Indians can help the US tide over the depression like crisis that the world’s largest nation faces. At least this is what the noted writer and New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, believes. He writes in his latest post on the newspaper’s website - "Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration."

He further quotes Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express - "All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans. We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate - no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans."

A wonderful mantra for survival indeed! But whether it will find favour within the US is highly doubtful given Obama’s rhetoric regarding saving American jobs by putting restrictions on offshoring. Friedman has indeed long believed that the developed world cannot maintain or improve productivity by closing their gates to immigration and offshoring. In viewing the American immigration laws as too restrictive and damaging to economic output, he said a few years ago - "It is pure idiocy that Congress will not open our borders - as wide as possible - to attract and keep the world's first-round intellectual draft choices in an age when everyone increasingly has the same innovation tools and the key differentiator is human talent."

Friedman argues against opponents of free trade that by exporting low-skill and low-wage jobs to foreign countries, more advanced and higher-skilled jobs will be freed up and made available for those displaced by the outsourcing. And so, he writes in his latest article - "Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn’t through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing free trade. No, the formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat."

One of the coolest apps (iPhone application) on the iPhone isn't Pandora or Facebook: It's recipes and shopping lists for Kraft products. Believe it or not, enough Kraft Food devotees are actually paying to be marketed to on their beloved iPhones that the company's iFood Assistant is now one of the device's 100 most popular paid apps, and No. 2 in the lifestyle category.

Kraft's app was launched in December and is a helpful tool for consumers looking to make dinners faster, easier and more convenient. The app offers a host of recipes, browse-able by ingredients, meal type or prep time. Recipes come with instructions simple enough for the uninitiated. Of course, the dishes incorporate Kraft products. There are a number of instructional videos, with guides to portion sizes and knife skills, as well as step-by-step directions for making dishes.

With its endeavor, Kraft is pulling off a rare trick: getting consumers to pay a one-time 99-cent fee for the app and also sit through ads on it. And in the process, it's collecting useful data for targeting them more closely.

For now, Kraft is using the data to understand when and how consumers are shopping, what they're making, and which ingredients they prefer. Information is sent directly to the company, allowing Kraft to gather information on which recipes are the most popular and which ingredients are most used. Kraft is, of course, running ads throughout the app, some before the instructional videos and some with searches.

The lesson: When a marketer creates something that's actually useful, consumers don't really see it as straight marketing, or they're at least willing to accept advertising as the payoff.

What iFood Assistant can teach marketers:

1. Consumers are willing to pay for utility and convenience.
2. They will share personal information in exchange for useful ideas.
3. Use information gathered in a targeted manner.
4. 4. Look for the "sweet spot" of what your brand can offer consumers.
5. Mirroring Apple software is a selling point.