Akhil Agrawal

New Face of IPL 3

2010-03-14T23:49:00.002+05:30

Four matches gone by in IPL 3 and all the Four matches have ended in last over. That’s the beauty of the game and the format.

However, let’s look at what IPL 3 has brought into picture.

Youtube – Stuck @ Office and not able to catch the live action of IPL? What about watching it live in your office laptop? YouTube will broadcast all matches through a dedicated channel at youtube.com/ipl. YouTube claims that this is the first major sporting event to be streamed across the globe. Though the webcast will come with a five minute delay, it shouldn’t matter to cricket fans who can’t get access to TV. One more advertising and revenue source for IPL.

Live @ UK - ITV, the oldest television network in the United Kingdom, has been awarded the exclusive broadcasting rights for DLF-IPL III on its free-to-air service. UK is the biggest market for cricket outside India and the IPLs is making a concerted effort to reach them through ITV. Interestingly, it is for the first time since 1970s that ITV will show live cricket. Coverage will be presented by Bollywood actress and presenter Mandira Bedi.

Club Lounge - Don’t just watch cricket, savour it — that’s the Indian Premier League’s pitch this season. It has added luxury to cricket and glamour, attempting to establish a new, lucrative revenue stream: hospitality.

The IPL has launched an ambitious hospitality initiative called Club Lounge. Reported to be the brainchild of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s daughter Poorna Patel, the scheme offers well-to-do fans five-star hotel stays, rides in chauffeur-driven luxury sedans, and an opportunity to rub shoulders with star cricketers and the who’s who of the glamour world .

The offer comes at a hefty price — patrons will have to cough up between Rs 50,000 (for a single match) and Rs 22 lakh (for the full package of 60 games).

UFO Moviez – UFO Moviez – The world’s largest digital satellite cinema network introduced a new platform to view and enjoy cricket matches. UFO will now show the DLF IPL 2010 matches LIVE on gigantic screens in multiplexes & single theatres all across India in High Definition format without advertisments. UFO will be showing matches live in over 1,000 theatres across the country.

To make the theatre atmosphere like the stadium, there will be cheer leaders, cinema jockey and celebrities visiting theatre during the intervals. Theatres will have cricket-related merchandises, exciting gifts, multi cuisine food stalls and live bands in some places.

Sidhuism – After a long break, Mr. Navjot Sidhu (Sherry) is back with his witty gyan on all aspects of Cricket. Set Max has got him for the Xtra Innings show and Times Now has signed him for the expert commentary on their channel.

Mongoose Bat – Hayden has signed up with bat-maker Mongoose, which had developed a unique bat specially designed for T20 cricket. The bat features a bigger sweet-spot and a long handle. The Mongoose bat has a longer handle and smaller blade with a bigger sweet spot than the conventional cricket bat. It’s blade is 33 percent shorter than the regular blade and the handle is 43 percent long than the regular handle. But its quicker ‘swing’ and the `power’ with which the ball sails after connecting the sweet spot makes it a ‘lethal weapon.’.

IPL Nights – There will be an “IPL Nights” featuring “the hippest parties” and “the hottest fashion shows”, where viewers will see their “sporting heroes shake a leg or two on a different pitch altogether”. Arjun Rampal and Mehr Jessia have tied up with IPL 3 to organise parties and fashion shows after every match. That would mean a total of 55 parties and 55 fashion shows!

ICL Players Amnesty – BCCI announced an “amnesty” for all Indian players associated with the ICL, who can return to official cricket provided they cut all ties with the unofficial league.

Domestic players like Abhishek Junjunwala, Rohan Gavaskar, Reetinder Sodhi, Amit Uniyal, Hemang Badani, R Satish and Ambabati Rayadu, all off who have now terminated their contracts with the ICL are playing in this IPL. Also are foreign players like Justin Kemp & Shane Bond.

Tie-up with Colors – COLORS will launch a series of entertainment shows around IPL and IPL players that will not only play out during the 45 day IPL 2010 Season, but in the post season as well.

Colors, the current market leader in Hindi television entertainment, is creating four IPL-related shows—dance and music reality show Rockstar, the IPL Awards Night, IPL Parties on MTV and IPL Khatron Ke Khiladi.

The 13-episode Rockstar will feature winners from earlier talent hunt shows and will be judged by singers Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher. Bollywood celebrities and IPL franchisee owners Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty will take turns to be the third judge, adding to the glamour quotient of the show.

Colors will also broadcast the IPL Awards Night honouring cricketers for their performance on the field.

The third show, created around glamourous after-match parties every night, will be telecast by Viacom 18’s youth entertainment channel MTV. The channel will telecast at least 40 parties and entertainment events such as fashion shows and music concerts organized for IPL franchises. Karbonn Mobiles is the sponsor for this.

IPL Khatron Ke Khiladi will feature cricketers performing stunts later in the year.

Kindness & Social Work – Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, the goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS in India, will create awareness against AIDS along with the members of her IPL team Kings XI Punjab. Kings XI Punjab will donate 25 percent of the profit they will earn from selling their merchandise to UNAIDS.

The single largest environmental awareness campaign in the Indian subcontinent, Batting for the Environment is a partnership between the IPL and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Led by UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Sachin Tendulkar, team captains from the Deccan Chargers to the Kolkata Knight Riders made a Green Pledge to save the planet at the opening ceremony

‘Mumbai Indians’ raises funds for underprivileged children. Just like American cycling legend Lance Armstrong did for cancer victims in 2004, the Mumbai Indians is selling blue silicone wristbands signed by Tendulkar and other greats from the team that say ‘Education For All’

Innovative Marketing – MRF has joined the Indian Premier League (IPL) bandwagon. It is sponsoring the Blimp in a deal worth Rs 150 million a year. The Blimp is a balloon that floats over the stadium. This is the first time that the Blimp will be a part of the IPL.

Zoo Zoo – This time, the characters in white will move out of Zoozoo land to forests, deserts and even space as they showcase Vodafone Essar’s products and services during one of the most keenly watched cricketing events of recent times. Vodafone is ready with 29 new Zoozoo adfilms executed by advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather.

Social Media - What is interesting is that the overall buzz about IPL in social media is almost twice as high in 2010 compared to last year. KKR is the most discussed team online, both in 2009 and 2010. However, Kings XI Punjab has overtaken Rajasthan Royals as the second most discussed team in social media this year, followed by Deccan Chargers.

Amongst players, Ricky Ponting is the most discussed IPL player online, both last year and in 2010. Sachin was a distant second last year but is almost neck-and-neck with Ponting this year, followed by Dhoni who is the third most discussed player by cricket fans in both years. Kevin Pietersen was fourth in 2009; however he has been overtaken by Virender Sehwag this year.

For more cricket stories, Visit http://pankajdixit.in/ - My friend Pankaj Mohan Dixit's awesome site.

My name is ENTREPRENEUR!!

2010-02-14T00:44:00.003+05:30

8 months down the entrepreneur lane - I just wanted to share a few thoughts about business.

Business was in my blood, rather in my name. I had been thrown out of MBA interviews for my so called bania nickname "AGRAWAL", people make quick assumptions that AGRAWALs can't become MBAs or rather Agrawal MBAs don't contribute to the MBA world as they won't do job for long. Go, tell those b******s; MBA is not all about job. Its about the mindset of handling things around with a broad mindset.

The day I decided I will do business leaving my cozy KPO job @ Bangalore, I was on a verbal fight with my father - the person I have never said NO in life. But then, when it came to BUSINESS, I was on a different mode altogether. While leaving my job, I was touched by my boss' words - "Akhil, Please contact me when your company goes for an IPO".

And today, I know I am nowhere near to my GOAL, but the HOPE is alive. But then, sitting alone; I was wondering, what is the GOAL?? How do I achieve it?? What I need to do for the fulfilment of the same?? Am I on the right path??

Can you help me defining the GOAL? and suggest ways to reach for it?

(N.B. - The title of this post of the blog has nothing to do with any terrorist group and was just intended to grab eye-balls :P)

Orissa – A land of opportunities

2008-08-01T20:21:00.006+05:30

I thought of writing something on Orissa, as people around me haven’t known much about it. Some think its one of the north-eastern states – I was really surprised when my friends used to call me Assamese (they used to think Assam is just next to Orissa). And my friends at Delhi used to think Orissa is South India.

Confusion about its location is just the beginning of the problem. People perceive Orissa as a land of famine, malnutrition, problems here and there. And it becomes worse when I say I was born in Bolangir, part of the KBK (Kalahandi–Bolangir–Koraput) trio, infamously known as “country’s hunger zone”.

While the state government is leaving no stone unturned to make the state a new destination for industrial investment, the ghost of KBK still casts an overpowering shadow on the development potential Orissa holds.

To substantiate my point, I would quickly take you through some of the lesser-known facts about Orissa.-

Bhubaneswar, the State capital, is the 2nd best planned city in the country after Chandigarh. Anybody can fall in love with the wide roads and greenery within the city. It is a power surplus State (yes you read it right I said SURPLUS); the first in the country to initiate reforms & privatize the sector. It also sells power to its neighboring states.

Orissa is also called the mining hub of India, According to All India Mineral Resources Estimates, If you look at the total deposits of minerals such as chromite, nickel, cobalt, bauxite and iron-ore, more than 50% (and in some cases even 90%) of these deposits are in Orissa. I never knew Orissa was so rich still wonder why it is called one of the poorest states.

IT Sector

After the IT –BPO boom in cities like Bangalore and Delhi, Orissa is coming up in a big way as the preferred location for many of India's topmost IT firms like Satyam, TCS, MindTree Consulting, Hexaware Technologies, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Infosys which have large branches in Orissa. IBM, Syntel, Bosch and Wipro are setting up development centers in Orissa. Two of the S&P CNX 500 conglomerates - National Aluminum and Tata Sponge Iron have corporate offices in Orissa.

There are some upcoming IT parks in Orissa. Major are ‘Info Park’ - creation of 4.2 million square feet of built-up space, to be developed by DLF and accorded SEZ approval. And ‘Knowledge Industry Township’ - 784 acres integrated township located 15 kms from Bhubaneswar, to comprise an SEZ, residential, educational, commercial areas and business zones which will be extended to 1500 acres in Phase-I and 4000 acres to be further added in phase-II.

Education

Education industry has become the sunrise sector of Orissa. It is now the hub of engineering, management and medical education in Central & Eastern India. With the presence of large number of highly ranked schools like NIT Rourkela, KIIT Bhubaneswar, IIIT Bhubaneswar, UCE Burla (talks on for making it an IIT) and XIM Bhubaneswar. Also Orissa has around 18 Medical colleges with AIIMS coming up with a campus at Bhubaneswar. Some new Institutes like BIT, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology are also coming up.

Students from Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, M.P., etc flock to Orissa for higher education and this is not limited to big cities like Rourkela & Bhubaneswar, a town called Bargarh (where I stay now) – with a population of not more than 90000, has a school which has a total intake of 3000 students of which more than 50% are not from Orissa.

Tourism

Orissa has several popular tourist destinations. Puri, with the Jagannatha's temple near the sea, and the Sun Temple at Konark, are visited by thousands of people every year. Puri is like the second Goa. I believe better air connectivity and some more promotion by the Orissa tourism board can work wonders for this city. Chilika Lake, a brackish water coastal lake on the Bay of Bengal is the largest coastal lake in India. The Chilika Lake Bird Sanctuary, which harbors over 150 migratory and resident species of birds, is another place of tourist attraction.

One of the greatest attractions of Orissa is still its vast expanses of unspoiled natural landscape that offer a protected yet natural habitat to the state’s incredible wildlife. There are many wildlife sanctuaries in Orissa, major ones are the Simlipal National Park Tiger Reserve & the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary. Tourism industry is largely an untapped industry for the whole of Orissa. A little more pro activeness is required on the part of the government to build a place for Orissa on the tourist hot spot list.

Industrialization

A 15 mtpa mega petrochemical complex is being built by IOC at an investment of $6 billion. 10 proposals for 25,000 MW capacities power are under consideration by the Government of $ 22 Billion. Proposal for National Gas Grid and Coal Gasification is mooted jointly by Reliance and GAIL with an investment of $ 2 billion. Major expansion of the Paradip Port has been planned. Also 3 new ports of total investment of $ 1.35 billion have been sanctioned at Dhamra, Gopalpur and Jatadhari Muhan. The government of India and the state government of Orissa would work together to erect world class infrastructure in this region along the lines of the Rotterdam, Houston, and Pudong regions.

Cities like Jharsuguda, Keonjhar & Angul are attracting huge investments. I would tell more about Angul, a town around Central Orissa.

Angul - Large scale steel giants like Jindal Group, Bhusan Steel are establishing their respective plants in the vicinity of Angul. Also are Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd, Kalinga Coal Mining Ltd, Tata Sponge, Rugta Mines, Utkal Coal Ltd At Talcher, 15 kms from Angul, industries like NTPC, Fertilizer Corporation of India, MCL are situated. Talcher is well known for its huge coal mines and National Thermal Power Plant NALCO Nagar This is the place where Asia’s largest aluminum smelter plant is situated. That is why this place is called Nalco Nagar.

A list of companies investing/invested into Orissa

Vedanta
Arcelor Mittal
Reliance Power
NTPC
Tata Sponge
Jindal
Bhushan
Monnet Ispat
JSW
Tata Power
UMPP
Sterlite Energy
Neyveli Lignite
CESC
GMR Energy

Some major news of Orissa worth mentioning

· The state's GDP grew at 9.53% between 1999-2000 and 2005-2006 to reach US$ 14.08 billion

In steel sector, 36 projects for over 43 mtpa of steel with more than US$30 Bn investment coming up in Orissa.
Reliance Industries (Anil Ambani Group) is putting up the world's largest power plant with an investment of US $13 billion at Hirma in Jharsuguda district.
Vedanta has also announced a $3.2 billion dollar huge private University project on the lines of the Ivy League Universities, which is unprecedented in the history of education in India.
Tatas budget hotel chain Ginger is expected to open hotels in Paradip and Konark by the end of 2008. They are also planning to come up with a Ginger hotel in industrial towns like Jharsuguda, Angul and Kalinga Nagar by 2009 end.
The State Government will give Reliance Retail six bus stands of the State on a lease for a period of 33 years. The money will from the lease will be used for plying 50 new buses and setting up bus stands in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Angul on a PPP mode.
The Central Government has agreed to accord SEZ (Special Economic Zone) status to eight sites in Orissa, among which are Infocity at Bhubaneswar and Paradip.

Lot of facts and figures can be quoted, but that’s not the idea. Just think about the wave of development that spreads when one big industry is set up. For example, If Vedanta gives direct employment to 7000 people, think of housing, schools, hospitals, markets, etc that needs to be developed for the 7000 families that come in. It starts a spiraling effect, disposable income increases, purchasing power increases, demand increases and hence the economy of Orissa will grow. I can see a lot of industries like the real estate, automobiles (trucks & tractors) for mining, hospitality, ancillary units which support the bigger industries, etc booming already.

The passion for going the entrepreneur way, planning king-size ventures, radical moves and the risk taking ability to think out of the box is lacking in the state. The government and the people of Orissa need to take the initiative come together and work for a better Orissa. They need to think bigger than petty issues like changing the name of “Orissa” to “Odisa”.

“Orissa has a long way to go – Orissa shining”.

- By Akhil Agrawal : akhil.imt@gmail.com

- Chief Editor : Aditi Gulati aditi.333@gmail.com