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In the dog-eat-dog world of plastic money, there are two kinds of banks. One, those that issue credit cards. And two, banks that issue cards and go out and rope in merchants establishment (read shops) that will accept a particular issuer's card. In other words, they 'acquire' merchants. The second variety includes Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank. Citibank and HSBC issue cards and acquire merchants as well. The news now is that the ranks of acquiring banks is fast swelling. Joining the fray are new banks like the Bank of Punjab, HDFC Bank, and Standard Chartered Grindlays. Explains Tejbir Singh, CEO, Bank of Punjab: ''We are a retail bank with a large customer base. We can leverage this relationship.'' Because of logistical problems, merchant establishments do not deal with card issuers individually. Instead, all the credit card transactions are consolidated by the acquiring bank. This bank, in turn, works through firms (like Venture Infotech) that install the electronic draft capture (EDC) machines and also process data for banks and merchants. How do the transactions between the three (the issuer, acquirer and the merchant) happen? Typically, a merchant pays a 2 to 2.5 per cent commission on every transaction. A chunk of this commission (1 to 1.6 per cent) goes to the issuing bank and the acquiring bank gets anything between 0.4 to 0.9 per cent. Considering the wafer-thin margins, does it make sense to be in the acquiring business? ''It's a high-volume, low-margin game,'' says Atul Malik, Director (Cards), Citibank. But that's not deterring the new entrants, though. -Ranju Sarkar P
E R S O N A L T E C H N O L O G Y It's hard to say 'no' on the Net. And that could be one reason for the emergence of click-happy net-users eager to download anything free they come across, from Angelina Jolie screensavers to demo versions of games with enticing names like Half Life and Delta Force. Apart from cluttering up your desktop and wreaking havoc with your set-up files (in some cases), these things can actually slow your machine down. Say yes to everything the programme asks you during installation and the stuff you're downloading could end up being part of your start menu. Which means your pc could boot up for ever. Still, this is nothing compared to what some downloads can do. Multimedia players are the worst of the lot: if you're not careful while installation, these become the default players for any audio or video file. Thus, you may wish to use your Windows Media Player to open a file and end up using the Real Player to do so. Worse, some utilities that promise to simplify downloading (like Real's Download Devil) end up making the process more complex by insisting on being the preferred download-channel for all files. Thus, you could just want to download an Acrobat file (as simple a task as you can get), and end up doing so through the dd. If you've been meticulous during installation, you probably know the way out: holding the control key down when you click on the Down Load Now option. Still, how many of us can claim to be that careful. These problems are avoidable: spend that extra thirty seconds to read anything that comes up on screen during installation. Do this, irrespective of whether you're installing something you downloaded from the Web or something from a CD. That way, when a player wants to know whether it can become the default player for all multimedia files, you reserve the option to say 'no'. If you cannot understand what's happening, look up the help option. If you still don't have a clue, choose the 'no' option. My advice: read the small print carefully while downloading and installing (or simply installing) a programme. Learn how to uninstall programmes (almost all come with an uninstall utility). Ensure that the programme is located just where you want it to be in your machine. Placing it on your desktop, or on your start menu is not advisable unless it is a critical utility. And be brave enough to just say no sometimes. -R. Sukumar Q & A Fuel Cells! Isn't That Sci-Fi? Actually, it's history. The fuel cell concept dates back to the 1830s. More than a century later, they were used to power NASA's space vehicles. But then, after decades of no real development, fuel cells are suddenly red hot. Basically, costs of producing fuel cells have fallen drastically, and will soon approach the cost of producing electricity from oil or gas. No wonder money is pouring into projects at a time of rising fuel and electricity prices, and environmental concern. Goldman Sachs estimates that fuel cells could represent a $95-billion market in 2010. Complex stuff, isn't it? No, it's actually very simple. Basically, fuel cells use the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to generate a continuous stream of electricity. This process can be used to power cell phones, laptops, and buses. The hydrogen will probably come from methanol, a compound. Propane and gasoline can also be used to power fuel cells, giving consumers a wide range of choices. Where's the action? Everywhere, from residential to commercial to transportation. Leading the push are the auto giants-DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and American Honda Motor-who are either developing or licensing fuel cell technology. Mercedes-Benz, in particular, has ambitious plans. But that'll take time; by next year, small businesses and homes will start seeing fuel cells thanks to portable devices like phones, notebooks, PDAs, and digital cameras. -Sunit Arora R
E T A I L Six months after it got its own corporate identity independent of parent, the National Dairy Development Board, the Delhi-based Mother Dairy is gearing up to go national. For starters, the 25-year-old milk and fresh-produce retailer wants to strengthen the identity of Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetables (MDFV) and that of its eponymous brand and that of Safal. By 2002, MDFV will increase penetration to 300 Class I towns like Hyderabad and Bhopal. The planned objective? Push MDFV's topline from Rs 800 crore of last year to Rs 5,000 crore by the year 2005. To show that it means business, the retailer has roped in the Mumbai-based marketing advisory, Samsika Marketing Consultants. The plan is to aggressively target consumers through a retail push via half-a-million outlets. But can MDFV, which is perceived as a co-operative and some of whose outlets have seen a perceptible decline in the quality of produce they stock, take its brand national? Jagdeep Kapoor, CEO of Samsika, thinks so: ''The Mother Dairy brand is already a household name in milk and ice creams in Delhi. Spreading it to other parts of the country should not be a difficult target to achieve.'' The products being considered for the national launch are a mix of existing products like Safal peas, ketchups, fruit drinks, vegetables, and fruits. In dairy products, the list includes milk, curd, and ice cream. Some commodity items like rice are also to be added to the bag of quality offerings. The key to Mother Dairy's success will be logistics management, since all its products are perishable items and need to be delivered fresh to customers every day. According to MDFV, the project does include steps to improve the supply chain and integrate the sourcing and distribution outlets using information technology. That's just as well, because this is one project where Mother Dairy just cannot afford to come a cropper. -Shamni Pande M
A R K E T I N G Is the fizz finally going out of cola? Research commissioned by the soft drinks major, Pepsi, seems to say so. Consider this: the penetration of soft drinks (measured in terms of average litres per household) has remained almost stagnant in the first half of the last four years in key metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, and Chennai. The biggest barriers to consumption, the survey reveals, are cost and taste-related problems. Says a Pepsi spokesman: ''Our consumer base is very large, but the per capita consumption is low.'' Worse for colas like Pepsi, there is growing competition from other beverages such as tea, coffee, juices, and even mineral water. According to research agency IMRB, penetration of mineral water has gone up by 24 per cent between 1999 and 2000; the sale of juices has jumped by 34 per cent and that of tetrapack drinks from 16 to 21 per cent. Interestingly, the consumption of cola is rising in lower socio-economic classes, which associates soft drinks more with social acceptance than functional benefits. The face of the future? -Jaya Basu
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