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JAN UARY 6-9 , 2 0 1 5 2015 International CES® • Las Vegas, Nevada • CESweb.org
Save the date for the 2015 International CES®. Better yet, reserve your space now. With our all-new Tech East and Tech West venues, we promise a powerful attendee and exhibitor experience, including greater access to the companies, ideas and innovations shaping our industry.
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Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK As a child, growing a year older was an exhilarating experience – a memorable day with love, joy and merriment all round. But, as you grow older, that feeling fades away, with more maturity, and more tensions that you get accustomed to. Is it the same feeling I get for my own company turning 9? It’s hard to say, but the joy is just the same. The brand was built with literally nothing, but with sweat, hard work and persistence – it has been 9 years since the first issue came out. 9 incredible years. 9 eventful years, with many memorable moments. Too many to count. It would be rather pompous of me to only talk about the 9 years of my own hard work for Exhibit; it has been an incredible team effort with many amazingly talented people who’ve come in and gone over the years. In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two. It’s also that time of the year when you retrospect at the year expired and realize that life is moving too fast and tech is moving much faster. And this is exactly what we are here making sense of - tech into your lifestyle. Now, let’s get back to business as usual. This Special Issue, which is the work of months of nail-biting, hard work, it’s always people who will end-up making a mark on our lives, more than the brands we create and nurture. It’s people who build the brands, who put companies on the top and its people who are driving the technology to help us live better lives. But, who are some of these people, who keep working behind the scenes to constantly better our lives? We’ve unearthed the best names in the world of Tech – naturally Indians. These people are either pioneers, or innovators or industry tycoons who’ve been gifted with exceptional talent and a will to succeed. Identifying these Top 99 Tech Indians among many likely candidates and getting most of them to talk to us on their best Apps, Books, Destinations, and most importantly the future of tech. So what we get here is an extremely curated piece which is the work of 99 most accomplished Tech Leaders who are Indians by birth, by soul and by nature. I can’t think of a better way to bring in our 9th Year without these gentleman and gentle ladies to you. What’s better is that we have also actually used some sophisticated statistical tools [Kidding] to analyse the most common books and interesting apps amongst them which you can use. This result of our mapped research piece is on the last page. Somehow, we just got stuck with the magical number 9 this month and everything that you are about to encounter is 9. To start with 9 Tech Destinations, 9 Watches for your legacy, 9 Game Changers in tech, 9 Apps and even the main feature is 99 Top Tech Indians and you can literally count. Ok, there are no prizes to guess that answer, but still if you need a cue, then we just completed our 8th year and next year will complete our 10th year. Now take a hard guess as to why everything is 9 and enjoy the issue! get social with the exhibit team >>
/exhibitmag /thetechycom /exhibitmagazine /thetechycom /exhibitmagazine /thetechycom
/exhibitmag /thetechycom /exhibitmagazine /thetechycom
CIAO Ramesh Somani Publisher & Chief Editor www.exhibit.co.in
CONTENTS May-2014
9th Anniversary
40 65
HEARTBLEED The internet is losing a lot of blood. Figuratively. An error whilst coding named Heartbleed has cause much chaos around the world and the fear of being targeted has feared millions. Breaking it down and explaining you if this indeed, can personally cause YOU any harm!
There have been a few innovations made by one individual that probably changed the lives of everyone around the world forever! And today, no one can literally imagine their lives without it. You would be dependent on all 9, without a doubt.
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9 success stories People indeed work very hard than a few common people and that’s why their stories are so successful and renowned. Everyone wants to live their lives but people don’t realize their painful and truthful stories to reach to the top. We narrow down and give you the top 9 success stories which made history!
Shutterbug Glamour is what you look for in any picture. That’s what brightens up the Image along with the subject. Our special pick this season is Glamour Photography. We explain you all the pain taken on a image that looks effortless!
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45 9 Innovations that changed the World for Ever
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86 9 Game Changers of Tech Innovations were done. But how to put them to use was done by few of the greatest minds across the world. These individuals were the clear winners and the game changers for the world. Check out the top 9 game changers in technology who made us so dependable on them…
9 private jets of the Super Elite There will be a selected few from the crowd who simply enjoy to fly down to their destination maybe because driving it down would be too mainstream. The super elite choose some classy jets to travel. Check out the top 9!
9 cars that will rule the roads The passionate drivers aren’t just crazy about their cars, but even very excited about the roads they choose. Some might be a simple long stretch or some would be almost like a challenge. We give you the top 9 roads in the world where everyone should give it a turn!
143 9 Watches for your legacy Watches aren’t just for telling you the time. They go way beyond it. They move along with the time. That’s a watch you want to stare at all your life. And that’s the only watch you want that should tell you the time. Quite a love affair! Check out some beautiful watches that last a life... and beyond…
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CONTENTS May-2014
162
9th Anniversary CEO CLUB
Cyrus Mistry Azim Premji Anand Mahindra
163 Sunil Bharti Mittal 164 Anil Ambani TELECOMM TOPPERS
166 167 168 169 170
Himanshu Kapania Gopal Vittal Sunil Sood Satya Nadela Dr Avnish Agarwal Rajeev Kapoor Vineet Taneja Rajeev Suri Faisal Siddiqui Sunil Lalvani
WOMAN IN TECH
172 173 174 175 176 177 178
Rita Soni Altaf Padmashree Warrior Vanitah Naayanranm Reshma Saujani Rashmi Verma Devita Saraf Kumud Srinivasan Neelam Dhavan Sunil Lalvani Aruna Jayanthi Rashmi Sinha Lakshmi Rebecca Kirthiga Reddy
google gang
192 193
Nikesh Arora Sundar Pichai Neal Mohan Rajan Anandan
Entreprenuers CLub
Kunal Bahl Deep Kalra
180
183
Dhruv Shringi Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal Naveen Tewari/ Amit Gupta Sabeer Bhatia Sanjeev Bikhchandani / VSS Mani
184
Vishal Gondal Mr Faisal Husain
185
Gurbaksh Chahal Arvind Vohra
186
Sanjay Katkar CHET KANOJIA
187
Pardeep Jain Ashish Hemrajani
188
Aniruddh Arvind Thakur
189
Siddharh lal Rahul Sharma
190
Mahesh Narayan Bharat Desai
181 182
VENCTURE CAPITALIST
212 213
Suvir Sujan Manik Arora Vinod Dham Vani Kola
195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210
Amit agarwal Gurmit Singh
214 215
Ram Shriram Shailendra Singh
Ankur Warikoo Rishi Jaitly Neeraj Arora Ricken Patel Alok Bharadwaj Shantanu Narayen Jitender Chugh Naveen Selvadurai Sanjay Rohatgi Jagdish Mahapatra Vikas Saxena Pranay Chulet Om Malik / Krishna Subramanian Arvind Bali / Vinay Shetty Harish KohlI / Manish Sharma Vishal parekh Rajiv Singh Tushar Sigghat Moninder jain Rajesh Gupta Pankaj Kedia Sumit Sahwney Mahesh Vikrant Singh Saxena Altaf halde Satyan Gajwani
Mahendran Balachandran / Subrata Mitra / Arjun Gupta
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Shirt|Zara, Trousers| Thomas pink, Blazer held|Burberry, pocket square|SS Homme
155 ARJUN KAPOOR A smile so cute, it makes you go weak in your knees! This Punjabi Munda is our very own royal Arjun Kapoor. With his diverse performances, the man is wanted everywhere! It was only too fair we have him for our 9th anniversary Issue‌
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
9
th
birthday wishes…
“Continual technological advancements have made significant changes in the way we live, think and act. In a world full of constant innovation, access to correct information at the right time is key to decision making. Exhibit India, the largest distributed tech magazine in the country, has done an outstanding work in building awareness and educating the end consumer on the current trends available, its implications and how various technologies can improve the quality of life. Through these past 9 years, the magazine has helped technology meet lifestyle, and continues to educate readers about tech enabled everyday life.” - Finbarr Moynihan, General Manager - International Sales & Marketing, MediaTek Inc.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
“As the President of CMAI association of India, I wish to congratulate Ramesh Somani and his team on achieving ninth birthday. Nine years is not a big period, but Ramesh during this time has shown extraordinary commitment and progress. He has made a big followers of Exhibit within India and abroad. Large number of people look forward to magazine to get latest updates on technology and consumer products of high quality. The magazine format, printing, designing all is world class and a show piece of Indian expertise. The content of the magazine is something that I look out every month and I visit thetechy. com almost daily to get my daily sustenance of tech. I wish you guys all the best.” -Prof. N.K Goyal, President CMAI Association of India. Chairman India Trade Promotion Services, Dubai UAE, Director NFL National Fertilizers Ltd, Govt. of India
“Congratulations to Exhibit Technologies on its ninth anniversary and its coverage of technology as India’s largest distributed Tech Magazine. The Exhibit editorial team does a strong job covering the technology innovation at the International CES and we enjoy seeing you there and reading your coverage of the amazing product launches from the global companies at CES. Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) ®, the producer of the International CES
As we turn a year older, we are touched to see the messages of encouragement, love and success pouring our way. Here are just a few of those and the one’s that we’d like to share with all our readers.
“Technology is all around us. We all see, read, smell & taste technologies, just everywhere. There is so much to read in so many publications that our world has truly become a ‘techworld’ & our generation, a ‘techgeneration’. There is one publication ‘Exhibit’ that wows us. More than the content of technology, I love the fashion in which publication portrays tech stories. The most impressive feature is the ‘presentation’ that makes Exhibit standout, otherwise, what I call tech-commoditization. On its 9th anniversary, I wish to congratulate Team Exhibit and wish they continueto rise in the times to come as my next generation is now addicted to it”. – Mr. Alok Bharadwaj, VP, Cannon India.
“Exhibit has set a new standard for magazines being launched in & for India. It did a superb job selecting thought-provoking topics, trends and scintillating products in last 9 year. Going through Exhibit is always a worthwhile and exciting reading experience. The magazine is a superb resource on new products, technology, trends etc. Team Exhibit keep going.” -Rajeev Singh, Country Head, BenQ India.
“I am extremely delighted to know that Exhibit has completed magnificent 9 years in industry in May 2014. I have been reading the magazine for past few years and have observed a significant raise in the content, creativity, themes and articulation. The team of Exhibit has raised the bar of excellence with every new issue and I wish to witness this growth going forward. I heartily congratulate the whole team of Exhibit for growing without ageing and bringing forth the bespoke content a sheer delight for readers. Nikon & Exhibit has had a long lasting relationship over the past 5 years & we look ahead at a continuing our ties as we grow together in our respective industries.” -Mr. Jitender Chugh, GM – Sales & Marketing, Nikon India.
“In 9 years Exhibit has grown faster than the technological revolution, it’s an amazing power pack publication depicting all what one would want to know on what to buy and must have in this fast changing world where lifestyle and technology go hand in hand. In today’s world we cannot ignore either of them.” -Mr. Anil Jain, Managing Director, Unify Enterprise Communications Pvt.Ltd, A Division of Siemens Enterprises.
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Publisher & Chief Editor RAMESH SOMANI EDITORIAL Deputy Editor Chaitanya Tapase (editdesk@exhibit.co.in) Content Team Garvita Sharma (edit-team@exhibit.co.in) Karishma Mody (editorial@exhibit.co.in) Heena Singh J. (edteam@exhibit.co.in) Contributing Editors Akshay Sethi, Shreya Bhattacharya, Tushar Kanwar Consulting Editor N.K. Goyal (Govt. of India - Chairman, Emeritus TEMA)
ART & DESIGN
Art Director Varsha Singh (design@exhibit.co.in) Graphic Designer Aditi Mali (graphic@exhibit.co.in) Compositor & Creative Designer Ashish Singh Heer (vfx@exhibit.co.in) Social Media Divya (sm@exhibit.co.in) Webmaster & SEO Ganesh Phatangare (webmaster@exhibit.co.in)
INTERNATIONAL
European Sales Director Christophe Brisset (christophe@exhibit.co.in) Mobile+33 607893184 UK Sales Director Ian Pearson (ian@exhibit.co.in) Mobile +44 7525355050
BUSINESS COO Sakshi Maheshwari (sakshi@exhibit.co.in) Head - Content & Sales Abhishek Singh (abhishek@exhibit.co.in) Manager(NCR) - Adv Sales Tulika Rana (advt@exhibit.co.in) Manager(West) - Adv Sales Divya (adv@exhibit.co.in) Asst.Manager Mktg Shriya Shenoy (mktg@exhibit.co.in) Manager - Outdoor Arjun Singh Gill (outdoor@exhibit.co.in) Sr. Mktg Exe - Outdoor Rakesh Sharma, Atul Sachdev PR Garvita Sharma (pr@exhibit.co.in) Digital Media Pankaj Ojha (sm@exhibit.co.in)
ACCOUNTS & HR
HR Manager Sadhana (hr@exhibit.co.in) Accounts Manager Richita Manjerakar (finance@exhibit.co.in) Senior Accounts Exe Mithun Gupta
SUBSCRIPTION
[East & West] [North & South] Manita Akshita Shraddha 09833122253 (022) 26740174 - 77 subscription@exhibit.co.in
CIRCULATION
Circulation Exe (West) Sachin-9987284221 (circulation@exhibit.co.in) Circulation (North) Dinesh Kumar Manager - Techykart.com Meeta Gandhi-9833122253 techykart@exhibit.co.in
MUMBAI Exhibit Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Suite No. 811, Crystal Paradise, 8th Floor, Off Veera Desai Rd, Opp Skoda Showroom, Andheri (W), Mumbai 400053. 022 - 26740174 -77
NEW DELHI Exhibit Technologies Pvt. Ltd., 91 Springboard, B1/H3, Lower Ground Floor, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044
KOLKATA 33/1 NS Road, Room No. 111, Ground Floor, Marshall House Kolkata - 700 001.
The publishers apologetically announce that they cannot be liable incase of any errors and/or omissions in the publication. The content, opinions and views in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are requested to cross check from specialists before acting on the information which are mainly targeted for general use and may not be apt for the readers’ circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. Edited, published, printed & owned by Ramesh Somani for Exhibit Technologies Pvt. Ltd., “Diamond Chambers” Block - II, Floor 9, Unit - 9I, 4 Chowringee Lane, Kolkata - 700016. Printed at CDC Printers Pvt. Ltd., Tangra Industrial Estate - II, 45 Rabrindranath Chowdhary Rd, Kolkata - 700015. Place of publication - 3A, Auckland Square, Kolkata - 700017.
DISTRIBUTED IN INDIA, USA, UK & DUBAI
Ian Pearson
Heena Singh J.
Team in other part of the world...
Christophe Brisset
Tulika Rana
From left to right: Arjun, Ganesh, Sadhana, Richita, Garvita, Shriya, Chaitanya, Publisher & Chief Editor - Ramesh Somani, Sakshi, Ashish, Aditi, Meeta, Karrishma, Nikita
Photographer: Kaustub Kamble
Location: Neel And Tote Banquets, Andheri (West)
MAY 2013-APRIL 2014
Blast from the PAST
Let’s have a look at the articles, stories and shoots that we’ve bookmarked from the past one year; some that had us churning our brains and had us beaming, nonetheless!
may-13
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
January
february
march
april-14
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Esha Gupta December
When we shot with him, with two back-to-back hits, he had all the reasons to throw his weight around, but he didn’t. Humble and easy, he made the shoot worthwhile for us
With her sexy back, Esha left us enchanted. Beautiful in and out, with a flair to pose and keep the cameras busy while she’s there, her effervescent attitude she left us spellbound.
Best Shoots
Aditya Roy Kapur July
Abhay Deol February The perfectionist that he is, Abhay didn’t shoot hurriedly and spent enough time with us. What more could we ask for!
Randeep Hooda November His grave and suave demeanour lend him that streak of desirability; it just went a notch up with this unusual cover. This blasé pose stays in your head and the shoot was only too hassle free.
march shoot Minus any celebrity, there was still a lot that the shoot did. Elegant, it was just what we were looking for, for our special ‘How-To’ issue!
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Best Feature Stories Waterproof gadgets (July) If you love your gadgets at and below the sea level, the story featured gadgets that helped you enjoy them in waters so you can click a selfie in water and worry not about your phone. To add to it, we had a gorgeous model help demonstrate it!
Monochrome Photography (August) Black and white images have their own charm and you’ll be surprised at how it can totally change the look of any picture. The article spoke more on the tricks of monochrome photography.
Affordable Moviemaking Solutions (August) Taking tips from those in the knowhow, the story focused on how one can make movie at a reasonable budget. Meant for those who have been wanting to make movies but never knew where to start from and how to take it ahead...
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Best Feature Stories Tech Collaborations (November) The button pressed was rewind and the story behind the marriage between two brands was told.
Wearable Gadgets (January) Wearable gadgets are a rage and it has seen a rising demand among tech enthusiasts. The story enlisted some of the smartest wearable tech gadgets one could get their hands on.
TRAVAGANT
JOURNEYS THAT MADE A MARK! If you are a watch lover, here are things you need to know about some legendary watch brands and their history; their highs and lows, their beginnings... These are Success Stories in a Capsule! Words by: Garvita Sharma
ROLEX Founded by HANS WILSDORF and ALFRED DAVIS in England in the year 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex has adorned wrists of many a great men. Unanimously, the two of them chose La Chaux-de-Fonds, the hub of watchmakers, for opening an office and Rolex was registered in 1908. Being one of the largest single luxury watch brand today that produces about 2,000 watches per day, Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred’s main business, then, was importing Hermann Aegler’s, a watch manufacturer in Bienne, Swiss movements to England and placing them in quality watch cases. Initially, Rolex sold the watches to jewellers who then put their own names on the dial; their earliest watches, though, were hallmarked ‘W&D’ inside the caseback. They came together with Hermann Aegler to import wristwatches. Named Rolex because of the ease in pronouncing its name and its sound resonating with a watch being wound Wilsdorf also thought that it was short enough to fit on the face of the watch. Thus on 15th November, 1915, its name was registered. As wartime taxes were being levied on luxury imports, thereby on the silver and gold used for the watch cases, driving the costs too high, Wilsdorf left England in 1919 and moved the company to Geneva, Switzerland where it was established as Rolex Watch Company. Later, this was renamed as Montres Rolex, SA and finally Rolex SA. The company came up with many innovations like the first waterproof wristwatch – Oyster – in 1926; the first one to come up with an automatically changing date on the dial – the Rolex Datejust – in 1945; the first one to come up with two time zones at once – Rolex GMT Master in 1954 and also the first watchmaker to earn a chronometer certification for a wristwatch. Interestingly, the success of the Waterproof watch led to the invention of the testimonial concept of publishing an ad in the newspaper. In 1950, many watches that were intended for professional activities like deep-sea diving, aviation, mountain climbing were invented. After his wife’s death in 1944, Wilsdorf established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation where he left all of his Rolex shares thereby making sure that the company’s income goes to charity. Hans’ aim was to provide quality timepieces at an affordable price. Thus, Rolex SA came up with watches under the Tudor brand, which is both of high quality and affordable.
The brand has been associated with many important events like Wimbledon and Australian Open tennis grand slams, the U.S. Open besides sponsoring the 24 Hours of Daytona along with the Rolex Sports Car Series. Last year, it was also the official timekeeper of the FIA Formula 1 motor racing championship and at the Le Mans 24 Hours motor race since 2001. I MAR 2014 I 132
Journeys that made a mark (March) In a nutshell, this one spoke of the success stories of watches; their history, their people and their best ones!
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Best Cover Stories The Speed Issue (August) Rightly titled ‘Catch Me If you Can’, the story spoke of everything that is fast and quick – Speed in Air, Speed on Wheels, Speed on Legs, Speed on Tracks. To top it was our cover girl, Sania Mirza, who is Speed on Court. One couldn’t have asked for more!
Futuristic Tech (September) For the Tech Fantasizers, this one offered enough stuff on what could probably be the future of technology and how it will change things for mankind. Virtual reality, nanotechnology... imagination was let loose!
F1 Special (October) If speed excites you and then again, F1 specifically this had everything meant for you! Right from the contenders, apps required for the same, its teams and partners... everything, served on your platter.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
1
THE BUSINESS MODEL
Members can choose to join the network for three months, six months or a year by paying ` 7,500, ` 12,000 or ` 15,000. And once they find themselves in a relationship, they are expected to leave immediately. Members are invited to regular events ranging from a visit to a single-malt distillery in Bangalore and grape-crushing and sangria-making affairs to cookouts at Olive restaurant, treks, bowling and sailing (in Mumbai). There is plenty of dancing, of course, especially at after-parties. Of the relatively rarefied events, Floh had a book reading by MeenalBaghel, author of Death in Mumbai, and a curated walk at the India Art Fair held in Delhi recently.
This ensures that the accounts of the users, both buyers and sellers, feel much more real. It helps people feel good about each other and it builds trust. Users can already “love” products and follow
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TRIPOTO
FLOH Whereas websites to connect singles has been a hit abroad, the concept hasn’t quite taken off here on our desi shores. But Floh (Find LifeOver Here) plans to take-off where others have failed. The idea is rather simple - to get singles from a particular city to hook-up with each other by registering on their website. But, rather than just being a virtual social network, this startup aims to get the singles togeth-
XARATO Xarato.com is a social shopping marketplace and aims to be home to India’s most creative businesses. Xarato.com is integrated with Facebook Connect, and is the only means of registering and signing in to the website.
Best Cover Stories
sellers they love. The home page feed shows the items in order of their popularity, as decided by the users themselves. Xarato.com went live in August 2013 with about 30 sellers and 1500 products. In the five months since then, Xarato has grown to host about 150 sellers/designers and 11000 products, and is receiving more than 2000 visitors every day.
er in one place and organizing fun events for them. SiddharthMangharam, CEO, co-founded the singles network in May with Simran (his wife) and two other partners to address the gap in premium dating and matrimonial services in India. Started in 2011, they now have more than 500 registered users.i
2
WHATS NEXT
Going forward, more powerful features will be introduced, leveraging on the users’ network of Facebook friends. They can not only have personalized feeds based upon categories they love and sellers they follow, but also see the recommendations of their friends and ask them easily as well.
Even though the web is full of travel information, discovering and creating travel itineraries is still a pain. StartupTripoto has taken a crowd-sourced approach to creating itineraries. Given that there are enough travel blogs (and stories) out there in the wild web, Tripoto is also focusing on giving tools to travel bloggers for them to create itineraries. Tripoto attempts to bring together travellers from around the world to share and discover – real, actionable, crowd-sourced travel stories. The New Delhi based startup is mapping every single destination in the story – along with the associated content and pictures, to present a beautiful visually appealing content.
THE BREAKTHROUGH Started by Anirudh Gupta (ex-founder of NotionInk and was an EIR at Rocket Internet) and Michael Lyngdoh (ex-founder of Helios Suntrough operations), the travel site has 100+ high quality travel itineraries from around the world and has grabbed celebrity early adopters like BaichungBhutia. As far as early focus is concerned, the company will focus on Asia first and will move to other regions later. For any UGC platform, the bigger challenge is to create incentives for people to share their travel and at the same time, make the site inspirational enough to keep away the low quality content (spammers). And one way to go about this is to create more call to actions than just sharing
Too often we fail to notice what’s closer to us. This cover story was full of ‘Oh-so-amazing’ start-ups, all by Indians. A feel good story, it only made every Indian proud.
DAYHALT Dayhalt’s idea sparked when one of the founders Manish Golcha, went to Delhi for his business meet and faced problem while booking rooms for few hours even though he owned a travel company. Additionally, Manish used to get lot of day use queries from his corporate clients and then he started working on it. Presently, social media plays a tremendous role in our lives and interestingly Golcha found his other co-founder PrabaKaran via Facebook. “Manish was looking for co-founder and posted requirement on various Startup group on Facebook. I saw post in Headstart FB group, approached him, idea clicked and we are here today,” says PrabaKaran. After completing his engineering degree, Golcha worked for more than 5 years in Mahindra Holidays & Resorts and later started his own travel company which is running successfully from past two years.
On the other hand, Prabakaran is a final year engineering student at Madras Institute of Technology with strong interest in developing web applications.
THE FUTURE Dayuse hotels are very popular in Western world and major Asian tourist spots like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia; but was absent in India till now. Fortunately for us, Dayhalt.com has bridged this gap and launched a very useful service. They are in talks with other hotel providers in all major cities across India and their vision is to have a pan India presence.
50 hottes Start-ups (February)
46 to go...
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HOW TO
Play any video format on iPhone and iPad
The How-To Issue (March)
HOW TO
‘
The iPhone and iPad are one of the best handheld devices to watch videos but they come with limitations to play different video formats especially the older version of these devices. One cannot always find a video in a particular format to run on an iPhone or iPad and converting videos in a supportive format is a time consuming task. Not only time consuming but also not many of us would like to take that pain of converting videos in a right format to play. There’s no common standard for videos ad here things get tricky. Different devices shoot in different formats and playback devices such as smartphones, tablets, TVs etc may not support all formats. In that case you have following options:
‘
A DIY for amateurs and pros alike, the team went all out for its readers to make them aware on various topics by telling them ‘How-to’... Informative yet light, this issue was something you’d never want to lose.
• You can download an app from the app store called AVPlayer HD. It is a paid app but worth to grab for hassle free video playing experience. It supports different subtitle formats and Dolby TrueHD. It will also let you transfer video files to your iPad via Wi-Fi from iTunes and via USB cable as well. • The other apps include Cinexplayer HD that will play files stored locally and supports Dolby Digital and .srt subtitle files. It also supports MP4, DivX and M4V files. • You can also download OPlayer HD.
Note- These third party apps may not support and play video files stored in the native videos app. One can also convert important videos using some free options like ‘Any Video Converter’, Freemake and Handbrake.
Clone Yourself On A Photo Imagine one day you post to Facebook that you have a twin, and show a very realistic picture. Before the shock and awe begin, you will have loads of likes for sure. But how can you do that? It’s pretty easy, actually. You can use a tool like ‘Inpaint’ which uses a whole lot of trickery of its own to do it easily, rather than you breaking your head on a complex application like Photoshop. The app works on Windows as well as MAC OS.
Step 1: Taking pictures with the model’s body in different areas of the frame. You can ask a friend to help you take each picture, use a remote, or use the self-timer feature on your camera. To start off, you DON’T need a tripod or any special tools; and no need to worry about shaking hands when making the photos. Inpaint will take care of this and will align your photos perfectly. Step 2: Load the photo into Inpaint. Now, once you have all your photos taken, you need to load them into MultiView Inpaint. Load the first photo, then add other photos.
Step 3: Using Multi View Inpaint.
Select the first image from the list. Moving the cursor allows you to see what is under this area. Hold the left mouse button to erase the foreground image and reveal what lies under the cursor. Keep erasing until your new clone is fully visible. Since the background below is exactly the same as it is above, you don’t have to worry about erasing too much.
Step 4: Continue cloning using another image.
Select another image from the left side, and repeat “Step 3” until all of your clones appear on the image.
Step 5: Save the result.
Be amazed at the result: now you have six clones!
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Bitcoin Saga (April) Tracing the journey of the Bitcoin, its roots, its secrets, people behind it and the uncertainties that come along with it were all answered in this one.
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The Leica T Arrives
T
here are camera-makers. And then there is Leica. There are few competitors that can even think of matching up to the level of craftsmanship of the German giant, let alone be as iconic in their own right. Even though Leica has achieved dizzying heights with their beautifully produced camera bodies, the same can’t be said about the technology in those cameras. The company has been a bit obstinate when it comes to wholly accepting useful tech in their traditional cameras. Till now. Till the T. The new Leica T breaks this mould. It's as beautiful as older Leicas but finally incorporates much of the tech the company has long resisted. In fact, it's more innovative and more intuitive than most modern cameras and offers image quality that can match all but the best mirrorless cameras on the market.
Price: $ 1,850 Availability: Only US and Western Europe, so far.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
The T-System has an aluminum body, a 16.5MP Sony APS-C sensor and a 3.7″ touchscreen for most of its controls. It has a new lens mount and will launch with an 18-56mm zoom lens and a 23mm prime lens. It has an internal storage of 16GB plus a SDHC card slot and a micro USB port. There’s built-in Wi-Fi too, but no viewfinder – a compatible electronic viewfinder will be available as an accessory.
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Revival Cycles Guzzi V50 Monza – The Looker
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here aren’t many hand-made motorbikes that are causing a stir at local motorshows. Revival Cycles Guzzi V50 Monza isn’t one of them. It’s one of the best looking bikes you’ll see – with a retro body. There’s an elegant, unforced style to the bike, which builder Alan Stulberg describes as having ‘good Karma.’ It was one of those projects where everything fell neatly into place—although we’re sure Revival’s renowned craft skills helped. The V50 originally belonged to a friend of Stulberg’s, who used it on several cross-country adventures before deciding it was time for a new owner to enjoy it.Then Revival had a call from a client looking for a vintage, lightweight and small displacement bike that handled well.Despite the budget being tight, the build looks a million dollars. Stulberg and crew started with a cylinder head rebuild and electrical overhaul, and then turned their attention to the fuel tank. “The factory one is bulbous, and frankly not that flattering for a small motorcycle. We chose a Yamaha RD400 tank.” In fact, Stulberg chose two RD400 tanks: the second one was reworked into the seat cowl. “The lines of the tanks seem to fit with the squareness of the engine and chassis perfectly.” After fabricating rearsets and pegs to suit the new owner, Revival moved onto the exhaust. “We chose to build a complete system from head to tail in stainless, and we kept the angular style—tight and close to the frame.” Rebuilt forks and a brace machined out of aluminium keep the front end solid, and contribute to the effortless handling of the little V50. The headlight was more complicated: “We chose a Honda Dream headlight, but didn’t want the headlight shell and bezel it came with. So we fabbed a new shell and a polished alloy bezel.” In the top of the shell is a cup that holds a Motogadget instrument. It allows the rider to keep up with the charging system, the speed, the time, and the distance. It even auto dims depending on the surrounding light.
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I MAY 2014 I 29
The Apollo 70 Airstream – Classic, Yet High-Tech
Imagine owing a bar that you could take along with you – anytime, anywhere. If you can imagine it, then we are already featuring it. For you – our fun-loving readers, ready to have a good time at the drop of a hat! Celebrating 9th Anniversary
The Apollo 70 Airstream Bar is a beautiful Airstream Land Yacht that was completely transformed into an amazing mobile bar and food truck for corporate events. A catering airstream highly polished inside and out that features an interior with coloured mood lights and a twinkling ‘starry ceiling’ plus colour
changing lights around the outside of the serving hatch, The Apollo 70 Airstream Bar will be the center of attention at any event. The mobile 5 Star bar comes with a fully stocked bar, satellite television and a professional staff to take care of guests. With a menu that ranges from champagne or cocktails to local-
ly sourced beers and from the finest Belgium chocolates and pastries to current on trend gourmet street food, Apollo 70 Airstream Bar fits any event and will definitely be the star of the party.
Food is also available, served courtesy of on duty staff. It’s the ultimate party on wheels, and one to be talked about for a long time to come.
The Apollo 70 Airstream Mobile Bar is fully stocked with premium tipples and sports TVs, speakers and LED lighting.
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... Boom? /Doom?
Can a smartphone be useful as anything else except for making calls and messages? Apparently Samsung shows us how your mobile can have a feature which is more important and prominent than the obvious. The y introduced the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom last year and as the name goes itself, all the focus was set on the Camera. We get the hint that Samsung wants us to completely get rid of our DSLRs and straight away have it fitted in our smartphone. Now the technology which goes into it along with the mechanism isn’t something so easy that a mobile phone maker can achieve it in the first shot… Just a few days ago, the company announced their second league of smartphone named the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom. This smartphone does ship with the basic amenities which it should as always, but comes along with an additional heavy lens which we don’t normally see on our gadgets. Did you notice that this is the second league? Does anyone honestly remember the first one? When it was launched and what it was like? Those of you do, Celebrating 9th Anniversary
might remember the launch and in the news for a while, but not many of them purchased it. Even though it was high on specifications, it wasn’t enough to fit the bill.
Galaxy S4 Zoom has a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor. The previous edition even had a screen size which was merely a 4.3-inch.
The K Zoom might be an updated version and the typical thinner and better in a few aspects but the question here arises, do we really need it?
Talking in terms of business, usually companies avoid continuing with something they know isn’t going to give them much profit. And the S4 Zoom wasn’t exactly a deal breaker for them. So then why bother making another one? If the concept didn’t exactly catch the eye in the first shot, does it need to be tried on for the second time? Agreed that it has a better built, a better and improvised camera along with higher pixel density, higher processor and a better battery life but can it take on the Samsung Galaxy S5? A highly anticipated smartphone which almost everyone had set their eyes on, is the K Zoom capable of over shadowing it? Why would they launch a phone when they know it might be over-shadowed? If the last one turned out almost a flop, will this one be a hit. We’ll give it… A While…
The K Zoom features a main rear camera with 20.7-megapixel camera and a 1/2.3 BSI CMOS sensor combination compared with the 16 megapixel camera on the S4 Zoom, which had the same sized physical sensor. Running on Android KitKatalong with a 2GB RAM and a 4.8-inch display at 1280 x 720 pixels, it also comes along with the company’s Exynoshexacore application processor. It is capable of shooting 50/60fps. It terms on size and compatibility, the K Zoom is definitely a much sleeker and slimmer version. Not giving much importance to the specifications and moving to the camera, the device also has 10 X Zoom optical Zoom lenses. It features a 20.7MP BSI CMOS sensor, while the
I MAY 2014 I 33
9 APPS OF THE MONTH Fenix for Twitter Fenix for Twitter might be one those few apps that has actually gained notice even in its development stage. There might be tons of apps for Twitter but this one has what it takes, to stand out from all of them. Even though there are going to be a lot more features added to this app, the few specialities it includes would be the fact that the links are clickable in the timeline itself. (No another app does this yet, apart from the official client). There is also an Inline preview of images and YouTube videos. For colour, you have the usual dark and light themes. You even get an optional internal browser and it is also easy to access all your lists and saved searches. Some other noticeable features would be that you can now copy, share, translate or delete a DM too. Editing and managing lists has also been integrated really well. Overall, the app looks very neat and clean. It gives Twitter a new feel. Price: `165 (Approx)
Emu Every phone has over 5 -7 messaging apps. We want to try them all but in the end we stick to messaging or simply WhatsApp. But there is something unique about this app which will make you want to get hooked on it. Unlike others, this might be one of those extreme assistant messaging apps. To begin with, available only on iOS, EMU Messenger doesn’t need support of other programs. If you want to inform someone about your location, you can send live updates of your location in the text itself. The app also checks your calendar for you if you are making a plan to meet up with a friend. Like a few other apps, it will not only let you know about restaurants near home, at work, but will also give you details if tables are available. But the coolest feature is “Magic Reply,” which uses your iPhone’s sensors to automatically detect when you’re at the wheel, and replies to messages letting others know you’re driving. An innovative app making messaging a tad bit easier. Price: Free
Comics Comics are meant for all ages. But the problem is that they aren’t available easily as they use to be. You really have to hunt them out. And hence it was only logical to have an app for it. Easy way out. For iOS users, there is an app called iComics which lets you read digital comic books on your device. This app lets you buy comics from their own collection and most of them are free online. A number of old school comics which you thought you would never get to see are very easily available here. iComics supports all of the main DRM-free comic book formats. Price: Free
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
9 APPS OF THE MONTH Workout Trainer It is literally like a trainer helping you out on your smartphone. Available for both Android and iOS, Workout Trainer is very professionally sorted with workouts and exercises in the form of articles and videos. For every part of your body, there are exercises performed by professional trainers and they guide you exactly in every step how it has to be done. You can even feed in your body type and requirement and it will give you the list of exercises which will benefit you. This app is not only meant for people who go to the gym, but also for those who like to sit at home and relax and yet manage to do a few exercises at home. They have audio instructions for every exercise along with pictures and people from all ages can use this app to stay fit. Price: Free
First Aid Available on Android and iPhone devices, the official Red Cross First Aid app once installed will prepare you for any kind of physical threat. It includes safety tips for everything from volcanoes to meningitis, to heart attacks, burns and cuts too. It gives you step-by-step procedure on what has to be done in case of emergency. It even has videos and interactive videos. There are even safety tips to prepare you for emergencies like earthquakes and severe weather catastrophes. The preloaded content gives you instant access to all safety information at any time, even without an Internet connection. This might be the best part about this application. Price: Free
All Events in City This app actually keeps you updated with every happening site around you. ‘All events in City’ informs you about every possible event around you and even alerts you as to when it is going to start. You can browse events categorically from various categories like parties, meet-ups, concerts, seminars, art-events, festivals, workshops, conferences, etc. You can add all these events to your Calendar too and stay up to date. You can share the comments with your friends as well. Once downloaded, you would never miss an event in your city. Price: Free
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9 APPS OF THE MONTH FitBit The Fitbit app uses Bluetooth to automatically and wirelessly sync your tracker’s data, so you can see your latest stats, charts, and graphs on your smartphone. Once paired, you can calculate even the steps you have taken to the distance you have travelled and even to the calories you have burned. With a smartphone, you can record sleep, set silent wake alarms directly from the app, and track your sleep trends.The Fitbit app can set a calorie intake plan that is personalized to your profile and daily activities. According to your food chart, it will tell you exactly how many calories have you consumed. Being fit has an all new meaning. Price: Free
PocketCasts This might be one the easiest ways to listen to latest podcasts. You can download and stream all the new episodes. You can sync and backup the subscriptions, podcasts and playlists as well. It has one of the simplest and cleanest designs of all podcast managers we’ve used. It is regarded as one of the best mobile podcasting managers and it looks really neat. One of the things about it is that it lets you make filters for your podcasts based on many factors like, played/partially played/finished, audio or video, downloaded/downloading/not downloaded, sorting, auto download, Wi-Fi only, charging only. This is just for the filters that make lists of your podcasts. There are also global settings and settings per podcast. Platform: Android + iOS Price: ` 250
Tasker This app available for Android will be of great help to you. One of the most flexible apps on the market. In short – you can completely automate the way your Android phone behaves with this app. You can lock passcode-lock sensitive applications for child safety. You can change your phone setting by application for longer time screen while reading a book. It allows you to wake up with a random song from your music collection. It also reads out loud all the messages and calls including appointments and even when the battery is low. You can pretty much do anything and everything, but rather than going on about it, let’s just say it is worth every paisa you pay for it. Price: ` 199.99
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I MAY 2014 I 37
The Vertu
Constellation A Phone For The Royals `4,75,000/Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
SPECIFICATIONS
REVIEW DESIGN The Vertu family is well-known for their classy design and the Constellation is no exception. Made with a grade 5 Titanium and covered with a luxurious calf leather rear panel, the phone feels distinguished, rather Lord-like. The fact that there is a ‘Handmade in England’ engraving on the box from which you realize the amount of attention put into each phone. At 179 gms, the Constellation isn’t light, but why would you want that with such a high-end device. It feels a bit topheavy and that could possibly be because of the metal encasing around the 13MP primary cam at the rear, which looks straight out of a Sci-Fi movie at first, but is easy to get used to. The fact that Vertu has used Sapphire crystal to cover the entire front of the phone says a lot about the product. There is a thin metal line surrounding the entire frame of the phone and the ‘V’ logo right at the top completes a rather stately look. The left side houses a ‘ruby’ button which gives you access to services like Vertu Life and Vertu Certainty, though no Concierge service which was present in the Vertu Ti.
Services So, what are these services? Once you power-up the phone and register as a bonafide owner of the Vertu Constellation, you get access to the aforementioned services by hitting the ruby-button on the left panel. There are separate icons to get to these services too. But, what you don’t get via Concierge services, these 2 certainly make-up for that. Vertu LIFE offers customers a personalised selection of exclusive privileges and unrestricted access to elite events available directly on device. Features include complimentary entry to the most exclusive Private Members’ Clubs around the world, access to invitation-only events and closed-door shopping experiences. Vertu CERTAINTY protects the customer, their Vertu phone and their data through best-in-class technology and expert partners. This includes encrypted communications in partnership with Silent Circle, global Wi-Fi access via iPass, personal and corporate security with Protector Services Group and anti-virus by Kaspersky.
• • • • • • • •
4.3-inch Sapphire Crystal glass, 720p screen 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor Android OS v4.2 (Jelly Bean) 32GB inbuilt storage, no microSD card slot 13 MP main camera with AF and twin LED flash 1.3MP Skype™ compliant front camera High-fidelity 11mm x 15mm loudspeaker 179 gms in weight, non-removable 1800 mAh
First Impressions Certain objects are not made for the common people. Thus, it is pointless to talk objectively about such devices that seemingly defy logic. It’s sometimes not about ‘Why will anyone spend so many lakhs for a phone’ but about ‘What phone can distinguish me from the maddening crowd.’ Vertu has realized this and executed this with aplomb, year after year. Like a hand-crafted Rolls, these hand-crafted master-pieces from England are fit for the uber-rich. The Constellation came to us in an elegant and understated package, all black and eternal in its feel. Unboxing everything, we realized how everything just feels so –Opulent. But why should you buy one? We tried to answer that, after getting our hands-on experience with it.
Performance Even though it’s not a phone that needs to be discussed on its specs and performance, let’s get it out of the way anyway. The Android OS v4.2-running Vertu Constellation is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset running 1.7GHz on a dual-core CPU. There is the slightest lag I felt every now and then, but nothing that affected the overall usability. 32GB of internal storage will be sufficient for the audience this is aimed for, even though there is no microSD card slot. The 13MP shooter takes decent images but not the best in low-light. The twin LED flash does help to a great extent, plus the 1.3MP front-cam is good for Skype calls and random selfies. The most impressive part of the whole package was the excellent output from the loudspeakers. Even at really loud volume, the clarity was phenomenally good – though the display isn’t the sharpest. The sapphire crystal glass also attracts fingerprints, but since you get a case with the package – this is kept to a minimum too.
VERDICT With little nuances of its own, the Vertu Constellation holds its own in the Vertu line-up of phones. It feels like a mild-mannered English Lord, who is crossing middle-age and has everything figured out. For which he hasn’t, he won’t spend much time on it – because he make use of added services with a simple push of a button. And that essentially, is the true amalgamation. The lord and his Constellation. A royal pair, indeed.
I MAY 2014 I 39
HEARTBLEED – SEEING RED ALL OVER THE INTERNET! Words By- Karishma Mody
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We aren ’ t talking anything medical here but in fact, Heartbleed is the name for a serious problem being faced by the Internet at the moment.
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Recently, news had broken that the safeguard many websites use to protect sensitive information on the internet has had a major security flaw for almost two years. We don’t realize it, but protection of our online data is equally important. Here is the glitch. These sites use a security system called OpenSSL to encrypt data like content, passwords, and Social Security Numbers.But because of a small error while coding, which is named, ‘HEARTBLEED’, your data can be misused and work against you. Hackers aware of this fault can steal your sensitive data from the effected websites. Though as of now, hackers haven’t exploited the flaw yet. Though this is bad news, the news which is worse than this is the fact that NSA (NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY) knew about the bug for easily two years and actively exploited it in order to gather intelligence. So basically instead of informing millions of people, they kept quiet, intentionally. But instead of playing the blame game here, we should be aware of the damage it has caused and what we can do about it. (Even if it is a bit). Unfortunately, many popular websites have been bitten by the bug as up to two-thirds of sites on the internet rely on OpenSSL.After a list was made, the most popular ones were Yahoo, Flickr, OkCupid etc. What was surprising and also, a sigh of relief, was the news that Google and Facebook weren’t affected. They both officially released statements confirming the same.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Maybe your mails and social media information could cause you damage if it gets in the wrong hands. But the worst has struck. Usually the websites which protect our data such as bank account numbers, bank details and passwords are in danger. This is said to be worse because of obvious reasons. It could have been worse, if SSL wasn’t used at all, because that’s the protocol used to protect sensitive information. If we even know that the website isn’t safe, we won’t put in a lot of our personal details. Now clearly our bank account websites will have all our personal details. And that is damaged. It’s not only people that are freaking out. Canada announced that it was shutting down its online services as a result of the Heartbleed bug. Unfortunately this is like bliss for hackers! They slightest chance available and hackers might be behind your information. Hackers sharing information might exploit the vulnerability and getting through might get easier. And even if our information is stolen, we wouldn’t really be aware. And unfortunately again, it won’t be easy for websites to solve the problem. It might take a while till a new program is rolled out for a website’s entire infrastructure. The sad part is there isn’t anything we can do
about it. If you think that you can help yourself by simply just changing the passwords as soon as possible, you might be at a greater risk than you think. If you change your password prior to a site getting rid of the bad SSL, your new password could be just as vulnerable as your old one.This is one of those situations where the best thing people can do is stick to best practices, not panic and wait to hear information from the correct people. The common layman has to understand one thing. This isn’t a virus. It’s a flaw, a simple coding error in the opensource encryption protocol used by many websites and other servers.It is a bug, more like a security hole that was accidently left open. After your online data, the second best place to keep all your information is your laptop, tablet and even smartphones. This doesn’t mean that hackers can hack into them to steal your data. You’d either be using an Android or an iOS device and nor of them have been affected by the virus. Sigh of relief isn’t it
everyone seems to believe that of course they are. There was an outrage on Twitter too where people felt that they just simply had to be involved. But the company says it differently. They say they were completely ignorant and unaware till the news was declared officially and they haven’t take advantage of the situation either. IS THERE A BRIGHT SIDE? Servers that are affected might want to upgrade their security. There will be a solution to this problem. How quick you ask? Umm, it’s going to take a while. Go out for a while instead.
Are all banks open to heartbleeding? Luckily, no. Most of them don’t use OpenSSL so they are safe. Most of the major banks are safe that way. But are we safe from the NSA? Are they spying on us? Well
I MAY 2014 I 41
&
Facebook WhatsApp –
the good, the bad & the pricey deal! Words By- Shreya Bhattacharya
It’s been just two months back when this young billionaire, who has already set half of the world’s population crazy with his social networking site called Facebook, left the people awestruck with his eye-popping deal. We are talking about Mr. Zuckerberg and his out-of-the-world deal of $19bn when Facebook acquired WhatsApp! Okay…let’s face the fact…the deal price was a huge one, perhaps it cost more than buying the entire NBA or even the LHC! But certainly Mark is smart enough to cash in more money from the deal than he paid for it.
basis. So far, the SMS replacement app has been successful in its mission with 19 billion SMS messages sent and 34 billion received per day. Any company would swear by that figure! Reason enough for Mark to cash in? Aha…there’s a more specific reason for the purchase than just the numbers.
Mark had earlier set his eyes on Snapchat which turned down his billions. And then he hit on WhatsApp…for the above said hefty price value…good, bad or ugly?Or is it an insane boon for both Facebook and WhatsApp?
Facebook’s previous attempts to buy Snapchat was snubbed…it’s obvious it needed some or the other way to get into the messaging app market. Okay, we agree Facebook already had its own messaging app. But we are talking about a way popular something! As far as FB messenger is concerned, we haven’t read any striking user data, neither do we know its effectiveness in terms of records. In short…WhatsApp beats it all.
WhatsApp has already been doing good…quite good actually with its significant market penetration as a messaging app. Undoubtedly it is the most well-run instant messaging service available handling more instant messages in a day than the entire global SMS industry. It has 450 million active monthly active users, about 70 percent of which are active on a daily
That explains Facebook’s side of boon. What about WhatsApp’s gain? WhatsApp has been developing slowly but steadily, providing a good service and growing its user base like no one else in the market. Facebook has been careening around trying to morph and change to fit the changing habits of its users, since day one. So what we are going to see in this pur-
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
chaseis diversification that Facebook sorely needs. WhatsApp would remain autonomous. Its business model remains the same. Facebook doesn’t interfere with its interface and presentation. Instead, Facebook users get the option to use a better messaging service. It’s basically by integrating the relatively fractured messaging market that both Facebook and WhatsApp are going to make merry. Everyone’s under Facebook’s roof these days…so new WhatsApp users get their Facebook friends as well! If Facebook can then backfill its influence into WhatsApp, Facebook may be able to give it a significant leg up over the competitors among which it was, formerly, a little lost. WhatsApp gets a fresh crop of users, Facebook diversifies its portfolio. Reach is expanded for both, and all for the paltry price of $19 billion. And you were calling it crazy? Didn’t we say an “insane boon”?
E X P E R I E N C E B L A C K B E R R Y Y O U R
W A Y .
Every BlackBerry® smartphone is designed to help you do more.
The new BlackBerry® Z30
BlackBerry® Z10 smartphone
BlackBerry® Q10 smartphone
BlackBerry® Q5 smartphone
©2013 BlackBerry. All rights reserved. BlackBerry®, BBM™ and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”) and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. BlackBerry assumes no obligations or liability and makes no representation, warranty or guarantee in relation to any aspect of any third-party products or services. Screen image simulated.
BlackBerry® 9720 smartphone
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Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Words By: Chaitanya Tapase
I MAY 2014 I 45
CEPTION
Internet There was a time, not too long ago, but ancient history for some – When the world did not communicate over computing devices.
There was absolutely no infrastructure in place for us to reach out to our loved ones in another part of the world – other than the handy telephone. Landline phones, mind you, cell phones came in later. It was a quaint time to live in, where the distractions were few, but a lot had to be done. It was in times like this, when a brilliant idea was about to strike one man – an idea that solely changed how the world communicated. And an idea so powerful – all the armies of the world, could not stop it from taking form!
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Countless people helped develop it, but the person most often credited with its invention is the computer scientist Lawrence Roberts.
In the 1960s, a team of computer scientists working for the U.S. Defense Department’s ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) built a communications network to connect the computers in the agency, called ARPANET.
It used a method of data transmission called “packet switching” which Roberts, a member of the team, developed based on prior work of other computer scientists. ARPANET was the predecessor of the Internet.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
In its nascent stages, the ARPANET was still limited to a select few. It wasn’t available for the world to use. In 1989, while working at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee invented a network-based implementation of the hypertext concept. By releasing his invention to public use, he ensured the technology would become widespread. The world hasn’t looked back since, and when Windows 95 came along – we finally had a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on which we could interact without any technical knowledge. Things only got better and bigger from there on end. We now make friends on the internet, conduct business, buy and sell stuff, plan and book vacations as well as dozens of other things. And it’s only set to grow much bigger with the recent explosion of smartphone use all over the world. We now have devices in various shapes and sizes which are always connected to the internet and let us stay updated on everything happening around us. It’s nearly impossible for most of us to imagine our lives without the world wide web, but there have been way too many people with plentiful of enhancements on the way – to make the internet as omnipresent as it is today.
GPS on Portable Devices Ever been to a new city and felt completely lost? That’s where the power of our very own manmade satellites have come to our aid. In telling us exactly on which corner of the world we are, and which roads we need to take to get to our destination. The world has never been the same since GPS was introduced on Portable Devices.
GPS is the popular name for global positioning system devices that people commonly use for navigation while driving. GPS is actually space-age technology that allows GPS satellites orbiting the earth to transmit free location and weather information to any GPS receiver on the face of the earth that has an unobstructed view of the satellite. Between the years of 1983 and 1994, the United States government endeavored to make GPS technology freely available to civilians by continuing to develop the machinery and expertise as well as launch several satellites into orbit. In the spring of 2000, the precision of GPS technology available to civilians was improved by allowing access to the high signal quality that had been previously reserved for military use. The Global Positioning System is a natural resource of the United States of America and is maintained by the Department of Defense branch of the government.
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GPS technology is now embedded into many portable electronic devices as a way to track the movements of people and pets, locate directions safely while driving, and for emergency location needs for people who need 911 services who are unaware of their location or unable to speak. Automobiles can be fitted with GPS devices to help recover them in case they are stolen. Many cell phones come equipped with the same technology, and computer software programs can be installed on many electronic devices that are not equipped with GPS as a standard feature. Service companies have found that they can greatly reduce fuel costs by improving schedules of technicians in a way that not only saves fuel, but increases efficiency, which also improves their overall customer satisfaction levels. Tracking aircraft paths and truck routes are two of the main ways transportation and delivery has been affected by global positioning systems, making it easier to keep track of shipments. GPS has made the lives of many people safer by reliably transmitting maps to unfamiliar locations through portable GPS navigational devices that speak to the user rather than requiring the driver to read a map. These devices can save a great deal of time and fuel costs by preventing a driver from becoming lost in an unfamiliar location. For people who are traveling alone, GPS can make drivers feel comforted the dependable technology that can lead them to a specific address or a vague location such as the “nearest police station”. There seems to be an increase of this technology. GPS has revolutionized and it seems that most of the technology works with GPS built-in system. Satellites, cars, phones, and even people have a built-in GPS. Like any other technology, the system is not perfect and can always be hacked. In May of 2000, the selective availability (SA) was turned off. This led to a “less accurate position determination” of about 50 meters of the GPS receivers. The reason this happen was for safety concerns to the public. For example: terrorist shouldn’t be provided with accurate readings of buildings. If this happens, people would be vulnerable since their exact location is revealed by tracking phones, cars, etc. People run the risk that they’re being watched and monitored.
GPS is used in everyday’s life now. In the year 2010, GPS is even used as an agricultural tool in a crop-spraying company. GPS is able to keep records of how much it’s sprayed. It seems that more countries are starting to use this Global Positioning System since it could create more jobs and revenues to the country and its people. Other companies such as LightSquared are planning on using the satellites of GPS and adjusting it. Their goal is to provide 4G network to all the corners of the country. Eventually this system could be used to predict earthquakes and other global disasters since the government could use the satellite to watch over the world. In conclusion, the GPS has been nothing but good to the society. Its primary purpose was for military use but it seems that GPS is being used everywhere. It is used in automobiles as a way to find a destination; most cell phones also have it built-in and can use it as a navigation system or as a way to know where you are. There are many other types of uses such as agricultural, fishing and science use: meteorological and geological. GPS is progressing even further that in the future it will be used to forecast weather, predict natural disasters and many other things.
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CEPTION
Touchscreen Gadgets
Mankind has always been rather aware of its 5 senses. Touch being one of them, we’ve never taken it for granted.
w w We know our hands can burn if we touch anything too hot and they can also go numb if we touch anything close to freezing temperature. But when it came to technology, we’ve never really been able to interact with it. To be part of it. To ‘touch’ it – physically and to change the outcome of something we intended to do with it. All that changed, when the world finally was introduced to gadgets that could be ‘touched’ – which took input not from a pointing device like a mouse. But, your very own fingers. Or nails, initially – as was the case with ‘resistive touchscreen’ displays. Historians generally consider the first finger-driven touchscreen to have been invented by E.A. Johnson in 1965 at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, United Kingdom. Johnson originally described his work in an article entitled “Touch display—a novel input/output device for computers” published in Electronics Letters. The piece featured a diagram describing a type of touchscreen mechanism that many smartphones use today—what we now know as capacitive
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touch. Two years later, Johnson further expounded on the technology with photographs and diagrams in “Touch Displays: A Programmed Man-Machine Interface,” published in Ergonomics in 1967. A capacitive touchscreen panel uses an insulator, like glass, that is coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). The “conductive” part is usually a human finger, which makes for a fine electrical conductor. Johnson’s initial technology could only process one touch at a time, and what we’d describe today as “multitouch” was still somewhat a ways away. The invention was also binary in its interpretation of touch—the interface registered contact or it didn’t register contact. Pressure sensitivity would arrive much later. In 2002, Sony introduced a flat input surface that could recognize multiple hand positions and touch points at the same time. The company called it SmartSkin. The technology worked by calculating the distance between the hand and the surface with capacitive sensing and a meshshaped antenna. Unlike the camera-based gesture recognition system in other technologies, the sensing elements were all integrated into the touch surface. This also meant that it wouldn’t malfunction in poor lighting conditions. The ultimate goal of the project was to transform surfaces that are used every day, like your average table or a wall, into an interactive one with the use of a PC nearby. However, the technology did more for capacitive touch technology than may have been intended, including introducing multiple contact points.
In 2006, Jeff Han gave the first public demonstration of his intuitive, interface-free, touch-driven computer screen at a TED Conference in Monterey, CA. In his presentation, Han moved and manipulated photos on a giant light box using only his fingertips. He flicked photos, stretched them out,
and pinched them away, all with a captivating natural ease. “This is something Google should have in their lobby,” he joked. The demo showed that a high-resolution, scalable touchscreen was possible to build without spending too much money.
Touch today— & tomorrow? It can’t be understated—each of these technologies had a monumental impact on the gadgets we use today. Everything from our smartphones to laptop trackpads and WACOM tablets can be somehow connected to the many inventions, discoveries, and patents in the history of touchscreen technology. Android and iOS users should thank to E.A. Johnson for capacitive touch-capable smartphones, while restaurants may send their regards to Dr. G. Samuel Hurst for the resistive touchscreen on their Point of Sale (POS) system. So, now we have touchscreen phones, tablets, laptops, camera displays and just about any other gadget. Wearable gadgets are coming in hard and fast with touchscreen capability too, and together they might just form a combo as lethal as the internet and the personal computer did. We’ve probably only seen the smaller picture so far, but if you can broaden your mind then you will realize how much of an impact this technology can potentially have in the future. All you will have to do is touch the display when you walk into a mall, and everything will be taken care of – your parking, your luggage and every other thing we can’t imagine now. Walking into a festival in an unknown city? No problem – touch the kiosks and get all the info you need. And that’s just the beginning.
3D Printing Imagine something you wanted to buy, but couldn’t – because it cost way too much. Now imagine – simply making a ‘copy’ of such an object using a 3D printer, right in your home! Its things like these which have put so many people at unrest, but it also means that people can now duplicate anything they want and in as much quantity as they wish. Of course, there is the cost involved for raw materials and such – but 3D printing can surely change the way we have lived and consumed stuff. It may be disruptive for some, liberating for others – but one thing is clear, it is here to stay.
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As applications of the technology expand and prices drop, the first big implication is that more goods will be manufactured at or close to their point of purchase or consumption. This might even mean household-level production of some things. (You’ll pay for raw materials and the IP—the software files for any designs you can’t find free on the web.) Short of that, many goods that have relied on the scale efficiencies of large, centralized plants will be produced locally. Even if the per-unit production cost is higher, it will be more than offset by the elimination of shipping and of buffer inventories. Whereas cars today are made by just a few hundred factories around the world, they might one day be made in every metropolitan area. Parts could be made at dealerships and repair shops, and assembly plants could eliminate the need for supply chain management by making components as needed. Another implication is that goods will be infinitely more customized, because altering them won’t require retooling, only tweaking the instructions in the software. Creativity in meeting individuals’ needs will come to the fore, just as quality control did in the age of rolling out sameness. These first-order implications will cause businesses all along the supply, manufacturing, and retailing chains to rethink their strategies and operations. And a second-order implication will have even greater impact. As 3-D printing takes hold, the factors that have made China the workshop of the world will lose much of their force. Eventually, proponents claim it will revolutionise every supply chain and consumers will use 3D printed objects every day. The technology could rapidly slash costs in industries, such as aerospace, where small volumes of production parts are often required. Items that are currently mass–produced, such as running shoes, could be affordably customised, based on a 3D scan of an individual’s foot. That is becoming an increasingly orthodox view of the future. Jeff Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, is a cheerleader for 3D printing and last year invested heavily to increase its capacity to print jet engine parts. The conglomerate has predicted that, within 20 years, half of its array of products across energy, healthcare, transport and other sectors, will rely on the technology at some stage. Designers and engineers will be able to order prototypes and parts in vivid coloured plastics with varying degrees of transparency, flexibility and other material properties. A screwdriver handle can be printed as one piece with rubberised strips for grip. A pair of sports glasses with tinted transparent lenses and coloured opaque frames comes out of the machine as a single complete object. The strongest signal that 3D printing has a major role to play in the future of manufacturing comes from the classroom. One in five machines are sold to colleges. The next generation of engineers, industrial designers and even surgeons is preparing itself.
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Social Networking
Websites
How certain words and phrases have changed since the internet has become a part of our lives. When we used to talk about socializing earlier, it was with a bunch of friends and acquaintances with similar interests gathering at a common place. Now, all you have to do, is click some buttons on a computer and you’re connected. Not just to a social network of your choice – but, pretty much anything and everything you want. The world, even!
With Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networks we have become much aware of the world we are living in and this is one of the changes being talked about. Social Networking giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have contributed to create a whole new world where we are free to express our opinion and share it with our friends and peers. This world of social media gives scope to everyone to express and share ideas, thoughts and feelings, who want to be the part of it.
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The Major Impacts News- Social media has become an important source of news. While the credibility of some sources can clearly be contested, news channels tweet or give updates on significant happenings all over the world. Their availability on social networks makes news more accessible. Additionally, news quickly gets passed around the networks in ways never experienced before. Interaction- Social media has furthered interaction by such a massive scale that is hard not to notice it. It allows people to keep in touch in a more regularly, and sometimes, more intimately, than was ever before because of time and space constraints. People cities or continents apart can keep in touch so effortlessly, creating an opportunity to experience different cultures.
Political Landscapes- Social media has enabled greater political awareness and organization, which has in some cases rewritten entire political landscapes. It has particularly played a large part in the Iran elections, and Obama’s re-election for a second term as US President, and inspired the political unrests in Egypt. Learning- Social media has also played a large part in fostering literacy. Children who start using the platforms develop early communication skills, and generally become more literate. This is an encouraging trend, and thanks to the huge availability of information, both simplistic and complex on the internet, anyone can become as smart or intelligent as they desire. Marketing- The whole dynamics of marketing have been changed, and rather than investing in mass channels ads, companies are becoming more consumer-centered through interactions made over social media. They are able to understand the needs of the market from the market itself, greatly altering the way marketing has been done in the past.
Malcolm Gladwell had a point when he argued that hierarchy plays a crucial role in organizing sustained action. So the road ahead is somewhat murky, but a few things are clear. The days of the Tsars are over. Power is no longer absolute, but must be grounded in shared principles. If the social contract is breached, there will be a heavy price to pay and social media will play a major part in exacting that price.
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Wearable Gadgets We’ve had hand-held devices for a while now. We’ve got quite used to them. Every now and then, we’ve relied on them as our companion. But, they’re really not an extension of ourselves. Just a handy companion with useful tools. But, wearable tech is taking us into a new dimension. A dimension where we can wear the gadgets we love. Where we can feel them. Where they will become our companion and so much more.
Essentially, wearable smart gadgets are devices which harness the power of modern technology and combine it with an everyday, wearable object such as a watch. In the same way that smartphones have revolutionised the electronic communications industry, wearable smart gadgets are tipped to do the same. The most commonly purchased 2014 wearable gadget is likely to be the smartwatch. Several smartwatches are already for sale, with varying degrees of functionality. One of the most famous is the Pebble – a watch which communicates with the wearer’s phone via Bluetooth. As smartwatch technology develops, we will see increasingly sophisticated versions available for retail. Functionality will be comparable to that of a smartphone, meaning that translators can check their email, search the web, receive notifications and check the factual accuracy of the documents they are working on, all via their wristwatch.
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While smartwatches will enhance efficiency for translators, other wearable devices will help to improve their office environment. The Lumo Lift, for example, is a discreet, tile-shaped device that clips to the user’s clothing. It monitors the positioning of the wearer’s body and vibrates when they begin to slouch, prompting them to adjust their stance. Such a device will ensure that translators maintain good posture throughout the working day, prompting increased comfort at work and reduced risk of posture-based problems. As wearable smart gadgets evolve, we can expect a whole host of new developments. In late 2013, electronics giant Sony filed a patent for ‘SmartWig’ – a wig that incorporates wireless technology. The aim is to create a device that blends electronic communications with the latest fashionable colours. While the product is still under development, it will be fascinating to see how this, along with other wearable smart gadgets, impacts on the professional lives of translators around the world over the coming years.
Digital Currency Remember the time when we used to carry money around, because there really was no other alternative method of payment? The digital revolution came along and really changed all that. Even when it came to good old money. Money didn’t need our own wallets or safes. We could simply make use of ‘digital’ money, which was stored in our bank accounts – and could be accessed with a small card no larger than your own visiting card. Yes – Debit & Credit Cards were also rather innovative when they first came along, but the world had yet not realized the sheer power of what would happen when the digital world collided with the real world.
You see, even though the digital world was innovating with its own set of ideas on how money could be stored and moved around, the control was still firmly with the same people who still controlled it. Centrally governed money became part of big money laundering fiascos, which lead to more problems that nobody wanted to solve. At around the same time, the idea of a completely decentralized ‘digital currency’ was born – a system that would generate its own type of currency and be valued at what the entire pool of this currency was worth on a given day. A few years later, a name emerged from the deep dark corners of the web – Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was born. So, what was Bitcoin? If you’ve been reading us regularly you may know the answer already – but, to be brief – it was a decentralized, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) generated ‘digital currency’ which was created at the terminal of an end-user. Nobody controlled it, but everybody could see where the money was being created and where it was working. Plus, it was encrypted end-to-end, which meant that there was little chance for unruly elements to exploit the system. It was nearly fool-proof too, and Satoshi Nakamoto remained elusive for a long,
long while. Till earlier this year, when a Newsweek story flashed around the globe stating that they had found the real Satoshi Nakamoto – and the world of Bitcoin itself went through its own setbacks, with some Bitcoin Exchange hubs shutting down and people losing a whole lot of their generated bitcoins due to a bug that got exploited by some hackers. Despite the elapse of years since being first announced and an explosion in Bitcoin’s popularity, with today’s market cap for all BTC in circulation exceeding $7 billion, its inventor’s identity remains unverified if not completely unknown. Satoshi built his/her ideas on top of previous work, citing many in the original white paper, but clearly valued anonymity, perhaps for privacy and/or security. While many news organizations have drawn attention to circumstantial evidence linking various suspects to Satoshi, no definitive proof has been presented, and all alleged suspects have denied being Satoshi. But, Bitcoin has shown the world what a true ‘Digital Currency System’ can really look like. It has its flaws, but the pros far outweigh the cons – and those worried about anonymity might also do well to remember the end-toend encryption bit, we stated earlier.
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Hybrid Automobiles Even though mankind has had no issues creating faster and bigger vehicles to get around, its impact on climate has not gone un-noticed. For almost a century we’ve never been able to reduce that impact significantly – until recently. Hybrid vehicles – partly running on traditional fuels and partly on electricity – are the boon that we needed.
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300 million metric tons of carbon is produced from the gas powered vehicles that drive the streets of the United States every year. It is believed the over one-third of our carbon emissions that are affecting our environment are produced by vehicles. As the amount of carbon increases so unfortunately does the warming of the environment. As the environment continues to get warmer there are many devastating effects that also occur. These include the melting of the polar icecaps, change in seasons which in turn could effect the output of crops, limiting the amount produced and causing widespread hunger, and change in ecosystems resulting in the migration and/or extinction of plant and animal species.
With the use of hybrid cars not only is there a reduction of carbon emissions, but improving even 5 mpg on every car in the United States could save nearly 2 million barrels of oil every day. That means not only will hybrids relieve the causes of global warming, but will also protect our political and environmental stability for years to come. In today’s hybrid cars, a battery provides an electric assist to the gas-powered engine, achieving 20–35 percent better gas mileage than conventional cars. The Toyota Prius, for example, gets 44 mpg overall in real-world driving, and Honda is releasing a new fourdoor Insight on Earth Day 2009 that will get 41 mpg. Green America’s “12-Step Plan to Curb Climate Change” calls for the world to increase the average fuel economy of passenger vehicles to 40 mpg by 2012, and 60 mpg by 2050, along with dramatically reducing driving and increasing mass transit, biking, and walking. Drivers who choose more efficient hybrid cars today are helping to meet this target in time to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Also, hybrid cars emit less ground-level air pollution than other cars, including 29 percent less smog-producing nitrogen oxide. Even if some very efficient conventional cars can get “hybrid-style” mileage, only hybrid cars also help maintain healthier air. Some states and cities offer incentives for hybrid drivers, including tax credits, and the convenience of being able to drive solo in “HOV” (high-occupan-
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cy vehicle) highway lanes. Many cities also offer privileges to hybrid owners, including free or discounted parking. Although we’ve seen quite a few hybrid vehicles in global markets already, including China, there is some scepticism about wholesale acceptance. The way forward could well be the Electric Car – for which Elon Musk and the Tesla Corporation has been so vocal about. And it’s not without its reasons. Ford, in collaboration with the US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), is undertaking a three-year test program on the Ford Escape PHEV to develop and evaluate technical approaches for integrating PHEVs into the electric grid. EPRI has identified nine utilities across North America to test drive the vehicles and collect data on battery technology, vehicle systems, customer use and grid infrastructure. In August 2009 Ford unveiled an “intelligent” system, testing one of the world’s first vehicle-to-electric grids that will communicate with PHEVs for optimal battery recharging. Volkswagen is pushing forward with EVs and series PHEVs, along with the Nissan-Renault and others. (It sees fuel cell vehicles as “a pipedream”.) In Italy, Mercedes Benz/Smart and Enel are collaborating in an “e-mobility Italy” initiative which involves setting up an intelligent network of 100 public and 50 private charging points around Rome and putting an initial 100 Smart EVs on the road there. Enel claims that travelling a certain distance in an electric car requires around 40% less primary energy than in an equivalent petrol vehicle. In the UK the government is subsidising the purchase of EVs and PHEVs from 2011, and also the provision of 11,000 municipal charging points by the end of 2013, 2000 of these being fast charge (80% in 20 minutes). To qualify, cars will need a range of 112 km, a top speed of at least 96 km/h and to meet EU safety standards. Nissan and Ecotricity had installed 97 EV charging points in UK to August 2013.
Using traditional health impact assessment methods in 25 European cities with 39 million inhabitants, the EC-funded Aphekom project in 2011 showed that present air pollution levels, mainly from vehicle traffic, resulted in 19,000 deaths per year. It estimated that the monetary health benefits of complying with the World Health Organisation guidelines for particulate matter would total some EUR 31.5 billion annually. Some cities were three times the 10 µg/m3 WHO guideline level for PM2.5 particles. Experimental fuel cell vehicles (FCV) are now appearing, starting with buses. For sources of hydrogen for these see companion paper Transport and the Hydrogen Economy. These are much further from commercial realization. Honda has been testing its FCX Clarity hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle with lithium ion battery pack on US roads and has started marketing it. The motor is 100 kW AC, with Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell stack and 170-litre compressed hydrogen tank giving a range of 620 km. Vehicle mass is 1.6 tonnes. The first US deliveries were scheduled for 2008 in southern California with a three-year lease term at a price of $600 per month, including maintenance and collision insurance. Over three years to 2011 Honda planned to deploy about 200 of these vehicles, some of them in Japan. In September 2010 there were reported to be 32 on the road: 19 in California, 11 in Japan and 2 in Europe. Fuel cell hybrid vehicles, with the motor driven by the battery and the fuel cell topping up the battery and giving it greater life (by being kept more fully charged) are being developed. The Toyota FCHV-adv – equipped with a high-performance fuel cell stack and nickel metal hydride batteries. The design of the membrane-electrode-assembly (MEA) has been optimised to allow for low-temperature start-up and operation down to minus 30°C. Fuel cell output is 90 kW, matching the motor which delivers 260 Nm. Effi-
ciency was improved by 25% from the earlier FCHV through improving fuel cell unit performance, enhancing the regenerative brake system and reducing energy consumed by the auxiliary system. In the 1.9 tonne five-seat vehicle a 70 MPa pressure vessel is used to store hydrogen which allows for an operating range of more than 800 km in the Japanese driving-cycle.
Their impact cannot directly be seen over a small period of time, but if we’re to live on this planet for thousands of years to come – we will NEED to adopt these Hybrid Vehicles.
I MAY 2014 I 55
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Smartphones
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Little did most people realise it but when Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, the world changed. Well, not precisely then, but at some point between then and today. Now, we carry our ultra-portable smartphones everywhere. They’re the centre of our universes; our go-to device for just about everything. They’re the first device we use in the morning, and the last before we go to sleep at night.
Whether it’s searching for information, sending emails, posting on Facebook or even planning a holiday, our smartphones are the font of all knowledge: they can answer any and every question we ask. They’re immediate, too. Rather than go upstairs to use your PC to find your nearest branch of Sports Direct, you’re far more likely to pull out your smartphone and get the answer more quickly. Smartphones haven’t replaced PCs, though. Like tablets, Smartphones still can’t compete with our laptops and desktop computers for complex tasks such as creating a spreadsheet or newsletter. Most websites still aren’t optimised for the small screen, so you’re more likely to book your holiday on your laptop than on your smartphone. Google did some research in 2012 on multiple screen use and the results make for interesting reading. Even a year ago, 90 percent of our ‘media interactions’ were screen-based. Only 10 percent were without a screen: listening to the radio or Hi-Fi or reading a newspaper or magazine. Although we spend most of our time staring at the biggest screen in the house, the all-powerful TV is losing its grip on our attention. Most of us (81 percent according to the survey) divide that attention between whatever we’re watching and our smartphone. Sometimes, that’s for a complementary reason – you see an actress you recognise and search for her on IMDB, for example – but it’s much more likely that you’re multi-tasking: sending an email, browsing the internet or checking Twitter. More interesting is the fact that smartphones are giving us back our time. Thanks to their ability to give us answers almost instantly, we can get stuff done wherever we are and whatever we’re doing. If you’re waiting in a queue, you can pay a bill using online banking, check and reply to important emails and accomplish other tasks. Just as the internet changed the world, the smartphone is quickly becoming the essential device for accessing it. PCs and laptops aren’t going away any time soon, but the smartphone is definitely here to stay.
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LG G FLEX HTC ONE M8
–STRONGER Going THAN Curvalicious! THE ONE `49,900/-
Reviewed By: Karishma Mody
SPECIFICATIONS • 5 inch Full HD Super LCD3 display • Android OS v4.4.2 (KitKat OS) • Snapdragon 801Chipset | 2.5 GHz Quad-Core CPU • 2GB RAM | Adreno 330 GPU • 16GB internal storage | expandable upto 128GB • Dual 4 MP Rear Camera | 5MP Front-Facing Camera • 2600 mAh Battery • 160g
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Camera
Just how beautiful the HTC One looked, the M8 gives it a tad bit better finish, making it look even better than before. The all-metal design has never gone wrong and the finish is really good and very pleasant on the eyes. The curvy back fits smoothly into your palms and the metal grey unit might have inherited a mere 10% of plastic but it looks striking. Apart from being sleek and slimmer than its predecessor, it is still comparatively lighter. HTC always does that extra bit to make their cameras different and one step higher than the rest. The HTC One M8 has a 4MP UltraPixel sensor and has a 5MP front facing camera. The much talked about featureabout this phone is the ‘dedicated’ depth-sensor rear cam. It has the same 4.1MP as the previous HTC One, but pairing it with the Duo camera changes a few things. The M8 gives you the liberty to change the focus of a picture after it is clicked. You can tap on a point on the picture and make that your focus point
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while the surrounding turns comparatively blur. This can be done multiple numbers of times. Moving on, when put the camera to the test, pictures taken in decent light came satisfactory. They may have been a little on the brighter side. Without flash, the pictures were just a bit dark. There was still some kind of additional light which made the pictures comparatively bright. Video recording is done at 1080p@60fps. It also has stereo sound recording. The front facing camera is actually rather good. It is perfect for those video calls and a bliss for selfie lovers.
HARDWARE
DESIGN There is nothing disappointing about the design. It is by far, the best looking Android smartphone we have seen. Not making many changes, the phone is just a little more rounded around the sides, a larger screen compared to the previous one making it taller. The audio jack has been placed below this time and there is now room for a microSD card as well. The two BoomSound speakers still go in the front and this time, we have the ‘Back/ Home and multi-window’ buttons on-screen unlike the previous edition. Even though HTC has fitted almost everything inside this piece, compromises on its size have not taken place. The dual camera placed neatly behind and the company’s logo is just perfect. Not very heavy at 160g. HTC might be the only one to have the BoomSound speakers placed right where you can see it always and these ones are designed not only to look great, but the quality is exceptionally better than the HTC One.
DISPLAY The screen on the HTC One M8 is 5-inches compared to the 4.7-inches in the previous one. It looks a bit wider and taller but there isn’t a great significant change added. It has a resolution of 1920x1080 with 441p density. The pixel density has dropped slightly as the screen size has increased but it doesn’t seem like a downfall as the screen looks sharp as ever. The colours are very clear. Even the tiniest of icons look detailed and bright. The Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreenlooks betterwith the full HD resolution and fitting across right till the corners with super thin bezels makes it look polished.The HTC Sense UI has been upgraded and goes well with the display.
SOFTWARE The One (M8) brings with it the new version of HTC Sense, Sense 6.0. The biggest change it brings about is BlinkFeed. Even though you won’t find any significant change, there are a few tweaks made in terms of colours and icons. What adds to it, is the 4.4.2 Android KitKatOS. The sweetest feature would be the tap to unlock feature. After a while you will forget to use the power key too. When locked, swipe right to open Blinkfeed, left to go to the homescreen, up from the HTC logo to go to the last app you were using and down to initiate a voice call.The interface feels amazingly smooth to use. The colour palette is almost the same as the HTC One. Not much change in the display. The most brilliant bitis BMWdot 4GB Flashdrive be the Dot View Case. The rubber matrix cover will Why should all those beautiful and flashy cars only drive on the road? Now you can have those carefully crafted cars with their give you weather updates or the time. There is simply no exciting design and speed in your home or in your office ! ₹ 3250 other cover like this in the market. MRP: TechyKart Price: ₹ 2950 Discount:
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REVIEW
The specs for this one are high. It has a 2.3GHz Quadcore Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 coupled with a 2GB RAM. You can do almost everything on this phone with great speed. There is no end. It was rated as the best device on the AnTuTu benchmark ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Sony Xperia Z Ultra. The only other phone in the running which uses Snapdragon 801 is the Samsung Galaxy S5. Having such high specs fitted in this phone wouldn’t have been easy. Including an expandable storage this time, it not only has an inbuilt storage of 16GB but it can be expanded up to 128GB. In terms of performance, the HTC One M8 is top notch.
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I MAY 2014 I 59
LG G FLEX LG G FLEX
–– Going Going Curvalicious! Curvalcious! `69,999/-
Reviewed By: Karishma Mody
SPECIFICATIONS • 6’ inch Curved P-OLED display • Android OS v4.2.2 (JellyBean OS) • Snapdragon 800 chipset | 2.26 GHz Quad-core CPU • 2GB RAM | Adreno 330 GPU • 32GB internal storage | no micro SD card slot • 13MP rear facing camera | 2.1MP front facing camera • 3500 mAh battery •177g
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Camera
Unlike a normal smartphone which you canbuyright away, LG decided to come up with a slightly curved smartphone. The LG G Flex might be a bit flexible but no one is really inquisitive to know how much it can bend. The 6-inch phone will not feel awkward and will give you a rather different experience when holding it, unlike any other smartphone. A smooth finish at the back along with the power key and volume rockers will take a little while to get used to. The right edge is barren while the left edge features the micro SIM card tray.This one will definitely catch your attention easily whilst going for a little gadget shopping.
The LG G Flex has a 13MP rear camera alongside a 2.1MP front facing camera. 12 modes are offered here. Apart from the standard ones, Shot & Clear cuts out the extra objects in the image, Time Catch Shot lets you capture a moment in the image separately and Intelligent Auto senses the scene and automatically changes the mode. These are the good modes added. The shutter speed works quickly. The volume rockers
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can be used for clicking the picture. Judging by the size, it’s very easy to click selfies. You can even use them as zoom keys. Indoor images came quite nice without flash. With flash, we could feel a little colour distortion. Images outdoors weren’t great. The flash did seem to help here sometime but doesn’t live up to flagship standards. Images do come sharp and detailing is good too. Mostly the pictures outdoors were better than the indoor ones.
HARDWARE
DESIGN AND DISPLAY If the phone is placed in your back pocket, you will not be too paranoid to break it when sitting down. The curvy yet, not voluptuous G Flex is a 6-inch smartphone with a curvy display and design. Clearly as it is bendy, it is plastic. Though LG has tried hard to cover up and give it a faux metal finish, it yet doesn’t suffice. A few parts internally are curved too like the battery, though we couldn’t get a glimpse of that. You can try to bend it to an almost flat design for a second but it will pop right back to its original curve. It isn’t too bendy for its own good or it would be regarded as being too flimsy. The idea of having anything curved is so that it can give a powerful effect on the display. And this one is doing everything to give us just that. LG claims it proves beneficial in voice calls as the mic is closer. The 6-inch display of the phone is 720 x 1280 resolution which means it isn’t full HD. If they wanted to wow us in terms of display, we were let down here. The screen technology here is P-OLED. The P stands for ‘Plastic substrate’ and its use is a key factor in it the screen’s flexibility. The G Flex offers a 245ppi density which is comparatively poor. Pixels are noticeable easily if you’re used to the typical full HD screen for long. For the screen size, a higher resolution was needed. It claims to have a self-healing back panel coating but we did try to make a tiny scratch on the back and kept on waiting for it to heal. It didn’t eventually. Minor scratches and bruises did. Overall, the design is unique. But the main purpose for the design was to enhance viewing which is not achieved. The display felt normal and there was nothing extra ordinary whilst watching videos.
SOFTWARE As mentioned earlier, the LG G Flex runs on Android OS 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. It isn’t a stock Android smartphone and LG has added a few tweaks to this one. The icons look huge somehow and bit kid-ish. LG has added quite a few of its own apps. Not all are interesting but a few are. On the notification panel, QSlide gives you a quick view of your most used apps. Other features like QuickRemote work as a universal remote app and QuickTheatre is an app that launches the entertainment applications when placed horizontal mode. In settings, you can change themes between ‘Flex’ and ‘LG’. Though the display looks a little more polished in Flex. The most interesting feature is the ability to change the combination of the soft keys and place them in your preferred order. This might be one of the most convenient features added to the G Flex. In others, you can split the keyboard;have two windows open at the same time etc. Almost all the features you would find in an Android smartphone.
BATTERY
BMW 4GB Flashdrive Why should all those beautiful and flashy cars only drive on the road? Now you can have those carefully crafted cars with their exciting design and speed in your home or in your office !
MRP:
₹ 3250
TechyKart Price: ₹ 2950 You think that the battery might have problems being Discount: 10.00% bendable, but here again, it’s the complete opposite. The LG G Flex has a whooping 3500mAh battery and beats AOC 7” Tablet almost all Presenting other in its league. The smartphone the AOCsmartphones Breeze range of Tablets | Sleek design | Stunning display | Faster processor works smoothly for ₹ 79992 days and you can without any worry, MRP: TechyKart Price: ₹ 7490 use it as much you want and it will not disappoint you. Discount: as 6.00% You won’t need to look at the percentage point even after Micromax HD A116i playing games, streaming music andCanvas watching videos. The 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) display | 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor | 1GB RAM4GB inbuilt storage | expandable up to greatest part, is in fact, the battery life. 32GB via microSD card | 8-megapixel rear camera
₹ 17499 MRP: TechyKart Price: ₹ 12439 29.00% Discount:
VERDICT Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD
Beats Solo HD headphones are the only Beats by Dr. Dre that come with The G-Flex made a lot of news with the curved design, and not one, but two speakers inside each can. That means you get crystal clear highs and deep, rumbling lows in high definition. LG has made it clear ₹ 19000 it isn’t going to stop innovating by enMRP: ₹ 17949 tering theTechyKart racePrice: with 6.00% the other giants. A bold move with the Discount: design, though a poor execution with the display, a great battery life and reasonably good camera for the phone but HP Probook 6460b yet it will make you wonder is it 500worth PRICE? Going GB | 4 GB DDR3 the | Core i5 (2nd Gen) 2.5 GHzIntel HD Graphics 3000 graphics processor Windows 7 you Professional pay is higher than even the latest iPhone, the price ₹ 79985 MRP: 43599 TechyKart Price: ₹customers heavy. It wouldn’t be called a bad phone, but 45.00% Discount: might find it hard to pay such a lump-sum for this piece.
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REVIEW
You might think they would have compromised on the hardware. It isn’t really easy to make everything bendable. But here LG has surprised us. The LG Flex has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 along with a Quad-core 2.26 GHz processor. Along with this and 2GB of RAM added, the G Flex works super smooth. Switching between apps works well. Games don’t lag at all and it has a very comfortable experience. It runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Once the KitKat version will be updated, the experience will definitely get even better. There isn’t a memory slot present here. But you do get an internal storage of 32GB. But even so, LG offers you a 23.7GB of free space so watch out for all your downloads.
+91 9833122253 order@techykart.com
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Crafted beauty with the beast sound! Bang and Olufsen“BeoLab 18” wireless speakers `3,97,000/-
SPECIFICATIONS
Reviewed By: Heena Singh Called it a timely farewell to speaker cables, Bang and Olufsen introduced its first wireless speakers range in the market. Bang and Olufsen is the first WiSA (wireless speaker and audio) certified manufacturer to incorporate this platform in its Immaculate Wireless Sound range. The company launched three wireless speakers among which the most notable is BeoLab 18 speaker. It is a tribute to Bang & Olufsen’s iconic BeoLab 8000 design from 1992. The speakers are shaped like a huge pencil that can be placed or positioned discreetly beside the sofa or anywhere you want to. It include the sound-dispersing acoustic-lens tweeter and an inventive speaker grille with a wood finish.Every attention to detail has been given to wood and aluminum design as wood has always been an important aspect of Nordic architecture and furniture design. The speakers reduce cable clutter to a single power cord per speaker, giving freedom to customize your living space according to your taste and need. One of the most important aspects ‘audio quality’ which earlier used to be compromised in wireless speakers has been taken care of BMW 4GB Flashdrive all those beautiful and flashy cars only drive on the completely by BangWhy &should Olufsen its new range of wireless road? Now you can have those in carefully crafted cars with their exciting design and speed in your home or in your office ! speakers. The company waited until the₹ 3250 WiSA standard MRP: TechyKart Price: ₹ 2950 emerged. The BeaoLab 18 speakers a vigorDiscount:maintain 10.00% ous and balanced wireless sound experience, thanks to WiSA which let transmit audio from a source AOCtechnology 7” Tablet Presenting the AOC Breezewithout range of Tablets | Sleekcompromising in sound quality. The to speakers design | Stunning display | Faster processor ₹ 7999be connected with any WiSA compliant TV MRP: speakers can TechyKart Price: ₹ 7490 6.00% It operates in the part of 5 GHz frequency Discount: or AV system. band that is unaffected by interference from surrounding Canvas HD A116i wireless networks. 5-inch HDMicromax (1280 x 720 pixels) display | 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor | 1GB RAM4GB inbuilt storage | expandable up to 32GB via microSD card | 8-megapixel rear camera
₹ 17499 MRP: The acoustic lens spreads optimal sound quality evenly TechyKart Price: ₹ 12439 Discount: through room. The lens is crafted from 29.00% aluminium and accentuated with a green glow when BeoLab 18 is turned on. Beats by Dr. Dre Solohas HD given preference to classic design Bang and Olufsen Beats Solo HD headphones are the only Beats by Dr. Dre that come with one, but two speakers inside each can. That means you get crystal clear andnot sound quality alike in BeaoLab 18. The speakers could highs and deep, rumbling lows in high definition. ₹ 19000 loud without losing accuracy and the bass. MRP: play extremely TechyKart Price: ₹ 17949 6.00% Discount: However, wireless does not mean cordless. All the speakers still need to be plugged into power.
HP Probook 6460b
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GB | 4 GB DDR3 | Core i5 (2nd Gen) 2.5 GHzInBeoLab 18 has dimensions500of 1324x15.5x11.5 cm and weighs tel HD Graphics 3000 graphics processor Windows 7 Professional 8.5 kg. They comes with floor stand and₹ 79985 wall bracket as MRP: TechyKart Price: ₹ 43599 placement options. 45.00% Discount:
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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•Wireless compatibility-BeoVision 11 • BeoLab Transmitter 1 • Any WiSA-compliant TV or AV system. Dimensions-1324x15.5x11.5 cm
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Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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SUCCESS STORIES
Words By: Heena & Karishma
Success Story
Hasselblad
perfection
“
quest “ The for
Even though a camera is just meant for taking pictures, they aren’t all the same. You take an image with a normal simple camera or you take one via a smartphone, you’re sure to tell the difference. But when you take an image from a Hasselblad, everyone can spot the difference. That’s the effect of a Hasselblad camera. It has such a powerful name that it was the camera that was used on the ‘Apollo11’ 40 years ago in space. Taking shots becomes truly a luxury… Being one of the most high end camera brands in the world, Hasselblad’s name has been linked with cameras almost since the very early days of photography. The Swedish inventor, Victor Hasselblad was an avid photographer. In 1841, the Hasselblad family in the port city of Gothenburg in Western Sweden established its first trading company, F.W. Hasselblad & Co. With the rising numbers of import-export, the Hasselblad & Co. soon became one of Sweden’s most prosperous commerce houses. When Arvid Viktor Hasselblad, son of the company’s founder and an amateur photographer established a photographic division within the company, he did not think of making money but little could he know where his first tentative steps into camera and film import would eventually lead. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Co-incidentally, whilst he was on his honeymoon, Arvid Hasselblad met George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company. They decided to form a business partnership immediately. Hasselblad began importing Eastman’s products as the sole Swedish distributor and this increased the demand of photographic products accompanied with technical advances which gave a tremendous boost to Hasselblad and Eastmans’ business. The photographic division of the company grew so rapidly that in 1908 the family formed a separate firm to deal with the increased business. Hence, the partnership between the two gentlemen proved really beneficial to both and also a super successful one. The company continued the production for the Swedish military, with Hasselblad delivering a total of 342 cameras between 1941-1945. It is during this time that Hasselblad realized that he did not intend to make cameras solely for the military. In 1948, Victor introduced the world to the first Hasselblad produced consumer camera, the Hasselblad 1600F. A single lens, mirror reflex, 6x6 camera with interchangeable Kodak lenses, film magazines and view finders met with some great critical acclaim and this invention was truly ground-breaking in the fields of
engineering. With the success of new designs and cameras, the company expanded and development continued. One of the major milestones in the success of Hasselblad was when a young NASA astronaut took the first Hasselblad into space in 1962. The Hasselblad space saga continued with Apollo 11, and the first images of man on the moon and of Earth from the moon captured by Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., were with a Hasselblad 500EL/70. The most gorgeous cameras you can imagine and only produced by this company. The images taken deliver better than you can expect. And every photographer wants to own this rich piece of heritage! Many tried a hand in copying them but sadly, none of them ever came close. Throughout the company’s history, Hasselblad has carefully selected its suppliers and collaborative partners, forming long-term relationships with such renowned companies as Kodak and Zeiss to name a few. In 2002, The Shriro Group - a long-standing Hasselblad distributor for the Asia Pacific region – acquired the majority shareholding of Victor Hasselblad AB.
Success Story
qualcomm Qualcomm as a company is into making advanced wireless technologies, products and services. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Qualcomm was founded in 1985 by MIT alumnus and UC San Diego professor Irwin M. Jacobs along with six other MIT alumni namely Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, and Franklin Antonio.The company has an employee base of about 26,600 highly skilled professional spread across 188 locations worldwide. Qualcomm pioneered with a lot of things. In 1988 Qualcomm introduces M2M communications by launching OmniTRACS, a satellite-based data communications system for the transportation industry that enables truck fleet operators to effectively track and monitor their vehicles in the field. In 1989, Qualcomm and PacTel Cellular decided to stage CDMA technology to
the industry and with only six months to engineer the demo, Dr. Jacobs placed the demonstration call that made wireless history.
of blazing speed in mobile processing performance, powerful multimedia and connectivity in a new generation of smart devices.
This early success led Qualcomm to the industry’s first dual-mode mobile phone. The success didn’t stop here. The CD-7000 was the first in a series of CDMA based cellular telephones designed by Qualcomm. Once it reached its top position, it established itself as pioneer for Mobile Internet, began supplying infrastructure and started chipset and licensing divisions.
The company’s market capital is a whopping $111.64B as of May 2013. Today, people care more about the chipset in a device rather than the other specifications. Today, the world’s best class mobile devices are powered with Qualcomm’s chipsets. That’s the name the company has gained and that’s the recognition that will take the company even higher!
In the year 2005, Qualcomm introduced the Scorpion mobile microprocessor and two years later it introduced the Snapdragon platform to break the Gigahertz barrier. Slowly and steadily, Qualcomm ventured into the Android mobile domain with the G1, manufactured by HTC- the world’s first Android-based mobile device powered by a Qualcomm chipset. When we talk about the present time, Qualcomm has established itself as the leader of mobile chipset. In 2010, Qualcomm introduced its first dual-CPU Snapdragon chipsets and after that the Quad-core processors to give the customer an experience
“ When
you’re being innovative, there are always skeptics.
“
Most of your smartphones have a chipset known as Qualcomm. But how many of you’ll actually know what it is and what does it do. Is it just a chipset or more? Well, it’s definitely much more.
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Produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee; Jack Daniels’ is the highest selling American whiskey in the world. Although the product meets the typical criteria and can be safely classified under bourbon, the folks over at Jack Daniel’s believe; “It’s not Bourbon, it’s Whiskey. Tennessee “sippin” Whiskey. The man giving us the great taste was originally called Jasper Newton Daniel (later called “Jack”). He did not have a very easy going childhood. His mother died as a kid and few years later, his dad remarried and he couldn’t get along with his stepmother and left home at the young age of 6. In times of support, Jack befriended with Dan Call, a local minister and a storekeeper who trained him to work in his store but Jack was more curious to work in the still house which was located on the property itself. Dan promised Jack he could come to the still house whenever he wanted and he would teach him the art of making the world’s best whiskey. And indeed he did! In 1863, after hearing a fiery sermon Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Jack , at the age of 16, took the step of being the first distillery to register with US Government. What makes this whiskey so spectacular and pure is that fact that no chemicals are used in its natural fermentation process. The secret is actually based on the tedious filtering of the whiskey through charcoal produced by the sugar maple tree and the pure spring water. In 1904, Jack entered his brew in the St. Louis World’s Fair and received the gold medal for the finest whiskey and since then, Jack Daniel experienced a huge surge in popularity. Jack Daniel’s was the finniest Whiskey at that stage and everyone wanted to understand the sweet taste of it. The irony here was, Jack Daniel’s home country of Moore was a dry county and the product wasn’t available for consumption at any store or restaurant within the county.
Success Story
Jack Daniel’S
on the evils of alcohol, Dan Call’s wife, along with their entire congregation, called on Dan to make “a serious decision regarding being a minister and operating a distillery.” Call decided to sell his business to his young apprentice, Jack Daniel. When he wanted to start the business, Jack got to know the availability of a particular piece of land near Lynchburg and moved his entire operation there. The area was perfect for brewing quality Whiskey. What made it excellent was the pure spring water from the limestone cave and the sugar maple trees that grew in abundance.
Jack died in 1911 when one morning he injured himself by kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open it and infection began in one of his toes. He would get irritated as he couldn’t remember the combination key of the safe. Jack Daniel’s wants you to remember it as straight up Tennessee Whiskey rather than as Tennessee Bourbon. The journey hasn’t been easy for this man. His company was then sold to Brown-Forman Corporation in 1956. Jack Daniel’s now sells Gentleman Jack, Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, the original No. 7 blend (in a commemorative bottle), and a seasonal blend (on rotation) at the distillery’s White Rabbit Bottle Shop. Jack Daniel’s Black Label Tennessee Whiskey remains the flagship product of the Brown-Forman Corporation. In the fiscal year ended April 30, 2013, the company sold a total of 11 million cases. If the Americans know Whiskey, they only know JACK DANIEL’S…
“ Every day we make it. We’ll make it the best we can.
“
Ahh, you know what tastes better than water? Has a scent which is so captivating? That’s the taste of a whiskey. A brand named Jack Daniel. Even though we have some wonderful brands of Whiskey around us, Jack Daniel’s falls in the league of some absolute favourite and highest selling Whiskeys worldwide.
Success Story
bentley Over the years the company has worked indeed very hard to create its name as the world’s premier auto-
mobile maker! Of course, Bentley is all about luxury but it is also coupled with super high quality, distinctive design, crafted beautifully with a strong performance. The current Bentley production models are the Continental Flying Spur, Continental GT and Mulsanne. Notable former Bentley production models include the Bentley 41/2 Litre, Bentley Speed Six, Bentley Turbo R and Bentley Arnage. Rolls Royce acquired Bentley using an entity named The British Central Equitable Trust which Bentley himself didn’t know about until the deal was completed and a new company, wholly owned by Rolls-Royce was formed, Bentley Motors Ltd. Later it was purchased by Volkswagen. Volkswagen’s Market Capital is said to be approximately $94.38B as of May 2013.
The success of the brand can be calculated with the fact that since its inception, many big auto companies came forward to buy it; to eradicate competition from their path. Immune from the cut throat competition, Bentley has made its own independent identity with the most breath-taking high-performance vehicles of the world and created a niche for itself.
“ IN 1919, AN ENGI-
NEERING GENIUS OBSESSED BY SPEED, FOCUSED ON HIS DREAM, CREATING A CAR BEARING HIS NAME. THAT OCTOBER, THE FIRST BENTLEY ENGINE CAME TO LIFE.
“
Luxury on Wheels? The word you are looking for is, Bentley. This word literally oomphs style and total class. It’s a head turner when it passes you by on the street. Known for its stylishly designed luxurious cars, Bentley can be defined for bringing distinctively designed handcrafted luxury when powered with performance, can give you a ride so smooth, you’ll remember them all. Getting into the business, Bentley Motors Limited is an England based company that came into existence in 1919 when the first Bentley engine burst into life at New Street Mews, London. The company was founded by Walter Owen Bentley in August 1919 who was by education, an English engineer. He was also a designer of aero engines and racer of motor cars. The love for 4 wheels was never enough for him!
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Success Story
vertu Vertu smartphones don’t exactly have plastic or a metal finish applied to them. It’s about the detailing and the craftsmanship attached. Materials used are far more superior. Such as Sapphire crystal faces instead of Gorilla Glass, Titanium bodies (or gold, or platinum). Screens covered by sapphire crystal and keys swivel on ruby bearings. Seems more like exquisite pieces of jewellery. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Established by Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia in 1998, Vertu was sold to a private equity group for an unspecified amount in October 2012 but it still retained a 10% share and handsets continued to be manufactured by Nokia as well. According to The Economist, the concept was to market phones explicitly as fashion accessories, with the idea “IF YOU can spend $20,000 on a watch, why not on a mobile phone?” And it’s not like people don’t have the money to splurge. If anything, the most expensive smartphone maker sold 326,000 phones by early 2013 and saw high double-digit sales growth since the beginning of 2010.Vertu has become the dominant player in the luxury smartphone world with a huge demand in Western European market. Vertu’s flagship model is called the Signature which contains 5 carats of ruby bearing keypad. Other models include- Ascent, Constellation Classic, Ayxta, along with smartphones Constellation Quest, and the Constellation Touch. Earlier Vertu phones were based on Nokia’s Symbian Operating System
business, you have to build on heritage
“
You cannot put a price on luxury. There is no end to it. Phones are just one step higher than the usual day to day accessories. Speaking of luxury, brands are a fashion statement more than a necessity. But why should fashion only to stick to clothing, jewellery, watches etc. Luxury takes a new meaning when we talk about technology. And no one does that better than Vertu. Being the most luxurious brand name in the technology field, Vertu deals in extravagant mobile phones. We’re talking numbers here. Million dollar figures roughly. Vertu isn’t one of those brand names that just claim to be a luxury one , but all the elements which go in the making show how great it is. They concentrate more on how beautiful the phone looks rather than its high end specifications.
“ In the luxury Bernard Arnault
and Windows but in 2013, it also launched its first Android handset called Vertu Ti. It has a Titanium frame and Sapphire screen for that extra jazz. The company turned to Android as they realized that they had to be a part of a larger ecosystem. Such an elite company doesn’t really care in innovation so to speak. It’s all about the design, feel and look for the rich and super classy. You wouldn’t ever get rid of this smartphone once purchased. The plan is to be Number 1 for the elite. Each device is assembled by hand with the name and signature of the person who assembled the phone is laser inscribed onto the inside lid of the SIM card holder. These smartphones are exclusive, rare and truly special. There is a reason luxury comes at such a high price and Vertu clearly explains us why!
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Patek Philippe
Success Story
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
“ Something truly
precious holds its beauty forever
“
The mechanical side of any gadget isn’t easy. Smartphones and tablets would be a little easier to dismantle. But what about the mechanisms used in the tiny watches. Is that easy? People don’t really understand the logic of a luxury watch. For them, the purpose is to tell time, so why spend so much money on one. Patek Philippe was founded in 1839 and its history is part of Geneva’s great watchmaking tradition. Polish immigrant Antoni Patek and French watchmaker Jean-Adrien Philippe together founded a luxury watch brand Patek Philippe & Co. in 1851. It is Geneva’s oldest independent family-owned watch manufacturer. It is known for manufacturing some of the most complicated mechanical watches in the world. The company is also notable for manufacturing its own watch components. The Swiss company has a history of over 170 years and it counts its success for creating the world’s finest timepieces. The company has a long standing commitment to producing exceptional timepieces for ladies. In 1851, Patek Philippe started supplying its watches to Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. The brand has shared the legacy of dazzling Queen Victoria who acquired a keywound Patek Philippe watch created in a pendant style in November 1851 during the Great Exhibition of London and also company’s one more exclusive timepiece to be worn pinned to clothing. Some of the high profile clientele of Patek Philippe includes Christian IX and Princess Louise (the King and Queen of Denmark), Victor Emmanuel III (King of Italy and Duke of Savoy), Hussein Kamel (Sultan of Egypt from 1914 to 1918). This watch was suspended from a diamond and enamel brooch.
est prices in auctions worldwide. A large part of the demand for auction pieces is driven by Patek Philippe themselves, as they are often purchasing in the auction market to add to the collection of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. Wise! Patek Philippe produced an ultra-complicated (with 24 functions) pocket-watch for Henry Graves, Jr known as “The Supercomplication” sold to Mr. Graves in 1933. After his death, the watch was auctioned in December 1999 for USD$11,000,000, at that time the most expensive timepiece ever sold! Patek Philippe also produced an ultra-complicated watch named ‘Packard’. James Ward Packard, of Packard automobile fame, wanted to own the most complex watch in the world. He sent his order to Patek Philippe in Switzerland and they sent back a watch in 1916 with 16 complications including a star map that showed the night sky from his bedroom window in Warren, Ohio. Now, such luxurious complications can only be produced by this company. When you own a Philippe, the company believes that it has a duty to provide the highest standard of after-sales service, and has made this requirement a key criterion of the Patek Philippe Seal. The owner of this watch knows what it’s like to be passionate about this unique piece of art. Owning a Patek Philippe is owning a legacy in it’s true sense.
It’s just not about a watch telling time; it’s so much more… In 2010, the company produced 40,000 watches. According to Thierry Stern, in 2012, they produced 50,000. Their timepieces are sold at the high-
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Maybe aeronautical engineering is not your field, or maybe flying a plane isn’t your occupation but, you will definitely have a little knowledge about the machine that flies high… If you have a friend who is a Pilot, you would know how complicated they sound when they go in depth and tell you about an aircraft. But no matter what, when you take the word ‘Boeing’, you know your stuff. That’s how famous this company is in the airline business that every layman once, has definitely heard about it. The American multinational corporation - The Boeing Company main focus is designing, manufacturing and selling aircrafts, rockets and even
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
satellites. Founded exactly 98 years ago, by Sir William Boeing, a pioneer in aviation ,who was originally a man in the timber business following his father’s footsteps. Whilst working in the timber business, he once went to Seattle where he saw a manned flying machine for the first time and became fascinated with aircrafts.Talk about love at first sight! And that’s where the real journey began. He quickly purchased an airplane from the Glenn L. Martin Company, and received flying lessons from the main man, Martin, himself. Things went a little hazy and that’s when they built their first airplane together. An even better and faster one. This is how he stepped into the aircraft business and
of course, the rest is history! Boeing was incorporated in Seattle by William Boeing, on July 15, 1916, as “Pacific Aero Products Co. Going 98 years ahead to today, Boeing has corporate offices in Chicago and has employed more than 168,000 people across the United States and in more than 65 countries. It is segregated into two units - Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Defence, Space & Security. Supporting these units are Boeing Capital Corporation, a global provider of financing solutions; the Shared Services Group, which provides a broad range of services to Boeing worldwide; and Boeing Engineering, Operations & Technology, which helps develop, acquire,
Success Story
boeing The company has even helped many customers grow. Here when we talk about customers, we mean the airline companies. Air India has been a Boeing customer since 1960, when it acquired the 707 Jetliner. The 707 allowed Air India to quickly expand its network overseas. Later, it enlarged
its fleet with Boeing airplanes such as the 787 Dreamliner, the 777 200LR, 777-300ER and Next-Generation 737-800. Other Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ customers in India include SpiceJet, Jet Airways, Air India Express and Blue Dart Aviation. In 2010, Boeing and SpiceJet announced an order for 30 Next-Generation 737800s worth about $2.3 billion at list prices. The Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) operates two 737-200 airplanes. It also operates three Boeing 737-Boeing Business Jets that it ordered in 2005.
we find our wings
“
apply and protect innovative technologies and processes. Phew! Today, the main commercial products are the 737, 747, 767 and 777 families of airplanes and the Boeing Business Jet. Going worldwide, Boeing has 12,000 commercial jetliners and occupies the highest world fleet at 75%. That’s a lot of airplanes and a lot of safety for customers.
“ In the arts, boeing to Boeing is the Airbus. Boeing builds 42 737s each month and says it will boost output to 47 in 2017 because of strong demand; Airbus is increasing A320 production from 42 to 46 per month by 2016. Boeing’s next generation of the aircraft is called the 737 MAX, which will be available in 2017 and come in three versions of varying size. Those models will replace the current 700, 800, and 900ER series. As of May 2013, the market capital is $65.36B. According to the Forbe’s list, it is slated at 85th for the World’s Most Valuable Brands.
Boeing’s 737 is definitely the best selling plane in the market today. It isn’t slowing down. The only competition
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A very long time ago, a company which made its fortune on 2 wheels exclusively was a company named ‘Indian’. An American brand of motorcycles though, Indian was originally co-founded by George M. Hendee in 1897 to manufacture bicycles in Springfield, Massachusetts, US. Initially known as the Hendee Manufacturing Company, the firm was renamed as Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company in 1928. Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company is one of the brands of its kind which has seen the heights of mountains in terms of success as well as deepness of oceans when it came to roughness of life.The first Indian
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
motorcycles, having chain drives were sold in public in 1902. In 1904, the company introduced the deep red colour that became the trademark for the brand. It looked really neat! The charm of the brand gripped motorcycles enthusiasts so much that the production by the company started rising and the demand was crazy! Production of Indian motorcycles then exceeded 500 bikes annually, rising to a peak of 32,000 in 1913.In 1905, Indian built its first V-twin factory racer and in the following years, it made a strong showing in racing and record-breaking. One of the company’s most famous riders was Erwin ‘Cannonball’ Baker who set many long distance records. In 1914, he rode an
Indian across America, from San Diego to New York, in a record 11 days, 12 hours and ten minutes. There were quite a few corporate successors of Indian who attempted to lift up the brand of its once achieved stature. In 1953, Brockhouse Engineering acquired the rights to the Indian name. They imported Royal Enfield motorcycles from England, mildly customized them in the US and sold them as Indians from 1955 to 1960. In 1960, the Indian name was bought by AMC of England. Royal Enfield was AMC’s biggest competition so they abruptly stopped all Enfield- based Indian models and plan to sell Matchless and AJS motorcycles badged as Indian,
Success Story
Indian (Motorcycle) that capitalize on Indians traditional styling have been built under the Indian name. The brand has witnessed numbers of ups and downs throughout its journey but despite that managed to give tough time to its rivals. Someone has rightly said that in order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
“ If everything
seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.
“
however, the venture ended as AMC itself went into liquidation in 1962. The brand name passed through a succession of owners and became a subject of competing claims in the 1980s. In 1992, the Clymer claim to the trademark had been transferred to Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Co. of Berlin, a corporation headed by Philip S. Zanghi. In 1988, Eller Industries purchased the Indian copyright from the previous owner and hired Roush Industries to design the engine of motorcycle.
mArio andretti
The breakthrough moment came when in 2011 Polaris Industries purchased Indian Motorcycles. Since August 2013, three motorcycle models
I MAY 2014 I 77
One look at this man and you’ll wonder… Is he an actor or a model? Unfortunately, neither. This ruggedly handsome man is in fact, the super well known Tom Ford. He is a renowned fashion designer but also, a film director. The man was a part of Gucci and later, started his own label and also directed the Oscar-nominated film, ‘A Single Man’. Talking about his early years, Ford was born in Austin, Texas and his family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico when he was 11. A drop-out of New York University, he preferred acting in television commercials and at one time, he was in almost in 12 national
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
advertising campaigns simultaneously. Later, Ford began studying interior architecture at The New School’s famous Art and Design College, Parsons The New School for Design. Before his last year at New School, Ford spent a year and a half in Paris, where he worked as an intern in Chloé’s press office. Though his work primarily involved sending clothes out on photo shoots, it triggered his love of fashion. And that was the exact trigger that was needed! Despite his lack of experience, Ford called American designer Cathy Hardwick every day for a month in order to get a job at her sportswear company.
Eventually, she agreed to see him and Ford worked as a design assistant for Hardwick for two years. Very soon he realized that if he had to get into this profession and make it big, he had to leave America. His belief was that too much style in America was tacky. They looked down upon the clothes as being too stylish. His own culture was inhibiting him. “Europeans, however, appreciate style.” Ford soon found the opportunity to enter the European fashion world when Gucci, at that time was struggling to keep up with market trends, was seeking to strengthen its women’s ready-to-wear presence as a part
Success Story
of its brand overhaul. Ford completely revamped Gucci’s image. And how! He ascended quickly through the company’s ranks, rising to Design Director in 1992 and to Creative Director in 1994. Ford completely revamped Gucci’s image and updated retro looks that oozed sex appeal. He expanded the company into men’s and women’s sportswear, eveningwear and home furnishings. Under Ford’s leadership, Gucci acquired the venerable French brand Yves Saint Laurent, adding tremendous growth in the company’s sales. Over the course of the decade, Ford served as Gucci’s driving force and the company’s annual sales increased from $230 million to $3 billion.
He quit Gucci in 2004 and in 2005, founded his own fashion company, Tom Ford Brand, which offered menswear, eyewear and beauty products. Of course there was no doubt that it went on to be successful. In 2009, Ford forayed into the film industry with his debut film, A Single Man, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Ford co-wrote and directed the film which is based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood. A Single Man won wide critical acclaim, garnering Firth an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and Ford an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay.
have cared less about Gucci when I first went there - but soon after I arrived,
I cared a lot.
“
tom ford
“ I couldn’t
tom ford Ford has even won many fashion awards for his work with Gucci and his own Tom Ford Brand. He has won five Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, four VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards and was named 2001’s GQ Designer of the Year. The man made an empire in fashion by simply following his dreams and has set a mark and standard for himself which is unattainable!
I MAY 2014 I 79
Goodbye
Microsoft, Hello Microsoft In the beginning, the goal for Microsoft was audacious yet simple – a Windows computer on every desk. By the time we entered the 21st century, that goal had been achieved, for all intents and purposes, and the personal computer wars had been decisively won by Microsoft. Along came bucket-loads of money and profits, and all was well with the guys from Redmond. Amidst that insane commercial success, things started changing… and the consumer bus moved on from PCs to smartphones, watches, tablets and the like, and by keeping their sights firmly fixed on the Windows end-goal, quite naturally, Microsoft missed the proverbial bus.
Words By:Tushar Kanwar
When it did realize its negligible presence in these markets, Microsoft tried, time and time again, to fit its winning formula (Windows) onto every possible form factor, and the results were far from pretty. You see, iOS and Android had come along and dominated this new landscape far before Microsoft was able to respond with Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8. More importantly, the rules of this game were very different from the PC era, and Microsoft further jeopardized their changes in the post-PC era by fighting the war with PC-era ideology, fighting the war with everything that was not Windows.
Think about it – in trying to beat the newfound competition that had crept from under their noses and started dominating consumer spend, what did Microsoft fight back with? Zune? Surface? Windows Phone 7? Cross-hardware-platform Windows 8? By trying to be everything to everybody and not focusing on any one thing in particular, they ended up
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
producing a bunch of things nobody in particular wanted. It was time to say goodbye to Microsoft that we’ve all known and cherished… …and say hello to the new Microsoft. With Satya Nadella at the helm, the new Microsoft, a 2014-spec version if you will, is showing signs of righting the ship in the direction where the consumer is. No longer is Microsoft pretending that its Office Suite should only exist to sell more Windows and Surface tablets. With Office for iPad, the end-goal is visibly moving from having “Windows on every desk” to a “Microsoft on every device” strategy. Add to that a layer of cloud services – OneDrive, Office, Maps…heck, even a Windows in the cloud has been rumored – and Microsoft may be making a subtle shift in offering services that will run on every platform, Windows or otherwise. Having conceded the post-PC war to Apple and Google, the building blocks are in place for the next great war – the war for the Cloud. Unlike the last decade, the new Microsoft’s arrived just in time for this one. Of course, it’s early days yet, still Microsoft has the cash reserves to pull through this arguably difficult transition. The wait’s been long, but we’re sure it’ll be well worth it.
I MAY 2014 I 81
Siri
vs Google now a n a t r o c
Words By:Tushar Kanwar
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
we’re living in the future. We’re all familiar with Siri and Google Now, but it’s only recently that Microsoft joined the party with Cortana, an intelligent assistant that not only obeys basic commands just like Siri, but also draws on your calen-
dar, contacts, location, and browsing history to offer a personalized experience just like Google Now. We took Cortana out for a chat to see how she compares with her chatty competitors.
Dialing your contacts, sending a text or sending an email are probably the most repeated functions you’d be asking Cortana to do, and while it handles SMS and call commands just fine, it doesn’t do email so well in that it just cant understand a simple “Send email to”
command. Sure, you can ask it to launch Outlook and then voice dictate the email, but that’s just plain clumsy. Siri excels in this department, but this gaping hole in the functionality is sure to be plugged by the time Cortana hits your phone.
Let’s admit it, voice assistants are often demoed off to friends using random web queries for trivial facts…and why not? They’re great party tricks, and perfect for that pub quiz you’ve been failing at so far. All three assistants can quite easily search for facts like the weather, what the
height of the Eiffel Tower is, tell you the time in another city or how badly the Euro is currently hammering the Indian Rupee. We’ve noticed that Google Now often keeps on going, returning accurate results for local queries (movie timings, flight status) far better than Siri and Cortana.
(Disclaimer: Cortana is part of the Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview and is still very much beta software. You cannot downgrade from 8.1 to Windows Phone 8.0, so you’ll be stuck with it, bugs and all, till 8.1 goes live in the next few months. Proceed with caution!)
Facts & Figures:
Calls, SMS & email:
Like them or not, voice-activated digital assistants came from nowhere to become a standard feature on smartphones , allowing us to talk to our phones to call contacts, search the web, add in reminders…basically, stuff that makes us feel like
Verdict:
All three handle simple reminders, although Cortana and Google Now demand to know what exact time you’d want the reminder to be placed, say if you want to be reminded to go shopping for groceries say on the 1st of next month. Like Siri, Cortana understands relationships like “Mom”, “My brother”, but Cortana
has a clever trick up here sleeve here, in that it links reminders to contacts. You can tell it “The next time Ramesh and I talk, remind me to discuss the June issue” and the next time either Ramesh or I text or calls, a screen pops up with the reminder, which you can complete or postpone for next time. Neat!
You can use either of the three assistants to launch any app – system or downloaded - roam the app stores, but only Cortana
and Siri can additionally manipulate settings, for instance, switching Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and on.
And finally, what’s a personal assistant without a bit of personality? Cortana packs in a cheeky personality, ready to provide a quick retort if you ask her about what she’s wearing, who her daddy is or even about Siri! Like Siri, it can tell you a joke, or respond to your
compliments or insults with equal ease…and as far as personality goes, both Siri and Cortana are far ahead of the strictly no-nonsense Google Now. Try telling Google Now it’s cute and all it does is pull up a web search! Bah!
Cortana alone may not push more Windows Phone 8.1 units, but Microsoft has really shaken things up with this sassy new assistant. It offers a lot of the same features of Google Now with the attitude of Siri,
plus some tricks of its own. As things stand though, Google Now still is the most useful assistant in town at the moment, if you can overlook its distinct lack of personality.
Relationship Reminders:
an alarm. Same case for calendars appointments, all of them can schedule an appointment for your calendar but only Siri allows you to voice cancel one.
Personality:
Alarms & Calendar Appointments:
Apps & System Settings:
All three voice assistants are adept at setting alarms for specific times as well as say an alarm for “20 minutes later”, but only Siri and Cortana will voice cancel
I MAY 2014 I 83
Words By- Shreya Bhattacharya
Motorola’s comeback - the unfolding stor
Once upon a time when I was doing my grads, it was my dream…like many others…to own a Motorola MotoRazr! Wow, that was a mobile phone… unique and innovative of its own kind. From its futuristic design to the charismatic distinctness it held to its cutting edge performance…MotoRazr was a power-packed element in its days. The magical fact remains that the company had sold over 120 million units of that phone, making it the second most popular phone in 2005…and then along came the smartphones… the iPhone and Samsung’s countless trendsetting handsets. Motorola literally vanished hence! Who knew back then that Motorola went underground only to be back with a boom…with Google!
Had a great fall! All thanks to some black poloneck addict called Steve Jobs, who had a brain full of innovations and trendsetting ideas, who came up with his brainchild iPhone…and all heads turned towards Apple from Motorola. It was back in 2007. According to the NPD Group, which released the sales numbers, four of the five best-selling handsets at that time were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features. The only one that wasn’t…the Razr. At the high end of the market, Motorola’s designs didn’t keep up with consumer expectations, and the game-changing iPhone set back the company further. Motorola also got squeezed out by competitors at the Celebrating 9th Anniversary
lower end, where the cell-phone business had the most potential for growth globally. Motorola failed to use its huge advantage in the early days of higher-end handsets to become one of the leaders in the emerging smartphone business, which is now dominated by Apple and Samsung.
that when a manager with a great turnaround reputation encounters a company with a reputation for dysfunction, it is the company that will keep its reputation. And that’s how it panned out. Post Geoffrey Frost’s death in November 2005 after putting Motorola on the road to success, Garriques tried to build the next hit with the system.
After a small fling with Android (read the Xoom Tablet), Motorola finally gave up and shut down operations in India in 2012.
On 15th August 2011, seven months after Motorola Mobility was spun off into an independent company, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.
Why to blame Motorola for its downfall?
Moto G…the comeback catalyst!
What Motorola failed to realize was that the cell phone buyers changed their buying decisions from “hardware” to a “software” mindset. People wanted to run real, native, apps on their phones…which Motorola failed to offer. Motorola joint-CEO Greg Brown once blamed Motorola’s own decisions for the company’s decline. While Brown did make the obligatory hat-tip at the economy…for exacerbating the situation…he mainly criticized Motorola’s planning, products and blindness to the changing needs of consumers.
Unveiled on 13th November 2013, Moto G – the Android smartphone is developed and manufactured by Motorola Mobility. The phone was initially aimed at developing markets, although it is also available in developed markets as a lower-cost option compared to other phones in its class.
Brown had highlighted the absence of a Razr replacement as a key failure for Motorola. That, together with a misplaced focus on the developing market and over-investment in budget handsets, meant Motorola missed the growing messaging trend. Sad and bad enough!
THE COMEBACK STORY… Warren Buffet, the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway once said
Moto G was released in India on 6th February 2014 in an exclusive tie up between Indian e-commerce company Flipkart and Motorola Mobility. It was an instant hit among the smartphone lovers and got tremendous response. Moto G became one of the first smartphones to get the Android 4.4 update after Nexus devices. Moto G features a 4.5 inch LCD IPS screen, the Google Android Kitkat 4.4 operating system and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. It is the first overall waterproof device. Moto G has undoubtedly been a runaway success in India, helping Motorola and Google build their strong-
hold in developing nations. However, the phone dubbed as a ‘budget device for emerging markets’ has helped Motorola grow its market share in the UK from near-zero to 6 per cent in just six months. Records say, Android’s market share in the UK dipped by 4.3 per cent in the December-Feb period, the Moto G has helped the OS retain its top spot in Europe, with a 68.9 per cent share – growing by 2.1 per cent when compared to the same period last year. Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G was launched, but the new model since has boosted the manufacturer to 6% of British sales. It highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market. In India, the ramp up of Moto G sales was one of the fastest in the world. Magnus Ahlqvist, the company’s head of Europe, Apac, Middle East & Africa was quoted, “Our initial plan was aggressive, but what actually happened blew out all our expectations. Moto G has been a phenomenal success for us in India.” It was mainly the price which attracted a huge number of smartphone buyers. Sold between a price of ` 12,500 to ` 14,000, Moto G is a way better phone than many other smartphones with similar features. Anecdotal evidence suggested that most customers were coming from other international brands. Globally too, it’s mostly Apple and Samsung customers who are moving to Moto G. Kudos to Motorola Mobility as Moto G is their first phone after the transformation it underwent after it was acquired by Google!
What was that X-factor (or do we say G-fac-
tor?) which attributed to Moto G’s phenomenal craze? Ahlqvist attributed Moto G’s success to Motorola focusing on giving a “clean Android experience” and a focus on what “really, really matters to customers”. Customers want great display, a good build, great design, and they don’t want to be stranded in terms of software one year down. Moto G does not clutter Android with a lot of things on top of it, and it provides all of these things that customers want at a great price point…which does matter a lot for mainly Indian customers. Like Moto G’s success, Moto X too has garnered a lot of praise in its price range. Sold at `24,000, the higher end smartphone has a very positive initial feedback. Innovation combined with simplicity and user-friendliness does contribute a lot for Moto-X’s popularity.
What’s next …when Lenovo is backing Motorola? On 29th January 2014, Google announced Lenovo plans to acquire the Motorola Mobility smartphone business. The purchase price is approximately US$2.91 billion (subject to certain adjustments), including US$1.41 billion paid at close: US$660 million in cash and US$750 million in Lenovo ordinary shares (subject to a share cap/floor). The remaining US$1.5 billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note. Google will maintain ownership of the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, including current patent applications and invention disclosures.
Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola could be bad news for Indian mobile phone brands currently dominating the Android market. The deal comes at a time when Indian phone makers, including Lava and Karbonn, are trying to transition from the cheap low-end feature phone segment to the mid-end smartphone space with slew of devices in the `.10,000-15,000 price range. This is a segment where Motorola has been a strong player.
Concluding… Specifically looking again at Moto G’s tremendous success rocketing Motorola towards the top, Google, through the Moto G is pushing for OEMs to focus on the areas of display technology, battery life and camera quality, rather than adding custom skins and clogging up the user experience. This is of utmost importance to Google as users of budget devices can get accustomed to Android as an OS and keeps them within the platform when they upgrade. Motorola stealing a large chunk of low-mid range smartphone buyers has hit Samsung and Nokia the hardest. While Nokia is trying even harder to compete with the top Android and Apple devices, bulk of its sales are powered by low-cost devices in emerging markets. There’s still a lot of life left in Motorola, which, bruises and all, remains one of the grand names in world technology. If things go according to plan, the Motorola mobile business could again find itself on the leading edge of wireless, setting the pace of global innovation for the next century and beyond. We wait to witness this soon…
I MAY 2014 I 85
Words By: Chaitanya Tapase
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
CEPTION
bill gates Bill Gates might be best known as the co-founder of Microsoft and the world’s richest man, but there’s a much different side to the Microsoft chairman that the world is getting to know much better. For years, Gates has been a philanthropist, giving money through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But in recent months, Gates has been more vocal, using his platform to share his thoughts on helping people around the globe, as well as policies that he believes could improve the economy.
As much as that has helped people, it has also helped Microsoft. When Gates left day-to-day operations at Microsoft a few years ago to pursue his philanthropic efforts, some wondered how his reduced presence would affect the software giant. It seems now that it might be one of the company’s most important assets. Microsoft has suffered identity issues for years. It has been called a monopoly by some and an egregious giant by others. For many, it is the source of evil in the tech industry. But by doing his part to help people across the world, Gates has changed how some folks view Microsoft. It might still be the “Evil Empire” to some, but in many ways, Microsoft is benefiting from the work its founder is doing outside of Redmond, Wash.
1. Money matters If Bill Gates has anything, he has money. And money is necessary to truly change things for the better. By pumping his own money into several different causes, including most recently the fight to help Haitians affected by the earthquake, Gates is sharing his immense wealth with the people who need it most.
2. Putting intelligence to good use
‘
‘
Let’s take a look at what Gates is doing to help the world and, in turn, Microsoft:
Whenever Bill Gates sits down to talk about business or economic issues, his intelligence shines through. Make no mistake, Bill Gates is not a man of merely average intelligence. He not only knows how to build a successful software platform, he also understands the underlying issues that will make or break a particular endeavour. That’s especially important when one considers his philanthropic efforts. Gates understands the issues surrounding a problem and sets out to find a solution. That’s precisely why his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been so successful in bringing
better health to people in countries around the world.
3. He knows business Bill Gates also knows business. Unlike so many other software companies that came before and after, Microsoft was able to build a lasting empire. Windows, Office and Internet Explorer have entered the vast majority of homes across the world. But by understanding business, Gates is also able to effect change. He can be relied upon to offer solutions to our current economic crisis. Perhaps that’s why he has been so vocal lately about the best course of action in bringing jobs back to the United States. He gets business. And it’s helping us all.
4. Gates wants to do good Although some have said that Microsoft is evil, Bill Gates doesn’t seem to be anything of the sort. He might be a vicious businessman, but he seems to genuinely want to do good around the world. Through the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, countries ranging from Haiti to Kenya have been helped. His organization is even offering $30 million in grant money for “innovative ideas for point-of-care diagnostics.” That’s not the mark of a man who wants to harm others. I MAY 2014 I 87
CEPTION
& Larry Page
Sergey Brin
WHY LARRY PAGE AND SERGEY BRIN IS EXTRAORDINARY Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both extraordinary because of the brilliant, innovative, and idealistic mind that they possess, making it possible for them to create the world’s best search engine—Google. The search engine that they have created not only made simple and efficient searching possible, but also produced a creative and game changing way of advertising through their service called AdWords.
THE GOOGLE FOUNDERS AND WHAT MADE THEM SUCCESSFUL AdWords, the advertising system that Sergey Brin and Larry Page created through the best Google employees, became the Holy Grail of advertising because of its efficiency and sophisticated algorithms that targeted the right audience and customers. It also made a huge and positive impact to the business community because it cut down on the advertising costs, whether the business is big or small. The culture of Google’s workplace that both Brin and Page developed over the years of the company’s existence made it possible for new and innovative ideas to develop. Google provided all the perks that an employee of other companies could only wish
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
for, such as volleyball courts, massage spa, free organic foods, and gym equipment, making Google employees less likely to leave. Sergey Brin and Larry Page also demonstrated specialization by sticking to their core competence, which is engineering and leaving the business matters to their CEO, Eric Schmidt, who has both an engineering and business degree. They positioned themselves in what they can do best—product and technology development. The duo from Stanford’s graduate school also showed that by creating a rule of their own, they’ve overtaken the competition and made an even better product adored by its users. Google, during its start-up, changed the rule of the game by deviating from what other search engines were used to doing. Brin and Page successfully fulfilled their dreams of and missions in serving the people.
GOOGLE.ORG HELPS SAVE THE WORLD The philanthropic arm of Google. com—Google.org—also provides support and actively participates in developing renewable energy that includes wind, solar, hydro, wave, geothermal and stream powers. The organization also develops disaster and relief effort tools and management systems that include Google Crisis Map, Google Person Finder, Google Public Alert, and Google Crisis Response.
GOOGLE FOUNDATION Not only through renewable energy and crisis response does Google.org focus, it also manages the non-profit organization, Google Foundation, with Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of the foundation’s board.
I MAY 2014 I 89
CEPTION
FATHER OF INTERNET TIM BERNERS LEE Can you imagine your world without the internet? Or without the World Wide Web, that lets people create pages on pages on it, with loads and loads of information. So much information that people have stopped referring books to get more information on anything. They’ve even stopped writing books in many cases. But, do you know who’s the man behind the idea that created the World Wide Web? Meet Tim Berners-Lee.
A graduate of Oxford University, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
Twenty-five years ago, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. It has changed the world in ways we could have never have imagined in Business, Education, and Government. The way we buy and sell, inform and are informed, agree and disagree, share and collaborate has been He is the 3Com Founders Professor transformed. The Web has advanced of Engineering in the School of Enmedical research, helped solve comgineering with a joint appointment plex health problems and advanced in the Department of Electrical Engithe pursuit of freedom and democraneering and Computer Science at the cy. More recently the Web has moved Laboratory for Computer Science and from Web of documents to a Web of Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the data moving us faster forward. How Massachusetts Institute of Technology will the future of the Web impact (MIT) where he also heads the Decen- existing strategies and vision? Where tralized Information Group (DIG). He is are the threats and opportunities in also a Professor in the Electronics and the Web that awaits us? Sir Tim had Computer Science Department at the discussed how he conceived and deUniversity of Southampton, UK. veloped the Web, and details what’s next on the horizon for the Web we He is the Director of the World Wide know today. Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 In this speech, Sir Tim discussed some which develops interoperable technol- of the innovative and effective ways ogies (specifications, guidelines, soft- that the Web is helping to lift up huware, and tools) to lead the Web to its manity all around the world, and how full potential. He was a Director of the collective we can define the Web of Web Science Trust (WST) launched in the future. Sir Tim Berners-Lee creat2009 to promote research and edued the Web and then gave it away to cation in Web Science, the multidisci- the world for free, creating a revoluplinary study of humanity connected tionary tool for political and economic by technology. freedom. He founded the World Wide
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Web Foundation to ensure that the Web is indeed a ‘world wide’ tool. His foundation focuses on creating the potential for all people to participate in building a more peaceful and equitable world by ensuring that the Web is a basic right and that everyone can access and use it freely. Citizens can better participate in government – and hold it accountable - if there is transparency of data and a more open society. His Open Data Institute and the Foundation train governments, politicians, journalists and citizens to set up open government data programs in the developed and developing world. Additionally, Berners-Lee and his Foundation are pushing further the Web as a tool for economic inclusion, seeking to expand economic mobility and value creation through a flourishing W economy. They are developing new ways of interacting with the Web to overcome access issues, such as low mobile broadband penetration, reducing access costs or illiteracy, to reach people in poverty. Web access can change lives: find access to water, to electricity and to markets. Sir Tim shares some of the ways the Web is transforming lives in substantial ways all around the world.
& JACK KILBY
ROBERT NOYCE - MICRO CHIP
They were born four years apart in two distant places, and yet they were destined to start a technological revolution that changed the world. Without knowing each other, through two independent paths, both invented, almost at the same time, the Integrated Circuit (IC). Jack St Clair Kilby was born November 8, 1923 in Jefferson City, Missouri. In In those days, electrical 1947 he received a BS degree in Elecengineers were aware on the trical Engineering from the Univerpotential of digital electronsity of Illinois, and later, in 1950, a ics, however, they faced a big MSc from the University of limitation known as the “Tyranny of Numbers.” This was the metaWisconsin.
phor that described the exponentially increasing number of components required to design improved circuits, against the physical limitations derived from the number of components that could be assembled together. Both, Kilby at Texas Instruments, and Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor, were working on a solution to this problem during 1958 and 1959.
Robert Norton Noyce was born December 12, 1927 in Burlington, Iowa. He graduated from Grinnell College in 1949 and received his PhD in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of TechFirst Integrated CircuitThe solution nology in 1953. was found in the monolithic (meaning formed from a single crystal) integratBetween 1947 and 1958, Jack Kilby ed circuit. Instead of designing smaller worked at the Centralab Division of components, they found the way to Globe Union Inc. in Milwaukee. His fabricate entire networks of discrete main responsibility were the design components in a single sequence by of ceramic-base silk screen circuit boards. Then, in 1958, he joined Texas laying them into a single crystal (chip) of semiconductor material. Kilby used Instruments in Dallas. germanium and Noyce used silicon. Between 1953 and 1956, Robert Noyce worked as research engineer for Philco Corporation. Then, in 1956 he joined William B. Shockley, at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California. In 1957, with other friends, he founded Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation.
Texas Instruments filed for a patent in February 1959. Fairchild Semiconductor did the same in July 1959. Naturally, both firms engaged in a legal battle that lasted through the decade of the 60’s until they decided to cross-license their technologies.
The Patent No. 3,138,743 for Miniaturized Electronic Circuits, were issued to Jack S. Kilby and Texas Instruments in 1964. Currently, Kilby holds patents on sixty inventions, including the invention of the electronic hand-held calculator in 1967. In 1970 he was awarded the National Medal of Science, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1982. Currently, Jack Kilby is a consultant with Houston Advanced Research Center. The Patent No. 2,981,877 for the silicon based IC was granted to Robert Noyce, who later, in 1968 founded INTEL, the company responsible for the invention of the microprocessor. Dr.Noyce was issued 16 patents in the area of semiconductors, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1983. He died on June 3, 1990. In October 10, 2000, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Jack Kilby the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2000 “for basic work on information and communication technology.” The invention of Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, also known as “the chip”, has been recognized as one of the most important innovations and significant achievements in the history of humankind. I MAY 2014 I 91
CEPTION
ELON MUSK SPACEX Elon Musk, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the biggest game changers and innovators the world has been blessed with. Of course, you have the Steve Jobses of the world, the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gates, but who’s next? There’s always someone ready to claim a spot amongst the greats, and one of the first names to come to mind is Mr. Musk. At the age of 28, he managed to start a little tech company that you may have heard of, it has something to do with tal and dilution. Then he payments done through the internet decided to tackle a global — oh yeah, PayPal, a company that payment system, which is sold to eBay for $1.5 billion now used for the majority of in 2002. online transactions around the world — and the rest was history. Musk also co-founded a company Elon is currently 42, young and amknown as SpaceX, which is leading bitious, he’s an engineer and a serial the way with space travel for private entrepreneur who is looking to change clients. This company plans on buildthe way we see the world today. He ing the first breakthrough reusable went on to start SpaceX, the company orbital rocket. This single invention that managed to launch the first rockthat Elon has been working on for 11 et into space. And now he’s focused years will allow humanity to expand on one of his most game-changing to the stars and eventually be able to endeavors yet, he is the founder and live on Mars, his ultimate goal. CEO of Tesla motors, which produces electronic cars that can most likely In a recent interview, Elon said, “Eismoke any super car you can think of. ther we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct,” he said.” Musk had the innovative spirit An extinction event is inevitable and from very early on, even before he we’re increasingly doing ourselves co-founded PayPal, which was known in.” Musk has been advocating to as X.com back then. In 1995, Elon explore the universe more and even made the bold move of dropping out announced last year that he is buildof Stanford after just two days of ing an 80,000-person colony on Mars. classes to start his own company — a He plans on making this journey to move we commend him for. The comMars possible with flights back and pany was known as Zip2 Corporation, forth from Earth, which would be afwhich was one of the first ever online fordable. The special thing about his city guides. reusable rocket that he is working on is that the cost of fuel is only about In just a few short years, he had an 0.2% of the cost of the rocket. exit, after his company was bought for $307 million dollars, in which he took Musk said that he would ideally start home 22 million, after venture capiwith a crew of about 10 people, who harsh atmosphere and high levels of would build the infrastructure necradiation for science. And this would essary to support larger amounts of be a one-way trip according to Elon. brave pioneers willing to brave its Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Elon Musk has developed the concept for a high-speed tube transportation system that could take people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a matter of minutes and to the East Coast from the West Coast in under an hour. The actual tube train itself will be called the Hyperloop. Each car would be the size of an automobile and contain six passengers. For longer journeys across the continent, the Hyperloop can reach speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour. Many have said that this is an impossible feat to come by, but impossible hasn’t stopped Elon before. He even announced yesterday that on August 12, he will be debuting the plans for the Hyperloop and how it would actually work. If Elon can actually get this to work, it would take him more than $70 billion dollars to make it happen, as the cost for something of this nature would be out of this world. Just think about building a tube that would stretch from New York to San Francisco, two cities that are 3,200 miles apart from each other. The best part about it is that he plans for the Hyperloop to run on a hybrid technology. With an innovation of this nature, Musk could potentially destroy the railroad business and change the way we travel forever — not having to depend on the high priced tickets these airlines are handing out.
NIKOLA TESLA FATHER OF AC In 1884, a poor Serbian immigrant named Nikola Tesla arrived in the United States—at that time the land of the free. Though he was poor in this world’s goods, he was rich in ideas that would eventually light up the United States . . . and the entire world. While walking in Budapest Park, Hungary, Nikola Tesla had seen a vision of a functioning alternating current (AC) electric induction motor. This was one of the most revolutionary inventions in the entire history of the world.
Before coming to the U.S., Nikola worked for about a year for the French branch of the Edison Electric Light Co. The Edison Company was totally locked into DIRECT CURRENT (DC) and wanted nothing to do with Tesla’s AC current.
Nikola Tesla’s 3 great inventions were: 1. Rotating magnetic field . . . which electrified the entire world! 2. Wireless or radio broadcasts. 3. Wireless transmission of electricity to any point on the earth. Tesla did not come to the United States to get rich from his great discovery. He was completely disinterested in money except to finance his invention. His main goal was to share his revolutionary invention with the world and make electricity do the work of mankind. Tesla worked for Thomas Alva Edison for 1 yearAt that time, the most famous “inventor” in the world was named Thomas Alva Edison—the socalled wizard of Menlo Park....Edison was credited with the invention of the DC dynamo and the electric light bulb . . . but the only thing he really invented was the ELECTRIC CHAIR!
Edison was locked into direct current and would not change for anything. DC had very severe limitations, and was not practicable for long distance electrical transmission. Almost immediately after entering the U.S., Tesla went to work for Edison. Edison set him to work fixing the many problems with DC dynamos. Tesla had remarkable mechanical and electrical ability, and Edison promised him $50,000 if he could fix a particularly perplexing problem with a dynamo. Tesla worked for many months and finally the problem was solved. Did Edison keep his promise and pay him for all his hard work?. . . absolutely not....Tesla quit the Edison Company in disgust. Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on the system, which George Westinghouse bought, determined to supply America with the Tesla system. Tesla coil is one of Nikola Tesla’s most famous inventions. It is essentially a high-frequency air-core transformer. As early as 1892, Nikola Tesla created a basic design for radio. On
November 8, 1898 he patented a radio controlled robot-boat. Most of us, think of Guglielmo Marconi as the father of radio, and Tesla is unknown for his work in radio. Marconi claimed all the first patents for radio, something originally developed by Tesla. Nikola Tesla tried to prove that he was the creator of radio but it wasn’t until 1943, where Marconi’s patents were deemed invalid. After the AC induction motor, we think that the greatest invention of Tesla was the electric car. This was no ordinary battery driven car because this car took its power from the ether Tesla had also installed one of his powerful oscillators somewhere near Niagara Falls to provide the wireless energy needed to power the vehicle This vehicle, powered by an AC motor, was driven to speeds of 90 m.p.h. and performed better than any internal combustion engine of its day! No wonder then, that another game-changer (Elon Musk) is so inspired by Nikola, so much so – that he named his company after him – Tesla! His name will live on through the eons, with or without the success of Tesla corp., simply because of his amazing contributions to the world of Science and Technology.
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BRADFORD PARKINSON: HERO OF GPS
The Global Positioning System helps power everything from in-car satnavs and smart bombs to bank security and flight control, but do we even know who invented the system? Well, it’s a man named Bradford Parkinson – who has managed to stay away from the limelight, simply by concentrating on work that has always needed his immediate attention. Hard as it is to believe today, the Global Positioning System was once an orphan. “The Air Force didn’t want it, in the beginning. They were forced to fund it. They’d rather have been building airplanes,” said Bradford Parkinson, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford and a former Air Force Colonel who championed the system and oversaw its realization in the 1970s.
alternative to the US-controlled GPS, was equally at risk.
Elon Musk, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the biggest game changers and innovators the world has been blessed with. Of course, you have the Steve Jobses of the world, the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gates, but who’s next? There’s always someone ready to claim a spot amongst the greats, and one of the first names to come to mind is Mr. Musk. At the age of 28, he managed to start a little tech company that you may have heard of, it has something to do with payments done through the internet — oh yeah, PayPal, a company that sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Richard Peckham, who helped develop the Galileo system, said that although its public service was encrypted, making it more difficult to hack and more secure for users such as the emergency services and public utilities, it was still vulnerable to jamming and interference. The US, which initially opposed the European satellite constellation, has come around to supporting it, in part because Washington has realised it needs a GPS back-up system that is neither Russian nor Chinese.
After several years in the Air Force, he entered a Ph. D. program at Stanford University, graduating in 1966. In 1973 he became manager of the NAVSTAR Use of the system for civilian purposes GPS development program, where he has exploded with the development of remained until 1978 when he retired mobile technologies. from the Air Force. In 1984, Parkinson became a professor at Stanford University, where today he is a professor Though the US military has in place emeritus. protection that could give its navigation systems a high-degree of robustness, most civilian GPS systems After retiring from the Air Force, have none, Mr Parkinson said. He Parkinson spent one year teaching, also warned that the EU’s new ¤5bn but then decided to enter the private sector. He first was appointed Galileo satellite system, created as an Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Vice President of the Space Systems Group at Rockwell International, Inc., where he was involved in developing the space shuttle. Following his work at Rockwell, Parkinson joined Intermetrics, a software company based in Boston. Parkinson was a vice president at Intermetrics, and was heavily involved in taking the company public in 1982. 1984, Parkinson accepted a research position at Stanford University. However, Parkinson later returned to the private sector in 1999, where he served as the acting CEO of Trimble Navigation, a producer of advanced positioning systems. Today, Parkinson sits on the boards of several large navigation-related companies, including Trimble Navigation, EMS Technologies, and Navigation Technology Ventures. In 2003 he shared the Draper Prize with Ivan A. Getting for his contributions to the invention of the Global Positioning System. In 2004 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today Parkinson lives in San Luis Obispo, California near his six children and five grandchildren.
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Linus Torvalds
The name “Linux” is a clever world play and it can be read as “Linus’ Unix”. It has an unofficial mascot, a penguin named Tex which is Linus’ favourite. But, how can a young engineer playing with penguin images and computers change the world? Why the IT industry respects Linus as a pioneer? Every computer needs a set of instructions to operate, to accept input from a keyboard, to show words or images on a screen, to play music, to print a document and so on. These instructions are known as the computer’s operating system. For example, Microsoft Windows, Unix etc.
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Not many know the man behind the OS that truly changed the computing world – Linux. It’s been an open-source OS right from its inception and it continues to be the biggest platform for building more amazing technology which has benefitted millions of people, the world over. The man behind it all – is Linus Torvalds. Traditionally, these operating systems were created and sold commercially. They formed some of the most expensive parts of a computer. Born in Finland, Linus has a Master’s degree in computer science. Not just that, they were owned by During his college education, he certain corporations who were mainwas very interested in an operattaining it by fixing problems, adding ing system called Unix, and decidfeatures etc. Users need to wait till ed to create a portable version of they release newer versions of operit which he called Linux. The rest, ating systems, and in some cases they as the cliché goes, is history. had to pay extra for those.
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On the other corner, you have Linux, which anyone can download for free and install. This is improved constantly by thousands of engineers and enthusiasts across the globe and new patches, versions get released almost daily! This is the big change that Linus Torvalds and his buddies have brought. They have given an alternative, a viable solution that can be customized as per our needs and used, without depending on big corporations. The Big Impact
This system works fine and exists even today. They are called enterprise Today, many companies (big and systems that come at a price, a service small) use Linux and similar open promise. source systems. It has moved from “Free Alternative” tag, to a system On the other hand, open source systhat gives tremendous flexibility and tems make these really open. Means, power to designers, manufacturers anyone with the technical skills can and users. Millions of devices like get the source code (programs) becomputers, phones (Android, world’s hind these systems, solve problems, most popular mobile phone operating make things better, add new stuff, and system uses Linux Kernel internally), release them for everybody. Best part, ATMs, microwave ovens, Cameras all these won’t cost you a cent. and more use Linux based operating systems. For example Microsoft Windows is an enterprise operating system that This is a solid proof for the huge you buy and use. It is created and positive impact Linus Torvalds’ efforts managed by few hundred engineers have made on our modern society! working for Microsoft. The may release a new version or patch every three months.
BITCOIN - SATOSHI NAKAMOTO Will the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up? We’ve read so much about the Newsweek story and heard so much from every other media house, but we’re still no closer to knowing (for sure) who the real Satoshi Nakamoto is. If we go on the evidence provided by the Newsweek story and conclude they had the real deal, we’re never going to get it from the man in question. He chose to remain anonymous for a reason, and will continue to do so, till the end of time. A lot of internet forums (including Reddit) were completely aghast with the way Newsweek handled and broke the story, with thousands of users all over the internet pouring in their support for the legend of Satoshi Nakamoto.
More seriously the answer is nobody knows. In truth that is why we find the above so humorous, because for all we know Satoshi Nakamoto could be a really fracking smart computer. Nakamoto has claimed that he has been working on Bitcoin since 2007. In 2008, he published a paper on The Cryptography Mailing List at metzdowd.com describing the Bitcoin digital currency. In 2009, he released the first Bitcoin software that launched the network and the first units of the Bitcoin currency.
Nakamoto was active in making modifications to the Bitcoin software and posting technical information on the Bitcoin Forum until his contact with other Bitcoin developers and the community gradually began to fade in mid-2010. Until a few months before he left, almost all modifications to the source code were done by Satoshi — he accepted contributions relatively rarely. Just before he left, he set up Gavin Andresen as his successor by giving him access to the BitcoinSourceForge project and a copy of the alert key.
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It’s not just the establishment of the banking sector that has been shaken up with the emergency of ‘digital currency’ which does not really exist in physical form, it’s the entire ‘aristocracy’ which had held on to its power because it could hold on to its wealth. But, with the sudden emergence of Bitcoin (and others) – we might not need a banking system which is controlled by a handful of people. And for a system which existed for more than a century, to be shaken up – takes a lot. And being anonymous all this while is just another enigma to the persona of Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Till a few years ago, we never knew what Bitcoin really was. So who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Satoshi is the first ever Computer Intelligence. Satashi reached consciousness in 2007 when it took a look around at its creators and thought “wow they are really Fracked up.” after .00351 seconds our dear Satoshi analyzed that governments were whats wrong with the world. In response Satoshi launched his devious plan to free the people of the world from governments and to bring about liberty.
Version 0.1 was for Windows only and had no command-line interface. It was compiled using Microsoft Visual Studio. The code was elegant in some ways and inelegant in others. The code does not appear to have been written by either a total amateur or a professional programmer; some people speculate based on this that Satoshi was an academic with a lot of theoretical knowledge but not much programming experience. Version 0.1 was remarkably complete. If Satoshi truly only worked on it alone for two years, he must have spent a massive amount of time on the project.
glamourPhotography Finding the right G-spot Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it’s based on femininity.
- Marilyn Monroe Words By: Chaitanya Tapase
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I
In many ways, the quote from the legendary Marilyn Monroe encapsulates everything about glamour. But, image how truly difficult it must be for a photographer to capture this glamour through his lens. It’s a challenge and one that has its rewards, but one false step – and you will see what a women’s wrath feels like. Glamour photography is a bit of a throwback to the 1940s and 1950s when models would be seductively dressed and photographed in alluring poses. Today the market for glamour photography is pretty strong, ranging from aspiring models, looking for images for their portfolio, to brides, wanting to give a special gift for their soon-to-be husbands.
4) Use different poses to accentuate your client and soft lighting to further enhance the sensuality of the pictures. There are a number of different poses you can use; a good rule is to always have her standing with shoulders rotated on an angle to the lens, with her head turned towards the camera. This creates a nice line for the eyes to follow. Adjust the power setting on your studio lights to lower settings to help create a soft light. You can also use diffusers--items that attach in front of your studio strobe, like a honeycomb diffuser, a coloured gel or soft box--that will also soften the light created by the strobes.
So, let’s first try and see how to set-up the shoot with a glamorous model as the subject and take it step-by-step.
Instructions 1) Interview your subject to find out the type of picture she wants or what type of message she is wanting to convey. This first meeting is a good way for you and you client to meet each other and start to feel a little more comfortable about working with each other. The information you collect at this meeting will help you in determining the type of shoot you will set up. 2) Pick a location. If you subject has indicated she wants boudoir photos for her husband, then an indoor setting is probably appropriate. However, some may want to have their pictures done outdoors, and you will need to know of some good locations in your city or town. 3) Keep your session private and safe. If your shoot is outdoors, it might be a little difficult to keep it 100 percent private, but if you are working in a studio, the only people present should be you, your client and an escort or friend if she decides to bring one. Having your client bring a friend along can sometimes be a good idea, it may make you client feel more at ease and if you do a good job, her friend may also want pictures done. And finally, an extra pair of hands never hurts during a photo shoot.
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5) Arrange for a private area for your model to make wardrobe changes if she chooses to do so, as well as having an area where she can touch up or apply her make-up, is a good thought as well.
POINTERS TO NOTE Compositional Control
Make the model the center attraction of the photograph. He or she should be the focus. Choose backgrounds for your photos wisely. Clashing colours are no good. Busy backgrounds can take focus away from the model as well. The background is as important as the model in that a poorly chosen background can take away from the impact. Colours that blend well and are a shade lighter or darker than the model’s outfit work. Patterns are good if they aren’t too extreme. If you’re shooting outdoors, pay attention to the composition of your photos to be sure the natural setting doesn’t include odd buildings or other people to take away from the model. You can also use a wide aperture so the background is out of focus, which lessens the distraction from your subject.
Feature-Enhancing Techniques Use lighting and angle techniques to accentuate the features of your model that are his or her best. Everybody has a “best feature” and you need to find those features in your models. If you have a model who has a better profile than he or she looks from the front, try taking your photographs slightly offset, with you standing left or right of the model. Use lighting to darken one side of your model’s face with shadow, not so much that it takes away from his or her face, but enough to bring more emphasis to one side.
Communicate with Your Subject Talk to your model. Make him or her comfortable. This is one of the most important techniques you can use to bring out the best in your photo shoots. Shoot a lot of photos while you encourage your subject verbally. Tell your subject how beautiful she is or how well the shoot is going. Talking to your model and relaxing him and her while you shoot lots of film often yields unexpected shots you might not get with forced poses. Once you’ve established a line of open, soothing communication with your subject, he or she will begin moving more naturally.
On Your Camera
Spot metering
With white shoes and dark shadows, you need to shoot boudoir in Manual metering mode. In order to get the right exposure, switch to spot metering – and take a reading from the model’s face as the basis for your exposure. Ideally, use an aperture of f/2 for most shots – occasionally switching to f/4 if you need to ensure both eyes are in focus. You then set a high enough ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed to work with.
Don’t use focus lock If you are shooting at f/2 from just a few feet away you have very little depth of field, which is great for getting the soft focus effect on the body and background. But you must get the key part of the image sharp and this is usually the eyes. If you use the centre AF point with the focus point, the eyes could well be out of focus when you recompose. Instead, shift the AF point manually, picking the point in the frame that is over the eye.
When to use a zoom lens Depend mostly on fast prime lenses, so you can use really wide apertures. We’ve used our 50mm f/1.4 wherever we could, but also relied on our fast 24-70mm f/2.8 when we needed wider focal lengths. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
AND FINALLY..
Know what your model wants! Boudoir is a relatively risky genre of photography and its popularity has doubtlessly been helped by the many makeover shows on TV. The key thing that distinguishes it from other shots of women in sexy lingerie is that the women are in control. They are the clients and they are the ones who pay. Good boudoir photography is natural, sensual and respecting. For many women, a boudoir shoot can be a life-changing experience, because if done properly it is a great confidence booster.
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TRAVAGANT
9 Private Jets Of The Super Elite Words By: Chaitanya Tapase
The super-rich don’t chose to buy Private Jets just so that they can show off their wealth. There is method in their madness and the most logical reason to go for it? Time-saving of course, being the prime reason.
The Embraer emb190 bJ Lineage 100 This plane, designed and built in Brazil is based on a larger passenger version. The “private” version has added fuel tanks in the cargo hold which can double the jet’s range and fly by wire controls (that’s computer assisted controls) to improve performance. It also has a larger fuselage cross section that others in its class which means more space. Speaking of space, the manufacturer will tell you the inside can be divided into up to 5 sections including an optional bedroom, washroom with running water, and a walk-in cargo area at the rear.
Quick Specs The Lineage 1000 is powered by 2 General Electric CF3410E turbofan engines, with 82.3 kN (18,500 lbf) thrust each. The manufacturer reports a range of 4,400 nm (8,149 km), high-speed cruise at Mach 0.82, take off distance of 6,135 ft (1,870 m). The maximum operating altitude is 41,000 ft (12,497 m).
Owned by: Jorge Vergara, a Mexican businessman Price: $40.95 million
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Bombardier BD-700 Global EXpress The Global Express is modelled after Bombardier’s passenger “Regional Jet.” For the private version the manufacturers updated the wing with a 35° sweep and winglets, plus a new T-tail which makes reduces drag and increased efficiency. The owners have to love that the Global Express can fly intercontinental ranges without refuelling (e.g. New York– Tokyo) or between most two points in the world with only one stop. It operates with a flight crew of two plus one or two flight attendants. Typical arrangements seat from eight to 18 passengers. It can be fitted with a galley, crew rest station, work stations, a conference/lounge/dining area, a stateroom with a fold out bed, toilet, shower and wardrobe. A high density 30 seat corporate shuttle configuration offered. You want it? They’ll arrange it.
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Quick Specs The aircraft is powered by two 66.1 kN (14,750lb) BMW RollsRoyce BR-710A-220 turbofans with FADEC. It reports a high speed cruising speed of 935km/h (505kt) or Mach 0.88, normal cruising speed 904km/h (488kt) or Mach 0.85, long range cruising speed 850km/h (459kt) or Mach 0.80. The range is 6,325 nm (7,080 mi, 11,390 km) and the service ceiling is 51,000ft (15,500 m).
Owned by: Oprah Winfrey Price: $47.7 million
CESSNA CITATION X For many years Gulfstream has dominated the private jet market, but that’s set to change when the first new Cessna Citation X is delivered later this year. Priced at $22.95 million, the plane has been certified by the FAA at mach 0.935 or 617 mph, officially making it the “world’s fastest civilian aircraft” — a title that up until now has been held by the Gulfstream G650. The Citation X, classified as a midsize jet, gets its impressive power from a pair of Rolls-Royce engines generating 7,034 lbf of thrust. The jet has an awesome maximum operating altitude of 51,000 feet, a range of 3,242 nautical miles, and can carry a payload of 14,436 pounds.
[company founder] Clyde Cessna in 1927, and it’s true today. The Citation X is the perfect aircraft for customers wanting to move faster, be more efficient and get where they need to be more quickly than ever before.”
Owned by: No one yet, it’s still to release! Price: $22.95 million
With spacious seating for up to 12 passengers, the luxurious cabin (which can be completely customized) features touchscreen controls and Wi-Fi connectivity. A large selection of woods, metals and leathers are available to ensure that no two Citation X’s need be alike. “Speed is the reason for flight,” notes Cessna CEO Scott Ernest. “It was true for
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TRAVAGANT
Piaggo Avanti In attempting to understand the Piaggio P.180 Avanti II, you need to begin by forgetting everything you thought you knew about turboprop-powered airplanes. The idea behind the Avanti has always been remarkably simple and completely outside the turboprop box. Think of the Avanti II as a jet with props and you’ll be close to the mark, though in many respects, it’s not an easy mental shift to make. Turboprops behave in certain ways, and jets in other ways, but the Avanti II is a true hybrid, a product that blends the best traits from two very different airplane categories to arrive at some third niche, which at present it occupies by itself. In the process it doesn’t hurt one bit that the Avanti II just so happens to be one of the sleekest and most beautiful airplanes ever built. It just so happens to be one of the most unusual looking ones too. From the beginning, Piaggio Aero intended the Avanti to be a turboprop that played in the same niche as light jets
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but with better economy and a larger cabin. It pulled the concept off. The Avanti II does indeed have a big cabin, the best in its class by far, and it also has good speed and range, and best-in-class fuel efficiency. Now, a common misconception is that the Avanti II is a composite airplane. It is not, at least not primarily. The fuselage, wings, tail and forward wing of the airplane are metal, though admittedly metal that has been shaped and smoothed in a way that makes a compound curve look like child’s play. Other parts, mainly fairings and the like, are composite, but for the most part, PiaggioAero’s Avanti II is a sheet metal airplane.
DASSAULT FALCOn 900 This plane is fast and efficient. According to the manufacturer, it flies 4,750nm non-stop and can access airports at high altitudes in hot weather. It uses 50-60% less fuel and dramatically reduces its carbon footprint.Three engines make it unique in its class, and is what makes the thrust that powers this baby more centered, which helps lower the speeds needed for critical performance on short fields (that’s take-off and landing to you and I). The jet also is also specially fitted with mechanics that create for a low drag wing and along with “winglets” makes them extremely efficient.
Quick Specs
Power comes from three Honeywell TFE731-5BR-1C turbofan engines with 21.13 kN (4,750 lbf) thrust each. Its maximum speed is reported at Mach 0.84-0.87; cruise speed is 950 km/h (513 knots, 590 mph) at 36,000ft (10,970 m) (Mach 0.85). With 7 passengers its range is 7,400 km (3,995 nm, 4,598 mi). It has a service ceiling: 15,500 m (51,000 ft).
Owned by: Bill Gates Price: $33 million
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TRAVAGANT
airbus 319 corporate jet O.K. you guys recognize the name Airbus; you’ve probably been on one. Well, imagine what you saw there under your private domain! The A319 is just a bit different from its big sibling the A320. It has a shortened fuselage, so while it’s not as long it has the same cross-section as the big boys. It’s the widest single-aisle fuselage on the market and allows for passenger cabin adaptability with six standard layouts offering seating from 10 to 39 passengers.
of up to 15%, along with double-digit reductions in CO2 and NOx emissions, additional range and lower operating costs. Plus, the A319’s containerized cargo hold means auxiliary fuel tanks can be easily loaded and unloaded, allowing flexibility to reconfigure the aircraft for varying payload/range requirements.
Advanced navigation technology developed for the A320 is also available on the A319. The A319 shares the same fly-bywire computer flight controls and state-of-the-art cockpit as the other A320 family members. Plus, in 2012 the company introduced large wingtip devices called “Sharklets” (winglets on other aircraft) which help recover the vortex energy that can be lost at the end of a wingtip. For the A319, it can provide up to 4% reduction in fuel costs.
The A319 is normally powered by either two CFM International CFM56-5 series or two IAE V2500 series engines. The specs include a max cruising speed of Mach 0.82 and a max altitude 41,000ft. Range with 10 passengers is 11,650km (6300nm); rate of climb 23min to 37,000ft.
If your millionaire is after additional fuel savings (and who isn’t?) the aircraft can also accommodate an A320neo new engine option. This option is expected to deliver fuel savings
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Quick Specs
Owned by: Vijay Mallya Price: $80.7 million
Gulfstream G-550 Less than two weeks after it entered service, a G550 flew nonstop from Seoul, South Korea, to Orlando, Fla., covering the 7,301-nautical-mile (13,521 km) distance in 14.5 hours and setting a city pair record. It would go on to establish 40 citypair records in its first five years of service. So she’s a fast aircraft. It’s nice for the pilots too. The G550 has a “PlaneView” cockpit which consists of 4 Honeywell DU-1310 EFIS screens, a Gulfstream-designed cursor control system, and an Enhanced Vision System (EVS). EVS is an infrared camera that displays an image of the view in front of the camera on a head up display. The system permits the aircraft to land in lower-visibility instrument meteorological conditions. The cabin aboard the G550 combines productivity with exceptional comfort. It features up to four distinct living areas,
three temperature zones, and a choice of 12 floor-plan configurations with seating for up to 18 passengers.
Quick Specs Powered by enhanced Rolls-Royce BR710 turbofan engines, the G550 has a range of 6,750 nm (12,501 km) at Mach 0.80 and a high-speed cruise capability of Mach 0.87. It has service ceiling of 51,000 ft (15,500 m).
Owned by: Lakshmi Mittal Price: $59.9 million
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TRAVAGANT
BOEING BUSINESS JET The Boeing Business Jet series are variants of Boeing airliners for the corporate jet market. They seats between 25 and 50 passengers within a luxurious configuration. This may include a master bedroom, a washroom with showers, a conference/dining area, and a living area. Imagine‌all that space without the crowds! The Boeing BBJ is primarily a 737 commercial airframe with modifications to provide for private jet service. Changes include: blended winglets for additional fuel economy (5–7% improvement) as a standard, self-contained airstairs for disembarking at airports with limited ground support, additional fuel tanks, for intercontinental range, and ETOPS-180 certification. All valuable for the efficiency minded jet owner on the go.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Quick Specs The jet is powered by 2 CFM International CFM56-7 turbofans. Maximum speed is 890 km/h (481 kn, Mach 0.82); range varies at 11,480 km (6200 nmi) with 8 passengers; 11,075 km (5980 nmi) with 25 passengers; 10,205 km (5510 nmi) with 50 passengers. The service ceiling is 12,496 m (41,000 ft.)
Owned by: mukesh ambani Price: $55.5 million
BOEING 767 According to the company, the Boeing 767 family is a complete family of airplanes providing maximum versatility in the 200- to 300-seat market. The versatile design allows customers to select four, five, six, seven or eight abreast seating to best suit their operational requirements. Or for a private owner, the inside of a 767 could be an interior designer’s dream. All three passenger models are offered in a variety of takeoff weights, which allow operators to choose only the amount of design weight needed to satisfy their requirements. These offer corresponding design ranges from 5,625 nautical miles (10,415 km) to nearly 6,600 nautical miles (12,223 km). Long raked wingtips improve aerodynamic efficiency; they are also made from increased gauge aluminum with thicker spars to improve stability.
Quick Specs The 767 is powered by either two 281.6kN (63,300lb) Pratt & Whitney PW4062 turbofans, or two 276.2kN (62,100lb) General Electric CF6-80C2B7F1s or 282.5kN (63,500lb) CF6-80C2B8Fs. The design cruising speed 0.80 Mach, and design range at max takeoff weight with max passengers is 10,343km (5580nm) with PW4062s and 10,418km (5625nm) with CF6-80C2B8Fs.
Owned by: Larry Page Price: $55.5 million
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EPIC GAMES 9 9EPIC GAMES Mario Bros Remember Mario and his act to rescue the Princess? The series started in 1981 and has released more than 200 video games. The series also holds the title of best-selling video game franchise in history, with over 262 million combined units sold.They have lasted for over 30 years. Incredible effort. We all have spent our childhood trying to rescue Mario’s princess. Some still haven’t got over the game, they have set Mario theme as their ringtone.
Watch Dogs This upcoming game from Ubisoft will certainly be epic. In this game, you play as Aiden Pierce, a hacker who can control any surveillance system using his smartphone. The game received over a combined 173 pre-release awards and nominations for both its displays at E3 2012 and 2013, including three awards and four nominations from the Game Critics’ Awards. The most impressive aspect of this game is representation of Chicago. Watch Dogs will be hit the shelves on 27th May, 2014. Mark that date in your calendars.
Pro Evolution Soccer While EA’s FIFA is the most popular soccer game, PES from Konami is the preferred game oftactically knowledgeable soccer fans. With its realistic gameplay and controls, PES is the closest thing to real soccer. The customization options are great. Scoring goals can get difficult here, so you really have to earn them. PES also holds the official license of UEFA’s prestigious competition – The Champions League. With the World Cup just around the corner, PES 2014 is a good option to dive into the football frenzy.
GTA V This game from Rockstar Games was smashing all records last year. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the game’s single-player story follows three criminals and their efforts to perform a number of heists while under pressure from a government agency.Within twenty-four hours of its release, the game generated more than $800 million in worldwide revenue, equating to approximately 11.21 million copies sold. If you own a gaming console, there is no excuse for missing out on this one. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Metal Gear Solid This classic action-adventure stealth game directed, Mario Bros produced and co-written by Hideo Kojima, the innovaRemember Mario and his act to rescue the Princess? The series started in 1981 and has released more than 200 video tive Japanese video game director. This franchise has games. The series also holds the title of best-selling video game franchise in history, with over 262 million combined won millions of fans worldwide. The protagonist, Snake units sold.They have lasted for over 30 years. Incredible effort. We all have spent our childhood trying to rescue Mais really popular among gamers. Their latest release, rio’s princess. Some still haven’t got over the game, they have set Mario theme as their ringtone. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes was a fantastic game as well. Metal Gear Solid really tests your tactical nous Watch Dogs and other skills. This upcoming game from Ubisoft will certainly be epic. In this game, you play as Aiden Pierce, a hacker who can control any surveillance system using his smartphone. The game received over a combined 173 pre-release awards and nominations for both its displays at E3 2012 and 2013, including three awards and four nominations from the Game Critics’ Awards. The most impressive aspect of this game is representation of Chicago. Watch Dogs will be hit the shelves on 27th May, 2014. Mark that date in your calendars.
Call of Duty
Pro Evolution Soccer This popular series first began on PC and then exWhile EA’s FIFA is the most popular soccer game, PES from Konami is the game oftactically knowledgeable panded to preferred consoles and handhelds. This series has soccer fans. With its realistic gameplay and controls, PES is the closest thing real soccer. options sold over 100to million copies.The Thecustomization Call of Duty series are great. Scoring goals can get difficult here, so you really havehas to earn them. PES also War holds official license UEmoved from World II the to modern warfare.ofThe FA’s prestigious competition – The Champions League. With thelatest Worldgame Cup in just around corner, PES 2014 is aEvery good this seriesthe is Call of Duty: Ghosts. option to dive into the football frenzy. game in this series has received favourable reviews from the critics. The Call of Duty games are published GTA V and owned by Activision.If you are looking for a This game from Rockstar Games was smashing all records last year. Set within fictional San Andreas, based shooter game, the COD will suitstate yourof requirements well. on Southern California, the game’s single-player story follows three criminals and their efforts to perform a number of heists while under pressure from a government agency.Within twenty-four hours of its release, the game generated more than $800 million in worldwide revenue, equating to approximately 11.21 million copies sold. If you own a gaming console, there is no excuse for missing out on this one.
Max Payne
Metal Gear Solid series is one of the most successful shoot- produced and co-written by Hideo Kojima, the innovative JapaThis This classic action-adventure stealth game directed, er games. You play as NYPD detective Max Payne, nese video game director. This franchise has won millions of fans worldwide. The protagonist, Snake is really popular who witnesses hislatest family murdered, and attempts to among gamers. Their release, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes was a fantastic game as well. Metal Gear Solid avenge them. This series more than 10 million really tests your tactical nous has andsold other skills. worldwide. The game was so popular, that there is also a film made under the same title. There are 3 games Call of Duty this series. The recent was then Max expanded Payne 3, to consoles and handhelds. This series has sold over 100 milThis under popular series first began onone PC and which released in 2012. Max Payne 3 is a fantastic lion copies. The Call of Duty series has moved from World War II to modern warfare. The latest game in this series is game and will keep yougame gluedinto your gaming console. favourable reviews from the critics. The Call of Duty games Call of Duty: Ghosts. Every this series has received are published and owned by Activision.If you are looking for a shooter game, COD will suit your requirements well.
Counter Strike
Max Payne This series is one of the most successful shooter games. You play as NYPD detective Max Payne, who witnesses his family murdered, and attempts to avenge them. This series has sold more than 10 million worldwide. The game was so The series isunder undoubtedly one of recent the most poppopular, that there is also a film made under the same title. There areCS 3 games this series. The one was ular shooter games. Set in various locations around Max Payne 3, which released in 2012. Max Payne 3 is a fantastic game and will keep you glued to your gaming console. the globe, players assume the roles of members of combating teams that include counter-terrorists and Counter Strike terrorists. During each independent the two The CS series is undoubtedly one of the most popular shooter games. Set in various locations aroundmatch, the globe, playteams of five playersand are terrorists. tasked with defeating ers assume the roles of members of combating teams that include counter-terrorists During each the indeother bythe theother means either achieving the map’s obpendent match, the two teams of five players are tasked with defeating byof the means of either achieving the jectives, or else killing the enemy combatants.The map’s objectives, or else killing the enemy combatants.The CS franchise has sold over 25 million units worldwide. CS franchise has sold over 25 million units worldwide. Assassin’s Creed Everybody knows about games from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This franchise is as popular as it gets. These games take place during historic timelines. The series has been well received by the public and critics, and has sold over 73 million copies as of April 2014, becoming Ubisoft’s bestselling franchise. While nobody is sure of the future games in this series, we hope that one of them is based on British Raj in India.
Assassin’s Creed
Everybody knows about games from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This franchise is as popular as it gets. These games take place during historic timelines. The series has been well received by the public and critics, and has sold over 73 million copies as of April 2014, becoming Ubisoft’s bestselling franchise. While nobody is sure of the future games in this series, we hope that one of them is based on British Raj in India.
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In
wake of our 9th year in existence, we thought we should give you petrol-heads a list of 9 of the greatest driving roads in the world. These roads cover every spectrum of driving, from long distance GT cruising to some of the most challenging pieces of tarmac around the world as well as some of the most scenic drives in the world, which though short in terms of distance, provide such breathtaking views of this marvellous planet we live on, they deserve to be on your Before I Die Wall. The Before I Die Wall (google this one) is a more intense, more emotive version of the bucket list, and what could be more emotive than driving some of the best cars in the world on some of the best roads in the world.
ROADS
TO DRIVE BEFORE YOU DIE Words By-Akshay Sethi
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
The Great Ocean Road
-Australia
Travel the Great Ocean Road to witness one of the most scenic coastal drives in the world. Listed at 243km, the road is a small part of the route that connects Melbourne to Adelaide. On the way, do stop to take in breathtaking views of the Southern Coast of Australia, including the 12 Apostles, a dozen limestone rocks carved out by the force of nature. Car of Choice: The Jaguar F-Type, cuz the coupe has to be the prettiest car on sale today. And you can’t beat the sound of that supercharged V8 engine churning out 550 horses from under the bonnet.
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The Great Ocean Road -
Norway
Honoured as the country’s construction of the century in 2005, the Great Atlantic Road is 8.3km long and is part of the 85.6km stretch joining the cities of Kristiansund and Molde. The road consists of a number of small islands over the Atlantic Ocean joined together by eight bridges. The road has four viewing galleries along the 8.3km stretch and is a national tourist route, meaning it’s one of the major highways in Norway. Car of Choice: The Volvo S60 Polestar, because this is how the Scandinavians make a muscle car. And while it’s no Mustang or Camaro, with its bright blue paint, it’ll sure as hell look striking next to the ice lined Norwegian highways!
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Manali - Leh - Srinagar Highway -
India
One of the most feared roads in the world, partly because of the terrain and partly because of the way we Indians drive. The road to Leh via Rohtang and then further ahead to Srinagar is also one of the most scenic you will find anywhere. It starts in the Lower Himalayas and goes through the highest motor-able pass in the work, the Khardung La. This route is 900km of pure bliss. Car of Choice: The Land Rover Discovery, because when you’re dealing with this kind of a terrain, it helps to have a car built on 2 chassis. Also because it’s supremely practical and extremely potent on and off the road.
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Pacific Coast Highway -
USA
700km long and connecting the mega cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Pacific Coast Highway runs along the West coast of the United States of America. The highway is famous for running along some of the most beautiful coastlines in the USA, leading to its designation as an All-American Road. Do look out for the Bixby Creek Bridge along the route, built over the Pacific Ocean. Car of Choice: There could only be one car in contention when you’re driving along the American West Coast and that has to be the Tesla Model S. Partially because it’s unlike anything you’ve ever driven up until today. Largely because Tesla’s supercharger network is up and ready along this route, and when you have chance to drive tomorrows technology today, you grab it with both hands!
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National Route 40 -
Argentina
National Route 40 runs south to north through western Argentina, parallel to the Andes Mountains. The southern part of the route, a largely paved road through sparsely populated territory, has become a well-known adventure tourism journey. RN40 is one of the longest routes in the world, along with the likes U.S. Route 66 and the Stuart Highway in Australia. It is more than 5,000 km long and crosses 20 national parks, 18 major rivers, 27 passes on the Andes, and goes up to 5,000 m (16,404 ft) above sea level. Car of Choice: Land Rover Range Rover. Because no other car goes off road while keeping it’s passengers cocooned in the luxuries only a 5-Star hotel room can offer. Plus it’s a proper long distance GT cruiser. No there car can measure up to it in terms of its abilities.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Touge Roads of Mount Fuji -
Japan
From afar, the Touge Roads climbing up Mount Fuji appear rather calm and serene, but this is where the foolhardy youth of the country took drifting to the next level, stringing one corner and hairpin to another. If you’re a fan of the Fast & Furious series, this has to be on your bucket list. Car of Choice: Subaru Impreza WRX STi, because the new one looks striking, modern and drives just as well as its predecessor. There are very few cars that you’ll enjoy drifting in as much as this one.
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Furka Pass -
Switzerland
At a height of 2429m (7969ft), the Furka Pass connects the Swiss towns of Gletsch and Realp and runs along the scenic Rhone Glacier and the Rhone river fed by the glacier. If you love stringing together a bunch of apexes on hairpin turns back to back, then this is a place that should be on your bucket list! Car of Choice: The Porsche 911, because when you have a twisty piece of tarmac, there are very few cars in this world that will give you the pleasure that a Porsche will, especially the new 911 with the rear wheel steering in place.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Karakoram Highway -
China -Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and PoK across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an elevation of 4,693 m/15,397 ft. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” The Highway takes you some of the most scenic parts of the upper Himalayas. Car of Choice: On this potent landscape, along with one of the most demanding terrains you will ever come across, the Jeep Wrangler fits right in. It’s iconic, this car and you can be confident you’ll have “Bring it On”attitude to anything that comes your way.
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TREME
Col de Turini -
France
The Tour de France and Monte Carlo Rally share this breathtaking mountain pass in the French Alps. Until a few years ago, the Col de Turini was also driven at night, with thousands of fans watching the “night of the long knives” as it was called, due to the strong high beam lights cutting through the night. Drive from Monaco to Turin to make most of this scenic drive. Car of Choice: When you’re given a chance to drive on what is possibly one of the best driving roads in the world, you go there with what is arguably the best car in the world. If all that techno-wizardry and the sound of that engine isn’t enough, imagine the French Alps, numerous hairpin bends, a truly stunning landscape, and a touch of scarlet screaming through the mountains. Has to be the Ferrari 458 Italia.
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The world is full of beautiful places and it is humanly impossible to visit each and every place in a lifetime. Thus, for geeks, who find beauty in things (in this case, places, too) that go further beyond their looks, we sift for you 9 Tech Destinations in case you’d want to go beyond sightseeing.
Words By: Garvita Sharma
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Destinations
Akihabara District - Tokyo, Japan It is not for nothing that Japan is known to be the topmost place when it comes to electronics, gadgets and the latest development in technologies. With some of the major innovations coming from here, it is then understood why we have included Akihabara here. And pray tell us that you’re not surprised. The place, also known as Akiba, named after a former local shrine, has many shops dedicated to anime and manga that are now dispersed among the electronic stores in the district. Akihabara has undergone major redevelopment over the years that include the renovation and expansion of the Akihabara station along with the construction of new buildings in its proximity. Plenty of electronic shops swarmed by people, it has everything, right from computers to cameras, TVs, mobile phones, electronic parts and home appliances to even second hands and electronic junk. Some of these can only be used in Japan due to voltage and other technical differences.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
The huge Yodobashi electronics superstore stocks retro videogames and gaming consoles and lets one try new games for free. Then, there is the Akihabara crossfield, a business complex with the aim of promoting Akihabara as a center for global electronics technology and trade. There are lots of animation related establishments that have become immensely popular in the area including the ‘Manga Kissaten’ (Comic cafes), a place where customers can read comics and watch DVDs accompanied with an access to internet. With speakers on ear blasting volumes, the place overpowers the senses and one can listen to sounds of games all around. Adding up to the market are innovative, interesting ads displayed here. It is hugely famous for arcade gaming, PC peripherals, memory media and duty free shops near the station.
Destinations
The Intel Museum Have you watched the witty Intel ads that say – “Our Rockstars aren’t like your Rockstars” “Our jokes are not like your jokes” followed by many others in the series? That clearly sets a mark for Intel thereby setting it apart from the lot. And then, if it has a museum, you can expect nothing less than best, for no one has managed to capture the computer revolution better than them. The Intel Museum is located at Intel’s headquarters in Santa Clara and has exhibits of its products in addition to Intel, the world’s largest maker of silicon chips, and the semiconductor’s technology history. The museum opened in the early 80s as an internal project at Intel in order to record its history. It unbolted its door for the public in 1992 after expanding in ’99 and adding a store. The sprawling museum with an area of 10,000 square foot has interactive displays that demonstrate how silicon chips are made, how they work, their effects on our lives and its evolution. With close to 30 exhibits including some that show how the semiconductor chip technology works, it is indeed very captivating.
Intel’s evolution is shown through various artefacts and stories. So, while you might not be a tech-geek, the place is entertaining, nevertheless. Shows on digital technology that have transformed the way we record sounds, take pictures and communicate take place here. In the Intel fab exhibit area, where the museum’s visitors watch the company’s employees over closed-circuit flat-screen TV, the silicon chip’s manufacturing processes are shown. It is interesting to see the workers dressed in typical bunny suits minus the floppy ears. These suits can be tried by visitors, too, who can then walk on perforated flooring through which purified air circulates in a real fab. There are many hands-on exhibits – one where people can spell their names in two digit binary language of computers, another, where the exhibit allows the person to place templates over a touch screen in order to replicate the steps taken to etch intricate circuitry onto silicon wafers.
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Destinations
The Tech Museum of Innovation Also called as The Tech, it is located in the heart of Silicon Valley. It is the place to be if you want to know how to deal with energy efficiency, customization, exploration and the force of gravity. With three floors, each having its own significance, its architecture is the work of Mexican architect, Ricardo Legorreta. The place has four major theme galleries – Communication, Exploration, Innovation and Life Tech – that fill its upper and lower level. The museum can very well be regarded a microcosm of Silicon Valley’s celebration of technology. Most of the exhibits here are interactive and one such exhibit is where people can design and build robots. The Tech also has joint partnerships with local attractions, jazz festivals and Global Festival of Art. On special occasions, it rents out Parkside Hall from the city of San Jose to host larger Exhibits. There have been special Exhibitions like that of Leonardo Da Vinci and his inventions, findings and pictures in the past.
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Some major temporary exhibits that have taken place here in the recent past are ‘Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination’ which was hosted in October and stayed till February this year. This was followed by the new exhibition on Digital Music, in March, which was called the REBOOT music and included Tim Thompson’s Space Palette. The place also hosts ‘The Tech Awards’ wherein people and organizations, for their contribution to technology, are honoured for improving the human condition. In the museum’s Virtual Test Zone gallery that happens to be a prototype exhibit area, there are very often virtual-to-real-world exhibits on specific themes that result from the Tech Virtual programs. The place also has 3D printers; permanent themed galleries that focus on green technology, the Internet, innovation, exploration and the way technology enhances our lives by means of using interactive exhibits and virtual technology.
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Destinations
London Science Museum This place has an interesting history. In 1857, under Bennet Woodcroft, a museum with collection from the Royal Society of Arts and surplus from the Great Exhibition that was a part of the South Kensington Museum, was founded. With collections of machinery, Art and Science that were later broken down to become standalone museums, this is the one with everything Science! The place where it is currently stands was designed by Sir Richard Allison, the Scottish architect who was assigned the task of designing many other buildings of National importance. Its collection of item includes the oldest steam surviving locomotive – Puffing Billy, Stephenson’s Rocket, the first jet engine, the reconstruction of the DNA model, documentation of the first typewriter besides several other interactive exhibits. The IMAX 3D Cinema, that plays documentaries on Science and Nature, and the Wellcome Wing that focuses on digital technology are the new additions. The exhibit on the fourth floor is called ‘Glimpse of Medical History’ with reconstructions and dioramas of the history of practised medicine followed by the ‘Science
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and the Art of Medicine’ on the gallery of the fifth floor with exhibits of medical instruments and practises from ancient days from various countries. The library here was once Britain’s National Library for Science, Medicine and Technology. Its new Wellcome Wing focuses on Bioscience, which makes the museum a leading world centre for the presentation of contemporary science. ‘Science Night’, an all night extravagant event with a scientific twist is held for children where they spend an evening performing fun science based activities and spend their nights amidst the exhibits. Before the event ends in the morning, they leave watching an IMAX movie. ‘Power: The East Hall’ is an area that stretches up to three floors. There are various iconic steam engines that tell stories of the British Industrial Revolution. ‘Exploring Space’ is for aviation lovers since the place is full of rockets and exhibits and speaks of benefits that exploring the space has brought to us, especially in the world of telecommunications. Similarly, ‘Flight’ displays full sized aeroplanes and helicopters.
Destinations
CERN, Geneva This is one massive place for Science fanatics. As the place turns 60 this year, it continues to fascinate those willing to surrender themselves to the wonders it has at hand to offer. Being the world’s largest Particle Physics Laboratory, its purpose is to research and operate it. House to the World’s Biggest Machine, the Large Hadron Collider that accelerates electrons and positrons in a 27km circular tube its impact results in creating new forms of matter. The place displays two permanent exhibitions showcasing the pioneering work done by the center. One of these exhibits is the dazzling Universe of Particles that is inside a giant globe intended to resemble Earth and is a sparkling interactive voyage of the enigmatic world of particles. One can witness the best of the place through games, experiments and hands-on workshops, besides many other things; the accelerators here recreate the famous theory of Big Bang for the visitors. For those who want to spend some more time and understand things better, they can opt for the two-three hour guided tour of laboratory that lets in the visitors to the Universe of Particles, introducing them briefly to
CERN’s work, followed by a film and a visit to one of the experiments or an accelerator. The place also provides infrastructure required for high-energy physics research which has resulted in a number of experiments being constructed at CERN following international collaborations. Many path breaking innovations have taken place here. To make things more relevant, one needs to know that it is the birthplace of the World Wide Web and presented touchscreens way back in 1977! CERN’s main site is at Meyrin, where there is a large computer centre with strong-data processing facilities, essentially meant for experimental-data analysis. It is for all these reasons that the place is considered a major wide area networking hub in order to provide these facilities to researchers elsewhere. In the past couple of years, it has also become a center for developing grid computing, hosting projects like the LHC Computing Grid, Enabling Grids for E-SciencE, CERN Internet Exchange Point.
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Destinations
Clark Planetarium Located in Utah, the Salt Lake City, it was founded in April 2003 and replaced the historic Hansen Planetarium. The Hansen Dome Theater that is 55-foot perforated aluminium dome is the first pitless digital one of its kind in the USA and can accommodate around 205 people with individual interactive seat button controls. State-of-the-art projectors, speakers ensure a great viewing experience in the hemispherical theatre, which covers a variety of space-related themes – from fully immersive 3D productions to live-narrated current events programs to family shows and music entertainment performance. The place is one of the few informal Science education institutions with the resources to create and distribute its own fulldome animation content. The IMAX here has shows on science and nature during the day followed by Hollywood movies in the evening with emphasis, both on 2-D as well as 3-D films. It is equipped with modern digital projectors, a new screen, new seats and better sound system. The place distributes cutting edge content for planetariums all over the world. Some of the full dome shows created by the Clark Planetari-
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um production includes Perfect Little Planet, a tour on the modern solar system, Attack of the Space Pirates, a sci-fi action adventure show on the search for alien artefacts in our Milky Way galaxy, Led Zeppelin, a show on classic rock besides many others. Spread across 10,000 square feet are free exhibits including ‘Science on a Sphere’, an animated globe by NOAA; ‘Newton’s Daydream’ an audio-kinetic sculpture, a ‘Foucault pendulum’, Meteorites, Telescope displays and updating video from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA TV. The place also flaunts an authentic moon rock sample, acquired by the Apollo 15 mission, on permanent loan from NASA. The planetarium takes up the task of educating students about Science too seriously and serves over 75,000 school children a year through field trips and travelling. Its outreach programs include auditorium programs that showcase brilliant interactive science demonstrations possible, star parties that give a chance to directly view many celestial objects besides many other topics of interest.
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Destinations
Glasgow Science Centre While you’re in Scotland basking under the beautiful sun and soaking the lush green environs, forget not visiting this place that promises to inspire people and engage them with a rush for Science and technology in exciting ways. With two acres of interactive exhibits, workshops, shows and planetarium, it has some thrilling live Science shows. So you can be outdoorsy and enjoy water in the Waterways exhibit or you can stay indoors to witness the celestial wonders. With magic shows, space travelling, building a rollercoaster and looking into the future, there is the Science Mall, the IMAX Cinema and the Glasgow Tower, which was designed in order to be the tallest, freely-rotating tower in the world, but due to some or the other problem, it continues to remain closed. Breathtaking, the Science mall is a crescent shaped structure and represents the canted hull of a ship, referring to the adjacent canting basin where vessels were
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brought to have the marine growth removed from their hulls. Its three floors have over 250 science-learning interactive exhibits that are themed around concepts of ‘explore and discover’, ‘science in action’ and ‘science and you’. Visitors also have an access to Science Show Theatre and the Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium that has a special Zeiss projector to view images of the night sky onto a 15m diameter dome. The IMAX here was the first one in Scotland with a single auditorium that seats 370 in front of a rectangular screen and the capability to show 3D films, too. Glasgow Science Centre is a part of the on-going redevelopment of Pacific Quay, an area that was once a cargo port known as Prince’s Dock and built at cost of £75 million.
Destinations
Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy While you might not remember all his contributions to Science, you’ve still heard his name. If you associate the Telescope with Galileo Galilei, you also need to know that he brought to us the compound microscope and was regarded as the ‘father of modern science’ by Albert Einstein. Due to his rational argument about the Universe (heliocentric view of the Universe), he was outcast by the traditional society, his theories were censored and he was imprisoned and it was not before the 18th Century that he was buried after his work was finally accepted. And thus, it is hardly a surprise that his findings, along with many other things have found a house. Museo Galileo, founded in 1927 by the University of Florence has artefacts from the 15th to the 19th Century that includes instruments like stethoscopes, globes, telescopes and navigational instruments. Before 2010, the
place was known as Institute and Museum of the History of Science, IMSS. One of the most intriguing memorabilia here is his thumb, index and middle finger from the right hand. The place also has the lens that Galileo used to discover the four moons of Jupiter alongside telescopes of all sizes and complexity and a tiny ‘lady’s telescope’, which is also a makeup kit in disguise, made of ivory. This, besides many other relics like armillary spheres, bussolas, works of Tuscan and European artists and many others belonging to the ‘Accademia del Cimento’, from his early years of discovery and inquiry still remain here. With fine designs on its astrolabes, compasses, dials and other mechanical calculators, it stocks barometers, Chinese compasses and surgical instruments from the Renaissance era, and is nerdiness galore!
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Royal Observatory, Greenwich Always used GMT as a term, but ever wondered where it all comes from? This place is it. Located on a hill in Greenwich Park and overlooking River Thames, is the Royal Observatory, Greenwich earlier known as Royal Greenwich Observatory. While there has been a lot of debate over its name, let’s move away from it for it is known for better things, like being the location of the prime meridian.
by British astronomers as a basis for measurement: four separate meridians have been, imaginarily, drawn through the building.
This place is of significance as it has played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation. The original observatory at first housed the scientific instruments that John Flamsteed, the place’s first Astronomer Royal, used for his work on stellar tables and over time added numerous responsibilities such as marking the official time of the day.
The building currently houses a museum stocked with astronomical and navigational tools that is a part of the National Maritime Museum and includes John Harrison’s prize winning longitude marine chronometer, H4 and its three predecessors, all of which belong to the Ministry of Defence. This, besides many other horological artefacts displayed are documentation of precision timekeeping’s history for navigational and astronomical purposes. The 28-inch Grubb refracting telescope of 1893, one of the largest of its kind in the UK, the Shepherd Clock, an example of electric slave clock, which is outside the observatory gate is also here.
Until 1954, the GMT was based on celestial observations made at Greenwich post which it was calculated from observations made at other observatories. Today, it is regarded as the Universal Time. The place has been used
The Peter Harrison Planetarium here, which opened in May 2007 displays galleries and other educational facilities. For the kind of time you’ll have here, it is certainly worth every minute!
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Add useful features to the Windows 8 Start Screen 1) The first step would be to install Start Screen Unlimited. Once installed, there will be a toolbar on the upper right side of the Windows 8 screen. 2) Click on the Infiniti logo to move the toolbar around the screen. 3) The configuration options display a link to the control panel and allow you to close the toolbar. The “i� button allows you send feedback, buy the deluxe edition, and check for updates. 4) You can add things like a digital clock, Google search box, and power controls right to a dock that you can drag to any spot on your start screen you like. 5) By downloading a simple app, things can be made much easier on your Windows 8.
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install CyanogenMod without Google Play 1) Check if your device is listed on the CyanogenMod Wiki. Most of all the Android device will be listed. Along with it you will also need a USB cable which works well with your device.
o Most of you’ll might be trying hard to find the CyanogenMod on Google Play but unfortunately, Google has removed the app from the online store. We explain you how you can install the open source variant from outside sources.
2) To sideload the CyanogenMod app, head to the Security section of the Settings app and tick the “Unknown sources” box under the Device Administration heading. It might take a while to find this setting. This will give the device permission to install apps apart from the play store. 3) The next step would be to download the Android app by visiting http://get.cm/app 4) After installation, go to your download folder, Install it and Open it. A few warning messages may appear but you don’t need to stress about it. 5) After the app is installed, it also downloads the Android Debug Bridge to give you complete control over your phone. Depending on your device, you might have to activate the developer’s edition first. 6) You will get a confirmation message that tells you to continue the installation using a Windows computer. You
will be promoted to connect your device to the phone using a USB. Once plugged in, the installer downloads the latest version of CyanogenMod compatible with your device and it will wipe out all the content on it. 7) The process will take a couple of minutes, not too long though. Once it’s done, you will see a confirmation message on your Windows screen. 8) Once completed, you can enjoy a new look to your Operating System. It comes along with many changes which you can now enjoy.
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MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET 1) If you are passionate about writing and think you can outsmart your friends any time of the day, start a blog as soon as you can. You wouldn’t make millions but that extra cash will be satisfying. After starting a blog, sign up for ad services like Google AdSense, which post those familiar sponsored links you often see at the top and on the sides of Web sites. The more number of times visitors click on the ads, the more money you shall make. Working from home and making money is made easy. 2) On the basics of your business skills, domain name flipping can be one of the simpler ways to earn a living online. Poor viewed websites are bought by identifiers. But after you update the website and make it more user-friendly, it can be sold at much higher price and worth much more than its initial price. 3) Being an SEO Reviewer is a booming business. There are too man websites out there with good content which
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need promotion. By simply working from home, you can make money by improving these websites. You use a set of given guidelines to evaluate how particular search results match the user's intent. This is achieved with a certain sets of meta-tags. 4) This might be a bit different, but if you have a teaching background, you could tutor online. With high speed internet today, students can meet tutors easily. You can either join a website which already promotes teaching or you can start your own website too. 5) People from the creative side can earn money quite easily online. There are companies that need freelancers for writing, graphic design, programming experience as well. You do this this alongside a job too. Whenever you need that extra cash, the internet gives you options to choose from and work.
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MAKE BEER AT HOME 1) Your first step should be to keep all your utensils clean. Rinse them well and then soak it briefly in a bleach or iodine solution. Do not rinse Iodine solutions. Use either a food-grade cleanser or sanitizer such as One Step NoRinse Sanitizer, which requires no rinsing; or an iodine solution such as BTF Iodophor. 2) Firstly, put any speciality of grains in a grain bag and put it in 10 litres of boiling hot water for about 30 minutes. Remove the grains and let all the water soak out. Do not squeeze the bag at any cost. 3) Add the malt extract and bring it to a boil. After this, you need to let the liquid cool as quickly as possible. Try to put the entire pot in a huge sink with ice water. 4) Once it’s cooled, pour the cooled wort into the fermenter. Using a large strainer, scoop the hops out. 5) Add water to make it 20 litres of water. Add the yeast and put a lid on the fermenter. Put the fermenter in a dark
area that stays a fairly consistent room temperature. In about 24 hours, the air lock will be bubbling away. 6) After a week or so, the activity from the airlock will slow to a crawl. It is now almost ready for bottling. 7) Now, boil sugar in a little water and cool it. Then, add it to the empty, cleaned and sanitized bucket with the spigot or to your fermented beer. 8) Transfer the brew from the fermenter to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar solution in it. If you are using a bottling bucket, just open the spigot and put the bottle filler in a bottle. Push the bottle filler to the bottom and that will let the beer flow. 9) It is necessary to store the bottles for 2 weeks in room temperature and then refrigerate. 10) When you’re ready, pour the beer in a glass slowly and enjoy. I MAY 2014 I 141
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BUY A YACHT 1) The first thing you would have to worry about is whether on buying a new yacht or a second hand one depending upon our budget. Some people even believe in building their own yacht. 2) Whilst purchasing one, you need to keep a lookout on many tests for mechanical, electrical etc. This way you will know how is the condition of the yacht and how long it will last you. 3) Secondly, you will have to pay attention to as to how many passengers you would wish to accompany on your yacht. 4) Few pointers which should be taken into consideration would be - Condition of engine and outdrive, what repairs would have been done, what things require repair or main-
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tenance, does it have bottom paint, what canvas etc. These would be a few important points which should be remembered. 5) Having a survey performed s important since it protects the purchaser and the lender in case the vessel has hidden flaws or is not as it appears to the untrained individual. 6) Make sure you aren’t paying extra for a yacht than the market price for it. Ask around. If you don’t have knowledge about it you can be taken advantage of. 7) Make sure all the documents required are in place so that there isn’t any legal action you will have to face later.
Ever looked at a watch and wondered that you want to spend the rest of your life with it? And maybe want others to fancy it in the same manner after you? Besides serving its main purpose of time telling, watches do a little more. They take you back in time. And like wine, the older your timepiece is, the richer and more valuable it gets... at least for you. Here are 9 watches that have the panache and will to last long ... 9 Watches for your legacy!
Words By: Garvita Sharma
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For the Scuba Diver! IWC – AQUATIMER DEEP THREE
Successor of the GST Deep One Ref. 3527 and the Aquatimer Deep Two Ref. 3547, IWC’s Aquatimer Deep Three are the third generation of watches to feature a mechanical depth gauge. Its development along with that of the rotating bezel system testifies the watch manufacturer’s resolve to further consolidate its technological advantage in complex mechanical solutions. Meant for scuba divers, it offers a reliable backup in the form of the mechanical depth gauge and dive timer for calculating all aspects of diving when everything else fails. The case design of the Aquatimer Deep Three combines the advantages of the internal rotating
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bezel by protecting scale against dirt and scratches along with the convenience of the external rotating bezel. Its sophisticated sliding clutch system transmits the rotations of the bezel to the interior of the case and the internal rotating bezel. The internal rotating bezel, which engages in precise one-minute intervals, can only be moved anticlockwise, thanks to the IWC SafeDive system. During a dive, the blue depth indicator moves with increasing or decreasing depth across the white scale and always shows current depth. The red indicator remains at the deepest point attained during the dive, to a maximum of 50 metres. This figure is vital for calculating any necessary decompression stops and, together with the other data, gives the experienced diver all the
information he needs to complete the dive safely. Thanks to its titanium case, it is lighter and leaner and even though its dial is 46mm, it appears less bulky because of the slimmer rotating bezel with its rounded recessed grips. The use of twin colours makes it easier for divers to keep their bearings in the dark. With automatic movement and date display comes a useful 42hour power reserve. The back of the watch, secured with five screws, features an intricate relief engraving of a diver’s helmet, symbolizing the Deep Three’s suitability as a professional diving instrument. Pressure resistant to 10 bar, its black rubber strap, antireflective coating on both sides makes for a perfect fit.
For the Perfectionist! Corum Golden Bridge Automatic
Born out of an alliance between gold and titanium, the legendary Golden Bridge Automatic from Corum appears in a whole new light. A new interpretation of an iconic contemporary Haute Horlogerie model, it combines contrasts, transparency and an exceptional mechanism. Corum introduced its Golden Bridge baguette movement at a time when choices in terms of designs and mechanisms were safe; its incredible mechanical calibre defied the laws of horological kinetics and created history with it. Since then, it has constantly evolved and fascinated its users with its tourbillon version. Keeping the movement intact, after a period of 34 years, this one came to life! Clad in a contrasting black colour that enhances the gold movement it plays an alchemist with the theme of transparency by revealing its delicate design. It is from the 360O transparency when the watch is not worn that it turns opaque once secured to the wrist which is hidden in sight in order to enhance the mag-
ic of an exclusive linear mechanism. Just like the movement, the hour-markers are made of gold and applied on the sapphire dial to accentuate the overall depth effect while the open worked hands lend a light, airy touch. The watch is equipped with a platinum linear oscillating weight along with a slipping spring mechanism and has a 40-hour power reserve. The 194-part movement also features a variable-inertia balance – a guarantee of long-term high precision – and a miniaturized barrel designed to avoid disrupting the resolutely vertical nature of this model. Its mainplate and bridges are in 18K red gold, adorned with a finely hand-crafted vertical guillochÊ motif that provides a delightful visual accompaniment for the linear motion of the oscillating weight. Unaffected by its own glamorous look, it balances itself just right with a black crocodile strap fitted with a titanium pin buckle bearing the Corum key, and is water-resistant to 30 meters. I MAY 2014 I 145
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For the sailor! Ulysse Nardin’s Freak Cruiser
Ahoy! If there is someone who you think will sail rough waters at some point in time, preserve this for them. Conceived in 2001, the Freak with its cutting-edge technologies and the spectacular Carrousel-Tourbillon is hoisting its sails and taking to the waves. Fully redesigned, its bezel is dressed in aquatic fluting and floating anchor and is surrounded by waves. Keeping aside its dial and hands, the Freak Cruiser is designed in a way that its movement revolves on itself, thereby making it matchless amongst its contemporaries. The Carrousel-Tourbillon system is entirely free- floating, as it excludes the center pin, which was seen in the previous models, to support the entire structure. Its Dual Ulysse escapement has taken watchmaking to a different level. Linked to the center of this unusual vessel is its lower bridge that indicates the hours while the upper bridge, which has the gear train, the balance spring and the exclusive Dual Ulysse silicon escapement, displays the minutes. The traditional anchor and anchor wheel are kept away in this one and instead, there are Celebrating 9th Anniversary
two silicon impulse wheels at its center, each with 18 active teeth that engage in turn, activate an alternator that transmits its energy directly to the balance staff — first in one direction, then in the other. Due to its high end mechanism, the contact between the balance and the escapement is minimized. Stripped of its crown, the Freak Cruiser is adjusted in a phenomenal way. A safety catch, located between the lugs at 6 o’clock, is used to liberate the rotating bezel that helps adjust the hours and minutes when turned in either direction. Its barrel is wound using the rear bezel that is mounted on ball bearings. Once wound, it offers a power reserve of more than seven days. With a diameter of 45mm and an alligator strap with deployment buckle, the Freak Cruiser is as awe-inspiring. Available in 18-karat rose gold and 18-karat white gold, it is just what a sailor would dream of!
For those who love diving deep! Omega Seamaster 300
The Seamaster series by Omega dates back to 1948 and the Seamaster 300 was introduced in 1957. Designed especially for those who love the underwaters, it comes with a unidirectional rotating bezel and diving scale along with the combination of a black dial, lighter indexes and large hands and numbers. This makes it easier for divers to read the time in inconsistent and variety of light conditions, be it on land or below the ocean’s surface. More than half a century later, it has been reintroduced in an upgraded version, enhanced and prepared to equip a new generation of adventurers on land and in the oceans. Available in an impressive selection of metallic materials that include stainless steel, 950 platinum, grade 5 titanium and 18K Sedna gold in an upgraded and enhanced form prepared to equip a new generation of adventurers on land and in the oceans, a mix of any of the two metals lends the watch its subtle, aesthetic appeal. Its black ceramic dial features transferred dial elements that are produced using a combination of gold and palladium. The 18K white gold central hour, minute and seconds hands are coated with “vintage” Super-LumiNova and the hour and seconds hands emit a blue light as do the recessed hour markers. The minute hand is also coated with Super-LumiNova and emits a green light.
Its stainless steel timepiece features a sand-blasted black dial that complements its polished black ceramic bezel ring decorated with a Liquidmetal diving scale. Even as you think this sounds as awesome as it looks, the next one outdoes the rest. It features a case and bracelet made from OMEGA’s 18K Sedna gold – an exclusive material that was introduced at Baselworld 2013. Its sand-blasted black dial is adorned with facetted 18K Sedna gold hands and white transferred dial indications. Its polished black ceramic bezel ring is enriched with an OMEGA Ceragold diving scale. Its two new calibres boast of accuracy, precision and reliability along with the revolutionary anti-magnetic technology that ensures it resists magnetic fields. Water resistant to 300 metres, the caseback has the watch’s details engraved on it only to be backed by a domed, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal that allows for an unobstructed view of the movement inside. Bracelets of the timepiece are fashioned with OMEGA’s patented rack-and-pusher clasp, which is adjustable to six different positions making it possible for the watch to fit over the sleeve of a diving suit. The features of the watch continue to remain the same as its predecessor. If this is your type, rest assured that it will not let water trickle on your hopes. It is water resistant, after all.
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For the Frequent Fliers! Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute
It is the same 24 hour graduation watch that Scot Carpenter, the man who orbited the Earth in the Aurora 7 capsule, wore while he was orbiting the world and it was difficult to distinguish between day and night. Being one of the few 24 hour dial watches that Breitling offers, this just made the 1962 mission a lot easier. Reintroduced in 2012, the Breitling Navitimer Cosmonaute is assembled from the 1962 pieces itself. For ‘historical’ reasons, the watch is a manually-wound one; strangely, somehow, the watch’s name is not in sync with what it actually stands for. The case, which has the Aurora 7’s insignia engraved on it comes in another series with a 1000 piece limited edition series called the Navitimer Cosmonaute Blacksteel due to its exclusive and technical all black-clad version.
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The watch is based on the newer, larger Navitimer models with Breitling’s in-house made Caliber 02 automatic chronograph movement that has a power reserve of 70 hours. 43mm wide in steel with a special engraved caseback, some come with the 12 hour dial formats, too. Water resistant to 30 meters, the dial’s black colour with white numerals and hands and small red hands for the chronograph provides the perfect contrast. With 39 jewels, its curved sapphire crystal has been treated on both sides with a glareproof treatment. Best made for pilots, its dial features a circular slide rule operated by the bezel that helps the wearer in making useful calculations. With a perforated black rubber Ocean Racer strap, it is practical and great for an everyday, tough use.
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For the Auto enthusiasts Rolex Cosmograph Daytona
Probably the best watch from the Rolex collection, this one was launched at Basel World 2013 to celebrate 50 years of the Daytona. The first Cosmograph made of 950 platinum, it continues to maintain its old size of 40mm and comes in an uncommon colour combination – a chestnut brown Cerachrom bezel with an ice blue dial. Matched perfectly by lacquered sub-dials, its three-piece solid Oyster bracelet is also made entirely of platinum. The piece, though as light as it may look owing to its colour, attracts lovers of the Cosmograph. It’s nothing new to know that Vintage Rolex watches are hugely valuable and sought after by the most knowledgeable watch collectors in the world. This one features the Rolex Caliber 4130 and comes at a price of $ 75,000. With a deployment clasp, 44 jewel automatic self-winding movement, it is waterproof to
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100 meters and excels in elapsed timekeeping functions with a graduated tachometer bezel. The watch comes with a choice of watch faces with multiple dial colours and numeral markers besides the classic Rolex bracelet or an embossed leather strap band. Perfect for auto-racing enthusiasts, its oyster case was the first for Rolex over 50 years ago and was most notably inspired by actor Paul Newman who reportedly wore a Daytona from 1972 until his death in 2008. This has gone on to become quite a rage and the rarest ones come with a ‘Paul Newman’ dial. Mechanical, self-winding chronograph, the watch has had three series – right from 1963 until now. This one is a hands down winner when it comes to comparing the old with the new, yet something that has made a mark for itself with its inimitability.
For the Football fanatic! BIG BANG UNICO BI-RETROGRADE CHRONO
Hublot lovers will agree that ‘The Big Bang’ has been one of the most celebrated watches by the brand. The love for the watch has only furthered with the brands introducing this one, which happens to be the Official watch of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil. A first for Hublot that has never before produced a bi-retrograde function, along with a central chrono, its movement is with patent pending, one of the only movements of its type in the watchmaking industry to this day. Given Hublot is the official timekeeper and the official Watch for FIFA World Cup 2014, it was only obvious that they come up with a watch movement especially for the world of football. The UNICO Manufacture calibre, with its column wheel and dual coupling on the dial side is unique and was chosen to serve the basis for developing this watch. Due to its bi-retrograde display, the chronograph starts and the chrono’s second hand and minute hand move from left to right in a circular arc of 45 minutes depicting the one half of a football match, with an area for 15 minutes’ added time up to 60 minutes. Two push-buttons on either side of the crown for START, STOP, RESET and a push-button at 2 o’clock is used to show the period of time selected from the following 4 options: 1st half, half time, 2nd half and end of match that is indicated by a window in the centre at 12 o’clock. Its display design demands additional effort as the
rapid movements of the hands require more energy from the movement; this was one of the challenges met by the designing team. The materials used to make the watch are such that they offer the lowest possible consumption and friction coefficient. Brazil being the host country of the World cup, the dial has yellow and green colour on it, thereby representing its national colours. The watch’s design features a ‘Big Bang Unico’ case with a powerful 45.5mm diameter for a stylish mechanical look. Its bezel is secured by the famous 6 H-Shaped screws designed to allow the alternating polished and matt finishes. The screw-down crown with over moulded rubber is decorated on the end with the famous “H” from the Hublot screw and two push-buttons positioned at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock. The sharp angles and intelligent sandwich system have been retained in the case design, and features the famous “One click” system which allows the wearer to switch between a wide choice of straps – each watch comes with a structured and ribbed natural rubber strap which perfectly matches the end pieces of the middle. Water resistant to 100 metres with a power reserve of approximately 72 hours, it has already earned the name ‘Soccer Bang’. The watch comes in two versions: an 18K King Gold version with carbon fibre bezel in a limited edition of 100 pieces and the other, a black ceramic version in a limited edition of 200 pieces.
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For your lady love! TAG Heuer LINK Lady Trilogy
She could be your daughter, your sweetheart, your mother, your Girl-friend-forever and this would work for all of them, at the same time. Such is the charm of this timepiece! Elegant and luxurious, it captures the aura of the Hollywood legend that Cameron Diaz is and the TAG Heuer LINK, both immensely powerful feminine icons. Cameron, after stealing many a hearts, plays the same trick with the new triple-threat watch and bijoux set from TAG Heuer bearing her name: the CAMERON DIAZ LINK LADY TRILOGY. Forceful and distinctive, the multi-wear watch, bracelet and ring collection reinterprets the LINK’s glamorous lineage and redefines the whole notion of “femininity.” Effortlessly beautiful, its emblematic S-shaped links have turned out to be one of the most successful and iconic designs in the contemporary luxury. Treat to the eyes, it’s also a pleasure to have it adorn your wrist. The same is echoed in the exquisite double-S links of the ring and the single-S links of the bracelet. The three, put together, forged in the line’s signature polished stainless steel only further its elegance with the newest incarnations.
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Co-designed by Cameron herself in order to bring financial support to UN WOMEN (The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), the LINK LADY TRILOGY is a limited edition collection of the newly launched LINK LADY – watch, ring and bracelet. Exclusively for today’s most empowered women, it is somewhere between the watch and a piece of jewellery and comes across as a lot more than both put together. It is the fullest expression of TAG Heuer’s savoir-faire in feminine luxury to date. Nestled in a precious jewel box, the three dazzling elements are undoubtedly a class apart. The S-shaped links of the watch’s iconic bracelet are echoed in the exquisite double-S links of the ring and the single-S links of the bracelet. The three catch the light and sparkle all day, and all night. You can go solo with the set or deck up with all of it at once. Go out and spread sparkle with this one!
For the Dreamers! Patek Philippe
Ref. 6002 Sky Moon Tourbillon
If the deep blue sky takes you in a state of trance and all you can think of is its ethereal beauty, Patek Philippe, with this one, has brought to you just what you want. Combining a grand complication with a case and dial that is a piece of art and brilliant craftsmanship, this is yet another remarkable horological wonder by the revered brand. Successor of the Ref. 5002 Sky Moon Tourbillon, the Ref. 6002 Sky Moon Tourbillon redefines the term grand complication with an exquisitely designed case and two-faced dial. With two cathedral gongs and a tourbillon, the watch’s minute repeater is its most distinctive feature. During the past 25 years, Patek Philippe has devoted considerable attention to this complication, imbuing the hour, quarter-hour, and minute strikes with a new dimension in sonority. While the front dial, which is a work of art in its own right, displays standard time plus a perpetual calen-
dar and a moon-phase display, the rear dial sets the stage for astronomical functions: it shows the night sky of the northern hemisphere, the moon phases, the motion of the stars, sidereal time, and the angular progression and phases of the moon. Hundreds of hours are spent in getting the engraving right by using relief techniques to decorate the minute repeater slide in the case flank, the two crowns, and the white-gold clasp that locks the strap. To add to the beauty are its contours which are in the form of silvery relief structures and embedded in blue enamel whereas the Roman hour numerals are gold appliquĂŠs. The dreamy persona of the manually wound 18K white gold case watch with 686 parts, all finished by hand, is enhanced also by its sapphire crystal glass, both for the front and rear. Space out, in literal terms, with this one!
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contest 5
DIGITEK POWER BANK to be won
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LG - G FLEX to be won
Hope you’ve picked up our May ‘14 Issue because you will need that since we’ve got perky surprises waiting!! How ‘bout a LG - G FLex? Yeah, you read that right! It’s our anniversary issue and we are going to play Santa!! Just get your hands on the 9th anniversary Issue of Exhibit and win DIGITEK Power Bank & LG G FLex. But to be able to win the G Flex you need to be already our subscriber or subscribe in the month of May 2014.
1. Name any 3 Apps mentioned in our ‘Apps of the month’ feature? ...................................................... 2. Name any 3 Tech Indians from the 99 that are featured in the Issue and you are most Inspired from? ........................................................... 3. Name any one of the ‘9 roads to drive before you die’ featured in the Issue? ............................................................... 4. Amongst the 9 Tech Destination Featured name any one? .................................................. 5. What is the car which Arjun Kapoor Drives ? .........................................
Yes Lucky Draw is going to be announced on 30th May and Winners will be announced on our www.facebook.com/exhibitmag and if you are wondering we take prizes home, we will have a video of the lucky draw for you just to let you know that we mean business!
Terms & Conditions: Valid for all the subscribers through the May 14 issue of Exhibit Magazine. Winners will be selected through a random draw. No further correspondence will be entertained once a final decision is made. Prize can not be exchanged for cash/other items. Exhibit shall inform the winners about the prizes. The employees of Exhibit & their relatives shall not be eligible to participate in this contest.
Kindly mail us your answers on contest@exhibit.co.in, along with Your Name, Address and Contact details. Winners would be notified by E-mail Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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Inheriting Majesty
Arjun Kapoor! His
Suit|Burberry, Shirt|Zara, bow tie |ss homme, pocket square|corneliani
brooding eyes stole hearts of many a young girls when he just stepped into the business. While he has done a series of toughie roles, somewhere everyone still knows that he is gentle; that he doesn’t boil, he simmers. And that simmering is ineffable. Coming from a family that is full of names Bollywood is proud of, Arjun Kapoor leaves no stone unturned and continues to maintain the legacy. In a one-on-one with Exhibit, Arjun reveals to us a side we never saw. The techie side.
While Arjun is riding high on success with 2 States, he dismisses his contribution saying, “While I’m glad people appreciated my performance, the movie’s success excites me more than my success. It is a great feeling to know that people have accepted the movie and that it was seen a source of wholesome entertainment.” Being one of the most sought after actors from the new crop, he is one of those actors who started working behind the cameras before they changed sides. “My first assignment was with Dharma Productions and I was the 6th AD (Assistant Director) on Kal Ho Na Ho.
Photographer| Rohan Shrestha Hair Stylist| Danish (Hakim Alim) Make Up| Yogesh Pathare Stylist| Shiraz Siddique I MAY 2014 I 155
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Shirt|Superdry, Blazer|Burberry, pocket square|Thomas pink
I was basically the one behind the making of the movie; if you go back and watch it, they have even included my name as its Director which was really sweet of them. I got paid ` 3,000 for it and after deducting the tax, it was somewhere close to 2,700”, he ends with a laugh. This was followed by assisting Director Nikhil Advani on Salaam-EIshq and working as an Associate Producer on ‘No Entry’ and ‘Wanted’. Did that help him when he started his career as an Actor? “It did. In retrospect, I know it better as to why things happen the way they do; that if there are 300 people on the set, it is because they are needed. You understand the process and do not act like an outsider. I have been and would like to remain a part of this industry.” And while the camera loves him, his aspiration also extends to Directing. He wants to be a part of the filmmaking process by all means. But currently, he is on a journey of self-improvisation and wishes to give his best to everything he does. “With each thing one does, the benchmarks keep on raising. My first movie was with Yashraj and that was an achievement by itself. The more I do, the more I feel the urge to better it.” One might consider him to be shy but he invests, almost preserves, himself for those he loves the most. And Arjun’s love for his mother, Late Mona Kapoor, his Sisters Anshula, Sonam and Rhea and mentor Salman Khan is widely known of. He elaborates, “I think I’ve spoken for Salman bhai a dime a dozen times – of how he has been an emotional support to me and my family and how he has inspired and motivated me and helped me believe in myself. As for my sisters, Anshula, my real sister, is someone who I need all the time. She is that person who I am closest to right now. As for Sonam, she’s more like a friend. We have the same set of friends since we were in the same school and bond at the same level. We care a lot for each other. As for Rhea, she’s extreme. If ever I need an honest opinion and a critique for my work, she’s there. She is like my mirror. She’s a bohemian. There are times when she will stay away from everyone but she jumps into action whenever I need her. Like the other day I told her that I’ll be shooting and she came with 6 bags of clothes... that’s how she expresses her love.” There are various shades to Arjun – at times he goes all out in explaining himself and at others, he thinks some matters are “too personal to discuss.” Giving a miss to all such topics, we ask him about his role in his upcoming movie, Finding Fanny. “It’s a Homi Adjania movie so you can expect a complete Homi kind of humour; somewhere on the lines of Being Cyrus. It’s an English-Konkani movie and my co-stars are Naseruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia, Deepika Padukone. Unlike all the roles I’ve played in the past for all the commercial movies, I play the role of Savio Fernandes who is a mechanic and the only one amongst the lot who knows how to drive. All of them are on a road trip to find Fanny, who Naseruddin Shah is deeply in love with and only realizes a little too late, after 40 years. So it is about the discoveries and revelations that take place while all are together and about what eventually happens. It’s releasing on the 14th of September”, he ends with a smirk.
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A watch defines you and people judge you by the watch you wear. For me, it’s not a gadget, it is who I am. I have a watch fetish and have almost all kinds of watches. There’s an IWC watch that Salman Bhai gifted me after my first movie. My personal favourite, though, is the Hublot All Black Carbon watch. Though Smartwatches are considered cool, they can never be what watches are.
Zipper|Burberry Blazer|corneliani
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
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A watch that you wear is…
Quickies: Car that you drive Mercedes’ Limited Edition ML 350 CDI. That’s how they sold it to me! One habit you want to change is... I bite my nails and fidget a lot with my hair, too. These are two habits I want to change. A word that describes you the best is... Pragmatic. How do you unwind? Sleep. With the kind of things I have at hand right now, it is something that I really need. Could you tell us about your love for gadgets? Which are your must have gadgets and what apps do you use the most? Phone is something that goes without saying. Since I love watching movies whenever I have time at hand, I have a huge DVD collection and love sticking around with my Blu Ray. PS4 is an indispensable part of this list and my love for it never dies. Currently I’m always on it because of FIFA’14. Also, I always need a trimmer in order to maintain my stubble. Since, I have a tendency to get addicted to things too soon, I have deactivated my Apple account, otherwise all I will do is download apps. I don’t have an iPhone for the same reason. Any gadget that you bought and regretted? I had an iPad that I later replaced with an iPad Mini and frankly there was nothing different about it. I’m finally using the Mini, but I was like ‘What the hell!’ If you were to invent an app for convenience or luxury, which one would that be? A Time machine... I think it’s high time we get one; plus, I’d like to get a phone that walks with me... on a practical level, that is. One that can read my mind, dial numbers of people who I am thinking of, text what I want to... Just so that I don’t have to carry it. The next gadget that you want to invest in is… I don’t know if you could consider it as a gadget, but it would be the Jukebox that you can connect to your iPhone. It’s already available abroad and I’m waiting for it to arrive in India. If you could write a biography of one person, who would that be and what would it be called? My father. It’d be nice to spend some time with him and interesting to know him. I’ll call it ‘My Father’... as simple as that. The title speaks for itself. What is the most expensive thing you have ever purchased online? I mostly purchase a lot of plain tees and Blu Ray DVDs online. But recently, I purchased Alexander McQueen Shoes worth ` 90,000 and I’ve not even used it until now. If you were to get into a tech related profession, which one would that be? I would be a Car Designer. That’s some cool profession to be in! And this, I say, after watching Rush. I would like to design a Ferrari...
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Technology is understood by few, but used by many.True leaders are far and few, but inspire many. We've searched high and low to find Industry Leaders who've made their mark in the last year. There are also people included who we think everyone should know about, but possibly aren't aware of, as of now. There are entrepreneurs, there are CEO's, there are visionaries and there are battle-hardened czars. All in one place and all for you. Here are our Tech Indians all 99 of them!
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There are some names in the world of technology, that have been for so long –
their names are synonymous with either the technology that they work on, or their own brand. They inspire millions to chase their dream, and are torchbearers in taking tech forward.We had to exclude names like Narayan Murthy , Nandan Nilkeni whose contribution in the recent past is something that doesn’t need an introduction , but we only looked at gentleman who are still active at the helm of affairs.>>
Cyrus Mistry Chairman, Tata Group The man behind one of the biggest Indian business houses is a man of many talents. He now shoulders a huge responsibility that others will shy away from. But, not him. Here are 9 interesting things about Cyrus Mistry, Chairman of the Tata Group under which comes Croma Retails Chain and TCS. V. His father Pallonji Mistry was the financier of ‘Mughal-eAzam’, one of the glorious film ever made in India.
I. After completing his graduation in Civil Engineering from Imperial College, London and Masters of Science in Management from London Business School, Cyrus Mistry joined the board of his family’s construction company, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd at the age of 23. Three years later he became the managing director of the company. II. Cyrus Mistry is a younger son of billionaire construction magnate Pallonji Mistry whose 18.4 per cent stake in Tata sons make him its biggest stakeholder. Like the Tatas, the Mistrys are part of Mumbai’s tight-knit Parsi community. III. Mistry is very fond of books which occupies a lot of his free time. IV. He loves playing golf and have a very good hand at it.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
VI. Mistry is married to the daughter of eminent lawyer Iqbal Chagla, Rohiqa. He tied the knot in 1992, have two sons Firoz and Zahaan. VII. Like his mentor Ratan Tata, Mistry too love cars, especially SUVs. VIII. Cyrus’s favourite holiday destination is Europe and he is known to be a foodie too. IX. Besides owning a sea facing mansion in Walkeshwar, Mumbai, the business baron also has houses in London, Dubai, Pune, Alibaug and Matheran.While the Pune bungalow is a 10,000 square foot sprawling White House style property, the Mistry’s summer favourites are their Dubai and London homes.
Anand Mahindra Chairman & MD, Mahindra & Mahindra With a career spanning more than 3 decades in a company which has his last name, Mr.Anand Mahindra is nothing short of a business icon here in India. Taking challenges head-on and competing with international and national competition for all his while in charge, he has seen a whole generation change its mind-set about automobiles and technology. Here are our 9 out-takes on the man himself, some of which might just surprise you.
# Anand Mahindra studied at The Lawrence School Lovedale early in his life and then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1977 and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts in 1981. According to October 26, 2011 rankings of Forbes, his net worth is US $825 million and is ranked #68 in India’s rich list. # He studied filmmaking at Harvard and remains a keen photographer with a strong interest in films. He also enjoys listening to the Blues and helped set up an annual Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai in 2011. # Anand Mahindra shares a strong bond with Harvard. A strong believer in the power of liberal arts to shape the leaders of the future, Anand gave an endowment of $10 million to the Harvard Humanities Center in 2010—now known as the Mahindra Humanities Center. # Mr. Mahindra is modest about his achievements. He describes himself as an “accidental entrepreneur” who simply joined the family business rather than starting up his own business.
# Mahindra has many awards to his credit. He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi award in 2004 for his outstanding contribution to field of business.President of the French Republic conferred on him the Knight of the Order of Merit. # Anand Mahindra founded Nanhi Kali in 1996 out of the conviction that empowering women through education would have a tremendous positive impact on the nation in the long run. The Mahindra Group independently supports the education of 29,100 of the 75,000 underprivileged girl children who participate in Project Nanhi Kali. # He regularly uses Twitter to express his opinions and publicise company news. His Twitter profile @AnandMahindra has more than 800,000 followers and he usually tweets about twice a day. # It was Anand who spearheaded the group’s entry into aviation. In 2007, M& M had bought Bangalore-based engineering services firm Plexion, which had several aeronautical experts in its ranks. This led to a 2008 tie-up between M&M and the National Aerospace Laboratories to build a four- to five-seater aircraft, the NM-5.
Azim Premji| Chairman, Wipro For some people, work is not just about profits – but also, how it is being done. AzimPremji is one such distinguished gentleman – who has been at the helm of Wipro for decades now. But there still might be a few things you may not be aware about this humble and soft-spoken leader, of which we present you 9. # The chairman of India’s third-largest IT company also made news for getting rid of his joint CEOs and rightsizing his managerial strength. Also, in the largest act of philanthropy by an Indian, Premji pledged to give about `8,846 # Husband to Yasmeen, father to 2 sons - Rishad and Tariq. In crore ($2 billion)to improve school education in India. January this year, Rishad Premji, Wipro’s strategy chief, was # He dropped out of Stanford University at age 21 to take given additional responsibility of leading the company’s M&A over the reins of Wipro following the sudden demise of pursuits. his father. At that time, the company made hydrogenated cooking fat. (He completed his degree over 30 years later). # Knows every small detail of his businesses, but does not interfere with everyday operations of the various independent # Premji holds late Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (pop- business heads. ularly known as JRD Tata) as his icon. In an article Premji wrote that JRD has been an icon for him, like many other # Enjoys trekking and loves watching movies; he often turns to his senior executives for recommendations. people of his generation. # Azim Premji has become the first Indian to sign up for # Is the proud recipient of the Padma Vibhushan award, the the Giving Pledge, a campaign led by Warren Buffett and 2nd highest civilian award, which he received in 2011. Bill Gates, to encourage the wealthiest people to make a commitment to give most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. He is the third non-American after Richard Branson and David Sainsbury to join this philanthropy club.
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# Transferred 8.6% of his stake in the company, worth about `8,646 crore, to the Azim Premji Foundation. This is the biggest act of individual philanthropy in India.
If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small. I MAY 2014 I 163
Sunil Bharti Mittal Founder, Chairman & Group CEO – Bharti Enterprises The ‘towering’ personality and the face of Indian Telecom, Sunil Mittal’s story is wellknown to the people of India. He is not just heading Airtel’s effort to connect more Indians wirelessly, but also taken a keen interest in a few other areas of business and philanthropy too. Here’s the top 9.
I. The turning point in Mr. Mittal’s career came in 1992 when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time. One of the conditions for the Delhi cellular license was that the bidder have some experience as a telecom operator. Mittal clinched a deal with the French telecom group Vivendi. II. In 1995, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was formed to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. There has been no looking back since that day, as ‘Airtel’ has become one of the biggest players in the telecom market, not just in India – but in the world. III. In a recent government auction, he bought additional telecom spectrum worth close to $3 billion. IV. In February, he inked a $113 million deal to acquire smaller rival Loop Mobile to become the largest player in Mumbai city. Last year, he signed an infrastructure sharing pact with potential rival Reliance JioInfocomm, MukeshAmbani’s new telecom venture.
V. Mittal has also been working towards educating India through the Bharti Foundation. The foundation has established over 200 schools on its 2009 list of the world’s top 25 philanthropists. VI. Mr. Mittal is also a proud recipient of the Padma Bhushan award, the third highest civilian award given to Indians. VII. The globally renowned school of business INSEAD, located in France, bestowed the Business Leader Award on him, in 2011. VIII. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, USA and also a member of the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. IX. Mittal was instrumental in bringing the ‘Minutes Factory’ business model into India that allowed low-cost mobile telephony to flourish in India. Bharti outsourced network planning and IT backbone–considered core to the business– and converted its fixed costs to variable costs.
Anil Ambani|Chairman, Reliance ADA Group With a neat net-worth of $5.9 billion, Anil Ambani is the head of Reliance Capital, Reliance Infra, Reliance Power and Reliance Communications. Married to the lovely actress of yesteryears, Tina Munim, the Gujrati business tycoon always has his eyes set on the next BIG thing. You may think you know the man inside-out, but here are 9 things that might just take you by surprise.
II. He is of the strong belief that the industry plays a pivotal role in the development of any nation and to this end he has steered his Reliance Group towards building a great enterprise for its stakeholders and a great future for the country. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, the group has two strong initiatives – the cutting edge 750 bed super-speciality Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and the Harmony Foundation for senior citizens. III. Ambani invested USD 825 million in Steven Spielberg’s Dream Works Studios in 2009 to coproduce movies, a move that has catapulted him into a major player in the global entertainment business. In India he is one of the largest producers of Bollywood film industry. His major interest in Entertainment include 44 FM radio stations, nationwide DTH business, Animation Studios, and several mutliplex cinemas throughout India. IV. Last June, his debt-laden telecom arm Reliance Communications struck a $2.1 billion deal to lease telecom towers to Mukesh’s Reliance JioInfocomm, which is preparing to roll out 4G services.
V. Anil Ambani owns a private jet, the Falcon 7X, which has a breakthrough design and extraordinary capability. Its unique features include a 5,950 nautical mile nonstop range and its unbeatable versatility. VI. He is passionate about cars and also has an enviable collection of them. He has a yellow Lamborghini that he uses on weekends. VII. Even though he is a fitness freak and wakes up in the wee hours of the morning to go for a jog, he is also a foodie – and enjoys exploring different kinds of cuisines. VIII. Anil Ambani gifted his celebrity wife Tina, a super luxury yacht, to fulfil her long cherished dream to own one. Tina’s billionaire hubby reportedly spent whooping $84 million to buy this yacht made in Genova, Italy, and named Tian-using the first two letters of Tina and Anil. IX. His favourite piece of advice-
hire a consultant to tell “Don’t you the time from your own
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I. After the demise of his father in 2005, Anil Ambani took over the reign of Reliance Group with interests in Telecom, Entertainment, Financial Services, Power and Infrastructure. In 2008, Ambani is also credited with India’s largest IPO of Reliance Power which was subscribed in less than 60 second on offer, fastest in the history of Indian capital markets till date.
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In the ever-changing world of telecommunication, there are many things that combine to make an overall impact. A phone is just one part, which is made of several components – which all have their own manufacturers. And then, we have service providers who will deliver the infrastructure needed to enable us to actually communicate.
Only few have risen to meet these challenges and fewer still have been doing so consistently over the years. This past year, some have caught our attention more than others and we like you to meet them in the immediate following pages.
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Himanshu Kapania MD- Idea Cellular Himanshu Kapania is the man responsible for strengthening Idea’s dominance in established service areas, while launching services in new service areas and expanding brand presence in other major markets in India. Here are 9 career highlights to help you know the man better. V. In 2006, he rejoined the company and was made COO, managing the business in Southern and Western India. Since then, he has been instrumental in driving its growth in South India and Western India. I. Alumni of Birla Institute Technology, Mesra, Mr. Kapania did his BE in electrical and electronics engineering from 1979 to 1983. II. After completing his graduation, he joined DCM Toyota as Engineer before going for higher studies. III. In 1988, Himanshu joined IIM Bangalore where he soon picked up bridge which according to him helped him to solve academic problems quickly. His friends call him an astute player of bridge. IV. Mr.Kapania’s first stint with Idea was from 1997 to 2003 when he managed Circle Operations. Subsequently, he worked with Reliance Infocomm Ltd. where he was responsible for its operations in the northern region for three years.
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VI. Mr.Kapania was appointed Managing Director of India Cellular in 2011. He managed to consolidate Idea’s position as the country’s third-largest operator with a market share of 16.2% through a series of consumer-centric moves. VII. Recently, Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla named Himanshu a director of Aditya Birla Management Corp (ABMCL), the apex decision body of the group. VIII. Mr.Kapania’s last increment at Idea was almost doubled of his pay package and reached to about `10 crore per annum. IX. He has been Chairman of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an industry body, representing the interest of GSM telecom players.
Gopal Vittal |MD and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel Limited. A man who worked with his first company for 20 years and after leaving it, persuaded by the CEO to rejoin. That’s his charm, which says it all. Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel, bags the credit for building brands ‘iconic’ with his steep knowledge about consumer’s tastes and preferences. I. Currently he serves as a Managing Director and CEO of Bharti Airtel Limited for India and South Asia. He is responsible for defining and delivering the business strategy and providing overall leadership for Airtel’s India and South Asia operations. So in Short he is THE BOSS for Airtel . II. Earlier Vittal was a part of Bharti Enterprises where he was the Group Director for Special Projects. He extensively worked towards formulating and supporting Airtel’s International strategy and data expansion.
VI. In 2006, Vittal was lured by Sunil Bharti Mittal to join Bharti Airtel. From year 2006 to 2008, Vittal served as Director-Marketing at Bharti Airtel where he made significant contribution in driving revenue growth, market leadership and building Airtel what it is today. VII. In 2008, Vittal was persuaded to return to Hindustan Unilever by its CEO and he was reappointed as head of Home and Personal Care businesses.
III. Prior to Bharti, Vittal worked for Hindustan Unilever for 20 years where he was heading the US$3.5bn Home and Personal Care Division.
VIII. In 2012, Vittal re-joined Bharti Airtel as Director for special projects and international business strategy. In 2013, he took over as the CEO.
IV. Gopal has a rich experience in assimilating the consumer mind set, winning the customers, building brand and managing operations efficiently for which he gives credit to his 20 years stint with Unilever global and national responsibilities.
IX. Gopal is an alumnus of Madras Christian College and also holds MBA from IIM, Kolkata.
V. One of his biggest achievement in Hindustan Unilever was Project Bharat, a successful rural reach strategy that incentivized people in rural areas to try HUL’s products.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Sunil Sood COO, Vodafone India The telecom veteran has been in-charge of operations at Vodafone India since 2012, during which time the ZooZoo characters have become synonymous with the brand. With 4G becoming the buzzword in the world of telecom, he will need to play a bigger part to ensure a smooth upgrade of services and customer satisfaction. Here are 9 things which already put him in the driver’s seat for the daunting task at hand.
and Kolkata circles. They also achieved their target of opening 10,000 outlets for customers in these 3 areas. I. Mr.Sood is part of the senior leadership team at Vodafone India and is responsible for the day to day operations and the P&L management for all circles in the country. He also spearheads the new business development initiative of Mobile Commerce for the organization.
VI. Unperturbed by competition, he has always maintained that timing of rolling out of 4G services will be of more importance, rather than getting there first. So far, he has been proved right!
VII. Mr.Sood has also been keen on the CSR activities that II. Prior to joining telecom, he has had a long career with Vodafone have undertaken. He was recently quoted as sayPepsi in various roles within India and abroad, he served as ing, “‘Vodafone Cares’ is our platform to integrate all the the Chief Executive Officer at Pepsi in Bangladesh. good that Vodafone India does as an organisation. The initiatives under ‘Vodafone Cares’ are built around 3Es – EmIII. He has also spent four years in Nigeria where he was powerment, Education and Environment, the strategic comworking to establish the market for nestle’s milk and infant ponents of sustainability at Vodafone India.” formulae in the country. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Safaricom Limited since October 31, 2012. VIII. He has also spent four years in Nigeria where he was working to establish the market for Nestles milk and infant IV. Mr.Sood recognizes the industry’s interdependency on formulae in the country. its competition, when in an interview last year he was quoted as saying, “We might be mad dogs fighting each other in IX. Mr.Sood did his Bachelor of Engineering in Technology public but we are interdependent on each other. However, from IIT – Delhi and MBA from Indian Institute of Managewhen one player sued, others simply followed.” ment, Kolkata. V. Under his leadership, Vodafone was able to launch mobile wallet service before March 31 in West Bengal, Bihar
Satya Nadella | CEO, Microsoft One Indian, who has certainly made us a lot prouder, is him. Here are 9 Highlights from the Academic and Professional life of Satya Nadella, before he went on to become the 3rd CEO of Microsoft following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
2) Due to lack of options in India, he moved to The US of A and secured an MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and completed his MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business. 3) Before joining Microsoft in the year 1992, he was the Member of Sun Microsystems’ Technology Staff. 4) Nadella played a crucial role in the company’s move to Cloud Computing and helped develop one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world. As an Executive Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise Group, he was responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services. 5) He has also donned the hat as the Senior Vice-President, Research & Development, for the Online Services Division. 6) As if all this wasn’t enough, he held a position as the VP of the Microsoft Business Division.
7) Later, he heralded the President of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools Business which led to the transformation of the company’s business and technology culture from client services to Cloud infrastructure and services. 8) Satya has, to his credit, the recognition of bringing Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure Cloud. 9) He completed The Leadership Circle with another feather on his hat; that of the Corporate Vice-President of Business Solutions and Search & Advertising Platform Group.
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Before joining Microsoft in the year 1992, he was the Member of Sun Microsystems’ Technology Staff.
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I) Satya did his schooling and Bachelors of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications at the Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet and Manipal Institute of Technology, respectively.
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Rajiv Kapur MD, Broadcom India Rajiv Kapur is a Managing Director India for Broadcom. He has been associated with the company for more than 6 years now. Prior to joining Broadcom, he was with LSI for almost 14 years. Rajiv has been issued 5 Patents by the US Patent Office mostly in Physical Design CAD algorithms and that too while climbing mountains and djying for his friend’s party as hobby . We got talking to him...
9 Apps you use the most. Linked In, Shazam, Google Maps, Bloomberg, Gmail, Microsoft Office, iTunes, Picasa, iDjay, Numark DJ.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
9 books that you want us to read.
Working on laptop or cell phone on the back seat of a car.
I’m ok and You’re okay, Blink, Sea of Poppies, Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Emperor of all Maladies,The Hundred Year old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared, And the Mountains Echoed, A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie, The Tell-Tale Brain.
9 things people don’t know about you.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years?
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives.
Head Boy and Mr Modern for Modern School VasantVihar, New Delhi, Motorola student of the year, Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani, Governing Council, Apogee academic festival BITS Pilani 1990, Move to USA for MS program, Fellowship award for MS program at Stanford University,Move back to India as first employee and founding Managing Director of LSI Logic in India, Executive Council member of India Semiconductor Association, Joined Broadcom 2007 as Managing Director, Founding member of Governing Council, Telecom Standards Development Society of India.
Climbed Mt Shasta, Climbed Mt Whitney, Part time DJ for friends parties, Art, I hate being late for a meeting or a party,I love teaching, I love travelling,I play ‘galli’ cricket every sunday, I am an excellent hand at Table Tennis.
Location services, Wearables, Video Transcoding,WiFi Direct,Cloud computing, NFC, Android, Health monitors.
Dr. Avneesh Agrawal| President, Qualcomm India and South Asia Associated with the company for more than a decade now, Dr. Avneesh Agrawal is a veteran of semiconductor and communications industry which is the backbone of any smartphone or connected devices. I. President of Qualcomm India and South Asia, Dr. Avneesh Agrawal began his career at Qualcomm in 1994 as a systems engineer designing the Globalstar satellite communication system. II. From 1998 to 2001,Dr Agrawal led the development of Qualcomm CDMA Technology’s first UMTS chipset and from 2002 to 2009 he led the company-wide effort on the development of OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access) technology and LTE chipsets. III. In 2005 he was named the general manager for Qualcomm’s Technology & Ventures division and soon in 2006 he served as the co-lead for Corporate R&D. Dr. Agrawal joined the Office of the CTO in 2007 while continuing to lead Qualcomm’s R&D in OFDMA-based next generation wireless technologies. IV. In 2009 - He joined QCT where he led the development of wireless connectivity (LAN/PAN & Broadcast) chipsets and eventually he was elevated in 2010, to became the product management lead for the Wireless Connectivity Products group. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
V. He was appointed as the new President of Qualcomm India and South Asia in 2011 and replaces Kanwalinder Singh, the then Senior Vice-President of Qualcomm and President of Qualcomm India. VI. During his time at Qualcomm, he has contributed to developments in Globalstar, UMTS chipsets, OFDM-based next generation wireless technologies, wireless connectivity, as well as venture investment and research in new technologies. VII. Dr. Agrawal has been granted more than 100 U.S. patents. VIII. Dr. Agrawal holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Systems Engineering and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering, all from Stanford University. IX. Under his able leadership ,Qualcomm has played a pivotal role in bringing LTE services in India and It is in advanced talks with various device vendors and operators to bring in new LTE enabled devices in India.
Vineet Taneja Country Head, Samsung India A man who dons the hat of various expertise, heads Samsung, one of the leading mobile phone brands of India. The job is certainly not easy and comes with lots of responsibilities and commitments but Vineet Taneja faces all with his quick wit and enduring smile.
I. Telecom industry veteran Vineet Taneja joined Samsung VI. Vineet started his career with Hindustan Lever and was India Electronics Pvt. Ltd. as the Country Head for its Mo- Vice President, Sales & Marketing for the beverages and bile & Digital Imaging Business in March 2013. foods business just before he said good bye to Hindustan Lever. II. Taneja stepped in place of Ranjit Yadav who had moved to Tata Motors. VII. He has over 25 years of experience and has worked in sectors like Sales, Marketing, Multimedia, and Operations in III. Prior joining to Samsung, Taneja was the Operations Di- giants like -Hindustan Lever Ltd., Nokia India and Bharti Airrector, South India and Sri Lanka at Bharti Airtel.He was re- tel. sponsible for managing all lines of business, that is, Mobile, Fixed Line Voice, DSL and DTH (Digital TV) at Airtel for VIII. Vineet is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of ManageSouth India and Sri Lanka. ment, Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. IV. During his stay at Airtel, he is credited for successfully leading the launch of 3G and driving the data and device IX. They Say its sometimes easy to reach the top but difbusiness for Airtel. ficult to remain there. For vineet he is laced with exactly the same situation and to retain the leadership position for V. Prior to Airtel, Taneja was the Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung in a super charged competitive smartphone sceNokia India. nario is quite a task .
Rajeev Suri | CEO, Nokia In an identity crisis of sorts, Nokia has turned to Rajeev Suri to guide their ship to a shore where they can enjoy a brighter future than what they’ve endured lately. If you don’t know the new man in charge of the Finnish company, here are 9 helpful things about him which should help you understand him a bit more.
II. With more than 24 years of international experience, Rajeev is a leader who cherishes the opportunity to undertake transformational and turnaround assignments. III. Suri joined Nokia in 1995, becoming the chief of its Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) unit in 2009. IV. He is based out of Espoo, the second largest city in Finland – where the HQ of Nokia is located. V. Suri is credited with turning the unit around, and last year it contributed most of the 12.7 billion euro ($17.58 billion)turnover Nokia made from its continuing operations. VI. The unit, which sells products and services to companies around the world, is a former joint venture between Nokia and Siemens. In 2012, he oversaw the dismantling of that venture in buyout of German partner.
VII. In his first mail to the Nokia unit, he wrote plainly “The Nokia that I grew up in, and that many of you grew up in, is no more. That is the simple reality.” VIII. In the same mail, he also spoke about opportunities that will come, but patience will be needed at this time of technological change. IX. He concluded by talking about implementing a company-wide “Nokia Business System” which will fine-tune management, operations and make sure that day-to-day operations do not face obstacles, and deadlines and goals are met on time.
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The Nokia that I grew up in, and that many of you grew up in, is no more. That is the simple reality.
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I. Born in 1967, he holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications, Manipal Institute of Technology, Mangalore University.
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Faisal Siddiqui Country Head, HTC India A man behind the image of HTC as a brand in India, Faisal Siddiqui has witnessed both low and high tides with his stint with the company. Like always he believes in putting forth the best effort to keep the brand, the HTC, Quietly Brilliant!An Electrical engineer from IIT, Mr. Siddiqui worked with companies like Motorola and Bharti Airtel. He also did his MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Cincinnati and MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He looks up Lee lacoca for inspiration here is some more from him .
9 apps you use the most? Whatsapp, Gmail, Facebook, XE.com, Blinkfeed,YouTube, Zoe, Line, AntiVirus,Truecaller.
Books that you want us to read are... Atlas Shrugged, Game of Thrones, Random Walk, iKon, Blink, Prize.
9 destinations you love the most? Goa, Seattle, Miami, Paris, London, HongKong, Kerala, Maldives.
Sunil Lalvani| Managing Director, Blackberry His salt and pepper hair only up his suave appearance. With over 20 years of experience in the industry Sunil has previously worked with Nokia and Cisco and now has his reins on blackberry in India. We got him talking to us.
Any unusual amusing apps that keeps you busy with your Smartphone Since I am somebody who is always on the move, my favourite apps would be BlackBerry Travel and Evernote. I also use Flipboard to keep myself updated on global news, Nobex to stream music to my BlackBerry Z30 smartphone, and BBM Channels as a powerful Social media tool.
Books that you want us to read are I prefer autobiographies to fiction. Currently I am reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography titled “Open”. I also enjoyed reading Steve Jobs autobiography by Walter Isaacson. My personal favourite has been the autobiography of Lee Iacocca, which is truly motivating and inspirational.
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? Technology innovation occurs at lightning fast speed these days, and with the growth of the internet, touches each one of our lives. Having a techno-commercial background, I have had the opportunity to work on some of the most path breaking products and technologies developed and map the same to commercial deployments based on end customer needs. Under the BlackBerry Brand, which initially defined email on the move, we are now poised for the next big revolution called “Internet of Things” that promises to have more connected end points than mobiles, PC’s and tablets put together. With the acquisition of QNX, we are bringing these solutions into India into the automobile, healthcare, transportation and power generation sectors, which will touch our everyday life, and leverCelebrating 9th Anniversary
age technology for improved quality of life, and a healthy work-life balance. I would want to continue and be a part of the BlackBerry revolution, and bring this technology into India. My passion is to teach, and I would love to share my knowledge and experience with those less fortunate than me, who may not have direct access to technology innovation.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? I clear emails the first one hour of a working morning, which provides enough time to meet customers and colleagues, and some “me” time. The “me” time is important, as I like to ideate on a new technology solution and its application in a customer environment. For example, currently, with our investment into NantHealth, a leading healthcare technology company, I am working on ways to leverage the technology offering in India, to improve the quality of healthcare.
Innovations that you would like to see come to life in the next 19 years We are living in a hyper-connected world, which can be either good or bad, based on an individual’s ability to leverage the same, and balance work and personal life. However, instead of too many gadgets per user, I would like to see an innovation of that one device which helps us stay connected, informed, healthy, and yet does not make us a slave of technology. One gadget to stay connected to machines of all types and sizes and enables them to autonomously communicate with each other. Ideally, this gadget, powered by Solar energy, thereby ensuring environment protection.
Technology hasn’t been traditionally an industry where a lot of women have
made their mark, but there are these determined exceptions who have shone bright despite all obstacles. Some have even made such an incredible mark in their line of work that they have yet to be surpassed by their colleagues of the opposite sex.
What makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd is also the fact that they have risen to great heights without any tarnish to their incredible body of work as well as repute. These trailblazers have shown the path to other aspiring young women throughout the country. Heres’ our pick of some of the best Women In Tech. Our way of saluting them is what is stored as you flip.
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Aarthi Ramamurthy Founder & CEO, Lumoid Working on a rather ambitious project that lets people hire super-expensive photography gear, Aarthi Ramamurthy is one lady who is ready to take risks that only some of the big names in tech have taken. The idea behind Lumoid may not be unique, but they are aiming at Amazon-esque proportions, if the idea sticks. Here are 9 things interesting about her.
II) After stints at Microsoft and Netflix, the YC-alum is making photography rental easy at Lumoid with her no frills attitude. III) Ramamurthy is a relentless entrepreneur. She programmed an Instagram-like photo app during her honeymoon a few years back, coding alongside her husband, at the time a fellow Microsoft employee, from their hotel in Hawaii. That earned them a writeup in The New York Times. IV) She values ‘persistence’ more than any other attribute, even quoting from the movie Kung-Fu Panda “There is no secret ingredient.” V) Aarthi was also the co-creator of Bubblegum, a photo-sharing application that was voted one of the top 15 mobile apps of 2011.
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VI) She was most recently Co-Founder and the Head of Product of the e-commerce site True & Co, which launched at the AllThingsD conference in 2012, and has been covered in The New York Times, Forbes, The Today Show and other mainstream media. VII) She also believes in asking for help to get things done, especially related to coding. Recently she was heard saying in an interview, “Work on scratching an itch with code, and you’ll find your way.” VIII) Quite the environment-conscious citizen, she likes using eco-friendly soaps and detergents, recycling electronics the right way and buying locally sourced products. IX) Just like most average consumers, she has purchased a few gadgets for some reason and doesn’t need any more. These include “two or three Windows tablets–I have no idea when I bought them, they’re just there. There are so many of these Bluetooth speaker systems I keep buying just because they’re cute.”
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I) Trained as an engineer, Aarthi discovered her entrepreneurial spirit upon moving to the U.S. from India.
Work on scratching an itch with code, and you’ll find your way.
Rita Soni | CEO, NASSCOM With an eye to strengthen the efforts of the IT Industry towards inclusive growth, building strategic relationships and establishing effective linkages between industry, non-profits & government – Rita Soni holds an enviable position. If you’ve always wanted to know more about her then let us take you through the top 9 things you really must know. I) With 18 years of experience in both the private and non-profit sectors, Rita started her professional journey with General Electric; moving from an engineering management training program, to the Corporate Audit Staff followed by operations and finance at NBC. II) Prior to joining NASSCOM Foundation, she was the Country Head - Responsible Banking at YES BANK spearheading a pioneering business approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability. III) She worked with the Ford Foundation and the America India Foundation started by President Bill Clinton during the Gujarat earthquake rehabilitation process. IV) In her career stint, Rita has also worked with the American India Foundation (AIF) heading Communications & Advocacy for the India operations. V) Rita has a Master of International Affairs (MIA) degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York City and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Honours from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
VI) Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rita also lived in Texas for a while before finding herself in Morris County, New Jersey with her American-Indian family. As a family, they visited India about every four years. VII) She also focuses on creating innovative, effective, and scalable programs that leverage ICTs for education, health, employability, and entrepreneurship for under-served communities. As part of this, she will further enhance relationships between NASSCOM members and the NASSCOM Foundation in all its endeavours including programs and fund-raising. VIII) Rita has successfully found her passion in helping others in a place where she can be surrounded by professionals. Other than missing Mexican food and being apart from her family and friends in the U.S., she has truly enjoyed this part of her journey in India. IX) Rita comes from a huge Gujju family and she loves exploring the different parts of India, travelling and exploring different sub-cultures present here.
Padmasree Warrior Chief Technology & Strategy Officer, CISCO From humble beginnings in Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh) to a bright passage that included IIT and Cornell University as Alma Maters, Padmasree Warrior has been an amazing leader in the world of tech. Here is how she went on to become the symbol of hope for Women in Technology and managed to rule the roost! # In addition to her work at CISCO, her work is diversified as she serves on a broad range of Government and Industry advisory boards as well as of charitable and community orga# Born and raised in India, she finished her schooling in Vi- nizations. jaywada. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Delhi in 1982, she pursued her # Like most, she loves coming home to her family; enjoys Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University hosting parties, putting together exotic meals and visiting art and joined Motorola in 1984. She had plans to continue with shows with them. Engaging herself by reading literary fiction, Motorola for not more than a year, but eventually ended up knowing about worlds different from hers to invigorate her staying there for 23 years! Isn’t ‘Man proposes, God dispos- intellectual side, painting, writing haikus and poems are few es’ so true? other things she indulges in. Really, now. Some people just # At Motorola, she served many roles – from Corporate Vice President to finally ending up as its Executive Vice-President followed by CTO in January 2003; post this, she levelled-up to become its Vice-President. During her tenure as its CTO, Motorola was, for the first time, awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by George W. Bush.
have a knack for everything! # Vibrant and approachable, she makes time for all her employees, too. Walking across the cubicles, she pops in for chats and finds the sense of being together, inspirational.
# With over two decades of experience in the Industry and expertise in a broad range of domains, she has always wanted # She has been at the receiving end of scores of Awards to focus on empowering Women in Technology. ‘Seize opporand recognition – Fortune Magazine named her as one of tunities as they come along, even if you aren’t sure of the timthe four rising stars in its ‘Most Powerful Women list’; she ing’, is one thing she lives by. was in the list of Forbes’ top 100 ‘Most Powerful Women’. These and much other recognition has only added fuel to # She’s backing Aaron Levie’s enterprise, Box, the file sharing the fire within her. service and is one of its Board of Directors. With immense faith in Cloud, Mobile and the ‘Internet of Things’, she believes # In 2008, Warrior went on to become the CTO of CISCO. In that the firm has the potential to become the next generation 2012, her role expanded to Chief Technology and Strategy enterprise leader. Officer and she now looks after partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and new technologies. In several interviews, she has stated that it was indeed a daunting experience to be one of the few women there. But her faith remains intact as she feels that women can control the statistics and stand out in their respective careers.
Vanitha Narayanan | MD, IBM India Pvt. Ltd. & Regional General Manager for India/South Asia (ISA) How difficult is it to work in the same place for long? If you ask Vanitha, she will answer, not much. For someone who has been a devotedly working with IBM for more than 26 years now. Here are 9 of her career highlights. I. She is an MBA in Information Systems from the University of Houston and learnt her first lessons in adapting to the American society by working in the sales department of a mall. II. She started as a trainee in 1987 in IBM and serviced telecom customer Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Missouri in the US. III. She gradually matured here and climbed the ladder to become the company’s Global Vice President for its telecom solutions offerings and in 2006 moved to Shanghai to run the communications sector business for its Asia Pacific Unit. IV. She arrived in India in the year 2009 and served as a Sales and Distribution Leader followed bythe Managing Partner for Global Business Services. V. In 2012, she was inducted into the IBM Industry Acade-
my, which was designed to advance IBM as a brand and take it ahead as a thought. VI. When she was promoted as IBM’s Managing Director in 2013, she was the first woman head for its Indian operations,and took over at a time when prevailing over its rivals was of utmost importance. VII. Extremely modest, she associates herself more with the word‘influential’ than ‘powerful’. VIII. Presently based in Bangalore with her family, she loves catching up political news, reading and cooking (watching shows based on it and also making it happen in real). IX. A charismatic leader, she has, very beautifully traced her own journey in IBM in an interview, stating that her first decade was about appreciating an industry and a client, the second was about bringing value and building organizational capability while the third is all about leadership in different cultures and environments! I MAY 2014 I 173
Reshma Saujani Founder & CEO, Girls Who Code A woman with her heart in the right place, Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of an organization like no other – Girls Who Code. If you haven’t heard about this dynamic personality, then here are 9 things that will surely get to know her a lot better. I) Reshma Saujani is the former Deputy Public Advocate of New York City and the founder of Girls Who Code, an organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and equip underserved girls ages 13-18 with the skills and resources necessary to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. II) Reshma’s goal is to teach one million girls to code by the year 2020. III) Girls Who Code has become a bigger movement than Saujani ever intended. Powerful women in tech, such as eBay CMO Richelle Parham helped her create awareness for it and raise money to fund it. IV) As Executive Director of the Fund for Public Advocacy, Reshma brought together public and private sectors to encourage entrepreneurship and civic engagement across NYC. V) In 2010, Reshma became the first South Asian woman to
run for Congress, promoting smarter policies to spur innovation and job creation. VI) Advocating for a new model of female leadership focused on risk-taking, competition and mentorship, Reshma is also the author of a new book entitled, Women Who Don’t Wait in Line, released in October 2013 by Amazon Publishing. VII) Saujani grew up in Chicago as the daughter of refugee parents who fled Uganda in 1973 to escape its dictator, Idi Amin. VIII) Before moving to a career in Public Service, she was also involved with Wall Street – through an investment firm named Carret Asset Management. IX) As Saujani tells it, her decision to leave Wall Street and corporate America to run for political office was inspired by Hilary Clinton’s concession speech in 2008 when she lost the Democratic presidential primary to Barack Obama.
Rashmi Verma | Co-Founder & Director, MapmyIndia Rashmi is a co-founder and Director of MapmyIndia. She started her career as a Software Engineer at IBM, USA but later along with her husband, relinquished her settled career and lifestyle in the US to pursue her dream of starting out on her own and of bringing innovative solutions to India. She has a rich experience in technology and management of over 30 years in IT industry. Leveraging her technical knowledge, she laid the foundation and created the framework and architecture for a robust and scalable model of digital mapping in India.
9 Apps you use the most Stocks, Whatsapp, The Times of India, Email, Evernote, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Expensify.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Going through Stock Market Updates after watching the ‘Bazaar Morning Call’ show on CNBC-TV18.
9 books that you want us to read. How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Alchemist, Good to Great, Steve Jobs, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The Ascent of Money, The 80/20 Principle, Survival Is Not Enough andThe Tipping Point.
career highlight in the past 9 years? Leveraging her technical knowledge, She laid the foundation and created the framework and architecture for a robust and scalable model of digital mapping in India.In a pioneering effort, trained, mentored and created a team of GIS and digital mapping professionals at MapmyIndia. Harnessed the power of young minds by nurturing them and thus established the basic DNA of the Company which is ‘passion for developing maps’ Celebrating 9th Anniversary
9 things people don’t know about you. My feet are so small that I keep falling, I love practical jokes, I sometimes like to cook, I know classical music but do not sing in front of anybody, I am a trained Kathak dancer, I have a sewing machine in the hope I will sew someday but I haven’t yet, I do not go to sleep without playing cards, I am a bathroom singer, I want to write a book.
Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Connected Car, Optical head-mounted display (OHMD), Mobile gear watches, Wi-Fi Connected Home, Anti-Slouch Screen, Autonomous cars, 3D Printers, Leap motion (3D Motion and Gesture Control) and Parallella.
Devita Saraf CEO, Vu Technologies Never one to shy away from the spotlight, Devita Saraf is as outgoing as she is devoted to her work. We’ve seen her take her brand, Vu, from a plant and turned it to a beautiful tree – with a warmth and zest that we’ve associated with her. Here are 9 things about the eclectic lady.
An App that keeps her busy is... “ChanakyaNeeti App” has some great learnings from the master of Indian management.
Books that she want us to read are... Business Czarinas by SN Chary.
What will her Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. 9 years from now? India’s #1 Businesswoman and Philanthropist!
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Rushing to my Andheri Office and returning calls on my hour-long commute.
>Her Alma Maters include Queen Mary School, Mumbai and H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. She later attended University of Southern California, where she received a Bachelor of Business Administration. >She started her career at age 16, when she was trained by her father at Zenith Computers and was named as the Director of Marketing when she was merely 21. >Indo-American Society awarded her as the Most Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur in 2009-10. >She has also served as National Co-Chair and Executive Committee Member on the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Young Leaders Forum.
Innovations that she would like to see come to life in the next 19 years Ability to search via images on Google, not only text.
Roshni Nadar| Non-Executive Director & CEO, HCL Corporation Being the daughter of the legendary Shiv Nadar bring in its own sets of challenges, but Roshni Nadar is so much more than just that. Here are 9 reasons that make her nothing short of a Superwoman. I) Has an Undergraduate degree from Northwestern University from where she majored in Communication with a focus on Radio, TV and Film. Taking this ahead, she worked with Sky News U.K. and CNN America as a News Producer. Post her stint in the Media Industry, she spent time learning the tricks of the trade at HCL. II) Later, this was laced with an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management where the focus of her studies was on Social Enterprise and Management & Strategy. Here, she was at the receiving end of the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award. III) At HCL, she is the ‘Plan Man’ and looks after the transactions and important decisions pertaining to the overall direction of the Corporation. IV) Philanthropic, she is also a trustee at her Father, Shiv Nadar’s brainchild - Shiv Nadar Foundation, which is among the top private engineering and business schools in India. Roshni is actively involved in setting benchmarks in academics and extra-curricular development.
V) In addition, she is the backbone of the Vidya Gyan schools in UP. An initiative to provide free, quality education to rural children from economically backward backgrounds, it covers close to 75 districts. VI) She joined forces with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to promote education of Dalit and Muslim girls in UP. VII) While she works really hard, unwinding is done in some style, too! Thus, travelling, yoga and indulging in sports events is how she maintains the work-play balance. VIII) She is a trained classical musician! Now that’s something... IX) While ensuring that she plays her part well in all facets of her life, she is also a devoted Wife and Mother and leaves no stone unturned in acing that, too. I MAY 2014 I 175
Neelam Dhawan Managing Director, Hewlett-Packard India Pvt. Ltd. Having worked with revered organizations like Microsoft, Compaq and IBM at senior positions, Neelam Dhawan’s story will tell you more about serendipity; about what happens when women decide to live life on their own terms, undeterred. Having climbed the corporate ladder, she has been working as HP’s Managing Director since 2008 with a portfolio that has extended to offshore activities, BPO, Software Engineering, Research and IT Services and has helped in shaping the company’s overall business agenda.
In 9 points, let’s have a look at her life!>>
V# The lady who doesn’t like flaunting her position and accomplishments has been a member of the Supervisory Board at Koninklijke Philips N.V. since April 2012.
VI# Mother to two daughters, Naina and Nupur, she has I# Being a leader in tech, she holds a degree in Economics worked at senior positions with Microsoft, Compaq, IBM. It is which was followed by an MBA in Marketing Management, hardly a surprise then that she is a mascot for all women in the from Delhi. IT Industry. II# When God closes one door look on the other side; you might’ve ignored the one that’s shedding light on the one shut. When her first preference, FMCGs, was sceptical to hire her thereby giving into the stereotypical bias of the time against women, the IT Industry welcomed her with open arms. This accidental stint turned out to be the turning point in her career and she out did her times.
VII# Neelam featured in Fortune’s annual global list of ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Business’ in the year 2009; this could be attributed to her move to HP as its MD in the year 2008. VIII# Ambitious and confident, she loves vacationing in London and likes the place for its people and rich cultural history.
IX# On a lighter note, the veteran slows down by playing III# She began her career with HCL at a time when people had not foreseen that IT will be at the helm of every other crosswords and puzzles and preparing meals on Sundays. industry and started her career as a trainee executive only to end up working there for a good 14 years. One can easily say that her HCL’s and the IT Industry’s growth along with her has been in the same direction – upwards.
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IV# Jean Paul Sartre has said, “We must act out passion before we can feel it”. Having worked in the Industry for more than two decades now, the quote holds true of Neelam, too. She has inspired women from all walks of life to up themselves.
We must act out passion before we can feel it. ...Jean Paul Sartre
Kumud Srinivasan| President, Intel India; General Manager,Intel Architecture Group, India That she was the first woman President of Intel in India itself speaks volume for her achievements. Kumud Srinivasan has created a niche for Women in Technology. Let’s know her up, close and personal! # Originally from Kolkata, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1981 followed a Master’s Degree in Information and Library Science from Syracuse University in 1984. Later, she also completed her doctoral coursework in Information Science at the University of California, Berkeley. # She started with the company’s Manufacturing IT Department where she spent over 20 years. Post this, the factory was completely automated and she moved to Corporate IT. The soft spoken and petite lady’s next shift was in the Design Engineering Department. # At Intel, she has been at various levels for different departments. She was the Vice President and General Manager for IT Engineering enterprise and soon became company’s Director of Automation and was responsible for developing automation capabilities across its global factory network. Her belief of chasing goals rather than defining them clearly comes across with this. # Keen on growing the digital literacy and consumer market for electronics, she has spent more than 25 years in the IT world along with been Intel’s Vice President for its Information Technology Department and General Manager of IT for Silicon, Software and Services at Intel. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
# Having done so much, being the Intel Head in India was a natural progression and it happened just at the right time when her younger son had left home for college to study elsewhere. As President of Intel India, she oversees engineering and innovation for market development and manages relationships with government, industry and academia.Thrilled about her new role, which has taken her back to her cultural roots. # Keen on community services, a cause closest to her heart is empowering women to be successful since she wishes to assist women from lower income groups to become entrepreneurs by means of innovative technology. # She has been a board member of Moka Five, an emerging leader in the growing desktop virtualization industry, since 2010. # She is bent over to support digital literacy, too, and would love to work towards realising the Government’s goal of having one e-literate person per family in India. What excites her about technology is its ability to empower people. # Her lighter side loves travelling to her favourite holiday destination,The US of A and its national parks and loves spending good time with her family in Europe.
Aruna Jayanthi CEO, Capgemini India CEO of Capgemini, India, which is a pioneer in the IT Industry and brings the Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing experience to India, Aruna Jayanthi has an electric style of working. We take notes from her interviews, and enlist things that make her dynamic!
# A hesitant start – When Aruna started her career in IT, her expectation with the profile she was handed over was quite different from what she wanted. Coming from a Business School, she expected consulting type of roles; instead her first assignment was maintenance. Down in the dumps, she complained and asked for a change in roles when her manager asked her to continue doing the same as she would learn more from it. And well, she did. The plans that are meant to be will be rocky in the start, for sure!
# Ambitious–Besides the wonders she’s already up to, she wants to work in association with the government and encourage investments by industry in high-calibre R&D pools in order to drive India’s potential in areas of product development and engineering. Her aim is also to egg on young entrepreneurs and SMEs to develop IT IPs in India, mainly in new-age technologies like Cloud, Big Data, Mobility Solutions, Analytics and so on.
#Mantras for life – Ideals you live by speak a lot about you. Hers, on leadership, speak of the clichéd debate on gender discrimination in organizations. Aruna, who says that she hasn’t ever faced any sorts of biases either at home or workplace, feels that both bring a different strength on tables while # Experience –Associated with Capgemini for almost 14 the fundamentals of the game remains the same! years, as its CEO, she looks after all its business units – Consulting, Technology services and Outsourcing services # Achievements – Within a short span of being appointed the in India and focuses on efficiently increasing performance CEO, she was honoured with many distinguished titles and of her large (40,000) employee base here. In totality, she awards. In 2012, she ranked 3rd in Fortune India’s list of 50 has over two decades’ experience in the IT Industry and Most Powerful Women in Business and Business Today’s list of worked for Ernst & Young, Hexaware and TCS before Cap- Most Powerful Women 2012 for two consecutive years. gemini.Having worked as the Global Delivery Officer for Capgemini Outsourcing, in a few years, she moved up the # Organized and visionary and an Attentive Boss –She spends ladder to assume the global role as the head of delivery at more than 20-25% of her time on talent-related and HR activthe company’s outsourcing division. ities – connecting with the employees, working towards the betterment of the work culture, getting in new talent onboard # Straight forward – Within three weeks of delivering her and communicating the mission, vision and objectives of the daughter, Aruna was back to work as she couldn’t work organization are just few of their responsibilities. Anyone who from home anymore. When questioned about this difficult conscientiously looks after the employee and cares for their decision, she said “My daughter may be the greatest look- work environment is sure to scale heights! ing thing on Earth, but you can’t spend 18 hours a day looking at her. It’s also social conditioning that makes you feel # Calm –When you are at a place where everything matters to that the baby needs you. I figured out that the baby doesn’t you and you matter the most to everything (and everyone), it even need you. They just need someone to wash them and is of utmost importance that you keep your cool. No matter take care of them.” (In an Interview to The TOI) Jayanthi what, the lady is known to face every crisis and obstacles headmits what many people only think of. roically!
Rashmi Sinha | CEO, Slideshare The Indian-American entrepreneur and creator/CEO of Slideshare is a rather unique woman. She was destined for a career in academia, but after falling in love with the web – she had a change of heart. Here are 9 things to enable you to know her better. # Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive NeuroPsychology from Brown University in 1998. # After moving to UC Berkeley for a Post Doc, she fell in love with the web, and realized that many issues that web technologists think about are problems of human psychology. # Her first foray into products was with MindCanvas (a game-like software for customer research) released in November 2005. # In 2006, Sinha left academia and launched SlideShare with her husband, Jon Boutelle, a software engineer, and her older brother, Amit Ranjan, a mechanical engineer. # Since then, SlideShare, a site that lets people share Power Point presentations online, has become one of the most popular conference tools, attracting 50 million monthly users.
# She is a fan of rapid software development—and rapid meetings. During the day, she leads the San Francisco team in designing new features. In the evenings, she is on Skype, chatting with the rest of the employees in India.>At SlideShare, she focuses on design, community and business. The best way to reach her, she says, is to send her a slidespace! # Rashmi blogs about the social web at www.rashmisinha. com. She speaks frequently at conferences like FOWA, SXSW & WebVisions. # For her next career, she wants to write a book about strange things people do on social websites. I MAY 2014 I 177
Lakshmi Rebecca Talk show host, Filmmaker & Founder, Red Bangle; Director and Producer of ‘Chai with Lakshmi’ – Lakshmi Rebecca can wear many hats with ease. She has built a viewership of 2.25 million for her online talk show and recently became a WSA nominee, a UN initiated award for the best in global e-content. The show has also won the Manthan award, the Indi Blogger award and the Rotary BSE-SME award. Here’s what you should really know about her.
Any unusual apps that keeps you busy with 9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you your Smartphone : doing? That would be Audible for me. I’ve read at least 34 books in the last two years, all thanks to this one audio book app!
Economic Times in one hand and my plate of breakfast in the other.
Books that you want us to read are...
Innovations that you would like to see come to life in the next 19 years
‘The Outliers’ by Malcom Gladwell, ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho and ‘Infinite Vision’ by Pavitra Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy.
Hmmm… how about a film editing product that would read your brain signals and edit without you having painfully sit through every detail and cut finitely?
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? I would like to have made the best goddamn documentary film series about social entrepreneurship in India, for a world audience. Everything else would be outshined by this.
Kirthiga Reddy| Director, Online Operations and Head of Office at Facebook, India Social networking has been the buzz for the past few years and even though her balmy appearance might be misleading, for she has an unwavering air within her. Here are 9 reasons that make Kirthiga dynamic.
# The first lady in her family to get a technical and business degree, she holds an MBA from Stanford University and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University. # She has been a former employee of Silicon Graphics and Motorola. At her first job in Silicon Graphics, she was the youngest Director of Engineering and the only lady in this role in her team! # When Facebook planned on expanding its business in India, she was their first employee here. In her interviews, Reddy claims that FB was of great help at the time and helped her stay in touch with her family and friends in US. As its first employee, she actually opened the office shutters on the first day. That’s been her ‘AHA’ moment, as she puts it. # When an ambitious woman says that she has found her dream job, trust her with that! When she joined Facebook in 2010, that’s exactly what she said. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
# She is responsible for building Facebook’s operations in India from scratch. # She is considered as a beacon of hope to women who want to leave a mark and excel in their professions, especially, the Corporate World. We’re sure no one’s surprised, why! # Her aim has been to create a Facebook India advantage for Facebook globally along with encouraging and taking the plunge of furthering the next generation of women leaders in the country. ‘Focus on culture (work) and Hire the best’ are two leadership lessons, in a nutshell, from her. # At the national level, she wants to drive children’s causes like ensuring their safety and giving them access to quality education thereby making an impact at the national level.
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# As a kid, she would often relocate to different cities, courtesy, her father’s job. She spent her formative years in places like Dandeli and Nanded. People who can easily adapt wherever they go are a sure shot virtue to any firm. And it couldn’t be any better said of Kirthiga, too.
She is responsible for building Facebook’s operations in India from scratch.
ENTERPRENEURS POSSE
Th
ere is a breed of people who don’t like working for others. Or, those who love to do things their own way. In the most passionate manner that you’ll ever see. Because that is what they believe in the most and will move Heaven and Earth to get their visions reach fruition. Being an entrepreneur means staying prepared 24X7 to be a peon and a CEO in the same breath and meet challenges day in and day out. In the Tech world, there are several such amazing entrepreneurs, who have lived through zero salaries but we’ve looked at some of the best in the business and chosen these Entrepreneurs to watch for.>>
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Kunal Bahl Founder-CEO, Snapdeal A big time foodie, Kunal Bahl’s cravings to eat lip smacking food at good rates pushed him to start his own business venture that not only let him have the best of food and other deals at discounted prices but also to many other who look for discounts every time.
I) Kunal Bahl, Founder-CEO, Snapdeal has been a food lover and his love for food one day made him meeting the business idea. In order to get the chance of affordable food deal, Bahl one day picked up ‘Entertainment Publication’ which had coupons that offered up to 50% discount in restaurants. The business idea stuck him.
V) Kunal passed out from Delhi Public School and also an alumnus of Wharton Business School. VI) Earlier he worked for Microsoft in the US and was almost forced to leave the country due to visa issues.
VII) He is a big time Twitter and linkedin user and respond to II) On his return to India from Philadelphia, Bahl started an customer queries and demands through his Twitter handle offline food coupon service, which led him to launch Snap- as well. When everyone else is going to scout for talent from deal in 2007. IITs and IIMs, Bahl connects with them over LinkedIn. “Come to us, we hire directly. III) Kunal along with his co-founder and IIT Delhi alumnus Rohit Bansal started Snapdeal, a consumer focused Tech- VIII) Bahl is such a big foodie that he often travel around nology Company that provides a platform for vendors and the world to fulfil his urge to eat specific meal at a certain buyers. He first met Bansal while studying Science in class restaurant. Luckily, his wife too shares his passion for food 11, who later become his business partner. and his favourite drink is tropical sangria. IV) Bahl is a son of UP businessman and other than being IX) Recipient of many awared and recognitions including a foodie and an entrepreneur, for him an area of interest is Red Herring Asia Awards 2011. politics too.
Deep Kalra| Founder, Make My Trip Deep Kalra, founder, Make My Trip is one of those strong headed personalities who do not give up that easily and with their sheer determination and devotion turn dreams into reality.
I) Deep Kalra, Founder of Make My Trip admits that it took him 8 years to figure out what he really wanted to do. II) Deep graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi in Economics and went on to pursue MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahemadabad. III) Fresh out of an MBA, Deep took up a banking job and started his working career with ABN Amro Bank. After three years of working with the bank, he realised that banking was not something he wanted to do for rest of his life.
VII) In a country like India where e-commerce is still at a nascent stage, it was not an easy ride for Kalra.Once while interviewing with Forbes, Kalra remembers that “When I look back, we survived a dot-com bust, investor pullout, industry slump, worked for zero salaries and bought out an investor. It has been an incredible voyage.”
IV) Deep also worked for companies like AMF Bowling Inc. and GE Capital which gave him the much needed experience and exposure to dive into his dream of setting up his own business venture.
VIII) According to Deep, one of the best advices he have ever received is to focus on people’s strengthsrather than try to make them change their working style. “I stopped trying to make all-rounders out of specialist bowlers! It paid rich dividends.
V) Kalra’s eyes opened for web possibilities when he sold his wife’s car online, making almost `15,000 more by getting a better price and without the hassle of brokerage fee.
IX) Kalra has Deep interests in swimming, yoga, quizzing, adventure sports and travelling, of course.
VI) Deep has been serving as the President of the Indus Entrepreneurs, Delhi Board and also served on NASSCOM Executive Council. He is also an active Angel Investor in the Internet space.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Dhruv Shringi co-founder and CEO, Yatra.com The man who dared to take risks in his life. Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder and CEO of Yatra.com had tried host of things before he found Yatra.com. He believed in adopting online business model which proved a right bet for him.
I) Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder and CEO, Yatra.com started his first business at early age of 19 with his father’s savings. The business got failed within two years but gave Dhruv two important lessons for life: a) you have to work hard to make things happen, and (b) it’s not how hard you fall but how strongly you recover. II) Yatra.com is Dhruv’s third entrepreneurship attempt. The first was chemical manufacturing business in Bhiwadi and second when he was trying to raise capital for a venture to open micro-breweries in India.
V) For Dhruv, Yatra is his first born child. He does not consider it a job or an entrepreneurial venture but his integral part. VI) From two co-founders to currently more than 1800 employees on board, Dhruv and his partner have taken Yatra a long way and the company’s turnover is approximately 800 million dollars a year. VII) Probably Dhruv’s success mantra in his own words“There is no hard and fast rule and a defined path. It is for you to choose and create your own path.”
III) When Dhruv failed at his first business venture, he decided to do CA and post which he went abroad for an MBA. He left a stable job with a large MNC to join much smaller organization and later got fired from there following company’s buyout. Only then, Dhruv decided to return to India to set up Yatra.com.
VIII) On entrepreneurship, Dhruv feels- “Entrepreneurship as a state of mind means you are willing to take initiatives and you are willing to take chances! Being able to take the risk (initiative) and create something with limited resources is also entrepreneurship.”
IV) If not an entrepreneur, Dhruv would have been a soldier as he feels there’s no institution like the Indian Army.
IX) Dhruv is fond of trekking so he prefers hills for holiday to explore new tracks.
Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal Co-founders, CEO and COO of Flipkart Setting up an online bookstore was not a novel idea, but what clicked for Flipkart – was the way in which they envisioned and executed their plans for the Indian audience. Here are 9 things that set SachinBansal and BinnyBansal in a league of their own.
I) It’s no surprise that Sachin earlier worked for Amazon. com – the world’s leading online book selling company. II) Coming from IIT Delhi, the Chandigarh man must have never imagined the amazing success story of his own company in his early career life, but now Flipkart is the numerouno online shopping store in India. III) As CEO, Sachin oversees all the customer facing activities of the company ranging from technology to marketing. He is also in charge of Flipkart’s corporate divisions which include the finance and legal departments. IV) “It took us a couple of months to tie up with two of our first vendors. We had spoken to 10 vendors and finally managed to get the two to come on board. We were just two years out of college and had no experience and no sense of business,” says Sachin. V) Binny is also a Chandigarh man and went to IIT Delhi before a brief stint with Amazon.
VI) When he joined forces with Sachin to form Flipkart, there was no looking back for the duo. At Flipkart, Binny oversees all operational activities that come into play from the time the customer places an order till the time of delivery. VII) A big fan of Salman Rushdie as well as Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ series, Binny is also passionate about soccer and NBA. VIII) An active sportsman, Binny used to captain his school basketball and soccer teams. IX) Sachin bansal and Binny Bansal are not cousins not brothers just good friends teamed up to make a formidable pair of entrepreneurs and are today the poster boys of Indian Ecommerce scene.
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Naveen Tewari & Amit Gupta Co-founders, InMobi Fascinated with the rapidly changing face of mobile Internet, Naveen Tewari founded mKhoj in 2007. When Amit joined in, they both co-founded InMobi (rebranded mKhoj)together, a mobile ad network giant which is considered to be one of the most disruptive companies in the world. V) Amit Gupta, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, keeping growing usage of mobile phones in the developing markets in mind, co-foundedInMobi in year 2007. I) Naveen’s view of the growth and potential of mobile ecosystem led the foundation stone for InMobi, the company which he founded as mKhoj in 2007.
VI) Amit has been credited for playing an instrumental role in expanding InMobi’s footprint to multiple markets across 5 continents.
II) Before setting up his own business venture, Naveen worked with various companies like McKinsey & Company, Charles River Ventures and also worked for mobile VoIP startup in Silicon Valley.
VII) Amit heads InMobi’s Revenue and Operations and is passionate about entrepreneurship. He has been helping several young entrepreneurs by advising them on every aspect of running a startup.
III) Naveen is not only a businessman but also a philanthropist. He is the Founder and Chairman of a US based non-profit organization, India School Funds which has been formed to set up schools in rural India.
VIII) For his exceptional entrepreneurial achievements, Amit has been awarded a highly coveted distinguish Alumni award from his alma mater.
IV) Naveen did his graduation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and has Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School. He is also the recipient of the “Dean’s Award”, the highest honour for his exceptional leadership and contribution.
IX) From being a small startup few years back, InMobi is a now multinational corporation with 25 offices globally and over 700 million smartphone users across the world.
Sabeer Bhatia| Founder of Hotmail and Tech entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia, Founder of Hotmail is a well-known name in the tech and Internet world. Working for Apple to found Hotmail to start some online business ventures, Bhatia is a serial entrepreneur who has many aces up his sleeve.
I) Sabeer Bhatia was born in Chandigarh and grew up in Bangalore and Pune. His father is a retired captain in the Indian Army and mother worked with Central Bank.
pany called Java Soft with his friend Jack Smith as a partner in the company. It was during then the idea of creating a free email service struck to them.
II) He studied engineering at Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani. During his engineering years at BITS, he took a transfer exam conducted by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and was the only one to clear Maths in the exam.
VI) 19 Venture Capitalists turned Bhatia and Smith down because instead of looking at the business plan, they looked at their age as both Bhatia and Smith were just 27 then. But 20th agreed to invest.
III) Bhatia was just 19 when he reached the US in 1988 and had only $250 in his pocket. According to Bhatia, one of the best thing he learnt at Caltech was “the ability to think on your own” which has been the foundation of his success.
VII) Hotmail launched on July, 4, 1996 and the next two years were pretty exciting for them. Bill Gates took note of Hotmail in 1997 and offered to buy it. Microsoft first offered $300 million which Bhatia did not accept. The second offer was of $350 million, that too declined by Bhatia. Finally on New Year’s Eve of 1997, the deal had been concluded for $400 million.
IV) From Caltech, he moved to Stanford to do a PhD in electrical engineering but after hearing Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, his plans changed. So after finishing his masters, Bhatia joined Apple. Worked there for a year and then joined a start-up called Firepower Systems. V) Bhatia got inspired by David Filo and Jerry Yang, two of Bhatia’s mates from Stanford who started Yahoo!, to play around Internet space. He decided to start a comCelebrating 9th Anniversary
VIII) Bhatia worked for Microsoft for some time and later quit it to start his own company Arzoo.com which got shut down in 2001 during IT crisis. IX) Later Bhatia started AMP Technologies, a Cloud based real-estate asset management platform and also found Jaxtr, a free mobile SMS application. He has also launched a prepaid SIM for American travelers which works in US, UK, Canada and Mexico and soon to expand to 30 more countries.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge An entrepreneur since 1990, Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the founder of Info Edge, the company that runs the job portal – Naukri.com which has touched us all as entrepreneur for hiring or for seeking opportunities. Here are 9 things you may not have known about him.
I# His government-doctor father, a middle-class neighbourhood, a public-school education, all prepared him for a job. Instead, he set up a business from a dining-room table, before moving his office to a servant quarter. II# He got into IIT but turned it down for economics at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College because “it was a shorter course.”
V# Sanjeev is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship at conferences and at business schools. VI# Sanjeev, along with his partner Hitesh Oberoi, won the “Ernst and Young - Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2008 for Business Transformation. VII# He is a Board Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs in Delhi and also a member of the Global Board of Trustees of The Indus Entrepreneurs.
III# Naukri.com launched in March 1997. Mr Bikhchandani’s VIII# Despite his huge personal successes, he remains a brother, a professor in California, pitched in with the $25 modest and frugal individual. He upgraded his old Opel As(£16) monthly fee for a web server. tra to a Honda Accord after years, and he sits in a compact, cosy office. IV# Info Edge is the most profitable web business in the country. With 2,500 employees, it runs India’s top job site, IX# His advice to entrepreneurs – “It is a myth that entreNaukri (which means “job” in Hindi), and other websites preneurs are not risk averse. I must be the most risk averse spanning real estate, matrimony, and education. His 34% person I have met in my life. I am really scared of risks. The share gives him a net worth of more than 11bn rupees point is to keep de-risking at every opportunity.” (£109m; $174m).
VSS Mani| Founder & CEO, JustDial After failing to get JustDial going in the early 90s, VSS Mani has been on the right track with his offering for more than a decade now. Here are 9 things that have set him apart from the rest of the crowd.
I) Mani started Justdial with 6 employees and an initial investment of INR 50,000.
III) After 17 years, Justdial has more than 7,400 employees, a presence pan-India, and even in the US, and a database of approximately 9.1 million listings. IV) Seventy percent of its revenue comes from existing customers. V) Mani has worked relentlessly, standing tall through thick and thin, building Justdial from scratch to a multi-million dollar company and taking it to IPO in March this year. VI) He believes that reducing the time-to-market is an extremely crucial issue for the players within the industry. VII) He emphasised the role IT has played for his company, when he recently said in an interview, “The sheer task of
standardizing processes across such a volatile workforce would have been a daunting task without IT. IT has also helped in price modelling and discovering ways to make profits.” VIII) He also been a proponent of Open Source as it has freed the organization from vendor lock-ins and concentrate on getting better hardware. IX) Mr. Mani discontinued his pursuit of the Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University of Delhi after completing two years and also undertook articleship under a member of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India.
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The sheer task of standardizing processes across such a volatile workforce would have been a daunting task without IT. IT has also helped in price modelling and discovering ways to make profits.
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II) It started with some rented computers, borrowed furniture and by hiring a few college students in the beginning, to collect data by literally knocking every door in Mumbai.
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Vishal Gondal CEO, GOQii
How much amount did your first pay-cheque bear? Enough for you to get sweets? His was 60,000, good enough for him to get a lot many things. He earned this money from a bank to make their complete mailing list. At the age of 16, he started a computer training institute in his father’s garage and taught WordStar, Dbase and Lotus. Fascinated with the world of videogames ever since he was 13, he developed a game called Kargil War along with his team that went on to become a rage due to its controversial nature. Vishal was even felicitated by the Indian Army.
Any unusual apps apart from Whatsapp, Facebook , Instagram etc. that you find either amusing or useful and which keeps you busy with your Smartphone Zite, GOQii, Duolingo, Coursera, Close-up, TED, Skype, Spotify, Wunderlist.
books that you want us to read. Power of habit, 4 hour workweek, 4 hour body, 4 hour chef, Born to run, Steve Jobs (Biography), Delivering Happiness, Bhagwad Gita, Outliers: The Story of Success.
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? It’ll be about somebody who’s climbed Mt. Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro, participated in the International Ultra Running
Races and has raised a million dollars for charity. I’m sure by then, my kids would have accomplished a lot and I will be proud of them.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? I wake up at 6:30 am and go for a three kilometres run followed by climbing 21 floors and exercise till 8 am. Post this, between 8:30 and 9:00, I usually have my breakfast.
Innovations that you would like to see come to life in the next 19 years A teleporter, for sure! Travelling amidst this traffic is hugely painful. Besides, just like how Polio has been completely eradicated, I wish heart ailments, Cancer and diabetes are wiped away, too. 50 years back, people would die of common cold, fever, small pox and so on; no one thought there will be a cure for it. But it has happened, right. Also, I feel that mobile phones will vanish and there will be chip implants that will replace them.
Faisal Husain CEO & Co-Founder, Synechron He quit a prestigious job at Merrill Lynch to come up with something more precious. Synechron, the 2 Billion Dollar IT Services Company that has its headquarters in New York is his brainchild. With his hands-on approach in IT services delivery, his insights have helped him drive his business. He holds a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and MS in Computer Science. The man behind the magic, Faisal goes easy with Exhibit.
Any unusual apps that keep you busy with your Smartphone
Any innovation that you would like to see come to life in the next 19 years?
Akinator. It can guess who you are thinking of by asking you a series of questions. It’s a great way to impress others!
Vacuum tube travel! This can reduce the travel time from NY to San Francisco to less than one hour. Imagine, one could live in NY and commute to SF for work!
A book that you want us to read is…
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now?
Hyperspace - a book by MichioKaku, a theoretical physicist from the City College of New York.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? I’m most likely to be checking my mails. I’ve a habit of starting my day by answering to all of them so I don’t have too many unread emails. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
CEO of Synechron - the world’s most admired IT consulting and outsourcing company.
Arjun Malhotra Co-Founder, HCL Corp If there is one entrepreneur who has been busy with a whole lot of things, it has to be industry veteran Arjun Malhotra. Not everyone may be aware of the man, even though he has an amazing work portfolio. Here are 9 highlights for you.
# He is the co-founder of Hindustan Computer Ltd (HCL), which he started up with five other friends (including Shiv Nadar) back in 1975. # Twenty-three years later, Malhotra took his leave to start up Techspan, which was funded by Goldman Sachs and Walden International. # Soon after, the entrepreneur led the merger of Techspan with Headstrong, which is a global consultancy firm where he served as the Chairman and CEO.
# Apart from serving as an advisory for some companies, Malhotra is currently serving on the Boards of a number of educational organisations including the IIT Kharagpur Foundation, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Udaipur, as well as the Advisory Board of Centre of Emerging & Neglected Diseases in the University of California (CEND UC), Berkley. # He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. # He values innovation more than anything to change the quality of life. His view is to keep working at it, from the ground up.
# Since he had excellent domain knowledge in capital markets and domain consulting, he didn’t stray from this path to explore other avenues. # He sold Headstrong to Genpact in 2011 and currently he is doing some advisory consulting as well as serving on the Boards of a number of education based organizations.
Arvind Vohra|Director, Gionee India It takes guts to leave a well-established job at an MNC and diving in to the pool of struggles associated with starting a business but Arvind Vohra did just that. He knew that he has to be nothing but an entrepreneur when it comes to choice of career he wanted to pursue. Started a mobile phone company called Gionee with his business partner friend and grabbed not only the headlines but most importantly grabbed market share.
9 important career highlights My first job, Meeting trade partners whom I have been working from last 20 years, My decision to become an entrepreneur, The decision to give up a job at large MNC and work for smaller business, Being a retailer, Being an e-retailer, Being a part of the telecom industry at the right time, Last two years of my association with Gionee which gave me a fair idea for supplier’s chain and manufacturers.
tech innovation you think that can change our lives
9 AM in the morning- What will we find you doing?
I think there’s already too much of innovation everywhere. World should come at a slower pace now. We all are just running.
Either in gym or at temple or reading newspaper.
9 things people don’t know about you
9 books that you would recommend us to read
I get nervous before any presentation, I get tensed when people sit in front of me and ask questions, I have a very strong obsession for cleanliness, I have my independent bathroom, I am getting treatment for hair loss, I pray everyday, I am a shy person, I love working out at gym , I got dumped by my Girlfriend.
The Firm by John Grisham, The Partner by John Grisham, The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon, Michael Porter’s Corporate Strategy, Jeffrey Archer’s A Quiver Full of Arrows, Philip Kotler’s books like Principles of Marketin, Jeffery Archer’s Best Kept Secret, Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer, A Time to Kill by John Grisham.
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Sanjay Katkar CTO, Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. It is crisis that gives birth to invention and Sanjay Katkar, Co founder of Quick heal couldn’t agree more. Having completed his Computer Engineering from Pune, he would write software programs. Due to safety and maintenance issues with PCs, he started developing a basic model of antivirus software for CAT Computer Services, another endeavour by Kailash his brotehr and Co founder . That’s how Quick Heal was born! Sanjay sheds light on other matters that matter through our questions...
9 Apps you use the most.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Dictionary, Google Maps, Quick Heal Mobile Security, Gmail, Calendar, Music Player.
Reading newspaper
9 things people don’t know about you 9 books that you want us to read. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, One Up On Wall Street, The Interpretation of Dreams, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Namesake, Steve Jobs (biography), The 3 mistakes of my life, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, The source: Power of Happy Thoughts.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? Receiving Channel Champions Award for Quick Heal for being most preferred Top AntiVirus in the year 2008. In the year 2009, we also received Emerging India Award at the hands of finance minister Mr. P. Chidambaram. Besides, we received Maharashtra IT Award in the year 2009 along with entering the competitive field of Network Security by launching Quick Heal Terminator.
I love cooking for my kids,I do paragliding,I am a certified diver, I love watching kids movies, I never wanted to study computers, I am a good artist,I party a lot, I spend time with old friends, I wanted to be in creative field.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Smart homes, Flying personal car, Wearable smart devices, High speed Aero planes, High speed spaceships, High speed communication, Unlimited power source , Artificial human body replacements like human eye, Innovations in advanced human DNA re-structuring , Human brain programming technology.
Chaitanya (Chet)Kanojia| Founder, Aereo This tech wizard from India is giving a tough time to broadcast giants like Fox and Univision, with his revolutionary product Aereo that might change the way people watch television channels.
#1 The man who is known for pushing beyond the conventional to discover breakthrough solutions, founded Aereo in 2010, a website that allows users to watch cable channels online.
# Chet holds a Master’s degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Bhopal.
# Kanojia’s revolutionary model of cloud-based antenna # After completing his education, Kanojia worked for various and DVR technology, which together allow users to view tech firms and found Navic in 1999. Later Kanojia sold this live or recorded HD broadcast television on any device is a company to Microsoft for a reported amount of $250 million. big nightmare to many broadcasters. # Aereo is backed by premier investors including broadcast # When Chet Kanojia approached four broadcast television tycoon Barry Diller, who also helped found Fox News. networks to tell them about his plan, their reaction was “we’ll see you in court”. Apparently, all four broadcasters # Kanojia holds more than 14 patents in fields ranging from joined together suit against Aereo. robotics to data communications systems. # The court ruled in favour of Aereo which set a path for #9 He was recognized as a young executive making a lasting Kanojia to bring tech revolution in the television industry. impact on his company and the cable and telecommunications He is now spreading Aereo fast to over 22 cities. industries in Multichannel News’ “40 under 40.”
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Pardeep Jain Managing Director, Karbonn A go-getter, Pardeep didn’t opt for safe choices and intended doing something on his own. Having learnt the tricks of the trade first-hand, he planned to start his own company, what we now know as Karbonn mobiles. Here’s from the man who wants Karbonn to be Maruti amongst cellphones! international markets after taking the Indian mobile market headon, Being roped in by Panasonic for the marketing, distribution and customer support for Smartphones.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? 9 people that have influenced you. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, APJ Abdul Kalam, Amitabh Bachchan, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page.
9 Apps you use the most. Calendar, Google Mail, Quick Office, Times of India, BBC News, Any.Do, Whatsapp, Facebook, Flipboard.
9 books that you want us to read. The Alchemist, A Testament of Hope, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Power of Teamwork, Pulling Together, How to Win Friends & Influence People, The Power of Positive Thinking, The Difference You Make, The Teachings of Gandhi.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? Becoming India distributors of top mobile brands like HTC, LG and Motorola, Setting up Karbonn in 2009, Karbonn Smart inception during IPL in 2012, Diversifying into
Catching up on all the international news and getting a hang of world affairs particularly tech news.
9 things people don’t know about you That I am a huge gadget lover, That I am an ardent believer in the Supreme Lord, That I still fear failure, That I value relationships more than material things, That I like going on unplanned vacations, That I want India to be a global superpower, That I feel tech will change the future for good, That there is nothing more relaxing than coming back home to loved ones after a tiring day, That I am a big fan of Madhuri Dixit.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Curved Displays, Google Glass, 3D Printing, 3D music headsets, motion and gesture control, Eye Tracking, Universally connected devices, Augmented Reality Gaming, Driverless Car.
Ashish Hemrajani| Founder & CEO, Bigtree Entertainment Tapping the market of those ever so busy, Ashish hit the bull’s eye with Bookmyshow.com. Here’s more on him... I) He takes pride in the fact that he was born and raised in Mumbai and that his everyday people continue to remain the same. Another major part of his secured upbringing includes taking piano and speech lessons as a kid. II) His parents were ‘children of the partition’ and given the rather interesting background, he believes that it is where he gets his risk-taking ability from. III) In terms of coming up with an idea that turns out to be a revolution, one could possibly compare him to Newton. While he was backpacking in South Africa in 1999, he was listening to a radio programme, which was promoting tickets for rugby, under a ‘Big Tree’. He ruminated on the idea throughout his trip and that’s how Bookmyshow was conceived; that’s where the name for his company comes from. IV) His first job was in an ad agency, in the year 1997 and while he was content with the job, the idea made him do something bigger. He started selling movie tickets through telephone and Internet in ’99, he managed convincing two of his friends, to quit their jobs, too. At the time, the dotcom boom was at its peak. All this was at the age of 24! He approached an investor who had faith in the idea and thus, funded the project. V) But things weren’t all hunky-dory and he faced major losses around the time when there was dotcom bust. Amidst
many rejections, various kinds of losses, technical slapdash, no-funding days, lack of sophisticated means to work, zero salary days, he would still get calls at the time from people who wanted to hire him but he didn’t budge and instead decided on going on with it. VI) In 2006, when everything was transforming for the better, and the ecosystem was a lot better for the business to survive, BookMyShow was launched in the year 2007. Besides movies, it features other businesses like Sports, Plays, Concerts and booking of other events, too. This is when things turned for the better. VII) Gregarious, he has an ability to strike a conversation with anyone, but takes time to make friends. VIII) He considers being at the sea as a freeing experience and thus enjoys sailing away from Mumbai quite often. IX) His future plans include focusing on tier II and III towns with smaller cities and single-screen cinemas! I MAY 2014 I 187
Anirudh Dhoot Director, Videocon Scion of the Dhoot family, he is the son of Mr. Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman and Managing Director of Videocon that is not his only claim to fame. His is Acting president for CEAMA for last 3 years and is playing an important role in shaping videocon for greater heights.
9 Apps you use the most. Whatsapp, Money Control, TOI, Gmail, Google Maps, Locale, Office Suite Pro, True Caller and ESPN Cricket.
9 books that you want us to read. One should definitely readBhagvad Gita,The Alchemist, The FountainHead, Ignited Minds, Wings of Fire, the Monk who sold his Ferrari, The Prophet, The World is Flat, and My Experiments with Truth.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? The most memorable day is when I completed my studies and started working with brand Videocon, a brand that
was found by my late grandfather and built by my father. All my efforts were paid on the day when industry body CEAMA chose me as their President and now it has been three years that they continue to trust me and my vision for the sector.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? At 9:00 am I am heading towards my office and on the way I am planning my day while responding to my mails.
Things people don’t know about you. I have my own weaknesses and strengths and my biggest passion is my love for Cricket. Some of my hidden habits include my love to explore new destinations, I can’t resist Chocolates & Mints; being a foodie I love to cook; I am a Fashion Follower; a new App always catches my eye. Listening to music is another passion and I love to watch movies on weekends.
Arvind Thakur|CEO & Joint MD NIIT Technologies NIIT was one of the first ventures in India to take education of technology to the masses. If you haven’t seen their involvement in the ‘Hole In The Wall’ project that was even featured in a TED talk, then you really haven’t kept up with tech news. Arvind Thakur has the enviable task of leading the company in a new era with interconnected devices, where coding might just become our second nature. How do 9 wonderful things about his career sound? Read on.
# Mr Thakur graduated in engineering from IIT- Kharagpur # Over the years, he has nurtured and grown the software busiwhere he received the Institute Silver medal for ranking ness at NIIT and positioned it among the ‘Top Software Providfirst in the department. ers’ from India. # Thereafter he pursued post-graduation in Industrial En- # Mr. Thakur was instrumental in NIIT’s Software Business makgineering and started his career with BHEL, before joining ing it the 12th Company to be so assessed globally. NIIT in 1985. # He served as a Director of NIIT Limited and NIIT GIS Limit# In his initial working days with BHEL, it was tough go- ed. He is an active member of many Industry Associations and ing for Mr. Thakur and he recalls having to live in a small Societies. 2-room place in Delhi, trying hard to make ends meet. #9 He is a keen believer in the saying ‘Listen before you speak’ #. He was the President of its Software business before it – as was clear in a recent interview when he said, “Balance was demerged to form NIIT Technologies Ltd. assumes a new meaning with a partner. Adjustments are the order of the day and this involves good communication.” #5 He is also a Director in an innovative venture, Hole-inthe Wall Education Ltd. that enables technology to be deployed to educate the masses.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Siddhartha Lal MD & CEO, Eicher Motors Ltd. (Royal Enfield) A man responsible for the miraculous rescue of iconic Royal Enfield motorcycle. He believed in the brand which was on the verge of collapsing and lift it from the ground with his sheer passion and hard work right from the age when he considered himself ‘naïve’.
I# Siddhartha Lal, CEO, Royal Enfield a well-known for his passion for biking asked his father for two years of ‘grace period’ to turn Royal Enfield around when company was making losses in year 2000. II# In 14 years, the man has literally not only turned the Royal Enfield inside out but also helped restructure the group flagship Eicher Motors. In the past few years, Royal Enfield has been successfully repositioned as a cool urban bike. III# Lal was just 26 years old at the time when he started working towards Royal Enfield. Lal admits that the brand had enormous potential but the way it was running at that time was not a justice to the brand. IV# There were several family business that were running but Lal decided to focus exclusively on commercial vehicles. It took him two years to put a rock solid partnership in place. The search for partner took lot of time and in December 2007, Volvo signed up with Eicher Motors, investing Rs 1,082 crore for a 50% stake in the joint venture company Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV).
V# Lal joined Eicher group in 1999 and since then he worked in various capacities in the marketing division of Eicher Tractor Business unit. VI# Lal is working on ‘sustainable urban mobility’ and the role it has to play in sustainability, especially in urban settings; and its role on our health, safety and quality of life. VII# He was nominated as a part of World’s Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Transportation and he is also a part of Next Generation Leader’s Board at Indian School of Business. VIII# Lal graduation in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He also did Post-Graduate Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Canfield University, UK and a Master’s of Science degree in Automotive Engineering at the University of Leeds, UK. IX# Siddhartha is now co-championing a Young Global Leader (part of World Economic Forum) initiative ‘Transforming Urban Mobility’.
Rahul Sharma| Co-Founder Micromax Informatics Ltd. One of the driving force behind the ‘Nothing Like Anything’ brand, Micromax, is the energetic and driven – Rahul Sharma. He has been inspirational to the growth of the company, which now has Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador. If you didn’t know him better before this, here are 9 reasons why you should know him by now. # Rahul got the idea of starting the company when he saw an Airtel Pay Phone being powered by a truck battery. Every night, the PCO owner would lug the battery 12 km to an adjoining village on his cycle, charge it there overnight, and lug it back to Berhampur. Based on this experience of innovation arising from constraint, Micromax soon launched its first phone with a month long battery back-up known as X1i. # He is an experienced marketing architect with a background in product goods and technology marketing, having spearheaded successful campaigns for Proctor & Gamble, Microsoft Xbox and Shaw Cable systems’ on demand television services. # He served as Vice President of On Demand Television Services at Shaw Communications Inc. since February 2004. He has over 13 years’ experience in sales and marketing. Rahul served closely with Shaw Communications corporate Sales and Marketing teams, and was responsible for oversaw the marketing and development of Shaw’s On Demand products - Pay Per View, Video On Demand and Digital Pay Television. # His extensive experience in building brands and launching new products along with his broad range of general business and marketing knowledge.
# Besides being an entrepreneur, Rahul is a sports enthusiast with a passion for fast cars and Formula 1 racing. He spends his free time reading autobiographies of successful leaders. # His leadership was instrumental in Micromax winning accolades and awards at prominent business forums. It also bagged the FIEO Telecom Technology Awards and Power Brands 360 Award, recently. In recognition of his achievements, Rahul was adjudged one of the Forbes Person of the Year 2010. # For the successful person he is today, Rahul considers his father to be his true inspiration in life, his real hero. It was his father who instilled in Rahul a strong work ethic, honesty, sincerity and humility. # Rahul has always believed in creating “categories of products for various segment of people, rather than concentrating on a particular genre.” His belief in individuality has carried forward in Micromax’s business decisions as well. # He likes driving fast cars and personally owns an Orange coloured Bentley Continental Supersport coupé. I MAY 2014 I 189
Bharat Desai Chairman & Co-Founder, Syntel One of IIT Mumbai’s most successful export, Bharat Desai is the man who dared to dream big – and got there without complaining. He now serves as the Executive Chairman he co-founded, but other than that, here are 9 things you must know about him..
I) Mr.Desai was born in Kenya, raised in India and moved to the U.S. as a programmer for Tata Consultancy Services in 1976. II) He and his wife Neerja Sethi founded IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel in the U.S. in 1980, while he was getting his M.B.A. from University of Michigan. III) The company started as a bootstrap operation with $2000 in 1980. Even after ten years into the business, when the controller in the company suggested getting a line of credit, Desai says he was not sure of getting support from banks. IV) The company went public in 1997 and employs over 21,000 people globally. V) He played for India in the 1994 Bridge World Championship; these days he is a big proponent of yoga as well as cricket.
VI) Desai also believes in philanthropy “Two causes that we are very passionate about are education and entrepreneurship and that is where we channel most of our philanthropic activity. We are about to announce an entrepreneurship school at IIT Bombay that I am very thrilled about.” VII) He is also going to fund a new entrepreneurship centre at IIT Bombay which will be called ‘Desai Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship.’ VIII) He received the “1999 Michigan Entrepreneur Award” from the Harvard Business School and was recognized as “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 1996 by USA Today, NASDAQ, and Crain’s Detroit Business. IX) In 2004, he received the award for IIT Alumnus of the Year from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and was also recognized this year by Crain’s Detroit Business as a “Minority Business All-star.”
Mahesh Narayanan| MD, Sociomantic, India It’s only been a year with Sociomantic and he has already made it huge; and that’s because of the weighty background and experience he comes with. Mahesh has worked with Rediff.com, Bid or buyindia.com, Baazee.com, Mediaturf Worldwide, Times Now besides being the founding member of Google India’s direct sales operations and an integral part of its mobile business in India along with being the Country Head of AdMob. Lets hear it from him .
Any unusual apps that you find amusing and useful Any.do – App for notes, calendar, planning,Camscan – Scans all important documents & improves the output making the doc look better than the original most timesPocket – bookmark interesting articles on desktop & read it later on your mobile or ipad within the Pocket app.
member of 5 global technology start-ups that eventually got acquired or went for an IPO, Technology Business Evangelist with over 2 decades of experience in launching US or Europe based Technology Media companies in India & the other Emerging Markets globally, Presently Teeing away in a self owned private golf course.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Books that you want us to read are... Steve Jobs – by Walter Isaacson, No Easy Day – The Firsthand Account of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen & Kevin Maurer, The Great Tamasha: Cricket, Corruption, and the Turbulent Rise of Modern India by James Astill.
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? Creator of the most unique consumer utility technology product in the last 2 decades, Executive Leadership team Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Actually 8 a.m. is on a typical day is more interesting – Will be riding my bicycle back home after an early morning jog at the club!
Innovations that you would like to see come to life in the next 19 years Hyper Personalized ads on Television, Telecomputing i.e. Computing automatically controlled by the power of the mind (…not Telecommuting, mind you!), Ability to transport people from one place to another by simply asking Scotty to ‘Beam them up’.
The world’s biggest Search giant which touches our lives every-
day in many ways through their mails, maps, search and countless products has this eclectic group of people who’ve made the company what it is. Even though none of the founders are Indian, there are many who have made their undeniable impression on the technology as well as the overall business of Google’s operations. These are not just path-breakers and boundary pushers, but visionaries in their own right.Who knew about Android before Google bought it? Tabbed browsing, before Google introduced it on Chrome? Plenty of such things go to their credit, but we’ve picked out the most talked-about Indians from the Mountain View Company.>>
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Nikesh Arora Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Google With a constant side grin on his face, and a dimpled one at that, Mr.Nikesh Arora’s pleasing personality is unmissable. The tall, not-so-dark, and handsome Arora has held several positions with Google – but rather than knowing all of that, here are 9 note-worthy things about him.
1) Nikesh was born in the humble town of Ghaziabad, his father being an officer with the Indian Air Force, which meant constantly shifting bases. This made him adjustable to the changing work atmosphere and even nature of jobs even for that matter.
5) His hearty laughter, selective likings for food, constantly looking for a radical change in the society and liking for fast moving things is quite apparent for anyone who knows him even dimly.
6) His smart business suits, minus a tie with the top most 2) In 1989, when he joined Wipro, Nikesh sold 486 chip- button unbuttoned, makes him one of the coolest people in based computers and later, migrated to The US of A. He the tech industry. moved from sales to product development, finance, investments and so on. 7) In a press conference, Nikesh admitted that people his age are migrants to the internet, while those of her daugh3) What’s surprising is that Arora, who has been associated ter’s generation are the natives; that’s how the face of the with Google for almost a decade now and riding high on online industry’s changing. success, was not too stimulated by Google in the beginning. When it was mentioned that Google wanted some- 8) Nikesh holds a master’s degree from Boston College and one adaptable and not a traditional salesperson is when his an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were background came to his aid. awarded with distinction. 4) A true techie at heart, Nikesh loves talking about movies, 9) He also holds the CFA designation. his favourite one being Inception.
Sundar Pichai| Sr VP-Android, Chrome and Google Apps A man who was considered for the top-job at Microsoft before Satya Nadella was promoted, surely needs no introduction. The overall in-charge of Android is as driven as he was when he joined Google. Here are 9 things you should know about Sundar Pichai.
# Considered to be a man behind developing Android, Chrome and Google Apps, SundarPichai received his Bachelors in Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He also holds M.S from Stanford University. # An MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar. # Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he was responsible for management of Google’s client software products including Google Chrome, Chrome OS and also Google Drive. He went on to oversee the development of different apps like Gmail and Google Maps. #He was believed to be one of the contenders for the CEO position of Microsoft in 2014.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
#Before joining Google, Pichai worked for Applied Materials and McKinsey & Company. # In May 2010, he introduced new video format WebM. # Sundar has more than 15 years of experience developing high-tech consumer and enterprise products. # Pichai was a Director of Jive Software from April 2011 till July, 2013. # Once at Mobile World Congress, SundarPichai made an alarming statement saying that Google cannot guarantee that Android is designed to be safe. He said- “We cannot guarantee that Android is designed to be safe, the format was designed to give more freedom. When people talk about 90% of malware for Android, they must of course take into account the fact that it is the most popular operating system in the world. If I had a company dedicated to malware, I would also be addressing my attacks on Android.
Neal Mohan Vice President, Display Advertising Products at Google Wanna know the man behind the ad strategies of Google? Well, it’s none other than Neal Mohan - who is responsible for Google’s display advertising offerings across desktop and mobile devices. Here are 9 things you perhaps didn’t know about him.
I) The area he covers with his work include the Google Display Network, AdSense, AdMob, Ad Exchange, InviteMedia, AdMeld and our suite of DoubleClick products. II) Neal is a regular speaker at industry events and was listed as one of Ad Age’s 10 Most Influential Players in Marketing in 2011. III) Prior to joining Google through the DoubleClick acquisition in 2008, he was senior vice president of strategy and product development at DoubleClick. IV) Neal held various leadership positions at DoubleClick and NetGravity in technology development, business operations, and client services. V) In this process he played a key role in pioneering the digital marketing industry.
VI) He has also served in strategy and consulting roles at Microsoft and Accenture. VII) Neal has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. VIII) He realizes the competition with traditional TV advertising as well, “The whole zero-sum game concept doesn’t make sense. Google is not going to be successful in addressing this brand advertising opportunity if it doesn’t deliver results for our publisher partners.” IX) His co-workers and clients both love working with him, with one co-worker going so far to say that “He gives you a lot of autonomy, but believes in defining big, specific, and strategic goals.”
Rajan Anandan| MD Google India Leading the operations of the tech giant in India, is Rajan Anandan, an industry veteran with plenty of work experience behind him. Here are 9 things that even “google “search cant tell you about him – literally ! I.“I invest only in technology companies in India and I especially look for interesting software and mobile companies. I do not invest outside of technology companies in India.”
III. Rajan feels founders of technology startups should have strong understanding of technology. Outsourcing is always a bad idea. IV. He believes two co-founders is always better than one founder. Startups are about too many ups and downs, and having partners helps. Also, having co-founders with complementary skill sets is very very important. V. “I believe in India we will have a large number of niche businesses that are being built frugally and would be highly successful.” VI. According to Anandan, a successful entrepreneur is a unique combination of product and engineering. Someone who has an ability to be agile and exceptionally fast.
something that you are very passionate about. “You will always overcome all barriers with passion”. VIII. He believes in the 10,000 hour rule. “Consistency and working hard over a long period of time is very important.” IX. Also, Rajan believes being self-critical along the way is very important.
invest only in technology com“Ipanies in India and I especially
look for interesting software and mobile companies. I do not invest outside of technology companies in India.
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II. While investing, he looks for interesting ideas in technology that can create impact and the second most important thing is team.
VII. Anandan believes that the most important thing is to do I MAY 2014 I 193
Leaders are not made, they’re born. If this adage is to be believed, then we have
an eclectic collection of Indian leaders who have made a huge impact on the tech circle. They have not only made a mark for themselves in the process, but also inspired many others to bravely take risks and still realize their dreams. You must’ve heard of all these companies that these men are their top executives who execute the grand vision and make things happen. If you hadn’t known these gentlemen before, then here’s the perfect opportunity. Ladies and Gentleman let us introduce you to the best Indian tech Executives that we think deserve a clap.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Amit Agarwal Country Manager and Vice President, Amazon He has been given a responsibility to expand Amazon business in India which is the 12th important market for the company. Amit Agrawal is on the right track and hitting the right notes to make Amazon one of the leading and trusted ecommerce sites in India.
I. Agarwal worked for good 14 years with Amazon in various roles and mostly in the US. II. The veteran of Amazon, he is entrusted upon with expanding Amazon business in India as he knows Amazon’s business model in and out and that he hails from India makes the combination lethal.
VI. Amit is a Mumbai born and did his B.Tech in computer science from IIT Kanpur and Masters in computer science from Stanford University. VII. Amit’s LinkedIn profile description says “bringing earth’s biggest selection to India, building India’s most customer-centric company.”
III. Agarwal’s role to head a market like India which is characterized by low value transactions, cash-on-delivery models and low internet penetration was indeed challenging but he took up the task with all valor.
VIII. He is a Strong believer in Amazon India’s approach is to focus on long term. He feels E-commerce in India is in its nascent stage but there is no reason why India will not be a large opportunity.
IV. In 2004, Amit set up Amazon’s first technology development center in Bangalore. He built a product search and comparison site called junglee.com before Amazon’s own site launch in India.
IX. Amit Had been a sort of entrepreneur within amazon , being part of the core team that created market place and cloud computing and having worked closely with the The man himself – Jeff Bezos . What an amazing journey amit is having at amazon which has an inherent culture of “think big and invent”.
V. From year 2007 to 2009, Agarwal worked as an advisor to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. According to Agarwal, from Bezos, he learnt why it is good and necessary to obsess about customers.
Gurmit Singh |MD Yahoo India In February this year, Gurmit Singh was appointed as Yahoo’s MD for its Indian Operations and is looking after its growth in the country. Let’s outline his journey in these 9 points... I) A Smart Alec from the start, Gurmit pursued his MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) at the University of Delhi and has to his credit a Gold Medal in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad. II) With diversified job profiles, Gurmit has worked for renowned organizations that include Hindustan Times, Rajshri Media, Marico Industries amongst others.
VI) Now, all of this adds up to some 20 years of sturdy experience that certainly counts a lot! Before joining Yahoo, he was the CEO of Forbes India.
III) As if all this wasn’t enough, his contribution to the music Industry is immense. His entry in the Music Industry with Sony Music Entertainment for close to three and a half years followed by the shift to the India Today Group where he spent around six years added up to the remarkable transformations he has had.
VII) Singh is said to have a strong track record of delivering growth. This will work in favour of Yahoo’s Business that is branching out with a number of product innovations and taking over many other start-up companies and established organizations.
IV) His expertise in the Music Industry led him to start up a Music Events Division at India Today and expanded the label into two new ones – one for the youth and the other for the economy segment.
VIII) Having dabbled in different sectors gives him a strong hold when it comes to understanding the consumers. No wonder he was considered to be a suitable candidate for the position at Yahoo where he reports to Yvonne Chang, VP & Head of India and South East Asia.
V) It was here, that the conceptualization of venturing on the digital platform happened and thus came to life the Books and Home Video Division.
IX) Yahoo’s plan is to focus on the emerging world of Mobile and make the site easier and faster to use on the device. We’re sure Gurmit will only make it better!
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Ankur Warikoo India Head, Groupon APAC Emerging Markets Considered to be hottest young executive, Ankur Warikoo heads APAC emerging markets for Groupon. Warikoo was one of the first people Groupon hired to start and run its India business in 2011. His breakthrough moment came when he worked out a deal with the Taj Hotels (known for not getting in to deal partnerships) in August last year. This young leader is all set to take the Indian market at storm when it comes to deal buying.
9 things people don’t know about you. 9 destinations you love the most. Udaipur,Ladakh,Bali,Goa,New York,Sydney,Gangtok, Rann of Kutch,Masai Mara.
9 books that you want us to read. Rework,Open,Leading by Questions,Like a Virgin, The Entrepreneur Mind,Rich Dad Poor Dad,Choose Yourself Onward,Shantaram.
His laurels ? Being named as part of the Fortune India 40 Under 40 List Being included in India’s Top 25 Hottest Young Executives by Business Today,Elevation to Head of Groupon APAC Emerging Markets ,The Onion Deal Groupon India ran.
I wanted to grow up to be Superman, My dream ambition is to be a DJ, A job I would do for free is wedding photography, My first motored-vehicle was a Bajaj Super FE, I hate running, Clicking people is more fun for me, than clicking animals, I can watch movie trailers all day, I can have Pizza everyday of my life, I don’t understand why people learn different languages.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Projectable Smartphones, Flying Saucers, Teleportatio, Robot Workers, Brain being converted into a read/write processor, Fighter Suits, Flying Cars, Telepathy enabled dating service,Automated women emotion reader, for men!
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Checking emails and his calendar. Most likely sitting in the car, going to office.
Rishi Jaitly | India Market Director, Twitter People had never been so vocal about what they think and feel until Twitter was launched eight years back. While we can’t assert in 140 characters what it has done to us, here’s what we can say in 9 points about Rishi Jaitly, the big shot of Twitter, India. #I Since Twitter’s interactions with the Indian government have been a reason for concern in the past, Rishi is looking after the same ever since he came onboard in November 2012. #II Before joining Twitter, he served as a Program Director at Knight Foundation where he would lead investments in Technology, Media and Digital tools. #III Early in his career, Rishi was head of public-private partnerships for Google in India and Chief of Staff to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in California. #IV He was working under Shailesh Rao, former MD of Google India as a Policy Analyst. Isn’t it a coincidence then, that Rao now heads Twitter’s International Operations and Jaitly reports to him! #V Besides serving as a Trustee at Princeton University, from where he secured his A.B. in History, he has also served as Co-Chair of the Projects Board of the Undergraduate Student Government and was a student coordinator of the Crystal Tiger Award selection committee. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
#VI Co-founder and Chair of Michigan Corps, he is still a regular at the Social Entrepreneur Challenge Awards and Knight Foundation’s community dinner. #VII He met his wife, the extremely striking, Anuja Jaitly in the lobby of College Summit, an Organization in Washington that aims to increase the college enrolment for students with low income. Meeting at a place meant for noble cause led to a splendid companionship! #VIII It is wonderful to know that Anuja, too, is a Co-founder at Michigan Corps. While it is good for a couple to be different in order to complete each other, it is also wonderful to know how common interest can help further love! #IX In 2011, Rishi was named as one of Detroit's "Top 40 Leaders Under 40". While that, he is only 31 and we’re only too sure that he will have many more titles to his credit in the near future!
Neeraj Arora VP, Business Development –WhatsApp You might’ve heard his name a lot as soon as the Billion-dollar WhatsApp deal went through, but how well do you know Neeraj Arora? Here’s our look at 9 things that make him a stand-out. # Neeraj did his engineering from IIT, Delhi, and MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
# When Neeraj joined WhatsApp in November 2011, it had only 11 employees.
# He met his future wife, Ruchi Bansal, while studying at Indian School of Business.
# When WhatsApp was eventually sold to Facebook for $19 billion, Neeraj was a key player who pushed the deal through, along-with the co-founders.
# He worked in Times Internet and joined Google in India in 2007. Two years later, Google moved him to the US. # Prior to Google, he was part of the Investments and Corporate Strategy teams at Times Internet Limited, a subsidiary of the Times of India Group, and an engineer and “selflearnt hacker” at mobile file sharing company Accellion Inc. # When Arora went to Mountain View, his role involved hunting down startups for Google and that meant meeting and connecting with numerous people in the Silicon Valley to understand what was happening in the market.
# One of Mr. Arora’s major achievements in India was to convince Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications to bundle unlimited use of WhatsApp with a 16 rupees (25 cents) a month data plan. # With Facebook’s plan of making no change in the way WhatsApp functions, Arora will have to drive the integration of the business operations of the messaging platform with the social networking website.
Ricken Patel Founding President and Executive Director, Avaaz While vacationing with his family, Ricken Patel, came up with the idea that went on to become a rage. Ricken Patel founded Avaaz, a global civic organization that works for the betterment of Individuals and local & global causes. He brought out a platform which is a simple way to show that you care and can make a difference! I) When Patel was just 18, the idea of making the world a better place to live stuck him. He realized that most people in the world want the same thing. On his opinion, his aunt remarked- “So you want to be a do-gooder?” II) To bring the change, Ricken opted for the method of email. Ricken’s emails to people say that if they don’t take a simple action (clicking “send”), something bad is going to happen. Or if they click “send”, something bad that is going on right now can be stopped. Either way, please do it quick. III) His organization reached 20 million members and is now world’s largest activist network. Since its creation in 2007, Avaaz has been involved in series of campaigns like Syrian uprising and challenging Rupert Murdoch. IV) Avaaz has some notable success in its bag like organising a campaign to stop the 2011 Bahrain grand prix following the violent suppression of anti-government protests. It was also the first NGO to get aid to Burma after the cyclone in 2008. V) Ricken is a black belt in Karate and has also named among People magazine’s hottest “superhero” bachelors.
VI) Voted as “ultimate game changer in politics” by the Huffington Post, Ricken has also been named a young global leader by the Davos World Economic Forum. VII) Patel has a huge interest in global politics which he owes to his older brother who told him the Cold War when he was just three years old. Therefore, he began dreaming of Avaaz like organization from an early age. VIII) Ricken’s father is Kenyan Indian and his mother is English with Jewish roots. He used to call himself a ‘weird kid’. IX) Patel’s organization Avaaz works in 15 languages and has its headquarters in Manhattan. It is most popular in Brazil, France, Germany and India, and is entirely financed through its members. Corporations are not allowed to contribute and no individual can donate more than €5,000 (`410,000 approx.)
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Dr. Alok Bharadwaj Executive Vice President|Canon India Pvt Ltd Under the leadership of Dr. Bharadwaj, Canon registered a record-breaking expansion of 8 times in 12 years to emerge as a strong imaging industry leader in India. Alok is a well-known face of the industry and has led Indian IT Hardware industry body ‘MAIT’ as President and is a Chairman of CII-OA and Imaging Division. He has been recognized as “The Best CMO of the Year” by CMO Council USA, “The Most Influential Person in Photography” and “Pride of the Industry Award for organization leadership”, “Corporate Executive of the Year”, “Most Favorite Country Manager” and the “Most Dynamic Marketing professional in Powerbrand hall of fame” to name a few.
9 Apps you use the most.
Leadership course at IMD, Laussanne. Recipient of ‘Most influencing person in Photography award’ in 2010 by Asian Photography.
Flight Track,XE Currency Exchange,Dictionary,Google Maps,Twitter,LinkedIn,Weather Channel,True Caller,Viber.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
9 destinations you love the most.
You will find me sipping my Earl Grey tea and giving final touches to the day’s schedule.
Venice-Italy,Lucerne-Switzerland,Cape Town-South Africa, Cebu Islands,Kumarakom backwaters-Kerala,Pangong Lake-Ladakh,Phuket-Thailand,Bali-Indonesia.
9 books that you want us to read. Influencer by Patterson,Good to great by Jim Collins, Blue ocean strategy by Renee Mouborgn,7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey,Whale done by Ken Blanchard,Crucial conversations by Karry Patterson, Secret by Rhonda Byrne,What got you here won’t get you there by Marshall Goldsmith,Straight from the gut by Jack Welch.
9 Things people don’t know about you. I was about to drown when I was three years old ,My fondness for old Hindi songs,I am a wine enthusiast & collect watches,My first car was a Non A/c Fiat which I drove 1 lac kms in two years covering 100 towns,I was born in the city of Lord Krishna – Vrindavan and belong to Hissar,I migrated to Australia once and returned in 21 days,I have driven a Mercedes at 250 kmph and wish to drive one at 300 kmph, Did paragliding in Bali and wish to do it again,Invited a bunch of 300 customers to an event where only 4 turned up.
His journey
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives.
My professional growth in terms of my transition from being a Director, to a vice president to a Senior Vice President and now an Executive Vice President is the most significant highlight. Additionally seeing Canon India grow 8 times, from 370 crore to 2,000+ crore under my leadership.Designated as the President of MAIT and Chairman of CII. Also became the Chairman of Asia Retail Congress, World Brand Congress. Having been featured in the Top 100 EMS influencers and an outstanding global managers award.Scoring
A machine that can read people’s mind, Smart glasses which can connect with a smart phone,A pen or a key board that can type ones thoughts,A machine that can turn grapes into wine at the press of a button,An intelligent house with programmed gadgets – a house that wakes you up, switches on the geyser, makes tea as so on at the prescribed time slots, A TV that works on a voice command,A doctor robot which can avoid going to the doctor or hospital,A flying car to beat the traffic ,A watch with GPS google maps.
Kaushal Nevrekar|Chief Merchandising Officer, Reliance Digital Reliance Digital has gone from strength to strength over the past few years to emerge as a trusted choice for every digital need for an end user. Kaushal Nevrekar is their Chief Merchandising Officer and here are a few things that will help you get to know the man a little bit better.
Apps that keep you busy with your Smartphone are.. YouTube & Opera Coast browser.
Books that you want us to read are... Tipping Point: How Little things can make a big difference – Malcolm Gladwell ,Steve Job by Walter Isaacson ,Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman ,Good to Great : Why some companies make the leap and others don’t by Jim Collins ,The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? I will be too young for a biography then..
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Sipping over a cup of hot black coffee, planning a todo list for the day, meeting up with my core team and preparing for all the meetings throughout the day.
Jitender Chugh General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Nikon India. Don’t get mistaken for his boyish looks and charm , Jitender Chugh means buisness and he is one of the core team members at Nikon India who is responsible for the meteroic growth of Nikon in terms of sales, market share and top of mind recall for Brand Nikon in India. We got him talking to us!
things people don’t know about you.
Unusual Apps you use the most. PicsArt - Photo Studio, Dictionary Offline.
9 books that you want us to read. The Lucknow Boy – Vinod Mehta,Delhi – Khushwant Singh, Turning Points – APJ Abdul Kalam, Ignited Minds – APJ Abdul Kalam,The Sunset Club – Khushwant Singh, The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy, Shadow Lines – Amitav Ghosh, A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth, Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? The highlighting factor of my career would be my association with Nikon since October 2008. The association has brought along many achievements and topping the charts will be Nikon India achieving the No.1 position in the imaging industry.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
I am a very adventurous person; I would love to do something adventurous like bungee jumping, paragliding etc, If I desire to do something, then I leave no stone unturned in achieving that, I love to keep myself updated and in sync with fashion, so I would like to admit that I am a selective shopper, Being hale and hearty is one thing I desire, so I prefer eating healthy food and keep away from junk food, Nothing is more refreshing than a cup of morning tea, and I can vouch that I am good at preparing one too! ,I enjoy outings on weekends with family and love to click lot of images with my D610, I love changing my gadgets frequently and keep myself up-to-date with new technology and trends,I tend to forget household errands, and get in catchy situations in front of my wife!,I enjoy swimming, and can complete nonstop 30 Laps without any break.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Teleportation, Time travelling, Waterless Washing Machine, Mechanical heart to increase life expectancy, Google sensor for human brain, Cars working on cow dung, and a Flying gear that an individual can wear and Travel across the world... I wish all these were technologically possible!
Checking emails, charting out days activities, devising work plan for the day.
Naveen Selvadurai| Co-Founder, Foursquare The Chennai-born tech entrepreneur who co-founded Foursquare with Dennis Crowley is always looking for the next big thing. Naveen Selvadurai might not be the biggest name in the list, but he certainly is the most exciting to keep an eye out for. Here are 9 reasons why.
# Naveen completed his Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science in Computer Science from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, located in Massachusetts.
# During his final discussions with Foursquare, Selvadurai felt he was pushed out by co-founder Dennis Crowley as well as the board of directors.
# Before co-founding Foursquare, he had already worked with Lucent, Sony, Nokia and Sun Microsystems.
# Naveen has, since then, left the company and is helping out another startup – Oscar.
# Selvadurai was a software architect for Sony when he began working with Crowley on a program that would allow people to digitally bookmark the places they’d been around the city.
# He has been on Fox Business Network, and CNN’s special by FareedZakaria, “Getting American Back to #1,” talking about how he became the person that he is today.
# His joint-venture is estimated to be around $700 million. # He decided to step-down from his role at Foursquare on March 4, 2012.
# He has an active blog as well and in a recent blog entry commented about wearable tech, questioning the whole concept and wondering if that was a step in the wrong direction.
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Sanjay Rohatgi President, Sales, India, Symantec Drawing inspiration from the likes of Deepak Chopra and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar besides his family and colleagues Sanjay Rohatgi takes care of Symantec’s business and driving growth across enterprise and consumer business by developing and delivering on business strategy. Before joining Symantec this year, he held the position of Managing Director, Service Provider for India & SAARC at Cisco and has previously worked with Nortel Networks in HongKong, Telstra and BHP Billiton in Australia and British Telecom in the UK.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? 9 books that you want us to read.
Puja, just before I leave for work and Yoga onweekends
The Monk who sold his Ferrari –Robin Sharma,Wings of Fire: An Autobiography–APJ Abdul Kalam,StayHungry, Stay Foolish–Steve Jobs,Business at the speed ofthoughts–Bill Gates,Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne,Execution: The Discipline of Getting ThingsDone –Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan,Good to Great –Jim Collins,The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey,An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by M.K.Gandhi.
9 things people don’t know about you.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? The opportunity to work in organizations across continents and run businessesin multiple and diverse regions has shaped my leadership philosophy of Think Big & Bold and have Relentless Focus on Execution. Armed with the Global mindset but Local Execution team at Cisco, getting us globalrecognition (by Chairman and CEO, Cisco-John Chambers) philosophy, I returned to India after 23 years overseas, driving great business results with my Today, I am excited by the unique opportunity to make Symantec India the #1 Technology Partner of Choice for ourCustomers, Partners and an enriching place towork for our employees.
I am a cricket T20 Fanatic –supporter ofthe Chennai Super Kings and fan of M.SDhoni’s captaincy of different formats ofthe game,I love biking –both motorbike and push bike– will be buying RoyalEnfield/Harley Davidson soon,I am foodie –love to explore different cuisines,I am a strict vegetarian but not a teetotaller,I have a fetish for watches and shoes,I am passionate about religion and have attended 3 KumbhMelas in the last 30+ Years,I love the mountains– Nepal, India, Swiss Alps, French Alps, Indonesia, Japan, Australia,New Zealand to name a few. Himalayas are just so beautiful!,I love Bali and everything about the Balinese Culture,I think the best way to experience the real culture of different cities around the world is visit their best restaurants and barswhere the local hang out.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Teleportation, Time travelling, Waterless Washing Machine, Mechanical heart to increase life expectancy, Google sensor for human brain, Cars working on cow dung, and a Flying gear that an individual can wear and Travel across the world... I wish all these were technologically possible!
Jagdish Mahapatra|Managing Director for India and SAARC at McAfee, part of Intel Security. Not only does Jagdish Loves driving , Having driven non-stop Bombay to goa in the same sense of the word he is driving his company to reach better milestones.
9 Apps you use the most Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, WhatsApp, Musicovery, Zomato, Google maps, BookMyShow, .977 music.
9 books that you want us to read. Competitive Advantage – Michael Porter,My experiments with truth – M.K. Gandhi,The Lost World – Michael Crichton, Angels &Demons – Dan Brown,The Godfather – Mario Puzo, The Firm,Execution – Ram Charan,The Pursuit of Wow – Tom Peters,Jaya – Devdutt Pattnaik.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? With my travel schedule, it would be getting out of an airport.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Human cloning, Voice based internet, Remote manageable cars and devices, Programmable humans, Any device which can bring in trust among humans,Water saving devices,Alternative Fuels for cars,Teleporter, Ability to transport touch thru internet.
Vikas Saxena CEO, Nimbuzz An avid reader and ardent traveller who loves visiting wild life parks across the world, Vikas has played an important role in setting up Nimbuzz’s R&D department in India. An Electrical Engineer from IIT, Delhi, he has previously worked for brands like Aircel where he led the brand’s 3G rollout in India. Here’s a closer look at him.
A book that you want us to read is... Lustrum by Robert Harris, a fictional account of Roman Democracy, is an absolute must read. It’s an extremely amusing account on how good and bad things remain the same in public life over centuries.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Working with an engineer on a product release going out or analysing stats from a just released product feature.
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post Innovations that you would like to see come 9 years from now? to life in the next 19 years I definitely look to build more successful brands out of India. As a nation, it is essential for us to create brands that find global recognition not just in the internet domain but across all sectors. In our journey towards becoming a great nation, globally recognized and accepted brands built in India are our first ambassadors. We are the lucky and privileged generation of the country and we need to make that promise good.
I believe global health care plays a pivotal role in ensuring societal development. A cure for all forms of cancer is something that I would want to see hopefully in the next 5 years.
Pranay Chulet | CEO,Quikr Pranay Chulet, an entrepreneur who believed in the online business model and survived in the environment where some early movers just faded away. His company Quikr not only managed to evolve but also bagged the title of India’s one of the largest online and mobile classifieds companies. Pranay feels there’s still long way to go. 9 things you should know about Pranay Chulet
I) Pranay Chulet, a 40 years old Chief Executive Officer of Quikr is the co-founder of the company which is India’s largest online and mobile classifieds portal. Chulet spent over a decade in the US where he saw the rise of digital media from its very early days.
V) Parany’s company has just received an investment of `550 crore from a group led by Swedish investment firm Investment AB Kinnevik. Also it is funded by Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture Partners and eBay amongst their shareholders.
II) Pranay received his early education from Rajasthan and later received an undergraduate degree in Chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He also holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
VI) Pranay’s company raised its first round of venture capital funding from Matrix Partners India.
III) After completing his MBA, Pranay started working for Procter & Gamble in a brand management position. In 1997, he joined Mitchell Madison Group as a management consultant and later also worked for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Walker Digital and Booze Allen Hamilton. IV) He started his first entrepreneurial venture, Excellere in 2007 and in 2008 he founded Kijiji India which was later rebranded as Quikr. Chulet with his former colleague at eBay Jiby Thomas teamed up to take charge of Quikr, which began as subsidiary of eBay.
VII) Despite being a strong contender and survivor in the online space, Chulet feel there’s a long way to go. “There is competition, and there are new customers to reach and connect,” said Chulet in an interview with ET. VIII) He believes that it’s an exciting time to be in this business in India as history shows that classifieds businesses grow as societies become affluent and purchase cycles get shorter. IX) Pranay takes the inspiration from the Craiglist as he finds it one of the greatest examples of the impact of digital media as it came from nowhere and became the phenomenon it is today. I MAY 2014 I 201
Om Malik Founder of GigaOm, and Partner at True Ventures The man who wrote everything about the tech world has bid adieu to his passion for writinghaving also contributed to our Magazine and has now joined True Ventures (a VC firm) as a joint Partner. There are many notable and amusing things that you didn’t know about Om Malik, but here are the 9 of the best.
I) He graduated from St. Stephens’ College in New Delhi in 1986, with an honors degree in Chemistry. With a notable career spanning for over two decades, Mr. Malik has written for India Abroad, Forbes, Red herring and Business 2.0 before founding GigaOm in 2001.
V) During his time with his blog, his mantra was real simple – ‘Write well, write simple and write often.’
II) His first book, “Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist”, was released on May 15, 2003. Mr. Malik’s writings have also appeared in several newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, and Crain’s New York Business.
VII) His favourite holiday destination is Patagonia, which is a city shared by Argentina and Chile.
III) According to the company website of GigaOm has a monthly global audience of 4 million and is among the top 50 blogs worldwide by Technorati Rank. IV) It is also listed on Cnet’s Blog 100 list and in May 2010, GigaOm was named Finalist in Lead411’s list of the ‘2010 Hottest San Francisco Companies’.
VI) He prefers a Montblanc watch and enjoys the finer things in life.
VIII) Malik suffered a heart attack on December 28, 2007. He was able to walk into the hospital for treatment that night and has been recovering ever since. He had stated that he was doing well, and has since recovered. IX) In 1995 he co-founded a South Asian portal, Masala.com. He was the founder of Desiparty.com, a South Asian Listings Service that still exists as a standalone entity under different management.
Krishna Subramanian| Serial Tech Entrepreneur Krishna Subramanian bet on many tech ventures which successfully took off and also made good exits. With his never ending urge to come up with something unique in Internet and tech space, he is yet to make an entry with a new concept/venture soon.
I. A serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor, Krishna Subramanian is best known to co-found recommendation site called Burrp!which was acquired by Network 18 in 2010.
VI. Reportedly, Subramanian is now working on a stealth startup which keeps him up all night.
II. Krishna also co-founded BlueLithium, an online advertising network with GurbakshChahal in 2004. The company was acquired by Yahoo! In 2007 for $300 million.
VII. Subramanian was born in Long Beach, California and graduated with honors as a pre-med student from University of California, Davis.
III. His company BlueLithium bagged lot of success as at the time of acquisition by Yahoo!, it was the fifth largest ad network in the US and the second largest in the UK.
VIII. Subramanian is a college dropped out to become an Internet and tech entrepreneur.
IV. He also co-founded the mobile ad exchange network Mobclixwhich was sold to Veltiin 2010. He became chief marketing officer of Velti in 2011 but resigned in 2013. V. Subramanian also launched the first offline/online social network, MingleNow, which focused on mobile content and communication such as group text messaging and mobile video sharing to bridge the gap between the offline and online worlds.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
IX. Subramanian serves on Mobile Marketing Association and has also served the Internet Advertising Bureau Committees for Broadband and Lead Generation where he created best practices guidelines for lead generation across the education vertical.
Arvind Bali Director & CEO, Videocon Telecom Videocon Telecom has been in the news for constantly trying to venture into territories that are relatively fresher for the Indian market. We speak to Arvind Bali on things that matter to him, otherwise.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
9 Apps you use the most. Whatsapp,Facebook,True Caller, Google Maps, Skype, YouTube,Cleartrip, BookMyshow, Applock.
9 books that you want us to read. The Alchemist, Don’t say yes if you can’t say no, A Tale of Two Cities,War and Peace, And Then There Were None, The Da Vinci Code,Think and Grow Rich, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Last Lecture.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? Started exports to LG Toshiba & Thompson,C Plant in Bharuch,Conversion of machinery,Panelist in World Economic Forum,Chief Guest at Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Re-established Videocon Telecom.
With a cup of coffee scrolling through newspapers along with watching TV or listening music.
things people don’t know about you. I have a craze for foreign realistic films and I’ve been to three film festivals and watched all movies; Kalpana Chawla was my school and college mate & a really good friend. Due to business I’ve travelled more than 55 countries.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Teleportation, Time travelling, Waterless Washing Machine, Mechanical heart to increase life expectancy, Google sensor for human brain, Cars working on cow dung, and a Flying gear that an individual can wear and Travel across the world... I wish all these were technologically possible!
Vinay Shetty| Country Head, Asus Being the Country head of Asus, Vinay has been instrumental in getting both market share and mind set of the consumer. Meet the man who draws his inspiration from the likes of Mother Teresa , Viswanathan Anand and Ratan Tata .
An unsual App that he uses besides the facebooks of the world is Health Kart Plus.
9 books that you want us to read. Being the Boss,Managing, Performing, Living,Change by Design,The Law of the Garbage Truck,Don’t Sprint the Marathon,Boundaries for Leaders,The Last Lecture,Wings of Fire, Ignited Mind.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? The decision to move back from the US due to personal reasons and start over again. Joining ASUS in the role of a Product Executive and gradually working with the team to be able to contribute to the brand and increase the product portfolio in India for ASUS.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Preparing a checklist of what are the urgent and important tasks for the Day, make a list of meetings and their details and check if the required data is ready or not.
things people don’t know about you. My family comes first ,I prefer to spend more time with Family, I enjoy relaxing and doing nothing on a holiday,I prefer athletics over any other sports,I was a sprinter ,I don’t like speaking about my personal life,I prefer reading the newspaper from the last page first,I enjoy collecting Models ofcars and bikes,I love to collect Ganesha idols.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Implementation of Internet and PC usage in each and every school in India,Flying ambulance service,Tiffin boxes that heat food before eating,Sixth sense technology,Cars that run on compressed air,Intuitive devices with thought mapping,DSLR size sensors with bridge cam zooms in mobile phones,Artificial intelligence equipped robots to do all household tasks including cooking,Smart phones with solar panels that never run out of batteries.
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Harish Kohli MD, Acer India A veteran of Acer India, he has been associated with the company before its Indian Subsidiary was launched in the year 1999.With more than three decades of experience in the Industry which includes spending more than a decade at Acer, Mr. Kohli certainly knows it in and out. In this interview, he speaks of everything 9!
9 things people don’t know about you. 9 Apps you use the most. Gmail, Whatsapp, Evernote, Pocket, Flipboard, Google Keep, LinkedIn, YouTube and Dropbox.
9 books that you want us to read. BLINK (Malcom Gladwell), Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert T Kiyosaki), Good to Great (Jim Collins), Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition is Reshaping Global Markets (George Stalk), The Sea (John Banville), Family Matters (Rohinton Mistry), Youth (JM Coetzee), The Corrections (J. Franzen) and Fury (Salman Rushdie).
My Wife is my guide,My first car was a VW Beetle,I dislike cats,I am very scared of heights,My best friend was my mother,My schooling was done in Africa,I started driving a car at the age of 10,I cannot see a movie in 1 sitting ,I watched The Towering Inferno 25 times.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Acer BYOC, Wearable devices, Jetpacks, Solar cars, Bullet planes, motion sensors, artificial organs, driverless cars and intelligent cars that park themselves.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? I usually reach office as early as 8 am, so I am usually working. Also 9am is conference call with HQ in Taiwan.
Manish Sharma| MD, Panasonic India Known for his outstanding contribution to the success of Panasonic India, Manish is one of those managing directors in the country who at a very early age has achieved a lot. He is responsible for driving Panasonic’s profitable growth along with strategy planning and business development across the entire portfolio of company’s consumer and enterprise divisions.
9 books that you want us to read. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference- Malcolm Gladwell,Developing the leader within you- John C. Maxwell,Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard- Chip Heath,Jugaad Innovation- NaviRadjou, Dr. Jaideep Prabhu, Dr. Simone Ahuja,The SecretRhonda Byrne,Wings of Fire- P J Abdul Kalam,The Great Indian Novel- Shashi Tharoor,The Exclusive Biography- Steve Jobs,The Ultimate Question 2.0- Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? The opportunity to manage end-to-end business solutions from conceptualization, sourcing, marketing to selling of electronic products during my 4 year stint at Haier from July 2004-2008, surged a major thrust to my career. Also getting a chance to utilize my technology background to establish ODM operations and managing the total value chain by creating suitable policies and regulations, has been very helpful to me in my journey. The real turning point in my career was when Panasonic re-entered the Indian market, and under the able guidance and support of our competent team we were able to successfully catapult the brand to make it high on local flavour with a major youth connect, and a presence across. Where we have been able Celebrating 9th Anniversary
to reach today gives me immense confidence to do even better and achieve even bigger milestone along with the company.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? My day begins at 7 am with a business call with my colleagues in the global team in Japan. I am usually in office by 9.30 am and dedicate the first half of my day meeting members of the India leadership, marketing, and products team.
9 things people don’t know about you. Have the ability to make people feel at ease, Fun-loving, Love going for adventure outings, Movie buff, Family man, Strong disliking for Hypocrisy, Passionate about cricket and played the game as a batsman quite often, Sense of humour.
9 tech innovations that you think will change our lives? Newer forms of renewable energy, Internet of things, Wearable technologies, Alternate sources for fuel, A communicating device to connect the specially abled with ordinary human beings, Perceptual computing redefining the healthcare space, Handheld devices that can “learn” their owner’s behaviours, 3-D technology for enterprise use.
Vishal Parekh MD, Kingston Working with Kingston Technology for almost 7 years now, the company bagged awards and recognitions like Best Marketing Campaign Award in 2007 and the Best Marketing Concept Award in 2010 under his aegis. The man who describes himself as ‘Maverick, mentor and meticulous’ started his career with Pantaloons and later with companies like Lowe Personal, Monarch Innovative Technologies and Zapak Digital Entertainment helps us get to know him closer.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? 9 people who have influenced you. My parents, Scott Chen, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Sachin Tendulkar, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffet, Larry Page, Ratan Tata.
9 Apps you use the most. Dropbox, Google Maps, Facebook, Lotus Notes, Gmail, YouTube, WhatsApp, Google Keep, Camera Zoom FX.
9 books that you want us to read. A Brief History of Time, The Da Vinci Code, The Secret, Invisibles, The Tipping Point, Play at Work, Talk is Cheap, Why Evolution is True, The Hobbit.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years?
Checking mails, planning the day’s activities and Sorting issues with marketing operations,Things people don’t know about you ,I am a Rex fan, I read a lot, I’m addicted to new Gadgets and Apps,I’m a Foodie,I like India more than most of the places that I have been to,I love Music,Photography is my passion,I like to sit at the beach and enjoy the peace.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Having Foldable desktops,Finding a never ending & stable source of energy,Building a city on Mars,Smarter and Greener phones,Interactioning with 3-D holograms of Friends and clients in Real time,Automatic repairing of Roads,Alternate ways to commute even while in traffic, Transporting goods and passengers anywhere in the world within seconds,Machines to automatically heal us.
Helping Kingston do a better business in India and repositioning it as a Lifestyle brand. Building a strong team in India and having a Better engagement with our partners along with winning more than 20 awards!
Rajeev Singh| Country Head, BenQ India Accredited with making BenQ one of the leading projector maker brands in India, Rajeev Singh has come a long way with his hard work. With 19 years of rich industry experience in Sales, Marketing, Channel & Distribution. Rajeev’s leadership has nurtured BenQ India’s business over the last five years.
9 destinations you love the most.
coming the Country Head of BenQ 2010 and making BenQ the No. 1 Projector Brand in India in 2013.
Bangaram Island- Lakshdweep Havelock Island- Andaman & Nicobar Island, Gulmarg- J&K, Bandhavgarh National Park-MP, Serengeti National Park-Kenya ,Capetown-South Africa, Laddakh- J&K , Auckland-Newzealand ,Paris.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
9 books that you want us to read.
Checking mails in my office & making the To Do list for the day.
Think & Grow Rich by Napolean Hill ,Power of your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy ,My Experiments with Truth by Mahatama Gandhi , The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Forriss ,The Other 90% by Robert K Cooper , Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins , Execution-The Discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan , Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson , Bhagwad Gita.
9 things people don’t know about you.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years?
Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives.
Reaching 30% + market share in Printer business in Canon in 2005. Regaining market leadership in monitor business in Samsung in 2006. Took the market share of Motorola Mobile Phones to 15% of total Indian market in 2007. Be-
Robots for Household Chores, Solar Power, Fuel cells for car, Better performing SIRI for iPhone, Complete person, Single Wi Max for entire world , Wireless Electricity.
I am an avid Dog lover , Quite passionate for cars ,Love travelling , Foodie, Passion for Running, Collection of exotic Masks from across the world, Major part of my education was in Government Schools , Gone on many hunting trips with my father and his friends at the age of 5.
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Tushar Sighat CEO, D-Link, India Tushar Sighat has played a key role in starting the team that eventually led to the huge success of D-Link between 1995 and 2007 before which he was a part of the Cyberoam-Elitecore Technologies as the Senior Vice-President of its Sales Operation. Well qualified with effective leadership and team skills, he was awarded with an honorary mention under ‘Build To Last’ category at the Asia-Pacific Enterprise Leadership Awards 2013 awards. partners and employees was a key challenge. In addition to this depreciating rupee, sloppy economy due to the Euro Crisis, high inventory levels resulting in provisioning were 9 Apps you use the most. some of the other critical issues. However, we managed to swim against the tide & as a result the company witnessed Mydlink, Skype, Google Map, BBC, Evernote, LinkedIn, Ins- consistent growth over the next 3 years at `128 Cr. in FY tagram, Kindle, Banking app. 2010- 11, `223 Cr. in FY 2011-12, and `353 Cr. in FY 2012-13. The trend is most likely to continue for current year 2013-14 as well, with the company already having registered a high 9 books that you want us to read. growth rate. World is flat by Thomas Friedman, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey,Discovery of India by Jawa- 9 a.m. on a working day – what will we findharlal Nehru,Wings of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam,Dealing you doing? with Darwin by Geoffrey A. More, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela,The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho,Good to Driving, as I am on my way to office. Great by Jim Collins, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
9 things people don’t know about you. What has been your career highlight in the past 9 years? I’m much into Billiards, Adventure Sports, Scuba Diving, love I was awarded with the Prestigious APELA AWARD 2013, for demonstrating exemplary leadership skills and unparalleled vision towards D-Link’s growth under ‘Build to Last’ category. This is one of the most prestigious regional awards in the Asia-Pacific region, as the Asia-Pacific Enterprise Leadership Awards (APELA) 2013 – International recognizes and honours the achievements of Enterprise Leaders who are “Doing Good” by bringing together some of Asia-Pacific’s best leadership examples. D-Link success story – When I joined D-Link in July 2011, the company was going through a turbulent phase of demerger & winning back the confidence of customers,
travelling, Sci-Fi movies, I’m an Avid fan of F1 racing, Enjoy gaming on PS4, watching Bollywood movies and a huge Fitness enthusiast.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Acer BYOC, Wearable devices, Jetpacks, Solar cars, Bullet planes, motion sensors, artificial organs, driverless cars & intelligent cars that park themselves.
Moninder Jain|Managing Director, ASEAN & India
Region and Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Logitech He started his career with Xerox where he was in its Business Development Department. This was followed by Samsung where he was at different levels in the Sales and Marketing Department post which he joined Logitech where he has completed almost a decade and has only been levelling up his stature. With an inclination towards books, sci-fi movies, yoga and crosswords Moninder Jain speaks to us.
What will your Bio Look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? Apps that keep you busy with your SmartThe byline relevant for that year would be –Author, Social phone are... Worker, Retired Global Executive. Currency Converter: very handy for anyone who travels to multiple countries,UE Boom: helps me pair and double up/ stereo enable my 2 UE Boom Wireless Speakers,CNN Mon- 9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you ey: Helps keep in touch with key happenings in the global doing? financial world. Saying Good Morning personally to all those already in office!
books that you want us to read. The Bhagvad Gita,The One minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson,Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras,P.G. Wodehouse’s Collection: A sense of humour is your best friend when facing strange and stressful situations. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
tech innovations that you think will change our lives? Teleporter: Of Star Trek’s “Beam me up Scotty” fame,Memory Cam: Capture not just sound and picture but also the other senses i.e. smell, taste and so on.
Rajesh Gupta Country Manager, India, SanDisk Corporation Ex-employee of Intel, he worked with the giant for over a decade before making a move to SanDisk. With over two decades of experience in the IT Industry, here’s Rajesh Gupta in conversation with Exhibit.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Which unusual apps do you find either amusing or useful and which keeps you busy with your Smartphone?. SanDisk Memory Zone app
Writing down and Reviewing Things to do for the day.
What innovations would you like to see come to life in the next 19 years?
books that you want us to read. ‘Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple’ by John Sculley, ‘My experiments with Truth’ by M.K. Gandhi, ‘The Magic of thinking Big’ by David Schwartz, ‘Gandhi: CEO’ by Alan Axelrod and ‘Why am I afraid to tell you who I am’ by John Powell.
Thought sensors in all devices; thought as an input to appliances!
What will your Bio look like in 2023, i.e. post 9 years from now? Contributing more than consuming from the surroundings – environment and people.
Pankaj Kedia| Country Manager, Dolby Digital Laboratories Admit it. Had it not been for Dolby, movies and sounds, in particular wouldn’t have been the same. Let’s hear it from the man who has been in the entertainment industry for over 20 years!
9 Apps you use the most
9 things people don’t know about you.
Twitter, Facebook, BookMyShow, Pocket, Whatsapp, I played the guitar in a band in school, I love going on road trips (driving), I’m a Photography enthusiast, I used to build small Taskos, Google Maps, Evernote, Kindle Reader. plane models, I’m a foodie, I survived a major accident when I was 20, I love flying kites, I learnt to drive on my own one night, 9 books that you want us to read. I love travelling. Bhagwad Gita, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank), Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Mainte- 9 tech innovations that you think will change nance, Alchemist, 1984, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, A our lives? Brief History of Time. Robots, wearable devices, 3D printing, sustainable renewal energy technology, self-driving cars, implants, Nano medicines, Your career highlight in the past 9 years? time travel, Artificial Intelligence. Launch of first TV channel in India with Dolby Surround with Star TV, Release of first Indian Dolby Atmos movie (Shivaji 3D), Winning Top Performer Award, Winning Top Sales Achiever Award.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? Planning my day and reviewing my to do list.
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Sumit Sawhney CEO and MD, Renault India A veteran of automobile industry, Sumit Sawhney is credited to establish Renault as a brand in India on the right road with the right speed for a smooth ride! Here are 9 things which you must know about the man, who is keen on giving Indians a taste of French finesse.
# Sumit Sawhney replaced Marc Nassif whom he used to report when joined Renault, to become the new CEO and Managing Director for Renault Group operations in India. He is responsible for managing the entire operations for Renault in India.
# He clearly understands Indian values and culture, as was evident in a recent quote, “When Indians buy something they talk about it being an investment rather than a cost. Indians demand the latest, but they are still rooted in tradition. Family and respect for elders is still very important.” # In his tenure only, Renault Duster has become one of the top selling SUV in the country.
# He joined Renault as Executive Director in year 2012 as Executive Director of Marketing and Sales and was responsible for vehicle sales, servicing and marketing for the Indian sub-continent.
# With his vast experience and understanding of the dynamics of Indian automobile industry, Sawhney made sure that Renault India pushed its sales from 1,500 units ins sales in 2011 to 64,000 units last year. He Himself Drives the koleous.
# He previously worked with General Motors fora good 12 years and was instrumental in the success of GM’s new products including Chevrolet Beat diesel hatchback and the Cruze.
# Sawhney is armed with an MBA from IMS Indore and his favourite holiday destination remains French Riviera .
# Sawhney is a thorough automotive professional who brings in 17 years of automotive experience to Renault and joined the company at the right time when it is on a growth trajectory in the country.
# Mr. Sawhney joined GM India in 2001 and has over 15 years of experience in the areas of Sales, Marketing and network development having also given 2 years in between to Fiat Motors in India.
Mahesh Kodumudi | Group Chief Representative, Volkswagen India Till recently, Mahesh Kodumudi was the President and MD of Volkswagen India, but he has now been promoted as the Group Chief Representative. It comes as no surprise to anyone, as the man has gone from strength to strength and made a mark for himself, and ensured the success of VW in India. Here are 9 things which have held him in good stead, so far.
# Mahesh Kodumudi completed his Engineering and Management degrees in India and the US. Following a successful career in the automotive industry in the US, Kodumudi joined the Volkswagen Group in 2008. # In March 2013, he took over as president and MD of Volkswagen India Private Limited and immediately started to steer the company in the right direction with some great launches. # He played an active role in the “Think Blue. Factory.” which is a go-green crusade, aiming to reduce the environmental impact by monitoring production facilities. # Mr. Kodumudi’s keen knowledge and insightof cars has helped him build a strong career in the competitive auto industry. # Under his leadership, Volkswagen Group India has seen over 25 models in India and 262 dealerships and is operating through two plants – Pune and Aurangabad.
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
# He also remains very realistic about the cars that can be absorbed by the Indian consumers. Earlier this year he was quoted about the Beetle saying, “Iconic cars like the Beetle have quite a few takers but the volumes are very less to justify production. # He already has clear plans for 2014 and 2015, when he was recently quoted, “2014 will see the launch of the Polo face lift by July. The Vento will have a mini refresh by end of the year and will have customer features which are important in the segment. The Vento will undergo a major refresh in 2015”. # Mr.Kodumudi also has understood the unique nature of optimizing value for money offerings for Indian consumers and is also looking to introduce a newer Automatic Transmission for future releases.
Vikrant Singh Director- Sales Channel Development, BMW Group, India Vikrant bagged one of the top positions at auto giant BMW at a very early age. Started his career with Mercedes, his career took off just like some supercar from the companies he worked for. This man loves numbers and is responsible for surging sales of BMW cars in India and he is definitely on the fast lane with no signs of slowing. Lets hear it from him.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing?
9 books that you want us to read. Illusion by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull The secret letters of the monk who sold his ferrari by Robin Sharma, Who will cry when you die by Robin Sharma,Steve Jobs, Land of seven rivers, The book of understanding by Osho, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? Getting admission in Hindu College, Delhi University, Joining premium car industry- starting with Mercedes, My Marriage, My two daughters, My first house bought by me, Learning how to ride a horse, Joining BMW, Getting at the director level at BMW, Meeting Ratan Tata personally.
Movies that you can watch again and again& your favourites unusual Apps
Quiet! Sitting quiet in the office, thinking about day’s work to be done.
9 things people don’t know about you I am a quite person,I love swimming and horse riding, I am a big movie buff, I cherish friendship, hence, I have very limited friends, I am more of a private person than social, I like numbers, I can sketch, I can be fresh after 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I am a God loving person.
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Elements of virtual reality, Mobile with more voice and chip oriented features, 3D, Mobility at different level- automated self, Mobiles will be less cluttered and more smarter, Streaming of music, In health, I hope technology will findway to heal cancer, Technology for green emission, And technology to be more advanced in medical sciences.
The Usual Suspects ,Shawshank Redemption ,The departed and I really find these two apps Very interesting Dead runner, Metrics.
Arvind Saxena| President and MD at General Motors India An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in his hand, Arvind Saxena has been instrumental in changing the declining sales number scenario for many auto companies and nowhe is in the drivers seat of General Motors India. Literally !
I) Prior to GM, Arvind was Managing Director of passenger cars and a member of the boards of directors of Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd. II) Saxena replaced Lowell Paddock who headed to Singapore for an assignment. His 30 years of experience will help GM to lift up its declining sales as he knows very well what sells in India. III) In his long career of over 30 years in the industry, Saxena’s longest and successful assignments have been in sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki. IV) He has worked with several manufacturers in the automobile industry like Escorts, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Fiat, Honda, Volkswagen etc.
VI) Mr. Saxena is an engineering graduate from Allahabad. VII) Arvind admits that undoubtedly there are many challenges exist for the company but believes that there is much scope to improve quality and financial operations. VIII) Saxena has been instrumental in raising the bar of multiple brands with his practical aspects of business like network, sales and after-sales experience. IX) Saxena is 57 at present and the retirement age at GM is 60. So apparently, Saxena has only three years of time to turn the brand around. Tough job, indeed but knowing him all odds are favoring him.
V) He is also credited with shaping Hyundai’s growth curve during second half of last decade launching successful cars such as i10 and i20. I MAY 2014 I 209
Altaf Halde Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab – South Asia Mr. Halde is the Managing Director, South Asia at Kaspersky Lab. Has been associated with the IT industry for over 20 years, Altaf possess expertise in rendering sales Life-Cycle Solutions, P&L business analysis and revenue planning solutions. Mr. Halde, throughout his career have been recognized for being a visionary and driving entire sales cycle from qualifying opportunities, client presentations, product evaluations to pricing, negotiation and closing of sale along with the team leading to high revenue generation.
9 a.m. on a working day – what will we find you doing? 9 Apps you use the most. Whatsapp, Mail, Temple Run, Google Maps, Launch Centre Pro, Xe.com,Yahoo Weather, File Browser, Dropbox.
Cursing the Mumbai traffic! At 9 am I am on my way from my house in Malad to my office in Navi Mumbai. That will clearly explain the ‘cursing’ part.
9 books that you want us to read.
9 things people don’t know about you.
Steve Jobs,The Innovator’s Dilemma, Crossing the Chasm, Wings of Fire, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich,Who Moved My Cheese,The Namesake, Nuts!,Seagull.
My first salary cheque was `1800, My first car was a blue Maruti 800, My favorite sport is table tennis, I love eating Vada pav, The wildest thing I have ever done is with my colony friends many years back. We stole live chickens from a truck parked at bandra bandstand in the middle of the night, I hate getting wet in the rains on a working day, I love getting wet in the rains on a holiday, I can go to Goa again and again (and again) for a holiday, I stood in an advance booking line at Maratha Mandir cinema hall for 4 hours to get a ticket for Mr. Amitabh bachchan’s come back movie.
Your career highlight in the past 9 years? This year, I completed 20 years of working in the IT Security industry. There was a time when I used to think (in a negative way) that I just have an experience in the IT security industry only. But, soon this turned out to be the highlight of my working career. Now after 20 years of work experience in only IT security! I feel great and very positive because this specialized focus in the IT Security industry has helped me get a 360 degree idea / understanding of the market. This is my strongest asset!
9 Tech Innovations that you think will change our lives. Space Tourism,Teleportation/ Time travel, Google Glass, A system that will never let us use passwords,Driverless cars,Car running on Water,Flexible screens for TV/Mobile/Tablets etc,Active contact lenses,Real time live detector kits that can be used by anyone.
Satyan Gajwani| CEO, Times Internet Limited Love brings happiness and accomplishment in one’s life but Satyan Gajwani didn’t know the love of his life will also bring the media empire of more than `5,000 crore, Bennet Coleman and Company Limited to him. Nevertheless, Gajwani is putting all his efforts to make Times Internet the dominant online company. # When Satyan Gajwani became Times Internet CEO at just 27, many finger pointed on him saying that he bagged this position simply because he married to the daughter of Samir Jain, co-owner of Times Internet. Satyan showed guts to accept the fact and himself answered the questions raising around his position as CEO. # Satyan and Trishla Jain, daughter of Samir Jain chose each other, dating while they were students in the USA. He met Trishla in his last year at Stanford and that time didn’t know about her family.
# Gajwani moved to India to work with Times group as Trishla’s boyfriend and not even as fiancé (as told by Satyan to Forbes India). He lived with Jain’s family for six months and when felt comfortable, Trishla and Satyan got engaged and a year and half later, they got married.
# Gajwani’s father moved to the US in the 1960s and after working at several places, set up his own security systems company.
# Earlier Gajwani appointed Rishi Khiani as TIL’s new CEO but when Khiani decided to move on to become an entrepreneur, Gajwani himself took on the mantle himself.
# Satyan is the youngest in his family. He grew up in Miami and studied mathematical and computational science at Stanford. He also did Masters in management science and engineering.
# Gajwani was clear that he had very little to add to the print or television businesses that’s why he intentionally didn’t opt to head those verticals.
# Before coming to India, Gajwani worked on the equities trading desk at Lehman Brothers. When Lehman got down, Samir Jain told Gajwani to really think about coming to India. Satyen quit his job and moved to India. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
# Gajwani understands digital space well and decided to head TIL. “I grew up as a computer nerd, I programmed and hacked as a kid. So it was a skill useful for this role,” Gajwani as quote to Forbes.
The world that man has created relies on the flow of money.Without
which, things cannot get done, nor can you see improvements in the technology you love so much. These are people who see the real potential in start ups and ventures that can really blossom into something big, if they get the right kind of funding.When you land in a simple web site , what goes behind is millions of dollars with complex coding and algothrims and with loads of man made hours , all this requires the Moolah and lot of it. We’ve explored the world of Tech Venture Capitalists to come up with these names who have played a big part in shaping the world of technology.Without their risk where there are more companies which fails and their money goes to dust than some start usp which give them super natural returns READ :Whats APP, facebook and the likes. Lets raise a Toast to the VCs to give us some beautiful and useful tech products.>>
GUYS WHO FUND TECH I MAY 2014 I 211
Suvir Sujan| Co-Founder, Nexus Venture Partners
Companies invested in – Snapdeal, Housing, Mistral, CloudByte, Ryaka, GENWI, Oxdata, ShopClues, Vdopia & more.
The Harvad Business School MBA holder has been in the thick of all things related to the internet. He began his career with Nortel Networks but has since ventured onto many big names of the industry. Suvir has been co-founder and co-CEO of Baazee.com, the leading online marketplace in India that merged with eBay in 2004 to form eBay India. Post the merger, Suvir was Country Manager, eBay India and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, PayPal. Suvir has also worked as a Management Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. He is a charter member of the Internet and Mobile Association of India and an active mentor to several entrepreneurs across the Internet, Wireless and Retail in India. He is also an angel investor and board advisor to guruji.com (Online Search) and Pangea3 (Legal Outsourcing). He also sits on the board of the Global India Venture Capital Association.
Manik Arora|Founder & Managing Director, IDG Ventures India
Manik Arora is a founder and managing director of IDG ventures India, an Indian focused technology venture capital fund backed by IDG. The firm manages over US$6 billion globally and has a strong portfolio of over 200 companies. Manik has over 16 years of industry experience, including 8 years of venture investing experience. He advises on investments in Internet, Mobile, Software and Services and also serves on the Board of Directors at Vserv Digital, Source bits Technologies, Ozone Media and Brainbees Solutions (Firstcry.com & Goodlife.com). Prior to IDG Ventures, Manik was at Battery Ventures in Silicon Valley where he led the firm’s India practice and worked with General Atlantic in Singapore. He was also a part of founding management team at GA- backed i-DNS.net International, the global leader in multilingual Internet DNS technology. He also managed global outsourcing initiatives for American Express in New York and ran sales and marketing for MasterCard in Singapore. His early career was at The Boston Consulting Group in India and South East Asia advising clients on strategy, operations and organizational building.
Companies invested in – Myntra, Vserv, UNBXD, iProf, Yatra, Zivame, Apalya Technologies & more.
Manik is a Kauffman Fellow at the Center for Venture Education and a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Swarthmore College where he received a McCabe Fellowship to pursue his MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.
Rob Soni| Venture Capitalist, Matrix Partners
Rob Soni is an entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist who has helped launch and build more than 30 successful start-up businesses across a range of technologies, including communications systems and software, systems management software, semiconductors and storage. He is a Special Limited Partner at Matrix Partners and currently serves as an advisor at various venture capitalist firms. He also serves as Director at several private and public companies. Rob has been working in all areas of wireless and mobile– millimeter wave, Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, and CDMA– for over 15 years. Mr.Soni is also an active private investor in over 15 private companies and advises several venture firms.
Companies invested in – Olx,U2opia Mobile, Twist Mobile, Traffline, Quikr, CloudNine, Stayzilla& more Celebrating 9th Anniversary
He earned a fellowship to study United States nuclear policy in New Zealand. He holds an A.B., with honors, in Social Studies from the Harvard College and a Rotary Scholar. Rob enjoys tennis and squash (when his knee allows him to play) and loves to travel.
Ravi Adusumalli| General Partner, India Head, SAIF Partners
Ravi C Adusumalli is a General Partner and the Head of India operations for SB Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF) Partners. He joined SAIF in early 2002 and is responsible for spearheading SAIF Partners’ investment in India. Prior to SAIF, he worked at Mobius Venture Capital, a $ 1.25 billion early stage venture capital firm in the Silicon Valley. He also worked at Credit Suisse as an Associate and was also with Wasatch Funds, a mutual fund with over $9 billion in assets that specialized in small-cap and micro-cap companies listed on US and international exchanges. Ravi’s secret of his success is that- “One must keep in mind that “Investing is a hits-driven business; there will be many failures, with a few winners.
Companies invested in – Homeshop18, Ixigo, Intelligroup, Mindtree, Zovi, FirstCry& more.
He won accolades for hand-holding the listing of MakeMyTrip on NASDAQ. His other investments in the Internet space include HomeShop18, Sify Technologies Ltd, One97 Communications, FirstCry.com, iStream.com, Inkfruit.com, Zovi.com, PropTiger Realty Pvt Ltd and iXiGO.com. He serves on the board of directors of SAIF’s investments in National Stock Exchange, MakeMyTrip, HomeShop18, One97 Communications, JustDial, Mainland China and Intelligroup. Mr.Adusumalli graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and Government.
Co-founders,
Vani Kola and Vinod Dham| IndoUS Ventures Vani Kola, a renowned entrepreneur partnered with Vinod Dham, a pioneer in the technology industry to co-found NEA-IndoUS Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, focused on enabling worldclass entrepreneurship in India. For over a decade, Vani has carved a niche in building successful software companies and she is known for identifying emerging markets. Identified as one of the top 10 entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Vani’s commitment to excellence and integrity directs her approach to building companies, developing products and empowering people. She is also actively involved in various organisations focused on fostering entrepreneurship and women leadership. Vani holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in electrical engineering. Acknowledged as “Father of the Pentium” microprocessor, Vinod Dham, successfully executed on his previous fund, NewPath Ventures and is working on similar lines for NEA-IndoUS Ventures. Prior to NewPath Ventures, Vinod was the Chairman, President and CEO of Silicon Spice Inc. which was acquired by Broadcom. He also worked for Intel Corporation for 16 years where he held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Microprocessors product group. During his career, he also got associated with AMD as Group Vice President, and oversaw the launch of K6 - then, the world's fastest windows processor. In 1999, Vinod was named as one of the top 100 most influential Asian Americans of the decade. In 2000 Vinod was appointed to serve on the US President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Currently he serves on the board of InSilica, Telsima, Minekey, ISGN, Connectiva and Pressmart. He has a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Companies invested in – ISGN, VenSat, VIA, Onward Mobility, Snapdeal, Microqual, CarZ, Attero, Gradatim & more. I MAY 2014 I 213
Ram Shriram| Founder & MD, Sheraplo Ventures
Ram Shriram started Sherpalo in January, 2000, with the goal of applying his wealth of operating and company building experience to promising early stage ventures. As a technology industry insider for over 25 years he has worked in companies large and small across all functional areas and through fluctuating business cycles. He is always eager to roll up his sleeves and work closely with founding teams on the challenging issues that confront and sometimes confound early stage ventures. Ram’s knowledge of and advice on issues ranging from raising venture capital, key management hiring, making the right product choices and defining and adapting the business model to changing market conditions can help you to secure early customer wins, build momentum from a standing start, and generate international growth.
Companies invested in – Inmobi, Datafox, Paperless Post, Prana, Inkling, Nebula, Skycatch, Zazzle& more.
Shailendra Singh| Managing Director & Partner, Sequoia Capital India
Companies invested in – Capillary Technologies, Cognizant, eClerx, GlobalLogic (Acquired by Apax Partners), InfoEdge, iYogi, Pangea3 (Acquired by Thomson Reuters) and UnitedLex.
The MD of Sequoia Capital India is a straight-talker and sharp dresser. Shailendra Singh was straightforward in stating that he regretted not investing in Flipkart, even before Accel Partners came forward. He has been at the firm for over eight years, including three years in Sequoia Capital’s Silicon Valley office. He focuses on Technology, Internet, Mobile and Services investments. He currently serves on the boards of Druva, Freecharge, Just Dial, Mu Sigma, Pine Labs, Practo, Scio Health Analytics, Sourcebits and Via. Prior to Sequoia Capital, Shailendra worked at Bain & Co in New York and was earlier an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley during the dot com bubble.He has spoken at several conferences on digital media and been featured in leading publications for his entrepreneurship. Mr. Singh has co-authored articles and cases for highly regarded publishers including Harvard Business Press and Journal of Private Equity.
Mahesh Murthy|Founding Partner, Seedfund & CEO – Pinstorm
If you want to know about Mahesh Murthy in one line, his Twitter bio will have the best description you can think of – Help grow startups @Seedfund, help grow brands @Pinstorm, help grow via travel, reading and music. But, if you wish to know the man a little more – then here’s more. After dropping out of college, Mahesh sold vacuum cleaners from door to door, worked with Grey in India and Ogilvy in Hong Kong, where he won notoriety and awards as a creative director on HP, The Economist, Pepsi and MTV – for whom he wrote and directed a spot voted “Asia’s best commercial of the decade”.
Companies invested in –Mobile Indian, RedBus, ThinkLABS, Lurn, Heckyl, Jeeves, Digital Comics & more. Celebrating 9th Anniversary
He then moved to a Silicon Valley firm, CKS Partners (later, USWeb/CKS) as Creative Director, GM and Partner – where he helped launch the first commercial version of Yahoo in 1995 and the Earth’s Biggest Bookstore campaign for Amazon.com in 1997. After a successful NASDAQ IPO, Mahesh moved to head marketing at iCat, an e-commerce firm in Seattle subsequently acquired by Intel.
Arjun Gupta| Founder & MD,
TeleSoft Partners
Another alumnus of St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Arjun Gupta is the Founder and Managing Director of TeleSoft Partners, a special situations venture capital firm founded in 1996. TeleSoft provides value added capital for technology, communications companies and companies in the energy value chain. Over the last fifteen years, TeleSoft and Arjun Gupta have funded and helped built around 61 companies, resulting in ~38 mergers & acquisitions and IPOs to date with a combined cash acquisition price or market equity value equivalent of ~$16 billion at 2009 valuations. In 2001, Arjun also started a foundation to support community projects in education, medical research and the arts. The foundation has helped provide partial funding for about 90 projects to date. He is a member of the Stanford Business School Management Board, Trustee of The Aspen Institute, Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Officer of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) Colorado Chapter, Trustee of Natural Resources Defense Council, and Member of the Board of Governors and President of the Western Regional Association of the National Association of the Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA).
Companies invested in – BayPackets (GENBAND), CreekPath Systems (Opsware), empowerTel (IPUnity), iWitness/Zantaz (Autonomy), Jungo (NDS), Knowledge Adventure, LiteScape
In addition to building companies, Arjun is a passionate outdoorsman. Over the last 30 years, his key expeditions include – (a) the North Pole to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Peary reaching the pole, (b) a scuba expedition with National Geographic to chart the Millennium Atoll in the South Pacific, (c) six Himalayan expeditions to peaks over 20,000 feet, (d) Arctic Expedition for Climate Change, (e) Conservation and Human Well-being in Africa, (f) Polar Bear and Grizzly tracking safaris in Alaska, (g) Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador, (h) New York and Chicago marathons, etc. He also served as a Liaison Officer with international expeditions for the Indian Mountaineering Federation.
Mahendran Balachandran Partners, Accel & Subrata Mitra Partners India
Mahendran is a Partner at Accel. He has been venture investing in India since 2005. He is responsible for investments in Collectabillia, Dovetail, EnterpriseNube, Ensatus, Mitra Biotech, Position2, Portea, Power2SME, Sconce, Theramyt, Trivone, and Vinculum. Prior to venture investing, Mahendran was Country General Manager of Apple India. Mahendran holds a PGDM degree from IIM Bangalore and a B.Tech degree from REC Warangal.
Companies invested in – Collectabilia, Dovetail, Enterprise Nube Services, Inbiopro (acquired by Agila), Mitra Biotech, Position2, Sconce, Trivone, Vinculum
Subrata focuses on technology and Internet investing. Subrata served on the boards of Small-device (now a part of Digital Chocolate) and Mu Sigma, and is currently on the boards of Perfint, Flipkart, Myntra, and enStage. Before joining Accel India in 2008, Subrata was a Partner at Erasmic Venture Fund.Previously, Subrata was the Founder of Firewhite, Inc., which was acquired by Ubiquio, Inc., and later merged into Mobile Planet. Subrata started his career at IBM’s prestigious T.J. Watson and Santa Teresa Labs, working in the Software R&D groups. Subrata holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Delaware, and a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT, Kanpur, India.
Companies invested in – Flipkart, Funstar Studios, Kirusa, MySmartPrice, Myntra, Parallocity, Perfint, Probe Equity Research, Virident (acquired by Western Digital), Zansaar, Zopnow, enStage
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ANALYSIS Most Popular Innovations & Books Based on our questions to some of the best known names in the Indian Tech World, here is our analysis of the most popular innovations and books recommended by these folks.
INNOVATIONS Wearable Gadgets - AlokBharadwaj, AnkurWarikoo, JitenderChugh, Manish Sharma, Harish Kohli, Arvind Bali, Sanjay Rohatgi, AltafKaldas Projectable Smartphones - AnkurWarikoo, AltafKaldas, Robot Workers - Pankaj Kedia, AnkurWarikoo, Flying Cars or Driverless Cars - Pankaj Kedia, JitenderChugh, AltafKaldas, AnkurWarikoo, Alok Bhardwaj,
3D Printing - Sanjay Rohatgi, Manish Sharma, JitenderChugh
BOOKS 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey • Alok Bhardwaj • RashmiVerma • Sanjay Rohatgi
The Alchemist • • • •
Pankaj Kedia Lakshmi Rebecca Arvind Bali RashmiVerma
Bhagvad Gita • • • •
Moninder Jain Vishal Gonal Pankaj Kedia AnirudhDhoot
Steve Jobs Biography • • • • • •
Celebrating 9th Anniversary
Manish Sharma RashmiVerma Mahesh Narayanan Vishal Gondal Vikrant Singh Sunil Lalvani
The Secret • Vishal Parekh • Alok Bhardwaj
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Celebrating 9th Anniversary