KERALA: A PARADISE IN SOUTH Kerala, according to" National Geographic Traveler", is one of the 50 must see destinations of a lifetime. It is one of the 10 paradises of the World. Kerala is a good example of how a place with great attributes, has come to be perceived as a great place to visit. Among other destinations in India Kerala has become pocket-vibes of world destinations with stunning backwaters, hill stations, impossible greenery, and a range of Ayurvedic massages, great beaches, food and culture With the monsoons making a grand entry into Kerala, tourist resorts and Ayurvedic spas are all ready with rejuvenating health packages. The rainy season, experts say, is the best time for Ayurvedic treatment. Although Ayurvedic evolved centuries ago in India, it has only in recent years that it has become a huge selling point for Kerala’s tourism industry, especially in the months June-August. According to ayurveda specialists, the monsoon season is the best time for treatments as the atmosphere remains dust-free and cool, which helps open the pores of the body to the maximum. This makes the body more receptive to herbal oils and other ayurveda medicines. Ayurveda believes in the treatment of not just the affected part, but also the individual as a whole. It is considered a natural way to refresh oneself by eliminating all toxic imbalances from the body and thus regain good health. Tourists, who come especially for treatment and not just for sightseeing, are catered here. For those who have a time constraint, their medical files are called early and study their problems in detail even before they arrive. So the treatment protocols are ready when they come here. Ayurveda offers excellent treatments for skin problems, ailments related to stress and joint pains. The numerous resorts in the state have drawn out specific plans ranging from a few days to even three weeks. For skin problems, generally patients are asked to stay back for 28 days. And for people who don’t have so much time at their disposal, medicines are given to them so that they can carry with them and a constant interaction is kept with them. And for those who are on a short holiday, a general oil massage is sure to put the spring back in your step. Five years back, the ayurveda tourism industry in Kerala saw a mere five percent occupancy during the monsoons but [...]
Archive for January 3rd, 2008
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SENSEX JUMPS; SEBI BUMPS
January 3rd, 2008 
Tejinder The New Year celebrations are continuing in the stock markets with bench mark sensex scaling a new high of 20465.3 points at closing level on the Bombay stock exchange. Led by blue chip stocks HDFC, Tata Motors and Reliance Energy the 30 share BSE barometer added 164.59 points today over its previous close of 20300.71 points to set the new closing level record. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. The index touched the day’s high of 20529.48 points and a low of 20077.4 points. The Sensex also hit an all time intra trade high of 20529.48. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also jumped 35.05 points to close at a new life-time high of 6179.4 from previous close of 6144.35. The market surged in the late afternoon trade on sustained across the board value buying from investors after showing some pressure due to weakness in Asian markets, which were down in the range of about 1.0 to 2.3 percent at close. The market breadth was strong following widespread gains in the small cap and the mid cap shares. However, analysts said the market has reached the 20,500 resistance level and is expected to correct downwards. Crediting the upsurge to technical factors, brokers said there was shortage of scripts while liquidity remained comfortable in the market. Today’s rally was led by banks and realty sector with their indices moving up by 3.13 percent and 2.93 per cent respectively. Stocks of the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI bank surged by 2.88%. BSE Bankex rose to 11, 870.49while the realty index was up at 13,419.67 points. At the same time, market regulator SEBI today ruled out relaxing norms on independent directors for public sector companies, saying corporate governance norms help boost confidence of investors in India Inc. Contesting the views of ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma that the norms, as contained in the Clause 49 of the listing agreement, come in the way of level-playing field between PSUs and private players, SEBI chairman M. Damodaran said they are same for all companies.Under Clause 49, it is binding upon the listed companies to fill 50 per cent of their boards with independent directors in case they have executive chairman and one-third in case they have non-executive chairman. “The solution suggested that corporate governance requirement should be less for PSUs is something I cannot [...]
INDIA IN TOP 5 OF WORLD GDP
January 3rd, 2008 krishna Overall, the results show that the size of the world economy measured in PPP terms is smaller than previously estimated. Asia’s economies are one-third smaller than previously thought, largely because of the downgrades to China and India, while Africa’s are one-fourth smaller. The report has no bearing on the actual size of these economies, but rather looks at them with a different measuring tool. Many of these countries want the International Monetary Fund to take PPP into consideration when allocating voting s rights. Wire money online to India with Xoom.com for as low as $4.99. When measured by market exchange rates instead of PPP, China’s share of world GDP is just 5%, and India’s is less than 2% – about half of their size using PPP. That explains why the report may have political ramifications as fast-growing emerging markets fight for more say at the IMF. Emerging markets argue that the big industrialised countries have too much influence over the fund, in part because voting rights do not take into account PPP – something they hope will change in the IMF’s revised quota system. The data shows that the world economy produced goods and services worth almost $55 trillion in 2005 and that almost 40 per cent of the world’s output came from developing economies. Carried out with the World Bank and other partners, the preliminary global report provides estimates of internationally comparable price levels and the relative purchasing power of currencies for 146 economies. The estimates are based on purchasing power parities (PPPs) benchmarked to the year 2005. PPPs are used instead of exchange rates to convert national economic measures such as gross domestic products into a common currency. By taking into account price differences between countries, PPPs allow comparisons of market size, the structure of economies, and what money can buy. Analysts believe that the findings of the report could have political ramifications in the influential voting system largely determined by buying power of economies, of multi-lateral funding agencies, including the International Monetary Fund.The GDP of high-income economies accounts for 61 per cent of the world economy, received by only 16% of the world’s population. Compared with previous estimates, the relative size of developing economies has decreased by 7 percentage points or one-sixth. WORLD SHARE OF G D P Share of Global GDP (%) PPP- Based Market Exchange Rates U.S.A 23 28 CHINA 10 5 JAPAN 7 10 GERMANY [...]
FACE, IN FACT
January 3rd, 2008 krishna It would be a long time before the generation that went to college in the early mid-1970s began to take popular Indian cinema seriously, something like 20 years, in fact. In the last decade of the last century, some of the young film buffs who had spent their under graduate years watching Wajda and Fassbinder and Herzog and Tarkovsky returned to Indian popular cinema via the film studies route and began to illumine this intellectual area of darkness with both encyclopaedic and monographic work. And then, around the beginning of the new millennium, mainstream Hindi cinema, rebranded as Bollywood, became au courant in the West as some of the more famous names in the entertainment industry there acknowledged the appeal of Hindi film masala, the song and dance routines that define our cinema. Some of this interest could be put down to novelty or fashion, but there was some evidence that the characteristic qualities of the Hindi film were finding admirers outside its traditional audiences. Bollywood Dreams, Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Hindi movie musical, was one straw in the wind, and Baz Luhrmann, the director of Moulin Rouge, acknowledged that the extravagant, over-the-top song-and dance routines in that musical were inspired by the ‘picturisation’ of Hindi film song sequences. Because film critics, film directors and festival organisers seem to have developed an interest in the methods of Hindi films, this is a good time for us, as consumers of popular Indian cinema, to help them understand just how different our cinema is from theirs. The fundamental difference between their films and ours is that in Hollywood, it’s all right for both heroes and heroines to be good-looking. Not so in Hindi films. It is a rule in Hindi cinema, in particular, and Indian cinema, in general, that the heroine will be both good-looking and sexy, but the hero will be neither. The best way of illustrating the truth of this is by citing examples. As you read the lists that follow, try and conjure up the faces attached to those names. Let’s start with the heroines: Gauhar Jan, Naseem Bano, Shobhana Samarth, Kanan Bala, Durga Khote, Fearless Nadia, Madhubala, Geeta Bali, Nargis, Suraiya, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rahman, Sadhana, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Nutan, Saira Bano, Raakhee, Rekha, Zeenat Amman, Shabana Azmi, Dimple Kapadia, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Tabu, Karisma Kapoor, Vidya Balan… this is a list at random in no particular [...]
