It seems that Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2010 will be remembered in the history for the controversies rather than the designers. In the opening day, there was no fashion show because the organizers failed to get the fire license in due time. So, a lot of fashion designers and fashion houses were unhappy. They could not show their products in the opening day.
Today, the organizers Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) tried to please those designers by increasing the duration of the event by one extra day. In the last day, the designers of the first day would be able to show their clothes. Puneet Nanda is unhappy about it and he is not going to show his products in the last day. The organizers tried to convince him but he would not do it.
Perhaps the latest news in India is the selection of Indian players for the upcoming ICC World Cup Twenty20. National selectors of Indian cricket team have announced a 15-man squad for the event.
If you are fan of cricket then you should know that ICC World Twenty20 will kick off from April 30 and it will continue till May 16, 2010. It is going to be the third edition of Twernty20 World Cup. India has been put in Group C along with Afghanistan and South Africa. They will open their campaign against weak foe Afghanistan on May 1, 2010. I am giving the squad here:
Indian Squad for Twenty20 World Cup 2010: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla.
Inaugural champion team India is called one of the strongest teams in this tournament. According to the selectors, they have announced the best team including strong batting and bowling line up. They also showed their confidence about India’s performance in this competition. But I am not sure about it. You should know that India was one of the early eliminated teams in the second edition of Twenty20 World Cup. Who knows that Indian cricket team will not disappoint their fans this year? As a fan of Indian cricket team, I will request all the supporters and board members not to dream too much.
Players have been selected based on the performance of domestic cricket league. We also can see that selectors give more importance in the performance of third edition of Indian Premier League when it comes to select a player for the shortest version of cricket game. If you look at the Indian squad then you can see that some players have been picked up on the performance of DLF IPL 2010.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead Indian cricket team while Virender Sehwag will be his deputy.
Ranganath Vinay Kumar is the only uncapped player who has been selected in the Indian squad. Karnataka fast bowler Ranganath Vinay Kumar is going to make his debut in the third edition of Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies. He picked up 46 wickets in the Ranji trophy. Not only that but also he is the second highest wicket taker so far in the IPL 2010 with eight scalps.
India’s most experienced fast bowler Ishant Sharma has failed to make his place in squad. Another eliminated player is Virat Kohli. Selectors are not satisfied with their performance. Rudra Pratap Singh is also out. While elder brother Yusuf Pathan will be seen playing cricket in West Indies, Irfan Pathan brother will have to enjoy the game in front of a TV set or in the stadium as a spectator.
Despite being injured both Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra have been included in the squad. It is thought that Chief selector Kris Srikkanth and his colleagues kept faith on them. No doubt, they are the most important players in Indian cricket team. Even they have great contribution to their national cricket team’s glorious performance. These two players play for Delhi Daredevils.
While Gautam Gambhir was playing for Delhi Daredevils, he strained his hamstring against Mumbai Indian’s in the third edition of Indian Premier League. However, this year Ashish Nehra could not play a single IPL match because of his rib cage injury.
Both Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra went to Sri Lanka for an ayurvedic treatment. It is expected that they will recover soon before the start of Twenty20 World Cup. I hope that selectors should select alternative players who can successfully replace them when team needs.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla has been recalled in the Indian squad ahead of another young spinner Pragyan Ojha. For the first time he has been selected in the T20 squad. Pragyan Ojha played in the second edition of Twenty20 World Cup in England last year. Despite being in a great form Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey failed to impress the selectors.
Holi, also called the “Festival of Colors,” has started in India. The Holi is a spring festival that is celebrated by the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhs and people of other religion. This festival is also observed in Nepal, Sri Lanka and other countries where there are South Asian communities. Holi signifies the arrival of spring and the end of winter. It is celebrated to mark the triumph of good over evil. From February 28, 2010, the Holi celebration started in India with Holika Dahan. People burnt effigies of Holika, the evil sister of King Hiranyakashyap.
In different parts of India, the festival of Holi has been observed with great pleasure. Because of fear of terrorist attacks, there has been security all over India. Police forces are deployed in strategic points such as rail stations, bus stands and other important public places. Police PRO, Rajan bhagat, told people not to throw water balloons and violate traffic regulation. Also doctors cautioned people that if they get colors into their eyes then they should treat it with water and they should not scrub the cornea. Holi is a festival of colors. On this day people of all ages come together and celebrate the day by throwing colors at each other. For many years, this festival has been observed in India. We wish you all happy Holi this year.
Now, Indian ministers are very busy with the upcoming budget. The current fiscal year is going to finish on 31 March 2010 and the 2010-11 Fiscal year is going to start from 1 April. So, a bad year is coming to end and there is a sense of optimism that the next year will bring back the high economic growth. Like most countries, India also suffered from the global recession. Now, there is hope that 8% GDP growth may take place in the next fiscal year.
During 2005-2008 time, Indian economy saw fast growth and many foreign companies came here to take advantage of the growing market. So, I am hoping the same for the next one year. However, what is becoming a growing concern is inflation. Price of food items is increasing rapidly and the ordinary people are going to suffer.
Indian government is perhaps helpless against inflation because it is very difficult to control the market. Many factors work in a free market economy.
It is perhaps time that ordinary people start to think about the economy more seriously. Of course, they cannot become experts but they surely can think of decreasing consumptions of certain items that are in high demand. They surely can decide to waste less in wedding and other kind of parties.
Indian government has expressed its willingness to talk with Pakistan in the level of foreign secretaries. Pakistan has welcomed the decision. India closed door to its neighbor after the Mumbai terrorist incident on November 2008. Kashmir is the problem that is not going to go away and I am not that hopeful about any improvement in relationship between two countries. Well, the decision makers in both the countries have to change their attitude.
Just a few days ago, Pakistani players were invited to play in Indian Premier League but no Pakistani player was selected. This caused a national outrage in Pakistan. Indian government leaders stated that they had nothing to do behind this and it was a matter of BCCI.
Thus, I believe that Indian government should think of improving cultural relationship between the two countries instead of going for any official level dialogue. Discussion in the level of foreign secretaries will not bring any benefit if cricket ties remain closed.
On the other hand, Pakistani government would have to take the security concerns of India seriously. Anti-India propaganda is a very popular thing among political parties in the country. Same is true in India too.
It is very surprising to see that the food price in India is increasing and in December, the condition was very bad. Indian economy is still not totally out of the impact of -global economic recession and before the recession started, I remember very clearly that the price of food item in India rose very sharply. That time perhaps there was a reason that there was strong demand in the market and Indian economy was also growing rapidly. However, I can not think of any logical reason that why price of food items should increase at a time like this.
We have not heard any news of India getting back its high economy or GDP growth. Secondly we have not heard of any strong demand in the market for food items. Still, many businessmen are getting engaged speculative trade and they are thinking that may be the demand will be increased and the price will be increased in future a lot and that is why the price at this moment is increasing.
Indian government is trying its best to fight against this kind of the problem and I think that it should work closely with the trade bodies to ensure that the price does not go out of control. Well, in 2009, there was a bad monsoon rain and agriculture production wad badly hit. This can be one important factor but still, at a time when Indian economy is still suffering from the impact of recession, I don’t see any logical reason for such an abnormal increase.
In the next Fiscal year, Indian government is planning to disinvest Rs 24,000 crore (1 crore= 10 million) of shares of state run organizations in the share market. As a result, the Indian share market will get a boost with this news. The stock exchanges in India has seen strong enthusiasm in the last few months. The government will declare the policy by March on sale of these shares.
And the primary route for this fund raising will be through initial public offers, or the listing-led approach, rather than follow ons. "FPOs (folow on public offers) will happen only if companies need money," Mitra said. The government plans to list 60 unlisted public sector units, and may even ask for dividend before divesting cash rich companies, he added.
The big one for the government, the NTPC public issue coming up next month, is likely to raise about Rs 8,000 crore, Mitra said.
The Congress Party led government could get decisive majority in Election 2009 and they are not dependent on the support of the left parties. As a result, now, it is easier to go ahead with the disinvestment policy.
Results of IBSAT 2009 have been released recently. Those who took part in this exam are now searching for their results. IBSAT is the MBA entrance exam for IBS. If you are interested to do your post graduation in this institute then you have to collect a form and then take part in an exam. The exam was held on 27th December 2009. Results of this exam have been published. It is available on the official website. The website address is- http://www.ibsat.org/.
What you have to give is your admit card number and date of birth.
I think I don’t have to give much information about ICFAIBusinessSchool if you are Indian. It is the most prestigious institutes in India. Students of EngineeringColleges, BusinessSchool, and other institutes try their luck in it. They arrange admission exam each year. Those who want to study MBA for two years or one year executive program take in this exam.
IBS follow high standards to make their admission questions. Students will have to be skilled in adequacy, analytical reasoning, writing skills, reading comprehension and vocabulary. However, this year the section of Essay writing was not included. The duration of this exam is only two hours. You may already know that it has 19 campuses across in India. These are established in Ahmeadabad, Bengalooru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradoon, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Nagpur.
ICFAIBusinessSchool Aptitude Test is shortly referred as IBSAT. Every year a lot of students take part in this exam. But only few got chance to study in this institute and these students also shown both as talented and lucky. It is true that if you can finish your post graduation from this renowned institute then you can make a better future.
KannurUniversity has recently announced its result for B.Com and I SEM DEGREE C.C.S.S. EXAMINATION RESULT exam. Students of this university are searching their results despite feeling tense. Results are available in the official website of this varsity. I have given the address of the official website below.
Kannur University is not much old university. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of developing the education in Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad Districts of KeralaState in India. People of this area will get the facility for higher education. This varsity provides postgraduate courses in computer science and features sophisticated computing laboratories. In their official website, you can find a short description about this varsity.
Indian cricket team is going to end the year 2009 with number one spot in Test cricket. It was done by Indian skipper MS Dhoni who led his team successfully. He is hopeful for his team’s achievement in the next year. He says that his team will keep on the leading position for long time. However, it should be really a though task for them because they are going to play only a few Test matches in 2010. May be they are going to play only four test matches next year. It seems that Dhoni is not disappointed about it. He said that he wants to play a minimum number of tests every year.
I think that Indian fans are upset about it. Fewer test matches can be the main reason for India’s downfall from top position. Even India may slip down early from the top position. The existence of Test cricket is under threat. Now-a-days, cricket players do not like to play the longest version of cricket game. The interest of test cricket is decreasing day by day. Let us see how long it can exist.
India has the second largest user base in mobile phone. So, many local and foreign companies are interested about 3g Technology. You know that with 3G technology, telecom companies can offer super fast Internet, voice and video facility to the subscribers. Now, it seems that the auction would take place on 14 January 2010.
The communications ministry did not issue a notice inviting applications for the bid, as scheduled on Dec. 8, which led to speculation that the auction may be postponed again. The final date for applications was Dec. 21, according to a tentative schedule released by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) in October.
The auction was originally fixed for January 2009, but was delayed as the country's finance and communications ministries could not agree on a minimum price for the licenses.
Indian government should be more proactive about allowing new technology to come in India. The government wants Indian economy to grow rapidly and for this there is no alternate to new technology. This 3G license and spectrums would bring billions of dollars to the government.
USA is still considered to be the best place for education in the world and every year, many foreign students come to study here. As a result, the revenue from foreign students in university level has reached to $17.8 billion. In 2008-09 school year, 103,260 students from India took admission in different college and universities of America. In the second position was China. Then is South Korea. In fact, in the top five list, 4 are Asian countries. It shows that people in Asian countries are giving importance to higher education.
There is another reason for Asian countries to send significant amount of students. In Europe, all the rich and developed countries have world class universities. If we look at Germany, France and Britain then we will notice that they have some great universities than can compete with the best American universities. Asian countries seriously lack in this regard. That is perhaps why, Indian students go to America in such high number. It shows that there is a market for quality education in India. I think that the big companies should come forward and set up some world class universities in private sector. Then, the country would be able to save a lot of foreign currency and students from neighboring countries would come in larger number.
On a different note, BTC Uttarakhand Result 2009 has been announced. If you sat for this exam then you should check your result.
Yes, it is indeed becoming a prestige concern for Indian government right now. It is clear that the organizers have done a bad job until now and nobody is happy with progress made so far. The good thing is that now, Indian government has come forward to salvage the event and has allocated more funds to speed up things.
The information minister said the extra money would provide for "the inclusion of new items that are essential for the successful delivery of the games".
Repeated concerns have been voiced over whether India will be ready in time for the event.
The Commonwealth Games open on 3 October next year and run until 14 October.
This is a sad story and I hope that it gets a happy ending in the end. Many Indians want to feel satisfied to think that India is now a rival of China. However, everyone knows that China successfully hosted Olympics 2008. Commonwealth Games is a much smaller event compared to the Olympics.
You know that a country wants to either put a handsome reserve of US Dollar or gold. Indian decision makers recently decided that they had enough dollar and they should get more gold. Well, India recently purchased 200 tonnes of gold from IMF. This matter has helped to push the price of this commodity up in US market. I am not shocked with this matter because dollar has been instable in the last 2 years. Economic recession made the currency weak. So, big countries like China and India are looking for alternatives. You can build up a reserve of Euro but again Euro has perhaps the same problem of being not stable just like the US dollar. So, Indian decision makers thought that gold was the best thing they should go for.
It is perhaps an indication that the dollar is losing its value as the prime currency. However, whether you like it or not, there is no other alternative currency at this moment that can compete against it.
I just want to mention here that Chinese decision makers are also contemplating on the idea of diversifying their huge forex reserve.
The Indian Squad for ODI series against Australia was announced today. The big surprise was that Rahul Dravid was dropped from the squad. It came as a shock because he performed well in the recently concluded Champions Trophy 2009. In ICC Champions Trophy 2009, India suffered early exit but Dravid was in good form. So, it was shocking to many people in India. Of course, the selectors have perhaps one good reason. They needed to bring back injured
I think that it is the end of the road for Dravid as far as ODI career is concerned. He has been often criticized in the past for his slow batting action in ODI cricket. Well, in the recent years, he tried to change and become more aggressive. He has good batting average but he has become old and is not sharp in fielding like past.
Now, let us come back to Rahul Dravid story. I just do not understand what selectors had in their mind when they recalled Dravid and what brought an abrupt change in their mind regarding Dravid, one of the most successful ODI batsmen ever. India is going to face a confident Australia in the home series and India’s confidence is not very high, given their recent performance in Twenty20 world cup and Champions Trophy. So, an experienced player like Dravid could have been very crucial for India.
It seems that many people are unhappy with the exclusion of Dravid from the team. Former Indian captain and coach Ajit Wadekar requested the selectors not to drop Dravid. Wadekar felt that Dravid did very well in Sri Lanka and South Africa and he deserves a place in the team.
Dravid came from a generation when India had perhaps 4 great players in the team- Tendulkar, Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid himself. These 4 were world class players and had a number of records among them. Ganguly and Kumble have already retired. With Dravid almost gone perhaps, the lone survivor will be Sachin Tendulkar.
As for me, I think that Dravid should focus on Test Cricket only. There is no doubt that he is a great batsman of our time. However, you have to understand that he is now 36 years old and he does not have that many years ahead of him. The tragedy is that in Indian team, there is no good batsman to replace him. So, it is better he focuses on test cricket only and can continue another 2-3 years.
Canon is one of the top names in both printer and digital camera. Well, I guess that they are among the top 3 names in these two fields in the whole world. Asia is a very important market for the company and it has focused a lot on South Asia. In 2009, Canon achieved tremendous growth in the Indian market despite the fact that Indian economy has been suffering from economic recession.
The $ 45 billion Japanese photographic and digital imaging solutions major, Canon, is gunning for the numero uno slot in the domestic digital camera and laser printers market by 2010. Despite the economic slowdown, Canon India has earned a revenue of Rs 665 crore in 2008, registering 20 per cent growth in the first eight months of 2009.
Canon has taken a two pronged strategy to emerge as market leader. "The gap in market share with regard to market leaders in both the digital camera and laser printer segments is marginal. We have set up a target to emerge as a leader in these two product segment by 2010." says Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice-president, Canon India.
Here in Bangladesh, Canon has also strong presence in the local market. I published an interview of Abdullah H Kafi in this blog and if you read it then you can know more about Canon’s activities in Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka, India and Kenya are among the top major tea producing countries. They make sure that people in the world can have good and refreshing cups of tea every day. Unfortunately, in 2009, these 3 countries suffered from drought. So, it is perhaps natural that tea production will suffer a lot this year. There is fear that even 10% shortage of production can happen.
India, Kenya and Sri Lanka together account for more than 50 percent of global tea exports. India’s tea output this year may drop 20 million kilograms from last year’s 980.8 million kilograms, Khaitan said.
India’s tea production in the seven months to July dropped 3.3 percent to 461 million kilograms after the weakest monsoon in at least seven years caused a drought in 278 of India’s 626 districts this year. That may create a deficit of 50 million kilograms next year, Khaitan said.
“Drought is only one reason for prices to take off,” he said. “Years of neglect because of stagnant prices took a toll on production over the years.”
Against natural disasters like drought, human beings are helpless. So, the governments of these 3 countries should help the tea producers and workers.
Indian selectors named 15-member Indian squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2009 starting from 22 September in South Africa. There is no big surprise except the inclusion of veteran batsman Rahul Dravid who got a recall to the ODI squad after two years.
However, India will miss the service of the hard-hitting opener Virender Sehwag who is currently suffering from his shoulder injury. There is no doubt, Sehwag’s absence is a big blow to the Indian team whose performance was poor in the previous edition of the tournament in 2006. Indian team would also miss experienced pacer Zaheer Khan who is also injured out at the moment.
However, India does not lack quality opener as there are two well-established openers in the squad: Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik also has previous experience of opening for India. Indian batting line up still looks pretty strong in the presence of the likes of Gambhir, Tendulkar, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Raina and Dravid.
Spin department includes off spinner Harbhajan Singh and leg spinner Amit Mishra. All rounder Yusuf Pathan is another effective spinner in the squad.
India’s pace attack would lack experience in the absence of Zaheer Khan who has been enjoying some of his best time in cricket recently. Still, the squad has skilled pacers like Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh and Praveen Kumar. All rounder Abhishek Nayar, who got his maiden ODI call up for the West Indies tour last June, could add to India’s pace option with his left-hand medium pace.
The squad includes two all rounders: Yusuf Pathan and Abhishek Nayar- both of whom could contribute to India’s total score with their hard-hitting batting in the lower middle order. Reserve wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is also capable of scoring big score, and thus, adding to India’s batting option in the top order.
Overall, the squad looks balanced, but still, it lacks strength both in batting and bowling in the absence of Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan.
India and Nepal signed a new trade treaty and agreement on August 22, 2009. After the five day visit of Nepalese Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal assured his countrymen that the two countries are going to further develop their relationship. The new trade deal would decrease will decrease Nepal’s loss in trade with India and would expand Nepal’s trade and business. On Nepal’s behalf, Purushottam Ojha, Secretary of Commerce and Supplies signed the pact and Rahul Khullar, Indian Commerce Secretary represented India.Nepalese Minister of Commerce and Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna were also present at the event.
The current pacts of the deal will replace the existing pacts that have been formed in 1991 and 1996. The trade treaties have been negotiated for the last two years. Under the new agreement, Nepalese products will duty-free access in India. The new treaty will also help to control the unauthorized trade from a third country and encourage bilateral trading. In the FY 2008-2009, the two countries traded goods worth 1.9 billion dollars. According to the Indian government the amount would become three billion dollars in near future. India is the sole supplier of fuel to Nepal and is also responsible for more than 44% of foreign direct investment in the country.
Just when it seemed that the worst of economic recession is finishing in America, Europe and in Japan, there is bad news for Indian economy. Rainy season is gradually finishing but still there is not enough rain for the farmers. As a result, the farmers have been suffering a lot and if it results into agricultural output fall then it will hurt the Indian economy badly. Most people in the country depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
India's monsoon rains have been 29 percent below normal since the beginning of the June-September season, hurting crops such as rice and cane and triggering a sharp rise in food prices in India and sugar futures abroad.
The monsoon is vital for India's summer-sown crops because most farmers do not have access to irrigation facilities.
"We are staring at the prospect of an impending drought," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a meeting of environment ministers of Indian states.
Rains have returned in the past few days, particularly in cane-producing Uttar Pradesh, where the local government has declared a drought in most districts. But this has not eased the concerns of top national officials, who only in recent days began to characterise the countrywide situation as a drought.
Well, one of the problems will be that India is one of the largest producers of agricultural products like rice, wheat and sugar. Any shortfall of production in the country can push prices up in the international market next year. Here, I like to remind the readers that before the economic recession started, prices of agricultural commodities increased sharply.
