Indian Government has decided to enter the bus ticketing domain, and intensify competition in this segment. Biggies such redBus will definitely be watching this development closely.

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Mr. Oscar Fernandez will launch India's first integrated National Transport Portal: BusIndia.com today on October 31, 2013 at Constitution Club, New Delhi. Here is the official invitation of the launch.

The portal has been developed by Radiant Info, which is an IT Solutions company based in Bangalore. As per the website, the service was started in February, 2013.

Radiant Info: Largest Bus Ticket Seller in India?

Relatively unknown in media and advertising world, Radiant Info is an experienced player in IT & Software development industry. They claim to have delivered over 11 crore bus tickets as of now, totaling revenues of Rs 3600 crore since 2006.

This easily makes them the largest bus ticket seller in India.

Radiant Info has partnered with State Transport Corporation of various states such as Karnataka (KSRTCT) ; Tamil Nadu (TNSTC) ; Gujarat (GSRTC) and more. In the websites of these state transport corporations, we can see that they are all powered by technology and solutions provided by Radiant Info (look at bottom right or left part, near footer)

BusIndia.com would integrate the bus ticketing platform of regional state transport corporations, and provide them under one single umbrella. For example, Odisha State Road Transport Corporation's website OSRTC.in is now being redirected to BusIndia’s Odisha page.

The existing inventory of state transport bus tickets which are available on BusIndia.com includes: Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)—NWKRTC, NEKRTC and BMTC; Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Limited (TNSTC)—SETC, TNSTC (Madurai), TNSTC (Kumbakonam), TNSTC (Villupuram), TNSTC (Coimbatore) and TNSTC (Salem); Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC); Punjab—PEPSU Road Transport Corporation, Patiala, and PUNBUS; Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC); Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC); and Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC).

Some of the state transports which are about to be included in this portal includes: Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC); Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC); and Kadamba Transport Corporation, Government of Goa.

Radiant also delivers Transport and Logistics solutions by developing the backend platform and implementing them across the offices and point of sales. Here is a list of all clients served by Radiant Info.

There has been speculations that this company is about to get funded by Private Equity (PE). Reportedly, they are seeking Rs 200 crore funding for expansion and technological development.

Threat to redBus & Others?

redBus was recently acquired for Rs 800 crore, a deal which is being hailed as India's first major Internet success story. And this recent development will be definitely affecting redBus's core strategy and future vision.

State Transports constitute one big chunk of overall bus bookings, and by launching a National portal which integrates different state platforms into one, Indian Government is all set to capture the market. It can dilute redBus's domination in the segment, and can have negative effect on its growth trajectory.

It would be interesting to observe how private players counter this new initiative by Indian Government.

Better services? Cheap tickets? Or something more? Do share your views!

Imagine a scenario where you are in a mall browsing through a few shops. Suddenly you see something that catches your eye and you think of purchasing it. It is not the old times anymore and it is possible that you might get a cheaper deal online for the same product.

What do you do?

Of course, one possibility is that you have apps for various online stores. Or you can use your browser on the phone. I know I have done that often enough.

However, it is completely possible that you are stuck with no data connection or possibly have a phone which doesn't have those features.

Snapdeal has come up with sms service for such people. All you have to do is send an SMS to Snapdeal at 92789-92789 with the product name and in a few seconds the company would send the top results for that search and even links if you can/want to purchase the product immediately.

[Editor's Note: We tried a few searches, and the results were surprising quick and satisfactory. We made 3 searches and here were the results that we got back on SMS]

There are two ways in which I see that it is immensely useful. One is for people who do not have smartphones with them. Despite the surge of smartphones, that population of people who do not have mobile internet & smartphone is still substantial. These people will be able to retrieve the product price information easily.

Also, if someone is having problem with their internet connection this is a good solution. Snapdeal is offering this service free of charge, only standard SMS rates will apply.

Another case I see stems from the speed which this service is providing. I used it and I could not keep my mobile on my table after sending the message before the reply was there. It would have taken more time for me to open browser and find the results on my 3G connection, even more so on a 2G connection. Thus, if you need a result quick, this service will be quite suited to the situation. These people then can view the product on the site by the link provided.

All in all, I can see it to be quite a good service, if you already use Snapdeal for purchases.

What's your take on this? Give it a try and let us know what you feel about this service!

Sachin Tendulkar, the iconic cricketer who is going to play his 200^th and last test match against West Indies next month, has made an investment in online travel portal.

Way back in June, 2013, he had picked up a minority stake of 7.5% in UAE based travel portal Musafir.com. He is also the brand ambassador of this online travel portal and responsible for online and offline promotion. So expect more advertisements of this Cricket God on billboards across highways, and on TV and websites, blogs, and radio.

Musafir.com is a travel portal based in UAE and founded by Mohammed Al Thani, Sachin Gadoya and Albert Dias. They offer premium travel packages across 3000 locations, and have collaborated with over 270 airlines and 47000 hotels all over the world. The website claims that are managing travel requirements of over 2000 organizations in India and abroad.

Reportedly, Musafir.com is going to invest Rs 100 crore into their Indian launch, out of which 60% would be spent on marketing alone. This investment would be done through UAE-based Universal Travels & Tourism and India-based Viva Holdings.

Travel Industry Is Hot

This is a smart move by Sachin, who is obviously targeting the huge segment of Online travel in eCommerce niche. By 2015, travel related online transactions are going to touch Rs 55,000 crore and even Bollywood celebrities such as Salman Khan has already moved into this space.

Some other notable investments into Online travel niche in recent months include:

• Thrillophilia.com, Bangalore based travel portal has raised $200,000 in angel funding from Hyderabad Angels and iLabs Venture Capital Fund, Navlok Ventures and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE-IIMA)
• Stayzilla.com was able to get venture capital from Matrix Powers in July, 2013
• TouristLink.com secured angel funding from African accelerator 88MPH in October, 2013
• MyGola.com had raised $1.5 million venture capital from Helion Ventures
• TicketGoose.com has raised INR 18 crores for their Online Bus ticket booking portal.

Sachin Tendulkar- The Investor

This is not the first time Sachin has turned into an investor.

Some of the startups where he has invested:

Smaash Entertainment is into augmented reality stimulators which provides a chance to play cricket virtually. Besides that, users can also experience F1 race, tennis, football and other games. Founded by the serial entrepreneur Shripal Morakhia, Smaash Entertainment has created technology which enables them to create portable cricket pitches anywhere, on demand. Sachin has 18% stake in this company.

- Universal Collectabillia is a celebrity merchandise and brand extension firm jointly owned by Anjana Reddy who is part of Deccan Heard family and Sachin Tendulkar. The company had secured $5 million venture capital from Accel Partners last year and have celebrity contracts with Rajnikanth, MS Dhoni, Sania Mirza among others. Sachin owns 26% in this company.

Edited: Rumors were also flying high that Sachin is about to campaign for Congress party in MP. It seems that he has strategically planned his retirement. It seems that Sachin has clarified that he will not be participating in politics…

He has retired from sports, but not from the game.

We wish that he excels in all his projects!