Two Decades of Frooti

Twenty-five years have passed since Parle Agro introduced the drink Frooti in 1985 and entered the fruit beverage market. It natural choice of flavor for Fruit was the most loved fruit in India, mango. India has a large craving for the fruit mango and for Parle Agro it was without a doubt their first flavor. Parle Agro partnered with DaCunha Communications to create Frooti. The launching budget of Frooti was twenty lakh and more than half of it was spent on television advertising.

“Mango Frooti… fresh n juicy” was the tag line that immediately put Frooti in the market, but more importantly is the packing of the drink. Parle Agro with their partners decided to make their packing different. While most cold drinks were packaged and sold in glass bottles, Frooti was packed and sold in tetra packs. The biggest advantage tetra packs had over glass bottles was its mobility. Frooti could be carried around much easier than glass bottles. It was fortunate for Parle Agro that their partners had previously worked for Amul who were already using tetra packs for their milk products.

The first advertising of Frooti focused on the packing. The audience was amazed with a drink that one could punch a straw in and walk around with it. People came to cities to take away cartons of the drink.

As Frooti advertising developed a lot of fun and cool ads were created. Advertisements used pretty girls in mini-skirts, hula-hoops, use of CG and people diving into a pool of Frooti. Local Publicity stunts as such as Frooti hanging from trees which people could pluck were done. In 2010, Frooti revamped themselves and created a new advertising campaign called the ‘Mango Surprise’. Giant mango were dropped from trees and rolled down roads on unsuspecting pedestrians. These moments were captured by hidden cameras and edited to create TVCs.

After twenty five years Frooti still holds a leading position in the mango fruit market. Frooti is continuously embarking on new campaigns to adapt to the changing consumer, yet their core brand value of being a cool and fun drink has not been lost.

Nuclear Boy and Japanese Change

When an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude hit the Japan sea and sent created a tsunami that created the Fukushima problem. While the international news blared about this, Nuclear Boy was created. Nuclear Boy was a cartoon helped children understand the nuclear disaster that loomed above a country that was over half submerged in water. Nuclear Boy had an upset tummy that gave him stinky poo and so he was given medicine of sea water and boron. This program also helped adults comprehend the vast number of photos and reports that they came across.

Though the dark days are behind them and Nuclear Boy has become much better, Japan has started to rebuild itself. Densu one of the world’s largest communications and marketing service recently conducted a test on health of the Japanese consumer who have for a decade consumed both local and global brands. However the Japanese have drastically changed their lifestyle and consumption habits.

The Japanese crisis has a given birth to a new type of consumer. They are called New Lifestyle Seekers. At the head of their list is to be more prepared and responsive to disasters and to help victims. They place importance on living with nature and valuing relation with Mother Nature and human beings. Their philosophy is to consume just the basic need and be careful not to waste natural resources. Brands and marketing departments will have to revamp their strategies for such rising number of consumers.

This new take on life is seen traditional Japanese brands. “Do what you can now while looking forward tomorrow” is the new line from Toyota to promote the nation’s recuperation and to promote eco-driving. Panasonic has also come out with a line- “Lets each one of us do what we can” with goal to increase awareness of energy saving methods.

Whatever it is, the Japanese crisis has changed the face of consumers and brands are adapting to that.

India and Somali Piracy

Somali piracy is a constant international problem that the world is still coming to grips with. Piracy is coming more and more closer to our waters. It is making trading and transporting of goods across water dangerous.

For any serious action to be taken be countries they will have to:

- Conduct naval patrolling in the waters where the pirates operate.

- Strengthen the costal defense to prevent them from entering and venturing towards are coast.

- Identifying their bases in Somalia and neutralizing them.

- Create a full proof strategy to deal with hijack and hostage situations.

- Create an a justice system to deal with captured Somali pirates.

- Cooperation and coordination with other countries patrolling the area.

The international world is not ready to help stabilize the Somalia failed state. Not even the US is in a position to undertake this. Stabilizing Somalia has been even made difficult with the strong and developing influence of Al-Qaeda.

The Indian Coast Guard and Navy have had some success in intercepting Somali pirates. However if we want to Indian Coast Guard and Navy to develop a strong negotiation strategy. There will be increasing difficulties in freeing and realizing captured sailors.

The Pakistan Navy has some major advantages when securing the release of Pakistani sailors as the Pakistan Navy has the influence of Tablighi Jamaat which has a strong presence in Somalia. The Indian government does not have access to such advantages.

Indian Coast Guard and Navy needs to develop an efficient tactical plan to handle Somali pirates and hostage situations. Unlike other hostage rescues, a high seas one is much difficult than the one on land.

To efficiently tackle the problem of Somali piracy the international worlds needs to increases in cooperation with each other. A regional counter piracy organization must be set up to create this.

Somali Piracy must not be ignored and must be dealt with before it spreads and becomes a major problem.

Lokpal or Jan Lokpal Bill?

The Lokpal Bill has been drafted by two camps. One is of the Government and another is of the Anna Hazare camp.

However what are the main differences and problems of their drafts.

According to Wikipedia the differences are :

Difference between Draft Lokpal Bill 2010 and Jan Lokpal Bill[11]
Draft Lokpal Bill (2010)	Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman Bill)
Lokpal will have no power to initiate suo motu action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. It can only probe complaints forwarded by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.	Lokpal will have powers to initiate suo motoaction or receive complaints of corruption from the general public.
Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body with a role limited to forwarding reports to a "Competent Authority".	Lokpal will be much more than an Advisory Body and have the power to initiate prosecution of anyone found guilty.
Lokpal will have no police powers and no ability to register an FIR or proceed with criminal investigations.	Lokpal will have police powers as well as the ability to register FIRs.
The CBI and Lokpal will be unconnected.	Lokpal and the anti corruption wing of the CBI will be one independent body.
Punishment for corruption will be a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of up to 7 years.	Punishments will be a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of up to life imprisonment.

According to me both these Bills have major problems.

The Problems in the Government Draft:

- The Lokpal will work only on an advisory capacity: I find this unacceptable. Most bodies, Committees and commissions that are given advisory power are not effective. Most times no action is taken. For Lokpal to be effective it will have to be given an independent power on the lines of the judiciary and the election commission.

- The Government Draft proposes that Lokpal can take cases only given by the Parliament: Again I find this unacceptable. If a politician or government official are suspect of undertaking corrupt practices them may have enough clout to prevent such a case being passed by Parliament. Hence Lokpal needs independence.

- Giving the Lokpal no police power or ability to register an FIR is again absolutely absurd: For Lokpal to find, gather and investigate a corrupt official it needs to be given certain policing powers. And if Lokpal does manage to find and gather enough evidence then why should it be prevented from filing this case.

The Problem with the Anna Hazare Draft is:

- Receiving Complaints from the General Public: The problem I have with this is that Lokpal could become over burden if it takes complaints from the general public. Cases may start to backlog and the aim to finish an investigation within a month may not seem possible. The situation of the Indian Judiciary which is overburden and under heavy backlog is an example. The objective of having Lokpal accept general public complaints is that corruption cases from the highest level to the lowest level will come to light. However what is being failed to be realized is that if the top levels become clear, those clean leaders will enforce anti-corruption throughout their department.

What would be preferred is if cases are given by the Parliament and the Indian Judiciary.

- CVC and anti-corruption wing of CBI coming under Lokpal: While the idea sounds appealing it is not practical. To uproot such departments and give them another head is not reasonable. However what can be done is a new department to be created under the Lokpal.

The Government versions of the Lokpal makes it ineffective and useless, while the Jan Lokpal Bill has some unrealistic suggestions.

Rahul Gandhi, the Future

On Sunday, 19^th June Rahul Gandhi turned 41 years old. It won’t be long before he will take over the reins of Congress. Already a section of the Congress is rumbling for Rahul Gandhi to take over PM Manmohan Singh. TOI quoted Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh saying, “It’s time Rahul becomes PM”. However one must question this persons leadership ability.

On Sunday I visited the Church for my morning mass. After that finished I left to Church only to see a group of people distributing chocolates at the gate of my Church in celebration of Rahul Gandhi’s birthday. The problem I had with this was that they were not the only people at the gate. There was a group of beggars at the gate to. Ironic, isn’t it? I would rather have them celebrate his birthday by helping those beggars. Do I want this man to become the Prime Minister in near future?

Rahul Gandhi also needs to learn to be honest, the public is getting smarter every year. His stunt at Bhatta Parsaul village in Uttar Pradesh, where he made a shocking statement that women were being raped and farmers being killed for protesting against an acquisition of land for an Expressway. He even showed a site which was supposed to be a graveyard of bodies. However soon enough after a forensic team was bought in, these claims were found to be false. Media persons went to the village and found that Rahul’s Gandhi’s claims were false.

It is possible that Rahul Gandhi tried what his grandmother, Indira Gandhi pulled off in the late 1970 when she rode into a Blechi village on an elephant and highlighted the Central Government’s insensitivities to the atrocities on the Dalits and was a major reason for a victory as the next PM again. However the public is smarter that it was in 1970s and such tatics will not work.

There is no doubt that that the Gandhi family has made great contributions to the country of India and it has produced great leaders such as Nehru and Indira Gandhi. However Rahul lacks the experience to make a change in the current political scenario.