Microsoft Takes Over Nokia- Whose Profit Whose Loss..

Today I woke up in the morning to the news that I had little idea of happening. Front pages of all the leading dailies flashed news of Microsoft taking over handset manufacturing giants Nokia. The deal is reported to have been finalized at $7.2 billion amounting to approximately 4830 crore Rupees. The deal comes at a crucial point of time, specially for Nokia when it was finding it difficult to maintain its existence in the handset industry that has widely been dominated by companies like Samsung and Apple. The market shares of Nokia has fallen dramatically over the last few years specially in India. In the current Indian market Nokia was finding it difficult to compete with the popularity of Android based Smartphones launched By Samsung along with domestic assemblers Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Celkon. Well, what exactly happened to bring Nokia to the point of selling itself to US software giant Microsoft. Let us try to figure them out.

Firstly, the biggest strategic mistake that Nokia seem to have made is its decision to tie up with Windows platform to launch its smart phones while all other companies decided to go with Google's Android. With the large number of applications and features that Android easily provided to its users, made it extremely popular among the masses-specially among the younger generations. Android took the market by storm and everybody seemed to be impressed with it at the prima facie.Although Windows did have its share of useful and handy features but it could not win when compared to the might of Android. Secondly with the rise of Android, manufactures like Samsung quickly launched its range of smartphones at a very affordable price tag. Given the quality of the handsets and the features that it provided Samsung quickly saw a massive upsurge in its sales in the smartphone segment. Soon it came up with its galaxy series of mobiles and started to aggressively launch and market one product after another. All this while Nokia seemed to be pretty relaxed and didn't bother much about what happened around them . Coming to India Nokia were very much happy with their consolidated brand name and failed to acknowledge the changes that were going on around them. Nokia sat pretty much on their entry level and feature phones that were what made them such a big brand throughout the world and more specifically in India. India is still one of the largest market for Finland's Nokia and a loss of market share in India means a genuine loss of market grip. Thirdly, Nokia were very indifferent to the dual Sim strategy and that is what made the domestic players to come into the picture.Micromax, in this context deserves special mention. Within few years of its launch it has become one of the fastest growing Indian mobile handset producing company. In the second quarter of 2013 the market shares of Micromax were nearly at 26%, eating into Samsung whose market share dropped to about 32%, latter losing its value mostly to the rise of Micromax in India. By the time Nokia realized its flaws, it lagged significantly to its other competitors. To gain some of the lost ground and quickly restore its brand value as being the biggest cell phone giants of the planet, it came up with its own set of cheap feature phones and the smartphone series of Lumia. The Asha and the Lumia series surely helped Nokia to regain some of its footing and steadily started climbing into the charts of the market share. But still that wasn't enough to provide that sort of momentum that probably Nokia needed to give itself a real lease of life. Besides the windows OS did have some shortcomings that made it difficult for Nokia to find strong foothold among the young generations that is not really famous for being brand loyalists. The Nokia-Windows agreement didn't actually do much in the last couple of years to really increase the sales of Nokia phones in India and worldwide.

The developments of the last few years suggests that in this market of technology the changes are such subtle and brisk that if you do not keep track and cater to the demands and the needs of the public,, you are bound to make way for others. This is what happened to the other pioneers of mobile handset manufactures like Motorola and Ericsson. Motorola, the actual pioneer in the field of mobile phone manufacturing was taken over by Google a couple of years back and since then Google launched its smash hit platform- Android.

Now coming over to the deal it is probably logical for Nokia given the circumstances and the amount offered and that too in all cash, but will be interesting to see how much can Microsoft gain from the deal. Currently the deal is for 10 years with the option of extending it to perpetuity. Microsoft will now have access to the well established and highly recommended Nokia hardwares which is probably still the best in the market. This may add to the benefit of Microsoft to create a quality product. Microsoft will now try and promote the windows OS that is currently locked at the third spot after Android and iOS of Apple Inc. With both the forces combining one can hope that the Windows OS can make some significant progress in the coming times. In US, Apple enjoys most of the market share when it comes to the mobile phones along with the Android and the BB10 OS that the Canada based RIM uses. So with Microsoft's takeover of Nokia it can be assumed that US will now have some numbers of Windows handsets to show. Besides Microsoft can always look to strengthen and consolidate their position in the tablets and the phablets section, in not only US but also Worldwide. Some people are saying that the deal that Microsoft has managed to close is a huge win for the US based software giants considering that it bought the handset unit of Nokia for only $7.2 billions. Whereas Google had to shell out nearly 12 billion US Dollars 2 years ago to buy Motorola when the latter was at a poorer condition to Nokia's present state.

All said, millions of Nokia fans are bound to feel a bit sad-me included- because the iconic Nokia will no longer be existing as the independent unit. Specially the deal has not gone down too well within some sections of Finland for whom Nokia meant their identity to the world. Technologically this is probably the biggest news of the year so far and it only remains to be seen if the development actually helps Nokia go back to the days of glory. For the time being it is only a guessing game.

Scenario of Private Engineering colleges in India.

Private engineering colleges started blooming in the 1990s of this modern era. Initially it proved to be the boon for the developing country- India. It provided just the right kind of opportunity that our country was in need of a couple of decades back. Initially there used to be only a handful of engineering colleges across the entire country. Only a select few students who were very bright in academics could clear the entrance test that were conducted by the various colleges that were functional in the early part of the 90s. The colleges that were there were of real high standards academically and produced brilliant students throughout. The IITs were there and so were the Regional Engineering colleges or the RE colleges in short. In early 2000 i.e around 2001 these RE colleges were made autonomous institutes and were subsequently named as the National Institute of Technology(NIT). Right now there are 20 NITs in 20 different states of India. Besides The IITs and NITs there were other central and state govt funded institutes like the Jadavpur University, BESU, Indian Institutes of Information Technology(IIIT), Delhi Engineering college, Indian School of Mines Dhanbad , Banaras Hindu University and few more. Along with them there were some private institutes too like BITS Pilani and some others along with it. These colleges produced quality and meritorious students who really were worthy of the engineering degree that they earned after a hard work of 4 long years.

The Bloom of private engineering college started in the Early 1990s. It was the time when India was going through a transition of sorts. The Economic condition of India was taking a turn for the good. Rajiv Gandhi introduced the computer education in India and suddenly everybody realised the true potential and the need for computers in the coming future. So the rise of Private Engineering colleges was welcomed with whole heart as it was the need of the hour. More and more deserving students who could not clear the tough entrance test that were conducted by the premier colleges,easily cracked the entrance test conducted by the private colleges. Parents and families who were decent earners had enough money to fund for their children's engineering course in a non-government college. It had many positive changes in our society in particular and India in general. Students who found it tough to think about pursuing engineering started dreaming about them and prepared to be an engineer. They studied meticulously in their plus 2 level and therefore had a very solid foundation of the basics of science and the kind of preliminary mathematical skills required for one to study engineering. The whole education system changed. During this time we saw many breakthroughs in our country. Slowly but surely studying to be an engineer become a treand among the science students of our country.

South India has the highest rate of literacy among them- Kerela being the pioneer among the with almost cent percent literacy. So it wasn't a surprise when the bloom of private engineering college started from the southern states of our motherland. Chennai and Bangalore were the epicenters of the private college. The colleges that were initially established were set up with a goal in mind. The founders/directors/chairman of the colleges formed a college because they seriously wanted to impart quality education in the country. Of course business was definitely the main purpose behind opening an engineering college but it was not the sole purpose. They founders had a vision and wanted to do some good for the country through a viable and feasible means.Slowly every science pass outs were aiming to get into some kind of engineering college or the other.The engineering degree not only gave them a lucrative career and fair amount of money but it also helped then climb through the ladder of the society. An engineer used to a highly dignified person in any king of society of our country. Parents used to proudly flaunt their sons/daughters to the friends and families. An engineer from IIT or from Some Private College didn't matter much then.

Since there were not many colleges in India apart from the south, Students started flocking to the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerela to study Engineering. There used to be huge rush from the states of Bihar and UP to the south. Gradually more and more Colleges started coming up to meet with the increasing demand for an Engineering Degree. People who had money saw the potential of money making from this. Everybody who had money started pondering that engineering college can provide them some easy bucks. Everybody wanted to become millionaires overnight. As a result of this with the advent of new millennium private Engineering colleges started blossoming here and there. Each and every state witnessed construction of more and more colleges. More and more students started becoming engineers in India. Private banks came into the party and saw their chance to make money. They came up with a brilliant idea- Study Loan. Poor Students? Who gives damn. Come to us and we are more than happy to fund your education. Once a student completed their study and started earning they repaid their loan with some definite amount of interests as applicable. By the mid of last decade almost all the states had enough colleges to accommodate their own students. The number of engineering colleges, meanwhile kept on increasing. Mafias, Local Traders, Transporters and even Sweet shop sellers had their own engineering college!!!

But then came the eye opener that shattered the scene of engineering education in India. Recession badly hit the global market in 2008 with the collapse of Lehmann Brothers. The wall street was severely hit and so was India. The software market was the worst victim. Software professional were sacked in thousands of numbers. People who were on holidays were asked to be on holidays and only return when asked too. After the recession period campus placements- that drags the most of the students any any college- went for a toss. Seats in engineering college started going vacant. People realised that after spending so much of money if there is no job guarantee then why should one go for engineering, specially in a private college. College owners stated facing huge losses. So the trend of selling colleges became. If reports are to be believed then a full functional college is sold to a different owner for cheap prices in Delhi and some cities of south India.How much can the situation deteriorate.  In the entire process nobody cared a fig about the students.

But then there is a flip side to the story. With the growing number of colleges in India the supply gradually started outnumbering the demand. The colleges were built without any rational thinking because every body wanted money. So obviously the quality of education dropped shapely. Incompetent lectures and professors started teaching the students. And since the owners were anything but educationist or visionaries, their colleges too were of poor standards. Monet started doing all the talking. Bribes were paid from lower most level to the top to build a college. Even AICTE officials were paid money to give a go ahead to their college. How can someone so easily compromise on the future of students for some cheap money? The end result was nothing but a joke to the degree of Engineering. The students that are passing out from 2nd to 3rd grade
Colleges are hardly engineers(4th,5th and 6th Grade Colleges are there!!!).

MM Pallam Raju ,the HRD minister of our country recently said that of all the Engineering graduated that pass out from our college only 30% of them are industry ready and of the remaining lot 10-15% are trainable. Can the situation become more terrifying. Of course not.
Today the total number of private Engineering colleges in India is more than 3500. Every year more than 8 lakh student take admission in engineering courses. The number of private Engineering colleges in India is so high that many seats remain empty in some colleges.
New Engineering colleges are opening at fast rate in India. The main purpose of these Private college is to earn lots of money in the form of high fee and donations.
Almost 90% of these colleges are unable to provide quality education.

Should this be the quality of Engineering in our Country ?