This line of thought was taken up by Universal, the largest of four major record companies. They believe that perhaps there is room in the Western audiences’ auditory palate for more of the spice of South Asian music. Teaming with Desi Hits!, a New York-based company promoting South Asian entertainment on its website DesiHits.com, Universal plans to create a label for musicians with South Asian roots. Through this label, the record company’s ultimate goal is to give South Asian music and its artists global exposure.

“It’s far from a vanity project for us,” said David Joseph, chief executive of Universal Music U.K. For him, South Asian pop music holds great potential as a relatively untapped art, presenting a huge amount of opportunity.

The new label, called Desi Hits! Universal, would give the music genre a “home,” a way for the music to be shared with Western audiences. According to Anjula Acharia-Bath, chief executive of Desi Hits!, after the success of the 2008 hit, “everyone saw that with some resources some of these songs really popped.”

Although mainstream western acts and Indian music have shown some mingling, the success of Desi Hits! Universal could be an excellent untapped resource for those looking for the next new sound. And, modernizing some of the more traditional South Asian music with elements from pop music can bring it to a wider audience, even within its country of origin. “Jai Ho” showed the ability of good music to transcend cultural affinities. I look forward to more endeavors that get the music of a rich culture reach out to more of the world.

It was in 2007 when the Internet search giant first started going green. To promote sustainable development and environmental awareness, the company voluntarily took efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. By the end of 2009, Google formed its own energy subsidiary, Google Energy, followed by an announcement that it was to invest $38.8 million to NextEra Energy Resources’ wind energy project in North Dakota as its first investment in large scale clean energy projects.

More recently Google announced that it has completed a 20-year green Power Purchase Agreement, and plans to sell some of its acquired wind power back to the grid for Renewable Energy Certificates. With this move, the heavy-hitting company enters the energy market, solidifying its intent to promote sustainable, environmental solutions.

This has been a long time coming for Google, as so many other entities have already decided to join and back up the race for cost-effective, utility-scale renewable energy solutions. Considering the nature of the tech industry, which depends on vast amounts of electricity to keep services up and running, I believe Google’s move to go green may have a great impact on environmental efforts.

Wind power as a sustainable source of energy is by no means a new technology. Since men started putting sails on their ships, wind power has already been used. Typically, it is used in large scale wind farms to provide electricity to rural areas and other remote or far reaching locations. Several countries, such as Denmark, Spain, India and Portugal have already achieved high levels of wind power penetration.

Wind energy is touted as one of the most viable alternatives for energy resources because it is cheap, widely distributed and infinitely abundant. Utilizing wind energy will also significantly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and help reduce carbon emissions.

Starting late next week, early iPhone 4 owners can go to Apple’s website to sign up for a free case. Since the company cannot make enough of its $29 “Bumper” cases, it will allow users to choose from a selection of different case styles.

Ever since the latest iPhone model’s release in the US three weeks ago, many users have complained that they would lose their wireless network coverage when they happen to cover a certain spot on the smartphone with their bare hand. Critics say this is due to a faulty antenna. While the company denied the iPhone 4 has an antenna problem that needs fixing and attributed the problem to a software glitch, Steve Jobs apologized to the people who are less than satisfied with their new phones.

Apple Inc. is a company known for its high regard for customer satisfaction. It has been shown that having a protective case can effectively prevent the occurrence of any reception problems. The company will also release a software update that will allow the device to more accurately display signal strength in an area. In addition, if users are still not happy with their iPhone, they can bring it back and receive a full refund within the next 30 days. There will be no restocking fee.

In a time like this, what stands out most is that the company is taking excellent steps to resolve its issues. For a giant such as Apple to act fast and provide immediate solutions, Steve Jobs and his company are worthy of praise.

In the search for the next bright idea towards a greener earth, together with some of the best-known venture capital firms, GE’s Ecomagination Challenge opens the floor for people to send in their innovative ideas for a smarter power grid. The contest is open to all businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs and students who can brew ideas for harnessing energy in a more efficient manner. GE and its partnerships have allocated $200 million for the innovations they choose to fund.

Ultimately, breakthrough ideas from the Ecomagination Challenge will be put to use to creating a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable power grid. Also, this would take grid technology a step closer towards a digital upgrade, as the system has long been aging and analog. Selected participants from the Ecomagination Challenge will be offered an opportunity to develop a commercial relationship with GE through investments for promising start-ups and ideas and other benefits in connection with the company. Those who intend to participate in the challenge can enter as many ideas as they wish in three categories: Renewables, Grid Efficiency and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings.

Already, ideas have been flowing in not only from all over the nation, but from around the world as well. The ideas from the challenge will also be open for the general public to vote on for the first round, although ultimately, the final say is with the company and the panel of judges.

With the urging of a company as big as GE, I think that this challenge goes beyond solving a problem of the present. Perhaps it’s also a challenge to all of us to realize that just about anyone can make a difference with innovative ideas and a passion for the environment.

A recent survey by Harris Interactive showed that online coupon use has increased dramatically among an unexpected demographic. Oddly enough, according to the survey, it’s well-to-do families with household incomes over $100,000 who are using more coupons. Four out of 10 people from families within this income bracket say that use online coupons – nearly twice the number of respondents with an annual income of $35,000 or less.

They make use of sites like Coupons.com, which offers free coupons that can be printed out or used with a savings card, Foursquare, which offers specials to users who frequent a certain location, or Groupon.com, which lets users take advantage of group discounts of up to 90% on local products or services.

The users of these services are well-to-do and tech-savvy, and live in urban areas. It’s not just a matter of discounts for them. Groupon.com encourages users to go to places they’ve never been to before in order to take advantage of the excellent discounts. Foursquare provides an entire mobile online community where people can find out where their friends have been, and what they think about a particular place.

It makes sense that these products cater to the well-appointed who have the gadgets and services needed to best take advantage of them. Gowalla, for example, uses a Google Map-like application and works best if you’re constantly online while on the go.

“The holy grail is, ‘how can we make e-commerce social?’” says Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.com. “Usually, [a coupon] is a pretty solitary, one-to-one experience. But we’re helping consumers discover things.”

Services such as these constitute a new age in how we experience commercial settings. If social media sites help to foster social interaction among users, then services like these can help to push economic activity, as users are encouraged to try out new products and services offered by small, little-known, local businesses.

Adding to locations in Japan and Israel that are also developing or experimenting with charging stations, Berlin-Adlershof has recently been upgraded with a Yana Docking station, currently the world’s largest stand-alone solar charging station, where all kinds of EVs can be charged.

The station features a biaxial photovoltaic generator, which follows the direction of light coming from the sun and is able to generate up to 40 percent more electricity as a result. When the sun is not being cooperative, or at night, the power comes from a long-life vanadium redox flow battery. The battery stores 100 kWh, provides 10 kW, and allows for up to eight EVs to be charged at the same time.

Berlin-Adlershof, known as the “City of Science, Technology and Media,” is the home of Younicos AG. The area has been under heavy development for almost 20 years. It is now home to the Centre for Information and Media Technology, the Centre for Environmental, Bio and Energy Technology, and the Centre for Materials and Microsystems Technology, among others.

Now that the problems of affordability and speed have been resolved, relative mobility seems to be the only thing that’s keeping the EV from spreading like wildfire. This also creates a CO2 free solution for charging EVs. With recharging stations like these, EV doubters may run out of things to complain about and we can finally do what Younicos AG’s motto says and “Let the fossils Rest in Peace.”

This is a marked improvement on the H-1B visa, which allows firms to temporarily employ foreign workers for three years with the possibility of a renewal. The H-1B visa has a 65,000 yearly numerical cap that prevents too many foreign workers from being able to work in the country at the same time. It has also been criticized for allowing foreigners to fill job positions that may otherwise be granted to US citizens.

Far from the H-1B visa, the startup visa actually shows promise in the creation of jobs for Americans, while helping to support the economy with foreign innovations and talent. Venture firms looking for the next big idea no longer have to invest outside the country in order to capitalize on great ideas.
Other Silicon Valley natives that support the visa are Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar, Brad Feld, Paul Kedrosky, Manu Kumar, & Fred Wilson. The Startup Visa Act was introduced in late February of this year.

While this works out for the founders of startup companies and for the US, one has to wonder how foreign governments will react to having their human resources courted away. Developing countries are already at a disadvantage without having their best talent pirated so easily.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Innovation.

Before Yahoo! Groups, there was no easy way for a large set of people to remain in frequent communication via email. Fletcher built the first service that would allow them to do so, and sold it to Yahoo! for $400 million. Now Yahoo! Groups and similar products are being used by friends, relatives, advocates of particular causes, enthusiasts of different interests and even by large corporations.

Termed “e-groups,” these are not just shared mailing lists that can be accessed through a single email address. They also keep archives, provide group reminders, and even host files and photos for the group.

Later, Mark Fletcher built Bloglines, the former leading RSS reader, and sold it to Ask.com. Bloglines offered user-driven syndication for the first time. The product currently allows people to subscribe to RSS-feeds of different periodical or frequently updated websites. Bloglines and other RSS readers are now used to push RSS documents to various mobile devices as well.

For Fletcher, the future of communications online is in groups. SnapGroups will focus on real-time group communication. There are plans to integrate with social media giants Twitter and Facebook. SnapGroups can be made public or shared among a select group of users, with the ability to add and remove users from the groups as they go along. Unlike with online forums, users won’t have to deal with unwanted headers, links, graphics, and ads.
With so many and such versatile forms of social communication already out there, it doesn’t really seem like there’s a need for any more of them. But with a track record like that of Mark Fletcher, SnapGroups isn’t one that can be ignored.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Startups.

The entire seven-week course allowed students to explore Israel’s business, economy, culture and politics, which culminated in an 11-day trip to Israel. The trip included visits to some of the world’s most successful startups and established companies, such as electric car pioneer Better Place and Teva, the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world. The group also visited various cultural hotspots within the country.

With its main financial center located in Tel Aviv, Israel is considered one of the most advanced countries in Southwest Asia in terms of industrial and economic development. It has the second largest number of startup companies in the world (after the US) and the most number of NASDAQ-listed companies outside of North America. This is despite the fact that the country is less endowed in terms of natural resources than most other countries in the region.

To help students understand the underlying mechanisms of the Israeli business world and to prepare them for their trip, the Kelley International Perspectives (KIP) Israel 2010 course included classes on Hebrew language, Israeli government, politics, culture, business and case studies.

Jamie Billow, one of the student organizers of the trip, credits Israel government representatives for helping with contacts and materials. He also notes that Israel21c.org, a popular Israeli news website, was an invaluable educational tool, providing articles, videos and Twitter updates about Israeli life, technology and culture.

Israel is an excellent place to learn about the driving forces behind some businesses that would not be apparent in other settings such as in America or Europe. The extremely culturally-oriented country has much to teach the world in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Business.

Announced on their website just earlier this month, Google has purchased the Episodic video streaming website from US-based Matias Cudich and his Israeli expatriate partner, Noam Lovinsky.

Episodic describes itself as, “…the most comprehensive online video platform for broadcasting both live and on-demand content to the web or any web-enabled device.” Not only does Episodic host these videos, with excellent content management tools and an option to stream in HD quality, but it also offers relevant data to businesses and individual users that can prove to be indispensable to marketing strategy.

For example, Episodic offers real-time analytics, which allow users to get an in-depth look into viewer behavior. The website relays such information as total views, number of unique viewers, and number of returning viewers. It even goes so far as to record which parts of the video are often rewound, how much time is spent is in full screen mode, and at what point viewers decide to abandon the stream. Users get feedback on metrics such as average viewer bandwidth, average number of skips and stutters, player load times and more. Users can take advantage of this information and adjust their future content to cater to their existing audience.

Furthermore, there is also the option to make use of monetization services that are designed to help them maximize revenue from each viewer using their own ad server or third-party ad servers. They even offer A/B testing services.

This is just one example of the various innovative business models that have sprung out from the advent of social media marketing. Although not a platform for social media in itself, Episodic capitalizes on the experiences that many have become accustomed to within the constructs of social media.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Startups.