Bangalore & Sanfrisco Bonding gets stronger

Bangalore and San Francisco on Monday signed seven Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) strengthening the ‘sister cities’ arrangement.

The MoUs were signed in the presence of Chief Minister Yedddyurappa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at Vidhana Soudha. “The sister cities concept is unique - it is a two-way process, which ensures give and take by both the sides,” the Chief Minister told reporters. Healthcare, water and sanitation, education and research, art, museum and culture, trade and commerce and fashion technology were the areas wherein MoUs were signed. Promoting growth The two cities had signed an MoU in October last year to form sister cities arrangement, aimed at promoting cooperation and understanding between the two cities and to partner in the areas of economic growth, cultural exchange, knowledge transfer and fostering clean technology. It has now been extended to seven more areas. Great output Gavin Newsom said San Francisco would take the MoU seriously and provide great results. The main thrust will be on exchanges in infrastructure development, waste disposal, environment initiatives. “Bangalore is a remarkable place which attracts creative people...I am a huge fan of India and Bangalore. Having cordial relations with India is essential,” he stated.

A Knowledge Conclave

Mindlogicx partners Dun & Bradstreet India to host “Universities of India 2008-09” – a Knowledge Conclave

Landmark event to brainstorm relevance of IT in education delivery and creating employment opportunities in higher education segment by fostering industry-academy tie-up

Bangalore, January 16, 2009: Mindlogicx Infotech Ltd, an R & D based technology company pioneering in providing end-to-end solutions in virtual knowledge management and delivery domain, in association with Dun & Bradstreet India, one of world’s leading companies for global business information, will be hosting a Knowledge Conclave - “Universities of India 2008-09” in Bangalore between January 22 and 24, 2009. The conclave will be attended by vice chancellors of leading Universities across India, as well as leading academicians, academic administrators besides senior officials from University Grants Commission, Association of Indian Universities, NASSCOM, State Education Departments, State Service Commissions and top corporate houses in India.

This land mark event is an attempt to bring together intellectuals, academicians and corporate leaders who aspire to shape the future of emerging India as knowledge super power by 2020. Importantly the conclave would deliberate, debate and discuss key issues related to technology enabled education delivery and empowering final year college student to become “Job Ready” using technology as the enabler. Further, the conclave will ponder on increasing the employability quotient of final year students passing out of colleges & universities across various streams. Leveraging IT enabled education delivery for online delivery programmes would be another key issue that would be debated.

On this occasion Dun & Bradstreet & Mindlogicx would release a publication - ‘Universities of India 2008’, which is a repository of information on UGC recognized universities in India and the publication is expected to serve as a reference tool on Indian universities. The publication would be released by Smt. D Purandareswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India, on the concluding day of the event. The online version of this publication will also be made available for universities and corporate houses to connect with each other for purposeful exploration of industry-academic collaboration. Further details are available at www.universitiesofindia.org.

“Universities of India 2008 publication and the conclave are first initiative of this kind which would provide information and insight to all segments and stakeholders interested in nurturing the growth of higher education in India. Further, the publication would enable Indian universities to reach out to the international market and create employment opportunities for their students globally” observed Raj Devireddy, Convenor of the conclave.

Commenting on the knowledge conclave, Suresh Elangovan, Managing Director & CEO, Mindlogicx Infotech Limited said, “The objective of this event is to foster industry-academic collaboration that would usher in a meaningful partnership between them in the long run. This event would be an ideal launch pad for students of participating universities as they would gain immediate access to world class employment opportunities”. Also he added this event would enable show-case the knowledge base of Indian universities to the world and more specifically to the corporate and industry partners.

About Dun & Bradstreet:

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB), the world's leading source of global business information, knowledge and insight has been enabling companies to decide with confidence® for 165 years. D&B's global commercial database contains more than 131 million business records. The database is enhanced by D&B's proprietary DUNSRight® Quality Process, which transforms the enormous amount of data collected daily into decision-ready insight. Through the D&B Worldwide Network - an unrivaled alliance of D&B and leading business information providers around the world - customers gain access to the world's largest and highest quality global commercial business information database. D&B features on FORTUNE Magazine's Most Admired Companies Industry List, ranking first in the Financial Data Services category. D&B ranked first in the areas of employee talent, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of management and use of corporate assets. D&B has achieved this distinction for the second consecutive year.

About Mindlogicx Infotech:

Mindlogicx Infotech Ltd, an R & D based technology development company, straddles products and services verticals in knowledge management space. The company operates with two key portfolio differentiators catering to education and business space respectively with the common objective of powering competency. The company undertakes large turnkey projects of setting up virtual education framework for universities and offers services in digital content management, learning management, digital library and other allied services. It also handles e-business integration, Research & Analysis, contract R & D and IT consulting.

The company has developed and successfully deployed world’s first integrated technology platform known as “VEDAS” that powers the major solutions and services of the company.VEDAS (Virtual Education Delivery and Assessment System) provides technology platform for the flagship services of Mindlogicx including MindSpace, the virtual education solution for universities; Knowledge Assessment Platform (KAP) for corporate skills assessments and Knowledge Network (K.Net) services for its Online Finishing School.

The company has been identified as one among the “Top 15 Exciting & Emerging Companies to work for” by NASSCOM. The company is “Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2008” winner and Red Herring 100 Asia winner in 2008 for disruptive technology development.

South India’s largest mall to open in Feb 2010 in Bangalore

South India’s largest mall is 97 pc leased, to open in February

04 Jan 2010

With 215-plus retail units, 30 escalators, 18 lifts and a built-up area of a whopping 1.3 million square feet, the much-awaited Mantri Mall (now formally named Mantri Square) in Bangalore is getting ready to open next month.

One of the many key features of Mantri Square is its portfolio of 14 anchors and mini-anchors. These include a 70,400 sq.ft Spar hypermarket, a 6-screen Inox (including Inox’s first ever Aura 70-seater VIP auditorium), a 44,000 square feet Lifestyle, a 43,000 square feet Shoppers Stop, a 33,100 square feet Pantaloons, a 23,000 square feet Amoeba FEC (with a 12-lane bowling alley), a 22,000 square feet Home Centre, an 18,000 square feet Reliance Trends, a 15,800 square feet Reliance Living, a 15,600 square feet Marks & Spencer, a 13,000 square feet Reliance Digital, a 12,800 square feet international retailer (name not disclosed), a 11,000 square feet Reliance Timeout, and a 9,800 square feet Showoff store.

The retail trading area of this mall is 60 per cent larger than Spencer Plaza Chennai (currently the largest mall in South India), more than two and a half times that of Forum Mall at Koramangala (currently Bangalore’s largest mall) and about 12 per cent more than Ambience Mall in Gurgaon.

Apart from the 14 anchors and mini-anchors, Mantri Mall also has as many as 10 superstores (outlets with a carpet area of 4,000 to 8,000 square feet), including Prestige – The Man Store, Mom & Me, Crazy Concepts, Oviesse, Office Depot, Reliance Footprint, Kalanjali Sarees, Reliance Jewels, Neeru’s Elite and Reebok Performance Store.

For food lovers, there will be 34 F&B outlets in this mall, including India’s first Taco Bell from Yum Brands Inc. and Bangalore’s first The Great Kabab Factory, the award-winning North Indian restaurant from Carlson Restaurants Worldwide.

The shopping centre's planning consultant and sole leasing agents Asipac has got new leases for more than 6,00,000 square feet in the last 8-9 months. The property is currently 97 per cent leased.

Apart from tenants such as Metro, Mochi, Adidas, Nike, William Penn, Archies among others, Asipac has strategically targeted strong local retailers, including several well established high street names from Bangalore, including Showoff, Prestige – The Man Store, Favourite Shop, Vijaylakshmi Silks & Sarees, Davanam Jewellers, Shiv Sagar, Lal’s, Fazal’s, Kushal’s Fashion Jewellery, Sanskruti and Gangotree, as well as strong ethnicwear retailers from Hyderabad, including Kalanjali and Neerus.

Mantri Square also has a number of firsts to its credit. Apart from Taco Bell, Great Kabab Factory and Aura, it will also boast of Bangalore’s first OVS, Hush Puppies, Howards Storage World, Crocs, Celio, Marvel, Manyavar, Early Learning Centre, Esbeda, Alcott, Presto, Sunglass Hut, Addons, Holii, Boggi Milano, Toyopia, Bagzone, The Eyewear Store, Tie Rack London, Tissot, Rado, Editions, Addons, Hi Chai, Men & Boys and Ayesha stores. Also, 26 of the tenants will be doing business for the first time in a mall.

In addition to clothes, footwear and lifestyle accessories, Mantri Square will offer a wide range of ETIT (electronics, telecommunications and information technology) products under one roof in India with 11 ETIT stores, the widest range of sarees under one roof with eight stores, furniture & home accessories, bicycles, toys, prescription eyewear, maternity & newborn products, Indian sweets, real and fashion jewellery, luggage, wines & liquors, haircuts, pharmaceuticals, health & nutrition products, handicrafts, foreign exchange, photo processing, men’s tailoring, ladies tailoring, air and bus ticketing, financial services, personalised awards & trophies, express printing and even a multi-brand car gallery.

Asipac is projecting footfalls of 44,000 average daily visitors in 2010, going up to 72,000 average daily visitors when the Swastik Metro Station opens adjoining the mall in 2012

Shriram Properties launches new projects

Shriram Properties, property development arm of Shriram Group, on Wednesday, announced the launch of it’s housing project consisting of over 7,000 homes across Bangalore, Chennai, Vizag and Kolkata.

Priced in the range of Rs 9 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, the houses will have amenities like swimming pools, jogging tracks, multipurpose community hall, children’s play area, shopping complexes, club houses and proximity to transportation hubs. In addition to this, the company also tied up with a school chain, which will provide educational opportunities to the residents. Shriram Properties Managing Director M Murali said “in India, there is a huge need for affordable housing and we are privileged to have all the approvals in place and to commence construction.” The Bangalore project ‘Shriram Surabhi’ and ‘Shriram Smrithi’ are being developed off Kanakpura Road and Athibele Sarjapur Road respectively. ‘Shriram Sankari’ is coming up in Chennai. In Vizag, it is coming up in Madurawada, and in Kolkata, in Uttarpara. The project, which involves an investment of Rs 850 crore, is being funded largely by private equity and will be completed within next 24 to 30 months. Bought to you by : Ravina Media Media &PR Division of Ravina Consulting No.429 Mahavir Tuscan Near Hoodi Circle, Whitefield Mahadevapura Post BANGALORE 560048 Mobile : +91.98800.80321 raghav@ravinaconsulting.com www.twitter.com/bangalorenews

Tatas, L&T in race for Bangalore high-speed rail project

The Karnataka government will soon select a consortium bidder for the 35-km high-speed rail transport between Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli and the city centre, a top official said here today.

The cost of the project is estimated at Rs 5,767 crore.

"We have short-listed five consortia for the project and one of them will be selected in the next 15 days to execute the project under the public private partnership (PPP) model," V Madhu, principal secretary, infrastructure development department, government of Karnataka told reporters on the margins of a trade fair.

The five consortia are led by ADAG, Tata, L&T, ICM and Lanco. Out of the total project cost, Rs 1,040 crore will be the share of the Central government as viability gap fund and Rs 532 crore by the state government as the cost of the land.

"The state government will acquire the land for the project. The balance funds will be invested by the selected consortium," Madhu said at a special session on Karnataka: infrastructure development agenda and investment opportunities at Excon 2009, an international exhibition on construction equipment and construction technology fair.

Madhu said though the Central government had cleared the project in principle after it was vetted by the empowered committee, it needs to be cleared by the finance ministry. The financial tenders will be issued after that and 75 days time will be given for them to respond. Financial closure will be achieved by May next year, he said.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be set up to execute the project and decide on the required equity.

During the 30-year term of the project, he said the state government will explore the possibility of taking a stake in the SPV in the form a golden share.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation managing director E Sreedharan had prepared the detailed project report (DPR) for the rail link in 2007.

Karnataka on a fast to complete Infra Projects

Karnataka has stepped up its efforts to take up 48 of the 148 projects worth about Rs 1 lakh crore under Public Private Partnership by actively pursuing the Centre's clearance, while sorting out local bottlenecks of land acquisition, reports Business Line.

The State, which had to struggle for a long time to executive its new green international airport, is now confident of overcoming the hurdles and set in motion the process of implementation, the report added.

The Infrastructure Department plans to take up 48 projects for early implementation and it has already prepared preliminary project reports for 20 projects, it said.

According to government officials, the State had proposed 110 projects in the transport sector alone, which relates to roads, railways and smaller airports.

Though private sector companies and investors have shown interest to invest in the projects, delay caused by clearances from the Central Government and departments, land acquisition and litigation had put paid to the hopes of the projects taking off early. Some of the projects were proposed three to four years ago, the officials were quoted as saying.

The projects, proposed to be offered to investors on design, build, operate and transfer modes, could not be taken up earlier because of enormous time taken in preparing the feasibility reports, it added.

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Ravina Consulting

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Near Hoodi Circle, Whitefield

Mahadevapura Post

BANGALORE 560048

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