The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation has decided to provide 10 per cent discount on transport cost of all package tours booked from October 20 to December 21 for the benefit of the tourists.
According to APTDC Executive Director (Projects) B Srinivas, presently the corporation has been operating package tours through its coaches to different destinations within and outside the State of Andhra Pradesh. In order to promote tourism in the State, the corporation has decided to give discount.
Tourists have been asked to avail the discount facility and patronize the services of the corporation.
The tourists can book seats of package tours through on-line reservation system by logging into website www.aptdc.in, reservation counters of APTDC, all e-Seva centres in Hyderabad and at Authorised Booking Agents of APTDC. (INN)
Sonakshi Sinha who banged the Bollywood with her debut film Dabang is the latest sensation in the film industry. Even before she completes her first movie, she was flooded with several Hindi film offers. She also signed a Tamil film ‘Viswarupam’ with Kamal Hassan and will be directed by Selva Raghavan.
Earlier, it was reported that Sonakshi Sinha has demanded Rs.2 crore to do this film. But, the Kollywood sources reveal that, in fact she has demanded Rs.2.5 crores for signing the agreement, but considering the stardom of the hero Kamal Hassan she has given a huge discount of Rs.50 lakhs to this film. Then only the figure comes to the present remuneration of Rs.2 crores. Even then also, Sonakshi is the first girl who pockets such a huge amount in southern film industry, that too with her debut film. Certainly, the other stars will envy her for this and it will make them demand for a hike in their remunerations too.
Serpentine queues at counselling centres for admissions to professional courses are passe. This academic year it's the colleges that are queuing up in front of students with freebies and discounts as the seats on offer are almost double the number of students. And the 25 per cent drop in number of students opting for professional courses hasn't helped matters any.
Small wonder then that colleges are bombarding students' mobiles with offers — 50% fee discount and evan a free bank loan. The St Mary's group of institutions has signed an MoU with Central Bank to provide guarantee for education loans. So in case the students fail to repay, the college will do the needful. There are others who are contacting students directly via text messages with discount offers not just on fees but even on rentals in accommodations close to the colleges.
And the competition to woo students is such that the fee for MBA or MCA is being cut from Rs 27,000 to anything from Rs 17,000 to Rs 20,000. "Colleges have even hired consultants to contact students by offering the seats even at Rs 10,000," an official said.
The problem of surplus seats has ensured that 252 MBA and MCA colleges will face a 'no student' year. Another 100 MCA colleges holding classes this year have reported less than 45% admissions.
Even engineering colleges, which are yet to begin the second phase of counselling, are now luring students with fee concessions. Of the 2.6 lakh engineering seats available, only 1.05 lakh seats were filled in the first phase.
This 'hunt for students' has the state government worried too. Higher education officials said that the government might issue a Government Order (GO) making it mandatory for colleges to have at least 50% of their seats filled in order to conduct classes.
"While the number of students has remained the same, the number of colleges in the state have shot by three times," according to technical education commissioner M Laxminarayana. He said that many colleges might have to close down for good.
Another official added: "If these colleges don't get enough students, they won't have enough money to retain good teachers. And consequently the quality of education will suffer."
Despite this the All India Council of Technical Education ( AICTE) has sanctioned at least 10 more engineering and pharmacy colleges which will now be added to second phase of counselling expected to begin in October.
2011/9/27 8:39:02 Aerial tourism is now a reality in Hyderabad. If you can afford to spend nearly Rs 3,000, then you can have an aerial tour of the city's famous tourists spots for 15-minutes.
The AP Tourism Development Corporation in association with the Deccan Aviation Private Limited has launched helicopter services which would take the tourists on a 15-minute ride to the tourism spots. They include Golconda, Falaknuma, Chowmohalla Palace, Birla Mandir, Buddha Statue and the Hi-tech City.
According to Col (Retd) M S Sehgal, Executive Pilot and Base Manager, the helicopter would carry six people in each round and each of them would be charged Rs 2950. There will be no fare for the children below two years. However, the tourists will not be able to capture their visit in camera due to DGCA norms.
Talking to reporters, Col Shegal said that the interested tourists could come to the helipad near Snow World at Lower Tank Bund. They will also have to carry a photo ID card, as per the DGCA norms.
The services were launched by Tourism Minister Vatte Vasanth Kumar at Begumpet Airport here on Tuesday. GHMC Mayor Banda Kartika Reddy and APTDC MD Sandeep Kumar Sultania were also present.
Earlier, the Tourism Minister also flagged off Open Top City Tourism Buses at Charminar. Speaking to media persons, the Minister said that the APTDC has also launched transit tourism for the passengers of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. He said passengers would be taken on the city tour of about three to four hours which would include visit to places like the Charminar, Mecca Masjid, Purani Haveli and Golconda Fort. Fare for each passenger would be Rs 475 and A/c Qualis vehicles have been engaged for the services.
The minister said that the government was also trying to get approval from the Centre for the aerial tourism of water bodies which would include Osman Sagar, Himayath Sagar, Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and other water bodies. (INN)
2011/4/23 8:57:10 Kerala beauty Asin said that, she is very much upset with the gossips in the media about her getting film offers one after the other recommended by Salman Khan.
She said “Yes. I am getting plenty of offers in Bollywood. It is not because Salman or some other person has recommends me to the film producers. I am getting the offers only because the directors and producers like my performance and glamour. If, I don’t have talent in me, no one will come to me offering film chance come how big actor recommends me. Media should try to know the facts before it write some thing about somebody. It is not fair to defame somebody like me merely to entertain their readers.”
Ankitha is getting day by day. The reason is not far to seek. The girl has not found any offers coming her way for some time. She was so desperate at one time that she even went on an exposing spree in films. Still offers continued to elude her.
She however covered her lack of offers with a twist. She says that as she has worked with some of the (or all?) the leading heroes in the industry the producers are now wary of casting her. The reason she may charge a bomb. Ankitha says that she is ready to work with anyone, even newcomers, and she will also not charge heavily. Are the producers listening?
2008/3/26 0:24:07 The sexy yoga teacher from Bangalore is slowly losing out on offers. Anushka shot to fame overnight with her tall and well maintained sexy structure. She also did not have any inhibitions in exposing on screen. Her bold attitude coupled with the Tollywood’s preference for fresh new imports gave Anushka a dream start in Tollywood.
Anushka’s role in Ravi Teja’s hit film Vikramarkudu brought her a lot of recognition and she later on went to sign some big films long top stars. She also sizzled well in Gopichand’s Lakshyam. But after that her roles in films like Swagatham and Nagarjuna’s Don did not go don well with the audience. She is now not getting any new offers.
So Anushka has now decided to cut her remuneration by half. But even then, she is not getting too many offers. If the same situation prevails for some more time, then she may have to consider going back to her original profession of teaching yoga soon.
Banu aka Muktha is thrilled at establishing a career simultaneously in Tamil and Malayalam. With handful of offers in both the south Indian languages, Banu is confident that she would live up to all reputations.
Her maiden venture in Tamil Thamirabarani opposite Vishal has turned a big hit and she is getting enough offers coming her way. Also in Malayalam, the young actress has enough offers in her kitty. Says the actress, “I am fortunate that directors keep faith in my acting credentials and give me meaty roles”. “The film industry is very competitive. One has to be doubly careful. One wrong step will dampen the prospects”, she says.
Shilpa Shetty, who had no films before doing the reality TV show in Britain, has a large number of film offers now. Her condition can easily be imagined in her 'Metro' where she played the second fiddle to after Kangana Ranaut. However, 'Big Brother' brought her luck and she has started rolling in offers while she was waiting for a single film few months back. She has got more than 70 film offers now, if film industry sources are to be believed.
Besides, during her recent visit to Britain, she has had a meeting with the Queen. This is indeed great for her! So, she is on cloud nine these days. This may be the reason why she hasn't signed even a single film in spite of innumerable film offers to her. She has the temerity to say that no offer is good enough to be signed immediately. It is said that Shilpa has shown the thumb to director Pankaj Parasar of the 'Banaras' fame and also rejected an offer to act in Jag Mohan Mundhra's forthcoming movie.
The sexy hour glass figure from Goa, Ileana was the most sought after heroine in Telugu till some time back. However, a series of flops commencing with Vishu’s Saleem,
As a result Ileana’s career nosedived in Tollywood. She has also lost her charm and oomph and no big actor in Telugu is interested in acting besides her.
So out Illy baby is now trying her luck in Bollywood. She has already bagged a role as the second heroine in the film ‘Barfi’.
Ileana is so desperate for work now that she has even offered a whopping discount of 50% of her remuneration. That is Ileana is now available for just 50 lakhs. It is well known that Ileana fleeced producers in Telugu and demanded 1 crore per film.
"I would rather quit than turn into a glam doll to survive in this industry," says Kavya Madhavan.
She's made her comeback in Tamil with Sadhu Miranda. But she is picky about her choice of films in Tamil.
"After Sadhu Miranda, I was flooded with offers in Tamil. However I am giving great thought to the offers here. If I am asked to do glamour roles, I would rather quit acting than accept those offers."
She is busy with three Malayalam movies opposite Mammootty and Mohanlal.
The prices of beer could fall drastically in the next few days after a state government’s decision can possibly spark of a price-war between beer companies in the state.
A healthy competition has been set up among the companies which pump into the market their brands.
According to very informed and reliable sources, the state government has decided to issue government ‘orders’ to whichever company which tops in sales. This is a bumper offer to propel the companies to effect sales, thereby adding to the excise revenue.
This offer has let loose a buzz of enthusiasm and activity in the companies of popular brands to ensure more sales of their products.
According to information, UB, SCOL, Charminar, Cubas are among 8 companies which supply beer in the state.
Monthly on an average, 1.20 crore cases roll out from the godowns and each case contains 12 bottles.
Former chief minister K Rosaiah, who kept with him the Excise portfolio, was said to have backed the UB company with more orders. This obviously caused much resentment among the other companies.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was approached recently and justice was sought by the other companies.
Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy, not to antagonize any section, was said to have made this offer, by which the companies would have to sell as many cases as possible within a stipulated period of 45 days.
The Chief Minister’s ‘offer’ has generated much heat among the company bosses and they, in turn, have started to design ‘offers’ to retailers.
The retailers have been told to give discount on sales/orders etc to promote their business.
The whole exercise is expected to leave the Excise Department exceed its target ‘revenue’ fixed by the Kiran Kumar Reddy government, according to the sources. (INN)
Like any other actress who went from Malayalam to Tamil, Karthika too has become very popular right now. What makes her case very special is the fact that her first film in Tamil hasn't even hit the theatres yet! Even before the release of Pulanvisaaranai 2, she has received plenty of offers. One of the offers that she seriously considered was from director/actor R Parthiban. Kartha is the name of the film.
The film's shooting was supposed to start in the second week of April. Karthika was planning to complete her portions in the film by the second week of May and go for a trip to the Gulf countries. But the film now stands postponed. Instead of accepting it and then running into callsheets problem, Karthika has preferred to walk out of it. About the other new offers that await her in Tamil, she says that she wants to wait until her first film gets released before she accepts new films.
The only one actor in Telugu film industry who is privileged with plenty of film offers is undoubtedly maverick Posani Krishna Murali. All his previous films have turned box office duds, yet he always finds himself doing some film or the other. Frankly speaking, even young stars like Nitin, Tarun and several others never had this privilege of getting film offers. No one understands how is he managing and how the producers are convinced that a film with him would give them good returns? However, he always had number of film offers. By latest, Posani is arriving as ‘Nitya Pelli Koduku’ on 5th of March. This film is produced by G V Subbaiah and directed by Alahari. Gouri Pandit is pairing with him in this film.
Shivaji Raja, Babu Mohan, Bhavana, Kalpana are playing important roles in this film.
She is a top most sex bomb or should we say ‘was’ a top most sex bomb. She is Mallika Sherawat and her popularity took a severe beating after the flop film ‘Hiss’.
With no offers coming her way, Mallika is getting desperate. She has not only cut down on her remuneration by more than half but she is also ready to sign up for films for even less.
Mallika is also telling producers and directors that she is ready to act topless and even go a bit further. Still she is not getting any offers.
Amitabh Bachchan is set to return to the small screen. Whether it will be a non-fiction or a fiction show, the audiences will know for sure only after Big B sifts through the offers in hand.
Confirming the news on Monday morning, the actor says, "Yes, I'm definitely doing television again. Talks are on with several channels. And I plan to take up one or maybe even more of these offers very shortly."
Will it be a game show, Big B laughs, "It's too early to say right now. It could be another non-fictional show. But I'm not ruling out fiction either. I've a whole bunch of proposals from a whole bunch of channels. The offers are under serious consideration."
Big B also talks about the just-concluded International Indian Film Awards (IIFA) ceremony at Yorkshire. "The crowds at Yorskhire were sensational," he says. "The best part of the whole experience was the absolute joy of being with my entire family. Nothing can beat that."
How Flipkart broke India's online shopping inertia
2011/12/9 9:34:33 New Delhi/Gurgaon, Dec 9 (IANS) It was meant to be a portal that compared different e-commerce websites, only there weren't enough of them to be compared. Thus was born Flipkart, making sure that online shopping would never be the same again in India.
From a two-member embryonic idea to a 4,500-member company, the Flipkart story is not just about stupendous success and mind-numbing numbers. Much more than that, it's about redefining customer experience and breaking online shopping inertia.
Started in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal - both from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT) and with prior experience in Amazon - the Bangalore-based firm ships close to 30,000 items per day.
Or, in other words, 20 products per minute.
"We are clocking daily sales of Rs.2.5 crore ($ 5 mn). Our growth rate has been 100 percent quarter on quarter," Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, told IANS.
But the interesting part is that around 60% of Flipkart's orders are cash or card on delivery.
"Indian consumers are much more cautious about shopping online as compared to the West. They are reluctant to divulge credit card details. The cash on delivery service has helped a lot of traditional consumers turn to online shopping," he adds.
Also, the model has unbolted the lock to a whole new customer base which hasn't been exposed to the benefits of plastic money as yet or those with a default technological handicap.
"I've never understood how to pay by card online. The best I can do is use an ATM. I wish more websites had the cash on delivery option," says Sneha Anand, a school teacher.
Sonal Nangia, senior vice president (retail) at Technopak, attributes Flipkart's success to the "superior customer experience it offers".
"Right from browsing to delivery, you can track your order. You can pre-order an unreleased book, get good prices, even the customer service is very strong. Raise any issue, it's efficiently resolved," Nangia told IANS.
Adds Sachin Bansal: "When we started, the customer experience offered by e-commerce sites was below average. Our aim was to address this. We feel that it's this focus on customer satisfaction and ownership of the customer experience that has worked in our favour."
The superior customer service notwithstanding, Flipkart's biggest draw has probably been the huge discount it offers - much to the envy of offline stores.
"I was waiting to lay my hands on Haruki Murakami's new book '1Q84'. But it was way too expensive at Rs.1,000. But Flipkart had a flat 30 percent discount, and I got it in Rs.700," says Madhura Vishvakarma, a Delhi University student.
Though all bookstores get up to 50-60% discounts from publishers, the low overheads - one of the numerous virtues of online stores - enables Flipkart to pass on the savings in the form of discounts.
Flipkart started with books, but now deals in 12 product categories.
The company stocks nearly 11.5 million titles, "making us the largest book retailer in India. As per data, we have 80 percent share of the online book market", Sachin Bansal says.
So will this trend spell doom for offline bookstores?
"No," believes Anuj Bahri of Bahrisons.
"There's a huge market for everyone to co-exist. Besides, Flipkart's market is totally different, young people of 20-25 age group buy books from them. Some 80 percent of their business is chic literature. The more sensible and mature readers will always go to a bookstore," Bahri told IANS.
But Nangia of the Gurgaon-based Technopak begs to differ.
"The traditional stores are to suffer. Internationally also that has been the trend."
She believes the increasing "access to internet, more iPads, smart phones, sophisticated technology that gives 3D view of products, time poor consumers, increasing costs of real estate, will all lead to a shift to digital commerce".
But with Amazon, considered a big shark in online retail space, already knocking at India's door, will that result in dwindling fortunes for Flipkart?
"No, India is a huge market, there is much more space for more e-retail stores," says Sonal.
Bahri, however, feels there is a palpable danger. "Flipkart works because of discounts. Amazaon can offer greater discounts as it can take bigger losses being a bigger company. That will change the dynamics," he said.
Already, there are players like Infibeam, Naaptol and Letsbuy in the market.
According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) survey, the online retail market in India may grow to Rs.70 billion (over $1.30 billion) by 2015 from Rs.20 billion in 2011 as internet access improves.
The heroine of the film Puli Nikisha Patel is very disappointed. Puli is her debut film and she had very high expectations from the film.
The film however has bombed miserably and this has left Niksiha out in the cold. She did get some offers while the filming of Puli was underway.
The delay in making the film and the over two year wait has been futile. Niksiha odes not have a single film in hand now.
She said that the debacle of the film has hit her hard. For Pawan Kalyan it does not matter at all. His fan base is intact and he will keep getting offers like before.
Sadha’s first experience in Malayalam was in ‘Janmam’, a film by director Joshy. Suresh Gopi had played the main role and it had two other heroines.Sadha was supposed to make an appearance in an item number. She did. The film’s shooting ended but nobody knows when it will hit the theatres. It is not clear now if the film will ever hit the theaters at all.
For some strange reason, in spite of having starred in some big hits, she still hasn’t made any big progress in her career. After having almost run out of offers in Tamil and Telugu, she is now more willing to consider offers from Malayalam.
‘Novel’ is the name of the film and East Coast Vijayan is directing it. Sadha was signed up for this film only after a mind-boggling salary. Jayaram is the hero. He plays the role of an acclaimed novelist whose life starts to revolve around a very aloof introvert, played by Sadha.She says that she was so impressed by the script that she took the offer. In one of her interviews to the media, Sadha announced that she also has received offers to star in Bollywood films.
Actor Madhushalini made her debut in Telugu with the film Kithakithalu. She is a successful model. The actor was later inundated with offers but she rejected ass many as 25 offers as she was not happy with the role offered to her.
She is now starring in a new film titled State Rowdy. She is also acting in a Tamil movie. Madhushalini is confident that the new film will launch her career in a big way, and make her a name to reckon with in Tollywood.
Now don’t you think you have heard this line before? Yes, every second artist in the film industry is known to parrot the line albeit with a rider – ‘I Don’t mind exposing as long as the script demands it!’
It is not that Anuskha is not getting any offers. In fact, she has been flooded with offers of late. So her statement has com as a surprise.
She is presently starring in Balakrishna’s Okka Mogadu’ and also in ‘Rendu’ along with Madhavan. The film is being made simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu.
The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation has decided to provide 10 per cent discount on transport cost of all package tours booked from October 20 to December 21 for the benefit of the tourists.
