Grab your microscopes, exercise your cheeks and get ready to be entertained by our disguised celebrity contestants who say: Arre Deewano Mujhe Pehchano!Every Fri-Sat at 10 pm, only on Star Plus
Lux Arre Deewano Mujhe Pehchano is STAR Plus’ first offering in the New Year to keep the viewers entertained with a BIG dose of laughter, disguises and fun! Eight celebrity contestants - Gulshan Grover, Divya Dutta, Mona Singh, Yash Tonk Mahesh Manjrekar, Mandira Bedi, Rakhi Sawant and Sweta Keswani - are ready to con the unsuspecting in this world with their pranks to ring in the New Year. The Friday premier on January 2 will feature the first four out of eight celebrities (Gulshan Grover, Divya Dutta, Mona Singh, Yash Tonk), who bring out the joker in them to pull the wool over many unwary targets. Not only that, they will also do a stand-up act on their experiences making matters worse for their victims and filling the viewers’ life with loads of masti. The celebrity among celebrities as will be the director/actor with terrific comic timing, Sajid Khan, who appears as the guest on the show.
For the first time ever in the history of Indian television, STAR Plus brings to fore a new technology animated interactive character - ‘Gadhashri’ who will provide the ‘vishesh tippani’ or special comments on the performances. There will be internal voting among the celebrities in which each one chooses the best act and crowns the celebrity who has performed the act as ‘Sabse bada Behrupiya’.
Watch out for…
·Gulshan Griovers’s prank as a casting director’s
Gulshan Grover played a casting director who is conducting an audition for an Indo-Hollywood venture and is looking for a lead. Neetu who walks in to the audition completely oblivious of the prank, is taken aback when her not-so-important role turns into a lead. She dances, emotes and performs action stunts for the director and falls prey to Gulshan’s fabulous disguise.
·Mona Singh as a fat lady who wants her husband to look like John Abraham
Mona plays a fat lady who wants her thin husband to lose weight and look like John Abraham. She gets a personal trainer at home and psyches him out with her antics
·Yash Tonk as a police officer
Yash Tonk plays a policeman who is harassing people on the street, he catches hold of a young boy (TV artist by profession) and hassles him suspecting him of being drunk.
·Divya Dutta cheats to get engaged
Divya Dutta plays a prospective bride and cons a man desperately wanting to get married. Divya cheats him to get engaged to her in their very first meet and catches him off guard.
Stringing all these pranks, embarrassment and the victim’s reactions together will be the very vivacious and versatile host Kavita Kaushik. She will help create the balance in the moods between the gags, stand-up acts and Gadhashri’s flirtatious and mischievous comments.STAR Plus brings you a dream come true reality show - free from clichés, emotional outbursts at eliminations and unnecessary melodrama!
Jan 2, 2009
Mktg - Of brands & advertising 2008
Madhukar Sabnavis
In the five-episode Ponds ‘White Beauty’ campaign, two stars Neha Dhupia and Priyanka Chopra fight out a love triangle for the attention and love of another star, Saif Ali Khan.
In a series of ads promoting ‘value-added’ services for Airtel, Vidya Balan and Madhavan, two Bollywood stars, switch on their screen ‘couple’ chemistry to entice consumers to prefer Airtel.
In the’ voice sms’ commercial for Airtel, King Khan coaches Chote Nawab to say sorry with emotion to win back the heart of his girlfriend, Kareena Kapoor. There is a starlet as Kareena’s companion.
To launch Airtel DTH, seven stars come together to invite a busy executive home to enjoy the benefits of high-quality television viewing. Madhavan and Vidya Balan receive him at the airport, he bumps into Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir in his apartment block lift, he is welcomed home by Kareena Kapoor, he is surprised to see AR Rahman ready to perform for him, and finally, Saif Ali Khan offers him and his nuclear family the grand red sofa to sit on and enjoy the show.
Welcome to the world of multi-starrer advertising. Celebrity craze has been a part of advertising-dom for years, but 2008 saw brands upping the ante on stars to go bigger and larger in numbers. As every category bites the celebrity bug, using more than one celebrity emerges as a new phenomenon. It is interesting to see two mass brands do the same in one year, setting a new benchmark — or is it too early to say?
Talking of stars, Bollywood and cricket stars were part of creating India’s first global brand. They were integral to the biggest marketing initiative of the year—IPL. To take on a format which is nascent in cricket — T20 — and create a tournament based on domestic cities with mixed players from across the globe and pack over 50 matches in 44 days was daring. Full credit needs to be given to the brand creator, Lalit Modi, who backed it with all his might, and his instinct and faith got rewarded. The stadia were full, soaps and game shows on televisions were upstaged and the brand got extensive unpaid-for media coverage and lots of paid-for sponsors. The final proof of its success is that a national team refused a foreign tour to participate in next year’s edition, two cricketing nations are planning their own versions and England may co-host the second edition. The second tournament will throw its own challenges but it cannot be denied that India has created a global brand for the cricketing world to consume and emulate!
It’s the same boldness in thought and action that created a media brand in the general entertainment space — Colors. Being the nth channel to be launched, it’s always tough to be a follower. However, Rajesh Kamat and his team dared to break rules and do things differently to garner eyeballs. Khatron Ke Khiladi, a reality show with Akshay Kumar and his team of starlets, was aired on day one. And it was followed with Bigg Boss and Balika Vadhu, a new theme in soaps. Colors ends the year as the No 2 Channel just behind Star — a commendable achievement, given that INX Entertainment and NDTV Imagine couldn’t make a breakthrough despite the promoters’ great experience in television.
2008 saw a surfeit of interesting advertising in the ‘banking’ space. Union Bank of India’s ‘Your dreams are not only your own’ touches a real chord in a highly affiliative Indian society. Indian Overseas Bank’s ‘Partner in Growth’ campaign, using the click of a child’s fingers, is quite endearing. The IDBI campaign ‘Not only for the big boys’ is clutter-breaking and innovative. ING’s corporate communication has a wonderful jingle and highlights the cultural meaning of money, much as Tata Capital’s advertisement eulogises the value of money. It’s nice to see a ‘mind’ category like money handled with so much ‘heart’. At one level, each brand makes a different point. However, dig deeper beyond messaging and maybe bank ads are getting into a similar emotional space and consumers could start mistaking one for another. There is a strain of Bank of India’s ‘Rishton ki Jamapunji’ campaign in many of these works. At the product level, banks tend be the most commoditised category; there is a lurking danger that the advertising too could be getting commoditised.
If banks got attention through emotions, youth brands took ‘irreverence’ to a new level. Motoyuva opened the year with an ad that had a son impertinently plugging his ears while his father harangued him. It followed up with another where the student hoodwinks his teacher pretending to be studying while he is making on his Motoyuva a sketch of the gullible professor. Virgin Mobile had a girl implying she is swinging the ‘wrong’ way to get her parents to allow her to go to Goa with her friends. And in a second execution, a guy eases a mother off with his phone to ‘flirt’ with her daughter. Sprite, this summer, made ‘double dating’ look cool. These ads stirred controversy on whether they were promoting bad ‘social’ behaviour; however they definitely brought ‘the darker yet real side’ of youth out of closets and reflect a less prudish society. Interestingly, three hit Bollywood movies — Fashion, Dostana and Bachna Ae Haseeno — all had protagonists going off the ‘conventional good paths’ and had audiences accepting them for what they were.
Let me end with a Bollywood brand that did things differently this year— Ghajini. If viewed closely Ghajini is a ‘B-grade action revenge love story’ which audiences have seen many times over. However, it was brilliantly packaged and promoted by Aamir Khan, and that made it the biggest blockbuster of the year. What’s interesting about its promotion is that it used limited above-the-line promotion; and focused more on media relations and ground activation. Each channel got a unique angle of the brand story as programming — each driven by the brand ambassador. And on ground, it used innovative methods to create buzz — from Aamir Khan giving people a Ghajini cut to ushers in the ‘weird’ haircut to a mannequin in multiplex foyers for fans to photograph themselves with. As we move into 2009 which looks to be a tough and challenging year, there is a message in the Ghajini story — BTL could work harder than ATL.
Something worth thinking about.
The author is Country Head, Discovery and Planning, Ogilvy, India. Views expressed are personal
In the five-episode Ponds ‘White Beauty’ campaign, two stars Neha Dhupia and Priyanka Chopra fight out a love triangle for the attention and love of another star, Saif Ali Khan.
In a series of ads promoting ‘value-added’ services for Airtel, Vidya Balan and Madhavan, two Bollywood stars, switch on their screen ‘couple’ chemistry to entice consumers to prefer Airtel.
In the’ voice sms’ commercial for Airtel, King Khan coaches Chote Nawab to say sorry with emotion to win back the heart of his girlfriend, Kareena Kapoor. There is a starlet as Kareena’s companion.
To launch Airtel DTH, seven stars come together to invite a busy executive home to enjoy the benefits of high-quality television viewing. Madhavan and Vidya Balan receive him at the airport, he bumps into Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir in his apartment block lift, he is welcomed home by Kareena Kapoor, he is surprised to see AR Rahman ready to perform for him, and finally, Saif Ali Khan offers him and his nuclear family the grand red sofa to sit on and enjoy the show.
Welcome to the world of multi-starrer advertising. Celebrity craze has been a part of advertising-dom for years, but 2008 saw brands upping the ante on stars to go bigger and larger in numbers. As every category bites the celebrity bug, using more than one celebrity emerges as a new phenomenon. It is interesting to see two mass brands do the same in one year, setting a new benchmark — or is it too early to say?
Talking of stars, Bollywood and cricket stars were part of creating India’s first global brand. They were integral to the biggest marketing initiative of the year—IPL. To take on a format which is nascent in cricket — T20 — and create a tournament based on domestic cities with mixed players from across the globe and pack over 50 matches in 44 days was daring. Full credit needs to be given to the brand creator, Lalit Modi, who backed it with all his might, and his instinct and faith got rewarded. The stadia were full, soaps and game shows on televisions were upstaged and the brand got extensive unpaid-for media coverage and lots of paid-for sponsors. The final proof of its success is that a national team refused a foreign tour to participate in next year’s edition, two cricketing nations are planning their own versions and England may co-host the second edition. The second tournament will throw its own challenges but it cannot be denied that India has created a global brand for the cricketing world to consume and emulate!
It’s the same boldness in thought and action that created a media brand in the general entertainment space — Colors. Being the nth channel to be launched, it’s always tough to be a follower. However, Rajesh Kamat and his team dared to break rules and do things differently to garner eyeballs. Khatron Ke Khiladi, a reality show with Akshay Kumar and his team of starlets, was aired on day one. And it was followed with Bigg Boss and Balika Vadhu, a new theme in soaps. Colors ends the year as the No 2 Channel just behind Star — a commendable achievement, given that INX Entertainment and NDTV Imagine couldn’t make a breakthrough despite the promoters’ great experience in television.
2008 saw a surfeit of interesting advertising in the ‘banking’ space. Union Bank of India’s ‘Your dreams are not only your own’ touches a real chord in a highly affiliative Indian society. Indian Overseas Bank’s ‘Partner in Growth’ campaign, using the click of a child’s fingers, is quite endearing. The IDBI campaign ‘Not only for the big boys’ is clutter-breaking and innovative. ING’s corporate communication has a wonderful jingle and highlights the cultural meaning of money, much as Tata Capital’s advertisement eulogises the value of money. It’s nice to see a ‘mind’ category like money handled with so much ‘heart’. At one level, each brand makes a different point. However, dig deeper beyond messaging and maybe bank ads are getting into a similar emotional space and consumers could start mistaking one for another. There is a strain of Bank of India’s ‘Rishton ki Jamapunji’ campaign in many of these works. At the product level, banks tend be the most commoditised category; there is a lurking danger that the advertising too could be getting commoditised.
If banks got attention through emotions, youth brands took ‘irreverence’ to a new level. Motoyuva opened the year with an ad that had a son impertinently plugging his ears while his father harangued him. It followed up with another where the student hoodwinks his teacher pretending to be studying while he is making on his Motoyuva a sketch of the gullible professor. Virgin Mobile had a girl implying she is swinging the ‘wrong’ way to get her parents to allow her to go to Goa with her friends. And in a second execution, a guy eases a mother off with his phone to ‘flirt’ with her daughter. Sprite, this summer, made ‘double dating’ look cool. These ads stirred controversy on whether they were promoting bad ‘social’ behaviour; however they definitely brought ‘the darker yet real side’ of youth out of closets and reflect a less prudish society. Interestingly, three hit Bollywood movies — Fashion, Dostana and Bachna Ae Haseeno — all had protagonists going off the ‘conventional good paths’ and had audiences accepting them for what they were.
Let me end with a Bollywood brand that did things differently this year— Ghajini. If viewed closely Ghajini is a ‘B-grade action revenge love story’ which audiences have seen many times over. However, it was brilliantly packaged and promoted by Aamir Khan, and that made it the biggest blockbuster of the year. What’s interesting about its promotion is that it used limited above-the-line promotion; and focused more on media relations and ground activation. Each channel got a unique angle of the brand story as programming — each driven by the brand ambassador. And on ground, it used innovative methods to create buzz — from Aamir Khan giving people a Ghajini cut to ushers in the ‘weird’ haircut to a mannequin in multiplex foyers for fans to photograph themselves with. As we move into 2009 which looks to be a tough and challenging year, there is a message in the Ghajini story — BTL could work harder than ATL.
Something worth thinking about.
The author is Country Head, Discovery and Planning, Ogilvy, India. Views expressed are personal
Lifestyle - Consumer confidence takes a dive
NEW YORK The way things are going, The Conference Board might want to consider changing the name of its Consumer Confidence Index. There's not much confidence left to measure.
In a report released today, The Conference Board said the level of confidence sank "to a new all-time low in December." For those of you keeping score at home, the latest Consumer Confidence Index figure is 38 (on a scale pegged to a 1985 benchmark of 100), down from 44.7 in November.
The index's Present Situation component dropped sharply (to 29.4, from 42.3 in November), while the Expectations component declined modestly (to 43.8, from 46.2 in November). A more negative assessment of the job market contributed to consumers' gloomy outlook on current conditions.
The Conference Board report is anything but an outlier, as other measures of consumer confidence have been similarly glum. One example: Rasmussen Reports' release today of its ongoing Consumer Index polling found a grand total of 9 percent of respondents rating the economy as good or excellent, while 61 percent rated its condition as downright poor. Likewise, a Gallup report last week found 78 percent of its respondents voicing negative views of the economy. After a brief uptick around Thanksgiving, Gallup's measure of consumer confidence "remains near the low point for the year." Little wonder that a separate Gallup report earlier in the month found about 40 percent of respondents saying they'd worried about money on the day before being queried.
Such economic gloom is by no means confined to the U.S. That's clear in reading an Ipsos Public Affairs study, issued last week under the cheery title "Global Economic Meltdown: Systemic Shock." Reporting on its latest wave of polling (fielded in November) in 22 countries, the study noted sharp drops in consumer confidence in nearly all of them. In the poll's European Union countries, for example, the percentage of respondents with anything good to say about their national economy sank to 30 percent, from 39 percent in April and 53 percent last October. The Asia/Pacific respondents displayed a similar pattern, with the percentage expressing a positive view of their national economy declining to 32 percent, from 48 percent in April and 62 percent last October. Among the BRIC countries, Brazil was the conspicuous exception to an otherwise steeply downward trend.
Even in Brazil, though, a majority of respondents (76 percent) said they've recently cut back on their spending due to "the current state of the global economy." Indeed, the Netherlands was the study's only country in which fewer than half the respondents said they're cutting their spending (45 percent said so there). The proportions of people saying they are cutting their spending was especially high in South Korea (87 percent), Turkey and Argentina (both 84 percent), Mexico (83 percent), France (81 percent) and China and the U.S. (both 80 percent). It was comparatively low in Sweden (52 percent) and Germany and the Czech Republic (both 59 percent).
Across all countries in the Ipsos report, entertainment was the category in which the highest number of respondents said they've reduced their spending (76 percent said so), followed closely by vacations (73 percent) and luxury items (72 percent)
In a report released today, The Conference Board said the level of confidence sank "to a new all-time low in December." For those of you keeping score at home, the latest Consumer Confidence Index figure is 38 (on a scale pegged to a 1985 benchmark of 100), down from 44.7 in November.
The index's Present Situation component dropped sharply (to 29.4, from 42.3 in November), while the Expectations component declined modestly (to 43.8, from 46.2 in November). A more negative assessment of the job market contributed to consumers' gloomy outlook on current conditions.
The Conference Board report is anything but an outlier, as other measures of consumer confidence have been similarly glum. One example: Rasmussen Reports' release today of its ongoing Consumer Index polling found a grand total of 9 percent of respondents rating the economy as good or excellent, while 61 percent rated its condition as downright poor. Likewise, a Gallup report last week found 78 percent of its respondents voicing negative views of the economy. After a brief uptick around Thanksgiving, Gallup's measure of consumer confidence "remains near the low point for the year." Little wonder that a separate Gallup report earlier in the month found about 40 percent of respondents saying they'd worried about money on the day before being queried.
Such economic gloom is by no means confined to the U.S. That's clear in reading an Ipsos Public Affairs study, issued last week under the cheery title "Global Economic Meltdown: Systemic Shock." Reporting on its latest wave of polling (fielded in November) in 22 countries, the study noted sharp drops in consumer confidence in nearly all of them. In the poll's European Union countries, for example, the percentage of respondents with anything good to say about their national economy sank to 30 percent, from 39 percent in April and 53 percent last October. The Asia/Pacific respondents displayed a similar pattern, with the percentage expressing a positive view of their national economy declining to 32 percent, from 48 percent in April and 62 percent last October. Among the BRIC countries, Brazil was the conspicuous exception to an otherwise steeply downward trend.
Even in Brazil, though, a majority of respondents (76 percent) said they've recently cut back on their spending due to "the current state of the global economy." Indeed, the Netherlands was the study's only country in which fewer than half the respondents said they're cutting their spending (45 percent said so there). The proportions of people saying they are cutting their spending was especially high in South Korea (87 percent), Turkey and Argentina (both 84 percent), Mexico (83 percent), France (81 percent) and China and the U.S. (both 80 percent). It was comparatively low in Sweden (52 percent) and Germany and the Czech Republic (both 59 percent).
Across all countries in the Ipsos report, entertainment was the category in which the highest number of respondents said they've reduced their spending (76 percent said so), followed closely by vacations (73 percent) and luxury items (72 percent)
Business - PepsiCo goes hi-tech to ensure potato supply
Suvi Dogra
Having faced sourcing issues for potato in 2008, food and beverage major PepsiCo is planning to ensure supply by introducing farming equipment and technology and new potato seed varieties to decrease chances of crop loss. It also aims to increase the acreage under contract farming by entering new states across the country.
“We will introduce new hand-held and semi-automatic equipment from Taiwan and Thailand with the vision to increase yields and reduce losses,” PepsiCo International Regional Agronomy Director (South Asia) Ray Nalder told Business Standard.
The company is introducing direct seeding and harvesting equipment given the low mechanisation involved in cultivating food-grade potatoes in the country, which leads to loss of yield. It will also bring in new instruments to achieve sustainable irrigation and water efficiency in the fields specially for paddy farming. This is in line with PepsiCo’s aim to achieve positive water balance this year.
Nalder, however, did not share the investment figures involved for the initiative. “Farmers need to be profitable, and not just sustainable. We will invest enough to ensure the model is adopted by more farmers,” he said.
Frito-Lay, the food arm of the company, uses around 150,000 tonnes of potatoes per annum for its products, 50 per cent of which comes from contract farming. PepsiCo has partnered with more than 10,000 farmers working in over 12,000 acres across Punjab, UP, Karnataka, Jharkand, West Bengal, Kashmir and Maharashtra for the supply of potatoes.
In 2008, PepsiCo faced shortage of process grade potato due to crop failure in Maharashtra on account of drought, in Karnataka due to late blight and in Punjab due to frost. This led to a short supply of some of the faster moving stock-keeping units (SKUs) for PepsiCo’s potato chip brand Lay’s.
PepsiCo, which has introduced six high-quality, high-yield potato varieties in the past, will also introduce new potato varieties in the country this year.
“We have already developed new varieties of food grade potatoes and we are now working on two more varieties-bred in India for India,” Nalder said. The new varieties are said to be better suited for Indian weather.
Further, with an aim to make India a sourcing hub for its juice brand Tropicana, PepsiCo plans to make its citrus farming initiative in Punjab commercial. “India has the potential to be the sourcing hub for PepsiCo worldwide,” Nalder said. “The citrus plants that we have developed in Punjab took 6 years to grow and experiment has been successful. We plan to make our operations commercial by next year,” he added.
Having faced sourcing issues for potato in 2008, food and beverage major PepsiCo is planning to ensure supply by introducing farming equipment and technology and new potato seed varieties to decrease chances of crop loss. It also aims to increase the acreage under contract farming by entering new states across the country.
“We will introduce new hand-held and semi-automatic equipment from Taiwan and Thailand with the vision to increase yields and reduce losses,” PepsiCo International Regional Agronomy Director (South Asia) Ray Nalder told Business Standard.
The company is introducing direct seeding and harvesting equipment given the low mechanisation involved in cultivating food-grade potatoes in the country, which leads to loss of yield. It will also bring in new instruments to achieve sustainable irrigation and water efficiency in the fields specially for paddy farming. This is in line with PepsiCo’s aim to achieve positive water balance this year.
Nalder, however, did not share the investment figures involved for the initiative. “Farmers need to be profitable, and not just sustainable. We will invest enough to ensure the model is adopted by more farmers,” he said.
Frito-Lay, the food arm of the company, uses around 150,000 tonnes of potatoes per annum for its products, 50 per cent of which comes from contract farming. PepsiCo has partnered with more than 10,000 farmers working in over 12,000 acres across Punjab, UP, Karnataka, Jharkand, West Bengal, Kashmir and Maharashtra for the supply of potatoes.
In 2008, PepsiCo faced shortage of process grade potato due to crop failure in Maharashtra on account of drought, in Karnataka due to late blight and in Punjab due to frost. This led to a short supply of some of the faster moving stock-keeping units (SKUs) for PepsiCo’s potato chip brand Lay’s.
PepsiCo, which has introduced six high-quality, high-yield potato varieties in the past, will also introduce new potato varieties in the country this year.
“We have already developed new varieties of food grade potatoes and we are now working on two more varieties-bred in India for India,” Nalder said. The new varieties are said to be better suited for Indian weather.
Further, with an aim to make India a sourcing hub for its juice brand Tropicana, PepsiCo plans to make its citrus farming initiative in Punjab commercial. “India has the potential to be the sourcing hub for PepsiCo worldwide,” Nalder said. “The citrus plants that we have developed in Punjab took 6 years to grow and experiment has been successful. We plan to make our operations commercial by next year,” he added.
Business - Why Bajaj Auto got left behind
Shobhana Subramanian
There was a time when it seemed the Chetak would never go out of style; it was probably the largest-selling scooter in the world and by the time it was phased out in late 2005, around ten million Chetaks had been produced. Today, Bajaj Auto barely sells 700 scooters a month — it’s Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) that has taken charge of the market clocking volumes of close to 60,000 in November, 2008. For that month, HMSI was the country’s second largest two-wheeler maker, leaving Bajaj Auto at number three.
Why did Bajaj Auto get left behind in the scooter race? How could a company let go of such a great franchise? It’s true that some time around the mid-eighties, when Indo-Japanese motorcycles made their debut, it was fashionable to own one — even something of a status symbol. The bikes were trendy, offered tremendous economy, and weren’t too expensive either. Men didn’t want to be seen driving scooters and slowly switched to bikes and not too many women were driving scooters at the time.
But the scooter too could have evolved from the archaic, two-stroke geared contraption with a side-engine that it was, to the gearless, easy-to-drive, reliable and fuel-efficient models that even women are driving today. In fact, Kinetic Honda did come up with a couple of models, but Bajaj Auto couldn’t make the grade—industry watchers say the company didn’t spend enough time and money on R&D and possibly tried to cut corners, while sourcing components, in order to keep the price affordable. To be fair, Bajaj probably wanted to focus on the motorcycles market which then looked to be a big opportunity. To its credit, it managed to transform itself from a scooter company to a motorcycle company with some help of Kawasaki. In the premium segment, for instance, it has been the market leader with models like Pulsar and some of its executive segment models, such as the Discover, too have done well. Perhaps the management felt it didn’t have the wherewithal to focus on both scooters and motorcycles.
But it was also true that Bajaj didn’t try hard enough; possibly because it felt that the opportunity in scooters, whether for men or women, was over. In some ways it probably didn’t read the market correctly and that’s why it didn’t focus hard enough. Even LML managed to survive for a while and there was a time in 1998 -99 when Bajaj was faring worse than LML. The Legend, which Bajaj launched in 1998 and which was priced very competitively, didn’t exactly set the market on fire, neither did the Bravo, which came soon after. The products simply weren’t compelling enough. Even after Kinetic made the mistake of buying out Honda in 1999 (imagine where it could have been today had the collaboration continued!), Bajaj didn’t make too much of an effort to get back into the market. Without Honda behind it, it was only a matter of time before Kinetic lost its way. But instead of Bajaj which should have stepped in, it was HMSI that made the most of the opportunity.
Ten years later the scooter market is humming along. But it’s HMSI, which rode into the market in 2001, which is now the leader. HMSI re-invented the market with the four-stroke un-geared Activa, which was a runaway success and later the trendier Dio, which was an average hit. The Eterno, a modern version of the Vespa, didn’t find takers possibly because it was a geared, full size, four-stroke model.
Nevertheless, HMSI’s volumes are picking up. Its partner in India for motorcycles, Hero Honda, too has found itself a niche and some market share—the Pleasure, launched in early 2006, now does a run rate of 12,000-14,000 a month whereas in 2007, it was doing 7,000-8,000.The sharp positioning, targetted at women, has worked wonders, backed as it was by some wonderful advertising (‘Why should boys have all the fun?’) and all-women sales outlets. Interestingly, although Hero Honda is catering to women, 30 per cent of buyers are men and Hero Honda believes the ratio isn’t going to change in a hurry. There is clearly a market for scooters—in 2007-08 scooter sales were up 12 per cent, of course on a very small base. Sales of motorcycles, on the other hand, fell by 12 per cent. But in the current year too, sales of scooters could grow 10-12 per cent, going by the numbers so far. The size of the market now, at about a hundred thousand scooters and scooterettes a month, isn’t a bad number. It’s only a matter of time before Suzuki scales up—Japanese manufacturers are usually careful about putting in place a good sales and service network before they ramp up production. Meanwhile, Bajaj did come up with the Crystal but that hasn’t gone anywhere; since then there hasn’t been much talk about scooters. It seems to have given up altogether.
There was a time when it seemed the Chetak would never go out of style; it was probably the largest-selling scooter in the world and by the time it was phased out in late 2005, around ten million Chetaks had been produced. Today, Bajaj Auto barely sells 700 scooters a month — it’s Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) that has taken charge of the market clocking volumes of close to 60,000 in November, 2008. For that month, HMSI was the country’s second largest two-wheeler maker, leaving Bajaj Auto at number three.
Why did Bajaj Auto get left behind in the scooter race? How could a company let go of such a great franchise? It’s true that some time around the mid-eighties, when Indo-Japanese motorcycles made their debut, it was fashionable to own one — even something of a status symbol. The bikes were trendy, offered tremendous economy, and weren’t too expensive either. Men didn’t want to be seen driving scooters and slowly switched to bikes and not too many women were driving scooters at the time.
But the scooter too could have evolved from the archaic, two-stroke geared contraption with a side-engine that it was, to the gearless, easy-to-drive, reliable and fuel-efficient models that even women are driving today. In fact, Kinetic Honda did come up with a couple of models, but Bajaj Auto couldn’t make the grade—industry watchers say the company didn’t spend enough time and money on R&D and possibly tried to cut corners, while sourcing components, in order to keep the price affordable. To be fair, Bajaj probably wanted to focus on the motorcycles market which then looked to be a big opportunity. To its credit, it managed to transform itself from a scooter company to a motorcycle company with some help of Kawasaki. In the premium segment, for instance, it has been the market leader with models like Pulsar and some of its executive segment models, such as the Discover, too have done well. Perhaps the management felt it didn’t have the wherewithal to focus on both scooters and motorcycles.
But it was also true that Bajaj didn’t try hard enough; possibly because it felt that the opportunity in scooters, whether for men or women, was over. In some ways it probably didn’t read the market correctly and that’s why it didn’t focus hard enough. Even LML managed to survive for a while and there was a time in 1998 -99 when Bajaj was faring worse than LML. The Legend, which Bajaj launched in 1998 and which was priced very competitively, didn’t exactly set the market on fire, neither did the Bravo, which came soon after. The products simply weren’t compelling enough. Even after Kinetic made the mistake of buying out Honda in 1999 (imagine where it could have been today had the collaboration continued!), Bajaj didn’t make too much of an effort to get back into the market. Without Honda behind it, it was only a matter of time before Kinetic lost its way. But instead of Bajaj which should have stepped in, it was HMSI that made the most of the opportunity.
Ten years later the scooter market is humming along. But it’s HMSI, which rode into the market in 2001, which is now the leader. HMSI re-invented the market with the four-stroke un-geared Activa, which was a runaway success and later the trendier Dio, which was an average hit. The Eterno, a modern version of the Vespa, didn’t find takers possibly because it was a geared, full size, four-stroke model.
Nevertheless, HMSI’s volumes are picking up. Its partner in India for motorcycles, Hero Honda, too has found itself a niche and some market share—the Pleasure, launched in early 2006, now does a run rate of 12,000-14,000 a month whereas in 2007, it was doing 7,000-8,000.The sharp positioning, targetted at women, has worked wonders, backed as it was by some wonderful advertising (‘Why should boys have all the fun?’) and all-women sales outlets. Interestingly, although Hero Honda is catering to women, 30 per cent of buyers are men and Hero Honda believes the ratio isn’t going to change in a hurry. There is clearly a market for scooters—in 2007-08 scooter sales were up 12 per cent, of course on a very small base. Sales of motorcycles, on the other hand, fell by 12 per cent. But in the current year too, sales of scooters could grow 10-12 per cent, going by the numbers so far. The size of the market now, at about a hundred thousand scooters and scooterettes a month, isn’t a bad number. It’s only a matter of time before Suzuki scales up—Japanese manufacturers are usually careful about putting in place a good sales and service network before they ramp up production. Meanwhile, Bajaj did come up with the Crystal but that hasn’t gone anywhere; since then there hasn’t been much talk about scooters. It seems to have given up altogether.
India - Airfares cut
Full service carrier Kingfisher Airlines has decided to cut its basic fares up to 60 per cent. This announcement, which will mean around a 20 per cent cut in overall fares, follows competitor Jet Airways' and national carrier Air India's announcements to cut its basic fares at an average rate of 50 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.
Low cost carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo have also announced special advance booking Rs 99 basic fares across all sectors today, while JetLite announced a cut of around 40 per cent across all sectors and special advance booking basic fares starting from as low as Rs 9.
Last week, Kingfisher had announced a range of fare cuts without exactly specifying the quantum of cuts across sectors.
While the fares have been marketed well and have led to a major response from the consumers, the airlines have smartly kept the artificial floor of fuel surcharges intact at Rs 2,500-3,000. The major onrush of the passengers actually led to one of the major Indian travel portal crashing day before yesterday.
“We have had to offer some lower fares since we saw February and March going really slow in terms of bookings. But after the lower fares were launched our overall bookings have gone up by around 70 per cent today compared to yesterday,” Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO of SpiceJet had said a day after they made the fare cut announcement.
ATF prices, which accounts for the single largest chunk of an airline’s costs have come down by more than 50 per cent compared to August prices. ATF currently accounts for less than 40 per cent of an airline’s costs, compared to 50 per cent around three months earlier. The civil aviation ministry has been in turn making repeated appeals to airlines to pass on the benefits of these cost cuts to passengers to stimulate air travel, which has seen a decline this year compared to last.
Low cost carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo have also announced special advance booking Rs 99 basic fares across all sectors today, while JetLite announced a cut of around 40 per cent across all sectors and special advance booking basic fares starting from as low as Rs 9.
Last week, Kingfisher had announced a range of fare cuts without exactly specifying the quantum of cuts across sectors.
While the fares have been marketed well and have led to a major response from the consumers, the airlines have smartly kept the artificial floor of fuel surcharges intact at Rs 2,500-3,000. The major onrush of the passengers actually led to one of the major Indian travel portal crashing day before yesterday.
“We have had to offer some lower fares since we saw February and March going really slow in terms of bookings. But after the lower fares were launched our overall bookings have gone up by around 70 per cent today compared to yesterday,” Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO of SpiceJet had said a day after they made the fare cut announcement.
ATF prices, which accounts for the single largest chunk of an airline’s costs have come down by more than 50 per cent compared to August prices. ATF currently accounts for less than 40 per cent of an airline’s costs, compared to 50 per cent around three months earlier. The civil aviation ministry has been in turn making repeated appeals to airlines to pass on the benefits of these cost cuts to passengers to stimulate air travel, which has seen a decline this year compared to last.
Personality - Omar Abdullah
Aasha Khosa & Saubhadro Chatterji
When Omar Abdullah took his first plunge into Kashmir politics in 1998, the odds were stacked heavily against him. Separatists were at their peak and the National Conference, founded by his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, almost 50 years ago, was seen as a stooge of New Delhi.
Born to Farooq Abdullah and a British mother, Omar Abdullah was far removed from the violence that was happening in Kashmir. He could barely speak Kashmiri. His mother, Mollie, who was shocked by the rise of militancy in Kashmir and had left India along with her three daughters for England, had declared to her husband: “He will join politics only over my dead body.’’
Ten years later, Omar Abdullah is all set to become the chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. At 38, he will be the youngest chief minister in the current crop. He has brought National Conference back into the reckoning in the state. More important, he has stepped out of the shadow of his father, Farooq Abdullah, who is widely seen as careless and flamboyant.
The mood in the valley was dead against the Abdullahs not so long ago. After all, Omar Abdullah had served in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), first as the minister of state for commerce and then as the junior foreign minister. The NDA liked to project him as its Muslim face. But, back home in Kashmir, it was seen as another deal by Farooq Abdullah to get his son a ministerial berth. This was also the period when the Gujarat riots were held and anger amongst Muslims ran high.
Naturally, the National Conference did badly in the 2002 Assembly elections. Omar Abdullah lost from the family’s traditional seat of Ganderbal. Nevertheless, he learnt his lesson and moved quickly to control the damage. At a press conference in Srinagar, he admitted his mistakes and sought forgiveness. Next year, he snapped all ties with the NDA. Omar Abdullah followed it with the disclosure that he had on several occasions, after the Gujarat riots, offered to resign.
Henceforth, he said and did what the people of Kashmir like. Unlike his father’s constant tirades against Pakistan, he took a more conciliatory route; he proposed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe custodial deaths and other human rights violations; and in the recent Amarnath row, he came out openly in favour of the Kashmiris.
He cleverly built bridges with the Congress in New Delhi during the recent trust vote in Parliament forced by the Left parties, though the Congress was in an alliance with the People’s Democratic Party in Srinagar.
Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference has just two Lok Sabha MPs, came to meet a senior minister to negotiate their support. For one and a half hours, he grilled the minister on different technical, legal and diplomatic aspects of the Indo-US nuclear deal. “My only requirement was that I should be satisfied about various questions. Now I am satisfied with your explanations. But I have to talk to my father and convince him,” Omar Abdullah told his host.
The senior minister was none other than External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He took it upon himself to convince Omar. “I just told him, ‘Omar saab, you have to support us. This is in national interest’. And he readily agreed,” said Mukherjee. “I can see traits of Sheikh Abdullah in Omar Abdullah.”
His “I am a Muslim and an Indian too” speech in Parliament during the trust vote, repeated ad nauseam on national television, made him an instant hit with the country’s youth. Victory in the Jammu & Kashmir elections was the logical next step.
Omar Abdullah has friends at other places too. He is treated literally as a son by Sharad Pawar, the Union agriculture minister and the powerful chief of the Nationalist Congress Party. His links with Pawar became stronger when he attended Sydenham College in Mumbai for his commerce degree. It was in Mumbai, where he was working for a private firm, that Omar Abdullah met his future wife Payal, the daughter of a senior BJP leader from Haryana. Also, his sister, Sara, is married to the rising Congress star, Sachin Pilot.
When Omar Abdullah took his first plunge into Kashmir politics in 1998, the odds were stacked heavily against him. Separatists were at their peak and the National Conference, founded by his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, almost 50 years ago, was seen as a stooge of New Delhi.
Born to Farooq Abdullah and a British mother, Omar Abdullah was far removed from the violence that was happening in Kashmir. He could barely speak Kashmiri. His mother, Mollie, who was shocked by the rise of militancy in Kashmir and had left India along with her three daughters for England, had declared to her husband: “He will join politics only over my dead body.’’
Ten years later, Omar Abdullah is all set to become the chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. At 38, he will be the youngest chief minister in the current crop. He has brought National Conference back into the reckoning in the state. More important, he has stepped out of the shadow of his father, Farooq Abdullah, who is widely seen as careless and flamboyant.
The mood in the valley was dead against the Abdullahs not so long ago. After all, Omar Abdullah had served in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), first as the minister of state for commerce and then as the junior foreign minister. The NDA liked to project him as its Muslim face. But, back home in Kashmir, it was seen as another deal by Farooq Abdullah to get his son a ministerial berth. This was also the period when the Gujarat riots were held and anger amongst Muslims ran high.
Naturally, the National Conference did badly in the 2002 Assembly elections. Omar Abdullah lost from the family’s traditional seat of Ganderbal. Nevertheless, he learnt his lesson and moved quickly to control the damage. At a press conference in Srinagar, he admitted his mistakes and sought forgiveness. Next year, he snapped all ties with the NDA. Omar Abdullah followed it with the disclosure that he had on several occasions, after the Gujarat riots, offered to resign.
Henceforth, he said and did what the people of Kashmir like. Unlike his father’s constant tirades against Pakistan, he took a more conciliatory route; he proposed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe custodial deaths and other human rights violations; and in the recent Amarnath row, he came out openly in favour of the Kashmiris.
He cleverly built bridges with the Congress in New Delhi during the recent trust vote in Parliament forced by the Left parties, though the Congress was in an alliance with the People’s Democratic Party in Srinagar.
Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference has just two Lok Sabha MPs, came to meet a senior minister to negotiate their support. For one and a half hours, he grilled the minister on different technical, legal and diplomatic aspects of the Indo-US nuclear deal. “My only requirement was that I should be satisfied about various questions. Now I am satisfied with your explanations. But I have to talk to my father and convince him,” Omar Abdullah told his host.
The senior minister was none other than External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He took it upon himself to convince Omar. “I just told him, ‘Omar saab, you have to support us. This is in national interest’. And he readily agreed,” said Mukherjee. “I can see traits of Sheikh Abdullah in Omar Abdullah.”
His “I am a Muslim and an Indian too” speech in Parliament during the trust vote, repeated ad nauseam on national television, made him an instant hit with the country’s youth. Victory in the Jammu & Kashmir elections was the logical next step.
Omar Abdullah has friends at other places too. He is treated literally as a son by Sharad Pawar, the Union agriculture minister and the powerful chief of the Nationalist Congress Party. His links with Pawar became stronger when he attended Sydenham College in Mumbai for his commerce degree. It was in Mumbai, where he was working for a private firm, that Omar Abdullah met his future wife Payal, the daughter of a senior BJP leader from Haryana. Also, his sister, Sara, is married to the rising Congress star, Sachin Pilot.
India - TRAI starts review of intra-operator charges
NEW DELHI: Mobile tariffs may fall in the coming year, as the telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday started review of various intra-operator charges
including for calls landing in each other's network.
Issuing a consultation paper on "Review of Interconnection Usage Charge", TRAI has sought information from all stakeholders on various charges payable by operators to one another for carriage and termination of domestic and international calls.
The new telecom operators, who are yet to start offering mobile services, had opposed the high rate of termination charge of 30 paise a minute and had demanded that it should be lowered to a maximum ceiling of 10 paise.
Termination charge is money paid by an operator to another on whose network the call ends.
TRAI has, however, maintained that termination charge cannot be reviewed in isolation. The whole of IUC, which comprises origination, termination, carriage and transit charges, needs to be looked at.
The new telecom players have said that since most of the calls originate from their networks would be terminated on the network of existing players, payment of 30 paise a minute would leave very little scope for them to offer innovative tariff schemes to their subscribers and would also put pressure on their margins.
Even Department of Telecom had indicated that termination charges need to be lowered, as the cost of building up networks has come down considerably over the last 4-5 years.
including for calls landing in each other's network.
Issuing a consultation paper on "Review of Interconnection Usage Charge", TRAI has sought information from all stakeholders on various charges payable by operators to one another for carriage and termination of domestic and international calls.
The new telecom operators, who are yet to start offering mobile services, had opposed the high rate of termination charge of 30 paise a minute and had demanded that it should be lowered to a maximum ceiling of 10 paise.
Termination charge is money paid by an operator to another on whose network the call ends.
TRAI has, however, maintained that termination charge cannot be reviewed in isolation. The whole of IUC, which comprises origination, termination, carriage and transit charges, needs to be looked at.
The new telecom players have said that since most of the calls originate from their networks would be terminated on the network of existing players, payment of 30 paise a minute would leave very little scope for them to offer innovative tariff schemes to their subscribers and would also put pressure on their margins.
Even Department of Telecom had indicated that termination charges need to be lowered, as the cost of building up networks has come down considerably over the last 4-5 years.
Business - Business Standard Motoring Car Of The Year 2009
The Business Standard Motoring Car Of The Year 2009 - the Honda City!
Oops, sorry if that lead picture made you gulp down your cup of steaming coffee. Yes, it is not a small car that has won our Car Of The Year award this time around.
Change, as they say, is here to stay. The game has moved a long way since Business Standard Motoring introduced the concept of Car Of The Year to India more than a decade ago. When we gave a formal structure to the COTY evaluation process, it was done in such a way that cars that are affordable to buy and run got the preference over everything else. That meant our enthusiast blood didn’t have much of a say in the matters, with the points structure leaning heavily towards cars that stretched a litre and cost less to own. That meant a series of small cars winning the honours. Maruti Suzuki Alto, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Suzuki Swift, Chevrolet Aveo U-VA, Hyundai i10… all are present in the winners’ rostrum. Sure, the occasional SUV (Mahindra Scorpio) and the sedan (Honda City) did win the honours, still.
Times have changed, buying preferences have changed, we do have a more educated customer base and we thought it was time we revised our COTY evaluation process too. So out goes the “weightage” system and in comes a crisp and clear voting format based on the European and Indian Car Of The Year awards. And as the coffee that burned the innards of your mouth would attest, we have a relatively big car taking the honours for 2009.
The system and the jury
As per the new system, a six member jury voted for seven finalists shortlisted from all the cars launched in the calendar year 2008. The elimination process ensured that imported cars and super luxury cars were sorted away to compete for other awards. Cars that are truly made in India and ones that take the game forward when it comes to design, performance, comfort and safety (not necessarily in that order) featured in the final contenders’ list.
Each member of the jury was allowed a total of 25 votes which he had to divide between a minimum of five cars after extensively driving the final contenders. But the maximum that each jury member could allot to a single car was restricted to 10 points.
The six member jury consisted of three road-testers, who keep thrashing new cars for a living, one travel writer, who subjects cars to real-life torture on varied terrain around the world, a former rally champion, who can terrorise cars by merely getting behind the wheel, and a seasoned enthusiast who owns, rides and drives everything from Kinetics to a Rolls-Royce (yes, his other car is a Rolls-Royce!). Time to get on with the evaluation then.
The contenders
Given a chance, it would have taken only a nano second to arrive at the winner — the Audi R8 is the stuff dreams of boys are made of. Alas, it happens to be a fully imported car, that too in rarefied numbers. Ditto the brilliant Audi TT and the eminently huggable Fiat 500. All three, sadly, got eliminated in the first round itself.
Amongst the luxury cars were the Honda Accord, which seems to do nothing wrong, the fresh-off-the-oven Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and the Audi A4 that screams “sporty” standing still. These cars were important and would compete for the Business Standard Motoring Premium Car Of The Year 2009 award.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
2008 Hyundai i10
2007 Chevrolet Aveo U-VA
2006 Suzuki Swift
2005 Hyundai Getz
2004 Honda City
A handful of SUVs, starting from the ever-so-tangible Sumo Grande (an improvement, but not a revolution over the previous model), the Chevrolet Captiva, that is a splendid diesel alternative to the Honda CR-V, and the refreshingly mould-breaking Mitsubishi Outlander were present too. None of them made it to the final shortlist however, though the Captiva did manage to take home some honours (See story: Need some fizz?). That left us with seven finalists.
Joint sixth
The Skoda Fabia is arguably the best built large hatchback money can buy in India today. Get into one blindfolded, and you will be certain that you are driving a sedan rather than a stubby hatch. Add to that brilliant ride quality over bad terrain and refinement akin to that of far more expensive machinery and you smell a winner. What ruined the equation for the Fabia, though, is the price. Sure, there is a basic version, but that is way too underpowered and not as refined. Even the premium image the Skoda brand enjoys in India did not find favour with the jury as it plummeted to the sixth and final slot that it shared with the Tata Indica Vista. Unfortunate, since the Fabia is a far better car than the new Indica.
The Indica Vista is a very important car for Tata Motors. The Fiat-derived multijet motor is leagues ahead of the engines that have powered the Indica in the past, and overall, the build quality has improved vastly. Tata never had an issue with ride quality, and the Vista handles well at the speeds it is capable of achieving. One has got to wait a while to know if the Vista is as reliable as its contemporaries, but we do know that it is economical to run. To quote the jury: “The future of the Tata hatchback looks promising if we can take the Vista as a starting point. The jury was suitably impressed (See story: Need some fizz?), but not enough to elevate it to the fifth slot.”
Fifth
The Volkswagen Jetta was included in the shortlist since it impressed almost every road- tester who drove it. But a very high level of import content means a nasty price tag that spoils the Jetta story in India. As an automotive package, there are not many cars in India that can beat the Jetta — it has the right size, right engine (the diesel option) and right dynamics going for it. To quote the jury: “Fifth among seven finalists looks like a raw deal for such an excellent car, but then, one glance at the on-road price of the diesel model (Rs 17 lakh!) and you know why the Volkswagen scored poorly.”
Fourth
A new Toyota Corolla is like another X’mas — full of cheer but you already know the ingredients. Its dictionary meaning should read “reliable” instead of “part of a flower” and there is little that you can fault with the car. The biggest issue with the Toyota is its competition from Japan — the Honda Civic, which looks like a concept car on the road when seen next to the sedate, Camry-inspired Corolla Altis. To quote the jury: “There are no negatives with the Corolla Altis, but there aren’t any significant strengths either. All said and done, this is not the kind of car that you will wake up on a lazy Sunday morning to drive.” Hence the fourth spot.
Third
Hyundai sprang a surprise on us by announcing that they were launching the i20 in the last week of December, and then dropped our jaws by sending in a test car for the COTY evaluations. That meant almost all of the jury drove the i20 for the first time during our evaluations. A hurried road test revealed that the Kappa engine is not exactly energetic enough for the sorted-out dynamics of the new car. It certainly is economical and pretty stylish to look at too. To quote the jury: “This is one car that we will be recommending a lot in the near future. But an F1 inspired nose and a very ‘green’ motor does not make it as compelling a choice as, say, the Hyundai i10. Winning the third spot in a very competitive year is an achievement in itself though.”
First runner-up
The Maruti Suzuki A-Star is indeed the new Alto. And the entire Alto family (minus the original Zen) is selling well in India. The new small car is indeed a new benchmark when it comes to design, packaging and performance (the little 1000 cc motor revs to the moon to keep you entertained!). Add to that safety features available in top-end models and you know that the A-Star would have won handsomely had we retained the old rating system. To quote the jury: “This is as brilliant as small cars get. It’s affordable,economical and safe. Despite the small engine size, the A-Star is fun to pilot too. The first runner-up slot sadly does not communicate the ability of this car, but it has to be content with it.”
And the winner is...
That, ladies and gentlemen, gets us to this year’s winner. The new Honda City looks stunningly good, is brilliantly packaged and has one of the best engines meant for a car in its class powering it. Reliability and refinement can be taken for granted too. What is new is Honda’s nod to safety features for its best-selling sedan. Besides this, the new City can return 14 kpl even in traffic and deliver decent 150 kph plus performance when you demand it. To quote the jury: “The new City promises the sky with the i-VTEC engine and delivers it too. With one clean stroke, the new Honda sedan has raised the bar and the resulting car is worth every penny you spend on it. An exciting, quality car does not just deserve top honours, it demands it.” Congratulations, Honda Siel, for another spectacular win!
Oops, sorry if that lead picture made you gulp down your cup of steaming coffee. Yes, it is not a small car that has won our Car Of The Year award this time around.
Change, as they say, is here to stay. The game has moved a long way since Business Standard Motoring introduced the concept of Car Of The Year to India more than a decade ago. When we gave a formal structure to the COTY evaluation process, it was done in such a way that cars that are affordable to buy and run got the preference over everything else. That meant our enthusiast blood didn’t have much of a say in the matters, with the points structure leaning heavily towards cars that stretched a litre and cost less to own. That meant a series of small cars winning the honours. Maruti Suzuki Alto, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Suzuki Swift, Chevrolet Aveo U-VA, Hyundai i10… all are present in the winners’ rostrum. Sure, the occasional SUV (Mahindra Scorpio) and the sedan (Honda City) did win the honours, still.
Times have changed, buying preferences have changed, we do have a more educated customer base and we thought it was time we revised our COTY evaluation process too. So out goes the “weightage” system and in comes a crisp and clear voting format based on the European and Indian Car Of The Year awards. And as the coffee that burned the innards of your mouth would attest, we have a relatively big car taking the honours for 2009.
The system and the jury
As per the new system, a six member jury voted for seven finalists shortlisted from all the cars launched in the calendar year 2008. The elimination process ensured that imported cars and super luxury cars were sorted away to compete for other awards. Cars that are truly made in India and ones that take the game forward when it comes to design, performance, comfort and safety (not necessarily in that order) featured in the final contenders’ list.
Each member of the jury was allowed a total of 25 votes which he had to divide between a minimum of five cars after extensively driving the final contenders. But the maximum that each jury member could allot to a single car was restricted to 10 points.
The six member jury consisted of three road-testers, who keep thrashing new cars for a living, one travel writer, who subjects cars to real-life torture on varied terrain around the world, a former rally champion, who can terrorise cars by merely getting behind the wheel, and a seasoned enthusiast who owns, rides and drives everything from Kinetics to a Rolls-Royce (yes, his other car is a Rolls-Royce!). Time to get on with the evaluation then.
The contenders
Given a chance, it would have taken only a nano second to arrive at the winner — the Audi R8 is the stuff dreams of boys are made of. Alas, it happens to be a fully imported car, that too in rarefied numbers. Ditto the brilliant Audi TT and the eminently huggable Fiat 500. All three, sadly, got eliminated in the first round itself.
Amongst the luxury cars were the Honda Accord, which seems to do nothing wrong, the fresh-off-the-oven Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and the Audi A4 that screams “sporty” standing still. These cars were important and would compete for the Business Standard Motoring Premium Car Of The Year 2009 award.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
2008 Hyundai i10
2007 Chevrolet Aveo U-VA
2006 Suzuki Swift
2005 Hyundai Getz
2004 Honda City
A handful of SUVs, starting from the ever-so-tangible Sumo Grande (an improvement, but not a revolution over the previous model), the Chevrolet Captiva, that is a splendid diesel alternative to the Honda CR-V, and the refreshingly mould-breaking Mitsubishi Outlander were present too. None of them made it to the final shortlist however, though the Captiva did manage to take home some honours (See story: Need some fizz?). That left us with seven finalists.
Joint sixth
The Skoda Fabia is arguably the best built large hatchback money can buy in India today. Get into one blindfolded, and you will be certain that you are driving a sedan rather than a stubby hatch. Add to that brilliant ride quality over bad terrain and refinement akin to that of far more expensive machinery and you smell a winner. What ruined the equation for the Fabia, though, is the price. Sure, there is a basic version, but that is way too underpowered and not as refined. Even the premium image the Skoda brand enjoys in India did not find favour with the jury as it plummeted to the sixth and final slot that it shared with the Tata Indica Vista. Unfortunate, since the Fabia is a far better car than the new Indica.
The Indica Vista is a very important car for Tata Motors. The Fiat-derived multijet motor is leagues ahead of the engines that have powered the Indica in the past, and overall, the build quality has improved vastly. Tata never had an issue with ride quality, and the Vista handles well at the speeds it is capable of achieving. One has got to wait a while to know if the Vista is as reliable as its contemporaries, but we do know that it is economical to run. To quote the jury: “The future of the Tata hatchback looks promising if we can take the Vista as a starting point. The jury was suitably impressed (See story: Need some fizz?), but not enough to elevate it to the fifth slot.”
Fifth
The Volkswagen Jetta was included in the shortlist since it impressed almost every road- tester who drove it. But a very high level of import content means a nasty price tag that spoils the Jetta story in India. As an automotive package, there are not many cars in India that can beat the Jetta — it has the right size, right engine (the diesel option) and right dynamics going for it. To quote the jury: “Fifth among seven finalists looks like a raw deal for such an excellent car, but then, one glance at the on-road price of the diesel model (Rs 17 lakh!) and you know why the Volkswagen scored poorly.”
Fourth
A new Toyota Corolla is like another X’mas — full of cheer but you already know the ingredients. Its dictionary meaning should read “reliable” instead of “part of a flower” and there is little that you can fault with the car. The biggest issue with the Toyota is its competition from Japan — the Honda Civic, which looks like a concept car on the road when seen next to the sedate, Camry-inspired Corolla Altis. To quote the jury: “There are no negatives with the Corolla Altis, but there aren’t any significant strengths either. All said and done, this is not the kind of car that you will wake up on a lazy Sunday morning to drive.” Hence the fourth spot.
Third
Hyundai sprang a surprise on us by announcing that they were launching the i20 in the last week of December, and then dropped our jaws by sending in a test car for the COTY evaluations. That meant almost all of the jury drove the i20 for the first time during our evaluations. A hurried road test revealed that the Kappa engine is not exactly energetic enough for the sorted-out dynamics of the new car. It certainly is economical and pretty stylish to look at too. To quote the jury: “This is one car that we will be recommending a lot in the near future. But an F1 inspired nose and a very ‘green’ motor does not make it as compelling a choice as, say, the Hyundai i10. Winning the third spot in a very competitive year is an achievement in itself though.”
First runner-up
The Maruti Suzuki A-Star is indeed the new Alto. And the entire Alto family (minus the original Zen) is selling well in India. The new small car is indeed a new benchmark when it comes to design, packaging and performance (the little 1000 cc motor revs to the moon to keep you entertained!). Add to that safety features available in top-end models and you know that the A-Star would have won handsomely had we retained the old rating system. To quote the jury: “This is as brilliant as small cars get. It’s affordable,economical and safe. Despite the small engine size, the A-Star is fun to pilot too. The first runner-up slot sadly does not communicate the ability of this car, but it has to be content with it.”
And the winner is...
That, ladies and gentlemen, gets us to this year’s winner. The new Honda City looks stunningly good, is brilliantly packaged and has one of the best engines meant for a car in its class powering it. Reliability and refinement can be taken for granted too. What is new is Honda’s nod to safety features for its best-selling sedan. Besides this, the new City can return 14 kpl even in traffic and deliver decent 150 kph plus performance when you demand it. To quote the jury: “The new City promises the sky with the i-VTEC engine and delivers it too. With one clean stroke, the new Honda sedan has raised the bar and the resulting car is worth every penny you spend on it. An exciting, quality car does not just deserve top honours, it demands it.” Congratulations, Honda Siel, for another spectacular win!
Business - Q&A: Robert Andersson;Nokia
Priyanka Joshi
Nokia’s high-end N-series is under price pressure from Apple. In addition, products based on Windows Mobile 6 and others like Google’s Android user interface have been beating Nokia in the touch-screen market. This, however, is not causing sleepless nights to Robert Andersson, executive vice-president (Devices Finance, Strategy and Sourcing), Nokia, responsible for finance and strategy in the devices unit since January 2008. Credited with devising Nokia’s strategy to use its brand and distribution channel to build its growth in the emerging markets, Andersson tells Priyanka Joshi the company’s survival strategy for the fickle market conditions, riding on markets like India. Excerpts:
Nokia has launched a slew of low-cost devices in the Indian market. Are these really going to help the company generate revenues or just volumes?
Growing the entry-level devices segment of the consumer segment is critical to our growth strategy. Growth will also come from internet-based services crafted for phone users in 2009. The internet-based service is a business that will feed off Nokia’s instaled base and hence it will grow even if there is a fall in handset sales.
We will continue to introduce a range of affordable mobile devices, specifically for people in emerging markets, that leverage the power of the internet. Estimated retail prices of the new devices will range between Rs 1,700 and Rs 6,000. Our suite of internet services for emerging markets will be made available by early 2009.
How will Nokia design the services?
The first services that Nokia will offer in emerging markets will focus on e-mail, agriculture and education, which based on consumer feedback, present the strongest demand in emerging markets like India. These services use an icon-based, graphically rich user interface that comes complete with tables. These can even display information simultaneously in two languages. Behind this rich interface, SMS is used to deliver the critical information to ensure that this service works wherever a mobile phone does, without the hassles of additional settings or the need for GPRS coverage. Nokia will launch the service in the first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic as the lead devices in India. Later in 2009, this will then be expanded to Asia and Africa. Further, we are looking to focus our internet services on music, maps, media, messaging and gaming, that are estimated to be approximately ¤40 billion in 2011 world over.
How does the ongoing economic situation affect Nokia’s growth story?
Our goal is to gain market share in 2009. Our highly variable, low fixed cost business model allows us to scale in a declining market. Nokia also expects operator and retail distribution channels to go through a period of destocking, resulting in lower sales volumes by manufacturers than purchase volumes by consumers in the first half of 2009. This will be an industry-wide trend. We are not exactly going to have cheaper devices, but will have more services to augment the existing devices. Several of Nokia’s new products will be more than just product upgrades.
Will there be a decline in demand for high-end handsets which are seen as too expensive?
It would be a phenomenon for all handset vendors and not just Nokia. Everyone will feel the pressure on margins but being the market leader with almost 40 per cent global share, we are much better placed to survive the present financial environment than other players.
Nokia’s high-end N-series is under price pressure from Apple. In addition, products based on Windows Mobile 6 and others like Google’s Android user interface have been beating Nokia in the touch-screen market. This, however, is not causing sleepless nights to Robert Andersson, executive vice-president (Devices Finance, Strategy and Sourcing), Nokia, responsible for finance and strategy in the devices unit since January 2008. Credited with devising Nokia’s strategy to use its brand and distribution channel to build its growth in the emerging markets, Andersson tells Priyanka Joshi the company’s survival strategy for the fickle market conditions, riding on markets like India. Excerpts:
Nokia has launched a slew of low-cost devices in the Indian market. Are these really going to help the company generate revenues or just volumes?
Growing the entry-level devices segment of the consumer segment is critical to our growth strategy. Growth will also come from internet-based services crafted for phone users in 2009. The internet-based service is a business that will feed off Nokia’s instaled base and hence it will grow even if there is a fall in handset sales.
We will continue to introduce a range of affordable mobile devices, specifically for people in emerging markets, that leverage the power of the internet. Estimated retail prices of the new devices will range between Rs 1,700 and Rs 6,000. Our suite of internet services for emerging markets will be made available by early 2009.
How will Nokia design the services?
The first services that Nokia will offer in emerging markets will focus on e-mail, agriculture and education, which based on consumer feedback, present the strongest demand in emerging markets like India. These services use an icon-based, graphically rich user interface that comes complete with tables. These can even display information simultaneously in two languages. Behind this rich interface, SMS is used to deliver the critical information to ensure that this service works wherever a mobile phone does, without the hassles of additional settings or the need for GPRS coverage. Nokia will launch the service in the first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic as the lead devices in India. Later in 2009, this will then be expanded to Asia and Africa. Further, we are looking to focus our internet services on music, maps, media, messaging and gaming, that are estimated to be approximately ¤40 billion in 2011 world over.
How does the ongoing economic situation affect Nokia’s growth story?
Our goal is to gain market share in 2009. Our highly variable, low fixed cost business model allows us to scale in a declining market. Nokia also expects operator and retail distribution channels to go through a period of destocking, resulting in lower sales volumes by manufacturers than purchase volumes by consumers in the first half of 2009. This will be an industry-wide trend. We are not exactly going to have cheaper devices, but will have more services to augment the existing devices. Several of Nokia’s new products will be more than just product upgrades.
Will there be a decline in demand for high-end handsets which are seen as too expensive?
It would be a phenomenon for all handset vendors and not just Nokia. Everyone will feel the pressure on margins but being the market leader with almost 40 per cent global share, we are much better placed to survive the present financial environment than other players.
Business - Telecom sector to create 1.5 lakh jobs in 2009
NEW DELHI: While others worry about the looming recession and job losses, the country’s telecom companies beg to differ. The sector will need up to
1,50,000 additional hands in 2009, according to the hiring consultants.
While new players are launching operations, existing ones are beginning to scale up. Now that the government has issued 120 new licences, telecom industry officials fear a talent crunch that could push salaries in core operations by up to 30% in the next few quarters.
“Conservative estimates put the demand from new players at one lakh people in the first phase. With rolling out of 3G and Wimax, existing players will need another 50,000 people,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO of Bangalore-based Headhunters India.
Most of the new players would be looking for experienced hands, so getting people in such large numbers will be a great challenge, he added. Currently, the sector directly employs about 1,50,000 people, while providing jobs to another 1.5 million with retail outlets, prepaid card sellers and tower constructors.
And now with most telecom players expanding in the rural markets, the demand for manpower is expected to go up further. “The new players will have to attract talent by offering 15-20% higher salaries,” said Krish Shankar, HR (head), Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator.
Some of the new players — such as Unitech, Swan, Loop Telecom and Shyam Telelink — have started hiring, and analysts feel this could drive poaching at top and middle management levels.
“Finding and retaining talent is a challenge today. Although we have an experienced workforce, at times they are short in supply. We generally look within the country itself, but are not closed to talent from anywhere, if need be,” said CN Nagakumar, chief human resource officer, Tata Teleservices.
The problem for the new players would be to get people in the core telecom space, which is primarily concerned with the technology of providing telecom services. While talent in sales and marketing can be found in abundance, sourcing professionals for setting up the infra-structure and networks would be difficult.
1,50,000 additional hands in 2009, according to the hiring consultants.
While new players are launching operations, existing ones are beginning to scale up. Now that the government has issued 120 new licences, telecom industry officials fear a talent crunch that could push salaries in core operations by up to 30% in the next few quarters.
“Conservative estimates put the demand from new players at one lakh people in the first phase. With rolling out of 3G and Wimax, existing players will need another 50,000 people,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO of Bangalore-based Headhunters India.
Most of the new players would be looking for experienced hands, so getting people in such large numbers will be a great challenge, he added. Currently, the sector directly employs about 1,50,000 people, while providing jobs to another 1.5 million with retail outlets, prepaid card sellers and tower constructors.
And now with most telecom players expanding in the rural markets, the demand for manpower is expected to go up further. “The new players will have to attract talent by offering 15-20% higher salaries,” said Krish Shankar, HR (head), Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator.
Some of the new players — such as Unitech, Swan, Loop Telecom and Shyam Telelink — have started hiring, and analysts feel this could drive poaching at top and middle management levels.
“Finding and retaining talent is a challenge today. Although we have an experienced workforce, at times they are short in supply. We generally look within the country itself, but are not closed to talent from anywhere, if need be,” said CN Nagakumar, chief human resource officer, Tata Teleservices.
The problem for the new players would be to get people in the core telecom space, which is primarily concerned with the technology of providing telecom services. While talent in sales and marketing can be found in abundance, sourcing professionals for setting up the infra-structure and networks would be difficult.
India - Free demat account: Courtesy brokerages
Shailesh Menon
MUMBAI: Brokerages have begun handing out free demat and broking accounts in their bid to encourage equity investments among retail investors.
Though such a generous marketing idea increases the burden on account books of brokers by about Rs 300 per fresh account opened, it will go a long way to strengthening the retail investor base of brokers, industry sources opine.
A whole lot of brokers - including large ones like Nirmal Bang and India Infoline - are offering free demat and broking account. Investors need to only pay margin money (which also has been reduced, 40 - 60% in some cases) and registration charges (around Rs 500) while opening free demat and trading accounts.
"It is but very natural for brokers to reduce fresh account opening charges; investors are not very keen to trade in equities now. Several brokerages have gone one step ahead and announced cut in margin money (used to be in the range of Rs 5,000 to 10,000) as well. By doling out such freebies, brokers are spending about Rs 300 (per account opened) from their pockets," said the retail equities head of Mumbai-based listed brokerage.
Though free demat and trading accounts are beneficial to investors, investment experts are already sounding the alert bugle. "Investors should look out for hidden charges or implied trade restrictions. In many cases, free accounts are offered for a specific period, say six months to one year. There are also brokerages that offer free demat and broking accounts, with exceptionally higher margin requirements. There could also be restrictions (in fineprint) with regards to how trades are done (online or call-based, cash market or F&O segment and number of trades done)," a Mumbai-based investment advisor said.
As per records with depositories, the number of fresh investor accounts has seen a near-60% drop when compared to accounts opened in January.
Precisely an year ago, when market was extremely bullish and there were a batch of hi-profile public issues waiting to hit the market, large-sized brokerages opened 6,000 to 10,000 fresh demat accounts on an average in a single day. Now, there are hardly 1,000 demat accounts opened in a single day, brokers said.
MUMBAI: Brokerages have begun handing out free demat and broking accounts in their bid to encourage equity investments among retail investors.
Though such a generous marketing idea increases the burden on account books of brokers by about Rs 300 per fresh account opened, it will go a long way to strengthening the retail investor base of brokers, industry sources opine.
A whole lot of brokers - including large ones like Nirmal Bang and India Infoline - are offering free demat and broking account. Investors need to only pay margin money (which also has been reduced, 40 - 60% in some cases) and registration charges (around Rs 500) while opening free demat and trading accounts.
"It is but very natural for brokers to reduce fresh account opening charges; investors are not very keen to trade in equities now. Several brokerages have gone one step ahead and announced cut in margin money (used to be in the range of Rs 5,000 to 10,000) as well. By doling out such freebies, brokers are spending about Rs 300 (per account opened) from their pockets," said the retail equities head of Mumbai-based listed brokerage.
Though free demat and trading accounts are beneficial to investors, investment experts are already sounding the alert bugle. "Investors should look out for hidden charges or implied trade restrictions. In many cases, free accounts are offered for a specific period, say six months to one year. There are also brokerages that offer free demat and broking accounts, with exceptionally higher margin requirements. There could also be restrictions (in fineprint) with regards to how trades are done (online or call-based, cash market or F&O segment and number of trades done)," a Mumbai-based investment advisor said.
As per records with depositories, the number of fresh investor accounts has seen a near-60% drop when compared to accounts opened in January.
Precisely an year ago, when market was extremely bullish and there were a batch of hi-profile public issues waiting to hit the market, large-sized brokerages opened 6,000 to 10,000 fresh demat accounts on an average in a single day. Now, there are hardly 1,000 demat accounts opened in a single day, brokers said.
Entertainment - India;Colors may soon replace Star on top
Leena Mulchandani
MUMBAI: The pecking order in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space is all set for a makeover as Colors has emerged as a strong
contender for the top slot.
For the last week of 2008 (week 52), only 40 GRP (gross rating points) separates Colors from the current leader Star Plus. This is according to data by TAM media research data covering C&S 4+, Hindi speaking markets.
Star Plus is at 295 GRP while Colors is at 255 GRP. Zee TV comes in third with 191 GRP after being placed in the second position last week. The channel’s GRP fell from 230 last week to 191 this week. Sony occupies the fourth position with 81 GRP. Star One is fifth while NDTV Imagine is at sixth spot with 80 and 65 GRP, respectively.
Colors’ reach is higher than that of Star Plus this week at 61.3%. The channel reached 54.8-mn viewers while Star Plus reached 53.5-mn viewers. Colors chief executive officer Rajesh Kamat said: “In less than six months, we have firmly established ourselves as the number two GEC. We believe our shows still have a lot of potential and we will continue to push them in 2009 too.”
Colors will concentrate on increasing the number of programming hours in 2009. “Currently, we have about 25 hours of original programming per week while the others have about 35 hours. To step up our programming, we will focus on afternoon and weekend programming,” he added.
The relative market share of Colors stood at 23%, which is 4% lower than that of Star Plus (27%). The channel share of Colors increased by 3% over last week. Star Plus, in turn, will launch new shows in the early months of 2009 to spice up its programming.
“When we add new shows or plan our way forward, we don’t do so in reaction to competition. In the New Year too, we will continue to bring in innovative and new programming,” a spokesperson for Star India said.
MUMBAI: The pecking order in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space is all set for a makeover as Colors has emerged as a strong
contender for the top slot.
For the last week of 2008 (week 52), only 40 GRP (gross rating points) separates Colors from the current leader Star Plus. This is according to data by TAM media research data covering C&S 4+, Hindi speaking markets.
Star Plus is at 295 GRP while Colors is at 255 GRP. Zee TV comes in third with 191 GRP after being placed in the second position last week. The channel’s GRP fell from 230 last week to 191 this week. Sony occupies the fourth position with 81 GRP. Star One is fifth while NDTV Imagine is at sixth spot with 80 and 65 GRP, respectively.
Colors’ reach is higher than that of Star Plus this week at 61.3%. The channel reached 54.8-mn viewers while Star Plus reached 53.5-mn viewers. Colors chief executive officer Rajesh Kamat said: “In less than six months, we have firmly established ourselves as the number two GEC. We believe our shows still have a lot of potential and we will continue to push them in 2009 too.”
Colors will concentrate on increasing the number of programming hours in 2009. “Currently, we have about 25 hours of original programming per week while the others have about 35 hours. To step up our programming, we will focus on afternoon and weekend programming,” he added.
The relative market share of Colors stood at 23%, which is 4% lower than that of Star Plus (27%). The channel share of Colors increased by 3% over last week. Star Plus, in turn, will launch new shows in the early months of 2009 to spice up its programming.
“When we add new shows or plan our way forward, we don’t do so in reaction to competition. In the New Year too, we will continue to bring in innovative and new programming,” a spokesperson for Star India said.
Entertainment - Hollywood will help moviegoers escape reality in 2009
Tom Long
The title of one film due in March pretty much sums up the overriding theme for movies in 2009: "Monsters vs. Aliens."
Of course, it's not all monsters and aliens. There are also wizards, superheroes, giant robots and ... well, you get the idea. The trend of escapist fantasy fare ruling the box office is sure to continue in the new year.
And why wouldn't it? The top films of 2008 were "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man." The top films of 2007 were "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers." Get the drift? Hollywood sure does.
Of course, there will be more thoughtful fare, as well, some even involving human interaction. "Duplicity," starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Tom Wilkinson, opening March 20, marks the return of writer-director Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton"). "State of Play" (April 17) teams Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck in an American adaptation of the superb British conspiracy mini-series.
Advertisement
There will be other promising dramas as the year progresses, to be sure, but most eyes will be fixed on the blockbusters, and when it comes to blockbusters, fantasy rules.
The following 10 films seem like virtual slam dunks at this point. As always, the opening dates are dependent on studio whims, and the ultimate success of each is dependent on at least some modicum of quality (one hopes). But right now the ones to look for in 2009 are:
• "Watchmen" (March 6): This is the same weekend that director Zack Snyder debuted his huge hit "300." Now he's back with this comic-book adaptation starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson and Carla Gugino as former superhero colleagues who reunite after a suspicious death. Expect dazzling visuals and lots of cool costumes. (That's if it opens. Fox is seeking to delay the release of the film, claiming copyright infringement by Warner Bros.)
• "Monsters vs. Aliens" (March 27): A ragtag group of monsters that've been secretly held by the government have to join forces to protect Earth from an alien invasion in this animated 3D extravaganza. Voices by Reese Witherspoon, Rainn Wilson, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Keifer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert(!).
• "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (May 1): All eyes will be on this revival of the "X-Men" franchise, which would seem to have limitless possibilities. A host of new mutants are introduced as the story backs up to follow the roots of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character from the first three films. The blockbusters of this summer seem front-loaded in May, and this should start things off with a bang.
• "Star Trek" (May 8): Speaking of origins, this recasting of the Trek series takes Spock, Kirk and all the rest back to their younger days. Directed by J.J. Abrams ("Lost") and featuring some inspired casting ("Shaun of the Dead" star Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho -- Harold from "Harold and Kumar" -- as Sulu), this looks like a major reinvention.
• "Terminator Salvation" (May 22): Christian Bale is already atop the biggest franchise in filmdom, so why not go for two? Here he plays John Connor, battling the evil computer Skynet and its army of terminators in the future. Directed by former Michigan boy McG. Will Schwarzenegger do a cameo? Stay tuned.
• "Up" (May 29): This year's Pixar entry is about a little old man who ties thousands of balloons to his house so he can fly down to South America. Except after taking off, he discovers a neighborhood kid has come along for the ride. Hey, it's Pixar -- when have they ever missed? Also arriving in 3D.
• "Year One" (June 19): Jack Black and Michael Cera are social outcasts on an epic journey through the primitive world in what's being billed as a sort of prehistoric "Superbad." What makes this special (and risky) is it marks the return of long-missing writer-director Harold ("Ghostbusters") Ramis.
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (July 17): The sixth installment in the ever-darkening "Potter" series sees director Peter Yates returning and Jim Broadbent joining the cast. It's Potter; it will be huge.
• "Julie and Julia" (Aug. 7): The power of chick flicks became apparent in 2008 with "Sex and the City" and "Twilight," and this should be a major contender for the lipstick crowd in 2009. Meryl Streep stars as famed cookbook writer Julia Child circa 1949, while Amy Adams plays a woman attempting to whip up more than 500 of Child's recipes in modern times. Nora Ephron adapted the book and directs.
• "Avatar" (Dec. 18): Could this be the biggest movie of the decade? Don't be surprised. "Titanic" auteur James Cameron finally returns with what promises to be a groundbreaking sci-fi, 3D, IMAX thriller about a battle between humans and another species on a far-off planet. Unknown Sam Worthington stars. Oddly enough, he happens also to be a key figure in "Terminator Salvation," and Cameron did the first two "Terminator" films. Small world -- and Cameron owns it. Write down this date.
The title of one film due in March pretty much sums up the overriding theme for movies in 2009: "Monsters vs. Aliens."
Of course, it's not all monsters and aliens. There are also wizards, superheroes, giant robots and ... well, you get the idea. The trend of escapist fantasy fare ruling the box office is sure to continue in the new year.
And why wouldn't it? The top films of 2008 were "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man." The top films of 2007 were "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers." Get the drift? Hollywood sure does.
Of course, there will be more thoughtful fare, as well, some even involving human interaction. "Duplicity," starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen and Tom Wilkinson, opening March 20, marks the return of writer-director Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton"). "State of Play" (April 17) teams Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck in an American adaptation of the superb British conspiracy mini-series.
Advertisement
There will be other promising dramas as the year progresses, to be sure, but most eyes will be fixed on the blockbusters, and when it comes to blockbusters, fantasy rules.
The following 10 films seem like virtual slam dunks at this point. As always, the opening dates are dependent on studio whims, and the ultimate success of each is dependent on at least some modicum of quality (one hopes). But right now the ones to look for in 2009 are:
• "Watchmen" (March 6): This is the same weekend that director Zack Snyder debuted his huge hit "300." Now he's back with this comic-book adaptation starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson and Carla Gugino as former superhero colleagues who reunite after a suspicious death. Expect dazzling visuals and lots of cool costumes. (That's if it opens. Fox is seeking to delay the release of the film, claiming copyright infringement by Warner Bros.)
• "Monsters vs. Aliens" (March 27): A ragtag group of monsters that've been secretly held by the government have to join forces to protect Earth from an alien invasion in this animated 3D extravaganza. Voices by Reese Witherspoon, Rainn Wilson, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Keifer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert(!).
• "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (May 1): All eyes will be on this revival of the "X-Men" franchise, which would seem to have limitless possibilities. A host of new mutants are introduced as the story backs up to follow the roots of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character from the first three films. The blockbusters of this summer seem front-loaded in May, and this should start things off with a bang.
• "Star Trek" (May 8): Speaking of origins, this recasting of the Trek series takes Spock, Kirk and all the rest back to their younger days. Directed by J.J. Abrams ("Lost") and featuring some inspired casting ("Shaun of the Dead" star Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho -- Harold from "Harold and Kumar" -- as Sulu), this looks like a major reinvention.
• "Terminator Salvation" (May 22): Christian Bale is already atop the biggest franchise in filmdom, so why not go for two? Here he plays John Connor, battling the evil computer Skynet and its army of terminators in the future. Directed by former Michigan boy McG. Will Schwarzenegger do a cameo? Stay tuned.
• "Up" (May 29): This year's Pixar entry is about a little old man who ties thousands of balloons to his house so he can fly down to South America. Except after taking off, he discovers a neighborhood kid has come along for the ride. Hey, it's Pixar -- when have they ever missed? Also arriving in 3D.
• "Year One" (June 19): Jack Black and Michael Cera are social outcasts on an epic journey through the primitive world in what's being billed as a sort of prehistoric "Superbad." What makes this special (and risky) is it marks the return of long-missing writer-director Harold ("Ghostbusters") Ramis.
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (July 17): The sixth installment in the ever-darkening "Potter" series sees director Peter Yates returning and Jim Broadbent joining the cast. It's Potter; it will be huge.
• "Julie and Julia" (Aug. 7): The power of chick flicks became apparent in 2008 with "Sex and the City" and "Twilight," and this should be a major contender for the lipstick crowd in 2009. Meryl Streep stars as famed cookbook writer Julia Child circa 1949, while Amy Adams plays a woman attempting to whip up more than 500 of Child's recipes in modern times. Nora Ephron adapted the book and directs.
• "Avatar" (Dec. 18): Could this be the biggest movie of the decade? Don't be surprised. "Titanic" auteur James Cameron finally returns with what promises to be a groundbreaking sci-fi, 3D, IMAX thriller about a battle between humans and another species on a far-off planet. Unknown Sam Worthington stars. Oddly enough, he happens also to be a key figure in "Terminator Salvation," and Cameron did the first two "Terminator" films. Small world -- and Cameron owns it. Write down this date.
Entertainment - Overseas b.o. breaks record with $9.9 bil
Frank Segers
Things may be tough economically around the globe, but the major Hollywood film distributors still managed to gross record high overseas boxoffice in 2008, garnering an estimated $9.9 billion, up 4% from 2007's $9.5 billion international total.
Overseas operations of the six major studios -- Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony and Disney -- each bagged more than $1 billion in revenue for the second consecutive year, according to preliminary estimates from each distributor.
Paramount Pictures International generated the most foreign revenue with an estimated $2.037 billion, an increase of 28.2% from 2007 -- a new international record for the studio. It is the first time Paramount, which ranked fourth among the big six in 2007, crossed the $2 billion overseas boxoffice threshold.
The biggest single title on the international circuit last year was Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which bowed May 21, and went on to gross $469.5 million foreign (versus $317 million domestic), according to Paramount figures. Second was Warner Bros. International's Batman pic "The Dark Knight," which tallied an estimated $465 million overseas.
Thanks to its 2008 product stream from DreamWorks Animation, PPI also capitalized overseas with "Kung Fu Panda," which garnered $416.5 million abroad (versus $215.4 million domestic) and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which opened Oct. 30 and is still playing internationally. The "Madagascar" sequel grossed an estimated $305 million in 2008, and appears on track to double its domestic gross of $175.7 million. Marvel's "Iron Man, which PPI handled in most overseas markets, tallied $214.2 million.
In addition to "Dark Knight," Warners parlayed a roster including "I Am Legend" with Will Smith -- perhaps the biggest Hollywood name overseas in 2008 -- and "10,000 B.C." to a second-place finish with an estimated $1.8 million overall. "Legend" grossed $210.7 million foreign last year, while "10,000" finished with $173.4 million.
In third place is Universal, which scored $1.7 billion in boxoffice overseas last year, a record for the distributor. Uni's previous international record was $1.164 billion in 1999. The big driver for the company was the musical "Mamma Mia!," which had extraordinary success abroad -- grossing $428.5 million, nearly three times its domestic tally ($144.1 million).
Universal also showed overseas returns of more than $100 million with "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" ($294.3 million vs. $102.5 million domestic); "Wanted" ($209.5 million vs. $134.5 million domestic) and "Incredible Hulk" ($100.6 million in territories serviced by the company).
Fourth was 20th Century Fox, which grossed an estimated $1.6 million in 2008 -- about even with the previous year -- on the strength of "Horton Hears a Who" ($142.5 million), "What Happens in Vegas" ($139 million), "Jumper" ($133.9 million) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" ($110.7 million).
Fifth was Sony, which generated an estimated $1.383 billion, the distributor's second-biggest year after 2006's $1.634 billion. "Hancock" with Will Smith lead the Sony roster with an overseas gross of $396.4 million (versus $227.9 million domestic), followed by the latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," which grossed $377.3 million in 2008 (an opening in Japan scheduled for this month). "Quantum's" domestic tally is $164.3 million.
Disney, which ranked third among the big six last year, finished sixth in 2008, grossing $1.37 billion, down 19% from 2007. The company had an unusually strong 2007 on the strength of third title in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series (which grossed $653 million, the third largest international gross in history) and the animation title, "Ratatouille" ($406 million).
This year, Disney capitalized overseas on "WALL-E" ($289.4 million); "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" ($278.3 million); "National Tresure: Book of Secrets," $173.9 million in 2008, $237.1 million total); "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" ($151 million versus $89.4 million domestic); and "Enchanted" ($100.7 million in 2008, $213.4 total).
The biggest of the indie distribs is New Line Cinema, which collected $607 million in 2008 largely on the back of "Sex and the City" ($257.4 million foreign versus $153 million domestic). Mandate International grossed an estimated $219 million in 2008, while Summit International came in with an estimated $517 million.
Things may be tough economically around the globe, but the major Hollywood film distributors still managed to gross record high overseas boxoffice in 2008, garnering an estimated $9.9 billion, up 4% from 2007's $9.5 billion international total.
Overseas operations of the six major studios -- Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony and Disney -- each bagged more than $1 billion in revenue for the second consecutive year, according to preliminary estimates from each distributor.
Paramount Pictures International generated the most foreign revenue with an estimated $2.037 billion, an increase of 28.2% from 2007 -- a new international record for the studio. It is the first time Paramount, which ranked fourth among the big six in 2007, crossed the $2 billion overseas boxoffice threshold.
The biggest single title on the international circuit last year was Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which bowed May 21, and went on to gross $469.5 million foreign (versus $317 million domestic), according to Paramount figures. Second was Warner Bros. International's Batman pic "The Dark Knight," which tallied an estimated $465 million overseas.
Thanks to its 2008 product stream from DreamWorks Animation, PPI also capitalized overseas with "Kung Fu Panda," which garnered $416.5 million abroad (versus $215.4 million domestic) and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which opened Oct. 30 and is still playing internationally. The "Madagascar" sequel grossed an estimated $305 million in 2008, and appears on track to double its domestic gross of $175.7 million. Marvel's "Iron Man, which PPI handled in most overseas markets, tallied $214.2 million.
In addition to "Dark Knight," Warners parlayed a roster including "I Am Legend" with Will Smith -- perhaps the biggest Hollywood name overseas in 2008 -- and "10,000 B.C." to a second-place finish with an estimated $1.8 million overall. "Legend" grossed $210.7 million foreign last year, while "10,000" finished with $173.4 million.
In third place is Universal, which scored $1.7 billion in boxoffice overseas last year, a record for the distributor. Uni's previous international record was $1.164 billion in 1999. The big driver for the company was the musical "Mamma Mia!," which had extraordinary success abroad -- grossing $428.5 million, nearly three times its domestic tally ($144.1 million).
Universal also showed overseas returns of more than $100 million with "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" ($294.3 million vs. $102.5 million domestic); "Wanted" ($209.5 million vs. $134.5 million domestic) and "Incredible Hulk" ($100.6 million in territories serviced by the company).
Fourth was 20th Century Fox, which grossed an estimated $1.6 million in 2008 -- about even with the previous year -- on the strength of "Horton Hears a Who" ($142.5 million), "What Happens in Vegas" ($139 million), "Jumper" ($133.9 million) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" ($110.7 million).
Fifth was Sony, which generated an estimated $1.383 billion, the distributor's second-biggest year after 2006's $1.634 billion. "Hancock" with Will Smith lead the Sony roster with an overseas gross of $396.4 million (versus $227.9 million domestic), followed by the latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," which grossed $377.3 million in 2008 (an opening in Japan scheduled for this month). "Quantum's" domestic tally is $164.3 million.
Disney, which ranked third among the big six last year, finished sixth in 2008, grossing $1.37 billion, down 19% from 2007. The company had an unusually strong 2007 on the strength of third title in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series (which grossed $653 million, the third largest international gross in history) and the animation title, "Ratatouille" ($406 million).
This year, Disney capitalized overseas on "WALL-E" ($289.4 million); "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" ($278.3 million); "National Tresure: Book of Secrets," $173.9 million in 2008, $237.1 million total); "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" ($151 million versus $89.4 million domestic); and "Enchanted" ($100.7 million in 2008, $213.4 total).
The biggest of the indie distribs is New Line Cinema, which collected $607 million in 2008 largely on the back of "Sex and the City" ($257.4 million foreign versus $153 million domestic). Mandate International grossed an estimated $219 million in 2008, while Summit International came in with an estimated $517 million.
Business - Cadbury launches campaign ‘Lesson’
MUMBAI: Popular chocolate brand Cadbury is set to launch a new television commercial, ‘Lesson’, in an attempt to further establish the brand identity of its variant- Cadbury Crème Egg chocolate.
The television commercial is slated to go on air on 1 January.
Cadbury marketing director Phil Rumbol said, “Creme Egg is one of our most iconic and accepted brands. Our consumers get really eager about Creme Egg season and we think this campaign will build on that excitement."
Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the TVC shows a classroom bustling with Cadbury Creme Eggs eager to learn about Goo-ology. The campaign is aimed at reminding consumers that Creme Egg is only available for a limited time till Easter.
The company will be further promoting the campaign through outdoor media via billboards, posters and escalator panels.
The television commercial is slated to go on air on 1 January.
Cadbury marketing director Phil Rumbol said, “Creme Egg is one of our most iconic and accepted brands. Our consumers get really eager about Creme Egg season and we think this campaign will build on that excitement."
Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the TVC shows a classroom bustling with Cadbury Creme Eggs eager to learn about Goo-ology. The campaign is aimed at reminding consumers that Creme Egg is only available for a limited time till Easter.
The company will be further promoting the campaign through outdoor media via billboards, posters and escalator panels.
Mktg - Ministry of Tourism launches new Incredible India campaign
MUMBAI: The Ministry of Tourism will launch its new Incredible India television campaign for the international market in the first week of January.
The television commercial will be aired on international channels like CNN, BBC, Discovery and National Geographic.
Ministry of Tourism joint secretary Leena Nandan said, “The idea behind launching the new campaign is that tourists should find a connection with India, so that they desire to visit the country. The campaign, which is divided between television and print, will be launched in international arena like Latin America, USA, Canada, western Europe, UK, Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand and South – East Asia Pacific.”
Created by Quantum Communications, the TVC has been directed by Prakash Verma of Nirvana films. The TVC shows the protagonists exploring different regions of India.
Also, the print campaigns have a quote of Mahatma Gandhi saying, “I want all cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But, I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
The Ministry of Tourism has further tied up with Korean government for out of home (OOH) advertising in the subways in Seoul.
The television commercial will be aired on international channels like CNN, BBC, Discovery and National Geographic.
Ministry of Tourism joint secretary Leena Nandan said, “The idea behind launching the new campaign is that tourists should find a connection with India, so that they desire to visit the country. The campaign, which is divided between television and print, will be launched in international arena like Latin America, USA, Canada, western Europe, UK, Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand and South – East Asia Pacific.”
Created by Quantum Communications, the TVC has been directed by Prakash Verma of Nirvana films. The TVC shows the protagonists exploring different regions of India.
Also, the print campaigns have a quote of Mahatma Gandhi saying, “I want all cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But, I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
The Ministry of Tourism has further tied up with Korean government for out of home (OOH) advertising in the subways in Seoul.
Entertainment - Star, Bedi in legal row over Mahabharata
MUMBAI: Even as we ring in the New Year, a Mahabharata Yudh has broken out between Star and Bobby Bedi’s Kaleidoscope Entertainment. The bone of contention: advances which were paid to the latter to produce a television version of the classic Indian epic. Star India has taken producer Bedi to court preventing him from disposing off land the latter had allegedly acquired in Noida and Agra for producing the series.
Star sources indicate that they had paid out Rs 60 million to Bedi for preproduction and production and he has not delivered any episodes of the same. Sources close to Bedi say that a part of that money has been paid to Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi (director) and Faroukh Dhondy (as writer) for research and script development while the remaining was used to turn out 14 episodes of the show. Both Dwivedi and Fraoukh subsequently moved out of the project and Dr Vijay Pandey then took over as director.
Star sources say that Bedi has misappropriated the funds to build assets for himself and hence, should be restrained from selling them.
Sources indicate that they had been giving Bedi a lot of leeway. First, the network bought into the project because of Dwivedi – who earlier played and directed Chanakya – involvement in it. “Dwivedi dropped out, and yet we funded Bedi,” says a Star source close to the deal. “They brought in new people, then they started asking more money. It did not make sense to us.”
Independent sources indicated that Star lost faith in the concept because of the time that Bedi has taken to produce it and the fact that a version of the Mahabharata on 9X failed to grip audiences. “Both the versions had similarities,” says a source.
Bedi and Star were not available for comment.
But clearly this is a battle scene which will take its time playing out. So watch this space.
Star sources indicate that they had paid out Rs 60 million to Bedi for preproduction and production and he has not delivered any episodes of the same. Sources close to Bedi say that a part of that money has been paid to Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi (director) and Faroukh Dhondy (as writer) for research and script development while the remaining was used to turn out 14 episodes of the show. Both Dwivedi and Fraoukh subsequently moved out of the project and Dr Vijay Pandey then took over as director.
Star sources say that Bedi has misappropriated the funds to build assets for himself and hence, should be restrained from selling them.
Sources indicate that they had been giving Bedi a lot of leeway. First, the network bought into the project because of Dwivedi – who earlier played and directed Chanakya – involvement in it. “Dwivedi dropped out, and yet we funded Bedi,” says a Star source close to the deal. “They brought in new people, then they started asking more money. It did not make sense to us.”
Independent sources indicated that Star lost faith in the concept because of the time that Bedi has taken to produce it and the fact that a version of the Mahabharata on 9X failed to grip audiences. “Both the versions had similarities,” says a source.
Bedi and Star were not available for comment.
But clearly this is a battle scene which will take its time playing out. So watch this space.
Mktg - Advertisers target cybercafé users
Kapil Ohri
When 36-40 per cent of online traffic in India is generated by users who browse the Internet through 300,000 computers installed at cybercafés, it is obvious that advertisers will be on the lookout for ways to reach this population.
The Mumbai based Internet media firm, Ideacts Innovations, now offers just that, through a desktop application called Clinck. The company already counts 75 advertisers as its clients, including big names such as Nokia, ICICI, Colgate, Dell, Big TV, Yamaha, Fastrack, STAR Cricket, Ibibo.com, Zapak.com, eBay.in, Lenovo and Idea Cellular.
Clinck is an interactive desktop application, which, when installed on a computer, hides the normal desktop of the computer and becomes its default desktop screen.
Similar to the normal desktop, the Clinck desktop displays various shortcut icons, such as My Computer, My Network Places, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger. A search engine bar, powered by either MSN or Google, is also made available. While these shortcut icons occupy only 10-15 per cent of the Clinck desktop, the remaining screen space is occupied by advertorial or banner ads, which can be static or interactive.
Speaking to afaqs!, Rudrajeet Desai, cofounder and chief executive officer, Ideacts Innovations, says, "We have already executed 150 campaigns for 75 advertisers from diverse categories, such as automobile, education, finance, travel, FMCG, IT and Internet companies. Already, 3,000 cybercafés in 32 cities have installed Clinck. Around 200,000 users access the Internet on 18,000 Clinck enabled computers on a daily basis."
He adds that apart from banner ads, the application is also capable of executing interactive campaigns or video ads. However, the company is not running video ads as of now.
On why a cybercafé owner would install Clinck, Desai says, "Ideacts shares 40 per cent of the revenue earned through a cybercafé with its owner. Revenue sharing with the cybercafé owner depends on various variables, such as the number of computers in the café and the number of users who visit it."
Currently, the company is only targeting non-branded cybercafés with at least seven computers. It has not targeted cybercafés owned by Sify and Reliance Communications. In 2009, it is planning to expand its base to Tier II towns, such as Nagpur, Nashik, Jaipur and Indore.
The campaigns carried out through Clinck are measured on the same parameters as other online campaigns. Ideacts Innovations claims that the campaigns carried out through Clinck receive a click-through rate (CTR) of 3 per cent, which is much higher than the average CTR of online campaigns – 0.5 per cent.
The company sells its ad inventory on cost per thousand (CPM) impressions and a cost per click (CPC) basis. It charges Rs 170 for 1,000 impressions.
When 36-40 per cent of online traffic in India is generated by users who browse the Internet through 300,000 computers installed at cybercafés, it is obvious that advertisers will be on the lookout for ways to reach this population.
The Mumbai based Internet media firm, Ideacts Innovations, now offers just that, through a desktop application called Clinck. The company already counts 75 advertisers as its clients, including big names such as Nokia, ICICI, Colgate, Dell, Big TV, Yamaha, Fastrack, STAR Cricket, Ibibo.com, Zapak.com, eBay.in, Lenovo and Idea Cellular.
Clinck is an interactive desktop application, which, when installed on a computer, hides the normal desktop of the computer and becomes its default desktop screen.
Similar to the normal desktop, the Clinck desktop displays various shortcut icons, such as My Computer, My Network Places, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger. A search engine bar, powered by either MSN or Google, is also made available. While these shortcut icons occupy only 10-15 per cent of the Clinck desktop, the remaining screen space is occupied by advertorial or banner ads, which can be static or interactive.
Speaking to afaqs!, Rudrajeet Desai, cofounder and chief executive officer, Ideacts Innovations, says, "We have already executed 150 campaigns for 75 advertisers from diverse categories, such as automobile, education, finance, travel, FMCG, IT and Internet companies. Already, 3,000 cybercafés in 32 cities have installed Clinck. Around 200,000 users access the Internet on 18,000 Clinck enabled computers on a daily basis."
He adds that apart from banner ads, the application is also capable of executing interactive campaigns or video ads. However, the company is not running video ads as of now.
On why a cybercafé owner would install Clinck, Desai says, "Ideacts shares 40 per cent of the revenue earned through a cybercafé with its owner. Revenue sharing with the cybercafé owner depends on various variables, such as the number of computers in the café and the number of users who visit it."
Currently, the company is only targeting non-branded cybercafés with at least seven computers. It has not targeted cybercafés owned by Sify and Reliance Communications. In 2009, it is planning to expand its base to Tier II towns, such as Nagpur, Nashik, Jaipur and Indore.
The campaigns carried out through Clinck are measured on the same parameters as other online campaigns. Ideacts Innovations claims that the campaigns carried out through Clinck receive a click-through rate (CTR) of 3 per cent, which is much higher than the average CTR of online campaigns – 0.5 per cent.
The company sells its ad inventory on cost per thousand (CPM) impressions and a cost per click (CPC) basis. It charges Rs 170 for 1,000 impressions.
India - The Divine Comedy of Mumbai (G.Read)
Ishaan Tharoor
Kept in the basement of the Asiatic Society library, a colonnaded marble building in Mumbai's colonial heart, is perhaps the Indian financial capital's least heralded relic. The library holds one of the two oldest surviving manuscripts of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Its some 450 richly-illustrated pages dating from the 1350s are bound and wrapped in red silk. Though the book rarely goes on display, Society staff insist the medieval text is in excellent condition. It came to Mumbai in the possession of a 19th century British antiquarian grandee, the imperially-named Mountstuart Elphinstone, and has stayed in the city ever since despite numerous attempts by the Italian government to repatriate it. In the 1930s, rumor has it, dictator Benito Mussolini was keen to buff his fascist pedigree by retrieving the epic and offered the Society one million pounds for it, a staggering sum at the time. But the Society politely refused. By doing so, it seemed to say that Mumbai could also be a home for Dante's imagined voyage through the underworld and the rings of hell.(See a photo essay of the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks)
Echoes of Hell and its abyss of despair resounded from Mumbai at the end of November, when terrorists rampaged through some of the city's most storied sites. From the infernal glare of smoke and flame that wreathed the Taj Mahal Hotel and the nearby Oberoi came harrowing tales of the demonic cruelty carried out inside. Hotel guests were lined up against walls and sprayed with machine gun fire, then, according to some accounts, the terrorists placed grenades in the mouths of fallen hostages as traps for pursuing security forces. Hospitals are still filled with the wounded as social workers grapple with the trauma of those left alive.
The lone surviving gunman, according to police sources, spoke of how, in the remote jihadi training camps where he was indoctrinated, instructors would rail against the sinful city of Mumbai, decry its excess and materialism and corrosive foreign influences. The worldly aspirations of Mumbai's diverse millions would be cowed by a spectacle of fire and brimstone. In the immediate aftermath, the attackers appeared to have gotten their way. All hope did seem abandoned amid the din of public grief and fury with a government many felt incapable of protecting its people.
Mumbaikars, though, did not wallow in their woe. In the past, bouts of bloody Hindu-Muslim violence followed acts of terrorism. But a sense of unity, not vindictiveness, permeated the city. Mumbai's influential Hindu right-wing went missing, knowing that its brand of extremism wasn't welcome. Soon after the last shots were fired, the city's leading Muslim clerics showed their contempt for the act, declaring that the bodies of the terrorists would not be allowed a proper burial within Mumbai.
"All of India looks to us" read a banner waved outside the Taj Mahal Hotel a week after the attacks. Tens of thousands of the city's residents from across its wide spectrum of class and ethnicity massed at the scenes of the crimes, calling for an end to the incompetence, inefficiency and corruption many in the public see as India's status quo. In Mumbai, dozens of citizens groups have sprung up, aimed at everything from neighborhood safety to overhauling domestic governance - to borrow from another epic, to try to make a heaven out of this hell.
Of course, it'll take much more than a few weeks of middle-class outrage to challenge the purgatorial murk that defines India's politics as usual, as well as the grim injustices that shape its stratified society. But it is this Mumbai, which shelters Dante's manuscript: a metropolis home to all sorts of stories, still glittering with epic possibility for the thousands who flock here every year from all corners of this vast country, including the beggars and garbage collectors and tiffin carriers who continued with the many Sisyphean struggles of their lot in the days after the attacks. More than half of the city's populace lives in slums and most could never dream of dining at the posh enclaves that came under attack. Yet they all continue to dream the Mumbai dream.
It was this mythic Mumbai too that the terrorists hoped to bring crashing down, but they failed. By mid-December, wings of the two targeted hotels reopened to grand receptions and an outpouring of city pride. Despite the drums of war being sounded in New Delhi and Islamabad, life goes on. A few days after two terrorists killed ten patrons at the Cafe Leopold, a popular drinking spot, I sat there and watched an elderly carpenter take measurements with a ruler and tape of the large glass pane that fronted the bar, damaged by bullet holes. Onlookers snapped pictures of the poignant moment of recovery, camera flashes twinkling in the crystalline cracks. In at end of the Inferno, Dante plunges into the icy depths of hell and beholds the terror of Satan's face, but he finally emerges, and looks to the heavens, "to see again the stars."
Kept in the basement of the Asiatic Society library, a colonnaded marble building in Mumbai's colonial heart, is perhaps the Indian financial capital's least heralded relic. The library holds one of the two oldest surviving manuscripts of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Its some 450 richly-illustrated pages dating from the 1350s are bound and wrapped in red silk. Though the book rarely goes on display, Society staff insist the medieval text is in excellent condition. It came to Mumbai in the possession of a 19th century British antiquarian grandee, the imperially-named Mountstuart Elphinstone, and has stayed in the city ever since despite numerous attempts by the Italian government to repatriate it. In the 1930s, rumor has it, dictator Benito Mussolini was keen to buff his fascist pedigree by retrieving the epic and offered the Society one million pounds for it, a staggering sum at the time. But the Society politely refused. By doing so, it seemed to say that Mumbai could also be a home for Dante's imagined voyage through the underworld and the rings of hell.(See a photo essay of the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks)
Echoes of Hell and its abyss of despair resounded from Mumbai at the end of November, when terrorists rampaged through some of the city's most storied sites. From the infernal glare of smoke and flame that wreathed the Taj Mahal Hotel and the nearby Oberoi came harrowing tales of the demonic cruelty carried out inside. Hotel guests were lined up against walls and sprayed with machine gun fire, then, according to some accounts, the terrorists placed grenades in the mouths of fallen hostages as traps for pursuing security forces. Hospitals are still filled with the wounded as social workers grapple with the trauma of those left alive.
The lone surviving gunman, according to police sources, spoke of how, in the remote jihadi training camps where he was indoctrinated, instructors would rail against the sinful city of Mumbai, decry its excess and materialism and corrosive foreign influences. The worldly aspirations of Mumbai's diverse millions would be cowed by a spectacle of fire and brimstone. In the immediate aftermath, the attackers appeared to have gotten their way. All hope did seem abandoned amid the din of public grief and fury with a government many felt incapable of protecting its people.
Mumbaikars, though, did not wallow in their woe. In the past, bouts of bloody Hindu-Muslim violence followed acts of terrorism. But a sense of unity, not vindictiveness, permeated the city. Mumbai's influential Hindu right-wing went missing, knowing that its brand of extremism wasn't welcome. Soon after the last shots were fired, the city's leading Muslim clerics showed their contempt for the act, declaring that the bodies of the terrorists would not be allowed a proper burial within Mumbai.
"All of India looks to us" read a banner waved outside the Taj Mahal Hotel a week after the attacks. Tens of thousands of the city's residents from across its wide spectrum of class and ethnicity massed at the scenes of the crimes, calling for an end to the incompetence, inefficiency and corruption many in the public see as India's status quo. In Mumbai, dozens of citizens groups have sprung up, aimed at everything from neighborhood safety to overhauling domestic governance - to borrow from another epic, to try to make a heaven out of this hell.
Of course, it'll take much more than a few weeks of middle-class outrage to challenge the purgatorial murk that defines India's politics as usual, as well as the grim injustices that shape its stratified society. But it is this Mumbai, which shelters Dante's manuscript: a metropolis home to all sorts of stories, still glittering with epic possibility for the thousands who flock here every year from all corners of this vast country, including the beggars and garbage collectors and tiffin carriers who continued with the many Sisyphean struggles of their lot in the days after the attacks. More than half of the city's populace lives in slums and most could never dream of dining at the posh enclaves that came under attack. Yet they all continue to dream the Mumbai dream.
It was this mythic Mumbai too that the terrorists hoped to bring crashing down, but they failed. By mid-December, wings of the two targeted hotels reopened to grand receptions and an outpouring of city pride. Despite the drums of war being sounded in New Delhi and Islamabad, life goes on. A few days after two terrorists killed ten patrons at the Cafe Leopold, a popular drinking spot, I sat there and watched an elderly carpenter take measurements with a ruler and tape of the large glass pane that fronted the bar, damaged by bullet holes. Onlookers snapped pictures of the poignant moment of recovery, camera flashes twinkling in the crystalline cracks. In at end of the Inferno, Dante plunges into the icy depths of hell and beholds the terror of Satan's face, but he finally emerges, and looks to the heavens, "to see again the stars."
Lifestyle - Facebook's War on Nipples
Ada Calhoun
The breast-feeding wars have long followed a familiar pattern. A woman gets thrown off a plane for nursing her toddler; she sues Delta. Barbara Walters says sitting next to a breast-feeding woman made her "uncomfortable"; ABC's headquarters get surrounded by 200 women staging a "nurse-in." Maggie Gyllenhaal is photographed nursing her daughter in public; tabloids rush to either praise her as a role model or tell her to throw a blanket over her shoulder.
The sides have been distinct: breast-feeding advocates insist that women should be able to nurse anytime, anyplace, while opponents use words like discretion and discomfort. But the latest battle apparently has nothing to do with the best way to nourish a baby or the boundaries between private and public. It's about the nipples, stupid.
Facebook has drawn a line in the sand by removing any photos it deems obscene, including those containing a fully exposed breast, which the site defines as "showing the nipple or areola." In other words, plunging necklines or string bikinis are fine - just no nips. The purging of bare-boob pics began last summer and has swept up, alongside any girls gone wild, a growing number of proud - and very ticked-off - breast feeders. (Read about giving birth at home.)
On Dec. 27, some 11,000 protesters held a virtual nurse-in by uploading breast-feeding photos onto their Facebook profiles, and 20 or so women showed up at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., to breast-feed there. By Dec. 30, more than 85,000 members had joined a Facebook group called "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!"
The group, founded by San Diego mom Kelli Roman, urges Facebook to change its obscenity policy. "We expect you to realize that nursing moms everywhere have a right to show pictures of their babies eating, just like bottle-fed babies have a right to be seen," their petition reads. "In an effort to appease the closed-minded, you are only serving to be detrimental to babies, women, and society."
Assisting their cause is the Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA), a Canadian group that has started posting on its website photos that breast feeders claim were removed from Facebook. One or two are vaguely pornographic shots of naked women holding babies, but most are straightforward and innocent.
"There are two problems," says Paul Rapoport, coordinator for TERA, which has been advocating that women should not be penalized for going topless since 1997. "First, Facebook removes photos arbitrarily. Second, its policy clearly implies that visible nipples or areolas always make photos of women obscene. Facebook stigmatizes breast-feeding and demeans women."
Facebook counters that it is far from the only organization steering clear of Areola City. "Could I place an ad related to breast-feeding that showed a woman breast-feeding a child but exposed her full breast in TIME or on your website?" asks spokesman Barry Schnitt. "During the course of this protest, I've called many media organizations and asked them this question. Not a single one has said yes."
The Facebook furor has brought up a bizarre cultural issue. We're all for breasts - the more cleavage the better. But the second a nipple is visible or we are reminded of nipples by the sight of a baby attached to one, all hell breaks loose.
When a tabloid website catches a star like Britney Spears, Keira Knightley or Tara Reid in a red-carpet "nip slip," traffic goes through the roof, as Web surfers click to catch a glimpse of the forbidden bit of skin. (See the 50 best websites of 2008.)
It is perhaps understandable that we'd be so enflamed by the sight of women's nipples because we see them so rarely. Barbie dolls don't have nipples. Magazines routinely airbrush out nipples on fully clothed (but presumably chilly) models.
In the past decade, some 40 states have passed pro-breast-feeding legislation. Rapoport, however, says he considers such laws a "two-edged deal because it exempts nursing women from prosecution but reaffirms the sense that a topless woman is obscene without a baby."
Meanwhile, men's nipples aren't a problem. Recent photos of President-elect Barack Obama walking shirtless on a beach were greeted with puns about how he is "fit to be President," "buff-bodied" and "chiseled." (See pictures of Presidents at the beach.)
And perhaps the surest sign that "pregnant man" Thomas Beatie has been accepted as a man - even though he still has female sex organs and the ability to deliver a baby - is the fact that his nipples, the same ones he had when he was a woman, are suddenly O.K. to look at. They are acceptable features for the cover of a book, the pages of a magazine - and the profile photos for the Facebook groups supporting him.
The breast-feeding wars have long followed a familiar pattern. A woman gets thrown off a plane for nursing her toddler; she sues Delta. Barbara Walters says sitting next to a breast-feeding woman made her "uncomfortable"; ABC's headquarters get surrounded by 200 women staging a "nurse-in." Maggie Gyllenhaal is photographed nursing her daughter in public; tabloids rush to either praise her as a role model or tell her to throw a blanket over her shoulder.
The sides have been distinct: breast-feeding advocates insist that women should be able to nurse anytime, anyplace, while opponents use words like discretion and discomfort. But the latest battle apparently has nothing to do with the best way to nourish a baby or the boundaries between private and public. It's about the nipples, stupid.
Facebook has drawn a line in the sand by removing any photos it deems obscene, including those containing a fully exposed breast, which the site defines as "showing the nipple or areola." In other words, plunging necklines or string bikinis are fine - just no nips. The purging of bare-boob pics began last summer and has swept up, alongside any girls gone wild, a growing number of proud - and very ticked-off - breast feeders. (Read about giving birth at home.)
On Dec. 27, some 11,000 protesters held a virtual nurse-in by uploading breast-feeding photos onto their Facebook profiles, and 20 or so women showed up at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., to breast-feed there. By Dec. 30, more than 85,000 members had joined a Facebook group called "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!"
The group, founded by San Diego mom Kelli Roman, urges Facebook to change its obscenity policy. "We expect you to realize that nursing moms everywhere have a right to show pictures of their babies eating, just like bottle-fed babies have a right to be seen," their petition reads. "In an effort to appease the closed-minded, you are only serving to be detrimental to babies, women, and society."
Assisting their cause is the Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA), a Canadian group that has started posting on its website photos that breast feeders claim were removed from Facebook. One or two are vaguely pornographic shots of naked women holding babies, but most are straightforward and innocent.
"There are two problems," says Paul Rapoport, coordinator for TERA, which has been advocating that women should not be penalized for going topless since 1997. "First, Facebook removes photos arbitrarily. Second, its policy clearly implies that visible nipples or areolas always make photos of women obscene. Facebook stigmatizes breast-feeding and demeans women."
Facebook counters that it is far from the only organization steering clear of Areola City. "Could I place an ad related to breast-feeding that showed a woman breast-feeding a child but exposed her full breast in TIME or on your website?" asks spokesman Barry Schnitt. "During the course of this protest, I've called many media organizations and asked them this question. Not a single one has said yes."
The Facebook furor has brought up a bizarre cultural issue. We're all for breasts - the more cleavage the better. But the second a nipple is visible or we are reminded of nipples by the sight of a baby attached to one, all hell breaks loose.
When a tabloid website catches a star like Britney Spears, Keira Knightley or Tara Reid in a red-carpet "nip slip," traffic goes through the roof, as Web surfers click to catch a glimpse of the forbidden bit of skin. (See the 50 best websites of 2008.)
It is perhaps understandable that we'd be so enflamed by the sight of women's nipples because we see them so rarely. Barbie dolls don't have nipples. Magazines routinely airbrush out nipples on fully clothed (but presumably chilly) models.
In the past decade, some 40 states have passed pro-breast-feeding legislation. Rapoport, however, says he considers such laws a "two-edged deal because it exempts nursing women from prosecution but reaffirms the sense that a topless woman is obscene without a baby."
Meanwhile, men's nipples aren't a problem. Recent photos of President-elect Barack Obama walking shirtless on a beach were greeted with puns about how he is "fit to be President," "buff-bodied" and "chiseled." (See pictures of Presidents at the beach.)
And perhaps the surest sign that "pregnant man" Thomas Beatie has been accepted as a man - even though he still has female sex organs and the ability to deliver a baby - is the fact that his nipples, the same ones he had when he was a woman, are suddenly O.K. to look at. They are acceptable features for the cover of a book, the pages of a magazine - and the profile photos for the Facebook groups supporting him.
Lifestyle - Wrestling:a fight for an honest living in corrupt times
Michael J. Jordan
SOFIA, Bulgaria – While practicing takedown flips with a dummy, Hristo Stoilov's phone rang. The wrestler, covered in sweat and wearing tights, listened for a minute, shook his head, then returned to grappling.
Later, Mr. Stoilov explained the call was from a friend offering him "easy" money to rough up a debtor.
Although Stoilov's thick muscles and steely presence might allow him to quickly earn the $200 fee for intimidating a debtor into paying, he says this is no way to live, not even if a single "visit" yields as much as he earns in two weeks as a personal trainer.
"I want to live a quiet life," Stoilov says.
Wrestling, the national sport, once generated jobs, entertainment, and considerable national pride here during international tournaments. During communist times, with state-controlled dreck on television, most towns held Saturday night matches. And the state paid wages to some 50,000 wrestlers and coaches – in a country of only 8 million.
The postcommunist economic crisis left thousands of wrestlers unemployed, says Emil Budinov, a former national wrestling champion and now a coach.
"Imagine: you start winning medals, but then the system collapses and you're left with nothing," Mr. Budinov says. "But you're a strong man, a brave man. So what do you do? You go out on the street."
Many former wrestlers provided the muscle for criminal enterprises, including smuggling. Before long, the thick-necked, shaved-headed, gold chain-wearing thugs personified the society's burgeoning mafia underworld.
As the wrestlers elbowed into more of the action, dozens were killed in grisly slayings. The violence dented the romanticism for Stoilov, who clings to his goals of winning a wrestling championship and of someday owning a private fitness studio.
"I know I can always do the 'other job' if I ever needed fast money," he says. "For now, though, I've still got my dreams," he says.
SOFIA, Bulgaria – While practicing takedown flips with a dummy, Hristo Stoilov's phone rang. The wrestler, covered in sweat and wearing tights, listened for a minute, shook his head, then returned to grappling.
Later, Mr. Stoilov explained the call was from a friend offering him "easy" money to rough up a debtor.
Although Stoilov's thick muscles and steely presence might allow him to quickly earn the $200 fee for intimidating a debtor into paying, he says this is no way to live, not even if a single "visit" yields as much as he earns in two weeks as a personal trainer.
"I want to live a quiet life," Stoilov says.
Wrestling, the national sport, once generated jobs, entertainment, and considerable national pride here during international tournaments. During communist times, with state-controlled dreck on television, most towns held Saturday night matches. And the state paid wages to some 50,000 wrestlers and coaches – in a country of only 8 million.
The postcommunist economic crisis left thousands of wrestlers unemployed, says Emil Budinov, a former national wrestling champion and now a coach.
"Imagine: you start winning medals, but then the system collapses and you're left with nothing," Mr. Budinov says. "But you're a strong man, a brave man. So what do you do? You go out on the street."
Many former wrestlers provided the muscle for criminal enterprises, including smuggling. Before long, the thick-necked, shaved-headed, gold chain-wearing thugs personified the society's burgeoning mafia underworld.
As the wrestlers elbowed into more of the action, dozens were killed in grisly slayings. The violence dented the romanticism for Stoilov, who clings to his goals of winning a wrestling championship and of someday owning a private fitness studio.
"I know I can always do the 'other job' if I ever needed fast money," he says. "For now, though, I've still got my dreams," he says.
Business - Viacom and Time Warner reach deal to avoid blackout
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Viacom and Time Warner Cable reached an agreement in principle on Thursday that avoided a blackout that would have prevented more than 13 million U.S. subscribers from seeing popular TV shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
The two sides said in a statement they expected to finalize details of the agreement over the next several days. Viacom wanted Time Warner Cable to pay an extra $35 million to $40 million a year for carrying its cable channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
Time Warner had refused, saying the economic climate made it impossible to pass along such costs to its customers. Viacom had originally denied Time Warner's request for an extension of the previous terms to allow talks to continue and had threatened to pull its TV networks from Time Warner unless a deal was reached.
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt said in a statement: We are pleased that our customers will continue to be able to watch the programing they enjoy on MTV Networks. We are sorry they had to endure a day of public disagreement as we worked through this negotiation."
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said, "It's gratifying that we could reach an agreement that benefits not only our audiences but that is also in the best interest of both of our companies."
Both companies spent most of Wednesday exchanging angry words via the media, including a high-profile advertising campaign by Viacom in papers like The New York Times.
Affiliate fees have become even more important as the recession has cut back advertising revenue.
Neither side was well-positioned for a long standoff. Time Warner Cable is about to lose the protection of parent company Time Warner Inc with a planned split off in early 2009. It is extremely reluctant to risk losing subscribers by raising its prices or due to the absence of popular cable shows.
Viacom, which makes about 30 percent of its revenue from advertising, has come under scrutiny as its controlling shareholder, mogul Sumner Redstone, faces his own debt crunch and has been forced to sell Viacom stock to cope with the problem.
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Peter Cooney)
The two sides said in a statement they expected to finalize details of the agreement over the next several days. Viacom wanted Time Warner Cable to pay an extra $35 million to $40 million a year for carrying its cable channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
Time Warner had refused, saying the economic climate made it impossible to pass along such costs to its customers. Viacom had originally denied Time Warner's request for an extension of the previous terms to allow talks to continue and had threatened to pull its TV networks from Time Warner unless a deal was reached.
Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt said in a statement: We are pleased that our customers will continue to be able to watch the programing they enjoy on MTV Networks. We are sorry they had to endure a day of public disagreement as we worked through this negotiation."
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said, "It's gratifying that we could reach an agreement that benefits not only our audiences but that is also in the best interest of both of our companies."
Both companies spent most of Wednesday exchanging angry words via the media, including a high-profile advertising campaign by Viacom in papers like The New York Times.
Affiliate fees have become even more important as the recession has cut back advertising revenue.
Neither side was well-positioned for a long standoff. Time Warner Cable is about to lose the protection of parent company Time Warner Inc with a planned split off in early 2009. It is extremely reluctant to risk losing subscribers by raising its prices or due to the absence of popular cable shows.
Viacom, which makes about 30 percent of its revenue from advertising, has come under scrutiny as its controlling shareholder, mogul Sumner Redstone, faces his own debt crunch and has been forced to sell Viacom stock to cope with the problem.
(Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Tech - A Larger Screen for Apple's iPod Touch Seems Unlikely
Patricia Resende
Bloggers are taking another bite of the Apple, but analysts say they may have bit off more than they can chew. The rumors on Wednesday speculated about a bigger, better iPod touch with a larger screen.
TechCrunch said three independent sources pointed to a new iPod touch with a seven-to-nine-inch screen planned for the new year. It said prototypes have been seen and held by one of its sources and Apple has given the nod to manufacturers in Asia.
Apple said in April it had sold 10.6 million iPods. And Amazon.com has reported that the second-generation iPod touch was one of its biggest sellers this holiday season.
Some bloggers think the device will be mentioned at Macworld but not be available until late 2009.
'Tweener' Device Unlikely
A larger iPod touch has been in the works for some time at Apple headquarters, one source said. The holdup has been whether consumers would like the bigger touchscreen.
But analysts say this rumor should be filed under "not true" and Apple's reluctance to roll out such a device is more accurate.
"When it comes to these types of rumors, if you wait long enough anything can happen. Like the iPhone people predicted for years and years, this one seems to be a little unlikely in the idea of a larger-format tablet with a seven-inch screen," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia.
A larger screen might be great for applications such as games, but the form would fail, according to Gartenberg. "What you tend to lose is an aspect of pocketability," he said. "You will not be able to go to the gym with it or go running with it."
Historically, say analysts, devices that fall in the "tweener" category -- between something that fits in your pocket, like a phone, to something that needs to go into a bag, like a laptop -- don't do well in the market.
"It is hard to imagine what kind of benefit it would give to users," Gartenberg said. "It is suitable for gaming, but once you start increasing the dimension and start losing those features, it becomes unyielding to hold in your hand. I'm still quite skeptical that we will see this device, and am doubtful we will see it next week."
Not Good for Developers
While gamers might enjoy a larger screen, developers would have to rewrite code to make their apps usable with a bigger device and Apple would have to ask if the larger screen gets in the way.
As for sources saying they have seen and held the device, Gartenberg said those who get to see those things are those who don't speak and those who don't know are those who speak
Bloggers are taking another bite of the Apple, but analysts say they may have bit off more than they can chew. The rumors on Wednesday speculated about a bigger, better iPod touch with a larger screen.
TechCrunch said three independent sources pointed to a new iPod touch with a seven-to-nine-inch screen planned for the new year. It said prototypes have been seen and held by one of its sources and Apple has given the nod to manufacturers in Asia.
Apple said in April it had sold 10.6 million iPods. And Amazon.com has reported that the second-generation iPod touch was one of its biggest sellers this holiday season.
Some bloggers think the device will be mentioned at Macworld but not be available until late 2009.
'Tweener' Device Unlikely
A larger iPod touch has been in the works for some time at Apple headquarters, one source said. The holdup has been whether consumers would like the bigger touchscreen.
But analysts say this rumor should be filed under "not true" and Apple's reluctance to roll out such a device is more accurate.
"When it comes to these types of rumors, if you wait long enough anything can happen. Like the iPhone people predicted for years and years, this one seems to be a little unlikely in the idea of a larger-format tablet with a seven-inch screen," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia.
A larger screen might be great for applications such as games, but the form would fail, according to Gartenberg. "What you tend to lose is an aspect of pocketability," he said. "You will not be able to go to the gym with it or go running with it."
Historically, say analysts, devices that fall in the "tweener" category -- between something that fits in your pocket, like a phone, to something that needs to go into a bag, like a laptop -- don't do well in the market.
"It is hard to imagine what kind of benefit it would give to users," Gartenberg said. "It is suitable for gaming, but once you start increasing the dimension and start losing those features, it becomes unyielding to hold in your hand. I'm still quite skeptical that we will see this device, and am doubtful we will see it next week."
Not Good for Developers
While gamers might enjoy a larger screen, developers would have to rewrite code to make their apps usable with a bigger device and Apple would have to ask if the larger screen gets in the way.
As for sources saying they have seen and held the device, Gartenberg said those who get to see those things are those who don't speak and those who don't know are those who speak
Health - Antibiotics before infections save lives: study
LONDON (Reuters) – Giving antibiotics to patients in intensive care units as a precaution saves lives, according to a major Dutch study published Wednesday.
The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest the benefits of administering antibiotics right away, even before an infection develops, outweigh the risks people will develop resistance to them, the researchers said.
"We have seen that using antibiotics clearly results in a reduction in the number of deaths and intensive care units should make use of this knowledge," Anne Marie de Smet, a researcher at University Medical Center Utrecht, said in a statement.
Drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide, marked by the rise of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, or MRSA. Such infections kill about 19,000 people a year in the United States, while more than 4,000 a year in Britain are infected.
The World Health Organization cites hospital-acquired infections as a major cause of death and disability worldwide and experts have been saying for year that poor hospital practices spread dangerous bacteria. At the same time, doctors are told to cut back on using antibiotics to prevent the rise of resistant "superbugs."
The infections can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections that can kill within days and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics. The risk of infection increases the longer people remain in the hospital.
De Smet and colleagues looked at 6,000 men and women who stayed in intensive care units for at least two days at 13 hospitals in the Netherlands to compare the effects of different antibiotic treatments.
Volunteers who received oral antibiotics right away were 11 percent less likely to die, and those given oral and intravenous combinations right away were 13 percent less likely to die than people who did not get the drugs, the researchers found.
At the same time the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections did not increase among the people on the drugs.
Because the researchers tracked deaths 28 days after treatment began, the next step is looking to see how resistance may develop in the long term.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Giles Elgood)
The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest the benefits of administering antibiotics right away, even before an infection develops, outweigh the risks people will develop resistance to them, the researchers said.
"We have seen that using antibiotics clearly results in a reduction in the number of deaths and intensive care units should make use of this knowledge," Anne Marie de Smet, a researcher at University Medical Center Utrecht, said in a statement.
Drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide, marked by the rise of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, or MRSA. Such infections kill about 19,000 people a year in the United States, while more than 4,000 a year in Britain are infected.
The World Health Organization cites hospital-acquired infections as a major cause of death and disability worldwide and experts have been saying for year that poor hospital practices spread dangerous bacteria. At the same time, doctors are told to cut back on using antibiotics to prevent the rise of resistant "superbugs."
The infections can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections that can kill within days and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics. The risk of infection increases the longer people remain in the hospital.
De Smet and colleagues looked at 6,000 men and women who stayed in intensive care units for at least two days at 13 hospitals in the Netherlands to compare the effects of different antibiotic treatments.
Volunteers who received oral antibiotics right away were 11 percent less likely to die, and those given oral and intravenous combinations right away were 13 percent less likely to die than people who did not get the drugs, the researchers found.
At the same time the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections did not increase among the people on the drugs.
Because the researchers tracked deaths 28 days after treatment began, the next step is looking to see how resistance may develop in the long term.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Giles Elgood)
Science - What Science Says about Enlightened Sex
Sally Law
Another year, another batch of resolutions: eat right, exercise more, pay bills on time etc. All good in theory, but potentially dull in practice.
In 2009, then, resolve to have better sex. According to a recent review article in the Dec. 3 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, sexually unsatisfied women who practiced the Eastern techniques of mindfulness and yoga reported improvements in levels of arousal and desire, as well as better orgasms. In addition, yoga has been found to effectively treat premature ejaculation in men.
Eastern practices have been touted as sexually beneficial for years - as the article states, the techniques have "their origin in the Kama Sutra of the fourth to sixth centuries."
But authors Lori A. Brotto of the University of British Columbia, Michael Krychman of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship Medicine, and Pamela Jacobson of The Healing Sanctuary in Tustin, Calif., think that recent research findings warrant increased attention, and respect, from Western medicine.
Mindfulness - an awareness of the present moment, also a key component in yoga - proved especially beneficial in a study, cited in the article, that asked women to study pennies in detail. The coins were then collected, and each woman was asked to find her original penny. Every woman was successful. "In our experience, (nearly) all women feel that they have a problem with remaining focused; they are highly distractible," the article states. "However, after this penny exercise, they accept the notion that they can focus their mind if they so choose." The study then went on to encourage body-awareness exercises, which eventually had a sexual goal.
Not all Eastern-based benefits manifest in the mind. The article cites another study from The Journal of Sexual Medicine, published in September 2007, in which 68 Indian men who suffered from premature ejaculation were given a choice of yoga-based, non-pharmacological treatment or Prozac. The men who practiced yoga for one hour each day "had both subjective and statistically significant improvements in their intra-ejaculatory latencies, similar to participants in the pharmacologic treatment group."
The article acknowledges that mindfulness and yoga are challenging, but they also can be fun - and whose sex life couldn't benefit from a little mental and physical flexibility?
Another year, another batch of resolutions: eat right, exercise more, pay bills on time etc. All good in theory, but potentially dull in practice.
In 2009, then, resolve to have better sex. According to a recent review article in the Dec. 3 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, sexually unsatisfied women who practiced the Eastern techniques of mindfulness and yoga reported improvements in levels of arousal and desire, as well as better orgasms. In addition, yoga has been found to effectively treat premature ejaculation in men.
Eastern practices have been touted as sexually beneficial for years - as the article states, the techniques have "their origin in the Kama Sutra of the fourth to sixth centuries."
But authors Lori A. Brotto of the University of British Columbia, Michael Krychman of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship Medicine, and Pamela Jacobson of The Healing Sanctuary in Tustin, Calif., think that recent research findings warrant increased attention, and respect, from Western medicine.
Mindfulness - an awareness of the present moment, also a key component in yoga - proved especially beneficial in a study, cited in the article, that asked women to study pennies in detail. The coins were then collected, and each woman was asked to find her original penny. Every woman was successful. "In our experience, (nearly) all women feel that they have a problem with remaining focused; they are highly distractible," the article states. "However, after this penny exercise, they accept the notion that they can focus their mind if they so choose." The study then went on to encourage body-awareness exercises, which eventually had a sexual goal.
Not all Eastern-based benefits manifest in the mind. The article cites another study from The Journal of Sexual Medicine, published in September 2007, in which 68 Indian men who suffered from premature ejaculation were given a choice of yoga-based, non-pharmacological treatment or Prozac. The men who practiced yoga for one hour each day "had both subjective and statistically significant improvements in their intra-ejaculatory latencies, similar to participants in the pharmacologic treatment group."
The article acknowledges that mindfulness and yoga are challenging, but they also can be fun - and whose sex life couldn't benefit from a little mental and physical flexibility?
Tech - Chinese software pirates get prison sentences
SAN FRANCISCO - The alleged ringleaders of a Chinese counterfeiting gang that sold at least $2 billion worth of bogus Microsoft Corp. software were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms of up to 6 1/2 years, in what is believed to be the harshest penalties yet under China's tightened piracy laws.
The punishments meted out against the 11 defendants, and announced by Microsoft Corp., could help China improve its image as a country that doesn't crack down hard enough on copyright violators, though the technology and entertainment industries still say China has a long way to go. The sentences ranged from 1 1/2 to 6 1/2 years, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
The fact that Microsoft, and not the Chinese courts, disclosed the sentences is not unusual. Lawyers are the only source of information in many cases in China because rulings often are not publicly announced. Court officials usually refuse to disclose details to reporters.
Microsoft calls the counterfeit software operation — which was headquartered in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and busted by Chinese authorities with FBI help in 2007 — the world's biggest phony-software syndicate.
The counterfeit software was found in 36 countries and 11 different languages. It was so sophisticated that it contained legitimate computer code written by Microsoft for programs such as Windows XP and Vista and Microsoft Office, but also had touches of the criminals' own coding as well. That was allegedly added to mimic security programs and fool users into believing the product was authentic.
Microsoft contends that much of the bogus software was detected by its Windows Genuine Advantage program, which is automatically installed on users' machines. It scans computers for pirated software and alerts people if it believes their products aren't properly licensed. The counterfeits were also discovered through customs seizures, test purchases by Microsoft, and resellers who alerted authorities to suspicious competitors.
"There were a number of things that made this case unique and striking, and among them are the fact that customers provided information, the reach of the syndicate was so international, and that Chinese law enforcement partnered so well with American law enforcement," David Finn, Microsoft's associate general counsel for worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting, said in an interview.
Software piracy is still rampant despite individual countries' attempts at cracking down. Research commissioned by the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group, found that 82 percent of the software used in China in 2007 was not legitimately purchased, more than double the worldwide piracy rate of 38 percent.
___
AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this story from Beijing.
The punishments meted out against the 11 defendants, and announced by Microsoft Corp., could help China improve its image as a country that doesn't crack down hard enough on copyright violators, though the technology and entertainment industries still say China has a long way to go. The sentences ranged from 1 1/2 to 6 1/2 years, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
The fact that Microsoft, and not the Chinese courts, disclosed the sentences is not unusual. Lawyers are the only source of information in many cases in China because rulings often are not publicly announced. Court officials usually refuse to disclose details to reporters.
Microsoft calls the counterfeit software operation — which was headquartered in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and busted by Chinese authorities with FBI help in 2007 — the world's biggest phony-software syndicate.
The counterfeit software was found in 36 countries and 11 different languages. It was so sophisticated that it contained legitimate computer code written by Microsoft for programs such as Windows XP and Vista and Microsoft Office, but also had touches of the criminals' own coding as well. That was allegedly added to mimic security programs and fool users into believing the product was authentic.
Microsoft contends that much of the bogus software was detected by its Windows Genuine Advantage program, which is automatically installed on users' machines. It scans computers for pirated software and alerts people if it believes their products aren't properly licensed. The counterfeits were also discovered through customs seizures, test purchases by Microsoft, and resellers who alerted authorities to suspicious competitors.
"There were a number of things that made this case unique and striking, and among them are the fact that customers provided information, the reach of the syndicate was so international, and that Chinese law enforcement partnered so well with American law enforcement," David Finn, Microsoft's associate general counsel for worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting, said in an interview.
Software piracy is still rampant despite individual countries' attempts at cracking down. Research commissioned by the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group, found that 82 percent of the software used in China in 2007 was not legitimately purchased, more than double the worldwide piracy rate of 38 percent.
___
AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this story from Beijing.
Tech - Report: Apple's Internet presence grows
The Mac operating system in December made a stronger showing among users accessing the Web, according to preliminary figures from Net Applications.Fortune's report on Net Applications' findings, which are based on browser data. The iPhone's toehold also is a record, more than tripling its December 2007 figure of 0.12 percent.
Windows continues to be the elephant in the room. It accounted for 88.68 percent of Web hits, according to the Operating System Market Share chart on the Net Applications site.
Third place went to the Linux operating system, with 0.85 percent. Other free or open-source operating systems, including FreeBSD and AIX, each accounted for 0.01 percent or less.
One caveat from Net Applications:
The December holiday season strongly favored residential over business usage. This in turn increases the relative usage share of Mac, Firefox, Safari and other products that have relatively high residential usage.
As the Fortune account points out, "Hidden in these monthly figures are the sharp spikes recorded by Apple's mobile devices around the holidays."
Net Applications accumulates its data from 160 million monthly visitors to its network of hosted Web site statistics
Windows continues to be the elephant in the room. It accounted for 88.68 percent of Web hits, according to the Operating System Market Share chart on the Net Applications site.
Third place went to the Linux operating system, with 0.85 percent. Other free or open-source operating systems, including FreeBSD and AIX, each accounted for 0.01 percent or less.
One caveat from Net Applications:
The December holiday season strongly favored residential over business usage. This in turn increases the relative usage share of Mac, Firefox, Safari and other products that have relatively high residential usage.
As the Fortune account points out, "Hidden in these monthly figures are the sharp spikes recorded by Apple's mobile devices around the holidays."
Net Applications accumulates its data from 160 million monthly visitors to its network of hosted Web site statistics
World - China dairy firms plead for forgiveness in New Year
BEIJING (Reuters) – Please forgive us, a group of Chinese dairy firms said in a New Year text message sent to millions of mobile phone subscribers.
The 22 dairy firms, led by the now-bankrupt Sanlu, apologized and asked forgiveness for the contamination of their products by melamine, which killed at least six babies and made 290,000 ill.
Melamine, an industrial compound used in plastic and fertilizer, was added to milk to cheat protein tests.
The chairwoman of Sanlu, Tian Wenhua, and three other company executives are on trial at a court in northern China for the contamination. Tian, who pleaded guilty, is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment although the verdict may not be reached for several weeks, the Beijing News said Friday.
"We are deeply sorry for the harm caused to the children and the society," the text message read.
"We sincerely apologize for that and we beg your forgiveness."
Another 17 people involved in producing, selling, buying and adding melamine in raw milk have gone on trial in the last week.
Sanlu said it discovered the problem and reported it to local authorities in Hebei Province on August 2, just days before the Olympic Games began in Beijing.
But nothing became public until early September, when the New Zealand government said it brought complaints by Sanlu's partner, Fonterra, to the attention of the Chinese government. Meanwhile, clusters of babies ill with kidney stones had cropped up in Chinese hospitals.
"If we were in Europe or another country, it wouldn't be a question of apologies, it would be a question of legal responsibility," said Beijinger Shi Zhiqing.
(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Lucy Hornby, Editing by Dean Yates)
The 22 dairy firms, led by the now-bankrupt Sanlu, apologized and asked forgiveness for the contamination of their products by melamine, which killed at least six babies and made 290,000 ill.
Melamine, an industrial compound used in plastic and fertilizer, was added to milk to cheat protein tests.
The chairwoman of Sanlu, Tian Wenhua, and three other company executives are on trial at a court in northern China for the contamination. Tian, who pleaded guilty, is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment although the verdict may not be reached for several weeks, the Beijing News said Friday.
"We are deeply sorry for the harm caused to the children and the society," the text message read.
"We sincerely apologize for that and we beg your forgiveness."
Another 17 people involved in producing, selling, buying and adding melamine in raw milk have gone on trial in the last week.
Sanlu said it discovered the problem and reported it to local authorities in Hebei Province on August 2, just days before the Olympic Games began in Beijing.
But nothing became public until early September, when the New Zealand government said it brought complaints by Sanlu's partner, Fonterra, to the attention of the Chinese government. Meanwhile, clusters of babies ill with kidney stones had cropped up in Chinese hospitals.
"If we were in Europe or another country, it wouldn't be a question of apologies, it would be a question of legal responsibility," said Beijinger Shi Zhiqing.
(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Lucy Hornby, Editing by Dean Yates)
Business - Time Warner Could Lose MTV, Nickelodeon
Have you vowed to watch less television in 2009? Time Warner Cable might be able to help you with that.
The cable provider is currently locked in a dispute with Viacom over licensing fees for access to channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. If it goes unresolved, Time Warner customers could see their Viacom channels go dark at midnight.
"The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks," according to a statement from Viacom. "We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks' channels."
Viacom wants the rate hike because Time Warner "has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long," the company said. "Our fees amount to less than 2.5 percent of what Time Warner generates from their average customer."
Time Warner accused Viacom of extortion, and said the move was an attempt to make up for declining ad dollars.
"Viacom claims their demands equate to 'pennies,' but that is misleading and insulting to our customers, from whom Viacom is trying to extort another $39 million annually – on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars our customers already pay to Viacom each year," Time Warner said in a statement.
"We sympathize with the fact that Viacom's advertising business is suffering and that their networks' ratings have largely been declining" but not when it affects TWC customers, the company continued. "If every channel demanded huge, double-digit increases like what Viacom is trying to force our customers to pay, it would be impossible to keep the price of cable reasonable for our customers." Time Warner already announced a separate rate hike between $3 and $5 in 2009.
Viacom claims that it has secured 2009 licensing renewals "with virtually every cable and satellite carrier" except Time Warner. "As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1, denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills," Viacom said.
Time Warner has a presence in 33 states, and had 13.4 million basic video subscribers and 7.7 million digital video subscribers as of June 30, 2007.
Time Warner asked Viacom to extend its current deal while negotiations continue, but Viacom declined, according to TWC.
Viacom's holdings include UPN, The Paramount Channel, more than a dozen MTV channels, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel.
The cable provider is currently locked in a dispute with Viacom over licensing fees for access to channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central. If it goes unresolved, Time Warner customers could see their Viacom channels go dark at midnight.
"The renewal we are seeking is reasonable and modest relative to the profits TWC enjoys from our networks," according to a statement from Viacom. "We have asked for an increase of less than 25 cents per month, per subscriber, which adds up to less than a penny per day for all 19 of MTV Networks' channels."
Viacom wants the rate hike because Time Warner "has so greatly undervalued our channels for so long," the company said. "Our fees amount to less than 2.5 percent of what Time Warner generates from their average customer."
Time Warner accused Viacom of extortion, and said the move was an attempt to make up for declining ad dollars.
"Viacom claims their demands equate to 'pennies,' but that is misleading and insulting to our customers, from whom Viacom is trying to extort another $39 million annually – on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars our customers already pay to Viacom each year," Time Warner said in a statement.
"We sympathize with the fact that Viacom's advertising business is suffering and that their networks' ratings have largely been declining" but not when it affects TWC customers, the company continued. "If every channel demanded huge, double-digit increases like what Viacom is trying to force our customers to pay, it would be impossible to keep the price of cable reasonable for our customers." Time Warner already announced a separate rate hike between $3 and $5 in 2009.
Viacom claims that it has secured 2009 licensing renewals "with virtually every cable and satellite carrier" except Time Warner. "As a result, we are sorry to say that for Time Warner Cable customers our networks will go dark as of 12:01 on January 1, denying Time Warner customers shows like Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and The Hills," Viacom said.
Time Warner has a presence in 33 states, and had 13.4 million basic video subscribers and 7.7 million digital video subscribers as of June 30, 2007.
Time Warner asked Viacom to extend its current deal while negotiations continue, but Viacom declined, according to TWC.
Viacom's holdings include UPN, The Paramount Channel, more than a dozen MTV channels, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel.
Science - Fathering sons or daughters may be in men's genes
Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A UK researcher has a new explanation for how the human race manages to keep a fairly even balance of males and females, despite massive deaths of young males in war and selective abortion of female fetuses in certain parts of the world.
Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at Newcastle University, proposes that there's a gene that determines whether a man will father more sons, more daughters, or equal numbers of each. When females are in short supply, they have a better chance of snagging a mate, and are thus more likely to pass the gene for fathering daughters on to their offspring. And when men are scarce, they have a better chance of mating and passing along the gene for having sons.
"It's kind of a counterbalancing mechanism," Gellatly explained in an interview. "You can't get a population that becomes too skewed toward males or too skewed toward females."
The ratio of male to female births jumped significantly at the end of each of the world wars in countries involved in the fighting. A number of hypotheses have been floated to explain why. One idea is that returning soldiers have extra-frequent sex with their partners, which could lead to fertilization earlier in the menstrual cycle, possibly making male births more likely. Another hypothesis holds that larger males are more likely to survive wars and more likely to father boys.
After sorting through 927 family trees from North America and Europe, including 556,387 people in all, Gellatly proposes another explanation.
In an article published online in the journal Evolutionary Biology, the researcher suggests that men carry a gene that controls their ratio of X to Y sperm, and thus the likelihood of their fathering sons or daughters. Women carry the gene as well and pass it along, but do not express it.
Gellatly made a computer model simulating how the gene would act over 500 generations, and also examined whether offspring sex ratios in the real-life family trees supported his hypothesis. Both experiments bore out his idea of a gene for gender.
The gender gene appears to be very ancient, Gellatly said, and is possibly carried by any species -- plant or animal -- that reproduces sexually rather than asexually.
Almost all of our genes come in pairs, with one being inherited from each parent. Gellatly hypothesizes that the gender-controlling gene comes in a "male" and "female" version, with three possible combinations of the two. A man could have a "male-male" gene, which would promote the formation of Y sperm; a "male-female" gene, which would cause him to produce about the same number of X and Y sperm; and a "female-female" gene, which would cause him to make more X sperm. "The structure of the proposed gene is essentially very basic, and its function is simply to say 'produce more boys' or 'produce more girls,'" Gellatly explains.
The gene makes fathering offspring of a particular gender more likely but not a certainty, he adds, and inheritance from father to son is diluted by the part of the gene that the mother contributes. "It's a fairly small effect. If it was a larger effect, it would have been noticed before."
Gellatly's theory can also explain why an increase in boy births may be seen after a war. Families with more sons will be more likely to have surviving male children, who can pass along their genes, while families with fewer male offspring are less likely to have surviving sons.
SOURCE: Evolutionary Biology, published online December 11, 2008.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A UK researcher has a new explanation for how the human race manages to keep a fairly even balance of males and females, despite massive deaths of young males in war and selective abortion of female fetuses in certain parts of the world.
Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at Newcastle University, proposes that there's a gene that determines whether a man will father more sons, more daughters, or equal numbers of each. When females are in short supply, they have a better chance of snagging a mate, and are thus more likely to pass the gene for fathering daughters on to their offspring. And when men are scarce, they have a better chance of mating and passing along the gene for having sons.
"It's kind of a counterbalancing mechanism," Gellatly explained in an interview. "You can't get a population that becomes too skewed toward males or too skewed toward females."
The ratio of male to female births jumped significantly at the end of each of the world wars in countries involved in the fighting. A number of hypotheses have been floated to explain why. One idea is that returning soldiers have extra-frequent sex with their partners, which could lead to fertilization earlier in the menstrual cycle, possibly making male births more likely. Another hypothesis holds that larger males are more likely to survive wars and more likely to father boys.
After sorting through 927 family trees from North America and Europe, including 556,387 people in all, Gellatly proposes another explanation.
In an article published online in the journal Evolutionary Biology, the researcher suggests that men carry a gene that controls their ratio of X to Y sperm, and thus the likelihood of their fathering sons or daughters. Women carry the gene as well and pass it along, but do not express it.
Gellatly made a computer model simulating how the gene would act over 500 generations, and also examined whether offspring sex ratios in the real-life family trees supported his hypothesis. Both experiments bore out his idea of a gene for gender.
The gender gene appears to be very ancient, Gellatly said, and is possibly carried by any species -- plant or animal -- that reproduces sexually rather than asexually.
Almost all of our genes come in pairs, with one being inherited from each parent. Gellatly hypothesizes that the gender-controlling gene comes in a "male" and "female" version, with three possible combinations of the two. A man could have a "male-male" gene, which would promote the formation of Y sperm; a "male-female" gene, which would cause him to produce about the same number of X and Y sperm; and a "female-female" gene, which would cause him to make more X sperm. "The structure of the proposed gene is essentially very basic, and its function is simply to say 'produce more boys' or 'produce more girls,'" Gellatly explains.
The gene makes fathering offspring of a particular gender more likely but not a certainty, he adds, and inheritance from father to son is diluted by the part of the gene that the mother contributes. "It's a fairly small effect. If it was a larger effect, it would have been noticed before."
Gellatly's theory can also explain why an increase in boy births may be seen after a war. Families with more sons will be more likely to have surviving male children, who can pass along their genes, while families with fewer male offspring are less likely to have surviving sons.
SOURCE: Evolutionary Biology, published online December 11, 2008.
Business - U.S. steel industry urges "buy America" recovery plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The ailing U.S. steel industry is pressing President-elect Barack Obama for a public works plan that could be worth $1 trillion over two years to boost flagging demand for U.S.-made steel, the New York Times reported in Friday's editions.
Daniel DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of Nucor Corp, a giant steel maker, told the paper the industry was asking the incoming administration to "deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a 'buy America' clause."
The industry supports building mass transit systems, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals and water treatment plants -- all of which would require large amounts of steel.
"We are sharing with the president-elect's transition team our thoughts in terms of the industry's policy priorities," Nancy Gravatt, a spokeswoman for the American Iron and Steel Institute, was quoted as saying.
Obama, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, has not revealed details of his soon-to-be-announced plan for spurring the weakest economy since the Great Depression more than 70 years ago. Aides have indicated most of the package will probably go into infrastructure spending rather than tax breaks.
"If the president-elect really follows through, he'll fund a lot of mass transit projects," said Wilbur Ross, a Wall Street dealmaker who put together a steel conglomerate known as Arcelor Mittal USA.
"All the big cities have these projects ready to go."
Since September, U.S. steel output has plunged about 50 percent to its lowest point since the 1980s, largely because construction and auto production have fallen sharply.
The fall-off in production of appliances, machinery and other electrical equipment has also reduced steel orders, sending the price of a ton of steel down by half since late summer.
Industry executives are "adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program of up to $1 trillion over two years," the Times reported.
Imports, which account for about 30 percent of all steel sales in the United States, are also hurting as customers disappear, the paper said.
(Reporting by Jim Wolf; editing by Todd Eastham)
Daniel DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of Nucor Corp, a giant steel maker, told the paper the industry was asking the incoming administration to "deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a 'buy America' clause."
The industry supports building mass transit systems, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals and water treatment plants -- all of which would require large amounts of steel.
"We are sharing with the president-elect's transition team our thoughts in terms of the industry's policy priorities," Nancy Gravatt, a spokeswoman for the American Iron and Steel Institute, was quoted as saying.
Obama, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, has not revealed details of his soon-to-be-announced plan for spurring the weakest economy since the Great Depression more than 70 years ago. Aides have indicated most of the package will probably go into infrastructure spending rather than tax breaks.
"If the president-elect really follows through, he'll fund a lot of mass transit projects," said Wilbur Ross, a Wall Street dealmaker who put together a steel conglomerate known as Arcelor Mittal USA.
"All the big cities have these projects ready to go."
Since September, U.S. steel output has plunged about 50 percent to its lowest point since the 1980s, largely because construction and auto production have fallen sharply.
The fall-off in production of appliances, machinery and other electrical equipment has also reduced steel orders, sending the price of a ton of steel down by half since late summer.
Industry executives are "adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program of up to $1 trillion over two years," the Times reported.
Imports, which account for about 30 percent of all steel sales in the United States, are also hurting as customers disappear, the paper said.
(Reporting by Jim Wolf; editing by Todd Eastham)
World - US readying south Afghan surge against Taliban
Jason Straziuso & Rahim Faiez
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into southern Afghanistan to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.
The new troops will augment the 12,500 NATO soldiers — mainly British, Canadian and Dutch — in what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq.
New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.
And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries — Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.
For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.
He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.
"By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game," Nicholson said.
The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan.
Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.
U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that Afghanistan could get up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in 2009, depending on the security situation in Iraq. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said Monday that one ground brigade should arrive by spring, a second by summer and a third by fall.
Nicholson said he expects the U.S. forces to be deployed in Kandahar city and along vital Highway 1, which links Kandahar to Kabul, and in neighboring Helmand province, the world's largest producer of opium poppies for heroin.
NATO forces are well positioned in three key areas of northern Helmand, said British Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, deputy commander of the NATO's Afghan mission.
"What we have not yet achieved is to join those areas up, so there is a security presence that allows locals to drive safely between those areas. That's the sort of thing we are going to want to improve," he said.
Since 2006, the U.S. has concentrated its forces in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, while the south is policed by 8,500 British troops, 2,500 Canadians and 2,500 Dutch.
Their overall commander is Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif — who would also have command of any incoming U.S. forces in the south next year. By the fall of 2010 the top officer in the south will be American.
The infusion of U.S. power risks Americanizing a war that until now has been a shared mission of 41 coalition countries. But Dutton, the British general, suggested there was no choice. "It has to do with national capacity and a number of political considerations in those countries," he said.
In Canada and many European countries, governments face low public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan combat zones.
Dutton said the British contribution is "significant," as well as that of Canada, which he noted has lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other nation.
Nicholson, the U.S. general, said the Canadians have fought "heroically" but simply don't have enough forces to secure all of Kandahar. The Canadian Embassy declined to comment.
More U.S. troops — 151 — died in Afghanistan in 2008 than any of the seven years since the invasion to oust the Taliban, and U.S. officials warn violence will probably intensify next year.
"If we get the troops, they're going to move into areas that haven't been secured, and when we do that, the enemy is there, and we're going to fight," said Nicholson, who spent 16 months commanding a brigade of 10th Mountain Division troops in eastern Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.
That fighting should eventually clear the way for security and governance to take hold, he said.
"If you want to summarize that as it's going to get worse before it gets better, that's exactly what we're talking about," he said.
___
Straziuso reported from Kabul, and Faiez from Kandahar.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into southern Afghanistan to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.
The new troops will augment the 12,500 NATO soldiers — mainly British, Canadian and Dutch — in what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq.
New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.
And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries — Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.
For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.
He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.
"By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game," Nicholson said.
The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan.
Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.
U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that Afghanistan could get up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in 2009, depending on the security situation in Iraq. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said Monday that one ground brigade should arrive by spring, a second by summer and a third by fall.
Nicholson said he expects the U.S. forces to be deployed in Kandahar city and along vital Highway 1, which links Kandahar to Kabul, and in neighboring Helmand province, the world's largest producer of opium poppies for heroin.
NATO forces are well positioned in three key areas of northern Helmand, said British Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, deputy commander of the NATO's Afghan mission.
"What we have not yet achieved is to join those areas up, so there is a security presence that allows locals to drive safely between those areas. That's the sort of thing we are going to want to improve," he said.
Since 2006, the U.S. has concentrated its forces in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, while the south is policed by 8,500 British troops, 2,500 Canadians and 2,500 Dutch.
Their overall commander is Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif — who would also have command of any incoming U.S. forces in the south next year. By the fall of 2010 the top officer in the south will be American.
The infusion of U.S. power risks Americanizing a war that until now has been a shared mission of 41 coalition countries. But Dutton, the British general, suggested there was no choice. "It has to do with national capacity and a number of political considerations in those countries," he said.
In Canada and many European countries, governments face low public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan combat zones.
Dutton said the British contribution is "significant," as well as that of Canada, which he noted has lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other nation.
Nicholson, the U.S. general, said the Canadians have fought "heroically" but simply don't have enough forces to secure all of Kandahar. The Canadian Embassy declined to comment.
More U.S. troops — 151 — died in Afghanistan in 2008 than any of the seven years since the invasion to oust the Taliban, and U.S. officials warn violence will probably intensify next year.
"If we get the troops, they're going to move into areas that haven't been secured, and when we do that, the enemy is there, and we're going to fight," said Nicholson, who spent 16 months commanding a brigade of 10th Mountain Division troops in eastern Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.
That fighting should eventually clear the way for security and governance to take hold, he said.
"If you want to summarize that as it's going to get worse before it gets better, that's exactly what we're talking about," he said.
___
Straziuso reported from Kabul, and Faiez from Kandahar.
Science - Exploiting nature to cut mosquitoes life short
Lauran Neergaard
WASHINGTON – Old mosquitoes usually spread disease, so Australian researchers figured out a way to make the pests die younger — naturally, not poisoned. Scientists have been racing to genetically engineer mosquitoes to become resistant to diseases like malaria and dengue fever that plague millions around the world, as an alternative to mass spraying of insecticides. A new report Friday suggested a potentially less complicated approach: Breeding mosquitoes to carry an insect parasite that causes earlier death.
Once a mosquito encounters dengue or malaria, it takes roughly two weeks of incubation before the insect can spread that pathogen by biting someone, meaning older mosquitoes are the more dangerous ones.
The Australian scientists knew that one type of fruit fly often is infected with a strain of bacterial parasite that cuts its lifespan in half.
So they infected the mosquito species that spreads dengue fever — called Aedes aegypti — with that fruit-fly parasite, breeding several generations in a tightly controlled laboratory.
Voila: Mosquitoes born with the parasite lived only 21 days — even in cozy lab conditions — compared to 50 days for regular mosquitoes, University of Queensland biologist Scott O'Neill reported in the journal Science.
Mosquitoes tend to die sooner in the wild than in a lab. So if the parasite could spread widely enough among these mosquitoes, it "may provide an inexpensive approach to dengue control," O'Neill concluded.
Theoretically, it could spread: This bacterium, called Wolbachia, is quite common among arthropod species, including some mosquito types — just not the specific types that spread dengue and malaria, the researchers noted. And Wolbachia strains are inherited only through infected mothers, with an evolutionary quirk that can help them quickly gain a foothold in a new population.
Next month, O'Neill's team begins longer studies in special North Queensland mosquito facilities that better mimic natural conditions to see how well the wMelPop strain persists as more mosquitoes are born, and what happens when they're exposed to dengue.
"By killing old mosquitoes, wMelPop could thus impact on dengue transmission," Pennsylvania State University specialists Andrew Read and Matthew Thomas concluded in an editorial accompanying the work, which they called "a major step."
It's possible that dengue viruses could evolve to incubate more rapidly if their mosquito hosts die younger, they noted, although that likely would be less of a problem than today's insecticide resistance.
Still, "determining whether it can remove enough infectious mosquitoes to be useful will be a challenge," the duo cautioned.
WASHINGTON – Old mosquitoes usually spread disease, so Australian researchers figured out a way to make the pests die younger — naturally, not poisoned. Scientists have been racing to genetically engineer mosquitoes to become resistant to diseases like malaria and dengue fever that plague millions around the world, as an alternative to mass spraying of insecticides. A new report Friday suggested a potentially less complicated approach: Breeding mosquitoes to carry an insect parasite that causes earlier death.
Once a mosquito encounters dengue or malaria, it takes roughly two weeks of incubation before the insect can spread that pathogen by biting someone, meaning older mosquitoes are the more dangerous ones.
The Australian scientists knew that one type of fruit fly often is infected with a strain of bacterial parasite that cuts its lifespan in half.
So they infected the mosquito species that spreads dengue fever — called Aedes aegypti — with that fruit-fly parasite, breeding several generations in a tightly controlled laboratory.
Voila: Mosquitoes born with the parasite lived only 21 days — even in cozy lab conditions — compared to 50 days for regular mosquitoes, University of Queensland biologist Scott O'Neill reported in the journal Science.
Mosquitoes tend to die sooner in the wild than in a lab. So if the parasite could spread widely enough among these mosquitoes, it "may provide an inexpensive approach to dengue control," O'Neill concluded.
Theoretically, it could spread: This bacterium, called Wolbachia, is quite common among arthropod species, including some mosquito types — just not the specific types that spread dengue and malaria, the researchers noted. And Wolbachia strains are inherited only through infected mothers, with an evolutionary quirk that can help them quickly gain a foothold in a new population.
Next month, O'Neill's team begins longer studies in special North Queensland mosquito facilities that better mimic natural conditions to see how well the wMelPop strain persists as more mosquitoes are born, and what happens when they're exposed to dengue.
"By killing old mosquitoes, wMelPop could thus impact on dengue transmission," Pennsylvania State University specialists Andrew Read and Matthew Thomas concluded in an editorial accompanying the work, which they called "a major step."
It's possible that dengue viruses could evolve to incubate more rapidly if their mosquito hosts die younger, they noted, although that likely would be less of a problem than today's insecticide resistance.
Still, "determining whether it can remove enough infectious mosquitoes to be useful will be a challenge," the duo cautioned.
Business - Report: Toyota developing solar powered green car
Yuri Kageyama
TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.
The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.
The solar car is part of efforts by Japan's top automaker to grow during hard times, The Nikkei said.
In December, Toyota stunned the nation by announcing it will slip into its first operating loss in 70 years, as it gets battered by a global slump, especially in the key U.S. market. The surging yen has also hurt the earnings of Japanese automakers.
Still, Toyota is a leader in green technology and executives have stressed they won't cut back on environmental research despite its troubles.
Toyota, the manufacturer of the Lexus luxury car and Camry sedan, has already begun using solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan to produce some of its own electricity.
The solar panels on the roofs add up in size to the equivalent of 60 tennis courts and produce enough electricity to power 500 homes, according to Toyota. That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions and is equal to using 1,500 barrels of crude oil.
Toyota is also likely to indirectly gain expertise in solar energy when its partner in developing and producing hybrid batteries, Panasonic Corp., takes over Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co., a leader in solar energy, early next year.
TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.
The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.
The solar car is part of efforts by Japan's top automaker to grow during hard times, The Nikkei said.
In December, Toyota stunned the nation by announcing it will slip into its first operating loss in 70 years, as it gets battered by a global slump, especially in the key U.S. market. The surging yen has also hurt the earnings of Japanese automakers.
Still, Toyota is a leader in green technology and executives have stressed they won't cut back on environmental research despite its troubles.
Toyota, the manufacturer of the Lexus luxury car and Camry sedan, has already begun using solar panels at its Tsutsumi plant in central Japan to produce some of its own electricity.
The solar panels on the roofs add up in size to the equivalent of 60 tennis courts and produce enough electricity to power 500 homes, according to Toyota. That reduces 740 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions and is equal to using 1,500 barrels of crude oil.
Toyota is also likely to indirectly gain expertise in solar energy when its partner in developing and producing hybrid batteries, Panasonic Corp., takes over Japanese rival Sanyo Electric Co., a leader in solar energy, early next year.
World - US;Panel wants fuel taxes hiked to fund highways
Joan Lowy
WASHINGTON – A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.
With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.
In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel fuel tax by 12 to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.
The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.
A tax increase on this order would be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress — a gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising gas taxes in the current economic climate. But commission members said the government must find the money somewhere.
"I'm not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn't pay for upkeep of the system we have now," said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. "We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more."
The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.
According to a draft of the financing commission's recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.
"Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system," said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington.
A study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies estimated that the annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, and will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.
Projected shortfalls in revenue led the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, in a report issued in January 2008, to call for an increase of as much as 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax, phased in over five years.
Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.
Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.
"Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax," Whittington said. "As long as we label it as something else we may have the momentum and acceptance to move forward."
Bottlenecks around the nation cost the trucking industry about 243 million lost truck hours and about $7.8 billion per year, according to the commission.
The financing commission thinks the long-term solution is a mileage-based revenue system. While details have not been worked out, such a system would mean equipping every car and truck with a device that uses global positioning satellites and transponders to record how many miles the vehicle has been driven, the type of roads and time of day. Creation and installation of such a system would take about 10 years.
Moore said commission members were initially concerned that using technology to track driving might violate drivers' privacy, but they've been assured that such a system could be designed to prevent vehicles from being "tracked in some big brotherish way."
WASHINGTON – A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.
With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.
In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel fuel tax by 12 to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.
The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.
A tax increase on this order would be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress — a gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising gas taxes in the current economic climate. But commission members said the government must find the money somewhere.
"I'm not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn't pay for upkeep of the system we have now," said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. "We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more."
The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.
According to a draft of the financing commission's recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.
"Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system," said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington.
A study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies estimated that the annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, and will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.
Projected shortfalls in revenue led the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, in a report issued in January 2008, to call for an increase of as much as 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax, phased in over five years.
Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.
Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.
"Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax," Whittington said. "As long as we label it as something else we may have the momentum and acceptance to move forward."
Bottlenecks around the nation cost the trucking industry about 243 million lost truck hours and about $7.8 billion per year, according to the commission.
The financing commission thinks the long-term solution is a mileage-based revenue system. While details have not been worked out, such a system would mean equipping every car and truck with a device that uses global positioning satellites and transponders to record how many miles the vehicle has been driven, the type of roads and time of day. Creation and installation of such a system would take about 10 years.
Moore said commission members were initially concerned that using technology to track driving might violate drivers' privacy, but they've been assured that such a system could be designed to prevent vehicles from being "tracked in some big brotherish way."
Tech - MS's Zune conks off
SAN FRANCISCO: Happy New Year from Microsoft Corp: Your Zune is dead.
Thousands of Microsoft's Zune media players — the software company's answer to Apple Inc's iPod — unexpectedly conked out on Wednesday and showed users an error message, prompting references to "Y2K for Zunes." The problems appeared when people tried to start up their devices.
Frustrated users lit up Microsoft's online support forum for Zunes with more than 2,500 messages by Wednesday afternoon.
Late Wednesday, the Redmond, Washington-based company said the outage affected only the 30-gigabyte Zune models and was caused by a problem with their internal clock. Microsoft expected the problem to clear up as the clocks ticked over to January 1, though users will have to jump through some hoops to get their Zunes back to normal, including letting the batteries die down completely before the devices will restart successfully.
The crash of so many Zunes at once drew comparisons to the Y2K programming problem that stoked fears about a widespread computer meltdown in 2000 when the machines ticked over to the new millennium.
Zunes have paltry popularity compared the iPod, which owns nearly three-quarters of the MP3 market, compared with Zune's single-digit market share, according to statistics from the NPD Group. But some users are fiercely loyal, and newer Zunes have gotten positive reviews.
Thousands of Microsoft's Zune media players — the software company's answer to Apple Inc's iPod — unexpectedly conked out on Wednesday and showed users an error message, prompting references to "Y2K for Zunes." The problems appeared when people tried to start up their devices.
Frustrated users lit up Microsoft's online support forum for Zunes with more than 2,500 messages by Wednesday afternoon.
Late Wednesday, the Redmond, Washington-based company said the outage affected only the 30-gigabyte Zune models and was caused by a problem with their internal clock. Microsoft expected the problem to clear up as the clocks ticked over to January 1, though users will have to jump through some hoops to get their Zunes back to normal, including letting the batteries die down completely before the devices will restart successfully.
The crash of so many Zunes at once drew comparisons to the Y2K programming problem that stoked fears about a widespread computer meltdown in 2000 when the machines ticked over to the new millennium.
Zunes have paltry popularity compared the iPod, which owns nearly three-quarters of the MP3 market, compared with Zune's single-digit market share, according to statistics from the NPD Group. But some users are fiercely loyal, and newer Zunes have gotten positive reviews.
Mktg - Nokia India announces 'Take Back'
NEW DELHI: Nokia India has said that it will launch its 'take-back' campaign from January 1. The take-back campaign is aimed at educating mobile p
hone users on the importance of recycling e-waste and will be rolled out in phases across the country.
As a part of this initiative, Nokia encourage mobile phone users to dispose their used handsets and accessories such as charges and handsets, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins set up across Nokia Priority Dealers and Nokia Care Centers.
A Nokia survey across 13 countries has showed that only a mere 17 per cent of the cellular users in India were aware that the handset could be recycled. The awareness quotient was the lowest in India. "The company will be planting a tree for every handset dropped into these recycling bins and giving out a surprise gift as well," Nokia said in a statement.
The highlight of the survey was that despite the fact that people on an average each owned around five phones; very few of these were being recycled once they are no longer used. Only 3 per cent said they had recycled their old phone.
Instead the majority, 44 per cent, are simply being kept at homes and never used. Others are giving their mobiles another life in different ways, passing on their old phones to friends or family or by selling their used devices.
Globally, half of those surveyed didn't know phones could be recycled like this, with awareness lowest in India at 17 per cent and Indonesia at 29 per cent, and highest in the UK at 80 per cent and 66 per cent in Finland and Sweden.
"The take-back campaign aims to increase awareness of the concept of recycling. If people no longer need their mobile devices, they can bring it back to Nokia for recycling and it can put it to good use - 100 percent of the materials in the phones can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy," the company statement added.
According to Nokia India's VP and managing director D Shivakumar, the campaign offered the company an unique opportunity to make an impact that goes beyond its own business. "Our vision is a world where everyone being connected can contribute to sustainable development. As responsible leaders, we want to drive best practices in our industry. Achieving environmental leadership means minimising our own environmental footprint and encouraging recycling is a step in this direction," he added.
hone users on the importance of recycling e-waste and will be rolled out in phases across the country.
As a part of this initiative, Nokia encourage mobile phone users to dispose their used handsets and accessories such as charges and handsets, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins set up across Nokia Priority Dealers and Nokia Care Centers.
A Nokia survey across 13 countries has showed that only a mere 17 per cent of the cellular users in India were aware that the handset could be recycled. The awareness quotient was the lowest in India. "The company will be planting a tree for every handset dropped into these recycling bins and giving out a surprise gift as well," Nokia said in a statement.
The highlight of the survey was that despite the fact that people on an average each owned around five phones; very few of these were being recycled once they are no longer used. Only 3 per cent said they had recycled their old phone.
Instead the majority, 44 per cent, are simply being kept at homes and never used. Others are giving their mobiles another life in different ways, passing on their old phones to friends or family or by selling their used devices.
Globally, half of those surveyed didn't know phones could be recycled like this, with awareness lowest in India at 17 per cent and Indonesia at 29 per cent, and highest in the UK at 80 per cent and 66 per cent in Finland and Sweden.
"The take-back campaign aims to increase awareness of the concept of recycling. If people no longer need their mobile devices, they can bring it back to Nokia for recycling and it can put it to good use - 100 percent of the materials in the phones can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy," the company statement added.
According to Nokia India's VP and managing director D Shivakumar, the campaign offered the company an unique opportunity to make an impact that goes beyond its own business. "Our vision is a world where everyone being connected can contribute to sustainable development. As responsible leaders, we want to drive best practices in our industry. Achieving environmental leadership means minimising our own environmental footprint and encouraging recycling is a step in this direction," he added.
Tech - Apple may unveil cheaper iPhone
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc will probably begin selling a lower-priced version of the iPhone in the first half of 2009, tapping a new chipmaker for a
key component, according to Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.
Qualcomm Inc will replace Infineon Technologies AG as the supplier of the baseband processor -- the chip that translates radio signals into voice and data -- in the new model, analyst Craig Berger said in a report. The phone might debut in the second quarter, he said, citing unidentified industry sources.
Apple may be turning to lower-cost products to fuel sales in developing countries as the US economy shrinks. The company is planning a smaller version of its Shuffle music player and a cheaper MacBook laptop, Berger said. None of the devices is likely to be ready to be unveiled at next week’s Macworld conference, where Apple typically makes product announcements.
“Mobile phone sales figures will continue to grow worldwide in 2009 and most of that growth will come from developing countries,” said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at Grigsby & Associates, a New York-based securities trading firm that owns Apple shares.
“Turning the iPhone into a product line by adding another device for the lower end of the market is the next logical phase.”
Jennifer Bowcock, Apple’s spokeswoman for the iPhone, didn’t immediately return a call or email seeking comment. San Diego-based Qualcomm’s Bertha Agia also didn’t immediately return a phone call.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy
Apple currently sells two versions of the iPhone, an 8GB model for $199 and a 16GB device for $299. Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retail chain, began offering the product last week, with its starting price at $197. Best Buy Co, the biggest electronics seller in the US, sells the phone for $189.99 and $289.99.
Berger, who contacted parts suppliers, also said that Apple made fewer iPhones in the fourth quarter than originally estimated. That shortfall will be partially offset by greater first-quarter output, he said. About 10 million phones were available for purchase in the fourth quarter, he estimates.
Apple said this month that chief executive officer Steve Jobs won’t appear at the Macworld show, fuelling speculation that the company doesn’t have a significant new product to offer.
Apple will probably use the event to show updated versions of its aluminum-cased iMac desktop computers and a new operating system, Brian Marshall, an analyst at
Broadpoint.AmTech in San Francisco, said.
key component, according to Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.
Qualcomm Inc will replace Infineon Technologies AG as the supplier of the baseband processor -- the chip that translates radio signals into voice and data -- in the new model, analyst Craig Berger said in a report. The phone might debut in the second quarter, he said, citing unidentified industry sources.
Apple may be turning to lower-cost products to fuel sales in developing countries as the US economy shrinks. The company is planning a smaller version of its Shuffle music player and a cheaper MacBook laptop, Berger said. None of the devices is likely to be ready to be unveiled at next week’s Macworld conference, where Apple typically makes product announcements.
“Mobile phone sales figures will continue to grow worldwide in 2009 and most of that growth will come from developing countries,” said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at Grigsby & Associates, a New York-based securities trading firm that owns Apple shares.
“Turning the iPhone into a product line by adding another device for the lower end of the market is the next logical phase.”
Jennifer Bowcock, Apple’s spokeswoman for the iPhone, didn’t immediately return a call or email seeking comment. San Diego-based Qualcomm’s Bertha Agia also didn’t immediately return a phone call.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy
Apple currently sells two versions of the iPhone, an 8GB model for $199 and a 16GB device for $299. Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retail chain, began offering the product last week, with its starting price at $197. Best Buy Co, the biggest electronics seller in the US, sells the phone for $189.99 and $289.99.
Berger, who contacted parts suppliers, also said that Apple made fewer iPhones in the fourth quarter than originally estimated. That shortfall will be partially offset by greater first-quarter output, he said. About 10 million phones were available for purchase in the fourth quarter, he estimates.
Apple said this month that chief executive officer Steve Jobs won’t appear at the Macworld show, fuelling speculation that the company doesn’t have a significant new product to offer.
Apple will probably use the event to show updated versions of its aluminum-cased iMac desktop computers and a new operating system, Brian Marshall, an analyst at
Broadpoint.AmTech in San Francisco, said.
Lifestyle - Unhappy with your sex life? Try yoga
A new study claims that sexually unsatisfied women who practised the eastern techniques of mindfulness and yoga reported improvements in levels of
arousal and desire, as well as better orgasms. In addition, yoga has been found to effectively treat premature ejaculation in men.
Eastern practices have been touted as sexually beneficial for years - as the article states, the techniques have "their origin in the Kama Sutra of the fourth to sixth centuries."
But authors Lori Brotto of the University of British Columbia, Michael Krychman of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship Medicine, and Pamela Jacobson of The Healing Sanctuary in Tustin, California, think that recent research findings warrant increased attention, and respect, from western medicine.
Mindfulness - an awareness of the present moment, also a key component in yoga -- proved especially beneficial in a study, cited in the article, that asked women to study pennies in detail. The coins were then collected, and each woman was asked to find her original penny. Every woman was successful. "In our experience, (nearly) all women feel that they have a problem with remaining focused; they are highly distractible," the article states. "However, after this penny exercise, they accept the notion that they can focus their mind if they so choose." The study then went on to encourage body-awareness exercises, which eventually had a sexual goal.
Not all eastern-based benefits manifest in the mind. The article cites another study from the Journal of Sexual Medicine, published in September 2007, in which 68 Indian men who suffered from premature ejaculation were given a choice of yoga-based, non-pharmacological treatment or Prozac. The men who practiced yoga for one hour each day "had both subjective and statistically significant improvements in their intra-ejaculatory latencies, similar to participants in the pharmacologic treatment group."
Another recent study said yoga is being used to help the homeless people in Manhattan beat their winter blues. Instructor Karen Nourizadeh offers yoga lessons to a group of destitutes at an East Side shelter, who come to the centre wearing tattered clothes to center their topsy-turvy lives. "I want to do yoga for people who really need it. I really want them to take all that pressure and stress and throw it out the window," she said.
arousal and desire, as well as better orgasms. In addition, yoga has been found to effectively treat premature ejaculation in men.
Eastern practices have been touted as sexually beneficial for years - as the article states, the techniques have "their origin in the Kama Sutra of the fourth to sixth centuries."
But authors Lori Brotto of the University of British Columbia, Michael Krychman of the Southern California Center for Sexual Health and Survivorship Medicine, and Pamela Jacobson of The Healing Sanctuary in Tustin, California, think that recent research findings warrant increased attention, and respect, from western medicine.
Mindfulness - an awareness of the present moment, also a key component in yoga -- proved especially beneficial in a study, cited in the article, that asked women to study pennies in detail. The coins were then collected, and each woman was asked to find her original penny. Every woman was successful. "In our experience, (nearly) all women feel that they have a problem with remaining focused; they are highly distractible," the article states. "However, after this penny exercise, they accept the notion that they can focus their mind if they so choose." The study then went on to encourage body-awareness exercises, which eventually had a sexual goal.
Not all eastern-based benefits manifest in the mind. The article cites another study from the Journal of Sexual Medicine, published in September 2007, in which 68 Indian men who suffered from premature ejaculation were given a choice of yoga-based, non-pharmacological treatment or Prozac. The men who practiced yoga for one hour each day "had both subjective and statistically significant improvements in their intra-ejaculatory latencies, similar to participants in the pharmacologic treatment group."
Another recent study said yoga is being used to help the homeless people in Manhattan beat their winter blues. Instructor Karen Nourizadeh offers yoga lessons to a group of destitutes at an East Side shelter, who come to the centre wearing tattered clothes to center their topsy-turvy lives. "I want to do yoga for people who really need it. I really want them to take all that pressure and stress and throw it out the window," she said.
Entertainment - Bollywood 2009
My Name is Khan
Director: Karan Johar
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol A still from My Name is Khan
There are many stories regarding the content of this film making the rounds but ask Karan Johar about it and he just gives his most enigmatic smile. Sifting the wheat from the load of chaff, it emerges this claims inspiration from the Tom Cruise-Dustin Hoffman starrer Rainman with Shah Rukh Khan playing the autistic brother to Aamir Bashir. The film covers several years in the lead character's lives as Shah Rukh Khan’s and Kajol’s son ages from 7 to 12. This film is as awaited for its lead pairing and its theme of terrorism as it is for being Karan Johar’s most mature film to date.
Ø Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif
The shooting locations of this movie are Italy, Mumbai, and Goa. As the name suggest, Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani is a love story. Director Rajkumar Santoshi says, “Ranbir plays a guy who is wasting his time in his life. He is aimlessly fooling around. Along the way, he meets Katrina and falls in love with her. The entry of Katrina in Ranbir’s life changes Ranbir completely. It’s quite an adventure film.”
Ø Hissss
Director: Jennifer Chambers Lynch
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Mallika Sherawat, Jeff Doucette
Hollywood combines with Bollywood to release Hissss, bringing to life the fabled sexy-serial-killing Naagin who is played by Mallika Sherawat. A ruthless American travels to the jungles of India and captures the Naagin’s mate which sets off a vengeful journey. Filled with special effects, it remains to be seen if the movie will be good or as uncomfortable as Mallika’s snake costume for the film. Apparently, she took so much time to get into the costume that they decided to not give her any dialogue in the film.
Ø London Dreams
Director: Vipul Shah
Cast: Salman Khan, Ajay
Devgan, Asin
Vipul Shah’s love for UK continues with next year’s big release, London Dreams. The movie
follows two aspiring pop stars played by Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, both of whom fall in love with the South Indian beauty Asin. The movie looks to cash in on the Hum Dil Chuke Sanam male pair and the success of Asin in Ghajini. No more running around the Big Ben, please.
Ø Kaminay
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Amol Gupte, Priyanka Chopra
Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminay sees the critically acclaimed director try his hand at comedy. One of the most eagerly awaited films of 2009, the film will see Shahid Kapoor in a double role for the first time paired opposite Priyanka Chopra. Bharadwaj has reportedly roped in actors from theatre for the movie. Shahid himself has gone for a different look just like Saif did for Omkara and the look is being kept under wraps.
Ø Kites
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kangna Ranaut, Barbara Mori
Kites is an intense romance with the kites in the title representing the meeting of two lovers who are then set adrift by circumstances much like kites are wont to do when being flown by experts. It seems a bit of a stretch but then there’s no accounting for producer’s fancies especially when the name has to necessarily start with a K
Imtiaz Ali's next (Untitled)
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Cast: Saif Ali Khan,
Deepika Padukone A still from My Name is Khan
While his earlier two films, Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha revolved around the interaction between two youngsters, which eventually culminated in love, none of them were true blue romantic tales. However, writer-director Imtiaz Ali’s next film starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, is an intense romantic tale. Imtiaz had said, “This is going to be my first love story. Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha, both weren’t love stories in the true sense of the term. In both the films, there was no romantic kick-start. Jab We Met had only one of the protagonists (Shahid Kapur) realising his love for the girl (Kareena Kapoor) who falls in love with him only towards the film’s end.” The film is a love story spread over two decades and will also mark the debut of British actor Florence.
Ø 3 Idiots
Director: Raju Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Boman Irani
Chetan Bhagat hopes to see some justice done to his best book yet, Five Point Someone by bringing two big stars, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor together for the first time for an adaptation of the book. The dismal failure of Hello! (also a Chetan Bhagat adaptation), will weigh heavily on the author’s mind as the 3 Idiots is in production. Raju Hirani has played a huge part in bringing the stars together, and it poses quite a challenge to portray the 30+ actors as under 22 students.
Ø Delhi Belly
Director: Abhinav Deo
Cast: Imran Khan, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Vir Das, Shehnaz, Treasurywala
Imran Khan played the cute boy-next-door, followed by a menacing (tee hee) kidnapper. His newest avatar sees him as a comedian in Aamir Khan’s next production, Delhi Belly. The language used in the film is reportedly ‘strong’ and looks to appeal to a niche market in the country and international audiences with this comedy in English. The film is directed by Abhinav Deo, son of yesteryear’s star, Ramesh Deo.
Ø Billu Barber
Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Shah Rukh Khan
After Aamir Khan last year, SRK adapts a movie from down South. Billu Barber is loosely based on the friendship between Krishna and Sudhama, and on the Malyalam Rajnikanth hit, Kuselan. SRK plays himself in the movie and Irrfan Khan plays a small town barber. The movie explores the friendship between rich and poor, and the dire consequences it has on Billu’s life. The first time combination of the biggest star Bollywood has to offer and the most promising actor is surely a formula for success.
Ø Luck by Chance
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Rishi Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharwani, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Kapoor,
Aly Khan
Zoya Akhtar’s star-studded release Luck By Chance is yet another look into the life of Bollywood stardom after OSO and Khoya Khoya Chand. Konkana Sen Sharma plays the aspiring starlet, who will share the screen with Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla among others. The film explores the role fate plays in Bollywood.
Ø Chandni Chowk to China
Director: Nikhil Advani
Cast: Akshay Kumar,
Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakraborty,
Ranvir Shorey
Chandni Chowk To China, the first ever Bollywood Kung Fu comedy begins with the protagonist Akshay Kumar, who is the lowest on the totem pole, cutting vegetables at a roadside food stall in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologers, tarot readers and fake fakirs – believing anything except himself, despite his father figure Mithun Chakraborty’s best efforts. His redeeming moment arrives when two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to China. He blissfully sets forth with Ranvir Sheorey who instigates dreams of a delicious future and forgets to reveal the perils, which await him. Along the way, he meets Deepika Padukone and sets off on even more adventures.
Ø Kambakth Ishq
Director: Sabir Khan
Cast: Akshay Kumar,
Kareena Kapoor, Sylvester Stallone
Probably one of the biggest films till date, the film will see major Hollywood stars making cameo appearances in the film along with Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. The film has Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and many others from Hollywood. Akshay will be seen doing daredevil stunts yet again as he plays a stunt man in Hollywood. The film also has Aftab Shivdasani and Amrita Arora and is directed by debutante Sabir Khan.
Director: Karan Johar
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol A still from My Name is Khan
There are many stories regarding the content of this film making the rounds but ask Karan Johar about it and he just gives his most enigmatic smile. Sifting the wheat from the load of chaff, it emerges this claims inspiration from the Tom Cruise-Dustin Hoffman starrer Rainman with Shah Rukh Khan playing the autistic brother to Aamir Bashir. The film covers several years in the lead character's lives as Shah Rukh Khan’s and Kajol’s son ages from 7 to 12. This film is as awaited for its lead pairing and its theme of terrorism as it is for being Karan Johar’s most mature film to date.
Ø Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif
The shooting locations of this movie are Italy, Mumbai, and Goa. As the name suggest, Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani is a love story. Director Rajkumar Santoshi says, “Ranbir plays a guy who is wasting his time in his life. He is aimlessly fooling around. Along the way, he meets Katrina and falls in love with her. The entry of Katrina in Ranbir’s life changes Ranbir completely. It’s quite an adventure film.”
Ø Hissss
Director: Jennifer Chambers Lynch
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Mallika Sherawat, Jeff Doucette
Hollywood combines with Bollywood to release Hissss, bringing to life the fabled sexy-serial-killing Naagin who is played by Mallika Sherawat. A ruthless American travels to the jungles of India and captures the Naagin’s mate which sets off a vengeful journey. Filled with special effects, it remains to be seen if the movie will be good or as uncomfortable as Mallika’s snake costume for the film. Apparently, she took so much time to get into the costume that they decided to not give her any dialogue in the film.
Ø London Dreams
Director: Vipul Shah
Cast: Salman Khan, Ajay
Devgan, Asin
Vipul Shah’s love for UK continues with next year’s big release, London Dreams. The movie
follows two aspiring pop stars played by Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, both of whom fall in love with the South Indian beauty Asin. The movie looks to cash in on the Hum Dil Chuke Sanam male pair and the success of Asin in Ghajini. No more running around the Big Ben, please.
Ø Kaminay
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Amol Gupte, Priyanka Chopra
Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminay sees the critically acclaimed director try his hand at comedy. One of the most eagerly awaited films of 2009, the film will see Shahid Kapoor in a double role for the first time paired opposite Priyanka Chopra. Bharadwaj has reportedly roped in actors from theatre for the movie. Shahid himself has gone for a different look just like Saif did for Omkara and the look is being kept under wraps.
Ø Kites
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kangna Ranaut, Barbara Mori
Kites is an intense romance with the kites in the title representing the meeting of two lovers who are then set adrift by circumstances much like kites are wont to do when being flown by experts. It seems a bit of a stretch but then there’s no accounting for producer’s fancies especially when the name has to necessarily start with a K
Imtiaz Ali's next (Untitled)
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Cast: Saif Ali Khan,
Deepika Padukone A still from My Name is Khan
While his earlier two films, Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha revolved around the interaction between two youngsters, which eventually culminated in love, none of them were true blue romantic tales. However, writer-director Imtiaz Ali’s next film starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, is an intense romantic tale. Imtiaz had said, “This is going to be my first love story. Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha, both weren’t love stories in the true sense of the term. In both the films, there was no romantic kick-start. Jab We Met had only one of the protagonists (Shahid Kapur) realising his love for the girl (Kareena Kapoor) who falls in love with him only towards the film’s end.” The film is a love story spread over two decades and will also mark the debut of British actor Florence.
Ø 3 Idiots
Director: Raju Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Boman Irani
Chetan Bhagat hopes to see some justice done to his best book yet, Five Point Someone by bringing two big stars, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor together for the first time for an adaptation of the book. The dismal failure of Hello! (also a Chetan Bhagat adaptation), will weigh heavily on the author’s mind as the 3 Idiots is in production. Raju Hirani has played a huge part in bringing the stars together, and it poses quite a challenge to portray the 30+ actors as under 22 students.
Ø Delhi Belly
Director: Abhinav Deo
Cast: Imran Khan, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Vir Das, Shehnaz, Treasurywala
Imran Khan played the cute boy-next-door, followed by a menacing (tee hee) kidnapper. His newest avatar sees him as a comedian in Aamir Khan’s next production, Delhi Belly. The language used in the film is reportedly ‘strong’ and looks to appeal to a niche market in the country and international audiences with this comedy in English. The film is directed by Abhinav Deo, son of yesteryear’s star, Ramesh Deo.
Ø Billu Barber
Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Shah Rukh Khan
After Aamir Khan last year, SRK adapts a movie from down South. Billu Barber is loosely based on the friendship between Krishna and Sudhama, and on the Malyalam Rajnikanth hit, Kuselan. SRK plays himself in the movie and Irrfan Khan plays a small town barber. The movie explores the friendship between rich and poor, and the dire consequences it has on Billu’s life. The first time combination of the biggest star Bollywood has to offer and the most promising actor is surely a formula for success.
Ø Luck by Chance
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Rishi Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharwani, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Kapoor,
Aly Khan
Zoya Akhtar’s star-studded release Luck By Chance is yet another look into the life of Bollywood stardom after OSO and Khoya Khoya Chand. Konkana Sen Sharma plays the aspiring starlet, who will share the screen with Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla among others. The film explores the role fate plays in Bollywood.
Ø Chandni Chowk to China
Director: Nikhil Advani
Cast: Akshay Kumar,
Deepika Padukone, Mithun Chakraborty,
Ranvir Shorey
Chandni Chowk To China, the first ever Bollywood Kung Fu comedy begins with the protagonist Akshay Kumar, who is the lowest on the totem pole, cutting vegetables at a roadside food stall in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologers, tarot readers and fake fakirs – believing anything except himself, despite his father figure Mithun Chakraborty’s best efforts. His redeeming moment arrives when two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a war hero in the past and take him to China. He blissfully sets forth with Ranvir Sheorey who instigates dreams of a delicious future and forgets to reveal the perils, which await him. Along the way, he meets Deepika Padukone and sets off on even more adventures.
Ø Kambakth Ishq
Director: Sabir Khan
Cast: Akshay Kumar,
Kareena Kapoor, Sylvester Stallone
Probably one of the biggest films till date, the film will see major Hollywood stars making cameo appearances in the film along with Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. The film has Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and many others from Hollywood. Akshay will be seen doing daredevil stunts yet again as he plays a stunt man in Hollywood. The film also has Aftab Shivdasani and Amrita Arora and is directed by debutante Sabir Khan.
Lifestyle - Ambanis come together for sister's anniversary
MUMBAI: Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil came together to celebrate sister Dipti Salgaocar's silver marriage anniversary on New Year's eve in Goa,
amid speculation they may bury differences sooner than later.
This is the second time in under a week that the brothers are getting together, the first time being for a prayer meeting on their late father Dhirubhai Ambani's birth anniversary on December 28.
Earlier in December, the two had attended a meeting of industrialists called by leader of the Opposition L K Advani to discuss the impact of the global economic slowdown.
Sources close to the family said Mukesh and Nita, Anil and Tina were present at the gathering at a prominent hotel in Goa, along with other family members including the two sisters Dipti and Nina Kothari and their husbands, besides mother Kokilaben.
Mukesh and Anil had parted ways in June 2005 on differences over control of the business empire left behind by their father. They split the businesses as per a settlement overseen by Kokilaben, but are still fighting each other over implementation of that settlement, but speculation is rife that they may get back together.
amid speculation they may bury differences sooner than later.
This is the second time in under a week that the brothers are getting together, the first time being for a prayer meeting on their late father Dhirubhai Ambani's birth anniversary on December 28.
Earlier in December, the two had attended a meeting of industrialists called by leader of the Opposition L K Advani to discuss the impact of the global economic slowdown.
Sources close to the family said Mukesh and Nita, Anil and Tina were present at the gathering at a prominent hotel in Goa, along with other family members including the two sisters Dipti and Nina Kothari and their husbands, besides mother Kokilaben.
Mukesh and Anil had parted ways in June 2005 on differences over control of the business empire left behind by their father. They split the businesses as per a settlement overseen by Kokilaben, but are still fighting each other over implementation of that settlement, but speculation is rife that they may get back together.
Entertainment - Aamir Khan opts out of Delhi Belly
Aamir Khan has opted out of his home production Delhi Belly.
Reports suggest that Aamir’s character in the film was supposed to be a fat guy, for which the actor needed to put on weight. But since he was committed to doing 3 Idiots after Ghajini, he would only be able to get into shape for the film after the shooting of Rajkumar Hirani’s film is over.
Since that would have delayed proceedings, Aamir decided to opt out of the movie.
Reports suggest that Aamir’s character in the film was supposed to be a fat guy, for which the actor needed to put on weight. But since he was committed to doing 3 Idiots after Ghajini, he would only be able to get into shape for the film after the shooting of Rajkumar Hirani’s film is over.
Since that would have delayed proceedings, Aamir decided to opt out of the movie.
World - Bangladesh;Eastward Ho!
Lalitha Panicker
The recently-concluded Bangladesh polls have been quite a turn-up for the books. Though the odds were in favour of Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina, no one really thought she would notch up a staggering 230 against the 27 of Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Many may think that irrespective of which Begum wins, we’ll just see more of the same. Well, we might be in for a surprise.
Unlike Khaleda Zia, Hasina has made it clear that she will have no truck with the fundamentalist Islamist parties. In fact, militant Islamic organisations have been used by the BNP to counter the League. The elections have shown that the Islamist parties do not have popular support. But this does not mean that the threat to democracy from them is any less. And this is the greatest challenge that Hasina will face.
Today, Hasina with her strong mandate can rewrite the Constitution and initiate the reforms she wants. But here we are speaking of democratic processes. The real threat to Bangladesh and to India is from those who operate outside democratic norms, and who will feel ever more threatened by a Hasina regime. On the threat from across the Bangladesh border, India has been tardy due to vote-bank politics: illegal immigrants get hold of identification papers thanks to political patronage. But, the truth is that India has been far more preoccupied with Pakistan and has not focused enough on Bangladesh. Economic immigrants is one issue but many intelligence sources say that along with them, Pakistan-trained jihadis also find their way here.
It is no secret that with the US prowling around Taliban country and Pakistan’s restive tribal belts, many ISI-sponsored militant camps have shifted to Bangladesh. With, of course, the blessings of those in power, notably the army. Organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba are known to preserve its own top-notch fighters and send in Bangladeshi jihadis to do its dirty work for it in India. Clearly, the latter are considered more expendable and the trail runs cold past the Chittagong hill tracts.
Hasina’s ascension to power is perhaps a good time for New Delhi to address the threat from outside the eastern border. Bangladesh has 64,000 madrassas and 900 kindergarten madrassas. Many of them have been subverted by vested interests into becoming recruiting grounds for jihad, mainly against India. The ISI’s collusion with many of the Islamist parties in Bangladesh is well known as well as its unholy interest in the madrassas that are close to the Indian border. But unlike Pakistan, Bangladesh can still get its act together. For one, the ordinary Bangladeshi is not so much driven by religious fundamentalism as by linguistic nationalism. In essence, they are of the same stock as Indian Bengalis whose love for argument and dissent is the stuff of legends. They naturally resist any cookie cutter model of religion. It is perhaps the fear of violence that has subdued their voices all these years.
Now with Hasina in the saddle, we can only hope that these irrepressible sentiments come to the fore. It is in India’s interest to give Hasina a hand. No sooner is she sworn in, attacks on her will begin from all sides. Apart from fundamentalism, her greatest challenge will be that of the development of the desperately poor country. It is here that New Delhi can really be of assistance. It would be a wise investment in securing a 4,096-km border. It would also ensure that those bent on the destruction of India will have fewer places to operate from. The chances of success have never been better. A progressive government in Bangladesh and Pakistan facing international heat. If India plays its cards right, the region might just become a safer place.
The recently-concluded Bangladesh polls have been quite a turn-up for the books. Though the odds were in favour of Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina, no one really thought she would notch up a staggering 230 against the 27 of Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Many may think that irrespective of which Begum wins, we’ll just see more of the same. Well, we might be in for a surprise.
Unlike Khaleda Zia, Hasina has made it clear that she will have no truck with the fundamentalist Islamist parties. In fact, militant Islamic organisations have been used by the BNP to counter the League. The elections have shown that the Islamist parties do not have popular support. But this does not mean that the threat to democracy from them is any less. And this is the greatest challenge that Hasina will face.
Today, Hasina with her strong mandate can rewrite the Constitution and initiate the reforms she wants. But here we are speaking of democratic processes. The real threat to Bangladesh and to India is from those who operate outside democratic norms, and who will feel ever more threatened by a Hasina regime. On the threat from across the Bangladesh border, India has been tardy due to vote-bank politics: illegal immigrants get hold of identification papers thanks to political patronage. But, the truth is that India has been far more preoccupied with Pakistan and has not focused enough on Bangladesh. Economic immigrants is one issue but many intelligence sources say that along with them, Pakistan-trained jihadis also find their way here.
It is no secret that with the US prowling around Taliban country and Pakistan’s restive tribal belts, many ISI-sponsored militant camps have shifted to Bangladesh. With, of course, the blessings of those in power, notably the army. Organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba are known to preserve its own top-notch fighters and send in Bangladeshi jihadis to do its dirty work for it in India. Clearly, the latter are considered more expendable and the trail runs cold past the Chittagong hill tracts.
Hasina’s ascension to power is perhaps a good time for New Delhi to address the threat from outside the eastern border. Bangladesh has 64,000 madrassas and 900 kindergarten madrassas. Many of them have been subverted by vested interests into becoming recruiting grounds for jihad, mainly against India. The ISI’s collusion with many of the Islamist parties in Bangladesh is well known as well as its unholy interest in the madrassas that are close to the Indian border. But unlike Pakistan, Bangladesh can still get its act together. For one, the ordinary Bangladeshi is not so much driven by religious fundamentalism as by linguistic nationalism. In essence, they are of the same stock as Indian Bengalis whose love for argument and dissent is the stuff of legends. They naturally resist any cookie cutter model of religion. It is perhaps the fear of violence that has subdued their voices all these years.
Now with Hasina in the saddle, we can only hope that these irrepressible sentiments come to the fore. It is in India’s interest to give Hasina a hand. No sooner is she sworn in, attacks on her will begin from all sides. Apart from fundamentalism, her greatest challenge will be that of the development of the desperately poor country. It is here that New Delhi can really be of assistance. It would be a wise investment in securing a 4,096-km border. It would also ensure that those bent on the destruction of India will have fewer places to operate from. The chances of success have never been better. A progressive government in Bangladesh and Pakistan facing international heat. If India plays its cards right, the region might just become a safer place.
World - Punish perpetrators of Mumbai attack in the country: US to Pak
The US administration is asking Pakistan to ensure that those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks are punished inside the country instead of being extradited to India, according to a media report.
The Bush administration has informed the Pakistan government that it would like it to initiate "prosecution with sufficient efforts to ensure conviction" of those behind the Mumbai incident, the Dawn newspaper quoted US sources as saying.
The move is a "clear change" in the attitude of the US, which earlier had backed the Indian demand that some of the suspects be extradited to India.
The change apparently has been noticed in New Delhi, where External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday that the US pressure on Pakistan to act against the Mumbai perpetrators had "not produced tangible returns", the newspaper said.
US officials had earlier supported India's demand for the handing over of those behind the attacks but the change in their attitude followed a realisation in Washington that it would not be easy for the Pakistan government to extradite key Lashker-e-Taiba leaders to India, the sources said.
In their negotiations with US officials on this issue, the Pakistanis insisted that the extradition of Pakistani citizens to India particularly when the two countries did not have an extradition treaty would have unpredictable consequences for the government, the sources said.
"The Pakistanis argued that the resulting political instability would not only weaken the government but could also harm the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan as Pakistan played a key supporting role in this war," the report said.
The Bush administration has informed the Pakistan government that it would like it to initiate "prosecution with sufficient efforts to ensure conviction" of those behind the Mumbai incident, the Dawn newspaper quoted US sources as saying.
The move is a "clear change" in the attitude of the US, which earlier had backed the Indian demand that some of the suspects be extradited to India.
The change apparently has been noticed in New Delhi, where External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday that the US pressure on Pakistan to act against the Mumbai perpetrators had "not produced tangible returns", the newspaper said.
US officials had earlier supported India's demand for the handing over of those behind the attacks but the change in their attitude followed a realisation in Washington that it would not be easy for the Pakistan government to extradite key Lashker-e-Taiba leaders to India, the sources said.
In their negotiations with US officials on this issue, the Pakistanis insisted that the extradition of Pakistani citizens to India particularly when the two countries did not have an extradition treaty would have unpredictable consequences for the government, the sources said.
"The Pakistanis argued that the resulting political instability would not only weaken the government but could also harm the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan as Pakistan played a key supporting role in this war," the report said.
Business - Anil Ambani world's top loser with $30 bn off his kitty: Forbes
Industrialist Anil Ambani continues to be on the focus of US magazine Forbes but this time around for topping the list of 'Billionaire Blowups of 2008' by virtue of turning the biggest loser of wealth in less than a year of being touted as the biggest gainer in the world.
Besides ranking him as sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $42 billion, Forbes had credited him for having added maximum wealth in its last annual rankings in March.
Since then, his net worth has declined to $12 billion, the magazine said in a news report titled "Billionaire Blowups of 2008".
"The biggest loser of all was Anil Ambani. Touted on the cover of our 2008 billionaires issue for having added 24 billion dollars to his fortune in one year, Ambani has dropped $30 billion since then," the report said.
The report further added that three of "his fellow countrymen--estranged brother Mukesh, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Indian K P Singh, all of whom ranked earlier among the world's 10 richest--lost more than 20 billion dollar apiece."
Noting that 2008 was "a dreadful year for the world's wealthiest as markets and currencies around the world tumbled," Forbes said that over 300 of the 1,125 billionaires have lost at least one billion dollars since March.
While several dozen have lost more than five billion dollars, the 10 richest from annual 2008 rankings have lost about 150 billion dollars.
This is primarily driven by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, estranged brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani and property baron K P Singh together losing 100 billion dollars.
The publication has also listed out its top "10 Billionaire Blowups," noting that "even in such an awful year, the stories of a few billionaires and now former billionaires stand out as particularly dreadful."
"The biggest billionaire gainer last March is now the year's biggest loser. Ambani lost 30 billion dollars in the past nine months, more than anyone in the world.
"Stock of his telecom company dropped after his estranged brother helped scuttle a deal with African telecom MTN."
Forbes, however, noted that with $12 billion worth of fortune, Anil Ambani "remains quite wealthy... That is something many others can't claim".
The list of 10 billionaire blowups includes two more Indians -- wind power major Suzlon's chief Tulsi Tanti and online gambling firm PartyGaming's founder Anurag Dikshit.
"Dozens of the world's wealthiest lost billions in recent months, yet these 10 distinguish themselves for some of the biggest flops. But they lost more than money. Some lost board seats. Several faced margin calls. A couple got in trouble with the law. All suffered hits to their reputations."
Tulsi Tanti's wealth dropped by $2.5 billion to stand at $500 million, while Dikshit's current net worth is about $1 billion, down from $1.6 billion in March 2008.
Others among these 10 include Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Iceland's Bjorgflur Gudmundsson, Spain's real estate player Luis Portillo, China's Wong Kwong Yu and Larry Yung and Ukraine's Konstantin Zhevago.
Besides ranking him as sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $42 billion, Forbes had credited him for having added maximum wealth in its last annual rankings in March.
Since then, his net worth has declined to $12 billion, the magazine said in a news report titled "Billionaire Blowups of 2008".
"The biggest loser of all was Anil Ambani. Touted on the cover of our 2008 billionaires issue for having added 24 billion dollars to his fortune in one year, Ambani has dropped $30 billion since then," the report said.
The report further added that three of "his fellow countrymen--estranged brother Mukesh, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Indian K P Singh, all of whom ranked earlier among the world's 10 richest--lost more than 20 billion dollar apiece."
Noting that 2008 was "a dreadful year for the world's wealthiest as markets and currencies around the world tumbled," Forbes said that over 300 of the 1,125 billionaires have lost at least one billion dollars since March.
While several dozen have lost more than five billion dollars, the 10 richest from annual 2008 rankings have lost about 150 billion dollars.
This is primarily driven by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, estranged brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani and property baron K P Singh together losing 100 billion dollars.
The publication has also listed out its top "10 Billionaire Blowups," noting that "even in such an awful year, the stories of a few billionaires and now former billionaires stand out as particularly dreadful."
"The biggest billionaire gainer last March is now the year's biggest loser. Ambani lost 30 billion dollars in the past nine months, more than anyone in the world.
"Stock of his telecom company dropped after his estranged brother helped scuttle a deal with African telecom MTN."
Forbes, however, noted that with $12 billion worth of fortune, Anil Ambani "remains quite wealthy... That is something many others can't claim".
The list of 10 billionaire blowups includes two more Indians -- wind power major Suzlon's chief Tulsi Tanti and online gambling firm PartyGaming's founder Anurag Dikshit.
"Dozens of the world's wealthiest lost billions in recent months, yet these 10 distinguish themselves for some of the biggest flops. But they lost more than money. Some lost board seats. Several faced margin calls. A couple got in trouble with the law. All suffered hits to their reputations."
Tulsi Tanti's wealth dropped by $2.5 billion to stand at $500 million, while Dikshit's current net worth is about $1 billion, down from $1.6 billion in March 2008.
Others among these 10 include Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Iceland's Bjorgflur Gudmundsson, Spain's real estate player Luis Portillo, China's Wong Kwong Yu and Larry Yung and Ukraine's Konstantin Zhevago.
World - Depression stalks the eurozone
David Gow
Europeans, the young above all, greeted the deepest economic recession for half a century and an apparently bottomless financial crisis with riots from Athens to Kiev in late 2008. Manufacturing workers walked disconsolately out of car, tyre, steel, chemicals, plastics and cement plants that closed down behind them for two, three, even four weeks from Antwerp to Zaragoza.
Mainland Europe, which kidded itself in the autumn that it was immune from the worst excesses and subsequent heart failure of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, felt dark, depressed and downtrodden by Christmas. Only in the brightly lit street markets did shoppers, fuelled by mulled wine and strong euros in their wallets, delude themselves into short-lived festive celebrations.
If the eurozone and the rest of Europe ended 2008 on a fearful note, 2009 is shaping up to confirm the worst nightmares of the EU-27’s 500 million citizens. The spectre of a 1930s-style depression is foremost in many people’s minds. Analysts are forecasting an economic contraction of as much as 3 per cent despite the likelihood of the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting interest rates close to zero during the year.
Unemployment could leap by millions this year and in 2010 as business leaders, their confidence at 15 to 30 year lows, shut down entire companies or several plants or offices. Consumer spending, buoyed up so far by pay increases and low inflation in some countries, will freeze in all likelihood.
Four decades after the Paris events of 1968 drove General de Gaulle to seek temporary refuge in Baden-Baden, fears have seeped into the souls of political leaders that students and others will confront the ruling order on the streets in a “hot” spring of protests.
Anxieties about mounting social and economic tensions are strongest in southern Europe where the recession, already under way, threatens to be longer and deeper. Long-delayed structural reforms have been put on ice.
They surfaced at the mid-December EU summit when Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero voiced them to chairman Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, who immediately put reform of the lycees on hold for at least a year. “When you have such an economic depression, such social despair, all it takes is a match,” said Laurent Fabius, former socialist premier of France. It makes for an apocalyptic background to the celebrations — probably muted privately, if over-hyped publicly — of the 10th anniversary of the euro on Thursday, when Slovakia becomes the 16th country to embrace the single currency. The ECB will from now set monetary policy, including borrowing costs, for 328 million Europeans.
The economic bloodbath of 2009, more than likely to be prolonged into 2010, will inevitably prompt eurosceptic politicians and analysts to warn of the impending implosion of the eurozone. Divergences, exacerbated by Germany’s regained competitiveness and fiscal thrift, will become unsustainable, it will be argued. Most rational economists doubt this for political as well as economic reasons. But the EU’s claim that the euro, an infant currency moving towards adulthood, has brought economic stability, low inflation, 16 million new jobs, lower unemployment, reduced budget deficits, will be overturned by events. Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, witnessed at year-end what Tom Mayer, Deutsche Bank chief European economist, calls a “competitive devaluation” of forecasts. Leading institutes pointed to a contraction of between two and 2.7 per cent while the federal economics ministry admitted to a memo envisaging at worst a 3 per cent downturn.
Unemployment, at a historic low, could grow by one million people by the end of 2010 as the country experiences the worst recession since the federal republic was founded in 1949. In France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, where youth unemployment, especially among immigrants, prompted the 2005 riots, recession has already taken hold.
So it has in Italy, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands where Nout Wellink, ECB president, is now contemplating a 2 per cent contraction before a partial recovery in 2010. Eastern Europe, which has enjoyed stellar growth since eight former communist states joined the EU in 2004, is being sucked into the vortex.
Spain, where new car sales plunged by half in November, is being forced by the collapse of its construction boom, which brought in 3.5 million migrant workers, to slap new restrictions on incomers. Ireland, Celtic Tiger turned Deflated Baboon, is reckoning with a 4 per cent contraction and 10 per cent unemployment.
Eurozone governments, which have committed more than €1tn to bail out banks and guarantee liabilities, seem flummoxed by their unwillingness to lend to the real economy and preference for earning interest by parking the money overnight with the ECB.
The result is that fiscal and monetary easing will continue this year. January will see the start of the general election campaign in Germany and a new stimulus package of between €40bn and €50bn after the sharp criticism of the earlier €12bn programme. Sarkozy will almost certainly increase his government’s €26bn package soon. Both will continue to be focussed on public works such as roads and schools and to eschew British-style boosts to consumer spending via cuts in purchase tax — Sarkozy is a late convert to German-style fiscal probity.
Mayer, who favours “temporary, targeted and timely” cuts in taxes, believes the €25bn cuts demanded by the German economy minister, Michael Glos, are politically off-limits. But he warns: “The trouble with infrastructure projects is the time it takes to implement them.”
Howard Archer, of Global Insight, will revise his eurozone forecast in January to a 1.5 per cent contraction. He says: “Germany is the one country where consumers have the money to spend and the government has the room to do a bigger stimulus. But ministers seem so far out of synch — even in denial.”
Despite lingering doubts about the effectiveness of interest rates at near-zero as in the US, Japan and, coming soon, Britain, both forecast that the ECB will cut further. Archer sees a 0.5 per cent cut in January and says: “I’m not certain they will bring them down to zero. The consensus is for 1.5 per cent but the consensus is moving down all the time.”
Mayer has pencilled in 0.75 per cent as the ECB’s bottom line. “They’ll grind out cuts — not voluntarily but simply because they will be pushed down by the data; so far they have simply been overwhelmed by events.” He argues that the tougher the ECB sounds on inflation and stability compared with the Fed, the stronger the euro will become and, with it, the worse the economic outlook will be. “A 10 per cent appreciation is equivalent to a 1 per cent rate increase,” he says. For Germany, world champion exporters, that threatens much of its manufacturing, already in the doldrums with the euro at $1.40. And the cry from its neighbours will get louder for measures to stimulate demand at home and in the rest of the EU.
Almost two decades after unification, Germany’s political elite has been tempted to reverse the Kohl/Genscher motto of a “European Germany” for one of a “German Europe,” refusing to bail out its partners and adding to the economic and social tensions along the way. But that should change this year.
German ECB hawks such as Jurgen Stark, its chief economist, worry that eurozone stability is threatened by fiscal “laxity.” There may even be temptations to create a “hard currency” zone instead around a new Deutsche Mark. But Mayer, a native German, insists the economic and, above all, political costs will be too high to bear. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009
Europeans, the young above all, greeted the deepest economic recession for half a century and an apparently bottomless financial crisis with riots from Athens to Kiev in late 2008. Manufacturing workers walked disconsolately out of car, tyre, steel, chemicals, plastics and cement plants that closed down behind them for two, three, even four weeks from Antwerp to Zaragoza.
Mainland Europe, which kidded itself in the autumn that it was immune from the worst excesses and subsequent heart failure of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, felt dark, depressed and downtrodden by Christmas. Only in the brightly lit street markets did shoppers, fuelled by mulled wine and strong euros in their wallets, delude themselves into short-lived festive celebrations.
If the eurozone and the rest of Europe ended 2008 on a fearful note, 2009 is shaping up to confirm the worst nightmares of the EU-27’s 500 million citizens. The spectre of a 1930s-style depression is foremost in many people’s minds. Analysts are forecasting an economic contraction of as much as 3 per cent despite the likelihood of the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting interest rates close to zero during the year.
Unemployment could leap by millions this year and in 2010 as business leaders, their confidence at 15 to 30 year lows, shut down entire companies or several plants or offices. Consumer spending, buoyed up so far by pay increases and low inflation in some countries, will freeze in all likelihood.
Four decades after the Paris events of 1968 drove General de Gaulle to seek temporary refuge in Baden-Baden, fears have seeped into the souls of political leaders that students and others will confront the ruling order on the streets in a “hot” spring of protests.
Anxieties about mounting social and economic tensions are strongest in southern Europe where the recession, already under way, threatens to be longer and deeper. Long-delayed structural reforms have been put on ice.
They surfaced at the mid-December EU summit when Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero voiced them to chairman Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, who immediately put reform of the lycees on hold for at least a year. “When you have such an economic depression, such social despair, all it takes is a match,” said Laurent Fabius, former socialist premier of France. It makes for an apocalyptic background to the celebrations — probably muted privately, if over-hyped publicly — of the 10th anniversary of the euro on Thursday, when Slovakia becomes the 16th country to embrace the single currency. The ECB will from now set monetary policy, including borrowing costs, for 328 million Europeans.
The economic bloodbath of 2009, more than likely to be prolonged into 2010, will inevitably prompt eurosceptic politicians and analysts to warn of the impending implosion of the eurozone. Divergences, exacerbated by Germany’s regained competitiveness and fiscal thrift, will become unsustainable, it will be argued. Most rational economists doubt this for political as well as economic reasons. But the EU’s claim that the euro, an infant currency moving towards adulthood, has brought economic stability, low inflation, 16 million new jobs, lower unemployment, reduced budget deficits, will be overturned by events. Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, witnessed at year-end what Tom Mayer, Deutsche Bank chief European economist, calls a “competitive devaluation” of forecasts. Leading institutes pointed to a contraction of between two and 2.7 per cent while the federal economics ministry admitted to a memo envisaging at worst a 3 per cent downturn.
Unemployment, at a historic low, could grow by one million people by the end of 2010 as the country experiences the worst recession since the federal republic was founded in 1949. In France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, where youth unemployment, especially among immigrants, prompted the 2005 riots, recession has already taken hold.
So it has in Italy, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands where Nout Wellink, ECB president, is now contemplating a 2 per cent contraction before a partial recovery in 2010. Eastern Europe, which has enjoyed stellar growth since eight former communist states joined the EU in 2004, is being sucked into the vortex.
Spain, where new car sales plunged by half in November, is being forced by the collapse of its construction boom, which brought in 3.5 million migrant workers, to slap new restrictions on incomers. Ireland, Celtic Tiger turned Deflated Baboon, is reckoning with a 4 per cent contraction and 10 per cent unemployment.
Eurozone governments, which have committed more than €1tn to bail out banks and guarantee liabilities, seem flummoxed by their unwillingness to lend to the real economy and preference for earning interest by parking the money overnight with the ECB.
The result is that fiscal and monetary easing will continue this year. January will see the start of the general election campaign in Germany and a new stimulus package of between €40bn and €50bn after the sharp criticism of the earlier €12bn programme. Sarkozy will almost certainly increase his government’s €26bn package soon. Both will continue to be focussed on public works such as roads and schools and to eschew British-style boosts to consumer spending via cuts in purchase tax — Sarkozy is a late convert to German-style fiscal probity.
Mayer, who favours “temporary, targeted and timely” cuts in taxes, believes the €25bn cuts demanded by the German economy minister, Michael Glos, are politically off-limits. But he warns: “The trouble with infrastructure projects is the time it takes to implement them.”
Howard Archer, of Global Insight, will revise his eurozone forecast in January to a 1.5 per cent contraction. He says: “Germany is the one country where consumers have the money to spend and the government has the room to do a bigger stimulus. But ministers seem so far out of synch — even in denial.”
Despite lingering doubts about the effectiveness of interest rates at near-zero as in the US, Japan and, coming soon, Britain, both forecast that the ECB will cut further. Archer sees a 0.5 per cent cut in January and says: “I’m not certain they will bring them down to zero. The consensus is for 1.5 per cent but the consensus is moving down all the time.”
Mayer has pencilled in 0.75 per cent as the ECB’s bottom line. “They’ll grind out cuts — not voluntarily but simply because they will be pushed down by the data; so far they have simply been overwhelmed by events.” He argues that the tougher the ECB sounds on inflation and stability compared with the Fed, the stronger the euro will become and, with it, the worse the economic outlook will be. “A 10 per cent appreciation is equivalent to a 1 per cent rate increase,” he says. For Germany, world champion exporters, that threatens much of its manufacturing, already in the doldrums with the euro at $1.40. And the cry from its neighbours will get louder for measures to stimulate demand at home and in the rest of the EU.
Almost two decades after unification, Germany’s political elite has been tempted to reverse the Kohl/Genscher motto of a “European Germany” for one of a “German Europe,” refusing to bail out its partners and adding to the economic and social tensions along the way. But that should change this year.
German ECB hawks such as Jurgen Stark, its chief economist, worry that eurozone stability is threatened by fiscal “laxity.” There may even be temptations to create a “hard currency” zone instead around a new Deutsche Mark. But Mayer, a native German, insists the economic and, above all, political costs will be too high to bear. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009
Entertainment - Television news is for reel
Chitra Padmanabhan
Fatal attractions, one is told, are precisely that — fatal. More so when two ‘frame fatales’ like film and television are seized by a violent desire to be like the other in their hot pursuit of ‘reality’.
When that frame of reality happens to be the footfalls of issues like terrorism and the war on nerves, it is time to sit up and take note.
The switch has been happening over a period of time. Filmmakers want to ‘go real’; they hanker for the authenticity and immediacy of a television news frame, especially in the new crop of multiplex political thrillers, be it an ‘Aamir’ or ‘A Wednesday’.
They choose plots which echo real junctures that have come to pass in the life of the nation. Then they create a patina of naturalistic acting and dialogues, locations, ambient sound as well as impromptu and over-the-shoulder camera shots as on television news.
But television news seems to be going the other way. It is very often packaged as histrionic performance, dressed up in hyperbole and melodramatic mien, serenaded by lethal sound effects and evocative background scores, invariably from films.
And yet it is completely secure in the conviction that unlike cinema there is no confusion about it not being ‘real’, whatever it may do. It is the ultimate reality show.
This is especially true of occasions when an incident of immense proportions rips through the humdrum pace of normality, developing tragic dimensions over time and providing a captive audience hitherto undreamt of.
In the week that Mumbai lurched in pain, caught unawares by the terrorist’s calculated rage, the switch became glaringly apparent. Granted, the challenges of reporting 60 hours and not 60 minutes, live, unscripted, must have been a huge challenge at a time of immense responsibility, when television was the fastest and to all practical purposes the only source of information.
However, the references of news presentation seemed to lie outside the journalistic profession, exhibiting streaks that have been perfected over time by the networks. Each time India wins a cricket match anchors/reporters crow that “we” — not India — have won a match; every time there is a calamity one is struck by the rather unprepossessing manner in which anchors superimpose themselves dramatically in the coverage of an event.
‘S/he who controls the image is the righteous one’ is the adage by which news networks largely live in our times. However, the magnitude of those 60 hours was so great that the reality of a medium of news sans anchor in the conventions of the profession became glaringly apparent.
Rarely has any coverage been deconstructed in such detail — be it tragedy kings and queens wanting us to plumb the depths of their scarred hearts instead of trying to make sense of every leaden minute of visuals coming our way; or apoplectic anchors hectoring at the invisible terrorists, “We shall never let you succeed in your evil designs”. In that instant they became the voice of the nation and were no longer journalists who track news.
If BBC journalists seemed remiss in calling the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack gunmen and not terrorists as they termed the attackers of 7/7 in their own land, our own TV journos showed an evangelical zeal in repeatedly terming the attacks and attackers ‘evil’, forgetting what they were on camera for. We witnessed journalists lying supine and clutching their microphones to report on camera in a way we had not seen journalists reporting from conflict zones like Iraq or elsewhere.
Rumours about resumed firing in a part of the city were spilt spontaneously and later retracted. It was the scariest feeling – it seemed as if there were no gatekeepers of news to filter in all the information that was coming in. The viewer was caught in a paradox: able to see images but without much clue as to what was happening.
With the ebb and flow of outraged voices and matching background scores; with looping replays and hyped up commentaries to create a flurry in times of lull as far as the actual incident was concerned, in effect a new reality was being constructed in the studios – and offered authoritatively as ‘the’ 24/7 reality.
This was a bigger film than any filmmaker could ever hope to make, without the normal time constraints of 90 or 120 minutes. For instance, the number of times the video grabs of the two terrorists advancing in tandem was replayed created a distortedly fast pace and larger than life presence no movie on the mechanics of terror would be able to match.
Ironically, as public rage against the political class swelled to unheard of proportions, watching lives turn into detritus – a rage the television networks beamed again and again, adding to it their pained expressions, the print and net world was buzzing with outrage against the television news networks for making news almost invisible by playing out the tragedy in sensational tones, by becoming actors in it.
The pained faces of rescued hostages receded from the mind even as uncomfortable memories of reporters virtually forcing them to emote the horror they had experienced, lingered distastefully. That, unfortunately, is the numbing aftertaste of the television news coverage one was left with. Not to mention the competitive streak of various channels insisting that the visuals they were showing were exclusive.
Clearly, this was all about consumption of images 24/7 playing NOW — not even in the nearest cinema, but in your home theatre. No extra strong speakers needed; television news comes with a lethal decibel level and at a hammering pace guaranteed to quicken your pulse. There is no bigger entertainer than news milked as reality TV.
The boundaries are well and truly blurred. There was a time when we knew that a film, however, realistic, was not for real; that the aura of a frame which reflects the physical reality of an incident is television’s alone. Both come together in the phenomenon of news as reality show.
In our times we are almost tempted to say that the planet is not spherical but rectangular, for that is how most of us encounter it these days — through moving images, through the camera frame.
That is why it is somewhat unnerving to think that what we earmark as news and information and ‘reality’ could be television’s flight of fantasy, extracting the seed of emotion from a human dilemma and converting it into a spectacle to be viewed vicariously, not experienced with concern.
The debate generated around the television coverage of the Mumbai attacks is a watershed in a sense, for it has prompted reflection in some quarters. Time will tell whether the television camera corrects its retreat from journalistic conventions or tilts completely towards the hyper mould of the reality show, adding to it aspects of film at will for untold entertainment.
The frame of reality was never so tenuous.
Fatal attractions, one is told, are precisely that — fatal. More so when two ‘frame fatales’ like film and television are seized by a violent desire to be like the other in their hot pursuit of ‘reality’.
When that frame of reality happens to be the footfalls of issues like terrorism and the war on nerves, it is time to sit up and take note.
The switch has been happening over a period of time. Filmmakers want to ‘go real’; they hanker for the authenticity and immediacy of a television news frame, especially in the new crop of multiplex political thrillers, be it an ‘Aamir’ or ‘A Wednesday’.
They choose plots which echo real junctures that have come to pass in the life of the nation. Then they create a patina of naturalistic acting and dialogues, locations, ambient sound as well as impromptu and over-the-shoulder camera shots as on television news.
But television news seems to be going the other way. It is very often packaged as histrionic performance, dressed up in hyperbole and melodramatic mien, serenaded by lethal sound effects and evocative background scores, invariably from films.
And yet it is completely secure in the conviction that unlike cinema there is no confusion about it not being ‘real’, whatever it may do. It is the ultimate reality show.
This is especially true of occasions when an incident of immense proportions rips through the humdrum pace of normality, developing tragic dimensions over time and providing a captive audience hitherto undreamt of.
In the week that Mumbai lurched in pain, caught unawares by the terrorist’s calculated rage, the switch became glaringly apparent. Granted, the challenges of reporting 60 hours and not 60 minutes, live, unscripted, must have been a huge challenge at a time of immense responsibility, when television was the fastest and to all practical purposes the only source of information.
However, the references of news presentation seemed to lie outside the journalistic profession, exhibiting streaks that have been perfected over time by the networks. Each time India wins a cricket match anchors/reporters crow that “we” — not India — have won a match; every time there is a calamity one is struck by the rather unprepossessing manner in which anchors superimpose themselves dramatically in the coverage of an event.
‘S/he who controls the image is the righteous one’ is the adage by which news networks largely live in our times. However, the magnitude of those 60 hours was so great that the reality of a medium of news sans anchor in the conventions of the profession became glaringly apparent.
Rarely has any coverage been deconstructed in such detail — be it tragedy kings and queens wanting us to plumb the depths of their scarred hearts instead of trying to make sense of every leaden minute of visuals coming our way; or apoplectic anchors hectoring at the invisible terrorists, “We shall never let you succeed in your evil designs”. In that instant they became the voice of the nation and were no longer journalists who track news.
If BBC journalists seemed remiss in calling the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack gunmen and not terrorists as they termed the attackers of 7/7 in their own land, our own TV journos showed an evangelical zeal in repeatedly terming the attacks and attackers ‘evil’, forgetting what they were on camera for. We witnessed journalists lying supine and clutching their microphones to report on camera in a way we had not seen journalists reporting from conflict zones like Iraq or elsewhere.
Rumours about resumed firing in a part of the city were spilt spontaneously and later retracted. It was the scariest feeling – it seemed as if there were no gatekeepers of news to filter in all the information that was coming in. The viewer was caught in a paradox: able to see images but without much clue as to what was happening.
With the ebb and flow of outraged voices and matching background scores; with looping replays and hyped up commentaries to create a flurry in times of lull as far as the actual incident was concerned, in effect a new reality was being constructed in the studios – and offered authoritatively as ‘the’ 24/7 reality.
This was a bigger film than any filmmaker could ever hope to make, without the normal time constraints of 90 or 120 minutes. For instance, the number of times the video grabs of the two terrorists advancing in tandem was replayed created a distortedly fast pace and larger than life presence no movie on the mechanics of terror would be able to match.
Ironically, as public rage against the political class swelled to unheard of proportions, watching lives turn into detritus – a rage the television networks beamed again and again, adding to it their pained expressions, the print and net world was buzzing with outrage against the television news networks for making news almost invisible by playing out the tragedy in sensational tones, by becoming actors in it.
The pained faces of rescued hostages receded from the mind even as uncomfortable memories of reporters virtually forcing them to emote the horror they had experienced, lingered distastefully. That, unfortunately, is the numbing aftertaste of the television news coverage one was left with. Not to mention the competitive streak of various channels insisting that the visuals they were showing were exclusive.
Clearly, this was all about consumption of images 24/7 playing NOW — not even in the nearest cinema, but in your home theatre. No extra strong speakers needed; television news comes with a lethal decibel level and at a hammering pace guaranteed to quicken your pulse. There is no bigger entertainer than news milked as reality TV.
The boundaries are well and truly blurred. There was a time when we knew that a film, however, realistic, was not for real; that the aura of a frame which reflects the physical reality of an incident is television’s alone. Both come together in the phenomenon of news as reality show.
In our times we are almost tempted to say that the planet is not spherical but rectangular, for that is how most of us encounter it these days — through moving images, through the camera frame.
That is why it is somewhat unnerving to think that what we earmark as news and information and ‘reality’ could be television’s flight of fantasy, extracting the seed of emotion from a human dilemma and converting it into a spectacle to be viewed vicariously, not experienced with concern.
The debate generated around the television coverage of the Mumbai attacks is a watershed in a sense, for it has prompted reflection in some quarters. Time will tell whether the television camera corrects its retreat from journalistic conventions or tilts completely towards the hyper mould of the reality show, adding to it aspects of film at will for untold entertainment.
The frame of reality was never so tenuous.
Columnists - Praveen Swami;Politics at the crossroads of past and present
Praveen Swami
Kashmir’s National Conference–Congress alliance government must rewrite history — or the coalition will end up repeating it.
“Hard political reality,” Farooq Abdullah had said of his decision to sign an accord with the Congress in 1986, against his own instinctive judgment.
On Tuesday, as his son stood shoulder-to-shoulder with former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to announce the formation of a new National Conference-Congress alliance, it is certain that Dr. Abdullah would have recalled that moment.
December’s National Conference-Congress alliance could demonstrate that history repeats itself: the last alliance between the two parties ended in a rigged election which prepared the ground for jihadists who had for decades been working to legitimise their war against India.
But it could also offer unique opportunity to erase the bitter legacy of the past, not the least because Jammu and Kashmir — like India as a whole — has been transfigured since. Neither party today is a hegemonic entity — and both have learned, through bitter experience, that breeding communal pets in the backyard is a dangerous pastime.
Ever since the falling-apart of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1953, relations between the Congress and the National Conference had been fraught. The National Conference represented the distinctness of Kashmiri identity; on occasion, it used communal ideas and themes to reach out to its audience. The Congress, in turn, saw itself as the sole credible defender of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India and proved increasingly willing to use Hindu chauvinism to further that cause.
Both the Congress and National Conference fought the 1983 elections on communal lines. In alliance with Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq — father of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman, Umar Farooq — Dr. Abdullah gave his campaign an expressly Islamic colour. In one pamphlet, the National Conference equated the Congress with Maharaja Hari Singh, who had “enslaved the Kashmiris.” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used identical tactics to push forward the Congress’ pursuit of power. She campaigned against the Resettlement Act, which would have allowed Muslim Partition refugees to return to Jammu and Kashmir and reclaim their properties. As the author and journalist Tavleen Singh has noted, Mrs. Gandhi sought to persuade Jammu voters that they “were really a part of Hindu India and had, therefore, been neglected by Muslim Kashmir.”
Inflammatory tactics paid off: the National Conference won 46 seats, all in Muslim-majority constituencies, while the Congress picked up 23. However, the Congress continued on with a campaign designed to annihilate Abdullah. His alliance with Mirwaiz Farooq — who was, ironically enough, to die at the hands of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen assassin —was characterised as anti-national. Sikh religious camps held in Jammu and Kashmir were described as state-sponsored training centres for Khalistan terrorists. Much of the propaganda was deceitful — the Congress itself, after all, had sought an alliance with the Mirwaiz — but it prepared the ground for the dismissal of the Abdullah government in July 1984, months after he sponsored a national opposition conclave in Srinagar.
“I am not worried about democratic norms”, Indira Gandhi was reported to have said to a confidante, “I am not going to kiss Kashmir away because of them”. She almost did. Dr. Abdullah’s brother in law, Gul Mohammad Shah, took power with the support of a dozen National Conference rebels. Still sardonically referred to as the Gul-e-Curfew, or ‘Curfew Flower’, Mr. Shah presided over a regime that remained paralysed by popular protests. New Delhi, though, refused to blink even after Indira Gandhi’s death. In October 1986, Dr. Abdullah buckled in, and agreed to an alliance with the Congress.
But Dr. Abdullah’s decision, as the scholar Navnita Chadha Behera has argued, vacated the opposition to the religious right. His actions allowed the birth of the Muslim United Front — a coalition spearheaded by the Jamaat-e-Islami, whose most visible face then, as now, was Kashmir’s Islamist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Its partners included bodies like Qazi Mohammad Nisar’s Ummat-e-Islami, which had defied a ban on the sale of meat on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Janmashtami; the neoconservative Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadis; the Islamic Study Circle; the Muslim Education Trust; and Abdul Gani Lone’s People’s Conference.
In the 1987 elections, a panicked National Conference-Congress alliance unleashed large-scale rigging: rigging most experts concur served only to legitimise jihadists who characterised India’s democracy as a dead-end, since the MUF would at best have won some twenty seats. Ever since the mid-1970s, Islamists and their patrons in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate had been waiting for just such an opportunity.
A checklist
Three major strategic challenges lie ahead for the new alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir if it wishes to avert a similar descent into chaos: challenges that will prove even more difficult than its immediate priority, providing transparent, development-oriented governance.
First, and perhaps most important, is the deteriorating regional strategic environment means the state government cannot take peace, the keystone of the political process which brought it to power, for granted.
Eight years ago, the Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked Parliament House in New Delhi. In an effort to avert a war with India, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf promised to rein in jihadist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. While President Musharraf’s actions against jihadist groups were, at best, fitful, he did ensure a substantial reduction in cross-Line of Control infiltration, leading to year on year reductions in violence. In 2008, just 89 civilians were killed in terrorism-related violence — the lowest figure since the long jihad in the state began two decades ago.
But ever since January, there have been signs that Pakistan’s posture is changing. Pakistani troops and jihadist initiated a series of clashes along the LoC, undermining a ceasefire that went into place on New Year’s Eve in 2002. Pakistan’s defiant rejection of global calls to punish the jihadists responsible for November’s massacre in Mumbai could also suggest that the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate — and perhaps the Army establishment in general —have decided that hostilities with the enemy to the east could provide a tool with which to escape the dangerous war within. If so, real trouble could lie ahead.
Second, the new government will have to find means to rein in Jammu and Kashmir’s increasingly influential Islamists — as well as their Hindu chauvinist counterparts. In 2002, the People’s Democratic Party prepared the ground for its growth by positioning itself as the inheritor of MUF. Like the MUF, the PDP positioned itself as a party which spoke for ethnic-Kashmiri concerns, which were marketed as Islamic in character.
While the PDP’s affiliation with the Jamaat-e-Islami was a positive development for the long-term re-institutionalisation of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamists proved adroit in using the space opened up by the PDP to impose their agenda upon the state. In 2006, groups linked to hardliners like the Tehreek-i-Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani — with the tacit support of the PDP — succeeded in casting a prostitution scandal in Kashmir as a battle between Islam and an immoral modernist order imposed by India. Later, Islamists ran large-scale campaigns against the presence of economic migrants from the plains — who were alleged, among other things, to be vectors for HIV, perpetrators of rape and child sexual abuse, and pushers for drugs and alcohol.
PDP politicians chose not to confront the Islamists. Instead, the party lurched into a cycle of competitive chauvinism, in an effort to appropriate the Islamists’ causes and use state power to realise them. Hindu fundamentalists in Jammu, in turn, used this campaign to initiate their own communal programme, built around cow-protection and opposition to supposed ethnic-Kashmiri expansionism. In the summer, these tensions exploded in the form of protests for and against land-use rights to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board — with terrible consequences.
Rather than hoping to appropriate their opponents’ religiosity, the National Conference and Congress would be well advised to use economic instruments to build bridges to the urban petty bourgeoisie and rural elite who make up the bulwark of the religious right. Hinduism and Islam, for the classes which backed the PDP and the BJP, are instruments to legitimise the protest of a threatened social order against a modernity which threatened to obliterate it. In urban centres, this coalition has the growing support of a class of disenfranchised young people who are witnessing the death of the artisanal and trading occupations of their parents but have neither the skills nor resources to compete in the new world.
Finally, the National Conference-Congress alliance will have to push forward the pace of dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional future. Both parties must use the medium of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to initiate a dialogue that acknowledges the multiple voices and concerns that exist within the state. Failing this, the debate over Jammu and Kashmir’s future would be waged solely by the PDP on the one hand, which in a recent document called for trans-border institutions to share sovereignty in the state and the BJP, which has been demanding the abrogation of Article 370.
In critical senses, then, the National Conference-Congress alliance stands at the crossroads of Jammu and Kashmir’s past and present. Both parties must work to rewrite history — or will, sooner rather than later, end up revisiting their tragic past.
Kashmir’s National Conference–Congress alliance government must rewrite history — or the coalition will end up repeating it.
“Hard political reality,” Farooq Abdullah had said of his decision to sign an accord with the Congress in 1986, against his own instinctive judgment.
On Tuesday, as his son stood shoulder-to-shoulder with former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to announce the formation of a new National Conference-Congress alliance, it is certain that Dr. Abdullah would have recalled that moment.
December’s National Conference-Congress alliance could demonstrate that history repeats itself: the last alliance between the two parties ended in a rigged election which prepared the ground for jihadists who had for decades been working to legitimise their war against India.
But it could also offer unique opportunity to erase the bitter legacy of the past, not the least because Jammu and Kashmir — like India as a whole — has been transfigured since. Neither party today is a hegemonic entity — and both have learned, through bitter experience, that breeding communal pets in the backyard is a dangerous pastime.
Ever since the falling-apart of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1953, relations between the Congress and the National Conference had been fraught. The National Conference represented the distinctness of Kashmiri identity; on occasion, it used communal ideas and themes to reach out to its audience. The Congress, in turn, saw itself as the sole credible defender of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India and proved increasingly willing to use Hindu chauvinism to further that cause.
Both the Congress and National Conference fought the 1983 elections on communal lines. In alliance with Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq — father of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman, Umar Farooq — Dr. Abdullah gave his campaign an expressly Islamic colour. In one pamphlet, the National Conference equated the Congress with Maharaja Hari Singh, who had “enslaved the Kashmiris.” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used identical tactics to push forward the Congress’ pursuit of power. She campaigned against the Resettlement Act, which would have allowed Muslim Partition refugees to return to Jammu and Kashmir and reclaim their properties. As the author and journalist Tavleen Singh has noted, Mrs. Gandhi sought to persuade Jammu voters that they “were really a part of Hindu India and had, therefore, been neglected by Muslim Kashmir.”
Inflammatory tactics paid off: the National Conference won 46 seats, all in Muslim-majority constituencies, while the Congress picked up 23. However, the Congress continued on with a campaign designed to annihilate Abdullah. His alliance with Mirwaiz Farooq — who was, ironically enough, to die at the hands of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen assassin —was characterised as anti-national. Sikh religious camps held in Jammu and Kashmir were described as state-sponsored training centres for Khalistan terrorists. Much of the propaganda was deceitful — the Congress itself, after all, had sought an alliance with the Mirwaiz — but it prepared the ground for the dismissal of the Abdullah government in July 1984, months after he sponsored a national opposition conclave in Srinagar.
“I am not worried about democratic norms”, Indira Gandhi was reported to have said to a confidante, “I am not going to kiss Kashmir away because of them”. She almost did. Dr. Abdullah’s brother in law, Gul Mohammad Shah, took power with the support of a dozen National Conference rebels. Still sardonically referred to as the Gul-e-Curfew, or ‘Curfew Flower’, Mr. Shah presided over a regime that remained paralysed by popular protests. New Delhi, though, refused to blink even after Indira Gandhi’s death. In October 1986, Dr. Abdullah buckled in, and agreed to an alliance with the Congress.
But Dr. Abdullah’s decision, as the scholar Navnita Chadha Behera has argued, vacated the opposition to the religious right. His actions allowed the birth of the Muslim United Front — a coalition spearheaded by the Jamaat-e-Islami, whose most visible face then, as now, was Kashmir’s Islamist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Its partners included bodies like Qazi Mohammad Nisar’s Ummat-e-Islami, which had defied a ban on the sale of meat on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Janmashtami; the neoconservative Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadis; the Islamic Study Circle; the Muslim Education Trust; and Abdul Gani Lone’s People’s Conference.
In the 1987 elections, a panicked National Conference-Congress alliance unleashed large-scale rigging: rigging most experts concur served only to legitimise jihadists who characterised India’s democracy as a dead-end, since the MUF would at best have won some twenty seats. Ever since the mid-1970s, Islamists and their patrons in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate had been waiting for just such an opportunity.
A checklist
Three major strategic challenges lie ahead for the new alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir if it wishes to avert a similar descent into chaos: challenges that will prove even more difficult than its immediate priority, providing transparent, development-oriented governance.
First, and perhaps most important, is the deteriorating regional strategic environment means the state government cannot take peace, the keystone of the political process which brought it to power, for granted.
Eight years ago, the Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked Parliament House in New Delhi. In an effort to avert a war with India, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf promised to rein in jihadist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. While President Musharraf’s actions against jihadist groups were, at best, fitful, he did ensure a substantial reduction in cross-Line of Control infiltration, leading to year on year reductions in violence. In 2008, just 89 civilians were killed in terrorism-related violence — the lowest figure since the long jihad in the state began two decades ago.
But ever since January, there have been signs that Pakistan’s posture is changing. Pakistani troops and jihadist initiated a series of clashes along the LoC, undermining a ceasefire that went into place on New Year’s Eve in 2002. Pakistan’s defiant rejection of global calls to punish the jihadists responsible for November’s massacre in Mumbai could also suggest that the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate — and perhaps the Army establishment in general —have decided that hostilities with the enemy to the east could provide a tool with which to escape the dangerous war within. If so, real trouble could lie ahead.
Second, the new government will have to find means to rein in Jammu and Kashmir’s increasingly influential Islamists — as well as their Hindu chauvinist counterparts. In 2002, the People’s Democratic Party prepared the ground for its growth by positioning itself as the inheritor of MUF. Like the MUF, the PDP positioned itself as a party which spoke for ethnic-Kashmiri concerns, which were marketed as Islamic in character.
While the PDP’s affiliation with the Jamaat-e-Islami was a positive development for the long-term re-institutionalisation of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamists proved adroit in using the space opened up by the PDP to impose their agenda upon the state. In 2006, groups linked to hardliners like the Tehreek-i-Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani — with the tacit support of the PDP — succeeded in casting a prostitution scandal in Kashmir as a battle between Islam and an immoral modernist order imposed by India. Later, Islamists ran large-scale campaigns against the presence of economic migrants from the plains — who were alleged, among other things, to be vectors for HIV, perpetrators of rape and child sexual abuse, and pushers for drugs and alcohol.
PDP politicians chose not to confront the Islamists. Instead, the party lurched into a cycle of competitive chauvinism, in an effort to appropriate the Islamists’ causes and use state power to realise them. Hindu fundamentalists in Jammu, in turn, used this campaign to initiate their own communal programme, built around cow-protection and opposition to supposed ethnic-Kashmiri expansionism. In the summer, these tensions exploded in the form of protests for and against land-use rights to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board — with terrible consequences.
Rather than hoping to appropriate their opponents’ religiosity, the National Conference and Congress would be well advised to use economic instruments to build bridges to the urban petty bourgeoisie and rural elite who make up the bulwark of the religious right. Hinduism and Islam, for the classes which backed the PDP and the BJP, are instruments to legitimise the protest of a threatened social order against a modernity which threatened to obliterate it. In urban centres, this coalition has the growing support of a class of disenfranchised young people who are witnessing the death of the artisanal and trading occupations of their parents but have neither the skills nor resources to compete in the new world.
Finally, the National Conference-Congress alliance will have to push forward the pace of dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional future. Both parties must use the medium of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to initiate a dialogue that acknowledges the multiple voices and concerns that exist within the state. Failing this, the debate over Jammu and Kashmir’s future would be waged solely by the PDP on the one hand, which in a recent document called for trans-border institutions to share sovereignty in the state and the BJP, which has been demanding the abrogation of Article 370.
In critical senses, then, the National Conference-Congress alliance stands at the crossroads of Jammu and Kashmir’s past and present. Both parties must work to rewrite history — or will, sooner rather than later, end up revisiting their tragic past.
Business - Difficult times for trade
The recent cancellation of a meeting of trade ministers on the Doha round of talks has come as no surprise. The seven-year-old Doha round has had a chequered history, dotted by more failures than successes. The biggest stumbling block has been the inability of member countries to reach a framework agreement on the modalities of reducing farm subsidies and cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial products. At the July 2008 a mini-ministerial meeting in Geneva, a break through seemed within grasp but it ultimately proved elusive. Prodded by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, member countries decided to preserve the gains made at the Geneva meet and build on them through trade representatives at the WTO Secretariat. The idea was to narrow the differences in agriculture and NAMA (non-agricultural market access). Indeed, according to the revised drafts circulated on December 9, there have been some “degree of convergence” and “progress” since the July meeting but there are also a number of difficult issues to be tackled. Among them, in agriculture, are farm tariff simplification, the special safeguards mechanism for developing countries, and cotton subsidies. On the industrial goods front, one important question related to duty-free and quota-free benefits for the developing countries.
Given the nature of contentious issues, it is highly unlikely that they could have been resolved in the short time available and the prolonging Doha round wrapped up at the scheduled meeting. Moreover, the global political and economic environment has changed dramatically in the latter part of 2008. The odds against the completion of the Doha round have lengthened, despite the strong endorsement it got from the G-20 at its Washington meeting. It is certain that the Obama administration in its initial years will be focussed on alleviating the misery flowing from the housing-led crisis. Nearly all the developed countries are in recession, and opening up foreign trade may be the last thing their political establishments would chose to address at this juncture. Already, influential groups in the U.S. in agriculture and manufacturing, backed by legislators, have indicated their strong opposition to the Doha round compromises. Elections are to be held in India by May, and there will be a new European Commission by autumn. Most countries will be less inclined to demonstrate the kind of flexibility needed to clinch the deal. All this is unfortunate because the Doha round, by suitably emphasising its development dimensions, can boost multilateral trade for the benefit of all countries.
Given the nature of contentious issues, it is highly unlikely that they could have been resolved in the short time available and the prolonging Doha round wrapped up at the scheduled meeting. Moreover, the global political and economic environment has changed dramatically in the latter part of 2008. The odds against the completion of the Doha round have lengthened, despite the strong endorsement it got from the G-20 at its Washington meeting. It is certain that the Obama administration in its initial years will be focussed on alleviating the misery flowing from the housing-led crisis. Nearly all the developed countries are in recession, and opening up foreign trade may be the last thing their political establishments would chose to address at this juncture. Already, influential groups in the U.S. in agriculture and manufacturing, backed by legislators, have indicated their strong opposition to the Doha round compromises. Elections are to be held in India by May, and there will be a new European Commission by autumn. Most countries will be less inclined to demonstrate the kind of flexibility needed to clinch the deal. All this is unfortunate because the Doha round, by suitably emphasising its development dimensions, can boost multilateral trade for the benefit of all countries.
India - BJP consolidation in Karnataka
In a clear mandate for stability, voters have chosen candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in five of the eight Karnataka Assembly constituencies where by-elections were held. The Janata Dal (Secular) was the victor in the remaining three. Evidently, the seven-month-old B.S. Yeddyurappa government is still in its honeymoon period with the electorate. The BJP might have forced seven of the eight by-elections by engineering defections from the Congress and the JD(S) through a manipulative process codenamed ‘Operation Kamala’ (after the party symbol Lotus) but voters seemed more concerned with the larger issue of political stability. The BJP fielded five of the seven defectors, four from the JD(S) and three from the Congress, in the by-elections and the voters returned all of them. With 115 members, the ruling party will now be in an unassailable position in the 224-member Assembly. Falling just short of a majority in the May 2008 Assembly, it was clearly uncomfortable with its government being at the mercy of six independents. Defections would have attracted disqualification under the provisions of the anti-defection law. So Mr. Yeddyurappa sensibly persuaded the defectors to resign and contest again on the BJP ticket. Four of the defectors were also made Ministers before they were elected on the BJP ticket. Now that the by-elections are out of the way, and he need not lose sleep over the possibility of the government losing majority support, Chief Minister Yeddyurappa will be expected to deliver on his promise of development.
The JD(S) also takes away positives from the polls. It has demonstrated its hold in the Old Mysore region of the State. But the party will derive the most satisfaction from its success in Madhugiri, where Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, won by pushing the BJP to the third place. It is surely significant that the Congress finished second in six constituencies but failed to win a single seat. Whether in power or in the opposition, the party seems constitutionally incapable of shaking off its legacy of factional fights. Some of the top party leaders, including S. Siddaramaiah, stayed away from the campaign. What is clear is that with five months to go for the 15th general election, the Congress in Karnataka is in poor shape. Given the national political situation, any pre-election understanding with the JD(S) to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha contest can be ruled out. The fairly rapid consolidation of the BJP’s position in Karnataka is at sharp variance with the situation in the three other southern States where the saffron party has no electoral salience.
The JD(S) also takes away positives from the polls. It has demonstrated its hold in the Old Mysore region of the State. But the party will derive the most satisfaction from its success in Madhugiri, where Anitha Kumaraswamy, wife of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, won by pushing the BJP to the third place. It is surely significant that the Congress finished second in six constituencies but failed to win a single seat. Whether in power or in the opposition, the party seems constitutionally incapable of shaking off its legacy of factional fights. Some of the top party leaders, including S. Siddaramaiah, stayed away from the campaign. What is clear is that with five months to go for the 15th general election, the Congress in Karnataka is in poor shape. Given the national political situation, any pre-election understanding with the JD(S) to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha contest can be ruled out. The fairly rapid consolidation of the BJP’s position in Karnataka is at sharp variance with the situation in the three other southern States where the saffron party has no electoral salience.
India - SEBI urged to launch IRA scheme for households
Ashok Dasgupta
NEW DELHI: Apex chamber Assocham has urged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to introduce individual retirement account (IRA) scheme for large households to enable investment in equity market through various mutual funds.
In a representation to the market regulator, the chamber has underscored the need for promoting long-term inflows into equities by floating IRA schemes so that households make their investments through various mutual funds to reap the benefits of their long-term plans.
The IRA scheme concept, prevalent in developed economies such as the U.S. and some countries in Europe, is broadly aimed at savings plans to create wealth over a period, which could then be available for the individual’s post-retirement period.
To incentivise individuals to join the IRA schemes, the chamber has suggested tax concessions such as a deferred tax system under which each contributor to the proposed IRA could invest up to Rs 5 lakh in a year in a mutual fund scheme for investment in equity or in a combination of equity and debt, as per the investor’s choice.
Lock-in period
The lock-in period recommended for such investment is a minimum period of 10 years which can be withdrawn only after the investor attains the age of 58 or 10 years after investment, whichever is earlier.
Assocham has suggested that while the amount invested in the IRA scheme should be tax deductible, dividend and capital appreciation should be exempted from taxes when the investor withdraws the amount, as is permitted under the EET (‘Exempt, exempt tax’) facility.
According to the chamber, such a scheme will promote long-term investments in equity and debt and also ensure a reasonable post-retirement income when the individual investor would be on a relatively lower tax bracket.
For the non-tax paying category also, the IRA scheme could be promoted by permitting mutual funds to offer such investment avenues.
The IRA scheme, the chamber said, would thus help individuals to build their retirement benefit schemes and, at the same time, channelise the savings of the community to the capital market. The diversion of savings of the household sector to the capital market would provide a steady flow of substantial amounts that would also act as a buffer against volatile inflows and outflows of foreign institutional investors (FIIs).
Assocham also pointed out that though the Government has permitted provident funds (PFs) to invest 10 per cent of their corpus in equity-based mutual fund schemes, the guidelines have not been finalised as trustees of these funds are not permitting such investments. “It is time that the difficulties, if any, are removed and provident funds and gratuity funds are allowed to be invested in mutual funds also,” it said.
NEW DELHI: Apex chamber Assocham has urged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to introduce individual retirement account (IRA) scheme for large households to enable investment in equity market through various mutual funds.
In a representation to the market regulator, the chamber has underscored the need for promoting long-term inflows into equities by floating IRA schemes so that households make their investments through various mutual funds to reap the benefits of their long-term plans.
The IRA scheme concept, prevalent in developed economies such as the U.S. and some countries in Europe, is broadly aimed at savings plans to create wealth over a period, which could then be available for the individual’s post-retirement period.
To incentivise individuals to join the IRA schemes, the chamber has suggested tax concessions such as a deferred tax system under which each contributor to the proposed IRA could invest up to Rs 5 lakh in a year in a mutual fund scheme for investment in equity or in a combination of equity and debt, as per the investor’s choice.
Lock-in period
The lock-in period recommended for such investment is a minimum period of 10 years which can be withdrawn only after the investor attains the age of 58 or 10 years after investment, whichever is earlier.
Assocham has suggested that while the amount invested in the IRA scheme should be tax deductible, dividend and capital appreciation should be exempted from taxes when the investor withdraws the amount, as is permitted under the EET (‘Exempt, exempt tax’) facility.
According to the chamber, such a scheme will promote long-term investments in equity and debt and also ensure a reasonable post-retirement income when the individual investor would be on a relatively lower tax bracket.
For the non-tax paying category also, the IRA scheme could be promoted by permitting mutual funds to offer such investment avenues.
The IRA scheme, the chamber said, would thus help individuals to build their retirement benefit schemes and, at the same time, channelise the savings of the community to the capital market. The diversion of savings of the household sector to the capital market would provide a steady flow of substantial amounts that would also act as a buffer against volatile inflows and outflows of foreign institutional investors (FIIs).
Assocham also pointed out that though the Government has permitted provident funds (PFs) to invest 10 per cent of their corpus in equity-based mutual fund schemes, the guidelines have not been finalised as trustees of these funds are not permitting such investments. “It is time that the difficulties, if any, are removed and provident funds and gratuity funds are allowed to be invested in mutual funds also,” it said.
World - Russia cuts off gas supply to Ukraine
Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW: Russia has cut natural gas supplies to neighbouring Ukraine on Thursday after talks on gas prices for 2009 fell through.Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom said it had halted deliveries to Ukraine following the expiry of the 2008 contract.
Europe voiced concern over the row as 80 per cent of Russian gas supplies to Europe go through Ukraine. Gazprom meets a quarter of Europe’s gas needs. In a letter to Gazprom on December 31, Ukraine’s state gas company said it could not guarantee uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe if Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine.
The last time Gazprom cut off supplies to Ukraine in a similar dispute over prices in 2006 Ukraine just siphoned off transit gas for its own needs. Moscow had warned for weeks that talks on a 2009 contract could not begin till Kiev paid back a $2-billion-odd debt for the gas already supplied to Ukraine.
It was only on the last day of 2008 that Ukraine transferred $1.5 billion, leaving less than a day for the two sides to negotiate a deal. Gazprom said it had proposed to Ukraine a generous price of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in 2009, given that the price in Europe was currently more than $500.
Ukraine rejected the price, and its delegation broke off talks and left Moscow hours before the New Year. Gazprom said the delegation anyway had no mandate to sign a deal. Ukraine’s President and Prime Minister issued a joint statement on January 1, stating that the price for Russian gas for Ukraine should be fixed at $201 per 1,000 cubic metres, and called on the European Commission to join talks with Russia.
There is a strong impression in Moscow that Ukraine deliberately provoked a showdown with Russia over gas supplies to win the West’s support and give fresh fire powder to Russia’s critics in Europe and the U.S., who accuse Moscow of using its energy resources as a political weapon against its pro-Western neighbours.
MOSCOW: Russia has cut natural gas supplies to neighbouring Ukraine on Thursday after talks on gas prices for 2009 fell through.Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom said it had halted deliveries to Ukraine following the expiry of the 2008 contract.
Europe voiced concern over the row as 80 per cent of Russian gas supplies to Europe go through Ukraine. Gazprom meets a quarter of Europe’s gas needs. In a letter to Gazprom on December 31, Ukraine’s state gas company said it could not guarantee uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to Europe if Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine.
The last time Gazprom cut off supplies to Ukraine in a similar dispute over prices in 2006 Ukraine just siphoned off transit gas for its own needs. Moscow had warned for weeks that talks on a 2009 contract could not begin till Kiev paid back a $2-billion-odd debt for the gas already supplied to Ukraine.
It was only on the last day of 2008 that Ukraine transferred $1.5 billion, leaving less than a day for the two sides to negotiate a deal. Gazprom said it had proposed to Ukraine a generous price of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in 2009, given that the price in Europe was currently more than $500.
Ukraine rejected the price, and its delegation broke off talks and left Moscow hours before the New Year. Gazprom said the delegation anyway had no mandate to sign a deal. Ukraine’s President and Prime Minister issued a joint statement on January 1, stating that the price for Russian gas for Ukraine should be fixed at $201 per 1,000 cubic metres, and called on the European Commission to join talks with Russia.
There is a strong impression in Moscow that Ukraine deliberately provoked a showdown with Russia over gas supplies to win the West’s support and give fresh fire powder to Russia’s critics in Europe and the U.S., who accuse Moscow of using its energy resources as a political weapon against its pro-Western neighbours.
World - Hamas sets tough terms for truce
Atul Aneja
Heated debate in Israel on launching ground offensive
DUBAI: Wary of a ceasefire, a top Hamas leader in Gaza has spelled out tough conditions for a truce with Israel.
“First, the Zionist [Israeli] aggression must end without any conditions... Second the siege must be lifted and all the crossings must be opened because the siege is the source of all of Gaza’s problems,” said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a televised address.
Mr. Haniyeh said once these conditions were met “it will be possible to talk on all issues without any exception.”
France had recently proposed a 48-hour “humanitarian ceasefire” and there are other ideas for a truce which are on the table.
The Palestinian leader made these remarks amid a heated debate in the Israeli government on the pros and cons of launching a ground offensive against Gaza. Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the military had “recommended a major, but relatively short-term, ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as military preparations continued on the border.”
It added that the “army was given the green light” to go ahead with the operation.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah made three observations on the situation in Gaza during a televised address on Wednesday.
First, Hamas had absorbed the air strikes, and this has set up the next stage of the war. “The Palestinian resistance has managed to force hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers into shelters and shut down universities and factories.”
On Thursday, a Grad rocket fired by Palestinians scored a direct hit on an eight-storey apartment building in Ashdod, nearly 40 km from the Gaza border. More than 20 rockets have landed inside southern Israel on Thursday.
The Hizbollah leader said Israel was hesitating to launch a ground offensive against Gaza.
“I can’t say whether Israel will launch a ground operation or not. Yet, it is clear until this moment that the Israelis are hesitant.” He cited the coming elections in Israel, where the ruling combine would suffer a major blow in case of a military setback in Gaza.
Mr. Nasrallah also observed that in case a land attack by Israel is launched, Hamas would triumph provided “resistance fighters persist as our fighters [in Lebanon] did [in July-August 2006].”
Meanwhile, Hamas has intensified its “psychological operations” by sending text messages to Israeli mobile phone users that they will be targeted with rockets in case Hamas is attacked by ground troops.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) spokesman Abu Abir said: “Telephone messages and breaching the enemy’s radio frequencies are just some of the surprises we have for the Israeli side. You will be very surprised by our military and technological capabilities.”
Business - India;Exports dip 10 % in dollar terms in November
Sujay Mehdudia
Trade deficit for April-November mounts to $84.34 billion
The manufacturing sector has been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe.
NEW DELHI: Impacted by the continued global meltdown and slowdown in economic activity, India’s exports continued its downward trend. Exports for the second consecutive month fell by 9.9 per cent in November under the impact of declining consumer demand in the U.S. and other major global markets widening the monthly trade deficit by over $10 billion.
Imports grew by 6.1 p.c.
Official figures released here on Thursday showed that exports had dropped to $11.5 billion in November from $12.7 billion a year ago, while imports grew by 6.1 per cent to $21.5 billion.
However, exports expanded by 12 per cent in rupee terms with the increase in exporters’ realisations due to about 20 per cent decline in the value of the Indian currency against the U.S. dollar in the last few months.
Exports had gone down by 12.1 per cent in October showing a negative trend for the first time in the last five years.
For the April-November period, cumulative exports grew by 19.4 per cent to $119.30 billion.
The growth for the first half of the fiscal was 30.9 per cent. Imports rose by 33 per cent to $203.64 billion.
Difficult times
The trade deficit for the period has mounted to $84.34 billion from $53.19 billion. With the major markets in the world, including the U.S. and several European countries slipping into full-blown recession and showing no signs of revival in the near future, Indian exporters have run into difficult times.
The impact has been visible since October and the present trend seems to be here to stay despite a number of measures announced by the Government to give a new thrust to the export sector.
FIEO’s concern
Reacting to the continued decline in exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President, A. Sakthivel said manufacturing sectors such as leather, textile and gems and jewellery have been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe. He said export growth was likely to remain in the negative territory for the next few months.
Trade deficit for April-November mounts to $84.34 billion
The manufacturing sector has been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe.
NEW DELHI: Impacted by the continued global meltdown and slowdown in economic activity, India’s exports continued its downward trend. Exports for the second consecutive month fell by 9.9 per cent in November under the impact of declining consumer demand in the U.S. and other major global markets widening the monthly trade deficit by over $10 billion.
Imports grew by 6.1 p.c.
Official figures released here on Thursday showed that exports had dropped to $11.5 billion in November from $12.7 billion a year ago, while imports grew by 6.1 per cent to $21.5 billion.
However, exports expanded by 12 per cent in rupee terms with the increase in exporters’ realisations due to about 20 per cent decline in the value of the Indian currency against the U.S. dollar in the last few months.
Exports had gone down by 12.1 per cent in October showing a negative trend for the first time in the last five years.
For the April-November period, cumulative exports grew by 19.4 per cent to $119.30 billion.
The growth for the first half of the fiscal was 30.9 per cent. Imports rose by 33 per cent to $203.64 billion.
Difficult times
The trade deficit for the period has mounted to $84.34 billion from $53.19 billion. With the major markets in the world, including the U.S. and several European countries slipping into full-blown recession and showing no signs of revival in the near future, Indian exporters have run into difficult times.
The impact has been visible since October and the present trend seems to be here to stay despite a number of measures announced by the Government to give a new thrust to the export sector.
FIEO’s concern
Reacting to the continued decline in exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President, A. Sakthivel said manufacturing sectors such as leather, textile and gems and jewellery have been hit hard because of massive demand slump in the U.S. and Europe. He said export growth was likely to remain in the negative territory for the next few months.
Business - Merrill Lynch goes into history
NEW YORK: New York city investment bank Merrill Lynch has seen its last day.
As of Thursday the company will be part of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp.
At the closing bell on New Year’s eve on the fifth floor of the World Financial Centre in Manhattan, Merrill Lynch & Co.’s employees held what’s known as a clapoff: hundreds of them stood and applauded solemnly to pay tribute to their company.
Clapoff
Merrill Lynch lost billions of dollars in the subprime mortgage crisis.
Some employees say Wednesday’s clapoff was to mark the end of the company and the end of a very bad year.
The clapoff is a tradition that was used when people left the firm or retired. — AP
As of Thursday the company will be part of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp.
At the closing bell on New Year’s eve on the fifth floor of the World Financial Centre in Manhattan, Merrill Lynch & Co.’s employees held what’s known as a clapoff: hundreds of them stood and applauded solemnly to pay tribute to their company.
Clapoff
Merrill Lynch lost billions of dollars in the subprime mortgage crisis.
Some employees say Wednesday’s clapoff was to mark the end of the company and the end of a very bad year.
The clapoff is a tradition that was used when people left the firm or retired. — AP
India - Tourism Ministry seeks stimulus package
Vinay Kumar
NEW DELHI: Global meltdown and 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks have spelt doom for the tourism and hospitality sector, leading to widespread cancellation of nearly 60 per cent hotel bookings across the country during the ongoing peak season.
A concerned Union Tourism Ministry has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to include tourism sector in the economic stimulus package to tide over the crisis. The tourism and hospitality sector’s share in the Gross Domestic Product is 5.83 per cent and its share in employment 8.27 per cent.
From the 54th slot in global rankings in 2002, India’s tourism and hospitality sector has climbed to the 42nd position this year, say officials. The sector had failed to get any benefit in the Rs. 32,000-crore stimulus package recently announced by the Centre.
In a recent letter to Dr. Singh, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni has submitted four points for consideration, including reduction in luxury tax by four per cent.
Ms. Soni has sought reimbursement of service tax up to 90 per cent, up from the present 75 per cent, reduction of floor area ratio and pegging it at 25 per cent for those who construct hotels before 2010 Commonwealth Games and delinking of hotel projects from commercial real estate projects.
Pointing out that overseas tourists contributed $ 10.8 billion in foreign exchange in 2007, Union Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee said the “booster dose” targeted at infrastructure spending should also take cognisance of the tourism sector and so that fiscal benefits could flow to it.
While 5.08 million foreign tourists visited India in 2007, the figure touched 4.85 million up to November 2008. “The only ray of hope for the sector is domestic tourism as the number grew from 270 million in 2002 to 527 million in 2008,” Mr. Banerjee told The Hindu. He said the sector offered employment to taxi drivers, guides, caterers, tour operators, housemaids and a proposal to draft ex-servicemen to work as “Tourism Police” was also being considered.
Commonwealth Games
On the preparation for Commonwealth Games, to be hosted in Delhi next year, Mr. Banerjee expressed concern over the shortage of hotel accommodation which could be in the range of 8,000 to 9,000 rooms.
He had already urged Cabinet Secretary M. Chandrasekhar to facilitate “Single Window” clearance from various departments of the Central and State governments on setting up a hotel. At present, about 46 clearances from various government departments were needed to set up a hotel.
Mr. Banerjee said about 41,000 hotel rooms would be needed to accommodate delegates, sportspersons and visitors for the Commonwealth Games against the availability of only 11,000 rooms in Delhi.
Against their initial hope of getting 17,000 to 18,000 rooms, the Ministry hopes to get only about 9,000 rooms before the Games.
NEW DELHI: Global meltdown and 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks have spelt doom for the tourism and hospitality sector, leading to widespread cancellation of nearly 60 per cent hotel bookings across the country during the ongoing peak season.
A concerned Union Tourism Ministry has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to include tourism sector in the economic stimulus package to tide over the crisis. The tourism and hospitality sector’s share in the Gross Domestic Product is 5.83 per cent and its share in employment 8.27 per cent.
From the 54th slot in global rankings in 2002, India’s tourism and hospitality sector has climbed to the 42nd position this year, say officials. The sector had failed to get any benefit in the Rs. 32,000-crore stimulus package recently announced by the Centre.
In a recent letter to Dr. Singh, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni has submitted four points for consideration, including reduction in luxury tax by four per cent.
Ms. Soni has sought reimbursement of service tax up to 90 per cent, up from the present 75 per cent, reduction of floor area ratio and pegging it at 25 per cent for those who construct hotels before 2010 Commonwealth Games and delinking of hotel projects from commercial real estate projects.
Pointing out that overseas tourists contributed $ 10.8 billion in foreign exchange in 2007, Union Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee said the “booster dose” targeted at infrastructure spending should also take cognisance of the tourism sector and so that fiscal benefits could flow to it.
While 5.08 million foreign tourists visited India in 2007, the figure touched 4.85 million up to November 2008. “The only ray of hope for the sector is domestic tourism as the number grew from 270 million in 2002 to 527 million in 2008,” Mr. Banerjee told The Hindu. He said the sector offered employment to taxi drivers, guides, caterers, tour operators, housemaids and a proposal to draft ex-servicemen to work as “Tourism Police” was also being considered.
Commonwealth Games
On the preparation for Commonwealth Games, to be hosted in Delhi next year, Mr. Banerjee expressed concern over the shortage of hotel accommodation which could be in the range of 8,000 to 9,000 rooms.
He had already urged Cabinet Secretary M. Chandrasekhar to facilitate “Single Window” clearance from various departments of the Central and State governments on setting up a hotel. At present, about 46 clearances from various government departments were needed to set up a hotel.
Mr. Banerjee said about 41,000 hotel rooms would be needed to accommodate delegates, sportspersons and visitors for the Commonwealth Games against the availability of only 11,000 rooms in Delhi.
Against their initial hope of getting 17,000 to 18,000 rooms, the Ministry hopes to get only about 9,000 rooms before the Games.
Business - India objects to Pakistan’s move over Basmati rice
Sandeep Joshi
NEW DELHI: India has strongly objected to Pakistan allowing its farmers’ organisation to register basmati as a trademark. Apart from moving the Sindh High Court, India has decided to put on hold all initiatives with Pakistan for a joint registration of ‘Geographical Indication’ (GI) for basmati rice in Europe, accusing its neighbour of breach of trust.
Talking to The Hindu here, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh confirmed that the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the Commerce and Industry Ministry, had moved the court Sindh High Court in Pakistan against the trademark right given by the Registrar of Trademark, Karachi, to Basmati Growers Association of Lahore, for Basmati rice.
Informing that the case would come up for hearing later this month, Mr. Ramesh said this is a serious breach of trust and unethical on part of Pakistani authorities to take such a step when India and Pakistan were talking to jointly market Basmati and apply for its intellectual property rights (IPR). “We have now decided to put on hold joint registration of GI for Basmati in Europe for which the Commerce Ministries on both sides had formed a joint working group (JWG),” he said.
Mr. Ramesh said the JWG had already held two meetings; the last one being at Islamabad a couple of months ago where Pakistan had suggested that 2009 be observed as ‘Year of Basmati.’ The third meeting was planned in India in the next few months, which has now been put on hold.
“We have now decided to actively safeguard our special agricultural products worldwide through APEDA that has been recently empowered by passage of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2008, aimed at protecting IPR of special agricultural products including Basmati,” he added.
Leads to mistrust
The Minister further said such acts of Pakistan only lead to mistrust between trading community of both nations and create obstacles in the growth of Indo-Pak trade. “We have already decided not to actively pursue issues related to commerce and trade till Pakistan hands over culprits of Mumbai terror attacks. If Pakistan wants better relations with us, it will have to act fast against all those working against India’s interest,” he added.
Talking about the new Bill, Mr. Ramesh said it would help protect IPR of special agricultural products and check misuse of famous products and brands from trademark infringement by foreign traders and manufacturers.
Recalling the famous cases of copying Basmati brand by the U.S. firms by naming rice grown in Texas as ‘Taxmati’ and in Kansas as ‘Kansmati’ which were successfully contested by the Indian Government, Mr. Ramesh said APEDA would immediately take up the case of Basmati rice and file applications for registration of trademarks or grant of patent.
“Similarly, APEDA would also take up cases related to other special agricultural products like Ponni rice grown in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Nagpur oranges, Hyderabadi ‘biryani’ and Benarasi ‘paan’,” informed Mr. Ramesh, adding that APEDA has already managed to get GI for 104 products, starting from Darjeeling tea in 2003.
NEW DELHI: India has strongly objected to Pakistan allowing its farmers’ organisation to register basmati as a trademark. Apart from moving the Sindh High Court, India has decided to put on hold all initiatives with Pakistan for a joint registration of ‘Geographical Indication’ (GI) for basmati rice in Europe, accusing its neighbour of breach of trust.
Talking to The Hindu here, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh confirmed that the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the Commerce and Industry Ministry, had moved the court Sindh High Court in Pakistan against the trademark right given by the Registrar of Trademark, Karachi, to Basmati Growers Association of Lahore, for Basmati rice.
Informing that the case would come up for hearing later this month, Mr. Ramesh said this is a serious breach of trust and unethical on part of Pakistani authorities to take such a step when India and Pakistan were talking to jointly market Basmati and apply for its intellectual property rights (IPR). “We have now decided to put on hold joint registration of GI for Basmati in Europe for which the Commerce Ministries on both sides had formed a joint working group (JWG),” he said.
Mr. Ramesh said the JWG had already held two meetings; the last one being at Islamabad a couple of months ago where Pakistan had suggested that 2009 be observed as ‘Year of Basmati.’ The third meeting was planned in India in the next few months, which has now been put on hold.
“We have now decided to actively safeguard our special agricultural products worldwide through APEDA that has been recently empowered by passage of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2008, aimed at protecting IPR of special agricultural products including Basmati,” he added.
Leads to mistrust
The Minister further said such acts of Pakistan only lead to mistrust between trading community of both nations and create obstacles in the growth of Indo-Pak trade. “We have already decided not to actively pursue issues related to commerce and trade till Pakistan hands over culprits of Mumbai terror attacks. If Pakistan wants better relations with us, it will have to act fast against all those working against India’s interest,” he added.
Talking about the new Bill, Mr. Ramesh said it would help protect IPR of special agricultural products and check misuse of famous products and brands from trademark infringement by foreign traders and manufacturers.
Recalling the famous cases of copying Basmati brand by the U.S. firms by naming rice grown in Texas as ‘Taxmati’ and in Kansas as ‘Kansmati’ which were successfully contested by the Indian Government, Mr. Ramesh said APEDA would immediately take up the case of Basmati rice and file applications for registration of trademarks or grant of patent.
“Similarly, APEDA would also take up cases related to other special agricultural products like Ponni rice grown in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Nagpur oranges, Hyderabadi ‘biryani’ and Benarasi ‘paan’,” informed Mr. Ramesh, adding that APEDA has already managed to get GI for 104 products, starting from Darjeeling tea in 2003.
Personality - P.Subramaniam;Visionary and entrepreneur
LEKSHMI GOPALAKRISHNAN
P. Subramaniam’s drive and imagination fostered the Malayalam film industry in its infancy. His birth anniversary falls on January 7.
In the Fifties, computer graphics, digitalisation and multiplex theatres were still in the realm of the future for Malayalam Cinema.
In those predominantly black-and-white days, a 44-year-old visionary showed what imagination and hard work could achieve with a cast of talented actors, a two-floor studio complex and a camera. The sceptics were forced to eat their words and watch dumbstruck as he went on to make 69 films, some of them award winners too. He unearthed, supported and groomed a wide range of artists, lyricists, composers, directors and technicians and laid the foundation of the fledgling Malayalam Cinema industry. When the visionary and canny entrepreneur P. Subramaniam opened ‘Merryland Studio’ in 1951, Malayalam Cinema was still in its nascent stage.
Born on January 7, 1907, Subramaniam began his career as a clerk with the Water Works Department in Thiruvananthapuram. He tried his hand in various enterprises and even in politics. For some time, he was the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram. It is also hard to come by any other studio owner who built so many theatre complexes in a district (Sree Kumar, New Theatre, Karthikeya and Padmanabha).
Passion for cinema
It was his close acquaintance with K. Subrahmanyam, director of ‘Sreekrishna Leela,’ that nurtured in him the dream of making a mark in cinema. When cinema became a passion he decided to buy some property to begin a studio complex. His son and film producer S. Kumar clearly remembers those days: “In 1950, we were in search of a quiet place to start a studio in the capital city. It was then that we came to know that Father Mar Ivanious’ school at Nemom had been closed down as he feared attacks from radicals. Although Father Ivanious was reluctant to sell us the property that might turn out to be dangerous for us, my father showed the pluck and imagination to buy the land for Rs. 200 per cent. And in 1951, my father stepped into tinsel town by constructing a studio there.”
Thus Merryland became a reality with two floors and a single camera. The other floors, consisting of the current dubbing studio and lab, were built later. In 1952, Subramaniam produced ‘Atma Sakhi,’ which was given a lukewarm reception by viewers. The next film met with the same fate. It was ‘Avakashikal,’ a rollicking comedy that put Merryland on the success chart. Over the years, Subramaniam tried his luck not only in production but also in direction, distribution and construction of theatres. ‘Mantravadi’ was the first film that made him a director.
Film stars, lyricists, composers, directors and technicians entered filmdom through the doors of Merryland. ‘Atmasakhi’ marked the debut of Satyan. Kottarakkara, Raghavan, Bahadur, Miss Kumari, Kaviyur Ponnamma and Sreevidya are some of the stars who shone on the silver screen, courtesy Merryland.
Quite a few block busters of Prem Nazir happen to be Merryland’s movies. Music director G. Devarajan, playback singer Kamukara Purushothaman, script writer and lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi were some of those who made their mark in films made by Subramaniam. Merryland’s ‘Kumarasambhavam’ bagged the first State Government award for the best film. Winning the National Film awards for ‘Randidangazhi,’ ‘Paadatha Painkili,’ and ‘Adhyapika’ helped Merryland make a mark at the national level as well.
S. Kumar admits that there was a healthy competition between Subramaniam and his contemporary, Kunchakko, owner of Udaya Studio. “But I can sincerely say that there was no personal grudge between them. They competed professionally; released films with almost similar titles and contents. But they always respected each other.” Subramaniam was dismayed when ‘Sree Murukan’ (1977) bit the dust at the box office.
That was the last mythological he made. ‘Hridayathinte Nirangal’ was the last movie to come out of Merryland.
Subramaniam passed away on October 4, 1978. Sadly, it spelt the death knell of Merryland as a powerhouse of Malayalam Cinema.
However, melodious songs and reruns of his films on television remind us of this pioneer of Malayalam Cinema.
Merryland hits
With devotional films such as ‘Bhakta Kuchela,’ ‘Sree Guruvayurappan,’ and ‘Devi Kanyakumari,’ entertainers such as ‘Chattampi Kavala’ and ‘Bharya Illyatha Raatri,’ and family movies such as ‘Hridayam Oru Kshetram,’ Merryland gave birth to a host of hits.
P. Subramaniam’s drive and imagination fostered the Malayalam film industry in its infancy. His birth anniversary falls on January 7.
In the Fifties, computer graphics, digitalisation and multiplex theatres were still in the realm of the future for Malayalam Cinema.
In those predominantly black-and-white days, a 44-year-old visionary showed what imagination and hard work could achieve with a cast of talented actors, a two-floor studio complex and a camera. The sceptics were forced to eat their words and watch dumbstruck as he went on to make 69 films, some of them award winners too. He unearthed, supported and groomed a wide range of artists, lyricists, composers, directors and technicians and laid the foundation of the fledgling Malayalam Cinema industry. When the visionary and canny entrepreneur P. Subramaniam opened ‘Merryland Studio’ in 1951, Malayalam Cinema was still in its nascent stage.
Born on January 7, 1907, Subramaniam began his career as a clerk with the Water Works Department in Thiruvananthapuram. He tried his hand in various enterprises and even in politics. For some time, he was the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram. It is also hard to come by any other studio owner who built so many theatre complexes in a district (Sree Kumar, New Theatre, Karthikeya and Padmanabha).
Passion for cinema
It was his close acquaintance with K. Subrahmanyam, director of ‘Sreekrishna Leela,’ that nurtured in him the dream of making a mark in cinema. When cinema became a passion he decided to buy some property to begin a studio complex. His son and film producer S. Kumar clearly remembers those days: “In 1950, we were in search of a quiet place to start a studio in the capital city. It was then that we came to know that Father Mar Ivanious’ school at Nemom had been closed down as he feared attacks from radicals. Although Father Ivanious was reluctant to sell us the property that might turn out to be dangerous for us, my father showed the pluck and imagination to buy the land for Rs. 200 per cent. And in 1951, my father stepped into tinsel town by constructing a studio there.”
Thus Merryland became a reality with two floors and a single camera. The other floors, consisting of the current dubbing studio and lab, were built later. In 1952, Subramaniam produced ‘Atma Sakhi,’ which was given a lukewarm reception by viewers. The next film met with the same fate. It was ‘Avakashikal,’ a rollicking comedy that put Merryland on the success chart. Over the years, Subramaniam tried his luck not only in production but also in direction, distribution and construction of theatres. ‘Mantravadi’ was the first film that made him a director.
Film stars, lyricists, composers, directors and technicians entered filmdom through the doors of Merryland. ‘Atmasakhi’ marked the debut of Satyan. Kottarakkara, Raghavan, Bahadur, Miss Kumari, Kaviyur Ponnamma and Sreevidya are some of the stars who shone on the silver screen, courtesy Merryland.
Quite a few block busters of Prem Nazir happen to be Merryland’s movies. Music director G. Devarajan, playback singer Kamukara Purushothaman, script writer and lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi were some of those who made their mark in films made by Subramaniam. Merryland’s ‘Kumarasambhavam’ bagged the first State Government award for the best film. Winning the National Film awards for ‘Randidangazhi,’ ‘Paadatha Painkili,’ and ‘Adhyapika’ helped Merryland make a mark at the national level as well.
S. Kumar admits that there was a healthy competition between Subramaniam and his contemporary, Kunchakko, owner of Udaya Studio. “But I can sincerely say that there was no personal grudge between them. They competed professionally; released films with almost similar titles and contents. But they always respected each other.” Subramaniam was dismayed when ‘Sree Murukan’ (1977) bit the dust at the box office.
That was the last mythological he made. ‘Hridayathinte Nirangal’ was the last movie to come out of Merryland.
Subramaniam passed away on October 4, 1978. Sadly, it spelt the death knell of Merryland as a powerhouse of Malayalam Cinema.
However, melodious songs and reruns of his films on television remind us of this pioneer of Malayalam Cinema.
Merryland hits
With devotional films such as ‘Bhakta Kuchela,’ ‘Sree Guruvayurappan,’ and ‘Devi Kanyakumari,’ entertainers such as ‘Chattampi Kavala’ and ‘Bharya Illyatha Raatri,’ and family movies such as ‘Hridayam Oru Kshetram,’ Merryland gave birth to a host of hits.
Art - India;Music Academy being modernised
CHENNAI: The Music Academy will continue refurbishing the stage in its music chamber and launch a quality book to commemorate its 80th anniversary, the Academy president and Managing Director of The Hindu, N. Murali, said here on Thursday.
Addressing a function where clarionet vidwan A.K.C. Natarajan was conferred the prestigious ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ title, Mr. Murali said the ongoing facility upgrade and modernisation drive to enhance the ambience was made possible with donations from philanthropists.
Mr. Murali noted that as against the global economic meltdown, the Academy was fortunately facing “the ripple effect of an altogether different kind — the generous and benign variety of ripple effect of donors supporting the institution in a big way over the last two years.”
Pointing to the keen interest shown by rasikas in “The Music Academy-Tag Digital Listening Archive” — a donation by its committee member R.T. Chari — he appealed to collectors to share their recordings to enrich the archives for the benefit of students, rasikas and scholars.
Pointing out that there was no commercial interest in the initiative, Mr. Murali said the executive committee would, in due course, be able to formulate norms for membership and accessing the digital archive.
The “Sadas” on Thursday also coincided with the formal closure of the 82nd conference and concerts of the Academy. It would host a dance festival from January 3 to 9, he said.
S. Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, conferred the ‘Sangita Kala Acharya’ title on mridangam exponent Mavelikkara Velukutty Nair and Bharatanatyam dancer Sarada Hoffman, the TTK Award on violinist Annavarapu Ramaswamy (in absentia) and vocalist Palai C.K. Ramachandran, and the Musicologist Award on ethno-musicologist S.A.K. Durga.
Mr. Ramadorai suggested the creation of a National Music Portal, perhaps under the Ministry of Arts and Culture, to bring about greater collaboration among institutions devoted to music. The portal would not only be a one-stop resource site for rasikas and researchers but also help to preserve fading art forms such as folk music and natya sangeet.
“An effort must be made towards popularising and educating people on the basics of the art.” He noted that an attempt on these lines was being mooted by a private organisation.
Replying to the felicitations, Mr. Natarajan termed the honour the high point of his life. More so because it was conferred by the very institution that had nurtured him to global fame.
Vocalist P.S. Narayanaswamy said Mr. Natarajan was a man who combined depth of musical knowledge with disarming humility.
Vocalist V. Subrahmaniam felicitated the awardees.
Mr. Ramachandran attributed the honour to the blessings of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer for whom he had provided supporting vocal for nearly 40 years.
N. Ramji and Pappu Venugopala Rao, members of the Academy, spoke.
Several artistes including Umayalpuram Sivaraman presented shawls to Mr. Natarajan.
Prizes and various endowments were presented to outstanding performers in this year’s edition of music concerts.
Mridangam maestro Kaaraikudi Mani entertained the audience with a 90-minute “Pancha Vadhyam” concert.
Addressing a function where clarionet vidwan A.K.C. Natarajan was conferred the prestigious ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ title, Mr. Murali said the ongoing facility upgrade and modernisation drive to enhance the ambience was made possible with donations from philanthropists.
Mr. Murali noted that as against the global economic meltdown, the Academy was fortunately facing “the ripple effect of an altogether different kind — the generous and benign variety of ripple effect of donors supporting the institution in a big way over the last two years.”
Pointing to the keen interest shown by rasikas in “The Music Academy-Tag Digital Listening Archive” — a donation by its committee member R.T. Chari — he appealed to collectors to share their recordings to enrich the archives for the benefit of students, rasikas and scholars.
Pointing out that there was no commercial interest in the initiative, Mr. Murali said the executive committee would, in due course, be able to formulate norms for membership and accessing the digital archive.
The “Sadas” on Thursday also coincided with the formal closure of the 82nd conference and concerts of the Academy. It would host a dance festival from January 3 to 9, he said.
S. Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, conferred the ‘Sangita Kala Acharya’ title on mridangam exponent Mavelikkara Velukutty Nair and Bharatanatyam dancer Sarada Hoffman, the TTK Award on violinist Annavarapu Ramaswamy (in absentia) and vocalist Palai C.K. Ramachandran, and the Musicologist Award on ethno-musicologist S.A.K. Durga.
Mr. Ramadorai suggested the creation of a National Music Portal, perhaps under the Ministry of Arts and Culture, to bring about greater collaboration among institutions devoted to music. The portal would not only be a one-stop resource site for rasikas and researchers but also help to preserve fading art forms such as folk music and natya sangeet.
“An effort must be made towards popularising and educating people on the basics of the art.” He noted that an attempt on these lines was being mooted by a private organisation.
Replying to the felicitations, Mr. Natarajan termed the honour the high point of his life. More so because it was conferred by the very institution that had nurtured him to global fame.
Vocalist P.S. Narayanaswamy said Mr. Natarajan was a man who combined depth of musical knowledge with disarming humility.
Vocalist V. Subrahmaniam felicitated the awardees.
Mr. Ramachandran attributed the honour to the blessings of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer for whom he had provided supporting vocal for nearly 40 years.
N. Ramji and Pappu Venugopala Rao, members of the Academy, spoke.
Several artistes including Umayalpuram Sivaraman presented shawls to Mr. Natarajan.
Prizes and various endowments were presented to outstanding performers in this year’s edition of music concerts.
Mridangam maestro Kaaraikudi Mani entertained the audience with a 90-minute “Pancha Vadhyam” concert.
Entertainment - Q&A Amos Gitai
NITA SATHYENDRAN
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai talks about traversing the borderline between fact and fiction.
Few have explored on the silver screen the ethos of contemporary Israel, anti-Semitism and the West Asian crisis more than Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai. With films such as ‘Free Zone,’ ‘Kedma,’ ‘Alila,’ and ‘Kippur,’ Gitai has crafted a style of filmmaking that has been inspired by reality and which traverses the borderline between fiction and non-fiction. Born in Haifa, Israel, an architect by profession and a veteran of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Gitai was recently in Thiruvananthapuram for the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). Excerpts from an interview…
You normally frequent major festivals such as Cannes and Venice, and not much of smaller festivals such as IFFK….
I like to alternate. The likes of Cannes and Venice have their own charm and operate on a much more commercial level with lots of stars, glamorous parties, paparazzi… the works. IFFK is much more endearing, intimate. This is my second time at IFFK. In 1997, I was here as a jury member. What is most heartening about IFFK is the large number of youngsters, genuine movie lovers, who are interested and willing to continue the work of cinema. Culture is a chain. If we loose one link we loose everything. Cinema is being menaced by politics and commercial culture. It is up to local festivals like IFFK to keep the links together and the momentum going.
Wherever you go you make films, are you planning one here too…
Anything is possible. I have been travelling around and I like the scale of the place. India, especially Kerala, has a very conducive atmosphere for make films…so much enthusiasm.
You have a PhD in architecture from UCLA, Berkley, your father Munio Weinraub, was one of the pioneer architects in Israel. What made you turn from the family enterprise of designing buildings to filmmaking?
I was drafted into the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and was badly injured when a missile hit the helicopter I was travelling in. I managed to capture the war on my Super-8 mm camera, which later became the documentary ‘Images of War 1.2.3’ (1974). Gradually it sank into me that I had to leave my profession and speak up about the troubling issues of the West Asia: ongoing war, politics, persecution…in a more direct way than architecture. I wanted it to be through an art form and cinema seemed to be the best, strongest medium. My father, a Bauhaus trained architect, designed the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and many kibbutzes for collective farms. In my time architecture was less interesting than in the age of my father, when they had great concern about the social aspect of architecture.
What was it about cinema that made the same issues different with regards to architecture?
Both architecture and cinema have aesthetics, form and shape which you can mould to the best possible advantage, but cinema has the additional tools of content and narrative, which lends to the subject in question, a sense of urgency, immediacy and reality. It allows you to experiment more and deal with tougher questions and that too through a form of art.
You were drafted into the war in 1973, yet it was not until a couple of decades years later that you made ‘Kippur’ (2000)…
The war left an indelible mark on me. I had been shot in the back and was hospitalised for a long time. All in all it was a nightmarish experience, which I just wanted to forget. I had no wish to replicate or analyse at that time. In fact until ‘Kippur’ was made very few of my friends knew about my past trauma. While I was filming ‘Kippur,’ one of my assistant directors came up to me and told me ‘Amos you chose a very expensive way to do psychoanalyses’ (laughs). Twenty years later I felt detached enough to articulate it.
How differently did you approach ‘Images of War 1.2.3’ and ‘Kippur’…
The first was my own impressions of the war while in the latter I tried to articulate the same in the form of fiction.
While you were in exile in Paris in the mid 80’s, you made a documentaries such as ‘Ananas’ about marketing pineapples, ‘Brand New Day,’ which followed Annie Lennox and Eurhythmics as they toured Japan and ‘Bangkok-Bahrain’ about human trafficking. These were obviously topics on globalisation way before globalisation became a phenomenon…
It all started with a can of tinned ‘Dole’ pineapples. I just happened to glance at the label and it said ‘produced in Phillipines, packaged in Honolulu, distributed in San Francisco and printed in Japan.’ Isn’t that the perfect microcosm of interdependence? What better subject would I get to make a film on the vibrancy of the Third World? Because ‘Ananas’ was well received, the other two got made.
Most of your films are trilogies…..
West Asia is suffering a lot from the single-minded, schematic presentations; either black or white. So it is always good to make a complex of three films about each thematic. It is like a musician would make variations of the same piece to give more facets to the same thing.
You are said to be most critical about your own people, your identity as an Isreali…
It is always fair to start with your own people, isn’t it? Besides it is too nationalistic and simplistic to start by criticising others, although I do have a lot of criticism to say about them as well. As for my Israeli identity, the flag has a place and should be given its due but it should not be the be all and end all of everything. We all have multiple identities and should present ourselves accordingly.
You are regarded to be more sympathetic to ‘the other’ than to ‘the self’….
Not necessarily. But I think it is my objective to explain to my own people about ‘the other’ to eradicate hatred. You have to understand your adversary even if you disagree with him. If you don’t want conflict to perpetuate you have to explain to people that the divisions existing between countries also exist within societies. I think the people who do not want peace in the Middle East are not just on one side, they exist in both societies and unfortunately they seem to work together quite well to sabotage advancement. If there is a coalition of the evil, there is also a coalition of the good. You have to show people the complex and contradictory nature of this arrangement.
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai talks about traversing the borderline between fact and fiction.
Few have explored on the silver screen the ethos of contemporary Israel, anti-Semitism and the West Asian crisis more than Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai. With films such as ‘Free Zone,’ ‘Kedma,’ ‘Alila,’ and ‘Kippur,’ Gitai has crafted a style of filmmaking that has been inspired by reality and which traverses the borderline between fiction and non-fiction. Born in Haifa, Israel, an architect by profession and a veteran of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Gitai was recently in Thiruvananthapuram for the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). Excerpts from an interview…
You normally frequent major festivals such as Cannes and Venice, and not much of smaller festivals such as IFFK….
I like to alternate. The likes of Cannes and Venice have their own charm and operate on a much more commercial level with lots of stars, glamorous parties, paparazzi… the works. IFFK is much more endearing, intimate. This is my second time at IFFK. In 1997, I was here as a jury member. What is most heartening about IFFK is the large number of youngsters, genuine movie lovers, who are interested and willing to continue the work of cinema. Culture is a chain. If we loose one link we loose everything. Cinema is being menaced by politics and commercial culture. It is up to local festivals like IFFK to keep the links together and the momentum going.
Wherever you go you make films, are you planning one here too…
Anything is possible. I have been travelling around and I like the scale of the place. India, especially Kerala, has a very conducive atmosphere for make films…so much enthusiasm.
You have a PhD in architecture from UCLA, Berkley, your father Munio Weinraub, was one of the pioneer architects in Israel. What made you turn from the family enterprise of designing buildings to filmmaking?
I was drafted into the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and was badly injured when a missile hit the helicopter I was travelling in. I managed to capture the war on my Super-8 mm camera, which later became the documentary ‘Images of War 1.2.3’ (1974). Gradually it sank into me that I had to leave my profession and speak up about the troubling issues of the West Asia: ongoing war, politics, persecution…in a more direct way than architecture. I wanted it to be through an art form and cinema seemed to be the best, strongest medium. My father, a Bauhaus trained architect, designed the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and many kibbutzes for collective farms. In my time architecture was less interesting than in the age of my father, when they had great concern about the social aspect of architecture.
What was it about cinema that made the same issues different with regards to architecture?
Both architecture and cinema have aesthetics, form and shape which you can mould to the best possible advantage, but cinema has the additional tools of content and narrative, which lends to the subject in question, a sense of urgency, immediacy and reality. It allows you to experiment more and deal with tougher questions and that too through a form of art.
You were drafted into the war in 1973, yet it was not until a couple of decades years later that you made ‘Kippur’ (2000)…
The war left an indelible mark on me. I had been shot in the back and was hospitalised for a long time. All in all it was a nightmarish experience, which I just wanted to forget. I had no wish to replicate or analyse at that time. In fact until ‘Kippur’ was made very few of my friends knew about my past trauma. While I was filming ‘Kippur,’ one of my assistant directors came up to me and told me ‘Amos you chose a very expensive way to do psychoanalyses’ (laughs). Twenty years later I felt detached enough to articulate it.
How differently did you approach ‘Images of War 1.2.3’ and ‘Kippur’…
The first was my own impressions of the war while in the latter I tried to articulate the same in the form of fiction.
While you were in exile in Paris in the mid 80’s, you made a documentaries such as ‘Ananas’ about marketing pineapples, ‘Brand New Day,’ which followed Annie Lennox and Eurhythmics as they toured Japan and ‘Bangkok-Bahrain’ about human trafficking. These were obviously topics on globalisation way before globalisation became a phenomenon…
It all started with a can of tinned ‘Dole’ pineapples. I just happened to glance at the label and it said ‘produced in Phillipines, packaged in Honolulu, distributed in San Francisco and printed in Japan.’ Isn’t that the perfect microcosm of interdependence? What better subject would I get to make a film on the vibrancy of the Third World? Because ‘Ananas’ was well received, the other two got made.
Most of your films are trilogies…..
West Asia is suffering a lot from the single-minded, schematic presentations; either black or white. So it is always good to make a complex of three films about each thematic. It is like a musician would make variations of the same piece to give more facets to the same thing.
You are said to be most critical about your own people, your identity as an Isreali…
It is always fair to start with your own people, isn’t it? Besides it is too nationalistic and simplistic to start by criticising others, although I do have a lot of criticism to say about them as well. As for my Israeli identity, the flag has a place and should be given its due but it should not be the be all and end all of everything. We all have multiple identities and should present ourselves accordingly.
You are regarded to be more sympathetic to ‘the other’ than to ‘the self’….
Not necessarily. But I think it is my objective to explain to my own people about ‘the other’ to eradicate hatred. You have to understand your adversary even if you disagree with him. If you don’t want conflict to perpetuate you have to explain to people that the divisions existing between countries also exist within societies. I think the people who do not want peace in the Middle East are not just on one side, they exist in both societies and unfortunately they seem to work together quite well to sabotage advancement. If there is a coalition of the evil, there is also a coalition of the good. You have to show people the complex and contradictory nature of this arrangement.
Art - India;For the right beat
K.Rajan
The makers of musical instruments at Peruvembu are busy. With the onset of the festival season, demand for new instruments and for repair of old ones have increased.
Musicians in Kerala prefer to buy percussion instruments from Peruvembu. Palghat Mani Iyer, one of the mridangam trinity, was among the great masters who identified the superb skills in craftsmen of the village. Prominent artistes of the younger generation also make a beeline for Peruvembu for the same reason, be it for procuring a tabla or a maddalam.
Among the great maddalam exponents who have procured the instruments from Peruvembu are Mattannur Ramachandran, Kunissery Chandran, Kallekkulangara Krishnavarier, Cherpulassery Sivan, Kottakkal Ravi and Panangattkara Prakasan.
Lure of the tabla
Film actor Mala Aravindan frequents Peruvembu, whenever he is in Palakkad ever since he bought a tabla from the village during the shoot of the film ‘Kanmadam,’ a few years ago.
“It was the exquisite skills of the craftsmen that lured me to Peruvembu,” says Mala who is known for his love for the tabla.
“Peruvembu in Palakkad and Pazhanana in Thrissur are known for their maddalams. Peruvembu continues to maintain that tradition,” says chenda maestro Kallur Ramankutty Marar. Barring a few, the craftsmen of Peruvembu are now specialising in making three percussion instruments - tabla, mridangam and maddalam.
“I do not know how to play the tabla, but I do not need the aid of pitch pipes to create the correct tone preferred by the tabla players,” says Rajan, who, along with his father Ramachandran, make tablas and mridangams which are exported.
“It is a god-given talent to lend pitch (Sruti) to instruments made of wood and leather,” he adds.
According to the craftsmen of the village, their manufacturing tradition is a legacy they have inherited. Eight of them are based in cities in Kerala and neighbouring States.
“Traditionally, it was the Kollans (Kadayan, Tholkollan Perumkollan et al) who were experts in making musical instruments in our State,” says Ramankutty Marar.
Right tone
“It is the manner in which the craftsmen in the village mixes tones by their technique of anointing the centre of the Valanthala (the part that is struck for creating high pitched sounds) with Mashi/ Kari (a combination of ferric oxide powder and rice flour in the case of the tabla and the mridangam and a mixture of ash of arecanut leaves and rice flour in the case of the maddalam) that makes the difference in the case of the tabla and the mridangam,” says Murukadas. It is women who prepare the mashi.
The cylindrical body, made of jackfruit, is known as Kutti which is now brought in from Badurutti near Chennai. Some are procured from the local lathe workshops.
“We have to do some finishing touches to the Kuttis thus brought,” says Raghavan, another craftsman of the village.
For percussion instruments like the tabla and the mridangam, hides of goat, cow and buffalo are used while only cow and buffalo hides are used for the maddalam. Buffalo skin is used as straps in all these instruments.
The makers of musical instruments at Peruvembu are busy. With the onset of the festival season, demand for new instruments and for repair of old ones have increased.
Musicians in Kerala prefer to buy percussion instruments from Peruvembu. Palghat Mani Iyer, one of the mridangam trinity, was among the great masters who identified the superb skills in craftsmen of the village. Prominent artistes of the younger generation also make a beeline for Peruvembu for the same reason, be it for procuring a tabla or a maddalam.
Among the great maddalam exponents who have procured the instruments from Peruvembu are Mattannur Ramachandran, Kunissery Chandran, Kallekkulangara Krishnavarier, Cherpulassery Sivan, Kottakkal Ravi and Panangattkara Prakasan.
Lure of the tabla
Film actor Mala Aravindan frequents Peruvembu, whenever he is in Palakkad ever since he bought a tabla from the village during the shoot of the film ‘Kanmadam,’ a few years ago.
“It was the exquisite skills of the craftsmen that lured me to Peruvembu,” says Mala who is known for his love for the tabla.
“Peruvembu in Palakkad and Pazhanana in Thrissur are known for their maddalams. Peruvembu continues to maintain that tradition,” says chenda maestro Kallur Ramankutty Marar. Barring a few, the craftsmen of Peruvembu are now specialising in making three percussion instruments - tabla, mridangam and maddalam.
“I do not know how to play the tabla, but I do not need the aid of pitch pipes to create the correct tone preferred by the tabla players,” says Rajan, who, along with his father Ramachandran, make tablas and mridangams which are exported.
“It is a god-given talent to lend pitch (Sruti) to instruments made of wood and leather,” he adds.
According to the craftsmen of the village, their manufacturing tradition is a legacy they have inherited. Eight of them are based in cities in Kerala and neighbouring States.
“Traditionally, it was the Kollans (Kadayan, Tholkollan Perumkollan et al) who were experts in making musical instruments in our State,” says Ramankutty Marar.
Right tone
“It is the manner in which the craftsmen in the village mixes tones by their technique of anointing the centre of the Valanthala (the part that is struck for creating high pitched sounds) with Mashi/ Kari (a combination of ferric oxide powder and rice flour in the case of the tabla and the mridangam and a mixture of ash of arecanut leaves and rice flour in the case of the maddalam) that makes the difference in the case of the tabla and the mridangam,” says Murukadas. It is women who prepare the mashi.
The cylindrical body, made of jackfruit, is known as Kutti which is now brought in from Badurutti near Chennai. Some are procured from the local lathe workshops.
“We have to do some finishing touches to the Kuttis thus brought,” says Raghavan, another craftsman of the village.
For percussion instruments like the tabla and the mridangam, hides of goat, cow and buffalo are used while only cow and buffalo hides are used for the maddalam. Buffalo skin is used as straps in all these instruments.
Lifestyle - Now,a Jumbo Hostel
STOCKHOLM: When you exit Arlanda Airport on the highway towards Stockholm, you will see a Boeing 747 on your left that looks curiously out of place.
The plane sits idle and lonely on a grass-covered mound just outside the airport perimeter, without any recognizable airline colours.
You might think the giant aircraft got lost on the way to the runway and was abandoned here, were it not for the inscription on the side: “Jumbo Hostel.”
Turns out this former Pan Am jumbo jet is no longer taking passengers to the skies, but will soon be accommodating them on the ground. Left inactive at Arlanda, Stockholm’s main airport, after its last owner went bankrupt, the plane was rescued by a Swedish entrepreneur looking to expand his hostel business.
“I got information about this airplane standing abandoned at Arlanda,” says Oscar Dios, who runs a hostel in Uppsala, about 20 miles north of Arlanda. “I thought why not try to convert it into a hostel? Since you’ve been converting boats and light houses and trains before into hostels.”
Construction crews are working through the holidays to get the 25 rooms ready for the scheduled opening on January 15. Jumbo Hostel is already taking bookings.
The 65-square-foot rooms are spartanly furnished, with a bunk bed, an overhead luggage compartment and a flat screen TV with entertainment as well as flight information.
There will be a reception and small cafeteria just inside the front entrance, two rows of rooms on each side of the aisle, and showers and toilets in the rear. The bubble on top is being remodelled into a conference room .
Mr. Dios is hoping for a diverse clientele, including airport taxi drivers stopping for a coffee break in the cafeteria. Rates range from 300 kronor for a bed in a shared four-bed dormitory to 1,350 kronor for a private room with a twin bed and a single bed. The bridal suite costs 3,300 kronor per night. — AP
The plane sits idle and lonely on a grass-covered mound just outside the airport perimeter, without any recognizable airline colours.
You might think the giant aircraft got lost on the way to the runway and was abandoned here, were it not for the inscription on the side: “Jumbo Hostel.”
Turns out this former Pan Am jumbo jet is no longer taking passengers to the skies, but will soon be accommodating them on the ground. Left inactive at Arlanda, Stockholm’s main airport, after its last owner went bankrupt, the plane was rescued by a Swedish entrepreneur looking to expand his hostel business.
“I got information about this airplane standing abandoned at Arlanda,” says Oscar Dios, who runs a hostel in Uppsala, about 20 miles north of Arlanda. “I thought why not try to convert it into a hostel? Since you’ve been converting boats and light houses and trains before into hostels.”
Construction crews are working through the holidays to get the 25 rooms ready for the scheduled opening on January 15. Jumbo Hostel is already taking bookings.
The 65-square-foot rooms are spartanly furnished, with a bunk bed, an overhead luggage compartment and a flat screen TV with entertainment as well as flight information.
There will be a reception and small cafeteria just inside the front entrance, two rows of rooms on each side of the aisle, and showers and toilets in the rear. The bubble on top is being remodelled into a conference room .
Mr. Dios is hoping for a diverse clientele, including airport taxi drivers stopping for a coffee break in the cafeteria. Rates range from 300 kronor for a bed in a shared four-bed dormitory to 1,350 kronor for a private room with a twin bed and a single bed. The bridal suite costs 3,300 kronor per night. — AP
World - Sri Lanka;Troops enter rebel headquarters
COLOMBO (AP): Sri Lankan soldiers fought their way into the Tamil Tiger rebel capital on Friday for the first time in a decade, military officials said, following months of fierce battles on the outskirts that left scores dead.
Troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from two sides, senior military officials said on condition of anonymity.
The level of fighting inside the town remained unclear. The military had predicted on Thursday that soldiers would seize the town within two days.
The fall of Kilinochchi would be devastating to the separatist Tigers, who have has used the town as their political and military headquarters for the past 10 years and have created structures for an independent state, such as a police, courts, and tax offices.
Recent government military offensives have forced the rebels out of much of their territory in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to crush the rebel group and end the nation's 25-year-old civil war this year.
A 6-year-old Norway-brokered truce was officially called off last year with both sides openly violating the agreement.
Senior Sri Lankan officials have said repeatedly over the past two months that Kilinochchi would fall soon, but troops became bogged down by heavy rains and fierce rebel resistance.
The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. But Tamil Tiger political leader Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.
Troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from two sides, senior military officials said on condition of anonymity.
The level of fighting inside the town remained unclear. The military had predicted on Thursday that soldiers would seize the town within two days.
The fall of Kilinochchi would be devastating to the separatist Tigers, who have has used the town as their political and military headquarters for the past 10 years and have created structures for an independent state, such as a police, courts, and tax offices.
Recent government military offensives have forced the rebels out of much of their territory in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to crush the rebel group and end the nation's 25-year-old civil war this year.
A 6-year-old Norway-brokered truce was officially called off last year with both sides openly violating the agreement.
Senior Sri Lankan officials have said repeatedly over the past two months that Kilinochchi would fall soon, but troops became bogged down by heavy rains and fierce rebel resistance.
The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. But Tamil Tiger political leader Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.
India - J&K;Omar to take oath before January 6
Anita Joshua
Along with Ministers from the Congress
National Conference to extend coalition with Congress
Omar asks Congress to name three Ministers for oath
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister-designate Omar Abdullah will take office along with a few Ministers from the National Conference and the Congress before January 6 as per an understanding reached between the two parties here on Thursday evening.
Announcing this after a meeting with the Congress at External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s office, Mr. Abdullah – flanked by Pradesh Congress Committee president Saifuddin Soz and party in-charge of J&K Prithviraj Chavan – said he would take the oath with two National Conference members.
And, he has asked the Congress to suggest three names to take the oath on the same day as Ministers.
Also, Mr. Abdullah announced that the National Conference would extend its coalition arrangement with the Congress in the State to the Centre and enter the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
The National Conference will formally write to the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to inform them about his party’s decision.
About government formation, Mr. Abdullah said though he wanted to take charge after Muharram, the Constitutional requirement to revoke President’s Rule before a certain date necessitated an earlier date for government formation.
Also, the Governor has indicated that the State should be represented at the Chief Ministers’ meeting called by the Centre on January 6 to discuss internal security in the country.
Though the issue of Deputy Chief Minister is yet to be resolved – the Congress would like to have the post and give it to someone from Jammu – Mr. Abdullah said he was fully satisfied with the way the fledgling coalition was shaping up.
Mr. Abdullah flew into the Capital this evening for the meeting and is slated to return to Srinagar on Friday morning.
Four senior National Conference leaders accompanied him. Besides Mr. Mukherjee, Mr. Soz and Mr. Chavan, the Congress team included Defence Minister A. K. Antony, the former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.
While the dominant view within the Congress is not in favour of a rotational arrangement like it had with the People’s Democratic Party for the last six years, senior party leaders insisted that the option was still open.
The Jammu and Kashmir Constitution allows the State to have 24 Ministers.
The two parties have to agree on portfolio allocation and the number of Ministers that each side will have.
Another key issue pertains to the presiding officers of the bicameral legislature.
Usually, if the leading partner in the coalition becomes the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the post of Chairman of the Legislative Council goes to the other.
Both sides have decided to work as per a common minimum programme and have decided to leave the drafting of for a later date.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chavan welcomed the National Conference offer to join the UPA.
However, party leaders conceded that this could see the exit of the PDP from the UPA as it would be difficult for the two J&K-based parties to be on the same boat.
Along with Ministers from the Congress
National Conference to extend coalition with Congress
Omar asks Congress to name three Ministers for oath
NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister-designate Omar Abdullah will take office along with a few Ministers from the National Conference and the Congress before January 6 as per an understanding reached between the two parties here on Thursday evening.
Announcing this after a meeting with the Congress at External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s office, Mr. Abdullah – flanked by Pradesh Congress Committee president Saifuddin Soz and party in-charge of J&K Prithviraj Chavan – said he would take the oath with two National Conference members.
And, he has asked the Congress to suggest three names to take the oath on the same day as Ministers.
Also, Mr. Abdullah announced that the National Conference would extend its coalition arrangement with the Congress in the State to the Centre and enter the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
The National Conference will formally write to the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to inform them about his party’s decision.
About government formation, Mr. Abdullah said though he wanted to take charge after Muharram, the Constitutional requirement to revoke President’s Rule before a certain date necessitated an earlier date for government formation.
Also, the Governor has indicated that the State should be represented at the Chief Ministers’ meeting called by the Centre on January 6 to discuss internal security in the country.
Though the issue of Deputy Chief Minister is yet to be resolved – the Congress would like to have the post and give it to someone from Jammu – Mr. Abdullah said he was fully satisfied with the way the fledgling coalition was shaping up.
Mr. Abdullah flew into the Capital this evening for the meeting and is slated to return to Srinagar on Friday morning.
Four senior National Conference leaders accompanied him. Besides Mr. Mukherjee, Mr. Soz and Mr. Chavan, the Congress team included Defence Minister A. K. Antony, the former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.
While the dominant view within the Congress is not in favour of a rotational arrangement like it had with the People’s Democratic Party for the last six years, senior party leaders insisted that the option was still open.
The Jammu and Kashmir Constitution allows the State to have 24 Ministers.
The two parties have to agree on portfolio allocation and the number of Ministers that each side will have.
Another key issue pertains to the presiding officers of the bicameral legislature.
Usually, if the leading partner in the coalition becomes the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the post of Chairman of the Legislative Council goes to the other.
Both sides have decided to work as per a common minimum programme and have decided to leave the drafting of for a later date.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chavan welcomed the National Conference offer to join the UPA.
However, party leaders conceded that this could see the exit of the PDP from the UPA as it would be difficult for the two J&K-based parties to be on the same boat.
India - Taj to be safer, more tourist friendly in 2009
Agra, Jan 2 (IANS) Soon, visiting the Taj Mahal may become less of a hassle for those who speak English and not the local language. They can just walk across to the nearest police station for help.
Posting English-speaking policemen near the Taj is among the many measures being taken to make the monument more tourist friendly.
The authorities have also taken many security measures such as installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the area, officials said.
According to Superintendent of Police (city) B.P. Ashok, security in the yellow zone beyond 500 metres of the Taj Mahal, is being strengthened with the Agra Development Authority placing orders for installation of CCTVs at eight different points which will record movements round the clock. The control room will be at the nearby Taj Ganj police station.
One measure aimed to help tourists feel more secure and comfortable is the decision of Senior Superintendent of Police Prem Prakash to post only those who know English at the Taj Ganj police station.
According to officials, a few days ago Prakash tested the knowledge of English of 18 policemen and found that only one policeman at the station had the required expertise.
Prakash said those who did not understand or speak English would not be helpful to many tourists. He now wants not only policemen who know English but also those who have some knowledge of at least three foreign languages.
{lsquo}{lsquo}The tourist police will henceforth wear a special scarf and sport a band of distinctive colour. The tourist police will now be keeping vigil at all monuments in Agra,{rsquo}{rsquo} Prakash said.
The Taj attracted over 25,000 Indians and 3,500 foreigners in 2007.
After the Mumbai terror attacks, official agencies are not taking any chances when it comes to tourist safety.
In the past one month, there have been at least half a dozen visits by state level officials, surprise raids and mock infiltration drills to test the state of preparedness, officials said.
The cameras, to be installed shortly, will be maintained by a private company for one year. They are also expected to provide an effective check on those dealing in re-sale of tickets or harassing tourists.
The crowd pressure, always a source of concern at the Taj Mahal's western gate, has already been slightly eased with the shifting of the ticket window to the Saheli Burj, some distance away from the main entrance gate.
Policemen on duty said they expected the crowd management and frisking of entrants to become easier with this measure.
--Indo-Asian News Service
Posting English-speaking policemen near the Taj is among the many measures being taken to make the monument more tourist friendly.
The authorities have also taken many security measures such as installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the area, officials said.
According to Superintendent of Police (city) B.P. Ashok, security in the yellow zone beyond 500 metres of the Taj Mahal, is being strengthened with the Agra Development Authority placing orders for installation of CCTVs at eight different points which will record movements round the clock. The control room will be at the nearby Taj Ganj police station.
One measure aimed to help tourists feel more secure and comfortable is the decision of Senior Superintendent of Police Prem Prakash to post only those who know English at the Taj Ganj police station.
According to officials, a few days ago Prakash tested the knowledge of English of 18 policemen and found that only one policeman at the station had the required expertise.
Prakash said those who did not understand or speak English would not be helpful to many tourists. He now wants not only policemen who know English but also those who have some knowledge of at least three foreign languages.
{lsquo}{lsquo}The tourist police will henceforth wear a special scarf and sport a band of distinctive colour. The tourist police will now be keeping vigil at all monuments in Agra,{rsquo}{rsquo} Prakash said.
The Taj attracted over 25,000 Indians and 3,500 foreigners in 2007.
After the Mumbai terror attacks, official agencies are not taking any chances when it comes to tourist safety.
In the past one month, there have been at least half a dozen visits by state level officials, surprise raids and mock infiltration drills to test the state of preparedness, officials said.
The cameras, to be installed shortly, will be maintained by a private company for one year. They are also expected to provide an effective check on those dealing in re-sale of tickets or harassing tourists.
The crowd pressure, always a source of concern at the Taj Mahal's western gate, has already been slightly eased with the shifting of the ticket window to the Saheli Burj, some distance away from the main entrance gate.
Policemen on duty said they expected the crowd management and frisking of entrants to become easier with this measure.
--Indo-Asian News Service
World - Defeat of Hamas would be no victory
Daniel Barenboim
If Hamas is destroyed, a more radical group will replace it. Israel’s security depends on wiser action.
I have just three wishes for the coming year. The first is for the Israeli government to realise once and for all that the Middle East conflict cannot be solved by military means. The second is for Hamas to realise that its interests are not served by violence, and Israel is here to stay. And the third is for the world to acknowledge that this conflict is unlike any other in history. It is uniquely intricate and sensitive — a conflict between two peoples who are both deeply convinced of their right to live on the same very small piece of land. This is why neither diplomacy nor military action can resolve this conflict.
The developments of the last few days are extremely worrisome to me for reasons of humane and political nature. While it is self-evident that Israel has the right to defend itself, that it cannot and should not tolerate missile attacks on its citizens, its army’s relentless and brutal bombardment of Gaza has raised a few important questions in my mind.
The first question is if Israel’s government has the right to make all Palestinians culpable for the actions of Hamas. Is the entire population of Gaza to be held responsible for the sins of a terrorist organisation? We, the Jewish people, should know and feel even more acutely than other populations that the murder of innocent civilians is inhumane and unacceptable. The Israeli military has very weakly argued that the Gaza Strip is so overpopulated it is impossible to avoid civilian deaths during operations.
The feebleness of this argument leads to my next questions: if civilian deaths are unavoidable, what is the purpose of the bombardment? What, if any, is the logic behind the violence, and what does Israel hope to achieve through it? If the aim is to destroy Hamas then the most important question to ask is whether this is attainable. If not, then the whole attack is not only cruel, barbaric and reprehensible, it is senseless.
If, on the other hand, it really is possible to destroy Hamas through military operations, how does Israel envisage the reaction in Gaza once this has been accomplished? One and a half million Gaza residents will not suddenly go down on their knees in reverence for the power of the Israeli army. We must not forget that before Hamas was elected by the Palestinians, it was encouraged by Israel as a tactic to weaken Yasser Arafat. Israel’s recent history leads me to believe that if Hamas is bombed out of existence, another group will most certainly take its place, a group that would be more radical, more violent, and more full of hatred towards Israel.
Israel cannot afford a military defeat for fear of disappearing from the map, yet history has proved that every military victory has left Israel in a weaker political position because of the emergence of radical groups. I do not underestimate the difficulty of the decisions the Israeli government must make every day, nor do I underestimate the importance of Israel’s security. Nevertheless, I stand behind my conviction that the only truly viable plan for long-term security is to gain the acceptance of all our neighbours. I wish for a return in the year 2009 of the famous intelligence always ascribed to the Jews. I wish for a return of King Solomon’s wisdom to Israel’s decision-makers that they might use it to understand that Palestinians and Israelis have equal human rights.
Palestinian violence torments Israelis and does not serve the Palestinian cause; Israeli retaliation is inhuman, immoral, and does not guarantee security. The destinies of the two peoples are inextricably linked, obliging them to live side by side. They have to decide if they want to make of this a blessing or a curse.
(NOTE: Daniel Barenboim is a pianist and conductor, and a U.N. messenger of peace.)
If Hamas is destroyed, a more radical group will replace it. Israel’s security depends on wiser action.
I have just three wishes for the coming year. The first is for the Israeli government to realise once and for all that the Middle East conflict cannot be solved by military means. The second is for Hamas to realise that its interests are not served by violence, and Israel is here to stay. And the third is for the world to acknowledge that this conflict is unlike any other in history. It is uniquely intricate and sensitive — a conflict between two peoples who are both deeply convinced of their right to live on the same very small piece of land. This is why neither diplomacy nor military action can resolve this conflict.
The developments of the last few days are extremely worrisome to me for reasons of humane and political nature. While it is self-evident that Israel has the right to defend itself, that it cannot and should not tolerate missile attacks on its citizens, its army’s relentless and brutal bombardment of Gaza has raised a few important questions in my mind.
The first question is if Israel’s government has the right to make all Palestinians culpable for the actions of Hamas. Is the entire population of Gaza to be held responsible for the sins of a terrorist organisation? We, the Jewish people, should know and feel even more acutely than other populations that the murder of innocent civilians is inhumane and unacceptable. The Israeli military has very weakly argued that the Gaza Strip is so overpopulated it is impossible to avoid civilian deaths during operations.
The feebleness of this argument leads to my next questions: if civilian deaths are unavoidable, what is the purpose of the bombardment? What, if any, is the logic behind the violence, and what does Israel hope to achieve through it? If the aim is to destroy Hamas then the most important question to ask is whether this is attainable. If not, then the whole attack is not only cruel, barbaric and reprehensible, it is senseless.
If, on the other hand, it really is possible to destroy Hamas through military operations, how does Israel envisage the reaction in Gaza once this has been accomplished? One and a half million Gaza residents will not suddenly go down on their knees in reverence for the power of the Israeli army. We must not forget that before Hamas was elected by the Palestinians, it was encouraged by Israel as a tactic to weaken Yasser Arafat. Israel’s recent history leads me to believe that if Hamas is bombed out of existence, another group will most certainly take its place, a group that would be more radical, more violent, and more full of hatred towards Israel.
Israel cannot afford a military defeat for fear of disappearing from the map, yet history has proved that every military victory has left Israel in a weaker political position because of the emergence of radical groups. I do not underestimate the difficulty of the decisions the Israeli government must make every day, nor do I underestimate the importance of Israel’s security. Nevertheless, I stand behind my conviction that the only truly viable plan for long-term security is to gain the acceptance of all our neighbours. I wish for a return in the year 2009 of the famous intelligence always ascribed to the Jews. I wish for a return of King Solomon’s wisdom to Israel’s decision-makers that they might use it to understand that Palestinians and Israelis have equal human rights.
Palestinian violence torments Israelis and does not serve the Palestinian cause; Israeli retaliation is inhuman, immoral, and does not guarantee security. The destinies of the two peoples are inextricably linked, obliging them to live side by side. They have to decide if they want to make of this a blessing or a curse.
(NOTE: Daniel Barenboim is a pianist and conductor, and a U.N. messenger of peace.)
Sport - Cricket;Australia's downfall started with India Test series: Roebuck
Melbourne (PTI): Eminent cricket writer Peter Roebuck feels Australia's downfall started with the Four-Test series against India in Down Under, where the visitors played some scintillating cricket to challenge Australia's supremacy.
"Thanks to abysmal umpiring, India lost that match (Sydney) and almost went home. Happily tempers cooled. The Indians had the last laugh, winning in Perth, taking the one-day series and hammering the Australians on subcontinent soil. Along the way, they played some scintillating cricket. It is a new country whose players nowadays emerge from the same tough back streets that produced Ponting and company," Roebuck said.
"Among the cricketing nations Australia never had a colonial mindset, or played the game by English rules. Quite the opposite. It took a long time but eventually India embraced the same emancipation. They did not add to their charms but it did make them harder to beat," Roebuck wrote in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Roebuck felt Australia have not beaten a strong side since the controversial Sydney Test.
"The Australians were subdued but Virender Sehwag was back and Matthew Hayden was missing. Hayden's lean spells have coincided with Australia's bad trots. Cause or effect? It is quite something to field an opening batsman capable of intimidating new-ball bowlers.
"After Sydney, though, the senior players fell back. Andrew Symonds became distracted, Brett Lee lost form, Hayden endured injuries and the team did not recover its rhythm. In hindsight Sydney can be understood only as the last desperate struggle of a falling champion."
"Thanks to abysmal umpiring, India lost that match (Sydney) and almost went home. Happily tempers cooled. The Indians had the last laugh, winning in Perth, taking the one-day series and hammering the Australians on subcontinent soil. Along the way, they played some scintillating cricket. It is a new country whose players nowadays emerge from the same tough back streets that produced Ponting and company," Roebuck said.
"Among the cricketing nations Australia never had a colonial mindset, or played the game by English rules. Quite the opposite. It took a long time but eventually India embraced the same emancipation. They did not add to their charms but it did make them harder to beat," Roebuck wrote in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Roebuck felt Australia have not beaten a strong side since the controversial Sydney Test.
"The Australians were subdued but Virender Sehwag was back and Matthew Hayden was missing. Hayden's lean spells have coincided with Australia's bad trots. Cause or effect? It is quite something to field an opening batsman capable of intimidating new-ball bowlers.
"After Sydney, though, the senior players fell back. Andrew Symonds became distracted, Brett Lee lost form, Hayden endured injuries and the team did not recover its rhythm. In hindsight Sydney can be understood only as the last desperate struggle of a falling champion."
Entertainment - Kate Winslet hated kissing her co-star Di Caprio in their next film
London (PTI) : Actress Kate Winslet has revealed that she hated kissing her co-actor Leonardo Di Caprio despite her husband insisting her, when they were paired opposite each other in their latest movie 'Revolutionary Road'.
Winslet's husband, Director Sam Mendes, brought her and Di Caprio back together on the big screen in 'Revolutionary Road' after they were seen last in the blockbuster romantic film 'Titanic', the Daily Mail reported.
Winslet had to be intimate with Di Caprio as they play a married couple in the film. Ironically all the intimate scenes in the film were co-ordinated by her director husband.
"It was more that neither Sam nor Leo seemed the slightest bit bothered. I was like, 'Is it just me who feels a bit weird about this? You know. My friend. My husband'.
"But it was just me. There's this amazing still that was taken on set of Leo and me kissing, and Sam is in the background...You can see this look of absolute intensity on his face and I knew all he was thinking about at that moment was the frame of the shot," Winslet told Elle magazine expressing her embarrassment.
Winslet says she and Leo have a special chemistry on screen because they have stayed close since 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic'.
"Leo's friendship is a major thing in my life. It's a big relationship. We met when we were very young and did this incredible film (Titanic) which changed both our lives, but the best thing to come out of it was this friendship," she adds.
The stunning actress always struggled with her weight, sometimes as a bulky teenager and later as an overweight actress. But now a simple exercise regime has finally helped her to get the most perfect figure. Winslet has always attacked Hollywood's obsession with skinny women.
The mother of two was furious when a dramatically altered photo of her with thinner legs and a flatter stomach appeared on the cover of 'GQ' in 2003.
But after getting down to size zero Winslet insists that she has slimmed down after her regular Pilates sessions at her home which she has done since having her second child five years ago.
The actress also dismisses suggestions of gruelling exercise regimes or strict diets being responsible for her new look.
"I've actually been this way since I had Joe. I still don't believe in this craziness for being skinny, but I eat sensibly and I don't stuff down chocolate biscuits...I don't go to the gym because I don't have time but I do Pilates workout DVDs for 20 minutes or more every day at home," claims the Titanic star.
She describes herself as a 'very vocal drum-beater for normal women'.
"I guess I have to admit I do care what people think. I hate people thinking I'm some pretentious fraud," she adds.
Winslet's husband, Director Sam Mendes, brought her and Di Caprio back together on the big screen in 'Revolutionary Road' after they were seen last in the blockbuster romantic film 'Titanic', the Daily Mail reported.
Winslet had to be intimate with Di Caprio as they play a married couple in the film. Ironically all the intimate scenes in the film were co-ordinated by her director husband.
"It was more that neither Sam nor Leo seemed the slightest bit bothered. I was like, 'Is it just me who feels a bit weird about this? You know. My friend. My husband'.
"But it was just me. There's this amazing still that was taken on set of Leo and me kissing, and Sam is in the background...You can see this look of absolute intensity on his face and I knew all he was thinking about at that moment was the frame of the shot," Winslet told Elle magazine expressing her embarrassment.
Winslet says she and Leo have a special chemistry on screen because they have stayed close since 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic'.
"Leo's friendship is a major thing in my life. It's a big relationship. We met when we were very young and did this incredible film (Titanic) which changed both our lives, but the best thing to come out of it was this friendship," she adds.
The stunning actress always struggled with her weight, sometimes as a bulky teenager and later as an overweight actress. But now a simple exercise regime has finally helped her to get the most perfect figure. Winslet has always attacked Hollywood's obsession with skinny women.
The mother of two was furious when a dramatically altered photo of her with thinner legs and a flatter stomach appeared on the cover of 'GQ' in 2003.
But after getting down to size zero Winslet insists that she has slimmed down after her regular Pilates sessions at her home which she has done since having her second child five years ago.
The actress also dismisses suggestions of gruelling exercise regimes or strict diets being responsible for her new look.
"I've actually been this way since I had Joe. I still don't believe in this craziness for being skinny, but I eat sensibly and I don't stuff down chocolate biscuits...I don't go to the gym because I don't have time but I do Pilates workout DVDs for 20 minutes or more every day at home," claims the Titanic star.
She describes herself as a 'very vocal drum-beater for normal women'.
"I guess I have to admit I do care what people think. I hate people thinking I'm some pretentious fraud," she adds.
Health - Prevention is key to oral health
London (IANS): At this time of the year, many people consume much more food and sugary drinks than usual, neglecting dental health.
Because oral health is rarely life threatening, it can be a low priority for national governments. Yet tooth decay is one of the most prevalent health problems worldwide, with some 90 percent of people having had dental problems or toothache caused by this condition.
In low-to-middle income countries, much tooth decay goes untreated. Severe periodontitis affects 5-15 percent of most populations, and oral cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide and the most common in men in southeast Asia.
While countries like Britain and Germany have a dentist for every 1,000 people, low-income and middle-income countries can have as few as one for every 50,000 and in sub-Saharan Africa this ratio is close to one for every million.
Rural areas are often those most in need of dentists. Although these poorer countries need more dental health practitioners, this is not practical in poor settings. Thus prevention is the key strategy, says an article in the latest issue of The Lancet.
Daily use of fluoride is the most cost-effective, evidence-based approach to reduce dental decay. Fluoridating water is a possible population-wide approach but implementation depends on a country's infrastructure and political will.
Use of fluoridated toothpastes is also effective, but cost can prohibit this. In some countries, taxes can represent 50 percent of the price of toothpaste - so governments could cut these taxes and also work with manufacturers to produce lower cost toothpaste
Because oral health is rarely life threatening, it can be a low priority for national governments. Yet tooth decay is one of the most prevalent health problems worldwide, with some 90 percent of people having had dental problems or toothache caused by this condition.
In low-to-middle income countries, much tooth decay goes untreated. Severe periodontitis affects 5-15 percent of most populations, and oral cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide and the most common in men in southeast Asia.
While countries like Britain and Germany have a dentist for every 1,000 people, low-income and middle-income countries can have as few as one for every 50,000 and in sub-Saharan Africa this ratio is close to one for every million.
Rural areas are often those most in need of dentists. Although these poorer countries need more dental health practitioners, this is not practical in poor settings. Thus prevention is the key strategy, says an article in the latest issue of The Lancet.
Daily use of fluoride is the most cost-effective, evidence-based approach to reduce dental decay. Fluoridating water is a possible population-wide approach but implementation depends on a country's infrastructure and political will.
Use of fluoridated toothpastes is also effective, but cost can prohibit this. In some countries, taxes can represent 50 percent of the price of toothpaste - so governments could cut these taxes and also work with manufacturers to produce lower cost toothpaste
Sport - Cricket;Ponting turns to other teams in search of fresh ideas
Melbourne (PTI): Facing the prospect of a series whitewash for the first time in 132 years of Test cricket history, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting feels they have to turn to other teams in a bid to search for fresh ideas.
"Things are going to be different and we have to look at different ways of going about things," Ponting said.
"We can't sit back as leaders and coaches and keep doing the same thing because it hasn't been working for us. We have to learn from the way other teams are going about things as well. That's not something we're accustomed to. Other teams have been looking at us for 10 or 12 years.
"Now it's our turn to have a look at what other teams are doing with their strategies and tactics," said the under-fire skipper.
But for the moment, Ponting said he and the coaching staff have work cut out to ensure Mitchell Johnson is not overloaded.
"Mitchell has bowled a truck load of overs from the start of India so we have to start looking at his workload," Ponting was quoted as saying in 'The Australian'.
With Brett Lee injured, a lot will depend on Johnson to shoulder the responsibilities with some fresh faces in the Sydney Test, starting on Saturday.
"If we can get him (Johnson) through this next game with a couple of other fresher bowlers around him and hope that he doesn't have to do the majority of work he's had to do in Perth, that would be a good result for us. Then we can start looking at resting him."
Talking about the Boxing Day Test which Australia lost by nine wickets to concede a series defeat, Ponting said Lee's injury on the third day, when South Africa's last three wickets piled 275 runs, proved crucial.
"The reason we found it so difficult with Bing (Lee) going down in the last game was the other guys we had to call on did not have much experience to fall back on," Ponting said.
"When you put that lack of experience without the hard edge of seasoned Test match bowlers who aren't used to backing up over after over it becomes pretty difficult."
"Things are going to be different and we have to look at different ways of going about things," Ponting said.
"We can't sit back as leaders and coaches and keep doing the same thing because it hasn't been working for us. We have to learn from the way other teams are going about things as well. That's not something we're accustomed to. Other teams have been looking at us for 10 or 12 years.
"Now it's our turn to have a look at what other teams are doing with their strategies and tactics," said the under-fire skipper.
But for the moment, Ponting said he and the coaching staff have work cut out to ensure Mitchell Johnson is not overloaded.
"Mitchell has bowled a truck load of overs from the start of India so we have to start looking at his workload," Ponting was quoted as saying in 'The Australian'.
With Brett Lee injured, a lot will depend on Johnson to shoulder the responsibilities with some fresh faces in the Sydney Test, starting on Saturday.
"If we can get him (Johnson) through this next game with a couple of other fresher bowlers around him and hope that he doesn't have to do the majority of work he's had to do in Perth, that would be a good result for us. Then we can start looking at resting him."
Talking about the Boxing Day Test which Australia lost by nine wickets to concede a series defeat, Ponting said Lee's injury on the third day, when South Africa's last three wickets piled 275 runs, proved crucial.
"The reason we found it so difficult with Bing (Lee) going down in the last game was the other guys we had to call on did not have much experience to fall back on," Ponting said.
"When you put that lack of experience without the hard edge of seasoned Test match bowlers who aren't used to backing up over after over it becomes pretty difficult."
Entertainment - Year 2009 to begin with big-budget releases
Mumbai (PTI) : The year 2009 is set to begin on an eventful note with big-budget movies like 'Chandni Chowk to China' and 'Luck By Chance' slated for release in January. 'Chandni Chowk to China', an action comedy flick starring Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone, will hit screens on January 16.
The film, produced by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers and Rohan Sippy, is about a simple cook from Chandni Chowk mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient peasant warrior by residents of an oppressed Chinese village. Industry sources said a "heavy dose of comedy and breathtaking locales" like the Great Wall of China were the highlights of the film apart from the Kung Fu.
This will be Akshay's first film with Deepika after sharing screen space with Katrina Kaif for the last couple of his films. Filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, after a successful debut as an actor in 'Rock On!', will don the greasepaint again for his sister Zoya's directorial debut 'Luck By Chance' which releases on January 30.
The plot is centred around Bollywood and how people from different walks of life come to the "dream city" to make it big in an industry where luck clicks more than hard work. The movie, stars Farhan Akhtar, Juhi Chawla, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Hrithik Roshan.
Shah Rukh Khan will be back again on screen in the first quarter of 2009 with 'Biloo Barber' which is slated for a March release. SRK's last film 'Rab Ne Ba di Jodi' that released in December last year did well at the box office.
COO of Big Pictures, the entertainment arm of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADAG) Group, Mahesh Ramanathan said that the company will release 18 films in nine Indian languages this year.
"2009 should be a normal year and there is no cause for worry. A temporary liquidity crunch has been mistaken for recession in the film industry. But demand had not dried up. With inflation under control and interest rates coming down, there is no issue of recession at all," he said.
He said his company was eyeing the best directorial talent from across the country.
Vinay Shukla's 'Mirch', Vinod Pande's 'Chaalu Movie', Vikram's '13 B', Zoya Akhtar's 'Luck By Chance' and Sudhir Mishra's 'Sikander' are the Hindi movies being produced, marketed and distributed by Big Pictures, he said.
'Sikander', traversing lesser-explored territories, is a story dealing with loss of innocence in strife-torn Kashmir. Sanjay Suri and R Madhavan form part of the cast of the film produced by Sudhir Mishra and directed by Piyush Jha.
'13 B' is a super-natural bilingual (Hindi and Tamil) thriller.
Among regional films lined up for release this year are Malayalam film 'Kutty Srank' by Shahji Karun, Kannada film 'Ijjodu' by MS Sathyu, three Bengali films -- 'Kalponik' and 'Abohomann' by Rituparno Ghosh.
Other films that may kiss silver screen this year include Buddhadeb Dasgupta's 'Janala', Amol Palekar's 'Samantar' and Punjabi film 'Chak Jawana' directed by Simerjit Singh.
The film, produced by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers and Rohan Sippy, is about a simple cook from Chandni Chowk mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient peasant warrior by residents of an oppressed Chinese village. Industry sources said a "heavy dose of comedy and breathtaking locales" like the Great Wall of China were the highlights of the film apart from the Kung Fu.
This will be Akshay's first film with Deepika after sharing screen space with Katrina Kaif for the last couple of his films. Filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, after a successful debut as an actor in 'Rock On!', will don the greasepaint again for his sister Zoya's directorial debut 'Luck By Chance' which releases on January 30.
The plot is centred around Bollywood and how people from different walks of life come to the "dream city" to make it big in an industry where luck clicks more than hard work. The movie, stars Farhan Akhtar, Juhi Chawla, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Hrithik Roshan.
Shah Rukh Khan will be back again on screen in the first quarter of 2009 with 'Biloo Barber' which is slated for a March release. SRK's last film 'Rab Ne Ba di Jodi' that released in December last year did well at the box office.
COO of Big Pictures, the entertainment arm of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADAG) Group, Mahesh Ramanathan said that the company will release 18 films in nine Indian languages this year.
"2009 should be a normal year and there is no cause for worry. A temporary liquidity crunch has been mistaken for recession in the film industry. But demand had not dried up. With inflation under control and interest rates coming down, there is no issue of recession at all," he said.
He said his company was eyeing the best directorial talent from across the country.
Vinay Shukla's 'Mirch', Vinod Pande's 'Chaalu Movie', Vikram's '13 B', Zoya Akhtar's 'Luck By Chance' and Sudhir Mishra's 'Sikander' are the Hindi movies being produced, marketed and distributed by Big Pictures, he said.
'Sikander', traversing lesser-explored territories, is a story dealing with loss of innocence in strife-torn Kashmir. Sanjay Suri and R Madhavan form part of the cast of the film produced by Sudhir Mishra and directed by Piyush Jha.
'13 B' is a super-natural bilingual (Hindi and Tamil) thriller.
Among regional films lined up for release this year are Malayalam film 'Kutty Srank' by Shahji Karun, Kannada film 'Ijjodu' by MS Sathyu, three Bengali films -- 'Kalponik' and 'Abohomann' by Rituparno Ghosh.
Other films that may kiss silver screen this year include Buddhadeb Dasgupta's 'Janala', Amol Palekar's 'Samantar' and Punjabi film 'Chak Jawana' directed by Simerjit Singh.
World - Israel kills Hamas leader, escalating offensive
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP): An Israeli warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on the home of a top Hamas leader on Thursday, instantly killing him and 18 others, and the Israeli army said troops massed on the Gaza border were ready for any orders to invade.
The attacks continued Friday. Before dawn, Israeli aircraft hit 15 houses belonging to Hamas militants, Palestinians said. They said the Israelis either warned nearby residents by phone or fired a warning missile to reduce civilian casualties. Twelve people were hurt in the attacks, hospital officials said.
The attack that killed Hamas strongman Nizar Rayan and most of his family was the first of several strikes on homes of Hamas figures to kill a leader from the group's top echelon since Israel's air campaign began on Saturday.
Even as it escalated its offensive, Israel maintained an opening for the intense diplomatic efforts by leaders in the Middle East and Europe trying to bring the sides to a truce. Israel said it would consider a halt to the fighting if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.
The attacks continued Friday. Before dawn, Israeli aircraft hit 15 houses belonging to Hamas militants, Palestinians said. They said the Israelis either warned nearby residents by phone or fired a warning missile to reduce civilian casualties. Twelve people were hurt in the attacks, hospital officials said.
The attack that killed Hamas strongman Nizar Rayan and most of his family was the first of several strikes on homes of Hamas figures to kill a leader from the group's top echelon since Israel's air campaign began on Saturday.
Even as it escalated its offensive, Israel maintained an opening for the intense diplomatic efforts by leaders in the Middle East and Europe trying to bring the sides to a truce. Israel said it would consider a halt to the fighting if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.
Entertainment - Bollywood;A jolly good show
Ziya Us Salam
With a number of hits and super hits, and only a clutch of films hitting the pits, Hindi movies raked in the moolah in the year just gone by.
No year is without drama. And the film trade by its nature is one unending saga. The year gone by was no different. Big stars ruled: Akshay Kumar raked it rich, Aamir Khan was suave as ever, Shah Rukh Khan boastful as only he can afford to be. The controversies simmered: it started with ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ and details of history, it continued till the end with ‘Ghajini’ and the court case. Some films were expected to do well but didn’t: films like ‘Halla Bol,’ ‘Tashan,’ ‘Sarkar Raaj,’ ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’… Others like ‘A Wednesday’ and ‘Aamir’ surprised with their good run. Then came the usual good moments. Here’s a look back at those which worked at the box office:
JANNAT
Emraan Hashmi could not attract a fly, leave alone get fans at the box office. Life was hell. Then came ‘Jannat’ and he started smiling. Such was the surprise at this little hit. Cricket, match fixing, romance, thrills, music…this Bhatt camp film packed it all to good effect.
JODHAA-AKBAR
The critics panned it. Historians raised pertinent questions about its authenticity. For a while, surprisingly fearful producers squirmed. Then more surprisingly, they showed some resilience and the film silenced many with its Hirithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai take on a Moghul romance.
RACE
This was Abbas-Mustan in familiar territory: girls, guns, machines and speed. All combining to give a masala entertainer with the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor – yeah, he refuses to fade away – and Akshaye Khanna. Of course, Katrina Kaif and Bipasha helped. As did the music.
JAANE TU YA JAANE NA
This was a new colt thing. With Uncle Aamir watching from the sidelines, young Imran Khan announced his arrival as a chocolate boy for Gen Next. A campus romance, the film raked it rich at the box office, leaving Abbas Tyrewala with an enviable opener for a director.
A WEDNESDAY
Was it director Neeraj Pandey’s film? Or was it simply vintage Naseeruddin Shah at work? Either way, this low-key film worked at the box office with its tale of common man’s frustration at the system’s inadequacy. Some squirmed at the uncalled for parallel between religion and terror though.
ROCK ON
A little over half a decade ago he made it as a director with ‘Dil Chahta Hai.’ But 2008 was a breakthrough year for Farhan Akhtar the actor. He carried ‘Rock On’ on his shoulders. Of course, Arjun Rampal’s polished looks helped. The multiplex crowd roared in approval.
SINGH IS KINNG
The purists’ ill concealed distaste for melodrama notwithstanding, this Akshay Kumar film had a roaring opening, with the North Indian crowd specially finding his exchanges with the fair doll Katrina Kaif hilarious. And a little bout with Sonu Sood enthusing. It crowned Kumar as Masala King.
DOSTANA
It opened sufficiently well not to need a long run. But even before the release the Karan Johar film had been talked about for projecting mainstream stars Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham as gays! The society’s changing mindset ensured the people had a smile, not a frown on their face.
GOLMAAL RETURNS
Got a good thing? Keep it going. That was the magic mantra of director Rohit Shetty as he sought to capitalise on the success of the first film with this sequel. Again the masses and the classes could not see eye to eye. The former loved it, the latter panned it, but did not watch it!
RAB NE BANA DI JODI
Aditya Chopra came back after ages. Shah Rukh looked aged too. Newcomers Anushka was passable but not a stunner! The music was okay but a couple of tracks did just fine. As did Shah Rukh’s charisma. The film kept SRK smiling in the battle of the Khans also starring Aamir and Salman.
GHAJINI
If the colt had impressed with Jaane Tu… the old war horse continued to be unfailingly successful. Around this time, Aamir had the connoisseurs happy with ‘Taare Zameen Par.’ This past December, he had the masses queuing up for ‘Ghajini’ that also introduced Asin to Hindi filmgoers.
NICE NICHE
Even if the box office lived up to its reputation of being a no sanctuary for any bird, films like ‘Aamir,’ ‘Mithya,’ ‘Tahaan,’ ‘Dasvidaniya,’ not to forget ‘Mukhbir’ did well enough to attract some attention.
With a number of hits and super hits, and only a clutch of films hitting the pits, Hindi movies raked in the moolah in the year just gone by.
No year is without drama. And the film trade by its nature is one unending saga. The year gone by was no different. Big stars ruled: Akshay Kumar raked it rich, Aamir Khan was suave as ever, Shah Rukh Khan boastful as only he can afford to be. The controversies simmered: it started with ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ and details of history, it continued till the end with ‘Ghajini’ and the court case. Some films were expected to do well but didn’t: films like ‘Halla Bol,’ ‘Tashan,’ ‘Sarkar Raaj,’ ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’… Others like ‘A Wednesday’ and ‘Aamir’ surprised with their good run. Then came the usual good moments. Here’s a look back at those which worked at the box office:
JANNAT
Emraan Hashmi could not attract a fly, leave alone get fans at the box office. Life was hell. Then came ‘Jannat’ and he started smiling. Such was the surprise at this little hit. Cricket, match fixing, romance, thrills, music…this Bhatt camp film packed it all to good effect.
JODHAA-AKBAR
The critics panned it. Historians raised pertinent questions about its authenticity. For a while, surprisingly fearful producers squirmed. Then more surprisingly, they showed some resilience and the film silenced many with its Hirithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai take on a Moghul romance.
RACE
This was Abbas-Mustan in familiar territory: girls, guns, machines and speed. All combining to give a masala entertainer with the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor – yeah, he refuses to fade away – and Akshaye Khanna. Of course, Katrina Kaif and Bipasha helped. As did the music.
JAANE TU YA JAANE NA
This was a new colt thing. With Uncle Aamir watching from the sidelines, young Imran Khan announced his arrival as a chocolate boy for Gen Next. A campus romance, the film raked it rich at the box office, leaving Abbas Tyrewala with an enviable opener for a director.
A WEDNESDAY
Was it director Neeraj Pandey’s film? Or was it simply vintage Naseeruddin Shah at work? Either way, this low-key film worked at the box office with its tale of common man’s frustration at the system’s inadequacy. Some squirmed at the uncalled for parallel between religion and terror though.
ROCK ON
A little over half a decade ago he made it as a director with ‘Dil Chahta Hai.’ But 2008 was a breakthrough year for Farhan Akhtar the actor. He carried ‘Rock On’ on his shoulders. Of course, Arjun Rampal’s polished looks helped. The multiplex crowd roared in approval.
SINGH IS KINNG
The purists’ ill concealed distaste for melodrama notwithstanding, this Akshay Kumar film had a roaring opening, with the North Indian crowd specially finding his exchanges with the fair doll Katrina Kaif hilarious. And a little bout with Sonu Sood enthusing. It crowned Kumar as Masala King.
DOSTANA
It opened sufficiently well not to need a long run. But even before the release the Karan Johar film had been talked about for projecting mainstream stars Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham as gays! The society’s changing mindset ensured the people had a smile, not a frown on their face.
GOLMAAL RETURNS
Got a good thing? Keep it going. That was the magic mantra of director Rohit Shetty as he sought to capitalise on the success of the first film with this sequel. Again the masses and the classes could not see eye to eye. The former loved it, the latter panned it, but did not watch it!
RAB NE BANA DI JODI
Aditya Chopra came back after ages. Shah Rukh looked aged too. Newcomers Anushka was passable but not a stunner! The music was okay but a couple of tracks did just fine. As did Shah Rukh’s charisma. The film kept SRK smiling in the battle of the Khans also starring Aamir and Salman.
GHAJINI
If the colt had impressed with Jaane Tu… the old war horse continued to be unfailingly successful. Around this time, Aamir had the connoisseurs happy with ‘Taare Zameen Par.’ This past December, he had the masses queuing up for ‘Ghajini’ that also introduced Asin to Hindi filmgoers.
NICE NICHE
Even if the box office lived up to its reputation of being a no sanctuary for any bird, films like ‘Aamir,’ ‘Mithya,’ ‘Tahaan,’ ‘Dasvidaniya,’ not to forget ‘Mukhbir’ did well enough to attract some attention.
Jan 1, 2009
Me - Wishing a Happy & Prosperous New Year
Hello,
Wish everyone a happy and a prosperous new year.Hope all your dreams come true in 2009 & hope each one of yours life is filled with fun & happiness.Will be back to full fledged posting from tommorrow.
Take Care
SZri
Wish everyone a happy and a prosperous new year.Hope all your dreams come true in 2009 & hope each one of yours life is filled with fun & happiness.Will be back to full fledged posting from tommorrow.
Take Care
SZri
Dec 30, 2008
Mktg - Why Ghajini is a lesson in PR
Arcopol Chaudhuri
It began on the night of March 20, 2008.
At the premiere of Race, Aamir Khan made his first public appearance in a haircut that has till now spawned not just hundreds of imitations amongst his fans, but also generated hype of paramount proportions for one of 2008’s biggest releases.
Of course, the film’s distribution strategy proved impeccable. Close to 1,200 prints, the largest number for any Bollywood movie, were distributed in India, giving it a wider reach. But, to be sure, it was hype — and lots of it — driven by a single channel publicity vehicle, Aamir Khan, that led to Ghajini’s blockbuster opening.
In quantifiable terms, the following figures from Esha News Monitoring Services are telling.
From March 20 till the film’s release, Aamir’s haircut for the movie attracted about 18 hours of television coverage. That translates into publicity worth Rs 129.6 lakh (on the basis of media buying rates).
TV news coverage about Ghajini alone totalled about 31 hours, which is about Rs 423 lakh worth of publicity. Out of this, the actor’s 8-pack abs had the lion’s share, totalling 23 hours, translating into publicity worth Rs 417 lakh.
The print media wasn’t far behind. According to Eikona PR Measurement, a division of TAM Media Research, the week prior to the film’s release saw print media devote about 33% of its total Ghajini-related coverage to Aamir’s physique, thus managing to build major hype in every corner of the country.
The above figures give a reasonable estimate of how every time Aamir made a public appearance in the Ghajini look, it translated into publicity and hype for the film.
But not all the hype that led to the film’s bumper opening was due to his haircut, tattooed body or eight packs, since these appearances coupled with the film’s planned marketing activities such as press interviews, were intended promotions.
What was unintended — and this is why Ghajini is a case study — was the advertising
blitzkrieg that Aamir Khan got himself involved in, post his haircut.
The year gone by saw Aamir’s most generous presence in television commercials ever, for the brands he endorses — Tata Sky, Samsung Mobile and Titan watches.
The first two are some of the largest spenders in advertising on television, print and outdoor, and their largesse to spend helped the movie’s cause.
Prathap Suthan, national creative director of Cheil Worldwide, South-West Asia the ad agency for Samsung Mobile, says Aamir’s new look worked both ways and a certain “osmosis” happened.
“When we signed Aamir, Samsung Mobile was going in for a repositioning. Plus his character’s look was central to the film, and we saw it as a big opportunity. So, while it worked both ways, it certainly helped build hype and curiosity around Ghajini.”
Aamir also went out of his way to promote his nephew Imran Khan’s debut Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Na by making appearances on TV game shows, promotional events, sporting the Ghajini look.
It began on the night of March 20, 2008.
At the premiere of Race, Aamir Khan made his first public appearance in a haircut that has till now spawned not just hundreds of imitations amongst his fans, but also generated hype of paramount proportions for one of 2008’s biggest releases.
Of course, the film’s distribution strategy proved impeccable. Close to 1,200 prints, the largest number for any Bollywood movie, were distributed in India, giving it a wider reach. But, to be sure, it was hype — and lots of it — driven by a single channel publicity vehicle, Aamir Khan, that led to Ghajini’s blockbuster opening.
In quantifiable terms, the following figures from Esha News Monitoring Services are telling.
From March 20 till the film’s release, Aamir’s haircut for the movie attracted about 18 hours of television coverage. That translates into publicity worth Rs 129.6 lakh (on the basis of media buying rates).
TV news coverage about Ghajini alone totalled about 31 hours, which is about Rs 423 lakh worth of publicity. Out of this, the actor’s 8-pack abs had the lion’s share, totalling 23 hours, translating into publicity worth Rs 417 lakh.
The print media wasn’t far behind. According to Eikona PR Measurement, a division of TAM Media Research, the week prior to the film’s release saw print media devote about 33% of its total Ghajini-related coverage to Aamir’s physique, thus managing to build major hype in every corner of the country.
The above figures give a reasonable estimate of how every time Aamir made a public appearance in the Ghajini look, it translated into publicity and hype for the film.
But not all the hype that led to the film’s bumper opening was due to his haircut, tattooed body or eight packs, since these appearances coupled with the film’s planned marketing activities such as press interviews, were intended promotions.
What was unintended — and this is why Ghajini is a case study — was the advertising
blitzkrieg that Aamir Khan got himself involved in, post his haircut.
The year gone by saw Aamir’s most generous presence in television commercials ever, for the brands he endorses — Tata Sky, Samsung Mobile and Titan watches.
The first two are some of the largest spenders in advertising on television, print and outdoor, and their largesse to spend helped the movie’s cause.
Prathap Suthan, national creative director of Cheil Worldwide, South-West Asia the ad agency for Samsung Mobile, says Aamir’s new look worked both ways and a certain “osmosis” happened.
“When we signed Aamir, Samsung Mobile was going in for a repositioning. Plus his character’s look was central to the film, and we saw it as a big opportunity. So, while it worked both ways, it certainly helped build hype and curiosity around Ghajini.”
Aamir also went out of his way to promote his nephew Imran Khan’s debut Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Na by making appearances on TV game shows, promotional events, sporting the Ghajini look.
Sport - Cricket;Proteas make history, beat Australia, seal series
MELBOURNE: Ricky Ponting's Australia are now just one defeat away from losing their world number one crown after South Africa crushed them by nine wickets in the second Test to register their first ever series victory Down Under.
Having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, South Africa will topple Australia from their top ranking if Graeme Smith's men can win the third and final Test in Sydney.
Resuming on 30 for no loss, South Africa needed 42 overs to score the remaining 153 runs for a memorable win and the moment came soon after lunch when Hashim Amla flicked Michael Clarke behind square leg for two runs.
In a match where Smith struck two fifties, JP Duminy scored his maiden hundred and Ponting scored 101 and 99, Dale Steyn was adjudged Man of the Match for his match haul of 10 for 154 besides the crucial 76 he scored in the first innings.
Graeme Smith was the lone South African wicket to fall in the second innings. The South African captain was trapped leg before by Nathan Hauritz after making a 94-ball 75 with 10 boundaries in it.
Fellow opener Neil McKenzie (59) and Amla (30) remained not out after guiding the team to a historic win.
Ponting, meanwhile, became the first Australian captain in 16 years to suffer a series defeat on home soil. Last time Australia lost a series at home was against the West Indies in 1992-93.
More than their bowling attack, Australia's slim chance of saving the match depended on rain.
Though there was slight drizzle in the morning, play started on schedule and South Africa could not be denied the win they thoroughly deserved.
Ponting once again ignored Mitchell Johnson despite the left-arm seamer being Australia's best bowler of the season so far. Instead, the Australia skipper relied more on Brett Lee and Peter Siddle.
Lee, who is set to undergo a foot surgery, looked in pain and hobbled.
Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden's nightmare continued and the Australian opener today dropped McKenzie in the first slip when the batsman was on 49.
"I have been smiling since the winning runs. It's incredible. It has been a team effort and when it's come to key moment in this Test we've stepped up," a beaming Smith later said.
"JP (Duminy) was incredible and the self belief in the team is flowing. It's an honour to come here and beat a quality unit. We're going to celebrate and enjoy our New Year and not many of us are thinking about Sydney . After all the hard work this year it's incredible to be standing here," Smith said.
His opposite number Ponting was graceful in defeat and he hinted there might be a few changes in the side for the Sydney Test.
"We deserved to be in this position and full marks to South Africa . They won very comfortably, a well deserved series win. Things were looking good for us at one stage, but their tail played exceptionally well and Lee went down through injury.
"We weren't able to convert our opportunities. Let's see what the selectors come up with for next week," Ponting said.
Having taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, South Africa will topple Australia from their top ranking if Graeme Smith's men can win the third and final Test in Sydney.
Resuming on 30 for no loss, South Africa needed 42 overs to score the remaining 153 runs for a memorable win and the moment came soon after lunch when Hashim Amla flicked Michael Clarke behind square leg for two runs.
In a match where Smith struck two fifties, JP Duminy scored his maiden hundred and Ponting scored 101 and 99, Dale Steyn was adjudged Man of the Match for his match haul of 10 for 154 besides the crucial 76 he scored in the first innings.
Graeme Smith was the lone South African wicket to fall in the second innings. The South African captain was trapped leg before by Nathan Hauritz after making a 94-ball 75 with 10 boundaries in it.
Fellow opener Neil McKenzie (59) and Amla (30) remained not out after guiding the team to a historic win.
Ponting, meanwhile, became the first Australian captain in 16 years to suffer a series defeat on home soil. Last time Australia lost a series at home was against the West Indies in 1992-93.
More than their bowling attack, Australia's slim chance of saving the match depended on rain.
Though there was slight drizzle in the morning, play started on schedule and South Africa could not be denied the win they thoroughly deserved.
Ponting once again ignored Mitchell Johnson despite the left-arm seamer being Australia's best bowler of the season so far. Instead, the Australia skipper relied more on Brett Lee and Peter Siddle.
Lee, who is set to undergo a foot surgery, looked in pain and hobbled.
Meanwhile, Matthew Hayden's nightmare continued and the Australian opener today dropped McKenzie in the first slip when the batsman was on 49.
"I have been smiling since the winning runs. It's incredible. It has been a team effort and when it's come to key moment in this Test we've stepped up," a beaming Smith later said.
"JP (Duminy) was incredible and the self belief in the team is flowing. It's an honour to come here and beat a quality unit. We're going to celebrate and enjoy our New Year and not many of us are thinking about Sydney . After all the hard work this year it's incredible to be standing here," Smith said.
His opposite number Ponting was graceful in defeat and he hinted there might be a few changes in the side for the Sydney Test.
"We deserved to be in this position and full marks to South Africa . They won very comfortably, a well deserved series win. Things were looking good for us at one stage, but their tail played exceptionally well and Lee went down through injury.
"We weren't able to convert our opportunities. Let's see what the selectors come up with for next week," Ponting said.
Entertainment - The secret is out on Ash-Rajnikanth starrer
Prithwish Ganguly
The closely guarded secret is out about India’s most expensive film Endhiran, which stars Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The film has the South Indian superstar playing a double role. We also have the storyline of this film.
An informer reveals: “The film has Rajnikanth essaying two roles that of a scientist and the robot Endhiran he creates. The film is essentially about what circumstances propel Rajni to make a robot, his relationship with it and what he wants to achieve through the robot.”
“The film is set in 2200 AD and Rajni is a famous scientist who is madly in love with Aishwarya. Being the best scientist of the country, Rajni is given an important mission of creating robots which will make the living of human races easier. But trouble starts after Rajni makes the robot,” the insider adds. Endhiran has some interesting twists and turns too.
The source adds: “Every film has a twist and the twist in Endhiran comes in with the villain trying to ruin the reputation and fame Rajni garners for creating the robot by abducting it. Rajni tries to bring back his creation but realises that a robot in which he has sowed the seeds of love, has started to fall in love with the girl he loves. The robot creates more confusion in Rajni’s life by chasing Ash all around. Using this to his advantage Rajni finally manages to bring the robot back under his control. He rectifies all the anomalies in the robot’s configuration and regains his reputation in the eyes of his countrymen.”
The closely guarded secret is out about India’s most expensive film Endhiran, which stars Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The film has the South Indian superstar playing a double role. We also have the storyline of this film.
An informer reveals: “The film has Rajnikanth essaying two roles that of a scientist and the robot Endhiran he creates. The film is essentially about what circumstances propel Rajni to make a robot, his relationship with it and what he wants to achieve through the robot.”
“The film is set in 2200 AD and Rajni is a famous scientist who is madly in love with Aishwarya. Being the best scientist of the country, Rajni is given an important mission of creating robots which will make the living of human races easier. But trouble starts after Rajni makes the robot,” the insider adds. Endhiran has some interesting twists and turns too.
The source adds: “Every film has a twist and the twist in Endhiran comes in with the villain trying to ruin the reputation and fame Rajni garners for creating the robot by abducting it. Rajni tries to bring back his creation but realises that a robot in which he has sowed the seeds of love, has started to fall in love with the girl he loves. The robot creates more confusion in Rajni’s life by chasing Ash all around. Using this to his advantage Rajni finally manages to bring the robot back under his control. He rectifies all the anomalies in the robot’s configuration and regains his reputation in the eyes of his countrymen.”
Entertainment - Rahman revamps his website for birthday
Prithwish Ganguly
Ace music composer AR Rahman hasn’t revamped his official website for about two years, but we have news that work is on to make his website more stylish by including additional features in it. The new, improved portal will be launched on January 6, 2009, which marks Rahman’s 43rd birthday.
A close aide of Rahman revealed that the decision to upgrade his website came after Rahman was nominated for the Golden Globe awards for his score in Danny Boyle’s acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire.
And also through his interactions abroad he realised that his website did not have enough juice for his global audiences like his music videos, footage of live concerts, behind-the-scenes stills and videos and also Rahman’s photographs from his concerts and travels. It will also have a link called ‘Rahman’s Recommendation’ in which he will select his top 10 songs from a particular genre.
“Rahman’s official website was very basic and not a lot of work has been done on it for almost two years now. His website did not have many features like live show grabs, his chartbuster videos and even his songs that a composer of his repute should have. People in India and abroad get so much news about him and so we did not want to do anything on the news front in his new website,” says a Rahman aide.
“We wanted to stylise his website and have concert footage, his photographs etc, loaded for his international fans who are deprived of all this. It will be a very up-to-date site now. Rahman too liked the idea and gave a go ahead to the effort.”
Ace music composer AR Rahman hasn’t revamped his official website for about two years, but we have news that work is on to make his website more stylish by including additional features in it. The new, improved portal will be launched on January 6, 2009, which marks Rahman’s 43rd birthday.
A close aide of Rahman revealed that the decision to upgrade his website came after Rahman was nominated for the Golden Globe awards for his score in Danny Boyle’s acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire.
And also through his interactions abroad he realised that his website did not have enough juice for his global audiences like his music videos, footage of live concerts, behind-the-scenes stills and videos and also Rahman’s photographs from his concerts and travels. It will also have a link called ‘Rahman’s Recommendation’ in which he will select his top 10 songs from a particular genre.
“Rahman’s official website was very basic and not a lot of work has been done on it for almost two years now. His website did not have many features like live show grabs, his chartbuster videos and even his songs that a composer of his repute should have. People in India and abroad get so much news about him and so we did not want to do anything on the news front in his new website,” says a Rahman aide.
“We wanted to stylise his website and have concert footage, his photographs etc, loaded for his international fans who are deprived of all this. It will be a very up-to-date site now. Rahman too liked the idea and gave a go ahead to the effort.”
Business - Job hiring declines by nearly 22 pc, says Naukri.com’s JobSpeak report
The slowdown has started impacting the job scenario in the country in a significant way. According to ‘JobSpeak’, a report released by Naukri.com, the Overall Job Index in October 2008 stood at 781 as compared to 1000 in July 2008, indicating a decline of nearly 21.9 per cent. Historically, there is a seasonal decline in October, which is around 10 per cent, as recruitment slows down due to the festive season, this year, the slowdown in hiring has been sharper, affecting new jobs by 21.9 per cent. The Index suggests that companies are scaling back their recruitment plans due to the global financial crisis and the current economic conditions.
Commenting on the report, Hitesh Oberoi, COO and Director, Info Edge (India) Ltd, said, “‘JobSpeak’ is a unique initiative to provide our stakeholders and all interested parties an insight into new job creation across locations and sectors in India. In the current economic situation, the Index will be a useful guide to asses the job market, existing opportunities and the upcoming sectors. We will keep this initiative up by releasing monthly reports on trends.”
JobSpeak indicates the industries that have seen a growth/decline in new jobs. Over the past three months, real estate, banking, finance, IT and retailing have shown a decline, while telecom, pharma and hospitality have emerged as attractive options. Some niche sectors, like Government, Defence and Legal have gained attractiveness in recent months.
The index has been calculated based on new jobs added to the site month on month. July 2008 has been taken on a base of 1000 and August, September and October index is compared with the July data.
City-wise Analysis
Metros saw a dip in the supply of new jobs. Besides the impact of the slowdown, Diwali and Dussehra are popular festivals across India, which impact hiring to a considerable extent.
Metros that are the bulk provider of jobs witnessed a decline in new jobs to the tune of 16 per cent in comparison to the usual 10 per cent in earlier festive seasons. In the Delhi-NCR region, new jobs fell sharply after maintaining stability in August and September. The job index for Delhi fell from 1000 to 786. Mumbai witnessed a higher setback in October as compared to September and August, the job index fell from 1000 to 715 in October 2008 as compared to July 2008. Bangalore, the IT hotspot, has lost new jobs since July, especially in August, which saw a decline of close to 20 per cent as compared to September. Chennai saw a marginal increase in new job creation during September, however, October saw a fall to the tune of 10 per cent. Hyderabad and Pune bore the brunt of the slowdown, especially in the IT sector and witnessed a decline of over 15 per cent in new jobs during October. Jobs in Kolkata were severely affected with October alone witnessing a decline in new jobs by over 32 per cent. Chandigarh, affected to an extent by the IT industry slowdown, saw a slowdown in hiring to the tune of 35 per cent since July.
Industry Analysis
IT – both the software and hardware sectors – saw a dip in new jobs by almost 25 per cent since July this year. Banking and Financial Services have seen a decline of over 32 per cent in October, while Construction and Engineering have seen a decline in new jobs by almost 22 per cent since July 2008. The Telecom industry, which was looking up in August and September, had seen an increase in jobs, while October witnessed a dip of 17 per cent indexed to July. The fluctuation could be owing to the festive season.
Interestingly, the BPO industry has witnessed a slight bounce back by 10 per cent in October after witnessing a decline in new jobs in August and September. The Pharma industry has been comparatively less affected with a fall in the index of less than 15 per cent. Niche sectors like Government and legal have seen an increase in new jobs.
Functional area Analysis
Across most functional areas and departments, the decline in new job creation has been to the tune of 15-20 per cent. The slowdown has trickled down to most functional areas in October with Sales, Business Development executive, Project Managers, Banking – Insurance, Marketing and HR professionals seeing a decline in online availability of new jobs. September had been a more positive month with Sales, HR, Marketing seeing a marginal increase in availability of new jobs. In October, new job creation for Project Managers and Sales and Business Development Executives fell by a huge margin, indicating the low business sentiment in the market. IT- Software and Banking professionals saw a drastic decrease in online availability of new jobs during October.
Commenting on the report, Hitesh Oberoi, COO and Director, Info Edge (India) Ltd, said, “‘JobSpeak’ is a unique initiative to provide our stakeholders and all interested parties an insight into new job creation across locations and sectors in India. In the current economic situation, the Index will be a useful guide to asses the job market, existing opportunities and the upcoming sectors. We will keep this initiative up by releasing monthly reports on trends.”
JobSpeak indicates the industries that have seen a growth/decline in new jobs. Over the past three months, real estate, banking, finance, IT and retailing have shown a decline, while telecom, pharma and hospitality have emerged as attractive options. Some niche sectors, like Government, Defence and Legal have gained attractiveness in recent months.
The index has been calculated based on new jobs added to the site month on month. July 2008 has been taken on a base of 1000 and August, September and October index is compared with the July data.
City-wise Analysis
Metros saw a dip in the supply of new jobs. Besides the impact of the slowdown, Diwali and Dussehra are popular festivals across India, which impact hiring to a considerable extent.
Metros that are the bulk provider of jobs witnessed a decline in new jobs to the tune of 16 per cent in comparison to the usual 10 per cent in earlier festive seasons. In the Delhi-NCR region, new jobs fell sharply after maintaining stability in August and September. The job index for Delhi fell from 1000 to 786. Mumbai witnessed a higher setback in October as compared to September and August, the job index fell from 1000 to 715 in October 2008 as compared to July 2008. Bangalore, the IT hotspot, has lost new jobs since July, especially in August, which saw a decline of close to 20 per cent as compared to September. Chennai saw a marginal increase in new job creation during September, however, October saw a fall to the tune of 10 per cent. Hyderabad and Pune bore the brunt of the slowdown, especially in the IT sector and witnessed a decline of over 15 per cent in new jobs during October. Jobs in Kolkata were severely affected with October alone witnessing a decline in new jobs by over 32 per cent. Chandigarh, affected to an extent by the IT industry slowdown, saw a slowdown in hiring to the tune of 35 per cent since July.
Industry Analysis
IT – both the software and hardware sectors – saw a dip in new jobs by almost 25 per cent since July this year. Banking and Financial Services have seen a decline of over 32 per cent in October, while Construction and Engineering have seen a decline in new jobs by almost 22 per cent since July 2008. The Telecom industry, which was looking up in August and September, had seen an increase in jobs, while October witnessed a dip of 17 per cent indexed to July. The fluctuation could be owing to the festive season.
Interestingly, the BPO industry has witnessed a slight bounce back by 10 per cent in October after witnessing a decline in new jobs in August and September. The Pharma industry has been comparatively less affected with a fall in the index of less than 15 per cent. Niche sectors like Government and legal have seen an increase in new jobs.
Functional area Analysis
Across most functional areas and departments, the decline in new job creation has been to the tune of 15-20 per cent. The slowdown has trickled down to most functional areas in October with Sales, Business Development executive, Project Managers, Banking – Insurance, Marketing and HR professionals seeing a decline in online availability of new jobs. September had been a more positive month with Sales, HR, Marketing seeing a marginal increase in availability of new jobs. In October, new job creation for Project Managers and Sales and Business Development Executives fell by a huge margin, indicating the low business sentiment in the market. IT- Software and Banking professionals saw a drastic decrease in online availability of new jobs during October.
Business - India;DTH firms losses may cross 2,000 cr in '08-'09
Ashish Sinha
Gloomy outlook is projected for the direct-to-home (DTH) market in India, catering to over 11 million subscribers. The combined operating losses for 2008-09 may cross the Rs 2,000-crore mark, double of what they were in 2007-08 when the market was serviced by only two players — Dish TV and Tata Sky.
Currently, five private DTH players are offering their services — Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV and Digital TV.
According to the latest projections by Hong Kong-based international media research agency Media Partners Asia (MPA), over $450 million in operating losses is projected between the five players this fiscal.
“We estimate that of the $450 million in operating losses, Tata Sky, Dish TV and Sun Direct will losses to the tune of $350 million while the rest will be shared between Reliance’s Big TV and Bharti Airtel’s DTH arm,” Vivek Couto, executive director, MPA, told Business Standard. “The losses of the new entrants are small because they launched their services in the last four months of 2008. Next year, the losses will be even higher,” said Couto.
In the 2007-08 fiscal, between Dish TV and Tata Sky, the combined operating losses stood at about Rs 1,100 crore, with Tata Sky incurring losses of over Rs 830 crore. In the 2006-07 period, the combined operating losses of both Tata Sky and Dish TV stood at around Rs 550 crore-plus.
According to industry experts, the DTH companies have to take losses on every subscriber they acquire, on account of heavy subsidy given on the hardware. While the range of subsidy varies from operator to operator, it is estimated that on every DTH subscriber acquired, the operator incurs a loss in the range of Rs 2,000-Rs 4,500.
Recently, Dish TV and Tata Sky crossed the 4-million and 3-million subscriber marks, respectively, while Sun Direct TV acquired 2 million subscribers.
“Each of these contenders is burning cash in order to grow subscriber base as part of a mass-market proposition and reach break-even within a five-year timeframe. However, each party will need plenty of more funding, which can be problematic in these constrained economic times,” the MPA report said.
Couto said Sun TV’s international partner Astro has invested more than $132 million in Sun Direct but remains concerned about higher costs as Sun rolls out in northern and western India. “The Astro’s portion of Sun losses is likely to reach $18-20 million in FYE January 2009,” he said.
Gloomy outlook is projected for the direct-to-home (DTH) market in India, catering to over 11 million subscribers. The combined operating losses for 2008-09 may cross the Rs 2,000-crore mark, double of what they were in 2007-08 when the market was serviced by only two players — Dish TV and Tata Sky.
Currently, five private DTH players are offering their services — Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV and Digital TV.
According to the latest projections by Hong Kong-based international media research agency Media Partners Asia (MPA), over $450 million in operating losses is projected between the five players this fiscal.
“We estimate that of the $450 million in operating losses, Tata Sky, Dish TV and Sun Direct will losses to the tune of $350 million while the rest will be shared between Reliance’s Big TV and Bharti Airtel’s DTH arm,” Vivek Couto, executive director, MPA, told Business Standard. “The losses of the new entrants are small because they launched their services in the last four months of 2008. Next year, the losses will be even higher,” said Couto.
In the 2007-08 fiscal, between Dish TV and Tata Sky, the combined operating losses stood at about Rs 1,100 crore, with Tata Sky incurring losses of over Rs 830 crore. In the 2006-07 period, the combined operating losses of both Tata Sky and Dish TV stood at around Rs 550 crore-plus.
According to industry experts, the DTH companies have to take losses on every subscriber they acquire, on account of heavy subsidy given on the hardware. While the range of subsidy varies from operator to operator, it is estimated that on every DTH subscriber acquired, the operator incurs a loss in the range of Rs 2,000-Rs 4,500.
Recently, Dish TV and Tata Sky crossed the 4-million and 3-million subscriber marks, respectively, while Sun Direct TV acquired 2 million subscribers.
“Each of these contenders is burning cash in order to grow subscriber base as part of a mass-market proposition and reach break-even within a five-year timeframe. However, each party will need plenty of more funding, which can be problematic in these constrained economic times,” the MPA report said.
Couto said Sun TV’s international partner Astro has invested more than $132 million in Sun Direct but remains concerned about higher costs as Sun rolls out in northern and western India. “The Astro’s portion of Sun losses is likely to reach $18-20 million in FYE January 2009,” he said.
Business - Q&A Prasoon Joshi
Sapna Agarwal
Advertising is like a mirror. It reflects the present. As companies grapple with the current economic situation of slowdown and liquidity crunch, a recent ING Group television commercial by McCann captures the emotions attached with money and its relevance in our lives. With marketers tightening their belts, McCann has changed its positioning from a supplier of creative ideas to a partner that provides business solutions. The agency does not consider itself a fair-weather friend and wants its clients to partner with it through the highs and lows. Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Worldgroup India, and regional creative director, McCann Asia Pacific, updates Sapna Agarwal on the metamorphosis from an idea provider to a business solutions provider. Edited excerpts:
It is believed that during a downturn as companies cut costs, one of the first to take a hit is advertising and marketing expenses. What has been your experience so far?
Advertising agencies work on an annualised fees structure where the clients pay for the number of people and the time allocated to the brand. As such, even during a downturn, they need us to think about their brands. They may have reduced their overall advertising and marketing budget but at the agency level this is not being reflected. Hence, while the outlay for campaigns, advertising and marketing is reduced, the number of “minds” working on the solutions at our end remains the same. A few clients who were thinking of reducing the number of resources are realising that they require our involvement more than ever before and would need the same number of minds working on their brands to maximise the returns.
Is there a change in your strategy to deal with companies that are interested in renegotiating the annualised fees?
We are very clear about our positioning with our clients. We are not only their agencies but also their business partner, and would like to be associated with them through their highs and lows. Ours is a business of solutions and not just ideas.
If you can explain your positioning with your clients...
For instance, we recently proposed a new product launch to one of our clients in Delhi which is in line with the current economic scenario. We are very gung-ho about this solution, and if it is accepted, it will open up many new doors. The extent of our involvement with our clients’ business goes beyond providing brand solutions.
Will the nature of creative work in 2009 differ from 2008?
There will be a drop in the number of new creatives that will be made for a brand. Due to which the teams working on a client account will have more time to develop better creatives and do better work, specially more time would be spent on craft issues. Creativity will flourish and there can be better work expected in 2009. Campaigns will be more chiseled as the team working on the account will have more time for developing and referencing the work being put out. We are also conceptualising some extremely radical campaigns and looking at long-term solutions.
How is it possible to get the same kind of reach and effectiveness with decreased spends?
The answer lies in innovative and radical solutions. There will be more focus on emerging mediums such as digital, viral, radio and outdoor hoardings.
Radical solutions?
We would like to create a buzz which is akin to advertising on the moon. That is, the work is visible to everyone who looks up at the moon. Radical solutions could also mean solutions where clients spend their entire 12 or 24 months’ advertising and marketing budget in a much shorter span but create an impact which gives the brand a new high. The irony is that in times like these, client expectations increase, however, their risk-taking appetite decreases. As a result, there could be conflicts in the approach between the agency and the client, but then solutions emerge organically in such situations.
Are there any changes that you plan to introduce internally?
We have strengthened our team with five new creative directors in the last six months across India. We are focusing on our divisions such as MRM, which is about brand engagement with consumers, Momentum, which handles events and promotions, and McCann Healthcare, which looks at marketing of pharmaceuticals services, health care and medical businesses. Currently, they contribute less than 20 per cent of our overall revenues. In the next couple of years, we expect these practices to account for 35-40 per cent of our overall revenues.
Do you plan to revise your growth rates for 2009?
We grew at 27 per cent in 2007-08. The business this year has also been good. We have won 32 new clients, which is the highest number of new wins in one year for us. Having said this, we do expect a short-term dip in 2009. However, we are also exercising caution as our clients show restraint.
Lyricist, screen play writer, poet and adman. Any time management tips that you could share.
I enjoy my work and work all seven days of the week. Those associated with me are clued in to my working style. However, there is a clear demarcation in my work schedule — during the week days, my focus is the agency, and during the weekends, it’s movies. My friends from the industry (Bollywood) are very accomodating and they are willing to discuss their projects on weekends, and give me enough time to work on them.
Advertising is like a mirror. It reflects the present. As companies grapple with the current economic situation of slowdown and liquidity crunch, a recent ING Group television commercial by McCann captures the emotions attached with money and its relevance in our lives. With marketers tightening their belts, McCann has changed its positioning from a supplier of creative ideas to a partner that provides business solutions. The agency does not consider itself a fair-weather friend and wants its clients to partner with it through the highs and lows. Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Worldgroup India, and regional creative director, McCann Asia Pacific, updates Sapna Agarwal on the metamorphosis from an idea provider to a business solutions provider. Edited excerpts:
It is believed that during a downturn as companies cut costs, one of the first to take a hit is advertising and marketing expenses. What has been your experience so far?
Advertising agencies work on an annualised fees structure where the clients pay for the number of people and the time allocated to the brand. As such, even during a downturn, they need us to think about their brands. They may have reduced their overall advertising and marketing budget but at the agency level this is not being reflected. Hence, while the outlay for campaigns, advertising and marketing is reduced, the number of “minds” working on the solutions at our end remains the same. A few clients who were thinking of reducing the number of resources are realising that they require our involvement more than ever before and would need the same number of minds working on their brands to maximise the returns.
Is there a change in your strategy to deal with companies that are interested in renegotiating the annualised fees?
We are very clear about our positioning with our clients. We are not only their agencies but also their business partner, and would like to be associated with them through their highs and lows. Ours is a business of solutions and not just ideas.
If you can explain your positioning with your clients...
For instance, we recently proposed a new product launch to one of our clients in Delhi which is in line with the current economic scenario. We are very gung-ho about this solution, and if it is accepted, it will open up many new doors. The extent of our involvement with our clients’ business goes beyond providing brand solutions.
Will the nature of creative work in 2009 differ from 2008?
There will be a drop in the number of new creatives that will be made for a brand. Due to which the teams working on a client account will have more time to develop better creatives and do better work, specially more time would be spent on craft issues. Creativity will flourish and there can be better work expected in 2009. Campaigns will be more chiseled as the team working on the account will have more time for developing and referencing the work being put out. We are also conceptualising some extremely radical campaigns and looking at long-term solutions.
How is it possible to get the same kind of reach and effectiveness with decreased spends?
The answer lies in innovative and radical solutions. There will be more focus on emerging mediums such as digital, viral, radio and outdoor hoardings.
Radical solutions?
We would like to create a buzz which is akin to advertising on the moon. That is, the work is visible to everyone who looks up at the moon. Radical solutions could also mean solutions where clients spend their entire 12 or 24 months’ advertising and marketing budget in a much shorter span but create an impact which gives the brand a new high. The irony is that in times like these, client expectations increase, however, their risk-taking appetite decreases. As a result, there could be conflicts in the approach between the agency and the client, but then solutions emerge organically in such situations.
Are there any changes that you plan to introduce internally?
We have strengthened our team with five new creative directors in the last six months across India. We are focusing on our divisions such as MRM, which is about brand engagement with consumers, Momentum, which handles events and promotions, and McCann Healthcare, which looks at marketing of pharmaceuticals services, health care and medical businesses. Currently, they contribute less than 20 per cent of our overall revenues. In the next couple of years, we expect these practices to account for 35-40 per cent of our overall revenues.
Do you plan to revise your growth rates for 2009?
We grew at 27 per cent in 2007-08. The business this year has also been good. We have won 32 new clients, which is the highest number of new wins in one year for us. Having said this, we do expect a short-term dip in 2009. However, we are also exercising caution as our clients show restraint.
Lyricist, screen play writer, poet and adman. Any time management tips that you could share.
I enjoy my work and work all seven days of the week. Those associated with me are clued in to my working style. However, there is a clear demarcation in my work schedule — during the week days, my focus is the agency, and during the weekends, it’s movies. My friends from the industry (Bollywood) are very accomodating and they are willing to discuss their projects on weekends, and give me enough time to work on them.
Business - India;DTH;Going National;Thinking Regional
Byravee Iyer
Earlier this month, at a press conference in Mumbai, Sun Direct announced its entry into the city and the rest of the country. “To begin with, we expect to have 35 to 40 per cent share of the market in Mumbai,” said chief operating officer Tony D’Silva at the launch. It has similar targets for the rest of the country. For instance, in another press conference in Kolkata a few days later, the company said it was looking to corner 40 per cent of the market.
Sun Direct, owned by SunTV Network’s Kalanithi Maran, is the dominant direct-to-home service provider in South India with 65 per cent share of the market. Even so, its market share target in Mumbai did sound a tad ambitious.
Reliance ADAG’s Big TV DTH, which started in August, claims to have a million subscribers and is aiming at a 40 per cent share of the all-India market by next year. Dish TV, the country’s first DTH service from the house of Zee, boasts of a 46 per cent share of the market. Tata Sky is not talking market share, but remains proud of its 3 million subscribers. AirTel, too, has big plans and targets. If everyone were to achieve their targeted market shares, the math will go haywire.
Given the ubiquitous nature of the business, and the fact that the government restricts exclusive content on DTH, these companies are hoping to get their targets right.
“In all the other markets, companies are able to offer something unique. Here, DTH players are competing not just with themselves, but also with the 14,000 cable operators. So from that perspective everyone is doing everything they can to drive subscriptions,” says an analyst.
Keeping that in mind, D’Silva is speaking of a regional language strategy. Overall, 70 per cent of the television-watching universe views 12-15 main channels and then a bevy of regional channels. This is particularly true of states such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Orissa and the four southern states.
Sun Direct conducted a study on consumer content consumption patterns and preferences across genres and regions. Based on the viewership data, the company is offering 36 add-on packages of the most viewed channels according to region, priced between Rs 6 and Rs 195. “We want subscribers to pay only for what they see,” says D’Silva.
Otherwise, too, Sun Direct’s pricing has a regional skew. Its packs are designed in a way that you can choose all the regional languages you want —an à la carte My Pack — to go with the Jumbo Pack buffet. Set-top boxes are free and there is a 600-strong call centre in all major regional languages.
Different strokes
It is a game in which every player is following its own course while chasing the same goal. Tata Sky, a predominantly Tier-1 player, is betting big on interactive services, including kids’ education, matrimony services, gaming, quiz, astrology and cookery. Dish TV is launching similar interactive services. “Besides, we’re the only DTH player in the country that provides live television in the sky (Kingfisher Airlines), vehicles (cars, buses, yachts, ships) and railways,” says Dish TV’s chief operating officer Salil Kapoor.
Big TV’s trump card is its movie library. “We have 32 channels showcasing 24/7 Hollywood, Bollywood and regional cinema,” says Sanjay Behl, group head, brand and marketing, Reliance Communications. Aiding the venture is the group’s entertainment business and its alliances with production houses Sony Pictures and Walt Disney.
Aware of the challenge, Sun Direct is ramping up its distribution, especially on the back of a less-than-perfect festive season, during which it ran out of stocks owing to snowfall and the Olympics in China (from where it sources set-top boxes).
“We are now available across the retail bandwidth, in telephone booths and even cycle shops. We had no stocks during the festive period so we could not capitalise on it. We’re hoping to make up for that now,” says D’Silva.
The afore-mentioned efforts have not come cheap. The company has so far spent Rs 2,000 crore on manpower, infrastructure and distribution. “At the current ARPU (average revenue per user) of Rs 90 — and if the rupee-dollar rate stabilises — we will break even in five to five-and-a-half years,” says D’Silva.
D’Silva is unperturbed by the massive distribution networks of Big TV and AirTel, which are part of groups that operate nation-wide mobile telephony. “They haven’t utilised their network so far,” he says.
Falling down
All DTH companies are sailing in the same boat — one that is rocking under the burden of Rs 2,500 crore in cumulative losses, thanks mainly to subsidised set-top boxes and low ARPUs. “The potential is huge, with 112 million television homes, of which 75 million have cable connections,” says Smita Jha, media consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “This is similar to an infrastructure business, which requires massive investment and long gestation periods. Initially, discounts are essential as the DTH players are competing with 14,000 cable operators.”
The game could be anyone’s. “None of these players offer anything unique. Consumers are only going to pay for niche channels. So a regional approach won’t matter much. What really matters is the price point. And Sun’s price point will appeal to consumers,” says an analyst who didn’t want to be named.
Sun is offering free set-top boxes. Not surprisingly, competitors have made their products more affordable. Tata Sky has slashed the price of its set-top box from Rs 3,000 in February this year to Rs 1,499. “What’s more, now we have a package for as low as Rs 99 with 54 channels and all our prices are inclusive of taxes, unlike that of the other players,” says Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky.
Dish TV’s set-top box is priced at Rs 1,490 with packs ranging from Rs 99 to Rs 275 a month.
Some, however, point out that even though these companies subsidise set-top boxes, they are bundling their packages with other charges. Sun Direct is charging an installation fee of Rs 1,000.
D’Silva sees things differently. “As we are charging channels à la carte, we can afford to subsidise the set-top box. One can either subsidise the channels or the set-top box, and we have chosen to do the latter. We believe DTH is not a rich man’s product. It is a product for everyone,” he says.
That perhaps explains why, despite the huge market share in the south, Sun Direct’s ARPU languishes at Rs 90, well short of the market average of Rs 200.
D’Silva’s got a plan to address that. À la carte packages, he hopes, would push the ARPU up to Rs 125-130 in six months. Further, the company hopes to add 10,000 new customers a day and, by 2009, have at least 3 million subscribers.
Earlier this month, at a press conference in Mumbai, Sun Direct announced its entry into the city and the rest of the country. “To begin with, we expect to have 35 to 40 per cent share of the market in Mumbai,” said chief operating officer Tony D’Silva at the launch. It has similar targets for the rest of the country. For instance, in another press conference in Kolkata a few days later, the company said it was looking to corner 40 per cent of the market.
Sun Direct, owned by SunTV Network’s Kalanithi Maran, is the dominant direct-to-home service provider in South India with 65 per cent share of the market. Even so, its market share target in Mumbai did sound a tad ambitious.
Reliance ADAG’s Big TV DTH, which started in August, claims to have a million subscribers and is aiming at a 40 per cent share of the all-India market by next year. Dish TV, the country’s first DTH service from the house of Zee, boasts of a 46 per cent share of the market. Tata Sky is not talking market share, but remains proud of its 3 million subscribers. AirTel, too, has big plans and targets. If everyone were to achieve their targeted market shares, the math will go haywire.
Given the ubiquitous nature of the business, and the fact that the government restricts exclusive content on DTH, these companies are hoping to get their targets right.
“In all the other markets, companies are able to offer something unique. Here, DTH players are competing not just with themselves, but also with the 14,000 cable operators. So from that perspective everyone is doing everything they can to drive subscriptions,” says an analyst.
Keeping that in mind, D’Silva is speaking of a regional language strategy. Overall, 70 per cent of the television-watching universe views 12-15 main channels and then a bevy of regional channels. This is particularly true of states such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Orissa and the four southern states.
Sun Direct conducted a study on consumer content consumption patterns and preferences across genres and regions. Based on the viewership data, the company is offering 36 add-on packages of the most viewed channels according to region, priced between Rs 6 and Rs 195. “We want subscribers to pay only for what they see,” says D’Silva.
Otherwise, too, Sun Direct’s pricing has a regional skew. Its packs are designed in a way that you can choose all the regional languages you want —an à la carte My Pack — to go with the Jumbo Pack buffet. Set-top boxes are free and there is a 600-strong call centre in all major regional languages.
Different strokes
It is a game in which every player is following its own course while chasing the same goal. Tata Sky, a predominantly Tier-1 player, is betting big on interactive services, including kids’ education, matrimony services, gaming, quiz, astrology and cookery. Dish TV is launching similar interactive services. “Besides, we’re the only DTH player in the country that provides live television in the sky (Kingfisher Airlines), vehicles (cars, buses, yachts, ships) and railways,” says Dish TV’s chief operating officer Salil Kapoor.
Big TV’s trump card is its movie library. “We have 32 channels showcasing 24/7 Hollywood, Bollywood and regional cinema,” says Sanjay Behl, group head, brand and marketing, Reliance Communications. Aiding the venture is the group’s entertainment business and its alliances with production houses Sony Pictures and Walt Disney.
Aware of the challenge, Sun Direct is ramping up its distribution, especially on the back of a less-than-perfect festive season, during which it ran out of stocks owing to snowfall and the Olympics in China (from where it sources set-top boxes).
“We are now available across the retail bandwidth, in telephone booths and even cycle shops. We had no stocks during the festive period so we could not capitalise on it. We’re hoping to make up for that now,” says D’Silva.
The afore-mentioned efforts have not come cheap. The company has so far spent Rs 2,000 crore on manpower, infrastructure and distribution. “At the current ARPU (average revenue per user) of Rs 90 — and if the rupee-dollar rate stabilises — we will break even in five to five-and-a-half years,” says D’Silva.
D’Silva is unperturbed by the massive distribution networks of Big TV and AirTel, which are part of groups that operate nation-wide mobile telephony. “They haven’t utilised their network so far,” he says.
Falling down
All DTH companies are sailing in the same boat — one that is rocking under the burden of Rs 2,500 crore in cumulative losses, thanks mainly to subsidised set-top boxes and low ARPUs. “The potential is huge, with 112 million television homes, of which 75 million have cable connections,” says Smita Jha, media consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “This is similar to an infrastructure business, which requires massive investment and long gestation periods. Initially, discounts are essential as the DTH players are competing with 14,000 cable operators.”
The game could be anyone’s. “None of these players offer anything unique. Consumers are only going to pay for niche channels. So a regional approach won’t matter much. What really matters is the price point. And Sun’s price point will appeal to consumers,” says an analyst who didn’t want to be named.
Sun is offering free set-top boxes. Not surprisingly, competitors have made their products more affordable. Tata Sky has slashed the price of its set-top box from Rs 3,000 in February this year to Rs 1,499. “What’s more, now we have a package for as low as Rs 99 with 54 channels and all our prices are inclusive of taxes, unlike that of the other players,” says Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky.
Dish TV’s set-top box is priced at Rs 1,490 with packs ranging from Rs 99 to Rs 275 a month.
Some, however, point out that even though these companies subsidise set-top boxes, they are bundling their packages with other charges. Sun Direct is charging an installation fee of Rs 1,000.
D’Silva sees things differently. “As we are charging channels à la carte, we can afford to subsidise the set-top box. One can either subsidise the channels or the set-top box, and we have chosen to do the latter. We believe DTH is not a rich man’s product. It is a product for everyone,” he says.
That perhaps explains why, despite the huge market share in the south, Sun Direct’s ARPU languishes at Rs 90, well short of the market average of Rs 200.
D’Silva’s got a plan to address that. À la carte packages, he hopes, would push the ARPU up to Rs 125-130 in six months. Further, the company hopes to add 10,000 new customers a day and, by 2009, have at least 3 million subscribers.
Mktg - India;Download X’mas, New Year ringtones while you wait for a bus
The next time you are waiting at a bus stop in Mumbai or Delhi, don't be surprised if you get a message asking you whether you would like to download wallpapers and ringtones.
JCDecaux India has done an innovation at bus shelters in Mumbai and Delhi using Bluetooth technology. In Mumbai, the bus shelters carry the message: “MMRDA and JCDecaux wish you Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year”. In Delhi, it is NDMC that joins JCDecaux in wishing you.
A Bluetooth instrument is fitted inside the MUPI (multiphoton ionisation) unit placed close to the shelter and connected to a remote server. As soon as a Bluetooth activated handset is detected (within a range of 10 metres), a message is sent asking whether the user would like to download wallpapers and ringtones. If the user presses ‘yes’, he can proceed to download wallpapers and ringtones on the Christmas theme.
JCDecaux executed its first flagship innovations at the ICICI bus queue shelter and the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Connaught Place in Delhi, in partnership with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), respectively. JCDecaux owns the media rights to both these shelters and the innovations were carried out after seeking the approval of the two concessionaires.
The approximate cost of installing Bluetooth technology ata bus shelter is Rs 10,000. The innovation was put up on December 24 and will continue till January 2, 2009.
Pramod Kumar Bhandula, managing director, JCDecaux India, says, “2008 has been a significant year for innovations for JCDecaux India. Eye-popping innovations for the Louis Vuitton Trunk and Kingfisher Airlines planned at the Bangalore International Airport surprised the audience.
“Continuing its trend of innovative campaigns on bus shelters in Delhi, JCDecaux has announced its arrival in Mumbai with its first Bluetooth oriented innovation, which has received an overwhelming response. JCDecaux India will continue to create such astounding innovations for our clients and the public.”
JCDecaux regularly carries out innovations during the festive season. During Diwali, the rooftops of two bus shelters in Delhi were decorated with gift boxes and lights.
JCDecaux India has done an innovation at bus shelters in Mumbai and Delhi using Bluetooth technology. In Mumbai, the bus shelters carry the message: “MMRDA and JCDecaux wish you Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year”. In Delhi, it is NDMC that joins JCDecaux in wishing you.
A Bluetooth instrument is fitted inside the MUPI (multiphoton ionisation) unit placed close to the shelter and connected to a remote server. As soon as a Bluetooth activated handset is detected (within a range of 10 metres), a message is sent asking whether the user would like to download wallpapers and ringtones. If the user presses ‘yes’, he can proceed to download wallpapers and ringtones on the Christmas theme.
JCDecaux executed its first flagship innovations at the ICICI bus queue shelter and the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Connaught Place in Delhi, in partnership with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), respectively. JCDecaux owns the media rights to both these shelters and the innovations were carried out after seeking the approval of the two concessionaires.
The approximate cost of installing Bluetooth technology ata bus shelter is Rs 10,000. The innovation was put up on December 24 and will continue till January 2, 2009.
Pramod Kumar Bhandula, managing director, JCDecaux India, says, “2008 has been a significant year for innovations for JCDecaux India. Eye-popping innovations for the Louis Vuitton Trunk and Kingfisher Airlines planned at the Bangalore International Airport surprised the audience.
“Continuing its trend of innovative campaigns on bus shelters in Delhi, JCDecaux has announced its arrival in Mumbai with its first Bluetooth oriented innovation, which has received an overwhelming response. JCDecaux India will continue to create such astounding innovations for our clients and the public.”
JCDecaux regularly carries out innovations during the festive season. During Diwali, the rooftops of two bus shelters in Delhi were decorated with gift boxes and lights.
Mktg - Maruti Suzuki offers lessons to promote safe driving
Maruti
Advertisement
Suzuki celebrated its 25th birthday this year – the first Maruti 800 rolled out on Indian roads in December 1983. To celebrate the occasion and highlight its concerns about road safety, last week, Maruti launched a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, called National Road Safety Mission.
Under the campaign, Maruti will provide driving lessons to five lakh people in the next three years. Of these, around one lakh people will be from the underprivileged sections of society, who are keen to take up driving as a profession, and they will be taught free of cost.
Maruti already runs two Institutes of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) in Delhi and 47 Maruti Driving Schools (MDS) all over the country. While the IDTRs have been set up in collaboration with the Delhi government, the MDSes have been set up with the support of Maruti’s vast dealer network.
Maruti Suzuki has already imparted safe driving skills to 450,000 people through its training institutes. The National Road Safety Mission will utilise the services of these institutes.
“We realise that training 500,000 people is a small contribution when you look at the scale of the problem. We hope to be the catalyst for other organisations to join the road safety effort,” says Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director and chief executive officer, Maruti Suzuki India, in a press statement.
“By involving underprivileged people, we seek to improve their employability in the market and give them skills that will increase their chances of landing a job,” a company spokesperson tells afaqs!
Maruti Suzuki has come out with a new logo created specially for the National Road Safety Mission.
It will promote the initiative through various media and applications will be accepted on a first come first served basis.
Advertisement
Suzuki celebrated its 25th birthday this year – the first Maruti 800 rolled out on Indian roads in December 1983. To celebrate the occasion and highlight its concerns about road safety, last week, Maruti launched a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, called National Road Safety Mission.
Under the campaign, Maruti will provide driving lessons to five lakh people in the next three years. Of these, around one lakh people will be from the underprivileged sections of society, who are keen to take up driving as a profession, and they will be taught free of cost.
Maruti already runs two Institutes of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) in Delhi and 47 Maruti Driving Schools (MDS) all over the country. While the IDTRs have been set up in collaboration with the Delhi government, the MDSes have been set up with the support of Maruti’s vast dealer network.
Maruti Suzuki has already imparted safe driving skills to 450,000 people through its training institutes. The National Road Safety Mission will utilise the services of these institutes.
“We realise that training 500,000 people is a small contribution when you look at the scale of the problem. We hope to be the catalyst for other organisations to join the road safety effort,” says Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director and chief executive officer, Maruti Suzuki India, in a press statement.
“By involving underprivileged people, we seek to improve their employability in the market and give them skills that will increase their chances of landing a job,” a company spokesperson tells afaqs!
Maruti Suzuki has come out with a new logo created specially for the National Road Safety Mission.
It will promote the initiative through various media and applications will be accepted on a first come first served basis.
Mktg - Diet with sweets this season
Savia Jane Pinto
Health and physical fitness are on everyone's mind and most FMCG brands are helping those on the heavier side to maintain healthy lifestyles.
After its last shapely ad with brand ambassador Bipasha Basu, Sugar Free Natura has introduced a variant, Sugar Free Natura Diet Sugar, which can be used in everyday food.
The TV commercial opens at a dining table, where a man and his son are waiting for breakfast to be served. The father is supposedly on a diet that has been enforced by his wife. At the breakfast table, the son teases his father about the diet that will start today. Dad makes a face and, just then, Mom walks into the room and places a covered bowl on the table. Dad sneaks a peek while she is speaking into the phone and finds a bowlful of cookies. He is really happy and sings to himself, while his son calls out in complaint to his mother.
Next, during lunch in office, Dad sees laddoos in his lunch box and again begins singing to himself because he's glad that his wife has forgotten about the diet she'd planned for him. In another instance, instead of losing her cool over his sweet tooth, his wife ignores him eating brownies.
The shot moves to the kitchen where Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who is also the brand ambassador, is explaining to the wife that the new Natura Diet Sugar can be used just like ordinary sugar, but without all the unnecessary calories.
The ad has been created by Rediffusion Y&R.
"The idea is to equate Natura Diet Sugar in some ways with ordinary sugar," says Ramanuj Shastry, national creative director, Rediffusion Y&R. Unlike the pills (Sugar Free Natura), Natura Diet Sugar is in crystalline form and can be used in the same quantities as ordinary sugar.
Ganesh Nayak, executive Director, Cadila Healthcare, says, "The idea is to project the product as a ‘choose to use’, rather than a ‘need to use’ product. Hence, instead of showing an overweight husband, we've used a concerned wife with a husband who enjoys the happier side of life with sweets." And this is where brand ambassador Kapoor steps in. As a culinary expert, Kapoor's word will be taken seriously.
Though a wife mulling over her husband's dietary habits is a common premise with other FMCG categories such as cooking oil, Sugar Free generally uses the family route to convey the brand message, and the housewife is considered the main protagonist of its campaigns.
The bright side of Sugar Free has always been that you can give into food cravings without having to worry about gaining calories. "If the husband were left to his own devices, he'd never stick to his diet. But when the wife, who is generally in charge of the kitchen, finds an alternative to the unnecessary calories that her family is taking in, there's nothing like it," says Ambika Nehru, executive creative director, Rediffusion Y&R.
We asked a few other creative people what they thought of the ad.
Manoj Deb, executive creative director, BBDO India, thinks that the idea is good. The fact that the husband thinks that his wife has forgotten about the diet, while she actually hasn't, is a nice way to treat the thought, he says.
Titus Upputuru, senior creative director, O&M, isn't too impressed though. He says, "Even though I'm gobbling down loads of home-made, rich cakes and cookies these days, I wasn't pulled out of my chair to go buy it (Natura Diet Sugar), but have just bought a five-litre pack of oil."
Upputuru goes on to quote Bill Bernbach, "Bernbach once said, ‘If the ad goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.’ I would change that to, 'If the consumer goes unconvinced, everything else is academic.'”
Other media vehicles such as print and radio and below-the-line activities such as sampling will also be utilised.
Health and physical fitness are on everyone's mind and most FMCG brands are helping those on the heavier side to maintain healthy lifestyles.
After its last shapely ad with brand ambassador Bipasha Basu, Sugar Free Natura has introduced a variant, Sugar Free Natura Diet Sugar, which can be used in everyday food.
The TV commercial opens at a dining table, where a man and his son are waiting for breakfast to be served. The father is supposedly on a diet that has been enforced by his wife. At the breakfast table, the son teases his father about the diet that will start today. Dad makes a face and, just then, Mom walks into the room and places a covered bowl on the table. Dad sneaks a peek while she is speaking into the phone and finds a bowlful of cookies. He is really happy and sings to himself, while his son calls out in complaint to his mother.
Next, during lunch in office, Dad sees laddoos in his lunch box and again begins singing to himself because he's glad that his wife has forgotten about the diet she'd planned for him. In another instance, instead of losing her cool over his sweet tooth, his wife ignores him eating brownies.
The shot moves to the kitchen where Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who is also the brand ambassador, is explaining to the wife that the new Natura Diet Sugar can be used just like ordinary sugar, but without all the unnecessary calories.
The ad has been created by Rediffusion Y&R.
"The idea is to equate Natura Diet Sugar in some ways with ordinary sugar," says Ramanuj Shastry, national creative director, Rediffusion Y&R. Unlike the pills (Sugar Free Natura), Natura Diet Sugar is in crystalline form and can be used in the same quantities as ordinary sugar.
Ganesh Nayak, executive Director, Cadila Healthcare, says, "The idea is to project the product as a ‘choose to use’, rather than a ‘need to use’ product. Hence, instead of showing an overweight husband, we've used a concerned wife with a husband who enjoys the happier side of life with sweets." And this is where brand ambassador Kapoor steps in. As a culinary expert, Kapoor's word will be taken seriously.
Though a wife mulling over her husband's dietary habits is a common premise with other FMCG categories such as cooking oil, Sugar Free generally uses the family route to convey the brand message, and the housewife is considered the main protagonist of its campaigns.
The bright side of Sugar Free has always been that you can give into food cravings without having to worry about gaining calories. "If the husband were left to his own devices, he'd never stick to his diet. But when the wife, who is generally in charge of the kitchen, finds an alternative to the unnecessary calories that her family is taking in, there's nothing like it," says Ambika Nehru, executive creative director, Rediffusion Y&R.
We asked a few other creative people what they thought of the ad.
Manoj Deb, executive creative director, BBDO India, thinks that the idea is good. The fact that the husband thinks that his wife has forgotten about the diet, while she actually hasn't, is a nice way to treat the thought, he says.
Titus Upputuru, senior creative director, O&M, isn't too impressed though. He says, "Even though I'm gobbling down loads of home-made, rich cakes and cookies these days, I wasn't pulled out of my chair to go buy it (Natura Diet Sugar), but have just bought a five-litre pack of oil."
Upputuru goes on to quote Bill Bernbach, "Bernbach once said, ‘If the ad goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.’ I would change that to, 'If the consumer goes unconvinced, everything else is academic.'”
Other media vehicles such as print and radio and below-the-line activities such as sampling will also be utilised.
Lifestyle - Amid Economic Pain, a Drop in Plastic Surgery
Nancy Shute
People are cutting back on cosmetic surgery and other elective surgeries in response to the dismal economy, reversing the booming popularity of tummy tucks, eye lifts, and breast implants, which have soared in popularity in recent years, particularly among younger people and the middle class.
When polled in October, 62 percent of members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said their business was down 20 percent or more from the year before. "I expect it's more than that in some areas, a 40 or 50 percent decrease," Michael McGuire, president-elect of the ASPS, said last week. That's particularly true in areas like New York, California, and Florida, which led the surge in popularity. A small survey by the society in October found that 60 percent of respondents said the economy had had an impact on their plans for cosmetic surgery. That's not surprising, given that cosmetic procedures aren't covered by insurance.
People may be shunning surgery not only because of the cost but because of the downtime for recovery. "Now, you just even don't want to take the time off [from work]," says Alan Gold, president of the American Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, a group of doctors who specialize in cosmetic surgery. "You don't want them to think they can get along without you for too long." That holds true for noncosmetic elective surgery as well, Gold says, including carpal tunnel surgery, which is usually performed by plastic surgeons, and hernia repair. Although insurance usually covers these operations, deductibles and copays can be enough to make a patient think twice.
John Canady, director of the cleft lip and palate center at the University of Iowa, says one part of his work as a plastic surgeon has stayed stable: repairing birth defects. He adds, "People still get injured, people still get different kinds of malignancies and need reconstruction." Younger doctors and those who went into the field just to do cosmetic procedures are having a harder time, he says.
Alas, the fact that demand is way down doesn't mean that it's easy to find a two-for-one boob job. Surgeons say they are being more flexible with payment plans but that they don't see widespread discounting.
And as with all medical procedures, safety should always trump cost. Someone contemplating a cosmetic procedure should make sure the physician is board certified and has years of experience in the procedure in question. That's particularly true because doctors without experience in cosmetic procedures started offering such operations in recent years in an effort to boost their bottom line. "Consumers should do their homework," Canady says. "Cosmetic surgery can have complications."
The demand may be deferred, not denied. Alan Gold, who says he saw a similar downturn after 9/11, predicts that business will revive with the economy. Those who desire cosmetic procedures "are people who are concerned about their appearance or are concerned about age-related changes," he says. "They may defer that desire, but the desire isn't lost."
People are cutting back on cosmetic surgery and other elective surgeries in response to the dismal economy, reversing the booming popularity of tummy tucks, eye lifts, and breast implants, which have soared in popularity in recent years, particularly among younger people and the middle class.
When polled in October, 62 percent of members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said their business was down 20 percent or more from the year before. "I expect it's more than that in some areas, a 40 or 50 percent decrease," Michael McGuire, president-elect of the ASPS, said last week. That's particularly true in areas like New York, California, and Florida, which led the surge in popularity. A small survey by the society in October found that 60 percent of respondents said the economy had had an impact on their plans for cosmetic surgery. That's not surprising, given that cosmetic procedures aren't covered by insurance.
People may be shunning surgery not only because of the cost but because of the downtime for recovery. "Now, you just even don't want to take the time off [from work]," says Alan Gold, president of the American Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons, a group of doctors who specialize in cosmetic surgery. "You don't want them to think they can get along without you for too long." That holds true for noncosmetic elective surgery as well, Gold says, including carpal tunnel surgery, which is usually performed by plastic surgeons, and hernia repair. Although insurance usually covers these operations, deductibles and copays can be enough to make a patient think twice.
John Canady, director of the cleft lip and palate center at the University of Iowa, says one part of his work as a plastic surgeon has stayed stable: repairing birth defects. He adds, "People still get injured, people still get different kinds of malignancies and need reconstruction." Younger doctors and those who went into the field just to do cosmetic procedures are having a harder time, he says.
Alas, the fact that demand is way down doesn't mean that it's easy to find a two-for-one boob job. Surgeons say they are being more flexible with payment plans but that they don't see widespread discounting.
And as with all medical procedures, safety should always trump cost. Someone contemplating a cosmetic procedure should make sure the physician is board certified and has years of experience in the procedure in question. That's particularly true because doctors without experience in cosmetic procedures started offering such operations in recent years in an effort to boost their bottom line. "Consumers should do their homework," Canady says. "Cosmetic surgery can have complications."
The demand may be deferred, not denied. Alan Gold, who says he saw a similar downturn after 9/11, predicts that business will revive with the economy. Those who desire cosmetic procedures "are people who are concerned about their appearance or are concerned about age-related changes," he says. "They may defer that desire, but the desire isn't lost."
World - Why Britain Increasingly Worries About Pakistani Terrorism
Thomas K Grose
LONDON--That Britain faces a very real risk of home-grown Islamic terrorism has long been known. But now, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has not only publicly hinted at the extent of the problem but bluntly charged that most U.K.-based extremists are linked to Pakistan, some 3,700 miles away.
According to Brown, fully three quarters of the serious radical Islamist plots under investigation in the United Kingdom have connections to the South Asian Muslim country. Published reports say they total more than 20, and the government reckons that at least 4,000 British Muslims have received training at terrorist camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan--among them, most infamously, Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London.
Islamabad's inability to keep a lid on its extremist elements was highlighted last month when a gang of Pakistani terrorists attacked a number of sites in Mumbai, killing more than 170 people.
Brown described a "chain of terror that links the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan to the streets of Britain and other countries of the world." As if to underscore Brown's point, Rangzieb Ahmed of Manchester was convicted last week of running a three-person, al Qaeda terrorist cell and arranging to send British citizens to training camps in Pakistan. Another man, Habib Ahmed, was convicted of being a member of al Qaeda.
This situation poses a delicate situation here. More than a million people of Pakistani heritage call Britain home--only Saudi Arabia has a larger Pakistani expatriate community--and clearly the vast majority are law-abiding citizens who eschew terrorism.
"However, there is a significant number who are radicalized," says Farzana Shaikh, an expert on Pakistani affairs.
One question is where they are indoctrinated by violent Islamism. Is it here in the United Kingdom or on trips to Pakistan?
"There's a lot of evidence that a lot of it takes place in the U.K.," says Gareth Price, head of the Asia Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. For instance, Britain's prison system has been called a breeding ground for budding Islamic extremists.
Then again, young British Pakistanis who fall into trouble with alcohol or drugs are sometimes sent by their parents to stay with relatives in Pakistan to straighten them out. "And they are vulnerable to brainwashing there," Price adds.
Shaikh says that "economic deprivation" and "social exclusion" among British Pakistanis may play a role in radicalizing the community's young men. Many of Britain's Pakistanis are not fully integrated into wider society. They live in low-income neighborhoods where joblessness is high and poor education rampant.
But that's also true for some of Britain's other Asian Muslim communities, such as the Bangladeshis. Though they tend to be marginalized, too, their communities are not hotbeds of radicalism. "That says something about Pakistan," Price says. "That it's not a Muslim problem in general."
One factor may be that more than half of Britain's Pakistanis have ancestral ties to Kashmir, the disputed territory that's a source of tension between Pakistan and India. So it's possible that resentment over that festering feud plays a role in turning some young British Pakistanis toward Islamism. The now banned Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai terrorist attack, has targeted India in the past as part of its campaign to force India to give up its claim to largely Muslim Kashmir.
But Shaikh argues that anger over Britain's role in the Iraq war has been a far more potent marketing tool for Islamic extremists: "There's no question that the war in Iraq has radicalized many [British] Muslims."
On a trip to Pakistan last week, Brown offered President Asif Ali Zardari a "pact against terror." He proposed that Britain would help train Pakistani security forces in bomb-disposal and anti-car-bomb tactics and help them work to improve airport security. The pact would also include $9 million ineducational materials to help counter antiwestern propaganda dispersed by Pakistan's militants.
The "hearts and minds" educational element of the pact is a good idea, Shaikh says, because many Pakistani children are subjected to Islamist "brainwashing" at the more radical mosque schools, or madrasahs. The problem, however, could be getting the materials and teachers to where they're most needed. Many of the worst-offending madrasahs are in the country's vast tribal areas that border Afghanistan, a mountainous, inhospitable nether world where al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent.
Britain says it wants to help Pakistan root out and quash its terrorist camps; it also wants permission for British police to pursue terrorist suspects in Pakistan. "That's not likely to happen," Price says, because Pakistan's intelligence network probably won't cooperate.
Elements within Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency and its military are suspected of abetting some terrorist factions, particularly Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the past.
Zardari has pledged that he won't allow Pakistan to become a terrorist launching pad. "But so far he's been unwilling or unable to crack down" on the extremists, Shaikh says.
And that's a home-grown problem for both Zardari and Brown.
LONDON--That Britain faces a very real risk of home-grown Islamic terrorism has long been known. But now, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has not only publicly hinted at the extent of the problem but bluntly charged that most U.K.-based extremists are linked to Pakistan, some 3,700 miles away.
According to Brown, fully three quarters of the serious radical Islamist plots under investigation in the United Kingdom have connections to the South Asian Muslim country. Published reports say they total more than 20, and the government reckons that at least 4,000 British Muslims have received training at terrorist camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan--among them, most infamously, Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London.
Islamabad's inability to keep a lid on its extremist elements was highlighted last month when a gang of Pakistani terrorists attacked a number of sites in Mumbai, killing more than 170 people.
Brown described a "chain of terror that links the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan to the streets of Britain and other countries of the world." As if to underscore Brown's point, Rangzieb Ahmed of Manchester was convicted last week of running a three-person, al Qaeda terrorist cell and arranging to send British citizens to training camps in Pakistan. Another man, Habib Ahmed, was convicted of being a member of al Qaeda.
This situation poses a delicate situation here. More than a million people of Pakistani heritage call Britain home--only Saudi Arabia has a larger Pakistani expatriate community--and clearly the vast majority are law-abiding citizens who eschew terrorism.
"However, there is a significant number who are radicalized," says Farzana Shaikh, an expert on Pakistani affairs.
One question is where they are indoctrinated by violent Islamism. Is it here in the United Kingdom or on trips to Pakistan?
"There's a lot of evidence that a lot of it takes place in the U.K.," says Gareth Price, head of the Asia Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. For instance, Britain's prison system has been called a breeding ground for budding Islamic extremists.
Then again, young British Pakistanis who fall into trouble with alcohol or drugs are sometimes sent by their parents to stay with relatives in Pakistan to straighten them out. "And they are vulnerable to brainwashing there," Price adds.
Shaikh says that "economic deprivation" and "social exclusion" among British Pakistanis may play a role in radicalizing the community's young men. Many of Britain's Pakistanis are not fully integrated into wider society. They live in low-income neighborhoods where joblessness is high and poor education rampant.
But that's also true for some of Britain's other Asian Muslim communities, such as the Bangladeshis. Though they tend to be marginalized, too, their communities are not hotbeds of radicalism. "That says something about Pakistan," Price says. "That it's not a Muslim problem in general."
One factor may be that more than half of Britain's Pakistanis have ancestral ties to Kashmir, the disputed territory that's a source of tension between Pakistan and India. So it's possible that resentment over that festering feud plays a role in turning some young British Pakistanis toward Islamism. The now banned Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai terrorist attack, has targeted India in the past as part of its campaign to force India to give up its claim to largely Muslim Kashmir.
But Shaikh argues that anger over Britain's role in the Iraq war has been a far more potent marketing tool for Islamic extremists: "There's no question that the war in Iraq has radicalized many [British] Muslims."
On a trip to Pakistan last week, Brown offered President Asif Ali Zardari a "pact against terror." He proposed that Britain would help train Pakistani security forces in bomb-disposal and anti-car-bomb tactics and help them work to improve airport security. The pact would also include $9 million ineducational materials to help counter antiwestern propaganda dispersed by Pakistan's militants.
The "hearts and minds" educational element of the pact is a good idea, Shaikh says, because many Pakistani children are subjected to Islamist "brainwashing" at the more radical mosque schools, or madrasahs. The problem, however, could be getting the materials and teachers to where they're most needed. Many of the worst-offending madrasahs are in the country's vast tribal areas that border Afghanistan, a mountainous, inhospitable nether world where al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent.
Britain says it wants to help Pakistan root out and quash its terrorist camps; it also wants permission for British police to pursue terrorist suspects in Pakistan. "That's not likely to happen," Price says, because Pakistan's intelligence network probably won't cooperate.
Elements within Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency and its military are suspected of abetting some terrorist factions, particularly Lashkar-e-Taiba, in the past.
Zardari has pledged that he won't allow Pakistan to become a terrorist launching pad. "But so far he's been unwilling or unable to crack down" on the extremists, Shaikh says.
And that's a home-grown problem for both Zardari and Brown.
World - US;Wanted: More science and math teachers
Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
New Bedford, Mass. – Jeremy Kennefick and Geoffrey Gailey are both new science teachers, one a career-changer, the other fresh out of graduate school. Both are teaching in high-poverty districts, where the needs are greatest. And both are surrounded by a rare level of support – financial incentives, mentors, and groups of other new teachers to consult with as they grow in the profession.
It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year.
"We desperately need more qualified ... science and math teachers, because of retirement,... overcrowded classrooms ... and people teaching out of [their] field," says Angelo Collins, executive director of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) in Moorestown, N.J., which offers fellowships for teachers in these fields.
The United States is not only facing a dearth of future homegrown scientists and engineers, she and others say, but increasingly, everyday citizens need science literacy.
The programs supporting Mr. Gailey and Mr. Kennefick are small, but their approach is likely to reach a much larger scale if President-elect Barack Obama is able to carry out his education proposals. He wants 40,000 scholarships to draw undergraduates and career-changers into high-needs schools. He would put special emphasis on science and math teaching. And he's praised teacher-preparation programs that offer a high degree of mentoring.
A former mortgage loan officer, Kennefick majored in psychology and has coached youth basketball leagues. He saw science teaching as a more fulfilling option, and then happened across Teach! SouthCoast, a partnership between the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth College, and several school districts, including that of New Bedford, where he now teaches eighth-grade science at Normandin Middle School.
He's receiving a $5,000 scholarship – funded by a federal grant – in exchange for teaching in the district for at least three years. Twice a week, he takes classes with a group of 20 who will earn their teaching licenses within a year.
"It's a heavy load," says Karen O'Connor, who oversees several such programs at UMASS's Center for University, School, and Community Partnerships. But the principals needed math and science teachers right away, and the new teachers have told her, "I wouldn't trade it for anything, because I could apply exactly what I was learning the very next day in my classroom." They continue to receive mentoring in their second and third years.
Strolling between desks, Kennefick takes an eighth-grade class through the key differences between plant and animal cells. "Any of you guys use aloe moisturizer? Aloe has a high content of vacuoles," he says, explaining the parts of a plant cell that store water, salts, and proteins. Soon he's got the kids working in groups to fill in a worksheet.
It's "100 percent different" from his first week of teaching, he says. "I came in thinking I would teach the same way I was taught" – by lecturing. Now, he's learning how to reach students who learn visually or through hands-on work.
Kennefick's class includes a boy excited about marine biology and a girl aspiring to be an obstetrician. It's an area where gang recruiters compete for students' attention, he says, and each day is a challenge.
Principal Jeanne Bonneau sees the benefit of Kennefick's "real world" experience. In addition to his love of science and of kids, "he has a great work ethic ... and good organizational skills," she says.
Most teachers who leave the profession do so not because of pay primarily, Ms. Collins says, but because they feel isolated, or the working conditions in their school are poor, or they start to see it as a professional dead end. In addition to tuition assistance and summer stipends, the KSTF fellowship tries to address those issues in its extra professional-development support for new teachers like Geoffrey Gailey.
He arrived at The Engineering School, a high school in Boston, with a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in teaching from Cornell University. But classroom management in his biotechnology classes has been the biggest learning curve, as it usually is at the start.
To illustrate natural selection, he gave students "critters" with forks for mouths, and had them try to pick up uncooked rice. Then he gave some of them spoons, to show that the critters who could get more rice would live and pass that trait on to future generations. "My first-period class got a little out of control and there ended up being rice everywhere," he says.
Now he's reflecting on how to improve the labs to keep students focused. He can tap peers and mentors for ideas.
The KSTF fellowships can be renewed for up to five years and $150,000. Out of 128 awarded since 2002, fewer than 20 individuals have left teaching, Collins says. By comparison, about a third of new science and math teachers typically leave the profession within three years.
New Bedford, Mass. – Jeremy Kennefick and Geoffrey Gailey are both new science teachers, one a career-changer, the other fresh out of graduate school. Both are teaching in high-poverty districts, where the needs are greatest. And both are surrounded by a rare level of support – financial incentives, mentors, and groups of other new teachers to consult with as they grow in the profession.
It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year.
"We desperately need more qualified ... science and math teachers, because of retirement,... overcrowded classrooms ... and people teaching out of [their] field," says Angelo Collins, executive director of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) in Moorestown, N.J., which offers fellowships for teachers in these fields.
The United States is not only facing a dearth of future homegrown scientists and engineers, she and others say, but increasingly, everyday citizens need science literacy.
The programs supporting Mr. Gailey and Mr. Kennefick are small, but their approach is likely to reach a much larger scale if President-elect Barack Obama is able to carry out his education proposals. He wants 40,000 scholarships to draw undergraduates and career-changers into high-needs schools. He would put special emphasis on science and math teaching. And he's praised teacher-preparation programs that offer a high degree of mentoring.
A former mortgage loan officer, Kennefick majored in psychology and has coached youth basketball leagues. He saw science teaching as a more fulfilling option, and then happened across Teach! SouthCoast, a partnership between the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth College, and several school districts, including that of New Bedford, where he now teaches eighth-grade science at Normandin Middle School.
He's receiving a $5,000 scholarship – funded by a federal grant – in exchange for teaching in the district for at least three years. Twice a week, he takes classes with a group of 20 who will earn their teaching licenses within a year.
"It's a heavy load," says Karen O'Connor, who oversees several such programs at UMASS's Center for University, School, and Community Partnerships. But the principals needed math and science teachers right away, and the new teachers have told her, "I wouldn't trade it for anything, because I could apply exactly what I was learning the very next day in my classroom." They continue to receive mentoring in their second and third years.
Strolling between desks, Kennefick takes an eighth-grade class through the key differences between plant and animal cells. "Any of you guys use aloe moisturizer? Aloe has a high content of vacuoles," he says, explaining the parts of a plant cell that store water, salts, and proteins. Soon he's got the kids working in groups to fill in a worksheet.
It's "100 percent different" from his first week of teaching, he says. "I came in thinking I would teach the same way I was taught" – by lecturing. Now, he's learning how to reach students who learn visually or through hands-on work.
Kennefick's class includes a boy excited about marine biology and a girl aspiring to be an obstetrician. It's an area where gang recruiters compete for students' attention, he says, and each day is a challenge.
Principal Jeanne Bonneau sees the benefit of Kennefick's "real world" experience. In addition to his love of science and of kids, "he has a great work ethic ... and good organizational skills," she says.
Most teachers who leave the profession do so not because of pay primarily, Ms. Collins says, but because they feel isolated, or the working conditions in their school are poor, or they start to see it as a professional dead end. In addition to tuition assistance and summer stipends, the KSTF fellowship tries to address those issues in its extra professional-development support for new teachers like Geoffrey Gailey.
He arrived at The Engineering School, a high school in Boston, with a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in teaching from Cornell University. But classroom management in his biotechnology classes has been the biggest learning curve, as it usually is at the start.
To illustrate natural selection, he gave students "critters" with forks for mouths, and had them try to pick up uncooked rice. Then he gave some of them spoons, to show that the critters who could get more rice would live and pass that trait on to future generations. "My first-period class got a little out of control and there ended up being rice everywhere," he says.
Now he's reflecting on how to improve the labs to keep students focused. He can tap peers and mentors for ideas.
The KSTF fellowships can be renewed for up to five years and $150,000. Out of 128 awarded since 2002, fewer than 20 individuals have left teaching, Collins says. By comparison, about a third of new science and math teachers typically leave the profession within three years.
World - The Strategic Price of Israel's Gaza Assault
Tony Karon
At hot war in Gaza was not how Israel was supposed to appear on the strategic agenda of Barack Obama when he takes office in January. Its leaders had hoped to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the back burner of the new Administration, which Israel hopes will make Iran's nuclear program its overriding priority in the Middle East. Instead, the weekend bloodbath in Gaza - the deadliest since Israel occupied the territory in 1967 - casts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an urgent crisis demanding a response from Washington. It also highlights the failure of the Bush Administration's and Israel's policies on Hamas in Gaza.
The air strikes that began Saturday, in which Palestinians claim at least 280 people have been killed, marked a dramatic escalation of the high-stakes poker game between Israel and Hamas. Over the past seven weeks, each side has calculated the odds of outbidding the other. Hamas - and the civilian population it represents - paid a heavy price in human casualties over the weekend, but it may nonetheless retain a strategic advantage. The radical Palestinian movement that governs Gaza appears to have underestimated Israel's readiness to launch a military campaign in response to an escalation of Palestinian rocket fire onto Israel's southern towns and cities. This is, however, an Israeli election season in which polls show voters moving so quickly to the right that even the hawkish front runner, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is losing support to parties more extreme than his own. Still, the factors that restrained Israel from launching an attack on Gaza until now remain in place, and the likelihood of an escalation in the confrontation in the days and weeks ahead - and the negative regional backlash it may promote - will probably mark a diplomatic setback for Israel. (Read TIME's top 10 news stories of the year.)
Israel launched Saturday's strike knowing that Hamas would respond with a fusillade of rockets, possibly using some of the longer-range weapons smuggled into Gaza over the past year to strike Israeli towns such as Ashdod and Ashkelon. Hamas may even activate suicide-bomber cells in East Jerusalem or the West Bank. Israel had prepared for the first possibility by deploying additional air-raid protection in towns as far as 25 miles (40 km) from the Gaza border. And it will probably follow up the air strikes with ground attacks aimed at neutralizing as much as it can of Hamas' military capability. But Hamas has good reason to expect that Israel's military campaign will be limited, and it believes it can come out ahead in the strategic equation despite the heavy cost in blood that will be paid by its own leaders and militants, as well as by Palestinian civilians.
The rocket barrage by Hamas that preceded Israel's air strikes began with the unraveling of a cease-fire, brokered by Egypt, that had been in place since June. Although Hamas said the truce expired on Dec. 19, it began firing rockets earlier, in response to an Israeli raid on Nov. 5 aimed at stopping Palestinians from tunneling under the boundary fence. Hamas needed a truce, but one on more favorable terms than what had applied in the preceding six months. During that time, Israel had largely stopped military attacks in Gaza but kept in place a crippling economic siege as part of a Bush Administration–backed campaign to pressure the Palestinian civilian population to overthrow the Hamas government it had elected in 2006. (See pictures of the Middle East crisis.)
The cease-fire proved to be untenable. "Calm for calm" - as Israelis call the agreement to simply refrain from military strikes and rocket fire - didn't work for Hamas, since it was unable to deliver economic relief to the long-suffering Palestinian civilian population. Indeed, the renewed campaign of rocket fire by Hamas was widely interpreted as a bargaining tactic aimed at securing more favorable truce terms, particularly lifting the economic siege. Israel, in the meantime, suffered from confusion in its goals. On the one hand, it wanted to destroy the Hamas government; on the other hand, it sought to coexist with the movement in order to ensure security along Israel's southern flank - hence the combination of "calm for calm" and the unrelenting economic siege. But even "calm for calm" represented what Israel saw as an unacceptable humiliation, as Hamas continued to hold the kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit as a hostage - for more than two years now - to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel's current offensive underscores the strategic quandary it faces in Gaza. By striking Gaza now, Israel has pushed the conflict with the Palestinians back to the top of the priorities facing the Obama Administration. Israel's offensive in Gaza will provoke an upsurge in hostility on the streets toward the U.S. and Israel from Lebanon to Pakistan, making life difficult for those inclined to cooperate with Washington (foremost among them, the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas) while offering an opportunity to U.S. foes to improve their own standing in Arab and Muslim public opinion. President Obama will take office with the Israeli-Palestinian issue once again clearly functioning as a driver of regional instability, demanding action - and, perhaps, new thinking - from the incoming Administration. (See pictures of the world reacting to Obama's win.)
There are other strategic downsides to Israel's launching a military offensive in Gaza at this time. Israel has acted in response to pressures to protect its citizenry from rocket attacks, but it is probable that such attacks will continue and possibly intensify as a result. That will draw Israeli ground troops into Gaza, where they, too, will suffer casualties at the hands of Palestinian gunmen. The Palestinian civilian death toll will be far higher, which will, in turn, isolate Israel on the diplomatic front - even those Arab regimes that would have been discreetly pleased to see Hamas dealt a harsh blow (because they fear the Islamist movement is becoming a model for those challenging their own governments) will be forced to distance themselves.
The air strikes will also give President Abbas no choice but to break off peace talks with Israel, although neither the Israelis nor most Palestinians treated them as any kind of serious peace process. Still, the Israeli offensive is likely to boost Palestinian political support for Hamas and to further weaken Abbas. In the weeks preceding the strikes, Israeli security officials warned that there is no end game, because a limited campaign would be unlikely to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, and a full-blown ground invasion would find Israel forced to reoccupy the territory on a long-term basis.
Hamas knows that Israel's military intervention is unlikely to be a ground war to the finish. It will hope that, like Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, simply surviving an Israeli onslaught will help it emerge politically victorious. Israel will hope to sufficiently bloody the movement to put it on the defensive and make its leaders prioritize their own physical survival over pressing Israel to ease the siege. And hundreds more people could die in the weeks ahead as the two sides look to win the battle of wills. The renewed confrontation is likely to strengthen the far-right forces in Israeli politics and end the largely symbolic Bush Administration–orchestrated peace talks between Israel and President Abbas. (See pictures of Gaza on the brink.)
So, when he sits down at his desk in the Oval Office in January, President Barack Obama will be confronted with compelling evidence of the failure of the Bush Administration's and Israel's policy on Hamas rule in Gaza - with an urgency to bring fresh ideas to the table.
At hot war in Gaza was not how Israel was supposed to appear on the strategic agenda of Barack Obama when he takes office in January. Its leaders had hoped to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the back burner of the new Administration, which Israel hopes will make Iran's nuclear program its overriding priority in the Middle East. Instead, the weekend bloodbath in Gaza - the deadliest since Israel occupied the territory in 1967 - casts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an urgent crisis demanding a response from Washington. It also highlights the failure of the Bush Administration's and Israel's policies on Hamas in Gaza.
The air strikes that began Saturday, in which Palestinians claim at least 280 people have been killed, marked a dramatic escalation of the high-stakes poker game between Israel and Hamas. Over the past seven weeks, each side has calculated the odds of outbidding the other. Hamas - and the civilian population it represents - paid a heavy price in human casualties over the weekend, but it may nonetheless retain a strategic advantage. The radical Palestinian movement that governs Gaza appears to have underestimated Israel's readiness to launch a military campaign in response to an escalation of Palestinian rocket fire onto Israel's southern towns and cities. This is, however, an Israeli election season in which polls show voters moving so quickly to the right that even the hawkish front runner, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is losing support to parties more extreme than his own. Still, the factors that restrained Israel from launching an attack on Gaza until now remain in place, and the likelihood of an escalation in the confrontation in the days and weeks ahead - and the negative regional backlash it may promote - will probably mark a diplomatic setback for Israel. (Read TIME's top 10 news stories of the year.)
Israel launched Saturday's strike knowing that Hamas would respond with a fusillade of rockets, possibly using some of the longer-range weapons smuggled into Gaza over the past year to strike Israeli towns such as Ashdod and Ashkelon. Hamas may even activate suicide-bomber cells in East Jerusalem or the West Bank. Israel had prepared for the first possibility by deploying additional air-raid protection in towns as far as 25 miles (40 km) from the Gaza border. And it will probably follow up the air strikes with ground attacks aimed at neutralizing as much as it can of Hamas' military capability. But Hamas has good reason to expect that Israel's military campaign will be limited, and it believes it can come out ahead in the strategic equation despite the heavy cost in blood that will be paid by its own leaders and militants, as well as by Palestinian civilians.
The rocket barrage by Hamas that preceded Israel's air strikes began with the unraveling of a cease-fire, brokered by Egypt, that had been in place since June. Although Hamas said the truce expired on Dec. 19, it began firing rockets earlier, in response to an Israeli raid on Nov. 5 aimed at stopping Palestinians from tunneling under the boundary fence. Hamas needed a truce, but one on more favorable terms than what had applied in the preceding six months. During that time, Israel had largely stopped military attacks in Gaza but kept in place a crippling economic siege as part of a Bush Administration–backed campaign to pressure the Palestinian civilian population to overthrow the Hamas government it had elected in 2006. (See pictures of the Middle East crisis.)
The cease-fire proved to be untenable. "Calm for calm" - as Israelis call the agreement to simply refrain from military strikes and rocket fire - didn't work for Hamas, since it was unable to deliver economic relief to the long-suffering Palestinian civilian population. Indeed, the renewed campaign of rocket fire by Hamas was widely interpreted as a bargaining tactic aimed at securing more favorable truce terms, particularly lifting the economic siege. Israel, in the meantime, suffered from confusion in its goals. On the one hand, it wanted to destroy the Hamas government; on the other hand, it sought to coexist with the movement in order to ensure security along Israel's southern flank - hence the combination of "calm for calm" and the unrelenting economic siege. But even "calm for calm" represented what Israel saw as an unacceptable humiliation, as Hamas continued to hold the kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit as a hostage - for more than two years now - to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel's current offensive underscores the strategic quandary it faces in Gaza. By striking Gaza now, Israel has pushed the conflict with the Palestinians back to the top of the priorities facing the Obama Administration. Israel's offensive in Gaza will provoke an upsurge in hostility on the streets toward the U.S. and Israel from Lebanon to Pakistan, making life difficult for those inclined to cooperate with Washington (foremost among them, the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas) while offering an opportunity to U.S. foes to improve their own standing in Arab and Muslim public opinion. President Obama will take office with the Israeli-Palestinian issue once again clearly functioning as a driver of regional instability, demanding action - and, perhaps, new thinking - from the incoming Administration. (See pictures of the world reacting to Obama's win.)
There are other strategic downsides to Israel's launching a military offensive in Gaza at this time. Israel has acted in response to pressures to protect its citizenry from rocket attacks, but it is probable that such attacks will continue and possibly intensify as a result. That will draw Israeli ground troops into Gaza, where they, too, will suffer casualties at the hands of Palestinian gunmen. The Palestinian civilian death toll will be far higher, which will, in turn, isolate Israel on the diplomatic front - even those Arab regimes that would have been discreetly pleased to see Hamas dealt a harsh blow (because they fear the Islamist movement is becoming a model for those challenging their own governments) will be forced to distance themselves.
The air strikes will also give President Abbas no choice but to break off peace talks with Israel, although neither the Israelis nor most Palestinians treated them as any kind of serious peace process. Still, the Israeli offensive is likely to boost Palestinian political support for Hamas and to further weaken Abbas. In the weeks preceding the strikes, Israeli security officials warned that there is no end game, because a limited campaign would be unlikely to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, and a full-blown ground invasion would find Israel forced to reoccupy the territory on a long-term basis.
Hamas knows that Israel's military intervention is unlikely to be a ground war to the finish. It will hope that, like Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, simply surviving an Israeli onslaught will help it emerge politically victorious. Israel will hope to sufficiently bloody the movement to put it on the defensive and make its leaders prioritize their own physical survival over pressing Israel to ease the siege. And hundreds more people could die in the weeks ahead as the two sides look to win the battle of wills. The renewed confrontation is likely to strengthen the far-right forces in Israeli politics and end the largely symbolic Bush Administration–orchestrated peace talks between Israel and President Abbas. (See pictures of Gaza on the brink.)
So, when he sits down at his desk in the Oval Office in January, President Barack Obama will be confronted with compelling evidence of the failure of the Bush Administration's and Israel's policy on Hamas rule in Gaza - with an urgency to bring fresh ideas to the table.
World - 500,000 New Citizens for Spain?
Lisa Abend
Ludivina GarcÍa's father fought on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, and was imprisoned in one of Franco's concentration camps before he escaped to Mexico. Now, thanks to a change in Spanish law, the Mexican-born GarcÍa, 63, is busy compiling the paperwork to obtain the citizenship she feels she has been unfairly denied all these years. GarcÍa is already recognized as a Spanish citizen through marriage. But having her nationality acknowledged as her birthright is a matter of honor. "It's not redundant," she says. "I've always had an identity conflict, and now I have the chance to resolve it."
The law change, which goes into effect this week, is the latest in Spain's ongoing efforts to atone for the mistakes of its past. As part of the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, the Spanish government will now offer citizenship to anyone who can prove that his or her parents or grandparents went into exile during the war and the first decades of the dictatorship that followed. According to the Spanish government, some 500,000 around the globe are eligible. (
During the civil war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, and the brutal repression that followed, hundreds of thousands of people left Spain because their political sympathies put them on the wrong side of Franco's authoritarian regime. The majority fled to France or Mexico, though thousands of children were also sent to the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States.
Now, the children and grandchildren of those who fled have the opportunity to reclaim the nationality that, in many cases, their ancestors were forced to renounce. "It's a question of identity," says GarcÍa, president of the Descendents of Exiles Association. "Even though I grew up in Mexico City, my school was founded by exiles, and we were always learning about Spanish culture. I grew up feeling Spanish."
Frank Casanova, a resident of Naples, Florida who's grandfather emigrated from the Canary Islands to Cuba, is applying for Spanish citizenship for the same reason. "I was born in Cuba, but I never felt Cuban; I felt Canarian," he says. "I even preferred Canaries music over salsa. It's something you feel in your blood."
Under the law, the descendants have until December 2010 to present themselves at the Spanish embassy in their home countries, and turn in documentation that proves their parents or grandparents fled Spain between 1936 and 1955. They do not need to relinquish their current citizenship.
"We don't have concrete data yet," said a spokesperson at Spain's Justice ministry. "But we're getting reports from our consulates that a lot of people are signing up already." In Argentina, which is home to an estimated 300,000 emigrÉ descendants, demand has been so strong, that applicants have already snapped up all consular appointments through July 2009.
But the new provisions are perhaps most attractive to Cubans. On Saturday, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that hundreds of Cubans spent Christmas night lined up outside the Spanish consulate in Havana, waiting to pick up the necessary application forms. One of them was William, a 38-year-old resident of Havana, whose reasons for seeking Spanish nationality were not purely cultural. "In Spain, you can work, earn money, live comfortably," he told EFE.
And that's not the only benefit of a Spanish passport. "Once you have it, you can leave Cuba and go to the United States, says Frank Casanova, who has five or six cousins planning to do just that. "It's closer, and you have more family there."
That will come as welcome news to the Spanish government, which is currently attempting to reduce immigration into the country. In response to the global economic crisis, Spain's once-receptive labor ministry recently introduced a plan that essentially pays unemployed migrants to return to their country of origin. On December 20, the administration extended the period during which police can detain undocumented migrants and barred legally registered immigrants from bringing over any family member of working age.
But economic concerns shouldn't apply to exiles' descendents, argues Garcia. "We're not foreigners. We're Spanish."
Still, the organization she heads does hope for one form of special treatment. Spain's civil code requires potential citizens to swear an oath of loyalty to both the constitution and the King. But the Descendants of Exile Association sees the latter requirement as "ideological coercion" that restricts freedom of expression, and is asking that it not apply to the citizenship process. "After all," she says, "our parents and grandparents were Republicans."
Ludivina GarcÍa's father fought on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, and was imprisoned in one of Franco's concentration camps before he escaped to Mexico. Now, thanks to a change in Spanish law, the Mexican-born GarcÍa, 63, is busy compiling the paperwork to obtain the citizenship she feels she has been unfairly denied all these years. GarcÍa is already recognized as a Spanish citizen through marriage. But having her nationality acknowledged as her birthright is a matter of honor. "It's not redundant," she says. "I've always had an identity conflict, and now I have the chance to resolve it."
The law change, which goes into effect this week, is the latest in Spain's ongoing efforts to atone for the mistakes of its past. As part of the 2007 Law of Historical Memory, the Spanish government will now offer citizenship to anyone who can prove that his or her parents or grandparents went into exile during the war and the first decades of the dictatorship that followed. According to the Spanish government, some 500,000 around the globe are eligible. (
During the civil war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, and the brutal repression that followed, hundreds of thousands of people left Spain because their political sympathies put them on the wrong side of Franco's authoritarian regime. The majority fled to France or Mexico, though thousands of children were also sent to the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States.
Now, the children and grandchildren of those who fled have the opportunity to reclaim the nationality that, in many cases, their ancestors were forced to renounce. "It's a question of identity," says GarcÍa, president of the Descendents of Exiles Association. "Even though I grew up in Mexico City, my school was founded by exiles, and we were always learning about Spanish culture. I grew up feeling Spanish."
Frank Casanova, a resident of Naples, Florida who's grandfather emigrated from the Canary Islands to Cuba, is applying for Spanish citizenship for the same reason. "I was born in Cuba, but I never felt Cuban; I felt Canarian," he says. "I even preferred Canaries music over salsa. It's something you feel in your blood."
Under the law, the descendants have until December 2010 to present themselves at the Spanish embassy in their home countries, and turn in documentation that proves their parents or grandparents fled Spain between 1936 and 1955. They do not need to relinquish their current citizenship.
"We don't have concrete data yet," said a spokesperson at Spain's Justice ministry. "But we're getting reports from our consulates that a lot of people are signing up already." In Argentina, which is home to an estimated 300,000 emigrÉ descendants, demand has been so strong, that applicants have already snapped up all consular appointments through July 2009.
But the new provisions are perhaps most attractive to Cubans. On Saturday, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that hundreds of Cubans spent Christmas night lined up outside the Spanish consulate in Havana, waiting to pick up the necessary application forms. One of them was William, a 38-year-old resident of Havana, whose reasons for seeking Spanish nationality were not purely cultural. "In Spain, you can work, earn money, live comfortably," he told EFE.
And that's not the only benefit of a Spanish passport. "Once you have it, you can leave Cuba and go to the United States, says Frank Casanova, who has five or six cousins planning to do just that. "It's closer, and you have more family there."
That will come as welcome news to the Spanish government, which is currently attempting to reduce immigration into the country. In response to the global economic crisis, Spain's once-receptive labor ministry recently introduced a plan that essentially pays unemployed migrants to return to their country of origin. On December 20, the administration extended the period during which police can detain undocumented migrants and barred legally registered immigrants from bringing over any family member of working age.
But economic concerns shouldn't apply to exiles' descendents, argues Garcia. "We're not foreigners. We're Spanish."
Still, the organization she heads does hope for one form of special treatment. Spain's civil code requires potential citizens to swear an oath of loyalty to both the constitution and the King. But the Descendants of Exile Association sees the latter requirement as "ideological coercion" that restricts freedom of expression, and is asking that it not apply to the citizenship process. "After all," she says, "our parents and grandparents were Republicans."
Lifestyle - China's Consumers: Not Ready to Save the World
Jessie Jiang
By any local standard in the prosperous northeastern coastal city of Tianjin, Gong Haitao, 31, seems to have it all. A production supervisor at a major glass manufacturer, Gong enjoys a steady income, has a decent apartment, a car, and is happily married. But during a recent drive from downtown Tianjin to his suburban home, Gong couldn't stop complaining about life, albeit in a rustic, good-humored way. "If it wasn't for the bad economy, I would have bought a second car and a nicer apartment by now," he says while driving past a grand mixture of construction sites and farms in southern Tianjin. Along for the ride is his wife, Wang Yanfeng, 28, manager of a high-end local beauty salon.
Young middle-class couples like Gong and Wang are key to China's economic future - just as China's future may determine how long the global recession las
By any local standard in the prosperous northeastern coastal city of Tianjin, Gong Haitao, 31, seems to have it all. A production supervisor at a major glass manufacturer, Gong enjoys a steady income, has a decent apartment, a car, and is happily married. But during a recent drive from downtown Tianjin to his suburban home, Gong couldn't stop complaining about life, albeit in a rustic, good-humored way. "If it wasn't for the bad economy, I would have bought a second car and a nicer apartment by now," he says while driving past a grand mixture of construction sites and farms in southern Tianjin. Along for the ride is his wife, Wang Yanfeng, 28, manager of a high-end local beauty salon.
Young middle-class couples like Gong and Wang are key to China's economic future - just as China's future may determine how long the global recession las