Apr. 12 - As the Indian economy develops, the need for massive improvements in its transportation network also increases.
With Mumbai’s first monorail service about to be launched and those familiar street level cantilevered rail lines now weaving their way above the city’s roads, other places in the country have already started taking notice. All three major monorail companies – Bombardier, Scomi and Hitachi - are setting up operations in India because of anticipated demand. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr. 6 - Dezan Shira & Associates has appointed Aneet Virk to be its new country manager for India based from the firm’s Mumbai office.
Virk joins the company from VFS Global Outsourcing, a division of Kuoni, where he was the Shanghai-based Asia Pacific Regional Director for the past five years. VFS specializes in providing visa processing services to foreign governments internationally. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar. 9 - The Confederation of Indian Industries has ranked New Delhi as having the best quality of life for its residents among all cities in the India based on their latest “Liveability Index.”
After New Delhi, the next best cities to live in are Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. The survey looked at 37 Indian cities in over a decade to compute for a quality of life index. It also used hard data collected from reliable sources to eliminate the possibility of personal bias or a sampling error obscuring the reality. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 17 - Italian Minister for Economic Development said it would consider creating preferred shipping routes exclusively for Indian trade.
A collaboration agreement is in the works to link the ports of Venice with Mumbai and Genoa with Chennai with the aim of making Italy the gateway for Indian products bound for the European and Mediterranean market. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 9 - Major Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA Group will partner with a Los Angeles-based company to convert movies into 3-D in a US$40 million facility in Mumbai set to open in January.
When it opens the facility will be the largest of its kind in the world also capable of post-production, visual effects and film restoration. In-Three Inc. will work with Reliance to convert 15 to 25 films annually into 3-D format. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 13 - India’s Foreign Ministry has announced that stapled Chinese visas for Indian travelers will not be allowed to exit the country and advises applicants to verify how their visas will be attached.
Some Chinese embassies and consulates have continued to issue stapled visas for Indians coming from Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir despite Indian government protests. The practice is China’s way of not recognizing the territories as a part of India.
“It has come to the attention of government of India that the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi and the Chinese consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata are issuing visas on a separate piece of paper ’stapled’ to the passport (rather than pasted as is the usual practice), to certain categories of Indian nationals on the basis of their domicile, ethnicity and/or place of issue of the passport. Such paper visas stapled to the passport are not considered valid for travel out of the country,” said the ministry advisory. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct. 27 - Business India magazine has just released its tenth best business schools survey which ranks India’s top institutions. The top ten is as follows with the name of each school also linked to its website.
1) Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
3) Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta Read the rest of this entry »
By Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Oct. 26 - In the latest politically correct movement of stupidity, the State of Orissa is now legally to be known as Odisha following a ruling by the Indian Union Cabinet. The regional language, previously known as Oriya, will now be called Odia.
The move follows prolonged lobbying by the BJP Party, long bent on correcting misnamed cities and states. The confusion arises partly due to the phonetic and dialect differences in pronouncing the English version and the local language version with the BJP determined to revert all names to the ones used locally. Hence Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai and Calcutta became Kolkata. Read the rest of this entry »
By Chris Devonshire-Ellis
MUMBAI, Oct. 14 - Following an inspection of the sites intended for the Delhi Commonwealth Games led by Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Mike Fennell, the Delhi Games Organizing Committee (DGOC) has the ignominy of having an Independent Technical Committee, made up of foreign experts oversee all aspects of DGOC preparations.
The CGF had delegates from each of the 71 commonwealth territories inspect all venues over the past six days. Fennell’s report was not good, stating that “There are particular concerns across all operational areas, as well as with the procurement processes.” Somewhat predictably, DGOC chief Suresh Kalmadi reacted angrily to the report and to the imposition of an independent review panel, saying that the CGF had come to India with an existing agenda and that the visit was extremely demoralizing. Read the rest of this entry »
Sept. 4 - The Nielsen Company in India has just released the results of the first ever Nielsen Upper Middle and Rich (UMAR) survey that sought to decode the behavior of India’s well-heeled.
The UMAR polled more than 18,250 wealthy individuals across 35 Indian cities on their lifestyle and mass and emerging media consumption. The definition of affluence was based on the standards of defining socio economic class and other Nielsen variables.
“The primary reason for conducting Nielsen UMAR was to obtain first of all a realistic estimate of this segment, and secondly, to profile their media and consumption habits. There is no study today in India which provides an accurate estimate of this target group; large scale surveys like the NRS and IRS grossly underestimate this segment as their sampling procedures are directed towards a mass audience and not specifically to this segment,” said Partha Rakshit, Managing Director, South Asia, The Nielsen Company, said in a statement.
Read the rest of this entry »
