Books
OTP Please!
OTP Please! delves into the rapidly expanding world of electronic commerce and the human stories behind it. Based on extensive field research across South Asia—from Peshawar to Patna and Colombo to Kathmandu—the book brings together diverse voices from the digital marketplace: consumers, small sellers, gig workers, and the technology platforms that connect them.
OTP Please!
A great shift is underway in how we buy, eat, move, work and sell owing to technological intervention. Tech platforms—whether a Swiggy, Amazon or Uber in India, a PickMe in Sri Lanka or a Pathao in Bangladesh and Nepal—have eased the pressure of modern life. They have freed up our time, provided jobs to grateful millions, and delivered guilty pleasures and last-minute necessities to online buyers.
But behind the dazzle of the digital, much is opaque. Gig workers live a precarious life, while internet retailers cope with the oppressive rules of global behemoths. Consumers wonder if there are consequences to instant gratification and extreme ease of living.
OTTP Retail delves into the wondrous new world of e-commerce by connecting diverse stories and perspectives gathered across South Asia—from Delhi to Dhaka, Colombo to Kathmandu. It explores the emotional dynamics between the different actors on this stage, the workings of tech companies and the implications for policy. Deeply personal and broadly nuanced, this book is essential reading to understand this extraordinary digital age we inhabit.
Urban Villager
Life in an Indian Satellite Town
Urban Villager is a superbly etched and finely detailed representation of the life of an ‘urban villager’ in a modern satellite town of India. It describes how Delhi, as a city, is growing radially, stretching its way into the rural fringes of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that border the city to form the National Capital Region.
Through the microcosm of Greater Noida, a suburb of New Delhi, the author draws a portrait of life in a semi-urban town, where billion dollar homes and villages with no sewage system share the same pin code. Some farmers sell their land and try to cope with a new found prosperity; others refuse and break into agitations that make newspaper headlines. A builder destroys a wetland to make a township while the middle class in high rises frets about power and security. A few kilometres away, the Formula One event hosts international celebrities amidst bewildered villagers. Living here is being witness to the contradictions and ironies that occur when India is forced to co-exist with Bharat.
The author frequently draws parallels with similar kinds of urbanisation on the outskirts of other Indian metros. Across the country, the city gobbles up more and more of what was once the countryside―whether it is Sriperumbudur in Chennai, Belapur in Mumbai, Yelahanka on the outskirts of Bengaluru or Rajarhat New Town in Kolkata. No matter where you live in India, the story of this book could be the story you see in your city.
Tough Customer
Tough Customer is the 'Aam Aadmi's' guide to consumer awareness. The forces of liberalization, privatization and globalization, while leaving the Indian buyer spoilt for choice, have also put him in a spot when it comes to issues of customer service, defective products and unfair trade practices. Who can he turn to for advice? Negotiating the legal minefield is a nightmare for many. In this book, author and columnist Vandana Vasudevan defines your fresh identity as an Indian consumer in a whole new way. You should rapidly learn to transform yourself, she tells us in no uncertain terms, into a tough customer.
The book begins by outlining the rights that Indian consumers have, illustrating them with daily-life examples from packaged food, telecom, airlines, banking, vegetable markets, domestic maid agencies, amusement parks, cosmetics and many, many more areas. The section on the decline in the fine art of customer service is sure to resonate with you as will the part that shows how well-meaning laws have failed to protect our interests. The onus is no less on us. The privilege of consumer rights comes with the duties of being a responsible consumer, she cautions us.
Thought-provoking, enlightening and at the same time entertaining, this book is for you, the regular Indian buyer. Written in an accessible, jargon-free style, Tough Customer is sure to make you sit up and think about the choices you now have in the market. Best of all, there is a toolkit at the end of the book that will be a ready reckoner for daily reference.