European Actor & Supermodel Claudia Ciesla launched Animation and Film Production department of LPU

After securing top rank in infrastructure by Financial Express, Lovely Professional University has taken another huge leap to work towards their global vision. Keeping in mind the increasing demand for animation in youth and the flourishing job market for the same, the university is coming up with Department of animation, film and TV production. And for the inauguration of the same, European supermodel cum actress Claudia Ciesla was present. She is a reputed name internationally and lately associated with a lot of Bollywood projects including Karma Crime Passion and Reincarnation. She was also in the news for a tie up with Dev United Films International for the Global Peace and Globalization of Indian Culture and shall also be featuring in a musicvideo, Woh Baariesh Ki Boondein, which shall be unleashed soon across all music channels.

Claudia Ciesla will be the global face of the AFT department of LPU and will coordinate will international universities for relevant tie-ups. As she is very keen to enter Bollywood, the department will help learn her about Bollywood and provide training in Hindi too.

Sharing his views Mr. Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, LPU said, “The highlight of the department will be its high technology film and TV studio, which will be one of its kinds in North India. The studio will boast of latest equipments, cameras and sound proof recording rooms.” He yielded further information to media, ”The department is offering four courses from this session onwards; PG diploma in acting for Film and TV, BSc in multimedia, Diploma in multimedia and Diploma in 3D animation and visual effects. Some programmes are in the pipeline and will be launched in the next academic year. Through these programmes LPU will provide professional training in news reading, anchoring, video jockey (VJ), radio jockey (RJ) and acting in the television serials and films.”

The dazzling beauty adorning a green gown said,” at times of global panic due to recession, I don’t see any slowdown in India. She went on to add confidently, “Lovely Professional University is the future”. Comparing LPU with the European varsity, she said,” I fail to see any major difference between the two, in fact LPU is providing world class infrastructure along with education at lower fee structure. Claudia’s enchantment with India showed when she said,” It is a great feeling to be here and feels like being apart of one big lovely family”

The chancellor further added, “It is an expensive venture and even the minutest detail has been worked upon before coming up with this exemplary studio. He said, “Students interested in animation and film production have to go to other far off varsities, but now they can earn a degree in north only. LPU aims to set global standards and this department is an extension of the same vision.” LPU is also talking to foreign universities for a joint venture of the programme.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Want to make the most of your life? Ask Milind Soman

Milind Soman has been in the limelight for his looks, his physique, his relationships and his athletic ventures. The overwhelming consensus is that Milind is gifted when it comes to having a body to die for. He has been quoted for controversies, for tips on health, fitness and his love life.

But, in a rare and exclusive interview with Complete Wellbeing magazine, Milind Soman has spoken for the first time ever, not like a supermodel or a celebrity, but as an evolved, intelligent and matured human being.

In an answer to one of the questions Milind says, “The simple truth is that if you open your mind and take a good look inside of yourself, the world is too big, life is too intense and there are too many things to see and explore to ever be bored.”

On happiness, Milind says, “Happiness is a transient emotion.”

“Milind Soman’s wisdom comes as a huge surprise. This is by far the best celebrity interview we have had. The man is truly a gem, inside-out,” says Manoj Khatri, editor-publisher, Complete Wellbeing.

Milind also speaks about his closest relationships, his inspirations, health secrets and the challenges he faces.

Individuals like Milind Soman, surprise us and inspire us to learn from their experiences and replicate their success and sense of wellbeing.

Excerpt from Milind Soman’s interview in Complete Wellbeing July 2009 issue:

How do you stay fit?

Fitness is not only the physical, but has an emotional and spiritual aspect as well. It was important for me to understand that there must be a strong connection between my physical, mental and spiritual energies. Healthy energies are maintained when I nurture my relationships with people who care about me, work on projects that I find stimulating and satisfying, and realise my place and my contribution in the larger scheme of the universe.

I find that a strong connection between all three energies is most easily developed when I push myself beyond my perceived physical and mental limits. This is the space where I feel no fatigue, where I feel I am flying—the space athletes call, ‘being in the zone’. Getting here is not as difficult as you might imagine. You just need to choose your sport and go for it that’s it!

For more insights from Milind Soman read the Complete Wellbeing July 2009 issue, out on stands now!

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Introducing SkyQuestCom's Software Engineering Power Pack

Billed as an “innovative, skills-enhancing learning product”, the Software Engineering Power Pack will be available exclusively in India on 5th July. What makes the Power Pack unique is that it offers a comprehensive collection of online tutorials that cover subjects in line with India’s IT curriculum and latest software training courses. With unlimited access to over 30,000 videos covering nearly every computer topic imaginable, it’s akin to being personally coached round the clock by the world’s top IT experts and multimedia consultants.

According to Country General Manager Stephen T. Chacko, “The possibilities of learning on the Internet have become infinite and anyone can enjoy a quality education at their own time and pace. You don’t have to wait for expert help to arrive in order to get answers.”

Just imagine hooking up to the Internet and you can start brushing up on your programming and multimedia skills – such as C Programming and Flash Scripting – in as quickly as under an hour. Like to master Photoshop? Log in to SkyQuestCom’s Adobe Photoshop CS tutorial and you can start creating eye-catching graphics in a snap! With SkyQuestCom, expert help is available 24 hours a day, every day.

Compared to what people have been spending on education and personal development, SkyQuestCom helps you save an enormous amount of money, and since there is a 10-day money-back guarantee, there’s nothing to lose.

Like to be part of our official product launch on 5th July? Please call Harikumar at 924 304 4609 for more information.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

SkyQuestCom to Make Positive Difference in Sri Lanka's Quality of Education

And SkyQuestCom has revolutionised the way people learn on the Internet today. Ranked by Deloitte as the fastest growing technology company in Singapore, SkyQuestCom has more than 200,000 e-learning subscribers in 58 countries and the company now plans to grow its business in Sri Lanka.

According to Country General Manager Stephen T Chacko, Sri Lanka has over 700,000 Internet users and the figures have grown to 500% over the past few years.

“We’ve done our research and discovered that Sri Lanka has a huge potential market with a literacy rate of 92%. Many Sri-Lankans are now seeking jobs outside the country, and a skills-enhancement tool like SkyQuestCom will serve as an enormous support for their personal and professional growth,” says Mr. Chacko.

With SkyQuestCom, you have unlimited access to 55,000 online tutorials from the best experts in the world, 600 IT courses and over 200 inspiring seminars of the world’s top motivational speakers.

Adding Mr. Chacko, “Our vision is to make a positive difference in the lives of people in every home and business. Because we believe that every individual is a leader of the future. By helping them to make a positive change, we are grooming our leaders for tomorrow.”

To learn more about SkyQuestCom, visit www.SkyQuestCom.com.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Reliance Technology Ventures is a winner of the Red Herring Top 100 Global Venture Capital Firms

Red Herring, Inc., founded in 1993, is a media company whose mission is to cover innovation, technology, financing and entrepreneurial activity. For the first time since the venture industry’s creation, it has ranked the best performers on quantitative and qualitative basis. The first process was toscreen the Global VC 200 finalists from among more than a thousand known and active venture funds across the globe. It has selected the Top 100 and remarkably enough, realized that this group represents almost all of the exits, returns, or liquidity events that have happened since 2003.

RTVL is the only Corporate VC from India to have been named a winner. The firm seeks out and invests in promising sectors including media, technology, cleantech and telecom companies worldwide in various stages of their lifecycle. RTVL’s investment portfolio spans across the globe and has invested in promising companies that focus both on established and new technologies that advance the computing, communications, media & convergence platforms. Several of these companies, such as Stoke Inc. and Yatra.com are Red Herring Technology winners themselves. RTVL’s team comprises of professionals with deep operational expertise and adopts a hands-on approach to nurturing and building it’s portfolio companies to become category leaders.

RTVL also happens to be the youngest VC firm to have achieved this distinction of being a Red Herring winner and has achieved this in the shortest possible time. Being an integral part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, with no limitations on the size of investments, RTVL aims to leverage emerging and high growth potential sectors, and markets, that enrich and enhance the Group’s eco-system.

According to Harshal J Shah, CEO of RTVL, “We are extremely proud of having been named a winner of the Red Herring Top 100 Global VC firms. Reliance always aims to occupy leadership position in whichever sector it ventures into. At RTVL, we have built a formidable base in the shortest time to take the company to greater heights. Our ability to partner with other globally renowned venture firms, prestigious institutes such as MIT, Wharton, IIT, ISB, IIM, etc and access to some of the best entrepreneurial talent provides us the cutting edge.”

RTVL works with and co-invests with leading venture capital firms across the globe. US based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture firm commented saying, "Congrats to Reliance. They are a significant investor in two Kleiner Perkins companies, Stoke and Pelago. India is a massive mobile market and having an investor who understands and can be helpful in that market is key."

"NVP congratulates RTVL on being named as a top global venture capital firm. RTVL has been a strong co-investor with NVP in such market leading companies as Yatra and Suvidhaa, and this appointment is well deserved," said Niren Shah, Managing Director, Norwest Venture Partners India.

Commenting on RTVL’s achievement, some of RTVL’s portfolio companies had the following to say;

Dhruv Shringi, Co founder & CEO, Yatra.com said, “We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Harshal Shah and the RTVL team on making it to the final 100 of this prestigious list. RTVL has been associated with Yatra since it’s inception and at every stage we have found them to be supportive of our initiates and the RTVL team has provided extremely useful business insights that has helped Yatra.com grow at an exponential pace.”

"Reliance Technology Ventures has demonstrated exceptional vision and insight into the technology needs of the next generation carriers, and we congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition as one of the best VC firms in the world,” said Vikash Varma, president and chief executive officer at mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke, Inc. “Reliance has been a strategic investor in Stoke since early 2008, recognizing the potential of our Multifunction Gateway for the mobile broadband industry. They have provided invaluable support based on our shared view of the tremendous global market opportunity for Stoke’s technology."

Rajeev Surati, Founder and President of Scalable Display Technologies said, “Congratulations to RTVL for a well deserved award. Beyond investing in Scalable, RTVL has brought to fore massive opportunities in the Indian Market to Scalable Display Technologies that we are just beginning to address; introducing us to key strategic leaders within their business who can both use, sell, or help us design our products.”

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

MphasiS appoints Ganesh Murthy as CFO

Ganesh Murthy has 23 years of experience working in finance across diverse industries like FMCG industry, consumer durable industry and IT industry. He has provided strategic leadership to business teams in the area of financial planning, direct and indirect taxes, cost optimization, legal and statutory compliance, travel, logistics and administrative activities.

Since 2004, Ganesh Murthy has been worldwide Finance Director of Global Delivery Application Services at HP. During his tenure, Global Delivery Application Services grew from a 4,000 person organization to a 13,500 person organization. Ganesh was also a Director in the board of Hewlett-Packard Global Soft Private Limited (previously known as Digital GlobalSoft Limited).

“I am delighted to have Ganesh Murthy on board. His diverse experience will be instrumental in helping MphasiS grow and differentiate itself in the marketplace.” said Ganesh Ayyar, Chief Executive Officer, MphasiS. “I would like to thank Susanto Banerjee for his contribution in helping us run an efficient finance machinery.” added Ayyar

“I look forward to my new assignment at MphasiS with tremendous enthusiasm. I hope to build on its sound financial strategy and help the Company provide enhanced value to its customers” said Ganesh Murthy.

Through his career, Ganesh Murthy has worked for some of the best known brands in the business such as Wipro, Texas Instruments, Gillette, ITC and Thomson. He has experience in Indian multinationals like ITC and Wipro where he headed the Corporate Taxation function and also in foreign MNCs like Texas Instruments and Gillette where headed the finance function for India operations. Ganesh is an Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Pennar Declares 20% Dividend For FY09

The Board of Directors of Pennar Industries, a leading engineering company, at its meeting held on 3rd July 2009 have recommended a dividend of 20% amounting to Rs. 1 per equity share of Rs. 5 each.

The company posted its best ever performance with a sales turnover of Rs. 730 Crore with gross profit (EBIDTA) of Rs. 76 Crore, cash profit of Rs. 55.5 Crores and Net Profit of Rs. 38.1 Crores. The annualized cash EPS for the quarter is Rs. 4.39 per equity share of Rs. 5 par value.

Pennar continued to grow quarter on quarter basis for the last twenty consecutive quarters, both in terms of volume and profits. The company has also strengthened its position and bettered its profit margins by diversifying its product range to become a leading engineering company. The company has moved into the heavy engineering sector with the manufacture of bodies, chassis and profiles for railway wagons and coaches. The company makes a host of products for diverse industries viz., railways, infrastructure, construction, engineering and automotive.

Pennar is planning to further increase its turnover and improve its EBIDTA margins and profits during the current financial year by increasing the share of value added engineering products and further diversifying the product base.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Micromax to provide 3G Data Cards for ONGC employees across India

Micromax, No. 1 Indianmobile handset manufacturer, & ONGChave entered into a national agreement for sale and distribution of Micromax 3GData Cards to the employees of ONGC across India under a special scheme.

Speaking about the tie-up, Mr.Vikas Jain, Business Director, Micromax said “At Micromax, we are committed to provide revolutionarycommunication solutions within an increasingly fragmented environment. ONGC hasbeen the biggest corporate tie-up for Micromax on 3G data cards. We shall beproviding ONGC with approximately 30K devices within next one month and majorlyall officers of ONGC shall be able to access high speed mobile internet usingMicromax device and MTNL/BSNL backbone. We are extremely thankful to ONGC forreposing their confidence on Micromax and making us their national devicepartner.”

Mr. Jain added, “Micromax has utilized its technicalexperience and expertise to develop Micromax 3G Data Card, which is a portablehigh-speed Internet access mode for office and home with Zero-CDROM and Multifrequency bands – which are convenient to use. Qualcomm – a global pioneer of3G and advanced wireless technologies is the technology enabler of our 3G datacards. It is a standard USB interface – supporting USB 2.0 Full Speed. It alsosupports Micro SD Card Slot for usage as pen drive too. Besides WIN200/ XP/ VISTAand it also supports MAC OS(Operating System).”

“Wecongratulate Micromax for being thefirst to introduce 3G HSPA USB dongles and data cards in India for consumers andenterprises. It is commendable that ONGC is empowering their employees with 3Gdata cards that will provide high speed 24×7 internet access, and will lead toimproved levels of productivity,” said SandeepSibal, Vice President and Country Manager of Technology, Qualcomm India & South Asia.“Qualcomm is committed to making mobile broadband affordable and we willcontinue to work with 3G operators, device manufacturers and partners tofurther the success of 3G mobile broadband.”

Micromax has launched both the HSDPA and the HSUPAvariants of the data cards in the USB form factor. The simplicity of theproduct coupled with plug and play usage has proved to be a delight for thecustomers. The product weighs less than 50 grams, comes in a very smallform factor like USB pen-drive and can be used along with both the notebook aswell as in desktop. The product supports certain version of Windows as well as MACoperating systems and Micromax promises on releasing the support forlimited versions of Linux operating system shortly.

DataCard is one of the first and foremost product applications which can drivehigher Data ARPU’s for the operator on the 3G spectrum. Theproduct also ranks highest amongst the user group for an enriching 3Gexperience. Besides the regular internet application and high speed e-maildownloads on the move, the product promises to deliver an unmatched experienceof enjoying streaming video like live cricket broadcasts, enable businesstransactions like e-shopping, e-ticketing, e-tax filing etc.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

SHARDA UNIVERSITY, Greater Noida students to benefit from M.O.U. with CINVESTAV in MEXICO

Sharda University Greater Noida and CINVESTAV Mexico today signed an MOU to foster Research & Development activities as well as the academic exchange programs between the two centres of learning. Cinvestav is the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Cinvestav), a Mexican non-governmental scientific research organization affiliated to the National Polytechnic Institute.

The M.O.U. was signed by Dr.Velumani Subramaniam, the Director General & Coordinator of International relation, Cinvestav and Dr. R.P. Singh, Vice-Chancellor and Dr. S.K. Mishra, Director, R&D (Sharda University) in the presence of the Chancellor, Mr. P.K. Gupta & Pro-Chancellor, Mr. Y.K. Gupta. On this occassion Mr. P.K. Gupta said, “It is an honour to have collaboration with Cinvestav and this will certainly improve the quality of research and hopefully bring about a change in the mindset of Indian students.

Through this agreement, students of engineering, biotechnology, medical sciences as well as futuristic technologies like nano & micro mechanical systems will get hands on experience. Dr. R.P. Singh, Vice Chancellor, Sharda University said, “This MOU will be highly beneficial for our under-graduate and post-graduate students as they will get exposure to the latest educational trends in foreign academic scenarios.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com

Now, Ayurvedic Protection For Your Hair & Scalp With Dabur Total Protect Shampoo

Exposure to harsh sun, pollution and our hectic daily routine end up damaging even the healthiest of scalps leading to thinning of hair and other related problems. But no matter what type of hair and scalp nature blessed you with, Ayurveda has the solution for all your hair woes.

Dabur is now bringing the age-old benefits of Ayurveda in a shampoo with the launch of Dabur Total Protect Shampoo. Backed by its core philosophy of offering exceptional products that are natural with wholesome goodness of Ayurveda that contribute to the well-being and beauty of consumers, Dabur India Ltd., today unveiled its latest Ayurvedic marvel, Dabur Total Protect, a complete & only health shampoo for your family that protects the health of your scalp & beauty of your hair from all modern day hazards like pollution and grime to give your mane a lovely sheen!

Speaking at the launch conference, Mr. Kunal Dhawan, Sr. Marketing Manager, Dabur India Ltd. said: “Modern day life has exposed all of us to various hazards like pollution, grime, dust, sunlight etc. which makes our hair dull, rough and unmanageable. Additionally, with limited time on hand, consumers use chemical based products which cause harm in the long run. Powered by Ayurvedic ingredients like Neem, Bhringraj, Triphala, Pushkarmool and Japa Pushpa (hibiscus), Dabur Total Protect Shampoo has been conceived with the idea of protecting the health of your scalp & beauty of your hair.”

While Neem’s anti bacterial properties help take care of your scalp, Bhringraj acts as a tonic and helps reduce hair fall. Further, Tripahala — which has the natural benefits of amla, bahera and harar — helps give a multi-toner treatment to all hair problems. Additional benefits of Japakusum (hibiscus) & Pushkamool help maintain the colour of hair and prevents scalp diseases. So, it is a potent ayurvedic shield that gives your hair an all-encompassing goodness and glamour, Mr. Dhawan added.

The total shampoo market in India is pegged at Rs. 2,600 crores and is growing at 15% annually. “With lifestyle and consumer preferences changing, it is important that we address consumer needs in a more focused manner. Dabur Total Protect Shampoo is specially targeted at the discerning and contemporary females between 18-32 years who care for their family and look for complete hair care solutions across all age groups. Dabur Total Protect Shampoo is a heavily research-oriented product that helps consumers address their hair care needs in the long run,” Mr. Dhawan said.

The company plans to garner significant share of the market in the first year of launch. Innovative promotions, trials, consumer activation are being initiated by the brand to excite the customers.

Read more on IndiaPRwire.com