India Guides

Top 10 Hindi TV channels in India

2009-01-30T11:19:00.010+05:30

Colors and Star Plus channels are grabbing 50% of the market share in the Hindi General Entertainment space. Sony is gradually losing market is now struggling to keep its fourth position in the market. Rise of Colors is an unbelievable fascinating case study for every media owner.

Top 10 Hindi GEC Channels:

1. Star Plus – 293 GRP

2. Colors – 286 GRP

3. Zee TV – 221

4. Sony – 74

5. NDTV Imagine – 73 GRP

6. Star One – 64

7. Sahara – 54 GRP

8. Sab TV- 47

9. 9X -33 GRP

10. Star Utsav – 33 GRP.

We will see a fascinating battle between Star Plus and Colors for the top slot in the coming days. I am betting on Colors due to their innovation standards and top management teams.
Click here to read my blog on Indian Stock Markets.

Best hospitals in India: The Week survey

2008-11-16T10:41:00.000+05:30

The week magazine picked “best hospitals in India” by conducting extensive survey in 15 cities. 936 specialists, 614 doctors, 605 MBBS aspirants, 319 Ayurvedic doctors were participated in the survey. AIIMS emerged as the undisputed leader for medical and health care in India in the Week survey. No private hospital succeeded in dethroning the AIIMS from top position despite having ultra modern facilities. AIIMS doctors are one of the best in the world in providing wonderful medical service. Most of the medical tourists are preferring hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai due to their world class health care facilities at cheap rates.

Top 10 hospitals in India:

1. AIIMS, New Delhi – No hospital came close to AIIMS in providing good health care at lesser cost.

2. Apollo Hospitals, Delhi

3. Apollo Hospitals, Chennai

4. NIMHANS- Bangalore – World class hospital in Psychiatry and mental health care.

5. CMC – Vellore – Top choice for Nephrology and Orthopaedics along with AIIMS.

6. PGIMER – Chandigarh – Best hospital for Paediatrics and Gastroenterology along with AIIMS.

7. Tata memorial Hospital – Chandigarh

8. Lilavati hospital – Mumbai

9. Sankara Nethralaya – Chennai – Best hospital in Ophthalmology.

10. Bombay Hospital – Mumbai.

Cardiology: AIIMS and Escorts. Apollo Hospitals in Chennai is the top choice for South Indians.

Manipal is the top hospital in Bangalore while Sterling hospital is best one in Ahmedabad.

Orthopaedics: AIIMS, Apollo (Chennai) and CMC, Vellore are the best hospitals in India.

Top Ayurvedic hospitals:

Kottakkal Arya vaidya Sala in Malappuram (Kerala) is the best Ayurvedic hospital in India followed by BHU, Varanasi. Malappuram Ayurvedic hospital is the top choice for medical tourists especially for chronic diseases.

Medical tourism is rapidly developing in India as hospitals are providing ultra modern health care at reasonable prices. Global recession also helped in this regarded. Indian Government along with tourism department should act in a coordinated way with health department in spreading awareness about "India advantage" across the world. India should not miss this opportunity. Fortis health care in aggressive in this regard.

Source: The Week magazine, Dated November 16, 2008.

Click here to read my blog on Indian Stock Markets.

Blog on Indian DTH sector to know about latest trends.

Top Indian newspapers and magazines

2008-11-12T07:20:00.002+05:30

Indian Readership Survey (IRS R2) gave rare insights into the media growth. FM Radio and Internet are the fastest growing mediums while magazine readership is in steep decline. Very few daily newspapers showed increase in readership. Cinema viewership is in decline while TV viewership is rising. Cricket Samrat is the top sports magazine in India. Hindi magazines are enjoying more readership than English magazines. Saras Salil is the No.1 magazine in India while Dainik Jagran is the undisputed leader in the newspaper segment.

Highlights of the IRS R2:

Top 5 English newspapers in India in readership:

1. Times of India is the No.1 English daily in India (133.4 lakh readership)

2. Hindustan Times (63.5 lakh)

3. The Hindu (52.8 lakh)

4. The Telegraph (29 lakh)

5. Deccan Chronicle (28 lakh).

Top 5 Hindi dailies in India: Hindustan is gradually gaining.

1. Dainik Jagran (557.4 lakh)

2. Dainik Bhaskar (305.8 lakh)

3. Amar Ujala (282.2 lakh)

4. Hindustan (235.3 lakh)

5. Rajasthan Patrika (131.9 lakh)

Top regional newspapers: No significant changes in the top order except fall in readership.

1. Assam: Asomiya Pratidin (60.2 lakh)

2. Bengal: Anand Bazar Patrika (15.5 lakh)

3. Gujarati: Gujarat Samachar (84.7 lakh)

4. Karnataka: Vijay Karnataka (92.2 lakh)

5. Malayalam: Malayala Manorama (121.8 lakh)

6. Marathi: Lokmat (199.3 lakh)

7. Tamil: Daily Thanthi (205.6 lakh) - rising star.

8. Telugu: Eenadu (144.1 lakh)

Top 5 English Magazines in India: India Today is the undisputed leader in the both hindi and english news magazine segment.

1. India Today: 68.5 lakh readership.

2. Readers Digest: 40 lakh

3. General Knowledge Today: 35.2 lakh

4. Competition Success Review: 26.8 lakh

5. Stardust: 19.2 lakh.

Top 5 Hindi magazines:

1. Saras Salil: 84.6 lakh.

2. India Today Hindi: 58.1 lakh

3. Meri Saheli: 54.5 lakh

4. Cricket Samrat: 47.9 lakh

5. Pratiyogita Darpan: 43.6 lakh.

Top dailies in Delhi:

1. Hindustan Times

2. Times of India

3. Economic Times.

Top newspapers in Mumbai: Hindustan Times is gaining.

1. Times of India

2. Mumbai Mirror

3. DNA

4. Hindustan Times

5. Economic Times

Top 10 newspapers in India on average readership per issue: No change in the rankings.

1. Dainik Jagran

2. Dainik Bhaskar

3. Hindustan

4. Malayala Manorama

5. Amar Ujala

6. Daily Thanthi

7. Eenadu

8. The Times of India

9. Anand Bazar Patrika

10. Rajasthan Patrika.

Note: Please share your opinion on Indian Readership habits.

Click here to read my blog on Indian Stock Markets.

Blog on Indian DTH sector to know about latest trends.

Vulgar ads on popular news websites

2008-05-20T02:04:00.004+05:30

Media is also a business but they need to do it with more responsibility. I shocked after seeing the beow ads on DNA and NDTV profit websites which are vulgar and obscene and such ads generally appear in Porn websites. Imagine the plight of parents if they browse these websites along with their children. Ads are necessary for maintaining websites but why these major sites selected porn and vulgar ads when there are so many good display ad types available. Above ads appeared on the site when I am browsing business section that too on top of the page.

Advice: Never browse these websites in front of your children. You may send wrong message to them. Cheap tactics from major media houses.

Note: Media houses should take proper precautions before choosing adnetworks. If you are expecting some easy money, enjoy without responsibility.

Outlook poll on Bollywood

2008-05-16T16:20:00.005+05:30

Outlook magazine conducted an opinion poll on Bollywood actors and actresses for its “Bollywood special” issue. I don’t agree with some of the results. Most of the poll participants may not have seen movies like Mughal-E-Azam, Awara and Mother India etc. This is neither an in-depth poll nor serious survey. They have just asked some young boys and girls and published the results in the magazines as Times of India routinely did for its surveys.

Poll: Who are the best actors and actresses in Hindi cinema?

1. All-time favourite male star: Amitabh Bachchan.

2. All-time favourite female star: Aishwarya Rai. My favourite is Madhubala. How can I forget her performance in Mughal-E-Azam?

3. Most accomplished actor: Amitabh Bachchan. I like Amir Khan.
4. Most accomplished actress: Kajol.
5. Best comedy actor: Johnny Lever (He hailed from my native town Ongole).
6. Best Villain: Amrish Puri.
7. Actress with best figure: Shilpa Shetty.
8. Most stylish actor: John Abraham.
9. Best screen couple: Shahrukh Khan-Kajol. My choice is Raj Kapoor and Nargis.
10. Worst dresses: Rakhi Savant.
11. Best action hero: Akshay kumar.
12. Future star: Deepika Padukone.

Please share your opinion on Bollywood actors. These polls are cheap tactics by magazines to raise circulation figures.

Click here to read more about Bollywood opinion poll.

Top drug brands in India

2008-05-06T00:07:00.004+05:30

Voveran of Novartis became the highest sold medical drug in India. Pain Killer Voveran displaced Cough syrup Corex as the top sold drug in the latest research study by ORG-MARG. Cipla became the largest domestic Pharma Company and Ranbaxy slipped to second place. Human Mixtard insulin (30/70) is the third highest sold drug which is used to treat diabetes.

Top drug brands in India:

1. Voveran – Novartis.
2. Corex – Pfizer.
3. Human Mixtard insulin – Novo Novardisk.
4. Taxim – Alkem laboratories. (Antibiotic).
5. Becosules – Glaxosmithkline. (B-complex drug)
6. Mox – Ranbaxy.
7. Zifi – FDC.
8. Liv-52 - Only Ayurvedic drug in the list.

Top Pharma companies: 1. Cipla.
2. Ranbaxy.
3. Glaxo Smithkline.

SMS Poll: Vote for greatest Indian leader

2008-03-28T00:03:00.003+05:30

India Today magazine is conducting a SMS poll to select greatest India. It picked 10 great Indian leaders for the poll. Ambedkar is not in the list.

How to vote:

1. SMS “Your choice” to 52424.

2. Email your choice to poll@indiatoday.com

3. You can vote on http://www.indiatoday.com/.

Select your favourite leader:

1. Mahatma Gandhi: text message code “POLL MG” to 52424.

2. Jawaharlal Nehru: SMS code “POLL JN”

3. Subhash Chandra Bose: SMS “POLL SCB”.

4. JRD Tata: Send SMS message “POLL JRD” to 52424.

5. Homi J Bhabha: “POLL HB”.

6. Indira Gandhi: SMS code “POLL IG” to 52424.

7. Rabindranath Tagore: Message code “POLL RT”.

8. Sardar Patel: “POLL SP”.

9. Bhagat Singh: message code “POLL BS”.

10. Jayaprakash Narayan: SMS code “POLL JP” to 52424.

My choice is Mahatma Gandhi. Young generation may vote for either Bhagat Singh or Subhash Chandra Bose.

Click here to know more about Greatest Indian poll.

Please share your opinion on great Indian poll.

Top Television channels in India

2008-03-19T19:01:00.007+05:30

Television Audience Media (TAM) research data released top television channels across various segments for the week ended March 8. NDTV Imagine dropped to fifth place after its successful debut while DD1 gained massively along with NDTV 24×7. Times Now also lost viewership ratings in the english news space.

TAM Ratings:

English News channels:

1. NDTV 24×7
2. Times Now.

Hindi general entertainment:
1. Star Plus is in massive lead.
2. Zee TV.
3. Doordarshan1.
4. Sony Entertainment.
5. NDTV Imagine.

Hindi movie segment:

1. Sony Max (31.5%)
2. Zee Cinema.

CNBC remains top business channel while TV9 is the number one telugu news channel.

Source: TAM and Business Standard.

Hyundai i10: Car of the year 2008

2008-01-15T22:55:00.001+05:30

CNBC-TV18 and Autocar Auto awards panel selected Hyundai i10 as “Car of the year” for 2008 while Bajaj XCD DTS-Si won the “Bike of the year” award.

Hyundai i10 is attracting attention due to its contemporary looks, value for money, design while Bajaj is ruling premium bike segment while Hero Honda is struggling to retain market share.

Best Indian cars:

1. Car of the year: Hyundai i10.

2. Best value for money: Maruti SX4 (My favourite car).

3. Best design and styling: BMW-5 series.

4. Best compact car: Hyundai i10.

5. Best executive car: Honda Civic.

6. Manufacturer of the year: Maruti Suzuki.

7. Man of the year: Jagdish Khattar of Maruti Suzuki.

8. Best commercial of the year: Bajaj-Pulsar 200 DTS-I.

CNBC-Autocar selected above cars for these prestigious awards based on the parameters like value for money, performance, customer satisfaction, components, design and other crucial things.

Tata’s 1 lakh car “Nano” is the hot favourite to win 2009 car of the year and Tata Motors for the manufacturer of the year awards.

Please share your opinion on these awards.

Analysis: Indian publications readership

2007-10-30T21:24:00.000+05:30

Hindi newspapers and magazines along with regional publications are gradually losing its readers. But some publications bucked the trend. “Dainik Jagran” is the number one publication in India with a readership of 536 million followed by “Dainik Bhaskar” with 306 million.

“Times of India” is the only English publication in the top 10 Indian publications. English and Hindi publications of Times of India have almost same readership numbers. "Rajasthan Patrika" stood first by gaining 7.4 million new readers while second placed “Ananda Bazaar Patrika” gained 6.9 million new readers.

Television and Internet are gradually eating into readership numbers of Print publications.

Top 10 English Publications in readership:

1. Times of India – Daily.
2. India Today – Weekly.
3. Hindustan Times – Daily.
4. The Hindu – Daily.
5. Reader’s Digest – Monthly.
6. General Knowledge Today – Monthly.
7. Filmfare – Monthly.
8. Competition Success Review – Monthly.
9. The Telegraph – Daily.
10. Deccan Chronicle – Daily.

Top countries in newspaper circulation:

Japanese newspapers occupied 7 slots in world’s top 10 newspapers. Asian newspapers occupied 75 slots in top 100 world news papers.

1. China – 93.5 million.
2. India – 78.8 million.
3. Japan – 70.4 million.
4. United States – 48.3 million.
5. Germany – 22.1 million.

Source: Business World weekly.

Analysis: Indian family health survey results

2007-10-12T08:52:00.001+05:30

National family health survey 2005-06 released by Ministry of Health revealed true colors of India. 50% of Indian women still lack proper care during pregnancy and delivery. This survey was conducted on 0.12 million Indian women (15-49 age group) and 74,369 men (15-54 age group).

Positive findings in the health survey:

1. Infant mortality rate is decreased (68 per 1000 births).
2. Family planning especially among women is on rise and fertility is down.
3. Southern states are showing vast improvement in health care.
4. Contraception use is improving along with rise in average marriage age.
5. Institutional births are rising but only 30% of women are receiving post-natal care.
6. Indian parents are recommending moral and sex education in schools especially women.

Negative findings:

1. Malnutrition and anemia are common among Indian children.
2. Domestic violence is increasing despite rise in female education.
3. No improvement in child immunization (only 42%).
4. Obesity in women is rising especially among urban women.
5. Indian parents are still showing preference to girls due to dowry problem.
6. 40% of women experienced sexual violence in their lives.
7. Only 30% of women received antenatal care. Absence of lady doctors in rural areas is a major concern.
8. Disparity in urban and rural health care is growing as most doctors are not willing to work in rural areas.
9. DIarrhoea is still a major health problem in India.
10. 70% of Indian children are anemic due to poor economic standards.

This survey highlighted growing disparity among rich and poor Indians in receiving proper health care. Government need to allocate more budget to health care.

Top TV news channels in India

2007-09-03T22:55:00.001+05:30

Top English TV news Channels: NDTV is the most popular English news channel in India followed by CNN IBN. Times Now is closely following the leaders. Top 3 channels command more than 85% of English news viewership.

Market share of English news channels:

1. NDTV – 31%.
2. CNN IBN – 30%.
3. Times Now – 25%.
4. Headlines Today – 14%.

Top Hindi TV News Channels:

Aaj Tak is the leading Hindi news channel in India followed by Star News. Sensational tactics pushed India TV to No.3 slot.

1. Aaj Tak – 22% market share.
2. Star News – 19%.
3. India TV – 15%.
4. Zee News and IBN – 10%.
5. NDTV India – 8%.

Is there any space for more news channels in Indian Television space?

Source: TAM and Business World.

Bollywood heroine - Eesha Deol Profile

2007-09-02T22:49:00.001+05:30

Eesha Deol, Bollywood actress and beautiful daughter of “dream girl” Hemamalini and handsome Dharmendra, shared her tastes and hobbies with journalists.

Eesha Deol favourites:

Favourite Food: Idly and Sambar (South Indian Breakfast).

Favourite Hero: Sharukh Khan.
Favourite Movie Actress: Kajol.
Favourite Movie: Sholay.

Best Friends: Brothers – Sunny and Bobby Deol and her 12 dogs!

Holiday Spot: Mumbai.
Favourite Book: Madonna Biography.

Hobbies: Listen to Music, time pass with friends.
Favourite Dance: Odyssey.

She favours love marriage.

Desire: She wants to act beside Sylvester Stallone.

Source: Eenadu.

Big Flicks: Online movie downloading service from Reliance

2007-08-30T08:26:00.000+05:30

Reliance Entertainment launched online movie downloading service, BigFlicks, targeting NRIs. BigFlicks currently have 200 movie titles in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and English languages. It will offer 1,000 movies for downloading within 2-3 months and 2,000 titles within 1 year. Cost for downloading a movie varies from $4.49 to $19.99.
BigFlicks.com mainly targets NRIs residing in United States, Canada, UK, Australia, West Asia and Europe. Biggest constraint for this service in India is slow internet speeds. It is almost difficult to download an entire movie on our internet connections. In India, it will offer physical lending of CDs and DVDs by opening 100 stores in top 50 cities. BigFlicks will launch first stores in Hyderabad, Pune and Chandigarh. It also offers door delivery service in Indian cities.

Requirements:

1. BigFlicks provides its proprietary download manager to download movies.
2. Internet connection speed is at least 612 kbps.
3. Windows media player is required.
4. 1.5 GB free space on your hard drive is required.
5. You can watch movies while downloading.

Visit BigFlicks website for more information.

People want Abdul Kalam as Indian President

2007-05-27T16:03:00.000+05:30

In the IBN-Express opinion poll, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam emerged as front runner in the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan. This poll was conducted on more than 3.4 lakh online voters over the last 15 days. People seem to want non-political person like Abdul Kalam as next India president. But Sonia Gandhi may want his dummy as next Indian president.

Winners of the IBN- Express – Loksatta opinion poll:

Courtesy: IBN Live.

Abdul Kalam is the clear winner with 43% votes (1.46 lakh votes) while vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat came second with 30% votes. Infosys mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy came third with 18% votes.

Surprise of the poll is Sonia Gandhi’s choice Pranab Mukherjee got 1.3% votes only. Amitab Bachchan fared poorly with 1.45% votes.

But in India, political leaders rarely respect people’s opinion. As long as we have ignorant leaders like Sonia Gandhi, people should not expect better things. We saw these dirty politics in electing Indian president in Indira gandhi days, now in her daughter-in-law days. May her choice become another Fakhruddin-Ali and pay gratitude in the crucial time.

Bye! Bye! Kalam.

New Toyota Corolla 2007 in India

2007-05-17T11:59:00.001+05:30

Toyota Kirloskar Motor released limited edition of the new Toyota Corolla for ambitious Indian customers. They targeted this new model towards high paying Young executives. This model will be available in new Warm Silver and Champagne Mica Metallic colors. Toyota wants to sell 300 cars of this limited edition in India. First edition of Corolla was introduced by Toyota in 1968. Toyota recently occupied number one slot in US market.

Corola Limited edition Price: Around Rs 11 lakh.

Attractive Features in new Corolla:

1. VVT-I engine.
2. SRS airbags.
3. Front fog lamps.
4. 6-spoke alloy wheels.
5. 2-tone fabric seats.
6. Wood finish rare cup holders.

They are campaigning extensively to reach these new high-end customers through SMS and Internet. It is spending big money on top 20 Indian sites to attract visitors to the Toyoyta site. After Honda, now Toyota is spending big on Internet ads. Indian car makers should learn new marketing lessons from their Japan counterparts.

Visit the new Corolla limited edition car Website.

Indians netizens are addicted to Sex sites

2007-05-16T20:16:00.000+05:30

According to the Alexa Ranks or Google trends, Indians are either sex starved or addicted netizens in the world. Among Indians, Telugu and Bengali people occupied top 2 slots. This is a surprise to many conservative Indians. Indian net users are spending more time on porn sites compared to the western liberalised societies.

Alexa.com provides information on the top sites in the world according to the country and language.

In India Alexa rankings,

No.1 adult blog “Debonair blog” is at 14th place. This is also the number one blog in India.

Other top sex sites in India:

2. X Board – 21st place.
3. Masala Talk – 25th place.
4. Free sexy Indians – 42nd place
5. Dadesi Forum – 48th place.
6. Indian Sex stories – 70th place.
7. Adult Friend Finder – 84th place.
8. Masala4 India – 96th place.

I have excluded partial sex sites like Rapidshare, Mega Upload and other dating and file sharing sites.

In Australia Alexa rankings,

No.1 sex site “Adult matchmaker” is at 69th place while no.2 sex site “Adult Friend Finder” is at 94th place. These are the only two adult sites in the top 100 Alexa rankings in Australia.

In Canada Alexa Rankings,

No.1 dating site “Plenty of Fish” is at 28th place while “Adult friend finder” is at 70th place. Only 3 sites are in the top 100 Alexa rankings in Canada.

In United Kingdom Alexa rankings,

Adult Friend Finder is at 66th place and only 3 adult sites are in the top 100 list.

In United States,

Only 3 adult sites are in the top 100 list with Adult friend finder at 32nd place.
Note: Indians generally use term “Sex” for adult content while American and Europeans use “Porn” for searching adult material.

If we analyse these trends and rankings, Indians are no.1 searchers for adult content. Most of these sites are running from foreign countries where pornographic sites are not officially banned.

Net users are wasting atleast 30% of their quality time on porn sites and Dating sites. It is a sad thing.

Please share your opinion.

Best Indian Websites by PC World

2007-05-14T12:15:00.000+05:30

PC World selected best Indian Websites for 2007 in different categories.

Here are the winners:

1. Portals:
Winner – Yahoo India
Content - Rediff

2. E-Mail:
Winner – G Mail
Visual design – Hotmail and Yahoo Mail

3. News:
Winner – IBN Live
Best Newspaper site – Hindustan times

4. Social networking:
Winner – Orkut
Visual Appeal - Yaari

5. Cricket:
Winner – Cricinfo

6. Gaming:
Winner – Yahoo Games

7. Job Sites:
Winner – Monster India
Best Design – Click Jobs

8. Shopping:
Winner – Future Bazaar
Content – E Bay

9. Auction:
Winner – E Bay

10. Real Estate:
Winner – India Property

11. Flowers and Gifts:
Winner – Fernsnpetals

12. Matrimony:
Winner – Bharat Matrimony

13. Travel:
Winner – Cleartrip
Design - Yatra

14. Technology:
Winner – Tech2

15. Mobile Content:
Winner – Yahoo Mobile

16. Astrology:
Winner – Sify

17. Bill Payment:
Winner – Visa Bill Pay

18. Entertainment:
Winner – Rediff

19. Photo Printing:
Winner – Itasveer

20. Stock Broking:
Winner – MoneyControl
Technology Usage – ICICI Direct

Please share your choices here.

Best hospitals in India

2007-04-30T07:57:00.001+05:30

The Week-IMRB Survey selected 10 best hospitals in India. The survey was done in 15 cities and 15 specialisations. It represented the views of 1,239 specialists and 609 general practitioners.

Top 10 hospitals in India:

1. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

2. Apollo Hospitals, Chennai

3. PGIMER, Chandigarh.

4. Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

5. NIMHANS, Bangalore.

6. Sankara Nethralaya – Chennai.

7. Lilavati Hospital – Mumbai.

8. Apollo Hospitals – Delhi.

9. Christian Medical College – Vellore.

10. Escorts heart Institute – Delhi.

Major High Lights of the survey:

1. AIIMS is the best Orthopaedic, Paediatric and Gynaecology hospital in India.
2. Sankara Nethralaya is the best eye hospital.
3. Apollo is the top hospital in Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

4. Manipal is the top hospital in Bangalore.
5. Escorts is the top choice for cardiology.
6. Tata Memorial is the number one Oncology hospital in India.

7. Gap is more widened between the top hospitals and others.
8. Nagpur hospital is the only government hospital in the first rank in any city.

For more information, read The Week magazine dated May 6, 2007.

Why Indians are so great?

2007-04-21T11:30:00.001+05:30

Indians and Indian companies are marching ahead with their skills and acquisitions in the highly competitive global arena. Next decade will be dominated by Indians. No one can stop them. Indians are respected globally for their skills, hard work and achievements.
1. 12% of scientists in America are Indians.

2. 38% of doctors in America are Indians.

3. 36% of NASA scientists are Indians.

4. 34% Microsoft employees are Indians.

5. 28% of IBM employees are Indians.

6. 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.

7. 13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

8. Indians make highest number of movies in the world.

9. 20% of world Gold is consumed by Indians.

10. 90% of world diamonds are prepared by Indians.

India is really shining.

Is Abdul Kalam the worst ever Indian President?

2007-04-03T07:26:00.001+05:30

Outlook magazine columnist, Rajinder Puri, described Abdul Kalam as worst ever Indian President. He wrote the following sentences in his column “Bull’s Eye”:

“President Abdul Kalam is truly a wonderful human being. Of all the presidents in independent India, his record is perhaps the worst. He just does not have the will to take on the rogue political class.”

As per Puri, Abdul Kalam failed to protect the constitution in 2 instances:

1. Dissolution of Bihar Assembly. Kalam failed to stop the Manmohan Singh government’s illegal ordinance.

2. Office of profit bill. Kalam signed this unconstitutional bill though he has the power to delay or deny it. If he rejected it for the second time, more than 50-100 MPs were unseated.

Though the columnist rightly raised Kalam’s faults, it is too much to describe him as worst ever Indian President.

Is Kalam’s tenure worse than Fakhruddin Ali’s(who signed emergency bill)?

In my opinion, Abdul Kalam is the best Indian president in the recent times. He is the president of ordinary people. He mingled with army jawans and school children alike. He may have done one or two mistakes due to inexperience or to prevent constitutional crisis.

You can read the column in Outlook magazine dated April 9, 2007.

Please share your opinion on this article.

Pune is India’s first unwired city

2007-04-03T02:48:00.001+05:30

Pune will soon become the first unwired city in India. Citizens of Pune will have high-speed wireless internet connection from anywhere in the city. They can access internet through laptops, PDAs and smart phone from any area of the city.
“Unwiring Pune” – the project was jointly announced by Intel and Pune Municipal Corporation in March 2006 and will be started on April 2, 2007. Infrastructure will be established by Intel along with Microsense, Chennai based company. The network will cover the entire 280 sq.km of Pune.

Intel will provide design and planning support, network deployment is carried out by Microsense.

Pune, the cultural centre of Maharashtra, will soon become wireless centre of India. It is way ahead of other Indian techno hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida and Chennai in this aspect.

While rest of Indians are browsing with dial-up wired connections, Pune citizens will surf into high-speed wireless era. Congrats for the vision shown by Pune Municipal corporation authorities.

Obituary: Bollywood music composer O.P.Nayyar (1926-2007)

2007-01-29T21:37:00.000+05:30

Hindi movie music director O.P.Nayyar died of heart attack in thane at his residence. He was 81. He is famous for his melodious and sensuous songs. He single handedly resurrected the career of Asha Bhosle in 1950’s. He is more famous for not recording a single song with Lata Mangeshkar.

He composed music for a Telugu movie “Nirajanam” in 1980’s. He mesmerised Telugu music lovers with this movie. Bollywood directors failed to utilize him properly in 80’s and 90’s as it happened in the case of another legend R.D.Burman.

Profile of O.P.Nayyar:

Name: Omkar Prasad Nayyar.

Born in Lahore in 1926.

He first composed back ground music for Kaneez.

First movie in his music direction isAasmaan in 1952.

His first successful movie as music director is Guru Dutt’s Aar Paar.

Naya Daur is the best movie in his glittering career.

Nayyar’s favorite singers are Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt and Md. Rafi.

Nayyar-Asha combination ruled the Bollywood music industry in 1957-59.

Best movie songs of O.P.Nayyar:

1. Aaiye meherban baithiye (Howrah Bridge)
2. Babuji dheere chalna
3. Thandi hawa kaali ghata
4. Mera naam Chin Chin Chu
5. Pukarta Chala Hoon Mein
6. Ello main Hari Piya (Aar Paar)
7. Zara haule haule chalo more sajna
8. Ek pardesi mera dil
9. Isharon isharon mein
10. Kahin Pe Nigahen Kanhi Pe Nishana
11. Jaaiye aap kahan jayenge
12. Yeh hai Bambai meri jaan

Best Hindi movies in his music direction:

1. Aar Paar
2. Naya Daur
3. Baaz
4. Mr and Mrs 55
5. Tumsa Nahin Dekha
6. Howrah Bridge
7. Phagun
8. Kashmir Ki Kali
9. Mere Sanam
10. CID

Though, he physically left us, he will remain for ever in our hearts with his melodies.

Please share your opinion on this music legend.

Review: Mid Term Survey results on Indian political situation

2007-01-26T00:22:00.001+05:30

In a recently conducted survey by Hindustan Times-CNN-IBN on 15,000 voters in 970 cities and villages in 21 states indicated that UPA will return to power without support from Left parties. As per survey, BJP will get around 115 seats. 76% of voters are satisfied with the Government performance.
As per survey, UPA came to power with more than 300 Loksabha seats if elections are held.
According to the survey carried out by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Sonia Gandhi is the most popular leader of the country, while former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ranked second. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh came third while BSP supremo Mayavati is in nthe fourth spot.

Chief Ministers:

NDA chief ministers grabbed the top spots in the chief ministers list. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik is best chief minister while Nitish Kumar of Bihar came second. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy dropped to tenth place. Shiela Dixit is the most unpopular chief minister in the country.

Please comment on the survey.

Busines Standard Motoring Awards - 2007

2007-01-03T22:30:00.001+05:30

BS Motoring, automobile magazine, presented automobile awards for best cars and bikes for 2006.

Best car: Chevrolet Aveo U-VA of General Motors was selected as the Car of the year.
- Well Built and Spacious and good performance

Hero Honda CBZ X-Treme was selected as the Bike of the year.

Toyota Camry was selected as imported car of the year award.

Honda Civic is the Business Standard Motoring Jury choice for the car of the year.

Best performing car of the year is Hyundai Verna 1.5 CRDi.

Kinetic Blaze is the scooter of the year.

Honda Civic narrowly missed best car award due to its high price.

Please share your favourite cars and bikes.