NDTV gets a boost

India's success in the IT-Software and outsourcing world has been well documented. Be it the fancy BPO,KPO or LPO India had always had the better of it when it came to the 'O'. All this while Indians have always maintained that they were destined to be the next Superpower.

However in a recognition of India's growing entertainment market in particular and the nation in general, Global media and entertainment firm NBC Universal acquired a 26% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) Networks for $150 million. What it means is that NBC has bought stake in the entertainment arm (NDTV Imagine),Lifestyle Channel (NDTV Good Times), Convergence, NGen and NDTV Labs. What's more significant is that they have not bought any part of the 3 news channels. What it also means is that NBC has now got a firm foothold in India as it may now join NDTV to launch its channels in the country.


NDTV Networks had last year raised $120 million through private equity placement that reportedly included Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Velocity Interactive Group (earlier called ComVentures) for a nearly 24% stake.

This is the third deal of a major US media conglomerate taking a stake in a TV network in India recently.Viacom has a 50 - 50 JV with Network18 in Viacom 18 and Disney has picked up a 14.85% stake in UTV. CNBC, which is controlled by NBC, has an equity joint venture with Television Eighteen, which runs the CNBC-TV18 business news channel in India.

World's richest man - an Indian!

In yet another high for an Indian, business tycoon Mukesh Ambani today became the world's richest man. He overtook Gates, Slim and Buffett to reach the milestone. This all came courtesy the current bull run in the Indian stock exchange which has ballooned his market cap in Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd.


Its 20-20 time!
The Mumbai based BSE index touched an all time high of 20,000. In doing so it became the 20th nation in the world to have touched the 20K mark. The countries whose stock market indices have crossed 20k level include Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezeula, Peru, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Italy, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Hong Kong. Another Indian born Lakshmi Mittal is already in the top 5.

The five richest people in the world with their net worth

1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)

2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)

3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)

4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)

5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)


Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%). Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.

Mystery Spending

"Spending is quick, earning is slow."
- Russian proverb

According to a new survey by Visa, Americans are spending an average of $45 a week on something they can't remember! Among those who report "mystery spending," men under age 35 are the worst at monitoring where it all goes, losing track of more than $3,000 a year on average.

The nationwide telephonic survey of 2036 adults reveals that almost half (48%) of respondents suffer from mystery spending. The survey also reveals that young men mystery spend on nights while young women do so while shopping.

News Credit: Visa USA
Image Credit: http://www.freefoto.com/

Just the way your mom would cook it...

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."
- George Bernard Shaw

Very true indeed..! The love for food outweighs any other love in this universe. This love which has been epitomized for centuries, by the saying "Bhookhe Bhajan Na Hoin Gopala" (One can't worship on an empty stomach!) and more recently by the ad line "Hum kamate kyon hain? Khane ke liye!" (What do we earn for? to eat!)



Indian food habits

The battle for a decent and affordable square meal assumes gigantic proportions in cities. For any metro worth its salt having a sizable "IT workforce" and student population the population is much more accentuated. Anyone who has moved out of his/her home town to a bigger city misses the "maa ke haath ka khana"(home-cooked food).

Indian food habits are very much traditional even in this globalized age. Occasional bread-n-butter,pizza,burger or maggie is fine but cannot substitute a full fledged meal of Dal, roti, chawal and sabzi!

Now much has been written about the Mumbai ka Dabbawallas, known to deliver 200,000 dabbas (food tiffins) every day but a more recent phenomenon is the Mom's Kitchen which is managed by ex-IT professionals.



Mom's Kitchen

Mom's kitchen prides itself on being India's first fully professional tiffin service providing "end-to-end solutions" right from food preparation to food delivery (What a context!) Started by two IT professionals who got "frustrated" by the pathetic food quality of daily food in Pune, they claim to have the food prepared by the master cooks specially handpicked from Allahabad to retain the homely touch. Their USP is "fanatical devotion to unmatchable customer service."

The food is reasonably priced with the premium tiffin priced at Rs. 30 and the mini tiffin at Rs. 20. With the durable daals, sizzling sabzis and the rasila raitas it seems a runaway!



Interesting study

The "core team" consists of three former IT professionals- Vikram Pandiya, Ashwani Kumar Singh Rathore and Venkataramana Singanamala - all of whom kicked off their jobs. They make for an interesting study as Ashwin wants "all the Pizzas and Burger companies mushrooming around the country to ride back to their parent countries and establish Moms kitchen as a national brand."

The orders can be placed online at their website which also allows for tiffin customization. Their delivery areas cover a large part of Pune with plans to expand further with new centers. If this model succeeds one can foresee similar kitchens coming up other big cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi to name a few!

Top Fictional 15

Forbes is well known for bringing out many lists on a variety of topics mostly concentrating on companies and individuals. Lists like List of Billionaires, Best small companies, Best large companies, Fastest growing tech... (one could keep on going!) have made it popular among business leaders all over the world. No wonder it describes itself as the "HOME PAGE FOR THE WORLD'S BUSINESS LEADERS".

Breaking away from its image as a Buisness Magazine, it also produces lists under Education, Food & Drink, Health & Style, Personal Finance, Places, Real Estate, Sports, Technology, Vehicles and Travel!



I came across a rather interesting list - The Forbes Fictional 15. This list gives the fiction world's wealthiest characters. Interestingly these fictional characters are worth much more than their real-life counterparts with their aggregate net worth being $111 billion!



Jogging my childhood memories, the stingy cartoon character Scrooge Mcduck was there and so was Mario, the unforgettable moustached character from the video gaming world.



Also registering their presence in the Top 15 were Lara Croft, Richie Rich, Willy Wonka & Lucius Malfoy. However out went Santa Claus, for the very first time in Fictional 15's history!

Profiles, giving a snapshot of lives of all the characters, have been created on the site. Surely interesting stuff!

Vodafone tie-up

I witnessed with interest and curiosity, the recent battle between corporate bigwigs like Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Hindujas and Essar group to win the controlling 67% stake in Hutchison Essar. Ultimately the battle was won by Arun Sarin headed Vodafone which beat suitors with a $11.1 bn bid ( hence valuing the firm at $18.8 bn). Although Vodafone was accused of overpaying, its shares rose immediately after acquisition by 1.8 %.



It is interesting to note that the shares of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. had risen 28 percent since the start of November in anticipation of a sale!

Vodafone also sold its 5.6 % direct stake in Bharti Airtel to Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 bn as per TRAI regulations. However for people on Hutch's network, there is good news in store.

After signing deals with popular online services like MySpace (where customers can access their MySpace accounts through their handsets), eBay( to search and buy items) and Google's Youtube (watch and upload videos to YouTube), Vodafone announced yet another agreement, this time with Google Maps.



The deal will allow Vodafone users to access the Java application, Google Maps for Moblie, offering local listings, search and navigation facilities. However there is still some wait for users in India, as the service is primarily focused at customers in UK and other EU nations.

Note: The image as well as the trademark "Hutch" are proprietary (Courtesy Hutchison Essar Limited).

David Beckham : The Brand

David Beckham knows how to stay in news. He made news waves recently by announcing a move from Real Madrid to MLS Team LA Galaxy on a five year contract beginning on July 2007. The deal evoked strong sentiments from the Real coach Fabio Capello who flayed Beckham by saying that he would not play for the club again. However he retracted later.



Although being booed by Real ,David has had a grand welcome from across atlantics with even the Tiger backing him . This deal is being advertised as a promotion for American football and indeed it is generating a lot of interest in that part of the world.Although I am sceptical about his ability as a footballer , I guess he's going there as a BRAND name.

David has been more than a mundane footballer though. He has been in news for reasons other than Soccer. His metrosexual icon image (whatever that may mean !), his hairstyle ( ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous) ,his friendship with stars like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes,his perfumes ,his tatoo his sunglasses and all the brands he promotes,his swirling free kicks that earned him the highest glory, his red card against Argentina in the '98 World cup that led to England's elimination and subsequent criticism and abuse against him, his subsequent revenge by scoring a goal against the same opponents are all part of history now..

What remains to be seen is whether David can bend it now?

Updated 16 Feb,2007 -##-

I found this article on "The Brand Beckham". Read it here.