MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Motors Ltd (TAMO.BO), India's largest vehicles maker, on Sunday announced the launch in India of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, the marquee brands it bought from Ford Motors (F.N) last year.
Saying it was a momentous occasion for the company, chairman Ratan Tata said, "This is in keeping with our desire to extend the penetration of the brands in India."
The automobile firm, which controls about 60 percent of the world's fifth-biggest truck and bus market, will soon also be rolling out the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car.
Jaguar is launching the XF amd XK range of luxury coupes and convertibles in India starting at a price tag of 6.3 million rupees ($130,977) and going up to 9 million rupees.
Land Rover will initially be launching three vehicles including the Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery 3, with prices also starting at 6.3 million rupees but going beyond 9 million.
"The luxury car market in India is very small, but there is a huge opportunity there. It is growing fast and we expect it to grow fast over the next 5 to 10 years," said David Smith, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover.
"India is an important part of our plans for the future," said Mike Driscoll, managing director of Jaguar.
The luxury car segment in India is less than 1 percent of the total car market there.
On Friday Tata Motors posted its first loss in eight years at $520 million for the year to March 2009, with its Jaguar Land Rover unit reporting a loss of 306 million pounds ($504 million) in the 10 months of the fiscal year to March 2009, as a brutal global recession crippled car sales.
On the issue of loan guarantees for JLR, Tata said, "we are in discussions with the U.K. government on the loan guarantees and hopefully we will find a solution for it ... and our funding plan for JLR will progress."
The company is seeking guarantees for the 340 million pounds loan sanctioned by the European Investment Bank and other loans from U.K.-based commercial banks. It is seeking these funds to develop new and more fuel efficient cars for improving its competitive position.
"Sustaining the downturn is important for us ... and finding a solution (for the loan guarantees) is extremely important to us," Tata said.
He also said that if there was a large financial package from the U.K. government for Jaguar and Land Rover then, "there should be commensurate level of representation from them," which had to be negotiated and worked out.
Michael Jackson[King of POP](August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009). He was born August 28, 1958 - one of 9 kids. His father reportedly nicknamed him "Big Nose". Mike was born a cute African-American guy. "Normal", if you will, and very talented. Despite the current, sad stories about his lonely, sad childhood, Mike grew up surrounded by famous people and an adoring public. At age 5, Mike and his brothers were the amazing 'Jackson 5'. They played locally, then in New York and Philly. They were "discovered" by Gladys Knight and pianist Billy Taylor at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. By age 11, Mike was a Superstar. At age 13 he went solo and had his first #1 hit at 14 with "Ben" (a touching love song to a rat). Who knew he'd get addicted to plastic surgery, face accusations of child molestation and end up America's Most Famous Sideshow?
Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, his 1982 album Thriller remains the world's best-selling album of all time and four of his other solo studio albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995)
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller"—widely credited with transforming the music video from a promotional tool into an art form—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk.
At the time of his death, he was preparing for This Is It, a series of 50 concerts that would have been held in London beginning July 13, 2009.
Michael Jackson inINDIA (1996) Michael Jackson performed at a packed concert in MUMBAI on October 30th in 1996. . The event was organised by Shiv Udyog Sena, an outfit floated by then Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray with the objective of providing jobs to 27 lakh youth in maharashtra During his short stay here, life in Mumbai centred around MJ and his “stories”.
“King of Pop” played a breathtaking two-hour set and also invited children from local orphanages to his luxury hotel for a poolside party.
Actress Sonali Bendre welcomed Jackson by performing ‘aarti’ and applying ’tilak’ on his forehead, at the Mumbai airport The King of Pop, arrived in Mumbai on October 30th,1996 at Mumbai’s Sahar airport in his private jet.Lakhs of people had thronged the airport to catch a glimpse of him. Jackson was greeted by Sonali Bendre clad in a nine-yard sari and a Maharashtrian nathni (nose ring), standing with an aarti thali to welcome MJ, along with Raj Thackeray, Sharmila Thackeray and innumerable politicians who were there to receive Jackson. Actress Sonali Bendre welcomed Jackson by performing ‘aarti’ and applying ’tilak’ on his forehead, at the Mumbai airport,Raj had organised a performance by a troupe of lezhim dancers with dholaks, and they wore traditional Maharashtrian clothes. The popstar, when being driven in a 20-car motorcade from the air port, stopped his Toyota to meet the urchins lined up along the highway to catch a glimpse of him.He picked up several children and hugged and kissed them. He then spent a few minutes with them before he proceeded to the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray’s residence, Matushree, in Bandra East. Here he was presented with a silver tabla and tanpura, which are musical instruments from INDIA. **********************************************************************
MJ In Oberoi Hotel.
During his stay at The Oberoi Hotel, Jackson surprised the entire staff by mingling freely among his fans, who thronged at the hotel to catch a glimpse of the ‘King of Pop’. “He greeted his fans with smiles and by blowing kisses and shook hands with as many of them as possible,” hotel sources recount. According to Butler Manager, Sandeep Walia, who was attending to him with a team of three butlers, Michael loves sweet white wine. That is probably the only kind of alcohol that he consumed during his stay at the Oberoi. Apart from that, he loves orange drinks, Fanta being his favorite and a special German orange drink, Gatorade, which he carries with him. Michael drinks a lot of Diet Coke as well, prefers his drinks at room temperature. Jackson has a penchant for chocolates too, so The Oberoi made sure there were chocolates, of all shapes, sizes and flavours kept in every reachable corner of his room. Michael Jackson likes a lot of festivity around him. The Kohinoor Suite at the Oberoi was decorated with flowers, balloons, confetti and bowls of sweets and chocolates to give it a spirit of celebration. While in his room, Jackson does not like to use the air-conditioner. He also likes his space. His body-guards have been instructed not to come close to him to give him enough space to move around.
Prabhu deva going to meet the King of Pop - Michael Jackson
The ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson had a tryst with this celluloid city 13 years ago, when he mesmerised thousands of Mumbaikars with his performance at a concert. In this photo Jackson is seen with Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray.
Jackson performed at a packed concert in Mumbai in 1996. The event was organised by Shiv Udyog Sena, an outfit floated by then Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray with the objective of providing jobs to 27 lakh youth in Maharashtra. Jackson seen here with Bollywood actor Anupam Kher.
The popstar, when being driven in a 20-car motorcade from the air port, stopped his Toyota to meet the urchins lined up along the highway to catch a glimpse of him.
During his stay at The Oberoi Hotel, Jackson surprised the entire Oberoi hotel staff by mingling freely among his fans, who thronged at the hotel to catch a glimpse of the ‘King of Pop’.
Children from orphanages were invited to meet and play with him at a high tea organised at the hotel pool side. He gave them gifts and chocolates that he had brought with him.
The over two-hour long performance on November 1 at the Andheri Sports Complex was a spectacular event, with fans lapping up every moment. For the show, Jackson flew in equipment in three Russian cargo planes.
Jackson’s Mumbai tour had also triggered controversy with critics questioning Sena’s notions of culture.
Bal Thackeray responded the critics saying ”Jackson is a great artist, and we must accept him as an artist. His movements are terrific. Not many people can dance that way. You will end up breaking your bones. And, well what is culture? He represents certain values in America, which India should not have any qualms in accepting. We would like to accept that part of America that is represented by Jackson,” he had said.
After Michael Jackson had gone, when the hotel was preparing his suite for the next VVIP guest, they found Jackson’s gift to them: rather mischievously the great singer had scribbled on the pillow he had slept on
“India, all my life I have longed to see your face. I met you and your people and fell in love with you. Now my heart is filled with sorrow and despair for I have to leave, but I promise I shall return to love you and caress you again. Your kindness has overwhelmed me, your spiritual awareness has moved me, and your children have truly touched my heart. They are the face of God. I truly love and adore you India. Forever, continue to love, heal and educate the children, the future shines on them. You are my special love, India. Forever, may God always bless you”
originally written by Michael Jackson
Bharat Shah, jeweller and film-financier, bought the pillow for a fabulous amount in an auction held for charity.
Michael Jackson in Mumbai, India (30 oct.- 01 nov. 1996) History World Tour
We Indians will never forget your kind gesture to perform in india for charity and as we all know legends dont die.... Rest In Peace...King!
The Taj Mahal - India's most famous expression of love
Among the numerous gods of the Hindu pantheon, Kamadev is the lord of love.
He wields a bow of flowers.
Couples fall in love when struck by his rose-decorated arrows.
Valentine's Day is popular with young urbanites
India is also the home of the Kamasutra, the most elaborate treatise on lovemaking.
There are numerous folk tales of legendary lovers who kissed death with a promise to meet, or rather mate, in heaven.
These old tales are so lurid they make Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a pale afterthought.
Indians protesting against Valentine's Day celebrations make one wonder what has happened to the people who once sculpted the passionate love makers on the temple walls at Khajuraho.
That ancient tradition of love died somewhere in the Middle Ages.
No longer was it celebrated in public cultural displays.
Lovers were frowned upon.
Sexual suppression was severe and vehement.
Lovers who came from unequal castes were punished and even occasionally executed.
The tradition of Kamadev was buried and the lessons of the Kamasutra were forgotten - then, a decade ago, Valentine's Day began to make an impression in India.
Recent advent
Before that, hardly anyone celebrated Valentines Day in India.
Purists dubbed it as another decadent influence of the west.
But economic globalisation followed by the emergence of a class of neo-rich brought in a new a culture of fancy dinners and dance clubs, foreign satellite channels and expensive card shops.
Young Romeos are often demanding
Their clientele were the privileged few.
But millions of those who were unable to escape the grind of a meagre life could not be deprived of Valentine's universal gift of love.
Commercial TV channels invented special Valentine shows, dedications of love filled radio programmes and even love letter competitions were organised.
When Indians do something they tend to overdo it.
Weeks before Valentine's Day street Romeos reappear everywhere.
Many of them pretend to enact the Bollywood style boy-meets-girl stories that often degenerate into verbal abuse.
Tough love
Such harassment of women is a widespread problem in many parts of India.
Perhaps to lighten the social guilt it is rather imaginatively described as 'eve teasing'.
Pestering can take the shine off love
This kind of abuse becomes rampant in the days preceding Valentine's Day.
There is simply no escape for those girls uninfected by the love bug.
"It is virtually impossible to get out of your house before you find a love-struck class-fellow waiting for you. And you never know what they will do," said one of the harassed girls.
Sexual crimes are not uncommon in India.
Jilted lovers have strange ways of taking revenge: Verbal abuse, physical assaults, rapes, kidnappings and even throwing of acid and disfiguring a woman for life.
Sociologists have yet to come up with figures, but there is clear evidence that this abuse grows during the Valentine season.
People find ingenious ways to express love.
A few years ago a drunken thug, emulating a Bollywood film hero, arrived on horseback with a gun in his hand.
He fired a shot in the air and declared to the terrified father of the girl he fancied: "The bandit king has not come to destroy your house, but to marry your daughter and to shower prosperity on your house."
"A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other" Please don't be the fool...
India is in the midst of a catastrophic epidemic of smoking deaths, which is expected to cause about one million (10 lakh) deaths a year during the 2010s – including one in five of all male deaths and one in 20 of all female deaths at ages 30-69. On average, male bidi smokers lose about six years of life, female bidi smokers lose about eight years and male cigarette smokers lose about ten years.
The findings are from the first nationally representative study of smoking in India as a whole. The research, led by a team from India, Canada and the UK, is published online today (February 13, 2008)[1] in the New England Journal of Medicine.
About 900 field workers surveyed all adult deaths during 2001-2003 in a nationally representative sample of 1.1 million (11 lakh) homes in all parts of India. Researchers compared smoking histories of 74,000 adults who had died with 78,000 living controls.
Among men in the study who died at ages 30-69, smoking caused about:
38% of all deaths from tuberculosis (1,174 out of 3,119 deaths)
31% of all deaths from respiratory disease (1,078 out of 3,487)
20% of all deaths from vascular disease (1,102 out of 5,409)
32% of all deaths from cancer (709 out of 2,248)
23% of all deaths from disease (5,651 out of 25,290)
Lead author Professor Prabhat Jha of the Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR), St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Canada, said: “The extreme risks from smoking that we found surprised us, as smokers in India start at a later age than those in Europe or America and smoke less. And, smoking kills not only from diseases like cancer and lung diseases but also from tuberculosis and heart attacks.
In India, there are about 120 million (12 crore) smokers. More than one-third of men and about five per cent of women aged 30-69 smoke either cigarettes or bidis (which contain only about a quarter as much tobacco as a cigarette, wrapped in the leaf of another plant – temburni).
The study found that, among men, about 61% of those who smoke can expect to die at ages 30-69 compared with only 41% of otherwise similar non-smokers. Among women, 62% of those who smoke can expect to die at ages 30-69 compared with only 38% of non-smokers.
I am alarmed by the results of this study,” said India’s Health Minister Dr Abumani Ramadoss. “The government of India is trying to take all steps to control tobacco use - in particular by informing the many poor and illiterate of smoke risks”.
“It is truly remarkable that one single factor, namely smoking, which is entirely preventable, accounts for nearly one in ten of all deaths in India. The study brings out forcefully the need for immediate public action in this much neglected field”, states Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001.
The study found there were no safe levels of smoking, but while the hazards of smoking even a few bidis a day were substantial, the dangers of cigarette smoking were even greater, corresponding to more than a doubling of the risk of death in middle age. This suggests that cigarette smokers lose about 10 years of life compared to non-smokers – risks similar to those seen in the West.
“Smoking kills, but stopping works – about a quarter of all smokers will be killed by tobacco in middle age, unless they stop,” said co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University. “British studies show that stopping smoking is remarkably effective.”
Summary of key findings:
This is the first nationally representative study of smoking in India as a whole;
During the 2010s there will be about one million (10 lakh) tobacco deaths a year in India;
About 70% of these one million deaths will be before old age; meaning 700,000 (7 lakh) per year killed at ages 30-69 (600,000 men and 100,000 women);
Tobacco is responsible for 1 in 5 of all male deaths and 1 in 20 of all female deaths in middle age (i.e., at ages 30-69);
Men who smoke bidis lose on average six years of expected life, women who smoke bidis lose about eight years and men who smoke cigarette smokers lose ten years;
Smoking kills mainly by tuberculosis, respiratory and heart disease, but also by cancer;
Even smoking only a few (1-7) bidis a day raised mortality risks by one-third, and smoking only a few (1-7) cigarettes a day nearly doubled the risk;
Most of the gap between male and female mortality rates in middle age is due to smoking;
Substantial hazards were found both among educated and among illiterate adults and were found both in urban and in rural areas;
Stopping smoking works – but, only 2% of adults have quit in India, and often only after falling ill.
