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The Hindu : y>Bosch showcases components for diesel and petrol segments

A t the recent Bosch media technology day held in Bangalore, the company showcased its strong interest in taking its automotive components and solutions to the next level of efficiency for the Indian market.

Bosch has always seen India as a market for diesel engines due to inherent fuel efficiency requirements. It has also projected the diesel Low Price Vehicle segment to grow at approximately 30 per cent per annum. The task of inducting a smaller common-rail diesel engine into such a segment requires just the kind of specialised components which Bosch has conceived completely in-house using efficient pumps, injectors and ECUs while retaining stringent Euro4 /BS4 emission norms and drivability.

For the petrol segment, Bosch offers powertrain solutions for both petrol and alternate fuels. The present focus is on cars in the price range of Rs. 1– Rs. 5 lakh which have 2-4 cylinders. Bosch believes that its components such as the ECU and throttle body are highly productive and cost-effective which in turn suits the Indian market.

Bosch also revealed its effective starter motors and generators for applications in small commercial vehicles, cars, tractors and HCV. These components are far more efficient and hence reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions. Its studies reveal that the Start/Stop system reduces fuel consumption by 6-11 per cent. Again, increasing the efficiency of its generator by approximately five per cent has resulted in about one to 1.5 per cent drop in fuel consumption. Overall, the CO2 reduction that has been achieved is between 6 to 11 per cent depending on the car segment.

Bosch has made it clear that it wants to be a part of the green revolution in India.

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The Hindu : y>

A police officer in a small town was in a short pursuit of a speeding motorist down the town’s Main Street. When the motorist pulled over and the police officer walked over to him, the driver said, “But officer,” the man began, “I can explain.”

“Just be quiet,” snapped the officer. “I’m going to let you cool your heels in jail until the chief gets back…” “But officer, I just wanted to say….”

“And I said to keep quiet! You’re going to jail!” A few hours later the officer looked in on his prisoner and said, “Lucky for you that the chief is at his daughter’s wedding. He’ll be in a good mood when he gets back.” “Don’t count on it,” answered the fellow in the cell. “I’m the groom!”

***A tourist is picked up by a cabbie in New York on a dark night. The passenger taps the driver on the shoulder to ask him something. The driver screams, loses control of the car, nearly hits a bus, drives up on the sidewalk, and stops inches from a shop window. For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said, “Look friend, don’t EVER do that again. You scared the daylights out of me!” The passenger apologizes and says he didn’t realize that a “little tap” could scare him so much. The driver, after gathering himself, “Sorry, it’s not really your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver – I’ve been driving hearses for the last 25 years!

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The Hindu : y>Mitsubishi Pajero, Ford Endeavour and Toyota Fortuner are designed to conquer any road but must maintain certain levels of comfort and sophistication. Ouseph Chacko has the details

T hese are big, rugged 4×4 SUVs whose natural hunting grounds include highways and wildlife sanctuaries. Though most aren’t tested to their maximum off-road potential, people still buy them for the ‘ go-anywhere’ reassurance. The three contenders fighting for your Rs. 20 lakh as well as the right to take you from your outrageous off-road drive to the exquisite executive dinner are the legendary Mitsubishi Pajero, the ever-popular, refreshed Ford Endeavour and the hot-cookie Toyota Fortuner.

SUVs rarely get bigger than these three. Six-feet tall, all of them look and feel rock-solid tough, imposing and not to be messed with.

The Mitsubishi Pajero appears weaker with its relatively small proportions. However, the Pajero has dated rather well and still manages to look rugged. The wheel arches have huge gaps, lots of chrome highlighting and an almost-flat glass area. The Endeavour has been given a facelift recently.

The Ford SUV gets a new bonnet, front bumper and winged headlights which have softened the looks a bit. It looks much more contemporary than the Pajero but it’s still a tad boxy. The massive grille and square and upright proportions give it an imposing stance and terrific road presence.

The Fortuner is distinctly taller and wider. The big Toyota abounds with neat stylistic touches such as the big scoop on the bonnet, the inward kinks in the headlights and the sharply-raked C-pillar. The only visible change to the otherwise traditional design is the location of the spare wheel. It’s mounted on the tailgate but goes under the car and as we learned is pretty difficult to extract.

Four-wheel-drive

All three SUVs are built with a body-on-ladder frame design, all have four-wheel-drive systems and longitudinally mounted four-cylinder engines. All have an independent double wishbone…More

The Hindu : y>Get ready for a new navigator

MapmyIndia has launched a new navigator, MapmyIndia Loaded (VX140) with latest features and a striking matt-finish black exterior.

The VX140 navigator comes with a wide, 4.3-inch TFT colour touch-screen, which coupled with its multimedia features, makes it an entertainment box for playing videos, music and games. It comes bundled with a 2GB SD memory card which can be expanded up to 8GB.

The navigator’s Bluetooth feature allows it to be paired with mobile phones to make and receive calls. It carries vast data of around 8.3 lakh km of roads, linking to 400,000 towns and villages. It also connects to 10 lakh points of interest like cinema halls, restaurants and petrol pumps. MapmyIndia Loaded (VX140) comes with a 1450mAH Li-poly rechargeable battery that has a continuous navigation time of 1.5 hours with 32 hours of standby time. It requires no monthly subscription or downloads and retails at Rs 14,990.

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The Hindu : y>

Beach Retreat Head to the Zuri Resorts in Kumarakom for a winter break

Experience a winter out of the ordinary at The Zuri Kumarakom, Resort and Spa. The resort has launched a range of interesting winter packages. The Zuri Kumarakom pool villa package offers a stay at the luxurious pool villas for two nights and three days for Rs.49, 999 per night plus taxes.

The package includes buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, personalised villa host/hostess on call round the clock, a 45 minute signature cruise on the backwaters, barbeque dinner at the villa, complimentary consultation by in-house spa doctor, complimentary Cloud 9 spa therapy, 15 minutes head/foot massage at Maya Spa, cultural programme every evening at Natya, complimentary yoga and meditation sessions and complimentary airport transfers.

The Zuri Kumarakom Winter Package offers a stay for two nights and three days at the Cottages for Rs. 29,999, the Zuri deluxe Rooms for Rs 26,499 or the Zuri Rooms for Rs. 24,499 inclusive of taxes.

Other complimentary services include buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, a Kerala style dinner, cultural entertainment every night, 15 percent discount on alcohol beverages, yoga and meditation at Body Temple, unlimited Wi-Fi usage and a 30 minute sunset cruise.

Guests availing of these packages are entitled to participate in the nature tour organised every evening, bird watching, fishing in the village, a village tour on bicycles. The packages are valid till 23 December.

For reservations, visit www.thezurihotels.com or contact (080) 42647272.

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The Hindu : y>Ping-ing and email is not fast enough for a generation that thrives on instant gratification. Social networking it is, writes NEETI SARKAR

It won’t be long till email isconferred the status of snailmail and dumped for fasterand more instant communicators.We used to be happy withemail and later with instantmessaging (IM) but then camethe gazillion social networkingsites that have facilitated speedycommunication so much so thatemail could well be extinct withina decade, says a recentfinding.

The study commissioned bybroadband producer TalkTalkfound only 51 per cent of Britonsin their teens or early twentiessay email is their first choice ofcommunication. Experts havefound that emails being tooslow, too inconvenient, and notfashionable enough are the topreasons why this kind of communicationwill end within thenext 10 years.

Many youngsters here tooseem to concur with this prediction.Computer engineeringstudent Vishwas Aashirwadsays: “Keeping up with morepeople simultaneously happensbest on social networking sites.Here’s where we find old friendsand make new friends. Emailshave almost always been aboutkeeping in touch with alreadyestablished contacts. So mostyoungsters prefer Facebook toemail.”

Tell them your status

“It takes just one status messageto tell all your friends whatyou want them to know. Onemessage can be sent to a host offriends and this is probably whyyoungsters like me are slowlyditching email and switching toIM and social networking,”states Abhimanyu Pratap, a dataanalyst.

However, the study also saysthat email will not be completelyabandoned as 86 percent of 15to 24 year olds do send outemails but not as often as theyuse other methods of communication.According to placementconsultant Aathira Jeyraj,”Even active Facebook userscannot completely do away withthe email system. When they areout of college and looking forjobs online, they need to correspondwith prospective employersvia email. Therefore, for allofficial purposes, email won’treally die out.”

Lavanya S.P., a 22-year-oldfreelance writer says: “There isno way I’m going to be able tostop using email to send acrossmy stories. I only see a dip in thepercentage of youngsters whowill use email 10 years fromnow; there won’t be…More

The Hindu :

Language is no barrier for Kailash Kher’s international audience. They connect to the rhythm and devotion

Photo: V.V. KrishnanSPEAKING THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE Of love and devotion

K ailash Kher admits he isn’t perfect in English. But again, only the mind needs a formal language; the sublime and devotional flavour of Kailash’s songs appeal to the soul.

As Kailash Kher enters the sit-out of his luxury suite at a city hotel, he looks quite the absent-minded professor with his unruly hair, T-shirt, soft handshake and unassuming tone. However as we all know, the “Allah ke bande” man is a Sufi yogi who has successfully taken Indian Sufi to the world.

At the Hollywood Bowl

“We recently released our first album, ‘Yatra’ internationally. I have been spending a considerable amount of time promoting the album and doing concerts around it in India and US,” says Kailash, updating us on his busy schedule.

During the US tour, Kailash’s group, Kailasa became the first Asian band to have performed at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Hollywood Bowl has been host to legendary bands such as The Beatles and Cold Play. Kailash can’t contain the child-like sparkle in his eyes, as he talks of performing in such a space.

“Indian audiences connect instantly with my songs, as they understand the language. But one thing really inspiring about western audiences is that they connect with the rhythm and devotion of my songs, despite being unable to understand the language. They just live the moment during performances.”

Kailash lets out a guffaw and shares: “During one of my performances in the US, in an attempt to speak English, I happened to cheer the crowd, saying, ‘Come on shake your booty!’ Even before I could realize it was a faux pass, a middle-aged lady was dancing away, literally shaking her ‘booty’, it was an endearing and embarrassing experience.”

Going down memory lane, Kailaish says: “Despite the oddities, I was…More

The Hindu :

Nemai Ghosh captures Satyajit Ray at work, and in the process the magic of filmmaking too

THE PRIDE Of being Ray’s photographerPhoto: Murali Kumar k.

N emai Ghosh’s photographs of Satyajit Ray are a tribute that not only record the intensity and thoroughness of the master film-maker, but also to the nitty-gritty of his craft.

Ghosh’s canvas is large: he recorded the Bengali film-maker at work for 25 years and has a whopping 90,000 photographs of Ray, some of which are now on exhibition in Bangalore.

From a frame of Ray deeply engrossed in illustrating the shots of his last film “Agantuk” (1991), the photographs reel back to Ray briefing actors such as Utpal Dutt, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shabana Azmi, Swatilekha Sengupta, and Sir Richard Attenborough through movies such as “Shatranj ke Khiladi”, “Ghare-Bhaire” and “Charulata”.

The exhibition also hearkens to the range of Ray’s genius: he composes music in one frame, conducts the orchestra for the background score in the next, enacts Utpal Dutt’s action for him and draws the costumes after that.

The exhibition, “Satyajit Ray: From Script to Screen, A Suite of Photographs by Nemai Ghosh” also has some rare glimpses into Ray’s sketchpad in which he masterfully stroked his visualisation of shot sequences especially for epic scenes such as the British army’s march into the Oudh in “Shatranj ke Khiladi”.

Ghosh, who originally started out as a theatre artiste in the Little Theatre Group, later moved and began a separate group called Chalachol with actor-friend Robi Ghosh. His obsession with photography began when he received a camera as a gift from a friend. He took it along on his visit to the sets of Ray’s “Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne”, and took some photographs of the actors rehearsing. Later, the pictures were shown to Manik da (Ray), who asked him to keep clicking, and he did, almost till Ray’s death on April 23, 1992.

It is…More

The Hindu : y>Significant upgrades to the small car

T he world’s most affordable car is due for some small but significant upgrades within the next six months, following market feedback. Tata Motors is working towards improving the performance of the Nano by raising the very conservative 5000rpm rev limit to 6000rpm to quicken its acceleration, especially in first and second gears.

The company is also considering a five-speed gearbox, but this may be ruled out for India as Tata does not want to increase the top speed (currently limited electronically to 105kph) for safety reasons.

According to a Tata Motors engineer, “With a top speed of 105kph, five gear ratios are unnecessary and could result in excessive gear changing for the driver.” However, it is understood that for the European version of the Nano, a five-speeder is definitely on the cards.

Other changes for India include a modified outside rear view mirror (ORVM) assembly, which is ready to be introduced, but pending ARAI approval.

In the current ORVM, the entire unit has to be moved, while the new design is less cumbersome, with movement of the mirror within the housing.

This design will lend itself to electrically-powered mirrors in the future. Small niceties such as a ‘check-strap’ to limit the door opening will also be introduced.

The other significant improvement expected in the coming months is a tail-gate that can be opened — the Nano currently features a sealed rear glass unit. The only way to access the small luggage area is from inside the car, by folding down the rear seats, causing inconvenience. Tata Motors’ engineers have now designed a tail-gate that meets with the requirement for a design that does not feature exposed hinges, to maintain the purity of the Nano shape.

Tata Motors is taking advantage of the limited capacity in its Uttarakhand plant to tweak the Nano before production is shifted to the upcoming main plant at…More

The Hindu :

Disney Publishing brings out workbooks with characters children are familiar with

M ickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy et al are being put to work. School work, that is. Disney Publishing Worldwide (India) has come out with two ranges of workbooks for young children for the first time in India.

“We’ve always had activity and interactive books, but this is the first time we’re coming out with a series focussed on learning through fun,” says Roshini Bakshi, director, Disney Consumer Products Asia and India.

The result of extensive consumer research in the country, the workbooks will have the popular characters helping children with their work, whether it’s fill-in-the-blanks and addition problems for five to seven year olds (the “School Skills” range) or learning the alphabet for pre-schoolers (the “Smart Beginnings” range).

While “Smart Beginnings” will feature ‘core characters’ little children are likely to be familiar with, such as good ol’ Mickey and trusty Pluto, the “School Skills” series will have greater variety, with themes from Disney movies such as “Toy Story”.

“The whole idea is to engage children, make work colourful and friendly, so they don’t want to get up and come away,” says Roshini. “We’re trying to help moms along with their task!”

Their research so far indicates they’ve been pretty successful, according to Roshini.

Young moms they’ve spoken to say that the books actually managed to wean children off the TV for a bit, since the books made them feel like they were spending time with their favourite cartoon characters.

An effort has also been made to make the books as accessible to children in India as possible. The colourful characters on the pages may come from Hollywood, but the English in the books, for example, is ‘Indian English’ so children can relate to them more.

“The educationists who worked with us on these have incorporated local themes, and made subtle changes such as using ‘football’ instead of ‘soccer’…More