India, the world’s biggest producer, is exporting sugar this season for the first time since 1996-97. Its refined sugar production in the year ending last September was 18.2 million tonnes - a record, and 17% higher than in 1998-99. The country now faces serious storage problems, and mills must trim a stockpile of 10m tonnes ahead of another bumper crop. India has exported 700,000 tonnes of sugar since last August, about half of that to Pakistan. But despite a shortfall of 1m tonnes this season, Pakistan has reimposed a ban on imports of refined sugar from India. India’s exporters must now look further afield.

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World's largest suit from Raymonds
23 March 2001, UNI

Mumbai - Raymond limited created history, when it unveiled the world's largest suit at a function held in Mumbai. This suit has been recognised by the Limca book of records as the world's largest suit and the officials of the Guinness book of world records too have created a separate category for the world's largest suit.

Speaking on the occasion, Gautam Singhania-CMD said, " our vision is to be the world's largest in the business of textiles and mens wear. We wish to be the largest in the business of suits and jackets in the world over the next few years. Today has been a momentous occasion for us due to the unveiling of the world's largest suit, creating a unique world record. while celebrating 75 years of our excellence, this is one of our first steps towards our journey to realise our dream of being the largest player in the suit business in the world.

The making of this suit was flagged off by the mayor of Thane, Ramesh Vaity in the premises of the Raymond factory at Thane. The world's largest suit, which measures 64 feet in height and weighs approximately 200 kilograms, has been created out of Raymond polywool fabric branded " sapphire", which is one of the largest selling fabrics in this category in the country. The suit is created out of 1400 mts of fabric including inner fusing and lining and uses nearly 8 kms of sewing thread.

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A Glut of Cable TV in India 23 March 2001, New York Times, By Mark Landler       Cyrus Broacha, left, has used wild antics to make his daytime television show a top-rated program on MTV India.

BOMBAY - Hailing a taxi in this chaotic city can be a gamble in the best of times. When Cyrus Broacha is at the wheel, all bets are off. Mr. Broacha, the manic host of a daytime show on MTV India, often masquerades as a blind cabdriver, using a hidden camera to record the reactions of passengers. Other times, he shows up in the corner barbershop, brandishing a pair of garden shears at unsuspecting patrons.

Such antics have made Mr. Broacha's show, "Bakra," one of the top programs on MTV India. And it has helped MTV India, an offshoot of the American MTV, keep its head above water in a television market with no fewer than six music-video channels.

"I can't understand why people keep starting music channels," said Alex Kuruvilla, managing director of MTV India. "I think rich people must say, `It's my daughter's birthday, I'll give her a music channel.'"

Nor is the bewildering choice limited to music video channels. Movies, sports, news, general entertainment, children's and regional programs can all be found on cable. Often, three or more channels compete in the same category. In a country that has too little of most things, India has created one of the most plentiful television markets in the world.

The pell-mell growth of cable here is in striking contrast to the other great Asian market, China. Despite much greater foreign investment in China and breathless predictions by Rupert Murdoch and other Western media moguls eager to tap that market, China remains a place where CNN can be watched mainly in hotel rooms and diplomatic compounds.

"Everybody wants to get into China," said Kunal Dasgupta, chief executive of Sony Entertainment Television. "But it's clear to us that India is a much more near-term opportunity, and almost as big."

Peter Mukerjea, chief executive of Star TV India, said: "There used to be a sense that India was full of problems. Now it's like the Wild West of media. There's no other place like it."

Except, perhaps, the United States. India feels a lot like the American market in the early 1980's, when cable television, then unregulated, was growing at a torrid rate. Ever since satellite-delivered cable came to India in 1991, after the gulf war had turned CNN into an overnight sensation, the government has stood aside as the industry bloomed.

To be sure, television is still far from ubiquitous in this country of more than a billion people. Fewer than half of Indian households, or about 70 million homes, have TV's. Of those, an estimated 28.5 million have cable, according to a report by HSBC Securities. That makes India the third-largest cable market, behind the United States and China.

While most Chinese receive only a handful of channels, because of restrictions on foreign broadcasters by the Chinese government, Indians receive up to 85 channels for a monthly rate of 150 rupees, or $3.26. The downside of all this freedom is a TV market as teeming as the streets of Bombay.

India has 30,000 to 50,000 cable operators, mostly mom-and-pop operations, stringing cable from trees to houses. With slowing advertising revenue and new channels squeezing in every month, the rivalry between big players like Star and Sony has become crippling. Alex Kuruvilla, managing director of MTV India, said India's cable market had become saturated. "We've had a tough couple of years," Mr. Kuruvilla of MTV said. "We've got a small pie, and millions of people are fighting for a piece."

"Farmers in the Punjab are getting `Baywatch,' " said Ramesh Vangal, chairman of an Internet portal, AtIndia.com. "One can argue about what kind of effect it is having. But it is transforming India."

The transformation is most obvious in Bombay, the media capital of India, where billboards promoting TV shows like "Suddenly Susan" and "Ally McBeal" have elbowed aside posters for Indian movies. Executives here say the rise of nationally popular TV programs has alarmed Bombay's huge film industry.

A case in point is the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which made its debut in July on Star TV and riveted the nation for weeks. The show, known in Hindi as "Kaun Banega Crorepati," shattered ratings records and spawned several copycat game shows. "It completely overturned the myth that only Bollywood works in this market," said Mr. Kuruvilla, using the nickname for India's film industry.

Bollywood movies tend to be overripe melodramas, better on action than character development. But they are reliably popular, feeding several all-movie cable channels and spinning off dubbed soundtracks, known as playbacks, that make up 70 percent of MTV's Hindi-language schedule.

But the game show was a home-grown hit, and it catapulted Star TV, owned by Mr. Murdoch's News Corporation, from an also-ran to the No. 1 cable service in India. Star has built on the show's success by producing a popular Hindi-language family drama that runs after it.

Sony, which operates an entertainment and movie channel as well as distributing CNBC India, is producing a series that will feature a princess trapped on an island. Fifteen contestants will face a series of hurdles, natural and man-made, to free the princess and claim a prize.

Mr. Dasgupta said Sony Entertainment planned to invest $250 million in India over the next three years, developing two new channels and getting into film production and distribution. The Sony Corporation owns 61 percent of the company, while Indian investors and Bollywood celebrities own the rest.

"In China, we're still clawing our way back from `Seven Years in Tibet,' " said Mr. Dasgupta, referring to the Brad Pitt film about the Dalai Lama that angered Beijing because of its depiction of Chinese repression in Tibet. "This Indian market has emerged," he said, "as more conducive to major U.S. studios."

A former ad salesman whose pukka accent attests to his years in Britain, Mr. Mukerjea has become the most-watched TV executive in India. As Star soars in the ratings, the company is expanding into distribution: it recently bought 26 percent of India's third-largest cable system, Hathaway Cable, for $70 million.

Mr. Mukerjea, 45, plans to upgrade Hathaway's network to provide broadband service to its 2.5 million subscribers, most of whom are in Bombay. He is also exploring direct- to-home satellite transmission and FM radio, which — given Bombay's legendary traffic jams — is a natural business.

Star has made such inroads in India that it has shifted the center of gravity of the company. Mr. Murdoch's younger son, James, still runs Star from its headquarters in Hong Kong. But he visits India every two months. And other Star executives are increasingly involved in India.

"China is more close at hand from Hong Kong," Mr. Mukerjea said, "but this is an unbelievable opportunity. It's the tip of the iceberg." The trouble is, everybody feels the same way. More than 30 channels started in the last year, at a time when advertising has slowed to an annual increase of 15 percent, down from 25 percent. Advertisers also have been rattled by the slowdown in the global economy and the recent earthquake here.

Given these realities, Indian television is due for a shakeout. Well- financed companies like Star and Sony, with multiple channels, are likely to survive, while stand-alone channels fall by the wayside. In its category, Mr. Kuruvilla said, MTV is "the only financially viable channel of the lot."

Lest anyone confuse MTV with its video-playing brethren, Cyrus Broacha, the fake cabdriver, is loose on the streets of Bombay, looking for people to trick in the name of successful television.

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World's First tiger conference in India
29 March, 2001, BBC

A newly formed task force of countries pledged to safeguarding wild tigers will hold its first meeting next week in Delhi to co-ordinate strategy. Delegates from China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia and Nepal are expected to attend, along with Canada and the Netherlands.

The three-day conference is being held under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species CITES.

The secretary general of the body Willem Wijnstekers said it was appropriate that India - which has the largest number of wild tigers - should host the first meeting. The number of tigers in the wild around the world is put at between five and seven-thousand, but experts say they are in increasing danger from poachers and wildlife crime networks.

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