Monthly Archives: June 2011

Mahindra Expands in Aerospace.

Business & Economy, ,

Carmaker is investing in components, hunting for new markets

Bangalore:

Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, India’s biggest maker of sport-utility vehicles and tractors, plans to invest Rs2.5 billion (Dh198.2 million) in its aerospace business as part of a push to expand into new markets.

“We are planning to invest Rs1.5 billion for manufacturing components and roughly Rs1 billion in manufacturing aircraft,” Vice Chairman Anand Mahindra said at a news conference in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

The carmaker entered the aerospace industry last year by purchasing majority stakes in Aerostaff Australia, a component manufacturer, and Gippsland Aeronautics, a maker of turboprop aircraft. It has also been in talks with Boeing Company and Airbus seeking orders for aviation components.

Mahindra said in a statement on Friday it is in the final stages of setting up a plant.

The company is spending $10 million (Dh36.7 million) to set up a facility in Bangalore to produce aircraft parts, Hemant Luthra, head of the company’s autoparts division, said in December

 

source: http://www.gulfnews.com / Bloomberg / Jun 27th, 2010

 

Success of India’s Resilient IT Industry makes US President Barack Obama mention Bangalore: Karnataka Governor

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion, , ,

The success of India’s resilient IT industry makes US President Barack Obama mention Bangalore every time he talks about competition, Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj said Wednesday.

“Indian IT & BT (biotech) industry is synonymous with Bangalore. The very fact that the US president never forgets to mention Bangalore every time he talks about competition is a proof of recognition that we are in a position to compete with the best in the world,” Bhardwaj said in his Republic Day address here.

Lauding the achievements of the IT and BT sectors in the state, the governor said Bangalore had emerged on the international map attracting attention of every developed country, even to the extent of inviting admiration and envy from none other than the US.

“Our economy recovered much faster than many developed economies from the recent recession. It is the farsighted policies of the Indian government and the skilled young entrepreneurs with the cutting edge technologies that are helping to move on the path of recovery,” Bhardwaj said at the 62nd Republic Day celebrations in this tech hub.

The governor also highlighted the role of IT in ushering in e-governance and bringing several public services within the reach of the people across the state and Bangalore.

The expectations grow faster than the speed at which we can provide services,” he added

 

source: http://www.CoolAvenues.com / By IANS / Mon Jan 27th, 2011

 

Eduniversal B-School Ranking 2010: IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, Indian B-schools with International Influence

Education, Records, All,

Eduniversal has come out with its latest University and B-school ranking in India. The Eduniversal B-school ranking provides a universal perspective on higher education. It is a unique service providing students, professionals, HR executives and academic officers with a global panorama of the best educational opportunities.

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore is ranked No.1,  B – school in India , followed byIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. These premier management institutes of India have been awarded with ‘5 Palms’—the highest recognition, accorded to “Universal Business Schools with major international influence.” IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad also made it to the list of the best 100 B-schools around the world with IIM Bangalore securing 24th position and IIM Ahmedabad on 55th position.

Eduniversal awarded ‘4 Palms’—the second highest recognition in this category, to eight b-schools from India. The 4 Palms recognition is awarded to ‘Top Business Schools’ known internationally. IIT Delhi which was at number three last year shifted to number five in the four palms category with IIT Bombay taking its place.

University of Delhi-Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) which was at number six last year stepped upward securing fourth position this time.

S. No.
B-School
Dean’s Recommendation*
1.
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B)
453
2.
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A)
377
3.
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C)
300
4.
Indian School of Business (ISB)
188
5.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay – Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSM)
174
6.
University of Delhi-Faculty of Management Studies (FMS)
171
7.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi Department of Management Studies
155
8.
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIM-L)
153
9.
Management Development Institute (MDI)
138
10.
Xavier Labour Relations Institute XLRI Jamshedpur
125

 

*Each Dean from the universities and schools on the list of 1,000 can vote to recommend the other establishments. Country par country, the 1,000 Deans or Directors of each establishment give their opinion concerning the schools in the selection.

This vote is converted into a recommendation rate that the student can use to evaluate each establishment and compare different establishments.

source: http://www.CoolAvenues.com / The Cool Avenues Editorial Team / Mon Dec 13th, 2010

 

Capt V Roopa: Flying High, and Back

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, , , , , , ,

BANGALORE:

If you’re likely to fly by the AI 804Bangalore to Delhi today, you’re privileged. An all-woman crew flight will be flying you. Bangalore-based Capt V Roopa will be in command, with Capt. Niranjana Ashok as co-pilot. The cabin crew will also be Bangalore-based Mohita Ponnappa, Sneha Annagiri, Shruthi Chowdhury and Rituparna Dasgupta. The same crew will return to Bangalore on AI 506.

Air India will operate 11 all-woman crew flights across domestic and international stations. These flights will also be mark 100 years of civil aviation in India. In December 1985, Air India operated the first all-woman crew flight in the world from Kolkata to Silchar on a Fokker Friendship F-27 aircraft.

Air India honours women by operating such flights on March 8. It will, for the second year running, operate an Ultra-Long Haul Flight from Delhi toToronto with a woman commander at the controls.

 

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Jayashree Nandi / TNN / Mar 08th, 2011

Kiran Mazumdar Honoured

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Science & Technology, , , , , , ,

BANGALORE:

“Success is about pursuing a vision with a sense of purpose and a spirit of challenge. I also believe that success is about doing things in a differentiated way. Biocon’s byline is the difference lies in our DNA.” So said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as she received the Citizen Extraordinaire Award 2011 on Friday.

Governor H R Bhardwaj, who presented the award, said it is recognition of her efforts in advancing the biotechnology sector.

The award, instituted by the Prestige Group, in association with the Rotary Bangalore Midtown, is to honour citizens of Bangalore who have contributed to society and made a difference. Irfan Razack, the group’s CMD, said Kiran’s vision has helped establish Bangalore as a biotechnology hub in the world. “She is a source of inspiration for millions of women across India,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / TNN / May 07th, 2011

Tendulkar Presented with Silver World Cup Trophy Replica

Sports

BANGALORE:

A Bangalore-based jewellery firm presented a gold-plated silver World Cup trophyreplica to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday.

The replica is made of 4.5kg of silver with 60 gm of gold plating.

Mumbai Indians skipper Tendulkar is here to play in the Indian Premier League ( IPL) match againstRoyal Challengers Bangalore.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / PTI / Apr 12th, 2011

Bangalore Students Amaze, Winner Heads to Mumbai

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features,

BANGALORE:

The spell bee competition was cakewalk for Bangalore’s students. With a whopping 76 out of 80 in the preliminary written test and 15 of 16 in the final rapid-fire, the topper, along with other finalists, gave a jaw-dropping performance at theHDFC Life Spell Bee 2011, powered by The Times ofIndia in association with Everon Education Ltd and Flipkart.com. It was held at Dr B R Ambedkar Bhavan on Sunday.

Lavanya Krishna, a class eight student at Presidency School, R T Nagar, won the city finals that was attended by 400 students from 60 schools. She will now head to Mumbai for the grand finale.

The organizers didn’t hide their admiration for the participants. “The standard that we see here far exceeds the ones I’ve witnessed in many other cities where we have conducted spell bees. In the written test, which was taken by 400 students, we had to make the cut-off 66 as against the minimum score of 50. The level of competition was the best here. The only drawback we see is in the pronunciation of letter `h’ among students,” they said.

In the four final rounds, students were asked to spell words based on the picture they saw and the words the conductor called out. They had to correct misspelt words that appeared in poems. This ranged from Wordsworth’s `Daffodils’ to Elizabeth Browning’s `How do I love thee’. In the rapid-fire round, 16 words were called out in a minute’s time to be spelt. Pugnacious, malevolence, intelligentsia __ there was no stopping these children.

An avid reader, Lavanya, has taken part in spell bee competitions held in the past two years. This year, she participated despite having chemistry exams at her heels. “The only secret is my reading habit. During dinner time, I have small drills with father. I am not too good with those French words,” she said. It’s not just words that fascinate her, there’s cooking too. “She bought a recipe book with a voucher she had. When I want a day off she pitches in,” said her mother Vidya Krishna.

The winner of the grand finale will be sent by The Times of India to the USAto experience theScripps National Spelling Bee.

 

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / TNN / Mar 28th, 2011

Picture Perfect Memories

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, , ,
BANGALORE:
Old Victorian buildings in the city seem to have become a thing of the past. Something similar was what became of Dewar, the pub. The first pub in the city dating back to the early 30s finally called it a night in December 2010. But Arun Dawson, a Bangalore based photographer is not ready to let go of the famous three-generation old bar.

Dawson’s ongoing photo exhibition at the Renaissance Gallerie is the culmination of his feelings and emotions for the bar. “I first went to the bar almost 10 years ago when I was still in college,” says the nostalgic photographer.  At the moment, 16 of the 19 black and white pictures adorn the walls of the gallery. “I began taking pictures when I got to know that the bar was finally closing shop. Some of the pictures were taken almost two years ago,” reveals Dawson.

Initially Dawson’s photography of the bar had a personal agenda. “These pictures were meant only for me,” he emphasises. But the urge to share it with fellow fans of Dewar was too strong, and the idea of exhibiting ‘Dewar’s — a eulogy’ was conceived.

“The images are progressive in nature — from a ‘pulled back’ shot of the pillars to the close-up of chairs and windows,” says Dawson.

Talking about the experiences that he and his friends had in the bar, he says, “The place had a potpourri of people. The rates were divided into two — bar counter rate and table rate. Table rate was obviously cheaper.”

He also says, “We used to have so much of fun just watching all these people. It has to be experienced.” Narendra Jain, another Dewar loyalist shares theA same feeling. He says, “It is probably the kind of place that every teenager dreams of owning. It didn’t feel like a bar. Probably the only place you’d see autodrivers and women (wearing skirts) drinking in the same vicinity. Not to forget ‘Bhaskar’ (the waiter), who knew everyone’s orders by heart. It was an amazing place.”

Dawson’s exhibition will be on till March 25 at Renaissance Gallerie, Cunningham Road.

 

source: http://www.expressbuzz.com / Zoya Philip / Express News Service / Mar 23rd, 2011

 

Qvantel Oy to Launch Bangalore Operations

Business & Economy, ,

BANGALORE:

Finland-based mobile software firm Qvantel Oy, which has Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and TeliaSonera among its clients, is setting up a centre of excellence in Bangalore to provide software product engineering services to global mobile handset manufacturers and operators, a company official said.

“As part of our growth strategy, we are expanding our operations in India with a centre of excellence here by September to provide software applications and engineering services to global telecom vendors and chip-set makers,” Qvantel’s Indian subsidiary vice-president Rajesh Sengamedu told IANS.

The subsidiary has a software development centre in Hyderabad where about 50 engineers outsource services and support systems to the company’s tier-1 customers in Europe.

“The Bangalore centre, with an upfront investment of Rs.3-4 crore (Rs.30-40 million), will have about 30 engineers initially to execute some of the projects for our Scandinavian telecom handset and chipset customers with the advantage of an offshore environment,” Sengamedu said.

The euro 10 million (Rs.550 million) Helsinki firm offers products, solutions and services to tier-1 handset manufacturers, leading cellular operators and network vendors across Europe and Asia.

Elisa, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, TeliaSonera, ST-Ericsson, Yoigo, Aina group and TDC are some of its leading enterprise customers.

“The presence of our Nordic customers with their research and development (R&D) centres is another factor to expand our India operations to Bangalore, which offers opportunities to provide our domain expertise to other major handset manufacturers and chipset vendors,” Sengamedu noted.

With mobile handsets evolving into multi-applications devices, companies like Qvantel provide embedded software codes for rich features before products are shipped to customers by the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).

“Mobiles are no more a mere voice or data devices but a virtual platform for a host of applications and a range of services customers are aspiring to meet their growing needs at ease,” Sengamedu pointed out.

Even before the entry of the third generation (3G) service through private operators, around one-third of over 600 million subscribers in India use their handsets for a variety of functions ranging from calendar, chat, email, games, productivity, social networking, maps and browsing.

“These functions require a host software applications and support that are outsourced from third-party vendors like us by OEMs, which rollout different models to meet the needs of different customers,” Sengamedu said.

ST Ericssion, Infineon, Broadcom, MediaTek and Renesas are some of the leading hardware players, which provide platforms for software firms such as Android, RIM, iPhone, Symbian OS, Java, Flash Lite and Brew to build the applications in partnership with middle-level enterprises like Qvantel.

The seamless integration and extension of the net to the mobile platform has created multiple opportunities for software services on client-server model.

“Market studies estimate the current value of mobile handset related software outsourcing opportunity is $2-3 billion worldwide. In addition, large Indian OEMs and chipset vendors outsource software R&D services worth $300 million currently,” Sengamedu observed.

The Bangalore centre will also target OEMs, chipset vendors and design centres outside Europe to scale its operations over the next two years to 200 engineers and generate export revenue of about Rs.30 crore (Rs.300 million) by 2012 from Rs.2 crore (Rs.20 million) this calendar year (2010).

 

source: http://www.expressbuzz.com / Fakir Balaji / Express News Services / July 10th, 2010

 

 

Aerospace Park to be set up near Bangalore

Business & Economy, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

BANGALORE:

The Karnataka government is setting up a dedicated Aerospace Park near the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli on the city’s outskirts to attract global majors and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), an official said Thursday.

“Of the proposed 1,000-acre Aerospace Park, about 800 acres of land has been acquired by the state government to facilitate global aerospace majors and several SMEs set up manufacturing and ancillary units for domestic and export markets,” state’s Industrial Development Commissioner Raj Kumar Khatri told reporters here.

The state government will earmark about 250 acres in the park to create a special economic zone (SEZ) with incentives and facilities offered by the central government for 100 percent dedicated export units.

“Being the country’s aerospace hub, we are showcasing Bangalore as an ideal destination for investing in this sunrise sector. The presence of various state-run defence research and development organisations, scientific and educational institutions and defence behemoths such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) provides an ecosystem to promote the aerospace industry in a big way,” Khatri said.

As India’s tech hub with a huge talent pool, Bangalore already boasts of being home to global aerospace majors such as Boeing, Airbus, Snecma, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell and BAE Systems.

Coinciding with the eighth Aero India 2011 trade fair in the city from Feb 9-13, the state government has scheduled a series of meetings with global firms and business delegations to discuss investments in wholly-owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and expansion of their existing operations in the Indian sub-continent.

“Business delegations from Germany, France, Russia, the US and other countries will explore investment opportunities in the Aerospace Park in their meetings with the state chief minister (B.S. Yeddyurappa) and top officials during the upcoming air show,” Khatri said.

A 35-member American delegation, led by Indo-US Business Council president Ron Somers and representatives from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and Raytheon will call on the chief minister Feb 8 to discuss investment proposals.

Similarly, Rolls-Royce India president Anil Shrikhande and Honeywell Technology Lab’s Krishna Mikkilineni will call on the state’s Industry Minister Murgesh Nirani and officials Feb 9, followed by a delegation from North Carolina in the US, headed by its Commerce Department Secretary J. Keith Crisco Feb 10.

“We are looking forward to sign a few agreements with global and Indian firms for investments in the aerospace sector and setting up their operations in the upcoming park,” Khatri added.

Lockheed Martin India Ltd director Jagmohan Singh, UK-based Wolver Hampton city council head Joy Patel and a delegation from the French aerospace industries association (Gifas) will also be calling on the chief minister to discuss their interests in the Aerospace Park.

 

source: IANS / http://www.expressbuzz.com / Express News Services / Feb 03rd, 2011