Category Archives: Business & Economy

‘Hunsur-Gonikoppa road will be made motorable by Nov’.

Business & Economy

New promise by new Minister Ranjan

Caption: Minister Appachu Ranjan and his wife Shyla having breakfast at the Government Guest House in Hunsur this morning.

Hunsur, July 13
The Hunsur-Thithimathi-Gonikoppa road, which is in a pathetically unmotorable condition, will be made motorable on a priority basis and completed by Nov. 2012, said the newly sworn-in Minister Appachu Ranjan.

Ranjan, who made a brief halt at the Government Guest House here for breakfast this morning while on his way home in Kumboor village near Madapura town in Kodagu, told Star of Mysore that he was aware of the bad condition of the road which linked Kerala and assured to take it up on a priority basis. Ranjan was accompanied by his wife Shyla Appachu.

Heritage site tag for Western Ghats: Regarding yesterday’s Kodagu bundh in opposition to the UNESCO proposal for World Heritage site tag for the Western Ghats, Ranjan said that he was very much against such a move. “The people of Kodagu have been protecting the environment since centuries. The concept of Devakaadu (sacred groves) in Kodagu stands testimony to this. Rest of the world must take a cue from the people of Kodagu to live with nature,” said Ranjan.

Regarding the development activities to be taken up in State, Minister Appachu Ranjan said that the biggest challenge before them was to mobilise resources for the Rs. 1,03,000 budget proposals made recently and expressed confidence of attaining the same, though there were only 11 months of term left for the BJP government.

“I am aware that the people’s sentiments are hurt because of the party leaders’ infights and I beg pardon for the same. We will henceforth set aside all such differences and strive for the State’s development,” the Minister assured.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / July 13th, 2012

Rs. 5-crore for development of Bhagamandala, Talacauvery

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

Imposition of dress code for those visiting the two temples sought

Cauvery Neeravari Nigama has released Rs. 5 crore for the development of Bhagamandala and Talacauvery pilgrim centres in Kodagu, according to information received here on Friday.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly K.G. Bopaiah, who presided over a meeting to chalk-out programmes for the development of these pilgrim centres at Bhagamandala on Thursday, told the Bhagamandala-Talacauvery Temple Management Committee headed by Manu Muthappa to have a long-term plan and utilise funds effectively.

Work should not affect the originality or sanctity of the temples in both places, he said.

Mr. Bopaiah elicited views of members of the Bhagamandala gram panchayat, prominent citizens of the district, including president of the Kodagu Zilla Panchayat Ravi Kushalappa.

He asked chief architect of the Public Works Department Udaya to prepare a blueprint for the development of the two pilgrim centres in tune with the religious sentiments of the people.

Objection

There had been an objection by the auditors to the renovation of the temples using nigama funds earlier, he said. Funds should not be diverted for temple renovations any longer.

Instead, funds must be utilised for work such as construction of a yatri nivas, food distribution choultry, construction of retaining wall, and removing silt from Triveni Sangama at Bhagamandala, Mr. Bopaiah said.

Dress code for pilgrims could be introduced at the twin pilgrim centres henceforth to maintain the sanctity of the temples, Mr. Bopaiah said.

Demand

This followed a demand by some prominent citizens from Bhagamandala and other places of Kodagu.

According a source, people, including women, could not visit the temples scantily dressed.

Mr. Bopaiah said the Bhagamandala-Talacauvery Temple Management Committee would take a decision in this regard.

Mr. Kushalappa said that Bhagamandala and Talacauvery should remain as pilgrim centres and not as picnic spots.

New road

Mr. Bopaiah said NABARD had provided Rs. 1.4 crore to construct a one-way road from Bhagamandala to Talacauvery. Besides, the road from Karada to Bhagamandala would be developed for which tenders had been invited.

The height of the bridge across Napoklu-Bhagamandala road would be raised.

Mr. Muthappa said Rs. 80 lakh would be provided for the “anna santarpane kendra” (free food distribution centre) in Bhagamandala. The committee would identify a site for its construction soon.

Steps would be taken to video record the jewellery of Bhagamanadala and Talacauvery temples through the Department of Endowments (Muzrai).

Development plans at Bhagamandala, included protecting the sanctity of Triveni Sangama, quarters for priests and staff of the committee, development of the spot where devotees offered “pinda”, and entrance arch, among others.

Plan

There was a plan to relocate the meat stalls and non-vegetarian hotels to the periphery of Bhagamandala town for which the committee would seek people’s cooperation, Mr. Muthappa said.

In-charge Deputy Commissioner K.M. Chandre Gowda, Superintendent of Police Manjunath Annigeri, and Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat Anjanappa attended the meeting.

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PWD chief architect told to prepare a blueprint
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Rs. 1.4 crore to construct a one-way road from Bhagamandala to Talacauvery
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source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Staff Correspondent / Mysore, June 30th, 2012

Rs 1,000 crore investment in Kodagu to boost tourism

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

Madikeri:

The recent Global Investors Meet in Bangalore is expected to benefit the Malnad district of Kodagu.

Asia Pacific Industries Ltd has come forward to invest Rs 1,000 crore in the district, an industrially backward district in Karnataka.

Speaking to TOI, the company director Vignesh confirmed that the company will invest in tourism. The schemes will be implemented under mini-hydel projects and will provide an impetus to tourism centres in Kodagu.

Vignesh said Kodagu, which was attracting more tourists, needed more facilities .

The state government has also given a green signal for these projects, Vignesh said.

The projects will be implemented in Madikeri, Virajpet and Somwarpet districts on priority basis. During the implementation of these projects, environment will not be disturbed, he assured.

Meanwhile, establishment of homestays and food processing units are also planned. The hydel projects will solve the power scarcity in the district, Vignesh analyzed.

Preference will be given to unemployed youths in the district during new appointments, he added.

Virajpet MLA and speaker K G Bopaiah and Madikeri MLA Appachu Ranjan have been encouraging investors to invest in Kodagu.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Collections> Tourism / by G Rajendra / TNN / June 12th, 2012

MGNREGS: Kodagu achieves 101 per cent progress

Agriculture, Business & Economy

By completing 2,073 work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the district has achieved 101 per cent progress in implementing the scheme, said Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer N Krishnappa.

The work taken up under MGNREGS include road—367, flood control —348, watershed projects —405, drought control measures—199, minor irrigation—149, SC/ST sub work—144, irrigation work—176, land development work—221, Bharath Nirman work—12.
As many as 494 work were taken up in Madikeri taluk, 963 work in Virajpet and 714 in Somwarpet.

Suvarna Grama scheme

Under Suvarna Grama scheme, a sum of Rs five crore has been utilised so far. In the first and third phase, of 37 work related to road, drains, community centre and anganwadi centres, 33 work has been completed. The remaining four work are under progress.
Drinking water schemes

A sum of Rs 14.24 crore was released to take up work related to drinking water during 2011-12. The work has been completed in 150 village. As many as 113 work are under progress.

Mukhyamanthri Gram Sadak Yojana

The Chief Executive Officer said all weather road was developed in 139 villages in three taluks of the district by the end of March.

The roads were developed at an estimated cost of Rs 8.40 crore. Under special grant, more than 1,000 km road has been developed and asphalted in the district.
The work on 15 roads were developed under Nabard scheme at an estimated cost of Rs 139 lakh.

Tax collection

The 98 gram panchayats in Kodagu district has collected tax of Rs 412.94 lakh and has achieved 92 per cent progress. This includes Madikeri—47.92 lakh, 139.37 lakh in Somwarpet and 225.70 lakh in Virajpet.

A sum of Rs 119.19 lakh has been collected as water tax in 98 gram panchayats and has achieved 82 per cent progress, said the Chief Executive Officer.

source: http://www.DeccanHerald.com / Home> District / DHNS, Madikeri , June 03rd, 2012

Bank’s trust to open 10 centres in State

Business & Economy

The Gramina Abhyudaya Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Trust, sponsored by the Corporation Bank, plans to open 10 centres in the State.

Managing trustee of the trust T.V. Bhat told presspersons on Tuesday that the centres would come up at Channapatna, Magadi, Kanakapura, Belur, Periapatna, Jamkhandi, Savadatti, Ranebennur, Jagalur, and Tirthahalli. During the current year, the trust would focus on providing financial education in rural areas with the help of government departments and banks. It would also provide preventive counselling on loans up to Rs. 1 lakh for new borrowers.

The trust had opened district-level financial literacy centres at Chikmaglur, Madikeri, Ramanagar, and Udupi. It had opened block-level centres at Amethi in CSM Nagar district of Uttara Pradesh, Gonikoppa, Sagar, Honnavar, and Somwarpet in Karnataka. In all, nine centres had been opened, he said. The Corporation Bank was presently meeting the expenses of the trust. The counsellors of the trust counselled 2,085 borrowers about the proper use of loans . As per the directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), each FLCC trust had to open centres in all the blocks of the lead districts. This trust was the first in the country to open FLCC centres in all blocks of Kodagu , Mr. Bhat said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / News> Cities> Mangalore / by Hindu Staff Correspondent / Udupi, April 18th, 2012

MUSHKY the uberclass Men’s Wear Launched in Delhi Today

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

— Ace cricketer and youth icon Irfan Pathan to be the Brand Ambassador for MUSHKY
— Girls skip the heartbeats with Zulfi Syed joining the ramp

MUSHKY the new definition of uberclass men’s wear was launched at Ansal Plaza in Delhi today amidst a jam packed audience. The new launched brand is all set to create a niche for itself in the ready to wear apparel market in India. MUSHKY is a premium range of clothing for men that redefine the style with its wide spectrum of range of formal and semi-formal, casual and denim wear.

The brand was launched with a fashion show amidst a jam packed audience at the Ansal Plaza who crowded the place to catch a glimpse of ace Indian Cricketer and Delhi Daredevil Irfan Pathan. The crowd cheered Irfan as he walked down the alley wearing premium collection from MUSHKY. Speaking on the occasion Mr. Mir Shahiruddin, Managing Director, Green Ray Group said “India is witnessing an increasing demand for ready to wear clothing. Although there are a number of men’s wear brand present in India, there has been a dearth of product innovation in the segment. MUSHKY is going to redefine the men’s wear fashion by bringing in innovation right from the fabric to the styling of each product for different purpose.”

MUSHKY would be available to the discerning audiences at the exclusive brand outlet in Ansal Plaza which will be opened to public from tomorrow. The flagship brand of Green Ray Group will offer unique fabric selection crafted from 100% Egyptian Giza cotton considered to the finest cotton around the world. Looking at the promising potential for the brand in India, management is in view to open approx. 100 similar exclusive outlets at major metros and mini metros across India this year itself.

The fashion show led launch of MUSHKY also witnessed famous model cum actor Zulfi Syed walking down the ramp wearing MUSHKY range making many a girls skip their heart beats. Performance of various hit numbers by a budding rock and roll band from Delhi kept the audiences swaying on their feet throughout the evening creating the perfect ambience for the brand launch.

source: http://www.BusinessWireIndia.com / source: MUSHKY / Thursday, April 12th, 2012

Vivek Madappa of ‘Humming Bird’ lectures at Harvard

Business & Economy, Records, All


Caption: Vivek Madappa with his twin brother Vinod Thimmaya.
Mysore, Apr. 11
P.B. Vivek Madappa, proprietor of Humming Bird Suites Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore, visited Harvard University in the US to give a lecture on ‘Entrepreneurship: Opportunities and Challenges’ on Mar. 24 and Mar. 25.

Perhaps Madappa is the first person from the Kodava community to give a lecture at Harvard.

Madappa obtained his MBA degree from Mumbai’s Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) after completing his engineering. He worked in several well-known companies and his last assignment was at Kolkata as General Manager TATA Tea (Marketing Dept).

He quit the job and along with his twin brother P.B. Vinod Thimmaya, who is also a B.Ed. MBA graduate, started their own innovative hospitality business called Humming Bird Suites Pvt. Ltd. in Nov. 2005 that offers corporate executives, affordable accommdation alternative to the expensive star hotels in major cities in India.

They won the prestigious Emerging India Award-2009 for travel and tourism, instituted by CNBC-TV18 and powered by CRISIL. Humming Bird is one among the seven winners out of the three lakh applications received by CNBC under seven business categories.

The company has tie-ups with 70 companies like IBM, CISCO, DELL, SAP, American Express, etc. It has 300 apartments across 22 properties in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon.

Madappa and Thimmaya are the sons of Puttichanda Belliappa and late Ponnu Belliappa.

Star of Mysore had published a report about the brothers and their innovative enterprise on Jan. 15, 2010.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / April 11th, 2012

Wake up, smell the filter coffee

Business & Economy, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg

Radhakrishnan M with co-founder and wife A Chithra

Fully automated vending machines that serve freshly brewed authentic filter coffee, that’s the business Aromas of Coorg is into. In conversation with co founder Radhakrishnan M.

Origins
After lucrative careers in the corporate world, my wife Chithra and I had the urge to start something on our own. We are from Coorg and have been into coffee cultivation for more than three decades. Aromas of Coorg was born in 2009. Four factors made our idea into a company – our passion for entrepreneurship, our son, our roots from Coorg and our corporate exposure.

Elevator Pitch
We bring the authentic filter coffee experience to businesses at an affordable cost and with modern technology-inspired machines.

Gameplan
We offer end to end turnkey solution for corporate vending (small, medium, large), corporate conferences, tradeshows etc. Our service is a plug-n-play model, where we provide the finest coffee of your choice, equipment, service and maintenance. We also provide services to hotels, hospitality segment and home delivery facility within city limits. We work both on variable and a fixed pricing model where clients can pay based on usage or based on usage plus a fixed monthly costs. Our USP is our focus on technology. Our vending machine is the first its kind and is fully automated to serve freshly brewed authentic filter coffee and freshly brewed tea by simply pressing a button. Our coffee is a blend of six varieties of finest coffees beans hand-picked from our own cultivation. We are shortly launching first of its kind coffee vending machines with both hot and cold options in the same machine. Our vending machines will be the first of its kind to adopt Micron filtration and UV purification technology to purify the water. This means you can even use tap water.

The Challenges
Differentiation. The wave of western form of coffee was so popular that everybody wanted cappuccino, espresso, latte, etc. Also in scaling and maintaining levels of service and quality.

Reward: Fame, Money, Thrill?
Adrenaline rush and the satisfaction that you control your destiny.

Start-up-to-date

Company: Aromas of Coorg
Domain: Beverage solutions
Founder: A Chithra Uthappa, Radhakrishnan M
Founded in: 2009
Funding: Bootstrapped. Mentored by Vaibhav Tewari

source: http://www.BangaloreMirror.com / Home> Columns> Ideas Factory> Story / by Manu Prasad / March 22nd, 2012

Budget 2012: It’s time to wake up and smell the good brews

Business & Economy, Coffee News, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), , , , , , , , , ,

The coffee business will get an impetus from the reduction in basic customs duty from 7.5% to 5% on specified coffee plantation and processing machinery. Some say it could even encourage home-brewing of coffee.

Coffee growers, brewers, grinders, roasters, processors, curers and retailers will now be able to import machinery and equipment at a lower cost. It will allow more farmers to import farming equipment like weed cutters, berry pluckers, grading and cleaning machines, sprayers and other plantation machinery. Coffee retailers may be able to import coffee dispensers, vending machines, blenders, shakers etc at a lower cost.

Anil Bhandari, president of the India Coffee Trust, said most of these equipment are imported now and therefore the cut in import duty will give a boost to the coffee landscape in general.

Marvin Rodrigues, chairman of Karnataka Planters’ Association, said the reduction in import duty would complement Coffee Board’s mechanization scheme. “The board has been pushing for mechanization, taking cognizance of the acute labour shortage and wide-spread labour migration in the plantation industry. The only way to survive is to introduce mechanization,” he said.

Bose Mandanna, member of the Coffee Board and a large coffee planter from Coorg, said any reduction in import duty would benefit the entire coffee eco-system, be it growers, roasters, curers or retailers.

The coffee culture in India is becoming stronger. The country’s per capita coffee consumption now is 100 grams, up from just 60 grams three years ago. In England it is 9 kilograms, and in the US 5.5 kg.

“Coffee consumption is growing at 40% per annum in northern states, where it has not been the traditional beverage. The favorable duty structure will also help kick start a home-brewing culture. If coffee brewing machines are available in the Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 range, many households will be interested in them. Currently they are well over Rs 10,000,” said Bhandari.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Business> Budget 2012> Union Budget / TNN / March 17th, 2012

Energy: Madikeri CMC chooses unconventional path

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Science & Technology

Windmill installed to tackle power crisis

The government has been supporting the production of electricity through unconventional sources of energy like solar and wind power.

Madikeri CMC has found an unconventional way of overcoming erratic supply of power. A windmill has been installed on the CMC premises to generate electricity.

Madikeri town is 4,000 metre above the sea level. As a result the wind factor would be constant in Madikeri. With this, the CMC expects to slash down its electricity bills.

The idea of windmill originated two years ago and the 2.1 kv windmill started functioning from that time. It provided electricity to light up few bulbs in the CMC building.
As the demand for electricity increased, the CMC has decided to install three to four windmills at a cost of Rs 47.50 lakh under Chief Minister’s Small and Medium Town Development Scheme.

It has been planned to produce 5.1 kv electricity from each windmill. The CMC office requires 5 kv electricity daily. Two windmills have already been installed near the CMC office. The authorities have planned to install another windmill near water filter house at Stone Hill. The final decision has not been taken, said CMC commissioner N M Shashikumar.

CMC president H M Nandakumar said: “The CMC pays Rs 50 lakh as electricity bill annually. The windmill will help to reduce the electricity bill. At the same time, there is no question of disruption in power supply.”

The work on installing windmill will be taken up at the earliest, said the commissioner

source: http://www.DeccanHerald.com / Home> District / by Srikanth Kallammanavar / Madikeri, DHNS / March 14th, 2012