not able to maintain the current roads in the city. How will they manage once the city fully expands into Greater Hyderabad! Think about that!

No Meaningful Correction in Hyderabad Real Estate Prices

2008-12-30T03:23:00.001+05:30

Real estate price corrections in Hyderabad being prevented by extensive market inefficiencies, cartels and unscrupulous business practices.

In a free market economy, demand and supply create a check on unrealistic prices – at least that is what theory says. So when demand is less, then prices should fall. This is not happening in Hyderabad, though the real estate market has been down for over a year. The correction in pricing has been minimal compared to the unrealistic growth in prices earlier (for several years). Plus, it has not factored in and reduced prices because of the new reality - the reduced number of buyers today and the buying power of the current buyers.

If we look at the US real estate market nationwide statistics, the prices are already down 24% from peak prices. Economists are expecting another 10% downward price revision from peak price in 2009. The peak was reached in 2005. During peak, the price in Hitech city was 4000/- This means, by US standards it should have been around 3000/- now and go down to 2600/- next year. I don’t think apartments in My Home Navadeepa (Next to Cyber Towers, Madhapur) are being sold for 3,000/sft.

I am not saying that because US had a correction of 34%, the same price percentage should come off from price of apartments in Madhapur. My point rather is that I have not seen any meaningful correction in real estate pricing in Hyderabad.

Even after the global recession, there is no lay-off in Hyderabad and there is no correction in the sticker price (the sarcasm intentional!). However, I have seen ICICI close down the entire Home Loan origination office in Begumpet and made everyone pay including those of branch managers into commission basis. A good friend of mine who is head of Sales in another mid-size real estate firm has also converted been into commission pay. However, there is no change in sticker price of real estate.

The reason for this honestly is that - cartels and unscrupulous business practices prevent realistic price correction. Greed and fear also are preventing businesses from adjusting prices downwards. Real Estate Business people are unwilling to accept anything less than exorbitant profits from their business.

The best explanation of market inefficiency can be drawn from my personal experience with the stock market. The day there are good prices in stock market my online stock trading system does not work as well. The prices are not refreshed as quickly, I place orders with older data and obviously I don’t get to fully grab the opportunities. Frustrating but true. When systems don’t work during the times that favor price corrections – it reduces price correction.

However, when prices have been increasing, media acts as a force multiplier (for the small price of a Journalist colony in that area). Every new area - Madhapur, Gachibowli etc has a Journalist colony. I wish there was a footnote after a very glowing article in the newspapers about an area saying, this journalist is being considered for a plot in the Journalist colony coming up in the same area.

Cartels work in a different way, I was in a Gold shop the day prices fell. Another shopper said Gold prices are lower the last few days, to which the shop owner said – “Yes, papers are quoting lower prices but there is no supply. If you find anyone who has supply tell me, I want to buy a few kgs of gold too!’ Cutting off supply ensures the transaction cannot be made. So price benefit does not reach the customer.

I recently spoke to someone in Bangalore and they said the price of a apartment in Bangalore is around Rs.2,800/- with decent local builders in Whitefield.

I know for a fact the apartment prices in Madhapur or Gachibowli, which are equivalent locations in Hyderabad, are definitely higher. Is there anything that makes the market value of Hyderabad better that Bangalore. I don’t believe so. The fact remains that Bangalore is still the IT capital of India. The only top5 IT firm headquartered in Hyderabad is today in doldrums.

The only reason that the prices are higher are probably because of the greed of builders, the absence of smaller builders and the immaturity of the buyers.

As we all know, there are two sets of people who get jobs in Hyderabad. People from outside AP – mostly Madhya Pradesh, Chatisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, UP etc. Or non-hyderabadis from rural and small towns. A vast majority of both these segments are new to Hyderabad and have no idea of the real estate price history in Hyderabad. They are isolated and easily fooled by the realtors. Non-Andhra people compare prices with Mumbai and Delhi and get fooled.

While, the problem with Andhra people are that they have a long and very established history of being extremely speculative plus having a little bit ‘unrealistic and exaggerated sense of their own’ capability – mostly derived from seeing too many movies of their favorite Tollywood hero. Well, I may be exaggerating a bit. But there is nothing wrong at taking a good hard look at our attitudes and expectations. Wisemen, say when you ‘Know Yourselves’ you have less chance of making mistakes!

Hostels - Unsung Heroes of Hyderabad

2008-12-29T05:32:00.011+05:30

In the last decade, Hyderabad transitioned from a sleepy town with Nawabi lifestyle to global offshore destination. In the process, attracting many MNC companies to setup offices in Hyderabad.

In this transition, the Hostels played a very key role. By providing a place to stay for those who moved to Hyderabad in the first few months or years in Hyderabad. The hostels enabled companies to scout for talent from other locations in AP as well as from outside AP. The hostels made it easy for people to find a place to stay in Hyderabad. Otherwise, they would have to find a relative or friend already established in Hyderabad.

As you probably know most landlords have a bias against bachelors. It is very difficult to find a place to stay easily. Without the hostels, it would have been difficult to get people to move to Hyderabad. This would have put the hiring plans of the Hyderabad companies in jeopardy.

I am aware the hostels are not classy places. However, they serve a purpose and they do it fairly decently. In my company, I have benefited from hiring several people who were new to the city and these hostels enabled them to find a place to stay. Thus, helping them to stay focused on doing well on their job!

Builders Selling Small Number of Super Luxury Apartments are Fringe Players Nationally!

2008-12-26T03:22:00.010+05:30

If every national real estate player starts their apartments at 60 lakhs – they are not a national real estate company. They are a fringe player in the Indian economy.

As per World Bank data 80% of Indian earn less than $2 per day. Also, 33% of Indians earn less than $1 per day. We need housing solutions that can cover needs of a vast majority of people. Families (not people) earning over 5 Lakhs per annum are small fraction of 1% of the population.

Only a Hindusthan Unilever that offers a wide variety of soaps for every segment of society can be called a National player. Does not matter how sexy the offices are of DLF, Unitech, Maytas and the endless ‘Big names of Indian Real Estate’. These companies are only fringe players in the Indian economy. These companies are not an equivalent of a MS Dhoni or Kapil Dev – They are like some key player from some local school somewhere in Delhi. Does not matter how much your dad (your business) advertises in the papers and what your stock price is.

Only if you can build something like 1 lakh apartments covering all segments of the population (who can buy) – you have a right to be called a national player like an Airtel or an Hindusthan Unilever. There are 80% of India that can probably not buy any modern construction. However you should atleast be able to provide housing solutions for the rest including people like clerks in government department, Sr. sales executive with 10 years experience in a Bata shoe store, an engine driver with Indian Railways and a traffic constable.

I dont understand what is the big deal in building fancy housing for 0.01% of Indian population. This satisfied the years of latent demand created for housing due to the job creation done mostly by IT offshoring industry. The recent push by the Government and incentives including classification of loans below 20 Lakhs as priority sector lending are very welcome. However, we need to understand that a house is a 'manufactured good'.

The Indian Real Estate Industry is 'Primitive' till the time we can mass produce at least 10 lakh of functional, decent homes per year that provide hygeinic living conditions and create decent neighborhoods. Let me illustrate this with an example - If the Indian army had a few thousand soldiers with modern arms and while the balance several lakh soldiers carried bows and arrows. Nobody would consider such an army as a modern. It will be called a primitive army. Similarly, the Indian real estate industry has a very long way to go. At this time, they have a small number of localized successes. No single company has been able to manufacture what is required from the Indian market.

In 1947, one real estate entrepreneur called William Levitt (Levitt & Sons, Inc) built 17,000 homes in a single development covering 18.7 sq kms. This was done in 4 years and the new town was called Levittstown as a suburb of New York city. People can commute conveniently by taking a local train to Manhattan for work.

60 years later there have been dramatic advances in construction technology, methods and management. Plus, we already know others have constructed large numbers of affordable houses in various parts of the world. The sad story is there is no capable real estate entrepreneur in India. This is despite a huge demand for affordable housing. We desperately need a hero in Housing industry. Someone like what Kishore Biyani was for Indian Retailers or Sunil Mittal or Dhirubhai Ambani was for Cell Phones. Any one listening ?

Hyderabad Real Estate Bubble Busts

2008-08-15T19:00:00.000+05:30

In late November 2006, I had put a post on the coming bust in Hyderabad real estate. Quoting from that article " It is not a question of whether the real estate bubble will bust but when it will bust".

As I write today on Independence day 2008. The real estate bubble is BUST in Hyderabad. The prices of real estate land have fallen in the outskirts and the price of apartments per sft is flat or down in the past 12 months.

This is despite doubling of steel price and major increase in prices of all construction material(sand, cement, bricks). In addition to that the wages have increased for daily wage
workers, skilled construction workers as well as for people working in the corporate and marketing offices. Despite all these pressures, the real estate developers could not increase the price per sft for apartments or price per yard for open land. The prices have remained same or fallen 10-20%.

Maytas Hill County moved from "selling by invitation only" to putting put half page ads in Deccan Chronicle. Legend, another local well known builder known for selling like
hotcakes also put up a half page ad for several weekends to sell the apartments in their newest venture. This was not done by Legend earlier.

Add to this the fact that tens of thousands of luxury apartments will be ready for occupation and needing buyers in the next 3-24 months. Also real estate companies have bought thousands of acres in "Land banks" and they cannot sit on that investment without realizing some revenue.

The HUDA auctions are not raising money. A key reason could be the sub-prime real-estate crisis and its impact on real estate abroad has led to several NRI's burning their hands in real estate. Their apetite for real estate investment in India is probably low now. Plus, with the developed nations moving into recession NRI's might be concerned about maintaining their current income levels.

Local businessmen and investors (both should be called herd-minded speculators) are stuck with their "investments". The lands that they had originally planned to buy and sell in a few months at good appreciation - actually depreciated and most of them could not dispose of their land for nearly a year. Many have forfeited the initial payment on the agreement for sale. Today, this segment of buyers "in-herd" have no apetite for real estate investments.

With stock markets falling from 21K to 15K levels, one of the pillars of wealth creation for the real estate buyers is destroyed. This pillar enabled a number of real estate investors to fund the margin money for buying the properties. This source of wealth may not be available for many years to come. Currently, some financial institutions are in fact advising investors not to invest in stock market for at least 6 months.

Modest pay hikes at mid to senior IT positions will deprive the real estate developers of new buyers. With their companies looking to fire non-performers with high income
levels, these real estate buyers are now more focused on their programming skill development on weekends rather than scouting out for real estate ventures or stock market picks.

Most of the 'old' high income earners have already bought real estate and with spiralling EMI's and cost of living are struggling quite a bit. Things are not any better in this customer segment either for the real estate companies.

Most importantly the job market has weakened. The major IT companies are focusing more on increasing the quality of graduates and focusing on recruiting fresh graduates for staff growth. These employees earning Rs.3 to 4 lakh per year cannot buy 70 lakh rupee apartments. So no luck here for the real estate companies.

BPO firms are going slow on hiring and almost every one of the big BPO firms has fired a few dozens to a few hundred people (Extensively reported in the media). Their hiring plans are also much slower.

The current situation will not get any better with a weakening in the earning capacities as well as the sentiment of all types of real estate buyers - NRI's, highly paid employees and domestic businessmen. The future does not seem to be any better with spiralling inflation, lowering growth rate for economy and increasing interest rates.

In the early to mid nineties Mumbai (then Bombay) went with a similar boom to a negative correction and the prices took over a decade to come back. It will be interesting to see how
the Hyderabad market pans out.

One last observation, in a country with 23 crore people not able to get 2 square meals a day (definition of poverty line in India) and with average per capita GDP of Rs.40,000/- per year. How can real estate companies start out at 70 lakh per apartment?

USA has per capita income of 16 Lakh rupees per year and apartments start out at 80 Lakh rupees (about 5 times annual income). Likewise, India then should have apartments starting out at 2 Lakhs. Only the real estate geniuses should know how to build sustainable businesses with their pricing starting at 175 years per capital annual income of the country.

I will discuss on this last part later.

Cars in India cost twice as much as in the U.S.A.

2007-07-01T03:50:00.003+05:30

I was looking to buy a car in India got a sticker shock on the prices of cars in India. Take for example Toyota Corolla you can buy a good one for $15,000 and the same one in India will cost Rs.10 lakhs ($25,000).

Yes, accepted that the customs and excise duty are higher in India. See our new location for the full post - Cars in India cost twice as much as in the U.S.A.

Tips for renting commercial real estate

2007-06-30T13:21:00.002+05:30

Many people are hit with the entrepreneurial bug and to start their own business. Here are some tips for leasing an office premises. This is not for retail businesses:

There are great tips in this article - see them at our new location by clicking on this link - Tips for renting commercial real estate

The Coming Bust in the Hyderabad Real Estate Bubble

2006-11-26T21:34:00.002+05:30

The Land prices have gone up several times across Hyderabad city. In many places, they have gone up ten folds in a matter of months. Hyderabad city seems to be the happening place with special zones created for semiconductors, garments, offshore IT and BPO, biotech and anything else that you can think of.

Apartment prices are going through the roof. You cannot get a new apartment for anything less than 60 lakhs - the average size of a two bedroom apartment which was 750 sft about 10 years ago has now become 1500 sft.

To read the full blog posting click this link - The Coming Bust in the Hyderabad Real Estate Bubble