Govt approves Carphone Warehouse Tablets for Schools drive

Carphone Warehouse has won government approval for a major CSR initiative that aims to give all 11-year-olds access to tablet computers.

Carphone Warehouse: rolling out 'Tablets for Schools' initiative

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of the mobile phone retailer, met education secretary Michael Gove last year to discuss the programme, with the aim of a national roll-out to schools by the end of 2013.
A Freedom of Information request made by Marketing has revealed that Gove gave the scheme his seal of approval, and instructed his officials to help Carphone Warehouse take the project forward.
The ‘Tablets for Schools’ initiative is being trialled at several locations, including Greenford High School in West London. Carphone Warehouse has partnered tablet-makers including Sony, Acer, Microsoft and Samsung for the provision of the devices.
Trials investigating the effect of tablets on attainment will conclude in September, when exam board AQA will publish a report detailing any correlative improvement in the results of year-seven pupils.
The team leading ‘Tablets for Schools’ includes Harrison, Dixons Retail chief executive Sebastian James, TalkTalk marketing director Olivia Streatfeild and Carphone Warehouse head of CSR Kesah Trowell.
The development follows last week’s announcement that education group Amplify, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, has unveiled a tablet for US schools that will include learning programs for pupils and tools for teachers.
Last year, Murdoch admitted to the Leveson Inquiry that he, Amplify chief executive Joel Klein and Gove had met in 2011 to discuss several matters, including education.
A schools policy adviser at the Department for Education stressed that ‘Tablets for Schools’ is a ‘not-for-profit initiative’ and is being run ‘independent of government’.

ALOK KUMAR
PGDM II SEM

GVK, Australia’s Aurizon in stake sale, development deal

First Published: Mon, Mar 11 2013. 11 54 AM IST

 Aurizon will pay a portion of the total sum at completion of the transaction and deferred payments at the financial close of each phase of the projects, the companies said without divulging the value of the acquisition.

Mumbai: GVK Coal Infrastructure (Singapore) Pte Ltd, or GVK Hancock, has agreed to sell a 51% stake in its rail and port projects in Australia to Queensland-based Aurizon Holdings Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

The GVK group company and Aurizon have signed a non-binding term sheet to jointly develop the rail and port projects to unlock the Galilee Basin coal reserves, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

Under the proposed framework, Aurizon will buy a majority stake in Hancock Coal Pty Ltd that owns GVK Hancock’s rail and port projects.

Aurizon will pay a portion of the total sum at completion of the transaction and deferred payments at the financial close of each phase of the projects, the companies said without divulging the value of the acquisition.

India’s GVK group invested in the Alpha, Alpha West and Kevin’s Corner mines in Queensland that have total resources of 8 billion tonnes of thermal coal, in addition to the rail and port facilities.

Development of the port and rail projects, expected to deliver export capacity of 60 million tonnes per annum, will underpin the opening of reserves in the Galilee Basin and continued growth of the Bowen Basin.

Aurizon and GVK Hancock will jointly manage the projects, which collectively could represent an investment of $6 billion for Queensland, the companies said in their statement.

 

IFAT PERWEEN

 

DoT to start auction of CDMA spectrum from 11 March

The auction of CDMA spectrum was earlier scheduled to start after the completion of GSM airwaves auction

First Published: Tue, Feb 26 2013. 06 31 PM IST

The last date for receipt of applications for the auctions was 25 February. Photo: Mint

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Updated: Tue, Feb 26 2013. 07 04 PM IST

New Delhi: In the absence of the bidders for the GSM (global system for mobile communications) spectrum, the government will start the auction of CDMA (code division multiple access) spectrum on 11 March, which was earlier scheduled to start after the completion of GSM airwaves auction.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) said in a statement that the auction of spectrum in the 1800 and 900 MHz bands (used for GSM services), and in the 800 MHz band (used for CDMA services) was scheduled to begin on 11 March and the last date for receipt of applications was 25 February.

“At the time of close on the last date for receipt of applications...one applicant, namely, SSTL (Sistema Shyam Teleservices) registered for the auction of 800 MHz spectrum and no applicants registered for the auction of 1800 and 900 MHz spectrum,” the DoT said.

The department will now start the process for the third round of auction for at least 20 out of 22 service area to comply with the 15 February Supreme Court order that asked it to auction the entire spectrum freed by cancellation of 122 2G licences.

The government has announced the auction of 10 MHz each in Karnataka and Rajasthan, though 22 MHz and 17.6 MHz of spectrum were freed in these circles, respectively, due to cancellation of licences. The spectrum put up for auction in Delhi and Mumbai areas were in compliance with the SC order.

“In the light of these developments, DoT will review the need to include the remaining two circles for 1800 MHz bands, namely Delhi and Mumbai, in the next round of auctions...,” the statement said.

DoT will now place the issue before an empowered group of ministers (eGoM) who will decide on the auction of spectrum in the 1800 and 900 MHz bands through a third round.

“The quantum of spectrum, the reserve price and the timelines for this auction will be decided after necessary directions are obtained from the eGoM and, where required, the cabinet, in this regard,” DoT said.

The department is also in the process of filing an affidavit of compliance in the SC regarding implementation of its 15 February order.

Nilu Kumari

PGDM 2nd

PepsiCo expected to name new marketing chief within weeks

by John Reynolds, 11 March 2013, 10:12am

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PepsiCo is expected to name the successor to Salman Amin, its outgoing chief marketing officer, in the next few weeks.

PepsiCo: new marketing chief announcement expected soon

Amin is leaving PepsiCo to join SC Johnson, the owner of Pledge and Mr Muscle. He will take on the role of chief operating officer for the company's North America market.
Amin was with PepsiCo for 18 years in a number of roles across the food-and-drinks sectors. He took on the top marketing role in May 2012 and was responsible for global marketing strategies.
During Amin's time in the role, PepsiCo launched its first global marketing campaigns for its flagship Pepsi brand and is set to launch one for Doritos.
Zein Abdalla, president of PepsiCo, said: "Salman has made contributions that have touched nearly every market in which we do business."
According to PepsiCo sources, a successor is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.


md . Shane Haider
pgdm  2 sem

34-year-old woman alleges gangrape in East Delhi

First Published: Mon, Mar 11 2013. 10 30 AM IST

 

 A file photo of activists during a protest following the gang-rape of a 23-years old student in a bus in New Delhi on 16 December. Photo: Hindustan Times 

 

New Delhi: A 34-year-old woman on Sunday alleged that she was abducted and gang-raped by four men in a moving car in East Delhi, police said.

The woman alleged that she was abducted from the Akshardham Temple at around 9am by the gang which took turns to rape her in the moving car, which also had two women.

“All the six persons in the white car were known to the victim. “She told us that she was going from Pandav Nagar to Akshardham and when she reached near the Akshardham metro station, the vehicle moved towards her and she was abducted,” police said.

She claimed she was dumped near Pragati Maidan after the sexual assault. She also claimed her two mobile phones and some jewellery were robbed. The victim later approached police which took her to a government hospital for medical examination.

A case was registered. No one was arrested till late in the night. The city has witnessed a surge in rape cases this year. The national capital was outraged over the gangrape of a 23-year-old medic in a moving bus on 16 December. The victim, who was raped, brutally assaulted and thrown from the vehicle, died on 29 December in a Singapore hospital.

Last year, 706 rape cases were reported while 247 cases of rape were registered till 3 March this

K.0ONIN

Which scotch whisky brand is most prominent online? Brand barometer

The Balvenie is the most prominent, with Glenfiddich and Johnnie Walker in second place.

Johnnie Walker: second highest share of voice

Methodology:
1. Identification of target audience: Use of nodal analysis to identify key words and phrases relevant to the target audience.
This is achieved by discussing the customer segmentation with the client, inductive exploration of target audience interests, third-party research into target audience behaviours, and finally nodal analysis of associated key words / phrases with each other using online tools (e.g. Google Adwords).

For this research, the audience segmentation of interest is defined in conjunction with Marketing (two weeks before the publication date).

2. Identification of key online websites, groups, accounts and conversations: Identified key word search strings filtered through country-specific sources of information (e.g. Google, Twitter, YouTube, etc, in the UK) to find the key online locations of the audience.
The identified locations are validated against a proprietary impact and engagement criteria threshold. The verified locations form the sample set upon which analysis is conducted.

For this research, 25 locations form for the basis of analysis – a typical project will feature between 100-500 locations depending on the client.

3. User generated content and location analysis: Verified locations are analysed for characteristics and content type, and commentary is analysed for topic, sentiment and linguistics.
This proprietary methodology consists of 192 metrics within 17 groupings, such as channel authority, interaction, content dynamic, competitor analysis, etc.

For this research, only 1 of the 192 metrics is displayed – competitor share of voice. This has been calculated purely on volume of mentions for each competitor within the verified key locations online.

The sample size for this research is 2,500 unique UGC inputs (e.g. audience opinions and perceptions) across 25 locations online.
ALOK KUMAR
PGDM II SEM

TCS has outperformed benchmark indices in the past three months on the back of consistent higher-than-sector growth and improving IT spending.

MUMBAI: Kim Eng India has maintained its 'buy' recommendation on IT major Tata Consultancy ServicesBSE -1.05 % (TCS) and revised its target price upwards on expectations that FY14 will be a better year than FY13 for the company's growth.

According to the report, TCS is seeing good momentum in small to mid-sized project-based deals for discretionary IT services in the US. The company's mid-large deals for traditional IT services in Europe have also picked up.

"Although growth in the telecom and hi-tech segments is expected to be muted, it would be off-set to a large extent by strong growth in BFSI, retail and energy/utilities segment. We continue to expect TCS to grow faster-than-industry and maintain our FY14F revenue target of Rs 729 billion," the report said.
At an analysts meet, the company reiterated its growth outlook for FY14 based on current interaction with its clients.

It expects FY14 growth to be driven by uptick in discretionary IT projects in the US and strong momentum in traditional IT services in Europe. It continues to gather strong momentum in new technologies like cloud, mobility, and analytics.

TCS has outperformed benchmark indices in the past three months on the back of consistent higher-than-sector growth and improving IT spending in its largest market of the US. The rupee depreciation against the dollar has also drived the stock price higher.

"We believe that there is an upside trigger to our forecast due to stronger-than-expected growth in the US market. In our view, PER of 22x FY14F (20x earlier) is reasonable. Therefore, we increase the target price to
Ravindra kumar