Mobile Panchangam

Today is Ugadi and I received one of those little gifts which banks sometimes give away to customers, a little pocket annual calendar from State Bank of Hyderabad. It has essential information for any given day according to the religious calendar. These are quite common and many calendars in which you can tear away the date every date, often give useful info according to the calendars of many religions, including for example, the month according to the Hijri Calendar and include even a thought for the day. I was wondering why some mobile service provider can't give the same information on SMS for a given day. Panchangam for the day, by SMS, on demand, SMS charges apply. We get all kinds of info on SMS, cricket scores, thought for the day, reservation status, stock quotes and oh yes, coming closest is even astrology for the day. While these services may have something in common with similar operators in other countries, the Panchangam SMS will be a very india-specific service. Setting aside questions of belief or otherwise in the Panchangam, I was wondering if the service will have a market. In my view, yes. If you allow me excitement, quite a big one, in a vast country of believers, where people subscribe to things like virtual pooja. At the minimum, it might have as much reason to be present as a service, as is the astrology option present now. The Panchangam SMS can contain things like Thithi, Star, Good and Bad timings, Rahu Kalam and name of the festival, if any. Who might find it useful ? Anyone who believes in these things, and sometimes keeps track of these in his mind by quickly looking it up in an almanac, somehow can't reach one but has a cellphone. Maybe he is discussing a business transaction. Or planning an investment. Or going on an adventure trip. It will be great if the user can specify which calendar, like Hindu or Hijri.

I was discussing this idea with a friend during my riverside walk and I came to know that, to be technically precise, things like thithi are dependent on the local sunrise time and might actually differ from place to place. This might make things a little more difficult, though user can also the SMS the PINcode of his location!!. The mobile service providers now do give a lot of local content, but I think the categories of content might be similar to those that are offered in other advanced countries. Whereas this one would be a new idea, totally relevant to India. As to users who might find such content useless, Oh yes, lot of people might feel the same way about the other services mentioned above. Also, even when provided, it might not accurately fulfil the needs of some hardcore panchangamites who follow specific panchangams even within the Hindu Calendar, like the Srirangam Kutti Sastrigal Panchangam. But I think, overall, the service might attract a lot of users and also benefit both the customer and the service provider. Particularly, since, in India, localized services like JustDial.Com, which are entirely free to the individual customer, still have found a successful revenue model while giving useful advice, even for free. These days, it looks like in India and China, there would be a volumes market for almost anything, given their vast population. I would also love it, if Google can integrate Panchangam into their Google Calendar, as part of their efforts in offering localized content. Thats a little too much ? Google SMS is already in India and they have started SMS alerts in India for events in the user's Google Calendar. Hehehe, they just have to add a feature, "Subscribe to Daily Panchangam", with Hindu or Hijri, PINcode etc as default settings. At the rate of feature addition of Google, I am sure they'll take it further, and even notify you on upcoming special days like Akshaya Tritihiya and generate ad revenue from jewellery shops. Google Panchangam, how does it sound ?