Whitepaper on how telecoms can use the pay-per-use model to realize revenue otherwise lost to music piracy.

While at management school, I authored a paper that proposes a complementary economic model that aims to monetize music content that is hitherto lost to while collar pirates.

The paper suggests a pay per use model that recognizes the need to monetize the utility of each instance of listening using micropayments - a concept which is economically attractive to fence sitters who can afford content but reject the price point offered by record labels and therefore resort to piracy. This model complements the usual models of charging consumers a perpetual licence fee i.e. a one time cost per song and the "eat all you like" subscription based model.

Such a model, I have postulated, can co-exist with existing models such as perpetual licensing and subscription licensing and can be operationalized over a cloud based solution most easily by a telco and thus can maximize profits by realizing revenue that's left on the table by white-collar pirates, revenue that, otherwise, is left unrealized by all.

The paper has been approved for authenticity and application by my faculty guide.

If anyone should know someone at a telco who authors and manages strategy, please do let me know. I'd greatly appreciate being pointed out to such individuals.

Thanks all!

Letter to the Editor of the Times of India

Dear editor,

Please excuse this outburst of emotions but as a student of one the nation's premier educational institutions that had the news of its success suppressed by the nation's largest news group, I feel sad, cheated, angry, outraged, and disappointed - an all in one bundle of emotions, if you know what I mean.

As a student of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, I wonder why the entire Times group of news orgs - both print and digital - failed to report the results of the FT Global MBA Rankings 2011 this morning.

Yes, the Times group was aware of the news because we, the students and the school authorities, sent your bureaus not only a press release but also a write-up of the story.

With the question of 'no knowledge of the news' out of the way one can only surmise that it is out of competitive rivalry with the FT group that the Times Group thought it unwise to report the rise of two of India's best business schools up the ranking-ladder amongst a formidable peer group of global institutions. The editorial team didn't even deem the news worth a little box on your business page? Quite shocking, that.

We do understand that business graduates are not very popular with puritanical souls, however when competitive rivalry and personal opinions interfere with unbiased reportage it is only society at large that suffers. Well, you can also argue that society is not poorer for the lack of news about IIMA and ISB making it into the top 15 business schools globally, however we'd argue that many students, aspirants, alumni are poorer for pride which this news signifies. This was no trivial achievement. I am sure you see the point we are trying to make - that of self interest vs. public good.

This snub was hardly becoming of an organization that hails itself as the beacon of fair reportage in the country. I hope the editorial staff realizes this duplicity has dented the newspaper's reputation in the eyes of a small albeit important constituency.

Warm regards,

Rahul