Global uncertainties have been the biggest cause of concern for Krishna Sanghvi, Head of Equities at Kotak Mutual Fund, who feels the issues involved particularly those surrounding the Euro-zone crisis can have a long-term repercussion on the overall health of financial market and can damage sentiments and reduce risk appetite among investor. Talking to Businessworld's Mahesh Nayak, he feels it's the right time to invest in equities as worst seems to be over for India. Though he sees inflation and interest rates likely to play out in the next 2-3 quarters, he is clueless like many others over global factors like Euro-zone and commodity prices.Excerpts from the conversation:Is the worst over for the financial markets? (Globally as well as India) It is quite difficult to say that the worst is over as the global uncertainties and the issues involved are quite complicated and any near term solution may have longer term repercussions. Equally difficult is to estimate the response of various policy makers on the global front. However on domestic front, we seem to be better placed vis-à-vis the world. We are almost at peak inflation and interest rates and hence the expected moderation in these offers an opportunity going ahead. So in Indian context we are probably at a juncture where in the absence of any major mishaps globally, economy and markets are more likely to see an upturn over next 12 months.What is your take on the Indian equity market? Are we in a bear market?Indian economy with positive demography and vibrant domestic consumption offers a unique combination of growth as well as some insulation from the global turmoil. The resilience of Indian economy has already been proven in 2008-09. We believe that this resilience will continue to stay and attract investor attention and allocations from across the world. We do not think that India is in a bear market despite the current volatility. It is more of a consolidation that is emanating from a reaction to global uncertainties and partly a cyclical response to high inflation and interest rates.Food inflation has seen a sustained rise. Even in this scenario, the RBI governor has already hinted that he may not hike interest rates. How do you view this scenario for the Indian market?Yes, the food inflation in Indian context has been rising but it is more of supply constraint driven inflation and may take a bit longer to be addressed. The RBI's guidance that it may not opt for further rate hike is partly a function of their expectation regarding moderation in overall inflation (despite high food inflation) going ahead in FY12. Also, it is based on their assessment of the impact of past hikes on the demand and GDP growth.For Indian markets, the expected pause in rate hike is a positive development. However in the near term (2-3 quarters), we would see moderation in GDP growth (expecting GDP to be around 7-7.5 per cent) as the impact of past rate hikes is felt on the demand. Post the next 2-3 quarters, we are likely to see softening of interest rates and then the growth resuming at higher levels.What are your concerns for the equity market?The Indian equity markets are currently impacted by both global economy as well as domestic economy related factors. The key concerns from a global economy perspective is how the sovereign credit issues facing some of the Euro-zone countries will be addressed; and how the losses (if any) will be borne by the investors. This is relevant as it can damage the investor sentiments and the likely reduction in the "risk appetite". Over a medium term the worries are more about the economic growth prospects in both, USA and the Euro-zone, and its impact on the global trade and the financial markets. Another key issue is whether Euro zone will continue to exist in its present form.From an India specific perspective, key worries are the high crude prices (impacting fiscal deficit and foreign exchange) and rising inflation and high interest rates (impacting growth).What is your view on the overall corporate performance of Indian Inc? Till when do you think this dismal performance will continue?The corporate earnings estimates for FY12 have seen reasonable downgrades over past 2-3 quarters. While the corporate performance on the revenue front has broadly been good it has not transmitted into profits as the profitability has been significantly impacted by the margin pressures as well as rising interest costs for many companies. Post the September quarterly results, we expect some further downgrades to earnings estimates for FY12 and similarly lower expectations for FY13.The improvement in corporate profitability requires moderation in inflation, lower interest rates and relief from higher commodity prices. We expect the inflation and interest rate to support in later part of FY13 while commodity prices remains a function of global linkages and hence difficult to estimate.In times of uncertainty where will you advice investors to invest? Currently where are you investing your own money? And why?Despite all the uncertainties surrounding the world economy, Indian economy, with positive demography and the domestic consumption as the driving force, continues to remain resilient and on track to remain among the fastest growing economies in the world even if we grow at 7 per cent. I think that individual investors should continue to remain confident about this long term growth story of Indian economic growth and the positive effects of it on corporate earnings, equity valuations and market capitalizations. In fact, it is these uncertain times that gives investors an opportunity to keep on accumulating equity assets either through mutual funds or directly based on their knowledge and time commitments. Even on a personal front, my allocation to equity markets (through Kotak mutual fund schemes) continues under systematic investment Plan (SIPs). I believe that SIP is an ideal investment avenue for investors at all times. As a fund manager what call will you take on the overall portfolio of Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund? What will be your short-term strategy in the current market condition?The near term uncertainties in the economic environment put emphasis on portfolios with a defensive bias. The focus is on sectors/companies that have higher earnings visibility and/or healthy return ratios. Also the bias is on companies that are not highly levered and generating stable cash flows.As a fund house, we believe in the potential of equity markets creating long term wealth for investors. We believe that Indian economy offers the right growth opportunities to corporate to expand their businesses and create wealth for equity holders. Accordingly we advise our investors to keep on investing in equity mutual funds. We believe that for majority of investors, systematic investment plan (SIP) is an optimal way to participate in the wealth creation opportunity in Indian equities.In your view what will be the next trigger for the Indian equity market? And why? And when do you see it coming?The positive triggers for the equity markets are multifold. Globally it is the resolution to the Euro- zone crisis and return of investor confidence. From domestic perspective it is moderation in inflation, commodity prices and decline in interest rates and improvement in investment climate. Also, there are a few policy reforms that are expected to be unveiled over next 3-4 quarters and these can also act as a trigger. The domestic triggers of inflation and interest rates are likely to play out in 2-3 quarters while global factors like Euro-zone and commodity prices are anyone's guess.
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There's a new friendship in the works. Commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, in collaboration with Nissan Motors Company, rolled out its first light commercial vehicle (LCV) -- Dost -- for the Indian market last week. More interesting was the sales target of 140,000 units set for the next three years by the JV partners. The joint venture - Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles - plans to bring out two more products by 2013 in addition to Ashok Leyland Dost, which is being manufactured at ALL's Hosur facility. The bullish target set by a new entrant in this segment is an indication of the potential that the LCV market holds in a burgeoning economy. "Within the LCV segment, the SCVs (Small Commercial Vehicle) – i.e. vehicles of 3.5 gross vehicle weight and less – have posted a CAGR of 34 per cent over the past 5 years," says Dr V. Sumantran, Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Ltd and Chairman, Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain Ltd.Ashok Leyland's Dost, the 1.25-tonne payload capacity LCV, is entering a market which already has 3-4 established players like Tata Ace, Mahindra Maxximo and Genio, Force Motors' Trump 40 and Piaggio's Ape truk plus.The Dost – the pricing for which is yet to be disclosed and which wil be commercially launched in a month or so – will come in three versions – with the top-end one fitted with an air-conditioner and power steering.Though top-end version features suggest that Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles is positioning Dost as a passenger and goods carrier, sales numbers suggest that these vehicles are mainly preferred as goods carriers. According to the SIAM report, goods carriers in the LCV category registered sales growth of 27 per cent in the April–June quarter; passenger carriers in the same category reported a contraction of 5 per cent during the same period. "Penetration is low in the LCV market," says Kotak Securities analyst Hitesh Goel. "Especially in the sub-1 tonne category, there is a huge demand mainly from rural areas and small entrepreneurs."The growing success of the hub-and-spoke model with smaller vehicles having to make last mile deliveries, along with the robust growth of the retail sector and increased rural connectivity are contributing to the growth to the LCV segment, adds Dr Sumantran. Goods transport vehicles are redefining the business. They are good for city transportation and for small and medium enterprises doing the milk-runs, says Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' (SIAM) Director Vishnu Mathur. Dr Sumantran agrees saying smaller vehicles are used for last-mile deliveries of consumables like vegetables, fruits, drinking water, meat, or general goods, demand for which have always been on the rise as spending and consumption levels increase.According to SIAM sales report, the industry sold 97,778 LCVs during the current April–June period representing a growth of 22 per cent over the year-ago period. During the same period, sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) grew only 5 per cent to 75,000 units over the year-ago period.Also, while costlier loans are affecting the sales of M&HCVs in an environment of tightened liquidity, sales of relatively low-cost LCVs are going strong. "The Indian SCV (small commercial vehicle) customer is fast evolving and becoming increasingly demanding. Apart from fuel efficiency and durability, other attributes like driveability, power, comfort, safety, loading capacity and even styling are important," Dr V. Sumantran said on the sidelines of the launch.Though the current market scenario is of ‘the more the merrier', what needs to be seen is how Ashok Leyland Dost positions itself in face of stiff competition to meet the kind of sales target it has set up.
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India will become the second largest producer of steel by 2013 with an installed annual production capacity of 120 mn tonnes, according to Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma. Verma made the announcement at the 5th India Steel Summit held on 26th July.At present, India ranks fourth in the world with production of about 80 mn tones. China however, leads the pack. In fact, in 2010, China's share in the world steel output was as much as 44 per cent. Currently, it is also the largest steel consuming country in the world. But with Indian domestic steel demand growing at about 10 per cent, we might just have a shot at the title. Manufacturing and construction, which account for most of the steel demand, are expected to buoy the industry's growth.The real picture however, is not as rosy. Factors like long-drawn clearance processes, increasing complexity in operations and difficulty in obtaining raw materials are bogging down production. And if the bottlenecks remain unchecked, steel production might fall short of demand – a scenario that industry experts think could turn us into net importers.Alarm bells are already sounding in the industry particularly owing to land acquisition and environmental clearance hurdles. P.K Misra, Secretary, Ministry of Steel went as far as to term land acquisition as the "most contentious and challenging issue of our times". He called for direct negotiations at market rate to mitigate the issue.Meanwhile, the steel industry also faces a scarcity of coking coal. And with the fate of over 100 iron ore mines (down South) hanging in balance, production could take a severe hit. Ironically, even with surplus iron ore production in the country, many steel producers still look outwards for accessing the mineral.Nevertheless, several Greenfield as well as Brownfield projects are underway. Tata Steel plans to set up a 6 lakh tonnes facility in Jamshedpur by 2012 while SAIL plans to increase its share of value-added products from 37 per cent to 55 per cent in 2012-13. Strategic relationships are also being explored to enhance technology capabilities – SAIL with Japan's Kobe Steel, JSW Steel with JFE Steel Corp in 2008 and Tata Steel's joint venture with Nippon Steel.On the government front, schemes like NREGA and Indira Awas Yojana are expected increase steel consumption by developing rural areas. The ministry, for the purpose of tackling the many challenges, is formulating a New National Policy and a vision document on Steel sector that will project a medium term horizon of 10 years and a long term vision of 25 years. Four Task Force committees have also been set up to engage in consultations with stakeholders and the industry. Their report is expected to be ready by December of this year.
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This week, Hyderabad-based Bhartiya Sammrudhi Finance (BFSL) sprung an ugly surprise on the country's already troubled microfinance sector. Founder and CEO Vijay Mahajan announced in a newspaper interview that without a fresh infusion of funds, India's oldest microfinance institution (MFI) could fold in less than three months. At the core of the problem lies accumulated bad loans worth Rs 450 crore in Andhra Pradesh that the company has been unable to recover from borrowers. The reason for this, according to the company, is a state government enforced law in October that restricts MFIs from collecting money from borrowers on a weekly basis. Mahajan is now in the market to raise over Rs 1,400 crore in equity and debt capital in an attempt to try and salvage the company. He's most likely to turn to private equity (PE) investors to bring in the equity component. PE investors have bankrolled MFIs for nearly a decade, pumping in $494.9 million (over Rs 2,000 crore approximately) between 2005 and now, according to Delhi-based financial research provider VCCEdge.However, for PE investors, microfinance no longer holds the allure it did prior to the SKS Microfinance initial public offering (IPO) in August last year. Hyderabad-based SKS, currently the country's largest MFI, has been wracked by problems since the IPO and its share price has plunged from over Rs 1,000 per share last August to around Rs 430 now. Complaints against SKS' recovery practices led to a crackdown on MFIs active in Andhra Pradesh and subsequently the law that seems to have sounded the death knell for Basix.If Basix does fold as Mahajan predicts, PE investors will have to worry about protecting their existing investments rather than make fresh ones. Basix itself has a posse of such investors including International Finance Corporation (IFC), Matrix Partners, Aavishkaar and Lok Capital. Mumbai-based Matrix is the most recent entrant in the company, leading a Rs 118 crore investment round in April 2010. The firm could not be reached for comments.Click here to view graph 1Click here to view graph 2
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L'capital Asia, a private equity fund, sponsored by the world's largest luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), has acquired a 25.5 per cent equity stake in Genesis Luxury, a high end luxury company that has been instrumental in marketing and distribution of brands such as Jimmy Choo, Botegga Veneta, Etro in India. This is the PE fund's first investment in the Indian market. "The money will be used to introduce both domestic as well as international lifestyle brands into Genesis' existing portfolio", says Sanjay Kapooor, Managing Director Genesis Luxury. "These could vary from premium to fast-fashion or mid-scale brands", adds Kapoor. Earlier this year L'Capital Asia announced a $640-million fund (Rs 2,600 crore), focussed on investments in areas such as consumer brands, beauty & wellness, boutique hospitality, media & entertainment, private education etc across emerging economies of China, India and other South Asian countries. The group's focus on Asia comes after the region accounted for 25 per cent of LVMH's total revenue in 2010, surpassing both Europe and United States. Owing to China's growth story the fund will divert a significant part of its investments to China, "We might be looking at investing close to 40 per cent of the fund's capital in China. India might come close to 30 % of equity infusion", added Danielle Piette, President and MD – L Capital. Other countries on the radar are Indonesia and Malaysia. The company is in advanced talks with various players in the fashion, wellness and entertainment space to launch, market and distribute domestic as well as international aspirational brands, in India. The PE firm is looking at an average investment of $25 million-$100 million, with minority stakes ranging from 10-14 per cent. "We are eyeing companies with revenues in the range of $50 - $500 million", added Ravi Thakran , Managing Partner L-Capital Asia. L'Capital Asia has already invested in five companies in South East Asia and China. L'Capital Asia, is the fourth fund from L'Capital and sponsored by LVMH. It's existing portfolio includes brands such as Charles and Keith, Gant, Princess Yachts etc. This comes as a favorable news to India's still nascent but growing lifestyle and luxury market, that will see entry of new high-end and mid-scale International brands.
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For the second year in a row, Businessworld Best Bank Awards set a new benchmark. The glittering award ceremony, held on 23 Decem-ber 2010 at the ITC Grand Central in Mumbai, was attended by the who's who of the banking industry. The good turnout a day before Christmas eve proved the importance of the event to the industry. After all, this year was more about growth than survival.D.D. Purkayastha, MD and CEO of ABP Group, started off the event by welcoming the chief guest, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, and members of the banking community. Speaking on the occasion, the finance minister said, "The Best Banks survey based on parameters like growth, size, sustainability of operations and exposure to market risks that are time-tested and continue to be relevant in all situations."The ballroom was packed with those who wanted to see the winners and hear the finance minister, who, in his speech, not only praised the winners for their hard work, dedication and entrepreneurship, but also cautioned them against "deterioration in quality of assets". He said it "would take away capital and banks will have to make sufficient coverage provision as well". He said bankers should "closely monitor their asset quality to prevent further slippages and strictly adhere to the exposure norms set by the RBI in the interest of financial stability".The finance minister, however, did remind all present of the much-awaited additional banking licences that the Reserve Bank of India is considering for private sector players.The FM pointed to the fact that in the first half of 2010-11, the Indian economy recorded an overall GDP growth of 8.9 per cent. He said that in the face of all this crisis, core capital (as measured by Tier I capital) in Indian banks, made up about 70 per cent of the total capital as of end-March 2010. In fact, Core CRAR ratio of scheduled commercial banks at end-March 2010 stood at 9.4 per cent and 10.1 per cent under Basel I and II frameworks, respectively, which is much higher than the Reserve Bank's stipulation of 6 per cent under the Basel II framework.He concluded his speech by asking banks to increase focus on financial inclusion, a point he had stressed upon at the Businessworld Best Bank Awards last year as well.The FM's speech was preceded by that of Businessworld's editor Prosenjit Datta, who took the audience through the process and parameters for the banking survey conducted by BW with PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 57 commercial banks were divided into three categories based on their size: large (above Rs 1,00,000 crore), mid-size (from Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 1,00,000 crore) and small (less than Rs 30,000 crore). All banks were required to have at least five branches and the analysis was based on their performance from 2006-07 to 2009-10. As the editor pointed out, "The difference between the first and the second along several parameters was very slim."He also thanked the jury, whose members added to the effectiveness of the shortlisting process using their years of experience in the field. The jury included Kalpana Morparia, CEO of JP Morgan India; B. Sambamurthy, director of Institute For Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and former chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank; V.G. Raghavan, chief financial officer of the Essar Group; and Pravin Kadle, managing director of Tata Capital.The awards were given away by Pranab Mukherjee and Aveek Sarkar, editor-in-chief of the ABP Group.Karur Vysya and South Indian Bank shared the honours for the Best Small Bank Award, while Andhra Bank took home the Award for the Best Mid-size Bank. The highlight of the evening was, of course, the Best Large Bank Award, which went to HDFC Bank. Incidentally, HDFC Bank had won the most tech-friendly bank award last year, which it lost to ICICI Bank this year.Some of last year's winners have clearly moved up in their ratings. Yes Bank, which won the award for the fastest-growing small bank last year had moved into the mid-size category this year. While Axis Bank retained its position from last year as the fastest-growing large bank, DBS won the award in the small bank category.The State Bank of India won the award for the Most Socially Responsible Bank while its chairman O.P. Bhatt was chosen for the Banker of the Year Award, same as the previous year.The Lifetime Achievement Award went to C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and former governor of the Reserve Bank of India. While reading out the citation for the Award, Morparia said it was a "privilege" for her to do so. T.N.A. Iyer, former executive director of RBI, collected the award on behalf of Rangarajan.The importance of the awards can be gauged by the presence of stalwarts from banking as well as from other corporate sectors. Hobnobbing and sharing views with others were dignitaries such as Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Group; M. Subramaniam, CEO of Barclays India; V.P. Kamath, CEO of Apollo Hospitals; Renu Chalan, MD of State Bank of Hyderabad; Vineet Rai, MD of Aavishkaar; Kaku Nakhate, country head for Bank of America; and Rashesh Shah, chairman, Edelweiss, among others.The presenting sponsor for the event was MCX and the principal associate sponsor was Videocon Group. The associate sponsors were IFCI and Glenlivet. Bloomberg UTV was the television partner for the event.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-01-2011)
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In 2011, the average venture investment deal size in cleantech sector has been nearly double the overall deal size across all sectors, based on data from US. At about $14 million per deal not only it's the highest across sectors but it is also close to double the average investment deal sizes in web based ventures, the current hot potatoes in the market. Infact at a time when some experts are expressing concerns over the slowing of cleantech investments — which have grown to be the second largest VC investment segment from a scratch in less than a decade — the continued growth of the deal sizes deserves some discussion. Is it a mark of growing confidence that investors are placing larger bets on the table? Or is it a structural hitch? Well a part of it has to do with the fact that less cleantech venture money is going into early stage companies and technologies and more is going into ventures with more established, tried and tested technologies. In 2010 VCs in US invested less than twenty percent of their capital in early stage cleantech companies and sticking to more tested technologies. The ventures with more established technologies which constitute the likes of solar energy, biofuels, electric vehicles among others require a lot of cash to upscale. This inevitably pushes up the investment deals. Infact the trend of increasing deal size also falls in line with the trends of decreasing investment in early stage cleantech companies. In 2007 at $886 million American investors invested 35 per cent of their money in early stage companies which has fallen to $424 million in 2010. This possibly points into a structural hitch atleast in part.Figure 1: Average deal sizes in US based on data from NVCAThis attraction of investors towards the more established cleantech technologies has perhaps got to do with the fact that most government programmes tend to create market incentives for more established cleantech technologies like solar energy, wind energy or electric vehicles. Without active support many innovative ideas which could possible form the next wave of cleantech innovation die early.But then a part of the trend also lies in the fact that the investors do see long term potential too in cleantech. Several global majors are also betting the future growth from this segment. This probably is keeping alive the momentum in the market. Last month Shell and Cosan announced their plans for a $12 billion joint venture for producing biofuels while Cargill Ventures has invested in a JV with Usina Sao Joao in biofuels segment too.General Motors which has placed its bet on the electric vehicles with its Volt electric car is also investing into cleantech firms through its investment arm into a solar roofed garage maker, Sunlogics or google which is investing hundreds of millions in cleantech ventures.Additionally the trend towards larger deal sizes means the less aggressive firms will move out and the more aggressive ones are staying put. Perhaps they see this as an opportunity to operate more profitably in this space with lesser competition and lower valuations. Even the funding sources are growing larger which may keep the momentum going. The funds of funds focused on cleantech are growing larger. The average size of cleantech sector funds has grown from $173 million in 2006 to about $300 million in 2011 as per the data from prequin.Therefore what seems to be fuelling the growth of cleantech sector VC deal sizes is a mix of both structural reasons and an underlying confidence on the long term potential. However some focus on the high risk, early stage ventures will bring sustainability to the cleantech growth story. Something that Khosla Ventures with their recently $1 billion fund dedicated to cleantech intends to do. This is where Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems sees his next big opportunity, for him "Venture capital is always a long term story".Yash Saxena is a sustainability consultant with Emergent Ventures, a climate change mitigating consultancy. He also works on innovation evangelism with Techpediayash (dot) saxena (at) emergent-ventures (dot)com
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With the sudden downpour of tablets these past few months, you may as well forget the monsoons and call it tablet season instead! Close on the heels of the iPad 2, the Playbook and the Iconia A500 comes the Flyer, HTC's entry into the Android tablet space. The HTC Flyer, though, is nothing if not unique. Which way does the Flyer swing - anomaly or path breaker? Let's find out. Straight out of the box, the Flyer is a pretty sweet looking device, with a brushed aluminum chassis, tough white plastic ends and a high quality finish that could easily let the Flyer be mistaken for an Apple product. The design is minimalist a la Apple, and you have to struggle a fair bit (a lot, really!) to prise the back open to access the SIM or microSD card slots. HTC gets the presentation spot on though – there's a micro-fiber-cloth lined leather case to carry the 7-incher in your bag or purse. Now while the Flyer is one of the heavier and wider 7-inchers out there, it is easy to grasp in one hand and hold up for longer periods of times.Switch it on, and the 1024 x 600-resolution 7-inch display delights with great viewing angles and colour reproduction, though I do wish the resolution had been higher. Under the hood beats a single-core 1.5Ghz processor assisted by 1GB memory and 32GB of storage — the processor in particular may seem a little 2010-ish in its single-core nature, but as I've maintained, tablet operating systems and software have not been optimized to fully use a dual-core processor. So the Flyer's performance is as snappy as they come, and the extra Ghz (over the 1Ghz dual-core processors I've seen of late) doesn't hurt one bit. There is one caveat though – the Flyer runs a non-tablet-optimised Android version (Gingerbread 2.3) but with HTC's Sense 3.0 user interface, which adds a tremendous amount of polish to the experience. Everything from the lock screen to the homescreen carousel and the new launch bar and widgets makes the Flyer a pleasure to use, plus by being on Gingerbread, you get compatibility with a wholeside more apps than you get on a Honeycomb tablet like the A500. Even so, Honeycomb should come to this device… pronto!Then there's the ‘magic' pen. The Flyer's secret weapon is a stylus – yes, you read that right. The moment you put the pen to the tablet, the screen (irrrepsctive of what app you have open), becomes a screenshot, allowing you to make notes or draw figures on the image and save/send it off to someone by email. With the Notes app, you can take notes in your own handwriting, and if you're a big Evernote user like me, these notes sync to your Evernote account and to all your other devices as well. It works great as a doodling or annotation tool, but with limited app support, it is little else and the novelty soon wears off. If anything, it's the price that is the biggest letdown. With a strong feature set, you really end up wishing HTC had taken the lead with pricing and made this much more affordable. Right now, it's just a pricey bitter pill to swallow.Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 39,890URL: http://bit.ly/rtqKeh Anti-hero Reloaded If you grew up in the mid-90s like I did, there's a very high chance you'll remember a game character called Duke Nukem. This vest-wearing, inappropriately-behaving and enemy-slaughtering character was, to many of us, our first window into big bad ‘adult' world. Well, Duke is back in Duke Nukem Forever, a game which took literally 'forever' to make –it's been 15 years in the making, for crying out loud! So what do you get for 15 years of patience? Precious little. The character's still a misogynist pig loaded to the brim with assorted macho-male clichés, which in itself isn't the problem. It's the rest of the game – poorly paced and badly designed levels, downright stupid enemy AI, grainy visuals and a lack of story development. Everything that worked in the original game is now just so… for lack of a better word… sad. Almost down to the point where you could call 2011 Duke somewhat boring - something 1996 Duke would rather perish than hear. Sigh…fond memories can only take you so far. Squared Vision There's a new dual-screen monster in town, and it's called the GScreen SpaceBook. Wrap your mind around this: the SpaceBook offers two (yes, two!) 17.3-inch displays that each boast of a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution. Each panel slides out horizontally like a wing – you wanted screen estate to do your creative thing, you got it! Colour me shocked, to be honest. URL: http://bit.ly/ozn60k Price: $2395 to $2795 technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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