:::The Desi Flavor:::

Bollywood related news

: From BoingBoing – Bollywood film posters as t-shirts. Also check out this piece on Custom-painted Bollywood posters

: Bollywood fashion goes global with actor Sunil Shetty and producer Prakash Khubchandani launching a chain of Bollywood inspired designer wear.

: Pakistan Culture Minister not keen on screening Bollywood films. However despite the ban, Bollywood movies are crazy in Pakistan

: Metrosexual Indian stars are rocking ad world, with Shah Rukh Khan shedding his macho image to endorse a women’s beauty shop. I wonder if Jose Mourinho with his aggressive brand image, endorse female products. Bollywood stars are promoting more brands as the brand image of Indian cricketers diminish.

: Bollywood, Mr. Bean battle in Afghanistan – “In the city that spawned Afghanistan's Taliban, music and TV were crimes punishable by beatings and jail just a few years ago. Now, India's Bollywood and its raunchy song and dance numbers and wet saris compete with Mr. Bean and women's wrestling in the Sadat music and film market, a chaotic cacophony of sound where it's always night inside and it's always packed.”

: BBC on the real Shah Rukh Khan

: Asha Bhosle teams up with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet to produce a valentine to the music of Bollywood, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R. D. Burman's Bollywood by Kronos Quartet and Asha Bhosle

: Austrian Airlines woos Bollywood - European airline major Austrian Airlines group is negotiating with Bollywood production houses for transporting film crew at international shooting locations and launched direct services from Mumbai to Vienna

: Indian & American film makers fighting piracy, with Bollywood pressing authorities to create a separate police and judicial system to enforce existing copyright laws, because even though some offenders are caught, India's judicial system moves too slowly to be effective.

: Bollywood is being used to create fitness classes in a bid to entice more Asian women into the gym. The hour-long sessions are similar to traditional aerobics but use music and moves from Indian films. Trained dancer Aanika Chopra, from New Delhi, will take beginners through their paces at classes in Birmingham, Coventry and Leamington Spa.

Competing with foreign music channels

Pakistan Music Channels competing with foreign music channels - Globalization has enabled Pakistani’s to lose interest in local channels because of the glitz and glamour of the foreign media. Viewers prefer Indian music, soaps, films and Hollywood movies, thus resulting in local channels being relegated to the background.  Inspite of all that, the local music channels like Indus Music, The Musik and G Channels are able to match up with foreign music channels, because of their witty, educated presenters and colorful sets.

Foreign Universities targets Indian students

What forces hundreds of Indian students to go abroad and seek higher education? Abi of nanopolitan on what could be achieved for a similar amount in India, and an estimate of what education is a student-funded research university would cost. [Global Voices Online]

 

 

The New Heroes

The New Heroes is a PBS series hosted by Robert Redford on social entrepreneurs, who are making the world a better place. On their website you can watch a clip of two Indian social entrepreneurs - Inderjit Khurana and Dr. V:

Inderjit Khurana - Teachers Teach Poor Children at Train Stations (wmv)

India is home to nearly half a billion children, many of whom live in extreme poverty. The Indian government has not been able to find a way to educate children who spend their days begging, stealing and selling their bodies to survive. Inderjit Khurana, a teacher in a town 300 miles south of Calcutta, noticed that the children of the slums spend their days begging on the train platforms, rather than going to school. So she decided that if the children couldn’t come to school, she’d bring the school to them. With teachers to guide and care for them, the children develop hope for their future. Because the government refuses to help her, Khurana has to rely on charitable donations to raise the $12,000 a year that funds all 12 schools she now operates.

Dr. V and David Green - Affordable Eye Surgery Prevents Blindness in India (wmv) 

Southern India has one of the highest rates in the world of unnecessary blindness caused by cataracts. And, as a saying in that desperately poor region goes, “the blind man is a mouth without hands.” Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, an eye surgeon better known as Dr. V, founded a hospital specializing in cataract surgery based on a combination of Eastern spiritualism and Western capitalism. A young American businessman named David Green who met Dr. V realized that the high cost of buying lenses from commercial manufacturers – at $300 a piece – was limiting the number of patients the doctor could assist. Surmounting tremendous obstacles, Green built a factory right next to Dr. V’s hospital, where he manufactures lenses for $1 each and sells them for $4. Today, every two paying patients enable Dr. V to do four surgeries for free.

 

You can help social entrepreneurs around the world by making a donation and sign up for the House Party DVD.

Arranged marriages for Indian Americans

[NYM] Anita Jain - A Modern Indian Woman's Struggle with Arranged Marriage - A look at arranged marriages for Indian Americans. 

Indian Modern - Michael Freeman

India Modern reveals in the latest Indian style and highlights how Indian design has become a fascinating mixture of local styles and modern interpretations. With over 250 unpublished color photographs by the renowned photographer Michael Freeman, this book will show the modern side of India that has not been seen before. Michael specializes in travel, architecture, and Asian art. He has been the principal photographer for the Smithsonian magazine and has been working for Life Books, Reader’s Digest, and the BBC. He has worked as a photographer or writer on over 30 books, including Oriental Style, Savouring India and Japan Modern.  Michael will be launching his book at the Indian High Commission, London on the 14th October, 7.00pm.

Related:
: Reviews of the book - Akademika & Asiannouveau

Offering village life for Tourists

India has a new tourist attraction on offer – The Villages. The India's tourism minister is repacking the villages as exotic destinations where tourists can enjoy rural pursuits such as drawing well water and churning butter. 

Although tourism has boomed, with 3.4 million visiting India last year, few visit the villages, where water, electricity and roads are considered luxuries. Under new plans, tourists in 50 carefully selected villages can live in the heat and dust for a couple of weeks learning local art, crafts and customs. The minister described it as a "return to the roots" experience far from the grand palaces and Raj extravagance that the country has sold for decades.

The more adventurous tourists can sample the army camps of Kashmir, a state that has been wracked by an insurgency since 1989 and where more than 80,000 people have died. A peace process with Pakistan has seen violence fall slightly, and domestic tourists have returned. "We can have the army open adventure camps for youngsters where they [will] live as the army does, look at historic sites and go trekking," Ms Chowdhury said.

Add a yoga or a bollywood bhangra aerobics class whilst you are at it.

ITC e-Choupal wins global award

 ITC has won the prestigious Development Gateway Award 2005 for its trailblazing ITC e-Choupal initiative that has achieved the scale of a movement in rural India, becoming the first Indian company and the second in the world to win the $100,000 award. A company release said ITC e-Choupal won the award for its contribution to development priorities like poverty reduction, its scale and replicability, sustainability and transparency.

Last year, Grameen Bank-Village Phone won the Award (then known as the Petersberg Prize) for helping women entrepreneurs start small businesses providing wireless phone service in rural areas of Bangladesh.

The Development Gateway Award 2005 is sponsored by T-Systems, of Germany. The Development Gateway Forum 2005 has been co-h osted by the Government of China, Development Gateway and the World Bank.

Other Indian award finalists included:

Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT): For empowering Indian farmers, traders, and government through accurate and timely information for effective decision-making. With smart cards and online access to text and video information, the “E-Agricultural Marketing” system run by MAP_IT benefits 6 million farmers and 70,000 licensed traders.

Related:

: Amy Waldman on e-Choupal

: Serving the World's Poor, Profitably by Prof. C.K. Prahalad and Allen Hammond

: The ITC eChoupal Initiative - HBS Case study by Prof. David Upton and Prof. Virginia Fuller.

NRI floats $250 million fund for India

From Rediff:

American entrepreneur Raj Vakharia has announced the launch of a private equity fund, which will invest $250 million worth of United States institutional capital into India's booming real estate market.

The former assistant state treasurer of New Jersey -- who has worked in senior positions on Wall Street and is presently the co-chairman of Uni-Mart, a former American stock exchange company and the nation's 30th largest store chain with sales in excess of $550 million annually -said the fund will aggressively capitalize on the rapid growth and opportunity in India's real estate market.

The fund will invest in a broad range of commercial and residential real estate, including hospitals, educational institutions, single-tenant properties, retail real estate, apartments and infrastructure. It will target its investment into high-growth markets throughout India like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Delhi.