Publishing Comics and Graphic Novels

There is a dearth of good quality Indian comic books around. The comics scene in India is dominated by either mythological and historical themed comics (Amar Chitra Katha) and super-hero themes (Raj Comics). With a growing readership for books in general, there is tremendous scope for creating high quality comic books and graphic novels which tackle contemporary themes (such as school/college stories, adventure stories, parodies etc).

Source: Hush (by Manta Ray)

The industry has started picking up in India recently with new publishers like Level10Comics, Holy Cow Entertainment, Liquid Comics coming on the scene. We want to aid in the creation of high quality comics, but we don't have a concrete idea of how we'll do this. From our preliminary research (talking to artists, studios, online) we have found that the process of creation of a comic is in three broad stages:

1. Content - What the artists and writers create
2. Publishing - Editing, finding the artists and writers and coming up with new story lines, and whatever else that needs to be done before the comic book can be printed.
3. Sales & Marketing

We are doing a market study with comics readers and non-readers to find out what the customers are looking for. At the same time we are talking to people already in the industry including writers and artists, distributors and publishers. With this basic research done, we will generate ideas on what area of the industry to target.

If you have ideas or suggestions, kindly leave a comment, or contact p11nikhilg @ iimahd.ernet.in.

Mentorship for All

Team 12

Kavita Bakrewala, Shwetank Dave & Satish Sonawale

This is a plan to help people utilize their time to the fullest. The idea is to develop a platform that brings together a network of mentors to help visitors with their queries. We will develop a network of people who would voluntarily mentor people in various domains. The visitor who needs help can seek help in any of the following-

1.      Students – School and College

2.      Professionals

3.      Management Students

4.      Start Ups

5.      Homemakers

6.      Businessmen

7.      Music

8.      Other

The plan is to develop a network of domain specific mentors. The visitor can choose the domain according to the profile of his query. They can go and post their query in that domain and wait for a response. The response is expected to come within 48 hours of posting the query. The mentors mapped to that particular domain will get a notification on a daily basis and can respond based on their convenience.

The idea behind developing such a network is because there exists a need on both ends. There are experienced professionals, students in professional courses and homemakers who want to help people in their leisure time. On the other side, there are people who need help and do not have the right network to seek help. This forum will help in mapping the two audiences.

Portal for Domestic Help and Daily Wage Workers

Team - 19

Arnab Saha, Susan Mary Jose, Vikash Lohia & Jackson Bodra

Idea - 

In our venture, we plan to set up an enterprise that will act as a private employee exchange. All around the city there are demands for several maid-servants, drivers, helpers in shops, temporary gardeners etc. These requirements arise in the normal households when their regular house-hold help take a leave for a short period. Our enterprise will maintain a database/ record of persons who can work for these short periods as a temporary help in these households or shops. Our enterprise will enroll the names of the interested people in a database/record and will verify their background, if possible also police verification. This will allow us to charge a better price from the households who will pay directly to the enterprise and not personally to the person working for them. We will also provide help such as looking after of pets or tending the gardens if the families are out for a vacation. In Ahmedabad a NGO named " Saath" is already involved in the welfare of daily wage workers. Right from their registration looking after that they get their proper wages.

How are we going to move ahead

First of all for the venture, we will have a survey doing a demand study of Ahmedabad housing areas trying to find out the interest people have in employing from such an enterprise and how to increase the trust level of the people in such an enterprise. Thereafter we will also try to tie –up with NGOs like Asha which acts as a self-help group supporting the maid-servants.

Thereby later we will plan to scale up the enterprise for providing training and other soft-skills to the registered and verified employees.

“LEARN WHILE YOU GROW”

Group 18

Amit Anil Kharche, Manish Kumar Nirala, Rajnish Singh
CONCEPT

Kids are inquisitive and curious to know the things around them. They cannot keep mum if some unknown thing comes in front of them. Many questions revolve around them like “what is this”, “Why it is so”, “What will happen if I do something to it”, etc. But they don’t have required resources for quenching their thirst of curiosity. They don’t ask questions in the class thinking that class would laugh on them. They try to find out the answers to these questions by asking to their parents, or siblings or teachers. Parents are either too busy in their work or not educated enough to answer their questions. Some questions are answerable. Some answers are such, which cannot be explained. Some remain unanswered because elders themselves don’t know the answer. These questions are those which were once asked by them to their parents but those also remained unanswered because of the same reason.  And the vicious circle goes on.  But, it is quintessential to answer these questions at right point of time.  Through our social enterprise we are trying to break this vicious circle and enrich the mind of kids with knowledge so that this knowledge will pass on from generation to generation. If that question is answered then it would lead to more questions and there would be more inflow of knowledge. It can foster child’s imagination power. We think this inflow is very important. Kids can find solution on their own too but it is possible that it could result in kid being misinformed. We need to be sure that their foundation is strong. Our concept would also be of help to those children who are keen on learning but cannot afford education. These children usually end up on the streets or in factories as Child labour.

BUSINESS MODEL
Target Segment: Children up to Standard 12^th

Questions will range from any discipline like history, geography, and regional, environmental. Question raised by child could be very silly but it would be of great importantance for him / her. We could also consider the questions on Sex education which is important and kind of considered taboo in India.

Children would have to send a SMS to our toll free number and prompt answer would be provided within 24 hours. We would decrease the response time to 1 hour after ramping the business successfully.

We have considered different types of payment option. Either we would charge them on monthly basis or based on number of question asked. We are even thinking of not charging anything and thus making it a social enterprise.

We are using mobile phone medium because penetration of mobile phone is greater than internet. Also even low income group can afford mobiles nowadays and they are offering cheap SMS rate to attract customers. Answering them by personally calling would be further extension of our model.

We can even make mobile application for this where parents can answer that question while using application.

We could also use volunteers from IIMA community who would help us in answering the questions.

ISSUES / LIMITATION

SMS don’t include videos, pictures and which are of great use while explaining things.

Scalability

Global Indian

Group No.: 5

Members: Abbas Janmohamed, Rajeev Saxena, Sheeshum

The Need:

The Indian community is spreading across the globe. Millions of people go abroad for education or work and finally end up settling there. In this scenario, they get separated from their culture in which they have been born and brought up. Living amongst the people of a different culture, an average Indian needs to put in extra effort for staying in touch with their native cultures. The work environment, in such cases, does not encourage putting in this extra effort.

Objective:

We, a team of three, have decided to bridge this gap between Indians and their culture. We plan to develop a web portal that will contain excerpts of Indian culture in the form of pictures, music, videos and stories.

Data collection:

The data for this cause would be collected from the following sources:

·         Prof. Anil Gupta’s Shodh Yatra experiences and collections

·         Important people from the industry

·         PGP-ABM students going on Rural Immersion Module (RIM)

·         The Internet

Apart from this, we would also be looking for volunteers who could provide us with their inputs and/or resources.

The Web Portal:

The web portal that we are planning to design would be a multi-purpose website. It would cover the following facets of Indian culture:

·         Art

·         Fashion

·         Festivals

·         Cuisine

·         Domestic and global topics

In terms of these facets of culture, the portal would provide the following possibilities to its viewers:

·         Space to share their stories (blog)

The portal would provide space to the viewers to share their stories about how they maintain their culture, what values they have fostered in their children and their experiences of visiting India.

·         Option to buy art products

The website would contain contact information of different dealers who can provide the art forms (music CDs, paintings etc.), in case somebody wants to buy them.

·         Information about Indian events being hosted in other countries

Various Indian events are hosted in many countries throughout the year. Information about these events would provide the people a physical platform to connect with each other and be well informed of the current happenings in their native country.

·    Network of people who can provide teaching lessons about Indian culture in foreign countries

Many people who want to learn different forms of Indian culture, like cooking, instrument-playing etc. are not able to find themselves a tutor for the same. This web portal would serve their needs too, by providing a network of such individuals throughout the world.

·         Deliver local content

Our website will identify users’ country using IP address and highlight information and details specific to that country. 

We are looking at this project more like a movement which can affect the entire Indian community across the globe and help them live their culture miles away from home.

Happy Sprouting

Group 3 : Byomkesh, Mahesh Ghanta, Sai Jayanth


Business Plan
 Everyone is aware of the numerous health benefits of sprouts, but still we don't consume them on a regular basis. From the survey that we carried out, we figured out that majority of the people don't have time to soak them on a regular basis. So we thought that we can serve them by providing fresh sprouts with various garnishing options.

We are planning to start our business by supplying sprouts in the campus. Once we have got our supply chain in line, we will expand our business and target offices in Ahmedabad.

Online incubation platform

A large number of innovations are being incubated until they become commercially successful and sustainable. But there are many difficulties on the part of innovator to access these incubation facilities. These difficulties arise out of issues pertaining to location, cost, accessibility, etc.

Rural innovators face number of constraints in the incubation model being followed currently. Some are

•Location of incubators

•Language barriers

•Not available round the clock for guidance

•Not available on the go for guidance

•Business plans submitted to the innovators are rigid based on projections and hence not of much help when environment changes

There is a definite need for a portal that would provide innovators with basic guidance for commercializing innovations. We intend to start an online portal that would guide innovators in decision making based on financial ratios and expert views.

The plan

• contact and sign agreements with fund providers who would be funding the innovators based on the commercial viability of the project proposed by the customer.
• sign contracts for preferential supply with suppliers and vendors.
•  take help from organizations that have great deal of experience in incubating innovations.
• serve as a platform for bringing innovators and entrepreneurs together in case innovators prefer to commercialize the innovations through technology transfers.

This online platform will render basic guidance through internet and phone (sms)

•Compare financial ratios against industry standards

•Create a network of innovators

•Prepare business plans on request

•Compile a database and help innovators based on analysis of the same

Team : Francis Xavier M, P R Srikanth, Sai Ram Reddy Pulusu

Heavy Vehicle Servicing Industry Integration

Gap Analysis: 

The heavy vehicle servicing industry is moving from unorganized sector to more organized sector. There are more and more multinational players entering into the country however the industry is showing inertia in moving into organized servicing. There is a clear cut gap (As understood from few customer interviews) between customer needs and industry practice. The customers need a standardized service without any difference between city A and City B during a cyclic trip. Given this industry scenario now is the right time to incubate and hatch this idea.

Proposal

A franchised model of heavy vehicle servicing that integrates the existing heavy vehicle servicing under a single brand.

Business plan

The plan is to start with one or two outlets in a test city and through a brand; we establish a horizontal integration of different vendors.  The scaling up will continue into a network with an identified set of standardized services and practices.

Action Plan

Ø  Study the existing operational practices and business process. 

Ø  Standardize and Commonize the different process by different vendors for an exhaustive servicing model

Ø  Incorporate the techniques and value ads common in car and bike servicing industry

Ø  Incorporate the outcomes of gap analysis and customer requirement analysis phase

Ø  Establish the incentives for the vendors to move into the brand

Ø  Differentiate the service from the services offered by unorganized sector.

Ø  Build up on pricing and business development ideas for the future

Challenges

Ø  Establishing the initial single outlet service 

Ø  Standardizing and communizing the bundled products for portability

Ø  Convincing the brand to other vendors

Team 6 : Avinash Polepally, Raghunath Babu.G, Vijaya Sundara Pandiyan.G

Publishing made Easy

In the field of literature, there are many famous authors which have gone through a hard time to get their work published. And when they finally got a chance to publish their work, it was regarded as some of the best works of that time. An example is J.K Rowling's “Harry Potter” which was turned down by multiple publishers before it was published. Many other books like Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged”, Anne Franks's “The Diary of a Young Girl” and Rudyard Kipling's “The Jungle Book” are few more examples which underwent multiple rejections by publishers before actually getting published. We want to help authors by providing a portal where they can e-publish their work and reach out to a large audience and get feedback from them without getting rejected at various publishers. 

We are planning to start a web based portal offering the following services:

1. Online publishing facility for authors to publish their books in English, Hindi and other Indian languages online. The authors gets to keep their creative freedom and not only get to e-publish their book  but also promote and market their book at virtually no cost. They will also get feedback from the prospective consumers on their work 

2. The authors can connect and collaborate with the audience and with each other which will help them get direct feedback and help them improve.

3. To build traffic on the portal, we will also provide non-copyrighted English books, translations of the non-copyrighted English books into Indian languages and Indian languages books into English

4. The consumers can get to read portions of books for free and can get to access the entire content at very low prices

5. Search window for available free content in different languages

6. The portal will also be extended to contain projects done by students at various management schools. In India, there are 6000+ B-school and students are doing amazing work for their projects but there is no knowledge resource which accumulates the work done by students as a part of their curriculum. If a knowledge resource is made then it can be taken forward to do some more substantial projects in the future

7. Student projects from different management schools in India

8. Non copyrighted case studies

9. Search window for management case-studies for academic purpose

Along with aforementioned online services, we plan to provide training facility for case based pedagogy in the form of workshops to different B-schools across India.

Organic Products

Project Plan

Many of the grass root innovations and ideas emerging in our nation, if properly assisted with further support like financial help and other softer aspects, will potentially become invaluable assets to the nation. The support and confidence we extend to such initiatives would also result in more and more ideas and innovations. As part of our CINE project we are planning to assist some organic products from Sristi (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) by developing a marketing strategy in order to improve trials and the repurchase rates among the public.

SRISTI Products

SRISTI is a nonprofit organization set up to help grass root innovators who focus on developing eco-friendly solutions and products. SRITI products can be broadly classified into five groups: Food Products, Herbal Agro Products, Human Products, Veterinary Products, and Herbal Extracts. Herbal Agro Products help farmers to improve the productivity of crops and also reduce the costs by avoiding or reducing the consumption of pesticides and fertilizers. The products for human help in dealing with common diseases like eczema, and have pain relieving ointments, gels for cracked skin etc.  SRISTI’s herbal veterinary formulations can be used as dietary supplements as well as alternative medicine for the animals.

Marketing Plan for the Products

Before formulating the marketing plan for the products, we would study and understand the market for these products. Preliminary interviews and surveys would be conducted to understand the general perception and usage behavior of organic products. These processes would be held both before and after the exposure to organic products, so as to study and understand any alteration in perceptions and behavior with reference to them. It is also planned to provide samples of these products at the Students Mess of IIMA which satisfy the dual purpose of both creating awareness among the IIMA community about these products, as well as in helping to get a feel of the market through the community’s feedback. The initial study will also focus on buying and usage behavior by groups from different geographic locations and also across different age groups. The results help us to identify the expectations of people from such products and also help in analyzing the reasons for people’s choice in either buying the product or not buying it.

In the second stage of the project, we will develop a holistic marketing plan aimed at improving the initial trial as well as sustaining the sale of organic products among different groups.