Bringing home the Olympics is a matter of great pride. For a few weeks the sporting extravaganza brings the host country to the centre of the world stage. The last edition was watched by two thirds of the humanity. The favourable recognition for the hosts it brings is reflected in the boost to tourism the host city experiences for many years to come. Yet beyond this white-screen of unassailable pride the underlying economic reality of organising Olympics can be quite challenging. The organisation of the Olympics requires massive investments. The last edition of the Olympics saw China investing over $40 billion into its preparations for games. And much of that investment was the value the Chinese put to the pride the Olympics.This is what is leading host countries to employ innovative measures to improve on cost and some of these changes have the potential to reshape the economics of games. Sustainability is closely interwoven in these measures, as we see later.It is often argued that the Olympics provide economic stimulus to the host economy. In reality that is not true always. There are both upsides and the downsides. The upsides include tourism and productivity gains while the downsides include continuing public debts and maintenance costs post event. Whether the upsides outweigh the downsides is often difficult to quantify. The 1976 Montreal games was a notable example of unfavorable economics. The public debt accumulated due to Montreal Olympics in 1976 could only be paid off fully by 2005.While the massive investment during the run up to the games spruces up the economic activity, the downsides appear once the games are over. These are in form of continuing public debts, reduced investment activity and often more painfully as continuing maintenance costs of the sporting infrastructure. The sporting venues Greece built at the cost of over US$ 3.5 billion for the 2004 Olympics edition require $100 million as maintenance costs each year. Many of these sporting facilities have no use now. The Olympic stadia built in Sydney for the 2000 games require $30 million for maintenance -as the organization committee reports- or host 200 events a year to break even. They hardly reach half that target. These are examples of unbearable costs that the host countries are no longer ready to foot, spurring the host countries to look at ways in which these costs can be avoided or reduced. From the idea of building sprawling Olympic complexes with world class permanent structures in, the idea is shifting now towards building reusable/recyclable temporary structures. The cost of reusable structures is only 30-50per cent of the permanent structures. Building temporary structures will significantly reduce the cost burden of the organizers. Recyclable structures beyond slashing investments are also more environmentally sustainable due to their recycling potential. Post their use these structures are dismantled, their materials can be used for building new structures. This recycling of building material reduces the indirect carbon emissions related to the construction.The idea has been pioneered by the London 2012 Olympics Organizing Committee (OC), which the organisers claim would be the world's first truly green Olympics. Sustainability has been made a key component of the London Olympics and integrated into its core design and operational processes. The main Olympics stadium in London is a ground breaking sustainable design. The stadium for a capacity of 80000 people will be in part a temporary structure made up reusable materials. Post games, the structure will be dismantled and materials used elsewhere. There are other such temporary/reusable structures which are going to be widely used for London Olympics. Royal Horticultural Society has also expressed its desire to reuse the basketball arena. The basket ball stadium built is the largest temporary Olympic structures ever built.Some of these venues will not just be reusable but also be used for hosting multiple games. The basket ball arena will also host handball and wheelchair rugby. This is a further cost, resource saving and carbon emissions too.A number of other measures are being taken to reduce the cost and increase the sustainability of the construction process. Over 50 per cent of the material being used during construction will be moved using low carbon and low cost transport like trains and waterways. Even the tiles, bricks, granite etc collected from the demolished buildings is being reused in the construction. Bio-remediation measures are being used to clean and regenerate the soil being contaminated due to the construction and all timber being used is sourced from 100 per cent sustainable sources.London OC is also building energy and water efficient buildings. Given the innovative designs, many buildings are achieving a- 15 per cent reduction in energy, 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and 40per cent reduction in water consumption. These measures will lead to lower operating costs of these sporting facilities and will be help in reducing the maintenance costs of these buildings post games.Beyond that London Olympics OC has also constituted sustainability procurement policies for all suppliers. This takes the sustainability agenda beyond the operations of London Olympics, right into the operations of the numerous suppliers to the games.A mix of these temporary and cost efficient structures will lead to substantially lower economic burdens later on. This twin trend of sustainability and cost saving that has begun from London Olympics might just hold the key to holding more profitable Olympics events in future and in process change the economic equation of organising Olympics.Yash Saxena is a sustainability consultant with Emergent Ventures, a climate change mitigating consultancy. He also works on innovation evangelism with Techpedia
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Even the wildest dreams of Indiana Jones would fall short of this huge find. A treasure estimated to be worth over $24 billion was stored in secret underground chambers of the 10-century-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala. The unearthing of tonnes of gold and innumerable diamonds redefined the benchmark of wealth.The treasure is believed to be the offerings of the kings of erstwhile Travancore and devotees of Lord Padmanabhaswamy, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu enshrined as an 18-ft-long idol in a reclining posture on the mythical serpent Anantha. Two of the six cellars (A and B) are believed to have been locked up for around 130 years, since the reign of Sri Moolam Thirunal Sir Rama Varma (1885-1924). These chambers are made of thick granite slabs with two sets of thick wooden and metal doors, and secret locking systems.The trigger to open the doors of the treasure trove was a petition filed by a section of devotees in the Thiruvananthapuram sessions court in 2007, demanding transfer of the temple's administration to the Kerala government from a royal family-controlled trust. The lower court allowed the petition and it was also ratified by the Kerala High Court. But the royal family challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a former IPS officer, P. Sundar Rajan, joined the litigation, questioning the right of the former king's brother Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma to act as the temple's highest authority.The apex court appointed a seven-member panel to record the inventory of the contents of the temple cellars. Five chambers were opened; only the mysterious Chamber B was left untouched. Most of the eye-popping find was from Chamber A. The contents of the other chambers are more or less known to the public. On 8 July, the court deferred the opening of Chamber B on grounds of security.This is one of the largest treasure troves in the world. The market value of the treasure is enough to wipe away the Rs 88,800-odd-crore debt of Kerala, one of the most debt-ridden states, along with West Bengal and Punjab. It is also good enough to fund the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for the next 4-5 years!Whose Money Is It, Anyway?Kerala chief minister, Oommen Chandy, whose government allotted Rs 1 crore in the state budget tabled on 8 July for the temple's security, says, "The treasure belongs to the Lord Padmanabhaswamy temple, which has been one of the most valuable cultural edifices of Kerala."Chandy's stand has been vociferously hailed by devotees and a good section of the people of Kerala, who say the treasure belongs to God and it should be displayed in a museum.However, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer and many Left-wing organisations demand that a part of the treasure should be used for social development. They argue that most of the king's offerings are from the tax collected from people. However, Kerala's opposition leader, CPI(M) veteran V.S. Achuthanandan has a different take: "Such comments are emotional utterances of people who are bewildered by the news of such huge wealth. Let the apex court take a balanced decision on the matter." He notes that Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the last Maharaja of Travancore who died in 1991, did not claim any assets or properties related to the temple in his will. WHAT THE TREASURE TROVE CONTAINS 536 kg of gold coins: 16 kg each of East India Company sovereigns and Travancore gold coins, 106 kg of Travancore Raasi coins and 3 kg of Napolean-era gold coins. Three sets of crowns, including a centuries-old diamondand-emerald-studded golden crown, believed to be the crown of Kulasekhara Perumal. Parts of a huge sacred drum made of pure gold, in which the kings would bathe as part of Hiranya Garbham (coronation rituals). An 18-ft Sarappoli golden chain, with 12 layers weighing 10.5 kg, studded with rare rubies and emeralds. Over 1,000 Sarappoli chains and 2 kg of golden waist and wrist bands, and 100 kg of other gold chains and necklaces. A Mahavishnu idol studded with over 1,000 diamonds and valued at over Rs 500 crore. One tonne of paddy-shaped gold trinkets and numerous miniatures of golden elephants. Belgian diamonds and rare Indraneelams (blue sapphires), emeralds and diamond-studded plates. A golden broom weighing 5.5 kg, supposed to sweep flowers showered on the 18-ft gold-covered idol of Lord Padmanabha. Numerous golden coir ropes, one kg of golden human shapes and gold bars. A 55-kg golden face mask and a golden idol of Lord Krishna weighing over 5 kg. Day-to-day puja utensils in gold worth thousands of crores, including a huge golden hood, two golden lamps each weighing over 15 kg, a diamond-studded, golden thread and gold-plated coconut shells to serve food to the God. break-page-breakBut it is difficult to value the treasure as some of it dates back to even 10th century. "It will require in-depth study to know the antiquity of the finds. Expert preservation techniques are needed to maintain them," says C.V. Anandabose, director general and vice-chancellor of the National Museum and University in New Delhi.According to experts working with the Victoria Coins and Curios in Kochi, a 150-year-old, 8-gram rare Travancore gold coin is currently valued at more than Rs 1.5 lakh. The coins found so far at the temple weigh over 532 kg!Regarding the treasure's public display, Anandabose says: "In the case of (the Hyderabad) Nizam's jewellery, a special Act was enacted. It is kept in the custody of the Reserve Bank of India and only a part of it is displayed occasionally at the galleries in Hyderabad and National Museum."Roots Of Metals And StonesThe kingdom of Travancore dates back to the ancient Chera kings, who ruled Kerala with the title Kulasekhara Perumals for at least 10 centuries. With the motto of Dharmatha Kuladaivatham (Dharma is my family deity), the kings instituted high standards of governance. ROYAL HERITAGE: Puri's Jagannath temple (right) and the ancient Somnath temple The kings kept the state treasury separate from the temple treasury. Cash or gold taken from the temple treasury on rare occasions was returned promptly with proper documentation. Experts note that the royal family had kept secret documents on the inventory of most of the cellars, which were later codified as ‘Mathilakam Records' in the early 20th century by renowned Kerala poet Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer.The royal family also inherited considerable wealth from the last king Sree Chithirathirunal Bala Rama Varma. They also own many assets such as the export house Aspinwall Company in Kochi through various trusts.The kings had large earnings from trade of spices with Europeans, especially black pepper known as ‘black gold', and much of this wealth was dedicated to Lord Padmanabhaswamy. Another source of revenue was offerings from defeated kings and from visitors. For example, in the 18th century, the defeated Kayamkulam king had to pay a sum of Rs 1,000 and an elephant to the temple. Then, the Travancore kings were mandated to conduct at least one Thulapurushadanam or Thulabharam — a sacred offering of gold or precious items equal to one's weight — to Lord Padmanabhaswamy as part of coronation rituals.Others In LineLike the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, many other temples were run by royal families. These include the Puri Jagannath temple in Orissa, the Somnath temple at Veraval, Madurai Meenakshi, Kashi Viswanatha, Ujjain, Ekalingadi in Rajasthan, Kamakhya in Assam and the Bhimakali in Himachal Pradesh.Historically, many of these ancient temples stashed huge quantities of wealth and were a prime target for invaders. The ancient Somnath temple was plundered several times by emperors such as the Mahmud of Ghazni, Alauddin Khilji and Aurangzeb. At present, the ancient Tirupathi Venkatachalapathi temple at Thirumala in Andhra Pradesh is estimated to have assets worth over Rs 52,000 crore including a reserve of over five tonnes of gold and Rs 560 crore in fixed deposits. The annual revenue of the temple is estimated to be Rs 650 crore. Unofficial reports say the Shirdi Saibaba Temple at Shirdi in Maharashtra, run by the Shirdi Sai Trust, is estimated to receive Rs 350 crore worth donations every year; and the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple in Mumbai gets donations worth more than Rs 50 crore every year. Puttaparthi Satya Sai Baba's religious empire is unofficially valued at $9 billion (Rs 40,000 crore). The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala reported revenue of Rs 131 crore in 2010-11.The focal point now, though, is Chamber B.nevin(dot)john(at)abp(dot)in; pb(dot)jayakumar(at)abp(dot)in(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-07-2011)
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In 2007, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both IIT grads and in their late twenties, started Flipkart with a seed capital of Rs 4 lakh. Having worked with Amazon previously, both have followed the Amazon and eBay model of selling books online. Flipkart which has revenues of Rs 25 crore now, plans to take the business beyond selling just books. BW's Suneera Tandon met Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal to ask where will Flipkart go from here. Excerpts.What is the potential of your business model ie of retailing books online?Online book retailing is a volume-based business. Since the profit margin is as low as 10 per cent, volumes matter more. In the digital space only 1 per cent of the entire book retail business worth Rs 10,000 crore is carried out, we identify potential of Web as huge. Set-up costs are not very high, but services and logistics take about 10-15 per cent of the revenues. We broke even within 6 months of having started the business and are earning a gross profit of 10-15 per cent, thereafter.While 2008 revenues for the company were Rs 2.5 crore, 2009 saw a quantum leap to Rs 20-25 crore.In November 2009, we raised venture capital funding from Accel Partners. Rs 20 crore of this amount will be allocated towards strengthening back-end and technological operations. Advertising accounts for 5 per cent of the portals' revenue.What are the challenges you faced as a start-up in the e-commerce business?Getting people to trust the online payment mode was quite a challenge initially. Also building trust in suppliers as a start-up took us some time. Once the popularity of the portal grew, transactions increased.What is the customer base and title capacity of Flipkart?We started with 50,000 titles in our catalogue and have expanded to half a million as of now. So far 250,000 customers have purchased books from Flipkart. Our business is only restricted to the Indian territory right now.With other bigger players such as Infibeam, Rediffbooks, Indiatimes, how do you keep afloat in the market and battle competition vis-vis pricing of books?We offer free-shipping on all purchases. Although our pricing is at a premium, we are working on more volumes. The higher the sales, the lower the prices. Timely delivery is our key focus and keeps us ahead of competitors. Prices of books range between Rs 95 and Rs 20,000.How does your back end work — from putting books online to delivering? What are the logistics involved?We have about 100 people working in the back end, which comprises ordering, stocking operations, packaging, shipping, vendor management, etc. We work with 300 book distributors in 5 cities from whom we procure books as well as 4 International publishers. There is a 50:50 ratio between the books stocked by our office and those procured from vendors directly. We function from 3 offices presently in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Apart from which we have a strong technical team that looks at catalogue management, stock checks, web-updates, etc.Are you looking at expanding the product base offered by your portal?As of now, we are only focusing on retailing books, we still feel there is a lot of potential in expanding the business of books on the Web. We are looking at expanding to more local publishers, regional books as well as more international publication houses. However, in the next two years we plan to add music CDs, low-cost mobile phones, movie DVDs etc., to our portal.What category of books generate the maximum sales for the portal?Fiction and non-fiction account for 50 per cent of the total sales. Apart from which medical, technical, management books too result in high sales.What kind of marketing and advertising initiatives are carried out by Flipkart?As of now, the marketing budget is minimal; we are only focused on digital marketing. Use of social forums and blogs works well for us. We also offer pre previews of books, signed copies to our customers. Soon our website, which is presently very simple, will be revamped to a more interactive one, allowing for discussion forums, book reviews, polls, etc.How do you plan to allocate the funds for future expansion?Opening more warehouses is on the agenda, along with expanding the existing Bangalore office. We also plan to expand our supplier base from 300 to 1,000 and increase our total title strength to 4 million. We expect to touch Rs 100 crore in revenues by 2011.suneera dot tandon at abp dot in
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Druva Software, a Pune-based start-up that makes proprietary backup software solutions for laptops, has raised $5 million in Series A funding (funding that follows seed funding) from Sequoia Capital India and Indian Angel Network (IAN). The stake picked up by the venture capital investors was not disclosed. The money will be used to expand the three-year old company's marketing and sales footprint overseas, including in Europe and the US. So far, it has relied largely on Web-based channels to sell its products in those markets. "We will now have offices in the UK, mainland Europe, Singapore and the US," says Jaspreet Singh, co-founder and CEO of Druva. Singh teamed up with Ramani Kothandaraman, chairman and managing director, and Milind Borate, chief technology officer, in 2007 to set up the company. "We noticed that across companies, 80 per cent of data is duplicated," he says. Druva, therefore, developed a software that would allow companies to cut out this duplication and enable laptops to work faster as well as increase storage capacity. It claims 400 corporate customers across 23 countries. Globally, the laptop backup software market is estimated at $350 million annually, according to Singh. Druva had earlier raised seed funding from the Delhi-based Indian Angel Network and Hong Kong-based Accord International. With the latest round of funding, the total raised by the company so far stands at $5.2 million, says Singh. "India is traditionally an IT services country. When we saw that Druva was developing a continuous data protection product, which is the next level of back-up technology, we decided to fund them," says Rehan Yar Khan, who represents IAN on the Druva board. Sequoia could not be reached for comments. The idea for Druva was born when the founders were colleagues at the former Veritas Software (merged with Symantec in 2005) operations in Pune. There have been some hiccups along the way. Druva Replicator, the company's first product, which provides real-time server replication software, did not find any takers. But Druva inSync, which is the laptop backup product, clicked. "We found that clients were willing to experiment with a new brand for their laptops but did not want to take similar risks with their servers," says IAN's Khan. Some of the company's earliest clients include NASA and the US Marine Corps. Druva Phoenix, Khan says, is now beginning to gain traction in the market. smita dot sengupta at abp dot in
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Matrix Partners India, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm that manages a corpus of Rs 1,500 crore, has invested Rs 100 crore in Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance (BSFL), the flagship of Hyderabad-based microfinance group BASIX. Existing investors Hivos Triodos Fonds and Lok Capital have also invested Rs 18 crore in this round. Matrix India co-founder and managing director Avnish Bajaj joins the BSFL board. He spoke to BW's Snigdha Sengupta about the deal. Excerpts:Any particular reason for the investment in microfinance now? Why BSFL?The timing is incidental. I have been looking at the sector since 2006 in my personal capacity, shortly after the eBay transition (Bajaj co-founded auction site Baazee which was acquired by eBay). I have also always been positive on the sector, though I do believe that the micro-finance must go beyond just micro-credit. The other fundamental tenet is that this business model works if the end borrower is using it for income generation in such a way that he is making more money than he is paying in interest. In the quest for scale, not everybody in the microfinance business has been as disciplined in doing that as they should. What we liked about BSFL, whom we have known for about two years, is that from day one, the founder, Vijay Mahajan's focus has been on livelihood promotion.That also implies that growth will be slower. How does that sit with your investment objectives?It makes growth slower and we are okay with that. We prefer a sustainable, slower growth. Most importantly, BSFL lends to people after really closely checking the businesses of the borrowers. They are the most focused on income-generating loans and the most wary of expense loans, which are not sustainable.How do you view the founder and the management team in BSFL?The founder is always important but in a business like this, management is equally critical in order to scale the business. The founder, in this case, brought in a CEO, Sajeev Vishwanathan, about 6-8 months ago and he himself has moved into the chairman's role. Vishwanathan has been with Citi for 18 years. The company also has a strong and deep management team in place.What is the company's shareholding pattern? Is an initial public offering (IPO) on the cards?In BSFL, the employees and promoters are the largest shareholders, with 33 per cent. We own 18.3 per cent and are the second largest shareholder. IFC, with 11 per cent is the third largest shareholder. The clear objective is that as the company works its way towards an IPO, which is not on the table at present, the promoters should be the largest shareholders and they should clearly hold in excess of 20 per cent post the IPO.What is your investment horizon for this deal?We have a 4-5 year investment horizon on this company, which is similar to any other company that we have invested in.snigdha dot sengupta at abp dot in
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Tax defaulters beware!With tax recovery to the tune of more than Rs one lakh crore held up for lack of information about the whereabouts of defaulters, the Income Tax(I-T) department is working on plans to publish their names in newspapers.The problem has been further compounded with several of the tax defaulters having created 'benami' assets to escape the dragnet.The I-T department is embarking on this 'out of box solution' of bringing the names of tax defaulters in public domain in a bid to expose them.The department, according to the official proposal, will publish in newspapers the names of those defaulting assessees who are either not traceable or whose assets are not identifiable.Informants, in such cases, will also be given incentives which may include cash rewards, the proposal said.The assests, according to I-T sources, are not identifiable as either they are being created and invested under 'benami' heads or are not ascribed directly to the defaulting taxpayer, and are on the name of their extended family members or friends.According to the latest data of the I-T department, out of a total outstanding arrear demand of Rs 2,29,032 crore (till March 2010), an amount of Rs 9,476 crore is unrealised or held up as the assessee is "not traceable" while Rs 92,360 crore is stuck as there are "no assets".The proposal, termed 'Out of Box solution for discovery of assets', was recently discussed by the top brass of the department during the recently held I-T Chief Commissioners and Directors General conference held here.The annual conference, inaugurated by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was attended by the top brass of the investigation, intelligence, recovery and other enforcement wings of the I-T department.Important deliberations, including this issue, discussed during the conference are subsequently taken forward and implemented as policy issues by the I-T department."The proposal will be implemented after weighing all the pros and cons about the scheme and studying the prevalent practises in other tax systems about such issues across the world," a senior I-T officer said.The department is also planning to give wide publicity to its scheme of tapping and encouraging "informants" to unearth tax evasion and gain tip-off on the whereabouts of absconders who have evaded huge taxes.(PTI)
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I often liken Google to the Greek mythological hero Achilles. A smashingly good track record in pretty much every battle it's fought – search, email, Android, advertising, office collaboration software. But… there's the ‘heel' – social. Time after time, buzz after wave, Google's made several well intentioned but misdirected missteps in this space. Will Google+, Google's latest attempt at making their network more social, end their losing streak? I take a deep dive into Plus to find out. (Note: At the time of writing, the service is restricted and you'll need somebody to invite you to get onto the service at plus.google.com. If you need an invite, try broadcasting this on ‘other' social networks – it works!) The Home Screen: Once you get past the minor formalities of creating a profile, Plus presents you with a Home screen which is largely dominated by what Google calls the Stream. It's similar to a Facebook-style newsfeed – some would say it is too similar to Facebook. In many ways, while the interface does take some getting used to, it is less of a departure from the known landscape of social media than say Google Wave was from email. Overall, the design is clean and simple, with the navigation for the stream on the left and content front and center. I particularly like the Notifications view – you click on a notification on the top right of the screen, and instead of being taken to a new page like Facebook (disrupting what you're doing), the post loads within a small area of the screen and lets your act upon it there and then. Circles: Circles is way you organise your contacts, and one of the immediate appeals for me was how easy it was to set up "circles" that match the natural patterns of real life. Say, one circle for immediate family, one for work chaps, one for "friends you actually know", another for "mere acquaintances who you can't shake off". Or by interest, drinking buddies, golfing group, Sunday morning walker's club… the possibilities are endless. And, just like in life, one person can be in more than one "circle". What is critical is that each time you share something in the stream – you can choose exactly who you want to share your content with. Choose certain people, certain circles, or make the post public – the choice is up to you, and the post reaches only those folks, no one else. Ah, privacy! This is technically possible via Facebook "lists" but is much more of a chore. I'd have to warn you – the cutesy manner in which you drag and drop contacts into circles is high on novelty but that wears off soon, and since Circles (and Plus on the whole) depends on Google Contacts from Gmail, you can very easily have years of poorly maintained contacts pulled into the service. Sparks And Huddle: Google does pull in the whole set of Google services – Photos (Picasa), Chat into the Plus experience, and you can even use Sparks, essentially a refined version of Google search that enables you to access things of interest on a particular topic. Use the Google+ app on an Android phone, and you get access to a couple of more features, such as Huddle (instant messaging between mobiles, much like BBM and WhatsApp) and Instant Upload (instantly upload web-optimised photos to Google+ into a private Picasa album, ready to share). Hangout: Possibly one of Plus' most unique features is Hangout, which allows group video chat with up to 10 participants, but only via Google+ on the desktop (not mobile…yet). All you do is start a hangout on your Plus account, which indicates you're free to video chat with anyone who cares to drop in. Or you could join a hangout in progress in your network. No awkward preamble of SMSing or email to figure out whether or not someone is free to Skype or use FaceTime. And it blows Facebook's 1-to-1 video chat, just announced this week, out of the water in both video quality and the sheer ability to video chat with more than 1 person at a time. In addition, Google+ has integrated a feature that allows a group of friends to watch content from youtube.com together – awesome to spice up any conversation! I will just go ahead and say it. Hangouts is the killer feature of Google+, and will appeal not only to small groups of friends but also small business who cannot afford professional video-conferencing solutions and depend Google+ Quick Tips: There is a lot about Google+ that will appeal to the inner geek in you, which I'd add isn't necessarily a good thing. There's still no clean way to achieve basic stuff – for example, you can make any text (a part of whole of your post) bold by adding a "*" before and after it, and italics are achieved by placing a "_" before and after the text. If you find many of your contacts sharing the same post over and over again – the network is small and some posts go viral really quick – you can actually mute a particular post, if you don't want to be bothered with the constant notifications. Simply left click on the post, hit Mute this post! And the last tip, quite often a life saver, is that you can not only decide who gets to see your post (via Circles) but you can even disable sharing of your post by using the Disable comment and Disable reshare options for each post. No longer do your family vacation pics get unintentionally shared out to other networks without your express permission! Verdict: Google+ is in no way a reinvention of the social wheel, then again maybe it isn't even needed to be. While I like the Circles and Hangout feature, the service is very clearly not ready for the primetime, and will need to take several big strides, (including launching for their enterprise Google apps customers and making the mobile app available on more platforms) in both features and maturity before it can truly challenge Facebook on its home turf. A Digital Run When you're running for fitness, less is more. Not running less, but what you have on your person! VEA's new Sportive mobile watch packs in basic phone functionality, a camera, and an MP3 player, apart from performing regular watch functions. Everything is controlled via the 1.5-inch touchscreen, and you get Bluetooth connectivity and 8GB of storage as standard. Plus, an SOS button that sends out your location and other vital information, should anything unfortunate happen to you on your run. URL: http://bit.ly/qTnFhFPrice: $578 Shoot And Save I've been a big fan of Eye-Fi SD cards for their ability to upload photos to your computer and online over a Wi-Fi network. The new Eye-Fi Mobile X2 adds in a new trick - it skips the network entirely, creating a direct link between the camera and your iOS or Android device. So, for instance, you could snap a photo on your camera when you're out on a trip, shoot it over to your iPad, edit it and post it online within minutes of shooting. Nifty! URL: http://bit.ly/n1RhevPrice: $80 (8GB) technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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India's top state-run refiner, Indian Oil Corp, wants the government to free up diesel prices ahead of a $2-billion-plus share sale, so as to raise the maximum funds from the offer, the firm's chief said on Monday.The sale of a 10 per cent stake by the government, along with the firm's plan to sell an additional 10 percent of fresh shares, should come in January or February, B.M. Bansal told Reuters. The government now holds 78.92 per cent in IOC, which is India's biggest fuel retailer, with a market value of $22.5 billion.In June, India gave autonomy to oil firms to set petrol prices and raised prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas. It also decided to free up diesel prices, but gave no time frame to implement the decision."We hope the government will deregulate diesel prices before the FPO (follow-on public offer)," Bansal told Reuters. "It will help a better valuation."India's oil ministry has approved the sale of a 5 per cent stake in Oil and Natural Gas Co. (ONGC) and 10 per cent in IOC. It has also allowed IOC to raise funds through sale of an additional 10 per cent of the expanded share capital.(Reuters)
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The Centre on Friday approached the Supreme Court seeking review and recall of its order for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising its retired judges to take over the probe of all black money cases including that of Pune stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan.The government has sought a review as well as complete recall of the order in which it has also been pulled up for the "laggardly pace" in investigations into the issue of black money stashed abroad.Sources said the decision to avail the remedy of recalling the order was taken as it would give the Centre a chance to advance its arguments in an open court. The review petitions are considered in chamber without the presence of even the counsel.They said a separate application for recalling the July 4 order has been filed in which the Centre has contended that a bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy (since retired) and S S Nijjar had passed the directions without "completely" hearing its stand.The Centre has submitted that the arguments of then Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium has not been considered completely by the Bench which ignored the steps taken for probing and monitoring the investigation into the issue of black money. Sources said the decision to move the apex court against the order was taken after a closed-door meeting in which top officials of Finance and Home Ministries discussed the content of the order along with top law officers including Attorney General G E Vahanvati and other Additional Solicitor Generals.The government in its application raised objections to the apex court's criticism in the first 20 paragraphs of the judgement passed on July 4 while appointing former judges - Justices B P Jeevan Reddy and M B Shah - as chairman and vice-chairman of SIT.It said the first 20 paragraphs have been written by the bench without any arguments being advanced by Gopal Subramaniam, who has since resigned.The bench had in its order said monies generated and stashed away reveal the degree of "softness of the State".Listing worries arising out of the unaccounted monies stashed in foreign banks, the bench had said "the quantum of such monies may be rough indicators of the weakness of the State, in terms of both crime prevention, and also of tax collection".The apex court had observed that the unaccounted money going abroad is a reflection of the compromise of the government's ability to manage the affairs of the state according to constitutional perspective. "Unaccounted monies, especially large sums held by nationals and entities with a legal presence in the nation, in banks abroad, especially in tax havens or in jurisdictions with a known history of silence about sources of monies, clearly indicate a compromise of the ability of the State to manage its affairs in consonance with what is required from a constitutional perspective," the court had said.It had said the failure of the government to control the phenomenon of black money stashed in foreign banks is an indication of weakness and softness of the state in managing its affairs."Large quanta of monies stashed abroad, would also indicate a substantial weakness in the capacity of the State in collection of taxes on incomes generated by individuals and other legal entities within the country," the court had said.It had said "a substantial degree of incapacity, in the above respect, would be an indicia of the degree of failure of the State".(PTI)
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Expectations are building up with the countdown to TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010 drawing near as Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and the founder of Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy will kick start this year's summit to be held in New Delhi from 21-23 December 2010. This congregation organised annually by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) will witness the coming together of over 100 most celebrated leaders, l entrepreneurs and thinkers from India this year. With an aim to generate ideas for doubling the number of private ventures in the country's thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, TiE's focus is on showcasing India's exemplary and diverse entrepreneurs.The annual symposium, now in its fifth year, will offer attendees an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurial opportunities in booming industries like education and training, clean technology, internet, retail, telecom and social sectors among others. The theme this year is Enterprising India and the ideas is to "initiate a series of engagements with Indian youth to open their minds to the vast entrepreneurial opportunities," says Pradeep Gupta, President, TiE Delhi- NCR. In fact, along these lines, TiE Delhi-NCR has launched initiatives such as the ‘Idea2Enterprise'; a student business plan competition to identify their innovative ideas. The goal is to turn young graduates into entrepreneurs and job creators.Saurabh Srivastava, TiE Chairman Emeritus, believes that the "dialogue between Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Infosys' founder NR Narayana Murthy on day one will set the tone of deliberations over the next three days." Of particular interest is the Gurukul session which intends to reassure budding entrepreneurs about the risks, rewards and viability of their business ventures. The TiE summit held last year in Mumbai and in Bangalore in 2008 had been very successful.Founded in 1992 by a group of executives and professions in the Silicon Valley, TiE is now a global organisation dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship across 14 countries with a huge presence in Asia. There are currently over 15,000 members and more than 2,500 charter members which include venture capitalists, angel investors, private equity and law firms, technology and management professionals, SME's, aspiring entrepreneurs as well as students.
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