I am yet on another plane ride as I write this piece. As an aside, I booked on Air India for a 9:30 am departure. Just before I left home, I got a message that the flight was on time. Half way to the airport, I received a message that the flight was delayed till 10:30 am. By the time I entered the airport, the delay had extended to 11:30 and when I finally got my boarding pass, somehow the headwind on the inbound aircraft had magnified resulting in the departure time finally slipping to Noon. I was convinced, based on quick regression calculation, that by the time I actually got to the gate, the departure time would be 9 pm getting into Delhi by midnight, for meetings that were supposed to begin around 1 pm. I promptly cancelled the Air India flight and boarded a 10:50 am flight on Indigo which, by the way, left on time.

As I was leaving my home for the adventure one calls the domestic Indian trip, my four year old turned to me and asked “daddy, why are you going to Delhi?” I promptly replied “I have several Board meetings”. He asked casually, “why do you go to meetings if you get bored?” Although a cute play on words, the question made me think about the variety of Boards I have been affiliated with over the years, and to what extent many of those meetings were actually boring rather than meaningful or enlightening. By the way, I also told my four year old as well as my daughters ages 6 and 9, just remember two words, “marry rich”.

As I thought about Board meetings, I realized that management of the Board as a topic is something that people don’t discuss enough. Thanks to the Satyam saga, the topic of Board of Directors and corporate governance obviously took center stage but managing the Board is a skill that young entrepreneurs need to develop and hone. In Silicon-valley, there is an often used phrase “if you cannot manage the Board, how can you manage the company?” The other lesson I have learned by serving on north of twenty Boards over the last decade is that a cohesive and well-managed Board can make management’s life a pleasurable one. And a dysfunctional Board can make life a nightmare for both Board members and management teams. I have had the pleasure and displeasure of being on both ends of the spectrum, respectively. To help entrepreneurs (especially startup CEOs) manage their Board more effectively, I have come up with a list of ten key do’s and don’ts.

1. Set the ground rules early – make the ceo the main point of contact for Board inquiries (as obvious as that sounds, it is sometimes not the case), and make sure that all communication flows through the ceo rather than the Board reaching into the ranks creating confusion and chaos. In India I have noticed that if a Board member calls, everything stops and only the Board member’s request, as crazy as it may be, becomes the highest priority.

2. Communicate frequently, predictably and timely. Having a periodic dashboard (typically weekly) of key metrics for the business is crucial to provide visibility into what’s going on with the company. Board members hate surprises, especially downside ones. Communicate the good, the bad and especially the ugly as soon as possible with the Board and also with the weekly or monthly updates, ask for specific items from the Board members (in terms of contacts, recruits etc.).

3. Process and discipline: Run the Board meeting as you would a management team meeting with proper agenda, timeline, action items, deliverables, and accountability on the part of not only management but also the Board members. Additionally, make sure that minutes of the meetings are kept, preferably through a company secretary or legal counsel present, and those minutes are communicated to and approved by the Board in a timely fashion. Send the Board materials at least two, preferably three days in advance of the meeting. This tends to be the least important item for entrepreneurs who are busy fighting other fires and would rather spend their time focusing on the business than on compiling materials for the Board. But sharing the information beforehand and letting the Board members review the content well in advance of the Board meeting makes the meeting significantly more productive.

4. Keep the Board meetings at the strategic level rather than dealing with the tactical minutia, unless, of course, the tactical piece requires discussion. All too often, a spreadsheet is thrown on the projection screen with 52 tabs, and about 200 columns and rows. Soon, the meeting gets in to the trees, branches and roots and forgets what the key strategic topic was. I am not saying that those situations don’t pop up every now and then, but if it becomes a common occurance, then it’s a problem and soon the Board members actually don’t look forward to attending the meeting. Use the Board’s time wisely.

6. There are often cases where there is a conflict between the personal agenda of the Board member and the fiduciary responsibility of the Board member, especially in family businesses where the goals of the family may not align with what’s right for the company and its various stakeholders. Make sure that the documentation addresses those situations where such conflicts of interest need resolution.

7. M&A: Make sure in advance that there is alignment between the promoters and investors in terms of the scale, potential and expectations. Be aware that what may be good for the entrepreneurs may not be all that interesting for investors. As an example, a $10M exit where the entrepreneur and management own 60% of the company (or $6M) may be a great outcome for them, but a $4M exit for the investor(s) who own the remaining 40% of the company might be meaningless, especially if it’s a large fund. The aforementioned comment relates directly to the fact that when entrepreneurs accept capital from investors, it’s important that the vision be aligned both short and especially long term.

8. Keep the Board engaged. I have been involved with Boards where the involvement can go from multiple calls a week and weekly board updates to just interaction during monthly or quarterly Board meetings, with little interaction in between meetings. Both ends have their place, depending on the stage of the company, depth of management team, level of oversight required etc. But there is a bit of “out of sight, out of mind” that can creep in in terms of management and Board dynamics. I actually enjoy connecting with portfolio CEOs frequently to chat about whatever may be on their mind, for informal 1-1 brainstorming, and getting notes of mini-milestones achieved by the company of individuals within the company.

9. Face to face meetings versus calls. Email might be one of the worst communication media ever invented, especially for communicating crucial information, and making key decisions. The sender and recipient may be completely orthogonal in terms of their thought process, perception of what was mentioned. The email threads can diverge and end up with some fairly nasty language. The end result is usually never the result that was intended when the email thread originated. Phone calls are the next best thing, but there is no substitute for face to face meetings, especially when it comes to key strategic issues and decisions. And by the way, in India especially, I have realized that face-face interaction is a must, especially with early stage companies. It’s also important for Board members to interact not just with the CEO but other members of the team to get a real sense of what’s going on in the trenches.

10. Make room for independent Board members, and fill the vacancies early. Getting key industry folks to complement the skill set of management and investors is crucial, and independent Board members also provide unbiased, objective opinions which, in turn, lead to a cohesive and well-functioning Board.

Bottom line: Board dynamics and management are crucial for any company, especially startups. Having a well-functioning, productive Board can make or break a company. That is why it’s critical for startups to not only approach a particular VC (and do their due diligence on the firm), but also approach a particular partner within that respective firm. Remember, “you can divorce your spouse, but you cannot divorce your VC or Board member” (at least not easily).

(The writer, Mohanjit Jolly, is Executive Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India)

Students typically announce their opting out of the placements at the very beginning of the process in order to work on their entrepreneurial ventures. Seven students, for instance, had opted out of the placements to start their own ventures in 2009 and 10 students in 2008.

Around 318 students are believed to be going through the cohort-based placement process this year. The new cohort-based placement process for the second year post-graduate programme (PGP) students, which kicked off on February 13, 2010, comprises companies that offer similar roles, profiles, salaries, locations, etc, to be grouped into individual cohorts. Moreover, several cohorts comprise a cluster, each of which are being held on weekends.

The institute has seen an increase in the number of offers from companies this year. A student from the institute has reportedly been offered a record Rs 1.44 crore package from Deutsche Bank. ICICI Bank emerged as the biggest recruiter during the third cluster at IIM-A, offering over 10 jobs to the students, while regular recruiters like Icra, KPMG, Essar Group and Philips offered jobs to IIM-A students in finance, consulting, sales and marketing fields.

The process is expected to continue for a few more weeks.

I left the corporate world many years ago — about 20 years ago. In a way I am glad I did so. I look at decisions made by senior, sensible, experienced managers and often wonder why they do what they do. It often amazes me that time and again they miss the obvious. I then wonder whether I would have also been like this had I continued in the corporate world. Which makes me glad I left it!

There was once a very nice television ad by a leading newspaper that depicted a person not recognising an opportunity staring him in the face. This seems to be the situation in many companies. In today’s world of severe competition and very little differentiation between products and services, it is not very common for brands to hold on to customers or grab customers from other brands. When one gets such an opportunity, one must grab it. But in this world of short-term gains, such opportunities are sadly missed.

Let’s consider the example of how a strong and loyal customer base can be eroded when a company loses focus on what its brand stands for. I have been an unabashed fan of Jet Airways. At least till recently. (Disclaimer: I am neither a shareholder nor any form of consultant. I have always been a regular fare-paying customer.) I believe its standards of service delivery and consistency have over the years been outstanding. Jet Airways has always been my first preference for domestic air travel — in fact even for international.

But today when I want to travel domestic, I am confused. And I think Jet is also quite confused. Which is why I am confused. If the company is not clear about its brand and what it stands for, how can it expect its customers to be clear about what it stands for?

The anatomy of a lost customer

Let’s get into the mind of a loyal customer – ME – and see what happens when he wants to continue to be loyal to a brand. I always (used to) go to the Jet Airways Web site to do my bookings. Today, when I visit the site to book my ticket, I am given three options — Jet Airways, Jet Konnect (with a K) and Jet Lite.

I try to book a Bangalore–Hyderabad flight and interestingly, as on date of writing, I find there are no Jet Airways flights on that sector. When I want to fly Bangalore–Mumbai, there are no conveniently timed Jet Airways flights on that sector.

Let us see what Jet Airways has done through this strategy and what do I, a loyal customer, do under these circumstances? I say that if there is no Jet Airways flight that is convenient — not just any “Jet” flight mind you —I might as well scout around for other flights. So I either take the Kingfisher option if I am looking at a full-service carrier, or I go to one of the travel portals to select the most economical and convenient low-cost option.

What happens now? I choose Kingfisher on one occasion as I want to fly a full-service carrier and my favourite carrier has cut back on its flights and does not offer convenient flights any longer. Remember, I am not a promiscuous customer — Jet Airways has forced me into this mode.

I fly Kingfisher for the first time. Lo and behold I find that it is as good as Jet Airways, if not better. So the next time I need to travel, I am no longer particular that it has to be Jet Airways. I then become a member of the Kingfisher Kings Club programme and over a period of time, I move over to Kingfisher and become a loyal Kingfisher customer and an indifferent Jet Airways customer.

The interesting point is that the airline forced me to do this; I did not choose this on my own. (I have to travel to Mumbai next week — I am booked on Kingfisher!)

On the other hand, if I want to make a low-fare trip, I go to the portal and choose from one of the many available options. I also gradually find out, as generally happens with customers for many other products too, that in the no-frills airlines segment ‘Jet’ is not necessarily the best. There are others as good if not better.

There is also little incentive for me to travel Jet as it also keeps reminding me that though a Jet Privilege customer I will get none of the privileges when I travel their other ‘Jet’ flights. So why should I be loyal to the Jet name?

The brand extension trap

So where is Jet in all this? What has branding and focus got to do with loyalty? I think there is a disconnect (not Konnect) between Jet Airways and me. As I see it, Jet Airways thinks that customers are loyal to ‘Jet’. The answer is NO. I am a loyal Jet Airways customer. Not Jet Konnect. Not Jet Lite.

I believe what the airline has done is built an extremely strong brand in Jet Airways and is successfully diluting the brand through Jet Konnect and Jet Lite. It is falling into the brand extension trap. If I have to choose a no-frills carrier, Jet Konnect or Jet Lite are not necessarily my first choices. I have many other options.

As a loyal Jet Airways customer, I am now confused about ‘Jet’ and its extensions. I do not know if Jet Airways is a higher-grade version of Jet Konnect and Jet Lite. Or is Jet Konnect a lower grade version of Jet Airways? I do not know what one should expect from any of these airlines now.

Jet has lost focus — I am not sure what it will do to its bottomline in the long run. In the short term, it appears to be posting positive results though its customers may not be as loyal anymore.

I certainly am not. I may be biased but in my last few travels on Jet Airways, I also found that the old energy levels were missing. Remember the same Jet Airways crew that offers high class, personalised service is now peddling snacks on trolleys on their Jet Konnect flights. Same people, same uniform, same appearance but different roles all together. Not easy, is it?

Brand extension seems a very attractive proposition for marketers to ride piggyback on strong brands. History has shown time and again that the success of a good brand lies in its focus and promise to the customer. Strong brands do not necessarily carry their equity to extended products.

In today’s competitive world, it is extremely difficult to build a strong brand. It would be extremely myopic and foolish to lose the brand equity for short-term gains. In the ultimate analysis, as we see above, the company may be responsible for customer promiscuity and not the customer as we often believe. Companies beware!

(The writer, Ramesh Venkateswaran, is the Director, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore.)

What is the difference between teleshopping and HomeShop 18?

Teleshopping is about a single product. It’s not about a virtual mall which we are. Teleshopping is more about a trader buying a product based on an infomercial which is dubbed in regional languages and telecast during graveyard shifts on TV channels. The execution is tacky and it is not a brand or a product with a guarantee. We are doing home shopping. Home shopping is about selling credible products and brands. Second, it cuts across every conceivable product category. Right now we are selling products, we might move to services. We might also sell travel packages. Most travel packages have static ads, but we can take you through the sites, giving you the whole experience of a travel package. To ensure that the product is good, you also have to make sure that the execution is good. Most television channels work on an advertising revenue model. For us, it is purely transaction. We haven’t built our channel on TRPs. For us, it is more about reach, like any other distribution channel. We have a dedicated team of salesmen on the phone. We have our own team because we wanted a very different profile of salesperson, who was trained in a very different manner. Finally, the logistics footprint is also very important to ensure people get the products. We go to about 3,000 cities in the country and go right up to our customers’ doorsteps. We have developed cash-on-delivery as our payment mechanism.

What is the mechanism to deal with order cancellations, especially as cash-on-delivery is the payment mode?

We also have a reverse logistics footprint. What happens if the customer changes his mind about a product? We had to build infrastructure to deal with the product being sent back. An IT footprint that could track and monitor every transaction was needed. We receive about 25,000 calls on a daily basis. We have more than 400-450 brands and seven-eight logistics players with us. Each of these transactions has to be reconciled to track the transactions. All of these come together to bring you home shopping.

I think one of the things where we need help from all quarters is to educate the customer about the difference between teleshopping and home shopping. That is also why we have opened the doors of the facility so that people can have a first-hand view of what goes into the delivery of a product.

Most people in the country are acquainted with teleshopping and the infomercial route of shopping. The biggest hurdle that we have to overcome is the legacy. The legacy of buying with touch and feel. Our job today is to build credibility and trust in home shopping.

Infrastructure is another important hurdle. We have 5,000 cities in the country, but only 2,000 of them have motorable roads. Multiple taxation systems are another major problem. To move a product from one State to the other poses a lot of problems, simply because of the tax structure. The common goods and services tax, when it comes in, should hopefully take care of this aspect. Domain knowledge is another hurdle we have to overcome. None of us have had experience in this domain ever before. We learn as we grow.

There is also the problem that not too many products trust the home shopping domain. But anyone who has trusted us has had a great experience. Today, we are the largest retail point for Reebok despite the scepticism. But we are slowly emerging as the largest retail point for various brands. People are beginning to see the benefits of an alternative distribution platform such as Home Shop 18.

Where does the bulk of the business come from?

When we started, people said big cities would be hard to penetrate as there is a lot on offer in the city itself. During the initial phase, we distributed in the small cities, where there is no carriage fees. But today 30 per cent of our business comes from the top five-six cities. Delhi is our biggest market. I think everybody shops, though the reasons may be different.

How difficult is it to ensure that the cash-on-delivery mechanism works?

We knew from early on that we had to build credibility. The history of people selling on television hasn’t been good. We felt cash-on-delivery would be a critical component in attracting customers. We had to build the infrastructure for cash-on-delivery.

The courier boys get about Rs 2,000-2,500. How does the courier company ensure the money is brought back safely? Second, cash-on-delivery also gives up the customer commitment to a transaction. People can change their mind. Cash-on-delivery is a tricky business but a large proportion of our customers begin with cash-on-delivery and then move on to cheques and credit cards.

What is the current customer base of HomeShop 18? What does the future have in store for it?

We are nearing two million customers in 22 months and 18 per cent of our customers have already moved to repeat purchases. A few customers have shopped with us more than 90 times in 20 months. Repeat customers see the benefits of home shopping. After all, it provides unmatched convenience. But these two million customers have been the early adopters. The masses are yet to be reached.

Being a distribution platform and an interactive medium, we felt we should go beyond products.

There is no reason why services won’t get sold. Items such as insurance don’t get bought, they have to be sold. Insurance has been very successful in various countries. Sector-wise, we are going to add some new categories such as insurance, real estate and travel and will increase the depth in the existing categories. Each existing category will be broad-based and widened this year.

The maker of Bravia flat TVs hopes 3D models to make up 10 percent of more than 25 million LCD TVs it aims to sell in the next financial year.

Sony holds high hopes of a shift to 3D as it will likely give a boost to many of its business operations, which range from TVs, digital cameras, and Blu-ray DVD players to digital cinema projectors on the hardware side and from videogames and TV programmes to feature films on the software side.

Panasonic Corp plans to launch its 3D TVs in the United States on March 10 and says it will cooperate with top U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy Co in promoting them.

Last month Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s No.1 TV brand, launched 3D TV sales in South Korea and said it would launch them globally this month with the aim of selling at least 2 million 3D TVs this year.

Sony will begin selling 3D TVs in Japan on June 10 and plans to launch in the overseas market around the same time.

“We at Sony will liberate 3D from the confines of movie theatres and make it something that people can enjoy at home,” Sony Senior Vice President Yoshihisa Ishida told a news conference.

The sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” and other recent titles have sparked massive interest in 3D movies, and electronics makers are now rushing to get flat panel TVs with three-dimensional visual effects to the market.

“We set the June 10 launch date after taking software availability into consideration. Without content, 3D TVs cannot be of much use,” Sony’s Ishida said.

“I don’t think a few months (in launch timing) means much.”

The more than 25 million LCD TVs Sony aims to sell in the next financial year compared with its own forecast of 15 million it plans to sell in the financial year ending this month.

Shares of Sony were up 0.9 percent at 3,325 yen in afternoon trade in Tokyo. The benchmark Nikkei average was virtually unchanged.

Sequoia Capital is increasing its stake in knowledge process outsourcing firm eClerx Services Ltd.

The venture and growth capital investor has picked up an additional 2.9% stake in the BSE-listed eClerx through an open market transaction for Rs 29.7 crore ($6.53 million). With this deal, Sequoia now holds 9.7% in the firm, making it the largest institutional shareholder.

The stake has been bought by Nambe Investment Holdings, a foreign institutional investor (FII) sub account of Sequoia Capital India Operations LLC.

eClerx was one of the first Indian KPOs to go for an IPO and was listed in 2007. The company provides data analytics and data process management services to the retail, manufacturing and financial services industries.

Sequoia had initially picked up a 6.8% stake in eClerx for Rs 43 crore in August last year at a price of Rs 330. Since then, the stock has moved, hitting a high of Rs 540 on March 5.

A Sequoia spokesperson declined to comment on this development when contacted by Neytri.

The most recent stake by Sequoia was done at Rs 539.39. The stake was sold by Burwood Ventures, an investment firm based out of Virgin Islands which invested in eClerx in 2005. Burwood’s stake would now go down to around 5%. The shares of eClerx were trading at Rs 494.10 on Tuesday, marginally down from Monday’s close of Rs 495.45.

A niche outsourcing player, eClerx reported sales of Rs 69 crore with a net profit of Rs 21 crore for quarter ending December 2009. This as compared to sales of Rs 51 crore and net profit of Rs 16 crore in the same period in 2008.

Sequoia, which was earlier known as Westbridge, has backed a number of outsourcing and information technology plays in India. It has invested in business process outsourcing company Firstsource Solutions, software product development firm GlobalLogic and legal services outsourcing firm Pangea3.

Since the market meltdown in 2008, Sequoia has been an active player in the Indian capital market and building up stakes in listed firms. It has already profitably exited from IT services firm Cognizant Technology Solutions and Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm Nagarjuna Construction.

Sequoia, which manages around $1.8 billion across India-dedicated venture and growth capital funds, has also continued its pace of deal-making in the privately held firms. The firm is close to buying a 9.4% stake in rating agency Credit Analysis and Research Ltd (CARE) for Rs 73.5 crore ($16 million), reported Economic Times today. Sequoia declined to comment on this deal too.

If the deal materialises, it could be the first PE investment in a credit rating agency in the country. The deal would value CARE in excess of Rs 780 crore ($172 million).

Sequoia’s other recent investments include kitchen appliances company Stovekraft, microfinance institution Equitas, travel agency Via, eyecare clinic chain Vasan Health Care and local search firm Just Dial.

The IT Network will also be able to keep a tab on financing of terrorist organisations as well as money laundering trail in the country.

FIU-IND is the government arm which keeps a tab on all financial transactions in the country. About 10,000 financial organisations, including the stock exchanges are enlisted with it.

Infosys, TCS, erstwhile Satyam and Wipro had bid for the contract last year, out of which all except Satyam were shortlisted for final bidding. The contract was awarded to Wipro last month. The contract is estimated to be in the range of Rs 60-70 crore, though Wipro refused to confirm the size.

The Financial Intelligence Network (FINNet) will be connected FIUs of other countries and also to other departments like CBI, Income Tax and all banks in the country. Insurance companies and non banking financial institutions will also be mandated to report all irregular financial behaviour of consumers in the network.

Wipro will implement FINnet, which will involve development of a portal, datawarehousing, analytical and business intelligence applications and ERP implementation for the FIU.

An inhouse data centre will also be set up along with a disaster recovery unit. The project is scheduled to be completed in 24 months in different phases with a further service period of 36 months.

Arun Goyal, director FIU India, said: “FINnet will enhance our capabilities to collect financial information, analyse it and disseminate actionable information to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

The project assumes significance in the light of growing economic crimes within the country and the government’s efforts to arrest it.

Leela, the first South Asian Women’s Theatre Festival that began in the Capital on Monday, is an attempt to engage in dialogue through theatre with Saarc countries.

The festival features 14 plays from nine countries: six by India and the remaining from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Mynamar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The festival is in collaboration with the National School of Drama (NSD), Jamia Millia Islamia university and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). This follows the East and Southeast Asian women’s theatre festival in Purva, in 2003 by NSD.

The opening play, Nati Binodini (Hindi), is based on the autobiography of actor Binodini Dasi. It describes her entry into public life, and her courage in asserting her independence and identity. The director of the play is Amal Allana, NSD chairperson.

Says Anuradha Kapur, professor of acting and direction at the NSD: “A few of the plays look at mythology and they are absolutely contemporary adaptations of classical text, street performances. There’s also a whole range of works from written texts to devised text to new plays.” The festival, Kapur maintains, isn’t just directed and performed by women—it also aims at generating a dialogue between

South Asian women on the basis of common experiences.

Another highlight is Colombo Colombo: the story of your coffin being performed in Sinhala and English. The tragicomic musical is an experimental piece based in Colombo, consists of four independent episodes linked together through appearances of several characters and conditions. Its director Indika Ferdinando says, it is an attempt to explore her constant search for the magic in theatre and her identity within theatre practice.

Salsal and Shahmama, a play from Herat, Afghanistan, is yet another production to look out for. Performed in Dari, the play is based on the story of two sisters living near a Buddha statue of Bamyan. Through the course of the play the sisters find themselves witnessing the explosion and destruction of Buddha statues.

Prof. Veena Sikri of Jamia Millia Islamia, says the genesis of the festival lies in a debate held at the university in 2009, where seven connectors, or networks, between women across South Asia were identified, one of which was theatre. Through these networks women are able to share experiences, learn from each other, identify best practices, and work towards issue-based collaboration across South Asia based on agreed plans of action.

The play-list:

Sakubai (Hindi), 9 March, 6.30pm

Putaliko Ghar (Nepali), 9 March, 8.30pm

Dhonhiyala Alifulhu: A Love Story (English), 10 March, 6.30pm

Nagamandala (Punjabi), 10 March, 8.30pm

Jang Ab Nahin Hogi (Urdu), 11 March, 6.30pm

Sadakaiaya Jataka (Myanma Bhasa/Burmese), 11 March, 8.30pm

Draupadi (Manipuri), 12 March, 6.30pm

Thus Spake Shoorpanakha So Said Shakuni (English), 13 March, 6.30pm

Salsal and Shahmaama (Dari), 13 March, 8.30pm

Behular Bhasan (Bengali), 14 March, 6.30pm

Sonata (Indian English), 15 March, 6.30pm

Galem gi Lu—Galem’s Song (Dzongkha), 15 March, 8.30pm

Leela, South Asian Women’s Theatre Festival, will run till 15 March. The venues are Kamani Auditorium, Shri Ram Centre and Meghdoot open-air theatre. Free passes can be collected from the ICCR office and at the National School of Drama.

Coming close on the list are Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune ranked 2nd to 8th in the same order.

The Liveability Index 2010 was released by M Ramachandran, secretary, urban development ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Ramachandran said: “The ancient mega-cities of yesteryears are today emerging into mega-regions like the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). This calls for anticipated planning for transportation, infrastructure, environment, equitable access to resources and facilitating energy savings.”

Ironically, NCR has not been able to keep pace with Delhi’s development. Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad have been ranked 9th, 27th and 32nd, respectively.

The report was brought out after a study on 37 cities, ranked on the basis of eight parameters —demography, education, health and medical standards, safety, housing, socio-cultural and political environment, economic environment and natural built and planned environment.

An objective analysis was conducted by employing more than 300 indicators on a 10-year timeline across 20 constituent sub-parameters. This data-driven approach is a distinctive mark of reports by IFC, wherein no subjective opinion surveys are resorted to.

In contrast with media reports that have been questioning safety in Delhi, the IFC report puts Delhi as the safest city, while Bhopal and Bangalore follow. Delhi also tops the list in domains of education and economic environment, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore. On the education front, the poorest performers are Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, and Vadodara.

Mumbai tops in socio-political environment, followed by Delhi, Kolkata, Goa and Chennai. The city also leads in city-planning, followed by Chennai and Delhi.

Delhi also beat Mumbai in economic environment, while Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad were ranked 3rd to 7th in the same order. Patna (36th) and Visakhapatnam (37th) were lowest ranked in this category.

The truth is, you don’t have to post a message to get the most out of Twitter. At its best, the social medium is a perpetual, personalised news service about topics of your choosing — whether health care reform, tech news or the latest episode of “Gossip Girl” — filtered and served to you by people who care a lot about what you care a lot about.

Even the most prolific users say Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap in to the discussions of the day than to broadcast their own thoughts. And once you get pulled in, you might just find you have something to say after all.

Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, suggests that naysayers simply log on to Twitter’s home page and search for a topic they are interested in, whether it’s their favorite sports team, the name of their company or a topic in the news. Within a minute, they understand the appeal, he said.

Twitter users write 50 million messages a day. For the holdouts, here are a few ways to make Twitter work for you.

A custom news feed

By the time Bridget Baker, who works in public relations in Seattle, checks Google Reader while eating lunch at her desk, she has already read most of the articles in her feed because she saw them on Twitter.

In the year since she joined, she has written only 17 posts. “I tend to be a pretty private person. and I don’t feel I have anything that needs to be said,” she said. Yet she opens Twitter first thing each morning and follows friends, bloggers and thought leaders who post about politics, religion, fashion and food.

One-fifth of posts and 57 percent of repeat messages contain a link, proving that this is an increasingly popular way to spread news, said Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist who works at a software company called HubSpot. A quick scan reveals the news of the moment as the most important stories of the day bubble up and are reposted.

Check your lists

Twitter is such a fast-moving stream that you may not want to follow everyone who posts about your interests. That’s one reason Twitter invented Lists, which anyone can create. Someone could separate celebrity users, owners of food carts in New York or tech pundits, for example, so they get an unadulterated stream of news on only the topic they want at that moment.

If you don’t know who the best users are on a favorite topic, look for Lists on sites like Listorious or by checking profiles.

Janessa Goldbeck works in Washington for a rights organization, the Genocide Intervention Network. Each morning, she checks a few Twitter Lists of people who work in human rights. “I don’t want to follow all those people, but I can get a snapshot of the landscape each day by looking at the Lists,” she said. “It’s the quickest, most personalized news filter you could imagine.”

Attend a conference, virtually

Most conferences these days have a Twitter hashtag. At the exclusive TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., in February, for example, attendees added #TED to the end of their posts.

By searching #TED on Twitter, people could read the latest updates (and skip the $6,000 attendance fee). People wrote quotes from the speakers, like this one: “ ‘If I only had only one wish for the next 50 years, it’d be to invent the thing that halves the cost of CO2’ — Bill Gates #TED.”

Others told us what we were lucky to be missing: “last talk on evolution #TED was obvious, boring and put audience to sleep.”

What’s around you right now?

Twitter is working on ways to deliver news nearby, like alerts about an earthquake or the closing of a bridge, Mr. Stone said.

Some Twitter apps, like Tweetie and TwitterLocal, let you search posts near you. Check the Web site Happn.in to see the most discussed topics in your area.

People are coming up with makeshift ways to do something similar. During the recent snowstorm in Washington, people added #snowpocalypse to the end of their posts. By searching that term, Ms. Goldbeck said she read news about closings of government offices and Metro stops before she heard it elsewhere.

Ask questions

Once your Twitter writer’s block lifts, you can use Twitter to ask questions when you don’t know whom to ask.

Ask where to eat dinner in a new city, for example, or how to extend your iPhone’s battery life, and you are sure to get answers.

Some people are even using Twitter for more urgent questions. Bertalan Meskó, a medical student at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, wrote a post about a patient with mysterious symptoms: “Strange case today in internal medicine rotation. 16 years old boy with acute pancreatitis (for the 6th! time). Any ideas?”

Within hours, specialists worldwide had responded, suggesting gallstones, lupus or growths on the pancreas. One of the suggestions helped the doctors with a diagnosis.

“It would have been impossible to find that specialist through e-mail, because we had no idea who to contact,” Mr Meskó said.