India is one of those markets, where print media is growing fast even with Internet and PC penetration increasing. Pothi.com’s model helps writers take advantage of this medium, while reducing the risks involved. “Internet has given people platforms like blogs and forums to express themselves. However, a book in print is still an indispensable form. It is something you can feel, read while lying down and gift to your loved ones.” says Abhaya Agarwal, co-founder and director of the company. He returned to India to work on this idea after completing his Masters at Carnegie Mellon University this summer.

The platform lets authors upload the soft copy of their book. It gets listed in the online store at Pothi.com from where readers can order it. Pothi.com takes care of the production and shipping of the book, and the profit is shared with the author. The royalty earned per copy is decided by the author himself. Several helpful articles are available to help the authors through the process of preparing their books for self publication. Affordable professional services are also available for cover design, formatting and typing of the manuscript.

The online store is currently live with around 20 books in English and Hindi. “Supporting all Indian languages is important for us. We are currently working with a Bengali author and are expecting more books in Indian languages to be made available through our store. The idea of creating a self publishing platform for print had come to us, when I was trying to look for a way to publish my book of Hindi poetry.” recalls Jaya Jha, the other co-founder of the company, who quit her job at Google India to start this venture.

People have found interesting uses for this Print on Demand platform. Apart from fiction, there are books on computer and technology, self improvement and business. Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals (IAEMP) has published their Independence Day special magazine “Urja Watch” through Pothi.com.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

“Unless we debate on democracy there can be no change,” opined Ujjwal K Chowdhury, dean Symbiosis International University and the director of Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. He added that before anything else the first thing we need to implement in order to move towards a progressive direction is to provide free and compulsory education for all children below 14 years. He pointed out the fact that many issues that otherwise may not figure in any political party manifestos should find a place in the People’s manifesto, namely electoral reforms, education, women’s reservation bill among others. He also said “the top to bottom approach where media is concerned has to be done away with and in order to do so a platform like merinews has an important role to play.”

The CEO and Editor-in-Chief of merinews, Vipul Kant Upadhyay said that the need for a Citizens’ Manifesto is to trigger a chain reaction. He asked the citizens of this country to come forward and voice their opinion as citizen journalists.

Quoting erudite Chanakya, he explained, “Three things are of great importance for any political system (raj-tantra). These are education (siksha), security: police and army (suraksha) and intelligence and spy (guptachar). Though the country has achieved a high literacy, it has not been ’educated’ in the true sense of the word. A teacher’s social prestige and economic standards are quite low. How would such a person be enthused to help lay the foundation of the society?” Similarly, a low-salaried policeman is a soft target for corruption. If their needs are taken care of, in cash and kind, corruption could be stemmed largely. About intelligence he said that he would touch that subject another time.

Upadhyay asked, “We have completed 60 years of independence and what have we achieved in the last 60 years. I believe that we have that we are scored shorter than what we should have. How many cities in our country have uninterrupted 24x7 water supply and electricity? The basic necessities of an ordinary citizen have not been taken care of. We all know what our problems are, it is time that we look at possible solutions to these problems. The idea of the Citizens’ Manifesto is that the people of India come forward and write about their vision of India in the coming years and suggest solutions to the problems dogging our country.” He also pointed out the existing leadership crisis, corruption and law and order issues that the country faces today.

Centre for Youth Development Activities (CYDA) president Mathew Mattam said that Manifesto like these are a dream and it’s time that we turn our dream into reality. He said that we Indians need to learn to be more disciplined. His wish list for the manifesto India 2067 included, no politician should be permitted to contest election for more than four times, politicians in parliament should be below 45 yrs of age. Secondly, why 33 per cent? There should be 50 per cent reservation for women, there should be no Indian featured in the Forbes list of the richest in the world, the disparity between the rich and poor divide should decrease. Stating his last wish for the manifesto, he said, no person should die of hunger and the farmers’ income should be more than what a clerk earns.

Meanwhile, Dr Manjit Singh, a scientist said that biotechnology will provide bread and butter to people in the coming 20-30 years. He further said that science adds another dimension to the dream of the manifesto. He added that our prime focus should be on our deteriorating health sector and each citizen should have a fundamental right to health and stressed upon the need to setup small enterprises for farmers.

Prof Subhash Dhuliya professor and head of education, research and training unit of IGNOU, said that citizen participation can bridge the gap between government manifesto and citizen’s manifesto. He stressed the need to launch media literacy campaign for general public.

Thereafter, some citizens came forward and voiced their opinions on the issues that plague our society and suggested as what can be done to help curb these problems. Among them was a prominent Merinews CJ from Nasik Prabir Ghose, who suggested that ’no-vote’ option should be introduced in Electronic Voting Machines.

Another citizen, Commodore Rajan Vir dwelled on the perils of ’two Indias’, one rich and prosperous and the larger India (about 80 per cent in villages and towns) that is deprived and poor. He also cautioned about the threat of population rise, stating that no one is prepared for the unimaginable numbers of schools and hospitals that we would need by the year 2067.

Geeta Vir, Commodore Rajan’s wife, a social activist, suggested that the education system of UK should be our benchmark. She stressed that vocational training should be introduced for children after class VII.

A participant from UK, Paul Heron, spoke in the capacity of an outsider. He said that in India people elect leaders instead of public servants. If they do not perform they should be recalled from public offices. He also stressed upon the need of safety and security of a citizen journalist and suggested that it should be included in the Manifesto.

Shefali Sagar, Director Editorial, merinews proposed the vote of thanks. Vineet Tiwari, general manager, Lokmat, Pune was also present on the occasion.

Merinews organises seminar at SIMC:

On the second day, merinews organised an interactive seminar with the students of Symbiosis on ’Citizens’ Manifesto: India 2067’, at Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune. The seminar was successful in motivating and enthusing the students towards participation in the Citizen’s Manifesto campaign. Many young students gave their sparkling and fresh viewpoints on what should be included in the Manifesto.

The event was attended by Vipul Kant Upadhayay, Editor-in-Chief, merinews, Ujjwal K Chowdhury, dean Symbiosis International University and the director of Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Ramesh Menon, an award winning journalist (Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism), Shefali Sagar, Editorial Director, merinews and Raja Bellare, a social activist.

About Manifesto: ’Citizens’ Manifesto: India 2067’

Merinews has initiated a revolutionary campaign called ’Citizens’ Manifesto: India 2067’. This unique experiment involves the masses for the sole goal of identifying issues, problems, challenges that we are facing today. The Manifesto serves as a guide to real solutions suggested by the citizens. The aim is to create a vision document and chalk out a road map for the next 60 years. Would India, a nation of a billion plus people develop into a super power?

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Merinews is India’s first citizen journalism news portal. Emanating from the need to empower democracy by providing a media to the people of the country to communicate with one and all. Merinews.com is an effort to provide one such platform to interact and express. It’s a news platform for collective wisdom ’of the people, by the people and for the people’.

Merinews is the winner of India’s best e-content award for the Year 2006 Official Honoree at Webby Awards 2007 alongside the likes of Bloomberg.com, aolnews.com and cnn.com. Merinews ranks fifth in the world in the participatory news category.

“We are very excited by E&P’s choice of Pressmart as their new media delivery partner. E&P had a choice of vendors and chose Pressmart’s best-of-breed solution,” commented Myles M. Fuchs, President of Pressmart Media Ltd.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Editor&Publisher

Editor & Publisher is the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North American newspaper industry, including business, newsroom, advertising, circulation, marketing, technology, online and syndicates. Based in New York City, the magazine dates back to 1884, when The Journalist, a weekly, was founded. E&P was launched in 1901 and merged with The Journalist in 1907. E&P later acquired Newspaperdom, a trade journal for the newspaper industry that started in 1892. In 1927, E&P merged with another trade paper, The Fourth Estate. In January 2004, E&P switched from weekly to monthly publication, while revamping its Web site to offer more breaking news and content on a daily basis.

E&P Online (www.editorandpublisher.com) offers breaking news free to all visitors in our Top Stories section. Each week, selected proprietary stories from E&P staff are made available free to all visitors, but the majority of our analysis, industry news, features, columns, and trends are restricted to E&P subscribers.

About Pressmart

Pressmart ( www.pressmart.net ) is a New Media Delivery Partner of leading newspapers and magazines, delivering same-as-print content on multiple distribution channels including the Web (as a print-replica ePaper edition), Mobile, RSS, Podcasts, Blogs, Social Networking Sites, Article Directories, Search Engines and eArchives. Pressmart has digitized over 400 years’ worth of newspapers, magazines and journals.

The training course will be held from:

4th - 5th August 2008 in Jakarta, Indonesia

7th-8th August 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand.

It will be a perfect practice for maintenance and operations personnel who are responsible for delivering cost effective reliability and availability of plant and equipment.

In fact, these interactive sessions highlight the modern maintenance methods and techniques, with particular emphasis on selecting the right maintenance work and undertaking it at the right time, organizing maintenance resources, analyzing and understanding actual and potential failures and how to deal with them, estimating and controlling maintenance costs, measuring results and ensuring continuous improvement.

Speaking for this workshop is an international trainer, consultant and professional engineer with over 25 years of Industrial experience in machinery and maintenance field. He is currently an Engineering and Management Consultant and lecturer of Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), World Class Manufacturing (WCM), Safety, Health & Environment (SHE), Risk Analysis and Management, HAZOP Studies at the University of Cape Town.

Click here to find more about our Maintenance Training Program.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Salvo Global provides cutting edge business knowledge and strategic networking through events like training and conferences. We organize mainly public corporate event, the attendees are generally senior decision-maker (C-Level, Directors, GMs, Senior Managers, etc) from the larger companies (MNCs or local companies) in the Asia Pacific. Salvo covers Production, Promotion and Delivery of events. Our competences are our acumens in identifying the right topics, our network of Asia-Pacific companies and their decision makers, and our high quality customer service before, during and after events.

Emantras’ REED platform helps publishers create and manage digital content cost effectively, rapidly, and without having to bear the burden of a captive technology team. REED allows publishers to take advantage of true XML tagged content and exploit the various commercial options these digital technologies afford. The REED platform also provides tools to create a true learning environment. The highly secure custom reader incorporates several learning workflow features, along with collaborative tools such as blogging and instructors notes.

Odyssey now offers printing service as an optional added feature to REED clients and the end user interface. Consumers can now choose to order printed copies of e-books and e-journals with a single click. Teachers can order copies for their class, resident directors can order copies of articles that they would like their medical residents to study at or use for a “Grand Rounds” presentation.

“We are delighted to have Odyssey Press as a partner. Odyssey’s print feature will augment the existing educational environment within the REED platform. The option to have professional print quality versions of the e-books available to the end user is a win-win for publishers as well. A publisher no longer needs to print and store high levels of inventory, or worry about worry about managing the reprinting of their books. Odyssey’s on-demand service will take care of these burdens and provide new revenue sources for the publisher” - Michael Medina, Director STM Publishing at Emantras.

“Odyssey Press is pleased to partner with Emantras to offer its’ online eCommerce enabled systems to Reed platform users. With today’s continued migration to online delivery, print remains a key element and revenue component of a publishers’ business. Print may no longer be the central delivery channel, however it remains an important option for authors, librarians, and readers. Odyssey’s EzReprint™, EzSubscription™ and EzFulfillment™ systems enable online publishers to cost effectively meet the content delivery expectations of all end users from within the Reed platform”. – Kevin Pirkey, Vice President at Odyssey Press Inc.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Emantras: Emantras is a leading digital education and performance improvement company, delivering comprehensive and versatile educational solutions with world-class training options to enterprises seeking to excel. Emantras provides engaging and user-centric learning experiences that enable effective knowledge propagation through integrated digital and mobile solutions. www.emantras.com

About Odyssey Press Inc.: Odyssey Press Inc. is the Original ultrashort run digital printer celebrating its’ 20th year of innovation. We specialize in the progressive use of technology, and produce books, journals, and article reprints in quantities of one to 100,000 copies. From our facility in Gonic, New Hampshire, we provide comprehensive online eCommerce systems that integrate online publications with on-demand print production services. Odyssey Press is also a member of the International Printers Network (IPN) offering global distribute-and-print services throughout the world. www.odysseypress.com

The uniqueness of the book lies in its simplicity in defining the basic nature of a competency, apart from providing valuable insights into the core of HR issues and an understanding of the new challenges being faced by HR professionals in a rapidly changing business environment.

Saugata Mitra has over two decades of experience in Fortune 500 companies and is a well known business analyst & HR Professional. Having started his career with American transnational & Union Carbide, followed by Japanese Multinationals Sony and Sharp, Saugata also successfully dabbled in India-Entry strategy for Japanese companies as the COO of an Indo-Japanese business venture. An MBA from the highly coveted Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, major part of his professional career has been with Japanese Transnational organizations. Recipient of many National and International Awards, he has been guest speaker at business forums world-over. Saugata, known to have aligned HR with the common language of business, has been advising many corporate leaders on important issues like leadership, best business practices & Human Resource Management.

“My work does not pretend to be the last word on competencies, but can be useful as an invaluable reference guide for HR practitioners at various levels. The illustrations encapsulate a competency through humorous depiction of a real life business situation & micro case studies attempt to show how successful people have demonstrated a specific competency,” says Saugata Mitra who is presently working as the Chief People Officer with India’s most admired and one of the largest Dairy and Food Giant- Mother Dairy.

The book has interesting case studies depictingbusiness competencies of National & International business leaders like Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, Jack Welch, B.M. Munjal, Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Azim Premji, Naveen Jindal, Dhirubhai Ambani, Jacques Nasser, K.M.Birla, KV.Kamath, Deepakh Parekh, Bill Gates, Deepak Puri, Tulsi Kanti, Akio Morita, Jagdish Khattar, Kiran Majumdar, E.S.Sreeddharan and many more.

The book has been co-authored by Seema Bangia, a HR professional with almost two decades of Corporate experience and a certified assessor from Thomas International and the Association of Psychologists and Jayati Mitra, Founder & CEO Abbscissa Consulting, a fast growing company in the realm of Human Resource Consulting which has propelled into a company with Pan-India presence & multiple offices with the present employee base of one hundred & fifty one in a very short span of time. Abbscissa,s strengths lie in CEO Search and recruitment and Competency Assessment for Fortune 500 companies & Indian business conglomerates.

This book from Sterling, recently launched at the London Book Fair and priced at Rs 600 is a great handbook for HR & business professionals, apart from management students looking for in-depth knowledge of competencies and would surely be seen as a welcome change from the existing dry management books in the market.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Mrs. Meera Shastri, a noted women activist, BJP leader with various posts including the memebr of 'Rastriya Karyakarini', an ex-executive with Tata Steel and who is also daughter in law of Shri. Lal Bahadur Shastri, has appreciated the book by quoting, “Whatever author has written is true. It is an honor to release this book.”

'How to win Heart of Your Wife' is a special non-fiction written for the husbands in recent years. Dilip Jha, Manager, Mahaveer Publishers says, “We would say, it is a must-read for every married or going-to-marry man. The book has examples from real life, and talks in details about the problems of wives that are commonly overlooked. The immense pressure on the working males in the metro-politan cities, lack of time for family makes them to ignore their wives for long periods. Recently, an HCL employee whose husband also worked in the same company, commited suicide due to 'loneliness' and 'indifference' by her husband. Ignoring your wife and family can have drastic effects, so you better 'Win Heart of your Wife' now.

The following poets will grace the occasion: 1. Kavi Mahendra Ajanabi, 2. Kaviyitri Dr. Madhu Mohini 3. Kavi Deepak Gupta 4. Kavi Mahendra Sharma 5. Kavi Chetan Anand 6. Kavi Krishan Kant Madhur

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Category 5: Print Advertising Sales and Retention awards marketing activities used to support the sales or retention of display advertising in the core print newspaper, for example, advertiser reward programmes, special advertiser events, etc. MiD DAY’s very successful “Media Nights at Hard Rock Café, a promotion that encouraged media networking and fraternizing won the INMA for this category. Every Wednesday, media folk are invited to get discounted drinks and starters at the popular club and enjoy an evening out. The Media Nights were inspired by MiD DAY’s mission of Making Work Fun for their YUMPI audience (Young Urban Mobile Professionals of India).

MiD DAY was also awarded second place at the INMA Awards for Category 9: New Marketing Services which recognizes campaigns that add distinctive value to advertising clients. This win was specifically for MiD DAY’s innovative Impact Covers that invited the reader to truly engage with the content of the advertisers’ message. The impact cover innovations for Saawariya the movie, that used very aesthetic gateway paper, taking the level of impact and impression to a new level, and an integrated campaign across the paper for Ford Endeavour that saw the car zooming through the back page of the paper, seeming to tear through the centrefold, and crash out of the front page were recognized here.

MiD DAY was also awarded second place at the INMA Awards for Category 10: Public Relations and Community Service, for MiD DAY’s campaign “Smoking Causes Blindness” that created awareness for a cause that is of great concern to MiD DAY’s audience of urban professionals.

Says Abhijit Pradhan, Director Sales & Marketing, MiD DAY Multimedia Limited, “The media industry in India is one of the most dynamic and exciting places to be at present, and it has some of the most creative global talent working for it. It’s great to see Indian media houses taking their place as leaders in recognized global forums such as INMA.”

“The YUMPI* is an extremely attractive but incredibly elusive audience for marketers today. MiD DAY as a brand understands this audience and reaches this audience physically in a way no other media or media brand does. The Global INMA wins for these campaigns are in recognition of the success of this effort,” he added

Over the last year, MiD DAY had undertaken several initiatives to increase engagement levels of this audience with advertising that appears on our pages. A recently conducted Nielsen Engagement Study indicates that MiD DAY engages YUMPI’s best across leading English Dailies in Mumbai, Delhi & Bangalore. MiD DAY’s circulation stands at 2,00,000 sold copies in Mumbai, 75,000 in Delhi an 60,000 in Bangalore.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

From an outsourcing perspective, multilingual publishing needs can be looked at in two ways. The first is core services required by multilingual publishers and the other, support services for the multilingual publishing requirements of corporate firms. Though not on a large scale various publishing services vendors are now offering multilingual services in segments like STM/Academic, Educational, Magazines and Newspapers. Languages other than English that are gaining traction include French, Spanish, Japanese and German amongst others.

The STM / Academic segment is largely catered to by the Indian vendors with most providing composition or design services. However, multilingual STM publishing has limited scope for offshoring higher value services and skill based editorial services like content editing, proof reading etc to India due to lack of linguistic capability.

In the Educational publishing space there is significant potential in the content localization space, which involves adapting the published content to the cultural context of the country or region. In the corporate space opportunities exist in the area of translation and localization of training manuals, product catalogs or user manuals. There are a large number of magazines published in local languages in Europe, which offer a huge opportunity in providing composition and design services to countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland.

The page rates for multilingual publishing are twice that for English language thus for most Indian vendors this move will also help balance out the rapidly falling rates of the commoditized services in the more mature segments. It will also give them the capability to provide end-to-end services to their publisher clients.

According to Aradhana Kolhatkar, analyst at ValueNotes, “Although multilingual offshoring to India is far off on the maturity horizon, the move has begun. An emerging opportunity along with the growing ambition of Indian vendors implies that the capabilities that do not exist today will be acquired in near future”. ValueNotes expects acquisitions in the multilingual space especially in European or Hispanic geographies, by large and mid-sized India based vendors.

ValueNotes is a leading provider of research and information in the outsourcing industry. “The opportunity in multilingual publishing” is covered in detail in the March update of the report “Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical”.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ValueNotes Database is a leading provider of business intelligence and research, with expertise across selected domains and types of customer needs. Working with clients across the globe we have significant understanding of international markets.

The ValueNotes Outsourcing Practice is one of the largest information providers on the outsourcing industry. Our Outsourcing Practice uses a comprehensive, analytical framework providing fresh insights into the fast emerging and yet, complex outsourcing space. We extensively track the outsourcing space in-depth through a regular analysis of news and events and continuous primary research and contact with the industry.

To learn more about the ValueNotes Outsourcing Practice, see samples, order reports, or provide us with your feedback on this research, please go to www.valuenotes.biz or write to bporesearch@valuenotes.com. You can also call us at 91 20 2588 1164 / 65

The report, “Green Networking Equipment: Who Leads and Who Lags,” says there are “significant differences in the energy efficiency of similarly equipped switch equipment” and that “as many businesses develop ‘green’ initiatives… IT managers will be forced to absorb some degree of responsibility for their organization’s power usage.”The report confirms the success of 3Com’s program to reduce energy consumption while increasing network functionality.

“Businesses worldwide are looking for effective ways to reduce energy use, both to save money and to conserve resources,” said Scott Hilton, vice president of enterprise products for 3Com. “Through innovative design, 3Com’s newest products use up to 78 percent less power than previous switches. It’s gratifying that In-Stat recognizes 3Com’s industry leadership in this important area.”Making their networks more energy efficient is fast becoming a top priority for CIOs. In an exclusive survey of IT executives published by CIO magazine in March 2008, 75 percent of respondents cited either reducing operating costs or a commitment to social responsibility as the driver for making their IT operations greener.3Com’s David Law, chairman of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working group, said, “At its March 2008 meeting, the IEEE P802.3az Energy-efficient Ethernet Task selected a Low-Power Idle proposal for both 1000BASE-T and 100BASE-T. Work on selecting proposals for the remaining objectives will continue at the upcoming May meeting in Munich, Germany. Standards approval is targeted for March 2010.”

In-Stat calculated the energy efficiency of 24-port and 48-port switches from leading vendors’ portfolios and 3Com products were the clear leaders in energy efficiency in both categories.A comparison of the fabric capacity (Gbps) per watt of 24-port Gigabit Ethernet fixed, managed Layer 2 and 3 switches found that 3Com far outpaced the rest of the industry by delivering approximately 3.25 Gbps per watt. No other vendor delivers as much as 2.0 Gbps per watt, according to In-Stat.Among 48-port Gigabit Ethernet fixed, managed Layer 2 and 3 switches, 3Com again leads the field and is the only company able to deliver as much as 2.0 Gbps per watt. In both categories, prominent vendors such as Cisco, HP ProCurve, Nortel and Foundry were at or near the bottom of In-Stat’s rankings.

Ongoing Commitment to Green Technology

3Com is working continuously to deliver products that are even more energy-efficient. A key element of the company’s green plan is the 3Com® Open Services Networking (OSN) strategy. Applications run on Open Services Modules (OSM) embedded within networking platforms, which makes it easy for enterprises and service providers to deliver a variety of enhanced services without having to deploy numerous single-task appliances that complicate network management, take up valuable facility space, and consume excessive power. OSMs are currently available for 3Com router platforms and are currently scheduled for switching platforms later this year

Facts About 3Com Green Switches

Over the past 18 months, 3Com has refreshed its Ethernet switching portfolio to take advantage of innovative energy-efficient components and designs. The company’s research shows that upgrading older switches can deliver significant energy savings. For example, customers running a 3Com Switch 4070 Gigabit small campus core switch who upgrade to the 3Com Switch 5500G switch will decrease energy use by 29 percent. Likewise, moving from the Switch 4400 Fast Ethernet edge switch to Switch 5500-EI family devices will enable businesses to reduce energy consumption by approximately 60 percent.A comparison with other vendors’ switches confirms 3Com’s energy efficiency leadership. The 3Com Switch 4500G 24-Port Gigabit switch consumes 20 percent less energy than the Cisco Catalyst 3560G-24TS and 11 percent less than the HP ProCurve 3400cl-24G, based on published watts per switch power consumption figures. The 3Com Switch 4500G 48-Port consumes 25 percent less power than the Catalyst 3560G-48TS and 15 percent less than the HP ProCurve 3400cl-48G. The 3Com Switch 4210 24-Port and Switch 4210 48-Port switches consume 30 percent and 17 percent less energy than the equivalent HP ProCurve 2510 24- and 48-port switches.- more -

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About 3Com Corporation

3Com Corporation is a leading provider of secure, converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. 3Com offers a broad line of innovative products backed by world-class sales, service and support, which excel at delivering business value for its customers. 3Com also includes H3C Technologies Co., Limited (H3C), a China-based provider of network infrastructure products. H3C brings high-performance and cost-effective product development and a strong footprint in one of the world’s most dynamic markets. Through its TippingPoint division, 3Com is a leading provider of network-based intrusion prevention systems that deliver in-depth application protection, infrastructure protection, and performance protection. For further information, please visit www.3com.com or the media site www.3com.com/pressbox.

The media fancies in the news if it makes a good story, without much regard for the factual accuracy and ensures that truth is lost in semantics and theatrics. Much of today’s jaundiced traditional journalism finds fertile ground in would-be journalists whose motives have little to do with social conscience, disclosure of injustice, uncovering wrongdoing or giving voice to the voiceless.

Recently a lady journalist with name and fame in a widely circulated and highly respected newspaper in India has been trying to get away stating that Vidya Vihar Nagarpalika where BITS Pilani is located has a Child Sex ratio of 871 despite having a high literacy rate of 89.80 percent and goes about concluding that high literacy has a strong correlation with low CSR.

One wonders if the concerned journalist bothered to know that more than 50 percent of the total population of 14366 in Vidya Vihar happens to be students from all over India studying and staying in hostels and not involved in family raising activities. Who knows the reputed journalist may even conclude that less the population of a country more the number of prisoners since USA has less than 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of world’s prisoners.

For its doom, the current state of traditional news media must take the blame for public’s general lack of information which is vital for responsible citizenship in a democracy. Traditional media has always focused much on urban news coverage. Any news coverage of suburban and rural events by traditional media has worked on by and large pre-arranged procedures only.

Online journalism, or e-journalism, or cyber news, is journalism practiced online. While traditional media is linear, online journalism takes a non-linear approach to news. The Internet, web logs, search engines, and RSS feeds are the new tools of computer assisted reporting (CAR). Free press releases distribution services built on the principles of search engine optimization have added an exciting dimension to online journalism and press freedom.

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1991 as a day "to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession." Press freedom is considered to be a cornerstone of human rights and a guarantee of other freedoms. This day is celebrated each year on 3rd May and the focus this year is on the freedom of the press and the “Access to information and the empowerment of people”.

Pilani, 28.22N, 75.33E. is a small town in Rajasthan where Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani which is one among the top ranking universities in India today is located and no one may be able to change the latitude and longitude of Pilani but media has a role to play to change the altitude of Pilani.

Today, the happenings at BITS Pilani reach everywhere across the globe from Australia to America as well as Arctic to the Antarctic in no time thanks to the Free Press Release Services offered by agencies such as India PRwire and the celebrations of World Press Freedom Day will not be complete without acknowledging the stellar role played by India PRwire in this mission.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Rajasthan which has set the industry university collaboration bench mark as well as having the reputation of pioneering the online examinations for admissions in India today through the path breaking BITSAT offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa campuses and in the short future at Hyderabad campus apart from an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast spectrum of Indian corporates. The alumni of the Institute are spread across the globe from Australia to America.

REED platform helps publishers to effectively create and manage content in digital formats in an effective manner without hiring additional resources. It allows publishers to take advantage of true XML benefits an exploit the various commercial options afforded by the use of digital technology. Among many features of REED, its highly secure custom reader functionality allows users to create notes into their e-book subscription. In addition to blogging and book marking instructors can post notes and deliver class notes with in the chapters of e-book. REED platform enables BC Decker to manage static and dynamic HTML pages using its administration section with eCommerce components allowing BC Decker to take control of subscriptions of their e-Book and e-Journal.

BC Decker’s online needs presented the ideal stage for REED platform to empower BC Decker’s content. "We look forward to deliver competitive digital content strategy that adds value to BC Decker and their end user” said Michael Medina, Director – Business Development at Emantras.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The agreements were signed in the presence of Bill Rylance, Vice Chairman, Global Development, and Chairman Asia Pacific for Burson-Marsteller, with Strategic Alliance, Sri Lanka; Mediators Pvt. Ltd., Pakistan; Cogito Marketing Solutions Limited, Bangladesh and Media Tech Associates for Nepal.

“Creating new avenues for growth and network expansion is our strategic priority and we see South Asia as an important growth engine. The agreements signed today significantly strengthen our footprint and services in the region through Genesis Burson-Marsteller,” said Bill Rylance.

The building-out of Burson-Marsteller’s South Asia footprint recognizes the emerging economic strength of the region. Growing at over six per cent per annum, South Asia’s 2006 GDP stood at 5,161,067 million international dollars (in purchasing power parity). The region has increased its share in world output from six per cent to eight per cent over the past decade.

“Our Indian and multinational clients are increasingly looking for public relations solutions and reach in the region. The South Asia Network will offer clients the highest return-on-investment on their communication spends by combining the best available local expertise, seamless reach across countries and integration from India,” said Ashwani Singla, Chief Executive, Genesis Burson-Marsteller.

Burson-Marsteller Worldwide CEO, Mark Penn, emphasized the significance of Burson-Marsteller’s extensive affiliate network: “Our affiliates are value-added partners who enable us to meet the needs of our global clients anywhere in the world.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

NIS Sparta, Asia's leading training, education and learning solutions provider (a Reliance ADA Group company) and Inscape Publishing, have signed a Business Partner Contract, to offer Inscape’s solutions that have already been used by more than 43 million people globally to the customers in India.

The partnership will leverage NIS Sparta’s reach in the Indian market, its portfolio of clients and Inscape Publishing’s time tested assessment tools and solutions. The partnership augurs well for Indian companies which today have global aspirations and also for multi-national companies for whom India is emerging as the preferred destination.

Speaking on the tie-up, Mr. Muralidhar Rao, President, NIS Sparta, said, “Significant role that training and development plays in enhancing competitiveness and spurring growth has been realized by all, whether it is the Indian MNC’s or MNC’s operating in India. Companies today are also seeking solutions that will enable them develop their leadership and management teams. As a leading training solutions provider in the sub-continent, it is our continuous endeavor to develop, seek and offer the best and the latest training solutions. The tie-up with Inscape is one such initiative in the direction that will enable us to offer the highest quality of assessment tools and solutions to our valued customers.”

To start with, a selected team of NIS Sparta’s Trainers & Executives has been Certified on Inscape’s training solutions. Known as Master Trainer Certification or TTT level, this certification is the highest possible level in the category of products offered. Upon successful completion, NIS Sparta’s Master Trainers have the right to issue globally valid certificates to trainers.

Speaking on signing of the contract, Mr. Hans Jakob Walhovd, Managing Director, Inscape Partners International Inc., said, “We welcome NIS Sparta to our global network. Our global experience has shown that self assessment combined with integrated facilitation systems is an effective learning process. We are confident that by certifying the team of NIS Sparta’s trainers, we will be able to bring our world class assessments and training solutions to Indian corporates.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About NIS Sparta

NIS Sparta is Asia's leading training, education and learning solutions provider and a Reliance ADA Group company. The company partners organizations in achieving their mission critical goals through enhanced effectiveness of their people and processes, using proven methodologies.

To cater to the learning needs to the individuals, NIS Sparta also operates The NIS Academy, to offer knowledge and skill based programs, for professionals, students and first time employment seekers.

Over the last 17 years, NIS Sparta has provided training and consulting solutions to over 10,00,000 professionals, in over 550 organizations, across 10 countries in 18 languages. With about 500 trainers and consultants spread across 60 locations and a clientele comprising of ‘Industry Leaders’, NIS Sparta is the undisputed leader in the learning solutions domain.

About Inscape Partners International ApS

With a network of independent partners and distributors spread across 54 countries, Inscape’s network is the largest, within commercial use and distribution of psychometric tools.

Inscape is in several respects considered industry leaders due to their successful internet based strategies for customer acquisition and product delivery. Their products and solutions are delivered in 26 languages, worldwide. Inscape was the first company to commercialize the DISC family of personality assessments.

The International Partners program is managed primarily at Inscape’s international headquarters in Taastrup, Denmark, giving Inscape a strong presence in the global marketplace.

“I don’t have words to express my feelings… we never thought that we can make it so big. When we started this website, our aim was to spread awareness about Bhojpuri Language... and the Bhojpuria culture,” said Sudhir Kumar, director of Bhojpuria.com.

“In the beginning, people used to laugh on us… Today, I must repeat that we are committed towards our ultimate goal. We want just two types of people on this earth, where the first one should say – I Love Bhojpuri, the second one should say – I hate Bhojpuri, I don’t want anyone to revert back and ask me – What is Bhojpuri?, we will take Bhojpuri to the last person on this earth,” added Kumar.

The entire team of Bhojpuria was celebrating on this occasion, Anil Ojha Neerad (Famous Bhojpuri Writer & Editor, Literature section) could not stop his emotions – “Bhojpuria.com went to UN World Summit Awards last year, this year it is going to Europe… everyone seems to understand our importance, then why not our Govt.? Why are they not including Bhojpuri to the 8th schedule of Indian constitution, making it an official language of India?”

Bhojpuri Film Industry seems delighted by this news as well. “After all films are also a part of the culture, and we all are happy for Bhojpuria,” said Bipin Bahaar, famous Bhojpuri Lyrics Writer.

“For an institution, which works honestly for its language and culture, this kind of achievement should not be taken as a surprise. I congratulate ‘our own’ Bhojpuria.com on this rare achievement”, said Bhojpuri Superstar Manoj Tiwari.

There were over 2000 nominations in Stockholm Challenge this year and 400 of the entries made it through the first criteria control. They were then handed over the 25 experts in the Stockholm Challenge international jury, who have now chosen the most qualified runners up for the category awards. The jury has studied 400 projects and selected 145 finalists, spread over the six Stockholm Challenge Award categories (Culture, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Health, Public Administration).

The winners in each category will be announced during the Gala Evening in the Stockholm City Hall on May 22. All the finalists are invited to come and participate in the Challenge Week events in Stockholm, May 19-22. There are twenty-three (23) finalists in Culture section, out of which one will walk away with prestigious Stockholm Challenge trophy and receive 5,000 Euro (Approx 3.17 Lakh) as prize money.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The costs for acquiring and composing advertisements make up for half the costs of a yellow pages publisher. Several services pertaining to these two costs like Display and In Column Ad Design, Pagination, YP AD Production are offshoreable. The employee skill sets required for servicing the publishing industry are also transferable.

The publishing outsourcing industry in India is focused primarily on the STM/Educational publishing segment. There is an increasing number of vendors extending their capabilities to service emerging segments like directory publishing. The production process is more offshoreable than printing from the Indian point of view, as it involves non-physical transfer of data. The cost of production personnel in India is almost 7 to 8 times lower than those in the US. For an average $16/hour for a graphic designer in the US, an Indian counterpart costs approximately $2.5-3.5/hr. While Indian vendors can provide a significant cost advantage; to succeed, they need to identify changing customer needs and adapt new technologies to their advantage.

According to Aradhana Kolhatkar, analyst ValueNotes, “The information search business is burgeoning globally and usage of yellow pages is definitely set to increase. Online opportunities provide an entire gamut of services that can be done remotely. Attracting large customers is a challenge for vendors, however the growing number of titles by independent publishers also presents a big opportunity”.

ValueNotes has been tracking the publishing outsourcing space comprehensively. The latest update to its report “Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical” focuses on the offshore opportunity in Directory Yellow Pages publishing.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ValueNotes Database is a leading provider of business intelligence and research, with expertise across selected domains and types of customer needs. Working with clients across the globe we have significant understanding of international markets.

The ValueNotes Outsourcing Practice is one of the largest information providers on the outsourcing industry. Our Outsourcing Practice uses a comprehensive, analytical framework providing fresh insights into the fast emerging and yet, complex outsourcing space. We extensively track the outsourcing space in-depth through a regular analysis of news and events and continuous primary research and contact with the industry.

To learn more about the ValueNotes Outsourcing Practice, see samples, order reports, or provide us with your feedback on this research, please go to www.valuenotes.biz or write to bporesearch@valuenotes.com. You can also call us at 91 20 6601 0423 / 6601 0424

Exhibition

Franchise business in our country has demonstrated success and become an apt business platform for entrepreneurs as franchising is not only a concept for expansion but itself constitutes a complete business system with regard to a successful brand.

The biggest draw to the expo this year was undoubtedly the exhibition, a platform for prospective franchisees to meet the franchisors and retail brands of their interest. Besides retail brands from India; this event was supported by US Commercial Services, International Enterprise, Singapore, Malaysian Franchise Association and Franchising and Licensing Association of Singapore.

Several leading brands from these nations present at the expo were the ones who want to expand their reach in India through franchising.

Titan Industries, Top Careers & You, Tech-Kidz, Tru Frut ice-cream, Sweet World, Way2wealth Securties Pvt. Ltd., Sify Technogies, Smart Zone, The NIS Academy, REBI, Zapak Gameplex, Magic Methods, Mahan Computer Services, Ashtang Ayurveda, US Dollar Store, IIFT, Horizon Aviation Academy, HCL DigiLife, Clara International, Dr. Lal Path Labs, Cartridge World, Balloon Man, Makeover, Dosa Plaza, Coffee Day Express, Abacus Mental Mathematics Academy, Suncity Projects Ltd and retail consultants like Team India Managers and Laurent & Benon were some of the Indian brands that participated in the exhibition. US participants included Apple Bees Restaurants, Wellness Waters Spa, www.franchise2Win.com and US Dollar Store Singapore participants included Fly Entertainment, Blush Lingerie, Eye Relax, Astreem Corporation, Highlander Bar and Autosaver Malaysian participants included () and Thai exhibitors included Mrs. Flowers, Café De Iyara, Dairy Farm, SMEI, Pata Jewel Cloning and Mini Pump.

India Franchise and Retail Summit 2008

The summit was held on the second day, and witnessed eminent speakers from the national and international franchise industry share their experience and knowledge on franchising. The effort was to attract prospective franchisees to embrace franchising as a route to business. The speakers highlighted the factors influencing the growth of retail, its boom, new strategies and business opportunities for new entrants, as well as pitfalls to be avoided.

Delivering the welcome address, C.Y Pal, President, FAI, said, “Franchising is a subject which is gaining fast growth in India. Comparing the number of franchise systems in Australia, China and the US, which has 1000, 1500 and 2000 respectively, with 800 franchise systems India is yet to catch up.” He added, “Franchising as a business model will grow at the rate of 30-40 per cent in the coming 4-5 years. The reason for this popularity is because of very less capital required for a person who is keen on being an entrepreneur. Most of the new outlets opening up in malls these days are by franchisees.” Think innovatively and graduate to a modern way of operation was his message to all retailers especially the mom and pop stores.

Rajeev Karwal, Founder & CEO, Milagrow was the moderator for the first session of the summit on “How to start a business in less than ten lakhs”. His advice to prospective franchisees is to ponder on the following aspects before entering any business: Product, Pricing at which the products are to be sourced and sold, People, Promotion, Place, Policy and processes and Pace of expansion.

The panelists of the first session were Paresh Rajde, Suvidhaa Infoserve, O P Manchanda, COO of Dr. Lal Pathlabs and Naresh Ajwani, Sify Ltd. According to Manchanda, “Healthcare franchising is a sunrise industry. From US $ 30 billion, the industry is set to grow to US $ 40-55 by 2012. Of this, the pathology segment accounts for US $ 1 bn. With per capita income growing in the country, money spend on healthcare and penetration of life and health insurance is also increasing.” Speaking about the franchise opportunities with his brand, the most popular in the country, Manchanda said, “All our collection centres are franchised. For a town of 2-3 lakh of population, five centres are required and for each centre a fixed investment of two lakhs is required. Similarly, for a city of around 10-15 lakh of population, a collection centre can be set up with a total investment of ten lakhs.

In Ajwani’s view, attitude of the franchisee plays a pivotal role in the success of any business. He took the audience through a presentation on Sify’s retail venture iway, which is much more than a cyber café. With less than ten lakhs, one can own a Sify iway, have the freedom of being in your own business backed by Sify’s support. The franchisor sets up the center, provides marketing aids as well as trains the iway personnel. Rajde’s message to the prospective franchisees who are in the look out for low-budget business is, “People who are ready to accept change and seek more and more information will find success.” He suggested telecom, tours and travel and financial services are some of the sectors people can look for more opportunities.

Samir Kuckreja, CEO, Nirula’s, Joydeep Singh, Chief Business Developer, Yo! China, Major KV Rajan, VETA and Dale Tasharski, Deputy. Sr. Commercial Officer, US Commercial Service were the speakers of the second session on “How to become a franchisor”. Sharing the secret behind a win-win relationship, Singh says, “A franchisor should be a customer maniac, a person who has passion for the brand and have high integrity towards the brand”. An ideal franchisor should be able to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship according to Rajan whereas Kuckreja believes in entering the franchise route because franchisees can be a great source of idea. Economies of scale can be achieved only through franchising”, saying this Tasharski was calling interested franchisees who have the right resources, network, a good location and the desire to do business to partner with American brands.

Real estate being the priciest factor when it comes to retail expansion, “Deciding on the right real estate for your franchise” was the most looked-for session in the summit. Ananta Raghuvanshi, Chief Executive –Retail, Emaar MGF, Lakshmi Narayan, CEO, REBI and Rahul Narvekar, Suncity Projects was the panelists of this session. Raghuvanshi feels the increasing cost of land will make it next to impossible for a small franchisee to have a space in the mall in the coming years so the solution is to book a property as early as possible. Nevertheless, she adds, “Innovation and not location that is more important for retailers to survive in this highly competitive times”. “For bigger brands/anchor stores, malls may go for revenue sharing but the mall owners are forced to pass on the high rate of land to retailers/franchisees”, said Narvekar. Narayan grabbed the attention of the audience completely with his informative and entertaining session. Comparing the food, gem and jewellery, garment and education industry, he alleged, “Real estate is one industry which scores over others because franchisees can be more independent as they are not product dependent, have the satisfaction of offering customers what they want, requires just one time infrastructure, no inventory, not many employees are required and the market is growing and there is huge returns.”

Pinakiranjan Mishra, E&Y moderated the session on “Understanding the economics behind franchising”. Sandeep Dutt, MD, Book Café feels, “If franchisee is the heart and franchisor the soul, both have to come together to win customers which is the core of any business relationship.” Money involved is intangible if the product/service is of your passion. Self-actualisation should be the level at which the franchisor-franchisee relationship work,” according to Sanjay Shivnani, Career Launcher. Paul Merrifield, National Shopping Centre Development Manager, Aditya Birla Group, explained that the only factor that would make a franchisee go to a retailer was desperation for growth. He added, “Economics is important but the focus should be passion for the brand, respect and transparency.” Manoj Chawla, VP, The NIS Academy, Vivek Seigell, HCL and all the panelists in this session unanimously concluded, “be passionate about your brand and one is sure to achieve success.”

In the final session of the summit Gautam Sahni, Director, US Dollar Store, Sanjay Shivnani of Career Launcher and Vivek Seigell, HCL Digilife spoke on the franchise success stories of their brands. The entire summit was moderated by Jayant Kochar of Go Fish Retail Solutions.

Indian Franchising Awards 2008

Indian Franchising Awards 2008 are given to recognise and reward excellence in franchising to outstanding brands with a proven track record of success. We have several interesting categories like FAI Woman of the Year to encourage women franchisee/ franchisor who has achieved significant success in franchising operations and Indian Franchisee of the Year to reward excellence in franchising across several parameters by an Indian Franchisee.

This year the process for selection involved self-nomination option across twelve categories, the forms were validated by Ernest and Young and the winners were chosen by the jury comprising of industry captains like C Y Pal, President- FAI, Pinaki Mishra, Partner - Ernst & Young, Vivek Kaul, National Director- JLLM, Rajeev Karwal, Founder & CEO- Milagrow, Vinod Behl, Editor- Franchise Plus Magazine and Kalyan Kar, Editor- exchange4media.com.

Award Category

Citation

Award Winner

New Concept in Franchising

To recognise the innovative and successful introduction of a franchising model for a product / business category / industry that did not previously have a franchising model on a large scale

Cartridge World

Franchise Growth Driver

To recognise new franchising initiatives that revolutionized the industry

Coffee Day Express

Win-Win Franchising Partnership

To recognise franchising arrangements with fair and equal rights, duties and rewards for franchisors and franchisees

Aptech

Franchisee Innovativeness Award

To recognise franchisees’ Innovative ideas that resulted in improvement of business operations / results

Joint Winners: HCL Digilife & ATR Jewellery Design

Supportive Franchisor

To recognise franchisors that have extended relevant and timely support to franchisees in terms of IT, process, training, manpower, etc.

HCL Digilife

Innovative Franchise Model

Innovation introduced in the franchising agreement or model which has resulted in increased benefits for both franchisor and franchisee

Ceat Shoppe

FAI Woman of the Year

Woman Franchisee/ Franchisor who has achieved significant success in franchising operations

Ms. Priti Malik, VP, Avalon Aviation Academy

Indian Franchisee of the Year

Excellence in franchising across several parameters, by an Indian Franchisee

Ms. Reema Khosla, Franchisee, Arena Multimedia

Indian Global Franchisor

Excellence in overseas franchising operations

Aptech

Indian Franchisor of the Year

Excellence in franchising across several parameters, by an Indian Franchisor

Coffee Day Express

For more information about forthcoming events, visit us at www.fai.co.in or email us at info@fai.co.in

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The Franchising Association of India is a Membership Organisation of Franchisors, Franchisees, Vendors, Consultants, Financial Institutions and Students and others. Our services are dedicated to provide a one-stop shopping experience for franchising business and with membership of the prestigious World Franchise Council we have ongoing access to knowledge of the World accepted best practice related to Franchising in different areas of business activity as also networking contacts with the WFC member Franchising Associations in different parts of the world for generating new business opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs.

In recognition of the increasing role of franchising in the market place and the very beneficial positive contributions of franchising to the Indian economy, the franchisor and franchisee members of the FAI believe that franchising must reflect the highest principles and standards of fair business practices.

Mission
Tap the vast entrepreneurial energy available in the country by promoting the concept and practice of franchising in India.

Objectives
- Exchange and safeguard the business environment for franchising, both with regard to franchisors and franchisees
- Act as the resource centre for current and prospective franchisors, franchisees, the media and the Government.
- Disseminate knowledge to promote the concept of 'franchising' and propagate it as a healthy business practice.
- Establish a forum for discussion and deliberation on Franchising related matters and problems and help promote the interest of members by organising seminars, conferences and meetings.

Activities
To work towards achievement of the above mission and objectives our activities will include:
- Creation of appropriate forums for discussion of issues and problems related to Franchising.
- International linkages to promote - bringing in of foreign frachisors and best practice for doing business in India through Marketing India at International Expos and otherwise.
- Make representations to the Government with regard to legislative and other measures affecting the promotion of concept and practice of Franchising.
- Encouraging Bank and Venture Capital funding for franchisees.
-Publication of Franchising Successes
- Creation of India's most comprehensive Online Franchise Directory - which helps franchisors promote their business's and attract new franchisees.

For more information about FAI, please visit www.fai.co.in

Through ReIndia Expo, Recharger will target corporate customers, who are realizing the entrepreneurial opportunities in the printer cartridge remanufacturing industry. It will also address the needs of customers, who are searching for ways to learn about the latest information and view the most up-to-date products available in the office products recycling industry. It will drive home the fact that a strong demand for low-cost, high-quality replacement printer cartridges has quickly become a very lucrative idea for budding entrepreneurs.

“The U.S. market is a developed landscape in the remanufacturing industry, but markets like India are fertile grounds for remanufacturing and entrepreneurial opportunities. The printer cartridge remanufacturing industry in India stands on the threshold of peak potential,” says Adam Schaffer, Group publisher of Recharger, “The prospect of new business in an up-and-coming market is a very appealing initiative for most entrepreneurs – it is merely whoever takes advantage that will benefit. Consumers are frequently finding that it is more convenient and cost-effective to purchase a remanufactured cartridge over the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM) because the price difference can be as much as double.”

ReIndia Expo will provide an effective way for those interested to learn more about the printer cartridge remanufacturing industry. Attendees can learn the latest quality remanufacturing techniques in classes taught by industry leaders, preview state-of-the-art equipment, learn about products and services to increase productivity and reduce costs. Present at the ReIndia Expo will be businesses such as Cartridge World, (a worldwide cartridge refilling franchise operation with an expanding presence in India and which was recognised at the 2007 Franchising Awards in India as the “Concept of the Year”).

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

For more information: Ms. Eddna Samuel, MantriMotif Communications, Mob: 91-9323166832, 91-9322952424, 91-9892452424; E-mail: motifpr@mantrimotif.com

On this occasion Shri Kamal Nath was upbeat about the leather sector’s performance and said the Government was looking at increasing the competitiveness of the Indian Leather Industry by removing hurdles to unlock the full potential of this Industry. The exports of leather according to CLE were at 13,500 crores a year which is about 40% of the total leather & leather products productions valued at Rs. 30,000 crores. The Minister was happy that the Leather Industry was continuously looking at expanding capacities, diversifying products and exploring new markets to retain its leadership in the Export Market.

During the function Shri Mukhtarul Aminji (Chairman, Council for Leather Exports), said: - everybody should read this book, “Indian Leather Exports –prospects and problems” is first of its kind brought out by the council. this book also contains the information on global leather markets as well as opportunities available to Indian Leather. Book also cover the topics like global leather markets, implications of Anti-dumping duties on Chinese & Taiwanese footwear, investment options, Human resources management and how to show case in international fairs.

The book is a compilation of a series of lectures and key note delivered by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Member of Planning Commission, Secretaries to Government, beside three International experts drawn from UNIDO, WSA (USA) and a legal firm in Brussels dealing with Anti-Dumping duty.

The book also has contributions from Professor T.J. Kamanbhan of IIT on Human Resource development and Perspective Planning for Indian Leather Exporters. Mr. A. Sahasranaman, IAS (retd.) former Director of the Council has also shared his views to attract investment into the sector.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

The Indian Export Promotion Organisation have acknowledged the labour that has been put into shaping of a multi product and multi location conglomerate from a mere production unit at Unnao and have bestowed upon Superhouse numerous accolades in response. Superhouse has been getting Export Awards regularly and recently the Best Productivity Award was conferred upon the company. This has boosted the spirits and today Superhouse is eyeing an ambitious target of US $ 150 Million in the coming year. The export sale figure for the year 2004-2004 inspite of various bottlenecks in Leather business worldwide have been excellent and the detailed break-up is as follows:-

Finished Leather Rs. 166.11 Million

Leather Footwear Rs. 275.10 Million

Footwear Components Rs. 194.70 Million

Leather Goods/Garments Rs. 200.00 Million

The figures show a substiantial jump over the previous year with almost equal sales in domestic market the net turnover of Superhouse group today stands at around 200 crores.

Not only business but also the environmental issues have witnessed concentrated efforts from the group. With the sole initiative of Superhouse, a common effulent treatment plant was set up in Unnao which treats the effluent from more than a dozen tanneries in and around UPSIDC, Industrial Area, Unnao, before it goes to harm the living beings. The common effluent treatment plant at Unnao which is the result of the initiative of the Superhouse group is one of its kind in Asia and has received acknowledgement and letter of Appreciation from many International bodies like UNIDO and Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. The project is aided by World Bank.

Today Superhouse Group is slowly and steadily moving towards the status of a diversified conglomerate with interests not only in leather, leather products and accessories but also in areas as diverse as real estate, education and entertainment. Superhouse has recently acquired 100 acres of land near Lucknow to set up a modern manufacturing unit for frozen food exports.

At this year, Training 2008 conference, Emantras will be showcasing its new cutting edge product REED (Rapid e-Book and e-Journal Developer). REED is a comprehensive e-book and e-journal platform that answers publishers concern in creating and managing content in digital format. With REED publishers now create and control digital content rapidly in a cost effective without additional resource.

Emantras’ services and products are customized to meet specific needs ranging from exceptional course management techniques for the administrator to richly interactive and productive learning environments for the learner, while strictly adhering to set standards. Our approach towards learning includes a blend of simulations, animations, gaming, story based learning, interactions, videos and avatars to ensure a rich user experience. To learn more about the distinctive Emantras Experience, visit us at Booth# 510

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About Emantras, Inc
Emantras is a leading digital education and performance improvement company, delivering comprehensive and versatile educational solutions with world-class training options to enterprises seeking to excel. Emantras provides engaging and user-centric learning experiences that enable effective knowledge propagation through integrated digital and mobile solutions. Backed with years of experience, combining learning techniques and technology, Emantras provides pioneering, reliable, and transparent solutions, on time and on budget. To learn more about the distinctive Emantras Experience please visit us at www.emantras.com.

Media Contact
Vinod Krishnan
Ph: 510-257-4305
Vinod@emantras.com

Promoted by a California-based NRI, Hina Saiya, shopimagine.in (www.shopimagine.in) has already notched up some impressive successes, even before the official launch today. It has signed partnerships with a couple of companies and is on the verge of signing some more, which will allow it greater visibility and reach in the market.

It has just added a Valentine’s section to its already impressive collection of babydolls, teddies, corsets & bustier, camisoles, bridals, bra & panty sets as well as exclusive club & party wear.

Shopimagine.in (www.shopimagine.in) is the first online portal of its kind in India and aims to be the largest with an initial luxury lingerie selection of over 100 styles.

The portal was online from January 1, 2008, but began transacting business today. Customers who placed advance orders before the portalbegan transactions,were given 25 % discount on each item.

All items will be shipped to the customer free of cost and with a seven-day money back return policy available across all of India.

The portal’s Sales and Marketing office is based out of Pune.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

ShopImagine.in (www.shopimagine.in)is pioneering a new online retail model focusing exclusively on the urban professional woman in India. The online store offers the largest selection of luxury lingerie as well as exclusive clubwear. ShopImagine is sourcing luxury lingerie items from multiple sources across Europe, Americas and Asia. The company is establishing product experts who will be available online or via telephone to advice and guide the consumers in product selection, usage and care.

Nature India aims to be the one-stop site for information on Indian science, and is the first website dedicated to covering the best research from India in a wide range of science disciplines. NPG’s second country-specific portal, Nature India follows the successful launch of Nature China in 2007.

"We are delighted to be launching Nature India," comments David Swinbanks, Publishing Director for NPG. "The quantity and quality of scientific output from Asia has been rising dramatically in recent years and India is a major contributor. But it is still hard to find information on where the best research is being done and by whom. Nature India, like Nature China, addresses this by providing timely information on some of India's best research." Dr Swinbanks continues, “Nature India also provides an opportunity for the scientific community to proactively highlight some of India's best research. We sincerely hope scientists in India and around the globe will make full use of this facility to draw the world’s attention to India's best science."

India consistently ranks in the top 20 countries for number of papers published, according to Thomson Scientific’s Essential Science Indicators[i]. However, India falls outside Essential Science Indicators’ top 20 countries for both citations and citations per paper. Nature India should help to raise the visibility of high quality research from the region, bringing it to a wider audience within India and around the world.

Nature India will feature short ‘Research Highlights’ of interesting, recently-published articles by authors based in India from across the scientific and medical literature. Elsewhere on the site, readers can nominate high quality articles to be included in the ‘Recommended Papers’ section, and vote and comment on those articles nominated by others.

There are more chances to interact with the site and with colleagues through an active forum on Nature Network (http://network.nature.com/forum/natureindia) and via the 'Indigenus' blog (http://blogs.nature.com/indigenus/). Nature India also features jobs, events, science news, in-depth features, and commentaries on contemporary issues affecting Indian science. Readers also have free access to some handpicked premium content from NPG journals via Nature India.

[i] in-cites, December 2007, http://www.in-cites.com/countries/2007allfields.html

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through Nature News. Scientific career information and free job postings are offered on Naturejobs.

NPG is a global company with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Delhi, Mexico City and Basingstoke. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.

Contact details for Nature India:
Jaishree Srinivasan - Publisher, Nature India
Nature Publishing Group
Tel: +91 124 2881053 j.srinivasan@nature.com

In a market where online shopping is still considered to be an unsafe and unreliable option, storeguru reassures its customers by providing the safest payment gateway among all e-commerce sites. The site directs to an encrypted payment gateway of the bank itself, which is highly secured. Since all the payment details goes through the bank's payment gateway, the credit card details and shopping data is always secured.

The site also boasts of the largest number of brands under one roof, complete with brand warranty. In fact, products that come with warranty are indicated on the site so as to avoid confusion. Customers are provided with both brand and product guarantee. The best prices, a commitment to timely delivery and after sale service in the form of a list of service centers all across India; Storeguru.com provides it all.

The fun of shopping without the hassles – that’s storeguru.com for you.

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Network18[BSE: 532798,NSE: Network18] is one of India's leading full play media conglomerates with interests in television, print, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its holding in Television Eighteen India Ltd (TV18) [BSE: 532299, NSE: TV-18], Network18 operates India's leading business news television channels, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz. It also runs one of India's largest Internet players - Web18, as well as one of India's leading real time financial information and news terminals - Newswire18.

TV18 has recently expanded into print with the acquisition of Infomedia, India's leading player in the B2B publishing and printing operations space, and announced a collaboration with Forbes media for the launch of a business magazine in India and is in the process of launching a Hindi business daily for the Indian market via a 50:50 JV with Jagran Prakashan. Through its holding in Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN) [BSE: 532800,NSE: GBN], Network18 operates in the general news and entertainment space with leading general news channels CNN-IBN and IBN7 and will be launching a Marathi news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group. GBN also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18 which houses the MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon channels in India - as also Studio18, the Group's filmed entertainment operation and will be launching a Hindi general entertainment channel. For more information, log on to www.network18online.com

The India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) will hold the WORLD BOOK FAIR from 2nd February to 10th February at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The World Book Fair is organized biennially by the NBT (National Book Trust) of India and is the second largest book fair in the world.

The extensive gala is anticipated to attract whole genre of book lovers including book sellers, book merchants, librarians, wholesalers, literary agents and book buyers from all over the homeland.

Dreamtech Press as an organization has been an active participant in the World Book Fair for the past 10 years, at each instance and the response has been overwhelming. This time too it’s expecting a squall of literary enthusiasts as ever subsequent tradition.

Commenting on the impending participation of her organization in the WORLD BOOK FAIR 2008, Ms Arti Pandey, Publisher of the company expressed sanguinity as well as delight that this year’s event would yet again be a marking manifestation for Dreamtech Press and would also magnetize the book lovers to the capital. “The event will not only serve and mirror the reading patterns of literary enthusiasts and industry experts in the country, but once again provide momentous platform to the local and niche publishers like us, to showcase our area of expertise to the rest of the country. The previous event witnessed over 1 million ardent book lovers for some 1200 exhibitors. The response we get here is awe-inspiring that’s why this year we are also planning to launch few new books here.”

She continued, “We are also striding into a fresh arena of leisure reading with a new series of Coffee Table Books. The series is being promoted entitled ‘Symphony of Prudent Reading’ is a product of our alliance with ‘Source Books Inc’, a leading independent publisher of general trade & fiction books. The specimen titles include books dealing with issues from our daily lives and can be seen at our stall.”

While responding about her assortment of books at the fair she replied, “We are fervent to give potential patrons an exciting blend of various book categories that they will not find at any other stall, probably.”

She further said, “I would like to congratulate NBT for assuring participation of copious number of contributory publishers, authors and book sellers year and again.” She ended up with an open invitation to one and all saying, “All are invited to share their scrap of book doting.”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

Dreamtech Press has been associated with book publishing since several years and is led by an ever so resolute lady Ms Arti Pandey, Publisher of the company. The company has gained repute in the market with making available quality products.

While the term Dreamtech can be associated with technicalities, it continues to publish in areas similar to its interpretation. Dreamtech Press specializes in all areas of computer and technical education like: Computer Science, Certification, Database Management, E-Commerce, Hardware/Software Testing & Analysis, Networking, Information Technology, Programming, Operating System and Competitive Books as well. In its ever growing list of titles, the company has entered into alliances with world leaders such as Wiley India (a unit of John Wiley & sons), Apress/Springer Manning and many more. Dreamtech Press has been committed in bringing India-centric brands to the readers.

The hoof marks of Dreamtech Press in the World Book Fair could be observed at Hall no 4, stall No 610 showcasing its entire range of paperbacks and hard bounds.

For Valentine’s Day when you order flowers, or any other gift online for your beloved from www.fnp.inyou can also add a luxury lingerie item in your shopping cart.

This great offer from Ferns 'N' Petals (www.fnp.in)and shopimagine.in (www.shopimagine.in) couldn’t have been timed better, especially, for the romantic man, who would earlier get tongue-tied, when it came to purchasing luxury lingerie for someone he loved, from a department store or mall. He can now do it in complete comfort and privacy of the online store.

Shopimagine.in offers the largest selection of babydolls, chemise, teddies, bridals, bra & panty sets as well as exclusive clubwear. The online portal is the first of its kind in India with an initial luxury lingerie selection of over 100 items. The online store will start shipping orders on February 1, 2008, in time for Valentine’s Day.

So hurry! Log on to the www.fnp.in to shop for this Valentine’s Day and make your Valentine feel special with flowers and exclusive luxury lingerie. It couldn’t get any better!

“In our pursuit for providing ever more exclusive and high quality products and services to our online clients we have partnered with shopimagine.in. The timing is excellent, since Valentine’s Day is around the corner and it will allow our clients the opportunity to think beyond their imagination”, says Pawan Gadia, Vice President, Ferns N Petals.

Shopimagine.in CEO Hina Saiya said, “we are delighted to partner with Ferns ‘N’ Petals to make this Valentine’s Day special for all those in love. I also think this is a great opportunity for the usually reticent male, who can buy lingerie online for his wife, fiancée or girlfriend!”

Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire

About shopimagine.in

Shopimagine.in (www.shopimagine.in) is a venture promoted by a California-based NRI Hina Saiya. It is pioneering a new online retail model for the Indian urban professional woman. With over one hundred styles to select from, shopimagine.in has the largest online luxury selections in India focusing exclusively on the Indian urban professional woman.

About Ferns 'N' Petals

Ferns 'N' Petals established in 1994, is the country's only branded chain of retail flower shops and an online flower portal www.fnp.in providing one stop solutions for everybody's floral needs whether it be. Ferns 'N' Petals (FNP), a leading florist in India, has long been associated with good quality flowers &flower arrangements. FNP, the only Indian name at par with international flower brands in both quality and designs provides one-stop solution for all flower requirements, be it for daily or occasional gifting or for floral decoration in weddings, corporate events and individual parties.

Chef Ananda Solomon introduced Thai cuisine to the country with the original Thai Pavilion in the early 90’s. At that time, he spent many months across Thailand experiencing and studying its cuisine and culture. In a stunning journey of re-discovery, Chef Ananda went back to the roots and now presents an elevated version of this popular cuisine.

The Chef Speaks…

Chef Ananda, Corporate Chef, Taj Business Hotels says, “I have long explored the mystique and been fascinated by the bouquet of flavours which is the essence of Thai cuisine. Unraveling this glorious cuisine, yet retaining its delightful aura of surprise, the freshness of its natural ingredients subtle flavours and colours of the bounty of field and farm, ocean and hillside, is a challenge which I continue to relish. I feel privileged to have been associated with the Royal Thai Kitchen. And it gives me immense joy to share those epicurean pleasures with you at your very own and loved, Thai Pavilion. ”

Inspired by The Royal Magic…

Before the magic of this cuisine is rolled out, a little on what this cuisine is all about. Royal Thai Cuisine is rooted in imperial cities of the Central Plains in Thailand. The Central Plains have evolved a unique, exotic yet wonderfully wholesome cuisine, thanks to tradition of the royal kitchen. At the core of this cuisine are only the finest in ingredients, fruits and vegetables of the season. The outcome - indeed, a celebration of senses – food that pleases the eye, rewards the palate and is laden with irresistible aroma.

Taj President promises to present the glimpses of this cuisine inspired by royalty in Thai Pavilion’s new avatar.

Tales from the kitchen…

In Thai Pavilion’s kitchen like in the Palaces, each dish is endowed with subtlety and refinement, and its presentation is enhanced by delicately sculptured mangoes, watermelons, pumpkins, radishes, tomatoes, chillies and root ginger. Each dish has a minimum of three basic flavours and use only hand pounded Thai spices, the freshest of lamb shanks, clay fish, duck, Thai vegetables and mushroom, in addition to regular meat and seafood.

For the first time, guests can enjoy a special Chef recommended ”Harmony” meal as he has kept in mind that a typical Thai meal is characterized by its balance of five fundamental flavours – hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty and bitter . In this meal various courses are all presented simultaneously and are meant to be eaten together, thus combining these flavours.

The new menu at Thai Pavilion has the trademark harmonious combination of different flavours and textures that makes Thai cuisine a world-wide favourite.

The special combination of herbs and spices used in preparing Thai dishes is what gives Thai food its very distinctive character and Thai Pavilion offers fresh, distinct and well-seasoned soups, entrees, appetizers and desserts for a true tasteful experience of the Thai culture. Chef Ananda’s expertise and love of epicure cuisine enable him to create magnificent dishes that are pl