Guide for Purchasing the Right Apartment

1.       Know your budget – The best way of knowing your budget is a 2 step process

a.       Loan eligibility – Monthly salary (Combined salary in case of 2 people)/2 = Amount of loan approval in lacks (Almost same will be the monthly EMI)

b.      You should have at least 25% self-funding plus possession charges like registry, IFMS and meter charges in case of new flat.

2.       Decide the area – Look at the area with a future view, some of the projects may be under construction but some of the points to consider are :

a.       Is the property on the main road or how far from the main road

b.      Close to metro

c.       Close to market (Most societies have their own retail)

d.      Near decent schools for kids.

e.      Close by public parks

3.       Select the builder and society – There is no set formula of knowing if the society is going to turn out good, but some of the points you can take care of are :

a.       Look for reputed builders or builders which have a strong backing of larger groups

b.      Visit previous projects of the builder to understand quality standards.

c.       Select the society which is a low density project, less people per acre.

d.      The society should have ample of parking space else you are going to face daily issues

e.      Look for amenities like water treatment plant (this will avoid hair and skin issues), Open area or central park for society functions, Sports facilities, club and gym

f.        Do inquire about the lift lobby, it is the first impression on guests

g.       One good way of judging the society is to visit the construction site, see if the builder is systematic, following norms and there is ample of workers on the site.

h.   Property should be RERA registered.

4.       What to look for in a flat – Everyone has different priorities and look for different things in a flat, I am mentioning a few which I can think of:

a.       Look for minimum loading or in other words max space in the same flat area.

b.      Look for flats which 9ft and above slab to slab height, this makes the flat look spacious.

c.       Airy and lighted which at least a couple of hrs of sunlight throughout the year.

d.      People in NCR prefer lower floors but I suggest higher floors as its more airy, attracts less dirt and less mosquitoes as well. Plus the view is an added advantage.

e.      Also look for quality of fittings and the layout, layout is more important as it cannot be changed later.

5.       If buying direct what should you bargain for and look out for – When you are booking a under construction property bargain on the following (Get it in written in BBA if negotiated);

a.       Try to get additional parking in the same cost

b.      Get power load and backup as per the requirement in the same cost.

c.       If you plan to renovate the flat then you can negotiate for a raw flat from the builder.

d.      Negotiate for all possession charges like IFMS, maintenance, meter charges etc.

6.       In case you are buying for a flat in resale things you should look out for:

a.       Make sure government/builder transfer charges can be negotiated with the seller.

Make sure the builder issues a NoC so that you are sure there are no further payments pending on builder side.

“Why did I buy this?”

Often it happens that after I come back from a weekend shopping trip I ponder and question myself that why did I buy a particular brand and not the other one. Earlier I used to think I am the only confused one, but, trust me, I am not the only one! I spoke to a few friends, did a bit of google search and found that it’s a common problem. The next obvious question that  popped in my head was why do we buy all this stuff afterall? Is it the need? The necessity? or simply an urge to exploit our increased spending power.

After a lot of contemplation and observation, I came up with just one logical answer – IT IS ALL ABOUT MARKETING!

Just have a look at all the stuff you have bought till date and ask yourself why did you buy this particular item? The answer would be because it’s the best and also one of the family friend or relative used it. The neighbor has the same car, Arvind has the same watch or even I saw it on TV it’s the best brand to wash my clothes. (Reference Marketing –referred by someone or just out of sheer jealousy)

I myself have realized that I tend to buy stuff which has the best marketing in terms of TV commercials, Radio Jingles, better placement in the malls, better and attractive offers and, of course, the strategic pricing of the product which gives me the feeling of becoming rich eventually by saving that 3.99 rupees on buying a larger packet of detergent, which I later realize is useless as all my clothes go to a local laundry (dhobi).

Marketing is the only reason that allows the existence of so many brands for a single product . Otherwise there should have been just two varieties a good one and a not so good one. Owing to a great marketing strategy, there are many companies offering products under each category. There are at least 20 kind of glycerin (translucent) soaps, 50 types of low cost soaps, around 10 types of anti bacterial soaps and 5 types of luxury soaps; still all the soaps sell,  why? Because each company has a different marketing strategy which involves capturing our hearts and hence our pockets through some big movie star like Shah Rukh or Kareena or making us believe that the revolutionary technology used in the soap would make us a different person altogether in just one bath; a single spray of the deodorant could end all our troubles of finding a sexy girl friend (I am still waiting for this to actually happen though).

What I mean to say is do we read the components of a product before buying or do we blindly believe the marketing strategist of different companies. The search goes on …

New Unexplored Shores

Talk about Indian IT companies and their sales & marketing strategies, one question that remains unanswered is whether they should concentrate on markets other than US? The leaders are skeptical about the growth, accessibility and returns.

For two decades now, the US market has been harnessed and has saturated up to a certain extent. It still contributes a major chunk of the global IT revenues. But as the saying goes, change is inevitable, we need other options. When recession blows the US, the Indian economy should not be affected.

There are both, challenges and benefits in exploring new markets. In Europe, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Spain and APAC (Australia, Singapore, Japan and India) are some of the areas where IT companies are targeting. Though some of these countries might have language barrier, but most of these countries are not as open to offshoring as US and UK. But, on the brighter side, the high difference in the currency exchange rate, paying capacity, lack of skilled labor, hunger for adaptation of latest technology and low competition opens a whole new field for the players.

It’s really strange but I have been talking to some of my friends and seniors in the industry and found Japan to be the target market of the future. Would you have guessed that? I did not! The market has a huge potential and is opening up for business day by day.

This brings to light a great lesson for Indian IT companies. Change in stand and having multi-dimensional and flexible sales teams to focus on new territories would be like a breather to survive the crisis moments.

hApPy nEy yEaR tO aLl

The Indian Retail

Retail is the sector which is touching the sky in India and other developing countries. The Indian retail Industry saw a drastic change in it’s grown mainly after 2005. This was the time when the retail in India started becoming more and more organized.

There are various players from huge market players to medium companies which are trying their hand in the organized retail market. The present Indian retail could be categorized under Rural and Urban Retail.

Rural Retail: This option was first taken out by ITC in a mass scale in India. It was kind of a mix and match of a few services which was a revolutionary step in India (I would not go into details as per now) It was a complex structure which centralized everything. There are many companies which are into rural retail now.

The major step in the Urban retail was from Reliance which launched its chain of Reliance fresh with a newer concept of vegetable retail. The company applied such a wonderful supply chain and quality standards that it was even considered as a threat to the traditional vegetable retail market; as an outcome it was forced to be closed in Uttar Pradesh.

If you see the present situation there are many major players in the market from Wallmart with EasyDay to In and Out the the gas station retail outlet, the other players are 24X7, 6 to10 Big Bazar from the future group.

The Indian retail companies use the best of the technology to streamline their processes and get the best out of it. POS (Point of sales) Systems are a very common sight now a days. Using customized RMS (Retail management Systems) various ERP packages SAP packages is a common trend to monitor the whole cycle and have a good control over it. As a result major IT companies are having a gala time implementing these services as the domestic client now has the power to pay.

The retail companies are not only present in the market but are segregating their chains according to the customer’s need. Reliance has Reliance fresh, Reliance retail; Future Group has Big Bazar, Furniture bazaar, pantaloons, Future bazaar and Pluss. The retail is now segregated according to the market segment and is more consumer centric.

As per my knowledge the Indian Retail has a lot of potential which is still to be explored in the coming decade.

The Wine Industry in India

The Indian wine industry has seen a revolutionary change in the last few years. Though Wines in India have come up as a trend rather than as a culture as in the other European countries.

The Indian wine companies like Sula, ND wines are the once that could be seen most commonly on the stands in the liquor shops. These are the brands the common Indian knows and uses. Its only the color or the name and the bottle that attracts most of us and we have no idea what we are drinking. Most of the wines are not even kept at the adequate temperatures for them. We could see the white wine and the red wine stocked together. That's amusing as the white wine if kept at higher temperatures more than 12 degree C it turns into vinegar, looses its taste, odor and acidity. Though the red wine is supposed to be at room temperature but that does not include 48 degree C temperatures in the Indian subcontinent.

There are some differences in stocking organic and inorganic wines but who cares its all the same in here.

Though there is a demand of fine french wines ans well as Italian wines in India but that is more restricted to the upper segment of the society. These imported wines are not available on general counters , there are very few suppliers and could be found at some good hotels and food joints only.

The point is that though India has grown into a beer drinking nation but still for wines to be accepted there is a lot of time.

The Indian Defense Industry

The market trends in India have been changing but what has not changed much in terms of the market trends is the Defense market. India has been one of the potential markets for defense companies all around the world. It has been for a about half a century now that the defense companies have found India and Pakistan as one of their target markets.

The major countries involved in defense market are Russia, Germany, USA, UK, Israel, France and China. These are the companies which dominate the defense market in the world and each country has its own specialty in which they excel in. Like Israel is famous for its small and hand held weapon industry and produces one of the best handheld weapons in the world. Germany has the best tanks in the world, US has the best tactical equipments and air borne vehicles in the market.

The Indian subcontinent has been the market for some of the best defense companies like: Lockheed Martin (US), Northrop Grumman (US), Thales (France), Israel Weapon Industry (Israel), E Bit Systems (Israel), Sikorsky (US), Sukhoi (Russia) and many more. Even there are many Indian agencies which have come up with some very good defense products.

DRDO, HAL, Gun factory board, ISRO are working on new research projects and coming up with better products. But the only question mark is is the effort in the right direction and is the pace of advancement right? I say this because we have the best naval ship and submarines facilities in the world but still we buy submarines and retired ships from Russia and other countries. The Arjun tank took such a long time that till the time it was out the technology was obsolete. Tejas, when in the final phase of development the scientists realize it’s a light weight combat aircraft and the engine used is not powerful enough to lift the assault weapons.

India has the capability and the technology to implement it but we always lack the system needed for that technology to work in the right direction and on right time.