Budget 2007

Aam admi wouldn’t be bothered by nitty-gritty of Union Budget if not for the reason that it spells something about personal finance and taxation. Thus while people like me stay riveted on what the FM announces on personal finance, the industrywallahs much rather prefer to watch what the budget has in store for corporate sector as a whole. [Picture source left]

Not for us, the common people, the consistently high India’s GDP growth. Nor does it matter that FM has significantly increased outlays for agriculture and primary education. Since there is not much sop for common people, except for Rs.10,000 increase in IT exemption limit for all categories, the man on the street is not that happy. And if you’re a smoker like me, or enjoy earnings from rentals of your property, you’ve reasons to be unhappy, for today’s budget has bad news for them.

But then if you take a holistic view, you’ll certainly not miss FM’s approach to set the broader goals for the country. Impetus on improvement in agricultural productivity is one example. Industry captains, who are more or less set on growth trajectory, have perhaps for the first time hailed the budget for its thrust on improving rural economy and quality of education at ground level.

There is no magnanimity on their part here. They know only too well that if India’s rural economy explodes, they’ll be able to scoop the cream for maximum benefit.

The irony lies elsewhere. While defense allotment wallops year after year, many needy sectors continue to languish. This year’s defense allotment is something like Rs.96,000 crore even as education outlay is about Rs.10,000 crore. A pity indeed!

In my ‘considered’ opinion, 2 sectors that need solid push are sports and tourism. Each has the ability to catapult India to a higher orbit, each has the ability to generate huge employment, each has the ability to bind the nation’s togetherness like a solid rock.

Yet, unfortunately, the 2 do not have the government’s priority they deserve. There’s still a long way before we wake up!

Technorati Tags: budget, union budget, budget 2007, indian budget, indian, india, chidambaram

Bengal CMs

I recall a telling letter to the editor in ABP long back. It was brief, to the point, an example of close observance, and referred to Bengal CMs from late 60s to 80s. Many of you would be knowing this. Here it is:

When there was famine, our CM was Prafulla.
When there was anarchy, our CM was Siddharta.
Now, when there is widespread power-cut, our CM is Jyoti.

What would you say, now that our CM is Buddha!

EB beats MB yet again

East Bengal – Mohun Bagan tie no longer has that hair-raising thrill it used to have eons ago. In those times, the whole city and the suburbs would be immersed in hot discussions at every nook and corner, and the football fever would take long time to ebb. Not so these days.

One reason may be that the 2 teams meet frequently now. Gone are days when the Durands, the Rovers and the IFA Shields’ would see the 2 giants playing in 2 groups so that they meet, if they do, only at the finals, or at the most in semis.

Now in NFL, every participating team must play one another 2 times – a ‘home’ and an ‘away’ match. In case of EB and MB, both take place in the city. In addition, the two play each other in CFL, IFA Shield, and, if chance allows, in Fed Cup as well.

Another prominent reason of diminishing interest in their matches has to so with the fact that they have very few talented homegrown players in their ranks. The focus is firmly on foreign recruits and they steal maximum limelight.

Be that as it may, yesterday’s 2nd NFL tie between the 2 teams saw EB winning 1-0. With this, out of 279 matches between them, EB has won 106 of them against MB’s 75, while 98 were drawn. In terms of wins, EB has supremacy over MB in every major tourney including NFL, where it has won 9 matches against MB’s 4 (5 drawn). Overall, EB has till date scored 243 goals against its archrival as against MB’s 195. See the numbers here.

Delving more in records, the very first-ever clash between them resulted in an 1-0 win for East Bengal with N. Chakravarty scoring the all-important goal. The only hat-trick ever in an East Bengal-Mohun Bagan match was scored by Baichung Bhutia when East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan 4-1 in Federation Cup semi in 1997. And, the biggest ever margin in their duel is another East Bengal win by a margin of 5-0 in the 1975 IFA Shield (see here)

Considering that MB is established in 1889, a good 31 years before EB is founded in 1920, the latter’s record is a clear indication of how better EB is run compared to MB. It’s another matter of course that I support EB – a bangal that’s what’s me!

Technorati Tags: east bengal, mohun bagan, football, kolkata, calcutta

HPL sizzles despite woes

Haldia’s pot is boiling not only because of land acquisition problem close at Nandigram across the river Haldi, but there is at least one more reason. It’s about controlling Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL), the erstwhile torchbearer of state government’s industrial initiative. HPL’s present stakeholder includes Purnendu Chatterjee’s TCG that has 30.70% control of the company (more).

To enable HPL expand its capacity, it has to first repay mounting debts mainly to IDBI-led consortium before it can enter the capital market by offering shares to the public. For that the government wants to rope in the public sector giant, IOC, which in its turn prefers controlling stake in HPL so that it can have a board of its choice.

That means the government sells its stake to IOC, which TCG has objected to. The feud reached Company Law Board (CLB), and after prolonged hearing the CLB apparently ruled that TCG indeed has a valid point for its objection.

In spite, however, of the imbroglio it is in, HPL is performing exceedingly well. It is likely to post gross sales of Rs.8300 crore this financial year that will translate to something about Rs.530 crore in profit after tax. This year’s turnover is a 25% jump on previous year’s performance.

Bereft of large-scale expansion due to inability to tap the market as yet, HPL nevertheless intends capacity increase in the interim with a project worth Rs.675 crore. This is necessary because it is already operating at 100% capacity and therefore cannot take advantage of upswing in business unless this new project takes shape.

What comes clear in all this is that if a company is well-managed, it can do wonders even if there is feud at the high echelons, provided the feuding parties do not intervene at day-to-day operations. Here is wishing HPL all the success.


HPL at night – stellar performance [Picture source]

Related reading: Haldia hurrah, despite tussle

Water and Eklavya

Lisa Ray in Oscar-nominated 'Water' - quality speaks! [Picture source]
True, Water did not win the Best Foreign Language Film award at last night's glittering 79th Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, US (it went to the German film, The Lives of Others), but the fact Deepa Mehta’s film was chosen as one of the 5 nominees speaks volumes about the quality of the film.

Very rarely do Indian motion pictures make the mark at the highest echelons of filmmaking. The last time an Oscar nomination happened was in 2002 when Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan ultimately lost out to Bosnian film, No Man’s Land. There was lot of brouhaha at Lagaan’s loss especially since no effort was spared by the Lagaan team to try influencing people who mattered there.

One factor that seems to go against Indian films (particularly the Hindi films) is the unnecessary length they take to complete. Add to this the lack of good story in most cases despite layers and layers of stunt and glitz. Eklavya is the recent example.

Despite all essential masalas like formidable star-cast, dazzling action, superb photography, high-decibel marketing, and what not, Eklavya is perhaps going to sink without much of a trace. If that happens, the reason would be none else but lack of a good story.

Water, on the other hand, is a good period film. And though it was not acclaimed in India and could not win the coveted Oscar, Water achieved being the top all-time Hindi/Urdu-language feature film at the North American box office. It was also the top foreign-language feature film at the US box office in 2006.

For the record, the Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham starring film, Water was a Canadian nomination at the Oscars, and became its first non-French foreign language film to receive nomination for the award it missed.


Technorati Tags: oscar, academy awards, best foreign language film, water, film, hindi films, deepa mehta, water, india, indian

Autorickshaws reign

My friend, who works in a construction company in the Middle East, is an occasional visitor to the city, and while here, stays with his parents in their flat near Thakurpukur. Years of working in multinational firms in several countries have taught him to be patient, to remain composed in adverse conditions, and more importantly to not venture into unnecessary complications.

His composure and confidence shattered when yesterday he, unable to find a taxi and being in a hurry, preferred to take an auto from Taratala. There he found 2 auto-stands, and hesitating a little, proceeded to board one nearest. No sooner he settled, he was almost hounded out by a group from the other stand, saying the one he boarded would not go.

At this, the driver of the auto he chose rushed to the scene, and commanded he must not leave. Loosing his cool at such rowdy behavior on either side, he thought he would settle the matter. That was not to be, and he found himself in the middle of skirmish between the 2 groups. He later found the 2 groups belong to rival political parties – CITU and Trinamool Congress.


One of them, near Gariahat

When he narrated the event to me, it was hard not to get perturbed, though frankly such incidents with the autos are fairly common on city streets. Anyone who has the misfortune of being at Ultadanga railway underpass will readily vouch for the anarchy that these 3-wheelers let loose everyday. The road is pretty wide there, but the autos clog the place in such a way that one has to tread the stretch very carefully in order to avoid accidents.

Did you say what the police do? Well, the answer is they do nothing. Instead of police, the autowallahs listen to semi-literate union bosses, who care a damn about traffic congestion and the obvious danger for those passing by.

But then that is how the public transport is in the city. Do anything, and if you’ve political blessings, you need not fear anybody.

The India story

Finance Minister Chidambaram’s job is full of thorns. He is credited with once presenting a ‘dream budget’. Accolades there have been, but now one sees creases increasing on his forehead. The main reason: inflation is inching up. First the Congress President, now even the country’s President has expressed dismay at rising prices of essentials. [Image source]

Chidambaram cannot be blamed for not trying. He knows if the country has to maintain a growth path, which it is doing now, inflation has to increase. It’s because growth of economy creates commensurately more demand for goods, pushing up prices. If he makes money dearer thereby restricting its supply, which the RBI has been doing for awhile, he runs the risk of making production of goods and services costlier.

Which in turn may discourage businesses to cut down their borrowings that may put a brake on India’s growth story. The Left, committed as they now are in fast economic development (watch the huge investments planned in Bengal), cites the example of China that apparently has a low stable inflation rate in spite of mammoth investments.

While these promise to become hair-splitting issues for the economists, especially in view of forthcoming budget and the nosedive of stock-market indices this week, let us turn to what life actually is on the ground and what the future is likely to be.

Today afternoon, in a Star Ananda news item, we’re told that while potato costs Rs.6 a kg in open market and onion Rs.20, they’re available at Rs.4.50 and Rs.13 a kg respectively at Pantaloon Group’s Big Bazaar outlets. Similar is the story for other vegetables as well.

Big Bazaar spokesman says that since they buy perishables in huge quantity directly from the farmers (that are then repacked in their central storehouse and delivered to 6 Kolkata outlets), they get supplies at a far less cost, and so they are able to offer them at prices lower than prevailing rates in local markets.

This then is going to be the rule rather than exception in days to come as more retail giants appear on the scene. We’ll see intense competition among them. And with lucrative add-ons like assured quality, home delivery, multiple freebies, and so on, who knows our neighborhood vegetable sellers may soon become ‘endangered species’ in not-so-distant future.


Technorati Tags: inflation, economic growth, rbi, chidambaram, star ananda, india

Kolkata Book Fair, 2007

Belying Publishers’ & Booksellers’ Guild’s (Guild for short) firm belief and contrary to expectations of many (including me), the Kolkata Book Fair this year is a resounding success at the new venue at the sprawling peripheral area of Salt Lake Stadium complex at Kadapara on EM Bypass.

The area of the fair is spread wide, has multiple entries, all from Bypass, is connected well from all corners of the city and suburbs, and more importantly, there is almost negligible dust pollution. Throngs of people are moving about, soaking in the ambience as usual, which doesn’t give any impression that the Guild must suffer any pang of guilt.

But suffer it does, and one hears there is a childlike vow to return to a ‘city’ venue next year. It’s a ‘struggle’ for them to fight for what is their ‘due’, which is to hold the fair anywhere along the route the metro takes. Since Maidan is out of bounds for good, the Guild is trying to hold next year’s fair at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium.

Here are some collections from the fair. They range from BESU students demanding INI status (Institute of National Importance) to rock-climbing to a smallish near-empty US pavilion to the one showing northern end of the fair with Hyatt Regency forming the backdrop. Also, enjoy a video treat of bauls singing at the fair.










Related reading:

1. Book fair to shift
2. A dishonest government
3. Will the book fair shift?

Technorati Tags: kolkata book fair, calcutta book fair, book fair, kolkata, calcutta

Singur: More land needed

On a day when the CCEA (Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs) of the central government green-signaled Salim Group’s investment of Rs.2250 crore for the 1st phase of infrastructure development in Bengal, a study by center’s heavy industries ministry has come out that says that 997 acres of land acquired by Tata Motors in Singur is less than optimum requirement (ref: ABP, Feb 23). Let’s see what is said in the study.

Gurgaon’s Maruti plant stands on 1250 acres, Mahindra’s Mumbai plant on 1060 acres, even Tata Motors’ Pune plant is built on 1110 acres of land. The study has found that a car plant’s productivity increases significantly over a long period by shaving off just a few seconds in every hour of work.

For example, in Maruti’s Gurgaon plant, in the final assembly line the nut-bolt tray is brought forward from behind, which has seen an incremental saving of only one and a half second per hour of work. This apparently insignificant time-saving has however translated into an increased manufacturing of 30,000 cars per year from the plant.

What this means is that in car plants there must be a ‘science of convenience’ between the main assembly plant on one hand and the various sub-plants on the other. It is for this reason that big car plants also have various car accessories plants (the second stage) as well as suppliers’ facilities that supply to accessories plants (the third stage). When all work in tandem, the combined effect is reflected in the main plant’s ability to improve productivity.

The heavy industries’ ministry’s report has estimated that at least 450 acres of land is necessary for the main assembly plant to churn out 1 lakh cars a year, after which for every one-lakh more production, the land requirement increases by 25%. This means for the Singur plant to make 3 lakh small cars every year, Tata Motors would need another 225 acres of land.

Since in addition the 2nd and 3rd stage facilities need land equivalent to at least 90% of the main plant, it is clear to see that the total land required for a 1-lakh+ car per annum plant ought to be minimum 1080 acres. Further, for future expansion, 20% more land has been prescribed.

Singur’s proposed plant falls short in terms of land required to build a world-class modern facility. In which case, Tata Motors may prefer having the 3rd stage facilities located not in the main compound but in a separate place nearby.

Will the above report sway the opposition mood in favor of the factory? No chance, for they’re too committed to protect poverty and mediocrity from the ‘onslaught’ of modernity and better living. But the report will go a long way to silence the ‘pundits’ among their ranks who doubted why so much land is required for Singur plant.

Technorati Tags: tata motors, maruti, tata, singur, kolkata, calcutta, west bengal, bengal

Kolkata’s lucrative west

Sometime back, I wrote how away from the din of Singur and Nadigram agitations, a new amader-dabi-mante-hobe style of ‘struggle’ was brewing up at Salim-Ciputra promoted Kolkata West International City (KWIC) – this one to protest the naming, Kolkata West for the project (see my post, Kolkata West is but Howrah).

Lest you think this is a frivolous protest, think again. KWIC, for good measure, is a Howrah township, off NH-6 near Howrah-Amta Road. But as everyone knows, Kolkata has better market value than Howrah, and so Salim-Ciputra cannot be blamed because after all they’ve to sell KWIC to prospective buyers. No emotion there, only hard calculation.

Now comes the Dankuni township. If its name is anything but Kolkata ‘something’ – for this too lies west of Kolkata, albeit in Hooghly district – then KWIC’s future residents may have a cause to feel upset. But then it’s not how they feel that is important, for the onus is squarely on promoters’ shoulders to see that the project goes through without any hiccup.

The Dankuni township, to be built by a consortium led by Delhi-based DLF group and including Singapore’s Sentosa Group and HDFC, is a mammoth affair involving an investment of Rs.33,000 crore over 10 years, stated to be the largest public-private partnership project in the country thus far. It’ll come up on 4870 acres of land, about 5 times the area of upcoming Singur car factory, of which 1862 acres will be residential area. See this TT news. [DLF Square Tower in Gurgaon (right): image source]

Since the Dankuni project will mean eviction of about 600 families (22 in 1644-acre first phase), will this too face similar protests like Singur? It will without doubt, for, to the exclusion of everything else, the ‘save-land’ issue is now the only weapon in the arsenal of opposition parties in Bengal today.

Technorati Tags: kolkata, calcutta, bengal, west bengal, dankuni

FDI versus FII

India is gradually entering that stage from where it’ll be able to grow by leaps and bounds. All figures point in that direction – the GDP growth, the inching high of inflation, and now the FDI amount. FDI, or Foreign Direct Investment, has seen doubling from $3.23 billion in 2004-05 to $7.23 billion in 2006-07 till Nov ’06 [ref: today's (Feb 22) ET, Kolkata edition].

Experts say the whole year figure of 2006-07 ought to be close to the magical $10 billion than what is actually recorded, because a fair chunk of it is actually reinvestment of profits earned by foreign companies and therefore not noted by the government in its calculations.

FDI is a measure of confidence on the part of foreign companies for the reason that, compared to FII or Foreign Institutional Investment, this is spent on actual operations on the ground like acquiring or building tangible assets, starting new plants, establishing new firms, etc.

Since in most cases FDI stays invested in our country, the amount so spent or the assets built cannot leave unlike FII. In other words, FDI translates into long-term benefits for the people of the country. For the record, FDI inflow into China hovers around $50 billion annually.

The probability of similar things happening to India too is the reason why these days the investment figures like Wal-Mart’s billion dollars entry into retail market or Salim Group’s proposed Rs.25,000 crore spending for infrastructure projects in Bengal over a decade boggle the mind.

In sharp contrast, FII is termed ‘hot money’ because here the sum is investment for Indian stocks without any longer term commitment, which means this amount may and does leave with the twinkling of an eye if the going gets tough.

Economic analysts opine that at long last there is a real chance of FDI overtaking FII amount, which is a sure indication that India has earned its rightful place in global investment arena.

We’re beginning to see the early fruits of large-scale investments in the form of expansion in job market. As more money flows in, there’ll be requirement of people to ensure that there is matching return on investment. It is then that India will slowly but surely move away from hitherto typical Indianised thinking that earning money is bad.

Technorati Tags: fdi, fdi retail, retail, wal-mart, fdi inflow, india, india retail

Edmilson – East Bengal’s oxygen

After he scored both the goals in Feb 19 NFL tie against JCT in Ludhiana, Edmilson has become the cynosure of all eyes in East Bengal. Not without reason. Ever since East Bengal lost the services of Baichumg Bhutia beginning this season, it suffered several defeats in spite of playing well solely because it did not have a genuine striker who could convert the chances into goals. Baichung's pairing with Junior during the 8th NFL season was perhaps one of the best striking-duo East Bengal ever had in recent times. [Edmilson's picture left source]

This time, East Bengal did try quite a few foreign recruits, but none shone. In fact, it approached a striker of the recently-visited Sao Paulo team, but the transfer fee asked was too high for even a top Indian team like East Bengal to pay. And then came Edmilson Marques.

Brazil’s national team has had several Edmilsons’ in the past, the most recent being Edmilson Gomes, who donned national colors in their 2002 World Cup team, and currently plays for Spanish giant, FC Barcelona.

While Edmilson has apparently solved East Bengal’s woes for the present, Mohun Bagan on the other hand is not performing well despite having a dream team with Jose Barreto and Baichung Bhutia in their ranks.

The way Mohun Bagan has changed its coach twice in the current season, it’ll not be wrong to say that the club’s heads lack clear thinking. Nepotism rules roost, and as a result even a classy player of the caliber of Barreto is unable to perform.

One only hopes that its new coach, the mercurial forward of yesteryears, Chima Okerie, is able to turn the tide in its favor. Chima returns to his old club, this time as a coach, and he too like East Bengal’s Edmilson is at the center of all attractions. Good if he succeeds. If not, then Mohun Bagan will have to forget winning NFL this season.


Technorati Tags: east bengal, mohun bagan, edmilson, football, kolkata, calcutta

Owning stadiums, meaning business

The left rule of 3 decades has ensured that powerful ministers and leaders of the main ruling party have come to ‘own’ lucrative public properties, notably stadiums.

Close to where I stay is the Jadavpur Stadium, a sprawling but unkempt campus, which I’m told ‘belongs’ to Sunderbans minister, Kanti Ganguly. What this means is no major functions can take place there without his ‘consent’.

I go to Jadavpur Stadium – referred as Kishore Bharati Krirangan when spoken about in gatherings – each morning to stretch my limbs, and I’ve to say that despite a nice built-up area and enough space, the stadium wears a sorry look. One glance, and you’ll know no effort is taken for its care. Who’d say once IFA’s premier league matches used to be played here!

But Jadavpur Stadium pales in size, name and fame when compared to Salt Lake Stadium (let’s call it SLS), aka Yuva Bharati Krirangan (যুব ভারতী ক্রীড়াঙ্গন). SLS is a giant, seats a lakh spectators, and has a surrounding area that can easily accommodate a mini township.

But for all its glamour and size, SLS is poorly managed, but at least games are played there. Among other events, Kolkata football matches are played inside its precinct, while its outside hosts major fairs (for example, Kolkata Book Fair is currently on there). SLS is ‘owned’, sorry looked after by the powerful Sports minister, Subhas Chakraborty.

One remembers Subhas’ call for blood (much along the line of Netaji’s call for blood for freedom of motherland) in perhaps 80s’ to be donated to raise money for building the stadium. His immature thinking meant that huge quantity of blood had to waste in absence of proper mechanism for storage. [Picture of SLS above source]

His immaturity kept pace with his strange ways of raising money for the stadium, including holding till recently all-night gala events there with Bollywood stars, digging holes in the ground to hold stages. He did all that, but one feels he could have done better by handing over the stadium to professionals, who have experience to look after it. He didn't, and perhaps for that, loosing ‘control’ over the stadium if he did so was and still is the reason.

Meanwhile, even as the CM has come to ‘own’ Eden Gardens through his proxy, the city police chief, another heavyweight, the urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya has stolen a march over all of them.

The Rajdanga playing ground, adjacent to Siemens’ complex on Rashbehari Avenue -Bypass connector, a property of KMDA of which Bhattacharya is the chairman, will see a major facelift.

To be launched tomorrow (Feb 22), Rajdanga Sports Complex, as it’ll come to be known in future, will be a Rs.200 crore mixed-project affair to be developed by city-based realtors, Merlin, that will have 750,000 sq ft tower, Acropolis, as well as a 4000-seater multi-discipline sports stadium, that will be transferred to KMDA after being built. See this TT story.

Clearly, Ashok Bhattacharya has shown the path as to how sports complex can be brought in the realm of creating wealth and making money for self-sustaining. Will the same happen to other sports stadiums in the city and elsewhere in the state? Only time will tell.

KM changes

A facelift has occured. KolkataMusing has changed. The last week has been hectic. Lots of work doing the html properly, seeing that layout comes out exactly as desired, and all those took quite an effort.

Even now bugs remain here and there. And some more work is still left. That will expectedly take couple of days more. Hopefully then the site will be ready fully.

As always, it feels nice to hear from you, my esteemed visitors. I look forward to that.

Kolkata trams

One of the most enduring images of Kolkata is the python like tramcars. Talking of trams in Kolkata, the visions that pass like a kaleidoscope are their trundling with a droning crushing noise often at a speed less than a cyclist’s, the utterly unkempt and dangerous tracks they run on, and of course the lengthy traffic jams they nonchalantly create in peak hours. A change is now on the anvil.

Close to having the tracks concretized after much hemming and hawing, the CTC (or Calcutta Tramways Company) is for the first time in several decades thinking of getting completely new-look tramcars with ‘modern amenities’ made by the Bangalore-based PSU BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited). See this Feb 18 news.

Time they improve the fleet. Several well-meaning persona have vociferously opposed phasing out of tramcars from Kolkata, if only for the reasons that they are pollution-free and that they represent Kolkata’s rich heritage. Quite a few cities do have tramcars, for example London, but they’re efficiently managed.

Not so in Kolkata. Let’s hope new fleet rev up flagging morale of CTC personnel. In my opinion, there's a big lacuna in trams becoming the preferred mode of transport in the city. In most places they run in the middle of the road, and there's simply no safe and decent way to board or alight from them without risking being hit by other vehicles. Just this inconvenience pointedly shows how callous the authorities are.

For the record, only Kolkata in India still has tramcars, the first horse drawn service having commenced on Feb 24, 1873 between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street. The other 4, Mumbai, Chennai, Nasik and Kanpur, that once had them, discontinued long back. [More reading]


Hanover tram [Picture source]

Double-decker tram in London [Picture source]


Technorati Tags: tram, trams, tramcar, tramcars, kolkata, calcutta

1 lakh crore

Flaunting figures is an age-old passion. Dames with nice curves suggest a command on figure, as much as biceps and triceps of manliness speak of an earnest desire to figure well. As a learning student, as an adult earner, the more the figures are on the positive side, the better it is.

Now in Bengal, figures are taking an altogether different meaning. The reason is they are mind-boggling. Look at what Rahul Todi of Bengal Shrachi says in ET Feb 16 issue. According to him, New Town will easily see real estate investments to the tune of Rs.14,500 crore in the coming decade. [Silencing critics!! Image source left]

Is Todi too much gung ho about the scale of real estate development in New Town? Perhaps not if we take a look at this Financial Express story. US’ Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), world’s largest real estate and investment management company, has started a Kolkata office. See my post, Kolkata no longer a blip.

According to JLL’s country head, Vincent Lottefier, as much as 40% of overseas venture capital and hedge funds operating in India is now planning to invest in Kolkata properties. I remember listening to equity strategist Christopher Wood of CLSA Ltd., Hong Kong on NDTV Profit early November last saying that Kolkata is the hottest realty market in India (see this post, Kolkata realty hots up).

But Todi’s 14,500 crore pales when Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon says yesterday that Assocham (Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry), the Delhi-based chambers of commerce which Dhoot currently heads, expects to attract Rs.1 lakh crore in Bengal by 2010 for investment in a clutch of industries. See TT story.

Talking of flaunting of figures, I suppose we’re no longer swayed by less or more of them. Perhaps we seem to agree that is what they ought to be. But that is another story.

Kolkata of 2007

A city’s growth never ceases. The pangs of growing however diminish as time passes, as the metropolis settles down to organized way of living and moving about. This is singularly untrue about Kolkata, where the only constant is chaos and utter callousness.

I’ve come across many writings and personal interactions, and I’ve found that many visitors do not feel welcome when they land here. They experience such a dramatic change in perception that they feel they ought to have rather avoided Kolkata.

I’ve narrated several such outpourings in my posts, the latest, A visitor’s account of Kolkata, is a poignant reminder of how unbecoming Kolkata appears to others.

What is unfortunate is the powers-that-be that occupies chairs of governance is blissfully ignorant – rather arrogantly dismissive – of this grim reality. The know-all whims of politicians and their cohorts rule the roost instead of well-meaning concerted efforts to improve the standard of living in the city.

Yet, the city moves, because it has to. The city moves because it is lived in by millions of dwellers preferred by choice or by circumstances that leave no option. For them, the toiling masses, here are bits and pieces of good happenings that may be expected in the city this year.

Road

• The AJC Bose Road flyover will have two vital exit ramps, one of which in Beckbagan.
  
  
• Work is expected to start on the Dunlop Interchange (to ease flow of traffic from new Vivekananda Bridge), the Vivekananda Road flyover from Girish Park all the way to Howrah Bridge, and the 2-tier flyover from Park Circus intersection to Parama Island on EM Bypass.
  
  
• The Prince Anwar Shah Road connector, from Jadavpur police station to EM Bypass, is likely to be opened before Bengali New Year.
  
  
• Chingrighata to Nicco Park, all of 800 meters, will be widened to accommodate more traffic.
  
  
• The main arterial 10.5 km New Town is being re-laid to ensure journey smooth as silk. Time: 9 to 11 months.
  
  
• EM Bypass will extend by 11 km from Garia to Sonarpur, and then by another 7 km to Baruipur.

Airport

• If 2006 has seen Lufthansa and Emirates touching base in Kolkata taking the place of JetStar Asia and Malaysia Airline, this year may see Air China, Ithiad Airways, Qatar Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airline arriving to Kolkata. Of course, others already here will increase their frequency and perhaps add more destinations. Who knows, even Italy’s Alitalia may come calling soon if Italy PM’s assurances in his recent Kolkata trip are any indication.
  
  
• A new international terminal building is likely to start at a cost of Rs.225 crore. A new cargo complex will become operational. The new terminal building will have 2-level operations for arrival and departure along with separate car parking facility.

Malls

• A poila boisakh inauguration of South City Mall on Prince Anwar Shah Road is on the anvil. Armed with 4 anchor stores and a 6-screen multiplex, this 600,000 sq ft mall promises to be the most happening destination even in upmarket Jodhpur Park area.
  
  
• Another poila boisakh debut will be that of 602,000 sq ft Mani Square Mall on EM Bypass with the same format as South City Mall’s.
  
  
• 200,000 sq ft Lake Mall will be ready soon at the place where erstwhile dingy-looking Lake Market stood.
  
  
• Bengal Ambuja’s City Center II at New Town is also set to open before Puja, while Pantaloons will have its country’s largest showroom at Kankurgachi in addition to a big one at South City Mall.
  
  
• Work has already commenced at rebuilding of College Street market, where yet another large format mall, christened ‘Barnaparichay’ (see my post, Barnaparichay – The Mall), will rear its nice-looking aesthetic head in a year’s time.

This post is sourced from this Jan 1 TT story.


Technorati Tags: kolkata, calcutta

Splendor of splurging

No longer is country’s consuming populace held back by lack of choice. A far cry from days when ‘phoren’ goods used to define how ‘well’ one is, today’s consumers have learnt to live life ‘kingsize’, which is by way of splurging over consumer items. Let us look at some figures that stare at me in today’s ET (Feb 17).

The pie that belongs to organized retail sale in the entire countrywide consumer spend of $445 billion (Rs.20 lakh crore) is worth $12.4 billion or Rs.55,000 crore in 2006. Within Rs.20 lakh crore is embedded both organized and unorganized retail sale of Rs.12 lakh crore and the rest Rs.8 lakh crore toward other spends like rent, education, health, travel, family, etc.

Talking about organized retail sale of Rs.55,000 crore, it has seen an annual growth of 34.8% between 2004 and 2006. This is an awesome increase by any yardstick, yet experts say all we’re seeing today is only scratching the surface. This explains why there is a virtual scramble among top guns to establish retail chains across the country.

Among the top items in organized retail sale, the breakup is like this (year-on-year growth ’04 to ’06 given within brackets).

• Clothing, textile and fashion: Rs.18,500 crore (30.3%)
• Food and grocery: Rs.5,000 crore (30.8%)
• Footwear: Rs.4,500 crore (34.2%) -> surprise!
• Consumer durables: Rs.4,300 crore (31.2%)
• Food and beverage: Rs.3,400 crore (30.8%)

Related reading:

1. Onrush of retailing
2. Reliance’s retail push
3. Wall-Mart and the rest

Technorati Tags: retail, consumer, consumers, indian, india, chain store

Sex fair

Sex fair in Kolkata! Well, why not, would be the echoes of 65,000-strong Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), the apex body of sex workers in Bengal. The fair, called the All India Conference of Entertainment Workers (AICEW), billed as the biggest and first such meet of entertainment workers in the city, is slated to commence from Feb 25.

There will be famed invitees to grace the 7-day meet, notably film directors Mahesh Bhatt, Goutam Ghosh, Rituparno Ghosh and even Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi. See this news report.

Debates on issues like Festival of Pleasure, Entertainment in Development, Entertainment in Revolution, and Sexual Rights and Relationship are expected to attract most attention, even as there will be fair and cultural events as well.

To be sure, there are issues of serious concern that affect the society at large that will be debated threadbare, AIDS for example.

The meet however sends an unequivocal demand that there has to be decriminalization of adult sex work and reform of laws that now restrict the human rights of sex workers, and tend to criminalize them and limit their enfranchisement as full citizens.


Melinda Gates at Sonagachi - Commitment for controlling HIV/AIDS [Picture source]


Technorati Tags: sex, sex worker, aids, sonagachi, sex fair, kolkata, calcutta

Vertical parking

With the decks getting cleared of interference and work stoppages, the parking plaza underneath Lindsay Street opposite New Market is now ready for what it is meant for. According to new plans, it is slated for inauguration around Bengali New Year’s day at the hands of CM, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The project builder, Simplex Projects Limited, has earlier made the Parkomat, a multi-level parking bay on Rawdon Street, off Park Street cemetery in 2001. Both have computerized operation, where a car left at entry level will be taken by computer-controlled elevator to the floor where vacant slot is available.

New Market plaza, which was due for commissioning end 2003, suffered delays caused agitation and interference by local residents and politicians, and New Market traders.

After this one, the next vertical parking bay on the anvil is The Courtyard, the new ‘Forum’ address adjacent to its present building on Elgin Road. The Courtyard, a designer piece, will house helix parking slots from 2nd to 6th floor, while each floor is connected with long corridors with Forum to enable easy movement of people. See my post, Calcutta International School and Forum.

During the recent pre-construction stone-laying ceremony of The Courtyard, city’s mayor spoke of the need to have many more vertical parking bays in the metropolis since the city’s road space is too constrained to accommodate increasing number of vehicles parked there.

There is talk of making an underground multi-level parking plaza at Laldighi opposite Writers Building, which when implemented (presently there’s a feud between KMDA and PWD as to who’ll do the work – wonder why!), will mainly accommodate all the hired government cars.

The time is already past when thoughts should have been spared to free the city from burdening burgeoning number of cars. But then, as they say, better be late than never. The next step, already overdue, will be to severely curb the waywardness of city buses. When will that happen is anybody’s guess.

Related reading: Parking lot unveil, after a lot of dawdle

Stopping traffic

Guess what stopped traffic yesterday afternoon on busy Rashbehari Avenue for close to 90 minutes! Not ‘Valentine’ celebrations (notwithstanding love-oozing young couples in hordes out on streets), not also the enthusiasm of street-people watching India’s batting prowess at Goa on roadside TVs, but the 3 km long procession it was to celebrate Swami Pranabanandaji’s birth anniversary. Swami who, I can hear you asking.

Swami Pranabananda founded Bharat Sevashram Sangha (let’s say BSS, though there’s another BSS in the vicinity, Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan, which is a more popular BSS), its office located near Ballygunge Station. So for any on-road celebration, it’s the long stretch of Rashbehari Avenue that they choose. Convenience plus good exposure, not bad that!

I, traveling in a worn-down public bus, was among the unfortunate hundreds stranded with nothing to do. Up ahead the story was same, which meant I would not have any mode of transport unless I decided to walk all the way, which clearly I was in no mood doing, at least not for Swami Pranabananda.

These were times when you could test your stock of juicy abuses. There were plenty floating around, not all of which tasted good. But the one that evoked instant laughter went thus:

I spoke to Pranab (referring his friend) this morning. He never said his birthday is celebrated this way!

Well, not all ‘Pranabs’ are so lucky, not even our own Pranab da, who was busy confabulating with the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers in Delhi around the same time yesterday.


City of traffic stopper!

Technorati Tags: bharat sevashram sangha, kolkata, calcutta, gariahat, ballygunge

Bengali in British schools

When the sahibs came to colonize India and much of South Asia and elsewhere, there was onus on learning English, the then numero uno language. Indeed the British made a well-demarcated distinction between those who felt comfortable in English and those who didn’t. The natives who could confabulate in English (some even better than them) and write well in that language ranked high in their scheme of things. The others were just ‘they’, the brown natives.

History has now turned a full circle. 300 years after the colonization and lot of water down the Thames later, the British are waking up to the importance of 3rd world languages. Among them are Bengali, Urdu and Mandarin Chinese.

If Alan Johnson, the British Secretary of State for Education, has his way, British schools will soon have the 3 languages as elective subjects for 11-14 year olds. The awakening is the result of recognizing 2 aspects.

One, Britain today has many multilingual immigrants than they had in the past, and it is important that students who wish to learn the languages have the choice to do so. This means Bengali, Urdu and Mandarin Chinese will join the ranks of French, German and Spanish as optional languages one of which must be learnt along with English.

The second reason has more to do with an eye on distant horizon. With India and China rapidly occupying the center-stage of rapid development, which will remain so for foreseeable future, there is an urgent need to have the pupils conversant in these languages if only to keep pace with the change taking place.

I’ve been looking at this article, British bosses choose foreign workers over lazy British, in which David Frost, the director general of a British business lobby group says it is troubling how British businesses are turning away from British workers. Here is how he elaborates:

It is troubling that so many businesses do not want to employ British workers. The UK's chronic skills shortage must be addressed by the government and reform of the school curriculum is needed to ensure that young people enter the workforce with the necessary skills and the right attitude to get on at work.

Seems that not only the schools, even the British workplace is destined to see more changes in coming days. History does repeat, did you say!

The ABCs of Bengalis

Fun here, pun there. This more or less sums up the ‘V-Day’ gift below I received this morning. These are what ABCs suppose to stand for in Bengali lexicon for each English alphabet. Know no Bengali? Oh, you miss an interesting tribe (not the least 'cause I'm one)! Never mind, take a peek below. Also see 'Son of Bengal vs A Bengal Tiger' in my post, Some fun.

A is for Awpheesh (aka Office).
This is where the average Kolkatan goes and spends a day hard at work. And if he works for the 'Vest Bengal Gawrment' he will arrive at 10, wipe his forehead till 11, have a tea break at 12, throw around a few files at 12.30, break for lunch at 1, smoke an unfiltered cigarette at 2, break for tea at 3, sleep sitting down at 4 and go home at 4:30. It's a hard life!

B is for Bhision.
For some reason many Bengalis don't have good bhision. In fact in Kolkata most people are wearing spectacles all the time.

C is for Chappell.
Currently, this is the Bengali word for the Devil, for the worst form of evil. In the night mothers put their kids to sleep saying, 'Na ghumaley Chappell eshey dhorey niye jabe.'

D is for Debashish or any other name starting with Deb.
By an ancient law every fourth Bengali Child has to be named Debashish. So you have a Debashish everywhere and trying to get creative they are also called Deb, Debu, Deba with variations like Debopriyo, Deboprotim, Debojyoti, etc. thrown in at times.

E is for Eeesh.
This is a very common Bengali exclamation made famous by Aishwarya Rai in the movie Devdas. It is estimated that on an average a Bengali, especially Bengali women, use eeesh 10,089 times every year. 'Ei Morechhey' is a close second to Eeesh.

F is for Feeesh.
These are creatures that swim in rivers and seas and are a favorite food of the Bengalis. Despite the fact that a fish market has such strong smells, with one sniff a Bengali knows if a fish is all right. If not, he will say 'eeesh, what feeesh is theesh!'

G is for Good name.
Every Bengali boy will have a good name like Debashish or Deboprotim and a pet name like Motka, Bhombol, Thobla, etc. While every Bengali girl will have pet names like Tia, Tuktuki, Mishti, Khuku, et cetera.

H is for Harmonium.
This the Bengali equivalent of a rock guitar. Take four Bengalis and a Harmonium and you have the successors to The Bheatles!

I is for lleesh.
This is a feeesh with 10,000 bones which would kill any ordinary person, but which the Bengalis eat with releeesh!

J is for Jhola.
No self-respecting Bengali is complete without his Jhola. It is a shapeless cloth bag where he keeps all his belongings and he fits an amazing number of things in. Even as you read this there are two million jholas bobbling around Kolkata, and they all look exactly the same! Note that 'Jhol' as in Maachher Jhol is a close second.

K is for Kee Kaando!
It used to be the favorite Bengali exclamation till eeesh took over because of Aishwarya Rai (now Kee Kando's agent is trying to hire Bipasha Basu).

L is for Lungi.
It’s the dress for all occasions. People in Kolkata manage to play football and cricket wearing it not to mention the daily trip in the morning to the local bajaar. Now there is talk of a lungi expedition to Mt Everest.

M is for Minibus.
These are dangerous half buses whose antics would effortlessly frighten the living daylights out of all James Bond stuntmen as well as Formula 1 race car drivers.

N is for Nangto (my addition ‘Nongu’, meaning same, just a variation).
This is the Bengali word for Naked. It is the most interesting naked word in any language!

O is for Oil.
The Bengalis believe that a touch of mustard oil will cure anything from cold (oil in the nose), to earache (oil in the ear), to cough (oil on the throat) to piles (oil you know where!).

P is for Phootball.
This is always a phavourite phassion of the Kolkattan. Every Bengali is born an expert in this game. The two biggest clubs are Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and when they play the city comes to a stop.

Q is for Queen.
This really has nothing to do with the Bengalis or Kolkata, but it's the only Q word I could think of at this moment. There's also Quilt but they never use them in Kolkata.

R is for Robi Thakur.
Many many years ago Rabindranath got the Nobel Prize. This has given the right to all Bengalis no matter where they are to frame their acceptance speeches as if they were directly related to the great poet and walk with their head held high. This also gives Bengalis the birthright to look down at Delhi and Mumbai and of course 'all non-Bengawlees'! Note that 'Rawshogolla' comes a close second!

S is for Shourav.
Now that they finally produced a genuine cricketer and a captain, Bengalis think that he should be allowed to play until he is 70 years old. Of course they will see to it that he stays in good form by doing a little bit of 'jawggo' and 'maanot'.

T is for Trams.
Hundred years later there are still trams in Kolkata. Of course, if you are in a hurry it's faster to walk.

U is for Aambrela.
When a Bengali baby is born he is handed one.

V is for Bhaayolence.
Bengalis are the most non-violent violent people around. When an accident happens they will fold up their sleeves, shout and scream and curse and abuse, "Chherey De Bolchhi" but the last time someone actually hit someone was in 1979.

W is for Water.
For three months of the year the city is under water and every year for the last 200 years the authorities are taken by surprise!

X is for X'mas.
It's very big in Kolkata, with Park Street fully lit up and all Bengalis agreeing that they must eat cake that day.

Y is for Yesshtaarday.
Which is always better than today for a Bengali (see R for Robi Thakur).

Z is for Jebra, Joo, Jipper and Jylophone.

If you've some collection, why not join them here!

Technorati Tags: bengali, bengalis, bengal, kolkata, calcutta

Vodafone on call

I’m a Hutch subscriber for close to 5 years, and I’m happy that Vodafone has acquired 67% controlling stake in Hutch-Essar from HTIL (Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd). See my post, Will it be Vodafone?

Okay, my fondness for Vodafone has nothing to do with its service, because I haven’t had the opportunity of using its service. It stems from the brand’s high visibility, especially in the field of sports. That apart, not only is Vodafone world’s largest telecom company, being a part of it will make customers like us a part of world’s largest mobile community ‘seamlessly’. [Image source left]

According to news reports (see today’s TT story, Get set for the Vodafone way), Vodafone’s unique package will be such that Indians who opt for it will have global roaming access so that while visiting countries where it has coverage, they can make calls at local rates.

That’s not all. Once the enabling technologies are in place, Vodafone users in India like those say in UK will receive state-of-the-art access to 3G phones, broadband, convergence between PCs and mobiles, and links to top world websites like ebay, MySpace and YouTube among others.

Though the price has been pretty steep, Vodafone honchos, its main shareholders and analysts are upbeat at acquisition of Hutch’s stake. Vodafone UK already has about 16 million subscribers, and it hopes to push its India market share to 20-25% in 5 years flat. It’ll be interesting to watch the scenario as it has all the masalas to hot up in near future.

Technorati Tags: vodafone

Paying for transfer

2 days after Spanish football giant FC Barcelona is reported to have offered an all-time high of about Rs.258 crore as transfer fee to Manchester United to acquire Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo, India’s own big trio, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mahindra United are sitting in Bangalore tomorrow to decide on starting the concept of transfer fees among them.

Right now, an informal understanding exists between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, whereby if any player is poached on, the club that makes the move will pay Rs.10 lakhs to the other. This is possible as both clubs are presently controlled by Vijay Mallya’s UB Group.

But now that National Football League’s (NFL) prestige has grown as the most important football tourney in India at the club level, poaching of players from other clubs has also grown manifold. It is for this reason that the 2 corporate companies, UB and Mahindra have agreed to arrange this meeting in Bangalore.

If a consensus is reached about transfer fees, one may expect this incorporated for all football teams registered with AIFF (All India Football Federation). It’s time this is done, because it is one of the important steps to involve more corporate companies in football, the way it is in nearly all football-playing nations.


Technorati Tags: east bengal, mohun bagan, mahindra united, football, indian football, india

Making money with AdSense

No great disclosure this when I say there is pot of money to be made with Google AdSense. Do I make much? Nope, I do not make even a tiny fraction of what many website owners routinely make of whom I’m going to tell you here.

1
Whoever doesn’t know that man seeks woman, and woman man. We all know but among the few who translated this precious knowledge into a web-action is Marcus Frind of PlentyofFish, a dating site that generates 300,000 relationships a year, making it the “world’s largest singles site”. For the record, PlentyofFish has an Alexa ranking of 710 and homepage PR of 6.

Marcus reportedly has 500 million page-views a month that give rise to not less than $10,000 a day. Here is the image of his 2-months AdSense earnings (the amount 901,733.84 is in Canadian Dollar).


[Picture source]
2
Jeremy Shoemaker of ShoeMoney is a top earner from Google AdSense, making nearly $140,000 a month as the image below will tell you. Like Marcus, Jeremy too is a snazzy marketer. He earns money from ringtones.


[Picture source]
Unlike others, Jeremy doesn’t shy at telling what AdSense has done for him. A good ploy since this alone makes people rushing to his site (you too will I know) marking up his already sizeable traffic.

To reach at more of Jeremy’s scheme of things, have a look at following articles:

• Aaron Walls’ take on profit scalability via Jeremy’s techniques
• SEOmoz interview with Jeremy

3
Erstwhile Weblogs, Inc. owner Jason Calacanis used to reportedly earn $4000 a day from AdSense in his wide network of blogs before he sold Weblogs to AOL for $25 million. Read a August 2005 interview Jason gave to Jennifer Slegg of JenSense that speaks of Jason’s great understanding of AdSense.

4
Joel Comm, while telling us how to earn big on Google AdSense (his book: The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense), has perked up his own AdSense earnings to about $24,000 a month that was in Nov-Dec 2005 as the picture below informs. Guess what his earnings would be now!


[Picture source]
If these examples are pumping adrenalin through your body, let me say there are quite a few who have 5-figure AdSense earnings. For example, Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder is known to earn $1400 a day from AdSense revenues (Google has a case-study on him) and Shawn Hogan of DigitalPoint takes home a cool $10,000 AdSense earnings a month (read a Jan 2006 NY Times article featuring Shawn; needs free registering with NYT) among many others.

Are you off to chalking out your AdSense plans? Sure you are. So am I to figure out how best this site can earn through Google AdSense. I've a good resource though.

If you too want to reap the benefit of AdSense, don't forget to refer to this wholesome guide.


Technorati Tags: google, google adsense, adsense, adsense revenue, adsense earning

Treating cancer

When a close relative of mine had the first symptoms of breast cancer known, she was advised by all and sundry to take treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. “For God’s sake, don’t have it in Kolkata”, they all echoed. She decided on the contrary, preferring Dr. Saikat Gupta’s care at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital instead, and now she is doing okay.

My father too, when he suffered from colon cancer 17 years ago, got all treatment in Kolkata, his post-operative treatment done under the care of legendary cancer specialist, Dr. Saroj Gupta. He recovered well and went on to live for 16 years before succumbing to lungs congestion last year.

If my experience tells otherwise, it is an exception. General perception about quality of medical treatment in Kolkata ranks very low, treatment of cancer more so. Not without reason.

Keeping pace with all-round decline in quality of life in the past few decades, healthcare too in the state worsened. In absence of new facilities in the city, people with moderate sum to spare rushed to southern states, while the cancer patients would much rather prefer Mumbai in place of who-knows-what-may-happen Kolkata.

In the last few years, the tide is gradually ebbing in favor of state-of-the-art facilities that have come up in the city. Apart from Apollo Gleneagles, the radiology department in Dhakuria’s AMRI Hospital caters to large number of cancer patients.

To that will now add more options that are fast taking shape. Tata Memorial will have a Rs.120 crore super-specialized hospital in Rajarhat, christened Tata Medical Center, dedicated to cancer treatment. Apollo also is jacking up cancer treatment facility in its existing campus on EM Bypass for Rs.40 crore. Not to be outdone, Thakurpukur’s Cancer Center Welfare Home and Research Institute too is going for Rs.12 crore upgrade plans.

There is business to be had in Kolkata for treating cancer, what with over 24% of 230,000 patients Tata Memorial in Mumbai attends to coming from the east and northeast of the country.

But there will be other advantages as well. Superior service at these upcoming hospitals will raise the bar of overall healthcare sector, for nothing spells success than competition.

Related reading:

1. Rs.200 crore uplift in cancer care
2. Predicting cancer
3. Fat aids cancer

How resurgent is Bengal

Given the intensity of opposition movement, doubts about industrial resurgence in Bengal have surfaced in many minds. Compare this with the time last year when the LF romped home with 10:1 majority. Didn’t LF win on the plank of developing industry? Oh yeah, they did. Why then the doubts now in some of their of their comrades’ minds, not to speak of the hapless those who are on the verge of loosing their lands?

Good this has happened. Good, because there’ll now be some introspection. No, I’m not raising the flag of ‘hallowed’ opposition, who feel they’re now the new messiah of landless laborers and agricultural workers. For sure I agree to what they say, farming is our base, industry the future. No nation on earth progressed or can progress based on agriculture alone. This is not a new story.

The new story is whether Bengal can indeed carry with it the ‘resurgence’ tag attached to it. On the face of it, as I mentioned in the first line, it doesn’t seem the path to resurgence will be a cakewalk. On the contrary, there’ll be hiccups, plenty of them, some even as bad as faring poorly in coming panchayat elections.

And that is where the actual doubt lies. Will the ruling parties be calculative enough to target the larger goal than getting bothered by short-term challenges? This only time will tell.

Meanwhile if Singur can come up really fast on the back of Tata Motors’ urgency to roll out their cars by mid next year, it can be held as proof as to why industries are needed. Singur’s success may turn out as crossing the proverbial threshold beyond which reservations about putting land for industry’s use gradually pale.

In the midst of all this brouhaha, the Italian PM has selected Kolkata his first destination in his India trip. He sits tomorrow with CM to talk business. Opposition’s protests notwithstanding, the strong business delegation accompanying him sends the message loud and clear: Bengal is indeed resurging.

For, if not so, no business person, let alone the head of a G8 nation – group of 8 rich nations that among them controls 65% of world economy – would have cared to set foot in the state. It’s another matter that many of us haven’t yet felt the distant footsteps of Bengal prospering.

Wiki for your website?

One of these days, I wish to pursue having a ‘Wiki’ for this website. According to Wikipedia, a Wiki (pronounced weakie), meaning ‘fast’ in Hawaiian language is “a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, typically without the need for registration”.

Considering that Ward Cunningham, the person who created and named Wiki, installed his creation on an Internet domain way back in March 1995, one may safely say that it wouldn’t have captured widespread imagination of web users but for resounding success of Wikipedia.

Let us see how Wikipedia has become the most-referred online encyclopedia that it is today. When CNN did this study in August 2003, Wikipdia was 132,000-article strong. Today, as of this writing, it has 1,631,978 articles in English alone. Apart from English, Wikipedia has articles in virtually every language of the world, including over 10,000 pages in Bengali.

The reason Wikipedia is now on every web visitors’ lips is because there probably is no topic on which you don’t get some information. But this has happened only after search engines recognized its worth and started ranking high pages from its repository in nearly every search result. 2 things therefore are happening concurrently – the meteoric expansion of Wikipedia articles and search engines’ recognizing them in real time.

Okay, Wikipedia has shown what lots of contents can do to a website. Since Wikipedia is collaborative, meaning anybody can contribute to it, the growth of content is so high. Many people write in Wikipedia if only to create backlinks pointing to their websites, and who doesn’t know what a heavyweight backlink means in Google’s scheme of things!

If you too wish to have a Wiki for your website, why not start exploring how to do in Wikipedia, the biggest Wiki of all!!

Automobile Engineering in Besu

Second to IIT Chennai, Shibpur’s Bengal Engineering & Science University (Besu) will have a course in Automobile Engineering starting July next. When that happens, the 30-odd students who will study the 2-year postgraduate course will surely have a ready job market to be absorbed.

Interestingly, this development is occurring at a time when auto major Tata Motors plans to make Rs.1 lakh car from its proposed Singur plant. In fact Tata Motors has agreed to associate itself with Besu’s center of excellence in automobile engineering.

Besu’s initiative is more laudable because it has tied up with Canada-based University of Windsor (UWindsor for short) for its automobile engineering course. UWindsor is strategically located in southernmost Canada just across the border from Detroit in US state of Michigan, where some of the largest auto companies in the world (GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc.) have their manufacturing facilities.

UWindsor is widely acknowledged as the ‘supplier’ of highly trained manpower for Detroit auto companies. Besu’s association with UWindsor will mean there will be similarities in the former’s course structure and contents. Besu’s 2-year program will include a year of classroom session followed by one year of industrial training.

According to news reports, more automobile companies are planning to enter West Bengal, including Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge and perhaps Toyota at a later stage. Who knows Besu may well start a graduate course if everything proceeds as foreseen. For the moment, 3 faculty members of Besu’s automobile engineering department are set to visit UWindsor for honing their skills to impart solid education.


View of Detroit skyline and Detroit River from UWindsor campus [Picture source]
Related reading: Manpower cradle for car czars


Technorati Tags: automobile engineering, besu, university of windsor, detroit, tata motors, bengal, west bengal

Defiance

The fanfare was missing when the book fair at the Salt Lake Stadium was inaugurated on Feb 9. The CM decided to give it a miss, and instead spoke of ‘pain’ he suffered when the court decided not to permit Kolkata Book Fair at the Maidan.

In absence of CM, the onus fell on transport minister Subhas Chakraborty to lend credence to the fair, though it was inaugurated by Australian novelist, Thomas Keneally, the author of Booker Prize winning novel, Schindler’s Ark that was later made into an Academy Award winning blockbuster movie, Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg.

Keneally’s august presence could not deter minister Chakraborty thundering amid large applause that next year Kolkata Book Fair will return to Maidan. But how?

Both CM and his cabinet colleague are presenting a show of defiance. It’ll not be wrong to say that 3-decade long rein in the state has made them arrogant and feel themselves above law. Lest you think they’ve no respect for law of land, let there be no doubt that if they have any personal dispute to settle (highly unlikely because they are very powerful persons, so only few people will dare pick up personal feud with them), they will inevitably go to the ‘honorable’ courts for settlement.

In my earlier posts (Book fair to shift and Some people’s concern = Others’ misery), I have argued that holding book fair at Maidan is in fact going against Science and the Law of Land.

Since both are creations of beautiful, courageous and reasonable minds, and not by boisterous and arrogant arguments, there is far less sound of exuberance at the High Court’s ruling. This is why poet Sankho Ghosh’s humble submission at the book fair inauguration that “culture does not depend on a particular place to flourish” sounds so loud and clear above the din of powers-that-be.

Italian PM coming

Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister of Italy, is coming today to the city. His city trip being a business visit, he will be accompanied by a 200-member strong Italian business delegation that also includes Italian Minister of International Trade Emma Bonino.

Both Prime Minister Prodi and International Trade Minister Bonino will address an economic forum organized jointly by Confindustria, FICCI (eastern region), Abi and Italian Trade Commission. Interestingly, the focus of the forum is West Bengal under the theme ‘Indo-Italian synergy - destination West Bengal’.

This is said to be one of the biggest high-powered trade delegation from Italy to India, and credit must go to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to have sown the seeds of cooperation in trade and commerce during his visit to Italy nearly 4 years back. The CM has been wooing Gucci, the world-famous Italian leather products manufacturer to set shop at Bantala, the leather complex at the southern fringes of the city.

Whether Gucci consents to come is not known, but it’s clear that West Bengal now is fast emerging as a hot favorite for foreign investments (see my post, Kolkata no longer a blip).


Technorati Tags: bengal, west bengal, italy, india, ficci, kolkata, calcutta

Branding of TV channels

'Slugging' for eyeballs! [Picture source: left; right]

CAS (conditional access system) has brought smiles on the faces of TV viewers in metro cities. They pay only the minimum fee for cable connection, and they don’t pay for channels they don’t want to see. No prize for guessing which channels get maximum viewers.

The TV channels are gradually coming to terms that no longer can they take their viewership for granted. NDTV Profit is a case in point. For long my favorite channel, it suddenly enters the ambit of CAS, and since I haven’t opted for CAS yet, dithering whether to go for it or getting Tata Sky (the DTH service), I am left with no option than to switch over to CNBC-TV18.

Yes, I do miss the smiling faces of Nikunj Dalmia and Manvi Dhillon and their analyses of stock performance in The 2-30 Factor, but then CNBC-TV18’s Closing Bell isn’t bad either. Their other programs are equally good, and more often even the analysts-on-call are the same.

NDTV Profit meanwhile has become a part-sponsor of the ongoing Sao Paulo football matches (like it does in case of big corporate programs), but their ads so pale in front of Star Ananda and Tata Steel that you’ve to literally strive hard to see them. Perhaps tomorrow’s JCT match at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium will see more of their ads, being their home turf.

The going getting tougher by the day, the CAS channels are now planning to aggressively advertise in traditional media in order to preserve and grow eyeballs. In today’s edition of ET, a report says that “..niche channels are slated to lose as much as 40% of their viewership post CAS and branding efforts would be the only way to create channel pull as a way to prompt consumers to go for these channels in their a la carte choices”.

Many analysts say in the long run the picture does look promising as CAS extends all over the country, which will polarize the viewership in tandem with proportional increase. In my understanding, it’s rather the other way round. The pay channels may already be discovering that ad revenue and viewer revenue are not mutually exclusive after all.

This means if viewer-generated revenue decreases, so will the ad revenue. But if the latter increases, there is no reason why the former must also increase. And since these figures will mostly be well known, it’s all the more reason for pay channels to roll up their sleeves and get muddied in the whirlpool of fight for eyeballs.


Technorati Tags: ndtv profit, ndtv, cnbc tv18, cnbc, tv18, cable tv