Kamla's Blog posts on ‘Only in India’

By Kamla Bhatt • Feb 26th, 2008 • Category: Bangalore, Electronic gadgets, India, Internet and Telecom India, Mobile, Only in India, People, Technology, YouTube Videos

Every month India adds millions of new mobile users. Currently about 20 percent of India (population over 1 billion) has mobile phones. In a short span of less than 10 years the number of mobile users in India has grown from a few thousands to millions.
In India about 60 percent of the mobile handset market […]



By Kamla Bhatt • Feb 25th, 2008 • Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison, Bollywood, Books and Authors, Diaspora, India, Only in India, People

Fearless Nadia of Hunterwalli is a character from an old Hindi film dating back to 1935. Fearless Nadia is sometimes described as the feminine version of Zorro, and was the first stunt queen of Indian films. Yes, that is right there were stunt queens back in the early days of Hindi cinema, which is perhaps […]



By Kamla Bhatt • Dec 10th, 2007 • Category: Bangalore, Books and Authors, Business, India, Infrastructure, Life, Only in India, Technology

With due apologies to Prof. TT Ram Mohan who came up with this creative title for his post, and which I have happily borrowed from him.
The emergence of Bangalore from a laid-back garden city to a city of steel and glass buildings and and a major IT hub in India is a source of fascination […]



By Kamla Bhatt • Oct 29th, 2007 • Category: Bangalore, Ideas, India, Internet and Telecom, Internet and Telecom India, Mobile, Only in India, Podcast, Technology

Microsoft Research India (MSR) in Bangalore does some fascinating research about how technology is used in India. Last week I spent some time at MSR’s office in Bangalore and spoke with Kentaro Toyama about what kind of work MSR is doing in India.
Here is the link to the podcast interview with Kentaro Toyama of MSR.
Technorati […]



By Kamla Bhatt • Oct 1st, 2007 • Category: Events, Ideas, India, Only in India

In countries like US and UK  professional sports people get huge paychecks when they join a league or participate in a big tournament. Many become instant millionaires and also create extra revenue streams through multi-year, multi-million brand advertisement or brand endorsements as it is known in India. A similar phenomenon is unfolding in India rapidly where sports […]



By Kamla Bhatt • Sep 30th, 2007 • Category: Events, Ideas, India, Only in India

Who is India’s highest taxpaying politician? No, it is not Amma or Kumari Jayalalitha from Tamil Nadu or the ex-chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh. It is the current UP Chief Minister Mayawati. Recently, Mayawati paid Rs. 14 crores (S1=Rs.39 and approx $250,000 is equivalent to a crore) as income tax reports The Economic Times. […]