Doing Business - India ranks all time low at 134.

Source: Doing Business report by world bank

Well, what to say. India ranks at 134, which is worse than Bangladesh (130), Sri Lanka (85), Nepal (105) and even Pakistan (110). It shows where exactly we are in terms of business friendliness. Be it the corruption at top or lack of 'productivity' at workers level, unnecessary strikes by unions, and most importantly the mindset of people. i.e. No wrong to tax business but give free stuff to people.

Some Interesting items and comments:

Based on cross sectional regression analysis and controlling for a large number of factors that affect unemployment, he shows that labor regulations in India’s retail sector undermine job creation. He further notes that labor reforms  could  increase  employment  in the retail sector by as much as 22% for an average store—a significant effect given that the retail sector is India’s second largest  employer..

* Starting a business rank - 174 (bottom 5)

* Dealing with construction permits - 182 (bottom 5)

* Paying taxes - 158

    - time to pay taxes - 243 days

* Trading across borders - 132

* Enforcing contracts - 186 (bottom 3). Only Bangladesh & Timor-leste scored worse than us.

Room Service DEALivery - Horrible food and exorbitant rates..

Few weeks ago I was enticed by an advertisement in deal.com.sg, to buy a roomservice voucher of 25 for 10. I thought it was a good deal as I tend to order food quite often and wanted to give it a try.

So finally today I made my order and o boy, what a disappointment it was. Some points to note are,
* $10 delivery charges if you are lucky to be in 'central' area
* $14.30 for outside area

Then
* 10% service fee
* 7% GST.

So most likely you'll end up with ~ $ 17 bill before even getting a single bite. But my disappointment is not for the charges, but for the food itself and roomdelivery process.

I got to place an order online and I called them to clarify on the time too. I was told it'd take 1.5 Hrs so I was waiting for my food and after 1.5 hrs, I called them to find out what happened. To my horror the answer "your order was cancelled". Reason - no mobile number. In the first place why they take the order if it's mandatory, and how they are going to use my mobile number? I have no idea as it's not stated there. Secondly, it's an online order and if it fails, there should be a mail/alert to my registered e-mail. Nope, no alert. They happily cancelled the order..

Coming to the food, (Though not their fault as per their FAQ), the food sucks.

I placed an order for Biryani, Samosa & Fried Rice.What I got was "Chicken Fried Rice" and charred samosa and oily fried rice. So this order was a disaster and I got to quickly place an order for Pizzahut.

Anyway, I forgot and deleted the bookmark and then in the evening I got a mail from them asking for feedback. So I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience and suggest to them to send an alert if they change/cancel the order. I patiently entered all the details in the feedback form. When I press "submit" this is what I got.

Now, this is what I call "taking the feedback seriously but 'creatively'.".. If you guys don't want to hear any feedback, then stop sending e-mails...

URL address error. Please use the same address as it was shown in the email.

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New version of Google Hangouts - Google Voice integration and multiple accounts addition..

Today google released an update to their hang outs on iPhone. I wasn't quite interested but today's update seems I am going to use hangouts more often.. What's the big differentiatior? It's the Google Voice call that can be routed to hangout.

So I don't have to rely on third party apps like talkatone etc to connect to my google voice app for voice. I can just use hangouts. Great job Google..

Now I've a phone number to take incoming calls while I am roaming :)