Tirthankar Roy teaches economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His book The Economic History of India1857-1947 has changed the way Indian economic history is studied and taught worldwide. He is also the author of the The East India Company – The World’s Most Powerful Corporation

‘Opium profits funded many banks, insurance, and shipping firms in Bombay and Calcutta’
Tirthankar Roy teaches economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His book The Economic History of India1857-1947 has changed the way Indian economic history is studied and taught worldwide. He is also the author of the The East India Company – The World’s Most Powerful Corporation (Penguin Allen Lane 2012). In this interview, he speaks on the way the East India Company operated in India and the impact it had on Indian business and economy. Excerpts:
How and when was the East India Company formed? What were its initial goals?
The English East India Company was formed in 1600 after a series of informal and formal meetings between ship captains, merchants and bankers of the City of London, all of whom wanted to develop trade with Asia, in particular, to procure more black pepper from the Indonesian islands, which sold at an astronomical price in Europe.

Gurcharan Das in the introduction to your book writes, ‘The modern corporation is, indeed, a child of the East India Company and there is much to learn from the mother’s failures and successes.’ Could you elaborate on that?
Mr Das is quite right; the company was the first multinational, in that its London head office and its offices and warehouses in India were all parts of the same firm, though located thousands of miles apart in different countries. As in a modern multinational, the head office appointed the key officers who would run the operations in India. It was also a joint stock firm, that is, it pooled in the capital of many shareholders, which gave it much greater economies of scale and more capacity to absorb risks than a partnership or a family firm of the time.

How similar or different is the East India Company from the modern multinational?
There was a difference between the company and the modern multinational. In the case of the company, the head office did not have full knowledge of what the branches were doing, and did not have complete command and control over the operations of the branches. This imperfect command problem arose partly because of physical distance, which made travel and communication between the head and the branches very slow by modern standards.

Were there any other reasons for the problem?
Partly, the problem arose due to a social reason. The shareholders of the company who controlled the London end of the operations and the rank and file in the branch offices came from different social classes. They did not completely trust each other. The shareholders were wealthy merchants and bankers, the rank and file came from poorer backgrounds and often joined the firm as sailors and soldiers. There was also a conflict of interest in the Indian side. The employees were paid small salaries, on the understanding that they would make some money by trading on the side. But then too much trade on the side hurt the company’s own interest. How much is too much? There was constant tension over this question.

You mentioned that the company initially started by trading pepper. It bought pepper in Indonesia and then sold it in Britain. You also write about the initial fleet of the East India Company coming back with pepper which alone was valued at a million pounds. How did the company decide on trading pepper? And why was pepper so much in demand?

Pepper was hugely valuable in Europe partly because it was thought to be the best ingredient available to hide the smell of slightly stale meat in cooked dishes, and partly because spices were demanded as a luxury article by the rich. But alongside demand, there were supply-side reasons as well for the high prices. Pepper and aromatic spices did not grow everywhere. They could not be easily cultivated either. They had to be procured from remote islands in the Indonesian archipelago or the mountains of Kerala, where climate and topography were favourable for growing spices. Not everyone had easy access to these sources. On top of that, the little pepper that came overland into Europe was solidly controlled by the merchants of Genoa and Venice, who were not friends of the English. That control also created monopoly prices. In the second half of the 1500s, a leading explorer of the time, Ralph Fitch, travelled from London to Southeast Asia via India to explore the prospects of an English trade there. After returning Fitch wrote a book, which was read, among others, by William Shakespeare. This book and some of the members of the tour were influential behind the start of the East India Company.

The company eventually evolved a three- cornered system of doing business. What was that? How did it help them?
The company soon discovered that the means of payment for spices needed to be found within Asia itself, because not all peoples in Asia could be paid with European goods. Europeans could bring some woollen goods, but who will buy woollens in Indonesia or India? Therefore, it was looking for suitable Asian goods to exchange for spices. In particular, Indian textiles sold well in all of Southeast Asia, and both the Dutch and the English companies became interested in Indian cloth in order to use these to buy spices. Not only that; for some time, horses were purchased from Persia for sale to India, cotton textiles were purchased in exchange, and the textiles were exchanged for spices. Horses were in great demand in India, because the main armies consisted largely of cavalry, and there were no indigenous breed of warhorses. This was the three cornered system.
The company eventually built forts in Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai) and primarily operated out of these forts. Can you discuss this portion in some detail?
The company initially negotiated trading rights with local states, like the Mughal province of Gujarat, the Emperor’s court in Delhi or Agra, or the provincial governor of the Golconda state. They sought permission to trade from an established port that belonged to these powers. The three major ports were Surat, Masulipatnam, and Hooghly. But the need to defend themselves against the Dutch and the Portuguese, occasionally, threats from the Mughals and local rulers, and increasingly the need to run their own place by means of their own laws, all led the company to lease in or buy lands where it could create its own ports, docks, and naval stations. This is how Madras and Calcutta came up. Bombay’s origin was similar, except that it was initially received by the English King as a dowry in a royal marriage. Not knowing how he could use this place, the King handed it over to the company. Because of the defence motive and the wish to create a government on a tiny scale, these towns always started with the construction of forts.
Would it be fair to compare these cities with the special economic zones of today?
These three cities did share something in common with today’s SEZs, in that both tend to be export-oriented. But then, inside the SEZs, conditions of business depend on state policy. In these three port cities, there was no well-defined economic policy in existence.

How did opium come into the scheme of things for the East India Company?
Opium would grow in Bihar or Malwa (near Indore), reach Calcutta or Bombay, was auctioned to overseas merchants, who would then take it abroad in special ships that were made to be defended against pirates of the China Sea. Once in China, the opium was taken inland by the Hong merchants of Canton (Guangzhou/Guandong). It was an illegal substance in China, and the business in the interior could be done only by politically connected individuals. The Hong merchants fitted that role. They also had a lot of money. The opium was purchased with silver, which was then be used to buy Chinese tea. Tea, again, was sent back to England for resale to America. The tax on tea was a valuable income to the government. When these taxes were raised in 1773, angry consumers staged the famous Boston Tea Party, where British tea chests arriving in Boston were thrown into the waters. That event again led to the American Revolution. In this way Asian trade changed world politics.
It is said that some of the biggest family owned businesses in India made their first fortunes in opium. It was that money which was used to expand into other businesses. What do you have to say about that?
This is true of some of the Parsee firms. Apart from individual firms, opium profits funded many banks, insurance and shipping companies in Bombay and Calcutta.
Which were the communities that gained the most because of their association with the East India company?
The Parsees have been mentioned. They were mainly based in Surat and Bombay, and worked for the company both as agents and contractors and also as shipwrights. In Calcutta, many prominent Bengali and North Indian merchants in the 1700s were friends of the company. They actively helped the company take over political power in 1757. This group included the largest firm of the time, the Jagatseths, who were a sort of bankers to the court. In Madras, Telugu merchants were partners of the company, and some of them acquired great wealth and power. Any direct link between gainers in the 1700s and successful firms today cannot be drawn, because Indian business world has diversified so much away from the old-style commodity trade.
You give credit to the East India Company for introducing the entire system of contracts in India. Why did India not have such a system earlier?
The idea of the contract, and probably some kind of law as well, did exist in India from before. But apart from loan transactions, in the matter of sale of goods, these rules were not very actively in use. Certainly, there were no known state courts that settled merchant disputes over contracts. The company needed to use contract heavily because it operated on a very large scale in a limited range of goods. It needed to buy cloth from hundreds of thousands of weavers made according to exact specification. It could not possibly do bulk purchases of cloth and maintain quality without some kind of advance agreements. The problem, though, was that the company was using contracts on a larger scale than any Indian firms without a proper commercial law. So, it exposed itself to numerous disputes over quality, quantity, delayed delivery of cloth, and clandestine deals between weavers and the company’s rivals, the Dutch or the French.

You write towards the concluding part of your book that ‘the return of that process of skill-building is being reaped today in the form of net income that India receives by selling highly skilled services to the world’. Could you explain this in some detail?
In the 1800s, India exported a lot of commodities to Britain. The textile export trade had ended, but opium, indigo, tea, cotton, and later, wheat and rice took its place. With the export surplus, India purchased skilled services from Britain. These payments were for the services of British military and administrative officers who ran the government, the services of scientists, engineers, doctors, and professors, again working for the government, as well as for foremen, engineers, and partners who were working in the private industries. These purchases were condemned by Indian nationalists as wasteful expenditure or a ‘drain’ of resources. But the drain theory is an exaggeration. Much of this payment went to hire a variety of skills that India did not have. These skilled people contributed to industrialisation, big engineering works like irrigation canals and railways, and a university and a hospital system that were far ahead in the developing world of the 1800s in terms of quality.

And how did all this benefit India?
Today, India derives a lot of mileage in the world economy from the strengths built up a hundred or more years ago thanks to these purchase of British services. Its engineering schools, university education, scientific research, and the Indians’ head-start with English language, were all examples of the positive effects of what the nationalists called drain. The fact that Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras started modern factory industry already in the 1800s had much to do with the ability of India to buy knowhow and hire manpower from Britain in that time.

Does India suffer from the East India Company syndrome where we remain suspicious of foreign business?

The superstitious fear of the foreigner runs deep in the mind of the Indian populace and is constantly exploited by politicians and corporates today who do not want foreign competitors. They distort history in their favour, as many angry or fearful people often do. The uniformly negative light in which the company is seen adds to this sentiment. Much of that sentiment formed in the 1920s and 1930s during India’s nationalist struggle. Important writers, including Jawaharlal Nehru, blamed the foreigners for the poverty of the Indians.

This was a politically useful line then and a politically correct line even now. But it is bad history nonetheless. Could you explain that in some detail?
Then and now, there is misinformation about the real story of the company and its contributions to the making of modern India. When we think of the legacy of the company, we should think of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Without the East India Company, these places would in all likelihood have still remained the fishing villages that they were in the 1600s. Because of the company they emerged not only as cities, but also huge cosmopolitan hubs of Indo-European business and the true symbols of globalisation.

East India Company was the first MNC in the world. What can Indian corporations which are going global learn from it?
The company’s business history tells us that doing business in another country always needs local partners and agents, and these partnerships are never easy relationships, because the partners can take advantage of the greater knowledge of the local scenario. Similarly, political tendencies in the country of operation are also a cause for concern to the MNC. Today’s MNCs are still subject to the same kind of uncertainty.

How do you compare the ‘crony capitalism’ practised during the times of the East India Company to the kind that is practiced in India now?
Business always needs to keep good relations with those who run governments, and governments also want friends in business. After all, a lot of tax comes from the corporates, and quite often, bureaucrats and politicians join private enterprise. This is a common factor between the world in the 1600s and the world in the 2000s. The difference is that in the earlier days, everything depended on informal negotiations. There was a big role for conspiracy and intrigue. Today, these relationships are, at least partly, based on legal principles.


Twenty-year-old Anuj Shakrani is accepting orders of customized costumes from two South Mumbai colleges while speaking to his Kanpur-based young partner-cum-manufacturer over phone

City undergrads turning biz heads
Twenty-year-old Anuj Shakrani is accepting orders of customized costumes from two South Mumbai colleges while speaking to his Kanpur-based young partner-cum-manufacturer over phone. “I have to meet the order for three events by end of October,” reveals Anuj who has to complete his projects and appear for semester exam next month.
A second year student of Electricals and Telecom engineering at VJTI, Matunga, Anuj is handling Enquote Merchandising Solutions – a business of made to design apparel, watches, sunglasses etc for corporates, college festivals, sports event and other promotional events. “This is my half introduction,” Anuj says.
His other venture -- Pik-a book – which he started along with a classmate, Snehal Grandy, this July is also a hit. Purchasing old books and items from seniors and selling them to juniors touched Rs3.5 lakh revenue. With Rs30,000 profit with the launch they are set to roll out this biz at all major Institutes across India by 2013. Aamir Shaikh – TYBA at Rizvi College of Bandra – is handling an event and wedding planner company--Evolutions events-- which he started couple of months ago with a swanky office at Fort. He has already bagged projects of worth Rs10 lakh that includes college event Jashn-e-Rizvi.
City students are becoming more and more innovative now. Although, the business capital of the country is known for encouraging college-going students to start earning much early as compared to their peers in other cities, most of them go for part-time jobs barring few who work in family-run businesses. Prof MA Farooqui, director of IT at University of Mumbai, says, “Confident youngsters are ready to take risk now.”
Early start-ups are profitable too. Shanay Shah and Akhil Aryan started ‘Ion Education’ in 2010 when they were still studying FYBCom at HR College. Edutainment company, which provides online interactive education, has net profit of Rs25 lakh in the last financial year.

BombayBelly is a catering service for house parties

BombayBelly

WHAT: BombayBelly is a catering service for house parties. For large gatherings, it offers options from Indian, Chinese, Thai and Mexican cuisines, including dessert. For smaller get-togethers, people can order by the kilo. It delivers its food in insulated packages anywhere in the city so that it remains hot. It allows people to place orders online or over the phone

WHO: The founder, Gautam Gupta, 45, moved back to Mumbai in April from Hong Kong, where he had been a running a business that exported household appliances, motorcycles, motorcycle parts and tyres, since 1996.

WHEN: After doing three months of groundwork, Gupta launched the service last month.

HOW: Gupta had no experience in the food business, but his wife, who manages events for the banking industry, did. She helped him ensure the food was of good quality and that it was priced appropriately. Using her help, Gupta set up a kitchen in Malad (E) and hired cooks. He then conducted tastings with friends and family to finalise his menus. Finally, he selected packaging for the food so that it could be delivered piping hot. When the economy improves, he hopes to open eateries.
WHY: Gupta found his business becoming riskier over the past two years, having to increasingly chase clients abroad to make payments. At the same time, on his trips to his home in Mumbai, he noticed that although the economy was slowing down, it was still doing better than other international markets he was dealing with from Hong Kong. He also saw that the Indian food industry was growing robustly at this time.



‘Throwing parties outside has become very expensive’

BombayBelly, founded by Gautam Gupta (left top), wants to cash in on the rising number of house parties by delivering piping hot, ready-to-serve bulk orders of food such as biryani, as seen above with his marketing head Roopam Lakhanpal.

“In the food industry, there isn't really a bad time to invest, since it is one-third of the basic 'roti, kapda, makaan' triad. In fact, when the chips are down, you get essential elements such as property and skilled labour at cheaper prices. A food business runs on the quality of its people, so well-trained staff and a creative chef are critical, but usually very expensive. However, you have to be sensible with your pricing during a slowdown. Don’t be afraid to take risks at such a time, especially if you identify a gap in the market. People are willing to experiment with exotic cuisines now.”

Samaas delivers home-cooked regional cuisine.

‘I want people to learn about regional cultures’

WHAT: Samaas delivers home-cooked regional cuisine. Right now, it uses chefs who cook Malvani and Bengali food in the traditional style at their homes. It plans to add Puneri vegetarian Maharashtrian cuisine to its menu. It delivers free of charge to customers from Bandra to Vile Parle, charging a fee for other areas in the city. People can call in to order.
Tanmay Degwekar wants to make home-cooked traditional food, such as the Malvani bombil fry (right), more accessible to Mumbaiites.
  WHO: Tanmay Degwekar, 29, founded the company. He worked with a management consulting firm for four years before quitting to start his venture. Degwekar holds an engineering degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Symbiosis, Pune.

WHEN: He started the service last month.

HOW: Degwekar was always interested in food. At his previous job, he had worked with a few clients in the food sector, and through this, he got some idea of how things worked. Before setting Samaas up, he conducted market research to see if his idea had takers.

After deciding it did, Degwekar made a detailed business plan, tested many home cooks before zeroing in on the two he has on board. He tried their food on friends and family before launching the service.

WHY: Degwekar found that while there are many home chefs who cook authentic dishes, the city appeared to not have an umbrella service for a variety of ■ regional fare. “You always remember that superb mustard-rich fish you ate at your Bengali neighbour’s house or that patrani macchi your Parsi friend’s mother cooked for you,” he says. “You may scour restaurants to find those tastes again, but mostly the food isn’t as authentic as what someone who has grown up eating and cooking that dish can make.”
Degwekar says he makes absolutely no changes to the original recipes in a bid to cater to local taste buds. For instance, restaurants usually serve a sweet version of the Begali chingri
malaikari, a prawn curry, while the traditional recipe, which Samaas serves, is pungent. He also wants to keep the food fresh, so nothing is pre-cooked.
Degwekar wants to use food as a way help people learn about different cultures. Samaas has one menu that changes weekly, and a daily one that he uploads, depending on the ingredients that the cooks can buy fresh on that day.

MEAL TICKET These entrepreneurs have identified niches in the city’s food market that they believe will thrive even in a slowing economy, says Pankti Mehta

More than bread and butter

MEAL TICKET These entrepreneurs have identified niches in the city’s food market that they believe will thrive even in a slowing economy, says Pankti Mehta

WHAT: Bagelwala! is an eatery in Bandra that says it serves authentic New York-style bagels. The café seats 12 people indoors and 14 outdoors. The menu includes a variety of bagels—plain and with sun-dried tomato, poppy seed and onion, with cream cheese and a range of vegetable and meat fillings. The simplest version costs Rs 90. Bagelwala! also delivers a Baker’s dozen, a selection of 13 bagels, across the city.
WHO: Sanal Nair, 28, who worked as a brand manager in an advertising firm for five years, and three friends who live abroad founded the business, using their own money. His friends helped Nair set up the operations, which he now manages on his own. He is completely hands-on, even helping to make the bagel sandwiches and taking orders at the Bandra eatery. Nair holds a bachelor of management studies degree from Mithibai College.

WHEN: Nair first set up a stall at the NH7 music festival in Pune last November to test his bagels. Then in January, he began a home-delivery service, finally opening the café in August.

HOW: Nair and his friends spent eight months from April last year analysing bagels in New York and comparing them with those available in Mumbai to identify the differences. Nair took a sabbatical from work, during which he decided to start Bagelwala!. They then experimented with the recipe to get the consistency they wanted. Nair says the technique they chose involves poaching the dough before baking it to make it crunchy outside and chewy inside. Nair says it was a challenge to find the high-protein flour required to achieve this texture. Right now, Bagelwala! uses imported cream cheese but eventually, plans to make it themselves.
Because the Jewish community runs most bagel houses in New York, Nair asked his American Jewish friends in Mumbai to taste different versions before zeroing in on a recipe. He then rented a place he liked. Nair says he and his partners do plan to look for venture funding in the future.
 
  WHY: Nair and his friends noticed that the US had many specialist eateries, but not India. They initially thought of setting up a franchise of an existing brand, but that was turning out to be expensive. They decided to create their own product, zeroing in on bagels because most of the ones available in Mumbai were bun-like and closer to pav-bread.

BookBuddy sends its employees, mostly all clinical psychologists, to customers’ homes to spend time with their children and read books to them

‘Downturn or not, starting up will always be a roller-coaster ride’


BookBuddy

WHAT: BookBuddy sends its employees, mostly all clinical psychologists, to customers’ homes to spend time with their children and read books to them. Its clients include working parents and parents who didn’t study in Englishmedium schools but want their children to be fluent in the language. Non-resident Indians also constitute a significant proportion of its client base. BookBuddy also organises trips to farms and nature walks for children between the ages of 3 and 15 years. It provides free services to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with learning disabilities. It has different package deals and annual tailor-made programmes for clients.

Rajeev Kamath (left) and Shyaam Kumar (right) believed that parents would pay for a service that brought psychologists to their doorstep.
  WHO: Shyaam Kumar, 33, and Rajeev Kamath, 44, jointly founded the company. Before that, Kamath was the director of operations at Capita India, a financial services firm, while Kumar has worn a bunch of hats in a financial services career spanning a decade. He returned to India from Dubai in November 2009.

WHEN: BookBuddy first ran as a pilot programme for six months starting in October last year, and then launched all its services in April this year.

HOW: Kamath and Kumar started the venture with their own savings in the belief that rock-solid service would always have takers. A majority of its employees have a Masters in clinical psychology. “Parents may not want to take the child to a psychologist because there’s a stigma attached to doing that. We’ve turned the concept of psychology on its head by taking the psychologist home,” says Kumar.

Children who are in its programmes have written short stories and poems, and a few are composing music, the founders say. The duo now has 262 clients. Their company charges R18,000 for a standard programme that offers clients a mix of mentoring, outdoor trips, farm visits, nature walks, treks, four professional visits and workshops a year.
The founders are reluctant to divulge financial details, but Kumar says that they are happy with the growth so far and hope to break even by the end of the year “I’d advise every person to try entrepreneurship at least once,” he says. “It’s challenging, a roller-coaster ride. But it’s worth it.”

WHY: After quitting their corporate careers, Kumar and Kamath spent a little more than a year and a half exploring business opportunities in the agriculture and technology sectors. But finally, they decided on the education sector. They wanted to start something that their children would be proud of. “We both decided that we had had enough of the lives we were leading,” says Rajeev Kamath.

Belita is a doorstep beauty, bridal and salon service that goes to homes in Powai, Goregaon, Jogeshwari and Chandivli.

‘I wanted to organise an unorganised sector’


Belita

WHAT: Belita is a doorstep beauty, bridal and salon service that goes to homes in Powai, Goregaon, Jogeshwari and Chandivli. It operates out of four rented offices, one in each area, and has four hired vans and a team of 50 beauticians.
An MBA graduate, Garima Jain (second from left) saw a business opportunity in creating an organisation of freelance beauticians.
  WHO: An MBA graduate, Garima Jain, 28, worked with banks in Indore before moving to Mumbai in 2009 after marriage.
Until August 2010, she worked at a financial consultancy firm and was responsible for syndicating debt and equity.

WHEN: Jain launched Belita in January 2011, four months after she quit her job.

HOW: Jain invested R7 lakh of her savings and borrowed some money from her husband to launch Belita. In its pilot stage, Jain didn’t spend any money on marketing or publicity. “My team began by going door-to-door in Powai distributing pamphlets advertising Belita and its services,” says Jain.
To keep expenses down, Jain offers services only within a radius of 2.5 km to 3 km from Belita’s rented offices in its four locations. Her four vans are also on rent.
“I didn’t want to focus on managing drivers. I’d rather spend that time training my beauticians,” says Jain.
In the first month, Belita offered services to 100 clients. By now, it has catered to 4,500 clients. By the end of the year, it plans to expand to three other localities.

WHY: As a banker clocking in 13 hours of work a day, Jain rarely found time to visit a beauty parlour. She had to call a freelance beautician home. “But afterwards, I would cringe looking at the talcum powder and wax strewn across my floor,” she says. “Also, I was always worried about the quality of the products.”
Then once while munching a pizza in her Powai home, Jain told her husband how nice it would be to have a Dominos-style home beauty service.
“Why don’t you start one?” replied her husband, a naval architect and entrepreneur who runs a ship design and consultancy firm.
The next morning she seriously discussed the proposition with him, and he encouraged Jain to take the plunge.

COMFORT CALL These youngsters hope that their services will appeal to busy Mumbaiites battling inflation, says Humaira Ansari

Homing in on a good idea


COMFORT CALL These youngsters hope that their services will appeal to busy Mumbaiites battling inflation, says Humaira Ansari

WHAT: Hammer & Mop, a start-up less than a year old, provides personalised cleaning and upkeep services to homes and offices.
Sushrut Munje (left) quit his engineering course to launch a service that targets people’s ‘pain point’ of inefficient maids. He and his dentist partner, Ashish Pingle (right), are looking to expand to other cities.
  WHO: Sushrut Munje, 22 and Ashish Pingle, 26, are the cofounders. After passing Class 12, Munje joined the Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, an engineering college in Navi Mumbai. When in college, he interned with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and a web entrepreneur. He dropped out in his third year, in 2010, to launch a startup. Pingle, a part-time director of the company, is a dentist.

WHEN: Immediately after dropping out of college, Munje tried to launch an online humour magazine, but that didn’t take off. He then launched Hammer & Mop in November last year.

HOW: He began with just Rs 50,000, consisting of his savings and contributions from friends who believed in his idea. Munje rented a warehouse near his home in Kalyan for stocking cleaning tools and equipment. He then hired a seat at Bombay Connect, a coworking space in Bandra (West), for his front-end operations. Every day, from this base, he communicates with his clients and staff. He has a staff of more than 10 cleaners, all of whom live in slums or low-income neighbourhoods.
Munje caters mostly to working couples, senior citizens and people moving into new homes, charging between R3,000 and R15,000, depending on the nature of the work and size of the flat.
“We’re still bootstrapping and earning just about enough to cover our expenses,” says Munje candidly. “Also, we are constantly upgrading our equipment.”
But as he put various elements of the venture in place, more investment came in, eventually totalling R5 lakh.
“We are still working on getting the product ‘right’,” says Munje. “But I do look forward to expanding and raising more funds.”

WHY: Munje’s heart was never entirely in engineering. In college, he spent more time outside class than inside it, getting involved in various campus clubs and in editing a magazine. “I quit engineering because I wasn’t inclined to complete the degree for the heck of it,” he says matter-of-factly. It took him six months to convince his parents. “If an entrepreneur is able to convince his family about his decision to start up, he will have less trouble finding customers,” Munje says. After six months of planning, Munje finally launched his venture, offering to ease people’s ‘pain point’ of inefficient maids.

TracksGiving aims to help businesses solve their marketing-related problems through models that involve donating for charity

Helping brands stand out by giving


TracksGiving
To minimise costs, Ritvvij Parrikh works out of Bombay Connect, a co-working space in Bandra.
  WHAT: A consultancy venture, TracksGiving aims to help businesses solve their marketing-related problems through models that involve donating for charity. It launched these ‘cause marketing’ services with five e-commerce companies, in the form of pilot projects that are now nearly complete. For instance, to help UnWrapIndia.com, a small handicrafts company, stand out among other brands, TracksGiving created a campaign in which the company donated one per cent of every purchase to a Rajasthan-based non-profit organisation that provides support to rural craftsmen. Consumers were asked to pay an additional one per cent for the cause, and 65% of the time, they were willing to do so for the sake of charity.
TracksGiving has now created a software product called the electronic donation box, which will match different companies with credible charities, match the company’s problem to an appropriate solution, select a creative cause marketing campaign from a pool of possible solutions and eventually help consumers track their donations right down to the beneficiaries.

WHO: A software engineer from Mumbai, Ritvvij Parrikh, 27, worked as a consultant for a telecom company for five years, in Pune, Israel and USA. In 2011, he returned to Mumbai, worked for five months with a social enterprise that helps donors find charities, and quit in September to launch TracksGiving.

WHEN: Founded in October 2011 HOW: Quitting a well-paying job was a huge financial step down that has made Parrikh turn to a simpler lifestyle. As his firm’s sole employee, he works out of Bombay Connect, a co-working space in Bandra. In November 2011, he found support from UnLtd India, an organisation that helps social start-ups.
“The economy is tough now, and with everything expensive, I have had trouble getting clients and hiring employees,” says Parrikh. “But we have attracted good volunteers and mentors as well as support from an IT company.”

WHY: In 2008, Parrikh launched a part-time start-up with his friends to develop a volunteer management software for NGOs. The venture, though unsuccessful, convinced Parrikh that his real passion lay in the social sector.
“Initially, TracksGiving was meant only for tracking donations, but I soon realised that the need is even more basic. Most businesses do not even have effective giving programs,” says Parrikh.

Apurva Kothari, founder of No Nasties, hopes to create an Indian market for organic clothing.

‘I have a triple bottomline of people, planet, profits’


No Nasties
Apurva Kothari, founder of No Nasties, hopes to create an Indian market for organic clothing.
  WHAT: No Nasties is a clothing company that sells T-shirts made from organic cotton, manufactured by farmers and factories that practice fair trade. The company buys its cotton from Chetna Organic Farmers Association, a co-operative of more than 15,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha who use only natural fertilisers and pesticides to grow cotton.
Designed by freelancers associated with No Nasties, the T-shirts are manufactured at Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills, a textile company that also follows organic and fair trade practices. Both Chetna and Rajlakshmi get a share in No Nasties’ profits.

Operating from a small office in Juhu and a co-working space in Bandra, the four-member No Nasties team markets its products on its website, www.nonasties.in, to customers across the country.
 
WHO: Mumbai-born Apurva Kothari, 37, a software engineer, moved to the US for his Master’s degree, and lived there for 12 years. Two years ago, he quit a well-paying job with a travel website, returned to Mumbai and used his savings to co-found No Nasties with his friend Diti Kotecha, a graphic designer who has since left the company.

WHEN: Registered in April 2011, the firm began functioning in January 2012.

HOW: For the first few months, Kothari had to work from home and from cafés. The work involved generating a demand for T-shirts that are more expensive than most synthetic ones available in the mainstream market. “Initially, the T-shirts cost R1,199, but we had to bring it down to R799, and R499 when on sale, because we realised we would not be able to create a consumer movement by remaining niche,” says Kothari, who has recovered the money he invested but has not made any profit yet.
The company has sold more than 6,000 T-shirts since April 2011, although the turnover fluctuates every month. Kothari is seeking to expand, and hopes to partner with another fair trade textile factory in south India. “If we don’t make good returns in another six months, we will have to either look for crowd funding, angel investors, or worse, not do this full-time,” says Kothari. “We have been optimistic so far, but we know we have limited time.”

WHY: In 2006, Kothari read a newspaper article about increasing farmer suicides in India’s cotton belt. Disturbed, he began to find out more. Most farmers who commit suicide, he discovered, use genetically modified cotton seeds and synthetic fertilisers that damage the land; they also have to pay off high interest loans, while not getting a fair share of the returns.
Kothari realised that getting into the social sector would help him impact the lives of such farmers. Most of the cloth made from organic cotton, he says, is exported. No Nasties aims to create an Indian market for organic clothing. “We began with T-shirts because they appeal to a large market, but we hope to develop a larger brand of clothing,” he says.

Natural Mantra is a retail ecommerce company that sells chemical free and organic food, home and personal care products

Betting on causes

HEART WORK Driven by conviction, these social entrepreneurs have ignored a sluggish economy and taken a leap of faith, says Aarefa Johari



US-returned Nishant Nayak quit a well-paying job to start an e-commerce company that sells only natural products. WHAT: Natural Mantra is a retail ecommerce company that sells chemical free and organic food, home and personal care products. The online store offers more than 2,000 products, sourced from 65 brands that Natural Mantra has vetted and selected for being genuinely chemical-free. The company also educates consumers about the benefits of making informed choices and switching to natural and organic products. Natural Mantra also indirectly benefits a range of social causes. One of the brands it endorses, for instance, is Ecofemme, a company that sells chemical-free sanitary pads and uses the proceeds to provide those pads for free to rural women.
Natural Mantra began with just 11 orders in the first month. It now gets orders in double digits every day, from customers across Indian cities.
WHO: A 34-year-old computer engineer, Nishant Nayak grew up in Mumbai, went to the US for his Master’s degree and has since then moved between the two countries, working in software engineering and e- commerce. In April 2011, he moved back to Mumbai with his wife, Tina Datta, a sales, branding and social media professional. For six months, he handled a managerial position at a prominent Indian e-commerce firm, but left it to launch Natural Mantra with Tina.

WHEN: The firm was founded in December 2011.

HOW: When he quit his job for Natural Mantra, Nayak was at the height of his career, enjoying a “multi-lakh salary” and the luxuries of a car and driver. Since then, the family has had to sacrifice vacations, movies, fine dining and even their two-bedroom Kandivli (East) home. This flat is now the Natural Mantra office, crowded with cartons of chemical-free food, toys and personal care products waiting to be packed and delivered. The Nayaks now live in another rented flat down the road. “At times I wonder why I gave up my comforts to work longer hours and not get paid in my own company,” says Nayak. “But Natural Mantra is growing, and it is good to know that we are giving people a chance to use healthier products.”

WHY: As an infant, Nayak’s daughter, now five, developed eczema, and in the US, the couple easily found a non-toxic lotion for her skin. “When we returned to India, it was hard for us to find chemical-free products,” says Nayak. Over the years, with more research, the couple realised that there was not only a high demand among urban consumers for natural goods but also a large number of small companies involved in manufacturing such goods. “Those brands were not well-known because there was no single platform to market their products,” says Nayak, who decided to fill in that gap through Natural Mantra.

Why should we start own business?

Mahendran felt there were three reasons he had to start his business right away. “Firstly, once we had the concept in place, it was important to be the first ones to get there,” he says. Secondly, he feels that the time to set up a business, especially in a city like Mumbai, has never been better. “The environment that we’re in right now is very conducive to start-ups, and definitely better than what it used to be, say, two years ago, when the economy was better.”
Speaking about the monthly meetings organised by local start-up incubators, he says, “You get to meet others like you — those who not only have ideas but are in the same boat as you, looking for resources and capital.”
He feels that this climate is optimistic for first-time entrepreneurs. “These so-called angel investors aren’t anything one would expect them to be,” he says. “Most of them are first- or second-generation entrepreneurs themselves. They are in sync with the times and are always looking for good ideas.”

“For people who’re starting a venture out of passion, it doesn’t matter whether times are good or bad. Some of the greatest businesses in history were started in tough times. The real challenge in starting a business is to have the tenacity to overcome all the obstacles one faces in the beginning. If you’re passionate about music, for example, you will be more motivated to get help, spend more time and deliver a quality product. With smartphones and internet penetration on the rise in India, it makes sense to reach out to consumers through the internet or mobile apps.”
SAMEER GUGLANI, co-founder of The Morpheus, a start-up accelerator

Starting a business in tough financial times has been a challenge, but also a blessing. “With Ok Listen, I’ve been frugal without compromising on anything, from website design to logistics,” he says. “An economic slowdown forces you to think about investing smartly and bartering deals instead of blindly throwing money at everything.”
For example, the website was developed by a software company
Basrur has worked with previously, who agreed to a 60-day window for payment.
The operating costs for OkListen.com aren’t very high, which is helpful in these times. “A year from now, even if the business doesn’t grow as much as I think it will, I might have to take up something else to maintain my income,” says Basrur. “But hopefully, I would’ve created a platform that’s sustainable in the long run.”

When asked why they chose to launch a business even though the economy has slowed down, DaCosta shrugs and says, “Well, what goes down will eventually go up. We have a three-year plan in place.” Two months in, the band, all of whose members are capable of doubling as producers, already have a steady stream of work: they’re producing two indie albums as well as a few ad jingles every now and then.
DaCosta says that Cotton Press Studios is a calculated risk, in the sense that it is being borne by all six band members. He is quick to add, though, that they have been careful not to overthink this. “Hey, if risk were a factor, we wouldn’t have been musicians,” he says, with a laugh.

A growing ecosystem of inspiration and practical support is driving greater numbers of individuals to follow the path of social entrepreneurship. Today there are numerous success stories and channels for people to learn about it. In some ways the economic downturn may even have supported this migration as job cuts in the corporate sector are forcing graduates to look at alternative opportunities and the opportunity cost of leaving such jobs is lower than it has been for many years. As competition increases in traditional sectors the creation of services and products for under-served communities also has greater commercial appeal. Funders are always looking for great ideas and the cycle should not be a deterrent to investment. —TEJ DHAMI , incubation director, UnLtd India, an incubator for social entrepreneurs

Launching a start-up in the midst of a global economic downturn, says Nayak, was an “entrepreneur’s leap of faith”. The couple started with R5 lakh of their own savings because investors were not willing to take risks with fresh start-ups. It took them eight months to finally find an investor and mentor in Freemont Partners, a Mumbaibased start-up accelerator.
The company also had trouble hiring experienced and talented employees during a recession. “Most people want to stick to the jobs they had,” says Nayak, who believes there is never really a “good” time to start a business. “I am selling a product that people need. When the going is good, everyone jumps in, but when it is bad, only the fearless tread.”

The slowdown was not at the top of Kothari’s mind when he began No Nasties, because he was not looking for investors. “I was conscious that getting external funding could reduce the premise of the company to generating profits. I wanted to start small, and I have a triple bottomline ethic, of people, planet and profits,” he says.
But the combined effects of the economic downturn and rising inflation in India, he believes, has led to a slump in the retail sector. “People have become price-conscious and are holding their purse strings tight. But I decided to go ahead with No Nasties because people still need to buy clothes,” says Kothari.

Before quitting his corporate job, Parrikh did not feel the pinch of the global economic downturn. He didn’t look at the market when he invested his money in TracksGiving, which, he felt, offers companies an opportunity to reduce costs during the slowdown. “My model helps companies achieve their goals by cutting costs, because it combines their marketing and CSR budgets,” says Parrikh.

Bad times also present opportunities to hire great talent and build teams. As an investor, I believe that pockets of opportunities appear whenever there is disruption. We are going through an economic downturn, and this is reflected in how families are trying to cope with inflation. Despite this, many middle-class Indians are becoming more and more brand-conscious. They are thinking more in terms of the value of a product or service than its cost. In a nuclear, double-income family, parents don’t mind spending on a book-reading service. Time-strapped women in corporate jobs would happily spend on a convenient pizza-delivery-like doorstep beauty service.
—ANAND LUNIA ,
founder of India Quotient, an early-stage funding firm

The decision to give up a substantial monthly salary in an economic downturn amid rising inflation wasn’t easy. “I spent at least two months studying the beauty industry,” she said. “I could see working women, young mothers and pregnant women paying freelance beauticians for home services, so I sensed there was definitely a big market and a great business opportunity in organising this unorganised sector.”
Realising that inflation might make grooming less of a priority in people’s lives, Jain designed Belita as an affordable beauty service, with only a few high-end offerings for special occasions. “I believe that the retail and services sectors have remained largely unaffected by the economic climate,” she says. “Big brands are setting up shop in India. In metros such as Mumbai, where people are always on the run, there are enough takers for comfort services. I knew this idea had potential and I would be able get funding eventually.”
Belita did get funding in January from India Quotient, an earlystage funding firm

In a downturn, Munje felt that working with a company and striking out on one’s own, both had pros and cons. “Unlike in a conventional job, I chose the control that having my own business would give me — even in a bad situation,” says Munje.
Considering the uncertainty in the job market, Munje didn’t want to give another year to engineering, go through the grind of campsus interviews and then take a job with an ordinary pay package. “My sister works abroad and many of her friends were laid off. I saw the risks that even a conventional job carried.”
Munje doesn’t believe there is an ideal time to start up. “It depends on what the entrepreneur feels about his idea, to what length is he willing to go to execute it, and what external factors are key to its success,” he says.
As transport prices rise, it is certainly more expensive for his staff to travel across town. But in this line, customers pay as soon as they get the service, which helps him plan.





bijlibachao.com, not only helps analyse electricity bills but also calculates how a consumer can save money by choosing the right colour for a room and correctly placing appliances.

A website that helps save your electricity bill

Consumers can analyse electricity bills, calculate how to save money by correctly placing appliances
Zahra Khan

Abhishek Jain is funding Bijli Bachao on his own. 
Mumbai: Abhishek Jain has come a long way since he left a high-profile job in Deloitte to help Indians save electricity at home.
His online initiative, bijlibachao.com, not only helps analyse electricity bills but also calculates how a consumer can save money by choosing the right colour for a room and correctly placing appliances.
“An electricity bill is a confusing entity. If the bill is `2,000-3,000, let’s go pay it, but how it gets to `2,000-3,000 no one knows, and one just goes and pays the bill. The whole idea is to help them understand why the amount has gone up and help reduce it,” said 31-year-old Jain, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology and founder of the website.
Appliances such as refrigerators can save electricity if appropriately placed in the house, according to him. It is a well-known fact that refrigerators release heat, but if it is not given ample place, it will not cool properly, affecting its efficiency. Stuffing it with warm food uses up a lot of electricity, risking its efficiency. Such tips are on the website for viewers to read.
Bijli Bachao (Save Electricity), a self-funded project, is the outcome of a deep desire to learn and spread the importance of saving electricity in every Indian household, considering the fact that there has always been a demand-supply mismatch in our country. But most importantly, with rising electricity tariffs, this site gives consumers convenient ways to save money at home, making it a win-win situation. The online portal that provides electricity solutions does not require any special installation and is absolutely free.
Jain’s project has been short-listed for this year’s Manthan Awards.
The site features 100 online blogs and five online software tools to help consumers. Since its inception in February 2012, the number of viewers has risen significantly. “Back in March when we started monitoring the traffic on the site, we used to get 5-6 views,” said Jain. “Now our daily viewership is around 2,000.”
Jain does of lot of search-engine optimization to make sure that the Internet traffic is directed towards his site. “The first thing I looked at was, what is it that people are searching for electricity? And we realized that it was online electricity bill payment option, and so the first post we created was about links to online bill payment options,” he said. This played to the website’s advantage as most bill payment sites are not easily located by search engines; this started drawing attention to Jain’s website. Besides that, Jain has registered a presence at all social media websites.
Jain’s wife and team member, Manisha Jain, says when users post comments such as “you are doing a wonderful job for the country”, it makes her really proud of what her husband is doing. Though an IIT-ian herself, she is not actively involved in the day-to-day development of BijliBachao. However, she was very much the inspiration behind the site. Manisha, an energy systems engineer, got Jain interested in her field, who saw a lot of potential in it. Having lived in the US, the energy startups inspired him and that is when the idea was conceived.
Jain, who always wanted to be an entrepreneur, one day left his job with one of the world’s Big Four professional services firm and started Bijli Bachao in February. Since the couple’s return from the US in 2009, they have wanted to spread awareness about saving electricity as they had been successfully following it themselves.
While setting up house, they kept in mind to use appropriate tube lights such as T5 and the results were noticeable. “In our new society, where our bill used to be around `1,200-1,500 per month, our neighbours used to pay `5,000-6000 for the same. So we thought that we are certainly doing well and we should share it.”
Visitors can subscribe to the website for free and avail services such as monthly tips and newsletters that carry information on new developments. “Right now it is (business model) is all advertisement based,” Jain said. “But we soon plan to make it more personalized and start a paid service called ‘help’ at Bijli Bachao.”
“Initially, we wanted to start an automated service, but we do not have enough data,” he added. “So, we are taking a more manual approach by helping citizens with their electricity bills. Slowly, we will make it automated and a formal process where people can ask us directly for help.”
The promising entrepreneur also has plans to work with utilities such as Reliance and Tata. “A lot of utilities run such programmes. Reliance was running a programme on T5 tube lights, which is a very good initiative. They were selling those tube lights that otherwise cost `550 in shops. They were giving it for `350.”
Bijli Bachao would like to help with the marketing of such programmes on its website. When it comes to offline action, Jain indulges in small things such as consulting housing societies. After looking at the site, many call him, asking for consultation for their society.However, he is not seeking funding from venture capitalists. “We want to grow organically because social enterprises lose track as venture capitalists come into the picture.”

Moojic, a mobile app that allows one to view as well as customise the music playlist at various restaurants, cafés and pubs via the phone.

‘The environment is very conducive for start-ups’

WHAT: Moojic, a mobile app that allows one to view as well as customise the music playlist at various restaurants, cafés and pubs via the phone.
(From left) Kumaran Mahendran and Neha Behani, two of three people behind Moojic, a music-based mobile app With the app, one can check in to a location and vote for certain songs to be pushed up the queue of the establishment’s playlist. One can even request or dedicate songs at a venue that has partnered with Moojic, without being physically present there, by checking into the place’s playlist through the app.
“Basically, it allows you to turn into a DJ,” says Kumaran Mahendran, one of the co-founders who came up with the concept.

WHO: The company’s founders are 28-year- old Mahendran; Neha Behani, 30, his classmate from business school; and Sona Muthuvijayan, 28, who was his classmate at engineering college.

WHEN: The app has been under production for the past five months and will be launched in November.
HOW: After spending about six months attending meetings with potential investors and start-up incubators, the trio got feedback, if not funds, assuring them that they were in the right direction. They started work on the app, pooling in their savings, adding to about R 20 lakh, and using it for technology, design and an office space in Four Bungalows, Andheri (West).
The trio has also developed a device, which they call the Moojic box, which is essentially a mini-jukebox. They plan to make money by selling this for R 7,000, as of now, to the venues that they tie-up with. They will also get money from people who pay for addons and extra features in the app.
They have also been speaking to proprietors of several restaurants, cafés and pubs across the city. As of now, 20 establishments have agreed to come on board and tied up — including the Mocha chain of cafés and Khar pub Three Wise Men.

WHY: Mahendran was in Manilla working as a consultant with several start-ups in the mobile sector. A lot of them dealt with location awareness, where an app uses GPS or mobile internet to track the user’s current location. This gave him the idea for Moojic, and when he told his ex-classmate Behani, who was working in Singapore, about it, they decided to quit their jobs and launch it in India.
A year ago, Mahendran and Behani returned from Manila and after six months of planning decided to set up operations in Mumbai. “We felt that Mumbai was the most conducive of all metros in terms of its start-up culture and ready base of consumers,” says Mahendran. “More people here seem to be willing to work for startups than in other cities.”

‘A slowdown makes you invest smartly’ OkListen.com

‘A slowdown makes you invest smartly’ OkListen.com


WHAT: OkListen.com is an online platform for buying digital copies of independent, non-film music in India.
Vijay Basrur, founder and CEO of OkListen.com WHO: Vijay Basrur, 39, founder and
CEO.

WHEN: OkListen.com launched on August 15, after a one month beta-testing phase.
HOW: In January, Vijay Basrur, an MBA degree holder from Mumbai’s SP Jain Institute of Management, was on the website of Turquoise Cottage, a popular live that there was a definite market for this — users who were willing to pay for digital downloads of the music they really liked,” he says.
Setting up a website isn’t capital-intensive, but Basrur says he spent “about three to four times more” than one would normally spend on designing and setting up the website, paying R 12 lakh for this from his own savings. “I wanted to build a good product,” he says.

WHY: Basrur has 17 years of experience in start-ups. After working in and helping several tech-related companies get off the ground, he wanted to delve into a sector that has been booming in India over the past two years — independent music. “With festivals like Sunburn and NH7 Weekender, we now have a lot more platforms at which bands can play live,” he says. “Therefore, there is more interest in independent music.”
In two months, 31 of 35 bands that have been catalogued on the site have made money, although the figures are minuscule right now, admits Basrur. “I’m optimistic about seeing a lot of growth over the next eight months,” he says.

Cotton Press Studio, a recording studio at Elphinstone Road inside an abandoned cotton press factory.

Singing a different tune

A STEADY BEAT The economy may be in the doldrums but these young entrepreneurs are using this time to turn their passion — music — into a living, finds Suprateek Chatterjee

WHAT: Cotton Press Studio, a recording studio at Elphinstone Road inside an abandoned cotton press factory.
(From left) Stuart DaCosta, Luis Chico, Ryan Sadri, Tanmay Bhattacherjee and Alok Padhye of the band Something Relevant WHO: Started by musician Stuart DaCosta, 26, and his bandmates Jehangir Jehangir, Alok Padhye, Tanmay Bhattacherjee, Ryan Sadri and Luis Chico, who are part of the popular bluesjazz-rock ensemble Something Relevant.

WHEN: It has been two months since the air-conditioning was switched on, says DaCosta.

HOW: The members of Something Relevant had been trying to find a studio space for more than two years but with little success. “Most places were far too cramped while others were around noisy environments, which would’ve let to a lot of investment in terms of soundproofing,” says DaCosta, the band’s lead vocalist and bassist. “We needed a quiet space where the entire band could play and record together.” Six months ago, Bhattacharjee’s driver, who lives in Parel, suggested they look at the Parel Cotton Press, an abandoned factory with large warehouses that have been out of use since the early ‘90s.
In January, the band had done a series of shows in Bangladesh, which earned them a lot of money. They decided to put most of that money and invest it into this place, which they felt was perfect since it was big enough as well as in a relatively quiet area.
“We could have blown up all that money on partying if we wanted to,” says DaCosta. “But since Something Relevant started, the philosophy has always been to invest a part of the money we earn back into the band.”
They spoke to Mazhar Jaffer, the owner of the press, and took one of the warehouses on rent. They then spent some of their savings on installing an air-conditioning system and outfitting the studio with highquality recording equipment. “We call it a ‘boutique recording studio’,” says DaCosta, jokingly.
This is reflected in their rates: An hour at this studio costs R 2,500, which is nearly the same — and in some cases, even more than — certain well established recording studios, such as Yashraj Studios and Purple Haze.

WHY: Something Relevant, who have been together since 2003, are one of the most popular indie bands around. However, last year, they took a break as three of them, including DaCosta, shifted to Chennai to study music at the Swarnabhoomi Music Academy. Their experience as a band as well as their postgraduate degree in Chennai had honed their audio production and recording skills, which they wanted to put to use. They also wanted a space where the band could record their second as well as subsequent albums. “The studio has been set up in such a manner that all we have to do is plug in our instruments, press the record button and play,” says DaCosta.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE SHOPPING?

SHOP ONLINE. WHY BURN FUEL DRIVING TO A STORE WHEN EVERYTHING YOU NEED CAN COME HOME FOR NOTHING?

ALMOST EVERY shopping website offers free home delivery and cash on delivery. So why spend on parking and fuel? Let the mall come to you. Just ask for items to be delivered to your office if you’re never at home.

Websites offer better discounts and have deals around the year. The Shoppers Stop website is still on ‘sale’ right now, with up to 51 per cent off on lots of stuff.

Shopping online is faster, since you’re not trawling a crowded mall on a precious free weekend. Look for links that say Sale, Offers, Value, Deals, etc, to find discounts. Flipkart always has a sale on; I’ve bulk bought my favourite Khadi soaps when they went on sale, saving R10 on each one.
Several American department stores let you shop from India – prices appear in rupees, you can browse within your price bracket, calculate your exact shipping costs and discounts are deeper than similar Indian brands. On the Bloomingdales site, we noticed a discounted Michael Kors dress for under
R4,000 and a frilly Nanette Lepore bikini that was just R1,500 with a measly $10 for express shipping. ASOS ships for free. Saks Fifth Avenue has Elie Tahari men’s jeans for under R3,000 and designer linen shirts for R2,500. Why look like a Zara clone now?
Stuff that doesn’t need trial is the safest. Men don’t try on socks or belts before they buy. Books, groceries and handbags are one-size-fits-all. Choose from online avatars of traditional stores (Crossword, Big Bazaar, Fabindia, Croma, Hypercity, Cotton World), multibrand stores selling items at MRP (Jabong, Myntra, Orbymart), and websites dedicated to designer sales (Fashionandyou, 99labels, Brandsvillage, Strawberrynet, etc) or the Indian Amazon (Junglee).
Like a particular brand? Do everything you can to make sure they know it. Sign up for email newsletters, put yourself on their text alerts list, like them on Facebook and follow their tweets. Brands save their best rewards and freebies for regulars and fans, so you’ll get advance notice of sales, be allowed to browse the stuff a day in advance, get free shipping and be privy to their awesome one-day flash sales. On September 21-22, Facebook told me that Kiehls was offering a free lip balm with any purchase at their Khan Market, New Delhi store. The L’Occitane online store had a one-day sale recently that offered 50 per cent off on certain products. Beauty brands also throw in several free samples when you buy online.
Full-price is for last minute shoppers and idiots. Want a weekend trip, spa sessions, lunch, brunch and high tea, or Superman boxer shorts? Check out Snapdeal, Dealsandyou and Crazeal for lower rates. I’ve enjoyed countless massages ( R600), got my car shampooed and waxed at home ( R600), and directed friends to a weekend break at a five star resort ( R5,500 including all meals and one free massage). It’s a world wide web of possibilities – so move that mouse and get shopping.