Other Briefings
Tata’s run into Mega Labor Problems
Sept. 2 – India has a tough choice to make – Industrialize and attract more foreign Direct Investment or give in to the needs of its farmers to sustain a more sociological state. The recent Tata Motors factory controversy has brought this issue to the threshold.Will India decide to give the land in Singur, North east India to Tata to manufacture his US$2,500 Tata Nana, or will it favor the farmers who claim the land and with it their livlihood has been usurped?
Who wins the fight over the Tata factory is likely to have wide-ranging impacts on India's push to complete a China-like economic transformation that the country's leaders say is needed to lift hundreds of millions of its 1.1 billion people out of poverty, reported The International Herald Tribune.
Kingfisher’s Spreading its Wings
Aug. 27 – Business tycoon and Indian Richard Branson Vijay Mallya has recieved the green signal from the ministry of Aviation to fly his recently acquired Deccan Air internationally. This marks India's third International flight service, following Air India and Jet Airways.
Kingfisher Airlines will to fly to Thailand, Singapore, San Francisco, London and the UAE, amongst other destinations. The airlines is expected to launch their service from Banglore to London, Heathrow on the 3rd of September, the Economic Times reported.
Lets Realize Our Tryst with Destiny
Aug. 15 – "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance….. We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again" – These were the first words India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivered to the people of India from New Delhi's Red Fort, 61 years ago, today, on Indian Independance Day.
India Wins its First Individual Gold !!!
Aug. 11 – Indian shooting champion Abhinav Bindra won India's first gold medal for the 10m air rifle competition at the Beijing Summer Olympics on Monday morning. He defeated China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion and Finland's Henri Hakkinen, who clinched silver and bronze respectively.
This is India's first gold in 28 years, and first ever individual gold medal.
Indian Politicians and Business Barons Head to the Olympics
Aug. 7 – Indian politicians and business barons are expected to fly into Beijing today in time for the Opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics at 08-08-08-08-08-08. Amongst the politbureau, ruling party leader, Sonia Gandhi will be in Beijing with her family; son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Vadra, son-in-law Robert Vadra and their two children. Sports minister M. S. Gill will also be present.
Business tycoon, and India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani will also be present during the opening ceremony. Flying in on his own jet, he will be arriving in Beijing with his family, wife Nita Ambani and their two children, to witness the Olympic ceremony.
Indian Contingent Arrives in Beijing
Aug. 6 – Indian athletes have arrived at Beijing's Olympic Games village with the first batch of shooters, boxers and swimmers, along with their coaches, arriving in Beijin on Monday.
Deputy Chef de Mission Baljit Singh Sethi told the Hindu that all nine shooters, five boxers and four swimmers have reached the village while the remaining of the 57-member contingent and its support staff of 42 will reach there in separate batches before the opening ceremony on 08-08-08.
Indian hopes are pinned on Athens Olympics Silver medalist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and world champion Manavjit Singh who were the first Indians participants to enter the village to practise. The Indians are chiefly resting their hopes on shooters, boxers and the star tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi for Olympic glory.
Bollywood Takes the London Stock Exchange by its Horns
Aug. 4 – Do you like Bollywood movies? Why not buy shares? Hindi film companies being traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM (Alternate Investment Market) are realizing multi-million dollar returns on investments.
Three Bollywood majors — Eros, UTV Motion Pictures and Indian Films — have already had a huge success in their initial run on the AIM. And now many more Bollywood biggies are looking to raise funds through this route, the Economic Times reported.
New Delhi’s Third Runway Takes Off
Aug. 1 – New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport will inaugurate its third runway on Indian Independence day (August 15). The second busiest airport in the country is ramping capacity in preparation for the Commonwealth Games which New Delhi will host in 2010. The new runway will increase the airport’s capacity from the present 36 landings and takeoffs an hour to 65.
According to the Times of India, the trial runs will take place for a few days and the runway will be made operational for commercial flights by the end of August or beginning of September. ‘‘Almost all civil and technical work has been completed and trial runs should begin soon,’’ an airport official said.
