UK-India biz set to fly on ‘angel’ wings

Major initiative towards increasing deal flows between Companies in India and the UK by January

Mumbai, November 25, 2007 In a major initiative towards increasing deal flows between Companies in India and the UK, a separate network of ‘angel’ investors from both the countries will be launched in January. The angel investors network will offer financial assistance to Indian firms seeking to enter the UK and vice versa.

To be launched by UK Trade Minister Digby Jones when he visits India in January, the initiative is being spearheaded by well-known market expert and fund manager Alpesh Patel, who is also a member of the UK-India Business Council board.

Source: Financial Express

India's Finance Minister delivers Mahindra Lecture at Harvard Business School

Address on challenges of development cosponsored by Harvard South Asia Initiative

BOSTON - The Honorable Palaniappan Chidambaram, the finance minister of India and a member of the Harvard Business School MBA Class of 1968, returned to HBS on Oct. 18 to deliver the 2007 Harish C. Mahindra Lecture on "Poor Rich Countries: The Challenges of Development."

The event was cosponsored by Harvard University's South Asia Initiative and Harvard Business School and made possible by a generous gift from the family of the late Mr. Mahindra, a Harvard College alumnus and a pioneer in the firm of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a maker of off-road vehicles and tractors and part of the Mahindra Group, one of India's largest and most prominent conglomerates.

Speaking in Harvard Business School's Spangler Auditorium before a filled-to-overflowing audience comprising students and faculty from across the University, including HBS, Harvard Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government, Chidambaram told a tale of two Indias - a country rich in natural and human resources but unable to take full advantage of them because of the prevalence of poverty (a third of the population of 1.1 billion people lives on an income of less than a dollar a day), inadequate schools and health care, and interest groups that favor the status quo rather than progress.

Source: Harvard Business School

Wildlife Sanctuary Receives Cisco and IBM Technology Donation

Carnivore Preservation Trust (CPT) to Improve Animal Care and Educate Public on Endangered Animals

SAN JOSE, Calif., and ARMONK, N.Y - 19 Nov 2007 Cisco® and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a joint initiative to outfit the wildlife sanctuary, Carnivore Preservation Trust (CPT) in Pittsboro, N.C., with a high-performance server and networking infrastructure and other state-of-the-art technology. The Carnivore Preservation Trust is a nonprofit organization that rescues and nurses back to health leopards, tigers, binturongs and other carnivores. With voice, video and Web technology provided by Cisco and IBM, CPT staff and volunteers can improve the quality of care they provide to the exotic carnivores and can better educate the public on the importance of saving these endangered animals.

CPT’s daily operations were inhibited by its aging technology infrastructure that included failing servers, spotty Internet access, no voicemail and a lack of modern mobile telephony to communicate in the field. After learning about the technology upgrade CPT needed, a team of Cisco and IBM volunteers came in to help modernize its operations. CPT deployed a high-performance clustered-server solution based on IBM System x servers coupled with Cisco networking technology.

Source: Cisco, IBM

Greening the ghetto - environmental justice in the South Bronx

About this Talk
In an emotionally charged talk, Majora Carter explains her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx. This MacArthur-winning activist shows how minority neighborhoods have suffered most from flawed urban policy, and energetically shares her grassroots efforts to "green the ghetto." Her talk from the heart drew a spontaneous standing ovation at TED, and has proved equally moving online. As blogger Mike Maupuia records: "So I'm sitting at my desk at work, earplugs inserted, and tears running down my face. I'm watching this video of Majora Carter's presentation at TED, and thinking ... I love this woman! But don't listen to me ... go listen to her!"

About Majora Carter
Majora Carter is dedicated to fighting "environmental racism" in her hometown of New York's South Bronx. She's working not just to hold back the polluters who target neighborhoods like hers, but to bring back the green. Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: "Green the ghetto!"

"We could not fail to be inspired by Majora Carter's efforts to bring green space for exercise to the South Bronx. We need more ideas like these to bring solutions to minority communities."
- Time

K P Singh: World's richest realty developer

DLF's Kushal Pal Singh is fourth on the 2007 India Rich List

November 16, 2007 India's booming real estate sector has more than doubled the number of billionaires from this space in just 12 months, with DLF's Kushal Pal Singh emerging "the world's richest real estate developer."

Singh, the wealthiest in this space, has been ranked as the fourth richest Indian with a net worth of $35 billion, according to 'Forbes' India's 40 Rich List' for 2007. "Kushal Pal Singh is fourth on the 2007 India Rich List with a net worth of 35 billion dollars, making him the world's richest real estate developer," Forbes said.

The four richest Indians are worth an astonishing $180 billion. Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London, is No. 1 again, worth $51 billion, but Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Industries is India's most valuable company, is quickly closing the gap. His net worth jumped $30.5 billion to $49 billion, making him the year's biggest gainer. His estranged brother Anil is close on his heels, up $30.2 billion to $45 billion.

Source: Forbes, Rediff

Juan Enriquez: Why can't we grow new energy?

About this Talk
Juan Enriquez offers a glimpse of some ground-breaking research to explore the potential of bioenergy. Our current energy sources -- coal, oil, gas -- are ultimately derived from ancient plants -- they're "concentrated sunlight." He asks, Can we learn from that process and accelerate it? Can we get to the point where we grow our own energy as efficiently as we grow wheat? (Less than a month after this talk, his company announced a process to do just that.)



About Juan Enriquez
Juan Enriquez is an authority on the economic and political impact of science. In his 2001 best-seller As the Future Catches You, he examines the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society.

Oracle Announces 2007 Oracle Excellence Award Winners

Global Award Recognizes Customers for Creative Use of Oracle® Fusion Middleware with Oracle Applications


ORACLE OPENWORLD, SAN FRANCISCO 13-NOV-2007 05:00 AM Oracle today announced the recipients of the 2007 Oracle Excellence Award. The award, co-sponsored by the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) and Quest International Users Group (Quest), recognizes organizations for their success in extending the business value of their Oracle Applications with Oracle Fusion Middleware as a result of Oracle's "Applications Unlimited" program.

Customers, and their implementation partners, representing multiple industries across the globe submitted nominations for the Oracle Excellence Award. Each of the award recipients delivered exceptional business value through their use of Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications. The top five winners will be featured in a cover story article in the January/February issue of Oracle's Profit magazine and will make an exclusive appearance on Appcast, Oracle's podcast series.

Recipients of the 2007 Oracle Excellence Award include: Apollo Group, Inc., BAE Systems Australia, Booz Allen Hamilton, City of Kent, Deutsche Bank, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, GE Healthcare, IKON Office Solutions, Ingersoll Rand, Logitech, Merrill Lynch, Mexicana de Aviación, Move, Inc., Northwestern University, Pepsi Bottling Group, projectiondesign, PTC, Qualcomm, Rackable Systems, Ross Stores, Inc., Secure Path Technology LLC, Syntax-Brillian, Temple-Inland and its subsidiary Forestar Real Estate Group, Tucson Electric Power, Universal Lighting, ViewSonic, VION Food Group and Wind River.

Source: Oracle

C K Prahalad is World's Most Influential Thinker (Thinkers 50 2007)

Prahalad voted the world's most influential living management thinker

Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (C K Prahalad), India-born management guru and academician, has been voted the world's most influential living management thinker ahead of hands-on managers like Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan and Richard Branson.

Prahalad, who is the first Indian-origin thinker to claim the title, was ranked number three in last year's Thinkers 50 list brought out by Suntop Media.

C. K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, is a globally known figure and has consulted with the top management of many of the world's foremost companies. His research specializes in corporate strategy and the role and value added of top management in large, diversified, multinational corporations.


Source: Thinkers50, Rediff, University of Michigan