BenQ introduced LX60ST/ LW61ST short-throw education projectors that are the first in the world to incorporate mercury-free Bluecore light engine that enhance its energy efficiency, projection performance and instant readiness, saving money and helping the environment at the same time. These projectors possess Apple iPhone/iPad wireless display support for connectivity with current generation products. The cutting-edge BlueCore light engine utilizes the unparalleled qualities of a unique laser light source rather than a traditional mercury lamp to achieve up to 90% less light source power consumption. It will be available for the Indian market from June priced at Rs. 145,000 & 150,000 respectively. Some of the basic features: Apple iPhone/iPad wireless display support, LAN Display, USB Display and 360° tilted projection. 2000 ANSI lumen brightness XGA/WXGA resolution. 0.6/0.49 short-throw projection. Two 10W built-in speakers. <0.5W standby power. An average of 20000 hours of reliable brightness in Eco Mode 80000:1 ultra-high contrast ratio for outstanding images and crisp clear content Instant on/off capability to save time on projector warm up or cool down Manual brightness level adjustment to suit different surroundingsIts Smart eco mode automatically determines the optimal brightness level by the input source to generate the best image contrast, No source detected mode automatically lowers the projector brightness to 10% when no display source has been detected for over three minutes as well as Eco blank mode enables teachers to blank the projector screen when the projector is not in use to redirect students' focus back on them while lowering the light source power consumption to only 10%."BenQ India is leader in the Short Throw projector category with 30.99% market share, by adding Blue Core engine projector we are one provide the best to education industry" says Rajeev Singh, Country Head & General Manager of BenQ India BenQ, an internationally renowned provider of digital lifestyle innovations, is one of the leaders in Indian Projector market with share of more than 17 % in India. BenQ in India has strong focus on education segment with commanding 25.41% market share, in addition to a leading rank in SVGA, HD, DLP and 3D segment, BenQ has been pioneer in technological innovations in all spheres.
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How should shortage be handled? By increasing supply. How should imports be reduced? By encouraging domestic production.These answers are obvious but become critical, if the product in question is petroleum. But despite a crippling dependence on imports, a ballooning import bill and rising retail prices, government policies are actively discouraging domestic production of oil and gas.Rising petroleum prices bring economic and political crises. The import bill for petroleum for India was over $140 billion in 2011-2012. The previous year it was $100 billion. This 40 per cent increase was a result of an increase of $27 per barrel. By 2035, the import bill could be $300 billion. Retail prices reflect the sharp jump. Petrol costs over Rs 70 per litre in most states. It is not too difficult to predict a price of Rs 200 per litre.So what is the government’s approach to reduce dependence on imports and volatile global pricing? Discouragement of domestic production of oil and gas.Strange though it may sound, the government has does not believe that exploration and production of oil and gas is critical enough to be described as infrastructure industry. It is not about the nomenclature. It is about making it easier for companies to invest in production of domestic oil and gas. According infrastructure status to oil & gas production would allow funds to flow to this sector with relaxed terms. Raising resources for reducing import dependence would be far easier.Current lending norms set by the Reserve Bank of India say that if a project does not start commercial operations within 6 months of financial closure, the loans will be treated as non-performing asset. This would then force the lender to review the loan or hike the interest rates. Now the time between exploration and commercial production is almost always more than 6 months. So the companies involved in this have to either take high cost loans or struggle to manage with internal accruals, if at all.But lending to infrastructure sectors allows banks to give two years to the borrower to launch commercial operations. For domestic oil companies, this is critical. They get more time and cheaper funds. Cheaper funds also imply a lower cost of production.Strangely, the government has given infrastructure status to oil pipelines and storage sector. The policy is encouraging the transfer and storage of oil, but not its production. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved the list of industries to be granted infra status based on recommendations by the Finance Ministry, a few weeks ago. The matrix used by the Ministry included several conditions that any sector should meet to be defined as infrastructure.These conditions included issues of monopoly, high-sunk costs and non-tradability of output. But despite the comprehensive exercise, production of oil and gas was excluded from the final list of sectors defined as infrastructure.Experts in the oil and gas sector say that petroleum production meets all the conditions, but somehow pedantic considerations appear to have trounced practical realities.Even the environment ministry is confused about the impact of on-shore oil and gas production. The environment ministry has not been able to differentiate between mining and petroleum exploration. While mining affects large tracts, petroleum production does not. Production involves deep drilling within a small area. As a result of this attitude, getting green clearances for on-shore exploration and production is much tougher than for off-shore. About a third of the reserves are on-shore and the government can’t afford to ignore its potential.Domestic petroleum cost is a quarter of that of imported petroleum. There can’t be a bigger argument for encouraging domestic oil and gas industry.(Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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A recent survey of the cities most hated by travelers includes New Delhi. The survey was actually indulgent about the cities it included. It spoke warmly of New Delhi, but also said that it was among the worst for a tourist to navigate through. The best thing about the survey was that Delhi was actually included in it. The worst thing for a city is if travelers don't even include it in their list. Other metros in India like Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad are just about tolerated by visitors who have no choice but to accept the chaos and filth. Cities remain engines of growth and magnets for migrants. So the success of the city brings in so many more people that most of its facilities are overwhelmed by users. The solution was identified years ago, but as always in India, the implementation remains caught in slow moving policy, petty interests and tardy implementation. There is no lack of advice and information to governments. If all the reports and recommendations made to the government were stacked, they would form an impressive skyscraper. The fact is that reform in city planning and urbanization continues to move slowly. Existing cities are choking and new cities are not being planned. There are about 6 laws and amendments that are pending approval from the Parliament. They are in various stages of discussion and consultation. These range from road laws to rent laws. City planning is a complex subject since it includes management of sanitation, energy, water, transport, habitation, tourism and commerce. So the central ministries handling this subject have to manage not just the views of their own departments, but also of such departments in each state. Managing the views takes up so much time and effort that the officials have little energy left for actual implementation. A good example concerns the regulation of the real estate sector. Most industries don't want control or monitoring. But the real estate industry has been demanding a regulator for years. For once, the government has been supporting the industry. The centre has the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2011 that will set up an independent regulator for the sector that is critical for the industry. But this bill continues to be debated for the last few months between the centre and states. The real estate sector is an important benchmark for the economy, but all attempts to bring some order have seen limited success.The flagship scheme of the Ministry of Urban Development to inject some sense and sensibility in city management is the $20-billion Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). This scheme has met with limited success. A key aspect of the plan was to offer central funds for implementation of targeted projects based on certain local reforms being implemented. These include ensuring user pay systems, cost recovery models and community participation. But the state's inability to raise its own funds and execute projects in time has undermined the impact of the mission. Most states have been able to execute only a small part of the projects that were cleared to be executed. Even Delhi which leads the way in urban renewal could not deploy all the funds it had. Delhi used just over 10 per cent of the Rs 7,200 crore sanctioned for 28 projects. Only four projects were completed at a cost of Rs 630 crore. States likes Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka have used barely 5 to 15 per cent of the funds allocated to them last year. The only positive development is that the state government's antipathy to investing in cities has reduced. Until recently, political leaders felt that investing in cities would attract charges of being anti-poor. Thankfully, that mindset has changed. Now the state governments have to focus on speedy implementation, since funds are no longer a constraint. Soon, then cities like New Delhi and Mumbai would be among the most loved not just by travelers but by residents too. (Pranjal Sharma is a senior business writer. He can be contacted at pranjalx@gmail.com)
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The life of a modern day leader is not easy as each action carries the potential to propel or impede the organisation substantially. The sheer complexity of businesses, information overload, unlimited potential and possibilities of overnight obsolescence add to the risks a leader is forced to take every day. A CEO friend who heads the Indian arm of a multi-billion dollar financial information multinational, analysed business unpredictability. He said he wouldn't be surprised if a company like Google decided one morning to offer the data-service his company had been providing, completely free, making his century old business obsolete overnight.Why is today so different from any of the earlier times? If one looks at it closely, the answer lies in one word — communication. And since this communication is so different from the way the world knew it, it would be appropriate to prefix it with modern. The divide between the old-world and new-world has become particularly prominent. Most teens of this generation will find it difficult to imagine a world without the internet, mobile or mobile network. We're all connected by voice, video, data, and we can hear, see and know almost anything; stuff that is moving through a maze of unseen ‘pipes'. There are some inventions which bring about permanent change and everything else changes as a consequence. One such is the Internet. It energises information with its easy and universal access, and is totally agnostic to age, gender, geography or wealth. It has given everyone the opportunity to be a part of a world-changing idea. The sheer volume of ‘thoughts' exchanged, and the potential of each thought to jostle with millions of others is mind-boggling. This makes information access the first pillar of modern communication.Though the concept of equality is considered one of the highest forms of social evolution (democracy), it is information equality that takes evolution a step beyond. Equality is a concept of providing security to people, and by its very definition segregates society into groups of ‘givers' and ‘takers': government to its citizenry, one economic class to another, or knowledge-givers to knowledge-seekers. Information equality, on the other hand, is liberating. There are no givers and yet everyone provides; there are no takers, yet everyone receives. Today, not only do we have access to any public information across the globe, but we also have access to information which traditionally was not even considered information — like the thoughts and feelings of millions we do not even know. Our learning and systems of organising information has changed completely, and we build our own towers of knowledge by borrowing readily from the already created knowledge of others. And this happens quite instantly, making use of information the primary objective, relegating assimilation to a secondary role. Information equality is therefore, the second pillar of modern communication. Knowledge acquisition, creation and sharing, has taken on the force of exponential growth and Information equality has given rise to greater public scrutiny. Governments, corporations, individuals with power, money, knowledge and status — everyone has come under everyone else's lens. Everyone is an auditor, and there are millions of motivated, self-driven, concerned individuals who have taken up the collective responsibility of monitoring the 'world'. Our societies have changed forever. Information Sharing is the third pillar of modern communication.We are at the cusp of an evolutionary upheaval that is changing the way we create, share and access information, as also in how we store, process and assimilate it. As a result, our learning abilities have changed and so has our neurological capability to absorb newer ideas faster. For a moment, imagine the excitement when the printing press was invented. Multiply that by 300 exabytes (approximately the total data storage capacity in the world, with 1 exabyte equal to 1 billion gigabytes) and we have the excited potency of the new-age technology. The age of hundreds of millions of customers is here. Businesses only a few years' old are giving century-old organisations a run for their money and small start-ups are now looking dangerous to large well-established corporations. As a corollary, the icons of technology are the unexpected heroes of our times, and names like Mark Zukerberg, Reid Hoffman and Jack Dorsey are the new conversation starters. These times are filled with greater flux than any time before it, and at the core of all this change is rapid communication and instant information. Everyone is in a position to utilise their potential to the maximum, the power of which even they cannot fully comprehend. This is indeed the new world, and one that is available to all.N. Chandramouli is the CEO of the Comniscient Group which has interests in several communication businesses. He is the author of the soon to be published book, Decoding Communication
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The June edition of the Symantec Intelligence report reveals that India is not only positioned higher than the global average as a target for spammers but is also the top source of spam globally (15 per cent of the total spam). India is followed by Vietnam, Brazil, Pakistan and Canada.The report also observed that globally the defence industry has been the biggest target of cyber attacks in the first half of the year, with an average of 7.3 attacks per day. According to CERT-In, which handles computer security incidents, it has been observed that some hacker groups are launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDS) attacks on websites of government and private organisations in India. The attacks are being launched through popular DDoS tools and can consume bandwidth requiring appropriate proactive actions in coordination with service providers. In fact, intellectual property intensive industries such as chemical/pharmaceutical and manufacturing are the top industries that experienced targeted attacks. Cybercriminals target intellectual property such as design documents, formulas, and manufacturing processes as much money can be made from compromised corporate intellectual property (IP). The attackers first research desired targets and then send emails specifically to the target. The purpose of the attacks appears to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage.It is important to remember that although on the increase, targeted attacks are still very rare. Targeted attacks use customised malware and refined targeted social engineering to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information. The next evolution of social engineering, in targeted attacks, victims are researched in advance and specifically targeted.Targeted AttacksThe Nitro attack is focused on the chemical sector with the goal of obtaining sensitive documents such as proprietary designs, formulas, and manufacturing processes.Stuxnet, which is a computer worm designed to target industrial control systems used to monitor and run large-scale industrial facilities. Its final goal was to manipulate the physical equipment attached to specific industrial control systems so the equipment acted in a manner programmed by the attacker, contrary to its intended purpose. Such an outcome could have several underlying goals. India was home to the third highest Stuxnet infections.In June 2012, the following pattern of attack was seen:Spam: 66.8 per cent (a decrease of 1.0 percentage points since May)Phishing: One in 467.6 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May)Malware: One in 316.5 emails contained malware (an increase of 0.04 percentage points since May):Malicious Websites: 2,106 websites blocked per day (an decrease of 51.7 per cent since May)The Symantec Intelligence June 2012 report includes data from January through June 2012.
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The Government of India has been grappling with the issue of tracking unreported income, rightfully belonging to India, but held overseas. The last two years have witnessed a spate of information exchange agreements being signed off by India with various sovereign states. Finance Act 2012 mandated return filing for residents having assets or signing authority in any account outside India, who, otherwise may not be required to file an India tax return. Towards this direction, for detecting unreported income, Indian tax authorities have modified the tax return forms to capture information on assets and financial interests held overseas. Consequently, resident individuals would have to provide details of overseas bank account together with the peak balance during the year, details of bank accounts wherein they are signatories in their official capacity, immovable property/other assets held outside India with investment cost, financial interest in an overseas entity,etc.Asset reporting requirement is applicable only for ordinarily resident tax payers and the details are to be disclosed only by way of an electronic tax return. Further, It may be interesting to note that the Finance Act 2012 has also enhanced the time limit available to the tax authorities for reopening a tax case, from 6 years to 16 years in case if there are any income on overseas assets that had escaped Indian taxation. The disclosure requirements will provide firsthand information to Government of India on details of overseas asset held by Indian residents.India is not the only country to seek these details from its resident tax payers. With US in the lead, similar regulations are in vogue in Japan, Italy, Ireland, Korea, Canada, Brazil, Israel and Kazakhstan. However, many of these countries have well-defined rules clarifying the assets that are to be disclosed, and applicability.Further, the regulations therein also prescribe minimum threshold exemption limits for disclosure.For example – in the USA, specified individuals must report interests in specified foreign financial assets that have an aggregate value in excess of $50,000. In the case of Italy, the requirement for reporting will arise only when the aggregate value exceeds €10,000.For a law abiding resident, this new reporting requirement in India, will only remind his/her responsibility to include income (if any) earned from these overseas assets. In case of expatriates working in India, this reporting of tax filing and information disclosure to the Indian tax authorities would apply even to their resident spouses and resident family members.Given this, may be its time for India to consider joint filing of tax returns, which will minimize the compliance costs and time.(Sudhakar Sethuraman is Senior Manager, Deloitte Haskins & Sells)
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Though short-term noise in the market doesn't disturb Sudhakar Shanbhag, chief investment officer at Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance, he is fully aware that it is testing times for the market where it's difficult to see anything beyond 3 months. Talking to Businessworld, he says in the next 3-6 months, Indian market will remain volatile with Sensex moving in a range following the tug of war between global risk on and risk off and domestic policy. In such a scenario, global trend will dictate the trend in the market (Sensex) which is close to its bottom purely in terms of valuation. More than timing, he feels the focus should be on the time and therefore is confident it's a good time to increase equity allocation. He feels that more than liquidity rally, the Indian market needs a structural rally which will come only when interest rates fall and therefore he is disappointed with the recent RBI policy that kept key rates unchanged. Excerpts from the conversationWas the RBI credit policy a disappointment? And why?As a market participant it was a disappointment since focusing on growth is important at this stage. Post the Q4 FY12 GDP and April IIP data release of 5.30 per cent and 0.10 per cent, respectively, as also the fact that core inflation numbers were less than 5 per cent for the past few months; the market had built in expectations of a repo rate and/or a CRR cut, hoping that RBI would change its focus on growth from inflation. In fact, over the last couple of weeks, the debate was on the quantum and combinations of cut rather than the probability and the index gains and rally in GOI bonds was reflecting the same. The RBI while continuing to focus on inflation has chosen to preserve some of the monetary action possible for adverse developments globally and in line with the premise for frontloading rate cut in April is expecting to see movement on the fiscal side as well as resolutions on the supply bottlenecks. Why do you think the current scenario is great for investing? Shouldn't one wait and watch before venturing into the market?Long-term investors should focus on the time rather than timing the market. Having said that, let's look at the market from a valuation perspective and we find that based on moderated earnings growth expectations for FY13 (expected growth is for FY13 is around 10 per cent on the back of last few months of downgrade cycle, the market is about 13 times FY13 earnings. This valuation is lower than the long term average (it's around 15 times) and is close to all time lows of about 10 times. The choice can be to increase equity allocation at this stage or hope and wait for a correction to 10 times to activate an asset allocation call. The belief is that the current global and domestic factors which are largely pessimistic would turn around and get better over time. And as investors in a risky asset class one should be ready to absorb any event based value reduction and actually take advantage to increase allocation. What is your view on the overall financial market? What do you think of the crisis in Europe (especially Greece and Spain) as well as US and why?From a global perspective, growth is a challenge and most countries are expanding their balance sheet and infusing liquidity with a hope that growth would revive on the back of this support, before they can start moderating liquidity measures. So currently the financial markets are about LTROs, QE3s and soft landings being the flavour. The risk of a contagion is far higher from the Euro Zone since the sovereign debt defaults and the impact it can have on banks which hold these debts is unimaginable. On a relative basis, US banks post the crisis period capitalization are in a better shape and the probability of growth is also better. What is your take on the Indian equity market for the next three to six months? What are your concerns for the Indian equity market?Having discussed the positive from the valuation perspective with moderate earning expectation in a pessimistic backdrop, the challenges from domestic perspective are largely linked to the revival of investment demand supported through policy action on fiscal and supply side which will also lead to lower interest rate environment to support growth. From a global perspective we will have to go through a phase of risk on and risk off since the challenges faced are being currently resolved through postponement measures. Hence from a three to six month perspective, we will see a tug of war between global risk on, risk off and domestic policy action, leading to volatile or range bound market. In current market where will you advice investors to invest? (Any short-term strategy). Don't you think it's better to be sector and market-cap agnostic in this market or stick to the large-cap stocks. What's your view? Assuming we are discussing strategies only in the equity allocation part, it has to be a combination of stock selection, sectoral views and market cap mix. On a relative basis since the price to book ratio between large and mid cap is in the neutral expectation zone, one can be marginally overweight on mid caps. From a sectoral perspective, due to the expected volatility one can avoid taking aggressive calls on sectoral deviations. Having said that, a combination of stock selection within the sector call would decide the fate of the strategy. Above all these, the risk taking ability of the portfolio being managed will also influence the strategy.At Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance what has been your current strategy in investing in equities? How much of an inflow are you receiving in a day? Of this, how much are you investing in equities? If you are investing in the equity market which are the sectors that you are purchasing stocks and which ones you are avoiding?At Kotak Life Insurance, in our equity schemes we do not believe in taking cash calls since the mandate is for managing equity. With a moderate risk and process oriented approach we actively take decisions on stock selection, sectoral calls and market cap mix. From a ULIP perspective the selection of asset class is primarily made by the policyholder while selecting the fund option. First quarter of a financial year is relatively muted in terms of business for the insurance industry with the pace picking up and peaking in the last quarter. About 50 per cent of the ULIP portfolio is in equity based on policyholders' selection of funds.We are overweight on the BFSI and Outsourcing theme. Within BFSI we are overweight private sector banks. Within Outsourcing theme we are overweight pharma and underweight IT. In Global Commodities theme we are underweight metals, mining/minerals and Oil and Gas with the only overweight being in fertilizers. Infrastructure as a theme we are underweight but within Infrastructure we are marginally overweight on construction while remaining underweight on capital goods / engineering and utilities. For the domestic consumption theme we are close to neutral weight with FMCG being overweight and Auto being underweight.On the fixed income side, where are you investing? What is your take on the 10-year G-Sec yields and why?From a debt market perspective, the overhang of supply and probable slippages in the fiscal deficit numbers are in consideration as also growth moderation which has impacted long-term interest rates. The comfort offered by RBI on the liquidity front in terms of OMOs should help provide a cap on yields. The yield curve is more or less flat with overnight and 1 year government securities (G-Sec) at about 8 per cent and 10-year G-Sec at 8.10 per cent levels. Based on the current dynamics the 10-year G-Sec is expected to be in a range of 8-8.20 per cent .Traditional or the Non Unit Linked portfolios have a need for long term assets based on liability profiles and hence at current rates we are investing long term for this portfolio. In the ULIP portfolio as well we have increased our allocation to G-Sec relative to corporate bonds and money market instruments and are higher in duration to what we were a couple of months back. For traditional portfolio, the pattern of investment is regulated, while for our ULIP we are currently at 40 per cent invested in G-Sec, 50 per cent in corporate bonds and 10 per cent in money market instruments, and the same was about 30 per cent, 55 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively a couple months back.What is your take on the 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years and 10-years yields in corporate bonds? Will you be a buyer in corporate bonds and what would be the tenure? Do you prefer a corporate bond over a G-Sec and why? Corporate bonds spreads are all about credit risk and maturity premium. If we compare the annualised G-Sec yields for the given tenures and compare the spreads available on corporate bonds, the 1-5 year segment looks attractive with a good carry benefit. The credit deposit ratios of banks suggest that deposit rates may not come down in a hurry. Also, system liquidity would keep short term interest rates elevated. Allocation between G-Sec and corporate bonds is not only a function of spreads but also the probability of movement in interest rates and impact on both the categories. Based on our current view we have increased allocation to G-Sec compared to corporate bonds. Where are you investing your money in this market? Which asset class would you prefer in the current market environment and why?Personally I am a strong believer is asset allocation based on risk appetite and I practice what I preach. I have a predefined allocation between equity / risky assets (these includes equity, gold, real estate funds and even PE funds) and fixed income. This allocation is reviewed annually and is rebalanced quarterly or if there is a more that 5% deviation in the allocation percentages.
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Uday Chopra has donned several roles in Bollywood. He has been an actor, assistant director, producer, writer and has even worked for an animation film. In fact, the 39-year-old scion of Yash Raj Films was never short of opportunities. And he is experimenting with another different role now: producing comics. Chopra’s company has launched of Yomics, a series of graphic novels targeting adults and kids alike. In an e-mail interview with BW Online's Sanjitha Rao Chaini, Chopra talks about the character Daya Prochu (anagram of Uday Chopra) and whether Yomics is more than a marketing drive for movies. Why graphic novels now?There is no real time to introduce the culture of graphic novels to India. A niche culture has been here already, but I want to bring it to the mainstream. And it is now I found the right people to partner with and take my vision forward. Is there a good market for graphic art or comics in India?It is very limited, as far as our research goes. The comic book culture started in India during the 1950s, and peaked and then petered out by the early part of the new millennium. Today, it has been replaced by various other means of entertainment and publishers are struggling to compete with other electronic media. I want to change that and hopefully convince a new generation that not only is graphic art 'cool' and 'fun' but it is also 'Not Just For Kids' (Yomics’ tagline). How difficult was it to put the book together?It was fairly easy once I found the right studio to partner with. Division 91, which did the artwork, has a bunch of people who are as passionate about this medium as I am. They were able to put together the novel at a fairly decent pace and a workable cost so that my risk could be as low as possible. They did it without compromising on quality. Who is Daya Prochu?It is a character I came up with one day when I was just feeling particularly bored. Sometimes, boredom has its uses. Anyway, so I was on Twitter and wanted to say a few things I thought might sound a bit too pedantic or philosophical coming from me, so I created a new ID called Daya Prochu, which is an anagram of my name and started tweeting as him. I noticed that people started really enjoying what Daya had to say and so I took this forward and started having fun with it on Twitter. I even made a few rudimentary comics using some apps on my iPhone. Suffice it to say, when I started to think of launching Yomics, it was natural for me to try putting Daya out there as a fresh new character that hopefully would be liked as much as he was on Twitter. What is the response you have received so far?People have reacted very positively to all the Yomics titles. Daya is getting a lot more interest than I imagined, which I guess is great! A book store owner in my neighbourhood did not know what to do with the copies of Yomics and whom to sell it to -- adults or children. Do you think graphic art/comics are yet to take off in India?That is the mindset I am trying to overcome. People think comics are for children and it will take some time for adults to get convinced that this is for their own entertainment. The idea is to keep at it and to stories and other material out there that will appeal to not just kids but people of all ages. I think people of all ages will get something out of these books. Kids, of course, will enjoy it but anyone who watches our movies or who are fans of titles such as Dhoom or excited about our forthcoming releases such as Ek Tha Tiger can find that they can still get a glimpse of these worlds they have loved, albeit through an entirely new medium of comics/Yomics. How did you decide on the Rs 99 price tag?This was arrived at by consulting with our publishing partner BPI and also studying the current prices for similar content. I wanted to give readers something high in quality and, yet, keep to the price they were used to paying. Hopefully, we have managed to do both. Is Yomics a part of marketing drive for movies or vice versa?No. If anything, it can be vice versa. That is, use the power of movies to market Yomics, but eventually I see this as an exciting and unexplored medium to tell stories. This is a completely different vertical. What next? Will you limit these graphic arts to YRF products?I have just started this venture, so I need to be flexible. I will naturally use YRF productions to begin with, but later on I want to create absolutely original content. I am also open to tying up with other brands, be it movies or otherwise, who want to dabble in this wonderful medium and bring it some much-needed excitement again. sanjitha (dot) bw (at) gmail (dot) com
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