Steel baron Laxmi Mittal, Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil and Wipro chief Azim Premji are among the nine Indians who figure in the Forbes magazine's list of 100 richest people in the world.
Three Indians shine in the top 20, including the Mittal-Arcelor Chief Executive at fifth in the world with a personal fortune of USD 32 billion.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, and industrialist Anil Ambani accounted for USD 20.1 and USD 18.2 billion respectively and stood at 14th and 18th in the list.
Premji ranked 21st with USD 17.1 billion.
Other Indians in the list are Kushal Pal Singh (62nd, USD 10 billion), Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal and family (49th, USD 9.5 billion), Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Birla (86th, USD 8 billion) and Essar Group's Shashi and Ravi Ruia (86th, USD 8 billion).
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, as per the Forbes' list.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com.
Mittal, Ambanis among world's richest
March 10, 2007, 7:57 amTata's talk of 2-wheeler safety ploy to sell car
March 10, 2007, 7:55 am
There's no doubt Ratan Tata had only good intentions when he said he conceived the Rs 1 lakh car as he cared for the safety of those using two-wheelers.
But Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj thinks its just a ploy to market the vehicle.
"He has to sell his car, so he has to speak like that," Bajaj shot back when asked about Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata's remark that one of the major reasons for him to decide on the 'people's car' was the concern for safety of those travelling by two-wheelers.
Two-wheelers are sold all over the world, it has been proven that they are safe, he said, adding his company's products were safe.
Bajaj also denied that the advent of Rs 1 lakh car would affect the two-wheeler manufacturers.
"Ultimately it is the customers who will decide what they want," he said.
Tata had said that the Rs 1 lakh car would mark a paradigm shift in the way India travels and will draw customers from the two-wheeler segment as well as from the lower end of the four wheeler segment.
The small car to be powered by a 600 cc engine, which could have air conditioning option and seat four to five people, is widely considered to be a threat to the two-wheeler segment.
Tata Motors is in the process of building a plant in Singur in West Bengal for the people's car, which it hopes to roll out by next year.
The price differentials between the small car and the high end motorcycles likes of Bajaj Pulsar 200 cc, the to-be-launched Pulsar 220 cc and Hero Honda Karizma are expected to be minimal.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
But Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj thinks its just a ploy to market the vehicle.
"He has to sell his car, so he has to speak like that," Bajaj shot back when asked about Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata's remark that one of the major reasons for him to decide on the 'people's car' was the concern for safety of those travelling by two-wheelers.
Two-wheelers are sold all over the world, it has been proven that they are safe, he said, adding his company's products were safe.
Bajaj also denied that the advent of Rs 1 lakh car would affect the two-wheeler manufacturers.
"Ultimately it is the customers who will decide what they want," he said.
Tata had said that the Rs 1 lakh car would mark a paradigm shift in the way India travels and will draw customers from the two-wheeler segment as well as from the lower end of the four wheeler segment.
The small car to be powered by a 600 cc engine, which could have air conditioning option and seat four to five people, is widely considered to be a threat to the two-wheeler segment.
Tata Motors is in the process of building a plant in Singur in West Bengal for the people's car, which it hopes to roll out by next year.
The price differentials between the small car and the high end motorcycles likes of Bajaj Pulsar 200 cc, the to-be-launched Pulsar 220 cc and Hero Honda Karizma are expected to be minimal.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
Yahoo goes local in Asia
March 10, 2007, 7:47 am
Yahoo Inc is banking on rapidly growing demand for mobile Internet access in Asia's emerging markets to boost user figures, as it rolls out localised services which let Web users look up local information on the go.
Yahoo, keen to get the upper hand on Google Inc, on Tuesday launched Yahoo Answers--a free service which allows users to exchange information on local topics in the local language--in Malaysia and the Philippines.
The Sunnyvale, California-headquartered company hopes to tap local users for knowledge which may not be easy to find via straight online search, Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's Vice-President of advanced development, said in an interview on Thursday.
"If you have a question like, 'where can I get a good pastrami sandwich in the middle of Hong Kong at noon without waiting?' there's probably not a Web page that has that answer," Horowitz said over the telephone.
"But I would venture to guess that there are about 100,000 users in Hong Kong that probably know that answer," he added.
Yahoo Answers has over 90 million unique monthly users--with over 15 million in the United States--and is available in 20 countries and in nine languages.
Yahoo has over 500 million users worldwide.
'Social search'--a broad effort to enhance computerised Web search tools with insights gained from mining the collective knowledge of its users--is the linchpin of Yahoo's strategy to compete with rival Google, which has focused heavily on advances in computerised search.
In its drive to make Web services widely available not only on computers, Yahoo recently added cellphones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to a growing list of handsets from device makers.
"More people are going to be reaching our services through things like mobile devices than they will be through browsers," said Horowitz.
Yahoo is partnering with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, StarHub Ltd, Globe Telecom Holdings and Maxis Communications, among others, in Asia, he added.
Emerging markets in Asia are expected to be the largest market for mobile handsets and account for nearly 36 per cent of the global market this year, up from 32 per cent in 2006, according to research by Merrill Lynch.
Horowitz declined to comment on the China market. Yahoo's China unit was absorbed by top Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba in 2005 and Yahoo Inc bought a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba.
Yahoo said on Tuesday it had agreed to partner with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp, a major maker of mobile phones running on Windows Mobile software, to place Yahoo on virtually all recent and new models HTC makes.
Earlier this year, Yahoo said it had signed deals with four of the top five mobile handset makers in the world: Nokia, Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc.
Besides Yahoo Answers, the company's services that centre on human contribution include photo-sharing Web site Flickr, Del.icio.us, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Groups
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
Yahoo, keen to get the upper hand on Google Inc, on Tuesday launched Yahoo Answers--a free service which allows users to exchange information on local topics in the local language--in Malaysia and the Philippines.
The Sunnyvale, California-headquartered company hopes to tap local users for knowledge which may not be easy to find via straight online search, Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's Vice-President of advanced development, said in an interview on Thursday.
"If you have a question like, 'where can I get a good pastrami sandwich in the middle of Hong Kong at noon without waiting?' there's probably not a Web page that has that answer," Horowitz said over the telephone.
"But I would venture to guess that there are about 100,000 users in Hong Kong that probably know that answer," he added.
Yahoo Answers has over 90 million unique monthly users--with over 15 million in the United States--and is available in 20 countries and in nine languages.
Yahoo has over 500 million users worldwide.
'Social search'--a broad effort to enhance computerised Web search tools with insights gained from mining the collective knowledge of its users--is the linchpin of Yahoo's strategy to compete with rival Google, which has focused heavily on advances in computerised search.
In its drive to make Web services widely available not only on computers, Yahoo recently added cellphones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile software to a growing list of handsets from device makers.
"More people are going to be reaching our services through things like mobile devices than they will be through browsers," said Horowitz.
Yahoo is partnering with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, StarHub Ltd, Globe Telecom Holdings and Maxis Communications, among others, in Asia, he added.
Emerging markets in Asia are expected to be the largest market for mobile handsets and account for nearly 36 per cent of the global market this year, up from 32 per cent in 2006, according to research by Merrill Lynch.
Horowitz declined to comment on the China market. Yahoo's China unit was absorbed by top Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba in 2005 and Yahoo Inc bought a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba.
Yahoo said on Tuesday it had agreed to partner with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp, a major maker of mobile phones running on Windows Mobile software, to place Yahoo on virtually all recent and new models HTC makes.
Earlier this year, Yahoo said it had signed deals with four of the top five mobile handset makers in the world: Nokia, Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics Inc.
Besides Yahoo Answers, the company's services that centre on human contribution include photo-sharing Web site Flickr, Del.icio.us, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Groups
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
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