You've heard the stories about how Pierre Omidyar built a site to help his girlfriend sell candy dispensers

Wikipedia says it was a fabrication by the PR department to create a 'human interest' narrative

In other words, people would not bother if they were told that Ebay, called Auction Web to begin with, sold broken laser pointers.

So, have you heard of Mjunction?

It's the second largest ecommerce site in India. The largest is IRCTC, India's railway ticket booking site.

So what on earth does Mjunction do?

It's a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL - the largest e-marketplace for steel in the world

It also auctions coal, idle assets, minerals, tea and more.

Mjunction does not have a Wikipedia page yet. I checked. They haven't bothered to create one.

The business transacted by the platform from inception until 2020 is Rs. 9,13,839 crores. (That’s around $100 billion)

Ebay transacted around 25% of that figure in 2021

Remember the government auctioning telecom spectrum? Well, this is the company that handles it.

Started with a share capital of Rs. 8 crores Mjunction has returned Rs. 100 crores in dividends. It has never required to raise capital since.

The biggest B2B ecommerce player in India

Celebrating two birthdays every year

It was a routine and over the years, we stopped thinking about it.

The twice a year birthday

The first one was the birthdate according to the English calendar. The second was the 'star' birthday, anchored to the planets, the one that kept the link to ancient traditions.

They would come within a few weeks of each other, either before or after - different dates every year.

A monthly regional calendar showed both English dates and all the other planetary configurations.

It was a fixture in the kitchen or the place of worship in the house, purchased without fail every year.

On the special day, you stood out in your 'coloured clothes' instead of the school uniform and self-consciously handed out sweets in class. Then looked at the floor and blushed when the class sang 'Happy Birthday ' and you felt a little glow spread on the inside

'Star birthdays' were family affairs, with a visit to the temple and a feast at home. Another treat to look forward to.

But parents would not really make a big deal about their own birthdays or anniversaries, except possibly for a sweet dish.

The idea works. Celebrate twice a year when you're young.

How do you ask for directions at sea?

Before GPS, personal explorations and directions to places unknown arrived on carefully explained and detailed maps. Or communicated on long phone conversations.

The actual journey included looking out for landmarks and occasional signboards to keep track

Invariably it was the local shops or the autorickshaws who guided you during the last mile.

At sea, you're out of luck. It looks the same in every direction. 

A navigational system in India, Navic, has been making the headlines.

Set up with seven satellites in the sky with pinpoint accuracy down to 3 ft. 

It has been approved by International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which has steep standards to be met before the system is deployed and integrated into global shipping networks.

Look for it to arrive on smartphones in India by next year, apart from guiding ships which are within 1500 kms from Indian shores.

India is just the fourth country in the world, apart from the US, Russia and China to have built its own system.

The data will help in driving multiple applications from land surveys to missile delivery. 

That has major military implications - we own the eyes in the sky. 

It changes equations on the ground

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with friends. Or Tweeting the link. The more people we can get to tune in every week, the merrier. Thank you.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ideascape.substack.com