India's richest men join up with Bill Gates for literacy drive in slums

Some of India's richest men have joined forces with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to launch an ambitious campaign to teach 100 million illiterate Indian slum children to read by the end of 2010.

The task force, which includes British-based billionaires Gopichand Hinduja and L.N Mittal, are expected to lead a fundraising appeal for the campaign at the glitzy Indian Summer Garden Party in Chelsea this weekend.

Its supporters include film director Meera Syal, television comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar, and Gaj Singh, the Maharaja of Jodhpur. Also on board are Indian billionaires Aditya Birla, Keshub Mahindra, Mukesh Ambani, and Dell, the owners of IT giants Google.

Many of them have pledged millions of pounds to the campaign, which is being waged by Pratham, India's largest and most successful charity. The Gates Foundation has donated £9 million, while Google has given a further £2 million.

Their money will fund intensive courses in which the children of poor labourers will be taught how to read and write Hindi for one hour per day for six weeks, by which time they will be able to read stories unaided.

At Kotla Village in East Delhi yesterday, Pratham teacher Manju was reading twelve pre-school children a story to prepare them to learn the Hindi alphabet. Their parents could not afford the books and uniforms they need for government schools, but even if they could, there are simply not enough school places.

Suman Pandey, Pratham's local co-ordinator, said the group was aiming to teach five million children to read in Delhi alone in the next 18 months.

"We have around 42 hours to teach them to read. There's no homework, it's simple rote learning, with 20 children per class," she said.

Since it began its work in 1999, the charity has taught 33 million children basic literacy, several of whom have gone on to university and become community teachers themselves.

Gopichand Hinduja, who is leading the fund-raising appeal, last night told The Daily Telegraph that he hoped the campaign would take poor Indians from the slums and develop them into leaders.

"Indians are all over the world in important positions and it's because of education," he said.

source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/5637565/Indias-richest-men-join-up-with-Bill-Gates-for-literacy-drive-in-slums.html

Myths about Mukesh Ambani's house Antilia

The absurd thing about the house Antilia is it has a staff of 600 for maintenancework. That gives a ratio of 1:100 for people living in the house and those who are paid to take care of it. The six lucky (?) ones are the man himself, his wife, his 3 children and his mother Kokilaben. The family will be movingin from their old home ‘Sea Wind’ which was a 14 floor building at Cuffe Parade.

In fairness, Mukesh Ambani bought the property in 2002. So he has not spent anywhere close to the $1 billion people are now valuing the property at. And it is not just him, plenty of other rich tycoons have indulgedin their residences. Two people who immediately come to mind are Mittal & Gates.

Source:http://aavaas.com/2007/11/04/mukesh-ambanis-new-house-anthill/

Tatas reputed than Google, MS: survey

They may not be as big as their global peers in terms of revenue and profits, but Indian companies are top of the lot in terms of their reputation, as per a study that has ranked Tatas as more reputed than the likes of Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, GE and Walt Disney.

Noting that the world looks to “corporate India to find trust, admiration and good feeling,” the US-based brand and reputation management consulting firm Reputation Institute has named five Indian firms among the top-50 in its annual list of the world’s most reputed companies.

While the global list has been topped by Italy’s chocolate maker Ferrero, Sweden’s retailer IKEA, and Johnson &Johnson in the US, the Tata group has been ranked 11th.

Among Indian companies, Tatas are followed by SBI (29), Infosys (39), Larsen & Toubro (47) and Maruti Suzuki (49th).

There are 22 other Indian companies on the list of 600 largest companies, ranked in terms of their reputation.

“Corporate India has the best reputed companies. Of the 27 Indian companies ranked among the 600 largest in the world, almost 90% received scores above the global mean, withfive ranking among the Top 50,” the Reputation Institute saidin its annual study for 2009.

Only the US had more number of companies in the top-50 (17 companies), the report noted. In terms of overall presence also, the US had five times the number of companies in the list than India.

The list is made on the basis of admiration, trust and good feeling that consumers have towards a company.

Other Indian companies on the list include—Hindustan Unilever (70th rank), ITC (96), Canara Bank (103), HPCL (112), Indian Oil (113), Wipro (117), Reliance Group (133), Mahindra & Mahindra (138), Bharti Airtel (164), Bank of Baroda (175), BPCL (176) and Punjab National Bank (178).

The report did not clarify whether the Reliance group means the Mukesh Ambani Group or Anil Ambani group of companies. The report revealed that corporate trust is higher in the emerging markets, while companies in industrialised markets are trusted less.

“Proportionally, the largest companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) enjoy a stronger emotional connection with consumers than the largest companies in the industrialised world,” it added.

Out of the 289 companies from the US, Japan, the UK, France and Germany, 45% have reputations below the global average, while only 34% of the 142 companies from Bric nations have below-average reputations, with Chinese companies dragging down the...

source: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Tatas-reputed-than-Google-MS-survey/457115/

IPL Teams: Mukesh gets Mumbai, Kolkata to SRK

The high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday received an overwhelming response with some of India’s top industrialists like Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya and film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta winning bids to own teams in the Twenty20 venture.

After prolonged suspense, BCCI Vice President and Chairman of the IPL Governing Council Lalit Modi disclosed the names of the winning bidders, who shelled out staggering amounts to be owner of the city-based teams.

Reliance Industries Chief Mukesh Ambani pipped Vijay Mallya to win the bid for the Mumbai team for USD 111.9 million.

The liquor baron, however, won the bid for the Bangalore team for USD 111.6 million.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan, joining hands with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta, won the bid for the Kolkata team for USD 75.09 million.

Fellow actor Preity Zinta and her boy friend Ness Wadia won the bid for the Mohali team for USD 76 million.

Among others, GMR Holdings won the bid for the Delhi team (USD 84 million), India Cements bagged the Chennai team (USD 91 million), Deccan Chronicle bid successfully for the Hyderabad (USD 107.01 million) outfit and Emerging Media won the bid for the Jaipur team for USD 67 million.

The bids of the ICICI, Sahara and Futures Group were disqualified, Modi said.

India Cements bagged the Chennai team (USD 91 million), Deccan Chronicle bid successfully for the Hyderabad (USD 107.01 million) outfit and Emerging Media won the bid for the Jaipur team for USD 67 million.

The bids of the ICICI, Sahara and Futures Group were disqualified, Modi said.

“We can say that all the hard work fructified and the IPL is here to stay,” Modi said.

Asked if Shah Rukh was bidding just to use cricket as a means to promote his films, Modi said, “Shah Rukh loves cricket and that’s why he invested his money. It has got nothing to do with film promotion. We have heard similar complaint in the past but the board never endorsed those views”.

He also dismissed suggestions that there was a conflict of interests in Indian Cement, which has BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan as a shareholder, becoming a team owner.

“Mr Srinivasan is just a stakeholder there and he is not the owner. So there is no such conflicts of interests,” he said.

Modi admitted some of the contracted international players would skip the twenty20 tournament which begins on April 18 owing to national commitments but said the pool was big enough.

“A team needs only four players from abroad and we already have a huge number of them contracted with us. You will have enough of them from the day one,” he said.

In all, 59 matches would be played over 44 days with ICC umpires officiating the games, which would be broadcast live on SET Max, Modi said.

“We already have 80 contracted players and their auction would start soon,” Modi said.

Each franchise would consult with the IPL Governing Council before naming the teams and discussing revenue sharing, he said.
source:http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/IPL-Teams-Mukesh-gets-Mumbai-Kolkata-to-SRK/265098/

Reliance Petroleum posts Rs84 crore profit

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) on Thursday said it has reported a net profit of Rs84 crore and a net turnover of Rs3,678 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2009.
The company started commercial production from 15 March. Hence, figures for the year-ago period were not available.

The total expenditure during the quarter amounted to Rs3,564 crore, RPL said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), adding that “the total capital employed by the company is Rs33,982 crore.”
Shares of the company reacted positively to the news and were trading at Rs109.60, up 2.72% in the late afternoon trade on the BSE.

Last month, the boards of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and RPL had approved the merger of both the entities which created one of the largest petrochemical firms of the world.
“RPL refinery has achieved startup and successful stabilization of its operations within a short period of time. The proposed merger with RIL would lead to a globally competitive and industry leading refining business and create sustainable value for shareholders,” RPL chairman Mukesh Ambani said.
During the quarter, RPL had commissioned a SEZ refinery at Jamnagar with a capacity of processing 3.6 million tonnes of crude.