Entrepreneurship – Craze of Present Generation

An Entrepreneurship sets up an enterprise for profit motive and rightly so. But if you start your business with the ‘Show me the money’ attitude, rest be assured that you will not go very far!

Ever wondered why in the world of Entrepreneurship, some carve a niche for themselves and stand out from the crowd, while others, even though successful, have a mundane existence?

Well it all lies on certain qualities that an Entrepreneur may possess or the way certain activities are conducted by him/her. Here are special skills which you need to hone to become the Successful Entrepreneur.

Everybody has a certain goal in life which just refuses to go away or change. You must understand this goal to be the calling of your life. Write down this goal – It will time and again remind you, how important it is to achieve this goal and will not let you sleep till you achieve it and become a celebrated Entrepreneur.

Share your Dream with Right people Law of Entrepreneurship

In this world of make belief, you should be able to distinguish between the good, bad and the ugly. Many Entrepreneurial dreams die a quite death because somebody labelled it ‘stupid’ and constantly put you down till you also started believing your dream to be stupid and chose to abandon it. Share your dreams with only those whom you trust and are actually the propellers of your life.

Find yourself a MentorKey Role in Entrepreneurship

Someone who has already been there after many trials and turbulence is the right person to advice you. Somebody who has been there and done with can impart some priceless wisdom which you can use to carve a niche for yourself. But you must be very clear about what you will gain from the mentor-men-tee relationship. This will determine whom you can tap for assistance. The right Mentor will always short-cut your leaning process and give you the push you need and help you to stay task focused.

Observe deeply and Practice Incessantly

An Entrepreneur must consciously set aside some quite time to take on board any new ideas, things to learn and allow your mind to wander. You never know what your ‘downtime’ can fetch your business! Similarly only incessant practice will make an Entrepreneur perfect. Short cuts have never helped anyone in life. It is only your endurance for more and more practice that will give you results.

Seek Challenges in Life

The yardstick of success of an Entrepreneur is measured by the challenges he/she has overcome. Never be scared to consciously seek challenges in your Entrepreneurial life. Remember challenges are not setback of life. They are simply life’s way of requesting you to make full use of the resources and tools available with you to resolve them.

As an Entrepreneur you must have the skill set to select the right tool at the right time to overcome the challenge.

Welcome Criticism – Challenge in Entrepreneurship

In your journey as an Entrepreneur, be ready to welcome criticism from associates/stakeholders/clients/ and sometimes even friends and family. There will be people out, there highly critical of your product/service. You must possess the gall to take such criticism in your stride and take them positively. If praise motivates you, then criticism must stimulate you to do better and better, not the opposite. If you cannot accept criticism, then your ego is getting in the way of your best judgement.

Be Self Driven not Ego Driven

An Entrepreneur must be proud, confident, self assured but not ego driven. Be humble and let your feet be planted firmly on the ground. Let your actions and achievements speak for you, not your boating and bragging. The more you brag, the more will sound phony. Remember, it is the empty vessel which makes the most noise.

Carve a niche for yourself

An entrepreneur must try to find out his niche area. Each of us has a special ability, a quite story which sets us apart from others. Play around with this strength and craft your own persona. Of you try to become a carbon copy of some you admire, you will never be able to make a name for yourself. Remember, the original always looks better than the copy. So leave your idol on the pedestal to be admired from a distance.

What Goes Around Comes Back.

As an Entrepreneur, you must try and help and benefit others. Give whatever you have in abundance- your time. your service or knowledge to those who are badly in need of it. You will be amazed at what you stand to gain when you give it to others.

Value Learning over Money – Basics of Entrepreneurship

An Entrepreneur sets up an enterprise for profit motive and rightly so. But if you start your business with the ‘Show me the money’ attitude, rest be assured that you will not go very far! Instead show humility and value what you have learnt in your journey as an Entrepreneur. Money will follow you steadily and surely, if you apply what you have learnt.

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you could become an Entrepreneur, be thankful that you could learn your failures, be thankful that you are at the receiving end of so many blessings and above all, be thankful that you are alive!

Gratitude always unlocks the fullness of your life and indeed will make you the celebrated “A Successful” Entrepreneur.

Government Intervention and the Nigerian Economy: Present, Past and Future

For most of its existence since independence in 1960, economic development in Nigeria has been determined by state planning and direct government participation. Inclement policies pursued by successive military regimes amid the rough of tumble of Nigeria’s chaotic past resulted in massive macroeconomic imbalances that are still inherent to Nigeria. The country’s historically agrarian economy was transformed almost overnight with the discovery of vast oil and gas reserves, forcing a culpable overdependence on hydrocarbons that eventually blocked economic diversification. The oil boom of the 1970s brought further devastation to agriculture and traditional livelihoods and ushered in massive unemployment and food shortages across the country. Human development indices had plunged to among of the lowest in the world by the turn of the 20th Century, and the ‘Nigerian Paradox’ of extreme poverty despite substantial national wealth was born. Even today, 54% of Nigeria’s 148 million people live in extreme poverty on a daily income of less than $11.

Government intervention in the economy during military rule was mostly characterised by sporadic and often ill-informed policies that delivered meagre, if any, results. The IMF-funded Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of 1986 was one of the first attempts to relax decades of economic regulation. However, there was little domestic consensus on measures outlined in the programme and the tough market reforms that the state of the economy demanded never really came through. Bureaucratic incompetence and corruption were largely to blame for this bad experience in reforms which also strained Nigeria’s relations with international financial organisations including the World Bank. Some positive signs emerged in the mid 1990s, when trade liberalisation brought down tariff rates and import dependence while opening up the economy to foreign investors. Further, Abuja revoked laws allowing monopoly public sector enterprises in petroleum, telecommunications and power to encourage private participation in important areas. These measures together helped push GDP growth up to 2.5% between 1993 and 1997, reversing an average decline of 2% registered over earlier years2. However, the recovery came at the price of low growth in the non-oil economy, which continued to flounder amid falling demand and low liquidity.

The peaceful transition to civilian governance in 1999 brought with it relative political stability and paved the way for a more aggressive set of reforms. A resurgent Nigeria signed the UN Millennial Declaration for universal basic human rights by 2015 and adopted ambitious plans for accelerated economic growth in a time-bound manner. A number of positive developments have occurred in the Nigerian economy since 2001:

* Under former President O Obasanjo, the government embarked on a massive privatisation drive, disinvesting in several major oil, steel, mining and port operations.

* International reserves saw healthy growth from $41 billion in 2006 to well over $52 billion in 2009. The average inflation rate dropped from close to 18% in 2005 to 11% in 20083.

* Nigerian lawmakers enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Bill in 2007, institutionalising the deregulation of oil prices. A Public Procurement Bill was also passed the same year.

* In 2004, a bank consolidation plan was executed to strengthen financial institutions and improve their credit capacity for private sector businesses.

* Nigeria’s bulk of outstanding foreign debt was conditionally waived off by the London and Paris Clubs, allowing for increased government spending on poverty alleviation programmes.

Perhaps the most optimistic of recent signs have been observed in the non-oil sector, which doubled since 2001 and currently accounts for 7% of GDP. Another success story is the revival of agriculture and its growth to 42% of GDP by 2008. Although oil continues to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, contributing 85% of all revenues, recent governments have wizened up to the idea that the country’s tall ambitions cannot be fulfilled without rapid economic diversification. The answer, given the country’s abundant human capital and natural resources, is rapid business development in the SME space. Nigeria has a great opportunity and an even greater obligation to foment an enterprise revolution that will radically transform its economic landscape.

The following are some of the broad parameters Nigeria must be guided by while formulation economic policy interventions in this regard:

* Creating a central body with responsibility to coordinate all policies relating to start-ups and existing enterprises.

* Creating a mass base of viable enterprises across the non-oil economy by promoting private sector equity participation.

* Reinforcing micro-finance institutions to enhance loan-disbursement capacity for small businesses.

* Cutting down on high operating costs with tax breaks and financial incentives directed at entrepreneurs.

* Removing institutional deterrents that lead most new and emerging enterprises to operate in the informal economy.

* Improving technical support for rural enterprises that continue to operate using outdated practices.

* Improving entrepreneurial productivity through tertiary skills development and vocational training programmes.

Given the vagaries of its economic history, Africa’s second largest economy faces tremendous hurdles in securing a better place for itself in global rankings. Nigeria has not had a particularly impressive track record in terms of timely economic intervention, as the gathering banking crisis demonstrates. What Nigeria needs today are aggressive, pro-active policies that have the full benefit of both its past experiences and its future aspirations!

Reading Older Books Often Reveals the Basics That are Often Covered in Present Day Buzzwords

For those who really want to know their industry and really want to understand the basic fundamentals and underlining philosophy of such – it is recommended to have not only the newest and latest books on the subject, but also the books of days gone by.

Why you ask? Well, often new books are riddled with buzz-words and new hooks to help them sell, yet fail to address the reality behind it all. This is why our online think tank often reads older books and discusses them and then considers the implications of the changes and what those books were saying at the time. Great understanding can come from this sort of reading and deep digging for reality sake. Below are listed many books, with a short commentary as to why this information deserves further consideration.

“Feel the Fear And Do it Anyway – Dynamic Techniques for Turning Fear, Indecision, and Anger into Power, Action and Love” by Susan Jeffers, PhD. 1987. This work is very complete and it starts out by defining what fear is and how to figure out what you are afraid of and why.

Next it explains how to make it go away, to conquer your fears and use your new found knowledge to increase your personal power. Going for complainer to achiever and how to spot someone else who is limiting themselves by fear – she takes the book from the action phase to the life balance phase and turning your life into a wonderful experience full of success, enjoyment, fulfillment and love.

With fear tactics being used for political reasons and social control or even to increase media outlet loyalty – one needs to understand fear, its psychological buttons and how to overcome it all, if they are to survive and capitalize on the chaos created by others and accepted by the masses. We know that fear depletes vitamins in the body and causes stress, this also affects the bio-systems ability to operate efficiently and allow the brain the nutrients necessary for higher levels of reasoning and thought.

“The Technique of Handling People – Eleven Helps for your Human Relations” – by Donald A. Laird & Eleanor C. Laird 1954. This book is great to help people get along with others and is similar to “How to Win Friends and Influence People” in many regards. It starts by giving the reader tips in human relations, winning cooperation, clearing up troubles, becoming a confidant, arousing enthusiasm. There are chapters on harnessing criticism and turning it around, boosting loyalty, securing best efforts through praise and generating harmony in groups or personal relationships when it really counts. Finally, it explains the difference between leading and driving an organization or group.

Should we be appeasing hard to deal with people or rather get them to change on their own free will, allowing them to realize that if they will modify their behavior in the working environment everyone, including them will win – fellow employees, customers, themselves and the company. Why should all of us dealing with hard to deal with people develop psychological skills to counteract these problems?

“Help Yourself – A Guide to Self-Change” by Jerry A. Schmidt 1976. This short book is broken into parts, and the first part explains the need to be motivated to make a change, as you cannot help anyone against their will, including or especially yourself. It is necessary to set goals, be motivated to attain these goals and admit that you need a change. In part II, it explains more of the philosophy, methodology, techniques, tactics and strategies to complete the process to a new you.

So many people who are unhappy constantly blame others for their conditions, and refuse to look in their own mirrors. It is hard to evoke a positive change in others without them buying into a plan to change them selves. There are numerous self-help books out there, but no one is going to change until they decide they are ready. Once they do such self-help books are relevant, choosing the best one for the situation is too.

“Peak Performers – The New Heroes of American Business” by Charles Garfield 1986. This book starts out with the search for peak performance and expectation driven results, as it gives tips of where to find peak performers in large organizations. How to collect evidence, do research and profile those who are walking their talk. How to find those who love what they do and do it well. Next the book explains how to accelerate the organizations achievement and understand the growth curve, where to invest in human resources and use this inherent talent.

The book explains how to master your own skills, hone in on your talents and self manage your own peak performance. Next the book discusses how to leverage your own strengths within a team and lead the entire team to achieve more, by leading by example. How to handle change management and maintain peak performance while setting up the perfect team. The book is not only about peak performance of you and your team, it is much about winning, going all the way.

There is a lot of talk about the poor work ethic in today’s workforce. Many say that we need to give accolades, kudos and praise to produce performance, but us in the old school find it hard to praise those who are not giving their best efforts and insist that they are doing as much as should be expected. Giving the minimum never produced superior results for any organization, so this book peak performers is relevant and a must read for those who wish to win.

“Writing Business Letters and Memos – Getting your message across, Write with authority, Keep a reliable paper trail, Reply to co-workers and the boss with Confidence” by Havis Dawson 1993. The book is short, but filled with great information, explaining right off the bat what is wrong with most business letters and why they fail to communicate properly and how you can change that and not make the same mistakes. The book offers tips of layout, format, grammar and hooking the reader’s interest. Next it discusses the many types of letters like sales letters, complaint letters, collection letters, requests for information, business memos, faxes and how to do a proper email.

“Better Letters – A Handbook of Business and Personal Correspondence” by Jan Venolia 1982. If you recognize the name, she is the same author of Write Right, which has become a classic amongst authors and writers. She starts by discussing letter writing style, organizing your thoughts and composing them into perfection. Listed are all sorts of Business Letter type formats and the next chapter discusses personal type letters and the vast differences. The book even has a chapter of how to be the benevolent dictator, promoting an agenda in harmony and getting results.

The art of business letter writing seems to be lost these days, as you read your email correspondence, you should consider how things have changed. Often we see abbreviated words used by text-message’rs and wonder what on Earth is this person thinking sending this in an email? Other times we read very professional emails, which say nothing at all and are laden with buzz words, how can we take any of this seriously?

“The IBM Way – Insight into the World’s Most Successful Marketing Organization” by Buck Rodgers with Robert Shook – and foreword by Tom J. Peters. 1986. The book dives right into the implications of a business and its beliefs and how leadership guides or detracts from its mission. How IBM built a sales and marketing strategy that dominated the high-tech world by focusing on the customer and the future – then monitored the success, paid more than fairly and maintained an entrepreneurial spirit in the process.

In hindsight, one has to ask if the ideas in this book are reality based, they seem to be, but then again IBM is not nearly the company it once was. Is it because they lost their way from these policies and strategies or because of them? Things have sure changed, did IBM walk the talk or is this just another book hyping an unattainable utopian business climate that never really fully existed?

“Guerilla Marketing with Technology – Unleashing the full potential of your small business” by Jay Conrad Levinson – 1997. This book is the same as Guerilla Marketing, but with a technology based focus when marketing. It goes into real world scenarios with real small business owners asking questions and getting world-class advice from Jay Levinson.

It is ten years later and the world has really grown up now with social networking websites, AdSense ads on all the websites, so many variations of marketing strategies on the Internet, perhaps it is time for another book to help folks enjoy guerrilla marketing with the latest new tools, mobile marketing and innovative technologies?

“Future Scope – Success Strategies for the 1990s & Beyond” by Joe Cappo – 1990. The book discusses the challenge in predicting the future and the fine art of forecasting. Then it explains the issues with the population demographic shifts, immigrant labor and planning for the retirement of the baby boomers. Indeed, everything we are seeing now.

He discusses the middle class issues, many of which he got incorrect. He admits in advance that things can change along with consumer buying behavior and predicting people’s future tastes. He talks about the fitness craze as well. Attitude towards work, play, convenience and the FutureScope.

“Five Great Rules of Selling” by Persy H. Whiting – 1957. This is another one of those old classics on selling, and the advice is good and relevant, and mostly timeless. It is a good book to read to understand the foundation and fundamentals of selling, that so many new entrants either forget or fail to use to their own folly. This book is a remake of “The 5 Great Rules of Selling” that was a hit in the 1940’s. The book gets into the importance of product knowledge, getting the appointment, arousing interest, producing conviction and interest, closing the sale, overcoming objections, repeat business and referrals, working efficiently and scheduling, etc.

“Ziglar on Selling – the ultimate handbook for the complete sales professional” by Zig Ziglar – 1991. Zig Ziglar tells us why selling is paramount to our economy and how it is the oldest profession and why selling in the modern market is a honor and a good career choice. He discusses prospecting, cold calling, meetings, sales process, handling objections, closing the sale, dealing with people, getting referrals, making friends, solving problems, developing interest, desire, and rounds out all the potential topics on the subject of selling.

“One Smart Cookie” (the Story of Mrs. Fields Cookies) by Debbi Fields and Alan Furst – 1987. Here is a lady who never spent one penny on advertising, used intuition to make decisions, gave away cookies for free and ignored all the marketing experts, their advice and papers. Here philosophy and story of success is intriguing and fascinating. Her motto: Good enough, never is. And; If you chase the only the money, you will never have any. An American success story, well worth reading.

Sometimes all the business advice in the world is worthless, without a hard charger behind the push forward. Then again, with a superstar entrepreneur, well, they can often get it done anyway, without using conventional methods. The will to win, and succeed is worth all the strategic methodology in the world

“100 Ways to Make Money in Your Spare Time, Starting with Less than $100” by John Stockwell and Herbert Holtje – 1972. The first 238 pages list literally 100 different types of businesses that you can start on the cheap and how they operate and make money. Next there are chapters on business formation, selling, marketing, buying a business opportunity and record keeping.

If one is to read the Entrepreneur 500 today or any of the wonderful books by Robert Bond listing all the possible franchise opportunities, in contrast to this older book in 1972, we see very few innovations really. Although things do change, and have changed with technology, they have not changed nearly as much as we a lead to believe or nearly as fast as we think they will.

“Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Practice and Principles” by Peter Drucker – 1985. Participating in the entrepreneurial economy means you must understand what it is and how it works and Mr. Drucker starts out by explaining it in the introduction before he even starts the book. Fostering innovation, understanding the animal and using this knowledge to produce constant and continual creativity in business is the first section and next he explains entrepreneurship in action and how practicing these techniques and strategizing can produce winning products and services and methods for marketing them.

What an interesting book to read again now that we have experienced another two decades of constant innovations. Amazing that some of these strategies seem so obvious now and it is equally as interesting that even with all the modern communication, that the underlining foundations of innovation creation are similar.

“Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun” by Wess Roberts, PhD. – 1987. The book is a quick history of who Attila the Hun was and how he commanded respect and leadership in his time. The book takes some of these strategies and puts them into a modern context. How one must desire to lead, honor customs, pick your enemies wisely, responsibilities of leaders, decisiveness, delegating, negotiation, discretion, and leaving with dignity.

Despite the current accepted methods of “feel good leadership” one thing should be noted and that is that leading by fear, strength, honor and conviction also works. There are times no matter what any Neo-Feel Good psychologist tells you, that such methods would be wise to employ. Surely, not a topic that will make you many friends discussing, but the reality is it works.

“Inflation Can Be Stopped” by Robert S. Morrison – 1973. This is an excellent book for folks to read who do not understand the problems of challenges of inflation. It was written by a street-smart entrepreneur and businessman and is easily understood by the average readership. Mr. Morrison explains what inflation is and why it is so important. He explains how to deal with it and control it and why we must.

Those who often speak on economic issues of our time ought to have this minimum background knowledge and perhaps this book on their bookshelf as well. The FED fears inflation and for good reason, inflation comes with it, huge economic implications and we as citizens owe it to ourselves to understand what it is and how it works.

Can you now see why it is important to read older books too, rather than just the every day new buzz-word books, hyping and hooking you with new sub-themes? Think on this topic a bit, see what you come up with?

Graphic Design – Topography and Images to Present Information

Meaning

Graphic design is process of visual communication using topography and images to present information and attract people. It gives an interesting mix of presenting varied information in attractive formats to increase the overall users’ base. Whether you are reading your morning papers or commuting by a public bus, or open a book to read, element of graphics can be seen every where. It gives a great way to express your thoughts, ideas and opinion to reach millions of other users. This creative process involves different formats of graphics, which are easily available in today’s world:

Logos

Logo is an important form of graphics that conveys lots of ideas to its readers and users. A logo provides identify to the vision and the purpose of the organizations or any other agencies. In addition, it is difficult to register a company without a valid logo attached with it.

Websites

Websites reflect the major works of graphics aiming to attract promising clients to the organization. So, make sure your website reflect good piece of information prepared through graphic design services.

Business Cards

Business cards are essential in this competitive business boasting world. An impressive business card can get you really good impact and you will be successful to express your mind freely and effectively.

Advertisements

Graphics in advertisements have a specific role to play. You can hire a graphic design company to get your advertisement really rocking and reflecting you ideology.

Brochures

Brochures also consist major graphic designing in it. Without a good design, a brochure may not look very impressive. So, graphic can bring a life in brochures.

Billboards

Billboards or hoardings consist of advertisements promoting a product or services so the major attraction point is graphic designing.

Product Packaging

Nowadays, product packaging has a definite role to play in the promotion of a product or a service. Packaging clinches eyes positively and gives you several benefits in future context.

Posters

Posters are one of the popular methods to express the ideas and opinions. Therefore, it becomes necessary to make it really effective with lots of graphics and pictures in it.

Book Design

Graphic has a definite role to play in book designing. While designing a book, it is necessary to represent the content of the book to attract the promising readers.

Magazine Layout

Magazines offer wide information about varied subjects and current happenings. Therefore, it has to be attractive enough to tempt readers to go through its pages. So, the role of graphics can be really important here.

Newspaper Layout

While layout a newspaper, the importance of graphics can not be ignored. Anything colorful and informative attracts readers to a great extent.

Greeting Cards

In greeting cards too, graphics can do wonders and equally express your ideas to the fullest.

FM Radio: Hot Favourite Among the Present Generation of Hyderabadis

Radio is now back again as the centre stage of entertainment in the Hyderabad city. Justifying the popular saying ‘Old is Gold’, radio, with the advent of FM, became the hotspot again. FM radio has made its comeback in to the mechanical life of Hyderabadis at the right time. The diverse variety of entertainment programs aired by different FM radio channels is one of the key aspects that obliged people to consider radio as one of the important entertainment media.

Hyderabad is a cosmopolitan city; people from different cultures and traditions stay and work in Hyderabad. Entertaining this diversified group of people is not that easy. But with the unique range of programs tailored to meet the tastes and interests of different people, FM radio became popular within a very short span. Let us drill down into this topic further and look at different factors which swayed Hyderabadis to tune into FM radio.

Availability of portable and affordable FM radio systems:

Besides, being available in pocket radios and small compact boxes with built-in speakers at an affordable price as low as Rs.100, FM radio is also available as an add-on application in every model of mobile phone, even in basic models. Thus, the availability, portability, and affordability made it popular among different groups of people. From housewives, small business owners, petty shops, students, to employees, all are frequent listeners of FM radio.

Radio is part of daily routine for many small businesses and households in the city.

Once tuned in, the owners of petty shops like hair cutting saloons, tailoring shops, beauty parlours, vegetable shops, etc., and also the drivers in APSRTC buses, cabs, and autos continuously listen to different programs until they log off from their jobs. Even for many housewives it is a favourite past time. For many students and employees who commute by city buses and personal vehicles to their workplaces, it is like a mobile entertainer. They listen to it on the way to their destinations and enjoy their journey.

Unique features of current gen Hyderabad FM radio:

Latest technology, quality of service, interesting programs, reaching a wider range of audience distinguished FM radios from the old ones. Now, let us see what the unique features of current generation FM radios are:

• Best company during long distance traveling!

Be it students or professionals, no one can escape long and tiresome journeys in Hyderabad. With most engineering colleges situated in the city outskirts, students have to spend more than 2 hours on their to and fro journey. Hence, it is quite common to see many students hooked on to their mobiles, listening to FM radio, during their journey. Even their college buses, can’t do without radios.

With most companies being situated near to the outer ring road, commuting for work takes not less than 3-4 hours, especially if the people are moving from one corner to the other corner of the city – Dilsukhnagar or Medchal to Hitech city. Hence, the only entertaining and lively company one can expect during such long distance traveling are the FM radios.

• Not just entertainment, functional and live updates too!

Traffic updates! Hyderabad traffic woes are atrocious – this is why most of the Hyderabadis even in their busiest schedules or in their serious mood will not forget to tune to FM radio. Traffic updates every 30 minutes are surely of great help to divert and take the easiest possible way.

Apart from the traffic updates, many of our FM channels offer a quick wrap up on different events, programs (schedules), the list of most important events and their venues in the city, news updates, score updates during cricket seasons – perfect to plan your day or weekend. Besides, there are news updates at least once in a day. Also, to know any sudden political update or important news, these FM radio stations are great sources to keep you on toes.

• Programs in sync with local flavour and with a touch of international and national flavour!

Any show that is just not a typical Urdu-Telugu mix-up, is hard to get noticed by Hyderabadis. Though, Hyderabadis are fans of all kinds of music, the conversations in a typical Urdu-Telugu-English mix slang appeal to Hyderabadis a lot, and importantly they reflect the cosmopolitan culture of Hyderabad. Besides Telugu, English and Hindi songs are also played.

Few shows like ‘Full to Bindaas’ in Red FM is purely dedicated to Hyderabad audiences who enjoy the native slang (Telangana Urdu-Telugu mix) of the RJ Prathika. Other shows such as, ‘Gabbar Sher’ in Radio City, which is a compilation of funny shayaris inspired from Hyderabadi Muslims, is a great hit equally among Hyderabadis as well as non-natives.

• Reaching out to listeners personally!

Participation of audience is always part of radio culture, but only the way they participate has changed now. Phone calls, e-mails have taken the place of letters. To request their favourite song or to comment on a topic or to have a casual talk with their favourite RJ, people find the direct interactive phone-in programs highly interesting.

Some of the popular shows:

Many innovative, entertaining as well as informational programs with unique concepts are being aired these days. If a few shows are a hit among the public for their concepts/ideas, few are because of the RJs. The following are successful in entertaining the Hyderabadis.

• Morning shows like ‘Happy Mornings’ (Big FM), Hello Hyderabad (Radio Mirchi), etc.

• Comedy skits like ‘Breaking News Babu Rao’ (Radio Mirchi), ‘Raj Ke Saath Bakra Bajega’ (Red FM), etc.

• Programs airing old songs such as ‘Cassette classics’, ‘Geetanjali’, etc. (Radio Mirchi), Kal Bhi Aaj Bhi (Radio City).

• Special programs like ‘Kitty party’, which are specially meant for ladies

• Programs with only English songs like ‘Heart’, ‘Heart of Matter’ (Rainbow FM)

• Listener choice shows such as ‘Aap ki Farmaish’, ‘Jana Ranjani’ (Vividh Bharthi)

• Programmes like ‘Big Charminar’, Paanch Pataka (Red FM) that play 4 and 5 songs continuously at every top of the hour without any break.

Apart from these, other program forms such as contests, phone-ins, latest film songs are highly appreciated by Hyderabad listeners.

Entertaining the present net-savvy generation through an age-old entertainment format is highly challenging, but the FM radio has overcome the challenge successfully.

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