ClixFlix June 9, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , 1 comment so farA helpful tip (thanks, Rohit) from one of eIndia readers pointed me to ClixFlix which is a online movie rental site serving Mumbai city and surrounding neighborhoods. Apparently they’ve been in business since 2004, and have grown modestly over the last 3 years to 11,000 members.
The first thing I like about ClixFlix is the fact that they have a nice “v.3 beta” next to the logo. It’s probably one of the handful Indian web startups that are mature enough to declare their immaturity publicly (that sounds funny, I know). Seems like they are also the only startup in this space that have ‘walk-in’ stores (current count is 7 stores).
The layout and content design is nice and professional. They were thoughtful enough to include a how-it-works type animation right on the homepage, along with easy outline of membership plans, contact info etc.
There are bunch of other companies in this space and I’ve written about most of them- Moviemart.in, Catchflix, Homeview.in, Seventymm, Madhouse.in. If you know about others, comment and let me know so we can keep a comprehensive list.
MapMyIndia June 7, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Maps , add a commentMapMyIndia portal was launched in late 2004 as an interactive map website for India. I mistakingly promoted SatNav Technologies as the pioneer GIS data company in my earlier post, but it seems like the ‘pioneer’ title should go to CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of MapMyIndia.
CE Info Systems is based out of Delhi since 1991, focusing on creation of detailed GIS data sets for India. They boast about being the largest repository of digital maps and data in the country and offer services to several big clients like Birla Group, Nokia, Mahangar Gas, MCD, Zee TV, L&T, Qualcomm, etc. in various verticals.
MapMyIndia content shows the rich heritage, of course. The free
service has a searchable database of 170 cities, 4,785 towns and 2.2 lakh villages in India. Although the website has some annoying flashing graphics with a slightly cramped look, what blows my mind away is that they give step-by-step directions with total distance!!! 
Un-freakin’-believable!!! I tried the directions from Vasant Kunj to Connaught Place and they were awesome. In fact, Greater Kailash to Bihar also made sense (although I cant verify that, obviously). This kind of in-depth dataset can be the backbone for numerous future ebusiness models, no doubt.
They have a mobile search page too. So mobile search too has arrived in India. The website also talks about local search and ‘eLocation’ (you can tell others where you are located). U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e. I’m still reeling from the step-by-step direction functionality.
RoadsofIndia June 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Maps , 1 comment so farOnline maps and navigation has made its way to our favorite subcontinent (finally). RoadsofIndia is a portal that can give you directional information within 23 major Indian cities. Before you get all excited, know that these directions are only limited to preconfigured landmark lists for now. So you can pick a bank or hospital as origin and get directions to a railway station or shopping center. Since I’m a Delhi native, I checked out the list for delhi and it looked pretty loaded… and useful. The site is free, fyi.
RoadsofIndia has apparently been in existence since 2000, and is run by SatNav Technologies, which was spun off from IT giant Satyam Computer Services Ltd in early 2004. SatNav focuses on GIS products and technologies.
If you have recently checked out Google Maps for indian locations, then you know it’s better than what it was couple years ago. But what is worth noting now is that Yahoo! India Maps shows the additional ability to execute plenty of relevant keyword searches too. Not just “Connaught Place, Delhi” but “New Patel Nagar, New Delhi” showed the exact map location along with landmarks like Delhi Metro stops, ATM’s etc. !!. (Okay… Okay… I didn’t search anything but Delhi landmarks. But if you do, let me know the results)
Yahoo! India Maps are much better if you want local maps in India. What I found out was that MSN and Yahoo! India have licenced content from RoadsofIndia. So the credit still goes to SatNav. I guess what NavTeq did for North America, SatNav is positioned to do for India. The day is not far when mobile maps become a reality for the Indian road warriors.
Edit: Geez, it doesn’t take long before someone points out your mistake on a blog post. In less than 12 hours of my posting the info above, I stand corrected. Apparently SatNav is not the company behind Yahoo! India Maps. It’s CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. They are a old Indian player in the GIS space, and you can read more about them in my post here.
HimachalHotels.in June 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Travel , add a commentSpam may be of some use, after all. Sheetal Dawar, a representative from HimachalHotels.in recently spammed my ‘About’ page with a lengthy advertisement for their website.
Before hitting the delete button on that comment, I decided to check the website out. Turned out to be worth the effort. Although it has the annoying blinking graphics (another case in point for my Hallmarks of an average Indian website post), the content was decent enough. They have lodging information (most have at least one picture), packages and ‘Extreme Adventure’ activities available; along with an toll-free US number . Of course, I haven’t tried them out, but in the past I’ve traveled in the Himachal region enough to know that the info is relevant and somewhat useful.
For sure, Himachal is a beautiful destination. If you are planning a trip, this may be a worthwhile site. [There. I've promoted your website, Sheetal. But don't spam blogs if you want to advertise... just send a email asking for an honest review]
StarHealth.in June 5, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare , add a commentIt’s always exciting to find out about the changing healthcare business in India. My latest pick is Star Health and Allied Insurance India which is arguably the most prominent and the only stand-alone health insurance company in Indian market today.
Star Health was formed with a capital base of Rs.105 crores, backed by Oman Insurance Company and bunch of prominent middle-eastern and Indian personalities. If you read the recent press, the big numbers will make your head spin- Star has reportedly earned a premium of Rs.100 crore in it’s first year by selling health policies to 25 million people through it 95 or so offices and plans to setup 125 outpatient clinics within the next year.
The company offers a host of products and services around healthcare, starting from basic hospitalization reimbursement to specialized NRI care and travel related health insurance. It’s a sign that the forces in Insurance industry are realizing the worth of indian market.
I personally think that effective health insurance needs infrastructure that can support accurate recording, filing and validation of claims- and that piece is still missing in the Indian market. There is zero accountability in medicine today and everyone knows that fake bills can be easily procured. Companies like Star Health are probably ready to take the hit of overbilling just to get established in the market (and establish the market itself), realizing that there is a ton of money to be made once the processes and accountability issues are resolved.
Fine print is that this is good news for folks in fields like Insurance, Healthcare and IT (specially Healthcare IT). Opening up new markets like health insurance means that India will need talent that can make it happen.
Update: StarHealth is launching a coverage plan for HIV-infected people this month (July’07). More evidence to it’s growth..