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. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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 Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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.
Aug. 11 – India is expected to become a pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) hub in the next decade with the Department of Pharmaceuticals planning a road map for India to be a global player in the industry by 2020.
The plan is called Vision 2020. The department also plans to create a job of about five lakh in this industry in coming years and to contribute to the growth of India’s GDP.
For this, the government aims to make an annual expenditure of up to US$20 billion every year until 2020. Apart from this several R&D hubs are also being built in cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. There are plans to build a high-tech pharma city in Hyderabad on 800 to 900 acres of land.
Aug. 6 – Employees of India’s private, overseas and state banks numbering more than 900,000 will begin their two-day strike today.
An estimated 26 state-run banks, 10 private banks and eight foreign banks will be affected when its workers join the strike organized by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). “We seek expedition of wage revisions,” C H Venkatachalam, convener of the UFBU,was quoted by Bloomberg. “There is no question of calling off the strike now.”
The banking workers are demanding at least a 17.5 percent salary hike, pension benefits and that family members of those who die in service be employed.
Mumbai
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