Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

If you have been thinking of buying a new apartment in the coming new year, you have probably done the right thing in waiting for 2015 to end. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Real-Estate-Demands-Single-Window-Clearances-From-The-BJP-Govt/articleshow/45204372.cms">real estate market</a> in the country is expected to get back on a positive growth trajectory along with a price correction of the properties. 
	 
	According to industry players, 2015 was not exactly a year of great sales. However, towards the end of the year, some action was seen in the market. “Launches have reduced in cities like Mumbai, slightly lowering the inventory. Developers’ initiatives like offering attractive schemes and deal terms, coupled with lowering of interest rates by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Heres-why-RBI-governor-Raghuram-Rajansno-rate-cuts-decision-is-a-wise-move/articleshow/49994748.cms">Reserve Bank of India (RBI)</a>, have activated fence-sitters,” said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of JLL India. 
	 
	Besides, the realty sector also had its share of controversies when reputed developers were caught in the net for failure in delivery of the properties. These included Unitech, Vigneshwara and Adel Landmark against whom FIRs were filed for non-delivery of projects, cheating and fraud respectively. 
	 
	Apart from this, the much awaited price-correction too did not happen due to macro-economic factors. There was a stark gap between demand and supply in the market, which did not allow any price correction to happen. 
	 
	2016: What’s next? 
	 
	Industry players expect the sector to be on a growth trajectory following the various initiatives launched by the NaMo government in 2015. With Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in place now, both buyers and developers should expect more transparency in the industry. 
	 
	Also, initiatives such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/PM-Modi-to-announce-20-smart-cities-in-January/articleshow/50379889.cms">Smart Cities</a>, AMRUT and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/PMModis-Smart-Cities-Housing-for-All-is-smart-but-ambitious/articleshow/47814233.cms">Housing for All by 2022</a> will also propel the growth of the sector. As the projects are of very large magnitude with both the government and private sector equally involved, industry players expect such initiatives to be a catalyst in the sector, with adequate investments being made in the sector. Initiatives such as these are also expected to phase out dubious players from the industry. 
	 Besides, <keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword> norms for this sector have also been eased, which could bring in more investments in the industry, thus accelerating the work on current projects as well as launching new ones. 
	 
	“Though 2016 will bring in regulation, it will remain fragmented and moderately inefficient. We could see it become a well-regulated, consolidated and moderately efficient industry by around 2020. Growth in the Indian economy will definitely see favourable reflection in the real estate sector, as well,” added Puri. 
	 
	With <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Revised-real-estate-bill-to-bring-relief-for-buyers-ensures-faster-action-against-defaulters/articleshow/50122879.cms">Real Estate Bill</a> likely to pass in 2016, developers hope that the sector becomes more transparent and better regulated, which in turn, will give home buyers the much-needed confidence to buy their dream home.

Still sitting on a fence to buy your dream house? 2016 may be a good year to do that!

Remember the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/A-phone-dedicated-toNarendra-Modi--/articleshow/22630605.cms">Smart NaMo Saffron</a> Phone? Its manufacturers are at it again. Right before the country goes to election the group of <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> fans who run the Smart Namo brand out of China have launched two new smartphones. These are called Smart NaMo Wave OctaCore S1 and S2. Both the phones have a 1.7 GHz Octa-Core CPU inside along with 16 GB internal storage. While the S1 has 1 GB RAM, the S2 has 2 gigs of it. 
 Both also feature a 5-inch HD screen and support a microSD expansion slot. The Wave OctaCore S1 will be available for Rs 16,000 and the Wave OctaCore S2 can be picked up for Rs 18,000. With the introduction of these phones the 20K phone bracket heats up as Karbonn recently launched its Octa-Core driven phone in the <keyword id="47445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Indian-market">Indian market</keyword>, too. 
 Narendra Modi has a good fan following in the country. Smart Namo has picked the right time to shoot these phones out from their silo as the political <keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="environment">environment</keyword> is on a rage. These phones can bank of the increasing popularity of the PM candidate from BJP and can garner lots of customers. However, there is a small issue of after sales, which might not go down well with prospective buyers. 
 
Read The Smart NaMo <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/REVIEW-Saffron-1-IsA-Good-Bid-For-People-Who-Admire-NAMO-Or-Want-A-Decent-But-Less-ExpensiveSmartphone/articleshow/24259588.cms">Saffron 1 Review</a>

Two New Narendra Modi Smartphones Called Smart Namo Wave S1
And S2 With Octa-Core CPU Come To India

This phone has been in the news for quite a few weeks now and we must say that the response to the news of this phone has been mind-boggling. While many loved the idea of a phone inspired by a renowned political figure, many said it’s just a stunt to gain popularity and some even said it was a practical joke and the phone would never come to life. Well, the phone is live and kicking, and it is now available in India. 
 
As most of us know, the phone has nothing to do with any specific political party. However, it has been developed by a group of Modi fans from Gujarat, now based in China. They were kind enough to send a phone over for a review and here is what we could make of it. 
 
Looks To tell you the truth, when we first held the phone, it seemed somewhat inspired by <keyword id="10591" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Samsung">Samsung</keyword> Galaxy S3. They do look similar, but once you start using the <keyword id="1904756" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saffron-1">Saffron 1</keyword>, you will find subtle dissimilarities between the two. The new device is dressed in white and a nice silver trim runs along the side of the phone. The front part of Saffron 1 has a large 5 inch screen with a 5 MP front-facing camera above it and the usual feather <keyword id="30450" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Touch">touch</keyword> navigation keys at the bottom. 
 
 
 
The rear of the phone hides a large loudspeaker behind a meshed grille at the bottom and a 13 MP camera with LED flash on top. The power and volume keys are placed on the right side of the phone, all of which can be easily accessed using one hand. 
 
Performance The group of Modi fans have put some decent hardware within this mobile. It has a 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU, 1 GB RAM (which we think is slightly less) and 16 GB storage. A custom UI skin has been used over the <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> 4.2.1 operating system. It does give the phone a distinct feel and the interface is slick to manoeuvre. However, we did get a bit of a lag when we played high-end games and apps. Primarily, the RAM can be blamed for this and the phone could do better with another GB of it. 
 
 
 Barring that, rest of the features look fine. The company is providing a lot of nice pre-loaded utility apps, such as the ‘Go’ set of apps. One distinct feature of this phone is the Toucher Pro widget. Turn it on and you will get a circular button on the screen in the form of the <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword> logo. With this, you can access various functions such as screen brightness, rotation, Wi-Fi and more. 
 We benchmarked the phone with Quadrant (a popular testing tool for Android devices) and it managed to score a decent 4,679. That puts it shoulder to shoulder with phones such as <keyword id="16129" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="HTC">HTC</keyword> One X. The camera quality of the phone is not bad either and one can get good images in well-lit rooms and outdoors. Another point of excellence is the battery (but it has also made the gadget heavier than usual). The phone carries a 3,150 mAh battery, which kept it alive for 2 days on 2G network. 
 
Verdict 
The package is not bad at all. The phone can accommodate 2 SIM cards; the memory can be expanded up to 64 GB and users get most of the features that are only available in the premium segment of international phones. 
 Saffron 1 falls in a category that is already populated with products from Micromax, Karbonn and Lava. We feel the company is banking on <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s popularity, which might just be the rocket fuel required for the phone to thrust its way through to the crowds. All in all, a decent phone at a good MRP of Rs 18,000, but one can pick it up for a thousands or two less from the stores.

REVIEW: Saffron 1 Is
A Good Bid For People Who Admire NAMO Or Want A Decent But Less Expensive
Smartphone

Everyone believes in Prime Minister Modi’s ‘100 <keyword id="6377036" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="smart-cities">Smart Cities</keyword>’ project. And why won’t they. According to <keyword id="2827654" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pratap-Padode">Pratap Padode</keyword>, founder and director of Smart Cities Council of India, smart cities project is just like the umbrella project, which covers NaMo government’s remaining schemes such as Digital India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and thus would result in significant growth of the country. 
 
But can a massive project such as this be financially feasible with a meager budget of Rs 48,000 crore. “The budget allocated for the project is definitely not sufficient. However, it will take the project to a level where it can attract investments,” said Padode. 
 
He explained that the funding for each smart city will depend on many factors which include the area and the size of the population. Some of the key parameters for qualifying for smart city include—sufficient funds in the state coffers, job creation and strong balance sheets. 
 
“Smart cities will bring in financial discipline. We can expect a lot of states to get filtered in the first round itself as most of them do not even have their books in place,” Padode said. 
 
However, one thing that still needs to be understood is how does a criteria such as this promote steady growth of every city in the country? For instance, if Ahmedabad qualifies for smart city while Nagpur doesn’t, it is quite natural that investors would flock Ahmedabad instead of Nagpur as it is a smart city, which will soon be upgraded in terms of its infrastructure and technology. And why would an investor then look at Nagpur for his business when he is assured that he will be getting a conducive business environment for his company. 
 
Padode quickly noted that a criteria such as this would push the states to work on themselves and get to a level that enables them to qualify for smart cities. “It promotes competition among states, which will ultimately force states to pull up their socks and work on themselves. States governments cannot get away now,” he stated. 
 
Coming down the issue of corruption that has led to inefficient execution of schemes, he pointed out that every smart city will have a SPV CEO, who will appointed without any political interference. “He will be an expert in his field and would appointed with the consensus of citizen groups and other agencies involved. He will ensure that the progress is happening on time and there is some new development.” 
 
Interestingly, in order to keep a tab on the progress, each smart city will have to come up with monthly newsletter that will be talk about the new developments and will be made public. The government now plans to shortlist 20 cities for its smart cities project by end of January 2016.

Smart Cities: Need big pockets to fulfil PM Modi's dream!

A group of Indians hailing from the state of Gujarat and now living in China, have innovated and are manufacturing a phone dedicated to <keyword id="64897" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Gujarat-chief-minister">Gujarat Chief Minister</keyword> and now <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword>’s prime ministerial candidate <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>. Called the Smart NAMO Saffron 272+, this <keyword id="6354485" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="mobile">mobile</keyword> phone has a 5 inch touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 2, 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and a 13 MP camera. It runs on the <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> platform 4.2.1 (according to their <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword> page) and is going to have 16 or 32 GB on-board storage. The phones will come in boxes with tri-colours on them and will be available all over the country. 
 
We have already seen some NAMO merchandise, such as T-shirts and coffee mugs with Narendra Modi’s picture on them. But a phone named after the current Gujarat CM, takes the game to the next level. This just shows that gadgets will be a huge part of the upcoming 2014 election affair in India. But how many parties will pick it up, is yet to be seen. At the moment, this phone seems to be the only tech innovation labelled with a political figure. The phone will retail for Rs 16,000 and we have a hunch it will come with Narendra Modi’s wallpaper and a few NAMO apps as well. 
 
Update: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/REVIEW-Saffron-1-IsA-Good-Bid-For-People-Who-Admire-NAMO-Or-Want-A-Decent-But-Less-ExpensiveSmartphone/articleshow/24259588.cms">read the review of the phone here</a>

A phone dedicated to
Narendra Modi...

<ul><li>India's former telecom regulator Pradip Baijal has explained how India has had trouble managing its spectrum roll out for next-gen communications technology over the last few decades.</li><li>The latest in this telecom - 5G - is also facing similar hurdles in India, with the government yet to finalise guidelines and announce auction of airwaves.</li><li>He also explained how different use-cases of 5G are relevant and important to India - from the point of view of consumers as well as the industry.</li></ul>India always had problems in dealing with spectrum. We wasted valuable wireless spectrum for fixed line services in 1995, unlike any other country, after the erroneous decision that expensive mobile phones were not for the poor Indians. The decision was reversed in 2004, but led to a lot of inspired criticism by mobile incumbents. Earlier, the government approved a Convergence Bill in 2001, for more efficient use of spectrum, but was not approved. The government/regulator, therefore, approved a Unified Access License in 2004, reduction in interconnect charges and tariff forbearance. But, it took inefficiently long to bring in these changes (it had to be done in stages, by many regulatory efforts). Unified License reduced tariffs 50 times, but increased government revenues. Mobile numbers growth immediately increased 10 times, and gradually 200 times, three times ever the leader, China. 3G spectrum auctions were efficient later, though delayed, and showed the huge loss in 2G allocation and crony capitalism involved, the basis of the CAG report. The allocations led to litigation and differing and controversial judgments by the Supreme Court/CBI Court, the issue still remaining open, but this was one of the issues on which the UPA lost heavily to NDA, in the ultimate court of elections in 2014. 4G auctions were conducted efficiently, even though they were delayed, and now we have come to 5G auction issues, with an ET news item commenting, "India is set to miss the '5G bus' following the lack of preparedness, unavailability of sufficient spectrum, absence of encouraging use cases, and uncertainty around radio waves sale for the next generation of telecom services." This is despite India appointing A.J. Paulraj (winner of the Marconi Prize) Committee to give the recommendations to the steps required. They gave the report in mid-2018, and despite giving the schedule, we have not moved fast. In the past, Prime Minister Modi-led government maintained that it "won't afford to miss 5G bus" like in the case of 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies that were deployed in India way later than many countries, thus losing the many early user advantages. 5G and India Before we discuss, let us understand the nature of use of 5G. For a layman, 5G is just next generation wireless infrastructure which will provide them voice and data services. However, it will impact much more due to its bit-level intelligence characteristics. 5G will provide an array of network intelligence which will get translated into precise and demand-led resource allocation. 1G came in 1980s and provided basic voice services, 2G in 1990s and enabled voice and SMS services due to its digital standards, 3G came in 2000s and introduced data services along with voice and SMS that enabled multimedia services. 4G pure IP network, came in 2010s, and enabled the application services and partially merged the telecom and information technology which gave boom to platform services. The architecture of 5G is designed to handle the connection of billions of devices including industrial machines with seamlessness and reliable data transfer with much faster speed. 5G is not only about high speed boost but it is about the intelligence at the bit level and low latency which will make it the foundational tech for multiple new tech., including self-driven cars, AR &amp; VR, telemedicine, robotic surgery, powering future smart cities, IoT, m2m, AI and manufacturing. 5G will change the future war fighting too due to increased situational awareness to increase the command and control of the battlefield. Once these networks come, 2G and 3G networks can be abolished, like in other countries for better overall spectrum utilization. We have not started. Industrial revolutions and change It has been shown that industrial revolutions change the world. Hirschman had said that these revolutions occur every 70 years. This was proved in IR 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The US and the West's GDP went up five to six times in IR 1.0 &amp; 2.0, while India and China went down 10 times (colonial loot was also the reason). Growth reversal with IR 3.0 But IR 3.0 changed the world with the technology being on a connected net and with globalization, available to the Third World (right from the beginning). Of course, the US helped China a lot post 1980, in technology dispersal, and helping China with accelerated WTO membership in 2001. This led to China growing eight times and India 2.5 times in a few years. IR 4.0 and 5.0 The world is now moving to the fourth and the fifth industrial revolutions in quick succession. Providentially, these revolutions are also happening on the same wire or wireless lines as in IR 3.0, and we have bright Indian minds working in the digital sector like Nadella, Pichai, Arvind Kuar, Banga, Tata, Kohli, Nilekani, Narayana Murthy, Patni, Soota, Premji, and millions of others located in Silicon Valleys around the world. The most exciting additions to the list are Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla. They have kept the mobile sector alive despite crony capitalism, and given the appropriate ambience, should do very well now. Through them, and despite Covid, the world has shown confidence in the Indian economy. China should do well because of enormous investment, past technology thefts, uninhibited US support till 2015, and R&amp;D. The fifth IR will happen with IT getting connected to human minds (AI and beyond). IR 5.0 having reached the human mind, perhaps cannot move beyond, and the 6th IR has to be in another area, maybe the planets, as visualized by Jeff Bezos. Again, India is well-placed. Creating an appropriate environment is the key. Role of private sector It may also be recalled that the 2G rollout had created strong private sector companies and from 10 per cent private network, it had gone to 80 per cent (though the public sector had grown too). Later, despite crony capitalism, they had survived, and are today, India's main hope to take us forward. With 5G networks being more powerful, they will surely impact GDP growth much more than the earlier generation networks and move the country towards Namo's $5 trillion economy in 2024. Fiscal pressure on the government - we can ill-afford to ignore: We are today also hit by Covid, huge bank NPAs, financial crisis, fiscal deficits and fall in investments. 5G rollout is an opportunity for huge network (and downstream) investments by existing private sector companies and their networks all over the country, without putting any fiscal deficit pressure on the government. I had, therefore, anticipated in my China book and articles, that the present is 'providence' for India, like it was 'providence' for China in the 80s with an imaginary 'cold war'. Pricing issues A word about pricing here - our entire 2G revolution came after tariff forbearance, and liberal availability, connectivity and regulatory reforms. Obviously, once 5G revolutions get moving, the disruptions would be higher. Indian economy/GDP did well during IR 3.0, its DNA being more IT-centric, demonstrated by high growth in these sectors during some periods of IR 3.0, when regulations were right (2004 to 2010), particularly vis-a-vis China, and also the Indian minds being more IT-centric, demonstrated by the success of IT (software) and mobile revolutions. World digital economy In 2019, the world celebrated the first full year when more than half of the world (51.2 per cent, or 3.9 billion people) had begun to participate in the global digital economy by logging onto the internet, from almost zero a couple of years back. The world is turning fully digital, and networks converging very fast. China has touched 840 million subscriber base and will be 1 billion at the end of 2020, with superior speed, whereas India has only touched 600 million broadband subscribers. The world will thus transform itself to a form that during IR 4.0 and 5.0 the versatile 4 and 5G networks will be more valuable than all other infrastructure, like roads, rail and air transportation systems etc. Looking at the future, China has created companies which are leading in 5G, AI, quantum computing and other digital products and shaping up the digital behaviour of the people because they are deploying networks faster and learning by doing it. China is also leading in the standardization and patents of the digital ecosystem, manufacture of equipment etc. In contrast, the Indian 5G process is yet to commence (allocation of spectrum and installation of 5G equipment), though we have done extremely well despite late start in the past. India can grow in IR 4.0 given its human capital pool, the start in the use of algorithm prowess and an established IT hub, only if we install 4G and 5G systems adequately. But expensive and presently unviable (for India, since IR 4.0 and 5.0 industries and services have not started) 5G systems are likely to come in slow. Also, the spectrum and equipment prices are anticipated to be high. Unless both spectrum and equipment prices are low and heavily backloaded, I do not see India coming out of the jigsaw puzzle, and not falling back severely in the digital war. And if we miss India's turnaround moment, India's vast market and trained manpower will be used by advanced countries to develop 5G / IR4.0 and 5.0 networks fast. The Paulraj Committee recommended that 5G will mature between 2019 and 2024. India should take lead and become an innovator in 5G applications. (Pradip Baijal is former Secretary, Disinvestment and former Chairman, TRAI. This article is in continuation of his book, Containing the China Onslaught, published by Quadrant, and available on amazon.in and walmart, and further to a review of China's growth in Defensive Offence) <div type="Youtube" id="gFmRP3whXmU" title="Pradip Baijal Explains History of China's Economic Rise." thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gFmRP3whXmU/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

India's former telecom regulator shows how much India is lagging behind in the 5G pursuit

While marketers around the world carried on business as usual over the past two months, the marketing magic was unfolding over 1.25 billion people. India plunged into the General Elections for the Lower House of the Parliament (<keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword>) on April 7 and over the next 5 weeks, the dance of democracy held sway over 814 million voters – the largest voting population in the world. 
 The recently concluded Lok Sabha polls featured various traits that characterise all democratic <keyword id="6359191" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="election">election</keyword>s – name-calling among politicians, public addresses by top candidates, dirty linen being washed in public and so on. However, this election was special because of the unprecedented and innovative ways in which marketing was employed by the winning party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – to wrest the most emphatic election victory India has witnessed in more than three decades. 
 
Here are the top 10 learnings that marketers can take away from the BJP’s impressive electoral campaign. 
 
1. Be clear in your positioning 
The BJP could have picked from a million problems affecting the Indian voters – poverty, women’s empowerment, social justice, equal pay for equal work, secularism and so on. However, they picked two clear pillars for their marketing campaign – good governance and economic growth – and stuck to those two ideas throughout their year-long canvassing. 
 
Lesson: Every brand needs clear positioning and a clear statement that tells you what it stands for. Pick your brand position and hammer it home, so that your users won’t forget it. 
 
2. Don’t let bad karma haunt you The BJP has been ruling Gujarat since 2001. However, the communal clashes in 2002 that killed over a thousand people from the minority community became the biggest blot on <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> and his election bid. In spite of being exonerated by the Supreme Court, the national and the global media pinned the blame for not controlling (and instead, encouraging) the rioters on the state government, led by the then Chief Minister Modi. 
 
Lesson: Every brand makes mistakes, be it a faulty product, an oil spill or software that crashes more than it works. Acknowledge your errors and move on. The more you focus on the positives, the less your past mistakes will affect you. 
 
3. Good products support credible marketing 
Narendra Modi-led Gujarat became one of the most industrialised states in India, with rapid economic growth and massive foreign investments worth millions of dollars. The better-than-average infrastructure and improved employment rates are only too obvious now. 
 
Lesson: Marketing can only do so much for a bad product. It’s a great product, backed by smart marketing, which becomes a world-beating one. The iPhone would never have been the phenomenon it is without being a great product, to begin with. 
 
4. Turn the tables on the competition 
Opposition parties highlighted Modi’s humble beginnings as a tea-seller in one of the innumerable attempts to discredit his claims to the highest office in the country. However, Modi and the BJP used this perceived insult to their advantage and turned it into an inspirational saga, gaining support of the ‘backward’ social classes in the process. 
 
Lesson: Every jibe by your competition can be turned on its head and used to your advantage. All it needs is a lot of patience and some creativity. 
 
5. Put a face to the brand 
The BJP’s share of votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls was nearly 64% higher than the votes it won in the previous general elections. And a large share of the credit for this performance goes to its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, around whom the entire marketing campaign was built. The party successfully built a personality cult around Modi and his achievements in Gujarat. It was a victory for Modi rather than for the BJP. 
 
Lesson: A highly recognisable and persuasive face behind a brand only adds to the brand’s equity. Leverage the power of personality wherever you can. Sir Richard Branson &amp; the Virgin Group and Steve Jobs &amp; Apple are just two examples of the tangible faces associated with big brands. 
 
6. Be innovative 
The winning party’s electoral campaign was innovative in a variety of ways: 
· The BJP held public rallies in 1,350 locations across India where Narendra Modi appeared in the form of a 3D hologram, instead of being present in person. 
· Video ‘hangouts’ where people could video chat with Modi one on one were carried out at tea stalls across 24 out of the 28 states in India, with more than a million people participating. The hangouts were branded as Chai pe Charcha, meaning a Chat over Tea. 
· Out-of-the-box merchandising including jackets, masks, pen drives and Indian bread with NaMo and BJP’s campaign slogans branded on them; also construction bricks with NaMo stamped on them. 
· The brand building continued even after BJP’s victory in the form of a <a href="http://victorywall.narendramodi.in/">Victory Wall</a> on Narendra Modi’s website. 
 
Lesson: Innovation always pays off. Whether it is in your product design, packaging or distribution method, think out of the box for marketing your brand and it will stand out from the clutter. 
 
7. Cast a social media spell 
The BJP and Modi orchestrated the most sophisticated political campaign on social media till date. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube to blogs to WhatsApp, Modi reached out to voters in every way imaginable. With informative content, share-worthy infographics, funny memes and hashtags targeting the opposition, and direct interaction with voters, Modi did not let traditional media take away the control of his campaign. 
 
Lesson: Social media DOES get you results. The BJP’s marketing campaign and Modi’s social media clout are living proof. The now silenced social media naysayers have only to take a look at the number of mentions that Modi generated on his way to a historic win to understand the power of social media. CNN chose to dub this election as the first social media election in India. The Obama magic was effectively duplicated and surpassed by Modi magic. 
 
8. Identify gaps and fill them 
India’s incumbent government was widely criticised for its lack of leadership, mindboggling corruption scandals and indecisiveness on the economic front. The BJP identified these lacunae and modelled itself as the party that promised a strong and clean leadership with a proven track record of rapid economic growth. Picking a candidate like Modi was the party’s master stroke in securing a victory in these elections. 
 
Lesson: Do your <keyword id="29547" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Market">market</keyword> research well. Understand what the pain points of your target audience are and aim to fill in the blanks as best as possible. People care more about a problem-solving product than for another me too. 
 
9. Nothing beats catchy branding 
All the parties involved in the Indian elections spent millions of dollars in marketing themselves and their agendas. What set the BJP apart was its catchy branding and glib copy. One of its main campaign taglines – Ab ki baar, Modi sarkar (loosely translating as Time for Change, Time for Modi) became a viral hit, with hundreds of user-generated versions of the tagline appearing on social networks, newspapers and television. 
 
Lesson: You may not give enough credit to copywriting or brand mantras, but a catchphrase with smart branding goes a long way in conversion. Don’t just look at the immediate results; look at all possible implications. Don Draper agrees with this line of thought 100%. 
 
10. Championships aren’t won without teamwork 
In a country notorious for mismanagement of its resources, the winning party did a great job of putting together a great team with clear-cut campaign responsibilities. Although Narendra Modi was leveraged as the star campaigner during the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP war room was efficiently manned by some of the brightest brains around. The party fielded qualified and experienced candidates who were handpicked for their past successes, unlike competing political parties that had no real game plan in this regard. 
 
Lesson: Take the time and put in the effort to cherry-pick the right people for your marketing team. Assign clear roles and set measurable targets. Objectivity goes a long way in getting a team to put in their best. 
 
In hindsight 
Political campaigns only happen once in five years. They are like intense 100m sprints at the end of which the winners can catch their breath and rest on their achievements. However, on analysing the marketing tactics employed by the BJP in the Indian elections this year, you’ll realise that the essence of a winning marketing campaign does not change. Whether you’re marketing a political party or a business with an idea, a product or a service – if you get your fundamentals right, victory is just a list of checkboxes that need to be ticked.

You Searched For "Smart Namo" and got 7 results

Still sitting on a fence to buy your dream house? 2016 may be a good year to do that!

Purba Das

Two New Narendra Modi Smartphones Called Smart Namo Wave S1 And S2 With Octa-Core CPU Come To India

Sulabh Puri

REVIEW: Saffron 1 Is A Good Bid For People Who Admire NAMO Or Want A Decent But Less Expensive Smartphone

Sulabh Puri

Smart Cities: Need big pockets to fulfil PM Modi's dream!

Purba Das

A phone dedicated to Narendra Modi...

Sulabh Puri

India's former telecom regulator shows how much India is lagging behind in the 5G pursuit

IANS

10 Lessons That The Lok Sabha Polls Taught The Marketers

Rohan Ayyar

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides