September - October 2010
Business Digest
Page No. 16
Being superstitious can actually boost your performance
Azeezia: Unmatched facilities; beautiful location Azeezia group of Medical Educational Institutions is located in a setting of scenic beauty at Meeyannoor village, 18kms from Kollam city. The sprawling campus has an area of 50 acres and combined investment of Rs.250 crores. The panoramic view from the campus embraces hills and paddy fields, coconut groves and rubber plantations, typical of Kerala- Gods Own Country. The refreshing and re-vitalising ambience is conducive to
learning recuperation. Azeezia Institute of Medical Sciences and Research is the first Medical College established in Kollam District. This Institution is imparting training of medical professionals who are sure, will be socially oriented and ethically principled. This institution is giving personal attention in every part of the training by well experienced teachers who have vast experience in their concerned fields. Our main objective is to nurture the skills of patient management and communication. We inculcate the concept of our concern for our society considering the fact that life expectancy of nearly thirty years separates those in the richest countries from those in the poorest. To cure sometimes, to relieve often, but to
comfort always- that is what a physician can do. We will provide a congenial atmosphere for the students for the development of curricular and extracurricular activities. A Golden thread running through the ethos of the Azeezia Group of Medical Institutions is social responsibility. The institutions are fully committed to rendering qualitative medical education and cost effective modern treatment to the rural population without profit motive and
this is expected to blaze a trail of CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY in the field of “Rural Health Care” in the years to come. Ably captained by its Chairman M. Abdul Azeez, other board members of the Azeezia Group of institutions are Mrs. M. Hafsath Azeez, Dr. Ansar Azeez, Dr. Hashim Azeez, Midhulaj Azeez, Anaz Azeez and Hassan Azeez. Azeezia Medical College Hospital is a 500 bedded hospital fully equipped for the treatment of most of the diseases. The hospital is managed by a team of highly qualified and experienced doctors and well trained and motivated Para-medical staff. Generala facilities in the hospital are General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics &
Gyneacology, Orthopedics, Paediatrics, ENT, Opthalmology, Dermatology, Psychiatry and Anaesthesiology. Cardiology, Radio diagnosis, Urology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neuro surgery,TB & Chest Disease, Surgical Oncology and Maxillofacial Surgery are the super specialuties. Azeezia Nursing College which was started in 2006 is fully equipped to impart high quality graduate nursing education. Adequate resources
have been made available to help the students to learn every aspect of nursing in its entirety. Azeezia College of Dental Sciences & Research is an educational initiative by Podikunju Musaliar Memorial Charitable and Educational Trust which was in turn started in 2001 to cherish the visionary and philanthropic activities of Late Late. Shri. Podikunju Musaliar (1912-1989). Eligibility criteria for the Management Quota will be a pass in Plus Two (Kerala) or equivalent National Board Examination with at least 50% aggregate marks in Biology, Physics and Chemistry and appearance in Common Entrance Examination conducted by the consortium of Self-financing Medical Colleges/CET
conducted by Government. Admission will be on the basis of marks obtained in the entrance examination and marks obtained for Physics, Chemistry and Biology in the qualifying examination. The marks will be apportioned in the ratio of 50:50. After the entrance test, the marks obtained for the Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the qualifying examination will be added to the marks obtained at the entrance test and a combined merit list will be published. Separate merit list also will be published for categories, for which seats are reserved. Allotment to colleges and admission will be on the basis of centralized counseling. For more informations: Azeezia Medical College, Meeyannoor P.O. Kollam Kerala Kollam-37 Telephone: 0474-3069200 http://www.azeezia.com Dr.Y.M Fazil Marickar serves as the Principal of the college and Dr. L. Reghu, Medical Superintendent.
If a new research is to be believed, then believing in luck is enough to boost performance. Scientists from the University of Cologne designed four experiments to test the effectiveness of belief in goodluck superstitions. According to PhysOrg.com, the superstitions were tested to see whether or not they improved subsequent performance in motor dexterity, memory, solving anagrams, or playing golf. In the experiments, the participants either brought their own lucky “charms,” were given something they were told was lucky or had some other superstition-based encouragement. The researchers found that in
all four experiments, the participants who had a lucky charm or were given encouragement via a common superstitious saying performed significantly better than their control counterparts. The participants performed better and faster on motor dexterity tests, plus they had more confidence in their own abilities when asked beforehand how they thought they would do.The research is the first time superstitions associated with good luck have been demonstrated to affect future performance beneficially, reports Discovery News. The research is published online in the journal Psychological Science.
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Kochi September-October 2010
Real estate sector fuels inflation Inflation remains a headache for the country’s economy. Demand-supply gap in various sectors were attributed to price rise. Although the price rise of essential commodities were being considered while dealing with inflation, the bigger factor of speculative activities in the real estate sector have been getting little attention. The Union Government and the Reserve Bank of India were trying to tighten easy money availability by hiking
products at competitive prices.” The Vento is equipped with a 1.6 litre engine with an output of 105PS @ 5250 rpm and a Torque of 153NM @ 3800 rpm.
erate in the development of the world and there is no better way to do it than visiting China. Then the question comes, where to in China? Businessmen are prudent and also want to combine busi-
to the sector could check the inflation only if the RBI had taken into account every sector with inflating prices, that is, every sector suffering from a demand-supply gap and other distortions. But the central bank has no account of how prices in the service sector have been moving and have they been moving up at a dizzy speed. The real estate and housing market has all the ingredients of speculative overheat-
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bank interest rates to contain inflation. But these measures fail to bring the expected results. Choking off easy money
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Bertrand Courtois- General Manager, Sofital Wanda Chengdu
The Indian businessmen after reading the latest book by Author and a media magnet, Raghav Behl titled Super power, (Penguin Books ISBN 9780670064630) want to see if China and India can co- op-
Artificial bee eye could improve visual navigation in mobile robots
Scientists have created an imaging system that mimics a honeybee’s field of view.The lightweight system could change the way we build mobile robots and small flying vehicles. The artificial bee eye is complete with fully functional camera, to shed light on the insects’ complex sensing, processing and navigational skills. It has a mirror-lens combination attached to a USB video camera that allowed the researchers to take unique images showing the world from an insect’s viewpoint.Their next step is to incorporate colour recognition, which is important to honeybees for flower recognition and discrimination and also polarisation vision, which bees use for orientation. “Despite the discussed limitations of our model of the spatial resolution of the honey-
Business News Service From page 9
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Sofitel Wanda Chengdu: A great oasis in Chengdu, China will be a strong addition to our product portfolio. Adding further he said, “The New Vento is an extension of our commitment towards the Indian consumers of providing the best quality
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Snap shots Risk factors for painkiller addiction identified Why are some people more likely to become addicted to painkillers than others? Well, a new study has started to unlock the puzzle. Geisinger investigators have found that patients with four common risk factors have a significantly higher risk of addiction.In addition, a history of severe drug dependence and drug abuse compounds
the risk.According to the Geisinger study, common risk factors for painkiller addiction in patients with chronic pain are: age (65 years or younger), a history of drug abuse and depression, and use of psychiatric medications.Currently, statistics find painkiller addiction as high as one in four (26 percent) among these patients. >> Turn to page 2
September - October 2010
Business Digest A revolutionary technique developed by scientists could help cardiac patients rejuvenate their failing hearts. The new technique could also cut the need for transplants, with diseased and worn out hearts using their own reserves to mend themselves. It could prolong and improve the quality of life of tens of thousands every year, says a Daily Mail report. The experiments, which were carried out on mice, are still in the early stages, but they offer fresh hope for the future. They centre on the large muscular cells that allow the heart to beat and go about its vital work of pumping blood. Normally, the body has little or no way of replacing any that die or are damaged. But researchers at the California based Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, have devised a cocktail of genes that trick other heart cells called fibroblasts into transforming into beating muscle cells called cardiomyocytes. The journal Cell reports how fibroblasts treated with the cocktail in the lab turned into beating muscle cells after being transplanted into a mouse. Masaki Ieda of the Gladstone Institute said: ‘Scien-
Page No. 2
Gene cocktail could help rejuvenate failing hearts
tists have tried for 20 years to convert non-muscle cells into heart muscle. It turns out we just needed the right combination of genes in the right dose.’ Deepak Srivastava, senior study author from Gladstone, said: ‘The ability to reprogramme fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes has many therapeutic implications.’ Half of the cells in the heart are fibroblasts, so the ability to call upon this reservoir of cells already in the organ to become beating heart cells has tremendous promise for cardiac regeneration.’ In time a drug that works in the same way as the cocktail of genes could be developed. Injected into damaged hearts, it would drive the growth of new muscle.’ That’s our longterm goal,’ said Srivastava. Every two minutes, someone, somewhere has a heart attack. Many go on to develop heart failure, in which the weakened heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood. Up to 40 percent of these die within a year of diagnosis - giving heart failure a worse survival rate than many cancers. Other organs could be patched up in a similar way, the researchers believe.
Nitta Gelatin to launch more healthcare products G. Suseelan, Managing Director Nitta Gelatin India Ltd. said that the company is planning to launch more consumer healthcare products following the success of GelixerCollagenPep, an OTC product for joint health/osteo-arthritis segment. The next product will be a functional food supplement for improving the bone strength targeted at women above 40 years. According to Suseelan the product development activities are in final stage and the company propose to introduce it by April 2011. The company is also working on a number of new products such as wound care products, nutritional products etc. under the Gelixer brand.
The company plans to launch the CollagenPep in the southern market starting from Tamil Nadu in the next two months and later on to all the metro cities by April 2011. The product, which introduced in the market in June, had received positive response from consumers forcing the company to increase the production by 3-4 times to meet the actual demand. During July, it had sold more than 25,000 jars against the estimated 17,000 jars a month during the first year. Out of about 2.40 lakh osteo-arthritis patients in Kerala, the company has targeted a market share of 10 per cent to be using the product on regular ba-
sis. The market is expected to grow by five per cent on year on year basis. Based on the positive feedback from consumers, the company is expecting to achieve a turnover close to Rs.3 crore from the Kerala market alone in the current fiscal, he said. With the launch of the product in metros and rural areas in the country, the company, a joint venture of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and Nitta Gelatin Inc., is expecting incremental revenue of Rs. 50 crore from sale of CollagenPep alone, he added. The company had started manufacturing and marketing Gelixer-CollagenPep with the technical knowhow from Nitta
From page 1
ing. Shortages in land and housing units have pulled up prices and the distortions in the land market, in land acquisitions for instance, have perpetuated the rise. External capital has been flowing into the Indian real estate sector in a big way. Since these foreign investments were for purely investment gains, property prices keep increasing. It has been estimated that the FDI in the country’s real estate sector grew 80-fold during the last 5 years. It was Rs.13,586 crore in 2009-’10 as against mere Rs.171 crore in 2004-’05. The flow was Rs.737 crore during April, May 2010.
The consumer price index of housing in May 2010 rose to 33% as against the increase of just 14% in the food sector. The fact is that speculation in housing-real estate sector is feeding or ‘talking up’ inflation in other sectors. To control the capital flow of speculative kind to the real estate sector RBI can introduce risk weightages on real estate advances. Another factor that influenced the unprecedented inflation was the populistic policies of the UPA. In 2004 UPA dethroned the NDA by giving the slogan of ‘aam aadmi’ and launching a number of
programmes that promised not only free lunches but also free breakfasts, free schooling, free health facilities and number of welfare measures for minorities including scholarships for the students from those communities. The UPA repeated these populistic policies with increased vigour in 2009 and returned to power. But good politics can be bad economics. Free lunches, including ‘dig and fill’ employment programmes were inflationary. These programmes might have won over the ‘aam aadmi’, but they have destroyed the traditional Indian ethos of hard work and frugality.
Gelatin Inc., Japan. Collagen Peptide is already established functional food for the joint health in the US, Europe, Japan etc. According to the company’s estimate, around 75 lakh people are suffering from
degenerative joint disease osteo-arthritis in India. It had also conducted a clinical study in India to compare the efficacy and safety of its Collagen Peptide at three centres in Chennai including
Apollo Hospitals. The study concluded that oral ingestion of Collagen Peptide is safe and can improve joint function and quality of life in patients with knee joint Osteo-arthritis, Suseelan added.
NABARD gives Rs.740 crore to gramin banks The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs.740 crore as crop loans to North Malabar Gramin Bank and South Malabar Gramin Bank during 2009-10. This amounted to a record 200 per cent growth over the previous year and both the banks registered 100 per cent utilisation, K.C. Shashidhar, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Kerala, said, in a press release. The total disbursement of the bank that stood for providing and regulating credit for promotion and development of From page 1
bees compound eyes, we are confident that it is useful for many purposes, e.g. for the simulation of bee-like agents in virtual environments and, in combination with presented imaging system, for testing bee-inspired visual navigation strategies on mobile robots,” the researchers said.
agriculture during 2009-10 crossed Rs.2,560 crore. NABARD, Kerala, sanctioned a refinance disbursement of Rs.914 crore to various banks in the State during the year for farm and non-farm loans. With this, NABARD, Kerala,
achieved the third position in investment credit disbursement at the national level, he said. NABARD’s funding for rural development in Kerala registered an 82 per cent increase during 2009-10, compared to the previous year.
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“These findings suggest that patients with pre-existing risk factors are more likely to become addicted to painkillers, providing the foundation for further clinical evaluation,” said Joseph Boscarino, an epidemiologist and senior investigator at Geisinger’s Center for Health Research.” By assessing patients in chronic pain for these risk factors before prescribing painkillers, doctors will be better able to treat their patients’ pain without the potential for future drug addiction.” The study suggests that the same risk factors, often noted in a patient’s medical record, may also influence drug addiction in patients without a
history of chronic pain.For this study, Geisinger investigators accessed Geisinger’s electronic data base to identify patients with back pain and related orthopedic conditions who were prescribed painkillers (opioids) for more than 90 days.They interviewed a sample (705) of these patients and collected and studied their DNA.Specifically, investigators studied a gene located on chromosome 15 that has been implicated in alcohol, cocaine and cigarette smoking dependencies. The data suggests an association of DNA variants in a gene cluster on chromosome 15 with opioid as well as nicotine addiction.
Business Digest
September - October 2010
Page No. 3
Adi Shankara Institute of Union Bank prepares Engineering re-affirms medium-term financial its superiority inclusion plan Business News Service Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering & Technology (ASIET), Kalady, the first new generation engineering college to get ISO 9001:2008 certification has been time and again proving its excellence.
Dr. S.G. Iyer, Principal, Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology said that all these rank holders were already got jobs in Infosys and TCS through campus recruitment.
Dr. B.S. Krishnan, Managing Trustee
Dr. S.G. Iyer, Principal
The institute which achieved overall pass percentage of 95% consecutively from the first batch has created 5 rank holders in the 2010 B.Tech examinations of Mahatma Gandhi University. Shruthi Manmadhan (first rank, Computer Science), Renjini Unnithan (second rank, Electronics & Communication), Ishwarya S. Nair (third rank, Electronics & Communication), Meenu Soosan Paul (second rank, Information Technology), Sibia Mary Babu (third rank, Information Technology), were the rank holders this time.
Established in 2001 and ably run by the Sringeri Mutt with the benign blessings of Sree Sree Bharathitheertha Mahaswamigal, Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering & Technology has been keen in creating excellence in every field. Located at a place, which kindles vibrant memories of the serene presence of Jagadguru Adi Shankara, the institution is engaged in a noble and holy task of creating a suitable and rich background of intellectual and spiritual atmosphere that promotes love and understanding for the awakening and flow-
ering of intelligence. In ASIET there is a true blend of global values and Indian spiritual values after Adi Shankara’s teachings and philosophy. The reins of ASIET are in the able hands of the veteran lawyer, Dr. B.S. Krishnan, the Managing Trustee, who is fully committed to the overall development of the college. An expert in Electronics, Dr. S.G. Iyer has been at the helm as principal. A team of highly qualified and dedicated faculty, under the direct supervision of the principal, works untiringly for the betterment of students in all respects. Affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University and approved by AICTE, the college offers B.Tech. Degree courses in Applied Electronics and Instrumentation, Electronics & communication Engineering (two batches), Computer Science & Engineering Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Information Technology and Mechanical Engineering. Apart from providing quality technical education at the undergraduate level, ASIET provides excellent, world-class Management education through its prestigious 2 year, full time M.B.A. programme. >> Turn to page 6
M.V. Nair, Chairman & Managing Director, Union Bank of India said that the Bank has drawn up a medium-term financial inclusion plan 2010-2013 for systematic coverage of the unreached. Speaking at the GreatLakes Financial inclusion conference organised jointly by Union Bank of India and Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, he informed that the Bank intends to cover 32,000 villages over the next 3 years, accounting for nearly 5% of the total number of villages in the country. During this period the Bank expects to add 6.2 million new customers, taking its customers to 10 million by 2013. According to M.V. Nair, Union Bank is planning to create a loan corpus of Rs.500 crore for farmers in Andhra Pradesh, as part of its financial inclusion programme and is planning to focus on the SuratGanjram (Orissa) corridor to target the migrant worker remittances. The Bank has also plans to introduce mobilebased saving bank accounts.
M.V. Nair
The bank was also experimenting with providing finance to the members of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies in Andhra Pradesh through Cooptions Technologies Ltd (COTL). A pilot project was initiated in February 2008 in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh, with an initial corpus of Rs. 2 crore. Later, this was extended to Chittoor and East Godavari districts with a corpus of Rs.20 crore for crop loans and Rs.1 crore for vehicle loans called Kisan Chakra.
The other initiative relates to a remittance product for urban poor. “Financial inclusion is not only restricted to rural areas, but the same is evident in urban areas too,” he said. He said the urban slum dwellers, most of whom are migrant labourers, do not have access to banking and other financial services. The bank introduced remittance facility at affordable charges and delivery terms were provided at the door-step of the customer. >> Turn to page 7
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Coir Board targets Rs.1000 crore export The export of coir and coir products from the country has been growing consistently for the last several years. The industry achieved an all time high record in export with 2,94,508 MTs of coir and coir products worth Rs.804.05 crores exported during 2009-10. In the current financial year, 1,20,712 MTs of coir and products worth Rs.264.55 crores have been exported during April to July, 2010 as against a total quantity of 72,913 MTs valued at Rs.226.33 crores exported during the corresponding period of last year. In the current financial year, there is an increase of 47,799 MTs (65.56%) in quantity and an amount of Rs.38.22 crores (16.89%) in value when compared to the previous year. The achievement assumes greater significance considering the fact that the coir industry is currently facing a series of problems like shortage of coir fibre, skilled labour etc. V.S. Vijaya raghavan, Ex-M.P. Chairman, Coir Board at a press conference said that the Board is targeting Rs.1000 crore export during the current fiscal. The coir industry, particularly the export oriented production sector located in the Ambalapuzha and Cherthala taluks of Alappuzha district, is facing problems related to the scarcity of raw material, shortage of labour etc. As of now, the industry is sourcing the coir
fibre required for the production of value added products from Tamil Nadu especially Pollachi, Tenkasi, Cumbam, Teni and Nagercoil. The inflow of fibre from these places to Kerala has
shrunk in recent times due to a variety of reasons including large scale exports of coir fibre to China. As a remedial measure, the Board extended support to the Govt. of Kerala for reviving defunct defibering units located in the Malabar region of Kerala and also identifying new sources of supply of fibre from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as well. According to Vijayaraghavan, in Malabar region 60% of the husks are being unutilised. The Board facilitated the Kerala government owned Coir Fed, the designated agency for procurement of fibre, in identifying the suppliers of coir fibre from these States. In addition, the Board’s Central Coir Research Institute (CCRI) at Kalavoor
developed a mobile fibre extraction machine which can process 5000 husks per shift. The shortage of labour is an acute problem affecting the coir sector. This is mainly due to migration of workers to other areas like construction industry and the ongoing National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP). This has resulted in huge production loss in the coir sector. To overcome this, the Chairman, Coir Board, has made a representation to the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry to include Coir spinning activity in the activities covered by the NREGP. Coir Board is celebrating the year 2010 as “Year of Coir” by organising various programmes aimed at promoting coir in the country through aggressive and integrated marketing propaganda which could maximise awareness on various uses and eco-friendly properties of coir among various target groups. The celebrations were inaugurated by A.K. Antony, Union Minister for Defence, at a function held at Palakkad on 16th May, 2010 by handing over a celebration banner to G. Sudhakaran, Minister for Co-operation and Coir, Government of Kerala. The celebrations of “Year of Coir” would include introduction of the technologies developed by the Research Insti-
tutes of Coir Board in the field level and transfer the technologies to the entrepreneurs under MoU, besides organizing seminars, work-shops etc. in a continuous fashion in different parts of the country. Advantages of natural products over synthetic products will be highlighted during this period through aggressive publicity and propaganda. Coir products like coir geotextiles, coir polymer composite boards, coir pith organic manure etc. which has got direct impact on the protection of environment from the evils of deforestation, soil erosion and depletion of top soil etc. will be promoted on this occasion. The series of activities envisaged during the “Year of Coir” include Slogan Contest and Essay Competition for the School children, Field Demonstration on the Application of Coir Geotextiles, Coir Pith Organic Manure and Coir Polymer Composite Boards, Environment Run to be organised in major cities by inviting VIPs of the locality. It is also proposed to carry out capacity building exercises through appropriate training programmes for the workers and the executives in the coir sector. It is also planned to undertake aggressive publicity programmes at New Delhi at the time of Commonwealth Games as part of the “Year of Coir - 2010” Celebrations.
tourists and businessmen alike. But do they have some great high growth possibilities? Do they have synergy with any Indian city? At that stage the choice becomes very easy. The Indian IT capital of Bangalore today is connected by Air China by a
non stop direct flight to CHENGDU. Suppose you have selected Chengdu to explore the possibility of doing something in Software, BPO and other services activities. India is still riding on the software success that has made Bangalore to be in the lips of
every MNC in the world. So what can Chengdu do to enhance that positioning? That is where the picture becomes larger and clear. BANGALORE-CHENGDU corridor is a win-win corridor. Chengdu has the super infrastructure. Bangalore has the skills. No wonder top Indian software companies like WIPRO have set shops in Chengdu. OK. You decided on location. What about your accommodation? Like any international city, Chengdu also boasts many hotels and serviced apartments. Why SOFITEL WANDA CHENGDU is standing out? (http:// www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel3717-sofitel-wanda-chengdu/ index.shtml) At Sofitel Chengdu, they listen to what you want to ensure to satisfy your requirements. They have trained themselves to anticipate your
V.S. Vijayaraghavan
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ness trips with pleasure. There are many such locations in China, but how many of them can easily blend with Indian thinking and show lesser cognitive dissonance in approach. Top of the line cities like Shanghai, HongKong, Macau and Shenzhen are still magnets for
Restaurant of Sofitel Wanda Chengdu
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Page No. 4
73 % of the fake medicines routed through UAE About 73 per cent of the fake medicines seized at the European borders last year were routed through the UAE, a newspaper report has said. According to a European Commission Taxation and Customs Union report, the last port of call for 15 per cent of the 118 million articles seized in Europe was the UAE, The National newspaper reported. The most recent figures revealed that 73 per cent of fake medicines and 16 per cent of fake tobacco products came from the UAE, the paper said. The Dubai Customs, which declined to comment on the latest report, however, pointed out that last year it did not have the legal authority to inspect goods on ships that arrived in its port en route to another destination. The number of fake medicines arriving via the UAE rose from around 750,000 in 2008 to almost 5.5 million in 2009. David Boublil, a spokesman for the
Taxation and Customs Union’’s Directorate-General, was quoted by the paper as saying that it is impossible for customs officials to say with certainty where in the world the goods were manufactured before arriving in the UAE. “We did not try to distinguish between countries of origin and countries of provenance this time,” he said.The previous report for 2008 also demonstrated that the UAE played a major role in the transportation of fake goods across the world. The report noted, however, that “due to a more specific registration of product categories, it is difficult to make an exact comparison between 2009 and the years before”. Meanwhile, UAE officials have been clamping down on fake goods in recent years. Dubai Customs seized a stash of seven million sexual stimulant and fertility tablets from a warehouse in the dry port in June, the paper added.
TA Associates makes minority investment in Dr Lal PathLabs TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, announced a minority investment in Dr Lal PathLabs (LPL), one of India ’s largest chains of pathology laboratories, by purchasing half of Sequoia Capital’s stake. Sequoia Capital has been an investor in Dr Lal PathLabs since 2005. Dr Lal PathLabs was founded in New Delhi in 1949 by Dr. (Major) S.K. Lal as a single laboratory in central Delhi . Today, the company, under the stewardship of Dr. Arvind Lal, Chairman, and Dr. Om Manchanda, CEO, has grown rapidly to become one of the country’s largest diagnostic networks comprising two state-of-the-art central laboratories, 55 satellite laboratories, 850 collection centers and 2,500 pick-up points. TA Associates has more than four decades of investing experience, focusing on profitable growth companies. TA’s prior investments in the healthcare sector include Alere Medical, AmeriChoice, CompBenefits, Invitrogen, MQ Associates, National Imaging Associates, Triumph HealthCare and Twin Med. TA’s previous investments in India include GlobeOp Finan-
cial Services, Idea Cellular and Micromax Informatics Limited. TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd. provided advisory services to TA Associates in India . Ernst & Young served as financial advisors and Lexygen and Goodwin Procter provided legal counsel to TA Associates. JM Financial served as financial advisors, and Luthra & Luthra and AZB provided legal counsel to Dr Lal PathLabs and Sequoia Capital, respectively. Sequoia Capital currently manages funds capitalized at close to US $1.8 billion and invests across venture, growth and late stage opportunities in India . It takes a long term view on investments and plays the role of an active, value added partner to entrepreneurs, business families and management teams. Over the last nine years, Sequoia Capital has invested in more than 50 Indian companies, including Café Coffee Day, Comviva (Bharti Telesoft), Dr Lal PathLabs, Edelweiss, Firstsource, GVK Biosciences, Idea Cellular, IndBarath Power, Just Dial, Shaadi.com and SKS Microfinance. Sequoia Capital operates out of offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Business Digest
September - October 2010
Property prices grow by 18.6% in the last one year Empowering homebuyers and industry players through Makaan.com Property Index Makaan.com, India’s fastest growing online real estate website by People group has launched country’s first Property Index. Christened Makaan.com Property Index (MPI) the tool is aimed at empowering homebuyers and industry players with up-to date information related to movement in residential property prices. This tool will assist the homebuyers to make an informed decision, when he/she heads out to buy their dream home. MPI aims to provide a direction to the buyer so that they invest their hard earned money in the right manner. Makaan.com Property Index (MPI) is part of a bigger initiative known as MakaanIQ that has been bringing out property intelligence & research reports for the benefit of homebuyers and real estate industry.
Makaan.com Property Index Methodology Coverage: Makaan.com Property Index tracks property price trends nationally and for major metros and tier II cities of India. Frequency: Monthly – Starting Jan 2009. Database: This index is based on minimum database size of 20,000 data points every month and the analysis has been drawn over a period starting Jan’09. The prices of properties are obtained across micro-markets through property listings on the website as well as Makaan.com’s nationwide sales force. Index Algorithm: The complex algorithm takes into account the property prices as base and then factors in the demand and supply of residential properties for each of the cities covered by it. Care has
been taken to give weight age to cities in line with the size of underlying property market. As per the latest release of Makaan.com Property Index (MPI), real estate prices in India have grown by 18.6% in June’10 compared with the same month last year. The index for the month of June stood at 1122 vis- a- vis 946 a year ago. The trend for June’10 deserves a special mention as it was around this time last year that the property prices started to look up after 9 months period (Oct’09 to June’09) of continues decline caused by global meltdown. The rise in the national index can be attributed to the increase in property prices of the underlining markets like Kolkata (50.7%), Delhi (41.7%), Ahmedabad (36.2%), Mumbai (15.7%), Pune >> Turn to page 6
Page No. 5
LIC to invest Rs. 2 lakh crore Life Insurance Corporation of India is targeting to invest Rs.2 lakh crore across asset classes by the end of the current fiscal. Last year the investment was Rs. 1,92,000 crore. LIC Chairman T.S. Vijayan said that the insurance giant has invested Rs.39,000 crore, of which Rs.10,000 crore in equities during the first quarter. LIC recorded a 10.99 per cent rise in valuation surplus to Rs.23,478 crore in 2009-10 as compared to Rs.21,152 crore in 2008-09. Valuation surplus is the money available with LIC for distribution after paying all expenses and taxes. LIC paid Rs.1,029 crore dividend to the government. First year premium income rose 33.87 per cent to Rs.70,891 crore from Rs.52,954 crore in 2008-09. Its total assets under management increased 31.88 per cent to Rs.11,52,057 crore. The premium income rose 18.32 per cent to Rs.1,85,985 crore from Rs.1,57,186 crore in 2008-09 while total income went up to Rs.2,98,721 crore, a 49.15 per cent increase from
T.S. Vijayan: Growth story
2008-09. Also, first-year premium collections doubled to Rs.18,740 crore. LIC’s market share inched up to 73.43 per cent in the first quarter of 201011. The expense ratio last financial year was 13.10 per cent as compared to 12.92 per cent in the previous year, which was “within prescribed limits” and the lowest in the highly competitive life insurance space. This financial year, the insurer is targeting premium collection of Rs.2,01,000 crore. Last year, the share of
Ulips in the total premium pie of Rs.1,85,000 crore was 75 per cent and total equity investments stood at Rs.61,000 crore. “If the markets are good, people invest in ULIPs and if interest areas are good, they turn to non-linked policies,” Vijayan said. The largest insurer has 15 lakh agents and expects a net addition of 20 per cent this year. LIC is one of the few insurers paying the least commission to its agents. While the average commission on Ulips is 12-15 per cent, LIC pays around seven per cent.
Cochin Stock Exchange to conduct certificate course on Technical Analysis CSE Institute of Capital Market (CICM), the education & training wing of Cochin Stock Exchange Ltd is conducting a 2-week certificate course on Technical Analysis. Classes will be held on 18th, 19th & 28th September 2010 at Hotel Pearl Continental, Lissie Junction, S.R.M. Road, Kochi. Course fee is Rs.6000/- + service tax. The course will be helpful to persons in shares, commodity and currency markets, investors, traders, sub-brokers, employees of brokers, aspiring research analysists, research students, management students and faculty.
Contact: CSE Institute of Kaloor, Kochi - 17. Ph: 0484Capital Market, 4th Floor, MES 3048521 Complex, Judges Avenue, education@cochinstockexchange.com
Two Bengaluru innovators get MIT pat Two employees of Microsoft Research in Bengaluru, one of whom has since left the company to start an NGO, are among 35 people hailed as “outstanding innovators under the age of 35” by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s prestigious publication, Technology Review. Indrani Medhi, 31, was recognized for her development of
text-free user interfaces that allow any illiterate person, on first contact with a computer, to immediately deploy it to find jobs, get medical information and perform banking transactions with minimal or no assistance. Rikin B Gandhi, 28, now with the NGO Digital Green, created a solution to help farm>> Turn to page 6
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Demand for gold soars 94% in the country during the first 6 months of the current year
The total gold jewellery demand in India remained robust in H1 2010. The volume of growth increased 67 per cent to 272.5 tonnes as compared to 163 tonnes in H1 2009. In INR value terms, demand increased to Rs 45,700 crores an increase of 94 per cent. The volume of gold in investments was very strong and grew by 264 per cent to 92.5 tonnes in H1 2010 as compared to 25.4 tonnes in the corresponding period. In terms of value, investments accounted for Rs. 14800 crores in H1 2010 compared to Rs. 3700 crores in H1 2009 an increase of 300 per cent. 2010 has been a year which has provided a clear indication of the diversity of gold. As the year has progressed, the Indian gold market has grown significantly. This has therefore ensured in gold retaining its intrinsic appeal. Demand for gold in India rose by
94 per cent to 365 tonnes in H1 2010 as compared to 188.4 tonnes in H1 2009 clearly indicating that there has been a rebound in demand as compared to the previous year. In value terms, India’s gold demand grew from Rs 27,300 crores to Rs. 60,500 crores an increase of 122 per cent. With the Indian marriage season coming up and important festivals like Dhanteras, Diwali and Onam on the anvil, the future seems to augur well for gold. Ajay Mitra, Managing Director, Middle East and India, World Gold Council said:”To date, 2010 has provided a clear indication of the diversity of gold demand. The Indian gold market has improved significantly compared to the previous year, and in the process, has ensured that it has retained its intrinsic appeal. “Demand for gold in India rose by 94% to 365 tonnes in H1 2010 compared to 188.4
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Hi-Fi campus, highly qualified and dedicated faculty, state-of-the art laboratory, library and workshop facilities, ultra modern class rooms with latest teaching aids like P3 ceramics boards, public address system and LCD projectors, fully-air-conditioned and well furnished seminar hall and conference rooms, ample provision for sports, games and cultural activities, Edusat, Everron E-learning system, inviting feedback from all stake holders including parents, water harvesting and biogas plant are some of the special features of ASIET. ASIET is the only hitech technical education centre where training in classical music is being given on a regular basis.
The college has a fully functional placements cell under a dynamic placement officer, Santha Ram Rao. He regularly liaisons with the industry giants within and outside the state and helps organise training programmes to suit the requirements of the companies. The syllabus of the Finishing School concept conceived by the ASIET placement cell has been widely acclaimed and recognised. This is a practical oriented concept which can give an insight to both B.Tech. and M.B.A. students who wish to pursue a career in management. The campus connect programme of ASIET has been adjudged as the best by Infosys.
tonnes in H1 2009, clearly indicating that there has been a rebound in demand. In value terms, India’s gold demand grew from Rs 27,300 crores to Rs. 60,500 crores, an increase of 122%. With the Indian marriage season coming up as well as important festivals like Dhanteras, Diwali and Onam, we anticipate gold demand will remain robust throughout 2010.” Demand for gold will remain robust during 2010 as a result of accelerating demand from India and China, as well as increasing investment demand driven by continuing uncertainty over public debt and economic recovery, the World Gold Council (“WGC”) said.According to the WGC’s Gold Demand Trends report for Q2 2010, demand for gold for the rest of 2010 will be underpinned by the following market forces:India and China will continue to provide the main thrust of overall growth in demand, particularly for gold jewellery for the remainder of 2010. Retail investment will continue to be a substantial source of gold demand in Europe. Over the longer-term, demand for gold in China is expected to grow considerably. A report recently published by The People’s Bank of China and five other organisations to foster the development of the domestic gold market will add impetus to the growth in gold ownership among Chinese consumers. Electronics demand is likely to return to higher historic levels after the sector exhibited further signs of recovery, especially in the US and Japan. Marcus Grubb, Managing Director, Investment at the
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1500 delegates register for KTM 2010 1500 participants from India and across the world have registered for the sixth edition of Kerala Travel Mart 2010 (KTM), to be held in Kochi from September 23 to 26, 2010. To be organised at the Bolgatty Palace Hotel, KTM 2010 will have 370 stalls including mooring facility for houseboats. This is 27 per cent growth in participation than the previous mart. Supported by Kerala Tourism, this year’s event will be indicative of the State’s preparedness to attract tourists from countries just recovering from global recession. Timed just ahead of the peak tourist season, the meet is aimed at preparing the stakeholders for a head start as Kerala is facing unprecedented competition from traditional rivals such as Goa and Rajasthan and also neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The tourism sector of Kerala faces tough competition from many stakeholders in the region. In an effort to build up its war-ravaged economy, Sri Lanka has started a campaign to lure premium traveler to the island nation. For Indians, Sri Lanka is a bargain tourist destination. Even Malaysia and Thailand are not far behind in their efforts to attract the discerning tourist.International buyers from countries like Poland, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, China, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, France and those from countries in South Asia have registered as delegates. More than a thousand buyers from other states of India will also participate in this popular travel mart. Organised during the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday of September biennial, KTM is the only tourism event in the subcontinent that brings together the business fraternity and entrepreneurs behind the
tourism products and services of Kerala. Launched in the year 2000 as KTM 2000, very successful Marts were conducted in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 with the participation of buyers from around 50 countries and other parts of India. Primarily a buyer-seller meet where buyers fall in the categories of tour operators, travel agents, airline, event managers, travel writers, media personnel or anyone who has the potential to buy services that the tourism industry of Kerala has to offer. All sellers are members of the KTM society coming under the service categories of tourism industry service providers. The Mart will be inaugurated on September 23, 2010. On September 24 and 25 there will be exclusive interactive sessions for the buyers and sellers. September 26 is open for the public.
WGC commented:”Economic uncertainties and the ongoing search for less volatile and more diversified assets such as gold are likely to underpin investment demand for gold in the immediate future. Further, in light of lingering concerns over public debt levels and the euro, European retail investor demand has increased significantly. Over the past quarter,
demand for gold jewellery in key Asian markets has been challenged by rising local prices. Nevertheless, we are seeing a deceleration in the pace of decline in demand, providing a strong outlook for ongoing recovery in this crucial market segment.While many investors turned to gold as a ‘flight to quality’ in response to the uncertain financial environ-
ment, this interest has proved resilient even though a sense of optimism has started to return to some sectors of the investment community. In addition to the ETF market and physical bar and coin market, the demand for gold through internet based investment platforms is likely to provide further sources of investment demand.”
ers seem to be in a wait and watch approach. On one hand the property prices have goneup too much too soon and on the other there is excess supply. Both these are acting like a headwind in the short term. The price movement over the
next few months will determine the next definitive trend”. Makaan property index is a part of a bigger initiative known as MakaanIQ that has been bringing out property intelligence & research reports for the benefit of homebuyers and real estate industry.
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(12.5%) and Bangalore (3%) while dragging the index was the property prices in markets like Hyderabad (-3.4%) and Chennai (-2.8%). If one were to look at the short term (quarterly) trend and compare the price index for June’10 with that of March’10, one would observe consolidation in property prices. The national index during this period has moved from 1117 in March’10 to 1122 in June’10 a near flat growth of just 0.5%. This indicates a short term fatigue in the property prices after an upturn seen earlier in the year. During this period, the index has moved up in markets like Delhi (15.1%), Ahmedabad (10.3%), Kolkata (5.8%) and Hyderabad (2.7%) whereas it has fallen in markets like Chennai (-10.6%), Pune (8.6%), Mumbai (-4%) & Bangalore (-0.8%). Commenting on the findings, Aditya Verma – COO, Makaan.com says, “In the near term the mood seems to be that of caution. The home buy-
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ers adopt better practices. The solution, first piloted in Hubli and now implemented in several locations in the country, has been demonstrated to be 10 times more effective, per rupee spent, in converting farmers to better farming practices than classical approaches. Narayanan Suresh, group editor of Technology Review India, told TOI this selection indicated that young innovators in India were doing cuttingedge work like their counterparts worldwide. “Many global experts have predicted that Indians in India will play a major role in the technologies of tomorrow,” he said. The last time
an Indian in India featured in this TR35 list was in 2002, when Ramesh Hariharan, cofounder of Bangalore-based Strand Life Sciences, was recognized for software tools he designed to efficiently analyze the ever-increasing volume of data about gene composition. “Many young innovators we’ve selected have gone on to be spectacularly successful,” Technology Review says. Previous winners include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cofounders of Google; Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook; Jonathan Ive, chief designer at Apple; and Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal.
September - October 2010
COMMENTS
Mamata-Maoist alliance It was strange that a minister in the Union Government has been working in tandem with the Maoists, who were killing hundreds of policemen and civilians almost everyday in West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and elsewhere. Railway minister Mamata Banerjee addressed a joint rally organised by her party Trinamool Congress and Maoists recently in Lalgarh, West Bengal. In the rally she
declared that the Maoist leader Azad was killed in Andhra Pradesh not in an encounter and it was a fake one. But Andhra Pradesh Government and Union Home minister were repeatedly stating that it was not a fake encounter. Home minister Chidambaram declares war against Maoist and his cabinet colleague supports the Masoists vehemently. When CPM alleged MamataMaoist tie-up earlier, Chidambaram had said that
there was no proof of any links between Maoists and Trinamool Congress. After the Lalgarh rally how can he defend Mamata further? Infact Mamata’s act was a morale booster for the Maoists, who were out to challenge the law and democratic fabric of the country. Prime Minister continues his silence on the incident. There were reports that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would meet Mamata and inform her the displeasure of the Government on the Lalgarh incident. But after meeting Mamata in hospital, Pranab was saying that he met his cabinet colleague only to inquire about here health.
Irresponsible allegation The allegation of left parties, RJD and SP that the Congress had agreed to bail out Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case as a Quid pro quo to the support of BJP for the Nuclear Liability Bill was totally irresponsible. The allegation was proved wrong as BJP opposed the bill when the Government made changes in the agreed text to help the nuclear suppliers. BJP was firm to remove those clauses and finally the Government relented. In a healthy democracy, the
ruling party and the opposition are expected to have identical views on certain issues involving national interest. Opposition parties have to oppose only the unacceptable decisions of the Government, not the good ones. As left parties are blind against US and the corporates from that country, the allegation by them can’t be taken as serious. Left parties have been criticising US consistently with the intention of attracting Muslims of India to their side. But Muslim voters were not
amused with the strategy and they were deserting the left parties in their strong holds of West Bengal and Kerala. Criticising the allegation of Congress-BJP secret understanding by SP and RJD, what BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudey remarked was noteworthy. He said: “As far as giving clean chit by the CBI is concerned the RJD and the SP can explain better how this arrangement of using the CBI can be made with the Congress. The BJP doesn’t know this art. They have mastered this”.
Hotel room tariffs may rise by 10-15%
Next time you check in a hotel, be prepared to shell out more as domestic hoteliers are expected to increase tariffs by 10-15 per cent from September. In an attempt to cash in on the peak winter season and the improved economic scenario, “Hoteliers are planning to increase the average room rates From page 3
At present the bank is covering two money-moving corridors - Mumbai-Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and DelhiEastern UP and Bihar corridor. Around three lakh customers have enrolled and an amount of Rs.112 crore was remitted involving 2.4 lakh transactions. “We will shortly replicate this model in other moneymoving corridors like SuratGanjram,” adds M.V. Nair.
(ARRs) by 10-15 per cent from September 2010 as they expect tourist traffic to improve,” says a report by domestic brokerage Angel Broking. Although, the report didn’t talk about their plans for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, it is expected that tariffs will increase from October 3-14 on the back of strong demand. Last two years proved dull for the hotel companies as they were forced to slash average room rates by 25-30 per cent due to terrorist attacks in the country that led to lower occupancy levels as people were apprehensive to travel, the report said. Hotel industry, which is inextricably linked to the tourism industry and its growth, increases rates before the crucial winter season every year. Reflecting a sign of improvement over last two seasons the hotel industry is inching closer
to the benchmark 2008-09 levels in terms of booking volumes. Although, demand in the leisure travel segment may take longer time to revive but demand from the business segment, besides local tourists, is likely to push up occupancy rates. While occupancy rates are expected to rise to 70 per cent during the upcoming season (October 2010-March 2011), thereby providing opportunity to hoteliers to firm up their average room rates. On an average, the room tariff in a premium hotel in metros hovers around Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 per day. But from September, you may have to pay in the range of Rs 9,200-Rs 11, 500. And going by the government estimates, in December, which is the peak tourist season, rates often go up to USD 500 (around Rs 23,300) in the fivestar category hotels in Delhi.
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Rs.600 crore revenue loss for Apollo Tyres due to labour unrest Apollo Tyres resumed operations at its Perambra facility which had been locked out since June 11, following a settlement with the workers. Labour unrest at the facility since April this year had cost the company about Rs.600 crore in revenues. According to the threeyear-long term settlement (LTS) agreement, signed between the management and the workers, the company has decided to hire 200 more people and hike the monthly wages by an average of Rs.5,250. “After long deliberations with the workers, we signed the LTS. According to the agreement, we will increase the capacity to an effective 330 tonnes a day from the earlier 308 tonnes a day,” the Apollo Tyres Chief (India Operations), Satish Sharma said. Apollo Tyres had recently invested about Rs.100 crore in the facility to enhance its installed production capacity to 340 tonnes a day. To operate with the expanded capacity, the company will hire 200 more at the plant. The unit currently employs over 2,000 employees. “The workers have also agreed to have secondary or contractual labourers, who will work night shifts, weekends, holidays and periods of high
absenteeism. This was essential since the Perambra plant witnesses one of the highest absentee rates in the country,” Sharma added. He said the company will also hike the monthly wages of the labourers by an average of Rs.5,250 against the Rs.3,550 offered in the last LTS agree-
ment. The three-year LTS agreement at the Perambra facility was to be signed by both the workers and the management in November, 2009. Workers had resorted to a go-slow agitation in April demanding better wages during renewal of the
LTS. The company had declared a lock-out at the factory on June 11 after failing to reach an agreement with the workers. When asked about the losses incurred by the unit due to the entire period of labour unrest, Sharma said: “Till we declared the lock-out, the revenue loss was about Rs.250 crore and after that, each day we lost Rs.5 crore... The total loss is about Rs.600 crore.” Asked about the 33 employees at the facility, who were suspended for indiscipline, Sharma said: “There was no demand for them by the unions. An enquiry is going on and we will take action according to the report.” This is not the first time that labour unrest has haunted the domestic tyre major. In December 2008, Apollo Tyres had declared a lock-out at its Kalamassery unit when workers went on strike. It was reopened after three months.
Be cautious while accepting Rs. 1000 notes Avoid accepting Rs.1, 000/- note of series 2 AQ and 8 AC. More than 2 crore duplicate notes worth Rs.2,000 crore have already entered India. RBI has issued a caution notice to the public regarding this.
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Business Digest
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Women are always clever
THE LIFE
How to be a friend 1) Don’t worry about knowing people just make your self worth knowing. 2) Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. 3) If you can buy a person’s friendship, it is not worth it. 4) True friends have hearts that beat as one. 5) If you cannot think of any nice things to say about your friends, then you have the wrong friends. 6) Make friends before you need them. 7) If you were another person, would you like to be a friend of yours? 8) A good friend is one who neither looks down on you nor keeps up with you. 9) Be friendly with the folks you know… if it weren’t for them you would be a total stranger. 10) A friend is never known till he is needed. 11) Friendship is a responsibility. ..not an opportunity.
12) Friendship is the cement that holds the world together. 13) Friends are those who speak to you after others don’t. 14) The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail and not his tongue. 15) Pick your friends, but not to pieces. 16) A friend is one who puts his finger on a fault without rubbing it in. 17) The way to have friends is to be willing to lose some arguments. 18) If a friend makes a mistake, don’t rub it in... Rub it out. 19) Deal with other’s faults as gently as if they were your own. 20) People are judged by the company they keep and the company they keep away from. 21) A friend is a person who can step on your toes without messing up your shine. 22) The best mirror is an old friend. 23) The best possession one may have is a true friend. 24) Make friendship a habit and you will always have friends.
25) You will never have a friend if you must have one without faults. 26) Doing nothing for your friends results in having no friends to do for. 27) Anyone can give advice, but a real friend will lend a helping hand. 28) You can make more friends by being interested in them than trying to have them be interested in you. 29) A real friend is a person who, when you’ve made a fool of yourself, lets you forget it. 30) A friend is a person who listens attentively while you say nothing. 31) You can buy friendship with friendship, but never with dollars. 32) True friends are like diamonds, precious but rare; false friends are like autumn leaves, found everywhere. 33) A friend is someone who thinks you’re a good egg even though you’re slightly cracked.
Yesterday is history 1. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present. 2. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live
long enough to make them all yourself. 3. The most influential sentence which should always be followed in life:-”the race is not over… because I haven’t won
yet…” 4. Shoes that put on our foot are sold in airconditioned showrooms. But vegetables we eat are sold on foot path.
Salty Coffee He met her on a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal, nobody paid attention to him. At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised. They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home.. Suddenly he asked the waiter: ”Would you please give me some salt? I’d like to put it in my coffee.” Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously: why you have this hobby?. He replied: “when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there”. While saying that tears filled
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his eyes. She was deeply touched. That’s his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home.. Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story. They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him!Thanks to his salty coffee! Then the story was just like every beautiful love story, the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life... And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that’s the way he liked it. After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said: “My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you—the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that
time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything.. Now I’m dying, I afraid of nothing. So I tell you the truth: I don’t like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste.. But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again”. Her tears made the letter totally wet. Someday, someone asked her: what’s the taste of salty coffee? It’s sweet. She replied. The lesson: Love is not to forget but 2toforgive;not to see but to understand;not to hear but to listen; not to go but to hold on !!!!
Man: “Haven’t we met before?” Woman: “Yes, I’m the receptionist at the V.D. Clinic.” Man: “Haven’t I seen you someplace before?” Woman: “Yeah, that’s why I don’t go there anymore.” Man: “Is this seat empty?” Woman: “Yes, and this one will be too if you sit down.” Man: “So, wanna go back to my place?” Woman: “Well, I don’t know. Will two people fit under a rock?” Man: “Your place or mine?” Woman: “Both. You go to yours and I’ll go to mine.” Man: “I’d like to call you.
What’s your number?” Woman: “It’s in the phone book.” Man: “But I don’t know your name.” Woman: “That’s in the phone book too.” Man: “So what do you do for a living?” Woman: “I’m a female impersonator.” Man: “I know how to please a woman.” Woman: “Then please leave me alone.” Man: “I want to give myself to you.” Woman: “Sorry, I don’t accept cheap gifts.” Man: “I can tell that you want me.” Woman: “Ohhhh. You’re so
right. I want you...to leave.” Man: “Hey cutie, how ‘bout you and I hitting the hot spots?” Woman: “Sorry, I don’t date outside my species.” Man: “May I see you pretty soon?” Woman: “Why? Don’t you think I’m pretty now?” Man: “Your body is like a temple.” Woman: “Sorry, there are no services today.” Man: “I’d go through anything for you.” Woman: “Good! Let’s start with your bank account.” Man: “I would go to the end of the world for you.” Woman: “Yes, but would you stay there?”
Confession Adultery A married Irishman went into the confessional and said to his priest, “I almost had an affair with another woman.” The priest said, “What do you mean, almost?” The Irishman said, “Well, we got undressed and rubbed together, but then I stopped.” The priest said, “Rubbing
together is the same as putting it in. You’re not to see that woman again. For your penance, say five Hail Mary’s and put $50 in the poor box.” The Irishman left the confessional, said his prayers, and then walked over to the poor box. He paused for a moment and then started to leave. The
priest, who was watching, quickly ran over to him saying, “I saw that. You didn’t put any money in the poor box!”. The Irishman replied, “Yeah, but I rubbed the $50 on the box, and according to you, that’s the same as putting it.”
trial was about to begin he asked if he could approach the bench.”Your Honor,” he said, “ I must be excused from this trial because I am prejudiced against the defendant. I took one look at the man in the blue suit with those beady eyes and
that dishonest face and I said ‘He’s a crook! He’s guilty, guilty, guilty’ So Your Honor, I could not possibly stay on this jury!” With a tired annoyance the judge replied, “Get back in the jury box. That man is his lawyer.”
Jury Duty A man was chosen for jury duty who very much wanted to be dismissed from serving. He tried every excuse he could think of but none of them worked. On the day of the trial he decided to give it one more shot. As the
Valuable Banking Rajiv and Mona are flying to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Suddenly, over the public address system, the Captain announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an emergency landing. Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be able to land on the beach. However, the odds
are that we may never be rescued and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives!” Thanks to the skill of the flight crew, the plane lands safely on the island. An hour later Rajiv turns to his wife and asks, “Mona, did we pay our Rs 5 lakh deposit cheque yet to Bank?” “No, sweetheart,” she responds. Rajiv, still shaken from the crash landing, then asks, “Mona, did we pay our Bank Master card yet?” “Oh no! I’m
sorry. I forgot to send the cheque,” she says. “One last thing, Mona. Did you remember to send cheques for the auto loan to them too this month?” he asks. “Oh, forgive me, Rajiv,” begged Mona. “I didn’t send that one, either.” Rajiv grabs her and gives her the biggest hug in 40 years. Mona pulls away and asks him, “So, why did you hug me?” Rajiv answers, “They’ll find us!!!!”
Wedding Rehearsal During the wedding rehearsal, the groom approached the preacher with an unusual offer. “Look, I’ll give you $100 if you’ll change the wedding vows. When you get to me and the part where I’m to promise to “love, honor and cherish” and “forsaking all others, be faithful to her forever,” I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave that part out.” He passed the minister a $100 bill and walked away satisfied.
It is now the day of the wedding, and the bride and groom have moved to that part of the ceremony where the vows are exchanged. When it comes time for the groom’s vows, the preacher looks the young man in the eye and says: “Will you promise to prostrate yourself before her, obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life and vow eternally before God and
your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?” The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, “Yes.” The groom leaned toward the preacher and whispered: “I thought we had a deal.” The preacher put the $100 bill into his hand and whispered back: “She made me a much better offer.”
Business Digest
September - October 2010
Page No. 9
Booking for Corolla Altis Diesel at Nippon Toyota exceeds 300 units Casio launches new keyToyota Kirloskar Motor’s recently launched Corolla Altis Diesel version is getting excellent response in the Kerala market. Nippon Toyota, the Kochi-based dealer of Toyota Kirloskar Motors in a press release said that more than 300 units were booked in its showrooms. 1.4 litre, 4-cylinder, Corolla Altis has the unique world class D-4 D Diesel technology. The car is available in 3 models- HJ, HG and HL. The 6-speed manual transmission of Altis was the first in its category. The flat torque of the car avoids frequent gear change, which inturn helps reduced fuel consumption. Corolla Altis offers a
boards for kids
mileage of 21.43 kilometre/litre. In addition the car has excellent ground clearance and aerodynamic specialities. The car is available in 7 colours Silver mica metallic, champagne mica metallic, dark red
mica metallic, white pearl mica metallic, light blue metallic, super white and black mica metallic. Ex-room price of Diesel Corolla Altis in Kochi is Rs.10,93,800 to 13,72,500.
Third Nano goes up in flames
Barely three months after Tata Motors certified the Nano as “absolutely safe”, in a first in Delhi, a car went up in flames at a parking lot in Aurobindo Marg . The driver managed to get out on seeing sparks; in all of two minutes, only a charred frame remained. The car, which belonged to a Supreme Court advocate, had just pulled into the parking lot around 11.30am when driver Patrick John noticed sparks coming from the rear, where the engine is located. “I was waiting in the car, having just parked it, when sparks started coming out. Thankfully, I managed to leap out of the car in time. I shudder to think what might have happened otherwise, since it was all over so fast. The entire car was destroyed in two minutes
flat,” said John. Two similar incidents were reported in Vadodara and Mumbai earlier this year following which Tata Motors launched an inquiry. In May, it said the accidents were due to unrelated reasons and that the car was safe. The company has called a probe into Friday’s incident; a spokesperson from Mumbai said a Tata team would inspect the vehicle to ascertain the reasons behind the accident. The sky blue Nano bought by SC advocate Ravinder Narayan in May, had done 34,000km and was serviced once. “On Friday, we were driving from Connaught Place to Hauz Khas, so had barely travelled 8-9 kilometres,” John said. The driver was travelling
with the advocate’s manager before the accident occurred. Narayan was unavailable for comment. Automobile experts said the fire was possibly not endemic to the Nano. “It is possible that the car had been tweaked to add some features like power windows or a fancy audio system where the wiring was not done properly,” said editor-in-chief of Zigwheels, Adil Jal Darukhanawala. There have been incidents of Nano catching fire right from when deliveries began in March this year. While initially the problem was put down to the combination switch towards the dashboard of the car, incidents later pointed to engine fault which prompted a company investigation. In May, Tata Motors asserted that the Nano was “absolutely safe”. A company statement issued on May 21 said: “Tata Motors has undertaken a comprehensive investigation related to the cause of fire in two Tata Nanos. On the basis of the findings of the investigation, conducted by a 20member internal team and an independent forensic expert, Tata Motors assures all customers that the Tata Nano is a
Volkswagen New Vento priced at Rs.6.99 lakhs Volkswagen, Europe’s largest car maker launched its much awaited entry level premium sedan the Vento . The car will go on sale from September 6, 2010 across India in all Volkswagen dealers.The Vento will be available to customers starting at Rs 6.99 lakhs, for the 1.6 litre petrol variant and Rs. 7.99 lakhs for the diesel variant, Ex. Showroom New Delhi. Speaking about
Volkswagen’s market introduction of the Vento, Neeraj Garg, Member of Board and Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd said, “The New Vento,
which stands for best in class features and German engineering is poised to set a benchmark in its segment. Designed for the Indian market it >> Turn to page 16
safe car, with a robust design and state-of-the-art components.” The latest setback comes at a time when Tata Motors is looking to open new bookings for the Nano after production began at its new plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Analysts said repeated incidents of fire on the Nano could affect demand for the budget car on safety concerns.
Casio India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Casio Computer Co. Ltd. Japan and the market leader in India for musical instruments first time in World has launched World’s first 4 of its newest keyboards SA 46, SA 47, SA 76 & SA 77 with Indian Tones & Rhythms in minikeyboard segment. The new models are upgraded models of previously available keyboards with newer designs and more features. Ideally suited for early starters in music it comes with 4 Indian tones [Harmonium, Santoor, Sitar, Shenai], 5 Indian rhythms, 10 song bank [which contains 1 Indian song as well] and 5 musical pads with 2 Indian percussions of Tabla. Moreover these keyboards have enhanced sound quality with 8 note polyphony while the earlier models sported only 4. Also, it comes with 50 rhythms as compared to 30 in the previous generation. All the models come with one button touch tone selection for Piano and Organ instruments. However,
in SA 47 & SA 77 additionally Harmonium tone can be selected along with Piano & Organ by touch of a button. Kids who are new to musical lessons would find the melody on / off function very useful as it helps set your own
rhythm at your own pace. “Being market leader our endeavor is to continuously provide better solutions to our customers. We learned from consumer interaction that most of the kids start learning in Indian music. Parents also want to have instruments that are indianised. We identified this need & came out with these upgraded mini-keyboard models that has Indian support.” said K. Seth, Marketing Head, Casio India Pvt. Ltd. The new ranges of Minikeyboards are available in price range of Rs. 2295/- to 2795/- at all leading Music, Toy & electronics stores.
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Page No. 10
The “superbug” scare-mongering
HEALTH
By Narayanan Suresh
For Your Good Health
Healthy lifestyle can shape your health and body Healthy Lifestyle is the Weight. “Mantra” for Good 2. Define your Diet — Health. Take More servings of Fresh Vegetables and Fruits and 1. Watch your Weight — Less Fat. Obesity or Overweight inA moderate quantity of Balcreases the Risk of Diabe- anced Diet will keep your tes, High Blood Pressure, Weight in check. Heart Disease, Stroke, etc. 3. Exercise Everyday — 30 Be conscious about your Minutes of Moderate Physical
Activity Everyday is Must for a Healthy Life. Make Time for any type of Exercise which suits you and to your liking. Walking, gardening or any house work with physical activity is equally good. - Dr. Sashikala Chandrasekar (sashishekar@hotmail.com)
For sound health 1.Take supper two hours before retire to bed 2.Go to bed at about 10 P.M and get up at 5 AM 3. Immediately after getting up from bed go to the closet for evacuation of bladder and rectum then wash teeth and mouth and take a glass of water .4. Morning walk or exercise should be done early morning .5.Morning bath should be done before brake fast .5.There should have a schedule for days work 5.Men should cut short their hair at least once in a month .6.Daily drink 2. to 2.5 liters water .7. Take balanced diet .8. Try to include fiber food matters in daily food 9. Make empty the bladder before engaging in act of sexual intercourse .10.From the age of two make toilet practice 11.Use chapels while walking on ground .12 Wash hands using soap and water after every use of toilet .13.While watching T V try to sit minimum ten feet away .14.Bathing should be done before taking food. Those who want to take bath after food do it two hours after it .15.While traveling in a vehicle sit in the direction of movement .16.While walking on foot look ten to fifteen feet away from the fig toe .17.While bathing whole body first wet on the head then put water on the trunk and limbs .18.If possible while sleeping at night keep the head on eastern or southern direction.19.While walking
Dr. K.O. Antony Kannankeril
on open air keep a cap or umbrella if it is a sunny day .20.Daily do some exercise or yoga for those who maintain sedentary life . If it is not possible do walking minimum 30 minutes at the speed of 15km per hour . 21. If possible do sun bath about ten to fifteen minutes after covering the head 22 .Washing of teeth should be done after supper as well.23.Take thirty minutes rest immediately after mid day meal .24 Walk few minutes immediately after supper .25. If possible massage the body after putting some oil once in a week .26.The senior citizens should take minimum one or 1 1/2 hour rest during day time 27.couples should wash their genital organs before initiating coition. 28.Drinking water should be clean and free from all germs .Boiled and cooled water is preferable for this purpose . 28. Never hesitate to pass urine when urge comes.29.Don’t drink water
along with food. It can be taken ten or fifteen minutes before or after food .30.Avoid more fat and sweets especially after forty years. 31 .Don’t read or write in dim light .32.Don’t take fried items frequently especially after 45 years 33.Dont use used oils for cooking in long use there is chance for developing cancer 34.Don t take oil bath immediately after exercise or physical exertion .35.Don’t take any medicine or even vitamin with out the advice of a doctor .36.Never put any pointed instruments into the ear for removing wax or some other things from the ear -Cotton bud can be used for this purpose 37.Don’t continue breast feeding for children after two years.38. Try to avoid the use of high heel chapels If it is very compulsory one and half inch heel can be used 39.Dont expose to shower. 40.Don’t watch T.V continously more than one hour 41.Don’t laugh loudly while taking dinner 42.Don’t take tea or coffee along with or immediately after butter milk.43.Avoid chewing , drugs ,smoking etc .44.Don’ t do exercise or yoga or such other work immediately after lunch / food .45..Don’t sleep or work in a place where there is sound pollution or dust pollution.46.If possible avoid tin food or canned or preserved food items.
Oushadhi: Scaling new heights The Kerala Governmentowned Oushadhi (Pharmaceutical Corporation - Indian Medicine - Kerala Ltd.) is targeting a turnover of Rs.170 crore by 2020. Dr. H. Nagesh Prabhu, IFS, Managing Director, Oushadhi said that by that time the company will become a leading world class Ayurveda medicine manufacturing unit. The Thrissur-based public undertaking has invested Rs.6 crore during the previous 2-3 years to improve production and marketing facilities. ‘We
have plans to invest another Rs.18-20 crore in the coming years’, says, Dr. Nagesh Prabhu. Rs.1.5 crore will be
spent for computerising the entire business of the company. The computerisation is expected to complete in 2010 itself. ‘In this tough world, we got
to be tougher to perform and succeed. It is more so in an Ayurveda industry which is facing umpteen numbers of challenges year after year. We in Oushadhi take every challenge as an opportunity to rethink, rebuild, grow and flourish. Despite stiff competition, acute shortage of raw materials, coupled with international recession, company has achieved a record turnover during 2009-10 with considerable profit and we would like to >> Turn to page 12
After Influenza A H1N1 (popularly called swine flu) virus that achieved media superstardom in the last 12 months before bowing out of the world stage unceremoniously last week, its place has been taken by a new “super star.” A new gene, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase or NDM-1 found in gut bacteria in patients treated in some Indian hospitals is the new sensation. In fact, a routine scientific paper which will soon appear in the scientific journal Lancet by an international team of researchers including a Briton and Indian, is the cause of a regional alarm. The bacterial gene, found in 1 to 3 percent of patients with Enterobacteriaceau infections in India, has reportedly become resistant to all known antibiotics. This has led to a flurry of media articles, with such titles, “The End of Antibiotics,” and global scare that human race has run out of options to treat “superbugs” such as NMD-1 and a doomsday scenario that awaits us. More importantly, the thrust of the articles on NDM-1 is that patients who undergo medical treatments in India are prone to be infected by this “superbug.” More than 82 years ago, Alexander Fleming, made the chance discovery of antibiotics and penicillin became the wonder drug in the next few decades. In the six decades that followed, medical researchers have developed a wide range of antibiotics to treat as many infectious diseases as possible.
However, in the last two decades, many scientists and commentators have started to write premature obituaries of antibiotics. In fact, the latest headlines in newspapers based on the NMD-1 reports have a common theme: “Is it the end of antibiotics?” But is it really so? What is happening today seems to be an exact replica of the events more than 16 years ago. In March 1994, the venerable Newsweek magazine ran a report, “The End of Antibiotics?” by Sharon Begley. The reference was to the discussions at the annual meeting of the Association of Advancement of Science in San Francisco that concluded n February 1994. “We are facing nothing short of a medical disaster,” the article quoted microbiologist Alexander Tomasz of Rockefeller University as saying at the conference, warning that “many common bacteria are evolving resistance to more and more antibiotics.” What was the trigger? The data for 1992 indicated that resistant infections killed 19,000 patients in hospitals in the US that year and contributed to the death 58,000 more outside. What happened then? In 2005, more than 2 million people in the US were affected by infections and 90,000 of them died. In the UK, there were 300,000 infected patients with 5,000 deaths, according to information compiled by science writer, Thomas Hausler in his book, “Viruses vs Superbugs.” The book was published in German in 2006. Even after 16 years, anti-
biotics continue to thrive even though more resistance has been reported regularly. Will the August 2010 obituary on antibiotics also be another such premature exercise? Majority of the hospital infections are caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. In fact, Dr Tomasz has found that 70 percent of the known 3,000 strains of this bacteria found all over the world belonged to just five strains. What this means is that it doesn’t matter where the bacteria found first. The source is not so important. These tiny microbes have always had a way in spreading themselves to all parts of our Planet. So blaming a particular city, hospital or country does not help the cause of finding a quick cure. It is true that most of the pharmaceutical companies have given up their development efforts on new antibiotics due to low margins. If antibiotics resistance becomes widespread, definitely human ingenuity will once again ensure that enabling environment is provided to the experts to find the necessary cure. Phage therapy is one of the most promising cures around the corner. Phages, the viruses that kill harmful bacteria, is one such cure and the numerous research groups who are working quietly in the background will get the fillip soon, just like the lease of life that biofuels got due to the alarming price increase in fossil fuels. It is certainly not the end of antibiotics. And NMD-1 will not be the “antibiotics killer” anyway.
Ayurvedic view of optimal digestion - Dr. Sharada Hall Is your digestion as good as it could be? According to Ayurveda, the physical root of all disease is improper digestion.Therefore, maintaining good digestion is the key to optimal health. The Sanskrit term for digestive fire is “agni”. There are many factors that decrease it’s capability, like stress and improper diet. Yet many good habits can improve agni. Chief among them is starting off the day with the perfect breakfast. Imagine you are living in a home that is heated solely by a woodstove. To get it started in the morning, it is necessary to begin with just the right size kindling to build the fire. Newspaper might be used beneath some twigs and thin strips of wood. Then as that catches, you begin to add larger and larger logs of wood until the fire is really roaring. The fire will
now stay strong for the whole day with the addition of more wood. Agni is like the fire in the wood stove. As the morning sun rises in the sky, our inner fire awakens as well. First thing in the morning, the agni needs just the right size kindling in order to be fueled. Eating only fruit for breakfast is like putting paper on the fire. The fire consumes it but is not made stronger. And eating a heavy breakfast of bacon and eggs can smother the fire like placing a big log in the fire before the kindling. The ideal kindling for our digestion in the morning is a hot, whole grain porridge. Whole grains nourish the Earth element that is our digestion. When they are slowly cooked to unleash their inner vitality, they benefit digestion, increase assimilation, and boost metabolism. Choose the appropri-
ate grains and seasonings for your constitution. You will find yourself quite hungry within a few hours. Don’t worry about an increased appetite; true hunger is a very good sign that your digestive fire is alive and well. Because you have already burned through the kindling, by mid to late morning you’re ready for more substantial fuel. Most people are in the habit of having coffee or tea first thing in the morning, both of which extinguish our appetite and our agni. I wouldn’t dare forbid anyone from having their morning coffee, for fear of having my head cut off, but it is wise to accompany the caffeine with the porridge nonetheless. It will still do it’s job of feeding our fire.So it turns out, as usual, that our mothers were right all along. Breakfast Is the most important meal of the day.
Business Digest
September - October 2010
TELECOM
Page No. 11
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Bonanza time for internet C-DAC organizes National telephony service providers PKI Awareness Programme 3G roll out may spell out grand revival of the ITSPs - SanjivKataria The mobile users in India are not the only ones looking forward to the introduction of 3G by the Indian service providers. A host of entrepreneurs are toying with ideas to launch hundreds of value added services as well as value offerings. “The Mobile VoIP value added service appears to be the closest on the horizon. And it promises to lead to the grand revival of the 40-plus Internet Telephony Service Providers ITSPs, (like Sify, Hathway, HCL, Net4India),” says Sanjit Chatterjee, Director global marketing and strategy, REVE Systems, the Singapore based Mobile VoIP solutions company. The roll out of 3G by mobile service providers (like Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel) in the next 3 to 6 month will not only lead to spurt in usage of data services by the Indian consumers but also expected to grow VoIP usage several fold. Thanks to introduction of Mobile VoIP applications by ITSPs, mobile users will take up 3G subscriptions and replace high cost long distance calling by making VoIP calls for as little as one-tenth to one-eighth the cost. At the heart of this revolution is a light software application platform that once downloaded on a mobile phone subscribed to a data service from a mobile service provider. Developed by REVE Systems, the 100 KB application is usually offered with a calling card by ISPs world- wide. And this is the opportunity that any of the 40-plus ISPs could cash in on for having nurtured their traditional Internet business. For example, they could bundle the easily downloadable iTel Mobile Dialer application into their VoIP cards and market, say in denominations of say Rs 100, Rs 500 or Rs 1000 and offer 50, 250 or 500 minutes of International Long Distance (ILD) calls. While the iTel Mobile Dialer application is very light and easy to download, the user ex-
perience with iTel Mobile Dialer is the same like making a regular phone call from the mobile handset. A typical voice call from an Indian mobile user’s phone can be made by dialing out a mobile or a fixed line number from the mobile phone book using REVE’s mobile Dialer. The call travels over the data line of mobile service provider or wifi network and terminates at caller’s desired phone using last mile connectivity of his service provider, say an AT&T in the USA or an Orange in Europe. An ILD call to say a country like the USA would normally cost Rs 8-10 per minute can now be made using a Mobile VoIP service at just Rs 1 per minute or lower. “It is an opportunity waiting to be exploited.” says Chatterjee, whose confidence stems from a customer base of 1200 plus ISPs in over 50 countries where 3G services are being offered currently. And the 100 KB iTel Mobile Dialer is powering an estimated 50 plus million mobile phones. Global Acceptance Mobile VoIP is gaining ground globally. For example, in October 2009 AT&T in the US allowed its iPhone users to use iPhone VoIP application on its 3G network, responding to surging customer demand (earlier, iPhone users on AT&T network could use the mobile VoIP application only through Wifi connectivity). Chatterjee cites two reasons why this service will fly. Firstly, India has traditionally been a high cost ILD or ISD calling country until a few years ago. And the drop of per minute international calling rate from Rs 60 per minute to Rs 10 per minute itself was a big relief. Even thought the customers are not crying for a cheaper solution, it is a sweetener that is hard to resist. Secondly even though it is technically possible to offer the service currently, the bandwidth availability on a GPRS subscription is less
than 30 Kilobytes Per Second (KBPS) and hence does not lead to a very good voice quality. However, the voice quality will grow significantly once the 3G services are launched and the bandwidth availability is expected to go up 20-25 fold. ”The possibilities of offering this service in the Rs 17,000 Indian ILD (International Long Distance) market with 3G are tremendous”, says. Chatterjee. Expectedly introduction of Mobile VoIP may eat into ILD revenues for mobile service providers. However, they can hope to make good their revenue loss from ILD by growing number of data subscribers. In other parts of the world, Mobile service providers are reporting increasing 3G adoption and many of them will have the Mobile VoIP service providers to thank for growing their data subscriber base.”REVE’s mobile VoIP dialer is versatile, has easy user interface and built in tunnelling capability,” he added. REVE’s flagship product, iTel Mobile Dialer Express, is the category leader in Mobile VoIP, enables service providers to offer seamless Mobile VoIP experience to end users. iTel Mobile Dialer was named product of the year by Internet Telephony magazine in 2009. The other applications that the mobile user can look forward to include: Using 3G for Mobile Data – by connecting (by wire or wi fi) the phone to the laptop – thereby eliminating the need for a separate USB data card. Music Downloads, Streaming music, video (better YouTube experience on the mobile), Internet Radio, Mobile TV. Service providers can introduce — 3G wi fi router devices for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) to use the same for data connectivity for Home / Small office environment (this device basically takes in a 3G SIM card and sends out wi fi signals, good for up to 10 users).
Barking up the BlackBerry Tree - Prasanto K. Roy You’re a Delhi-based wannabe terrorist needing to communicate with your handlers. What do you do? Invisible-ink notes are passe, as are carrier pigeons. You will, of course, use electronic options. Like email. Walk into a
cybercafe, log into a Gmail or Yahoo account. Don’t use an account in your own name. And don’t send email. Simply read instructions left for you in an unsent mail, saved as a draft in your account. And then, to reply, just edit the unsent email,
and save it back as a draft. If email isn’t traveling, it can’t be intercepted.Or, like SMS. Get a prepaid SIM card with fake ID, use it for a month, then dump it. Or make good old phone calls using the SIM card, >> Turn to page 12
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) organized the one-day Symposium on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) at Kochi. The symposium is organized as part of the ‘PKI Outreach Programme (POP)’ to create awareness on the important topic of PKI, a vital programme to secure E-commerce, E-Governance and other activities of the Internet. Jacob Punnoose, IPS, Director General of Police, Kerala inaugurated the programme in the presence of Rajan T Joseph, Director General, C-DAC, and senior officers from various government departments, police & fire departments, industries, banking & financial institutions, professionals and academia. Dr N Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Department of Information Technology, Government of India presided over the event. The programme emphasizes on the importance of PKI in safeguarding the key pillars of public infrastructure as PKI address the safety hazards of internet transactions by ushering in the element of authenticity and trust, through its robust standards and policies. Technology has brought about a flux, wherein we have witnessed the debunking of several older models of both interactions and transactions. Petabytes of data are being shared, accessed and exchanged daily on the internet, and the volume will only increase further. The need for PKI therefore is as much a reality as the pervasive nature of the digital revolution. The objective of the national launch on PKI is to create wide scale awareness among various user communities across all segments, under the auspices of the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India. The programme aims at providing insight into the PKI for adapting secure communications over the cyberspace on applications pertaining to egovernance, online transactions, E-commerce, and so on. C-DAC has always responded to the challenging needs of Information Security. Given the rapid spread of Internet in the country and the vulnerabilities of the users, it is important for India to develop the eco-system for building secure E-Commerce. The broadband revolution and next gen-
eration mobile revolution driven by 3-G will fuel growth in this segment and putting together PKI has to go hand-in-hand with broad-based participation and awareness to ensure safe and exponential growth. By conducting this pioneering series, C-DAC has been given an important technology as well as a key responsibility. Commenting on the PKI Outreach Programme, Dr N Vijayaditya said that as a regulatory and statutory body set up under Section 17 of IT Act, 2000, The CCA ensures rapid growth of secure e-commerce, e-governance and other aspects of Internet Economy. This program being conducted by C-DAC is a key step towards the proliferation of PKI among the stakeholders who are involved in creating cyberspace infrastructure. C-DAC is currently pursuing Research and Development in the areas of Intrusion Detection & Prevention, Cyber Forensics, Crypt-Analysis, Stegenography, Face Recognition, Network Security and End-System Security at its various laboratories located across the country. With over two decades of experience in cutting edge innovation, C-DAC has emerged as a multi-disciplinary, core research and development (R&D) destination for the design, development and deployment of advanced IT products and technologies. C-DAC has defined the common methodology towards building the concept of a premier R&D organization and identified opportunities for establishing linkages across disciplines, to create a broad portfolio of technologies under one umbrella. This portfolio envisages a range of technologies such as High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) including Scientific Modelling and Visualization, Multilingual Computing, Software Technologies including Free & Open Source Software, Professional Electronics including Embedded Systems and VLSI, Health Informatics, Cyber Security & Cyber Forensics, and Education & Training. With a strong manpower base spread across the country at its 10 R&D centres in Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram with a corporate office at Pune, the focus is on consolidating the R&D work to enable a better market reach. C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram
houses the Resource Centre for Cyber Forensics (RCCF) that is dedicated to the indigenous development of Hardware and Software tools for Cyber Forensics in the area of Disk Forensics, Network Forensics, Device Forensics, Peripheral Forensics and providing quality services in Cyber Forensics related cases. CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram has also contributed significantly to the growth of the industry in general and the electronics sector in particular through the indigenous development of commercially viable systems and products, foreign technology absorption, adaptation and upgradation, consultancy and training and turnkey implementation of contract projects. With its rich experience in cutting edge technology development, C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram has developed technologies in the areas of Embedded Systems, Real Time Systems, Hardware Products, VLSI Design, Control & Instrumentation, Language technology, Information Technology, Broadband Communication, e-Governance, Power Electronics, Cyber Forensics, Underwater Systems, Open Source Software, Acoustic Systems and extensive Training Activities in Advanced Technologies. Extending its area of operations, C-DAC has also set up a nodal centre at Cochin to extend its high-end capabilities in the form of advanced short and long term training programmes. Currently, the Cochin centre offers training courses in .NET technologies, Java programming, Java Enterprise Edition and Web Development using LAMP. A Software Development Division is scheduled to be opened shortly at the Cochin Centre. In addition, the centre also interfaces as an extended base for conducting corporate courses based on client requirement for different Central and State government organizations, which includes the Kerala Police. For more information, contact: Krishnakumar KS Sr Scientific Officer C-DAC, Electronics City, Bangalore krishna@cdacbangalore.in Tel: 080-28523300 Sunitha C S Sr Administrative Officer, C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram sunics@cdactvm.in Tel: 0471-2372422
September - October 2010
Business Digest
IOB conducts SHG credit linkage function
M.S. Ramani, Chief Regional Manager, IOB speaking at the SHG credit linkage function held at the Pandalam branch of the Bank. Thankappan, Senior Manager, Pandalam branch and M.V. Krishakumaran Unni, Sr. Manager, Regional Office are also seen.
SHG (Self Help Group) credit linkage function was organised at the Pandalam branch of Indian Overseas Bank. Loans were distributed to 15 SHGs amounting to Rs.46.50 lakh at the function. The SHGs are undertaking various self employment ven-
tures such as vegetable farming, paddy cultivation, tailoring, baby food manufacturing and pickle manufacturing. SHG members were covered under the IOB-SHG Family Insurance Scheme. M.S. Ramani, Chief Regional Manager, IOB presided
over the function and distributed loans to the beneficiaries. Thankappan, Senior Manager, Pandalam branch and M.V. Krishnakumaran Unni, Sr. Manager, Regional Office were also present on the occasion.
any other state government in India. The company also supplies quality Ayurveda medicines to ISM Department of other states like Punjab, Haryana, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orrisa, Himachal Pradesh, Pondicherry, at a very competitive price. ‘We are inspired by the recognition given to our hard work towards achieving excellence. But we do not want to rest on laurels. Ayurveda is gaining importance all over the world and in Kerala the turnover of Ayurveda industry is expected to be Rs.1200 crores by 2020 from the present turnover of Rs.600 crores. We enjoy an excellent brand image all over the country and today our
medicines are in short supply in the market. With the financial assistance and wholehearted support of Govt. of Kerala and Dept. of AYUSH, Govt. of India, combined with goodwill of our customers, we are sure to scale new heights’, adds Nagesh Prabhu. During the previous 2-3 years, with the assistance of National Medicinal Plants Board, Oushadhi raised and distributed 8 lakhs quality seedlings of medicinal plants to the farmers to encourage cultivation of medicinal plants which are in short supply. It has also entered into buy back agreements with farmers to encourage the cultivation of medicinal plants.
From page 10
maintain this tempo’, pointed out Dr. Prabhu. Oushadhi is the largest manufacturer of Ayurveda medicines among the public sector Ayurveda medicine manufacturing units in India. It is a profit earning public sector undertaking and is regularly paying dividend to Govt. of Kerala for the last 11 years. Oushadhi is supplying quality Ayurveda medicines to Kerala State ISM Department at 40% less market price. ISM Department in turn supplies these medicine to poor people of Kerala free of cost through its 784 hospitals and dispensaries spread all over the state. Probably, a unique service of this magnitude is not being done by
Nippon Paint bets big on Punjab Sets ambitious target to grow into a pan-India brand by 2012. Nippon Paint (India) Pvt. Ltd. announced the launch of its marketing operations in Punjab. Through this move, the long-standing Japan based paint major has highlighted the strategic importance of expanding into the Indian market in a phased manner. Speaking on the occasion, W.M.Yip, Managing Director, Nippon Paint (India) Pvt Limited said, “Having set new benchmarks of quality in India over the past 4 years, our dedication to innovation of products and our excellent customer service has been consistently recognised. Nippon Paint has always understood and worked towards the needs of its customers. Our journey towards a world full of beauty and colour continues. Nippon’s entry into Punjab, India is in line with our global plans.” In India, Punjab is the first state outside South India
where Nippon Paint will have full fledged presence. The paint industry in Punjab has come a long way from the days when paints were considered a luxury item. Today the aware-
ness levels of the importance of paints to decorate and protect the most expensive posession of a family is very high in the state, a development which has made it one of the biggest premium paint market. Nippon Paint has over 129 years of experience in the paint industry. Nippon Paint has consistently been a leader in the
paint & coating industry with operations diversified in automotive coatings, decorative paints, industrial coatings, marine coatings & fine chemicals. Over the years, Nippon Paint has perfected its products by means of breakthrough paint technology, emphasis being on innovation and eco-friendliness. The Nippon Paint Group has been meeting varied needs by proactively developing high-grade environmentally friendly products with near Zero VOC content, leveraging its reliable quality control system. Nippon Paint has developed highly functional products and systems that keep bacteria and paint odour at bay, reduce the number of coating processes and save energy. It has also successfully developed water-based coatings for a variety of surfaces. The company has an impressive range of high end textures for exteriors and interiors which can last for more than 10 years.
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and dump it. There are other options. And they have a common thread: anonymity. You do not use your own identity, and you use a mode that is virtually untraceable.Which is why a terrorist’s choice is not to use a BlackBerry that is linked to his identity. Nor is a postpaid BlackBerry connection as disposable as a prepaid SIM card. Sure, you can get postpaid mobile connections too on fake IDs, but because there is billing involved, valid addresses are required. That’s not the only reason the terrorist would be wary of using a BlackBerry. First, he’s not really sure how secure the mail is, once an agency is onto him. The mail Manoj Arukandathil, Man- Rajeev Gandhi Shiromani anthropic activities. Dr. Iqbal Singh, Governor, is routed through servers in aging Director, Kumar Indus- Award instituted by Delhitrial India, Kozhikode and based Integration Peace Soci- Pondicherry presented the North America, and the US Chairman, Shree Mansons ety. Manoj has been chosen for award to Manoj at a function National Security Agency reportedly has the technology to Charitable Foundation won the the award considering his phil- held in New Delhi. crack encrypted mail in a few hours—with or without help from RIM. More worrying for the terrorist, not all of the mail is encrypted. The headers, including the “to” and “from” email addresses, are plain text—else the Internet would not be able to accept the email for delivery.And finally, the mail doesn’t stay encrypted all the way. When it gets delivered to an external email system such as Gmail or corporate mail, it gets decrypted—else the reManoj Arukandathil receiving the award from Dr. Iqbal Singh, Governor of Pondicherry. cipient wouldn’t be able to read Belram Jhakkar, former Speaker, Loksabha, Bhishma Narayan Singh, former Tamil Nadu Governor, Dr. G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, former Election Commissioner are also seen. it. The exception is when you’re
Manoj Arukandathil awarded
Page No. 12
not using a Gmail or a company mail ID, but are sending pure BlackBerry mail. That’s not merely one sent between two RIM devices, but where both From and To are BlackBerry IDs. That’s rare, but here’s how it works. Your RIM device would usually be associated with your official address, say ram.rao@maruti.com. But you’d also have a BlackBerry email address, like ramrao@airtel.blackberry.com, which you’d use to originate a BlackBerry-only mail. Even then, RIM would record who the mail was sent by, to, and when.So there are records with BlackBerry email, and they’re like mobile-phone call records (which store who called whom, when, and for how long, for billing). RIM records who sent mail, when, and to whom. The content, however, is strongly encrypted.But our terrorist isn’t using a BlackBerry. He’s using Gmail, and he’s not even sending the mail: he’s just using draft mode to read and reply. So our agencies don’t stand a chance of “intercepting” that mail. Even if they’re on to him, they don’t know what ID he’s using. And then they don’t have the Gmail login ID. If they get that, then getting Google or Yahoo to give them access will take months, with all the protocol, Interpol, and the rest....by which time that account would have been closed, and the
deed done. Which is why India is wasting its time chasing BlackBerry. It should first figure out what to do with the mail systems terrorist do use, with foreign mail servers. Should it demand that all such servers be based in India? Google and Yahoo won’t agree. So that would cut us off from the best of Internet mail systems. In fact, why not go further down that path, like China...and cut off the Internet? Route everything through a tightly-controlled gateway and firewall, and ensure that all servers are within China. And jail or shoot all dissidents, for good measure.There are bigger dangers down the road that Saudi Arabi and India are treading. One, government officials are major users of BlackBerry mail. Do they really want to push RIM into a corner where it starts offering decryption to any government which asks? What then stops it from offering to decrypt Indian emails for China or Pakistan, if enough pressure is brought to bear on it?To no one’s surprise, countries most proficient at cracking down on dissents and censoring local media have been the most active in squeezing RIM. Like China, Saudi Arabia polices the internet, blocking access to sites with political and adult content.India, unfortunately, seems to be trying to join this not-so-elite club.
Business Digest
September - October 2010
Vivid dreams improve our memories Vivid dreams have a way of boosting our memories, making us better problem solvers. People who go through a dream-filled sleep can recall information more easily and link facts upon awakening. The results add to the growing body of evidence that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep (when our most intensely remembered dreams occur) is vital to the brain’s ability to lay down and consolidate memories, reports the Telegraph. An average night’s repose includes four or five spells of REM sleep, but these bursts tend to be
lengthier towards the end of the night. It implies that adults who get less than the recommended seven to eight hours a night - and therefore insufficient REM sleep - may be damaging their mind’s ability to form strong memories. Although REM sleep is not classified as a type of deep sleep, it is only reached after the brain has passed through deep sleep stages. Sara Mednick, sleep researcher at the University of California in San Diego who led the study, said: ‘REM sleep is important for pulling together all the information we process on a daily basis and turning it into
memories we can use later.’ The research was presented at the annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in San Diego. It is now believed that sleep acts as a sort of mental filing system, enabling the brain to sort relevant information that needs to be retained from useless information which can be discarded. A Harvard Medical School study published in April found that volunteers who enjoyed dream-filled sleep were up to 10 times better at learning a complex task than those who stayed awake.
Principles for Success This is the story of Robby. He was a young boy who lived with his elderly mother. His mother wanted him to learn how to play the piano because she longed to hear her son play for her. She sent her son to a piano teacher who took Robby in under her guidance. However, there was one small problem because Robby was not musically inclined and therefore was very slow in learning. The teacher did not have much faith in the boy because of his weakness. The mother was very enthusiastic and every week she would send Robby to the teacher . One day Robby stopped attending the piano lessons. The teacher thought that he had given up and in fact she was quite pleased since she did not give much hope to Robby. Not long after, the piano teacher was given the task to organize a piano concert in town. She sent out circulars to invite the students and public to attend the event. Suddenly, she received a call from Robby
who offered to take part in the concert. The teacher told Robby that he was not good enough and that he was no longer a student since he had stopped coming for lessons. Robby begged her to give him a chance and promised that he would not let her down. Finally, she gave in and she put him to play last, hoping that he will change his mind at the last minute. When the big day came, the hall was packed and the children gave their best performance. Finally, it was Robby’s turn to play and as his name was announced, he walked in. He was not in Proper attire and his hair was not properly groomed. The teacher was really nervous since Robby’s performance could spoil the whole evening’s brilliant performance. As Robby started playing the crowd became silent and was amazed at the skill of this little boy. In fact, he gave the best performance of the evening. At the end of his presentation the crowd and the piano teacher gave him a standing ovation. The crowd asked Robby how he managed to play so brilliantly.
With a microphone in front of him, he said, “I was not able to attend the weekly piano lessons as there was no one to send me because my mother was sick with cancer. She just passed away this morning and I wanted her to hear me play. You see, this is the first time she is able to hear me play because when she was alive she was deaf and now I know she is listening to me. I have to play my best for her!” Success Principles: This is indeed a touching story of love and excellence. When you have a passion and a reason to do something, you will surely excel. You may not be talented or gifted but if you have a strong enough reason to do something, you will be able to tap into your inner God given potential. Motivational Quote: “Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it.”
“The Universe”: Documentary in 3D Stereoscopy The first documentary in 3D Stereoscopy on “The Universe” is ready to be released. This Documentary is the first attempt in the science category even though the films like “My Dear Kuttichathan” in Malayalam and Avatar in Hollywood were already released. The Universe is scripted, edited and directed by Satheesh Gopal. He is from Balussery in Kozhikode District. He has completed his B.sc from Devagiri College Kozhikode. He did Multimedia
and Digital Film Making Diploma from SAE College Chennai. The experience he got on the latest technology equipments and faculties from SAE College helped him a lot. He worked as assistant Visual effector under Satish KRR in many Tamil, Kannada films. Satheesh has also done the visual editing of the India’s first clay modeling music album, another work is ‘Maranathinte Koottukaran’(Friend Of Death). Now he is working with a new Tamil film, a short film and a
new music Sathish took a full one year to complete this documentary. K.Pappootty Former President of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya parishad and the director of Kerala State Institute of Encyclopedia Publication gave him proper guidance in this effort. “The Universe” is released in CD format so that it could be worked out either in TV or Computer. An exclusive imported eye glass is to be used for this documentary to get more 3D effect.
Page No. 13
12% rise in spices export during April- July 2010 During April-July 2010, a total of 193,875 tonnes of spices and spice products valued Rs.2084.96 crores (US$ 454.10 Million) has been exported from the country as against 172,510 tonnes valued Rs.1775.39 crores (US$ 374.68 Million) in April-July 2009 registering an increase of 12% in volume and 17% in rupee terms of value. According to a Spices Board press release, in dollar terms the increase is 21%. During April-July 2010, the export of pepper, chilli, ginger,
celery, fennel, garlic, other spices like tamarind, asafoetida, etc… has shown an increase both in volume and value as compared to April-July 2009. The export of value added products like curry powder and spice oils and oleoresin have also shown an increasing trend. However, in the case of cardamom (small), turmeric, fenugreek, nutmeg and mace there is an increase in terms of value only. The export of coriander has increased in terms of quantity only. The spices like
cardamom (large), cumin, mint products and other seeds has decreased both in volume and value as compared to last year. Compared to the spices export target of 465,000 tonnes valued Rs.5100.00 crores (US$ 1125 million) fixed for the financial year 2010-11, the achievement of 193,875 tonnes valued Rs.2084.96 crores (US$ 454.10 million) during April-July 2010 is 42% in terms of quantity and 41 % in rupee value and 40% in dollar terms of value.
Marg bags Bellary airport project The Government of Karnataka awarded the contract for the development and operation of the Greenfield airport at Bellary to MARG Limited, India’s leading diversified infrastructure development company. In addition to terminal buildings, runways and control towers, MARG will also develop access facilities and build utilities necessary to serve the airport during the operational phase. MARG would plan and undertake the development of facilities, amenities and other infrastructure like an aviation academy, exhibition / convention centre, business parks, shopping mall, flying club, theme / entertainment parks etc. which would address the
needs of the local population and tourists. Speaking on the occasion, GRK Reddy, Chairman & Managing Director, MARG Limited said, “MARG is happy to be partnering with the Government of Karnataka in developing a world class greenfield airport at Bellary. This airport will be a magnificent gateway to the exotic second fastest growing district in Karnataka after Bangalore. It’s a district rich in culture and heritage, and endowed with abundant mineral resources. We are proud to be part of this venture, which on account of its strategic location, will be a giant leap towards bridging the gap between the potential growth centres and urban centres in the state.”
To develop the Bellary Greenfield Airport, MARG Ltd has incorporated an spv in the name of MARG Krishna Devaraya Airport Pvt. Ltd. MARG will develop the entire required infrastructure for the project, which is expected to be completed in 24 months from the date of signing of the PDA. In December 2008, MARG was awarded a 30-year contract by the Government of Karnataka to design, develop, operate and manage the Greenfield airport at Bijapur under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The development of Bellary airport is also part of the Government’s efforts in developing airports in its districts through the PPP model.
ON Semiconductor Introduces Compact Power Line Communication ON Semiconductor, a premier supplier of high performance, energy efficient silicon solutions, introduced the NCS5650 - a new line driver device targeted at Power Line Carrier (PLC) communications applications such as smart metering, industrial control and street lighting. The NCS5650 is a high efficiency, Class AB, low distortion driver, specifically designed to drive power line mains and capable of accepting a signal from any power line carrier modem. The NCS5650 contains an operational amplifier which can be configured as a unity gain follower buffer, or alternatively used to provide the first stage of a 4-pole low pass filter. The output stage has the capacity drive up to 2.0 A peak into an isolation transformer or simple coil coupling to the mains. At an output current of 1.5 A, the output voltage is guaranteed to swing within 1.0 V or less on either rail, ensuring optimal signal-to-noise ra-
tio (SNR) in harsh environments. The NCS5650 draws just 150 µA while in shutdown mode. Power supply options are single-sided 6 V to 12 V and dual balanced ±3.0 V to ±6.0 V. With its unique full power bandwidth, the NCS5650 can
operate in any region of the world while complying with local PLC frequency band regulations like CENELEC. The devices have an extended junction temperature range of “40 °C to +125 °C. They are offered in a compact QFN package with an exposed thermal pad for enhanced heat dissipation and increased thermal reliability which provides cost sensitive designers a further bill of materials cost reduction.
The NCS5650 is offered in a compact 20-pin, 4 mm x 4 mm x 1 mm, Pb-free, QFN package priced at US$3.73 per unit in 10,000 unit quantities. “The advent of power line communications allows utility companies to add greater levels of functionality to their electricity distribution networks - thereby providing consumers more control over their energy consumption,” said Simon Keeton, general manager of ON Semiconductor’s Audio, Video and Interface products division. “When combined with an industry leading Spread Frequency Shift Keying (S-FSK) modem, like ON Semiconductor’s AMIS-49587, the NCS5650 acts as an adaptive solution for PLC communications with a desirable balance of performance and price. Designs employing this solution will benefit from high levels of integration which provides a reduced component count and a decreased overall bill of materials.”
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Page No. 14
Essar Steel to expand its Steel Bank Loan Rating can impart financial discipline retail chain foot print in Kerala Sankar Chakraborti, National Head- Business Development, CRISIL Ratings, Mumbai said that Bank loan rating helps inculcate financial discipline in the borrower. Speaking at a seminar on ‘Basel-11 Accord & Bank Loan Ratings’ organized by CRISIL Ratings, in association with the State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, Kerala and Bankers’ Club, Greater Kochi, Chakraborti pointed out that rating is beneficial to the banks as well as the corporates. CRISIL assigns Bank Loan Ratings to various types of facilities provided by banks, such as working capital
demand loans, cash credit, project loans, loans for general corporate purposes and nonfund-based facilities. Bank loan ratings indicate the degree of risk with regard to timely payment of interest and principal on the facility being rated. Some time back, Reserve Bank of India issued new guidelines on capital adequacy for banks. These guidelines require banks to link the minimum size of their capital to the credit risk in their portfolios. To determine credit risk in their loan portfolios , banks will need to use credit ratings assigned by approved External Credit
Assignment Institutions such With a thrust on the retail as CRISIL. Under Basel- 11 customer, at Kozhikode,. Accord, banks will need to pro- Palghat & Cochin, Essar Steel vide capital for credit risk based is increasing its retail distribuon the risk associated with their loan portfolios. If a bank has high-quality credit exposure (for example, if the majority of its credit exposures are in the ‘AAA’ and ‘AA’ categories) it will save capital on account of credit risk. Conversely, a bank with relatively lower rated credit exposures will need to provide more capital. Credit Rating is not mandatory under Basel 11. However, by getting loans rated, a
tion network in Kerala by 44 ning to increase its %.Essar Hypermart currently Expressmarts numbers to 23 has 3 Hypermarts and 15 by the end of the year 2011. Expressmarts in Kerala is plan>> Turn to page 15
>> Turn to page 15
Girish Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Essar Hypermart at a press conference in Kochi. B. Ganesh Pai, General Manager, Corporate Communication, Essar Group and K. Kadhiravan, Head- Sales, Essar Steel are also seen.
of Hot and cold dishes 24 HRS. At Sofitel, there are several international quality bars starting with CIGAR BAR where one can enjoy the aroma of tobacco and cognac in the bar located in the lobby lounge and
is an ideal venue to meet friends for afternoon tea or cocktails in the evening. Businessmen keen on larger MEETINGS AND EVENTS will find a lot in Sofitel Wanda Chengdu’s extensive
planners will ensure that day is truly memorable. The gym, indoor swimming pool and sauna provide a haven for weary Businessmen after a long day of business negotiations or sightseeing.
banquet facilities that include a 400-seat ballroom, an auditorium with a multi-lingual translation system and five other function rooms for all types of business and social events. For those who are interested in getting married in this city of several thousands of years of history, Sofitel Wanda Chengdu wedding packages will be very attractive. The idyllic setting, grand Ballroom and special wedding services are everything one’s heart could desire. The eager wedding
Famous Chinese travelers have been visiting Indian from many centuries to learn about the culture. Now it is time Indian travelers go to such places like Chengdu to see the modern and merging China and in the bargain enjoy business and pleasure in Great facilities like SOFITEL WANDA CHENGDU. For those who still insist on Indian food, it is also available in this hotel we are told. In September don’t miss the Indian food festival.
Sankar Chakraborti, National Head- Business Development, CRISIL Ratings, Mumbai speaking on ‘Basel-11 Accord & Bank Loan Ratings’ at a seminar organized by CRISIL Ratings, in association with the State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, Kerala and Bankers’ Club, Greater Kochi. K.U. Balakrishnan, General Secretary, State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, L.R.R. Warrier, President, Thomas Joseph, General Federal Bank, Dr. Kurian P. Abraham, Dy. General Manager, Corporation Bank and K. Surendran, Secretary, Greater Kochi Bankers’ Club are also seen.
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needs and to respect your need for privacy, comfort and convenience. When they strive to make your stay an unforgettable experience it makes you feel that you are on the top of the world. This is true of all the staff and officers of the Hotel starting with the friendly General Manager Mr. Bertrand COURTOIS. His gentle and homely approach to the guests to enquire about them is something that one should experience to understand the fusion of a French hospitality in a China town. In the heart of the business
district, Sofitel Wanda Chengdu brings the latest trends in hotel design to Chengdu and sets a new standard in combining classic French hospitality with Chinese culture. Easy access to Taiping airport, the convention centre and Zhongyang Dajie pedestrian area are plus points. Offering hundreds of rooms, Club Sofitel executive floors, three inspired restaurants, state of the art conference facilities, spa, fitness centre and indoor heated pool, the hotel has everything one needs and more. Chengdu is the vibrant
capital of Sichuan Province. 2300 years old, it remains a center of civilization, culture and trade. The hotel is just a 15-minute walk to the commercial center and a 20-minute ride to the International Airport. Sofitel Wanda Chengdu’s rooms and suites are stylishly designed and furnished with all the modern conveniences, including broadband. Business clients will feel at home in the fully-equipped Executive Rooms and Deluxe Suites. At Sofitel, restaurants and bars provide the perfect setting for relaxing and socializing and offer refined French cuisine with the latest in fusion dishes from around the world. La Brasserie Restaurant a Western Restaurant is located on the 2nd floor. Offers extensive buffets, delicious a la carte specialities and all day dining. THE PALACE Chinese Restaurant is located on the 3rd floor. Serves authentic Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine. Fuji, a Japanese Restaurant is located on the 2nd floor and Serves delicious sashimi and other exclusive specialties. HAUTE CUISINE Includes accommodation, full buffet breakfast in restaurant, a buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant (including mineral water, excluding alcoholic beverages), one seasonal fruit platter per room. Subject to opening dates and hours of restaurant. Room service unlike the other conventional hotels offer a wide range
Lobby of Sofitel Wanda Chengdu
relax after a busy day. The EXECUTIVE LOUNGE is Perfectly located on the 23rd floor. Continental Breakfast is served from 06:30 AM to 10:30 AM. Complimentary tea and coffee during the day, complimentary cocktails from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. POOLSIDE BAR is Located on the 5th floor by the indoor swimming pool. One can enjoy soft drinks, tea, coffee, healthy juices and beer. One cannot miss the RENDEZVOUS LOUNGE that is in the great French inspired lobby. It
Business Digest
September - October 2010
Page No. 15
Bangalore phobia will only Etihad Airways signs Katrina Kaif as Brand hurt Western economies Ambassador By Sanjiv Kataria
The Indian information and communication technology (ICT) industry and Indian software professionals have earned global kudos for exceptional technical prowess, meticulous software development skills and quality processes for over two decades. However, the highly regarded industry with its threemillion plus software professionals, comes under attack every now and then from the very nations that save costs by outsourcing to India — dubbing it as a nation producing ‘cyber coolies’, to being ‘Bangalored’ (a term used when losing a job to an Indian outsourcing centre) and now to being referred to as ‘chop shops’. The West’s fear of losing jobs to any Indian software development centre not necessarily in the city of Bangalore has given rise to another word: Bangalore phobia. The latest attack on the industry from US Democrat Senator Schumer from New York raised several eyebrows in India. To add insult to the injury, Indian software firms will have to bear an additional burden of US$200-250 million in the form of H1B and L1 visa fee hike. By targeting Indian software firms and singling out an iconic firm like Infosys, the US senator missed the ingenuity of the Indian mind. To dub the work being done by the Indian software professionals as low-tech is not only unfair but unwarranted. And to term the Indian IT services companies as ‘chop shops’ is a great disservice especially when they have contributed to the development of American and European economies. A recent NasscomEvaluserve study estimates that in 2009 the US and European companies saved $25 to
$30 billion by outsourcing software development work to Indian companies. The $130 billion Indian ICT industry forms not only one-tenth of India’s GDP but has built substantial knowledge capital too. It has two big components—the $78 billion IT industry and the $63 billion Telecom industry, as per recent studies by Dataquest
and Voice&Data. Of the $78 billion generated by the IT industry, two-thirds come from export of IT services and onethird is contributed by the domestic IT sector. Within the IT services exports of $52.6 billion, exports to the US form nearly three-fifth and Europe adds up to nearly one-fifth. Even those who started by offering body shopping services to the American and European clients in the 1980s today operate at the top end of the value chain - IT consulting and business transformation services. So it is software development and maintenance services valued at $17 billion that is the biggest chunk of the software exports while new highend projects in the IT consulting and package implementation, software product development, telecom software and engineering services value more than $3 billion each. India’s strength lies in its extremely robust higher education system with a strong focus on mathematical skills and English language, which is a result of a conscious investment
made by the government in setting up institutions like the IITs, IISc, RECs, ISRO and BARC to gain technical selfsufficiency. “Alumni of Indian government-funded engineering schools like IITs have created intellectual property for the US and strengthened their ability to offer a better standard for American citizens,” said IDC India recently. “The US lawmakers must recall that H1B-L1 visa regime was created as a legally sanctioned means to allow US firms to induct scarce skills to benefit the US economy,” it states further. Even if we were to empathize with the argument that the US economy needs to banish unemployment, these countries cannot overcome skill shortage in the long run. The drastic drop in the enrolment of American students in the science and engineering programs is an indicator that there is no quick fix for growing the local talent pool in the software space. Both America and Europe must thank the Indian software industry for coming to their rescue and increasing productivity of their major corporations. The Western world has to realize that by adopting restrictive policies on free access to talent-based services, they can only hurt their own economy. Moreover, they won’t be able to top the list of countries vying for a limited pool of skilled professionals, and thus power their economies, in the absence of a reliable IT partner like India. As for Indian software companies the best advice comes from Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy: they must continue to innovate and enhance their productivity so that the world looks up to the technical prowess of the Indian software sector.
prospective borrowers (and customers for non-fund-based facilities) to get their facilities rated. Some banks may also provide incentives (such as lower interest rate for loans) to higher-rated facilities, sharing the capital savings on such exposures. Rating is not a prerequisite for a loan sanction or renewal of working capital facilities. However, a bank could insist on a rating for the loan /facility before sanction/ renewal, as it would help the bank in saving capital and also provide an additional input for the bank in deciding on the terms of the loan, explains, Sankar Chakraborty. According to Chakraborty, CRISL , so far rated 4700 com-
panies in the country, including 100-odd from Kerala. The market share of CRISIL in the banking sector was 53%. L.R. Ramachandra Warrier, President, State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, Kerala inaugurated the Seminar. K.U. Balakrishnan, General secretary, State Forum of Bankers’ Clubs, A. Surendran, President, Greater Kochi Bankers’ Club, K. Surendran, Secretary, Greater Kochi Bankers’ Club, Thomas Joseph, General Manager, Federal Bank. Dr. Kurian P. Abraham, Dy. General Manager, Corporation Bank and G. Balaji, Regional Manager- Business Development, CRISIL Ratings also spoke on the occasion.
From page 14
bank can save capital on loans in the higher rating categories. According to Chakraborty, CRISIL expects pricing of fresh loans to be strongly correlated with the credit ratings that such loans carry. Higher-rated corporate in particular will benefit from this development. Under the earlier framework, there was no need for a borrower to have its loans or bank facilities rated. This will change with the implementation of the new framework. RBI has asked banks to use ratings assigned by rating agencies like CRISIL to arrive at risk weights and thereby compute capital requirements. Based on the RBI requirement, banks will require their
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced the signing of internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning actress from India, Katrina Kaif, as the airline’s new brand ambassador.Having won numerous national and international awards, Katrina has greatly contributed to the Indian film industry and is one of India’s most sought-after actresses. Etihad Airways and Katrina Kaif will work on a series of initiatives to promote the airline across India and around the world, including addressing Indian communities in Etihad Airways’ key markets such as the UAE, the United States and the United Kingdom. Etihad recently filmed a internet video with Katrina Kaif dancing in the airline’s First class lounge in Abu Dhabi, under the direction of award winning Indian film director and choreographer, Farah Khan. The video, which has been distributed online across youtube and various social networking sites, will be used to promote the partner-
ship between Katrina and Etihad Airways throughout the campaign. Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Our partnership with Katrina Kaif will help build Etihad’s brand name globally and further introduce our worldclass products and services across India and to Indian communities around the world.” Katrina represents the best of Indian cinema. By challenging the industry as a highly talented newcomer, she has successfully reached the top of her field in a very short period of time.
These values ideally match Etihad’s own ambition to be the best airline in the world.” Katrina Kaif, Etihad’s new brand ambassador, said: “Since they first started flying, Etihad Airways has succeeded in becoming one of the biggest names in the airline industry. I have always loved flying with Etihad and I am extremely honoured to work closely with the world’s leading airline.” To view the video featuring Katrina Kaif dancing in Etihad’s First class lounge, go to www.whereiskatrinakaif.com.
Andrew Ward- Vice President, Marketing Etihad Airways, Katrina Kaif and Neerja Bhatia-Country Manager, India Srilanka, Etihad along with the airline’s crew.
From page 14
Girish Rao, CEO, Essar Hypermart, at a press conference in Kochi said that Essar Hypermart is a pioneering initiative of Essar Steel to make steel available to end users close to the user point. With more than 500 retail outlets across the country, this concept of Essar Hypermart has revolutionized the marketing of steel in India. Essar Hypermarts cater to customers ranging from small manufacturers, local fabricators and general engineering firms in the SME segment. Essar Hypermarts offers its customers a comprehensive range of flat and long steel products for a variety of applications. In a shift from the slow and cumbersome methods of delivering steel, Essar Hypermart provides immediate delivery, transparent pricing, customized quantities and guaranteed quality to its retail customers. “Essar Steel has always produced the best quality steel for its customers. SMEs are an extremely important part of our business and with Essar Hypermart we can now ensure that the best products are made available to them without the intervention of any intermediaries and without any restrictive terms and conditions.”, points out Girish Rao. Essar Hypermart also arranges for channel financing thru banks to deserving customers. Its cus-
tomers are assured of materials from an ISO 9002 and 14001 certified mill. Every single product that rolls out of the plants at Essar, guarantees that it has been produced in concurrence with the highest standards of manufacturing processes, state of the art technology and precision. “Kerala is a state which is progressing at a great speed be it infrastructure or industrialization. Essar Hypermart is happy to partner Kerala in its quest for growth. I am sure that this is just the beginning of the growth cycle for Essar Hypermart in the state.” Adds, Girish Rao, The distribution model is backed by world class Service Centre facilities and Supply Chain Management of Essar Steel and make available customized products to customers at their door step. Customers can now buy steel as per their requirement with a guarantee for right price, excellent quality and timely delivery from within their town/city limits. Bringing the convenience factor in buying steel, Essar Hypermart customers in Kerala can also send an SMS ‘STEEL’ to 53636 or call on the toll- free number 1800-22-5105 where in they can get details of prices and product offerings. Essar Steel, global producer of steel, is a fully integrated flat carbon steel manu-
facturer—with presence in Canada, USA, India and Indonesia. It is the most versatile flat steel producer with integrated facilities from extra wide plates, hot rolling, cold rolling, galvanizing and colour coating, pipes with a full distribution business with Service Centre and Steel Hypermarts. Essar Steel has a global steel production capacity of 8.6 million tonnes per annum. It operates seven Service Centres in India, Indonesia and Canada with aggregate capacity of over 3 million tonnes. Essar has the largest network distribution channel with over 400 branded Essar Hypermarts. Its products find wide acceptance in highly discerning consumer sectors, such as automotive, white goods, construction, engineering and shipbuilding. The Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Oil & Gas, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, Construction and Minerals. With operations in more than 20 countries across five continents, the Group employs 60,000 people, with revenues of USD 15 billion. K. Kadhiravan, Head, sales, Essar Steel and B. Ganesh Pai General Manager, Corporate Communication, Essar Group were also present at the press conference.
September - October 2010
Business Digest
Page No. 16
Being superstitious can actually boost your performance
Azeezia: Unmatched facilities; beautiful location Azeezia group of Medical Educational Institutions is located in a setting of scenic beauty at Meeyannoor village, 18kms from Kollam city. The sprawling campus has an area of 50 acres and combined investment of Rs.250 crores. The panoramic view from the campus embraces hills and paddy fields, coconut groves and rubber plantations, typical of Kerala- Gods Own Country. The refreshing and re-vitalising ambience is conducive to
comfort always- that is what a physician can do. We will provide a congenial atmosphere for the students for the development of curricular and extracurricular activities. A Golden thread running through the ethos of the Azeezia Group of Medical Institutions is social responsibility. The institutions are fully committed to rendering qualitative medical education and cost effective modern treatment to the rural population without profit motive and
Gyneacology, Orthopedics, Paediatrics, ENT, Opthalmology, Dermatology, Psychiatry and Anaesthesiology. Cardiology, Radio diagnosis, Urology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neuro surgery,TB & Chest Disease, Surgical Oncology and Maxillofacial Surgery are the super specialuties. Azeezia Nursing College which was started in 2006 is fully equipped to impart high quality graduate nursing education. Adequate resources
learning recuperation. Azeezia Institute of Medical Sciences and Research is the first Medical College established in Kollam District. This Institution is imparting training of medical professionals who are sure, will be socially oriented and ethically principled. This institution is giving personal attention in every part of the training by well experienced teachers who have vast experience in their concerned fields. Our main objective is to nurture the skills of patient management and communication. We inculcate the concept of our concern for our society considering the fact that life expectancy of nearly thirty years separates those in the richest countries from those in the poorest. To cure sometimes, to relieve often, but to
this is expected to blaze a trail of CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY in the field of “Rural Health Care” in the years to come. Ably captained by its Chairman M. Abdul Azeez, other board members of the Azeezia Group of institutions are Mrs. M. Hafsath Azeez, Dr. Ansar Azeez, Dr. Hashim Azeez, Midhulaj Azeez, Anaz Azeez and Hassan Azeez. Azeezia Medical College Hospital is a 500 bedded hospital fully equipped for the treatment of most of the diseases. The hospital is managed by a team of highly qualified and experienced doctors and well trained and motivated Para-medical staff. Generala facilities in the hospital are General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics &
have been made available to help the students to learn every aspect of nursing in its entirety. Azeezia College of Dental Sciences & Research is an educational initiative by Podikunju Musaliar Memorial Charitable and Educational Trust which was in turn started in 2001 to cherish the visionary and philanthropic activities of Late Late. Shri. Podikunju Musaliar (1912-1989). Eligibility criteria for the Management Quota will be a pass in Plus Two (Kerala) or equivalent National Board Examination with at least 50% aggregate marks in Biology, Physics and Chemistry and appearance in Common Entrance Examination conducted by the consortium of Self-financing Medical Colleges/CET
conducted by Government. Admission will be on the basis of marks obtained in the entrance examination and marks obtained for Physics, Chemistry and Biology in the qualifying examination. The marks will be apportioned in the ratio of 50:50. After the entrance test, the marks obtained for the Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the qualifying examination will be added to the marks obtained at the entrance test and a combined merit list will be published. Separate merit list also will be published for categories, for which seats are reserved. Allotment to colleges and admission will be on the basis of centralized counseling. For more informations: Azeezia Medical College, Meeyannoor P.O. Kollam Kerala Kollam-37 Telephone: 0474-3069200 http://www.azeezia.com Dr.Y.M Fazil Marickar serves as the Principal of the college and Dr. L. Reghu, Medical Superintendent.
If a new research is to be believed, then believing in luck is enough to boost performance. Scientists from the University of Cologne designed four experiments to test the effectiveness of belief in goodluck superstitions. According to PhysOrg.com, the superstitions were tested to see whether or not they improved subsequent performance in motor dexterity, memory, solving anagrams, or playing golf. In the experiments, the participants either brought their own lucky “charms,” were given something they were told was lucky or had some other superstition-based encouragement. The researchers found that in
all four experiments, the participants who had a lucky charm or were given encouragement via a common superstitious saying performed significantly better than their control counterparts. The participants performed better and faster on motor dexterity tests, plus they had more confidence in their own abilities when asked beforehand how they thought they would do.The research is the first time superstitions associated with good luck have been demonstrated to affect future performance beneficially, reports Discovery News. The research is published online in the journal Psychological Science.
From page 9
will be a strong addition to our product portfolio. Adding further he said, “The New Vento is an extension of our commitment towards the Indian consumers of providing the best quality
products at competitive prices.” The Vento is equipped with a 1.6 litre engine with an output of 105PS @ 5250 rpm and a Torque of 153NM @ 3800 rpm.
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