Marketers Bank On Football Fever in India

New Delhi, Feb 1 : Football cafes that have sprung up around the country in the past couple of years are a symptom of the growing craze for football in a cricket-mad country.

The Manchester United Cafe Bar in South Delhi is so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Man United fans in red team jerseys stare at a six-foot-wide LCD screen, not daring to blink. Four minutes into the second half of the game against Newcastle, the score is still 0-0, and Wayne Rooney has a free kick. A Newcastle player blocks it, but Man United forward Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez strikes the rebound goalwards from 20 yards away. The crowd in the cafe goes wild, nearly drowning out the DJ's music.

This is a familiar scene at the football cafes that have sprung up around the country in the past couple of years, a symptom of the growing craze for football in a cricket-mad country. Man United was the first football club to start a cafe in India. It did this by tying up with the Mumbai-based Mirah Group, a 438.6 Rs 300-crore hospitality and real estate conglomerate.

"Manchester United approached us as they were looking for a reliable partner in India," says Gaurav Goenka, Director of the Mirah Group. After setting up the first cafe in Lower Parel, Mumbai, in 2009, it launched five more over the next 18 months in various parts of the country.

"Fans used to come to Lower Parel from as far as Mulund, so we started a cafe in Mulund," Goenka says.

On a big match day, the footfall in the Lower Parel club - the biggest of the six - is around 300 to 350, and the average turnover for each cafe is Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Football-themed bars and cafes are not the only symptom of India's new sports infatuation, nor is Man United the only player in the game. Many foreign football clubs are finding that merchandise does brisk business. According to Technopak Advisors, the size of the sportswear market in India is around Rs 1,300 crore, and it is growing at 15 per cent year-on-year. It grew from Rs 764 crore in 2006 to Rs 1,259 crore in 2010.

Adidas and Nike are the two major sellers of football merchandise in India. Nike sells Man United, Barcelona and Arsenal jerseys, and Adidas sells Chelsea and Liverpool. "Delhi and Mumbai are the major markets. The 14- to 19-year-old fans of Chelsea are a strong segment for us," says Tushar Goculdas, Director, Marketing & Sales, Adidas India.

In September 2011, during the friendly match between Argentina and Venezuela, held in Kolkata, Adidas did brisk business selling the blue-and-white striped jerseys of Argentina's national team. The star power of Argentine striker Lionel Messi no doubt helped sales.

"Football will be much larger than motorsports in India, no doubt," says Goculdas. That might explain why car makers are interested in sponsoring football. German club Bayern Munich played the Indian team on January 10, 2012, at the Audi Football Summit. This was also the farewell match for Sikkimese striker Baichung Bhutia.

"Audi is passionate about football, and proud to be associated with Bayern Munich," says Michael Perschke, Managing Director of the event's sponsor, Audi India. "We hope to attract and inspire the youth of India."

Could association with a club earn a company the hatred of fans of rival clubs? Bharat Bambawale, the Director, Global Brand, Bharti Airtel, does not think so. "A sports lover can love every sport," he says. "I don't think it goes to the level of hatred." Bharti Airtel is a sponsor of Man United.

Foreign clubs are also setting up official football academies in India to nurture talent and recruit for European leagues. Kolkata has kicked off the trend, with a Real Madrid Social and Sports Academy. The Real Madrid Foundation project started in April 2011. The academy - Real Madrid's first in Asia - is at a school in Kheadah village in South Kolkata. The Carnoustie Group, which has interests in real estate and hospitality and which is based in Noida, near New Delhi, has signed a deal with Liverpool Football Club to start an academy. When the deal was announced, Carnoustie Group Director Rajesh Malik said his company also planned to open cafes and lounges after the academy was set up.

"Football is getting more attention than ever," says Mahesh Ranka, an independent sports consultant based in Mumbai. "More and more people, especially youth, are drawn to it. Football merchandising is growing bigger." But he says companies need to think longterm, because Indian football talent is not developed and there is not enough.

Aliens Ignoring Earth?

Why aliens haven’t reached Earth yet?

Washington: If aliens exist, they should have reached our planet by now.

According to a new study, calculations indicate that either we are alone in the galaxy, or ET is ignoring us.

"We're either alone, or they're out there and leave us alone," the Discovery News quoted mathematician Thomas Hair, with Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers as saying. Hair based his estimate of what he believed to be extremely conservative estimates for how long it would take a society to gather the resources and technological know-how to leave its home world and travel to another star.

Even at the comparatively sedate pace of 1 percent of light-speed, the aliens would land at their nearest neighbour star in around 500 years. "They've either passed us by, or they stay around their home star systems and contemplate their navels," Hair said. There could be quite a lot of reasons why we are not listed in intergalactic Yelp.

Perhaps most important is that we do not have anything that aliens require. "Any ancient civilization is probably not biological. They don't need a place like Earth. They don't need to come here and steal our water. There's plenty of it out in the outer solar system where the gravity is not so great and they can just take all they want," Hair said.

Or maybe modern-day extraterrestrials are following routes laid out long ago, all of which bypass Earth, he added.

Manipur: Elections And Economic Reality

By Yambem Laba

Two hundred and seventy-nine candidates contested the elections to the 60 seats in Manipur's assembly. Their fate was sealed into ballot boxes on January 28 at 2,357 polling booths. The security arrangements involved 350 companies of paramilitary forces: seven booths for each company. Compare this to the Uttar Pradesh elections, spread over four weeks, where each paramilitary company has had to guard well over a hundred polling stations.

Before you begin to roll your eyes, look at another number: 36 militant groups are active in Manipur, perhaps the most on the planet for a geography of this size. It is no surprise then that the state has become hostage to bandhs, blockades and blackmail.

Every government servant in Manipur pays a portion of her salary to one of the militant groups every month. In many cases, it is deducted by their department's cashier. The consent of the militant groups is necessary for award of every government contract, so much so that these groups have designated Project Officers to deal with contracts. They collect 35 to 40 per cent of the estimated cost of projects. This throws the contractor's finances out of gear. Naturally, grass begins to grow on the roads within months of their construction.

The traders, for their part, are trying to recoup their capital and flee with it to neighbouring Guwahati, in Assam, or Siliguri, in West Bengal. Some Marwari traders are even returning to the land of their forefathers in Rajasthan.

Blockades and Bullets:

Mahendra Patni is a descendant of the first Marwari trader family to come to Manipur 120 years ago. He is a former president of the Manipur Chamber of Commerce, a traders' body which has shut shop. He says the chamber had no option but to wind up after the militants asked it to collect 'taxes' on their behalf from its members.

Labour is in short supply. The non-native workers, from Bihar and Odisha, have fled. Their options, too, were limited, since the militants were gunning for them in retaliation for the killing of their cadres by the army. So if you have a plumbing problem, you need to find a do-it-yourself (DIY) guide.

But no DIY book will help you escape the highway blockades. There have been three major ones in the last five years, the last of which lasted a crippling 150 days. Changanbam Boy, 38, runs a shop in suburban Imphal, selling cement and iron rods. He is losing customers because his cement costs Rs 550 a bag, against Rs 300 in Silchar or Bokajan in Assam. But Boy cannot reduce the price because his overheads pile up by the time the bags reach his shop: Rs 10,000 for every truck carrying iron rods and Rs 8,000 for a truck of cement to the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Swu-Muivah). This group controls National Highway No. 39, which connects the state with the rest of India. Boy also pays Rs 1 lakh to valley-based militant groups as an annual 'tax'.

Samarwal Agarwal, 60, came from Rajasthan 30 years ago and set up Manipur Steel Tubes, an iron and steel fabrication unit. He is not able to pay his workers' salaries on time because there is not enough money coming in. He does not get iron rods for days. When the trucks do come, he has to shell out a higher price. To make matters worse, there is no power and he has to buy diesel in the black market at Rs 100 a litre, against the official price of Rs 42, to run generators.

It is the same tale of woes that one hears from P.K. Jain, who manages Mangalam Pharmacy in Imphal's Paona Bazar (not enough supply) and Laishram Rajive Singh, who has a cycle shop (no cycles to sell). However, some Marwari traders make good in border trade what they lose in the state. Thiyam Suresh, alias Robert, is what is called a Moreh trader. His Sunrise Enterprises deals in Chinese goods - electronics to generators - coming from Moreh on the Indo-Myanmar border. According to him, the Marwari merchants, who control the border trade, have doubled their prices.

If the traders are bleeding, the farmers are not exactly in the pink of health . Thiyam Munindro Singh, 55, was forced to sell his tomatoes for Rs 2 a kg in Manipur. He wanted to take his harvest to Nagaland, where he would have got Rs 20 a kg, but the highway was blocked.

The last economic blockade, along National Highways 39 and 53, which lasted 150 days, was called by both the Kukis and the Nagas. The Kukis were demanding a district and the Nagas were opposing it. The Centre did not do much to end to blockade, although the Congress, which leads the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, is in power in the state. As for the state government, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi told reporters he did not believe in using force. Eventually, the blockade had to be ended by a Supreme Court directive to the Centre.

Though the blockade is off, you still have to wait for six months to get an LPG cylinder. If you want it sooner, you pay Rs 2,000 for it, five times the price at the official outlet. Petrol pumps open only for about half the day because they do not have enough to sell. If you are truly desperate, you can get some petrol for Rs 200 a litre, about three times the official price. For diesel, like Agarwal of Manipur Steel Tubes, you pay two and a half times. Kerosene has disappeared altogether.

Priced at Rs 22 a litre officially and at Rs 70 a litre in the black market, it may be yielding more profits for some by being used to adulterate petrol or diesel.

According to a top official of the state's Planning Department, Manipur's economy is one of "transferred gross domestic product" because it is dependent on central grants and aids. According to him, the blockades and bandhs have pushed construction costs up by 75 per cent. Plan funds leakage exceeds 40 per cent. The state received Rs 13,000 crore from the 13th Finance Commission for the next five years and a plan allocation of Rs 3,216 crore for 2011/12.

Bombs and Bluster:

During the election campaign, the usual suspects made their presence felt. A conglomeration of seven major militant groups, called the Coordination Committee - Cor Com for short - decided to oppose the Congress and rained grenades on its candidates' and workers' houses.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act continues to figure in the manifestoes of the parties. The BJP has promised to abolish it and improve law and order. The Congress says it has already done away with it in seven constituencies in the Imphal area and says it will abolish it elsewhere if law and order improves.

The Election Commission removed the Director General of Police, Y. Joykumar Singh, handpicked for the job by the chief minister, from his post. Complaints had been lodged by political parties that Singh was misusing his position. Activist organisations like the People's Campaign for Assembly elections organised rallies urging people to vote. There have been Facebook campaigns to prod voters to choose candidates who have raised issues of public, rather than private, interest.

Ibobi has been accused of trying to import dynastic politics from the rest of India; his wife is an MLA. Some observers say the Congress may still reap the benefits of a sympathy wave triggered by the militant attacks. In that case, Ibobi will do a Tarun Gogoi and, like the Assam Chief Minister, become CM for a third time. But among businessmen there is little optimism. "I expect no change, except for an individual or two. The rest of those standing for elections belong to the moneyed class and are in the fray for profit only," says Thangjam Joykumar, 53, the owner of Thangjam Agro Industries.

Assam Cop Runs 150 km in 24 Hrs En Route Guinness Records

Guwahati, Feb 1 : Assam Police constable Abhijeet Baruah today entered the Guinness Book of World Records by running barefoot more than 150km in 24 hours in Jorhat.

The 22-year old constable achieved the feat this afternoon at 3:43pm and ran 156 km and 200 m till 4:00pm.

The run was flagged off on Monday at 3:56pm by the Indian observer for the Guinness Book of World Records BK Chandrasekhar Tiwari at the approach to the Tarajan bypass on the western outskirts of Jorhat town.

The run concluded at the same spot from where it began and after Baruah completed it, he ran upto a nearby temple and offered his prayers before being whisked away to the hospital.

The route included running to and from along the Tarajan Bypass on the eastern outskirts 19 times, the distance from one flank to another being 10 km.

The route was marked every 100 metres in accordance with the guidelines of the global records body.
Tiwari, who also represents the Indian Book of Records, said, “The record will be first of its kind in the world, as the Guinness Book of World Records does not have any record of any individual running such a distance barefoot for twenty four hours.”

He said the entire documentation and video and still photo recordings of the event would have to be sent to the London-based headquarters of the organisation, which, after detailed analysis and study, will decide whether Baruah had actually made the cut or not.

Members of The Great Run Club, a body formed with Jorhat MLA Rana Goswami as president to promote the event, senior district administration officials and staff and police officials were also present on the occasion.

Policemen were deployed not only to control the crowd and regulate traffic, but also to egg on their colleague.

A vehicle accompanying the runner played music to encourage Baruah and keep him in good spirits.
“By the blessings of the almighty, my parents, friends, well-wishers like the club members and my department, I have been able to complete the run and make my country and state proud,” Baruah said.

Over 100 officials from government departments, sportsmen, lawyers, medical staff with an ambulance and another hundreds of volunteers were involved in recording the event and to assist Baruah in providing him with water, food or clothes during the run.

On 28 May last year, Baruah, who is also a black belt in karate and kickboxing, had attempted to enter the Limca Book of Records by covering 150km in 26 hours 31 minutes, which is still under consideration.

Repoll Likely in 33 Booths of Manipur

Imphal, Jan 31 : Repolling is likely to be held in 33 poll stations of Manipur's hill districts where suspected NSCN (I-M) cadres indulged in massive booth rigging.

A source said the state election office has recommended repoll at 9 booths of Ukhrul, 4 in Tamenglong, 8 in Senapati, 6 in Chandel and 6 in Churachandpur. A letter has been sent to the Election Commission for approval, he added.

On the other hand, reports of poll-poll violence are pouring in from several parts of the state. Life came to a grinding halt in Thoubal on Monday owing to a dawn-to-dusk bandh called by the state unit of CPI to denounce the killing of a woman in police firing to control a mob at Tentha village in the district on Saturday night. Many people were also injured.

The victims were supporters of CPI candidate M Nara Singh who contested from Wangjing-Tentha constituency.

Bandh supporters damaged a large number of vehicles in several parts of the district. Owing to the strike, business establishments at the district headquarters remained closed.

On Sunday morning, NSCN (IM) cadres shot and injured a Congress worker in Chingai constituency of Ukhrul district after abducted him. The victim has been identified as H Chingnaoleng. Later, an irate mob torched the residence of Naga People's Front (NPF) candidate Paul Muinao at Ukhrul district headquarters, a source said.

Chingnaoleng, who sustained bullet wounds, is undergoing treatment at the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) here.

In the meantime, chief electoral officer PC Lawmkunga has announced Rs 10 lakh ex gratia for the four polling personnel, including a presiding officer, who were killed in a shootout at Tampi police station in Chandel district during Saturday's polls. Besides the quartet, one CRPF jawan, a girl and a suspected NSCN (IM) cadre also died when the rebels tried to capture a booth.

Mizoram Economy Flourishing

Aizawl, Jan 31 : Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today said that due to the long 20-years insurgency, Mizoram could not join with its counterparts in respect of development in economy but with the help of various nationalised agency like NABARD, the state’s economy and development is on the path of improvement.

The chief minister was saying this while delivering a speech at the ‘State Credit Seminar for 2012-13’ organised by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Mizoram regional office in Aizawl today.

Lal Thanhawla Mizoram is rich in various natural resources which will greatly act as a catalyst in the improvement of the state`s economy. He also informed the gathering that his government will take necessary steps to materialise the points which are mentioned in the State Focus Paper prepared by NABARD.

State Credit Seminar 2012-13 is being organised to discuss State Focus Paper prepared by the NABARD for the upcoming year i,e,. 2012-13.

Lal Thanhawla while expressing concern for improvement of farmers said that agriculture credit flow should be introduced more extensively across the state so that each and every farmer enjoys the benefit. The chief minister also asked NABARD to introduce scheme for government flagship programme New Land Use Policy (NLUP) beneficiaries so as to make them successful in utilising the funds received through the programme (NLUP).

He further asked NABARD to continue giving credit support to various self help groups and give special attention to hand-loom sector. “NABARD should frequently organise awareness programme so that loan repayment will be more regular, he appealed. The present condition of loan repayment which stood at 63% is comparatively low,” said the chief minister.

It can be noted that NABARD is expanding its developmental initiatives for all round economic growth of Mizoram through various financial and promotional interventions.

India Ramps Up Ties With Myanmar, Thailand

By Jyoti Malhotra

New Delhi Jan 31 : The road from Moreh, a town on the Manipur-Myanmar border, to Imphal was used by the Japanese army in 1944 to come right inside the heart of British India’s north-east, even challenging the might of the empire.

For decades thereafter, the Imphal-Moreh road as well as other border roads in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were pretty much left to their own fate, as India deliberately ignored the development of border infrastructure, fearful of easing an enemy’s passage inside the country once it had broken through the frontier.

But as India revamps its mindset on border areas and begins to look at neighbouring states — such as Myanmar and Bangladesh — as part of a contiguous hinterland that must also participate in India’s economic growth, the first glimmer of a shift in South-East Asia’s balance of power is becoming slowly apparent.

Take the stream of visitors making their way to Delhi recently, in the run-up to India’s commemoration in December 2012 of its “Look-East policy” and its 20-year-old partnership with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean).

Vietnamese president Truong Tan Sang’s official visit last October was quickly followed by Myanmarese president Thein Sein, also in October. Last week, just as Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, arrived in the capital to attend the Republic Day parade, the first woman head of government in several decades, Myanmar foreign minister Maung Lwin was departing Delhi’s shores.

Interestingly, 2010’s chief guest at the Republic Day ceremonies was South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, while last year’s chief guest was Indonesian president Susilo Yudhoyono, the latter a key member of Asean.

Yingluck, whose closeness to her brother and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is an open secret, is a businesswoman, as well as married to one. She is expected to follow in Thaksin’s footsteps, which is to promote a CEO-like approach to governance, even though Thaksin, still a billionaire, remains in exile in London and Dubai.

That school of thought clearly struck a chord in Delhi last week, through the official dialogue as well as at her meeting with the industry associations. Annual India-Thailand trade currently touches $7.5 billion, but with Yingluck proposing greater Thai investment in India — in the hotel industry, in the food-and-vegetable cold chain — chances are that both countries will double their target by 2015.

Still, it was Yingluck’s offer to India to invest in an Italian-Thai joint venture that is seeking to build a world-class port and attendant infrastructure in the Dawei special industrial zone on Myanmar’s south-western coast, that has stirred the tea leaves in the region.

Dawei’s geographical location — on the isthmus that separates the Andaman Sea from the Gulf of Thailand — is so compelling that it has the potential to completely transform India’s relationship with Asean as well as East Asia.

Both Chennai and Kolkata are just across the Bay of Bengal, and both countries are already talking in terms of ramping up connectivity across this large lake by introducing ferries to Yangon, as well as Dawei.

As Myanmar emerges from its self-imposed isolation and reaches out to the world, and the world returns the compliment, Dawei could soon become a major stop on the maps of merchant ships.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Yangon and her announcement that the US would soon revoke sanctions on Myanmar (this is expected to happen once democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi participates in the April elections) is both a reaffirmation of the democratic spirit in Myanmar — as well as the US return to challenging China’s rising power in Asia.

In Clinton’s wake, from Pakistan to France, the world is beating a path to Myanmar’s door. Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari has been the most recent visitor, but dignitaries from France, UK and Australia have travelled both to its interior capital, Naypydaw, as well as paid obeisance to Suu Kyi in Yangon. Interestingly, Myanmar’s parliamentary speaker, Shwe Mann, told his Indian counterpart, Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar, as well as Indian officials during his visit here in December, that “India’s model of inclusiveness was a model for Myanmar.”

Myanmar’s foreign minister, Maung Lwin, reiterated the message last week, giving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a detailed account of Myanmar’s “planned and orderly commitment to reform,” both economic and political. Agreements with several dissident ethnic groups have been reached, he said, and discussions with those holding out, such as the Kachins, remain on the cards.

India’s trade and economic figures with Myanmar, at $1.25 billion, are low, especially when compared to Myanmar’s trade relationship with China, touching $4 billion. Myanmar exports natural resources, such as timber, and agricultural products such as kidney beans or ‘rajma’, to India, while India exports machinery, industrial equipment, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods.

Nevertheless, Delhi remains heartened by the fact that only days before Thein Sein came to India last October — he began his visit by paying his respects to Buddha’s shrine in Bodh Gaya — the Myanmarese cancelled a $3.6-billion dam that China was building in their country.

Thailand’s proximity means it is a natural player in Myanmar. Besides the Dawei investment, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported last week quoting the New Light of Myanmar, four foreign companies were forming a joint venture with three domestic companies to run a special economic zone in Pathein, in the Ayeyawady region, also in south-western Myanmar. Two of the four foreign companies are from Thailand, one from Hong Kong and the fourth from Indonesia.

Indian officials point out that strategic interest in Myanmar, as well as in the greater Asean region, can only be complemented by “greater Indian business interest. Indian companies should take advantage of the fact that India refused to kowtow to US pressure and withdraw from Myanmar. Now as Myanmar opens up, they have to be first off the mark,” one official told Business Standard.

Essar and ONGC Videsh are making money from their 20 per cent stake in an oil block off the Rakhine coast, officials point out, while a detailed project report on building a 1,200-Mw project on the Chhindwin river is almost ready.

Officials say they hope the private sector will make use of India’s $500-million credit announced during Thein Sein’s visit to improve ties with Myanmar.

Delhi’s intention to expand its presence in the region is at last showing on the ground. Finally, 132 km of a beautiful, road from Moreh, the Manipuri border town, and across the border to Mandalay, as well as the last 165-km stretch to Mandalay has been built.

With the Thais also building their share of the stretch from Myanmar, the trilateral highway between India, Myanmar and Thailand could soon put India’s neglected north-east in the heart of Asean’s action.

Hmar Students Vows To Stop Tipaimukh Dam 'At Any Cost'

Silchar, Jan 30 : Hmar Students Association (HSA), a powerful student's body in Manipur, has threatened to stop the implementation of proposed 1500 MW Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydro-electric Project near the Manipur-Mizoram border, 500 metre downstream from the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers "at any cost".

Talking to a group of Silchar and Dhaka-based journalists at Tipaimukh village in Churachandpur district of Manipur, nearly 140 km from here, the HSA activists, who were visibly angry with the government and those supporting the proposed 162.80 metre-high rockfill dam, said they are ready to give their blood, but they would not allow the dam to be contructed in their village.

"We have been on an awareness drive in the six or seven villages adjacent to Tipaimukh against the ills of the dam. The villagers are on a constant vigil to stop any officials from visiting of the project site in this area. Although there's no sign of the project here till now, we are leaving no stone unturned to stop it," said Ringa Khabru, a member of HSA.

The Hmar students' activists said if the dam is constructed here, thousands of tribal people will lose their habitats and livelihoods. "They will lose everything - the traditional land, culture, economy and the nature surrounding us. We don't have faith in the promises of rehabilitation made by the government. We believe that the governments both at the Centre and in Imphal understand our sentiment and will not come forward to implement the project," an HSA activist said.

The Tipaimukh hydro-electric project is set to be implemented as a joint venture with the equity participation of the NHPC and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVNL). The MoEF cleared the project on October 10, 2008.

Work for forest clearance is in progress while the completion cost of the project is estimated at Rs 9,211 crore. The project was expected to take 87 months for completion and would come up during the 12th five year plan.