Andhra CM YSR killed in plane crash

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y S Rajashekhar Reddy, died in a plane crash in the heavily forested Nallamalla region near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.

The 60-year-old chief minister was going from Hyderabad to Chittoor, 588 km away, to speak at a mass contact programme for rural folk when his helicopter went missing in bad weather around 9.30 am on Wednesday in the dense forest range. Flying with YSR, who this May steered the Congress to a second stint in power, were his principal secretary P Subramaniam, chief security officer ASC Wesley and pilots Group Captain SK Bhatia and Captain MS Reddy.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his condolence message, said,

"Rajasekharaji died as he lived - in the service of the people of Andhra Pradesh and the country. In his untimely passing away, the state of Andhra Pradesh has lost an outstanding leader, and the country has lost an ideal chief minister who was a role model for other states."

Some tributes to YSR

A doctor with a finger on the public pulse
YSR, Andhra Strongman and a Mass Leader

New Cars roll out in India

More than a dozen new cars will be launched or reintroduced in the Indian market in the next two months, making it one of the busiest seasons for carmakers looking to woo consumers.

Maruti launched the small car Estilo, with a new fuel-efficient K-Series engine, priced at Rs. 3.12 lakh.


Toyota has launched Fortuner SUV in the high-end jeep market at a price of Rs 18.45 lakh.

GM launches the Chevrolet Cruze, which will be pitted against Honda's Civic.

Tata Motors is bringing its new Indigo Vista sedan powered by its Italian joint-venture partner Fiat’s engines.

In the luxury cars range, Mercedes-Benz will bring the ninth generation of E-Class into India after selling over 40,000 units of the car globally.

BMW will bring its two-seater convertible roadster, Z4, as a fully imported car to the Indian market, this October.

Disney to buy Marvel

Walt Disney paid $4 billion in cash and stock to purchase Marvel Entertainment, which gives it control over a brand that has a lot of popularity among the teen boys.

Marvel Comics has a lot of characters such as Spiderman, X-Men and Fantastic Four, which resonate with teenage boys, a segment Disney is eager to exploit. Disney's Hannah Montana has been a big hit with teenage girls, and Mickey and Donald are really popular with young children, but this deal gives them a new market segment. Disney has always been a big brand hunter, with a collection of acquisitions that have included Winnie the Pooh, ESPN, and the ABC TV network. Recently, Disney engineered a $6 billion acquisition of Pixar and cut a distribution deal with Steven Spielberg's newly recreated DreamWorks film studio. Announcing the transaction, Disney CEO Bob Iger said

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Thor, with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories."

The deal, which valued Marvel at $50 a share, represents a 28% premium to Marvel's stock price. Marvel shares jumped 26%, to $48.84 in the first half hour of trading. Disney shares were off 1.3%, to $26.48.

Harley rides onto the Indian Roads

This is news that would bring great joy to all the bikers of this country. Harley Davidson, the iconic bike that has long been associated with the macho image across the world, will step into India for the first time ever.

“Given the rapid development of India’s economy and physical infrastructure, this is exactly the right time to bring the world’s greatest motorcycles to one of the world’s largest motorcycling nations,’’ said Mark Levatich, chief operating officer. India is the largest motorcycle market, after China, but it is dominated by smaller, inexpensive bikes. Hero Honda holds the biggest market share for two-wheelers, but Harley will be exploring the high-end segment. Their bikes, priced at $15000 for the least expensive models, will cater to the status-conscious rich layer of the population, but the company sees strong demand in India for its two-wheelers despite the high price.

The small but fast-growing luxury market in India might help Harley-Davidson offset tough times at home. Shrinking demand for its expensive motorcycles, and troubles at its financing arm, pushed its second-quarter profit down 91% and has forced it to slash close to 2,000 jobs in the U.S. Harley-Davidson's international sales, which make up about 30% of its total revenue, have also slipped but haven't been as hard hit. While retail sales fell 35% in the U.S., they only weakened 18% in international markets during the second quarter. In India, the company's path is not going to be easy, with the market for expensive bikes with capacities like Harley (800 to 1500 cc) less than a thousand vehicles a year, and high import tariffs of around 90%. But the company is confident that the prestige factor will lure India's rich list to their showrooms, 5 of which are opening next year.

Looks like India is the dream destination for the luxury automotive market, with Harley joining Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, who already have showrooms here. Vroom, vroom, anyone?














Images from mylovetechnology.com, coursierspeed.net

Nokia unveils First Linux Phone

Nokia has unveiled its first phone that runs on Linux, the free open-source operating software that directly challenges Microsoft Windows.

This is the first attempt by Nokia to move away from its Symbian operating system, which it acquired in 2008 for nearly 300 million euros. Symbian remains its main workhorse, but lacklustre response to the platform and complexity of operation has led Nokia to explore other avenues. Nokia has already been using the Linux OS Maemo on its tablets which weren't too popular with customers. Some of the features of the N900 are:

• online anywhere with cellular connectivity over HSPA for broadband anywhere
• powerful computing with TI OMAP3 processor – for better performance and better graphics performance
• photo sharing with hi-def camera – imaging and photo-sharing
• 16GB internal storage capacity, as well as a miniSDHC slot to extend it to your needs

Everyone has been raving about the iPhone and Google's Android is also going to give some serious competition, so Nokia desperately needs something to dazzle the tech world. Will Linux be enough?

Image from unwiredview.com

Fortis moves into Indian Healthcare

Don't like the crowded public hospitals, grungy clinics with the smell of death and disinfectant all around? Don't fikar, Fortis is here.

Fortis, earlier this year, assumed management of four hospitals in its effort to expand nationwide from its origins in northern India.Now, on Monday, Fortis agreed to buy 10 hospitals for 9.09 billion rupees ($187 million). The purchase from Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd. gives Fortis 75% more hospital beds and a reach into big cities outside northern India -- including Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore. With the acquisition, Fortis will own or operate 38 hospitals across India with 5,200 beds. Its competitor, Apollo Hospitals, the nation's biggest private chain, with 7,500 beds and 43 hospitals, also has been expanding. In July it opened the first stand-alone children's hospital in India and announced plans for five more hospitals focused on pediatric care.

The emergence of private health care is a new phenomenon in India. Till some time back, hospitals were mostly standalone ones, founded by individual doctors and having a local reach. With the advent of private hospital chains, the playing field has expanded, and healthcare is run more like a corporation. The emerging middle class prefer these hospitals, with their cleanliness and professional management. But everything has a downside, and this one's is the huge bills. Rumours of private hospitals inflating their bills and charging patients for unnecessary tests abound. It remains to be seen how far India does go on the path of privatisation of health care, and how it turns out for everybody concerned.

Microsoft releases OneApp for Mobile Phones

After the search business, Microsoft seems really interested in the phone business as well. It announced a partnership with Nokia sometime back, and now has launched OneApp, a service which promises to bring smartphone like abilities to feature phones. This from a company which, until recently, had only Windows Mobile range of smartphone OS in its mobile arsenal.

Designed for emerging markets, the OneApp software can be downloaded just like a new ringtone. It will help mobile users run applications such as Facebook and Twitter from their non-smartphones. Storage will be maintained by the operators, a big advantage since lack of memory and processing power in low-end phones had, till date, limited their utility for running applications. Some supported applications include a mobile wallet, Windows Live Messenger, popular games, and multiple feed readers for sports, news, finance, and more. OneApp runs on most feature phones that support Java.

Microsoft is launching OneApp in partnership with Blue Label Telecom in South Africa, probably testing the response there, before moving on to more populated markets like India and China.

Here's a demo of OneApp.