When I started my company M/s HomePlanGuru.com, I was not sure about how to do the pricing.  I was providing all the plans (viz Floor Plan, 3D Plan, Electrical Usability Plan, Plumbing Usability Plan, etc) at a flat Rs.20/- per square feet.  This means that if a customer intends to buy/build 1000 sq.ft home, he should pay Rs.20 x 1000 = Rs.20,000/- for all the plans I provide.  For first six months, I was not able to sell my concept at this rate.  Then I realized the mistake in my pricing model when I heard about ‘The Bottom of the Pyramid’ model by C K Prahalad.

In India (and many other developing countries, I guess) people don’t have the habit of planning their dream home.  They find it as ‘waste’ expense to do planning.  Not only that, the architects used to charge anywhere between Rs.25,000 to Rs.1,00,000/- for the simple drawings.  This was another reason for people not going to Architects and plan for their dream home.

I changed that model through my new venture HomePlanGuru.com.  I understood that people won’t mind paying in small amounts.  If they are happy with the initial plan, then they won’t mind paying a bit more for the plans.

I priced my services in such a way that even a lower-middle class person can afford a simple plan.  For example, my service charge for a 2D Floor Plan is just Re.1/- per sq.ft which means for a 1000 sq.ft. home, it is just Rs.1000/-;  for 3D Plan it is just Rs.3/- per sq.ft which means for Rs.3000/- one can get a basic 3D model of their dream home with all the furniture, fixtures, etc placed in 3D which they can walk-through from their own PC/Laptop using FREE Google Sketchup tool.  I also took a bold decision of publishing my service charges for all the services we do in our website because of which the customer feels confident about how much they would have to spend for planning.

Thanks to C. K. Prahalad who helped me understand the ‘Pyramid’ model to price my services.  It is unfortunate that he is no longer physically with us though he is there in our minds.

Infosys’ Narayana Murthy(NRN) recently has told “IT industry needs to pay higher taxes and does not need Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) extension any more”.    This is the reason behind this article now.

Well, I had seen many companies following some illegal and unethical practices during their start-up stage.  To ‘grow’, it was absolutely necessary for such start-up companies to adhere to ‘normal practices’ due to the current political system in the country.    I’m not suggesting here to be illegal.  But practically it is very difficult to be 100% legal in the current scenario. For example, people from top IT companies travel on Business visa to work in US because of the complexities involved in getting work permit.  If they don’t send their team on business visa, they won’t get further revenue for their offshore center.

While I was working in a MNC 13 years back, we used to ‘photocopy’ books from the office library.  After few years, once it became ‘affordable’ for the company (this is the perception I got, may be wrong), they formulated a rule that no photocopying of books were allowed. 

With the ‘legal’ aspect removed in the above example, NRN’s statement looks similar to me now.  Infosys has grown to a great extent that they can afford to pay huge taxes.  But think about small and medium companies that wish to become ‘another Infosys’.   How can they afford such huge taxes?  Shouldn’t they also enjoy similar tax benefits which Infosys enjoyed for more than 25 years in India?

What I feel is that there should be some ‘tax slab’ for each company.  For the first slab, there must be lesser tax or nil tax.  Then it should increase gradually like the individual income tax.  If NRN meant that statement this way, it would be really great.  I wish he meant that way because I’ve great respect for him and his team.  I learned about ‘ethics’ only from his company while I was working there.  Also, no one should comment that, ‘You can be legal and ethical when it is affordable’.

While I was in my school, I never understood the term “Mixed Economy” even though I was supposed to write about it in the exams. Several years after those exams, I’m slowly understanding the term and it’s impact in Indian Economy.

Last week I was surprised to hear from a hardware shop owner(who is just 25 years old) about how agriculture plays an important role in Indian economy and how India is able to sustain this “Global Economic Slow Down”. Even though this hardware shop owner didn’t go to college after his school, his knowledge about economy, shares, it’s impact, it’s trend, etc really amazed me. Sitting in a shop – Monday through Sunday for about 12 hours a day, he is able to analyze the reasons behind India’s economic strength and validate with articles from various news papers and magazines.

Last weekend I visited a remote city to attend a family function. While traveling back by train, I explained my 5 year old son about the paddy fields, factories, agriculture, etc to kill his boredom. During that time I realized the vast area India has and how it can play a major role in growing the country’s economy.

Since I’m from IT background, even if you think that I’ve a biased opinion, I would like to tell my view point. I feel that Information Technology (IT) is not properly used in India. If IT is used properly, Agriculture and all other related fields can grow drastically and can really help Indian Economy grow better. If you ask me what can be done using IT, I can prepare a huge report and give it to you.

Since I believe that you or for that matter anyone will not read the report, I don’t spend my time & energy in preparing that report. This is what many Indians are doing now during recession (i.e. not preparing the report, but preparing reasons for not preparing).