Iceman’s Realm

Jairam Ramesh never fails to surprise. Guess what he did this time, the environment minister entered the Japanese delegation’s office at Copenhagen unannounced. He wanted to make amends for having kept his Japanese counterpart waiting at the Indian delegation’s office earlier, while he was at another meeting. Hence the impromptu decision to walk down to their office to meet their minutest detail were taken aback and took some time to come to grips with the situation. They had planned the meeting of the two ministers at the Indian delegation office right down to where the official photographer would stand and had even conducted a mock drill to ensure that nothing would go wrong.

Queen Victoria definitely would have been impressed. Almost 109 years after she died, she has actually influenced a case in the High Court. The Kolkotta Municipal Corporation had allowed parking along the Hooghly river, which the Kolkotta Pot Trust objected. Finally, a deed signed by Her Majesty in 1874 was produced in court, which specified that she had handed over the disputed land to the CPT.

It’s official. Yes, you heard it right. Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher is making a comeback to Formula One and next year he won’t be seen driving for Ferrari but for Silver Arrows team, the Mercedes Grand Prix team confirmed this news a couple of days back. Fact of the matter is Michael Schumacher, 40, has signed a three year contract with Mercedes GP and he will re-unite with comrade Ross Brawn, with whom he won all his 7 World Championship titles. There was no other combination I would like to work for. Ross is a long time friend and together we have both races we shouldn’t have, Schumacher was quoted saying. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher is upbeat about returning to F1 and he said he’s raring to go. He would have had a successful stint along with Brawn but who knows if that combination would again? Well being an ardent Schumacher fan, I can hardly wait to see him back on track.

Americans often send their high profile politicians and ambassadors on secret missions. As soon as they land, the plane  is towed away to a secure area (usually the air force enclave) so as not to attract prying eyes. That was exactly how Henry Kissinger landed in Pakistan on his secret trip. Robert Oakley went on several such secret missions to Islamabad and was occasionally found out by someone who spotted the tail of his plane in the air force enclave. Many who remembered such stories were intrigued by the sight of a private US plane in the Indian air force enclave of the Delhi airport last week. But as it turned out, to everyone’s surprise, the plane belonged to Bill Gates.

Life Gem a US based company is planning to produce diamonds from Michael Jackson’s hair. It has obtained a sample of the late pop star’s tresses from a memorabilia collector who owned some of the hair Jackson burned off his scalp in an incident while filming a Pepsi commercial way back in 1984. Life Gem founder, Dean Vanden Bisen plans to create a limited edition set of 10 diamonds using a laboratory process that takes carbon from hair and turns it into high quality gems. In 2007, he created three diamonds from the locks of Beethoven’s hair and sold it for around $200,000 apiece. A sparkling tribute indeed.

Indian cities have the potential to have more than 300 new hyper markets by 2011 mostly in tier 1 and tier 2 cities says a study by KPMG and Assocham. The study also says organized retail is growing at 20 percent annually. Given the expected growth in income and consumption in the 25 leading cities, five more hyper markets are feasible in each and every city even now. In 2011, there will be 52 cities in this category as a few tier 3 towns will also gain the market potentail.

Indian entrepreneurs hoping to talk their way into getting venture capital for their start ups might as well look elsewhere for funding. Venture capitalists prefer growth stage companies - firmly added up and running - that need money for expansion. Most start up entrepreneurs like Salt Lake City SEO as a result dive into their own pockets or draw funds from family and friends. The problem has been compounded by the current economic scenario where financial institutions would rather keep their capital safe than risk it with a new venture.

With television shows like MTV Roadies promoting the culture of touring on motorcycles, Yamaha India is planning to organize rallies to push sales of its bikes. Fazer, our latest model is aimed at this niche concept says Sanjay Tripathi head of the brand management at Yamaha India. Interestingly, with that in mind the company has planned a series of touring related activities. Recently it inaugurated its second Indian plant at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and its quite sure that it will invest 800 crore. Yamaha India exports bikes to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Colombia, Nepal and also other neighboring countries. Last year 2,00,000 units were sold off out of which 50,000 were exported. Staggering figures we say.

Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers in the world is in the news and for all the wrong reasons. With his past infidelities coming to light, he has disappointed his million fans, business partners, and most importantly the advertisers who spent a lot of money on him. This great debacle has also resulted in Tiger Woods taking an indefinite hiatus from the golfing world. Much to his chagrin, advertisers have now completely suspended the advertisements featuring the golfer. Nielsen Media Research recently indicated that his advertisers have started calling off their contract with the ace golfer. First on the list was Gillette on the 11th of December followed by Accenture on the 13th. One would have seen a huge hoarding of Tiger Woods in front of the Accenture office. After the fiasco, one wonders what they would patch up with.

Thanks to the letters column where people can express their opinion about the articles written by the contributors  of a  highly reputable journal. Andrea Leber, a regular reader of ‘THE WEEK’ magazine nitpicked Senior editor VS Jayaschandran for misspelling two German words in one of writer’s recent entries. In addition to appreciating his always amusing column, the reader has also gone on to point out the typo made by the editor. While it’s a bit disconcerting to note that a such a thing happened, it’s highly appreciative of the journal to post it without any disinclination. However, I wonder why some people are overly critical over such insignificant details. After all the word wasn’t incorrectly spelled, it’s just that the computer keyboards don’t come with German alphabets. Now by criticizing the senior editor, is the Brit trying to prove a point there? Pointing out the misspelt and teaching us how to write is unwelcome. Rather than pointing out mistakes, which are very uncommon, let’s learn how to appreciate them.