The December(2006) edition of the Digit magazine has a CD which has all the Google softwares.It has Google Earth, Google Talk, Picasa …….. It also has a cool stuff called as Google Gadgets.Along with the CD , you also get a booklet which gives you some insight into the World of Google. Interesting stuff, especially for Google lovers.
So, get your copy before it is too late!!!
Source : The Economic Times
Dated : 10/12/2006
Cairn India Ltd will on Monday open India’s biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) that will put the company among the top 25 listed corporates ahead of the recently-listed Reliance Petroleum Ltd.
“Our issue of 328.79 million equity shares in the price band of Rs 160 to 190 opens on December 11,” CIL CEO Rahul Dhir told reporters here.
Cairn will garner at least Rs 5,260 crore and a maximum of Rs 6,247 crore. If it exercises an option to retain over-subscription of up to 4.9 crore shares, the proceeds would be a minimum of Rs 6,050 crore and a maximum of Rs 7,184 crore. The issue closes on December 15.
The IPO will be bigger than NTPC’s issue that garnered Rs 5,368 crore, Tata Consultancy Services’ Rs 4,990 crore, ICICI’s Rs 3,528 crore, Reliance Petroleum’s Rs 2,790 crore and Jet Airways’ Rs 1,942 crore public issues.
The IPO is 18.6 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue equity capital of Rs 176.43 crore. At the upper band, the company could touch a market capitalisation of Rs 33,500 crore, higher than RPL’s Rs 29,180 crore on the BSE.
Cairn, whose Rajasthan oil discovery was the largest find in more than two decades, has already done a pre-IPO placement of 209 million shares, majority of which was picked by Petronas of Malaysia.
Dhir said Cairn plans to begin production from Mangla, Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields, the first three of the 19 discoveries in the Rajasthan block that established ultimate reserve of 3.6 billion barrels, in the first half of 2009. Initial production will be about 100,000 barrels per day, peaking to 150,000 bpd in 2010.
“The peak production will last for four years but we can keep the output at 150,000 bpd for another six years through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project,” Dhir said. He said Cairn plans to invest 1.2-billion dollar in developing the three fields in the Rajasthan block and another 150-million dollar in exploration.
The company has already tied-up a credit line of 850 million dollars and 600 million dollars from the IPO proceeds would be retained by Cairn India. Cairn Energy Plc of UK will retain 69.5 per cent in Cairn India after the IPO.
Besides the Rajasthan block, Cairn India has 22.5 per cent stake in the offshore Ravva field, which is currently producing around 50,000 barrels of oil per day. It also operates Lakshmi and Gauri oil and gas fields in Cambay basin.
Source : Economic Times Network
Dated : 10/12/2006
Infosys Technologies, the country’s second biggest software services exporter, just clinched yet another unique distinction.
It became the first Indian corporate to be included in a global index when NASDAQ announced that it had chosen the company to be a part of the NASDAQ-100 Index effective market opening on Monday, December 18, 2006.
This comes at a time when Infosys is celebrating its silver jubilee anniversary. It now joins the ranks of Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Intel and Yahoo which form part of the NASDAQ-100.
On the NASDAQ, the Infy scrip closed at $55.03 (up 0.7%) on Friday with volumes of 2.07 million shares although on the National Stock Exchange(NSE) in India the scrip closed lower by 1.27% at Rs 2,195.55. At the time of ranking, Infosys ADS had a market capitalisation of $5.6 billion on the NASDAQ. On the NSE Infy ended on Friday with a market capitalisation of Rs 1.21 lakh crore.Besides Infosys, the other two stocks to be added to the NASDAQ-100 include Level 3 Communications Inc and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
The NASDAQ-100 comprises of the 100 largest non financial stocks listed on the NASDAQ. Infosys, Level 3 and Vertex come in place of JDS Uniphase Corporation, Lincare Holdings Inc and Urban Outfitters Inc.
“The NASDAQ-100 Index is one of the world’s most recognised benchmarks that owes this distinction to its components-companies that are leaders in a diverse range of industries,” said John L Jacobs, executive vice-president of NASDAQ.
The inclusion of stocks into the NASDAQ-100 happens on the basis of a re-ranking exercise which is carried out each December.
“We are delighted to hear about the inclusion in the NASDAQ-100 Index. Companies like ours are helping corporates worldwide to effectively compete in a flat world,” said V Balakrishnan, CFO.
The Infosys inclusion comes after the company launched its third sponsored ADS issue which saw the floating stock increase in the international market (NASDAQ). Currently close to 20% of the Infosys stock is available on the NASDAQ.
As a part of the index, the Infy scrip will now be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock, an exchange traded fund (ETF). The NASDAQ-100 along with NASDAQ Financial-100 Index were launched way back in January 1985.
It was 9th of December,2006(06:30 PM) and I was very much delighted to be present at the inauguration of the book “The High Performance Entrepreneur” by Subroto Bagchi,COO of Mindtree Consulting at the Crossword book store,Indiranagar,Bangalore.
Along with Mr Bagchi,was also present at the occasion.
Now it was a big surprise!!!Guess what,Mrs Sudha Murthy(wife of Mr Narayan Murthy) was also present to convey her best wishes to Mr Bagchi.
There was no speech by Mr Bagchi but instead there was a small movie in which he showed the interviews of the three entrepreneurs about whom he has mentioned in his book.They are
They shared their experiences as an entrepreneur and also the various problems they encountered(in the process of being an entrepreneur), before they became successful(no one is very successful).
A small conversation with Mr Bagchi:
My Question:
How does a person decide when to start?
Answer:
I think you are still 32/33(I laugh -:) I am only 26…He apologizes) , “As you might have read the first chapter in my book which mentions the same thing.It is your inner gut feeling which would tell you that it is the right time to start.But your vision should not be short sighted but you should strive to build a successful organization”.
“Entrepreneurs not only create wealth for themselves but also create jobs,which in turn contribute to the Indian Economy”
My Question:
“I have very few friends and if you see all the great organizations(eg. Google,Infosys,Microsoft etc) have been founded by a group of people(mainly friends).So,can a single person be successful to create a great organization”?
Answer:
Laughs……”Yes,what you have told is correct.Most of the successful organizations have been built by people(but not friends) , who come from different domains(eg Technical,Finance,Management etc) and which will help you to make a great team and would help to grow your organization to greater heights.”
Just like you , I also have very few friends and it is not these friends who would help you to build a great organization.I dont go to bars,dont play golf,dont go to parties.Hence,I have less friends but I have a big friend circle in the business domain.These are the friends(who come from the same field) with whom you can team and start your organization.
The “India Business Leader Of the Year” awards is a celebration of Indian entrepreneurship.It is one of the most premier honor for India’s business leaders.
The winners in different categories are given below:
The CNBC-TV18 Outstanding Business Leader of the Year
KV Kamath, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank
The CNBC-TV18 Indian Businesswoman of the Year
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & MD, Biocon
The First Generation Entrepreneur of the Year
Kishore Biyani, MD, Pantaloon Retail
The Indian Global Achiever Award
Lakshmi Mittal,Chairman Mittal Steel
Lifetime Achievement Award
NR Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys
Social Enterprise of the Year
Elaben Bhatt, Founder , SEWA
Most Outstanding Contribution to the Cause of Indian Business
M Damodaran, Chairman, SEBI
Most Promising Entrant into the Big League
Tulsi Tanti, Chairman, Suzlon Energy
The India Business Leader of the Year
Anand Mahindra, VC & MD, M&M
India Innovator of the Year
Uday Kotak, VC & MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank
The India Corporate Citizen of the Year
Cipla India
The Talent Management Award
Ranbaxy Laboratories
Source : The Economic Times
Dated : 09/12/2006
UTV Software Communications, the production and entertainment company, is now making strides into gaming and has acquired a controlling stake in Ignition Entertainment (Ignition) — UK-based console gaming company — and in Indiagames a mobile and broadband gaming company in India, for Rs 128 crore.
UTV’s acquisition of 51% equity stake in Indiagames, known as the largest gaming company in India, for Rs 68 crore, will make it one the largest players in the local gaming space. Indiagames reported an annual revenue of around $5 million for the last fiscal and houses close to 270 employees.
In the other deal, UTV bought 70% equity stake in the UK-based Ignition for around Rs 60 crore. The revenue of this 100-employee strong company is expected to be about $15 million for the calendar year ending December 2006.
When contacted, UTV CEO Ronnie Screwvala confirmed the development. “The acquisition comes with UTV’s interest in expanding its operations in game development, publishing and distribution across mobile, online and console platforms world-wide and the capability to create IP’s in all forms of content, including live Action and animation,” he said.
Mr Screwvala also said that UTV would invest Rs 135 crore in the development of animation movies over the next three years and at least three animation titles are expected from UTV’s motion picture slate by 2009.
With the acquisition of controlling interests in Indiagames in India and Ignition in the UK, UTV plans to capture world markets and intends building efficiencies through cross synergies in game acquisition for global markets.
The company will also derive cost efficiencies using India as a base for game development processes, using distribution strengths and relationships to market products better world-wide.
Indiagames is currently involved with mobile game development, in publishing and distribution across 67 countries, through 80 telecom partners like Vodafone, Verizon, Hutch and Airtel. It recently forayed into PC games distributed online through broadband ISPs like BSNL, MTNL, Airtel and VSNL.
Indiagames founder Vishal Gondal will continue to head the company and evolve synergies with other UTV businesses in the creation of cutting-edge games.
Ignition has strong relationships with hardware manufacturers, game developers and distributors such as Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, SNK, Konami, Atari, Virgin and Wal Mart. That apart, Ignition is also in the process of developing a top-end game “WarDevil”, budgeted at around Rs 80 crore and is expected to release it in 2008 exclusively on the Sony Playstation3 (PS3) platform.
PS3 was launched in November 2006 in Japan and the US and is expected to sell more than 30 million units by the end of 2008. Earlier this year, UTV had announced its co-production with Will Smith’s Overbrook to make an animation production.
Source : CNBC Tech Blog
Indian search engine and online social network, ByIndia.com, has announced that it will allow users to search and network in five Indian languages from January 1, 2007.The site will offer search and text menus in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali, allowing Indian users to bid for online auctions, blog, create personal pages, browse classified ads, or post and view video clips in these languages.
The portal hopes to drive traffic to its pages and gain market share among Indian Internet users with better accessibility, via the Indian regional language support.
ByIndia, owned by Web2Corp, has been trying to establish itself as a ‘Super Centre Website’ that offers a wide array of web based services to internet surfers, with a special focus on local content. William Mobley, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Web2Corp says, “Google.com, YouTube.com, MySpace.com, and eBay.com are all titans of the internet right now because they are powerful applications that provide users with what they want.
We believe that web users of all levels want a single destination to handle all of their internet needs. While Yahoo.com does that somewhat, ByIndia.com offers its visitors a more focused experience that’s targeted to produce results that are more useful to people living in India. It promotes the growth of an active, self-sustaining community online. ByIndia.com has been built with all of these features directories, classifieds, jobs, social networking, media/video, auctions, and blogs from the ground up. It’s not patched together. It’s all in one place. It’s the web, made simple.
“ByIndia is currently ranked No. 3 among Indian-run search engines, by Alexa.com. The portal, which claims to be India’s first search engine, was re launched a month ago, as a social networking site and search engine.
Source : CNET News
Search engine Ask.com will unveil a new local, region-wise search service, to allow users to find maps, directions, businesses, events and movies, through a new interface. AskCity.com, is designed to integrate data from other Websites owned by parent company, InterActiveCorp (IAC), to give its users, access services such Citysearch.com, TicketMaster, ReserveAmerica, ServiceMaster and OpenTable.com, for all US cities. The Askcity team plans to make the product international in 2007.
Askcity enables Us citizens to narrow their searches by neighborhood, street name or zip code, as well find relevant information and phone numbers. Users will also be able to plot out routes to multiple destinations, make annotations directly on the map, save it and e-mail to others.
The search site will eventually integrate data from other IAC properties such as Evite, Match.com and RealEstate.com, and Gifts.com. The group also plans to bring the service to mobile devices in the near future.
