I started this blog in January 2009 and I started as a business and economy blog. It got good amount of success and I have to admit that I acted very foolishly and changed the topic. I neglected business and economy of South Asia and wrote about everything else. Well, I have to admit that I did not have the maturity as a blogger that time. I know that I cannot change the past and I am sorry for it. Well, many of you enjoyed good coverage of sports here in the last few months and you became Feedburner subscriber for it. Well, I am sorry for this matter. If you are looking for good sports coverage then you can visit our another blog: http://www.sports37.com/ . It is a good blog and it is updated almost daily.
Anyway, I have to apologize to those of you too who came here for business and economy related entries but did not find them on a regular basis. However, I assure you that from now, South Asia Blog will again become a blog business and economy related to the region. I have noticed that we cover much more about India than the other countries. Well, India has nearly two third of the total population in the region. So, it naturally gets more coverage. However, from now, we would like to put more content on other countries too.
It is known as North London Derby. The two clubs are from North of London. It is perhaps the most hotly contested football derby in England. Emotion runs very high when this match takes place. The rivalry goes back to more than one century and in the recent years, it has become a prestige concern to both the clubs’ players and supporters. Tomorrow, another North London Derby is going to take place at the Emirates Stadium. This means that it will be a home match for Arsenal and an away match Tottenham Hotspur. I am giving you the time here courtesy of Sports37 blog:
The Venue is the Emirates. Just the other day, Arsenal’s young players defeated Liverpool by 2-1 in League Cup match. So, The Emirates is a stronghold for the Gunners. One good part is that it can accommodate nearly 60,000 spectators and Arsenal fans are there in almost full house in every match. Tomorrow, I am expecting the to do well and in fact win the match convincingly. I want to see Arshevin get some goals.
In Aamir Khan’s upcoming movie Three Idiots, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi and rumor is that Sharman Joshi’s role was smaller in the beginning but as the shooting of the movie began it was made larger and now in the final movie, not only Sharman Joshi’s role is bigger than Aamir’s but they talented actor also overshadowed the Bollywood superstar. This irked Aamir Khan and resulted in an argument between Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani on the promo of the movie. Now, Aamir Khan is demanding that the film to be edited such a way that their roles look balanced.
However, source close to the filmed rubbished this rumors and said that Aamir Khan is not among those actors who are really bothered about their roles. Aamir Khan is in the heart of Three Idiots and nobody can change that. These stories are intentionally circulated to generate a hype about the movie. This is not the first time, Aamir Khan acted in a multi-starrer movie. Previously, he worked in Raang De Basanti, Dil Chahta Hai and Taare Zameen Par where other actors got more exposure and fame.
After a hardcore action movie, Ghajini, Aamir Khan appeared with a breezy romantic comedy, Three Idiots. Forget the muscular Aamir Khan with eight pack abs and bald head. Three Idiots shows Aamir Khan in an entirely new avatar. He plays an engineering college student. Along with Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi shared the screen. The first promo of the movie is out and it looks good so far. Kareena Kapoor looks stunning as usual. If you have not seen it yet, here is the promo for you.
The promo opens up with the three characters talking about rat race and life. So far the movie looks romantic and hilarious. Directed by famous Munna Bhai director, Rajkumar Hirani, Three Idiots is going to hit the theatres on December 25, 2009. Aamir Khan is known for giving all his focus on one movie at a time and the rule worked so far. Aamir Khan’s movie means you will not be disappointed. You will definitely like it. I am eagerly waiting to see what miracle Three Idiots would show in Christmas.
Indian fans are on a happy mood as they saw that in the second ODI match their team demolished and humbled World Champion Australia. Australia is World Cup Champion and Champions Trophy 2009 Winner. So, the Indian supporters want some demolition of Australian team in the current series. Well, I think that India has some advantage at this moment because their opponent is suffering from numerous injuries. I cannot remember of any time in the recent past when so many leading players of a cricket team were injured at the same time. Specially, Australian players are always good when it comes to the matter of physical fitness.
If you want to know more about the match then you can read these two entries:
In my city, it is the morning of 29 October. However, in some parts of the world, it is perhaps still 28 October. Anyway, we uploaded some entries in other blogs of the network today including this blog. I am giving you link of just 4 of them so that you can enjoy reading them.
100,000 iPhone Apps: It is from Laptop Computers Blog. Well, I have written about it. You should read it because it is very funny that Nokia is way behind than Apple when it comes to apps.
Only few hours left before the start of Arsenal vs Liverpool League Cup 2009-10 fourth round match. It is a big fixture for the fans and I know that in South Asia, there are many fans of both the teams. If you go to any big in South Asia, then you can find many young boys wearing the jerseys of their favorite clubs in EPL. I think in the last 2 years, we saw the matches of league Cup or Carling Cup in Zee Sports TV channel. Well, Zee Sports is not a popular TV channel. Fortunately, they are in partnership with Ten Sports which has much wider reach among South Asian population. The kickoff time for the match is 1945 GMT and in the website of Ten Sports TV channel, I could find Indian Time this way: 1:08 Carling Cup 09/10: Arsenal v Liverpool 28/10/09
The match will take place very late in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, that is not a problem for football fans like me. I have already written a very detailed entry about the match: Arsenal vs Liverpool Carling Cup 2010
Please, read it because I have spent a lot of time for writing it. Just kidding!!! Anyway, it will be a fun to watch at a October night.
Indian sharemarket did not observe any rise in share prices for the third straight day. Prices of banks, auto and power stocks did poorly while realty sector observed a significant rise. Poor business in other Asian markets also affected the Indian stock market.
The Sensex at BSE opened at 16.335.78 points and ended at 16, 283.49 points, a slip of 69.91 points. Through out the day, the index observed a low of 16,144.7 points and a high of 16,411.14 points. BSE Midcap Index observed a 0.15% rise and BSE Smallcap Index went up by 0.44%. BSE Bankex declined 1.5% per cent, BSE Auto Index slipped 0.94% and BSE Power Index slipped 0.83%. BSE Realty Index advanced 0.88% and BSE Oil&gas Index went up 0.69%.
At BSE companies whose share prices went up were- Ranbaxy Laboratories (3.77%), Jindal Steel (3.66%), Wipro (3.49%), Bharti Airtel (3.44%) and Tata Motors (2.49%).
The history of Internet in Bangladesh is just 13 years old. E-commerce is still not legal here and there is no way of online transaction. SO, earning money through websites is a very big problem. I have written a detailed article about it in another blog: Web Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. However, I am some shocked and perhaps worried to see that in the community blogs and some forums, these days, we can find a lot of advertisements about earning money online. Most of the time, they are useless scams or referrals through which you can never earn money. Recently, I saw a report a in a magazine that gave advise to open Google Adsense account from cyber café and then click from your home and this way earn money. Needless to say that this way, Google will happily ban your Adsense account.
In Bangladesh, unemployment rate is very high and may educated people are either without any job are in the jobs that they should not be. Here, many graduates are forced to apply for the posts of peon or typists. So, naturally, when they hear the news of any new business or income source then hundreds rush towards it without giving any serious thought. It has happened to the share market and many people suffered loss in 1996. Then, many young people became crazy to get training and study computer by spending 1 lakh or 2 lakh taka in the period 1998-2002 and only lost their money. Anyway, I am worried that again similar thing may happen about online income.
First of all, there is a number of ways to earn money through Internet. They are perfectly legitimate and reliable. You will never lose a dollar with companies like Google. However, you have to remember that there is no short cut in earning money through Internet. Basically Bangladeshi students and educated people can earn money through two ways:
1. Participating in bidding websites
2. Blogging and Freelance Writing
There are some websites famous for outsourcing projects. Rent A Coder and Odesk have become very popular and thousands of people from all over the world are getting projects from these websites. Monthly Computer Jagat Magazine has been publishing reports about the websites regularly for more than one year and you can find all the articles in their website Comjagat.com. Just remember that in these websites, there are many projects and there are many people competing against you to get them. You need several qualities to shine:
a. Be prepared to work at a very low rate at first until you can make your profile
b. You have to be skilled in your field.
c. You have to persistent. Success will not come right way.
d. You have to be punctual. You have to have the mentality and ability to deliver the projects within the deadline.
If you take a look the websites that I mentioned above then you will notice that you can find projects in many fields. It is not just programming. There are many projects in web design, graphics design, virtual assistantship, data entry, online marketing etc.
The second field is blogging and freelance writing. It is even a tougher field because blogging is very easy. There is no barrier to entry in this business. Anyone can join any time. So, the competition is huge. You have to be good at English language. Then, you must have good skill in your field of writing. You must have some decent knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO) and Advertisement programs like Adsense, Chitika, Infolinks etc. You have to get thousands of visitors per month if you want to earn any considerable money through it. Never think that you can earn money through blogging in Bangla language from Adsense.
Anyway, I am worried to see that many young people are now becoming excited about earning dollars through internet without any hard work. This is simply impossible. In fact, if you can read and understand English language then do just some search in Google and you will understand how difficult it is.
I would like you read some entries about earning money online:
In the end, my advice is that please, do not rush for anything- especially when it comes to earn money online. It is not a joke. It is very tough and you have to compete with many people. If you are not serious, dedicated and committed then don’t try for it. There is no short cut.
Well, the expected did not happen in October 2009 and there was no update in Google PageRank. Now, hopefully, something will happen in November 2009. Well, the problem is that Google never talks about it officially. May be the company is afraid that then the spammers may try to take advantage if they have advance knowledge. It is perhaps almost sure that nothing will happen this month. Something may happen in November 2009. Many webmasters and bloggers like me are waiting and counting each and every day. To be honest with you, sometimes it is nerve wrecking because when you earn your living through your blog or website then PageRank update or back link updates are literally similar to life and death. I have to admit that I am obsessed to some extent about both PR and Back Links but I am not crazy about SERP. The only reason I am now very impatient is that one of my blog has PR 0 and it should get something like 3 or 4 and another blog is now PR 3 and I am expecting it be better in the next update. May be, it will happen or not but anyway, PR updates are always nice.
In our country, when there is no rain and there is drought then many people pray for rain. I guess that now we have to pray for Google PageRank to take place in November 2009.
Sourav Ganguly is considered to be the most successful captain of Indian cricket team of all time. Under his leadership, team India had unprecedented success both at home and away. Now, he has come up with some important advice for current captain Dhoni. India vs Australia 2nd ODI will take place on 28 October 2009 and this is in a way must win match for India. If they lose then they will go down at 0-2 in the 7 match ODI series. So, Ganguly thinks that Dhoni has to put himself in upper position in batting order.
Ganguly believes that if Dhoni comes at number 3 position instead of number 5 then he will get more overs and will have less pressure.
Ganguly believes Dhoni will get the runs flowing from his willow and will also give him a chance to play his natural game and when quizzed about why the likes of Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar didn't have a problem getting the boundaries and as to why Dhoni was struggling, Dada said that sometimes the pressure of captaincy and the weight of responsibility as a star batsman reflects on the field.
But, he said that there was no need to panic and India would bounce back to square the series at Nagpur.
Well, to be honest with you, I think that most Indian players these days do not bother about their national team. Instead they are more concerned with IPL because through IPL they get huge amount of money. If Dhoni does not get run in this ODI series or even India loses the series badly in home so what? Dhoni will get huge amount of money from IPL next March.
Here, I just put the first stanza. Anyway, in Nepal, the condition of tiger population is very bad. They are on the verge of becoming extinct. Now, there are just 121 adult tigers in this country. The government officials have expressed a desire to double this number in the next 10 years but I am not hopeful.
I am not hopeful because government officials in any country of South Asia have not been successful in saving tiger. They are very beautiful animal and they are very important for maintaining ecological balance but most people think that they are a threat to human existence.
I think that people have to change this attitude from their heart. They have to realize that the forest is for the animals and the human beings should try not to harm the animals. Poverty and greed both are common among people of Nepal and other neighboring countries. So, perhaps it is sooner rather than later that the tigers will be extinct and will be only in the zoos in Nepal.
It was a nail biting finish in the first ODI and in the Australian players could held on to their nerves and won the match by 4 runs. I would say that the top order of Indian batting lineup looked frail in front of Australian bowlers. Well, perhaps, they would learn something from that and they would perform better in the second ODI match. The time of the match is:
October 28 2009 Wednesday
Start Time: (14:30 local, 09:00 GMT)
It is a day night match and fans love day night ODI matches. Well, many people think that because of Twenty20 cricket, ODI matches are losing their attractions. Most probably, they are some wrong because, in the first ODI thousands of people came to the stadium. None of the matches of T20 Champions league could attract this kind of crowd.
The venue of the match is Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur. From Wikipedia:
The Vidharba Cricket Association Stadium is a new Test cricket ground in the city of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. This stadium replaced the old Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur for cricket. The stadium was built at Jamtha area of Nagpur with international standards and opened with India and Australian test match in November, 2008. The new stadium is fully seated and has luxury suites designed similar to Australian cricket grounds. This new stadium will be used during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.[1]
All the cricket matches in Nagpur will be now held at this new stadium instead of the old Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground. The ground belongs to the Central Zone.
Since the first ODI match was very competitive, I am expecting a full house in the second match too.
I am very excited to note in my Sitemeter that this blog (South Asia Blog) is going to touch half million page views mark in the next few minutes. It is an amazing feeling for any blogger. I started this blog in January and thus, it took 9 and half months to reach this mile stone. It is not the first time that I have got this amount of page views for a blog. In fact, in the last 3 and half years of my professional blogging life, I have seen another 5 blogs passing this amount of page views. Thus, it is the 6th blog and I have another one that would have the same achievement within a few weeks.
South Asia Blog suffered some tough condition because of my mistake about selecting the right kind of hosting. Secondly, I also made a big mistake by changing its focus from being a purely economic blog to covering many other things. Well, I really want to go back to my original topic of South Asian Business Economy from 1 November 2009.
Liverpool vs Manchester United Live Updates: 25 October 2009 It is a match, I am dying to watch. The outcome is important for both the teams. We have already seen United defeating Arsenal but that was a home match for Man Utd. So, it is perhaps the first big test for them outside of home. On the other hand, in this season, the performance of Liverpool has been anything but consistent. It is a big test for them too. In this entry, I am supposed to give you the time and venue of the match. So, let me not waste anymore of your time and of my word. First is time.
Date: 25 October 2009 (Sunday)
Time: 14:00 BST; 14:00 GMT
Indian Time is 19:30 PM
Now some words about the Venue Anfield. Anfield is a historical stadium for Liverpool club. It is more than 100 years old and hosted many memorable matches both at club level and international level. It has a seating capacity of some more than 45,000 and tomorrow, I am sure that all the seats will be occupied. The supporters of Liverpool will be in large number since it is their home match. Can they have the last laugh?
Tomorrow is Sunday, 25 October 2009. If you are a sports fan in India then it is perhaps your day. At first, there is India vs Australia 1st ODI 2009 (starting time is 9:00 AM India time) and then Liverpool vs Manchester United match (kick off time is 13:00 GMT). The day being a Sunday is a holiday in most parts of South Asia (except perhaps Bangladesh). There is another EPL football match West Ham United vs. Arsenal. There are many fans of EPL clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in South Asia. On the other hand, for cricket fans in India, the first ODI is of huge importance.
Last month, India suffered an early exit from Champions Trophy 2009 organized by ICC. It caused too much in the heart of all the fans in the country. On the other hand, Australia became champion in this event. Thus, it was like an insult to injury. Indian fans are sick tired of Champions League T20 arranged by BCCI. They want international action and from the Sitemeters of my two blogs, I can realize that this ODI series has generated a lot of interest among the fans.
Thus, as you can see that there are 3 matches to enjoy tomorrow. You can watch them live in different TV channels. So, what match are you going to enjoy tomorrow?
I have been going to DhanmondiLake since 1999. It is 10 years now. Well, at first, I still remember that the place was much less crowded than today. In 2001, I used to go there almost every day in evening and stayed until 10 PM. My favorite place in DhanmondiLake was and still is Rabindra-Sarobar. Now, it is a very crowded place from 4 PM but back in 2001, very few people used to come in weekdays. There was a sizeable crowd in the holidays only. Today, I walked almost the entire part of the lake starting from the entrance near Medinova and then walked for a long time. My Photographer Abdul Aziz Liton was with me and he took a number of pictures and also we could just upload a video in YouTube. In fact, I have today created a channel called SouthAsiaBlog in YouTube. Hopefully, I will be uploading videos on a regular basis.
A good place to Walk
I think that DhanmondiLake is the best place for walking in whole Dhaka city. First of all, it is a very big place. It takes more than 30 minutes for me to walk from one end to the other. I am a tall man and perhaps walk some faster than the average people. Anyway, you can easily spend 1-2 hours here. Thus, it is an excellent place for walking in the afternoon. There are trees in all the parts and it is never very hot. Many people from Dhanmondi and its adjacent areas come for this matter every day. Many women from Dhanmondi also come to walk.
A Secured Place
Safety is a big concern in Dhaka city. I have been going to DhanmondiLake for a decade and I have never seen or heard of any bad incident. Specially, now, a number of security staffs are always there. So, it is a very secured place.
Eating and Chatting
My favorite place is Dingi where you can find all kind of food items. The kebab was excellent a few years ago when I used to go there regularly. I don’t know how the food is now. However, I still enjoy Chotpoti and Fuchka near Rabindra-Sarobar. You can find tea, coffee, nuts (badam), fast food, Chinese food, Bangladeshi food items etc. The best part is that the price is not outrageous. In some other places of Dhaka, food prices can be outrageous outside of a park or garden. DhanmondiLake is really a hassle free place in this regard.
Boat Ride
I cannot swim and I am not that much comfortable with water. So, I have never tried this but many people enjoy it. There are boats for hire and you can get one for an hour or even more. The price is quite affordable for most people.
My photographer took some pictures and I will put them here gradually.
By the way, have you been to DhanmondiLake? If you have been there, did you enjoy the place? Let me know your idea in the comment section. If not then go there as soon as you can.
It was a historic moment indeed for Internet technology in Bangladesh. Just 3 hours ago, Augere Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Ltd started its Wimax sercie in Bangladesh by introducing Qubee Wimad service. At the same time, the company has also inaugurated Qubee ‘flagship store’ in Gulshan, Dhaka. I got the invitation to attend the program but I was some sick and could not go there. However, I sent my photographer Abdul Aziz Liton and he recorded the entire ceremony and also took the pictures and did some video. There was a press release in Bangla and I have translated it in English that you can find a little later in this entry.
This Wimax facility is indeed a milestone in the history of ICT sector of Bangladesh. We have been dying to get fast wireless Internet connection at affordable price. I would not say that the 2 Qubee packages that I could find are affordable to middle class people like me but at the same time, I know very well that the price of Wimax package would depend on the price of Internet Bandwidth provided by BTCL. I really wish that BTRC takes a decisive step to lower the bandwidth price to $100 per mbps in Bangladesh. Then, I am sure that the price of Wimax facility will decrease drastically.
Coming back to the launching ceremony of today, I am giving you here the names of the Augere’s High officials who were present today:
Russel T Ahmed. Chief Marketing officer. Augere
Jerry Mobbs. CEO Augere
Syed Farhad Ahmed. Director. Augere
N. H Chowdhury. Director. Augere
Now, I am giving a part of the Press Release (translated from Bangla):
Augere is now in Bangladesh opening up QUBEE and flagship center
Augere Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Limited (ABL) brought the WiMax Internet service in Bangladesh. On October 21, 2009, the company started its own WiMax brand Qubee in Bangladesh. On that same days, Augere also started its “Qubee Flagship Store.”
Qubee will provide reliable, high-speed wireless Internet service to both regular customers and business enterprises at a competitive price. For a long time, Augere has been working on to make Internet easily available to users in any part of the world. With the installation of superior quality infrastructure, Qubee will give users the “True Internet Experience.”
With an aim to bring positive changes in people’s lives, Qubee started its remarkable journey in Bangladesh. The brand is devoted to open up the endless door of possibilities through the Internet to the people of Bangladesh. High speed Internet;
Consistent service; and True Internet Experience are the three major features of Qubee Internet service.
Internet coverage:
Initially, Qubee will cover Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Mirpur and Uttara residential and commercial area. Soon, the Qubee Internet service will cover entire Bangladesh. Qubee has already giving out various attractive service packages for interested residential and enterprise customers.
Qubee Package Detail:
Packages
Speed
Download capacity
Price
Additional usage
Qubee 512
512 Kbps
6 GB
Tk.3,400
Tk. 0.15/MB
Qubee 1 Mb
1 Mbps
9 GB
Tk. 6,200
Tk. 0.15/MB
For detailed information, you should visit the following website:
Manchester United is going to visit CSKA Moscow tomorrow (21 October 2009) in their third group match of UEFA Champions League. Manchester won both of their Champions league games so far, and thus, leading the Group B with 6 points, while the Russian outfit has managed 3 points thanks to a win over Beşiktaş at home after losing to Wolfsburg on the road in their opening match.
CSKA Moscow will have home advantage, but given the recent form of United, it is pretty much understandable that the English champions are favorite against the Russian side. Manchester United has been Premier league champions for the last 3 seasons, while the Moscow-based club finished second in the Russian premier league last season. Manchester United will be full of confident after last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers, a win with which the Red Devils moved to the top of the point table surpassing Chelsea.
On the other hand, CSKA Moscow is not in good position in their domestic league. They are now in the fourth place with 43 points, 7 points adrift of leader Rubin Kazan with 5 matches left in the season. It is less likely that CSKA Moscow will be able to retain the league title this season. So, they would rather like to show something impressive in Europe. So, they would definitely try their best to clinch 3 points against United in front of home crowd. At least a point would be satisfactory for the Russian club.
Manchester United, however, would not be happy with 1 point as they are eyeing on 3 points from the game. The added motivation is that goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has come back after recovering his injury. Football fans are very much excited with the game. Here, I am going to mention the television channels which will telecast the match live for their viewers:
Sky Sports 2 TV Channel
English football fans can watch the match live on Sky Sports 2 television channel. Football fans from some other European counties can also watch the match live on this channel. So, those who will be able to visit Moscow can enjoy the match live on Sky Sports which is one of the most popular sports channels in Europe.
Ten Sports Television Channel
Ten Sports will cover the match live for the football fans of South Asia as well as Middle East. There are millions of football fans in South Asia and in Middle East who will be bale to watch this Champions League game live on Ten Sports. The channel is one of the popular sports channels in the region which has covered many important football tournaments in the past successfully. So, you can expect quality coverage of the match from Ten Sports.
Super Sports TV Channel
African football fans will be able to enjoy the match live on Super Sports 3 television channel. Super Sports is gradually becoming a widely popular sports channel across the world. It covers many sports and important tournaments through its several channels. Its main viewers are from Africa, but the channel has attracted many viewers from Asia too. It is true that Super Sports is not available in many Asian countries yet, but the channel has already created an appeal among the Asian sports lovers, mainly because of their coverage of several sports.
When the Match Starts:
17:30 BST (British Standard Time)
16:30 GMT
22:30 Indian Standard Time (according to Ten Sports 21:30)
23:30Bangladesh Time
12:30pmNew York Time
I hope that football fans will enjoy the match and both sides will display some good piece of football.
Tata Motors, on October 20, 2009, told reporters that it has completed the acquisition of Hispanno Carrocera SA, the Spanish bus and coach maker. In 2005, Tata acquired 21% stake in the company for a total price of euro 12 million. Hispano Carrocera sales its products in Europe and Africa. It has two manufacturing units- one in Spain and the other in Casablanca. Live Mint.com reports:
Tata Motors, which had a 21% stake in the Spanish bus and coach maker since 2005, said it acquired the stake exercising its call option, through mutual agreement with the other stake holder Investalia S.A.
The acquisition will help the company in further strengthening the ongoing initiatives, to improve operational efficiencies such as productivity improvement, cost reduction, new product development, help it improve market share, and enhance brand value.
According to the investment agreement, Tata Motors will have the license for technology and brand rights from Hispano. Ravi Kant has been appointed as the chairman of the company. At a meeting in Madrid, Ravi Kant said that this partnership would give give both companies an opportunity to use their complementary strengths to create high class transport solutions for intracity and intercity mass transportation in Spain, India and many other countries in the world.
Hispano Carrocera is well known for its premium quality vehicles in Spain. One of the largest manufacturers of bus and coaches in Europe the company has a 1000+ production capacity per year. Currently, it controls 10% of the bus and coach market in Spain.
In order to observe the climatic changes and variations, India is now going to build 50 weather stations in the neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. SAARC environment ministers have agreed on the plan during a meeting held in New Delhi on 20 October 2009. Some other important decisions were taken ahead of December’s Copenhagen climate summit where SAARC countries are going to raise awareness among the global community about the climatic change and its devastating effect on the countries of this region.
The eight countries that form the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)-Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka-also decided they would form a bloc at the Copenhagen climate summit this December to make a statement and hold an event there "to highlight our vulnerabilities to climate change and the actions we are taking", Ramesh said.
The recently-held two-day meeting also brought out some other important decisions. Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh has declared that India is going to pay $1 million for the SAARC forestry centre located in Bhutan and $1 million for the SAARC coastal zone management centre in Maldives.
Jairam Ramesh was a very bright student and he has an illustrious career behind him and with him before becoming Minister in Indian government. He is an active advocate in economic reforms in India and he actually took part in making the reforms happen. He is now the Minister of State for Environment and Forests. Any way, he is an influential figure in Congress Party and is close to Sonia Gandhi. He is now calling for India to cut back on carbon emission regardless of what the western countries are doing.
The MEF, comprising 16 nations and the 27-state European Union, met in London for informal talks aimed at breaking a long-standing stalemate in global climate change talks.
Talks are deadlocked over US insistence that China, India and other major developing countries undertake binding commitments to slash their greenhouse gas emissions - a product of industrialisation - that cause climate change.
Developing countries argue that climate change has been caused by rich nation-emissions and that the US must first undertake cuts.
So, the call for change in policy from Jairam Ramesh has already provoked strong criticism from opposition BJP. I am sure that he will face more criticism from other parties including his own Congress party. However, I think India needs visionary leaders like Jairam Ramesh who may be considered as trouble-makers by some.
Reuters has an excellent report on the conflict between the Ambani brothers. The two brothers are at odds against each other for the last few years after their father died. Mukesh Ambani has now wealth of nearly $19.5 billion while the younger brother Anil has wealth of nearly $10.1. They are among richest people in the whole world and yet they are fighting very bitterly. Unfortunately, this conflict is bringing a lot of negative publicity for the energy sector in India. Some foreign investors are also worried about the role of Indian government in this conflict.
Indian economy suffered a lot in the last few months because of economic recession and now, when things are becoming better in the US economy, this family feud may hurt the prospect of recovery of Indian economy. The court is now trying to resolve the issue. However, the problem is that the two brothers are in a deadlock position and it seems that no one except themselves can bring a solution. Even if there is a court verdict soon, they have the money and lawyers to continue the matter in court for another many months. So, you should read this report of Reuters on the conflict of the two brothers.
Normally, in my blogs, I try to avoid writing about anything that is related to this kind of topic. However, rest assured that I am not going to post any image of that part of the body of Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Fortunately, the picture is not available in Internet. Still many people are interested about and searching it in Google. Well, what happened is that she recently had a baby and she took a picture of the baby when he had his first smile. Anyway, the picture was taken by a iPhone and along with the smile of the boy there was her nipple. In excitement she did not notice that and instantly sent the picture to some family members who were in her mailing list.
She was out of the popular talk show The View for few weeks and she returned and told this story. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is famous for her right wing attitude and open support for people like Sarah Palin. So, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is a celebrity figure. I really cannot understand that why so many people are excited about this simple thing. After all, they are watching pictures of nipples of girls and women all the time in real life and in television, movies and Internet.
I also failed to understand why Elisabeth Hasselbeck brought up this issue in her return to the talk show. Perhaps she is upset that Obama got Nobel Prize for Peace recently. That is why, in extreme unhappiness, she forgot everything and brought up the story of her picture.
I just finished writing a long entry in another blog about record Apple Earning for third quarter of 2009. The main contributors behind such strong performance from the company during the time of economic recession were iPhones and Mac Computers. Steve Jobs himself has a lot of respect for India and Buddhism. Still, I cannot understand why he is not that much keen on promoting his products in South Asia. Yes, iPhone is in India but is not that popular yet. It is understandable because not too many people can afford to buy iPhones in a poor country like India. The same perhaps goes for Mac Computers too.
However, what I cannot understand is that why his company is not taking iPhone to other South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. Both of them have more than 50 million mobile phone connections each and the markets are still growing. I feel that Apple is neglecting this region and it is not a wise strategy. Nokia is still the market leader in mobile phone simply because it has taken the Asian market seriously from first. I hope that Steve Jobs can make some trips to South Asia in the coming months and realize the potential of this region.
