A Knowledge Park from "ICICI Bank"

Overview:

ICICI Knowledge Park (IKP) nestles in a 200-acre pollution free zone in Genome Valley, Hyderabad. The masterplan of the Park mirrors its objective of nurturing an environment for innovation and the expected growth in life sciences and related fields. It has a mix of ready-to-use multi-tenanted modular wet laboratory blocks (Innovation Corridors) with in-built flexibility around some common, shared facilities and support services, as well as developed land for customised R&D facilities.

Currently, the 140,000 sft. Innovation Corridor 1 with 84,000 sft of wet laboratory space is operational. Around 35 acres of land has been developed with utilities for customised R&D centres.

Mission:

"To create a world class centre for leading-edge business-driven research in India".

A hassle-free environment:

The Operations and Maintenance of ICICI Knowledge Park is certified by ISO 9001-2000. IKP provides a range of support services to the resident companies to create a congenial stress-free environment and ensure customer delight. The infrastructure services include electricity, telecommunication, refuse disposal, conference facility, meeting rooms, cafeteria and gymnasium. Professional agencies take care of common services like round-the-clock utility maintenance, IT administration, surveillance and security, doctor’s services, housekeeping and landscape maintenance to ensure safe, reliable and hassle-free operations. The administrative support services include speedy customs clearance, environmental clearances, legal/ patent counseling, assistance in getting venture funding, S&T advisory services, liaisoning with government departments, secretarial services etc. Some key analytical facilities like a 300 MHz NMR, LCMS, HPLC, GC, FTIR and Polarimeter are available at IKP.

Future for India : By Kishore Biyani

India – The Promised Land for Retailers 

Let me first reiterate the numbers that many of you by now would be familiar with.The Indian economy is growing at over 8 per cent every year. By 2010, the country’s GDP (in PPP terms) is expected to rank third, just behind the US and China.

Half of the country’s population is below the age of 25 years and they are just about to join the productive-consuming age group.

Modern retail is poised to grow at over 35 per cent every year for the next few years. India’s peers such as China and Brazil, took 10-15 years to raise the share of their organized retail sectors from 5 per cent to 20% and 38% respectively. Modern retail captures just 6 per cent of India, this figure will hit the 20% level far faster than it has anywhere in the world.

Not surprisingly, India is perceived to be the most attractive retail destination. Few can disagree that India provides the largest consumption market in the world that is still largely untapped. The Indian retail sector has attracted the attention of the country’s largest conglomerate and the world’s largest corporation, along with some of the largest Indian business houses and world’s largest retailers.

Yet, the most fascinating aspect of this market is that it can never be described by numbers alone.

The economic, social and cultural diversity of Indian consumers forces marketers and retailers to view this mass of consumers not as one single market but as a ‘mass of niches.’ The language people speak, the religion they follow, the food they consume, the fabric they wear and the festivals they celebrate changes every few hundred kilometers. Logic and emotion, individual and social, poverty and affluence, capitalism and socialism, life and lifestyle, value and indulgence, and the past and the future simultaneously coexist in India. And all these paradoxes converge to make India what it is.

To the external world, the harmonious coexistence of seeming contradictions in is one of the most confusing aspects of the Indian consumer market. But to us it signifies our country’s openness to change and its ability to add new dimensions without losing old ones. It opens up new and unique opportunities as well as brings forth challenges for marketers and retailers.

Demand-Side Innovation

The Indian market can not be cracked through supply side innovation. It’s often said that retail is a localised business and in India this phrase takes new a meaning. In India, a retailer has to adapt, change and modify its customer interface for every city that it sets shop in and every community that it caters to. The diversity of the country doesn’t allow a retailer to build standardised solutions and formats for the entire population. One has to build one store at a time and focus on demand side innovation at every stage of building and expanding a retail chain in India.

India is not only a culturally diverse market but also an economically diverse market. The latest issue of the Forbes magazine states that there are more Indian billionaires than those in Japan. Yet, at the same time, we have some of the poorest segments of the population in the whole world. And in between these two segments lies a huge and diverse sweet-spot for mass retailers.

Customer segments in India are maturing faster than ever. But, even as some Indians become sophisticated shoppers, ten of millions of less experienced but no less avid consumers are joining the fray every year. A retailer with a single format strategy will not be able to cater to a large set of customers in India and it will not provide the critical customer base required for operating a successful business. While hypermarkets and discount chains will continue to dominate the modern retailing scene in India, multiple formats have to be designed to cater to different aspirations and needs of consumers. The growing middle class is pushing the development of specialty stores. Outlets for home products, fashion, office stationery, health products and consumer electronics are in demand.

In largest cities of the country, modern retailing already has a 15% to 20% share of the pie and that is roughly the size of the existing consuming class in these cities. For modern retail to grow in these cities, retailers will need to bring in new set of consumers into the consuming class. And this poses one of the biggest challenges for retailers in India. We have look at innovative solutions at how to create the capacity to consume among large segments of urban consumers. Whether the existing consuming class can be increased through consumer credit, urban microfinance or appropriate use of technology and front-end innovation has to be explored.

What this essentially means is that in India one has to develop ideas and solutions that are uniquely Indian. To be successful in India, retailers have to blend the best expertise and technology that the world has to offer and synergise these with the demands and expectations of the Indian consumers. At Future Group, we have created a platform for a partnership with a number of Indian and foreign companies. We combine their expertise with our knowledge and understanding of the Indian retailing market. Our foreign joint-venture partners include; Etam from France, Staples from the US, Lee Cooper from the UK, Generali from Italy and CapitaLand from Singapore, among others. Our objective is to develop a collaborative approach towards growth wherein our partners benefit, we benefit and ultimately the Indian consumers benefit.

Kishore Biyani is the Group CEO of Future Group. He has recently authored a book,"It Happened In India"

Let's Explore NASA

A Brief about NASA

What Does NASA Do?

 

NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world -- and off of it -- for almost 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. What's out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth?

A Little History

President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, partially in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial satellite the previous year. NASA grew out of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), which had been researching flight technology for more than 40 years.

President John F. Kennedy focused NASA and the nation on sending astronauts to the moon by the end of the 1960s. Through the Mercury and Gemini projects, NASA developed the technology and skills it needed for the journey. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 men to walk on the moon, meeting Kennedy's challenge.

Meanwhile, NASA was continuing the aeronautics research pioneered by NACA. It also conducted purely scientific research and worked on developing applications for space technology, combining both pursuits in developing the firstweather and communications satellites.

After Apollo, NASA focused on creating a reusable ship to provide regular access to space: the space shuttle. First launched in 1981, the space shuttle has had 120 successful flights. In 2000, the United States and Russia established permanent human presence in space aboard the International Space Station, a multinational project representing the work of 16 nations.

NASA also has continued its scientific research. In 1997, Mars Pathfinder became the first in a fleet of spacecraft that will explore Mars in the next decade, as we try to determine if life ever existed there. The Terra and Aquasatellites are flagships of a different fleet, this one in Earth orbit, designed to help us understand how our home world is changing. NASA's aeronautics teams are focused on improved aircraft travel that is safer and cleaner.

Throughout its history, NASA has conducted or funded research that has led to numerous improvements to life here on Earth.

Organization

NASA Headquarters, in Washington, provides overall guidance and direction to the agency, under the leadership of Administrator Michael Griffin. Ten field centers and a variety of installations conduct the day-to-day work, in laboratories, on air fields, in wind tunnels and in control rooms.

NASA Today

NASA conducts its work in four principle organizations, called mission directorates:

·                                 Aeronautics: pioneers and proves new flight technologies that improve our ability to explore and which have practical applications on Earth.

·                                 Exploration Systems: creates new capabilities and spacecraft for affordable, sustainable human and robotic exploration.

·                                 Science: explores the Earth, moon, Mars and beyond; charts the best route of discovery; and reaps the benefits of Earth and space exploration for society.

·                                 Space Operations: provides critical enabling technologies for much of the rest of NASA through the space shuttle, the International Space Station and flight support.

 

In the early 21st century, NASA's reach spans the universe. Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rovers, are still studying Mars after more than three years. Cassini is in orbit around Saturn. The Hubble Space Telescopecontinues to explore the deepest reaches of the cosmos.

Closer to home, the latest crew of the International Space Station is extending the permanent human presence in space. Earth Science satellites are sending back unprecedented data on Earth's oceans, climate and other features. NASA's aeronautics team is working with other government organizations, universities, and industry to fundamentally improve the air transportation experience and retain our nation's leadership in global aviation.

The Future

In the next 20 years, NASA will be laying the groundwork for sending humans not only beyond Earth's orbit, but further into to space than they've ever been. The next key steps are:

·                                 Complete the International Space Station and retire the Space Shuttle by 2010

·                                 Begin robotic missions to the moon by 2008 and return people there by 2020

·                                 Continue robotic exploration of Mars and the Solar System

·                                 Develop a crew exploration vehicle and other technologies required to send people beyond low Earth orbit

 

Though nearly 50 years old, NASA is only beginning the most exciting part of its existence.

 

 

Myself "Sabeer Bhatia"

 

Sabeer Bhatia

 

 

Biography

Sabeer Bhatia was born to a Punjabi family in Chandigarh, India. His father, Baldev Bhatia, was as an officer in the Indian Army who later joined the Indian Ministry of Defence, while his mother, Daman Bhatia, was a senior official at the Central Bank of India.^[1] Bhatia was schooled at the St. Joseph's Boys' High School in Bangalore. In 1985, he began his undergraduate education at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani and was transferred to Caltech after two years at BITS. After graduating from Caltech, Sabeer went to Stanford University in 1989 to pursue his M.S. in Electrical Engineering. At Stanford, he worked on Ultra Low Power VLSI Design.

At Stanford, he was inspired by entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy eventually deciding to become one himself. Instead of pursuing a Ph.D. after his Masters, he decided to join Apple in 1991.

 

Founder of Hotmail

After a brief stint at Apple, Sabeer joined a startup company called Firepower Systems Inc, where he spent two years. In 1994, Sabeer started working on new ideas for the Internet and he teamed up with Jack Smith, a colleague from Apple Computer, Inc.

The two came up with the concept of a web-based database entitled Javasoft. While pursuing this idea, they subsequently realised the potential of a web-based e-mail system and thus decided to create one called HoTMaiL (the uppercase letters spelling out HTML - the language used to write the base of a webpage). In order to attract attention, the e-mail service was provided for free and revenue was obtained through the advertising on the website. Draper Fisher Ventures invested $300,000 on the project and the service was launched on July 4, 1996.

In less than six months, the website attracted over 1 million subscribers. As the interest in the web-based email provider increased, Microsoft eventually took notice and December 30,1997, Hotmail was sold to Microsoft for a reported sum of $400 million.

 

 

Other ventures

After selling Hotmail, Bhatia worked at Microsoft for about a year and in April 1999, he left the company to start another website, Arzoo Inc, which was shut down when the dot-com bubbleburst. In 2006, he relaunched Arzoo as a travel portal.

He started (alongside co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack) BlogEverywhere, a website attempting to capitalise on the emerging blogosphere.

In 2006, he became an angel investor for NeoAccel, a network security vendor and maker of SSL VPN-Plus.

In November 2007, he released an online office alternative to Microsoft Office, called Live Documents. This application allows users to use their documents both offline and online, edit, collaborate and share documents in real-time with others, and sync documents between various computers and users. Users can also download their Microsoft Office plug-in, which allows them to get the best of offline and online offices suites, along with full compatibility for all office document formats.

He has also pushed for enabling access to the internet through cable television in Indian homes.

In January, 2008, Sabeer announced the launch of his latest venture SabSeBolo.com,^[2] a free web-based teleconferencing system (Sab Se Bolo = "(Let's) Talk To Everyone" in Hindi).

Future plans of his include the development of a new city in India called Nanocity. The aim of Nanocity is to replicate the vibrancy and eco-system of innovation found in the Silicon Valley.

 

Personal

He got married to Tania Sharma, heiress of the Baidyanath group, in 2008. They have known each other for eight years as friends. They got married in a private ceremony in Langkawi,Malaysia.

 

 

Awards

§                     "Entrepreneur of the Year," Awarded by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (1997)

§                     Named to the "Elite 100," Upside magazine's list of top trendsetters in the New Economy

§                     Recipient of the TR100 award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years

§                     Selected by the San Jose Mercury News and POV magazine as one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs of (1998)

§                     Named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)