Somewhere in Bangalore....

A nice initiative...

GM India

After GM's bankruptcy in the US..GM India tries to assure it's customers....

Chennai is now wi-fi-enabled

Software solutions and services provider Zylog Systems India Ltd on Sunday announced the launch of its wireless internet service “Wi5” in the city, making Chennai the first ‘wi-fi-enabled city’ in India. While cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune have wi-fi ‘hotspots’ or wi-fi connections at homes or malls provided through routers, Zylog Systems has adopted a mesh network architecture, which means that wi-fi internet broadband connection will be accessible seamlessly even as one is travelling on the roads of Chennai. The service works by the setting up of intelligent wi-fi nodes atop select buildings across the city, making the area a wi-fi zone. This essentially means that every house will not need a separate router to gain wi-fi internet access. However, users will still need a wi-fi-enabled laptop or personal computer or a separate wi-fi card to access this service. In the initial phase, the company has rolled out the wi-fi services in Besant Nagar, Adyar and parts of Ashok Nagar and T Nagar. It has also enabled seamless wi-fi connectivity on the IT corridor from Madhya Kailash to Siruseri, which means unlimited connectivity even while travelling on the IT corridor at any point of time. Called the “Metro wi-fi”, Zylog’s wi-fi model will work like the telephony network and will work on radio frequencies, like a mobile phone. Zylog will complete ‘wi-fying’ Chennai in the next 12-15 months and will extend this service to other major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata in the next 24 months. “This wi-fi connection will work through nodes, which will be installed across the city. This means you can access your internet anywhere in the city without the need of a router. One just needs to log in to the “Wi5” website and you are online,” Ramanujam Sesharathnam, managing director, Zylog systems India said. Users can access highspeed broadband through their laptops, desktops or mobile devices by subscribing to the service. “We’ve installed 250 ‘Wi5’ nodes across the city. Another 4,000 nodes will be installed. We are now looking at rolling it out next in places like Velachery and Anna Nagar,” he said. The company will offer “Wi5” at speeds of one Mbps, two Mbps and 4 mbps. Zylog’s Chief Technology officer J Shivkumar points out that since users will log into “Wi5” website, their network will be secure.

BRIC snapshot

The Map of India shown is errorneous. The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is missing.

Airlines' occupancy in May Snapshot

Navi Mumbai Metro snippets

The City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) has decided to attach its proposed Navi Mumbai Metro rail corridor to Mumbai’s second Metro line at Mankhurd. The MMRDA is already developing Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line which will later be extended up to Santa Cruz airport from Bandra. Besides the ongoing suburban rail project between Seawoods and Nhava, Cidco will develop a Metro line up to Uran from Seawoods. This will help the MMRDA as well as the Cidco take both the Metro rail and suburban corridors up to Sewree from Nhava. Cidco chairman Nakul Patil on Thursday announced a Rs 8,000-crore plan to build Metro rail corridor for Navi Mumbai, the planning for which will be done by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The announcement came close on the heels of MMRDA’s plan to create a Rs 12,000-crore road, rail and bus corridor between Alibaug and Virar via Panvel, Taloja, Kalyan-Dombivili and Bhiwandi. Cidco has already spent over Rs 200 crore for setting up infrastructure for the proposed suburban rail line from Seawoods up to Uran. Patil also revealed that the Cidco’s board of directors have decided to develop a 57-km long Metro corridor with three lines. The estimated cost of developing the corridor is Rs 140 crore per km, he said. The first Metro will be a 24-km elevated stretch starting from Belapur. The second 19-km corridor will stretch from Seawoods to Panvel via Kharkopar, international airport area, Ranjanpada and Uran. The third 14 km Metro line will start from the proposed Navi Mumbai airport in Panvel and go up to Mankhurd via Ulve, Nerul and Vashi.

Industry grows 1.4% in April

Giving early signs of economic recovery, industrial production grew 1.4 per cent in April after contraction for months together since September when global financial crisis deepened. However, certain crucial sectors like consumer non- durables, including processed food products and capital goods posted negative growth. Processed food items declined by a whopping 34 per cent. Also, 1.4 per cent growth in factory output is no match for the 6.2 per cent expansion it clocked in the same month last year. Nonetheless, slowdown in industrial growth, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), appears to be bottoming out. Provisional figures showed industrial contraction for almost every month since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in mid-September last year which deepened the global financial meltdown. "We have bottomed up and we are on a path of recovery," economic think-tank National Institute for Public Finance and Policy's Director Govinda Rao said. The biggest surprise in IIP data was the electricity generation which grew by 7.1 per cent in April against 1.4 per cent in the same month a year ago.Manufacturing, which has a weight of around 80 per cent in IIP, grew by 0.7 per cent from 6.7 per cent. Mining grew by 3.8 per cent in the month compared with 6.1 per cent in April, 2008. Consumer non-durable output on other hand contracted by 10.4 per cent in the period against 10 per cent growth in the same month a year ago. Capital goods production declined by 1.3 per cent against growth of 12.4 per cent. Industry had grown by merely 2.6 per cent last fiscal against 8.5 per cent in the previous year.
Meanwhile, the industrial growth figures for March was revised up to (-) 0.75 per cent from provisional estimates of (-) 2.3 per cent.
As many as 11 out of 17 industry groups showed a growth. However, food products continued to contract drastically by 34.4 per cent in April. Production of another employment generating sector, leather decelerated by 12.4 per cent. Economists also attributed better than expected industrial figures in April to pay hikes of government employees and predicted that May and June will give better numbers as a result of increased spending during elections.