Urban youth between the ages of 15 and 30 years are the main market for India’s mobile service providers. Youth in India are also the largest consumers of mobile VAS.

Virgin Mobile India has signed a deal with Nimbuzz to provide instant messaging features to their mobile phone customers. Through Vchatter, customers will be able to log on to multiple instant messaging services with a single login.

I came across this article, which says that a mobile game featuring Paris Hilton will soon be available on mobile phones in India via Reliance. The game has been developed by a French company called Gameloft. The article raises an interesting point about the impact of Western icons and values in India. Does the availability of this game suggests that mobile phones are another tool which is exposing young people in India to Western cultural products? Or the fact that buying mobile games is a personal choice for the user therefore, may not necessarily spread western cultural values like the mainstream media?

I found this excellent stats on mobile phone usage in India by  Arun Prabhudesai on his blog Trak.in. I have summarized the main points in my post, you can read the full report here.

- India’s mobile subscribers base at the end of April 2009 has grown to 403.66 million (source: TRAI).

- India adds 10 – 12 million subscribers on an average monthly.

- The near-saturated urban India has 270 million mobile subscribers.

How is urban India using their mobile phones?

SOCIAL NETWORKING:

- Almost 10% of Delhi mobile subscribers use social networking services from their mobile phones topping the list, followed by Mumbai (6.4%) and Chennai (4%).

- Orkut is the favorite social networking site frequented by approximately 11.4% of mobile users, followed by Facebook used by 6.7% and hi5 by 6%.

SEARCH ENGINE:

- Approximately 5.76 million mobile subscribers use Google, making it the most used search engine to be accessed via mobile. The second position goes to Yahoo used by 4.58 million mobile users.

- Almost half (45.6%) urban mobile subscribers use Google followed by Yahoo (30.9%).

INSTANT MESSAGING:

- Yahoo Messenger is the most used IM application among Indians. Almost 18.3% use Yahoo and 17.8% use Google Talk. (not much difference)

MOBILE CONTESTS:

- 86% of mobile users have participated in SMS contests initiated by TV shows followed by 50% participating in newspaper SMS contests.

- Almost 60% of females and 49% of males have participated in at least 1 – 3 SMS contests and 51% of males and 41% of females have participated in more than 4. (very high numbers)

SMS SERVICES:

- The most popular SMS service appears to be jokes (accessed by 52%) and astrology (used by 48%). News updates are subscribed by 44% of mobile users (quite encouraging).

- Unlimited Internet access & SMS value added services are the two most critical factors when Indians decide on choosing their mobile service.

It appears that in India, mobile Internet is going to grow!!!

Techtree reports India’s mobile subscriber base 391.76 million, despite the push, the growth in the rural sectors is slow. With a subscriber base of 282 million, urban centers account for 72% of all mobile users in the country. (Thanks @Sri for the link)

This article reports that Hindustan Times, a major Indian newspaper is changing it’s look and reporting style to cater to India’s youth population.

Sanjoy Narayan, editor-in-chief, HT, “Relationship and the people’s approach to consumption of news has changed. They get news faster from television, Internet, mobile phones (through SMS alerts), social media networks and newsletters. The reader wakes up in the morning not to know ‘what’ but ‘why’. While we deal with this ‘why’, it has lead to the overall restaging of the product.”

Interesting….is it only HT or other newspapers are taking the similar route???

Several people have been inquiring me about some useful web resources on Indian mobile sector. Here is a list of websites I have found useful. I will keep adding to it as and when I find more websites.

1. Internet & Mobile Association of India : This website provides information about internet and mobile industry in India.

2. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India : Indian government’s website on internet and mobile industry related consultation papers and press releases.

3. Cellular Operators Association of India : Latest information on the Indian mobile sector.

If you know of any comprehensive website that provides information on India’s internet and mobile sector, do let me know.

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One of the perils of blogging is that it makes plagiarism easy, but one of the perks is that you easily catch the culprit. Now what?

Take the case of Niranjana Iyer, who is an Indian blogger based in Ontario, Canada. You can read her post on the issue here. But Niranjana’s post, which came to my notice (via @twilightfairy) on Twitter, clearly shows how Ms. Damayanti Datta plagiarised her post. Apparently, this is not the first time, that Ms. Datta has plagiarised, she did it for another story before.

Why am I writing about this case?

First of all, when I checked out Niranjana’s blog I read few of her published stories and I couldn’t stop. I was compelled to write about the incident, because she is a sensitive writer whose writing touched my heart.

Second, despite the fact that Canada and India are oceans apart, it was quite easy to find out about the incident. This also shows that the readers are aware and they are reading both the online and the mainstream press. It also points out to the issue of “Crisis of accountability” that Jay Rosen mentioned in his talk.

The worst aspect of this scenario is that I loved reading India Today while I was in India and it is indeed a leading Indian magazine (atleast to my knowledge). I still read it once in a while to keep in touch with the important issues back home. I am also using story from India Today in my dissertation as reference. The magazine has built a reputation over several years and this one mistake can ruin it’s reputation.

It is really sad but it’s important to create awareness and I want you to judge for yourself.

It started with the Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe at George Bush and now Indians are using this trick to oust the unwanted politicians.

1. Delhi Journalist, Jarnail Singh hurled a shoe at Chidambaram.

2. A retired school teacher threw a shoe at Navin Jindal.

It appears that the days of garlanding the politicians are over. Welcome to the shoeland!!!!

Sitting here in my apartment near Washington, DC sipping tea and reading online newspapers on a rainy Saturday morning, Ican hear the buzz of Indian elections.

In this article for Washington Post, Emily Wax, reported that the Mumbai terrorist attacks have had a definite and deep impact on the psyche of young people in India. The middle-class 20-somethings who previously spent their time in aimless activities are now gearing up for the upcoming elections by using new communication technologies to organize and urge their friends to vote.

“Politics” has become the new mantra for the young in the land of software engineers and doctors. Young India’s passions have changed and instead of talking about bollywood and cricket they are now talking of politics, writes Saritha Rai in Global Post.

The 200 million Indian youth is appearing to be a formidable vote bank for Indian politicians. Politicians have also taken notice of this recent development and are overhauling their images and building an online presence to gel with young crowd.

There are several problems that plague Indian society such as hunger, poverty, inadequate health care, unemployment, lack of education, just to name a few. But what are the issues that young Indians really care about? Will Indian youth really emerge as the deciding factor in these elections? We will have to wait and watch….

This story in AsiaOne digital reported that social media will play an active role in Indian elections this year. New electronic machines will be used for voting and there is an online voter registration campaign. Facebook, YouTube and blogs all of them will be used for campaigning. Political parties are sending SMS updates to voters.

Of the 700 million voters, 100 million youth between the 18 – 24 years will be first time voters. It would be an interesting election.