Category Archives: Business & Economy

Uphill on a Fashion High

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

AneeshaTELAN03mar2016

Hyderabad :

We step into her busy workshop, that is bright and yellow and sit down for a chat. She begins nervously, “I am living my dream.”

She shares that starting her own label was something she always wanted to do.

“I wanted to be in the fashion industry since I was a child. I was always drawn to colouring, painting, paper crafting and the likes. I loved that I could create something with my own hands. Much later, I decided that I should be in a place that could help me mould my creativity.”

After Vidyaranya High School and Villa Marie College, she joined St Francis College, Begumpet. But she soon realised, it was not meant for her. “I then joined the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and graduated with a Bachelors in Design. It was the most inspiring time of my life. Creativity was in the air,” she recalls. She went on to do a Masters in Fashion Trend Forecasting at Florence in Italy.

She returned to India, gained some experience working as a freelancer. After understanding local markets, and assisting in styling the likes of Regina Cassandra, Lavanya Tripathi and Yami Gautam, albeit for a magazine cover shoot, she started her own label –– Anisha Vuppala.

USP

Anisha specialises in fusion wear. “Because that is what I love the most,” she giggles, adding that fusion will be part of every creation of hers. Her idea of fashion is also simple. “It has to be minimalistic and functional. Nothing over the top. The clothes have to do the talking. A little bit of detailing here and there and that’s it,” she tells us. While that is her personal mantra, the label is also keen about what the clients want.

“Each person has their own style and the garment has to emphasise that. The person has to feel comfortable and needs to be happy in what she wears,” explains Anisha.

Besides the two collections, the label is also keen about custom-making clothes for clients. “Everyone wants to be different these days and they can now afford designer clothes,” she points and picks up a beige and red, tunic-cum-maxi from the collection, Down Memory Lane, that is on display. “This is for a someone who is versatile and can be worn as a maxi or a tunic. There is only one piece, because it is unique,” she elaborates.

Inspiration

From a cracked wall to a beautiful fabric, Anisha picks her inspiration from a number of things. Her favourite concepts, however, are hope and evolution.

“I am fascinated by evolution. Down Memory Lane is about going back in the past and reliving all those memories that you went through,” she says, adding, “While sometimes it is a surface that I want to recreate on a fabric, other times it is the fabric itself that creates a story in my head.”

Cuts and colours

The designer, who won a gold medal for academic excellence at NIFT, admits that she played safe with her collections so far. “Additional accessories make a garment more appealing. I experimented with the cuts in Down Memory Lane. And I stuck to the main idea of fusion. But in future, I will experiment with additional accessories,” she shares.

Down Memory Lane starts at Rs 8,000

About Down Memory Lane

This collection tells the story of of going back in time. We wanted talk about how memories are made not just with people. We make memories from the time and place too. This collection is all about vintage cuts and prints.

Fashion God

Alexander Mc Queen – He is my favourite, but none of my works are inspired from him. It is interesting to see the kind of work he does. He is no more, but what his design house does is incredible.

Dream

To showcase my collection at the Lakme Fashion Week.

Would like to style

Shriya and Shruti Haasan in Tollywood.

Must haves for a woman

With the summer setting in, a fun summer dress, a white shirt and torn jeans.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rajitha S / March 01st, 2016

RGIA third best airport

Business & Economy, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport has been declared as the third best airport in the world, in the 5-15 million passengers per annum category, by the Airports Council International.

It is for the seventh year in a row that the facility, operated and managed by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, is being featured among the world’s top three airports in the Council’s ASQ ranking.

The award will be presented at the ASQ awards ceremony in April as a part of the 2016 ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly in Gold Coast, Australia.

“It is a moment of great pride for us… we thank our passengers for keeping the faith in us”, GHIAL CEO S.G.K. Kishore said in a release.

The award also enhances the visibility of the city, furthering the ‘Brand Hyderabad’ initiative of Telangana government.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – March 02nd, 2016

Cyient Centre Comes Up near Warangal

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

Cyient has announced that it will establish a state-of-the-art technology development centre in Madikonda Special Economic Zone near Warangal.

CM KCR will lay its foundation stone on Friday. Cyient is a global provider of engineering, data analytics, operations solutions.

The development Centre will focus on advanced geographic information system, remote sensing and photogrammetry technologies, catering to a host of solutions for transportation, utilities and communication sectors. The centre will cover an area of 70,000 sq ft, said a release issued by company.

Cyient executive chairman BVR Mohan Reddy said the Warangal centre shows Cyient’s recognition of role of tier-2 cities in growth of the nation.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / February 19th, 2016

Lallaguda Carriage Workshop – a unique unit of Railways

Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All
Railway Carriage Workshop (Mechanical) of South Central Railway at Lalaguda in Hyderabad on Monday. -Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu
Railway Carriage Workshop (Mechanical) of South Central Railway at Lalaguda in Hyderabad on Monday. -Photo: G. Ramakrishna / The Hindu

Once the South Central Railway was formed on October 2, 1966, the workshop became a major facility for the zone and it was in 1997 that it got its current name as Carriage Workshop.

Do you know how long it takes for a railway coach to go through a periodic overhaul (POH) and what is the average lifespan of a coach? How many hours are spent on cleaning up a coach after every long, overnight trip? How many wheel and axle assemblies does a coach have and how much does each of the assemblies weigh?

Answers to these and more questions were made available to the media on Monday, during a rare, ‘Media Visit’ to the Carriage Workshop at Lallaguda, run by the South Central Railway (SCR), that maintains the approximately 5,000 coaches / bogies with a similar workshop near Tirupati.

A workshop with a 123-year-old history, it was born on September 30, 1893 under the aegis of the ‘Nizam Guaranteed State Railways’ with the task of undertaking POH and repairs to broad and metre gauge steam locomotives, coaches and wagons.

It was then brought under the purview of the Nizam State Railways and later in 1951 was under the control of the Central Railways.

Once the South Central Railway was formed on October 2, 1966, the workshop became a major facility for the zone and it was in 1997 that it got its current name as Carriage Workshop. It is now going through a major, Rs.90-crore expansion as a part of which Rs.30 crore has already been spent, said Chief Workshop Engineer Som Kuwar, who has the responsibility of maintaining the 5,000-odd coaches in the two workshops.

Mr. Kuwar said the Lallaguda facility was the first workshop on Indian Railways to implement the Workshop Information System (WISE) developed by the Centre for Railway Information System, apart from having a fully-automated Distributor Valve Testing Machine uniquely-designed in-house by the Indian Railways and a Coach Management System software for day-to-day monitoring of POH.

A visit to the Lallaguda workshop shows the scale of operations that are undertaken by the approximately 3,500-odd workforce at the facility. From achieving the highest Out-Turn of 5.8 coaches a day the number today stands at roughly about seven coaches a working day. The facility complex that spans 13.97 hectares with a covered area of 4.25 hectares and a track length of 8.25 km operates on a budget of Rs.267.5 crore in the current financial year.

Its activities include overhaul of all passenger-carrying coaches including those manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory and Rail Coach Factory, Diesel Electrical and Diesel, Hydraulic Multiple Units, the MMTS coaches, the German-made Linke Hofmann Busch coaches and those of the Double-Decker trains apart from all departmental coaches, said Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer Hemu Singh in a power-point presentation.

The workshop maintains a whopping 55 wheel and axle assemblies every day using a specialised lathe machine. The checks for wheel and axle that has a normal life span of six years, include ultrasound to detect internal cracks and one crack is enough for it to be scrapped. The average lifespan of a coach is about 25 years, mediapersons were informed.

The Head of the Lallaguda facility, Chief Workshop Manager Uday Kumar Reddy explained that among its unique selling propositions (USP) were maintenance of the Heritage John Morris Fire Engine that is an exhibit at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi and a predominantly wooden-body coach built in the year 1890 and is stationed at the workshop here itself.

Summing up, SCR’s Chief Public Relations Officer M. Umashankar Kumar said the fact that the workshop was gearing up to take up POH of coaches once in two years was an indicator of its improving efficiency levels. The POH apart, officials work on checking and cleaning up of every coach for about six hours after every overnight trip.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Suresh Krishnamoorthy / Hyderabad – February 22nd, 2016

Six Startups Attract Investors Support

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

It’s always a major problem for the startups to attract investors and get some funding, but it was not so on Saturday.

Six out of the 11 startups which have pitched their ideas at ‘Startup-a-thon 1.0’ have been able to attract investors and are now just a step away from getting some funding ranging between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.50 crore.

Manoj Sharma, CTO Quikr, speaking at the Startup-a-thon-1.0, in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Express Photo
Manoj Sharma, CTO Quikr, speaking at the Startup-a-thon-1.0, in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Express Photo

Out of the six, four startups will directly go for negotiations with investors and the remaining two need to pass through another round and will be allowed to have negotiations only if they clear this particular round. Besides, the event has also provided an opportunity to all the other startups (30) to get some mentorship opportunity.

“Mentoring and funding are the two major problems the startups face and, in order to solve these issues, we have organised this problem. Although only six startups have got short-listed, the main advantage of this programme is that every startup that participated in the event got some mentorship. Now, they know exactly what they are lacking and, by working on their weakness in future, they will be in a better state to pitch,” Maj. Sunil Shetty (retd), CEO and founder of Ask Mentor, said.

The two-day event also witnessed the inauguration of college-specific incubation centre at St Martin Engineering College (SMEC), Kompally. On day one, a mentoring workshop and preliminary round of startup pitches was held and eleven students were selected and were given a chance to pitch to the investors.

“Generally, a student takes at least five years’ time after graduation to become a entrepreneur. Our main aim is to reduce this gap by providing mentorship programme. In order to provide support to the youngsters, we started an incubator at SMEC college. This will be made available even to the outside students so that every student gets benefit from this,” said Rajiv Lulla, director (strategy) of askfunding.in.

“The initiative taken by askmentor and askfunding is commendable. In order to show our support for the event, we are introducing our developer platform to students so that they can make use of it. It is same as the in-house site we use and anyone can register freely and make use of the basic services,” Manoj Sharma, CTO of Quikr.com, said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / January 31st, 2016

T-Hub Launches its Own Incubation Programme

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

In an endeavour to bring the best for the startup ecosystem in Hyderabad, the T-Hub has launched its very own incubation programme namely LAB/32 here on Saturday.

A few handpicked startups will be a part of this programme, where they will not only have access to the best names in the industry, but will also be given the opportunity to pitch to VCs and angel investors from the country as well as globally.

Speaking at the launch, Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub said, “A good hockey player knows where the puck is. A great hockey player knows where the puck is going to be. That’s a line by Wayne Gretsky, arguably one of the greatest hockey players in the world.

Our job, at the T- hub is exactly that – To try and help entrepreneurs, through our programmes, to be awesome entrepreneurs running amazing ventures, who can foresee where the market is going to be. And we commit to doing that through LAB/32,” he said.

“Our goal at the T-Hub is to turn Hyderabad into one of the most vibrant startup ecosystems in the world, and to create success for our startups. The launch of our own incubation programme, LAB/32, is the next step in that direction, and our deep connections to world-class mentors, investors and organizations, along with great support will make it one of the best incubators in the country,” Srinivas Kollipara, Founder & COO, T-Hub, said.

Through this programme, T-Hub is bringing together partnerships in the form of individuals and organizations from different verticals to help entrepreneurs shorten the sprint towards their goal. To make things easy for the newbies, the service providers including legal professionals, chartered accountants, company secretaries, investment bankers, etc will all be just a call away.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service / January 24th, 2016

Women groups take lead in making rings for ISLs

Business & Economy, Inspiration / Positive News and Features
ISL rings which were prepared by women groups being transported to other places at Rayavaram village in Medak district. --PHOTO: Mohd. Arif
ISL rings which were prepared by women groups being transported to other places at Rayavaram village in Medak district. –PHOTO: Mohd. Arif

For the past few weeks, V. Kalyani, a community activist of the village has been paying Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 8,000 for three youth, who were manufacturing rings that are being used in the constriction of toilets. Similar amount is being paid for another three youth at P.T. Venaktapuar. Both these villages were located at Jagadevpur mandal of the district. They are preparing 40 to 50 rings a day and they are being paid Rs. 50 per ring and Rs. 70 per cement plate in addition to supplying required raw material.

At both the place, the youth are family members of Self Help Groups (SGHs) members who were trained to manufacture rings and plates that can be used in the construction of individual sanitary latrines (ISLs).

The district administration has faced a typical problem of rings for the construction of ISLs when it had fixed a target of one lakh in number. There was no availability of rings. Then Collector D. Ronald Rose initiated the idea of training youth from the families of SHGs and it was turned as a grand success. Each ISL needs about eight rings for the construction and it was estimated that the district needs about 8 lakh rings for the construction of one lakh ISLs. As part of that 300 moulds were supplied by the administration for the mandal Samakhyas which are being used to prepare rings. Another 400 are in the making at Kowdipally where they are being designed, manufactured and supplied. The administration has decided to get about 1,000 moulds manufactured and supplied so that the mandal samakhays can meet the demand for ring manufacturing.

“We are supplying moulds for mandal Samakhyas, who in turn preparing rings and supplying to the villages wherever the women groups are active getting the toilets constructed. Similarly, five rural sanitary marts were sanctioned at Kowdipally, Gajwel, Toopran, Sangareddy and Kondapur from where the sanitary material would be supplied to villages,” DRDA Project Director Ch. Satyanarayana Reddy told The Hindu . The effort is to supplement the demand that surged due to sudden interest by rural public to have toilets at their house.

The women groups were able to sell each ring for about Rs. 160 per unit where as the open market rate was between Rs. 200 to Rs. 220.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by R. Avadhani / Rayavaram (Medak District) / January 05th, 2016

T-Hub becomes a case study for other states

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

Having roped in 130 companies and 40 top mentors from the Tech world, T-hub now has students in state governments from Karnataka, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Orissa and Assam.

These state governments have visited Hyderabad over the last one month to study the largest start up ecosystem of the country, aiming at catching up on the innovation scene and has asked the IT department to help replicate the model. Apart from the ecosystem, even the green building have been studied by these states. Representatives from four more states will visit the hub soon, officials said.

Despite a beeline of states wanting to replicate the largest incubator, T-hub is expected to remain on the top of the incubation scene, as it will reap the benefit of beginning early in the race, as per insiders. “Apart from states, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) from Bhubaneshwar, Delhi and Bangalore have visited the incubator to study the set-up,” said K Srinivas, CEO T-hub.

The T-hub, meanwhile, is signing up more accelerators in the near future. Under the launch pad, seeding funding, mentorship, incubation space, industry hand-holding, partners and investors have been brought under one platform for better access for start-ups.

A previous T-hub concept was planned by Kerala few years back, but it did not translate into success due to lack of good mentors. The project did not take off, despite being the first state to recognize the power of innovations and start-ups in case of Kerala.

“There is so much of hunger in the innovation community for this kind of an initiative that within five days of launching T-hub, the entire 70,000 sft space was full. Start-ups and innovations are going to be the biggest growth drivers in future and the national government is now waking up to the power of start-ups. Having started early and having created T-hub as the largest and organized ecosystem, we are bound to remain on the top,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary IT, Telangana.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / December 30th, 2015

Tribal youth turn creative

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features
Tribal women learning the concepts of fashion designing at the ITDA, Bhadrachalam, in Khammam district.– PHOTO: G.N. RAO
Tribal women learning the concepts of fashion designing at the ITDA, Bhadrachalam, in Khammam district.– PHOTO: G.N. RAO

In pursuit of exploring their inherent creative skills and gain self-employment, a group of 35 young men and women of tribal communities from far-flung agency areas have successfully completed a three-month residential training programme in fashion designing, which concluded in Bhadrachalam on Monday.

Thanks to the initiative of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Bhadrachalam, several tribal women and men with penchant for art and fabric design have undergone professional training under the aegis of two instructors from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Hyderabad.

They had gained hands-on experience in designing garments in impressive patterns to suit every occasion, various body types and contemporary tastes during the free residential training programme at the ITDA’s Youth Training Centre (YTC) in Bhadrachalam.

“The three-month training programme helped me acquaint myself with the vibrant potential of fashion designing and gain the requisite skills in designing trendy garments,” said Kursam Narsimha Rao, a tribal youth from Ramaraopeta of Dummugudem mandal.

“I did TTC in drawing and started an art studio in the temple town a few years ago,” he said, insisting that he was keen to diversify his creative enterprise by harnessing his newly acquired skills.

It is proposed to set up a ready-made garment unit under the aegis of the ITDA in Bhadrachalam for absorbing the trained tribal women and men with the requisite skills and aptitude into the unit, said V. Prasad, principal, YTC, ITDA, Bhadrachalam.

The ITDA project officer K. Kalicharan presented certificates in fashion designing to all the 35 tribal women and men, those who had successfully completed the certificate course, at a ceremony held in Bhadrachalam on Monday evening.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by P. Sridhar / Khammam – December 08th, 2015

Satya Nadella to Unveil Four New IT Policies of Telengana

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Satya Nadella | File AP
Satya Nadella | File AP

Hyderabad :

Microsoft Corporation CEO Satya Nadella will unveil four new policies of the government of Telangana, IT minister KT Rama Rao has said.

Speaking at the inauguration of an animation and gaming incubator of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here on Saturday, Rama Rao said, “What is more important than creating infrastructure is framing of policies. We have invited Satya Nadella to T-Hub on December 28. On the same day we are going to launch four new policies on Information Technology, Innovation, Image and Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM). Our focus will now be on both software and hardware, and these policies, especially ESDM, will help us compete with countries like Taiwan and South Korea which have done exceptionally well in hardware. We will ask Nadella to unveil our policies and we hope that some other bright gentlemen will also join us on that day.”

Referring to a suggestion made by one of the speakers at the inaugural, Rama Rao said the gaming city would be renamed as Image. “I really liked the name Image. It’s fantastic. It kind of sums up the mood that is there in the state today. It talks about innovation, incubation, incorporation. The young minds that we talk about today are all reflected in that ‘I’ and we are happy that somebody suggested that we go with the name Image. From here on we will call it Image instead of gaming city.”

Speaking about the incubator, Rama Rao said, “I am happy that this campus came up here because right across we are planning to build the T-Hub Phase-II and Image, having everything in the same vicinity will be very helpful to youngsters interested in multimedia, animation, gaming, VFX, etc. This is the right time for them to look at more opportunities in this sector.”

Gaming City to Be Renamed as Image

Satya Nadella will unveil four new policies on IT, Innovation, Image and Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM) of the state government on December 28

The foundation stone for Image will be laid early next year

Coinciding with Image launch, Hyderabad will host international conference on gaming, animation, visual effects, etc

He advised IT department secretary Jayesh Rajan and others to plan the launch of Image and get it ready by the month of February. “Early next year what we proposed to do is to have an international conference on gaming, animation, visual effects, etc. Let us bring in the best of the world to this place and I request Ranjan to complete all the formalities so that Image will be ready for launch and we can lay the foundation stone. Coinciding with that we can have a conference with all these bright minds,” the minister said.

“The intent of the government is very clear: under the guidance of our Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao we have in the last 18 months ascertained the position as one of the premier destinations for IT in the country. But we are not completely content with that.”

“In fact, there are multiple initiatives which are currently in progress and with the kind of planning we will reach greater heights,” Rama Rao said.

Terming Hyderabad as the safest place in the country, KTR said, “We feel sorry for what is happening in Chennai. No other city is as safe as Hyderabad is and no other city is shielded from these natural forces. I think Hyderabad has this unique opportunity. We have to seize this and make sure that we become premier destination for IT and other fields.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / December 06th, 2015