Kishore Lulla, co-founder of the Eros International's UK office in London, has been chosen for the Eastern Eye Asian Business Award for 2007 for providing Indian cinema an international platform.

At a glittering ceremony held at the Hilton Park Lane on Tuesday night, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, presented the coveted award to Lulla in the presence of over 1,000 distinguished invitees from various walks of life.

Other award winners were Surinder Arora (KPMG

Entrepreneur of the Year), Shamir Shah Pricewaterhouse Coopers Young achiever of the Year), Arti Poddar (Hamptons International Newcomer of the year) and Sital Punja (Fortis Bank Community Award).

In his brief address, Prince Andrew said the Asian business community is hugely important and has a vital contribution for UK's prosperity and economy. "You not only do it here, but also at the international level," he said.

Recalling his visit to India last year, Andrew said he was highly impressed with the rapid progress India was making.

"We are hugely indebted and impressed with the activities of the Indian business and the Indian community in this country," he said and wondered whether it was necessary to have a separate category as Asian business since the Asian business is part of the UK business."

Lulla played a key role in the growth of Eros International, which now operates in over 50 countries with worldwide offices in India, UK, USA, Dubai, Australia, Fiji and Isle of Man. The company controls content through productions and co-productions, long-term output deals with production houses and talent, and by globally distributing content across all multimedia formats.

Throughout Lulla's tenure he has been instrumental in evolving Eros international from a Bollywood film distribution company into a vertically integrated studio model. The company has become the world's first Indian cinema studio and has a market share of over 35 per cent.

Eros International has played an intrinsic part in redefining the notion of Bollywood and taking it to global shores and audiences be it through securing multiplex cinema chain distribution, finalizing global television syndication to widen the TV viewership of Indian films, or by representing Indian content within major international film festivals.

Winner of the Entrepreneur of the year Award, Surinder Arora was born in India and came to Britain in 1972 at the age of 14 and started his career as a wine waiter earning 1.50 pounds a day. Later he served as a hotel waiter, office junior at British Airways and a salesman at Abbey National, before becoming its branch manager. Today he owns 14 five-star hotels in England.

Young Achiever Shamir Shah from Harrow, was fascinated with sales process right from the beginning. As a child Shamir always looked for ways to make money, which carried on into secondary school where he and his friends would sell perfumes and aftershaves at discounted prices.

At University, he supported his income by becoming a scout for Arthur Andersen and helping to persuade top undergraduates within his department to apply to the Accountancy Firm.

He established The East India Tea House with the goal of providing customers with premium quality loose leaf teas.

The company is one of the market leaders in terms of supply of leaf tea, and works with a number of well-known brands, supplying to the likes of Conran Shop, Habitat, Harvey Nichols and Yo! Sushi.

Capitalising on his experience within the food sector, in 2004, Shamir set up two coffee shops in Hatfield. More recently the company has diversified into the packaging and distribution of nuts, seeds and dried fruit products. Clients include brands such as Itsu, Everyman Cinema Group and Lo vejuice. East India Tea House is looking to expand its private label and branding services and open another three coffee shops this year.

Volunteering with elderly care home activities at Lambhil Court Ltd before commencing part time work at the young age of 16, Arti Poddar of Glasgow has been able to continually evolve and develop with a changing care industry.

She has been Operations Director of Lambhil Court Ltd where she is directly responsible for about 250 service users and 250 employees within the company.

Winner of the Community Award, Sital Punja, entered the world of social entrepreneurship in November 2002 as founder of Sari (UK) Limited, following her poignant visits to India where she would take old saris for the poor. Later she launched Sari as a project recycling saris into accessories to raise money for children in developing countries.

She became the first Ethnic Minority female to be

voted onto the board of Social Enterprise London and is a regular panel speaker at seminars hosted by Women and Equalities Unit of the Cabinet "Ethnic Minority and Social Enterprise".

Gurmeet Khangura, Chairman of Ethnic Media Group, publishers of Eastern Eye, said, "We are proud to celebrate 11 years of honouring the Asian men and women in the UK business market. They have not only established themselves as important contributors to the nation's economy, but their innovation and hard work have further inspired younger entrepreneurs striving to achieve the same levels of success for themselves.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Domestic airfares in India declined by 3 per cent in calendar year 2006 in spite of a 6 per cent increase in the fourth quarter of the year, a report said.

According to American Express' Business Travel Monitor, in contradiction to global trends, airfares on domestic routes in India were up 6 per cent quarter on quarter while reporting a decline of 3 per cent during the year.

The report said overall airfares (including both domestic and international) in India were up 3 per cent in the quarter but down one per cent in the year while globally, overall airfares in the quarter were down 1 per cent and up 3 per cent in the full year.

The biggest increase in India during the quarter was witnessed in full economy fares which grew 18 per cent, however, they were down 4 per cent in the year, the report said.

Globally, airfares dipped 1 per cent in the quarter, while increasing 3 per cent in the full year, it said.

"The flattening of airfare increase across the region for the final quarter of 2006 coincides with carriers operating a record number of flights to and from and within the region," American Express (India) Global Corporate Services VP Firdaus Mogul said in a statement.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com.

Intel Corp is set to launch new hardware for laptop computers that the world's biggest chipmaker hopes will keep it at the top of the fastest-growing segment of the personal computer market.

Intel's new product is not a processor but is instead a platform--a whole package of components including the main processor as well as all the secondary chips that add features such as the ability to connect to a wireless network.

Platforms rarely grab attention outside of technical circles, but Intel is generating wider interest this time because its new products are the first to use flash memory chips, which should translate into faster performance and longer battery life.

'Santa Rosa' is the code-name for the latest big overhaul of Centrino, Intel's hugely successful laptop platform brand that helped popularize the Wi-Fi wireless technology now standard in the industry.

"Intel has done a lot of things to save power here and there and the overall message of Santa Rosa is more features, more performance with little or no impact on battery life," said Nathan Brookwood, head of consultancy Insight 64.

Intel, which has about 80 per cent of the overall PC market, has traditionally been even more dominant in the laptop segment and updates Centrino about once a year to try to maintain its lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Laptop computers are the hottest part of the PC business. Last year, worldwide PC shipments rose just over 7 per cent, but sales of laptops jumped 26 per cent, compared to just 2 per cent for desktops, according to market research firm IDC.

The new hardware will boost performance and battery life by storing some data on flash memory like that found in digital media players and digital cameras. Flash chips can be accessed more quickly than a hard drive and also use less power.

Intel says it has also improved the integrated graphics of Centrino laptops, adding features and software that make video richer and more akin to what people would see on a television.

In addition, Intel is supporting the latest version of the Wi-Fi wireless technology that can deliver a maximum access speed of 300 megabits per second, about five times faster than the current popular version.

"There are probably a greater number of improvements on this platform and they are spread all throughout," Mike Trainor, Intel's chief technology evangelist for mobile products, said of Santa Rosa.

"I think we'll look back on this and say there were lots of fundamental capabilities that came out here," Trainor said.

So far, PC manufacturers have drawn up 230 system designs using Santa Rosa, about 50 more than the last Centrino update, Trainor said. Intel is set to release more details about Santa Rosa on Wednesday at an event in San Francisco.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com