{"id":6235,"date":"2019-08-08T18:06:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T12:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=6235"},"modified":"2022-03-09T14:11:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T08:41:24","slug":"article-370-and-dal-lake-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/08\/article-370-and-dal-lake-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 370 And Dal Lake Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No, this blog is not getting into politics.<\/p>\n<p>This is a post about a unique marketing opportunity created by Article 370 and my forecast on how it will be impacted by the recent annulment of the autonomous status hitherto accorded to Kashmir.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"width: 70%;\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-01.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6239 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-01-200x133.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-01-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-01.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>In 2015, I went on a holiday to Kashmir. My first stop was on a houseboat &#8211; aka <strong><em>shikhara<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; in Dal Lake in Srinagar.<\/p>\n<p>I went through a unique experience in marketing on Dal Lake.<\/p>\n<p>As my boatman rowed me down the lake, another boatman suddenly sidled up to my boat and started shouting &#8220;<em>chai, chai, chai garam<\/em>&#8221; (&#8220;tea, tea, hot tea&#8221;); another one offered to click my picture; another shikara was moored on the lake, selling shawls and handicraft items.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been on many lakes all over the world, but Dal Lake is the only one where buying and selling happens on a lake.<\/p>\n<p>I called this <em><strong>Dal Lake Commerce<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Move over e-commerce &amp; m-commerce. Make way for l-commerce. Or Dal Lake Commerce. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/nXVxVp15Zr\">http:\/\/t.co\/nXVxVp15Zr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/s_ketharaman\/status\/610816851178864641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>You must be wondering what this has to do with Article 370.<\/p>\n<p>Well, a lot as it turns out.<\/p>\n<p>According to Article 370, Indians from outside the state of Jammy &amp; Kashmir (herewith &#8220;state foreigners&#8221;) are not allowed to own immoveable property in the state, so they can&#8217;t buy stores on the Srinagar mainland.<\/p>\n<p>To work around that, they buy up shikaras and set shop in them. Since Shikaras are treated as moving objects, they can be owned by state-foreigners under #370.<\/p>\n<p>Ergo,\u00a0<em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em> owes its existence to Article 370.<\/p>\n<p>Later on during my trip, I noticed that all government buildings in Kashmir flew the Indian tricolor and Kashmir state flag side by side. I also heard from locals that Indian Constitution was not quite applicable in Kashmir. All because of #370. But I digress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-fi.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6238 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-fi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-fi.jpg 630w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/dal-lake-commerce-fi-200x89.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If Article 370 created <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em>, its recent repeal should mean the end of <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n<p>Not necessarily.<\/p>\n<p>I envisage the following three scenarios going forward:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Scenario 1:<\/strong> Existing state-foreigners will shut down their shikara stores and open up permanent stores on the mainland. <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em> will decline.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scenario 2:<\/strong> Existing state-foreigners with shikara stores will remain in Dal Lake but all new state-foreigners will open up permanent stores on the mainland. <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em> will remain flat.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scenario 3:<\/strong> Kashmir will attract a lot of new state-foreigner business people. Most of them will open shops on the mainland &#8211; because that&#8217;s like what they have done in their home states. But there will still be many who will buy shikaras and conduct business on Dal Lake &#8211; because that&#8217;s very cool and <em>unlike<\/em> what they have done in their home states. <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em> will grow.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Amul Butter was *always* a part of \u201cDal Lake Commerce\u201d! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Kashmir?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Kashmir<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Art370?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Art370<\/a> .<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UGYtEnrt5C\">https:\/\/t.co\/UGYtEnrt5C<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/R9OlpEfZpS\">pic.twitter.com\/R9OlpEfZpS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/s_ketharaman\/status\/1159071525816995840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The new market offered by Kashmir is huge. It won&#8217;t be fulfilled by state-foreigners with shikara stores on Dal Lake moving to the mainland. Therefore, I rule out the first scenario.<\/p>\n<p>The second scenario is the most logical possibility.<\/p>\n<p>But, as a <em>Dal Lake Commerce<\/em>\u00a0fan, I pine for Scenario 3!<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s see what happens in a year or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No, this blog is not getting into politics. This is a post about a unique marketing opportunity created by Article 370 and my forecast on how it will be impacted by the recent annulment of the autonomous status hitherto accorded to Kashmir. In 2015, I went on a holiday to Kashmir. My first stop was &#8230; <a title=\"Article 370 And Dal Lake Commerce\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/08\/article-370-and-dal-lake-commerce\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Article 370 And Dal Lake Commerce\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail","category-mandatory-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6235"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6247,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6235\/revisions\/6247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}