THE Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda conferred the Degree of Doctor of Science Honoris Causa to Mr Mukesh Ambani, CMD of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) at its 56th convocation ceremony in Vadodara. On Saturday, the MSU Chancellor Dr Mrunalini Devi Puar greeted Mr Ambani with a shawl and presented him the Degree Honoris Causa.

Another recipient of the Degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa was Sri Sri Ravishankar, the popular yoga guru. Lord Karan Bilimoria was the chief guest on this occasion. Mr Ambani is the latest addition in the fifteen noted personalities who received the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from MSU.

The luminaries who were earlier honored by the University include Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr Kanaiyalal Munshi, Dr Jivraj Mehta, Dr Verghese Kurien, among others.

Incidentaly, Mr Mukesh Ambani is the youngest recipient of this honour, at the age of 50. He is a Chemical Engineer from the University of Bombay and MBA from Stanford University, USA. He is the man behind Reliance’s vertical backward integration from textiles into polyester fibre and further foray into petrochemicals, petroleum refining; and exploration and production of oil and gas.

The creation of the world’s largest grass-root petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, setting up of the largest and most complex information and communications network under the banner of Reliance Infocom and steering the implementation of retail network with supply chain infrastructure are some of the major achievements to the credit of Mr Ambani.

Shriram Properties Ltd announced the launch of its IT SEZ 'The Gateway' being developed at an investment of Rs 1,400 crore near Tambaram on the outskirts of the city.

Spread over four million square feet, the zone is being developed in four phases. The SEZ would comprise a mall and service apartments, Chief Operating Officer R Murugesan said.

The first phase, comprising one million square feet, would be completed by February 2008, he said, adding that 3.5 lakh square feet of space would be completed every quarter.

The mall would be fully functional by 2009, he added.

The investment into the project is funded through a 50:50 equity between a leading real estate investor Sun Apollo and Shriram Properties, while Jones Lang La Salle Meghraj would be marketing the project, Murugesan said.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Ber Sarai is just like scores of other Delhi villages where thousands of students from the country come to reside in the capital and prepare themselves for their future jobs. As per the classifications of the government, this area is classified as an urban village. But, and not to the surprise of everyone, this village is dotted with cafés, which are open for visitors throughout the day and night.

Not long back one had to think twice before spending an hour in that Internet café which required spending quite a fortune to access that ubiquitous Net which opens the door of opportunities and raises the expectations of anyone who ventures on this window.

It is not uncommon to spot advertisements which seem to invite people by offering rates of Net surfing as minimal as Rs five per hour, a price which was unthinkable a little while back. Though there are many reasons for this dip in user prices, but, the one, which is more significant than others, is the growing number of users with each passing day, which is luring entrepreneurs to venture into the Internet café business.

This growth of cafes in turn is giving rise to competition, which has forced the user prices to fall to a quarter of what they used to be, say, two years back. If one goes to categorize the type of businesses mushrooming in this village, one can easily find out that the Internet business outnumbers every other category in the area including the common grocery and vegetable shops. It is not an exaggeration of the fact to note that the Internet cafes dot each and every lane of the village.

Now, it would not be a wrong assumption if one sees this urban village of Delhi as the microcosm of the development in the growth of the Net cafes throughout the country. Just as, it is a commonplace thing to spot the kiosks with the facilities of national and international calling, Net cafes are closely following the growth path.

Earlier when the accessibility was not as affordable as it is today, in terms of prices, big number of surfers would abstain from long sittings and the usage of Net was limited to get the results of the various competitive examinations and other information, which was only available on the web. Lounging on the terminals of the café was quite a luxury, which everyone could not afford

Courtesy : Expressindia.com