Panjim

The fine dining restaurants and hotels already serving Aava include Titos, Brittos, Mambos, J&A Little Italy, East meets West, Charleston Hotel, Café Chocolatti, Souza Lobo, La Franza, Delfinos, Club Fresh, House of Llyods, Nazri Resorts, Reiss, Bernad’s Place, Villa Bomfin and Top Nosh to name a few. Aava natural mineral water is also available for retail sale at Titos Super Market and Oxford Supermarket in Goa. The company plans to make Aava Natural Mineral Water available on retail at about 200 premium shops, supermarkets and stores in Goa by the end of February 2012. The MRP of the 1000 ml (1 litre) pack is Rs 23/- an invitation or launch price which is much lower than other competitors in similar product categories.

While the packaged drinking water market is about Rs 4000 crore it is growing at an average of 25 to 30 per cent each year. Comparatively the premium or fine waters segment is approximately valued at Rs 800-1000 crore but is growing much faster at about 40 per cent company research said. Through a special tie-up, Aava natural mineral water is sold exclusively at the Grand Hyatt and Ramada Group Goa. Grand Hyatt Goa consumes over 35,000 liters of Aava natural mineral water each month in various presentations like 200 ml, 500 ml and 1000 ml packs.

Aava natural mineral water is served on all Air India flights originating from six airports in India. It is also served on Spice Jet, Jet Airways, Jet lite, Ramada Group, ITC Welcome Group, Vadodara, ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, Fortune Landmark, Ahmadabad, IIM Ahmadabad, Hotel Taj Ummed, Ahmadabad, Hotel Cama, CCI Club, Mumbai and at the Ambani School in Mumbai to name a few. In all Aava natural mineral water is available at over 200 star hotels in India.

Aava mineral water is available in cup-cap bottle, a one litre bottle with a drinking cup, useful for multiple drinkers; sports bottle (75 ml bottle with a unique ‘pull-push’ cap meant for sportsmen or for the gym); Aava mini, a 200 and 300 ml bottle with a regular twist cap and a 20 litre family pack.

Aava is confined aquifer water (sourced naturally from an underground spring) which is completely protected from natural as well as human contamination and it goes through 77 different tests before being bottled to ensure that it is free from harmful chemicals or microbiological organisms. Aava undergoes no chemical or artificial treatment and is 100 per cent natural.

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New Delhi:

The factories will manufacture energy automation products for industries, utilities, power plants, infrastructure and cities, Siemens said in a statement.These two factories would adopt the same manufacturing process utilised by Siemens’ factory in Berlin, Germany.

The factories, which would produce equipment for power generation, transmission and distribution, will have their own in-house research and development units.

“With the setting up of the new infrastructure & cities sector, Siemens is gearing itself to address the growing demands of cities,” Siemens AG Infrastructure & Cities CEO Roland Busch said.”The two new factories in Goa are examples of Siemens Ltd’s focus on manufacturing excellence and our efforts to increase our domestic footprint. We now have 21 factories in India, in addition to 56 sales offices, and we stand committed to meet the growing demands of India and subsequently to similar markets around the world,” Siemens Ltd Managing Director Armin Bruck said.

Both factories have been built as green factories with features such as ground water recharging, rain water harvesting, water conservation and energy conservation features and water-efficient landscaping.

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WASHINGTON:

The top nine positions in the list is occupied by leading Arab revolutionaries including Mohamed Elbaradei from Egypt, the former IAEA chief; Ali Ferat, the Syrian human rights lawyer and cartoonist, and the 10th position is jointly occupied by the three central bank governors of US, France and China for steering the world amid crisis.

US President Barack Obama is ranked 11th among the top 100 global thinkers. Poverty researcher Deepa Narayan and economist Arvind Subramanian are also featured in the list.Identified as India’s Bill Gates, Azim Premji is ranked 14th, just below Bill and Melinda Gates.”It’s not just because of Azim Premji’s enormous wealth that he is compared to the American technologist turned philanthropist,” the Foreign Policy magazine says.

It is Premji’s unprecedented philanthropy, that recently has borne out the Gates comparison, it added.”Through his contributions, Premji is at the forefront of a rising tide of Indian philanthropy, with billionaire executives such as Shiv Nadar, founder of the technology company HCL, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, of the business conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, often listed in the same cohort,” it writes.

However, making a surprise entry into this list of top 100 global thinkers is Anna Hazare who has been placed at the 37th position for his anti-corruption crusade in the country.

The flight from Pune (AI 517) would take off at 12.15 pm and reach Goa at 1.05 pm. The flight from Goa (AI 518) would depart at 1.50 pm and arrive in Pune at 2.40 pm.

“The flight would operate six days a week, except on Saturdays. We would operate Airbus A320 with 20 business class and 125 economy seats,” said AI’s Pune manager, Dhairyashil Vandekar.According to sources, the lowest fare that AI would charge in thissector would be about Rs3,385.

Interestingly, AI used to operate flights in this sector, which was stopped about four years ago. At present only Kingfisher operates flights on the Pune-Goa-Pune route.

Aviation experts predicted that AI stands to gain by starting flights in that sector since the festival season is on and plenty of tourists from Pune look forward to travelling to Goa.

AI had earlier announced introduction of Delhi-Pune-Delhi flight from October 30. The flight from Delhi (AI 851) would leave at 5.15 am and reach Pune at 7.05 am. The flight from Pune (AI 852) would depart at 7.45 am and reach Delhi at 9.45 am. This flight will operate six days a week, except Fridays.

AI’s present Pune-Delhi flight (AI 850 at 6.40 pm) will operate from October 30 with the Airbus A321.

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It cautioned, however, that India needs to tackle rising inflation and said the country’s growth this year would be 7.2 per cent, much lower than 8.2 per cent recorded last year.India’s growth rate would rise to 8 per cent next year, according to the report released today.”The forecast pegs India’s real GDP growth rate to be the highest among all the Rapid Growth Markets (RGMs) starting in CY 2013, when the economy is expected to growth 9.5 per cent, followed by China at 9 per cent,” it said.

In 2014, India is expected to see an expansion of 9 per cent while Chinese would see a growth of 8.6 per cent.The RGMs Forecast focuses on 25 nations — including India, China, Brazil and Russia — that display strong growth potential and are, or could be, strategically important for business.

India and China’s would be able to better withstand a likely slowdown mainly on account of large size of their domestic markets as well as from beneficial effects of lower oil and commodity prices, E&Y said.It pointed out that even though the overall outlook for India is positive, the country would need to address rising inflation.Headline inflation, which has been hovering above the 9 per cent mark since December 2010, stood at 9.72 per cent in September.”… provided India’s inflation does start to fall back by the end of this year and the US and EU economies do not slip back into recession, the soft patch for Indian growth should be relatively short-lived,” the report noted.

E&Y said that once inflation is in check and interest rates are no longer rising, consumers would be more willing to spend. This would support a general improvement in business environment, resulting in steady acceleration in growth next year.”India enjoys an advantage in its high savings and investment rates, currently a third of the GDP; relatively low GDP per capita on purchasing power parity giving significant potential for growth and continuing industrialisation and urbanisation,” the report said.

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The transaction beats what Sony Entertainment supposedly paid for Aamir Khan-Kareena Kapoor’s tentatively titled cop caper Dhuan (Rs 38-40 crore), and has also outclassed Star Network’s reported Rs 35 crore bet on this year’s Diwali release, RA.One.

Jayantilal Gada, CMD, Pen India Pvt Ltd, the agency that aids the purchase of films for Zee Cinema, justifies a hefty price tag, saying that channels study the production banner’s track record on the small screen before pitching to buy satellite rights. “We chose to buy Agneepath over several other biggies because Karan’s (producer Karan Johar of Dharma Productions) movies have always delivered great numbers. And the promo of this film showed promise,” he adds.

Without commenting on the figures, tradesmith Amod Mehra says, “There are only a handful of leading satellite channels in the market. Likewise, there are only four or five really bankable stars, and not more than 10 big films a year. Zee has shelled out the money for Agneepath to break the pattern of Karan’s films going to either Star or Sony, and to strengthen their market position.”

According to the trade circuit, the TV satellite rights market has grown more than 10 times in the last decade alone. “Big flicks bring channels high TRPs and bumper ad revenue. And no channel keeps a film to itself. Syndication is a common practice, and it also helps recover costs, that otherwise wouldn’t make economical sense,” points out Amod, recalling that the 2007 hit, Jab We Met, was the first film in recent memory to be syndicated to different channels.

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The cast of David Dhawan’s film Rascals has a reason to rejoice. The film has garnered the third highest opening for the year, after Salman Khan’s Ready and Bodyguard.

The comic flick, that stars Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Kangna Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Arjun Rampal, did good business on itsopening day, October 6, and is still doing well at the box office.The movie has garnered a collection of Rs 8.63 crore on the first day itself, making it the third highest for 2011.

This was despite a limited release and low ticket prices compared to the weekends. Trade pundits say that if the tickets were priced at the regular rates, then the movie could have grossed higher and maybe even crossed Rs 11 crore on the opening day.

Meanwhile, Dhawan is all praise for his lead actor Sanjay Dutt. “Sanjay is like an open book. He doesn’t hide anything. He is the most simple guy I have ever seen. I started my career with him 20 years back as a director and he is still the same. There is no change in him,” says Dhawan, who first worked with him in Taaqatwar in 1989. About Ajay, he says, “He comes across as a very serious person which actually he is not. He is a very easy person.

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New Delhi:

“The addition of these new routes further strengthens our route network and we now offer enhanced connectivity especially into and out of South India,” Kingfisher’s Executive Vice President (Commercial) Manoj Chacko was quoted as saying in a release.

Besides Colombo, the airline, which launched international services in September 2008, currently flies to London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok, Dhaka and Kathmandu. It also flies to 59 cities in India and has over 325 daily departures with a fleet of 66 aircraft.

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Washington

Sony’s recent tech biopic “The Social Network” won them 3 Oscars this year.Steve Jobs’ biography will be out on Oct 24.Noah Wylie in the movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley played the role of Jobs.56-year-old Steve Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor died on Oct 5. Steve’s family bid him an emotional farewell at an undisclosed location, said a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Reports also suggest that Apple is planning to celebrate for its employees “Steve’s extraordinary life” but has indicated no plans for a public memorial.A private funeral was conducted for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on Oct 7, said an unconfirmed report in the Wall Street Journal.

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“The economy class will offer the same comfort as it does today. The space requirement for additional economy seats will be made available by reducing the number of business class seats,” Sanjay Aggarwal, CEO of Kingfisher, said in a statement.

The reconfigured aircraft will have the seat equivalency of a low fare carrier but an opportunity to generate much higher revenue as demonstrated by current yields. Kingfisher will achieve incremental business class revenue as a result of wider and uniform availability and the airline will also generate incremental revenue through its increased full service economy class capacity, Mr. Aggarwal said.

“There will be no reduction in Kingfisher’s fleet size or its network. Our guests will continue to enjoy the benefits of Kingfisher’s network that provides connectivity to 60 domestic and eight international destinations,” he said.

Kingfisher currently operates Airbus aircraft with two cabin configurations — dual cabin full service and single cabin no frills. This also means Kingfisher does not offer its premium business class or full service economy class product on all its routes. As a result, it was losing a certain amount of business class traffic on many routes, he said.

Mr. Aggarwal said that operating costs of low-cost carriers and full service carriers, in terms of fuel, airport charges, engineering and maintenance and crew, were similar.

Full service carriers incur additional costs on global distribution, in-flight catering, ground amenities and the frequent flyer programme. These additional costs were more than recovered through higher yields, he said.

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