News (page 4)

• The 24-hour network will target an 18- to 34-year-old audience and offer short-form content
• --15-second to five-minute segments--
• to be contributed by viewers. Topics will include careers, finance, fashion, global events and local happenings.
• Viewers will also be able to vote for their favorite videos and get tutorials via the Internet on how to produce their own segments, according to network officials.

The New Book "Towards Personal Excellence" by Lt. Gen (Retd.) M.R. Sharma.

Qu Bit Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is proud to present the book "Towards Personal Excellence" by Managing Director Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M. R. Sharma.

Inspiration to write this book came from enthusiastic response from young people in training institutions, to my talks over the last three years. I owe so much to those fresh young faces that reflected curiosity of youth.

This book is not an autobiography. It is also not about leadership, particularly military leadership in its narrow sense.

It is a practitioners's attempt to present a mixed fare of human and job related skills that are vital for personal effectiveness and happiness for everyone irrespective of their calling in life. The book will take you through a rich fare illustrated with real life examples from military history, corporate world, and thematic folklore.

There has been an enthusiastic response to my presentations of these skills to college students, young MBA trainees, middle level managers of public undertakings, and defense services officers, presumably because of their universal appeal and relevance for personal excellence.

Price: Rs 475, USD 15, British Pounds 10.

• The project, once completed, is expected to give a stiff competition to other broadband service providers, including the BSNL, as the promoters have indicated to charge just Rs 100 (around US $ 2.30) a month for a domestic broadband connection.
• The project will provide services with a minimum bandwidth of 2,000 kbps, which is almost eight times higher, as compared to the bandwidth offered by the BSNL.
• The network will also enable the rural folk to access video-conferencing, internet surfing among other facilities.

A television commercial alone may not have solved many marketers problems, Fred Rubin, a partner at Deutsch and director of its iDeutsch and directDeutsch divisions said. "A Web site alone would not have solved their problem either." It took commercials to drive consumers to the site, he said, and the site's abilities and narrow focus to show them what is available.

• Subservient Chicken, perhaps the year's most prominent example, allows visitors to type orders to someone dressed in a chicken costume, who is seen obeying, as if on a live Webcam. The site, a promotion for the TenderCrisp chicken sandwich sold at Burger King, says little about Burger King or the sandwich, although there is a discreet link to the Burger King site.
• Other marketers have moved into specialty Web sites, including Alaska Airlines, which operates a parody site at www.skyhighairlines.com, and
• Best Buy, the retail chain, which is creating specialty sites tied to particular campaigns, products and audiences. At one site, Best Buy depicts a fictional Slothmore Institute (www.slothmore.com), which brags of "enabling greatness through sedentary living." A note from the institute's fictional founder, Dr. Harvey Funkel, explains. "Here at Slothmore we believe that everyone deserves to achieve one's dreams and aspirations," he says, "especially if one's dream is to never achieve a thing." The idea is that stay-at-home sloths may as well surround themselves with a stereo system, which, incidentally, visitors can check out by clicking on a Best Buy banner ad at the bottom.
• Another site, Digital Joy (www.digitaljoy.com), advertises the benefits of a partnership between Microsoft and Intel to sell digital entertainment technology, like personal computers that can record television programs. Microsoft and Intel hired Deutsch in New York, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, to create advertising promoting their products.
• At www.comeclean.com visitors are asked to type in confessions, urging, "Start the new year fresh by coming clean." Entered confessions then appear on a hand over a sink, where it is washed away with soap that you can buy at an online gift shop linked to the site. Visitors can also peek at previous visitors' anonymous confessions. "I haven't changed my sheets in about a month or two," one palm reads. Other confessions are not appropriate for a family newspaper, but all go down the drain in the end. Even confessions of criminal acts are washed away - after an advisory on the site that says they have been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.The site was created by the same agency that is behind Subservient Chicken, Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami, to promote Method, the San Francisco marketer of the soaps used to wash away the confessions.

This is an amazing development and it is possible that a whole new market may be born. Wouldn't you like to be able to see your whole sector or colony from the air? Maps and blueprints are one thing, but it is altogether a different thing if you get to see the birds-eye view.

• However photography is still not permitted at defence aerodromes at any atage.

?The combination of online and physical stores is the right combination for retailers, and that?s something we?ve been saying for a long time,? said Adam Sarner, an e-commerce analyst at technology research firm Gartner. The Web has become part of our regular way of buying stuff.

• ?The Web as become a huge influence for consumers? transactions,? Sarner said.
• ?People do research online, and
• then go to a store to buy,
• so sales are being driven to stores from Web sites, and that?s not always something that?s considered,? he said, adding that
• some 25 percent of all retail sales are influenced by a retailer?s Web site.

• apparel,
• furniture,
• garden products and
• home appliances.

In October, mobile phone users grew by 1.4 million to 44.9 million, overtaking the number of landlines, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, (TRAI). In January 2003, there were only 10 million mobile subscribers in India. Analysts say cheap rates and a huge youth market is driving the market. Services other than just voice calls which are offered by mobile operators in India have, as a result of the huge rise in subscribers, grown significantly and rapidly. "The growth of this market sector has attracted publishers, developers, animators, musicians, and content providers, and is also stimulating the development of innovative business models," said Clint Wheelock, director of In-Stat/MDR's wireless research group.

India has a large population of under-25s, and many in urban areas are fast adopting mobiles as must-have gadgets. The growth of this market sector has attracted publishers, developers, animators, musicians, and content providers. This is despite the fact that less than 20% of India's total population own a mobile in India, compared to well over 50% in most European countries.